Identity IS Worth Fighting For

Where I'm From
I am from lawn chairs,
and being terrified of bees in our garden.
I am from soccer practice,
and being the smallest in the class.
I am from ice skating lessons, falling on my butt.
I am from my seven pairs of Converse that I’ll never throw away.

I am from Clifford the Big Red Dog,and the Boston Red Sox.
I am from N’sync and Britney Spears,
and wanting to be Michael Jackson’s background dancer.
I am from Corn Pops,and grooming vans,
and being the youngest on the flight to Las Vegas.
I am from No means no,
and my parents calling me my Chinese name, Ka-En.
I am from the angry old neighbor next door,
and High School Musical marathons.

A tradition that’s passed down the line,
generation after generation.
Tea ceremonies to celebrate weddings, 
Chinese New Year and birthdays.
Prolonging the past,
and foreshadowing the future.


Who I Am
Braided, puffy hair, into a pony-tail.
Dark brown eyes.
Cracked lips.
A watch from my half brother in Hong Kong.
A hair tie on my other wrist.
A uniform with one button undone and both sleeves rolled up.
Some rolled up pants; they’re too long.
Scar-filled legs, full of mosquito bites.
An awkward tan line from the wrist band that I wore for 2 years on my ankle because my wrist is too small.
My signature pair of Converse, with two tongues, ruined from dancing, running and skateboarding.
Socks that keep sliding down my foot.
Ears lacking earrings because of my sensitive skin.
Nails covered with pink, black and white nail polish.
9 toe nails, covered in white nail polish, one hanging off.
Different.
Quirky.
Awkward.
That’s me.

Identity is something that's worth fighting for. Everyone is their own self and nothing can change that. You have the right to fight for who you are and you should be able to be yourself no matter what. Your identity shouldn't even have to be something that you have to fight for. People are designed to be different and people should embrace that. People may try to take your identity away from you and that's when you have to fight for you identity. There isn't a certain way you have to be. Tradition can be an obstacle there and although it's tradition, I feel it's not fair. Everyone should be able to be themselves. Also, there are stereotypes and gender "roles". People often think that women have to do certain things, like work in the kitchen and clean up, and men have to do certain things, like work and make all the money. No one should have to live up to those expectations because they're not even real expectations.

Prejudice and Bias

Throughout John Boyne's The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, there was a lot of evidence of prejudice and bias. Bruno's father was in charge of one of the concentration camps and he was clearly a big supporter of the Nazis. Bruno didn't understand much of what was going on and he just listened to his father and agreed that the Jews were horrible people. When he went exploring, he met Shmuel and talked to him through the fence. He didn't understand why the Jews were horrible people. Bruno asked his sister, Gretel, if there were such things as nice Jews. Gretel thought that was a very stupid thought and told Bruno that there was no such thing as nice Jews. She learned from her father and the tutor that they have. This suggests that prejudice is caused by what our parents think.

Prejudice is caused mainly because of what our parents think and what their opinions are. Children are very much influenced by their parents and parents teach their children so whatever the parents think, the children would most likely agree. Also, Bruno being a German family, many, not all, Germans were siding the Nazis and they encouraged what they were doing.

Prejudice is also highly affected by what people around you think, like peer pressure. If a group of people think something, another person is most likely going to agree. Another reason people would be prejudice is because they have a leader. Hitler didn't like the Jews and many people followed his lead, hence the amount of people against Jews.

Bruno and Gretel were influenced by their father and they believed that Jews were horrible people. Bruno was the only one who actually interacted with a Jew for a longer time period and he knows that Jews aren't actually bad people. This shows that the opinions of people most likely revolve around someone else's opinion.

Treaty Of Versailles: Fair or Unfair

The Treaty of Versailles was unfair towards the Germans. After the war was over, in 1918, people celebrated their victory, and they left behind the destroyed grounds. The defeated parties were punished and Germany was forced to sign a Peace Treaty, giving the restrictions that you couldn't even imagine.

In January of 1919, David Lloyd George, of Britain, Vittorio Orlando, of Italy, France's Georges Clemenceau and President Woodrow Wilson met for a Peace Conference to decide how to punish Germany for the destruction they caused. They decided on restrictions Germany must follow such as limiting their military forces to 100,000 men and there shall be no air force or submarines.

Although it is reasonable that Germany should be punished for the damage they've done, I feel it's too harsh to make them give up all the land that they had title over. In the end, Germany had to pay for all the damage they've done which added up to about $33 billion. A lot of Germany's land was taken from them and lost their mining lands, making it very difficult for them to pay for the damage they'd caused.

No Man Is An Island

The texts of John Donne's poem No Man Is An Island, Armin Greder's The Island and Jason Van Gederen's Mankind Is No Island video poem all have similar themes such as equality, prejudice, and humanity. In Greder's The Island, the man is treated like an animal. He was forced to stay in a goat pen and he was absolutely dehumanized. In the poem No Man Is An Island, describes how every man is a part of the continent and should be treated equally. The video poem mentions "who do you love". All of these different themes are somehow portrayed in these three texts.

These texts each have a way of showing equality as one of their themes. In Greder's The Island, the people of town treat him like someone different. As if he's not even human, the townspeople aren't treating him equally. In John Donne's No Man Is An Island, he speaks a lot about being a part of the continent and how mankind should never be left alone. This suggests that everyone should be treated equally and no one should be left behind. "Your truth, your thinking, your inner spirit; no different to me." These words were in the video poem by Van Gederen. This implies, yet again that all of mankind should be treated equally and that no matter how different we are, we are all the same.

Another theme that is shown in all three of these texts is prejudice. In The Island, the people in town first see the naked man and immediately think of him as a threat. They didn't even bother asking about his life story or the reason why he's come. They assumed he was danger, which led them to start rumors and lies about this innocent man. This shows that they made snap-judgements and that the townspeople were really prejudice even thought they thought they were being nice by letting him stay. In John Donne's poem, he's saying that everyone is equal and there should be no prejudice. The video poem quotes "I walk by you today, I always look away". This suggests that people are being prejudice and they don't bother finding things out about anything before judging. In the modern world today, all around us there are many people being prejudice and soon enough, no one is going to care about another person other than themselves.

The final theme that is represented in these texts is humanity. Donne's poem suggests that we should treat everyone with humanity because everyone is part of the continent. The video version of that poem shows clips of beggars on the street and no one is giving them anything. "Do we measure empathy by donations?" The Island has a lot about humanity. Firstly, the people don't seem to have any humanity judging by the way they treated the man who appeared on their island. Also, the way they dressed and looked according to Greder's illustrations, they looked like beasts almost. Not exactly as beastly as the circus men in The Great Bear but they weren't far off.

These three texts each use different techniques to portray equality, prejudice and humanity. Poems, videos and a children's story book. Although these may not seem like big messages read literally but they actually have a deeper meaning to them. The Great Bear was an allegory about rights and respect, The Island was a way of showing how cruel and prejudice people can be. John Donne's writing is a poetic way of showing how people should act and how people should treat each other. The video poem was a tear jerking way of showing how prejudice people can be and how people aren't even sure of what they love now a days. "What is it we love today? Do we love the people or place?"

Kindness

Kindness is always positive. You can receive or give kindness. Kindness is an action that is nice and makes you or someone else feel good. It could also be something that someone else does to you. In some situations, people might think they’re being kind to someone but really, they aren’t. If you give someone your math homework, you might think you’re helping your friend out because you’re helping them get their homework done but what you’re really not helping them at all. If they copy your work, they won’t understand the method or concept of the math and they won’t succeed with their grades.

Can kindness be negative? I feel that kindness is always positive. Shouldn’t kindness be from the heart? If someone forces you to be kind, I feel that it’s not your act of kindness. It’s the person who told you do it. Can kindness have faults? You might think that you’re being kind to someone but they might find your action insulting. Perhaps it’s just the thought that counts? If you WANT to be kind, then whatever you’re doing, must be kindness.

Today, while everyone was getting their makeup done for the play, people were getting really nervous and they were complaining that their make up looked horrible. I encouraged them and said they looked fine. I feel that’s an act of kindness because I was complimenting people and gave them confidence in themselves. I made them feel good and as stated before, kindness is all about goodness and positivity.

Learning Profiles: Profile D

Last year, Mr. Whiting came into our humanities class to help us figure out our learning profiles. I found out that I was a learning profile A. This year, he came again and I've discovered that my learning profile has changed since then.

To figure out my learning profile, we had to find out which hand, foot, eye and ear was dominant. Last year, everything was the right side. But this year, my hand changed to left hand dominant. Just that minor difference changed my learning profile to D.

With a learning profile D, I learn best by focusing on visual and auditory details meaning that I listen and look carefully at what I'm learning. Also, I learn by analyzing meaning I make sure to look at every detail in what I'm learning. I like to do things in an orderly fashion, opposed to doing things all over the place, randomly. I need to see and hear details in order to learn.

My learning profile shows that I'm a left brain dominant learner meaning I'm a logic learner, opposed to gestalt learner. Logic learners need to focus more on the big idea, which is what gestalt learners do. I also need to improve with my ability to think with more variety.

Since my left hand is dominant, (although I'm right handed), it is connected to the gestalt side of the brain which causes me to need to use my hands to learn. Another thing that might help is sitting in the back of the classroom where I can doodle without disturbing the rest of the class.

Although my learning profile recommends that I doodle, I find that doodling doesn't really help me. A lot of the time, I just have something in my hands to fidget around with. I like to be organized so I can learn efficiently. When I'm under stress, I might have difficulty to communicate details logically in a verbal or written way.

We Love Libraries!

Libraries are beautiful places. You get to read, use computers and research, all for free. If people took libraries away from us, many people wouldn't be able to do many things. A lot of people don't have access to books or internet in their homes so they go to the local library to do their research, work or homework. In the UK, many libraries are being shut down and people aren't pleased with that. People should be able to have access to free computers and books because some people may not be able to afford buying them themselves.

Books help people learn a lot and help people in life. Without books, students don't have access to a lot of information that they might need. Some schools might not be rich enough to have computers for their students. They might not even have their own library so they would have to go to a public library. If people close down the libraries, what would those unfortunate schools do?

In the UK, people found anonymous sculptures carved out of books as a protest towards the shutting down of libraries. A lot of people are unhappy with what people are doing and they are doing what they can to make themselves heard. This anonymous artist left the beautiful works of art everywhere around the library with tiny messages on them. They were very poetic and meaningful but the artist didn't take any credit for them.

I believe that people really need books and libraries not only for educational and work purposes but some people who really love reading, love the library and people can't just take it away from others. Some people who don't want to spend money on books for themselves go to the library to borrow them for free. People would have to spend a lot more money on books without the libraries and if people don't want to. They wouldn't be able to fulfill their crave for books without libraries.