It seems to me that the burden of youth always falls on the poor, while the rhetoric of "pure childhood" bleats on obliviously. History as we are usually fed it, paints the 50's as a time of "Leave it to Beaver" bliss, no less in England than in the U.S. But the sordid truth of how poor children have been treated reveals a very different picture. Once again it becomes apparent that childhoods happy narrative lives in the middle class, poor children are disposable. Until today I had not heard of this particular instance, 150,000 British children deliberatley deemed throwaways. On the one hand I am shocked.
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/apology-for-kids-shipped-198128.htm...

An article in the Wall Street Journal this week proudly announced, "Designers Mine Heritage for Rags and Riches - Why Old-Timey fashions - Even Torn Overalls Offer Reassurance in These Times."  And here we have it, literary connections to curdle the blood: The Grapes of Wrath is the new inspiration for fashion houses like Ralph Lauren. http://www.momgenerations.com/blogs/audrey/index.php/2009/10/01/ralph-la...

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UNSILENCING RESOURCES

This is a follow up from a statement in my last blog… "On the one side, there needs to be a critique of the kinds of tactics used to sway arguments. On the other, we need counter information that unsilences the narratives left out of films like these. Unsilencing is site/event specific.” So, here are some places to find information as you work with your students to create materials and dialogue that unsilences some of the people whose voices have been silenced or misrepresented in the film.

Looking back it seems absurdly naive to think that I imagined my blog entries on Islamaphobia would be a single or a few short entries. I thought last week that I could swallow my disgust at an article that appeared in the Washington Post that framed the recent bombing of the Marriot in Islamabad (Pakistan) in which 53 people lost their lives as hardship for Marriot empire.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR200809...

Then I found out about this,

http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/

Obession is a free movie that is Islamaphobic propaganda and being widely distributed in America through newspapers as a free insert. By "widely" I mean 28 million DVDs sent to 28 Million US homes according to the website. Then, on Saturday a chemical irritant was sprayed into a mosque in Daytona where Muslims were praying during this holy month of Ramadan.

 “Critical pedagogy wants to…embolden teachers and students to act in ways that make a difference, and to push humans to new levels of social and cognitive achievement previously deemed impossible”  (Kincheloe, 2004, p. 4).

This is my thanks to Joe for pushing and supporting me, and for the truly amazing amount of care, wisdom and dedication that I have consistently received from him in my journey as a PhD student.

Hello!

Thanks to Joe for all of the amazing spaces that he creates for us to
think, reflect and connect. I am happy to be a part of this with my
tales.

The Tale of the Mouse comes from Alice in Wonderland, and is the story
of an unfair trial. It is also a nice visual.
http://bootless.net/mouse.html

My next blog is on textbook and curriculum treatment of Islam. An
unfair trial indeed.

--
Carolyne