Captured Thought: Voting for the other party

My entire immediate family supports the democratic party. We talk about Bush failures and the candidates' policies at the dinner table, and criticize republican policy like a plague. So when my mom returned from a debate between Republican incumbant Elizabeth Coulson and Democrat Daniel Biss, I was quite surprised to hear who she plans to vote for. She's going to vote for the Republican?!?

At first I thought I had misheard her, or that she made a mistake. But no, she was sure. It's certainly not that I was critical if her decision, just that I thought she was a very firm democrat. Beth Coulson, she said, is experienced, smart, and votes with democrats on many issues important to us. So the fact that she can not only vote for democrats' bills, but she can bring other republicans with her. That's what brought my mother over to her side. There's no problem with the democrat, but no real benefit either.

This objective ideals-over-party thinking really made me admire my mom and realize how sometimes limiting our political party system has become. These past eight years have pushed partisanship up to remarkable levels, as shown by not only the presidenial election but also the disfunctional relationship between congress and the whitehouse since 2006. Democrats and republicans just do not get along anymore. And as our country's dire situation worsens, the last thing we need is more years of arguing politicians. You can blame this on both the democrats and the republicans. The democrats ram congressional campaigns in 2006 promising to reverse the dangerous Bush policies. With so mug pressure to be completely opposite from the republicans, the have limited their negotiating abilities and therefore firing up tensions. And our dear president has used his veto power a record amount over the past 2 years. This combination=failure.

So, for this reason, I support Beth Coulson for state representative. Yes, my blue family supports a republican.

(And for this reason and many others, I support Barack Obama for president.)

Best of Week: 3 minute speech

On Thursday of this past week, Mr. Allen introduced to us an activity called "3 minute speech."  Basically, each person in the class gets 3 minutes to talk in front of the class about anything on their mind.  Mr. Allen gave us the option to either study poetry or do these 3 minute speeches, and you can guess which activity we chose (not that I don't like poetry).

I got the chance to go first, and I went up to the front of the class and started talking about the first thing that came to mind, politics.  A few of my fellow students grunted at the topic, while others quickly listened in.  I really didn't care how my class was reacting, though, because it was my 3 minutes.  

Words began tumbling out of my mouth, fortunately in coherent order, as I made my case for why Barack Obama's economic, and especially tax, plans are better for America.  As the clock ticked by, I kept talking, until BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, the buzzer went off alerting the end of my turn.  I slowly emerged back into the real world, away from the warm light of contemplation and reflection.  I don't know if any one of my classmates learned anything from what I said, but I learned new things about my own thoughts.  

Then others came rotating up to the front, sinking into their own places of understanding.  I then realized how many thoughts people have that we never hear about in day to day life.  Not only that, but how many thoughts we ourselves have that we never have time to hear.  As my friends enriched me with their stories and thoughts, I felt closer to them.  I saw our common thoughts and opinions, and got to see how they best express them, without the restrictions of assignment.  We all just talked and listened.

Indeed, I will attempt to find more opportunities to speak about my views and listen to others express theirs as well.  I look forward to more 3 minute speeches.

Blogging Around

My goal in this post is to carefully read two "360 Degrees" blogs of my fellow classmates and make intelligent, encouraging, and helpful comments on their ideas.

Alli's post is entitled "360 Degrees: Homework." She starts by telling the reader her position, the typical student opinion, that she dislikes homework. Then she tells us how educators view homework, as a valuable instructional and learning tool. After that, she goes into the negative effects of homework on students, and also on their parents and familites. She ends with a question both students and teachers must answer together, "What is the proper amount of homework? We need to find somewhere in between swamping and not enough to have a lasting impact. Where is this happy medium?."

My comment: "Alli,

I too agree 100% with your views on homework, as well as all the perspectives you addressed. Sometimes I wonder if teachers really have the right to give us so much homework. If there are legal limits on how long a school day can be, could there possibly be legal limits on how much homework teachers can assign. Because homework is basically just school away from school. The National Board of Education set a standard for ideal homework time. They say that you should receive your grade number times ten minutes of homework a night. In other words, if you're in 10th grade like we are, you should receive 100 (10*10) minutes of homework per night. I think both students and teachers can agree that our homework load FAR surpasses that suggestion.

Another interesting perspective you could have played around with is the negative side of homework for teachers. They have to either make the homework or find good homework resources and then they have to grade the homework. Both of these tasks take a lot of time for them. You would think that all those extra work hours for them would persuade them to assign less homework.

Lastly, it constantly bothers me that most jobs in the adult world have a definable beginning and ending every day. Except for jobs such as doctor or CEO or lawyer or some job with very high responsibility and fluctuation, many jobs are simply 9 to 5. For example, my mom leaves for work at 8 am and comes home at 7 pm. That's a long day, but at least once she gets home, she almost never has to worry about work until the next day. Whereas students, or at least us Academy ones, worry about school whether we are in school or at home. That's WAY more than a 9 to 5 job entails.

Great post!

Daniel B."

Nick's post, "360 Degrees: Hip-Hop," tries to correct the misconception of hip-hop as racy, risque, and even "not music."  He addresses one by one the many criticisms of hip-hop, his favorite music genre, with evidence not only from our time but from his parent's generation too.  He ends with encouraging an open mind to hip-hop as a talent-demanding, legitimate art.  

My comment: "Nick,

Thanks so much for clarifying many of the generalizations that I myself felt about hip-hop. Being a music enthusiast, I sometimes feel almost offended by the lack of musicality, harmony, or even pitch that some hip-hop songs possess. Yet, as you say, maybe I'm just looking at the definition of these words all wrong. You're right in that harmony can just be a person reciting a story in rhymes over a beat. I guess I need to look harder for good hip-hop songs that have singing and other elements that I require in my definition of "good music." 

I really like how you address all the criticisms of hip-hop one by one with strong, convincing evidence. The dictionary definition was a great addition! 

I've never thought of myself as someone living in the past, but I guess in some ways I do in music. I'm really interested in listening to more hip-hop now, and if you have any suggestions of good songs, I'll take a listen. 

Great job!

Daniel B."

360 Degrees: Marching Band

As I write this, I am on a bus on the way to a marching band competition. Now you might be wondering why I'm spending my Saturday in band. Many if my friends wonder the same thing, as do I from time to time. There are 180 people in my band, all marching around in formations on a field and playing music. Sometimes I wonder how I, as an individual, really make a difference. Why do they need me?

Yet I do find a great deal of individual reward in band. The judging at competitions is based not only on the big picture of the entire band, but also on individual playing and marching. So every time our band gets an award, I know that my performance went into that, hopefully in a positive way. And everytime we watch
the videos of our performances, I see not only the great forms that our band makes, but also my contribution to the sound and picture of the band. That feeling, I believe, justifies my commitment to the band.

For some, however, just being here doesn't automatically mean they are comitted to working at 100% all the time. Every Tuesday and Thursday night for three hours, we bandies leave our daily homework routines, grab our instruments and head to the football field. Our instructors say that we should always give it our all at rehearsal, that we made the choice to be there. And yet, in order to be in band at GBS, you have to do marching band. So does that mean we should just "go through the motions?" Sometimes I think so, and then I remember the saying that one of our instructors likes to use. "Practice makes PERMANENT." Just practicing doesn't make you good. Practicing well makes you good. And it is with this mindset that I come to rehearsal with a positive attitude and ready to work.

So with that 360 degree observation, I see the influences that brought me to my conclusion about marching band. After all, a 360 degree turn means you end up in the same direction in which you began. Now, I'm sitting on the bus on the way home, the competition over. My individual contribution to a larger cause has produced yet another award. Second place! In my books, though, it's a first place.