Junior English Second Semester Final project

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Song of Solomon reading reflection

What has been most challenging for me while reading “Song of Solomon”, by Toni Morrison, is all of the characters, their relationships to one another, and the time that passes between each passage. When we first began reading, it was hard to tell who the book was primarily focusing on and in the first couple of chapters had a lot of minor characters who did some pretty strange actions that dont really come back up again(example: Porter—crazy man on roof threatening to kill himself) and it was hard to tell where the storyline was going. Also, I often got Pilate, Reba, and Hagar mixed up as they are often all grouped together and I often got their relationships to one another as well as their relationships to Milkman and Macon mixed up. The last thing that was challenging for me was when there would be a paragraph break, indicating a large jump in time. This jump in time could be a few days, weeks, or years, so the author throws you into the middle of a situation with little to no background and you have to figure out how much time has passed.

To address these challenges, I read the book very carefully and slowly as there are a lot of small details to pick up on. Specifically, whenever there is a new character I always annotate that in my book and write what relation they have to which character if it comes up. Also, to tell apart Reba, Pilate, and Hagar, I annotated who each was for the first couple of chapters until I picked up on it and could differentiate them. If there is a strange occurrence, or a character acts in a strange way, I go back and re-read the section carefully until I have fully understood what’s taking place. For when there were changes in time, I would mark it in between paragraphs and annotate anything that has changed between characters over the time jump. Specifically in the photo below I think I did a good job of marking time period indications and new characters. On this page, I was a bit confused on what “Hospital Tommy” was saying to Milkman, so I re-read it a few times and wrote in the margin my interpretation of what he was saying. I also wrote any questions or confusions I had of the passage in the margins. These tactics have all really helped me while reading the book, and although it is challenging I definitely think this makes it a lot more doable.

Countries of Origin

For my blogpost, I will be writing about my countries of origin. My dad’s side of the family originally came from Croatia, and my mothers side of the family originally came from Germany. I’ve talked to my dad about coming from Croatia quite a lot, and I learned that my great grandfather was the first of his family to migrate to the US. He came over through Ellis Island sometime between the 1920s-1930s. Our last name was originally Romich, but at Ellis Island they cut off the “h” to make it easier to pronounce. He moved to Chicago, where he raised my grandpa, and where my grandpa raised my father. My mother’s side of the family came from Germany in the 1860’s to New York City via a boat, before Ellis Island existed. My mothers maiden name is Schneckloth, which they did not change when they migrated over, but you can tell it is very german sounding. They settled in Iowa as farmers, and that is where my mom grew up, but moved to Chicago with my dad after they were married. We visited Germany about 3 years ago as my mom always had wanted to go because it’s where her family is from, and we have discussed maybe visiting Croatia eventually, as my dad’s mom and dad visit there quite frequently. We have a few family friends in Germany that we often write to, and when we visited we visited them as well and they were able to show us a lot of the German culture, from food to holiday traditions, and it was very interesting to see the country that my family originates from. I think that if everyone has the chance to, at some point in their lives, they should visit the countries they originated from because its very interesting to see where your roots come from.

How your morning routine could be affecting your health

Coffee is something that’s a part of a lot of peoples regular morning-routines, teenagers being a large percentage of those people. Teenagers are among the fastest growing consumers of caffeine, but all of the caffeine could be affecting teenagers in alarming ways. In an article by newsela.com titled “Teens like their trendy caffeinated drinks, but there are health concerns” they talk about the different risks of caffeine on adolescents health. They say caffeine can “amplify your anxiety, compromise tonight's sleep, and make performing well in school tomorrow difficult. It can also inhibit your body from absorbing important nutrients, dehydrate your cells, and when mixed with alcohol, causes real trouble.” They mention that caffeine is considered a drug and it has the ability to change the brains functioning, and cam affect ones thinking and behavior. With so many teenagers drinking it everyday, do you think its safe for people to start drinking it at such a young age? If you drink it, has it ever affected your mood or learning? How? 

What’s Fair and Unfair about School Dresscodes?

There has been a lot of controversy and debate around school dress codes, and whether or not they are rules made in order to discriminate against girls. Schools imply rules stating that certain clothing is distracting  to other students, taking the focus off of learning and placing it on girls bodies. 

An example of this was given in an article by Newsela, “A video on the dress code policy at Marcus High School in Texas showed only girls as rule violators. The video went viral. In St. Louis, Missouri, Oakville High School's principal is on video apologizing to parents after telling female students they should not show off their bodies for fear of "distracting" male classmates.” (https://newsela.com/read/do-dress-codes-discriminate-against-girls/id/46250/) Many schools claim that a dress code prevents distraction and creates an appropriate and safe learning environment. But, over the past few years, there have been many internet posts showing real-life experiences of dress code for girls, causing outrage, with people saying that it is wrong to disrupt a girls school day and send them out of class, easily humiliating them. 

This brings us back to the title of the blog: What is fair and unfair about school dresscodes? Do they provide rules for an appropriate, non-distracting learning environment, or are they rules implied to discriminate against girls and make them feel guilty for wearing certain clothing?

Should It Be a Crime to Avoid Vaccines?

Vaccines have become a hot-topic issue in today’s world. Some parents take the side that vaccines are useless, as they claim the side effects are more harmful than the disease itself, while others take the opposing side that all kids should be vaccinated, as they are greatly effective at stopping these sometimes deadly diseases. Growing up, vaccines were something that were so routine, so the question is how did we get to the point were there’s a debate on whether or not kids should mandatorily have to get them? 

The side of the argument in support of vaccines being mandatory is that vaccination has gotten rid of, and continues to prevent, disease. In a newsela article(https://newsela.com/read/pro-con-vaccines/id/41934/) the pro side of vaccines explains from research that “The Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly 750,000 American children were saved from 1994 to 2014 because of vaccines. These programs are 90 percent to 99 percent "effective in preventing disease," according to the American Academy of Pediatrics”. Besides these facts, still not everyone is convinced that vaccines are effective. Their other argument is that unvaccinated kids are at dangerous health risks: “Unvaccinated kids are 6.5 times more likely to be hospitalized with pneumonia, according to Scientific American. They are 23 times more likely to develop whooping cough and nine timesmore likely to catch chickenpox”. 

The opposing viewpoint is that vaccines should not be required, only encouraged. Some parents believe that the vaccines side effects might be worse than the actual disease itself, or that vaccinated children are actually more sick than non vaccinated, and therefore some people believe that parents should have their own decision on whether or not to vaccinate their children. They believe that the government should not interfere with their own or their child’s medical care, although they could potentially be putting themselves and others at great risk if not vaccinated. Do you think that, even if it puts others at risk, people should be able to choose to vaccinate their kids? Or should it be mandatory by the government, and if parents don’t follow this mandatory rule to vaccinate their children, how should the government handle it?