High School Hazing: post #5

On my last post for this book, i want to compare and contrast from this book and the video "Hazed" that we just watched in class. The book focused more on how hazing is bad and why its bad and where its affecting most poeple. The video focused more on college hazing and what happens when alcohol is mixed with hazing. The book touchs the subject, but not to the extent or seriousness that the video had. The video also focused around Colorado University and the story of a young man who died after being at college his freshman year for 1 month. The video was deffinatly more affective on how it struck me and got to me because of the outragousness of the story. But it did not end with any solutions, just the tragedy. The story basically continued onto what happened with the family and the frat house. The book on the other end offered how to pin point bullying/hazing and how to attack it with ways such as: establishing welcome programs for first-year and transfer students, reconsider all traditions in all school groups, don't get caught up in groupthink, urge ur school to adopt a statement of awareness, create a spirit of camaraderie, Tell a parent or another responsible adult when you need help, stuff like that and the list goes on. I think the problem is more serious than the solutions that Hank Nuwer gave. Yes hazing is a lot about tradition and competition and intimidation, but its also about rebellion and being dangerous and pushing the limits. The best example is obviously binge drinking and that is a problem that will be so hard to stop because a lot of people have to a agree to a lot of terms. In a Rolling Stones article, it says that the Phi Delta Theta would average 12.3 liability claims a year and $812,951, but since becoming alcohol free they average 3 claims and $15,388. This is a very good solution that showed big changes but it would be hard to spread this idea throughout other frats.

High School Hazing: post #4

The last chapter of this book struck a very important question to all who notice and see hazing as a problem. Can hazing be stopped? Nuwer says, "If hazing in the United States is to be stopped or even curtailed, it must be attacked as the pervasive social problem that it is. If addressed as a problem in health and social studies classes, hazing can perhaps be best understood in the context of other human rights abuses such as racism and harassment." What I was able to gather from this chapter was... possibly? I mean, given that everybody realizes that what goes on is hazing, realizes how bad it is, and gives effort to stop hazing, do you really think this will happen? Kids constantly go against their parents, simple rules at school, and major laws in the real world all the time! Kids in high school and college haze as tradition, and it is hard to change tradition when the hazing has been done on the kids in past years. I think the real problem with hazing is when alcohol gets involved and i think ultimately that's what needs to be stopped. When alcohol gets involved, peoples bodies are hurt and damaged, and as I've learned people can also die. There's no doubt that this is a serious problem in my mind, but I know its not the same for other teenagers and college students. If death won't scare the kids enough to stop, I don't know what else will.

High School Hazing post #3

One of the chapter's in the book, High School Hazing, is dedicated to bullying and hazing in sports. Before i started the chapter, i thought back to all the teams that i had been a part of, and i thought if there was really any hazing. Of course i remembered a few instances when i found a kid "annoying" and i couldn't help but pick on him, but it was all in the purpose of team building and chemistry. Is that okay? Was it terrible of me to tease and push my teammates around? What i learned from this chapter is that even though i think its okay, i can't automatically assume it is. A lot of what the book refers to is college type hazing, with alcohol. And in my little experience, i have never been around hazing that involves alcohol. This quickly made me think about next year... when i go to college. Am i going to get hazing and be forced to drink way too much? Will i be pushed around by older teammates or other upper upperclassmen? As of right now i can only hope that none of that will happen to me.

High School Hazing: post #2

Something that Nuwer said in his first chapter really struck me. He said, "However, as less vigilant high schools, people who tend to get involved in clubs and activities may be subjected to hazing not just once but many times." This shocked me because as freshman you are encouraged to try out for many sports and join lots of clubs and groups so you can meet new people. But for a weak individualy (not just physically but emotionally and mentally) this could be potentially dangerous because you are more likely to be exposed to older individuals which leads to the possibility of hazing or bullying. This comes more into affect though in college where students must do pledges in order to get into the fraternities or sororities. I quickly developed a question after reading this: why is bullying such a big deal NOW, even though its been around for so long and it has never come across as a huge deal to most of society before? Lucky, my question was answered, "as reports of hazing are heard more frequently on the nightly news, in school board meetings, and in professional journals, one conclusion is unmistakable: hazing in high schools across the country is becoming an increasingly pervasive probelm that students, parents, school administrators and educators, and communities must address-and in a preventive way." Nuwer strongly believes this because while bullying problems can be small in high schools, it can also be a huge problem when gangs start to get involved and rituals start to form, and then drugs and alcohol get involved and can create huge problems for schools.

High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs, by : Hank Nuwer. intro post

I chose to read the book, High School Hazing, for my second semester outside reading book because its a slightly knewer topic of issues. Its starting to come up more on the media, which obviously would follow the schools attention. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the book because hazing doesn't seem like an extremely important topic to me, but to others its a major issue. At the end of the introduction paragraph, Nuwer says, "Once you understand why students haze and submit to hazing, you'll not only be able to resist getting involved yourself, but you'll be able to talk sense with your classmates before they make mistakes that could haunt their lives forever." This sentence at the end of the chapter really stuck out to me because its so powerful and it shows the authors passion and how serious he is about hazing and bullying. And, because he's treating this topic with full seriousness, so will I.

"Blacks better off during slavery?"

As i scrolled through the Chicago Tribune website looking for an interesting article, i come across a headline that says, "Blacks better off during slavery?" i suddenly stopped and thought "... What?" The first  sentence reads, "Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, told video blogger Mike Stark of StarkReports.com  on Friday that blacks are “more devastated” today than when they were enslaved because of the high rate of abortion among some blacks." Now this simply could have been some random conservative radical blogging about his feelings but it wasn't... It was from a congressman in Arizona. But then i thought again, I'm just a 17 year old kid and this man is probably a highly educated man so he probably has learned through extensive years of education that abortions are the same as being enslaved and working nearly all hours of the day, being treated like dirty, being poorly fed, being whipped and beaten, and threatened and scared for your life every day. During slavery many blacks were brutally beaten and whipped and cut and burned and hung. To me slavery and abortions are nothing alike. Not even close. Not even remotely close. I think this man is so rediculously ignorant and nieve. African Americans were FORCED into slavery and made to do dirty work and were treated worse than lets say a capture skunk from under my portch and i hired someone to kill the skunk and take the family out from under my portch. Abortions are a choice made by a woman, and its a choice that can help stabalize their life if they are not able to take care of a child. A woman who gets an abortion is not whipping and beating and burning and hanging their possible child.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=459Dny0aabI&feature=player_embedded

"White Like Me"

I have just read a chapter called "Privilege," from the book called "White Like Me." The author, Tim Wise, states his thesis/question in this chapter, "that to be white is to be born to certain advantages and privileges that have been generally inaccessible to others-it would still be possible to argue that, unfair as that may be, we should just move on. Such persons might argue that the past can't be undone, and anyway, the fact that white folks in previous generations created a system of racism and white supremacy is not the fault of whites living today. so why should whites today have to deal with the residue of other folks' actions?" After reading through this extensive chapter, i agree with Tim, white today are privileged because of Americas past, because we are the majority, and because of racism and prejudice. I think it is unfair and wrong but it's something that needs to be faced head-on. We cannot just look past our problems of race and act like it isn't there because it is and its very real. Tim says, "Rather, the most commonly heard refrain from educators, in my experience with them, is something to the effect that they 'treat all kids the same and don't even see color' when they look at them. Putting aside the absurdity of the claim itself-studies have long indicated that we tend to make very fine distinctions based on color, and that we notice color differences almost immediately-color blindness is, in fact, not the proper goal of fair-minded educators in the first place. The kids in those classrooms do have a race, and their race matters, because it says a lot about the kinda of challenges they are likely to face. To not see color is; as Julian Bond had noted, to not see the consequences of color." Now i know that's a very long quotes but i find it very important. The goal is NOT to see everyone the same because nobody is the same. It is obvious that a white man and a black man are not the same, and even two white men are not the same. To look at everyone the same is to be ignorant and it is taking away from what people do to make them be unique. If a teacher sees all their students the same, then they cannot see the students that struggle and need help in their class because they put all of the students on the same level. Tim Wise talked about teachers and how if you attatched them to a polyograph and asked them questions refering to racial groups, if the teacher was honest and said that they see no racist or classist views then they would be thanked and sent away; but if they endorsed that then the school sees it as a potential danger and fires them. What do teachers think? I have no idea, But i want to end my post with this quote... "It doesn't matter, by the way, if you're a white kid who grew up around black and brown folks. It doesn't matter if you had black freinds-I mean  really  had them, and really friends, not just acquaintances. If you're white you simple will not, cannot, understand race, or even see that race matters at that age. there is no reason that you should; no experience would have forced the issue; and few parents would have sat you down to begin the lesson."

Affirmative Action

In my personal opinion i think that it's up to the school to decide what kind of student (race,ethnicity, gender) they want to accept into their university. Whatever the university puts into its mission statement is what the university should stand by. If the university decides to only accept Asians into their college then so be it, that's completely up to them because its their university, their rules, so they can make whatever kind of decisions they want whether its fair or not simple because its THEIR university, not the governments or the courts or the peoples university. Someone owns the college and they view their college in a certain way so they are going to have it that way despite what some people think of it. In all honesty why would someone even want to go to a college that doesn't want them... it doesn't make sense to me.

Stepping back though and going back to the main point, I think its more fair for the university's to look at students as a whole, rather than tear them apart and break them down to numbers. I would rather a university look at me as a student with a decent GPA, bad ACT score, a student who has improved through his high school career, an athlete, and an employed student. To me that sounds a lot better than being classified as... 25? 37? 7? Both ways have the possibility of giving the university what they want but i would rather someone be able to tell me I can't go to their university because my scores weren't good enough and I wasn't a dedicated student, instead of telling me i fell 3 points short of being accepted because to me that means absolutely nothing.

side note: I applaud the students who fight university's because they find it unfair that they don't accepted, but the way i see it is that i would much rather go to a worse school that wants me to be there, than a better school that doesn't want me and doesn't think I'm good enough for them




Mr. Kramer i hope you read this

Terrol Swift

On January 17, 2012, Terrill Swift was released from prison for being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. On February 14, nearly one month later the same man came to Deerfield High School to share his story with a group of teen aged students. His story was not only compelling and inspiring, but it also taught me that sadly our rights must be fought for. Terrill's story told me that we can't take our every day virtues for granted, especially our rights. The whole point of Terrill's visit was to teach us about how important it is to know what your rights are because when your in the heat of the moment like Terrill was, you have to know that if you want an attorney with you that you have the right for that and no police officer can take that away from you. Terrill wasn't wrongfully convicted because he was stupid and there was certainly not a lot he could do about the situation/ This man was set up by the Chicago Police because when theres a murder/rape on their table, they have to arrest somebody and in this case that somebody was Terrill. Most 17 year-old boys in Terrill's position wouldn't know what to do or how to act. In Terrill's mind he was cooperating to help find a murderer, but in actuallity he was helping convict himself and this was made possible because his rights were taken away and he had to do as the police ordered. I wish i had the skills to be an attorney beacuse this story taught me how easily a mans life can be taken away. Sadly, I just don't see my future going in that direction.

"If I Were a Poor Black Kid" - responce

I think Mr. Gene Marks is an over thinker... It's obvious he put a lot of thought into his responce. But, coming from a middle class white boy in north chicago, i can say im almost positive no normal student would go out of their way to do all those tasks. How often do you remember wanting to come to school to learn?! I'm not saying kids hate school but school is the base of a teenagers social life. Teenagers across America don't wake up in the morning to learn, they wake up to go see all their friends. I think Mr. Marks agruement is good and makes complete sense and i think a lot of people would be able to succeed by following his advice, but i personally think that no normal student would be able to go through all that work. I think it takes special people with minds to do great things, regaurding your race or skin color. I also think that Mr. Marks just can't come to grip with reality. He says he'd be able to afford a comupter and internet, be able to afford getting to and from every place he needs to go to study and learn, be able to afford the time to learn all these programs and system and codes when he might have to use that time to get a job and work to support his family. This world isn't perfect and your life plans are not going to turn out the exact way you want them to be. Only an adult who has been exposed to all these opportunities would know about them and would know how a young poor kid can succeed. No kid would ever think of think of it on their own.

Am i Racist

I'm glad to say I'm not racist!... said by the Implicit Association Test. After a series of questions and tests my result was, "you have no automatic prefference between African Americans and White Americans." The test is very confusing, but i can see how it works and how its affective. The test matches good and bad with different ethnicities, and you must put the right word or picture in the right spot. The test records how many you get right and when you get it wrong, it looks at why you might have gotten in wrong. Lets say you match up bad words with African Americans when its supposed to be bad words in a different category, the test would take that information and would say that this person identifies African Americans with these bad words.  During the test i was getting frustrated because it was making me feel like i was supposed to be racist, for example when bad words and African Americans were on one side, i was affiliating the two with each other because i had to.
I think that my results from the test are because of how i was raised in my family and in Deerfield. The website, tolerance.org, said that, "Social scientists believe children begin to acquire prejudices and stereotypes as toddlers. Many studies have shown that as early as age 3, children pick up terms of racial prejudice without really understanding their significance." If this is true, then it would be almost impossible to stop prejudice and racism in this nation alone. If we as a nation want to seriously try to put a stop the racism then we need to make many small steps, such as working together in communities to fix the problem.

Issue #4 Can your parents discipline you however they see fit?

Sadly, the law does not protect children from their own parents. "The U.S Constitution doesn't require states to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens from the acts by private individuals." The judge in the case of state v. Arnold said that, "parents right to discipline his or her child 'clearly has his limits.' When they're exceeded, the parent may be criminally liable." The question that we now have to answer is: what is the 'limit" on disciplining a child?

Issue #3 Can you dye your hair or wear a nose-ring to school?

A 15 year old boy Robert Olff was told that he could not go to class until he cut his hair. In the school rule book, their were hair rules for males but not females. The Olff's sued the school for not letting him have freedom of expression. The court ruled in favor of Robert Olff because the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom to determine your own hairstyle and personal appearance. This is also the same with religious expressions because the right to have religious expressions is also covered by the U.S. Constitution. Now here's a quick thought: Should private schools be able to take away more freedoms than a public school?

Issue #2 school drug testing

Students and parents today are getting offended and angry with school districts wanting to randomly drug test athletes. In protest Jimmy Acton sued his school district for wanted to drug test him, the Acton's said that the drug test was an unreasonable search and seizure. The court ruled in favor of the school district because their was probably cause for starting the random drug testing. The goal of the testing was to lower drug use in athletes. something that the book said that i found interesting was, "... the U.S. Supreme Court considereed a student's expectation of privacy. You surrender some privacy when you go to school. Your parents turn over temporary custody to the school, for education and disciplinary purposes when necessary." By trying out for a school team and participating, you are surrendering even more privacy rights because you must give forth insurance information, a physical exam, and change in front of others in the locker room.
Many students believe that drug testing for extracurricular activities is too much as well. The court believes that because these activities are voluntary, it justifies the rule. In my own opinion, just like the students here i would also be angry and frustrated. But, because your volunteering to do the sport(s) for your school, you are  surrendering your privacy and also volunteering to follow the rules.