Honor Code: The Showcase

Honor codes certainly exhibit an outstanding appearance to the school and its administrative people. A "culture of academic integrity" slowly develops as Source C strongly claims. However, certain schools portray such enforced rules like "needing to report other students" or "writing a pledge of honor on every piece of work submitted"(Source B) on students and I think that this would rather drive some students off course. When people are exposed to very strict rules, they tend to rebel or resist the rules. Students are trapped in a place like one of a glass exhibition, only having to adjust to the school's rules and policies. Some students might even go as far to think that their schools only care about them for their academic status and how they represent their school name to others around the world. Everything's all about the ranks and status,right? Their hard struggles and attempts in schoolwork and other things can one day break their mental minds. Cheating is everywhere these days and students are aware that it's a bad thing to do. Honor codes enforce the rule: no cheating, plagiarizing, or stealing. Sure enough, honor codes must be in place within schools, but revising some might be the best alternative to choose for students to not stray away from the "right things to do" in an educational manner. Taking away completely or enforcing strict rules upon students are both the wrong way to deal with students who make up the majority of the school itself. Taking the middle ground position, I believe that students would best fit into a revised honor code system so that they can go through school life in a much more alleviated manner. Schools should try to be filled with different colors and shades of uniqueness rather than focusing on statistical numbers and scores that students earn to "support" their school.

Political Cartoon

     This political cartoon about the US Intel and ISIS draws a quick perspective in what Americans were thinking when news about ISIS threats first appeared. It's a natural instinct of people that when something so terrifying and serious like ISIS threats occur, they panic and lose control over their normal thoughts. Their grip and thoughts of what to do in situations like this just slowly crumble away. President Obama, under serious contemplation of the numerous ISIS events, was even thrown aback with how he should solve such a vast problem. As the cartoon suggests, whatever things the US Intel was trying to do seemed too small and insignificant to what they were going against.
     This cartoon shows a snippet of what humans look like when they are unprepared for what's ahead of their way. People have to be prepared and even more than confident to go against things in their way. The big dog only has to swing his huge paw to terminate the US Intel. What Americans and the government thinks at times can seem to be very minuscule and ineffective when their opponent is such a vast and strategic clan. This picture makes it seem as if the Americans have no such power compared to the huge dog representing ISIS. I think that this cartoon is trying to show how Americans try a lot during their "panic times" to think of strategic ideas to defend themselves, however, when actually facing their enemies, they can seem insignificant in the enemies' eyes. Just saying "a bit bigger than I thought" won't really help anyone in that sort of situation, would it?

Kookie Asks "Why?"

"I belong to a [typical family]"(1). "My mother, my grandmothers, and six aunts have all had [4.5 GPA, 36 on ACT, perfect college apps-to name a few]"(1). People might be amazed at what a family I have, but I wouldn't really call this family amazing. It just gives me more stress and pressure to dream and achieve impossible dreams like them. Is it even okay to call my family members "normal"? "This is [just] my family history"(1)...not my history. I want to be different from all these people in my current era where getting all these bizarre numbers accurately determine their future steps in life. "Well then what do you call 'normal' Kookie?", my parents ask. "Anything far different from those alienating numbers", I would calmly say.   

                                                         

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"It is a well known story in the [current times]"(20) "The Day ["People Became Obsessed With Numbers]"(20). The government would be told "again and again"(20) that their outstanding students were receiving miraculous numbers and were at it once again. "On [March 13, 2016] through [whatever time period in the future]"(20), there has been the highest reported numbers of students receiving perfect scores not only on the ACT but the SAT as well. It seems as if people don't care about the ones who are below this superior qualities.

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"In [my] culture, authority is respected, obedience is revered, and independent thinking is not"(30). Now, I finally question why independent thinking is not respected or revered. Isn't independent thinking a huge and essential part of what makes up a person for who he/she is?! "One by one"(32), everyone eventually did seem to be abandoning independent thinking and merging into one whole blob of the same goal. Their motto seeming to be: "Let's see who can get the highest score!" What kids seem to be only talking about these days is scores and numerical values. "I must question everything, even if it means losing my faith"(35) now.

---Just an attempt in mimicking/ adapting the tone and style of Williams writing

The Life of Kookie

Today is yet another regular day that passes by in a nick of time. People live their daily lives as if it is a given thing; however, life shouldn't be something that's considered a norm. Life can be over in a split second. Here, I can define two terms in the simplest of the simplest way. Life: a gift that's been given for a purpose. Death: a natural process that encompasses people; can defeat anything. Life is like a haiku. It has so many different paths-twists and turns-that lead to so many different directions. Like a haiku, life is a huge and important part of a person, however, it has complexities-or not even make any sense.

More like the thought of death itself consumes people entirely. Sometimes it feels as if I'm "marvelous"(3) yet "pathetic"(3). Sometimes it feels as if everyone in this world is against me. Life gives people mixed-up feelings all the time. Life, is in a way, confusion in a different form. All the rhetoric used in Woolf's piece encompasses the central theme of how death always wins the battle. When humans struggle against the power of death-not wanting to die...clinging to their last hopes of staying on this world-they don't have a chance of winning, for death always wins. Honestly, life and death can't even be summed up in one blog post like this. 

Life is such a big part of a human being yet death comes over people in an instant

I personally think that the expression "hot for humility" explains how ridiculous people are in this world. People can be big-time "antagonists"(5), be "indifferent"(5), or even "impersonal"(5). Gandhi once said "live as if you would die tomorrow". This should be taken into consideration. It's not just another philosophical, fancy, nonsensical saying. Literally, death can come for you anytime. Hereafter, people need to know that suffering and death is an essential part of life as death nears and that life is truly a blessing given to people.