Spirit Week

After thinking about your comments in class today, I thought Spirit Week would be a good topic of discussion. We have people in our class who help run Spirit Week, as well as people who do not participate in Spirit Week.

Here's your topic:

Student Council puts a lot of effort into Spirit Week here at Palmer.

Some possible topics to explore:
Do you participate? Why?
Are Spirit Weeks important for Palmer’s community?
How do you feel about Spirit Week?

These are just some ideas – you can write a paragraph on anything involving Spirit Week and Palmer.

Please keep your responses to ONE paragraph this month. Pick one idea, and stick with it!

Due: Jan 15

The Lottery Response

What is the significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the "young folks". What role do young people play in our society?

Young people in our society plays an important role in the developments of our community. Old man Warner mentioned in the story that “nothing is good enough for [the young folks].” Because as young people are born into an era with constant advancements of technology they are tempted, unintentionally, to continue to seek for more advancement to make a more convenient living. Young people can be compared with the sun-rise, they make it possible for seeds to grow and flourish into flowers with colorful leafs, in other words, they give society hope. Contrarily, the rest of the population, of whom, not defined as “young people”, are like the sun-set which ends the growth of seedlings, and will eventually lead to another sunrise.

Young people, like us, are the leaders of our society. Because we are much more adaptive to new environments and fresh new customs than adults; therefore, in a society, we possess much more potential to bring about changes. If young and inexperienced people can bring changes to a society, then why are adults not capable of doing so? It is because adults have TOO much experience. They have endured so many life experience that they have already set in their mind, the line that stand between what is right and what is wrong. They gone through so many life experience that they have established, unconsciously,the limitations of creativity, and they commenced to clung onto old traditions and customs. This, prevented them from taking the leadership role in our own society which calls for a great variety of improvements in different aspects. However, holding onto traditions is human nature, even as a teenager, I have already began to clung to my tradition that I had experienced. Taking Camp Squamish for example, when we were deciding our team name, despite the fact that the name “Cheaka Cheaka Cha” is just amazing and original. I still hoped that we had agreed on the name“Team Awesome” simply because I used the name the year before and I had hoped to continue the pride. Therefore, as a 15 year old, I have already began to set my own expectations and hold on to traditions, it is unavoidable. Accordingly, think about how narrow minded people are when they age into adulthood? Ever wondered why many parents expects their children to walk the same path as them career wise? It is because they are just vulnerable to change, and change, means placing themselves in a position of temporary insecurity and lost of direction. This is why young people have more potential to lead the reform of our society because they have less tendency to stick with traditions.

Many adults have already realized this, and have already started to make use of the creative minds of young people. Looking at the European LEGO company for example, the company is broken down into two main departments: designing, manufacturing. Because the majority of adults have such limited imaginations, the company hired a 6 year old boy as the chief designer for major LEGO projects and products. This shows that our society are beginning to recognize the importance of young people and their possibility to make our society a better place. This, the respect given towards the young one's ideology, is a benefit Warner did not realize or recognize, have great potential to bring climatic evolutions to their biased and corrupt society.

The Lottery

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order?


The society we have been living in is changing. There is more crime and more violence in the neighbourhoods we live in. People are corrupting themselves with alcohol and drugs. Everyday, there are more and more homeless people on the streets. Obviously, our society is not as strong and steady as before. We should re-evaluate the society we are turning into before it is too late. The actions we have taken before to treat these corruptions are not effective any more. Therefore, new rules should be established to keep us from corrupting ourselves. At these times, self-control is the key to maintaining a healthy life. Often people find themselves pressured by others to do something they do not want to do at all. In school, it is called peer pressure. Many people are influenced by their peers into doing negative things. If we can control ourselves from being pressured by others, then we will not corrupt.



With all those laws made by the government to achieve order in the country, it is not surprising that a lot of us have customs and practices to accomplish our own matters. The laws worked so that we now have a functioning, flourishing country. Taking our base from there, we invent our own rules and create a new way of doing things. In other words, we create our own customs to successfully work out whatever it is that needs a solution. If the custom proves to be applicable, we can live with it. If it does not, then we just have to figure out a better way to solve the issue. If the solution works, why would people want to change it? It's like a guess-and-check math problem. If a number works out, then there the answer is and no more work needs to be done, because it solves the problem. If it does not work out, we just keep on trying and testing until the answer is found. Of course, if we are all self-controllable we will not need all sorts of laws and rules to bound ourselves. Yet, as always, there are people who think laws and rules are meant to be broken, so they break the rules. If we all follow the rules, every thing will be better. The society will be able to function without the people feeling as if the laws are set to restrain us.

To a Mr. O. M. Warner

"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."

Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while.”


What is the significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the "young folks". What role do young people play in our society?

In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Old Man Warner speaks of the “young folks” and how, by listening to them, it would result in a regression of society. He considers the youth in society lazy and that “nothing's good enough for them”. The significance of this to the story, though, is that it reflects on the lottery itself. At this point of the story, we do not know the actual prize of the lottery and it foreshadows that a dark reward looms in the distance for the one “lucky” individual. This is due to the fact “that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery” (-Mr. Adams ). If it is a prize that has people wanting to abolish it, then the reward must have a negative impact on the winner. Also, due to Warner's retort to this and his incorporation of the young folk, we know that this is due to the new ideas of a younger generation. As time goes by, we find the perspective of the youth in society to be more progressive and humane than the last generation. Each generation is given a new set of eyes to view the society that they live in differently than that which has already been seen. They have these crisp and vibrant eyes to see what the older generation's eyes can not see anymore. The older generation grew up with their own principals, their own customs, and were taught from a very young age what was considered right and wrong in their era. But times change and youth are given the chance to question what is put before them. By each generation that questioning is made stronger with parents passing on their own ideals – which may not necessarily agree with what society believes in at the time – to their children. Consequently, the young populace in our society are the construction workers of this building we call civilization. With each generation, new standards are met, new problems are faced, and new traditions are made. Children and adolescence look at these problems through everyday life, they look at how their elders deal and cope with the circumstances facing them, and, most importantly, they ask questions and formulate ideas and plans for the future. These questions, ideas, and plans are indeed the bricks they will use to construct the sky high buildings they need to make, the sky scrapers they must harness themselves onto to create a more advanced, more harmonious, and more equal civilization. The youth are the leaders of tomorrow, and when their own eyes grow weary of what they see, and when their own eyes start to droop and glaze over with the hardships of their lives and their generation, another more youthful group shall take their place, leading the world on. Therefore, I would just like to mention to a Mr. O. M. Warner, that his view upon society's youth is completely irrational. Listening to the young folk does not mean a regression in society, but indeed it results in an ultimate progression of life; their role in society is nothing short of being the leaders of our world tomorrow.
-Khu

The Lottery Response

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order.
What is the significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the "young folks". What role do young people play in our society?

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People can be categorized in many different ways, and two of the main ones include people who are more laidback and prefer to "go with the flow," and people who are assertive, and are constantly striving for more.

It is, in some sense, much more simple to live life following customs that were set by our elders. There would be no need to worry about anything -- minimal problems, no concerns or worries whatsoever. It would be like following a daily routine, and if a problem should arise, it would be easy to refer back to rules that were set aside for these customs. But would they bring us anywhere? Would they advance our society, and take us where we've gotten today?

Old Man Warner implied that "nothing's good enough for the young folks." While he may have meant it in a casual and negative way, I believe that the original message of this comment is undoubtedly correct. Nowadays, young folks like ourselves are always striving for more, striving to do better. We are constantly questioning things around us -- why is it such a bother to have a camera, a cell phone, AND an iPod? Why can't we combine them all into one? It is questions and complaints like these that give people opportunities to advance our society. Adolescents in our society are pretty much the people in charge. They keep our society up and running, and keep it running efficiently. They make up the majority of the human population in every society, and nearly every business and market is designed to satisfy them. Because of this, we are not able to sit back and just accept old-fashioned rules that have been laid down for us years ago -- we need new improvements, we need changes and advancements, and most of all, we need what we want. As a teenager, what we want concerns us far more than anything else. At this point in life, we are not experienced enough to think everything thoroughly. This all boils down to the way our society is run -- based on impulsive decisions that ultimately bring changes for our world.

But does that make it acceptable? So we are advancing, we are looking ahead. Is that correct? Not necessarily. Our elders and ancestors have obviously created customs and traditions in the past for a reason. Many people like to believe that the elderly tend to be more wise -- they have lived far longer than we have, and have had a lot more significant experiences. They can distinguish between the "rights" and "wrongs" that young folks often blindly disregard, and sometimes it is necessary to firmly impose this upon the people, to make sure that the message is clearly sent out to everyone, and of course, the best solution would be to make it mandatory. Everyone may disagree to them at first, but as time ticks by, year after year, traditions just sink in, and people follow them. Eventually, people begin to realize that customs keep a community in order. Customs also identify the members of a community, and show that they are truly a part of the society that they claim to be in. Because of this, these "seniors" believe that they hold the correct end in the controversial argument about whether or not customs and traditions from many years ago should be kept. These people believe that they alone know what is best for the society, and that the hotheaded teenagers would certainly not be able to make correct decisions.

As a result, both sides clash and contradict eachother. The young folks scoff at the elderly for being old-fashioned and for dragging the society behind; the elderly are unhappy with the young folks for thinking they can do anything they want and trying to break out of old traditions.

All of that being said, what should be questioned about our society? I believe that it is good for the society in general that people are trying to advance our generation. But the question is, is it acceptable to wipe out the foundations that the earlier people have set for us while making our own attempts to reach whatever goals we have set for ourselves? Is it acceptable to just blindly go for what we want, regardless of what other people think and want? That being said, is it acceptable, then, for the elderly to prevent progress from the younger generation? Are they allowed to stop others from achieving their own goals just because it disagrees with their own views of society? I think not. If we all claim to be going for what is best for everyone, nobody will ever reach a consensus. No matter who says what, people are inclined to believe that their way is the RIGHT way. But that is never true -- nobody is always right, and nobody is always wrong. So what gives the elderly the right to believe that they are correct? Just because they are older -- does that truly make them more intelligent? And what allows the adolescents to doubt the intentions of the elderly?

I think this aspect of our society needs to be re-evaluated. We can't all choose our own paths, and just blindly plough ahead without considering any options at all. We also cannot doubt and criticize other people's opinions without any reasoning or justification, other than the fact that they contradict our own. But in life today, this happens almost everywhere. Arguments arise from disagreements, and fights are triggered through discrimination, bullying, and the putting down of other people's ideas. Is this the kind of place we want to live in and be a part of? Nobody likes being picked on, I think that is one thing we can all agree on as normal human beings. Why, then, is nobody making the effort to re-evaluate this aspect of our society? Every single person out there does not like it when other people go against them -- if it is so easy to tell others not to be mean to others, not to criticize others, not to put down others, and not to be biased towards others ... why is it so hard to act upon these words?

Response!

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order.

There is a reason why customs and traditions are still functioning in our society. The customs and traditions we can find in our society now are a reflection of a person’s, a community’s, and a civilization’s history. On the same note, our customs are not flawless and there are many affairs in our society that should be re-evaluated. For example, many parents still abuse their children when their children can not fulfill their expectations. This is a custom that began centuries ago, but people in our society are beginning to realize that it is not appropriate and are questioning their own actions. Furthermore, a hot topic in the media recently is about death sentences. Surprisingly, in other countries and communities, death penalties are still intact. In places such as Texas and Virginia, death penalties are becoming less common. Studies have shown that Virginia now rarely sentences a death penalty and that the last death sentence that occurred was in March 2008. In Texas, the death sentence rates have dropped 14% compared to four years ago. This is proof that there are customs in our society which should be changed and are being seriously questioned.

In our community, I believe we should be questioning an issue which is less severe than death, but also an important subject in our society. It is a custom and expectation in many families that children must attend university. I, myself, believe that university is right route for me, but is it the “right way to go” for everyone? Many teenagers find themselves in a predicament and under a great deal of stress because they question whether or not university is the right path for them. Not only families give pressure to their children about attending university, but the media and often a child’s own peers also pressure them. I believe it is time our society questions and re-evaluates this custom and tradition. Is going to university still the only “right way to go”?

There are Inventors but there are Recorders

The significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the “young folks” is because adults have a different view in the traditions that seniors have, and with these different views they change the society in a better way. Like in “The Lottery” an old tradition in the town was having a lottery and if a people draw a black dot on a piece of paper they are stoned to death. Knowing this, the “young folks” decided that the tradition is unreasonable and they should not be part of this event. Young adults play an inventor in our society they invent new idea that keeps our society moving and striving for excellence. Many famous inventors like Thomas Edison, Charles Goodyear and Guglielmo Marconi have invented many inventions in their early adulthood. These inventions started our growth in our society; without the invention of electricity we would not have computers, or cell phones. Unlike the young adults, seniors are “old fashioned”, they like to keep old traditions and old customs therefore they slow the society down. For example most seniors are new to the world of internet; they read the newspaper for the latest news instead of searching the news on Google or Yahoo. They are blinded that our society is continuously moving instead they are still stuck in the time period where they were “once” young. However seniors do have a role in our society, they are recorders; they keep old traditions and ensure young children know their past. Also, seniors remind young adults that tradition should be followed but it is left for the adults to decide whether it should be followed or not. Overall young adults play a great role in moving the society but seniors keep traditions from decaying.

Old Man Warner

To give up the lottery or not? The question that was raised in the northern village. This suggestion was proposed by the younger folks of the northern village. The Lottery principle is based on their ancestor's way of controlling things back in those times (seven decades ago?) The more recent generations continues to follow this principle of stoning. In our current society, winning the lottery results in happiness. As for "The Lottery" society, whoever "wins" gets stoned to death. For the younger people in our society, they play as an inheritor. The torch is passed down, and new ideas will be born. Using previous wisdom to develop into stronger ones is a key action for the younger people. Again, this is the passing down of the torch. In order for society to progress, advances in every aspect will be required. If everything were to remain the same throughout time, we would basically be living in a "world without time and clocks." We will never know when to continue. When Old Man Warner says "listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them," he is referring to the younger generations taking over. There is the belief that each newer generation is getting worse and cannot be trusted. However, that is not true. The younger folks wants change, that is all. Let their ideas fly out and be as free as the clouds. The newer generations will always surpass the older ones, thus the proposal of giving up the lottery, by the will-be inheritors.

To comment on the comments…

Hello my lovelies.

Thank you for being so active on your class blogs. The discussions are great to see!

It has been brought to my attention that some people feel like the comments are a bit “harsh”.

I have now read through almost all of the comments, and I appreciate the connections you are making to each others’ posts, world events, other literature, and life in general. It’s great to read your opinions! I truly enjoy it.

This is probably one of the first times you’ve had to “publish” formal writing in a public forum, so remember it can be scary for some of your peers. Be careful that you do not attack others' views in a negative way. It’s great to have differing opinions, that’s what makes our world interesting! But present a different opinion in a way that invites discussion, rather than silencing people.

Some language that may help you to comment more positively –

“I understand what you are saying, but have you thought of this?”
“Good points, but I disagree with some things you’ve said”
“Your post got me thinking… what about this?”

On the other hand, if your post is commented on, feel privileged. You have started an intellectual discussion! If someone disagrees with what you have said, stand up for what you believe in, and keep arguing your own points! This will help you make your points clear, focused and well argued. Take the time to reflect on what is being said – you may want to edit your post after you hear from your peers. I do not mark them until the due date, so you have time to go back and make sure your thoughts are in order.

Keep commenting! It’s great.

Old Man Warner VS. Young Folks

The significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the “young folks” is that the next generations are the ones who will decide the future. Old Man Warner having lived for more than half a century, knows it's time for the younger ones to take over the tradition of the “Lottery.” However, in his opinion, young people are constantly looking for newer and more advanced life styles. Firstly, I believe this is the correct way to go. If people never advance and move forward, the society would always be the same. It is up to the future generations to replace the modern society. Most importantly, they need to learn and improve from it and not revolve around an out-dated society. Secondly, Old Man Warner is too biased about his tradition. In a sense, he seems brain-washed. How can stoning a person be acceptable? For example, when Mary was being stoned, someone gave her son a stone. How generous of that person to give the boy a stone that he can throw at to kill his mother. That person acted like it was an everyday task. Only then, did someone realize the wrong doing of this tradition and it was the victim's son. He was just a child around five years old, even he knew this is wrong. It's always when the consequences have occurred before people realize what they are doing. Inevitably, Old Man Warner is not the only person who is brain-washed, aside from the fact that he has lived his life through the tradition. In the story it says, “in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery,” The person who had that idea must have been the a genius. It was the century's most ingenious decision. That person deserves the Nobel Prize Award. It must have been the newer generations who have FINALLY realized it is wrong to stone people to death. That person deserves the Nobel Prize Award. Lastly, Old Man Warner's concerns do have a point and should not be neglected. Young people are too influential these days. They can't make the right decisions themselves and are persuaded too easily. For example, there are teenagers who are persuaded to take drugs or decide to hang out with friends everyday rather than attending school. Also, why do you think there are restrictions for people under the age of 18? It is to prevent the immature decisions made by them. Imagine what would happen if a teenager went to vote and persuaded all his friends to vote for the same candidate, who is completely useless. Alternatively, candidates can bribe teenagers who have no self-control over their decisions. Again, these people are the ones who will decide the fate of our society. That is why Old Man Warner believes the young people are unreliable.

-GORDON F. (C) 2009

The Lottery Evaluation

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order.

Some traditions and rules are necessary to keep our society safe for people to live in. The laws set up by the government are a crucial part to maintaining a safe and clean environment. Along with these laws, I believe people who break these laws deserve to face the consequences, such as serving time or paying a fine, but one part of society that should be re-evaluated is the death penalty. Many parts of the world have already chosen to get rid of the death penalty for serious criminals, but others have not. The death penalty is a bad way of punishment because it contradicts the law set up by the authorities. Murder is illegal. How is death as a punishment any different than murder? It is not. The death penalty is just like murder because it involves killing someone, who may not be a model citizen, but is still a person with rights. I understand that in order to be sentenced to the death penalty, the criminal must have done a very bad deed, but there are other ways of punishment that does not involve such a inhuman action. Life sentence to jail or a certain amount of years without early probation is a more suitable punishment. Just like the lottery in the short story, The Lottery, the death penalty should be re-evaluated and if possible, should be exterminated.

The Lottery- Response

The significance of Old Man Warner ‘s words is that since he is the oldest man in the town, he has the knowledge of what the original tradition of the lottery is all about because he had been in it for over seven decades. He repeatedly showed warning to the younger parents and the younger generation of what they are in for if they do away with the lottery. Being involved in the lottery for such a long period of time, Old Man Warner knows best about the risks that he is taking. Young people in our society today are easily attracted to things that do not always end up the right way. For instance, as young people, the most common excuse to escape their faults is the “everyone’s doing it” excuse. One of the greatest and most common examples is smoking; young people get too caught up with their social life that they forget about protecting themselves. The risks and harmful situations they are putting themselves into can cause their lifetime: addiction. Things do not always have to have a first try; the best thing to do is to step out of things or situations like this. In other circumstances, for example, peer pressure also plays a huge role in our society today. Many young people are influenced negatively by their friends or peers. Hence, if they do not follow what their friends do, their friends will either go from not being friends with them anymore, to a more serious situation: life threatening. The heavy moral lesson that Old Man Warner had spoken out to us is that things are necessary to be thought twice rather than once because the littlest situation may cause a serious addiction that can lead to death.

Young Folks: What are we aiming for?

Young people are either looked down upon or seen as the future. People (adults) see us as fragile and influential individuals, and when we are given the right information and have a positive attitude, we can accomplish great things and make right what the older generations have done wrong. We have the ability to change the outlook of future generations on issues like multiculturalism and human rights. We are sort of like trees, give us water and good soil with nutrients, and we will grow to be big, strong, and we will help recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen (we give back to whomever decides to give us something). But put us in the wrong environment with not enough sunlight, we wither and die.



Adolescents also have a tendency to start to think for themselves. Yes, we are still learning and growing and are subject to peer pressure, but we have our own minds and sometimes we choose to use our own judgement. We deal with different situations that our parents might have had to deal with. For example, religion. We live in a very multicultural society where it is okay to "hang out" with someone who is not the same race or colour as you are. A popular problem that comes up all the time is dating someone who is not the same race, religion or colour as you are. Our parents have given us the gift of life, and we do have somewhat of an obligation to at least obey their wishes, but when it comes to someone you have to spend the rest of your life with you have to make a smart choice. Just because someone is the same religion as you does not mean that they will have the exact same core values as you do (which is what most parents argue). In a multicultural society, us "youngsters" have to learn that we cannot fear what we do not know much about. We need to make smart choices, and we have to trust our own gut feeling because sometimes our parents or the older people we look up to may be wrong.

We also have an important role for our natural environment too. Generations before us have been ruining our environment. It is only now that adults are trying to train us to go green and do our part to give back to the environment. It is almost an obligation that we have to clean up the mess that past generations have made. We love our earth, but we hate doing the dirty work. We have been unfortunately born into a society where people are already faced with these problems, its now our job to help try to reverse the symptoms of our sick earth.

Us kids and teenagers will only be young for so long. Then we will grow up and become the adults who will either see the potential right or potential wrong in the future generations. We will do our best to be the best we can be, and change the world to make it a better place. Being born into a more open-minded society (even though we still have to keep our traditions in order) and being taught to go green is really going to help us help earth.

How to post...

Here is what you should do:

• Log in!
• Come to our class blog
• Create new post
• Write your heart out!

Here is what you shouldn't do:

• Don't write your response as a comment... I can't easily find them that way.
• Don't post them on your blog (well you can, just do it on here too).
  

FIRST BLOG QUESTION!

After our great class discussion about Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" I thought it would be appropriate to continue our thoughts on here.

We didn't get to discuss this in class, but I want to look at one section of the text that may pertain to you:

"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."

Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while.

Comment on one, or all of the following:

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order.

What is the significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the "young folks". What role do young people play in our society?


Due: Nov 20

This blog is for...

1. Jasleen
2. Kyle
3. Gordon
4. Adeline
5. Amy
6. Vivienne
7. Kallie
8. Alice
9. Eliot
10. Farrah
11. Michelle
12. Melody
13. Jacky
    

The rest of your peers are writing on this blog.

Welcome to your class blog!

Every month or so I will ask you one question to respond to on our class blog. The questions will change from month to month. You may have to reflect on world news, yourself, or think about what we did in class.

The requirements:

• Minimum of ONE paragraph, maximum of TWO.
• Do not repeat what someone else has said! If you agree/disagree with someone, say that and explain why.
• Make sure your responses are on topic.
• Support your opinion. If you use outside sources, make sure you submit the citation information or link.
• Proof-read! Do not submit something that is not edited or is grammatically incorrect.