“Community Service” A Good Deed or Force Labor

“Free will is an integral part of being human,” meaning free will is one aspect of human nature that no one can control even if they tried.  Sometimes adults demand control over free will to protect the children, but only resistance or rebellion erupt. Parents and school officials have certain requirements they expect for students to succeed, but the more adults pull, students will push back harder. One example is that high school students are required to complete service hours to graduate. Students should be able to do community service by their own choice, not because it is a requirement. Most students are encouraged to attend school functions and afterschool activities by friends and family. Unfortunately, students do not have enough time to do everything they are interested in, including doing school work or service requirement.

Students do not have enough time to participate in community service. There are only twenty-four hours in a day. An average high school student spends his or her day like this: 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. are spent “sleeping”, 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. is where the student wake up and get dress for school, 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. the student drives to school, 7 30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. are classes and lunch, and at 2:45 the school day ends. This leaves eleven and a half hours and twenty-five minutes for a student to work on homework or spent doing extracurricular activities like sports or clubs. During the weekend, teenagers may be busy with family issues, working for money, or spending their day relaxing with or without friends. Life can be unpredictable and one may never know what will happen next. It is really hard for high school students to fit anything into their busy schedule, for instance additional graduation requirement such as community service project.

            Students are required to complete community service out of the goodness of their hearts and that “goodness” should not be counted as credit. Why are students forced to do service projects when it is the Christian way of doing good deeds without anything in return? If someone does a good deed for the wrong purpose; it would causes great unhappiness. Neuroscientist B.J. Casey said “The last thing you want to tell your teenager is what to be interested in because then they will go as far from it as possible.” Forcing teens to complete service project may cause them to resent or turn away from doing any good work.

            There are so many opportunities out in the world that it is hard to find the right niche. Children participating activities to help them find a place in the society that feel right; they just hate being told to do it. It is normal for teenagers to question authority because it helps a teen develop a sense of identity. “The value of identity is that so often with it comes purpose,” said Richard R. Grants. Psychology also state that adolescence who resolve their identity crisis will come out ready with a strong sense of purpose.

            A student’s choice to volunteer for community service is as individual as he or she choosing his or her destiny in life. Teens demand freedom and independences from families and teachers’ expectations to live their own lives. In the USA, the citizens have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and other freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights; yet, students at this school do not have the freedom to choose to participate in community service. The freedom to choose is important for a person, child or not, to help find him or herself. High school students choose what clubs activities to do, when to do homework, and what college to go. With all that on their schedule, adding another graduation requirement such as community service only adds pressure and invites resistance from those students.

"Time"

We all are at the mercy of time for scheduling appointment, to know when to watch your favorite show on TV and go to a desire event, etc. Overall time is important in our everyday life, yet I have certain problems with this abstract idea call "TIME"




"We have all the Time in the world"
If you have a macro-perspective (Big Picture), the phrase is quite true, but someone who thing micro-perspective (Small Picture) can see it is as a false statement. Everyday we are busy with work and school that a person begins to notice the it already 7 o'clock and there is so much left to do. For example when the school day is over, a student has homework and club activities  and there is  little time to do both. The perfect phrase is "Time is short or Time is running out" better represent time overall.




"Time and Time again, Time and again, and Time after Time"
These phrases refer to bad moments or just having bad luck that keeps on coming nonstop. Sometimes only bad things happens is only in your mind, so if you look at it in a different way, "The Time, they are a changing."




"Time flies when you're having fun"
So true you notice when you are doing something fun that it is already to go home. Fact When having fun people tend to begin by not keeping track of time during the event. When a person is bored, he or she  tend to focus on how long until the event is over, every second and minute. This happen at school a lot for example.


There are many ways to describe Time: "Time is essentials, Time to kill, Time on my hand, the Time is ripe, the Time of your life," and more. The only thing to describe Time is "Time is an abstract idea," only used to help people remember what to do, where to go, and when to do it. For me Time is an annoying idea because everything within a day is too fast for me to catch up.


"Life is short, Time is fast, no replay, no rewind so enjoy every moment you can."
How can a person enjoy a moment when someone doesn't have enough time to even begin one?

This blog point will continue and continue with my thoughts if Time permits and even exist in the near future.

Raising the Minimum Wage

During the State of the Union speech, Obama had said many thing he wanted to improve in the nation. One of them is to raise the minimum wage from $7/hour to up to $10/hour. For those who don't know, Minimum wage is the minimum amount of money that the employer must pay the worker for an hour. I will give you the pros and cons for raising the minimum wage. Statements like these comes from newspapers and my Economic Teacher Mr. Schaefer.

-Pro-

1.  The minimum wage today aren't enough to support a family just below the poverty line, but raising it will able to  raises the standard of living for impoverished workers.
2. May encourage more people, young and old, to apply for more jobs in return help improve the economy, and able to reduce the unemployment rate.
3. By improving the economy with higher pay means people are willing to buy more item like food, clothes, candy, toys, games, etc. Also more products that are bought more worker are doing their jobs and given promotion to help improve the line and so on. It consent cycle of improvement.
4. Store who are already are raising their minimum wage are getting more improvement in the employee and employer relationship and morale.  For example Gap raised the minimum wage to complement their worker and be able to steal other skilled worker from their competition. Much like predatory pricing on opposite day.
5. Higher wages also benefit businesses by boosting employee productivity, retention and customer satisfaction, and reducing the high costs of employee turnover.

-Cons-

1. If raising the minimum wage means stores, companies, and small businesses have to lay off some worker with a fixed compensation budget to be able to make additional money in the workers' paycheck.
2. More adult would be working part-time not full-time which employers might hire fewer workers in the entry level jobs (part-time aka summer job) needed to begin a career. First-time workers like teenagers face the biggest risk of being priced out of the job market by a minimum wage hike. They aren’t worth much to an employer when they start working. They don’t have the skills. According to David Neumark and J.M. Salas, University of California economists, and William Wascher of the Federal Reserve Board, “minimum wages tend to reduce employment among teenagers.”
3. For small companies, already stressed owner/operators might take on more responsibility.
4. Wages for higher paid workers might be suppressed, and salary increases might be lower for those not impacted by a higher minimum wage.
5.  With Gap increase in their minimum wage, it is good for their business, it promotes employee loyalty and it will reduce employee turnover, but it’s not enough. The biggest issue facing retail workers nowadays is being able to work enough hours to earn a decent living. (Continuously changing part-time hours.)

There is no finally decision on the Minimum Wage debate for as long as Republicans and Democrats are still arguing on the Senate floor. Gap has the clearly has the advantage in the job market today because it is the only store in the nation that has rose it minimum wage and being able to steal other store's competition. Also be an example to help more along the Minimum Wage bill, and seeing how will it work out in the real world. But there is a really simple solution "Hire full-time workers in the job market!"

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/minimumwage/fl/pros-and-cons-raise-minimum-wage.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/business/gap-to-raise-minimum-hourly-pay.html?_r=0 

http://www.rocklandtimes.com/2013/02/07/the-pros-and-cons-to-upping-minimum-wage/  

Law of the "Dance" (Revised)

-Introduction-

"Survival of the Fitness" a phrase coined by Charlie Darwin to explain that only the strong and the smartest animals and humans can only survive in the world. This phase applies to all species. Some people debate about whether it to be true or not, but female species are quite picky when choosing their mate to prove this phase. You'd be surprised how our physical and mental habits, interaction between people, and even our participation in life are similar to wildlife on our planet. People can debate that my blog point is either based on Sociology or Psychology perspective you choose, my followers.   

-Selecting of the Mate-

Choosing who is going to be a mate in the wild and getting a date is not really the same overall. Some animals mate for life (Voles) and some insect mate literally to the end of their lives (Praying Mantis). Human adults and teenager can mate, but the true question is how long can will the relationship last? When selecting a date, popular males and female (whoever ask first) are chosen first because of their current social status or his or her physique. Others may be already date (govern by the same principle from the previous sentences) or just got asked first whatever come first. Native Americans consider dancing as an intimate form of direct connotation may play the part of why they choose their date. Either a person driven with depression or embarrassment, others are forced to arrive in groups to the event or go it alone.

Tip: You should ask the desire person several months in advance to get a date.

-Adapting-

When first arriving to the dance, we tend to talk with friends or standing idly by in a crowd so not to be notice. These are other ways of adapting. Chameleons change colors for many reason, first is camouflage when in danger, second social signal or showing their emotion like a mood ring, and third reaction to temperature. What make it harder for us to adapt to anything is being in the mindset that we cannot dance well. Human and chameleon both adapt to a current situation if need be when we are scared, nervous, happy, etc.

Tip: Any idiot can dance, but it takes a minute of trying to overcome your fear and gain your groove.

Tip: I suggest you close your eyes and imagine yourself someplace else.

-Peacocking-

Peacocking is showing off your best feature to gain attention of others. For example males have nothing to show off for they all wear the same tuxes with ties and pants like a plain female peacock. For females they have various ways of arousing males like wearing bright, flamboyant dresses with short skirts and show some cleavage. Male peacocks are much like female human they unveil their majestic fan of feather to arouse the female peacock. What both males and females have in common is dance moves. Birds of paradise often display colorful feathers and also dance to attract male and female birds to mate. Unfortunately female are limited because of the dresses and high heels are hard to move gracefully. Unlike females, males are able to move freely because of their limited choices of clothing.

-Territorial Dominance-

During the dance you have the sudden feeling like you are being watched. Well you are! Chaperones are like lion stalking and hunting for their prey. The job of the chaperones is to watch out for any indecent inappropriate behavior on the dance floor.  Chaperones often stand in the back arms folded and chilling looks of evil. This gives a signal that they are always watching you like Lemurs and dogs marking their territory to discourage others from trespassing. With that kind of essence tends to discourage any bad decisions from any young person for example a male getting a female pregnant.

-Conclusion-

The conclusion is my opinions on the "Survival of the Fittest". Even if it's true that the strongest and the smartest survive or most likely reproduce better offspring, our species, human beings, believe in true love is valued over a logical thinking. A female has to make choice between two male either mating with a popular, strong jock or your closest male friend? If it was a movie the female would choose the male friend over the jock. When people arrive alone to a dance, he or she tends to feel invisible within the crowd if he or she doesn't know anyone. At the Memorial High School winter dance, the students there were all very active with themselves, but I felt like someone there was alone. No matter what people it still hurt to be alone.