Six Feet Deep In Education

Education On The Run

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

― Maya Angelou

Asian Media A Craze, Say What Now?

Ever since the success of Crazy Rich Asians By Kevin Kwan our society is starting to open for a much more fruitful exploration of their culture. The Farewell by Lulu Wang, Mulan live-action by Disney, and the anime Weathering With You by Makoto Shinkai have begun to shift perspectives about what Asian culture can be defined as. This is why America is starting to see a high rising shift of Asian Media on their television, and literature books. Maybe, people are curious. But I think this is a product of shifting our society to be more open-minded about everyone that lives in America.

Asian Media is all around us. However, you can’t find it as wide open as we can other cultures. People have to dig into anime, Korean drama, Kpop, and literature to get a taste of what this culture consumes on a daily basis. Every culture has its own style and ways of the world.

In our current society, Americans are seeing brutality done based on ethnicity, looks, and knowledge. Little boys have committed suicide for being teased about their sexual preferences. Officers have used brutal force when it's unnecessary and killed many. We are in trying times where kids right now can’t even sit in a classroom with each other because of a pandemic. Society is barreling into chaos as unemployment is running dry, money is slim, cleaning products are selling out like wildfire, and people are stuck. I think we are stuck in the horror until we change our perspectives.

I think we have to open these barriers. Tear them wide open. We should use our education to overpower the concepts of racial, religious, and sexual barriers that are causing people to hurt one another. All Lives Matter. It should be a slogan, hung on a wall in a classroom ( My classroom wall one day), and taught with conviction. There is no life too small that does not matter.

The world is drowning in weirdness and lies……and here we are, so used to it that we’re actually bored!”

― Inio Asano, Solanin

What We Learn From Others Lasts A Life Time

Asian Media is an odd piece of culture that is often forgotten in the majority of core curricular courses for students as of today through Elementary, Middle School, and High-School levels. They are often found brushed over within electives. I think that this needs to not be a choice for students. They should have to learn about Asian culture just as much as other cultures in our societies.

The dominance of a race is overrated. We should be starting to open up our education to feeding our children more about culture, and life lessons that could follow them into college. We limit our education on skills like mathematics, reading, spelling, and writing that we forget that life is full of multiple skills like time management, money management, and relationships. So, I think opening up about Asian Media will be important for the future of our country, and our future children.

I think what we learn from others lasts a lifetime. In fact, I don’t see a downfall from bringing Asian Media into my future classrooms. The coin toss will always be heading up ( Good Luck.) This is why I want to bring Manga, which has swept Americans by a storm, into the classroom.

Manga is read right to left rather than left to right. In Japan, this skill is used to help with dedication and reading while preparing students for driving. While Americans drive on the left side and Japanese drive on the right side. A good lesson for this to the future children is that how we read does affect the process of other motor skills that we will eventually have to pick up.

Advertising the idea that certain skills play importance in the future, and the present can force students to care more about what they learn. Caring about what they are learning is a precious feeling.

On the flip side, Asian Dramas are catalysts for human emotion because they focus on relationships, heartbreak, hard events, and choices as a means to entertain and bring forth an understanding of what it means to be human in their society.

I would implement these media alongside literature from Eastern Asia into the classroom as a way to guide cultural knowledge and acceptance into society. By doing this, My wish is that students learn to respect even their second language learners.

To change yourself means to change the future.”

― CLAMP

Our Tools Are Our Life Blood

Teaching tools are how we effectively implicate that we wish to give a part of us to someone else. Knowledge goes a long way. There is an endless amount of knowledge in the world and we should always strive to learn and understand more.

I believe it is important to bring the foundations of Asian cultural practices into account in our classrooms. We can teach children early how to use chopsticks, why taking their shoes off before stepping onto the floor saves cleaning, and the value of mediation in our life. I would also have my students write essays, watch Ted Talks, create projects, and get pen pals from Asia to further their ability to understand the culture.

My class syllabus would look similar to a classroom that is trying to optimize how to use traditional teaching, and blend it with technology while allowing my students to have power over some of the content they learn. Eventually, it is important to teach students about what they desire to learn while hitting the points that a curriculum expects a teacher to expand on.

Module One-Asian American History

With every difficulty, we surpass our own expectations.

The Ice Breaker Challenge: Who are you? How has your culture affected you? Why do you think traditions are passed down through generations? Is it important for your family to follow certain customs during their day to day life?

1–1 Discussion: Has Asian Culture affected you today? Why? Why not? What do you know about this culture? What are your assumptions about Asia? How many languages can you list that are Asian? Do you think America is centered on the English Language too much by comparison?

What I would prefer you to read before answering the above:

Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America, Introduction, and Chapter One

Overall, we all have a history including our countries. Let’s celebrate history as a way to value who we are as people.

Module Two -Asian Americans In News Today

Our impact on the world today has a production value for our world of tomorrow

Fun Activity: Look up words in English and try to find a translated version of the word in a different Eastern Asian Country such as South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnamese, Pakistan, and any other country in that continent you can think of. Share your discoveries and language love with each other. Pick words in your national language or family background as well to uncover how they translate as well. Have fun.

2.1 Discussion: Can you think of a famous Asian American from the present year that has stood out? Why did they stand out? How did they change the current view on Asian Americans and why is this important?

2–2 Final Project 1 Milestone One: Topic proposal for comparing and contrasting Asian Media with American Literature.

2–3: Prepare for Reflection Journal: Pick an East Asian country and describe what captivates you about it.

Reading: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan -First half 150 pages

Watch: A Silent Voice by director Naoko Yamada

These are just the tips of the iceberg for how I would design my classroom. I would try to work with my students allowing room for their creativity and desire to add in any content they wish to learn about. Within these modules, I would mold my class for flexibility allowing them to have a set time to ask me about life skills they wish to use in the future.

Conclusively, I feel that my classroom will be more open. Or at least my dream classroom is certainly designed for equality.