My Life in a Blog

This week was a very short week in class. Our topic this week was Transgender and to be completely honest, this unit changed my viewpoints on everything that we have discussed. At the start of this unit, my views were very conservative and I wasn't very open to new ideas. However, after hearing how much aggression and hate these kids had towards them, my mindset completely changed. No kid should ever have to come to school not feeling safe, or have to stay home because they are afraid of being bullied or having rocks thrown at them. Kids in today's society are just so cruel and heartless towards anyone who is different. Regardless of one's sexual orientation or desire, kids are still kids, and they shouldn't have to feel not wanted and abandoned in a public setting. I have never really looked at the negative implications until now, and now that I have, I feel so glad that I was able to learn something new.

This past week in class we started to discuss the topic of femininity. It was actually quite funny because a majority of our class is females, we only have about 5 boys in the whole class. But after talking about femininity and hearing everyone's point of view, I was quite interested. To start the week, we read a couple articles discussing the importance of women. one article showed how vital the women really were in a small town. It was kind of weird for me to read that article because it talked about how the men couldn't handle doing all the extra curricular activities with the kids; however, in my family, my dad does all that stuff with us. My dad is the parent who is super involved in my life, takes me to sporting events, drives me to my practices, to work, to everything. He also takes my sister to her hangouts and school. My mom works as an engineer so she doesn't have the time (or interest :) ) to come to sporting events with us or to take us to practice. My dad is t...

This week in class we started to discuss the topic of gender. We decided to focus on masculinity first. When I googled masculinity, one of the first topics that came up was a masculine/feminine test, which actually surprised me a lot. Who has the time to take masculinity tests?? But when i searched images, this photo was the first one to pop up. In today's society, masculinity is associated with how bulk ans big you are, how many sports you play, how deep your voice is, how much money you make, and most noticeably, how in control you are. Everyone in today's society is taught to believe that the man should be the alpha of the house and should be able to provide for the female. However, in some cases I believe this to be absurd. If the man is in between jobs and is struggling to make ends meet, I should be able to pay for my meal or even pay for the whole date. This honestly makes me so upset because sometimes I really want to be independent and pay for my bill but the boy t...

There has always been a time in  our lives where we have felt that our teachers have been too hard on us. However, that is nothing compared to how the children are treated in China. This week in class we wrote a synthesis essay regarding the educational system in America. For me, this week the topic at hand was easy. I believe that the educational system we are in today lacks discipline. According to Source A, teachers in China push their students constantly and force them to put time and work into their assignments. Although this strategy is on the extreme side, it proves to be effective. Looking at their test scores and achievement levels, China has students that are prospering and thriving in today's economy. I really liked reading articles about this and getting another outlook on the world around me.

Last week in class we continued our discussion on education. One article that we read that truly shocked me was the article on the new third grade law. The newly developed law requires all students to take a reading proficiency test to establish whether or not they are ready to move on to the 4th grade. I always knew that students were behind in Elementary School but I never thought they could be held back a couple years for not performing well in ONE topic. My sister actually was a slow reader in Elementary School but she started to practice everyday and worked with my parents a lot and she is now one of the best readers in her class. I do not believe that holding students back will serve them any good. However, I agree that students should take a test to see where they are at. This will therefore give teachers an idea of where the students are and what they need help on. The new law establishes after school help, summer reading camps, and one on one personal tutoring to help further...