Humanities Portfolio 2012

Main Understanding:
Working hard and full expressing yourself shows what one can truly do through all situations.

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​Throughout my tenth grade year at Science Leadership Academy, I learned many things that vary in many different topics throughout the year. These topics relate in some way, while others didn't relate so much. Although some of them didn't relate at all, and others did, all of this information gave me an understanding on how the world is constantly changing around me.


Out of all of the topics in my English and World History class, my favorite topics were, "Slavery" and "Education." Back in September the class was introduced to four essential questions...

1) All students have a right to an education.
2) No one has the right to deny anyone an education.
3) Everyone is responsible for her/his own education.
4) Everyone is responsible for the education of all students.

From there we were asked, "Which one do you agree with out of the four?" I had to agree with the first one because it seemed most logical. I made this decision because I feel like every student has the right to an education, because with out an education you will know less than
necessary to pass in society based off of todays standards.

This idea of everyone being applicable to an education is widely spread across the world, but in many places, education is not a necessity to succeed in life. It is not a necessity because an abundant amount of people feel as though all you should follow is religion, and power should be the overpowering system to a successful society.

"100,000,000 children will not even see a classroom in their life." (Global Education Worksheet)"

Click here to view my History Benchmark on Religion and Slavery
(Ideas of education not being an asset is not specifically brought up in this assignment, but this project doesn't signify how strongly Religion is/was believed.)



As the year progressed, many new topics of conversation were brought into play. For instance, we as a class learned about culture and how it differs around the world. Back in Mid-April to Mid-May, we read a book called, "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. In the book, there was culture being displayed called, "Ibu", which was also their tribe. It was interesting how much the culture differs in my living environment, and in Africa (Where the tribe existed). In the book, it was explained that if one small crime was committed, there could be a punishment as crucial as being banned from the clan, or death. In my society, a punishment would be going to jail or being on probation. I found it very interesting how that were complete opposites.


Click here to view my add-on to the end of "Things Fall Apart"
(Originally the book had 25 chapters in it, but my teacher asked us to add on a chapter, a chapter 26. Based off of what I learned in the book, and what I understood the most, this was my chapter 26.)


Click here to view a Wiki-Page on "Things Fall Apart" to better understand what the story is all about, giving a little more insight to understand my chapter 26.

Click here to view my newsletter called, "The African Perspective." You can use this resource if you need a better understanding of what the lifestyle of people in the book was like. 


Back in January of 2012 or so, the ideas of racism and inequality began to harbor around the classroom, and it was main topic of conversation. I learned many things throughout this time that made me think about how racism was one of the main roles in life that actually gave the world some sanity, but in the same time, gave the world some insanity. It gave the world sanity because so many people didn't know what to do with their selves when they felt like an outcast because they were around a racial group, so they segregated themselves into small groups based off of what they do and don't like. But it also made the world a bit more insane because there are people who believe the whole world should be equal, but that's not possible because the whole world doesn't want to be equal.

"In life and society in the past, present, and possibly the future racism, inequality and, segregation have been some of the main standing grounds of life." (History Language Autobiography)


"I feel like people are selfish towards society. The reason people are so selfish is because they live their life, while their minds were played with through propaganda and advertisement." (History Journal #7)

Click here to view a poem called, "Oil of the Fire" that I wrote. 
(The main themes are racism and inequality)

Click here to view a letter I wrote to a fictional character in a book called "Passing."
(The book was mainly about a girl who was half black/half white, and she was trying to pass as a normal person in society, but she didn't know what race she wanted to follow because she didn't want to other race to feel betrayed. So I wrote to the girl Clare, giving her advice on what to do with her situation.)



Finally the last topic of conversation is behavior and law. This topic was debuted in the classroom in mid-May to mid-June. We discussed as a class the many amounts of prisons in the world and how violence is so bad, it's almost spreading like a virus.

Click here to view my thesis paper on Violence all throughout the World.
(This thesis essay mainly explains my point of views on Violence based off of statistics and factual information.)

I feel like violence is a way of life, and it's something people see as a culture and traditional and they find it necessary to pass on those bad habits to their children, grandchildren, etc. And how violence is mostly abundant in areas where natural resources to better life, are scarce.

"In your future and past you will make good decisions and some not so good decisions. Many people make assumptions the better choice is what will make their life go better than those who make the not so good choices. Well I’m in opposition with that theory. From my perspective I say it is always a good thing to make good choices because it helps you further on in life, but it is sometimes a good thing to make bad choices because you can learn from that encounter." (English Essay on Scenarios)



There was another assignment that was assigned to the class back in about December/January. We were assigned to write a play. When I heard those words come out of my teachers mouth, I felt like running away. I never thought I could get it done, and I would just give up. But luckily with some determination, it was completed. This play mainly revolves around the idea of how families of soldiers are greatly affected when their family goes out to war. There was some violence in this play too, so I thought it would be cool to add it onto this part of the blog post.

Click here to view my play, "The Deprived War Angel"
(The main characters in the play are Max Ledger and Johnny MacMannon. They are two boys who are both going to the same college for their future. They both have completely different views on their future, their personalities are complete opposites, and so are their backgrounds. When these two meet, they find themselves liking each other until many things come in their way, causing their "friendship" to end not the way they pictured it.)



To close up, I would like to say that although in the beginning of the year when I thought all of this information was completely irrelevant to everything I would learn in the future. While creating this portfolio, I was being able to dig deeper into my prior work and see how they all relate in some way, and they did... which was awesome! This final portfolio really has expanded my thinking area and mindset on many world related issues that I would've never known about if I hadn't have been given the opportunity to take this course in my high school career.

Comments (1)

Briana Hicks (Student 2014)
Briana Hicks

I enjoyed your wordle I thought it was pretty cool. Also I like how you gave more the 3 links to your pieces of work to help the reader understand more of what you are trying to get through. :3 ( =①ω①=) <—- (⌒▽⌒)☆ (((o(゚▽゚)o))) ^^