School Problems

The problems with public schools are annoyingly numerous. So numerous in fact that anything I type here cannot begin to do justice to the magnitude of the problems which we are currently facing. That being said, even if I could pick a problem, I know next to nothing about how to fix something so inefficient and bloated. The school food is awful-tasting, low-quality, and extremely unhealthy. It doesn’t help that the idiots known as our Congress decided to call pizza a vegetable. This just gives the tightwads in charge of buying food a reason to buy that sorry excuse for pizza instead of actual food. And when they actually do get us decent-tasting food they charge more than twice what the food should actually cost. I really don’t care though because I bring my lunch. So I don’t ever know why I brought this up. But hey, at least I’m not paying $20,000 a year to go to Sayre right?

Escuela

What problems exist in public school today and what can be done to fix them? What specific changes would you make at Henry Clay?

The first change I would make is to have a full time nurse because I think that it is important for students to feel like they are taken care of all the time and not just when the nurse is in. Also, I think Henry Clay is a little bit too crowded. I would increase the width of the hallways so that students couldn't get stuck behind one person walking painfully slowly to class who ends up holding up the entire hallway. Due to this overcrowding we have use mobile classrooms. I hate these. They are cold in the winter and hot in the summer. They take a long time to walk to. Students can't hear announcements between classrooms when they are walking to and from mobiles. I think they are not good all around. I would remodel the school and when I made the hallways wider also add classrooms so we had no need for any mobile classrooms.

Recession

I cannot say that I know much about what is going on with the economy or have any ideas as to how we should fix it. I don't watch the news so I don't know much of whats going on, only that our economy sucks. If only we could go back to living like the Indians did. We could just take all of our stuff and throw it in the ocean, we might have to worry about rising sea levels, and just go back to living in tepees and trading and hunting. It may sound a little barbaric but hey its a thought. Then of course we could implement the laissez faire system where we just let the economy work itself out. I think we may have been better off it we just did that in the first place, or at least that's what Mr. Pope was implying in class as we were watching a movie about the Great Depression. But like I said, I really don't know much about this issue or have any clue as to how to fix it. Good thing that's not my job.

Economics

Well, first of all I have absolutely no idea how the economy works or why it's so screwed up. I watched a documentary on all the ways the politicians and big businessmen made/make everything terrible for the rest of us and how they caused the recession, but I only got the general idea of what was wrong. Moreover, I hate politics or at least talking about politics. My sister has plenty of opinions on this issue and voices them readily but I honestly don't particularly know how to even begin helping it. So, my "plan" to fix the economy would be to somehow end all of the corruption that exists in our nation's leaders. We have laws against the influence of businesses on senators and officials and such, but most of the time those in power get away with a lot of dishonesty because the corruption goes too deep. Somehow we need to put non-greedy people in power who are willing to check the power of the corrupt and who will actually have enough power to do that. Unfortunately, the likeliness of anything like that is close to zero. Human nature leads us to greed eventually and there's no way to control the morality of our leaders fully. So, as I said before, I honestly don't know any way to help the economy except to hope that somewhere somebody does. Or that it'll all just level out eventually.

I have it!

its obvious how we fix the economy: we return to bartering! think about it: in this scenario, you pay for something with compromise, not set in stone value (which by the way is more like set in sand because waves of stimulus keep erasing the current value). sure, there would be a bunch of political turmoil to start with, maybe a couple people die here and there, but hey, world change isnt easy, and so far no ones agreed with anybody on anything that goes on in the world. EVENTUALLY, people would quit whining about not having enough money and start returning to old agricultural bartering ways. when this happens, manufacturing will crumble, which will lead to even MORE turmoil, but then eventually THAT will also slow down. FINALLY, once it all goes back to the way it was in the early 14th century, we can start rebuilding the ideas of oyur modern economy, creating a huge boom that will lead to prosperity for evryone in the later centuries. ITS PERFECT BECAUSE IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE, LIKE THE REST OF THE ECONOMY

Sticks & Stones

Although many people refuse to believe this, bullying is the biggest problem facing schools today. What most people do not realized is that if the person does not seem to be suffering from verbal/physical bullying, that does not mean that they do not feel that way on the inside. They may really be hurting, but they are trying to hide it. Whether the bullying is through face-to-face contact, or through the internet, it always hurts more than you think it does.

Other than bullying, I think that the biggest problem facing schools today is laziness. Students, including myself sometimes, are just not motivated to do their work at all. But, they get upset when their grades are bad, and refuse to accept the blame for their own personal short comings. This is a big problem, and one that could be easily fixed with a bit of students applying themselves.

Economy

Don't take any of this seriously.
There is a very simple solution to the economic crisis posed to the US government. We need to fully legalize all drugs. This would give the government a large, easy tax that they could regulate. It would stop gang related violence and gang membership. In addition, it would stop most of the crime that we have. To start our financial empire, the government should annex Mexico. Many of their citizens already want to live here. This would provide them with a better standard of living, less crime, more legitimate government, and a better economic system. We could provide these new citizens with lower paying farm jobs. These would be marijuana, opium, and other drug related farms. They would be able to have dozens of new job opportunities, pharmacy, farmer, drug rep, and others. Also, the New US would be a world wide market for drugs. We would set a new precedent that would hopefully cause other countries to legalize and go legitimate. There is already a huge demand for drugs. Why are over the counter drugs legal and recreational drugs not? The US government can create the supply, tax it and become prosperous again. If the moral problems are a dilemma, this immense revenue stream can be used to set up clinics to prevent overuse and overdosing of drugs, similar to AA clinics.

School Problems

If we're talking about schools in general, I think the main problem is bullying obviously. In the past few years, we've seen several cases of children being bullied for various reasons, sometimes leading to severe circumstances like suicide. Unfortunately, this issue can't go away so easily, but we have to try to work towards a solution steadily. There is no excuse for bullying, especially knowing that some who are found victim to it are unstable emotionally.

At Henry Clay specifically, the first thing that comes to mind is our overcrowding. We're over the school's capacity already, and I've heard that next year is going to be even worse. That isn't going to go away quickly, but at least there are feasible solutions to that. Other than that, Henry Clay has the same problems socially and administratively as any other high school. Issues that come up are usually dealt with, but there is always room for improvement in public schooling. I'd like to think it can only get better.

School Problems

I won't beat around the bush when addressing the biggest problem facing Henry Clay, over population. Our hallways are the equivalent of a New York City street, entertaining but over congested. However, as a public institution, we are required to serve those within our area and it is not possible to send a certain amount of the population elsewhere. As a result, I have established a fairly simple plan that should be effective at combating the problem of over population, especially in our own school: adjust the bell schedule. By this, I am suggesting that we release students of different grade levels at separate times as opposed to releasing the entire student body at the same, one hour intervals. For example, this system would have an individualized bell for Freshman and Sophomores, allowing them to leave class immediately after one hour has elapsed. The Juniors and Seniors would then be released shortly after by the sound of their respective bell. By implementing this method, hallway congestion in a school can be greatly reduced and students can navigate more efficiently.

Debt. Money. Ah!

I think the solution to debt is that we just don't have money anymore and go to the ole trade and barter system. You know, like I make a cookie for Bob and Bob gives me a pair of shoes. Great idea right? Cuz when you think about it, who wants to deal with all those numbers and taxes and debts anyway? It'd just we way easier if we idid like the Dairy Queen (DQ, right?) commercial and trade a rock for a fire torch. Of course you may have the occasional guy who hits people over the head with said rock to take both prizes, but really, that's what you deserve if all you can trade is a rock. Coming from someone who does a bazillion things, I sometimes feel like I would rather go back to those simpler times when the only time people can embezzle is if they outright take your money - none of this super spy wiring crap people can do on the computer nowadays. It's scary. If everyone just took care of what they needed to take care of, then exchanged for the things they can't I feel like we would be way less crazy and less dependent on the market to make our fortunes for us. I don't know, it's a crazy idea. And I don't know anything about the workings of money or the economy - nor do I really care to know - I just know that it was a much simpler system and that sounds real good right now.

Budget Problems

The United States owes a great amount of money to China. This is in addition to numerous problems with our domestic fiscal policy. That being said, there is a relatively simple approach to dealing with the deficit. We have to take a hard line against China. Raise tariffs and keep China back on their heels. For some reason people fear an extreme backlash from China over any potential trade war. In reality, China could do very little to hurt the United States. While they may be an economic superpower, they are not the military power that we are. They possess only a single aircraft carrier as opposed to our ten. And even this carrier is outdated and possesses mediocre planes to launch. Add to this the fact that this carrier isn’t even fully operational yet, and China looks more like a scared housecat than an Asian Tiger. They also lack the officers, especially admirals; necessary to operate the complex felt operations which go along with utilizing an aircraft carrier. Add this entire up and you come to three conclusions. One: they could not enforce any of the debts which we owe them should we choose not to pay them. Two: if a trade war escalated into a shooting war the American Navy would be more than a match for its Chinese counterpart. Three: A vast majority of Chinese trade goes through their ports. If we decide to close their sea lanes, they lack the power to do anything about it. They are relying on our goodwill to avoid becoming economically crippled. We hold the upper hand. We should act like it.

Fixing the Economy

I'm barely know anything about the topic, so i'll just give my own ideas formed from a couple of quick observations.
1. We are funding is it two wars now? A long time ago i read on some fancy schmancy pie chart that a quarter to a third of the entire budget of the federal government goes towards "defense." And i also remember that long ago the department of war was renamed to the department of defense. So, it appears that we are spending way too much money on wars that possibly should even be occurring. This seems like a natural place to save money.
2. The Republican party is generally composed of very wealthy individuals that seem to want to keep taxes lower to save their money. It is probably bad to negatively group all of these people together, but this is just want I hear out and about. So i guess raising taxes maybe not on just the 1% but everybody would help.

National Debt?

It is clear enough that there is no one particular cure for the sickness that is the United States national debt. But drastic times call for drastic measures and a new playbook to combat this growing crisis. With a clean slate of ideas to work with, it is important to remember that history repeats itself. Even the great depression was no match for the American way of bouncing back, so a good place to start is by asking what we did as a nation to recover from the darkest of times. The main stimulant for the economy was World War II, when our nation pulled through triumphantly against poor economy as well as other countries. This is what we need: a war. Not just any war, as the war in Afghanistan is doing all but helping our countries financial crisis. What we need is a new war, a war to combat unemployment as well as our enemies, as WWII achieved. We need to start a war with China. By choosing China as a target, we will fight the main cause of our debt, while improving our internal economy. Also, by beginning a new war, we will have valid cause to remove stationed soldiers from the middle east. Furthermore, an unprovoked attack on our Chinese trading partners will render them unprepared to oppose us. This will disrupt their industries, giving American corporations a much needed financial edge. Ultimately, starting a war with China is not the most moral option, but it is the most logical if we as a nation hope to free ourselves from national debt in our lifetimes.

Economy?????????????????????????????????

I think were writing about how to fix the national debt so here I go. It's obvious that our nation, the United States of America, and China have relations with each other, so what would China do without our communications? The answer to lowering the national debt is to stop talking China until they forget about our debt to them. China loves us, and can't live without us, so they always want to communicate with us and sell stuff to us. If we stopped all communications with China, they would go into a huge panic and do anything to restart business with us. So all we have to do is "start over" with them and drop our debt with them. I mean, what were they going to do with that money anyway, it's not like their Communism is tearing apart the government spending. So once we stop communicating with them, we give them about a month and start negotiating with them. If they don't agree, we threaten them, first more ignoring them, and then bombs. After the bomb talk comes, they'll do anything to get us back, and there, we lower our national debt.

Here is a picture of a scary velociraptor:

"It should be no surprise that that the United States faces a monstrous debt. Fix it."

As most people know, I am not a big political person... so I don't really have a big opinion on American debt other than I know it is bad. But I will do my best to write something intelligent on the issue. Since my mom is a teacher we watched School House Rock a lot when I was a kid so I knew all about the “Tyrannosaurus Debt”. The tour guide in the song told us about how it started during a war and he grew bigger every time we had a war so my first suggestion is to not increase the debt by getting involved in more wars. As to lower the debt I’m not really sure how to lower it other than not increasing it and not using too many tax cuts.

Well, this is the next one by my thinking...

Assignment 20

What problems exist in public school today and what can be done to fix them? What specific changes would you make at Henry Clay?

________________________

There are still plenty of problems in the schools of America today, ones that have been around for decades and ones that are just now arising. In most schools in America children are cyber bullied. In most schools in America you can find cases of drug use. In most schools in America children than are cyber bullied do drugs. Actually I don't know about that one.

Point is, there be problem with this here education system we got right here in good ol' Amurica. We can even trace those problems back to our own high school, Henry Clay, right here in good ol' Lexington.

For example, students have been caught using drugs and other illegal substances while at school. Although we probably don't report them, students have probably been cyber bullied as well. That's the nature of having technology, we gave up something to get it, in this case our privacy at home.

But what do we do about it?

How should I know? If I knew that I'd have done it already. Maybe there shouldn't be drugs. Like we could make that happen. Maybe there should be the internet. HA! GOOD ONE!

We have problems in our school system, and we just have to deal with it. There's no stopping them, only subduing them.

Fictional Solutions to Real Problems

Since I don’t know what prompt to do, here’s a marriage of the prompt about fictional characters and about school problems:

Problem: When students attempt to navigate through the green and orange hallways impassable traffic jams halt flow at the intersections, causing injury and tardiness.
Character: Professor Flitwick, the Hogwarts Professor of Charms
Solution: As the resident charms specialist, I’d come in especially early one Monday morning in order to bewitch the halls to seem wider to the navigator without infringing upon classroom space.  To top it off, I’d add the “ceiling reflects the outdoors” feature a la Great Hall.  We do not have enough windows.

Problem: Germs, germs, germs.  When one person gets sick, everyone falls.  Think of the Clorox commercial: Students touch everything, and 2400 other people touch the same everything.
Character: Dr. Nancy Jaax from The Hot Zone.
Solution:  Man, if I had to choose a high-risk job, I’d work with hot viruses.  I don’t know what it is about them. But.  In combating a series of outbreaks in a high school, I’d like to have her on my side.  She’d employ her CDC knowledge and fix us all!

Assignment Fun!

I am personally confused as to which assignment to do.  I know that this post exists:

Assignment 20

What problems exist in public school today and what can be done to fix them?  What specific changes would you make at Henry Clay?

(Thank you, Zea Wang and Alex Atwood)
Minimum 150 words - due Sunday, February 19 at 11:59 p.m.

Each of you is capable of thought, so decide for yo'self which assignment to do!  Happy blogging!

our next step

gonna go ahead and get 21 out of the way.
so, 100 years from now......
as i see it, there are two directions that human evolution/development have left and those are bionic/cybernetic advancements and genetic modification. what i mean is, the only way we can adapt further than we have is to begin integrating the primary advancement that makes us human and places us theoretically "above" other animals (science and technology) into our bodies. higher intelligence and more brain capacity, stronger more durable and all sorts of other physical betterments can be created this way. and the integration of machines and electronics. im not necessarily thinking teen titans style "cyborgs" but more than likely that cellphone you have glued to your hand will eventually become part of your hand, internet will not just engulf your free time and mental space but will be accessible from your brain. direct brain to brain messaging, sharing of mental space etc, will open up and millions of other options would come from there. these more durable, more intelligent human forms will live longer and other planets will be easier to inhabit. and then, on top of that, our genetic alterations can be used cosmetically, we can be taller, more muscles, hair colors can be changes, race could become obsolete, and then homo sapien sapiens will be homo sapiens cybernets.

Belle

There is no question about who I would want to be if I could be any fictional character. I would be Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast without a doubt. Of course every girl wants to be a princess, but I like her for other reasons too. In her town, she is kind of the outcast, but she is okay with it. She is a confident, young girl who isn't swayed by what society say she should do or think, which I admire. Everyone is in love with Gaston and thinks she should be too, but she sees who he really is and stands by her morals. She is also very loving. She sacrafices herself for her father, staying as the Beast's captive while her father goes back home. And of course she sees people for what they really are and not what they look like, which is the point of the whole movie.

since it already has some posts, im going to go ahead and try my hand at assignment 19.

our "recession" is currently in, last time i checked, a slight upswing. however, there are some important points that can further this. firstly, we change some of our "war on drugs" laws. mainly those dealing with punishment and incarceration. i'm in no way advocating drug dealing or things of that nature, but our current system is considerably more damaging than helpful.
nearly every instance of possession above a misdemeanor lands the defendant with a large chunk of jail time, as do literally any instance of selling. this does two things, one it requires our government to pay large amounts in food, space, and other things associated with incarceration, and two it leads to the formation of prison gangs (potentially the most violent and dangerous type of gangs). on top of increasing our debt and increasing violence both inside and out of the big house, it has done almost nothing to stop the drug problem, which still runs rampant through our nation in neighborhoods of every economic class.
the solution is to make more of these crimes punishable by fines. hefty fines. this would create governmental revenue as well as decreasing prison gangs and slowing the money we currently feed into the prison system.
and next, an even more controversial subject, legalizing marijuana. once again, i'm not trying to advocate drug use, but it's a serious idea. it would, once again, decrease money fed into the prisons, while also providing something that could be heavily taxed by the government.
of course, there are arguments against this legalization, but i believe them to be negligible. this can be compared to the eventual fall of prohibition in the fact that it is something done on a massive scale and causes inebriation, but honestly, every study i have read (which is several) has come to the conclusion that Marijauna (and several other "drugs") are less dangerous than alcohol. alcohol typically causes violence, addiction, and can lead to vehicular crashes, none of which is caused by Marijuana. on top of this, hemp paper is more affordable and typically better than our regular kind, thus providing America with yet another resource in our beautiful country.

No one knows what it means, but it's provocative... It gets the people going!

If I could be any fictional character, I'd definitely be U.S. skating star Chazz Michael Michaels from Blades of Glory. From making such a controversially homosexual sport straight, to his awesome name, to his great musical preferences, no one knows how to live other than Chazz Michael Michaels. After growing up through a troubled childhood (if yopu call a 9 year old kid with a 35 year old girlfriend troubled), Chazz was able to turn odds around in his favor and become an idol. Chazz is a mental giant able to figure out answers to complex problems such as how to get back into ice-skating. Not to mention his hair "shines like Orion's Belt out on the ice." His personal philosophy is quote, "Clothing optional." The guy is a walking piece of awesome. There's no beating Chazz Michael Michaels. Might I also mention he is the Rug Master? So you better step aside homeschool, there's a new Sheriff in town.

edward. cullen

never mind, the titles a lie. this is a ridiculously difficult question, nearly every book i read, my favorite characters die. often brutally. v, from v for vendetta has lived a horribly painful life, Simon from lord of the flies is ultimately beaten to death, William lee from naked lunch is too much of a junkie, and johnny truant from house of leaves combines two of the previous with the implication of a third. so, i chose Finn, from adventure time.

because swag. or better yet, because he's happy, because his friends are always loyal, and because the world he is fortunate enough to occupy is filled to the brim with wonder. there's always something new and exciting and trippy to do.
the combination of his surroundings, his moral compass, and his flowing luxurious hair, make him the best character i can even think of.