November to Remember: Water is to Life as Friendship is to Happiness. By Kiera Yee

        Sand flying in all directions, sweat dripping down our faces, and SMACK…only two familiar faces remain in the Gaga pit. After a few seconds, a winner is claimed and wins the title: King or Queen. Immediately after this intense moment, we jump back in for another round of Gaga Ball: new alliances form along with new friendships, thus creating the memorable trip to Walker Creek in August. That’s where it all started: the friendships, inside jokes, and most of all, the MSEL (Marin School of Environmental Leadership) community we helped create. As a class, we experience MSEL memories every week, moments that will stick in our minds and become stories to tell in the future. Through these memories, new friendships have formed connecting us to together, enabling us and creating our own MSEL vibe.

This past Thanksgiving, I was very thankful about how close the MSEL community has become. MSEL students collaborate while working on group projects without any awkwardness. This is mainly because of the friendships formed during our four day trip to Walker Creek. These connections we created became the foundation for working together on our water themed group projects. We are learning we can be equally thankful for water, because without water we would not be able to survive and experience the laughs we share!

Water is the current focus of our study in our MSEL classes, learning both about how water affects us and other countries. In Geography, we’ve talked about water distribution, which causes disagreements and violence between countries. In addition, the placing of borders near or on a water source is causing disputes between cities, states, and countries. As a result, people move where the water is but sometimes the it’s is on the other side of the border, again, causing disagreement and violence to occur. For example, Israel is pumping an unfair amount of water out of the Jordan River leaving less than 35 percent of the river’s water for Pakistan. Plus, the Jordon River is one of many water sources where the water is unsanitary, causing thousands of people to die from dirty, contaminated water every day. Water controls our lives because without it the human race would not be able to survive.

Water affects our daily lives and health because we are made up of 70 percent water, which nourishes our bodies. Without water in our bodies, we start to have dehydration headaches and our skin dries up, creating wrinkles and speeding up aging. We should all go to our doctor regularly to get a full body physical, according to Mr. Garcia, our Health teacher. He says water flushes out bad materials in our body and affects our ability to be healthy. It wouldn’t hurt to check our body’s pH level either; we wouldn’t want our body to be as dirty as Nemo’s tank filled with algae in the movie Finding Nemo, because that would be disgusting!  Nemo swam in the ocean that is part of the 97.5 percent of the world’s water that is undrinkable to humans. In Geography we learned the rest of the 2.5 percent is fresh water, but of that 2.5 percent only 30.1 percent is available to humans.

Not all humans, however, have access to clean water. Students at Terra Linda High School (TLHS) drink clean groundwater. We are lucky because we go to school on a daily basis, unlike kids in many parts of Africa, where many cannot attend school because they are sick from contaminated water. On top of this, some kids are unable to go to school because they are out fetching water for their families. We are fortunate to have clean water access only a few feet away from us at home or at school. The girls at TLHS are able to attend school because we have usable toilets. Without usable toilets at school, girls in Africa drop out when they hit puberty. They start collecting water for their families instead of receiving an education. The girls walk barefoot for miles to the closest water source and on the long trek back home carry gallons of water on their heads. However, Africa is very efficient on how they use their water. We could learn a thing or two from the people in Africa because they recycle their water; for instance, they use grey water for agriculture. We have it easy because we can turn on the faucet rather than having to fetch our own water. In the end, the world is running out of clean drinkable water and yet America is treating water like there is always going to be an endless stream of it.

We’re fooling ourselves thinking we have a choice about learning to conserve water. Referring to our English class novel, Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse, we need to overcome Maya (illusions) to see the real problems occurring now, like water issues, and take part to create solutions. People don’t realize they are contaminating their own reservoirs and the oceans surrounding them. The first step along Buddhism’s Eightfold Path is Right Understanding. If everybody started to see the world as it is, with all illusions out the window, a real change could be made. I wonder how our lifestyles would be different if we had to fetch our own water on a daily basis? We pass by this thought because there is no effort when we need water: it is just there, due to thousands of underground pipes, water simply appears in our shower, sink, and garden hose. The people at MMWD (Marin Municipal Water District) designed a system so we can have clean water coming from the reservoirs on Mount Tam flowing into our house where our effort can be focused on school instead. On Thanksgiving, I hope everyone took a moment to be thankful for the wonderful workers at MMWD.

Without water, there is no life on this struggling planet and without water we would not be here today experiencing our friendships together. In some ways, water is like friendships: Ms. Leonhart made this connection when she said, “Water is to life as friendship is to happiness.” Without water, MSEL would not be here today trying to make changes in the world’s issues. As with friendship, there is drama in how water works: sometimes it’s just too hard to manage and handle. I know for some people it is hard not to litter or to conserve water, but we must try. We need to keep in mind water is essential to nature, so we should be inclined to treat it with the respect we give to our friends.

When you are unhappy, your friends make you happy just by the comfort and warmth they give you. This is similar to how water makes living life feel, like water flowing through your body quenching your dehydration, or a hot shower when you are sore. The comfort of water is never doubted, but if there is no more water there is no more life. As we, MSEL students, continue along our own Eightfold Path toward environmental leadership, we follow the Hero’s Journey to success (or failure) appreciating the importance of water and our friendships along the way.

Like The Ocean, Claire Parkinson Covers It All.

As always, last week was packed with new lessons, different outlooks on similar ideas, and a ridiculous amount of laughter. As well as learning about some mind-blowing philosophy, human reproduction, and valuable information on water, there were other useful skills we developed over the week. In third period, Zargar and his senior sidekick, Jackson, taught the class not only passive transport of cells, but how to properly chest pass in basketball, and volley in soccer. We celebrated our science aid Kent’s birthday on Thursday; it turns out one of the reservoirs that the MWWD informed us of in preparation of our field trip was named after him! Kent reservoir, of course, along with other popular areas, Kentfield and Kentucky. I'm only kidding. Although our classroom environment is filled with laughter, we do study topics that deserve a more serious tone.

Some sources say we reached a mind-blowing  global population of seven billion people on Monday. Whether that huge number has in fact been reached or if it’s in several months to come, the importance remains. The world’s population and industry are booming--and fast. Our precious, plentiful Earth can only take so much. There will be a point in the future, sooner then you may think, when there simply won’t be enough resources and space for everyone. We have to unite and stop our destructive ways and need for more, before it’s too late.

Zero period tied directly to our lessons about population growth. Health class consisted of a continuation of the people from Huckleberry sharing their knowledge with us. We learned about Human anatomy, reproduction, and birth control. In developing countries, where people are less educated and stricken by poverty, population growth becomes a problem. If people can’t afford to purchase birth control, or have no idea such a thing exists, they are unable to reduce the number of kids they have. Aviva Joseph is an eco-psychologist who spoke to our English class this week. She said there are many realms of consciousness, and unconsciousness within yourself. This includes the things you know (like that you can speak English, or understand what the Pill is and how to use it), the things you know you don’t know (like that you can’t speak Chinese, or put a condom on correctly), and then there’s the things you don’t know that you don’t know( like you have no idea that Flemish is a language, or you aren’t even aware there is such a thing as birth control.) These are tough concepts to grasp, but show that the universe holds many secrets, we will never really discover them all, and things exist that we couldn’t even dream of!

The book Siddhartha’s main character is on a quest to discover the secrets that exist in his universe. Siddhartha is a novel by Herman Hesse, which we recently dove into in English class. The book focuses on the tough journey a determined man faces as he seeks enlightenment. We learned about aspects of Eastern religions in preparation for reading. We all awkwardly practiced uttering the meditative word “om” and singing along to the “Circle of Life” which related to Samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.) Maya is said to be the illusions that exist in life, much like the illusion we have that our environment will continue to provide for us, no matter the extent of our demands. Of course, the illusion is not true. Siddhartha goes about his goal by following the Eight-fold Path and discovering the Four Noble Truths. Buddhists believe that life is suffering, and the way to end this suffering is to end desire. Rejecting one’s cravings is a difficult task, which makes stopping addiction a tremendous problem. We all learned the foundation of addictions in English a few weeks ago, and even discovered our own when writing our “Trash Talking” Essays. Siddhartha and his companion, Govinda, become Samanas early in the book, and participate in an ascetic lifestyle, which means separating one’s self from material objects and desire, in order to attain a higher level of spirituality. These people live in the woods with no possessions, food, shelter, clothing or anything else we take for granted in our day-today lives. They spend their days meditating and begging the streets. Our trash essays really made us think about our own consumption habits, and how--although extreme-- maybe the Samanas were onto something.  How much easier would our lives be if we could be content with less stuff?

Modern society teaches us in a variety of ways that we constantly need more and better. Advertising tells us if we just get that one makeup product or cologne then we will finally be beautiful! Weeks later, that item is useless as the new, improved object hits the market, and all of a sudden we need that one now...and the cycle continues. The media traps us into this idea that more is always better--but is it, really?  Will that one possession really make my life so much more fulfilling? Companies also try to convince us that expensive, packaged bottled water is superior to the cheap, clean tap water that flows straight out of your kitchen faucet. Water rules our modern lifestyle, and without it we wouldn’t be able to survive. People argue that it is not fair to charge for water, because then poverty-stricken people cannot get access to a resource necessary for life. In the movie Flow, they are trying to get the UN to pass “Article 31”. It states that charging for water would be like charging for oxygen, such a needed resource that is is unjust to be paid for. It states that all people, no matter their financial status, have a right to clean, safe, accessible water. We need to change our culture and convince society the truth--that less could really be better, not only for the environment, but for our personal wealth, health and happiness. In Biology several weeks ago, we watched a TED video that pulled all these concepts of “stuff” together. We need to understand that our own actions have a water-ripple effect on everyone else, and look at the world as a whole.

If you look on a globe, the areas of blue far outnumber the areas of green: the Earth has much more water then it does land. The amount of water on this Earth is not the crisis we are facing; it is the accessibility and quality of this water that is problematic. The Hydrolic cycle has recycled the same trillions of gallons of water on Earth for millions of years. Most of this water is not usable for humans, the majority of it is salt water, and even most of the fresh water is trapped in glaciers or underground. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (and only 0.007% of the Earth’s total water) is available for human usage. Many factors have caused the health of the world’s water to deplete.  Pollution of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and dumping of sewage and waste into water bodies are ways humans directly input chemicals into water. People don’t realize the effect they have on the Earth, and themselves and how we are all connected. As Megan reminded us and the Buddhists believe, everything is a cycle. If you put pollutants in water, your own drinking supply of water becomes more toxic, which affects your own health, just like the idea of Karma: “what goes around, comes around.” Our own cycle of individual consumption is the driving force that leads to a long list of adversities. Places in the world are suffering because they do not have access to sanitary water. In Madsen’s Geography class, we learned about how dirty water affects Africa, and we brainstormed solutions together as a class. We analyzed our own behaviors and made a list of all the ways we use water on a daily basis. We need to learn how to control our own actions not just for ourselves, but for the entire planet, because we are all connected and all have our “biophilic instinct” (E.O Wilson) whether we like it or not.

Sure, we will be doubted. People won’t believe a ‘measly’ group of twenty-five freshmen can change anything in a crisis the covers the entire surface area of the Earth, an enormous 510,072,000 square kilometers. They have no idea what we are capable of! This Earth is a vast, wondrous, beautiful place that is worth saving. We understood our beauty and our connection to nature when we listened to the poem by Gérard de Nerval in the beginning of the week: “Look carefully in an animal at a spirit alive; every flower is a soul opening out into nature; a mystery touching love is asleep inside metal. "Everything is intelligent!" And everything moves you.” Ms. Leonhart also quoted Margaret Mead in the beginning of the year, and her idea recently popped up again in the movie Flow It describes our mission perfectly. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Marin SEL has unlimited possibilities, and as long we we believe in ourselves, we can truly change the world.

Sources:

(http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/.)

(http://www.universetoday.com/42186/how-big-is-the-earth/.)

What Flows Around Comes Around, by Megan Harvey

 Our day to day lives are made up of cycles, from waking up at the same time every day to sitting through the same classes. When you think about it, cycles can be found everywhere. For instance, recycling is most likely one of the most common cycles in our daily lives. The lifespan of a plastic water bottle goes far beyond just using it once, throwing it away, and never thinking about it again. The most common cycle, however, is the cycle of life. We are born, we live, we die.  It just makes me think how we want to enjoy and make meaning of our lives. This week, that is what I found myself drawn to in every class because it seems cycles keep coming up. Life truly is one big cycle and we explored this idea in each of our classes this week….

     The Huckleberry Youth Center came to speak with us in Health about our choices and actions in terms of our reproductive health (speaking of life cycles). I never though about how such small decisions could have such powerful impact; for instance, becoming pregnant or getting an STD from one unprotected encounter.  Some of the ways we can protect ourselves are being abstinent, and thinking and acting with responsibility.  Making these choices now means we protect our futures. Even though it might have been awkward learning about all the body parts, it was still a good time. The week was filled with facts, games, giggles and yawns as we learned about the cycle of reproduction and life. 

     This week in English, we did a poem mural of Ted Loder’s “Let Something Essential Happen to Me.” The poem expresses one’s desire for purpose and meaning in life: “something essential and joyful…something like the blooming of hope and faith, like a grateful heart, like a surge of awareness.”  As teens, we can all relate to this poem’s message, because we all want to find our purpose through positive action. Once we put all of our lines together, the poem flowed like a river, just like the Water Unit! Now, I find myself noticing cycles in the book we are beginning to read, Siddhartha, about a man who discovers himself through a hero’s journey—another cycle!  His metamorphosis connects to the decisions that we make in our own lives, for example, in reducing our eco-footprint and actions regarding our health. The intro lessons we prepared related to concepts from the book, like Samsara, Maya and Karma—all cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.

     Speaking of karma, we need to make fundamental changes regarding our use of water. As the population reaches seven billion, major conflicts arise over our limited water supply. The planet had the same amount of water it has always had, but the health of that water is deteriorating. The hydrologic cycle, or water cycle, is the process of water evaporating, coming back down as rain, and flowing back to the oceans. It’s constant. Mr. Madsen introduced the idea of paying for water: who has rights to water, third world countries unable to pay for water, and the overall cycle of money and business. In class we researched conflicts regarding water in Africa, and found that water issues relate to poverty, lack of education, sickness and hunger. I found myself thinking about how money, government and water all connected. If you’re poor, you don’t get water?! Water is like air; it should be free for everyone alive.  The movie Flow brings up the idea of compromise between economic growth and water rights. When we manipulate natural cycles we harm the earth and ourselves.

     Cycles exist not only in vast bodies of water, but in places as tiny as cells. In Biology, we learned that cells involve cycles too because they complete their functions over and over and are always changing.  Our projects focused on ocean acidification, which is where the pH levels, or amounts of acid in the oceans increase, killing off many species of animals. We looked at specific bodies of water that impact many peoples' business and food, and saw how acidification has affected these aspects of life. Groups researched places such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Amazon River and created a prezi to present their findings. The results were incredible. Ocean acidification affects everyone everywhere, even if it is not recognized yet. The steps leading up to acidification are also cycle: more fertilizer being used means more being swept into water bodies and pollution in air means more acid rain. These small changes create a huge affect to the water, making it unhabitable for life. No fishing means no business and no money for fisherman and other businesses relying on the fish. Everything is affected, like dominos knocking each other over. It is really just one big never ending cycle unless we take action to help stop acidification. 

        Overall, this week was filled with lessons that connected to each other. It's unique and interesting to be able to study one thing in five different ways, seeing something in a different light every time. My classmates and I never knew how water could be connected to money, literature, pollution, and health. I certainly never knew what acidification was and how it caused dead zones, and I never knew that water could be so influential to money and business. It truly is facinating to see how different elements interact to form one large cycle of never ending changes. 

Getting Into the Flow: Sheila's Blog

       Ocean, lakes, rivers, streams, puddles: water is everywhere and we use it in multiple ways . It is used to water plants, wash the dishes, drink, take showers, wash you hands-- these just are the most obvious ways. People don’t think about it, but water is also used in the making of clothes, making food, and plenty of other ways . You may not know this: 70 % of the earth is water, but only 2.5 % is fresh water.  The rest is too salty to drink . And from the 2.5 % of fresh water, only less that 1% is available for us to consume because the rest is trapped in glaciers. This is an important fact, because if we keep misusing our fresh water then we won’t have enough water for the human population: that's what Mr. Madsen taught us.

        This week in most our MSEL classes we focused more on water and ways we humans affect the environment. In World Geography , we watched The 11th Hour, in English, we spent time working on our “Trash Talking Essay” and spoke about socially acceptable addictions, and in Seminar we continued working on our “Ocean Acidification” projects, using Prezi.

        Throughout the week, Ms. Leonhart had us work on our “Trash Talking Essays”*. There is probably no better way to evaluate how much waste we produce on a daily basis than to carry a bag for twenty four hours and fill it with your own garbage. I think it helped us become more cautious and aware. Now, I notice more people carrying reusable water bottles and also bringing reusable plastic containers for snack or lunch. My personal experience with this project was that I found it difficult to carry a bag and fill it up with my garbage. At times I would forget to do it, but in the end, I learned from this experience that its important to reduce our waste habits. If just 25 people produce so much trash, imagine how much much the whole population puts on the Earth. It’s a tremendous amount of weight that we all put on the Earth.

        

The 11th Hour explained to us how humans affect the environment and also what we are doing to decrease our fossil fuel footprint. We as humans create vast amounts of pollution. Fossil fuels are substances made from remains of ancient plants and animals that reside deep inside the Earth. Over time, heat and pressures turn decompositions into fuels which release a huge amount of energy when burned. Coal, oil, and natural gases are the three main fossil fuels that humans use. Fortunately,  scientists and many other people are coming up with more and more ideas to to save our environment.  One idea they have is to build a photosynthetic building . This was scientist William McDonough’s idea. That means buildings could act like trees and plants and take in CO2 and produce oxygen for us to take in .  Isn’t that clever ? In my opinion,  we need more people thinking like William McDonough : outside of the box.

        In Seminar this week, we worked on our ocean acidification projects. We researched the oceans of the world, and helped each other learn how acidification has social and economic impact as well as environmental.  From the projects, we’ve all learned that the more acidic the water is, the fewer sea creatures are able to stay alive. Having fewer fish, oysters, shrimp, octopi and other sea life affects our economy (and the earth) tremendously. If we don’t have enough food to sell then the economy worsens, and many fishermen could potentially  lose their jobs. There’s plenty of other affects of ocean acidification , but its important to conserve our oceans. We are a part of a food chain. We look at it like a pyramid where we are at the top, but in reality, it’s a chain, and when one animal suffers, so does everyone else.

We have a long way to go, both as individuals and as a whole planet. Together we can come up with innovative ways to reduce fossil fuels, reduce pollutions, and help our oceans from further ocean acidification. Marin SEL is just the beginning, but we’re part of a chain, too. If we commit ourselves to the work we are beginning, we can accomplish our goals and encourage more people to be aware and act in the service of the earth and all its connected inhabitants.

*Students have been working on observational writing: paying close and objective attention to our environment to see what it can tell us. With this assignment, we’re seeing what insights our trash can yeild. Thus, “Trash Talking.” Much more constructive than the usual kind!

Connections, Addictions and Solutions! By Sami McLaughlin

“You want connections, I can make connections: they call me The Connector,” says Zargar. Over the past week, I closely observed class and found that what we are learning in each subject really connects, even though it may be taught in different ways. 

One of the main ideas that we tackled over the past week in MSEL was overpopulation. In World Geography, we learned that if the growth rate continues to progress, then not only will areas become more crowded, but we will accumulate more waste, and start to run out of non renewable resources such as fossil fuels. This then lead to a debate regarding China’s one-child policy, an attempt to reduce the population by creating a law only allowing one child per family. This may only be in China for now, but if it becomes an issue in the future, do we want the government getting that deep into our personal lives? While this law will help decrease the population growth, it also brings up issues: families want boys who can carry on the family name, or a child that will become a doctor or a lawyer, not a factory worker. But fewer people making our stuff, means the price of things go up. What if we had a decreased number of just skilled workers, only making essential items? This idea is very unlikely, because we seem to be addicted to consuming and buying more and more stuff. John made the analogy, “When you feed wild animals people food, they’ll always want more.” It seems that the more we buy, the more we want, but what do we actually need?

This leads us to the main focus in English: our addictions. What’s in your box? Do we really need everything we have? In a section of Andrew Weil’s article, Why We Are All Addicted, he says, “Addiction is a part of our core being. It’s a part of who we are. Given that, what can we do about addictive behavior?” There was an idea that caught my attention from the TED video about editing our lives, in Seminar as well. The presenter was talking about how by owning less stuff you are being environmentally conscious, saving more money, and are all around, a much happier person. Yet, we still chose to consume! It is true, there is no point in trying to deny that we are obsessed with certain actions. In Ms. Leonhart’s class, we have been trying to decipher what addiction means, and how we can replace those obsessions with something else. 

As a group, we came up with some alternatives to addictions. Some short term solutions are to simply take a break, slow down, and really think about your options before making a decision. Also, a good strategy is to replace that craving with something healthier, more eco-friendly, or even try to cut it off at the roots. To gather insight on our own consumptions, we collected our trash for 24 hours, to see how much waste we produce each day. Then, we came up with solutions to each item we collected. For example, I buy a soup that comes dried, in a plastic bag. The next step could be to buy a soup that comes in a can, or even make my own with organic vegetables, which is in fact much healthier. Then, we are planning to tie all our thoughts together on our addictions to consuming in an essay over the next week, and submit the final draft in by email, a great way to save over 100 pieces of paper. 

Speaking of saving paper, in Seminar, we are working on graphing where the garbage cans are around the school. Therefore, we can see how much waste we would reduce with a recycling system. It may be a long process, but in the end, it will help save money, resources and of course the environment. We also got a sneak peek on our next unit, Water, both in Seminar and Biology. Because of the CO2 from cars, and SO2 from coal plants, acid is being created in the air causing the H+ ions get in the water, making PH levels go down, which eventually leads to ocean acidification, no longer allowing organisms to survive. That isn’t only bad for the oceans, but for the economy and our needs as well.

In between all the work we accomplished throughout the past week, we also had time for fun. For example, we got to hear about Ms. Leonhart’s coffee addiction (*slurp*), and of course Mr. Madsen’s daily classic, jazz song on his record player. A fun experience was when we found a device that shoots air in the back of the biology classroom, and Mael, Dylan, Ethan and others went around blasting air at everyone. Also, something that will definitely not be forgotten: when Zargar was convinced that he was the Persian Airbender. To impress us, he even set hand sanitizer on fire, turning the flames blue! It is amazing how after only a couple of months, our class works together like we have been a group for a years. Last week was an exhilarating journey in Marin SEL, and I am looking forward to another week full of more learning, as well as fun memories shared within our class.

Sydney's Blog: Apathy and Objectivity

In class, I’ve been hearing a lot about apathy: people not caring. Most say apathy exists because our society encourages it. The media discourages inclusion in politics, about half of eligible American citizens don’t vote because they don’t think that their vote matters. Apathy is a result of obstacles put in the way of people caring, such as people being encouraged to do the wrong thing because it is the easier choice. This is seen very often at school: all you have to do is look in one of the recycling bins, and they are filled with trash and different types things that belong in the bins right next to the bin you’re looking into.

In almost all movies and books people are told to be a hero, so they become one, they don’t choose to be a hero they are chosen to be. People see or read this and they believe that they can’t choose to be a hero or a leader; someone has to tell them to. How do we get a bunch of apathetic individuals to become heroes? That's the question.

The main focus of the week had been observing objectively. We are developing this skill in each of our classes in different ways.

In English, we’re working on being able to look at a scene or a place and write down observations that are free of judgments and personal opinions. As writers we must be able to both write our feelings but also what we see without our personal beliefs. We have been reading A River Runs Through It: on the surface it’s just a book about fly-fishing, but as you start to look deeper, there are lots of metaphors for life, such as the river. The author, Norman Maclean, writes the story both with a lot of emotion and no emotion at all (subjectively and objectively).

In Biology, it is a daily requirement to be able to observe and hold back our opinions. Every week we perform a lab, in the lab we record the data that is observed, nothing more nothing less. If we were to add our own personal thoughts to the data collected from a lab, all of the results would be thrown off track, one group’s results would be nothing like their neighboring group’s results.

In Geography, we are beginning to study the different cultures of the world, to do this we must be able to look at the characteristics of each culture objectively to learn about them. If we let our judgments get in the way of what we are seeing and learning, we will never be able to see them and learn about them as they truly are, we will learn only what we see through our judgments.

In Health, we’re learning not to judge people at first sight, but to truly get to know them before we decide who there are to us. To try to stop stereotyping people because it is impossible to tell just how much everyone is affected by individual judgments.

As well as learning, we also have lots of fun goofing off, even though some of things we do are because we are so tired, such as Mael calling Madsen by his first name. Despite how tired we are, we are one of the loudest classes I have ever heard. This results in some interesting quotes form our teachers: as Zargar summed it up, “If I have to tell you to be quiet one more time, I’m shutting this operation down!” Most of the crazy things happen in Zargar’s class… mainly because he’s crazy. Mael, Dylan, and Ethan where losing their minds raising their hands so they could make a comment. It ended in a row-sham-bo match that ended in the two people who didn’t win the match desperately saying “two out of three, it’s always two out of three.” In the end, Ethan was given permission to say that Mountain Dew kills sperm and White Mountain Dew was invented because it didn’t kill sperm. In one of the two classes that we have Zargar, we just do whatever needs to be done and these were a result of that. All in all, we are having a lot of fun and also learning a ton: as Zargar reminds us, “You gotta get data; to get data you gotta count garbage!” and finally, perhaps the most important, “You do what you gotta do so can do what you want to do.”

Ms. L’s note: It sounds, overall, like the connections your are making are powerful and applicable in all walks of life. I am curious how you see our “Trash Talking” Essay (it’s not what it sounds like!) is bringing this all together, and I’d love to hear more about your feelings on creating heroes out of apathetic individuals. For readers who are interested as well as honors strand MSELers, please read the NY Times article link on our site. I look forward to next week's blog from Sami McLoughlin--stay tuned for her picture and more links to great articles and videos.