Thirteen Years Already?

“UK formally ends combat mission in Afghanistan”

By: Christabelle Fombu and Bryony Jones

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/26/world/asia/afghanistan-uk-combat-end/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

 

 

Britain is finally out of Afghanistan everyone!  Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted, "I made a commitment that I would get our Armed Forces out of Afghanistan by 2015, and today sees the end of combat operations in the country,"(Cameron, 1). This officially marks the end to the 13 years that UK has had their military in Afghanistan. 453 UK troops have sacrificed themselves in Afghanistan and everyone should pay their respects to those brave soldiers who had enough courage to fight for their country. Now all the UK bases in Afghanistan will be taken over by the Afghan National Security Forces and they will continue the remaining operations.

To think that after 13 years the UK military is finally leaving Afghanistan. The people should be glad to hear such news because we have been told that our own military will also leave Afghanistan by 2015. Now the American people must remain patient until they hear such news. This truly is remarkable news and I hope that all who read or are reading this article feel as overjoyed as I do. The American people should devote at least one minute of their time to pray for and thank all the soldiers who voluntarily took part in going to Afghanistan for their country. Lives were lost, lives were saved, and lives were sacrificed in order to bring upon something that people hope for and believe that it is truly their and this my friends is peace.

                                                                                         

 

"Education"

S- Education reformation/ philosophy

O- American Scholar 1800s

A-Readers of the magazine/ educators/ parents

P- To persuade/ to educate

S- R.W. Emerson

T- Philosophical/ confident/ professional

1. The SOAPST helps the reader better understand the piece of literature, “Education”.  The subject does give the readers an idea on what the piece is about and the purpose would help them comprehend on why and for what reasons R. W. Emerson wrote such a piece. This is about t how Emerson believes children should be raised and educated it is his tone that convinces the reader what he is saying is true. When the readers know his tone they will realize that he is confident, not afraid to speak his mind, professional, and philosophical. Emerson believes that when it comes to learning a child should be left alone to choose their own path. Their parent may help when help is needed but are not allowed to give the child a set path for the future. Emerson perfectly explains what educators should and should not do and why.
    
2. This piece of literature is quite effective for the intended audience generally because the intended audience is for the readers of the magazine but mostly for educators (parents included). It benefits them because it teaches them and persuades them to the right thing, which in this case would be to follow his steps on how to better educate a child. This piece could educate many people by help teaching them the more enhanced way to help a child learn, which is to let them learn through observation, experience and should be allowed to choose their future on their own with no outside aid.

Our Education

What is education? I think of it as the knowledge, skill, and understanding that one receives from attending school.  Yes I believe that schools are providing us students with the education that we need but they are teaching it to us the wrong way. I believe that the education schools provide us with is only temporary because students only learn though memorizing in order to earn a high grade, pass the class, and try to be accepted into a college or university. The problem is not the students but rather the school itself. Who could possibly remember every single fact, equation, story, or vocabulary word that they learned during their school life? Yes, there are those occasional students who possibly can remember all of this but what majority does not. In my opinion I think that schools are teaching us but there is too much extra information involved. Students should be taught the right way, without grades. Although I am not going to go in depth on this since it is not what I should be talking about.

Schools teach students how to react in certain situations, how to be social, polite, friendly, etc. We learn what is needed in order to know how to handle the real world. Something else I believe about schools is that they help students find their true calling. They help us find what we are passionate about, what we want to be, what we want to achieve in life, and what we plant to do in order to make our dreams become a reality.

Goodbye Mars?

“Duck-and-cover time for Mars spacecraft as comet nears”

 By: Amanda Barnett,

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/tech/innovation/mars-spacecraft-comet-siding-spring/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

A comet is hurtling towards Mars at an extremely close distance. Is this the end for the red planet we all know and love? The answer is perhaps. The comet was said to pass Mars today at 2:27 p.m.  NASA assumes that the comet will merely pass Mars, but comets do spew out a trail of dust and gas, which could damage the group of spacecraft’s orbiting Mars. Better safe than sorry, NASA will change the course of the Mars Odyssey orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and the new Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) to the other side of the planet when the comet approaches. Luckily the rovers on Mars will be protected by Mars’s atmosphere. The space crafts will be taking pictures of the comet as it passes by them in order to collect data. Since Mars will be extremely close to the comet it could might encounter some bits from the debris cloud left behind by the comet itself.

This is interesting news people! A planet could possibly be destroyed by this comet. Why would anyone not want to read about this?  Okay so yes the planet is going to survive but it makes people wonder how different our lives would be if Mars did get destroyed. This means a lot to those who have spent their entire lives studying, appreciating and observing the Red Planet. We are extremely lucky that the comet will not be harming Mars (maybe) because then our years of research would be a waste.

Thoughts on Community Service(Article 4)

What is community service? One could describe it as doing voluntary work in order to help people in a particular area/community. High schools do make it mandatory for their students to complete a certain amount of hours for community service and the only reason these students complete these hours is because it looks good on their college resume. This concept is known as “resume padding.” The students say, “…their motive in becoming involved was to make a stronger case to please college admission officer” (Chaptman, 157). Although, there are those who strongly believe that most high school students are motivated to do community service because they enjoy it. An example would be those students who even after completing their hours, still continue to voluntarily work because it feels right to them. Why else would they continue to volunteer? The only logical reason would be because they find it entertaining and it helps them become more responsible, gives them experience on how to work in the real world, and they can also build character. When made mandatory, high school students only see community service as, “…a key to college admission” (Chaptman, 157). What if it was not mandatory and was only suggested from time to time? In this case there would still be those students who would happily volunteer anyways because they know it is the right thing to do. People must believe that yes, there are those who are repulsed at the sheer idea of community service but there are also those who take joy in helping their community without receiving anything in return.

Pluto is Back

“Is demoted planet Pluto making a comeback?”

By: Amanda Barnett

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/tech/innovation/is-pluto-a-planet/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

Remember the good old days when we had nine planets instead of eight? Well now we have nine again because Pluto’s back! Apparently Pluto was not considered as a planet anymore because it was too small to get rid of space rocks in order to make a clear path around the Sun. What kind of reason is that? A planet is defined as something that is round and can orbit the Sun. Pluto obviously is both round and can orbit the Sun, but just because it could not knock out some rocks from its path it was not considered as planet anymore. On September 18, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics had a debate on: What is a planet? After discussing for a while they allowed the audience to vote and they voted that Pluto is a planet. Now a spacecraft called New Horizons is going to be sent to Pluto in July! If the spacecraft does make it past the difficult seven week journey, “dodging asteroids as it zips toward Pluto,” (Stern, 1) then we will finally able to see up close pictures of Pluto.

            The people should read this news article because it is an amazing revolution in planetary science. All we have done is mocked Pluto for not being a planet and for being isolated, but now everything has changed. This is quite a shocking discovery and I am sure most people would love to read about it. Pluto is finally going to be back in or lives.