Poem

Blue
The clam blue
It's like water
But then is disturbed by waves
Like rippling waves
The smell of sea
The flavor of sea from the salt
Drip drip drip
The cool sensation

There are many books that are challenged and banned in your libraries today. But there is one book that stands out to me. This book is called The Absolutely True-diary of A Part Time Indian by: Sherman Alexie. The book The Absolutely True-diary of A Part Time Indian is about an indian boy named Arnold Spirit who start to face new challenges in school and in his community. This book also deals with alot of adult content such as racism, sexual content, and the mentally disabled; therefor i think that middle schoolers shouldn't have access to.


The first reasoning i have tells about a racial comment that that main character made about his dentist.

“our dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people so he gave us half the nococain. what a bastard huh?” (p.3)

This qoute portays the sense of humor that the main character has in the begining of the book with a racist joke about indians and white people. He also goes on in the second paragraph to say a curse. But if we let middle schoolers read this book then they are going to think that its ok to be saying racist jokes to there friends or to people they know. It is showing a new curse word to the middle schoolers if the did not know that and would say it out loud because they would think its ok because they read from a book


Another unsatisfactory joke that the main character made is about how he has a stutter and a lisp

“I also had a stutter and a lisp or maybe i should say i had a st-st-st-st- stutter and a lisssssthhhhp”

Though this is a short quote it conveys how the main character has disablility like a lisp and a stutter. While the character is makinga joke about himself, the reader could take the joke the wrong way and could think its ok to make jokes about some disablilitys in their school on the street or even at home and the children could think its ok. There also could be children that when read this book or quote can get very self conscious about there disability or get worse for them.

This next example is very dreadful. It explains how his friend Rowdy has an abusive father andhow it effects his family

“His father is drinking hard and throwinghard punches, so Rowdy and his mother are always walking around with bruised and blood faces”

This is an awful thing to talk about in a book because it talks about child and wife abuse which is very sensitive to kids who have had this kind of abuse before. Parents would also not want there children to read about kids being attacked by there father and later saying in the book that it is “war paint”.

In the book the Absolutely True-diary of A Part Time Indian It also talks about other very sensitive things that middle schoolrs should not know and kids could get very self conscious about topic like these and i belive middle schoolers should not know yet.

Authors note

 

Authors note- Jeremy duarte

There is a crisis going on that we need everyone's help. This issue is called global warming. Global warming is the increase in the earth's average temperature that causes changes in climate and the result could come from the greenhouse effect. While this is causing climate change, it's also causing animals environment to change.

Since the environment is changing, it's hard for animals to adapt to the changes that is happening . This is causing them to go instinct because they are not able to adapt to the changes they are faced with. I care about this topic because there are a lot of animals that are going instinct because of global warming and our environment is also being affected by this. I want readers to know what is happening in the world and how a lot of things they are doing is adding on to global warming and hopefully show them what they are doing to slow down global warming.  

Synthesis page

Jeremy Duarte

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“It is. But if you live in a world that keeps trying to grind you down, you either start thumbing your nose at it or end up very, very short”. This quote is from the story “Am I blue?” by: Bruce Callie. This story is about a boy name Vince and how his problem with his sexuality has affected him and his struggle to find out what his sexuality is and is being helped by his fairy godfather. My position is that I believe that books that have moral values like this story shouldn’t be banned because it helps teach the reader a moral value that sometimes books don’t teach. It also teaches children who are in the same situation how to deal with their problem and overcome it.

“I walk and talk the way I do because I’m not going to let anyone else define me” (10). What this evidence suggest is very important because Vince’s fairy godfather Melvin explains to Vince that he won’t be intimidated by people judging him in anyway. That is very important to show readers how kids shouldn’t care what people say about them for anything they do or their sexuality. “It doesn’t have to be, he replied sharply. If gay people hadn’t been forced to hide so long, if we could just openly identify ourselves , there would be plenty of people you knew that you could ask advice for” (9). This is another significant reason because Melvin explains that if people where more tolerant of gay people, then if people were confused about their sexuality they could as those people who are homosexual.

“I’m trying to teach tolerance and respect for all” This quote was said from a middle school teacher named Sue Protheroe. Sue has been using this story “Am I Blue” to help teach her kids tolerance for gay people. “She said she is not promoting the gay, lesbian or transgender lifestyle but trying to teach respect and tolerance for all people.” I believe what this teacher is great because she is teaching her children to be tolerant of gay people.

“It introduces a very adult and mature subject to an inappropriately young audience. It is likely to introduce sexual confusion to a group of children who are just becoming sexually aware.” While this is true it does introduce a very adult mature subject to a young audience, But I believe that if we are able to teach young kids to be tolerant of gay people then we won’t have problems like Melvin had when he was alive. Many people believe that this has no instructional value, but this story does because it’s teaching children who read this story how to be tolerant of gay people.

This is why I think that books like “Am I Blue” shouldn’t be banned. This story is helping children be more tolerant so they don’t grow up and start to do bad things to people because of their sexuality. This story is also helping children who are in the same position as Vince to help them so they aren’t confused anymore. If we ban books and stories like this then moral values like this won’t be taught and if parents don’t teach children these moral values then who will.

Bibliography       

"Iowa City Press Citizen Local News Section." Iowa City Press Citizen. N.p., n.d. Web

Caille Bruce. Am I Blue.

How society has affected children in my neighborhood

Children and teens in neighborhood are being fueled by something bad. The children and teens are being fueled by rap music, drugs, and being a "Gangster". This is a problem because kids want to be a rapper or want to be a basketball player and the kids think that there is nothing wrong with what they're doing. But the problem with this is that those kids are losing their education. Since these kids want to be a rapper or want to be good at basketball they don't care about their education anymore. They think that education does not play in this so they cut class or cut school. So then while they’re not getting an education they aren’t getting a job to support themselves so they turn into thieves because they need a way to get an income or because they like something. This is caused because children hear rap songs and hear how good it is to be one and how rappers say how much money they get or how much women they get and children think they can reach they if they put all their time into that they can become one too.

Another cause is drugs. This is because kids all they want to do are drugs. They don’t care about anything else. So then they cut school to do the drug’s or They just stop going to school because they don’t believe that going to school is going is help them get the drug. But then they start to run out of money that’s when they turn to crime and start to steal from people so they can fuel this addiction.       

Interview

     1) Q: what is your job?

    A:I work for a japanese airline procuring parts or the aircraft

2. Q:What challenges do u face?

           A: I work with different types of people, some people are cooperative and some aren't. some are nice and some are not. personally some challenges i face is you want your children to do their best and to make smart choices but sometimes they don't.

3. Q:  what have you done or want to do to change the world?

            A: i haven't done anything but i do like the idea of helping children that are in need.

4. Q: What challenges do u think you'll face.

            A: you need funding, you need people that have the same passion  that you have so you can feel the same way and help the children in need