Fable For Young People

For the third and last action project of my STEAM class, Systems & Models, we were asked to analyze a particular part of our school while having full creative control. The particular parts of the school have to relatively specific. I chose interpersonal relationships. This entails the relationships between students of different ages and cohorts within the school. I also had to interview 4 people from within the school to get a better perspective than just my own. We were asked to connect our findings to the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) chart. We were also asked to relate our findings to Maslow's Hierarchy and our research on I-O psychology. I had difficulties following the rubric while completing the project, but this project allowed me to write, which is one of my favorite things to do. I wrote a fable type of story for you all. It is about a teenage boy and his little sister. Enjoy!

"Bro & Sis" Web. 26 Feb, 2017.

This is my fable, “The Divide.” The story is represented in the quoted bold text and annotated in the regular text. I hope you enjoy reading it!

“There’s this beautiful thing called ‘divide.’ This is the same divide you have with your younger siblings. How beautiful is ‘divide?’ Or does divide have this negative connotation that everyone generally gives it? If you ask me, divide is a way to separate yourself, and sometimes you have to. The real question is, when does divide become a liability? This story about Jonathan and his sister Joanne will entail the story of ‘The Divide.’”

I chose to write a fable type of story as a creative way of depicting the social divide in my school’s cohorts. The underclassmen and upperclassmen don’t have much of an understanding. It seems as if the underclassmen want to have more fun, and the upperclassmen are used to the freedom that the underclassmen seem to be new to. I will be trying to depict this by the big brother Jonathan, being the upperclassman, and the little sister Joanne, being the underclassman.

“Jonathan was having a rough day. Honestly, it was just a regular day in the Harden household. Joanne is in her room, on the phone screaming irregularly. It would be ideal to check on someone screaming like that, but it was normal in the Harden household. Jonathan, at 17 years old wasn’t having it! He stormed into Joanne’s room with fire in his eyes! Before anything came out of his mouth, a pillow was thrown at his face as his 15 year old sister yelled, ‘get out!’ Jonathan responded, ‘I’ll get out if you please shut-up.’ Joanne teased, ‘I’m telling mom you told me to shut-up!’ ‘Whatever, just be quiet!’ Jonathan said while leaving Joanne’s room.

As you can see, there's room for improvement. Let's analyze the SWOT of this brother and sister's relationship. A strength that I see here is that they obviously have some type of connection or understanding which can be related to the relationship between the cohorts in my school. This is a nice transition to the weaknesses that we witnessed in their relationship. Like the cohorts in my school, these two seem to have different interests and wants/needs. I asked a senior at my school, VG, how he thought the general relationship between the upper and underclassmen was, he responded: "the larger the grade gap, the less friendliness displayed." I asked the same question to a freshman at my school, ZG, and he responded that the relationship between them was, "decent, but it could be better." He claimed "the freshmen are misguided and the seniors can help in certain ways." Although ZG is a freshman, he seems to not be a negative factor in the problem between the cohorts.

"Jonathan knew that Joanne was relatively tolerable some times. Maybe she wasn't too bad. It would be kind of boring without her around the house. He whispered playfully under his breath, 'I'll get her back. She wants to be annoying, I'll show her annoying!' Jonathan planned on playing his music louder than hers. He wanted to play his music so loud that Joanne couldn't even hear herself speaking on the phone."

There's obviously opportunity for their relationship strengthen. I asked a teacher, how she felt the upper and underclassmen's relationship was and she said she thought that "everyone gets along well." She said she thought that, "the freshmen as a group get scapegoated for a lot of stuff, but individually, I think everyone treats each other fairly for the most part." She has a point. The freshmen specifically are blamed for their energy which is commonly looked down upon because the seniors don't share the same energy. As the cohorts in my school do, Jonathan and Joanne need to find somethings mutual. How can they find a way to compromise; to look past age? It's all about systems thinking, and making all pieces of the puzzle come together. I asked the counselor in my school if she believed that there was a "divide" in the school she responded: "I don't know if I would call it a divide, maybe a bit of a misunderstanding between the age groups." This misunderstanding represents the gap in maturity and motive.

"What Jonathan didn't anticipate was, him playing one of Joanne's favorite songs. Jonathan had a maniacal look in his face. He was going to get his sister back! Twenty seconds had passed and Joanne bust through the door singing! 'DON'T YOU OPEN UP THAT WINDOW, DON'T YOU LET OUT THAT ANTIDOTE! Jon this is like my favorite song!' Jonathan's plans were soiled. He tried to find it in himself to be angry, but he realized that Joanne wasn't so bad. The hard part is finding something mutual between the two. Music is just one of the things that they have in common. Jon jokingly responded, 'Haha, I forgot. You know, sometimes you're not too terrible.' After briefly laughing, Joanne replied, 'Yea, you're not that horrible of a brother. I just hope we can keep the house to ourselves. It would be a catastrophe if I had to share my room if mom and dad had another child.' Jon's face showed some uncertainty. He responded, 'I'm leaving next year, so if that was to happen, you could just take my room.' Joanne smiled."

The threat in this case is a newborn child. Relating back to my school, the threat of this situation would be new students. Once the upper and underclassmen come to an understanding, these new students or newborn child will alter the relationship that was once formed. There doesn't have to be this idea of Six Sigma. There doesn't have to be a perfect relationship, but there does have to be a mutual relationship. They have to relate to each other. Within I-O Psychology, there's this idea that innovation drives our economy. I believe this to be true because innovation means interaction and collaboration. Interaction prospers through social skills. Social skills are needed in order for there to be order.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is important to understand in this situation. Esteem on the hierarchy is very important to both the seniors and underclassmen. They want to graduate, and the underclassmen want to be "cool." Seniors really only need water and food, but underclassmen need satisfaction of classmates. There's this sense of self-actualization, and how you want to be viewed. Maturity goes hand-in-hand with self-achievement. This is an interesting way to put it into perspective for you.

THE END

References:
ZG. Student, Interview.
VG. Student, Interview.
Sharon. Teacher, Interview.
Jessica. Teacher, Interview.

"SIOP" SIOP.org. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Are You Racist? Don't Answer That Question!

For the second action project of my STEAM course, Systems & Models, we were asked to conduct a social experiment. As the first unit of this course talked about who "you" are. This unit talked about learning who the people are around you. This class is very amazing in building your social analyzation. I tried to really demonstrate this concern for "those around me," by conducting an experiment that would highlight the systematic racism in the environment I stay around. My idea was to grab one of my white friends and then we both asked for money outside the subway station. The results were quite interesting. This project was amazing and right up my alley as well. This project was difficult at the same time, as I did have to create a very detailed lab report. Thank you for viewing my social experiment and enjoy!

Do You See Numbers?

For the first action project of my Winter Term, in my STEAM class, System & Models, we were asked to create a visual art piece of our choice. The art piece had to be backed with a strong artist statement. There was plenty of different points we had to hit and research we had to do. That includes all the personality tests that we had to take. I chose Myers-Briggs and the DISC tests to help you understand my piece! I relay loved this project. Even though I'm not a fan of visual art, and that's not what I do, I truly do respect the visual arts a lot. The influence visual art has in the world is obviously apparent. I'm a wordsmith, which is my forte of art. As you probably can tell, I had some difficulties with the artistic vision, but I took another approach. Please view my action project below!

DNR. “Numbers” 2017. Chicago

My piece, "Numbers," is made up of ink pen on 9.75 x 7.50 sized composition notebook paper. I try to visually represent myself through numbers. The 89 and 44 represent the streets I grew up on. 9-5 crossed out represents my love for self-management. This also represents my past, present, and I hope the near future.The feelings of "doing for yourself," has always made me feel good. There’s this hidden connection to currency.

In class, we were asked to take several different personality tests. The most important tests that I took were the Myers-Briggs test and Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance (DISC) test. The Myers-Briggs is a large database of results where they give you a series of questions and then give you a 4 letter combination in which they show you what type of person you are pertaining to the answers you submitted on the test. I got ESFP. Creepy enough, after reading all of the different types of people, I actually chose ESFP. ESFP is the "entertainer." Often the person who is bold and observant, but easily-bored and unfocused as well. I find myself being more connected to these characteristics then I thought. The DISC test is a unique test that tells you something about yourself by using 4 different pathways and splitting you up into them. My top two "pathways" were Influence and Dominance as I expected. Influence is my number one pathway because I feel like I really do fear losing influence. When people look at my art, they don't necessarily have to approve of it, but I do want them to receive and perceive it.

I once saw this bike experiment that I felt like challenged the norm. They took different looking people and made them do the same thing. There was a white woman, a black man, a white man, etc. They all tried to saw off the chain of a bike and let all of the people walking around react to it. The results were a bit displeasing. This really spoke to me because it showcases the sexism and racism that we all seem to witness every day. This project was also really important to me because it did challenge the norm and that was really my objective in creating my art piece.

The purpose of my piece is to inspire you to think entirely out of the box. Think out of the universe. The more original ideas, the more we progress towards a better existence. I want to say that the rubric is never said in stone. You can still “follow the rubric,” but you are set apart by the uniqueness of your creation. I also try to get across feelings of perception. The way I perceive my art is unimportant, but if anyone shares my perception then they will truly appreciate it, but the thought counts. I see this as an opportunity for people to take my art as their own.

I interviewed an artist that works at my school. Ms.Dianne. She creates human sized art through her own imagination. Her art is really amazing, to say the least. She uses rather inexpensive materials and creates rather expensive works of art. She said to me, "Viewers are given facts about me, the artist and my process and then they compare it with their views and have a more intimate understanding of my art." This statement kind of describes the type of reaction I want from people who see my art. I want people to perceive their own meaning.

The start of my drawing was kind of hard. I just started ripping through draft paper. Soon, I realized all I had to do was just stop trying to be the visual artist that I'm not. I decided to let my mind think for me. The roughness of the artistry is intentional to signify my lack of orderliness and focus. I started with simple numbers. I started to write down numbers that I felt were most important to me. My first number was "89."  The 89 represents the street I grew up on. 89th street made me who I am today. My second numbers were "9-5" which describe my aspirations for having a successful career. "9-5" is the typical "job hours." I express my loathness for this by crossing it out. The next number, "45" is another street I grew up on. It also happens to be the street of my grammar school. I also enjoy music and basketball. Those are represented by "23" and the music notes. "23" is representative of the best basketball player of all-time, Michael Jordan.

The idea came pretty easy to me. Conceptually, I really already knew what I wanted to do. Delivering my piece was something that I had to think about for days. After a lot of thinking, I decided to let my imagination take over while keeping in mind who I am as a person and what the tests told me as well.

Citations:
"DiSC Profile - DiSC Influence (i)." DiSCProfile.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2017.
"Entertainer Strengths & Weaknesses." 16personalities.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.

Stand Up Video Game Activists!

In the third and final Action Project for my Winter Term, my Humanities teacher asked me to create a fairly balanced argument of our choice. The point of choosing the argument was to look at it from the opposing point of view and not just focus on the logic in our own. Looking at the argument from an opposing point of view allows you to be at peace with both sides, while filling in the flaws and loop-holes of your own argument. The main thing we tried to achieve throughout this project was to synthesize and create a new agreement for the better; this was about as difficult as it was fun. Throughout my last two Humanities projects, I have been able to speak my mind and I am being taught different ways to do so. I find it awesome that our school is allowing us to change our community for the better, extremely cool!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Thesis: Video Games are quite amazing in my eyes. There’s an onslaught of negative judgment against them, but I would like to propose that we give video games a chance. Video games have been quite a positive outlet in my life. Games allow time away from stress and everything else in the world that might alter your attitude negatively.

Support 1:

"In most video games people grab a controller and watch the screen, and act as fast as they possibly can according to what is happening on the screen. This helps people improve coordination, it improves dexterity, and in some cases, it even improves reflexes." - OCCUPYTHEORY. 17 January, 2015

Support 2:
"A lot of video games require the player to go through a determined puzzle to advance in the storyline or to get to the next phase of the game. This helps the development of problem solving abilities and logical thinking, which can be used in real life." - OCCUPYTHEORY. 17 January, 2015

Support 3:
"Multiplayer video games improve teamwork, cooperation, and in some cases are a great way for social interaction. While players need to work cooperatively and act as a team to win the game, they need to communicate with each other in order to achieve success. This type of teamwork can be used in real life to improve team activities and possibly facilitate employment." - OCCUPYTHEORY. 17 January, 2015

Antithesis: Video games are addictive and promote violence, poor health, and less physical activity. Video games corrupt the summer breaks, winter breaks, and spring breaks. Games have become a poison to the academic world. which leads to less performance in class and in overall mental ability. Jack Thompson is an American activist against video games. He stated once: "Many parents think that stores won’t sell an M-rated game to someone under 17. We know that's not true, and, in fact, kids roughly 50 percent of that time, all the studies show, are able to walk into any store and get any game regardless of the rating, no questions asked." This is a problem because although there can be an acceptance of violent games, that acceptance is if there's a limitation on the ages that are playing those games. If video game distributors aren't following this rule, then under-aged children will be exposed to violent content.

With every argument, there are questions. When there are questions in an argument, generally they come from both sides. Here is a simulation of a Q&A that I created between the opposing view points:

Questions for my side: Would you want your children playing games, endorsing killing and theft?
Answer: In all honesty, my children will be allowed to play any game they want by the age of 14. Obviously I'm not a father, but children are raised how you raise them. If your children will be influenced by video games and aren't mature enough for mature content, who's fault is that? The parent/guardian in that household.

Questions for opposing side: Would you rather our children be out on the streets with our free time?
Answer: Children are influenced by their household guardian as well in this situation and if your child is in the streets, maybe that's what he sees around him.

There's one golden question though. What can both sides agree on? Well this is how I synthesized the argument between both sides:

• Games are a worldwide phenomenon and our youth can be encouraged through other ways, not to resort to violence or profane behavior. Youth are motivated by the people in their household more than anyone or anything else. It’s almost unrealistic to take away all video games from children and teenagers across the world. We can continue to do what we can to motivate our youth to bring positive effects to our world.
• Knowledge is power and video games are expressive of expanding your mind. Whenever a video game is played, you learn something you didn’t know before, whether it’s the name of a defensive formation in basketball or a strategic plan to take down the Prime Minister. We can agree that video games can be quite informative.

Synthesis: Seeing as we can all agree on something, we should plan to move forward from this. By putting more limitations and restrictions on age, we can allow the playing of mature games. Maybe instead of ridding teenagers of video games that they love and video games that keep them from getting into trouble, we can teach them how to limit themselves and be good role models in their households. 

Below is a visual representation of my project:

Works Cited:

YouTube. SourceFed "7 Health Benefits Of Video Games," 11 March. 2013. Web. 14 March. 2016.

YouTube. AllTime 10s "10 Surprising Health Benefits Of Playing Video Games," 14 November. 2012. Web. 14 March. 2016.

OCCUPYTHEORY "Video Games Pros And Cons List," 17 January. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

ProCon "Do Violent Video Games Contribute To Youth Violence," 23 September. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

Penn State University. Qian Chen “Video Games: Cause or Cure For ADHD,” 23 October. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

ZME SCIENCE. TIBI PUIU “Do Violent Video Games Really Make Children More Aggressive,” 19 August. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

Wikipedia “Jack Thompson (activist),” N.D. Web. 14 March. 2016.

My Amendment

For the second action project of my Winter Term course, Argument we very thoroughly discussed how our history used valid argument to get their point across more effectively. More specifically, we dove deeper into the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. We also discussed different forms and techniques of argument or fallacies, such as: Ad Hominem (addressing your dislike for the presenter of an argument, opposed to the argument itself), etc. Along with our studies regarding the U.S. Constitution, we also reviewed the amendments created in that document. You guessed it, our assignment was to review our school's Code of Conduct and choose a section in which we wanted to justify or "amend." Now this project was a problem for me at the beginning, as I found close to nothing wrong with the Code of Conduct. Fortunately, a couple hours past and I remembered that a younger student from my school suffered from a bad illness which then restricted him from being at school for a very long month and a half or so. This struck my mind when he told me that he had to drop one of his courses because the workload was petrifying. Below I will explain why I believe there should be some justification in these situations.

Her Campus. "The Busy Work Assigner," Web. 03/08/16

The Code of Conduct addresses truancy in at least 2 key places. First, it is defined as:

...tardiness or absence (s) without a valid excuse. A student out of school without a valid excuse is considered truant. Truant students must arrange with their teachers to make up missed work. Parents will be notified of unexcused tardiness or absence.

Later in the Attendance Procedures section of the CoC, the details about truancy are expressed in this way:

A parent or guardian is expected to communicate an absence with GCE Lab School as soon as possible when a student is going to be absent. Students are expected to contact their teachers as soon as they are able to address next steps for makeup work.

If a student is absent for more than 20% of classes during a term, the student and family will meet with the Disciplinary Council to address appropriate school placement and support systems.

Tardies

If a student acquires 4 tardies in a two week period, they will be expected to meet with the Disciplinary Council to create an action plan for improving their timeliness. The Co-Curricular Coordinator will communicate with students and families every two weeks regarding tardies.

A student will be considered absent from a class if they miss more than 25% of a class on a given day.

In either case of a tardy or an absence, it is the responsibility of the student to reach out to each of the instructors to figure out a way to complete/make up missing work.
______________________________________________________________________________

I chose to amend this section of the CoC simply because there’s not always a clear understanding on the part of the school of why students are absent. I argue that the school uses the term “unexcused absence” too loosely. There’s no say in who decides if an absence is unexcused. This rule is a bit corrupt, as it promotes students working in a non-working state. In other words, if the student is unable to complete work for whatever reason, there should be a compromise.

Simply put, the attendance rules section of the CoC has a clear argument, which is formally recorded below:

P1: Students are subject to illness at pretty much anytime.

P2: Students are expected to attend school whenever it is in session.

P3: Students are expected to complete each day's assignments and homework.

C: Students who are absent are 100% responsible for making up the work they missed.

My interpretation of the CoC’s argument on this topic is that natural and unnatural illness has a mind of its own, so according to the duration of time a student is not in school, I think we should be assigned work, justice. There should be a feasible workload for the students who suffer from illness!

I propose to amend this section of the CoC through a different syllogism:

P1: Students might get sick, temporarily physically impaired, etc…

P2: Students are not to blame for their illness.

P3: Students are responsible for their daily schoolwork, including homework assignments.

C: Students should, according to the amount of time they miss, communicate with Eric (the Director) and their teachers to obtain the necessary information to complete a REALISTIC amount of work to keep up with their peers and course content. This entails that the amount of work assigned to that student be realistic for him to complete in a feasible time period.

To spice it up for you guys, I would like to represent my argument with an interesting analogy. Imagine you lay down your laptop on a glass table, then go to the restroom. Upon going to the restroom, that glass collapses, along with your laptop. You pray to whoever that your laptop is still in top-notch shape, but frankly, it’s not. Now, it wasn’t your fault, but you still have to deal with the situation because it happened. It’s just reality, a reality that should, however, be adjusted for those too young to remedy the crisis 100%.

This revised version of the section I chose will change things at our school for the better. If it be extremely necessary, students should be excused from work and “truancy.” Not everything is excusable, but excuses are necessary sometimes. know a student who was out for approximately 2 months and he legitimately dropped a whole course! This student is a freshman and he already has to make up an entire course. That is definitely cruel and unusual! I propose a medicine for this.

In a larger legislative context, my new amendment is connected to the 8th amendment 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which focuses on citizens rights to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment. Is it not extreme for a freshman to have to drop a course because he was sick for an amount of time that was not in his power to change? Sure, my proposal isn’t as serious as the Constitutional amendment itself, but who’s to say it’s not unjust or unusual punishment? As it is a school rule affecting all students that is still far from fair.

The impact of this revision will be nothing but positive for the community. I would say that based upon the motive behind my amendment proposal, my argument will benefit all of the “citizens” of my school and help protect them from excessive punishment in situations beyond their control.

An actual student, MO, inspired me to address the attendance section of the CoC, in the first place. He supports my argument and stated “The workload they tried to give me was ridiculous. I had to drop the class. A little stressful, but I’ll be alright.” That quote represents the core of my argument. This student is subject to unfair punishment because he was sick, which doesn’t make much sense at all.

In conclusion, MO at my school suffers from this corrupt system that my school has put in place where the student is almost “too accountable” for his absence. In doing so, the school has expressed beliefs of carelessness for their students by assigning an overload of work which is situationally unrealistic depending on the state of the student. I fight for fair conditions concerning the sick students at my school. I hope you believe in my amendment as much as I do!

Declaration of Driver's Ed

In the first unit of my Spring Term Humanities course, "A Nation's Argument," we dove down deep into why an argument is effective. We have discussed political issues that would further influence us to create stronger arguments for our action projects. For our action project, we were assigned to almost re-write and recite the Declaration of Independence, but for a class that we feel can benefit the school we reside in. I personally believe that EVERY high school should provide Driver's Education. I feel like Driver's Ed is so essential to young people because knowing the rules of the road, driving a vehicle or not, will be beneficial to your safety and who doesn't want their license after all? I know I want my license!
____________________________________________________________________________________

I believe that it is mandatory for the teenagers of America to learn early, how to drive in order for them to be comfortable with it in the future! So therefore, it is extremely necessary that I propose this class. I feel the need to make this class official because I know how it feels to be deprived of Driver's Education. I also feel as if obtaining your Drivers License goes hand-in-hand with growing up as a teenager and adult.

Why does GCE Lab School not allow access to Driver’s Ed class? The purpose of my Driver’s Ed course is to allow my fellow peers to take a journey that we are currently missing out on because of unjust restrictions. I want to learn to drive so bad and I know my peers wouldn’t mind it, as well.

Well, there’s the right to have access to your permit at the age of 16 or Sophomore year. There’s also the right of getting your license at 18. Other schools allow Driver's Ed, so why not us? Doesn’t seem to me, that this course would be harmful to the alumni. After months and months of professional training and partnership, we should be able to hold our own on the road!

As sophomores (and upperclassmen) we are almost entitled to learning enough about driving to obtain, at least a permit. After completing this course, I would like for there to be GCE students exploring the world with their very own license and auto-mobile.

This program/class will require access to a number of resources:

• Driver’s Ed (Lane Tech Program, 30-40 minutes by train)
• Student Ventra cards issued by school
• GCE teacher (advisor)

P1: Declaring Driver's Ed is essential for teenagers.
P2: Due to restrictions, I am not allowed to take this class.
P3: Other schools allow access to Driver's Ed, what's the harm in implementing one at GCE.
P4: Being 16+ without a permit, is bologna!
C: There should be a Driver's Ed class in the GCE system!

DNR Diagram N.D. Web. 16 February. 2016.

My official declaration is that there be a Driver’s Ed class issued ASAP (preferably before I leave). I believe that Driver’s Ed is very important because of the simple fact that driving is important!