This quarter I had the opportunity to try a couple different mediums. I enjoyed experimenting with new forms of art and I am pretty satisfied with my final products. This quarter, for the last project especially, I started to further think about the meaning behind my choices while doing art and the importance of putting a lot of thought into every aspect.

I used india ink for the first time for the first assignment of the quarter. I enjoyed the initial experimenting and doing the studies. I didn’t enjoy doing such a large painting entirely with ink; I wasn’t able to control the ink very well. My final product feels unbalanced and I wish I spent more time adding details, especially to the left side of the painting. I like the way the tree turned out, especially the detailing on the trunk.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve done printmaking but I did learn a few new things about the medium this quarter. Similarly to the first project, I enjoyed the process of experimenting, especially with mixing colors. I am proud of the designs I made for my prints. I wish I experimented more with the colors. My prints weren’t very even; I had trouble spreading the ink evenly. I enjoyed the process of printing my designs even though I am not entirely satisfied with the final product.

Throughout this quarter we have all been working with colored pencils and as a result I have improved my technique and come to enjoy the medium. We started with blind contour drawings which I found pretty difficult. It was probably my least favorite assignment of the quarter but I also realize that it was an important assignment. I wish I had practiced blind contour drawing a little more; my drawings aren’t very good. However, the process was useful and made me more aware when drawing a subject. The next assignment, colored pencil techniques, taught me three new techniques. I enjoyed this assignment very much and I am proud of the finished product. This assignment taught me how to add perspective and color gradation using color pencils. The last assignment that builded on technique was the color wheel assignment. This involved using three colored pencils to create a color wheel. This assignment taught me how to blend colored pencils and better create gradation in color. The circle itself is a little lopsided and some of the colors aren’t blended as well as I hoped but overall I am proud of my work.

Once we learned basic techniques we worked on a colored pencil portrait. I had trouble with layering colored pencils to create realistic and complex skin. I tried different combinations but most of the time the subject just looked sickly. I wish I had worked more on this and used more layers to build up the skin. My favorite assignment of the quarter was the colored pencil fruit basket. I chose to draw an apple, peach, cantaloupe slice, and pear sitting on a table. I spent a lot of time layering colors and creating smooth gradients. I also worked hard on the shadows and highlights and tried to make the fruit look as realistic and three dimensional as I could. I am very proud of the final product and I especially love the color gradient in the pear. Through this assignment I learned how much I enjoyed blending colored pencils.

The first assignment of the quarter, the ceiling tile, was hard to begin. I didn’t know what I wanted to paint so eventually I decided to just paint branching lines. I enjoyed the process of painting the tile and I am pretty satisfied with the final product. Autumn is my favorite season so I enjoyed creating the Fall Wall hanging. One of the most defining aspects of the season is the change in the colors of leaves so I decided to make that the focus of my piece. I painted some pieces of paper red, orange, yellow, and green and then cut out the shapes of the leaves. I then pasted the leaves on to the background I created. I wanted my piece to convey the beauty of the fall and that nature can create some of the most beautiful works of art. The piece I found most difficult to create was the self portrait. I have never used charcoal before so I had a lot of trouble with the piece. After a couple of days working on the piece I enjoyed the process more. I don’t like the final product very much but I would like to continue working with charcoal and improve. My favorite project of the quarter was the fruit still life. Watercolor is my favorite medium so I enjoyed working on this project very much. I chose to paint an apple, orange, blackberry, and grapes as they have a nice variety of color. I tried using the fan brush for the first time and enjoyed using it very much. All in all, I experimented with a few different techniques this quarter and enjoyed the process.

This quarter in art was my favorite of the year. I enjoyed being to choose each new project and experimented with paint and abstract art. I chose to spend the first half of the quarter working with flowers and watercolor and in the second half I tried to do more abstract art.

For the sketch at the Rodin museum I chose to draw a clump of daffodils near the gate. Daffodils are one of my favorite types of flowers and it was a challenge to draw them.

For the first four hour art project I chose to do two different watercolors of flowers. The first is a lotus floating in the water. In this piece I really enjoyed getting different gradients of pink on the petals and different tones of blue for the water. The second piece is a pink rose. Similarly to the first watercolor I enjoyed creating the different gradients. This piece was harder to do and contains more detail, especially on the petals.

For the second four hour art project I painted two different abstract portraits. The first is of Kat. The second is of Quinn. These two projects were my favorite of the quarter. I had a lot of fun experimenting with paint, learning to create texture with paint, and, for the second piece especially, blending colors.

This quarter has been my favorite so far and I have enjoyed completing each assignment. I have learned a lot this quarter about the different components that go into making a realistic drawing such as value and basic shapes.

Adult coloring was very fun and relaxing. I had a lot of fun picking the colors I wanted to use. I tried to create variation in the shades. My favorite of the three was the coloring page with the sailboats. I enjoyed coloring in the water and the reflections in the water.

The self portrait was one of my favorite assignments of the quarter. Watercolor is my favorite medium so I enjoyed this project a lot. I didn’t try to make the portrait realistic. Instead I wanted the colors to all blend together and have a very simple face that was brightly colored. I used a lot of cool colors because I find those types of colors more visually appealing and soothing. I wanted my portrait to feel calm and serene.

The value assignment helped understand shadow and light a lot better. Before this assignment I hadn’t ever really thought about the shadows when I drew. This assignment helped me understand how important they are to creating lifelike and three dimensional drawings.

Basic shapes was probably the most educational and helpful of all the assignments this quarter. This assignment helped me understand shape and form better. Breaking up a complex form and turning it into simple shapes helped me understand perspective and complex shape a lot better. For this assignment I chose to draw a cat and I was better able to understand the biology and form of cats when I broke it up into the basic shapes.

Animal shapes was my favorite out of all of the assignments. I chose to draw a giraffe, which is my favorite animal. I tried to put a lot of detail in the giraffe’s spots and I am pretty pleased with the result. I didn’t add that much texture to the drawing and I didn’t add any color so if I redid it I would make sure to make the fur more visible and add color.

I focused on war literature for this paper. I wanted to explore the different facets of war literature and also the importance of war literature. During the research process I read a couple of interesting articles that really informed and shaped my opinion on the importance of war literature. The peer review process was especially helpful for this essay because I was initially unsure of what I wanted my larger idea to be. It was difficult to find a specific focus for this essay but I am proud of the final result.

Two children stand in front of a tank. The eldest, a girl a of about nine or ten with short black hair, carries her little brother, who cannot be more than three years old, on her back and they both look directly at the camera. They seem to be standing in a hot desert so they both wear loose light clothing. The tank seems to be going the same direction in which they are walking. We can picture this war scene clearly in our minds through this description in words. Even though we can never truly understand what it’s like to be in the midst of a war unless we have actually experienced it, words, stories, and pictures can help us begin to understand. In his essay titled, “The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War”, Joseph Carroll says:

Literature depicts such emotions, evokes them, and makes them available to readers, who experience them vicariously.

To help others understand the horrible truth of war, authors like Tim O’Brien, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ernest Hemingway write novels about the subject. Like Carroll says, this literature allows readers to experience emotions that they’d never have the opportunity to experience otherwise. In experiencing those feelings they begin to understand the emotions of those who have been involved in war.  They begin to understand what it is like to know that at any second you could die and they begin to understand what loss of human life really means. The literature of war not only aims to foster understanding of war, it also attempts to argue for peace. Kate Scheel, a professor of English studies writes:

War literature…warns against pursuing armed conflict, exposes its atrocities, and argues for peace. It records the acts of war with as much accuracy as is possible, and it memorializes the dead. It is voyeuristic, exploitative, and sadistic; it is also tender, selfless, and comforting. It is gleeful and angry; inflammatory and cathartic; propagandist, passionate, and clinical. It is funny and sad.

Good war literature forces us to experience the emotion of war and inspires us to believe that there are other options. Good war literature exposes the truth and explains to us why it is necessary to find alternatives to violence. It reveals the atrocities that occur during war and it reminds us why human life is something to be valued and cherished.

War literature creates a complex relationship between author and reader. Because of the subject readers expect a certain degree of truthfulness in war literature. In this case we expect truthfulness to mean reality; we expect that everything that the author writes actually happened. As readers we expect honesty and loyalty. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, we are led to believe that the story and all the characters are real but halfway through the book O’Brien reveals that all the stories and characters are fictitious. Through that experience we learn that truthfulness doesn’t have to mean reality. O’Brien states:

A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.

Meaning that even though something doesn’t actually happen it doesn’t mean it’s not true. What is more important when it comes to the truth is the emotion and sentiment behind it. So, even though we feel betrayed when we learn that the events in The Things They Carried did not actually happen our relationship with the author eventually emerges stronger at the end of the book when we come to the realization that when it comes to truth we need to look beyond the surface, look past the superficial details, and examine the things that really matter. War literature reminds us that life, death, and emotion are more important than small, insignificant details.

War literature is necessary. Not only because it helps civilians understand war but also because it helps soldiers deal with their experiences. Soldiers need to be able to express themselves somehow and they need to be able to write the truth of what they experience. Soldiers need to know that somebody cares enough to read their stories and maybe even take action. War literature is one of the most important methods for understanding war and violence. Candid accounts of what really happens during war through novels explain exactly what happens during war and also deliver these explanations in a medium that is accessible and interesting to most people. War literature needs to be something that everybody is familiar with. It’s easy to ignore violence and human weakness. We need war literature to remind us of all the problems in the world. We need it to inspire us to action and to hold us accountable for the needless loss of life that war brings. War literature is essential to any push for anti war mentality.  It is the proof that war is evil. If we ever want to live in a society that does not depend of war, militarism, and violence as solutions we must ensure that everyone reads and understands war literature so they understand the truth of war.

Scheel, Kate. "Violence and the Literature of War." N.p., Spring 2004. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Carroll, Joseph. "The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War." The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War. N.p., 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.

This quarter I explored different types of art and I learned more about myself as an artist. The work this quarter was challenging but also a lot of fun to do. I enjoyed learning more about photography and photo editing and I also really enjoyed making a collage for the first time in many years.

For my collage I wanted to convey a sense of calmness and serenity so I chose to do a collage of the sun setting over the ocean. When flipping through magazines to cut out some useful pieces for my collage I saw a picture of a sunset and it inspired me to do a collage of a sunset. My collage reminds me of all the times I’ve stayed at my grandmother’s house at the beach and seen the sun setting over the ocean. I really enjoyed creating the collage and it was my favorite assignment of the quarter.

The fabric drawing was very difficult for me because I’d never drawn fabric before. It was hard to capture all the wrinkles and folds in the fabric accurately and even harder to draw the shadows and lights. The fabric I was drawing wasn’t very visually appealing so it was hard to feel inspired.

I took a photo of one of the horses on the seesaw at the playground close to SLA. As a child I went to Greene Towne school, the preschool across the street from SLA, so I used to play in that playground a lot and I remember that the horses were my favorite part of the playground. I chose to use a filter that distorted the image to symbolize how childhood memories are often lost and become hazy.

The illustration was my second favorite project. I chose to illustrate “Stopping Through Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. I chose to illustrate that poem because I knew that there was going to be a blizzard the weekend after the illustration was due and I wanted to draw something snowy and wintry. I enjoyed drawing everything, especially the trees and the horse. I wanted my illustration to convey the beauty of nature and also convey a sense of wonder.

My goal for this essay was to explore the relationship between identity, nationality, and immigration. I wanted to understand how immigration influences identity and how it impacts our feelings of belonging and acceptance. I learned a lot about this topic through writing this essay and I feel as though I’ve learned more about my identity.

My Ecuadorian mother was born in Eugene, Oregon one December night over forty years ago. Both of her parents were from Ecuador but she was never able to get Ecuadorian citizenship because the application to the closest Ecuadorian consulate, which was in California, was lost in the mail. By the time my grandparents found out it was too late, and my mother would have to remain a citizen of the United States of America. When my mother was two my grandfather finished graduate school and decided that it was time to move back to Guayaquil. My mother has no memories of her time in the United States as a young girl. She has always considered herself to be an Ecuadorian even though she was born in Oregon, probably one of the furthest states from Ecuador, and never became an Ecuadorian citizen. Twenty two years after moving to Ecuador my mother returned to the United States and came to Philly to go to graduate school. While in school she met my father and married. Originally they were going to live in Ecuador but the financial situation of the country was very unstable at the time and it was difficult to find jobs so they decided it was best if they stayed in Philadelphia. It’s strange to think that if the whole financial instability situation in Ecuador had not occurred I would have been born there and I would probably still live there. Every once in awhile I like to think about how different my life would be if I was born in and lived in Ecuador. Would I be the same person? How does nationality affect identity?

I have lived in the same city all my life and in the same house for as long as I can remember. I have never felt that I do not belong in Philly or in the United States and I am aware that the city I have grown up in has had a large role in the development of my identity. My mother has had a completely different experience. She was born in the U.S. to two foreigners, moved to a Ecuador where she never legally a citizen, and then moved back to the United States. So how has the development of my identity differed from the development of my mother’s identity? The development of my identity has been relatively easy. I’ve been influenced by the culture of in Philadelphia but mostly influenced by my family and the people I have met. For my mother it was mostly just as easy. Growing up she considered herself Ecuadorian. She didn’t even remember anything about the United States. Once she came back to the United States it was harder. She was a citizen of the U.S. but she didn’t know the culture and she spoke with an accent. My mother now considers herself to be both American and Ecuadorian but there was a time when she felt that she didn’t belong in the United States or in Ecuador. She’d changed enough in her time in the U.S. to feel that she didn’t belong in Ecuador but enough to feel that she did belong in the United States. The only difference between the development of our identities was that small amount of time when my mother felt that she didn’t belong and that came from a change of location.

Nationality and immigration both have a role in shaping identity and fostering feelings of belonging. In an article, Vivian Gerrand explained how belonging and identity related to nationality and immigration:

“This sense of belonging is more than just about growing up here; it comes from a sense of individuality as much as from cultural influences. It shows that identity is never fixed; there is always movement between cultures. This new sense of belonging separates out the idea of fixed national, collective and individual identities.”

Intro:

In this essay I wanted to focus on writing scenes of memory. In the previous essay I didn’t work as hard as I could have on the scene I chose to include and did not develop it very much. I also decided to focus on the development of my thesis and my ideas. I am proud of the growth of my scene of memory. I think I did a better job of writing it than the memory in my previous essay. I am also proud of the topic I chose and how I was able to tie it back to literacy and identity. As we continue to write essays I want to do a better job of making my scenes of memory more engaging. I want to be able to express my ideas more concisely and also be able to include a greater variety of ideas.

Essay:

I stare steadily at the open composition book lying on my dining room table. The pencil I hold trembles slightly as I tentatively move the tip towards the empty paper waiting below me. Slowly and carefully I start copying the words my abuela has written on a separate piece of paper. La gata come su pollo. I copy the sentence over and over again until I’m sure my abuela will be satisfied. When I’m finished I look down at my handiwork and smile triumphantly. The words I just finished copying are legible, though aesthetically mediocre. My handwriting has improved drastically since I began practicing at the beginning of summer vacation. It isn’t something I chose to do. My mother insisted that I learn to write neatly. In previous school years teachers often complained of my almost illegible handwriting and my mother decided it was time for a change. My mother not only decided that I would be taking daily handwriting lessons but also decided that my abuela would be my teacher. I had not been excited and I still am not excited to have to spend hours copying meaningless sentence after sentence. For what has to be at least the hundredth time this month I wonder why handwriting seems so important to every adult I have ever met. Why do I have to have perfect my handwriting? Is handwriting still relevant in an age where we can type everything we want to write on phones, computers, and other electronic devices?

“Handwriting, e.g., using the hand to form letters on a page, is essential in the writing process and can predict the amount and quality of children‘s written ideas.” There are multiple reasons handwriting is important. One of these reasons, as quoted above, is the fact that handwriting influences the writing process and improves quality of written ideas. Handwriting influences composition, explained in the following quote: “Handwriting, and in particular the automaticity of letter production, appears to facilitate higher-order composing processes by freeing up working memory to deal with the complex tasks of planning, organising, revising and regulating the production of text. Research suggests that automatic letter writing is the single best predictor of length and quality of written composition in the primary years... in secondary school and even in the post-compulsory education years.”  Handwriting abilities are also pretty accurate reflectors of success in school, grades, and test performance: “Not only were students with better penmanship in pre-k found to have higher scores in both reading and math later on, but they also had higher grades in general and higher scores on standardized tests. Students with strong handwriting marks in pre-k were found to have an overall “B” average in second grade compared to an overall “C” average for the students that did poorly on writing tasks in pre-K.” Handwriting not only affects writing but also reading skills: “Dr. Dinehart did point out in her report that studies have found that children who physically write letters recognize them more readily than students who type them on the keyboard, possibly meaning that handwriting instruction leads to better reading skills.” All these studies and research on handwriting prove that it is a fundamental aspect of literacy because it influences writing, reading, and school success. Even with all these apparent benefits schools have stopped teaching children to write neatly, the focus is never on handwriting. Handwriting is essential to our development as writers and yet we are never encouraged nor taught to write properly and as perfectly as possible. In the past, students were graded on handwriting and taught to write neatly and legibly. Whenever adults talk about their experiences in school they almost always talk about how when they were in school they had to write neatly and they were taught how to write neatly.They complain about how that has changed and how awful their child or children’s handwriting is. After researching handwriting I have come to agree with them. Handwriting is an important part of developing literacy but it is also more than that. It is an opportunity for each one of us to express our own individual personality and interpretation of literacy.

In recent years we have been moving away from paper and pencil literacy and have been focusing on technological literacy. Although being able to type instead of always writing by hand is wonderful it is important to not dismiss the importance of handwriting. It is essential that we are be literate with technology but other types of literacy are just as important. There is no one type of literacy that can take precedence over the others and it is vital to keep all literacies balanced because different types of literacy depend on each other. To be well rounded and to truly understand the world we need to be literate in every way possible. We shouldn’t dismiss handwriting and certain other types of literacy just because we are now more technologically advanced. To do so would be to ignore a fundamental part of the development of our individual literacy and understanding of the soul, spirit, mind, body, and universe. To maintain our own individuality and uniqueness in relation to literacy we must know how to express ourselves through our handwriting. To be able to understand the ideas of the many people who use technology and social media to express themselves we must be technologically literate. To understand the music and messages spread through music we must be musically literate. None of these types of literacies outweigh each other; they all add up into a unique and complete understanding and comprehension of the world.

Sources:

Clark, Gloria Jean. "The Relationship between Handwriting, Reading, Fine Motor and Visual-motor Skills in Kindergarteners."Http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/. Iowa State University, 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2432&context=etd>

Medwell, Jane, and David Wray. "Handwriting: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?" Literacy 41.1 (2007): 10-15. Apr. 2007. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.drawingchildrenintoreading.com/assets/handwriting-article-medwell_jane.pdf>.

Stevens, Angie. "Is Handwriting an Important Part of Language and Literacy Instruction?" - Reading Horizons. Reading Horizons, 2 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2012/02/07/is-handwriting-an-important-part-of-language-and-literacy-instruction.aspx>.

In the beginning of the quarter I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for my pieces or what I wanted my pieces to convey but as I worked through all of the assignments I learned more about myself as an artist. When actually sitting down to work on a piece I found it wasn’t that difficult to be inspired. I would just look around me and see something that inspired me or I would think about something happening my life and would be inspired. I found that I didn’t have to know what I wanted a piece to symbolize before I started working on it but that I would find what it symbolized by working on it.

I collaborated on the ceiling tile with Kiamesso DaSilva. Initially, we wanted to paint steps, which would be inscribed with words in Arabic which would translate to “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” leading up to a golden door. In the background there would be swirls and other similar decorations. We decided a ceiling tile would not be the best medium to create this and decided instead to do ceiling tile inspired by sari patterns. We decided on painting a big pearly white swirl that would take up to tiles and decorate the edges around the swirl with small dots and other shapes to create an intricate border for the swirl. We chose to use cool, light colors for our piece because we wanted it to seem wintery. My favorite season is winter and we wanted the piece to remind people of snow and ice and the winter in general.

For the choose your own drawing assignment I chose to draw my cat. I adopted my cat just two weeks before I started on the assignment so I was feeling very inspired by her and I was very excited to draw her. In my drawing I wanted to capture my cat’s calmness and serenity and inspire a sense of serenity and peace in others. I also wanted my piece to express my love and appreciation for her.

For my jack-o-lantern I decided to carve Hogwarts. When I was younger I loved the Harry Potter books. I thought it would be fun to carve a castle and decided I would do Hogwarts. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be but I enjoyed the process and I am pretty proud of the final result. I wanted to piece to remind people of their childhood and the books they read and loved. To carve the castle I printed out a simple drawing of Hogwarts and taped it onto my pumpkin. Then I used a pumpkin carving knife to cut along the edges until I had the shape I wanted. After that I drew in a few details with a sharpie.

This unit we have learned about climate change. We have learned about several different people’s perspective on climate change and learned about how climate change affects people all over the world in different ways ranging from extreme weather like the typhoon in the Philippines to respiratory problems like asthma. While writing my monologues my goal was to show how many different opinions there are on climate change. I also wanted people to realize that deciding to do something about climate change or even just deciding what your opinion is on climate change is something people struggle with. Some people depend on things that cause climate change and others feel as though climate change really isn’t that important.

Monologues:

Why Should I Care?

Heather:

(A 15 year old girl who lives in New York. It is 1988 right after NASA scientist, Dr. James Hansen, testifies in front of congress about global warming and the greenhouse effect. She is at school, sitting at a table eating lunch with a few friends.)

Do I have to read this article? Don’t we do enough boring reading in school? I don’t want to waste my lunch reading this. (Pauses, sighs) Fine, whatever. (Reads for a couple of minutes and frowns) Are you sure this is really true?  Cause, I don’t understand. Why haven’t they said anything about this before? I mean, this guy is saying that we’re polluting and warming the earth. I mean, how is that even possible? (Pauses) I know it explains it in the article! I’m just a little skeptical. How is burning some stuff really hurting the earth so badly? Either the earth must be really weak or these losers are exaggerating and making a big deal out of nothing like they always do.  I mean, according to this article we have (deepens voice and reads quote in a mocking way) “altered the global climate in a way that will affect life on earth for centuries to come”. (Rolls eyes) What’s that supposed to mean?  How is this going to be affecting the earth?(Looks down at article) Okay...melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and evaporating inland water. That’s really not that bad! I don’t understand why these people are complaining so much. Why should I care about that? (Pauses) Alright…fine, I guess it’s bad… But what would we be able to do about it anyway? It’s not like it’s going to affect us in any way, so who cares! (Pauses) Wow, you’re right, that sounds really selfish. All right, suppose we do try to do something. Would our actions really make a difference? No, they wouldn't! There’s only four of us and what would we do? Stop buying stuff made in factories? Stop using energy? That would be impossible! Besides, I don’t really care about this so why would I even try to do anything like that? And seeing as it’s just not possible for us to do anything, I don’t see why you’re so worried about this. Just forget all about it and let’s just try to have fun with our lives instead of worrying about boring stuff. I was thinking that after school we could...(Pauses) He said that? Oh...Well then...I guess we will do something about this climate change stuff. (Pauses) I know it’s stupid to just change my mind cause of something he said but I don’t care! We’ll join that stupid club and do whatever we’re going to have to do there and I’ll finally have a chance to get to talk to him more. (Looks around) He’s coming! Alright, alright, keep on talking about this climate change stuff I want him to think that I care about it.

Source of Quote

The Earth’s Beauty

Alexander:

(A 20 year old man who lives in the country. He is sitting outside on a bench looking at the stars.)

Every morning when I wake up I run to my window so I can see the sun rising over the gentle green hills where I used to play everyday. When I go outside I take a deep breath of the air, enjoy the gentle breeze and the smell of the damp earth and the trees. Then at night I look up and count the never ending amount of bright twinkling stars and revel in the beauty of the silver moon shining down on my face. I love this world so much and admire it’s beauty but I often wonder; what it was like before? (Looks up wistfully)Before humans came and destroyed what it used to be. Before forests were cut down and gases we’re pumped into the air. Was everything ten times as beautiful back then? Was every part of this world as lovely as the colors of the sky while the sun is setting? I wish I could have seen the world as it was in the beginning but I know that I will never be able to do that. The world will most likely get worse, these small areas of pleasure and beauty will disappear forever, because of us, our pollution and global warming. (sighs)

When I was younger I didn’t understand global warming. I just thought it was something bad like war and injustice. When you're younger you can’t understand how complex and complicated problems are when they seem so simple and easy to fix. I remember reading a quote from my hero and namesake, Alexander Graham Bell. “The unchecked burning of fossil fuels would have a sort of greenhouse effect...The net result is the greenhouse becomes a sort of hot-house.” I didn’t really understand that quote until my mother explained it in words that a 7 year old could more easily understand. That quote just reinforced my belief that climate change must be bad; if my hero thought it was bad then I definitely thought it was bad too.

But now I know more. I’ve grown older and am no longer a naive little boy rolling down hills and swimming in lakes. I now know that all the money we have comes from my dad’s company. And my dad’s company gets their money from burning fossil fuels. Soon, my dad expects me to work for the company too. I just don’t know what to do. All my life I’ve been against something that my dad has been working for and supporting. We’ve already argued and I hate fighting with him. I hate telling my dad that he’s a monster whose selfishness is going to kill every single thing that is beautiful. And I hate having to hear him tell me I’m a stupid child who doesn’t know anything. We both know we don’t really mean those words but still they hurt. I love my dad and I know he loves me. I don’t want to disappoint him but how could I live with myself if I knew that I was one of those people who was willingly and happily causing so many problems because of my selfishness and need for more money? I need to decide what’s more important to me. My dad and family or the earth and my integrity?

Listen

Francisco:

(A 34 year old man who is sitting in chair talking to his two children. )

Hey, kids, come here and listen to me. I have something important I want to talk to you about. Alright, you may have heard about a climate change march and about global warming. (Pause) You have heard of it. Good. Well, I just wanted to tell you that yes, global warming is happening. Wait! That’s not all I wanted to tell you. Sit back down! Well, your mother really cared about this before...well, you know. She wanted me to teach you about this. But really, who cares about the earth when there are more important things? Now, you listen to me and stop worrying about all that. The most important thing to me and what should be the most important thing to you is to make sure that were all fed and have a roof over our heads. Don’t make those faces! Sure the earth is important because it’s where we all live but in a hundred years none of us will be here. We won’t be alive to be affected by this climate change. Remember that. I don’t want you two to waste your lives trying to fix the world. Let other people worry about being heroes. You and I just need to stay alive and try to be the happiest we can be. We need to work, make money and take care of the family. Don’t ever forget that. Okay? Okay. Now go to bed.

(He waits until his children leave and then picks up a picture)

I’m sorry, darling. I know how you felt about climate change, how we both felt. (Smiles) Do you remember when you and I thought we could just fix the world? We laughed at other people’s mistakes and told ourselves that we were smarter and there was no way we would mess up. We we’re so naive. We thought it would be easy. Why didn’t we realize that if so many others couldn’t do it then there was no way we would be able to. And now you're gone… I’m glad you’re not here to see the mess of a world we live in now. The children are just like you. They can barely stand living in a world like this but I can’t let their lives turn out like yours. I can’t let them throw away their lives on an unfixable problem like climate change. I want them to be happy. How could they be happy if the only thing they think about is the earth? I’m sorry I can’t teach them to be better people but in a world like this “better people” don’t survive.

Here is the video for my first monologue, “Why should I care?”

Project: Periodic Table Scavenger Hunt

https://chemsocialpolicy.wikispaces.com/Nickel

Inquiry:

- For this project I wanted to know what exactly nickel was and what where it’s uses and properties. I also wanted know why it was called Nickel and who discovered it.

Research:

- To gather information I researched my element online and I also used the periodic table.

Collaboration:

- In this project we had to compare some of our element’s properties to others. By doing this we collaborated to learn more about other elements. Other people also helped me learn how to make the graphs for the wikispace.

Presentation:

- For my presentation I included some pictures so that people would be more interested in reading my project. Also I used CARP and made sure all the font and alignment was appealing.

Reflection:

Hi. My name is Isabel Medlock and I am a freshman at SLA. Earlier this school year my English class started a project called You and the World. Everyone in my class chose an issue and researched that issue. I chose the stigma of mental illness, the negative way society views mental illness. After we chose an issue and researched it, we wrote two blog posts about it. Here is the link to blog #1. In this blog post I wrote about what the stigma of mental illness is and how people are affected by it. In blog #2 I wrote about the Mental Health Parity, discrimination those with mental health issues face, an interview I conducted with a mental health professional, and my opinion on the stigma of mental illness. This is my last blog post and it is the post for change which is the last part of the project.

There are several ways people are trying to raise awareness of the stigma of mental illness. There are some organizations and campaigns. Some examples of these types of campaigns are Stamp Out Stigma, Stand Up For Mental Health, and I Am Not Crazy.  Stamp Out Stigma is an organization that tries to reduce the stigma of mental illness and substance abuse by educating people and encouraging to them to discuss this issue. Stand Up For Mental Health teaches mental health consumers how to turn their problems into stand up comedy acts and perform them. I Am Not Crazy helps raise awareness of the stigma of mental illness by using social media and the internet. Also, every year on the first full week of October is Mental Health Awareness Week. During this week there are events that educate others about mental health and promote the education of mental illness. These events are designed to help end the stigma. These are all very good ways of changing society’s view on mental illness but I think more should be done. Even with all these organizations and events not that many people know the truth about mental illness or know about the stigma. I think children should be educated on this subject in school. If children were educated about mental illness they wouldn’t believe in the stereotypes surrounding mental illness and that would greatly reduce stigma.

Students on a website during my presentation.

For my agent of change piece I made a presentation to my advisory about the stigma of mental illness. In my presentation I explained what the stigma of mental illness is and why it is a problem. First I told them to go on a website and learn some things about mental illness and take some quizzes. Then I had each group read some stereotypes and discuss whether or not the stereotypes were true. At the end I showed a video from Bring Change 2 Mind. By doing this I helped raise awareness of the issue. Hopefully the people who viewed my presentation will want to learn more about mental illness and the stigma and maybe try to help reduce the stigma.  I enjoyed doing this project and learning about the stigma of mental illness. I think it’s a very important issue that needs to be talked about more, especially in schools. One thing I learned about myself and others is that when we are ignorant about something it often leads us to believe in stereotypes. The reason there is so much stigma surrounding mental illness is because people don’t learn about it.

My presentation.

All the pictures above are from my presentation. In the first two pictures students are on a website, learning about mental illness. In the third picture students are discussing common stereotypes about mental illness. In the fourth picture I am explaining what the stigma of mental illness is.

I think I could have done a better job with my agent of change piece. I don’t think I’ve done enough. There are still so many people who don’t really understand mental illness and the stigma surrounding. I wish I had done something that would inform more people about this problem. There is still so much left to do to change people’s view on mental illness. People need to be educated about mental health. We need to change the laws that discriminate against those with mental health problems. We need to make people with mental health problems feel accepted instead of ashamed.

I would like to thank Ms. Dunn for all her help and advice. I would also like to thank all the people who helped proofread my blog posts.  I have enjoyed doing this project and I have really enjoyed learning about the stigma of mental illness. I hope that in the future it will no longer be a problem.

Thanks for reading my post! :-)

Links to my presentation:

Advisory Presentation Slide Deck

Hi. My name is Isabel Medlock. Earlier this school year our class started a project called You and the World. Each of us chose an issue, researched it and then wrote a blog post about it.  Here is the link to my first post.  The issue I chose is the stigma of mental illness, the negative way people perceive mental illness and those affected by it. In my first blog post I talked about people’s opinions on mental illness, the discrimination that those with affected by it face, and the fact that the mentally ill don’t seek the help they need because of the stigma.  Since then, I have researched my topic online further and also conducted an interview with a mental health professional.

Recently, I have learned about the Mental Health Parity, which requires health insurance providers to give the same benefits, financial requirements, and limitations as those that apply to physical health benefits. I also researched discrimination against people with a mental illness in other parts of the world. For example, in Lithuania people with mental health problems are not allowed to own a home. In some parts of Korea people with mental health problems are not allowed to enter a swimming pool. I also learned that about 75% of Americans and Europeans with a mental illness don’t receive treatment. 

This is an image that provides information about how different places in the world have rules that stigmatize people with mental illnesses.

For my original research I interviewed Dr. William Fox, a psychiatrist. One important thing I took away from the interview was how people are affected by the stigma. It limits their ability to get help because of “lack of awareness —often willful, lack of effective treatments/options, and lack of access.” Sometimes they are unaware of their condition and in other cases they don’t want to believe that they have a problem. Also people lose health insurance coverage, employment and relationships. I also learned about the Kübler-Ross 5 stages of grief and how it also relates to how people cope with mental illness. The five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. When people find out that they have a mental illness they don’t want to believe so they are in denial. Next, they are angry about having a mental illness. Then they try bargaining with the doctor to get them to fix their problem. Next is depression which “is both a stage and diagnosis, but often people have " secondary depression" about having another psychiatric issue.” Last is acceptance, which is not the resolution of their illness but coming to terms with their situation. Stigma is causing people with mental illness to act so ashamed about having a mental issue. I think that it’s terrible that people get secondary depression just because they have a psychiatric issue. This interview helped me understand what people with mental illnesses go through, how the stigma affects them and what people can do to help.

After analyzing the information I've read online and conducting the interview I have gained some new insights on the many issues that people with mental illnesses face. Reading about the Mental Health Parity made me realize that some things are getting better for people with mental illnesses.  Although some things are getting better there is still a long way to go until the people with mental illness aren't stigmatized and don’t have to face prejudice and discrimination. I reviewed some more statistics that reaffirmed what I already knew about the stigma of mental illness and how it prevents people from getting help. For example, only 25% of Americans and Europeans get treatment for their mental illnesses. All the new information made me realize that this issue is worse than I imagined it to be when I began working on this project.

This image provides information about people with mental illnesses and whether or not they are violent.

Now that I’ve learned more about the stigma of mental illness I’ve realized that it is a much bigger issue than I originally thought. It is unfortunate that people aren’t able to receive the help they need because of society's negative view on mental illness. And because they can get help some people are driven to commit suicide. If there wasn’t so much stigma associated with mental illness there would be less people committing suicide and so many people would have better lives. It is also unfortunate that the mentally ill are so misunderstood, which the image above shows. People see the mentally ill as violent criminals when in fact they are usually the victims of crimes. This is another way stigma affects the mentally ill. I also feel ashamed of our society and of myself. Before I started this project I didn't know anything about mental health stigma and I believed the stereotypes about people with mental illness. I never considered how those with mental illness felt or were affected by those who didn't understand or even know what they were going through.  It’s extremely important that people start raising more awareness of this issue so there is no more stigma.

The image on the left is a poster that is meant to help fight stigma. The image on the right is from a magazine that wrote an article about how violent people with mental illnesses are.

Even after learning more about the stigma of mental illness I still have several more questions. When and why did people start feeling so negatively towards mental illness and those affected by it? How were those with mental illness treated in the past? What were the conditions in mental asylums in the past? What are the conditions in mental asylums now? As I keep on researching my topic I hope to find the answers to these questions and also to find ways I can help.

As part of our project we have to do something to help solve the issue and be an “Agent of Change”. Since I can’t really volunteer somewhere and do something meaningful, I’m going to spread awareness of the issue. One way I hope to do that is by discussing this issue with my advisory so they can learn about it and hopefully teach others about it.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to read my next blog post!

Annotated Bibliography

Here is the link to the entire interview.

Articles about this issue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natasha-tracy/mental-illness_b_4761908.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-fader/stigma-mental-illness_b_4680835.html

My slide has a picture of broken glass in the middle and then to the side it says "broken and lost". It represents the confusion and sadness humans sometimes experience when things change. The fog represents the confusion and the shattered glass represents the sadness. I chose this image because it is eye catching and represented what I was trying to communicate to others well. I put the picture in the middle because I was trying to balance the slide. I made the image bigger than the text so that the people viewing the slide would look at the image first and then at the text. I made the image of the glass dominate the slide because it is the most important part of the slide. I chose to use a black background because it contrasted with the light blue and white image. My text is light blue because it is close to the same color as the glass.

Presentation Zen influenced my decision making. All the examples they had on the website were very useful and inspiring. Signs on the streets also influenced my decision making and so did billboards on the highway. My opinion and the suggestions of other classmates also influenced my design.

Hi! My name is Isabel Medlock and I am a freshmen at Science Leadership Academy. This year in English class we had to choose an issue, research it and then try to do something to raise awareness of the issue or help solve it. The issue I chose is the stigma of mental illness. The reason I chose this topic is because mental illness has interested me before and after reading a little bit more about it I decided it was a good issue to choose. Another reason I chose this issue is that some members of my family are affected by a mental illness.

People perceive mental illness with a negative perspective and that leads to prejudice, discrimination, and stigma. The Mental Health Commission defines stigma as a mark of disgrace that sets a person apart. Many people think that mental illness only affects a few people when in fact in a given year one quarter of adults are diagnosable for at least one mental disorder. Another common belief about mental illness is that all people with a mental illness are violent and should be kept in a hospital.  In a 2006 Australian study it was found that 1 in 4 people thought that depression was a sign of weakness and would not employ someone with depression. 1 in 3 people said they would not vote for someone with depression and 1 in 4 people thought that people with schizophrenia are dangerous.

This is a chart that shows the percentage of adults with a serious mental illness by state:

People who have a mental disorder are discriminated.  In England, if you have a mental health condition you are not allowed to serve on a jury. You can also be removed as a director of a company if you have a mental disorder. In a video I saw one woman said that she wanted to join a local weight loss group. When she told the counselor who ran it that she had a mental illness she was told that she shouldn’t join because she would be disruptive and the other members of the group wouldn’t want someone with mental illness in their group. There are just a few examples of ways that people with mental illnesses are treated unjustly.

In 2008 only 13.4% of adults received treatment for mental health problems. That’s a little over half of the adults diagnosable with a mental disorder. The reason people aren’t seeking treatment for their mental disorders is the stigma surrounding mental illness. The stigma makes people too ashamed or embarrassed to get the help they need. 90% of the people who commit suicide have depression or another mental disorder. Most of these deaths could have probably been prevented if these people weren’t afraid to get the treatment they needed. It’s important that we change the view on mental illness so that people are no longer afraid of getting help and don’t choose to end their lives. People with mental disorders have to live with the stigma and the discrimination every day and it isn’t fair.

These two newspaper headings are examples of how the media portrays those with mental illness.

After researching this topic I have new questions. How did people view mental illness in the past and how has their view changed since then? Are there illnesses that are viewed more negatively than others? Why did people start viewing in a negative way?  How are children and teenagers affected by the stigma of mental illness? As I keep researching this topic I hope to find the answers to all these questions. I also hope to find more stories about the experiences people have had living with mental illness.

Here is a link to a video of a man with schizophrenia and his mother discussing the stigma.

Mental Health Discrimination Bill video