First Classmate Respnse

      I found a quote from Peter Chen's blog on his response to "Odd Girl Out" and I think his experience can be used to figure out ways to use the ASTI constitution to make other students feel more comfortable in school.

 I saw many times that people bully others. I did not help the one who gets bully on, how could you help a guy that is against to few people? Authority? Power? Evidence? No! None of them above I had. I just know do not make others feel bad or mad, do the way I think it should be. Luckily, in Lincoln, I remember I only have once that others tried to bully me, not really bully, but it really make be feel bad. The second day of the school, there is a guy who lanugh on my English-speaking skill very loudly(that was my first year! How would I speak English like an ABC!?)

       From Peter's experience, I think we should learn to accept others for who they are. He had just moved to the United States that year and people were already making fun of him because of the way he talked. I agree with his statement when he mentions how other people didn't even care to think that he needed time to adjust to speaking English. How could they expect him to know the language of a country he had only been in for a year? I think we should try to help people who are having difficulties with something instead of just pointing fingers and making fun of them. We should also learn to acknowledge different people and their situations and accept them for it even if it may seem weird or different to us. Thankfully no one is the same, so we should try to embrace this and accept others just the way they are.
       We should also learn to find the courage to stand up for, not just ourselves, but also other people that we see being bullied or harassed. This is easier said than done but, if we do it can really help others feel more comfortable with what they're dealing with. Just like Peter said, sometimes we feel like we don't really have the authority or power to step up to a larger group of people and tell them that what they are doing is wrong. Most likely, if we did do this the only thing that would happen is that we would just cause more attention to ourselves and even if the larger group of people stop being mean to that one person, they will probably start bullying you. I know this from experience because when I was in elementary school, the group of girls that I hung out with started being really rude to another one of my friends. I decided to be on my other friends side so she wouldn't feel as sad but then, they started excluding me just because i was trying help out someone else.
       Lastly, it is always a strong thing to do when you take responsibility for your own words and actions. I know that I tend to talk about the good things i did to help other people out but, i have to admit that sometimes, i was part of the bullying. When these girls would start making fun of another girl in our class who wasn't really a close friend of mine, I would sometimes join in with them. It kind of felt good to have the attention turned away from me so  I didn't really care that I was making somebody else feel bad, I was just glad that they weren't bullying me. However, I now know that what i did was wrong and I really tried to change that about myself. I've attempted to make sure that  I don't make others feel bad intentionally and to pick friends that do the same. Or, even if my friends to make fun of  others, i try to have ones that won't get mad at me if I tell them that the are being mean. I think I've become pretty successful with this but what I could work on is trying not to join in and talk about people that I don't like. Even if it may feel like we are all on the same side, i know that if the other person somehow found out about what we were saying, it would really hurt them.
       The ASTI constitution has very good rules about how we should all treat each other so that everyone will feel safe and comfortable when they are at school.

The Pact

       When I was in middle school I had many friends who were all academically at different levels. Some of my friends were extremely motivated to do well in school while others didn’t really care at all. There was also a group that was right in the middle. I think I was part of this group when I was in 6th and 7th grade. I wouldn’t say I was a terrible student but I was only getting B’s and C’s. I also didn’t have the best study habits. Very often I would procrastinate with finishing assignments or studying for tests and unfortunately, all I was doing was hurting myself.
       I remember on the first day of 8th grade my school had a few students from the class that had just graduated come and talk to us about how important it was that we try as hard as we can in 8th grade. They had students in all different situations speak – some were going to their first choice high schools while others were stuck going to schools that they got assigned to. It really helped hearing advice from people that I knew and who were the same age as me because it made me think about what position I wanted to be in by the end of the year.
       I knew I could do a lot better than I did the years before so in 8th grade I began working much harder. A lot of my motivation came from wanting to get into a high school of my choice but another part of it was because of support from my friends.
        That year I really started pushing myself to do well in school. When I got my first progress report of the year I was so proud of myself because I’d gotten almost all A’s and B’s. My friends were just as happy for me. They were also very supportive and congratulated me when I received an award at school for improving my grades. This really helped me motivate myself because it felt great to have people feel proud of me, especially my parents. It was really good for me to know that I had the support from my friends as well as from my family because it helped me make myself work a lot harder.
       When I begin school at ASTI I know it will be just as important for me to have these same academically supportive relationships with my friends. It really makes a difference when your peers are the ones telling you to do better in class compared to when your parents or teachers are. In order to make sure this happens I will surround myself with positive influences that work hard in school and are motivated to do well. It is also good to have friends who have goals they want to accomplish because, just like this passage stated, maybe we can help each other achieve them along the way.

Survival of the Fittest

        I think that having strong competition amongst your classmates can be a bad thing but mostly a good thing. If you are competing against your friends and become so obsessed with trying to do better than them, you may ruin some of your friendships. Everyone needs friends to lean on for support during tough times but I think that when you are determined to be one of the top students in your class, you work a lot harder to get to where you want to be academically. It is also a good thing that students are aware of the tough competition that is out there to get into top universities. This means that they will most likely go above and beyond in their school work and do more extra-curricular activities in order to make sure that they stand out from their peers.
        Even though we know it's wrong, I think some students cheat because they begin to feel overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed in school. They may think that if cheating is what it takes to get an A , then why not do it? Also, some students may not feel confident that they have studied enough for a test and cheating may make them feel reassured that they are getting the answers right. Some students may even feel that this is a part of making sure that they are one of the top students in their class.
       However, you can receive big consequences if you get caught cheating. I know that in college, if you are caught cheating or plagiarizing someone else's work, you will automatically get kicked out. In high school or middle school, I know that you will usually get an F on the assignment that you cheated on. There are also some emotional consequences you may have to deal with if no matter if you get caught or not. You could end up feeling really guilty for lying and cheating and become really stressed out about the situation. You will feel like you didn't really deserve the grade you got if it was a good one because it wasn't earned by you working hard and studying the material that you needed to. You succeeded, but in a dishonest way.
       I think that students who get caught cheating should have different consequences given to them. If they are c heating on a test they should have to retake the test but one with different questions on them so that they won't already know what to expect. Or, they should just be given an F on the test or assignment so that their bad choice will reflect in their grade. Another punishment that can be given to a student who cheats on another piece of work is that they can be told to redo it, but they should also be that their grade will be marked a couple of points down. This way they won't be failing completely but they still won't get the full score they would have if they didn't cheat.
        I know that it is never right to cheat in school. It is dishonest and there will be major consequences if you get caught. It might also end up on your high school records and then you may not get into any college at all because no university wants to let a cheater into their school. It is better to just try the best you can to get good grades so that when you achieve your goal of getting into college, you'll know that you did it honestly and on your own.

"Just Kidding" and "Gaining Up"

           A time that I was picked on by a larger group of people was when I was in the fifth grade. I remember on the first day of school, there was a new girl and she didn't really know anyone or have any friends. My mom told me that i should try to become friends with her so, even though nobody else wanted to, i did. Unfortunately, i began to regret that later on.
             Eventually, the rest of my friends and some other girls in our grade began to really like her. They all became friends with her and once that happened, she began to to be really mean. Sometimes a lot of girls describe one another as being "two faced" and this girl was exactly that. Some days she would be really nice to me and then another day she would be really mean and make me wish that I hadn't come to school that day.
             After that most of my friends, except for about two of them, started acting like her. Whenever she was mean to another girl, they would do the same thing. Sometimes i wouldn't hang out with them and I'd just talk to my other friends, but then they would get mad at me for "ignoring" them. It was like they didn't even understand that they could be really mean sometimes. When this happened i kind of felt like I shouldn't have been the nice one and befriended her. It seemed like i was the only one who actually tried to be this girls' friend and then she just turns all of my friends into these mean girls.
             I had about three options in this situation. I could have either confronted all of them and told them that i didn't like how they were acting, just stopped being friends with them, or i could've just kept on pretending that nothing was wrong. I knew that if i did the first two, I would probably have a group of girls hating me and not wanting to talk to me because of an issue that didn't really involve them. So, unfortunately i stuck with the third option and continued to pretend like nothing was wrong.
              I think the reason that some people are bullies is because they may have low self esteem and want to take it out on someone else. They could end up not really caring if they hurt other peoples' feelings, just that they feel good about themselves. Bullies probably get other people to gang up on others because it may make them feel like they're in control or like everyone is on their side. They also might feel better because they know that they are no longer the victim.
             I don't think girls realize that sometimes, just talking about another person behind their back can be really hurtful. Instead of being mean to each other we should just try to work out our problems with one another without getting other people involved. It'll most likely make situations a lot better and a lot easier.