実は....僕....学校が嫌いです、
勉強も嫌い。。。

なぜだろ？

僕。。。知らない。。。

.....

I want to pass my last 3 months of senior life as fun as possible... not filled with homework assignments...

I want to graduate earlier, so I have more than a week to pack for leaving Taiwan.

I want to have a senior trip, but......... you know.........

I am kind of disappointed with how the _____ is now.

sigh sigh sigh...
I've been stressing myself out with school works since I was in Elementary school. Too tired now...

I want more FUN and RELAX TIME!!!!!

Saint and followers

Complains? Everyone has them.
Comments? Everyone has them.
Being stubborn? who doesn't?
But who really listens?

Who is the Saint and who is the follower?

Why can the Saint be the Saint?
Why must the followers be followers?

Who do you think you are?
Stop making lame excuses!!!

"Teaching Civic Respnoses" (summary + opinion)

The basic thesis of this article "Teaching Civic Responses", written by Joel Westheimer, from University of Ottawa and Joseph Kahne, from Mills College, is that schools should teach social civics through educating students to be engaged citizens. Education can raise students' appreciation for democracy and therefore really become a citizen that will actually conduct meaningful things to the society. Westheimer and Kahne said that schools put too much emphasis on community service and service learning. And it seems to become an excuse for the schools to say that they teach civics through service practices.

The article explained three different types of citizens: personally responsible citizen, participatory citizen, and justice oriented citizen.
A personally responsible citizen is someone that do good deeds, such as picking up litter, donate blood, and etc. The participatory citizen is someone 'who actively participate in the civic affairs and the social life of the community at local, state, and national levels.' And last but not least, justice oriented citizens are people who explore, examine, and analyze the root of social problems. They look at not just one side but social, economic, and political forces and develop skills and missions to improve the society.

Westheimer and Kahne went further on the idea that school should teach students how to make commitment to democracy. Most of schools have community service, however, service is not directly related to democracy or social civics. It's like a "citizenship without politics—a commitment to service, but not to democracy." In other word, most of the people are personally responsible citizens, but all the good acts they cannot solve the problem at all. They are not aware of what is the root of the social problems and what are possible solutions for those problems. Therefore, the goal of the school to teach social civics is to culitvate students to become real Justice Oriented citizens and to really solve the problems.

The article ends with a good quote: "The choices we make have consequences for the kind of society we ultimately help to create." We need to be careful of the actions we take because there's always a consequence for it, no matter good or bad. I think schools has the responsibility to enable students to realize what benefit they will get out of being justice-oriented citizens.

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Q: Give your opinion on best strategies for teaching civic responsibility at HIS.

I think it is really important to choose and design programs carefully. The program must interest the students, no matter if it's aiming at personally responsible citizenship or a justice-oriented level. It is really hard to engage students' attention if the program is tedious. As I said above, students need to realize why they should be both participatory and justice oriented citizens.
However, I don't see how HIS can become a justice-oriented citizen because we are not even being a participatory citizen. Even the most basic, meaningful educational opportunities like community service is taken away, so how can we develop a sense of civic responsibility?

Save economy crisis in the US...

As I read the article that listed many plans that will, hopefully, support the American economy on New York Times, the plans that I found most actively supportive can be categorized into two kinds: Alternative Energy and Health Care.

First of all, I think conducting energy efficiency and renewable energy research mandatory is absolutely necessary. We rely too much on oil and it will eventually run out someday in the future. If the U.S. do not start investing in this field, it will be too late when the serious oil shortage problem occurs. Investments now will only increase our future good. It helps to lower the costs of alternative-energy-based products (eg: hybrid cars). Investments in alternative energy can also help prevent future conflicts that oil shortage might cause between different nations. I think what the US government can do at current stage is to replace older vehicles owned by the federal government with hybrid and electric cars. The government can be a role model for US citizens and other nations and lead the trend of "going green".

One of the most convenient things about living in Taiwan is that everyone has health care. Taiwanese citizens only need to pay a little to go to a clinic or a dentist. In contrast, U.S. Health Care system is not so convenient. Patients often have to wait for many days before they can go see a doctor or a dentist. Also, medical fees in the Us.S. are incredibly expensive! Not every citizens can afford the fee to pay for medical treatments. Therefore, investment is Health Care is necessary. The government should help states with Medicaid costs so that cheaper and more convenient medical treatments are available for all the U.S. citizens. The government should also extend qualified individual program so that people can be qualified for medical care more easily.

What can HIS do?

Not to be too pessimistic, but I think not everyone can do something like the two Indian woman in the Opinion Column "Yes, They Could. So They Did." due to many reasons. Nevertheless, I really appreciate the work that the two Indian women had done. I think it is very courageous for two women to travel around India by the electric car and to teach people about their climate-change project.

As an individual, it's hard for me, a high school student, to make really significant changes in the community. To be honest, I don't have much to think about changing the world on my own because I'm busy being a student. I don't have much technical knowledge on how to make a solar energy car. All I can do is to turn off the lights, use less water when showering or brushing my teeth, or these kind of little steps to save energy. I also remind my friends and family members to do these kind of simple steps to save energy consumption.

As a school, we definitely can do more than just turning of the lights. I liked the greening roof-top plan that the 10th graders came up with few months ago. Yet, the plan was canceled because budget problem. I am also thinking about putting solar energy panels on the roof top and on the windows and then we can make use of the solar energy we collected. However, the solar-energy system must be quite expensive. Therefore, I think the first step the school can do is to come up with a proposal of our greening-plan, and send it to Hsinchu City government. I think the mayor would be willing to support our plan by providing financial aid.