McDebatable?
“Hello, welcome to McDonald’s. Would you like to try our new Supersized menu?”
Everyday, across the United States and around the world, people hear this phrase as well as many different variations of it from countless fast food chains. But what does this really mean? Our society has become more and more obsessed with the idea that ‘bigger is better and better can’t be beat’. So, why not apply this concept to our daily eating habits, right? Uh…no. In reality, our obsession with getting the biggest and the best has caused our country to become the fattest nation in the world. And because we are gaining weight so fast, it seems like we are dependent on larger portions to satisfy our hunger, which leads to the more rapid weight gain, thus, an endless cycle. Brian Wansink, a director of Cornell University was quoted in USAToday by saying;
“Overweight people are more likely to choose bigger meals than those at a normal weight. This may explain, in part, how large portions are contributing to Americans’ expanding waistlines. One of the big dangers of fast-food lunches is that we not only mindlessly overeat, but we mindlessly underestimate how much we’ve eaten”.
“Supersize Me” was a movie made by Morgan Spurlock, a man who decided to try the “McDonald’s Diet”, this consisted of eating only McDonald’s food for 3 meals a day for 30 days and monitored his body’s reaction to the sudden change in dietary intake. What he found was that the body didn’t take too fondly to the sudden change in nutrition. With so many different health risks out there that can effect people’s health, such as smoking, drinking and eating disorders, eating fast food seemed like something that wasn’t as high on the priority list. However, with our ever growing number of obese cases raging through the country, it’s important that we take another look at this epidemic.
“Fast food is commonly recognized to have very poor nutritional quality,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston and the senior author of the study. “But there have been very few studies, essentially no long-term studies that have documented the effects of this dietary pattern on the key chronic diseases of Western civilization — obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease.”
Morgan Spurlock wanted to prove his point and make it loud and clear. Fast Food Is Bad! But what else can we say about this ‘documentary’? Putting a critical eye to it, we also find that he did not only eat McDonald’s food, but he also cut back and limited his exercise, including walking. This is another factor that people may not always consider. The movie itself seems to focus more on bashing McDonald’s for it’s available choices, we also have to take into account that people are free to make choices in this country. No one is forcing them to eat fast food all the time. Personal responsibility has to be taken into account almost more then the places that are supplying the ‘death meals’.
“Warning: The witty filmmakers rated the movie “F” for “fat audiences,” which includes most of America. Audiences should know that “some food may not be suitable for young children” (despite what all the cute, indoctrinating commercials from the food industry may claim). Spurlock hopes the film and his eating experiment will serve as a wake-up call for Americans who — as he, nutritionists, doctors, even a former Surgeon General he consulted with believe — are eating themselves to death.”
In our classrooms where, we as future English teachers, will have to find ways to get our students to look at the world through new, critical eyes, especially when it comes to writing. Letting them examine something, such as this video, and allowing them to come to their own conclusions will do exactly that. “Supersize Me” is a great example of how, even though we have things presented to us in a formal way, in this case, in the form of a documentary, many times we don’t take the time to really examine the different points bought up or find the deeper meaning in a work. Though it can be debated, this film can be helpful to students in thier understanding of what it means to be a critical thinker, which, in turn, helps them become critical writers.
Are you deaf? No. I’m Deaf!
Let’s open with some humor, shall we?
| A Cuban, a Russian, and a Deaf American meet on a train. The Cuban takes out a fine, fresh Havana cigar, lights it up, takes a few leisurely puffs, and tosses the unfinished cigar out the window. He explains, “We have so many cigars in Cuba, we can afford to waste them.” The Russian then takes out a new bottle of fine native vodka, pours himself a shot, then casually tosses the nearly-full bottle out the window. “We have so much vodka in Russia, we can afford to waste it,” he says. Then the Deaf man picks up his sign language interpreter and tosses him out the window. Upon seeing the shocked expressions on his fellow passenger’s faces, he calmly wrote out; “We have so many hearing people in America, we can afford to waste them. |
Just like every other culture, the Deaf community has a sense of humor, although, those of us in the hearing world may not always find it as funny or even understand the amusement behind it. The point is, it is important to remember that people all over the world are brought together by some common bond. Whether it be humor, music or sports, we are all more alike then we are different.
Starting February 1st, 2007, the 16th Deaflympics opened in Salt Lake City, Utah. With many different countries competing this year for the gold, it’s not hard to see how groups are brought together to support a single cause. The Deaf community, no matter where you are, is a tightly knit culture that supports it’s members in any endeavor. What so many people do not understand is that the Deaf community does not consider itself a ‘disabled’ group. On the contrary, most people who consider themselves Deaf (with the capital D), feel that deafness should not be considered a disability, but rather, another way of living. Julie Eldredge made this statement that furthers my point.
“To be Deaf with a capital D, says Julie Eldredge, a Deaf teacher of Deaf culture at BYU, is to believe first and foremost that deafness is not a disability or a pathology. Being deaf, she says, is just another way of being. There’s nothing that needs fixing, and “hearing-impaired” is not a suitable synonym. Sound and speech aren’t the goal; communication is.”
Not all hearing people share the same belief that deaf people, those with a hearing impairment, should be taught through an oralists method. This is a way of teaching the deaf to speak and use what hearing they have (if any) to ‘fit into the hearing world’. This was the preferred method of education and, at one point, the only legal way of educating the deaf in this country. Granted, not everyone how is deaf considers themselves Deaf. There are many factors that go into why someone would or would not consider themselves part of the Deaf community. Those who go deaf due to an accident or old age or, in other cases, where someone was raised in a Oralist/hearing family where ASL and other aspects of the Deaf community were not supported.
Thankfully, times have changed and so has our understanding of Deaf culture. There are many people who work for Deaf advocacy, who work as interpreters for the Deaf and even are helping set up schools and educational material to educate the hearing community about it’s silent, yet strong willed counter part. In the end, I believe that Bryan Eldrege put it the best;
“Deafness doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t kill you, it isn’t a disease,” says Julie’s hearing husband, Bryan, who heads the American Sign Language and Deaf studies program at Utah Valley State College. “It’s just a kind of existence. A perfectly acceptable existence. But hearing people have always been uneasy with people who aren’t like them….To be Deaf with a capital D means being part of a tight-knit community that values candidness and friendship and stretches across the United States and beyond. It also means being embroiled in culture wars about the education and future of deaf children and the future of Deaf culture itself.”
Bilingual Babble
Before we can talk about Deaf education, I think it’s proper to start at the beginning and discuss how American Sign Language (ASL) effects babies and children.
All along we’ve known that babies, before their bodies are developed enough to be able to produce any sort of speech, they make sounds that resemble words or at least, letters. We refer to this a babbling and have always encouraged it, believing that the more a baby babbles, the sooner they will begin speaking properly. But let’s examine something else here. For an average human, a baby’s hands develop before their vocal cords. This is why, when you watch a young child, even as young as a few days, they will begin to move their hands, opening and closing them, before they begin speaking words. Sure, we all know how babies and toddlers make sounds to try to make themselves understood, but how often do they get their point across? Why not teach them an alternative way of communication?
In Fredrick, Maryland, parents are starting to be given more options. Kriste Hartman Kovarcik established a baby signing class for parents and children as young as 19 months (though, studies have shown that you can start this process much earlier in a child’s development). Children often are also frustrated during the toddler years because of their lack of strong communication. Screaming, crying children can drive anyone up the wall, but what if that ‘Terrible Two’ stage could simply be passed over? This is one reason why Kriste began teaching her son, Kaden, ASL when he was young.
Toddlers often throw tantrums because they get frustrated when their parents can’t understand what they are trying to say, said Kriste Hartman Kovarcik, the Maryland School for the Deaf staff member who created the baby signing class.
If a child can express himself with a sign, he is less likely to get frustrated, she said.
She attributes her own 3-year-old son’s easy passage through toddlerhood to his signing abilities. Whatever Kaden couldn’t say, he would sign, she said.
“He might not sign perfectly, but I would understand, and he’d be so pleased,” Hartman Kovarcik said.”
With all these seemingly obvious reasons, why wouldn’t a parent want to teach their child ASL as a first, tentative language? Many believe that by teaching a young child ASL before English, the child will be delayed in spoken language development or will rely so much on the signing, their speech skills will be less then standard, there for, setting them behind in school. Anyone who had raised a child in a multilingual environment knows that since children’s brains are developing so quickly while they are at this stage of their lives, they are able to adapt and adjust in numerous situations while still sustaining and retaining all the information they are absorbing. Hartman Kovarcik brings up this to add:
“She believes learning ASL also has helped Kaden develop vocabulary and spelling skills at a young age. He can already spell more than 35 words.
Various studies have shown that children who use signs to communicate before they learn to speak score higher on IQ tests than children who don’t learn signs, Hartman Kovarcik said.”
Higher scores on IQ tests? What parents wouldn’t want that for their child? So let’s look at this again:
Decrease in tantrums, better developed vocabulary, improved spelling skills and a higher IQ? So what’s the problem?! More and more parents today are giving their children the benefit of being able to communicate at an earlier age while also helping them with their long term education. So the final question that should be asked is; why not?
