Meta-Post 3.0

Please check out my most recent post "Wealth Does Not Equal Happiness"

This semester, I was proud of a lot of things in my blogging, and I also thought I could have done some things better.

One thing I was proud of was my Junior Theme blogs, and connecting my blog with my JT. Sometimes it's hard to come up with blog topics that relation directly to things that are happening in class, so Junior Theme was a great opportunity to connect things in the outside world to a topic that I was an expert on. In my blog "Junior Theme & Spring Break" I connected my topic of assisted suicide to a situation that arose over spring break, which just goes to show you that potential blog topics and connections can pop up when you least expect it. I also connected my junior theme to current events in my blog "When Parenting Goes Wrong"  on April 12th. I thought my connection between the story of a mom refusing to give her son his chemotherapy drugs was possibly a stretch, but I was proud of myself that I was attempting to connect everything to my junior theme because I had so much knowledge of it. I also thought my blogs during the JT time period were both helpful to write, because I could sort out my ideas in writing and think about what I needed to do over the next week, and also numerous.

A lot of the ideas for my blogs from this semester came from experiences I had during the day or things that were on my mind. While it is great that I am able to bring the discussions and topics we are covering in class outside the classroom and make connections in real life, I think some of my blogs needed a little more grounding in research or other types of media besides just my personal experience. For example, in my post "SnOMG" I wrote about my experiences being technology-free during the snow day. During this time we were talking about the children growing up in different periods of history. I think my experiences during the snow day were valuable ideas to put in my post, but I probably could have added more research or quotes to provoke more of a discussion or an argument instead of simply telling my readers a story.

While some aspects of my blog have improved greatly, I am embarrassed to say that the mechanics of my blogging have stayed the same. First semester, I emboldened every single question or important phrase in my blogs, which was not very empathetic to my readers. This semester, I don't think I put enough text in bold, which is just as hard if not harder for the reader to understand. Also, my titles need improvement. Many people in our class have funny, creative titles to their blogs. No matter how long I sit and think, I can't seem to come up with something witty enough to put as a title to my blog. On the other hand, an improvement that I have made in the last few blogs is figuring out how to center and italicize quotes. I put quotes in both my blogs "The Bucket List" and "Wealth Does Not Equal Happiness", and I think it helps the readers to have a source to base their comments off of.

Blogging was a great experience for me this year. While my blogs weren't perfect, I had to challenge myself to think critically at everything while writing them. Writing blogs was not always the most fun of tasks, but as I write this I am pretty sad that this is my last official blog for AS class.

Wealth Does Not Equal Happiness

In a list of the wealthiest countries, it is no surprise that the United States comes out on top, earning almost  triple the GDP than runner-up Japan. 

These statistics would make you think that Americans, in general, are wealthier and less stressed than their foreign counterparts, right? Well think again. In a Business Week study in which researchers compiled data to compare happiness in countries around the world, the United States ranked 23rd, below many countries whose citizens have lower incomes. To read more about the study, click here. The article states their finding, saying: 

"The most significant factors were health, the level of poverty, and access to basic education."

We already know that America is extremely wealthy, and it seems to me (although I'm not an expert) that in the broad spectrum of the world, Americans are decently healthy and they all have access to education up to High School. What else could be causing America's unhappiness?


This study made me think of the American dream. As Americans, we always think there is something more to improve, more money to be made, or another wrung on the social ladder to climb. We are never content with where we are at. So we can continue to make money exponentially compared to the rest of the world, but our mindset will hold us back from the happiness we are truly searching for.

The Bucket List

Some people love the concept of having a "bucket list", or a list of things they want to do before they die. The concept of having a full and happy life with many diverse experiences is appealing to almost everybody, but some people are more likely to write down these ideas than others. For me, the idea of a"Bucket List" is daunting. Having long term goals like "travel the world" or "have a family", that are vague and difficult to plan very far and advance is a little bit scary to me. I worry that writing them down and then not accomplishing them would be a failure, so I choose not to write them down. Many professionals, though, stress the importance of bucket lists as a way to find meaning and excitement in life, as in this USA Today article:

"These lists tend to feature all the highlights on the aspirational horizon — acts of fancy, courage and delight, full of punch and flavor, adrenalin and imagination. "It's not enough to react to life on a day-by-day basis. People need a road map. Life lists are one of the best ways to plumb the depths of the human psyche," says Caroline Adams Miller, a Bethesda, Md.-based author, motivational speaker and life coach who encourages clients to create a 100-item roster."

So, who do you think is the most likely to create a Bucket list? We have been talking a lot in class about characteristics of social classes, as well as what kind of lists people in our class prefer to create. Is it more likely that the upper classes create bucket lists to add excitement to their stereotypically quiet and refined lives, or do lower classes create bucket lists in order to have higher goals or aspirations and keep them motivated to work hard and succeed? Why do you think some people in our class (me included) are turned off by the idea of a bucket list?

Are you part of the party?

This weekend, I had the opportunity to work at a charity benefit with a couple of friends. The benefit was for the purpose of raising money for a private school downtown that caters to many families below the poverty line with scholarships and opportunities that they might not get otherwise. We've been talking about social class and the devision between lower and upper classes in class for the past month, and I was able to make many observations about characteristics of social class at the benefit.

For one, almost everyone who attended the benefit was wearing extremely expensive and formal attire. The venue was also very formal, and gave off the impression of wealth. I think it would be a safe assumption to say that most of the people attending would be considered upper class. In fact, the only people who may not be considered upper class were a handful of grade school kids from the school we were raising money for. The kids stuck out because they were wearing their school uniforms in order to ask for donations from people attending.

The contrast between how people reacted to those kids and how they reacted to me and my friends was very evident. My friends and I were wearing the same formal attire as everyone else, even though we were doing generally the same jobs as the kids, and we were often engaged in conversation as if we were part of the party or "one of them". On the other hand, when someone attending the party was approached by a child in a school uniform, they were often very polite and generous, but did not react as if the child were a part of their circle, and generally left the conversation after they had made their transaction. It is true that some of this might be because we were older than a lot of the kids, but it still seemed as though there was a difference in the reactions of the people.

Once people found out we were from New Trier, this only intensified. A woman inquired about where I was thinking about going to college when she learned I was a junior. It was interesting that she just assumed that I was going to attend college because of where I go to school, when she never would have mentioned college when talking to a student from the school we were raising money for.

Glee

For the past few weeks in class we have been talking about social class, and I found a connection in this week's episode of Glee. For those of you who don't watch it, it's a show that follows around various members of a high school glee club in their quest to nationals, and in their personal lives.

This week, Sam, a popular and well-liked character, starts having to wear hand-me-downs and live with his family in a motel room because his dad lost his job. While Sam's appearance doesn't change drastically, his interactions with others change. He starts accepting favors from his friends (new clothes and help babysitting his siblings), but they still love him and continue to support him. So, do you think Sam changed social classes in the episode? In class, some people were saying that income and money are not the only reasons why someone could be considered "upper class". They argued that a person with a lower income could be considered upper class if they gave off the appearance of being upper class by having great social connections and appearing smart and highly educated.

Sam still has the appearance, education level, and social connections of a middle class person, but his family has the income of someone in a lower class. Is it possible that Sam is still middle class because he doesn't have the stereotypical "lower class" traits?

The Royal Wedding

Since we've been talking about social classes in class this past week, I thought I could relate it to an event that  has been dominating the news recently: the royal wedding. I think most people would agree that Prince William is at the very top of the upper class. A combination of tramendous wealth, social capital, education, and a respected career in the military as well as being a royal put him on the top of anyone's list as someone who rules the class system.

In class the other day we were also talking about how the American class system differs from that of other countries, especially England where the social classes are deeply rooted in history and very hard to change. So, are England's social classes becoming less prevalent, demonstrated by Prince William's choice of bride? Kate Middleton does not belong to the lower classes no matter how you look at it, but she is definitely not on the same level as the Prince. She does not have royal blood and comes from a much more low-profile family. The same is true for William's father, Prince Charles, who also married a "commoner".

So, could it be that England is just modernizing it's social class to be defined more on looks and the way one acts instead of family background and titles, or could the social class system be falling apart slowly all together?

Junior Theme #4

This weekend I have started the daunting task of writing my junior theme. I was a little bit caught off guard when I realized this week that we don't have unlimited time to research and put together information, and that I actually had to start putting my thoughts into words very soon. The hardest part about writing the paper is coming up with points and sections that include everything you want to mention. Right now from what I have written so far, I am thinking that my paper is only going to be two sections, the two most important reasons why I think America is divided over the issue of assisted suicide. Having only two sections instead of more, smaller points is a little bit scary. From the research I've done, I have found hundreds of reasons why people disagree on this issue, some bigger than others but all of them very important. I feel like by just focusing on two things, I'll be leaving something out. But there was so much information on assisted suicide that I am bound to leave something out, so I've decided that it's most important that I am choosing two things that are extremely important and presenting them in the best way I can.

This week, I also did my interview. Unfortunately, when it got time to call my interviewee the phone didn't work for a California phone number, so I had to use the phone I was planning to use to record my interview to call my person, and take notes instead. It was a really helpful interview, and I was able to write down a few quotes and a lot of notes. The person I interviewed is a law professor at University of Michigan and UC San Diego, and he was very knowledgeable and a true expert in the subject of assisted suicide. A lot of things that he said were points that I had been thinking about during my research, but I couldn't have put them into words without his help. I have been trying to ignore my own personal feelings about assisted suicide in the process of the paper, but it was interesting to interview someone who has close to the same views as me, because the view I hold isn't exactly on one side or the other, it's pretty unique.

Good luck writing everyone!

When Parenting Goes Wrong

Today, Alex S. showed me an article about a mother who refused to give her son chemotherapy drugs because, she claimed, she thought the side-effects were making him sicker. Read the article here.

While the mother said that she couldn't stand the horrible side-effects of her son's cancer medicine, the opposition accused her of withholding the drugs because her son's cancer was a burden on her financially and he wanted her to die. My personal opinion is that as a mother, she should have been able to see past the side-effects of the drugs and know that she would do anything to make her son better in the long run, so there was very little possibility that she actually withheld the drugs with the intention of making him better and actually knew that this lack of treatment would eventually kill him.

I can definitely connect this article to my junior theme topic of assisted suicide (as I can with most things these days). One argument against assisted suicide is that families of the terminally ill feel burdened financially by their dying relatives, and will use legalized assisted suicide to pressure family members into taking their lives in order to lift their burden. The extreme measures that this mother took to rid herself of her son is an example of how money can corrupt people into not caring about family members anymore and instead caring about the money involved in the situation.

Still, it might be possible that this mother could not stand her son's suffering with cancer, and decided to withhold his medicine out of mercy for him because she knew it would end his misery sooner. While I still think this is wrong, especially since her son probably did not ask to die, this would be better than the alternative of killing him just because he was a financial burden.

Junior Theme Blog #3

This week, I ran in to a few speed bumps with junior theme. My most pressing issue so far is my interview. First, I contacted an organization that connected me with a possible email interview candidate. I emailed her a couple questions, but the responses were pretty short. I'll have at least one or two quotes I can use in my paper, but I thought I should probably get another interviewee to supplement my paper. So far, I have emailed 11 candidates from Northwestern, Loyola University, University of Chicago, and other locations across the country, and none of them have responded. Very frustrating since we're supposed to have the interviews done by the end of next week. Hopefully I get a response soon.

My second problem is in structuring and beginning to write my paper. I began to write out possible points I could cover in my paper before spring break, but when I came back I realized that they are much to broad and I'm going to have to cut a lot of things out to make the paper fit in the 5-7 page range. For example, I was covering both the medical ethics of assisted suicide (having to do specifically with doctors and the healthcare system) and personal ethics (having to do with the patients and their families) within the same point. There is no way I could get all my information in that one paragraph.

Luckily, I've been finding some really great new articles and sources while I've been trying to start writing. One thing that I would really recommend is the library's new database, Project Muse. The first time I typed in my topic, I found a document giving the entire history of my topic. Of course I will have to corroborate my information, but it will be a great place to start putting together my historical look back. 

Spring Break & Junior Theme

Since I picked the topic of assisted suicide for my junior theme, an extremely heavy and depressing topic, I was hoping to distance myself from it over spring break so I could rest up and relax for fourth quarter. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough to be free from thinking about my topic the entire break.


On the first  day of my vacation, my little brother asked what my junior theme topic was, and I carefully explained assisted suicide in a way that a 5th grader could understand. He told me that he thought it was never ok to kill someone, even if they want to die. A day later, my brother got the worst sunburn of his life. My parents were worried that he had gotten sun poisoning or had an allergic reaction because he was in so much pain and completely miserable. When it was all over, my brother told me that he had completely changed his position on assisted suicide. He said that if a person was in the amount of pain that he had been in for the rest of their life, he would understand if they wanted another way out.


For one, it was pretty concerning to me that my brother could change his position so quickly over a bad sunburn. I see his quick change in opinion as an argument against assisted suicide. Temporary pain can make people do irrational things, and having a way out in the form of an assisted suicide could be potentially dangerous to people who aren't thinking clearly. Sure, when a person has chronic pain that won't let up for the rest of their life it is a different situation, but with the option of assisted suicide already there for those people, its concerning that others may want to follow.


On a lighter note, I hope everyone had a great spring break! See you in class tomorrow!

Junior Theme #2

This past week I started to look a lot further into the topic of assisted suicide. While it was the heaviest and potentially saddest topic on my list, it was the one that interested me the most. One thing I like about this topic is that it's not black and white. Some people are very passionate about the idea that people should be able to choose when they die, and others are extremely against it. It's difficult to find someone in my research that is in between, since a lot of resources out there on the internet are heavily biased. One of the biggest challenges of my paper is going to be embodying both sides of the issue and giving factual pros and cons without giving out too much of my own personal opinion.

With that being said, I also feel that I should know how I feel about the subject before I begin writing my paper. Right now, I am still caught a little bit in the middle. I see where both sides are coming from. In order to write a good paper, though, I think I need to know enough about the topic and care enough about the topic to have a position on it. With each article or book chapter I read, I see a good point, but combining all the points together to make a coherent paper is going to be really difficult.

I also talked to both Doc 'OC and Mr. Bolos on Friday about my official "why" question. At first, I was thinking of doing the why question "Why is assisted suicide illegal in most areas of the United States?". But, after talking to the teachers a little I realized that this question wasn't really targeting exactly what I want to explore. It would be really easy to list off the government's reasoning behind the bans on assisted suicide without really getting into the real issues at hand. I want to start a discussion with my paper, using both the pros and the cons off assisted suicide, so I think my new question "Why is there such a controversy surrounding assisted suicide in America?", leaves a little bit more wiggle room for me to explore.

Junior Theme Blog 1

Today was the first day that we started seriously considering our Junior Theme topics. I had 5 or 6 questions in mind when I walked into the library today, and by the time I left I had changed all of them at least a little bit to make them a possible candidate for the paper.

When Mr. Bolos and Doc 'OC first started talking about junior theme, they mentioned that it should be a topic that we care deeply about. When I first heard that, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it should also be something that we know a lot about and have a lot of experience with. I was thinking that I would choose a topic on something like women's rights or vegetarianism, two things I have studied before and feel comfortable with.

Then, I realized the paper wouldn't be interesting to write if my topic was something I had already considered. One topic that I really like and might possibly consider is how technology affects our lives, especially the lives of teenagers. I saw a book in the library on this topic, and would love to read it, but it is an extremely long book and I would have to be very careful not to follow the author's argument in my paper, because I would essentially be basing my paper off of that book.

Another topic I thought about today was gay marriage and gay rights. There were a lot of resources in the library about that, and they could be very helpful. A problem that I encountered was finding a decent "why" question that would let me explore all aspects of the topic. I was thinking "why now?" with regards to the recent movement for gay rights, but that topic would need more exploring.

The topic that I seemed to be drifting towards in class today was the issue of assisted suicide. The why question that I would most likely use for this topic would be "why is assisted suicide illegal in the united states?". I would probably use court cases and a history of what suicide means in America to back up my arguments, as well as bringing up the issue of the death penalty to start a discussion on who has the right to life in America. This topic is extremely sad and very serious, but I also find the ethical issues interesting and important for understanding the future or medicine in America. I got some great leads from Doc 'OC and the librarians on sources today, and I think I am definitely going to look further into this topic.

Remember Wisconsin?

                                                                        source

Usually when we think of historical events in America, we think of of places like New York, Boston, or Los Angeles. Nothing ever really seems to happen in the Midwest. So, when massive protests began in Wisconsin, I would have expected it to be all over the media. Unfortunately, the only place where I have really heard about and discussed the protests in detail has been AS class.

I found a link to some beautiful pictures of the protests on the CNN website (although it actually took some digging). Click here to see them. From the looks of these pictures, the peaceful demonstrations are a real demonstration of what protesting in America should look like. The protestors look strong, and look like they are standing their ground, yet they also look level-headed and smart. They are demanding change, but in the most respectful way possible under the chaotic circumstances.

The pictures remind me of pictures I've seen of the hippie era, where people fought for change and bettering the world. America still remembers and looks back on those times fondly, so why are they ignoring the historical events happening now? These protests got their 15 minutes of fame, and now it looks like the media and everybody else except the people currently in Madison are starting to get over it, even though the actual protests are bigger and more powerful than ever.

Token Majority

The stereotypical "American Girl", with blue eyes, blonde hair, and the perfect "Barbie" figure, is not seen as a minority in our society. (even though girls with the type of perfection portrayed in the media are extremely hard to find). So, is it possible that these types of women are subjected to tokenism in the same way as racial minorities on network TV dramas?

Two shows on the CW are centered around pretty, blonde, white girls who are also in the process of making their way through law school. "Hellcats" and "Greek" (below).

The main characters look startlingly similar. It seems out of place that both of these characters are in law school. They are popular, don't seem career-driven, and have plenty of other distractions that might keep them from getting their law degrees in real life. When the producers of the shows were picking occupations for their main characters, it seems like they chose law school just so that they could show their viewers that they endorsed the empowerment of women. 

Even though I would consider these two women token characters, they are the main characters of the series' which sets this type of tokenism apart from the racial tokenism that we talked about in class. Do you think this is tokenism, or something else?

Waiting for Superman

Last night me and my family decided to watch "Waiting for Superman", a movie about the American education system. I had been wanting to see "Race to Nowhere", a movie that we had talked about several times in class, and I thought Waiting for Superman would be a similar movie, and would serve as an adequate replacement.

Waiting for Superman, though, focused a lot more on individual families and their quests to get their kids into magnet or charter schools than the actual problems with the way kids are learning or the curriculum. The movie explained the benefits of increasing the number of hours kids are in school, having school during the summer, and holding kids to extremely high expectations and pushing them to succeed. It seemed to me that it was almost the opposite of what we talked about in class with Race to Nowhere.

I was hoping for some kind of statement about the problems with standardized testing, pressure to get into college, or how important the arts are, but instead I got almost the opposite. The movie almost glorified standardized tests. It also stressed a need for everyone to get into college. Also, the movie continually talked about the importance of math and science, yet it never mentioned a need for variation in the school day with art classes or more creative classes like english.

The differences in these two movies show the conflicting views on education in America today. I would recommend watching "Waiting for Superman" if you have already seen "Race to Nowhere", it might be interesting to compare and contrast the two.

Tokenism on TV

This week in class, Doc 'OC and Mr. Bolos asked us to watch network TV dramas and keep an eye out for racial tokenism. For the most part, I found what I expected to find, African-American characters who were not at the center of the storyline, and mostly playing "the best friend" part for the main characters. One thing that struck me, though, was that in the 3 shows I watched this week, all of the black characters were portrayed as smart, rich, and well adjusted.

In the medical drama, "House", Dr. Foreman is an extremely intelligent and high-ranking doctor. In "Greek", Calvin is the member of the top fraternity at his school, and in "Gossip Girl", Raina is the pretty daughter of a wealthy CEO. Of course I'm not saying that African-Americans are incapable of these affluent positions, but the characters in these shows seem expertly placed to show the public that the show is not racist. The characters would be more believable if there were more African-Americans in general, and if every single one was not well-adjusted and seemingly perfect.

Even if this is racial tokenism, is it bad? Sure, the TV producers aren't accurately portraying real life, (on average, white people have higher incomes than black people), but I think that portraying African-Americans in a good light is always needed, even if it isn't exactly accurate. There is still racism and stereotyping in America, and any attempt to get the public to accept African-Americans in positions of power should be welcomed.

Should social Media get credit?

Today in class we discussed the effects of social media on protests. Social media allows ideas and plans to spread rapidly, and some argue that since the creation of social media protestors and revolters are able to band together more effectively. In class, Doc 'OC mentioned that some people argue that the current revolt in Egypt wouldn't be nearly as big or as effective without the help of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. While I think that those sites spread information effectively and help with communication, I don't think social networking makes for bigger revolts or revolutions. Social networking can get the word out, but it's really all about how much a group of people cares about the values they are fighting for.

How many times have you gotten a request for a facebook group or seen someone advertising a cause that you didn't really care about? Sometimes people absentmindedly join these groups or say they will attend various cause-related events without any intention of helping with the cause. To have picked up so many followers, the people must have already been passionate about change before introducing the ideas to social networking sites. The popularity online could just be because everyone is so passionate that they are bringing their ideas online after the fact. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is an example of how passion goes beyond how connected you are or how many people you can get to see your ideas.

Banned from NT

In class today we had a long and interesting discussion about whether or not parents should have had the authority to remove "Huckleberry Finn" from the New Trier curriculum. There were two very convincing sides to the story. In my own personal opinion, I think that Huck Finn is an intriguing and thought provoking addition to the books we read, and should absolutely be included in the curriculum for most English classes. Limiting our access to the book is implying that we aren't mature enough to take away the positive messages from the book and know that when a negative message is being conveyed we should criticize it, not follow it blindly. However, I do think that there should be an out for any student that feels personally offended by the book, like an alternate assignment or paper.

But, if not the parents, who should make the decision as to who reads the book and who doesn't? My first thought would be that the teachers should be able to decide what books can be effectively taught in the classroom. Teachers can see daily classroom discussion and decide whether or not a book provokes meaningful discussions and if students take the right messages out of the book. At the same time, though, I don't think teachers should have absolute power over the curriculum. While parents aren't part of their children's education full-time, they should have some kind of power over what they are being taught. Where should we draw the line between a parent's and a teacher's responsibility?

SnOMG!

When I woke up Wednesday morning to see my garage door sealed shut by snow, keeping my car captive, I must admit I was a little disappointed. What is the point of a snow day if you can't drive around and do things you usually do on a day off? Without transportation, my friend and I were forced back into childhood, spending the day walking around the neighborhood, attempting to make a snowman, and swinging at a nearby playground. It brought me back to a time before high school, when, without my laptop and drivers license, I was forced to take life at a slower pace and have fun doing simpler things. 

Unfortunately, many younger kids are not getting the same kind of technology-free childhood as I did. My younger brother and sister, both in 5th grade, already have cell phones, and they are not the exception. I know that many middle schoolers got iPads and Laptops for Christmas (perhaps only on the North Shore). I know parents think that these expensive pieces of technology are going to make their kids happy, but are they really depriving their kids of the best kind of childhood, one without distractions? 

Why science and math?

Being a more of an English and History oriented student myself, I must admit I raised my eyebrows last night when I heard Obama stress the importance of math and science as opposed to other subjects in his State of the Union Address. Sure, it is extremely important we keep up with the rest of the world technologically, so that we can defend ourselves and export new and improved products, but English and History are as important if not more important than sciences.

Obama wants to use our students to work with numbers and technology to outsmart the rest of the world, but how are we going to work with and communicate with the rest of the world without the English skills that help us eloquently demonstrate our point without flaring up tensions or creating more problems for ourselves? How are we supposed to regulate trade and foreign relations without understanding what happened in the past so we can improve it for the future?

I think the problem lies in the standardization of education described in the movie "A Race to Nowhere". We are so concerned with teaching every child in the same way and giving them all the same answers that the most obvious option for education becomes the subjects that use numbers, because every question has a definite answer that every child in the world could answer either correctly or incorrectly. English and History are more subjective and they rely on interpretation, so it is harder to standardize those subjects. Do you think we are forcing the next generation into number-based careers because of the way we are teaching them?

Meta-Post 2.0

Doc 'Oc and Mr. Bolos, please look at my most recent post, "There Are no Children Here"

Thankfully, in this last quarter blogging has become significantly easier. Last quarter, a lot of the time I was struggling to find a blog topic, and when I did it was sometimes not something that had come up in class or something relevant in my life, it was something hastily taken from a website. This quarter, I made a resolution to blog only when something came up that interested me, not to search for blogs at the last minute when I needed them. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not a lot of work to find blog topics in my own life, as long as I was making an effort to be aware of my surroundings and look critically at my everyday life. I do admit, there where a couple of times when I was tempted to search out a blog topic to quickly get my blog over with for the week, but I fended off the urge for a quick fix and it was usually easier to write about the topic that I had stumbled across later.

One element that I tried to work on this quarter was posing questions in my blogs. There were a few times when my questions seemed forced, especially in the example of my post "Land of the Free". The post was three paragraphs long, and I posed two questions in each of the last two paragraphs. The questions ranged from "Is teaching children one religion against American values?" to "Is it right for teacher to teach the benefits of democracy in schools?" The two questions have certain things in common, like a child's access to impartial information, but beyond that the topics of the post seemed to jump around and this post might have been better had it been divided into two posts so each of these interesting issues could be explored more fully. On the other hand, I succeeded in posing a question in the post "Honorable or Not" without even directly asking a question to my audience. It is a goal of mine for next semester to not have to use so many questions in my blogs. My writing should be controversial or thoughtful enough to provoke questions and debate without necessarily having question the audience.

Something I did more effectively this quarter was use textual evidence or some sort of background information to back up my posts. All of my posts, with the exception of my "Black Friday" post, mention some sort of article, book, or movie that my readers could access in order to understand the post and the issue more thoroughly. In my posts "There Are no Children Here"and "Desperate Housewives in Saudi Arabia", I learned how to embed quotes to make it easier for the reader to follow along.

One last thing I'd like to work on in the next few weeks is commenting on other people's blogs from our class. This quarter I've definitely been commenting a lot more, but I am still self-conscious about my comments, and find them to be less controversial and most of the time agreeing with the author of the post. Personally, I would love if someone commented on one of my posts to disagree with it and start a debate, but I know that if I want more people to comment on my posts I should be extending myself more to comment on their work.

There Are no Children Here

In class today, we tried to determine what makes a person an "adult". This got me thinking about the reverse, what are the factors that determine whether or not a person is a child? The topic reminded me of a book most of the class read in 8th grade called There Are no Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz. The book takes place in the projects of Chicago, in a neighborhood where murder, robbery, and rape are all daily realities. It follows a young boy, Pharoah, who encounters adversity and corruption on a daily basis:

"Pharoah clutched his childhood with the vigor of a tiger gripping his meat. He wouldn't let go. Nobody, nothing would take it away from him. When he was two, Pharoah would around the apartment naked; sometimes he'd be wearing just small white shoes. At the age of five, he had an imaginary friend, Buddy, whom he'd talk to and play with in his bedroom. Those forays into distant lands and with other people seemed to help Pharoah fend off the ugliness around him" (15).

Despite this quote, which seems to suggest that Pharoah did in fact have a childhood despite the hardships around him, the class came to a consensus that it was not possible to have a real childhood in the projects of Chicago. The class came up with multiple suggestions for things that make people children, for example: children must be sheltered from violence and crime, to be a true child, one must be allowed to go to a good school and have positive role models, and to be a child one must be worry-free.

Do you agree with the quote, which suggests that childhood can be found wherever a person is lighthearted enough to create it, or do you agree with the class, who suggested that, while someone like Pharoah may be able to use their imagination and play, he was still robbed of his childhood because he lives in such a rough area he still carries the worries around him?