The Great Debaters - the pen is mightier than the sword

Last Tuesday we watched the inspiring movie "The Great Debaters" (2007) directed by Denzel Washington, and produced by Oprah Winfrey. The movie is based on an article written in a magazine called "American Legacy". This magazine covers subjects of African-American history and culture, and it was in the Spring 1997 issue, that an article was written about the Wiley College 1935 debate team. But to what extent is this movie inspired and based on a true story?

Melvin Tolson. Source: Google Images

It is a fact that the successful debate team was coached by professor and poet Melvin Tolson (played by Denzel Washington), and that Wiley College, in the town of Marshall, Texas, was a real black college. It is what you call a historically black college, established with the intention of serving the black community. The movie is set in the 1930's, an era of segregation in the US. Melvin Tolson was described as a person of impressive intellect, by students who admired him. Despite it being a turbulent time for blacks in the US, he encouraged his students to stand up for their rights, and express themselves through words.  The members on the real 1935 debate team were:  James L. Farmer jr, (being the captain of the team and only 14 years old), Hamilton Boswell and Henry Heights. I read an article online written by the daughter of Hamilton Boswell, who says that there never was a girl on the debate team. I choose to believe this source, but I have read on other websites that there actually was a female member, named Henrietta Bell Wells. 

JamesL.Farmer jr is the most renowned member of the debate team. In the movie, he is shocked to see his respectful father humiliated by a white man, and not doing anything. This is partly true, as something similar happened in real life. The father of James L.Farmer had to lie to a manager of a train in order to get a bedroom. James L.Farmer had been just as shocked as the movie depicted. The event on the train was when Farmer began to dedicate his life to the end of segregation. In 1942, James L.Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality. He continued debating, and once said: "I debated Malcolm X four times and beat him. I'd think, come off it, Malcolm, you can't win. You didn't come up under Tolson". 

In the movie, the debate team makes it to the national championship. This also happened in real life, but the opponent was not Harvard University. After having met and won over countless black and white universities, they met the Trojans on April the 1st. They were the national championships, and were students at the University of Southern California. Before a mixed audience of 2000 people, they won the debate. How I would have loved to see that debate! I read an article written by Hobart Jarrett a professor from Texas who described what one had to do during a debate: "The debater must be able to escape from the most perplexing dilemmas and antinomies. Every man must learn to take it as well as give it. He must be able to think coolly under fire. The platform can be a very hot place, especially in an interracial debate."

I stumbled upon USC's (University of Southern Carolina) website, and I found some interesting information. Four days ago, it was announced on the website that their Trojan debate squad would be going to Texas on January the 27th, for a rematch of the famous debate between USC and Wiley College! The situation is a whole lot different today, but it would be great fun if Wiley won again. The students from Wiley say they are humbled to be a part of this, and to be representing Wiley. Read more about it here: http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/trojan_debate_squad_set_for_great_debaters_rematch.html

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Tolson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_College#Debate_Team

http://www.wileyc.edu/wileydebaters/release/ShowRelease.asp?ReleaseID=119

http://www.brianrwright.com/Coffee_Coaster/02_Movie_Reviews/2008/080523_Great_Debaters.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/education/05wiley.html?pagewanted=all

Lamb to the Slaughter

Today we read the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter", (written by Roald Dahl) and after that we watched the Alfred Hitchcock version. I preferred the original short story a lot more than the screen version. This is because I liked the way the short story was written, with little dialog and a lot of good descriptions. Here is an example that I liked: 


"She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel-almost as a sunbather feels the sun- that warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were alone together".

The policemen ate the evidence

I think this sentence had an interesting comparison, and it also truly shows how much he meant to her. Unfortunately, I don't this is something that was as easy to see in the film. I know that it is not possible to read the characters' thoughts on film, but there are certain scenes I don't think they should have excluded. For example at the very beginning of the short-story, where Mary's "blissful part of the day" was described. I liked the Mary in the short story better than in the film, because she wasn't as frantic and annoying towards Patrick.

I did not expect the story to end the way it did, so I was rather surprised. However, this surprising ending made the short story interesting and fun. While reading it, I didn't understand why she put the meat in the oven, but it turned out to be a great way to remove the evidence. 

Living In Norway

What's it like living in Norway? When foreigners hear "Norway", they might think : cold, polar bears, and beautiful mountains. Others might not even know anything about Norway! However, if that's the case, I hope you'll learn a bit more about Norway after reading this blog post! I'm a student from Oslo, and I've lived in Norway nearly all my life. I started in kindergarden when I was around 4, followed by elementry school, secondary school, and now high school. Norway is a small, but great country to live in, although we sometimes tend to forget it. 

In Norway, we have everything we need.Thanks to the oil we've found outside our coast, we are one of the richest countries in the world. Tourists who travel to Norway come to see the beautful scenery, but are shocked by the high prices here. Oslo was recently announced as the the most expensive city in the world! 

For a year, my family lived in Australia. When people heard I was from Norway, they'd ask: "Can you speak Norway? Or Norwish? Or what language do you speak there?" In Norway we speak Norwegian! It is closely related to Swedish and Danish, and speakers the three languages should be able to understand each other well..However, out of personal experience, this is not always entirely true. I think a lot of Norwegians find it hard to understand Danish, and the other way around. 

Norway is divided into 19 different regions, and in these regions you will find dialects of the Norwegian language. I speak what we call "Bokmål", and it is what everyone else around Oslo also will speak. Norwegians from Stavanger, in the region Rogaland will speak with a "Stavangersk"-dialect. It's quite fascinating to listen to, as I'm not really that used to it!

Our Lesotho Project

Two weeks ago we started an exciting project called Project Lesotho. Lesotho is a small, landlocked country in South Africa.  Being surrounded by South Africa, their main economy is based on the exportation of diamonds and water sold to these countries. Despite this exportation, the country still suffers from poverty, and it is causing bad living conditions. The poverty combined with AIDS has caused the median age to be 22,9 years. Lesotho has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world!

In April 2011, a teacher at a primary school from Lesotho visited an International English class. She told them about the school she teaches at, and the situation they are in. The school is called Mamoeketsi primary school, and it has around 800 pupils. Their classrooms are really small, so in order to move around, the students have to walk on the desks. They now have 5 computers, but no Internet. This is where we want to help!

To show their gratitude to last years International English class, the students at Mamoketsi primary school sent letters. Our class sat together in a large circle, where we read all of them. It was touching, inspiring and very motivating! After reading the letters, we split our class up in different groups. I'm in a group that is in charge of marketing. How do we draw attention to our project? We made a group on Facebook, and we now have 39 "likes" on the page. You can like us here! We also made a twitter-account, make sure that you follow us!  We will be posting the latest news and updates on how we are doing with our project! 

Last Tuesday all the groups made buns and brewed coffee that we sold at different places. While some groups sold at our school or in Oslo, my group decided to meet up at the train station in Sandvika, 07:15. Unfortunately, students from another school were already there selling exactly the same as us! Despite this, we still earned 600 kroner. Everything helps I guess.

The most exciting part about this project is that we've recieved funding from Akershus Fylkeskommune, and 3 students will be able to go Lesotho in March 2012!!

The Use (Or Abuse) Of Social Media

Statistics show that social networking dominates our time spent online. Sites that are frequently used are Facebook and Twitter, and having an account on both these websites, I can confirm that those are the websites I spend the most time on. Today there are more than 800 million active users on Facebook, and no less than 1 billion tweets are posted per week. But why have these sites become so popular, and what are the pros and cons of them? Although these sites can be really time-consuming, I cannot picture myself not having a Facebook account. This is quite a scary thought, but it has actually become a big part of (especially) teenagers’ lives. To illustrate this point, I was shocked when an adult relative recently asked me “How do I add people on Facebook?”

Image from Google. Why do you use Facebook?

I think one of the main reasons people use Facebook is to read the recent updates, create a network, keep in touch with friends, see and be seen. You wouldn’t want to miss seeing the funny picture your friend posted, or the other friend’s changed relationship status. You want to avoid having the feeling you get when a group of people are talking about a TV show you have never seen.  No one likes to feel excluded, and I am convinced that the majority of teenagers joined Facebook because “everyone else was there”.  I remember when I was younger; although no one ever mentioned it, everyone knew that it was important to have a lot of friends on Facebook, even if this meant adding people you had only met once, and not really spoken to. Luckily things are not like that anymore, and most people have understood that the website can be a great way to learn new things as well. 

Another thing to remember is that a big part of what is written on Facebook is unnecessary information. But it is important to add that Facebook and Twitter can also be used for other things, such as taking part in interesting discussions, and reading posts written by politicians. A lot of people find it exciting and fun being able to participate in debates, and have other people read your thoughts and opinions. It has become a platform where we, as consumers, can read about what companies are working with, and what they are selling. Like I’ve written on my blog, the social media is a great place for companies to market their products, without any costs. The best way to reach the young target group is not through newspapers, TV or radio, but through social media.

Like lecturer Cecilie Staude talked about in her presentation, one should always keep in mind and take into consideration that anyone can read your posts, and you should never post offensive things. The same goes for pictures that could get you in trouble in the future, for example when you start looking for a job. If a person already has a job, posting inappropriate things can lead to negative consequences if your boss sees it. You’d think this was common sense, but there have been situations where people of higher authority have posted statuses on social media, that they have gotten in trouble for.

Whether Facebook should be used and allowed in school, I am not sure. As mentioned, it can be very time-consuming, and if you lack self-discipline it might give you difficulties with paying attention in class. However, having reached the age of 17, we should be able to control the use of social media during lessons (if we are not supposed to use them). In addition to social media perhaps negatively affecting your concentration, it might decrease your motivation when working with tasks in class, and result in you wasting valuable time where you could have been working.

Image from Google. Do you think the computer makes you unfocused in class?

Some teachers are strictly against the use of social media in class, and I think it would definitely take some time for them to adjust if the rules were changed, but that is beside the point.  My point is that instead of closing the internet and forbidding the use of social media in class, permitting the use of social media could cause an opposite effect on the students.  When taking away the opportunity we have of checking our Facebooks, we are immediately more tempted to do so. When letting us do as we want, the temptation is removed, and we won’t feel that urge anymore. By doing this, the teachers are also giving the students more freedom, and the chance to show responsibility. If a student fails to do so, the student should realize that his or her bad grade might have something to do with the lack of interest and attention they have paid in class. I am convinced that this is a great way for students to learn self-discipline, and that it is our own decision based on our values and goals, whether we want to learn or not. 

To sum it up, Facebook and other types of social media have positive and negative sides, and can be used for different purposes. I think Facebook is fun, and I mostly use it to read about what my friends are doing, look at pictures, and chat. Sometimes my parents suspect that I never do my homework, and waste too much time on social media. This is where they are wrong.  I think that a lot of teenagers nowadays are multi-taskers like me, and often I’ll discuss homework with others through these social media. While it may be true that I also do waste some time on these sites, there is a saying by John Lennon that goes like this “Time you enjoyed wasting, was not wasted.”

Sources: 

http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/stats-time-spent-online/

http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/teens-use-social-media/

I've been nominated!

Hi! I've been nominated for "Best Student Blog 2011", and I'd be really happy if you voted for me!

Vote by clicking here and choose the category "Best Student Blog".

Thank you so much!

Sara

My Edublog Nominations

Every year it is difficult to find the best blogs, but this year I have decided to nominate in the following categories:

Best student blog:

I've decided to nominate Martine's blog as the best student blog. The layout is nice, and she has written a lot of interesting and useful articles for students.  

Best group blog: Voices From The Learning Revolution http://plpnetwork.com/category/voices/page/2/

Best Teacher blog: 

This is my teacher's blog. She writes useful posts about how you can have good presentations in class, and often she will include interesting links and videos in her posts.