Blog 10

The article that I chose to analyze was one about religion and school. The article was about introducing religion back into the classroom, and also about why it would be good to keep it out. Since both sides of this topic have already been addressed I am going to choose the side that I believe is right. I personally believe that religion should be reintroduced back into the classroom. I think that it is very important for students (even if they do not believe in a religion) to learn about different religions. Honestly for this topic it is pretty hard to build a logical standpoint because the topic itself is based completely around non factual ideas. The only logical point I can think of is the fact that almost all of history has happened because of religion. Almost every war ever fought has been based on religion and the wars that are fought today are based on religion. On an emotional standpoint it would clear up a lot of ignorance in our world today. Many Americans in today’s society have a basic idea but are not educated in their religion or others. Now obviously if they wanted to learn about their religion they could just attend church or a privately run religious school, but not everyone has access to that. They would not have to do that if public schools were willing to start a new class dedicated to the teaching of religions. It would also bring a lot of joy to people who really want to and enjoy studying religions without it being biased. This is the perfect topic to talk about ethically because religion is pretty much completely  based around ethics. I think if public schools had a class that taught about religion most students would be able to understand all the different parts of religion that tie into ethics. An example would be how since the radical Islams are doing bad stuff, their are some students who believe that all Muslims are bad and should not be allowed into our country.  This ties back into the idea of helping with ignorance as well.

Debate topics

My topic for the debate happened to be the school uniforms controversy. The position I received for the topic was the con side, which is against wearing school uniforms. The pro side would then be for wearing school uniforms. My personal position on this topic is being against wearing school uniforms. I think that wearing school uniforms would put an end to a lot of the individualism and diversification that makes America great. It puts yet another limit on the student’s choice in this already limiting society. I don’t know a whole lot about the topic without searching it on google but I know the basics about it. Obviously I know that there are plenty of schools that utilize school uniforms, and that some schools believe it helps improve students grades. I also think some schools believe that some schools think it will help some students with bullying but there is no proof of that being the case. Students who get bullied because of the clothes they wear will probably get bullied regardless of whether or not they are wearing a school uniform. A quick google search of “School Uniforms Debate” will bring up a bunch of pages of pros and cons listed for have school uniforms. From a logical standpoint the school uniform would wreak havoc on the students or parents bank account. The back to school shopping is a time that all parents dread because it usually means spending tons of money on new clothes, but if students could wear uniforms that wouldn’t happen. Right? Of course it would, school uniforms usually cost anywhere from one hundred dollars to two hundred dollars. One of the biggest ethical issues with school uniforms is religion. Some students won’t be able to wear the uniform because it might clash with the clothing that they are supposed to wear for their religion. A big emotion that ties in with the school uniform policies is anger. There is always students who deliberately disregard the policy and continue to wear what they want anyways.

Blog 8

This poem is honestly probably the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to understand in my life. I just can not put two and two together when trying to decipher what everything means. My initial reaction to the work is pretty confused. I understand that the poem is based around a character who is going through a pretty tough time, and that he has low self-esteem. Other than that though I just can not pick up anything that is being talked about in the poem. I have so many questions about poems in general but for this one specifically I have a few. First question I have is are the stanza’s supposed to lead into each other or are they each just filled with information only relatively connecting them? In the last stanza does he realize that he is worth something? What do all of the allusions used mean? Personally when I read this poem here is what I think it’s about, I believe that the poem is based around any person in society whether it is a rich elite or a poor beggar. Having listened to the song “Hotel California” I know it is based around dark ideas (Addiction or some people think hell). This leads me to believe that this poem is based around a person going through a tough time in there life. The person is going through such a hard time that they have given trying to get a better life. The character understands that their life sucks but they just suck it up and do not do anything to better themselves. “Hearing the sirens singing–I do not think that they will sing to me.” This quote lets me know that the character also has low self-esteem because he thinks that he is not even good enough for this evil creature to eat him. I believe towards the end of the poem that the character ends up realizing that he/she is worth something. This is because in the last stanzas of the poem is talks about being strong and that his dream was wrong. I think that there are only five important allusions in this poem and they are, “Eagles”, “Stuck in Thoreau’s quiet desperation”, “Hearing the sirens singing–I do not think that they will sing to me”, “The stage is set; now time will see: To do to don’t but never try. We must go on, we must be strong”, and lastly “To sleep perchance to dream as dreamers lie – And realize late my Dream was wrong”. These were important to me because these were what led me to realizing what the poem was about.


So far, my experience in writing poetry has been quite difficult. It’s very hard for me to understand how all the forms work and stuff. When it comes to rhyme scheme I am pretty good at writing those out and being able to rhyme the ending words. One of my biggest problems as of right now when it comes to poetry, is figuring out how to write in a quatrain or pentameter. When it comes to reading poetry, I have just as difficult of a time identifying certain aspects of the poem. I have a huge problem trying to hear unstressed and stressed syllables. Once again I have no difficulty hearing the rhyme scheme in the poem. When reading the poem I usually have a difficult time figuring out the stanza form as well. Personally for me, free verse seems a lot easier to write but a lot harder to read over any other form. I could be writing it wrong but to be completely honest I pretty much have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to writing or reading poetry. Like I was saying earlier, I am pretty good at writing with rhythmic intent. Rhyming the last words of the stanza together just comes so easily to me. Overall poetry has always been one of my most disliked things to to do and talk about in English classes. Writing in stanza form is easily the hardest thing for me to do right now, it is a serious challenge along with figuring out the syllables. After writing my own poem I would still stick with stanza form being the hardest thing for me to follow. Knowing what I want to write about and them putting it in rhyming form is was not as big of a challenge for me.

He lied. She cried. He died.

I chose this short story to be the base concept for my story. I think that it will make a great war story and a pretty easy on at that. The idea that I have in mind is for a man named Tim and his wife Cherry to be living in present day America. President Trump has put us into political and economic despair and we’ve just put been put into WWIII. Tim was drafted to fight in WWIII but he lies to his wife because he knows it will break her heart. Right before he leaves he gives her a note explaining about him being drafted. I thought of the idea because right now in history class were talking about the American Revolution and a lot of husbands got drafted and died in the war. In addition to that I don’t think that it is very hard for most of us to imagine a WWIII happening, and being in economic and political despair. I personally think that this story is pretty much realistic fiction because in my mind it’s very possible for all this to happen. Originally I thought about making a comical short story with lots of laughs and jokes. The first short story that I picked was, “Well I thought it was funny”, but the idea of a sad story captured my thoughts afterwards.  The characters were originally going to be a group of friends that all lived near each other in a small town who would just do stupid things. The more I thought about it though the more I started thinking of typing a war story about a man who ended up befriending two of his military comrades. The setting remained the same throughout the development of my story because I like the idea of basing this story in present times. 

Fair week blog

This fair week has been a pretty intense one for me for a bunch of reasons. I have been begging my mom to let me get my permit since the day I turned 16 way back in April. Finally after the six months of me begging and doing extra chores and stuff she finally allowed me to get my permit. So I have been driving since last Thursday and let me tell you, I am awful! In my mind I never thought driving could be as hard as it is. I have a hard time paying attention to signs, keeping a constant speed, and I can’t tell you how  many people iv’e cut off already. My mom claims to have anxiety issues, which personally I don’t believe, and I was so bad at driving at first that she now refuses to get in the car with me. So my step-dad has been teaching me these past couple of days, and my driving has seriously improved. I have been putting in the time and effort to get to know the vehicle that I am driving, and it is seriously paying off. I can now drive at a constant speed, and I am exceptionally good at paying attention to all the signs I drive past.

Other than all of this fair has been relatively boring. I only went like three times this year because its the same stuff over and over again. On top of all that one of my friends just happened to be grounded for the entire fair break, so that really sucked since I couldn’t hangout with him.  My other friends were all busy with other things, so I just kinda did stuff by myself. I skateboarded a lot over the break and I landed a lot of really cool new tricks.


Week 2 notes

I am going to start off by describing my second week of school compared to the first. The only notable difference so far is the amount of work, but that is fairly normal so no complaints on my end.

When it comes to the elements of a short story notes, there were many notable differences that I would say strengthened my understanding of the terms.  First off, setting is a very obvious thing to know when it comes to understanding a story, but talking about character reveal within setting was pretty new for me. Another thing that was discussed during the notes was a complicating factor. Of course I already knew every good story needs a complicating factor, but I never thought about it until we went over it. A term that was completely new to me was catharsis. The term identifies the emotional bond between the reader and the characters in the story. I have never heard of a good book where there was no connection between the reader and the characters. This is a key term in making a good story and I am glad that I learned it through the notes. When it comes to climax it seems the majority of the time it is a peak climax, but I learned that some stories will have what is called a plateau climax. Stories that have a plateau climax tend to be horror stories, because they draw out the most exciting parts. Lastly the term “unity” was a new one for me when it comes to a story. It basically means that all the elements have to come together in order for it to be a good story.

I can not remember the name for what the term is, but it is when an author uses the same idea for multiple stories while only adjusting minor factors. That term applies for the stories I am reading right now. The razorland trilogy (actually pretty good books) written by Ann Aguire. The only problem with them is that the same exact thing keeps happening over and over again.Image result for razorland trilogy

First week of school thoughts

So far my week had been pretty normal. This is my first year taking college courses, but they have been pretty relaxed up to now. I have to take my first AP history test today and I am just really freaking out over it. My other college course is CAD and that sucker is pretty hard. From the very first day we have been cranking out work. My other classes up to this point though have been relatively easy and little to no work. A major adjustment for this year is my lunch. I’m in lunch seven and there are way to many people in that lunch. Last year I was in the first lunch and there was barley anybody, so its been a pretty major adjustment. One thing that the school really messed up on this year was only having two lunch checkout things. The lines to pay for our food get pretty fat and it’s honestly ridiculous. I was just informed that I failed my first AP test indefinitely. That’s a pretty major set back for me right now and it’s pretty depressing. Through watching the slide shows I learned that Elise wants to be a prison guard, and I find that to be really cool. I am supporter of women’s equality and I think Elise taking charge and joining the work force is really cool. Right now my favorite video game would have to be UFC2. I’m sure everyone knows what UFC is but if not it’s the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It’s a major organized fighting sport and the game is just absolutely amazing. You can create your own fighter, and since I’m huge into wrestling, my character is of course is a wrestler. My dude is an absolute animal, like he goes hard and I beat people up hardcore. That’s why UFC2 is currently my favorite game.