In America, different peoples mix in what many call a “culture stew.” We become, in a way, our own unique culture that causes us to see everyone here as an American. The thing is, we are not a single culture as we like to think – it is a metaphysical culture that many follow, and thus, we don’t truthfully appreciate all the people around us. If we were to, however, what would we see?
In the book My Heart Lies South by Elizabeth Borton De Treviño, she marries a Mexican named Don Luis Treviño Arreola y Gomez Sanchez de la Barquera, a public relations director. She writes about the culture around her. A culture with many differences. How is the language different? In the book, she says she “considered [herself] a master of the tongue. But I hadn’t counted on several unknown factors.” What are these factors? Well, in the first place, everyone you are listening to is talking at once, and thus, deciphering the language is much harder. It also did not help that the speakers left some words out and substituted body gestures for these words – lots of movement of “shoulders, hands, wrists, eyebrows, forehead, and head.” Lastly, they added in Indian words, which she did not know. In English here in America, we don’t usually have many body gestures, but instead make shortening slang. For example, FYI means “for your information.” Sometimes people mix in some Spanish for some reason. And there is of course, on both sides, the emoji. How are households run differently? In Mexico, every household is in want of four kinds of people: husband, wife, children, and servants. These servants do chores and such things, as a nana (nurse) takes care of the baby, or solterona (old maid) cleans the house and things inside. The wife pays the servants, and the servants take care of most things that need taken care of – and as Elizabeth did not hire a nana, all the servants took care of the children. The Mexicans are people who really believe in taking care of everything and everyone in the house, and they seem to do a good job of it. Here in America, the kids go to school, usually at least one parent goes to work, and if one of them does not work, they take care of the house – cleaning, cooking, the baby if there is one, and several other things. Here, the house does not seem to be as important as in Elizabeth’s Mexico. How is grieving different? In Mexico, a grieving period is usually long and monotonous. “The mourning period for one’s mother is two years, for one’s father, a year, for a brother or a child, a year. Other relatives according to the affection one feels.” This is not to mention that only certain colors and types of clothing were worn during this period. Even more interesting is that this period is thought as a way you are ennobled and purified! Here in America, if a family member dies, you simply take care of unfinished business, bury them, and go on with life – not without thinking of them from time to time, of course. Elizabeth said in the book, “I thought we should help each other forget our sorrow and go about our duties make braver by some gentle diversion such as music or a ride through the countryside.” So we believe here in America, and so the Mexicans believe to be dishonoring of the dead. There is a horde of differences between the cultures, and these are just a small portion of those. The thing is that we are different people, we believe what we believe, and no person has the right to force a change in opinion. “Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Shouldn’t we treat all people, though they are different in this way, like that?
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We have all had to learn something, like walking or talking, but how we physically learn has interested many people. The problem is that we ask, “How do we learn?” The actual thing we should ask is, “How does my brain learn?” This mistake, it seems, is why we do not learn the way we should – the right way – but we learn the way we want to, ignoring how our brain does its best work.
How do we learn wrong? Why is our brain mad? Well, a problem with the way we learn is that we usually have a schedule, a pattern. Our brain likes changes, ones of doing things in a different order or amount. Studying is a problem in this way, because that pounds information at the brain, which does not like being ordered around. School does the same thing. It is just like driving 90 MPH on a 50 MPH road – you get slowed down eventually. As Benedict Corey, author of How We Learn, said in that book on his mistake, “So, after dropping out, I made an attitude adjustment. I loosened my grip. I stopped sprinting. Broadened the margins, to paraphrase Thoreau.”1 After this, he lived life. School wasn’t his life anymore. He lived life as if school was a part of it, not it itself. He “never let go of [his] studies, just let them become part of [his] life.” Then, as an adult, he started studying how the brain learns. He found that distractions and naps aid learning. Schools, in this case, do not do very well in letting your brain open the door – they kick that door wide open. Do we need to do things to learn? Yes, but thinking, that is something we truly need. “The most necessary task of civilization is teaching people how to think… [our education system] does not encourage original thought or reasoning,” said Thomas Edison. Thinking helps understanding, and without it, do we truly know and understand?” Thinking does use more brainpower; so why not think so that we do not have to use as much? How does doing enter the equation? Doing helps us learn because we are using more senses. There are examples of how video games teach kids things that are – supposedly - important. How about making the games? “The Constructionist mind is revealed… imagining children making the games instead of just playing them.” And, also in Minds in Play, Papert mentions that we can learn from this. This action puts thought and knowledge to use, and this begs the question of what, seemingly just there, can teach us? The answer? Many things can and will teach us. The problem – only certain types of these teaching work. What types of teaching do and do not work? Imagine you are a new college student and walk into the science classroom on your first day, and there stands a professor. How will you understand what he says? Experts talk differently than novices, and so you would not understand a good amount of their jargon. Who you really want to see when you walk into that classroom is someone who has been in class for several years, so that he or she understands the topic and what students think about when they are learning these things. Then, the next year, you would want someone with a little more knowledge to teach, and so forth. This step-by-step process is good for our brains, and for overall knowledge of the community. How does our brain physically work? This is the hard part to understand, and of course, the basis of learning overall. So, the brain is made of neurons. These 100 billion neurons allow electrical impulses, or action potential, to pass through them. Dendrites, kinds of points between neurons, grow based on how much you use them in which way. Spiny Arbors then grow on these, adding information to your knowledge. But how is the signal protected from interruption from other neuron signals? This is protected by Myelin, a white and fatty substance that insulates the neurons. This also speeds up the time it takes for the signal to go where it needs to. Our brain goes on to use its Reticular Activating System – RAS - to filter information. It first puts actions like breathing and heartbeat control. This all goes to the Hindbrain, which controls everything you need to survive – unconsciously. The RAS then places “processing of senses” into the Forebrain, which we also unconsciously use. The Midbrain is what controls sight, alertness, motor control, and hearing. This is the part we consciously use. How do we use this to learn? The Hippocampus – kind of its own type of structure, located in the Forebrain – is the brain’s Google. When we learn something, it keeps it there, but more stuff we learn is stacked on top. It is easier to remember how to text then what your 7-year-old birthday cake looked like! Learning, of course, is not the easiest thing – the average attention span is about eight seconds. That is why learning is difficult – but worth it. The brain is basically a computer. When you read this, you are probably putting information into you Hippocampus. That is storing what you keep – if you keep any – onto a stack somewhere. You are learning. This is not, of course, from an expert. I am a curious someone telling you how it makes sense to me. If you are still curious, please look at the sources on the following page. Everyone should have to or have done a school research paper on something, whether a personal choice on the topic or not. These help you know how to research for when you grow up – what if someone wanted to be a researcher but do not know how, for instance? Even if the only plan in life is having a child, research will be needed. For this reason, this guide to research papers has been created to help people on their research paper path. This is only the recommended way to do research papers, however – do it your way, if you know something better!
A research paper should have a certain page format. That format is to have a one-inch border on each side of the page. The size of the font should be 12 point, and each line is supposed to be double spaced. The length of the paper depends on grades, and so does the minimum number of sources. The chart on the diagram page contains the recommended length and source numbers (1). A source, if you do not already know, is a place from which you got the information to put into your paper. When you get this information, you will create source cards, which I show on the diagram page (2). There are several steps to a research paper. The first step is to choose your subject. You will first choose a general subject, unless you are given one. To make the paper shorter, you should choose a problem to solve and narrow your focus in the main topic. You will follow this with establishing your purpose of writing the paper: For example, in my Oppenheimer paper, I wrote, “You may know some about him, but I thought I would let you know that this paper is here to let you see the mind behind the bomb bloom into the mastermind he was, and to let you understand him. This will also tell you more about what he created, and why he disliked it.” This is the last sentence in the introduction. If you cannot find enough information about the topic, however, you should look into another subject for your paper. Once you know you can find information on the subject, you need to start researching, gathering the information onto pieces of paper, note cards, or computer files. Make sure to note the source when you note it down, too. After you finish researching, generate a rough outline, editing it into a good outline to follow in your writing – of course, you may change it during writing if something else flows better. Next, you should write the first draft of the report, edit it until it is done, and then turn it into your teacher. Whenever you look for the information, however, the library is a good place. So is the internet. In both of these places, you should skim titles to see if it is what you need. Say you have Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center by Ray Monk and are looking for his time in the Manhattan Project – You would skim the part and chapter titles until you find something that looks promising, and then carefully skim through the area until you find all of the information you want. Make sure to evaluate the source, though, because you might not get correct information otherwise. This is all because of many questions: Is the writer sharing his opinion or just information? Is it old information? Is the writer knowledgeable on the subject? Is it a firsthand source, like from Oppenheimer's first wife, or secondhand, like from Oppenheimer's wife’s friend? If it is one of these, it is better to use – there are not going to be as many mistakes passing it from person to person. Also, are they trying to convince you to think a certain way? This is a lot to take in, and that makes perfect since. This is all just recommended from the school curriculum Sonlight, and they are even more thorough on the topic. Please understand this is just to pass it from them to you, and thank you for reading. BIBLIOGRPHY HOW-TO (a) Books Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher’s Name, Copyright Date. Ex: Monk, Ray. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. New York, NY: Anchor Books (Random House Publishing), 2012 (b) Websites, Projects Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name (if known). “Article Name” Title of [Website, Project]. Publisher Information, Date of Publication. Date Accessed. Ex. Biography.com Editors. “J. Robert Oppenheimer Biography”. Biography.com. A&E Television Networks, Inc. May 6, 2021. Web Accessed: March 25 2022. THIS PAPER'S BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. John. “Appendix 6: How To Do a Research Project” Language Arts J, Section 4. Sonlight Curriculum, 2020. Paper Accessed April 26, 2022 “Knowledge is the surest basis of public happiness,” George Washington had said several hundred years ago. Is it now, though? Some parents and people say that “if you work hard now studying school, you will be happier later.” How truthful is it, are the people who study happier later in life? If I am the smartest man in the world, am I the happiest? Or if I am the total opposite, am I the saddest? Who would I be without knowledge?
On one hand, if you figure that smarter people usually have more money, and if you think that money is happiness, then the saying is true for you. A smart person would be the doctor, not the hamburger flipper. Or they might be a judge, but not a salesman. Of course, you better be a saver if you are that doctor or judge, not an outright spender – in that case money is not happiness. Who would I be without money? What if you believe that family, friends, and faith are happiness? Then this saying is not quite true, because if you are a poor servant with a spouse and five children, you will be happier then a judge without a spouse or children. You would also be happier as an orphan if you have lots of people as friends then if you were a CEO whom everyone dislikes. If you were a Christian servant, you would thus be happier then an atheist king. Who would I be without family, friends, and faith? Then there is another group that believes that true happiness is not found anywhere on this rock that is speeding through space with us on it – or any other rock, at that. This group believes that only God will give us true happiness. That only joy can be found in the following life we will have in eternal heaven – or for some, the un-happiness in the upcoming hell. They believe that joy prepares us people for true happiness. Who would I be without God? Now, if I were to break down these views and answer the ending questions, what would I find? I find that a person without money and/or knowledge has a higher chance of living a truly active life of hard work, which is good for the body, mind, and soul, as Paul has himself said in the Bible. Someone without family, friends, and faith is alone and has no one to help him through his or her walk through life – these people are prey to evil desires. As for someone without God, (s)he would not be, because he created us. So, what is happiness? It seems like family, friends and faith are, and God is, due to his creating it, being good in nature himself. We have all broken rules before, in interesting ways and in plain ways. Tom Sawyer is a character in the same titled book by Samuel Clemens, pen-named Mark Twain, who has everyone’s mischievousness. He was in the perfect time and place for it, too.
How was he right where he needed to be? First of all, this is before the Civil War – after the war, life would not be as jovial and carefree. Secondly, there was not as much technology, and thus, he could do more things that you would not do with technology. For example, would you take a raft or small boat and be pretend pirates on a small island offshore? On average, people nowadays have their face glued to an electronic screen often, not having time for nature like Tom Sawyer. Why was this where Tom needed to be? Look at the preface to the book: “Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try pleasantly to remind adults of what they once were themselves,… and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.” Look at that. He wrote this preface in 1876, and due to such, would pick things that happened in times that were a little past to his. This is from when he was younger, as you will find when you read more from the preface, “Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also,… he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew.” So, he knew the setting – it was where Tom had lived, and so needed to live in our imagination as well. You may ask why it would be different now. It would be different because for one, we are more populous, so it is harder to run away and live alone. If you do so, then you will not be hidden for as long, because there are less places to hide. Ships would also call in stuff like a boy swimming in a river, at least just to check that nothing was wrong. So, it would not be as fun or funny a story if it was in the now. It also would not show us what our parents and grandparents grew up in, and how they may have possibly acted. Overall, Tom Sawyer’s setting is wholesome, everything set in place for his success and our enjoyment. When reading, you really are amazed at what the people before went through, and because of such, the setting is also a great mind-opener. Have you ever been in a conversation, hear something outrageous, and then they say, "I was only joking"? Well, most people have, and I am going to say something some of you will not like (if you are a Christian, that is). Take a look at Proverbs 26:18-19 below.
"Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says, 'I was only joking.'" The stories that families tell are always great to hear, and my stepdad has many a story to tell of his times as an IT, or computer, guy. One very memorable one is from when he worked at a very serious place. They would hire hackers to find what was weak in the system, but to first get to this system, they would have to get inside the buildings, which were very much the same as doors in a hotel: enter the right card and it unlocks. There was a rule about how everyone must close the door so the person behind him scans his card, and so on. The hackers would get a conversation going and get into the building, and could hack into most computers, as people would still use recognizable names, words, and dates in the pass-code – even though they were not supposed to. They would then get to the higher up systems from that single low-positioned computer. That is to say, they found many a flaw in the system of the company, and not just the computer system.
This story seems to always have a personal feel of a story that you cannot forget. Every time he mentions hackers, I remember this story. Why? Well, I have found that when you remember things, God puts them there for you, so that there is a learning experience. As in how the men would sneak into the building, it might remind you to pay more attention to everything around you. It might also remind you that more then a single pair of eyes can be needed to find a problem, and that is because of your viewpoint. The people who hired the hackers knew that the different point of view now would help them from a cyber-attack later. You may ask: “Why do you tell us how to use it? Have you?” I wish I could say yes, but really, the answer is no; I follow the advice, just the advice is from a different location when I use it. A more common example might be the many times I ask for help in finding something – and it usually gets found unless it is in a different place we never suspected it would ever be. Paying more attention to the people around me has almost made me crazy, though, and what some call paranoid. I just look around at everyone sometimes, and that does not always help relationships either. Everybody has had happy moments and sad moments, and the book They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth brings many of these different moments together. Published on 1942 by Random House Children’s Books, it came at just the time where people needed it – after war and a changing economy.
The 254 page book is about, to put it simply, being happy even when the times are not happy themselves. Martitia, an orphan girl, is lodging with Dr. David Gardner, who has five boys, three girls and women, and several dogs with him in the house. There, she starts out a life of disliking the boys, who on the outside are funny and do ridiculous things – to her. She does learn, with time, that the boys are actually grave souls on the inside, with humor to lighten the load of life. She also learns that working as a part of the family is good and, yet unbelievably, enjoyable. She becomes their weaver, and grows proud of her work. By the end, she is adopted into the family – mentally and legally. I like this book because it makes you think about happiness. We choose it, for we do not become happy when the body has a whim. The book brings this up through the grave Ruth, “’Tis we in our human weakness who manufacture the sadness,….(p. 139)” The book gives out the feeling of happiness, of joy, of living in the now, not the then or the later. The book has few things in it that some people would disagree with, however, and I want to point them out. People do not really care for others as much anymore, and that brings up that this was written in a different social time. People would give up time to help others, no questions asked. Some of the boys gave up field work to lug leaves for Martitia’s silkworms. They would give up alone time to show her something. The most stunning in our community – she herself became their weaver because of love and friendship. Some things in the book I dislike, however, are illustrations. Sure, the cover and title page illustrations by Marguerite de Angeli and Theodore Schluenderfritz respectively are good – but sometimes showing something a little confusing in a picture is really helpful. The only description I found hard to understand was about the silkworm table and how they would “nail wood in the middle.” Overall, I love this book, and I think that anyone with a wacky sense of humor would love it, as it has some interesting moments in the vein of humor. If you have trouble with being happy, this would bring lots of wisdom in – that is the stunning part of the book. I would recommend it to everyone of all ages, and I hope that you grab a copy soon!
Noyece (Noy-Yeese) walked through the underbrush in the jungle, gnashing her teeth in anger. That Sougee tribe! She thought, They dared murder my father, leader of the whole Mashnen tribe, and then keep me from being leader! Continuing to walk to the residing place of the Sougees, she fumed with even more violent thoughts and ideas. Their chief should die for this. She finally reached their home, where the chief was speaking to his wife.
“Marlop, we should find and punish Masiz for this, before the whole Mashnen tribe attacks. Send out the trackers,” the chief ordered a servant. The servant left to do the chief’s bidding, and Noyece grinned. As she crept towards the servant, she stopped and stayed stock still – a white person was advancing toward her! How? People are black! She ran away, as fast as she could, holding in her scream – hopefully, hopefully it would not see her. John crept up to a cliff, seeing only a dark-skinned man walking away from the largest tent to a smaller one. Listening to the larger tent, he heard a weird language being spoken hurriedly. “Owidns, xa qmnzdg ytrg wrg ezrtqm…” He soon looked up across the gap and saw a girl running away from him, and he shook his head. No-one wants to be near us, he continued crawling, and I do not even think they knew of us, and most still probably do not. He then thought of something, a great idea he thought it was, and ran after the girl like a ghostly shadow. Hurry! The girl fled with all her strength, straining her muscles. She had seen the white being give chase. Blazing through the forest as she was, however, she never saw the hole loom underneath the growth of the jungle. Whoosh! She tumbled into the hole, and the being followed her, slowly climbing down. She tried to escape, but it was not possible. She then saw the being hold out what she could call food, but no, she screamed out of fear, and the being ran off. She then hurried home to report to her mother what was in the jungle. |
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