Ann's Blog On The Results Of Child Care:

Ann's blog #5:

This article basically talked about the effects of child care on young children. There have been experiments done that show some correlation between children who attended child care and children in 5th or 6th grade with behavorial issues. There is also some correlation between children who went to child care regulary and children with slightly higher vocabulary in 5th or 6th grade.

Reading this article made me feel really smart and also really nerdy becuase while i was reading it i started to get my ap stats brain out and try to analyze what the test was saying. at first i felt like slapping myself, but then i decided to go with it... so, i think that there may be some possible undercoverage and some lurking variables. Basically i mean that i think taht part of the reason for the results may be because of the general type of parent who sends their children to child care. First of all, these parents could possibly have a higher percentage of them who have a higher education and so they are at work and thats why they need to send their child to child care. so if the parent has a higher education, they probably have a higher vocab so that would rub off on the child. and same type of situation with the behavioral issues; if a parent is too busy to love their child and give them attention, they may develop some attention craving habits.

Ann's Blog on Meth addict:

anns blog #5:

"Meth Addict who made documentary dies" (cnn.com, March 27, 2007)

The man in the picture, Shawn Bridges who wrote a documentary on the terrible effects of meth and has recently died. His documentary, "No More SUnsets" was written about his addiction to meth and all of the terrible things he went through during this addiction. HIs father said many things about him in the article. He told of how Shawn wanted so badly and worked so hard to tell his story to warn others about how meth can rouin your life. He wanted to get the word out to young people and help prevent other people from becoming addicted. He was only 35 years old, but all of the terrible things that he went through made his body age much faster than average. He had the body of an 80 year old. His family tells of how he has already pretty much died twice. I guess the meth had damaged his heart so much that it had stopped a couple of times already and had to be shocked back to a beat. His documentary was released last year shows him pretty much bedridden with nothing but a catheter and a feeding tube. Shawns life began its spiral downward when he was only about four years old and his little brother, 1, was killed in a car accident. He then grew up to be a high school dropout who loved the party scene. At 26 Shawn had a heart attack, most likely because of the meth abuse and on several occasions tried to kill himself. He spent many months at a hospital at the end of his life where he was in really bad shape. He would cough up blood and couldn't really talk or eat (the eating thing obviously leading to problems). They are planning to do a sequel to Shawns documentary, telling about the last year of his life and having interviews of the people touched by Shawn.

Battery Acid...YUM! Meth is a crazy crrrrrraaazy thing. Its hard for me to make any sense out of. I don't see how anyone with even a half functioning brain would want to try it. I understand curiousity in highs and effects of drugs (not saying that curiousity should have more power than common sense) but i don't even a slight bit understand someones thought process when they try meth. Hearing this guys story gets me all choked up. I guess i can see how the events of his childhood could have led him to this fate, but i just wish that his parents or friends could have taught him a better way to cope with things before it was too late. If only he could have realized taht he could life a satisfying and fulfilling life, then maybe he wouldn't have had to resort to drugs of any kind. In my mind, it all comes down to one little seemingly meaningless decision that lead him to the 'wrong croud'. and i go "crap, if only he could have gone to someone elses house that day in seventh grade after school to play video games rather than hang out with the ninth graders who gave him a cig. It makes me almost feel guilty, makes me wonder what i could do in my life to prevent someone from a similar fate as Shawns. I know thtat we could all make a difference to someone very easily by just showing them that we care. anyway, I really admire Shawn at the same time for getting out of the downward spiral with enough time to tell his story and warn others about the bad bad things about meth. I hope that he touches people who really need to hear him, i know he touched me. Just like the speaker we had come to our school last year who did the presentation on meth. I am so glad that taht man is dedicating the rest of his life to tell the world about the dangers of meth.To me, speakers who have experienced the terrible effects of meth are sucessful in convincing the public that meth is bad, because their storys are always so horrifying that people understand how terrible meth really is.

Article from

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/27/meth.death.ap/index.html

Picture from

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/27/meth.death.ap/index.html

Ann's Blog On Seperation of Church and State:

Anns blog #4:

"Biology teacher fired for referring to Bible" (cnn.com, March 20, 2007)

A Biology teacher in Sisters, Oregon had a short-lived new job at the local high school. After only eight days, he was fired mainly for 'deviating from the curriculum on the theory of evolution'. His name is Kris Helphinstine and he allegedly included biblical references in his lectures along with controversial discussions that connected evolution, Nazi Germany, and planned parenthood. in Kris Helphinstines defense he claims that his sole purpose of the lessons was to teach the high school students how to hear information, then interpret it and analyze it, forming their own opinions about it. He says that critical thinking is very important to understanding science. He says that he never taught the idea that God created the world, saying that he knows what it is and he went out of his way as to not teach it. A parent complained when is freshman daughter came home confused by the material being covered in her biology class. This parent, John Rahm, accused Kris Helphinstine of not teaching the curriculum that his daughter and her classmates were supposed to be learning. Other parents are concerned about the pollution of their child's mind, in the things that they have been taught in his classroom.

I find this rediculous, i guess i never really felt that strongly about seperation of church and state, espically in a country like ours where the majority of the citizens, fundamentally, believe in the same ideas. Of course, this is comming from a christian, but if the system is designed to protect athiests, it doesn't make too much sense to me. If I were to have never heard about God and his word and all of his greatness, than I would probably be an athiest. If that were to be the case for me, my life would lack a whole lot of meaning. I wish the whole world could be exposed to my wonderful Creators love and grace. When seperation of church and state is put into place, it makes my goal difficult. I feel truely sorry for the poor individuals whos parents never brought them to sunday school when they were in elementary school. Allowing religion into schools wouldn't have to be forcing religions on to people, but it can (and should) get them thinking about a higher power. Exposure is all it would take.
/li9'p

Ann's Blog on "that's so gay"

P.S. i wasn't trying to work the system on the last blog. I started it on feb. 20 and didn't finish it until march 2. i forgot to add march 2 to the dates. sorry!!!!!




blog #2:

"Student lawsuit hinges on whether 'That's so gay' is anti-gay putdown" (cnn.com, march 2, 2007)

A girl named Rebekah Rice is in the middle of a big lawsuit because of a comment she made. She said "that's so gay" at school one day back in 2002 and was sent to the office where they punished her for saying the phrase. She received a warning and a marking on her file and her parents sued. Her parents claim that her first amendment rights were violated by the school officials. The problem is that, without meaning to, she made a statement that put down the lifestyles of homosexuals. She claims that the phrase just means that's so stupid, that's so dumb. Apparently, the year before, two students were paid to beat up another gay student and that may have something to do with the administrations intoleration of rebukes behavior. Then the article goes on to talk about how the term can be and is offensive to many homosexuals. It also talks about how often the term gay is used in a derogatory sense.

I have never been a big fan of the phrase, myself. I guess I don't judge people or think that they are bad because they use it, but its not a phrase that I would use. I think people who use it seem ignorant and snotty and uneducated. I picture a girl twirling her hair in her fingers and gossiping with her fake girlfriends about the bad thing a boy did to one of them and saying "that's so gay". I guess that is all the defense I have to give the school because I have no personal connection to the word gay and using it in a derogatory sense doesn't affect me in the least. The article talks about just thinking about something that you are and then having someone use that word to mean stupid. Okay, well I'm a sixteen year old Christian. If someone were to make a generalized statement about how terrible sixteen year olds are in that type of way, I don't think I would be affected. If someone were to attack my faith in that same sort of way I would probably get a little bit more upset, but I still wouldn't think much of it. Those are two things that I am. I'm 16 and I can't help that and I chose to be a Christian and that's a lifestyle that I choose. Im strong in the way that I am and my choices. so whether or not a person claims that they choose to be gay or that they just 'are' gay. I don't see how it should affect them in a substantially amount. What do they care what the world thinks about them. People need to start living their own lives and quit wasting their time worrying about what others might be saying or thinking about them. It is awfully difficult to become accepted in the world if you don't first accept yourself. If you are confident in yourself and allow that selfconfidence to let itself out to the world, then there should really be no problems. I may sound smug in saying this, but I think that the people getting upset are overreacting to this.


article from:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/28/so.gay.ap/index.html