Another South Park review

This review is on episode five, season 12 of the animated series South Park. Click here for an in depth look at the plot. This episode, like most, has a couple plots which deal with a variety of social phenomenon. For the purpose of this review and blog I will be looking at the education aspect of the episode where Eric Cartman is granted the position of temporary teacher while Mrs Garrison is away. As a result of cheating the class gets very high test scores and Cartman is assigned to be a teacher for an inner city school. This episode deals with issues around race, poverty, and the problem of standardized testing.

Cartman thinks he is going to have a great impact on the inner city students when the character Kyle interrupts and points out that the students won't want to listen to a “middle class white boy”. This

brings up themes from George J. Sefa Dei and his article “Schooling as Community: Race, Schooling, and Education of African Youth” and the idea of Afro-Centric schooling, which would be an education system built around African identity and curriculum that is representative of their history, relevance and so on, so that black individuals are not to be alienated, which occurs in schools with Euro-Centric curriculum's. The idea of this type of school would also be applied to people of other

Review of The Wire on education

If you have not checked out HBO's The Wire then you must! Check out the wikipedia page HERE. Pick this show up or download it.

This review is on the parts of The Wire season 4 that deal with education. Though education could be generalized to many aspects of the show, like learning the “drug game” from starting on the corner of the inner cities of Baltimore, Maryland to other positions, I will be focusing on the public education system portrayed throughout this season. HBO's The Wire has become part of many discussions among social science publications for its illustrations of issues in inner city schooling, it has also picked up some critiques for not portraying this phenomenon realistically. I'm not debating whether the show is realistic or not because that has no relevance, the fact of the matter is that it brings up the issues and enables discussion and awareness.

There would simply be too much to cover if I were to focus on every theme within the study of education that's included in this show, for that reason I will focus on key aspects covered in course material, that being Afro-Centrism and traditional methods of teaching. It is clear that many of the

Review of South Park (Season 4, Episode 3)

 

 

This review is on the fourth episode, season four of the animated series South Park entitled Timmy 2000. The episode has two separate stories, that come together at the end, but I will be focusing on the side that discusses the diagnosis of ADD and the use of Ritalin on children as a form of discipline. To view the plot in its entirety on Wikipedia CLICK HERE. The themes I will analyze throughout this review will include concepts around discipline, the use of prescription drugs as a replacement for other older forms of discipline, school's foundations built on traditional methodology and the banking model. I will review this episode based on ideas and concepts covered in class material from a variety of authors like Michele Foucault, Paulo Freire, Roger Deacon and Edward W. Morris.

The reason for the use of Ritalin and other such prescription drugs are said to be for the treatment of ADD and ADHD, but the reality of it is that it is over used. The use of these drugs is claimed by many to be a form of discipline which is a major part of education. Discipline is an aspect of the “hidden curriculum” and is arguably the priority of modern education systems, to exert certain morale's and control of society and mold students to particular ways. Kids are viewed as distracted when in reality they are simply being kids, in the show one mother states “Stan your acting like an 8 year old” to which he replies “I am an 8 year old”, I think this illustrates the view of parents and teachers and their tendency to lose sight of the individual as a kid whereas they only see the “subject”