Are Charter School Really Fair?

I know many people who went to charter schools and I always wonder what the deal with them is. I found this article from the ny times that was about a charter school in Arizona. It was basically explaining how a charter school in Phoenix is trying to lift the poor area and how it was a chance for middle-class neighborhoods to avoid the underfunded neighborhood schools without having to pay a lot for a private school.
What I find interesting is that in order for a child to go to a charter school, they must take a test. According to this article the author said, "The strategy is grounded in the principle that test scores offer the best way to measure students’ progress and teachers’ abilities." I understand that charter schools only want kids who are motivated to learn and take advantage of the charter school system but sometimes a test score is not always the right way to judge a student. There are kids out there who are willing to learn but maybe aren't the best test takers. 


On the other hand, charter schools do need a process on how they let kids into their school so maybe tests are the only way? Do you think that charter schools are fair? Why or why not?

Not Even Beyonce Believes that Gender Equality Exists

Although lately there have been talks that the world is changing, Beyonce, known as one of the biggest feminists of our time does not believe that genders are equal. According to this article Beyonce that "average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change." 

According to Business Insider a lot of women (and men) in America actually agree with Beyonce. The article stated, "Both sexes believe that men have an advantage when it comes to pay (and women even more so): 31% of women think they'd be paid more if they were male, and 20% of men said they'd be paid less if they were female."

Beyonce's belief and the results of the survey above raise the question: why do women really believe that men have more power especially in the working world than women? According to Business Insider it is because of family. For hundreds of years in America it was always the woman's job to stay home and take care of the family. It was the man's job to be the breadwinner. Although the times are changing and there is powerful women in this world, 51% of women still believe that family is the reason that there aren't more women busisness leaders in this world. Women still feel the need to fit the stereotype of a stay at home mom. 

There have been women to break this mold like Beyonce but still one of the most influential feminists today don't even think that genders are being treated equal. 

What Brain Dead Really Means

Lately, all over the internet there have been arguments about what the term "brain dead" really means. A few days ago, a hospital went to court with a family after the family asked the doctors to keep their daughter on life support after she was declared "brain dead." The article can be found here but it first explains what the difference between brain dead and a coma is. When someone is in a coma is a prolonged state of unconcsiousness and it resembles sleep. A coma does not usually last more than a few weeks and most of the time the person who was in the coma ends up waking up and go into a vegetative state which many patients can recover from. Brain dead on the other hand menas that neither the two parts of the brain are working. But, when someone is brain dead, there still may be a heart beat but what does that really mean? 

Cynda Hylton Rushton, professor of clinical ethics at Johns Hopkins University said that "The term "brain dead" can be misleading because it sounds like a person really isn't dead. If someone dies of a heart attack, doctors don't say they're "cardiovascular dead." 

I agree with Cynda Rushton that the term brain dead is misleading but I also believe a person is truely dead when they are announced brain dead. I think doctors should be more clear about what brain dead really means and explain that no one has ever recovered or woken up after being brain dead. I understand why the hospital wanted to pull that girl off of life support but I also think that the doctors should have been more clear to the family that brain dead really does mean dead. I feel very horrible for this family and I wish their daughter would be able to recover but science has proven that it is not possible. 

Better Looks Means Better Grades?

After browsing CNN for a while I saw a title of an article being "When teachers favor attractive kids" and was immediately alarmed. I could not believe that someone did a study on kids being more successful in school because they were attractive. But, it's true. The full article can be found here but basically the article was written by Pepper Shwartz at University of Washington. She took evidence from different books an studies to show that in many cases it was true: more attractive people were more successful in school and out of school. According to the article,"The difference in GPA and college graduation rates between  youth rated by others  as attractive, versus average in looks, is similar to the  differences in academic achievement between youth raised in two-parent versus single-parent families."

My first thought on this study was who gets to judge what "attractive" really means. The article describes attractive as "good-looking" but that could mean so many different things to different people. I don't think being good looking and not good looking is black and white and I certainly do not think these studies were fair if they did not have a clear definition of what attractive meant. Just because I find someone attractive does not mean someone else will. Although I am sure this study does have some logic to it, I am not completely sold because I do not think two people who did the study get to decide whose attractive. 

Professors Being Replaced by Computers

While browsing CNN this interesting article caught my eye because the title was "Will online classes make professors extinct?." The title immediately shocked me because the idea of professors becoming extinct was something I could not believe but after reading this article it seems more likely that eventually this could happen. In 2013, a report was done by the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities and it concluded that the percentage of tenure track positions has gone down from 78% in 1969 to 33% today. This report is quite shocking and I believe that if all college professors were replaced with computers, students would be negatively affected. 

According to the author, "In this season of economic uncertainty, the urge to convert traditional classes into impersonal, large-scale online courses is becoming irresistible to colleges and universities less committed to the sacred bond between teacher and student." The author is explaining how it is becoming more diffilcutlt for colleges to resist replacing professors with online classes or filmed lectures because it is a lot cheaper than paying a professor to teach live. Unfourtanetely, although doing classes online is cheaper and easier I believe that a student gets more out of a class when the personally know their teachers and can create bonds with them. I know from experience that I learn best when I know my teacher and they can directly interact with the class and make learning interesting. I think it's very hard for a computer to come alive and be a teach with the same enthusiasm as a teacher. 

Obviously if all professors were replaced it would not happen for a while but I can not help but think that there is a possibility that kids generations from now will be taught by computers or other technological tools, not real, live people. 

Can Cyber Bullying Be Blamed on the Parents?

As I was browsing CNN.com today a very sad article caught my attention about a 12 year old girl committing suicide because she had been cyber bullied by two other girls around her age. After the girl committed suicide one of bullies supposedly posted on her Facebook account, "Yes IK I bullied REBECCA nd she killed herself but IDGAF." Although the dad of the girl said that he thought his daughter was hacked, this incident still does raise the question: Where were the parents? 

The author of this article believes that the parents of the bullies who caused a girl to end her life should be criminally charged for being ignorant about what their child is doing on the internet. Although this story is tragic, I do not think it would be fair for the parents to be criminally charged. Even if the parents are not very involved with their children's social media accounts, its not like they were the ones telling their children to go after this girl. It should be the actual bully getting criminal charges, not the parents.

Neither my mom or dad has my Facebook or Twitter password and I do not ever think they will but if I were to ever to do something bad on the internet it shouldn't be their fault that I never gave them my passwords. I think cyber bullying between teens can be stopped more easily through social work in schools or counseling. Not blaming parents for being out of the know. 

Comments are very much appreciated!

The Rainbow Loom: A Toy For Everyone

The other day as I was hanging out with my 7 year old sister, I looked down at her arm and noticed about 3 rainbow bracelets made out of rubber bands. I asked her what they were and she immediately exclaimed that they were made from her "rainbow loom." She looked up at me and said, "Everyone has one! Even the boys!" I was very intrigued by her comment and then when I saw the article on Time.com about the infamous "Rainbow Loom" it immediately caught my attention. The full article can be found here but the article was introducing this new phenomenon and how it was "defying the stereotype" of toys that boys play with.

When I was 7 years old I remember all of the boys playing with legos, cars. swords etc. I (as a girl) was very content playing with my Barbies and crafting but none of the boys wanted to come near any of my toys which was understandable. But, the rainbow loom is a toy for both genders which I find very interesting. Personally, I would guess that boys wouldn't like this new toy because it's technically jewelry making and boys learn at a very young age that jewelry is more of a girl thing. But, the rainbow loom proves that the gap between boys and girls toys may be becoming smaller.