Ashley

I believe. 1.I believe that I can be successful in what I want to be. 2. I believe that my dad is actually a good person and can be better. 3.I believe that my sister will find a good job and afford to move. 4.I believe that my sister can get a car to go back and forth to work in. 5.I believe that we can stop global warming. 6.I believe that 2012 is fake…..the world will slowly destroy itself. 7.I believe that there is another world out there somewhere in space. 8.I believe that school should start a little bit later so we can focus in class and not sleep in it. 9.I believe that we can all do some good in this world and walk a little. 10.I believe that cell phones are part of the reason kids are so lazy now a days. 11.I believe we should be able to use iPods in class …..it helps some of us focus better. 12.I believe music today is whack because all they talk about is getting drunk and wasted ,not all of us want to hear that. 13.I believe that someday my grandpa will find his shangrula. 14.I believe that one day I’ll be able to play a epic guitar solo. 15.I believe that one day I’ll be able to tell my best guy friend how I really feel about him. 15.I believe one day ill witness a miracle. 16.I believe my mom and dad can work things out and be friends again, so I can see my dad on father’s day. 17. I believe that more than 75% of marriages will end up in a divorce and having to split up the whole family. 18.I believe that time can go as fast or slow as we want it to. 19.I believe that one day I’ll be able to get over my stage fright and blow people away with an amazing performance. 20.I believe love can happen at a young age and that you can’t tell someone who and when you can love. 21.I believe that its good to open up and meet new people, they could turn out to be a big event in your life. 22.I believe that babies are miracles.

fAILURE ESSAY! In the passage __Medusa and the Snail__ by Lewis Thomas, he talks about making mistakes and what good they can bring. He expresses that mistakes need to occur to make a breakthrough, and if so it’s a lucky lab. “What is needed, for progress to be made, is the move based on the error”. We learn from our mistakes. In this essay we will decide if a mistake is good or not, by things we’ve seen with our own eyes, and things in history or literature. Some agree, others disagree, me I’m in the middle. Is failure a success? Or is it just a mistake? Lewis Thomas states in __Medusa and the Snail__, failure is usually put as a bad thing, for doing something bad, but no one realizes that we learn from our mistakes. Most mistakes are bad very few are good, some lead to mistakes others lead to disappointment. In my opinion Lewis is sometimes rite, sometimes wrong. For him failure was good. It’s almost as if we need failure in our life if we want to do well in life. It made him succeed, but not all failure does that.media type="file" key="ashley-cdubs-summerschool-2011-cannibalism.flv" align="right" width="360" height="270" Seeing failure with my eyes is hard to take, especially when it’s a love one. My father is my example of failure. He was sent to jail multiple times, and each time he got out we all hoped he had got his act together and realized that he can’t keep doing this. When he would come out he seemed like a new man, a man that wanted to change. A few months would pass before he would go back to his old ways. It was a disappointment to me, not only me but also my mom; she hoped he would get better for the sake of us. I wish he could be a better man, I know he tries, but he doesn’t succeed. Now he has a job and he’s living with my grandma, I know he’s going to be a better man. Maybe now he has learned from his mistakes. In Harper Lee’s __To Kill a Mocking Bird__, Scout Finch learns to deal with her difficulty with always being so aggressive and fight with her fists, and she learned how to fight with her words. She changed because her father was defending a African American in his trial, and because of that’s there was a lot of trash talkers towards her dad, so what she decides instead of always beating someone up maybe she could use words to fight and she does. So the mistake/difficulty that she was fighting and she realized that wasn’t good and she learned from her mistake. Mistakes will happen, some good some bad. The bad ones you will notice, but the good ones will come to you. Mistakes are needed to make a breakthrough or to have a great invention. Some say mistakes are always bad, others will say they’re great; I say they’re both, good and bad.

TIGER MOM

Amy Chua may be considered a child abuser, a bad mom, or a terrible monster, according to articles or people who disapprove of her crazy parenting style. Chua believes the “western parents” are to coddle with their children. Strength is very important to her, if they have strength they can succeed in life, where others may argue social abilities is what they need to succeed. In my paper I will give my opinion on what I think is right, and also other critics, but first I will examine Mrs.Chuas parenting style. In the article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” by Amy Chua, she talks about the way Chinese mothers or “tiger moms” parent their children. Tiger moms really want success from their kids, they demand academic success. Children are criticized for having a “B” and the moms demand all “A’s” and harshly criticize their kids. IN the end children owe everything they can give to their parents to repay them for dedicating so much time to their kids to educate and make a success. The children’s decisions mean nothing, it’s what the parents think will make them successful in the long run, to do so they make the children practice hours a day on the piano etc. “Chinese Parents can get away with things that Western parents can’t”. Chinese parents will NOT ALLOW FAILURE. To Western parents self-esteem in more important than success. These parents will praise their children if they get a ‘B”, and make the child feel good. In this case the parents owe their children not the other way around like the Chinese parents. They allow their children to choose their own path in life taking up what they like to do and have joy while doing. They are a supporter and not an organizer of the children’s interest. If a kid wants to give up, the parents will most likely give in. “Self-esteem” and Childs desires, allow kids to “give up”. In the article “Amy Chua is a wimp” by David Brooks, he believes that Amy Chua is too soft on her kids. He thinks that getting straight “A’s” and “B’s” is the easy part of life, the hard part he says is surviving, weather it’s at school or in the real world. “I wish she recognized that in some important ways the school cafeteria is more intellectually demanding than the library”. Chua shelters her children by making them rush home and hit the homework table, where as a normal 14-year old they would be going to sleepovers or hanging out with friends, that is more difficult than anything “David” says, “She’s a wimp”. In the article “IN defense of the Guilty, Ambivalent, and Preoccupied Western mom”, by Ayelet Waldman, she explains her way of parenting. Her children are allowed more freedom than Mrs. Chua’s. She allows her children to quit if they don’t like what they are doing, and also allows them to do extracurricular activities, as long as she doesn’t have to drive further than 10 minutes. Her daughter received five “A’s” on her report card and two “A-“, she was not pleased. “I fobbed that task off on a tutor, something I can afford to do because my children reside in the same privileged world as Mrs.Chuas”. She does believe that you should allow your children to push them self, and that they will find a way to do it them self. If they really love something, and want to become successful at it, without yelling, or pushing. In the article “Mother Inferior?” by Hanna Rosin, she explains to us and Amy Chua, that children should be free and have fun, and take up activities they’d like, considering that are kids. “In pretty much every way, I am the weak- willed, pathetic Western mom that Mrs. Chua describes”. She claims that she doesn’t have the demented drive to pull it off. A Childs life can be difficult in thousand of ways, and the parents are supposed to help get them through it. You can get as much from kids with a normal life than you would from pushing you kids, just by letting them be a kid. In the article “Dads Permission to Fail” by Llyon Woo, she talks about the time her father gave her permission to fail. She had a some what difficult time in high school, although she had all “Bs” and one steady “A-“. She struggled with math, she had trouble understanding and solving the problems. She survived with a “C-“, she felt and knew she could’ve done better. Her father suggested maybe she could fail, and not try to hard, so she did. “In that moment, though I would not realize it until later< my father set me free.” She stopped caring as much and he grades started to soar. On the other hand, her kids missed out on their one childhood they had, because they were to busy with piano lessons. They wouldn’t attend sleepovers or do extracurricular things. Failure is a lesson in life she never allowed them to learn. What will happen when one gets kicked out of medical school? Once they’ve failed how will they handle something that is so unrecognized to them. Will they survive on their own? Without tiger mom. Amy Chua is a mom that pushes for success, she wants success from her kids. Sure it may take a little push to get them there but that’s okay. Because of that push he daughter got to play at the Carnegie hall, or on got to go to Harvard University, how wrong is that? At the end of the day she still loves her children to death, and they love her back. Amy Chua is no harm to her children, just a friendly pusher. For months people have been going on and on over Amy Chuas parenting style, some days she’s a whack job and others say she’s great. Amy Chua is not a menace just because she cares more about her children’s future than hers. Whose to say she’s wrong? In my opinion she’s a fine mom, maybe not mom of the year material.

=** CHEATING! **=

Dear Ventura County star and readers, In Piper, Kansas Christine Pelton a High school teacher quit her job because she didn’t like that the school board ordered her to ease up on her kids for failing 28 of them for cheating. People think it was fair that they told he to lighten up, I don’t. I believe that Christine had every right to fail those kids for cheating. For the school board to ask to do that it probably made her feel like they didn’t care that those kids were cheating. She thought they deserved to fail for cheating. Parents shouldn’t be protesting against her, they should be thanking her for caring and trying to teach them a lesson. Plagiarizing is just another form of stealing, so why let them off easy? Isn’t that a crime? They deserve a punishment. For her to quit her job may have been a little bit much, but I do understand why she did. She probably felt let down by her students, thinking they were better than that. For the board to order her to go easy on them when they agreed with her in the first place and were backing her up is wrong. The parents should’ve been agreeing with her, agreeing that it was wrong for their children, and instead of protesting that it was wrong what she did they should also be trying to teach them a lesson. Plagiarism is wrong it’s just like stealing, so why not give a punishment for it. I believe she had every right to fail those kids because they put no effort forth just to show a little bit of respect for the teacher.

= **30 by 30** = = = 1. Go skydiving 2. Go to Europe 3. Go on a road trip 4. See the Eiffel tower 5. Graduate high school 6. Convince someone not to get an abortion 7. Go to New York 8. Be in a **flash mob!** 9. Get a tattoo 10. Get a good steady job. 11. Go surfing 12. Participate in a walk for cancer 13. Go away for a year 14. Get my own place 15. Be a tourist for a year 16. Get married 17. Donate blood 18. Visit Italy 19. Go scuba diving 20. Swim with dolphins 21. Shoot a gun 22. Get a 69 mustang 23. Climb a really really big mountain. 24. Swim with 25. Go to Australia 26. Tee pee a library 27. See a **//__DINOSAUR!__//** 28. Witness a miracle 29. Be on national TV. 30. Go to Niagara falls.

Change can be done, but does it matter if it’s a big group or a small group? Will the size of the group determine the outcome, weather it’s good or bad. In this essay I will talk about events that were done by small groups where the outcomes were good and bad, and both very big.

On September 11th, 2001 the twin towers and the Pentagon were both taken down by planes that were high jacked by terrorists. It brought a silence to all. A small group of 22 terrorists was all it took to kill 3,000 people and to terrorize hundreds of millions all over the world. That small group of people made a big impact, though it was a negative one it still changed out live. These 22 people were a small committed group who caused a negative change.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”, on September 11th, 2001, on flight 93 this quote stood true. This plane was also high jacked by terrorists just like the first 3 planes that had causes a dramatic effect. People on flight 93 were frightened and prayed they got out alive. A small group of passengers found out that they were going to be crashed into a important building, so they decided to take things into their own hands and try to get back control of the plane. Todd beamer, mark Bingham, and Jeremy glick all went down as heroes for stopping ant more disasters. The plane crashed in an open field, in country side Pennsylvania. They were a small group that gave their lives so that hundreds more would live.

Another example of a negative change was the Nazis, a small group who hated Jewish people. They were led by Adolf Hitler, a man that became very powerful and before he knew it his group had grown. It was a major negative effect on many, just like 9/11, they did it out of hatred for something, for what they strongly believed in. he didn’t like how the Jewish people treated him ,so he also took things into his own hands and made things change, people did not like it but it happened. He thought he was changing things for the better.

A big group of people can make a drastic change in society or the world, but so can small groups; they are some of the people that make the biggest change of all. Weather their crashing a plane into the twin towers or trying to stop a high jacker from crashing a plane into the white house, it’s still a change. As Margaret Meade said, don’t doubt a small committed group for their reason there is change.

**MEDEA!**

In the story “Medea” by Euripides, I believe that Medea in not a hero, a hero wouldn’t kill her kids for sweet revenge. Jason is not a hero either, what he did by breaking her heart for someone better wasn’t rite. So neither of them are heroes, but both of them are the villains, but what Medea did was a little bit over the line for revenge. Jason is a villain in a way for what he did, but he never intended for it to get so out of hand. Medea is the one that didn’t want to submit the divorce peacefully, she got herself kicked out. He offered to give money and help in exile. He claimed he still loved her and that what he was doing was also for the children’s benefit, when medea would just be a forgotten soul. He did her wrong, even if it was for political reasons. She gave up everything for him like her country, betraying her dad and even killing her brother. He claims it was the god of love that saved him not medea. He did make a promise to always love her. But... Medea did kill her kids; she killed them to get revenge. She should have just accepted the fact that the spark was gone between the two. Glauce was just younger and she was royal. I don’t think she should have killed the princess for it was Jason that was leaving her. Just because she hated Jason with the passion why did her kids have to suffer for their fathers actions? Did she not know that killing her children would also leave her with pain as well? Only a horrible person and a terrible mother could kill her kids? I don’t care why she did it or if it was for revenge, it’s still man slaughter, and she should be punished. She was a crazy woman that became obsessed with revenge. On the other hand both are rite for what they did and they both have their reasons I suppose. He wanted to marry the princess for political reasons and so his kids would be partially royal, he thought that Medea out of everyone would understand. Medea felt very hurt for she gave him everything and he promised to love her forever. I would also be hurt but I would just have to live with his decision. She killed her kids because she wanted revenge on Jason. They both have their reasons for their actions, though they are wrong. Both are guilty and wrong for their actions. They’re both the enemies in this story. It’s both of their faults the kids were killed. A promise is a promise; you have to keep it, even if it feels like it won’t benefit you in the future.