I Hated the Word Feminist...Now I Consider Myself One

"Feminism: The advocacy of women's rights based on the equality of the sexes." - Urban Dictionary 

The word "Feminist" or "Feminism" used to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

These are words that has been around for a long time (since the 1800s at least), but have become increasingly popular of late, especially in American culture. 

Feminism started because at one point in America, it was illegal for women to read, vote or go to college. It was illegal to buy or use any form of birth control even within marriage. It was not illegal to take advantage of a woman, and rape her, and there were no negative consequences for the men involved. Women were unprepared to enter the work force because up until WW2, women were expected to stay at home and raise the children. If a woman lost her husband, whether or not she was elderly or young, she would become homeless because she was either unprepared for the work force or discriminated against due to her sex. Once our men came home from WW2, women were expected to go back to home and raise the children, even if they desired to continue being in the workforce.

Women were oppressed in all ways imaginable. In many countries, we still are. Feminism grew and developed throughout the years as a way to change this, because many women - and men - saw a disparity in the genders and desired change. 

One of the things that really rubs me the wrong way, is that from the beginning, Christian and Catholic women were the primary sources of women that disagreed with the idea of feminism. Men from all different walks of life disagreed with the idea. But the primary source of women that disagreed called themselves Christians, Catholic, Conservative. Feminism was offensive to them because they considered it to be "anti-Biblical" to work outside the home; prevent pregnancy; go to college or pursue higher knowledge; to leave your husband; or choose to remain a single woman. 

In the 90s, feminism centered around women trying to change the typical view of what a woman was and could be. It also centered around opposition to violence against women and sexual assault. This is something that is still necessary to fight and oppose to this day. Did you know that it's currently not illegal in America to take photos up the skirt of a women? 

I bought into the view that the word "feminism" centered around getting women equal rights as men. But ALSO that women who called themselves "feminists" hated men, wanted to stop chauvinism, loved birth control and abortion and hated children, and thought that all women should just go to college and be businesswomen. That's a stereotypical view of feminists. Some women may call themselves feminists and believe that. The majority do not. 

The majority of feminists recognize that there is a disparity between the genders. They recognize that the treatment of men and women is highly unequal, and that it should be changed. That does not sound "Anti-Biblical" to me. I have talked to a couple women that told me that they haven't experienced any inequality in their lives as women. 

To them I say, congratulations. I'm so happy for you. As we can see from the recent #metoo movement, it's not the case for the majority of women. This isn't the time to discuss that more in depth, but I do want to say that most men don't have to fear sexual oppression when they're just walking down the street. Women and girls are 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than their male counterparts. 

I started seeing feminism differently after reading an essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, titled, "Why We Should All be Feminists". It's only 45 (small) pages long and I encourage everyone to read it. Just read it. I'm not even going to quote her here, because the book is too good. 

I am a Christian feminist. I believe in the God of the Bible. I believe that all people are created in the image of God, that human life is sacred, that all have sinned, and that God's holy son Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and our sins were completely forgiven upon his Resurrection. (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; Luke 23:26 - 24:12). 

To say that women and men are unequal, and should stay that way, is to deny that both man and woman were created in his image. We sinned equally. He LOVES us equally (Genesis 2; Romans 3:23; Matthew/Mark/Luke/John).

God himself says that there is NO distinction: "For there is no distinction: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. …" (Romans 3:22-24).

ALL. Gentile, Jew, woman, man, etc. God knows no race or gender when it comes to his expectations for us: obedience. 

To believe that men and women should remain separated by gender, is to believe that segregation should remain based upon gender. 

I believe that men and women are created equal. I believe that black African and white American are created to be equal. I believe that young and old are created equal. I believe that autistic and "typical" are created equal. I believe that the God of the Bible loves every single one of us equally, and does not discriminate based on gender, race, ability, age, or anything else. Everyone has access to Him. 

If our God does not discriminate, why should we?

To allow women to be treated or seen as less than men is to hold the view that there is one type of person that is better than anyone else. You become part of the bigger problem at large when you hold this ideal that men are better than women. If this is believed worldwide, what chance to people of other races, ability levels, or ages, have to achieve equality? 

I am not saying that there is no difference between the genders. I believe that differences are what make us special, and should be acknowledged and treated with respect. God has a plan for our differences. But that is not the main focus of this post. Maybe another day. 

This is why I am a feminist. I believe that Feminism is a women's rights issue, and that makes it a Human's Rights issue. I like to use the word feminist because it acknowledges the disparity between the genders that so many people these days would love to ignore. Just saying that I am for Human's Rights and equality for all is too generic. 

I love men, I love babies, I do believe that differences make us special, and I am a feminist. And I'm a pro-life, Bible-believing Christian.

Book Censorship

Words are powerful things. And books are full of them. Words can start wars, a friendship, lead to love. Within their words, books contain ideas, memories, voices.

When books are banned, a voice is silenced. A voice is declared, "You are offensive," or, "You have no place here."

How can someone tell a voice that they have no place? Who is the judge of that? Who are we, to tell our children, the world's future, what they can or can't enjoy, just because it makes us look bad? They might not be able to handle it? They can't separate fiction from reality?

If you can't tell, I lean more or less towards the opinion that no books should be banned. In my opinion, telling people what they can and cannot read, what words they can and cannot see/hear, is trying to control their lives in more ways than anyone has authority to do. In today's post, I want to give you a list of books that have been banned, for one reason or another, and the reason behind it. Primarily, I'm going to be talking about books that have been censored but are considered an important piece of literature today, or should be. I want to shed light on the fact that book censorship is something that has been around for a long, long time, and it continues today in schools and libraries all over the country. When we are banning books and telling people what they can and can't read, we are silencing the freedom of speech. Books take us places; on adventures, through time, and teach us important lessons. These lessons should not be silenced.

Book censorship has been a topic on my mind lately, due to the fact that it was brought up in my diversity and equity class a couple months ago. A blog post was posted in a Facebook group about books that are good to use to educate children on the struggles and history of Native Americans and some books that are not good to do so. On the "do not read" list, Little House on the Prairie was mentioned, for being overtly racist towards Native Americans. 

I decided to do more research on book banning. 

There are many reasons why books are banned. The top 5 that I discovered were racial issues, sexism, political bias, explicit sexual content, and language. We ban books for these all the time. However, movies and TV shows contain the same, if not more, of these "explicit" contents, yet they are never banned, and children are allowed in many households to watch movies and TV shows that they can't even begin to understand, might be considered inappropriate, but never banned. Why is this? What is different about books that prompt banning and censorship?

While I don't agree with letting every child of every age get access to books that might have content too mature for them, I do think it's incredibly silly that we have been so quick to ban books and yet our TV shows and movies have incredibly explicit content and are never challenged or censored. These days, children and teens don't read nearly as much as they watch TV or movies. They have access to incredible technology that thirty years ago we could've never dreamed of. And yet before we would censor a movie or social media app or tv show...we ban a book. 

Keep reading,

Holly

In Summer

Welcome, summer. Boy am I glad to see you! 

I finished spring quarter with a 3.8 GPA (praise the Lord!), on June 13th, and my last day of school (Lowell), was June 19th. I spent the first several days of my break catching up on chores, selling bunnies, and getting ready for summer classes. To celebrate the first day of summer, I went camping with a really good friend on Thursday night up in the Granite Falls area. It was beautiful, peaceful, and so relaxing. It was so needed. The weather wasn't perfect, but it was amazing for the hikes we did and adventures we had. 

This summer I am working as a nanny for a 3 month old baby, Bear, in Edmonds. I'll only be working about 19 hours a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so I'll still have time to enjoy my summer and travel over my long weekends. In June, I also have a few other babysitting jobs scheduled - one over a weekend in Seattle. I've been wanting to visit the city since I never really have, and this will be a good weekend to do so with the girls I'll be watching. 

Speaking of travelling, in a couple weeks my family and I are going to Moscow, ID for our cousin's wedding. A couple weeks after that, I hope to take a trip to Leavenworth to explore. In August, I'll hopefully be cabin leading Jr. High camp at Lakeside Bible Camp, going to Oregon to see friends, and camping at the end of August. I'm really hoping to go to California after the summer. I wanted to go in September, but with school starting, it's a terrible time to leave. And then college will start again after that, so I will most likely go there in December. I want to go for a couple weeks this time. This summer, I hope to do lots of hiking and  

Summer classes started on June 25th. I only have 3 this quarter, and only 9 credits - PE, Health, and Social Studies online. PE is on Tuesdays and Thursdays but is only 4 weeks long. Health is on Wednesdays, and is 5 weeks long. Social studies has one in-class class on the 25th but is 8-10 weeks long. I'm glad that classes will be more chill this summer. I need a little break for sure - last quarter wore me out! You can find out more about what I've been doing over the past 3 months in my last post. Throughout the summer, I will also be working a lot with my church in kids ministry and service projects. I'm super excited for Reach's purpose here in Everett, and to see our ministry grow! 

Thanks for reading about my summer plans! Have a good weekend!

Holly 

The Last 3 Months

Well hello there . . . been a while.

It's been more than 3 months since I've made a real post, not counting the 5 I released as a school project. However, in February when I wrote my last blog, I stopped having time due to spring quarter coming up and preparation for that.

The past 3 months have been INSANE. I worked at Lowell Elementary 5 days a week, 8am to 3pm, and then had classes 4 nights a week 5 to 9. 4 days a week, I was out of the house for at least 13.5 hours. And after classes, typically I would hop right in bed. I barely saw my family, and was only home to sleep and take care of my rabbits pretty much.

Wednesdays were particularly busy - I worked until 11:30, drove to Cedar Wood in Bothell for my half day practicum, left for school at 3:30 and sat in traffic for an hour on my way there. My busiest week was at the end of May. I had a lot of projects due in class, and was trying to apply for scholarships. I work up an extra hour and a half early all week just to write scholarship applications and essays before work, because I needed to do homework every other free minute of the day. That was a particularly stressful and exhausting week.

When I wasn't working, I was doing homework. Every second I could. I got to class usually an hour, an hour and a half early Monday, Tuesday and Thursday so I did homework during that time. I did homework all weekend. Any weekend that I was travelling or had plans set me behind and I did miss a couple nights of classes catching up, or did extra homework during IT class. I had huge projects due every other week, assignments and lesson plans due every week, and lessons to teach at Cedar Wood. I had 5 classes - about 16 credits. My practicum class, EOT (Essentials in Teaching), IT for Educators, Math, and Art. Thankfully Art was only 8 weeks long, so the first couple weeks in June before spring quarter was out, I had Tuesday nights off. I still don't know how I did it. It's by the grace of God that I made it through spring quarter without losing my mind and with a 3.8 GPA.

The things that kept me surviving through these months were my planner, car, and the Psalms. I love my planner. I took it everywhere (I still do), and wrote everything down. EVERYTHING. From what assignments were due when, to when I needed to clean bunny cages and when I had bunny pickups or work meetings. I thankfully got my license and a car right after spring quarter started. I don't know what I would've done without it. I'll write another post soon about my car story. It's quite a miracle! Pretty much whenever I had or made time to read my Bible, I read the Psalms. They are easy to read most of the time, and very comforting. Even if I wasn't pursuing God every second or even ever day, He reminded me that He was pursuing me.

Even though I barely had time to breathe, there were some highlights. Students at Cedar Wood told me I would make a great teacher. They learned something from my lessons. My CT told me that I made a difference in the life of one of her students. Even though I was only there for 3.5 hours, once a week. My kids at work make progress on their IEP goals. They didn't die or get hurt. One of my students did pull the fire alarm, but we sincerely hope he learned a lot from that experience (we're pretty sure he didn't). We had a talent show, carnival, and Last Day of School celebrations.

It was by far the busiest, most stressful few months I've had in forever. And hopefully it won't be repeated, at least for a long while. But it wasn't terrible. It was insane, yes, and I can't say it was worth it, but it was a challenge that I passed. I succeeded, I finished it, I grew, and I learned so much.

I have several blogs that I have started as I've felt led or inspired over the past several months, but haven't had time to finish. And even though not all of them apply to what's going on in my life immediately, they did at one point. I'll finish them up and post them during the next few weeks. My next post later this week will be about what my plans are for the summer. School's out now, and although I have summer classes and I'm working, everything will be much more chill. I'm so ready for a little relaxation and summer fun!

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Holly

My First Day Project - The First Day

The first day is here. It's third grade, 8:35am, and students are arriving. I'm ready, and here's the plan:

When students arrive to the classroom, I will greet them at the door. "Hi! I'm Ms. Wisniew. Welcome to your classroom! Find your name and have a seat."

Once all students have entered, and are seated in their assigned seats (they will have assigned seats for the first week), I will introduce myself again, talk about some things I like, my favorite book, animals, where I went to school, why I'm excited to teach 3rd grade, etc. We'll go over and practice our Call to Attention. We'll go over today's schedule, which is posted on the board. Then, I will pass out some questionnaires for them to fill out to get to know each other and for me to get to know them. After they have those filled out, they can talk to people in their table group and discuss their answers. While they are working on this, I will be taking roll, and asking students if they celebrate their birthdays. Next, I'll put 2 giant pieces of paper on the board and hand out some sticky notes. Students will write a third grade fear and a third grade excitement on their sticky notes and place them on the papers, without signing their name. Then I'll read them all aloud and students can see how similar their fears and joys are to other students. These are for me to review and use.

Around 9:15, I'll collect the questionnaires and we will go over our procedure for transitions. We'll practice, I'll model, and students will model. We'll begin some name games, where everyone stands in a circle and says their name along with a corresponding movement or hand gesture. I will begin to demonstrate. Then, everyone says the name and does the movement/hand gesture. After that, still in a circle, we will say our name as fast as we possibly can. Then once we've been around the circle, we'll start again, saying our name as slowly as we possibly can. After this, we'll all know everyone's names very well! I'll give students a few minutes to talk in their table groups again and get to know each other by providing some sentence stems or questions they could ask each other. Then, they will show me how to transition back into their seats like we talked about.

Around 10, we will talk about what they want in a teacher. They will talk with their table group and come up with 3 things they agree are important to them in a teacher. Then we'll write them all down from each group on an anchor chart and post it in the classroom. I'll add a few of my own that I think are important to keep me accountable to. Then, we'll talk rules. What rules do they want to hold themselves and their classmates accountable to? Again, we will discuss in our groups and come up with 3 important ones. We will narrow it down to 5 critical rules for our classroom. If I deem it necessary, I may choose to add some important rules they left out. We will talk about consequences and what happens when rules are broken in this classroom.

Around 11, we will go over some procedures we use every day - especially flexible seating and the different group structures that we have, compared to most classrooms. We will talk about things we will learn this year - what they can expect in regards to homework, growth mindset, family interaction, etc. We will go over our entering the classroom procedure, bathroom/snacks/water/leaving the classroom procedures, materials/supplies/tech, classroom library/silent reading procedures, teacher mailbox and turn-a-card procedure. With all procedures, as appropriate, we will practice and model the expected behavior several times. At the classroom library procedure, students will actually choose books they want to start reading.

We will go over our lining up procedure, I'll show them how it's done, we'll practice it a few times, have some students model for us, and then we'll line up for lunch at 12:15. Let's say that they have lunch, then recess, then specialist, and don't come back to the classroom until 1:45. During this time, I'll be going over their questionnaires and preparing the lesson I'll teach when they get back.

Once students return, we will have a lesson on characters and talk about the books we chose for silent reading. I will introduce a book we will read together. We will go over the turn & talk procedures.

Students will have another, 10-minute recess at 2:10. When they return, we will go over our self-assessment procedure and they will have a chance to practice it. Then, we will go over and practice our dismissal procedure, line up, and they will dismiss for the day around 2:45 - 2:55.

Remaining procedures will be taught the next day. On day 2 we will go over all classroom jobs and what they entail. On day 2, they will also have their first Word of the Week (RESPECT), math and reading/writing lessons. They will be assigned classroom jobs on day 3. On day 3, we will also have a science lesson and play with some STEM supplies. On day 3, we will also begin math and reading/writing workshop procedures.