What right does a person have to judge others? Who is to say that they’re smarter than others? Many students say that they’re smarter than him or her, but what defines intelligence? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, intelligence means “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as tests).” Nowadays, people are considered smart due to their scores and grades in school. If they get one of the higher grades in the class, people will automatically assume that he or she is smart or intelligent. However, scores and grades do not define the intelligence of a student because of different criteria.

There was a survey done at Costa Mesa High School, California in 2014 about grades reflecting intelligence. The authors, Catherine Kricorian and Jeirany Chavez, said “For every class, the teacher sets up a system to ‘weigh’ the importance of tests, homework, participation, etc., and the combination of all of these aspects create a grade.” Meaning that grades doesn’t only come from the intelligence of a student but also from how the teacher aspects the student to be. Different teachers have different standards and rules in which they want the students to follow. Some teachers grade on effort, dedication, etc., so not all grades and scores are based on full intelligence or knowledge. It’s true that every teacher grades differently because they all have different rubrics that they go off of. Even though it might have the same categories, each category might have different description on meeting the expectations.

Similarly, there was a website that had people’s response to the question, “Do grades reflect intelligence.” On this web page, people vote either yes or no and also wrote their reason behind why they chose their answer. A post from mexicanmhitman said, “One can be lazy and not do their schoolwork. Millions of people in the world are intelligent, yet we choose not to do work. I don't do my classwork frequently, yet my test grades are higher than your average grades. I never hand in homework, but I have never gotten lower than an A in quizzes.” Another post by a user name, luvlee37 says, “Grades are usually based on a limited testing arena, which is usually a pen and paper test and does not take into consideration the student's frame 0f mind while writing the exam.  A three hour written test has its own limits and cannot judge a child's true calibre as such.” Those two comments is simply stating that grades and scores are from tests. The first comment is saying that many people might be smart but lazy, that can give them a “bad grade” because they’re lazy to do what the teacher is telling them to do. Meanwhile, in the second comment, that person is saying that grades are only based on tests, using a pen and paper. It’s also saying that tests aren’t enough to judge a student’s intelligence because there’s a limit of how much a person can take a test for so long.

Therefore, grades are mostly an overall score of all of the work that’s given to the students. Even though they tell a little of how much a student know, grades does not fully define the intelligence of a student. There are many different factors that make up a good grade, so it’s not only the intelligence of a student. The intelligence of a student is defined from what they understand as an individual not because of a grade. Students’ are more than just letters and numbers.

Works Cited

"Do Grades Reflect Intelligence? by Catherine Kricorian and Jeirany Chavez." The Equestrian. Web. 01 May 2017. <http://www.cmhsnews.com/featuresopinions/do-grades-reflect-intelligence-by-catherine-kricorian-and-jeirany-chavez>

"Do Grades Reflect Intelligence?" Debate.org. Web. 01 May 2017. <http://www.debate.org/opinions/do-grades-reflect-intelligence>

This is the best 2fer I've written because I learned from my mistakes. Hopefully, I

didn't make the same mistakes again, but I think that I covered it. I used factual

information from people, so that I can prove my thesis more. Using actual information

will make the reader see my point of view and why I wrote my thesis.

I was in a different place now, a world where I have to start doing things on my own. The first day of high school was something I looked forward to. I was scared  yet I was happy. This is the beginning of a new chapter in my life that I get to enjoy. As I walked from the Broad Street Line subway to the trolley, my heart raced. I only have two stops till I get to my new school and as I got closer to 22nd and Market, my heart beats faster. I walked out of the trolley stop and turned the corner of 22nd and Market. There were students everywhere, the strangers that I will have to see throughout my high school life. As I entered the front doors of the school I signed in and looked around, confused on where to go. But, thankfully I received an email about a week or so before school started, telling me where I can find my advisory. This was the fall of 2014, my freshmen year of highschool, the start of the “best years of my life,” said everyone I knew.

But now, here I am in my junior year, the winter of 2016, coming to an end, moving to 2017.Junior year, the “most important year,” just like 7th grade, because this is the year that can lead me to  my future education. Thinking about college brings back all of the times when I moved into a new environment. The past two and a half years of high school has been a thrill but here I am, about to start into the stages of finding a new place to learn. My school have been discussing about colleges; having junior college night, letting us talk to some of the representatives from different colleges and taking us to college fairs. I wonder at times, will there ever be a time where I’ll stop changing environments? Moving to highschool and now thinking about moving to college isn’t the only time that I’ve experienced a change in my life.

Being a six year old, just graduated out of kindergarten, knowing that I have to move to the US and going to first grade there, terrified me. But, my parents took our family to go vacation before we left. When I got here, I cried for weeks when I first moved and told my parents that I wanted to go back home and that I didn’t want to be here. I cried every night, knowing that it was useless to ask to go home. The summer of 2006, was one of the worse summers of my life. My eyes got puffy every night, my face was red as a tomato, six year old me didn’t have any power but to cry and ask to be taken back home. Restless, sleeping on a wet pillow, I flipped the pillow over, not realizing that I’ve already flipped it before, so I turned the pillow to the other edge, where my damp face looked for the comfort in the softness of the pillow. I faced the wall when I slept  because that’s where I found myself at peace, that’s probably why I still do that today.

It’s getting closer to fall, so my parents enrolled my older brother and I to a Catholic school to be exact, St. Thomas Aquinas and my oldest brother to a Catholic High school. I could barely speak a sentence of English, even though I took an English class back in Indonesia. I walked to school with my brother and on the first day we met with some other Indonesian kids that went there. They were friendly, but sadly, they were all my brother’s age. I didn’t talk much in school, because I didn’t know how, but as I watched cartoons everyday I learned a lot. After three to four months later, the winter of 2006, I wasn’t afraid to speak to people. Things got harder for me, I was experiencing my first winter. I’m not used to this kind of weather, the coldest that I’ve ever experienced in Indonesia was probably about 60-70 degrees fahrenheit but it didn’t feel cold at all because of all the humidity there.

My family lived with my aunt, my dad’s oldest sister, until we can find our own place to live. Going to a catholic school meant that my parents had to spend a lot just for us to go to school. After a year, it was too much for them to send all three of us to a Catholic school so my oldest brother and I went to a public school and my second to oldest brother stayed at a Catholic school another year until he got into a public high school. With that said, moving to a new school meant I have to start all over again. I didn’t know anyone nor was I good in speaking English. Only a year has passed since I moved to the U.S and it was harder than I thought.

From second grade to eighth grade, I made a lot of friends and helped out a lot of teachers. Things were fine until I realized that I have to start highschool soon. As my eight grade year started, my mind was filled with talks about high school, “The best years of your life.” The fall of 2013 was one of the most important time for me. At times, I would feel really helpless because there were schools that my parents chose, there were schools I wanted to go to, and there were schools that I was eligible to apply to. After I finished applying to the schools that I wanted to go to, it was just a matter of time to get the results. Weeks passed, and then a couple months went by. I was really nervous when I finally received my high school acceptance letter. I decided to open it with one of my closest friends, hoping that we’d go to the same school. As I was holding the letter for the whole day, walking up and down the stairs, the walls were different colors in different parts of the school. Walking through the hallways, I noticed that the floors were dirtier than before, cobweb to my left, below the windows, dust on the edge of the doors. I was nervous; anxious to see what the results were, that I didn’t even focus on my class.

Long story short, I got accepted to my first choice school, Science Leadership Academy, SLA. Sadly, none of my friends got accepted so coming to SLA was like a fresh new book for me. It was a new start, a new story, that needs to be filled in. I’d say that high school is a fun experience. A new journey, without knowing anyone was an experience that can’t be forgotten. I made a lot of friends and got to know multiple teachers, but soon, I know that I’d have to start all over again as time passes by. Every new beginning will be a terrifying thing for me, sometimes it’ll probably stress me out, and sometimes I’ll probably be excited for it, but at the end, moving and having a new start can be a good thing. Like what Jim Rohn, an author of many books said, “Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.”  

What exactly is social media? It basically means interacting with other humans via apps and websites:  adding people as friends or following people, liking other people’s status and/or picture, commenting whatever they want under someone else’s picture, and chatting live. But, is it really safe to put personal information on social media? Even though people have the choice to make their profiles private, do they really know what they are signing up for when they choose “create account”? When people make a new account on any social media, they are asked to agree to the terms and condition, but since most people don’t read that because they are too excited to make that new account, it can lead to something else. People don’t realize that if they don’t fully understand the right way to share their life on the internet, it will result in giving away their privacy unintentionally.

According to netsmartz.org, most public schools are teaching kids about internet safety so that they know what’s safe to share online and what’s not. “Yet along with offering a fascinating, new way to connect with the world, the Internet also offers new risks: Cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate material, online predators and revealing too much personal information.” (Basic Internet Safety) Most children know about internet safety but as they grow up and are becoming more active on social media, do they still remember what they are taught, or are did they just check it off like the “I agree to the term and conditions” box? Internet safety teaches people to rethink their decisions about putting personal information online, such as full name, phone number, social security number, address, etc. One popular social media that’s being used worldwide is Snapchat. It is said that “the app’s 150 million users base to 217 million users by the end of 2017.”(Business Insider) For example, on Snapchat, people have geofilters, which is a filter which shows someone’s location at the moment they take a picture. Using those filters can be a nice thing, but it also gives the location of a person which can also be dangerous. If the user’s account happened to be hacked that one moment, the hacker will know the location of their victim because of the geofilter that he/she used. People often misunderstand that something as small as a geofilter could harm them because they use the geofilters to show their friends on their Snapchat where they are. A lot of people use geofilters when going on a vacation so that others can where they are in the world.

Another app that’s being used worldwide is Instagram. On Instagram, people share photos and videos of themselves, and now they also are doing a similar thing like snapchat where people can post up pictures and photos on their story so that people can see where they are. The difference between Snapchat and Instagram with their stories is that, the people who can see other’s snapchat stories are only friends, that are added, but on Instagram, whether or not they are following that person, their stories are public to everyone. Taking pictures of a girls night out, date night, etc, can be risky because of that. Even though people want to share with their social media friends, not everyone is nice. Someone with bad intentions can recognize the area that the picture or video was taken and they can harm the user. That can be a dangerous situation because people take pictures to share with others the beauty that they see or just to show the world something. Even though it’s not intentional to show the web a little privacy about a user, many predators use that as an advantage. Taking a picture of a favorite restaurant or a favorite place can lead to danger. Sometimes it’s not safe to even share a specific spot that’s often visited by family and friends.

It’s best to know that some information should be kept personal and some can be shared with the world. Before sharing and letting the world know the location or the neighborhood, just remember that not everyone online are nice. People that are posting their new house or new car can be in danger because someone out there on the internet can end up stealing or breaking into the new house or car, just because of a simple post. It’s a problem not only for the user but also for the society because that can be an advantage for people who have a purpose to harm others. Sharing favorite locations to go with family and friends can be a way that predators track a user. There are stalkers and predators on the internet, so sharing a picture that shows a neighborhood or a place that’s known can be dangerous to everyone.

Sources:

By Acting as a Resource, Parents and Guardians Can Help Make the Internet a Safer Place for Their Families. As a Parent or Guardian, You Should Stay Well-informed about Current Issues to Understand What Your Children Are Experiencing on and off the Intern. "Basic Internet Safety."Basic Internet Safety. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. <http://www.netsmartz.org/InternetSafety>.

Shah, Saqib. "Snapchat Is on Target to Hit 217 Million Users by the End of next Year." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 25 Aug. 2016. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. <http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-on-target-for-217-million-users-by-end-of-2017-2016-8>.

(Boy + girl walks in, girl speaks.) I have a best friend, Billy. We became close ever since I moved to California from New York. Our parents knew each other, so we were practically meant to be and have each other’s backs. I moved when I was about 5 turning 6. We went to the same school ever since. Everyone knows us as Billy & Miranda, the lowkey lovers. I didn’t really like that because I never saw him more than a best friend, but then one day it hit me...

It was summer of our junior year when I realized the look in his eyes. Every time he looks at me, it’s different. (Looks at her, pointing at a direction and then walking there.) We’ve been friends since forever, his parents are pretty close with mines, so we basically grew up together. But it wasn’t till summer I realized all the jokes our friends were making. That look in his eyes when he talks to me, it’s just different. His eyes grew bigger, prettier, I try not to make eye contact when I’m with him, so I just laugh at what he says and look away. Growing up, I know that he’ll always be there for me, to protect me, to beat up the people who bothered me, he’s like my guardian angel. (White light shines on the guy.) I didn’t realize is that he’ll become someone I’d admire the most.

(Walks around the stage to sit at the bench.) I don’t know what will happen if we do go out. I mean it wouldn’t surprise people, but what if it doesn’t work out? What if at the end we won’t say a word to each other? Who’s going to be there when I need a friend, who’s going to be there when I need help? (Looks at each other and smiles, the sun sets from the screen in the back.) My friend, my dearest friend, you’ve been there for me through the ups and the downs, through thick and thin; but what if we get sick of each other, what if you decided that we should’ve just stayed close friends? I can’t afford to lose someone like you.

(Guy turns to the girl, and smiles.) (Girl looks back at him, smiling.) There you go again, with those eyes and that smile. (bits lip and gets a little flirty happy, then quickly gets serious) Wait no, please do not do anything stupid. I wasn’t sure about my feelings, the way you would look at me with those eyes. Again, I just smiled and looked away. It was getting chilly as the night approaches. (Girl folds her arm, the guy saw and gave her his jacket.) Wait, no, don’t be like this,(She shook her head, pushing the jacket back to him.) I know you’re cold too (guy puts jacket around her) (girl just smiles.) Thank you. (Both actors get up and walks over to beginning position.) (Lights turned off.)

Language is a form of communication that people or animals use. Since everyone is different, that means that we have different ways of communicating. Mostly by age groups; but there are also other major differences in the way we communicate. .

One day when I was walking from school, I saw an old friend of mines. I didn’t even recognize her until she came up to me.

“Hey! I haven’t seen you in like forever!”

“I know right, how you been?”

“Good, how ‘bout you?”

“I’m great, everything is ok.”  

“That’s good, it’s nice to see you, I gotta go right now, I’ll call you later. Maybe we can go out for lunch or dinner next time.”

“Sure, that’ll be nice, see you!”

People have many different  ways to talk to one another. The Japanese said that you have three faces. The first face is the one you show to the world. The second one is the one that you show to your family and your close friends. The third one is the one that you never show anyone, and that’s the truest reflection of yourself. To my understanding, the faces you show also needs to be shown by communicating. They way you communicate to the people around you shows who you are as an individual.

Most of the time, people talk to their peers, their closest friends, using a slang words, or

short phrases that are usually common within their generation.  Maybe it might be different when you talk to people that’s not your age, because different generations have different ways of speaking. For example, if a teen uses slang talking to an adult, the adult could think that the teen isn’t properly schooled, or is dumb. It’s also the other way around, where the kids would say that the adults are too “old” to know what they are talking about.

Language can intersect with a person’s identity in many different ways.

“Hey man, how you doin?, I heard Tay threw you an oop with that girl the other day.”

“Wassup man, I’ve been good. Yea he did, that girl got them full moons, yamean”

When people hear things like that, they’re going to say that you’re a kid from the hood. But, if someone said,

“Hey, how are you? I haven’t see you in a long time”

“Hi, I’m doing very good, how about you? And yes, I think the last time I saw you was when you were on your way to school.”

Now, if people hear that conversation, they’ll quickly identify me as an educated kid, who’s smart, kind, etc. Since everyone has a language that they speak, people will criticize or assume who you are just by the things you say. If a little kid came up to me, or anyone that’s older than them, and they start cursing and saying things they shouldn’t be saying; we will all automatically say that the little kid was poorly raised.

Why? Because everyone has a fixed mindset on how someone should talk. I think that people would criticize me more just because of my race. Since, I’m Asian, people assume that our parents are strict and that if we curse or say something bad, people are going to say many different things about me. My parents aren’t that strict, they let me do many things and they trust me to do the right things. I know that if I talked to an adult or someone older than me the way that I talk to my friends, they’re going to say that I have no manners and that my parents didn’t raise me correctly.

I talk differently when I’m around different people. If I’m at school, I’ll talk a certain way to my friends and then another way to the adults or teachers. I usually talk using less slang and more proper English with the grown ups that I encounter. I also talk differently when I’m at home. Since my parents doesn’t speak English, I have to speak to them in Indonesian, and I can’t just talk to them as I normally do. It’s the same as if I was talking to an adult in english; I have to speak to them with proper manners because they are my parents and I have to show them respect. Just like the story I read class where the kid also spoke differently with different people.

Whenever I talk, I talk differently depending on who I’m with. Like when I’m with my friends from school, I would talk to them with slang or with more abbreviated words.

“Yo, where ya goin?”

“I got class in like 5 minutes, I gotta get upstairs. How ‘bout you?

“Same, but my next one is on this floor, so I gotta stay here.”

“Ard, see you later b”

“Ard, later”

As the younger or teenage student of this generation, we usually use more abbreviated words. I think that the language that I use can say a little about me. I know that when people hear me talk to my friends, they might be a little shocked, because of my race but since I grew up in South Philly, I talk like how others talked to me while I was growing up. When I talk to people my age, they’ll say that I’m kind of ghetto, or if you can ask any of my friends, the say that I’m not even Asian, I’m black; because of the way I talk to them. They believe that I am a mean person, but to me, when I talk most of the time, I try to tell my friends the truth and it might be mean to them, but I think that it’s better than to tell them a lie and sugar coating something that’s wrong.

If you ask an adult about me, they might say a different thing about me. If someone asks the teachers at school, they might say that I might be a little loud, or that I’m shy because I don’t participate in class. If someone asks the people that I grew up with which is my church community, they’ll say that I a nice kid, but also I can be a little wild. I might from time to time be a little crazy with the things I say, but I’m a funny person and caring most of the time and that I talk to them with respect and honor.

I think that there are many different ways language identifies a person and how I talk says a lot about myself. Since different people talk differently, they might have only one way of talking to everyone, but there are also people like me, who talks differently depending on my environment. There are a many ways a person can communicate in their daily lives, so it's okay if you differently or the same when you communicate.

Artist Statement

As my visual, I decided to make a concept map. It shows that at the end of the reconstruction era, the blacks were still getting the same treatments. There were violence; beating, whipping, killing and there was so called “freedom”; with restrictions, segregation, and living. This visual has a meaning because it is telling the readers that even after the reconstruction, the former slaves became freedmen but yet they were still getting the same treatments. The quotes that I used are all from former slaves/freedmen after the reconstruction.

One element that the visual has that may not be clear for the reader is the branch in the middle that doesn’t connect to anything. That might not be clear because everything else is connected to one another, but that one isn’t. I decided to put that by itself in the middle because the phrase sums up the whole visual. It says, “The blacks were still under the whites,” which is what was happening. Even after the reconstruction, the blacks were suppose to be freedmen, but yet they were still under the whites and they had a hard time living on their own.

Another thing that might not be clear to the audience are the “branches”, the connections from one thing to another. The connections are pointing out the different points of the certain topic. For violence, it is connecting to three different points; whipping, beating and killing, because those are all a part of violence. For “freedom”, it’s connecting to restriction, living?, and segregation. Each of the points are connecting to two different quotes that I found from former slaves/freedmen that were spoken after the reconstruction.

My visual shows that after the reconstruction, the blacks were still getting the same treatments. They were treated poorly, they didn’t have their so called freedom, and they were still under the whites. Even though many believed that the reconstruction gave the former slaves freedom, they didn’t really fully get their freedom until about a hundred years later. That is why I think it matters as to the African American history as a whole.

1. Introduction; Los seres que-ri-dos en mi vida.

2. Yo; ¡Hola! Me llama Athalia. Tengo catorce años. Mi cumpliaños es quince de mayo. Me gusta pasar un rato con amigos y ir de compras. No me gusta nada leer y correr. Tengo el pelo café y los ojos cafés.

3. Ella; Su nombre es Caroline.Es mi mejor amiga. Tiene el veintidós años. Su cumpleaños es el veinti de enero. Ella es alta, guapa y trabajadora. Le gusta ir de compras y bailar. Ella asiste a la Universidad de Temple.

4. Él; Su nombre es Edward. Es guapo y hablador. Él es bobo y cómico. A menudo somos pasar un rato. Cuando tengo tiempo libre que iría a su casa. Me da risa. Lo que me encanta es él muy adorable. Él es algo malo pero es un amor de gente!

5. Ellas; Sus nombres son Marianne, Gabrielle, Theresia y Jessica. Marianne y Theresia asistir Gamp pero Gabby y Jessica asistir Central. Son como mis hermanas. Ellas los ojos son cafés y el pelo son café. Ellas son asiáticas (a-sia-ticas)  pero indonesio. Ellas son a veces molestos sin embargo la quiero mucho. Los fines de semana ellas andan conmigo.  

6. Nosotros; Somos centro de betania milagro. La iglesia (ig-le-sia) ha sido como un segundo (se-un-do) hogar para mí. Somos como una gran familia feliz. Nos gusta pasar un rato con amigos. Nos gusta celebrar juntos las fiestas.

7. Fin.; Gracias por tu atención.