Solitarity

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=103035&is_large=true

Stephen Colbert’s word always strives to draw viewers’ attention to an issue through sarcasm, humor, and often a serious undertone. This episode’s word- solitarity refers to the tasering incident during John Kerry’s speech at the University of Florida, or more importantly, the reaction to the tasering by audience members, most of which sit by and watched the scene happen.

Colbert directs his word at today’s “inactive” generation. He mocks one of the members sitting in the audience saying that he “is probably thinking I wish they would stop tasering this guy so I could go home and watch this guy getting tasered on UTube.” Colbert goes on to say that if the student getting tasered expected fellow students to rise up in protest he was “asking the wrong generation.” Colbert’s word succeeds at making people laugh while thinking “that is so true…and actually pretty sad.”


Colbert’s comparison of the tasering incident to student protests during the Vietnam War highlights the seriousness associated with the need for today’s generation to become more motivated. He draws attention to the fact that today’s generation, “instead of amassing people to march on Washington, they amass hits on a website calling for a march on Washington.” Colbert focuses on the convenience associated with simply writing a blog versus taking action. As I sat and watched this episode of The Colbert Report, I tried to tell myself that I would have spoken up, but instead, I came to the conclusion that I should write about it in my blog for English 201. Isn’t that ironic.

Calvin and Hobbes

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm

Being a student and an elementary education major, I can thoroughly relate to this Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. In this instance, Calvin is arguing that the information he learns for his tests is not only “useless” but that he can simply “manipulate” the system by passively memorizing the material without actually learning anything. The ironic part is that Calvin does not even get the date the Pilgrims arrived on Plymouth Rock right. Calvin’s last comment, “they say the satisfaction of teaching makes up for the lousy pay,” makes me assume that while this strip can be enjoyed by all, especially those reminiscing of their own schooling, I think it specifically focuses on the education field as its audience. The comic strip challenges teachers to consider the value of the content they present and their forms of assessment so that their students are not simply regurgitating facts but really understanding concepts.
A theme of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips is that this little sarcastic boy talks about some pretty serious and grown up issues. The writer, Bill Watterson, does a good job of appealing to school age people who can relate to making it through classes on pure memorization skills. He also grabs educators’ attentions when he uses his sarcastic humor to imply that there is not much satisfaction in teaching when the students do not learn anything which is powerful on both a logical and an emotional level. This comic strip could even be used to argue against multiple choice type standardized testing and in favor of a performance skills based assessment. While one part of me laughs as I think about the way some of my schooling applies to this circumstance, the future teacher in me is hoping that my students will not feel the same way Calvin does. Bill Watterson is successful at producing comics that not only make the audience laugh but also think allowing the audience to take it as deep as he or she wants to.