• How do the ideas presented in Linda Christensen’s chapter, “Unlearning the Myths that bind us: Critiquing Cartoons and Society” resonate with your experiences? Provide one example of how you could use her analysis to highlight an element of teaching arts or humanities using technology within your context.

Christensen’s perspective is certainly controversial and her viewpoint on children’s entertainment media for young kids. On the one hand, we can all hiphip horray her critique since it identifies the gender stereotypes perpetuated in media- whether it is a cartoon, comic or advertisement on TV. On the other hand, the suggested influence that these media disseminate is an exaggeration. Where is the evidence that this media actually influences decision making in a culture? A child’s behaviour is credited to two primary influences: nature (his/her ‘genetic’ personality) and nurture (his/her environmental influences). I believe that nurture is significantly related to parental care/guidance (lack thereof). Ultimately, good parenting will result in discussions about what the children are watching. We already have rated TV, movies, books- do we want to rate and censor everything to ‘protect’ our children? Is there always a genuine cause-effect relationship between what we see and what we do? Look at cycles of domestic violence and we could say –there’s your answer. I believe that these media influence children to the extent that reading a book does- can we not read stories or learn from history anymore? Part of being human is our love to laugh. That inherent ability to laugh at ourselves is what gets so many people through bad times (yet can also be used as a tool to breed hate- look at the Holocaust). If we speak specifically about comics I think we must remember that they are our mechanism for laughing at our mistakes, at our incorrect beliefs and as a reminder of what NOT to do. I grew up listening to Polish jokes all the time and they were terribly rude- yet my Polish step-family always had a good laugh at themselves. I think they are a method of education and appreciation of other people. I think a fun activity would be to look at old comics and recreate them in www.toondo.com or www.bitstrips.com or www.pixton.com. Then the students could change the dialogue and we could ask the students if the comics would still be funny without the stereotype reference.
Christensen, L. (2000). Unlearning the Myths that bind us: Critiquing Cartoons and Society. In reading, writing and rising up: Teaching about social justice and the power of the written word (pp. 40-47) A Rethinking Schools Publication.

• Books, tapes, CDs, DVDs and movies (among others) are forms of narrative, and since each medium uses different symbol systems, each one appeals to different aspects of learning and learners. Research suggests that when students are asked to create and communicate through different media, such as compose or create films they are required to master skills that represent high levels of literacy. Students ought to be encouraged to use media to represent their learning using various sets of symbols, codes and metaphors. What are the challenges and possibilities of humanities as an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning?

Like everything else in education, balance is key. We must utilze a variety of resources to stimulate conversation and engage students- partly because of different learning styles/preferences but also because they are exposed to all kind of media in the ‘real world’. Using many kinds of ‘text’ to communicate improves literacy. Using words, images, symbols, codes, video and music we can enhance learning in the humanities. When students communicate through different media and create new items (think mash-ups) they practice and develop different skills. The challenges to an interdisciplinary approach to learning include:

1. Curriculum coverage
2. Time management
3. Authenticity of curriculum content
4. Dilution of content
5. Misinterpretation/misrepresentation
6. Assessment
7. Teacher collaboration/planning

• In interdisciplinary inquiry, students are invited to use analytical skills as well as observational skills in order to make sense of the world around them. Students ought to find multiple sources of information and read each source critically. Provide an example of how you could use these principles of “reading the world critically” in your own context as you consider the arts and humanities.

When students are given a text, and they must assume that there is a bias of some sort. For example- we could investigate the social stratification, ‘race’ relations, sexism, violence and drug references in a popular book like Harry Potter on a blog. The students would need to find another ‘real life’ example to compare with the Harry Potter example. Or they could describe how the book would ‘read’ if it was narrated by Hermione or Draco or Snape.
I also think field trips are an excellent mechanism for interdisciplinary inquiry.
Using fertile questions for students to explore is an excellent strategy as well- “Does war create peace?”- leads to some profound answers and heated discussions