Jim Langholz says he's 'Not the Cool Mom'

On Wednesday October 1st we had a very interesting discussion about the role of media in students lives. We discussed how songs, ads, tv, and many other things influence what teens in our society view as 'okay'. For example I was shocked, (and appalled) when Dr. Langholz brought up the topic of the teenage girls who were running a prostitution ring out of the Mall of America. What makes this story interesting is that these girls were from very wealthy families who you wouldn't imagine would have trouble coming up with money. However, they considered themselves intelligent because they had figured out how to make hundreds of dollars in one night, which allowed them to be able to purchase anything that they wanted. What makes this story even sadder is the fact that these girls didn't see selling themselves as a moral issue at all, and what's even worse is that their parents chose to ignore what was going on, simply to keep their children happy. The parents didn't want to be the 'bad guys' and have their children dislike them so instead they let them work as prostitutes? yeah, okay because that makes perfect sense! The point of our discussion was that media has a huge impact on issues like this because our culture shows situations like this as being okay, and girls see no moral issues with it at all. As teachers I think that its really important for us to be concerned with teaching and developing the whole person and not necessarily with just teaching the facts. In order for our society to be at its strongest we need to work to develop individuals who can succeed in the workplace and also in situations which require emotional and moral sensitivity.