Racism, Colonialism & Sesame Street

Hi Crit Ped Pals,

This is not directly critical pedagogy material, but it's related for sure! I came across this YouTube clip and thought some of you might be interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOP0U03BdSg

It's a clip of a Sesame Street segment from the early 70s called "Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School". Roosevelt Franklin is considered the first black muppet to appear as a main character on Sesame Street.

If you're interested in how racism and colonialism as ideologies are taught through children's t.v.--and yes, even the beloved Sesame Street--I bet you'll find the clip fascinating. And horrifying. Or maybe you have an alternative reading to share? I'm curious to hear what you think.

Snowed in and YouTubing,
Shara

Hi everyone,

I'm finally on! Just finish reading Leda and Rachel's posts and found them to be very moving. I just flashed on the irony of talking about the body in the classroom in this unembodied way. But I must admit it's where I'm most comfortable talking about this subject.

Oh yes, lots of hang-ups about body and emotion and grief. For my family grief is a very private thing. Not to be displayed in public. When my father died my mother asked that friends (we had no nearby family) not visit. It was awkward having folks show up with food (the custom where we lived for those very social wakes) and then hastily leave to respect my mother's wishes. We had tons of food and no one to feed (-: All this has little to do with the classroom except it's what comes up for me when I think about the place of grief in the classroom (I realize I'm being very literal with the term). And my family history/culture influences the things I'm willing/able to tolerate in the classroom.

I've also been present (as student and teacher) when strong emotion was expressed in the classroom. Nope, didn't handle it well. Tears are less threatening than anger (I always have tissues handy). Once a student of color stormed out of the room in response to another student's comments. How do we go on from there? How do we talk about the conflict in the absence of the aggrieved student?

Wish I could write more about this, but I urgently need to get back to reading, reading, reading. But I did want to at least sign on. I look forward to continuing the discussion.

Ellen

On being a "good" student

Doesn't the focus on the paradox of being the "good"student and the "good" teacher in/of critical pedagogy make you just want to be bad? It's interesting to me (and narcissistic of course) that as a student I was both good and bad. I think that I started early on as a good student because I was uinspired by learning and by good teachers who helped me along. After third grade though thing sbegan to go downhill, until I dropped out my Junior year of high school. So I was "bad" I guess at that point--or was I really "good" for refusing the institution? I got by continuing to be my "bad" self through college but then became inspired again in grad school. What inspired me--and seemed to be similar for others in the class--probably had something to do with wanting to "be" the teacher I most admired, but had more to do with wanting to do more to educate others than had been done for me. To provide the context that we were talking about. I never have seen myself as the center but rather the person who sets the scene.

And although I dislike the centrality that Amirault puts on himself as the teacher, I still find this useful to contemplate. . .and so, since it's a blog, that's what I intend to do.

Leda

Grief, multiculturalism and the body

Does grief, or any emotional break from the norm, have a place in the classroom? If so, how do we acknowledge it--even more so learn from it?

How might we use grief--and other forms of emotion that call attention to teachers (and students) as bodies) as a site for examining the construction of bodies as well as their physicality? Can both happen?

Can the physicality of bodies provide a place for intersubjectivity? Or is physicality to closely tied to other ways that the body is always-already marked?