High School is generally viewed as a whole experience, consisting of many different parts. For example there is, of course the social aspect: friends, clubs, dances, parties. There is the political aspect: who wears what clothes, who is more popular, who gets to date the hottest guy or girl. And there actually is, what school was originally created for, the academic aspect. In high school there are many different classes and the choices students make in selecting these classes will effect where they fit in to the other two aspects that I mentioned, social and political.
Before freshman come to high school for the first time they are faced with a very scary book: the course syllabics, and even though they may not think much of it, this book can and will determine in a way how ones high school experience will work out. So the question is…. What classes do I take?
The first, and easiest classes to examine are the “required classes”. Required classes, are a set standard that everyone in ones grade has to adhere to. The required classes for a freshman at my high school were: Earth/Physical Science, English 9, Health, P.E. and some form of Math. These classes were generally and stereotypically easy, but students decided themselves weather or not to take them seriously. Even though I was a freshman there was a sophomore in my English 9 course, which, at first baffled me because I was only used to having classes with people in my grade.
The next kind of class were the fun classes and students had freedom in choosing them to go along with individual interests. These classes are called electives. Students at my school could choose to take “fun” classes to go along with their required classes. These classes included but were not limited to: Foreign Language, Physiology, Auto Shop, Robotics, Band, Drivers Ed., and Art. These classes were exciting to choose and gave students the freedom to express themselves in their own personal ways.
At my school, the next step is XL classes, or Honors classes. These classes were offered to freshman and sophomores and added no extra boost to a students Grade Point Average. These classes were for the student that wanted to challenge themselves, to be in classes with less disruptive kids who care about their education and to learn a little more than a regular class would give them the opportunity to. These classes showed not only that a student was a hard worker, but that they wanted to excel later in life and try hard at everything they do.
The last and hardest classification do classes is a class, followed on ones schedule by two letters that spark fear in the minds of every student. These classes are A.P. classes, or Advanced Placement classes. These classes are weighted, witch means that they give students extra points on their G.P.A. than other, regular classes. These advanced classes are challenging, stressful, scary at times, and very time consuming. Students who take these harder classes must have an amazing work ethic, dedication, focus and a mentality that is to never give up.
Through these different classifications of classes, students make a name for themselves. They decide weather they are going to float by wasting their time in classes they rant paying attention to, or weather they are going to work hard and general excel more in everyday life after high school.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Defineing "Racisim" and teenagers false use of it
During my freshman year my English class read a widely known and celebrated novel. This novel was John Steinbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men” is a standard for everyone in my district for every regular ninth grade English class to read. During this book, a story about George and Lenny the protagonists, tiring to obtain the American Dream. In there quest for this goal they encounter many hardships and a few interesting people. Basically, these two men are different from other farm hands of their generation, mainly because they have this dream and save their money instead of wasting it in bars or whore houses.
During the book George and Lenny meet a black man named Crooks. During the course of the story Crooks is called a “Nigger” often by other characters.
We were “popcorn” reading in class, which is where different people take turns reading aloud to the class. A quiet (white) girl in my class was called on to read and she read for a few sentences before approaching some dialogue which said the word “nigger” smack dab in the middle of it. She read the dialogue in a shaky voice and skipped the word “nigger” altogether. At first my teacher ignored it, but when she did it again he stopped her and told her she was aloud to say the word because that was the way the novel was written. When she skipped the word again a boy in my class, who was himself black stood up and told her that it didn’t matter if she said the word, that it wasn’t offensive and that it was ok to say it because that’s what John Steinbeck wrote. The girl ignored the boy though and skipped the word a fourth time before the teacher called on someone else.
At the time I was confused as to why she couldn’t just read what the book said, but now I see that she was embarrassed and offended by the word even though she was not black. She was uncomfortable saying it because it was a word the belittled the black man, the black person, it related to a shady time in every white persons past relatives lives that demeaned blacks as unequal to whites and she was embarrassed by it. By saying the word, in her mind she thought she was being racist, but in my opinion the word is just a part of the past. Sure, that time period before blacks became equal is at this time embarrassing for whites in this day and age. They are ashamed of their past, but the truth is, that part of our history is long gone and its ok to read the word from a book. We learn from the past and racism and inequality is a part of our past. We cant just ignore it.
The thing about racism in this day and age, is that there is really not that much of it. Racism, is a hard word to use because it is a heavy accusation to put on someone. In my experience, a lot of times my peers and teenagers use It wrong. In middle school a scene played about regularly and every time it made me cringe.
A teacher repeatedly told a black male in my seventh grade science class to stop talking and to be quiet. He was causing an obvious disruption and the teacher warned him again and aging to stop talking or throwing things in the classroom. My (white) female teacher decided that she had had enough and told him to go to A.D.P for the rest of the class period. A.D.P. stands for Alternative Day Program and is a place at my old middle school where teachers could send students as punishment for causing disruptions repeatedly in class. Upon my teacher telling this unruly student to go to A.D.P. he evidently stood up and said, “It’s only ‘cause I’m black.”
This happened regularly through out the year and once he even called her racist. That is totally uncalled for in my opinion and every time this student “pulled the black card” I wanted to stand up and say “No! Its not ‘cause your black’ its because your annoying and disruptive and if I disrupted class time then she would send me to A.D.P. too.” Though I never said this, always irritated me when he called her a racist. He didn’t use the word correctly and he used it as an excuse for his own poor behavior.
Racism, is a very serious term. Dictionary.com defines it as: hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
By calling someone a racist you are in a since calling them a hater of a different race. It alludes to the KKK who murdered innocent people because of their skin color. It alludes to Hitler and the Nazis who killed millions just because of their heritage, because they were different. By calling someone racist they are putting them on the same level as these horrible historical figures and I don’t believe they realize this. I think the average teenager or pre-teen thinks its funny to pull the race card, but its not, it’s a sign of immaturity and naivety.
The problem with calling someone racist is that it is a huge accusation. If someone is ratted out for being openly racist or falsely accused of being racist could get one fired from their job, ruin someone’s reputation and even ruin their entire life. Racism is not tolerated to any extent in today’s society and being falsely accused because of a stupid teenager can ruin the accuser’s entire life. The word “Racist” or “racism” is falsely interpreted by teenagers and pre-teens on a regular basis and they just don’t realize what the word really means or how serious the term really is.
When teenagers use the words “racist” or “its because I’m black”, even when they are joking around there is a way to misinterpret the conversation. There is a difference in making remarks that can be interpreted as racist in historical context and making serious racist remarks in a joking manor. Teenagers need to have a better understanding that the term is not to be taken lightly and makes teenagers sound immature and naive. In my opinion if teenagers want to insult someone they should go quote some shakeshere and stop sounding like idiots by making false accusations.
During the book George and Lenny meet a black man named Crooks. During the course of the story Crooks is called a “Nigger” often by other characters.
We were “popcorn” reading in class, which is where different people take turns reading aloud to the class. A quiet (white) girl in my class was called on to read and she read for a few sentences before approaching some dialogue which said the word “nigger” smack dab in the middle of it. She read the dialogue in a shaky voice and skipped the word “nigger” altogether. At first my teacher ignored it, but when she did it again he stopped her and told her she was aloud to say the word because that was the way the novel was written. When she skipped the word again a boy in my class, who was himself black stood up and told her that it didn’t matter if she said the word, that it wasn’t offensive and that it was ok to say it because that’s what John Steinbeck wrote. The girl ignored the boy though and skipped the word a fourth time before the teacher called on someone else.
At the time I was confused as to why she couldn’t just read what the book said, but now I see that she was embarrassed and offended by the word even though she was not black. She was uncomfortable saying it because it was a word the belittled the black man, the black person, it related to a shady time in every white persons past relatives lives that demeaned blacks as unequal to whites and she was embarrassed by it. By saying the word, in her mind she thought she was being racist, but in my opinion the word is just a part of the past. Sure, that time period before blacks became equal is at this time embarrassing for whites in this day and age. They are ashamed of their past, but the truth is, that part of our history is long gone and its ok to read the word from a book. We learn from the past and racism and inequality is a part of our past. We cant just ignore it.
The thing about racism in this day and age, is that there is really not that much of it. Racism, is a hard word to use because it is a heavy accusation to put on someone. In my experience, a lot of times my peers and teenagers use It wrong. In middle school a scene played about regularly and every time it made me cringe.
A teacher repeatedly told a black male in my seventh grade science class to stop talking and to be quiet. He was causing an obvious disruption and the teacher warned him again and aging to stop talking or throwing things in the classroom. My (white) female teacher decided that she had had enough and told him to go to A.D.P for the rest of the class period. A.D.P. stands for Alternative Day Program and is a place at my old middle school where teachers could send students as punishment for causing disruptions repeatedly in class. Upon my teacher telling this unruly student to go to A.D.P. he evidently stood up and said, “It’s only ‘cause I’m black.”
This happened regularly through out the year and once he even called her racist. That is totally uncalled for in my opinion and every time this student “pulled the black card” I wanted to stand up and say “No! Its not ‘cause your black’ its because your annoying and disruptive and if I disrupted class time then she would send me to A.D.P. too.” Though I never said this, always irritated me when he called her a racist. He didn’t use the word correctly and he used it as an excuse for his own poor behavior.
Racism, is a very serious term. Dictionary.com defines it as: hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
By calling someone a racist you are in a since calling them a hater of a different race. It alludes to the KKK who murdered innocent people because of their skin color. It alludes to Hitler and the Nazis who killed millions just because of their heritage, because they were different. By calling someone racist they are putting them on the same level as these horrible historical figures and I don’t believe they realize this. I think the average teenager or pre-teen thinks its funny to pull the race card, but its not, it’s a sign of immaturity and naivety.
The problem with calling someone racist is that it is a huge accusation. If someone is ratted out for being openly racist or falsely accused of being racist could get one fired from their job, ruin someone’s reputation and even ruin their entire life. Racism is not tolerated to any extent in today’s society and being falsely accused because of a stupid teenager can ruin the accuser’s entire life. The word “Racist” or “racism” is falsely interpreted by teenagers and pre-teens on a regular basis and they just don’t realize what the word really means or how serious the term really is.
When teenagers use the words “racist” or “its because I’m black”, even when they are joking around there is a way to misinterpret the conversation. There is a difference in making remarks that can be interpreted as racist in historical context and making serious racist remarks in a joking manor. Teenagers need to have a better understanding that the term is not to be taken lightly and makes teenagers sound immature and naive. In my opinion if teenagers want to insult someone they should go quote some shakeshere and stop sounding like idiots by making false accusations.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Overcomeing the Monster (HIgh school response to the Chem20 Factor)
Throughout high school there is a process, though not necessarily unintentional, of weeding people out. Only the strong, hardworking, and dedicated will become a success in life and students that take it seriously will make it far, while others will be weeded out through the process of high school itself. What is the ultimate goal? College.
At the start of high school students are thrown into a situation where they have to decide who they want to be in life. They decide, not always consciously, who they want to be as a person in their high school life. Students make this decision with the help of many smaller decisions that make up the big decision: who you are in high school. Who do you associate your self with? Do you do your work? What classes do you take? Who do you eat lunch with and walk to class with? What extra curricular activities are you a part of? These questions, and students answers to them have a big impact on who they will be as a person. This is where the weeding out begins. Students who make the right decisions to these questions will make it on to the next rung on the ladder of success, while students who make the wrong choices will be weeded out quickly. Students who will move on will be that much closer to the ultimate goal. But what happens to the students who are weeded out? They are on a much harder road now, that is hard to come back from, they are now further away from the ultimate goal then before they made their decisions.
During a students freshman year the classes are not painstakingly hard, a student may have one honors class, but nothing that requires a great deal of mental strain. How students do in these classes will be the next rung to climb. If students write these classes off as unimportant and do poorly in them then they will be weeded out, causing the pool of students competing for the ultimate goal to become a little bit smaller. But what does doing well in this classes mean? Grades. They are the main showing of how well a student is doing in class. So, to get good grades in a students freshman year sets them up to excel in the rest of their high school experience. It is hard, after all, to break bad habits, and getting bad grades in this curtail year can make it much harder to overcome the next rung in the ladder.
That next rung, or process of weeding out is finals. Finals are a do-or-die situation that can sometimes make or break a class. Finals, in my opinion are the first real pressure situation of a students high school career. Students hear scary speeches from their teachers regarding how “important it is to develop good study techniques” and scary phrases like, “twenty percent of your grade”. Both their grades and their chance of the ultimate goal begins to become a reality with the coming of their first final exams. How students prepare themselves and perform on these tests will teach them how to work well under pressure and how they will study and give effort on tests in the future. The ones who don’t work hard will again, get weeded out.
Sophomore year will come and go and with it will be more honors classes. Students who take these “harder” classes will extend their chances to not be weeded out, after all when the goal is more school in the form of college, the “smart kids” are the ones working the hardest and they show it through taking honors or XL classes. Slowly during this year students will begin to notice that they have classes with mostly the same groups of other students, this is because when you take more difficult classes you don’t get put with kids who have been weeded out, you are put with other students who are on your level and share the same goals of success.
Junior year, in my experience is the most highly dreaded year of high school and is widely known to be the hardest. For the first time the students, climbing the ladder to success, are faced with A.P. classes. These classes are different from any classes students have taken thus far. They are weighted and weigh more on a students GPA than other classes. A.P. classes are time-consuming and for the first time for most students they do as much homework time as time in a school day. Staying up till one in the morning making sure that everything gets done to at least a somewhat legible extent becomes the norm, and often students facing the monster that is Junior Year are seen scrambling to finish the last few problems of their math homework during lunch or in the class period before. The coffee cups become more abundant in the morning and the phrase “I’m exhausted, I was up until midnight doing homework.” becomes the norm. Junior year pushes students to their limits and students continue to challenge themselves. One A.P. class, two, three, sometimes four! It becomes normal to have two timed essays in one day followed by a huge math test and a project due. This is, in m y opinion the most prominent time for weeding students out. Its hard. Its exhausting. Its time consuming. Its frustrating. It’s the dreaded Junior Year and it cam make or break a student. They are still expected to keep up the good grades and some are truly pushed to their limits for the fist time. It is not uncommon to fall short. Historically 4.0 students are scrambling to hang on to B’s and C’s. It is the time of reckoning, the time of proving oneself. Colleges, after all only take the best. Students have to fight to stay alive against this monster of Junior Year and to not be weeded out. After all, when grades can make or break a person they have to work as hard as they can to meet the requirements of the demanding classes. By this time these students refuse to be weeded out. They want to achieve the ultimate goal, but only these who work the hardest, those who are fit to overcome the obstacles can truly make it. When the ultimate goal is college, success, then everything is on the line.
At the start of high school students are thrown into a situation where they have to decide who they want to be in life. They decide, not always consciously, who they want to be as a person in their high school life. Students make this decision with the help of many smaller decisions that make up the big decision: who you are in high school. Who do you associate your self with? Do you do your work? What classes do you take? Who do you eat lunch with and walk to class with? What extra curricular activities are you a part of? These questions, and students answers to them have a big impact on who they will be as a person. This is where the weeding out begins. Students who make the right decisions to these questions will make it on to the next rung on the ladder of success, while students who make the wrong choices will be weeded out quickly. Students who will move on will be that much closer to the ultimate goal. But what happens to the students who are weeded out? They are on a much harder road now, that is hard to come back from, they are now further away from the ultimate goal then before they made their decisions.
During a students freshman year the classes are not painstakingly hard, a student may have one honors class, but nothing that requires a great deal of mental strain. How students do in these classes will be the next rung to climb. If students write these classes off as unimportant and do poorly in them then they will be weeded out, causing the pool of students competing for the ultimate goal to become a little bit smaller. But what does doing well in this classes mean? Grades. They are the main showing of how well a student is doing in class. So, to get good grades in a students freshman year sets them up to excel in the rest of their high school experience. It is hard, after all, to break bad habits, and getting bad grades in this curtail year can make it much harder to overcome the next rung in the ladder.
That next rung, or process of weeding out is finals. Finals are a do-or-die situation that can sometimes make or break a class. Finals, in my opinion are the first real pressure situation of a students high school career. Students hear scary speeches from their teachers regarding how “important it is to develop good study techniques” and scary phrases like, “twenty percent of your grade”. Both their grades and their chance of the ultimate goal begins to become a reality with the coming of their first final exams. How students prepare themselves and perform on these tests will teach them how to work well under pressure and how they will study and give effort on tests in the future. The ones who don’t work hard will again, get weeded out.
Sophomore year will come and go and with it will be more honors classes. Students who take these “harder” classes will extend their chances to not be weeded out, after all when the goal is more school in the form of college, the “smart kids” are the ones working the hardest and they show it through taking honors or XL classes. Slowly during this year students will begin to notice that they have classes with mostly the same groups of other students, this is because when you take more difficult classes you don’t get put with kids who have been weeded out, you are put with other students who are on your level and share the same goals of success.
Junior year, in my experience is the most highly dreaded year of high school and is widely known to be the hardest. For the first time the students, climbing the ladder to success, are faced with A.P. classes. These classes are different from any classes students have taken thus far. They are weighted and weigh more on a students GPA than other classes. A.P. classes are time-consuming and for the first time for most students they do as much homework time as time in a school day. Staying up till one in the morning making sure that everything gets done to at least a somewhat legible extent becomes the norm, and often students facing the monster that is Junior Year are seen scrambling to finish the last few problems of their math homework during lunch or in the class period before. The coffee cups become more abundant in the morning and the phrase “I’m exhausted, I was up until midnight doing homework.” becomes the norm. Junior year pushes students to their limits and students continue to challenge themselves. One A.P. class, two, three, sometimes four! It becomes normal to have two timed essays in one day followed by a huge math test and a project due. This is, in m y opinion the most prominent time for weeding students out. Its hard. Its exhausting. Its time consuming. Its frustrating. It’s the dreaded Junior Year and it cam make or break a student. They are still expected to keep up the good grades and some are truly pushed to their limits for the fist time. It is not uncommon to fall short. Historically 4.0 students are scrambling to hang on to B’s and C’s. It is the time of reckoning, the time of proving oneself. Colleges, after all only take the best. Students have to fight to stay alive against this monster of Junior Year and to not be weeded out. After all, when grades can make or break a person they have to work as hard as they can to meet the requirements of the demanding classes. By this time these students refuse to be weeded out. They want to achieve the ultimate goal, but only these who work the hardest, those who are fit to overcome the obstacles can truly make it. When the ultimate goal is college, success, then everything is on the line.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Compreing and Contrasting
The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Claire is an urban fantasy for young adults set in modern day New York. At the beginning of the first book, “City Of Bones”, Clary, the main character or the protagonist is at a club called Pandemonium with her best friend, a boy named Simon. Clary notices a boy and a girl sneak into a storage room and thinks nothing of it until two boys follow them inside, both armed with knives. She tells Simon to get a security guard and she herself goes cautiously into the storage room, fearing a murder is about to take place.
When Clary enters the storage room she sees that the first boy to enter the room, the one that entered with the girl, is tied up and that the girl and the two other boys seem to be taunting him. One of the untied boys talks about things like demons, things Clary doesn’t believe exist outside the real world. Clary is unable to stop the boys from killing the tied boy, but when Simon and the security guard enter the room they cannot see the two boys and the girl.
Clary soon finds out that the boy who had been murdered was a demon, a creature from another dimension come to earth to use up its energy. The two murderer boys and the girl, who had been on their side along were not murders at all, but something called Shadow Hunters, warriors whose job it is to kill demons and protect the world from demons. Among these three Shadow Hunters are Isabelle, Jace, and Alec.
Alec is tall. His hair is dark and he has blue eyes that make him attractive, but not overly distracting. He is more average looking than anything and could easily fade into the background.
Jace, on the other hand, immediately draws the eyes of many girls instantly. He is described in the books regularly as very attractive and draws the eyes of more than a few girls over the course of the novels. He is described as having golden hair, eyes, and skin. He is compared to things centered around light and life and is someone who is hard not to look at. Though, he is shorter than Alec, but he makes a much bigger commotion upon entering a room.
Alec and Jace’s persona couldn’t be any more different.
Jace is a loud, self-loving, cocky, teenager with a taste for sarcasm. Jace radiates confidence in everything that he does. He always knows the right things to say and will never admit that he is wrong. He is full of himself and thinks that he is the most hilarious person in the world. In the first novel of C. Claire’s Series, City of Bones, Jace and Clary get read by a fortune teller who said that Jace will fall in love with the wrong person. Upon a later conversation with the same fortune teller is this dialogue.
"Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'( Fortune Teller)
Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."
"At least," she (Fortune Teller) said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting." (Jace)
Jace does have a darker side, though. His father was murdered when he was very young and he has a hard time forming serious relationships with people. Jace has had a hard life and though he feels that all of his ways are justified, be cant make connections and he is afraid of love. Jace says, “The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he’d learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be destroyed.” Jace may be funny and witty and charming and very vain, but deep down he is a tortured and scared soal who is apprehensive about relationships and love.
Alec is much more quiet than Jace, not as obnoxious. Alec is self assured, which comes, in part from growing up in a rich and well known family. He tends to fall into the background, behind Jace, where he enjoys being. He is more of a follower to Jace’s leading personality. He is self conscious and more reserved that Jace, but he feels that it is his responsibility to protect Jace. Alec, when he feels that someone he loves is in danger has a tendency to lash out and he is not a found person of newcomers. Alec is overprotective and not a very accepting person, especially if you are different from him. A quote from Simon demonstrates how Alec makes people feel: “Because,” Simon said. “You seem to hate me most of the time. I don’t take it that personally, even if I did save your life. You seem to kind of hate the whole world. And besides, we have practically nothing in common. But I see you looking at Jace, and I see myself looking at Clary, and I figure—maybe we have that one thing in common.” In this quote Simon is saying that he secretly loves Clary and he is saying that he knows that Alec is gay and that he loves jace. Simon is saying that he understands Alec and hopes that he will open up to him.
Jace and Alec, though they are very different people, compliment each other and they rely on each other for both survival and companionship. Jace and Alec are something called Parabatai.
“Parabatai,” said Jace. “It means a pair of warriors who fight together—who are closer than brothers. Alec is more than just my best friend. My father and his father were parabatai when they were young. His father was my godfather—that’s why I live with them. They’re my adopted family.”Jace and Alec have a special and unique bond that they rely on for support. Jace needs to be the fighter and he always needs Alec to watch his back. Jace brings out the best in Alec. Clary noticed this when eating with them at a diner:
Alec laughed. “Do you remember—,” he began, and launched into a story that contained so many mysterious names and proper nouns that Clary didn’t even bother trying to follow it. She was looking at Alec instead, watching him as he talked to Jace. There was a kinetic, almost feverish energy to him that hadn’t been there before. Something about Jace sharpened him, brought him into focus. If she were going to draw them together, she thought, she would make Jace a little blurry, while Alec stood out, all sharp, clear planes and angles.Jace is the only one who can animate Alec, he feels conferrable and can openly have fun around Jace. Alec and jace compliment each other and highlight each others personalities. Neither would be the same without the other.
“Jace?” It was Alec, his tone commanding. He had given Clary and Simon an astonished look, but then his attention went, as it al ways did, to Jace. He might not be in love with Jace any more, if he ever really had been, but they were still parabatai, and Jace was always first on his mind in any battle.
When Clary enters the storage room she sees that the first boy to enter the room, the one that entered with the girl, is tied up and that the girl and the two other boys seem to be taunting him. One of the untied boys talks about things like demons, things Clary doesn’t believe exist outside the real world. Clary is unable to stop the boys from killing the tied boy, but when Simon and the security guard enter the room they cannot see the two boys and the girl.
Clary soon finds out that the boy who had been murdered was a demon, a creature from another dimension come to earth to use up its energy. The two murderer boys and the girl, who had been on their side along were not murders at all, but something called Shadow Hunters, warriors whose job it is to kill demons and protect the world from demons. Among these three Shadow Hunters are Isabelle, Jace, and Alec.
Alec is tall. His hair is dark and he has blue eyes that make him attractive, but not overly distracting. He is more average looking than anything and could easily fade into the background.
Jace, on the other hand, immediately draws the eyes of many girls instantly. He is described in the books regularly as very attractive and draws the eyes of more than a few girls over the course of the novels. He is described as having golden hair, eyes, and skin. He is compared to things centered around light and life and is someone who is hard not to look at. Though, he is shorter than Alec, but he makes a much bigger commotion upon entering a room.
Alec and Jace’s persona couldn’t be any more different.
Jace is a loud, self-loving, cocky, teenager with a taste for sarcasm. Jace radiates confidence in everything that he does. He always knows the right things to say and will never admit that he is wrong. He is full of himself and thinks that he is the most hilarious person in the world. In the first novel of C. Claire’s Series, City of Bones, Jace and Clary get read by a fortune teller who said that Jace will fall in love with the wrong person. Upon a later conversation with the same fortune teller is this dialogue.
"Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'( Fortune Teller)
Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."
"At least," she (Fortune Teller) said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting." (Jace)
Jace does have a darker side, though. His father was murdered when he was very young and he has a hard time forming serious relationships with people. Jace has had a hard life and though he feels that all of his ways are justified, be cant make connections and he is afraid of love. Jace says, “The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he’d learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be destroyed.” Jace may be funny and witty and charming and very vain, but deep down he is a tortured and scared soal who is apprehensive about relationships and love.
Alec is much more quiet than Jace, not as obnoxious. Alec is self assured, which comes, in part from growing up in a rich and well known family. He tends to fall into the background, behind Jace, where he enjoys being. He is more of a follower to Jace’s leading personality. He is self conscious and more reserved that Jace, but he feels that it is his responsibility to protect Jace. Alec, when he feels that someone he loves is in danger has a tendency to lash out and he is not a found person of newcomers. Alec is overprotective and not a very accepting person, especially if you are different from him. A quote from Simon demonstrates how Alec makes people feel: “Because,” Simon said. “You seem to hate me most of the time. I don’t take it that personally, even if I did save your life. You seem to kind of hate the whole world. And besides, we have practically nothing in common. But I see you looking at Jace, and I see myself looking at Clary, and I figure—maybe we have that one thing in common.” In this quote Simon is saying that he secretly loves Clary and he is saying that he knows that Alec is gay and that he loves jace. Simon is saying that he understands Alec and hopes that he will open up to him.
Jace and Alec, though they are very different people, compliment each other and they rely on each other for both survival and companionship. Jace and Alec are something called Parabatai.
“Parabatai,” said Jace. “It means a pair of warriors who fight together—who are closer than brothers. Alec is more than just my best friend. My father and his father were parabatai when they were young. His father was my godfather—that’s why I live with them. They’re my adopted family.”Jace and Alec have a special and unique bond that they rely on for support. Jace needs to be the fighter and he always needs Alec to watch his back. Jace brings out the best in Alec. Clary noticed this when eating with them at a diner:
Alec laughed. “Do you remember—,” he began, and launched into a story that contained so many mysterious names and proper nouns that Clary didn’t even bother trying to follow it. She was looking at Alec instead, watching him as he talked to Jace. There was a kinetic, almost feverish energy to him that hadn’t been there before. Something about Jace sharpened him, brought him into focus. If she were going to draw them together, she thought, she would make Jace a little blurry, while Alec stood out, all sharp, clear planes and angles.Jace is the only one who can animate Alec, he feels conferrable and can openly have fun around Jace. Alec and jace compliment each other and highlight each others personalities. Neither would be the same without the other.
“Jace?” It was Alec, his tone commanding. He had given Clary and Simon an astonished look, but then his attention went, as it al ways did, to Jace. He might not be in love with Jace any more, if he ever really had been, but they were still parabatai, and Jace was always first on his mind in any battle.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Connotation: That's Raw!
You are standing in the middle of a High School parking lot. There are a bunch of teenagers milling around their cars. A new car pulls into the lot. It is more than a car, though, it’s a red Toyota Tacoma that is lifted so high that a freshman can stand under it comfortably. As the driver jumps down from the passengers seat and makes his way over to where his friends stand by their cars one of his friends high-fives the Tacoma driver and says, “Nice truck man, its raw!”
According to dictionary.refrence.com “Raw” can mean one of five things.
1. uncooked, as articles of food: a raw carrot.
2. not having undergone processes of preparing, dressing, finishing, refining, or manufacture: raw cotton.
3. unnaturally or painfully exposed, as flesh, by removal of the skin or natural integument.
4. painfully open, as a sore or wound.
5. crude in quality or character; not tempered or refined by art or taste: raw humor.
One would not use any of these definitions to describe a car. Each of them seem something negative and the car is admired by the drivers friends so they wouldn’t call it by these descriptions. These definitions would be used more like this.
“The raw egg gave my sister salmonella.” or “The uncooked egg gave my sister salmonella.”
“The raw flesh oozed with a yellow puss.” or “The unnaturally exposed flesh oozed with a yellow puss.”
“His raw humor was not appreciated at the funeral.” or “His crude humor was not appreciated at the funeral.”
None of these definitions of the word “raw” even remotely mirror the effect the friend is going for when he says that the truck is raw. The answer to what the friend is really talking about lies in something called slang. Slang is something used all over the world and most people use it daily. If you are ignorant to a region or cultures slang, though, you may have yourself in a sticky situation while trying to interpret. Slang is unique everywhere you go and unless you grew up around it, it can be very confusing.
In California the word “raw” is used to describe something as good, cool, or that the speaker using the word is impressed by something. For example:
“That skateboard is raw!” translates to “That’s an impressive skateboard!”
“That concert last night was raw!“ translates to “That concert last night was cool!”
The denotation of “raw” is generally a bad thing. So when someone uses it as a compliment around someone from out of the area the meaning of the word in slang can sometimes be confused by the dictionary definition. In California, the use of “raw” is widespread and widely known and it has become such a part of the vocabulary that some don’t even think it slang. So, don’t always assume what you think a word means is correct because in different cultures the meaning may be astronomically different.
According to dictionary.refrence.com “Raw” can mean one of five things.
1. uncooked, as articles of food: a raw carrot.
2. not having undergone processes of preparing, dressing, finishing, refining, or manufacture: raw cotton.
3. unnaturally or painfully exposed, as flesh, by removal of the skin or natural integument.
4. painfully open, as a sore or wound.
5. crude in quality or character; not tempered or refined by art or taste: raw humor.
One would not use any of these definitions to describe a car. Each of them seem something negative and the car is admired by the drivers friends so they wouldn’t call it by these descriptions. These definitions would be used more like this.
“The raw egg gave my sister salmonella.” or “The uncooked egg gave my sister salmonella.”
“The raw flesh oozed with a yellow puss.” or “The unnaturally exposed flesh oozed with a yellow puss.”
“His raw humor was not appreciated at the funeral.” or “His crude humor was not appreciated at the funeral.”
None of these definitions of the word “raw” even remotely mirror the effect the friend is going for when he says that the truck is raw. The answer to what the friend is really talking about lies in something called slang. Slang is something used all over the world and most people use it daily. If you are ignorant to a region or cultures slang, though, you may have yourself in a sticky situation while trying to interpret. Slang is unique everywhere you go and unless you grew up around it, it can be very confusing.
In California the word “raw” is used to describe something as good, cool, or that the speaker using the word is impressed by something. For example:
“That skateboard is raw!” translates to “That’s an impressive skateboard!”
“That concert last night was raw!“ translates to “That concert last night was cool!”
The denotation of “raw” is generally a bad thing. So when someone uses it as a compliment around someone from out of the area the meaning of the word in slang can sometimes be confused by the dictionary definition. In California, the use of “raw” is widespread and widely known and it has become such a part of the vocabulary that some don’t even think it slang. So, don’t always assume what you think a word means is correct because in different cultures the meaning may be astronomically different.
Everything is An Argument: The Importance of a Great Teacher
Definite Harry Potter Spoilers…If you haven’t read all the books/Movies and don’t want to know what happens DO NOT READ!
The “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling is literally a world wide phenomenon. It has reached out to an estimated 200 countries, has been spoken out in over 69 languages, and has touched the lives of more than 4 hundred million people. This series ignores gender, race, age, and religion, and is utterly universal. Rowling didn’t just write her record breaking novels to tell a story, though. She wrote it to convey messages about life, love, family, friends, forgiveness, inner strength, and so much more.
On the outside, “Harry Potter” is a group of seven consecutive novels about a wizard boy named Harry. Really, though there is so much more to the novels than the actual storyline. If one takes the time to really think about these novels they may learn something valuable to take with them into everyday life.
I have read the books to many times to count affectively, and many life lessons jump out at me, but maybe the most prominent lesson for me was not an entirely active part of the novels. It was a lesson, an argument, that was always there in the background but very rarely the focus. I first noticed this one of Rowling’s arguments in the third book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” That argument is this: There is great importance in having a good teacher.
A new character is introduced in chapter five of the third book. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except the one at the very end of the train. This only had one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window………..The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizards robes which had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though he seemed quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey.” This man is professor Remus John Lupin, a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher during Harry’s third year. By this description, which is definitely a negative one, one may think that the Lupin is a slobby background character, as far from a role model as one can get. Looks, however can be very deceiving.
Teachers, good ones, teach about something they are connected to in some way. Lupin is connected to the Dark Arts in his very being. Lupin is not just some ordinary wizard, he is a werewolf. He has learned strength from his condition he has lessons in just his back-story that everyone can learn from.
Harry’s success in untimely defeating the Dark Lord, Voldemort could not have been possible without the teaching of Remus Lupin. Lupin originally teaches Harry a patronus charm to protect Harry from a type of evil creature, a dementor literally steals happy memories from its victims and sucks out his/her soul. A patronus banishes the creature, ultimately chasing it off. Lupin teaches Harry this charm when Harry is thirteen years old. The skill level of the spell to be completed, though, is seventeen years old. With a good teacher one can accomplish anything. Voldemort’s defeat could not have been possible without this charm, as it saves Harry’s life numerous times, including: book 3 Harry goes back in time to save himself and serious black from the dementor book 5 Harry and Dudley (Harry’s cousin) get attacked by dementors and Harry saves them yet again, along with many other times. Without the knowledge of this charm Harry may have never survived to defeat Voldemort.
Harry looks up to Lupin as a role model and even says “You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” to Lupin upon the stating of his resignation. Harry needed a figure to look up to in the novels, he needed a great teacher who could help him learn both academic and life lessons, but most off all he needed a friend and Lupin was all of that and more to Harry.
J.K. Rowling actually describes Lupin as the teacher she wished that she had. She essentially modeled him after her idea of a “perfect teacher”. He has is flaws, but so does everyone and his flaws help him to be an even better educator. This quote by Rowling in an interview shows how she feels about Lupin.
“ was also playing with that [intolerance] when I created Professor Lupin having a contagious disease so people are frightened of him. I really liked him as a character but he also has his failing though he's a nice man and a wonderful teacher – in fact he's the one time I've written a teacher... the kind of teacher I'd have loved to have had. McGonagall is a good teacher but scary at times. Lupin's failing is he likes to be liked. That's where he slips up – he's been disliked so often he's always pleased to have friends so cuts them an awful lot of slack.”
Having a great teacher changes you as a person. Having a teacher that wants to push you to your limits, but always wants you to do the best you can do will help you overcome challenges in life that you will want to face head on. A good teacher makes lessons challenging, but always gives you a chance of success. I had a teacher that would make the class take unbelievably hard tests, knowing that everyone would fail, just so that the students would have to work harder for their good grade. This proved to me that he cared. A caring teacher is also very important. Teachers are an important role in out society and everyone in our country has a number of them. Of course there are some teachers that could really care less, but others really make an impression on the students, and these are the ones that teach you the most. Lupin is one of these teachers.
The “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling is literally a world wide phenomenon. It has reached out to an estimated 200 countries, has been spoken out in over 69 languages, and has touched the lives of more than 4 hundred million people. This series ignores gender, race, age, and religion, and is utterly universal. Rowling didn’t just write her record breaking novels to tell a story, though. She wrote it to convey messages about life, love, family, friends, forgiveness, inner strength, and so much more.
On the outside, “Harry Potter” is a group of seven consecutive novels about a wizard boy named Harry. Really, though there is so much more to the novels than the actual storyline. If one takes the time to really think about these novels they may learn something valuable to take with them into everyday life.
I have read the books to many times to count affectively, and many life lessons jump out at me, but maybe the most prominent lesson for me was not an entirely active part of the novels. It was a lesson, an argument, that was always there in the background but very rarely the focus. I first noticed this one of Rowling’s arguments in the third book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” That argument is this: There is great importance in having a good teacher.
A new character is introduced in chapter five of the third book. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except the one at the very end of the train. This only had one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window………..The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizards robes which had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though he seemed quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey.” This man is professor Remus John Lupin, a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher during Harry’s third year. By this description, which is definitely a negative one, one may think that the Lupin is a slobby background character, as far from a role model as one can get. Looks, however can be very deceiving.
Teachers, good ones, teach about something they are connected to in some way. Lupin is connected to the Dark Arts in his very being. Lupin is not just some ordinary wizard, he is a werewolf. He has learned strength from his condition he has lessons in just his back-story that everyone can learn from.
Harry’s success in untimely defeating the Dark Lord, Voldemort could not have been possible without the teaching of Remus Lupin. Lupin originally teaches Harry a patronus charm to protect Harry from a type of evil creature, a dementor literally steals happy memories from its victims and sucks out his/her soul. A patronus banishes the creature, ultimately chasing it off. Lupin teaches Harry this charm when Harry is thirteen years old. The skill level of the spell to be completed, though, is seventeen years old. With a good teacher one can accomplish anything. Voldemort’s defeat could not have been possible without this charm, as it saves Harry’s life numerous times, including: book 3 Harry goes back in time to save himself and serious black from the dementor book 5 Harry and Dudley (Harry’s cousin) get attacked by dementors and Harry saves them yet again, along with many other times. Without the knowledge of this charm Harry may have never survived to defeat Voldemort.
Harry looks up to Lupin as a role model and even says “You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” to Lupin upon the stating of his resignation. Harry needed a figure to look up to in the novels, he needed a great teacher who could help him learn both academic and life lessons, but most off all he needed a friend and Lupin was all of that and more to Harry.
J.K. Rowling actually describes Lupin as the teacher she wished that she had. She essentially modeled him after her idea of a “perfect teacher”. He has is flaws, but so does everyone and his flaws help him to be an even better educator. This quote by Rowling in an interview shows how she feels about Lupin.
What is a "Reader"?
The definition of “Reader”, according to http://dictionary.reference.com/ is: “a person who reads”. This, in my opinion is a somewhat inaccurate. A reader is not just one who reads. A reader is one who enjoys reading and reads quality writing on a regular basis, analyzing and asking questions as they go. Reading the words on the paper does not automatically qualify one as a reader. A reader must internalize these words and think about their true meaning, if the writer is alluding to something, or notice any other context clues. A reader must enjoy reading, because if one is not enjoying the time immersed in a book, they are not truly benefiting from it.
An important aspect of being a reader is reading quality books, not the mindless garbage that feeds our young generation today, especially teenage girls. I read primarily fiction. It is fun to read, exciting, and a momentary escape from reality. There is though, a way to read fiction effectively. Again I must stress the word: quality. Well educated adults tend to frown upon the book choice of the teens of today. The Young Adult section is filled with that mindless garbage and we are victims to reading it. Sappy love stories with barely any plotline, science fiction with such superfluous language that it makes me want to vomit, and vampire novels with potent grammatical errors even after countless edits, these are the books the teenagers of our generation are gobbling up. These aren’t quality books, and they are not teaching you anything. It can barely be considered reading.
The most extreme example of the teenagers of our generation’s horrid book choice is a New York Times Bestselling novel called: Twilight. Twilight is a Young Adult romance novel centered around vampires and written by Stephanie Meyer. The novel is centered around Bella Swan, a 17 year old girl who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington. While in Forks she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen and finds herself in constant danger. The plot seems decent enough if one is a fan of mystical love stories, but when a critical reader reads the book they find a countless number of bad writing techniques, as well as grammar and research errors.
First off, the main characters, Bella and Edward are so sickeningly perfect that they both are week characters, or “marry sues” . Although the author and fans alike try and claim that Edward is overprotective and Bella is clumsy, these are not flaws to build a personality on. Every person has flaws, it makes them interesting and believable. When characters don’t have flaws it is hard to relate to them. The flaws Stephanie Meyer uses are insufficient and show week character development and childish writing techniques.
Novels that are published should never, ever have grammatical errors. That is what editing is for. Grammatical errors in published works should be an embarrassment to the publishing company as well as the writer and are completely unacceptable. In Twilight there are a number of grammatical errors, which are totally avoidable and, again, shows that Meyer has childish and underdeveloped writing styles. “The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born.” –Twilight pg. 9 This quote was taken from the first published release of Twilight and has since been corrected, but really, there is no excuse. There is also a research error in the novel, saying that “true vampires” were discovered living in the sewers of London in 1660-1670ish when this could not even be remotely accurate with the book or life in general because sewers in London did not exist until at least 1859. This is another mistake in the novel that could have been avoided with a little research.
Though there are many low quality, badly written books that litter the Young Adult section, there is still hope for teenage fiction. There are quality young adult novels out there one just has to spend some time finding them. Read reviews and find books that are high quality that you can learn something from. Don’t just read the latest trend. Find good books for yourself and be critical in your reading. A reader is someone who reads quality material, fiction included, that they can learn from and enjoy.
An important aspect of being a reader is reading quality books, not the mindless garbage that feeds our young generation today, especially teenage girls. I read primarily fiction. It is fun to read, exciting, and a momentary escape from reality. There is though, a way to read fiction effectively. Again I must stress the word: quality. Well educated adults tend to frown upon the book choice of the teens of today. The Young Adult section is filled with that mindless garbage and we are victims to reading it. Sappy love stories with barely any plotline, science fiction with such superfluous language that it makes me want to vomit, and vampire novels with potent grammatical errors even after countless edits, these are the books the teenagers of our generation are gobbling up. These aren’t quality books, and they are not teaching you anything. It can barely be considered reading.
The most extreme example of the teenagers of our generation’s horrid book choice is a New York Times Bestselling novel called: Twilight. Twilight is a Young Adult romance novel centered around vampires and written by Stephanie Meyer. The novel is centered around Bella Swan, a 17 year old girl who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington. While in Forks she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen and finds herself in constant danger. The plot seems decent enough if one is a fan of mystical love stories, but when a critical reader reads the book they find a countless number of bad writing techniques, as well as grammar and research errors.
First off, the main characters, Bella and Edward are so sickeningly perfect that they both are week characters, or “marry sues” . Although the author and fans alike try and claim that Edward is overprotective and Bella is clumsy, these are not flaws to build a personality on. Every person has flaws, it makes them interesting and believable. When characters don’t have flaws it is hard to relate to them. The flaws Stephanie Meyer uses are insufficient and show week character development and childish writing techniques.
Novels that are published should never, ever have grammatical errors. That is what editing is for. Grammatical errors in published works should be an embarrassment to the publishing company as well as the writer and are completely unacceptable. In Twilight there are a number of grammatical errors, which are totally avoidable and, again, shows that Meyer has childish and underdeveloped writing styles. “The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born.” –Twilight pg. 9 This quote was taken from the first published release of Twilight and has since been corrected, but really, there is no excuse. There is also a research error in the novel, saying that “true vampires” were discovered living in the sewers of London in 1660-1670ish when this could not even be remotely accurate with the book or life in general because sewers in London did not exist until at least 1859. This is another mistake in the novel that could have been avoided with a little research.
Though there are many low quality, badly written books that litter the Young Adult section, there is still hope for teenage fiction. There are quality young adult novels out there one just has to spend some time finding them. Read reviews and find books that are high quality that you can learn something from. Don’t just read the latest trend. Find good books for yourself and be critical in your reading. A reader is someone who reads quality material, fiction included, that they can learn from and enjoy.
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