Module 7

The first topic that I chose was The Frame of Reference: The Anti-Achievement Dilemma on page 288. The first line of the article says, "Many students avoid academic excellence because they fear their peers will label them nerds." This statement is very sad but true. Children, for the most part, do not want to be known as the nerd or geek in the class. Due to this many students intentionally answer questions incorrectly. So many children are worried about their appearances in school and it is a shame. Peer pressure is also another driving force behind this epidemic. They do not realize that school is very temporary and real life success is so much more important. I chose this topic because it relates to me, personally. My freshman year of high school, I was in the academically advanced classes. I soon realized that the student's in that type of class are not the most popular and are not well liked, so I started to goof off and hang around with the 'cool' crowd. My grades, obviously, started to slip and I ended up in the general education classes. Hind sight, I would have continued on and I would not have cared what the other students' thought about me.

Resource: I googled searched the words anti-achievement dilemma. I clicked on the first link and it was actually the web-tivities of our book. I then clicked on the 'click here' link and it was a story about a young African-American girl. I never would have thought that she would receive the most harassment from children of her own culture. They were saying things like, "Why are you trying to be white? and calling her a sell out." It is horrible that jealously and insecurity cause people to be so cruel to an otherwise successful student.
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The second topic that I chose was Arab Americans: Moving Beyond the Stereotype on page 295. I chose this topic because it is a very sensitive topic for many Americans. In my opinion, there has always been some form of dislike towards people of Arab decent even before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Unfortunately, this event helped confirm many negative beliefs Americans about that culture. I know I was guilty of feeling uneasy when I boarded a plane shortly after the attacks. I said," I would get off of the plane if there were someone of Arab decent aboard the plane." That was a very stereotypical statement and I am not proud of having said it. People have to learn that combining a whole group of people into one statement is just wrong. For example, saying all black people are bad and all white people are good. That is just crazy. There are good and bad in each and every race and grouping them all together is just ignorant.

Resource: www.Tolerance.org/teach/current/event.jsp?cid=249 I clicked on the link that said "Who are Arab Americans?" It brought me to a classroom activity. The website said,"This activity is designed to increase student knowledge about Arab Americans and to challenge misconceptions students might hold about Arabs and people of Arab descent. It also promotes critical thinking of media, government, culture and history." The activity is said to take between 1-5 class periods to complete and there is a quiz to go along with it. I think the quiz is a good idea because it would show exactly how their views were skewed.