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weirdo-twins · 3 days ago

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#lol incredible

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weirdo-twins · 7 days ago

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That is very true, of course any adult (any person, really) on the internet has an obligation to learn and grow. I like how you phrased this:

"It is embarrassing to pretend that ignorance is a quirk and not a flaw to overcome."

This is exactly the cultural shift that does need to happen in the US.

Re: American Public School curriculum - I'm a high school English teacher and many of my texts are written by authors from other countries and cultures. We make an effort to bring in educational materials to teach our students about those places to add context on top of the stories themselves. Aside from that, we have Spanish and Japanese courses which also make an effort to include cultural education and because our district is particularly diverse, we have a multicultural assembly every spring which the kids love and is amazing. So yes, you're right, it isn't true that there is NO discussion or education around other cultures in US public schools.

However, even these efforts are often minimal at best. The assembly features performances which are lovely to watch but offer no education on the cultural significance. The 'family tree' project at our school doesn't emphasize geographic origin specifically but rather has students interview their parents and grandparents about family recipes, traditions, and values - which makes it hopefully more inclusive and less alienating to the groups mentioned as it emphasizes culture (especially Native culture or Black American culture or regional American cultures such as the midwest or Appalachia) over other countries. But does not actually prompt students to research or learn about cultures other than the one they already grew up in. I don't know how the school I teach at does it, but the extent of my own cultural education in foreign language classes was reading a page in the textbook once in awhile that was like 'and in Mexico dinner is sometimes served very late!' Mostly we were just conjugating verbs. There are no geography courses and the only world history offering is AP which is not accessible to most students.

This is in a metropolitan suburb in a blue state with an above-average academic ranking.

While not literally pretending no other cultures exist, the US education system has not historically done a good job of teaching children what 'culture' and 'cultural differences' actually mean or why they should care about them. This is not an excuse to refuse to do the learning, but there is a lot of ignorance out there that is not willful and if we really want to change the culture to one of curiosity, well, positive encouragement to branch out is always a more effective educational pedagogy than shaming people for not having already filled gaps they may not have realized they had in the first place.

Did you guys know it’s illegal to look things up outside of school and the US military actually kills you if you read about other countries?

#anyway #I realize your specific original commentary is probably aimed at the US Americans who are refusing to be curious or learn #and using the 'shtty American School System' as an excuse to stay ignorant #And that criticism is fully valid in that case #sorry to make this sort of “Not All US Americans!”#I just you know spend a lot of time around teenagers and thinking about education and systems and grace and space to unlearn before learnin #And what's fair to expect of the average American Teenager (and by extension 20 smths) today and what isn't fair to expect or blame them fo #or maybe what's effective in actually motivating people which is maybe thoughts for the classroom and not the internet

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weirdo-twins · 8 days ago

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I hear what you're saying and America is definitely in need of a cultural shift toward learning about other countries - but the key thing here is that it is a cultural shift. Not only are we not taught much if anything about other cultures in school - although as an American High School teacher, we are trying very hard to change this! - we are not taught to be curious about other places. We are not taught that we should put in extra efforts to learn about other places or why that would be important.

This is a problem! But it doesn't make it US kids' faults that they aren't teaching themselves a global cultures class in their free time. You aren't going to look things up outside of school if no one taught you that you should do that. You can't teach yourself something if you don't realize you have a knowledge gap.

Not teaching much about other countries also teaches kids that they don't need to know about other countries and they have to unlearn that before they can start to learn about the rest of the world.

Yes many US Americans are ignorant about other cultures and yes we need to change that, but for most of us, it isn't actually because we're lazy and entitled, we are fish in imperial waters and no one's told us what water is.

Did you guys know it’s illegal to look things up outside of school and the US military actually kills you if you read about other countries?

#us school system

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weirdo-twins · 8 days ago

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Tiny Will, the first year after Lonnie left for good, making a father's day craft at school for him anyway because surely he's going to be home again by Father's Day, or at the very least come visit. He excitedly shows it off to Jonathan when he gets home, and Jonathan has to gently remind him Lonnie's not coming back this time, remember? and who knows when they'll see him next (thank god for that, Jonathan thinks, but doesn't say). Then he assures Will that his gift is totally brilliant, and it's too good for Lonnie, he doesn't deserve it anyway. Afterwards Jonathan thinks this speech is only half effective, because of course Will, ever the optimist, spends the rest of the week holding out hope that Lonnie will show up, right until the end. But when Father's Day comes, Lonnie never does show up.

And it's not that Will's surprised that Jonathan was right (Jonathan is usually right, especially when it comes to Lonnie), but he still can't help the disappointment that's swallowing him whole. He wants to smash up the gift and throw it in the bin, forget he ever cared. But then comes Jonathan, who spends the whole day with him and keeps him busy and distracted and as happy as he can. And at the end of the day Will decides to present the gift to Jonathan instead (he's had to cross off "Dad" and scrawl in "Jonathan," and he knows it's sort of ruined it and he's sorry it's not as a good now, he says sheepishly...[Jonathan is fighting back a tear and cradling it like it's his most sacred possession, mind you]). After that, whenever Will has to do a father's day craft at school he goes ahead and makes it for Jonathan instead.

Jonathan holds on to every single one of these gifts and can't bring himself to toss any of them, even when they're packing up to move to Lenora. Even when they just sit in a box in his closet in California, along with the camera he no longer uses and old photographs he took of their family and the mixtapes he exchanged with Nancy and everything else that matters most to him that has never felt more far away.

#tearing up #byers brothers

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weirdo-twins · 8 days ago

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once again we are on the reblog website, please actually reblog stuff

#I wonder what % of liking and not reblogging is the extra steps of adding tags and/or clicking twice #you click once to like and back to scrolling #If I only needed one click to rb I'd prolly do that every time even when i was too lazy to add tags #but fr I do reblog i prommie #you should too

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weirdo-twins · 8 days ago

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I reach for him and say something like his name and he's there.

-Katniss Everdeen, about Haymitch Abernathy, when she is distraught over realizing Snow is using Peeta against her

so many things about the line matter to me

the entire paragraph that surrounds it matters to me- but this part specifically means so much

Because she just mumbles something acute to his name and Haymitch just fucking materializes in front of her

Scene setting before this- Katniss is a decent few feet away, alone, surrounded by Cressida? And the bug dudes Pollux and... i dont remember their names not relevant right now

She's cornered by Plutarch and Cressida and Finnick and they're all worrying over their mockingjay and why she's not saying what they want her to

But she mumbles something- maybe "hay" maybe "mitch" maybe "dad"

and Haymitch pushes past them all and is there for her

Another thing- Katniss does not see this happen.

All she recalls is that she whispers his name and suddenly he's there.

She is so lost in her grief and sudden dawning realization that she cannot see- until Haymitch is in front of her, until he has his arms around her, until he is there.

anyway I'm insane and love them :)

#ahhhhh #thg

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weirdo-twins · 8 days ago

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