Blog 13

A Girl Who Demanded School By: Shakeya Andrews

In A Girl Who Demanded School Kaneya spoke about her life growing up. When she was 5 years old she found out that she was engaged and after that she spent most of her time learning how to become a good wife for her soon to be husband. Kaneya’s mother raised her while her father spent most of his time away working. When her father came around he would abuse her mother and take the money that the family had earned but he never helped his family out. Her mother did not have the opportunity to get an education, which is why she pushed her children to go after their dreams and get an education. Kaneya’s dream was to become a teacher so she worked hard while she was in school to fulfill her dreams, but she didn’t have a chance at continuing her education because she knew that she would be getting married soon. Kaneya teaches us that no matter what obstacle we face, continue to go after what we want because we can do whatever we put our mind to. Even though she did not get the chance to continue school and become a teacher when she wanted to, she still chased her dream . Kaneya asked people to help support her so that she could take a trip to America to finish her education and surprisingly people were willing to help. She persevered because she knew that she had the right to get her education. In spite of challenges kaneya was granted the opportunity to finish her education. I learned that there are four things that we must carry with us when we are trying to reach our goals. In order to reach our goals we must be the best we can be, be confident, be bold, and be fearless. Kaneya says, “If you can change your world, you can change your community” such powerful words and very encouraging.

Shane Koyczan by Emma Boren

Number 8 on Ken Robinson’s top 10 ted talks is Shane Koyczan’s To this day... for the bullied and beautiful. In this video, To this day... for the bullied and beautiful Koyczan talks about his life growing up. He says that he was bullied, and then he became who he did not want to be; a bully himself. Through this whole video, Koyczan tells his story. He tells about his dreams growing up, what he wanted to be. He says that not only was he called names but his dreams were called names too. Stupid, silly, unrealistic, and more. He wanted to be a writer, and when he was told that was unrealistic, he said he wanted to become a wrestler. That was silly they told him. This was his whole life. He lived with his grandmother who would make him porkchops when he felt sad. To Shane, porkchops were the same thing as a karate chop. His grandmother thought it was cute, but it ended up getting them into some trouble. When he fell out of a tree and bruised his whole right side, he and his family life got investigated. When asked Shane told them “my grandmother gives me karate chops when I’m sad.” When the story got out and everyone figured out what really happened, he began to get called porkchop. After telling his story, he goes into his poem. His poem is a story about three different kids who lived their lives being bullied. They are depressed, they get put on pills for their depressed and everyone around them thinks they are pill poppers. They consider suicide. They try to figure out how to be invisible, how to make it stop. This video was so eye opening to me about the issues with bullying. I knew it went on, but I never knew the extremity it went to. Shane Koyczan’s talk can teach people a lot about the way kids feel when they get bullied.

By: Tracy Armstrong #6 on Ken Robinson's top ten ted talks

One of Sir Ken Robinson’s favorite ted talks is of Mae Jemison addressing the need to teach both the arts and science together. It amazes me that eleven years after Ms. Jemison gave that talk that we are still discussing the fact of whether we should teach art along with the sciences or not. Ms. Jemison says and science that art are manifestations of the same thing. They are avatars of human creativity. They spring from the same source. In other words, we must learn that they cannot and should not be separated. The most profound statement that Ms. Jemison said was that,” science provides understanding of a universal experience and the arts provides universal understanding of a personal experience. Both requires visions that must be put into action. They are both equally important because the actions will be builded upon by future generations. We have a responsibility to contribute to the legacy of our country. We cannot afford to fail to act for the future. We can learn from this ted talk by Ms. Mae Jemison that our understanding of the arts and sciences must be expressed and shared in order to further the growth of our nation.