Tuesday, October 8, 2013

9/26 missed blog post

On 9/26 we discussed the American Born Chinese reading assignment. The story is about an american born asian kid who moves to school to an area where there aren't many asians so they all believe he is a foreigner and bully him. This story deals with the theme of racism and bullying. I really liked this reading because i can relate to it and it almost mirrors my childhood. Im an american born mexican, and i went to a catholic school that was literally all white, mainly italian and irish. I was one of the only hispanic kids and i remember i would also get bullied by some of the kids for not being white. I found it very difficult to make friends at first, and i would always hate going to school for that reason. Just like in the story, it did get better over time, more hispanic kids came to the school and i made friends over time. i would still encounter the occasional racist kids, but they didn't bother us anymore.
Today in class we discussed the Coyote and Pebbles reading.  The class came to the conclusion that this story is more intended for preteens or teens. However, I disagree. It is a creation story about how the stars came about. It involves night animals, that can morph into humans, calling upon the mystery for more light during the night time which the great mystery then tells them to throw shinning pebbles into the sky attempting to draw their portraits. The coyote shows up late and messes up all the portraits. To me this sounds like a very childish creation story. It has morals that tell people to not be selfish or cocky and to forgive. Which to me sound like morals for little kids, to not be selfish, forgive people for minor mistakes, since the coyotes mistake was minor, and to not be conceited. A story for teens or preteens would involve much more mature themes in my opinion. Also the fact that the story involves animals that morph into humans and an unknown entity known as great mystery.