Sirens on the radio should be illegal

Many people listen to the radio while they are in the car, and music that has sirens in it can be very distracting. If one hears a siren in a song, they could easily think that it is a police man and get distracted looking for a cop car or end up pulling over when it is unnecessary or unsafe to do so. The passing of this law would not require too much effort on anyone's part, but could very well increase safety on the road. Someday if this law were to be passed, which I strongly suggest it should be, radio stations could easily blur out or replace a song with a siren it just like they do to some explicit songs. If advertisements or songs play sirens in them with the intention of drawing your attention, it is unsafe and they should be prohibited from doing this. As far as I'm concerned, not much value could be added to an ad or song by just the sound of a siren, it is very easy to replace it. Many may not even think of this issue until it happens to them one day, which is why people must be exposed to this issue. While it may seem like a very small and rare problem, it could still threaten the safety of people while driving and should not be ignored.

Flifferhuzza

It was a humid summer day in Maine. One of those days where it is not quite warm enough to go to the beach but not quite miserable enough to sit inside all day. My neighbors and I decided to go for a hike. Although it was called a mountain, it was really just a large hill in the middle of nowhere. We began our hike into the deep woods, seeing animals like chipmunks and birds everywhere, but nothing too intimidating. About a half hour later as we came to the top, and saw the beautiful lakes and forests down below. There was a stone tower that was used as a lookout point, so we climbed up the stone stairs and saw the word Flifferhuzza carved into the stone wall with a circle around it. "What does that mean?", my friend asked. Shrugging my shoulders, I touched the engraving, and it began to budge. At first I thought I was just playing mind games with myself, but when we whacked the wall using all of our strength the entire piece then crumbled and there was a large opening in the wall. Speechless, we peered inside and discovered a metal box with a rusty lock that said "F" on it. We were able to twist the lock off because it was so old, and discovered an old piece of paper that read:
             Congratulations! You are one of the many to have discovered the Flifferhuzza of this mountain. Open the box to discover the Flifferhuzza and sign your name to show that you are one of the few to have discovered this.
Captiously, I removed the lid to see a large, dark green stone attached to the smaller box. Sure enough, the word Flifferhuzza was engraved into it. The stone sparkled and looked like it had been there for years on end. There were small dents in it where people had tried to take some of the Flifferhuzza for themselves. The stone was tough, however, and it appeared that none of these people had been successful. After about an hour of marveling at the stone, we signed our names on the sheet of paper and continued on our hike back down.

A Complaint

I love Christmastime and all of the things that come with it like Christmas music, getting together with family, presents. However, I do not think that people should feel the need to put up horrendous Christmas lights all around their houses or just leave them there until Valentine's Day. Of course most lights are nice and spread holiday spirit, but, some of them just make your house look bad. Some of my neighbors, who are guilty of putting up ugly Christmas lights, do not realize the pain they are putting others through when they drive by their house everyday. I do not know what these people think they are going to benefit from having these decorations up. It will certainly not make them more popular or brighten their neighbors day. Worse than these awful Christmas lights is when people leave them up for extended periods of time. I do not think anyone is so busy that they cannot spare ten minutes to take them down in the two weeks following the new year. By mid-February, they might as well just leave them up for next season. It makes the dismissal of the holiday season more painful for everyone, seeing these lights up a month later but knowing you have to wait another 340 days before late December comes again. Holiday decorations should be used to spread spirit and make people happy, not to make them annoyed by a flashy display or to painfully remind them that the holidays are over.

Is homework really worth it?

After spending over six hours in school all day, and usually some sort of extracurricular after that, as most kids do, is there really any benefit to homework? Most people are tired at the end of their day, and getting a good night sleep would benefit them more for the next day of learning rather than continuing their studies at night. Many only do the work halfheartedly in order to just get it done. Of course some things are necessary for a students success, especially in high school. The amount of studying that a student does, for example, shows how dedicated they are to their schoolwork and how much effort they are willing to put it in. If students, particularly ones in high school, were given more time to study instead of completing worksheets, charts, and readings assigned by the teacher, they would be more motivated to go to school the next day and learn more. If a student is not overwhelmed by their academic workload they will find the topics more interesting because they will not see them as such of a task, more of an opportunity to learn. The Washington Post published an article on this topic recently, where a professor at Duke University, Harris Cooper, states that  "it appears than more than two hours of high school homework, and more than 1 1/2 hours of middle school homework, have no academic benefit and may produce negative results." Many reasons can contribute to homework having a negative affect. It can cause sleep deprivation if students are up late doing it after a long day, stress due to an overbearing amount of work, and a decrease of interest in the topic because it is seen as a chore to the student. Also in this study, an example is given of an elementary school in Tuscon, Arizona where homework was banned but students created their own independent projects after school because they wanted to keep learning. Traditional busy work, and the endless amount of worksheets and packets students receive for homework eliminates the desire to learn. If students, even elementary aged ones, can appreciate what they do in school when given freedom to explore what they want, then homework should be banned. Even if test scores do drop by a point or two, a child's appreciation of education should never be discouraged just because of homework.

(Source: Washington Post, "As Homework Grows, So Do Arguments Against It")

In 1492...

In honor of this travel/sea-inspired blog and today being Columbus Day, here are some fun facts about the holiday:

1.  Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota do not celebrate Columbus Day
2. It was not made a national holiday until 1937 by president Franklin D. Roosevelt
3.  There are no portraits of what Columbus actually looked like, all of them were made after he died
4.  Known as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, this is where Columbus landed on his voyage
5. The Nina and Pinta were not the real name of some of Columbus' ships, the Nina's real name was Santa Clara and it's nickname derived from the ships owner, Juan Nino. The real name of the Pinta is unknown, but translates to "painted one" in Spanish

Sources: http://thehofstrachronicle.com/columbus-day-fun-facts/
http://www.wrightusa.com/blog/some-surprising-columbus-day-fun-facts-figures/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/14/christopher-columbus-3-things-you-think-he-did-that-he-didnt/

Difficult Conversation

Family sits down to dinner, there is a a daughter named Mary and her two parents. Mary is a straight A student and her parents think she is perfect, but today she got a speeding ticket and has not told her parents
Mom: How was your day Mary? Did you get any tests back?
Mary: (chuckles nervously) yep, I got a 95 on my science quiz
Dad: That's my girl, you couldn't do something wrong if you tried
Mom: Hows your new car doing?
Mary: Well its funny you say that-
Dad: (cuts her off) I am so glad we can trust you with your own car, I heard Billy across the street got a speeding ticket the other day
Mary: Well speeding tickets aren't that bad, right? I mean I'm sure Billy would never break the law on purpose or ever want to disappoint his parents
Mom: Well I guess so, but his parents were pretty mad and took away his car; I know I would do the same thing
Mary: But I mean if it was an accident he can't help it, sometimes bad things just happen to people
Dad: Alright, I know whats going on here. You didn't really get a 95, did you? Don't worry honey, I guess I won't get mad over one A-
Mary: Dad! I swear I got that grade! But like we were talking about cars before... I saw a police man when I was coming home from school today
Mom: Ha! It was probably the one that pulled Billy over
Dad: (laughs)
Mary: Well I talked to the police officer for a little while, he seemed nice
Mom: Why would you be talking to this police officer?
Mary: (puts speeding ticket on table)
Dad: WHAT is this?!
Mary: The same thing that Billy got
Mom: How could you?! We told you to be safe and responsible!
Dad: What happened
Mary: I was speeding
Mom: Well ma'am, we are going to need to talk about this, it isn't like you to do anything wrong! It's a good thing you do well in school, otherwise we would have more troubles on our hands
Dad: I am disappointed, go upstairs and your mother and I will talk about what to do with this
(end dialect)

Boston Globe Article

There was an article in the Boston Globe last week that my mom suggested I should read. This article was published on September 20th and was titled The literature of bullying. It discusses how many famous books revolve around the underlying theme of bullying, and mentioned novels such as Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies, both of which we read in English class last year. The author of the article, Joan Wickersham, mentions that the bystanders are one of the worst aspects of bullying, because it creates a message saying that bullying is okay. In Lord of the Flies, the boys turn into a violent and torturous mob because none of them feel powerful enough to stand up to the leader and stop the cruel acts. The author mentions that a more subtle theme of bullying is shown in Catcher in the Rye, part of the reason Holden feels the need to protect innocence throughout the story is because of a boy who committed suicide due to the bullies at his prep school. After this, Wickersham states that, "we need to read them [these books],and teach them in our schools,with fresh eyes." These novels can be used now, in present times, to show that bullying has always been a problem and how it is a prevalent theme in literature, even though some may not recognize it while reading.