Monday, September 17, 2007

An Open Letter to a Textbook Company

Dear Textbook Company:

I am not even sure who I should write to. Do I write to an editor, an official, a politician who decided this was the book I should read? I wish I had a face in front of me.
I think your book has a lot of bias in it. There should be major changes in the American Nation book, because there were and are more important people in this world that lived or that are living that should be in there. History is more than just the white men.

You hardly even include any kind of women in that biased book. You should have more other cultures in there besides whites. I did an analysis of the pictures and noticed that over eighty percent are white and over eighty percent are men. What message does that send students?
I think that's the reason that students tag in them, because students believe that the books are full of crap!!! Students are supposed to believe what the book says but the book misrepresents the truth. I cannot learn this way. It is not good to hide other history from us. We will not learn anything with the things that are in the book because most of the textbook is biased, innacurate, prejudiced, or irrelevant to our lives.

Sincerely:
A Middle School Student

Thursday, September 13, 2007

How united is the United States?

by A. Robertson

How the United States is United
Our Constitution
The Law
When we are attacked by other countries
The languages we share
Our philosophy and Beliefs
Love for this country
Government
Liberty(freedom)
News Media
Personal Ownership
Money
Children
Police Officers
The Military

How the United states isn't united
Racial Profiling(discrimination)
Money
Classifications
Moral Beliefs
Personal Beliefs
Education
Religion
Punishment by the law
News Media
War
Government
Customs
America is somewhat two faced

World War II

F. Rivera

In this five paragraph entry you going to read about a lot of things that happened in World War II. Things like what happened. Who started the war. What were they doing. Who they were against. Some of these things you might already know, but there are some things you might know.

It was a man who suddenly came out with knew ideas. People thought that some of his ideas were good. His name was Hitler, and he wanted to take over the world. He thought that he could do that be killing some specific people he thought was essential for his plan to work. Those people he had to kill or exterminate (is what they say instead of killing) were the black, gays, and the Jews. They killed them by sending them to concentration camps.

These concentration camps were places hidden in forest. People were taking there by trains in carts. Once they got off of those carts they separated them by men and women. The men and women that had any skills in something useful got sent to the camps. The people who didn’t were sent to the showers. Basically they were poison gas chambers or ovens. It was something that a true mad man could do.

The worst thing about it was that people didn’t know what was happening. I am not kidding. There was a town right next to a camp. There was air smelled like burnt skin and hair, yet they claimed they didn’t know what was happening in those camps. People are dieing in these camps because of Hitler, but people who are not in the camps are worshiping him. That right there is stupidity.

As I learned about this I was thinking why did Hitler do that. Some say he became crazy and mad. Some thing he had a weird childhood. Others think he was just too smart for his own good. I really don’t know. I just feel bad for all the people who had to suffer.

Lessons from the Vick Story

By B. Campos

This story is a big deal. It’s about one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, (National Football League) today. When this tragedy happened it shocked the NFL big time. Not only did it shock the NFL but it also hit the NFL fans and the world pretty hard too. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you obviously don’t watch the news (that‘s how big this is). Well the tragedy I’m talking about is the Michael Vick tragedy. If you want to know more about this tragedy I suggest you keep reading this essay.

Michael Vick is, or at least was truly a great quarterback (QB) in the NFL. The reason I said he was is because he isn’t playing anymore. He was caught torturing animals, not just any animals but dogs. The F.B.I agency’s said he was making them fight so that he could make bets on them and earn a little bit of extra money. If the dogs didn’t win, he would hang, drown, or shoot them.
When the NFL found out about this they immediately did some investigation of their own just to make sure it was true. The NFL soon found out that the investigation was true. They immediately put him to court to see if he was guilty or not. The court’s ruling took a couple of months. When they finally ruled him guilty he was suspended from the NFL indefinitely, and was sentenced to a year in prison.

After all of this hit the world, he had to pay big time. All of his products were taken out of the stores like his shoes, jerseys, etc. And if they were kept up for some reason not many people would buy any, because I don’t think anybody would want to have his stuff on after what happened. The biggest disappointment was to his fans, I mean what kind of example is he putting for his fans. He also let down his teammates because they were expecting a great season with him, but now they can’t do that without there star player playing. We expected more from this star player.

Therefore Michael Vick has ruined his life because of his stupid actions. Hopefully the NFL will let him comeback to play the game that he so much loves. With any luck he will learn from his mistakes and never do them again. Well thank you for taken some time off of your life to read my essay and I really hope you enjoyed it.

The Ultimate Vacation

By J. Gonzalez Jr.

This is the best summer ever because my family and I went to Disneyland and Universal Studios for our vacation. We went to Universal Studios and Disneyland for about 1 week. The place we went first was Disneyland.

My family and I got to California on Friday. We left and got there 3 hours after we left. When we got there we went straight to Disneyland. We went on all the rides. The ride I went on the most was Thunder Mountain at an area in Disneyland called Frontier Land. I went on that ride and Splash Mountain like 10 times. Splash Mountain is a log ride that goes down about 50 feet to a pool of water and went on the rest of the rides also. Then we went across to California Adventure.

We also went on all the rides over there. My favorite ride at California Adventure is the grizzly rapids. That ride is my favorite because it is like the rapid ride at sea world. The grizzly rapids ride is on a mountain that looks like a grizzly bear. I think that is why they call it grizzly rapids. There is a ride that is called Californian screaming. This is a rollercoaster. Californian screaming is the best coaster because it goes pretty fast and is the only big coaster in California adventure

Then we went to universal studios. At this park there are many places in there that show how they make movies. There are also rides that are based on movies, like back to the future, Jurassic park, the mummy, and many more. The best ride there is the ride that shows scenes from different movies. This ride has a tram that goes around studio to see scenes from different movies. Like the actual scenes. In the ride it shows scenes from the movies the mummy, the Grinch, King Kong, jaws, and a whole bunch of other movies. The tram also shows studios from different movies.

This is what I did on my summer vacation. I had a lot of fun. I highly recommend that everyone go to Universal Studios and Disneyland.