Student Declaration of Independance

As students of the Grosse Pointe public school districts, we the students have certain rights. These rights have been repeatedly infringed upon, and we have deemed it necessary to form an alliance together to stand up against the oppressors once and for all to declare our independence. This document will ensure that the students and teachers alike can work in harmony to produce a healthy and fun atmosphere for learning. Whether the matter is health conditions or pertaining to the respect of the administrators, all of the items listed below have been deemed as basic rights that every student in the Grosse Pointe districts should hold

Teachers should respect students. This goes the same for students respecting teachers of course, but as long as the students are paying due amount of reverence towards the teacher, he or she should receive the same. Stupid questions do not exist. Teachers should not be able to disregard a question ever, even if has already been asked. Students can’t be expected to be listening 100% of the time. On a related note, students should be allowed to have extra help as needed. Teachers should be willing to give up there lunch hour to assist students, or, at the very least, direct them to another student for help. Another basic right is the right to choose your schedule. Choosing classes is a key right, as this allows students more freedom in choices and helps decide what career path to go down. Having the best technology possible is a clear basic right for students. The school district should be doing everything in their power to provide students with technology that allows them to learn better and faster. A commonly overlooked, but essential, right is the right to have good, clean water. The water fountains at South are completely disgusting and are probably violating some sort of health code. They taste like metal and blood and should be fixed immediately. As well as all of these other examples, the most important one by far is the right to feel safe in the school environment. Whether it be from internal or external forces, no student should have to go to school feeling like they are in danger there. The administration should always be doing everything in their power not only to keep the students safe, but to also make them feel safe.

I. Instead of thirty six minute lunches, South has to provide an hour and fifteen minutes. This is students’ only free time of the day, and thirty-six minutes is barely sufficient to eat. Lunch should be a time to relax, and rushing to finish eating is not exactly relaxing. It is the only break in the long seven hour school day. This time should be spent doing whatever students’ wish, whether it’s walking to Farms Market and getting some fresh air, or just relaxing in the commons and socializing with friends. Whatever kids chose, lunch should be a complete mental break. A full seventy-five minute period would allow students to return to class rejuvenated and ready to focus, which would increase productivity. Grosse Pointe South students demand a longer lunch period.

II. Grosse Pointe South must supply laptops to each student for use in school and at home. In almost every class, note taking is used by teaches. This is a very effective method of teaching, yet can be time consuming. Note taking would be a great deal faster if students had access to laptops, and could type their notes on a Word document. Laptops that students could carry from class to class would also allow internet research to be done in class. This would undoubtedly increase the efficiency of students in class. Also, because most assignments that require computers are completed at home, the access to them in class could reduce the amount of homework. And for those students who don’t always have a computer available to them at their house, because of financial issues or having to share with siblings, the ability to take a laptop home would be greatly beneficial. Students at Grosse Pointe South need to have laptops both in and outside the classroom to increase overall productivity.

III. There needs to be one full hour designated for nap taking. In classes, countless students are always falling asleep because of exhaustion. Research shows that teenagers need 9-11 hours of sleep to be fully rested, but that number is rarely reached because of many factors. A demanding schedule, caused by loads of homework, sports, and other activities, leads to many students getting less than the adequate amount of sleep. Since school contributes to the large quantity of homework that keeps students up late at night, it is only fair they provide an hour to let kids catch up. An extra hour of sleep every day would lead to increased productivity, mood, and energy of the students at Grosse Pointe South. This would make for an improved learning environment.
IV. Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays, and for the most part is loved by all. Many families put a lot of time and preparation into its celebration. Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays of the year to have long periods of family time, and some wish that this did not have to last for only one day. Considering this, it is our suggestion that an entire week of school be given off for its celebration.

V. Being as far north as it is, our home state of Michigan can often have very extreme winter weather conditions. The snow can often pile high enough to make even walking on the sidewalk a hassle, and temperatures can easily drop to the point that frostbite is something to worry about. Our district’s reason for having so few snow days is that Grosse Pointe is a walking district, but the majority of South’s students either get a ride from their parents or drive themselves to school. Even the kids that walk often have to deal with extremely low temperatures and very deep snow. Therefore, it is our belief that South should have more days off because of extreme winter weather conditions.

VI. One of the things that South’s students look forward to the most is holidays. They are an excellent time to relax and take a nice break from school. Because of this, one of the most disappointing things is when there is a holiday but students still have to go to school. Sadly, there are a few holidays out of the year that South does not give even one day off school for. We have the opinion that this should be changed, and that for every holiday, no matter how obscure, at least one day of school should be given off for its celebration.

VII. The purpose of a school is to provide a child with the best education possible. Each individual varies from his or her peers. The option of block scheduling can allow for a more personalized schedule focused on each student’s individual needs. It allows students to select classes and times that will better stimulate their learning process. Block scheduling allows for breaks between classes for instance you might have math on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, this allows for breaks which helps students alleviate stress and keeps grades high. This would also to give students assignments spanning over the break, which can help the student’s time management skills. Those who have had block scheduling have remarked that the change in scheduling keeps your days from being boring so you tend to be more alert in class. Block scheduling allows for students to be more alert and have classes and schedules that fit their needs thus improving the Childs educations, which is after all, the main goal of the school system.

VIII. Good grades and an attentive attitude is important to ones high school career. To maintain grades and stay alert it is important that students come to school with their best mindset, which is why it is important to have breaks on holidays. Students should have a half-day on Halloween and the day after off. This will allow students to have a short break to alleviate stress and to enjoy the holiday. Halloween is a national holiday that should be recognized by the Grosse Pointe Public School System with a day and a half off for the students and staff. Many students in all three stages of school are out late on the night of October 31, Halloween, and would not be attentive at school the next day. Giving students a short Halloween break will keep them on track and attentive during school.

IX. High School is a very important segment of ones school career. It is also one of the more stressful and demanding. For this reason High School students should not have homework on weekends. The abolishing of weekend homework will allow for students to rejuvenate over the break and to recharge for the coming school week. Without homework encumbering the student’s weekend, students will have more time to study for test or review materials covered in class. This will raise students grades exponentially, students will be more relaxed, attentive, and better prepared for class which will result in higher test scores and grades; which will drastically improve students resumes come time to apply for collegiate study. Abolishing weekend homework will help Grosse Pointe students drastically.

X. School should be adjusted to 4 days a week; the weekend spanning Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. 2 days for weekends simply does not suffice for the amount of homework and rest students need. The week of a typical high school student is extremely stressful and exhausting. The weekend is needed to recover. Teachers tend to assign more homework on the weekends, though, knowing students will have more time. This leads to the whole weekend being spent completing schoolwork. Weekends are needed to relax and rejuvinate, and doing homework all weekend is neither of those things. The weekends are also a sacred time to be spent with family or friends, seeing as though during the week, students are simply too busy. Three days for a weekend would allow time for schoolwork, as well as friends, family, and rest.

We, the students of Grosse Pointe South High School, hereby declare our independence from the Grosse Pointe Public School System. We only asked that we receive the treatment that we by our rights deserved, the treatment that we were neglected when a part of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. If we don’t receive our independence, there will be severe consequences. We may be peaceful and civil; we may boycott classes or organize a sit out on the lawn. Protest what we believe to be a corrupt establishment. Hold strong to what we want and receive it in a peaceful manner. Or, we may be violent, vandalize the school. Rip doors off their hinges and graffiti the hallways. Break the windows of every educational institution, and yell blood curdling battle cries of freedom that even the bravest soul could not bear to hear. Though we are only students, we will crash board meetings. We will disrupt the very foundation that this educational system is based upon and wreak havoc among the board members, never faltering in doing so until our demands are met. Planting fear in every adult’s heart, because independence is a basic right; all students are naturally born with freedom in their blood. The students’ actions to take control of their independence are unpredictable yet organized, extreme yet understandable. It is best that the students receive independence and no other actions are put in place to stop the progression. By this time, there are no measures that can be taken to reconcile both the students and educational program. In no way can the ties between the two be bonded back together, and form a united assembly once again. Independence has spread to the very heart of the matter and no act can be taken to stop it. Independence will rise, and the Grosse Pointe School System should be prepared to fall.

The Crucible Essay

            In the play, “The Crucible”, by Arthur Miller, the Salem Witch trials are a collective response caused by many people in the town of Salem. It is hard to pinpoint who exactly was responsible, as every member of the town said something, didn’t say something, or acted in a way that helped encourage those in charge. Whether they were locked in a struggle for power, were jealous of another person, or even if they made a simple mistake several months ago, almost everyone in the town were responsible in some way for the trials. That being said, the three most important contributors to the witch trials were Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale.

            Abigail Williams was by far the largest contributor. She, in fact, was the only reason the girls were ever caught dancing in the woods; they were caught because she was drinking blood to kill Goody Proctor. Even after that occurred, she was the one who called out people’s names and the other girls followed suit. This is exemplified when Mary Warren is accused after trying to tell the judge that the girls were lying, “But god made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary…. Oh, Mary this is a black art to change one’s shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do” (Miller 115).  This is key because not only is she calling people witches for no apparent reason, she is blaming one of her friends for the spread of witchcraft, and Mary then blames Proctor. She basically caused the entire event because of her jealousy of Proctor’s wife and her want to be with Proctor. The other girls were not nearly as impassioned with the accusing as Abigail, and it’s doubtful that the trials would have continued, not to mention actually even happened, without her presence.

            John Proctor is another important figure because he inherently is the cause of Abigail’s accusations. Because he had an affair with her, she was drinking blood to kill his wife, and she was caught and had to make up a fanciful lie. It is not a sane reason for her to start accusing people of witchcraft, but it was actually John’s fault when looked at the events from a chronological point of view. This is made apparent when Abigail says, “… I know you, John – you are this moment singing secret hallelujahs that your wife will hang” (152)! Abigail clings to this desperate hope that John will love her to the point that she tries everything in her power to have his wife hung, including continuing pointless accusations of witchcraft. While John had no part in the actual proceedings of the witch trials besides his own, a great deal of the blame for the beginning of them rests on him.

            Reverend Hale is a third major cause of the Salem witch trials. While by the end of the book he realizes that he is wrong, if he had never come to the town in the first place, the girls would have been passed off as being sick because Reverend Parris would have been too afraid of losing power to accuse them of being bewitched. Hale thinks that he knows everything about witchcraft, that he can diagnose being a witch, and that makes him dangerous. He supplied the girls with the information they needed to make convincing accusations. “Tries to fly…. Ah! The stoppage of prayer – that is strange… Perhaps some bird invisible to others comes to you…” (42-43). He feeds them the symptoms that one could find in a victim of witchcraft, and they replicate them to make it seem believable. For instance, when Abigail accuses Mary Warren, she sees an invisible bird in the rafters. This is an exact replica of the sign that Hale asked Betty if she saw when trying to see if she had been bewitched. While Hale redeems himself by the end of the play, he was a major cause of the accusations. Without him poking around, Abigail never would have needed to say that Tituba put spells on them in the first place.

            While the three people above vary in reasons for the cause of the Salem Witch trials, they all had an important hand in creating them. Abigail for wanting John and being jealous. John Proctor for having an affair with Abigail and encouraging her. Hale for coming to the town and providing the kindling for the wildfire of the townspeople’s imaginations. All three were in part responsible, as well as many other people in the town.

Crucible Post 2

"At one point, Proctor tells Hale that he believes in witches even though he does not. Would you be willing to lie and tell people you believed in something you do not in order to protect yourself? Why or why not?"

Honestly, I would totally lie to save myself. It sounds weak (and it is), but I really think that if you’re going to suffer for it, why not avoid the suffering? When it comes to things like religion, and drugs and things that are bad for me, I would OF COURSE not lie. I’d be proud to say I’m Christian or not involved with those things. But I have secrets that I would be crazy mocked for, and it’s really not worth it for everyone to know things about me if they’re going to make fun of me. If someone asked me point blank about something that I was ashamed of, I wouldn’t hesitate to lie to save myself.

If I was accused of being a witch and was about to be hanged, yeah, no, I would lie my butt off to save myself. You may be an outcast from society for the rest of your life, but you wouldn’t be DEAD. It’s honorable to be able to let yourself die for a cause, but that’s not me. I wish it were, but it’s not. If it were about my religion, I honestly don’t know what I would do. I’m hoping I’d be strong enough to die for what I believe in, but I can also see myself folding under the pressure. Being made fun of for it I could handle, but dying? I seriously don’t know. Hopefully I’ll never have to find out.