Every vision of school we have studied and reflected upon is established on the premise that schools’ policies and philosophies cannot be restricted. In other words, no law can regulate the founding basis of the school, whether these basis are religious, financial or cultural, unless perhaps they are racial (in this case, the institution would diffuse ideals of segregation and racism among people, which would have even greater influence especially on the fertile minds of young children.) For the purpose of this paper, the schools are independent from political theories and ruling governments, meaning the latter are ignorable. The purpose of school should be to impartially instill a fixed knowledge in the minds of children and impel them to discover their interaction with the world.

            In order for students to understand their responsibilities and/or inclinations toward society, firstly they must comprehend the world around them. They must objectively study the history of different nations, without being unconsciously influenced by the governing system above them. That said, every history of every major country should be taught with the same regard and effort. Science and mathematics are fundamental subjects in the formation of a student’s development of logic and should be mandatory every year, from primary to second grade secondary school. Mathematical logic is necessary, or at least extremely helpful, to create deductive skills that will enable the individual to ratiocinate.

In order for students to learn and inquire serenely, free from any frustration, rancor or prejudice, their social statuses should be theoretically inexistent within the learning environment. Education should be a right, not a privilege of a few, inasmuch everyone has the right to explore the world and identify him/herself. Private schools let wealthy individuals obtain an adequate education, while they constantly pull these burghers away from the reality of the lower middle classes found in public schools. Any form of daily, constructive interaction
between the two classes is prevented from the very private institutions. If the purpose of school is to impel children to examine the world, how is the school supporting that if it deliberately conceals certain problems and realities to a selected group? All schools should be public, depending on the budget set by the local district. Yet, to enhance the quality of education for the school community and sustain the higher number of students per school, those considered wealthy should be driven to economically support the institution.

No ideal “size” for a school can be established to secure a suitable learning environment for everyone. At this point, it is the responsibility of the leaner to know which school, either small or large, would drive him to find his/her role in the society.

In a productive society, its members select an occupation that is not only gratifying to assure an overall serenity in the community, but one that also challenges them to work at their highest potentials. From the internal discovery of oneself derives an epiphany revealing purpose to someone’s existence, which is what compels men to succeed.

In the close observation of the world and individual systems, without any credo unconsciously impressed in the mind, one would inevitably come to the recognition of a society’s needs to advance and prosper. In return, the individual would benefit from the revived efficiency and order of the community.

file://localhost/Users/drainone/Desktop/Q4%20Benchmark%20Project/Site_2/Welcome.html 

http://scienceleadership.org/drainone/historyq4bm/final/ 

Try either one... 

1. "Sarazen, Gene." Online Photograph. Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 6 May 2009  <http://student.britannica.com/ebi/art-67198>.

"Obesity Rates Up in 37 States: Report." US.news. 19 Aug. 2008. 6 Jan. 2009
<http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/08/19/obesity-rates-up-in-37-states-report.html>.

"Fattest and fittest cities." All about cities. 24 Oct. 2007. 8 Jan. 2009
<http://allaboutcities.ca/fattest-and-fitest-cities/>.

     The report tries to answer to the question, “why do some cities tend to have overweight residents and others fit ones?” For instance, New York residents tend to live longer than the average American, which obviously results in a low obesity percent. The key factor to consider is that people in New York prefer walking to driving because traffic has become unsustainable. Chicago follows the pattern as well.

"U.S. Obesity Trends 1985–2007." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . 24 July 2008. 22 Dec. 2008
<http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/>.

      According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over the twenty-two years between 1985 and 2007, the obesity rates in every single state of the USA have increased exponentially. Currently, more than half of the fifty states have an obesity percent approximately between 25 and 29. Colorado is indeed the only healthy state remained. In Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee the situation is especially worrisome, since their percents are either equal to or above 30.

"Obesity." The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 2007. 21 Dec. 2008
<http://www.chop.edu/consumer/your_child/condition_section_index.jsp>.

    The report in the Children’s Hospital Of Pennsylvania website explains to an unaware and inexperienced audience what obesity is in details, from a technical point of view. The article suggests that weight is determined by complex interactions of neural, hormonal, and metabolic factors. Genetic influences also contribute to metabolic rates and physical activity levels important to energy expenditure. The symptoms of obesity may include an early puberty’s appearance, disproportion in facial features, increased adiposity in the upper arms and thighs, and a large abdomen.

"Death Rate From Obesity Gains Fast On Smoking." The New York Times. 10 Mar. 2004. 18 Dec. 2008
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DA143EF933A25750C0A9629C8B63&sec=health>.

This article reports the major risks related to the health of those individuals who suffer from this disease. In fact, obesity is near to overtaking smoking as the number one cause of death in the United States and recent improvements in health are probably going to result futile due to obesity.

These days, we are talking quite alot about how to use solar panels in the most efficient way. The process consistsin identifying the most convenient kind available on the market, while takinginto consideration both costs and reliability. The choice is especially basedon the specific needs of the customer, or in this case of our school. Weatheralso is an important factor into the equation: it is necessary to know roughlywhich days will offer the most sunlight. 

Since the industrial revolution, wehave built the world, as we know it, exclusively on oil and fossil fuels,resources that will ultimately exhaust. Despite numerous predictions, no onecan tell exactly when, but this should not stop us from investing inalternative energy sources. Fortunately, we, as SLA students, attend a school wherewe are taught about these issue. Indeed, in our engineering class, we are constantlyworking on how to reform our school into an energy efficient one, via the useof perfectly reliable solar panels. 

1st Interview

Dario: "What or who inspired you to vote?"

Voter: "My family always encouraged me to vote. By now, for me voting has become an obligation for me, a responsibility."

Dario: "Do you think your vote matters?"

Voter: "It definitively does. The accumulation of all the votes eventually makes a significant difference, and my vote is a part of it."

Dario: "What do you think about our voting system?"

Voter: "Generally, I don't think anything should be changed.I have never had a problem with the elections."

2nd Interview

Dario: "Are you a first time voter?"

Despite what people might believe, these days solar panels have been perfected over the years and scientists all over the world have made enormous contributions in terms of efficiency and reliability. Hence, considering the acquisition of solar panels to run your own house or construction is becoming a reasonable alternative. Obviously, the purpose of it would be primarily to save a considerable amount of money on a long-term basis. However, we also have to realize this constant use of petrol, by which we depend, is by now intolerable. A radical change is necessary, not only for the environment, but especially because of a scarcity of petrol in the world.

To my mind, there isn’t that much to say about this specific topic. Sure, we could argue for hours and hours on whether or not magnet schools take away resources from comprehensive ones. And the conclusion would obviously be “Yes, the resources available aren’t shared properly among schools”. However, we cannot wonder forever, and feel guilty about it. Generally speaking, wealth itself isn’t shared equally all over the world. This world isn’t perfect, and will never be so. Based on the concept that we should divide the resources we have with other schools, we should as well share our money and capital with those who have been less fortunate. Are we going to? No, probably not. 

As stated by www.violint.it , 800 million people don’t have a tap at home and more than 200 million kids die every year because of the insalubrious water’s consumption and of the following unacceptable sanitary conditions. Utterly, the 80% of the diseases in Southern Countries of the world is due to a harmful and damaging quality of the water.

Basically, the waterborne illnesses are five: 1) the diseases transmitted with water (cholera, dysentery, gastroenteritis and hepatitis); 2) skin and eye infections due to water (trachoma, leprosy, conjunctivitis and ulcer); 3) parasitoid related to water; 4) diseases due to carrier insects (mosquitoes and flies); 5) finally, illnesses due to a lack of hygiene (taeniases).

Italy is the first consumer of water in Europe, and ranks third in the entire world. Italians utilize eight times the water used in Great Britain, ten times the one consumed by Danish and three times the water used by Irish and Swedes. Even the WWF has announced that the availability of drinkable H2O in Italy is falling from 2.700 cubic meters to 2.000 cubic meters.
Of course I wrote about Italy because I am Italian. But as you just read Italy is also one of the major wasters of water in the world. You also read the consequence of such a behavior.
In fact the increment of the water’s value, the quality and the quantity of the supplying and the possibility of access are making the water even as rare as petrol. I hope it’s now obvious the principal living fount of the humanity is becoming a strategic and vital source.

According to Volin.it , even if 71% of the earth is covered by water, 97.5% of it is salt water. Icebergs and perennial winter compose 68.9% of the sweet water, 29.9% of it is located in the underground and just 0.3% is situated in rivers and lakes. That means just 0.3% of water is potential available. Such a quantity is about 0.008% of the water in the planet.
We are talking about a paltry amount of water, distributed unequally all over the world’s surface. In fact the majority of it is concentrated in some river basins in Siberia, in the Great Lakes in the US and in the lakes Tanganika, Victoria e Malawi in Africa, while 27% is composed by the largest rivers in the world: the Amazons River, the Ganges, the Congo, the Yangtze and the Orinoco. One billion and 400 million people do not have any access to potable water.
Globally, the water’s consumption has doubled during the last century. Therefore while we use roughly 40 liters of water just to have a shower, for others that amount represents the normal availability of water in an entire week.
Now, you are probably thinking this is a lot of information. However, this is just an infinitesimal part of the data available on the web and in the library. There is a huge amount of stuff like this, available just by a click of a mouse.
Of course, knowing this sort of things could be helpful. But the truth of the matter is that this is all very alarming and the most worrying thing is that, after reading those paragraphs, you still don’t know anything about the problems and the issues related to the lack of potable water in the world.