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THE
FAB
FIVE
Welcome to table #4!
Blog #1: (due: 10/5): Create group blog and Introduce yourself through images of people and places that have been important to you. What has their impact on you been?
Blog #2: Unfortunately, neglected children can be found all over the world and in every social class. Adeline was born into a wealthy family but was in an especially vulnerable position because her mother died just days after she was born and her older siblings blamed her for the loss of their mother. Describe Adeline's home life. Looking at chapter 2 in Help Your Child to Thrive, which focuses on helping children build confidence through making constructive choices, describe how Aunt Baba and Adeline's school helped Adeline to avoid falling into a mindset of hopelessness through giving her positive feedback and encouraging constructive choices.
Blog Assignment #3: Despite the challenges she faces, Adeline never falls into a passive attitude of learned helplessness. When Niang begins to beat Little Sister, Adeline cries out: "Don't hurt her any more. She's only a baby!" Niang declares that she will "never forgive" Adeline. This isolates Adeline even further, especially as her siblings gradually surrender to the new hierarchy of power Niang has imposed since Grandmother Nai Nai's death. The loneliness of Adeline's situation is epitomized by what happens to the baby duckling Adeline names "Precious Little Treasure" (PLT). This incident shows how the new hierarchy of power Niang has imposed is impacting the character and choices of other members of the family. Why do you think Adeline’s father and siblings acted as they did? At the end of chapter 12, Big Sister seems to feel very satisfied with herself. Yet her actions show that, in her own way, she is becoming more and more like Niang (and the daughter of the stepmother in the animated version of the original Chinese Cinderella story we watched in class). Why do you think Big Sister would adopt the manipulative attitude of someone whom she did not like? (200 words or more)
Blog prompt #4: In chapter 13, the stark difference between Adeline's home life and that of her school friend Wu Chun-mei is made painfully clear. On a school holiday (which Niang did not know was a holiday), Adeline goes to Wu Chun-mei's birthday party. What happens? Soon afterward, Adeline is elected class president and her friends show up at her house to congratulate her. What do you think her friends thought of Niang's reaction? To make sure that they would not be inconvenienced in this way again, Father and Niang fly Adeline to Tianjin and enroll her in St. Joseph's School as a boarder. But China is in the midst of a civil war. Adeline is one of only 100 pupils in a school built for 1000. The Nationalist government has fallen and Communist troops are closing in on Tianjin. Many local people have fled. Unexpectedly, Adeline is rescued by Niang's older sister and her family (the Schillings), who are very different from Niang. Traveling with the Schillings gives Adeline her first close-up experience of warm family life. Compare Adeline's experiences of friendship and support while she is with the Schillings to how she is treated by her own family (200 words or more)
Blog prompt #5: In chapter 18 Adeline describes what literature has come to mean to her. "I was alone with my beloved books. What bliss! To be left in peace with Cordelia, Regan, Gonoril, and Lear himself--characters more real than my family back home or my schoolmates downstairs... What happiness! What comfort!" Books were an important source of comfort for Adeline. Chapter 5 ofHelp Your Child to Thrive talks about how books and/or movies can help young people to see situations from different perspectives and imagine constructive solutions. How is Adeline an example of this? In what ways does Niang seem to fit the profile for Narcissistic Personality disorder? (200 words or more)
Blog prompt #6: Choose one or more of the key (italicized) terms introduced in the Introduction to Education and Social Change and describe how you have seen evidence of it in your own life. These terms include globalization, urbanization, human capital, social capital, cultural capital, equity and ideology. (200 words or more)
Blog prompt #7: How did the education that children received differ in the southern, middle, and New England colonies of British North America?
Blog prompt #8: When Horace Mann became Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he was appalled by the haphazard nature of the schooling provided for the state’s children. How did Mann's beliefs about effective instructional practices differ from the accepted practices in local public schools at the time?
Blog prompt #9: The first major wave of immigrants to arrive in the new nation of the United States were the Irish, who were fleeing the potato famine. Their poverty and Catholic religion caused many Americans to see them as shiftless and a bad influence on American culture. Describe the process by which the Irish eventually became part of the American mainstream.
Blog prompt #10: Compare and contrast the educational philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois. What impact did these two men have in their own time and in subsequent decades?
Blog prompt #11: Today we talked about the concept of "Stereotype threat," described by Dr. Claude Steele in his book Whistling Vivaldi. Stereotype threat occurs when a standardized, over-simplified image having to do with your social identity (or perceived membership in a social group) could be applied to you. Situations in which a negative stereotype could be confirmed may cause anxieties that undermine an individual's ability to deliver their best performance. Since most people have at least once social identity that is negatively stereotyped, almost everyone is vulnerable to stereotype threat. So, stereotype threat can affect people from many different backgrounds. What examples of stereotype threat have you observed or encountered? See the powerpoint on Whistling Vivaldi: Key Concepts below (200 words or more)
Blog prompt #12: Write about a time from your past (in middle or high school) when you observed a situation in which a person had trouble having a conversation. This person would likely have struggled in a social situation and been at a loss as to how to respond to the other people present. There was likely a mismatch between the person’s response to their social setting and the response of the other people. If there was an attempt to reach out and improve this person’s ability to manage conversations and social interactions with others, describe what happened (the attempt to help may have been made by a teacher, another adult, a peer, or a small group). How effective was the attempt to help?
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