mmh013's blog

This week’s reading was about the arts in schools and how the funding is being cut in order to help the sciences and math. Music education is very important in children and I disagree with cutting funding. Science and math are very important in education, but they don’t allow for very much creativity. It’s always facts, or what is right and wrong. Music education, and the arts in general, allow students to express themselves in a different way and be creative however they want to. It’s one way they can think for themselves and not be told how things should be and how things are.

If the arts are lost in the schools, how do we expect the young kids of our world to express themselves, and learn how to be independent and unique. Art and music are the one things in school that allow for this. I think everyone should be required to take art and music all through elementary, like they are, and also have some requirement for it in junior high and school. It doesn’t have to be much, but this part of education really helps strengthen the school and the students within it.

Until reading about the urban legends and listening to the clip about hitchhikers, I guess I never really thought about either of them. When I hear stories and haunting stories I guess I get freaked out a little too easily and never think about the logic of them. They aren’t always true or exactly accurate. It’s ideas of what could happen, or things that happened but in a different way. Sometimes it’s more about the meaning of the legend than what really happens.

I never really thought about hitchhikers and how they aren’t really around anymore. When I was growing up I never really saw them, so those few times that I have seem strange. I never considered that it used to be more common. Honestly, the whole idea of hitchhiking kind of freaks me out anyways. Like one of the ladies in the clip says, you’re basically handing your life over to that person. So, what’s the point? We’re taught at a very young age not to talk to strangers, much less get in a vehicle with them. So, I guess it doesn’t surprise me that there’s not a lot of hitchhikers. Honestly, people are crazy and there’s always  a chance of getting in a car with a crazy person. I will be one of the first to say there is no way I would ever be caught hitchhiking and putting my life in strangers hands.

Over the years, Christmas has changed so much. When it first started, there was no gift giving, Santa Claus, or anything that has to do with reindeer and cookies for Santa. Although a lot of things have changed, there are some things that have remained the same. Families and towns still gather together to celebrate the holiday for their own reasons. Some may be more religious than others, but they still gather together to enjoy the holiday. We may not know exactly when Christ was born as the New Testament doesn’t exactly say, but regardless, Christmas is a celebration of that day, whenever it was. It is seen as a symbol for what happened.

Gift giving and the some of the material things have become a major part of the Christmas holiday. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with giving gifts and enjoying the gifts you receive. It’s the reasoning behind it that matters. I think it’s about showing your appreciation for the people you love and doing something nice for them. It’s not about the price or size of the gift, but the thought. Even though Christmas has changed so much over the years, the basic reasons for gathering can still be seen around the holidays.

Other than beauty, another theme I have noticed through out the readings is opinion. Opinion is very broad, but basically, the things we were read were based on opinions. In the piece about Calliagnosia it was a battle to enforce calli or limit it for the public. The whole story was different peoples opinions and how it would hurt or harm society. The piece about sports and manliness was conveying the opinions of how people feel about women in connection to sports, and how men should be expected to act. The video about fractals was an opinion on how cool, interesting, and helpful math can be for everyone and everything. Vonnegut’s speeches were his opinions and how he decided to interpret and explain things to others. He was very pessimistic but that’s the opinion he chose to have.

It wasn’t just the readings that conveyed certain opinions though. By reading these, we all formed our own opinions and brought to the table what we got out of them. Not everybody came with the same opinion or left with the same one. Depending on how we look at each of the readings and the message being presented we came away with different ideas. This is what keeps the conversation going and challenges the views being expressed. If we all took the same exact things for each of the readings each week and formed the same opinion, what kind of discussion would that be? Rather short and lacking in content. The opinions presented and the opinions we form really shape the class.

Vonnegut presents his two speeches similarly, but also very differently. I found these speeches kind of confusing to read because of the nature of them. He skips around a lot in the topics and at random times. He goes from very serious issues to random comments, but somehow he manages to link them together in some way. His speeches portray his pessimistic attitude in many different lights. I still agree with some of the things he says, but it’s a different way of looking at things. I agree that we can’t completely rely on science to move us forward in the world. Science has already brought us so far and it is time to look at other things that everyone has in common and can rely on. We also need to help each other out and not leave people behind.

There is a lot of truth through his pessimistic views in his speeches. We are all one and must help each other and work together in things that everyone can benefit from. He says we need to accept new things and not just settle for what we have and know. We can’t just accept everything that we are told or taught, because some things require a challenge and may not be true. We alone cannot change the world. It takes a lot of people and a lot of support, but you can make a small difference that will help begin the change. He says not to take on too much at one time as there is so much out there. Through his pessimistic views I was able to see some very positive and optimistic views shine through.