Change The World- Blog Post #8

     Immigrants want so much to be a part of our society does it even occur to us that maybe they could bring something to it? I think it's wrong that immigrants are trying so hard to be us and have us accept them. Isn't our country supposed to be land of the free? Aren't we supposed to be the country to accept people no matter where they come from? I think it's wrong that any immigrants have this midset of 'I am going to americanize my baby' I do not think it's right. I think they should be able to speak their language freely but learn english so they can communicate with others. I do not think it is wrong that immigrants come and bring something to our culture. Our culture is made up of a whole bunch of countries putting together idea's anyway. That's what happened when we colonized America.
     For all those international students out there I encourage you to bring something here. I encourage you to bring your traditions, ideas, and traditions and introduce them to America. I love to learn about different countries. I love to learn about the differences between us and how we were raised. The differences about our government and yours. I like to learn about your traditions and holidays. I think everyone can learn something positive and new if they would just listen to others it might change them; make them more grateful for the things we have here and open their eyes more. For someone who hides themselves in a different country and doesn't try to express where they are from and how different it is there from where they came from, can be wrong. People are supposed to learn from each other. We are supposed to make friends and tell them all about where we came from. It is fun and entertaining.
     Someone who hides, doesn't wonder, or ask questions doesn't understand the point of life. They don't understand why they are here and the point of travel. St. Augustine said, "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." The things you miss out when you don't travel is immense. So go out and do things. Go out make a difference, listen, and change the world one trip at a time.

"There are no foreign lands.

It is the traveler only, who is foreign"

Robert Louis Stevenson

Blog post #7

     Many people look at another person and think, that person is fat or that person isn't a good person or that person is a jerk or brat. It's because of how they look and what they wear, I tend to associate a boy not worth talking to as a skater or a brat as a girl who happens to be a cheerleader. I have done this so often with many others by my side. I have also been wrong on many occasions and have made a good friend.
     How many people does one know that have been guilty of thinking they were brat's and then upon meeting them, turned out to be an amazing person? I have many. But what's sad is how many more could one have? How many friends would one have if they hadn't seen the people like that? It's a question that could go unanswered or a question one could find the answer to.
     Sometimes the friends that are made or the people that are met aren't worth having around but other times they are worth more than anything in the world.

So how many friends can you make?

What is a Book to You?

     In the book Patterns for a Purpose I read an essay called Never Do That to a Book it was about how different people love a book. Let me tell you the type of person I am when it comes to how I take care of a book and what kind of reader I am.
     I think some of the worst things you can do to a book is hold it from the bottom while you read, fold the corner in to mark your place, and to flatten the book open so that the binding has a crease down the center of it. I am a booklover. I love to read books and I am not opposed to writing in them (partially because my dad does) but to bend and ruin a book I absolutely DO NOT agree with. You are not supposed to hold the door open with a book or use it as a coaster for your drink. However I am not opposed to reading a book in the bathtub or at a pool, because if something happens it was either my accidental doing or someone elses. The point is it can be an accident but you should not purposefully ruin a book.
     That is the kind of reader I am. I like to take care of my books and if something happens then something happens. I can recall a memory through the sand in a book or the water that left the pages wavy or even a nasty black spot on a page that used to be a bug. Books hold memories for me and if I purposefully ruin them like that then there are too many memories to remember.
     I believe one thing the author said in here and that is "Just think what courtly lovers miss by believing that the only thing they are permitted to do with books is read them!" That is so true because there is a greater purpose to books; they hold memories. They hold sacred stories and symbols that are just lying there waiting for someone to pick them up and not just read them but find the meaning behind it; find the symbols. A book is something that should make us all think and wonder about the world. But, you don't have to destroy one in order to do that.
     I believe books are supposed to be cherished and loved, not destroyed and beaten.

Worms

     My experience with a science school fair was not as exciting as the author's, but I will tell you what happened. It was the day before the science fair projects were due and I was still doing research. I had all the information I needed and all that was left to do was put it in a binder and on a science board. I got third place.
     Now my science career has not been as successful as you might think. In my Biology class (which I got a C- in) we were dissecting WORMS. I HATE worms. What you do first is get a worm. The second step is to stretch that nasty, disgusting, and slimy thing out and pin it. The third step is the most exciting. This step is the step that you get to cut the worm! YAY!! I didn't touch it. I found that cutting a worm down the middle is even worse than holding one (and that's pretty bad). After that wonderful step comes the fourth one; take the sides of that nasty worm and pin them so that you can clearly see the insides. That was NASTY let me tell you. Then the fifth step you mess around with insides until you find what the teacher has said for you to look for.
     That wasn't the best experience solely because I cannot STAND worms. So if that ever happens to you do what I did and let your partner do all the work!

Writing response to "Untouchables" and a little on "What is Povery?"

     Homeless what do we think when we hear that word? Some of think I feel bad for them, they are disgusting, or they need to go. Kozol takes us on an emotional journey as we read his essay. Kozol first starts in the perspective of he homeless people and we start to feel pity for them, but it doesn't really start until we realize how they are treated. Kozol then  takes us into the perspective of people who have jobs, people who have families, and people who have homes with warmth to go back into. Kozol tells us how those people treat them and what they do to the homeless to get rid of them it's terrible and awful and then you wonder how a human could be so discriminent against people.
     Kozol says that the homeless is kind of like the rejected waste of scociety. Think about it, if we throw a peice of trash away we don't think about where it will go it's just gone from our minds and we don't have to worry about it anymore. That's kind of like the homeless we build homeless shelters or we just try and take care of the problem by putting them in jail or ridding them of their 'homes'. They leave our minds for awhile but the homeless always keep coming back. So we try and get rid of them using worse and worse tactics but they just keep coming back, just like the trash. It is always there and it just keeps coming and coming and it never stops. Thats what I think Kozol is saying when he says that.
     As we keep trying to get rid of them we start to hate them and think of them as annoyances that have to be thrown away; we start to scorn them. We scorn them so that they know they aren't wanted and we are angry at them. Anger is a secondary emotion which means there is a primary emotion connected to it and I believe that primary emotion in this case is fear. It may be because we are afraid of the diseases they carry or that they are just pretending to be homeless or that maybe they became homeless due to lack of funds and they don't try to get a job. But I think what scares us the most is they might steal from us or it might be that it's a reminder of what could happen to good people too. They might lose their job and become homeless also. So if they get rid of the homeless then it means there is no possiblity of becoming homeless.
     Kozol has a way of writing that definitely moves our emotions because he gets us thinking about how this situation could be better treated and how we as people need to be more understanding. Through this paper as we read it we can connect to it emotionally and if Kozol didn't write his paper like that we wouldn't think about how awful we can be toward humans. At the end of his paper he leaves with an incomplete ending pretty much saying that we have the choice to end it however way we want. We can keep going the way we are going or we can try and understand.
    Our attitudes toward the poor and our attitudes toward the homeless are awful we have pity for them, but is that enough? Will that really help them? We think oh it's their fault that they are there but I think they already know that. I think most of them realize the mistakes that they've made but they can't or they don't know how to go back. Our attitudes affect this. All they need is jobs. I'm sure 90% of them are willing to get a job but they've just lost all hope because maybe they've tried and tried and they just don't see any reason for it anymore. We could help them get back on their feet whether it's driving them somewhere or helping them get a job, but then at the same time I get where the middle class or the upper class are coming from. They are disgusting. What if they get me sick? What if they steal from me? What if..? What if...? There's too many what if's. It depends on you it depends on if you are willing to take that risk or not.

My Narrative Essay Will Be About....

     Whitnie Beal. My best friend in fourth grade and now she is my friend. We did everything together. She taught me how to burp and everything like that. I'm not going to tell you everything because of the fact that I am going to write this in a paper, but I will tell you an experiance we had together. 

     The turning of a tireswing, the back and forth motion or circular; it made you feel as if you were flying! Me and Whitnie loved that feeling we liked the feeling of being free. Our voices would ring over the playground as we sung primary songs and just songs we made up or picked up from music. We would always be on the tireswing and that is all we ever did, but then it changed. Whitnie liked a guy I don't remember his name I don't even really remembered what he looked like all I know is what we did at recess changed when Whitnie liked him. 

"Come on Dolores just play football with me," Whitnie had said.

"Okay!" I said more because me and Whitnie were always together and not because I liked football. It was so boring. I stood out in the cold wet feild waiting for somebody to make a mistake and decide to throw the ball to me and fortunately they didn't. So I stood there and moving around so as to make it look like I actually wanted to be there. It was one of the most miserable games I have ever played but I did it for Whitnie. The next day Whitnie asked me again and I said yes with reluctancy. Then the next day she asked again and I said "No." 

     That was our first fight. Actually that was my first fight ever. It wasn't fun, but we got through it and I learned an important lesson. I learned that friendship can outlast anything, and I learned that if you can forgive the other person and get through that fight your friendship is stronger than before. That is what I learned. 

     That is just a small introduction to my friend Whitnie and our experiances together. I will share a different one in my paper but this one was just a small experiance that had a big influence on me and taught me something that couldn't have been taught any other way. I love Whitnie and we are still friends, we have had our uphills and downhills but that is what made us better friends and I love her for that.   

Responding to chapters 4 and 5

     Writing. We should all know how to do it by now and we should all know how important it is to your success in college, but do we really know how to write? In these chapters it builds on the idea of how to put your ideas into your writing. I learned what a personal response was and what it's purpose is. I never thought a personal response could be for the engagement and discovery of what you are reading or that you have to back up your idea's with facts even though it's a personal response.
     Some other things that help you in your success in college is how to write a summary. When you summarize you are taking the main points of whatever you are reading and re-writing them to your best ability. But I learned that when summarizing you are NOT supposed to change the writing at all; no adding other thoughts or ideas of what you think makes it better, and also facts. You are not supposed to add facts that you have found to add to the writers summary or make it better.
     I think my favorite thing that I liked in the reading was learning about description. Something I liked that they said on page 120 in the book, is that if you write description carefully and not add too much but not too little it can show the power of words. I liked that a lot because I have never considered description as power, and that it is one way we can create feeling. Also one other thing that really struck me was what description is used for. When we use description it creates feeling for your reader and I think the reader is more likely to connect to it then if he/she was reading a history or text book because they can connect to it emotionally. Just like a lecture. In my history class my teacher lectures us using a powerpoint but on them he has only pictures there may be a few words but mostly pictures and it really helps him illustrate what he's saying verbally and writing on the whiteboard. For the first time in my life I am actually learning something in a history class because he is using description through pictures. I can connect with it emotionally, and I have realized the things that I remember have made me think, want to learn more, and connect to it emotionally.