Week # 14: Issue you are passionate about

I am pretty passionate about teachers not inserting their personal political and religious views into their class, which makes this topic tricky for me.  There are controversial topics I am passionate about, but I want everyone to feel safe with their own opinions.  So I am going to discuss why I think it is important to try and remain objective as an educator.  I think the main reason I don't want to share my beliefs or political views is because I want my classroom to be a safe space for my students to be able to express themselves.  I don't want them to ever feel that if they believed something different than me, I would judge them harshly.  I also feel that taking my belief system and politics out of the equation allows student voices to shine.  This does not mean I won't point out potential logical flaws.  For example, it will be hard for me to not want to discuss scientific evidence with a student who claims that the earth is flat in an essay.

Some educators would argue that by trying to keep myself objective and hiding these parts of my personality students are not exposed to different views and that I am not making my own bias clear.  In all reality I am sure that some of my bias' are clear just by what I say and what I do.  I am human and it is hard to be completely objective.  There are also beliefs I have that I will be the first to acknowledge I have no logical reason behind them.  For example I am against the death penalty, mostly because the thought of state sanctioned execution makes me feel a bit ill.  I still cannot watch any execution on TV or in a movie.  I have to cover my eyes when we watch the hanging section part of Capote.  In this case it is purely my feeling and I can see the logic and validity of someone who believes different than me.  Just personally if I can't even stomach the idea of it in fiction I don't know how I can support it in reality?  I share this about myself because I know my reason is illogical and I doubt my reason for being anti-capital punishment will sway anyone in any direction.  

Word Count: 387

Week # 13: Myers Briggs 16 Personalities and my book

I have taken the Myers Briggs personality test several times and I always get INFJ as my personality type.  Today I took the 16 personalities version of the MBTI test to make sure I was still the same and I got INFJ- T.  When I looked over the traits of a T (turbulent) vs. an A (assertive) INFJ, I became a bit discouraged.  Basically Ts are more insecure than As which in turn has some negative impacts.  Of course I want to be an A, but I also know that I still struggle with some insecurities (who doesn't?).

What is unique about INFJs is that they are the rarest personality type (only 1% of the population are INJFs).  Some strengths of INFJs are that they are creative, insightful, inspiring, decisive, determined and altruistic.  I feel comfortable and confident saying that I am creative, insightful, determined and altruistic, but I don't think I am inspiring or decisive.  Maybe this is where the T from my INJF- T comes in?  If I was more confident and self assured perhaps I would feel differently?  The weaknesses of INFJs are that they are sensitive, extremely private, perfectionistic, always need to have a cause, and can burn out easily.  I can see all of these weaknesses in myself and I have to be really careful to look out for them.  I have gotten better about being sensitive and extremely private.  I used to be the high schooler that would cry over low tests scores, had to had straight As and based my self worth on  my GPA.  I like to think I have grown past this but the urge is still there.  I am taking some classes at CSUF and I do find myself checking my grades a bit compulsively. 

I just finished re-reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith.  I feel that the character in the novel that is most like an INFJ is the main character Francie.  Francie like INFJs is an introverted deep thinker.  She spends most of her childhood reading and even tried to read every book in her local library in alphabetical order.  Francie is also very determined.  Her mother decides to have her bother finish high school instead of her because she knows that Francie will find a way to finish.  This ends up being true.  

I think that Francie does not show the altruism that is typical of an INFJ.  Francie cares about knowledge and learning for her own benefit and there does not seem to be a higher purpose behind it.  I completely relate to Francie's love of reading and use of reading as an escape when she is experiencing hardship.  I feel that Francie cares more about knowledge for knowledge sake than I do.  I love learning but if I don't see a greater purpose behind it, it hard for me to stay dedicated.  For example I could never have the patience to read every book in a library in alphabetical order.  

Word Count: 498

 

Week # 12: Do you think evil is born or made?

I believe that evil is generally made. I do not think people are born evil unless they have a severe mental disorder like people who are sociopaths or psychopaths.  We are born with certain traits and tendencies but we have free will to encourage them or not. Often people that have done something that is considered evil have had harsh experiences that lead them in that direction.

Even some people that are sociopaths or psychopaths are able to fight against their nature and not do evil. According to THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOPATH: HISTORY, NEUROSCIENCE, TREATMENT, AND ECONOMICS 93% of psychopaths are in the criminal justice system.  The remaining 7% percent could have not been caught committing a crime or are actively fighting against their nature. 

How many people are actually psychopaths and born evil?  According to Karolina Sörman at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who conducts research on psychopathy only about 1% of males are psychopaths.  This 1% does not account for all the evil acts created by humanity.  

A majority of evil is caused by people's upbringing, perspective, and inner pain.  It is common knowlege that abuse runs in families.  The reason why could be partially genetics, but also that it is hard to break the cycle of abuse.  In the case of Perry Smith from the novel In Cold Blood, I wonder if his mother, Flo Buckskin was abused as a child or if her parents were alcoholics?  If they were then that would partially explain her behavior and why Perry experienced so much neglect.  

Word Count: 248

Week 11: Brain Dump *Private*

I decided to make this post private.  It is on my personal blog (https://msvprivateblog123.blogspot.com/?zx=7a8a443d043ee815).  Make sure you turn the settings to private so no one can see it :)

Week # 11: Brain Dump

Writing just what is going on in your mind is a crazy and disorganized process.  Right now I have had a tension headache for 2 days and I keep on thinking of the pain on the left side of my face.  I also read a lot of books about mediation for fun........and to help me fall asleep.  Anyways expert mediators are supposed to be able to handle higher levels of pain than us non experts.  They learn to be curious about their pain and make friends with their pain.  So I am trying to use days like today where I know I will have a dull pain all day to take a step back and be curious about it.  

Another thing that is on my mind is that I have to write everything down to make sure I remember it.  I have not kept up my to do list the last couple of days and it makes me feel disorganized and that I am constantly forgetting something.  Speaking of which I forgot to post Digital Friday until this morning.  It was something I forgot to write down and it just slipped my mind.  

The English teacher part of me is pained by how disorganized this post is.  There is no theme and I just ended the last sentence with a verb!  But the point is not perfection.  The point is to become comfortable with your inner voice and your writing voice becoming one. 

 I really wish you could make some posts private without making a separate blog.   I guess that defeats the point of blogging?  Blogging is something people do to share their ideas with the internet so by its nature it is public, but where is the space for private thoughts when the format of a blog is more comfortable?  

Word Count: 302

Week # 9: The turning point

I just finished the non-fiction book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones.  This novel weaves together several stories of heroin addicts, their famines, and the drug dealers from a small town in Mexico.  For the heroin addicts the turning point being prescribed prescription pain pills. There is a sad story of a star football player who suffered a knee injury and was prescription Oxycontin.  When he ran out of Oxycontin he went to heroin because it was cheaper. In order to afford his new habit, the football player began selling heroin and bought a gun for protection. He ended up dying from a gunshot wound during a drug deal.  

I think you could argue that there were many turning points in this football player's life.  If only he was not prescribed Oxycontin then he would not have ended up dead before the age of 20.  Another turning point was moving onto heroin and another was deciding to sell heroin. He had the opportunity to change at any one of these junctures, but the addiction was too strong. 

The football player’s story is that of one bad decision after another.  Once he was addicted to oxycontin it seemed like he was set to follow a path downhill to his eventual doom.  The most disturbing part of this story is that it is one of the many stories of young people who have died too soon due to opiate addiction.   

Word Count: 245

Week # 8: If my book was a song it would be "Mad World" by Gary Jules

I recently finished Dream Land by Sam Quinones.  The book is about the American Opiate Epidemic and how we got to the opiate crisis we are in today.  It weave the stories of young illegal Mexican dealers who are seeking a way out of poverty with the lives of rich, white, suburban teens who have everything and still feel the need to escape and isolate themselves first with prescription painkillers and then later with heroin.  I have always loved the song "Mad World" by Gary Jules.  Remember watching at the end of the film Donnie Darko when I was a teenager and thinking that is what life can be like for some people.  It is a mad world.  Teens who have so much are wanting to escape.  There must be something our society is not providing to our youth to make them feel like there is "no tomorrow" and that they should want to "drown their sorrows."  You contrast the experience of these teens with privilege and to the drug dealers from this small town in Mexico and the contrast becomes a bit wild.  They dealers come from extreme poverty and should have many reasons to want to escape into a drug induced dream world but they don't.  Instead they are focused on pulling them and their family out of poverty.  

I am not sure what the solution to the opiate epidemic is, but I do think that Sam Quinones points to how the problem is deeper than just over prescribing prescription pain killers.  We have to look at what is causing people to want to escape or numb their emotional pain with drugs in the first place. 

Word Count: 278