Kate's American Studies

WELCOME TO THE NORTH SHORE CAN WE TAKE YOUR MONEY?

2010-01-09T20:40:00.002-06:00

At my high school there are 4,201 students. I am lucky enough to live in a suburb north of Chicago and to top it off on a windy day you can hear the distant waves (a block away) from my school. I'm not here to tell you about how wonderful my high school is. I'm here to discuss the growing financial problem that hasn't even made a dent in my classmates minds. Like any high school there are trends but my high school is a little different and by a little I mean that the average girl spends around 2,000 dollars a year on clothes per season. That's not including special items such as prom dresses or graduation dresses those are around 1,000 together. UGG's those hideous shoes that celebrates wear when they pretend that LA is cold yes we wear those. Every shoe that they have are over $110 and there are around 600 girls that wear at least one pair to school thats over $66,000 just for shoes. Then we go to outfits cause heaven forbid you wear the same outfit twice in the same week! One pair of Silver jeans on sale can be around $20 but thats just one day and you cant wear jeans every day so you can wear a pair of Hard Tails which around 65 bucks for a nice pair. Then you have the shirts that each advisory makes which are personalized and collectors items in their own right. They cost around $25 if your making a shirt if your making a sweatshirt its $30. I am not saying I don't own these things because I do. I actually own all of it but what I am saying is that it is ridiculous how much we spend if you really think about it. I'm going to college next year, I can't afford these things any more and I'm getting a scholarship.

If your looking to live on the north shore I would absolutely do it because its beautiful and has a quaint small shopping districts but you can still go to the mall and depending on where you live you could be as close as 15 minutes away from the heart of the city. The schools are phenomenal, but if you have girls make sure that you can afford to either have them be mocked because they are a little different or pay up for them to get the clothes that they want. I used to be a little different my freshman year I had three friends and thats because a girl hated me and did every thing in her power to make me look bad. I changed myself to be more like the girls I go to school with and those girls that we all try to copy they don't even know what they want. It took me four years to be okay with what I wear but that doesn't change ones self esteem.

Dog Training For Dummies

2009-07-21T11:21:00.002-05:00

So over Father's day weekend my family rescued a corgi mix puppy. From that day on she has ripped my summer reading book, chewed my power cord for my laptop. Today we took her to her first day of doggie training camp. Seeing as the puppy sleeps on my bed and spends the most time with me my mom thought it would be a good idea that I come along. So now I am working on sitting and staying and teaching her how to walk properly. I feel like this training is more to train me how a huge softy I am. I have attempted to do the sit stay on my own but I spin around her twice and she just looks up to me and I cant help but pick her up and play with her.

Finnal blog post of the year

2009-06-01T11:11:00.003-05:00

I see:

A brick cell phone

A black and white screen phone

A color phoneI see one flip phone

I think:

That America is becoming more reliant on technology

That as technology develops the American culture is progressing to the point where information is becoming too available

We as nations are becoming less interpersonal

I wonder:

What caused this short evolution of technology?

What was the time frame of this evolution?

What was going on in American culture that caused this change in technology?

This relates to our classes use of interactive technology. Earlyer in the semesters we disscused how technology has taken over our lives as teenagers. An anamerican studies blog that inspired me to write this.

New Trier Beer Scandle

2009-05-28T21:08:00.002-05:00

Around ten minutes ago my father called me into his office to show me a news story about the New Trier High School year book. The news story was about a student photographed with a beer can in her hand. The picture was snuck into the yearbook last minutes unfortunately that was a huge mistake. I have known both the girls in the photo since the 5th grade. I am going to be perfectly honest and say that its not the first time I have seen these girls with beer in their presence. I find it funny that the school is not doing a good job of covering up the incident from the press. New Trier as a school is usually propped up to this high pedicle. Personally I do not drink but I do have friends that do. I really don't have a problem with it as long as it doesn't effect me. The administration can not pretend that drinking does not happen. Earlier in the year a house three blocks away from mine was broken into by a classmate of mine and they started throwing parties there. The students were punished and that was the end of it. I don't know why the administration cares more about this issue of a beer can showing up in the year book more than a home being broken into. I think that no matter what they say to protect these girls from the ramifications of this picture people will always be able to find it.

Showing a different sort of Pride

2009-05-27T13:49:00.004-05:00

While driving my little sister home from Karate I drove past this red Ford pickup. As I stopped at the stop sign conveniently placed right across from it I saw the stickers on its window. In an attempt to be stealth I quickly parked my car took out my phone and snapped this pick then quickly speed off. I thought it was a once in a lifetime chance to find a country car with a confederate flag on it in the middle of Winnetka. I now have remorse for leaving in a huff because now I wish I could see the owner to see if the car matches the person.

The Great Gatsby chapter one SPOILER ALERT

2009-05-14T19:19:00.003-05:00

SPOILER ALERT

After reading the first chapter of the Great Gatsby I found my self having a hard time picturing the life of Tom and Daisy. Living in a richer neighbor hood I still can't reach my head around all the white and superiority of the upper class portrayed in the book. When I was informed about the movie by an AIS classmate I knew it would help me better understand what one persons interpretation of life for the characters was like.

Flag out with the Garbage

2009-05-09T10:37:00.004-05:00

For our assignment I took a lot pictures. The one that stuck out the most for me was the first picture I took. The picture was of how my family uses our American flag. We only really put our flag out on fourth of July and memorial day. Though we have family Friends that are in the military we as a family do not really show our pride for our country. The placement of the flag next to the garbage is not staged but actually how we use our flag. It goes out when it has to just like the garbage.

This is why I chose my topic

2009-05-02T10:42:00.001-05:00

Death by transition

2009-04-24T09:36:00.003-05:00

Currently I am working on the transitions in my paper. I have so many good ideas of how I want my paper to sound it is hard to put them down on paper. I have to find a way to bridge the military's use of performance enhancing drugs to civilians to high performance athletes to teenage athletes and then to teenagers.

jr Theme intro

2009-04-21T09:46:00.000-05:00

“When I went upstairs and I found him, and it was like, a mothers nightmare.”(http://www.connectwithkids.com/tipsheet/2004/188_aug04/ster.html) Gwen Hooton found her 17 year old son Taylor Hooton hanging from his bedroom door with a belt around his neck. Taylor was only 15 years old he started taking steroids. During his withdrawal from steroids he decided to take his own life. Suicide or thoughts of suicide is only one effect of steroid withdrawal. Steroid abuse among teenagers has become more common due to body image issues and the accessibility to the drug.

I really don't know how to finnish this please help.

Conducting an Interview

2009-04-15T10:01:00.002-05:00

The Taylor Hooton foundation was started after the suicid of Taylor Hooton. I am interviewing the vice president of the foundation. Today I going over my interview questions and I realized how hard it was to ask questions that I could use in my paper when I don't even know what direction I want to write my paper. After this interview I am going to conduct my future interviews.

Altering my topic

2009-04-10T18:59:00.002-05:00

This week i changed my topic a little bit. My original topic was why dose professional baseball care more about steroids than any other sport. I changed the topic to why do some high school athletes take steroids. The main reason I changed my topic was because I am really not interested in baseball at all. I really don't get why it is americas past time no offense to anyone who is a huge baseball fan or plays baseball I just don't get it sorry.

Finding the perfect quote

2009-04-03T09:42:00.003-05:00

While reading my Jr theme books I was having difficulies findings quotes that work with my subject. None of the books in the library seemed large enough to provide me with information. The one book I was really looking forward to reading that could provide me with a lot of information was the one book that we couldn't find. Other than that I am finding Jr theme to be tough but enjoyable.

Starving to be elite

2009-03-08T22:48:00.003-05:00

Today I walked into my living room and my little sister exclaims Shawn Johnson put on some pounds. I asked her what she was talking about and she showed me a picture. Shawn looked no different than she did in the Olympics she look muscular and strong the only difference is that she is she was standing next to Jewel who has to have a negative 1 waist. Body weight is a major issue around athletic females, the pressure of staying fit and toned is a hard thing to endure. I have seen girls first hand purposely not eat or throwing up what they eat to stay in shape for their sports. The main female sport that may lead to a eating disorder is gymnastics. I just feel bad for the girls who put themselves in a environment that stresses over weight.

Incentives leading to STRESS!!

2009-03-03T23:28:00.004-06:00

For the past four days I have not been going to bed until around 1 o-clock in the morning. School work, volleyball and stress have kept me from sleeping. I know it is a proven fact that kids work better in school when the get a longer period of sleep. But there is no way I can get my life back to the complete order it used to be and still get sleep. Especially in AIS I have let my constant stress and sleepless nights get to me. I can't seem to finish a any of my assignments on time and I know that if I don't step it up there will be a lot of things I will have to give up on. I have been lead by incentives my entire life, I love having a challenge but lately the Incentives have been getting larger. One incentive that has truly taken over my life is the incentive of college. The school of my dreams is a tough school to get into because of its academic prowess. The only problem is my GPA is to low currently to even get me on the waiting list. I don't want to give up any thing to help me achieve this goal of higher education but maybe it's time to slow down a little.

Gaza up in Flames

2009-02-18T08:04:00.006-06:00

I didn't really know about the fighting in Gaza until last night when I turned on the news and saw horrific pictures of the devastation. Living in the town I do some times I feel like I am in an untouchable bubble and I know other kids feel the same way. But when I went to school this morrning it seemed as if no one cared about the fighting in Gaza. On the other hand if you asked them who got kicked off American Idol or what happened on Scrubs they would be able to give you a play by play. Recently there have been a lot of kids I know going onto a web site entitled FML. This web site is surrounded around stories of people who think there lives stink. I have a new post for them yesterday my house got blown up by Israeli bombers FML!

My One Night Stand with Mark Twain

2009-02-15T21:44:00.001-06:00

I spent one night in Hannibal Missouri over this week end. While walking around the town I took a lot of pictures and read about Mark Twain and his famous counter parts Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Since our class is reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I really focused my time in Hannibal on that characters journey. The entire trip around took 2 hours when they say small town they mean small town. Since its winter time the Mississippi river ferry, that almost parallels Huck and Jim's adventures on the river, was closed down. But I didn't let that stop me. I traveled to the top of Lovers leap a hill that over looks over all of Hannibal and Jackson's Island. Other than Jackson's island there is nothing that really represents the characters of Huck and Jim. I went to the Huck Finn house which is based off the house that Tom Blankenship lived in. He was the inspiration for Huckleberry Finn. Though the character of Huckleberry Finn never really lived in house. I stayed at the Garth Woodside Mansion, which was the highlight of the entire trip. If you don't believe how lonelily Hannibal is just check out there live footage of down town Hannibal which consists of three blocks.

Is the Naked Cowboy a Cowboy?

2009-02-07T21:16:00.007-06:00

The self proclaimed "Naked Cowboy" Is notorious for walking the streets of New York in just his tighty whites and a guitar. During class we classified what a mythological cowboy was to us. In our mythologies naked was not even mentioned. The Naked Cowboy has got the boots and hat and guitar that people identify a cowboy with, but none of those things were described by our class. According to our class. He does fit the criteria of being Unkempt, White, and the ladies love him so I am guessing he is heterosexual. But what makes him a cowboy? I do not see any cattle for him to wangle and where is his big horse? So what about this "urban cowboy" makes him a cowboy? I do have to admit it is pretty courageous to walk around the big apple in your under wear!

The New Trier Myth

2009-01-28T22:53:00.001-06:00

With the Evanston game swiftly approaching there has been a lot of smack talk being thrown around my volleyball team. My team is made up of 4 Evanston girls and 8 New Trier girls. The things that the girls from Evanston say are often jabs at the population of New Trier and how we are not a divers school at all. Usually we as New Trier students are typecast as preppy overachievers or that we are filthy rich and do not do any thing because we have people to do it for us. This is so not true (well at least I don't think it is). The comments about how rich and up tight we are usually come when there is an athletic event going on. The first time I had witnessed this mythology of the New Trier high school experience was during freshman year when at a sporting event, I over hear some kid from the other school say "This is where they get there Helicopters flown into and in the other court yard that's where there Limo drivers go to drop the off." OK this kid was hyping up the myth to the extremes but he isn't the only one thinking this. I think it's New Triers tendency to have a superiority complex about it that causes kid and some adults to get caught up in the New Trier myth.

Grandma's got Facebook

2009-01-20T19:09:00.004-06:00

Two days ago I signed onto my facebook and saw that I had a pending freind request as I opened it I had no idea that the person requesting my freindship was my 70 year old Grandma. Other than being compleatly creeped out I was confused by how she even got a Facebook. She does not have a network that she belongs to and it is all a little weird. I don't understand why older people want to use facebook anyway.

What are you comfortable with?

2009-01-09T17:02:00.013-06:00

What makes a person comfortable? Is it the people they are around or the place where they are. Between the two men bellow which one do you think is the safest?

This one ........................ Or This?

If you said the young man on the left maybe you should learn a little bit more about him

This is the young man on the left currently. His name is Denis Radar better known as the BTK killer. He has killed 12 people . Radar picked his victims and would get him self close to them on a level that made his victims feel comfortable with him around. Then he would attack them.To learn more about BTK click here for a video.

So what about him so comforting to people? Why did people not call the cops when he walked down a street? What is the difference between him and the black rapper next to him? I think maybe it is that the rapper on the right (50 cent) looks stronger and has a gun right in your face. Or is it the fact that he is black? Could we only be comforable around our own race. Lets look at this again but with two different guys.

Which one are you more comfortable with?

Bad Boy with a Good Friend

2008-12-16T19:49:00.003-06:00

What should you do if you don't like your friends new guy/girl? This is the question I am facing. My friend has decided to go out with a guy I know is not the best guy. This guy went out with two friends of mine at the same time. He cheated on one by telling the other that he had broken up with the other. I don't want another one of my friends to be hurt by this guy but I have to trust and support my friend in her decision and I want her to be happy but how do I tell her that her new guy is bad news without her getting upset?

All I want for Christmas...

2008-12-07T13:24:00.003-06:00

Remember when we were little and we used to write a list of every thing we want. Why can't we still do that? I am currently on the hunt for great Christmas gifts for the people I care about and it seems almost impossible to find the right thing. This is my first Christmas where I have the money to actually buy some nice (small) gifts for everyone. I was shopping on Black Friday (like every other person in America) with a friend of mine and we were talking about what we wanted. I asked her what I should get her and she said "Oh I am easy to shop for." that comment made me think how well do we really know each other? What do the Christmas gifts we receive say about the person giving it to you? I don't want to get her a "safe gift" like a necklace or a bracelet cause the only jewelry that I can buy is from Target, so the gift is just showing the person hey here is a Hannah Montana watch, I thought you would like that I picked up like two seconds ago. Then there are my parents I have no idea what to get them that says hey love you thanks for that food, shelter and paying for all my expenses. So I have been listening very carefully for a couple of months now and I think I know exactly what they want. My dad is the easiest he wants nothing more than for me to utilize my ability's and develop as a kind human being. My mom on the other hand has been complaining about this popover pan for the passed year so I found one that is absolutely perfect. But it still does not feel like enough. So I guess my question is how do you know what the right amount of something to show you appreciation?

Traped in Mubai

2008-11-27T13:00:00.006-06:00

A couple of days ago Mumbai was attacked by terrorists and my cousin and her fiancee currently live in a hotel in Mumbai. After avoiding the news I decide to read the news for myself, that was bad idea. Terrorist have been attacking hotels across Mumbai. They are currently on lockdown in there hotel.
My cousin and her fiancee are leaving soon but this enter ordeal made me think about the last presentation on The War on Terror. The world if filled with terror there is no way to stop it all. Instead of us looking like knights in shining arrmor we look like terrorist our selves. Our Government is so wraped up that I wish that they would care less about stoping terror in other contries and care more about the safety of it's citizens in other places and the way we look to other contries.

At a Clothing Impasse

2008-11-22T12:43:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I was hanging out with a couple of Friends of mine. We stoped into a clothing store to help me look for a dress for my cousins wedding. Her wedding isn't until January 24Th but it helps to look now before the holiday season starts up and the prices jump. any way as we were looking around it seemed that every thing in the store was either to conservative or to risky. At that point I realized I have absolutely no idea what to wear to her wedding. I cant wear anything short because it will be in the dead of winter but I cant wear anything to long because the place where the wedding dinner is being held is going to be hot. Then there is the fact that I can't where heals because it will make me look like a giant among my moms side of the family. So currently I am at a impasse.

Whats your sign say about you?

2008-11-12T13:53:00.002-06:00

I was working on a PowerPoint for my Geo science class about horoscopes and constellations when I realized how true horoscopes are. OK I know that sounds funny how could horoscopes be completely accurate about one person not everybody under this sign is the same. Well it turns out where your horoscope is located can differentiate people and there signs. I don't think that horoscopes can tell your future or who you will fall in love with but when it comes to categorizing people they are pretty accurate.

First Obama next the summer Olympics!

2008-11-05T13:26:00.005-06:00

Last Night Chicago hosted Obama's gigantic election rally. As I was watching the swarm of people cheering without any fights and I got a sense of community. The crowd was interracial and crossed all age groups. Last night I saw the potential of greatness if Chicago wins the Olympic bid.

As a citizen of Chicago and some one who has been participating in the USA volleyball system for the past three year I know what it would mean a lot to the city of Chicago. Now I know most definitely will not be playing in the 2016 Olympics but I want to be able to see it in my home town. But some people don't think that Chicago deserves the Olympics and I would love to know why! WHY NOT?

Public or Privet

2008-11-01T16:57:00.005-05:00

Like Miles Wednesday I was walking with my friend to her bus I was offered a bible by a man, I declined the offer yet another man about two feet away from the first man put the book into my hand without even asking me or my friend and then the third man told me to go to page 166 where I read the passage about how god created every thing including man. This upset me because one I am half Jewish and I had just gotten out of Geosciences class where we learned that we evolved from vertebra fish. I walked my friend to her bus we decided that we were going to highlight the passage and give it back to the guy. So as I walked back to school to wait till school ended to go to Foster reading I highlighted the passage and handed it back to him and said “ I would like to return this because it is contradicting my education.” Then I went inside and talked to the junior adviser chair about the guys handing out bibles and she told me that they handed out bibles once a year and that they knew about it. They told me to talk to the principle Timothy A Dohrer. He was in a meeting but I talked to his secretary as I was talking to her I asked a question that she and no one else had a response to. My question was “Why can they hand out the bible on the side walk but kids can not smoke on it. Now I don’t smoke and I don’t think any one should, but why is the side walk public to some people and not for others.

McCain Obama / Obama McCain will this election ever be over!

2008-10-23T13:33:00.004-05:00

In a few weeks from now we will have a new president and the race is so closes I just want to know who it will be. No matter who wins it will be a historical election. If Obama wins he will be our first African American president, if McCain wins he will be our oldest president ever. Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden are the democratic Representatives other wise known as the blue party or the donkey.

Then there is John McCain and the first ever female vice president running mate, Sarah Palin they are the Republican party or the red party or the elephant. at the risk of sounding like P-Diddy Vote or Die!

Screaming mad superfans

2008-10-20T21:30:00.004-05:00

Today I was coaching my girls Jv volleyball team for our first Jv tournament. If we had won today we would have played tomorrow, unfortunately we lost but the thing that made the loss so painful for my girls was the fact that during each of there serves a man in the stands would scream " Serve it into the net!!". It was a really close match we were winning by five in the last game when he started to scream. We ended up losing by two points in the third game. After the high fives my girls told me what he had said, the first thought in my mind was how dare he do something so inappropriate and unacceptable. I wanted to slap him but instead it told my girls I would handle it. I first waited for him to come down stairs and I called him aside calmly and and told him that it was completely inappropriate and reminded him that these were 6th and 7th grade girls and that his team has around 21 girls where as my team has only 6 girls. While I was talking to him he said " I have not idea what your talking about" and I was ready to explode but instead I told him that he was out of line for screaming "Serve it into the net!" as soon as I said those words his face went blank and he said he was sorry. But the way he said it gave the impression on I don't give a shit what you think so I went over to the person who was running the tournament and let him handle the man just so no other girls have to go through what my girls went through.

Politics and parenthood

2008-10-18T19:18:00.008-05:00

This week while I was watching the presidential debate I noticed how much I was criticizing the other candidate. I am an Obama supporter but I noticed that no matter what McCain said I disagreed with it. During the debate I noticed that with ever negative thing I was saying about John McCain my mom agreed with me.
Think about every household in America what does the relationship between the parent and the child have to do with there political views. My family likes to discuss what we think and share our views and for the most we all agree. So if we moved to some place like Texas I would meet people who were raised to think the opposite of how I was raised. There are people in America who have grew up resenting there parents they would probably vote for the opposite party of there parents. Its the "Family Ties" relationship. What if we were all raised by people who believed in a autocrat society, we would have a few people opposing the new dictatorship but I think that overall we would not object it. I guess my question is Do we believe what we believe because we were raised to?

Breaking the Bank

2008-10-13T15:12:00.003-05:00

I have never really paid attention to how much I spend on everything until I started paying for gas and everything else I use. I have a steady babysitting job with a really sweet family but some how all the money I make is gone with in the next week. I need a way to save money while still spending money on things like gas and food. Any suggestions on how to do that?

27 years from now

2008-10-05T16:14:00.005-05:00

This weekend my parents had there 25Th New Trier high school reunion. My parents sound like the quintessential high school kids. My mom was a dancer, pretty and smart where as my dad was a starter on the football team that got second in state. They started dating in there senior year so I guess you could call them high school sweet hearts. So when they came home from there reunion I couldn't believe that I could ever get that old. I know 43 isn't that old but when I looked at my life from where I'm at right now it seams like I wont even survive junior year. Things for me for me could not be going any slower right now. I have a billion things going on, I coach girls volleyball as well as play it, I am baby sitting right after school for at least two hours a day, and I am in my schools social service group where we read to under privileged kids. But even with all my activities I still watch the clock tick ever so slowly. When I talk to people they always say make the most of your high school experience. But personally I cant wait till its over!

Playing Palin

2008-10-01T13:45:00.016-05:00

Since Jon McCain has chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate we have seen a rise in political humor. Tina Fay's on the spot impression of her on SNL is so good it is scary! This morning I woke up to one of the co-host's on 103.5 Kiss fm doing an amazing impression of her I believed it was her at first. So why is playing Palin so funny?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I would love to know!

Bailout delaying McCain Vs Obama debate

2008-09-25T13:20:00.004-05:00

Because our current economy is so poor, it has me looking at the current political race a little more closely than I have done in the past. I have always been an Obama supporter since day one of his presidential race. When I heard that McCain wanted to delay the debate because of the bailout I thought to myself, "why in the world would he want to delay something so important." I later heard that Obama declined McCain's request saying "the debate is now more important than ever." I feel that we should let our current President George W. Bush take the led on this one and show us why he was elected president twice. Do you think the two political parties representatives should battle it out?

No Gay's in American History

2008-09-15T21:03:00.004-05:00

Today In my AS (American Studies) class we were discussing American history (go figure) and we started talking about what is missing in American history. As we talked about what groups of people where missing we noticed a great lack of gay history in our high school text books. As I looked further at the gap in history where about 10% of our country's sexual preference resides I looked at the don't ask don't tell rule in the military.

I picked the picture to the right to help illustrate my point. As most of us Americans know the picture is of the battle of Iwo Jima but instead of military men putting up the American flag they are replaced by four gay men putting up the gay pride flag. At first I thought oh look how cute there posing like the guys on the statue, until I showed the picture to my Mom and she said "Look up the Battle of Iwo Jima and you will see why it is significant." Lets put this nicely I did not know diddly squat about Iwo Jima before tonight. I found out that it was one of the biggest and bloodiest battles at its time leaving behind over 6,000 dead marines behind. I no longer see this picture of the four gay men putting up the flag as cute and ironic I see it as a statement saying we have fought long and hard to get to where we are now and it can only go up hill from here.

Is this for real?

2008-09-09T13:23:00.008-05:00

All of us have used the Internet at least once in our lives. Sites like YouTube, Google and The Onion have changed how we analyze what we are learning from the internet. We now need to build up immunity to fake information.

One occasion that it would have helped to notice whats real and whats fake. On September 13, 2006 a series of YouTube Blogs called Lon elygirl15 was found out to be fake. The series of videos fallowed a fictional girl named Bree who is 16 in her day to day video blog. After the truth about the show was discovered to be a fake the popularity had only increased(New York times). Two years after the show Lonelygirl15 was found out, the actress who played Bree (Jessica Rose) has had an extensive career with guest spots on a hit show Greek, one movie and a TV show is in the works.

Another example of falsified information is the news outlet known as The Onion. If you are not paying close enough attention to what you were hearing, you might be fooled. My younger sister had fallen for one of there fake stories last year when my Dad thought he was being funny by showing her the episode where the "News casters" are talking about parents sending there children to India in cardboard boxes. They gave the reason to be because the price of child care is cheaper in India according to them. The next day in her History class the teacher asked if anyone knew of any current events, my younger sister tells her entire class the story that she had heard from The Onion. The moral of the story is, though every picture may be worth a thousand words make sure you have some evidence to back it up.

The Reverend is Coing the Reverend is coming

2008-09-03T09:26:00.016-05:00

On September 2nd New Trier High School's Northfeild campus was visited by State Senator Reverend Meeks and bus loads of Chicago Public School kids to enroll at New Trier. The loads coming to protest the unfairness of the funding differences between New Trier and CPS Schools were coming peacefully and did not want to distract the New Trier Students. New Trier, while obligated by law to turn all students that do not live in the District away, put up signs and posters welcoming the protesters. New Triers administrators spent time with every student applicant to acknowledge the protest and the stand that each indisual student was taking. While none of the craze hit the Winnetka Campus which holds 3/4ths of the schools population, they were still prepared for guests. In the week of school prior to the Reverends arrival the Winnetka Campus (which consists of Senors, Juniors, and Sophomores) handed out fliers and held discussions about what the Reverend would be doing and how it would effect them. As the date neared the press soon got to the point where the story of the alleged visit became the top story for many different news broadcasts. August 29th the Friday before Reverend Meeks scheduled arrival, the students of New Trier High School were all ready for the CPS students to arrive. Though they were only coming for a day at most, every student whether they agreed with Meeks or not were looking forward to what Tuesday would have in store. To the disappointment of many students, the school district issued a statement saying that the Reverend Meeks protesters and press would stay at the Northfield Campus.

As September 2nd hit the students of New Trier High Schools Winnetka Campus arrived to a normal school day with no disturbances. When school let out if they turned on the television all they would see on all the local news channels would be talk about the protest and live Broadcasts. Though the protest was only a day ago, publicity seems to have skimmed over it already. Asking the reader Was it worth it? Has it done anything to help Reverend Meeks's cause or has it hurt him in the long run for taking students out of school for there first day? Could there have been a better way of going about the issue without taking them out of there first day of school?