What If? I were an English Teacher

Well, first off, I wouldn't have punctuated the title as I just did. Buuuuuut the prompt said to do it like that, so I did.

If I were an English teacher, I wouldn't keep doing the same thing every day in class as we've been doing for the past few weeks. Honestly, it's boring as hell. I'm tired of doing Do You Mind??!!, then a TED speech or two, then Consilience. It's been this way for far too freakin' long.

If I were an English teacher, I would keep doing the Do You Mind??!! questions; I like these. They make people think about things they might normally not or at least get them to reflect on these things and put them into words. I think that's cool.

If I were an English teacher, I would have had my students read Consilience on their own, then have them discuss what they read. After that, I would go over it in class and try to give them ways to better annotate and recognize patterns and whatnot. I would probably do this over the course of two to three days max. However long we've been doing this has been too long and make for one boring ass class.

If I were an English teacher, I wouldn't make them (the students) give a speech about some TED presenter that they'd already written a speech about in the previous quarter. I understand the public speaking thing that Senor Allen is trying to achieve, but I wouldn't have them give a speech on THAT. I would have my students give a speech on their high school career, where they began, where they are now, and where they want to be as a person and as a functioning member of society.

If I were an English teacher, I would want to have my students be as open and as honest about their lives as they could. I'm tired of this bull shit where people don't talk about personal things, because it's not "cool" to be open with your emotions and ideas in public. It's dumb. I see the main reason for people not being open is that they're afraid of being judged by others. That's dumb.

I don't know why I decide to do these blogs when I'm tired. They all suck when I do this. Oh well; it's almost over.

                                                                                                                                    - Seacrest Out

An Inconvenient Truth: Osama bin Laden

OH THANK THE FRIGGIN' LORD HE'S DEAD! AMERICA'S PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED!!!

That's only a slight exaggeration of what America's reaction to bin Laden's death has been. Unfortunately, we're all dumb. The media built this up to be a huge turning point in our history, and that's simply not true. It took us nearly eleven years after 9/11 to find him, and now that he's dead, nothing's changed.

The problem was never Osama bin Laden or even Al Queda. The problem is our obsession with the Middle East. We get too hyped up on solving the world's problems when they don't want us to. Let us not forget that America supported the coup that eventually led to Saddam Hussein becoming the leader of Iraq.

Here's a website that shows a timeline of what America's been doing in the Middle East and I will leave that there for the time being:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6308.htm

Now, the problem is that we've been intervening in the Middle East for far too long, and it's pissed a lot of people off. Al Qaeda has grown larger than we know. In fact, Al Qaeda is not just a term for a specific group. It has grown so large, that it encompasses nearly every member or act against the West. It's not just bin Laden anymore. Yes, he may have orchestrated 9/11, but in past years he had become less and less of a prominent member of Al Qaeda. He became a symbol.

Now that we've killed that symbol, and we're still in the Middle East, and we're blaming Pakistan for sheltering him, we've made it even worse on ourselves.

Until we withdraw, which will be a lengthy process, terrorism will be a constant threat.

Sorry if this blog sucks; I'm tired.


                                                                                                                                - Seacrest Out