SHORTER SCHOOL DAYS

All students have ever complained about in school is the hours. School starts way too early, ends way too late, and happens way too often. Some kids have to wake up before the sun even shines just so they can travel to a place they don’t want to be. All of this makes kids unmotivated. People over the years have researched school hours and how it affects kids minds and work ethic. If starting school later or having shorter hours has already been proven to help, why hasn't anything been done?

Teachers tend to assign hours of homework every night. Many would agree that they usually don’t take in consideration how long this assignment might actually take, and because of this there is now what seems like almost an entire mini project for homework. This is just one class. All teachers do it and expect the assignment the next day. While assigning these they also say you should still get 8 hours of sleep. When you don’t get 8 hours of sleep you are told to go to bed earlier, all while trying to complete the homework. With these two factors, getting homework done and still getting a good amount of sleep where you can still function just becomes a cycle of endless impossibilities.

Most of the adolescents of today suffer from sleep deprivation. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens are the least likely to get their required amount of sleep to function at a satisfactory level. By the end of high school teens have averaged less than  hours of sleep a night.  This sleep schedule that had been interrupted by school, work , and other activities affects brain development, and the ability to take in important information. Most people think that kids just need to stop complaining, but don’t realize that sleep is the most important in your teen years. A lack of sleep can cause a number of things. Such as emotional and behavioral problems, violence, depression, alcohol use, impaired cognitive function, etc. The list just gets longer. All of these consequences just because nobody wants to shorten the school day.

Although sleep is a huge and major part, it is not the only part. Just cutting off one day from school would save millions for school districts. To keep schools running 5 days a week is such a high cost that really isn’t affordable. This causes budget cuts and that makes for a lower quality learning experience. Shortening the week would also help with activity involvement. Students are encouraged to go out and try new things that will benefit them, but never have the time because school take up most of their time. If hours or days were shorter, kids would put more effort into doing things help them in the long run. Another benefit of a shorter school week is attendance. Since students won’t have to go as often, they will actually come on the days that are required just to get it over with. All of these reasons are just a few of the positives to shorter school weeks. Of course there is  a bunch of cons to go along with these pro’s, but you can’t knock it till you try it.

This is my best 2fer because I really wrote about something that I often think about. This is a decision that I truly stand by. Especially given the fact that I experience some of the negatives of overwhelming homework assignments and not enough time to complete them all.

SOURCES:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/12/high-school-pressure-stud_n_1090158.html

Perle, Elizabeth. "High School Pressure: Why Students Need Shorter Days." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Nov. 2011. Web. 01 May 2017.

https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/backgrounder-later-school-start-times

"Backgrounder: Later School Start Times." National Sleep Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/teens-sleep_b_5127547.html

Gross, Dr. Gail. "Sleep for Success: Why Teens Need to Start School Later." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 May 2017.

https://greengarageblog.org/10-main-pros-and-cons-of-4-day-school-weeks

I remember sitting around with some kids in school. We were in English class I believe, and I was ignoring the assignment that was given to us. We were laughing away, telling joke after joke. I was having a great time with my friends. Well they weren’t really my friends, but I sat with them because I knew that if I sat  there I would at least feel like I’m noticed and that I amount to something. This was until a comment was made.

“Why do you smile so… hard?” she asked me with a disgusted look on her face.

“What do you mean?” I say.

“Well, you always smile really big and hard for no reason,” was the response I got.

“I mean… I guess I don’t know.” I reply.

We go back to laughing as I brush the comment off. Or at least I tried. The rest of the time we talked I had a fake smile on my face. A smaller one. All I could think about was why I smiled so hard and why she didn’t like my smile. When the comment was made, everyone was staring at my mouth. I started to become nervous because all eyes were on me and it wasn’t for a good reason. When I went home later that day I looked in the mirror and kept smiling. I tried to practice the perfect smile. I tried the closed mouth grin. I tried the straight faced smiled that makes me look like I don’t want to be doing whatever I am doing, until I got the perfect smile. Not too much teeth and not too little. It wasn’t my smile, but it was a smile.

I was always made fun off when I was in elementary school. Kids would always talk about my skin. Not because I had terrible skin quality, but because I was dark. Well I guess in their eyes that’s the same thing. They would tell me I look burnt. I’ve been bullied for my skin ever since I can remember. It got to the point where I began to hate my skin. I would do anything I could to make myself appear lighter than I was. I don’t do this anymore, but I still do not feel comfortable in my own skin. When I got to middle school the teasing turned into full blown bullying. They would destroy my things and throw stuff at me. I even got threatened a few times just for looking at people. I would try and look straight forwards in the halls if I wasn’t with my friends so that I could avoid eye contact. One time, some boys in my class filled up a book bag with as many history textbooks so they could and threw it at me. My back was sore for a week after that. Another time, a girl decided to play a “prank” on me. I would always bring flavored seltzer water to school to have with my lunch. One day I left the seltzer upstairs so the girl said that she would bring it to me so that I didn’t have to walk up four floors. When I got the bottle I knew that something was off. I didn’t hear the hiss of a brand new bottle being opened. There was no fizz. I smelled it and there was no sweet grape smell. It was toilet water. She put it in my bottle hoping that I would drink it. I cried in school. Then I cried again, when I got home. I hated school. I had a small amount of true friends, but again not many. All I ever wanted to do was stay home because I couldn’t figure out why people didn’t like me. I mean, I know I’m not pretty or the coolest girl in 6th to 8th grade, but why dislike me?

My self confidence is at an all time low since I’ve been in high school. It has always been something I struggled with, but has never been this bad. Coming to high school and seeing so many different people from different races and backgrounds has made me look twice at myself. Especially with what the norm is in society. I’m not saying that I wish I had fair skin and that I had a tiny nose that was slightly turned upwards, but that people didn’t want me to have fair skin and a tiny nose. Even my own race shames people of my skin complexion. So if I can’t be accepted by my own kind, how am I ever supposed to  find myself beautiful?  All I ever do when I look in the mirror is try and find ways to improve myself. Whether it’s getting my teeth whitened or deciding that from now on I am going to wear a full face of makeup that alters the shape of my face entirely. Sometimes I think I should dye my hair. Or cut it all off. What if I dress different? A little more girly. Maybe then even my mom will see my true beauty.  Occasionally, I can’t leave the house without getting a comment on why I have no makeup or earrings on. Sometimes I purposely don’t wear these things. Sometimes I forget. I constantly get bombarded with advice or life lessons as to why I have to “look pretty everyday” so that “boys will look at me” or I’ll “find a prom date.” Why does everything that I do with my look have to be so that I’m pleasing to others? When do I get a chance to just be myself for myself? It’s gotten to the point where I don’t like what I see. At all. I often times just lay in bed wishing that I was older so that I could just get body altering surgeries so that I can look like what everyone else wants me to look like. Maybe I’ll get a nose job. Or lipo a little bit in the stomach and leg area. I hate my body. Everything about it just disappoints me. Why don’t I wear a size 2 pants? Why isn’t my hair longer? Why can’t I just grow out my nails instead of chewing on them? All of these question I ask myself because my whole life I’ve had nothing but people in face telling me that I’m not good enough.

A lot of kids have these feelings and experiences. They shouldn’t have to, but they do. Me and a million other kids sit and cry at night hoping that someone hears our call for help because we can’t find our purpose.  When you’re failing classes, having daily anxiety attacks and people think you’re ugly, it just becomes too much. Especially if you don’t have a support system. This could be because your parents don’t believe that your issues are real problems or simply that you’re afraid to talk about it. All of these things I just described I am too familiar with, and it’s a really crappy way of living.

What I’m really trying to say is, kids suck. We are constantly putting each other down and not even realizing the long term effects that we have on people’s minds. We should be nicer to each other because sometimes all someone might need to get through their day is an  “are you okay?” or “you’re going to be fine.” Even if you don’t really like the shirt someone is wearing, compliment it. A little gesture can go a long way. All of this remembering about the taunting about my skin, face, smile, the things that made me the wonderful individual that I was. It makes me think about what a beautiful person inside and out I could have been If I wasn’t brainwashed as a child to think that I am lesser of a person than everyone who surrounds me.

INEQUALITY IN THE FILM INDUSTRY

There are many talented women in the film-making industry, but not as many as men. Even with this being, why aren’t the women mentioned as often? There has always been an inequality in the work area when it comes to men and women. Women have come so far from the past but still aren’t treated with the same respect and fairness as men. Women get paid less and don’t have as many opportunities overall. This goes for every work field that isn’t specifically a “woman’s” job, but why film? A lot of what happens in the film business is behind the scenes and is mostly on the computer, so why do people think that it still isn’t fit for women to handle? The Huffington Post and even the New York Film Academy have taken notice to the issue of gender inequality in the business because it is a rising issue. The problems range from how many lines female actresses get in movies to the 284 million dollar pay gap between them and the highest ranked male actors.  Ultimately, the state of women both behind and in front of the camera reflects that women are still expected to stay in their place. To basically just leave the hard work to the men.

A study that was done by Stephen Follows talks about gender split within film crews from between 1994 and 2013. People might think that with almost 20 years passed that things would have drastically changed. From 1994, the average amount of women on the film crew were 22.6% while the amount of men was 77.4%. When the numbers were recalculated in 2013 the percentage had actually decreased with only 21.8% of film crews being women. This percentage might as well be 0 when looked into deeper, because Women tend to have the less important jobs. Not that costumes and makeup don’t matter, it’s just not what makes the movie completely. When the percentages are broken down into specific categories such as wardrobe, casting, and makeup, otherwise know as the “easier” and more “girly” things, the numbers are high. 68.8% of the crew for makeup is female while only 31.2% percent is male. 66.5% of the casting department is female with males at only 33.5%. As the jobs on the list get harder or more “important”, the amount of females in the department decrease. For camera/ electrical only 5.1% of the crew is women while males come in at 94.9%. This article doesn’t even get into the inequality between men and women on the screen, from speaking roles to amount of nudity.

The film industry has always been a man's business and always will be at this rate of change. Everything in the industry is for what benefits or interest men. Male actors get paid millions more, they have more speaking roles, they don’t have to take off their clothes as often, they even get nominated for awards more. In the New York Film Academy’s study they found some very interesting statistics. From 2007-2012 in the top 500 movies 26.2% of female actresses got naked, while only 9.4% of men did. The amount of nudity in female teenager has even increased by 32.5 percent. Only 7.0% of men wore sexually revealing clothes while 28.8% of women did. Out of all of the 500 films, only 30.8% of speaking roles were female. The forbes 2013 list of the top ten highest paid actors and actresses, females made a collective 181 million dollars while men made 465 million.

The most disappointing part about this information that there isn’t much to do about it. At least not yet. This issue matter because it about time that women are treated with the equal respect that they deserve. People brush the issue off and hope that it will solve itself, but it’s time that a change was made. As soon as more and more people are no longer blind to this issue, women can the equality that they have been working to get for years. Even though this unfairness is something people know about, the seriousness of the issue goes unnoticed and it’s time that people started to pay attention.

SOURCES

SOURCE #1:

https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

Zurko, About The Author: Nicholas, and Nicholas Zurko. "Gender Inequality in Film - An Infographic." New York Film Academy Blog. New York Film Academy, 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

SOURCE #2:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-ts-laham-/the-celluloid-ceiling-tru_b_11389544.html

Laham, Martha T.S. "The Film Industry's Problem Of Gender Inequality Is Worse Than You Think." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

SOURCE #3:

http://stephenfollows.com/reports/Gender_Within_Film_Crews-stephenfollows_com.pdf

  Follows, Stephen. "Gender Within Film Crews." StephenFollows.com. Stephen Follows, n.d. Web.    16 Oct. 2016.

SOURCE #4:

http://wmc.3cdn.net/2e85f9517dc2bf164e_htm62xgan.pdf

Women’s Media Center. "The Status of Women in the U.S Media 2014." Women’s Media Center, 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

Sydney Montgomery

Mrs.Giknis

English 1

June 5, 2015

Blog Post Reflection

Sydney Montgomery

Mrs. Giknis

English 1

For my You and the World project I wanted to raise awareness about Anxiety and Depression. In the beginning  I had it all planned out and knew exactly what I wanted to do. This was until I realized that what I had planned to do was entirely too much for what little time we had. This project was one of the most stressful things I have ever done. With this being something I am really passionate about I am very disappointed with how the entire project turned out. I was originally going to interview one kid from every grade and make a small documentary until people started backing out and I had to forget about the whole idea. I had my heart set on this documentary and all my ideas just came crashing down before my eyes. I then decided to do a survey and send it out the whole entire school. After I sent out the survey, I waited four days and did not get a single response. Time quickly started running out and I had to find a new idea. I then e-mailed individual kids and luckily got responses. For my Agent of Change, I finally decided to take pictures of people who answered the survey and take picture of them with a description underneath each photo about the teens have suffered with anxiety and or depression and how it has affected them. I’m still very far behind on my project even though I have my idea ready to go. At this point I have lost all motivation for this project. Even though I like my idea, it’s not something I’m very proud of. I feel I could have done so much better with getting the word across. The whole point of my original idea was so that it would be something someone couldn’t miss. Hopefully when I hang the pictures people actually take the time out of their day stop and read.

Jae Regino                 Jhazzelle Majarucon

I decided to do my project on misunderstood kids who also might struggle with Social Anxiety and Depression. This topic is something that people that many know about but don’t understand. Often times kids are judged, mistreated, and left out of things simply because people can’t comprehend what they are going through or how they feel. Sometimes jokingly calling a friend “ugly” or “fat” can mean a lot more than what you think of it. I really want to reach out to people regarding this subject because social anxiety and depression are both things I struggle with and also something people should be more aware about. This is significant because others don’t realize how much the things they do or say affect others. It is important for people to know this because this has ruined people’s lives.

   Sydney , Morgan , Siani and Ryan

Hola! Bienvenidos a SLA. Mi grupo es Morgan, Ryan, Siani, y yo Sydney. SLA es situado en cincuenta y cinco norte veinte de calle. Es muy divertida, diferente, y muy seria. Hay quinientos estudiantes,veinte profesores, y cinco pisos. Tenemos la computadoras, batas de laboratorio. Ofrecemos baseball, fútbol, softbol, pista, disco volador, baloncesto. Ryan participó en disco volador. Está cerca de Siete Once, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Pete’s Pizza, Wawa..

Estos son nuestros clases.Tenemos Inglés,Bio Química, Español, Historia, Tecnología, Matemáticas.Me gusta Español y Inglés y Bioquímica porque es divertido en todas las clases. En español nosotros participamos activamente. Nosotros cantamos canciones y aprender Español. En Bioquímica nosotros hacer experimentos y aprender biología y química en mismo clase. En todas clases nosotros usó la pluma/el bolígrafo, la hoja de papel. En español nosotros uso la computadora, la carpeta. En matemáticas nosotros uso la calculadora a veces la computadora. Para tener éxito en Español tenemos que necesita sellos. Para tener éxito en Inglés y Bioquímica nosotros trabajamos duro.

            ¡Los profesores de SLA son cheveres! Mis profesores son la Srta. Manuel (la profesora de español), el Sr. Kay (el profesor de inglés), el Sr. Block (el profesor de historia), el Sr. Diamond (el profesor de música), y la Srta. Sessa (la profesora de Bioquímica). Me encanta la Srta. Manuel y su clase porque es divertida. Siempre trabajamos duro. el Sr. Kay es cómico, el Sr. Diamond es divertida, y él es artístico, la Sra. Manuel es divertida, y inteligente,la Srta. Sessa es cómica y inteligente, el Sr. Block es mi segundo favorito,  la Srta. Manuel es mi primer profesora, y la srta. Sessa es my tercera favorito. la Srta. Sessas clase es divertida, y el Sr. Blocks Clase es muy divertido. la srta. Sessa es muy tranquila, y la Srta. Manuel enseña muy bien. Nuestros educación es la mejor.

           SLA es lugar mi especial para mi porque tiene varias cosas especiales que mí gustan , como la diversion de los profesores /cursos y deportes de spouses de clases actividad .En principio yo era escrito acerca de venir a sla porque de todos la proyectos y el trabajamos duro,pero hice claramente la decisión ,pero hice claramente la decisión correcta al venir aquí me encanta cada dia aqui .Mi parte favorita de SLA es instructor por rojo y anaranjado Inglés ,Senora Ginkis porque ella es mi favorita profesor porqué de su personalidad y creatividad .