The House I Live In

The House I Live In

This movie presents a society where drug abuse and its war has seen many citizens get to prison. Jarecki presents a society that has seen more of the poor people being imprisoned for drug use, possession or even trafficking. This is a society that has seen many prisoners than any other country in the world. Jarecki would have integrated the character and clearly shown how this character Nannie had lost her son.

This movie, The House I Live In, presents a society that has people misusing drugs for various reasons. Jarecki presents the challenges that most people face in a society that is faced with stiff class struggles and even wars on the drugs.This movie has showed a lot of biases when it came to the use of the  law on the drug users. Jarecki could have used the whole society equally and shown how the society was affected by the application of the law itself.

The characters, such as Nannie Jeter, a used to represent a society that is faced with great challenges of drug use. She loses her son to the drug war before moving up to the north side of the country. What she didn’t know was that the society that was living on the upper side of the country was faced with multiple challenges. These people were faced with problems such as class struggle, segregation, racism as well as the drug trafficking. The representation of the society shows a lot of segregation. The author could have involved more of the society that had the first-hand information on the war of drugs. This would have given a fair representation of the society in a struggle to ending a corruption, not creating one.

The whole society is presented as a corrupt one with everybody being involved in the so-called, war against drugs, becoming a victim. The judiciary, as well as the police force, is faced with the challenges of corruption that have led to the increased number of drug related issues. This has seen to the increased number of drug prisoners in the whole country.

The Character I liked Most

      The history of slavery has always been subject to many people and a lot of studies were made by the slave owners rather than the slaves themselves. The book “The Invention of Wings” written by Sue Monk Kid is talking about slave owners and it describe a terrible look at the abuse that the black slaves had to bear and the inhumane treatment from their owners.  The story has many characters and I believe that Sarah Gremick is as stronger character as Hetty Handful and they both are playing as the main characters in the story. Though the character that drove my attention and like the most is Sarah Gremick.

     The book describes the story of Sarah Grimke, who came from the aristocratic family of Charleston, South Carolina. Handful was a slave who was gifted to Sarah as a birthday present. Although Sarah grew at a time when many white people accepted slavery, she refused to accept Handful as a gift and she was not satisfied with the way those slaves were treated. Despite her young  age she stood for the right and stand against her family wishes to attain her true believes. She fought for human right and against to inhuman behavior that were practiced with slaves. The battle she was fighting in seemed as a losing battle but she never gave up. As Sarah gets older, she becomes more and more outspoken in her opposition to slavery and she won the battle. 

     The author did really good job in achieving her goal by truly showing the struggle for freedom in the face of slavery. She allows me as a reader to live in the moment and experience Sarah’s struggle toward achieving her desire and fill full her promise to Handful mother. Form me; I really admire Sarah’s character.

My 1st Writing Experience

      My writing experience varies in difficulty based on the topic I’m given to write about. Being an international student, I would say that I don’t have a lot of writing experiences, my first writing was a big challenge for me especially in English where it has different writing structure than I used to in Arabic. I didn’t know the first step and it was hard to understand how to put an essay together. Every time I would start typing I would delete and have to start all over again. I feel that I have a lot of thing to say but don’t know how I should start and how to put my ideas together.

      The first essay I wrote “My Classmate” was not that hard as the others because it was kind of open and wide topic though, it was stressful and I was so nervous because it was my first blog where every body can read it other than the instructor. It took me couple hours to prepare what I’m going to write and I think that one of the reason of taking that long time while other students might took half an hour is because I tend to translate the assignment to Arabic first then think of simple English sentences to translate them to Arabic. By following this way I ended up having couple few sentences in this assignment that don’t fully explain what I intended to say. During the preparation of this essay, I reviewed couple American blogs and saw the way they express their thinking about the education and tried to follow their way in writing. I also looked at couple Saudi articles and tried to translate them in English. 
     Another problem that I have is that I don’t have enough vocabulary; I took long time to decide the points that may not need difficult words. So, vocabulary is one of the things that hinder my progress in writing. After jotting couple sentences, I asked my wife for help in expanding some points and how to say some sentences in English. Then, I checked the spelling and the grammar in Microsoft word office. My final step was visiting the wright center to review my paper by checking the content, grammar and punctuation marks.
     My wife has been a good motivation as she is trying to help to over come the habit of translating each single sentence and she suggested me to practice thinking about the topic in English and start writing right away. She helps me in forming couple long sentences and increasing my vocabulary and how we use them. My kids are also being helpful as I always ask them whether this sentence makes sense or not and how to say it in different way.  The writing center is also helping in reviewing my paper and makes the necessary correction.
     I still feel that I need to improve my writing skills. Whenever I received my paper from writing instructor, I see a lot of comments on my paper either because I went out of the topic or the instructor couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. Sometimes I feel really angry about myself when I read other blogs, I see them very clear and have a lot of vocabulary that I understand them but couldn’t know how to use them. I will graduate by spring 2018 with a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in management. I hope by that time I would improve my writing skill and talking it with me to my new career.

The impact of culture in the education

  

    The definition of culture is the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. The culture can be transmitted and carried through our language, visual media, written books, schools, and art, from one generation to another. The US is considered as one of the most diverse countries because it consists of many diverse cultures. There are some popular cultures that affect the educational system in schools.  Here I'm going to talk about some cultural tendencies that impact way we participate in education. Also, I'll give some examples of my own and my kids' experiences and expectations when we first came to the US. 
    

          As a student, I was expecting that I should work independently during the class as I used to, but when I came here I was asked to work with peers and have group projects. Here, providing assistance when needed is expected from me, while in my country, helping others is considered cheating. Also, the participation style is different here in US schools, where students are usually active in classroom discussion and have to be engaged with the teacher and with classmates as well. In contrast, Saudi students tend to be quiet, good listeners and only answer the questions when the teacher asks. Seriously, I don't remember any class discussion that happened during my study in Saudi Arabia.   

       
      Regarding the role of parents in education, in our culture we rely on the teacher's expertise in providing academic guidance to our kids. As students' parents our job is assisting them doing their homework, helping them in memorizing the new lessons for the day after in order to ensure their participation, and lastly, reviewing for the exams. In comparison, American parents are involved in their kids' academic progress. Moreover, they are more actively involved in their children's classroom and you see them always visible as a volunteer, assisting the teacher in any school events.   

        
          In conclusion, we shouldn't deny the big impact of culture on our lifestyles and education. The stories we watch in movies, TV shows, the songs we hear, the art we see and the stories we read all reflect the educational system in our schools. Not only do they tell us about the environment of the school, but also they describe the teachers and students images and roles on our schools. Thus, all teachers should understand these cultural differences so they don't make unfair judgments regarding the others' cultural values and behaviors.

education in Saudi Arabia

                                                  The high school in Saudi Arabia   

         The high school in my country takes 3 years to graduate. This phase comes after 9 years of educational levels. The first academic year of high school consists of almost all science subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry and literary/social subjects such as psychology, philosophy and history. While in the second academic year, student has to choose between two tracks; scientific track and literary track. Finally, the third academic year, the student has to complete the track he/she chose in the second year.    

  

        During the first year of high school, students will test their ability and progress in variety of subjects. They are expected to think carefully about the track they are going to select based on their goal and based on the career they want. When student finishes the first year exams, he/she begins to think with their parents about the which track is most suitable to him/her. Unfortunately, parents often preferred scientific track, which qualifies their children to enter the summit colleges such as medicine, engineering, and pharmacy, regardless of their children's potential and their abilities with this track. The third year is the last year of high school, it is considered as the most important phase in student's education life where they have to work hard and do their best in order to get high GPA that qualify them to enter the college they want.   

       

       In conclusion, I would say that the second year is as important as the third year where the student has to take the right decision that meets his ambition as well as compatibility. I would strongly suggest before choosing the track, that the student has to set goals he/she wants to achieve in short and long term. He/she has to know which areas he/she can be creative in. Then decide that those areas belongs to which track and which track will help you achieving your goals, and therefore you can choose between the two tracks. 

My classmates

 
the last class we had to interview each other. I interviewed one of my classmates his name is Amjad Alghamdi. He is 24 years old. He has been student at Cedar Crest College since 2013. He lives with his friends. He likes to cook Arabic food, relax at the beach, and play soccer. He said their soccer is his favorite and best game. He plays everyday with his friend after he is done with his classes. Actually we had a good conversation in class. I asked him about his education. He told me  that he Graduated from high school in 2009. He Deeside  to  study English program in the United State, Philadelphia in 2010. When he went to Philadelphia the first time, it was amazing and great. their wear  more activities in Philadelphia. He went  downtown to see the people around ,and he was  exited by  what he saw. He was happy in Philadelphia for 6 month ago, he decided to go back to Saudi Arabia to visit his family. He was staying there for a couple weeks. In addition he wanted to get married, so he wanted to have his wedding in Baris he shared his desire for the wedding location opinion with his parents, and they said okay.