readings for intellectuals

How can one describe modern society without mentioning, elaborating on, the role of technology? Technology has taken a hold of our society and changed the way our daily lives are carried out. Many benefits have come from this technological advantage, such as global communication and cleaner, greener solutions to global problems. As technology has become a bigger part of our society, these benefits have become overlooked and a societal obsession with technology has taken root. Technological obsession has created a “mental pollution” filled with infinite tabs online all at the tip of our fingers. This obsession has detached us from the real world. We have become better acquainted with our phone than most of the people in our classes and in person pass by friends who we text all the time. Take a look in any classroom at Troy High and you will see the effect of technology on youth. Classes deathly quiet as students are transfixed by their phones, the eerie luminesce of phone screens ligh...

Whenever I rewrite an in-class essay, I spend an hour or so developing my ideas, rewording awkward sentences, and analyzing more evidence. The  actual time spent rewriting is almost the same amount of time allotted during the in-class write, an hour. Why then do my ideas flow better, words connect seamlessly, and evidence united my essay cohesively during my rewrite? Is it the pressure of a ticking clock that makes my ideas jammed in my head and my words jumble out in a sad reflection of my ideas? Or maybe it's not the pressure of time but the pressure of a grade that will be reflected on my Schoology page and may, O no!, alter my chances of getting into college. Maybe it too is the dead silence of the class during in-class essays that drowns my brain in a black hole of nothingness, no inspiration to draw from. Or maybe it is a combination of all of these and more, or maybe it is none of them at all. See, I don’t really know what causes it, but for me, and I’m sure most, if not al...

In the class GBBE, standing for genetics, biotechnology, bacteriology, and embryology, we are completing a lab to determine two unknown bacteria from a list of about 30. This “unknown lab”  is done in groups of two. At the end of the lab, which spans about eight days, the bacteria names are written on a piece of paper, turned in and graded on the spot. If both identifications are correct, 100 point are awarded, and no lab reports or journals need to be checked. If one identification is incorrect, 25 points are immediately deducted. Points, up to 40 point for each bacteria, can be regained if an organized journal is kept and a mistake can be recognized. Even with point being able to be won back, this lab is basically a pass or fail grade. This places a lot of stress and responsibility on students as they must finish the lab within the time frame, share work evenly, complete every step with accuracy, and correctly combine all the steps to identify the bacteria. This kind of stress an...

The Troy High Jazz Ensemble is a small, exclusive group of musicians who practice during fourth hour of the school day. This ensemble consists of two subsections, the horns and the rhythm section. The horns include alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, two baritone saxophones who make up the sax section, as well as the brass section, made up of four trombones, one bass trombone and three trombones, and four trumpets. Rhythm section, perhaps the most important section, is made up of drums, piano, guitar, upright and electric bass, and possibly vibraphone. Vocalists are also sometimes added as a soloist for vocal arrangements. These two subsections, horns and rhythm, are must combine under the guidance of a director, to produce wavelengths known to an audience as music. Passionate, dedicated, and accomplished, the students who make up the Troy High Jazz Ensemble have worked years to bring to life the little black marks on paper composers have written down years before. The honking ...

The American Dream, a staple of the 1950s, was one of luxury, safety and opportunity. A prominent motif during this time was a pink flamingo, which was a symbol of the “wealth and pizzazz” many Americans hoped to convey. Flamingos are a “subtropical species” that are native to South America, India, and Africa. They are water birds, so they live near lakes, lagoons, and other bodies of water. These birds have been respected in their natural habitats for ages, with ancient cultures worshiping these animals as gods. It was only in the 1950s that the bird migrated somewhere it had never been before. The flamingos began “wadding across an inland sea of grass” as American made plastic, brilliant pink variations of these birds that decorated suburban lawns. By using this ancient, special motif as a ornamental lawn decoration, Americans once again hope to capture the wealth and importance an object has. What was once symbolized “the sun god”, one of the most important gods, in ancient Egypt ...

Brushing teeth, or, as described by Horace Miner, “a mouth-rite… of inserting a small bundle of og hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures”, is a daily routine many people consider monotonous. This bring under scrutiny the daily practices carried out by many, if not most, Americans. The practices Americans carry out every day, like brushing teeth, can be described as barbaric just as Miner did. This barbaric description carries an odd connotation to the practices that are common place in many American lives. With just a change in description, the whole connotation of the practice has been changed. This emphasizes the power of descriptions and the impact they have on the connotation. When described as a normal practice, brushing teeth seems commonplace. With a barbaric description from Miner, the practice seems very odd, just as ancient rituals sees odd to modern society. This brings up the questi...

This week we discussed the article “Dumpster Diving” in a different way than we had previously discussed articles. We discussed this using small groups writing responses to a number of questions. As we answered the first few questions, this task was relatively easy. All we had to do was write our thoughts and responses to the question. Then, we were challenged to not repeat any of the ideas that were written down from previous groups. This proved to be a very difficult task, as we were required to think of new, original responses that might not have been obvious when first reading the question. This hunt for new, original thought was mentally a struggle, and as we continued to read responses, I realized the similarities between ideas. Many of the questions had responses that were based off the same idea and convey similar messages. This made me think of the ideas my peers have. Even with the diversity in a school such as Troy High, the social influences cause many ideas to remain ve...

This week in class we discussed the story “Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men”. Our discussion led to the question of if the stereotype was disproved in research, would it actually affect the public’s view of the stereotype. I think that no matter what the research lead to, the stereotype would hold. The ideas that grip a society, like stereotypes, are very hard to change. When research like Mehl’s prove this stereotype wrong, it may be a success for the scientific community, but the minimal amount of the general public that will learn about this research does not break the stereotype. This emphasizes the power stereotypes hold over our society. The power of an idea that takes hold in a society is quite substantial. When these stereotypes are wrong, as most of them are, it can have negative effects on the community. Racial stereotypes, for example, are almost always incorrect and many lead to aggressive encounters with horrible results. Many results of these stereotypes have ...

This week in class, we got back our first in class essay. These essays had been scored on the AP grading scale from one to nine, with a five being a fail on the AP test and a six being a pass on the AP test. As I got my essay back and looked at what I wrote, I began to think of in class essays differently. Whereas before I thought more of in class essays as only an answer to the prompt, I now think of it as a reflection of my own ideas and thoughts. As we read the sample essay that scored a nine, I realized the author was answering the prompt mainly with his or her thoughts and not evidence or quotes from the text. This reminded me of the true reason we write essays, to convey your OWN thoughts in a new, original way. This author conveyed their thoughts on the prompt, and in doing so they answered the prompt as well as providing deep insight on the topic. This taught me to use MY original though more when writing an in class essay. As I looked back on my essay, I had quotes in every ...