1. What cultural or societal values, beliefs, etc., do we share with the society and culture in which the text was written? Why have they endured?
In relation to the text, I have the same idea that teachers are not respected or thought highly enough of in our culture. I share the idea that performance, especially on an international scale, is very important, and that we should always try and strive to learn from other cultures and societies in order to improve our own. These ideas have endured because they are applicable to the majority of the population's opinions--success, respect and performance are three universal topics that we all can relate to on a similar basis.
2. What cultural or societal values, beliefs, etc., do we not share? Why not?
I do not have the same belief that says that the measure of success that someone is accredited is based on their salary or position. This is a very popular idea in our culture, but I do not agree with it mainly because I think the definition for "success" is distinct for each person. I also do not agree with the practice that our society does off this point. Many people give more respect to people who are more financially "successful." Again, the term of success is flexible, not fixed, so I do not think respect should be based off of finances.
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| Frank Winkler. "New York Skyline." 09/02/2005 via Pixabay. CC0 Public Domain License. |
This text does relate to American culture and it was written in relation to American culture, so all of the values and beliefs discussed in the article are stemming from our society.
4. If the text is written in our culture but in a different historical time, how have the societal values, beliefs, etc., developed or changed over time?
This article was written in 2011, so not much has drastically changed. In fact, the subject matter is still being debated today. Our society still values the same things we did four years ago: education, performance, salary and respect. This list of topics are all still up-to-date in accordance to present day society.
--Jenny Bello
REFLECTION:
I read Lauren's and Rachel's blog post about their own assumptions, and I noticed that all of our beliefs and societal values agreed, for the most part, with the text. We all had chosen articles written from the American culture perspective, and all three of us chose current topics. I liked how Lauren related hers back to an even bigger issue: equal opportunity. I think that having a bigger issue behind the smaller, more specific topic is a good technique in this project. In my own research and work, I might look to find an even bigger context or background surrounding my argument.
I also agreed with most of the values in my article. But I also disagree about how someone's success is measured by how high their salary is. This is a concept that should not exist considering teachers are extremely valuable to society but are not paid as much as other professions. I definitely understand how this could create a bias.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your responses to both of the first two questions even though this isn't in my field. I think education is so important and the US has not gotten its priories right regarding education. I answered very similar to you for the last two questions because my debate is focused in the US, even though it is a global issue. Also, the time that my article was written was within the last couple of months, so again, the cultural and societal beliefs do not vary from those today.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you in that teachers do not receive the the proper amount of respect in our society. I disagree with your statement on success and salary. To me, in our culture, success directly correlates with salary. Obviously there is that whole other definition of success, meaning, that you could be happy or successful because you are doing the job you love. However, I don't think many people 'want' to do certain professionally leveled jobs such as teaching if they are going to receive an unreasonably low pay. The work teachers do is difficult, time consuming, and vital for the future of our nation. I think that teachers need to be paid based on their success because in most cases, as of now, that is NOT the case and majority of school teachers are paid very poorly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the first question, as teachers are literally the founding blocks of our lives and that deserves a lot of respect that isn't given. However, I don't necessarily agree with you on the fact that success isn't based on finances, since many jobs are structured so that within the job, the better skilled and more successful workers get paid more. I can see where you're coming from though, since teachers even if they're successful don't get paid much in comparison to other careers.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your values and beliefs. What really stuck out to me was what you believe success is. I too have never defined success as a matter of wealth or status even though it is how most of society views it. I have had teachers new to my high school that were some of the best teachers I have ever had and being paid considerably lower than those who had been there for years with plenty of complaints to their name. Teachers should be paid higher, they are the ones educating all the people who grow to be so "successful". However, I also believe the way they are paid within their own system should be changed to not be based on status either. Sorry to go off on a tangent but your post got me thinking!!
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