[Melina Melgoza]

1. 2 LAUSD Salary Points

2. Melina Melgoza

3. Roybal Learning Center.

4. Employee ID:  01127847

5. Thank you for all of the amazing dialogue and conversations! I was very excited to learn so much! 

[Melina Melgoza]

I found this to be particular as well. I think they had to be very meticulous about balancing needs/wants/community expectations. There is a reason they were able to maintain rule for so long. It was very interesting that they were indeed accepting about certain cultural and religious aspects,  while stringent on other aspects of life, like their hair. Again, I find that there needed to be a balance in order to maintain order. While stringency was necessary, according to them, a certain level of acceptance also allowed some sense of community.

[Melina Melgoza]

I appreciate your thoughts on religion in public schools. I was a product of K-12 LAUSD schools, and I remember my favorite topic being about religion and to be honest, I never felt that I was learning religion through a "proselytizing approach." But, rather I always felt like my teachers took a historical approach, which I really truly appreciate, now retrospectively. I think setting norms at the beginning with the class, like you did, is important in making sure there is not confusion when you talk about religion. 

I think the same thought process happens when talking about politics, I make sure to encourage dialogue and remind them that I will not share my beliefs, but rather play devil's advocate often...just for the purpose of dialogue. We have some really great conversations, and I think that when students feel comfortable sharing their beliefs and arguing for their beliefs, they are actually more open to hearing about other's beliefs as well. 

This can get tricky, sometimes we talk about the Stonewall Riots or the Gay Liberation Front, they are both critical historical moments, and often times it is possible that because of religious beliefs, or other reasons, students may not always feel comfortable with that. But, if we do it through a historical perspectives, more often than not, students are very open to learning about anything and everything.

[Melina Melgoza]

I found the readings to be quite fascinating. The focus on women’s history in China, really spoke to me. Throughout history, in China, and similarly other places, women’s life stories have been neglected and women have been historically marginalized in textbooks. Women need to be acknowledged as the activists that they are, and have been throughout history. Without women, change would have never come to any country, state, or region. Women continue to be forgotten in historical moments. As an Ethnic Studies, World History, and U.S. history teacher, I’d love to center key historical events, such as WWI, WWII, or the Cold War, on key women who played a role and impacted the moment in question. How can we center history around women, so, their experiences aren’t considered second-class stories? Who writes history texts (historically and today)? How might that impact the way we learn.

[Melina Melgoza]

Jennifer, 

All great points! I wonder if having the conversation of that social structure in class, where "entertainers were just above slaves," can allow for a deeper dialogue about why the arts aren't as well-funded and why the arts are so underfunded in so many spaces, especially in our communities of color. These programs are always the first to go, so, I definitely wonder how cool it'd be to have the conversation about social structure and then connect it to today and the manner in which arts programs just aren't given as much attention to as "math and english." This could be a really great dialogue.

[Melina Melgoza]

That sounds like such a phenomenal exercise! I like short poetry (like Sijo poetry) that can be embedded in a short amount of time! Especially if it's short, but still complex and allows for dialogue! I also find that poetry really allows for creativity and for students to understand that there are other forms of expression, they don't always have to be the conventional texts. 

[Melina Melgoza]

I learned so much from the article, “Creative Women of Korea." As an Ethnic Studies teacher, I am constantly trying to center the experiences of those who are generally marginalized in historical text. I’m inspired to use content, especially the content learned here, to raise awareness about systems of oppression, such as patriarchy, sexism, heterosexism, and more to find as many opportunities to bridge ethnic, cultural, or racial divides.  This upcoming year, we will be starting up our first Korean History class, and I am excited to create opportunities for my students to learn more about Korean history because unfortunately it is rarely at the center of a lot of the work that we do.

[Melina Melgoza]

Currently teaching about WWI, and we discuss the importance and consequences of borders during the war. Learning about Japan's denial to colonialism is interesting to show students. And, I want to show students Japan as an example of pushing back against exploitation and White colonialism.

[Melina Melgoza]

Thank you so much for a wonderful week of learning. Learning about other people, cultures, and experiences is key to support our students in learning how to be respectful and accepting of others. I learned so much from the videos and texts, but the one that particularly stood out to me was, "Gender Relations in the Age of Violence." This is the first year I teach World History, prior to that I have only taught U.S. History, Ethnic Studies, Principles of American Democracy, Government, and Student Leadership and this gave me so many ideas on how to be inclusive of Asian cultures within my other classes as well.

In Ethnic Studies, for example, we discuss ideas of sexism and other systems of oppression. Usually, I give some examples through American movies (sometimes Disney or sometimes non-cartoon clips), but after reading this article, it made me realize I should embed Asian history and understanding of gender relations. This article gives an important perspective of how women, regardless of their social standing, get treated. I think I need to be creative and constantly reimagine and think about how to embed this new knowledge. There are many important connections to be made.  

[Melina Melgoza]

There was much to gain from this week's content, particularly I enjoyed the focus on Japanese and Chinese poetry, learning about Kana development, learning about artistic styles/periods; however, I also began to wonder why I am 25, a teacher, and this is my first time I focus and learn about Japanese and Chinese art.

Unfortunately, most of my education was very white-centric/Euro-centric and I never really got a taste for the arts in other parts of the world. I visited Japan in 2016 to teach English for a few months, and I am now realizing I did not visit a single museum or art installation (maybe I saw some. but I don't remember). I think there is a lot of Eurocentrism yet to unpack and deconstruct in our classrooms and our education system, starting with who we center when we teach about the arts (particularly poetry and art).

I took an AP Art History course in high school, and I remember memorizing "DIC" Doric-Ionic-Corinthian columns. I remember memorizing all the Greek Art periods, but never did we ever give more than an hour or two (in an entire school year) to anything other than Egyptian and Greek/Roman art. The excuse was "well the AP tests focuses on ____________," so, I have to wonder then, how do we revamp tests to be more inclusive and center less on specific groups of people/cultures.

In addition to art, I think it would have been very beneficial for our study of systems of oppression in our K-12 years to include poetry from other parts of the world to give light to issues that affect all of us. (i.e. patriarchy in society)

[Melina Melgoza]

Hi Johnny and Todd,

I am glad that this will be helpful. I truly do think that Critical Media Literacy is a great way to introduce students to rigorous, yet understandable and applicable media literacy frameworks. Some questions that came to mind from Todd's response and your response are:

1. How do we unpack our own biases in unpacking the biases in the media we are trying to understand? The reality is that the media no longer shapes our culture...it really is our culture. 

Some of the conceptual understandings that CML covers are:

- Social Constructivism: All information is co-constructed by individuals and/or groups of people who make choices within social contexts.

- Languages/Semiotics: Each medium has its own language with specific grammar and semantics.

- Audience/Positionality: Individuals and groups understand media messages similarly and/or differently depending on multiple contextual factors.

- Politics of Representations: Media messages and the medium through which they travel always have a bias and/or support challenge dominant hierarchies of power, privilege, and pleasure. 

- Production/Institutions: All media texts have a purpose (often commercial or governmental) that is shaped by the creators and/or systems within which they operate. 

- Social and Environmental Justice: Media culture is a terrain of struggle that perpectues or challenges positive and/or negative ideas about people, groups, and issues; it is never neutral.

What is neutral when we all have internal biases?

[Melina Melgoza]

To another Daoist, 

Your unconsequential actions have been leading us astray as a society. There must be consequences to your dear old dad. We cannot let this action go unnoticed because others will follow and our civilization will fall into demise. If it were my father, I'd turn him in. His life does not matter more than society as a whole. We absolutely must think of society as a whole before we go around pardoning those that deserve consequences.

Signed, A

An angry Mohist

 

[Melina Melgoza]

Hello Daoist,

Would you then argue that there should be no consequences? If there are no consequences to our actions, then how do we correct behavior? Is behavior then not meant to be corrected? I must disagree with you, there must be law and order in order for us to be a functioning society. We must care for society at large much more than just for ourselves and our own families. Consequences to aggression is what keeps us moving forward in these troubling times. Your father must have consequences to his actions.

- MOHIST

[Melina Melgoza]

1. What is the basic nature of human beings?

We greatly believe in logic, rational thought, and science. We care equally for everybody, regardless of our personal relationships. So, if my father killed someone, I'd have to turn him in and have him pay for the consequences. We must care for society equally. 

2. Describe the organization and conduct of an ideal society. How is it organized? What are aims of the state and how do the people and the state interact? To whom do we owe loyalty?

Our great leader Mozi posed that we shoud live as organized organisms. We must not be wasteful and inefficient. We must be organized always. Conflicts are born from the absence of moral uniformity found in our human state. We must follow what is wrong and what is right. We must choose leaders who will surround themselves with righteous followers.  Shi/Fei. We believe in a meritocratic government--where we give responsibilities to those who deserve it. We owe loyalty to our fierce leaders and each other.

3. What are the core components of education in that ideal society? How are people taught? What are they taught?

We are against Confucianism. There is a need for individual piety and submission to the will of heaven. We deplore the Confucian emphasis on rites and ceremonies as a waste of government funds. We are ALL equal in the eyes of heaven. Again, our power should be based on meritocracy, or those who are worthy of receiving power.

4. How can we move from the society we have to the ideal one? What is to be done? 

My ideal society must be an "unadorned purely functional culture; having an abundance of necessities and a complete absense of luxurious frills." (Schwartz, 154) 

 

[Melina Melgoza]

Hello Todd, 

You make some great points regarding the rise in Chinese symbool tattoos in many parts of the world. I wonder to what extent some communities may consider this cultural appropriation. I've read multiple takes on this topic. Some individuals on the web mentioned that the Chinese language is seen as a tool for communication and that the Chinese language is a carrier of Chinese culture--but that the individual characters themselves do not have cultural significance. However, I did read a few articles that mentioned that the worry about having Chinese characters as cultural appropriation is not a worry, but rather the content of the tattoo is. Folks mentioned that often times since individuals don't speak or understand the language, they just get a "translation" service to see the character, many of the tattoos end up being "monstrosities." Often times, the characters are horribly written, wrong, or mean something completely different than what the intention was. 

I found it very interesting that the term "cultural appropriation" was actually not very meaningful in many parts of the world and that it held much more meaning in the "western world." 

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