Week 12 at Whitney Young

This week was very short. We only had 2 actual days of school because of Thanksgiving break. This week was also the start of the Boy's Swimming & Diving Team. We started practice Monday and we have a meet next Friday. Other than that, this week was pretty okay. Next week will be way harder though.

Pixton Cartoon

My cartoon was based off of Chapter 4, pages 105-106, of the book Black Boy by Richard Wright. This scene is where Richard gets in trouble with his teacher and aunt, Aunt Addie, because his classmate left walnuts on the floor by Richard's desk. Aunt Addie, or Ms. Wilson, thinks that the walnuts are Richard's and she thinks he's lying about them not being his. She then beats Richard in front of the class because of the lies he supposedly told (even though the walnuts weren't his).

Link: https://Pixton.com/ic:mtwowutk

Week 11 at Whitney Young

This week has been pretty okay school wise. We got our first quarter report cards this week, and I finally got my geometry grade up from a C to an A! Now I can say with pride that I have gotten straight A's at Whitney Young on my report card. My grade may be a B now, but that A will always be special. Any who, this week was pretty average. Not too much homework. But, LOTS OF PROJECTS. Maybe the teachers don't want to give us projects over break, so they're just giving them all to us now. Who knows?? We also didn't have school Thursday. Apparently it's "No School November" because next week, we have Wednesday-Sunday off from school. Yay.

Week 10 at Whitney Young

This week was pretty rough. Even though there were only 3 full days of school this week, it as still pretty hard. Monday started off pretty nice. Note too much homework, but I had to start preparing for the many projects I had to do in the next couple of weeks. Tuesday was kind of bad. I got assigned so much homework to do and I wasn't in the mood to do any of it. I had no school Wednesday, so I spent most of the day doing homework that I didn't finish on Tuesday night. Swim practice that day was also pretty hard. Thursday had to be the worst day of the week for me. I was stressing out because I had a couple of tests to take, and Thursday was the last day of school before grades were due. I'm pretty sure that my geometry teacher won't manually override the grades for the first quarter report cards. So that means that I'll have a C on my report card for my geometry grade :(. But, on the bright side, I have a three day weekend that I'll probably be spending doing projects and homework. Whoopee.

Week 9 at Whitney Young

This week was one of the hardest and most stressful weeks that I've ever spent at Whitney Young. The week started off with 5:00 morning practice for the boys swim team. It was very hard and I was sore until Wednesday. This week I also had projects and/or essays due in English, World Studies, and Art. Homework was pretty high this week and I usually didn't get to sleep until about 10:45-11:00. I also have a swim meet Saturday and Sunday on top of the many hours of homework I was assigned today. What a week.

Week 8 at Whitney Young

This week was actually pretty okay. I didn't have too many quizzes this week, but I have a lot of projects this weekend. In gym, we had to go outside in the 40 degree weather in shorts and t-shirts, which wasn't very fun. In mandarin, I have like a million assignments due next week. In English, we had an essay due today. I think it was a pretty easy prompt to write off of. In world studies, she gave us one of the biggest projects that I'm pretty sure any of my classmates have ever received. In art, I have a finger print portrait due soon. Finally, in Geometry I passed some of my standards! I'm also doing better at understanding what I'm doing in the class. Also, boys high school swimming starts soon, and I'm planning on joining.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Essay

Julian Green

Period 4

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Essay

    Arnold Spirit is a Native American that lives on a reservation with his family members. His family is very poor and most people become alcoholics when they get older. Arnold’s father, in particular, is an alcoholic who will sometimes not come home for days because of his drinking problems. Arnold also was born with many birth defects. On the reservation, he was made fun of because of his big head, big feet and hands, skinny body, stutter, and lisp. He was often bullied at school and even belonged to the, “Black-Eye-of-the-Month-Club.” Arnold also draws cartoons to portray the emotions he feels since he thinks that “words are too limited” (pg.2-5). Finally, Arnold was convinced by his Geometry teacher, Mr. P, to leave the reservation to find hope; and he listened.

    Arnold Spirit is an assimilationist who abandoned his people. Arnold left his reservation   to go to Reardan to find what Mr. P called, “hope.” He basically tried to make his life better in a place with no hopeless, thrown-in-the-towel, negative Native Americans that would most likely end up staying in the reservation for the rest of their lives. Arnold also admired the kids at his new school. On page 50-51 of the book, he describes the white kids at Reardan as magnificent, beautiful, smart, epic, and filled with hope. Arnold also had to travel over twenty miles to get to school. This is significant in justifying that he wanted to find hope out of the reservation so badly, that he’d go anywhere to get what he needs to become something better than most Native Americans became. Thus, proving that abandoning the reservation was the only way to not get mentally “killed” or become hopeless.

    Arnold’s life at Reardan is significantly harder and more lonely than his life on the reservation. At home, Arnold would be surrounded by family members and friends that he had spent his whole life with. He had friends and family that made him laugh and enjoy being Native American. But, at Reardan, he was a social outcast. On page 83, it states that he had no friends, no one talked to him, no one sat at lunch with him, and no one barely even looked at him. He was basically invisible to his classmates, and that certainly must’ve made finding hope at his new school much harder. But, some might argue that when Arnold left the reservation, he could’ve been trying to find hope in himself so that he can bring hope to the reservation and end the stereotypes and hopelessness that surround the people he’s grown up with. But, leaving the reservation, abandoning the people he knows, and starting his life over would be the only way to bring up his community and bring hope to the reservation.