education #6

       Young adults in America will do anything to get good grades, including cheating and plagiarism. We take tests such as the SAT or ACT to "test our knowledge" when really it just tests how well you can memorize what you are told and your test taking abilities. People are not good test takers and get nervous and anxious, and if you can't get a good grade on these standardized tests, sorry but you're not going to the college of your choice. The actual value of learning is taken away. No one cares how well they know the information as long as they get a good enough grade on the test and then they just forget the information anyway. And why does this happen? Because we have to make it look like we're intelligent and smart to help us get some kind of money to go to the college of our choice. And even if you get into that college, there's no guarantee you'll be going there because you may not have the money.
       Other countries offer college to students for FREE. No costs. Just learning. I would love to just learn information for the sake of knowing that information. Not worry about how test questions will be worded or memorizing random, useless facts because "there's going to be a question on the test like it!". And obviously in these other countries you still have to be accepted into the college, but it'll be easier because you would have a better under standing of the things you've learned for the past 18 years of your life and not just forgetting about it the day after that chapter's test is over. All I'm saying is these education system is messed up, and all it does is add unnecessary anxiety and stress to today's youth.

The Met #8

  Though it's been a few weeks since our trip to The Met I still found it relevant to discuss as a break from the Michael Brown case. I felt too heated last week to discuss our recent trip. Otherwise The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the United States and one of the ten largest in the world; which was very apparent from this extensive view of the art.The Met is located along Manhattan's Museum Mile and notionally one of the best there (from what I've heard as I have not been to all 10 of them).

  It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.Which was was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens."The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people."

   The Met Contains a collection of works from Ancient Egypt, Classical antiquity, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also houses African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art.The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. First hand these items were magnificent and very well kept. I saw many paintings,antiques,furniture and sculptures that looked completely untouched though they stood very close to the masses. Yet on several occasions I heard many securities guards yell at people to stay away from the art.(Including a chaperone who will not be named.) It's great that they set it up in a way that you are so up close and personal with the art.

  It was a very educational field trip with its vast culture and diverse range of art which we thoroughly discussed in class. It further developed the material in class that we were drawing and the works by Van Gogh which we so thoroughly discussed. Speaking of Van Gogh my favorite gallery was from Van Gogh which displayed 17 of his famous works. The seventeen canvases sample a career of which all the phases from “early” to “late” span barely six years. Which included the vase with irises which we drew in class. It was very enlightening seeing theses famous paintings so close up along with many other spectators. It was a great experience besides getting lost a few times but the sheer amount of security guards always keeps you on the right path.

 Some Of My Favorites/Most Relevant Images From The Met:

"They did not listen, they did not know how." Post #6

Don McLean, an American musician known generally for his 1971 hit, "American Pie," wrote another song (among others) that was released on the same album that was entitled, "Vincent." This piece centered on the pain and beauty of Van Gogh's tumultuous life and resulting work. Much of the song revolves around Van Gogh's use of color and imagery in his paintings. Take, for example, this verse:

Starry, starry night

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze

Swirling clouds in violet haze

Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue

Morning fields of amber grain

Weathered faces lined in pain

Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

McLean's gentle, flowing melody and vivid description of Van Gogh's skill and ease with the brush create an image of a pained, deeply saddened man who saw such beauty in a world that offered little to him.

I have known this song for years, yet I never fully grasped the true innovation and artistry of Van Gogh's work until I read a quote from a letter to his brother Theo written on the first or second day of June, 1888, while residing in Saints-Mariés: 

"The Mediterranean has colours of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don't always know if it is green or violet, you can't even say it's blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or grey." 

I recall reading this and suddenly understanding just what Vincent saw: not things, but colors. He would look at the sunset and see yellows, pinks, blues, and greens. He gazed over the earth and saw purples and oranges. He could translate emotion into color, and what makes his work so emotive is that fact itself - people see what they feel when they look at his paintings.

McLean takes a similar approach and turns the emotion of the artist's work into song; you can hear both his appreciation for Van Gogh's paintings and the images themselves speaking out to him when you listen to "Vincent," which I strongly suggest to anyone who may read this.

Racism? BLOG #6

The latest outburst in this country is the shooting of a man name Michael Brown by a police officer, Darren Wilson.  As known racism has always been a problem in America since slavery was abolished, but is racism the answer to everything that happens between two different races?  

As far as I know, Michael Brown robbed a store and Wilson tried to make him stay still.  Brown disrespected the authority and did not listen and forensics files show that Browns DNA was found inside the cop car. " Wilson, who is white, claimed Brown, who is black, tried to grab his gun and that he was forced to shoot the unarmed teen after Brown charged him. Some witnesses claimed Brown had his hands up when he was shot. The shooting ignited controversy and protests across the country and a discussion over race and policing." (nbcnews.com).  It is hard to trust the eye-witnesses because many perceptions are deceived.  Now I personally don't believe that it was necessary to kill Brown.  Was Wilson a racist? Or was it just self-defense?  Wilson also claimed that he was scared at the time.  We will never know if we have the right story but my opinion is that Wilson had to shoot Brown because of his actions toward an authoritative figure.  I don't believe that racism played a role in this.  If someone was coming after your trying to grab your gun.. what would you ?  Yea, maybe Wilson could've shot Brown in the leg to stop his action, but what if he couldn't think straight and needed to stop this kid from killing him?  I guess we will never actually know.

An outburst of riots was a result from this event.  Even the parents of Browns want the riots to stop.  What if a black officer shot and killed a black kid? These riots wouldn't be happening.  Since racism has always been a problem, everyone assumes that everything is based off of racism. But how would we ever know ??????

This event made me think of a similar one that took place in Ohio.  Two white officers killed a man because he had a sword and took it out as if he was going to hurt the officers with it.  There were many different opinions in this event.  The family of the black man are convinced that it was because of racism. 

Personally, I don't know what to think of these situations.  Is racism real or just an excuse?

Blog #5 (Emailed to your because blog didnt work for me but i just got it to work)

The rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor man’s labor, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former; … the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by laboring every day for small wages, to make a few live plentifully.

—Jonathan Swift on British life, in Gulliver’s Travels

                Three years after Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels, he created the Modest Proposal that exceeded 18 pages.  This satire was able to capture voice of a disinterested citizen and the struggles of living in the 1700s in Ireland.  Swifts story vividly describes poverty and the inability to sustain a family with the abundance of children.  He comically suggests that parents should turn their children into cash crops and sell them for meat to the rich.  At this time the English were in control and but obviously there were more Irish then English creating an unstable social class.  The rich saw the poor as a burden and wanted to get rid of them rather than help them. 

                I began to read this story with a very serious approach.  As I got further and further into the story I was rather confused and disturbed as to why Swift suggested eating children.  Learning that Swift was a priest was shocking because I thought that he was insane. I could not possibly believe that any human being would suggest others to eat children in the effort to reduce poverty to improve the economy, (Reminded me of the walking dead).  But after Professor Harris revealed the deeper meaning, Swifts proposal made logic sense in a sick way.  Swift was able to capture the reader’s attention by making up these crazy scenarios but was also able to raise awareness

Darren Wilson Resigned

Darren Wilson, the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in August, has resigned from the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, his attorney, Neil Bruntrager, confirmed to CNN Saturday night.

In a telephone interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wilson said he resigned after the police department told him it received threats of violence if he remained an employee.

"I'm resigning of my own free will," he said. "I'm not willing to let someone else get hurt because of me."

The resignation, which is immediate, comes five days after a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown, 18.

The shooting sparked worldwide protests and the Monday announcement of no indictment triggered another round of demonstrations that continued through the week and into the weekend.

As police and protesters clashed, a contentious national debate on race and law enforcement reopened, with many people complaining that police unfairly target black males. Wilson is white and Brown was black.

Wilson says he's sorry but his conscience is clear

I feel bad for Officer Wilson because he lost a job he loved because people pulled the race card. He was defending himself and now he is being punished for it. He feared for his life and acted as he saw fit. I don't think he should have to resign because of that. 

A Statistical Analysis of Poverty #6

Being that it's Thanksgiving I took plenty of time to think about all the great food I will eat, how great it will be to spend time with my family, and all the nice moments I've cherished from past years. However it also made me think about the flip side of the coin, all those who aren't fortunate enough to partake in the same Thanksgiving experience that I am lucky enough to receive every year.

So, embracing this mindset, I decided to a little research on poverty to get a better understanding of the numbers behind poverty in America. Currently in America, there are 45.3 million people living in poverty according to the U.S Census Bureau. Given the 310 million people living in America, that's roughly 15% of the population surviving in sub-par conditions struggling just to make due. Another frightening statistic is that 20% of children live in food insecure households, meaning that access to adequate food is often limited and sparse.

But what is the point of all these numbers? What do they really mean? Well allow me to put it into perspective, imagine you are sitting in class and your teacher decides to separate you into groups of five to do a worksheet, well as you sit down and get ready to go think about the fact that at least one person in your group is probably living in a food-insecure home. Same goes for everywhere else consider it this way, 1 person in every LAB group, 1 person on every volleyball court, 4 players on the football field, 5 people in all of your classes, 1 home within a 1 house radius of you, all living with the threat of hunger hanging over their heads.

It's not a pleasant thing to think about, but it's a real thing. And no my goal was not to depress you on Thanksgiving, or make you feel guilty for what you have, but to maybe inspire everyone to chip in a little and help out those who are in need. 20% is certainly a scary number but it's still the minority. That leaves 80% of households that are perfectly well off and able to help, the only sad part is that most choose not to. Statistically speaking, if everyone of the those 263.5 million remaining people gave just one supply of food to charity, we would outweigh what is needed to supplement the disparity four fold. So this Thanksgiving, give thanks for what you have, and give help to those who don't.