Who cares for Caregivers?

In this article, the author talks about the stress and problems that a patient's relatives would get by taking care of this patient. Although taking care of the patients would bring about stress and potential problems, I feel that it is necessary to take care of one's relatives/siblings, especially when he/she does not have the essential means or the ability to take care of himself. The author has experienced several consequences of these 'stress' and 'problems', like the one where the father of a patient attempted to kill the patient so as to relieve burden and the case where the sister of a patient remains single to take care of the patient. We are obliged to take care of them as they are part of our family and we should do anything that's in our hands and our ability to take care of him/her, regardless the consequences and the problems that you would face. We have to do our part in this society to help the needy. Such actions are highly commendable and will bring joy to everyone.

There are, therefore, measures from the government and other organizations to help and support these patients. For Example, setting up the CPF Special Needs savings system where financial support is given to the patients.
As quoted from the article, "We cannot claim to be a civilised society if the weakest and most unfortunate among us are not adequately taken care of, and their parents cannot even die with peace of mind."

All Summers in a Day

When a person is different from the rest, the students decided to ostracize him/her, let alone tease and mock him/her. I think this behaviour is not acceptable. Even though the person might be different from the rest, he is still your classmate, your friend, and a person living in the same world as you. With sympathy and care, I believe the child who is different can be friends with you and adapt to the changing environment. But still, biasness, prejudice and therefore discrimination cannot be totally exterminated from this wicked world. There will always be people who discriminate others. What we can do before we help others is to help ourselves, and listen to our moral values, and to treat other people equally.
The person who is different (Let's take Margot for example), has to try to fit into society for 'sympathy and care' to work. Although people around her may try to talk to her, she does not talk back and she expresses signs that she wants to be left alone. Margot should attempt at making friends with her classmates, and do things that they will be interested in.
The students have to learn how to sympathize with Margot/the person who is different and show care for him/her in order for her to fit into the society.

Autumn

The golden trees stretched along the leaf-strewn road for as long as I could see and streaks of sunlight lit up the pebbled walkway. Golden leaves fell to the ground like snowflakes, and the blissful chirps of the mockingbird were pleasant to my ears. Squirrels scurried up and down, ever so agile. Strolling slowly along the path, I wondered if I was actually in a dream.

Oh, to be young and happy!

For one thing, I do have friends of other races, namely Indians and Malays. With friends of other races would expose you to their different cultures and I believe we can learn a lot from them. My belief is to be successful in life is to achieve happiness, and with a family to live with. Although the survey might not be reliable, the information should be of popular belief (of moral values instead of selfishness). How about spending time with parents? I think 10 hours a week is too little. Some parents might not be very free to stick around with children because of work (and that is their mistake), but we must try to talk to them and spend more time with them. At least 15 hours a week would be good.

(Y)

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

Firstly, I think the author is wrong to say that Chinese mothers are more strict than Western mothers. It might be more significant in Chinese culture, but there are also strict Western parents. And being strict does not always help the child, because it might be a fact that the child is unable to complete the task and not because of his/her self-esteem or confidence whatsoever. If the parent continues to drill the child but he's still unable to complete the task, then I think forcing the child to do things will be futile and will have a negative effect and forcing them will cause them emotional stress as well.
Secondly, not only strict parents will produce 'math genius' and 'music prodigies'. Let's take the American President for example. I do not believe his childhood was as 'strict' as those of the Chinese children. The truth is that his parents divorced when he was still quite young. His father died early in a car accident, and imagine the emotional impact on him. His achievement today is very commendable, being the first black president.
What I believe about parenting is that parents have to motivate the child and work their way towards academic success and the child's interest, rather than forcing them to do this and do that (e.g. Playing musical instruments). From young, even before the child had quite a mental ability to make decisions, parents should expose them to various things, like music and sports. Parents could either get them to learn music, and, or, pursue their interests from young. When I was young my parents saw that I enjoyed swimming and they pursued my interest by training me.
My parents are not like the author. They believe in motivation and not forcing me to do things. This has worked quite well for me and I also believe this is the right way.

Comic Strip - Online Learning

This comic is about a soccer team, whose coach was changed to a black man. At the time in the comic, this racial prejudice was very evident. The team refused to play for their new black coach, and because of his skin colour, believed he could not even be a half-decent coach. Whenever the team met, they were always segregated into two groups, the whites and the blacks. These two groups could never accept each other, be it friends or soccer teammates, even to the extreme of acceptance as a person.
Because of the uncountable disputes, the team could not function properly. During their World Cup preliminaries, they lost to a team which they could have beaten easily, and the road became tough. Soon, they all realized their mistake, and all made up to each other and their coach by working together: And released their potential. They walked away with the World Cup trophy.
The theme of my comic is about 'Prejudice', and I feel this is quite a prominent theme. In many parts of the world, there are still people being discriminated against, be it gender or race. The message I'm trying to convey is that as long as we tolerate and show acceptance, we can achieve great heights and unleash our potential. With a united spirit and effort put in, we can do anything.

'Mum, Singaporeans are very kind.'

Reflect on the issue at hand and let me know your response to this letter.

Some guiding questions:
What are your perceptions of the content?
Do you have any experiences or observations that are related to the issue at hand?
What you found inspiring, confusing, difficult, interesting and why.
Questions you have and conclusions you have drawn.
Comparisons and connections between what you are learning and :
- Your prior knowledge and experience
- Your prior assuumptions and preconceptions

Last year, our class faced a similar problem: Bullying and marginalizing one of our classmates. He was not a victim because of mild autism, but just about his personality and characteristics. He was a little anti-social and not the kind that people would normally enjoy sticking around with. Because of this, we started to bully him and pick on him. This was a rather similar case to that of the boy in the article, but just of a different reason. We found out that these could cause emotional stress to the victim, so we stopped bullying him, or rather tried to curb this problem.
What about the article? I think the story was touching, about how a boy overcame autism and his enjoyable education in Singapore. It probably is a true story, and I find it assuring that Singaporeans are so willing to help and not the kind who will marginalize and pick on people because of any disorders. I also want to know what the students did to help the boy that he became so happy and joyful, and is this forum post reliable (did it happen that way)?

Settings

Just a simple post with a chart of the various components.

Is it better to have never known something than to have known something but to ultimately lose it later?

Is it better to have never known something than to have known something but to ultimately lose it later?

In my own opinion, I would think that it is better to have known something but to ultimately lose it later than to never have known something. In this way, we would experience things and then, we learn from them. This way it's better than to never have known something because your horizon will be broadened through your 'experience', although there will definitely be a certain degree of agony or depression felt after your loss, but I think it is a worthy 'exchange'. Although you might be a little emotionally affected after your 'loss', the knowledge and experience you would gain would eventually lead to wisdom and your eventual success.

Actually, the decision would have to depend on the situation. Let's take 'love' for example: If you were attached but broke up, that would be much worse than to never have loved the person, because of the massive agony and depression that one would feel when you break up. But if the situation is something where a minor object is concerned, the degree of 'agony' and 'depression' would not be as bad, and since it's a minor object, knowledge of it would not be necessary.

Mindmap - The American Civil War

This mindmap is about the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union, which consisted of the free states, and the Confederacy, the Southern Slave States. This war was started all because of Slavery.

Have you ever been in part of a group of people...

Have you ever been part of a group of people who were unkind to one or some individuals? What was the circumstance? How did you act? What did you feel?

I have been part of such group before, and it actually only happened last year. Although it was not really a serious case, it was about the marginalizing of one of my classmates which I shall not name. Last year, our class was quite unkind and 'bias' against this person, and what we did was to tease him all the time and may even play different pranks on him, just because he's a quiet person, and a little anti-social. Except those who were more responsible, almost the whole class was involved in this case of bullying. They did things like sabotaging him in various situations and taunting him by clapping and cheering, for example, if he was chosen by the teacher to go up and do something or say something. In fact, to be honest, I was one of them. But after reflecting on my actions, my attitude changed.

What did I feel? I felt that we cannot do this to him just because he's so quiet and anti-social. He might just be a shy person and a person who does not really like to talk to people. Even if he's anti-social, we still have to respect him as a person and appreciate him as a friend. What's more, he's our classmate. We have to look out for each other don't we? I stopped my 'bullying' actions and actually tried to make friends with him. Although I tried without success, I believe one day when the class has changed their minds and are not 'unkind' to him anymore, he would change his mind as well and might even decide to befriend us and talk more.
What should we do then? We should really talk to him more, and show our care for him. As I mentioned earlier, we can even make him change his mind so that he will choose to befriend us and not be anti-social anymore.
Although my attitude has changed, not the whole class have decided to act like I do and help him out.

Bon Courage! :D

Prejudice

I just did some short research about 'Prejudice', and here are my findings. Help me out guys by commenting on them? XD

Prejudice:
Types of prejudice:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Social / Political
- Appearance?
- Religion

 The Definition of Prejudice: A prejudice is a prejudgement, an assumption made about someone or something before having adequate knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy. Usually refers to a preconceived judgement toward a people or a person because of:
o Race
o Social Class
o Gender
o Ethnicity
o Age
o Disability
o Political Beliefs
o Religion
o Sexual Orientation
o Including other personal chatacteristics

Common Misconceptions?

Prejudices are abstract-general preconceptions or abstract-general attitudes towards any type of situations, object, or person.

Stereotypes are generalizations of existing characteristics that reduce complexity.

Discrimination is the cognitive and sensory capacity or ability to see fine distinctions and perceive differences between objects, subjects, concepts and patterns, or possess exceptional development of the senses.

There is a difference between these 3 words, as Ms. Soh said, and I hope these can help with the 'misconception'!

Big Fish - Analysis

My analysis obviously isn't very accurate so can you guys help me out too by commenting! XD

Big Fish

1. What does the phrase “a big fish in a small pond” mean to you?
- Person with big ‘ambition’ or ‘potential’ but lives in a restrictive society, somewhere he cannot develop as well or perhaps act as he wants to in his ‘ambitions’.
- Someone who’s very important in a very small place.

2. What is the purpose of Edward Bloom’s tall tale about the big fish and the wedding ring?
- He probably wanted to talk about the story for his wife.

- With 100 Dollar notes fish didn’t take the bait, but with a wedding ring the fish took the bait.

3. How does William Bloom as a boy feel about his father’s telling of the tale? How does this feeling change as he gets older?
- When he was young he enjoyed the story.
- As he grew up, he didn’t like them, thinks they’re boring and annoying and he knew that it was never true, just to tell an entertaining ‘tall tale’ story.

4. Why does Edward Bloom feel the need to keep repeating the tale throughout his life?
- He lived a boring life and he wants to spice up his life with something entertaining.

5. What does the tale reveal about the relationship between Edward and William Bloom?
- It became increasingly strained...
- William believes his father has never been honest with him because Edward creates extravagant myths about his past to hide himself, possibly using storytelling as a avoidance mechanism.

6. Consider the following quote: “In telling the story of my father’s life, it’s impossible to separate fact from fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is to tell it the way he told me. It doesn’t always make sense, and most of it never happened, but that’s what kind of story this is,” What stories have you been told that match this description? What is the effect of telling a story in this way?
- Maybe the experience was to understand that our stories and the deeper reality of our lives may not be our truest self. These stories might give us a new reality or dimension that we all seek.

7. Does bending or exaggerating the truth for the purpose of conveying an entertaining story undercut the believability of such a story? Is a tall tale less valid than a straight reportage of the facts? Why and why not?

- An entertaining story should usually have a certain degree of exaggeration for the readers to share a similar experience, and more. A ‘tall tale’ won’t hurt for an entertaining story, but if one is giving a straight reportage of the facts then it wouldn’t really be a ‘story’ anymore, but rather telling the listener what happened to yourself.
Why do we tell story? To spice up our life and make our life more interesting.


 The theme: Reconciliation between a dying father and his son

 The plot: Edward Bloom, a former travelling salesman from the Southern United States with a gift for storytelling, now confined to his deathbed. Bloom’s estranged son, a journalist, attempts to mend their relationship as his dying father relates tall tales of his eventful life as a young adult.

Personal Targets 2011

Personal Target (Language Arts):

1. What went well for LA last year?

Lessons were interesting and engaging. Involvement of the class was evident as well. Although my grade was not that good, I think my progress in Language Arts was quite good and I enjoyed the lessons very much as well.
Due to some of my own mistakes, not much of other aspects of Language Arts went well last year.

2. What went wrong?

Not enough practice probably caused a drop in grades, and the quality of my work declined as well. Occasional lack of attentiveness in class probably caused me to miss out on some important details, which might have caused the drop in grades as well.
The strategy that I used to revise for the examinations was to ‘mug’ and cram information into my head at the last minute before examinations, instead of studying as well as revising often and regularly.

3. What is my LA target for 2011?

My target score for LA this year is A1 (XD), and to improve my comprehension and summary grades which I though were the ones which pulled my marks down. I hope to improve my overall attitude towards studies this year as well as rectifying some of my strategy mistakes (e.g. ‘Mugging’)

4. How do I achieve this target?

I believe I can achieve this target by practising much more often than I did last year. Maybe ‘Reading Rites’ might help? Getting help from friends can work too.
By changing my mistake of ‘mugging’, I would study often and regularly everyday. This probably includes revising contents of the lesson when I get home, and doing extra practices regularly outside of class.