Non Fiction Blog: 3.1 Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor

            The author brings up a great point on not helping the poor nations every time in need. If the rich nations always help the poor nations then the poor ones will never learn how to deal with adversity. The poor nations will sit there just waiting for the richer nations to help them out. This seems harsh to just sit by and pretend like they aren’t suffering but they have to learn to make plans for the problems.

            The author uses a great metaphor with talking about the Earth being a spaceship but people want the Earth to be a lifeboat. This is very powerful because first the author talks about how a spaceship needs a captain and Earth right now has no captain. This means that the Earth has no one to lead the way on plans to help the poorer nations out.

            With the lifeboats the problem is immediate. A lifeboat can only save so many people in the first place which leaves people out already. The next thing is how can we decide who gets to be put on the lifeboat to be safe. That is too hard because there are so many possibilities to think about that the person cannot decide. Now looking at the idea of a lifeboat shows that no matter how hard the people try there will be people left out to starve.

            That is why the nations that are going through hardships should be left out to figure it out. This will create more nations to back away from having their hands held and be more self-reliant. Being more self-reliant will create more prosperous nations and create a better Earth to live on.

            The other problem with trying to help the poor nations is that some reproduce faster than some. This would be unfair on food distribution because it could be a ten to one ratio since one nation has a bigger population. That is not fair especially if the nation that is the one is producing all the food and the nation getting food for ten is doing nothing. This is more hurtful to the country putting in the hard work compared to the nation doing nothing.

            That nation that reproduces faster doesn’t mean they will keep their Earth clean. This brings up the point than why help them out if they do not want to help save the Earth. This Earth is what supplies the land to be able to produce the food that the nation needs to survive.

            The author talks about something similar to this and the author calls it tragedy of the commons. The author talks about if we combine with other nations and a farmer has this land that holds only 50 cows but this land is available to everyone than it is hard to keep the land good. The reason is if five farmers live on this land and all of them own 50 cows than the land will be overgrazed by the cows. This will lead to erosion and make the land unusable to produce anything on it again.

            The author gives great points on why we should let the poor nations to figure out their own problems. Instead of helping bail them out every time in need. (548 words)

Great Gatsby Chapters: 8-9

(1)  “She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known”

Daisy was the first girl that was ever “nice” to Gatsby and not just faking it to him. In the world today a lot of people are like that and that is faking appearance due to what someone has. Some girls come across a guy with a lot of money and even if they aren’t attracted to them, will marry the guy for the money. Then the girl will divorce the guy and take all the money they can get from the divorce. That was different for Gatsby with Daisy because she liked him for the person inside and not for how much money he had.  (107 words)

(2)“If that was true he must of felt that he has lost the whole warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream”

      This quote is basically the whole life of Gatsby and the theme of the book. He built up this whole wonderful world with the single dream of Daisy. Once this dream was crushed the whole world around him started to feel cold and lonely. This happens all the time in society. People create these dreams that make them feel so wonderful inside that right when the dream fails, they break. The dream that created a wonderful world doesn’t exist anymore instead the person feels lost and my life will never get great again. This happens so much because people get that one wonderful thing and do not want to think anyone could be better. (115 words)

(3)“Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let the other people clean up the mess they had made”

      Tom and Daisy are the most hated and selfish characters in the novel. They are so careless on what they do in life that all they create is disaster and messes for other people to clean up. By them taking a vacation they are retreating to their money instead of manning up and taking responsibility for their actions. It is really sad that they think they can get away with anything because someone will be there to clean up the mess created by the two. People in today’s world actually expect someone will clean up their accidents because they have this money or power. This is sad because they can be as careless as they want knowing they will face no consequences for whatever event occurs. (127 words)

(4)”I raised him up out of nothing. Right out of the gutter.”

People who help people when they are at the worse and raise them to be someone special. The person sees they have something special and do not want them to waste that talent by staying in a gutter. The only bad thing is when the person because famous and successful they usually forget the person who raised them from nothing to that star. That is the problem with people is we are never thankful to the friends and family that help us when we are down and guide us to this success. (92 words)       

(5)”Nobody came.”

      After Gatsby dies you start to see how people really felt about Gatsby when the funeral is held and only his dad and Nick show up. When Gatsby was alive everybody came to his parties that he threw but right when he passes away people are apparently to busy to attend. This shows the shallowness of people because they where buddies with him when he had the money and threw the lavish parties but we can’t attend the funeral of the person who supplied this. What happened to Gatsby happens to some unfortunate soul in the world that thought he had true friends that would be there for him when he passed away. The reality is that there are a lot of people who use other people for their gain that won’t be there when needed.  (138 words)

Non-Fiction: Best in Class

Margaret Talbot’s Best in Class has some articles about high schools that got rid of valedictorians and just recoginize the students who get top ten percent in their class. This is a great plan the high schools are carrying out by not selecting a valedictorian. This will relieve a lot of stress from the students who are up in that region competing for that valedictorian spot. The reason is the students are more focused on being perfect grade wise and not worrying about living life which creates this stress that is not needed. A lot of high schools have AP classes which allows a student to get higher than a 4.0 GPA the maxium grade for regular classes. Some schools have ten or more of these difficult classes for students to take. The students who are competing to be the valedictorian want to take those AP classes to gain an edge against that student who is barely below or above them. The only thing is that the AP classes are college classes with a workload of homework which creates unnecessary stress for the student.

            The parents are another problem with high schools having a valedictorian. Some high schools were talking about how the parents come on the first day asking how their child could be number one. As the student hearing your parents saying that to the principal as even more pressure to be number one.

Also, what if the students loses valedictorian by a thousandth of a point or by a student who made his way around the system. The principal gets the angry call from the parent of how can my daughter or son not be valedictorian they are way smarter than that parent’s child. The incident that happened at Sarasota High School, where the students tied and the student with the most credits will be valedictorian. This allowed Denny Davies to be valedictorian because he found a loop whole on how to get more credits and the parents were furious and protesting. By not picking a valedictorian, a high school can avoid a lot of unnecessary complaints from parents who believe their child should be number one.

There are a lot of postives to not electing a valedictorian. This will set up high schools to focus on more students who are being successful in school. Instead of focusing on just the valedictorian the school can recognize maybe all the students who made top ten percent. This will make the students and parents happier by showing a group of students instead of one.

Instead of having valedictorians speak at the graduation who most likely doesn’t want to.  The schools could have people who want to speak for their class and this would be a more amazing touching speech for graduation. By opening this spot up, this could make a student who maybe wasn’t the brightest in the class contribute something special to their class.

            High school can be a lot less stressful and more fun for students and the faculty by not having a valedictorian position.

(513 words)

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 6-7

(1) “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people — his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.”

The author is comparing how some children in society view there parents just because they aren’t successful. A lot of sons and daughters are embarrassed by how their parents don’t make a lot of money or have great jobs. Not accepting their parents for who they are the children start imagining fake parents to impress their friends or just cope with having unsuccessful parents. That is why their imagination can not accept who their parents truly are because the “fake” parents they made up are truly better in their mind. The sad part is no matte how hard parents try or show their love the kid still doesn’t accept their parents because it is not enough for them. (121 words)

(2) “He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself”

People are always puzzled by how destiny works and spend time trying to figure it out. The author compares drums to destiny because destiny can always change like the beat of a drum. That is why no matter how much time a person spends trying to figure out what their destiny might be, they won’t because it can change at any time. The author is trying to get people to just try to live their life and not worry what destiny has planned for them. If the person lives and doesn’t worry how their life will play out or how one thing will affect it, they will spend more time living then wonder what is destine for them. (120 words)

(3) “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

Summers are very hot and just unbearable sometimes in life. This causes people to live different lives because they aren’t motivated to get out of the house due to the heat. When fall comes around the season is more calm and enjoyable, unlike summer where the people are miserable. In fall people are going crazy like the characters in Great Gatsby wondering when this heat will end. That is the point the author might be trying to get at is times might be tough right now but fall is around the corner and life will start over. (98 words)

(4) “It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.”

The author believes the biggest difference that set men apart is if a man is well or sick. This is very true because when a man is sick he is weakened in the mind set and can not compete with some one who is well. That goes the same with race because a sick white male will not be able to compete with a well black male and vise versa. This is a big difference because what if the next president becomes ill and can not think straight and makes a far less intelligent man seem better to the public. This is why being sick or well is a great difference in a man. (114 words)

(5) “There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind”

A person with a simple mind is easily convinced by anything that is said with confidence. By having a simple mind the person will fall for anything so if two people tell this simple minded person two opposite things they will believe them. This will cause confusion in their mind because they believe both but do not actually think about who can be telling the truth or trying to trick them. That is why there is no confusion like this kind because the simple minded get confused all the time even over the easiest ideas. (95 words)

Non-Fiction Blog: Commencement Speech

The author’s argument is that people try to strive for “perfection” but this brings pain and unhappiness in a person’s life. The argument is true because that is how people are today because they want to impress other people by being “perfect”.

            The main crowd that tries to be perfect is the teenagers in college or high school. These kids are trying to fit in with the crowds of high school or college but in reality they are just wasting their time. They are trying to become perfect in every little thing in life which is hard to do because that means impressing everybody the person comes across. The teenagers do not realize that this brings more emotional and mental stress to them by attempting to become perfect.

            The author says for the people who are striving for this perfection should just drop that backpack of bricks and become your own person. When the person does this they will realize that life becomes way easier and way more enjoyable. This is when they discover in life what will make them truly happy and not just trying to satisfy that person in their life. That is because the person isn’t worrying about having to impress but they are accomplishing things that matter inside and make them happy.

            If people think about it they are unique because they have one thing that no one else has and that’s their fingerprints. Now thinking about this why would you want to become perfect for someone else when you were made to be unique and different from anyone else? That’s why it is a lot more hard work to be perfect than to just be yourself in life.

             The author makes another great point that this crave to become perfect could be caused by the parents. When children are growing up the parents make a lot of decisions for them. Some of these decisions that the parents make aren’t what the child really wants. By doing this they are implanting into the kids head that if they do not do what will make their parents happy then life won’t be good. Which when the kids are growing up to teenagers they remember this and try to be perfect to impress all of the people in their life, like the parents.

            To fix this problem parents could probably ask the child what they want to do or let them pick out things. This would put the image in the heads of kids that life is great if they just be themselves and not try to be perfect ruining their life with stress for this goal. 

            In the world today life is always changing and to keep up with being perfect the person would have to follow every time the rules change. Trying to be that perfect person in this world is more like the person is just telling a lie after a lie. Even though the world is a very judgmental place it is just a lot easier to be a unique individual than being someone who tries to impress everyone in the world.

(525 words)

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 4-5

(1) “It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people.”

The author is making a simple statement about if someone does not drink around people who get drunk easily they will have an advantage over them. By not drinking the person has a clearer mind and can play off any irregularity that might happen in life because the heavy drinkers are to slow to notice. The author is telling the reader if you want an advantage over a lot of people in America do not drink. The fact is America is known for being a society that drinks heavily. Being the person that doesn’t drink you will come out with a great reputation because you could hold your tongue when they couldn’t. (114 words)

(2) “While the rain continued it had seemed like the murmur of their voices, rising and swelling a little now and then with gusts of emotion”

The author uses a metaphor comparing Gatsby and Daisy’s voices to the rain that was falling. When the two first met at Nick’s house they barely spoke to one another like how the rain sounded outside. Gatsby would express some emotion which was awkwardness and nervousness. Their conversation began slowly; however, there were also a few moments of good discussion.  This is what Nick believed to hear when a gust of wind would blow causing the rain to fall harder.  People are often anxious and shy when they first see old acquaintances similar to the discomfort experienced by Gatsby and Daisy.  (103 words)

(3) “Daisy tumbled short of his dreams — not through her own fault”

Gatsby created an unreal expectation of how things would be when he and Daisy meet again. Daisy fell short of his dreams because she did not know of the expectations in his heart; therefore, she had no control of them. This situation made by Fitzgerald is a comparison to how some love is in society today. People find a significant other that they adore and after being apart from them for a certain amount of time, they start to create an unrealistic picture of how life would be when they meet again. That’s the problem with love sometimes people create a fantasy and when it doesn’t become real they are heart broken.  (114 words)

(4) “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart”

A man that has closed his heart to something or someone will not let it be challenged by new ideas or anger. People tend to do this in society when they feel what is locked up in their heart is better than the other options given to him. Gatsby does this with Daisy because he shuts out any idea of there being a better girl for him. A grumpy old man is a prime example of how this is displayed in today’s society. The elderly man is angered by someone telling him he needs to sell his house when he knows it will never happen. He maintains a negative attitude because it is easier to cope with disappointment. (119 words)

(5) “I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn’t be over-dreamed — that voice was a deathless song.”

The voice of Daisy was warming to Gatsby because her voice could never die in his heart and would play over in his dreams. By hearing her voice he felt those feelings and knew that she was not a dream but actually near him. In life a person has to cherish those voices that make them feel happy and not just the feelings that can be manipulated. Those voices are the only thing that will never die and play over like a song in your head when you need them the most. By Fitzgerald showing the voice creates warmth in a person this is his way of showing what should truly matter to people. (114 words)

Week 1.3: Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

In Let Teenagers Try Adulthood the author’s argument that high school for the most part is useless and should be destroyed is very true. During high school you are getting a free education, but for some people this education is more rewarding than for others. In some cases, the teachers are more lenient towards athletes because they don’t want them to fail and miss that all important game. While the hard working students get punished because they spent their entire afternoon working on an essay and the athlete gets the weekend to finish the same essay.

For example, in high school you have cliques, which are composed of the very attractive people, the athletes or the very popular people in school. If a person is on the outside of these cliques they have a more difficult time in high school because they do not have the support of the community. Instead, the lack of support discourages them from being that one of a kind person during high school.  The truth is the outsiders are the people who are getting the better paying jobs and are more successful in life than those who got to coast in high school.

            The claim that high school truly prepares the student for the adult world is completely bogus. For instance, when a lot of students attend college they start to see all the time they wasted in high school and how it put their future in jeopardy. Now the truth of how life really is hits them. All of the partying they might have done in high school won’t help get them a well paying job. The rules of high school are not similar to the rules of life. It can be a struggle to convince a manager why you are the best fit for the job. 

The author’s idea of eliminating middle school altogether by making elementary start at the age 5 and end after 6^th grade is a great idea. This allows a student to go straight to high school for four years causing them to graduate at 16 instead of 18. This makes the kids join the real world sooner and those who weren’t serious about their education get to jump into the hard working environment immediately. The people who attend college and continue their education get professors based on their knowledge not their popularity. The people who sleep during school or skip half of the school year because they don’t feel like attending, will see how cruel the workplace will be with that kind of attitude. Botstein is correct regarding how the late twentieth century to present day teenagers have grown more mature than previous generations. This means they should definitely be brought into adulthood earlier than most people have been in the past. 

This set up would open the eyes of many youth in the world by turning them into adults sooner than expected.  The community can still provide steps that help young people ease into it because it is about trying adulthood not being forced to drown in it. That’s why we should get rid of a high school system that really isn’t needed by most teenagers. 

(537 words)