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In order to help students become more focused on their education, the school board has decided to do away with class time for football and basketball; all practices and conditioning will take place after school.
Is this an effective way to raise grades and increase test scores? Is it fair to the student athletes?
State your opinion and your reasons.
In order to help students become more focused on their education, the school board has decided to do away with class time for football and basketball; all practices and conditioning will take place after school.
Is this an effective way to raise grades and increase test scores? Is it fair to the student athletes?
State your opinion and your reasons.
In order to help students become more focused on their education, the school board has decided to do away with class time for football and basketball; all practices and conditioning will take place after school.
Is this an effective way to raise grades and increase test scores? Is it fair to the student athletes?
State your opinion and your reasons.
Write a convincing argument in which you agree or disagree with this statement:
“Life was easier for teenagers 50 years ago than it is for teenagers today.”
***Since we’re starting to work on persuasive speaking, your next several topics will require you to pick a side and to defend your position. I won’t be answering the questions, because I don’t want to influence your answers.***
A litter problem has developed on your school’s campus. Students are throwing trash on the ground, leaving empty soda cans and bottles outside on benches, and dropping napkins and other trash on the cafeteria floor rather than carrying them to the trash can. Your principal has asked students to take more care, but the litter problem persists. The principal has reacted by canceling all after-school activities until the problem is taken care of. What is your position on this issue?
Remember, you not only have to tell HOW you feel about the issue, but you also have to tell WHY.
When I was 23, I tore a ligament in my foot, but the doctor also thought I might have broken a bone in my foot, so I had to wear half a plaster cast … it was gross. I hated it, and it wasn’t straight, so my foot twisted inward a little bit, and to this day, it still twists instead of being straight, and I’m bitter about it.
Anyway, I was in the church orchestra at the time; I played the flute. And we were playing at this rally at Broadmoor Baptist Church in Raleigh, and my sister and I were leaving early because of … something, I don’t remember what. Of course, I was on crutches, but I also had to wear a skirt–we all had to wear white blouses and black skirts. Well, my only black skirt had a slit up to the mid-thigh (not exactly appropriate for a church function). DEFINITELY not appropriate for swinging my leg around on crutches (because of course the slit was on the same side as my deformed foot). So I pinned the slit closed. With an earring. (MacGuyvered it.)
At the church I was going to at the time, there were side exits for the orchestra, so we could slip out quietly if necessary. Broadmoor did not have side exits. That meant I was going to have to leave the stage by going down the stairs in front of the altar. Right in front of everybody. On crutches.
So my sister and I got up to leave, and she TOTALLY TOOK OFF AND LEFT ME TO CLIMB DOWN THE STAIRS BY MYSELF. Furthermore, I also had to carry my flute.
To recap: I–the clumsy poop who tore a ligament and (maybe) broke her foot in a supersecret wrestling incident–was wearing a vaguely obscene skirt pinned together with the stud I’d taken out of my third ear piercing, and was carrying a musical instrument AND MYSELF down a set of carpeted stairs that had NO RAILINGS and was IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE.
Obviously, I fell. I mean, you totally saw that coming, right?
Fortunately–if anything about this could be called fortunate–I fell backwards. This gave me the opportunity to flail around with my arms in the air (my arms that were still holding the crutches, giving me the appearance of an animatronic pterodactyl dying over Tokyo). Also, the earring popped off the slit in my skirt and torpedoed some guy in the front row; I hope his eye’s okay now. Some trombone player caught me before I hit the floor and sort of carried me down the stairs by my armpits; I probably looked like a Vegas showgirl, what with my leg lifted at an awkward angle and my thigh hanging out of my skirt and my arms–and crutches–held at a 90 degree angle.
The entire audience had gasped when I first tumbled, and somewhere some videographer went, “YESSS!” because you know that would bank someone $25,000 on America’s Funniest Whatever. I had third degree burns on my face, on account of how red I was, and my sister missed the whole thing because she was already in the car and halfway home, that turd.
Oh, and … uh … I just made that up. That didn’t really happen. I mean, it sounds like it could have, but … you know … I just have … a really good imagination. Yeah.
What makes you laugh?
I’ll just make a list:
-quick, witty comebacks
-that time the cat got stuck in the pantry
-P.G. Wodehouse
-my sister’s Carlton dance
-that time my family got lost in Memphis and my dad ripped the map
-The Soup
-Shaun of the Dead
-this picture of my niece
-The Office
-how every time I go to the mall I miss my exit and drive halfway to Nashville
-loud burps
-when people run into things, like when I walked into a bench at Dollywood
-my math skillz
-this song
-and this one
-Nicky’s impression of the Beastie Boys
-”That’s UNBELIEVABLE!!!!”
This question was inspired by a conversation with Nicky M.
How long should you know someone before you marry him/her?
My parents met and married within two months of meeting each other. That is, MET AND MARRIED, not met and got engaged, or met and started dating; they met, and then two months later they were in the chapel getting hitched. They will celebrate their thirty-fourth anniversary this year.
Look how young they are! My dad is 22 and my mom is 21.
p.s. She was not pregnant.
Most relationship experts say you should know someone for four seasons before you get married; I guess some people act differently in the summer than they do in the winter. Or maybe you’ll find out that your beloved is a Christmas Scrooge, or s/he lights firecrackers in the toilet on the Fourth of July. Perhaps your sugarplum celebrates the start of autumn by skinning live cats or eating cave spiders. These things would be good to know BEFORE you get married.
When I think about my friends who have gotten married, are getting married, or are working on their second (or third!) marriages, I think, “Maybe you should have waited.”
But that might be hypocritical of me since, if I ever meet Bill S. Preston, Esquire, you would be seeing this in a hot second.
In keeping with the last question and our chapter about interviews, where do you see yourself in ten years?
Do you think you’ll attend your high school reunion? Maybe you think it will be fun to see how everyone’s doing; maybe you can’t stand the people at your high school and can’t wait to see the last of them; maybe you don’t know what you’ll feel in ten years. What do you think?
I did NOT attend my ten year reunion, and I won’t be going to any of the ones in the future, either. The simple reason is that I’ve grown beyond high school. Contrary to popular belief, high school was not “the time of my life.” I had fun–lots of fun–but then I grew up.
It sounds like I’m bitter about my high school days, but I’m not. I’m pretty comfortable with my high school self. Frankly, though, I’m a different person now. I have different opinions, and different goals, and different plans for my life. (I am still sarcastic, though now I actually say the things I’m thinking … well, sometimes).
For me, my high school years are in the past. Suppose I’d gotten married; maybe the years I was married were awesome, and then I got divorced. Even if I remembered my marriage fondly, I probably wouldn’t celebrate my 25th anniversary. So it is with my tenure as a high school student: it was great when I was sixteen, but I’m twice that old now, and I have other stuff to think about.
Don’t be jealous of my awesome high-waisted rolled cut-offs and my handpainted shirt. You’ll have to try hard, I know.
p.s. Don’t play; that perm is amazing.
