[Carissa Sadlier]

What textbook are you using for Ancient China? I found the idea of calling San Mao China's Mickey Mouse so telling about the two different cultures. In America Mickey Mouse is always the hero, things may go wrong, but they always work out and he is top dog in the end. In China, San Mao starts out destitute and in the end he is still kicked around, beaten and held down. 

 

[Carissa Sadlier]

I resonated with Professor Berry’s comment that we have a “cultural imbalance” in America. Even as educators we are often not taught about other cultures, it is something we have to seek out and learn on our own, “Stepping out of our comfort zone,” as he called it.  Because I teach in a rural town I feel that it is all the more important that I am able to reach out and find seminars, such as this, to educate myself and find inspiration for creating culturally rich curriculum. 

When San Mao, a cartoon figure by the artist Zhang Leping, was presented I was reminded of two English writers that highlighted the poverty and betrayal of children, William Blake and Charles Dickens. They too found an artistic way to speak out about the atrocities that were happening to children.  But, unlike San Mao, the state didn’t take over what they wrote about and change the novel to suit their own means. They also didn’t have to live in fear that speaking out would possibly make them disappear. In China, as the regimes changed, the art also had to change.  As we looked at different artists responses, in China, to these changes I wondered about artists in America. Have any had to dig so deep to find an artistic response that had blatant and yet hidden meaning? I see this as a jumping off point in an older grade to discuss what is political art. 

[Carissa Sadlier]

My friend just got back after being in China, following the silk road for a month and said there was a line,  hours long, to see Mao's body. It makes sense after learning about the Mao nostalgia with Michael Berry today. 

[Carissa Sadlier]

In the morning lecture by Dr. Kim Suk-Young, I really resonated with her statement about perspective. The idea of what we hear vs. what is really happening, and teaching the children all perspectives without judgment and letting them decide for themselves. The media, in general, shows us someone's agenda and in North Korea this would be to show the leader as the great star. How fascinating to learn about the film star that was possibly abducted and her director husband and see how they changed Korean film from one that was love for the state, to one where love could be between people. There is a This American Life podcast on this I plan to listen to on my flight home - https://www.thisamericanlife.org/556/same-bed-different-dreams - 

Though educated in the bay area, I never learned about Korea. My father was in the Korean war and it wasn't something that was talked about. I think it wasn't more that he didn't offer, but that I didn't know to ask. Learning about the museums in North Korea whose main goal is to make sure that N. Koreans don't forget the great atrocities that were committed to them, to continue to hate Americans doesn’t seem different than our news ( museum) where through the info agenda Americans are also taught to hate North Korea. 

When I think of all the anger and hate and then watch the clip of the movie, Love, Love, My Love (1984) with the film star and husband that were possibly abducted, it makes me think there was a time in our history that there might have been an opening for all the anger and hate to be resolved. Yet, these two “turned their backs” on Kim Jong Il and if there was an opening, it closed with his grief and anger. 

 

[Carissa Sadlier]

Hello All, 

I teach 5th grade in a Waldorf Charter School in Ukiah, Ca. I have been with my students since 1st grade, though I am new to teaching and just finished clearing my credential in January. Every year is a new curriculum for me, and next year, in 6th, I will teach about Ancient China and Japan.  I am excited to be heading out of the fires of Northern California to USC to spend time collaborating, learning and finding new teaching ideas and inspiration. 

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