Best of the Week: Born Into Brothels (AFTERMATH)

 Each little miracle of the eight little Calcutta kids was recorded as the documentary Born Into Brothels and in this film we absorbed each child's back story; where they came from, and how they lived, but most of all how they were treated. An instinct to protect one another made gaining more and more sympathy for them inevitable which made learning about how their lives have evolved all the more exiting, almost as if we were sharing in their triumph of winning with the vulnerable and deficient hand they were dealt.

Once we finished the documentary in class, we moved on to updating ourselves on their lives after Born into Brothels. They have all gone to achieve so much for an average Joe, but when taken into account where they came from, who their parents are, and how they lived, those factors highlight the level of grit and perseverance and most of all sheer luck each of these children posses. Luck because, they are eight of all the other children around them that were in the same, if not worse situation. Each is lucky because, none was HIV positive in a place where no checkups happen, no vaccines, and no precautions are taken. Lucky because Zana Briski and Ross Kaufmann decided to change the topic of their documentary. So many things went wrong in these childrens' lives, but then again, so many things went so right.

So what about the rest of us?
So many more things have gone right for us, yet most of us take it for granted and ignore that fact. We are the one third of the world that does not live in poverty; that is not malnourished, or dehydrated, or HIV positive, or alone, or with too many mouths to feed. It is beyond easy to forget how fortunate and lucky this part of the world's society is, because we are all so caught up in petty dilemmas like which shoes to buy, and how we can only buy one because last week we bought three pairs and we promised ourselves to save up and stop splurging. And even if we do buy those shoes and more, the rent or mortgage will still be paid on time, the electricity and water, TV and internet, phone bills, car payments and all the rest will not have any problems getting paid. Just take the time to stop and think.

Once a day, take the random thoughts about shoes or which toothpaste to buy, and compare those to the thoughts of that remaining two thirds of the world who is thinking of a place to sleep tonight, or how they are going to find clean water tomorrow. Do this and your head will be out of the clouds, into clarity and back down to earth. Humbled and aware you will see how fortunate you really are to have those shoes on your feet. Enlightened, you will see your luck and reason to push yourself and pull away from those shoes and maybe even keep that promise made to yourself to start saving.

An Inconvenient Truth

Born Into Brothels has a scene where an older woman keeps cursing at this little girl. Besides being utterly abhorred at this woman, I was impressed. This 10 year old little girl, never stooped to her elder's level nor did she raise her voice at her. What is most extraordinary is the display or pure self-control. The capacity this child has for handling blatant disrespect leads me to believe that, another person would not be able to maintain any kind of rationality.
Respecting your elders has always been a precedent of every culture and society. This scene alone challenges that. It brings up a question. Where does a person draw the line between respect for another human being, and respect for himself?
Pushing boundaries is what this age is about. We have pushed and stretched technology, fashion, design, and originality, are precedents next? The good old fashioned values seem to be lingering, but they do not possess the same presence and grasp on people's attitudes. For that 10 year old girl they have an obvious presence, but are they weakening in more developed places? For example, imagine you are at a target and you see a child in a rage or in tears because they were not bought the toy they wanted. Nothing special, it is not unusual here. Meanwhile in third world countries, which make up the majority of the world's population, a child cries when they are losing a loved one, or have tuberculosis, or cannot find food.
More fortunate people here are realizing that there are people that have it worse, way worse. The problem is that in first world countries like the one we live in, life is so fast paced and so hectic, that it is hard to remember that this is not how the whole planet functions. Taking a moment and thinking about all the things that had to go right for you to be where you are at that second is a humbling and grounding experience.

Carry It Forward: Creativity Crisis

The possibility brought up in "The Creativity Crisis" that the way we are taught is not the best way to teach is an oddly comforting thought. Comforting, because that means that all the responsibility for those low essay, test or quiz grades is not entirely on each of our shoulders. Odd, because in our minds there has been no right and wrong, okay and better systems of teaching. It has always been a "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" sort of thing. And so, we stay in the kitchen and keep fighting not to melt under the pressure.

Thinking about why this particular "drill and kill" system is being used brings up a point of the reason being a natural inclination of all human beings; to compete with one another, and in turn find the "Alpha". Here, one could think of multiple explanations of why we love competition. Whether it is to watch, argue or actually compete, it is an instinct that everyone shares. One explanation for our love of competition would bring up Darwin's theory of Survival of the Fittest. But that would also involve egos into the mix because to compete, we must have a motivator. That motivator in this case, is to be the smartest but to also have statistical proof of that genius, because if it is on paper it must be true.

Trends come and go and IQ scores are getting old, so on to the next one. That one is a CQ score bringing a Creativity trend along, but that does not mean that competition has gotten old, in fact competition is how a decline in American creativity was discovered, or so says the first line of Po Bronson's article, "The Creativity Crisis".

One could also argue that both methods of teaching have their advantages. The drill and kill method ensures that minor and major ideas are at least gone over, while the creative method involves going around and through using previous knowledge to get to an end point. The question is, how can one really measure intelligence or creativity? That depends on independent definitions of what exactly intelligence or creativity means to each person on the planet. For one, creativity could be proven with writing, and for someone else, intelligence could be proven in writing, and for another it may be considered that both could be proven in a piece of writing. The essential point is that those statistics are dependent on independent factors of a multitude of opinions and learning styles. Final question: If there are several learning styles, why is there only one teaching style being used?