January 2015 archive

This I Believe

Summer is not just a warm season of relaxation and getting away from responsibilities, but a time for adventure. Doing reckless activities with my friends on those hot endless days was always something I looked forward to all throughout the school year. Yet going into these days was also sometimes nerve-wracking. While I consider myself to be moderately brave, I always felt as though my friends were completely fearless. I had to face many things I was scared of and pretend to feel the same courage my friends showed that I so desperately wanted. From my experiences, however, I believe that these testing moments of courage are what really make life so special.

I specifically remember an extra hot July morning, where we decided to go cliff jumping at the nearby woods. It was scorching out so we all were ecstatic when we heard the rushing water of the nearby falls. I threw my shoes off and rushed to the edge of the rock only to realize that I was completely terrified. There was no way people jumped off here and survived, much less did it for fun.

Then plop, plop. Five seconds later my two friends had bounded into the water with no hesitation.

I quickly looked at them, closed my eyes, refused to think, and jumped.

I survived. Clearly. I had done what I had been horrified to do just seconds before. Not only did I survive, but I enjoyed myself as well. That adrenaline rush felt euphoric. The coolness of the water, the smell of pure air, the laughter of my friends; even now, I truly can’t even imagine a time that could be more blissful than this.

But yet, that moment almost never happened. I almost let my fear control me. I almost let my own apprehension keep me from having a memory that will last a lifetime. If I had not jumped I would have remembered that experience as the time that I did not have the guts to do something that would be so much fun. But now I know it as another summer memory that shaped my adolescence.

And I still recall even now, that absolute joy and pride that I felt for conquering my fears. Maybe it’s from the spirituality of being so intimate with nature, but a sort of epiphany hit me as I hit the water. It is from this experience that I realized that the ability to conquer fears is such a vital strength to have. Not even in the danger sense, but from anything that causes fear. Quitting a job, entering a relationship, or even something as seemingly simple as striking up a conversation with a total stranger all can cause extreme distress. Yet, a majority of the time this is an imagined fear that has no rational basis. That is why it essential to take these jumps, make these risks, and live life to its fullest capacity. I believe that by demonstrating the courage to do what scares me most, I am truly living.

Governor Cuomo and Education Reform

With the start of the New Year, there has already been tons of debate on the future of public schooling for high schools and how it should be reformed. More specifically, Governor Cuomo of New York has proposed some radical education reforms. He wants to impose stricter teacher evaluations, extend the period of time to earn tenure, expand charter schools and boost state oversight of failing schools. He also called for an education tax credit for donations to public schools or scholarship funds that aid students in parochial schools.

Many teachers are not for this movement, as they would have to pass even more tests that would show that they are competent. In order for Cuomo to get them on his side however, he has offered an incentive. He said he would boost school funding by $1.1 billion, a resounding 4.8%, if the Legislature approves all of these new school policies. However, if nothing is changed then the education budget would only go up the planned $377 million.

Under Cuomo’s new accountability measures, half of teachers’ evaluation ratings would be on how well their students perform on state standardized exams, while the other half would be made from classroom observations by school officials.

Now this brings a huge question, are the test scores of students directly tied to how competent their teacher is? From personal experience, I know that some students are un-teachable. After all, a teacher cannot teach unless a student is willing to want to learn. It is very hard to change the stubborn mind of an adolescent who wants to seem cool or just is too lazy to do schoolwork. Some may argue that it’s a teacher’s job to make these kids want to learn- but is that true? This is where the whole definition of a teacher comes into play. Are teachers supposed to force kids to learn, or is it merely their job to teach and it’s up to the students to allow themselves to learn? I am split on this issue because I believe that it is not the teacher’s responsibility to make kids want to learn. They should just be a master in their subject and then be able to articulately educate and explain thoroughly to students. If a student does not want to learn, then that is his or her own fault. On the contrary, however, high school students may be too young to be given the responsibility to make these choices. Although I highly respect the value of personal freedom, if given the choice I am sure that many students would choose not to learn. They may not understand that the repercussions of their actions can have lasting effects on their entire life.

Either way, this is just a small portion of the governor’s plan. He had announced, “We need to do a much better job on public-school education. I think the cap we have now is sufficient.” Whether or not you agree with his plan or not, it is true that we need to do a better job on public-school education. At least we are now making power moves and only their implementation will tell us if they will be successful or not.

http://nypost.com/2015/01/21/cuomo-proposes-sweeping-education-reforms/

Can I Touch It?

Alright, how many times has this happened to you? You’re in the woods for a life-changing hiking experience. You’re dirty, sweaty, tired, but happy being one with nature. What you aren’t happy about though, is your stomach which is grumbling so loudly it’s scaring all the animals. You’re starved. Now, you’re an experienced hiker, so you know a lot about what plants are edible and which ones will wind you up in the hospital. You’re ecstatic to see a leaf that you clearly remember is extremely delicious….or was it poisonous? With your hungriness so intense that it’s making you faint, it’s hard to remember if that plant is edible or not. What do you do?

 

Well, fear no more! This situation never has to happen to you if this new app I thought of became a reality. It’s called “Can I Touch It?” and it’s every hiker’s dream come true. How it works is you take a picture of the questionable specimen and using photo recognition technology it will tell you if it’s poisonous, edible, or neither. Just think of how useful something like that could be, especially to the less experienced hiker!

 

Of course with every amazing idea, comes a couple of faults. The main reason that Can I Touch It? isn’t already installed on millions of iPhones around the world, is because I have come to realize that hikers generally don’t bring phones with them when they are hiking. Or maybe they do? I’m not really sure, I’m not much of a hiking connoisseur myself. Not to mention, there’s probably not going to be any service where people are hiking so that can also cause some complications…

 

Either way, it’s an amazing app with a catchy name so it’s doubtful that it could fail. There would be other uses for it too. For example, I have a very wooded backyard with a lot of trees. When I was younger I loved climbing them and would do so constantly. But one day I guess I climbed on a tree that had poison ivy on it, and I can adamantly say that the rash that I endured for about a week was one of the most miserable experiences-ever. Well tree climbers, fear no more, just snap a picture of that tree beforehand and you’ll be smooth sailing.

 

Clearly, this is an app that could make hiking, tree-climbing, and other plant-oriented activities much safer and risk-free. Sure there are some faults, but what app is perfect? (Besides flappy bird, obviously)

Public Education Reform

The goal is simple. We want the children of our nation to get an education. After all, in a couple of years they will be our inventors, engineers, and overall world leaders. Obviously their education is of utmost importance if we want our country to continue to be a world power.

While the goal is simple, the means to achieve it is highly controversial. The role of the public education system in America has been a highly contested topic for decades now. Why is it becoming increasingly more expensive? What does the fact that public universities are receiving significant less funds from the state mean, and how will this affect future students? How does our public education compare to those of different countries? Every person has his or her own answer to these questions, many drastically different from each other.

It is important that we come to a conclusion and make decisions on how to further remedy and improve the public education system. This topic has personal significance to me, since I am a student at Penn State, one of the most expensive public schools in the nation. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to be able to afford this amazing school. However, I do have friends who are smarter than me who did not even consider Penn State because it was simply out of their budget. It is not fair that so many opportunities are lost for such intelligent and deserving people, just because they cannot afford the astronomically high prices.

As of now there seem to be three options for creating funds for public education. We could cut costs of schools by getting rid of clubs, activities, and administration that is not really necessary. Or we could increase the tax rate which would clearly cause some people to not be happy. Finally we could re-amortize our debt to make more money available at this time.

No matter what choice is made, the road to public education reformation will surely take along time. With so many people having differing opinions on ways to change it or what missions it should fulfill, we have been struggling in a gridlock.

Another highly controversial issue regarding public education revolves around what the point of it actually is. Are we in school to learn? Or to prepare for a career? To learn about ourselves?   After all, is it truly necessary for a person who is a talented mathematician to take a history course? For some this seems like a waste of resources. He’s wasting time and energy for something he is not interested in, and does not want to pursue. Who is benefitting from this?

Overall there are a lot of dysfunctions with our public education system. However, it is also something to be proud. Some of the world’s top thinkers have been sculpted from it. While it is nowhere near perfection, with time and reform it may come closer.

Public Education Reform

The goal is simple. We want the children of our nation to get an education. After all, in a couple of years they will be our inventors, engineers, and overall world leaders. Obviously their education is of utmost importance if we want our country to continue to be a world power.

While the goal is simple, the means to achieve it is highly controversial. The role of the public education system in America has been a highly contested topic for decades now. Why is it becoming increasingly more expensive? What does the fact that public universities are receiving significant less funds from the state mean, and how will this affect future students? How does our public education compare to those of different countries? Every person has his or her own answer to these questions, many drastically different from each other.

It is important that we come to a conclusion and make decisions on how to further remedy and improve the public education system. This topic has personal significance to me, since I am a student at Penn State, one of the most expensive public schools in the nation. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to be able to afford this amazing school. However, I do have friends who are smarter than me who did not even consider Penn State because it was simply out of their budget. It is not fair that so many opportunities are lost for such intelligent and deserving people, just because they cannot afford the astronomically high prices.

As of now there seem to be three options for creating funds for public education. We could cut costs of schools by getting rid of clubs, activities, and administration that is not really necessary. Or we could increase the tax rate which would clearly cause some people to not be happy. Finally we could re-amortize our debt to make more money available at this time.

No matter what choice is made, the road to public education reformation will surely take along time. With so many people having differing opinions on ways to change it or what missions it should fulfill, we have been struggling in a gridlock.

Another highly controversial issue regarding public education revolves around what the point of it actually is. Are we in school to learn? Or to prepare for a career? To learn about ourselves?   After all, is it truly necessary for a person who is a talented mathematician to take a history course? For some this seems like a waste of resources. He’s wasting time and energy for something he is not interested in, and does not want to pursue. Who is benefitting from this?

Overall there are a lot of dysfunctions with our public education system. However, it is also something to be proud. Some of the world’s top thinkers have been sculpted from it. While it is nowhere near perfection, with time and reform it may come closer.