Prose Poem

Prose Poem; Hood N***a

Staking Your Claim

Quick Write

 Within groups I believe that the person having the strongest mindset as in being the most opinionated has the greatest influence on the rest of the members of the group. The reason I say that is because it s my own experience that people are more likely to listen to a person who is or seems more confident in their views than someone who is unsure.

Reflection

   I think my topic is important because people always seem to say "you don't have to conform to society" and yes that is true but I think a lot of people don't understand that there must be some sort of conformity in order to create a society.

Argument Essay Challenge

Quick Write

  Is conformity a building block of society? I do believe so because a society is defined as "an aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community" and a community is defined as "a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common".  So therefore people must have similarities in order to be apart of either.

Conformity In Music

Quick Write

1.  Hip-Hop is one of my favorite genres of music and I do understand why it would be seen as conformist. I believe that in order for people to conform to something it must impact them personally, with music its something almost about everyone listens to. Music is something that we not only listen to but its something we can relate to, especially Hip-Hop and Rap, those are genres that usually talk about things that aren't always appropriate. A lot of music holds subliminal messages just like a lot of other things, in a way most do preach on how to live and maintain a certain type of lifestyle. When it comes to non-conformity Hip-Hop is also seen as a big act and movement of disobedience. People have said that Hip-Hop and Rap incite violence and juvenile behavior amongst young adults, which in retrospective to some it helps us identify ourselves and allows us to find our independent voice. It all comes down to the person who's ears are listening and their mindset because we can all listen to the same thing or see the same things but yet we can all interpret it in different ways.
2.  I can not say that for me there is an absolute favorite type of music because I love a variety of genres. Everything from Pop to Rap, and Rock to House/Dubstep and in between. Genres don't matter to me, lyrics and beats are what's important. I listen to music depending on my mood, I'm not sure that I have a conformist side when it comes to music. Some people only like a certain type of music because they feel that's what is expected of them by others but that does not bother me. People always assume that just because I am a Black female or a Black person in general that I'm expected to like only Hip-Hop, RnB, and Rap. That is ignorance and would be conformist if I didn't listen to what I like but what others expected me too. Music speaks to me as an individual because like I said, we all interpret it In different ways.

     According to Pink Floyds "We Don't Need No Education (Part 2)" The function of schools is to produce obedient children, school is compared to a factory. The meaning of the students being deformed and their faces being indistinguishable is a sign that they all are the same and have no individuality. "Another Brick in the Wall" means they are all the same, Bricks are all made up of the same components and look just alike, there is no way to distinguish one brick from another. The over all message is that education is not needed because the school system is not designed to help children find their individual talents and teachers are not there to help nurture it but to help destroy any sense of individuality that we have. Which is not what is needed or wanted, hence the chorus "we don't need no education...Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!".  It is Ironic that the kids were singing "your just another brick in the wall" and they all looked alike, bland facial expressions and all the same uniforms.

 

•  "Man I promise, I’m so self conscious, That’s why you always see me with at least one of my watches"  
• "Then I spent 400 bucks on this
  Just to be like ***** you ain’t up on this! and I can’t even go to the grocery store
  Without some ones that’s clean and a shirt with a team"
• "I went to Jacob with 25 thou
  Before I had a house and I’d do it again
  Cause I wanna be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz
  I wanna act ballerific like it’s all terrific
  I got a couple past due bills, I won’t get specific
  I got a problem with spending before I get it
  We all self conscious I’m just the first to admit it"

By telling us how important expensive apparel is to him and those watching him, Kanye points out his own conformist thoughts that those are things artist in the music industry are supposed to have and flaunt in order to get recognition. He identifies the White man as his source of insecurities and as all Black peoples source of insecurities which generates his love of materialistic positions. Rita Mae Brown wrote: "The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself", Kanye says "It seems we living the American dream But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem" "Things we buy to cover up what’s inside cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth" which shows that he agrees that when you conform everyone else may like you but you wont like yourself.  Conspicuous consumption is similar to conformity because it is defined as the use of  wealth and material positions to publicly display economic power.



 

                

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Quick Write
  
   “Historically, the most terrible things--war, genocide, and slavery--have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience."

                                                  -Howard Zinn

 Howard Zinn was basically stating that the majority of terrible things that have happened were because people where told to do so or people conformed to what was happening around them even when they knew it was wrong. I do agree with his statement because that is the world we live in, people idolize and follow things they never fully understand. A lot of people go to war or help commit sins such as genocide or slavery thinking they are fighting for a better cause and sometimes in war that is true but in reality nothing justifies taking a life or degrading a human to cruel and injustice punishment.

Reflection 

 The Stanford Prison Experiment was created in order to study conformity and test if the brutality of guards that is usually reported  towards inmates are due to sadistic personalities or have more to do with the environment. When students who were chosen after being psychologically evaluated were placed into their roles (Guard or Prisoner), shortly after they began to settle into their roles. Guards became more aggressive and prisoners became more submissive. Those who were evaluated without any psychological problems ( Prisoners) began to develop them and behavioral problems as well, almost developing deep depression they had to be released from the experiment. It was concluded that people will conform to the social roles that they are expected to play, especially if the roles are strongly stereotyped like those of major authority figures such as guards. Therefore, the roles people play can not only shape their attitudes but their behavior as well.

Introducing The Bystander Effect

At 1:00 a.m. outside a tavern several men are arguing. Two of the men are shouting loudly at a third man who appears to be backing away from them. The two men move toward the lone man and start waving their arms as he backs up against a wall. A group of people exiting the bar notice the situation.

In my opinion amongst the group of people exiting the bar that notice the situation, from a rating of 1-5 with 1 being very likely and 5 being very unlikely I would rate the chance of an onlooker intervening a 4. The Bystander Effect states that when a person is amongst a group of people, their less likely to not act in the face of an emergency if no one else acts.

5 Factors that would influence an onlooker to help.

• If the situation involves them or someone they care for.
• If there seems to be no sign of danger if they intervene.
• There personality, wether they're someone who willingly helps others or not.
• If they think they can make the situation better.
• The duration of the situation, sometimes if a situation is prolonged and an onlooker is there from the beginning they get tired of just watching and intervene with hopes of finally putting an end to the situation.

5 Factors that would influence an onlooker to NOT help.

• If the situation seems dangerous. A lot of people tend not to help because they believe that their safety would be endangered.
• The thought that someone else will intervene so they don't have to.
• If they are amongst a group of people and the group chooses not to acknowledge the situation.
• Fear of being publicly embarrassed while trying to help someone else.
• Not knowing what to do in order to produce a positive result in the situation.

Final Reflection
 The Bystander Effect, also known as the "Genovese Syndrome" is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when others are present.

I-Search Project

I-Search Project: Dyslexia

Strengths and Weaknesses

 While analyzing my progress report I realized I had many weaknesses in each three areas (Participation, class work, homework and projects). My main weakness is my attendance, because I rarely come to class I can not gain participation points. Also, when I don't come to class I don't take the initiative to make sure I do my work at home. That is another weakness that ties into my class work, my homework, and projects. A strength I know I have is that I am Capable of doing all the work if I choose to show up to school on time and be in class. In order to take charge f my education from today on I will be going to sleep earlier so I can come to school on time and get my participation points.

Introduction Into a New Semester

  I started my new semester today, later than most i must say, kind of disappointing but i have no one else to blame but myself. We've been through this already but just in case you don't remember me or your new to my blog, my name is Stephanie. Eighteen year old New York City bound young lady, soon to be college student in January (Hopefully).  This course is not new to me seeing that I failed it last semester *sigh* but here's to my current and hopefully my last time in this class. Its ironic that I failed this class and English is my favorite subject. Well this new semester I vowed to myself that I would pass all my classes and get my High School Diploma by January.  We will be focusing on Neuroscience and the Teenage brain so yeah, I'm excited to see what this course will offer me this semester. What do you think is the most interesting part of the brain?

True Grit

Failure is not something i handle well but i don't let that knock me down. Failure should drive you!
Grit is passion.
Grit is living life as it is a Marathon, NOT a sprint.
The Growth Mindset is the ability to learn that you can change with your effort.

1. Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't change very much.
-Disagree

2. You can learn new things, but you can't really change how intelligent you are.
-Disagree

3. No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.
-Agree

4. You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.
-Agree

After viewing a video that talked about Grit I realized that I didn't have a lot of it, it is something I must work on because Grit is the key to a successful life. Talent does not determine the amount of Grit that you have, you must be willing to fail and knowing failure is not a permanent situation. Grit can be developed. How do YOU respond to failure? 

Argument Essay

                                                                     Quick Write      
Based on my research and yesterdays debate my opinion on selective schools have not changed much, I still hold a neutral standpoint but I am edging towards a disagreement that "smart" kids should have their own schools.

                                                                           Task 
I've decided after "sitting on the fence" for a while on the selective schools issue that I would be taking a disagreement stance.  Even though I do also believe that there should be selective schooling because I am a realist and that is something about me that at times I wish I could put aside. When it comes to issues that can be well debated such as this topic I always stay neutral because Its hard for me to take a side. I can always see the good and bad aspects of things.

Life is hard, we all know that but lets just think about what it is that makes this life worth living.  What is it that makes our life worth living for? Who are you living for is it your kids? your mother and father? The love of your life? When I think of life I just remind myself that the reason I am still living I because I have a mission on earth that I have to complete.  What makes life worth living for me is the fact that if I work really hard and go to college, go to Medical school, succeed, and become a Surgeon I can finally be able to live the life I've envision for myself and my family. There are endless wonders awaiting in my future. After watching the Video on Locked-In Syndrome I asked myself two questions: 1) How can people live like that? and 2) How having a fixed and growth mindset affect the views of people with Locked-In Syndrome? the thought of living without my body made me depressed. So lets just think about life and what is it we are truly living for.

Selective Schools or Not?

                                                                     Quick Write
I was asked if I thought smart kids should get their own classes like the kids in Stuyvesant or Bronx Science and personally I say "No" because it can just make other students feel less intelligent but then again I feel that classes should be separate but both should give challenging work. Put yourself in the shoes of a "Smart kid" how would you feel if you had classes with a "not so smart kid"? would you feel not so smart or would you feel superior in intellect? Now put yourself in the shoes of a "Not so smart kid", how would you feel being in a class with a "Smart kid"? would you feel inferior or would it motivate you to work hard and become one of those "Smart kids"? some may even say that tracking in education really has nothing to do with intelligence but rather race.

"On the surface, whether to group by ability is a debate about best practices in education. But in practice, the discussion inevitably revolves around race and equality. This is because, predominantly, the students in low-track classes are minorities and low-income." This came from the National Journal

                                                                         Summary

   We basically discussed if there should be selective schools, what kind of impact would they have on "smart" kids and "not so smart" kids with growth and fixed mindsets.                                                                            

Identifying Claims

                                                                    Quick Write
What in your mind is the best Invention ever created? I don't know if you can say that music was invented but if you could say so then i believe that music was the best invention known to mankind.  I say this because music is one of the best ways for one to help identify his or hers own feelings, melodic tones and lyrics can be used to better express ourselves.

                                                         Summary of Today's Lesson
Reading "The Truth About Ability And Accomplishment", Chapter Three of The Mindsets, Doctor Carol S. Dweck  talks about achievements, why some people achieve more and others less, and how the growth mindset ties into it.  One of the interesting claims that was made was that kids with fixed mindsets, when entering Junior High showed a decline in school opposed to kids with growth mindsets who achieved more. She compared kids with growth mindsets to Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, Mozart, and George Dantzig, a graduate student from Berkeley.  All who's curiosity drove them to work hard and achieve even more.

Why don't people trust their own judgement?

Someone asked "Why don't people trust their own judgments?" Well my answer to that is, why should we? nothing is guaranteed. Nobody can be right 100% of the time. I believe that our own experiences shape our judgements. What we face or go through and how we handle those things are a part of how we perceive things. A person who faces harder times feels the world is always against him/ her, their mindset will most likely change from growth to fixed. I mean if you feel nothing good ever happens in or comes out of your life than why would you trust what you think when you cant even believe in a better situation for yourself, Right?...
After reading the article, my opinion did not change much but only got stronger. I still believe we can change how we are even though there are certain aspects that we cannot change but if we try and motivate ourselves to do better than we can still succeed. Maybe we will not reach our specific goals but we might even accomplish something more and gain recognition from people we never even expected.

Just A Begining

My name is Stephanie I am A seventeen year Old High School student, living in New York City.  I'm og Nigeria Origins,   I've been living here since I was very young.  I was recently challenged to make a Blog in my English class in where I report on my lessons.  Hopefully i can learn many new things, advancing in challenging one's critical thinking, and becoming a better writer.