Appendix

From Learning Activities Using "The Yes Men Fix the World"

Jump to:navigation, search


Contents

1 Appendix

1.1 Suggestions for continuing and connecting the work started through this guide

The Yes Men have continued the work they started in the film, and continue to make more connections with others working on the same issues. If you live in New York City, you may have even been handed a copy of their latest "fake" The New York Post newspaper.

This "special edition" New York Post has the usual tabloid-style headlines—only this time they say "We’re Screwed," with stories about how New York City could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global climate disruption within the next few decades. And, most alarming, the news is true, fact-checked and based on conclusions of a blue-ribbon panel of scientists commissioned by the mayor’s office to determine the potential effects of climate change on the City. The paper includes original investigative reporting such as an article revealing that Deutsche Bank, which erected a seven-story "carbon counter" in central Manhattan, not only invests heavily in coal-mining companies worldwide, but has recently entered the business of coal trading itself. Other features are a 70 year weather forecast, and an "Around the World" section describing the disproportionate effects of climate disruption on poorer parts of the world, even though those developing countries have done very little to cause the problem.

The Yes Men organized this "hoax" to coincide with the UN meetings leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. They chose to focus on the New York City report because it has received very little press coverage since its release in February 2009. They also wanted to report the helpful steps that have been taken by the city, including, building 1800 miles of bike paths, planting one million trees, and replacing its fleet of police cars with hybrids. An ad promotes civil disobedience, encouraging readers to visit Beyond Talk and pledge to risk arrest in a planned global action November 30, just before the conference in Copenhagen. This action by The Yes Men is one of 2500 initiatives taking place in more than 130 countries as a response to the . [www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup "Global Wake-up Call" on climate change].[endnotes 1]

We are hoping that work with this guide will also continue, and more and more connections will be made among all of us to learn from and support each others actions. An important goal of this guide is to connect educational institutions (or at least some teachers and students) with social change groups. That will hopefully lead to continuing collaborations and connections between theory and practice, between what students and teachers learn in the classroom and what they do with that learning in the real world struggle for justice.

Of course, this initial guide is only the beginning of this work. Every minute there is something new that I want to add to this Guide. And once in a while, I will post that material. But, we are also hoping that you send us material for posting. The Yes Men website has many ways for you to do this; either through entering their Challenge game, or through an interactive platform to communicate with each other about learning resources and activities you have designed, to post photos and videos of your actions, and to jointly plan for larger actions.

1.2 Resources: Education for social change

As with all the other listings in the guide, this one is just a glimpse of the possibilities.

Rethinking Schools is an activist magazine whose underlying philosophy is "firmly committed to equity and to the vision that public education is central to the creation of a humane, caring, multiracial democracy. While writing for a broad audience, Rethinking Schools emphasizes problems facing urban schools, particularly issues of race." Its articles, written by and for teachers, parents, and students, attempt to balance classroom practice, educational theory, and key policy issues, such as vouchers and marketplace-oriented reforms, funding equity, and school-to-work.

Radical Teacher is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal dedicated to the theory and practice of teaching. Its audience is "the community of educators who are working for democratic process, peace, and justice. The magazine examines the root causes of inequality and promotes progressive social change, publishing articles on classroom practices and curriculum, as well as on educational issues related to gender and sexuality, disability, culture, globalization, privatization, race, class, and other similar topics.

FairTest (The National Center for Fair & Open Testing) is an organization that "works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial." They emphasize "eliminating the racial, class, gender, and cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests." FairTest provides information, technical assistance and advocacy on a broad range of testing concerns, publishes a regular electronic newsletter, The Examiner a full catalog of materials on both K- 12 and university testing to aid teachers, administrators, students, parents and researchers, and has numerous fact sheets available to educate people about standardized testing and alternative assessment.

A sampling of curriculum resources: The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer School Curriculum (with Herbert Randall’s photos from the civil Rights Movement); Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development [1]; Lives on the Boundary [2]; Laboring to Lean: Women’s Literacy and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era [3]; Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing [4]; writings about the philosophical underpinnings of education for social change by Michael Apple, Lisa Delpit, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, bell hooks, Donaldo Macedo, Ernest Morell, and Sonia Nieto; and, What I want my Words to Do to You[5] a film about how a writing program helped women in a maximum security prison—and a film that helps the viewer to see a complex picture of why these women are in that maximum security prison, and why they did what they did, and how they are human beings.

1.3 Resources: Further exploration of specific topics from The Yes Men Fix the World

As with all the other listings in the guide, this one is just a glimpse of additional materials not already referred to in the guide.

Bhopal: The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal; and the Bhopal Medical Appeal.

Global Climate Disruption: "Global Warming: Beyond the Tipping Point" [6]; "Global Climate Disruption: What Do We Know?" [7]; and "Tomgram: Mark Engler, Protesting at Clinate Ground Zero".

Katrina: "The Deadly Choices at Memorial—Investigation of New Orleans Hospital tells Story of how Medical Staff Euthanized Patients in Katrina Aftermath"[8]; "The other Katrina Hospital Mystery: What The New York Times Magazine Story Missed about the Memorial Medical Center Tragedy" [9]; Big Easy to Big Empty: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans [10].

Dow Chemical: Corpwatch fighting Dow

Exxon Mobil: "Exxon suxx. McCain Duxx." [11]; and "Stick Your Damn Hand in It: 20th Birthday of the Exxon Valdez Lie" [12].

Halliburton: Halliburton Watch.

1.4 Endnotes

  1. ↑ Another recent action is an editorial they wrote, published in The Washington Times (September 27, 2009) about the Congressional actions inspired by the right-wing impersonators who implicated Acorn in a scandal. Congress jumped to eliminate Acorn’s funding and The Yes Men say this gives them “great hope” that their corporate targets, “whose reps we’ve filmed vigorously nodding their heads at and asking for more details about our immoral and criminal proposals will finally see justice.”(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/25/AR2009092502016.html)

1.5 References

  1. ↑ Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey, Eds., Washington, D.C.: Network of Educators on the Americas, 1997
  2. ↑ Mike Rose, New York: The Free Press, 1989
  3. ↑ Lorna Rivera, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008
  4. ↑ Louise Dunlop, Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 2007
  5. ↑ Eve Ensler, Carole Jenkins, and Judith Katz, American Documentary, Inc., 2003, 80 minutes
  6. ↑ Michael D. Lemonick, Scientific American, October 2008
  7. ↑ John P. Holdren, Presentation at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, November 6, 2007
  8. ↑ Sheri Fink on Democracy Now!
  9. ↑ Josh Levin, September 4, 2009, http://www.slate.com/id/2227333/
  10. ↑ documentary film, Greg Palast reporting, trailer at http://www.gregpalast.com/bigeasy/
  11. ↑ Greg Palast, February 28, 2008
  12. ↑ Greg Palast, March 23, 2009
Retrieved from "http://www.theyesmenfixtheworld.com/guide/Appendix"
Table of Contents

Part One: Learning Activities Before Seeing The Film

Part Two: Learning Activities After Seeing The Film

 
Toolbox