This is Marilyn Monroe...er, I mean, La! She wrote our third entry on chapter 8, and you can see that she has a sense of humor, which is obviously appropriate for this chapter! Enjoy.Elkind’s suggestion to use humor as a form of child rearing is very interesting. It is easy to understand that humor integrates play, love, and work. However I feel that it is important to use humor when it is necessary. As Elkind has pointed out in his book, humor can be used to discipline a child. Using humor to discipline avoids focusing on the negative emotions and instead concentrates on the positive. An example Elkind gave was how his son, Paul, forgot to take the dog out in the afternoon while he and his wife were out. When they got home, Elkind discovered this, and rather than shouting and screaming, he imitated a popular TV program and released his anger in a way that he believed was humorous.
I feel that in using humor, you don’t deal with the real problem that needs to be dealt with. When Paul’s incident occurred, instead of using I-messages or effectively talking to work out the problem, Elkind expressed his anger in a way that attacked his son’s character or personality. I felt that learning what is wrong was not effective in this situation because Paul was not disciplined for what he had done wrong. Instead, Elkind used humor to ease the situation, and this tells the child that being irresponsible is acceptable. It’s true that Elkind did not attack his son’s ego, but was he able to effectively show his son that he was angry?
On the other hand, humor can do more than one thing for a child. It teaches the child to laugh, be happy, and be imaginative. Riddles can be used as humor to teach the child how to be imaginative. One riddle that struck me was, “What has four legs and goes tick tock? A watchdog” (p. 173). Even I did not know the answer, and when I read the answer I was amazed at how creative that was. Riddles are funny and a child can learn to use different ideas of how to solve a situation. Riddles are great for children because they are easy to memorize and usually very catchy. They can also discover different vocabulary words and views of things in their life.
Sharing our passions is something that I feel is very important. Teaching with passion is extremely different from just teaching a subject. When you listen to the way someone talks about a subject, you can tell how they feel about the subject by the tone they use when they talk about it. I recall a time when we were younger; we went to the farm everyday with my mom. That was a time when Hmong people all wanted to have fresh grown rice. My mom and aunts and uncles were all very excited about planting acres of rice because growing rice brought back the memories of them in their homelands. This therefore made us, as children, very enthusiastic about helping them out with planting, growing and the processing of making the freshly grown rice. Through this, we learned a lot together about the careful planting of the seeds and processing of the rice because our parents were teaching us with passion.
La, I think you're so right about the topic of passion. An example of this for me involves illustrations in children's books. I love children's books, but perhaps because I don't know a lot about art, I'm not always that struck by the artwork in picturebooks that I like. However, when I hear the illustrator talk about his or her art, and how it's created, I end up gaining new insight and appreciation for the work. I'm certain it's because the artist's passion comes through and leaves much more of an impression on me. Eric Carle's work was like this for me -- you know..."The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Because I've heard him talk about how he does his collage artwork, I love it now!
ReplyDeleteLa, I love your picture! I was very enticed about your blog and how much I could relate to it. I love the quote from Miller saying, "A personal story illustrates how sharing a passion can provide lifelong bonds." (pg 183)I know what you mean about the passion part of teaching. My favorite teachers were always the ones that were passionate and went the extra mile to help the students understand. I don't see how humor can show a child their wrongdoing. I think taking anger out, like yelling, before talking with the child is a better alternate for humoring with a TV program. Even though it is unexpected so it makes the child laugh that isn't teaching him anything and not showing the child's wrongdoing. I didn't see a lot about family time in your blog, which I think is very important. Family is part of who you are and your family is always there for you.
ReplyDeleteAshley Durbano
La-
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of your statements regarding the use of humor for punishment and learning. Humor can be a great way to help make situations less tense, but when a child makes a mistake it is important that they understand they have done something wrong. Turning the situation into a joke teaches the child that when they are in trouble making jokes is an appropriate way to deal with the situation. If children go to school with these impressions, teachers may punish them more harshly because they will not understand that the child has been taught humor is a suitable response to punishment. When learning, the use of humor can help with retention of concepts. For example, when I was learning the state capitals I remember making up funny anecdotes about each one, which helped jog my memory during the test. Today this day I still remember many of the capitals because I can relate them to humorous anecdotes.
Emily Brooks
Humor is a good way to turn a negative situation into a positive funny one. Using humor as a means of disciplining a child, I think, can have positive or negative effects depending on the depth of the situation of course. Little kids are absorbant human beings and will pick up on interesting material, especially if there is humor and rhythm behind it. For example, songs, stories, etc. Speaking of teaching, I agree with you on your ideas about passion in the classroom. To this day I can remember all of my teachers who had effective teaching skills when I was young. On the other hand, I can remember when the passion may not have been there as much in comparison to others. This is an important aspect of teaching and I think you did a good job of pointing this out. Students learn from and remember the teachers who display passion and enthusiasm with their teaching methods.
ReplyDelete-LaToya Brooks
La,your picture is amazing! I completely agree with your statements regarding the use of humor to punish a child. I also learned this while reading this chapter. This is because humor can be really helpful if it is used the correct way. This means that parents need to be capable of determining what humor is age appropriate as well. I loved your statement about passion and I agree. We need to share our passions.
ReplyDeleteAna Cisneros
La-
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement regarding using humor as a form of discipline. Humor may be beneficial in certain situations, but the lesson of what needs to be learned or corrected cannot be overlooked. Humor is very important in my family. My father is 62 years old and refuses to grow up. But, I love that aspect of him and I would not want it any other way. Although humor was used while I was growing up, I was also aware when my parents were serious and when they meant business.
I also agree with your statement regarding teaching your children with passion. I loved your story of your family teaching you how to plant rice and why it was important to them. I recall my parents teaching me things they were passionate about. It is true, I appreciate what my parents are trying to teach me when I know how passionate they are about the subject.
-Jessica