Cultures and Traditions

Understanding different cultures in the world is important and it is something that is lacking in this world. Many people would look at clips about the young boys being cut and the women with the elongated necks and think how crazy the people are but they have reasons for it. I can see why the culture that cuts young boys does that. They want to make sure they know their place. They may be getting older but it doesn't mean they can say or do or tell people what to do yet. This is a problem with the youth of this society. Their are young people who have no respect for authority and elders and think that they can just say and do what they please. There are even adults who act the same way. I'm not implying that we should follow what that culture does but respect is a problem today. The culture that women have elongated necks because of putting coils around it is interesting. I did not quite understand why but I can see why. It's just a symbol of being normal and equal. It's almost like the Scarlet Letter but opposite. If the women commit adultery, they must take their coils off and people will know what they have done. Maybe the coils aren't such a bad thing. It may resist temptation because the women know that if people find out about their affairs, the coils go off and people will probably never see them the same way. However, I do think it's kind of unfair that only women get have a sign of infidelity but that's their culture.My essay partner, Kim, and I are doing are essay on the Black Student Union. It has been really interesting. The meeting that we went to was pretty cool. They had discussions about issues going on in the black community today and not everyone thought in the same way. They all had different opinions.It was also very informative since I had not watched the news in awhile. From just going to the meeting, many stereotypes have been broken. To the people in my ENC 1101 class, you will have to wait until our presentation to find out :o)

Blessed

Before I go to bed, I usually watch TV for a little bit. Last Sunday night I turned the TV on as usual when I got into bed and as I was flipping the channels I landed on Mtv 2 and Fall Out Boy had a new video out. I'm a Fall Out Boy fan so I was excited that they had a new song and video out so of course I watched it. Well the video was nothing I expected. I also did not expect to tear up after watching it either. The video is set in Uganda. In the beginning, an elderly Ugandan woman is talking to the people in her town. She is telling them that things need to change and she tells the story of a young girl and young boy. It then goes on to showing the young girl and young boy. They must be around 13 years old. They have a young innocent love or maybe just even a friendship. They then move on to soldiers breaking into the young boys hut and they are gathering other young boys. It is nighttime and there are gun shots and the boy's mother is screaming for him. They show other scenes of the young girl sitting in a spot where they used to sit together, holding a heart shaped stone and just thinking. They also show scenes of the young boy and other boys learning how to use guns and firing. Eventually it seems that the boy has escaped because he returns to his home. His mother is there is so happy to see him. He just collapses into her arms. Later on he is reunited with the young girl. They go to their spot and the boy takes her hand. At the end, The Ugandan woman tells the townspeople that they must do something if not for themselves but for the children. I have included the link for the video because my description does not do it justice.
I personally wish the U.S were doing more to help and I know there are some of our people over there but I think we could be doing more to end this problem. However, disregarding opinions and all political views, after seeing this video I feel so blessed. We don't have to worry about soldiers rampaging into our homes in the middle of the night, taking our brothers, cousins, friends, boyfriends, fathers, or uncles unwilling to fight for something they don't even agree with. We don't have to worry about an army if men raping us or our family members and friends. I know they did not show this in the video, but I know this from watching the news and short documentaries and movies like Hotel Rwanda. I know that here in America we do have to worry about someone breaking into our houses but over there, they know that there is a huge possibility of it happening eventually. After watching the video, the first thing I thought about was my brother. My brother is 21 and I know he is older than the boys that are being kidknapped by the soldiers to become soldiers but the thought still came across my mind. If he were taken captive by the soldiers, I probably would not sleep at all just wondering if he were still alive. They also showed the boy's mother in the video. I also thought about how my mother would be if that happened to my brother and I thought about how I would feel if I were a mother and that were my son. It has to be one of the worst feelings in this world.
So reader's, I know this is a depressing matter but the fact is that it is happening right now. We are living in times of war. Even though it doesn't feel like it, the truth is that there are wars in different parts of the world right now and have been going on for years. So once again, just think about the video without your political views or opinions. To some people America may not be the best country because every country has it's flaws but we are blessed to be in a place with so many opportunities. Something's gotta give...
To view Fall Out Boy's new video go here!
Just incase the link doesn't work, you can go to www.youtube.com and type in Fall Out Boy's New Video and it should be the second choice. The Song is called (Me and You) I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off Me. They are infamous for their long and creative song titles :o)

Social Issues

A big issue in the U.S right now and particularly in the state of Florida is education. Even though the U.S is a 1st world country,it still has educational problems. Many European countries have a better education system than the U.S. In some countries, middle school students are learning math that U.S students learn in high school. In 2001, The No Child Left Behind Act was passed. It's basically an act that improves standards of learning and improving the quality of education. It focuses on reading, math, and science. It also helps with yearly testing. If a school fails its yearly test, the school with recieve assistance such as tutoring. The act also makes options available for parents. Parents know which schools have better education and can choose which school to send their children to. Another important aspect of this Act is improving teacher quality. There are programs to support teacher training.
It may not seem that the No Child Left Behind Act is helping education but there are people who are education activists. One of these activists is Dr. Rudolph "Rudy" Crew. He is the Super Intendent of Miami-Dade County Public school. One of the things that he has changed that I found very intelligent is having schools use the same books and lessons. If a child moves, the child won't be very lost. And also if everyone is learning the same things, it will be easier to figure out why some kids are not understanding material and it will be easier to figure out different ways of learning. Teachers talk to each other and discuss their classes and they discuss what works with their classes.
Education needs to step up in the U.S. When I heard some of the things that kids in Europe are already learning at youger ages, it really shocked me. Many of those kids are also multilingual. This is not only in Europe. A student at FIU who is part of a tutoring program is from Jamaica. She tutored me in Chemistry and she said that she's been doing Chemistry for years. I took one year of chemistry in high school and I feel that I just relearned everything I learned in one year in one month in College level Chemistry. I wish that I had taken Chemistry every year.Another problem is extra help. I have not heard of many free tutoring programs for schools. There are teachers who are willing to stay after school and tutor students but there are also teachers who do not. I think schools need to figure out a way to make more tutoring available because not everyone can afford going to expensive tutoring companies and not everyone has parents that can help them with homework. There is a lot of free help in college but there needs to be more free help in high school and elementary. A lot of learning problems that people have come from elementary school because they did not learn the material correctly or not at all.
Education is very important to me. I can remember countless times when I didn't want to go to school or when I complained about homework, tests and quizzes, and even teachers. Even though I said all of these things, I had so much fun in school. I loved reading and experiments and doing in class projects and having discussions. There were certain subjects that were difficult for me such as math but once i finally understood it, I felt so good about myself. Thinking back, I even liked learning about new things. Anytime we learned something new in Science or History, everyone would say, "Oh so that's how it works" or "I never knew that! That's so cool!" My classmates and I never really realized how much we actually liked learning. I might never use some of the things that I've learned over the past 18 years of my life but a lot of the things I've learned are interesting and in the future, I'll probably have to help my kids with it anyway. Education is something that I would stress to everyone.
For more information about No Child Left Behind go here.
For more information about Dr.Rudy Crew go here.