I slowly make my way to my first period English class while eager underclassmen run past in fear of hearing the late bell before they are safely seated in class. Why do I rebel against the music that plays on the loud speaker and take my time? Because I am a senior. In approximately one month I will wear a white gown and shake Principal Matthew Welker’s hand as I retrieve my diploma. I know I will pass all of my classes and I have already been admitted to college. At this point in the year I lack the motivation to bring my C average up to a B. So why am I forced to be an active member of a discussion on Hamlet? Why must I drag myself up to the dry-erase board and calculate an integral? I am a senior and I have a terrible case of senioritis. My teachers should accept that and allow me to sit silently in my seat as an innocent bystander, not an active contributor. I am not the first senior to become lazy and burnt-out by the school system and monotony of the school week. My teachers should be used to this behavior and instead of getting frustrated and angry with me, they should just accept it. I am a senior! Get over it!
While schools in Asian cultures such as Japan focus on the group rather than the individual, the sound of a normal American is all about Me!Me!Me!
Schools here in the states are based on grades, a 4 point scale from an A to F letter grade. I believe school should be based more on education through experience.
We waste millions of dollars on textbooks, materials, and the works but what is that really doing? Florida still has a high school drop out rate of 50 percent. We should travel to Macchu Picu to actually see history first hand or apply math in the real world.
For a student to want to learn about the derivative of a number takes patience, but through engineering it would actually make sense.
Appealing to students strengths is another thing, if you are majoring in fitness there is no reason to be taking a high level math class that you struggle in.
America has fell in education as Harvard is even offering a free Ph.D to fix the crisis.
“The greatest gift you can have is education,” English teacher Michael Kelly said.
With tests, friends and the not-so occasional party, reading is hardly at the top of any high-schooler’s to do list. Flipping through a couple hundred pages of some dead guy’s archaic prose, after all, isn’t necessarily what most of us want to do after a long day at school. This blog is dedicated to finding those great (and short) pearls of wisdom buried in all those pages. Literature is composed of philosophies and ideas we can all use to get through our day-to-day lives. For the first entry, we look to Rudyard Kipling. Born in 1865 and winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature, Kipling offers inspirational “instructions” in the following poem, entitled “If.” Call me crazy, but when I read this, I printed it out and stuck it in my binder. Here it is:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
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Posted on February 27th, 2010 by Anthony Cave in
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Your blood pumps furiously through your veins five minutes before third period ends. Your handwriting reaches incomprehensibility more with every word you write. The bell rings and you write the last word of an essay that was assigned by your fifth period teacher last Monday.
Procrastination is a terrorist that we ourselves allow into our homes. We give it food and drink, we treat it as a guest, and we make a bed for it that is never far from our own.
If we realize that procrastination brings us nothing but tribulations, why do we allow it? Why do we permit the existence of such a disgusting monster to inhabit our lives?
The truth is, we love procrastination. It is a luxury we have come to want and need in our lives. It is a wall we lean on that has overcome us and engulfed us. Indeed, when we let go and give procrastination control over our lives, we become part of this horrid wall.
So, like any other addiction, when we want to let go of procrastination, when we want to come out of the wall, we can’t. We’re stuck watching others live their lives, ignoring the wall. We’re stuck watching the wall trick a few others into helping it grow. We’re simply stuck.
So we do we do? Is it the end? Are we destined to spend the rest of our lives suffering as helpless victims of procrastination?
Only you can take the first step in ridding yourself of this horror. No one can help you. No one can save you from the thorns of procrastination. Only you can.
You can’t take the time procrastination stole from you back. But you can prevent it from taking any more of your time. Time is precious and it is the worst thing anything can steal from you. So destroy that monster, for you are the only one who can give it life. Remind yourself that you gave procrastination its power and you can take it away.
Remember, when banishing this evil fiend, don’t procrastinate. You’d only be giving it strength.
- Rayssa Gomes
Mark McGwire’s admission to steroid use throughout his career did not come as a shock. Suspicion has surrounded the once single-season home run king this past decade. However despite numerous reports and accusations, McGwire repeatedly denied having ever used performance-enhancing drugs even swearing under oath before congress in 2005. With “Big Mac” reentering the game as the Cardinals hitting coach this year it seems appropriate that he come clean about his use of steroids and I commend him for doing so. However, in his statement to the Associated Press on Jan 11, McGwire argued that he used the drugs solely to recover from injuries, that they did not enhance his abilities on the field at all. Come On! There is no one on the face of the earth who could be gullible or naïve enough to believe that a decade of steroid use contributed nothing to a 70 home run record-breaking season (at the time) in 1998. The most important thing to do for all those who cheated during this period is be honest so that we can all achieve closure and move on from what will always be remembered as a dark time for baseball. But don’t give us half-truths or deny the intent of your actions. In the end even if he admits to having used drugs he’s still lying to us and to himself if he honestly believes that steroids gave him no advantage over the competition for all those years. In the end, his reputation will never be the same anyway so he might as well be entirely truthful and say “I used these drugs at a time when everyone else was, I fell into the same trap because I didn’t want to fall behind in the level of competition.” Either way no player from this era is ever going to be looked upon the same way we look at Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron or any other true hall of fame players; because they not only tainted themselves, but an entire generation of Major League Baseball. Mark McGwire needs to set the standard once and for all so that we may all finally be able to move on.
They say be careful what you wish for and now I know why, the current weather in Miami is getting a bit out of control, and my laundry basket increases with all the layers of clothes that I am forced to use.
I can understand why we were all happy at first, we could finally use our cute winter clothes and boots that were buried inside our closets. My first reaction of the cold wind on my face was a smile, and I cuddled my self with my sweat pants tucked into my boots and a big jacket that warmed my arms. Yet after a time, you start missing the bathing suits, shorts and flip flops that represents the common Miami fashion. During this month the temperature has been as low as 33 degrees and my big jacket and sweat pants just don’t do the job anymore. My attempts to be warm do not longer happen because no matter what I wear I’m still freezing.
I touch the window each morning before going to school in hope that my past wish has been taken back, and that Miami has gone back to becoming “the sunshine state.”
By: Jessica Adam
As much as we might hate to admit, American Idol wouldn’t be where it is today without the snippy remarks of its judge, Simon Cowell. So I feel safe in saying that Cowell will be missed by many if he decides to leave American Idol after his five year contract ends with Fox in 2010.
The British bombshell, as I like to call him, has been a judge on the hit show since its premiere in 2002. Now, eight years later, he is the creator and producer of Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor. This leaves little room for his work in America and since his other two shows are in Britain it only makes since to drop American Idol right?
The answer varies throughout the public. Some feel that he is betraying America after it gave him his start on television, I on the other hand believe that maybe Simon Cowell is beyond American Idol now and should move on to bigger and better things. There’s no need to be held back when you have a great opportunity to be even more successful. Yes, I do think he has some obligation to America but wasn’t that fulfilled after judging eight seasons of the show? Besides, I think American Idol is getting a little old and needs to retire sometime soon or find something new to entice viewers. If not, I predict American Idol will be loosing popularity especially if Cowell decides to leave.
So what now? What is the future of American Idol without one of its star judges? Only time will tell if the show will continue to be a success or die out. Needless to say American Idol had its rein for almost a decade, maybe its time to past the torch and move to the next big thing.
In the infamous words of Simon Cowell this could be an “absolutely dreadful!” end to American Idol.
Staff Writer: Ariana Rogers
What does it take to be really considered a friend, best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend; it’s easier said then done. Each category can be defined differently based on what each person thinks it takes to become one but before you start considering who goes under what, think twice. The friends, best friends, girlfriend or boyfriend you had in elementary, junior high and high school are probably not the same ones that you have now. It’s upsetting sometimes when memories come to you and you just can’t understand what happened. The problem is that we easy label people in each category without actually knowing the person completely and wanting the happiness of that person sincerely. It’s hard to actually to achieve one or the other that’s why our life circles change as we age. The best thing that can be done before considering who goes where is to see how open, comfortable, willing, trustworthy, loving, forgiving, and forgetful that person can be to you.
