English Social Studies

Dear First Year Students

2009-05-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

I hope you are glad to have been accepted at Sandvika High School. This will be, I promise you, three fantastic years. You will learn a lot, meet new and fantastic people. This is the time you will create the friendships that will last. This is the time you will grow up and learn who you really are, and the perfect place to do it, is here.

Nevertheless, there are some things you need to know. As you probably are aware of, this school is the flagship in use of technology. We have personal computers, which of course is extremely practical. Taking notes and collecting all your work at one place makes it easier than having ten different note books.

Since we use computers all the time, it can be hard to focus. There are a lot of temptations out there which seem more fun. But this will actually do you wrong. Participating in class will help you to achieve great grades. This comes from a student who has achieved great grades in the subjects she has participated in, but almost failed in the ones she only had her nose into the screen. Be clever and use the remedies wisely. This is a great advice; just you guys follow it and do your best.

Martin Luther King Jr.

2009-05-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

As my final assignment I wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. He was a freedom fighter and bettered the Afro Americans’ situation. For his work he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 as the first Afro American. King Jr’s career started in 1955. In Montgomery Rosa Parks, as we know, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Montgomery was a Southern State where Afro Americans struggled and segregation was normal. Because of this, Parks’ action got an enormous response, not just there, but all over America. People got aware of the Afro Americans’ situation. King Jr took advantage of this and used it for the better. Together with his companions they acted quickly and planned a Bus Boycott in 1955 to mark their position. The boycott was effective. It lasted for 381 days and the Supreme Court decided to prohibit segregation at the buses in Montgomery. In 1963 he marched to Washington together with 250 000 freedom fighters, where he held the speech “I Have a Dream”. He talked about equal treatment at work, protection against brutal behavior from the police and total elimination of segregation. An outcome of the protests and his speech was the passage of The Civil Right Acts, as a statutory law in 1964.

Receiving the Peace Prize pursued him to continue the battle. In 1965 he led a protest march from Selma to Montgomery together with other African Americans. They wanted political equality. According to the law they were allowed to vote, but doing it, was extremely difficult. By casting their vote they risked being victims of racial hatred. , King Jr attracted several protesters. As he reached Montgomery, 25 000 had joined him. In Montgomery King Jr delivered yet another magnificent speech, “How Long, Not Long”. That they got there was a picture of African-Americans winning the battle. King Jr once again managed to win the battle with no violence. All of this led to the Voting Rights Act, signed in 1965. Political equality was now induced.

Martin Luther King Jr. is today the good example of a freedom fighter. He epitomized what it was being a great leader. He will always be remembered for his courage and vitality. He made the living standard of sub-standard Afro American better and they no longer had to worry about segregation. He dedicated his life to fight for the Afro Americans’ rights, and is therefore extremely important for them and the history. He will always be remembered.

Afro American History

2009-05-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

1619: First slave ships to Jamestown

1808: Slaves outlawed , 10-15 million kidnapped and forced to work in North-America in English colonies. Slavery died out in the north- the industrial part of the country

Grew importance in the Southern states- cotton farms, tobacco farms etc who needed cheap labour.

An ideology of racism developed to justify exploitation, saying that blacks were biologically inferior to all whites. They were pore primitive, less intelligent, had a lower moral, no civilization. They were forbidden to speak their native language, given new names, prohibited to read/write, families were split up and they were treated like animals. They were denied any kind of humanity.

Resistance and Civil War:

Yet the treatment didn't crush all oppositions. Slaves revolted and ran away. Slavery was accepted in the Constitution of 1787, but an idealistic movement developed in the North, they wanted to abolish slavery- Abolitionism. Abolitionists wanted to free them, together with the slaves the Underground Railway, an illegal escape route to the North and Canada was created.

The two regions developed differently. Slavery was ended in the North, but grew in the South. In 1861 the Civil War broke out between the two parts, not fought to free the slaves but to preserve the Union after Southern states left it. They formed the Confederate States of America. An odd thing was that many Northerners believed in the humanity of the blacks, but not in equality. The Freedmen's Bureau was therefore established in 1865 to guide the newly freed slaves back to the normal life as a free civilian. This was to better the situation of blacks. The period of 1865-1877 is known as the "Reconstruction", northern troops occupied the South.

Jim Crow:

In 1877 troops were withdrawn from the Southern states. They had tried to reform the South but wasn't able to do it. Civil rights the slaves gained during the Reconstruction was handed back to local authorities. Black Codes or Jim Crow laws were passed: they could not vote, marry whites or mix with whites, attend the same schools, buy or rent farmlands. This made blacks inferior to the whites. Different rules made it hard for the blacks to vote, such as taxes and they had to live at one place for two years. The Ku Klux Klan watched them. But they protested the segregation. They appealed a unconstitutional protest, but the Supreme Court didn't listen. Slavery had been abolished but they had to accept to live in a second class citizenship.

A dream deferred:

Segregation left the blacks two choices: try to make the best out of it or to change the situation itself. Booker T. Washington: former slave, wanted the slaves to focus on being good citizens, hard work- not protest=the road to equality, he formed the Tuskegee Institute.

W.E.B. Du Bois, a black Harvard professor found equality impossible. Ceaseless agitation from the blacks was the only thing to do. He founded the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in 1909. Whites rioted black successful business districts. Blacks protested, but the conditions remained grim.

When IWW broke out many blacks got jobs in the war industries. They then created black communities, culture without interference. Harlem in New York became their centre, there hopes for equality raised. Blacks also created jazz music. But the Great Depression made it hard for them. They had to live in ghetto homes in the North, were last hired and first fired. The IIWW they had to fight the Nazis. But they were inspired to fight the segregation in the South.

Fighting for black rights:

Blacks fought in the IIWW and in 1948 segregation in the armed forces ended. In 1954 the Supreme Court decided to declare the "separate and equal" as unconstitutional. A campaign was required to force the South to end the segregation. During the 1950s and early 1960s the Civil Rights Movement mobilized. Blacks and whites protested peacefully with non-violent actions. Freedom Riders went to de-segregate restaurants, swimming pools and public facilities. In 1963 250000 protested in the March on Washington, where Luther King Jr. delivered his famous speech "I have a dream". Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, in 1964 the Voting Rights Act passed. It didn't tough, end racism or economic equality.

Black Power:

Even though blacks had had their civil rights in the North, they were poor and exploited. They rejected the non-violent approach from King, which turned out in horrible riots. Black Pride was now the importance, not seeking integration with the whites. People who supported violent riots: Malcom X, Stockley Carmichael, Huey Newton and Angela Davis. The Black Panthers defended black communities with violence if they had to. By the 1960s things worsened. The political coalition that had worked hard for the civil rights in the Congress, but they broke down. The non-violent movement ended when Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Now they had to use the rights they had already achieved to improve the condition.

Parliaments in Britain

2009-05-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, that is to say it has a monarch (a king or a queen) as its Head of State. Nevertheless, the Monarch has very little power and reigns with the support of Parliament. Parliament consists of two chambers known as the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
The Parliament
The Parliament (Congress in the USA and Stortinget in Norway) is made up by the House of Commons-the Commons or the Lower House, and The House of Lords- the Lords or the Upper House.
The House of Commons are the legislative ones. They have most of the power in the Parliament, where the House of Lords have lost their power.

The Lower House is therefore the ones to:
- Make laws
- Decide the level of public spending and of taxes
- Watchdog over the government
- A recruiting office for the top jobs in government
- Can give different groups in Britain a voice
- Can or cannot give its assent to the government, can defeat a government and force it to resign.
The Lower House or the House of Commons consists of 659 members, one from each constituency and they are members of the party that won in the constituency. They are called MPs- Member of Parliament. The members of the Parliament represent the country- it’s not the same to be a member of the Parliament- being an MP, as being a member of the Government-because the one party with most seats in the Parliament rules the country.

The House of Lords
The House of Lords is the Upper House or Second Chamber. Today they don’t have the power they had before.

The Government
There are about 100 members of the Government. The Prime Minister also has a Cabinet- a group of twenty ministers. They are his closest and often called the Secretary of State

The Prime Minister
The leader of the party that gets most seats in the House of Commons is elected as Prime Minister.

Northern Ireland

2009-05-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Northern Ireland is a part of Great Britain together with England and Wales.
We all know that there has been an ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland. Here is an explanation of why the conflict even occurred. It was between the Nationalists (Roman Catholics) and the Unionists (The Protestants). The Nationalists wanted to be a part of Ireland and politically united and they felt like Irishmen. The Unionists, who felt like Brits, wanted to continue being a part of Britain. The conflict is not based on religion but ethnic, resources and historical reasons. It is about power, where religion is used as a sorting key. The two groups of people felt so different, even though they lived at the same area. Even though the conflict ended years ago there are still some disagreements. A couple of months ago IRA splinters bombed and killed two British soldiers. Why a new conflict now?
• The compensation given to both sides in the conflict (I have written about this earlier), all that loss someone. That brought a lot of problems.
• Fight for leadership, the new generation fights to show they can lead.
• Change of government from a coalition to an ordinate one.
• They are basically mad!

OneNote

2009-05-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have now used OneNote for a couple of months and find the program quite helpful. It is a program made by Windows to help organize, and it sure has helped me to systemize my work. I especially like the Print Screen function, where you can take a picture of a web site. It also gives you the time and date of the virtual print. You can also record for example lectures and put them into OneNote. If you have forgotten where you wrote about a specific thing you can just search for a word or a phrase, and it will find the document. OneNote has a lot of smart applications and I truly recommend it, and will continue using the program in the future.

Is plastic surgery the only option!?

2009-04-21T04:04:00.000-07:00

Blonde (a story by Katherine Min)

Blonde is a story about wanting to be someone else than you actually are. You feel that everything about you is wrong, the hair, the nose, the height- the list is endless. The fact is that we always want what we cannot have. This makes us the victim of wanting to be a different person. The others, like the blonde girl in the story Lisa Ogleby or Marylin Monroe, are perfect. They have everything, the right looks and the right moves. As humans we struggle to imitate those we find perfect. The people we imitate don’t have to be tall and blonde; maybe their movements and ways of acting are enough to regard them as perfect. As the girl in the story says: “I studied her movements, her laughter like low sneezing, the way her part was etched down the middle, revealing a reddish scalp, “Studying to be blond,” I called it to myself. “

We also tend to believe we are someone else, to feel better. To make up stories f. ex about our background, will be the same as dreaming to be a different person, a person we find more interesting , prettier, more perfect and successful. Doing so will only make us feel worse about ourselves. At one point everyone will think negative thoughts about themselves; it’s a natural part of being a human. If they are sp unsatisfied they could either work on their self esteem or (take a plastic surgery!?), just make the best out of it- not focusing at the negative sides.

How important the use of media and internet is

2009-03-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama recently visited Jay Leno. To be on a show like that has its pros and cons. Firs of all Obama will meet a big audience, maybe the younger generation. In this way he can reach out to everyone and more people will listen to him. But there are negative sides visiting Jay Leno. His program isn’t the most serious one and this can make people think Obama in unserious. This isn’t a program for the President of America but for celebrities, but today the President is a celebrity. He is modern and different. But as said earlier, it can be risky being interviewed at Jay Leno’s show.

A group of students has used the internet to make an important statement. Their families are struggling because of the financial crisis. It has gone so far that they might have to quit school to work and take care of their families. People are losing their jobs and they are going through a hard time. Obama used internet a lot during his campaign and so did the students. Obama actually watched the video, said that he “listened to them”. He wants to help his country and show that he is listening. What the students accomplished was important, not only did they describe their situation, but they know others are struggling even more. Their goal was probably to reach the President, and they succeeded.

In Depth....

2009-03-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought about my finale project and decided to change subject. I am actually really tired of the whole "financial crisis and what to do"- thing. Therefore I now want to work with:

Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, why did he win and how important was his role in the civil rights movement?

What he has done is amazing, but I don't feel I know everything about him. This is also something I really want to work with and feel is important.

Written Senior Project

2009-03-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

I have decided to do a project on the financial crisis in America, and what Obama can do to save his country. This seems like an exciting task and I am looking forward to it.

This is England

2009-02-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

This is England is a film telling the story of England during the eighties, an era with miner strikes, the Falklands war, skinheads, National Front, the working class and of course Margaret Thatcher.

The setting is England in 1983. Shaun is a lost boy with no friends. His father was killed in the Falklands War, which of course has had a large impact on his life. Shaun and his mother live in a grey town of England, a place with high unemployment- due to the shut down of coal mines and Thatcher's policy of free market. One day he meets a group of skinheads, a group of people who will change his life completely. Their friendship develops to something more, they become like a family. One day the leader of the gang returns from prison. This changes everything. He is more aggressive than the others and he is in need to express his opinions. . He, as well of the rest of the middle class struggles. The Thatcher administration has caused problems for them. Fighting a war and spending money on it, instead of trying to fix the unemployment, and letting immigrants into the country, creates the hatred Combo and his friends have. Combo himself believes that what he is doing is for the best to his country- he is a nationalist. At the end, Shaun ends his friendship with Combo. They are way too different. All Shaun wanted, I think, was to make a statement, to show he was angry because of the loss of his father. He didn’t want to kill people because of their nationality, but to get his father back.

The first thought that stroked me while watching the film was it couldn’t be that good, it couldn’t possibly tell the story as well as a documentary, but I was wrong. This is England is such a mind-gripping, real, powerful and honest film. The actors are credible and captivate me with their honesty. It depictures how England was and how it developed, how the war affected people and politics. This is England is the perfect film to watch if you want to see how the nationality rose in the white working class community during the eighties. An absolutely remarkable film!

The Falklands War

2009-02-10T02:33:00.000-08:00

The inhabitants of The Falklands were (and still are) mostly Brits. Their ancestors were settlers from England, USA, Australia and New Zealand. The Falkland Islands became one of Britain’s crown colonies. In 1981 the Falkland Islands were named as a British-Dependent Territory.

On April 2^nd 1982 Argentina invaded the Islands and claimed control of them. They wanted their old territory back, the one Britain stole from them. But the Islands have always been fought over, by Argentina, Britain, France and Spain throughout the history. Since 1833 the Brits have lived there. Therefore the need of keeping the Islands was huge. They wanted to protect their people. In 1982 Argentina had had enough and claimed sovereignty.
The war lasted for two months- ending on June 14^th. By then 258 Brits and 649 Argentineans had lost their lives. The Brits spent a lot of money to win this war- and at the end they did. The Islands continued to remain under British control. But, Argentina will today not let go of the Islands.

The people in the UK thought the war was completely unnecessary, maybe not to protect the British inhabitants, but to spend a lot of money. Back home the unemployment rate was high. Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister at that time. Her economic policy was reduced state intervention, free markets and entrepreneurialism. This of course, caused unemployment. Only the strongest survived. They were indignant and didn’t support her decisions.

Margaret Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister was in 1990, after a reign of eleven years. Her policy was to save the British economy. When she resigned the country was in deep economically problems, because of her free marked.

Are we really THAT cruel?

2009-02-09T12:25:00.001-08:00

During the last couple of days we have experienced numerous bush fires in Australia. The number of killed and hurt increases as the days goes by. Today 181 are confirmed dead, but the real numbers are higher.

Pursuant to the news the fires aren't innocent forest fires- they are caused by arsonists. By now to men are arrested, charged for arson. Is this some kind of chain reaction- when one lights the fire; others have to do the same? We experienced the same thing in California a few months ago. There as well, it was deemed as arson.
Because of these barbaric, horrible people towns are burned to the ground, families wiped out, effaced communities and destroyed forests. Due to heavy wind and hot temperature the firemen struggles to take control over the fire, and bad gets even worse. Australia has never experienced something like this, and as the situation is today it seems like it will never end.
The Australian Prime Minister said this was nothing else than a mass murder. There are no words to describe how terrible this is.

Dirty money?

2009-02-03T04:52:00.000-08:00

The conflict in Northern Ireland has been reborn, between the terrorists and the victims. The hatred is yet there. The people who lost their family and friends are finally getting a symbolic amount of money, compensation. But now they have to face the fact that everyone who lost someone will receive the amount of damages- even the terrorists’ family. Of course that will create debate and displeasure from the victims’ family.

I understand why they react so strongly and refuse to accept the money. They are angry, hurt and doesn’t want to compare themselves with those who knew those horrible and cruel people. How on earth could the Government put them in the same position? We wouldn’t accept to give money to the families of the terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers. But why is that so bad? Were they meaner? I think it can be harder because they live in another part of the world- not in the neighbourhood.

Well, aren’t we all equal? Even though a father and husband was a terrorist and a murderer doesn’t mean his children and family are the same. They have too lost a family member and probably miss him as much as the other families do. It is as the Lord Eames says: There’s no difference in a mother’s tears. Therefore, the only right thing to do is to give all of them money.

My hometown

2009-01-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

I have just learned that we are going to have skype conversations with a class in Louisiana. That will be exiting- to see how they are, if they are any different, or experience that they are just the same as us.

So, here's a little something about my hometown:
I live in a lovely place called Haslum. Halsum is placed the municipality Bærum, in one of Norway's 19 counties, Akershus. Whith its 6000 inhabitants, Haslum is a nice and quiet place and suits the life of a family with kids. The area is safe and I am glad this is my home town. We have everything we need nearby. Bærum has facilities like large forest areas, beaches ski slopes and Scandinavia's largest mall, which results in an area suitable for everyone. The temperatures in Bærum differs from each season. This means we experience both warm summers and nice, cold, snowy winters.

This is a picture of a ski slope 5 minutes away from my home. Even though it is quite small, I like it.

This is Kadettangen, a small beach just next to the mall and ten minutes away from the school. The temptation to leave school early when the weather allows it, is sometimes pretty big. :)

Into the Wild

2009-01-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a book world known for the intense story about a young boy chasing his dreams. Some say this book is one of the best they have ever read. I, on the other hand, am not convinced.

We are taken on a journey, the journey of Chris McCandless, who abandons his life to live one he always wanted, see America and visit Alaska. His story is wonderful, sad and incredible. The fact that he actually did it, actually left everything and just travelled required quite a lot of courage. This, though, isn’t why I didn’t like the book. I admire what he did, even though it was selfish. And I do think it is nice that someone does so much research and writes this book.

Even though the story is true, I don’t like the way it was written. For me, it was too much nature and had way too many digressions. Of course, I understand that it had to have all the descriptions of how the wildlife was, how it was out there. I just thought it was boring to read about the other adventurers that died or killed themselves. They don’t describe how McCandless was, just how they were and that they were too weak to manage to live in the wilderness.

Anyway, I am not really a fan of reading, and when I first do it I would rather read an important book, a book that matters. In my point of view, this book isn’t in that specific category. Its intentions aren’t to change the world, just tell the story of a young adventurer.

The Victorian Age and Queen Victoria

2008-10-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Next week I am going to have a presentation. I have always been interessed in England, specially the British Empire and the royalties. Therefore, since we covered this era, I decided to cover the Victorian Age and Queen Victoria. Since the presentation should only last for approximately 2 minutes, I couldn't dig deep. I resolved to take the most important happenings and outcomes, or at least from my point of view.

This is what I presented:

The Victorian Age and Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

Before Queen Victoria inherited the throne in England, the country had developed. The industrial revolution had started, which meant England evolved a national economy they had never seen before. The British Empire kept on expanding, and defeating France and Napoleon made England the greatest power in Europe. In 1837 Queen Victoria inherited the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. She ruled the country for almost sixty-four years, and the era is called the Victorian age.

When she entered the throne, Britain was, as I said, still developed and the economy strong. Their agriculture was more productive than any other country in Europe. The country was stable politically, where they had a parliamentarian system as well as the Queen being the head of state in a constitutional monarchy. By having already established these safeties, which came to people having the power, and individually and naturally freedom, Britain got away from revolutions.

The Victorian era is also referred to as Pax Britannia. This is because Britain managed to keep Europe in peace. They used a policy named balance-of-power, where they supported the weakest in wars, or if someone were to threaten a country, England helped the endangered. By doing so, Europe was in peace for almost 100 years.

The British Empire also covered India, and Queen Victoria was crowned in 1877 as the Empress of India. But after that the Empire began to fall; the other countries around the world had caught up with Britain's development. At the end of the 1800's Britain was no longer the world's only superpower. USA developed and Germany was ready to step up. Britain could no longer handle the balance-of-power politics. This led to what we know as the first world war. And in 1901, the Victorian Age was over, it died together with The Queen.

The Valley of Elah

2008-10-21T02:46:00.001-07:00

"Sometimes finding the truth is easier than facing it. "

The Valley of Elah is a movie which tells the mental situation for American soldiers, after returning from Iraq.

A father and formal military police sergeant is on the search of his son who is A.W.O.L.- Absent Without Official Leave(Absent WithOut Leave), at the military base in New Mexico, after coming home from Iraq. At the end everyone involved in the case, comes clean and the truth is revealed. He learns that his son has been killed by the men from his squadron.

Why? Because of all the bad things they had experienced in Iraq, the differences from back home, the several people they had killed, as well as accidentally kill civilians, their minds were twisted. Traumatic things had happened, and they could not handle it. They were mentally destroyed and the life home was hard to handle. Being used to kill others in pressed situations was the tipping point, and what drove them to kill a friend, a fellow soldier. We know this as the Post Traumatic Stress Dissorder. They were physically harmed.

Their memories were horrible and being a part of the war had scarred them for life, not just physically, but mentally as well, maybe mentally in particular. This is the life of thousands of soldiers in America today. They have families, but aren't able to take care of them because of their problems. Managing a normal day is hard, because they have to live with the memories, the memories that will haunt them everyday for the rest of their lives. Their lives have been changed, forever.

Lions for Lambs and The Use of the Mass Media

2008-10-07T02:27:00.000-07:00

One of my questions were: Should we question ourselves on what we hear and be critical, or listen and believe in everything we hear in the mass media?

We should trust them, we should not trust them. The reason I mention both options is obvious. There are hundreds of news channels, thousands of newspapers and millions of web pages all over the world, which one of them are most trustworthy? Are some more trustworthy than others at all? Do we have to be critical on what we hear? Do we need to question the facts we are given every afternoon

Lions for Lambs rewiev

2008-10-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we watched a movie, "Lions for Lambs", and were asked to write two interesting and important question containing themes from the movie. Lions for Lambs was a movie about America after the 9/11 attack, how they stood politically- how to handle the war of terror. We also met a young student not using his abilities to question things, managing to be critical, taking a stand. Sometimes it can be hard to know what you really believe in, what you think is the right choice, the right thing to do. That was the problem for the two other students we met.

"If you don't STAND for something, you might FALL for anything"