"Time Flew" - Final Meta Post

I'm sure that people are going to reminisce on how quickly the year has gone by in this post, how it seems like it was just yesterday that we were introduced to Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor, how quickly the time has flown since writing our first blog post, how amazing it is that Junior year is almost over. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would say that, too. But the other day on the Seniors' last day of school, I overheard some of them talking and saying how quickly their high school careers had gone by. As I walked past them I thought, really? Because as a Junior right now, time is going anything but quickly (except of course when I need it to go slowly so that I can study, then it goes quickly).

I'm not going to pretend that the year has not gone quickly, because in some ways it does seem like I was walking into AIS for the first time just yesterday. But then I think about all of the hours of time I have put into this class. The hours spent reading and writing my parallels, contrasts, and questions. The time I spent agonizing over papers, trying to find things to fix, trying to be more empathetic for the reader. The weeks I spent researching Junior Theme, and then later re-reading everything when picking quotes that I would actually use. 90 minutes of class every day. Not to mention the thirty-something blog posts I have done.  And all that time spent on just this class.

Now I'm not trying to be all negative, because I have thoroughly enjoyed American Studies. I think it has allowed me to improve on my writing skills, my "joining in the conversation" skills, and I think it has  made me more confident to voice my opinions, or blog about them. Blogging is a whole different world. One where I can get anonymous people posting comments on a post, one where friends can laugh at me because I blog for homework, one where classmates can share honest opinions that can be very helpful. Blogging allows me to say things that there aren't time for in class, as well as to take what I learn in class and apply it outside. For that reason, I'm going to ask that my teachers read the post Are You Maya Moore's Mom? I think it shows me taking elements from a class discussion and applying them to my surroundings outside of class.

I just want to say thank you to Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor. Being a part of your class this year has been really fun, I truly appreciate the effort and time you both put into making our class valuable as well as a blast.

I had to end with a fish joke...

Gender Inequality

As I was watching one of my favorite shows, "Chelsea Lately," tonight, she brought up a recent controversial story. Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul made some very sexist remarks in a recent interview about how women could never write as well as he can, and that they have a "narrow view of the world." It's important to note that he is around 80 years old, so he was brought up in a different time, but is what he says socially acceptable by today's standards? His remarks reminded me a lot of our final essay prompt, so in case anybody is doing the final through the lens of gender, this might be a good "gravy" source. 

Here's a link to an article right HERE

Is Richer Nicer?

This post is long overdue, I meant to write it at least three weeks ago, but I find myself just now taking the time to create it.
In class, we spoke about neighborhoods, specifically train stations within a town. We watched people state observations about the Kenilworth Train Station to determine what could be considered a mark of it being a train station in a high class neighborhood.  Things like a nice waiting room, potted plants, and a roof over the bike racks demonstrated that Kenilworth is wealthy. We then proceeded to watch a video Mr. Bolos had filmed of the Union Pacific/West Line. We took notes on many things trying to find similarities and differences to the town of Kenilworth and its train station.
Some of the observations included lack of nature, home size (bigger or smaller), how industrialized the area was (if there was a factory), and even little things like the decorativeness of street lights. It's incredible what those little details bring. And when we had our class discussion after watching the film, the word "nicer" was used a lot.
Mr. O'Connor kept correcting people by saying, "you mean 'higher income,' right?" Everybody would backtrack and say yes, I meant higher income. But my question is, is it so wrong to make the two adjectives interchangeable?
When I think of a "nice" neighborhood, it can always be described as "rich" or "wealthy" as well. "Nice" neighborhoods, in my opinion, have good schools, up-to-date and taken care of buildings, security, green space, good-looking homes, etc. All of those things require money as well, so then, aren't "nice" and "wealthy" almost synonymous in that case?

Just Kidding! - Back to "Class"

And just as I thought I was going to be able to escape Junior Theme until we got our revised papers back... We are now starting the book The Great Gatsby. Starting today, we talked a lot about social class and how it is determined. Our worksheets read upper class, middle class, and lower class. It sounded too familiar.

It is my opinion that social class is determined most easily by income. I can't make the claim that wealth is how it is determined because I associate wealth with appearance, and as my Junior Theme taught me, appearance isn't everything! Most people live beyond their means and in a pile of debt because they decide to buy an expensive car or live in an area that they can't afford or wear designer clothes etc. Appearance just can't be the determining factor anymore. And what about something like education? Maybe that can be a form of determining class, but who is to say where to draw the lines? High school graduates versus college graduates versus graduate school attendees, etc. That's not really measurable because different schools provide different things. It's much harder to measure quality than quantity

Quantity is where the numbers of incomes play a role. It is easy to say that a person making x amount of money per year is in this class. That's what I did for Junior Theme, saying that a member of the middle class makes between $40,000 and $200,000 but that's a big range. And it also depends on the number of people that a person is supporting with that money. There's no simple answer. It is definitely thought-provoking.

It's a good thing I liked my Junior Theme topic, because it looks like it's not going away...

Take a Breath

As I edited my Junior Theme one last time in the library today, I couldn't believe it was over. My exhale of breath after clicking print on my Word document drew me some weird glances, but I don't care. I am relieved.
Relieved that now I can get a full night's sleep without my brain whirring trying to come up with new ideas.
Relieved that I will be able to have an intelligent conversation with people about something other than the decreasing size of the middle class.
Relieved that I can empty my notebook of all of the superfluous articles I never used.
Relieved that I will be able to eat a meal without a copy of a draft in front of me.
Relieved that I made it through Junior Theme alive.
Relieved that I can kind of have my life back.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed doing my junior theme. I had a good time finding articles as well as writing my paper. For me the boring and time-sucking part was the reading of the articles. Some of them drew me in and I wanted to keep reading, others disgusted me that people voice such strong opinions in a public place like the media, and still others bored me to the point that I fell asleep while reading them. Writing the paper itself was a burden, but I did it with the help of friends. We skyped as we wrote, asking each others opinions as we went. The editing process was less fun when I was reading my own paper, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to read other people's papers that ranged from the development of the electric car, to school shootings, to the almost omnipresence of corn in food today. Research papers are fun, because they teach you about something that you wouldn't be able to learn from one teacher. You draw facts from many different resources
and you get to teach yourself in a way. And once it's over, it's the greatest feeling of accomplishment. And relief.

What Do You Consider Middle Class?

 My Junior Theme is about the decreasing size of the middle class in the United States.  As I continue to write my paper, it's amazing how much the readings that I have done have helped me become an "expert." I say "expert" because while I've researched constantly for the past few weeks, there are real experts who have spent years studying the topic.
    In class the other day when we were going over what to make sure you do in your paper, we talked about working definitions.  I realized that after doing all of my research I have only a basic idea of what I consider to be "middle class." I want to make sure that I base my working definition not only off of my readings, but also off of general people's ideas so that whoever reads my paper will understand.
    What do you consider to be "middle class"? It could be anything from type of car a person drives, to income, to race, etc. Let me know!

A Poem...

I like to write, and I wrote a poem about Facebook.  My uncle asked if I would consider putting on my blog, so here goes. It's kind of long though... Just a warning.

“Asocial Network”

Get home after school and
Rush to the computer
To see that familiar screen.

Welcome to Facebook!
People you may know
Add as Friend
Upload photos
Make this photo profile picture

Status: what’s on your mind?

1 new notification
Friendship accepted!
4 new friend requests
Confirmed, Confirmed, Confirmed…
Denied.

1 new notification.
Tagged in 1 photo
Like this photo

Friday night.
Been on Facebook since after school.
Everyone’s at the school dance.
Didn’t get asked...
Home alone with mom. Yay.
Maybe not, even she went out.
Stuck babysitting.

1 new inbox

1 new notification
You have been poked. Poked? …
Poke back.

You have joined the group “Harry Potter is WAY better than Twilight”

1 new notification
Your photo has been commented on
Like this comment

1 new notification
You have one new wall post
View profile
Wall posts
Like the post
See Friendship
Back to my profile
1,097 friends

Saturday night.
Been on Facebook all day,
Eyes hurt from looking at the screen.
No plans.
No texts, no calls.
How is that possible?
1,097 friends!
Family dinner.
Nothing to do,
Nothing good on tv.
So bored!
Back to Facebook

No new notifications

Chat
Status update

No new notifications

Add as friend
Inbox

No new notifications

Poke
Write on wall

No new notifications

Comment
Like post

No new notifications

Sunday day.
Still no contact from the “real” world,
Even Facebook abandoned me.
Life sucks.

Account deactivated.

Phone (finally) rings.
“Did you delete your Facebook?”

Are You Maya Moore's Mom?

Last week over Spring Break, I had the privilege of attending the Duke vs DePaul Women's Basketball game that was in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament this year.  The Duke-DePaul game was after the Connecticut vs Georgetown game in which the number 1 seeded Huskies almost fell to Georgetown.  (Connecticut would go on to lose in the Final 4 to Notre Dame a week later).

As I was in the bathroom washing my hands, there were two elderly ladies at the sinks next to me, one was African American, the other was Caucasian. The Caucasian lady was wearing a Connecticut shirt and she turned to the African American woman and said, "Are you Maya Moore's mom?" The woman looked incredulous, she looked down at her shirt and pointed and said, "I'm wearing a Georgetown shirt..."  The elder Caucasian woman quickly apologized saying she was sorry and that they looked alike.

I went online later that day to see if the lady had actually looked like Maya Moore's mom and she didn't at all.  Moore's mom is much younger. It was very interesting to see the stereotype cast upon the African American woman just because of her skin.  I'm not in any way implying that the Caucasian woman said what she said maliciously, I believe it was an honest mistake.  But isn't that still racism?  Does it make a difference that the women are probably two generations older than me?

In Place of Meta Post III

I would like for you to read my post titled I Would Prefer Not To. It really got me thinking about my thoughts on standardized testing and what our country is turning to for our educations.

Junior Theme Part 2

As I began to do research, I realized that focusing just on the topics presented in Richistan will not be enough.  I started trying to broaden my search, and I have decided to go with the idea of focusing on the middle class and how it is disappearing.  I think that Richistan will present a good side of the story in the sense that it might show how some of the middle class is moving up.  But I need to focus on finding the other side, the part of the middle class that is sliding into poverty.  If anybody has any ideas for where to find stuff, I will gladly take the advice.  CQ Rearcher already gave me a great article.

Mr. Bolos gave me a GREAT YouTube video about the decrease in the size of the middle class. You can find it by going to YouTube and typing into the search box "Elizabeth Warren 'The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class'" or it is linked here.  I should warn you that it's an hour long and I watched the entire thing, but the information that I needed most was found in the last 5 minutes of the video.  But for anybody who is focusing on something like consumerism over the past few years, it presents an excellent series of facts concerning 1973's spending versus 2003's spending. Hopefully that helps!

Also, as I continue reading my book, I love finding connections in between sources and between my classes as well.  For example, the video by Elizabeth Warren voices many opinions that I have found in my CQ Researcher article.  Warren also references the financial expert Robert Frank, and he is the author of the book that I'm reading.  Plus, in Frank's book, he references the movie Wall Street which I just watched in my Financial Management class.  It's pretty cool getting to see the overlap that develops.

The Third Month's Insanity

March is easily the best month of the year for one reason, the basketball.  March Madness becomes the center of everyone's focus, at least in my house.  At school, people carry around laptops streaming live video footage so that they don't miss a minute.  There's even a "Boss" button for people who are watching at work so that if their boss appears, they push the button and a spreadsheet pops up onto the screen so it looks like the person is doing work.

March Madness provides a great time for people to bond over a sport that is so fun to watch.  I would argue against anybody that it is more fun to watch than football, even the Super Bowl.  And in my opinion, a majority of the college basketball players are better athletes than NFL players.  True, a basketball game is 40 minutes, and a football game 60 is minutes, but it has been proven that of those 60 minutes in a football game, the players actually only play for 11 minutes on average. In college basketball, the players play for all 40 minutes.  I'm not going to argue that the NCAA tournament is more "American" but I enjoy it more than the NFL playoffs.

Filling out a bracket is one of the best parts of the Madness.  Mine has been exceptionally terrible this year, but I've decided that it doesn't matter.  In the end the best team will win, and we all know that that team is Duke.

Just a Thought...

One of my ideas for a potential Junior Theme topic, which I'm not going to do, was to focus on Internet Privacy.  I kind of already wrote a blog about it which can be found here. But I think that it's a really interesting topic.  Why is it that people feel so free to post anything that they want on the Internet? My friend Zoe is in a movie that comes out April 1 called Trust, the trailer can be found here. It is the story of a teenage girl who meets a person via the Internet.  I won't spoil the story, but let's just say that the person on the other end of the Internet relationship doesn't turn out to be who she thinks its going to be.  The Internet is a dangerous place, people need to put up as many precautions and forms of protection as possible.  It's unbelievable how quickly the Internet has become a tool for getting to know someone.  You think you know someone at school, you check out their Facebook page and suddenly you're not sure if you're even looking at the right person.

Junior Theme Part 1

This past week is the week that we started the overwhelming and dreaded Junior Theme.  The project that my friends in other classes have been complaining about year, the huge grade for the quarter, the thing that I will be spending a majority of my time on for the next month. And despite all of the negative that Junior Theme connotes, I'm excited to take it on.

I'm not going to lie, I was weary starting off because we were given almost no guidelines.  There was no list of topics, not even a list of books to choose from.  All I had to go on was the idea that my Junior Theme had to connect to the United States.  It had to be a current issue, but had to be relatable to the past.  I had no clue where to start. I went back through my notes, found some good "why" questions, but none that I felt that I could write a big paper on, nor that I would want to spend a month combing through research on.

So on our first day of "research" in the library, I went through the book carts looking for any book that sounded interesting to me.  I landed on a topic that I never would have thought I would want to do.  The book I found is called Richistan by Robert Frank.  It is a non-fiction book, but it looked fascinating to me.  It is about how people have become instantly rich in this country.  From the summary that I read, it compares the idea of new money with old money, and why people are getting rich, and the levels of relative "richness." I'm excited to get started.

I Would Prefer Not To.

There are a lot of things I would prefer not to do.
I would prefer not to have to come to school for an 8:15 a.m. start.
I would prefer not to clear the kitchen table after meals.
I would prefer not to stop watching a great movie and do some homework.
I would prefer not to go to work and just hang out with some friends.
And yes, I would prefer not to take standardized tests to get into college.

I am referencing the Bartleby Project, whose website is linked here.  The objective of the project is to have high school juniors write "I would prefer not to take your test" across the front. The problem is that the brain of the project is 75, he won't be impacted, he doesn't have to make a sacrifice.  His name is John Taylor Gatto, he claims that it won't impact people getting into colleges because "College is a business before it's anything else; already a business starving for customers." In other words, colleges will accept anybody to make money.

As I said, there are a lot of things I would prefer not to do, but at some point I just have to accept them.  Is getting up early for school really so bad? Helping my mom around the house, or giving up a little free time here or there? So is taking a standardized test an awful thing? No. I'm still not willing to risk writing "I would prefer not to take your test" across the cover of my ACT booklet.  Why are standardized tests such a problem? And then my mom showed me an article from the Chicago Tribune.

The top Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are very hard to get into, and it starts with kindergarten.  Apparently, three and four year olds are getting tutors just to try to get into the top feeder schools that will feed into the best elementary and high schools.  The link to the article is here.  One particular quote struck me, "It's just yet another example that the country has gone test crazy." It reminded me of the Bartleby Project.  Now I'm having second thoughts about what I originally thought to be a terrible plan...

(The picture above is the one from the Tribune article, a three year old girl with a tutor being taught "visual sequencing")

Am I "articulate"?

Another follow-up to our discussion on characteristics of African Americans...

So as our class was having a discussion, Dani leaned over and told me a story. (You can check out her blog here, and if you see this Dani, correct me if I'm wrong!) Basically, the main idea in the story was that her dad works with an African American man. Someone made the observation that he was very "articulate," but the man, rather than flattered was kind of annoyed.  Should it be surprising that he is quote-on-quote "articulate"?

I am a huge Duke Basketball fan, my favorite player easily being Nolan Smith.  Mr. O'Connor brought up that he had seen Smith's name linked to the word "articulate" in a recent interview (which I couldn't find...) Why is it surprising that  a senior at Duke university is "articulate"? Shouldn't that be expected? Why should it make a difference if a person is black or white?

Has our country not progressed at all? It's easily said that we have changed, that we have Barack Obama, our first black President.  But what about the list of Oscar nominees? Not one African American. Arguably, pop culture influences the average American as much as politics, if not more.  Ask people when the next Congress session begins, they won't know.  Ask people who got eliminated on American Idol, full story plus details you didn't necessarily want...

Describe A _____ Person

The other day in class, we had an activity that was to come up with adjectives or characteristics for African Americans.  Then we had to back up our adjective with the source.  The objective was to come up with a portrayal, however false or true the characteristic was, and it was in no way intended to be offensive to anybody.  Some of the things we came up with were:
-"gangster" speech, the source was rap music and movies
-athletic, the source was looking at professional basketball and football players
-young parents, the source was the book There Are No Children Here
-joyous/dancing, the source was old films and cartoons
It got me thinking, because I know that no group of people is "monolithic" as Mr. O'Connor likes to say.  I know that there are other groups that are generalized and stereotyped, like that Asians are brilliant and amazing musicians, or that Jews have big noses.  Then I started to think about what people think of kids growing up on the North Shore.  Probably snobby, rich, arrogant, self-centered, etc. It made me think of my post about camp when another camper wasn't allowed to be friends with me because of where I was from.
None of those are fair assumptions to make.  It's not right to just generalize people.  Who am I to stereotype people, and who are other people to stereotype me?

Where is the Line?

As I was going back to edit my Perilous Times paper I had a thought after talking with Mr. Bolos.

Some people could say that a dictatorship is the safest place in the world to live.  It makes sense because of all of the laws and the law enforcement, things generally run well.  But at a certain point it becomes worth it to have rights rather than an absolute security.

It's like airport security today with the new TSA rules.  When do the security measures taken go too far and violate personal space? When does it become worth it to take a small risk safety-wise, and allow people to go through security without getting a pat-down or an x-ray-like machine?

Just like people in a dictatorship would want the right to free speech, don't people at the airport want the right to not be subjected to a full-body search every time they go through security?

Meta-Post II

     Almost halfway through junior year, the year people go crazy with schoolwork and lose time to focus on anything else.  But blogging for American Studies has done the opposite.  Sure, blogging is work, but its goal is to connect the writers with the outside world, at least that’s how I think of it.

     I think that my writing has improved because now as I blog, I feel more comfortable putting my opinion out there.  It’s now that I was ever unsure of how I felt, but more that I didn’t really know how to say it.  For example, in my post It’s MY Life? I freely spoke about my thoughts on people judging other people.   In doing this I connected The Crucible to a subject Doc Oc brought up in class that I’m beginning to go through, the college process.  I like how I connected the two, though I wish I had come up with the connection, but I do think I made it clear that I was taking what Doc Oc had said and then taking it a step further.  I think I furthered the class conversation by digging deeper into a conversation that was had in class, and I wasn’t the only one who wanted to do that because two people commented on that post.

     I think, like I said in my last Meta Post, I’m still having a little bit of trouble leaving posts open ended.  I do think it has improved a little bit, according to my “stats page” because while there are around the same number of total comments, they are more spread over several posts this quarter whereas they were highly concentrated on certain posts last year.  To think that I am putting out a variety of topics that seem to appeal to different people makes me think that I must be doing something better this quarter with my writing. 

     I think one thing that I can really work on is trying to come up with more creative titles.  It may seem like a small thing at first, but the title is what draws the reader to the post.  When I’m picking classmates blogs to comment on, all I can see is the title and maybe the first sentence or a picture.  One of my goals is to get more people to comment, and for that to happen, I first have to have more people read my posts.

The post that I feel best represents how I want to be as a blogger for this quarter is Man vs. Woman. Or is it Woman vs. Man? I feel pretty strongly about what I was blogging about, that women are really coming to the top.  I connected the post to an article from class, as well as to a class discussion.  The article and discussion had been conflicting because the article said women were rising, while our discussion of famous New Trier graduates was about only men except for one lady, the CEO of Playboy. I think it would have been a good post for people to comment on, but I can understand that maybe people were a bit overwhelmed because of the information I presented.

     I think blogging is a great way to further improve my writing, as well as to keep in mind the larger picture of the United States, and even larger, the world.  Not everything in my life should have to be about school, even though the blog ironically is.

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

      This doesn't really have anything to do with what we talked about in class, but it definitely has to do with the United States.  The other day my mom showed me an article from the Chicago Tribune about the national debt.  (I would link it but I couldn't find it anywhere... It's titled "The U.S. Debt: Zero In On This" in case anybody wants to look) The nation has a debt limit, which is $14.294 trillion.  That is a LOT of money.  On June 1, 2010, the U.S. was $13 trillion in debt and as of December 31, 2010, the U.S. was $14 trillion in debt.  That's $1 trillion in 7 months. $1,000,000,000,000. The Tribune did the math and that comes out to $54,084 per second that the U.S. loses.
     From what I've learned the government, specifically Obama and the Democrats are pushing for the limit to be increased, while Republicans are doing their best to keep it.  I'm not really sure where I stand on the issue, and I definitely don't know enough to pass a judgement.  What I do know is that $14.294 trillion is a LOT of money... It seems ridiculous to keep a government functioning at this rate if we lose money at the rate we are losing it.  What happens to the U.S. credibility and accountability in the world? When do people start to realize that the U.S. isn't the best investment, that maybe a place like China is?  Money doesn't grow on trees.

Man vs. Woman. Or is it Woman vs. Man?

     In class we were talking about New Trier alumni.  We talked a little bit about the wall that shows some old students and "Where They Are Now."  All five of the people there are currently college professors and three of the five were African Americans.  This topic led to the topic of a fundraiser New Trier is doing with a "Hall of Fame."  A group of five New Trier graduates were picked who supposedly represent our school's motto of "to commit minds to inquiry, hearts to compassion, and lives to the service of humanity." The five people chosen were Christie Hefner (the CEO of Playboy), Donald Rumsfeld ((in)famous politician), Rainn Wilson (a famous actor from the popular television show "The Office"), a guy who won the Nobel Prize in physics, and a humanitarian.  That was how the names were given to me.  I looked the last two up and found Jack Steinberger to be the Nobel Prize winner but I still have no idea who the other man is.

     As a class we started to talk about whether or not those people truly portray New Trier's motto.  It is my opinion that the Nobel Prize winner and the humanitarian definitely do, quite clearly representing the first and third part of the motto respectively.  But I don't know so much about the other three.  They were the names that people would recognize because they are famous, and I guess that's what a Hall of Fame should do but not necessarily under the facade of representing the New Trier motto.
     What struck me most though, is that in class we have also been talking a lot about women versus men.  We took an opinion quiz, a few of the questions being are girls more mature than boys? And, are boys inherently more curious and mischievous than girls? Then an article titled "The End of Men" was brought up.  It brings up the idea that the future of society might be more focused on women than men, and that women may be "better suited" to it.  I went home and read the article which was very long, but I also found it to be very interesting.
     Then when I thought back to class, I realized that only one out of five of the Hall of Famers is a woman and I don't know if any of the "Where Are They Now" people is a woman.  Maybe because it's the past, but it isn't that far into history.... Why aren't more of the representatives women?

Apples to Apples

On New Year's Eve I spent time hanging out with friends waiting to watch the ball drop.  We were playing the famous childhood game Apples to Apples and the word that we were describing was "American."  The cards played included words from "motorcycles,"to "George Washington" and "Abraham Lincoln."  Yet the winning description of American was the card that read "Super Bowl."
Now Apples to Apples isn't a game with correct answers, because one of the players is the judge who chooses which word he or she thinks goes best.  I found it interesting that football beat out two of the United States' most famous presidents...  How is that possible?
I probably would have chosen the Super Bowl if I had been the judge, too and that got me thinking about America's image.  Even though Apples to Apples is sometimes more about picking the funny answer than the true answer, I still think that football over presidents might reflect badly.  Pop culture over government...