Replaying Events in a Historical Cycle

My picture shows a man, Luis Ramirez, who was beaten and killed by white high school football players because of his race. They said anti-Mexican remarks to him and then hit and kicked him until he passed out unconscious on the floor. This shows how we as a country are replaying events in a historical cycle. When we looked at the “Rethinking Race in the Classroom” worksheet, a teacher stated that since now we have a black president, “there is a certain sector of the country that now feels racism is over”. Teachers didn't want to read books like Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird because of the use of racial slurs. People think, what's the point of teaching kids about racism if there's a Obama in the white house. Well, clearly, racism is not over. There were race hate crimes in the past, like when Ted Landsmark was beat up in the Soiling of Old Glory because he was black, there are race hate crimes now, and there will be race hate crimes in the future.

The Famous of New Trier High School

Earlier this week in AIS, Mr. O'Connor mentioned the bulletin board in our school: the "Look Where They Are Now!" board which proudly displays what former students of New Trier are doing now. The only thing is, this board doesn't display ordinary grown men and women who are living ordinary lives and work ordinary jobs, this board shows only the famous people that came out of New Trier, like Rainn Wilson. Why would New Trier only put celebrities? I think it's to show that we're the kind of school that can produce famous people. It makes us that much better than any other school. I also think that we have this board because it attracts families and their children to want to go our school. Who wouldn't want to go to a school that produces celebrities? Although it's really cool that all of these great people came out of New Trier, I don't personally don't think it's a good idea to flaunt New Trier to that great of an extent. Someone in our class said that every once in a while they change the board to show regular former New Trier graduates-people that went on to be teachers at New Trier. I think they should display these kinds of graduates more often.

Why do you think we have a celebrity New Trier graduate board? Do you think it's appropriate?

The American Flag Part 2

Going back to my last week's post and this week's task of taking an original photograph of an American flag, I went around taking pictures of flags. First, I asked my dad where we keep our flag when it's not up on our house on the 4th of July. The result is the picture below: we keep it rolled up and dusty in our basement.

As I wrote in my last blog post, my family is not big with the American flag. After finding the flag in my house, I drove around nearby neighborhoods, searching for flags on houses. When I came to the house below, I was shocked when I saw a tall flag pole with the American flag in the front yard.

I have seen flag poles before, but in places like fire departments, police stations, schools...etc. Never in a front yard of a small house. It made me realize what a contrast stood between my family's "flag" and their flag. We never take ours out, and this house probably has it out 24-7, 365 days a year. It's really interesting to see which houses/families have their flags up. I think the main question is why certain houses have flags up and why others don't.

What do you think? Does it matter if the house is big or small?

The American Flag

Today in class we discussed the flag and what it meant to us. Honestly, for me and my family, I don't think we're very patriotic. Not that we are un-patriotic, but we don't have mugs with flags on them, we don't have flag napkins or flag plates, we don't have a flags in any rooms in our house. The only time we put up a flag outside of our house is on 4th of July. Some people might think that's terrible, but really, I don't think a flag means that much. It's a piece of fabric that has a pretty design on it. I think a lot of students are grown up thinking the flag is a big deal. That's it is the "norm" to respect and worship the flag. For me, even though I grew up in that same environment in school, I don't think the same way. Maybe because the flag isn't a big deal in my household.

How do you view the flag in your household?

JT-2

Last week, I was having difficulty starting my paper. Yesterday, however, I was able to write some of my intro and part of my first body paragraph. I decided I just needed to sit down on the computer and write something, even if it wasn't good. My why question is Why is drinking seen as a norm in college?/Why is it such a large part of college? I want my first body paragraph to be about college drinking traditions from when alcohol was sold to 18 years olds My next topic will be what is called the perceived thought of drinking: the thoughts of incoming freshmen on how much drinking goes on in college. My last topic will be based on the culture in college/why people drink in college. I'm glad I have something going, but I'm worried that the essay won't flow very well.

Junior Theme

For my junior theme, I think I am on the right track but I still am at a dead end in some things. First, I'm having trouble finding articles that go along with my topic. There are a lot of articles on the effects of college drinking, but none on why drinking is so common in college. Also, I don't understand how we can write a thesis already if we're still researching. I have a lot of information, but I'm not done accumulating it and I still need time to analyze and come up with a conclusion. I tried starting my intro but I couldn't even think of an opener or a grabber.

Does anyone have any suggestions on articles or on the introduction?

Drunk Europeans?

For my Junior Theme, I am researching alcohol drinking and why it's viewed as a norm for college. It was suggested for me to do some research on the drinking culture for European students, since the minimum drinking age across Europe is 16-18 years old. Before starting my research, I assumed that students there drink in moderation, because (as it said in the article I was to later read), "they have wine at the dinner table with their parents from an early age....alcohol is not a forbidden substance there". Here is the link to the article: http://ntesx01-lic.nths.net:2062/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2006081800&type=hitlist&num=0. As it turned out, that article proved me wrong. It stated that youths in Europe drink nearly twice as heavily as teens in the United States, along with other statistics. This surprised me a lot. Whenever someone mentions Europe and drinking, I never think of them to have more binge drinking teenagers than the U.S. I always thought of them as sophisticated and wise when it came to alcohol, largely due to the fact that wine and other drinks are incorporated into their lives at such an early age.

Are you surprised by the article as much as I was? What were your European stereotypes when it came to drinking?