Blog Post #5 -- Social Justice Issues

Recently, we have been discussing social justice issues. Social justice issues range from getting cut in front on in a line, all the way to civil rights issues. These issues are also everywhere in our daily lives. One inquiry that connects to social justice issues is: How does society push teens into having a one track mind?
When I say society, I'm talking about our overall community as a whole - from babies to elders and everything in between. We are constantly being pressured and influenced by society, even if we may not recognize it. This influence almost always has an effect or consequence. If a little boy wears a pink shirt, and a few boys in his class make fun of him, that is society's pressure. If that boy doesn't wear the shirt again, that would be society's impact or influence.
Sometimes, society creates a negative impact and affects people's mindset. For example, in many classes I have, teachers push us to accept that there is only one right way to do things. They are a very important part of society, because they teach children and teens what they need to know. So when they insist that there is only one right way to do things, they are creating an impact on teens and making them have a one-track mind.
 Another way that society pushes teens into having a one-track mind is through social acceptance and a standard of beauty. For example, our society (human-beings as a whole) has become infatuated with this standard of beauty that is exceedingly hard to reach. Teens boy or girl have become one-track-minded in the sense that anything that is not up to society's standard of beautiful is "ugly" or unpleasantly different.
In conlusion, society influences how we think of things daily. Even if we don't notice it,  society changes the way you view something. Whether it's a little boy in a pink shirt, or a girl not feeling beautiful, the affects of society are apparent in our world and in our community's. Try thinking about how society has changed you, think about how it's changed everyone else.

Blog Post #4 -- Social Justice

            In our daily lives, there are many examples of social justice as well as social injustice. Justice is something that creates fairness and equality. Social justice is the matter of justice occurring among social classes and/or communities, which is something that is not the government can completely control. This means that its up to people to make their community a more just place. The recent reading inquiry we had was to take note of the world around us, including social justice/injustice. This inquiry made notice how much social justice and injustice goes on around us everyday.

            One example of social justice I saw is when I was on the train and I saw a woman with many children give a homeless man $2. This to me was social justice. I think this was social justice because the woman had many children to look after, she found money to give to someone less fortunate than she. If everyone in our community did what this woman did and found just a little money to give to the needy, we would have less hunger and   our community would be a better place.

            Another thing that I noticed was when I was walking my little sister to her friends house, we passed a man on his phone who was yelling and cussing at the person on the other end. In my eyes, this was a social injustice. I think this is an injustice because you need to be aware of the people and things around you. This man did not notice the 9-year-old in his midst, and said words that I believe to be inappropriate for her to hear. My little sister actually repeated one of the milder words that this man said later that night, quickly apologizing and taking it back. This shows how great an affect surroundings have on people.

            In conclusion, social justice is really a responsibility that everyone in a community needs to fulfill in order to create a community that everyone is happy to be a part of. If we all create one social justice a day in our lives, I community would be greatly improved. Everyone should be aware of what they are doing and saying, and should also be aware of what they can do to make their community (and society)  a better place to be.

Blog Post #3 -- Banned Books

            In the literature world, the latest debate has been over whether or not some YA novels with darker themes are appropriate or/and should be banned. Many newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal have voiced multiple opinions through articles. Books such as Captain Underpants by Dave Pilkey, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, all three of which I have read, have been banned in some schools. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Indian and Thirteen Reasons Why are both books that I have intensely loved and thought about long after I returned them to my school library, and that is because of one simple reason: they connected to my life.
            When I pass by people in the hallways and hear bits and pieces of gossip-y conversation, I think of Hannah Baker in Thirteen Reasons Why and wonder how much of the gossip is true. When I see my dog when I go home and think of how much I love her, I think of the kind of pain Arnold in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian must of have felt when his father killed his dog. These books make me a more sympathetic person and connected to so many other people's lives, so when I learned that they have been banned in many schools and public libraries, it angered me.
             In the real world, much like in worlds we read about in the dystopian novels that have been banned, many people are struggling to censor art and filter what we read. To me, that is almost unjust. We should have the right to read about the topics we want, no matter how raw and dark they may be. Because the fact is, by not being allowed to read these types of topics we are put in a sort of bubble, where we are kept from recognizing the reality of these situations. Having connected the reality of these books to how much they open up my eyes about the realities of my own world, I believe that books with darker themes that affect teenagers should be permitted in middle school libraries, because they connect directly to our lives.
            For example, in an article Sherman Alexie wrote for the Wall Street Journal about the banned book debate, he stated, "I spoke to sixty students who'd come from sixteen different districts and had survived depression, attempted suicide, gang warfare, sexual and physical abuse, absentee parents, poverty, racism and learning disabilities in order to graduate." All of these teens have clearly endured somethings that would be too horrible for many people to even imagine happening. Books that have teens going through many difficult things show these teens who have survived horrendous affairs that they are not alone, and that it is possible for a teen to make it through difficult times.
              If parents are worried about their child's emotional reaction to these books with darker themes, they should censor their children, but not drag everyone down along with them and make the decision for their child's school, as if they were that entire school's parent. Because if one parent decides that a book with a girl who is bullied is not only inappropriate for their child, but for the whole school and bans it, that entire school will miss out on an opportunity to learn about the dangers of bullying and how to stop it. Because that one parent prevents everyone from reading a book, students remain ignorant to the bullying occurring in their lives and how to stop it.
             YA novels keep us from becoming callous and unsympathetic, and help us to recognize the things that need to be fixed in this world. The more books are banned, the more students are missing countless opportunities to learn about the world around them, and how they are not alone in the struggles they are enduring.

           

Blog Post #2 -- I'm Noticing in My Book

Crossed by Allie Condie is a science fiction novel filled with romance and danger. In this book, the main character Cassia has been told not to love a boy named Ky, who is an Abberation or a low-ranking criminal. The Society is a governmental system that controls everything about everyone. Despite the Society, Cassia finds herself falling for Ky, who is strong, brave and sensitive. Society discovers Cassia’s love for Ky, and they are boarded onto planes and shipped off to work camps, where Ky is a decoy villager and Cassia is a miner. In a split second, Cassia boards a plane leaving for the Outer Provinces (a string of civilizations) in the hopes of finding Ky. Cassia is then put in a work camp that is near the Carving, a large network of canyons, and Ky is near the carving as well. The two both decide to risk everything they’ve ever loved and dash into the carving in search of each other.         

While Cassia and Ky are in the Carving, I noticed how they both noticed the same landmarks that were in the canyons. For example, Ky took note of a tree that had a burn in it that was caused by a lightning strike, and then not more than 2 chapters later, Cassia notices the same tree. The author used this as a for of foreshadowing that Cassia and Ky were in the same canyon, and also that there was a very good chance that the two would find each other.         

I think that this shows how Cassia and Ky have the same instincts and both trust their will. If Cassia had decided to run into the Carving, but Ky had decided that it was too much of a risk, they would have never found each other. The fact hat they not only both noticed the same tree on the side of the canyon wall, or the small frozen river and the fish frozen with it, but that they both concluded that there was no risk big enough to take if it gave them the chance to find each other.         

Like Ky and Cassia, there are many risks that I could take in my life. One risk that I am faced with in my life is that I could decide to opt into academic program at Murrow, or I could decide to take the risk and audition for other schools. I think that Cassia and Ky have also displayed a connection that is more than both deciding to take a risk and both noticing the same tree – they both love each other so much, that they’re willing to loose their family, their home and all they’ve ever loved, just for the off chance that they’ll find each other in a vast canyon complex after they’ve been separated by the world-dominating government that wants them dead. That to me is so why the small details that I took note of matter so much to the story of Cassia and Ky. 

Blog Post #1 -- Teens In Y.A. Novels

How are Teens Represented in Y.A. Novels?

         The book I'm currently reading is called Crossed, by Ally Condie. This is the sequel to the book Matched, and in these two books, the main characters are Cassia and Ky. They are two teens/young-adults who have been separate by the Society, a sort of organization that creates rules and limits all creativity so that everyone is "equal" in this seemingly perfect world. In Crossed, Cassia and Ky both escape from Society and set out to find each other and gain more information about a rebelion they've heard about called the Rising. In this book, I realized that Cassia and Ky have endless faith and hope that they will be reunited. This is different from other books I have read, where teens and young-adults are being shown doing things like drinking in drugs in order to be accepted socially. In Crossed however, teens are being represented as brave, strong independent people fighting for their rights.