Today I realized why Forever 21 is very appropriately named. 26 year olds should NOT attempt to remain 21 when they are 26. Just as I longed to be of drinking age for several years before I actually turned 21 years old, the people who shop at Forever 21 also long to dress like they are 21. At age 21, not only was I a poor college kid just looking to have fun, I was more concerned with fitting in than being myself. Forever 21 is an attempt to provide cheap, poorly made clothing that is super trendy to girls who long to look grown up... you know, mature... like Paris Hilton.
Anyway, back to my story. Since the school district was nice enough to give us the entire week of Thanksgiving off, I decided to head to the Galleria to get some Christmas shopping done. I shopped for several hours with very little success and so began to kind of think about some shopping for myself. I wandered into Forever 21 thinking I might be able to find a cute, trendy, top to wear this weekend as I saw some old friends from high school who are back in town for the holidays. While I was slightly embarrassed to be shopping in such a store, I picked up a few things. As I was turning to head toward the dressing room I heard "Hey Mrs. (insert real name here)" ~CRINGE~ "You have got to be kidding me" I thought to myself as I flashed a very fake smile and greeting to my students who had just entered the store, one that they are very appropriately shopping in. Mortified, I exited the store as quickly as possible with a new lesson learned... In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful to be forever past the age of 21. I am no longer as concerned with fitting in as I am with being myself... even if that does mean shopping at the GAP.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Nudey Poster
My students are currently in the middle of a persuasive group marketing campaign project where they have a product and they target a specific demographic audience and use certain specific appeals. Along with creating a commercial, they have to create a print advertisement. Well, the print ads are starting to be completed and I got something today that I wasn't quite prepared for... it had nudey pics on it!
At first I just looked at it very quickly, shook my head and said, I'm not sure that is G rated. The boy argued saying that "his target audience was black males ages 15-25 and there is not a single black male 15-25 who wouldn't want to see all these beautiful women". I brushed it off for the time being until I got a chance to look over the poster more carefully later that day after school. Not only were the women scantly dressed, there was one picture of a girl in some daisy dukes with no top on and her long black locks draping over her chest to cover her nipples. When I notice the second severely inappropriate picture, I started to ask myself if these kids are just really naive and unaware of what these pictures infer... it was a girl in a red bra and panties DUCK TAPED to a chair! Are you kidding me! What made this kid think that he was going to get away with this! And the worst part is that he told a little freshman girl in his group exactly what to do and she was the one who actually cut the pictures out of the magazines and glued them to the poster board! I mean, what did her mom think as she had pictures of black women half naked strung across the dinner table as she pasted them together!
Well, if you are wondering, I told the kids they had to redo the poster. Of course they were pretty angry with me. The girls in the group accepted my request very quickly, knowing that it was probably going to happen. The male student however, fought me like I was taking away his brand new precious puppy. After about 5 min of arguing the discussion ended with me saying... "Well I don't mind writing a pass for you to go take the poster down to the vice principal to see if he thinks it would be appropriate to show in class. " Silence.
At first I just looked at it very quickly, shook my head and said, I'm not sure that is G rated. The boy argued saying that "his target audience was black males ages 15-25 and there is not a single black male 15-25 who wouldn't want to see all these beautiful women". I brushed it off for the time being until I got a chance to look over the poster more carefully later that day after school. Not only were the women scantly dressed, there was one picture of a girl in some daisy dukes with no top on and her long black locks draping over her chest to cover her nipples. When I notice the second severely inappropriate picture, I started to ask myself if these kids are just really naive and unaware of what these pictures infer... it was a girl in a red bra and panties DUCK TAPED to a chair! Are you kidding me! What made this kid think that he was going to get away with this! And the worst part is that he told a little freshman girl in his group exactly what to do and she was the one who actually cut the pictures out of the magazines and glued them to the poster board! I mean, what did her mom think as she had pictures of black women half naked strung across the dinner table as she pasted them together!
Well, if you are wondering, I told the kids they had to redo the poster. Of course they were pretty angry with me. The girls in the group accepted my request very quickly, knowing that it was probably going to happen. The male student however, fought me like I was taking away his brand new precious puppy. After about 5 min of arguing the discussion ended with me saying... "Well I don't mind writing a pass for you to go take the poster down to the vice principal to see if he thinks it would be appropriate to show in class. " Silence.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Ode to Patience
Ode to patience, precious patience,
Soothe my angry head,
The calmness comes with smiles for all,
From morning until bed.
But something evil inside of them,
Can take it all away,
And soon the monster leaps around,
And this is is what she'd say...
"Oh evil child, please do sit down,
don't ever speak again,
Or I will tear you all apart
You won't know where you've been.
Keep your head from turning round,
And tune your ears to me,
Or else those ears will soon me mine,
And deaf you'll surely be.
I don't care that you have to pee,
You shouldn't have drank more,
To write a pass would be the end,
So don't leak on the floor.
You're here to learn, so listen up,
You'd better take some notes,
Or you will wish you never lived,
And hope your body floats.
You need a pencil, did you say?
What're ya gonna do?
Did'ya plan to pull it out of air?
We'll then get some paper too!"
Yes there is a monster there,
She holds her tongue instead,
And will come to work another day,
With patience and a tired head :(
Soothe my angry head,
The calmness comes with smiles for all,
From morning until bed.
But something evil inside of them,
Can take it all away,
And soon the monster leaps around,
And this is is what she'd say...
"Oh evil child, please do sit down,
don't ever speak again,
Or I will tear you all apart
You won't know where you've been.
Keep your head from turning round,
And tune your ears to me,
Or else those ears will soon me mine,
And deaf you'll surely be.
I don't care that you have to pee,
You shouldn't have drank more,
To write a pass would be the end,
So don't leak on the floor.
You're here to learn, so listen up,
You'd better take some notes,
Or you will wish you never lived,
And hope your body floats.
You need a pencil, did you say?
What're ya gonna do?
Did'ya plan to pull it out of air?
We'll then get some paper too!"
Yes there is a monster there,
She holds her tongue instead,
And will come to work another day,
With patience and a tired head :(
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