Secret Education in the Media

Christiansen's article "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us", in my mind stands as a rude awakening to those of us who think that children (and even adults) are immune to take the things we read about and see within the media to heart. As future educators, I feel as though it is our job to find ways of educating our students without allowing the media to affect their ways of learning negatively. Within any children's story, there is always stereotyping and minute details that could promote negative feelings towards any specific race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion that may be overlooked by young readers. After reading Christiansen's article, I feel that educators need to take closer looks at the readings they provide their students with, and think more about what details the students will get out of them, whether it be positive or negative.

I feel that the "secret education" within the media has become not-so-secret anymore considering all of the violence and hate towards certain cultures and sexual orientations that is seemingly always on the news. I feel as though children are like sponges, everything that is said or done within earshot of them will be subconsciously absorbed into their memory and will eventually start to shine through. Although there can be some very positive things that may come out of reading and learning about the current society, I think that there are some things that should be left unsaid around children. I also feel as though there needs to be WAY more books about children of different races and family backgrounds, etc. because children that don"t feel as though they fit into society's "norm" tend to have lower self confidence levels and it isn't fair to them to only see the stereotypical "Christian, white, blonde haired, blue eyed" characters within every show on T.V. and all throughout their books. Recently, thankfully, there have been more children's shows and books with main characters of color or different religions and so on. As society becomes more accepting of people that don't fit the "norm", I feel that there won't be as much fuss about the "secret education" anymore.