China's Cram Schools

The article " China's Cram Schools" by Brook Lamer tells us about China's harsh ways of getting into college and how students are desperate to pass China's college entrance exam. This test is called "Gaokao" and is somewhat like the SAT or ACT.  It is different in that it is twice as long and the stakes in China are much higher than the SAT or ACT in the United States. The most important difference is the Gaokao test is the only thing that matters for admission to Chinese universities. I find this to be very unfair that one exam can decide if you are able to go to college and get a good job or if you have to work at factories or in the fields.

            This exam causes so much stress. Students are studying around the clock to decide their future. The article talks a student named Xu and what he does and how he prepares for the test. " [he] fills every spare moment with studying, testing himself between classes, on the toilet, in the cafeteria. After the lights went out at 11:30, he sometimes used a battery-powered lamp to keep going." This shows that this way of studying is very unhealthy. Instead of having a normal high school experience the students in China are spending all their time studying for the Gaokao. The article also says "it stifles creativity and puts excessive pressure on students. Teenage suicide rate tend to rise as the Gaokao nears." This shows that this test must be making students so depressed and unhappy or they just cannot deal with the pressure anymore that some of them kill themselves.

            China puts so much pressure on their students. Many of them spend their whole childhood studying and preparing for exams. One school mentioned in the articles does not even allow dating or electronics. In the article it says "the school prides itself on eliminating the distractions of modern life. Cellphones and laptops are forbidden. The dorms, where about half the students live, have no electrical outlets. Dating is banned. In town, where the rest of the students live, mostly with their mothers in tiny partitioned rooms, the local government has shut down all forms of entertainment. This may be the only town in china with no video arcade, billiards hall, or internet café.” This quote proves that schools and parents in China are making it their goal for students to pass this exam. Every type of amusement is removed to not distract students.

            On the other hand there are around 1.357 billion people in China, which means a great number of students are trying to get into a college. This test is a good way for colleges in China to screen and reduce the number of applicants. The article compares China to the U.S. saying that the number of students taking college entrance tests annually is 3.5 million students taking the SAT and/or the ACT. For China the number of students taking a college Gaokao is 9 million. This shows that there way more students taking a college test in China that in the U.S. Maybe the Gaokao is a good tool that can help weed out the students that are not good enough.

            In conclusion, I still think that the Chinese testing style is a terrible way and students should not have to spend their whole childhood studying for a test and then have that one test decide their future. It does not seem fair that because of one test you either are going make it big or become a worker on a farm or at a factory. I think that it is unfair for China to base students’ future on one test that they spent most of their childhood studying for.

Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, book club

The book Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is famous book that came out in 1864 is a book that tells a story about a young women named Hester. The story behind Hester is that she committed a great sin back in the time it was set for which was she had a baby out of wedlock. This isn't that big of a deal now but back in the seventh century this was considered a great sin and the consequences were big.but no matter how big are they were Hester refused to tell why the actual father was and her consequence for this was that she had to wear the scarlet letter which a "A" that stood for adultery and she had to stand in the town square for everyone to see. But even after all this Hester still has such a strong image and seems to always be looking at the best of these things. In the book Nathaniel Hawthorne gives Hester such a strong image at seems like nothing can take her down.

A few story plots  that support my idea of Hester and how strong of a women she is mentally is. One time  when the towns people of Boston gave her the option of leaving the city or staying she choose to stay which I felt showed that she wasn't scarred of this sin that she had done and the the towns people or nothing like that was going to scare her out the town. I felt that this also showed the strength that most people thought women in the 17 century didn't have, which I thought was really cool the Hawthorne gave her this characteristic. Another sense in the book that I felt Hester was really empowering was in the beginning of the book when Hester walked out of the jail cell. In this sense Hester has to walk out of the jail cell wearing the embroidered A and walk into the town square. But when she comes out of the cell the first thing people notice is how amazing the A is stitched on to the dress. I liked this since because I felt like it showed that Hester was able to turn something that was supposed to be bad and shunning to something people are jealous about because of how well embroidered it is.

I think this connects to teenagers all over the world because this book sends out many lessons like you are always able to to turn the worse into the best and never run away from something that is trying to scare you. I felt like another's message that was in it was that you are strong even if people try to put you down. I thought this connected to teens because it put across messages that sometimes I think teenagers need to hear or just learn so it can help them get through something.

Band Books

Moira Griffin

808

           

Dear Ms. Berner,

I do understand that the school is receiving a lot of emails from parents stating that some of the books held in our library are not appropriate or ideal for their children for different reasons and that they would be happy to see those books taken off the shelves. Some parents may feel that some books may give their children wrong ideas. Even if this might be true, I think it should be up to the students to decide if he or she can handle reading the book.

            Books can have a huge influence on you and some books can change the view on things. This can be good or bad. For many reasons, especially books geared toward teens tend to have a lot of sex, drugs and other form of abuse in them. Even though most young adult books deal with these kinds of topics they also include messages or lessons that not all movies, TV shows or even parents can teach them. For most readers the character comes to life and the reader then connects and often identifies with the character. The reader feels as if he or she is going though this experience just like the character. This offers the young reader to go through this experience in their imagination without the actual danger. The article by David Levithan “Teen fiction plots are darker and starker” says “Teens can explore this fearful things and it makes it approachable to these themes and use them to deal with daily issues.” This quote supports the idea that books let the teen reader explore an issue in a safe and reasonable way without having to go through the real life experience.

Books can also be helpful because it shows that other people (characters) experience these problems. “Yes, teen fiction can be dark but I shows teenagers that they are not alone.”

            “From war on TV and pornography on the Internet the (Judith) Blume brouhaha seems almost quaint,” the article says. I do agree with Levithan, as most books seem harmless compared to the pictures teenagers can easily access on the Internet and on the TV. There is so much more violence, sex, drugs and other unhealthy things on TV or the Internet than in books. I do understand that some parents feel that certain books will influence their children for the worst but taking away a book will not take away the issue in the book. Parents need to understand that it is not their choice but it is up to the students on what they feel they can handle.

On the other hand, some people might argue that parents do have the right to choose what books their children should read. One might say that parents do have a better understanding of what their children are able to handle. One reason why parents may feel they have a better perspective they may have gone though some of the experiences or they know how dangerous or painful some of these topics are.

Levithan say. “Darkness in YA literature is inappropriate and denotes a slipping of moral standards.  This quote supports that some young adult books have turned away from fairytales but now tell more gruesome stories about violence, sex and drugs.

I believe that students in middle school should be able to read what they feel they can handle. Our library should not be affected by what parents think about the books. Parents need to understand that any book is valuable no matter what the topic is. Parents also need to understand that students will not be influenced by the topics that some of the books write about. Connecting to a character in a book is a lot safer than watching TV shows or looking at some inappropriate pictures on the Internet.

I also believe that teachers usually make a good choice in ordering books for the library. They know what students can handle because we talk about books in class.

In conclusion, I think parents should not decide what kind of books we can read. Students are able to make their own choices.