Learning Letter, Plan of Action

The projects that we have done in the class all have been very valuable and meaningful to me. Not only have all of these projects been self-reflecting, they have taught me a great deal about literature and global history. I think the most useful project would have to be the Group Book Talks because I will be including many of these books in my future classroom and lessons. The most meaningful project would have to be the knowledge that I have acquired learning about the history that these texts that we read in class revolved around. The most valuable piece from the class projects was the Museum Display project, because it took a lot of self-reflection and I was able to reflect more on my life than I normally would do.

We have explored a very diverse amount of issues and ideas during this quarter. Many of these issues were out of my comfort zone and I would have not explored them had it not been for this class. I really enjoyed our classroom discussions, we were able to take 25 different people and talk about the same subject and issues. Many of these conversations became more valuable taught me more about the topics than any research would have ever done for me. The borders project was very valuable to me because it introduced me to many border issues that I was not aware of or that I knew little about. All of these issues and ideas that we explored during this quarter have encouraged me to question my knowledge of history. This has caused me to begin researching on other cultures, the history of them and what has happened in global history.

My participation within this class has greatly influenced my thinking about myself as a citizen of the world because of this; I have found that I as an American am very privileged.  I also feel that it is important for citizens of the world to be greatly educated on global history. Before this class, I felt like I was in great need of educating myself for on global history, but I did not have an authentic way to do so that I knew I would enjoy. While this class has shown me a small amount of history and global culture, it has started a cycle for me to want to learn more. I greatly enjoyed connecting diverse texts to their cultures and learning about the cultures through my research and what information the text provided.

The name of this class is A Global View through Children’s Literature and while we have learned great amounts of history, much of the history has been provided to us in the texts through children’s eyes. I am going to be an elementary teacher and I will be teaching a group of students every day, a group of children everyday. I feel that it is important that my plan of action be revolved around children as well.

While my plan is small, I know that it will eventually grow and build upon itself. My next step is to work with the social worker, Tina Heimbigner at Evergreen Elementary School in the Mead School District. Evergreen is the school that I am placed in and many of the students receive free food services through the school but on the weekends they are left without food on their tables. The school sends home care packages to students on Fridays so that students have some food to help feed their families. I will be helping Tina collect food and put together these packages and I will also be helping her with small projects here and there that will help provide services to the students of Evergreen Elementary. I feel that it is good especially when starting small to help at home base and since I am placed at Evergreen I feel that I would more than likely succeed in helping with the social worker than if I were to try to go above and beyond and help some place else.

Graffiti Wall Project

War and peace are not the easiest subjects for me to consider. I feel as if I do not have enough experience and knowledge with literal, physical war of more than one country to put my two sense in. I do not have any close family members involved in the military, and by the time that I was born my father had already retired from the military. I am not a person who is anti war, because I believe that war often happens for a reason, the intentions for starting a war are often understandable and happen under the conflict of beliefs; however, war often becomes corrupted.

The thing about peace is, “It can not be achieved through violence, it can only be achieved through understanding.” (Walph Waldo Emerson) Like a pond without ripples, peace is state of harmony and tranquility. It is a balance and accepting of one’s self and with others where respect is given and received.

My graffiti wall is made up of three canvases that have been sprayed with red and black paint. I chose these colors because I saw them often during research of resistance graffiti. The canvases display the quote: “War is not soldiers against soldiers…It is a clash of cultures… War is people against people.” Part of this quote was said by our guest, Sean Pelfry while recalling on his own experiences in the military and out on the front lines. When Sean said these words, they really stuck with me. War is a clash of cultures. This thought ties my idea of war and peace to the class and what we have discussed because we have talked a lot about how important our cultures are to us. Culture is what makes a person and when one culture clashes with another, there can be utter chaos. When chaos occurs it affects everyone involved.

When I began thinking of putting these two quotes together, I felt that I could really connect many of the units and texts that we have worked on it class to them. When the day is over, no matter how many soldiers have died, that many people have died. It is citizens against citizens and throughout the texts that we read, if there was some kind of battle, it wasn’t weapons against weapons, weapons do not pull their own triggers, people do. Cultures clash and when people strongly believe something they will go out of there way to get what they want.  Our class had a big focus on discussing what was involved in culture. Our culture is our belief system, our traditions, our family, the way we have been raised and who we are. Our culture is something that we fight for. I saw the culture battle being fought in Kampung Boy, when the main character’s father did not want him to ruin his future, and in Sold, when Lakshimi first refused comply with her master’s requests. I also saw this in Revolution is Not a Dinner Party, when Ling cried about many things, but not for Chairman Mao’s death, and in A Long Way Gone, when Ishmael Beah joined forces to attack the RUFF, the people who killed his family. While many of these battles did not become a literal war, these characters were fighting a cultural war of their own.

A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier By Ishmael Beah

A long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, like many other books that have been read within Education 323 has been a very was a powerful book. It is especially powerful because it is a memoir, the true stories and memories of a man who witnessed the Sierra Leone’s Civil War first hand. Just taking a look at the cover of the book I was struck with disbelief it is unfathomable that children can be let alone shot at but taken in and turned into a solider.  In my research prior to reading A long Way Gone I had read that it was hard for people to know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, I really saw this happening throughout the book and trust is a huge issue that we have come across in all of our books. Trust is a way of letting our borders down and allowing someone to be a part of your life. It is interesting to me how quickly people within Sierra Leone distrusted one another and also how quickly Ishmael trusted many people. 

Another similarity that I have come across within almost all of these books is that the main characters of the books are very young they are all children. Many of these books are in a way coming of age stories, but I find it interesting to see how many of these children quickly grow up and take the lead as if they are adults themselves. I am not sure if it is an instinct or if that is how their cultures are. I am not sure if a child from America was faced with these sorts of problems that they would be able to raise among the rest and be the adult that they are not. 

Something that I was not aware of prior to reading this book was the drug use. This didn’t come as a surprise to me because what else would you do to paralyze the emotions and to make yourself quicker. It was really sad to see how the boys after being taken away from war reacted to the lack of drugs. While recovering from drugs these boys were also recovering from war and they craved violence just like a hungry man craves food. They often broke into fights just to fight.

There was a similarity that I saw within these boys recovering from war that I have read and heard about with American soldiers coming home from war. Ishmael talked about dreaming of war both at night and during his daydreaming.  While I have never been in the military and I do not have anyone close to me who has it sounds like it is a very sad and depressing recovery that some never come out of. Many people end up ending their lives because they cant end the dreams. 

I am glad that Ishmael eventually began to find people that he could trust and ended up leaving Sierra Leone, and made it into the US, but it is so sad to think of what he had to endure to be where he is today. Ishmael Beah is a brave individual, not only for conquering the nightmare of Sierra Leone’s civil war that forced him to be an adult long before he needed to be, but also in sharing his own story, one that I have been greatly impacted by. 

Research on Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002)

Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002)

Sierra Leone received its independence from the UK in 1961. On March 23, 1991, the Sierra Leone Civil War began when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an effort to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. In September 1991, after the start of the Sierra Leone Civil War, Momoh ushered in a new constitution, providing for a multi-party state and ending the single party rule Siaka Stevens started in the 1970s. Momoh also played a large part in dissolving tribalism. Efforts to reform came too late to rescue Sierra Leone from chaos and Momoh was overthrown in a military coup staged in April, 1992 and spent the last years of his life as a guest of the military government in neighboring Guinea, where he died in exile in 2003.

Early within his rule, Momoh declared a state of economic emergency; this granted himself more control over Sierra Leone’s economy. At this point he was still not considered a dictator. Momoh’s people considered him far too weak and inattentive to the issues of the country and he too often allowed his corrupt advisors to manipulate matters behind the public eye. The economy of Sierra Leone steadily crumbled underneath Momoh's rule, causing the country's currency value to disintegrate. Sierra Leone’s economy dipped so low that it reached the point where they could no longer afford to import fuel oil and gasoline, the country had to go without electricity for months. Although Sierra Leone benefitted from ample amounts of natural resources including diamonds, gold, bauxite, rutile, iron ore, fish, coffee, and cocoa, by 1991, Sierra Leone was ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world. 

Within the first year of the civil war, the RUF took control of a large amount of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, these areas were rich in alluvial diamonds. The government had and ineffective response to the RUF, which caused a large disruption in the government diamond production. This precipitated a military coup d'état in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). By the end of 1993, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had succeeded in pushing the RUF rebels back to the Liberian border, but the RUF recovered and fighting continued. In March 1995, Executive Outcomes (EO), a South Africa-based private military company, was hired to extinguish the RUF. Sierra Leone installed an elected civilian government in March 1996, and the retreating RUF signed the Abidjan Peace Accord. Under UN pressure, the government terminated its contract with EO before the accord could be implemented, and hostilities recommenced. 

The entire war seemed to be dishonest, indistinguishable and no one was sure whom to trust. The SLA soldiers and government leaders were brutal and pitiless. Tows of people were transported to concentration camps. Civilians turned against the SLA and joined a rebel cause. Some soldiers chose to join a team called the “Sobels”, which stood for “soldiers by day, rebels by night”. By 1993 the forces became indistinguishable which side was which and who was apart of what. 

Finally, the Kamajors came into play and civilians trusted them. Their duties were to protect civilians and their family and homes. The Kamajors were against the government and ended up winning causing the people to join their side. This quickly lead to corruption and murder. With war continuing on top of an economy that had already been digging a hole, the government was unable to pay both its civil servants and SLA. With senior government officials neglectful of the conditions faced by SLA soldiers, front line soldiers became resentful of their poor conditions and began helping themselves to Sierra Leone’s rich natural resources. This included alluvial diamonds as well as looting and ‘sell game’, a tactic in which government forces would withdraw from a town but not before leaving arms and ammunition for the roving rebels in return for cash. 

On 18 January 2002, President Kabbah declared the Sierra Leone Civil War over.

A wave of looting, rape, and murder followed the announcement. Reflecting international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government, ECOMOG forces intervened and retook Freetown on behalf of the government, but they found the outlying regions more difficult to soothe. Several factors led to the end of the civil war. One factor was that the government demanded that the government of Liberia expel all RUF members, end their financial support of the RUF, and halt the illegal diamond trade. The Kamajors felt less threatened and quit fighting the SLA’s. 

The civil war lasted 11 years, shrouded the country, and left over 50,000 dead.

In November 2012, the first national and local elections following the end of the civil war were held without UN oversight. This marked another milestone in Sierra Leone's road to recovery from its devastating civil war. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture has started to encourage the farmers of Sierra Leone to form collectives and establish business centers surrounding around agribusiness across the country. This would boost the agricultural market of Sierra Leone and loosen the reigns of the economy’s dependency on the diamond industry.  

Response to REVOLUTION Is Not a Dinner Party

I had started to read Revolution is Not a Dinner Party before I had done any research on the Chinese Culture Revolution. At first the book was interesting, but it became even more interesting after I had done some research and was able to make connections between the book and the history of China. This is my favorite thing with reading historical fiction is that you get more of a personal experience through reading a text based on a point of time in history. The author, Ying Chang Compestine grew up during the Chinese Culture Revolution and based many of the characters within the book around herself, her family and people she knew.

It blew my mind to read about young students starting the Red Guard and that one person’s beliefs could change the lives of so many others. Another thing that caught me by surprise was how they took doctors and those that were highly educated and declared that they needed to be reeducated, that their bourgeois ways were now frowned upon. The sides of the table were flipped and people who were of the lower working class became leaders and would give speeches of how Chairman Mao provided them with saving grace.

Ling’s parents were doctors before the Revolution and we were able to watch as their life was turned upside down, Ling’s father became a janitor, and the mother had to work as a nurse in the ER late at night. They had to tiptoe and they could not communicate with people outside of China because their mail was being watched. Any piece of mail or piece of evidence that the Red Guards could find to claim that the families were anti-revolutionists would end them.

Ling’s father was arrested and put into jail but Ling and her mother did not know he was in jail for a long time. Throughout the entire book Ling showed so much love for her father. I was on the edge of my seat as I was reading hoping that her father would be ok because if her did not make it, Ling’s whole world would crumble.

This was also in a way a coming of age story, Ling started off as a little girl and by the time the book had ended and the revolution ended as well, Ling had grown within leaps and bounds. You could see this with how the relationship between Ling and her mom evolved over time. At first Ling’s mother treated Ling like a spoiled little girl but eventually over time Ling’s mother in a way looked up to Ling and gave her more and more responsibility. Ling took on this responsibility and indeed matured over time, though I do not know how something like this could not age you.

Though Ling fought many battles, the thing that made my stomach turn the most was how the kids at school treated her. I am a future teacher and bullying is a big thing that we have to watch for. It is all around schools these days and for me to read about her classmate continuously being so cruel to her it boiled my blood. I also couldn't stand the fact that the one teacher who stood up for her was within a few weeks sent away for being a "bourgeois." Ling had to stand up for herself, and all by herself. This girl was strong and very brave. 

Towards the end of the book when Comrade Li was arrested I also found it interesting how quickly his little rats went against him. As if it were nothing but the next trend to turn to, they turned on him in seconds and declared that he was now the outsider and that those should whiteness his trial, his public embarrassment. 

Research on China and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

In 1966, there was a major social-political movement set into motion by Mao Zedong. A movement that paralyzed China politically and greatly affected the country socially and economically. This movement took place in the People’s Republic of china. This movement was called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, also known as the Cultural Revolution. Mao Zedong, back then was Chairman of the Communist Party of China. The goal of the revolution was to enforce communism within the country by removing capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society. The goal was also to enforce Maoist orthodoxy within the Party. This Revolution allowed for the return of Mao Zedong into a position of power after the failed Great Leap Forward.

          Mao felt as if the middle-class elements of society were penetrating the government and the rest of society at large, and trying to restore capitalism. He insisted that these "revisionists" be wiped out through violent class struggle. Mao made of example of the Cultural Revolution by "cleansing" powerful officials of questionable loyalty. This method was less than transparent, accomplishing this purge through newspaper articles, internal meetings, and skillfully employing his network of political allies. Mao knew that other party leaders were planning to get rid of him, so he turned directly to his supporters with in the community to join him in a Cultural Revolution. Mao also believed that communist revolution had to be a continuous process, in order to stave off capitalist-roader ideas.

The young people of China rose up in an effort to purge the nation of the "Four Olds": old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country these people helped enforce Mao’s movement. The military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself later joined the youth and became apart of the Red Guard. The Red Guard was created to punish party officials and any other persons who showed bourgeois tendencies. The first targets of the Red Guards included Buddhist temples, churches and mosques, which were destroyed or transformed for other uses.  Sacred texts, as well as Confucian writings, were burned, along with religious statues and other artwork. Any object associated with China's pre-revolutionary past was likely to be destroyed.

The Guards conducted so-called "struggle sessions," in which they heaped exploitation and public humiliation upon people accused of capitalist thoughts these people were usually teachers, monks and other educated persons. Millions of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. These sessions often included physical violence, and many of the accused died or ended up being held in reeducation camps for years.

During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, schools in China did not operate; this left an entire generation with no formal education. All of the educated and professional people had been targets for reeducation, and those that had not been killed has been dispersed across the countryside, toiling on farms or working in labor camps.

By December of 1968, Mao realized that the Cultural Revolution was spinning out of control. China's economy, which was already weakened by the Great Leap Forward, was stumbling quickly. In reaction, Mao issued a call for the "Down to the Countryside Movement," in which young cadres from the city were sent to live on farms and learn from the peasants.

Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969; however, the active phase continued until the death of the military leader Lin Biao in 1971. Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976. His hand-picked successor, Hua Guofeng, had the Gang of Four arrested including Mao’s wife, which signaled the end of the Cultural Revolution.