English Final

So Mr.Raisdana, it’s that time again. The time where you must once again leave another batch of students and continue with your never-ending quest to spread knowledge throughout the minds of the young. But you’ve taught us well, and even as you ask us to write down what we’ve learned throughout the year, we think back at all of your lessons and advice given to us. More importantly though, I want to share what I’ve learned.
You may notice that I’ve switched back to writing a paper rather than a letter. It just makes everyone’s life easier. Anyway, we were taught some pretty heavy things this year, things that most adults would not bring up in a conversation or even talk to with their dogs (and I know I’m using the word thing but at least I’m not using thingy) Anyway, one of those things was the effect of fear on individuals. We see it everyday, from a bully trying to take money from a little girl with empty threats to wars built solely upon it. More importantly however, we saw it in this classroom. Take the Diary of Anne Frank for example, or even WWII. Germans that had not a single violent bone in their bodies did unspeakable crimes to Jews for fear of what would happen if they didn’t. The constant threat of death kept everyone on the edge; moods would change uncontrollably and Anne would constantly turn against everyone in their hide out without reason.  Moving a little bit away from reality, we come upon the infamous Lord of the Flies. Even though this if a fiction book, fear plays a key role. The Beast is perhaps the greatest example. What starts off as a campaign to find the Beast ends in murder as the islanders move apart and ultimately separate, to be joined under Jack. Perhaps the greatest example under the rule of Jack would be the murder of Simon. Without going much further into that, let’s move onto the last example, the Wave. The Wave is very similar to what happened during WWII and the relationship between the Nazis and the students in the Wave is quite astounding (with the exception of mass extinction in mind) Students were forced to take sides and beat people who would not join them; deny entry to those who didn’t follow them. It was an unstoppable force, and once you were in, it was suicide to go out.
Moving away from the morbid effects of fear, I’d like to talk a bit about my personal growth as an actor. This year it seems, I’ve had quite a lot of opportunities to improve my acting skill. Not just in being someone else, but in speaking and communicating through speech, as an actor should. Drama is the prime example, as it let me break my comfort zone by being someone else in front of a whole lot of people. More specifically, Drama taught me how to move my body as I spoke and how to watch other peoples’ body language to know their true intentions. Another great example was the debates we had in class. Whether it was over WWII or human nature, debates were the best place to learn when and how to speak and retaliate or lie low and wait. Debates could get pretty heated, and it was hard not to get cut off by someone the moment you said something, so the next best things were discussions. These could also be about anything, but they taught me totally different skills. Discussions taught me who to talk to, how I should address them and how to stick to relevant topics. However, needless to say, discussions could get pretty dull, so I’d stick with a heated debate any day.
The Effective Communicator ESLR had to be the ESLR that wrapped up what I had learned. This is the ESLR that I’ve been improving upon all this time, and it only seemed fit that it earned a place in this paper. As an Effective communicator, I collaborated with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals. I definitely completed this skill during the Anne Frank project where my teammates and I calmly (as if) decided who was to write the paper while the other made a movie. Another example would be the Teen Life Project, where I incorporated technology as a tool. This was definitely achieved as there was no other way to talk to my counter parts from half way around the world and by using the wiki spaces and MSN, our project was at last completed. Listening respectfully and asking questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight. That was one of the major skills I accomplished during the Poetry unit. You’d be surprised at how hard it is to write a haiku without lighting it on fire and chucking it into the Thames, but by asking the write (I mean right) questions at Mr.Raisdana, I pulled through.
Well, what else is there to say Mr. R? You’ve taught us how to write in a way that we didn’t even know existed, and for that, we’re all grateful. I wish there was more I could tell you about my learning experience as your student, but the time frame you’ve given me just about gives me time to write a big thank you. So, uh, thanks.

 I have absolutely no idea what it’s doing in a soft drinks section, but I study it for a while anyway, before deciding that this should be looked through different a lens. I first look at it through my own lens. This poster, or form of media, is telling me that in order to get a woman as beautiful as that (or at all for that matter), I have to buy a diamond ring the size of a small child and go hungry for a few months. It’s telling me that no woman will ever be happy with me unless they have a diamond the size of their future baby welded onto a ring and that proposing with something smaller would be absurd. But that’s just my perspective, the view of a male. On the other hand, from a woman’s point of view, it’s probably telling me that no man is good enough unless he can buy me a ring that big, no matter how nice or honest or loyal he is.

The second pair of lens I’m going to look through today is class, and since I’m of middle wealth, I’ll look through the eyes of the poor and the wealthy. If I was some poor bugger who lived in a cardboard house by a rundown grocery store, this poster would tell me quite a few things: 1. It’s never to late to spend your life saving by buying yourself a ring  2. The only way I’ll ever be noticed as someone who isn’t poor is to have this expensive accessory and 3. Poor people don’t get the good girls, only people who can afford this do. But being rich, on the other hand, will tell me the complete opposite of things. First off, this would just have be another gimmick I’d have to buy to maintain my social status and that I could only impress my future wife with this ring. This may also hint to me that the people who made this ad think that a rich guy like me would have no regard for money whatsoever, but I’d be to busy being a snob to notice. A median of all these things would apply to me.

Last but not least, race. Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? If I was American, I’d probably have to buy this, as it’s my job to represent the first-world/superpower nation. If I was Asian however, it’d probably be telling me to buy this because I have nothing else to offer to my wife, since I don’t live/come from a first-world country.

All in all, it seems that advertisements can tell you a whole bunch of things (mostly evil things) if you look hard enough. Try it.

That may sound long and complicated, like the name your great, great, great Cheyenne ancestor, but it’s really not. Like her name, Bloom’s Taxonomy also has a simpler definition, and in this case, it’s just a fancy a way of saying the six forms of thinking - Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

Using both of these elements, I’m going to recount the events during the Poetry unit and tell you, and probably myself while I’m at it, what I did and didn’t do in terms of the ESLR’s. And yes, you will here that word often throughout this journal.

The first ESLR I achieved during the poetry unit was the Self-Directed ESLR. Originally, (and these are my exact words) I defined this ESLR as “working harder and more efficiently”, but as time passed, I discovered this was not so. Now, I describe this infamous ESLR as accepting responsibility in all forms, whether it be for him/herself or others, and trying your very hardest despite any limits. A person who isn’t afraid to leave the masses once in a while to try something new and fresh. A person who constantly seeks to better him or herself.

Maybe I didn’t do all of that and perhaps I’m not the best example of a Self-Directed Learner, but let me show you the things I did do…and didn’t. The first skill I accomplished was accepting responsibility for my own learning. That just means I took the fate of my own learning into my hands and recognized that what I didn’t learn was my own fault. I probably showed this quite a few times with my book by asking numerous questions regarding poetry writing, recommendations and editing both completed and drafted ideas. I also could have really done nothing with the Teen Life project but I took the time to talk with my teammates from across the world and write a poem for them, and as for the poetry night, I took the time to listen to Mr.Raisdana’s recommendations for speaking into a mic. I could have done nothing of this, but I would have come out a less knowledgeable and perhaps a less than happy person. The second skill I completed was demonstrating competency in goal setting, time management and organizational skills. In other words, I took the time to organize myself in order to complete certain goals within margins of time. With both my book and the teen life project, I set out goals to either write poetry, talk to my team to get up-to-date with the latest information, or both. I also showed some organizational skills by putting all my poems into one folder, and then separating them by completion and rehearsing the poem I was to read during the poetry night. This skill is actually very similar to the accepting responsibility skill, as I set out goals in an organized way for both. Without setting out these goals, there would have been no way I could have completed all of this in time, or at least, no way it could have turned out well. The last skill I completed as a Self-Directed Learner was monitoring, adjusting and documenting my work in progress. This means that I looked over my work once in a while, changed and adjusted it, and kept all of it in a file. I mostly did this to my poetry, looking back at all of it once in a while and making small changes here and there and putting them all in one folder (as I said previously). I did the same thing with the Teen Life Project, checking in everyday to see if anyone had posted anything new, answering them, and making sure it was always put into a file just in case. I can’t say I did this for the poetry night, as the notion of how one would do it escapes me, but at least I adjusted the poem I was going to read there. Now, for the skill that I didn’t do. There’s only one skill that really sticks out, and that’s taking creative risks in developing untried ideas. Sure, I went out of the loop once in a while for my poetry, which turned out to be good, but my book was dull and boring, the poetry being the only original thing in it. I’m sure that I could have come up with five billion ideas for my book, but I suppose I just wasn’t trying hard enough. Perhaps it was because I believed that the contents of my book, my poetry, was more important than a book cover. Say someone hands you the Declaration of Independence, the original one, but it looks old and worn out, scratched and torn. You wouldn’t throw it away (at least I hope not). No, you’d keep it because of its historical importance and content. I’m not saying my poetry will survive the test of time, but the content is more important than the way it looks. Anyway, I’m straying from the subject, and to sum it all up, I completed almost all of the skills required to be a Self-Directed Learner, and for that, I’d give myself an A-.

The next ESLR may perhaps not seem to have much importance in this subject when compared to the Self-Directed Learner ESLR, but it’s equally important. In the past, I thought of this ESLR as “thinking outside of the box and solving problems carefully”. Well, now in the present, I think it may be a bit more than that. I think this ESLR describes a person who thinks far beyond the realm of normal thought and uses problem solving skills to resolve everyday things using a variety of methods from knowledge gathered in both past and present. You may think that the Critical Thinker ESLR is not an ESLR you would use often in a poetry unit, but you’d be surprised. Take this skill, one that I achieved, for example: apply problem solving skills to facilitate learning. You may think, well what problems? I mean, all you have to do is write poetry, put it in a book and talk to a bunch of people. But it’s nothing like that. The first problems came with writing the poetry. Some poems, like haikus for example, require a strict number of syllables, while others sound horrendous without it. Rhyming can also be difficult, as it has to make sense and rhyme at the same time, but I had a number of strategies to solve each one. Sometimes, I simply free wrote and it came close to the final product, so only minor revising and editing was needed. Other times, I’d make poetic sentences, cut them up, change the wording and rearrange them. As for rhyming, when I couldn’t find a suitable word that rhymed, I simply changed the word or rearranged the sentence. More problems came with the book. I had to find a way to put my poetry in the exact order I wanted it to without making a mess of things. My first thought, or at least Mr.Raisdana’s first thought, was to print the words on the sheet. But that would mean a confusing mess of numbers and words, using both sides and the back, so I simply discarded that idea. Then someone suggested we print it out on pieces of paper and stick them completely over each page. That seemed like a waste, but my final solution was not so far off. I made my book, printed as many poems I could on a separate piece of paper, and then cut them out and stuck them on their according places. I suppose I took the easy way out, but at least I didn’t waste that much paper and it looked reasonably okay. Then the Teen Life Project came up, and a whole other slew of problems came up. Communication was one of the biggest problems because of different time zones and culture, but we soon got over that by using MSN and the Wiki spaces. The next problem was telling people what to do. It’s a bit difficult to tell a guy in America to give you a good two pages of research when you’re in Asia, but after the first few days, we all learned to collaborate. The next skill that I think I completed was building meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. What that’s simply saying is that I used ideas past information that I already knew and things I had recently learned and put them together to get a better picture of things. I did this a bit with my poetry, as I had a minimal knowledge of what similes and personifications were, but by learning about them properly, I was able to grasp their meaning better, just like many other things. These other things included communication with the outside world and learning to talk and collaborate with people I’d never met or properly speaking into a microphone will standing in front of a crowd. As for the skill I didn’t do, I think that gathering, analyzing and processing information from a variety of sources was my weakest point. Sure, I got information on how to write poetry by my teacher and during the Teen Life Project, I looked up a few websites on global warming, but I never looked at too many different places. In the end, if I had to give myself a grade on my performance as a Critical Thinker, I think I would give myself a B+.

The next ESLR (bear with me, we’re almost at the end) is perhaps a bit shorter and not as important in this unit as you may think, but being an Involved Citizen can save a lot of stress and pain. Once again, in my original words, I wrote that an Involved Citizen “had to be kind to the environment around them and to be kind to their peers”, but perhaps I had not quite grasped the subject. Now I see an Involved Citizen as someone who is aware of other cultures, respects them and the environment, seeks to help others, and a person who can show that they are responsible. I am not the perfect model for this category, but I did however manage to accomplish quite a few of these skills, enough as to not to be called evil. Anyway, the first skill I completed was demonstrating responsibility in active decision-making. That means that I took part in deciding things instead of skulking in the back or not being able to make up my mind. I definitely did this during the Teen Life Project by helping decide who would do what, or more specifically, what jobs they would do within their area and how they would do it. It’s quite impossible to start, let alone finish, a project if no one makes any decisions and everyone turns up doing nothing. Another skill I showed was being able to interact respectfully with people of diverse cultures and demonstrating awareness and respect for the rights of others. Once again, this relates to the Teen Life Project as I didn’t insult anyone culture or religion, mistake or otherwise. I also talked normally to the people on my team, instead of talking straight out slang before knowing who they were. Although I did all these things, it seems that I ended up caring more for people than the environment. It may have not made such a big difference, but I skill I certainly didn’t do was demonstrating care and concern for the environment. I used excess paper, bought ridiculous amounts of it, and then tested on it, rendering it useless forever. Apart from that though, I think I made everyone’s life a little bit easier, and for that, I’ll give myself an A.

The next to final ESLR is actually quite similar to other ESLR’s, such as the Involved Citizen ESLR, the Self-Directed Learner ESLR, the Critical Thinker ESLR and even the final (isn’t it nice to hear those words?) ESLR, the Academic Achiever. All of these have skills that are very familiar to the Effective Communicator ESLR so bear with me if I repeat myself. In any case, my original definition of this ESLR is

because I have no evidence that I ever wrote one, so here’s my most current definition of an Effective Communicator: a person who uses a different variety of media to express their ideas while effectively collaborating with others. And so I’m sure if it’s no surprise to you that one of the first skills that I reached was demonstrating the skills of effective collaboration. I used this skill a lot in my Teen Life Project, along with the skill of incorporating technology as a tool for communication, by talking to my team mates using the Wiki spaces and doing as we were told to do. The last skill achieved by me while being an Effective Communicator was listening respectfully and asking questions to facilitate learning and achieve insight. The just means that I asked a lot of question to understand what I being told, and I did this for both the Teen Life Project and my poetry book. I asked my team mates what exactly we had to do, or what they had to do, and I asked Mr.Raisdana for some tips on how to write poetry. I don’t think I didn’t do any of the skills, and so for that, I’ll just give myself an A-.

The last and final ESLR (insert trumpet sounds here) is the Academic Achiever ESLR. I put this ESLR last because I find this one slightly difficult, but I think I’ll survive. My first simple-minded definition of being an Academic Achiever was “to improve on your existing skills”. Now, that’s not very accurate, but in order not to confuse you, I think I’ll leave at that. And with that, I’ll just tell what skills I did and didn’t do. I definitely demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively (that just means working alone and with others) by creating the poetry book by myself and working with others over the web to complete a project. The last skill that’s quite obvious that I accomplished was demonstrating technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project. That’s just a really long way of saying that I showed that I could use technology in order to complete a project. Can anyone guess when I used this? That’s right, I used this skill during the Teen Life Project (along with photography for some of my poems), technology being the computers and the internet, to complete this project. I don’t think I accessed information from a variety of sources though, another skill in this ESLR, as I only used the internet and few books, and for that, I’ll give myself a B+.

Overall, having the poetry book, the poetry night and the Teen Life Project crammed into one unit was quite an evil thing to do, but I think we all pulled through with sighs of relief. Looking back at all of this, if I had to do it again, I would have tried a little bit harder to come up with more creative ideas and gather more information from different places, but apart from that I loved every second. As for the ESLR’s, I think that the best ESLR’s that one could use to make a poetry book would be the Self-Directed Learner ESLR and the Critical Thinker ESLR. They’re absolutely necessary for this part of the unit because all of it and what goes in the book is up to you, and how you put it in their. The ESLR that was probably the most important for the poetry night was the Effective Communicator ESLR because you had to convey your expressions through the poem you had to read that night. As for the Teen Life Project, the ESLR’s that I thought were the most important included being a Self-Directed Learner, because you had to check up on your team once in a while, the Effective Communicator ESLR, because you used technology and you had to convey your ideas properly, and the Involved Citizen ESLR, because you showed you could work as a team. If I had to grade my performance on this entire unit, then I would probably give myself and A-, as I did every ESLR, but I didn’t complete all the skills in them. In any case, if you’re still alive, then I congratulate you for surviving this long. Good job.

   I’m probably not the best person to tell you what life in an international community is, as I’ve lived here my entire life and I don’t know what life is outside these borders, but I suppose I’ll give it a shot anyway. Lets see, first off, you get to meet way more people from different countries and cultures. If you ever thought someone from a different country was violent or weird, you can prove that that is completely false when you live in an international like mine. Not only that, but you actually get to learn something from a different culture, and it could give you a lot of insight on how you view your life. Adding to that nice little package, you get to experience what sort of people you might meet, so it gets you more prepared for life.

   Ok, enough about that just the cultural stuff. Living as a teen in an international community can be quite fun, actually. Well, I wouldn’t know any better, but just because there isn’t an abundance of people from the same country as you doesn’t mean it’s a living nightmare. People from halfway around the world almost act the same as your best friend does. Really. We all talk in some form of slang, we pretty much all speak the same language and we’re all just teens. There’s really no big difference.

   Anyway, I just want to get down to the main point and tell you all about some of the issues that really disturb me and I want solved. Animal cruelty. I just hate it. You’d have to be one of the most cold-hearted people  to purposely mistreat or misuse animals. They don’t understand our ways, and they don’t know why we kick them or starve them or abandon them. How can they? I even comprehend how people could do that. It’s like doing the same thing to a small child. They don’t get it. Sure, the situation has improved with animal police everywhere, but don’t you almost alyways see an abandoned starving dog or cat roaming the streets when you go out? It has to stop. It’s not their fault. Who ever thought of having pets? We did. And now their dying right infront of our eyes. We are doing nothing.

Hannah B.

And Daniel N.

We created a “commercial” using certain symbols, images and sounds to create something that would tell people about the true horrors of the Holocaust. Here we’ve described them:

Symbols:

Barbwire: symbolizes that the Jews had no freedom in the concentration camps as this barbwire surrounded the entire camp. Barbwire also symbolizes the concentration camps themselves in which many Jews suffered and died.

The dove:  the universal sign for peace and harmony but we felt that it should also symbolize hope, as we did not have a symbol for hope.

The Star of David: symbolizes the Jewish religion and also the persecution of all Jews in Europe at the time of the Nazi occupation. This symbol is both good and bad as it represents the Jews being persecuted but it also represents a religion that some people were very proud to belong to.

Images:

The Jewish persecution is symbolized with the Star of David the Jews had to wear. This image is portrayed in not a very graphic way but it still has a meaning that will show us how wrong we were to treat these people like that.

Death is symbolized by the concentration camps in which most Jews were killed. It is also symbolized by the mass graves that the Germans had the Jews dig before they were killed and buried with hundreds of others.

The Final Solution is symbolized the death in the concentration camps. Hitler called this the final solution because his dream of a final solution was to have no more Jews left in
Europe.

Anne Frank is a symbol of hope to all. She gave hope that they were going pull through. She symbolizes this because of her bright, optimistic character and her belief in the good inside of her.

Sounds:

We used two pieces of music. One had singing, but it was wordless. This was better because it was more of a universal song. It was also very depressive and sad, and at the same time reflective. The second song we used was a song by Enya that had a lot of meaningful words and that went with the last few bits of the “commercial” well. Both were composed by Enya and conducted by Howard Shore of the LOTR the Return of the King album.

Most powerful:

After comparing all of our symbols, images and sounds together, we’ve come up with some of the most powerful. We believe that the most powerful symbol we used was the dove. It was powerful because it was something white and pure amidst the black background. It’s also so powerful because it known world-wide and needs no explanation. The most powerful images we think we used were the concentration camp pictures. These images were filled with death and the horror that was the Holocaust. Those pictures were the real eye-poppers of the “commercial”. And finally we believe that the first song we used was the most powerful because it was universal and it all flowed smoothly together. Because it was wordless, people could really use their own imagination and put the words in themselves, or just listen to its beauty and its sorrow.

ESLR’s:

While doing this project, I believe we improved on some of the ESLR’s. The first ESLR we improved on was the Self-Directed Learner ESLR. We identified our needs and applied appropriate learning skills, or in other words, we took the time to figure out what we needed for the project and we did it. We also took creative risks in developing untried ideas by communicating our ideas correctly and creatively. However, we didn’t demonstrate competency in organizational skills because we all didn’t exactly know what we were doing until Saturday, and even then we were still debating and bickering. We would give ourselves a B+ for this part of the project because of our lack of organization. During the making of this “commercial” we were also definitely hitting the Critical Thinker ESLR. We built meaning and understanding using prior and new information. We achieved this skill by using new signs and old images and sounds to make a project that communicated meaning and understanding. We would give ourselves an A- on this ESLR. Unfortunately however, we didn’t demonstrate very good Concerned Citizen skills. We didn’t show responsibility in active decision making because we couldn’t really ever agree on anything. We switched from commercial to memorial to commercial again. On the other hand, we did exhibit awareness for the religion of others, which was quite a big part on this project. We did this because we didn’t reveal any images, sounds or symbols that in any could offend someone because of their religion or race. For this, we would give ourselves an A. The next ESLR we achieved was the Effective Communicator ESLR. Of course, we did have our occasional fights, which meant that we weren’t demonstrating the skill of effective collaborators, but despite all this bickering, we also incorporated technology as a tool for communication. We used the internet and our thumb drives to get our information to each other and we even used PowerPoint to convey our ideas better. We also wrote this reflection, which shows that we were able effectively communicate how well we thought we did. Anyway, we would give ourselves a B for this ESLR.

Individual work:

Working as a group was not a difficult task for us. We just did not find the right way to organize ourselves. Every one contributed fairly to the project. Nick did the entire PowerPoint presentation while Daniel and Hannah split the write up in two. Four bullet points for each person on the checklist.  Then later on Nick checked the write up to see if it was ok.

Summary:

We created a short “commercial” in order to commemorate the victims of the holocaust or remember Anne Frank. We incorporated specific images, sounds and symbols that would give the audience a deeper understanding and get them thinking. We went through the process of planning, arguing, switching, arguing some more, then switching back again, and then doing the actual project and write up. Group wise, we think we did ok, even though we had our little occasional argument. But project wise (write up included), we think we delivered a great project that incorporated relevant symbols and images and good music to go with it. It was meaningful and it makes you reflect a while before going back to your daily life. Because of this, we think we deserve an A-.

Are as fragile as a beating heart

Because for every time we cause it grief

It begins to tear itself apart

Lighter than a feather

And as white as their tears

Nothing can destroy the wings of an angel

Nothing but our fear

But this is the reality

For a fear has become a truth

Because all of our angels

Have disappeared

We have committed an unspeakable crime

An irreversible theft

We have stolen the wings of our angels

And now they have nothing left

Some will never forgive our evil

And wingless they will always remain

But many have pardoned our mistakes

They simply want to end the pain

They wish to find their wings again

To once again take flight

To soar through the skies high above

And touch the stars at night

But this is only a dream to them

A fantasy if you will

Because they know what we are

They know we will never be still

We will never stop

Not until the seas turn to blood and the sky to fire

They will watch as history repeats itself

As the world attempts something dire

But their wings have already been stolen

Their lives now only remain

But in the end, this is you

And this is me

We are one the same

We are the ones that will watch and suffer

And at the same time agree

We will accept full responsibility

And yet we will deny it and say we were led astray

Because such is the way we live

To always look the other way

But it was not always like this

The lies and deceit

Once we were angels

Once we were complete

But now things have changed

A greater evil has rooted in our minds

For we have stolen our own wings

And we have lifted the clouding blinds

This world was never meant to save us

But was never meant to die

But when it does and takes it with us

We will never be able to fly

-Nick C.

There I go again, me and man, criticizes him in all my glory. Anyway post your comments and by the way, either you guys having been doing nothing all break or you don’t know how to post on my blog! Click on the little words that say “No Comments” or X number of comments right below the title of the post and click on it! Then you go to the bottom and type in your comments! Jeez people!

P.S You  don’t have to believe in angels or be religious at all to understand this poem, it’s just metaphorical (I hope I spelled that right)

P.S.S This is the first time I’ve written a “P.S” or a “P.S.S”

(Scene starts off with Stephen locked inside his room and Tom on the other side) 

Tom: Open this door right now!

Stephen: Mind your own damn business! Why do you have to breathe down my neck all the time?

Tom: Hey, watch your language! I have the right to know what’s going on because I’m your dad!

Stephen: Yeah? Well maybe I don’t wanna be your son. It’s not like I had the choice anyway…

(Pause)

Tom: Stephen…

Stephen: Forget it, just don’t say anything.

Tom: Just open up Stephen! Now!

Stephen: Go away; I don’t need your stupid therapy. You treat me like the rest of your patients!

Tom: That’s not true Stephen. All I wanna know is what’s going on. You’ve been like this for weeks. You’re snappy all the time, you barely eat, I can’t get you to engage in a conversation with more than 3 words, and your grades are dropping. What’s wrong?

Stephen: My grades are fine and nothings wrong, not that you’d care. Just leave.

Tom: Look, ever since mom died-

Stephen: You’ve done absolutely nothing! It’s like you’ve forgotten her, as if she was some bad memory you could just leave on the sidewalk of your life.

Tom: Stephen, I loved your mother a great deal more than you can imagine, but life goes on. It’s just the way things go.

Stephen: Mom has nothing to do with this, ok? So put it out of your stupid equation. It’s just a bit of pressure from school, that’s all.

Tom: A bit of pressure is making you act like a zombie? I doubt it. There has to be something-

Stephen: There isn’t, ok?

Tom:  Watch it. You better start treating me with a bit more respect, ok? Now come on, I’ve got some cold pizzas in the fridge, and while you’re at it, clean up your room.

Stephen: Fine, whatever.

(Stephen starts throwing stuff onto his bed and then unlocks his bedroom door and they both sit on the floor and begin eating pizza.) 

Tom: So, how’d your midterm exam go?

Stephen: Fine, just great.

Tom: That’s good. So how’s school been lately? I remember back when I was in high school. Worst and best years of my life. I was quite popular, you know? But that last year… oh well, forget it.

Stephen: Define good. My algebra teacher has kept a grudge ever since I accidentally mixed y with b, my science teacher, Ms.Pattil, is the most boring person on the face of the planet and could get you to fall asleep in seconds, my social studies teacher seems to always be waiting for me to screw up and all the rest of my teachers really seem to hate me.

Tom: You know, maybe if you tried a bit harder, then your teachers wouldn’t hate you so much.

Stephen: God! Can’t you just stop it? You’re always like this! Can’t you give it a rest?

Tom: No! Because I want you to be an honest person and an honest worker, not some petty low-life living off trash. 

Stephen: You know what’s petty and low? You lying to me, because I know you weren’t at mom’s funeral, and I trusted you enough to believe that you were!

 (Pause) 

Tom: I had mountains of work to do, times were hard back then-

Stephen: And you couldn’t even spend a miserable minute of your life to see your wife before she died?

Tom: Don’t you get it? This isn’t about her. If you keep going on like this, you’ll be expelled. At your age, I shouldn’t be telling you what to do anymore, and now you’re gonna flunk school before you get to college.  Get it in your head Stephen, you’re gonna screw your life if you don’t start acting now. Stephen, answer me.

(No reply, Stephen just stares angrily at Tom)) 

Tom: That’s it Stephen, you’ve forced me to do this. Everyday, from the moment you come home, you will do your homework, go to your room, come back down for dinner and-

Stephen: No! That’s it! I am so tired of you! I swear that if you make one more demand I’m going to walk out of this house and never come back!

Tom: Then do just that! I wanna see you walk out of my front door!

Stephen: You’ve taken everything from me! Mom, a decent childhood, my possessions and now my life. You’ve made me into something hollow, something that doesn’t feel. I never wanted that, but you made sure that I became as unfeeling as you. Were you like that with mom? Were you? She must have been so happy when she died, getting rid of a useless piece of crap like you.

(Tom slaps Stephen hard across the face)

Tom: THAT IS ENOUGH! Don’t you dare talk to me like that! This whole business about school has nothing to do with stress or any of the other damn lies you’ve made up. This is has everything to do with mom! You’re blaming me! You think I wanted her to die!

 (While Tom is talking Stephen is reaching into the back of his pants and then pulls out a gun) 

Stephen: Maybe I want the same for you.

Tom: Easy, Stephen. You don’t wanna do this. I won’t even ask where in the hell you got that but just please put the gun down. You think killing me is going to bring mom back? You’ll just make things a lot worse if you do this.

Stephen: Shut up. At least I’ll know that the person who made my life miserable won’t be there to do it again.

Tom: What have I done to make your life so miserable?

Stephen: Have you ever made any attempt to comfort me since mom died? No! You just went back to work. I would only ever see you on the weekends, and even then you wouldn’t speak to me because you had work to do. You never made any effort to take interest in my life. You missed out on everything that was important to me and I hated you for that. I’ve hated you all my life.

Tom: I…that is…I don’t know what to say. Maybe I failed you as a father, but please don’t fail me as a son. I just want you to have a future, a life worth living, a life better than mine.

(Tom started edging towards Stephen) 

Stephen: It’s just….I wasn’t there…I wasn’t there.

(Stephen drops into Tom’s arms, dropping the gun at the same time) 

Tom: Shhh, Stephen. It’s ok.

Stephen: Dad, I wasn’t there, I wasn’t there…

   This here is our (as in Miki and me) script. During the Drama exploratory we learned different excecises that helped us concentrate and own the stage when we were on it. I don’t want to spoil anything for future dramatiers, but it did include shouting alot of meaningless words and standing still for a long time. Anyway, we were later asked to plan and create our own script. Getting the basic idea down was pretty much the easiest, but making sure it flowed and seemed real was the hard part. Up there is what our final script looks like, and of course, no props were used (which meant no gun, boo-hoo). We really have to thank Mr.R for taking the time and the effort to go to acting classes and passing that knowledge on. You rock Mr.R!

The past our teacher

The present our lesson

The future our task

We are a generation

Deemed to save the world

Yet we do it

In hopes so vainly held

You were the soldiers of the past

And now we are the guardians of the future

But we were deceived

In ways only time could tell

You cursed us

With a thousand dangers

Took lives

Without heart

And crossed lines

That should never have been neared

And after all this

You tell us

We must mend the world

How low the eminence of man has fallen

To let this atrocity pass

Without eyes or ears

You simple let it slip

Between your fingers’ grasp

You tell us to rebuild

A world you destroyed

But yet you do nothing

But kill and burn

Your past

Is written in blood

And in your arrogance

You have killed thousands

And unless you do not stop now

Your future will hold the same 

But when will you stop

To help the ones that decide it?

How far must we go

To prove that you were wrong?

What more evidence do you need

To prove you have put us all in harm’s way?

And even when that day dawns

The day you stop the bloodshed and begin anew

Those lines

Will not mend

Those dangers

Will not disappear

And those lives

Will still be taken

Because for your mistakes

We must now find a solution

Before it comes to an end

To all that we hold dear

Behold your abomination

You live it now

Must we suffer the same fate

You so cruelly laid out?

-Nick C.

Everyone is always talking about it. We are the generation that are supposed to mend and fix the world. But who broke it in the first place? Not us. The generation before us. And before them and before them. This was a poem for them, reminding them how hard they have made life for the new generation, and if the previous one can help fix it too. And by the way, I know I have no sense of layout at all and I sound mean.