Seen and Heard

I watched The View this past Friday and in the beginning of the show the women talk about different things and this episode they talked about stereotypes and what stereotypes are offensive, I immediately thought of this class!  They debated and talked about different stereotypes and how in the past stereotypes were not as big of an issues as they are now.  Their conversation intrigued me because two of the hosts are black and to hear their take on the issue was interesting.  As they were talking it seemed to me that there are a lot of offensive stereotypes out there for African-Americans than there are for whites.  

Also when I was watching T.V. the new Oreo commercial came on and I have seen this commercial a couple of times before, but it never clicked until now to apply it to this class.  The commercial has a white red-haired young girl on one train and on the other train there is a young Asian girl, both girls look the same age and both are eating Oreos.  As the red-haired girl is making movements and eating her Oreo, the Asian girl is doing the same exact thing.  Then as the red-haired girl turns to her mom, I believe, and then looks to the other train, the train is gone.  Even though this is an advertisement for Oreo and the main point is that all kids around the world eat Oreo, I think it can unite kids in the sense of showing them that no matter what you look like or where you live everyone has the same interest or does the same things.  

HABIBI

I think Habibi is a great book for middle school students to read because it really gives insight on how to come accustom to a different culture by gradually learning through family and other citizens who live in that specific country.  I also think that it teaches American students that students who attend schools half way around the world still have the same interest and do the same activities as them.  This might sound cliche but by educating our students throughout their schooling about different cultures around the world could have the possibility of bringing the world closer to peace because by being educated on different cultures a person is able to see the similarities among cultures much more than the differences.

As I was reading this book I imagined myself in Liyana and the mother's shoes and how I would be if my family told me that we were moving to Jerusalem (Palestine).  I thought Liyana and the mother did a wonderful job assimilating themselves into the Arabic culture.  They really showed a lot of respect and I thought the mother was especially humble about it.  She left everything she has known and sacrificed for mostly her husband because he was the one who wanted to move there and really, I would say, embraced the Arabic culture.   

Also, when the Abbound family was mentioning the Arabic food such as grape leaves, hummus, and others, I knew what they were talking about because my family eats the same food and I would say that the food is delicious!