Burning Questions

Collegial: marked by camaraderie among colleagues: working, creative, and professional relationship.

I have a collegial relationship with another teacher in another state. I have never met him personally, but through his writing and communication, his viewpoints on life and education speak to me. He is a kindred educational spirit.

His students operate this blog, Social Voice, where they pose and ponder many of the same questions you do. Give it a read:

http://socialvoice.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEIJING – Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China’s frigid northeast, state media said Friday.

A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.

Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.

Did you know that:

China now has more billionaires than any other country besides the United States, according to Forbes magazine.

Chile’s earthquake compared to Haitian one: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011211974_twoquakes28.html

Why are we required to have at least 12 years of education? People in the old days had maybe a 4th grade education and they thought that you’re supposed to learn by living life, life lessons. So why is it that now-a-days we’re supposed to have a high school education, graduate, have good grades just to get a job and acquire our life lessons?

Editor’s Note:

I think this is a great question. However, just to know, I made at least five grammar, spelling, and punctuation changes; also, I would like more clarification on the “old days.” Also in the “old days,” we had children working in factories 12 hours a day, disease, illiteracy, social class stratification, no chance for improvement with your quality of life, and rampant racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism. I, for one, appreciate my ability to have an education, as a woman, as a free citizen, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Sitting in a classroom, wondering why you’re there, that it’s a waste of time, is the biggest travesty of all. You’re safe, you’re warm, and you’re free to create, to think, to question. The fact that your teacher created this blog for you to post your opinion on is something someone in the ‘old days’ would never have been allowed to do, much less be able to do.

Now, the real burning question may be: How do others decide what are the most valuable things to do during your twelve years of free public education, paid for by the tax payers, as part of the social contract we have all agreed upon. We want future generations to be strong, to be smart, to have a voice, and to think for themselves. If we’re not doing that, then we do indeed need to be questioned.

What do you think about this?

Read this article, and think:

http://www.gladlywoulditeach.com/2010/02/09/13-year-old-quarterback-commits-to-usc/

Did his parents push him too hard?

What if it doesn’t work out?

Are you jealous, or do you think it’s ridiculous?

What is the teacher really questioning? What’s it REALLY about?

http://www.kidzone.ws/WATER/

     I read a lot of different articles and  opinions people thought about the world running out of water some day or if they didn’t. This story changed my thought of everything and what i thought about it. when i first start to read articles I thought that one day we will run out of water, but when I found this articles and start thinking that we may never run out of water. In this articles they were talking about the water cycle and how that works.The cycle is evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. Evaporation is when the sun heats up water and turns it into steam. Condensation is when water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid which forms clouds. Precipitation is when there is too much water has condensed and the clouds can’t hold any more, so the clouds get heavy and the water falls back in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow. Collection is when the water falls back on earth as precipitation and lands back in oceans, rivers, and lakes which start the cycle over again. When I read this it made me think that we may never run out of water. Did you know that the same water that was around when there were dinosaurs is still around now? when i read that part of the articles I thought, if the water lasted for that many years, then what makes people think it cant last another  hundred years. So after really knowing the water cycle, I strongly believe that we will not run out of water.

JM………….

When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.  ~Jean-Paul Sartre

When I first had read this quote then I was thinking in my head that this quote is true. I don’t get why the rich people don’t have to suffer and the poor do and so do their families. People say that War is Peace. But in my opinion that is all wrong. To me war is not peace because only one side gets peace. Why don’t people think about the people that had sacrificed their lives? Plus all those families that had lost someone that had been dear to them. To me war is nothing but disaster.

Teenagers make adult actions without thinking. One big mistake teenagers do is have sexual intercourse without using protection. Many say, “My baby wasn’t a mistake, but I should have waited until I was older.”

If light doesn’t always mean good and dark doesn’t always mean evil, then what is good and evil? How can you tell the difference?

We are too dependent on technology because now we have students in middle school, who have labtops. Everyone in middle school has a labtop. I think that labtops might be a little bit over the top. Maybe labtops do help you with your learning or it might be a complete waste of time and money.