[Tanish Fortson]

Hi guys,

My name is Tanish Fortson and this is my second time taking a class with the institute. I received my teaching credential in special education in 2013. I am currently working with LAUSD at Hillcrest Elementary School and teaching students with mild disabilities in grades K-2. I am very excited about this class and program and am looking forward to learning new content that I can teach my students, as well as my colleagues. I have traveled internationally but only to parts of Europe and the UK. I have not been to Asia yet. I am interested in the trip to China and Twain this summer but cannot apply because I am expecting and due in July. For now, I am happy just learning facts in regards to East Asia.  

 

[Tanish Fortson]

I have actually looked up the oral histories from the Houhua Village and I loved the idea of this being a lesson and would be great for my second grade students with a little modifications here and there. I do think my students would benefit form seeing how peasant life was during those times and how they suffered and were targets for the communist party. They did not have basic things like food and clothing and was lacking in the local villages.  I was able to find an article about Eugene Dennis whom was a Communist Party Leader from (1905-1961) in the United States. He was the general secretary of the party from 1945 until 1947. He was the national chairman form 1959-1961 and was also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1949 he was sentenced to prison time for conspiring to overthrow the government. This would be a nice little research project for my students. He gives his Oral History Story. 

[Tanish Fortson]

I was a TA before I became a teacher as well. I know what if feels like to work for hardly anything and my heart goes out for the factory workers. I think it is important for people like the factory works be taught how to fight for their rights. Only they can change the current situation. If they rally together the factory owners will be pushed to change. They won’t like it buy they will change if pushed hard enough. A factory will lose money if no one is working. I think the more education around rights if the way to go about it in China. It is dangerous but in the end worth it for the workers so that they will not continue to be taken advantage of. This movie is a few years old and I truly hope some of the laws have changed in China since then. 

[Tanish Fortson]

 I was a TA and felt that I was being treated very poorly and not appreciated. I agree with everything you said 100% and what you said is said is from experience. I was a TA for 3 years and I know first hand about employers taking advantage of you. In the three years that I was a TA my health benefits were taken for me. My paid vacation and sick leave were taken as well. I was told that this was due to cutbacks. The school I was working at said they could no longer afford to give these things to TA’s. Only the teachers were eligible. But yet the owner of the school I was working at just had bought a new house and upgraded her and her daughters car to matching Lexus trucks.

During the summer months I was not working and had to apply for Unemployment. My life was sad and I was broke. I made the decision to go back to school to get my teaching credential. No one pushed me or told me anything. I just made a decision because I was tired of going to places like Planned Parent Hood for my female health needs.

I think the most important fact is that in this society that we live in today, we are taught how to fight and how not to give up. We have opportunities. In “We the workers” they did not know how to fight. It not an option for them to just say I’m getting a new job. This is a matter of life or death. How am I going to eat next week if I don’t work today? I think the entire situation was dangerous and the people are scared.   

[Tanish Fortson]

I found a very interesting article published in the Washington post about Racism. This article addresses the real reasons the United States became less racist toward Asian Americans. This article starts off by saying that between the 1940 and 1970 Asian Americans surpassed African Americans in household earning and earned just about as much as the white person. According to Washington post, Asian Americans started to earn more because their fellow American became less racist toward them.

 

While Asian Americans were climbing the socioeconomic ladder, they experienced a major shift in their public image. Its been said that this happened because the idea of the model minority had begun to take place. The Washington Post also said it may have been done to win allies in the Cold War. It was said that the United States wanted to be a racial democracy and wanted to assume the leadership of the free world and this lead to a lot of propaganda here in the United States. With the civil rights movements in the 1960s the image of hard working Asians became and extremely convenient way to deny the demands of African Americans. It was said that if Asians can find success within the system, then why couldn’t African Americans?

 

Link to Article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/the-real-reason-americans-stopped-spitting-on-asian-americans-and-started-praising-them/?utm_term=.60c9165ab763

 

[Tanish Fortson]

I like your ideas of putting together a time line for your students that sequence the events and highlights how Korea became divided. I start off explaining how Korea became divided into two regions, north and South. North Korea is ruled by a communist regime. After World War 2 it had to be divided up. The Northern half went under the control of the Soviet Union and the Southern half went under control of the United States. The two sides were divided up at the 38^th parallel.

This lesson can turn into a unit and I could possibly teach about a communist government versus a capitalist government.

 

The two sides attacked each other over the next few years trying to defend their territory. China ended up entering the war because they were not happy with North Koreans being pushed all the way to the northern border.  After Eisenhower became president, he signed at treating allowing both countries to be independent of each other. This type of lesson will need to be modified a lot for elementary students. 

[Tanish Fortson]

I vividly remember reading Diary of Ann Frank as well in the 5^th grade. I think an alternative to this would be have students read something like An Evacuated Schoolgirl to give students and alternate point of view. If my students were older I would use this book as curriculum materials and create a unit on it.

 

 

I did quickly skim the journal entries but it did seem as though Nakane Mihoko went through a lot for such a young child. To be sent Kumekawa away from your parents must be very scary. I do believe Mihoko was away from her parents for almost 1 year.  Her diary was so innocent. She spoke about things a normal 6^th grade girl would talk about. I did read the last few entries in which Mihoko give her opinion on the defeat of Japan. It was cute. But in the next entry she was talking about finding crayons and doing laundry. It just goes to show you how young and innocent Mihoko was. I think this diary is very relatable for upper elementay and middle school students.

 

[Tanish Fortson]

The Tokugaw or Edo period was characterized by economic growth and accumulation of the capital was the driving force after the Meiji Restoration, so I’m thinking that the strict social order, stable population, and no wars wasn’t all that bad. 250 years or so of stability during these times is almost like winning (ignoring all the behind the scenes things).  What I did not like about the period right before Edo was the only the children of the upper class families received and education so that was basically less that 10% of the entire child population. During the Edo the government did start focusing on providing education for all (most) children. I’ve read that one of the reasons children had began to get an education during Edo was because of the merchants and tradesmen. Everything was on a hierarchy though. From brothels to vendettas it was always rules to follow with the Tokugaw.

 

[Tanish Fortson]

I read Korea’s Top Ten Things as well. I never thought about incorporating those ideas into my classroom. I too have young students so a lot of your ideas fit nicely with my class as well. Having students trace outlines of North and South Korea is a great idea. You can even take it to the next step and display a map and have students draw it as they see. I also like the invention idea. Students can use resources from around the classroom to make their own inventions. This could be turned into a unit and span out over a few weeks. I also like the idea about a campus clean up day. We tend to get a lot of trash around our school so having the students pick up trash so we can keep our neighborhoods clean like the Koreans is awesome.  And lastly I like the technology aspect. Korea is one of the most highly technological countries so teaching a lesson on how to safely navigate the Internet is useful. 

[Tanish Fortson]

I agree, it is fascinating to learn about the history of a country, especially a country that you plan on visiting one day. I am also very happy that life has changed a bit and everything is not so fixed anymore. A person’s background once was the predictor of their life. To me, in some ways it still is but now a days it fairly easier to get out of things like generational fixes in the United States. The social hierarchy and family background in Korea did play a major role in determining ones future but I have heard things like even now a days North Korea still uses practices that are frowned upon. The grandparents, parents, and even distant relatives do influence a person’s chance at life.

 

I’ve read articles in which money has an even more influential aspect. If you are living in poverty I’ve heard that you are more likely to stay in poverty. The government is failing because officials of organizations use their status to make life better for themselves. But when you really think about is that really that much different from how things are done in the United States? 

[Tanish Fortson]

Humm, I didn’t know that China had alleged that the United States used chemical weapons against them during the Korean War. This really makes me wonder. Is this true?  According to John William Powell he was put on trial for publishing an article to in 1952 that officials in the United States and Japan were carrying out germ warfare in the Korean War according to n Wiki article. Sedition charges were bought against Powell but were later dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

 

Going back to this picture in which it is displaying many different types of people, I’m just wondering where the propaganda is? I get it in a since because Mao Zedong and other Communist set out to reshape the Chinese society. But is the photo supposed to represent the represent youth rebelling as well against authority figures like in the card I had that represented “Countryside Reeducation?” Is this the same message that Mao who established Red Guard wanted to get rid of the higher educated and leadership positions? I’m thinking it is because still this represents getting rid of the old. 

[Tanish Fortson]

The slogan “Never Lose at the Starting Point” really gets you thinking. As I think about the possible meaning the first one that comes to mind is setting your self of for failure rather than winning. Self-defeat is a tricky concept because it is habitual things that we do everyday that sets up for failure. And the worst thing about it is that we may not even realize that we are doing it. With Bella and her parents I feel like they have a lot of long-term goals for child and no short term goals. They know where they want her to be as an adult and they are working toward that but what about her childhood?

If you read the article Bella’s attitude needs a lot of “adjusting” Her parents put a lot of pressure on her but seem as if they don’t take the time to appreciate the now. For example when Bella masters something was she given praise and celebrated? Was she given a break before moving on to the next task? It seems like nothing is fulfilling to her and to me that is just sad and I think that her parents should be a bit more realistic and not set Bella up to fail as a young adult.

[Tanish Fortson]

I agree with you, I can honestly say that I enjoyed all of the seminars. This has been a great experience and I appreciate everything the foundation has been doing to bring education and awareness to the Asian cultures. I am looking forward to the next seminar as well, which will tackle Asia to the present. The content was presented in a context that was very understandable even for teachers with no background in Asian cultures. Although I did have some trouble understanding some concepts I think that overall I did get a variety of information and resources to share with my students.

 

I do plan on incorporating weekly lessons of work around Asia with my kindergarten and 1^st graders. We will learn about Confucianism.  This concept might be difficult for 5 and 6 year olds so I would need to create a craft as well to go with this potential lesson such as a drawing a picture of Confucius or pretending to be apart of that life style.

 

[Tanish Fortson]

From what I have been learning, the hukou system has been a tool in implementing Communist economic, political, and social views. China has established an agricultural production unit and rapid urban industrialization during the “Great Leap Forward” and regulating intra-provincial migration to China’s boom areas in the more recent years.  The government has been using this to its advantage. This system of population regulation identifies people as either rural or urban residents. The Communist party initiated this idea, which puts the Chinese people into two classes. The class with urban status enjoys welfare benefits and the rural status holders do not.

 

China’s economy is suffrering because of this. I’ve read that it is China is trying to expand urban hukou residency permits to millions of migrant worker by 2020 to rebalance it economy but they do not have the resources to do so. Before taking this class I never pictured China’s government like this. I feel so sad that migrant workers living and working away from their homes also face discrimination and are cut off from a lot of benefits and education for their children. 

[Tanish Fortson]

During the 19^th century the Chinese helped build the United States railroads the connected coasts. This railroad contributed to the enormous growth of the nation, our history, and the creation of infrastructure.  The United States recruited works straight from China, which shows the kind of relationship that the US has with China at one point. I think that understanding how this first wave of migrant works helped shaped both the United States and China.

 

We don’t know how the workers were treated and how they responded to the working conditions. It was a lot of racism especially from “white” America because they were angry about cheap Chinese labor. This anger lead to the1882 passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act prevented immigration and naturalization on the basis of race. This prevented new immigration, which directly affected the Chinese worker already here in the United States that came over without their wives and children. There was another law that prevented Chinese men from marrying white women. It was also law prohibiting Asian’s from owning land. I remember when I took my students on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance the had a few exhibits on racism that included photos from the early 1900s which showed how whites had vandalized the shops of Asians. 

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