Journal 8: Class assessment

I enjoy English as a whole.  I enjoy writing and love to read.  I can honestly say that blogging is a new venture but not one that I could keep up on a regular basis unless I was paid for it. Watching the documentaries this semester both thrilled and disturbed me.  I was thrilled to be watching films that I could formulate essays from.  The films took away from the chance for writer’s block that I often got when picking my own topic.  I, on the other hand, was deeply disturbed by some of the subject matter of the films especially Forgiving Dr. Mengele.  I cried during many of the films but to watch children be tortured by a sick person tore away part of my very soul.  I do not understand how someone could be as evil and demented as to perform experiments of children or people in general.  I understand the need to medical research but do not believe it should be tested on animals or people.  The idea of diving in a dumpster to retrieve discarded food was gross to me.  I am a germaphobe and there were parts of the Dive that disgusted me and made my stomach turn.  The film about the education system in low income areas struck a cord with me as well. Thankfully my family is fortunate to live in a middle class area with a great education system for my stepchildren to attend.  Watching the children in the film sit and wait to not have their number called made me cry because they like all children deserve and chance at a better education and not being a statistic.  I am glad that I was able to take Professor Warren for both ENC 1101 and ENC 1102.  She is a great professor with a great sense of humor.  I hope to see her around campus in the future.

Education Today, Waiting on Superman Essay

Today’s education system isn’t so different from what I viewed in the documentary, Waiting for Superman.  Many lower income neighborhoods depend heavily on charter schools to help better educate their children.  In contrast, there are some areas that do not have charter schools to offer, like many Florida counties.  Children should be offered the best possible chance to succeed no matter where they come from.  Scores on standardized testing in public schools represents that many areas of study need more emphasis from caring teachers who love their chosen careers.

            Studies conducted by nationally prominent research institutions show that public charter schools are successfully closing achievement gaps for students of color, English language learners, and students in poverty. Stanford’s CREDO study found that charter schools helped English language learners and students in poverty achieve more than traditional public schools.  Studies by Stanford and Harvard have found that English language learners and low-income students perform better in public charter schools than in traditional public schools. (Stand.org)  After watching the film, it appeared that the lower income children suffered in their learning because of lack of funding for the schools they attended.  The charter schools that are in the lower income areas select potential new students in a lottery type system from a pool of applicants.  It broke my heart to watch the children in the film sit and wait to not hear their names called.  Their dreams for a better life were dashed in a matter of hours waiting, only to be let down. 

            More than one-third of Florida’s 67 counties did not have a charter school during the 2010-2011 school years, according to a StateImpact Florida analysis of state data.  As of the 2010-2011, Clay County was the largest district in Florida to not have any charter schools.  Clay County consistently earns an “A” on state report cards; one reason school officials say there is little demand for charter schools.  In Clay County, high school students can study aerospace, information or agricultural technology at one of twelve specialized academies. (npr.org)    For the most part, it seems as though Clay County schools are performing well enough that charter schools aren’t really needed.  Both of my stepchildren attend “A” schools in Clay County and they are both on the honor roll.  It makes a difference that my husband and I make sure our children get the best education they can.  

In addition, scoring for standardized testing ways very heavily on the grading that many schools achieve on a yearly basis and it impacts each student.  Many schools rely on the scoring from the testing to impact their budgets for each year.  The schools that consistently fail the yearly testing lose money and it negatively impacts the education of their students.  It is my belief that it is partly the educators fault for why children don’t perform well on such testing as FCAT and partly the child’s inability to learn or retain the material presented to them.  There is so much pressure on children to do their best that it can cause stress and make them do more poorly than under normal circumstances.   In view of the nation's substantial curricular diversity, test developers are obliged to create a series of one-size-fits-all assessments. But, as most of us know from attempting to wear one-size-fits-all garments, sometimes one size really can't fit all. (ascd.org)  You cannot expect every child tested to perform the same on standardized testing due to the fact that each one learns differently; thus they retain information differently.   Consequently, standardized testing can hinder a child’s academic growth as much as it can help.  Having teachers and administrators who genuinely care about each child’s educational development makes a huge difference when it comes to helping them achieve the skills they need to do well on yearly testing.

In summary, the United States needs help in its education system as a whole.  There should be as many educational opportunities in lower income areas as there are in some of the higher income areas.  No child should be left behind because of money.  Every child has a dream of becoming something great and they need the help to get there from their schools just as much as they do from their parents.  Standardized testing should not be the deciding factor for how much money a school receives.  If a school is consistently failing because of standardized testing maybe a new idea should be put in place to help that school achieve greatness.  How is society supposed to raise their children into successful adults if they are stunted educationally?  What choice do the children have?  Children are the future and so many are truly still “Waiting for Superman” to save them. What can you do to help?

Works Cited

Multiples sources. "Facts on Public Charters." Web. <http://stand.org/evidenceoncharterschools>.

O'Connor, John . " Charters Not A Choice in Many Florida Counties | StateImpact Florida ." NPR StateImpact: Issues That Matter. Close To Home.. StateImpact, 13 Oct 2011. Web. 16 Apr 2013. <http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2011/10/13/charters-not-a-choice-in-many-florida-counties/>.

Popham, W. James. "Why Standardized Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality." Educational Leadership, Volume 56, Number 6, Using Standards and Assessments Pages 8-15 , Mar 1999. Web. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar99/vol56/num06/Why-Standardized-Tests-Don%27t-Measure-Educational-Quality.aspx>.

Waiting for Superman Journal Entry

            Having recently watched the documentary, Waiting for Superman, it saddened me that today’s school systems are so poor in performance and lack the means to provide due to lack of funding.  Poor school performance and low funding, generally speaking, makes for a poor education for the young people attending the school.  I believe that charter schools are great idea to help the children of lower income areas to get the best education they possibly can.  It was very sad to see that the schools had to choose who attended by a lottery system to make it fair to every child who had applied.  It was very hard to watch the children featured get passed over in their hope for a brighter future by getting a ticket in except one.  I cried for the families whose children did not get selected and rejoiced for the one who was.  Having two stepchildren who are getting a good education makes me feel fortunate.  The public school system in Clay County is not superior by any means but both schools that my children attend are “A” schools by academic standard.  Every child deserves a chance for a great education so that they may rise about the poverty or the less fortunate circumstance from which they come.  If your child tells you about their dream of what they want to be when they grow up, help them achieve it.  It sickens me that teachers cannot be paid on performance.  If your child has been lucky enough to have a teacher that goes the extra mile to make sure they are learning everything they are supposed and more, then I feel they should get that extra incentive.  Many other fields of work base their pay on experience and performance, why not teachers?  Why not those who are molding and teaching our children?    

Miss Representation: Exploited

                Jennifer L. Pozner made the statement, “You have to look like Miss USA, have sex like Samantha from Sex in the City and think like June Cleaver.”   The ideals that women are supposed to look a certain way, act a certain way in the bedroom, and think another way in all other aspects of life is ridiculous.  Women are intelligent human beings capable of independent thoughts.  The media portrays women and girls in a negative, hyper-sexualized way and it causes unrealistic views of what real women are.  Such media has been known to cause eating disorders, depression, and self-esteem issues pertaining to their bodies.  Government regulations suggest that women’s reproductive can be controlled and therefore the women no longer have choices in regards to their own bodies.  It is immoral to dictate what a woman’s rights are to her own body and that the world presents an unrealistic view of the perfect woman. 

                In reality, women are highly intelligent human beings and should not be put out of any situation just because they are female.  It seems as though the smarter a woman is the more she is shunned by society.  Powerful women are not always liked.  In regards to this documentary, it seems as though women are expected to be seen and not heard, blending into the background and looking pretty.  I was born to stand out and I pride myself on my intelligence.  Maintaining a 3.84 GPA doesn’t happen overnight, neither does being invited and inducted in Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.  Alice Walker said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”  The first step is to maintain power and make it known that women can do the job as well as a man.  I am not discounting the fact the men do well but simply that women can as well.  There are many incredibly intelligent women who are the Chief Executive Officers of major corporations such as Hewlett Packard and IBM. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/fortune-500-female-ceos_n_1495734.html)

                Notably girls in today’s society are growing up way too fast.  It seems as though girls are given an unrealistic view from a very early age that they are supposed to look a certain way based on what they see on some of their favorite television shows or in movies.  I know that many people have daughters and they fear that they will end up a statistic of society.  78% of girls hate their bodies by the age of 15 and 65% of them have eating disorders. (http://community.feministing.com/2011/02/14/miss-representation-a-film-review/    Many women and girls suffer from varying forms of depression as a result of Body Dysmorphic Disorder.  BDD is a type of somatoform disorder, a mental illness in which a person has symptoms of a medical illness, but the symptoms cannot be fully explained by an actual physician. (http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-body-dysmorphic-disorder)  People with BDD are preoccupied with an imagined physical defect or minor defect that others cannot see.  One of the most common areas of concern is body weight.  The media portrays the perfect woman as tall, thin, and blessed in the breast area, so basically like Barbie.  However, in most cases unless a woman is in the gym constantly or was blessed with a high metabolism that is not the case.  Women and girls come in all different shapes and size, each one unique as God intended. 

                Women are most commonly stereotyped as good for one thing: reproduction.  Without women in the world, the population would be very small or cease to exist.  What right does the government have to regulate women’s reproductive rights?  Birth control was not available for sale until May 11, 1960 and was sold by Searle.  The fact that women have been having children for centuries with no means of birth control is stifling.  Many states made the sale of birth control illegal because the Catholic Church opposed it, their only option was abstinence.  (www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/timeline/timeline2.html)  Many insurance companies will cover male enhancement drugs such as Viagra and Cialis but will not cover birth control.  That fact doesn’t set well with me that men can get aid to help enhance their lives and women cannot control their choice to give birth other than abstaining from the act of sex. 

                Generally speaking watching the documentary, Miss Representation was not an enjoyable experience since having seen it once before.  It bothers me that women and girls are over-sexualized and exploited in the media and it portrays an unrealistic view to the young women and girls in today’s society of what real women look like.  For women to have 86% of the purchasing power, why do advertising outlets seems to play more toward the stimulus of men?  Today’s society and even in years past should be less judgmental of outward appearances and look inward to what really matters.  Women should be seen for their brains and not just their bodies. 

Works Cited

American Experience

Timeline: The Pill 1951-1990

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/timeline/timeline2.html

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-body-dysmorphic-disorder

Fortune 500 List Boasts More Female CEOs Than Ever Before

Posted: 05/07/2012 12:34 pm by Bianca Bosker

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/fortune-500-female-ceos_n_1495734.html

Miss Representation – A Film Review

COCO, February 14, 2011, original posting on PersephoneMagazine.com

http://community.feministing.com/2011/02/14/miss-representation-a-film-review/

Miss Representation Journal Entry

Having watched this documentary once, I was not thrilled to have to watch it again.  I watched Miss Representation for an extra credit assignment in ENC 1101 and was appalled at what I saw.  Women and girls are so sexually exploited in the media that is sickens me to my very core.  I have a stepdaughter who is 11 and she is already body conscious.  She really shouldn't be but she watches a lot of television and reads magazines that portray the ideal image of what a woman is supposed to look like.  She is very worried about what other people think of her and it comes out in how she chooses to dress to the way she wears her hair.  I do not think it is fair to women or girls in today's society to be viewed as objects rather than human beings.  Women are often objectified and made out to be less than they are especially if they are ones with above average intelligence.  I do not think that women are by any means inferior to men. In common society, women are responsible for keeping retailers in business as they make up an approximate 86% of the purchasing power.  I laughed when I heard the statement, "You have to look like Miss America, have sex like Samantha on Sex and the City, and think like June Cleaver."  To me that premise says you have to be a beautiful, sex-kitten, domestic goddess that will not be confrontational.   Many women and girls suffer from Body Dsymorphic Disorder as a direct result of the way they are portrayed in the media.  BDD is an obsessive disorder that many develop when they see what the media conveys as the perfect body type from their hair to their weight and as far as the way they dress.  Many women suffer from severe depression and have self-esteem issues as a direct result of BDD.  A size 2 is not the normal size for women in today’s society.  Being healthy should be more important than the size on the clothing labels in your closet.  Be who you are and do it on purpose.

Going Dumpster Divin’

            Viewing the movie Dive was an eye-opening experience.  The idea that people would actually dive into a dumpster full of smelly garbage in hopes of finding food treasures boggles my mind.  Many people do not fully understand the amount of food wasted until they are hungry and searching for their next meal.  Grocery stores and restaurants waste enough food daily that could feed hundreds.  The amount of food the United States of America wastes in one year could keep small countries fed for several years.  Having been raised on the mentality of cleaning your plate, it bothers me how much food is wasted.  As a child, I was told to clean my plate or there would be no option for dessert and at Grandma’s house you always wanted dessert.  Children in today’s society are too picky when it comes to their food choices and 40% of food waste comes from households.

            Dumpster diving is defined as the practice of searching through dustbins for discarded but still usable or valuable objects such as food or clothes (Dictionary.com).  There are actually websites that give how-to’s on dumpster diving.  I guess it makes sense to have instructions on how to perform the task of actually diving in if you have never done it before.  The fact that they list bringing gloves is funny to me but that is because I am a mysophobic.  I do not like germs therefore gloves wouldn’t be enough to get me into a dumpster (shareable.net).  A quote from a site referenced dumpster diving as follows: “The very name “dumpster diving” makes the nature of the activity pretty clear. It doesn’t hide behind a sanitized euphemism, like, say, “gently used snack gathering.”  “Free food? Honey, ain’t nuthin’ free,” (Adventures of a first-time dumpster diver, Kwak-Hefferan).  There are many people that dumpster dive for the sole purpose of keeping their families fed because they cannot afford to shop the conventional way due to lack of money or government assistance.    Be that as it may, many people will dumpster dive to help out local shelters that feed the hungry on a daily basis by recovering food that would not be donated under normal circumstances. 

Most of the food that grocers throw out is perishable, including fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat, baked goods, and ready-made meals.  Perishable foods are most often thrown away versus being donated because it releases the grocery store from being held liable if someone gets sick.  Food waste will probably always be an unfortunate by-product of the food service and food retail industries. Food recovery is a great way for all types of food businesses to help those in need, and can oftentimes result in tax savings when donated to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (Food Waste from Restaurants, Caterers, and Grocery Stores, Jan 03 2013).  With the amount of food wasted by grocery stores, many of our homeless shelters could feed hundreds of people for longer than usual with regular donations.  Most perishables can be frozen and it disintegrates the expiration dates printed on packaging because it time locks the food at its current state.  The statistic from the movie Dive of the amount of wasted food was sad at a staggering 96 billion pounds yearly.  The amount of food that the United States wastes in one year could feed many smaller countries for many years.  The United States is said to be the richest country in the world and yet we waste the most food while many other countries have people dying from starvation.  If we packed up our wasted food for one year, the entire country of Haiti could eat for five years (Dive!). 

Furthermore, children in today’s society should be thankful for the food choices they have in front of them as there are many who go without.  I can recall hearing as a child that I should clean my plate because children in China were starving.  Children are pickier nowadays than they were twenty or more years ago.  Children of the eighties and much earlier were happy to get a healthy meal or less.  I know more children who thumb their noses at vegetables and refuse to eat them.  When I was younger, it was clean your plate or you will just have to be hungry and there would be no snacks.  I can also recall my mom covering my plate and placing it in the refrigerator in case I got hungry later because I refused to eat it the first time around.  Even worse was going to my grandma’s house and having to eat peas in order to get dessert and believe me you wanted dessert at her house.  Children in smaller, poverty stricken countries do not have the luxury of food choices.  They are lucky to get some bread, rice, or crackers and most likely some dirty water depending on where they live.  Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related issues (bread.org).  Based on that number, one child dies every five seconds.  With the food that American children waste, that would not have to happen. 

All things considered, we as Americans can help stamp out hunger.  Dumpster diving can provide food for those who cannot regularly afford it as well as providing donations to shelters or food banks.  Choosing your meals wisely can help alleviate waste in your home by making sure you only prepare enough for the one meal unless you plan on consuming the leftovers and not throwing them away.  I know that we cannot force people or organizations to help but every little bit helps, one person at a time.  Be an example for your children by trying new things and attempting to finish your food so they learn responsibility for their food choices.  If it helps, remind your children that for everything that they throw away there are hungry children in other countries and even as close as your own city.  Helping each be more responsible about our wasteful tendencies in our own homes can reflect outward onto our community.

 

Works Cited

“Adventures of a first-time dumpster diver,” By Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan 12 Jan 2012 at 7:01 p.m.

 http://grist.org/food/2012-01-12-adventures-of-a-first-time-dumpster-diver/

Dive! A Film by Jeremy Seifert, Copyright © 2013 http://www.divethefilm.com/facts-about-food-waste.aspx

"dumpster diving." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 12 Mar. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dumpster diving>.

“Food Waste from Restaurants, Caterers, and Grocery Stores” Jan 03 2013 Flashfood and Food Recovery News  

http://flashfoodasu.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/food-waste-from-restaurants-caterers-and-grocery-stores/

“Global Hunger”, http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/

“How To Dumpster Dive, Eat Free & Fight Waste” by Willie Osterweil, November 7, 2012 at 7:43 a.m. 

http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-dumpster-dive-eat-for-free-and-fight-waste

Journal #5: Dive!

Journal 5 due. Topic: Share your thoughts on the film Dive! to help you narrow down your essay topic.  Would you be willing to dumpster dive?  Have you or someone you know dealt with food shortages or food insecurities?

I honestly do not know if I would ever be desperate enough to dumpster dive as I am a huge mysophobic or otherwise known as a germaphobic.  I am constantly washing my hands or using sanitizer.  If my family ever got to the point where we needed food that bad I would happily send my husband or my nineteen stepson into the dumpster.  My stepdaughter and I would not want anything to do with even touching the dumpster.  After watching the documentary, it did not surprise me that so much food it wasted every day.  The United States is the fattest country in the world and we waste the most food.  The staggering statistic of wasting ninety-six billion pounds of food per year blew my mind, even more so that our waste could feed the entire country of Haiti for five years.  I did not think that grocery stores wasted that much food when it could be donated and frozen to stamp out the expiration date.  The fact that eleven million people go hungry each day saddens me and makes me rethink about portioning meal  prepared to eliminate leftovers that will go into the refrigerator only to be forgotten about then discarded. Preparing and eating smaller, more nutritious portions will help alleviate wasting food and help with a healthy disposition.  Another sad statistic is that forty percent of food waste is from personal homes.  Prepare a meal and take it to a friend or neighbor, share the wealth if you have extra do not throw it out if it can help someone else. The best statement I took from the documentary was "Food is life and should never be wasted."   I do not personally know anyone who has had to even think about dumpster diving.  I have known several who relied on government assistance such as food stamps to provide the food they needed for their families.