Olympic Fervor in China

I have posted discussion questions about a Washington Post article entitled, "Across a Nation, Olympic Fervor" here. The Post article explains that hundreds of millions of Chinese people are excited about the upcoming Olympics to be hosted in China this summer. According to the article many Chinese view the Olympics that the international community has accepted their nation's legitimacy.

As you know, I often write questions to prompt discussion around newspaper articles. Interestingly, these questions pose a certain amount of authority in the articles that I write about. After all, why discuss something if it is not accurate?

But, do we really want our students to take the content of newspaper articles at face value? Is this the type of information literacy that we want for our students at the beginning of the Twenty First Century? I'd suggest not.

Rather than accepting the authority of these articles, perhaps we should be challenging our students to validate, or disprove, the information presented in these articles. But, how do we do this?

Web 2.0 allows us to reach out and communicate with people across the world. Rather than trusting the authors of this newspaper article about Olympic fervor, we might try and contact individuals living in China and ask them what they perceive to be the typical thoughts about the upcoming games.

So, how would we reach out to the typical Chinese person, or even the foreigner living in China?

One way might be to search for contacts from China in Skype and try to make contact with several individuals. Students might construct interviews beforehand. Think of the information that they could find out.

In my efforts to find somebody in China whom I could ask, I've just put out a Twiiter call. I haven't used Twitter that much so not that many people are following me. But, we'll see what happens.

Finally, I also found a teacher in China, on epals.com, who's students are interested in interacting with other students to discuss the Olympics.

How else do you think I could do this?

10% in Prison

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says." I've posted a series of questions to promote discussion here.

But, I'm wondering does anybody else find this number astronomically high? 1 in 9 African American young men end up in jail. Do you agree that this number is staggering?

So, what can we, as educators, do to try and reduce this number? Can we do anything?

People end up in jail because they can't find their way in society. They can't get jobs. They can't fulfill their social and spiritual needs without violence and drugs. They can't manage money. In short, people end up in jail when they can't do the things that an adult has to do.

An argument could certainly be made that it is school's responsibility to help students learn to do the things that adults must do. Schools should help their students become happy and healthy self fulfilling adults. Unfortunately, however, many students become alienated from school before they have the chance to learn these skills. So many students feel isolated and excluded from what is happening in schools. They do not feel as if school has anything to say to them, personally.

Technology and Web 2.0 are certainly not the answers to everything. However, I can only wonder if effective use of technology would enable educators to meet the idiosyncratic needs of individual students more effectively than we have been able to do until now?

I wonder!! What do you think?

Presidential Politics

So, I've been thinking recently: Is it OK to write about the Presidential elections day after day? What do you think?

On the one hand the elections probably represent something far more important than two, or more, people vying for the top position in the U.S. Government. It presents an opportunity to debate the values and policies that drive our nation.

On the other hand, the same stuff is often rehashed day after day in national elections. Should we pull out of Iraq? What about national health care coverage? How about national service? It's probably OK to write about these issues periodically, but not every day. What do you think?

Just because politicians and the national media select several themes to highlight over and over does not mean that political platforms are so tightly constrained. Do you think that it would be interesting to write about a different component of these platforms, providing provocative questions to encourage discussion about these platforms on a regular basis? Why or why not?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What you Wear!!

After a week away, I am back to writing. I'd love to see comments in response to these questions. Thanks!! AP

The ABC News Blog, Political Radar, is running a story titled, "Obama Pushback on the Drudge Photo Flap." After the Drudge Report ran a photo showing Senator Obama in traditional Somali garb, the Senator explained, "Everybody knows that whether it's me or Senator Clinton, or Bill Clinton, that when you travel to other countries they ask you to try on traditional garb that you have been given as a gift..." The Obama camp has blamed the release of this photo on the Clinton campaign.

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Young Children

Ask your students to identify as many different kinds of clothing as they can. Do any of your students, or their family members, wear special clothes when they go to religious services? Do any of your students' grandparents or parents wear special kinds of clothes?

In what ways do people's clothing change in different temperatures? Why does clothing change when the temperature changes? Do students think it would be OK to laugh at somebody wearing shorts and a t-shirt when it is freezing outside? Why/why not? Would it be OK to wonder why they were not dressed warmer? Why/why not?

Have your students ever worn a type of clothes that they did not want to wear but their parents told them they had to wear it? Why did their parents want them to wear this kind of clothes? Why didn't they want to wear this clothes? Are they glad that they ended up wearing the clothes? Why/why not?

Ask your students if they can think of anybody who is different than them? What makes people different? Can your students think of anybody who is exactly like them? Why/why not?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Ask your students to define the word "culture." In what ways does clothes contribute to culture? What does the word "other" mean? Is it OK for the leaders of the United States to celebrate cultures that may not be common in the United States? Why/why not?

Assuming that the Clinton campaign did send this picture of Senator Obama to the Drudge Report, why might they have done so? What can we learn about the Clinton campaign from this incident? Challenge your students to develop an argument supporting the Clinton campaign's actions. Students could also develop the opposite argument.

Ask your students to imagine that they were advisers to Senator Obama. How would they have advised him to respond to the publication of this picture? Challenge students to develop arguments against responding at all?

In what ways do students think that technology influences life in the United States today? Do students think that it's possible for technology to have a greater influence on life in the United States? If so, how? Do students think that technology will ever have a lighter influence? What would have to happen for this to occur? In what ways do these last questions relate to the current event presented here?

Kosovo Declares Independence

The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "Independence is Proclaimed by Kosovo." The article begins, "A new state emerged from the long and bloody unraveling of Yugoslavia when the Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence on Sunday. Its ethnic Albanian leaders promised to embrace Kosovo's embittered Serb minority and forge a multiethnic, democratic nation." The article reports, " The move was immediately condemned by Serbia and its ally Russia. But the United States is expected to quickly recognize the new state, as is most of the European Union, in return for an agreement by Kosovo's leaders to submit to European Union supervision."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Students

Ask your students to describe something that they have done alone. What did it feel like the first time your students did this alone? Were they proud of themselves? Why/why not?

Ask your students to share one thing about their family with the class that they would like other students to know. Why do they want other students to know this?

What do your students think the teacher should do if all of the sudden one of the students in the class raises his/her hand and says that he/she no longer wants to be a part of the class. Are there any advantages to being a part of the class? If so, what are they? Are there any disadvantages to being a part of the class? If so, what are they?

Have your students ever forgiven somebody for doing something wrong? What did they forgive somebody for doing? Why did they forgive this person instead of remaining angry for ever?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Ethnic; Thronged; Status; and, Impromptu.

Why do your students think that it is sometimes so hard for people from different ethnic backgrounds to get along. If students had to write a paper describing the tensions between the Serbians and the Albanians where might they look for more information? What do students think would be the best source for reliable information?

Do students think that one part of a country should be able to break away from another part of the country? Why/why not? Under what conditions should one part of the country be able to break away, if any? Under what conditions should a part of the country not be able to break away, if any?

Ask students to explain the meaning of the following statement: "The past should not be forgotten, but it belongs to the past and should be forgiven." What is the difference between forgetting and forgiving? What is the point of this statement? Do students agree with the point of this statement? Why/why not? Can students think of any other historical events that can be forgiven but not forgotten? If so, what events?

Errors in Medicine

The Boston Globe is running an article entitled, "1 in 10 Patients Gets Drug Error." The article explains that according to a report, "...it makes financial sense for all hospitals to install a computerized ordering system, despite the $2.1 million up-front costs and more than $400,000 annual operating costs. The study estimated that the average victim of a medication error stays in the hospital at least four extra days. The researchers also looked at how often doctors at the six community hospitals ordered more expensive drugs when a cheaper, generic drug would do, or when they ordered an intravenous delivery of a medication when a less expensive oral pill would have been just as effective. Redundant lab tests were also documented."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Do your students think that they should be allowed to eat whatever food they want to eat, even without asking their parents? Why/why not? What bad things might happen if people ate too much food? Can students think of anything that they should never eat or drink? What? Why should they not eat or drink this?

Can your students explain what the number one means? Can they explain what it means to have two of something? How many eyes does a person have? What kinds of bad things might happen if one of a person's eyes did not work properly? Why would these things happen? What kinds of things should a person do/not do to take care of his/her eyes?

Do your students think that it would be worse to have one bad eye or one bad finger? Why? In what ways might a finger be hurt? What kinds of things should a person do/not do to take care of his/her fingers?

Do students think that being a doctor is an important job? Why/why not? What kinds of things does a doctor do? What kinds of things can we do for ourselves to help doctors keep us healthy?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Some people argue that teaching hospitals are not as good as non-teaching hospitals since so much of the work is done by interns. How does the information presented in this article influence the argument? Challenge students to explain their perspectives and then consider opposing points of view.

Ask students to imagine a conversation between a hospital administrator, responsible for the hospital budget, and a health advocate urging a computerized prescription ordering system. Do students think that these individuals would have different perspectives? Why/why not?

Ask your students to respond to the following statement: "Ten percent is a low percentage so rather than seeing the negative stakeholders should be thrilled that patients were only given the wrong medicine ten percent of the time." In what ways might the fact that professional baseball players get out far more than 10% of the time that they are up influence one's understanding of this statistic with regard to this article?

Do students think that policymakers should mandate the use of computerized prescription programs? Why/why not?

Shooting on Campus

Newspapers across the country are reporting on yesterday's shooting at Northern Illinois University. In an article entitled, "Gunman was 'Revered' on Campus," the New York Times states, "Records indicated that Mr. Kazmierczak, who had more recently attended a different state school, had no previous police contact, the authorities said. 'It surprises me that he would have had a gun,' said Nathan Jurgenson, the instructor interviewed by The Tribune. 'There were no red flags,' Mr. Grady said. 'Unfortunately, these things happen.'”

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Have your students ever seen somebody hurt somebody else? Why might somebody hurt somebody else? What do students think that they should do if they see somebody hurting somebody else? Why?

If your students could do one thing to try and make this world a more peaceful place what would they do? Why?

Have your students ever broken or lost a toy that they really liked? How did they feel when this happened? Were they able to fix the toy? If so, how did they do it?

Do your students have anything that they like to hold that makes them feel safe? What? What do they like about these things?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

Is it appropriate to discuss whether or not people should be allowed to own guns after a tragedy like this occurs? Why/why not? Do students think that people should be allowed to own guns? Why/why not?

Why do so many people look at mental illness as an embarrassment to the sick person when they certainly would not look at a physical illness in the same way? Do students think that people who have mental illnesses should be embarrassed? Why/why not?

Ask students to imagine that they served as advisers to a university president or high school principal who asked what they could do to ensure that a similar tragedy never occurred at their school. How would they respond? Why would they respond in this way?

Ask students to respond to the following statement: "The killings at Northern Illinois University should never have occurred. People who knew Stephen Kazmierczak, the shooter, and did nothing to stop him should share the blame with him."

Note: This blog post is cross posted on my Schoolnet.com Viewpoint.