Zach


 * I believe **

I believe getting a degree in college is important to getting a high paying job. I believe under Coach Mike Brown the Los Angeles Lakers will win the world championship next year. I believe that Pacquio is afraid to fight Mayweather and used the blood test as an excuse to get out of the fight. I believe that the USC Trojan football program will win a national championship within the next five year. I believe that USC is a better school than UCLA based on Athletics and Academic reasons. I believe English should not be required after your sophomore year in high school. I believe math is a better subject than English because it always follows its principles. I believe that the Iphone is better than the droid because it has more apps and gets better service.media type="file" key="zach-sourpatchkids-summerschool-2011-cannibalism.flv" align="right" width="360" height="270" I believe that soccer is boring and a waist of time to watch because a lot of games end 0-0. I believe that the war inIraqis based purely on oil. I believe in having cell phones out in class. I believe that my cousin is a bad person because he stole money from my family. I believe that the Lakers would have beaten the Celtics back in 2008 if they had Andrew Bynum. I believe school should start later. I believe Buena will beat Dos Pueblos in wrestling next year for the first time in 30 years. I believe that Matt Leinart should have been the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals last year. I believe that the Rams will make the playoffs next year.

**Tiger Mom** = = = = In the book __Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom__, as well as an excerpt of it published in the Wall Street Journal many believe author Amy Chua is accused of child abuse, and bad parenting by many around the country. Chua implies that the Chinese way of parenting is better than western parenting and believes differently in how to approach her children’s self esteem. In this research paper I will talk about Any Chua’s article along with reaction to the article while eventually stating my opinion. Chinese parents are very strict when it comes to grades, and life style. Chinese kids are expected to get straight A’s. They are also not allowed to play sports, do school plays or anything else the parents deem to be a waste of time. “Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of the child’s preferences”. Asian parents demand success and will tutor their kids for hours in an attempt to make them the best. Western parents try to build their child’s self esteem and tiptoe around words like stupid, fat, and lazy. The western parents believe a B is a good grade and praise their children for it. Western parents believe they owe their child because they are the one who brought it into the world.” Western parents praise a child for an A-. “In western parenting it is believed that they allow their children to give up. In “Amy Chua is a Wimp” author David Brooks says that Amy Chua didn’t let her kids experience life. The author believes that experiencing sleepovers, doing sports, and learning how to survive is more Impressive than getting straight A’s. Also that being the best team is more important than being the best individual. The author didn’t believe she did anything wrong just that she took the easy way out. He also says that it is more important to be able to read other people’s emotions than be able to read a book. David Brooks said,” I wish she recognized that in some important ways the school cafeteria is more intellectually demanding than the library.” “In Defense of the Guilty Ambivalent, Preoccupied Western Moms” by Ayelet Waldman, she describes the similarities and differences between herself and Amy Chua. One similarity for instance is that Ayelet got upset with her daughter for having two non solid A’s. The difference between the two is that instead of of yelling and cussing she just hired her a tutor and had her focus more in those subjects. Another difference between the two is that Aylet lets her daughters choose their own paths. While Amy choose her children’s paths for them. “Roaring like a tiger turns some children into pianists who debut at Carnegie Hall but only crushes others.” In some cases Ayelet’s way may be effective but she acknowledges that Amy’s way may be effective as well. In the article Mother Inferior by Hanna Rosin she give the perspective of a western mother. She values poorly drawn birthday cards unlike Amy Chua. She supports her kids doing theater or playing drums while Amy shuns those ideas. Hanna feels that children should enjoy themselves instead of practicing piano and doing homework for six hours a day. The author acknowledges that no child is perfect and she can’t expect them to be. “There are a thousand ways a child can be difficult, and it is a parents job to help them navigate through them.” Hanna also believes that children do have a drive to want to compete. “An Asian Fathers Gift: Permission to Fail”, by Ilyon Woo is about an Asian American who excelled after she was given permission to fail. In this article she talks about her troubles in school particularly in math because she put too much pressure on herself. With the pressure she couldn’t understand Algebra. When she talked to her father about this he gave her the advice of a life time, he told her she could fail. After this she excelled to the point of a straight A student. Not only that but she went to an ivy league school and is now a teacher there. Although she failed that math class it was better for her in the long run. “In that moment though I would not realize it until later, my father had set me free.” Amy Chua is not a bad mother she just wants what’s best for her kids. Many western children lack focus not because their parents don’t care but because they don’t have as high of expectations. That is not the case with Ms.Chua she pushes her kids and not only expects excellence she demands it. Her methods may be crude but you can’t deny how effective they are. Amy’s daughters both went to Harvard which is one of the best schools in the country, but it’s also one of the best schools in the world. Her daughter also played at Carnegie Hall which is very impressive and the equivalent to the super bowl of music. On the other hand her methods are madness. Many things she did could border on or even be called abuse. Not allowing a five year old child to use the restroom, threading to donate her doll house piece by piece, and she didn’t allow her daughters to be in any school activity that she deemed to be a waste of time. Those children were treated like adults at a very young age. Amy Chua created a lot of controversy with this article and this book. This stirred up many emotions and made many western parents question their methods. Although with many articles that followed we found out that there are many benefits to the western style. Ultimately though the best parenting comes when the love their child.

Margaret Meade’s quote brings back strong memories about historic events. Some people believe that it takes massive amounts of people to make significant changes in the world. Although historic events have shown us otherwise which I show in this essay. These events show up in both positive and negative ways. One prominent example are the events that took place on September 11th ,2001. 22 terrorists led by Mohammad Atta hijacked four planes and crashed into the world trade center, one into the pentagon, and one into farmland after the passengers retook control. These acts killed roughly three-thousand, but almost more importantly it put fear into the hearts of hundreds of millions. This was a small group of people, only twenty-two, but they changed America forever. This event also started two wars that we are still fighting today in both Iraq and Afghanistan. People now get uneasy around people from the Middle East because of the events that happened on that infamous day. Flight 93 may go down as the bravest commercial flight in history. Patrons such as Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, and Jeremy Glick sacrificed their lives to save others and protect national landmarks that in which are the men and women that run our country. Most people say they would do the same thing but few would have sacrificed themselves. Instead they probable would have hoped that the terrorist’s demands had been met by the government. These roughly forty passengers stopped the plane from hitting the capital building or even the white house. Most people know how much September 11, 2001 impacted our country but had we lost one of those two buildings it would have taken even more of a toll on America and our sense of safety. My final example is the Nazis which led to World War 2 and the killing of millions of Jews. Adolf Hitler had few followers but by talking and convincing people he gained power. Hitler then began on a quest to take over the world. He started by taking over small countries but then he tried to take over a big country, France. This led to a world war but in the process he tried to get rid of all Jews, Gypsies, and any non-Christian religions. Adolf and the Nazis set Germany back fifty years, but changed the world in the process. These pieces of evidence support Meade’s idea that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. The way in which they change can either be for the better or worse for the world. The decisions people make can be either detrimental or beneficial to society.

** 30 by 30 **
 * 1) Learn two new languages
 * 2) Go to Germany
 * 3) Shoot at something/someone
 * 4) Finish medical school
 * 5) Get a 4.0 or higher
 * 6) Go to a USC Game
 * 7) Make 6 figures a year
 * 8) Dont get arrested
 * 9) Live in 2013
 * 10) Sky Diving
 * 11) Bunjee jumping
 * 12) Find a cure for cancer
 * 13) Travel around europe
 * 14) Beat a black guy in basketball
 * 15) Find the last number in Pi
 * 16) Be at a Lakers final game
 * 17) Climb Mt. Everest
 * 18) Go to the deepest part of the ocean
 * 19) Win the lottery
 * 20) Get an A in English
 * 21) Graduate from high school
 * 22) Graduate from college
 * 23) Invent something more popular than facebook
 * 24) See a Los Angeles NFL team win a game
 * 25) Go to Hawaii
 * 26) Go to USC
 * 27) Play college football
 * 28) Beat the tallest guy in the world in basketball
 * 29) Get married
 * 30) Have a kid

Mistakes People want to know can mistakes actually teach you something or is it just waist less moment that makes you feel terrible? If there were no failures what would be so great about success, and when would we ever progress? So I think Lewis is completely correct in his passage from his passage from "The Medusa and the Snail" in mistakes are the only way to get success.

Personal experiences for me have backed up this idea. My little brother showed me when he quit soccer. Max was afraid of not having my parents around. My dad went with Max to his practice band then when he went to the bathroom my little brother freaked out. So neither one of my parents could stay with him on next practice so he quit because he was afraid of not having one of my parents around at all times. My parents were furious they had purchased him cleats, jersey, pants, and paid for the league. So a year later he wanted to play baseball and stayed with it. He'd gotten over his fears and has been playing ever since. This shows that failure allowed him to be successful.

Alexander Fleming discovered a drug that changed modern medicine as we know it. The reason this pertains to this topic is because he did it on accident. Alexander was trying to kill staphylococcus but mold got into his petri dish. The mistake of not cleaning the Petri dish was revolutionary and eventually ended saving millions of lives. This was a mistake but ended up advancing medicine, similar to what Lewis Thomas said about failing.

Many people know and love To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of the main characters Scout learns a lesson not to fight. Scouts father, Atticus, then stepped in and told Scout to stop fighting. She resisted this at first but as time went on it made her a happier better person. Scout believed she was doing the right thing by using her fist but she found out using her brain is a lot better.

After all evidence stated previously you know that mistakes push not only yourself but society forward as well. Mistakes are not our foundation but help build toward a better society. Next time you think of a mistake try to think of it more positively because ultimately it may help you instead of hurt you.

Cheating The controversy in Kansas about the teacher quitting has stirred up emotions throughout the nation. Many people feel that the unfair resignation just goes to show how Americas losing moral values. The fact that the students cheated and then the school board gave them the easy way out is in my opinion wrong. These students know the difference between right and wrong. They had been in school for ten years not including preschool or kindergarten. So you should be able to punish these students to the highest extent they can because these kids took credit for something that they didn’t do. Not only dd they teacher agree but also the principle and the superintendant. Even though the parents just wanted what is best for their child they taught them a sad lesson by letting them get off easier then they should have. This idea is similar to letting a murderer get off with parole, obviously not the same magnitude but the same concept. What this topic has brought up is morals and ethics. Cheating is not limited to school it comes up in sports, relationships, life in general. There’s Berry Bonds baseballs home run king, to Arnold Swchwartzinager, actor and California’s former governor, as well as millions of students similar to those students in Kansas. Perhaps larger then all those, an inspiration to America used as a symbol of hope, Lance Armstrong cheating. So if the man who brought so many cancer patients hope that they could not only survive but perhaps even have prosper cheated there is no person who couldn’t cheat. If it comes out that Lance did cheat this may crush thousands of former or current cancer patients’ spirits. Letting these students get away with cheating sends a bad message across the country because cheating is morally wrong. Students must step up do their work and not take credit for others work. The more lenient the punishment more likely the student is to repeat the crime and inflict further problems.

Medea Was it ok that Medea murdered four people including her two children? Absolutely not, divorce occurs very frequently in today’s society but Medea loved Jason too much and didn’t love her kids enough. Medea is a villain and Jason was the victim. Although I do not agree with what she did I do see the reasons why she did it. Medea had given up a lot for Jason; she even killed her own brother to be with him. Now she is being exiled with no where to go. At this point she had nothing except her children and a sense of revenge. She felt that Jason had just used her and then moved on to the younger richer girl. Killing her tortured Jason the most and she hated Jason more than she loved her kids. But let’s not forget that she did murder four innocent people, two of which were her own children. None of those that she killed were even the one person who may have had been guilty, which was Jason. Killing her two innocent children who couldn’t even defend themselves was wrong no matter how much she hated Jason. No good mother or sane person would do that. Also I believe killing Glauce and Creon were unfair. She unjustifiably killed Glauce out of jealousy. Glauce did nothing wrong, she saw a marriage opportunity with what she thought was a good man and took it. Jason was also marrying into the royal family for the better of himself and his two children. The children would have had opportunities that they never would have had with Medea as their mother. Jason also offered to pay Medea to get her back on her feet. Aside from that Jason did save Medea from that island of barbarians. There is no reason for what Medea did in hurting Jason in a blind rage she took the lives of four innocent people. Two of those people were her own flesh and blood. People can try and debate but murder is murder and is unjustifiable especially when her motives were just a broken promise. Medea is a horrible human being and she made Jason a victim and herself a villain. Her actions were inexcusable and destroyed more lives than were necessary.