OPEN FORUM
1. In this course, we're going to consider many kinds of diversity that exist in our culture, as well as the ways in which these different kinds of diversity interact with each other. We are also going to consider how beliefs about diversity advantage or disadvantage different groups of people. Some of the ideas we are going to talk about may conflict with your own beliefs, preconceptions, and ideas. Please resist the urge to respond with your preconceived ideas! Instead, try to look at the information with an open mind and a willingness to learn. Look at the information in the textbook and other required resources. Consider why someone coming from another perspective might believe or act as they do. You do not have to agree with them—just try to understand their perspective(s).
This discussion forum is an opportunity for you to explore topics that interest you, share critical insights and questions that you are working with, share your struggles and triumphs, and discuss difficulties that may have arisen this week. Your initial post should describe your experiences in the course this past week, prompting further discussion. Address at least two of the following questions:
· What caused you to view the world around you differently or examine a topic from a different perspective?
· What struck you as you explored the course materials this week?
· Do you have questions that your classmates might be able to help you with? (If you have a question for the instructor, be sure to contact your instructor via email or in the Ask the Professor forum).
Guided Response: You are required to post at least 150 total words in this forum this week. You can post one time or ten times, the only requirements are that you post at least 150 words total and that you engage in conversation related to course content. This Open Discussion forum is a place for you to collaborate and connect with your classmates, as well as support one another. Ask questions, answer questions, provide extra resources you found that are interesting, or engage in a debate about something you learned this week.
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/introwgss/chapter/identity-terms/
http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/introwgss/part/main-body/
http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/introwgss/chapter/conceptualizing-structures-of-power/
https://ncd.gov/publications/2006/june2006
https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/9-introduction
2. RESPOND TO THIS DISCUSSION AND INCLUDE REFERENCE
What stories did you grow up with? These could be from books, TV shows, movies, or another source.
How did these stories influence your perceptions of yourself and of the world?
Did you identify with the background of the main characters or were they from a different background than you? How did this affect you?
My childhood wasn’t an easy one. There were things happening around me that I did not yet understand. Through most of the chaos for a very long time, education and sports were where I chose to excel. This was a way to take my mind off things I had to deal with on a daily basis at home for a time. I started reading above grade level around 2nd grade. We could not afford cable so books like Junie B. Jones became my TV. Other great writing such as The House of Scorpions, and the Percy Jackson novels were exceptionally good as well. These books influenced how I looked at certain educational genres such as Greek mythology. They made me think how someone could differentiate fiction from nonfiction and ultimately began my writing career. By the time I was in 5th grade my teacher would bring me new novels to read and encouraged my writing. Though I do not identify with a single character from these books I wrote about characters just like them. The characters I wrote about came from my background and shared many relatable features. Years later this prompt me to start reading poetry thus beginning the start of me writing poetry. I was later entered in the winter collection of poetry around 2013 placing 2nd in the state competition for schools in my district. You can say the stories, and poems I read growing up started a chapter in my life that I am still writing today. In current day I still write whether it be music, poetry, or short stories.
Aidichie, C.N. (2009). The danger of a single story [Video]. TEDGlobal.
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamandangoziadichiethedangerofasinglestory
Kang, M., Lessard, D., & Heston, L. (2017). Conceptualizing Structures of Power. Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.
http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/introwgss/chapter/conceptualizing-structures-of-power/
3. RESPOND TO THIS DISCUSSION AND INCLUDE REFERENCE
The movies I grew up watching are The Brooke Ellison Story (2005) and Son-rise: A Miracle of Love (1979). I enjoyed watching these movies when I was a kid, and I thought about watching them again because these are my favorite movies to watch. I had a great childhood, too. On March 9th, 2022, I watched the Son-rise: A Miracle of Love (1979) movie about a little boy named Raun Kaufman who was diagnosed with Autism when he was a year old. I watched this movie on DVD at my house for about an hour and forty minutes. It is an educational movie about Raun and Autism. At the beginning of the movie, Suzi went into labor and gave birth to Raun whom she and Barry thought was perfect. After he was born, Raun started to experience ear infections and dehydration, and had to stay in the hospital until he recovered. After Raun recovered from ear infections and dehydration and was released from the hospital, Barry and Suzi decided to host a first birthday party for Raun and everything was okay until something strange happened. Suzi tried to get Raun to blow out the candles, but he would not. So, Suzi blew out the candles for Raun instead. Even Barry tried to get Raun's attention by calling his name but he would not respond to his name and make eye contact with his parents. He also would not have any conversations with his parents and his sisters, Bryn and Thea. All Raun did was stare at the birthday cake and candles on the birthday cake. What Barry and Suzi Kaufman did was that they decided to take Raun to the hospital for hearing tests after they watched him rock back and forth nonstop and found out that he was having difficulties controlling himself. The doctor tested his hearing by trying to get him to respond to different sounds, but Raun did not respond to the sounds and say anything about the sounds at all. The doctor admitted to Raun's parents that Raun does not hear, but Raun's parents refused to agree with what the doctor said about what happened. So, they went into the room where Raun took the hearing test, and as soon as Suzi and Barry entered the room, Raun started to recall the sounds the doctor played for Raun and say the sounds he heard as soon as he made little eye contact with his parents (Jordan, 1979). After Raun's hearing test, his parents took him home and as soon as he got home, he decided to get a plate and spin the plate non-stop like it was a game he enjoyed very much. He even started to flap his hands after he spinned the plate, too. As soon as these things happened, they took Raun to a psychiatrist named Dr. Fields to figure out what was going on with Raun, and the doctor diagnosed him with Autism and she discovered that he had an IQ level of below thirty (Jordan, 1979). After Raun's diagnosis with Autism, Raun and Suzi Kaufman went to a special school to see what kind of therapies they offer for children with Autism, and they found out that they offer speech therapy, occupational therapy, and even behavioral therapy for children with Autism. Even though the parents did pay attention to the director of the special school on what kind of therapies are being offered to children with Autism, they still wanted to walk around the inside of the building to see what else the children with disabilities are receiving in order to improve their functional life skills. The parents discovered that there were some of the children with disabilities being hit by the teachers and that some of them were left in a room all by themselves without a teacher in the room, which was horrible and these things are definitely considered inaccurate because hitting and neglecting children is very hurtful and horrifying. So, Suzi thought that offering Raun therapy at home was the best way to go because she was afraid that he was going to get hit and neglected by the teachers if he went to the special school Suzie and Barry went to for an orientation meeting. Suzie did work hard as a stay-at-home mother, and that she was willing to help Raun succeed in life. So, Suzie worked with Raun for about twelve hours a day, and what she did was that she did puzzles with Raun, played the patty cake game with Raun, and she even taught Raun how to describe different types of animals, respond to his name, make eye contact and even have different conversations with his parents and sisters (Jordan, 1979). Barry did help Suzi with giving Raun the therapy he needs, too, but he worked all the time as a business manager. So, they took turns. After going through all the therapy Suzi and Barry offered Raun at home, he started to become more outgoing, ask for orange juice and water appropriately, make eye contact all the time, complete puzzles with his parents appropriately, control his behavior and not do so much rocking back and forth and hand flapping anymore, and even communicate more with his parents and sisters. This whole event did affect me by making me feel like Raun is learning a lot from his mother and father, and that every time he learns new lessons, he socializes and communicates more, which makes me joyful and happy. At the end, there's a happy ending because of Raun recovering from being non-verbal and being more social and happy because of the therapy he was going through with his parents, Barry and Suzi Kaufman, and that he went to the zoo with his parents after he became verbal, which is amazing because the therapy did help Raun overcome Autism. I would say that the characterization of Autism is definitely accurate, and that many doctors can examine autism in children by figuring out if they make eye contact or not, figuring out if there is a language and communication delay going on or not, figuring out if they do any repetitive movements or not, and to see if they are talking or not. I think that the portrayal of Autism is very educational and informative, and that it is very interesting to learn about this disorder, too because it is about learning about the symptoms of Autism, the therapies that can help children overcome Autism in order to be happy and healthy, and that it is also about getting the parents to be aware of the symptoms of Autism and learning how to interact with children with Autism appropriately and pleasantly. Many parents of children with Autism will feel a lot better if they learn about Autism and learn how to make these children feel better.
On March 10th, 2022, I watched The Brooke Ellison Story (2005) movie about a middle schooler named Brooke Ellison who became quadriplegic at the age of eleven after getting hit by a reckless driver while she was crossing the street. It is an educational movie about Brooke Ellison and how it feels to be quadriplegic after experiencing a horrifying accident. At the beginning of the movie, Brooke Ellison got ready for her first day of middle school, and was having so much fun getting used to being a middle schooler and loving her school classes. Everything was okay until she was on her way home from school and that a reckless driver injured her very badly after hitting her. She was then rushed to the hospital by an ambulance and spent several days in the hospital because of her left arm being broken and because of her being paralyzed. Luckily, her parents were by her side while she was in the hospital so that she can get a lot of support from them. She even got a lot of get well notes from her classmates and teachers, too, and that she felt so loved after receiving a lot of love and support from them. After Brooke recovered from her injuries, she was required to be in a wheelchair so that she could move properly, and that she was required to have a breathing device on her neck so that she could breathe normally and communicate properly without any problems (Reeve, 2005). Even though she did recover from her injuries, she still required 24/7 supervision from her parents, Jean and Ed Ellison, and her siblings, Kysten and Reed Ellison, and that she still needed assistance taking a shower, feeding herself, transporting to and from school, and even entering different buildings such as different rehabilitation centers. She even had to spend time in school with her mother, Jean, because her mother was great in helping children with special needs with learning new subjects in school and learning how to function well in life, and offering them the special help they need in order to do well in school. Her father did help her, too, but he had been very busy with his security management job. So, her mom gave her the most support. Brooke Ellison still did very well in school after her accident, and that she was very happy to receive a lot of assistance from her mom. She even went to Harvard University to study Psychology, and did very well in college, too (Reeve, 2005). This whole event did affect me by making me feel like Brooke was learning a lot from her mother and father, and that every time she learns new lessons, she socializes and communicates more and moves around in her wheelchair without struggling to do these things, which makes me joyful and happy. At the end, there's a happy ending because of Brooke graduating from college after getting excellent grades in school and being proud of herself for working very hard and not giving up on her accomplishments and being quadriplegic, and that her family was very proud of her and still willing to support her. I would say that the characterization of being quadriplegic is definitely accurate, and that many doctors can examine many quadriplegic people by figuring out what kind of accidents they were involved in such as car accidents and to see if they injured them badly or not. Even though I understand that it is necessary to give these people with special needs a lot of support and love and to be kind to them and their societies and diversities, I think that the portrayal of quadriplegia is very educational and informative, and that it is very interesting to learn about quadriplegia, too because it is about learning about the diagnosis of quadriplegia, the treatments that can help children overcome quadriplegia in order to be happy and healthy, and that it is also about getting the parents and other people to be aware of quadriplegia and learning how to interact with children with quadriplegia appropriately and pleasantly. Many parents of a quadriplegic child will feel a lot better if they learn about quadriplegia and learn how to support these people and make them feel better. These movies do help me to be kind to many people with disabilities, and that they make me want to help many people with disabilities to be successful in the World around them.
I actually have helped people with disabilities before. When I was a completing my fieldwork assignments at a local elementary school five years ago and when I was a student at Anne Arundel Community College, I had to help some students with disabilities and teach them how to be successful in school. I had to help a Kindergarten student with Autism learn how to be successful in school by teaching him how to advocate for himself if he has a problem going on such as a school bullying problem, I had to teach him how to meditate and do yoga if he gets upset for some reasons such as having difficulties solving math problems, and I had to teach him how to take his time completing different school assignments so that he can do well in school and not struggle to learn in school. I also had to teach a student with Dyslexia learn how to be successful in school, too, and that I taught him how to read properly and how to spell different words correctly and teach him how to relax and remain calm while learning new lessons in school such as reading and writing. These things are quite similar to the stories I grew up with by the way that they make me want to help people with disabilities with socializing and communicating with different people appropriately and pleasantly, they make me want to help them get to different places safely such as going in grocery stores and pharmacy stores, and by helping them do these activities neatly and accurately such as using a calculator, cleaning up their backpacks and desks, and even helping them with reading different books for school. These are wonderful experiences I have experienced, too because helping people with disabilities does help me to understand diversity and that doing these things does help me to realize that it is okay to brighten these people's days by giving them a lot of love and support and understanding their disabilities and life struggles.
The roles diversity plays in my social life and education is accepting different people to different societies, and acknowledging different people of different races, genders, identities, classes, and disabilities as special people in the World. It is important that many people be kind to different people of different societies, and that it is okay to give these people a lot of support so that these people will feel safe in their World around them and so that they will be happy with themselves for who they are once many people support them and their societies. It is also not okay to discriminate these people, too because if these people get discriminate on the basis of their sex, class, gender, race, and even their abilities, they will be emotionally hurt and feel like they are not getting the support they need to function in the World around them (Kang et al., 2017). Racism, genderism, sexism, and ableism does ruin people's lives, and some people may have trouble overcoming these horrifying discriminations because they may feel like they are being bullied by mean people and that they may feel like they are not being included in a society. If people learn about different people, they will be more likely to not be willing to discriminate these people and that they will be able to understand them once they learn about the diversity of different groups of people. It is also important that many school students should not bully other students because bullying and harassing other students makes other students feel stressed out and that these things hurt their feelings because it makes some people feel like some people are not understanding them for who they are and that they may feel like they are being made fun of because of their race, gender, and identities. Even some people may have difficulties learning in school if they are being harassed and bullied by other students, and that they may feel lonely and insecure because they may feel like they may need to change themselves in order to make other students happy with them for who they are. So, it is best if these people talk to other students and tell them about themselves so that many people can understand them better once they pay attention to their life stories. Even people with disabilities are different, too, and that they learn differently, too. Like if a person has trouble processing different information in school, he/she will be given extra time to complete different school tests and assignments so that he/she can take his/her time completing them (Baldwin, 2020). These people will be successful, too if they get a better education and learn about themselves better, too.
References
Baldwin, A (2020, March 27). 9.1 What is Diversity, and Why Is Everybody Talking About It? - College Success. OpenStax. Retrieved
from
https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/9-1-what-is-diversity-and-why-is-everybody-talking-about-it
Jordan, G (Director) (1979). Son-rise: A Miracle of Love. Filmways TV Productions, INC.
Kang, M., Lessard, D., Heston, L., & Nordmarken, S. (2017). Conceptualizing Structures of Power. University of Massachusetts
Amherst Libraries. Retrieved from
http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/introwgss/chapter/conceptualizing-structures-of-power/
Reeve, C (Director) (2005). The Brooke Ellison Story. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.