Journal #2

How does competition function in our society? To what extent is it healthy/unhealthy? Offer some real world examples taken from your life, community, culture, state, nation, or world.

Competition functions at every level of our society; from fighting over a toy as a toddler to trying to get better grades than someone else to get a scholarship to working harder to receive a promotion and up until our final moments on this earth while we fight with death. Competition is a healthy and necessary part of human nature. Without competition, humans would have difficulty motivating themselves and others around them. "A competitive world offers two possibilities. You can lose. Or, if you want to win, you can change." Competition, in essence, drives any change within our society and; therefore, it is essential to our survival.

Journal #4

If you could go back in time and be someone in history, who would you choose to be? Why?

I would be one of the first settlers in the new world. No one person in particular, just a person who left their old life back in Europe and came to explore the "New World." I would really want to be part of the first group of Europeans who were able to explore unknown territories in America because now there isn't anything left to explore on earth and I've always felt like a person who's willing to try something completely new. To get a chance to venture into the unknown with my fellow countrymen would be a feeling I don't think I could find doing anything else. Also, in the first permanent settlements in America, hard work was the only thing that mattered. If a person worked hard on the farm, they could sell their crops and make their own fortune. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd wanna be able to control my own destiny and this time frame epitomizes that.

Journal #5

If you had the responsibility to decide where $1 million should be spent to improve conditions somewhere in the world, what project(s) would you choose? Why?

My $1 million would go to improving the conditions of local schools. If schools in the area are improved, then, students would obtain a better education. With a better education, those students can find well-paying jobs and hopefully, in return, they put their money into projects similar to mine. This domino effect, in an ideal world, would gradually improve our education system. I know this all depends on the generosity off others, but I have faith that there are still at least a few good people left in this world interested in changing our country for the better. You may be wondering why I wouldn't put my money in ending world hunger or helping the homeless or any of the other "humanitarian" projects and the answer is simple. In my experience, many of the people faced with those disadvantages did something along the road that put them there. I understand there are people that are truly disadvantages but at some point, people need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and try to fix their situation.

Journal #7

If you could introduce one new idea or material thing to a primitive culture, what would it be?

I would introduce a video camera to prehistoric humans, so they could log their actions and events for us to watch in the present day. There are so many unexplained things from prehistory and having them recorded would give us all the answers to the questions we've been asking for hundreds and thousands of years, like how the Egyptians built the great pyramids in Giza. If they had videotaped it, the biggest question of the era would be answered.

Journal #14

Please describe your reactions/ideas to the following quote: "He does not possess wealth, it possesses him."

This quote is a hundred percent accurate. As difficult as it is for most people to admit, when they come into large sums of money, it completely changes them. For example, how many stories are there of someone winning the lottery, getting their money, start spending it, getting used to the ritzy lifestyle, burn through all of the money and then the family gets completely torn apart because they can't handle living a "normal" middle-class life anymore? The concept of money and material wealth will be the downfall of the human race. Nobody is satisfied with what they have if they think they can get more. All of the great empires in history have fallen because they got greedy and tried to acquire more land, but they didn't take into account that somebody already had that land and they weren't going to relinquish it without a fight. Greed and the hunger for more wealth will never go away; therefore, they will continue to defeat our society until the end of time.

Journal #18

If you could choose two things to change about our high school campus, what would they be and why?

I would replace the principal with a person with more experience with high school students and eliminate SMI. Coming from Castle Park Middle School, Mrs. Sandoval-Johnson doesn't have the experience needed to run a high school. Our school has taken a massive turn for the worst since she took over and she doesnt know the proper methods of disciplining and motivating high school students. She is also very impersonal, in the four months that she's been principal, I've only seen her on campus about five times. Another example of her impersonality was in the beginning of the school year, my mother tried to talk to her about a problem with my schedule that nobody else was helping with. After a week and a half of trying to get help from someone in the main office, Mr. Garnica-Mendoza finally responded and took care of the problem. Then, a few days later, Mrs. Sandoval-Johnson finally called me into her office; however, the problem had already been solved. Eliminating SMI is the other change I would like to make to our school. It's an extra hour to each class that the majority of teachers just waste by putting on a movie that has no correlation to the course. It was originally intended to reward students with good grades, and help those with lower grades. Yet when Mrs. Sandoval-Johnson took over, she felt it was best to keep all students in during the extra hour and now all students suffer.

Journal #19

Should school attendance be mandatory? In your answer, be sure to explore what the function of education is, and what our nation would look like if the masses were less educated.

School attendance should be mandatory for all students until they reach high school. After that point, they should have the option of dropping out or continuing through high school and beyond. The only catch is if a student should choose to drop out before high school ends, they have to either find a job or train for a certain job of their choosing. This would not only weed out the unmotivated students who take valuable time away from the students who are there for there education, but it would also make sure drop-outs don't completely ruin their lives by quitting school. Education plays a vital roles in our society. For the most part, the higher educated are the higher paid and have a higher standard of living. Without education, our nation would crumple just as in the movie Idiocracy.