Article Summary

The maid idea of this article is how many people are so caught up in their own little world that they don’t notice what is going on with the people around them. For example when 15 year old Bart Palosz killed himself, with a shotgun after his first day of sophomore year, everyone including his family and friends found it as a surprise. They didn't notice the signs he had been sending, especially through his Google account. He sent various messages regarding suicide. In one of his texts he said "I notice if I sound sad I'm normal and if I act happy, cheerful, and 'normal' there is a high chance that I will try to poison myself, cut myself, commit suicide, or jump in front of a truck :)." Yet no one even tried to help him or ask what was going one. Another example is when his sister said that he was just going through a "teenage phase" and that if the school had addressed the bullying issue at school, it might have saved his life. His family didn't pay attention to him when they stole his new phone or would come home with bruises. They would have never thought that their teenage son would take his own life.

      In addition the author states how Bart was sent to the emergency after being severely injured by a bully at school. The bully smashed his head into a metal locker causing Bart to need stitches. The school claimed it was an "accident" and no one questioned it. This also supports the main idea that everyone lives in their own little world, because maybe if someone, even just one person, would have been there for him or noticed what was happening to him Bart would still be here.

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/connecticut-teen-committed-suicide-bullied-years-friends-article-1.1444213#bmb=1

In my opinion standardized test don't test the student's abilities. I can talk from experience that even when you know all the information on the test, once you get the test it seems like you forget everything. You can spend hours studying and studying, getting help from your teachers and still bomb a test. Tests don’t show everything to have learned. They don’t show the hours of homework you have spent, or the days of studying. Standardized tests just show your ability to remember certain information.

Teachers always say how important it is to remember that we all learn different, but since we all learn different it also means we all show our intelligence differently. I don’t think bubbling in answers, captures the student's abilities. Jeannie Fulbright says “If the purpose of learning is to score well on a test, we’ve lost sight of the real reason of learning.” I completely agree with her. We get so caught up with just getting through the test and passing it, we don’t actually care about what we are learning. We look for the easiest way to remember things and coming up with shortcuts. We don’t think about what it means or why we are learning about it, all that seems to matter is “will this be on the test.” Is that what learning is about? Taking a test can be compared to living life. We can’t just go around life looking for shortcuts and just trying to get through each day. We have to learn from our mistakes and work on them, not just forget it when we think its no longer something to worry about.

Tests are usually a big part of our grade and can sometimes even determine our grade. I don’t think it is fair that everything comes down to one test. Some students are great test takers and can do a test with no problem. Other students can’t prove their abilities by filling in lines or bubbling answers. Theres other ways to prove one’s intelligence. Doing a hands on activity or doing something orally works for many students. Many things are changing to make an individual’s learning better, why not wrap our heads about this. Testing doesn’t have to be filling in lines or bubbles in a certain amount of time. A student’s ability shouldn’t have to be shown through a standardized test. 

JLC Lit. Analysis

“They are frightened...they see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese...they see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters...they see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.” No generation is ever the same because everything keeps changing. The way people think, the things they do, is never the same. In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the differences between the generations pull the mothers and daughters apart, yet pulls them close together at the end. Their ideas and points of view regarding subjects like love and family manifest how unalike the two generations are. Along with the subjects of love and family come different branches like marriage, divorce, and child rearing.

To begin with, the mothers of the Joy Luck Club,were mostly a part of a broken marriage. For example An-mei Hsu never stood up to her husband and now her daughter Rose is struggling with the same problem. In China An-mei didn’t divorce her husband because she didnt dare stand up to him, so she led a long life of suffering. Now that her daughter is facing the same problem, An-mei actually advises her to stand up for what she wants and not let her husband Ted walk all over her. In An-mei’s generation divorce was rare and unacceptable, unlike in Rose’s generation where divorce was common and sometimes necessary. In this case Rose’s divorce with Ted brought the mothers and daughters together. Rose finally understood her mother’s decisions and why she did what she had to do to protect her.

Later in the novel we encounter Lena St.Clair and her mother Ying-Ying. Both Ying-Ying and Lena marry a man they don’t love, and took over their lives. Ying-Ying’s marriage was alike to Lena’s marriage because both Harold and Clifford St.Clair make decisions for them and control their lifestyles. When Ying-Ying married she knew he was a bad man, due to her ‘superpower.” She married him because she believed it was her destiny. Lena also married a bad man and her mother knows that. Lena’s marriage to Harold pulls her away from her mother. “Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve. Her eyes looking back do not reflect anything. I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body... but when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since.” In the quote Ying-Ying is saying how she sees Lena is in a fail marriage, but yet doesn’t stand up for herself. During Ying-Ying’s marriage she lived in a time where men ruled over the women, but in the present time with Lena’s marriage, women have a voice and can do what many women couldn’t do before.

When it comes to children and how to raise them, everyone thinks they know best. The four mothers in The Joy Luck Club each had their way to raise their daughters, but the result was mostly the same. The daughters didn’t know much, if anything, about their Chinese heritage. In an attempt to give their daughters the “american dream” the mothers forget to teach their daughters the importance of their pasts. Once they want to teach their daughters of Chinese customs it is too late. The girls are now American and don’t show interest in learning about their mothers pasts. “But listening to Auntie Lin tonight reminds me once again: My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other’s meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more.” For example in this quote Jing-Jing is saying how far apart her and her mother are due to their cultural differences.

Throughout the novel we see how the different generations handle situations differently, but yet get similar outcomes. The mothers think they know what’s best for their daughters, but end up leading them to commit the same mistakes they made when they were young. Each generation is different, which leads us to believe we have nothing in common with our elders. Although we are completely different, if we don’t learn about our parent’s mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.

Leopard Man 9-15

9. Tom Leppard is called "Leopard Man" because he has spots all over his body and acts like a leopard.

10. Feys thinks people with tattoos and piercings are just asking for attention because they cant get attention in a positive way.

11. Leopard Man is different because he is standing up for something he believes in.

12. Leopard Man lives in an isolated cabin in the Scottish wilderness.

13. Society fear people who are different because it's something they don't understand.

14. "Fitting in" is the world's most dangerous psychological disorder. People suffer from alcoholism, eating disorders, panic attacks, and depression because they just want people to like them.

15. Leopard Man is so happy because he isn't under the pressure of society.

Latin Roots #6

1.corp(or): body
2.cred: to believe; to trust
3.cur(r), curs, course: to run; to flow
4.dic(t): to speak; to say

Word List

1.benediction-the invocation of a divine blessing, as at the close of a religious service, a blessing or a state of blessedness

2.concourse-running or flowing together; a broad public walkway or hallway; a crowd or throng

3.concurrent-occurring at the same time; meeting or acting together

4.corporal-related to the physical body

5.corpulent-very stout; fleshy and obese; fat

6.credibility-the quality of being believable or trustworthy

7.credulity-the (naive) willingness to believe too easily without proof

8.cursory-done in a superficial or hasty manner

9.dictum-an authoritative saying or maxim

10.incorporate-to form into one body or functioning unit; to combine several different things into a whole

11.incredulous-not believing, skeptical, or doubt

12.indicative-a characteristic of or very much like; suggestive

Greek Drama Questions

1. Some of the prices given for choruses of worshipers were a bull or a goat.

2. There were fourteen thousand spectators in an open-air theater of Dionysus.

3. The masks amplified the actors voices.

4. Antigone was suspenseful to the audiences because they knew things the actors on stage did not.

5. The Shepard had to leave the infant lonely with hi ankles pinned together.

6. The riddle said by the Sphinx was "What creature goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"

7. Oedipus's kids are Polyneices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene.

8. After Oedipus's exile Polyneices and Eteocles alternated years ruling.

9. When someone died the familes would take turns beating the dead persons's face and ripped their hair out, while they sang and wailed.

Antigone Quick Write

            Between the chaos and devastating time in my life I had to move forward acting as if I was happy my uncle was now king. Just a couple months ago everything seemed like it was finally falling into place. Of course it was too good to be true.  Now my parents had lost their minds due to the “Anti-gone” machine and both my brothers were dead. They had killed each other in battle. To make things worst my uncle declared that my favorite brother Polyneices is to not be buried, while my other brother is buried like a hero. It’s so unfair when the real hero was Polyneices. My only family left is my sister. Its such a shame that she is too afraid of my uncle to do anything. There is one thing I am sure of, I can’t let my brother pass on without a proper burial. I know he was left at the city dump, now all I have to do is find my way there and take him to the cementery. My plan would start the next day when the sun sets. I went about my day as normal and when I noticed the sun beginning to hide in the horizon I went back home. My close friend was already there waiting to take me to the city dump. We made quiet movements and tried to mix in with everyone. We passed what seemed like a hundred alleys before we got to the city dump. It wasn’t hard to find my brother there since we just followed the trail of footprints. It was a bittersweet moment seeing him. I knew that this was exactly what needed to be done regardless the consequences. Although the consequences were drastic and could possibly lead to me being arrested it was all worth it. My brother couldn't rest until he was buried. We managed to move my brother’s body from the city dump to the cementery, which luckily for us was pretty close. It was a struggle getting passed the guards, but we were finally in the cementary. We put my brother in the ground and I tried holding back my tears as we covered his body. This was it the final good-bye.