Ludwig Pongratzs and Bulman's Essays - Literature review Example

Assessment Task One: Two Summaries First Summary: Bulman, Robert C., Expressing oneself in a culture of conformity: contradictions in suburban schoolcinema. In this essay, Bulman differentiates between the Hollywood portrayals of suburban versus urban adolescent high school students, showing the variances in the priorities of the suburban high school adolescents. The main themes in these movies are basically the same despite differences in storylines: breaking free from uniformity, rules, expectations and showing a great deal of individualism is the most acceptable and fulfilling way to adulthood. However there are inaccuracies such as loopholes in storylines, limitations in portrayal of people from other cultural and/or less advantaged backgrounds, and a great deal of bias in representing actual ideals and identities of real adolescents from suburban high schools. In comparison with movies focusing on the lives of urban poor adolescents in overcoming actual obstacles such as poverty and discrimination, the suburban adolescent movies mostly depict the triumph of the protagonists over the control of the school or adults, creating a non-conformist identity opposite to what is expected, as well as asserting the importance of their individuality and recognition as adults over the need to act like model students. For Bulman, portrayals of most adolescents as the rebellious types in suburban education movies directly contradict the culture of middle-class conformity and the lack of relevance of academics in the lives of such individuals, as well as misaligning what actions are truly signs of independence and who are the adolescents that aim to become as independent as possible. Suburban education movies show that the relationship between the adolescents and the adults are distorted to the degree, with adults actually shown as incompetent in moulding the minds of the adolescents and are thus reduced to being the kind of adults that turn a blind eye to their sons’ or daughters’ faults. The students on the other hand are shown to charm adults and get their own way in the end, despite displaying socially-unacceptable behaviour or standing up against adult authority. Youth is presented as the triumphant group with greater potentials of learning and enjoying life even when they break laws, while adults are shown as boring and repetitive (Bulman, 2005). However, in reality it is much easier for middle-class adolescents to follow rules and attain what is expected from them since these are considered to be sure-fire ways in attaining future successes, and Hollywood would not be able to create much drama from such predictability, thus banking on the typical rebellious teenagers to gain more followers and income. Apart from the predictable identities of main characters in such movies, Bulman also criticised the unrealistic assumptions of Hollywood in such movies, particularly the culture in the suburban school environment that glorifies standing out from the crowd, teenagers achieving freedom and adulthood by following their own rules, the lack of or seldom appearances of responsible and understanding adults to guide the main protagonists, and the negative portrayal of conformity to predetermined rules and regulations, both in school and in the society. Bulman (2005) remarked that suburban educational environment in movies show predictable main characters, mostly belonging only to middle-class white Americans. While these movies targeted adolescents within a wide range of classes and cultural backgrounds, the irony is that such movies only show protagonists whose futures are already dictated right from the beginning. Also, instead of showing how doing well in academics could create better futures for such students, it is by flipping the tables on the powerful, the authorities, and the popular would pave the road to adulthood and success for the protagonists, which is rather unrealistic considering the strong culture of conformity among suburban middle class whites in relying on tried-and-tested methods for success, such as academic excellence and getting high-paying jobs. Aside from predictability, the middle-class protagonists in these movies do not face discrimination, have sufficient monetary support from their parents, are well-liked due to their admirable qualities both in academics and in social situations, which bore them in their everyday routines. They want to break free from what is expected from them by everyone, eventually following their own desires and eventually, such circumstances turn them into strong and independent adults. But Bulman asserts that in reality, such adolescents are actually not so adventurous and tend to conform to established rules so as not to break the status quo and that they would rather follow their parents’ wishes to become middle-class adults themselves. It is interesting to note that those who came from much more disadvantaged backgrounds have stronger tendencies to claim independence and assert mature roles, such as prioritising earning money over schooling, establishing a family, and other adult roles that middle-class adolescents would be delaying due to their pursuit of a college degree and a career. However, Hollywood does not portray such reality, rather depicting adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds as lawbreakers and negative influences, and despite the middle-class protagonists also breaking the law and showing unacceptable behaviour that are typically-expected from teenagers from other cultural backgrounds, when they are the ones shown in the movies to do such things these are mostly dismissed as normal or mistakes that adolescents must make to differentiate what is wrong from what is right. This shows a discrepancy on the acceptability of misbehaving depending on who portrays it on-screen, and a subtle discrimination and stereotyping in such portrayals. Thus, it is hard to rely on Hollywood portrayals of individualistic suburban middle-class adolescents since these are not only biased to a single social class by non-portrayal of adolescents from other classes or cultural backgrounds, but also contradictory to the culture of middle-class Americans that put importance in conformity such as academic excellence and keeping up with the Joneses. Second Summary: Pongratz, Ludwig, Freedom and discipline: transformations in pedagogic punishment. Ludwig Pongratz’s essay on the transformation of pedagogic punishment discusses the importance of combining freedom with discipline, as well as the changes that occurred alongside the evolution of cultures in giving out punishments in order to instil discipline in any ages, both in education as well as in manners of conduct. However, he contests the validity of eliminating any forms of punishment, of changing the type of punishment from corporal to a softer or less harsh form, as well as to whether punishment does give any results or elicit changes among the punished. While the reformation of society from feudal to an enlightened one might have initiated such changes, it is theorised that despite the changes in delivering punishment, some key elements regarding the need for punishments remain the same across time, which when used in combination with other motivational forces is expected to develop a concept of ethics and morality among citizens. The successes of older types of punishments in instilling moral reforms are based on giving or taking away certain aspects of freedom among wrongdoers. However, in patronising rational reform methods such as using soft forms of punishments, the implementation of such methods create tendencies which could cause potential problems regarding instilling morals and recognising the need to follow orderly rules of conduct. Among these overlooked possible effects of rational reforms are: there is a strong need to fully explain how one’s actions are connected to causalities happening within a small or a larger network; the possibility of manipulation of individuals by complying with punishments having consequences that are either too vague or too ambiguous to understand fully; there are more reformers or deliverers of punishments, which gives a wider range of control by larger and more powerful groups or entities, thus the need to conform to greater numbers of people; and lastly, the knowledge of the consequences in relation to mistakes or wrongdoings done by others could affect other individuals even without them having to experience doing such things through the nature of man learning from the mistakes of others, even when the onlookers have insufficient knowledge regarding the circumstances of others (Pongratz, 2007). While it is expected that there is greater freedom while being under reform or soft punishment, oftentimes the individuals have a harder time focusing on their freedom in fears of committing mistakes, which in turn affects their own perception of freedom by having greater restrictions on themselves and by others. Delivering corporal punishments was considered to be acceptable due to the brutal nature of the feudal systems in Europe, but the intellectual and modernisation changes that came along with the Enlightenment disproved the legitimacy of using corporal punishment, citing that using such medieval measures not only contradicts the essence of modernisation but is also an irrational way of establishing what is wrong and right among wrongdoers, mostly school children (Pongratz, 2007). There is also an increased freedom and rational thinking during the Enlightenment, which prompted changes that could inflict an effective punishment without hurting the body. Thus, instead of putting efforts in repetitive disciplinary actions, additional focus is given to strategies that aim to reform the mind. However, it also expected that among the individuals receiving the punishments especially younger ones, confusion or problems such as understanding why these punishments are dealt with and the legitimacy of doing so might be harder for them to comprehend, which might lead to the possibility of soft punishments to become ineffective. While there has been additional acceptance of softer punishments especially among the upper-class and elites, the delivery of such punishments created the dissolution in the relationship of freedom and discipline since there is no deprivation of certain aspects of freedom such as access to favourite items or additional time for recreation. Aside from that, instead of delivering single punishments for every mistake, the process of reform becomes a long and continuous process, which spans for a very long time across various lessons, and is constantly monitored not just by a few people but many, ranging from parents to school teachers and even law enforcers. This causes problems such as identifying what is done wrong, why it is wrong, and even choosing whose authority must be followed, since conflicts may arise from differences in how people see the severity of both the wrongdoing and the punishment (Pongratz, 2007). The division of entities in administering punishments and the possible confusion of wrongdoers could eventually affect both their ability to judge whether something is wrong and what possible consequences could happen. The essay concludes that while soft punishments might be here in the long run, the impact of delivering corporal punishments and the perception of people to it having much more influence to the development of morals remain to be a strong factor in the hesitation of various thinkers, including Pongratz in the effectiveness or legitimacy of purely relying on soft or reform-based punishments. However, delivering punishments in any way is still a better option than dismissing the wrongs altogether by both instilling the importance of doing the good and doing sacrifices along with it. Bibliography Bulman, R. C. 2005. Expressing oneself in a culture of conformity: contradictions in suburban school cinema. In: Hollywood Goes To High School: Cinema, Schools, And American Culture. New York: Worth Publishers, pp. 80-118. Pongratz, L., 2007. Freedom and discipline: transformations in pedagogic punishment. In: Peters, M. & T. B. P. Lang, eds. Why Foucault?: New Directions in Educational Research. New York: s.n., pp. 29-42. Read More