Activity 4 - Thought Provoking Questions????

I thought that the quiz was really interesting. I liked the fact that we were able to take the quiz twice because in between it gave me time to think about my answers a little bit more. What I thought was interesting about my answers to the quiz, is the fact that I was very racially discriminate.

The ethnic group that was easiest for me to come up with answers to was the white category - and mainly the white males. I find this really interesting because our country has become so accustomed to people of different ethnicity's. I think that because we are so familiar with these people we may possibly take them for granted and do not acknowledge their ethnicity. As I said before, the white category was easiest for me. I think that because I am Caucasian that helps me identify more with people of my own skin color. As sad as it is to say this, I think that our country is still divided by skin color. I think that it makes many people acknowledge their own skin color and stereotype those of other races. The thing that I found the hardest to do in these categories was to name someone of the ethnicity in question who had lived before the 1600's. I do not know why but this was a very difficult thing for me, many of them I could not think of. However, if it were not timed, I think that I would have (maybe) been able to come up with a name or two.

I found the men to be more easy to come up with. Especially for the white men in the earlier years. I think that men were easier to come up with because our country in the past was "programmed" to think that men were (somewhat) better than women. Luckily today that has changed, however I do believe that that is the reason why I found it easier to come up with names of men for each category rather than women. What is interesting is that though I found it easier to come up with the names of men, there was one category that I could only think of the names of women and no men.

I think that in the United States we are taught history about white people and black people. History about Asians, Latino's or Middle Eastern people are really not included in our text books until you get to your junior or senior year of high school - and possibly not even then. I do not remember learning anything about Asians, Latino's or Middle Eastern people until 9/11. Then of course we talked about Middle Eastern people because that was a big deal at the time. The things that I remember being taught in school were about the white men finding a new territory that was inhabited by the Indians and also about the topic of slavery - though that topic did not come until middle school.

I feel that the United States tries to teach history that it feels it knows something about. I think that has a great influence on what we are taught in our schools. If 9/11 had not happened, I do not feel that we would have been taught about the Middle East. However, once that happened everyone talked about the Middle East because we wanted more information about the people that performed this horrible tragedy.

Do you think that the schools you attended properly prepared you with the knowledge to answer the questions on the quiz. Do you think that there is any specific one of these categories that teachers would shy away from teaching about? if so why? Is there one that you would not want to teach about? why?