A Particularily Cheap White Wine

First off, I like the title of this reading. I think it plays well off of the fact that the people he writes about in the article are white, whining and cheap (wanting people to give them a scholarship).

I thought the article was good, the facts surprised me. The fact that less than four percent of scholarships awarded in the US are based on race really threw me here. I thought for sure it was around fifty percent, but that's obviously not the case. It never really bugged me since I once applied for an Italian American scholarship, so I would be someone thrown under the bus by these "White winers".

I have to admit that I am sometimes angered when people of different races than I use their race as an excuse. There was an African American girl that I worked with that was not a good worker and was disrespectful to her superiors and co-workers. Whenever she would do something wrong and get reprimanded for it, she would say they are singling her out because "I'm black". That really bugged me because it was like an excuse. But what I got from this article is that all people of all races are not like this, they aren't using their race to get scholarships or jobs all the time. They are just trying to get by like everyone else.

In The Service of What?

The article is about how service learning can be a great experience for anyone participating in it. It's good for both the community and the student themselves to participate in a service learning program. In the article, some are specifically mentioned, such as looking at life in swamps or an oral history of their community. I think it's important for any student or person that is able to participate in a service learning project do so, specifically if it affect the elderly or the disabled. There is a lot you can learn from working with the disabled. You learn how to accept people and put yourself in the shoes of some one that you could never imagine being.

The article also states that the increase of self esteem is important as well. Self esteem is essential in life, it doesn't matter if you go into business, or education or any job. You have to be able to assert yourself and know what your talking about. To get experience in a service learning program would boost anyone's self esteem.

Cartoons

I thought the article on the media and how cartoons and other forms of the media influence youth. I was a big fan of the Looney Tunes when I was younger. One day I watched a video on youtube that was released during a time of war in the United States. Bugs Bunny was constantly calling a chinese man “Charlie” and harrasing him. While it was probably humurous at the time, and make the citizens of the US feel some pride for their country against the “evil” orient, nowadays this is completely unnacceptable. A lovable cartoon character commenting on race? It apparently happens way more than we think, and I learned that from this article.

Why Can't She Remember That?

This week's article deals with the complications that can arise in response to language boundaries. I thought the article was well written. It was interesting to see how the kids comprehend things differently. It was also interesting to me when I thought about people who spoke other languages. One of the first things I would ask when I was younger was "do you think in Spanish?" or whatever language they were speaking. It seemed to me to be that the reason "She can't remember that" is because she may remember differently in her own language.