Last Week-Part 5-

Okay, last part, last blog, last……..well, I wish I could say week. Last full week I guess. That’s something to cheer about :). I’ve been waiting for this all semester. Just please don’t let summer fly by….let it go slowwwwwww please…

Well what can I say? It’s been nice knowing you guys. Class was really fun, and dare I say interesting at times. I was glad that our class was a whole group of really diverse, understanding people. I still hate politics with a passion, but I was glad the class wasn’t heated debate every time. I know those times were interesting, but I’m just glad everyone was on good terms. I wish you all good luck with your papers, and good luck in life.

Don’t really have much else to say, but I do need about sixty more words. Well, I can guess I can reflect a little on how much I’ve grown. I’ve learned to see arguments better-in terms of seeing some fallacies and propaganda. I don’t know if I can argue better though. I didn’t break out of my shell as much as I would have hoped. But I will in time I’m sure. Overall, I do think I can write a better paper. I just wish I would learn how to prioritize my life.
Well, I’m out. See you guys later and good luck again. I hope whatever major you’re pursuing works out for you. And always keep an open mind-I find that that works best in life.

BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Week-Part 4-

Lately I’ve been thinking of becoming an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) in Japan. It’s weird actually. I hate grammar (to a degree) and I was never any good at it, but being an English teacher might not be so bad. I could definitely put these Japanese courses to good use. And I’ve never visited another country before, so that’s always a plus. But I would have to worry about culture shock, and I have read/heard that being a gaijin (foreigner/outsider) is not a good thing in Japan. All of that aside though, being an ALT is both tempting and completely out of the question.

I wanted to be teacher when I was a kid (you know, after wanting to be an archaeologist, a marine biologist, etc.). But later, I decided against it. I don’t really like speaking in front of a room of people, and being a teacher would be a big challenge actually. Most teachers just make you read out of the book, copy way-too-many-pages of notes, or listen to them lecture the whole class. To be a really good teacher, it would take a lot of skill and talent. And what really turned me off even more was the thought of teaching some of the kids I went to school with. You would have to put up with rowdy kids, angry parents, and just a whole lot of crap. Being a teacher just did not seem too appealing to me.
But what the hell?... I’m still considering this job…

Last Week-Part 3-

I’m probably not really in a position to complain about what classes I have to take though; I still have no idea what my major is. I tried ‘experimenting’ this semester, as weird as that sounds. Last semester I took a General Psychology class and really liked it. I didn’t feel as though, ‘this is my major for SURE,’ but, I still liked it. I get bored to tears by most of the subjects I take at school, so finding one that really interested me was pretty cool. Psychology would be a great major because you can apply it to so many things. I would definitely need a Doctorate in it though. A Master’s at the very least.

The other major I have always considered is art. I don’t know what exact subfield, but I’ve always though (and have been told) that art is the major for me. I tried it this semester, and I’m still not sure. Near the beginning, I thought that I just wasn’t cut out for it. I would come to class and get incredibly bored drawing whatever was in the middle of the room. But it got better as the semester went on; I could feel myself improving too. At home, I do like to draw when I have the time. It’s not that I have no interest, but rather, I’m just indecisive.

Last Week-Part 2-

Teachers and parents are always saying, “It’s good to be a well-rounded individual.” I think that’s a good thing- well, at least it sounds good putting it like that anyway. But having to go through all of these extra courses really makes me rethink that. I thought college was going to be focusing mainly on what our major is, and taking a few English or Math classes on the side. I never really thought I’d end up taking a Sociology and Biology class. The classes are interesting for the most part, and I like my professors, but in the end…I just don’t see the point.

Right now, I can only keep reminding myself that having a little bit of knowledge in a variety of fields is a great asset. You can know everything about one particular subject, and that’s great, but knowing nothing about anything else is…pretty lame. I really would like to have a basic understanding of Biology, or a basic understanding of Japanese (I would like to be fluent in Japanese actually). I guess I just don’t see why I have to study something like it’s going to be my major. But damn. That’s an old age question I’m sure everyone is tired of hearing, and I’m probably (actually definitely) not the first to ask.

Last Week-Part 1-

So it’s finally the end, and I’m pretty glad. I’m going to miss a lot of people from my classes, but it’s not like I won’t ever see anybody again (I hope not anyway). I’m just glad for summer to be here and for this semester to be over; I’ve been waiting since early February. This semester was definitely harder than the last, and it was really taxing too. It’s could’ve been worse, yes, but that doesn’t make it any better.

This semester made me question why I was in college actually. I just couldn’t help but think, why am I doing this; why am I here? In middle school it was all about getting into high school. In high school it was all about getting into college. So what am I “getting into to” in college? A job? I don’t think I need to know every single step of photosynthesis to hold a job that doesn’t concern Biology. I even said to myself, ‘Now I know why people drop out of college; they don’t want to put up with all of this crap’. And that’s probably a big reason, other than failing out. I just couldn’t see why knowing all of this was going to help me make it through life.

Summer

Wow, it’s hard to believe next week is the last full week. I can’t be sad though, I am way too happy. Of course summer vacation is going to be awesome (and I can actually sleep for the next few months), but just being able to say this semester is OVER will be the best. I can’t wait.

I don’t know if it’s just because I got all of the hard classes this semester or something…..maybe I just overloaded myself, I don’t know. This semester has been very tiring, and there was ALWAYS something that needed to be done. I just feel like I was never given a break this semester. I never had a weekend completely void of homework. Even this weekend, I have a lot of work to do.

I hope summer doesn’t throw me off too much though, in terms of work. I’d hate to have to come back next year, and have even more work to do. But I hope the summer will be relaxing nonetheless. I currently don’t have any vacation plans (*gasp*), but just laying around the house is fine to me. Just as long as there is no school work, it’s fine with me.

School Thoughts Again

It’s crunch time in school right now, and picking classes for next semester is making life even more hectic. As I studied for a Biology test last week, I couldn’t help but think, ‘WHAT is the point of all this?’

Is it really necessary to know every step of photosynthesis to achieve success in life? Do I have to know how to apply the Pythagorean Theorem to a room to figure out its total size, when I have no intention of being a carpenter/flooring contractor/what have you? Need I write these blog posts every Friday to become a billionaire in the future?

All of these classes are for the general education program. I guess they would like us to be well-rounded individuals, and it makes sense. However, I cannot see myself applying a lot of this in daily life. Some of it is helpful, and then some of it just seems like busy work.

Right now, I just don’t see the point of it all. In elementary school, it was all about moving up to the next grade. In junior high, it was all about getting into high school. In high school, it was all about college, college, college. Now, what is this about? I can see taking classes that pertain to my major, but what about everything else? Maybe I will eat my words and really use what I learn, but for right now, I just don’t see how knowing the entire process of photosynthesis will help.

The Can't Think of a Good Title Blog Post

Next topic: foreign languages. I take Japanese right now, and it’s not a very difficult language (yet, anyway). There’s a lot of stuff to remember, but the gist of it is not hard to learn at all. Despite this, I find myself sucking at it really bad. I take this class with a couple of Honor students and some other people good at foreign languages. They’re awesome, and I feel like I can’t compare, ever. I’ll admit I don’t study enough (at all), but they really don’t either. They just hear it, and pick it up. I wish I could do that. It goes in one ear and out the other for me. And, it’s a universal fact that conjugating verbs SUCKS in ANY language.

They say you should apply whatever foreign language you are learning to your everyday life. This makes sense, but it’s a little difficult. I’m constantly surrounded by English, so of course I want to speak English. And practicing out loud would be very awkward for other people. They won’t know what I’m saying, and will probably think I’m wasting time. I think I’ll just keep the practicing mental, or on paper.

And, one day I will learn kanji. It’s going to be rough, but I’ll learn it.

それじゃ、また後で。

Random School Thoughts

So, I’ve got to pick classes for next semester. I find this extremely hard to do, considering I don’t even know what my major is. Well, the good news is, no more math classes. I’m terrible at math, so this is great news. Well, depending on if I pass the course I’m in now; I think I will.

There really is a love/hate relationship with those classes that are no homework, only 3 or 4 tests all semester. You love the idea of no homework at the time, then you make a not so hot grade on a test, and you realize that’s all you have. It’s annoying to have only 3 shots at a decent grade; and if you fail one, you can forget making an A in the class. I would rather have the homework as a backup grade. It would be annoying but it would make my life easier.

I wonder why teachers only give tests though. Is it for them or us? Do they just not want to have to grade all of that, or is there no point to it? Maybe they figure no one will do it, and don’t even assign any? My guess is the first one. The classes I usually don’t have homework in are huge classes (100 students or more), so I wouldn’t want to grade all of that.

Time to Move On

Well, as for news-that-no-one-wants-to-remember, the Tigers lost on Monday night. It was sad yes, we were so close. I don’t really keep up with sports, but even I was feeling a little bit of the pain from that one. However, it’s all said and done. No need to dwell on it. What my point is, as we brought up in my art class on Tuesday, I think people just get a little too emotional over sports. I have nothing against getting excited and cheering, that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about crying your eyes out because a sports team lost.

It just seems like people put a little too much focus on something like sports. They’re a form of entertainment and we love them, but there are more important things out there in the world. I’m not really into sports myself, so I can’t really relate to the people who feel very passionate about them. It’s fine to play and love them, but there is more to life then winning a game. And after you win, you get what, bragging rights for a year? A year will go by fast trust me. We’ll get ‘em next year as they say.

This Week

I thought this week was going by really bad. I had a massive Biology test I thought I failed, and I also thought I failed my graded piece in art class. I’ve been really lazy all week, and putting things off even more than usual. I just thought it was the crappiest week of the semester, next to a few others.

Well turns out this week wasn’t so bad after all. I made a B on my Bio test (well, a C as a raw score, but B with the bonus points), which was amazing because I thought I epically failed. My art teacher also decided not to grade the drawings we did on Tuesday, which made me really glad. We have to critique them in front of the class, and I just did not want to even look at that thing again.

I would really hope this week would teach me to get my act together, but I doubt it. I used to be on top of things pretty well back in the 10th grade and below. Now I’m just extremely lazy and I procrastinate, and I can’t seem to get things done. Like everyone else, I have a million other things I’d rather be doing, and that’s what I focus on.

I hope someday I’ll be more on top of things. But right now, I just want to sleep….

Should we Forgive and Forget?

Yes, most definitely. What’s the point of keeping those negative feelings and hatred around? None of us in this generation were alive then, so we are not solely responsible. Passing on negative views about a certain race makes no sense. We need to both forgive and forget.

Forgiving is the hardest part I think. You can’t forget until you forgive, so the forgiving must come first. People always have a hard time admitting their mistakes. This makes the forgiving really hard. Let’s say you pre-judge someone of another race, only to find out they were not that way at all. You might feel embarrassed you were wrong and won’t admit it, or you just will never even think you were wrong. A lot of people turn a blind eye to what’s in front of them. They keep going along with their stereotypes and pre-judgments, refusing to see what’s there. And people just won’t forgive. They have the mind set that they are right, and that their opinion is tops.

If we can get over this forgiving deal, then the forgetting shouldn’t be too far away. Things might still be a bit shaky even after forgiving, but after reconciling with your own feelings, you’ll forget. Life’s too short to harp on one thing forever.

Forgiving and Forgetting

A big difference, but the two can go hand-in-hand. To forget something entirely is disregarding it completely, never coming back to it unless you are reminded. In a way, it almost seems like it is forgiving. Not really, there is no official forgiveness there. But it seems like if you never touch the topic again, people might think you have forgave and forgot. You don’t seem mad anymore, so you must have reconciled, right?

Well to forgive is one thing, forget is another. Forgiving leads to forgetting, it’s not the other way around. If you truly have no intention of forgiving, then you won’t forget. We see it everyday after all-ghosts of the past still holding strong in people’s minds. Whether it has something to do with Jim Crow Laws or the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it’s there. People won’t forgive, and that means no forgetting either.

It’s really sad how that stuff is still around. It happened so long ago, and you would think people would have forgotten, if anything, by now. But like I said, they won’t forgive. They pass on their thoughts and ideas to their kids, who then pass it on to theirs…it’s like a cycle. A pretty unjustified cycle too, considering the kids weren’t even alive at the time.

WHO is allowed to speak about race?

Well my first thought was “Everyone.” Why wouldn’t anyone be able to talk about it? I know we have freedom of speech and everything, but that aside, anyone can address the issue. I think the problem is is that we don’t talk about it.

The thing is, if ‘race’ starts getting thrown around in conversation or debate, things get real heated, real fast. It almost makes you think NO ONE can talk about race. Why talk about something that makes everyone upset? After all, none of us are perfect, and all of us have pre-judged someone based on their looks or skin color. It’s like none of us are in the position to be the mediator of the race argument.

Well I don’t know who the mediator is going to be, but anyone can talk about race. None of us are that perfect, non-judging individual after all. I don’t think it’s a topic left up to politicians, or anyone else in charge. It’s not something that should be avoided either. I don’t like starting big arguments are getting people mad, but if it needs to be spoken about, it should be spoken about. I don’t see why people get upset over the topic anyway (just with the fact that it’s brought up I mean), but I always think “Oh no…” when it does. I guess it’s just our culture.

Do we have a problem talking about race?

Memphis is supposed to be one of the most racial/discriminatory cities in the country (or so I hear), and yet we have a problem talking about race? Well, it’s not a Memphis thing-it’s everywhere. Race is always a no-no topic. You don’t want to say anything regarding the topic, or else you might disrupt the ‘peace.’

As we spoke about this is in class, I analyzed myself, to see how I saw “race”; and I’m sure everyone else was too. I do agree that background has a lot to do with it. Why wouldn’t it? I think I’m more afraid to talk about it than most other people actually. I’ve went to a private school my whole life. I’ve gone to school with very few African American kids. Race was never really a topic, as we were mostly white children. Every time this topic comes up, I’m not scared of the topic itself, but rather what will be said. Not that I don’t like speaking entirely, but I’m always a little hesitant.

I’m hesitant to the extent of using “black” actually. I know it sounds crazy, but I use “African American” a lot of the time, especially when talking in front of the class or a group. I thought about it, and I can’t explain it. I don’t really like using “white” kids or “Asian” kids either. I do use the terms I’m sure, but I don’t like using them in the sense that ‘black kids are this,’ ‘’white people are that, ’those Asian kids…’. I do probably say some of those things, I’m not little Ms. Perfect preaching to you here.

But yes, I do think there is a problem. We just avoid it for different reasons, but mainly not to step on anyone’s toes. And I hate stepping on people’s toes, so I definitely avoid the topic.

And I’m very nervous putting this blog post up actually….

Cherry-Picking

People are blogging about cherry-picking this week. I haven’t researched yet, but I know what it is from Mr. Lord’s interview. In fact, I was thinking something like it Wednesday night when I was typing Part 3. As I went through a list of statistics, I knew I wanted the ones that supported what I wanted to say. Most of them did, so I wasn’t too worried. But some of them did go against my opinion. I decided to include those in a small paragraph, because I remember Wendy talking about presenting both sides evenly.

It makes me think though; do I need to represent both evenly, or just focus on mine? It is an opinion paper, so I thought my opinion would be prevalent. If I do need to focus on both sides, wouldn’t my opinion be masked by the opposing side’s? People might not know what I’m arguing about if I don’t write it clearly enough.

But I guess that’s just it; I need to write it so that people don’t get confused. It’s hard to be forward about your own side when you have to be fair with presenting the other side too though.
I guess that’s going to be Tuesday’s lesson. I really want to get this worked out so I can do Part 4 right. I don’t want to have to rewrite anymore of that paper!

Stacy Sullivan

The last reader of the night was Ms. Sullivan and I was very interested to hear her reading. Even after researching I was still afraid I wouldn’t know what she was talking about, but I think I kept up pretty well. It was cool to get to hear a first-hand account on this kind of thing. It made it seem more authentic in a way. Or more personal I guess you could say.

I thought it was interesting how an army that started out with only 30 people would eventually liberate an entire country. Speaking of which, I had no idea that was the country that just got liberated. I remember hearing about it in the news, but I didn’t know it was the same nation Ms. Sullivan talked about. Now that I think about it, it’s neat to know where it started years ago and connect it to today. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but I wonder how Ms. Sullivan feels about it.

I think the readings have given me a little more insight on the paper; though, I do feel a little bad because I don’t think I’ll end up with half as much research as these three people have. But I think I can make my paper sound at least a little better.

Joshua Prager

Out of all three of the readings I found this one the most interesting (and I’m not even that big a sports fan). As Mr. Prager read about life back in the ‘50s, it really amazed me how much people were into baseball back then. After the Giants won, people were claiming it was the greatest day of their lives, naming their kids after Bob Thomson and everything…I really liked the way he wrote because it put me back in time a little. Mr. Prager spoke about how he liked to write a lot about the time, and I think that’s a really cool way to approach things. It didn’t feel like a history lesson, but more like insight on the early ‘50s. The first thing I thought of is how much things have changed; I don’t hear people obsessing over baseball much these days… Maybe in another 30 years he’ll write about a cheating scandal on American Idol. That would be hilarious.

I also like how he didn’t chastise Thomson by humiliating him or writing bad things about him being a liar and cheater or something. It was nice how he was made out to be a good guy. Makes me wonder what I would do if someone was telling me to cheat like that. I think all of us would be very tempted to just go along with it like Thomson did. Especially considering how much baseball players make…

Christine Keneally

Ms. Keneally spoke about the evolution of language in the reading last night. It’s weird because this thought has crossed my mind sometimes. I’m taking a foreign language, and sometimes I think. ‘How do they translate all of these things from one language to another? I know it’s possible, but it must take forever…’ It just makes you think where words really come from. What I find amazing is how people came up with so many different kinds of language. According to Wiki (Sorry Wendy T-T), “As of early 2007, there are 6,912 known living human languages.” That’s 6,911 different ways to say the word “rock.” Fascinating 0_o.

And of course there’s the whole issue of language evolving itself. I’m not sure how long it took, but we went from grunts to future tense in language. We also made different words from words themselves; like how the word ‘participate’ is just a bigger word for the phrase, ‘to take part in.’ If you were to ask me right now, I would say we are at the peak of language as of now. Maybe we add new words to the dictionary every year, but in terms of using and understanding language, I always thought we’ve reached the height.

But I’m probably wrong. Language is a factor of evolution. So if people keep evolving, won’t language evolve as well?

George Lord Interview

I found out a lot of interesting facts in this interview this morning. Way too many to fit in this blog post even. But I’ll share some of the stuff I found most interesting:

I think I just read somewhere the other day that the US is 2 years behind that of other schools in foreign countries. Course, we’re always hearing stuff like that on the news. But according to Dr. Lord, we only look bad in the tests scores because of when they’re testing us. Other countries are tested in math when their students are 22 years old; our students are tested before they have even learned the math. I never put that into consideration-the way the testing is done. I just always bought what I heard about the US being so behind. It definitely makes me rethink some things. Good thing I’m not focusing on the education factor in School Assessment mostly, or I would really be thrown for a loop.

What really caught my attention was this statement: If kids in the public school have a control for income (meaning if every kid in the schools received the same income), they would do better than private. Whoa. That really goes against everything we hear…It also makes you think about the amount of poverty in the schools. I had looked into poverty a bit for Part 2 of the Paper, but never poured hours of research into it though. Maybe I’ll get back to it though; everything seems to be leading to it.

My topic is school violence, so all these statistics about education weren’t really of any interest to me. I think I will have to tie it in though, maybe. Writing this blog now, I realize there are a lot of things I need to rethink.