Scarlet Holvenstot's 3rd Post

I stand for no homework. Kids at Ridgway high school roughly spend eight hours at school. A regular job for adults runs 9-5, which is exactly eight hours. The youth are spending the same amount of time as adults learning to become part of America’s work force. Yet, on top of the eight hours we spend at school we spend countless hours at home doing homework. Almost all kids will agree that school would be fine if we didn’t have to take it home with us. The constant stress of finishing projects and writing papers just gets a hundred times worse when we know we will have to be doing it on our time at home. On top of everything that kids are doing such as sports and family time and recreational activities. There is the constant burden of homework. Does homework really help kids in the long run? 43% of parents admit to doing their kids homework sometimes. This number is outrageous and the homework is not even helping the kid but just putting another weight on the parent’s shoulder that they have to deal with.  Many kids today are overwhelmed with the workload they are required to live up to. Being a kid is most often the best part of life. It is the only time when you are not completely responsible for everything. Kids just want to have fun and enjoy their friends and their family. This is so much harder to do with the stress of homework weighing on your back. This is the younger generations time to live carelessly and have a good time, which is why I stand for no homework, let the youth live young, wild, and free.

http://stophomework.com/new-survey-43-percent-of-parents-have-done-their-kids-homework/288

http://www.greatschools.org/students/homework-help/251-homework-is-too-much.gs

Zane DeZeeuw's 3rd Post

I stand for marriage.

As each year rolls on, the institution of marriage seems to lose its purpose and meaning. More and more couples are not getting married in today’s society. A report from the Pew Research Center, the number of married couples in America had fallen to 51%. It is outstanding to think that about half of the adults in America are not married.

In 1960, close to half of people ages 18 to 24 were married and 82% of people ages 25-34. Now those figures are 9% and 44% respectfully. Though many people are waiting to get married at an older age than in previous decades, it still does not account for all of the people that never get married at all.

On top of that, the divorce rate in America is outrageous. Close to 50% of marriages end in divorce. So not only are Americans not getting married, but they are also not staying married long.

People have lost sight of what marriage really means. Marriage is the bondage of two people so that they can support one another and start a family. In current times, the entire image of family is changing. More and more kids come from a broken home. Americans are teaching their kids that family doesn’t matter because many Americans aren’t married.

Americans need to stay married for the sake of the kids in America. The kids are America’s future, and they need to be taught that family matters more than anything else in life. Family comes before school, sports, and work; however, family means nothing if marriage ceases to exist.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11256708-us-marriage-rate-sees-sharpest-decline

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-coontz-marriage-20120119,0,2144409.story?track=rss

http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/010812-family-and-marriage

Steven Schroeder's 3rd Post

Storms snow in the Country

            Recently a snow-storm hit the Midwest and Northeast, after thinking the worst of it had passed last month. More flights had to be canceled again; nearly 300 flights had been canceled at O’Hare airport. Then at Midway Airport another 70 flights had been canceled. It was predicted that 6 inches would fall in the metropolitan area of Chicago. Furthermore freezing rain and sleet would hit as far south as D.C. and Baltimore. There’s no telling if this storm will add up to becoming worse than the one late last year. 6 inches may not seem like a lot to our small little town but to a city such as Chicago, it can create devastating consequences. Fox news is saying that it has produced power outages throughout the Northeast that could continue for days to come and fears of increasing floodwaters play a big risk to the state of the Northeast. The snow makes the roads very icy and slick making conditions for the normal days commute nearly reckless. This storm came from the Northern Pacific and Canada, where when it hit in Washington and Oregon it did pretty much the same amount of impact as it has now, although it’s mostly already melted in those states. The storm system has actually done more damage with the amount of freezing rain that has fallen rather than the snow, but as long as it stays that far north the rest of the United States should stay relatively safe from that.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199193-snow-sleet-target-midwest-and-northeast

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/20/northwest-hopes-for-reprieve-from-powerful-storm/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/winter-storm-northeast-cleans-deadly-noreaster/story?id=14842621

Nathan Hagemeyer's 3rd Post

I believe that testing is too much!

Testing in Society

            In our school today, tests are too hard, plain and simple.   Whether the test is the ACT or a semester final it should be a proper assessment of knowledge.  They shouldn’t be timed.  If the teacher really wants to know how much a student has learned from their class, time should not be a barricade, unless time is part of the curriculum.  Tests are supposed to be a demonstration of knowledge.  How are we suppose to show what we know when we only have a certain amount of time!  Don’t get me wrong, the ACT is an important test of knowledge to help colleges see how smart a person is.  Many students understand and know the material, but they are unable to finish because of time constraints.  I took the Plan ACT and know how stressful it can feel.  This test is going to make or break you for high school college concurrent courses.  Likewise, the ACT decides whether or not you are able to attend certain colleges.  Recently there was a SAT scandal in New York “where students at some of the best high schools on Long Island paid others to take their College Board tests” (www.cnn.com).  This illustrates my point to the T.  We shouldn’t have to pay people to take our tests because we are so worried about our future.  We should be worried, but this is too much. We need proper instruction from our teachers, and only then should we take sensible tests.

Two For Stormy

I Stand For

Beyonce and Jay Z recently had a new baby girl on January 7^th. They were so concerned about the safety of the baby they had security on the floor. People were not able to use the floor. These are children with problems in intensive care and you’re just going to take over the hospital like you own it? All I want is an apology” (www.eonline.com/news). I think that this is absolutely ridiculous; if they wanted their birth to be undisturbed and completely confidential they should have had it at their house. They have no right to stop people from seeing their loved ones that are in the hospital possibly DIEING! Parents were kept from seeing their kids in the NICU, which is completely outrageous. There could have easily been a lawsuit in place. They are lucky that there are only rumors and people talking about this incident instead of causing a lot of trouble toward the hospital or Beyonce and her husband Jay Z. America makes such a big deal out of famous people, they are just singers. I don’t understand why they think that they are so amazing that they need to have security at the hospital during their child’s birth. There are a lot of people who have changed their view of Beyonce and Jay Z. Rumors are beginning to spread about the pregnancy being completely bogus, because it was kept so secret saying she had a pillow baby and stole it from another mom.

I Stand For

Finals week in high school is the most stressful time in your high school career. You spend week after week learning new stuff in school and being required to remember every little thing. Come on we are teenagers we have other things on our mind… Do they really think we can balance our social life and schoolwork at the same time? When finals week comes up a few number of teachers will give you the things that you should be studying in order to be ready for their semester final. And the funny part is when you get the test you look at it and nothing on the test is something you studied. Also how are teenagers supposed to remember information five months after it is taught? I think basing twenty percent of your semester grade on one test, is not reasonable. I understand how it is a demonstration of knowledge but perhaps it’s just a bad day for you and there goes your grade! There have been suicides at multiple schools during finals week. There was one school that had four students that committed suicide during their finals week. I think that the school bored should get the point that its not worth students killing themselves over stress. Perhaps students should write a summary of what they learned so hopefully they will feel confident in taking finals. Finals are just a test that is pulling an all-nighter to reverse the slacking of the past months. Finals should really be re-evaluated so that they are less stressful and should not be weighted as harshly. So maybe we can save some lives!