Cee Lo's Secret Exposure

Ever since I wrote my first post about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the N-word, I've continued to think about it a lot and see connections all over the place. The other day I was listening to Cee Lo Green's song "F**k You" and singing along and all of the sudden I heard the N-word come out of my mouth. This is one of my favorite songs and my friends and I sing along to it all the time, but I had never noticed that the song had the N-word in it, yet I had been singing it at the top of my lungs for weeks. It makes me wonder why people pay attention to the word in Huck Finn (a time when it is used for an actual purpose) but don't complain about its overuse in rap music (for no apparent reason at all). Personally, I think it's better for kids to be exposed to the N-word in a classroom environment where a teacher can tell them that it isn't a word to use and teach them about the historical significance of the word rather than just hearing it in their favorite music. What do you think?

Think before posting

          Today, one of the students in my class brought to our attention some extremely inappropriate and hurtful  comments that were written on his blog. After discussing his specific situation for awhile, a bigger question came up- when, if ever, should the right to freedom of speech be breached (in cases involving the Internet) in order to ensure the safety of an individual?

          Though censorship doesn't seem like an American ideal, I think it is necessary in certain cases to keep violent or malicious Internet-writers in check. In the past, our government has deemed it necessary to censor newspapers and other types of media for the benefit of the country, so they should have the same right with the Internet. If anything, the Internet is more dangerous than the official media because anyone can write anything they want online. Another factor that makes the Internet dangerous has to do with its easy anonymity. When a person is saying something in person, their conscience effects them and they censor themselves to not say anything that would cause offense to their listener. On the other hand, when a person is sitting in front of a computer screen, typing their thoughts rather than saying them out loud, they feel free to say exactly what comes to their mind no matter how hurtful or offensive it may be. I think having some restrictions in place would cause people to think before posting, which would definitely be for the better of the Internet as a whole. Do you think there are any other solutions to this problem?

*for additional information about Internet censorship and how other countries have dealt with this issue click here

Who writes history?

This week in class, we spent a lot of time talking about textbooks. It got me thinking about who actually writes the textbooks we read in school? Is it the author who's name is on the cover or someone completely different? I then went to google news and searched "textbooks" and one of the top hits was this article about the changes different states' boards of education have made to the textbooks they buy. I have a huge problem with the fact that only a small handful of adults get to choose what goes into textbooks and what gets exluded. Even though it would be impossible to include every event that every happened in the history of America, but I think that there are definitely a few that need to be included. Obviously the California/Texas state boards of education would disagree with me. Even though I do believe everything I already talked about, I am still a bit conflicted on how I feel about this issue. On one hand, I think censorship is certainly not a good thing, but on the other hand, I think it is each school's responsibility to decide which textbooks to use and what they teach. I'm still deciding, but have you made up your mind on this issue?