It seems like AW is doing a good job holding herself and her kids to a higher standard on her own as she proclaimed her homeschooled kids are smarter than anyone's public school kids.
Let's bring this back to the TS. I'm sure she didn't mean to do anything "wrong", but I think that's part of the problem right there. No one on her team of people went, "wait a minute! Something isn't right!"
This is where I am I think the video was meant as an homage to Out of Africa/The African Queen/etc and everyone involved was oblivious to the negative connotations. Which is a huge sign of the problem.
Obviously I know that Africans "engage in the arts", but I don't know what the film culture of Africa in the 1940's was, that's why I asked. It wasn't said to be offensive to anyone, and if I did offend I apologize.
What is that cat's name and does she/he have other outfits?
Didn't T Swift get into trouble for her Shake it Off video too as objectifying black women?
Shouldn't her people know better by now? Black lives aren't props. There were definitely think pieces directed her away about this topic not even a year ago.
Didn't T Swift get into trouble for her Shake it Off video too as objectifying black women?
Shouldn't her people know better by now? Black lives aren't props. There were defintely think pieces directed her away about this topic not even a year ago.
I thought it was Miley objectifying black women in one of her vidoes?
IDK man, ignore me. I just learned Shake it Off was Swifty. The only version of this song I know is a parody (Supernatural). This is true for a large amount of current popular music.
Didn't T Swift get into trouble for her Shake it Off video too as objectifying black women?
Shouldn't her people know better by now? Black lives aren't props. There were defintely think pieces directed her away about this topic not even a year ago.
I thought it was Miley objectifying black women in one of her vidoes?
IDK man, ignore me. I just learned Shake it Off was Swifty. The only version of this song I know is a parody (Supernatural). This is true for a large amount of current popular music.
Shake it Off featured black women twerking while T Swift looked on all doe eyed and puzzled.
My child turned 8 this month. Are you telling me that the school systems are teaching 8 yos about white colonialism in Africa? Doubtful. Those are concepts for much older learners.
We are on a six year rotation with the continents. Last year we covered Africa and my kids learned about the history, landmarks, major religions, and customs of each country on that map. They did one country each week and wrote a report about it. Six years from now those reports will be much more in depth than they are for a second-grader.
I posted the map in response to the comments that my kids will be like people who think of Africa as one big country. And also to show that mt kids are leaps and bounds ahead of publically schooled kids in this area.
For anyone interested in teaching social studies to elementary school kids, mine have loved Peter Menzel's books Hungry Planet and Material World. They gave been a great starting point for us. The public library also had great book selections on individual countries. I let you know this because I know the public schools are not covering this info and it might be helpful if you want to supplement for your elementary school kids.
How did you decide which countries to skip? Spending a week each on Benin and Togo and then skipping a cultural and historical juggernaut like Senegal is weird to me. As is the omission of Mozambique which is very different in culture and history than its southern African neighbors.
I'm just curious. It seems like there probably isn't that much out there of interest and reading level appropriateness for an 8 year old on Togo. There isn't much English language scholarship for adults about the country!
We covered the countries that had individual books on them at the public library. I live in rural Ohio, so as you can imagine, there are slim pickins. The countries on the map are those I could find books on with the limited resources I have on hand.
Also, there are a limited number of weeks in the year and we spent 1-2 weeks per country. About the time we ran out of books at the library it was time to start a new year. We're beginning Asia now (kids' choice).
When we do Africa again my boys will be old enough to handle Internet searches on their own to get the info they need for their projects. I am hoping we can fill in the gaps then.
ETA: I wish I had the knowledge to teach them about the countries the library couldn't help me out with. But I do have to say that that was the the best part of the year for me - learning about countries I knew nothing about. I feel so blessed by the opportunity to do this with my kids. I am ashamed to say that even as a 35 year old woman, I couldn't fill out a blank map of Africa before last year. It has been a lot of fun for me and my husband.
My 8 yo can accurately label 80% of the countries in Africa on a blank map. Doubtful yours can.
That's not the point she was making. Will your kid be able to pick up the nuances of white colonialism in the countries of Africa, and how that shaped the continent and cultures as it now stands?
As you said yourself, rote memorization doesn't prove anything.
I'm not your biggest fan, but I do think you're being unfairly picked on in this thread. I would actually go as far to say that your kids geographical knowledge of Africa is probably better than 90% of kids in public school, who learn almost nothing except as it relates to the U.S. (Or in my case, canada).
I think the public school system teaching of anything in Africa, historical or geographical, is poor. Same with Latin America and Asia.
How did you decide which countries to skip? Spending a week each on Benin and Togo and then skipping a cultural and historical juggernaut like Senegal is weird to me. As is the omission of Mozambique which is very different in culture and history than its southern African neighbors.
I'm just curious. It seems like there probably isn't that much out there of interest and reading level appropriateness for an 8 year old on Togo. There isn't much English language scholarship for adults about the country!
We covered the countries that had individual books on them at the public library. I live in rural Ohio, so as you can imagine, there are slim pickins. The countries on the map are those I could find books on with the limited resources I have on hand.
Also, there are a limited number of weeks in the year and we spent 1-2 weeks per country. About the time we ran out of books at the library it was time to start a new year. We're beginning Asia now (kids' choice).
When we do Africa again my boys will be old enough to handle Internet searches on their own to get the info they need for their projects. I am hoping we can fill in the gaps then.
ETA: I wish I had the knowledge to teach them about the countries the library couldn't help me out with. But I do have to say that that was the the best part of the year for me - learning about countries I knew nothing about. I feel so blessed by the opportunity to do this with my kids. I am ashamed to say that even as a 35 year old woman, I couldn't fill out a blank map of Africa before last year. It has been a lot of fun for me and my husband.
I'm no fan of homeschooling or anything, but this actually sounds like a really fun project for the whole family. I'm going to have to look into some resources for this.
If I was feeling inflammatory I'd say that pop culture of this ilk is one of the driving factors for why Americans who visit Africa on holiday tend to only engage in safaris and exhibit no interest in visiting cities (outside of Cape Town)or engaging in modern African, human culture.
Agreed. My grown-ass sister spent SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS to fly to South Africa for THREE DAYS to see ONE Dave Matthws show. She stayed in an all-inclusive safari resort with actual animals on site (!!!!) where all the staff was black and all the guests were white. She left only to go to ONE FUCKING SHOW, then flew home with tacky souvenirs no doubt purchased at the airport. I have no words to adequately describe how I feel about that atrocity.
Post by oscarnerdjulief on Sept 2, 2015 14:38:53 GMT -5
lurkingaw, where are you from? I'm from rural Ohio as well.
I haven't watched the video, so I can't comment. I was intrigued when someone talked about it being based on a 1940s actress who went to Mogambo and fell in love with a married man. That ounds kinda like "Mogambo" with Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, and Clark Gable, even though that's 50s.
If I was feeling inflammatory I'd say that pop culture of this ilk is one of the driving factors for why Americans who visit Africa on holiday tend to only engage in safaris and exhibit no interest in visiting cities (outside of Cape Town)or engaging in modern African, human culture.
Yes!
That's why whenever someone posts on the travel board about going on safari for like 5 days, I'm like no! There is so much to see and do in the countries that people typically go for safari that I don't understand how you can just look at animals all week in a fancy tent.
It always bums me out that whenever travel is mentioned African countries get no love.
I'm not your biggest fan, but I do think you're being unfairly picked on in this thread. I would actually go as far to say that your kids geographical knowledge of Africa is probably better than 90% of kids in public school, who learn almost nothing except as it relates to the U.S. (Or in my case, canada).
I think the public school system teaching of anything in Africa, historical or geographical, is poor. Same with Latin America and Asia.
Good for you for including these subjects.
Ironically, the work Jackson didn't get finished in class that he brought home today was geography. It was labeling the continents, oceans and then some countries within the continents. From what I could tell, it looks like this is the starting point and they will be learning countries/geography of the individual continents as well. Where it goes from there, IDK.
My kid goes to run of the mill suburban public school. In Tennessee, which is not widely known for its educational prowess. My guess is these standards (because everything is about the standards for each subject in the curriculum) are probably pretty widespread. Whether kids retain it or learn it, who knows. But it is being taught, and it would be really out of the norm for his curriculum if this was something that was unique to his school. My understanding is that science and social studies are on the state test, but I could be wrong about that.
I was a history major. I keep a pretty close eye on what Jackson brings home because I loooooooooooove to hear myself talk about history, but our experience is that the schools teach these things in an age appropriate way that does not whitewash history. Again, public school. In East TN. I doubt I've found some rare rebel school here, especially considering the same people who have kids at his school managed to elect Stacey Campfield.
If I was feeling inflammatory I'd say that pop culture of this ilk is one of the driving factors for why Americans who visit Africa on holiday tend to only engage in safaris and exhibit no interest in visiting cities (outside of Cape Town)or engaging in modern African, human culture.
Agreed. My grown-ass sister spent SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS to fly to South Africa for THREE DAYS to see ONE Dave Matthws show. She stayed in an all-inclusive safari resort with actual animals on site (!!!!) where all the staff was black and all the guests were white. She left only to go to ONE FUCKING SHOW, then flew home with tacky souvenirs no doubt purchased at the airport. I have no words to adequately describe how I feel about that atrocity.
To be fair, when I worked at Yellowstone, it was very popular for Chinese and Japanese tourists to do a package where they flew to either Salt Lake or Jackson Hole, drove right to Old Faithful, saw the geyser go off, and went right back again. Americans are not the only country/culture with these kinds of blinders regarding authentic experiences.
But it is disappointing/frustrating that someone with such a strong media presence and influence on younger adults is so irresponsible with their image/message.
To be fair, when I worked at Yellowstone, it was very popular for Chinese and Japanese tourists to do a package where they flew to either Salt Lake or Jackson Hole, drove right to Old Faithful, saw the geyser go off, and went right back again. Americans are not the only country/culture with these kinds of blinders regarding authentic experiences.
But it is disappointing/frustrating that someone with such a strong media presence and influence on younger adults is so irresponsible with their image/message.
The analogy would only really hold if these tourists from Japan and China considered their trip to Old Faithful a "once in a lifetime" trip to the Western Hemisphere and never visited any other part of the US or the Americas and in their travel planning have the impression that American cities and people who aren't directly serving them are best avoided.
For some of the tour guides that I spoke with, this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for their customers and this is what they chose as an 'American' experience. Plus Old Faithful absolutely is not a summary (or even epitome) of the Yellowstone experience; it's just, well, reliable for a geyser. And there is a lot of fear of America as a violent culture.
For some of the tour guides that I spoke with, this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for their customers and this is what they chose as an 'American' experience. Plus Old Faithful absolutely is not a summary (or even epitome) of the Yellowstone experience; it's just, well, reliable for a geyser. And there is a lot of fear of America as a violent culture.
I don't doubt that there are a few people who fit that description. But you are not going to convince me that on average Chinese and Japanese visitors to the US come to solely view Old Faithful/some other iconic natural site and do not visit any cities except for transit. In contrast, the overwhelming majority of American tourists to sub-Saharan Africa do just that--even when you consider visitors to South Africa in that pool.
I know you're right, only because the tourists are motherfucking escaleftors and also walk five across on the sidewalk near the Mall.
People typically want a Disney type experience when traveling. They don't want to truly know a place they just want to say they've been there.
I think this is kind of my point in that you can get a "Disneyland experience" in many African countries outside of a safari. However, most people think it's either lets look at some lions or everyone in Africa lives in a hut and is starving and has HIV, so there is nothing else I can do there. I'm not expecting people to be all cultural on their vacations, but at least realize that 1) Africa is not a homogenous COUNTRY and 2) there are plenty of wonderful travel experiences in many different countries.
There are plenty of places to hike, look at beautiful sites, swim, go to museums, eat good food, go to the beach, see historic sites, go to a lake, go to sporting events, etc in many African countries that people don't seem to realize.
Post by oscarnerdjulief on Sept 2, 2015 19:24:42 GMT -5
Still didn't watch the video, but watched a screenshot. A blind squirrel could see that was an homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood---like Liz Taylor, Ava Gardner, etc.
Post by oscarnerdjulief on Sept 2, 2015 19:27:26 GMT -5
I don't see the point about going on and on about authenticity in vacations. If I go to the Los Angeles area, I'm going to see Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe's graves, not Skid Row or whatever. Don't need realism, sorry.
I'm rolling my eyes at this point and moving on to "Big Brother."
I don't see the point about going on and on about authenticity in vacations. If I go to the Los Angeles area, I'm going to see Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe's graves, not Skid Row or whatever. Don't need realism, sorry.
I'm rolling my eyes at this point and moving on to "Big Brother."
I think you're missing the point. This isn't about realism. It's about realizing that Africa is not homogenous and there is a lot more to see/do than looking at animals. People living in huts and having HIV is absolutely real in many African countries, and I wish people wouldn't focus on that aspect and realize the beauty of many countries in Africa.