“Computerized eye care centre”… when you have power
Just a quick post from where I am, that is from India, rural Bengal. We are currently staying with my husband’s family (now also my family!) in a university town of Santiniketan.
My thoughts are circling around media and accessibility. You will see hundreds of people here having access to their emails through their data plans, but you will also see broadband internet that is constantly disconnecting at home, plans paid per minute and you will watch your upload bar dragging in eternity. I guess the internet is also working on “Indian time” here, like everything else.
Yesterday, a whole day trip to Mushridabad revealed another batch of, what I see from my perspective as inconsistencies. We were passing a village in the middle of nowhere in a mad speed of 60 km/h (despite what you may think 60km/h CAN be a mad speed when you are jumping over potholes, swerve to avoid cars, bikes, rickshaws, goats and human traffic coming from both directions), so I didn’t manage to take a photo. One of my favourite signs up to date is a sign on a half-dilapidated shack written in fluorescent green colour that said: MEDIA FLUENCY CENTRE.
I was supposed to have a skype conference call with my supervisor and the M.Ed. committee members, but seeing the quality of the internet connection this may not be possible. Unless I enter one of scarily looking tiny houses that possesses the latest equipment attached to cracking dusty walls…
An all that only if you don’t experience one of the many power cuts…
Power struggle
I usually like to start with a video or a picture. I will not do so this time because I have to say things first before I invite you to watch.
Maybe it is where I come from with my history of my family. Maybe it is what was happening lately in my niece’s life (19). Or maybe I read too many wise books. Or maybe I am just plain wrong.
I see the parents-child relationship as an intense power-struggle in many households. Parents – you are responsible for how your kid is in a very big part. I can’t comprehend, how can you wake up only when your child turns a teen and starts judging that you failed as parents? Physical violence, aggression, destruction – this is what a helpless person does, someone who does not have any other resources to show they are in power (when they usually are not anymore).
I am also not sure if the father is not lying. I have heard too many sad stories to undermine a teenager’s words without really talking to them. So why is it that we don’t believe teenagers and we will believe grownups without hesitation? Is this not what we do also as teachers? Discrediting disclosures and reasons because we think teenagers are not worth our trust because they are teenagers?
Twit all about it!
Referring to Kelsey’s post, I wanted to tell you about an amazing experience I had on City and Colour concert this Thursday. It was actually a pretty relieving concert to me, as I could get away from some of the problems I am facing right now.
I could only afford the cheapest ticket (and I bought it so long ago I almost forgot about the concert!), so I was watching the concert from the highest balcony on the right of the stage. At some point Dallas Green excused himself for 2 minutes because he cut his finger. When he left, the noise increased from the audience, and I could see mobile screen lights coming up one by one. It looked really amazing, a sight comparable only to looking at a light bug-ridden trees in a warm Indian night.
That’s not all though. Everyone went on doing their stuff until Mr. Green came back. But even then a lot of people were taking pictures and some of the lights down there indicated that people are recording the show. The concert ended, but then Green came back for an encore. When he came back he requested everyone to switch off their electronic devices. He said he was not taking the slightest offence in people twitting, recording, taking photos, or facebooking, but ” sometimes we are so engrossed in recording the moment to have it forever, that we are not really experiencing it and it’s lost forever”.
And then something amazing happened that can happen ONLY in Canada. And maybe Sweden. People actually DID switch their things off!!! I counted maybe 5 devices on.
That got me thinking. Are we really trying to record things so desperately that we miss the moment? I know I missed half of a sarod concert (Amjad Ali Khan and his sons) because I was playing with my camera trying to take a panoramic photo and then recording a video.
Do you also experience things like that? You want to keep moments, but they are gone because you want to keep them?
Media, images, relationship violence
In response to Tanya’s entry, I wanted to write a few things about body images in media and abuse. I facilitate a girls group for YWCA’s Ys Kids – Children Exposed to Violence program. We talk about healthy (and unhealthy) relationships. As I was going through different books and programs on that matter, one thing became clear to me – every program has at leas one class on gender stereotypes and how they relate to violence in relationships.
Gender stereotypes are SO prevalent in media that it is almost impossible to deconstruct them. We come back to the same topic over and over again. How we see ourselves. What shapes us. What we think is expected of us. How we try to fulfill these expectations. What do we expect from our partners (irrespective of gender). How is passiveness or activeness obtained and maintained. Etc etc etc.
The first sentence of this trailer says: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”. Do you think it relates to violence in relationships?
Stereotypes are not only dangerous to women but to men as well. Confusion and “man box” make men do things. Like oppressing queer boys. Like shouting at their sons. Like hating themselves for not being masculine enough.
This video has a strong trigger warning. As illuminating as it is, it has a pretty nasty story of abuse. A call to men. Get out of that box or you will maintain violence against women.
Difficult students or blind teachers?
When I was at school I remember we used to have classmates that were branded as ‘difficult’, ‘naughty’ or ‘intelligent but lazy’. In my pedagogical education I learned one thing for sure – per-service teachers are not educated enough about learning disabilities, emotional difficulties and abuse that may be going on in kids’ houses.
It is definitely easier to think of students as naughty or difficult, or rude as a matter of fact, than to spend additional 5 minutes to try to connect with them and actually try to realize what may be causing them to act the way they are acting. This is going to be a very short blog entry, as all I have to say about it will be contained in the video below. You may have such kids in your class. They may have very different symptoms. They may have different problems. They may seem rude and cheeky if they are emotionally neglected or abused by seemingly fantastic parents (who may be well-off, it’s a myth that abuse happens only in poor or uneducated families). They may have difficulties to read or write if they have dyslexia and thus may seem uninterested. They may be scared to go home to their abusers and thus provoke problems or be unable to concentrate. There are so many different reasons for kids to be impatient, bored, dismissive… Recognizing what may be happening to and with them is the first step. Where you will take it further is up to you. Sometimes showing that someone cares about them enough to ask is what they need to start changing and getting help.
(There’s Something) About Anna
This is my second semestre TAing Alec’s course. I am very excited to have this opportunity, as my previous experience suggests that each group is different and a course, even if following the same syllabus is different thanks to that.
But wait! REWIND!
Could we have a little bit of background here!?
OK. So I come from Poland, a land where banking and mobile service make sense! Also, a land where Communist regime held strong for 50 years after the Second World War and was turned down in peaceful revolution at the end of the 80s. There were the years of my schooling and they were filled with the spirit of excitement by change and possibility. But also, with disappointment (as people thought life is going to be better immediately after 50 years of consequential damaging our economy and culture, silly people). A lot of what I am going to write commenting on your blogs will be influenced with my point of view coming exactly from this perspective.
Outside temple in Konkalitola, India.
I graduated with a B.A. and then M.A. what you would call English studies and English-speaking world culture and linguistics (yes, you read right, all in one). I was doing a bit of this and that, including teaching English as Foreign Language, film translation, organizing cultural events, leading workshops on creative writing, and teaching for my college (film translation and British culture classes), also online. I probably was doing some other stuff too, but… who would remember, eh? 🙂
And then I came to Canada and most of my dreams were shuttered, as practically none of my previous education and training was getting accredited. I had to think and work hard to figure out how I need to change my life to make it work in Canada at all. And after a year I have found my new passion – prevention education. I am 5 semesters in my graduate degree in Education, writing my thesis. I also work for Canadian Red Cross with RespectED program, with YWCA for Y’s Kids – Children Exposed to Violence and with UR Pride as a volunteer coordinator. Too much? Maybe, but that’s just me – I can’t sit still and am obsessed with social justice 🙂
Anyways, this a bit long intro is here to say I am very happy to be a part of this course, and I hope you will take me in as a part of your group. Even though I will be poking my nose in your business like nobody’s business! 😀
annaraskolnikoff 