7-year-old Girls with Breasts

        Compared to studies done in 1997 more 7-and-8 year-old girls are developing breasts. Elizabeth Braw, author of “7-year-old Girls with Breasts”, states that Dr. Frank Biro said “people judge children by how old they look”.  From a very young age, we are judged by the way we look.

        Many girls mature faster than boys. As a child, I was one of those girls that developed breasts at the tender age of eight. I had the body of a teenager but mind of an 8 year old. As I got older, my breasts kept growing. It was strange for me to have breasts at such an early age because none of my female family members had big breasts.

        Breasts on a girl child can make her look much older than she really is. At the age of 10 years old, I was already wearing a B-cup bra. When I went to visit my mother in Guyana, she was shocked to see her baby girl with breasts. My mother kept me close by her side. Some of her friends thought I was her little sister. Til this day people ask my mother and I if we are sisters whenever we go out together.

        When you look at a girl, breasts are one of the first things you notice about them. For years I was ashamed of my body because I had breasts, while the other girls in my class didn’t have breasts. I used to wear loose T-shirts to try and hide them, but that didn’t work. It wasn’t until after high school I felt more comfortable in my body.

        Having breasts does not make you a woman. It’s how you conduct yourself that makes you a woman. These days we as a society concentrate more on looks than we do on personality. A girl child with breasts may have the body of a woman, but the fact is she is still a child and should be treated as a child.

 

"Are Illegal Immigrants Good for the U.S. Economy?" Revision

            Undocumented immigrants not only contribute to the economy as workers but as tax payers and consumers as well. In the article “Are Illegal Immigrants Good for the U.S. Economy”, Walter Ewing said “the contributions of undocumented immigrants would be greater if they were able to earn legal status”. Undocumented immigrants should have more rights in the United States because they work very hard in this country.

            In the United States undocumented immigrants are under appreciated. Although I am a naturalized citizen of the United States, I still consider myself an immigrant. I watch as my father and aunts struggle to get their legal status. My father brought my sister, my brother and myself, from Guyana, to the States for a better life. It took about ten years for my father to get legalized as a United States citizen, and through him I was able to get my legal status.

            Undocumented immigrants or immigrants in general, tend to work harder than “natives”. When my mother finally came to the States, 6 years after the arrival of my father, my sister, my brother, and myself, she immediately went to work as a home health aide. At the same time my mother was studying to become a medical assistant. I hardly ever saw her because she was always at work and after work she had school. By the time she got home I was in bed because I had school in the morning.

            Being an undocumented immigrant, you get treated like your worth less than the natural born citizens in the United States just for having a different skin color or speaking a different language. As an undocumented child attending public school was hard for me because I was teased just about every day because I had a thick Guyanese accent. I had long beautiful black curly hair that had to be cut off because someone put their gum in my hair. I never understood why those kids were mean to me and because of that I started to isolate myself from everyone.

            The United States government should give undocumented immigrants legal status after being in the States for at least three to five years. They should at least have a stable job and stable living environment to become a citizen of the United States. If the undocumented immigrants are willing to show they want to be in the United States, then I say let them be.

 

 

Blog Entry 6 "Are Illegal Immigrants Good for the U.S. Economy?"

          Currently in the United States there are 12 million people living illegally. Undocumented immigrants make up 5 percent of the total US labor force, such as construction, agriculture, grounds keeping, meat processing, and textile production. There contributions would be greater if they had legal status. According to the article "Are Illegal Immigrants Good for the U.S. Economy?" by Immigration Policy Center, "they're not eligible for many program their tax dollars help fund". I believe undocumented immigrants should have more rights in the US because they work very hard in this country.

I think undocumented immigrants or immigrants in general, works harder than “natives”. I saw a film called “Farmingdale” that showed how undocumented immigrants were treated by the natives. These natives wanted the undocumented immigrants out because the immigrants were taken up all the jobs, but it was the jobs that the natives didn’t want or jobs they would never do. This film is an example of how racism still exists today.

Undocumented Immigrants are under appreciated in the United States. Although I am a naturalized citizen, I still consider myself an immigrant. I watched as my father and aunts struggle to get their legal status. My father brought my sister, brother and myself to the states for a better life. It took about ten years for my father to be legalized. Even with the legal status, it was still hard for my father to find a good paying job with benefits. My father started at the bottom working for a printing company called Abigail Printing Press Inc. He eventually moved up as a manger after years of showing hard work and dedication to his company.

I think undocumented immigrants get treated like their worth less than natural born citizens in the United States just because they have different cultures and speak different languages. As an undocumented child going to school, I was teased just about every day because I had a thick Guyanese accent. Children can be very cruel to one another. I had long beautiful black hair and everyday my hair was being pulled by someone in my class. I left school with tears in my eyes every day. I never understood why those kids were so mean to me. That caused me to isolate myself from everyone, until my middle school years.

I think the government should give these undocumented immigrants legal status after being in the states for at least one year and have a steady job and living environment because they work just as hard, or in most cases they work harder than natural born citizens. If they are willing to show they want to be in the United States, I say let them.

            

Blog Entry 5 "Individuals in Groups"

Individuals that take part in groups, often act differently in a group setting than if they were by themselves. They are more responsive when it comes to emergency situations. Those who are alone and witness a disaster or danger tend to call for help, whereas the individuals in groups hold back. For instance, Carol Tavris mentions in her article “Individuals in Group” while conducting an experiment of students by themselves and students in groups of three, the students in the groups of three did not make a move. On the other hand, the individual students hesitated at first but later investigated the problem and made a report. I think every individual in a group serves a purpose because everyone is different and can bring different ideas to the group.

            “The reason has more to do with nature of groups than the nature of individuals” said Carol Tavris, from the article “Individuals in Groups”.  In a lot of movies and TV shows, when someone is choking, everyone is usually standing around just watching and waiting for someone to help, which usually turns out to be an individual that is working in the restaurant or an individual in the group with the person choking. In the movie Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps, while at dinner, Sherman Klump (played by Eddie Murphy) exposes Papa Klump (also played by Eddie Murphy) for being fired, which causes him to choke on his food. Sherman immediately reacts to his father choking and gives him the Heimlich maneuver, saving his life as the whole restaurant watches in shock.

            The larger the group, the lazier each individual in the group becomes. “Psychologists call this diffusion of responsibility” according to Tavris. In some cases this is not true. In my English class I had to work in a group of six people, some of us never even spoke to each other before. Each of us had a specific task to carry out. For example, I had to research how music changed from the year 2005-2010 in New York, while the other five members researched from 1980-2004. We all co-operated with each other and the end result was a B+.

 

 

 

Blog Entry 4 "The Allegory of the Cave"

“The Allegory of the Cave” is presented by Ancient Greek philosopher Plato to compare the effect of philosophy and the lack of it on our nature. It starts off with a conversation between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates. In his story, Plato describes a cave in which prisoners are chained from their necks to their foot. The prisoners were not allowed to move their heads in any direction. All they knew were shadows on the wall in front of them. These shadows were projected on the wall by things passing in front of the fire. The shadows were the closest thing to viewing reality for the prisoners. The prisoners would play a guessing game and whoever won, all the other prisoners praised him. A prisoner is freed, forced to leave the cave and everything he knows. He is asked to identify some of the objects carried by the people in the walkway. He is unable to identify the objects because he is confused and think the shadows are still real.

 

My position in the cave is walking into the light and discovering a whole new life. I feel my life is slowly changing and it all began when I decide to go back to school. Before starting school, I was a prisoner for many years because I felt stuck in one place without anywhere to go. Even though some things are still confusing I refuse to give up because I know at the end everything will become brighter as the days go by.

Blog Entry 3 "I Know the Truth, So Don't Bother ME with Facts"

Humans are deceived easily by rumors and lies that are spread mainly by other humans. Many people are quick to believe what they see and hear, whether it’s on TV, in a magazine, newspaper, or even talking to someone else.  The article "I Know the Truth, So Don't Bother Me with Facts" by Jeffrey Kluger, states "it is easy to manipulate people's belief systems with insinuating pictures or inflammatory quotes". In a sense you can say we as humans are gullible.

Rumors affect our lives in different ways. It all depends on what is being said, who is saying it, and who they are saying it to. Many lives have been ruined by rumors. For instance in the Kluger mentions in his article, “I Know the Truth, So Don’t Bother Me with Facts”, two assistant professors of communications at Ohio State University, R. Kelly Garrett and Erik Nisbet, “recruited 750 people” who believed “at least one of the rumors about the proposed Islamic cultural center”. The Islamic community has been disrespected multiple times because of 9/11. They were seen as terrorist even though they were not responsible for the attack.

I have fallen victim to many rumors going around but later realized none of that was important. Just a few weeks ago there was a rumor going around that involved me and a guy from the area. When I found out about was being spread about me, I immediately went to the source. He denied starting the rumor and that the individual that spread the rumor was nowhere to be found. At the end I didn’t care what was being said because I knew the truth about myself and that’s all that mattered. I think rumors are started because we are concerned more about what others think of us and many fall for the lies that are being spread. Some people do it just out of hate for another person. Now all rumors are not lies some are indeed true. It depends on who is spreading the rumor.

I feel that people use rumors to keep themselves occupied. Some also strive on others weakness and use it to their advantage. If it wasn’t for rumors going around, there wouldn’t be gossip columns in newspapers and magazines. TMZ is one of the biggest gossip magazines that are out there. They now have their own TV show. The people that work for TMZ gossip mostly about celebrities and their families. I think it is pathetic stalking these individuals and reporting their every move to America.  I think everyone deserves their privacy.

Blog Entry 2 Objective Summary "I Know the Truth, So Don't Bother Me with Facts"

Humans are deceived easily by rumors and lies that are spread mainly by other humans. No one likes to be told they are wrong. The article "I Know the Truth, So Don't Bother Me with Facts" by Jeffrey Kluger, states "it is easy to manipulate people's belief systems with insinuating pictures or inflammatory quotes". I have fallen victim to many rumors going around but later realized none of that mattered.