"Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us."

I would first like to start off by saying, I agree with everything that Linda Christenson mentioned in her text. The media has too much influence on the lives of our children in regards to how they view themselves, others and the world. With that being said not everyone's childhood cartoons and movies has shaped them into how into who they become as a person. I for one never dreamed about my wedding gown, of marrying the most handsome man in town and having children and living the cookie cutter life. (Of course I am not, by any means, saying that I didn't watch Cinderella, Snow White or the Little Mermaid.) The person that I can lay blame to absence of the aspiration to become the good natured house wife, is my mother. She is the most independent strong minded person I know and because of her strong opinions and ideals, I can attribute my own strong personality.

When growing up my mother was never afraid of exposing me to things that were "not appropriate for our age", if the story that she had involved a lesson or a ideal she found poignant, we heard it. A great example of this is as follows. When my mother was in her mid-teens she attended a church every Sunday that believed that the women get married and live the rest of their life making their husband and family happy, never working, just staying home and being the good house wife. Teaching this to someone who worked forty-hours a week and went to school and only being fifteen, you can imagine, did not go over well. After voicing out about how she didn't want to stay home, but instead become an accountant, the church made her sit one day a week with an older woman from the church. Their goal was to for my mother to see the error in her ways and accept the role of house wife. Much to the church's dismay it did not work. My mother ended up leaving the church and kept on working and saving and now works hard and is a mother and wife.

What my mother instilled in my was the power to be independent and be my own person, no matter what my dreams are. She doesn't care if she has grandchildren to spoil, but instead focuses on what I want for my future. For me that is becoming a teacher, and everything else is trivial. If I do decide to get married and have children then I would hope that I can teach my children the same ideals and stop the outside influences from make an impact on their lives. I can achieve this by using the tools learned in my classes and my own mother as a guide.

P.S. My favorite Disney movie when I was a child was the Cinderella with Brandi as the main character. If anyone has seen this they would know that they filled roles based on talent, not matching race. *It is not perfect, however it does defy most racial prejudices seen in most Disney movies*
 (I posted the link for the full movie by the way! Enjoy :))

P.P.S. I apologize for not posting sooner. I hope you guys get to see this before class tomorrow.

P.P.P.S. As a side note I would like to talk about my service learning experience today, as it of course relates to the text we read last week, "I Won't Learn from You." This week my teacher was not present and instead there was a younger substitute teacher. While on the rug during their reading lesson the students were getting extremely wild  and in an attempt to control the chaos the teacher lashed out discipline to only one child, but did not reprimand any of the students he was sitting around. Right before my eyes I saw him shut down and do what I imagine to be the classic "I wont learn from you" pose: crossed arms, head down and rolling eyes. For that she told him to go from green to yellow on the behavior board and then he sat at his seat and refused to participate in the lesson. In my head of course I was having a minor freak out being able to notice this and I just really wanted to share. Hope everyone has a great night!