HSBurke's blog

In the interest of fostering our love for poetry, (This one's for you, Anne!) I wanted to share some of the blackout poetry that I've done. Dan mentioned this in class but I thought I'd give an example. Trying to reduce fact into art is an infuriatingly lovely process, and I recommend everybody try it out! 

I realize that they are both on their side and hard to read so I'll type them out here: 

They were dismantled, 

reduced. 

Critical and 

Emotional. 

I close around me 

rather than just watching the moment bloom 

amidst 

the world. 

-- 

Perhaps, 

the idea 

was part of the air. 

An elegant lightness, 

derived from the burdens upon them. 

Predictably, 

she asked it 

to dance. 

I was honestly fascinated by the Kim & Markus piece, Speech and Silence: An Analysis of the Cultural Practice of Talking. It intrigued me from the very beginning with the description of Asian American students in the classroom and how teachers have found these students "do not participate in class as much as [they] want them too". This point really hit home for me. While I am in no way Asian or East Asian, I did grow up in a predominantly Asian community. I went to a school that was 90% Asian and had all Asian friends. For this reason, Asian culture is a huge part of who I am, and my early exposure to cultures other than my own was very influential in shaping the person I am now. Part of me would really like to use this influence to explain why I find it so difficult and uncomfortable to speak up in class. And maybe it plays a part. I know that my mind is a busy place -- overflowing with thoughts most of the time. Just because I don't speak them doesn't mean they aren't there. It would make sense that I am a product of the culturally-infused academic environment that I grew up in. But of course, not all my time was spent in school. My house was never a particularly loud or expressive place. How much of who I am in the classroom comes from home and how much comes from primary school? 

It seems sadly appropriate (or maybe ironic?) that the class called "silence" is the one I have most trouble speaking up in. This problem isn't new for me -- I struggled in ESem and it looks like I'll be struggling for a while again. I know I'll hit my stride eventually. What helped me last time, though, was using Serendip as a form to (unselfishly!) share unspoken thoughts with the class. 

Today, during our discussion of poetry and whether or not a person's interpretation can be "wrong" or "right", I was reminded of my high school's entrance exam. There was a small section of analogy work (triangle is to shape as purple is to _____) and some mathematical ratio problems. But the bulk of the test was poetry analysis. We were given one poem and 50 minutes to annotate and write and analytical essay. As someone who is ambivalent towards poetry on the best days, needless to say I was worried. But I did my best, writing so quickly that most of my thoughts were illegible. I never thought much of that poem after taking the test. Until this class, that is. I wonder, now, what it was they saw in my analysis. Were they looking for something specific? Did they just like my style? Maybe all they wanted was a well-organized essay with all the parts in the same place. I'll never know of course. I have no real conclusions about my experience here, but would welcome yours.

And off to a completely separate thought! 

Each of our texts this week provides powerful anecdotes and statistics regarding the history of women in the American justice system. I was particularly taken by the story of Alice Clifton, the slave tried for murder of her own child. To connect her story back to the similar story of Regina McKnight presented in “Prisoners of a Hard Life (The Real Cost of Prison Project)” was particularly heartbreaking. How long has this injustice been going on? How long will it continue? 

Part of me struggles with keeping my real name as a part of my user name. Just the other day, one of my Customs babies told me that they found me on this thing called Serendip.

!!RED FLAG!!

That was my first thought. I felt "found out". Stumbling over my words, I tried to explain that it was for class, my posted opinions solicited by the requirements of academia, so on. She responded with silence -- politely listening to my ramblings. And it was her silence that tipped me off to something. I had nothing to be ashamed of, nothing on Serendip that warranted my sudden reaction. Every thought here is something that I would feel comfortable sharing off the net, too. 

I'd considered changing my name to something more obscure since the beginning of the semester, but I realize now that that is unnecessary. I'm not ashamed of what I have to say, and I don't feel as though my privacy is breached by allowing non 360-ers to read it. By detaching my name, I would be in a way stifling my own voice. 

I find it very interesting that, in regards to voice in education, we've read two pieces by women who have backgrounds in film. Ellsworth's work, Teaching Positions, brought to light the true organic nature of teaching in that it is impossible to know what will arise from the act of giving a lesson. Thinking back on classes I've taken with Anne and Jody, I've realized that I rarely left the classroom having learnt what I expected to learn at the beginning. Teaching and learning, it seems, are not necessarily directly related. Teachers have no guarantee of knowing what will be learnt by the students they teach, and that is because each learner has different experiences which allow them to learn and process the classroom curriculum differently – deciding for themselves what is important. Instead, Ellsworth notes, it is perhaps the gap in what is being taught and what has been "learned" ("a surprising 'return of difference'") that points to true learning. This student-centric view reaffirms the idea that what the student takes from a lesson is perhaps more important than the lesson itself. This, for me, harkens back to Deveare-Smith's idea of the informative nature of the "gaps" while performing others.

In class Thursday I was particularly haunted with the picture above, JHunter's visualization of silence. While my interpretation of “Bouquet of Eyes” varies from hers, I am grateful for the push towards looking differently at a subject that I thought I had adequately explored. It is this new interpretation that I will use now to speak toward my own experience with being silenced at my summer job.

This summer I had the misfortune of learning that silence can sometimes be a group phenomenon, and it is in these particular instances when the absence of voice can be the most dangerous. From June to August I worked at an overnight camp for underprivileged youth, like I have for the past three summers. The counselors range in age from 17-21, not much older than the children we watch over. It is difficult for me to talk about what happened this summer in a composed way, because the happiness and welfare of the campers was and still is my utmost concern and to see that threatened was infuriating.

Hey guys. Hopefully this is helpful but I just discovered that Colored Amazons is available as an Ebook through Ebrary. So, no paying! 

Here's the link: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/brynmawr/docDetail.action?docID=10215097

I hope I managed to do this post right. It's been a while since I've grappled with Serendip. I chose this picture based on a conversation that took place in a Social Work class I am work in. As a way for students to introduce themselves, the professor asked each student who they would bring on a space mission (no family). While the answers varied, almost every student mentioned the need for someone who would fill the silence that would inevitably permeate the mission. This, in my mind, indicated that the students percieved silence and a primarily negative aspect of their space journey -- something empty that needed to be fixed. As space is often used to represent the great unknown -- one of humanity's greatest fears -- I have chosen to represent silence with this picture of the cosmos becuase  from this conversation I learned that people are also quite fearful of silence and try to avoid it at all costs. 

I really, really enjoyed seeing all of the final performances last night. At some points, I couldn't stop laughing and at others, I wanted to burst into tears. I've really enjoyed my time spent with this class, and I feel like I've learned so much, not only from the curriculum but also my peers. 

We've spent much of the class identifying different perceptions and stereotypes about every socioeconomic class. We've seen what situations they can lead to, and how to fight them. But what we haven't had a chance to touch on is where they come from. So this is what our group chose to focus on for the final performance. In our presentation, we talked about the media and how it perpetuates stereotypes about certain groups in regards to class, race and the American Dream. We also discussed how easily children are influenced by these media stereotypes, and how they continue to grow up with these negative, often exaggerated stereotypes. To do this, we provided examples of media which portrays different people in certain lights. To conclude the presentation, we offered suggests on how to resist media bias, in an effort to alleviate negative perceptions. We also included a fun animated clip about the going ons of ESem and the consequences of our disinterest in moving the tables!