Today, Tori and I noticed that our homeroom had an interesting, and certainly not conventional, response to today's memorial which we felt related to the discussion on memorials in class. When the principal called for everyone to say the pledge, we complied and recited it, although rather out of sync. We immediately went to sit down, when the principal called for everyone to remain standing. Tori, Lauren, and I stood up, but no one else did. They just looked at us strangely and then resumed their conversations, despite the moment of silence we were supposed to be having. Our teacher was standing, but said nothing to the class. The memorial had basically no effect on our homeroom.
This certainly was not a transformative memorial, and I don't think it was supposed to be, but done for the sake of showing respect. Honestly, it didn't have any more effect on me than it did on the kids sitting down, but I stil stood because I felt I should. To me, and most peole, I think, a memorial means you have to act respectful. Usually social surroundings pressure you into showing sense of patriotism and respect during memorials. However, when you remove that social pressure, people act the way our homeroom did.
~Becca
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I was surprised at our homeroom teacher, too. She continued talking to a student during the moment of silence. Maybe she didn't know it was supposed to be a moment of silence, but she certainly influenced the rest of the homeroom because they felt the moment of silence had no authority: since the teacher was disregarding it, they felt it was okay to disregard it too. However, she did reinforce being quiet during the poem... but I didn't catch a word because people continued talking and she kept shushing the room. I definitely agree with Becca, the lack of respectful silence (the lack of the physical gesture accompanying the Veteran's Day thoughts) changed the whole dynamics of the memorial.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, the more effective memorial for me today was during Contemp. I don't even think Mr. Wright meant for it to be a memorial, but as we said this past week, moving experiences happen spontaneously. Audrey and I watched a video about Vietnam and a couple particular veterans who fought and were able to recount their experiences. It was personal and moving because I never really was exposed to a Vietnam battle such as the one in the video.
Have a good, commemorating Veteran's Day.
-- tori
My homeroom was totally the opposite. We all stood up right after the bell rang to do our usual Pledge of Alligiance, and that was when the announcement was on. My homeroom teacher makes us be quiet whenever there is an announcement so it was easier for the people in my homeroom to follow the instruction. Nobody seemed to be standing awkwardly during the moment of silence because everybody was doing it.
ReplyDelete-Joanne
My homeroom's response was in between those two. We all stood up, said the pledge, and then went to sit back down before the moment of silence was announced. When we were told to remain standing, everybody looked around awkardly for a few moments to make sure everybody else was standing up. I did realize, however, that most people around me weren't saying the pledge. During this time and during the moment of silence, they stood there looking bored and making faces at their friends. Although they were quiet, they certainly weren't respectful.(Alexa's on the other side of the room, and I don't know what it was like there.)
ReplyDeleteIn response to what Tori said about the Contemp video, I also thought this was an effective memorial not only for our class, as she said, but also for the veterns themselves. At the end of the portion of the video we saw, the leader of the US troops said that as he was walking off the battlefield where so many were killed, he felt the "survivor's guilt" that we were talking about a couple days ago. We talked about veterns feeling this guilt while at the Vietnam Memorial in DC, but the trip to Vietnam these veterns took to recount this battle was also a memorial for them, for all their friends who were killed in that battle.
-Audrey