Pro Charlotte

"While the hapless girl who falls victim to her too great sensibility, shall be loaded with ignominy and shame." Shame, ignominy, disgrace, and possible infamy. What do all these words have in common? They can all go along with the pregnancy of a teenage girl. Sadly though it's a reality in the world were living in these days.

The book Charlotte Temple, explores the ups and downs of a teenager wanting her independence. Every teen believe they're on top of the world, every teen thinks their invincible. But in actuality, they're no. Charlotte Temple displays this in more then one way. Wether it be from going against her parents and leaving to go overseas with a man she hardly knows, to becoming a teenager mother. Teens think they're invincible, but their not.

With in this work of literature it shows this too teens. They can relate to it because it shows a teenage girl going through the same struggles as teens go through nowadays. Life, independence, love, and finding yourself are all different topics that teens have been dealing with since forever, such as in Charlotte Temple which is set in the early 19th century, and where these topics show throughout the book.

Which brings me to the reason for this blog post, I think Charlotte Temple would be a fine book to teach to future sophomore classes. The book gives the students something they can relate to, it's not like other books involving characters and plot lines that generally just do not occur in real life. This book gives a pretty accurate description of what a life could turn into if you choose to make naive choices. Even though much of the book does involve melodramatic scenes, much of it isn't as far fetched as it may seem. Teen pregnancy statistics are soaring in the society were living in today. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 1/3 of teenagers will get pregnant some point within their lifetime. As saddening as that may be, its the harsh reality. And there are great consequences for the choices you make, bad and naive ones included.

Charlotte temple shows these consequences, granted some may be exaggerated, but there nothing that couldn't possibly happen to everyone. Charlotte temple is a relatable book for all teenagers, thats why I feel it should be taught to the future classes.

Ignominy- a powerful term

Ignominy- to dishonor, disgrace, shame, infamy, the condition of of being a disgrace.

How often do you hear this word in present day society? Not much I bet. This 15th century French term died out about the same time the Civil War of the confederate vs the union ended, the late 1860's. The word "ignominy" isn't just a light term you throw around, its a passionate and powerful word used to describe something that has brought a disgrace resulting in regrets and anger to something in your life. Sheer infamy is the only true definition that can be placed with this word.

This word isn't commonly used in the era were living in, but can occasionally be found in phrases, like book titles. "Shuffling to Ignominy: The Tradgedy of Stepin Fetchit," a tragedy describing the disgrace and infamy reached through one man's action that was published in 2005. The word could be used to describe a sports team after they lose a game because they got to cocky or conceited about winning. (For example the way our very own Chicago Blackhawks played the other day.) But the time period that this word really shined was in the 19th century. Right around the time when the literature work titled, "Charlotte Temple" was published.

The word "ignominy" is used in one of the most passionate parts of the book, right when her father is arriving from overseas only to find that his daughter is on her death bead. "While the hapless girl who falls victim to her too great sensibility, shall be loaded with ignominy and shame?" Within this quote, the narrator of the text is describing Charlotte on her death bed and what she has become, a teenage single mother with no money, no husband, and no future because of the naive choices she has made. This word is powerful, and leaves a lasting impact because of the sophisticated nature of itself.

I feel strongly that this word is important to know for the sake of creating a more sophisticated vocabulary and being able to widen your degrees of describing a feeling. You could very well just use the word "disgrace" to describe something that you are slightly ashamed in, but nothing hits the spot like the word "ignominy." It portrays the true shame and disappointment of someone's actions, all within a single word.

Children in America

Obesity in America has been a growing problem for the past 10 plus years. With fast food chains dominating the food industry, and television and video games taking over our free time, it's something that has become hard to avoid. But obesity can lead to larger problems than just physical health problems, it can also lead to emotional ones.

Recent studies have shown that just being overweight can increase chances of children being bullied by 63 percent. Bullying can cause children emotional pain, some so great that it even leads to suicide. The case of a young girl named Phoebe, who had committed suicide has even made it into the courts. Bullying has been around for a long time, as has obesity. So what I find odd is that this study has just recently been discovered. Bullying is a problem that's been around for ages, it's not something new. Children bully other children based upon clear differences. Race and ethnic backgrounds being one of the largest factors. So why hasn't this "discovery" been made before?

A child's weight is going to be the first thing that another child notices. Children compare themselves to what they see. And for the amount of children that are overweight, there's a lot that aren't depending on the location of where you live. In an area where were growing up, the kids are thin. There really isn't an abundance of larger children, therefore making them stick out more then usual. It's in areas like this where the situation becomes worse, when they"re the only ones.

So parents should be aware of this, if your child is overweight, don't be afraid to check up on them. That goes for all parents, even the skinny kids get bullied. Bullying is a serious issue and it can be prevented if parents step in and keep an eye on their children.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/bulliestargetobesekids.html

Fat or Fight

One of the things that has always fascinated me most was when you would see a larger set police man/woman working on the job. Yes, the stereotype of police officers is "overweight lazy perpetual donut eaters," but at one point in time this stereotype was sort of a joke, or not meant to be taken to seriously. Now studies are showing though, that this stereotype may be more realistic then previously thought, and it may have a direct correlation to school lunches.

I remember being in the 5th grade and hearing that they were going to change the school lunches. It was an outrage, appalling, it couldn't be true. Being one of the very few schools that had adequate tasting school lunches that never included mystery meat or any odd stew the lunch ladies happened to whip up, instead we were a school with vast choices of french fries, Bosco sticks, and hamburgers. In other words, as much grease as are poor little 5th grade arteries could take. But this is also one of the reasons that they believe 27% of all Americans ages 17-24 are too fat to be in the army according to a report released by the government.

So what does this have to do with school lunches? Well seeing as you do spend roughly 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about 12 years in school, consuming atleast one if not two lunches a day, plus any numerous amounts of snacks that are available for purchase, this is a problem. If the only food available to the kids is high calorie and fattening, well thats what theyre going to eat. So if schools begin to incorporate healthier options such as fruits, vegetables, and instead of conventional chips, the healthier version called baked chips, this problem could dissolve itself. But if not we could be facing a serious problem of even higher rates of child hood obesity.

The military used to face the problem of having to turn people way because of malnutrition in the late 1940s, but not more then 70 years later, they're having the opposite problem. What kind of impact will this have on our militaries? No one really knows, and I'm not sure we want to find out either.

For further reading:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_school_lunches_threat

Mental Illness and Domestic Abuse

Recently I've been reading a book entitled, "Wild Roses," by Deb Cavalleti. Being the type of person who often reads many books in a short amount of time, generally I choose my books based upon the covers. (Not the brightest idea, but sometimes the most practical.) Seeing the title of, "Wild Roses," I had automatically assumed that the book would be fluff, a fast read with no actual intellectual value. After about the first few pages though, I became aware that I was in fact truly misguided.

Although I'm only about halfway through the book, each page is painted with a vision of rising tension because of a mental illness in the step father. Everyday I read more and more of the book, I expect something big to happen, some sort of domestic abuse to arise out of the mental illness. This got me thinking more about the topic of domestic abuse, is it purely out of an irrational act? Or is there more behind it, such as mental illness?

According to http://parentingabusedkids.wordpress.com, a database that has many fact regarding abuse, it does have a direct correlation. I had never really thought about domestic abuse on a much more finite spectrum. But when I did, I realized that someone wouldn't just randomly be abusing someone because they felt like it, atleast I'd hope not.

I would highly encourage reading this book for many reasons, not only is it your typical sappy romance, but that aspect does not over take the entire book. There is real meaning to it, it's not just fluff. It also gives you and idea of what it would be like to live with someone strongly from a mental illness. Life isn't just fun and games for everyone, real people deal with real issues.

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