The book, "The Perks OF Being A Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky is about fifteen year old Charlie and his journey of finding himself in freshman year.
One of the main things Charlie struggles to find and figure out is friends. In the beginning of each chapter/diary entry he begins with "dear friend." This shows his insecurity about how he has little true friends, and how he really needs and wants someone to connect and talk to, like a friend. He also end his entry with "love always" almost as if he is looking for the diary to return the love to him. Another example of Charlie worrying and being insecure about his friendships is in the beginning of the book. He is always very timid to talk to people and worries about his appearance to them. This demonstrates his overall insecurity with people, probably from bad experiences in the past.
Overall, this book is a big learning lesson to those who struggle with coming of age issues like Charlie. Charlies friendship issues demonstrate his growth from the beginning to the end of the book.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Upfront Testing Essay
The articles "China's Cram Schools" in Upfront Magazine is about how muchpressure is put on the gaokoa a college acceptance test in China, and whether this is the right way to accept kids into colleges. Overall this is not a fair system for many reasons.
Putting this much pressure isn't fair to the kids. Daily over 20,000 kids are crammed into one school for more than twelve hours, spent to study for one test. There are many reasons why this isn't an effective way to learn. This puts way too much pressure onto teenagers, who are still kids. A child's brain is not advanced enough to handle this much stress, especially because many adults couldn't even handle this. This system also puts way to much pressure on tests rather than the journey of learning itself.
This system of cramming is also incredibly dangerous. In the article, the main character's parents were sacrificing their lives for him. His mother quit her job for his "cram year" and his father worked at a low paying job that wasn't stable enough to support their family. Many students at these cram schools commit suicide because of the extreme stress. Lives shouldn't be at risk because of a test. Another boy in the article failed the gaokoa, which ruined his life leading him to working a year round twelve hour daily job.
Overall, this test is a terrible way to measure intelligence. Whether you do well on this test is also about how much money you have and how much your parents push you, nwither wof which are really about you. This is why the gaokoa is not an effective way to determine your life after you take the test.
Putting this much pressure isn't fair to the kids. Daily over 20,000 kids are crammed into one school for more than twelve hours, spent to study for one test. There are many reasons why this isn't an effective way to learn. This puts way too much pressure onto teenagers, who are still kids. A child's brain is not advanced enough to handle this much stress, especially because many adults couldn't even handle this. This system also puts way to much pressure on tests rather than the journey of learning itself.
This system of cramming is also incredibly dangerous. In the article, the main character's parents were sacrificing their lives for him. His mother quit her job for his "cram year" and his father worked at a low paying job that wasn't stable enough to support their family. Many students at these cram schools commit suicide because of the extreme stress. Lives shouldn't be at risk because of a test. Another boy in the article failed the gaokoa, which ruined his life leading him to working a year round twelve hour daily job.
Overall, this test is a terrible way to measure intelligence. Whether you do well on this test is also about how much money you have and how much your parents push you, nwither wof which are really about you. This is why the gaokoa is not an effective way to determine your life after you take the test.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Speak Response
The book "Speak" by Laura Halse Anderson is about a girl who has an incredibly traumatic experience after being rape, because of social stigma and self consciousness. This book brings up a very important issue, other people's opinions on you and how they influence the way you think. The main character, Melinda is shut out by everyone. People force her to believe that her being raped was her fault and that she is not being punished for it. Her friends and family, the people who she was closest to and loved the most turned her away and shut her out. This is a problem in society. This lets rapists get away with their crimes and causes rape victims to feel like they are the blame and it is their fault that this happened. Overall Speak, really helps spread awareness of this and how terrible rape is and how it can really ruin someone's life for so many reasons.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
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