The Evolution of MyAmerica: Part III

For my last metapost of this year, I decided to make a Word Cloud (from the website, wordle.net, which Mr. Bolos showed us earlier this year) of all the writing on my blog.

When I look at this visual representation of the most commonly used words on my blog, I feel like it is a completely accurate summary of my entire year in American Studies. Though some of the words might not seem as important as others, I like the fact that every little concept I thought about this year is represented. For example, if asked to describe the main things we discussed in American Studies, I probably wouldn't think to mention the word "iPhone" anywhere in my summary, but when I saw it on the word cloud as a commonly used word on my blog, I realized that it represents part of the technology we discussed many times throughout the year.

One of the words that sticks out to me the most is "friends". I think the inclusion of this word is really meaningful because it shows how, through this blog, I was able to merge the worlds of school and personal life together. In previous discussion-based classes, I only thought about the class material for the 40 minutes of time allotted to that class period or while completing homework for that class. My experience in American Studies was very unlike these past experiences. This blog allowed me to always subconsciously think about the discussions from class and relate them to things I see in the "real world". Now, it is just a natural reflex for me to be hanging out with my friends and somehow end up finding a parallel between whatever we are doing and a concept from American Studies. I think this is an invaluable skill I will appreciate for the rest of my life and always credit it back to my American Studies class during my junior year of high school.

**The blog post I would like you to grade is The Food Revolution**

The Help- part II

[Read my post from earlier this month to see the plan for this post]

Here are some of the first similarities I noticed between our curriculum in American Studies and the novel, "The Help", by Kathryn Stockett.

-Early on in the book, we find out that one of the African American maids, Aibleen, has a special gift for making things happen whenever she prays for it. On page 26, Aibleen doubts her supposed abilities by saying, "You saying people think I got the black magic?" This reminds me of a discussion we had a couple times this year, while reading Frederick Douglas and while reading Huck Finn. We talked about the old stereotype that African Americans were more likely to have some sort of supernatural connection, also known as "black magic". One modern day example of this is the show "That's So Raven" on the Disney Channel. At the time it aired, it was the only show with an African American main character and she happened to be a psychic teenage girl named Raven.


-One of the main focuses of this novel is about Miss Skeeter, a young girl just out of college, deciding to write a book of stories about what life is like from the help's perspective. She conducts many interviews and has to edit their stories to make them ready to be printed in a book. You could say that she was writing a book of oral histories. I can definitely understand where she is coming from when she talks about how difficult writing this sort of paper because we wrote an oral history paper at the beginning of the school year. Our challenge was to interview a person and then edit their words (the original transcript of my interview was about 10 pages long) into a cohesive story without adding any of our own words. I found this task very difficult but intriguing at the same time. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Miss Skeeter to write an entire novel this way.

2011

As I was checking my blog out this morning, I looked at the sidebar on the page that says how many people have visited my blog. Today, I have had 2011 views of My America. Not only is this awesome because it just happens to also be the year 2011, but it's really amazing that so many people have seen what I write. So, thanks to everyone who has visited My America!

[delete]

Numerous times throughout our year in American Studies, the topic of teenagers and the Internet has come up. The discussion generally centered around whether the extreme amount of technology in young adults' lives is a good or bad thing. Personally, I still haven't made up my mind because, as much as I love having Facebook to keep in touch with friends and relatives, I don't know if the positives outweigh the negatives.

This morning, I stumbled upon an advertisement for a movement called Delete Digital Drama. Basically, the goal of this campaign is to make teenagers aware of how hurtful cyberbullying can be and how it can effect its victims. I think this is an extremely important cause, and can even think of numerous times I have heard of my peers at New Trier being cyberbullied. I think the main reason cyberbullying has become so common in America is because it adds a feeling of anonymity to the person who is being the bully. I almost guarantee that a person would never say a lot of the hurtful things they write on Facebook to the face of the person. Even though I'm still uncertain about what I think about Facebook, I certainly think this is a worthy cause. I encourage you to join the campaign to fight cyberbullying and think before you type!

The Help

This past week, I decided to pick up the book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett as a light summer read. I didn't really expect much of it because I thought of it as just one of those books that a lot of people read but isn't really substantial. Boy, was I wrong. Though I'm only about 150 pages into the book so far, I have already realized that this is going to be an important book for decades to come. NPR.org agrees with me on their quote on the front cover of the novel, saying "This could be one of the most important pieces of fiction since To Kill a Mockingbird… If you read only one book… let this be it"

Click here to read a summary of the book by the NY Times.... 

Even though I'm not trying to read this book like I read a "school book", I can't help myself from finding parallels to other books we read this year in American Studies or topics we discussed in class. As I continue to read the book, I will mark the parallels as they show up and document them in my next few blog entries. 

I can't emphasize this enough, but YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!! (If you decide to read it let me know what you think and whether or not you agree with the parallels I found or if you have any more to add.)

Summer "Break"

These carefree summer days are long gone....

As I talk to all of my friends about what they have done so far during their summer vacation and what they will do in the month or so left, I can't help but realize that no one is really taking the "break" part of "summer break" literally. Out of just my close friends, there are people going on community service trips all over the world, interning at various universities and hospitals, attending dozens of college recruiting tournaments for their sports, and working summer jobs (which is what I am doing this summer, along with finishing up all of my junior year class work). After wondering why my peers fill their summers up so much, I can't help but relate it to my Junior Theme topic. I believe that students from areas like the New Trier Township create their incredibly busy summer schedules because of the stress surrounding the college admission process. When talking to one of my friends, she even admitted that she went on a service trip because it sounded fun, but mainly because it would be an interesting story to tell in a college interview or in a college admissions essay. I don't know if this is necessarily a problem in our community because students don't suffer from going on exotic trips, but I just think it is an interesting byproduct of all the stress in the lives of students. What are you doing this summer? What have you already done? What was your motivation to do these things? 

Bad Teachers?

While browsing the AOL homepage this afternoon, I came across a headline "Atlanta Public Schools Shaken by Cheating Report". Relating this headline to some of the research I did for my junior theme, I clicked on the link immediately and began reading the article expecting to read about some students who were under a lot of stress which caused them to cheat. Much to my surprise, after reading the first few lines of the article, I discovered that the students were not the ones cheating, but it was actually the teachers. The article states that "the pressures placed on teachers by policies that stress standardized test scores -- such as No Child Left Behind -- foster an environment ripe for cheating." This proves that there is stress on every person involved in the education system. Not only are students feeling pressured to do well on exams in order to get into a top college, but teachers also feel pressured to show improvement in their students test scores.

A Patriotic 4th

After a nice long 4th of July weekend, I began thinking about what "patriotic" really means. According to the dictionary, patriotic means "of, like, suitable for, or characteristics of a patriot". The dictionary defines a patriot as "a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion". When most people hear the word "patriotic", they think about the American flag or wearing red, white and blue. However, I think there is much more to the word than that. Supporting your country doesn't just mean following your government blindly and agreeing with it no matter what. To me, a patriot is a person who, because they love their country, looks critically at their government and speaks up when they see something they don't believe is in the best interest of their country.

My Artifacts

At the beginning of the school year, I wrote a blog titled "American Artifacts" about what the main things that will represent our society in the future if we were all to disappear. Now, as I work on completing my junior year, I've decided to think about the artifacts that represent the past year of my life.

1. My Facebook page- Though parents often complain about Facebook as an unneeded distraction in teens' lives, I think Facebook is a great way to record ourselves during different times in our lives. Not only is it a virtual photo album, but it also saves our conversations with friends so in then future we can remember who we were friends with and what we used to like talking about.


2. My iPhone- I am one of those crazy people who saves every text and writes down every appointment or event in my iPhone calendar. In 20 years I will be able to look back and see my exact schedule for getting ready for prom or what times I worked during the summer.

3. THIS BLOG!- Out of all the things listed above, I think this blog will be the most telling artifact about who I was during my junior year of high school. Each blog entry represents exactly what I was thinking about when I wrote it and what things stood out to me the most
during that week. I can't wait to look back and read this blog in 10 or 20 years and remember
exactly what I thought as a 17 year old.

Now, after writing this post, I see that all of the three artifacts I chose are forms of technology. I think this shows what a technology-based society we are. Technology will definitely help us remember our lives with more detail than possible before. Do you see this as a good thing or an invasion of privacy?

Conscious Thinking

While surfing AOL's homepage tonight, I stumbled upon an article about a new study done about sexism. I clicked on the article just to see what it was about and if it had to do anything with any of our previous class discussions. It did. Instead of relating to class in the obvious way though, it related to the concept of our class as a whole. In one part of the article, a researcher stated, "If you document [sexism] and are confronted by a group of instances of sexism, then people start to see the unseen." This idea reminded me of my thoughts after a few weeks of American Studies class. I kept thinking that, after talking about an idea or writing a blog about a topic, I would notice things having to do with American Studies all over my life. In my meta-post for the first quarter, I even talked about this concept, writing, "About halfway through the quarter, I started seeing blog posts in everything. I even had to edit down my ideas because I would end up with 10 or 12 after one weekend because I was thinking about it all the time." I think this is true about anything in life. If you document something, you will be more conscious of it in your everyday life. Have you ever experienced this in your life?

A disaster is a disaster... or is it...?

News programs are always filled with different types of disasters; killings, natural disasters, scandals, and economic disasters. Even though the news focuses on each of these stories equally, it seems like the level of compassion from the people of America is different for each situation. The question that keeps popping up over and over again in my head is "why do Americans empathize with victims of natural disasters and help them as much as possible, but don't help victims of economic disasters equally?" I have no hard and fast answer to this question, but I have thought of a few possible reasons.

-Relatability: For most Americans, it is probably easier to imagine a tornado coming through your town and destroying their life than imagining losing their job and becoming homeless. This could be one of the causes because it is simply easier to relate to the tragedy of a person in a natural disaster.




-The Uncomfortable Factor: For some reason, homelessness makes many people uncomfortable. Even though people generally try to pretend to be sympathetic towards homeless people sitting on the street, most people truly feel uneasy when in the presence of them. Obviously, people would rather donate time and funds to something they feel comfortable thinking about instead of an issue that makes them feel uneasy.




I truly have no idea what the answer to this question is, but the above ideas are just some guesses. Do you agree with any of these ideas? Do you have any other possible answers to the question?

The (not-so) Proud Family

A couple days ago in class, Mr. Bolos brought up the idea that says, "If you don't know your history, it's like you were born yesterday." When he said this, it reminded me of the time I heard that exact same phrase when I was in about 4th grade, watching a show called The Proud Family on the Disney Channel. Here's the theme song for the show...

While reminiscing about this show I used to love and watch all the time, I realized that it is the perfect example of racial tokenism on TV. I would say that The Proud Family was the Disney Channel's token show for the time it was around. Almost every character on the show is African American or Hispanic (except for the one white, red-headed friend and the ambiguously colored purple girls...), so it was probably used to make the Disney Channel to seem racially diverse while still keeping the rest of their TV shows that have almost exclusively white characters. Do you think it is a problem that Disney used The Proud Family as a token program, or do you think the reasons don't matter as long as the diversity is shown?

The Food Revolution

      While taking a break from writing my final paper, I decided to watch the latest episode of one of my favorite shows, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. This show is based on Jamie Oliver's (a British chef) mission to change the type of food we eat in America. I really recommend checking this show out here because it will present you with staggering facts about the terrible food the majority of Americans eat. The moment that hit me the hardest was when Sophia, a seventeen year old student at a LA public school, told Jamie in tears that both of her parents and her ten year old little sister all have type II diabetes. I immediately realized that this relates to the topic of my final paper (inequality between the classes).
      Though food doesn't necessarily seem to relate directly to the disparities between class, when you look a little deeper you can actually see the connection. In both seasons of Jamie's show, he has worked to change the food in school districts located in primarily low-income areas. Many of the people he spoke with admitted that they only eat fast food and unhealthy frozen food because it was easy and affordable. For example, many of these people could not afford shopping at Whole Foods (or "Whole Paycheck" as some people say) every week. Because they don't have money, they are limited to eating fast food that is terrible for their health and the health of their children. Jamie is making a huge effort to change this and I think his mission is amazing, but he surely can't do it alone. What do you think Americans as a whole can do to improve this gap and make healthy food attainable to everyone?

The Stress Myth?

Today, as I was quickly clicking through the top stories on AOL's homepage, I noticed that two out of the forty "top news stories" had to do with stress. I found this really interesting because, as I write my junior theme about stress, I am beginning to notice articles, news stories, and personal stories about stress everywhere. The first article,  Change to Make You More Positive, talks about the idea that stress characterizes our lives. It certainly isn't an uplifting article, but instead makes you think about why people whine about being stressed so often. Then, a few links later, you come across an article titled,  Reduce Stress in Just Six Seconds. I don't know if the editors of the AOL homepage did this on purpose, but it seems like they linked to the original article about stress and then felt guilty for being negative, so they added a link to this article to help people calm down. Overall, I just thought it was interesting that people in America are so focused on stress. Do you think stress could be considered a "Super-replicator"?

American Idol: Making it Big

While discussing The Great Gatsby in class, one of the main ideas we have talked about is the "American Dream". Jay Gatsby is a perfect example of a person who started off as the son of unsuccessful farmers and, through years of hard work, ended up becoming an extremely wealthy man. One term that came up in this discussion was "making it big". It seems that "making it big" is closely linked with the term "American". For example, the TV show, American Idol, is all about making it big and singers fulfilling their life-long dream of becoming a superstar. The fact that the producers chose to have the word "American" in the title of the show seems to be an attempt to link their show to the idea of the American dream. Do you think American Idol actually represents the American Dream? Or do you think the producers are just trying to link them to make people have positive thoughts about the show?

Adapting to Happiness

One topic that briefly came up in class a few days ago was the concept of "adapting to happiness". The concept is basically that, even if a person thinks they wouldn't be able to be happy in a certain situation, they would ultimately adapt to find happiness even in the worst situation possible. This idea made me think of a blog I have read a few times by a woman named Kelle Hampton. Her blog, "Enjoying the Small Things" talks about her life as a mother and her emotional journey learning about and coming to terms with the fact that the youngest of her two daughters, Nella, has Downs Syndrome. Kelle admits that when she found out the news about Nella, "My world was rocked to the core, and I was sure life as I knew it was over". However, after she had time to adapt to her new situation, she realized what a true blessing it was. On her blog, she wrote, "How wrong I was.  Between the outpouring of love and support we received, some hardcore life analysis and therapeutic insights I made on this blog through it all, I have arrived at the very beautiful place of Life is hard.  But it's also amazing, and I will rock the hell out of it." I think Kelle's story is a real inspiration, and is a perfect piece of evidence to show that no matter how difficult a situation may seem, people are designed to adapt and return to happiness.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Yesterday, I began reading the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua, as a source for my junior theme. This novel chronicles Ms. Chua's life as a "Chinese Mother" and her experiences of pushing her two daughters to achieve seemingly impossible goals. One very interesting line in the book says, "In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that 'stressing academic success is not good for their children'... By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way"(Chua, 5) It seems that, in America (especially in wealthier areas such as the North Shore), there is a huge emphasis on the amount of stress students have to deal with on a daily basis. Even though the schools and parents aren't doing much to eliminate stress, they still acknowledge the fact that the it exists and isn't necessarily a good thing. On the other hand, according to the study above, Chinese mothers embrace the stress and view it as a positive and necessary part of their child's success. Ms. Chua definitely agrees with the later point of view (as proven by every single page in her book). Which way of viewing stress do you think is most healthy/effective?

Stress About Stress

After a week of reading articles and watching videos about academic stress in teens, a few main things stick out in my mind. The top thing that keeps being emphasized in nearly every article I read is that the high level of stress in students is only common in middle and upper-middle class areas with top tier schools. There is a common fallacy that stress is an epidemic plaguing the entire country, but in reality it only effects the 10% of students who have aspirations of being admitted to an elite college. Another recurring idea I have noticed is that the amount of stress and pressure has gotten progressively larger over the past few decades. Though there are not any commonly accepted reasons for this, one popular hypothesis says that pressure on students has increased over time because acceptance to college has become more difficult. Instead of just applying to 2 or 3 colleges like our parents did, it is common for students to now apply to as many as 15 or 16 schools. This new born game of getting into college has encouraged students to take as many Advanced-Placement and honors courses as possible, fill their resume with sports and volunteer activities, and give up their much-needed sleep to instead stay up all night studying. All of these practices are rightfully thought to be at fault for the recent spike in stress among young students in wealthy areas.

All of my research has lead me to finally create my "why?" question that I will try to answer through my research for my Junior theme: Why has stress among students in affluent communities increased in recent years?

The Evolution of MyAmerica: Part II

     After re-reading my recent blog posts, I realized the thing that has changed the most this quarter is that I realized I have an audience outside of our AS class. I first realized this when I got a couple of random comments on my Miley Cyrus blog. It was right around the time of the Miley Cyrus bong scandal and someone had obviously been googling her name and came upon my blog. The comments didn't have anything to do with the overarching topic, but used many profanities to describe Miley and her father (which I had to delete to keep my blog PG). After this incident, I found the "stats" button on the blogger homepage and saw that I had viewers in the Philippines, Latvia, and a bunch of other countries. This new discovery changed my style of blogging by making me write more directed to a general audience, not just people who know exactly what is going on in our class. I think it also makes blogging a little more rewarding because now I know my ideas are being heard by people around the world.

      Another thing I noticed when I looked back at my blog this quarter was that I hadn't blogged as frequently as I would have liked to. Though I think this was mainly because of winter break and the stressful week of school before the holidays, I was a bit disappointed in myself for not keeping up on my blog. Now, after spending some time on my blog before the end of the semester, I realized again how cool this assignment is. I really enjoy that our teachers have embraced modern technology and given us a public forum to discuss the things that we don't have time for in class.
 P.S. The blog I would like you to grade is "Exempt By Association?"

Cee Lo's Secret Exposure

Ever since I wrote my first post about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the N-word, I've continued to think about it a lot and see connections all over the place. The other day I was listening to Cee Lo Green's song "F**k You" and singing along and all of the sudden I heard the N-word come out of my mouth. This is one of my favorite songs and my friends and I sing along to it all the time, but I had never noticed that the song had the N-word in it, yet I had been singing it at the top of my lungs for weeks. It makes me wonder why people pay attention to the word in Huck Finn (a time when it is used for an actual purpose) but don't complain about its overuse in rap music (for no apparent reason at all). Personally, I think it's better for kids to be exposed to the N-word in a classroom environment where a teacher can tell them that it isn't a word to use and teach them about the historical significance of the word rather than just hearing it in their favorite music. What do you think?

Toy Story: My Story

 *SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen Toy Story 3 and don't want to have the ending ruined, do not read past the second paragraph or watch the video clip!!! (If you have, enjoy the entire blog post...)*

     Tonight, I decided to take a break from studying and finally watch Toy Story 3. Let me start by saying it was AMAZING and I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't already seen it. It was a hilarious and clever movie, but the thing that struck me the most about it was how it speaks to kids our age and the many similarities between Andy's life and my own.
     Ever since junior year started, I have been getting questioned about college and what I want to do with my life. Though I'm really excited to go to college and experience new things out on my own, I feel like I am being pushed to grow up just because I am at "that age" (the age everyone assumes is the end of childhood, whether you, personally, are ready for it or not). Similarly, at the beginning of the movie, Andy's mom pressures him to make a decision about what to do with his toys as he is preparing to leave for college. Throughout the movie, Andy struggles with the dilemma of what to do with his toys- throw them away, keep them in the attic, or bring them to college with him. I see these options as representing ways to "dispose" of your childhood- become an adult immediately and never be childlike again, keep some childish qualities but still live your adult life, or never grow up.

     Eventually, Andy decides to pick answer D- "none of the above"- and hands off his treasured childhood toys to a tutu-clad little girl who promises to take good care of them and play with them all the time. I think this choice represents another way of dealing with growing up- embracing adulthood and passing on the childish fun to the next generation (while still having fun like a kid every once in awhile). What will you do?

We talk, kids listen

Today, while discussing childhood in class, I started to think about what things were emphasized in my house when I was younger. The common focuses came to mind first; sharing is caring, cleaning up is fun, and no whining allowed. After thinking for awhile longer, I realized that the things that were taught when I was young are responsible for the things that make me who I am today. For example, one of my pet-peeves is bad grammar. Whenever I hear someone say "Do you want to come with?", "Me and Ellie had fun!" or "I really need to do good on this test", I cringe at the sound of the words. When I thought back to when this pet-peeve started, I realized that it was because my parents always corrected our grammar (even when we were very young). Even though it's annoying to be bothered by bad grammar, I am still thankful for this small quirk in my personality because it's one of the things that make me who I am. When you think about it, who you are as a person is really just a combination of everything and everyone who has ever influenced you.

Think before posting

          Today, one of the students in my class brought to our attention some extremely inappropriate and hurtful  comments that were written on his blog. After discussing his specific situation for awhile, a bigger question came up- when, if ever, should the right to freedom of speech be breached (in cases involving the Internet) in order to ensure the safety of an individual?

          Though censorship doesn't seem like an American ideal, I think it is necessary in certain cases to keep violent or malicious Internet-writers in check. In the past, our government has deemed it necessary to censor newspapers and other types of media for the benefit of the country, so they should have the same right with the Internet. If anything, the Internet is more dangerous than the official media because anyone can write anything they want online. Another factor that makes the Internet dangerous has to do with its easy anonymity. When a person is saying something in person, their conscience effects them and they censor themselves to not say anything that would cause offense to their listener. On the other hand, when a person is sitting in front of a computer screen, typing their thoughts rather than saying them out loud, they feel free to say exactly what comes to their mind no matter how hurtful or offensive it may be. I think having some restrictions in place would cause people to think before posting, which would definitely be for the better of the Internet as a whole. Do you think there are any other solutions to this problem?

*for additional information about Internet censorship and how other countries have dealt with this issue click here

Exempt by association?

Lately, there has been a lot of controversy regarding the classic novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the use of the "N" word (to read more click here). Many people feel that exposing our youth to this type of language is unacceptable and that the book should be censored by replacing the "N" word with the word "slave". Though people all over the country have been reacting strongly to this proposal, one of the most famous reactions was that of Roger Ebert. Ebert posted a tweet that said, "I'd rather be called a [N-word] than a slave." Many people found this tweet offensive because Ebert is not black and would never have to deal with being called either name (click here to see one reader's response). However, others argue that he does have the right to make this statement because he is married to a black woman. This argument brings up the bigger issue of whether or not a person can be exempt from being called a racist because they are associated with a person of color. For example, after Obama was elected president, I heard the excuse "I'm not a racist- I voted for Obama!" as a very common argument when anyone was accused of being a racist. Even though many people accept this as a good enough excuse and move on, I don't think it is a reason to make racist remarks.

This idea of being exempt by association applies to things other than racism, such as using the "R" word. I am a huge proponent of not using the word "retarded" when referring to people with disabilities or any time, so whenever any of my friends uses it, I mention to them that they shouldn't say that. It's shocking how many times I've heard the excuse, "Well, I have a cousin with special needs so it's fine" or something along those lines. But, I don't think there is any excuse to ever use that word. I think the same rule goes along with the N-word- just because you know or support a person of color does not mean you have the right to use racist language.

P.S. If you want to join the campaign against the R-word, click here

The Lost Boys

As we begin reading the classic book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the topics that has come up in discussion is the idea of extended adolescence. After some research online, I stumbled upon the concept of the "Boomerang Generation", which is a term used to describe the current generation of young adults who move in and out of their parents' house or "boomerang" back and forth from adolescence to adulthood. Though this term doesn't describe the entire generation, I think it is a pretty good summary of the type of young adults in our country right now.

Being the youngest child of three, I have a lot of experience with twenty-somethings who have finished college, but have yet to find a full-time job. Though both of my siblings are working or going to school, they have noticed that out of their close friends from high school, only about 10% have "actual" jobs, while the other 90% are living at home or teaching English in a foreign country. The obvious cause for this change in the lives of young college graduates is the recent economic crisis. Since there are so many experienced adults unemployed, the first-time job hunters are having an even harder time finding a job in the industry they studied in school. I think the economic instability of this generation is forcing them to rely on their parents and keeping them in a perpetual state of adolescence. Do you think there is any way for a young adult to reach adulthood without economic stability?