Western Civilization

Today for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of class Mr. Schick listened to us complain, as he switched our seats. We had been good boys and girls and returned to the same spots everyday and all of a sudden Mr. Schick switched us up. Some people needed to use the bathroom, or to refill water bottles, or other absurd things that should've been done during the five minutes between classes. The most frequent complaint that arises was the fact that we shouldn't be here due to lack of power in some parts of the buildings. I found it rather odd how some classrooms and areas only had the lights off but the electrical outlets were still functional. Anyway, as this discussion went on for about twenty minutes Mr. Schick finally put his foot down and went on with the lesson on site. We went on to talk about how the flooding in Texas was a problem due to the rapid expansion of the city. With all the structures and roads there is no place for the water to go and that is why the homes of t

Today in Human Geo we were surprised with a pop quiz. The quiz was a replica of the assignment we had in class a week ago. The only part I believe I may have missed was the difference between Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. I remembered that the prefix sub means under so I went with that. And then the only other confusing part for me was the difference between South and East Asias, which were not clearly labeled on the map. Then Mr. Schick gave us his lesson on site and situation since he was not present the day we were to review that. Then the class went on a thirty minute discussion on how crabs and eating animals are weird. Some cultures in the world do have odd traditions which should be respected by other people unless they are extremely abnormal or something very inhumane. This should be upheld by all people because if you think a certain culture is weird take a good look at yourself before you judge their customs and rituals.

Site is the physical place or location of something. Characteristics of site include topography, soil, climate, water sources, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. The combination of all of these characteristics will distinguish one site from another. After all every point on Earth is unique. All people are unique and different since we each have a different set of DNA. This also applies to land. One area might have the same soil and vegetation as another but a different climate and water source, making them different. Situation, on the other hand, is the location of a place relative to other places. Situation is important for two reasons: finding a certain place and understanding the significance of it.  Many locations are important because they are the gateway to other places. This emphasizes the importance of situations. This can go for most major ports in the world. like our very own Inner Harbor in Baltimore which could be a gateway to the rest of the East coast and to the Western

Today after taking attendance Mr. Schick gave us a brief overview of some common mistakes he picked up while grading our blogs. Some of these mistakes included writing the date when blogger already does that for you, writing specifically about class that day and not any extras, and regular typographical errors. The only error I could associate with my blogs was that I have been putting the date in the actual blog. I looked back at my blog and it looked silly having 9/21 in the title and then having September 21st written for me right underneath of it. Next we went over our maps which we had completed last week I believe. The maps asked of us to label each numbered region as a continent or cardinal direction. Some of them were a bit trickier than others but I managed to fill them all out correctly. Mr. Schick asked us to list some countries for a few of them. For example Eastern Asia includes China, the Koreas, Japan, Mongolia and Hong Kong. We also learned that tomorrow we will have a

Today in human geography class we discussed one of the main concepts for the chapter. This was that each point on Earth is unique from any other. This means that no place is like the other. This is also similar to humans. Each person is unique and created differently, and they have a different set of DNA. Point A on Earth and point B are all completely different due to land features and many, many other reasons that distinguish everything from anything else. Mr. Schick also went over how he hands back tests with the bell. If you here one ding from the bell that means you scored a ninety percent or higher and two dings means that you scored one hundred percent. No dings, well that means you scored eighty nine percent or below. I was the very fortunate and only one who scored one hundred percent on the first human geography test and my first test overall of high school.

Today in Human Geography Mr. Schick had us do an exercise which tested our memory but mostly the knowledge of our world. One activity really tested our memory and how much we pay attention to our surroundings. The other activity just straight up tested how much we know about what is where in the world. For activity number one, we were instructed to recreate a map of the world in our notebooks and label some significant places that we could recall. I attempted to draw all of the states in the U.S. and got about 45 of them in. The only other place my map fell apart was south Eastern Asia. I missed some of the 'stan's' like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and some others. The second activity's directions were to draw a bird's-eye view of a road map of your way to school. For some people it was difficult to recall their way to get to John Carroll but I found it fairly easy. Mr. Schick also told us to put landmarks like restaurants, businesses

Today as everyone started coming in the classroom we could all agree that it was very hot and humid in the room. Faith had Mr. Schick call the main office for an air-conditioning unit but as I write this there has been no such unit delivered yet. Mr. Schick told us he has many papers to grade including the tests we took about two weeks ago. I am looking forward to finding out what I scored on the test. Then we were allowed to go to our lockers to get any books or other necessary materials to complete homework. I had already finished my work during my off-mod right before lunch. I just decided to take a walk to my locker anyway. For the next forty five minutes or so I browsed the internet and wrote this blog. I look forward to tomorrow's class as there will be a new lesson.

Today we went over to kinds of maps both used to portray the same thing. The two most common maps of the world are the Peters World Map and the Mercator Map. The Mercator Map is the most commonly used one as it is used in textbooks etc. The Mercator Map is the one we are all most accustomed to. The Mercator portrays Greenland as roughly the same size as Africa although that is not true. The Peters World Map almost looks like the world has gone through one of those souvenir Penny presses that are at tourist attractions and other similar places. The Peters World Map makes the entire world look vertically stretched out. In my opinion both are wrong. A spherical object, or an oblate spheroid like Mr. Schick referred to the shape of Earth as, which is the more proper term, can never truly one hundred percent be accuratley portrayed in a two dimensional form. Of course this can't be escaped though as there needs to be two dimensional forms for navigators and other people who rely on them

Today we started the first real chapter of Human Geography, Thinking Geographically. Mr. Schick went over similarities and differences between The United States and Mexico. The class pointed out some key ones like the climate, political system, the customs however are the same. Mexico is mostly Roman Catholic. In The United States, eighty one percent of people speak English and in Mexico the national language is Spanish. Another interesting fact learned in today's lesson was that English is the most common second language in the world. Mr. Schick gave the explanation for this and the reason is that it is the language used in the business world. The average income of a person in the United States of America is higher than that of Mexico. Also, in Mexico some crops that can't grow in the USA grow there a lot better. The USA can't make everything after all. For example there richest cocoa beans are produced in Colombia. Unfortunately the United States is sending their jobs to

Today I took my first test of high school which turned out to be in Mr. Schick's class. This test was on   everything we have learned so far this year. This included everything about Socrates, the Ancient Greeks, and A message to Garcia, written by Elbert Hubbard. The test was rather simple, I was unsure about only two questions, numbers one and ten. I went with what I believed to be the best answer, which was E, the Spanish-American war. The question was "When was A Message to Garcia written?" and I went with the Spanish-American war as opposed to the war with Cuba, and as I write this I have realized I have made the right choice. Number ten was a fill in the blank question which was a two part question with number eleven. They asked what were the reasons for Socrates' accusal. I know for a fact one of them was Impiety, not believing in the Gods, and one was corruption of Athen's youth. I put down misinforming Athen's youth which I hope will be marked correct

On this day sixteen years, the September eleventh attacks were carried out by terrorists. Mr. Schick gave us his account of what had happened on that day. He started out by noting it was a clear sky day much like the one today. The school was gathering for its first Mass of the year. At the end of Mass, Principal Barker addressed to everyone what was going on and he said the teachers could either go on with class or they could turn on the televisions. Mr. Schick said that the math teachers were all drawing out diagrams on the boards and giving their explanations and the social studies teachers all turned on the TV's. Mr. Schick was two weeks into being a social studies teacher when this happened and said that textbooks will have columns about this day years down the road. He also mentioned that one of his students, a football player, asked if this was the start of WWIII. Mr. Schick couldn't answer for sure. After a certain amount of time all parents were here to pick up their k

Socrates was a teacher to younger children right outside the agora in Athens. He wanted to get the younger children to think for themselves. Socrates's method was to get the kids to talk about a certain topic and see what or how much they knew by continuing to ask them questions about the topic and seeing how much they really know or can talk about a given topic. This is now known as the Socratic method. Mr. Schick actually ran this through us on the topic of North Korea. A variety of ideas arose like assassinating the leader of the country, leaving them alone, or completely leveling the place. Mr. Schick didn't disapprove of any of the ideas or scold anybody for how they thought the situation should be handled. He simply furthered the conversation by asking a question and then having another student answer it. Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 500. 279 jurors found him guilty and the rest thought that he should be freed. When the time came around for Socrates to drink his

Today's class mainly focused around 'new' vocabulary words. 'New' is in quotes as the words of today's lesson were those used by the Ancient Greeks. The first word was agora, and its definition is a common meeting place for the people. The agoras were used to discuss current news and politics, artistic, spiritual, assemblies, and markets. The next word was polis. Polis is a city state in Greece especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purposes. Polis also is the root of many words in English such as, politics, metropolitan, poll, and policy. The next definition we were asked to search up was the significance of the year 508 B.C. In 508 B.C. Athenian democracy was established under Clesthenes. The next word was Socrates. Socrates was an Ancient Greek philosopher who founded Western Philosophy. Socrates died in 399 B.C. due to poison when he was found guilty in a trial of a capital offense. One of the more interesting assignments was to find ou

Excellence was a main focus of today's class. Mr. Schick put main focus on the Ancient Greek word Arete. Arete means moral virtue or excellence. This is what Elbert Hubbard wanted to see in the world: excellence, or arete, in every person. He wanted everyone to hold themselves to the highest standard possible and to be the best person they can be all the time. If you are a little unsure about what exactly A Message to Garcia is about here is a little backstory. Twenty-fifth President of the United States, William McKinley Jr., asked a military officer named Rowan to deliver a letter to the Cuban revolutionary, Garcia. This is a brutal task since one must first cross the Caribbean Sea to get to Cuba, then they must sneak past enemy lines and final deliver the letter. Rowan did this for the President because he was asked and knows it must be done. Another interesting fact is that President McKinley has a mountain named after him, Mt. McKinley, in Alaska, which no longer bares that na