Education

Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of America's most influential thinkers, is the writer of the essay, "Education". By teaching his readers about respecting children and respecting themselves, Emerson is able to clearly pass on his messages about his ideas on reforming the education system and his ideas about his views on life."It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained, and he only holds the key to his own secret," says Emerson about how he thinks a child needs to viewed as by their parents. In order to share his thoughts, Emerson published this essay in American Scholar during the 1800s. His goal was to persuade and educate his readers, who were educators, parents, and the readers of the magazine, about how he thinks teaching the next generation should be done. He says by being patient, a parent can see Nature's new product. However, this includes not trespassing on their solitude. He agreed with the idea of teaching children arithmetic and grammar so when the child has fully understood these topics, they can "learn anything which is important to them" by using the tools they have been provided with. Once a child has mastered the solid concepts, he or she can use their own thoughts to continue their education in whatever subject they want to learn about. In a philosophical, confident, and professional tone, Emerson is able to convey his message to his readers in an effective way during the Transcendentalist period. "By simple living, by an illimitable soul, you inspire, you correct, you instruct, you raise, you embellish all" (Emerson).

Touching Dogs in Malaysia

"Want to Touch a Dog? In Malaysia, It’s a Delicate Subject"
By: Thomas Fuller
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/world/asia/dog-petting-event-underlines-malaysias-culture-wars.html?ref=world&_r=0

Dogs are adorable and everyone loves them, right? Well, this statement is not agreed with in many Islamic countries. A man named Syed Azmi Alhabshi from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia organized a get-together for dog lovers and their canine-averse neighbors thinking that it would be a great opportunity and a great idea for doing a public service. Hundreds of people showed up to his event. It was called “I Want to Touch a Dog” as an event on Facebook. When pictures started going on the Internet of Muslim women in head scarves happily hugging dogs, Mr. Syed Azmi became the reason for the latest occurrences in Malaysia’s culture wars. The man who wanted to have a fun get together and make people and dogs happy then received more than 3,000 hateful and threatening messages on his phone. After alerting the police, he was advised to stay at home. The Malaysian authorities described the “I Want to Touch a Dog” event as an offense to Islam. The reason for why Islams do not agree with touching dogs is because conservative Islamic groups say "they view dogs as unclean" and that they "require the faithful to undergo a ritualistic wash if they come into contact with canines" (Fuller). "All we are getting these days is how to hate an ever-growing list of people and things,” said Marina Mahathir, who is the daughter of the prime minister and a leading liberal voice. “How much energy are we to spend on hate? And how does hating anything and everything make us happy and better Muslims?”, she continues.

A True Education

"Education is a concept as difficult to define as it is essential to our identity" (Shea, Scanlon, and Aufses). Education has a different definition for every single person. Everyone understands the word differently but at the same time it means the same thing. It is the combination of "knowledge, wisdom, and skill" (Shea, Scanlon, and Aufses). It is important to step back from the debates on grades, standardized testing, and teacher evaluation and really understand the meaning of education. There is a very accurate quote by Jean Piaget which says, "The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done." Schools today focus on students' abilities to be better at being an 'overall student' than other students. If a person was able to manage to keep their grade's high, finish many volunteer hours, and be a leader in extracurricular activites then that person is able to continue their education and have a successful life. Through grades, standardized tests, and teacher evaluations, is not the right way to determine the capability of a student. But, sadly, that is how it is nowadays. All the way back to 340 B.C., Plato has said, "The object of education is to teach us to love beauty". Students at school should not be competing with each other to get a better opportunity. They should learn about life, be able to find themselves, learn to do things their own way, to learn to enjoy what they have, and to be able to love the beauty of this world. They should learn to have their own opinions, work on making this place a better one for future generations, learn to come together and make a change. These ideas are what is lacking in the education system today. This does not mean that students should not learn math, science, history. It just means that there is much more than just memorizing formulas, theories, and battles. There is so much more to this world then what schools expose students too. Sadly, not all students are able to see what they are missing because they are too busy competing with each other. This is something to be worked on and changed. This world is a beautiful place and we need to learn to see it in our own way. 'The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows" (Sydney J. Harris).

Living in Quarantine

"Life in Quarantine for Ebola Exposure: 21 Days of Fear and Loathing"
By:  Kevin Sack, Jack Healy and Frances Robles
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/us/life-in-quarantine-for-ebola-exposure-21-days-of-fear-and-loathing.html?ref=health&_r=0

As the Ebola scare spreads from Texas to Ohio and beyond, the number of people who have locked themselves away, some under government orders and some voluntarily, has grown beyond those who lived with and cared for Mr. Duncan before his death on Oct. 8. Ms. Jallah, her partner and her four children have quarantined themselves since the day her mother’s boyfriend, Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person who brought in Ebola to America, was hospitalized with the disease. Because her mother was at work, it was Ms. Jallah's responsibility to take care of Mr. Duncan, making him tea and handing him a thermometer. But, she says she never touched him. Mr. Duncan's girlfriend, Ms. Jallah's mother, says, “If I even go to the store and I see a fellow Liberian, they run away. They don’t understand. They think we have the Ebola, that’s what they think — that even by speaking to them, saying hi to them, that they’re going to get it. No one wants to die.” She has been cleared from the disease but she never goes out and is not allowed to use public transportation.

Ms. Jallah has also had to care for her children, ages 2 to 11, who have been kept out of school, and she and Mr. Yah are still unwelcome at their jobs as nursing assistants.
Then came the discovery that the two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who were treating Mr. Duncan have caught this disease bringing fears to hospital workers and other contacts.
Officials in Texas have said on Thursday that about 100 health care workers are going to be asked to sign pledges not to use public transportation, go to public places like shops and restaurants for 21 days. 21 days is the maximum incubation period for Ebola. This pledge is not a mandate, but the notice warns that violators “may be subject” to a state-ordered quarantine.

Mandatory Volunteerism

Mandatory volunteerism can benefit the community, however, requiring teens to do community service and forcing it upon them discourages them to do it voluntarily in the future. Knowing that they have already completed their way of giving back to their community during high school years, makes them not want to do more than they have to. In order to avoid "negative effects on student's intentions to volunteer freely in the future", the requirement for volunteering should either be removed or lowered according to Stukas, Synder, and Clary. After studying, researchers have found that in order to easily persuade people to volunteer is when they feel that "it is their free choice" or when they are "ready" to volunteer as adults instead of as teens (Stukas, Synder, and Clary). It is found that students would actually enjoy helping their community if the requirements for volunteering were not as harsh. A solution to this situation can be made if institutions designed programs that had "an element of choice" and were types of activities that would "allow students to combine personal interests and skills with the service requirements" according to the research published by Stukas, Synder, and Clary. If students were not forced to volunteer, they would want to do the job easily. If they were also interested in the activity they would freely want to join, work, and make a difference.

Ebola

"Ebola Victim’s Journey From Liberian War to Fight for Life in U.S."
By: Kevin Sack
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/us/ebola-victim-went-from-liberian-war-to-a-fight-for-life.html?ref=world&_r=0

The murderous civil war which from 1989 until 2003 has terrorized Liberia, killed off about 5 percent of the population. In attempts to escape, it sent groups after groups of refugees to neighboring countries. Over 700,000 Liberians fled from their nation which had about two million residents when the war began. One of the Liberians who experienced this conflict was a man named Thomas Eric Duncan. Mr. Duncan is now known as the man who brought Ebola into the United States.
It started when Mr. Duncan came to visit the women, whom he had a child with during the times of war, that was living in Dallas, Texas with their now 13 year-old son. After she gave birth, they separated for personal reasons. Mr. Duncan has not seen his son since birth. After the women separated from her past husband, she got in touch with Mr. Duncan and started a long distance relationship, resulting of him returning back to her in Dallas, Texas. It is said that “they had had a falling out, and had patched things up and he had come with the intention to marry and start a new life together" which now is not going to work out very well. Once again, Mr. Duncan and  the woman found themselves in this vortex of larger forces which they cannot control.
The arrival of Ebola with Mr. Duncan on Septermber 20, put the city of Dallas so on edge that parents are keeping their children home from school. This problem also commanded the attention of President Obama and his top health advisers. There was even a national debate over whether to restrict travelers from going to and coming from infected countries. All we can do is be careful, watch our hands, and see where the research can take us.