Friday, March 11, 2011
Sakoya's response
After reading Prager's speech i experienced mixed feelings. I did agree with some of his points but mostly i strongly disagreed with them. The point i strongly disagreed with in the speech was when he wanted to eliminate clubs and classes that taught or celebrated ethnic values. Yes, we are all Americans but we should also be able to celebrate and educate others on the culture which we are from freely and students wouldn't be able to do that by eliminating the clubs or classes that "exercised" this. Prager also contradicted himself by saying that the only identity he would care about would be the individual identity. By establishing a dress code Prager isn't allowing the students to express them selves as individuals. Pragers attempt to completely eliminate profanity is ludicrous and seems to be a hard to task to accomplish. Prager can't be everywhere monitoring students vocabulary. I'm not saying that using profanity in a learning environment is okay to do, but as teenagers we really don't think twice about it especially when communicating with friends. Since we are teenagers and should know right from wrong Prager would think that we wouldn't need classes like sex education, but in a time like now where there is a increased rate in teen pregnancies students would need these classes. The fact that prager is trying to change the school to better education is great, but some of his rules are past extreme.
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I totally agree, Sakoya.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I read Of Mice and Men, however, I consider the use of profanity and its place in society...I see it as a means of communicating (albeit poorly) and identifying with a particular group, but I also see it as an overcompensation for the inability to eloquently express one's feelings. I love to curse (sorry, I do, although I try my best not to in class), but I do see it as self-degrading and a poor way to get one's point across.
I told you about the student who told a teacher to "Go f---" himself because the teacher asked him to take his hat off...don't you think, even if you knew that the teacher was notorious for being a tyrant, that there could have been a more effective response there? In the end, knowing and respecting authority and expectations could have saved him from 5 days of suspension.
When do people learn when and when not to use this language? When he speaks of referring to members of the same race or group by historically derogatory names, do you think his point is valid? Why would one gay person call another the f-word? A black person call another the N-word? Does this not perpetuate the cycle of ignorance and isolation that we JUST talked about in the novel?
You EXEMPLIFY the very student about which Prager speaks...you are respectful, kind, well-dressed, academically motivated, etc...but what about others in your school who think that you are the exception? Does anyone challenge your greatness? Are you intimidated? Why or why not? Do you feel, as Prager says, that you are attempting to transcend the stereotypes of your race and gender IN SPITE of what people have already assumed you are? What does it mean for you to be a strong, smart, powerful, black female? I know it means something, or else you wouldn't be here.
P.S. I love everything about you.
I do agree with a lot of your points. I did comment about the sames things you did in about the same way. As i was reading it I felt that hes was trying to assimilate people form other cultures and hope you did too. Just like you said people should be able to celebrate what they want and should be able to learn about there cultures by doing clubs and all that. Yes cleaning up the language would be a hard task for anybody now days and i don't think that will change anytime soon. And it would be common sense to think teenager know right from wrong but some do not and could careless about what they do which is why i think there should be classes for certain things.
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