In younger children it is very common for beastly things such as monsters to influence their behaviors. As a child being afraid of monsters could drive them to be afraid of their own room or having to sleep with their parents. But what happens when adults believe in certain monsters? Adults aren’t afraid of the same type of monsters as children, instead they’re afraid of demonic figures that they have been exposed to through their own personal beliefs. In both children and adults beastly figures can make them act a certain way. How do figures like a beast or Satan effect how people live their lives and their actions? People who believe in demonic figures are afraid of them because they see them as the embodiment of evil. As a result, they are cautions about their interactions with those figures.

In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” a group of choir boys get stuck on a island with no adults. While being on the island they have to learn how to survive and live without the things they once had when they were not stranded. On the island there are a range of ages. The boys always calm that there is a beast on the island. But the leader Ralph does not really believe. Eric and Sam are twins on the island who admit that they have seen the beast. At a meeting called on the meeting they explained their interactions and said “‘We ran as fast as we could’--’Bashed into things’--’The beast followed us’--’I saw it slinking behind the trees’--’’(101). Eric and Sam were so frightened of the thought of coming in contact with the beast they recklessly ran away. The boy were so afraid of what would have happened if the beast caught them. This scene from the book is a prime example of how people are cautious of interaction with the things that they are afraid of. If the boys were not afraid of the beast they would not have ran away or even brought up the event at the meeting.

In the novel Ralph, the leader is somewhat in disbelieve that there is actually a beast on the island. Being the leader he feels like he has to prove to the rest of the boys on the island that do believe that there is a beast that it is nothing. Although he doesn't believe that there is a beast on the island entirely he still has his doubts. He is thinking to himself as him and a couple other boy decide to go looking for the beast he says “If there was no beast ---in this case, well and good; but if there was something waiting on the top of the mountain --what was the use of three of them, handicapped by the darkness and carrying only sticks”(120). It is obvious that Ralph is very unsure if there is actually a beast but he is still tentative about what will happen if they do see the beast. In this scene it proves that in some circumstances even when people don't believe in the beastly figures they still worry about how the interaction will go.  

In the real world everyone has different beliefs. There are many different religions that have different beliefs about how the world is and what type of things are in the world. The devil/satan is someone Christians believe in. Christians are taught not to sin. Sinning would result in not being accepted into Heaven and result in going to Hell. Hell is where the devil resides and a figure that no one should want to come into contact with. In Christians belief they are taught that the Devil is evil is bad. Christians are mindful of how they act and treat others so they can get accepted into Heaven and will not have to face the Devil in Hell. Christianity is one of the three major religions in the world. So there are many people try to stay away from sinning and activities that will keep them from getting into Heaven. Acknowledging the fact that Christians all over the world believe that the devil is somebody that they should avoid, proves that people everywhere are cautious about interactions with figures that they are scared of.

The Kukeri Festival happens in Pernik Bulgaria. The festival happens January 27- 28. At this festival people dress up in costumes and go through the streets of Pernik. The purpose of this festival is to perform rituals that will keep the evil spirits and demons away. Bulgarians do rituals at Kukeri to avoid having to deal with evil spirits that they are afraid of. Unlike in the novel Bulgarians do not run away from the evil figures they take part in different rituals to make sure that the figures they fear do not come into their safe places they call home. Although this happens in the real world it stills demonstrates how people are cautious of their actions and behaviors when it is in connection with a demonic figure or in this case evil spirits. Everyone reacts differently when they are dealing with frightening things.  The costumes they dress in during the festival protect who they really are from the evil spirits. The costumes protect them from the evil spirits and keeps who they are secret.

The novel “Lord of the Flies” just shows some cases when people are cautious about their behaviors. The novel demonstrates how younger children react to when they are afraid. But it doesn’t just affect children it affects all people old and young. Looking closer to why people act the way they do. This is another explanation to why certain behaviors come up. The way figures are viewed or come off will play a huge role on how people react to them.  Also the situation that people are in. In the novel the boys were stuck on the island so their imagination ran wild. But in other cases like mentioned in previous paragraphs it could simply be how people are raised. If people believe certain figures are evil they will be cautious and mindful of their actions and behaviors.

The rationale behind the Bechdel Test and the Mako Mori test is to regulate the movies that are coming out. They are checking that movies aren’t misrepresenting certain groups in films. When movies don't meet pass test like the Mako Mori test and the Bechdel Test that shows there might not be that much diversity in films. Even if a film does not meet the Bechdel or the Mako Mori test that doesn't mean that the movie is not good. The Bechdel test is a checklist for movies the requirements are: it has to have at least two women in it. The women have to talk to each other. And lastly when they talk to each other it has to be about something other than a man.

The disney movie Frozen meets the Bechdel test. The movie Frozen is about two sisters who after losing their parents have step up to the responsibilities of running a kingdom. The older sister Elsa has had special powers all her life which makes her distance herself from her younger sister Ana. Ana doesn’t fully understand why her sister is so distant and all she really wants is to have a sister relationship with Elsa that they had when they were younger. In the movie Ana and Elsa are the main characters which meets rules number one of the Bechdel test. The sisters talk to each other in the movie about how different things are going to now that they are in control of the kingdom that’s meets the requirement of talking to each other and having a conversation about something other than a man.

My test is called the Pretty Woman test. The three requirements are that there is a woman who has a job that is not socially acceptable but still gets respected. Secondly, the man must be able to have conversations other than work. Lastly the woman has to have a friend that helps her stay connected to reality. The movie Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere meets this test. In the movie Julia plays a hooker who falls in love with the success businessman, Richard Gere after leaving a business party in Los Angeles.  The first requirement of the Pretty Woman test is that there is a woman has a job that is not socially acceptable. Julia Roberts plays a hooker, in society people who are prostitutes/hookers are disrespected and look down on. After they both take a liking in each other Richard Gere offers to give her better life. This conversation meets the second rule that talks about something other than work. Julia has a friend who she works with that visits her while she stays with Richard. Her friend reminds her of her life before she met Richard and how things will be after he leaves. The third requirement is that there is a friend that connects her to her real life.

I don't even know why I'm getting in trouble. How is my outfit inappropriate. Because the rule says no rips allowed? Or because you can see my shoulders? No disrespect but that rule is stupid. I mean like why does it even matter if my jeans has rips in them or not. And if my shirt is off my shoulder. Last time I checked this was highschool with people all older than 14. I don't understand how a shoulder and a knee gets me sent to the principal's office. Anybody who is 14 years or older should be able to control themselves if they see a shoulder or knee right? So you are making me miss the whole school day because of my outfit. I don't understand who I'm hurting by my knees and shoulder being out. Can I call my mom? I need her to hear the reason why I'm getting sent home by you. Unwanted attention? As a young female in today's world I get unwanted attention for everything I do. You have no idea what it feels like to have clothes that you want to wear but don't feel comfortable in them because other people will stare. Or because people don't wear the same things as you , you aren't accepted. We live in a place where girls are told what to wear and how to wear it and if there is too much showing they are called out of their name, or are viewed as less than.  Why should I be defined by the clothes I wear. If I like something I should be able to wear it right? Just because I wear my legs out doesn't make me less of a person right? I go to school, get good grades, help around my house, don't cause trouble and still somehow things don't seem to work in my favor. Yes I’ve read the rule book so maybe it is my fault. If I didn't want the attention I should cover up. You’re right. I understand what I did was wrong and I understand that sending me home is what you have to do.

I know what type of world I live in so I should just learn how to deal with it so I can be accepted. Being accepted is all I really want out of life. I don't want to be looked at as the weird girl or the outcast anymore. If I follow the rules and the norms of society I will be accepted. Even though the norms aren't me I still want to be accepted so I'm going to do all that I can. Maybe instead of adjusting myself to the norms, I can change the norms. In schools teach the students to stop judging people before they know them. And that it is okay not to be accepted by people who don't matter. As a school principal I think teaching your students that they should feel comfortable to wear their skin out if they want to is vital to preparing them for the world. I get sent to school to learn things that I am going to need in the real world. Am I wrong to think that self confidence is something that I will need in the real world? In school you teach us math, reading, science and history but what about self-care?

My parents split when I was younger. I was my fathers only child, now I have four brothers, three younger brothers  on my dad's side, and one older brother on my mom's side. Growing up being the only girl was always fun and helped me become stronger. Technically, all my siblings are my half brothers but I consider them my brothers.

In fifth grade my favorite project that I had to do was make a collage of the things that were important to me. On my project I had pictures of things like my phone, my clothes, my friends and my family. When the project was due we had to present to the class what was on our board and why. Presenting was really easy  because I knew why I put everything on the board, the part that felt funny was when people came up to me and asked questions and pointed. I got asked the same question at least 5 times by different people. Most people asked me are they really your brothers which I found interesting because I thought I made it pretty clear that they were my brothers when I presented. I got specific questions about every single brother. My older brother Samad has green eyes and sandy brown hair, so everyone assumed he had albinism. Samad looks nothing like me and I heard that forever but it wasn't something I really cared about.

After my classmates wrapped their fifth grade minds around the fact that Samad did not have to look anything like me to be related, they questioned my first little brother. It seemed as if they totally forgot the previous twenty minutes before because it was exactly the same discussion except they thought they had a solid reason on why we could not be related. Tristen was my first little brother we shared a dad. People questioned me because they assumed Tristen was white. Back in fifth grade having to explain to my friends that Tristen’s mom was white and our dad is black seemed like too much to do but, as I got older it became something like an uniform when I spoke on all of my brothers. I distinctly remember many of my peers saying “That can't be your brother he’s white.” When people said that to me it made me question what him being white had anything to do with being related to me. How could someone who had not even knew where I was from tell me who I couldn't be related to because of their skin color.

Now that fifth grade had come and gone I can look back on the project and reflect. Ignorance is what was shown but solely because they didn't know any better. For a while I didn't want to share with people my family because I felt as though answering questions about why me and my brothers didn't look alike was not something I wanted to do. As much as I love my brothers I knew people were not going to accept my family. Being older and learning new life lessons I now understand that what people think of my family doesn't matter as long as my family and I love each other that the most important thing I must remember. Even today when I tell people they have this big idea that your family members are supposed to look like you or have to have the same race as you. Family can come in all shapes, sizes, and colors so why try to categorize or make a uniform on what a family is supposed be like or look like. Race is something made up by people to separate everyone, but I know skin color will not separate my family it will bring us closer.

Hello again. In my first post I discussed how my topic changed from the dc girls crisis into minors running away.  In my second post I discussed my original research. I conducted my original research by putting out a survey about what people knew about running away. In this post I will be sharing my third part of my project and my agent of change.   

Continuing my research about minors running away I found some organizations that try to help. Basically what they do is, they run a 24 hour service where teenages can reach them via text , call or email to express their thoughts. This is a good way  to help the problem because it's not a lot of other options someone could do to prevent minors from running away and putting themselves in danger. Youthline is a great organization for not only minors that are running away but other things issues too. Adults and teenagers will answer on the Youthline. I think that is great because sometimes teenagers want to talk to other teenagers because they don't fully trust adults.

For my agent of change I decided to make posters with the numbers to contact runaways hotlines. Before I came up with that idea I didn't know how I was going to reach teens without overwhelming them with facts. By talking to my peers I came up with the idea to make posters. The first obstacle of making posters was that they could not be boring they would have to draw somebodys attention. Secondly I had to decide what information I was going to put on the posters to help. Lastly where I was going to put them up. On the posters I put two numbers on the posters, National Runaway Safeline and Youthline. I was effective in making a change because by me posting the posters teenagers that might be considering running away will see them and call the number.

When my teacher introduced this project I was excited because I got to choose something that was important to me. Also I really liked the fact that we would be doing the project on or own without having to meet a lot of deadlines. I've not only learned a lot about my topic but myself over the course of this project. Something I've learned about myself is that I enjoy helping others. My whole project was to prevent people from putting themselves in danger. Discovering this about myself could be the first step to figuring out what job I want to be when I get older. Doing this project I've listened to my peers and what was important to them. Seeing the topics my peers chose showed me that everyone was different and has been through different experiences. Overall I feel as though it brought my whole english class together. And  was a great miniature version of the 12th grade capstone that I will have to do in the future.

For more information check out my annotated bibliography

In my previous blog post about Minors running away. My initial research started off being about the missing DC crisis, but plans changed so my new revised topic is teenagers running away from home . Ive researched more things having to do with minors running away.

In the previous post about running away something that was mentioned was that running away is illegal. Some things that could happen if a minor runs away and gets caught, is the minor could go to a juvenile detention center, be placed in a shelter or group home, or be taken back by a police officer. To further my knowledge and understand what people my age thought about running away I created a survey. The survey consisted of seven questions. The responses to the survey came from people who are considered minors. The point of the survey was to see what the youth know about running away. Something that was surprising about the results was that more than half of  the people who took my survey did not know that running away is illegal

For my final english one project we were assigned the You and The World (Y&TH) project.The purpose of this project is to learn about a current event that connects to ourselves and raise awareness about the topic by researching and making a positive change based off of the new information learned about the topic of our choosing . For my project I decided to do the DC crisis about the missing Black and Latina girls. In DC the new commander of the Metropolitan Police Department posted pictures of the missing girls and made the hashtag #MissingDCGIrls. Knowing social media is an outlet  to spread news quickly in the 21st century , the hashtag got around to many people all over the country. According to an article found on the Cable News Network “Social media responded with outrage that not enough was being done to find the children by law enforcement” I chose this current event because I am a young Black female in this society and to know that young girls just like me are missing and no one was putting as much effort as they could to find them makes me furious. As my research continued I soon found out that the DC crisis wasn't a crisis. By researching the topic more I learned that the commander was just raising awareness of the missing girls. My research has brought me to a extened issue. My official issue is minors running away from home. Minors running away from home is an equally important current event but studies show that there has been no spark in missing persons in DC.

Based off the research I have done so far minors that run away are running from something or someone. There are many reasons on why minors run away from home. A very important thing that young people don't know is that running away is illegal. Most people don't know that running away is illegal , when a minor gets caught running away police can take a them into custody and it will result in having to go to family court. My research so far has impacted me because it taught me new facts about a subject that matters to me, that not a lot of people know enough about. Something that is important to fix this problem is focusing on what is making minors run away. If we focus on who or what is making minors run away as a whole community everyone could help face the problem head on. For the rest of my upcoming research I will be looking into ways to stop minors from running away. Also I will be looking at organizations that help minors get through issues that may lead them to running away. Stay tuned for a second blog post about minors running away. For more information look at my annotated bibliography.

Cianni Mack

Soy hija de las Américas

Grande familia

Nino sin hermanas

Producto de Philadelphia

Soy compata

Veo gente cariñosa

Saboreo buena comida

Oigo primos y hermanos pequeno

Huelo buena pollo

Juego con mi primos

Canto con mi mamá

Descanso con hermano mayor

Necesito mi familia siempre

Somo productors de América

Somo Américanos

Hablamos ingles

La lengua de pollo y pan maíz

Somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. Está en Filadelfia.  SLA es pequeña pero cinco pisos. Está cerca de “7- Eleven” y City Hall.  Hay 500 estudiantes. SLA tiene muy deportes. Ofrecemos volleyball, Cheerleading, Ultimate Frisbee, Basketball. ¡Qué chévere!

En SLA, nosotros tenemos inglés, español, historia, drama, arte, informática, álgebra, geometría , bioquímica,  consejería, e ingeniería. La clase favorita de Rasa, Cianni y Kishara es ingeniería porque es muy interesante. La clase favorita de Emily es inglés con La Señorita Giknis. La clase favorita de Timothy es almuerzo. Para tener éxito en esta clase de ingeniería tenemos que prestar mucha atención. Para tener éxito en esta clase de inglés necesitamos tomar apuntas. Para tener éxito en el almuerzo que comer, socializar y divertirse.

Los profesores y estudiantes:

La Señorita Manuel enseña español y la Señorita Sessa enseña bioquímica. El Señor Estey y la Señorita Georgio enseña matemática. La Señorita Giknis y la Señorita Smith enseña inglés. El Señor Symonds y la Señorita Jonas enseña historia. La Señorita Hull enseña  tecnología y El Señor Kay enseña drama. El señor Kamal enseña ingeniería. Mi clase favorita es inglés. Su clase es divertida y muy interesante. La clase de matemáticas es difícil. La clase de bioquímica es facil.