John

When looking back to all there stories my parents read to me, and re-reading them now I’m actually shocked. I find it so strange of how much violence there actually is in fairytales. Take for example Hansel and Gretal when they are trying to escape  from the witch they succeed by burning the witch in her oven. Then they proceed to take the witch’s jewels and valuables. Reading that it pretty much says that the two kids killed a witch then stole her stuff. Like they are getting rewarded for killing. Also in fairytales there is always talking animals, plants and even random objects. What does this do for the kid but put them in a fake world of wonder not reality. My last point to make about fairytales is that everything always ends in “happily ever after”. Teaching kids that there is no hard ships in life only beautiful wives and everyone gets what they want. So a question is asked should the old fashion fairy tales be cleaned up into modern ones teaching kids the right way of life? To me i say no, even though modern fairytales take out the violence and magic they just replace that with preaching about the right way of life taking out all the excitement and joy kids get out of reading the old fashioned ones. If a kid doesn’t enjoy a story why would they care what happens in it?

I could go on and on about the shocking truth of most fairytales, of how much violence and misinterpretation there is in them but really the truth is who cares. Yes most of the stories are “politically” wrong, but children find these stories exiting and they open their imagination. You only get to be a kid once and with every child once you get to a certain age you realise that most fairytales are not real and they are just  there to teach you life values. I plan on reading the same stories to my children that my parents have read to me.

When looking at my peer’s blogs i found Evan had the same idea as me. Here it is. I also think this Website will answer any questions you still might have.

When i look back to the relationship that I have with my parents I see that with my mom and dad I have the same relationship with both of them in ways but also different things with each one of them. For both of them I have grown close with them and share a mutual respect and understanding of each other and even though we have our arguments about things we are always able to fix them and get past it. But then when I think about my relationship with my dad I know that I can tell him about all my stories of the boys and what we did on the weekend you know boy stuff. And also we may not show it cause we are usually fighting but we do care about each other and I point out every time that he actually shows his real emotion haha. Then there is mom i can probably tell her anything and she will understand it. But with her she is always caring and shows it daily. I hope that in the future that i will have an even stronger relationship with both of them.

One example could be Family Guy where the father Peter Griffin is a wacky kind of unpredictable father that has a loving relationship with his wife. He has a unbreakable bond with his best friend(Brain the dog). Peter shares a common father son relationship with his two sons Chris and Stewie. But then there is Meg his daughter, Peter doesn’t know anything about her and he just can’t connect with her. Looking at this family and all there relationships there are some things that apply to real life lots of it is for comedy in the show.

Amy had a good post also that I commented on. Here is the link. I also found a website where somebody talked about how to deal with your parents. Here it is.

I think that authors seem to write about their old memories and pasts because even if they aren’t really real they can make it seem so real. I know you thinking how can they do that but they way that they show the emotion and true feelings of a character makes you think that they would have to be real. After reading stories like “Penny in the Dust” and connecting emotionally with the characters through how they struggle through feelings with there parents; and then realising that even though you fight with your parents when you grow up you understand it is the little things that make you realise you love them and they love you. And after reading the story “Back to Wolf Willow” and watching the author struggle to go back to his old town and try to remember his childhood but can’t because his town is so different. He searches to find himself until he finds one scent one tiny scent that he spent hours trying to find only to realise that it is a single bush to bring back all of his memories and lets him know that they did happen and he was there. After I read these stories it made me realise that authors right about these things to show the power of memories and your past.

 I have been thinking about lots of my old memories, but to me they only remind me of good times and spending time with my family. I can only hope that when i grow older that my memories will still be with me and mean something to me. However for now i just hope on adding on more memories for the older me to look back on.

I decided to read what some others had said about this topic and I enjoyed Troy’s blog hope you will too! And I just finished reading this book Wolf Willow  it has changed the way I look at things now.

In the past unit, racial inequality, we watched a movie School Ties. In the movie there was a senior, David Green, who was amazing at football. He was asked to go play for a pristegous boarding school, where they didnt allow Jews, which is what David was. He was told when he got to the school to not tell anybody more than they needed to know, which in other words means that he wasn’t supposed to tell people he is a Jew. Eventually, someone in the school finds out about him being a Jew and he gets shunned. This movie is a good show about inequality in general because it shows that not only visual minorities can be discriminated against but also non0visual minorities.

We do it because we are human and every human has the right of speech and we all have comments to make about everything. even though we know it is wrong we still  do it because everyday kids and adults are becoming more and more hating and there is less and less loving. i wish we could all just get along and stay off of eachothers backs for once in a while.

The last unit we did was all about life pressures and making choices. in this unit we watched the movie “Dead Poets Society”  In this movie a crazy SOB of a teacher, teachers a group of boys to be free thinkers and learn how to make their own decisions. I really liked the teacher in this movie i wish i could have a english teacher like him instead of the one i have.

We also read short stories about life and life pressures, we also made a poem about living life here is my copie:

Is This the End?

Last day of my tour, one final patrol

Boom! Walls, ash fault all jump alive

Stunned and staggering the squadron is pinned down

Enemies everywhere no chance of survival

Is this the end?

One last look at my wife and child

I pray to God

Crying for help, pleading for life

With a lightning storm of bullets

Is this the end?

Now with a head filled with regrets

I can only hope

Will people appreciate me giving my life for them in this pointless war?

Why did I come, did I use the time gods given me right?

Will my clock still be ticking?  

that was all we did good bye for now hopefully ever.

In class we did an assignment where we had to interview 3 people, i asked my one teacher (who will remain un named) ”what was a life altering event?” his response was “I was 12 years old when my dad passed away, I never got to expereince growing up with a father to look up to.” Next i asked my Grandmother ”What advice would you give someone that most people learn a little to late in life?’ her responce was “that you to save money!” ill take that one to heart. finnaly i asked Dielle whom i really look up to “what event changed your life?” she responded by saying “when i expereince my first kisss witht the love of my life later on to make a deli sandwhich foir him.”

After all the questions where said and done i decided i dont need any of that advice right now but maybe in the future. 

After i finished mice and men i thought that it was a very good book with a very shocking ending. with the ending you knew that something was going to happen to lennie because of all the foreshadowing, but you wouldnt of thought for it to be as abrupt as it was like it happened so quick and was just so suttle, very wierd but good. you also learn a lot about the 1930’s and how difficult it was to live in that time and how the food chain was; it really was survival of the fittest. but very good book i would recomend it to anyone who likes to read.

We are just finishing our rights and responsibilities unit in English B10. We recently had to write an essay about a current situation where someones rights are not being protected. I wrote mine about Child soldiers in the world. It shocked me to find that there are over 300,000 child soldiers (under the age of 18) some that are as young as 7 years of age. From the movies you see children soldiers mostlyin Africa, but this type of warfare started with the Nazis, they used to send hundreds of children with “plastic keys to heaven” around there necks and then sending them into a field infested with active landmines. What they do to these children is unspeakable looking at pictures of the child soldiers in Africa still kind of confuse me because I don’t know how anyone could send innocent children into the battlefields so they don’t lose any soldiers, or to start a kid being a soldier at the age of 7 to try and form him into the perfect soldier. And not just that it is the way that they manipulate these kids so much that they loose there mind and will do anything they are told to do. It just sickens me thinking that all these children’s lives are being taken away and they will never be given back.

We really need to stop this from happening along with other national issues like child labour, child soldiers in Africa, and the treatment of women and children in third world countries. Something needs to be done!

 This is a video about child soldiers in the world

Are assignment today was to go look at other student’s blogs. I read a Megan’s blog and posted a comment on her post  Reflect of your research topic for debate. I really don’t like doing this commenting on someone’s blog that you don’t know is kinda creepy. Then i went and put a comment Troy’s blog on his post on Rights and Responsibilities.