Daisy

** I believe in Jesus Christ who is protecting me from up above. ** ** I believe in being true to yourself. ** ** I believe in being respectful to my parents by not lying to them and staying honest everyday. ** ** I believe in being loyal to my friends. ** ** I believe in hardworking people. ** ** I believe in people who can succeed. ** ** I believe in honesty. ** ** I believe in starting over and making a new beginning. ** ** I believe in being the best you can be. ** ** I believe that my dog is the best dog ever. ** ** I believe that my sisters are my influence. ** ** I believe in my brother going his own pathway. ** ** I believe in my little sister following her only dream to be a dancer. ** ** I believe in music expressing my feelings. ** ** I believe in doing what you love to forget about your problems. ** ** I believe in living days without knowing the time. ** ** I believe in girls dressing the way they want without having to face judgmental people. ** ** I believe in my parents trying to succeed and make a better home for our family. ** ** I believe in having a best friend that you can trust and have fun times with. ** ** I believe in my mom as a best friend because w4e have a great relationship and she gives me good advice. ** ** I believe in people who start with nothing that end up with success in their hands because anyone is capable of achieving great things. ** ** I believe in dreams that I can make true. ** ** I believe in being vegetarian because business corporations harm helpless animals. ** ** I believe in eating right because it is my own health. ** ** I believe in non-violence because more violence creates more conflict which is not the way to go. ** ** I believe in not caring about what others think as long as I am happy. **
 * I BELIEVE **



30 by 30

1.Visit – Spain, Brazil, Hawaii & Fiji

2. Scuba Diving!

3. Graduate high school.

4. Go on a road trip with a group of girls.

5. Zip-lining.

6. Donate to the American Red Cross.

7. Learn how to surf.

8. Ride a helicopter over the ocean to see the mountains,

9. Visit N.Y.C to go shopping.

10. Learn how to speak French fluently

11. Learn how to draw.

12. Donate blood.

13. Bungee-jumping.

14. Meet Ashton Kutcher.

15. Go on a television show (Ellen Degeneres Show)

16. Water-skiing.

17. Get married.

18. Rock climbing.

19. Learn martial arts.

20. Film a commercial.

21. Take a photography class.

22. Run a marathon.

23. Go to China and meet someone from Tokyo.

24. Visit the biggest museums in the world.

25. Go to Las Vegas to gamble.

26. Play a drinking game.

27. Go hiking to reach a waterfall.

28. Visit South Africa and see all the giraffes and animals.

29. Ride an elephant.

30. Lessons to horse-ride.

 No one will agree about which parenting model is right or wrong. The publication of Amy Chua’s book __Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom__ enraged mothers and also children about how she treats her daughters. It created such a big controversy with American parents at how they raise their children. Ms. Chua has been accused of creating robotic daughters and she also points out that “Tiger” moms are superior than, “Western” moms. Throughout this research paper I will point out Chua’s main arguments about her parenting style, as well other critics –who are parents- that argue their opinion, and then I will express my opinion towards to what I think about the different parenting styles.

 Chinese mothers are known as “Tiger” moms. They have a different way of raising their children. Their ways may seem crucial to American parents but their kids turn out to be very successful at a young age. “Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can’t” (Chua). Chinese mothers are extremely strict and demand their children to do what the parents want. For example, they want straight A’s and 3 hour practices of music. However, the “Tiger” moms will also point out that they are better and superior than “Western” mothers. Is it right or wrong with what “Tiger” moms do to their children? Everyone has their own perspective.

 Amy Chua also points out the differences of “Western” mothers. They believe that they need to focus more on self-esteem. They also believe that their children’s needs and desires are more important than pressuring them. “Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best” (Chua). Ms. Chua argues that they are more involved in their kid’s feelings instead of their success. She makes them look weaker compared to the Chinese parents but in reality, it is just a different parenting model.  David Brooks responded to Amy Chua’s parenting style by publishing //__Amy Chua Is a Wimp__//. What he states is that she is too coddle on her kids. He believes that anyone can get straight A’s and go to Yale and get their degree. However, the real hard part is dealing with the outside world. He states, “Participating in a well-functioning group is really hard” (Brooks). This shows how children need to socialize with other people. It is a skill that people need to have and that is being social and getting along with others. Instead, Chua focuses more on grades than her kids dealing with other people and learning how to work in a big group. Learning in the outside world is harder to do than learn in a library.

 Another writer Ayelet Waldman –who is a “western” mom- published an article //__In defense of the Guilty, Ambivalent, Preoccupied Western Mom.__// She shares that kids don’t want to be forced into doing what they don’t want to do and it is not the only option. She states. “ Motivated not by fear or shame of dishonoring her parents but by her passionate desire to read” (Waldman). This shows how her daughter, who is dyslexic, wanted to learn how to read that she was motivating herself. It all relies on what the kid wants and if they are forced, they will start hating what they are forced to do. Children need to find something that they love instead of parents forcing them.

 Hanna Rosin wrote and published //__Mother Inferior?__//, which argues that “western” moms shouldn’t force their child to be anything they don’t want to be. “In pretty much every way, I am the weak-willed, pathetic Western parent that Ms. Chua describes” (Rosin). She states that parents shouldn’t bring down their kids. The children have to find their happiness by themselves. If a kid finds an interest they will go for it and succeed, they aren’t necessarily lazy just because they don’t have straight A’s. Parents have to praise them and their children will have their own pathway.  The last writer is a young women Ilyon Woo who had the permission to fail by her father. She published //__An Asian Father’s Gift: Permission to Fail__//. What would happen if we chose to fail at something? It is not the end of the world. The Asian father let his daughter fail just one class. She later states, “In that moment, though I would not realize it until later, my father set me free” (Woo). People realize that if you fail, you will eventually will get better again. It is about not caring too much and to stop trying so hard that sometimes people have to fail to learn and get better.  Amy Chua has some good points because she does want the best for her children. Her daughters will eventually thank her because they had the good grades to get into a good college and get a career. She also dedicates her time teaching them and making them practice long hours on the piano. Ms. Chua wants to see her daughters succeed so they could have everything they want in life. She will decide what is the best for them, not other parents.  On the other hand, Ms. Chua takes it too far with her rules of no sleepovers and no school activities. She was preventing her daughters from having a normal childhood. Although, she wants the best for them, her daughters were still young and they had no idea what they wanted to be as an adult. Chua also took it too far by not letting them have fun. Kids need to have fun and relax. If Ms. Chua never prepared them for failure, what would happen when failure did occur? She should know her daughters will fail at one point. However, she made them into perfect-robotic daughters where they don’t know what it’s like to fail.  In conclusion, many people have their different opinions about Amy Chua’s article. Some people were angry and some were even jealous. America argues about which parenting style is wrong or right. In my opinion, each parent is different and it is their choice on how they want to raise their kids. However, it is the kid who will decide who they want to be.

Failure  In this passage //__Medusa and the Snail__// written by Lewis Thomas explains how people need to make mistakes so they will end up knowing their mistakes to get it right. If a person makes a mistake then they would discover new things. It is a process of learning because everyone makes mistakes and they later find the right answer. “We are built to make mistakes coded for error”, explains that we need to be wrong so later the right work can be done. Making an error is not a bad thing because it will probably lead to the right way. Mistakes need to be made so people can discover new bigger things. Does failure teach us anything? It all depends on the person, if they have a positive or negative attitude. If a person is very positive then they are sure to try again and be dedicated to be successful. Then it comes to a person who thinks negative, they are sure to give up if they already failed. They are thinking what’s the use? In my opinion, Lewis Thomas in the //__Medusa and the Snail__// is wrong and right because most people don’t have the motivation to keep on going after they fail but some people do.

Alexander Fleming is the best example of how failure brought penicillin to be something significant. In 1929, Mr. Fleming took years to find a solution to cure staphylococcus and he didn’t wash out his Petri dishes of examples he was working with. He then realized there was a mold in the Petri dish and it was by a mistake and he decided to name it penicillin. This shows how making mistakes brings someone to discover something big and very important. It explains what Lewis Thomas said about how mistakes lead to the right answer.

Failure can just end up in people making more mistakes. I have an example and that is my uncle. I was really close to him and now we barely talk because his actions weren’t so great. He had told me that he quit drinking and I was happy. He was doing great and he was focusing on getting his life better. My uncle isn’t a major alcoholic. Suddenly, I received the news that he started drinking again. I live in Ventura and he lives in Santa Barbara, so it was hard for me to go visit him. I heard that he got a DUI and later found out that it was true. I was so disappointed because he was one of my favorite uncles. He didn’t learn his lesson because he still drinks to this day which I don’t approve. Failure, at times, doesn’t change the person but my uncle just continued drinking. I don’t feel sorry for him because he is an adult and he needs to learn from his mistakes. If a person continues failing, then that’s how the person will stay.

On the other hand, another uncle of mine is brothers with the one I talked in the previous paragraph. I am not comparing, I am just showing how failure works for different people. However, my uncle would also drink until he got in a car accident. He was terrified. Who wouldn’t be? By that mistake of drinking and driving, he learned it was a wrong habit. My uncle was not alcoholic but by that accident he stopped drinking. It’s been two years that he hasn’t sipped a tiny bit of alcohol. Making mistakes are good because they might end up changing people for the better, just like my uncle.

<span style="color: #841515; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting'; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">In my examples, it shows the good and bad that failure can cause. People go through different obstacles which probably don’t change people for the better. It also depends if they have the perseverance to keep trying. Failure is not bad but it is also not good. Failure can be failure. However, failure can also turn into success.

<span style="color: #842476; display: block; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB Demi','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Dear Ventura County Star, <span style="color: #842476; display: block; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB Demi','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">We all face consequences when we get caught lying or cheating, and trust me they don’t turn out good. In Piper, Kansas, a teacher was told by the school board to easy up on her students. Was the school board right for asking the teacher to go easy on the students who cheated? Absolutely not! Why should the teacher go easy on the 28 students who took the decision to cheat? Cheating is not right and the kids deserved to fail because they needed to face the consequences. Plagiarism is an academic crime and the kids can’t take credit for something that doesn’t belong to them. The school board should have no reason to ask the teacher to go easy on the student because it is the teacher’s decision on how she will grade her class. <span style="color: #842476; display: block; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB Demi','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">The students deserved a zero on their projects because they had no real work behind it. While other students spent their hard work to get a good grade that they deserve. Plagiarizing is stealing and cheating claiming someone else’s work-thought and ideas-as your own. The principal agreed that the kids from Ms. Pelton’s class deserved to not get credit and fail. However, the parents needed to understand that plagiarism is a crime and it has its consequences. <span style="color: #842476; display: block; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB Demi','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">The school board should have not ordered Ms. Pelton to go easy on them. I believe that she did the right thing by quitting because she followed her beliefs and she wasn’t getting support. The school also needed to show some integrity and Piper, Kansas got bad press which ended up in a bad reputation to the school. It is like letting athletes use steroids in competitions. It is wrong and unfair to other people. It was also unnecessary for parents to get mad because their children deserved it. There was nothing right about it. <span style="color: #842476; display: block; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB Demi','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Cheating is just plain wrong. Why do people cheat? Do they seriously think they are not good enough to try their best and pass on a test or win a game? I sure don’t have the answer why. The 28 students received a zero and they should have dealt with it because it was their decision and how they faced the consequences. The school board was wrong and the teacher was right because she had integrity.

**Change Essay** <span style="color: #1962f0; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> How does a big group of people affect the world? Do they even make it a better environment for others or not? “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” This quote is by Margaret Meade. I will be showing examples on how the group affects the world for the good or the bad. There are different kinds of groups of people who work together but do they cause harm? Or do they help others for the better? A small group changes the world, but it depends to how they do it.

<span style="color: #1962f0; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> In September 11, 2001, disaster struck when the twin towers were attacked by hijacked airplanes. This was caused by a group of al-Qaeda terrorists who had hijacked four airplanes on Tuesday. The Pentagon was also hit and it costs 3,000 lives plus the 22 terrorists on the plane. This created a historical significance because it brought people closer to each other’s family and how anything could happen in just a flash. This group of men who caused harm changed the world for worse because it brought families’ pain for losing their loved one. This event also created sadness throughout the U.S and shows how they need to be more protective for the country. It was horrible to lose these people who did not deserve to die for any reason. A group of 22 people only caused harm to the country and hatred towards them.

<span style="color: #1962f0; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> On the other side of this argument, a small group can do things for the better just like the airplane who didn’t reach their target. Flight 93 was hijacked by four terrorists which was suppose to hit the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. Luckily, they didn’t have any success because a group of men who were passengers of the plane decided to attack them so they could take over the plane. The group of men are an example of “thoughtful, committed citizens”. They did something for the good even if they had to give up their lives but it also prevented from other people to lose their lives and not knowing it. These men were dedicated and showed strength to decided to stop the terrorists. Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, and Jeremy Glick did something memorable so the hijackers didn’t have the satisfaction of hitting the U.S. Capitol.

<span style="color: #1962f0; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Another great example of how a group of people can change the world for the better is Planned Parenthood. Boys can laugh and comment bad about it but I believe that this program is to help women with their problems. Teenagers don’t know what they want and often make mistakes. When they reach to the point of being pregnant but not wanting the parents to know is when Planned Parenthood can be helpful. They won’t say anything and help the young teen with their problem. There are many pregnancies where mothers don’t know how to provide for their babies. I also feel that it benefits the men because they honestly don’t want a child at young age or they just don’t want to face the responsibility. This program has a ton of people who help women for the better because they need people to help solve their problems when they don’t feel like talking to family members.

<span style="color: #1962f0; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Groups do help others. But they also cause people harm and no good. Meade refers groups as “thoughtful and committed” and people do show that by doing what they have to do. When it comes to 9/11, it is something different because it was tragic event. However, there is good, wonderful citizens that care for others and that’s all that matters.

//<span style="color: #e16114; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">SHE WANTS REVENGE ! //

<span style="color: #e16114; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ** Is there even a perfect way to seek revenge? Should another kill her own children just for revenge? Should a man betray his wife and kids for another marriage? No, it is not. In //__Medea__// by Euripides, Medea is not a hero at all, but only a monster. Jason was considered the victim of this story but his actions weren’t good as well either. Medea shows more hatred on Jason than the love of her children. **

<span style="color: #e16114; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #e16114; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">** In a way, Medea shows a heroic side of her. She was willing to give up everything for her ex-husband Jason. She knew that she was going to be happy but that didn’t happen. It maybe that she is known to be a heroic woman for fighting for her true love and sacrificing everything to be with her only love. People would be willing to have that strength to give up a lot of things just like Medea. **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">** On the other hand, Medea’s ways of sacrificing everything was not okay but very cruel. It is unbelievable that she was capable of betraying her country and her father to run away with Jason. She even killed her brother and I believe that people don’t find themselves in that situation. She was wrong for doing that because she obviously paid the consequences later on. ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">** When Jason betrays her for another woman, Gluace, the king’s daughter, Medea turns into a heartbroken woman. She decides to get revenge, and she kills King Creon and his daughter by poisoning them. The crazy part is she even ended up killing her two sons so then Jason would really suffer and go through so much pain. That is so horrible and only a terrible mother would think about murdering her children. Jason did betray her and broke the promise but he also offered to help provide for the family. Medea should have accepted the offer but she took it with anger instead and it resulted in her actions by murder. She is a criminal that also lost because she would have eventually missed her kids. **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">** Overall, people who have read or seen this story have different opinions. Was it right or wrong to kill all those people? It sure wasn’t. especially her kids because she would miss them and there was nothing she could do to get them back. Medea was nothing but a monster and poor Jason was ruined. She was angry that she wasn’t happy but Jason was and she had no right to take it away by killing so many people that was in his life. Justice is done because she would have regretted what she did. **