Most kids shudder when they hear the word “school”. Parents, on the other hand, can feel like they have become young again. In all fairness, as an adult you still have to understand that, generally, kids are not big fans of school. The same goes for kids having to understand that school determines their future. In the end, you shouldn’t try to dislike or like school, you should find a way to bend it to your liking. In my opinion, though, there aren’t just one or two problems with schools; there are many.
The first and main problem is that it starts too early. For most kids, it’s very difficult to be forced to wake up at seven in the morning. The reason I believe this is because kids are used to going to bed around eleven o’clock and waking up around ten o’clock’. Then when they have to go to school, they usually go to bed around 9:00 and then get back up at seven. Doing this makes them lose one hour of crucial sleep. If you told your teachers this problem they would just tell you to go to bed one hour earlier, but no kid wants to sleep at eight or nine.
Moving away from sleeping, let us talk about a different problem: lunch time. Now, I’m not sure about high school, but I do know that in the middle school you don’t have nearly enough time. It’s risky to bring a microwave lunch because you end up wasting half of the time you have to eat lunch warming the food up, and then another quarter to wait for it to cool down. After lunch time, you will get a lunch recess, which is so much fun when you are in the mood, but when you just want to stay inside and hang out with your friends, you can’t. The only options are to either go outside or to go to homework club. Even homework club is a time to be with your friends, but as soon as you say even one word, “SHH” get’s implanted into your mind by the teacher running homework club that day. Okay, you have gone through the worst of the school day, but there is still some classes left. It’s the worst when you have a test at the end of the day, because you just don’t have any energy left in you. You’ve been tuckered out from your last classes. You end up thinking about what you might do when you get home, which drastically lowers your mark. It shows you that even though the school determines your future, it’s not doing the best it can to help you maximize your potential, so how can schools expect students to do their best?
From what you’ve read, you probably think that I am against school. Truly, I am, even though I still enjoy it a little bit. There are advantages to going to school for students too. As I said before, school helps you decide what you do in the future. This is why your parents want you to go to school. My favourite advantage is that you can make friends. Not only can you see them at school, but you can meet up after school and have even more fun with them. This is why some kids don’t just drop out of school. This shows how nice it is to have friends. It’s worth going through all of the troubles of school, just to see your friends.
Kids dislike school, but still they will go to school to see their friends. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if they were to go for other reasons? By doing things like starting it an hour later or paying more attention to socializing and friendships, I believe school could be improved to become more enjoyable for students. This, in turn, would assist the students to enjoy school more and reach their maximum potential. This would require a joint effort between students and teachers, but I think it could eventually be reformed into a system that better-suits everyone.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Haiti
Recently, there has been an earthquake in Haiti (Alleged to be the worst disaster to happen on the Western hemisphere of the world), and I need to put this in some perspective. First of all, I will explain the statistics of the earthquake; which occurred on Tuesday January 12th, 2010. Then I’ll talk about how hard it is for them to receive help.
From what I’ve heard, approximately three million people have been affected by the earthquake, and 200,000 of those people actually died. A reason those numbers might be so high, is because the earthquake was a horrible magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale. Also the numbers might be high because the earthquake occurred at the capital which is Port-Au-Prince (the most populated area of Haiti). Amazingly, after the earthquake, there was also an unexpected amount of 33 aftershocks, most of them having the magnitude of 5 to 5.9.
People weren’t the only things that were affected. Most major landmarks were either damaged, or even destroyed, including: Presidential Palace (President René Préval survived), the national assembly building, the Port-Au-Prince cathedral, the main jail, and most hospitals! The main problem with these building’s being destroyed, is that we can’t get them back. We might be able to rebuild some of the buildings, but they will never have the history they used to. They won’t be amazing antiques anymore.
To have a real idea of what Haitians are going through, we have to imagine ourselves in their shoes. Not only did they experience a horrible earthquake, but they were one of the poorest countries in the world to begin with. The big problem with that is that they don’t have the materials or equipment to help them “heal”. Because of this, other countries are sending troupes over to help, but what ends up happening is that there is no easy access to the Haitians, and the volunteers don’t have the system to deliver necessities such as food and medicine. The reason why this is happening is because other countries aren’t allowed to go through the airport to deliver the help. You might be thinking “why can’t they just land outside of the airport?” Well, the reason why is because Haiti is such a small place, that there is no space for them to land.
To conclude, the way we can help is by delivering food and medicine, and by rebuilding their landmarks, even though they will never be the same. We need to help Haitians to rise above all of this misery and poverty. We need to help the children who are going to be the next generation of Haitians. We can’t fix the past, but we can make the future.
(Sorry, still can't make indents)
From what I’ve heard, approximately three million people have been affected by the earthquake, and 200,000 of those people actually died. A reason those numbers might be so high, is because the earthquake was a horrible magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale. Also the numbers might be high because the earthquake occurred at the capital which is Port-Au-Prince (the most populated area of Haiti). Amazingly, after the earthquake, there was also an unexpected amount of 33 aftershocks, most of them having the magnitude of 5 to 5.9.
People weren’t the only things that were affected. Most major landmarks were either damaged, or even destroyed, including: Presidential Palace (President René Préval survived), the national assembly building, the Port-Au-Prince cathedral, the main jail, and most hospitals! The main problem with these building’s being destroyed, is that we can’t get them back. We might be able to rebuild some of the buildings, but they will never have the history they used to. They won’t be amazing antiques anymore.
To have a real idea of what Haitians are going through, we have to imagine ourselves in their shoes. Not only did they experience a horrible earthquake, but they were one of the poorest countries in the world to begin with. The big problem with that is that they don’t have the materials or equipment to help them “heal”. Because of this, other countries are sending troupes over to help, but what ends up happening is that there is no easy access to the Haitians, and the volunteers don’t have the system to deliver necessities such as food and medicine. The reason why this is happening is because other countries aren’t allowed to go through the airport to deliver the help. You might be thinking “why can’t they just land outside of the airport?” Well, the reason why is because Haiti is such a small place, that there is no space for them to land.
To conclude, the way we can help is by delivering food and medicine, and by rebuilding their landmarks, even though they will never be the same. We need to help Haitians to rise above all of this misery and poverty. We need to help the children who are going to be the next generation of Haitians. We can’t fix the past, but we can make the future.
(Sorry, still can't make indents)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
“Should the movies be exact reproductions of books that they are based on?”
Most movies start from with a storyline which is told in a book or is told in a script especially written for the movie. Sometimes the movies are true and accurate reproductions of the book from which the story comes from or they are loosely based on the storyline told in the book.
Most movies are made from popular books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which in my opinion tends to butcher the book it copies, but I’ve gotten so used to that fact, it’s grown on me. It seems like it would be a very big challenge to tweak a story from a book to fit under a certain budget, or possibilities. Sometimes the storyline is too long to fit in one movie and the movie makers tend to alter the story or make a series of sequels which are becoming quite popular. I find it really nice to have movies made from a series of books. Especially when they start to get so suspenseful, wanting you to know what is going to happen next.
From the people I’ve talked to, most of them agree with me that the movie reproduction of books, tend not to be as good in quality as the books, although, there are some exceptions. The Harry Potter series was not only an amazing series as a book, but it was equally amazing as a movie series. It is also true that sometimes the movie version of a storyline becomes more interesting than the book which it is based on. There is a series of books called “A Series of Unfortunate Events;” I read the first book in that series a long time ago, and I wasn’t that big of a fan. A couple weeks after that, I saw a movie version of the book which caused me to get hooked as soon as my eyes had contact with it. I ended up going back and reading the entire series of the book.
An interesting question comes up when there is a remake of a book as a movie; “should one watch the movie first, or read the book first?” There is no right or wrong answer and people have different preferences over this. Some people get disappointed if the movie is not an exact reproduction of the book so they better see the movie first. Likewise, some might prefer not to take away the surprise element by reading the book first. My preference is to see the movie first and if interested, I will read the book. It also happens that after reading a book that I really love, I anxiously wait for the making of its movie knowing that watching it would remind me of the book that I enjoyed reading.
In conclusion, I believe that one should not expect that the movies be exact reproductions of the books and one should enjoy both forms of arts as they are.
(Sorry Indents Are Not Working)
Most movies are made from popular books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which in my opinion tends to butcher the book it copies, but I’ve gotten so used to that fact, it’s grown on me. It seems like it would be a very big challenge to tweak a story from a book to fit under a certain budget, or possibilities. Sometimes the storyline is too long to fit in one movie and the movie makers tend to alter the story or make a series of sequels which are becoming quite popular. I find it really nice to have movies made from a series of books. Especially when they start to get so suspenseful, wanting you to know what is going to happen next.
From the people I’ve talked to, most of them agree with me that the movie reproduction of books, tend not to be as good in quality as the books, although, there are some exceptions. The Harry Potter series was not only an amazing series as a book, but it was equally amazing as a movie series. It is also true that sometimes the movie version of a storyline becomes more interesting than the book which it is based on. There is a series of books called “A Series of Unfortunate Events;” I read the first book in that series a long time ago, and I wasn’t that big of a fan. A couple weeks after that, I saw a movie version of the book which caused me to get hooked as soon as my eyes had contact with it. I ended up going back and reading the entire series of the book.
An interesting question comes up when there is a remake of a book as a movie; “should one watch the movie first, or read the book first?” There is no right or wrong answer and people have different preferences over this. Some people get disappointed if the movie is not an exact reproduction of the book so they better see the movie first. Likewise, some might prefer not to take away the surprise element by reading the book first. My preference is to see the movie first and if interested, I will read the book. It also happens that after reading a book that I really love, I anxiously wait for the making of its movie knowing that watching it would remind me of the book that I enjoyed reading.
In conclusion, I believe that one should not expect that the movies be exact reproductions of the books and one should enjoy both forms of arts as they are.
(Sorry Indents Are Not Working)
Monday, January 11, 2010
What does all this mean?
What does all this mean? Well, it means that the world is overgrowing. “By 2013, a computer will surpass the capabilities of a human brain.” Amazing! It really doesn’t seem possible, because remember the old computers? Compared to today they are horrible. The first time I saw this video, I was astonished.
The world is becoming more advanced, and info such as a new computer, is like hearing that it’s time to go to bed. People email, blog, tweet, and use Facebook and MySpace a lot in our world, and we are becoming dependent on that. Wouldn’t it be extremely annoying if you just wanted to ask your friend if he is coming or not to a party by just texting, and you couldn’t? You would have to travel all the way to his house just to tell him six words? In the past, when your family told you that they are getting a television, you would go and brag to all of your friends. We have to learn that the world is spoiled. This blog is a gift; it’s how people share their opinions. Every new item the public is given is another step forward in technology. Well yes that does sound cool, but... It’s also another reason for people to expect more from the world.
At the end of the video, it talked about things such as how many babies were born during the process of the presentation, think about the amount of babies are born during the duration of you reading this post. Something I find really amazing is that I’ve heard a rumor that every 3 seconds a person dies; yet the world’s population is still growing! The population is nearing 7,000,000,000 people! That means 7 billion people asking for more perks for their life.
Throughout this whole letter, I’ve been itching to type this. The thing that bothers me the most, is that the world cares the most about receiving, not giving.
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