I haven't watched "House" in forever but tonight, as I was making dinner, I had the show on in the background. Although I really wasn't watching, I heard Foreman, one of the main characters, say something that caught my attention. I began watching the show after I heard the quote, so I am going to try to fill you all in on the context, or at least what I know of it. A boy, maybe in his late teens, is in the hospital with some mysterious illness... the normal circumstances of the show. However, the boy is also deaf. He was born deaf, and when House presents him with the opportunity to hear by offering to give him a cochlear implant, the boy turns it down. The quote that caught my attention came when Foreman and "Thirteen" were talking about the boy's decision. While "Thirteen" was trying to explain that deafness was a way a life rather than a disability. In response, Foreman said that something that can be simulated with a 3 dollar set of ear plugs will never be a culture. While we can always simulate conditions outside of our own, we are who we are and we cannot change that. Sure, I can put ear plugs in my ears to block out sounds, but when I'm ready to hear again I can simply take the ear plugs out. For people who are deaf, they cannot simply hear when they want to... Their deafness is a part of them and although it does not define who they are, it is a major part of their life. I have always liked "House" but I thought that this quote was incredibly offensive to not only the deaf community but anyone with a disability.

Boy meets Boy

First off, I really enjoyed Levithan's Boy meets Boy. I thought that it was a great book and I found myself getting very involved with the characters as I was able to relate to some of their experiences as well as learn about some first-hand experiences to which I would have never be exposed otherwise. While I thought that story was very inspiring, one thing sort of bothered me. In the beginning of the book, Paul claims that he knew was gay in kindergarten, after reading a note made by his teacher. First of all, I thought that it was crazy that a teacher would feel the need to write something like that about a student at such a young age, but second, I couldn't get over a statement that Paul made about how he liked seeing another young boys shirt get lifted up. While Paul was discussing what it meant to be gay with his teacher he says, "My attention was a little distracted because Ted was now pulling up Greg Easton's shirt, and that was kind of cool" (Levithan 9). I suppose that this memory could have been modified over time, but I was just very surprised to read that as a kindergartner, Paul had sexual feelings. I think that regardless of your sexual preference, at the age of 5 or 6, you really don't see others as being attractive in that way. Although this statement stood out to me while I was reading, I thought that Levithan created an excellent book that can provide not only a mirror for members of the GLBTQ community, but also a window for outsiders to gain a better understanding of their gay and lesbian peers. It was a inspirational story that I feel provided readers with authentic experiences of the GLBTQ culture.

Seen and Heard

Right now I am watching The Real World on MTV and one of the roommates went out and got a male yorkie puppy. The reason that I am posting this is because of a comment made by another roommate regarding the dog... the other roommate asked why the dog was wearing a rhinestone studded collar since it was a boy and suggested that it was not very fitting. I found this really interesting because the roommate who said this recently went through gender transition surgery in order to become a woman. I really don't even know what to think about this.... I just thought it was crazy that she, of all people, would make a comment like that about gender stereotypes...

Issues of Diversity in Literature

I feel like one of the most challenging things about this course, at least for me, is recognizing issues of diversity in my environment. It's not that I don't know how to identify them, but I've realized that I often look past them. Reading the article last week really make me think about this because it talked about how so many people think that they do not have a problem recognizing these issues, simply because they can read about something that is wrong and at the same time, they know that it is wrong so they do not let it affect them. Before taking this class, I would definitely put myself in this category... I always just looked past things because I knew that they were wrong and, because of this, I just asssumed that I didn't need to pay attention to it. Now, I almost embarrassed at myself for thinking this way because I realize that we cannot just ignore these issues because we think we know right from wrong... As a writer, or any person for that matter, it should be our responsibility to be aware of the things we say and do, and to understand how our actions can impact others. If people keep ignoring carelessness and ignorance, things will never change.

Reading Book with different Dialects

I really don't know what to think about this. When I have my own classroom, I hope that something like this will never hold me back from reading a book, yet I definitely don't want to offend anyone by making bad attempts at reading the text according to how it was written and how it should be read. And while I understand that there are books on tape that I can use, how do I know that the actors/readers are using authentic voices? I have just never thought about this before. I remember reading certain books in high school, like the Grapes of Wrath and Their Eyes were Watching God, and struggling through the dialect. I actually had to read them aloud to myself in order for them to make any sense... which I now find kind of interesting since I certainly did not have any authentic experiences that would have tied me to the dialect of the characters. Still, it helped me to get a better understanding of the books being read. I definitely think that it is important to try and find resources for students where they can maybe hear what people similar to the characters in the story would have sounded like… if that is really even possible; or at least discuss with them how and why things may have been different… but I don’t think that we should be afraid to read books to our classes just because we may not sound authentic.

Arabic Students in the United States

I come from a town of approximately 12,000 people, with two main streets and a lot of farm land. In no way would I consider my hometown to be big, much less diverse. Surprisingly, however, it holds the second largest Arabic population in the state (second to Dearborn, which is HUGE). When I found this out I was shocked. I knew of a small group of Arabic students in my highschool and they all stayed in the same classroom all day with a bilingual teacher, rather than move to 6 different classes throughout the day like the rest of the student body. As a result, the presence of the Arabic students in our school really was not made, except for 3 girls. These girls were the first Arabic females to earn a high school diploma in my town; not because we wouldn't let them or anything like that, but because they simply were not allowed to. One of the three was actually involved in the sit in a couple of weeks ago in attempts to speak with Senator Carl Levin (I saw that this incident was mentioned in Anne's blog also which I thought was kind of exciting). Anyways, back to my high school. While majority of the Arabic students "layed low", these three girls definitely did the opposite. They took all of the honors and AP classes available and involved themselves in organizations such as student council, class council, and all of the other student groups you can think of. As I've gotten older and learned more about the experiences in the Middle East, I have a much greater appreciation for my classmates and their achievements.
Although I'm not exactly sure of the year, the girls all came over from Yemen while we were in middle school. After high school, they would decide whether or not they wanted to go back and marry and start a life. While they were all doing such great things at the high school, I had a conversation with one of the girls that definitey shocked me. She was telling me how she thought I was lucky to be able to do sports and how she always wanted to but couldn't. She couldn't explain exactly why she couldn't.... she just knew that she couldn't! After that, she told me that she planned on going back to Yemen after high school. I was so surprised by this because she was making such huge steps with her education and had even showed that she wanted to be able to do the things that American girls are allowed to do, yet she wanted to go back, where she would have to get married and live a conservative life.
Especially now, I wonder how she felt when asked about living here in the US. While in high school, I just assumed that she wanted to embrace our ways of life. I just wonder how she dealt with questions of her identity, because while she was doing extraordinary things here, she still wanted to go back to Yemen where her rights would be more restricted. Reading Habibi made me think about my classmate in comparison to Liyanna. While Liyanna had to pack up her things and unwillingly move to Palestine, my classmate had to do the same... only she was coming to the US.
This is just a side note, but I thought it might be sort of interesting to mention....Of the three girls from my graduating class, two of them (including the classmate I had the conversation with) recieved academic scholarships to Grand Valley where they are still studying. The third is an MSU student who, like I said, is now famous for her recent protest....... Also, another interesting tid bit - of all the Arabic boys in my highschool, very few of them spoke fluent English. All of the girls not only spoke English but also did very well academically.