Aiden's Western Civ Blog

Today in class we complained about changing seats for a majority of the time. Normally I get annoyed by all of the complaining but I kind of agreed this time. I liked my seat for many reasons. First is because it was in the center of the room, so I could see without glasses. Second, my friends were there, now they aren't. It also really bothers me that everything is skewed to one side of the room. After that debacle, we started talking about how Manhattan is about twice as big as it was when it was first built. They did it by sinking ships and putting garbage over it.  

Today in class we had two shadows, both of which I've forgotten the names of. We talked about very trivial things for a good bit. After that, we actually started class. First Mr. Schick surprised us with a pop quiz. It was pretty easy. Then we talked about site. Mr. Schick told us how repulsive it is that we eat crabs. I personally agree with him. It was to show us that we shouldn't judge other people's culture because we are weird too.

Today in class, Mr. Schick was on a field trip, so we read up on site and situation. Site is  the physical character of a place.   Important  sites include things like climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude and elevation. Combining physical features give an area its character. Humans, however can change or transform an area's features with machines and other devices. Manhattan is twice as big today as it was in 1626. Situation is a location of a place relative to other places. It’s important because it helps us find unfamiliar places by using familiar ones as landmarks. Many locations are important because they are accessible to other places. 

Today in class Mr. Schick graded and critiqued our blogs. He called us up one by one to tell us what was wrong with all of them. At this time, he hasn't called me up yet but I already know what he is going to say since I don't have titles on them. I'm not sure what to title this one either because the isn't a very eventful class. I was right. He said I didn't have titles. I figured that would be my main problem. He also said since I have to type these with one hand they can be a little shorter. I'm not really sure how much shorter he meant, but I think this is long enough.

Today in human geo class, we finally got our tests back after 2 weeks of waiting. A lot of people got As! When a person gets an A on a test, Mr. Schick rings his little desk bell. If someone gets 100% or higher, he rings it twice. When he called Vlad, he rung the bell twice. I guess that means he did good. It was funnier when someone didn't get the bell rung because of the awkward silence. We also talked about other things. We talked about how every place on earth is unique and how no two places are the same. A place is a unique location and a region is an area of unique characteristic.

Today in Human Geo, we tried to draw mental maps. A mental map is a map that comes strictly from how you remember it. To make a mental map physical, you cannot look at a real map. You must draw what you know or think you know. I think my map was pretty spot on, I just suck at drawing. If I tried, I could name all two hundred sixteen countries if I wanted to, but locating them on a mp is a lot more challenging. We also had to make a map of our route to school. I was horrible at this because I am always playing on my phone on the way to school.

Today, for me, was very interesting . It started off slow with an Intro to Bible test. After nearly failing the test, I had biology, where I thought I failed a test but the score was put in incorrectly. After advisory, I had to take an algebra test during my off mod because I had to leave early, so I couldn’t take the test during the period. The test was easy. I wasn’t in class for Human Geo today because of doctors’ appointments. I had to talk to a surgeon about a surgery I have on Friday. Then I went to the hematologist to get a blood transfusion. While typing this, I am in the waiting room for the hematologist. Hopefully all goes well.

Today in class we took a test. I think I did fairly well. It was about everything we've learned this year so far. It was about A Message to Garcia, Socrates, Socrates's death, the Socratic Method and Ancient Greece as a whole. My favorite part was the first essay question which was, "What is your interpretation of 'The unexamined life is not worth living,' and do you agree with Socrates." I didn't agree with him because the government could be and is hiding certain information from us, meaning we already are technically living an unexamined life, and we seem fine with it. After finishing the test about a half an hour and hour early, I checked over my test about 7 times. After that, I finally decided to turn in my test.  

Today in class we debated about what we should do to North Korea. Some arguments included how we should leave them be or ignore everything that is happening until it goes nuclear. I argued that we should assassinate Kim Jong Un before he is able to hurt any of us. If we are to kill him, the country would have no stable form of government, because he is the one who leads it all. It would cause a lot of chaos, maybe even a civil war. Whilst everyone is fighting for power, the American people swoop in and take over, making it a democracy and therefore getting rid of all problems. The reason we learned about this stuff was so Mr. Schick could teach us the Socratic Method. Socrates would teach children using this method, where he would only ask questions and have them answer. I found it really fun and hope that we get to use this more often then not.

Today in class we researched some important terms for future classes. An agora is a gathering place and market. They are a place for spiritualism, sports, meeting and art. A polis is a political entity that is run by the people who live there. Nowadays, that is known as a democracy. Polis is also the origin the words politics, metropolitan and poll.  508 BCE was the first time in recorded history a body of people revolted against their leader. They started the first of many revolutions, for example: The American Revolution, The French Revolution, both Chinese revolutions, The Russian Revolution, and many more. We learned Socrates was a philosopher from Greece who taught young people his ways of thinking. We also learned how he died. He was on trial and was to either denounce his beliefs or be put to death. He chose to die. Some people refer to this as a "forced suicide.'

Today in class we learned all about the meaning behind A Message to Garcia. It was published as an essay back in March of 1899. But because it was so popular, it was reprinted as a pamphlet and a book. Over a few decades, it sold over 40 million copies and was translated into 37 different languages. Because it was so popular, it was made into a movie 2 times. The phrase "take a message to Garcia" became a super popular phrase and is still used in the military even today. It is used as a phrase to say, "take initiative." This story took place during the Spanish American War, during the McKinley office. Hubbard, the man behind A Message to Garcia , based the story off of Rowan, a U.S. military soldier that delivered a message to Garcia. The message said that American wanted Cuba to win the war because if they didn't, Spain would be right near America, which would be bad. We also learned what "arete" is. It is excellence of any kind.