Revamp

Basically banking is the thought in which the student and teacher relationship is where the student is an empty subject and the teacher is supposed to "fill" the student with information. Freire attacks this by saying it limits the students capacity on a creative level because they are being "fed" all the information and don't have to reach out, grab, and try to learn the information for themselves. I think all of my schooling was pretty much that way. They fed me the information and I learned it, but then after the test was over it was all gone. Never to really be used again. And unless I had fun learning it or had something memorable happen while learning it, I forgot it forever. The teacher's that made learning fun and immpressionable made the biggest impact on my actual rememberance and creativity. I think church is also think church is like that too. We are fed the sunday school answers and never deal with any real problems until we're in the real world. But by then it's too late and we don't have any experience and don't have the anwers. We either think and work thru them, or fade away from the faith. The problem is revamping how you teach. And finding the teachers that can do that effectively. If you could do that, and teach it in a way that makes the student think constantly and not once every month. Then you have just succeeded in changing education for the better.

Mediocrity

The system as it currently is, most people would agree is flawed. Many people suffer in this system while many people are held back when they could learn more. The "no child left behind" strategy has helped others less fortunate. But at the same time doesn't let the brightest progress as fast as they would like and some would say need to, to compete with other nations. I'm not saying you should study crazy all the time like other countries but we as Americans do the bare minimum necessary to get by and get it done so we can play and do things we like. I know I do. If somehow we could implement a system that changes that culture and makes us strive for excellence while still promoting the creativity that Americans are known for it would be ideal. We don't want to create a bunch of math and science robots that can memorize entire books but can't think for themselves. I don't know what I would change, but I would encourage rewarding actual skill over just getting little things done. It wouldn't be a very politically correct system but I think it would have the most gains intellectually. Rewarding people for actually doing a good job, make school a competition. Don't publically embarrass those who lose but make it known who wins. And reward them accordingly. We pass mediocrity off as excellence, especially in high school. It is so ridiculously easy to skate by, that's why I'm having a tough time in college, what is studying? It's a new concept that I've never had to do. What is this? Actual learning? Nonsense, I'll just get in good with my teacher and get an "A".

Easy Going

I was in work study working manual labor in grounds crew. Living the life of a poor college kid doing work for minimum wage. When suddenly I meet this dude named Champion. Carter Champion actually. And him and I were emptying out the back of a trailer full of dirt and rocks when we started talking about the subject that brings 18 year guys together: women. There was a girl there so we started talking to her about what girls like and what not. What they like on dates, simple complex, what qualities do they like in guys etc. So that went well cause we both like girls a lot. Then two days later we started talking about sports, and we both played sports in high school and were talking about college football and the NFL. Great stuff, I really wasn't nervous about talking to him cause it was just stuff I was comfortable talking about. Then the next time we had work study we started talking about video games. Now I'm not much a gamer but I played a lot of gamecube and xbox back in my day. And Carter and I learned that we literally played the same games growing up. You name any game I played and he played it too! NFL street, Battlefront, Galactic Battlegrounds, Smash Bros., Backyard Football, Blitz, and any star wars game you could think of we played. It was cool and we got some lunch and drove around and it was chill. I'm glad I got a new friend.

Me

What makes me feel and dream is my friends and family. I love my friends and family with a passion. Especially my younger bro. He's the coolest kid in the world and always will be to me. We share the same sense of humor and same joy of life. He's my best friend in a way because we're so close. What I want to do in life is become a pediatrician. I've always kinda wanted to become a doctor like a lot of people but I specially want to work with kids because of two things. One: Kids simply get better. Adults are just dying. You typically won't have to deal with a sickness that is deteriorating your body in a kid. Also if a kid's sick, it's not his fault. Adults have all sorts of heart problems and come to the doctor wondering why they've been cursed but in reality no one's to blame but the diet of fried chicken and ice cream everyday for the past 30 years. The other reason is that you're a teacher too. You're teaching parents how to raise their kids healthily that also can benefit themselves as well. I worked at camp Barnabas, which is a camp that helps give mentally or physically handicapped people a camp experience. I grew close to those people and you can always feel God working through you while showing love to these campers. I also shadowed a pediatrician and I definitely feel like that could be me.

Speaking

There are many different situations in which we feel uncomfortable or inadequate to perform. The classroom, speaking in front of people, our crush, our professors, these are all examples of circumstances where we can get nervous and breakdown. Sometimes literally. I think the best way to deal with these situations is to practice your speech (if you are giving a speech or presentation or whatever) in front of your friends and know what you're saying. If you are kind of BSing your way through something like quantum mechanics and don't know what you're talking about; there's a good chance you'll get messed up by question someone asks and stumble around for the answer until the teacher saves you. KNOW your subject matter like it's your child and be comfortable about talking about in conversation and presenting it. In the classroom you could get nervous because you feel your answers are inadequate, or they're a "dumb" answer. This may be true. There is a such thing as a dumb answer. Don't get cute with your response, just lay down what you think the answer is and if you're wrong you're wrong, at least you tried. If you don't know, don't speak. Crushes are tricky because you wanna have that right mix of being funny but you still want them to take you serious. I can't really tell you what the right mix is because it's different for every relationship and girl. Just don't be absolutely ridiculous and stay within the golden mean. Don't sway too far into ludicrousness or be a homeschooled freak and you should be good. Profs are interesting because I'm just a freshman. Some like to joke around while some take professionalism very seriously. Once again it just depends on each area.

Success is Unique

Well we talked about this in class and we kind of came to the consensus that works can become your God. For some reason or another you can become addicted to helping people and help people for the wrong reasons. You could do it to appear as a very Godly person in front of other people and you could also do it just because that's the image you've built up for yourself so to let it down now would be a major disappointment for you and all those around you.

The most successful person I know is one of my favorite people in the world. He's my idol and everything he does it amazing to me. He's hilarious, but studious. He works hard but knows when and how to enjoy himself. He does what he loves and left his job with no opportunities calling him because he felt Jesus calling him somewhere else. He is successful because He's doing what the Lord has called him to be. How can you get any more successful than that? He's fiery and sometimes too intense, but that type of person is always needed. He's a leader and he's my hero. I'll try to follow in his footsteps of listening and being patient with God.

Change is Gonna Come

Change is the most inevitable thing in this universe. Everything changes, ages, personalities, lifestyles, hair, height, everything. I'm not a person of change really. I say that, but I thrive on change that I have control over. I moved in the middle of my freshman year to a new city with no friends or anyone that I knew under the age of 50. I don't like that kind of change. I like growing up, I enjoy the responsibilities that accompany that. It's interesting everyday nothing new really happens. You go to the same classes, hang out with the same friends, eat the same food. And yet each year is distinctly different then all others before it. I could tell you how I've grown in all different areas from last year and the year before that. But I couldn't do that about yesterday to today. Why does nothing happen or change from yesterday or a week later but a month or a year you could be a completely different person. I think it's because life happens fast. You get into a rut and then life throws you a curveball and you get wobbly knees and swing for the fences, but the balls already dropped. And that's when you grow. When you fail. You realize what you did wrong and don't do it again, you don't get tricked and don't make the same mistake again. I've grown immensely over the past year and especially the past two months. I went to Austria for five weeks for the last month of summer and it was by far the best five weeks of my life. I've never grown so much physically and spiritually in so little a time. I could talk about it for a long time but I've already way surpassed by 250 limit. Ask me about it sometime. But basically it was hiking and camping on the Swiss Alps.

Life as a Movie

Driving my girlfriend back to her house after Frisbee was a typical Sunday afternoon thing. It had been a great day of worshipping and then throwing the disc around. She lived far away so it was always a nice time to talk and recap the week. Taking country roads and exploring paths that just had gravel at my whim. We listened to Black Eyed Peas and then I see a big Toyota 4runner inch forward. She couldn’t be coming could she? She was at a two way stop and I was coming down the normal road. Sure enough the 4runner irks forward and I slam on the brakes are hard as I can. I hear my brake pads screeching instantly when they come in contact with the tires but it's no use and my tiny Toyota Corolla slams head first into her passenger side back right tire causing her massive 4runner to pop up and roll over my hood instantly crushing my engine and making the passenger door impossible to open. I look right and the car does another flip and a 180 degree turn while landing in a ditch. I make sure my girlfriend is ok then I run to her car. Glass is all over the ground because of the flip. I tread carefully but quickly to her and ask if she's all right. She's visibly shaken from the crash and I ask her some questions to make sure she's ok and tell her to turn her car off. She does this and we wait for the police and firemen to come to help her out.

Memories are made from experiences from memorable people and events. This experience stands out because I was carless for a few months. It was also traumatic to the lady in the 4runner.

Why would this happen to me? The odds would have to be perfect for this to happen.

Why do drivers get so distracted by insignificant things when they're piloting 3000 pound killing machines?