Real Life Zombies

The Name Jar

Guidelines for Philosophical Discussion

by Sarah Hopson
cited in full because it's awesome

Throughout The Name Jar, questions about difference and identity underlie Unhei’s consideration of taking an American name rather than using her given Korean name at school. Is it good to be different or bad to be different? How do we respond to difference? Is a name just another word, or it is something more? How closely is one’s identity connected to one’s name? What are the implications of changing one’s name?

In terms of difference, today’s society strongly emphasizes tolerance in the form acceptance and often even celebration of difference. Despite this, division and alienation as a result of differences continue to arise. If we adopt an attitude of celebrating difference, can we go so far as to say that difference is always good? While it certainly seems beneficial to recognize, value, and appreciate difference in general, it doesn’t necessarily seem reasonable to simply accept certain ideological differences which lead to great pain and suffering. What then should be done? For some, it is enough to identify and understand the reasons for the difference or to promote conversation across the difference, while others claim that steps should be taken to minimize the difference. The Name Jar asks many of these questions in the context of Unhei’s difference from her peers, particularly in the form of her name, and thus provides an opening for discussion of how it feels to be different and the ways in which we should respond to difference in others.

As for identity, the term is generally used in philosophy to refer to whatever it is that makes an entity recognizable as distinct from others, in this case the set of characteristics that distinguishes one person from another. The Name Jar particularly addresses social identity, the way in which individuals define themselves in relation to others. This issue is seen in the story as Unhei changes the way in which she introduces herself to others depending on prior reactions and on the context of that point in the story: from saying her real name on the bus to claiming that she does not yet have a name when she meets her new class, from telling Mr. Kim her real name to sharing her name choice with her class. What is it about each situation that influences this behavior and what can this tell us about social identity? Themes that might emerge here include ways in which one’s identity is shaped by family and culture and the role of peers, family, and society in supporting or denying the development of one’s identity.

      

More specifically, The Name Jar encourages a consideration of assimilation, particularly cultural assimilation, one example of which is often the changing of one’s name. What does the choice to change one’s name entail and what significance does it have? Arguments in favor of name change for cultural reasons include having an easily pronounceable name, showing acceptance of the new culture, and minimizing difference, while arguments against include maintaining cultural identity, keeping family history and lineage alive, and retaining connections. The Name Jar shows Unhei experiencing many of these conflicting pressures: wanting to fit in with her new classmates and not be teased for her Korean name yet retaining strong ties to this name through her family culture and name stamp. Discussing these issues begins to address the question of what connection peoples’ names have with their identity and whether or not this connection is the same for everybody or not.

found at: http://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/wiki/The_Name_Jar

Knots on a Counting Rope

My Name is Yoon

This story illustrates the challenges that a newly immigrated Korean girl, Yoon, faces as she moves to America.  None of her classmates can pronounce her given name, a name which means "Shining Wisdom."  They chuckle.  To her aesthetic sensibilities (and mine), her name also looks much more appealing to her written in Korean than in it does in English.  It Korean it looks like dancing figures, or possibly a snowboarder.  In English it's just empty circles and lines.

윤  vs Yoon

 Pressured to adopt the clunky Anglicization of her name, Yoon experiments with other names like "bird" and "cat" and "cupcake."  In the end, she comes to accept both her English name and her new American self, recognizing that however it is written, she is still Yoon

While this text was moderately simplistic, it opened up a valuable conversation, both philosophically, socially, and historically about the importance of our names and preserving a sense of one's own self identity.

Philosophically, we explored the meaning of names, borrowing from Juliet's famous question: "What's in a name?"

Historically, we explored Jewish naming customs and we looked at the history of forcible renaming that occurred in Native American boarding schools.  In an effort to Anglicize the young Native Americans, the U.S. Government forcibly took them from their parents, placing them in boarding schools.  They were forbidden from speaking their native languages, wearing native clothing, or using their given names.  They were forcibly assimiliated (or culturally changed).  Their identities were yanked out of their hands and changed.

This fact inspired us to talk about the value of preserving the elements we each possess that make us unique, rather than attempting to change ourselves to suit someone else's notion of what we should be.

Photo 1: Chiricahua Apache's from Geronimo's band as they arrived at a boarding school in 1887. Photo 2: 4 months later after the assimilation process began to take hold. 



 
     
 

Links:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/03/names-and-wages
http://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/genealogy/genealogy-notebook/immigrant-name-changes
http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/images/KohnovalskyCohn.jpg
http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/images/ZakotskyShukowsky.jpg

Nasreen's Secret School

This book helps to explain the drastic changes that occurred when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 1996. Set in the backdrop of these true events, this story’s main focus is how the Taliban’s rule affected women and girls.  Following their takeover, Afghani females were no longer allowed to attend school or leave home without a male chaperone.  They had to cover their heads and bodies with a burqa. 

Little Nasreen's pain is deeper still.  Her parents mysteriously disappeared, sadly a somewhat common occurrence under Taliban rule.  Now, the child refused to draw, sing, smile, even speak. Longing to help, Nasreen's wise grandmother hears of a secret school  set up in defiance of the rigid Taliban  prohibitions.  Hoping to open her mind again to hope and purpose, the grandmother begins sending little Nasreen to the forbidden school.  This education slowly opens her eyes to the beautiful world of art, literature, and history, thus beginning Nasreen's road to healing.

After reading this text, students were given the same opportunity that so enlightened little Nasreen - the opportunity to learn about the richness of unknown worlds.  Students read about life in Afghanistan, looked at photos of its rich culture, beautiful landscape, and learned about its history.  They also read about the rich tradition of Afghan kite making.

   

Finally, we read about the amazing life of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and, at 17, the youngest ever Nobel Prize recipient.  Both through lived experience and through compelling advocacy, she connects national - and global - security with the availability of education.

Another article, which we discussed in depth, makes this same case.  I offer the gist below:

In a nation of 170 million people – almost half of whom are under the age of 18 – only 50 per cent of Pakistani girls and 60 per cent of boys go to primary school, despite the fact that this schooling is entirely state funded.  In this country which now boasts a nuclear arsenal, it's estimated that half of the population is probably unable to even write their names.  Those unable to perform even this basic task are much easier to control and to be duped into accepting radical militant Islam.

Links:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/6503093/Lack-of-basic-education-fuels-rise-in-Taliban-and-extremism-in-Pakistan.html
http://mashable.com/2014/10/10/malala-nobel-moments/
http://www.afghanistan-culture.com/types-of-kites.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/world/after-the-war-the-librarian-books-spirited-to-safety-before-iraq-library-fire.html
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alia_Muhammad_Baker
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-great-library-of-alexandria.html
http://www.biography.com/people/malala-yousafzai-21362253#synopsis
http://www.malala.org/

The Librarian of Basra

In this true story emerging from war town Iraq, we are given a valuable alternative vision of what it means to be a faithful Muslim.  Over time, the sensationalized treatment each and every suicide bombing gets from our media begins to impart misplaced caricatures.  This true hero, Alia Muhammad Baker utters the lines that led her life's faith-based work: "In the Koran, the first thin God said to Muhammad was, 'Read.'"

War clouds threatened on the horizon, and Alia Muhammad Baker, chief librarian of Basra's Central Library, refused to let these books, "more precious than mountains of gold" be destroyed.  After being denied help from the government, Alia moved the library's holdings to a nearby restaurant just nine days before the library was torched.  As fighting continued, she risked personal safety to smuggle over 30,000 volumes to her home and the homes of friends.



Then, Alia waits.  Like so many Iraqis today, tired of war and ready for peace she waits. She waits for a new library to house her collection of books.  The book ends with this goal unrealized.  The fighting in Iraq continues in the midst of American occupation.  Sadly, nearly ten years after publication, little has changed.

Listen to the Wind

We discussed those things that make a school a school.  Normally, we think of a lot of the physical things that we use - boards, pencils, books, desks, the building itself.

We contrasted the supplies available here vs. the supplies available in a small village called Korphe, Pakistan.  This village is the setting for the nonfiction book, Listen to the Wind.  Here, the students in this small village had to write their lessons with sticks into the dust.  High in the windy mountains, this posed some rather obvious challenges - challenges that our class experienced first hand.  After reading, I took the class outside to sit in the dust of the baseball diamond.  They brought their pencils (sticks) and wrote a portion of their writing response in the dust:

• Write about what the problem was in the story and how it was solved.  Then write about how you/ we can help others. 
• After they wrote for a while, students had a clear idea for why the title of the book is “Listen to the Wind.” 

It was a little comically sad to see how the wind blew away most things they were writing.  It was good to let them live in the frustration that Korphe students daily experienced.  I could have written a book called Listen to My Students Complain about the Wind.... :)

The dust writing experience underlined the same need sensed by an American climber, Greg Mortenson.  When climbing K-2, one of the world's largest mountains, he fell and was nursed back to health by the kind residents of this mountain refuge.  Mortenson returned to build a much needed school.

The book afforded many valuable conversation topics, among them:

•  How helping someone else is not normally one sided.  Help received is normally returned.  We talked about how we could invest ourselves in the cyclical world of giving and receiving help in the classroom and the larger world around us.
• We also talked about Greg Mortenson's statement that building schools is the best way to fight terrorism.  "Purging ignorance" is the best way to create peace. 
• This led to a valuable discussion about the ways schooling helps to broaden our worldview and how we Americans need to broaden our worldview when it comes to some of our stereotypes about those originating from areas where our government has stationed troops.  The vast majority of people desperately want peace.  We cannot stereotype or fear others simply because they are different.  For us, too, education, "purging ignorance" is the best way to create peace.  
• To accomplish this, students used their M.I.L. time to read about the history of Pakistan, the cultural influences, and the schools.

Promoting Peace One School at a Time | Video - ABC News

                           

http://www.penniesforpeace.org/for-kids/feature-village/
http://www.penniesforpeace.org/for-kids/feature-school/
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1943639,00.html

The Orange Shoes

Contrary to the message of advertising companies who want us to buy their things, this fine story of Delly Porter shows that poverty and happiness can overlap.  Delly walks to school barefoot but takes joy in the soft, silky feel of the dirt road beneath her feet.  She happily pursues art with a stubby pencil, recycled envelopes, and homemade paints.

The story also shows that wealth and happiness are not synonymous.  Delly is bullied at school because of her family's poverty.  These actions reveal less about Delly's physical needs than they do about the personal needs of those engaging in the bullying.When Delly's teacher, Ms. Violet, announces an annual fundraiser, a Shoebox Social, in order to raise funding for art supplies, Delly asks her parents for a badly needed new pair of shoes.  Somehow, her parents scrap together the money to buy her a beautiful pair of orange shoes.  Because they equate money and possessions with value and because they want to be more valuable than someone else, the same bullies now decide to damage Delly's new shoes.  Delly shows her strength of character, using her artistic abilities to beautifully repair her damaged shoes and to create a winning shoebox for the school fundraiser.

 

 

                            

As extensions, we read several articles about the dangers of equating materialism with happiness.  We also looked at daily life in a one room schoolhouse.

Links:
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/News/NewsAndFeatures/Pages/materialism-coping-mechanism-children.aspx
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE87K0QV20120821?irpc=932
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/7-reasons-why-materialistic-stuff-doesnt-lead-happiness.html
http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/oneroom/aboutStudents.shtml
http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/oneroom/typicalDay.shtml

Bully, by Patricia Polacco

Lyla, a new girl,  arrives at middle school for the first day.  She finds a loyal friend in Jamie, a kind-hearted techie boy.  Another groups of students - Gage, Kenyon, and Maeve - sit at the "celebrity table" and fascinate Lyla even as they completely ignore her.  After some passive aggressive looks from the "celebrities," Lyla finally begins to draw their attention.  She continues to make the top grades and makes the cheerleading squad.  Jamie warns her about Gage, Kenyon, and Maeve but when they invite her to sit at the celebrity table and hang out with them after school Lyla ignores his better judgment.  These popular girls begin to make fun of several kids in the school, using social media to cyber-bully them.

When they begin to direct this bad treatment to Lyla's real friend, Jaime, Lyla makes difficult choices and begins to spend less time with them.  Eventually, she stands up for Jamie, saying, "Jamie Aldrich is no court jester... he's one of my best friends... You and your friends are nothing but bullies!"

But no one dumps these girls!  They're out for revenge!  After standing up to the bullies, Gage, Kenyon, and Maeve implicate Lyla in the theft of school testing material and use social media to turn the whole school against her.  Eventually the true bonds of friendship and truth telling prevail.  The book ends, bullies exposed, and readers posed a marked question, "What would you do?"  The words are bolded, inviting the reader to enter into active dialogue about the issue of bullying.

This explicit invitation, the realistic modern setting and use of technology, and the honest, relevant way the book is written sparked great conversation about bullying, especially cyber bullying.

                

To extend conversation, students read literature that helps them to identify bullying and offers practical steps for responding to cyber bullying.  After reading, we discussed and came up with a class action plan for dealing with bullying.

http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/
http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/friends/bullies/print_article6.html
http://www.stopbullying.gov/kids/what-you-can-do/index.html
http://www.stopbullying.gov/kids/facts/index.html
http://m.kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/bullies.html

Goal!

In a small, impoverished township in South Africa, Ajani and his friends have earned a brand-new, federation-size soccer ball.

As we do on the playground, they kick. They dribble. They run. They score. Tension builds as a gang of older bullies tries to steal their ball.

This text afforded us the opportunity to talk about:

• Bullying - how do we identify with the various characters? What are good responses for dealing with bullying?  Do you back down?  Do you assert your value?  How?
• How is working for peace like being a part of a soccer team?  Can we do it alone?
• We also talked about the historical development of soccer as well as its current social and political importance.
• Did you know that soccer has been around for thousands of years?  During the Middle Ages, kings tried to ban it because they wanted their men to go to war instead of playing games.  The punishment for playing soccer was death!  Soccer, something that carves out a sense of teamwork and shared purpose is a threat to those who want us to see each other as opponents.
• This idea of soccer as a means to achieving peace is still very strong in today's world.  Students read a number of extension articles.  We explored several charitable organizations stationed in some of the most impoverished, violent and hopeless of contexts.  Organizations like Soccer for Peace use soccer as a way to teach young people the value of working together peacefully.  When we work together with a common goal and don't violently interact with those who stand in our way, we make the world a better, happier place.

Write: in all corners of the world today – especially in countries with poverty and violence, soccer is played and loved.  It bonds people together.  It’s not a game that you can play by yourself.  It demands teamwork.  It demands working together.  Peace.  Write a story about how soccer unites and how it helps create an environment of peace.


 

o   Connections:  http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/successstories/playing_soccer_forpeaceincolombia.html

o   Watch: http://www.soccerforpeace.org/post/31591862436/watch-the-story-of-a-goal-we-invite-you-to-learn
http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/pope-promotes-soccer-for-peace-harmony-and-charity/

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/soccer-joy/hilltout-photography