essay 13

Progress Always Comes At a Price

By: Cole Blake

5/16/12

Pine Point School

Frederick Wilcox once said, “Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first base.”. This quote easily reminded me of my 8th grade year at pine point school. In english class, with Mr. Salsich, we read two books that related to this topic. Also my life related to this topic because of the sports I played. Progress always comes at a risk, I valuable lesson I learned during my 8th grade year at Pine Point School.

   

Of Mice and Men, a terrific story about two friends named George and Lennie, was a great example of progression coming at a price. The price that was paid in Of Mice and Men was Lennie’s death. George shot Lennie after Lennie had killed other people that lived on the farm like, Curley’s wife, or Lennie’s own dog.George knew that Lennie would have been killed anyway by Curly, another worker on the farm who is very mean. The progress that George now gained is  his ability to acquire jobs. With Lennie alive George was not able to keep any job he got because Lennie would do something and ruin them for George. Since George killed Lennie he will now be able to keep jobs much longer and make much more money. Another thing that will be better for George without Lennie being there with him is how he can now keep his money and save it for himself. Without Lennie George no longer has to use his money to pay for things that Lennie needs. For example George will no longer have to buy double the amount of food that he buys because he does not have to dispense that food with Lennie. I think that Of Mice and Men was a very good example of progress coming at a price and I am very glad we read it this year.

   
   To Kill a Mockingbird, another great example of progress coming at a price, was a renowned story about racism in the 1930’s. The price that had to be paid in To Kill a Mockingbird as well as most situations that involve racism was death. As The story continues a man named Tom Robinson is charged with rape and sent to prison. Tom decided to take his chances by trying to escape from that prison and died soon after the unjust court ruling involving racism that lead to his arrest. It is sad to think that Tom died because the court could not imagine a black man being innocent. Although Tom died his caused gained a lot of progression. For example i’m sure that some of the white men on that jury must have felt bad about what happened to Tom that day. After these people  saw what they caused Tom to do they might now be less racist to blacks. After Toms death people fighting racism could now use his death as an example of how bad racist people are. For example they could use Tom’s death as an example of what racism does to people. If the jury was not racist Tom would still be alive. There is much less racism in the United States because of people like Tom who sacrificed something.


   My life and many others are a great example of progress coming at a price. Hearing the sound of the clock strike 3:00, I am finally ready to go home, I am finally ready to relax and not worry about school, but then I realise that I will have to stay an extra hour and a half to practice lacrosse, a fun sport that involves much skill. Although I love to play lacrosse I do not like to spend my small amount of free time that I have on weekdays practicing it. I would much rather spend my free time during lacrosse games or at home. The progress that I gain from spending my free time at lacrosse practices is my level of skill at the sport. For example when I first started to play lacrosse, in sixth grade, I was terrible. I had no idea how to pass the ball to a friend of mine and even run around the field without the ball popping out of the stick. After lots of practice I have progressed in my skill of lacrosse in many ways. I now can run up and down the field, shoot, and pass to teammates with great ease. I also can participate in games and not just sit on the bench and try to learn how to play the game. Practicing lacrosse has made me a much better player but I have had to spend some of my free time to achieve such a skill.

    These three topics easily show how my eighth grade year at Pine Point School relates to progress coming at a price. In Of mice and Men Lennie had to be killed for George to progress in life. In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson had to die to teach people about racism. In my life I have to give up my free time to practice sports so I can be good at them.

    Self Assessment

1. I am continuing to work on remembering to put titles in italics. In past essays I have forgot to do so.

2. One strong point I see in this essay is that my sentences read very smoothly.

3. One weak point in this essay is my sentence length. I could have varied the lengths of my sentences.

essay 12

Where’s the Love?

Cole Blake

8 English

4/24/12

Where’s the love by the black eyed peas is a great song that teaches us about the terrible things happening in the world right now. The song mentions The bloods, The crips, and the KKK. It also mentions Kids acting like what they see in the movies. These two lines in the song are very meaningful and relate to the world.

Where’s the love is a great song that easily relates to the world of today. When the song talks about The bloods, a large gang in america, and the crips, another large gang in america, and the KKK I thought about how many people have died because of them. In total between the Bloods and Crips more than 15000 people have been killed. The Bloods and Crips are two rival gangs that are spread across the country, killing each other all day, every day. The KKK is a racist group that kills all races besides white americans. In total they have killed 1937 people, a much smaller number then the Bloods and Crips. The KKK have only killed different races and only during a very important part of history. This was a very meaningful part of song that made me think about my world.

“Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema”, easily reminded me of my life when I was very young. When I was young I would act like people in the movies I watched. Even if the movie involved violence I suddenly had the urge to play games with my friends that involved shooting each other with imaginary guns. This easily tells kids that violence is ok. I know that most kids act like what they see in movies because of all the items sold at stores involving movies. For example superman, a popular superhero, will be on tv and then kids might want to buy something involving superman. Although superman is not violent it still shows that kids like to act like the people they watch in movies. Movies need to warn adults about the movie more so they can stop their kids from watching them.

Between The crips, The bloods, The KKK and young children seeing R rated movies the world is having more and more violence.The crips, The bloods, and The KKK kill people every day while young children watch movies that make them think violence is ok. These are two things happening in our own country that bring lots of violence.

Essay 11

Patterns in our Lives

Cole Blake

4/9/12

Pine Point School

Patterns are all over To Kill a Mockingbird, Decorating its complicated story. They also spread across our lives, bringing us a smile when we notice them. One pattern I noticed in To Kill a Mockingbird is single parents. One I noticed in my life is playing sports every year. Patterns are everywhere in To Kill a Mockingbird and my life.

(TS) There are many patterns in To Kill a Mockingbird and one of them is kids having missing parents. (SD) For example, Scout and Jem do not have a mother. (CM) I have noticed this on several occasions when they, sprinting home with Dill,  only talk to their father Atticus. (CM) Also, Atticus mentions to Aunt Alexandra that he needs Cal because scout’s mother is deceased. (SD) Scout and Jem’s friend Dill also has no parents. (CM) This is easy to notice seeing as he is always moving around and can never stay with Scout and Jem for very long.(CM) He also is never staying with his parents only aunts and uncles. (SD)In addition Mayella Ewell does not have a mother. (CM)She has to help her dad take care of her brothers. (CM)This makes Mayella very stressed. (CS)This was a very  noticeable pattern in To Kill a Mockingbird.

(TS)One pattern that I have noticed in my life would be playing sports. (SD) Dribbling up the court, passing to teammates, taking shots, the first sport that I play is always basketball during the winter. (CM)When playing basketball I am always on the same team. (CM)Also Basketball is always played during the winter seeing how it is an indoor sport. (SD)Burning outside in the sun, passing the ball to your friends, Lacrosse is the second sport that I play every year. (CM)Similar to basketball, I have been on the same team since I started to play lacrosse. (CM)Lacrosse is always played during the same season each year and that season is spring. (SD)At one point I had played baseball too during the summer. (CM)Always smashing the ball with my bat, catching the ball in the outfield, I enjoyed  the game until the end. (CM)I loved playing baseball but after a few years I became bored and quit. Sports are a major pattern in my life and I am very glad that it is.

Single parents was a major pattern in To Kill a Mockingbird. There were  lots of children without a mother or without a father. Sports was a major pattern in my life because of how much time I spent every year playing sports. Even though I used to play 3 sports a year I still feel like 2 sports is a lot.

Self Assessment

1.  I am continuing to work on my concluding paragraphs .

2. One strong point in my essay is my partciples.

3. One weak point in this essay is my concluding paragraph.