D.A.R.E.

It has been many years since I, myself, had to go through the D.A.R.E. program at my elementary school, but I remember it quite clearly. It was the most exciting part of the year. All of the little fifth graders got so excited because we got to say words that we were never aloud to say before, so when our officer told us to scream those words at the top of our lungs it was exhilarating. And while I think that the program is a fantastic idea, and it probably scared a lot of kids away from drugs and alcohol, the program had virtually no effect on any of the students. Maybe that is because I saw our officer, who was teaching us all about the awful effects of smoking, smoking cigarettes outside of her squad car one day. That was ironic. But as a senior in high school, whenever we talk about D.A.R.E. now it is the punchline of a witty joke. I've even seen people wear there D.A.R.E shirts as a joke, or a D.A.R.E. shirt party were everybody gets together wearing the shirts and basically defaces them with what they are doing. So no, the idea of scaring fifth graders out of their wits did not work at all. I think that there are many better ways of going about the D.A.R.E. program, ways that don't involve scare tactics. Because, simply put, D.A.R.E. was a lie. I know that now, and so does everybody else.

Rules and Logic: Two Conflicting Forces in Gym Class

Over the last couple weeks in Gym class I have been having some serious problems with the new Heart-rate monitors. Once every week we go into the weight room and we wear these high tech straps that can access our heart rate as we work out on the machines. Also, we are graded based off of how high or low our heart rate jumps around. It sounds like a fantastic idea, and a great way to grade kids in gym class, but it isn't. I work out every day, and i would say i i'm n above average shape, so for me, getting my heart rate up is very hard. Especially when you only have 15 minutes to be graded on. Heres what really gets to me. I asked my teacher if I could just run for 15 minutes, on an 7.0 speed, with an incline, which is a great workout for anybody. I asked if I could do that and receive 4 our of 4 points for the day, and my teacher told me no. You see, i've tried many times to get the 4 out of 4 points by using the heart rate straps, but its just not possible. Last week I ran for 8 minutes and then went all out on the rowing machine for another 7, only to get my heart rate up to a 70 percent. I received 1 out of 4 points while there were other students sitting on the bikes just barely pedaling and getting 4 out of 4's for the day. There is no logic. I think what it comes down too is the department not being able to admit to their faults, which are these heart rate monitors, and the teachers having to go through with the demands of the department chairs. But why I cant just earn the points by running, when he knows i wont be cheating or getting around the workout in any way, thats beyond me.

Yik-YakGate

Interestingly, last week I chose to blog about my feelings on technology in the classroom. They are overwhelmingly negative in almost every way. Just yesterday the Yik Yak mobile app exploded at my high school. I would say that 9 out of every 10 students was talking about it by D-Lunch, every teacher was talking about it too. The app is basically an anonymous chat room with everybody within 5 miles of you, everybody who has downloaded the app. It started small, apparently people had been Yacking for a week or so, but just yesterday it caught on and seemingly instantly the app was exploding with posts, hundreds of them coming one after the other. Here is the trouble: most of the posts were horribly inappropriate, or racist, or included unspeakable things about specific people. There is nothing on the app that restricts the use of names. These are actual names, people I know, teachers at my school, and everybody who was Yacking was posting these awful things about them.

I first heard the word Yik Yak in 5th period, and must of heard it a thousand times after that. That really is not an over exaggeration. While many people were cracking up, laughing at the things that people were anonymously posting about other people, I didn't even download the app. I didn't want to support the evil that the app brought, so I chose to not even bother downloading it. Honestly, im not surprised that it happened, but I am disappointed. I know, firsthand, that there are awful people at this school who are irrationally mean hearted, those people are everywhere, but to see it is always shocking. To see my peers using the N-word, calling girls whores, making up nasty lies about teachers, its shocking. At times society feels like its moving forward, learning from its mistakes, but something like this proves the exact opposite. I hope that im not grouped in to some massive generalization about the students at my high school, because I in no way support or supported what happened yesterday.

The Problem With Technology

A couple days ago, on Facebook, I started to notice these Facebook groups designed specifically for the students of a future graduating class of a college. "University of Illinois Class of 2018" would be an example. At first I thought this was really cool. I mean, its like opening a gift up the night before christmas, its very exciting. But at the same time, your just ruining something that is meant to be a surprise. To me, it just doesn't sound right. That is why I feel like technology is, in school at least, a ridiculous and unnecessary strain on the mind. Maybe Im just bad with technology, but to me, I can honestly say that we don't need it, and we should have little to none of it. 

For math class this year every single student in any math class had to purchase a 200 or so dollar calculator. The TI-NSPIRE. Which is apparently the calculator of the future. The only problem is that none of the teachers know to use them or want to use them. Neither do the students. Well I bought the calculator by the first day of school, unlike about a third of my class, and I didn't use it once for 3 months after that. We had a long term substitute teacher and she never checked, so nobody used them. Now, we are strictly required to use them everyday, which nobody knows how to do, and it has resulted in me learning much less math and hearing many more complaints about the calculators. Thats probably the result of the higher power telling them that they need to use the Calculators because they were getting so many complaints. I also couldn't use it on any tests or quizes.

In 8th grade math class my teacher and all of her colleagues received their very own SmartBoards. These 3000 dollar costing chalkboards were written on with this expensive pen that could connect with the internet in the SmartBoard or something. She once actually made a phone call to the SmartBoard hotline to ask a question in class. It was little things like that that added up to a huge waste of time in which I barely learned the Pythagorean Theorum. 

There are smaller things too, like having to turn papers in online, or only seeing your grades online, no physical report card, feel unnecessary as well. The last thing a high school senior needs is stress, and that is what technology causes in high school.

Technology

I looked up in homeroom a couple of days ago and, I kid you not, every single student had their head down and was glaring into the screen of their phone. Every single student, probably 15 or so were entranced and there was little to no talking going on. This is not right. Technology should never be this kind of a thing, that is accessed at all times of the day, anywhere, everywhere. I pride myself on not having to take out my phone every minute of every day, but I am often tempted. The effect of technology in society is everywhere, you just have to look up. What surprised me the most was not the fact that the students were all on their phones, but that my 2 homeroom teachers were both on their phones as well, looking at sports and what not. It has become too much. Not only does it annoy me greatly, but it also worries me. What does the future hold? If we have made such a big jump in such a short time, how is technology going to play into my life 20 years from now? What about 50 years? It is incredible to think about the endless potential, but equally scary to think about the possible trouble that can come with this technology.

Sexual Assault

Sexual Assault is a crime that does not simply apply to one group of people, that is what makes it so interesting and complex in discussion. We spent all of class yesterday talking about one specific case in which a girl was raped by two boys, but the vise versa of that could happen just as well. While sexual assault on women is the usual, there are plenty of other cases where this is not what is happening. For example, "Decades of Catholic Church sexual abuse tragedies, the Boy Scouts, Penn State, rape in correctional facilities, sexual assault in the military, recurring episodes at high schools around the country are all examples of entitlement to rape in the face of institutional tolerance," writes  Soraya Chemaly, author of "5 ways sexual assault is really about entitlement." I find this interesting because people would never dare joke about date rape, or any man raping a woman, that would be ridiculous and unheard of. However, I can barely go a day without hearing somebody make a joke a rape in the boy scouts, or in prison (Don't drop the soap), and especially in the Catholic church. Why? I have to ask. How can this possibly be acceptable? Cheamly puts it perfectly, she uses the phrase, "institutional tolerance." That is exactly why we joke about it, because it is tolerated. Rape should never, under any circumstances be tolerated.

In the blog, "Yale Fails To Expel Students Guilty Of Sexual Assault" by Tyler Kingkade, I read about how Yale allowed for six students who had been found guilty of nonconsensual sex to keep living on the Yale campus after the findings. "Yale spokeswoman Karen N. Peart said the university does not tolerate sexual misconduct, but said the school won't discuss the specific cases," but how is that not tolerating what is happening? I think that a large part of this is protecting the legacy that an Ivy league school like Yale beholds, not to mention the money that they need to keep the school up and running. Here is where prioritization comes into play, people need to really slow down and think about which priorities matter and which don't. A blatant assault of any person, man or woman, should rank high above anything else, period. But it doesn't always, and that is the tragedy. To be honest, I do not know what we are really debating here. The issue is sexual assault, and it is an incredibly large issue, everywhere. It is wrong, it is awfully wrong, but the truth is that there are people out in the huge world that are really messed up, for lack of a better word, crazy, and they will sexually assault women or young boys. Instead of ignoring that, lets acknowledge it and fight it. The only way that I can figure is to open our eyes. We all know the truth but we just need to act on it. The people making the decisions for Yale are not helping the cause, they are making it much, much worse. Their priorities are all wrong. The right thing for them to do, in my mind, would be to force those students who committed the sexual crimes out. There can be no toleration if we want any true progress.

Big Trouble in Little Sochi

These 2014 winter games have been filled with excitement, but also filled with plenty of drama. I have always loved the winter Olympics. While many find it boring I enjoy watching these incredible athletes as they take on their frozen tundra's and compete in the cold. The drama surrounding these Olympics really has nothing to do with the athletes, or the athletics either, everybody seems to be talking about the setting. While the country is struggling to feed all of their citizens, Putin has chosen to spend billions and billions of dollars on new arenas and venues for the games. Here the catch, they cant even fill the stadiums up. Every Olympics I have seen in the past the stadiums have been filled to the brim with excited fans, roaring and cheering for their countries. When I watch the Sochi games I have seen a dormant audience. The few fans that are at the events are cheering but they are not even close to the intensity I have seen in the past. More controversy surrounds these games too. Russia does not allow gay right to be promoted, which is completely against my morals, but also against the morals of many of the people watching the games. All and all, Sochi was not the best choice of venues at this time of change and progression.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2014, the World Cup will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This competition is surprisingly similar to this winter's Olympics. Both feature struggling countries, especially Brazil, where the slums of Rio are in some places beyond belief. Yet, the government decided to spend an outrageous amount of money on massive stadiums, attractions, or anything else that could make their events stand out. This is the same money that could be spent on helping the starving, feeding the hungry, curing the sick, or really any act of good. Granted, the World Cup will bring great attention and tourism to the country, but that is not always a good thing. It just seems like the priorities are not set, what is really most important is being pushed back further and further.