Reflecting on the First Marking Period

    Eleventh grade is a really busy and chaotic year for everyone, as students attempt to juggle various APs, Honors classes, and extracurricular committments within the average school day. With such busy schedules, half the grade is probably deprived of sleep already. Out of all this confusion, especially from the wide-ranging material we have covered in Pre-Calc and AP Biology so far, it was a great relief to end the day with Language Arts, at least one class that wasn't incredibly stressful and mind-boggling (though time management was needed with weekly blog posts, themes, and independent reading projects going on simultaneously). I think one of the reasons why Language Arts wasn't so hectic was that I actually liked the book we were assigned this first marking period. Unlike the very strange Like Water for Chocolate from last year which was horrid, To Kill A Mockingbird actually had deeper meaning, a well-thought out plot, and sufficient character development. It was more relatable and enjoyable than previous core novel assignments with likable characters and humor, as well as an interesting historical setting. Another thing I liked about Language Arts this first marking period was how we used blog posts for analysis and connections instead of having to fill out endless worksheets, something I have been used to doing in other classes. Also, the To Kill A Mockingbird chapter quizzes were reasonable and objective. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Mogg provided keynotes packets, which came in handy for studying. I hope that by the year's end, my study habits and time management skills will improve.

Waiting on the World to Change (Blog #5: Musical Connection)

    The song Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer is a "perfect fit" to To Kill A Mockingbird in its theme of changing the world. John Mayer intended his song to raise the question of why people today see injustice in the world but just wait around for change to happen -- without stepping up to make a difference themselves.

"Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it"

"One day our generation
is going to rule the population
so we keep on waiting, waiting
Waiting on the World to Change"

    The generation that is waiting for the change to come in TKAM is the generation of Scout, Dill, and Jem -- the children who realize that everything is not okay in the world, with the way whites treat colored people or those of lower social status.  However, they feel like they don't have the means, or the ability, to change anything in the world of grown-ups. Jem especially gets frustrated after the jury unanimously declares Tom Robinson to be guilty. When Scout's second grade teacher, Ms. Gates, informed the class about Hitler's discrimination of the Jews in Europe, Scout is confused and asks Jem why people are allowed to hate Hitler for the evil things he did to the Jews in Europe, if people were discriminating here in Maycomb too. One kid in the class even said it was bad to do so to the Jews because "they were white, ain't they?", showing the great inequality between the races at the time. Scout also is upset when Aunt Alexandra tells her not the hang around with Walter Cunningham because he is inferior to them. In this way, the characters of TKAM (or at least the children) are aware of the wrongs of society and are waiting on the world to change, or else growing up until they can do something about it.

Blog #4: Emmett Till: Where do you see social injustice today?

Social justice - (n) is the equal enforcement and protection of laws in a society without prejudice, regardless of race, gender, religion, or wealth.

    Although the world in general has made much progress in this area within the past half-century, social injustice is still evident in many societies today. Even in America, where we pride ourselves in fairness, freedom, and justice, this egalitarian ideal has yet to be reached. In 1955, an African American boy was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi, for supposedly flirting with a twenty-one year old white woman. The boy's name was Emmett Till, and he was just 14 years old, simply visiting his relatives at the time. The two murderers, Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J. W. Milam, kidnapped, beat, and shot Emmett before dumping his body into the river. Yet they were acquitted by the all-white jury and later even boasted about the murder in a Look magazine interview. In May 2004, the Department of Justice condemned the verdict a "grotesque miscarriage of justice."
     Even more recently, in December 2006, another social injustice arose in what was known as the Jena Six. A group of six black teenagers, Robert Bailey (age 17), Mychal Bell (16), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Theo Shaw (17), and Jesse Ray Beard (14), were convicted of assaulting Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Louisiana. Although only one of them could be legally tried as 18 years of age, five of them were at first charged as severely as an adult. Many civil rights advocates protested against the court, condemning the punishments as un-proportionate. Moreover, in the background of the confrontation was accumulating racial tension and conflict, beginning in August 2006. During a back-to-school assembly at the high school, an African American student asked the assistant principal whether he and his friends could sit under a school tree, which had been largely known as the "White Tree," a gathering spot for white students. The principal said yes, of course. However, the next morning, several rope nooses were found hanging from the tree -- highly offensive and considered as racial intimidation by many, especially in a town where 85% of the population is white with a strong history of racial conflict. Subsequent fighting broke out in the following months. As a result, the Jena Six case raised the question of how much race plays a part in the American justice system of the South.


References
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmjustice5.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/louisiana/jena/index.html