"It Better Look Snappy"

"Nature has become simply a visual form of entertainment, and it better look snappy" (Williams 940).

As a society, we continue to largely ignore the negative impacts that we make on our environment. We participate in events and activities that hurt the planet and nature and do not do anything to stop it. Yes, there are certain communities that are taking the initiative to make a change and promote conscious actions, but as of today, these organizations might be doing more harm than good. Our planet is nowhere near the healthy state that it was in before rapid industrialization and a lot of times, these groups promote actions that seem idealistic from afar and unsustainable in the long run. One of the prime examples of this is 'Earth Day'. On this holiday, everyone is pressured into wearing green, biking or walking to the locations they have to go, throwing out minimal waste, and thinking about how their actions affect the environment in the future. Almost the entire country jumps on the bandwagon of making those who do not participate a villain and a cause of the rotting ecosystem, but this mindset is extremely dangerous because it allows a large group of people to gain the satisfaction of contributing towards the protection of the environment whereas, in reality, they did nothing. These people can "save" the environment for one day and they are now easily able to avoid feeling guilty for every other day of the year as they emit tons of gas for convenience and toss out boatloads of garbage without a second thought. The problem with these events is that it allows people to be held unaccountable for their destructive actions when these proactive actions should be encouraged every single day of this year.

This same mistake is made every constantly by the media as they alternate between complaining about the state of our environment and celebrating events that are not true successes. NASA recently announced that the ozone layer, which was in danger for many years is finally beginning to be healed. The problem with this announcement is that it could easily be misconstrued. By giving people the feeling of success, NASA is giving some people the ability to take the easy way out. Despite the ozone layer being healed, it is barely where it needs to be. If our society put in the effort that it needs, the ozone layer would have been healed already, yet due to the embarrassingly low amount of efforts that we are putting in, the environment is far from saved. Many people refer to the analogy of a glass being half empty or half full prompting the listener to view the glass as half full, but in reality, the evolution of society will be promoted by the people who view the glass as half empty. If we continue to do close to nothing and celebrate as if we have saved the 200 to 2000 species that go extinct each year, then there is no incentive or urgency for people to make a change. We continue to paint over everything that reminds us of the deteriorating environment hoping to have other people deal with the problem, but the problem will only become worse if we do not face it today. By taking pretty pictures of the environment or pretending we have made a difference, we are only escalating the problem. As Tom Holland once said, "You can't be a friendly neighborhood spiderman if there's no neighborhood".

Rules of Conduct for the Classic American Classroom

"Some of my students would be better off if they trusted me a little rather than questioning my decisions at every turn. Still, I would rather have students who question too much than those who assume that I know best and don't owe them any explanations. No one should have power that is unjustified and unjustifiable, regardless of how convenient or efficient it may seem for the smooth running of the classroom, the education system, or the country" (Mori 213).

RULES OF CONDUCT FOR THE 'CLASSIC 'AMERICAN CLASSROOM
By: Nithya Jaisankar and Nithya Sundaram

*Disclaimer: These rules were typed for the classic American classroom. It was made to target those schools in which the teachers are being blatantly disrespected and ignored. Here is what each teacher should do to show them who is boss. Any use of these rules other than the method described below is a violation of federal law and will result in a significant amount of jail time*

1. If your students doze off so much that their snores have become white noise for the rest of the class, take away their seat and their desk and make them stand for the rest of the day. If the student does it again, obtain a human-sized bucket of cold water and have the student stand in the bucket for the rest of the day. Make sure to change out the water every hour as it can get a little warm and slightly comfortable for the student.

2. If a student breathes more than 0.5 decibels louder than you do, they are trying to overthrow your dynasty. Begin to slowly increase the volume of your breathing as you take loud steps towards the student that is challenging you. Chances are, you will hear your student's breathing increase in speed and volume as well. This is the classic sign of a student who is making a poor attempt at exerting his dominance. If you reach over 90 decibels, consider sending the kid down to the office.

3. If a student comes to class without a pencil, instruct him to find the nearest graphite mountain, obtain graphite, and to make their own pencil lead. This is an amazing activity as it has students making their own materials, a skill that would come in handy if they ever get stranded in a foreign country and need to communicate with others. Encourage the other students in your class to participate as well.

4. If a student gets less than 167.87% on a test, the student is not trying hard enough. They either do not understand how detrimental a low test score can be for their future or they do not care enough to try. For every question that was answered incorrectly, make the student sprint a lap around the school. At the end of the lap, ask him the question again and he has to give you the right answer within 3.92 seconds. Make sure to time how long it takes the student to answer as they like to lie and play games.

5. If a student spells a word wrong, then that student has to copy down the entire English dictionary for homework every day. Make sure to have another student, preferably someone who is not friends with that student, cross-check to make sure that student had written down every word and definition. If the student has missed a word, have them recopy the entire dictionary and also the thesaurus. Be aware that a student might claim that they had actually spelled the word right and you thought that their 'h' was an 'n'. The student is attempting to pull one of the oldest tricks in the book. Have the student write a process analysis essay on how to do a better job of lying. If the rest of your class seems to suffer from the same problem, have your student read the essay to the rest of the class.

If you are unsure about how to execute any of the steps identified above, please feel free to contact us at 1-800-IWISHTHISWASJAPAN.
Our office hours are:
Monday-Friday: 1 a.m. - 3:30 a.m.
Saturday: 4 a.m. - 5 a.m.
Sunday: Closed

The Plethora of “Englishes”

As the first generation of my family to be born in the United States of America, I have firsthand experience of being exposed to different Englishes. Having two parents who were born in a foreign country gave me the privilege of learning more than one language from a young age. Since my parents were born and raised in India, a country with over 19,500 spoken languages, they spoke more than one Indian language. When I was a child, I was exposed to Tamil, Hindi, and Telegu so frequently that I could easily understand native speakers of all of those languages. When I attended school in America for the first time, I was introduced to a fourth language and as a six-year-old, I was even more confused. According to my parents, I would speak by combining all four languages into one, employing vocabulary from all four languages into every sentence that would come out of my mouth. My parents were frightened because even as fluent speakers of all four languages, they could barely understand what I was saying. They began to cut down on the languages that they spoke at home until I was only speaking English and Tamil, but today I unfortunately mainly speak English even at home. Unlike Amy Tan, however, the English that I speak at home is not drastically different from the English that I speak at school, but sometimes I have noticed that I pronounce words differently based on whether I am speaking in the American form of English or the British based English spoken in India. When I come to school and accidentally use the wrong pronunciation, some teachers and classmates look at me funny. Consequently, I have learned to embrace my pronunciation as I have embraced my Indian heritage.

My various Englishes are not just the Englishes that I speak at home and at school but also the Englishes that I use when texting and presenting. The Englishes that I speak at home and at school represent how I interact with my family versus my friends and teachers. The English that I use when texting is extremely informal and filled with abbreviations. Though I am still interacting with my friends the difference in English that I use represents the impact that an educational environment has on how I speak. When I present or write an essay, my English is very formal as I am forced to adopt an academic and intellectual tone and vocabulary that would develop my credibility. Through our exploration of the impact of various languages, I have learned that a balance has to be achieved. When writing, you should not be too formal as it could separate you from your audience, but you should also not be too informal as the audience might not take you seriously. Achieving the balance provides the speaker with power and authority as it increases the chances of the audience listening and taking an effort to understand what the speaker is conveying. Through the honors classes I have taken and the AP English class I am taking, I have realized that the Englishes that I employ are the products of the environment that I have grown up in and the medium by which I communicate.

First Semester Metacognitive Reflection

Throughout the semester, I have grown a lot in my writing. At the start of the semester, I had a good introduction and conclusion to my essays, but my analysis was sometimes weak. I would make strong points and assertions, but I would not connect them back to the thesis and it was hard to understand the bigger picture behind the thesis and the argument that I was making. I included strong quotes, but I did not develop the analysis that connected the quotes to my thesis statement. To improve my writing, I began to re-read my essays multiple times after writing them. I would also make sure to explain each of the quotes by connecting them back to my thesis, and I would make sure to connect my argument to its application and role in society in the conclusion of my essay.
As I focused on improving the areas of my writing that were originally weak, I began to get better at certain areas. I have become better at connecting the quotes that I include in my essay back to the thesis. I am also better at connecting my thesis to the information at the beginning of my introduction paragraphs and rewording my thesis in the conclusion. I need to continue to work on deepening my analysis. Once I make an argument, I need to connect the analysis back to the big idea and real-world connection. I can also write more in the time that we get in class, so I get more efficient at writing. I plan on accomplishing this by continuing to practice writing about various topics. I will also widen the scope of material that I read because reading different types of literature will help develop my writing style.
The writing piece that I am specifically proud of is the "Crucible Test Short Response". I received a full score on this piece due to my strong development of ideas. I had a good argument and I was able to effectively use quotes from the text to support my thesis. I also included deeper analysis and stronger vocabulary which strengthened my argument. Ms. Nagi has really helped improve my writing skills throughout the semester through the comments that she leaves on my essays and quick writes. I think that it would help my writing if we were able to sit down and discuss some of my writing pieces. I want to know why I got the score that I did for some of the writing pieces and what I could change or improve to get a higher score next time. I hope to improve my writing style even more throughout the rest of the school year.

                                                        Semester Writing Log

A Naïve Child Exposing an Ignorant World

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is regarded as one of the greatest American works of art. One of the most famous writers in American history claims that "there was nothing before [and] there has been nothing as good since" (Hemingway).

It not only entices the young generation as a bildungsroman but also makes society aware as a whole with its blatant attacks on popular but unfounded opinions. One of the most obvious examples of this exposure in the book is Huck's relationship with Jim. This is viewed as one of the large turning points in the awareness and thought process of people at that time because it also sparked a large controversy about not only society's dependence on and the cruelty of slavery but also Jim's personality and character in the novel. Slavery, however,  is not the only form of discrimination that is being disputed by Mark Twain's novel. The role of women in society was also portrayed as ironic and a bit senseless. One half of the world still continues to face discrimination even today and Mark Twain does not fail to emphasize the inexcusable gap between the expected spheres of men and women during that time period through his use of significant female characters. In fact, the novel starts with the impact that two female characters have on Huck: Miss Watson and the Widow. Huck despises the fact that "Widow Douglas took me [Huck] for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me [him]" but fails to realize that she was merely filling that role that society forced her into (Twain 11). Women were expected to educate, feed, and clothe the younger generation while the 'men' earned money for the household. The same way Huck was surprised when he started to see that Jim was compassionate and thoughtful, he was surprised when he met women who were creative and intelligent such as Emmeline and women who were rebellious such as Miss Sophia. Despite the eye-opening experiences that Huck had recently had, he still was coerced into obeying the norms of society. He felt guilty after Miss Sophia escaped, believing that if he had told her father, a male, then the situation could have been avoided. This shows the control that men were expected to have over the females in their household. Miss Sophia's rejection of society's domestication of females also caused another disastrous event: Buck's death. The method in which Huck described his loss conveys to the audience that he associates Buck's death with Miss Sophia's escape. It shows the consequences that were perceived to be accompanied with female independence and freedom of action. Society completely believed that nothing good could come from a female thinking for herself. There is no question that Mark Twain's inclusion of the discrimination of women definitely made a change to society's mindset of a woman's role in 1880's and 90's but what we need to realize is that this discrimination still exists today albeit less obviously.

Tragic Deaths are Completely Overrated

The idea of the tragic death or the sacrifice of life is totally unrealistic. What do the deaths of Romeo and Juliet... Hannah Baker... Dumbledore... and John Proctor all have in common? They are all emotional and achieving in idea, but all of these deaths are completely irrational. Each of them resulted in an absurd event or achievement. How could two people dying (Romeo and Juliet) result in resolving a century old dispute between two families that had originally escalated due to Romeo and Juliet's relationship? The very concept is crazy. The idea of 'adults' realizing their mistake and attempting to correct it is unfathomable, especially when it is coming from a child.

Do we really believe that the two most powerful families in their society are going to set aside a 'disagreement' that makes their SERVANTS fight when they just cross each other on the street solely because two teenagers were being dramatic? DOUBTFUL!

The same theory can be applied to John Proctor's death in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. He originally makes the smart decision to confess. Yes, he will be convicted as a witch, and yes, everyone in town will know that he has practiced witchcraft, but he would be ALIVE! Even if we accept the fact that John Proctor is going to sacrifice his life to prove a point, there is no way that, in reality, his closest friends and family are delusional enough to let him die! You are telling me that John Proctor's wife, who gave up her morality to protect John, is going to let him die because "he have his goodness now. God forbid I [she] take if from him" (Miller 782,783). Forget Hale and Parris convincing Proctor to confess, Elizabeth would be writing his confession for him! Anyway, at this point, his death was going to be in vain, because at the rate things were going there was no coming back for the town of Salem. Salem will continue to accuse and hang more and more people. The only thing that would change is that John Proctor would be dead! An alive John Proctor can change a lot more in their town than a dead one can unless... he were to come back as a ghost!

Why is Red, White, and Blue Opposed to Red?

For centuries, America has paraded around the idea of a democracy, but what the majority fail to realize is that America has been lying to not only the rest of the world but also to its own citizens. Our country does not operate under a democratic government, yet we are trying to push democratic ideas onto other countries. Thousands of immigrants were told that "in that country [America], rich or poor, a man was free… he might do as he pleased, and count himself as good as any other man" (Sinclair 24). Many made the investment of getting an expensive ticket to America in hopes that they would reap the benefits after they became rich in the United States. As soon as they reached America, however, they faced the harsh realities of American capitalism and false advertisement.

Couldn't have said it better myself Jed.

We continue to value democratic ideals and insult other countries who have opposing viewpoints. We have even thrown our own citizens in jail for speaking out in favor of communism or pointing out the benefits of having a different system of government, not once but TWICE!

We make fun of Salem and other cities through satirical plays such as The Crucible when our entire country could have its own reality show! We are completely ignoring the fact that The United States of America has one of the most ironic and controversial histories in the world. Our country has committed almost every crime that we hold against other countries today. We got angry at Iraq for taking Kuwait when we took the Philippines and Cuba during the Spanish-American War. We attempt to protect citizens of other countries from their governments when we were unjustifiably throwing our citizens in jail under the Alien and Sedition Acts. The point is... the world is a mess... but we need to sort our own country out before attempting to 'help' others.