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Developing personal values
Peer pressure helps learners to grow
Pressure in school
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In “Shooting an Elephant,” the main character, a “foreigner” in another country, who is hated by the native people. When put on the spot, when everyone was interested in him for once. He caves and does what everyone expects of him. I believe everyone, at one time or another has felt this way. I felt this way in middle school. The shortest, shyest, and slowest person in the grade, me. I don’t think my peers hated me, but I wasn’t the most popular person of whom everyone knew. I constantly felt pressured by my parents to get the perfect grades. I caved into the pressure and worked harder to get the good grades they wanted. Even though I had good enough grades to pass and feel good about, mainly high “B’s,” a couple “C’s,” and one “A.” Even though
The 1800’s staged the universal dissemination and climax of British imperialism, thereby destructing and reconstructing the world into a new order. It is ordinary to depict the British as overindulgent consumerists, and the natives as magnanimous servers of the Empire, though history suggests that imperialism was not a mere black and white affair. It is certain that imperialism unjustly exhausted global resources and is therefore deserving of its condemnation. Yet, actual experiences of the time, as told by British men propel the reader to reevaluate the role of British moral authority during colonial times. The Man Who Would Be King (1888) by Rudyard Kipling and Shooting An Elephant (1936) by George Orwell are two such commentaries on imperialism in British India. The former is a novelette, narrated by a newspaper man and tells the journey of two determined Englishmen (Carnehan and Dravot) from inconspicuous “loafers” in India to godlike kings in Kafiristan. The latter recounts the story of a young British officer (Orwell), who served as a police to the Indian Imperial Police in Lower Burma. Kipling and Orwell narrate similar overarching themes such as the injustice of British imperialism and its inflicted misery both on the conquered and on the conqueror. Their motives and reactions to imperialism, however, are highly varied given their external conflicts with the Empire and the natives also vary. These stories by Orwell and Kipling conclude as symbolic mockeries of imperialism and its ultimate failure, thereby portraying the mixed elements of British nationalism during imperialism.
The essay “Shooting an Elephant,” was written by George Orwell. Orwell was a British author best known for his essays and novels. In “Shooting an Elephant,” the title essay of his 1950 collection, Orwell is a British Police Officer in Lower Burma. After an elephant comes rampaging through the village in must, killing an Indian man, Orwell is looked upon to take care of the problem. The intense scene causes Orwell to make a crucial decision, reflecting on the vicious imperialism with the military in Burma during this time. The author portrays his feelings through the theme of the narrative with feelings such as, guilt, hate, and pressured.
Students have been taught from an early age that you can either conform to society, or be an outcast. As Fridman discovered, “Even at a prestigious school like Harvard, anti-intellectualism is rampant: Many students are ashamed to admit, even to their friends, how much they study”. At a school that takes impressive grades to get accepted into, students are afraid of what their peers think. Instead of being proud of the hard work and dedication to education, they are ashamed and do not want to tell other people about their hard work. They are afraid of being outcasts. Many students believe that being the star quarterback, or on the varsity team is more important than any education due to the acceptance from their peers and the attention. It does not have to be this way though, “In East Asia, a kid who studies hard is lauded and held up as an example to other students”. The child is not chastised by his or her peer, but they are envied and celebrated. They are inspired to keep up the good work, to improve and to make an impact on the
We most of the time assimilate culture to the word environment, and the familial environment is always not open to deep, and honest sharings. Mostly, those sayings are considered Taabo. For about 18 years, I have failed to deepen into a tradition of sharing my thoughts, the feelings, the choices, my eases with the persons around me_my parents. And even when trying to do so, the response will most of the time discourage you to try again. Failure to actually accomplish such a task with the people you live with can unconsciously impact the way you deal with failures. As a result, this leads me to reject the failures. Whenever a situation was presented to me, I will rather run away from it as I failed to understand the meaning of growth mindset. I failed the day I was not accepted as the Academic representative of my school. Even though I show a sense of growth mindset, inside, I still felt that I was not incapable of winning an election. For me success was much more important than the idea of learning and receiving feedback from others. Unfortunately since this day, honestly, I have always denied being candidate for any election, even if someone nominated me. But still, I realize that I was on the wrong turn and understand that I should have been vulnerable to this situation. I should have open myself to the idea that I should not only be vulnerable about my
There are two examples in the text “Shooting An Elephant,” where the protagonist Eric A. Blair’s role as an oppressor changed into the oppressed. Due to life complications, he is forced to join the tyrannical Imperial civil services. The tasks given to him with his place as an officer led people to view him as an oppressor. As Eric states his perception,“I was hated by large numbers of people...The wretched prisoner huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the gray, cowed faces of the long-term convicts the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos…” Eric is contradicted by his own consciousness, supporting the Burmese, but being a part of their oppressors. His guilt does not allow him to feel free, therefore leading
It was the middle of October, and it was finally time for my long awaited moose hunt. I have waited ever since I was a little girl for this opportunity, and it was finally here. So, my father and I packed up our stuff and left the warmth of Phoenix. We were leaving the "Valley of the Sun" and headed for a place called Wyoming. After two days and fourteen long hours of driving, we made it to our hunting unit.
Without actions, thoughts are just seeds without water, destined to die. Even with water, a plant may never reach its fullest potential. A plant could become six inches instead of six feet, it all depends on the amount of water. The seed that gets all the water it deserves will blossom and may never die, while the same seed that gets no water might as well never exist. Using water, seeds are transformed into plants. Seeds have grown into democracy, equality, and all that is good and bad in the world. In the end, it is all about the water (actions) that transforms the seed (ideas) to the kind of plant (result) that it will grow into. The quote by John Ruskin, “What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
The “push to be perfect” (Thomas) is at an all-time high. Pressure for perfection from peers, parents, teachers and coaches is so unreasonably high that many students don’t think that they will ever be able to achieve it. A student feels that it is impossible to get good grades, be athletic, in multiple organizations, and most of all appear to be happy. Students have turned to cheating, drug/ alcohol abuse, and even suicide to try and cope. They are competing with friends for top spots, and believe that if they don’t beat them, they are a failure. Not only other students, but parents play a big roll, too. Their own parents and the parents of their peers will compare kids. New Trier High School’s Jim Conroy said that the biggest problem about pressure comes from the parents who compare (Robbins). With all...
I am an undocumented student at UC Davis. When I am asked a simple question such as, "describe your personal experiences", I ask myself: Where do I begin?
As I sat in the boiling hot sun, the heat that had overwhelmed me throughout the day surpassed. I was engulfed by Lu Paul, a native Hawaiian advocate who was telling me the story of how Native Hawaiians loss their rights. “How did my people become a minority in their own land?” he asked me inquisitively. I found myself making many connections with this man’s story and my own. As he answered my questions about inequality in his community, he began to speak of many things that I had witnessed in my life, that I thought only my own culture experienced. “My people need to fight for equal education, language rights, and employment”, he stated firmly. It was in this moment I began to broaden my perspective of inequality and minority rights. This along with the many other field experiences I had during my semester abroad, help shape my desire to attend law school and work both nationally and abroad in civil and human rights.
However, such accusations such as laziness and entitlement, although common, have been prevalent amongst those of college age as proven in “A’s for Everyone.” Shepard had investigated the cause behind this and had put the blame on grade inflation in the years prior to entering college, the pressure to get superb grades due to high tuition costs, and most importantly the belief that “effort” constitutes a grade bonus. However, if one has entered the school system in America, one could see the relative ease in which one could improve their grades through inordinate amounts of extra credit. Multiple students have heard and even seen fellow students ask their parents to even come in for meetings of which equate to blaming their child’s poor grades on the teacher and harassing said teacher to allow their child, soon to be a hardworking, productive citizen of society, to get the “grade they
For example, Thomas, a 5th grader at the competitive Anderson School in New York City, has been told nearly all his life that he is brilliant. He has been told not only by his parents but also by the adults around him as well. However, now that he is aware of his brilliance, he is afraid of failure and disappointment, instead of having this tremendous self-confidence. His father has even said, quote "Thomas didn't want to try things he wouldn't be successful at...Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn't, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, 'I'm not good at this,'" unquote. He will sometimes refuse outright to do his homework
Some people like to stay in control of their life and avoid any amount of extraordinary risk to protect their self-disclosure. Other people don’t shy away from challenges as they are confident that certain obstacles are nothing more than just another thing standing in their way from living life to the fullest extent. Through personal experience, I’ve realized that personal comfort is nothing more than a variety of fears that limit me from challenging myself.
I stepped out of a life where I was put through a lot. I've been through foster care, through so many arguments with my family, and I have done a lot of mistakes throughout my life. It made me the confident and strong minded person I am today. I experienced failure many times, but moments like those made me realize that I needed to protect those who are in my shoes and take a step back into my own life and be a leader. It pushed me to learn things I never knew and to be a police officer have showed me these standards. You protect, help, and understand the people in need and I wanna pursue a dream that will come true.
8:50 am, and was shouted at by Mrs Robinson. It was 23rd June 2000. I