Senior Picture

This week seniors took our class picture. I don't see the point of taking the picture. In theory, it is a nice idea to have a picture of everybody in your graduating class. However, the size of our class diminishes the quality of the photo. We are all going to look like ants, because there are over one thousand of us. It is impossible to get a picture in which everybody looks good. There will always be a number of people who won't have been paying attention because they were talking. There will be a number of people who think they are original and clever by giving the camera the finger.
The purpose of this picture is to be able to look back on who you went to school with when you are older. I would rather just look in the yearbook at people's individual pictures.

Tuesday with Morrie/dependence

Americans view being dependent as a weakness. A dependent person cannot provide or take care of themselves, and they are seen as weak. Going off to college is important and life changing, because it is the first time young people have to be independent. This is part of the reason teens both look forward to and fear college. They want to be on their own and make their own decisions. However, they are in charge of taking care of themselves.
The American value of individualism plays into this. We want to be independent and be able to everything ourselves. I personally am very dependent on other people due to my visual impairment. I meet with a vision inteneriant during my free periods and she reads tests and some of my homework t0 me. I sometimes have to have my mom read my homework to me. When I am alone in an unfamiliar place, I have to depend on the help of strangers. It definitely bothers me that I am so dependent. I wish I could do my homework completely on my own. I feel so helpless when I have to ask strangers for help. I sometimes feel line a burden to my friends, because they have to lead me around when we go out. I know they don't mind doing it, but I wish I could be more independent.

Boy Scouts

This weekend, one of my family friends was receiving his Eagle Scout award for Boy Scouts. This is the highest honor a boy scout can achieve. I was not looking forward to attending. Before I went, I was joking with my friends about the fact that an almost 18 year old was still in Boy Scouts. But what I found was that a lot of boys in that community were still involved in scouting throughout high school. My family friends live in a Christian based, sort of old fashioned neighborhood. They still have a town square that includes a church. The seem to have a very different sub-culture than the one I belong to. Around here, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts is done in elementary school and that's it. But in their community people really commit to it. My family friends also have two daughters in high school and they are both still Girl Scouts. I was a Girl Scout up until I was ten years old and then it became boring.
Our sub-culture is much more focused on technology. My friends can't go a day without texting and checking their facebooks. My family friends are much more community oriented. They are heavily involved in their church and scouting. None of the 3 kids have a facebook and the two daughters have to share a cell phone.

Sub-culture

I found today's discussion about the sub-culture very interesting especially what was said about Mores and Folkways. I mentioned that graduating is a More, but Sal pointed out that Stevenson takes it up a step with going to college. Our graduation rate is high , and our rate of going to college is almost as high. It is considered underachieving if somebody goes to community college. CLC is know as college of last chances. At another high school, going to a community college would be respectable. Our sub-culture can be identified by our competitive nature. The school pushes us to take AP classes and apply to highly rated four year colleges.
I was also interested in how someone said what used to be mores are now folkways. For example, cheating used to be taboo. Cheating is expected now. Personally, if I didn't copy some homework, I would never finish all my homework. Teachers assign so much unnecessary busy work. I know there was an article in the school newspaper about cheating. the teachers believed students didn't turn each other in because they were afraid to. The real reason students don't turn each other in is because everybody does it.