Response by Mary Lorraine Snauffer

 Hello What
is Math class:
I had to miss Wed's class because I had a meeting about a speech I'm
presenting next Wed. at Womenspeak! which everyone is welcomed to. It's
from 10am until 4 at the McDonald Lounge and this years topic is Women
and Money. So if you have a break between classes or anything, stop by
it'll be interesting if you're interested in that sort of stuff. And I
think there is free food, which is the main reason I attend school
sponsered events.
Anyway, Dani asked me to write an essay about my topic to educate the
class, so this is it:
I studied my best friend's younger sister, Alissa who is 16, and her
friends over winter break. Then I wrote a lenghy research paper titled:
"The State of the American Girl"
What I discovered is that today's American girl is incredibly oppressed.
I argue, that though women have made very positive strives since the 50's
and 60's, girls today are more opressed than ever before. I blame this
almost entirely on America's advertising schemes. Not long ago marketers
realized that the pre-teen and teen demographic is an untapped goldmine
because they are rolling in disposable dollars. The book, "The Body
Project" compares comporary girls to Victorian girls through diary
enteries and interviews. What the author repeatedly found is that the
similarity between teenage girls throughout the ages is their lust for
self-improvement. Only Victorian girls strove for this by reading more,
taking up hobbies, expanding the mind. Trying to improve the outer self
was seen as superifical and silly. As we all know, this has changed
completely. Alissa and her friends were all on trendy diets. They all
believed truly and deeply that to be happy they had to look good. They
had to look perfect. Alissa, in fact, was a vegaterian for nine years
because of her love for animals, she gave it up last year to go on the
Atkins diet. What Alissa and her friends sought was unobtainable, they
would never look perfect. They would never look exactly like their
favorite actress. But they will keep trying, and advertisers know that
because they are the ones pushing this fake ideal. The only way today's
girls know how to "be happy" is to buy it. And they are buying.
American girls spend $67 billion a year! They spend this on products and
diets and clothes, all to fit in, to feel good. Advertisers know this and
so they attack them everywhere, they attack their vunerablity and they
instill the idea that they can, and need, to change their identity
through their clothes, hair, and make up.
They attack girls through TV, magazines, movies, basically  pop-culture
everywhere. They also attack girls through schools. Because of the ever
changing technology schools, pubic and private, continually need to
update to stay to-date with current technology trends. This is pricey. To
do this school take corporate partnerships to afford these expensives. At
the 4th Annual Kids Marketing Conference a brouchure read: "You'll agree
that the youth market is an untapped wellspring of new revenue. You'll
also agree that the youth market spends the majority of each day inside
the schoolhouse. Now the problem is, how do you reach that market?"
Meaning that teenagers are continually absorbing advertisments for
material products when they are at home, with friends and at school.
The difference between marketing towards teenagers vs. adults is that
adults are educated. Teenagers are not. An educated adult has a better
change at being a citizen who chooses when and if to be a consumer,
whereas a teenager, who is not fully educated, does not yet have, or know
to want, that same choice. Thus, she cannot differentiate who is speaking
to her-the-individual and who is speaking to (and seducing) her-the-
consumer.
Buying things has become a patroitic duty since 9/11. An article in the
NY Times wrote: "President Bush implied as much in a speech to Congress
on Sept. 20, 2001, in which he urged our 'continued participation and
confidence in the American economy in order to help recover from the
terrorists attacks' The president's exhoration conflated patriotism with
shopping. Maxing out your credit cards at the mall wasn't self-
indulgence, it was a way to get back at Osama bin Laden."
So people are buying. Parents will, and are, buying for their daughters,
who are upset, because they too believe buying things for them is the
only thing that will make them happy, will make them fit in.
Anita Harris noted: "Terms such as 'customer,' 'client,' and 'consumer'
have overwhelming taken the place of 'citizen' in the areas of health,
education, housing and employment. The social rights of citizen are no
longer ensured by the state, but must be negotiated on an individual
level between consumer and corporation. The current generation of youth
is the first to have experienced these circumstances as its only
reality." Today's teen is also the first to grow up in a society where
drugs are advertised. People with no knowledge of medicine are telling
their doctors what they think they need.
Alissa is on Adderol, for ADHD, and she was on Zoloft for a year and
half. She sold her Zoloft to friends who wanted to thin their blood so
they could get drunk faster. Alissa takes extra pills of Adderol because
it works as a stimulant and she "eats less." Because Alissa, not fully
grown, is always dieting, always trying to eat less. Because diets are
advertised as much as skinny girls are.
Zoloft is advertised on TV with a cartoon, a black and white blob-like
bunny. This is VERY similar to how cigarette marketers tried to hit their
younger demographic. (Think Joe the Camel) When cigarette companies were
brought to court people were disgusted by this. IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
WITH DRUGS. Zoloft has commericals where there is a bunny under the
black-white cloud, then the bunny takes Zoloft and finds the sun. Black
and white. Clean and simple. You are happy or you aren't.
In 2002, 11 million antidepressants prescriptions were written for
children in the US. Doctors prescribed these drugs to treat anything from
"depression" to shyness.
Yet the main reason girls aren't happy is because they are being sold the
idea of buying an identity. Of buying a voice. A self.
It's a horrible, disgusting cycle. I think marketing to minors should be
illegal.
That's my point.
Anyway, okay, now I feel I educated the class.
 
 
 

 Response by Mary Lorraine Snauffer
 
 
 I saw a movie over the weekend that I would like to recommend to the class, not
for it's particular Math value, but nonetheless... Hotel Rwanda is playing at
Cinampolis in the commons and it is a very hard, but important movie to see. It's based on
the genocide in
Rwanda in 1994, in where the Hutus wanted to "cleanse" Rwanda of the
other major
tribe in the country, the Tutsis. Over a million men, women, and children
were murdered
(a heavy amount being children since the Hutus wanted to wipe out the
next generation
of Tutsis). If you do see it, please note that a VERY similar thing is
happening in Darfur
Sudan, Africa right now. Since 2003 the Sudanese government, using Arab
"Janjaweed"
miltias, its airforce and organized starvation, is deliberately and
systematically killing the
black Sudanese of Darfur. In the last two years it is estimated that
70,000 women, men
and children have been murdered.  While1.8 million Sudanese have been
forced to
leave their homes, most becoming refuges in neighboring Chad.
There is a very good scene in Hotel Rwanda where you see how the conflict
has created
complete anarchy becasue there are no peace keepers in Rwanda or any such
authority,
you see people running for their lives meanwhile there is a BBC radio
clip playing where
intellectuals are discussing how to truly define the word "genocide."
Today, the U.S. calls what is happening in Darfur a genocide, but the
U.N. isn't
completely sure what to call it. This sort of banter is completely
irrelavent. Because what
is happening, what has been happening, and will continue to happen, is
that there are
mass murders being commited in a country. Simply, close to a million
people have been
murdered in the last two years solely because of their race.
There has been extreme coverage and concern over the tsunami in Asia. You
see
tsunami relief donation spots everywhere. This is all very good, but a
reason I suspect
the tsunami disaster is such a popular one is because it is a natural
disaster. There are
only heros and victoms. There is no one to blame. There are no politics
involved. You,
yourself, sitting in America, have nothing to feel guilty about.
What is happening in Sudan is harder. It is harder not to feel guilty.
And when a person
feels guilty, I've begun to notice, they start to ignore the issue. They
turn away from their
guilt.
We cannot, cannot continue to ignore this. Make yourself aware. Make
others aware.
 

Response by Rebecca Cesario

I have been writing
after each class in my own personal journal/attendance log, but I have
only written online about once. I hope that is okay. I have been
recording my thoughts, just not publicly. However, I thought it was about
time that I share some of my thoughts online.
I enjoyed the day of juggling/unicycling, though I did not get up to do
it. I felt uncomfortable, even though others were trying it. I'm not
exactly sure why. Perhaps if I knew more people in the class I would have
been a little braver. It was fun to see Dani try the unicycle though!
Maybe if we do it again someday I'll at least try juggling.
I also enjoyed learning how to make spirals-it's easier than I would have
thought, and it was fun experimenting with how to make them different. I
was unable to save it to the right place, however. Haha, I'm not the
greatest with computers. :-P
The past several classses I have met up with my Scavenger Hunt group. We
finally got everything together. It was a lot of fun and I feel very
accomplished. We started out by splitting into small groups and going to
separate floors to come up with math related clues/problems. Then we put
them all together into a scavenger hunt, made index cards for each of the
clues, and tested out the hunt on the other scavenger hunt group. It
turned out really great! I look forward to trying it out with little kids
too :) Though, we may have to make a few of our clues/problems a little
easier, depending on the age of the kids. I'm glad to be a part of the
scavenger hunt group though-it's been a lot of fun.
Anyway, now that I've written a novel, I'd say I'm pretty well caught up.
I may start writing a little more often online, while still keeping up in
my log journal. We'll see how it goes.

Response by Mary Lorraine Snauffer

 There is a
lot of talk between math and music in class but we don't talk about the
relationship between math and art, which I think is very interesting. I'd
like to do a little presentation about art and math in class next week
maybe? I think the idea of seeing is the same for both displines.
 

Response by Melvin

 Hey Dani and others...
I just read the "NDE" article that we talked about briefly in class
earlier today. I found it fascinating, and at the same time extremely
hard to believe. This guy claims that he has actually died and come back
to life? Was he pronounced clinically dead? Is he still alive now? My
first response was clearly very cynical. I mean its so hard to really
pinpoint death. I myself think of death with a feeling of dread and fear.
I like most others have always feared the unexpected, and obviously death
is the ultimate unexpected situation. I guess the point I'm trying to
make here, and I think I'm wording this very badly, is that who are we to
put an image or theory towards death? No one knows what really
happens...for all we know this guy might have had a hallucination, or
something else to that effect. And I really dont understand what this has
to do with math...
well those are my thoughts - thanks for listening.
 
 

Response by sarah v.

 Math is a part of life,
not a self-contained subject. Everything is connected in a great way. I
really
learned a lot from the NDE article... death may be many things to many
people, and I saw this
writer's vision as one personal aspect of 'death.' Facts and figures
don't need to be weighted.... this
is a personal account of what someone experienced-- and how generous of
him to share his vision
with us. I can see many people not agreeing with his points, but they
will still help us learn. All
ideas and new thoughts help. This article gave me hope. I'm learning that
there is more math
involved in every aspect of the world than I previously thought.

Response by 0195

 To be honest, I'm having some
doubts about this class. I've never hated math. I just have some trouble
remembering from year to year. I came into this class just hoping to
refresh my memory. The class
seems interesting but I hope that next year when I have to take a "real"
math class I'll be prepared to do
the "normal" equations that will be required of me.
 

Response by :)

 In response to other people's
entries, it seems like everyone is really intrigued by the different
direction of this class. I think quite a few people are looking forward
to it just as I am. It will be good to get away from the typical boring,
straight-forward math class.

Response by thx1138

 In response to reading
others contributions:
I had a feeling that other students might feel the same way I did about
Math... discouraged, and uninterested because of it... but I really
didn't realize how severe a problem it really is!  Make me glad I'm not a
Math teacher in the public school system!  However, I think we can all
say that if the tables were turned and we were teaching the math classes,
we'd find some way to negate all those scary, reluctant feelings towards
math.  Perhaps an approach very similar to the what we're doing right
now???  Think about how much students would benefit from learning WHY
they're doing something before they actually do it?  What a NOVEL idea...
I sincerely remember asking myself daily in math class "how does q > p is
equal to xyz relate to my life?"  Too bad this class wasn't around 8
years ago for us!

Response by Moe Velez

Though the course may change sometimes,
Rivers always reach the sea  
-Led Zeppelin

Response by Adrienne Berner

 I am so happy that
I have the oppurtunity to take a math class that doesn't force you to
memorize
formulas or postulates!!  I can actually have fun and be able to enjoy
what I learn.

Response by Kelvin
 I am in the library, trying
to do some reading for my politics class. The books are very long but
have plenty of information I did not know. Politics is something that
many find confusing and painful but in reality is the opposite. It can be
fun and interesting all at once. I am taking a variety of classes from
Math to Politics and communbication classes. They all seem like they will
be a lot of fun and most importantly educational.
--------------------------------------
Response by Moe Velez
Though the course may change sometimes,
Rivers always reach the sea
-Led Zeppelin
------------------------------------
 

-------------------------------------------------
 

Response by Lauren

 rEADING WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO
SAY i HAVE FOUND THAT THERE IS A GENERAL CONCENSUS ON WHY MATH JUST
DOESN'T WORK FOR US. THE IDEA OF MATH TERRIFIES US FROM THE START AND WE
DON'T BELEIVE IN OURSELVE ENOUGH THAT WE COULD ACTUALLY DO IT.MATH IS
CHALLENGING AND WE NEED TO LEARN TO USE BOTH SIDES OF THE BRAIN.
 

Response by Lauren

 What is math?
"Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe."
-- Galileo Galilei

Response by Lauren

Anything I know?
I know enough to keep me entertained day after day.
 

Response by no one

 Wow, sometimes people are so
conceded, like altogether.  Make you feel like dirt, but then again, you
let them, because you think you are dirt.  Sadly, I don't know why people
do that, think taht they are teh best. Becasue now, I think I am dirt.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Response by Mary Lorraine Snauffer
 This is a
poem I read the other night in The New Yorker (Jan 3, 2005). I was
particularly struck by it, though I can't yet articulate why... but poems
have a way of getting to you before you realize you need them (or so this
English major has discovered). Anyway...
CRUELY (Vermont, 1965)
by Lawrence Raab
That was the year my friends were reading
Antonin Artaud and Jean Genet.
The idea of cruelty felt important,
like being so perfect an outlaw
you became a saint. The war was on,
muffled, distant. Where we were
everything happened a few years later
than it did in New York or San Fransico.
Some would say it was too easy
for us to be there, talking
about almost anything. Too easy now
to say we didn't have a clue.
I made it through the first few chapters
of Artaud, and never got to "Saint Genet,"
although I remember the cover clearly,
the dome of his head, his eyes, the stare
that claimed he knew something
I would never know. My friends
moved on to de Sade. And now
it occurs to me that during all those years
I never said "I love you" to anyone,
although I probably should have lied
at least twice, to see if it was a lie.
Meanwhile, the fields and mountains promised
to remain the same, and they didn't.
Great poems told us that nature
would never betray us, but that
really wasn't the point, was it?
And then the theatre of cruelty
stopped being shocking.
-------------------------------------------------------
 Response by Nick    favorite quotes
"I wish the world was one big musical and all we ever had to do was sing
and dance"- Anonymous
"Baseball is 90% mental- the other half is physical."- yogi berra
" what is the use of a house if you don't have a decent planet to put it
on?"- Henry David Thoreau  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Response by King Flapjack

 1- Math is the study
of nubers and there relation to each other.
2- My math experience peaked senior year of high school with Calculus.
3- A guy walks into a bar..... ouch
4.5- Im in college to get a fine piece of paper after 4 years so people
will higher me.