42

Today as a class we went to see the movie of  the year so far in my opinion, "42". We didn't just watch the movie though, we have to blog about it and answer some questions, so here we go. The first question requires to analyze two opposite cultures in the movie, from a regional perspective. The two examples I'm going to use are California and New York. California wasn't in the Civil War hence they didn't have an issue with colored people, California a very accepting culture. Whereas areas such as Brooklyn still had Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were laws that justified blacks being treated as second class citizens. Such as not being allowed to be served at restaurants or using certain bathrooms. Places like California that never had an issue with blacks never had such laws meaning they didn't have a hard time getting rid of them; where Brooklyn did have trouble with it.

The second thing I have to blog about is talking about two examples in the movie of characters that had a struggle with changing their culture towards Jackie Robinson. One character was Eddie Stanky, he was second baseman on the team and just like everyone else on the Dodgers didn't want to play with Jackie Robinson. However, when the Dodgers were playing the Phillies and the manager was yelling insults to Jackie Robinson and Eddie finally heard enough of it and stood up for him. It took Eddie a while and no other teammates said anything, but he did.

Another example would be Pee Wee Reese. One of the Dodger games was in Cincinnati which was almost like a home game for Reese. He got a hate letter about him playing with Jackie. But then he finally overcame the racial wall and put his arm around Jackie on the field and took in all the boos from the crowd, and finally an applause came.

42 is a great movie and I would recommend it to anyone, because its very inspirational and meaningful.

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/stats/alltime/rosters/brooklyn_dodgers/1947/byPOSN_ABRV.html

Passing on Values

Today I wanted to talk about passing on values. Since we mostly get values from our family there are nonverbal and verbal things said/seen that pass on values to us. For me personally I know one way my family passes on values non verbally would be by example. If my mom or grandparents want me to understand a certain value, say hard work for example, then they'll work hard and show me how it's done; naturally I follow that example. Another way would probably be leaving bread crumbs so to speak. If I need to learn the value of responsibility and I know its my job to put up the dishes, one thing that will happen is the dishes won't be put up until I do it. Hence I have no choice but to put this value into practice, and really see how crucial it is on a small scale. The men and women in my family don't necessarily give me different value messages. If anything the men might just give me different value messages regarding how to be a man, but other than that there isn't a huge difference.

If I have children, one family message I want to pass on to them would be courage. I wouldn't want them to be afraid to try new things, meet new people, or stand up for their values.  Another would be loyalty. Why? Loyalty is important in anything, mainly because life is a team game and you will need other people to help you in your life. If you are a back stabber no one will want to help, or even be nice to you. There are so many values I would pass onto my children I could have multiple blog posts on it. Based on that statement I think its obvious that I won't hesitate to talk about any value with them. The reason why is because my mom has always been open to talk to me about anything, that's why me and her have a good relationship. Why wouldn't I want that for my children, the ability to talk with their father about anything? I couldn't hold any value from them, in fact I won't.

Following Values

Today I'm going to talk about following your values. Sometimes its hard to stand up for your values when your friend's don't agree with your position. It's not easy to do but when you do it feels good. It feels good that you're able to withstand peer pressure to do what you feel is right. It feels good to please your parents. When adolescents' don't honor their values the parents usually aren't thrilled. First comes the disappointment that you didn't have strong enough to will power to stand up for your values, then comes a lecture about peer pressure and how no matter what you should do what's right.

What influences people to behave in a way that is in line with their values is a value, integrity. If you have enough of it you will hold your values no matter what. Another influence could be family and friends that share your same values. The same goes for influences that can make it harder for you to keep your values. Friends or family that don't support them. It can make it hard when a friend or family member doesn't agree with the things you live by, especially family.

My values will stay the same as I get older unless something incredibly drastic happens that makes me feel otherwise. One reason why is because the values you have now I've always lived by, so it's natural for me. Another reason is I don't see a huge problem with any of my values and I understand why I follow them. Those are the reasons people follow or don't follow their values and why I will keep mine even as I get older.

First blog

Hi, you may read some of my other blogs that I've done for school, maybe not. Regardless I go to the Clariden School of Southlake where we do project based learning, which means the majority of what we learn comes from our project. Right now we are working on our Fix It project. In this project we are going to learn about values, traditions, and cultures. Then after we learn about those things in different schools, and countries, we are going to find our own values, traditions, and culture we want to instill on our school. Part of this project I need to blog on a regular basis.

Today I’m writing about values. My teacher posed some questions to the class. One was “where do you think we get our values?” I think we get our values from multiple places. We first come into contact with values through our families. Based on what our family has values usually impacts what we have as ours. Or if we see certain family members show that they have specific qualities and values we copy them, good or bad. For example, I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, and a religious value that I’ve been taught is to be obedient to my faith no matter what.

Sometimes we can also get values on beliefs that come with our culture. At the moment though I cannot think of any values I have because of my culture. We also get values from our country, and living in America one value that is very important is freedom. America goes by the land of the free because our forefathers have fought for that right; whereas in other countries that isn’t necessarily a big value. There are many countries that are under dictatorship right now. Some would include, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, and Vietnam, but those are just some and there’s many more. Freedom is a big thing in America but not everywhere and that is one luxury of living in this country.

Well that concludes my post for today. We covered a lot, and there really are a lot of different places we get our values. What about you? What are your values? Where do you get them? Just some questions that we should all think about time to time.