So what do you think of the book, Huck Finn?

So how does everyone feel about this book? I personally thought it was hard to get into. It started off very slow, but I thought as I read a little more and more it got better. I think that this is a very unrealistic book, what about you? It seems to me that no matter where Huck is, or whom he is with, he finds trouble.
My favorite part of the book was when Huck faked his own death to escape from his dad’s cabin. It showed us right away that Huck was clever. I never expected a boy like him to be that smart. It continued through out the story, Huck would come up with extremely clever plans. For example, after telling Mary Jane about the king and the Duke he came up with a very well thought out plan of how to escape.

I did not think I would like this book but I ended up enjoying it. Did you like it? Do you agree or disagree with me?

Elizabeth on Ideal Presidential Qualities

Today in Mr. Wickersham's elective class, "The Greatest Presidential Elections since 1860", we discussed what qualities we personally thought made a good president. We talked about what key characteristics we would look for if we were to vote, and what makes one candidate stand out from the others. As a class we made a list of what qualities were the most important to us. The list included: honesty, loyalty, being rich, handling pressured situations well, qualified, intelligent/savvy, patriotic, experienced, good looking, selfless, and has "no skeletons" in his/her closet. We then rated these qualities to find out which one is the most important to us and which one is the least important to us.

My number one quality was loyalty because I think that if you can't trust your president, and count on him staying true to the country and all the people in it then you are left with nothing. My least important quality was good looks. Although, I don't think that a lot of emphasis should be placed upon good looks, I do know that we are all human and probably not one of us could say that looks don't matter at all. But compared to all of the other qualities that I mentioned, I think good looks should come last. What's your opinion on this subject? Would you rate your qualities the same way that I did, or would yours be completely different?

Rule of Law: Should the President be held accountable?

Former president Bill Clinton lied to the American public when he denied accusations of having an affair. The president is the most important person in the world and has the most responsibility, and I do not think it is right that he did not get punished like a normal person would. Do you think that the president should be charged like any other citizen in America?

Phil S.

Heart vs. Head

In Mr. Barry’s class today, we discussed the difference of the heart versus the head.
We came to the conclusion that our brain gave us the more logical solution. Our brains came up with a reason, a pragmatic and sensible solution. On the other hand, our heart tells us our gut feeling, a more emotional feeling that just feels rights.

In Huckleberry Finn, Huck learns that following your heart rather than following the norm of society can be the better choice. Huck has to make a decision, whether he should turn Jim into the slave-hunters and follow what society would have done or whether he should lie and follow his heart in order to save Jim. When Huck arrives at this predicament, he makes the decision to follow his heart and lie to free an escaped slave. His youthful innocence and gut feeling allowed him to make this decision. Although Huck knows that what he is doing is illegal and goes against what he has been raised to do, it only feels right.

All of us have been in similar situations to Huck, and have had to choose whether to follow our hearts or our heads. Give a time in which you were put into a similar situation and tell how you dealt with it. Whether you followed your head and went with the rules or followed your heart and went with your feelings.

Brian K.

Was John Brown's approach the right way to go?

In the early 1600’s through the start of the Civil War 500,000 slaves were brought in America from Africa. Eleven million people were taken from their home from Africa stowed on ships and over ten million died on the 4-month journey to America. From the time of the first slaves, America history was tangled in violence-the violence done to these slaves. The Missouri Compromise decided whether or not the Louisiana Territory was a slave or free state. If the state was above 36’30’’ it was considered a free state, and if the state was below 36’30’’ it was consider a slave state. John Brown a white man, was one of the only people in America to attempt to abolish slavery. He killed as many white slave owners as he could. Brown had a plan to arm the slaves to rebel against their owners. Brown was captured during the attempt to steal their weapons, but this did not stop him from attaining his goal. When he was in jail Brown became a celebrity. His letters about freeing the slaves were published, and if they were not freed he predicted there would be a Civil War. After six weeks in jail, John Brown was hanged. The Union army formed soon after Brown died and fulfilled Brown’s prophecy of our country’s struggle for a slave-free state if the slaves were not freed.

Do you agree with Brown’s violent approach to the abolishing of slavery?

JJ asks: Democrat, Republican, or neither?

In class on Tuesday, Mr. Wickersham's class we talked about what separates America. And one of those subtopics was the presidential parties and how half the people in the nation are Democrats and the other half are Republicans. I think that it separates our nation so much. There are many people that get in arguments about who should lead our country. People that are Democrats think that George Bush is a loser, like my mom, and I think that this is a bad thing.
There was just a poll in the Jewish News that asked: What political party is friendlier to Israel? My mom, the Democrat, asked my dad, the Republican, this poll. My dad replied about ten seconds later, “high sixty percent, Democrat.” The real answer was 22% Democrat, 65% Republican and 13% neither. I was just wondering if you talk to your parents about what political party they choose, and if you do, what political party are they in and what you think about their decision.

JJ

Are we a House Divided today on abortion?

In class, September 5, 2006, we talked about Abe Lincoln’s “A House Divided” speech. Lincoln was saying that a government/country divided because of slavery will crash and fall. I agree it would have been total chaos because there would have been arguments (like the Dred Scott case) over where/when slaves are free or not. A man’s freedom is such a basic issue that a country has to have one solid opinion on the topic. Do you think a country could survive with two different views on this issue???

There were many ways the slavery conflict could have been solved. Breaking into two different countries almost like we did with the civil war would have been an option. In my opinion, this option would not have solved the problem because the two governments would have fought over territory. What do you think another option could have been to solve this problem???

When we talked about the speech, some divisions came up that were similar to slavery vs. freedom. Abortion was one of them. There are many arguments on both sides of the abortion issue. There is the need to define when to draw the line saying what is living and what is not (for ex. some groups say that a fetus at 5 weeks is not a living thing and 6 weeks is). There is also the thought that a person is a person and it can’t be killed. My opinion is that there should be the option of abortion for minors, rape victims, and for any one else no later than the first nine weeks of the first trimester BEFORE the fetus has a heartbeat. What are your thoughts on the abortion issue?

Andrew S

Lisa's thoughts on the House Divided speech

I personally think that when Lincoln wrote his speech, even though it seemed like he was against slavery, I don't think thats how it was intended. I think that he wanted to either have slavery in all the states, or in none. His thoughts were not about what was best for the African Americans, but about what would divide his country and goverment. He knew that if only half the states had slavery, there would be more controversy in the government. Lincoln knew he either had to have all states be under slavery or none, or else his goverment would be split up and weaker. What do you think: did he write the speech for the better of the slaves, or for a unified government?

Lisa R.

Editor's note: I forgot to mention in the talk about the Civil War today that Lincoln was much more an anti-slavery person than an abolitionist like John Brown. However, many people today (and many Southerners back then) think of Lincoln as an abolitionist. Mr. W.