J.T. Gaskins is a survivor of leukemia, and recently decided
to grow out his hair with plans to donate it to locks of love. However, he was
suspended from school last week because the length of his hair is not
“well-maintained.” His mother, Christa Plante fully supports her son’s decision
to grow out his hair. Locks of love respects J.T. for his efforts to give back,
but would like to see him going back to school.
1.
What message is the school giving out by
suspending J.T. for his actions?
2.
What does this article say about gender roles in
today’s society?
3.
How does this article, along with the petition’s
success, affect the awareness of cancer charities?
4.
How does the wording and quotes used in the
article help make Gaskins look like he is doing the right thing (the “good guy”)
when the school makes him look like he is doing something wrong thing (the “bad
guy”)?
20 comments:
This article is very inspiring and interesing. This young man has lived his life with Luekemia and has finally been cured of it. All he wants to do is grow his hair out for a charity so he can donate it, but instead, the school has suspended him for breaking school policy. The school is sending out a bad message to its students and to the community as a hole. They have suspended a kid for breaking a small rule but while doing it for charity. More importantly, at the end, J.T. states how he wishes the school could just compromise. This is leaning towards that the school doesn't want to compromise at all. This gives off the idea that school rules are mor important that helping change the community in a good way. It makes the school look bad and almost evil. The longer they take to compromise with J.T. the more and more evil the school will look.
This article speaks quite a bit about the impact of gender roles in today's society. I know many schools with a regulation on hair length for boys, however, no such rules exist for girls. By saying that it is okay to have different rules for men and women, it is promoting sexist behaviors and actions. These gender roles are more notable when they are enforced to such extremes as suspension.
Although it may be considered the social norm for men to have shorter hair than girls, I do not believe that a school can promote such gender specific rules, especially in this case where J.T. is simply trying to do something positive for charity and the betterment of his community.
By refusing to compromise, the school conveys a negative message about itself. It seems as if the school is against men growing their hair out, when in fact it is the individuals own decision.
The binary opposition “survived…leukemia” and “suspended from school” creates the “good” side and the “bad” side of this issue.
The article makes it seem like Gaskins is doing the right thing by using emotion to make his argument stronger. Diagnosed with leukemia when he was a year old, he says, “I fought cancer my entire life. I’m going to fight this”. We can sense his passion for wanting to help the others who have gone through similar, difficult situation as him. He wants to make a difference in the cancer patients lives. He also claims that he’s growing his hair out to “raise awareness for all cancer charities out there that can help patients.” He is obviously not growing his hair out for personal reasons. The decision he made is a selfless motive to help the others battling cancer just like he did for most of his life.
On the other hand, the school shows no compassion towards Gaskins. They suspended Gaskins for how his hair was messy, which went against the school code. The school requires the students’ hair to be “clean, neat, free of unnatural or distracting colors, off the collar, off the ears and out of the eyes.” Their rules show how strict they are with discipline. The main concern for the school seems to be how Gaskins represent the school, rather than his intentions behind his decision to grow his hair out. For egotistic purpose, the school hides Gaskins long hair by suspending him. They don’t even seem understanding of Gaskins battle with cancer, and acknowledge his victory over leukemia.
The school made a rule about how boy's hair must be neat and short. They are enforcing their rule to prevent others from breaking the rule. If they make an exception because of J.T. Gaskins being a cancer survivor or for his cause could cause boys to rebel and just grow their hair out in protest. The suspension is to keep consequences fair between students and prevent future rule problems from arising.
The school wants their male students to be clean-cut to present the school as a good place to educate students. If students look professional then the school is also assumed to be advanced and high class. Long unkepted hair for males is seen to represent laziness and being a trouble-maker, influencing the opinion of the school.
Women, on the other hand, typically have well-maintained long hair. This is seen as normal or even proper in society. Hair can provide stereotypes towards people depending on their gender.
The wording of the article encourages the reader to oppose the school’s suspension of J.T. From the first sentence, J.T. is portrayed as the hero of the story. Immediately the reader learns that J.T. survived cancer, and has been suspended due to his long hair “which he is planning to donate.” This sentence creates a sense of incredulousness. The sentence implies that the school will punish a teen even though that teen wants to make a positive difference in the world. The sentence creates a contradiction- punishment because of good deeds. As the article continues words such as “inspired” and “donation,” create an image of J.T. as a caring individual. However, once Gaskins’ actions are brought into context of school policy, an image of a rebellious teen is created. The school states that his suspension is not related to his charitable efforts, but his “unkempt style.” In this perspective the school seems to support the goal to donate hair to Locks of Love, but requires that the hair be well groomed. From this statement the reader concludes that Gaskins did not take care of his hair, thus he is twisting the reason for his suspension. Overall the wording creates a strong binary between the opinions of the school and J.T.
I completely agree with Kelsey on this argument. I also know many schools that hold very similar regulations on hair length for boys as J.T's school does- however no such rule for girls exists. Rules such as these are put into place to maintain order and create a sense of authority throughout schools. However, creating such regulations between genders can be seen as very sexist and create a negative image on the facility enforcing them- especially to this extreme.
Even though rules such as these may be somewhat unfair, they are more than just a set of guidelines; they are ways to maintain order and allow for students to grasp the understanding of reality, and the idea that no matter where you go in life one will have a set of rules to live by. Schools need to maintain their groundwork for regulating order, or their sense of authority could very easily be breached.
J.T.'s circumstance is very unusual and distinct; but if the school allows for compromise how might this situation turn into a domino effect? The school is somewhat portrayed as the "bad guy" for suspending J.T., however they are only standing by their rules that were in effect before his enrollment.
Regardless, "by refusing to compromise, the school conveys a negative message about itself," as Kelsey mentioned. It is portraying that what may be "morally right" can be easily trumped by a single rule that is set in place. In J.T.'s case, the school is either going to have to make an exception- thus allowing for more kids to try and "bend the rules"- or stand behind the initiated suspension- enforcing their authority.
The school is sending a strong message to its students. They are saying that their rules aren’t there to be broken even if it is for a good cause. Even though J.T. is growing his hair for a good reason other students will start to abuse the rule if the school lets one student get away with it. The message the school is sending is, we are not going to stop following rules for one student. That would be unfair and eventually lead to a rebellion by other students. J.T is growing his hair for a noble cause, but rules cannot be changed for him. Also, the school is not saying he cannot grow his hair out, they are saying he needs to be well groomed. The school’s request is not unreasonable and is making a statement that it will not bend its rules for the students.
Upon reading this article, it’s safe to say that men do not reign supreme in every aspect of society as the common bias would suggest. Girls, who naturally grow longer hair than men are allowed to have longer hairstyles that are well-maintained and presentable. The guys in this scenario, J.T. being their representative figure, have stricter stipulations with how they grow out their hair. His school's policy on keeping hair "off the collar, off the ears and out of the eyes" is fine and doesn't need to be changed. Unruly hair can represent the wrong message and possibly portray unruliness or the idea that the person who grows it out has the attitude that he is better than the rest of his student body. While J.T.'s hair stands for a good cause, society's rules and in this case his school’s stipulations in relation to the upkeep of hair favors the females, but with good reason.
This article is sort of shocking. I just do not understand, why a school could not bend its rules for hair style slightly for a child who wants to grow out his hair for an organization that helps out cancer patients. It is just a sad realization that people can be so ignorant at times. The message that the school is giving out by suspending J.T., is ignorance and stubbornness, it will not hurt them if they let one child break the rules, but they have to be stubborn and make sure that there rules stand strong regardless of the situation, it is just ignorant. Also they are sending the message that they have no remorse for the fact that he is a former cancer patient and this might help him with coping with the constant treatments. I just think this is a terrible reaction from the school, there is no need to suspend him.
I think that this article combined with the success of the petition by J.T.'s mom really positively affects the awareness of cancer charities. This article might make people more aware and more likely to donate to cancer charities because its such a good cause. Also this will help lead to more cases like J.T. in which people stand up against the school or whomever and do something to support cancer. It is a great story and inspiring to all people around, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article.
The message Gaskins’s school is giving out is that they will not tolerate their rules being broken. Although, his growing out of his hair is headed towards a good cause it goes against the code of the school. Gaskin pays to go to this private school that has a dress code and that is part of their rules. If Gaskin feels he really needs to grow his hair for this cause he should go to a different school in order to fulfill his goal. Yes, this is harsh on a boy who has fought off cancer, but he is not above the law whether it is in a school or the laws of this country. In order for people to follow rules they need to be enforced.
This school doesn’t want their rules to be taken lightly. If they were to give in easily on this case then they would have to give in on other cases with other students. The school is not stopping this hair growth for any personal reasons it is just for the structure of the school establishment. If the school was to let Gaskin grow out his hair then many other students might say they’re growing their hair out. This would be great if every student did this, but there would many students who would end up abusing this excuse just for their lack of staying clean cut. If the petition is able to pass and they allow Gaskin to grow his hair out then it will be a great contribution to locks of love, but it should only be a one-time thing.
As the school suspended J.T. for his actions, it gave out the message that no matter how special and significant a case is, a student should always conform to the regulation of the school and no exception is possible.
This article and the petition’s success affected the awareness of cancer charities greatly by more and more people realize there are so many ways to support the cancer charities. However, some people may feel that such behavior, like the petition, is not a suitable action because it change some people’s regular life greatly and these opponents may also disagree with J.T.’s action because there is absolutely better way to help the cancer charities.
The wordings and quotes used in the article which help make Gaskins look like more justified are as follows. First, the special experience of Gaskin quoted would make readers synthesize his choice. Second, the article quote a lot of what Gaskins said to defend himself while the article little quote how the school think of Gaskins’ behavior. This allocation of wordings to different sides make Gaskins more easily convince readers because reader know much more about the perspectives of Gaskins and know less about that of the school.
This article shows several things wrong with our society as a whole today. This boy fought and beat cancer and now when he is trying to give back he is suspended from school and punished. The school is sending a message that no matter the circumstance every boy must follow the same rules and become like everyone else, exactly the same. The school is against individuality by looking at this statement.
The article shows gender roles in society. While girls are allowed and expected to have long hair the boys are simple not allowed. The boys are expected to have short, clean cut hair. The article shows how much society likes a great success story. We want to hear good news like this and do anything to be part of it and help another person out. We really want to help but often forget to do just that.
Most schools around the world constantly attempt to achieve the best standard within themselves and other schools. For that to happen, the school must regulate the way its students behave and control their actions by means of punishment if necessary. Punishment, as thought by many, teaches people how to 'not to behave', so that people may learn from other's mistakes. By suspeding JT, the school is indirectly stating to its students that they should not behave like JT. The school has no personal benefit from doing that, but it is a form of discipline.
Gender roles, in this article, were not much mentioned, except by the fact that it was a boy who was being shown to be suspended rather than a girl, but that does not say anything truely; however, it just means that a boy should not be seen with long hair, according to that school, but Locks of Love makes disagrees with that.
Some people around the globe are not yet aware of the issues of cancer, and its problems, but this article helps reduce the unawareness, and increase the general interest of people in the topic of caner. Just by mentioning the word cancer, a person's emotines may be stirred, and just the word itself may cause fear in the persin's heart and make one want to rush to help others find their way out of cancer.
By describing something as being good, the writer attracts the audience, and makes the reader befriend Gaskins. Even the photograph which shows him as being an inocent teenager adds to the effect of the article on the viewer.
The words repeated for many times are “ hair”, “charity”, “donate”, “diagnose”, “cancer”, “school” and “change”. These words indicates that the main theme of this article is about a boy who has been diagnosed a kind of cancer- leukemia fighting against the school hair style policy in order to grow and donate his hair to other cancer fighters.
It is an inspiring story and the whole passage has a clear attitude of supporting what J.T. is doing while understanding the school policy. When referring the action of J.T., the author uses the word “ inspired”. This word usually describes a good deed done by someone has a positive effect on another person. So this word shows preference of the author.
"I fought cancer my entire life. I'm going to keep fighting this," Gaskins told the Detroit News. "I'm not going to not give back just because my school says no." this quote uses the word” fight” twice. The first time is bounded by “cancer”, the other is followed by “this” which indicates the school policy. Fighting for cancer is a so courageous deed that people respect and a teen who has already fight with cancer has to fight against the school policy makes the “policy” stupid and not humanistic. This quote shows sympathy to the poor teenager.
"I'm fine with all of their rules," Gaskins said. "I just think that with this, they could try to make a compromise." This quote shows the attitude of J.T., presenting him in a cooperate position. He understand the rules and if he’s healthy, he’s not inspired to do the thing he considered important, he would totally agree with the rules in school. But the situation changed, so the boy only wants to make a corresponding change without harming anything or anybody. This quote emphasizes the eager of making a difference and the author’s support of the boy.
The words repeated for many times are “ hair”, “charity”, “donate”, “diagnose”, “cancer”, “school” and “change”. These words indicates that the main theme of this article is about a boy who has been diagnosed a kind of cancer- leukemia fighting against the school hair style policy in order to grow and donate his hair to other cancer fighters.
It is an inspiring story and the whole passage has a clear attitude of supporting what J.T. is doing while understanding the school policy. When referring the action of J.T., the author uses the word “ inspired”. This word usually describes a good deed done by someone has a positive effect on another person. So this word shows preference of the author.
"I fought cancer my entire life. I'm going to keep fighting this," Gaskins told the Detroit News. "I'm not going to not give back just because my school says no." this quote uses the word” fight” twice. The first time is bounded by “cancer”, the other is followed by “this” which indicates the school policy. Fighting for cancer is a so courageous deed that people respect and a teen who has already fight with cancer has to fight against the school policy makes the “policy” stupid and not humanistic. This quote shows sympathy to the poor teenager.
"I'm fine with all of their rules," Gaskins said. "I just think that with this, they could try to make a compromise." This quote shows the attitude of J.T., presenting him in a cooperate position. He understand the rules and if he’s healthy, he’s not inspired to do the thing he considered important, he would totally agree with the rules in school. But the situation changed, so the boy only wants to make a corresponding change without harming anything or anybody. This quote emphasizes the eager of making a difference and the author’s support of the boy.
This article sheds a big light on cancer charities. The article, being nation wide news, brings to light that there is more than one way to help in the fight against cancer. Every time this article is read or talked about, the cancer related charities are gaining awareness which will ultimately lead to a growth in donations and overall awareness of cancer and the programs that are involved. Although a sad story when dealing with the boy, it is overall a good thing when it comes to raising awareness about the “big” picture.
I believe the issue in this article is not in the fact that the school is doing "the wrong thing", but rather in the fact that this young man did not abide by the rules. This is not a matter of gender roles; if a female had unkempt hair, she would most likely be facing the same situation as this young man. The compromise is correct, however, because the children should be allowed to donate their hair for a good cause. Locks of love is a long-standing foundation that could easily benefit from the student's hair donation. The school is in a tough situation because they have to maintain school policies, but they dont want to appear to be against cancer. The petition is a good idea because it establishes an easy solution that will portray both sides in an equally good light.
The article shows a boy who wants to give back because of his illness as a child. The school is sending a message by suspending him by reinforcing gender roles. Boys cannot have hair that touches the collar or goes in front of the eyes. This is how our education system and society has been for years. Long hair is typically considered "feminine." This raises awareness for cancer charities because it is an outspoken individual rebelling against the school's rules. It creates a "rebel hype" in the situation, because he is doing it for a good cause. In the same way, the way the article is presented, it clearly labels J.T. as the "good guy" and his school as "bad." By quoting his mother's support of him, it especially makes J.T. look like a hero even though he is breaking the rules. J.T.'s own quote near the end sums up the article and shows his genuine concern for cancer patients.
The school is conveying a message to the public that the school does not support nor care about the Locks for Love program by suspending J.T. He is trying to support a good cause to help others who are struggling to fight cancer just like he did. What he is doing is pure and good. What he is doing personally means something to him since he is a survivor of cancer. The school is conveying a message that it does not care that J.T. survived cancer, nor does it care that he wants to help others who are struggling. The way the school is acting is quite frankly embarrassing.
The article explains alot about gender roles in our society. If J.T. had been a girl who had survived cancer and who wanted to grow her hair out to donate to Locks of Love, I believe that would have been okay with the school and she would not have been suspended. In our society girls with long hair are way more acceptable than boys with long hair. In our society it is normal for boys hair to be short and girls to be whatever length they want it to be. The school is enforcing gender roles as it is not supporting cancer charities.
Even though this article is disturbing and makes readers have a righteous anger in them, it along with the petition's success raises the awareness of cancer charities including Locks of Love.
This article shows that the school doesn’t really have rules for how girls are supposed to wear their hair, but guys are supposed to keep it clean. In that way the school promotes sexist behavior by having different rules for different genders. The school is also giving out the wrong message for suspending Gaskins from school because of his hair. He only wants to support a good cause, and he had been fighting cancer for a long time. Yet the school shows that if one of their rules are broken, then they must be punished. That shows that the school cares more about rules than supporting good causes.
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