Opinions

    Recently in English we studied about the Haiti earthquake. I have learned that human reasoning cannot be used to understand anything you did. Anyway, I have just heard of the disaster not too long ago. Though I have seen very little pictures, reports, or videos about the incident, from those what I have seen, I can already imagine how big the damage was. I haven't even heard of the country Haiti before this, not to mention where it is located.   
   
    But the matter is now I DO know, and I feel sorry for the people. The UN says that the Haiti earthquake is one of the saddest, worst,  most catastrophic disaster ever in the UN record. Well, in the UN record only, if you ask me.

Today in one of my classes, I came to a grave realization: people do not listen anymore. This particularly upset me becauase it occurred in a class that we have been taught how to listen. This whole 12-step process is neatly organized in my bright orange book that reminds me every time I look at it why I hate the color orange. But that's besides the point. Clearly no one in my class has really thought this 12-step process through. I was answering a question and I had misspoken a few words when literally five people had spoken out to correct me before I could correct myself. Interestingly enough, one of the girls who had corrected me continued on to answer the question the exact way I was going to. Awesome. Another interesting part to this problem, was that it was a question of opinion, and am I not entitled to my own opinion? According to chapter 5 of my governmnet book, Ammendment number 1 gives me that right. I understand that I am not the best listener either, but I know, like anything important, it takes practice.

If you too would like to practice your listening skills, here is this great website for some tips.

I was just attempting to round out my ten questions about life when I got stuck. I needed a question, so of course I turned to the world wide web. Since google is the answer to everything, I googled "questions about life" when I came upon a web page entitled "Answering the Big Questions of Life." Bingo. I began reading it, and the questions are actually pretty good, but I have an issue with the author of this page, one Sue Bohlin. She is so sure. Granted, I should have realized sooner that the page is sponsored by Probe Ministries,

During the last eight years, NYC schools appear to have made significant improvements in several key areas, including test scores in reading, math, Regents scores and graduation rates.  How much of this represents real achievement, and how much is just window-dressing?Are our kids really being shortchanged with the emphasis being placed  on test results as the end-product?

As an educator, my biggest complaint is that too much emphasis is being placed upon test-taking strategies,and not enough time can be spent on actual learning of content, providing opportunities for applications of content, etc.

picture courtesy of Jason Fink at amny.com

 Here is one of the most compelling arguments which has been used by the mayor to make his case:

so i get really mad every time someone tries to persuade me the type of bands i listen to are garbage. i always end up having an argument because people just always want to be right.

A really good post in Youth Voices would be a post that I care about and that I really want to know about or have very little information about. A really good post would also be a post with a really good introduction, I mean so good that it will draw me in and I will tell other people to read it because it was so good. It also has to have great picture.

Wikipedia defines an opinon as "a person's ideas and thoughts towards something which it is either impossible to verify the truth of, or the truth of which is thought unimportant to the person" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

"Choice consists of the mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them for action."--(Choices Wiki Article )