Here are some examples of propaganda….

Mrs.H gave us this quote and asked us to answer these questions…

“The past is never dead, is not even past”

*What does this quote mean?

To me this quote means the past is never resting. What I mean is that what happened in the past happened and its still not happening. But some events from the past can still be moving/active,taken over from the present or hopefully if its good by the future (Ex. recycling at our school). But some events are/can be bad and are still happening in the present, we have to stop it before it reaches the future (Ex. poverty,starvation). For the second part of the quote “…its not even past”, means its ongoing, never left alone or forgotten. Somehow its will affect our world today…

*How does this connect to The Wave?

This quote connects to The Wave because in Mr.Ross’s class history repeated itself, by reenacting of the past when the Nazis in Germany took over. The experiment was to a way for high school students to taste and understand how life and society was in Germany when the Nazis were in control. Therefore, the past is not dead- it is still living in their High School, through students, parents, and teachers, all being affected just like it was years ago.

*American history connections

The Wave is sort of like when the Puritans settled in Massachusetts, they settled there because they wanted freedom of religion and since Britain didn’t allow that, the Puritans asked for a charter and settled in the colonies. Soon the British started to settle in the colonies, but it turned out that the puritans kicked out anyone that wasn’t a Puritan out of the colony. It sort of like that in The Wave when a member caught a nonmember and brutally abused and threatened them until they gave in, or left…

What do you guys think?? 

Wow…this is like my first post without Mr.R. I just want to let you know if you haven’t heard already,there was an incident that made Mr.R resign. We all are terribly sad( hehe even the people who never had him). Now we are stuck with a substitute (Mrs. H, shes not bad, pretty good), but we had to adjust quickly to the way she taught, like I said shes not YOU.We are stuck to the ways where we discussed The Wave in literature circles….(I don’t want to be mean, but I’m not to fond of them), instead of group discussions and the way you would make us really think. I still am trying …you know..I’ll never forget the stuff he taught us, its just different.Well… eighth grade is almost over just 4 months….I live. Anyways back to the book…

“Laurie has noticed that non wave members are being bullied into the wave.”

*Have you ever been forced to join something against your will?

Almost everyone has, like something small at least in school anyways. For example forced to join the literature circles or any group activity stuff that the teachers in the school choose to make us do, I mean nobody really wants to do it, but you know they can’t really say no because you know that won’t be very respectful. But we shouldn’t be so concerned about simple issues such as literature circles, there are more important things that matter in the world. Like here in the gulf, when boys(locals) are in high school they are required to go to”boot camp” for one month during summer break.But the locals can choose the month ,the people at boot camp are very flexible, well some of the times.You have to wear the traditional clothes(thobe) and chant the national anthem daily.This might sound harsh but there is a reason, the prince of the country doesn’t want the locals to appear”girlish”( boys with long hair). Also he wants the country to be ready to fight if there is ever war(god forbid). But what can we do about it…any ideas??

*How should we behave if we see someone being taunted or bullied by a group of people?

Well this might sound childish you should “tattle tale” on them. Well you can’t just stand there and watch while a defenseless person gets brutally hurt, I would recommend telling a teacher or a teacher like person… Another option is that if there is no teacher around than you should try to defend the weak and vulnerable. But if you haven’t noticed that the “good” always get hurt trying “to save the day”. Still I would always deeply recommend to choose the first choice, but there is always Plan B..

* Should we try not to get involved or should we intervene?

Well it depends on the situation. If its a violent physical fight …TELL A TEACHER STRAIGHT AWAY. I wouldn’t recommend getting into the fight because unfortunately the good guys always get hurt. But if it was a violent mental fight( I mean with words and the name calling) , then you can get involved and try to end the mess, stand up for the poor guy…Someone has to…or who would…imagine a world that everyone is alone,scared and defenseless…wait never mind some in the world are living that kind of world…..

A couple days ago we started reading The Wave by Todd Strasser. Today Mr.R was absent, so we had a Substitute. Mr.s D ( The other Language Arts teacher) helped the substitute by starting us with this question.

David tries to convince Laurie to forget the events that took place in Nazi Germany.

“Forget about it. It happened once and the world learned its lesson. It’ll never happen again.”(pg.21)

I don’t agree with this quote because history seems to repeat it self over and over again. Like violence, it keeps repeating itself, its power what everyone one wants. Have you ever noticed that people see the world through a small frame, they don’t see the big picture.  Poverty, greed and violence are the biggest problems that we, the people try to ignore or wish that it never happened.It takes one person to try…

Should we try to forget evil events, and trust in the goodness of human nature?

I think we shouldn’t try to forget the evil events because they should remind  the future generations of the past  so they  don’t repeat  the horrible events of before. So many people suffered  this should be a sign to others that this shouldn’t happen ever again.But i can’t control the future is is all up to us. I would think that we should trust the goodness of human nature but these days its not exactly trustworthy.

Is evil an outside force, or are we a ll capable of evil acts?

 I don’t think evil is an outside force, I think since humans have roamed the earth , they were capable of evil acts.Its your choice it use it. Like today anyone can get on the Internet and communicate with  complete strangers without anyone telling them not to. Parents are losing control of their kids way more then you think. Influence from the media also opens up their “inner demons”. Just open your eyes and look around the world, proverty,animal cruelity , child labor and practically slaves are suffering for our evil acts. Just think of it this way everyone has some kind of power…

I found this deep poem on the Internet that I thought was deep and interesting and I wanted to share with you guys. Tell me what you think of it…

Spell of the Moon

By Lynette M. Shoup

Gentle winds blowing softly.
Talk to me spell of the moon.
Lift your sweet voice up to me.
And sing me your happy tune.
In threads of white and silver
Wrap me in your soft cocoon.                                                                            
Cover me in mystery.
In the sands upon the dune.
Cast aside my deepest fears.
Talk to me spell of the moon.
Take me far away with you.
Before the hour strikes noon.
Clouds erase my memories.
With you I want to commune.
Running with the dark of night.
Off to your secret lagoon.
Now seeking my great escape.
On a stormy night in June.
I am forever grateful
To meet the spell of the moon.

We talked about tons of things this week, all not really to do with each other. Our class watched a video called Did you ever Wonder, it’s about how quickly we are using up the resources that are dependent on our natural existence, “We are using way too many resources to make too few people more productive”.  I really think it’s  going to be a flat world after all, I mean kids are stuck in class while teachers are blabbing on about things that really don’t matter, what really matters is having a sustainable  future. What kids really want to learn are “real world situations” not what happened during the revolutionary war? This school is lucky because the teachers teach about what is happening around the world and really” open our eyes” and think, where did my iPod come from? Who built it?  Was buying it worth the lives it has damaged? Working in box cabins fixing it together probably no breaks, any time for socializing and way underpaid. There are a lot of things we take for granted and I feel guilty every time I buy thing, but what are we going to do, we live in money driven society if you don’t have the latest trends you might as well be stabbed in the back. We try our best, but right about now our best isn’t good enough, we are running out of time.  

Also, how 1 out 10 US High School students is a drop out factory and 47% percent of dropouts said one of the main reasons they dropped out was because their classing were boring. That is pretty sad, I think that when you’re in high school you should have a choice to choose your classes, like the ones that you find fascinating, instead of being one of those dropouts ending up in jail or working at McDonalds.

Another thing we talked about is a Google Reader, we created an account and subscribed to the websites that interest us or like to visit. In my case its mostly my friends and my teacher, Mr.R, so what you do is after you logged in and subscribed to the sites you want whenever you login it will say which of the sites have a new post and it takes you directly to the site and if you want to comment it takes you directly to the comments box of the website. I think it’s very simple and a lot easier if you have a lot of sites you just login and it tells you the sites that have new posts instead of going to each one and checking if they posted yet, it’s a lot faster.

Another thing we talked about is the book we are starting called the wave, I’m not that far to tell you what’s it about, but I do know one thing it has something to do with power (sorry Mr.R wasn’t really listening). So he gave us this quote” Power Corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. I agree with this quote because if someone was given complete control of let’s say the US, they will certainly use it to some degree if you gave the economy complete control, which I think they already have, they will manipulate you to buy “what’s cool” and have you buy a certain product that breaks after 6 months but long enough for you to trust them to keep buying that product. They will tell you what to eat, or if to eat, what to throw away, who to hang with. They will totally corrupt our world. If the Government had total control it will be a disaster because you know that phrase” The Government it’s for, by and of the people” when the government is in control all that will alternated. We won’t have a democracy, freedom of speech, no rights, not anything. We will be like monkeys in a cage; you feed us, control us, tame us, and manipulate us, we have no control over the superior rule. I think everyone has some kind of power in them, whether or not to abuse it is your choice. To me power is linked with greed and selfishness, the more “stuff” you have the greater you have power. To me power is the ability to control/ change someone or something. The world shouldn’t be full of stuff and the greedy people with their shiny cars, fancy mansions, designer clothes and huge swimming pools. It should be about love and caring for others, thinking about people of then you. What about all the starving people in Africa and you’re worried that you gained a quarter of a pound. BOO HOO. For me, my power scale goes like this:

1.God

2.Government

3. Economy

4.Parents

5.Teacher

6.Me

7.Younger Brother

8.Workers(maid, driver, ect..)

I learned that it really matters what you teach in school and matters even more what you learn. I didn’t know there were that many dropouts in the US mostly because their classes were boring; I just used to think its cause they didn’t care and were stupid, I guess I was wrong. I did know what the teacher taught mattered, but I didn’t think it mattered as much as it really did. If teachers don’t teach right then how will the next generation know what really matters.

I daydreamed aboutwhat I was going to do on the weekend, maybe watch friends or finish up the last episode of Ugly Betty (episode 13 of season 2), I haven’t decided then. And I was wondering what I was going to have for lunch…maybe vanilla ice-cream…..mmm

I  have anything Ireally wanted to say this week maybe I did I don’t remember, I have to start to take notes next week…sorry Mr.R

I thought this picture is very spirtul  and has a lot of emotions and feelings spinning around.The website I got this piture from didn’t name this piece of art, so I decided to name it Fall to Freedom because it feels very loose and peaceful, the name just came to me…

We talked about blogging and why we should do this activity daily (when we have class). It’s because it makes us remember what we did in class, it also makes us pay attention during class and participate with the discussions whether it’s during class or on these posts, it’s just a way that Mr.R knows we’re still alive in there. Also we talked about why writing is so important, and our class and Mr.R came up with these four reasons: Communication, Expression, Reflection and Thinking (processing thoughts).   You can communicate through writing by writing in a certain point of view, it’s like you’re talking directly to the person. You can also express your feelings, ideas and beliefs through writing, which links to reflection. You can reflect on a certain event or occasion that has happened to you or was around you through writing and make people ponder about that topic and might touch them deeply inside. Furthermore you can process your thoughts by having no word in a poem by accident; you have to think through your writing, spend tons of time concentrating on a certain phrase or word; you can never really finish a piece of writing, there is always something to add or change. Another thing we talked about is Poetry, and that the title tells us what the poem is about, for example the poem “Thoughts from within”by Woody Harrelson, tells us that the is his personal opinion/thought. It’s also important to read a poem out loud because it will sound totally different then when you read it to yourself quietly in your head.

I learned that a poet’s life is pretty hard, no word or phrase in a poem is unintentional, and there is a purpose to that word or phrase. Also that a poet might spend five years writing a poem and still think it still needs work, like he/she changes a word then changes it back again.

I daydreamed about crashing on my bed with a warm cup of tea and watching Ugly Betty with the door locked( because of my little brother annoys me) and curtains closed( so it feels like I’m in the theaters).

I didn’t have anything I wanted to say in class that I didn’t say already, tell you the truth it’s not like we talked about something interesting, it was about analyzing poems, which was sort of boring( no offense Mr.R).

This is a Lady Bug…hehehe

This picture is here