Greeks are Not so Different from Us (Thoughts on the Next 5 Pages of Classical Rhetoric Now)

You always hear about the intellectual Greeks and how "before their time" they were. Thus, I was surprised to learn that they didn't think of women as people. They believed women were not human enough to make decisions, but men were. It is astounding to me that such "wise" people could believe such a nonsensical thing. Women were meant to be the caretakers of the family and the house. This is exactly what everyone still believed (and continue to believe) up until fifty years ago when Betty Frieden let the cat out of the bag with her book, "The Feminine Mystique". She wrote about what every woman was thinking and what every man was obviously oblivious to. She wrote about the fact that women were not living meaningful lives; they were living as maids, bearers of children, and entirely dependent on their husband.

The Tale of Keystone is Longer than its Tail...

There are only about thirty days before Keystone XL will either be signed in, or rejected. The idea of it being allowed is alarming. It has been said countless times that this pipeline would mean, "game over for climate change" by Hansen, a former NASA scientist. Already, they are clearing forest and "removing" bears to make room for the construction of Keystone XL. The Boreal Forest is in the path of Keystone, and it is likely large parts of it will be destroyed– this forest is home to over 35,000 animal species! The thought of all this destruction is appalling. People who are in favor of this dirty pipeline are only thinking of themselves and the convenience for the human race. They never think of other species out there who are unwillingly dying for our comfort. How would you feel if you and your family were forced to leave your home, or worse, be executed just because you were an inconvenience? Not only will those things occur, the dirtiest fuel in the world would be making its way down to Texas, and once there, would pollute the air, only adding to the large amount of greenhouse emissions already present. If this doesn't bother you, the fact that the pipe will travel near the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest supplies of water in the U.S., will. If the pipe spilled, it would be catastrophic for you and other species. This is plausible, as a previous, smaller pipeline built last year [2011] had twelve spills in the first six months of it being built. Green energy creates more jobs, with Keystone only creating 35 permanent jobs, and is better for the environment in the long- run. 

The piece above is something I wrote in the ninth grade; that is how long I have been following the tale of Keystone XL Pipeline. Unbeknownst to me back then was how long it would take for Congress to make their final decision on the pipeline. It is 2015 and I am still awaiting their decision, which is said to be next week sometime. However, they have been saying that same thing for the past five years... Keystone XL might just reveal how ineffective our government has become. 

After studying AP US History back in high school, all I can remember is Teddy Roosevelt and how quickly it seemed he and the U.S. government could make decisions. His term was eight years, but he managed to do so much more in that time. Nowadays, it seems as though nothing ever gets done. I am not sure if that is true to others or not, but it is just the feeling I get from what I hear and read. 

Among the constant emails I get from Sierra Club and NRDC about Keystone XL lately, one thing is clear to me, Congress is just wasting time. From what I have been reading in the newspapers and my emails, I see that Obama has promised to veto any approval of Keystone XL by Congress. My question is only, why are they spending so much time on trying to pass this pipeline (which is bad for the environment by the way) when they know all their efforts will only be in vain? Yes, they will try to get the necessary amount of votes to override Obama's veto, but couldn't they be spending their time more wisely trying to figure out how to fix our education system? Disturbingly enough, our government cannot even accept that climate change is real; this past week, Congress voted against stating that climate change was real and humans are causing it. Regrettably, I am beginning to believe that there is not enough time for us to get our acts together. 

Signing a Paper is all it Takes not to Drop Out

In the ninth grade, my entire class and I made a pact to graduate together by signing a huge piece of paper that was to be hung up in the school. It wasn't until now that I realized how incredibly ludicrous that was. The school district couldn't seriously believe that would work, could they?

 As a recent high school student, I can empathize with those who either dropped out or wanted to. Personally, I never wanted to drop out due to the fourth grade when I decided it was my dream to become an architect and design treehouses for writers (maybe me someday) to live in. Nevertheless, imagine yourself as a sixteen year old with no career aspirations, struggling to find meaning in your classes and piles of homework. Think how incredibly frustrating it would be to spend five years struggling to survive your math classes whilst dealing with the typical dramas of adolescence. If you had no career plans or were not a lover of mathematics, you'd note how pointless your math classes were and wonder why in the hell you were learning the quadratic equation. The same can be said for Literary Composition 9-12 or the sequence of sciences: Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. Why does the average person need chemistry? The answer to that question is (as said by multiple Beaverton School District Counselors), "People should have a well rounded education behind them". This could be translated as, "People should have a load of useless knowledge in their heads so that nothing actually important can take up space" or "You learn what we tell you to learn". Yes, chemistry would be important for a would-be chemist, chemistry teacher, or someone who wanted to be in pharmaceuticals to know. But everyone?

In other words, the educational system does not adequately prepare you for college, a future career, or life in general. The system is inflexible and not designed for  students to succeed in the long term. Everyone basically goes through the same curriculum no matter their dreams or talents.

This is the basic path most students take 

with minor changes based on student choice.

Curriculum that is standardized such as this is doomed to failure. When someone starts taking all these core classes for seven years straight without any clue of why they are doing it, they can only begin to ponder if it is a waste of time. This is why so many people enter careers they are unhappy about, are conflicted about majors in college, or drop out of high school; the standards are neither personalized to the student or give the students an accurate idea of what they want to do. If students were to become involved in a more intense career exploration early in middle school, by the time they reached high school they would know what their talents were and what they were interested in, or enjoyed doing. In turn, they could form a personalized education that would allow them to study a particular field of work that they would enjoy. I truly believe something to this extent is worth a try.

Strictly speaking, the schools should not expect that signing a poster will keep students from dropping out. A new form of education that is personalized to the student is needed. The standard one size fits all does not work.

Thoughts on the First Chapter of Classical Rhetoric Now

After reading the first chapter of the class textbook, Classical Rhetoric Now, I must say firstly, that I enjoyed the easiness of reading the humor- infused language and history presented. Unlike other course books I have had the displeasure of reading, this one was not (so far) overwhelmingly filled with facts and other information I could not possibly remember in my wildest dreams. Chapter one gave the history of the people behind rhetoric and our current methods of writing, and even where and how our cultures began. One thing that especially struck me was the woman Aspasia. I have never heard of her in my life, and I am now wondering, why? The reading claims that she was the one who inspired Socrates and Pericles and they are the only ones that are ever mentioned, along with Socrates' student Plato, and Plato's student Aristotle- all men!Is she not ever mentioned because she is a woman? I am not sure, but I would like to find out.