A HUG IS NEARLY A GUN SPELLED BACKWARDS

     I agree with E.M Foster's view that personal relations are more important than patriotism. Personal relations are close connections between people, formed by emotional bonds and experiences. The relationship between people is much more sophisticated than patriotism. Especially with people who have maintained the same friends since childhood. People trust others who they have know for a longer period of time more. This is understandable due to the fact that they have more experience with them and know them more. People hug, kiss, and make gestures to each other to show their feelings and emotions to the other person. As you get to know someone, you develop a relationship with them and you become more comfortable around them.
   
      It is important to have personal relations with people so that you aren't lonely and have someone to go to for help. Without personal relations people would be more antisocial and have a harder time becoming a great person. Personal relations develop when you show people that you're there for them and that you genuinely care about them. Patriotism, on the other hand, is one's love for their country or homeland. When someone shows patriotism they are showing other people that they care about their country and that they are grateful for living there. Patriotism is sort of like a relationship with your country. Some examples could be that you're involved in elections, and focus on things that will make your country better. You also look at how you benefit from your country and the things it has accomplished to make it seem better, such as Independence Day. Another example of patriotism is the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance is voluntary and is a way to show you love your country. In our class, the Pledge of Allegiance isn't played over the intercom because it is turned off. This was done to allow more time in our class but for some patriotic people it may have offended them.

      Being patriotic is not at all bad but I believe personal relations are much more important. Imagine if you didn't have any friends but there were signs of patriotism all around you. Wouldn't you become sad and annoyed by all these patriotic people? Now imagine having plenty of personal relations with the people around you but there being no patriotism. See, it's much better to have relationships with friends and people than to be around patriotism only. Some may argue that patriotism is the most important thing for people to possess, but is it really?  I don't really see many people saying and showing that they love their country nowadays. Yes, most of us celebrate the 4th of July to celebrate independence but to me it seems like a way to empower personal relations even more. On the 4th of July my whole family comes together to eat dinner and light up fireworks. We build stronger personal relations with each other by talking and sharing experiences. In a way, patriotism even brings people closer together.

       It is obvious that there are personal relations around you everywhere. The way you show that you genuinely care about people can be physical,verbal, or even both. You can hug or kiss someone, you can tell someone you love them, or you can hug them and say you love them. However, Patriotism isn't as popular. You more commonly see signs of Patriotism around the 4th of July, elections and big events. Occasionally you see people who even hang the American flag on their porches. In the end, it is reasonable to assume that people would believe personal relations are much more important than patriotism.

MISTAKES FOR PRESIDENT

As I begin watching the Presidential Debate I am informed that it is the first time Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton meet face to face to talk about what they want to do to help America. I am beginning to watch the first segment in which the presidential nominees will be asked questions and expected to answer truthfully. As they begin answering the questions Donald Trump is so focused on immigrants and other countries harming our economy to help themselves. Hillary Clinton is more focused on increasing taxes on the wealthy and making investments and producing jobs for people. She begins attacking Donald's views in an attempt to make herself look better. When they are asked a specific question they just begin talking about other stuff and kind of try to change the subject. They don't really know how to answer the question. Donald begins attacking Hillary saying that in the past 30 years she has not done anything like what she is now saying she will do. This is where they begin attacking each other more fiercely. Instead of saying what the best for America is they just talk about the bad stuff the other nominee has done. Hillary even promotes her book.They are trying to effectively persuade the audience to vote for them. This looks more like children fighting over something rather than adults talking about their views. Watching this debate made me realize that neither of these candidates deserve to be president.

Big Question Disciplines

What would the world be like if there was no school? That is my Big Question. Some disciplines that could inform my big question are people who don't go to school and places that don't provide any form of education for their community. This way I'll get an example of how different these peoples' lives are than others who do go to school or have some form of education. I would also be able to see how their society and economy works differently.

Fall Vocab 4

Definitions

adroit: cleverly skillful, resourceful
amicable: friendly; peaceable
averse: having a strong feeling of opposition
belligerent: warlike; given to waging war
benevolent: desiring to help others
cursory: going rapidly over something, without noticing details
duplicity: an act or instance of such deceitfulness
extol: to praise highly
feasible: capable of being done, accomplished
grimace: a facial expression, often ugly or contorted, that indicates disapproval
holocaust: a great or complete devastation or destruction , especially by fire
impervious: incapable of being injured or impaired
impetus: a moving force; impulse
jeopardy: peril or danger
meticulous: showing extreme care about minute details
nostalgia: a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former time or place
quintessence: the pure and concentrated essence of a single substance
retrogress: to move backward
scrutinize: to examine in detail with careful or critical attention
tepid: moderately warm

Sentences

The adroit teenager was able to survive in the wild all alone for a whole year.
The amicable person helped me find the store I was looking for.
His aversion to her opinion cause them to get into a fight.
The belligerent king led his empire to victory after conquering neighboring civilizations.
She is such a benevolent person yet she focuses more on helping others than herself.
His cursory caused him to fail the test since he didn't read through carefully.
Her duplicity caused him to never trust her again.
The ancient people used to extol many different gods and they even sacrificed people.
This project seems very difficult but it is feasible.
He automatically knew she didn't like his idea after he saw her grimace.
There was a holocaust there a long time ago and many people died.
The impervious child was taking to a laboratory for further testing.
He quickly felt the impetus against his chest and he couldn't breathe.
She wouldn't jeopardize her family's life for anything.
She is so meticulous about her homework which in turn gets her good grades.
My nostalgia makes me feel like moving back to my old house and city.
The quintessence of this substance caused her to get dizzy.
The driver retrogressed slowly after running over a deer.
She scrutinized over the paragraph before commencing on the test.
The water was tepid when he hopped into the bathtub.

Vocabulary #3 Definitions and Sentences

Definitions

catharsis: relieving emotional tensions, through certain kinds of art
taboo: proscribed by society as improper or unacceptable
sordid: meanly selfish, self seeking; dirty or filthy
swindle: to cheat out of money or other assets
frivolous: characterized by lack of seriousness or sense
inadvertently: unintentional
incendiary: tending to arouse strife, sedition; inflammatory
jargon: unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing
colloquialism: informal use of language
archaism: the survival or presence of something from the past
cudgel: a short thick stick used as a weapon
egregious: extraordinary in some bad way
anesthetize: to render physically insensible
euphonious: pleasant in sound
scrupulous: minutely careful, precise, or exact
perverted: turned from what is right; wicked
superfluous: being more than what is sufficient or required; excessive
Saxon: an English person: Britisher
slovenly: untidy or unclean in appearance or habits
provocation: something that irritates or angers

Sentences

Her catharsis helped her deal with her emotions and get on with life.
There are so many things considered taboo in our society these days that anything we do could offend people.
I've met sordid people in the past who ask for things but never share or give back.
The store across tried to swindle us and eventually foreclose our store.
Her frivolous attitude irritated the teacher so he kicked her out of the classroom.
She inadvertently ran over the pedestrian when she was driving to the emergency room.
The incendiary words convinced her and changed her mind about it.
All this jargon is confusing me and is not allowing me to fully understand their point.
There is so much colloquialism in articles that it seems like nobody proofreads them.
The archaism of a few words will allow us to talk like before and communicate easier. 
She immediately got the cudgel to threaten him.
Your powers are egregious because you may use them in a harmful way.
The vet had to anesthetize he cat in order to continue with the procedure.
Most songs have lyrics that are euphonious and that sound good.
The scrupulous measurements helped build this house perfectly.
The person has been perverted from being exposed to so much crime and violence.
The superfluous fruits went to waste because they couldn't eat them in time.
The Saxon greeted me at the store.
The slovenly boy had a messy room and never took showers.
The reason for the dog's attack was your provocation with the stick.

IM READING BIG BROTHER

• People believe that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.
• The English language is becoming ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish and the slovenliness of our language makes it easier to have foolish thoughts.
• English language is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and can be avoided if one is willing to take the change.
• Dying Metaphors is a metaphor which is technically 'dead' and has in effect been reverted to an ordinary word.
• Operators or verbal false limbs are phrases that replace simple words such as break, stop, spoil.
• Pretentious diction is when people use words to seem more fancy, smarter, or give an air of culture and elegance.
• Meaningless words are words that don't really have a purpose in a sentence and are just there to add to the sentence.
• Often writers confuse their audience because they use so many euphemisms and other phrases that don't correlate with what they're talking about.
• People write things that can be explained so easily in a much sophisticated way to seem more intelligent.
• Modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in using words that are already known and used by so many people.
• More syllables in sentences are being created because more words are being put in to replace simpler words.
• If you use ready-made phrases, you not only don't have to hunt about for the words; you also don't have to bother with the rhythms of your sentences since these phrases are generally so arranged as to be more or less euphonious.  
• The sole aim of a metaphor is to create a visual image in someone's head.
• It is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel.
• Political language has to consist largely of euphemism and sheer cloudy vagueness because of the awful things that sometimes have to be said.
• If thought can corrupt language, then language can also corrupt thought.
• The worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them.
• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out
• Never use the passive when you can use the active.
• These rules demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.
• Language is an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought.

Bad Words

What makes words bad? In my opinion, a word is bad when it offends someone. Most people don't like offending others so they use adequate words when they communicate with each other. Everyone has different opinions on which words are bad depending on their experience. For example, I remember when I was in kindergarten a girl said the word "ugly" and all the other kids were like "oooooh you said ugly" because based on what they knew, it was a bad word. Now that we have grown, "ugly" isn't such a bad word, its simply an adjective. You can see that any word can be bad depending on how someone views it. I believe that bad words are not bad, they are just a harsher way of saying something. For example, some may say a dog is not smart while others may say a dog is stupid which is harsher. People become offended by these harsher words which is why they call them bad. Often euphemisms are created to make something bad seem better or not as harsh. An example from the video we watched today would be that Shell Shock became known as Battle Fatigue then Operational Exhaustion and finally Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is appropriate to use euphemisms when you're talking to someone you know becomes easily offended or when you talk to someone you don't really know. Euphemisms become confusing when you make something sound so much different than what you really mean. Our language has changed so much over the years. Words are replacing other words and the original words begin to lose their meaning and are not used often. Another thing that makes words bad is when you're saying them in front of an inappropriate audience. People should not be saying harsh words in front of young children because then the children will be saying them to their parents and get in trouble. Why say harsh words when you can make something seem better? Personally, I don't say bad words often and when I do it's probably on accident or because I just really needed to let it out. I am used to not saying bad words because my parents would always discipline me if I ever said them. I don't understand why it's so bad to say bad words if it doesn't hurt anyone. If somebody said bad words in front of me I wouldn't be offended because I hear bad words everywhere everyday. I don't really care what words people use to communicate with me. Overall, bad words are the ones that offend people and hurt feelings.

To all students (Satire)

Do you feel like the educational system isn't set up right? Do you feel like you are being forced to do things that are going to be useless later on in life? Well now I have a way to resolve this issue and make everybody happy about going to school. To start off, schools shouldn't be something kids dislike, it should be something they look forward to. My resolution to this is to reduce the amount of days we have to go to school and have much less homework so that students have more time to do other activities. In my opinion, the weekend is too short and doesn't provide enough time to do the things you want. Students still stress out about school on the weekends because they either got homework on Friday or there is a huge test coming up that they need to study for. The classrooms make you feel like you're trapped in a box and forced to listen to a teacher and if you don't, your future will be ruined. Most students feel like if they don't do well in school their life in the future will be miserable and they give up right on the spot. My idea of a great way to run the school system is to let students do their work whenever they want so that they're not pressured and stressed out. We should be able to do our homework calmly so that we can actually learn what were doing and not have to rush through it just to get enough sleep. Teachers say that they know we get homework in other classes but do they really understand how much we get and how hard it can get? I just wish they could live a day being a student in this generation and have advanced courses and important tests so that they can see how difficult it is. Also, a few teachers say stuff like,"I'm feeling nice today so I'm only going to assign problems 1 though 30". This is nonsense because if the teacher was really feeling nice they wouldn't give us homework at all. There should be one week of school where the teachers become students and the students become the teachers so that teachers can really understand how it is to be us. On this week students will assign the teachers loads of homework and test them on plenty of different things. In order to learn more and memorize things better, students should be able to do their homework when they're ready for it and teachers should not pressure them. The school system is so broken because not all students are equipped with the required skills to do well in school. Some students just don't have the ability to be as good as others. The school system is not fair and students should protest. Students should be able to go to whatever classes they want and come to school whenever they feel like it. If someone wants to get a career, then let them come to school as many days as they like. If someone wants to work at a fast food restaurant then don't be forcing them to learn useless stuff that they don't need. Everybody should be able to choose the level of education they need and want. A new setup in schools should be that students shouldn't be forced to participate in activities they don't feel like because this only makes them hate school even more. If you think about it, most students dislike school simply because of the fact that they get a lot of homework and that school is too long. Like I said before, the best way to resolve this is by having less school days and less homework. There should only be 3 days of school a week from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Another thing would be to reduce the amount of periods from six to four. Another reason why students dislike school is that they have to get up early. Entering at 10:00 AM will fix this issue. My final idea for fixing the school system is to not have school at all. Parents should all stay home and teach their kids everything they know. The parents will be paid and the students will be much more comfortable working and learning at home. Imagine staying at home with your siblings and learning everything you need to know from your parents. This would be the best solution in my opinion and there would be more jobs for other people who don't have kids. To expand on this, parents would be getting paid more than minimum wage and their kids would be learning everything they need to know at the same time. Your parents were your first teachers now why not have them be your only teachers forever? Like this, people would be more comfortable learning and could have everything they need right at home. Students wouldn't need to be carrying their heavy backpacks across campus and some wouldn't have to walk to and from school everyday. In the end, there are many ways to fix the educational system and us students should be the ones to choose how to fix it. Who's with me?!


Written by a concerned student