#BotLivesMatter

The hybrid course Equality has assigned us students our second Action Project. This time, we head a bit into the future to teach a lesson about equality that relates to race, class, or gender. The goal is to write a news article from 100 years in the future. This unit, named "Herstory" (in contrast to the first unit, which was named history), focused on how equality should be executed. A challenge that initially faced me was the actual inception of what to write about, as nothing seemed to resonate with me and I wanted to do something unique considering it was from the future after all.

Chapter 17: Trayvon Martin

In the STEM course called Equality, we've been served a very unique dish, one that only made us hungry for more. In this Unit named History, we've studied just everything that true equality can impact and whether or not it's here. The Action Project for this unit has us creating our own chapter in a history text book. There were many challenges I personally faced, such as finding an appropriate subject matter that I felt relate to the class, however in the end, I've managed to choose something I  could expand upon greatly, especially considering the impact this event has made to our modern society. Just below you can read though this mock text book, enjoy.

The Power of a Smile

The second Action Project for my Journalism class has come around the corner, and it's requiring us to create our own podcast like recording, ranging from 3-5 minutes in length. Initially, we choice an iconic voice from the 1900s (the 20th century) and expand upon certain ideas of why we think they're so popular. My decision was to show just how influential Robin Williams can be, and his rise to fame as well as moments in fame were most prevalent in the 20th Century. However it was difficulty isolating which audio clips would be most effective, since he works very well with visuals alongside his acting, but initially, I'm proud of the outcome of this little podcast. You can have a listen for yourself, and just underneath the SoundCloud is its transcript. Thanks for reading!

Transcript

[Robin Willaims as Genie from Aladdin] [VG] [Robin Williams narrating a commercial for Apple’s iPad Air] [VG] [Williams] [(Zelda) Willaims] [Robin] [Zelda] [Robin] [Zelda] [Robin] [VG] [RD narrating] THE END

•So tell me, when your life passed in front of your eyes, did you go “I’m not that interesting”?... I would’ve done mouth to mouth but I don’t find you that attractive. -I bet that made you laugh a little bit, didn’t it? And if you were angry at something before, you’re probably not as mad now, right? That’s the power of a smile. *sentimental music kicks in* -See, the thing is, a smile works wonders. Especially when you make someone smile. Robin Williams was a person who knew that well; he tried so hard to spread joy because he understood what miseries could come to an individual when they’re down and really felt like they just got hit hard. He actually dealt with many problems himself, so he knows from experience the kind of suffereing one can go through. His passion for only being an entertainer goes so far as turning down most opprotuinties to advertise something. As a matter of fact, when Disney used his voice to sell Aladdin merchandise, he was furious, stating, “I don’t want to sell stuff. It’s the one thing I won’t do.” And as an apology, Disney sent him a Picasso painting estimated to be around $1 million. Yet ironically, he has participated in 3 advertisements, one for the Apple iPad Air, where he goes on about unity, clearly spreading a well intented message, and here’s part of it. He never advertised something if he didn’t believe in the positivity or potential for a product. *music fades* •We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. -And the only other 2 times, in a more relatable situation, he advertised his absolutely favorite video game series on 2 occasions alongside his daughter, who he has named after the series. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure had a special deal online and the commercial featured a multiplayer session featuring Willaims and his daughter, should he loose, he shaves the beard, which was sold as unexpected based on Zelda Willaims’ reaction. The next heartwarming advertisement boasts of the games ingenuity, but rather it refers to any hardships and challenges as a personal experience that Robin goes through for his very own royal destiny. •The first time I saw you, I knew we’d be Linked forever. For you I’d travel to the four corners of the world, I faced adversity. I became a hero. °Dad. •I even saved your kingdom-- °Dad. •Yes, Zelda? °Are you mixing me up with The Princess again?... •...Hard to say, you’re both pretty magical. *a slow calming piano tune is played* -Robin always wanted to make people laugh, and feel good. And for the most part, his roles in movies exemplified that, like in Patch Adams, or Mrs. Doubtfire. Willaims truly was an entertainer, whether it was utilizing stand up comedy or merely improvising in the recording studios or on set. *the piano fades* -And Robin wasn’t just loved by his audience, but the people he worked with too. His power to make people smile brings energy to any set he comes to, and many praise his uplifting nature that invites all to be at least a friend to him. But even so, you didn’t need to be right next to him for him to have an impact on your life… This story is one of a simple viewer’s, whose life was essentially saved by Robin’s impressively hilarious antics found. This is Suzanne’s story. ∆Growing up as an only child, in a very poor and severely abusive household –in the 70s and 80s– the only laughter and joy I experienced was when I was allowed to escape by watching my favorite television show: Mork & Mindy. I was particularly captivated and mesmorized by the then young actor potraying Mork, Robin Willaims. Whenever I watched his on-screen antics, I was able to forget my pain and fear and escape into each 30-minute comedic journey. Afterwards, I would gaze outside my bedroom window, wishing and hoping aliens really exsisted and ould some day whisk my away from my painful and lonely existence. I continued to seek solace, strength, and laughter through his numerous roles in what I consider to be the best feel-good movies of all time. Through his comedy, Robin taught me how to laugh and smile, chasing away the hurt, hopelessness, and helplessness I felt every day. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was saved by this comedic genius, and his death has left me feeling as if I lost my own chlidhood therapist and hero. Thank you Robin Williams, for being so instrumental and helping me to grow into the strong happy and sucessful woman I am today, and for bringing so much joy and laughter to the world. There will never be another, rest in peace, o’ captain, my captain. -A smile has a lot of power, and Robin Willaims was one of the many sources in the world. But he was the only few who wanted others to smile more than him. His passing is unfortunate, but a legend lives on in all of our hearts.

Citations: Music use • First track, "Wind Waker - Title Theme", Koji Kondo, Nintendo, 2002-2003 • Second track, "Ocarina of Time - Title Theme", Koji Kondo, Nintendo, 1998

Photojournalism

This new Senior year in GCE Lab School also means that of course the students experience new courses. This Journalism course is self-explanatory, as it revolves around journalism (the act of bringing news to the people through media of some sort). That being said, our first Action Project in this class revolved around writing out about 1000 words going off an interview with someone about the meaning of life, which is complimented by an image of them. Initially, the project gave me a bit of difficulties when coming up with questions, because I know that if I was asked one question, I would just go on and on explain as many points as I could, rather than allow for a question to ask for details. Of course I did manage to overcome this and provide you all with an article I wrote out here showing you what one my colleague's thoughts on what the meaning of life is. I hope you enjoy!

What is life? Or more specifically, what is the meaning of life? That’s quite the question, isn’t it? We can infer this in a multitude of ways; what is our purpose in life? Well that’s the question I asked to my good friends and cohort NVA. And after some time, and a lot of thought, he managed to think about an answer that satisfied him. So after taking an image inside of GCE, we went off to enjoy lunch at a nearby Mariano's. That’s where we conversed.

The way he went on about it was unique, the opposite of those who have existential crises. As my fellow senior classmate, our conversation was quite casual and relaxed. That is why I shall paraphrase much of it, but of I won’t distract from the main meaning of his sentences. He’s an only child who was actually adopted from Bulgaria, which is partially why I wanted to interview him specifically. Growing up –and still young– he’s had a much more unique experience than most others I know. His outlook on life would vastly differ from mine, for sure.

NVA's Cam Time, VG, 2016

The image (just above) as you can see is a picture of him fiddling with that there camera, which I found ironic considering the photojournalism taking place soon after. The image aligns with his affiliation to possibly work in either film or create street art (something that can only really be captured by a camera). The image itself was adjusted with the camera on my phone (the Galaxy J7) with a higher aperture (duration of the shutter staying open) so the image would appear brighter with less shadows. Having a clear picture that displays my interviewee as if they were simply standing there really brings out the more down to Earth thought process that doesn’t overcomplicate things, yet still deeply contemplates solutions and paths for the future. I didn’t ask him to pose or anything; he actually didn’t notice me taking a picture in the moment, and for me, that’s far better than staging or posing for a picture. To be yourself when a picture is taken of you is to be natural, organic even.

So that was the first question I asked. “What is the meaning of life?” and in a swift response, he answers, “Well, I think it’s to capture the good moments and enjoy it while it lasts.”

To me this was a more unexpected response considering his initial personality. I would’ve expected a more unsure reply, so I asked him to elaborate; he explains that “life is limited, so you have to at least enjoy yourself as you go on through it. It would be pointless to make yourself feel bad, so in a way, everyone’s purpose is to make themselves feel good. That’s basically the meaning of life.”

This response incidentally went great with the image I took before the interview, as he’s holding a camera, which can easily represent that photographers (and with him desiring to go into the film industry) capture and immortalize the best of moments in life. The main idea I got from that one answer is that you only have one life, so don’t worry and don’t waste it; make the most of what you have.

As the inquisition continued, I asked him whether or not that’s been his constant definition of life, as in whether or not it has changed over time. His initial reply went along the lines of “Well I guess before I used to think think it was much simpler, just don’t do bad stuff, like hurt anyone or lie. It sort of did evolve I guess.” The commotion at Mariano's provided a relaxed atmosphere as we ate lunch. I continued with a couple more questions, next asking “Well, how do you find purpose in life?” & this one proved a bit more difficult to answer. He addressed the question as being a bit redundant, but went on with answering claiming that “A purpose is never really defined, it’s only what your goals are aimed to be.” By this, I understood that he was claiming that purpose is an individualistic motivation that varies upon people. For example, someone’s purpose in life could be to eat the great food from the hot bar, or perhaps even to care for someone endearing.

Asking next about his beliefs, I asked if he found all life to be equal, and he swiftly gave and answer, stating that a life must be tainted in order to lose value. Next I asked of his morals, or more specifically, whether or not they’ve changed; as he thought, he soon replied saying that the only things that have really changed are his ideals about honesty, since the world can benefit from a small white lie every now and again. I followed up with asking if there was anyone in particular that influenced him –in other words, who/what would have been the thing to change said morals– and his response merely denied this possibility, stating that nobody specifically changed him, his mind merely evolved as he grew.

The next question I asked was “How have you solidified a purpose in your life; when was it that you came to an epiphany of such?” And so he went “I honestly grew over time, there was maybe a certain day or 2 where I realized that life wasn’t so simple and easy, but it was a very long process. I didn’t really see too much of my potential until I thought about entertaining others, which is why I’m doing my art with graffiti and potentially diving into film studies. I kind of just looked at what I was good at and said that it would be a great thing to focus on for my future.”

As the time for lunch came closer to ending, I prepared my last 2 questions for some exercise, as we started to walk back to the school. One of said questions asked about how he came up with that initial view of life, not necessarily the process, but the moments that helped him realize it. The reply was once again something more indirect, saying that not a singular thing was noteworthy enough to consider it commendable for influencing him. I actually can admire that about his outlook on life, because I always prefer to look at things from a neutral perspective myself, and for him to essentially say that life simple moves and you learn as you stride forward says, to me, that he doesn’t exaggerate or see only a black and white side to every situation, but that’s merely my interpretation.

Was the Bay of Pigs Invasion Justified?

Hello everyone once again, with another Action Project for the class called Policy. In the second project for this history and literature course, we've been tasked to refer to a war/conflict that the US has participated in and then broadcast our stand on whether or not we believe it was justified or not. The second unit itself revolved around the Executive branch of the government and how certain policies affected wars that the US may or may not have justly participated in. It was a challenge to single out a single conflict as the topic of war is very negative from my standpoint, but to only look at one side is without a doubt singling out a lot I can truly criticize. Anyway, without further ado, just below the picture you will find a written essay of my views regarding the Bay of Pigs Invasion, which happened in Cuba.

JFK picture; presidential library museum, 1962

1961, Cuba. 1500 exiles opposed the infamous Fidel Castro with an invasion that was supported via financial support from the U.S. government. However it was a few years before the incident occurred that is truly noteworthy, as Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista's reign of dictatorship. As of that start of 1959, relations between Cuba and the United States began to become a trifling matter. With Castro in charge, he claimed as much private property as possible, and much of that territory was owned by North American interests. Castro provided many hostile comments and claims such as the U.S. attempting to sabotage the newly establish government and time went on. It was a conflict from the start. President, serving the term of 1956-1960, Dwight Eisenhower was allowed to commit acts of retaliation as legislation passed such laws as of June in 1960. As America was cutting off purchases of sugar, soon following up with an embargo, only allowing the export of food and medicine to Cuban soil. As of January 1961, one of Eisenhower's final acts was to cut diplomatic ties with Cuba. There was great hostility between the 2 countries.

However every since May 1960, a great invasion was planned by the United State's CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and heavily debated with newly appointed president (at the time) John F. Kennedy. Eventually, succumbing to the proposition, the plan to invade was finally approved. 3 US-made airplanes bombed Cuban air bases, and then soon after, only a couple days, several Cubans trained by the US landed upon the "Bay of Pigs" on Cuba's South-Central coast. This series of events, albeit something Kennedy initially wished to condone against, forced him to issue out an "air-umbrella" as a plan of attack as Castro reacted with over 20,000 troops heading towards the beach, greatly overshadowing the 1100 men ordered out by the CIA's plans. Probably due to an altered time zone, the air umbrella attack plan arrives an hour late and is shot down... There were many prisoners, and plenty of casualties too.

The policy allowing the Invasion to happen was quite the large risk on Kennedy's part. With the CIA organizing such a hostile plan early on only made the act all the more questionable. However Castro was ready as his aggressive behavior did intimidate the United States, more specifically Eisenhower. This conflict really branched through 2 presidents, and Kennedy was truly thrown into the middle of things. Initially, I'd still personally say that for the size it grew into, the Bay of Pigs Invasion was far from justified. The United States went through a lot during that time, and Eisenhower essentially was making a new enemy hastily. JFK really seemed to have limited options, either wait for Castro's assault, or do what he can to prevent that by attacking first. The CIA's plan was disputed against several times, but Kennedy final saw no other option. If he were to be here today, there's no doubt that he too would say the conflict was unjustified. Now that's not to say Castro did nothing wrong, as confiscating the land was provoking a response from North America since it was privately owned as their's. Consequences of the Bay of Pigs Invasion resulted in hundreds of casualties, and the long term consequence was increased support for Castro, allowing him to continue what the CIA wished to stop.

Overall, the Bay of Pigs Invasion did not seem righteous in the slightest as the first issue was the seizing of already owned territory. Embargo and trade restrictions were made in response to Castro's actions, yet the escalation to violence the CIA decided upon was concerning even to Kennedy. It's possible that even Eisenhower had no clue of the CIA's intent. Honestly, it's even debatable as to whether or not the conception of such a plan was even legal for the CIA to create. The act of Castro taking land he didn't may have provoked the US, however regarding that issue, Eisenhower had an embargo set in place, so at that moment, it was still being taken care of. The act of violence was simply an escalation that did not seem to benefit the Untied States as much as it should have. It was as if America only had a hunch because there was known and obvious tension.

Citations:

• Bay of Pigs invasion, Encyclopedia Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, NA
• The Bay of Pigs, JFK Library, NA
• The Bay of Pigs Invasion, History Today, Micheal Dunne, NA
• Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Foreign Policy Journal, Karthik Gopalan, 2010

Code of Wrongduct

Argument's second Action Project is just around the bend, as we are going to correct our school's code of conduct in some way shape or form. The initial goal of this project is to add, remove, or change something from the code of conduct in a way we see fit. This unit itself reviewed the basics of each of the 3 branches of the government, with a hardy focus on the Dread Scott case. If you aren't familiarized with it, just know that the Dread Scott case was back in 1847-1857 as a slave attempted to fight for his freedom as he was a citizen, and had no owner. This case actually rose up to the Supreme Court, but initially, the court decided that Scott had no place stating this claim in the first place, for he was a black man who shouldn't have even gotten that far in the first place, or at least, that was the mentality. Going back to the Action Project, I will definitely say that it was quite challenging to think of a topic because I'm honestly fine with just about everything that the code of conduct states, to me it all seems quite fair. All in all, I was able to decide what I could revise from GCE Lab School's Code of Conduct, and just below, you can read all about it.

So initially, the Code of Conduct has a section labelled for levels of Disciplinary Action, and one of these 5 levels is contacting a parent. To be more specific, there's an early level that seems rather hasty for its early inclusion;
"How: Disciplinary Action Levels

The following summarizes the levels of disciplinary action which shall be enforced by the Disciplinary Council and appropriate school personnel with students who are in violation of the Code of Conduct. This hierarchy serves as a guideline for disciplinary action. Disciplinary action levels will be assessed on a case by case basis; this means that the spirit of the Code of Conduct is more important than the letter of it.

Level 1 ­ Verbal warning – School personnel that witness behavior will address the student verbally. Note: process of documents in Highrise student’s personal file (depending on severity and regularity of behavior). 

Level 2–Contact Parent/Guardian ­School personnel will contact parent/guardian when student is given more than 2 verbal warnings in a class period or a pattern of behaviour needs to be communicated to parents/guardians.

Level 3- Referral out of class to Co­Curricular Coordinator, School Counselor and/or Director to conduct a conference with the student. The Co­Curricular Coordinator, Director, and School Counselor determine that due to the frequency and/or severity of the behavior a Parent/Guardian will be contacted and one or more of these interventions will be used."*


*The list goes on, leading up to suspension and then expulsion

Now as GCE is a school that focuses a little more on student independence, mainly focusing on autonomy and accountability, it seems almost hypocritical to have just the second level be contacting a parent or guardian. Independence can not branch off when a student constantly has the attention of their parents at the wrong time. Of course communicating with parents or guardians is actually vital, but as stated up above, only after 2 verbal warnings is the idea of contacting the legal guardian now imminent. Assuming that the offense to the code of conduct is a large one, then of course it seem only natural, but minor offenses, or even missing assignments is usually followed by a short email to the parents. Now is when the 2 sides to this argument really shine out, because on one end, if you're struggling in class and require assistance but haven't reached out to anyone, this is a good way to notify some hopefully reliable people in order to help out the student in need. However, on the opposing side, many of these notifications can easily be misunderstood, and furthermore, be sent at a time just when the issue is about to be resolved.

Premises 1: GCE endorses an independent style of learning and prefers to have a display of autonomy, responsibility, and accountability.

P2: As students face level 2 of disciplinary actions, an almost hypocritical experience is had.

P3: The hierarchy of Disciplinary Actions may be necessary to determine what's appropriate for the student to be punished by.

P4: Students that misbehave are first addressed by staff, first casually, then more seriously, and the next level is legal guardian contact.

Conclusion: The transition from staff being involved to parent being involved is very unnoticeable, which I find unexpected since I'd assume working staff could easily account for a level 2.

The main point I want to get across is how easily or quickly contacting a parent is. It's almost as if it's simply jumped to as the first option, which doesn't align with the independence and autonomy that GCE encourages. My revision with the code would be a change in the levels of discipline. I would either add a sub level to break up Level 2 from one so it isn't as earlier, or better yet, switch around the current level 2 & 3 with each other. This keeps a more business styled environment that GCE is preparing their students for. The values of GCE revolve around gratitude, respect, autonomy, accountability, and responsibility. 3 of these 5 guiding traits –that act as pillars for the foundation of the school– revolve around being independent. Of course it is necessary to establish a system where the worse you act the higher th level of discipline, but to have what I believe is a much more severe level as only the second tier of punishment is rather extravagant. If anything, any and all staff interacts should be dealt with first, essentially changing the order in which it's dealt with.

Difficulty Curve, "gabahulk" (2016)

I've even asked for what my older brother thinks of the idea of parental contact so early, and his response, "Well, yeah, it's just too early. If you go from 0 to 100 in half a second, that's way too much of a spike. It has to be evenly distributed so there's no large gap to make an impossible leap over, or else that system would be too harsh, in my opinion. Plus, like... you said that your school wants the students to be more independent, right? That can't happen if parents are almost immediately contacted." Then proceeding to sign a small paper identifying that he agrees with the concept of changing the Code of Conduct, making a more appropriate ordered Disciplinary Action Level, after giving me that answer.

With that being said, I'll close this off with one final thought, I would even ask you what your preference of discipline is; allow some time for repair/learning from the mistake over time, or make things evidently clear with how there was some poor behavior the first time around?


¶ 1: Introducing the project and reviewing the course.
¶ 2: Giving context before the syllogism.
¶ 3: Premises and Conclusion analysis.
¶ 4: Initial argument based on my point of view.
¶ 5: Those who agree with my feelings on the subject.
C: A public question to identify preference.

Why Censorship Ruins Art

As this term at GCE is coming to a close, the third and final Action Project for the Fall 2015 term is all about an artist's statement. We use art to convey a message that we stand for and back it up with Rhetorical elements, devices, and appeals. But this art isn't just visual art, it can go to poems or even fashion, anything goes as art is such a wide medium that includes auditory and/or visual aspects. It was challenging to find the right topic on what to speak about, as I knew I wanted to use visuals to convey the message, but thinking of something I could passionately speak about what tough. Then when the idea of art censorship struck, I thought it was something I could use to my advantage in the best way. Overall, I was proud of the ironic art piece I made, which you can view just down below, along with my artist's statement.

—————————————————————————————————————

Art censorship is only acceptable under few circumstances, such as when broadcasting or displaying some medium from the past towards an audience of children. Other than that, it’s practically criminal to unreasonably censor art that was never intended to be child-friendly. Art, whether it be painting or animation, song or movie, has an intended effect upon its audience. I myself am a high student that’s greatly engaged in the arts, mainly visual, so I know what it feels like to have your work defiled by others, without consent, just to meet their own personal wants or needs. Art is a form of speech, as you’re sending out a message or tone that you heavily believe in, which is why censorship can be disrespectful to the artist. There’s even plenty of censorship or bans that blatantly destroys a positively intended message. In the Utah State University, some student made over 900 chalk drawing of hearts with anti-abortion messages inside of them. The police ordered them to clear it all up as it was considered vandalism, thus it followed under an act of censorship.

Now when someone’s hard work to exercise their freedom of speech and spread a good message is censored like that, can you really stay behind that idea? There’s allot of art out there that’s not intended for young ages, whether it’s visual or not. Just think of censored lyrics or poems that lose meaning when you’re forced to take out important aspects of the song or writing. Same goes with art. When it’s censored or banned, it’s automatically losing meaning or the artist is being stripped of their first amendment. There are some pluses to art censorship like making something safe for all audiences, but what if there’s a specific tone that’s wanted to be set by the creator? Is it really justified to censor something by destroying its message just to make it alright for children to see?

That’s why I’ve made this art piece, ironically, you have a bloody, gorey figure pointing down at the word “censorship” with his middle figure, meanwhile, a female graffiti artist is making word art with an obvious curse word, thus, tying together the message of disapproving censorship. This is meant to have an aggressive feel to it, as it should make you feel angry! Just think about you, you’re passionately speaking about an issue that needs more exposure, and as you’re emphasizing the seriousness of it, someone deems it unworthy for the public eye. Wouldn’t it infuriate you if your music, art, book, speech, poem, or simple comment was smacked out of existence by someone because they think others will take it offensively? So using a 0.9mm #2 lead pencil (Bic), and of course standard printing paper (8.25in x 11.75in), along with a simple eraser that’s on the mechanical pencil, I’ve made a visual art piece that demonstrates what exactly censorship takes away.

Anti-Censorship, VG, 2015

And this isn’t just a modern topic about our current generation of art, think about every single image that represent the bible, or even just lines of text. Hell is a realm in which corrupt souls are damned to after death. That’s a completely serious tone as it infers that Hell is a place of suffering for sinners, giving incentive for people to treat thy neighbor as they would treat thyself. Now imagine if “Hell” was simply known as the very bad place where bad people go and have bad things happen. Censorship dumbs things down to an unacceptable level of simplicity. It really doesn’t represent the true meaning of the message because it’s not allowed to have any suggestive text that relates to any topics that people over the age of 8 would know about. Death, suffering, pain. We all know what these things are and that humanity encounters it all. Sex, drugs, violence. Issues that practically revolve the globe as we need to be education about these things so that we don’t end up hurting ourselves in the future. Now if people simply hide these topics and concepts to younger minds forever, how will they react and/or what options will they have when they do encounter these problems?

It’s a given that certain things in media should be censored for the sake of trying not to influence children to use things that they’re not allowed to do yet (since they’re still developing minds), but when you harm an artist’s life by banning their work because you deem it inappropriate, well that’s just wrong, damn wrong, if I may. Visual arts are meant to connect to others by images, and powerful imagery comes at the price of sensitive topics that only mature people can handle. Music is meant to connect to the listener through a usage of relatable topics, and when there’s a lot of messed up crap on this Earth like abuse, war, and discrimination, one can only try to avoid using mature language. Did you notice? It’s that word again. Mature. The word that describes those who know how to act in certain situations based on knowledge and/or experience. Sometimes, things in writing need to utilize hyperboles or similes, metaphors, and analogies to adult topics. I myself exaggerated upon what exactly should and shouldn’t be censored through my art. The most extreme vulgarity, “fuck” and the most extreme suggestive theme/sexual content (nudity), which are both ironically censored.

If I had to choose a specific place for my art to be displayed, I would hope it would be out on the streets as that’s the style that I aimed for and street art is often accused of being pure vandalism that features everything that most people would want censored as it’s out in public. With that, I hope that you have a new perspective on what’s censored nowadays, since there are indeed adult topic in the bible, so why should artists have to restrain themselves?

Cited Works:

Utah State University students claim censorship over anti-abortion chalk art on campus, by Tamara Vaifanua, Fox News [Salt Lake City], October 1st, 2015

6 Artists Who Were Banned, Censored or Arrested by Conservatives, by  Julianne Escobedo Shepherd/AlterNet, January 3, 2011

Do the Impossible, See the Rhetorical

The second Action Project for the class Rhetoric, and it's our assignment to analyze some form of text in a rhetoric way, looking for Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. It was also necessary to search for rhetoric and sound devices, which worked well for me since I chose a song, which was a rap-opera hybrid. It was, however, challenging to fit together the pieces as well as annotate the text fully, since Google Drive doesn't allow free text movement, meaning that I had to manually move the annotations. Aside from that, I can proudly say that once again, an anime has assisted me in my school life and this was one of my favorite songs I've ever listened to, so it all worked out in the end. You can view a Prezi of my take on the project just down below.

The Epidemic of Academics

Kicking off junior year here at GCE, and I'm in the class Rhetoric,  a class that revolves around several writing techniques, with unit 1 being about Rhetoric Appeals/Devices, like pathos, ethos, logos, and figurative forms of speech, such as metaphors. For this Action Project, our assignment was to create a short speech that effectively utilizes these appeals. One big challenge for me was how I'd approach the video recording, as I wasn't quite sure what kind of tone I wanted to evoke. Overall, it was a decent challenge to where I ended up being proud of what I came up with. That being said, you can find the transcript to the video just below it, including citations, and I hope you enjoy.

The Epidemic of Academics:

Tests. No one likes ‘em. No one enjoys having to study, taking up their free time, spending hours on end reading and re-reading notes and excerpts just to be sure you can memorize everything you may or may not even need to know for a test. Are tests really even the best way to evaluate a student?

Think of the successful icons of the United States who actually weren’t exemplary students. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln. Yes, you heard me, one of the heads on Mount Rushmore, who helped abolish slavery back in 1863, didn’t get a college degree. He was self-taught in trigonometry and read the book Blackstone to become a lawyer. (Top 100 Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded Without A College Degree, Paul Hudson, Elite Daily, March 13, 2013) Another well known entrepreneur is James Cameron, who dropped out of college, before becoming one of the most famous movie directors ever. And incidentally, even Walt Disney himself dropped out of high school at the age of 16, yet he went on to become, well–Walt Disney. Even in more contemporary times, people in America have successful lives without degrees, or even without graduating from high school. The founder of Tumblr, David Karp, has become as successful as he is after dropping out of highschool at the age 15, having never earned a college degree.

With these individuals in mind, how can we be sure that testing, and debatably the entire American school system, is an effective way to evaluate students for future success? I myself am a student, and my highschool is actually quite the unique one. Straying away from conventional teaching methods, GCE (Global Citizenship Experience) uses many alternate techniques for work submission and grading. Now speaking from personal experience, an example of this is when we reach the end of a unit and create a project to reflect upon what we’ve learned.

Testing provides stressful situations and anxiety, and Concordia Online points out plenty of other flaws with frequent testing, too. Frequent testing only multiplies the stress and anxiety I mentioned earlier, and many of those tests are multiple choice, which are critiqued for being too simplistic  [“the U.S. average mathematics score (481) was lower than the average for all OECD countries (494)”] (How does the achievement of American students compared to that of students in other countries? U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, 2015)]. And if every student is out there learning exactly they need to know for another lengthy test, then less time being spent on learning innovative techniques and answering open ended questions. But even when preparing for those thousands of equations and word problems, the U.S. average math scores are still lower than all the other OECD countries like Canada and Mexico (which are our neighbors, you know).

So, I repeat, as a student, and based on the facts; Are tests really the best way to determine academic skill? Are test actually effective? Are tests even worth doing? It’s like eating candy that you don’t even enjoy.

Sources
http://elitedaily.com/news/business/100-top-entrepreneurs-succeeded-college-degree/

http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/news/do-standardized-test-show-an-accurate-view-of-students-abilities/

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1