China's Cram School

        China's Cram School

         
       Even though some kids are not a big fan of school, they still go because it will help them be successful in their future life. The article, “China's Cram School” by Brook Larmer, talks about a test named Gaokao taken by 9 million students each year. This test is the only thing that matters to get admission to a Chinese university. Since this test is at such high stakes, it puts a lot of stress and pressure on the students which makes them study at extreme measures. The schools also work to help their students do their best on this test by making harsh rules so they can stay focused on their studies and nothing else. But even though everyone is working hard for grades some kids are at disadvantages because they are rural students. It is not fair that the Gaokao test can determine the lives of many students because those students have different amount of wealth and are from different locations which can effect their education.

         It is not fair that the Gaokao can determine the lives of the students that take the test because the student come from different families with different amount of wealth. The article, “China's Cram School” explains Yang Wei's, a senior, studies for the Gaokao saying, “... had spent the previous three years, including weekends, stumbling to his first class at 6:20 in the morning and returning to his room only at the end of his last class at 10:50 at night....his mother, who lived with her son near the school The rent on their tiny room was high, rivaling rates in downtown Beijing.... Yang's father is a peach farmer in a village 45 minutes away; his mother quit her garment factory job to support yang in his final year of cramming.” The Larmer says Yang's dad is a peach farmer and her mom is a factory worker. This means that their family is not very wealthy. And because they are not wealthy they have to live in a small but expensive house because it would make it easier for Yang to get to school. But Yang's parents aren't the only one that has to struggle because of money. The author explains that Yang goes to school to study for 16 hours and 30 minutes a day without coming back home until the end of the last class. Since he isn't wealthy, he cant afford a tutor that can teach him at home. That is why he had to stay in school for more than half the day, everyday of the week, for three years just because of this one test. For Yang, there was no other option but to take the test. But in the other hand, the Larmer explains how wealthy students experience the Gaokao test saying, “Many wealthy families are simply opting out of the system, placing their children in private international schools in china or sending them aboard for an educations.” The students that are in the wealthy families don't have to go through what Yang and his family had to do. They don't have to live in small rooms so they can get to school faster. They also don't have to study really hard, everyday for years. Their parents also don’t have to do hard labor in factories or farms. Because they are wealthy they don't even have to take the test. Their money can buy them into private international schools or put them in schools in other countries with less strictness in their education. Therefore, the Gaokao test is not fair because out of the millions students, there are wealthy kids that can easily avoid this one test while the less wealthy kids and their parents have to struggle,stress and make sacrifices for it.

        The students that are taking the test are also living in different locations and living environments that can also effect the fairness of the Gaokao test. As Larmer talks about villages in the article, he explains, “Rural student are at a severe disadvantage. Villages like Yuejin, where Yang is from, have poor schools and few well trained teachers.” Rural students are from places in the countryside and people work in farms there. The people and the location is not very wealthy. Which means the schools are also very poor and they only have a few good teachers. They also probably don't have the supplies the teachers need to teach accurately because of the poor wealth. And because the schools lack good teachers and supplies, the students are not learning the material, that is needed for the Gaokao test, so well. Some kids can try to learn in better locations like Yang Wei but based on his experience, him and his parents had to struggle for that chance. But then the author goes on to explain city students saying, “Wealthy urban families can hire private tutors, pay for test prep courses, or bribe their way into the best city schools.” Since there are wealthy students living in the urban locations, or cities, the location is also very wealthy. And because of the wealthy location, it has very good tutors that the rich students can get. The wealthy city also has good teachers and supplies that can be used in test prep courses that the students can also pay for. The author explains that the students can bribe there way into schools. If they are trying to bribe into the schools, the school in the city must be really good ones. In conclusion, the Gaokao test is not fair because the rural students taking the test have less resources for education than the kids living in the city.
          But besides the unfairness of wealth and location, there are schools, and even the government, that really help their students for the Gaokao test. Larmer explains some school rules saying, “Maotanchang stepped in to fill this need. Located in Anhui province, two hours from the nearest city, the school prides itself on eliminating the distractions of modern life. Cellphones and laptops are forbidden. The dorms, where half the students live, have no electrical outlets. Dating is banded. In town, where the rest of the students lived, mostly with their mothers in tiny partitioned rooms, the local government has shut down all forms of entertainment.” Larmer informs that the school is a away from a city so it must be a rural area. And we know rural areas don't have all the right supplies to educate students. But even though, the schools still tries to help the students focus on their studies. As the author continues to say, the school bans any source of entertainment like anything that has to do with electricity and even social events like dating. Even the local government would help to keep the students focused by shutting down any form of entertainment outside the school and dorm. But even though these strict bans are there to help all students, they can lead to problems. Larmer explains the stress of students because of the Gaokao test saying, “Despite it's importance, the exam is coming under fire in China. It's critics say it stifles creativity and puts excessive pressure on students. Teenage suicide rates tend to rise as the gaokao nears. Two years ago, a student posted a shocking photograph online; a classroom full of students hooked up to intravenous drips to give them the strength to keep studying” The students know that the Gaokao is an really important exam and already think about it a lot. But when the schools and local government take away all forms of entertainment, that makes the students worry about the test even more. And yes, it keeps them focused but it also over stresses them because all they can do is study and over think the exam. This stress and pressure is a serious matter because it led to high rates of teen suicide. It also makes they students do extreme study techniques as Larmer explains in his article The ban of entertainment also effects the students mentally because since they are studying a lot, the students are not expressing any creativity as they would have if they had a source of entertainment. To sum this all up, the Gaokao test can be fair because all schools help their student try to focus on the exam but this can also cause a lot of pressure and stress on them.
        How much money the students have and where they live is all different which makes the Gaokao a unfair test. The Gaokao is similar to tests in America like the SAT but the Gaokao test is much more important. The students in China and SAT both study hard for the test but almost all schools in America have a lot of good teachers and the right curriculum. In China there are many rural areas compared to America which don't have the right teachers for education. This is why the students in China are more dependent on themselves than the students in America.  

Hunger Games and 1984

          Sometimes your biggest enemy can become your best friend at the end. The books, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and 1984 by George Orwell, expresses themes about relationships. In The Hunger Games, a 16 year old girl named Katniss from district 12 is sent to the Hunger Games which is entertainment on television for the the people and government called the Capitol. Peeta Mellark is also sent to the games which is a problem for Katniss because of past events. They both are trained and taught by their mentor, Haymitch to try to survive and win in 74^th Hunger Games. The book 1984, is about a lower class middle aged man named Winston living in London that doesn’t agree with the laws of the higher power, The Party. The Party limits the privacy of the people by watching them with devices like the telescreen and thought polices. But even so, Winston goes on to breaks rules several ways including engaging in a relationship with a fellow rebel name Julia and by trusting a man named O'Brien to build on his rebellion. At first, Katniss has doubts about having any relationship with Peeta just like Winston did with Julia, but when they both do have one, Katniss is more loyal in her relationship than Winston is in his relationship.

          In 1984 Winston can't like Julia because she might be part of the Party but once he does start a relationship with her it is not a strong one. This is shown when Winston catches the dark haired girl, Julia, looking at him and the book describes the moment saying, “The sweat started out on Winston's backbone. A horrible pang of terror went through him.... Why was she watching him? Why did she keep following him about?.... Quite likely her real object had been to listen to him and make sure whether he was shouting loudly enough.....It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander where you were in any public place....” But then when Julia gives a note to Winston saying she loves him, the book explains Winston’s thoughts, “ He thought of her naked. Youthful body, as he had seen in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them....A kind of fever seized him at the thought that he might lose her....” At first, Winston sees Julia as a big threat and worries about being near her. He assumes the worst about Julia by saying she was watching him and is part of the Party, trying to gather up information from him. He also describes her like a telescreen which is controlled by the Party and sees and hears everything you do. This tells us that Winston is very cautious of what he does and his surroundings, not trusting anyone if he doesn't know them specifically. But, as soon he sees the note saying Julia likes him Winston is immediately excited. Everything about him being cautious and her being a spy is forgotten. Not only is his cautiousness gone, but his sexual desires start to process in his mind. Also in this moment, Winston doesn’t even know her name his “Julia” and doesn't seem to care either. From this we can infer that Winston desire for love and sex overcomes the awareness of his safety from the Party. But his love for Julia is proven fake when Winston is in room 101 with his biggest fear which O’Brien explains saying,”These starving brutes will shoot out of it like bullets.... sometimes they attack the eyes first. Sometimes they burrow through the cheeks and devour the tongue”....The mask was closing on his face...But he had suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just one person to whom he could transfer his punishment.....”Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!” If you truly love someone, you would do anything for that person if you had too. But Winston actually endangered his lover, Julia. But we can understand the situation and how he was faced with rats which he is very much afraid of. But when Winston figured out that O'Brien would be satisfied if he says to put Julia in his spot, Winston didn't hesitate and said it loud and clear right after the idea crossed his mind. He also unnecessarily added to the effect by saying punishments like “tear her face off'”. This tells us that Winston probably loved Julia because of his sexual desires and not because of Julia and her thoughts on the capitol . Even after, when O’Brien put the rats away from his face Winston didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt or sorrow. This can mean that Winston never experienced loving or being loved which also says he hasn't experienced guilt when you betray someone.

         But however, in the Hunger games Katniss also has doubts on liking her fellow tribute, Peeta, but once she does, she is loyal to Peeta than she is to herself. As Peeta insists on helping their drunk mentor Haymitch, Katniss infers this act in her mind and thinks, “The idea pulls me up short. A kind Peeta Mellark if far more dangerous to me than an unkind one.. kind people have away of working their way inside me and rooting there. And I can't let Peeta do this. Not where we're going. So I decide , from this moment on, to have as little as possible to do with the bakers son” But then as Katniss is treating Peeta's wound in the near end of the Hunger Games, they have a conversation, “Yes. Look, if I don’t make it back----” he begins. “Don't talk like that. I didn't drain all that pus for nothing” I say. “I know. But just in case I don't----” he tries to continue. “No, Peeta, I don’t even want to discuss it,” I say, placing my fingers on his lips to quiet him. “But I---” he insists. Impulsively, I lean forward and kiss him, stopping his words.” First of all, when Peeta was being nice, she immediately assumed he was trying to trick her and make her soft. She also explains that when people are nice to Katniss, she becomes soft towards them and is able to get to her mind. We can assume that her quick inference to Peeta's kindness was influenced by previous events that happened in her life. She also explains how she cant let her weakness bring her down, “not where were going”. This tells us that Katniss is a strategic person that understands her weakness and plans things out way before it was gonna happen. At first when Katniss was focusing on trying to win, one of her goals was to try to stay away from Peeta. But in the middle of the actual Hunger Game, the conversation shows how Katniss cared about Peeta. When Peeta kept assuming he was gonna die, Katniss kept saying he won't in a caring way without having in mind that she had to be romantic with him. Also, when she kisses him, she did it to make him stop talking but she did it impulsively, meaning she didn’t think it through. This two acts tells us that she was being caring and loving on purpose and not because she had to for the viewer' entertainments. But, Katniss then shows her loyalty to Peeta when they find out there can only be one winner to the Hunger Games, “No” he says “Do it” Peeta limps toward me and thrusts and the weapons back in my hands. “I can't,” I say. “I won't” “ Do it. Before they send those mutts back or something. I don’t want to die like Cato,” he says. “Then you shoot me,” Peeta is still very weak and would be an easy kill for Katniss. He even insists and tells Katniss to kill him so she can be the winner. But Katniss is to much of a loyal friend and a lover that she won't. And not only did she refuse to not kill Peeta, she even asked him to kill her. This is saying that her relationship with Peeta is so strong that she would give up her life, and also her sisters and mothers life because they cant live with out her, so Peeta would live.

          Both Katniss and Winston had a problem with liking their pair, Peeta and Julia but when they start a relationship with their pair, Katniss was more devoted in her relationship with Peeta than Winston was in his relationship with Julia. Katniss had different reasons for liking Peeta than Winston liking Julia. Katniss from the start knew Peeta was a nice person but soon found out more like his strength and humor. Winston never really goes into Julia’s personality and almost only talks about her youthful body and looks. And this was the reason why that both relationship started the same but Winston’s relationship ended with distrust and betrayal while Katniss continued strong and holding hands.

"Those Winters Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz"

         “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa's Waltz”

          Fathers will care for their children even though they might not get any gratitude back from their kids. In the poems, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, a speaker tries to explain their attitudes on how their dad treated them. In “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker describes a Sunday morning and what his dad does for him so he is warm. While the speaker's father in “My Papa's Waltz” treats the speaker in a fun way to keep him interested and not bored. The speakers, in “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa Waltz's" relationship with their fathers are similar because they both care about the speaker but differ because the way they care make the speaker feel differently about their fathers.

          The speaker's father in "Those winter Sundays" works hard to care for the speaker but the speaker is oblivious to what his father does for him . The poem explains the fathers work saying, “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from the labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering breaking. When the room were warm, he'd call....” The speaker recognizes what his dad does while he is sleeping. His father wakes up everyday, including Sundays, in the blueblack cold which is early morning, before the sun rises. He goes out in the cold even though his hands hurt from the work he did in the weekdays. This tells us that he had a tough job and had to work hard. The speaker hears the cold splintering and breaking which indicates the father made the rooms warm and the cold is going away. But then, the poem expresses what the speaker does while the father works saying, “...and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing and chronic angers of that house, speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?” While his father woke up early to make the fire for the speaker, the speaker doesn't even acknowledge it but instead acts like he lives in luxury and wakes up slowly and gets dressed, probably for church because its Sunday according to the first stanza. The speaker then continues to say that he has a normal conversation with his dad, the person that warmed the rooms and cleaned his shoes. This seems like he is having some guilt and regretting for talking normally to him and not thanking him for what he had done for him as a child. The father wakes up early everyday and works hard for the speaker but the way he cares is too oblivious for the speaker at a young age to understand how important his father is.

          But in the other hand, the father in "My Papa's Waltz" shows his love for the speaker by having fun with him after a stressful day and the speaker understands that. The speaker in the poem describes what his father does saying, “The Whiskey on your breathe could make a small dizzy; but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy. We romped the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance could not unfrown itself....The hand that held my hands was battered on one knuckle.” The speaker explains that his fathers breathe smelled so bad with whiskey it can make him dizzy. This can mean that he has been drinking a lot and for a reason. The dad probably drinks alcohol because of the kind of work he does. When the speaker goes on to say in the third stanza that his knuckle was battered , we can conclude that he works with his hand and that it might be a hard, stressful job which makes him want to have a drink after. But even though he is stressed, the father plays with his son by messing the kitchen up because he wants to keep the speaker happy. The poem also explains that the mother is not happy with the playing but the father still plays so the speaker can have some fun. The poem then explains the speakers night saying, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed, still clinging on to your shirt.” The father seems to be dancing a waltz, a three step dance, with the son from stanza two to four in the poem. He beats time on the speaker head with dirty hands which means he count the beats to his dance by tapping his head with his hands. And again, we see he has dirty hands which gives us another hint he works rough with his hands. But after that the father dances the speaker off to bed but the speaker clings on to his father which means he doesn't want to go to bed. This means the speaker shows affection because he realizes that the father still played with him even under the stress he was in. The father cares for the speaker by having fun with him which is clear enough for the speaker to show some love back.

          In conclusion, the father in "Those Winter Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz" both show that they care about their child but just in different ways. The father in "Those Winter Sundays" showed it in a quiet way which made the speaker realize that good deeds done by his father at an older age. While The father in "My Papa's Waltz" shows he cares in a more active way with the speaker which makes the speaker understand his love and acknowledges his father at the moment rather at an older age.

1984

1984

            “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” When something has great power and force it can emasculate a person’s mind and thoughts at appoint where anything the greater force says is accepted and believed. In the book 1984 written by George Orwell, it is about a lower class middle aged man named Winston in the nation of Oceania. The ruling figure is “The Party” and the leader and face of it is Big Brother. The party is constantly watching Winston, taking note in everything he says and does in an attempt to catch any rebellion acts or thoughts, which is the worst crime of them all. But Winston strongly disagrees with what the Party wants and attempts a series of rebellion acts including a relationship with a girl named Julia. But the consequences for this are much different than what Winston expected, which was death. 1984 communicates that the Party has power by showing their manipulation of knowledge and privacy.

               The Party expresses their powers by manipulating the people’s knowledge by lying to them.  On page 72, as Winston goes through a children history books he sees a text saying, “In the old days, before the glorious revolution, London was not the beautiful city that we know today. It was a dark, dirty, miserable place where hardly anybody had enough to eat and where hundreds and thousands of poor people had no boots on their feet and not even a roof to sleep under….But among all this terrible poverty there were just a few great big beautiful houses that were lived by rich men….” This explains that the Party described history of london as place worse than how they are in the present. But based on how Winston described London in the beginning of the book, it sounds almost the same. Winston described a great pyramid like house and how there were only three of them in London with the other old 19^th century, broken down houses. This sounds very similar to the text in the history book which explains how there were only a few big beautiful houses compared in the terrible poverty. The Party is trying to make people think that things were better than how it was before, even though nothing changed. This also tells us that the people didnt know much of the past and can’t compare their surroundings of their present with the past. The Party also conveys their power of manipulation by lying about the amount of rations the people get. On page 58, Winston hears what flowed out of telescreen and says to himself, “It has appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank big brother for raising the chocolate rations to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week.” Winston later explains that the rations of chocolate were 30 the week before. This interprets how much the people are gullible and forgettable about things. The Party first tells the truth about reducing the rations but they knew how desperate the people are for anything. So saying they raised the ration to 20 was an easy manipulation to make them so happy and grateful that they forget what they said a day before. The party’s power is so great, they can make someone forget and believe in a day. This concludes that the party has the power to control a person’s knowledge of history and their amount of rations they have.

                Not only can the Party control a persons knowledge of things but it can also control your privacy. On page 3 Winston explains a television-like device called “telescreen” saying, “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well heard.” This describes that Winston and everybody else are required, by the party, to have a telescreen in their homes. This means the party wants to know everything the people are saying and doing. The party also has thought polices which are the people that are getting the information from the telescreen. If the thought police see you doing anything the Party doesn't allow, they will report you to the Party. We can infer that the people don't complain because they recognize the Party is the high power and anything they do correct. The Party also invades peoples’ privacy by manipulating children to believe whatever they Party wants and become spies. On page 24-25, Winston thinks about his neighbor’s kids and explains modern children. “Nearly all children nowadays are horrible….they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the disciplined of the party…. “child hero” was the phrase generally used – had overheard some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the thought police.” This is saying the party knew that kids would believe a lot of the things people say. So they made them believe in their policies and taught them not to rebel. The children then became into human telescreens. They are usually in all homes, they notice what their parents are doing and saying, then tell the thought police if they did anything wrong. We can tell the party really thought this through because they chose kids knowing that they are too young to fully understand the consequences of turning in their parents. From this we can figure the Party has power because they are able invade privacy by using telescreens and manipulated kid spies.

            1984 reveals that the Party can control people’s understandings and their amount of isolation because they have power. I believe the higher power in our society, the government; have some similarities and differences with the Party. For one, they both are able to control a lot of the aspects of our lives. Both the Party and our government give us knowledge of the world through the media and books that are extremely bias which make us think a certain away. But freedom is an issue with the Party, as they give very little of it to the people. While our government has the constitution which gives us rights like freedom of speech and the right to bare hands. But our government can change if it falls in the wrong hands (a bad leader) and possibly follow the steps of the Party in 1984.  

Should Kids Play Competitive Sports

In Science Daily, it explains a couple researches on playing sports and one of them concludes, “Taking part in sports is good all round for young teens: physically, socially, and mentally.” This means that sports can benefit teens in school, when they are with friends or just wanting to stay fit. And these benefits can help when they are adults and are experiencing more serious situations. But there are some parents that are hesitant to put their child on a team to play sports. This is because there have been many reports on the news that there are more kids that are getting injured on the field. But what these parents don't know is that there are ways to avoid these injuries. And these ways are techniques that can be easily taught by parents and coaches before the kids play the game. These safety measures can reduce hard hits and horrible injuries like concussions. And when the injuries are reduced, parents will see that sports can keep their children healthy and can also teach important lesson that they can be used on and off the field.         
             Competitive sports can benefit young teens by helping them stay healthy physically but also mentally and socially. In the article “Should Children Play Competitive sports?” Lisa Bigelow says, "Even though most young athletes won't compete at the collegiate or professional levels many are more likely to continue exercising as a way to stay fit and mentally awake. Athletes generally stick to healthy diets, are less likely to smoke or engage in destructive actions and tend to maintain these behaviors.” Lisa Bigelow is explain playing a sport can help you stay healthy now but most importantly it can help you stay like that later even if you’re not as committed in a sport as you used to be. This is why kids like teens should play a sport. They would learn to exercise and eat right and it will become a habit. So when they get older, laziness will not be able to keep them away from exercising and eating right. Lisa also explains that playing sports keeps kids away from smoking and bad behavior. Not smoking gives you a low risk of lung and heart disease which means a longer and happier life. It's always a benefit to have good behavior especially for school, maintain a criminal record and social reputation. Also supporting this idea is Springer Science in the article “Young teens who play sports feel healthier and happier about life.” They said, “Our findings suggest that sports team participation may enhance school connectedness, social support and bonding among friends.” This is concluding that if children are happy but also doing well in school playing a sport, parents should definitely let their children play. It also says sports help kids have a closer relationship with their friends. It’s always fun to hang out with friends but its better when all your friends are really good ones and know a lot about you. Sports are beneficial to keep you physically healthy for your entire life but it also helps to keep up good grades and a good social life.
              Competitive sports teach lessons to teens that can help them outside of sports. Joseph De Sena explains the importance of competitiveness taught in sports saying, “The balance is how to take instinctive desire to compete and fuel it while also teaching how to recover from failure. It's impossible to do that when everyone gets a medal....The sooner kids know winning matter, the better.” She is explaining being competitive is always healthy. When you have the mind set to win, it always pays off. In sports, they show this by saying the winners gets the trophy and are called the champions. When these kids that played sports grow up, they will continue to think like this and try to do their best. They understand in adulthood the winners get the condo and are called the boss. In the article “The Value of Sports” it explains another important lesson taught by playing sports. It says, “Youngsters can also learn how to deal with failure—not winning the competition or accomplishing particular athletic goals. They can be taught that any failure is just a temporary setback from which lessons can be learned in order to improve and have a better chance of success the next time.” This is saying that kids will fail at some aspect of sports but they will learn how to cope with it. This idea can carry outside of sports like school or just playing a fun board game. When they lose or get a bad grade, they won’t have a mental break down but instead try to move on and do better the next time. Sports can teach us lessons that can help us in both our child and adult hood. 
              On the other hand, competitive sports can be dangerous to young underdeveloped teens. Jane E. Brody explains this in his article saying, “Every year more than 3.5 million children under 15 require medical treatment for sport injuries, nearly half of which are results in simple overuse.”Jane Brody uses the word “overuse” which is serious injuries that hurt the bone, ligament and tendons which can affect growth. This is an understandable reason why parents are hesitant to let kids play. 3.5 million is a big number and it can be anyone’s child. No one wants to see their own or another child get hurt or even maybe die on the field. And when they get hurt playing the game, the medical treatment can be expensive which can affect the whole family financially. But there are ways to avoid all these problems that can happen because of an injury. Kate Carr explains safety tips on an interview saying, “... the parents, coaches and kids get together and set the ground rules. Say that we're going to teach kids to speak up when they're injured so they don't hide an injury. That we're going to work to prevent injury by educating kids and coaches in a better fashion. And that will put an end to late hits, those dirty hits that just don't belong in the game.” The game can be a lot safer for the kids if parents and coaches talk to them about it. Parents are the ones that are scared that their child will get hurt. So if the parents themselves teach the kids how to be safe, they will feel more insured and less hesitant to let them play. And all they have to do is give them some rules like no late hits or no dirty plays. And if the kids understand that these rules are for the safety of them and others, they will listen to their parents. These small little lessons before the game can decrease the statistic of 3.5 million kids going to the emergency room every year. Sports can be a fun game that can be beneficial to young teens only if the game is played with safety first.
              Sports can give you knowledge of lessons and how to stay fit in many ways that can be used throughout your life but only if you play it. If more kids play sports the safe and fun way, it can make a positive effect in our future. Yes, a current problem in sports is that many children are having serious injuries on the field that can affect their lives off the field. But there are rules and safety gear while the kids play which really help. The parents and coaches can also help by setting ground rules like no hard hitting and to speak up if they have an injury. There will always be injuries in the game but if everyone including the parents, coaches and teens always keep safety in mind, we can definitely minimize the amount of injuries these young teens are having.

Bibliography

·         Bigelow, Lisa. “Should Kids Play Competitive Sports?” Healthy living. Demand media, n.d. Web. 15 January 2015

·         Springer Science + Business Media “Young teens who play sports feel healthier and happier about life.” Science Daily. Science Daily, 14 October, 2010. Cwww Science Daily. Com/releases 201. 15 January, 2015

·         Sena, Joseph De. “Crave Competition, Its Good For You: Column.” USA Today. Gannet, 12 October, 2013. Web. 17 January, 2015

·         “The Value of Sports.” Come ready or never start. N.p., 12 March, 2009. Web. 17 January, 2015

·         Brody, Jane E. “For Children in Sports, a Breaking point.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 May, 2010. Web. 17 January , 2015

·         “How children and teens can avoid sports injuries.” How children and teens can avoid sport injuries. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 January. 2015

Building Bridges

“Building Bridges”

       Kids do what they see or learn from the society around them. What children learn stick with them throughout their lives and can affect them in both good and bad ways. In the short story “Building Bridges” by Andrea Pinkey, a teenage girl named Bebe has a passion for engineering and wants to work on the Brooklyn Bridge. She has all the qualifications to go but there is only one thing that is holding her back. Bebe is raised by her grandma, Mama Lil who needs to sign the permission paper for Bebe to work on the bridge. But Mama Lil thinks engineering is not a suitable job for a girl and only white men are able to do it. Throughout this short story, Bebe tries to convince Mama Lil to sign the permission paper. Andrea Pinkey, through Mama Lil and Bebe, shows the reader that a person’s experiences shape their opinions, knowledge, and ultimately their behavior.

       One thing that we all learn as children is how to dress. The styles change as the years go by. On page 18 Mama Lil s insults Bebe like usual, “How are you ever gonna land a decent man with them chunky arms and those hoochie cut T-shirts that put your navel on parade? No self respecting seventeen year old should be letting it all hang out like that.” Mama Lil points out about getting a decent man. She seems to have a different way of dressing that she thinks would attract men. Also she specifically observes that Bebe shows a lot of her body. Mama Lil thinks that girls Bebe’s age shouldn’t be doing that, which can mean Mama Lil didn’t do it when she was that age. Mama Lil continues to judge Bebe saying, “Them natty braids you call dread locks look like the fright ‘do of a zombie”. Again, Mama Lil thinks that Bebe’s style is off. Her braids aren’t good enough for Mama Lil. Probably because it doesn’t fit her requirements of finding a decent man as she says in her quote, “how are you gonna land a decent man…” We can conclude that Mama Lil’s opinions tells us that she was raised to dress for the men and not to show off a lot of her body. We can also analyze that Bebe was taught differently than Mama Lil. She seems to not care how she looks because “she lets everything hang out.”

       Some kids grew up going to school and loving it; other kids go and can’t wait to go home. But there are also children that don’t even go to school. On page 20 Bebe explains her plans saying, “The project would last a summer, pay good money, and help me get to college where I wanted to study engineering.” Bebe is very committed to her dream of becoming an engineer. She understands that to live in this world, you have to have a job that pays money. We can tell that the society she was raised in taught her how to live and that studying hard can fulfill your dreams. But then, there are kids that weren’t taught these things. On page 20 Bebe says describing Mama Lil “Also, Mama Lil couldn’t read or write very well – I read most of her mail to her, and helped her sign her checks – and she hated to admit it.” Reading and writing is the most important things learned in school. If Mama Lil didn’t know how to do either, then we can say she didn’t have an education. Also Mama Lil hated to admit that she couldn’t read or write, maybe because she was afraid of what she didn’t know. This means that she regrets not going to school or she didn’t even have a choice whether to go to school or not. We can agree that Mama Lil’s and Bebe’s knowledge can tell us if they grew up with an education.

       In our society now, there isn't any racial segregation to be worried about. We can eat and work wherever we want, no matter our skin color. But, it seems to be a problem in the time period of this short story. On page 21 Mama Lil states her argument to Bebe saying, “Whatever you call it, it’s a white man’s work. You ain’t got no place messing with it. We should stick with our own kind, Bebe – colored women trying to cross the white man’s line is asking for trouble.” Mama Lil is being very cautious about what she thinks are rules. This tells us that she understands the consequences of breaking rules and following them is important. Also, she says that Bebe needs to stick with her own kind and its dangerous if you don’t. She is implying that she believes black and white people are different. Mama Lil was probably raised with segregation around her to know that it’s dangerous for black people to do what white people do. But then Bebe thinks to herself, “I knew from the get-go that if I hoped to become an engineer, my road would be lonely and hard. But I wanted to build bridges more than anything.” She explains that she understands just as well as Mama Lil that becoming an engineer would be difficult. This gives us a clue that she was also raised to know about segregation and differences for black and white people. But when she continues her claim, she expresses that becoming an engineer is important to her. And the problems that come with her journey don’t matter as long as she is doing what she cares about. From this, we can infer that Mama Lil’s beliefs tell us that she was taught about segregation and was raised to be careful of what she does. But Bebe beliefs tell us she was taught about segregation but was raised to follow her dreams no matter the problems that come with it.

      Andrea Pinkey describes in this story that a person’s perspective and comprehensions of things can tell a lot about what they were taught as a child. Societies around them while growing up can teach them things too. This is probably why Mama Lil and Bebe have different understandings of the world. Mama Lil was growing up around a society that is two generations away from Bebe. In that time, things could have changed and Bebe could have learned different knowledge of life than what Mama Lil learned. But change can be a good and bad at times. If society never changed, the world would be a different place from how it is now.       

My Name

My Name

    

      My name was passed down from my grandpa from my dad’s side. My parents really loved the name. So when my brother was born they named him Abul Husan Farvez. He turned out to be the opposite of my parents’ intentions. Then 8 years later when I was born they named me Abul Hasan Farhad. They were hoping that I was going to carry on my grandpas will. That was how my brother and I got the same first name.

      I believe my name is at its best in Spanish. You see, my favorite color is a blue. And my name sounds like the color blue in Spanish, azul. Abul and azul sound very alike. Abul, blue and azul all have 4 letters and has a “u” and “l” somewhere in all three words. This feature makes me think that my name fits very well with my personality.           

      I think the length of my name is reasonable. A lot of people make it longer by saying my name Abdul the first time. But when they say it correctly, it feels like me. It’s not too long or short. It’s average and simple. I’m pretty average in everything and I keep things simple. Also, I like things in order. So I love how my names go in order numbers wise. My first name has 4 letters. While my middle name has five letters and my last has six letters.  

      They meaning of my full names are really weird. Abul is a Persian name and it means king or prince. But my last name, Farhad, means servant or a person that works for others. Those two names don’t fit together at all. But get this. My middle name, which is a guy’s name, means beautiful and pretty like a female. Remember, its total a guy’s name so I don’t know how that makes any sense. But like I said before, it’s a weird name. And I believe that fits me because I’m a pretty weird person.

      So, even though  I have the same name as my brother or that I might be part girl, it doesn't change the fact that it’s true and it all fits me (besides the girl thing). And I rather have my name to be alright and true than interesting and false. That’s why I wouldn't change my name to anything else.