[Isaac Esquivel]

I found it funny and somewhat suprising that Marco Polo's visit to China has become controversial as of late.  Up until that point, it had never crossed my mind that this was the case.  I hear about it so much in HS history that I simply took it as fact. This spotlights the fact that the who ever controls the narrative of events (or non-events, allegedly) are the ones that dictate what the dominant conversation around this topic is.

This can translate into a classroom history class where students are taught to decipher and analyse the quality of research they do.  Were they weight primary vs. secondary sources and make critical choices about what evidence they should or should not accept.  In a lot of cases, it's not always what you find, but where that information came from.  This skill becomes ever-so important as students get older, but can and should begin at an early age.

I remember studying fossils in 3rd grade where one of my studens enthusiastically said, "Mr. Esquivel, triceratops are real, there's a tic-toc on youtube," insinuating someone had brought them back. After facepalming and a quick sigh, I decided to have a discussion about certain resources we can rely on, and about things that may seem real/true, but are not. Even more dishonestly, sometimes what is put out there as fact or true, can be quite literally quite the opposite.

[Isaac Esquivel]

If I'm not mistaken, Denis, you teach university students, right? I can very much imagine how some of these debates can go south in a hurry with highly opinionated (and maybe sensitive?) individuals.

By those standards, 3rd Grade was cake. Because of Black History Month, we've been discussing Historical Black figures and in 3rd grade, it's mostly the same people; MLK, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, etc. I usually like to talk about other less known figures figures as they relate to MLK, namely Mahatma Gandhi and Malcolm X (putting aside the fact that Gandhi was actually from India).  I bring up Gandhi for the influence he had on MLK, specifially his non-violent methods or protesting. Malcolm X I bring up for being the almost polar opposite of MLK and what his values were (at least the earlier version of Malcolm X).

In this manner, although not entirely a true "debate," I put forth a few scenarios and asked the class how a specific person would have responded to each of these scenarios. The class seemed to enjoy it and it sparked a few interesting discussions and conversations within the class and within themselves.

[Isaac Esquivel]

So, father broke the law.  Arbitrary, unfair, and unjustly enforced, these laws are held over the head of the common man (or woman).  If we all took care for one another, looked out for one another, loved and cherished one another, these laws would not be necessary and therefore, need not be broken.  The only reason father broke the law is because the those in power have lost their ways.

[Isaac Esquivel]

Hello Courtney, I watched Josh Goldstein, How the World's Trash Ends up In China's Rivers, 2013, and there are a lot of parallels to what you mentioned on your post.  It is most definitely disheartning that people live in this level of poverty, just making enough money to get by, and often performing tasks that are detrimental to the environment and, by extension, their health.  

In his lecture, Goldstein focuses on the status of the individuals doing the labor intensive task of processing the world's plastics.  To answer your question on if this business was lucrative, Goldstein claims it was to the tune of 2.3 billion dollars annually.  However, the workers themselves were often used by their bosses and the larger corporations and were often on the losing end of local governance. 

Goldstein ends his lecture shedding light on how local government used these workers as pawns and when it no longer became convenient, they shut down the entire operation and moved it elsewere, destroying the local economy and discarting the workers altogether.  If I'm not mistaken, he mentioned that these were migrant workers.  All in all, it brings to light how lopsided the worker and employer relationship is in that industry in that part of the world.

[Isaac Esquivel]

In response to the usage of resource usage and utilization fitting into the classroom conversation, this topic transfers extremely well into the science and social studies programs in the 2nd and 3rd grades.  In science, we studied the flow of rivers as they opened up to the oceans. We created models of mountains and simulated the flow of rivers "downstream."  Currently, teaching 3rd grade, we are exploring the different regions in California, and how each of these regions has their own resources.  

Similar to how Southern China's water is sent to the arid Northern regions, parallels can be drawn with the development of Los Angeles in the 1900's with the project headed by William Mulholland, which took water 230 miles up north from the Owens Valley dow south to the San Fernando Valley with the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

Additionally, all can also be tied into energy and water conservations in the classroom with conversations of finite resources versus renewable sources.

[Isaac Esquivel]

Having read the Cheng Lei journalist story.  My take is that in today's modern age, and certainly not limited to China, it's concerning to consider the reach and influence that Governments have in our news outlets (and I hesitate to put quotes around the word "news," but that is almost the case).  Certainly Cheng Lei being one of them, but John Snowden and Julian Assange being others that have been recently fallen into the proverbial doghouse of their respective governments. 

I can't help but think about the countless journalist that have mysteriously died or "disappeared" in Mexico when investigating local government officials with suspected ties to cartels and corruption.  Not unlike Russian journalists critical of the Kremlin.  

It'd be very easy to come up with lessons in the classroom about selfless individuals that, despite all odds, have continuously fought for whatever they thought was right, despite the dangers imposed to their lives.  Weather fighting to expose corruption or inequalities, it's hard not to be inspired by such individuals.

Somewhat related to this, I also found The Voice Behind China's Aggresive New Voice very interesting and somewhat frustrating. This is yet another attempt to influence public opinion through the media.  The frustrating aspect of this comes from a large majority of the population being swayed by exagerated, meaningless, but pointed and insulting rethoric through news outlets and social media ("dirty lies" or "has no soul or nationality". It reminds me of our own media wars between the "Left" and the "Right," creating an environment of noise, but neither side doing a particularly good job of shedding light in any significant manner on issues that materially affect everyday people. Instead, they seem to consciously preoccupy themselves in culture wars, sensationalism (Breaking News: speed chase on the 5 North), and feel-good stories.

[Isaac Esquivel]

Sticking to Denis's idea of Chinese cultural influence in film and growing up in Mexico City, I distinctly remember a facination with Chinese culture amongst the kids in the 80's. Kung-fu films, specifically Bruce Lee (but others as well) was an exciting new phenomena.  After pick-up soccer bouts on the street, the kids would "play" Kung-fu and everybody would want their turn at being Bruce Lee. Now we had an alternative to the American Western.

My uncle had one of the few VHS players around, and almost every week we'd gather to see films about 20 people, old and young, crowded in a room.  Martial Arts was a favorite genre.  Soon after, Karate schools started started popping up and the latest "moves" were a hot topic in the school yard. 

The facination with the culture only grew from there; I remember friends losing teeth to nunchucks, ninja stars being being confiscated by teachers, and kids pretending to have learned to read Chinese. It represented a new alternative to American culture, which often came down to the American cowboy vs. "The Savage."  Chinese culture and symbolism represented something extraordinarily new, which is why, I suspect, has endured and even embedded into other cultures. At that time, if you "spoke" English at about the same prificiency that you "knew" Kung-fu, you were set.

 

[Isaac Esquivel]

Hello, hello! I'm Isaac Esquivel and I'm a 3rd grade teacher in Los Angeles.  I've always wanted to maintain the attention of my class and so, when math or other topics start dragging, I've always sprinkled a bit of facts about something amazing I've learned about other cultures, something a lot of our youth are not exposed to.  I think learning about different cultures, foods, religions, etc., brings a sense of curiosity  to students about things they're not readily exposed to on a regular basis.  It is my hope that this leads to them be more tolerant of people's cultures different from their own.  Because I'm no expert in any of these cultures, I'm here, as many of you, as a life-long learner eager to learn new things and devise ways to introduce these into the classroom.  

[Isaac Esquivel]

Hello, hello! I'm Isaac Esquivel and I'm a 3rd grade teacher in Los Angeles.  I've always wanted to maintain the attention of my class and so, when math or other topics start dragging, I've always sprinkled a bit of facts about something amazing I've learned about other cultures, something a lot of our youth are not exposed to.  I think learning about different cultures, foods, religions, etc., brings a sense of curiosity  to students, and it can be a way of exposing them to something different.  It is my hope that this leads to them be more tolerant of people that are different from their own.  Because I'm no expert in any of these cultures, I'm here, as many of you, as a life-long learner eager to learn new things and devise ways to introduce these into the classroom.

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