Educational (not) Rant

A rant on anyone of our education unit readings...I'll keep this short seeing as it is a Friday night, and the fact that I can not readily absorb many of these documents.

John Holt and his essay "School Is Bad For Children" is the direct counter essay to "In Defense of Elitism." Holt begins by saying that all children goes into school more willing to learn and smarter than they will ever be in their school life, as well as the real life. I'm not sure where to stand on this issue. Holt also claims that the things we learn are school are not really necessary for our future, and that there are more ways of learning the required skills, as school is just a supplementary. I would have to say I agree, because really, do I really need to learn about colonial America or Pascal's triangle in order to go on with life? Most of it is irrelevant and is keeping me from learning what I really need to learn, like social interaction and etiquette. Holt states his view on school as "you come to school to learn" and that leads to "as if the children were incapable of learning on their own." This may be a false accusation, as I see schools saying "you come to learn more and build upon the knowledge you already know." Holt also argues that students become a blank document, for the teacher to write and teach as they please. What the students learn is judged and determined by the teacher. And we only allow that to happen because we are bribed into doing so by grades. And he proposes the only way to cure this problem is to allow students to teach themselves, each other, and go out of school to learn the things they would need in the future. To me, Holt seems to look at teachers differently. He is saying teachers are like dictators, feeding us with information they want us to know, and I see teachers as guides to the educational process. Though his proposals for change are a bit extreme, I would actually consider the abolishment of the attendance system, to determine which students are actually willing to learn (and saves money in this case); and allow field trips outside of school to allow students to expand their intellectual capabilities.

Blah, as Connie Tang has already stated, this is starting to sound like crap. I just woke up from a 2 hour nap and I am very disoriented. I should avoid naps, but my body shuts down at a certain time. Until next time, lets hope I will do a freewrite. I have cereal in mind, but that will probably lead into something new.

Suicide 2

Second Suicide, however, I don't think I'll will try and rant for 15 minutes straight. I shall just blab about whatever comes to mind first until I run out of ideas. *Ms. Fidelibus, am I suppose to send each blog entry to your email, or will posting just be enough?*

I remember when I was a child, I read this book that was so appealing to me. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The book is about how a little boy and a tree became friends. And as time passed and the boy got older, the tree would always provide things for the little boy, from apples for money, branches for shelter, and the trunk for a boat. The boy would always take these things and leave the tree alone to pursue his own dreams. The climax of the story occurred when the boy comes back as an elderly man. The tree, now just a stump, didn't think it had anything to provide for the man, but all the man wanted was a seat. The stump was perfect for a seat. I just found it interesting how the tree stayed loyal to the boy even thought the boy only came back for needs. It also gave the message that you don't need a lot of money or items to make someone happy, as shown the the stump.

I have liked this book since I was 4, and it is still my favorite book. Unlike the majority of the people, I don't find The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter all that interesting. Both are a good read, but I just don't see myself reading the book over and over again. My next favorite book would have to be Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, in the sense that the language is so similar to mine. I read it during my sophmore year, and I couldn't understand the book at all until my teacher told me the meaning of the story. I was shocked at how everything fell together so nicely in the end. I think I should read more of Salinger's writings, like Franky and Zoey. (I'm not sure if that is the title, but I just know there's something along the lines of Zoey in there) I'm also interested in Dan Brown's works. Everyone talks about The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, but it never caught on with me until now. I didn't know the plot, so I stayed away from it. But with the movie well on its way, I can't help but go out and buy the book when I have the time.

Enough about books, I'm not that much of a literary person. I don't think I have ever read a novel or a long book on my leisure time. Most of the time, I read just for a school assignment. I guess I don't have much of an imagination when reading to actually be taken away by books. Music is a different story. Music always takes me away from my troubles, and is essential to my life. I listen to almost any kind of music especially alternative, rock, vocal, trance, pop, and some hip-hop. The only genres of music I tend to not bother with are rap and country. Rap just doesn't have the vocals I would like to listen to. It just sounds like a regular conversation with beats in the back. As for country, it has the vocals, but the beats are debateable. It isn't enough for me to enjoy, as it is somewhat too mellow for my taste.

I shall conclude my suicide for now. I haven't run out of ideas as I've stated earlier, but I see my clock, and 15 minutes have passed. Sure, it's alright to write more, but I have other homework to tend to. So until next week's entry, go get yourself a slice of pie!

Propaganda in Politics

Arnold Schwarzeneggar's '05 State of the State address:

Here Schwarzeneggar begins by thanking everyone, and then moves on to the accomplisments of the administration under his leadership. He then goes on with his ideas on how to improve California's financial crisis. California doesn't have a problem with making money, it has a problem with spending money. Arnold plans on alleviating this by managing the way we spend our money in hopes that it will stop our ongoing problems. Arnold also wants to redo the pension system. We spend more and more money on school every year, yet more and more people fail high school. He wants to grant better teachers more money based on merit, and not just on tenure anymore. This will encourage more teachers to work harder instead of just sitting there and expect to gain more money than the striving new teachers.
Arnold tackles the political system as well. He believes that the system is not democratic enough because gerrymandering and other types of corruptions still exists. He proposes that neutral judges decide where the voting lines should go in order to avoid gerrymandering. Arnold wants to streamline many processes as well, in hopes of speeding up production. He also intends on stopping several legislative boards because they make so much money just for meeting twice a month.
Arnold is also trying to create more jobs for people. For example, he has been discussing plans with Indian gaming companies to try and build more roads, yielding an excess of 16000 new jobs. And he finishes with ideas on how to make medicine affordable.

However, I find that there are too many contradictions and faults within his proposals. If he plans on controlling the way we spend our money, that would be kind of restricting. His proposed plan on granting money to teachers with merit is flawed because what if the bad teachers decides to start giving away good but false grades to kids in order to increase their credits? And this might even lead to more employment as some teachers might not like the idea. We are already beginning to see strikes, though it may not be related to these changes. I also don't see where he is going when he says California should be preserved through conservation, when it is he who proposed to create more jobs by building more and more roads. This will kill the land and exhaust what little we have left of the earth's oil supply.

On a different note, I am interested in the way he (tries to) put himself in our shoes and show his love for California. Two things I still remember are the stories about him learning gerrymandering while studying for the citizen exam, and how he enjoys riding his motorcycle through California's coastline.

Suicide

No, I will not be talking about actual suicides just yet, but the term "suicide" refers to my 15 minutes "write or die" entries about random thoughts. Reason is, these entries remind of of those suicide sprints I use to do in PE and other sport-related activities. For this entry, I will get in a least two topics: my hair, and bananas (as I have promised some)
My hair has changed several times over the course of my life, and I'm sure most of you had the same change. When I was around 2-4 years old, I had long hair, believe it or not. It came with a rat's tail to boot, roughly 5 inches. However, this kid at school kept on pulling on my rat's tail, so I told my dad to cut it off. It was hard to depart with so much hair. From age 5 to o...lets say 15, I've been keeping a short army cut. It was cheap, fast to cut, and easily dried out. I would also have less hair to manage. Then about a year ago, I decided it was time for a change and began to let my hair grow. It was kind of awkward carrying all that weight on my head and the hair did irritate my eyes and forehead. However, after several attempts, my barber started to shape my head and trim it so it would grow out nicely. I have also began to blow-dry my hair, and coincidentally, I can see a ridge going through the middle of my head. Although I dont really want the ridge to be there, I didnt have much of a choice. As I look through old pictures of my hair from a few months back, it looked really bad. Advice for those of you who want to grow out your head, wear a hood or cap until your hair looks right. I had no idea was walking around with that thing for the whole year.
On a completely different subject, bananas tastes the best when they have brown dots on them. I dont see how people go on thinking bananas are spoiled by the time there are just several brown dots. FYI, it just shows that the banana is ripening. At this time, they are most fragrant and tasty. Texture-wise, it's really soft and silky. Sure, some may argue that completely yellow bananas, with a hint of green, is the best time to eat the banana. But you dont get the same taste. It's more tart and crisp and doesnt look appetizing to me. Alton Brown, one of my favorite hosts on Food Network, even explains how ripen bananas are better. You can make banana ice cream without cream with and ONLY with ripen bananas. Eat that Chewy.
College...why must the administration make us go through all these tests and exams just to go on to college? If paying for these SATs and APs isnt expensive enough, you risk the chance of not getting your score recognized if it ever falls under the "unsatisfactory" zone. On top of those expenses, once you enter college, you have to pay for tuition, dorms, lunch, and textbooks. Sure, I'm stating the obvious, but is it necessary for the schools and college board to milk money away from us like that. We pay our taxes, shouldnt that be enough to support our college years as well as elementary, middle, and high school?
15 mins are up, I probably won't be doing a suicide next week.

Greetings

First OFFICIAL post for my temporary blog for my english class. I am really excited to start this assignment because I enjoy blogging (although not in great detail) and this is one of the first few times I've used the internet to interact in class. Thank you Ms. F! For those of you who don't know what いちご　の　ケーキ means, in direct japanese translation, it means strawberry cake. It may seem kinda corny, but I wanted to do something out of the ordinary. And one can not pass up this wonderful type of cake.

note: My original first post is with my teacher at the moment. When I have time, I will get around to retyping it onto this site.