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Tanish FortsonThe Korean War was fought between South and North Korea and was the first major conflict of the Cold War. The leader and Prime Minster of North Korea was Kim ll-Sung. The president of South Korea was Syngman Rhee. Before World War II the Korean Peninsula had been a part of Japan. After the war it needed to be divided up. The northern half went under the control of the Soviet Union and the Southern half under the control of he United States. The two sides were divided at the 38th parallel which caused many battles at that particular border.
President Truman decided did not want to appear weak so he went on the offensive because he wanted to liberate North Korea from communism. When Eisenhower became president, he was willing to offer options to end the war. On July 17, 1953 a treaty was signed to end the war. Both country would remain independent and the border would remain at 38th parallel. It was mentioned that Korea did not want to appear sot on communism and they also wanted to protect Japan, which was still recovering from WWII. In the fifty years since the war, little has changed between North and South Korea.
Tanish FortsonWorld War II in my opinion should have been avoided because it was so deadly. It was fought between the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allied Powers (Britain, United States, Soviet Union, and France). What I did not know was that Japan invasion of Manchuria in 1931 began the war. In 1937 Japan launched all-out war against China. In 1939 Germany invaded Poland so Britain and France declared war on Germany. Hitler wanted to Rule Europe. The United States didn’t join the war until 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Some countires remained neutral during World War II refusing to join neither side. In 1945 An Allied army crossed from Britian to free France from Nazi rule. About one year later Allied armies invaded Germany, forcing Germany to surrender. Nuclear attacks on Hiroshima an Nagasaki forced Japan to surrender as well.
It was many other things that went on during the war that was unacceptable, like the rape of nanking in which Japanese officers encouraged their men to loot stores and rape women. Then Japan realized how terrible it was to encourage that so the offered a solution which was to provide “comfort stations” to meet soldiers physical needs and combat venereal disease.
Tanish FortsonThe agricultural revolution took place in Japan in the 1700 and 1800’s. Seeds and corps were of better quality so it intensified the use of land and labor. This revolution meant higher per capita productivity and a trend towards smaller families. Despite China and Koreas populations growing, Japans population remained the same. Families were purposely kept small with only grandparents, parents, and children. There was no extended family living on the land. It just wasn’t enough to have more than one heir. According to the article, “Cultivators may have practiced abortion and infanticide lest they have more children than they could afford.”
Other factors that could have contributed to Korea keeping the families small were disease and infection. Smallpox reduced the male fertility by 50% or so. Syphilis affected the urban populations and starvation due to scarcity of food hit some regions harder than others. The north had trouble growing due to poverty while the west was more commercially developed, prospered.
Tanish FortsonI enjoyed taking this class and have learned a lot about the history of Asia. I am grateful for this experience and have told other colleagues about this wonderful opportunity. This class really opened up my mind in terms of culture, traditions, and history in Asia. I have traveled to Europe and many parts of the United Kingdom and cannot wait to travel to Asia.
Some of the concepts that were taught are just way above where my students are cognitively. A lot what I learned will need to modify and differentiated in order to teach my students. We just came back from Thanksgiving vacation and will be busy the next 3 weeks with Christmas shows and testing. When we return in January 2018 I plan on doing a lot of work around Asia with my kindergarten and 1st 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. I can just lightly address the topic by saying the Confucius was a teacher and had very strict ideas of how people should act and behave. Chinese New Year is also coming up and I can teach my students about the 12 animals and their characteristics. I can also explain how 1/6 of the world celebrate Chinese New Year and is the longest public holiday. Most workers get 7-12 days off and celebrate with family. My students will enjoy this because and we can make crafts such as dragons, lanterns, and animals.
Tanish FortsonI enjoyed taking this class and have learned a lot about the history of Asia. I am grateful for this experience and have told other colleagues about this wonderful opportunity. This class really opened up my mind in terms of culture, traditions, and history in Asia. I have traveled to Europe and many parts of the United Kingdom and cannot wait to travel to Asia.
We just came back from Thanksgiving vacation and will be busy the next 3 weeks with Christmas shows and testing. When we return in January 2018 I plan on doing a lot of work around Asia with my kindergarten and 1st 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. I can just lightly address the topic by saying the Confucius was a teacher and had very strict ideas of how people should act and behave. Chinese New Year is also coming up and I can teach my students about the 12 animals and their characteristics. I can also explain how 1/6 of the world celebrate Chinese New Year and is the longest public holiday. Most workers get 7-12 days off and celebrate with family. My students will enjoy this because and we can make crafts such as dragons, lanterns, and animals.
Tanish FortsonKorea in the 21st Century
Some of the most interesting things I found out about Korea came from an article by Edward J. Shultz, which is titled Top Ten Things to Know About Korea in the 21st Century. One fact is that Korea is the home of many inventions. Monks. Scholars, and students used to spend hours reading and understanding text. The Silla people produced the wood block printing around year 749, sutra. In 1592 Admiral Yi Sunsin was invaded by Japan and they built the first ironclad vessel used in a naval battle. Because of this, the Japanese had to retreat.
Another interesting fact is that the Koreans are among the most technologically linked people in the world. The article explains that technology is behind Korea’s economic growth. I have shared this fact with my students and my students believe that Korean students are like them and have ipads in their classrooms. Korea is in the world’s top five internet-linked countries. Koreans push for education and it is said that they have a 98% literacy rate. Since Korea is one of the most literate societies in the world, they excel in the technology area. Another fact that I learned is that South Korea sent may of the young talent youth abroad to learn about the latest systems in technology then lured them back to Korea with nice economic packages and jobs. This was smart because it keeps them in the ranks with technologically advanced.
Tanish FortsonI found it quite funny that you pointed out that this article is published in the Economist and that Japan is claiming that the fundamental causes in the decline of marriage and child birth rates is due to the failing economy. I didn’t know the problem had become so serious with the majority of their population being older. Women have become more independent and have their own jobs and income. They are refusing to settle for any type of husband. Women with careers don’t want to give them up to have children right away. Domestic chores are not typically shared in Japan as well, women are expected to do all of the housework.
According to the article, “Only 2% of Japanese children are born outside marriage, compared with over 40% in Britain and America.” I love that his has been pointed out. The cultural aspect of life is important to the Japanese. It’s not in their culture to have children out of wedlock. Men and women are not cohabitating, which means no new babies are being born. But I can argue that if they want some type of change they will need to fire things out. I like that fact that their government is wants to marriage to remain the basis of family life and is implanting incentives like spousal tax breaks, and more nursery places for the working families.
Tanish FortsonI read the articel Gilded Age, Gilded Gage about Bella who is a child growing up the Chinese middle class. I can completely understand how and why parents put pressure on their children to excel in school and life. But the pressure that is put on Bella from the age of 4 is just ridiculous. Bella takes English classes, acting classes, plays the piano, takes swimming lessons, and studies very hard in school. China’s emerging middle class brings much pressure to them to keep up with the ever-changing world.
In just the fifth grade you are given a entrance exam to determine the type of middle school you will attend to their scores. If you did poorly your changes of getting into a good middle school, high school, and college will diminish. When I think about the fifth grade students at my school, they are not this disciplined. They are not yet thinking about high school and college. They don’t seem to understand the concept that what we do now in school may one day affect our future. I like the fact that China is now allowing more opportunity and circumstances for families are improving. Bella’s family moved into a bigger home and is renting out their other apartment. They have a cleaning lady, a nice car, and takes holiday vacations. But the long term effect of all this pressure along with extremely high expectations may have a negative impact on thier children.
Tanish FortsonThe cards we were allowed to look at in session 10 intrigued me. I quickly selected a card and began “researching” and looking for this so called propaganda that Professor Dube mentioned.
I learned that Mao Zedong and other Communist set out to reshape the Chinese society. I discovered that many were executed as capitalist’s exploiters and landlords. Mao urged the youth to rebel (I think they referred to this youth as the Red Guard). They carried little red books with quotes from Mao Zedong and terrorized capitalists and other members of society that was seen as an authority figure.
I think the propaganda comes in because things were not as they seemed. Mao felt his leadership being threatened and removed any threats (highly educated teaches, scientist, engineers, and managers) He didn’t want anyone who had authority (in his words “who thought they were better than everyone else”) in the new society. Mao wanted the to get rid of the “four olds”: old habits, old customs, old culture, and old thinking. Schools were closed and students were taught the “new way” and did not receive the proper education. My card depicts the movement “Countryside Reeducation” Young educated privileged youth was forced to go to the mountain and countryside to become reeducated by the workers and farmers. Needless to say things got out of hand and China was sent into social turmoil.
Tanish FortsonI absolutely loved the 3-sided discussion. I was on the side of Self-strengthening. I am a follower of Qiu Jin and believed in enriching the state and strengthening the military. I did agree with a lot of what they were striving for such as raising the living standards and being self-sufficient. A lot of the difficulties arose with this movement because most of the people had little to no experience with governmental activism for economical purposes. They wanted to improve their livelihood but didn’t know how to do so. Their economy was not where it needed to be for investments and most people depended on the tradition ways of employment. The self-strengthening movement did fail to make a direct impact on China’s problems but nonetheless the Chinese were proud of what was accomplished during this time, and built on the accomplishments that did take place such as the few modern arsenals, factories, and railway that was built..
Personally I think it was brave and smart for them to commit to social, keep the rebellion down and try to advantage economically.
Tanish FortsonI know that Professor Dube told us not to do a unit on foot binding because it wasn’t as wide spread, as people made it seem. As Westerners I think we just find the topic interesting as well as fascinating. I remember in high school being taught about the subject and imagining being ridiculed if I was ever to visit China because I am very tall and wear a size 10, which is well above the attractive 3 inch, idolized size. Now that I am older, I realize that this was a very silly way of thinking. I am thankful for this class educating teachers because I feel like I did not get the proper education for world history. Due to this feeling, when teaching my kindergarten and 1st graders, I have a goal in mind, and that is to teach how I would want my children to be taught. I don’t want to teach them random things out of context which is how I felt like I was taught world history.
Tanish FortsonI have been thinking about how I can incorporate “We the Workers” into a workable unit for my K-2nd grade students. I was thinking about showing a part of the film and reading the captions to them. After that we could have a discussion to assist students in comprehension so they can understand what went on in the film. I’m not sure of how everything will play out when it comes to the core content and helping students understand that China has labor laws but the factory owners do not abide by them. One of the activities we could do is divide the class up by jobs such as factory worker, banker, and insurance salesman. I will not pay wages to some of the workers and pay a very small amount to the factory workers. My goal would be to see how the students could advocate for themselves. I could also assign a student to be a lawyer for the workers. I think this would be an age appropriate lesson for my students.
Tanish FortsonThe film “We The Works” had my attention from the moment it started. I had no idea that workers are still fighting for basic rights that we take for granted such as job sponsored health care. Being able to take a day off of work without being fired is unknown to a lot of Chinese workers. I was almost in tears when watching the injustices that the workers face. The labor lawyers that represent the workers lives are in danger due to the work they do. It was even one guy that was kidnapped and assaulted. The most important point that I want to make is that this is modern day-time. This is happening now in China. I like that the lawyers are teaching the workers what to do as a group. They are fighting for themselves and learning in the process, how to advocate as a whole, they are stronger together when dealing with corrupt bosses and unpaid wages.
In our schools, colleges, and daily lives we are taught to take up for ourselves. We do what is right and speak out against injustices. Many of the Chinese workers were to afraid to even speak up against doing work that is hazardous and dangerous. I belive this is becasue they are not taught how to fight for themselves. Many of the workers had little to no formal education. Unfortunately I cannot show this film to my students because they are in grades K-1 and cannot read the subtitles but I will look for a similar film.
Tanish FortsonReading post number 13 gave me a few ideas of how I can incorporate what was happening in Japan during that time into my lessons for kindergarten and first grade students. I’m not sure what book I would use yet (I need to do a bit of research on that) but I would read a book to my students than reread for comprehension and have my students do a collaborative turn and talk activity about what they think a hero is. Next I would put together a web bubble with their ideas of what a hero is. I will have students build on partner talk by listening and carefully linking ideas together.
The next day I would ask students to recall what was discussed the prior day, then we would reread the story. Next we would discuss what it takes to be a warrior. We would again make a web bubble. I don’t think I would necessarily separate hero and warrior yet for grades K/1. Then I would add a sentence starter frame to help them refer back to something that happened in the text and that links the story to them. For example, "In the story ( ) ." or "If I was a hero I would ( )."
Tanish FortsonAnything regarding women is of interest to me. I am a woman and am I am fascinated by women and their ability to maintain and keep order. The article that I want to address is An Exploration of Women’s Economic Activities in a Patriarchal Society. In Korea women were expected to cook, clean, sew, harvest veggies, provide medical remedies, watch the children, and ward off unwanted sprits. Women of wealthy households did not participate in difficult labor tasks but women from poorer households would. Regardless of your social class you were expected to work and contribute to the process. It absolutely fascinates me that with limited resources women still contributed to their society in Choson.
Dr. Jung-Kim did a wonderful job of giving us an overview of Korea and I really enjoyed the children’s story that she told. I think the name of it was a Blinds Mans Daughter. I think my young students would enjoy this story. The King fell in love with Shimchong and could not see her sad and sent her back to the world above and another King fell in love with her and made her a Queen. Her father magically appeared and gained his sight again. My students could possibly pick out their favorite part in the story draw a picture and write a sentence about their picture.
