I think the main thing students need when approaching media is trust. When I say trust, I do not mean, “I trust my student/child completely, therefore I don’t think they need me to put any boundaries on their media usage”, I mean parents need to treat their children enough like adults that they feel comfortable opening up to them and sharing how they actually feel about media usage. If as a student in high school, I felt that my parents or teachers only wanted to talk AT me instead of having a conversation with me, I found it easiest to not respond at all. That way they could say everything they wanted to and feel like they had done their job, but I didn’t have to get too involved or actually share my opinion on the matter—I knew it would only get me in trouble. This isn’t what I want for my students. I want to create an environment where students feel they can ask the hard questions. Most of the time, this won’t happen in a large classroom setting, but if students understand that as a teacher, I am willing to discuss hard topics with them, my hope is that they will feel comfortable enough to approach me with questions and concerns. I loved the example of the Health teacher in Hobbs’ book who let the students have an open ended discussion about different current celebrities. It was very similar to the activity we did in class for Mac/PC users. By letting the conversation flow freely, the teacher was able to gauge exactly how the students felt about the matter because they were actively engaged in a conversation they cared about. If I was the student, at this point in the conversation, if I had questions about body image or anything discussed in class, I would feel comfortable going and talking with my teacher one-on-one after class because I would know she trusted my peers and I to have a conversation about topics that may normally be considered ‘taboo’.
The other side of trust that I feel students need to have an appreciation and understanding of is the idea of responsibility. As facilitators of hard discussions in the classroom, we need to be able to tell our students that it is their responsibility to be aware of what they are viewing. No matter what, even if parents try to secure the internet from their children, more often than not, you will stumble across inappropriate material and it is fairly easy to stumble across yourself. By understanding the concept of responsibility for their own choices, my hope is that students will choose to be responsible adults and stay away from inappropriate things. Obviously, this is only partially realistic, but if students don’t think we believe that they can be responsible, they will never try and disprove us. Set high standards and let them reach as high as they can.
In Seeing and Writing, I read Omayra Sanchez, a piece written by a woman about a little Colombian girl stuck in a collapsed water-filled building just before she was pulled out by the Red Cross. She does not look afraid or upset by her situation because she spent her entire life in this mindset—death is walking right next to you every second of the day. The author states, “Western culture forces us to ignore anything that is inexplicable or uncontrollable, like poverty, death, sickness, or failure.” I think this is very profound and good to keep in mind as educators. All too often we try to hide the truth from our students in an attempt to protect them from the realities of life, but by trusting them and understanding that students are going to be confronted with difficult life choices at an early age whether we like it or not, will allow us to face the battle head on instead of floating above the clouds pretending like everything is going to be fine if we say so.
3 comments:
I think Giselle hit the nail on the head when she said that, “the main thing students need when approaching media is trust.” I have to admit, my first thought when reading that statement was not one of amicability; but, as I continued to read her post, I found myself completely agreeing with her extended explanation. She stated “When I say trust, I do not mean, ‘I trust my student/child completely, therefore I don’t think they need me to put any boundaries on their media usage’, I mean parents need to treat their children enough like adults that they feel comfortable opening up to them and sharing how they actually feel about media usage.”
However, when I finished reading her post, I found myself still wondering exactly how you go about making that happen. How do you create an environment of trust? Giselle gave some fabulous examples of what can be done (such as the health teacher who provided an opportunity for her students to have an opened-ended discussion, and our mac vs. pc discussion in class), and she talked about teaching the students about taking responsibility for what they view…. but I wanted more.
I found more of what I was looking for in the Hobb’s reading. For example, I loved what Hobb’s said about her own parenting style. She is a “proud protectionist” when it comes to her kids. In order to teach her children about responsibility, she and her husband became “aware that [their] own use of media and technology was the means by which [they] modeled responsible viewing, listening, and computing. [They] tried hard not to multi-task… and when [they] saw troubling news on CNN or heard it on the radio, [they] shared [their] emotional response with [their] children.” This example goes directly back to what Giselle was saying about trust. By talking with their children about the media and showing them how to responsibly view media, I believe the Hobbs created an environment of trust with their children.
As for myself, I think an excellent place to start, when teaching students about reflecting on the media, is with themselves. Hobb’s stated that, “Readers, viewers, and listeners pay attention to stereotypes because they are familiar. We pay attention to contradiction because it’s novel and unexpected.” Expose the students to different types of media, or bring media to class that they are already familiar with and then have them share what they know about it, what they see, and most importantly, what are the contradictions and stereotypes visible to them. As an open discussion flows, the students will be taught about how to view media responsibly and an open and trusting environment will hopefully be created.
The Seeing and Writing readings/images could easily be used in this type of activity. However, these readings, when juxtaposed with Hobb’s statement about stereotypes and contradictions (as quoted in the last paragraph), become even more powerful. It is obvious that the essays and images in Seeing and Writing are potent, but when examined with a critical eye that is looking for contradictions and stereotypes, it becomes apparent why they are powerful, and to some extent, how we, as viewers, make them powerful.
Responsibility and an environment of trust are important when it comes to media usage and disciplinary tools. In the end, however, I came to the conclusion that not only should these be taught, but the duty to act needs to be taught as well. Joss Whedon said, “ …it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself.”
Now, we, as teachers, just need to figure out how to help our students desire to do that.
I also agree with Giselle’s statement that “the main thing students need when approaching media is trust.” What I personally feel about this, however, is that in order for the students to fully be allowed that trust, they must be first introduced to media fully and have a discussion about the consequences of what media has to offer. I believe our students need to be allowed to have an open discussion about the ways different media messages affect them and be able to critically reflect on whether or not the affects of those messages are good or bad. With that, allow me to respond in my own way to this idea of building a relationship in which ignorance is addressed before trust is given.
I believe that children need to have a nurturing home life in order for actual trust to develop. If there is no real relationship between the adult and the child (be the adult a teacher or a parent), how can there be any kind of trust expected? Children seem to be more or less ignored when they are plugged into some sort of media. This upsets me greatly and always had. I have been blessed with the family that I have and I reference my parent’s style in creating a blueprint for how I would like to set up my classroom. They have always made sure to discuss controversial topics with us as they come up. I remember one time that I had watched the move Hook with my family and heard a phrase with a swear word in it. I was about seven at the time, and I had never heard this phrase outside of the movie before. I used it when one of my older sister’s friends was in the house. She gasped at me and took me upstairs to my parents’ room to speak to them about it. I was mortified and did not know I had done anything wrong. Instead of jumping on me, my father simply looked at me and asked “did you know that was a swear word?” I was able to express my ignorance before I got in trouble, and that was an amazing blessing. I hope to always make sure I know the context of misbehavior before I punish my students or my own children. Anyway, the result of this was a frank conversation with my parents and the rest of my siblings that night, in which my parents talked about swear words. They even told us what they were so that we would know in the future, even though it made them extremely uncomfortable. From then on, there was no confusion, and the children in our family could be fully aware of what the language in different media forms meant. This kind of frank, open discussion was used for much more serious discussions, such as pornography and graphic violence. They always allowed for us to express our opinions and what we have personally learned from our own experiences, calling upon us all to critically analyze the affect media had on us. Hobbs had an example of a teacher allowing for an open discussion of media messages in her classroom, and I loved hearing about it. I think the teacher was building a relationship in which trust can be allowed the students because they were given the opportunity to critically reflect in a group of their peers.
I also wanted to mention that I loved the plea to recognize people in the media as subjects rather than objects. It will create much more responsibility, I believe. This was illustrated in Seeing and Writing for me when I read the different media messages about the photograph of Omayra Sanchez. Knowing the back story of that photograph completes the horror of it, and you know that she is a real little girl and she had a life. I think that this concept of all people in the media being seen as real should be introduced to students much earlier than it has been.
I’d like to support Gisele in her theories about media usage. I believe I grew up faster than most children partly due to my scarring experiences in elementary school, and partly due to my parents’ ability to teach me correct principles and then set me free. They treated me like an adult from the time I was able to form sentences. They never yelled at me not to do something or touch something (unless I was in immediate danger) and they never “baby-proofed” the house. If we wanted to look at or touch something valuable or fragile, they would hold it in their firm grasp and allow us to feel it and discover things about the item WITH them. I remember them saying, “let me help you look at it”. I think this is the kind of trust that Gisele is describing. We must build their trust in us, as teachers, so that they will want to talk to us about their media experiences and discuss questions or issues that arise from it. This not only allows us opportunities to teach and clarify concepts, but also to monitor their usage and experience. If we do not have their trust and they do not have ours, how can we ever discover things WITH them as my parents did? There is no way that we will ever be able to protect our students from inappropriate or damaging messages ABSOLUTELY. They are not with us 100% of the time and those few who seek that kind of media it is easy to find anytime anywhere. However, if we give them our guidelines, discuss the consequences of potential choices (this is key), and let them move on their own with that knowledge, then they will feel empowered and, hopefully, inspired to make correct decisions.
Because we are not the actual parents or legal guardians of the students, we must inform the parents of the blueprint we intend to use to create this environment and pattern of trust. We should inform them of what safety measures we will teach them, what sites we will use for our lessons and assignments, and what questions will be asked of the students after each project to follow up on their comprehension of the material and their media experience as a whole. This should help the parents feel involved, if they choose to be, and will gain their trust in US as well. Hopefully, it will also increase their interest about the projects so that their conversations (and trust) with their children will be more meaningful. The questions could change from “did you do your homework” to “what is your homework”.
Creating a trustworthy space to discuss hard topics and media messages (as mentioned in Seeing and Writing) will help the students fill productive and happier lives in the future. The mottos and philosophies that one lives by are often formed originally in the high school years. Because they are so malleable it is important to do all we can to help them understand the world around them, feel confident about themselves and their place in the world, and adopt a positive, uplifting outlook in order to live a healthy life after graduation.
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