OT: School project on famous Canadians and DD is doing...

[Northstar]

Pamela Anderson! She picked her off a list of people they could do because she knew least about her, of all the people she could choose.

Well, no offense to Miss Anderson... but does Canada have no famous people who are not mere celebrities? What has she done worthy of being studied in school?

What would you think if your DD was assigned a paper/project on Pamela Anderson for school?

 

[lisalonglash]

Pamela Anderson! She picked her off a list of people they could do because she knew least about her, of all the people she could choose.

Well, no offense to Miss Anderson... but does Canada have no famous people who are not mere celebrities? What has she done worthy of being studied in school?

What would you think if your DD was assigned a paper/project on Pamela Anderson for school?

What would *I* think? Sorry, but to be perfectly honest, I'd wonder what the teacher was snorting in order for the teacher to even put Pam Anderson on a list of Canadian anythings!

What about Terry Fox? Alexander Graham Bell? Pierre Trudeau? Celine Dion? Leonard Cohen? William Shatner? Marshall McLuhan? Marconi? There are soooooooooooooo many notable Canadians that have NOTHING to do with silicone body parts or being married to Tommy Lee

 

[siobhan1997]

I am sure the full list consisted of not only celebrities, but also intelligent well educated Canadians, Canadian heroes, etc.

Your DD chose Pamela Anderson, nothing wrong with that, she is a famous Canadian after all, everyone certainly knows who she is.

If my DD came home with a project to do on her, I would help her like I have with every other project she has done.

 

[SandraC]

I say, "BRAVO" to your daughter for picking someone she will learn about. Pamela Anderson is really into PETA and that's an awesome cause. She is using her celebrity for a great purpose. I'll bet your daughter finds lots of fascinating things to report! Sandra

 

[lisalonglash]

Your DD chose Pamela Anderson, nothing wrong with that, she is a famous Canadian after all, everyone certainly knows who she is.

Oh, I missed that part in the original post. Well, if your daughter chose her, then she needs to do the project. As for PETA, yes I'd forgotten that Pam Anderson was an activist of sorts for PETA - good point.

My knee-jerk reaction remains though - with sooooooooo many notable Canadians who've given something wonderful to the world as options for such a list, why would she be on the teacher's list to begin with?

Hey, maybe the teacher is male? j/k!

 

[Northstar]

I say, "BRAVO" to your daughter for picking someone she will learn about. Pamela Anderson is really into PETA and that's an awesome cause. She is using her celebrity for a great purpose. I'll bet your daughter finds lots of fascinating things to report! Sandra

Okay, so I have a problem with this... I regard PETA as the terrorists of the animal rights movement, and have always thought Pamela Anderson was merely a dupe who they conned into supporting their agenda because she was too naive to look into the type of organization they were. For me, it's humane treatment for animals yes, PETA no!

But I'll butt out and let DD do her research. It's kind of difficult though because she wants to list some of the movies this actress is famous for, the awards she's won in her distinguished career... maybe she will want to focus on the activism instead. I will have to bite my tongue hard and not get steamed up over it.

And sorry, DD is NOT viewing the PETA websites till she's older than 9!

 

[Ham Ham]

Here's some hero's. IMHO

Gents
Banting and Best, Billy Bishop, W. Van Horne, W. Laurier, L Pearson, My Dad

Ladies
My Mom, L Secord, Mary Pickford, S. Twain, N. McClung, M. Barlow, R. Bondar, C. Le May Doan, Nancy Green, H. Tubman (not Canadian but did her hero stuff in this country).


Too much "infotainment" Entertainment Tonight, vacuous reality shows, America's next top model. etc.

Nothing wrong with light fare but I think we need more postive role models for our girls & young women.

But hey I like the Simpsons and Futurama and I'm sure some folks have less than flattering things to say about that.

Perhaps there should be more Canadian History earlier in the curriculum and we as parents can also expose our children to more of our own history.

As for the earlier post on Ms Anderson and PETA. I think we should take care of all the suffering people first. Homeless, battered, abused, hungry.

That doesn't mean that I condone the abuse of animals.

Don't know what kind of role model Pam is though. She's gotten by on just her looks and the "work" she has had done.


Real Pamela, with out the hair and make up squad that put her together.

 

[LittleFlounder]

How old is your daughter ? (if you don't mind telling us). Her age will determine how much depth/what topics could be covered.

There's more to Pamela Anderson than her looks. It could be a fun project

 

[Ham Ham]

Without discussing her celebrity status of being famous of infamous.
I will help be contributie to the project by finding early images of Pam prior the peroxide and enhancements
.
Here's a photo to Pam back in 1985 when she was 17. Taken for her year book.

Earlier HS pics of Pam here. SFW(Never thought I'd need that one on a Disney board). http://www.jamd.com/search?assettype=g&assetid=51093508&text=pamela+anderson+high+school

 

[cabmom]

Kenneth Welsh, lives in my town

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920564/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Welsh

 

[SandraC]

I have blond hair, big ****s and a 140 IQ, I know I'd be worth a school report. I'll bet Pam Anderson has LOADS of spirit, talent and interesting things to say. Too bad we only hear it in 17 second sound bites. Choosing Pam Anderson for a famous Canadian school report shows that the child is willing to look beyond the obvious and report on things we don't know about the actress. Maybe we'll all learn something here. Blessings, Sandra

 

[Northstar]

You know, I really don't have a hate on for Pamela Anderson. It's just that... if you ask, "Why is she famous? In what field is she outstanding?"... the answer is that she is a famous sex symbol. And it's just too problematic to assign Grade 4s a research project reporting on a sex symbol. Too many issues the teacher is not prepared to devote time to dealing with in class... she just wants the kids to research a few facts, write a couple of expository paragraphs, and present to the class.

The way we found out about this project is that DD said to her dad, "You know, I was googling Pamela Anderson in the library today and I could only find about three pictures that weren't gross." Now, "gross" in her prepubertal mindset probably only means that she was wearing a swimsuit and was very obviously curvy, but still... what kind of messages is she receiving, when her SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT legitimizes the idea that, if you're female, it's a major achievement just to look like that?
Not to mention that all over the country, junior high boys are probably getting thrown out of the school library for doing a google image search on Pamela Anderson.

Anyway, DD was happy to find two items on Pamela Anderson in the news today... she's in that new Superhero movie, and she is going to host a new reality show. The project is going to be okay but I am doing a lot of "filtering" and helping her to evaluate the quality of websites she's going to. (Thanks for the photos, Ham Ham!) I have a call in to the teacher, where I'm going to report the comment DD made on her googling, and ask her to consider editing Pamela Anderson off the list for next year's class.

It's all learning, I guess. More gray hairs on Mom's head, more wisdom.

And SandraC... I would feel A-Okay with DD doing her school project on you!

 

[MaryannF]

There is a book that is in some school libraries that would be appropriate for your daughter to use for research rather than going on the Internet. It is about 10 years old though. It is short, 48 pages, with illustrations. The author is Esme Hawes and the title is Pamela Anderson Lee. The ISBN is 0791046478. I don't know if you could get it from your local library but it is worth a try. I hope this helps.

 

[CdnMom2]

Wow northstar, that would throw me for a loop temporarily too. So many great Canadians to choose from and... well your DD now has the chance to really turn lemons into lemonade. What are we digesting here? Does money & fame bring happiness. Looks like not here. Do breast enlargements & the dumb act automatically bring happiness & success? How do you define success? For me my definition of success & happiness does not include the numerous intrusions (invitations?) to my personal life & personal relations & hopefully includes a stable home life for my children & stable health. Great resources posted here with the photos of Pam looking lovely as a teen & looking normal without make-up too. Sounds like an exciting opportunity to educate DD & her class on a lot of great issues. After all, like it or not, everyone of them has heard OF Pamela Anderson, but probably not Roberta Bondar. You go, girl! I see a very creative interesting A in her future for a project that can often turn out dull as dishwater. We've all sat through some of those.

 

[Ham Ham]

There is no denying that Pamela Anderson has a successful Hollywood career.
She has to have had some talent to last as long as she has.

There are many "beautiful people" but not all of them can parlay that into a entertainment career spanning almost 2 decades.

Celebrities are they really heros or because we seem to know a lot about bout them they fill a void?

I forgot about one of Pam's early rolls on Home Improvement. I know remember finding her role amusing. How she always one upped the guys

Perhaps a little info for the project in question tht has launched this thread.
Pamela's new documentary-style show, euphemism for reality show, has just been announced.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-pamelaanderson7apr07,0,797216.story