Since we are diving into the Abortion unit now, I thought it was appropriate to share a personal connection. My sister is 19 years old and attends Indiana University. She is a sophomore in college and she has a friend (same age) who is not in college, but very very pregnant. When I heard about this news, my jaw dropped. Here she is, at the beginning of her adult life, already committed to taking care of a young, not to mention, dependent, life and she does not even know what's coming to her. After hearing this, I thought a lot about abortion. Yes, she did marry the father of the child, and yes, they both have jobs to support themselves, but it definitely is in the question to consider abortion as a solution to this baby situation.
I was, am, and forever will be, pro- choice and pro- abortion. I believe that any woman has the right to choose what happens to her own body. And I do not know if the girl who is pregnant had even considered having an abortion, because honestly, I'm too afraid to ask. I don't want to make things uncomfortable because I feel like a bond between a mother and her fetus is very important, no matter if the mother decides to abort the fetus or let it continue living.
Yes, abortions are lifesavers when a pregnant mother is in danger or when someone gets raped, but I think it is also a lifesaver when someone just happens to get pregnant. There is no guaranteed form of birth control to make sure a person is not conceived after having sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. Some Pro-life arguments might say that I don't have high enough regards for a life because I am pro- abortion even if the woman was not raped.
What is worse?
A woman (not being raped) but forced to keep her child if she does not want it and the child learns from the mother that teen pregnancy is okay, so the cycle continues, OR aborting a baby because the mother wants that to happen and have it happen safely. The amount of mothers who were happy they received an abortion (for any reason) greatly exceeds the number of mothers who regret their abortion. In some ways, the second scenario is actually saving a child because it would have been born into possibly a bad neighborhood or even abused or neglected as it grew up. No one wants to live that way.
I think Pro-life activists need to rethink their argument a little bit. They need to provide a solution for children who are unwanted and who cannot fit into an orphanage or loving family. If there is no solution, then who will take care of the baby? The Pro- life activists? YOU wanted it in this world, so it's YOUR responsibility now. Right?
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Connecticut Shooting
On December 14, 2012, a 20 year old man went on a shooting rampage that the world will never forget. 28 people were killed, including 20 children at a school in Connecticut. I heard about this when I was at school, and when I came home I watched a 20/20 special on the event. I felt so much grief for the friends and family of the lost ones, but I never felt a close connection to the story until last night.
Our family goes to Wisconsin every year for the annual Hannukah party with my mom's whole side of the family. We eat, celebrate, and enjoy each other's company. I never really thought this would all connect to a news story I heard, but it really hit me hard. I was sitting in the basement of my cousin's house, playing legos with 4 kids who were all under the age of 6. They were piecing together the legos and they were so quiet and innocent while they were doing it. What if it had been one of my cousins that was killed by a heartless lunatic? How come these kids in Connecticut had to suffer due to the unfortunate life of one man? I cannot imagine how do deal with this tragedy.
I finally felt the connection to the news story. Fact is, everyone who is near children or knows them or has them, has a connection to the news story also. We need to make these kinds of events stop, but I don't think there is one solution to this. We should invest more money in mental institutions and tests and stop pointing the finger at gun control problems. These kinds of things are trending in the news and I hope this is the last of them.
Our family goes to Wisconsin every year for the annual Hannukah party with my mom's whole side of the family. We eat, celebrate, and enjoy each other's company. I never really thought this would all connect to a news story I heard, but it really hit me hard. I was sitting in the basement of my cousin's house, playing legos with 4 kids who were all under the age of 6. They were piecing together the legos and they were so quiet and innocent while they were doing it. What if it had been one of my cousins that was killed by a heartless lunatic? How come these kids in Connecticut had to suffer due to the unfortunate life of one man? I cannot imagine how do deal with this tragedy.
I finally felt the connection to the news story. Fact is, everyone who is near children or knows them or has them, has a connection to the news story also. We need to make these kinds of events stop, but I don't think there is one solution to this. We should invest more money in mental institutions and tests and stop pointing the finger at gun control problems. These kinds of things are trending in the news and I hope this is the last of them.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Online Books for Classes
It's a tad bit cliche, but this generation really is growing up in a technology run world. Even learning, which seems so basic and traditional, is turning into something that makes us dependent on all types of battery-operated monitors, hard drives and websites. This first and only textbook I have read online was the book for my sophomore year AP Psychology class. I knew it would be a lot different, even though it was still very expensive like a normal bound textbook. There's that sense that it is cool to have online textbooks, you don't need to drag your textbook around everywhere, but you do need a way to access it online. Most online textbooks I'd imagine require using the internet to get to, and when there is no internet, you are out of luck.
I don't know If I am "for" or "against" these new online textbooks. Why have only some curriculums switched over and others haven't? The textbook companies still make money if the version is online, so why switch over in the first place? It is a great way to save paper, and there is unlimited data out there in the cyber world, but is it more convenient for students? I think we will have to wait and see. One of the big problems I see with online textbooks is that textbooks are meant to be read, and this reading session could be anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours. That is 20 minutes to 3 hours staring at a computer/ipad/phone screen that really strains your eyes. Also, the computer is a distracting device. When you need to go on the internet to access a textbook, it is so easy to click "New Tab" and open up, for example Facebook, or your email, or whatever have you. As opposed to reading a traditional textbook, there is no diverting your attention from the actual book because it is the only information being provided, unlike the internet.
I hope that in the future they find a good medium between heavy textbooks and online textbooks that could hurt students focusing ability and strain their eyes.
I don't know If I am "for" or "against" these new online textbooks. Why have only some curriculums switched over and others haven't? The textbook companies still make money if the version is online, so why switch over in the first place? It is a great way to save paper, and there is unlimited data out there in the cyber world, but is it more convenient for students? I think we will have to wait and see. One of the big problems I see with online textbooks is that textbooks are meant to be read, and this reading session could be anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours. That is 20 minutes to 3 hours staring at a computer/ipad/phone screen that really strains your eyes. Also, the computer is a distracting device. When you need to go on the internet to access a textbook, it is so easy to click "New Tab" and open up, for example Facebook, or your email, or whatever have you. As opposed to reading a traditional textbook, there is no diverting your attention from the actual book because it is the only information being provided, unlike the internet.
I hope that in the future they find a good medium between heavy textbooks and online textbooks that could hurt students focusing ability and strain their eyes.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Inappropriate or Not? Mixed Signals From Schools
I was sitting in English class on Thursday, discussing the book we just finished (The God of Small Things) and a funny thing came up. There was a scene about incest in it, and my teacher stopped the discussion and mentioned that this book was actually banned at the early stages of it's being published, because of the inappropriate scene and message that it was explaining. This got me thinking about the reason that books get banned from schools or communities in general. I read a great article called "Banned Books: A School Librarian's Perspective" from Time Magazine. This is the link to the online article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,55630,00.html
It was this librarian's responsibility to choose which books were not suitable to be in the school library because they were not appropriate for the school environment. The librarian says, "The hardest part of the job is to constantly keep in balance all viewpoints, not push my own agenda and remember that the education and safety of all of the students is my top priority." I never really thought about this. It would be hard to choose which books were allowed to be kept because of my own personal opinions about some books. If there was one about, let's say, "How to be a terrorist" then of course I would not allow this book but that is because terrorism hits close to home being a Jewish American who has visited Israel and seen the bombs in Syria. Yet, a different school, somewhere where terrorism was encouraged, would never ban this book because it was useful in the curriculum. All I'm saying is that I am against banning books, but if it had to be done I would have a hard time not keeping personal bias's out of the selection process.
This ban of "inappropriate materials" can also be applied to other departments of a school including painting a nude portrait, or doing a provocative dance move during a dance show performance.
Why can we read a book in school with a swear word in it, yet we cannot swear on our weekly broadcast of WDHS? I never understood this. For the rest of our lives we will be exposed to conflicting opinions, physical inappropriateness and overall immaturity of people in society. Why hide it from us if it is inevitable to be in our lives at some point? The percentage of people who these "banned" books would have affected is much smaller than the percentage who would have read it from school and not have had a second thought about it. I think this must be put into consideration when banning a book.
It was this librarian's responsibility to choose which books were not suitable to be in the school library because they were not appropriate for the school environment. The librarian says, "The hardest part of the job is to constantly keep in balance all viewpoints, not push my own agenda and remember that the education and safety of all of the students is my top priority." I never really thought about this. It would be hard to choose which books were allowed to be kept because of my own personal opinions about some books. If there was one about, let's say, "How to be a terrorist" then of course I would not allow this book but that is because terrorism hits close to home being a Jewish American who has visited Israel and seen the bombs in Syria. Yet, a different school, somewhere where terrorism was encouraged, would never ban this book because it was useful in the curriculum. All I'm saying is that I am against banning books, but if it had to be done I would have a hard time not keeping personal bias's out of the selection process.
This ban of "inappropriate materials" can also be applied to other departments of a school including painting a nude portrait, or doing a provocative dance move during a dance show performance.
Why can we read a book in school with a swear word in it, yet we cannot swear on our weekly broadcast of WDHS? I never understood this. For the rest of our lives we will be exposed to conflicting opinions, physical inappropriateness and overall immaturity of people in society. Why hide it from us if it is inevitable to be in our lives at some point? The percentage of people who these "banned" books would have affected is much smaller than the percentage who would have read it from school and not have had a second thought about it. I think this must be put into consideration when banning a book.
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