Mask Project
Essay
We Aren’t Perfect
Sociology, the study of how forces create and shape individuals, tells us why we are the way we are. Sociologists use identity categories to better understand different forms of socialization. Some of these identity categories are race, sex, religion, age and social class. The categories you fall into can sometimes determine who your friends are, what stereotypes you will be given, and to a certain extent how your life will play out. In society there are lots of norms and many different punishments for breaking those norms. These norms include folkways, mores, and taboos. Folkways are norms that are not strictly enforced, things like not cutting in line or walking on the right side of the sidewalk. In the article Cultural Diversity in the United States, the author talks about mores and how they are enforced: “We think of them as essential to our core values, and we insist on conformity.” Mores are things like murder, adultery and rape. If you do any of these, not only will people not respect you but you will mostly go to jail for a long time. Finally there are taboos, norms that are so strongly ingrained that even the thought of doing them makes you shudder. These are things like bestiality, necrophilia and incest. These are all things that we have been socialized by our parents, the media, our friends and our religion to believe. For example I have been socialized by the media as a male to be tough, and not show emotion with the exception of anger, that girls are not as strong or as smart as guys and that just because I am white I have leverage over every other race.
Sociology also studies gender identity. One important question that sociologists have is whether early teaching of gender identity really benefits kids, or whether it forces ideas into their heads about who they are supposed to be? In the Sociology Textbook of Socialization, the author talks about the question that people have had for centuries, “What is human about human nature? How much of people’s characteristics come from “nature” (heredity) and how much from “nurture” (the social environment or contact with others?” In the video Gender Roles-Interviews with Kids, the narrator talks about the early teaching of gender identity: “By the age of four or five kids not only begin to develop gender constancy, but often show rigid standards for what they believe is appropriate male and female dress and behavior.” My belief is that teaching kids how they need to act and how they need to behave just because of their gender is not right; we should let them figure out who they want to be by themselves even if it is not how a stereotypical male or female is “supposed” to act or be. Kids these days are learning harmful stereotypes both about their own and the opposite gender. Some of the things that I have been taught as a male are things like women clean the house, men don’t cry, men are superior to women, women are weaker than men, men are obsessed with sex and beer, men are lazy and that men are smarter than women. All of these stereotypes, though true in some cases, give kids a bad picture of the opposite gender. The stereotypes given to their gender make the kids feel like they need to conform with the stereotypes to be accepted into society, even though they may not want to be like that. This is why I think that it is not necessarily a good thing to force kids into a gender, and that it is better to let them choose for themselves how they want to live their lives.
One of the biggest issues in sociology today is gender equality. We have made great strides in the way of giving women equal rights in the U.S., but we still have along way to go. In the article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh talks about her observation on men’s unwillingness to admit they have advantages over women: “ I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s.” As a male I have been taught all of the stereotypes that are given to women by the media, my parents and my peers. It is hard to admit but some of these stereotypes I have begun to believe. Not the ones like women are meant to stay home and clean the house, but ones like men are stronger than women, men are better at sports and women take care of babies. Most of the time these kinds of stereotypes are true, but with these stereotypes following women wherever they go, it is very hard for a woman to not be judged. Sometimes when I am watching a girls tennis game or something I automatically think that if a guy tennis player played one of the girls that he would win.This is because I have been taught throughout my life that men are better at sports than women. So I think that instead of judging someone just because of a stereotype that’s put on their gender, we need to look at them as an individual, because no two people are the same.
Along with gender, the other big problem in the United States is racism. Most white people in America think that it is a thing of the past and is no longer a problem. In the article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh talks about how white people have a huge advantage over every other race: “I have come to see White Privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.” I think that white people don’t realize that just because they are white they have so many advantages. I for one didn’t know about white privilege until I read this article. White people just take all of their privileges for granted and think that everyone gets the same treatment as them, even though they unconsciously stereotype other races on a daily basis. In the movie A Girl Like Me, Jennifer talks about how she thinks that being white is a sign of beauty: “Being white means that you are more beautiful than being dark skinned, I used to think of myself as ugly because I am dark skinned.” I think that the thing that we need to stop most about racism is all of the stereotypes. These stereotypes are put in kids’ heads at very young ages by the media, their families and their friends. Soon they start to believe the stereotypes and judge other races just based on stereotypes. Some examples of racial stereotypes are things like Mexicans jump fences, Asians are yellow, black people are good at sports, black people steal and black people like fried chicken. We need to break these harmful stereotypes that we have about different races and start caring about other things than just the color of someone's skin.
We have made great efforts to make America a country of equality and justice, but we aren't there yet. There is still a tremendous amount of racism, racial stereotypes and gender stereotyping still going on in the US. I think that the first step to eradicating these things is to come to terms with the fact that they are still a problem and that we didn’t fix the problem by giving black people their freedom and women the right to vote. The main problem is that a lot of people are starting to believe the stereotypes that are given to their race or their gender, and that prohibits them from doing certain things. For example in the video A Girl Like Me one of the girls said that that her own mom told her that she could not wear her hair natural because it made her look “African.” As an individual I can’t change the social norms or stop all of the racism and gender stereotypes, but if we all wake up to what's going on and work hard to make a change, someday it might happen.
My mask symbolizes the difference between a stereotypical white person’s lifestyle and a stereotypical black person’s lifestyle. The white section of the mask and the symbols inside of it symbolize both male and female stereotypes of a white person's life, and stereotypes that I get as a white male. The black section of my mask and the symbols inside of it symbolize both the stereotypes given to black males and females, and the hardships that they endure because of it. My mask connects back to my essay because in my essay I discussed the categories racial stereotypes and racism.
Sociology, the study of how forces create and shape individuals, tells us why we are the way we are. Sociologists use identity categories to better understand different forms of socialization. Some of these identity categories are race, sex, religion, age and social class. The categories you fall into can sometimes determine who your friends are, what stereotypes you will be given, and to a certain extent how your life will play out. In society there are lots of norms and many different punishments for breaking those norms. These norms include folkways, mores, and taboos. Folkways are norms that are not strictly enforced, things like not cutting in line or walking on the right side of the sidewalk. In the article Cultural Diversity in the United States, the author talks about mores and how they are enforced: “We think of them as essential to our core values, and we insist on conformity.” Mores are things like murder, adultery and rape. If you do any of these, not only will people not respect you but you will mostly go to jail for a long time. Finally there are taboos, norms that are so strongly ingrained that even the thought of doing them makes you shudder. These are things like bestiality, necrophilia and incest. These are all things that we have been socialized by our parents, the media, our friends and our religion to believe. For example I have been socialized by the media as a male to be tough, and not show emotion with the exception of anger, that girls are not as strong or as smart as guys and that just because I am white I have leverage over every other race.
Sociology also studies gender identity. One important question that sociologists have is whether early teaching of gender identity really benefits kids, or whether it forces ideas into their heads about who they are supposed to be? In the Sociology Textbook of Socialization, the author talks about the question that people have had for centuries, “What is human about human nature? How much of people’s characteristics come from “nature” (heredity) and how much from “nurture” (the social environment or contact with others?” In the video Gender Roles-Interviews with Kids, the narrator talks about the early teaching of gender identity: “By the age of four or five kids not only begin to develop gender constancy, but often show rigid standards for what they believe is appropriate male and female dress and behavior.” My belief is that teaching kids how they need to act and how they need to behave just because of their gender is not right; we should let them figure out who they want to be by themselves even if it is not how a stereotypical male or female is “supposed” to act or be. Kids these days are learning harmful stereotypes both about their own and the opposite gender. Some of the things that I have been taught as a male are things like women clean the house, men don’t cry, men are superior to women, women are weaker than men, men are obsessed with sex and beer, men are lazy and that men are smarter than women. All of these stereotypes, though true in some cases, give kids a bad picture of the opposite gender. The stereotypes given to their gender make the kids feel like they need to conform with the stereotypes to be accepted into society, even though they may not want to be like that. This is why I think that it is not necessarily a good thing to force kids into a gender, and that it is better to let them choose for themselves how they want to live their lives.
One of the biggest issues in sociology today is gender equality. We have made great strides in the way of giving women equal rights in the U.S., but we still have along way to go. In the article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh talks about her observation on men’s unwillingness to admit they have advantages over women: “ I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s.” As a male I have been taught all of the stereotypes that are given to women by the media, my parents and my peers. It is hard to admit but some of these stereotypes I have begun to believe. Not the ones like women are meant to stay home and clean the house, but ones like men are stronger than women, men are better at sports and women take care of babies. Most of the time these kinds of stereotypes are true, but with these stereotypes following women wherever they go, it is very hard for a woman to not be judged. Sometimes when I am watching a girls tennis game or something I automatically think that if a guy tennis player played one of the girls that he would win.This is because I have been taught throughout my life that men are better at sports than women. So I think that instead of judging someone just because of a stereotype that’s put on their gender, we need to look at them as an individual, because no two people are the same.
Along with gender, the other big problem in the United States is racism. Most white people in America think that it is a thing of the past and is no longer a problem. In the article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh talks about how white people have a huge advantage over every other race: “I have come to see White Privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.” I think that white people don’t realize that just because they are white they have so many advantages. I for one didn’t know about white privilege until I read this article. White people just take all of their privileges for granted and think that everyone gets the same treatment as them, even though they unconsciously stereotype other races on a daily basis. In the movie A Girl Like Me, Jennifer talks about how she thinks that being white is a sign of beauty: “Being white means that you are more beautiful than being dark skinned, I used to think of myself as ugly because I am dark skinned.” I think that the thing that we need to stop most about racism is all of the stereotypes. These stereotypes are put in kids’ heads at very young ages by the media, their families and their friends. Soon they start to believe the stereotypes and judge other races just based on stereotypes. Some examples of racial stereotypes are things like Mexicans jump fences, Asians are yellow, black people are good at sports, black people steal and black people like fried chicken. We need to break these harmful stereotypes that we have about different races and start caring about other things than just the color of someone's skin.
We have made great efforts to make America a country of equality and justice, but we aren't there yet. There is still a tremendous amount of racism, racial stereotypes and gender stereotyping still going on in the US. I think that the first step to eradicating these things is to come to terms with the fact that they are still a problem and that we didn’t fix the problem by giving black people their freedom and women the right to vote. The main problem is that a lot of people are starting to believe the stereotypes that are given to their race or their gender, and that prohibits them from doing certain things. For example in the video A Girl Like Me one of the girls said that that her own mom told her that she could not wear her hair natural because it made her look “African.” As an individual I can’t change the social norms or stop all of the racism and gender stereotypes, but if we all wake up to what's going on and work hard to make a change, someday it might happen.
My mask symbolizes the difference between a stereotypical white person’s lifestyle and a stereotypical black person’s lifestyle. The white section of the mask and the symbols inside of it symbolize both male and female stereotypes of a white person's life, and stereotypes that I get as a white male. The black section of my mask and the symbols inside of it symbolize both the stereotypes given to black males and females, and the hardships that they endure because of it. My mask connects back to my essay because in my essay I discussed the categories racial stereotypes and racism.
Socialization Project Reflection
What are you most proud of about your mask?Why?
The part of my mask that I am most proud of is how refined it is. I took my time on my mask to make all of the lines and the symbols neat. This was very challenging for me because I am not very good at art and I don’t like to do it much either. The other thing that I was very proud of about my mask is that even though I didn'’t like the topic of this project I was still able to go deep and display the things that I think need to be changed and that are an issue.
Quote the section from your essay that you are most proud of and describe, in detail, why you are proud of it?
I think that the section of my essay that I am most proud of is the third body paragraph in which I am talking about race. I think that this is the best part of my essay because this is the topic that I think is the biggest in the United states and the one that we need to focus on fixing. I think that the best point that I make in the paragraph is the second sentence: “Most white people in America think that it is a thing of the past and is no longer a problem.” This, I think is one of the main reasons that racism is still a problem, especially for the people like me who live in places where there is not a lot of racial integration and almost everyone is white. We read about all of the racism and the hatred towards other races in the early history of the United States, but we thing that has passed and that racism is no longer happening.
What will you remember from this project?Why?
The main thing that I took away from this project, was that we are the way we are because of the people around us and that we have been taught everything that we know and believe in. Before we did this project I thought that we were taught things like language, religion how you act. I had no idea that we were taught things like how to walk and what gender we are and that without our parents, friends and the media teaching us these things that we wouldn't know them.
Which habit of heart and mind do you need to work on in your next project to get better at Project Based Learning? Why do you need to improve and how that Habit of Heart and Mind will help you?
The habit of heart and mind that I need to work on for the next project is perseverance. During this project while we were doing project time, some of the time I was off task and was talking with my friends. If I have more perseverance next time then I will be able to persevere through the urge to go and talk to my friends and instead get my work done.
What are you most proud of about your mask?Why?
The part of my mask that I am most proud of is how refined it is. I took my time on my mask to make all of the lines and the symbols neat. This was very challenging for me because I am not very good at art and I don’t like to do it much either. The other thing that I was very proud of about my mask is that even though I didn'’t like the topic of this project I was still able to go deep and display the things that I think need to be changed and that are an issue.
Quote the section from your essay that you are most proud of and describe, in detail, why you are proud of it?
I think that the section of my essay that I am most proud of is the third body paragraph in which I am talking about race. I think that this is the best part of my essay because this is the topic that I think is the biggest in the United states and the one that we need to focus on fixing. I think that the best point that I make in the paragraph is the second sentence: “Most white people in America think that it is a thing of the past and is no longer a problem.” This, I think is one of the main reasons that racism is still a problem, especially for the people like me who live in places where there is not a lot of racial integration and almost everyone is white. We read about all of the racism and the hatred towards other races in the early history of the United States, but we thing that has passed and that racism is no longer happening.
What will you remember from this project?Why?
The main thing that I took away from this project, was that we are the way we are because of the people around us and that we have been taught everything that we know and believe in. Before we did this project I thought that we were taught things like language, religion how you act. I had no idea that we were taught things like how to walk and what gender we are and that without our parents, friends and the media teaching us these things that we wouldn't know them.
Which habit of heart and mind do you need to work on in your next project to get better at Project Based Learning? Why do you need to improve and how that Habit of Heart and Mind will help you?
The habit of heart and mind that I need to work on for the next project is perseverance. During this project while we were doing project time, some of the time I was off task and was talking with my friends. If I have more perseverance next time then I will be able to persevere through the urge to go and talk to my friends and instead get my work done.
Tragedy Project
Play Script
The Story of Juan-Pedro
Prologue:
(Juan-Pedro is sitting at the dinner table with his family and telling one of his childhood friends José why he had to come back to Juárez Mexico)
Juan-Pedro: I was illegally moved from Mexico to the US as a kid at 6 years old.
After High school, my parents went back to Juárez and I stayed in the US to go to college.
I met and married a very attractive blonde white lady named Brittany and had a wonderful son. We lived happily together in Detroit paying taxes and obeying all laws just as all legal citizens would.
A few months ago, I ran for senator and the government found out that I was an alien. They put me in jail until I was supposed to get deported, along with the other 1.5 million people that were to be deported that year.
José(Juan’s childhood friend): Why would they deport you? I thought you were a good contributor to their country.
Juan-Pedro: You’re right. I built myself up from the bottom, never committing any crimes and paying all of my taxes.
José: How did you end up back in mexico?
Juan-Pedro: As I was showering in prison, I dropped my bar of soap. A man slipped on the soap and fatally cracked his skull. When the warden found out about this, I was blamed for attempting to murder another prisoner. They immediately deported me without letting say goodbye to my family or even giving me a fair trial.
Scene One:
(In Mexico Juan receives a voice mail from his wife)
Brittany(sobbing into the phone): Our fifteen year old son, Jesus, has run away and I can’t find him anywhere, I miss you so much and I want you to come home and make everything better.
Chorus:
(as American people)
Brittany, you must not weep so
Your family will be okay
You have to hold yourself together
And don’t let go of hope
Everything will turn out fine.
Chorus:
(as US government)
Your husband was here illegally
Illegal households create a net fiscal deficit of more than $10 billion a year.
Many of the immigrants are wasting our money and not paying taxes.
We cannot treat him any differently than them because they all made the same mistake of crossing the border.
Scene Two:
(After listening to the voicemail)
Juan-Pedro: I have to call my son to find out where he is.
José: That's fine just be back in time for dessert.
Juan-Pedro(on the phone): Where are you? Your mother has been searching for you everywhere.
Jesus(on the phone): I am crossing the border. I want to come live with you.
(Jesus on the phone) Gregory: Get off my land!!! And when you get home, tell all of your friends to stay in their own God damn Country…(gunshot goes off)
Juan-Pedro: Who was that? Hello. Jesus? Estas bien? Que pasó? (Phone beeps)
Juan Pedro: (Juan-Pedro gets down on both knees and starts to cry) No! No! my dear son, why is life so cruel, what did I do to deserve this?
(Juan receives a text message from his friend Dwayne in Detroit).
Dwayne: Brittany has tried to contact both you and your son.
Neither of you answered your phones. Thinking that both of you are dead, she has gone into shock and she may be thinking about killing another or herself.
Juan-Pedro: I have prayed for my family to live happily in the afterlife and I wish to be with them, since I have no one left here that I love anymore. My suffering will only end with my death.
Chorus(as conscience):
Your wife wouldn't want you to do this to yourself,
everyone makes bad choices,
but you can get through this.
Do you want everyone to remember you as a quitter and someone who gives up when something bad happens?
Or someone who perseveres through it and at least tries to be happy again?
You have done it before,
When you came to the US, you had nothing but with hard work and perseverance you were able to make a life for yourself,
and be successful.
Juan-Pedro: My wife is freaking out. She is considering suicide, she has no say in the matter! Besides, if there is an afterlife, I would be with her and my dear son.
Dwayne: I’m sorry.
Juan-Pedro: What?
Dwayne: I just heard the news. The border patrol believes they’ve found your wife’s body in the desert just outside Tijuana. They have reasons to believe that she was bitten by a rattle snake and later died of poison and dehydration. They found a letter of her last words clutched in her hands.
Brittany (writing letter): I am writing this letter in hopes that my beloved husband Juan-Pedro will one day read this.
Dear juan, I love you so much and I wish that I could have made it to Mexico so that we could start a new life together. I tried to get to Tijuana so that i could get anti venom but I couldn’t make it, I am sorry. Please don't give up, hold on and try to be happy for me
Juan-Pedro: Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!
(Juan falls to the floor screaming at the top of his lungs)
I will live out my life in misery, waiting for the day that nature claims my life. I will live in a mud hut and eat leaves and fish.
Chorus (as divine power):
Juan, I’m sorry.
You have been separated from your family
And because you were deported,
Your family has died
And you are living alone in misery
These laws are ruining peoples lives
They are separating families
And causing people to hurt and to get hurt
Because of these laws children grow up
Without parents to teach them
And without siblings to model after
These immigration laws
Have ruined many people’s lives
And will continue to do so
If we don’t stop them.
Prologue:
(Juan-Pedro is sitting at the dinner table with his family and telling one of his childhood friends José why he had to come back to Juárez Mexico)
Juan-Pedro: I was illegally moved from Mexico to the US as a kid at 6 years old.
After High school, my parents went back to Juárez and I stayed in the US to go to college.
I met and married a very attractive blonde white lady named Brittany and had a wonderful son. We lived happily together in Detroit paying taxes and obeying all laws just as all legal citizens would.
A few months ago, I ran for senator and the government found out that I was an alien. They put me in jail until I was supposed to get deported, along with the other 1.5 million people that were to be deported that year.
José(Juan’s childhood friend): Why would they deport you? I thought you were a good contributor to their country.
Juan-Pedro: You’re right. I built myself up from the bottom, never committing any crimes and paying all of my taxes.
José: How did you end up back in mexico?
Juan-Pedro: As I was showering in prison, I dropped my bar of soap. A man slipped on the soap and fatally cracked his skull. When the warden found out about this, I was blamed for attempting to murder another prisoner. They immediately deported me without letting say goodbye to my family or even giving me a fair trial.
Scene One:
(In Mexico Juan receives a voice mail from his wife)
Brittany(sobbing into the phone): Our fifteen year old son, Jesus, has run away and I can’t find him anywhere, I miss you so much and I want you to come home and make everything better.
Chorus:
(as American people)
Brittany, you must not weep so
Your family will be okay
You have to hold yourself together
And don’t let go of hope
Everything will turn out fine.
Chorus:
(as US government)
Your husband was here illegally
Illegal households create a net fiscal deficit of more than $10 billion a year.
Many of the immigrants are wasting our money and not paying taxes.
We cannot treat him any differently than them because they all made the same mistake of crossing the border.
Scene Two:
(After listening to the voicemail)
Juan-Pedro: I have to call my son to find out where he is.
José: That's fine just be back in time for dessert.
Juan-Pedro(on the phone): Where are you? Your mother has been searching for you everywhere.
Jesus(on the phone): I am crossing the border. I want to come live with you.
(Jesus on the phone) Gregory: Get off my land!!! And when you get home, tell all of your friends to stay in their own God damn Country…(gunshot goes off)
Juan-Pedro: Who was that? Hello. Jesus? Estas bien? Que pasó? (Phone beeps)
Juan Pedro: (Juan-Pedro gets down on both knees and starts to cry) No! No! my dear son, why is life so cruel, what did I do to deserve this?
(Juan receives a text message from his friend Dwayne in Detroit).
Dwayne: Brittany has tried to contact both you and your son.
Neither of you answered your phones. Thinking that both of you are dead, she has gone into shock and she may be thinking about killing another or herself.
Juan-Pedro: I have prayed for my family to live happily in the afterlife and I wish to be with them, since I have no one left here that I love anymore. My suffering will only end with my death.
Chorus(as conscience):
Your wife wouldn't want you to do this to yourself,
everyone makes bad choices,
but you can get through this.
Do you want everyone to remember you as a quitter and someone who gives up when something bad happens?
Or someone who perseveres through it and at least tries to be happy again?
You have done it before,
When you came to the US, you had nothing but with hard work and perseverance you were able to make a life for yourself,
and be successful.
Juan-Pedro: My wife is freaking out. She is considering suicide, she has no say in the matter! Besides, if there is an afterlife, I would be with her and my dear son.
Dwayne: I’m sorry.
Juan-Pedro: What?
Dwayne: I just heard the news. The border patrol believes they’ve found your wife’s body in the desert just outside Tijuana. They have reasons to believe that she was bitten by a rattle snake and later died of poison and dehydration. They found a letter of her last words clutched in her hands.
Brittany (writing letter): I am writing this letter in hopes that my beloved husband Juan-Pedro will one day read this.
Dear juan, I love you so much and I wish that I could have made it to Mexico so that we could start a new life together. I tried to get to Tijuana so that i could get anti venom but I couldn’t make it, I am sorry. Please don't give up, hold on and try to be happy for me
Juan-Pedro: Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!
(Juan falls to the floor screaming at the top of his lungs)
I will live out my life in misery, waiting for the day that nature claims my life. I will live in a mud hut and eat leaves and fish.
Chorus (as divine power):
Juan, I’m sorry.
You have been separated from your family
And because you were deported,
Your family has died
And you are living alone in misery
These laws are ruining peoples lives
They are separating families
And causing people to hurt and to get hurt
Because of these laws children grow up
Without parents to teach them
And without siblings to model after
These immigration laws
Have ruined many people’s lives
And will continue to do so
If we don’t stop them.
Reflection
I was very pleased with the turnout of the whole project after all the hard work that we put into it. But if I had to choose a specific part of the project that I am the most proud of, it would have to be the desert scene when Juan-Pedros son Jesus was shot. This part was the best and the part that I am the most proud of because were we able to make it look very realistic with the fake blood, and with the background that we added. This part also took us the longest to film, because of all the small movements that we made the characters do. I think that I am the most proud of this mostly because my partner and I had to skip lunch to film that part. I was proud that I was able to get done what I needed to even though it meant taking free time to do it.
The biggest part of advice that I would give to a student next year would be to use their time wisely. I think that this is important in any project but we really didn't get a lot of project work time in class to finish the project. This may have been due to the fact that George and I choose to take on one of the challenge extensions and make a flash animation. One of the days we had to work all of lunch and stay after school just to get the project done in time. So I would advise Next years class to really focus, especially if they are planning on taking on a challenge extension.
I really liked working with partners and would like to do it in future projects. That being said I would rather work alone than work with some people. But George and I worked very well together and were both motivated to work hard and get the project done. Every day of project work time, George and I worked hard throughout the whole class and even came in for lunch and after school to finish our project. So I think that as long as we are allowed to choose our own partners then I would rather work with partners than by myself. For the kids that just choose their friends for partners and mess around the whole time will pay the price by getting a bad grade.
The most challenging part of this project was doing the flash animation challenge extension. We took this on so that we could learn as much as possible. For flash animation you take a picture, move your character and then do that many times until it looks like the character is moving once you string all of the pictures together. We probably had to take over 500 pictures for our animation, that is why it took so long and why this project was so challenging to finish. We overcame the extra work by working every second of of project work time and worked over the breaks that we got. Next time that we have a project I think that I will not do the hardest challenge extension unless I have another good partner, because alone it would be too much work.
The biggest part of advice that I would give to a student next year would be to use their time wisely. I think that this is important in any project but we really didn't get a lot of project work time in class to finish the project. This may have been due to the fact that George and I choose to take on one of the challenge extensions and make a flash animation. One of the days we had to work all of lunch and stay after school just to get the project done in time. So I would advise Next years class to really focus, especially if they are planning on taking on a challenge extension.
I really liked working with partners and would like to do it in future projects. That being said I would rather work alone than work with some people. But George and I worked very well together and were both motivated to work hard and get the project done. Every day of project work time, George and I worked hard throughout the whole class and even came in for lunch and after school to finish our project. So I think that as long as we are allowed to choose our own partners then I would rather work with partners than by myself. For the kids that just choose their friends for partners and mess around the whole time will pay the price by getting a bad grade.
The most challenging part of this project was doing the flash animation challenge extension. We took this on so that we could learn as much as possible. For flash animation you take a picture, move your character and then do that many times until it looks like the character is moving once you string all of the pictures together. We probably had to take over 500 pictures for our animation, that is why it took so long and why this project was so challenging to finish. We overcame the extra work by working every second of of project work time and worked over the breaks that we got. Next time that we have a project I think that I will not do the hardest challenge extension unless I have another good partner, because alone it would be too much work.
Model United Nations
The Model UN project was a project that we did in humanities. We were each assigned a country, I got the United States, We had to do research on our countries. Then we were taught a bit about how the UN functioned and what their purpose was. Our first model UN debate that we did was on North Korea, We had to do research on it to see what our countries view on the issue was and then we had to write our policy paper and our resolution. After our first mun debate, we started working on the Israel/Palestine issue and did all of the same things. When we did our exhibition, and it went very smoothly.
North Korea Policy Paper
Although North Korea does not yet have the technology or means of reaching the United states with a nuclear warhead, the United States, the US feels with the expanding of YongByon, their nuclear complex, North Korea may try to build new, more powerful missiles and attack either the US or one of its allies.
The US has been fighting to stop North Korea from building nuclear weapons since 1998, when North Korea sent a test missile over Japan. The North has been building nuclear weapons on and off since then. In the article, “North Korea Has Rebooted Its Nuclear Program US Confirms” the author talks about what North Korea plans to do after expanding their NyongByon nuclear facility: “Clapper said the North has taken initial steps toward fielding a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile although it remains untested”(North). This is a big deal that North Korea is not only building these very powerful nuclear tipped missiles, but they are trying to hide it from everyone else. If they are successful in building the missiles they will not just be able to attack South Korea and Japan but they may be powerful enough to reach the US. This problem definitely needs to be dealt with; if they do end up using their nuclear weapons for non-peaceful purposes, it could cause a world war.
North Korea is not the only country that has the ability to build powerful nuclear weapons. Iran also has the power to build nuclear weapons. Although they have not yet completed a nuclear weapon, they could potentially build one in under a year., It is possible that Iran could transfer this technology to North Korea since they are on good terms and are considered to be part of Irans ‘axes of resistance’. In the article “Iran and North Korea: the nuclear ‘axis of resistance,’” the author talks about the possibility of North Korea helping other countries get nuclear weapons: “North Korea’s export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to several countries, including Iran and Syria, and its assistance to Syria’s construction of a nuclear reactor… illustrate the reach of its proliferation activities”(The comprehensive). This is why we need to improve our relationship with countries like Iran and get them on our side. If we do not these countries could be a huge threat to the US and our allies. By doing this, we would also be cutting North Korea off from them so that North Korea would not be able to get materials or help from those countries. At this point, there is not much that we can do about North Korea restarting its plutonium reactor and expanding NyongByon, one of their nuclear facilities. We have already tried putting put sanctions on them, so we can not really do anything besides watch them constantly with satellites and give their enemies missile defense systems to help prevent an attack. If we get the middle eastern countries on our side and threaten to put sanctions on them if they keep interacting with North Korea, then it will be a lot harder for North Korea to build their weapons and have any real power. The US believes that there is no real solution to the North Korean problem without starting a war to take their nuclear weapons away.
Bibliography
"North Korea Has Rebooted Its Nuclear Program, U.S. Confirms." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Lake, Josh RoginEli. "Iran and North Korea: The Nuclear ‘axis of Resistance." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"North Korea Has Followed through on Its Threat to Advance Its Nuclear Weapons Program." American Live Wire American News. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
The US has been fighting to stop North Korea from building nuclear weapons since 1998, when North Korea sent a test missile over Japan. The North has been building nuclear weapons on and off since then. In the article, “North Korea Has Rebooted Its Nuclear Program US Confirms” the author talks about what North Korea plans to do after expanding their NyongByon nuclear facility: “Clapper said the North has taken initial steps toward fielding a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile although it remains untested”(North). This is a big deal that North Korea is not only building these very powerful nuclear tipped missiles, but they are trying to hide it from everyone else. If they are successful in building the missiles they will not just be able to attack South Korea and Japan but they may be powerful enough to reach the US. This problem definitely needs to be dealt with; if they do end up using their nuclear weapons for non-peaceful purposes, it could cause a world war.
North Korea is not the only country that has the ability to build powerful nuclear weapons. Iran also has the power to build nuclear weapons. Although they have not yet completed a nuclear weapon, they could potentially build one in under a year., It is possible that Iran could transfer this technology to North Korea since they are on good terms and are considered to be part of Irans ‘axes of resistance’. In the article “Iran and North Korea: the nuclear ‘axis of resistance,’” the author talks about the possibility of North Korea helping other countries get nuclear weapons: “North Korea’s export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to several countries, including Iran and Syria, and its assistance to Syria’s construction of a nuclear reactor… illustrate the reach of its proliferation activities”(The comprehensive). This is why we need to improve our relationship with countries like Iran and get them on our side. If we do not these countries could be a huge threat to the US and our allies. By doing this, we would also be cutting North Korea off from them so that North Korea would not be able to get materials or help from those countries. At this point, there is not much that we can do about North Korea restarting its plutonium reactor and expanding NyongByon, one of their nuclear facilities. We have already tried putting put sanctions on them, so we can not really do anything besides watch them constantly with satellites and give their enemies missile defense systems to help prevent an attack. If we get the middle eastern countries on our side and threaten to put sanctions on them if they keep interacting with North Korea, then it will be a lot harder for North Korea to build their weapons and have any real power. The US believes that there is no real solution to the North Korean problem without starting a war to take their nuclear weapons away.
Bibliography
"North Korea Has Rebooted Its Nuclear Program, U.S. Confirms." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
Lake, Josh RoginEli. "Iran and North Korea: The Nuclear ‘axis of Resistance." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"North Korea Has Followed through on Its Threat to Advance Its Nuclear Weapons Program." American Live Wire American News. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
Israel/Palestine Policy Paper
Although the Palestinians have the right to have their land back according to the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947 and need somewhere to go because at the moment they are living as refugees, the United States feels that the Jewish people, who have been been persecuted and who have never really had a homeland, should without a doubt be able to have Israel as their homeland and no one can take it from them.
The US only recently has stepped in to help with the Israel/Palestine conflict, considering that the fighting has been going on for hundreds of years. The US offered its help in 1947 with the Partition Plan. This plan called for the end to the British mandate and for independent Arab and Jewish states. Only a year after the 1947 Partition plan was put in place, was the exodus of 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced to leave their homes by the Jews and were forced to take refuge in other Arab countries. Ever since then the Palestinians have been fighting for the right of return which is being able to return to the land designated to them by the 1947 Partition Plan, but the Israelis are unwilling to give them their land back.
To make matters worse in 1967 the Israelis took a good piece of the Palestinians land during the conflict of the six day war. The US position is that the 1967 borders should be put back into effect, which does not give the Palestinians as much land as in the 1947 distribution. But it does give them a lot more than they have now. In the video “William Quandt Catches up with the Cairo Review,” William talks about Obama's proposal in 2011 for the re-distribution of land, “Obama repeated what most other Presidents have said, that the 1967 lines should serve as the reference point for defining the future borders between Israel and Palestine. He used a formula that is the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps, the Israelis rejected this very strongly and the President somewhat backed down”(William Quandt). The Jewish people have a very strong voice in the US and in other countries for what decisions are going to be made, because there are a lot of Jewish people in the US that have a lot of money. For this reason we feel that the Israelis should be able to keep most of their land in Israel to keep the Jews in the US happy, but the Palestinians still need somewhere to go. In the article “Peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it talks about the United State’s view, that the Israelis need to give the Palestinians some of their land back: “All recent US Presidents have maintained a policy that Israel must give up some of the land that it conquered in the 1967 war in order to achieve peace”(The Peace). We think that this is very reasonable because for one, the Palestinians are in a horrible situation and need somewhere to go, and also if they do not give the Palestinians their land back then the surrounding Arab states will keep attacking Israel.
The US does not believe that there is a peaceful solution to the Israel/Palestine issue, that one side or the other will not have a problem with or reject because we have suggested just about everything we can think of. So we have come up with a solution that is realistic and will benefit both sides. It will give the Palestinians land that is rightfully theirs, and will ensure that the Israelis will not be attacked by the Palestinians any more. The US thinks that a good solution to the Israel/Palestine problem is, instead of allowing the Palestinians the right of return to their old homes and having the same borders as in 1947 or 1967, Israel would be divided into two separate states: one all-Arab and one all Jewish state. The borders would be decided on by where the majority of each group is now living so that there will not have to be too many land swaps, as well as on where each religion’s big religious sites are. The country will be divided into two separate sections so that there are no small communities of one religion that are isolated by the other religion, and the border will be guarded by UN peacekeepers so that there is no conflict between the two states. In the article “Peace Process in the Israel-Palestine Conflict,” it talks about the Palestinians’ willingness to negotiate and compromise: “Palestinians’ view of a destruction of Israel in order to regain Palestinian lands, a view held by Arafat and the PLO initially, has steadily moderated from the late 1960s onwards to a preparedness to negotiate and instead seek a two-state solution”(The Peace). This shows that the Palestinians are open to almost anything that will allow them to return to their holy land. Although the Israelis are opposed to giving the Palestinians all of their land back, The US thinks that the Israelis are more likely to agree with this than just having to give the Palestinians all of their land back. In the article “American Jews Are Part of the Israel-Palestine Problem,” the author talks about American Jew’s views on how to stop the conflict: “Many people believe the only way to finally end the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is applying pressure on Israel to stop building settlements, end its military occupation of Palestinian territories, and allow the Palestinians to exercise their self-determination and achieve statehood”(In). The support of the American Jews is very important to the US, and they are supportive of letting the Palestinians have Part of Israel to make their own state. These two articles both show that this solution is the only viable option and that in the long run, it will be the most beneficial to both sides while still protecting the interests of the American people.
MUN Reflection
I think that I would tell them that the MUN project was important manley because we got to learn about current events and conflict in the world. This is very important and up to this point, in humanities the only thing that I have learned about history and current events are the ones that are going on in the. This is a great thing to learn about, but it is much more beneficial and interesting to learn about the outside world. The other really important thing about this project is it taught us how decisions are made worldwide. Before this project I had no idea that there are 193 countries in the UN, I thought that the UN was just made up of the most powerful countries and not countries such as Zimbabwe. Although this project was challenging, I think it is the project I learned the most in this year.
I think that analysis was the habit of heart and mind was the one that I was most proud of using during this project. I was able to take what I was reading and what other countries were telling me and analyze it instead of just accepting what they were telling me and just go with it I came up with resolutions that not only helped solve the problem in the countries but also that benefited my country. This is evident because both of my resolutions made it into the docket because I analyzed the information I was getting and came up with a solution from that information and the best interests for my country.
It was very challenging for me to finish my second research packet in time mainly because I was gone at a ski race for part of it. Since we had to do the packet in a short amount of time, just missing a few days of work time put me behind. I was able to overcome this challenge by doing a lot of the work at home as well as focussing and working really hard on it in class. This is evident in my grade that I was able to work through the challenge, I ended up getting 40/40 on it.
My favorite resolution I think was 1b which was written by Easton (Russia). His resolution was a lot like mine, but it had some details that My resolution did not. Ours were both two state solutions and we both recognized that there needed to be peacekeepers along the borders to stop fighting if it arrises. The one thing that He had that I didn’t was an operative phrase that states, “requests that if the newly established Palestinian state is over populated than surrounding Arab countries absorb the remaining refugees and allow them citizenship. I agreed with this because I think the US would strongly support this and think that it is a good resolution.
I think that analysis was the habit of heart and mind was the one that I was most proud of using during this project. I was able to take what I was reading and what other countries were telling me and analyze it instead of just accepting what they were telling me and just go with it I came up with resolutions that not only helped solve the problem in the countries but also that benefited my country. This is evident because both of my resolutions made it into the docket because I analyzed the information I was getting and came up with a solution from that information and the best interests for my country.
It was very challenging for me to finish my second research packet in time mainly because I was gone at a ski race for part of it. Since we had to do the packet in a short amount of time, just missing a few days of work time put me behind. I was able to overcome this challenge by doing a lot of the work at home as well as focussing and working really hard on it in class. This is evident in my grade that I was able to work through the challenge, I ended up getting 40/40 on it.
My favorite resolution I think was 1b which was written by Easton (Russia). His resolution was a lot like mine, but it had some details that My resolution did not. Ours were both two state solutions and we both recognized that there needed to be peacekeepers along the borders to stop fighting if it arrises. The one thing that He had that I didn’t was an operative phrase that states, “requests that if the newly established Palestinian state is over populated than surrounding Arab countries absorb the remaining refugees and allow them citizenship. I agreed with this because I think the US would strongly support this and think that it is a good resolution.
Happiness and Meaning Project
The first thing that we did for the happiness and meaning project was read Brave New World, which was a world where people lived in a dystopia and about how none of the people there had true happiness. Then we had the first socratic seminar on the book and started to get into how to find true happiness and meaning. Then we watched some movies and did some research on happiness so that we could write an essay on happiness. The essay was about what happiness was to us, how to find it and what we need to find true happiness. We used that essay in the final socratic seminar at the all school exhibition where we really got into meaning and happiness and even invited the public to join in and share their views.
Essay
True Happiness
When you ask people what they want most in life, the majority of people put being happy at the top of their list. In the movie Happy, a man was interviewed on what he wants most and he said, “To be successful, to be happy and live a long meaningful life.” When he was asked what would make him happy he said, “money, lots of money.” Money is what people have been taught will make them happy since they were children and spend their whole lives trying to make a lot of money and buying the latest products. In truth having a lot of money does not make you automatically happy it just gives you brief happiness and then you end up wanting more money and never being satisfied. In the US, I think this consumer mindset is the reason why the US is ranked lower than a lot of countries on the happiness of its people. In order to become truly happy we need to figure out what makes us as individuals happy, not blindly follow what the media is telling us will make us happy, find meaning in our happiness and not just seek easy pleasures, as well as making sure that when we seeking happiness we do not hurt other people too much in the process.
We have been taught by our parents and the media, that if we work hard in school, get a good job and make a lot of money then we will be happy and have a good life which just is not the case. In the Movie Happy, a lot of people talked about how they were happy not because they were rich or famous but because they were doing things that they loved to do or were around people that make them happy. Ronaldo Fadul, a man who lived in a shack and surfed every day talked about his view on happiness: “ It does not make sense to make money for yourself when you don’t to take care of yourself, when you’re not dreaming or happy”(11:56). I think that what he is saying is true and that a lot of times people are so focused on making money and buying things that they think will make them happy because the media tells them they will, that they spend their whole lives trying to be “successful” and are never really happy. Another thing that was brought up in the movie Happy was that dopamine receptors in the brain can die if you don’t use them and those are the things that let you feel happiness, that means that if you aren't doing things that make you happy particularly physical activities enough you can lose the ability to be happy. So I think we need to do what makes us happy instead of trying to do things or buy things that other people tell us will make us happy.
It seems that people that are unhappy with their lives are trying to achieve extrinsic happiness, they are the ones who think that money and possessions will make them happy rather than family and doing things they love and things that will bring you intrinsic happiness. This is talked about in the movie Happy by Tim Kasser, “people who were more oriented towards money and status and image were reporting less satisfaction with their lives, they were more depressed, more anxious, we found that they felt less vital and energised in their day to day life”(20:48). I think that that part of the reason why people are so oriented around money and possessions is because that is what the media is telling us will make us happy, which is true but not for a long period of time, because once people get the thing they want or make a bunch of money they want more and more and are never satisfied or truly happy. This is proven later in the movie by Tim Kasser, “In the last 50 years, economic growth has gone up a lot, in America we are about twice as wealthy as we were 50 years ago. But nationally represented surveys of people's happiness show that people's happiness has remained stagnant, people aren't any happier than they were 50 years ago”(24:43). This is just more proof that although we are brought up to think that if we are successful and make lots of money we will be happy is just not true. I think that in order for people to understand that money and possessions won't make them happy they need to be told that when they are young instead of the opposite.
I think that we can have happiness without meaning in our lives, but it is false happiness and to be truly happy for a long time we need meaning in our lives to be happy. In the movie I AM, Tom Shadyac talks about how when he obtained the possessions that he thought that he wanted, he was no happier: “I was struck with one very clear, very strange feeling, I was no happier. There I was standing in the house that my culture had taught me was a measure of the good life, and it made me absolutely no happier”(12:45). I think that this is because there was no real meaning in buying the house. If he had been homeless and was given the house I think that he would that would be like the happiest day of his life, because there is meaning in that. Later in I AM, Howard Zinn talks about the mindless consumption that everyone does: “People are driven to accumulate, accumulate without asking the question will this make me any happier or not”(14:16). I find this is true in my life, this happened a few months ago when I had my old flip phone and wanted an Iphone really bad and now that I finally got one after all of the complaining and time spent getting one, I am no happier. I think that society needs to change so that we are taught when we are young to seek meaning in life rather than possessions and fake happiness.
To a certain extent we should seek happiness at all costs as long as people aren't getting hurt too much in the process. In the story “The One Who Walks Away from Omelas” Ursula Le Guin gives her point of view on pursuing happiness at the expense of others: “The joy built on successful slaughter is not the right kind of joy.” Being happy because of someone else's unhappiness is one of the only types of happiness that we should not seek, because there are so many of other things that you can do to bring you happiness. Later in “The One Who Walks Away from Omelas” the story talks about why we need make people unhappy for our own happiness: “But they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weather of their skies, depends wholly on this childs abominable misery.” This proves that in order for people to he happy it has to be at the expense of other peoples happiness and I don’t see a way that everyone can be happy without living in a dystopia. So I conclude that if possible we should not make people unhappy just to make yourself a little bit happier. But if need be we should put our own happiness over the happiness of others.
If we do not examine how to achieve true happiness and continue on the road we are on, relying on easy pleasures and consumption for happiness we may end up living in a dystopia like Brave New World. We need to individualize our happiness because different people get happiness from different things. Like Malcolm Gladwell said, “there are only different kinds of mustard that suit different kinds of people,” meaning no two peoples tastes are the same and once we accept and realize that, I think we will value authentic happiness a lot more. But that is going to be hard because as Malcolm Gladwell also said, “ We can’t always explain what we want deep down,” this is because we want to be accepted into society so we don’t always do what we want in fear that we might be judged. So we need to stop listening to what the media is telling us will make us happy and find out what makes us happy so that we can pursue that.
When you ask people what they want most in life, the majority of people put being happy at the top of their list. In the movie Happy, a man was interviewed on what he wants most and he said, “To be successful, to be happy and live a long meaningful life.” When he was asked what would make him happy he said, “money, lots of money.” Money is what people have been taught will make them happy since they were children and spend their whole lives trying to make a lot of money and buying the latest products. In truth having a lot of money does not make you automatically happy it just gives you brief happiness and then you end up wanting more money and never being satisfied. In the US, I think this consumer mindset is the reason why the US is ranked lower than a lot of countries on the happiness of its people. In order to become truly happy we need to figure out what makes us as individuals happy, not blindly follow what the media is telling us will make us happy, find meaning in our happiness and not just seek easy pleasures, as well as making sure that when we seeking happiness we do not hurt other people too much in the process.
We have been taught by our parents and the media, that if we work hard in school, get a good job and make a lot of money then we will be happy and have a good life which just is not the case. In the Movie Happy, a lot of people talked about how they were happy not because they were rich or famous but because they were doing things that they loved to do or were around people that make them happy. Ronaldo Fadul, a man who lived in a shack and surfed every day talked about his view on happiness: “ It does not make sense to make money for yourself when you don’t to take care of yourself, when you’re not dreaming or happy”(11:56). I think that what he is saying is true and that a lot of times people are so focused on making money and buying things that they think will make them happy because the media tells them they will, that they spend their whole lives trying to be “successful” and are never really happy. Another thing that was brought up in the movie Happy was that dopamine receptors in the brain can die if you don’t use them and those are the things that let you feel happiness, that means that if you aren't doing things that make you happy particularly physical activities enough you can lose the ability to be happy. So I think we need to do what makes us happy instead of trying to do things or buy things that other people tell us will make us happy.
It seems that people that are unhappy with their lives are trying to achieve extrinsic happiness, they are the ones who think that money and possessions will make them happy rather than family and doing things they love and things that will bring you intrinsic happiness. This is talked about in the movie Happy by Tim Kasser, “people who were more oriented towards money and status and image were reporting less satisfaction with their lives, they were more depressed, more anxious, we found that they felt less vital and energised in their day to day life”(20:48). I think that that part of the reason why people are so oriented around money and possessions is because that is what the media is telling us will make us happy, which is true but not for a long period of time, because once people get the thing they want or make a bunch of money they want more and more and are never satisfied or truly happy. This is proven later in the movie by Tim Kasser, “In the last 50 years, economic growth has gone up a lot, in America we are about twice as wealthy as we were 50 years ago. But nationally represented surveys of people's happiness show that people's happiness has remained stagnant, people aren't any happier than they were 50 years ago”(24:43). This is just more proof that although we are brought up to think that if we are successful and make lots of money we will be happy is just not true. I think that in order for people to understand that money and possessions won't make them happy they need to be told that when they are young instead of the opposite.
I think that we can have happiness without meaning in our lives, but it is false happiness and to be truly happy for a long time we need meaning in our lives to be happy. In the movie I AM, Tom Shadyac talks about how when he obtained the possessions that he thought that he wanted, he was no happier: “I was struck with one very clear, very strange feeling, I was no happier. There I was standing in the house that my culture had taught me was a measure of the good life, and it made me absolutely no happier”(12:45). I think that this is because there was no real meaning in buying the house. If he had been homeless and was given the house I think that he would that would be like the happiest day of his life, because there is meaning in that. Later in I AM, Howard Zinn talks about the mindless consumption that everyone does: “People are driven to accumulate, accumulate without asking the question will this make me any happier or not”(14:16). I find this is true in my life, this happened a few months ago when I had my old flip phone and wanted an Iphone really bad and now that I finally got one after all of the complaining and time spent getting one, I am no happier. I think that society needs to change so that we are taught when we are young to seek meaning in life rather than possessions and fake happiness.
To a certain extent we should seek happiness at all costs as long as people aren't getting hurt too much in the process. In the story “The One Who Walks Away from Omelas” Ursula Le Guin gives her point of view on pursuing happiness at the expense of others: “The joy built on successful slaughter is not the right kind of joy.” Being happy because of someone else's unhappiness is one of the only types of happiness that we should not seek, because there are so many of other things that you can do to bring you happiness. Later in “The One Who Walks Away from Omelas” the story talks about why we need make people unhappy for our own happiness: “But they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weather of their skies, depends wholly on this childs abominable misery.” This proves that in order for people to he happy it has to be at the expense of other peoples happiness and I don’t see a way that everyone can be happy without living in a dystopia. So I conclude that if possible we should not make people unhappy just to make yourself a little bit happier. But if need be we should put our own happiness over the happiness of others.
If we do not examine how to achieve true happiness and continue on the road we are on, relying on easy pleasures and consumption for happiness we may end up living in a dystopia like Brave New World. We need to individualize our happiness because different people get happiness from different things. Like Malcolm Gladwell said, “there are only different kinds of mustard that suit different kinds of people,” meaning no two peoples tastes are the same and once we accept and realize that, I think we will value authentic happiness a lot more. But that is going to be hard because as Malcolm Gladwell also said, “ We can’t always explain what we want deep down,” this is because we want to be accepted into society so we don’t always do what we want in fear that we might be judged. So we need to stop listening to what the media is telling us will make us happy and find out what makes us happy so that we can pursue that.
Art Piece
Artist Statement
My art piece is a symbol of the things that I think are necessary to find true happiness and things that have made me the happiest. I made my art piece in Photoshop with pictures that either I took or someone in my family took. My art piece is pretty clear in the message that I am trying to get across it is that friends, family, sports and traveling are some of the most important things to me and make me the happiest.
Reflection
If I were to give someone advice on how to find happiness I would tell them a number of things. The most important thing that I would tell them would be to not focus on doing what other people tell them will make them happy and instead figure out what they love doing and to that. The other thing that I would tell them would help them be truly happy is making sure their is meaning in their happiness. This could mean that they need to do things for other people of just do challenging things that will mean something to them when they accomplish them. And lastly I think that not pursuing easy pleasures can really improve their happiness.
This summer I was not planning to cut down on phone use but after reading this article, that changed. I am going to limit my use of media as much as I can over the summer, especially texting. I will try to spend more time actually talking to people and interacting with them face to face instead of just texting them. I think that this will be hard to do because I have become so accustomed to using my phone all the time even when I am at home or with my family. Something that will make it easier to not text will be just leaving my phone at home when I don't absolutely need to have it, and when I am at home I will leave my phone in my room when I go down stairs so that I am not tempted to use it.
I don't think that this project changed the way that I thought about happiness as much as it may have for other people. This is because even before we did this project, my parents had taught me to do what makes me happy and to not choose job for the money but a job that I enjoy. I also had already watched that movie Happy before we watched it in class which just made me want to do what makes me happy even more. One of the things that I learned from this project that I had not known about before is needing to find meaning in happiness to be truly happy which I will consider when trying to find happiness later in life. These lessons that we learned in this project are crucial to a good and happy life and I hope that I will be able to live by these everything that we were taught.
This summer I was not planning to cut down on phone use but after reading this article, that changed. I am going to limit my use of media as much as I can over the summer, especially texting. I will try to spend more time actually talking to people and interacting with them face to face instead of just texting them. I think that this will be hard to do because I have become so accustomed to using my phone all the time even when I am at home or with my family. Something that will make it easier to not text will be just leaving my phone at home when I don't absolutely need to have it, and when I am at home I will leave my phone in my room when I go down stairs so that I am not tempted to use it.
I don't think that this project changed the way that I thought about happiness as much as it may have for other people. This is because even before we did this project, my parents had taught me to do what makes me happy and to not choose job for the money but a job that I enjoy. I also had already watched that movie Happy before we watched it in class which just made me want to do what makes me happy even more. One of the things that I learned from this project that I had not known about before is needing to find meaning in happiness to be truly happy which I will consider when trying to find happiness later in life. These lessons that we learned in this project are crucial to a good and happy life and I hope that I will be able to live by these everything that we were taught.