Whites Only Scholarship

I have recently been looking for funding for graduate school. Anyone who has ever gone to graduate school knows that funding is hard to come by. It is considerably more scarce than money for undergraduate studies. There are no grants offered by the government whatsoever, so any funding that is out there is provided by private companies or by the school’s program itself. In a select few cases, there are government fellowships that are extraordinarily competitive. In short, funding is quite rare.

However, during my search, I have come across a lot of funding that is offered for minority groups, and even more recently, I came across some funding that is only applicable for LGBTQ individuals. After doing some research, I even found out that there are even more interesting cases of funding being given, such as a scholarship for people who are left-handed.

I am not inherently against any of these scholarships. My point for bringing them up is that so many of them exist, but there are only a few (almost no) scholarships for caucasians, particularly male caucasians. The general argument is that caucasians don’t need scholarships because simply being caucasian is a privilege in itself. Being male is also a privilege. Therefore, (male) caucasians don’t need funding.

That argument is ludicrously fallacious. Being against male caucasian scholarships is a form of racism. Just because some caucasians have historically treated African Americans with disdain does not mean I should suffer for their mistakes. Because caucasians historically oppressed African Americans, by extension, all of the caucasians, no matter what age, educational or familial background, have to atone for those sins?

Just because there are a lot of caucasian people in government and in senior level positions does not mean I should be held back just to let other races “catch up” to caucasians. Am I not allowed to have opportunities because there are other caucasian people who do have opportunities? That doesn’t make sense to me, especially because I am not them. I am not a rich caucasian man. I did not oppress African Americans or any other race of people. I have nothing to do with the lives of other caucasian individuals, especially the well-to-do ones in this country.

Therefore, why is there an issue for caucasians to have scholarships? A simple online search for “whites only scholarship” will bring up a multitude of opponents for why these opportunities should not exist. Here are two specific YouTube videos discussing the issue:

So why do very few of these scholarships exist? Is it because of the opposition from people like the ones in those YouTube videos? Is it because it looks better for an organization to offer individuals of color scholarships instead? Is it because there really aren’t many organizations that exist for the advancement of caucasians? I’m willing to bet that is a part of it, and even if that sort of organization did exist, it would be met with a considerable amount of criticism.

Another factor to consider in this debate is whether caucasians are generally more privileged than other races. I think, in some instances, they are, but it depends on the race you are comparing them to, to be honest. Of course, it is also important to consider opportunities on a case by case basis. But for argument’s sake, let us assume that caucasians are typically more privileged than other races here in the United States.

I come from a very modest background, and I know other caucasian males who do, as well. In that sense, we are just as underprivileged as any other race of people on an individual level, which is what is most important. We should, just like many other groups of people, be given the opportunity to flourish. Caucasian only scholarships, like many other race-based scholarships, would not be available to those who already have an abundance of access to resources. They would be available to underprivileged caucasians who want an affordable education through a merit-based award system. They would function just the same as any other scholarship, except they would be available for caucasians specifically.

Honestly, this shouldn’t even be the center of the discussion. Instead of focusing on race, funding opportunities should be focused on giving the underprivileged an affordable education. Just like African Americans would not want their scholarships being given to other advantaged African Americans, “whites only” scholarships are only trying to promote the lives of those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

And that’s what the discussion should be focused on. If a student does not have the resources to attend school, then they should be given a reasonable chance to do so, regardless of race. Race has nothing to do with it, besides being a general barometer for what social class people tend to fall under. It’s not an automatic classification. Poor caucasians should be given comparable funding opportunities in relation to other races.

Actually, from the research I have done online, it seems like most people support caucasian only scholarships. I think the main reason they are not prevalent is because of the poor media attention they get and the people who say caucasian only scholarships are racist (which is simply ridiculous). Also, there just aren’t that many “caucasian advancement” organizations out there. Historically, I would agree that there didn’t need to be many, but as the disparity in social class between different races lessens, it would be beneficial for more of them to exist. I guess it’s just not a popular cause for people to champion, especially if they are looking to gain backers or political clout.

However, in the interest of fairness, I think there needs to be better funding opportunities for all different races of people. Poor is poor, and rich is rich, and that is all that should matter.

Important News: A Discussion of the Internet

I’m tired of useless news stories popping up everywhere. Just today, this showed up on my facebook news feed: “Grumpy Cat: Internet meme-inspired movie debuts 1st trailer for ‘Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever’.” What importance does this have to anything? Why does anybody even care about this silliness? It’s going to be forgotten in a week for the next silly news story. I can tolerate a little bit of ridiculous news in my life most of the time. Sometimes it helps me to relax.

But does that mean these stories should be the norm? No. They shouldn’t! Facebook isn’t the only place that does this either. On any given day, I can Google “news” and a bunch of useless stuff will most likely show up. This may be a product of there being less groundbreaking news than minor news stories, and I understand that. The problem with that, though, is that people feel the need to publish anything that they deem is news, and no matter how inconsequential these stories may be, many of them will undoubtedly pierce through media outlets and get to consumers, thus numbing their brains with trivial information that will never be of use to them.

A large part of this problem is how connected everything is these days. Since everybody is so connected, there are a million stories flying around the internet every hour about every little thing. If I really wanted to, I could keep myself busy reading news about sports every day for the rest of my life. And these are full-fledged news articles that people have written. They just are never important.

It’s no wonder that a number of scholars have surmised that the internet is actually making society more stupid. Since we have so much information accessible by the literal tips of our fingers, we have less of an incentive to actually remember things and think critically. When the answer to many of life’s questions is contained in a simple Google search, are we actually becoming smarter or just using this fleeting information for the time that we need it?

But even if the internet isn’t making us more stupid, it is definitely overloading us with information. By peppering us with news stories and YouTube videos and countless Buzzfeed lists of innumerable subjects, it is hard to sift through all of this and actually find what is really important. I think people are naturally attracted to things that are flashy and fun and don’t take a lot of mental effort. In essence, people have short attention spans.

The companies that run different websites know this, and they target ads based on previous viewing and purchasing histories. So, with all of the hyperlinks and suggested videos and additional lists and new stories (that don’t need to be read because they’re completely useless stories about nothing), people enter a cycle of sitting around doing nothing on the internet. Even though the tools exist on the internet to really accomplish anything a person wants to, website ads and links distract users from their original goal of using the internet in the first place.

Despite these problems with the internet, it is really difficult to combat them. The very nature of the internet makes it so that news will get around to different individuals, and since there are always going to be more silly and inconsequential pieces of information on the internet than important ones, only users can control what pieces of information they consume. Thus, while it would be nice for people to block out all of the things that they do not want to see on the internet, it will probably have to wait until somebody develops a program that can filter out what people don’t want to see based off of their preferences. Until that time, it will be up to each person individually to have the willpower to not click on everything that they internet throws at them.

And even then, who knows if people will want or care to use such a program? With so many fun and interesting things on the internet, why would people want to filter it? It’s a very strong influence. If I had more time, I wouldn’t mind it myself. I spent plenty of my childhood doing just the same. But for those like me now, with an influential personality, who still have to get things done, it is a difficult task to get things done with all of the distractions on the internet.

Art of Korea

I think spending time abroad has given me a greater appreciation for art.  I’m not an art aficionado by any means, but I enjoy spending time at art museums, looking at street art and checking out city art.  I’ve written a number of blog posts detailing the things that I have done throughout Seoul and Korea, but I want to dedicate this post to some of the art located throughout the country.  Both Korea and Japan have great art littered throughout their respective countries, so one never has to go far to see something interesting.

Found this apple statue on the side of a street in Seoul. I’m not sure why the inside is reflective.

This art wall is located in one of the subway exits in Seoul. It’s pretty long, too.

This is one of the coolest pieces of art I’ve seen in any city. The painting is so big, I couldn’t even get a picture of the whole thing.

The characteristic paintbrush of the Insadong area in Seoul. Kids are always climbing on that thing.

This painting was done on an old style house near my apartment in Korea, and it covered the whole wall. It’s a really cool area actually.

Cute painting, also near my apartment.

Statues in Seoul at Yeouido. Yup.

Cool looking building in Seoul.

War Statue in Seoul. I don’t know who it’s supposed to be.

Bathroom art in Seoul at Ssamjigil.

I guess they made this just for the commemoration of the G20 summit in Seoul in 2010. America would never do anything that cool.

This big monitor is set up in a shopping area in the city of Daejeon in Korea. Every hour, it plays videos for about fifteen minutes. It’s really cool, so I’m actually going to post the YouTube video I shot of it below.

Here’s the YouTube video for the above picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSN6QAo-fKw

This is a painting on the side of the gym at the school where I worked in Seoul. I didn’t even know it existed until the last month I was in Korea.

Just a cool bench in Korea.

Lastly, I call this one “the best picture ever” because it is, obviously, the best picture ever. Took it at a random rest stop, too, lol.

So, that’s some of the random art of Korea.  Hope you enjoyed.

Halloween Class

Since I have to teach from a book for all of my classes, I don’t typically have a lot of freedom with what I’m allowed to teach.  I have to follow preset lessons complete with key expressions, vocabulary and book audio, although I get to pick my games and other supplemental materials.

Since it was Halloween and I wanted to do something special (and it would allow me to plan less lessons for a week where I was very busy), I asked my co-teachers if I could teach a Halloween themed class.  They agreed, and I got to work right away on my lesson.  At first, I was unsure about what I wanted to teach and how much English I wanted to actually incorporate into the lesson.  With so many Halloween videos and materials available, it was difficult to choose, particularly because it was hard to find quality material that I actually wanted to use in my lesson.

After a long time searching and thinking, I finally gathered all of my resources and came up with a brilliant lesson plan.  Here is the breakdown of my lesson plan:

Greeting – 3″: This is just a standard greeting given to the students after they have come into class.  On this particular occasion, we asked them if they liked the room, knew what holiday it was and if they liked my face paint (more on that later).

Angry Birds Video – 4″: I found this cute video online about Angry Birds and Halloween.  It was a nice little introduction to ease into the class and get the kids excited about the lesson.  I asked them a question or two afterwards, as well.

Halloween introduction – 7″: I found a great prezi online that introduced Halloween.  It contained vocabulary, history, traditions, even an awesome stop motion video of Google employees carving Google jack-o’-lanterns.

Scare Video – 1″: After the introduction, I showed the students an online prank scare video.  I think a large part of Halloween is about being scared and just pulling pranks on people, which is why I showed them the video.  I didn’t actually scare them during class, although this video scared some of the girls, and my face paint was frightening enough to them, as well.

Draw a Monster Competition – 15″: This was the bread and butter of my Halloween lesson plan and an awesome idea I found online and adapted to my own class.  I split the class into two teams and had each team draw a monster.  The catch is this: they have to do it wearing a blindfolded mask.  So they take turns drawing different parts of the monster (as dictated by me) while the rest of their team gives them directions on where to draw, as well as laughing hysterically at what is created as a result of blindfolded drawing.  Some students did pretty well, while others did horribly bad.  If I told students to draw two arms, some students would draw two arms, would then be told by their team that their arms were not attached to the body and then continue to draw more arms.  It was a pretty hilarious exchange.

Drawing jack-o’-lanterns – 7″: For the remainder of the class, I had students draw their own jack-o’-lanterns.  While they drew, I also showed a video of a Halloween light show on YouTube themed to the song This is Halloween.  The kids really enjoyed that.

Password – 3″: While the kids left my classroom, I had each of them knock on the door and say “Trick or treat!”  I would then, of course, give them each a piece of candy.

After everything was said and done, I spent many hours lesson planning this class, decorating my classroom, creating and shopping for materials, applying and removing face paint, and am now out roughly 308 pieces of candy.  It was a lot of work, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I enjoyed the class immensely, and my students did, as well.  While it was pretty light on the actual English study, they learned a lot about Halloween and did it in an interactive manner.  This is also a core component of my job.  I’m supposed to teach my students about American (and worldly) traditions.  I actually know a number of Koreans who are immensely misinformed about American culture, so I’m glad I get to do lessons like this every once in awhile.  They like learning about this kind of stuff too.  Anyways, here are some pictures from Halloween week.

The door to my classroom.  I made that poster in record time!  I also like how it blocks vision to my classroom.

The inside of my classroom.  The hanging spiders were my co-teacher’s idea.  It was awesome.

I actually painted my face differently for each day I taught my Halloween lesson.  This was my face paint on the first day.  The principal actually saw my face paint on this day.  He said it was beautiful, haha.  I love that man.

This was day number two and my original idea for what I was going to do.  I didn’t think I would be able to do this three days in a row, though, which is why I ended up changing it every day.

This was my face paint for day number three.  AHHHHHHH!  So scary!  Just kidding.

This was actually my face paint for the last day.  I took a more artistic approach to this day’s face paint.  Also, my shirt matches, although I tried to theme my clothes with my face paint every day anyways.

When all was said and done, these are the drawings that each class produced for the draw a monster competition.  For each class, I picked one team to be the winner based off of which one was the scariest.  Between all of them, I think class 6-8’s “B” team is the scariest among them all.  Class 5-2’s “A” team is probably is second place with their weird chicken monster.

I’ll remember this lesson plan for years to come.  It was truly epic, and I wish I had the time and the resources to make all of my classes this memorable.  In the meantime, I’ll still do my best!  Fighting!