29. Politically Correct Story - Snow Grey

Once upon a time, a girl was born into a loving royal family that is very environmentally aware. The parents decided to name their baby girl Snow Grey to remind the people of the kingdom that if they continue to pollute the cities, the snow would one day turn grey. Contrary to popular belief, they did not name their child after her skin color, because that would be racially discriminating. (The race of Snow Grey will be left for the reader to decide because the storytellers, too, do not wish to be racially discriminating.)

Unfortunately, Snow Grey’s mother passed away when Snow was two and her father married another woman. The woman hated Snow Grey because her name reminded her of her growing age and increase in grey hair. The stepmother felt insecure and based her worth on her looks. Everyday, after showering, she would look towards her magic mirror on the wall and ask, “ Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Usually, the mirror would answer, “My dear queen, you are the fairest of them all.”

One day, however, the queen did not dye her grey hair black (for environmental reasons requested by the king.) Again, she asked, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” The mirror, detecting the emerging grey hair, said, “My dear queen, even though you are fair, Snow Grey is the fairest of them all.” The grey-haired queen immediately ordered the woodchopper to kill Snow.

The woodchopper, a very kind man, wanted to save Snow, so he let her go. Snow Grey ran miles through the forest and arrived at the land of the vertically challenged. They people that live in the village decided to let Snow stay, however, Snow had to work along the vertically challenged people. The villagers were not sexually biased, so the women and the men did the same work together. Snow was very grateful for their kindness and decided to stay.

Back at the palace, the new Queen again asked, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Again the mirror answered, “My dear queen, even though you are fair, Snow Grey is the fairest of them all.”  The Queen was furious and set out to the land of the vertically challenged to the kill Snow herself. She brought with her poisonous apples, hoping to kill Snow.

When the Queen got to the village, she offered her poisonous apple to Snow Grey. Surprisingly, however, Snow bit into the apple and nothing happened to her. She just smiled an thanked the chronically gifted woman for the sweet apple. The Queen was bewildered of the weakness of the poison, so she decided to try the apple herself. Within a few chews, the evil queen died.

The apple was indeed poisonous, but why did Snow not die? The reason for this was that she had been ‘vaccinated’ for the poison during her stay at the village. The vertically challenged village vaccinate their villagers of poison every month, so that they would not get poisoned (as it would spread fast in their tiny body)

28. Not All Men Are Sly Foxes

Journal Prompt: Yes, I do agree that young children are strongly influenced by books parents and teachers read to them. At the early stages of childhood, they are just learning about the world. They would take in all the information they get to try and better understand the world. Teachers and parents often reach children books to them so they will learn to classify and understand the world through what they perceive from the books.

S: Armin A. Brott, a father who is unhappy about the stereotypical view of fathers as less important caregivers

O: When reading fairy tales and children books to his children, he noticed a trend of very little fathers involved with care giving

A: Published in the Newsweek magazine, for the general audience

P: Make people aware the children books are diminishing the father’s role in care giving

S: making people aware that children’s book contains stereotypes against fathers as caregivers

T: concerned, factual (his research on children’s book)

Questions on Meaning:

1. Thesis: There is, however, one very large group whose portrayal continues to follow the same stereotypical lines as always: fathers.

2. Brott assumes that his audience is unaware or never took time to think of the impacts of this negative stereotype of fathers. I actually fitted into his assumptions. Although it was always there, I never noticed this stereotype.

4. It encourages or even pushed people to make changes about the stereotype.

Questions on Writing Strategy

2. It shows that this stereotype is not only present in children’s writing. In order to root out this stereotype we have the change the parents too.

Questions on Language:

1. “Caregivers” are people who take care of the children. “Nurturers” have more of an emotional attachment connotation to it.

27. Obligations of a Husband and Father

This entry requires you to answer the journal prompt on page 342. Then you need to answer question #2 on the same page. Finally you will do a SOAPSTONE analysis of the essay "I Want a Wife.

One traditional role of husbands and fathers is to provide the family economically. Husbands are the ones that are supposed to go out and work and come back home late (if necessary). They are also in charge of fixing things when things break or don’t work, for example, changing the light bulb. Traditionally, they are also the ones that make the decisions for the family.

In “I Want a Wife” Brady points out that the wife is the one responsible for taking care of the family. When the husband is studying, they will provide the money. When the couple has kids, the mother would be responsible for taking care of the children and the husband. Even if she goes out to work, she is responsible for the housework and cooking the food. She would also take care the details of [the husband’s] social life” and be “sensitive to [his] sexual needs”.

Basically, the wife has to be completely selfless and serve for the family. Brady even goes to the point in saying that when the husband finds a better person to be the wife, the original wife could be replaced. Brady points out the inequality in status and importance and the large responsibilities of a wife.

S: Judy Brady who is a wife and a mother

O: written after a recently divorced friend who is looking for a new wife

A: mainly women (it was published in the Ms. Magazine)

P: to point out the inequalities of the accepted roles of wives

S: the role of wives

T: ironic

26. Schools Going Digital?

After reading New York Time's article on school going digital, I was impressed by the impacts that the increased use of technology could bring. Here I will list two reasons why I think this implementation is beneficial and one reason why it is not:
Pros:
1) Student get to learn on their own pace. From the very first example of two fifth-grade students doing math at different levels, what struck me was the greater possibility for children to learn at their own pace. Because they working on individual computers, each person gets the unique instructions they need for their level. This is good because fast-learners would not have to slow down their learning process and slower-learners wouldn't feel pressured by their classmates.
2) Faster access to information though the internet. Because of the cheaper internet availability, even the poorer students get internet access. This allows the to get almost the same amount of resources as the more well-off children. With faster information access, they can learn independently on subjects they are interested in.
Cons:
1) Bigger class size and less teacher-children interaction. From what I've seen from the article, the computers seem to have taken over the job as instructors in classrooms. The teachers only walk by students to check on and assist them. There seem to be less of a classroom discussion because it is more of a one-on-one instruction from computers to students. Also, the larger class sizes will take away the focus of the teacher on each student.

25. Online Piracry

Unfortunately, I wasn't in class on Monday, so I missed the discussion on fair use and online piracy. However, I will just talk about my point of view on the following blog:


First of all, I am pretty sure that online piracy is the most commonly committed theft there is. It is just too easy to get illegal things off the internet for free. Pretty much everyone I know that uses a computer has downloaded some sort of music or video from the internet. I think the main reason for this is the easy accessibility and the fact that there really doesn't seem to be an effective way to prohibit such actions. Yes, we have occasionally encountered websites being shut down because if these infringements, but there are just so many more other websites out there that provides the same thing. In fact, we do it so often that half the time we forget we are breaking the law and hurting entertainment industries. Another reason for online piracy is so common is that is saves huge amounts of money and time - for those that illegally provides and downloads the information. However, in terms of the people who own these information, it is extremely unfair.