Experimentation

Today I looked at an article by Jeff Jeffrey about censorship hurting one’s cognitive processes.  He was very adamant in his thoughts and ideas.  His writing was full of emotion.  He would be in complete opposition to the article from Wendy Day about protecting students from evils presented to them in books.

Jeff Jeffrey claims that when people are not allowed to explore novels they never learn new ideas about life.

“I respect parents who choose, after careful consideration, to keep their children from reading something that may cause them to grow up more quickly than they prefer. But I disagree with them. Reading and studying the written word is an inherently beautiful process. It exposes a person to a broad spectrum of ideas that would otherwise remain hidden and allows for the development of analytical reasoning. A child who reads, even when tackling books that may be difficult or contain harsh ideas, will inevitably become a more intelligent and more well-rounded person than one who does not.”

I tend to agree with Jeffrey on this.  I remember when I was younger and would read novels that were advanced for my age.  The crude words and sexual situations went right over my head.  I have often returned to a book that I read when I was younger and I am amazed at the language and situations that I now understand.  When I read Lord of the Flies for the first time I was ten years old and I enjoyed the book as a adventure novel about boys being boys.  When I read it again for my high school 20th Century Literature course I remember being amazed at the pure brutality of the novel and there were so many Christian symbols that I had missed.  However, even when I was ten I caught the message of the book about humanity.

I believe that banning people from books holds them back from opportunities to learn and will make students angry and give up on reading all together.  Their mentality will be, “If I can’t read what I want to read then why read at all?”  Jeffery agrees with me and takes it a step further.

“Censorship in all forms is a dangerous proposition, and one that must be guarded against. When librarians attempt to stifle students’ access to literature, they are essentially unraveling [their] educational outlooks and teaching [them] that it is OK for someone outside of their family to control their thoughts.”

He takes censorship from a mere guarding of students’ minds to a complete control of their thoughts.  Here is where I differ from Jeffrey.  I do think that censorship keeps students from some important truths about life and I think that it discourages reading.  However, saying that because we allow books to be censored we allow others to control our thoughts is a little far-fetched.

I do believe that we need to put books in the hands of students and that if a ten year old girl wants to read Lord of the Flies then let her take up the challenge!  Who cares if it has a few violent moments?  I say “Let our youth learn and discover the world through books!”
 

Jeff Jeffrey. “Book banning destroys thought.” The Daily Reveille. Jan.24, 2007

see complete article

For the past two weeks I have been looking at depression within teens.  I use Google News as my resource to articles about teen depression and depression prevention.  When I started looking through the articles I was disappointed to see that almost half of them were about Mandy Moore.  I was thinking “oh boo hoo for the pop star with fame and money.  What does she have to be depressed about?”  Finally, I decided to take a look at one of the articles about her.

My earlier thoughts honestly make me ashamed.  This is how teachers in the classroom often view their students.  They think, “Well, he is the star quarterback or she is the lead in the school play, what could they possibly be depressed about?” This is the kind of thinking that makes students ashamed to tell others that they are depressed.

I also like this article because if students see that it is okay for a famous woman to talk about her depression it is okay for them too.  I applaud Mandy’s bravery in talking about her depression and I hope that her example will be followed by others as well.  The youth of America often tries to be just like the movie or singing stars so hopefully this article and Mandy’s public confession about depression will be able to help out students going through the same feelings.

Another thing that attracted to me about this article is Mandy’s view on writing and depression.

“Moore, who is working on a new record at a studio in Woodstock, N.Y., says writing songs “away from friends in L.A. or New York” is good for the soul. “Writing has been really therapeutic,” she says of her music. “These little nuggets that have come up over the past eight months have made me look at things in a different way.”

I believe that writing is one great way for people to release their emotions.  When a person can release their emotions on paper it becomes much easier to release their emotions with their actual words.

I keep a daily journal and have found it to be therapeutic within my own life.  I get to shout at people when I am angry, I cry as I write when I am sad, I write large and fast and use many exclamation points when I am happy, etc.  You get the point.  No matter what I am feeling it gets put on paper which helps release the emotion from my head and body.

What if students were given ten minutes a day in their writing classes to keep a journal?  What emotions would they be able to release within their writing?  Would it be beneficial to them or would students just use it as a time to do nothing?

The way I see it journaling can help a lot of students and even those who do not feel like writing and just sit there-even that can be beneficial: a ten minute break to just relax in a day filled with activity.

Lets all take Mandy Moore’s example: Talk about our problems and write about them as therapy.

–”Mandy Moore: I Struggled With Depression.” The Showbuzz.CBS News. Jan. 23, 2007

see complete article

I was one of the lucky kids in High School.  I was well liked by everybody and was involved with many extra-curricular activities.  Not to mention I had the full support of my friends and the most amazing family that anyone could ask for.  Whatever I was involved in, whether it was leading Bible studies on Friday mornings or acting in the school play, someone was always there to support me.  I was a happy student for the most part.

However, there were the days or sometimes weeks, or sometimes even months where I did not feel like myself.  I was not happy with who I was or where I was going in life.  These moments were hard to get through.  Did I tell anyone what I was feeling?  OF COURSE NOT!  I did not want to be different from all of the happy students around me.

These feelings are felt by an amazing number of students in middle and high schools. 

“One of the worst things about being a teenager is being different and this propels many of these young people to mask their symptoms. They suffer in quiet desperation, putting on a good front to fool others, while experiencing unbearable levels of loneliness, anxiety and depression. “

There are too many students in our school suffering from depression and they feel like they cannot talk about it.  Therefore, they do not receive help or treatment for their depression, instead they battle it all on their own.

“The problem, highlighted in the National Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey commissioned by the Federal Government six years ago, found that only half the young people with the most severe problems received treatment.”

We as teachers, fellow students, family, or friends need to recognize when others are not acting in their usual manner.  The pressures that teenagers face are huge and if they have no one that they can talk to about their hectic lives then those pressures often will lead them to depression and suicide.  Students need to be released from their pressures or they need to see that although their pressures are great they can be tackled.

This article has brought me to my own conclusions for when I am a teacher.  They are: Don’t let our students suffer all alone.  Be watchful for those who act differently.  Always be available to talk. 

Michael Carr-Greg. “Intervening in teen depression”. Herald Sun. Jan15

see complete article

The censorship debate has two very important sides to it.  Obviously those who agree with censorship and those who disagree with it.  This entry in my blog will deal with the arguments given by those that agree with censorship.  People who think censorship is necessary in order to protect students from harmful issues rather than to expose them to unhealthy language and situations.  Wendy Day writes that

“Limiting children’s reading material is good stewardship of our responsibility to the   community to provide safe schools.”

She claims that while parents are able to choose what movies children watch in the home, what music they listen to, and the language they are exposed to; it is the responsibility of the school to choose what it exposes to students while they are in the school.

Many question censorship by claiming that students experience racial or sexual issues within the real world so why should they be kept from experiencing the very same issues within literature?  Wendy Day claims

“Where do we draw the line? There are terrible things that happen in this world. Is it our responsibility to make sure children have detailed information about all of these things? What about incest? What about sado-masochism? These are very real activities in our world, but what is the value in exposing our children to them?”

She is right.  What is the value?  Are there other books that would teach the same ideas without using foul language or sexual scenes?  Can we as teachers find materials that attack serious issues that are “suitable for children?”

This article opened my eyes to why it may be important to keep certain books from our students.  However, it also left me with many questions and doubts.  While I understand her point that students should be protected within schools I ask “WHY?” Aren’t we as teachers trying to prepare our students for the real world?  Shouldn’t they be exposed to the harsh realities of life?  At least then they would be a little more equipped to face the real world and all of its difficulties.

In my English class we are reading Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.  This book is such a good book to teach because it is short, fun, easy, and it has a lot of themes that are important for students.  However, this book has foul language and also deals with racial issues.  Does that mean that we should not teach it to our students?  You make the call.

Wendy Day, “Our Schools Have A Duty to Consider Content”. Press and Argus. Jan. 21, 2007

view complete article

In my middle and high school years I can remember being taught “banned” books such as the wonderful Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.  My teachers always made it seem so cool that we were reading material “not suitable for children.”  It was as if we were being rebels by reading a novel.

I always wondered why the books were banned in the first place.  They all seemed like great stories that held universal truths.  Did schools wish to keep truth from its students?

This semester I am going to make it my mission to discover why books are censored and if it is possible for teachers to use this as a way to get students excited to read as my old teachers did.  I will be exploring articles from various magazines and also other people’s  blogs about censorship.  These articles and blogs are sent to me thorough my account with Google Reader.

I hope to explore if censorship is really necessary in all cases, if teachers can challenge when a book is banned, and why the book was banned in the first place.

I believe that reading and writing gives all people a way to express themselves and when people begin to censor and ban writing students lose out.  If students are taught why a book is controversial and then allowed to explore the book and its ideas I believe they learn much about their own personal beliefs on an issue.

Hopefully my exploration on censorship will lead me to some interesting ideas about teaching controversial materials.  Who knows I may just have to make a couple of lesson plans using some of the books that I find! 

Wow!  Let me just start by saying that this blogging thing is so new to me that I can not believe I actually figured it out.  This is so cool! 

Anyway, on to the academic side of this post. For English 310 I have decided to look at Teen Depression.  I was going to look at different rites of passage that teens have to face, but I did not have all that much valid information about it.  It was such a big category that I decided it would be too much to tackle so I have switched to depression which I am also VERY interested in because it is something that is felt at one time or another by almost everyone, but it is hardly ever talked about.  I think that depression runs high within middle and high school students because of all of the changes going on in their lives added to the huge pressures that they face.

As future teachers, we need to realize that many of our students are living and struggling with depression.  I am hoping to find out how bad teen depression really is within schools and also if there are ways that we can help students.  As this is a writing course, I hope to find information that deals with depression and writing.  I would like to find that writing is therapeutic for those who are depressed but that may not be the case.  I am so excited to find out what things help and what does not.  Keep posted if you are interested in this topic as well, or if there are articles out there that you feel would help–let me know!

 I will be using BBC News, The New York Times (Education Section), Google News, and Google blogs to answer my questions and learn more about Teen depression.  So far, I have had a lot of success with these feeds!