Experimentation

So far most if not all of my posts have shown that writing can help those who are battling with depression.

So this week, it was my goal to try and find an article or blog that went against my own belief.  It took awhile but I finally did it.

I found a blog written by Ian Hocking, a writer from the U.K, that expresses that writing as a career can actually increase the chance that a person will be depressed.

He writes,

“The writer works alone and for long periods. Social isolation is linked to depression because social interaction provides various kinds of support that can inhibit depressive thoughts and tendencies. The writer doesn’t get much exercise. Regular exercise mitigates against the development of depressive symptoms. The writer is poorly paid, and this might lead to poor diet (though I must say that, in my case, the reduction in shopping budget has led to healthier meals), which is linked to depression. Poor pay is also linked to lowered social status, another causal factor in depression. Finally, your success as a writer is almost completely attributable to other people – editors, publishers, readers – and when those people aren’t helpful…this might lead to a sense of hopelessness, and a feeling that the fundamentals of life are not under your control.”

I think that this blog is a nice contrast to all of my musings and emotional entries about how writing is the way to deal with depression.  According to Ian and the Grumpy Old Bookman, writing is sometimes the cause of depression.

I understand that choosing writing as a career can be a frustrating path that leads to depression and I think that is exactly where my old posts differ from this one.

My other posts deal with writers who are writing just for the pleasure of writing or writing to specifically deal with a problem such as depression.  The blogs talked about here deal with writing as a career.

I still feel that overall I would claim that writing does indeed help depression, but now after reading these two blogs I might be a little more reluctant to tell a student that may be prone to depression to choose writing as his/her career.

Ian Hocking.”Depression in the Arts.” March 14, 2007

Michael Allen. “Suicide is painless.” March 14, 2007

I was trying to find examples of writing that teenagers have produced about their depression. I stumbled across the web site for “In the Mix.”  My link brings you to examples of writing, but I want to encourage all of you to browse around on the site.

 “In the Mix” is a film that talks about teen depression and how to know if symptoms that students are showing are just from everyday stress or if they are battling with depression.  It provides current stats about depression and teenage suicide and even provides definitions to “depression” and “self-injury.”  I think this is a great site to visit—especially for future teachers.  It also has a place where you can order a video. Now, I am not advocating that you run out and get the movie—but it might be something that you could show to students in the first couple days of school to show them that they are not the only people dealing with depression. 

The thing that I love most about this site is that it provides a space for people to out post their thoughts, feelings, and personal testimonies about depression. The first story really hit me.  This kid goes through all this terrible stuff just so that he can live.  At the hospital he has to eat charcoal in order to make himself throw up all of the pills inside of him.  The thing that affected me the most was when he writes,  

“In the hospital, on my floor, there were a lot of sick kids. I mean, really sick…and I was there because I tried to kill myself. I took a room from someone who could have been dying, all because I did something stupid.”

He realizes that suicide is not the way to die and that it really is “something stupid.” The other writer ends with a poem that I would like to share with you. 

“Take a razor
Slit your wrist,
Scream
Until there’s no sound left,
Beat the crap
out of yourself
while no one cares,
Until you finally
Dig to the bottom
Of your being.
Go as far
as you can go,
On the road of self-discovery,
Even if it results
in death.”

The thing that I like most about both entries is that they both do not say that there struggle is over.  They both realize that they can receive help but do not act as if the problem will just disappear.

I think using these or other examples of writers talking about depression is an awesome thing to use in the classroom.  They can be used to start a discussion or to be used in a journal activity.I think that so far I have found that writing seems to help people with depression.  But this takes it one step further: when student writing gets published-whether in a book, magazine, or on the web-its potential grows.  Not only does it help the writer, but it can help all of the people who read it as well.

D. and M.P. “Teens Writing About Depression.” PBS.org.

In these last three posts about censorship I have tried to get off of the obvious topic and expand my knowledge about different types of censorship and different reasons for censorship.

During my semester look at censorship I learned that there are many different reasons: to guard our children from items that we feel they should not be exposed to, because of certain morality issues, and more recently I learned that it can be used to standardize our language. 

Today, I want to talk about extreme censorship. One of my last posts was about Abdel Kareem Soliman who was censored even went to jail because of what he posted on his blog.  This post is about the most extreme censorship of all.  Bombing.

A suicide car bomber blew up the Mutanabi book market in Baghdad.  This is not just simple censorhip of one book because it says a sexual word—this is censorship of reading and knowledge in general.

The authors Sumana Raychaudhuri and Saswato Das state

“The symbolism was clear: The suicide car-bomber wanted to strike at the heart of
Iraq’s intellectual life… it is clear that the bombing, which killed and injured scores and left a 20-foot-wide crater, was targeted at those who think, read or are interested in learning.”

 

They think that the best retaliation to the bombing would be to rebuild the book market.  They think it would be a symbol showing that no matter what happens that the people of Baghdad will continue to gain knowledge.

Now, I do not think that it is the best of ideas to re-build just because it will probably be attacked again, but there are other ways to retaliate.

“A popular Arab saying holds that “Cairo writes, Beirut prints,Baghdad reads.” For a thousand years, Baghdad has been a leading cultural light of the Arab world, and this is not the first time its books have been desecrated.”

 

I think that if the people of Baghdad find ways to keep reading even with all of the war and destruction that they will send the message that no matter what –they will not stand for this type of censorship and will continue to educate themselves.

This article taught me to look at the reasons behind censorship.  Are the people who are doing the censorship doing it because they want to protect me, or are they doing it to send me a message that I can not learn.

The reasons behind censorship determine whether or not censorship is okay.

Sumana Raychaudhuri and Saswato Das.”A tradegy for all who love books.” Newsday. March 14, 2007

I know that there are a lot of people in my 310 class that are looking at standardized testing.  This post is for all of you!!  Check out this article that I found about the process that tests go through in order to be “non-biased.” The author Cristi Laquer feels that  

“the process of bias and sensitivity review is something perhaps more sinister: a particularly stunning demonstration of how the inertia built into bureaucracy can maintain a concept of standardization that actually requires censorship to function.”

Laquer talks about many different sentences and words that had to be cut out of questions just because someone on the panel thought that it would be biased towards one group or another.  Anything dealing with religious beliefs, the word wizard, and even a story dealing with mountains had to be cut out. Now, I can understand where words carrying religious connotations need to be cut out, but “mountains”?!?!.  Honestly people, just because students do not live in the mountains does not mean that they do not know what they are.  But apparently 

“children from non-mountainous regions might not understand it.”

Laquer was on a panel that just dealt with vocabulary questions.  They had to make sentences that would be used in a vocabulary section on a standardized test.  So, my feelings on the whole thing are that trying to “fix” our standardized tests is becoming almost ridiculous. Honestly, the point of vocab is not always whether or not a child knows a word, but if they can derive its meaning based on its context.  So, using a story about mountains would not really matter because it is not about personal experience but more so about developing meaning through what a student reads (Yippie for Reader Response Theory).  Honestly, I agree with the author that the intentions are good, but all of this review is turning into harsh censorship.  Laquer ends by saying,  

“Our language is being sanitized by the government, but we should not assume that censorship is always the result of a villain that we can fight head on. It is the result of thousands of well-meaning people trying to create a standard and a way to test everyone against it. Perfect standardization is probably impossible, and it may be time to consider that it is also undesirable. A language meant to fit everyone is meant to benefit no one.”

I especially like her last sentence so I ‘m going to let her end my blog with it as well:

“A language meant to fit everyone is meant to benefit no one.”

Cristi Laquer.”Standardizing Sensitivity.” The College Hill Independent.March 16, 2007.  

This post does not have to do with whether censorship is a good or bad thing.  It also does not talk about a specific book being censored as my other posts do.  I needed a short break from all of the same ‘ol stuff.

This weekend I found an article that talked about awards that were handed out to people who went against censorship.  Some of them wrote stories, others made films, and others simply spoke out about what they believed.

The journalism award went to Abdel Kareem Soliman who wrote using the name Kareem Amer.  This post will be about him. You may be wondering why I would blog about a journalist instead of talking about the man who got the literature award.  I understand that my topic is censorship in literature, but I chose Soliman because he was censored because of his blogging.  If you want to see his site I have a link at the bottom of the page.  You won’t be able to read it, but it is pretty cool anyways. 

Even more that just being banned from the web, Soliman  

“was recently sentenced to four years in prison after using his web log to criticize the country’s top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university, and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.”

It is odd because in our classroom we see blogging as an educational tool, something fun to do on the weekend, a way to connect with others, and a way to put our knowledge out for people to see.  We don’t really think that there may be other people reading our stuff (besides the teacher and fellow classmates.)   It really hit me in class on Thursday when Professor Rozema showed us the blog conversation that took place between the student and the author of the “This I Believe” essay.  Then, I found the short article on censorship awards and the two of them combined made me really think about the things I write before I post. 

As bloggers we need to be careful about what we say and how we say it.  The internet has such potential for us now and for our future students.  However, we all need to realize that what we post is out there for ALL to see and the things that we say should be closely monitored.  Now, I’m not saying that we can’t take a stand for our beliefs—in fact I think that is what blogging is all about but I am saying that how we say things makes a big difference.

So, yeah I just thought it was neat to think about all the people who are potentially reading our blogs. So be careful what you say!

Abdel Kareem Soliman’s blog.

“Awards for free speech defenders”. BBC News. March 14, 2007