IB English - Journal 28

Journal 28

Write an argument about the following image.

Journal #28:

   Multiple arguments could be said about this image. This image can be used as an argument against technology, or can be used for the proof of how integrated technology has become in the younger generations. Furthermore, this image can be used to develop a thesis in decreasing the usage of technology due to the high amount of money technology requires. Another way to use this image is as a statistic to reinforce a claim of the grand amount of teenagers using technology, that therefore can lead to teenagers being more anti-social, more susceptible to artifice information, and more susceptible to imposed on views and thoughts. 

IB English - Journal 27

Journal 27

Write an argument about the following image.

Journal #27:

   The central theme of this image revolves around the simplicity of life. As a child, we were once carefree and unrestricted by the darkness surrounding us. We often lose sight of the simple joyful experiences in life, by being so wrapped up in the factory of life. Life as a child, is so precious, everyday, every memory, every experience is a pearl and as we grow older those pearls become more and more rare. Hence, the primary argument of this image is to enjoy life just as a carefree child does. 

IB English - Journal 26

Journal 26

Write an argument about the following image.

Journal #26:

   This image can be used for multiple arguments such as, an anti-war stance or an anti-draft stance. This image can also be used for both. The beauty of this image is a classic, pretty well maintained, piano in the middle of what it is seems to be the aftermath of a terrible fire. And yet with a eerie scenery the soldier next to the piano, simply playing it, creates a strangely hopeful atmosphere. This image can be used as an anti-war image by stating how behind the classical beauty there is destruction, and with the presence of the piano, and the soldier playing it, a feeling of gratitude toward the simplicities of life sweeps the central theme of the image. The image, just as well, can be used as an anti-draft image by stating how the soldier playing the piano creates calmness, but once the soldier moves on away from the piano, he will head off towards a grim path; hence, we question what it is that drafted young men are faced with when leaving behind the life they once knew.

IB English - Journal 25

Journal 25

“I just don’t believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set the rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression.”  ---Malcolm X

Journal #25:

   Reading this quote, I recalled a similar saying which defined how the greatest lost of power is believing you don't have any. Malcom X refers to the black - African America - community as the "People" in his quote, thus he calls for action against their oppressors. 

IB English - Journal 24

Journal 24

“Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.” ---Edward R. Murrow

Journal #24:

   Edward R. Murrow quote can be viewed in different perspectives, however it's essence . Slogans are meant to persuade and motivate but those slogans are not the solution. The real solution is by taking action not just repeating the slogan. Words are just words until they are put in action, it's not about what you say it's about what you do. Slogans are used to spread a movement of change, a solution. However, just because a slogan widely spreads does not the problem was resolved, take for example the Black Lives Matter Movement. The slogan, "Hands Up Don't Shoot" was all over the news and the slogan spread like wild fire. Like all fire, the spreading ceased and it is assumed that the movement was resolved due to the wild spread of the slogan. The problem still is at large and the mistake was that the slogan was taken for a solution.

IB English - Journal 23

Journal 23

“Truth is powerful, and it prevails.”   ---Sojourner Truth

Journal #23:

   There is a saying that states that, "The truth always gets out." The quote by Sojourner truth correlates with that saying. A societal consensus of a subject is considered true. While there are people that disagree on the subject, real truth is true whether it is believed or not. Take for instance thousands of years ago when the societal consensus was that the earth was flat. While society considered it true the real truth was that the earth was round. Eventually, the truth prevailed and the earth was discovered to be round. This situation is the bases to all truth, real truth demands to be heard. 

IB English - Journal 22

Journal 22

One of Eddy’s favorite things to do is to work in the yard and listen to podcasts, which are kind of like radio shows, but they are full of really interesting stories. For this week’s journal, listen to one of the following podcasts. Then, link it in with your response, and write a brief reflection in which you respond to what you heard, what you found interesting, what surprised you, what you learned, etc.

The first podcast listed below is about the effects of the Muslim ban, and you’ll hear stories about people who have been waiting TEN years to come to the United States. It’s important, well-told, devastating, and inspiring. The second recommendation below has a chapter called, “Silver Mine” that is a CRAZY story. Just listen to it for the wow factor! Ok, and let’s be honest. If you want to get addicted to podcasts, the best one I’ve listed here is the last. It’s a murder mystery involving a high school romance, and it’s true. Just go to the page and read the description. You’ll be hooked after the first episode! :)

Serial: Season 1, Episode 1: The Alibi

https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi

Journal #22:

   I am not someone that is particularly intrigued by podcasts, and so between the three podcast I chose Serial due to my interest in criminal justice, forensics, and CSI sort of things. Serial began with a missing person case that unraveled into a murder mystery. Jay and Adnan are the main suspects for the murder of Hae. The set up and leads that the podcast arranged helped with an eerie and unpredictable atmosphere. Music timing and audio recordings of interviews send chills down my spine and tensed my muscles. I did not consider podcast to be interesting, but after the first episode of Serial I was so entranced. 

IB English - Journal 21

Journal 21

“If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” ---Dolly Parton

Journal #21:

   Dolly Parton's quote is a metaphor for the struggles in life that must be dealt with in order to achieve a content destination. In life we are faced with serious and challenges that push us down into a contemplating state. Situations like, divorce, illness, death, heartbreak, bullying and so many other situations affect us whether or not we chose to express it. At time the pressure, the stress and the depression is too much to handle and is like being trapped in an inescapable tomb. In Parton's metaphor, she compares the distressing situations life faces us with rain. And just like rain, the amount and force of the situation varies. However after rain, comes sunlight and after powerful rainstorms comes something more beautiful than sunlight, a rainbow. As we face difficult situations we must remember that after rain comes a rainbow.

IB English - Journal 20

Journal 20

“I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”  ---Nelson Mandela

Journal #20:

Fear is a very powerful emotion and can be used very easily to manipulate. Fear can control us. Nelson Mandela does a great job at describing the conquered fear in courage. Media and society hold courage and bravery to a level of no emotion, particularly fear. However, as Mandela states true courage id the conquering of fears, and we can also witness that in movies about challenging ourselves. The two views on courage can be viewed in the movie, Batman that demonstrates little to no fear and the movie, Soul-Surfer which is a bout overcoming a challenge that the protagonist fears. Nelson Mandela's view of courage can be illustrated in that movie, and can very well be seen in our daily life. For example, there are people that conquer their fears on a daily basis wether that be from riding a bicycle or being on top of a building. Courage is the the triumph of fear.

IB English - Journal 19

Journal 19

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
---Assata Shakur

Journal #19:

   I am very pessimistic when it comes to wars and world peace. For anti-war protestors, violence is never the key. While I agree that violence can generate more problems than it solves, war is inevitable. As Shakur states no freedom has been gained from passive congregation. Therefore, change a rises from the ashes of war. 

IB English - Journal 18

Journal 18

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely that your very existence is an act of rebellion." --Albert Camus

Journal #18:

   In the past, where the world faced a series of depressions, wars and social problems. In all of those situations, particular individuals rose in the public eyes to bring hope and peace to the masses. Those individuals were not always political scholars but regular people that decided to fight a problem. When I think of Camus' quote I think of those regular individuals becoming the face of a fight. Even now we have regular individuals that come to mind when we think of a problem. For example, when I think of the Black Lives Matter movement, I think about Michael Brown. However in this quote, I imagine someone like Katniss Everdeen, I know she's fictional, but her character fits the quote. Living in a corrupt society, Katniss stood up as the face of the rebellion. Katniss became the rebellion. The government wanted to get rid of her because just by her existing it was an act of rebellion, as the quote states. However there are plenty of real life individuals who are examples of Albert Camus' quote. 

IB English - Journal 17

Journal 17

For the past five weeks, we’ve studied how language perpetuates ideology and hegemony throughout the world via mass communication. Specifically, we’ve looked at how language is used to construct norms in relationship to gender, and now race. Let’s transition the conversation now to look at how language is used to resist, deny, or reconstruct the status quo. For this journal, offer examples that are either modern or historical, in which language has been used to challenge ideological norms.

Journal #17:

   Now in more modern times, our generation has started to break free of institutionalized norms that the society has impeded in us. Even now our parents are recognizing the paradigm shift of homosexuality. My parents have stated homosexuals were not as expressed as they are now in days. Our generation has been more open, respectful and out spoken for the problem in the lgbt community. Not only in lgbt problems but also in other problems in the government, environment and society. Most of the resistance is discussed in social media, such as Twitter. Twitter has especially been involved in politics since the election of Donald Trump as president. 

IB English - Journal 16

Journal 16

We’ve become such a narcissistic, “me-first” society that common courtesies have gone right out the door – with a moral fiber that’s barely a thread. And while I’m hardly a religious zealot, I do think a large part of the problem is the secularization of our culture at the hands of the allegedly tolerant and compassionate “progressives.” We’ve taken God out of our schools and poke fun at religion; we devalue human life by condoning abortion and branding anyone who stands up for the unborn a woman-hating Neanderthal. Two-parent households are considered an anachronism; a woman who stays home with the kids instead of getting a job and relegating child rearing to day care is deemed lazy. We all but legalize a drug, marijuana, that takes away ambition and drive, and we attack anyone who’s successful and wealthy – regardless of how hard they work, or how many sacrifices they’ve made in life to get where they’re at. Government has become not an enabler of the private sector, but it’s a misguided Robin Hood, at the expense of personal responsibility – and personal values. ---Stephen Arnold

Articulate the central claim that Arnold makes and discuss the ways in which you agree or disagree with his position. Support your argument by providing reasons and examples from your own experiences, observations, or readings.

Journal #16:

   Arnold states that society has become narcissistic due to the hands people that secularize the society. I agree that society has become narcissistic however I do not agree that it is due to the lose of importance religion has in society. I think there religion might help some individuals become more modest but it is not the universal answer to solve narcissism. On the topic of a stay at home mom being considered lazy, I don't see that stigma in the society I am in. Instead I see both mothers who choose to stay at home for the needs of the children and the mothers that work in order to help the families income and/or working for the enjoyment they get from the job. For the legalization of marijuana, it is a very controversial topic that has multiple reasons to both sides, I do not have a strong or educated knowledge to choose a side and create an opinion. The critics of the wealthy, I believe stems from a popular stereotype of corruption from the wealthy and successful. I absolutely agree that the government has separated themselves from the private sector and are using personal values at the expense of their cause, which would be to stay in control.

IB English - Journal 15

Journal 15

This week we discussed the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. For this journal, explore your mask. What does it say? What does it hide? Who built it?

Journal #15:

   Dunbar poem, "We wear the mask," is about how all individuals wear a mask. In the first five stanzas, Dunbar describes the mask as a cover that lies and smiles while behind the mask the emotion is the opposite. In the next paragraph, first stanza, it reads that the world is over wise. I believe that  this stanza suggest that the world is interested in how we express certain emotions. Sadness and depression are the emotions most investigated by the world, suggested by the terms, "Tears," and "Sighs." It is the over-analyzation of the world that leads individuals to put on a mask due to fear or shame. Fear of what the world might think of our sadness and/or depression. Shame for the envisioned reaction of the world in response to the sadness and/or depression. 

IB English - Journal 14

Journal 14

Before Washington journalism turned into blood sport, and politics turned into an exercise in serial lying, there was a fairly firm understanding by the press that personal failings were none of the public's business unless misbehavior affected the performance of one’s abilities to perform public duties. No more. Yet there is a national longing to return to the good old days when political news was more about issues and policies and less about private lives." 

Explain the significance of the writer's claims that this new style of journalism has turned politics into a "blood sport . . . and an exercise in serial lying." Using logical reasons and specific examples, discuss whether you agree or disagree with the author's claims about journalism.

Journal #14:

   Everyone holds the power to become a journalist and many have. With our cell phones we have the ability to video, write and take a picture of an event that we can later publish in social media for a greater audience to see. However some people hold too much power over the media that then it becomes a "blood sport." This competition can be seen in news channels. Most of our news is controlled by few companies that have risen and want to continue to rise to the top. The companies then have the power to control what is in the news and a lot of what is on the news is politics. However the politics chosen to be shown are more sensationalized then politics are really. In the news, concerning the last election, there has been more gossip talk then political talk. The news were mostly about the heat between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump then their causes and then other presidential candidates that were not involved in such drama. Based of these experiences, I agree with the authors claim about Journalism. 

IB English - Journal 13

Journal 13

The media is too concentrated. Too few people own too much. There’s really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see, and hear. It’s not healthy.

---Ted Turner (American Media Mogul, Founder of CNN)

Explain Turner’s argument, then discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree. Support your argument with examples from your readings, observations, or experiences.

Journal #13:

   Turner's argument is completely accurate. Due to few people controlling many media sources, our news is filtered through their bias. News is suppose to be as objective as possible so that the audience can make an informed decision. Instead we have large amounts of people spreading half side news causing so much ignorance on what the true facts are. The five companies control, just as Turner states, our news and it causes so much bias on news that the audience cannot get the real objective facts. All news channels have their own bias, such as Fox and CNN. In class we have viewed and analyzed these biases and their affect on the general public. Which is why the audience should find as many sources for their news to gather the most facts that lead us, the audience, closer to the truth.