Cass+Newlands

Something you Have to Live to Understand

When you think of the word skateboard, a whole multitude of things may come to mind. Now if were to ask you to think of the word skateboarder and give me a one word response, you might say things like stoner, punk, rebel, slacker the list of negative connotations goes on and on. Very few people would say artist or athlete, or think that most of these kids skating might come from a rough background, and channel his or her energy into skating instead of something like drugs or crime. Skateboarding in mainstream society has such a bad reputation; I hope to shed some positive light on the subject in this paper. Despite popular belief skateboarding is a positive activity for the youth all around the world. The first stereotype of skateboarding is that everyone is a stoner. This is pretty dumb considering the amount of concentration it takes to successfully land a trick. Now granted there are people who smoke marijuana and skateboard, but overall they are not the vast majority. Unfortunately, weed is not the only drug around skateboarding; skate parks are a drug dealer’s wild fantasy. Skate parks are often located in poor areas of neighborhoods, which is usually due to poor city planning. The locations of skate parks may attract a whole lot more then just skateboarders. Speaking from personal experience, I have been offered drugs from cannabis all the way up to methamphetamine; this was when I was from age’s fourteen to sixteen. The sad truth is that kids much younger then that have been offered the same range of drugs. Even though drugs are an unfortunate part of skate parks, you can always refuse them and stick with the path of skateboarding. Another aspect of skateboarding that people overlook is the competitiveness that drives kids to constantly push themselves and the sport. It motivates kids to do things that have never been done on a skateboard before. A lot of professionals from rough backgrounds have said that skateboarding is one of the very few positive things in their lives, it kept them away from crime or drugs. Even if kids don’t become professionals, skateboarding has a whole lot more to offer in terms of jobs. Journalist, photographers and board designers are just a few of the jobs that skateboarding has to offer. Skateboarding is also an art form. It is a way to express yourself, and channel your energy. There are all sorts of styles that are unique to individual skateboarders. I myself really take this to heart, because I have had bad days and all it took was riding my board to cheer me up. The feeling of surfing on pavement is something you would have to experience to fully understand. There is no better way to express yourself in my mind, than skating the streets all over the world; you develop a connection with the concrete. To anyone who may read this, I would hope they reconsider what they think it means to be a skateboarder. There are many positive aspects of skateboarding that people don't consider. Not everyone who skates is a juvenile delinquent out to wreak havoc on the streets. We don’t all smoke cannabis or do other drugs. Instead we express ourselves in a very unique art form. Some of us push the sport to new standards, or make a career out of skateboarding. So the next time you find yourself having to confront a group of skateboarders, try to use mutual respect, because odds are you will be treated the same way, it all depends on how you approach the situation. media type="youtube" key="oHpPPBszh5c" width="425" height="350"

Despite Popular Belief

The United States's education system has many flaws, asseing a student on letter grades is just one of the many problems. When I was in elementary school, it became apparent that I was a student with "special needs"; a mental disability is what they told me. I was told that I had a specific type of learning disability called dyslexia, they told me that it would be very hard and almost impossible to perform as well as the other students in my class. The idea of having a handicap inside my brain lowered my motivation in school. This frustration began to seriously affect my grades as a child. Any child who is under the impression that they are mentally incapable of outperforming other students without learning disabilities, will struggle to strive for success in the classroom. The first grade was where all my trouble began. This was the time in schooling when we were all expected to read certain books, I struggled to read some of these books in class. It was like there was a switch inside my brain, that wasn't ready to be turned on. The result of this failing switch, was me being put into Special Education. To this day I still hate that place, for how it made me feel. Special Education was a class that I had to attend when my "normal" class would start the reading segment of the day. I would have to get up from my desk, and walk half way across the school to go to the Special Education classroom. I hated the fact that I had to get up in front of the whole class and leave, it drew unwanted attention. Kids on the playground would often tease me about my Special Education, this idea of me being stupid, really started to stick in my head. This frustration with school, started to become visible on my report cards. I thought that I was a terrible reader, so why should I even try. There was a sense of helplessness for me as a child in school. By the time I was in the fifth grade, I remember my told me, that just because people say your bad at something doesn't mean they are right, it just means that you have to work harder in order to prove them wrong. That little bit of encouragement, which I never received in school, helped me to strive for success in the classroom. It also dawned on me that there many ways to measure a persons intelligence, grades are just a small part of your overall knowledge. The notion that having a learning disability prevents someone from performing as well as the other students, is false. Having a few bad grades in elementary school shouldn't mean it's the end of the world, and you should just give up with school all together. There should be a much more positive classroom environment for kids at school. If a student has a learning disability, the teacher should let that student know that they are no different from the rest of the class. That student might have to work harder in order to receive success in school.



Cultural Punishment

Cultural differences can at times be very hard to understand. In Gish Jen’s //Who’s Irish,// it is clear that the short story deals with the clashing of two cultures. The story revolves around the issue of using physical punishment on a child. The grandmother, who is also the narrator, believes that it is okay to spank children when they are misbehaving. The grandmother uses physical punishment because she was raised in China. Her American-raised daughter thinks that hitting a child is wrong. The reason for this clear dispute over discipline is because of the fact that the Grandmother and the daughter grew up with a very different cultural background; my cultural background also differs from the grandmother’s methods of parenting. Throughout the story the grandmother has a strong urge to spank her granddaughter Sophie. Sophie taking her clothes off in public places causes this urge. Sophie’s mother doesn’t think much of the problem, and isn’t willing to punish Sophie. The grandmother tries numerous methods to try and get Sophie to stop taking her clothes off. She starts limiting things from Sophie, until she has nothing to take away. The grandmother even takes away food from Sophie as punishment for her behavior. These methods prove to be futile, so the grandmother resorts to spanking her. After being spanked, Sophie stops her inappropriate behavior. The grandmother finds that spanking Sophie is the only method that works. However is unclear to the reader weather or not the grandmother is a reliable narrator. As far as the reader can tell, the spanking method proves to be affective. The grandmother is convinced that this is the only effective form punishment; this is because she was born and raised in China. She comes from a completely different background, where respecting your elders is expected from you as a child. If Sophie took her clothes off in China, spanking would probably be a legitimate way to handle the situation. America has a very different cultural background view physical punishment of your child as a bad thing, most Americans view spanking as a form of child abuse. I am an American, so I view spanking or hitting your children as bad parenting, when it is used excessively. As a child I was never spanked or hit, but I could understand why a frustrated parent would resort to such measures. I think however, there are other methods to punishing a child that are more affective. If you explain to your child why he or she is being punished, the child will probably have a better understanding of why there actions resulted in punishment. The grandmother uses an authoritarian parenting; a method of parenting where you don’t explain to the child why they are doing what they are doing, this approach is applied to Sophie’s behavior; I would use an authoritative approach to the situation; a method of parenting where you explain to the child why you are telling him or her to do something. Sending the child into timeout and explaining to the child why he or she is in timeout, seems much more rational and level headed then hitting them. If you explain to child why you are punishing them, they will be more likely to understand their mistake. This is my American perspective, the way I was raised never involved spankings. Perhaps if I was raised in China, I might have a very different outlook on the subject. The clash of parenting methods is due to the fact that the grandmother and her daughter grew up in completely different environments. Sophie’s mom is completely opposed to the idea of hitting a child because her culture views it as abuse. The grandmother thinks that spanking is perfectly fine, because she comes from a place where respecting your elders is big part of daily life.

__Works Cited__

Jen, Gish. //Who's Irish?: Stories//. New York: Knopf, 1999. Print. Jackson, Eric. "Psychology 105." UNM. Albuquerque. 13 Oct. 2011. Lecture.