hw 58 parenting 102

something in my life that played a role in the way i grew up was the way that my grandmother was the one to be very craing for me. while my mother worked, i stayed eith my grandma, also when my mom went out on weekend i stayed eith my grandparents. i feel like the way that i am growing up is sort of to impress them mote than to imptess my mother. i feel like when my mom would get people to help her raise me, i was looking up to them and i felt like i had to live up to them, sort of like my grandparents. they tell me to do good and they support me and so i feel like they are sort of who i try to make happy, instead of my own mom. this is one reason why i would want my child to be raised by me and some sort of nanny and not family, because family plays a big role in everyone's life and their influence is greater to a child.

when the guest speaker Rob came in to speak he said that his daughter is going to be raised organically and he will have a nanny take care of her. i feel that is the best way to raise a child. i think that a child's mind is like a flash drive. once exposed to things such as television and negative lifestyles, their memory gets filled and they save these images, and they can always come back to them. Parenting in a way that the child is carefully monitered and read to and properly taken care of, may assure that a child can develop quicker and be more intelligent. it sort of has something to do with maybe how rob was raised and maybe he wants to be different from his family norms and maybe that is why he may raise Eva the way that he has been doing.

the way that i was raised was very effective in some areas but much less effective in others, areas like respect and being nice were very effective towards me as i have grown up to be respectful and not to act out. Areas that didnt work were sort of the areas that to me seemed rebellious. Like if my mom told me not to watch something, i would watch it after she left. Things like that built up my curiosity and i feel like that was very important. Kids should be able to explore their surroundings at a young age to sort of familiarize themselves with what their society is like. i feel that curiousity is why people are the way that they are, people who at a young age had something happen to them that altered the paths of their lives forever. for the better or worse, i feel that parenting shapes a child's life to the poin where that child becomes the adult running themselves.

In a way this unit has opened my mind to parenting and maybe to even if i want a kid. the struggles and the problems that parents go through and how children run your life once you have them. I have seen so many of my closr friends especially this year, having children and now all of a suddn they cannot do anything, because they have a child that they need to cater to. children are the parents bosses, even if the paren doesnt realize it, they are. children sort of telepathically tell the parent that they have a responsibility to attend to at home, and this idea of having kids is very interesting, especially when Andy said that like half of us were all mistakes, i feel yhat society makes it so that even if a child was a mistake, you have to go through with having it, or you are looked down upon. i feel like this parenting unit will be on my mind for a while. Even when i am about to start a family, i will think back to this.

hw 57 parenting

I think that kids should be parented to be thinking at a young age. to not be too snobby and all about attention. Also i think that kids should be soley parented by the parent and not outside family, becuase that will mess with the child's mind if they are and they will sort of want to swtich sides if they like a different person's parenting rather than yours.

ALso the social arrangements can be family, but the fa,ily has to be set guidelins by the parent so that they are raised the way that you want to.

I think a child should be taught to love but they should also be taught to be an individual and that even though family matters, most of the time you are going to run yourself, so you should be smart at a young age and is able to apply the to their life.

The best part of the parenting that i had was that i was taught to love and that family is always going to be around. Also that i have many places or had many places and people that could have raised me. I learned a lot from the people who raised me, some of the people werent my favorite, but they all cared about me.

i think that i would be a great loving parent, sort of like the guest speaker Rob seems to be. Someone who cares for the child, but wants to raise them sort of differently than the ways that majority of the population is raised. i want the baby to live an organic life, with not too much of anything

I think babies shouldnt be treated like adults, but as young teens. That way i think they will grow up faster, and mature quicker.

Parenting to me may come naturally. I take care of my baby cousin sometimes and even though sometimesd he is out of control, i t only takes little efforts to calm the child. I think that the first few months or years will be hard because the baby will cry and not know anything. I may ask my family to help in most cases but i will have the most say in my childs life, and dont plan to have a child until im way older, well at least mid 30's.

hw 56 interviews

questions: how do u think people with depression love if they are sad all the time?

Luis: they love just like anyone else. yo matt do you know how many ways there are to love. they probably love in a sad way but they have to love somehow. its part of life and we all need it.

question: do you think that love is even possible to feel?

luis: love is possible to feel but it takes time matt. it also takes getting to be a very emotional person and you gotta have strong feelings. then again there's tons of people who get married and love eachother but then get divorced. I dont think that love can be something you have with a person for life. Unless you and that person are identically mentally matched and probably have experienced a lot together, i dony think its love, its something else.

question: so you're saying that love cant be real

Luis: it can be fore some people. i think love back then in like the early 1900's was real love. lots of people who grew up in the early 1900's that had gotten married, spent their whole life with their partners and i think it has something to do with how modern and futuristic we are becoming, we have more things to fall in love with, more people to love, more diversity, so love is hard to hold on to.

question: do you think it is possible for a person suffering mentally to love someone else?

mom: yes, i think love is about what you feel in your hear, not what you think in your mind. i think that being in the right state of mind is important but some people arent that fortunate to be mentally heathy, that doesnt mean they dont have emotions. love can be for anyone.

question: have you ever thought about why people say they love someone else and they dont mean it?

mom: yepp. i think it has to do with just hearing what that other person expects, unless you say you love that person constantly and show your affection even if they dont show it back. i just think its a guy thing. guys like to say things that girls want to hear, so throwing around love, makes someone feel special. Even if that person really doesnt love them.

question: can love be eternal?

mom: thats hard to believe. eternal love is what you see on tv. i think that love has its limits and then it dies out. Although there are some people who's love wont die out, like your grandparents. yea they argue and they live like theyre roomates and not married for 30 years, but they love eachother. they dont show it because they are probably afraid to. Since for years they have joked on eachother and have never
hugged or anything. But i think they love eachother greatly.

question: do you think that love is all a mental state of mind or its is emotional?

brother: i think that its both. your mind is what builds that love, but your emotion is what acts it out. i think your mind is what lets you initially know you love someone, but the way you feel lets you express love in any form.

question: so for someone who is mentally unstable, do you think they can love?

brother: i guess they can, but their love is probably more disfunctionally put together. like the way that they love wouldnt be as looked at like the way that mentally stable people are. love is love and i think anyone can feel it.

question: do you think that there is one person who you can love and never get tired of?

brother: yes i think so. like there has to be someone out there for everyone. i know that i love someone when i can't stop thinking about them and if i do, i get sad. love is literally like a drug and people sometimes treat live the wrong way but theres nothing i can do but make sure that doesnt become my situation. i think that there is one person that you can love and never stop loving. Once you find that person, i think you view life differently and its good.

my opinion:

i think that my brother gave a pretty good line when he said that love is what you mentally think of but emotion is when you act out your thoughts. some people, well everyone thinks different so i wonder how can some depressed person act out their love, compared to someone with no emotion. theyre both pretty negative, love is mostly positive, so how can negagtive turn positive when there is something wrong with you thats not compeltely your fault?

my single question:

has the idea of love changed the way you live? yes or no?

hw 54 test results

ENTP - "Inventor". Enthusiastic interest in everything and always sensitive to possibilities. Non-conformist and innovative. 3.2% of the total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

i like the results of this test. i feel like they are pretty accurate but it is not completely accurate. i think that when i saw the paper in class with the letters i sort of changed from entp to intp. i felt moer comfortable with those results rather than thwe ones the survey got me.

hw 55 research question

my question, is how do we determine who we love, and do we determine love based on the way that we love ourselves?
http://www.wikihow.com/Define-Love
http://www.0800-horoscope.com/compatibility.php
http://www.csulb.edu/~tstevens/h53accep.htm
http://www.4therapy.com/consumer/conditions/article/9326/113/What+is+Real+Love%3F

1. this article is about what love is. They say that love is hard to define because there are an infinite amount of ways to love.
2. this article was about data about love and different types of love compatibilities. i think this can be useful to my question. it also shows horoscopes and i wonder if those work.
3. this shows how to be comfortable with yourself and it seems reliable
4.the last article is about what love is and how to approach it. i will be using this in my paper

hw 53

the survey was very interesting. even though i did not take it due to the fact that i was absent, i thoughtthat the survey results and questions were very interesting. the question that i thought was interesting was the question, " are you afraid of death?" this question was interesting to me. about almost 40 percent of people said yes. about 30 percent said no. i thought this was interesting. these differences and answers can be analyzed for multiple things. Such as, the people who are afraid, why are they scared? is it because they havent been around death as much, or is it because they dont think about it so when they think about it, they become scared. or even that they feel that they are too young to die. this is the exact opposite of what the people who answered no may feel like. Maybe they have been around death too much, or maybe they feel that they have seen all that life has to offer so now it i time to move on. whatever the case may be, my answer to this question will be that i have no answer. i feel that i cannot answer this question. I feel that i have not experienced a life that i can be happy with, so that i why i would be afraid of death. On the other hand, death is a part of our existence, everything has to die, so why be scared when it is bound to happen. Also i feel that death shouldnt be scary because life is scarier. i cant answer this question until i have grown up and lived a better life. so i think for the people who can answer this question, they are one step ahead of me. for the people who are afraid, i think they need to sit and think about their life and then once they do that, i feel that they will become wiser in the way they live which will lessen their fears of death. for the people who answered no. They are sort of more mature and i feel like they have actually thought about death and i feel that they will be the ones to live more freely because the biggest threat to people is death, but if youre not afraid of it, then you dont have to live scared. But for now, ill just stay in between.

i think that a similarity to these serveys are that the one that we creathed had results of a large group. there were 2 basic options, but ours werent strictly yes and no. we had yes but, no but, answers to pick from. a difference is that ours did not distinguish the men from women. Our survey had a calculation of a total that was not based on gender. These surveys both asked very touchy wuestions that had people think for a while, which is what makes a survey a good survey i think. The results were also both surpriseing to me and probably other readers as well.

hw 57

HOW SHOULD WE LIVE?

This has been a question that i have thought about for a long time now. a couple times through my da, i think about why im doing this and will me doing anything in life matter when im dead? People struggle in life to be successful bcause then they will be happy. Sometimes success just brings on unhappiness. All the time we waste trying to become successfull could have been spent doing other things. Things worth while. If people spent more time thinking about the bigger questions in life instead of living in a box, i think people will become wiser and will live better lives. I think people are afraid to think ofthis question about how they are suppose to live because it often brings up the idea of death and people really dont like to touch on the topic of death. I understand that people are afraid of death but we are all going to face it.

LOVE

i think that love is hard to find, it cant be found without a lot of thinking on your part. love is something that should last a lifetime, because then its not love but a strong liking. It is hard to find love this day and age because people are so diverse, and when you think you found it, there is something else to love so love to me is something i dont think i can find untl i live longer and experience more.

FAMILY

I feel that family is a necessity for people to grow up. wether that be ur original family,are a foster family. It is important for people to feel that they are wanted in this world. sometimes though it is good to get away from family as they become more and more controlling. Like this weekend i decided to walk to my grandma's house instead of take the car with my brothers and my mom. i felt free and i felt good because i felt alone and felt like an individual

FRIENDSHIP

friends are suppose to be a someone who you can trust to get your back in almost every situation. I feel like theres a difference between friends and aquaintances. I feel like if you are good friends with a person, it is natural to talk to them. Instead of someone who you grew distant from, because that just makes both people feel akward.

Ethnicites

People should have diverse friends. I know that i have some pretty different friends. some ae spanish and others are asian. We all seem to get along well with eachother and i guess it is because we all grew up in the same area. i feel that this race barrier that sme people like, should be abolished, because i feel that having different fiends, makes experiences better becuase you can see the different ways that people are raised and i feel that seeing this makes encountering more of that certain race a bit easier to cope with because they can remind you of your friend a litle bit.

hw 51 paper

School. We have all been there at some point in our lives. It has been something that we are forced to do and we are expected to do well with no problems, a bit of struggling, but thats it. What i was wondering is why school has to be such a threatening place to be at. We spend most of our lives at school learning about life. In certain places though, schools is a scary place. If you fail in school, u basically are starting on ur failing life. Why do schools have to threaten students with failure or with exams?

This question madwe me think about the school that i go to. usually we are not given test, unless we act bad, but is that really a beneficial strategy for a teacher to use. In my book "What are my rights?" there is a section in which the author speaks about school and how long someone has to go ands what happens if they do not go. The thing that did not stand out to me was how the author put a statistic chart showing salaries of muliple classes of people. You had the high school graduate, the college graduate , and the person who didnt graduate high school. The stats showed that these people who didnt graduate high school earned an average of 16,000 dollars per year, and that was for the male population of non highschool grads. The number for wonen was lower by about 5,000 dollars. This makes me think about the reasons why they couldnt graduate school. Did these people feel threatend to do good, and as soon as they began to fail, did they just give up? I think there is a fear factor in school that everyone goes through. In highschool this is very popular, and also high school is the place where people usually do drugs and experiment, is that how they can cope with their stress in school and in their outside lives? I think it is and it is an epidemic in America in which kids are getting lazier as there are advances ini the ways we live. Like what John Fanning stated about how soon schools won't need to be arounds, because of the computer age. This can relate to the idea of going to school and being miserable there, or taking classes online. The benefit for some kids is that school provides a social zone. This is common with about 99 percent of kids. But what an online school does, is that it creates a threat, and stress free area in which you learn in the comfortability of your own home.

In the book, there was an interesting facrt that stood out to me. It was this statement that in a colorado school, a person who wants to drop out has to sign a paper stating that they will not have the necessary skils to survive in the 21st century. This was crazy, but the crazy thing was that most kids dont sign this and their parents also have to be with them to. I think this is thew biggest threat. The school saying that you will not survive in the 21st century is kind of pushing the limit. There may be some times where you may struggle but will you be happier in the long run. Why do we have to live the way that is traditional and the way that everyone expects? it is like we are not living our own lives but the lives of people around us. The main part of this was that the kids dont sign it, but instead they take counseling in school to cope with passing and doing good. This threat in which basically tells you to sign your future away, was very interesting.

schools are always forcing us to do things and we have to learn these things or we wont be successful. This brings me to lisa delpit's point in that kids will probably be more involved if school was about the kids showing their artistic creativity. This would make schools more of a want for kids, instead of a need. Schools as an institution are sort of psycological rollercoasters that make you think and be scared, is this what the masterminds of controlling schools want to acheive. As long as we graduate, it doesnt matter how that school affected us. The threat of not survivng without at least a high school degree is very scary, especially now that everything is getting expensive and it is harder to live. soon it will be hard to survive unless you have a college degree, and not a jopb, but a career. I feel threats everyday i go to school. Its either i do good and get out of school on time, or i fail, and where failure will mean me being looked down on, i have no choice but to be miserable, as long as i pass, its all good

hw 50 readings

Gatto reading

I feel that Gatto and his ideas on school are very interesting. I think that i would actually like school more if there were more people who thought like Gatto did. Schools shouldn't be awful places, they should be interesting and keep u awake. The ways that gatto decides to teach may be able to keep more people interested in school while learning about the outside world around them. Gatto says that schools sort of trap a students mind and sort of their ability to be free in the world.

Freire reading

This was a bit hard to interpret but i think the clearest part was the part where he talks about how the teacher is the one in control. They know everything. He sort of relates his theories to the banking ideas and the way how we are what the teachers are depositing and to me that is like the teacher teaching us, to deposit means that we are sort of being put into situations and we need to sort of live in these situations until the the teacher takes us out

Delpit reading

Delpit sort of only approaches the African American society in schools. She focuses on kids who are less fortunate than the other people that surround them in school. I agree with her that by giving a student a test, you are not seeing their brilliance. A test is sort of an intimidating factor in which it is suppose to make you memorize things within a certain time frame, and then you have to dig it back up and apply it to what you are being asked to do. she feels that a great way to see brilliance is to let the children show you their creativity. Using the arts to show that a person really is smart and they just show it n a situation that they are comfortable with.

Mr Fanning

Fanning said that computers and the age of technology is making it tougher to keep kids interested. What really struck me as interesting was how he said that this computer age is taking away books and that he was told that liberal arts isn't important. Also how he said that computers are organized in a way in which you are not focused on reading one thing, but there are readings all over the screen and that is why we struggle to read texts when they are placed in front of us. Also how there may not be anymore schools in about 20 years because this computer age will eliminate schools so that you can get your degrees at home. He also said that we do not respect our education and everything that we are taught and we take it for granted. He said that liberal arts is the foundation to learning which i agree on because liberal arts is sort of the beginning to where we begin to deepen our understanding of the world.

hw 49

A. My personal contribution to the film was to be an extra and act all excited for the first day of school. i felt like the little parts that i probably will show up in, hopefully they will be good.

B. The message that i got from my section's movie was that even the authority figures have flaws and that sometimes the savior needs to be saved. I felt like our script was really a depressed script, considering that the savior was a drug addict who needed help to control his life. I felt like this was a depressing film.

C. My section's film could compare to the ones that we watched becuase, in a majority of these movies there is a savior. There is also a class full of kids wanting a change, or at least acting like they want a change. The big contrast was how the teacher was the weak one in this situation and there was only about one movie that i remember seeing that was like this, and that was Hamlet 2. This was similar to my movie because we both showed the authority figure as a mess, someone who was lost, and their only guidance came from their jobs, teaching kids. Whether that was from teaaching kids theater or philosophy.

D. I find this idea of salvation and schooling very interesting because it really depicts what we are like. We all think that wer want change, is it us who want that change or is it our parents trying to get that change so they can feel better about what their situation was like. Why is it that the place that many kids hate most, is the place where they are suppose to succeed in? This idea of finding a savior in school is very crazy to me because its like we really have no other people to help us out. we are always going to be alone and really when we are young, this is our chance to find that one persone that will help you out with what you are going through, its stange how schools always have that one person who majority of kids find as a savior. I guess it has something to do with relating to that person on a mental level, if you can impact that child with a story, then you have become like their guardian away from home, the little voice in their head saying, "well what would my teacher think about this?" I think these savior teachers are like programs in our heads that can run our lives. Our minds literally belong to our saviors at least for a part of our days, and maybe for a majority of our lives. Just like my 5th grade teacher was my savior. For little things like that she was spanish so i guess my mom and her could relate. She has seen crazy things throughout her life, so i guess by my teacher thelling my mom her storuies, she sort of became her savior and eventually mine. Was that why i bout the gift for her when i graduated? Was that my appreciation to her for shaping me up to live in this world. I really still try and make my 5th grade teacher proud iof me, even if i havent seen her in like 11 years, i sort of feel that if she was my savior, i have to succeed and be someone elses savior, or i will fail.

hw 48 treatment for savior/ teacher movie

A good way to start would sort of be like:
a security guard walks teacher up to his class in which nothing is ordinary and these kids are just drained from skool because their libes have gotten to a point where its time to think on their own and not follow what everyone expects of u. so the teacher walks in and is greeted by the sounds of multiple conversations bubbling up. There are papers being tossed around to most students. teacher sits down and has some inner thoughts and then realizes that he needs to impact these kids with some wise words, because he knows that these kids are going to mold the future. teacher stands up to the alphas in the class and realizes that what thes kids needed was some guidance and that setting their minds free was the key to living happier lives

another way to treat the film:
the teacher is introduced to the wrong class and the class he goes into is very obedient. he demands that they take out their notebooks and assures them that by june, he will have made them see the world differently. the teacher grew up in a rough area, he sees the kids who all look different, some come from upper classes while others are surviving on the edge, recognizing the class barrier he decides that everyone in his class is determined as one, under his reign. so he ha total control of the class and they realize that he is a smart person but something is wrong with him. Now before the teacher can hide his past, the students uncover it an shape his future.

there can also be a treatment like:
the kids are segregated into various groups and there is really no one who trust anyone in their class. the race barrier and the economic barrier becomes a major problem in his class and people begin to become victims to insults because they think they are better than most others. the teacher comes in with a very powerful story to tell the class and the students begin to realize that they have ben paying attention to the minor details in life and have not yet seen the big picture which is reveiled near yhe end of the movie. the teacher saves some students while becomin envied by others, because these kids wish they could speak the way that the teacher did. ther is a big fight and some students get the idea that, maybe the teacher is a bad influence on the students for being too outspoken and causing problems within classes.

these are just some treatment ideas for the movie that i have thought of.

hw 47 class film preparation

5-10 ideas
1- i think a good idea would be to have an alpha male or female in the class, as it shows authority and a threat to the teacher.
2- the classroom should be very disorganized and not attentive to instructions at all. maybe to even have people who arent in the xlass come in and sit down, while other kids leave the class to hang out somewhere else
3- i think also having a smart person in the class will also be good because it shows that the person wants to succeed, but when put in the situation of chaos, their voice cannot be heard, and their talent cannot be seen.
4- the teacher should show dominance about halfway through the class, either by yelling, or even sitting down with the students to make the feel akward and quiet down to see if the teacher will explain what he just did
5- have some people who never listen and who walk out when they please, because their social life is more important, maybe having someone say eva's line from freedom writers
6- ultimately we should have the alpha male be broken down and admit that they want change in their life, but people expect them to maintain their way of life because that is how they have been portraying themselves for so long
7- ultimately i think the teacher should have a mini speech about what school and their lives have to do with eachother and finally the teacher is listened to and has become these student's savior.

hw 46 research and writing

2. my book is called "what are my rights?" it is a book all about the individual and what the law says and how we are suppose to obey and stuff. the part i was focused on was the part about schools. mainly how many kids dont like school but go anyways because of fears of what will happen in the future and that schools can use techniques of threatening students in a way to make them think twice about doing bad. the passage that stuck out to me most wast the part about ditching school and what happens if you do. the main idea of this section is to infotm the reader about the consequences of ditching school. one page includes a whole chart of salaries of a highschool graduate and of a droput, also with someone who went to a 2 year or a 4 year college. Ultimately it is telling the reader that school will benefit and basically rule what you are capable in doing in life. If you choose to dropout you will not have many positive things in your like and will have to stuggle. If you go through with school, you will have a great sucessfull life. One passage that stuck out to me was when the author added a side note about what happens in a colorado school if you decide to dropout. the passage says, " the school requires the student and his or her parents to sighn a certificate that says: " the undersigned student an guardian accept full responsibility for the listed student being a high school dropout. By signing this disclaimer, i realize that i will not have the necessary skills to survive in the twenty-first century." Most students choose to remain in school and participate in counseling or tutoring programs."
3. This was very interesting to me and it related to my topic, because when the students see that it says they may not be able to survive in the 21st century, they get scared and think of what the future will be like, so schools are sort of like a psycological institution as well. this will relate great to my topic as i can further my understanding of how schools and the people running schools are controlling our lives to a point that once they let us free, we are suppose to continue on a postive path and run society, but we threaten the people who don't do good, as we higher powers can determine the paths of our lives if we didn't attend schools, and how it scares us into staying in school and maintaining excellence.
4. this text can also relate to my topic based on the graph that is given depicting salaries and how people vary depending on how long we went to school for. I noticed that for a persom who has less than a 9th grade education, their salaries aren't even over 20,000 dollars, and for females it is less that 13,000 dollars. now these stats are from 1994 so i'm guessing they are paid a bit higher. Compared to someone who went to a 4 year college and obtaining double or triple the salary of someone below high school knowledge. These stats weren't surprising to me as of course someone with a higher education will get paid more because they have more skills, but someone with below 9th grade education can't survive a whole year, and can barely have any wants or any pleasures in their lives. obviously the threat of dropping out of school back then was way weaker than now a days where it is forced upon us to go to college and become something, or we are viewed as lower and looked down upon by friends and even family.

hw 45

sizer and hirsch beleive different things about schools. Sizer thinks that school is based on using the habits of mind as the main way to approach something and solve it thoughtfully. sizer thinks that this is a very effective method into turning the youth into more intelligent people, and by incorporating this habit of mind method, he thinks that students will grow as insightful thinkers.

Hirsch thinks differently from sizer in which hirsch thinks that school should be about teaching kids how to read and by doing this proficiently, he thinks that it will prepare us for college rading, andf beyond. This along with test taking, is beneficial for gaining knowledge. This is what hirsch beleives. something that i found interesting was in the wikipedia article that said, "Students at the University of Virginia were able to understand a passage on Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, while students at a community college struggled with it, apparently lacking basic understanding of the American Civil War." This was very interesting, I think he has a good point that we have to understand things like this and that what we learn can always be relavent later on in oour lives.

I would have to agree on both sizer and hirsch's views on education. Sizers views are stronger to me becuase they apply to me. I have been taught how to use the habits of mind to approach anything i do. I feel that it is very intimidating for some kids who are new to SOF. Most newcomers have not been taught how to use the habits of mind in their old schools and for them it is new. This is a critical way in getting kids to i think pay more attention and deepen their understanding of something. hirsch has a good opinion too because he thinks that basic knowledge is good to have. he makes a goodd point becuase i think that by college, knowing about the civil war should at least be half way in your mind rather than not in your mind at all. I judt dont agree with test taking as a way of gaining basic knowledge. Think that sizer's view would have to win though because his habits of mind method can be applied to everything we learn rather than hirsch's ideas, which seem mainly for reading.

hw 40

These are some interviews.

My brother Steven:
Question: what do you hate most about school? I hate how in my school, they have the dumbest rules, like if you skip class for more than 20 minutes, you get an in school suspension, and it goes on your transcript. like how does that look man, a freakin suspension on your record for being late. Its sad. I hate how i dont have gym either. They treat us like babies yo.


Question: Does school help you in what you want to do when you get older? Haha, i don't even know what i wanna do yet, i think that school distracts you from thnking in for the future, and keeping you in the present, which is why i think people are lost when they get older and really end up doing things that they dont love.


My mom: What was school like for you when you were my age? I loved school, but it was so dangerous . My friend got shot in the auditorim and he's paralyzed now. My other one died in a stabbing. I lost so many good people, and i think that was because there was no guidance. We didnt have what you guys have now. If i had computers and cellphones, and all this high tech stuff, I think that would have motivated me to do better. This is why i get mad when i see you guys come home with report cards with bad grades on it, you guys should be doing great, you don't need to carry around all the books that i had to. Everything is online. But school was good. I always loved school, but i was raised to work and i had nobody positive to follow. I guess that's why i didn't end up going to collge, rather than a couple college classes at st john's, that's all i had. If i did go to college, i would have wanted to become a social worker or practice in the medical field, but now im stuck at a place I hate. If you had a choice to go back to school would you go? Yes i would, just the process of going to work, coming home and everything in between, it is becoming impossible to go back. Maybe when you guys are all older and get jobs, i may consider it, but now, it would be impossible to manage.

Friend: So what time do you think school should start at? "Im fine with my time because i get out early anyways. I wouldnt mind if it was a bit later though. I would be more awake if it was. I hate doing work early. So do you think that what you learned in school is important in your life? " i guess some of it has to be. i mean what we do now determines where we may be in our future. There has to be some importance in what we are doing.

Brother: so why do you hate school so much? " i think school has officially become an obstacle for me. Yea it was fun for the 12 years i was in school, but now i think its time to experience the real world, and get out of this box that i have been in for so long. " Do you think that what you learn now can help you in the future? "i dont really think i need anymore math in my life. What i wanna do doesn't really invole school smarts, but more of street smarts.

Friend: SO do you think that we should get graded and labeled as a number in school? "I think that grades sucks They can't determine what i know, buy putting a number next to my name. That grade is something that is meant to scare you, but im not really intimidated by it." Are you thinking about your future and will school be beneficial in your future? " I think school is imprtant, all the good jobs look at your education and we basically survive based on how well we are educated. It's stressfull, but if you work hard, there has to be some reward at the end.

hw 39

list of questions and ideas:

why do we have certain hours that we need to be at school for?
why do we get grades determining what we know?
why is a school year so long?
tests are threats that keep us in check and force us to do good


i really like this idea of how we are given tests throughout our learning years. How some tests have more power over others. I thought about how in elementary school i had math tests on about 320 questions that we had to solve. i was always the last kid to finish. I felt like i could never finish all these questions especially in 3 minutes. These tests scared me and sort of made me seem dumber. I felt like since i couldnt finish in the time that was give, i was below everyone else. soon enough i finished the test and felt great about myself. This test scared me, i felt like i had to learn this stuff even if it took me forever to learn. These weekely tests were ways for teachers to moniter the pace of your learning and how you work under pressure.

I Think that these quizzes are meant to intimidte kids and foce them to learn. Tests are ways for teachers to specifically see what you know. It is a way that we learn. its tough for some people because they get nervous and sometimes forget a lot of things that they studied. Now it;s even tougher and more stressful because now we have to take SAT's and a bunch of tests that can determine the next steps in our lives. In psycology class though, we spoke about how these tests such as the SAT can be major flaws in the ways that we learn. It is sort of impossible to study for the SAT, becuase all you know is that there is math and english, we know nothing specifically like what equations to use.This is a test that tests your cleverness and the ways that you can work around something. This is the only ways you are able to actually study, this is maybe one reason why im not stressing the SAT so much, because maybe studying wouldn't help me. So by taking 300 dollar SAT courses when i can buy a 20 dollar SAT book, and scoring about the same or below average, can show me that those 300 dollars maybe wasn't a good investment. This idea of tests intimidating kids, is no longer intimidating to me, i know that im smart in my own categories, and a bookelt with a score on it is sort of labeling to me, so even if i fail 30 tests this year, its all good, because i personally dont like taking test. So this idea of tests as threats to learn and intimdate kids, doesn't really bother me too much

hw 38 cool link

Abraham's blog should have the video up

http://personalpoliticalblog.blogspot.com/

artist's statement: the project was intended to show how the coolest kids sometimes have a weakness and how that weakness is never shown to people who the are around the most, but people who they do not know on a deeper level, sort of like someone to say hi to, but not to start a complete conversation with.

i think i may have a career as an actor. I contributed my standing there looking cool with my kidrobot hoodie and gucci glasses. i thought i looked way cooler than jace (no offense) but the point of it was that anyone can be cool, it just doesn't have to be what people view on the outside, but the person that you portray yourself as.

i actually think hat doing art is cool, i like seeing how creative people get, and how they can get their thoughts out into a picture or a video for people to see. Art is cool because it is another way to show how you feel instead of just saying it, you can put a twist on your thoughts and back it up with your own original work

hw 37 cool paper

cool has been and idea that many try to immitate. the ideas of cool can be anything that a person ggrew up around or something that a person admires. It is almost impossible to reach the highest levels of cool though, because society doesn't let you. People always find new ways to make cool escalate into a competition in a way. In a way this idea of cool runs our society, especially in America, and mainly New York, where cool can be perceived as anything. cool is like a chain reaction, and our society runs on the idea of cool, mainly on an economic scale, and also a social acception scale.



In America people love the idea of altering themselves to be more interesting or socially accepted. However they try to be noticed, most of the times, it works. Plastic surgery is one of the biggest things that people love getting, they alter their look, therefore seeming more interesting and becoming noticed, which gives them the cool persona that we all desire. With plastic surgery though, it becomes permanent, just like tattoos do. Plastic surgery also racked in millions of dollars last year and is always generating millions of dollars. "In the past, plastic surgery generated over 8 billion dollars for surgical procedures.(ezinearticles.com)" This shows how people alter themselves to seem cooler. Now in this day and age there are so many ways that people can sort of transform themselves. When people do this, they can also influence others to follow in their footsteps, depending on how that person wants to live. Plastic surgery is one way that our country runs. doctors are getting padi millions of dollars everywhere to perform surgery. They end up spending more money on more supplies to keep up with the demands of people. Then those people with surgery consume more things such as accessories to complete their beauty and coolness. So it is never eending, also ffeeding in to our economic situation.

In America, mainly speaking about New York city, fashion is a big money maker. There are signs everywhere telling us to buy this and that, but these billboards that we see always seem to be missing the prices of the items. This is interesting to me. We are intriged with the advertisements until we actually go to the store. We look around and finally see the item, It can be one of the most expensive things in the store, We will buy either this item or an item like it, so that we can walk out with a bag from that store signifying that we have money to spend on these things and also signifying that we are cool. When we walk into a store, we buy things too signify our coolness and our belonging to a group of people. These trends are very visible with the more luxurious brands, such as gucci and louis vuitton. We see these ads, that signify nothing at all, yet we love going to shop at these places because it signifies our financial status and that we are cool. Even though that person just spent 600 dollars on a pair of gucci shoes, they don't care because they know that if people notice, they automatically become a symbol. I read an article explaining why these high end ddesigners price so much and the article states that, " louis vuitton is made of high quality boa, camel and crocodile skin that will be guaranteed to last you many years. (zimbio.com)" Maybe this also explains why people buy into these items, because by buying these rare materials gathered up in one bag worth almost all of an average ameircan's paycheck, you are considered exotic and cool for purchasing something that people only dream of having. These consumptions of clothing and accesories also drives our economic system. It is like a circle. We consume to feel satisfied, the companies make money and put out better items, and we consume them again. It never ends, until we go broke and these corporations are bathing in out money, and it was all because we wanted to feel cool.

In new york city, it is especially common to follow the crowd. Mainly for kids in high schools, is where this is seen. Throughout the years, there has been an evolution of what seems cool and what doesn't. There use to be the dressing in funky colors, which was very popular. It was the old school look that came back in style, then it became a sneaker phase in which the kids with the oldest pair of air jordans was cool, if they were nice and fresh looking. I am still in this sneaker trend which to me seems to be dying out, but i personally don't think i will leave this phase. Now i notice the trend is to dress classy. Now everyone shops in the mainly caucasion stores, such as macys, bloomingdales and a bunch of shops on 5th avenue. This trend of buying polo has taken over. kids now are following the trends that hundreds of other kids follow and continue to promote. It has now become the cool thing to wear, because by wearing polo, you are following the crowd and you are seen as being in a cool state of mind. No matter how many people wear it, there is always one person who wants to follow the crowd, becuase it will boost up their statues in school. When i see kids doing this, i think about the meaning of a 90 dollar shirt, but i would sort of be a hippocrite because i am just like that kid. I wear 50 dollar shirts and 200 dollar shoes, so i can't judge them.

This idea of cool is impossible to get away from. It is what we revlove around. In america, this consumtion of goods, especially during holiday seasons, is what makes these companies able to continue to promote to use and no matter what we do, 99 percent of people cannot resist and this idea of wanting to be cool comes with thousands of superficial items to fufil that want.

hw 36 triangle partner help

stephs main idea: "Depending on your social map and the way your raised you cool is different from someone raised with a different sense of cool"

something that you can add to this main idea of yours is that we have expectations that have to or need to be met. On any level, kids are usually following paths that other people have paved for them. You should read the article that says somethings about how black kids like to buy prada shoes instead of saving for college. Also explore more about how you see it in your life, like how kids now are all into polo clothes and how maybe someone with more polo is cooler than another person. If you check out my blog post number 34 in the last paragrah i talk about an article that would maybe benifit you and give you evidence for your paper. Also i think you should check your spelling. Once you do that, i think your paper will be great.



Leah's main idea: " I feel like we push ourselves to be this "cool" person, but what happens when its over? there nothing more than pure emptiness.

Leah:Yo have a very interesting idea going. I think you should add some evidence. Also add something like, viktor frankl and how he explained meaninglessness as a vaccum and we need to always put things in it to get a sense of a temporary happiness.. If you check out my blog post number 30 in the last paragrah, first couple sentences i quote him. you should read it and maybe add it to your paper. Also check your grammer for any little mistakes. Overall good job.

Ean: "everyone tries to be cool in their own way. sometimes changing themselves completely, but the end result will always be the same having some type of loneliness."

I think your main idea is good. i think you should make it sharper. Maybe you can say something, like, as we pursue this idea of cool, we forget what we value and no longer live our own way, but in a way that was paved throughout the years. This gives us a sense of satisfaction, but also makes us lonely in our lives.

one thing i suggest is to check your grammer, and add evidence to make your points sharp and true. overall, good start.

hw 34 the cool pose

In new york city, it is very easy to be considered cool and most of us are. We are surrounded by things that we want because we think it will give us that notification from others that allows us to be known as cool. the kid that buys prada shoes is cool because now he falls into this category of a kid that "gets paper". We are obsessed wht being stereotyped and stereotyping. meanwhile this kid as fresh as he looks may have many other problems in his life. What i noticed is that almost every year, there is a new thing. Like this year, it is all about polo. whoever has polo is "fresh" because since polo makes nice clothes and is expensive, you buying it makes you seem like you have money to spend on 80 dollar shirts. The kid who has polo isn't cool anymore though, once you wear it, you already establish yourself as cool. It has now become a competition, who can wear the most polo in one day. My friend the other day showed me a picture of his friend who had only polo clothing on. from the dress shirt to the hat, scarf, and shoes. He the says to me, "this kid is madd cool. look at how fresh he is." In the back of my mind i was like he probably doesnt even like the things he wears, he wears those thing to get notice and be accepted, after all he is asian going to a school in harlem with almost 5,000 kids, so if you don't stand out, you will spend your years in high school being unnoticed. Also having marmot jackets is considered cool now. It also highly symbolizes some trouble for some kids. I have seen kids and so has my friend. he tells me that if more than 4 kids with marmot jackets walks up to you, you better start running because they are planning to rob you. He has seen this very frequently. It seems like if you are with a group of kids that dress alike, that is your coolness. You are stereotyped as troublemakers, yet you never get caught and always get girls, and get fresh. You have nothing to lose which makes you cool because you are a badass.



I think that gender and race has a lot to do with being considered cool. If you are chinese, the chances of you being cool is very slim unless you drastically change your appearence with clothing or something to make you stand out. If you are black, it seems that you already have a head start, all you need now is some gucci shoes and some cargo pants, oh and the marmot jacket, then you are cool. You get respect. This is mainly something that men do. For women it can be the smae thing, but mainly for women it is how they look physically and how they interact with others, and sometimes some fresh clothes help.



In the article that i read called " a poverty of the mind", the author talks about how typically black males are flunking out of school and hanging out. This is a problem when people care more about what the look like and what they do in the present, rather than think about the future. Usually by them dropping out and hanging out with your crew everyday seems cooler than learning and being an intellectual and, as Andy said," having tons of money and buying all the prada shoes you want." Instead black kids in society wait for an oppritunity instead of pursuing something. They decide to take the easy way out, and become rappers and make it big. this isn't a problem if you do make it big. But majority who dont have to resort to other ways to make money, such as stealing and selling drugs. It is becoming sort of an epidemic that african americans can only do so much, and mainly follow their culture maps. Sort of like they evolved to follow the norms.

hw 33 outline

thesis- the meaning of cool is something we are always using as a way to escape a natural authentic ways of living

argument 1- the ways that people use body modifications as a way to be noticed.

argument 2- how people use clothing to express how cool or not cool they are

argument 3- how americans are obsessed with following the crowd to seem cooler. like following new trends.

conclusion- sum up all 3 idea.

hw 32 tattoos and the presentation of the self

tattooing can show or represent cool because of what people think they symbolize. Some people think that if you have a big tattoo, it plays a big part of your life. To me, tattooing doesn't signify anything. When i see someone's tattoo, i just think of them as an advertisement. I don't complement them on the tattoo, i complement the creator, the person who inked their skin up to make a very intricate piece of art. I think of a person with a tattoo as sort of rebellious, especially when you ask them why they got that certain tattoo, and they say, because i like it. Most times there is no story behind a tattoo. sometimes people get them and barely see them because they are not in eye sight. just like a tramp stamp. Most girls that get tramp stamps maybe just like them because of what they represent in our culture. They make the girls feel a bit more sexually desired. I don't think tattoos are a good way of representing yourself, but it is a good way to represent an artists work on your body, just like an advertisement, that when people see, are going to invest their time and money in to.

I think that now tattoos have become too popular in american societiy and evryone is starting to grt them. In sports such as the nba, the majority of players get tattoos. Usually for me i think of it as their way of brcoming men and lving a lifedtyle that many people only dream of having. Maybe each tattoo symbloizes an accomplishment in their lives. I think that not having a tattoo is not a way that people feel speacial. There are many other ways that people reject themself from what society offers. I don't think people who don't have tattoos feel speciial, they probably thought of getting one at one poin but just never had the committment that others have to getting one.

I feel that tattoos are ways for people to trap a memory forever and the way they rememebr it is by having it permanently plastered on their skin, in a unique and maybe abstract way, so that when they look at it, they always remember. like one of my teachers has a tattoo of a music note on her wrist. She said she got it when she formed her band and they became serious about their music. I know she's going to remember that tattoo becuase it froze a time in her life by putting it on her body, sdo no matter how old she gets, she's going to remember eveerything that the band had to offer, all she has to do is look at her tattoo.