Recopilacin de Trabajos en Ingls

Breaking the habit

The American School System

by A. R. Cisneros America boasts about its great school system education, but is it really that good? The government sells a lie, to magnify the school system, which can look good on the outside, but its falling apart on the inside. Teenagers in public schools are now being given all the answers straight to their faces, and they are still failing. In some classes students are even allowed to make quizzes with open notebooks and study guides, but is that really beneficial in the long term to the student? If a student already knows he can find the answers in a study guide or a notebook he will not bother to read the book. It is frustrating to see how teachers try to cope with students whose only purpose in life is to get out of school and find a job. These kind of students are not planning on attending college. In American public schools, students are only given a couple of books to read along the year. Most of the students do not read them, some critique the book as boring. However in private schools, several books are read along the year, writers such as Nietzsche, Herman Hesse, and even Victor Hugo are used. The huge breach between public and private schools is that in public schools students are allowed to do whatever they want, beginning with picking their classes. So if we stop and think about it, is a teenager going to pick a difficult class because it has been weighted or would he pick an easy one? In private schools students do not have the opportunity to pick their classes; each student (according to their grade) has several classes and has to pass them all. If he doesnt he will go to summer school, if he fails summer school he will have to pass the failure class if not, he repeats the grade. This is a good way to run schools, because the student then has to be on the level of the school standards and is not behind the rest of his fellow classmates. Students falling behind is not a simple problem; it goes all the way to the Government. Students are treated like a product, just another big number to enter into the system. They just want you to get enough education to be a happy little worker bee in this 21 st Century, to not ask any questions, and to keep your noses out of the government issues. In the first six weeks, in my science class we have been learning from a textbook. This is the way the government wants the school to teach. They

also want teachers to give multiple choice tests. In what way can this benefit the student, by having answers to pick from, and not having to process the information, analyze it, and then write the answer in their own words? Recalling certain test that I have taken in a class, the teacher gave us open-answer test; students complained from the very first minute. One student even yelled This is hard, I have to think. Is this the point to which America has come? Is this something the Government is proud of? We are taught to remember the answer to the question, and reliance on technology is very big in public school. We are told things like not to worry about spelling; because we have a computer to check grammar for us. Learning mathematics has taken a whole new spin in public schools, in which grading on a curve is a common word for teacher to make the grade of the class look better. Most kids in public schools are uncontrollable. How can learning take place in a noisy class, with students being disrespectful to their teacher? Respect for authority, integrity, and honor are no longer virtues practiced by students who attend public school. Students in private school are well behaved, and not only do they work hard, but are also polite and obedient and think twice to even speak in a loud tone to a teacher. No one can tell you who you are, what you think, or in what you believe. If you dont think (for yourself) someone else will. You have to be thankful to the teachers that tell you to think for yourself. Is it more important to play football or be a cheerleader and end up flipping hamburgers in a fast food joint, or actually learn something that will be of value for the rest of your life? As a student you have to defend yourself and ask questions, do not keep your mouth shut, because that is the worst mistake you can ever do. Most of all, do not take anything for granted. Do you realize how many kids in third world countries cannot go to school and have the education you have? Public school is not going to change, not because it is impossible, but because it does not benefit the government at all. Help the solution not the problem.

Waiting for salvation?

The real deal about weapons (that no one told you about)
by Andrea Revilla Is it really the Second Amendment, or a more powerful organization that is preventing the government to set up restrictions in buying and selling of weapons? The United States is a country which is proud to say guarantees the freedom of speech to all the citizens. But what happens when the weapon industry collides with the safety of humans? Is then when freedom of bearing a gun is justify? Are we, then, justifying Columbines Massacre? Here is the deal, the weapon industry is a large corporation that runs the money in the economy of the United States. That industry has a major influence on the government and prevents laws that restrict the buying and selling of weapons from coming out. The excuse from this organization of guns and rifles, is that according to the Constitution and the Second Amendment, every citizen in the United States has the right to own a weapon, and bear arms. We are talking about the same industry that promotes war so they can sell massive quantities of weapons. So as always we are talking about money over human life. So... you may think, what know? The truth? Is not about stopping the production of guns, rifles, bazookas, whatever weapon you name it. It is about restricting the selling, making it more difficult for people to buy it, having to take a psychology test, not just putting it on a shelf on WalMart and then washing your hands if someone buys it. It was not long ago when a teenager bought a rifle, went to the school and created a massacre. Ringing a bell? It was Columbine, and it was just a few days ago that I entered into a store and saw a bazooka laying on a shelf. A bazooka on a shelf, just waiting for the right kind of psycho to buy it without any restriction, or having to take any test, or waiting a few months to take out a license; and just only a few day after he bought it there will be breaking news about someone who entered a building and shoot a bazooka. We all can think how wrong this is, but thinking does not always help. Maybe a little action too. Putting pressure, not only on the government, but also on the weapon industry, to create laws for restrictions on buying weapon, and stopping ordinary stores where you go to buy food to be able to sell weapons. That may help. That is not violating either the Second Amendment or any civil right in the Constitution. After all, your rights end when others begin, and my right begins with the security of my safety, either in my school or in a store.

Help science!
Stem Cell research needs your help
By Andrea Revilla Many polemic discussions surround this subject, Stem Cell research. Not only religious debates, but also political and moral issues are discussed nowadays. Stem cell has the potential to develop into many different types of cell in the body. Stem cell serves as a repair system for the body. Scientists are primarily working with two types: embryonic stem cells, and adult stem cell. Some of the most serious and dangerous medical conditions, as cancer and birth defects, are caused by problems that occur somewhere in the process of life. The clinical potential of adult stem cells has been demonstrated in the treatment of other human diseases that include diabetes and advanced kidney cancer. Parkinsons disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder that affects more than 2% of the population over 65 years. The disease produces tremor, rigidity and decreases mobility. Several laboratories have induced embryonic stem cells into cells with many of the functions of the PD neurons. Cell development will allow us to understand and perhaps correct the errors that caused these medical conditions. Today, donated organs and tissues are the most common source to replace those that are diseased or destroyed. Unfortunately, the number of people needing a transplant exceeds the number of organs available for transplant. If stem cell research bring us a new possibility of improving life, we ask, why the polemic? A number or religious organization believe that, the research of stem cell, is a blank letter to kill a new life in process. Ethicists argue that pre-embryos, the embryo before life is started, is the way life starts. Others will argue, that the fact a living being is going to die anyway, does not justify exploiting the stem cell as a natural resource. They support this by saying that the research of embryonic stem cell is the beginning of a series of moral, and ethic hazards. By this, they say that science is degenerating. We ask to them, degenerating into what? Into improving life and finding sources to end with diseases that are inevitable going to attack a human being? We say back, people who support the issue of not allowing science to grow, are ignorant; and not by birth defect, but because they choose to. How can a person neglect someone with Parkinson to live like that the rest of his life, when they can find cure? Stem cells are not only derivate by embryos, but also from other sources, like umbilical cords after babies are born, and also from placenta. Do

these sources kill life? No, in any possible way, but some people are too blind to see what they do not want to see. We have to help others who cannot help by their own. We have to speak and act by those who cannot do it. You can help with so little and doing so much, see if your state has a fund that allows stem cell research, write to your governor, everyone can help in one way or another. The worst way is remaining silent, because you are allowing people with diseases to remain that way. If someone you know was dying, will you speak or remain quiet?

The Ramones
By Andrea Revilla

A culture brain-washed by the government, a follow-the-leader society, or maybe a conformist life was ended with the birth of punk. I am talking about real punk, not just the black make-up and I am a rebel appearance, but the lyrics and music of the song. Not the I hate society and religion raw Nietzsche stereotype, but maybe a little less savage, a little more Max Demian by Hesse. We need shock-treatment from the crappy commercial punk we are being sold these days, our ears bleeding to dead from a one-minute sensation band that is well received as, well forgotten. We need the Ramones, the band that gave birth to punk. Six Pistols fans may still mourn the death of Sid Vicious, and they can do it as long as they want, but nothing can deny the real creators of an easy-togo-we-dont-care music type. The Ramones believed in easy lyrics, nothing to banal, nothing to serious, with a quick music background, all resulted in an I-dont-care-about-anything-(anything?)Yes-anything doctrine. The Ramones converted the 70s, 80s and 90s and it is because they pioneered a not-so-raw, notso-overcooked kind of music and they dared to step into an unexplored stream of lyrics and beats. The Ramones, a group impossible to classify because of its sound, a sound of simple playing, distorted power chords with down strokes that eventually would lead to the standard formula Hey! Lets built a punk group like the Ramones, but without the same result. The style impossible to imitate, a howl of the simplicity we have lost, how everything is complicated and that is what the Ramones expressed, a one-minute-and-a-half song in which nothing and everything was said, a moment stop in time to forget about our problems and just give ourselves into the momentum of just being. The Ramones, their voice lost in an Alice in Wonderland moment, in which everything seemed possible if we forgot about the complexity and lived by the simple rule of being, which is just being. A voice drenched in saturated monotony out crying for the liberation of the soul trapped in a world full of non-stop living.

The eternal Ramones (originals): Joey Ramone (lead vocals). The heart and soul of the Ramones, his motto was less complicated more simple and his lyrics reflected this. Giving birth to a new style still copied today. He led the Ramones with his catchy voice, the perfect voice for punk, no high tones, and no out of tune. Johnny Ramone (guitar). His style is unmistakable, just leisurely, nothing forced, nothing hard to work and his guitar solos can be counted with just one hand. He proved an unlikely guitarist for pop music but perfect for the Ramones. Dee Dee Ramone (bass). The eternal Ramone, he played the bass like he lived life, just sedated enough to go on. He too contributed to the Ramones with some outcast, raw, and crude lyrics. Tommy Ramone (drums). Like the bird dragged by the wind, he was embroiled into the drums in the Ramones. His style remained fast enough to go with the beat of the song, but not too complicated, and provided enough beats to allow the song to remain simple.

The Ramones charmed us into a state of libertine, and like a hurricane they did not turn around to see the effect they had. While the group no longer exists, their heritage is immortal and will make us step down of the rollercoaster in which we seemed so in depth we no longer know what simplicity means. The Ramones yelled for a change, and now in our souls their lyrics and motto hey, ho lets go are engraved. Long live the Ramones.