The First Amendment

In class last week, we were learning about the first amendment.  The topic that really interested me was freedom of religion.  Even though my class voted that freedom of speech is the most important, I disagree.  Our country was based on freedom of religion.  The only reason that most of the colonists came to America in the first place was to freely practice their religion.  That is one of the reasons why we don't have a national religion.  America is made up of so many people from different countries that we have many different religions existing here.  This can't be said for some other countries.

I have a few questions concerning the overall topic of the first amendment.  My one question is this.  If we didn't have the idea for freedom of religion or any of the other freedoms incorporated in the first amendment, would we have even left Britain at all.  There is a good chance that we would still be talking with a British accent today.  The colonists left Britain because of freedom of religion, but one reason why they actually started the war was taxes.  Britain kept taxing us without our representation.  Another reason why we went to war was freedom of press.  It is a not as big topic, but it is still important.  People were able to have newspapers printed, but they couldn't have anything libel in it.

Times have changed from the American Revolution to now, but the one thing that has been a constant is the first amendment.  The Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights is what makes us Americans.  It is crucial for the government to be fair and equal to everyone.  Other countries like North Korea don't have the freedoms that we have.  It is vital that we keep the Declaration of Independence and uphold the idea that our founding fathers created.  If we do this, America will continue to prosper.

Grading

In my opinion, the purpose of grading is to show how well each student is understanding the teacher's lessons.  This can tell the teacher whether or not they need to embellish on the topic that is being taught.  The reason why we are graded out of 100 is because of the grading system out of 100%.  The traditional grading system doesn't accurately assess someones knowledge because they don't measure creativity.  The regular grading systems are working fine, but I definitely think that there should be opportunities to include creativity into grades as well.  This could work if it was used as an extra credit assignment or it was incorporated into science or history projects.  Grading is very important, and everyone has their own opinion on how it should be accomplished.

Creativity Crisis Article

I just read this really cool article about the creativity crisis.  The author of this article records "Overwhelmed by curriculum standards, American teachers warn there’s no room in the day for a creativity class."  It was talking about how America is slowly getting rid of classes like art and adding more math and English classes.  It also talked about how young children start out with a lot of creativity and they grow out of it.  It has been proven that when the same children have taken creativity tests as they grow older, their scores decrease.  This is the opposite of all of their other standardized test scores focused on academic subjects.
This creativity crisis in America can potentially stop new ideas and inventions from being developed.  It can cause us to lose our global standing in the area of development.  I believe that adding new art and music classes, as well as redesigning some of the curricula to focus on these classes will help rekindle the fading spark of creativity in America today.  We can also weave creative activities into the regular academic classes like math and science.
You should check it out.  Click on the link.  Click on it.
DO IT NOW!!!     trust me...

Convergent and Divergent Learning

In class today, I learned about this really interesting topic.  We were comparing convergent and divergent learning/thinking.  I only learned about this last night and I am already really interested in it.  A famous retired college professor named Sir Ken Robinson had a speech/lecture about it and it was really cool.  Main idea: Convergent thinking is when people start at different facts to get to one "correct" answer and Divergent thinking is when people start at the same main idea but branch of and come up with dozens of different outcomes.  This Guy is very smart and I think that it would be a good idea to listen to one of his speeches.  I feel smarter already.

People I Admire

Three people who I admire are: my cousin Isaac, my grandfather, and my worship/youth pastor Kevin.

I admire Isaac because he is a Life Scout almost Eagle Scout (which is the highest rank you can get in Boy Scouts) and he is a great role model for me.  He is a few years older than me and he does community service a lot and I really look up to him.

Another person that I admire is my grandfather.  He was a two star general in the Air Force, is 88, and he broke his femur a year or two ago and is still alive and is starting to walk without a cane again (broken femurs are known to kill older people).
 
The last person that I admire is my worship/youth pastor Kevin.  He started leading worship in his church of over 1000 people when he was fifteen, and still plays electric guitar as well as leading youth at my church now.
 
I think that Isaac's learning style is Logical-Mathematical and Concrete Sequential because he loves to explore things, question things, and he loves labs, charts, and practical reading.

I think that my grandfather's learning style is Intrapersonal and Abstract Sequential because he loves reading, setting goals and self-paced projects.

Finally, I think that my pastor Kevin's learning style is Musical, Interpersonal, and Abstract Random because he is all about other people, he plays multiple instruments, and he is a gifted leader.

This goes to show that the combination of learning styles allow individuals to excel in different areas and become role models to others.

My Style of Learning

I took a learning test and found out that I am "Logical-Mathematical" and "Bodily-Kinesthetic".  At first, I had no clue what that means, but according to the back of a fancy little sheet, I love: experimenting (true), questioning (true), dancing (not really), running (true), and building (true).  I guess that sheet was pretty accurate because it got 4 out of the 5 correct.  It was called the Gardner Multiple Intelligences Test.

There was another test called the Anthony Gregorc Learning Styles Test.  My learning style is "Concrete Random".  Another fancy sheet told me that games and simulations help me learn : ) and so do experiments.  If the two tests echo each other, then I guess that it must be true.  For those of you who wanted to try it out yourself, have fun!!

Ups and Downs

I decided to ponder the Ups and Downs of being "gifted" as well as the myths and truths.

Ups:

• Homework in our regular classes is generally easier.
• We usually get better grades.
• We have chances of getting into better schools/colleges.

Because there aren't that many gifted classes in elementary school/middle school, the subjects are easier to understand and the homework is easier.  That can also be bad.

Downs:

• Expected a lot from
• Bullies
• Work is too easy/don't really learn

Sometimes, because we are smart, we are treated differently.  I have pretended to not know the answer before because I didn't want to be the only one raising my hand.  Also, sometimes I don't learn much in school because the topic they are covering in class is too easy.

Another category to think about are the Myths and Truths of being "gifted".

Myths:

• Gifted people always get As
• Gifted people get special treatment from teachers

Gifted people are treated the same way as all of the other students, if not harder.  As I stated previously, teachers expect gifted kids to do better than others and sometimes give us more challenging work.

Truths:

• Gifted people are better than average
• Gifted people are sometimes victims of asynchronous development- an example of asynchronous development is being super mature for an 8th grader, but being the size of a 4th grader

Gifted people are usually better at certain subjects than others, but on the downside, suffer from asynchronous development.

Never before had I really pondered the true meaning of being gifted.  Now that I know more about it, I now realize how individual each person is and how interesting studying them is.

About Myself

Hey everyone.  My name is Flynt.  I'm in 8th grade.  My favorite subject in school is science.  My favorite subject/thing that I like to learn about outside of school is the science/physics part of NASA.  I usually play sports like soccer or baseball in my free time.  When I grow up, I want to be some kind of an engineer.  I'm not quite sure.  Last but not least, the thing that makes me happy is relaxing with my family.