Crossing the Line

I'm sitting in the car right now, getting internet from my dad's evo. We're in Maryland right now--it looks a lot like Michigan, except the temperature is 66 degrees right now instead of the 40 degrees I'm assuming Michigan is. I'm listening to a song by Trust Company called "Crossing the Line" (notice title of blog...). It kinda reminds me of Nathan. I haven't read the book we were supposed to read yet. I tried reading it earlier while laying on Virginia Beach, but it was too windy, so the pages were blowing making it impossible to read. Back to the song and Nathan: I always thought that Nathan crossed the line in going to the Congo. Obviously, the people there didn't really need him--they help him more than he helps them--so he really shouldn't be there. That is kind of like my Mexico trip. We went to be a blessing, but we were blessed overwhelmingly in return. We helped with building things and painting and cooking, and we really wanted to help out with the kids, but they ended up changing us more than we wanted to change them. I'm noticing that I'm having a hard time keeping on the same thought. There are so many things going through my mind right now, so it's difficult to only talk about one thing the whole time.

Paradigm Shift!!!

In my own words Paradigm shift is a change in perspectives that can result in the alteration or abandonment in beliefs. Relating to the PWB in the climatic ending of judges when the ANTS attack Adah and Leah go through Paradigm shifts that drastically alter each's beliefs. For example this quote "That night marks my life's dark center, the moment when growing up ended and the long downward slope toward death began. The wonder to me now is that i thought myself worth saving. But I did" shows how Adah comes to value her life as oppose to before when she felt her disability devalued her life, ironically though the moment she realizes her life is worth saving her mother abandons her for ruth may. Leah on the other hand abandons her faith in religion and her father for faith in Anatole, this is showed in this quote "I repeated his name because it took the place of prayer. Anatole's name anchored me to the earth, the water, the skin that held me in like a jar of water." Overall i think pardigm shift is an idea that most of us are resistent to in our society. Nobody likes to be wrong and so when an idea or opinon arrives that challenges our own beliefs we become defensive and inturn lose rationality and common sense for the sake of being right.

Religion and Shifts

So over reading the PWB and what we disscussed in class on friday... i did sum thinking... 1) I think everyone wears their faith like Nathan, and very few people like Orlena. Sertain religions spend more time trying to convert people instead of understand. 2) and those shift things... ok so this reacently happend to me over the last three years but i seriously thought the catholic church was the only true religion, and i went to other churches and that helped me better understand other christian religions... but i still think being a Catholic is best for me. but im more open to listining to other religions not just in the sector of chistanity..

The PWB

Everytime I pick up the Poisonwood Bible I can't keep from thinking about how much I am learning from it. In our last two books in class I found it easier to just read the book because I had to, but its completely different with this one. Everything in this book has so much built into it. I feel like I have to read slower to catch all the details because it is SO indepth. I really enjoy each of the characters and their unique use of dialogue and thoughts.

I also find our discussions in class quite interesting. I really like hearing what others have to say about the novel and different characters as we dig deeper into the story. Discussions always help to clear the misunderstandings I sometimes find and make things clearer. Sometimes I feel like the book is saying one thing where it might be saying something completely different to someone else or just in actually.

I'm still confused about the different books and what exactly each of them mean overall. With this book I find it easier to understand the details but not the big picture. I really enjoy reading The Poisonwood Bible because it is very interesting, has a lot of meaning, and has great comparisons and interpretations from its literal message in several cases.

I have been realizing that the more that each character reveals, the more I can see that I am really like all of them. I guess thats why I enjoy the book so much. I'm looking forward to getting further into the book.

Paradigm Shift

As we began to talk about paradigm shift and we thought about how it connects to the book, I began to realize that no only is it often present in PWB, but it is all over in the real world today. It is nearly impossible to accept many things at once. I personally don't like change very well and as I thought about this and connected it to myself, it started to make a lot more sense to me. College english has opened my eyes to a different side of me. At first I was really nervous about this class but it has made me more creative and made me think out of the box. In a way it has been a paradigm shift in my life. I couldn't except this big change in how this class is run but now I am so much more open to different things that we do.

Lurking in the Shadows

I really liked the conversation we had in class about how the truth is much like a shadow. Plato's example of this was so interesting to think about. In many ways I think much of our lives are portrayed as shadows. We may only see the 2D, single shade, shadow, but behind it lurks something so much more! Compared to a shadow, what makes it is so much more complex that to imagine an idea being that is amazing. To relate this back to PWB, I think the entire book may be a 5 person witness acount to the unveiling of the truth for their family. In the beginning they were all very naive and comfortable with their lives. As it goes on, I notice them acting alot more 'human'. I thought it was an interesting point of view to ponder with.

Senior Project Topics

Topics for the senior project are as follows:
Sarah Pranger--Arts Education
Noble Graham--Alternative Curriculum
Andy Brozek--Year Round School
Casey TenBrink--Merit Pay
Taylor Hegg--Sequential Grade Structure
Alexandria Sutton--National Curriculum (Common Core)
Becca Schmieding--Charter Schools
Nora Andrade--ESL
Amy Trevino--School Substance Abuse
Alex Kleiner--Drop Outs
Ross Ray--Grade Inflation
Tyler Ashbaugh--Bullying
Bethany Henion--Sex Ed
Sarah Sylvester--School Violence
Brian Schroeder--Sports in Schools
Emily White--Foreign Language Requirements
Henry Moron--Military Academies
Domanic Viterna--Public School Funding
Chelsea Smith--Standardized Testing
Kristen Wagner--Special Education Inclusion
Jake Smith--International Competition (I know you didn't sign up for this... but it is a great topic!)
Luke Smith--Tracking
Sydney Sherman--?
Eric Carballido--?

I didn' t hear from Sydney or Eric (unless I lost your slip Eric).  Here are some topics that aren't taken that I highly recommend:
Teacher Unions
Tenure
Parental Involvement
Teacher Evaluations
Privatized Schooling
(There are more if these don't interest you...)

I will be grouping these during break.