MY FAVORITE SCENE

End up my random blog posting with my favorite scene in Step Up. Moose is AWESOME!

Should We Teach Creationism in Science Class?

    
     Mere outline of this event is that, the creationism supporting organization in korea submitted petition towards Ministry of Education, demanding deletion and rectification of contents about an archaeopteryx and evolution of horse on December 2011, and April 2012. As the result, Ministry of Education replied that they will delete and rectify as petition’s demands. This happening was hidden to the public until May. The situation got problematic after Nature published article with topic “South Korea surrenders to creationist demands (Publishers set to remove examples of evolution from high-school text books)” This article raised high controversy. And as the reaction, academia related to evolution immediately submitted petition rebutting the petition submitted by organization that supports creationism.

     On what logics the organization took issue with archaeopteryx and evolution of horse in the high-school text book? Before I looked at the petition, I had slight expectation of somewhat creative ideas. However, my expectation turned into sigh. Let’s start with the organization’s argument with archaeopteryx. They said “Because Academia regard archaeopteryx as extinct bird or extinct dinosaur with feathers, the text book’s contents which says archaeopteryx is intermediate stage between dinosaurs and birds should be erased.” This basically means that archaeopteryx is not the intermediate stage between dinosaurs and birds. Of course this is nonsense. Every Academia across the world believes that archaeopteryx does play role as intermediate stage. And there are also other species that play roles of archaeopteryx. Archaeopteryx is indeed the important evidence of showing evolutions, and there is no problem with the text book. Then how about the organization’s argument with evolution of horse? They claim that fossils which shows evolution process of horse getting bigger and reduction of number of toes are just mere imagination. This is also just forced interpretation of the organization.

     This happening ended with notifying the importance of education of evolutionary theory. The conclusion of this event ended by Ministry of Education stating “Contents related to evolutionary theory should never be deleted, however contents that may raise misunderstanding should be stated in more details with modern science findings.”

     But still, I don’t feel comfortable though the happening has ended. According to the research of EBS done in 2009, about 30% of korean do not admit evolutionary theory. Moreover, about 60% of korean answered “We should teach creationism theory with evolutionary theory.” Something more ridiculous is that for those who answered they don’t believe evolutionary theory, most of them said “They don’t believe evolutionary theory because it is not scientific.” How should I accept this statistics? Maybe lack of education on evolutionary theory is problem. However, I think people’s misconception about science is something that makes people to not admit evolutionary theory as science. Furthermore, maybe the misconceptions are the cause of people to misbelieve creationism as science. What kind of misconceptions of science do people have in order to claim such nonsense. What kind of activities are science? How science can be differ from just mere belief?

     Let’s start with this question. What is science? According to Popper, science can be science if it can be disproved. Popper said continuous criticism is the main basis of science and the source of science’s rationality, and objectivity. Science must fulfil, appropriate reasoning and process of checking again and again.

     Here goes the next question. Is creationism science? Creationism is basically not able to disprove. How can there be such counterevidence when they say “The god designed it.” There can be no checking process nor reasoning. Creationism cannot gain rationality, and objectivity in them. Therefore, creationism cannot be claimed as science.

     The last question is should we teach creationism is science class? As I mentioned earlier 60% of Koreans answered “yes” to this question. My answer is no. Teaching pseudo science would bring regression of human intelligence. Especially creationism which just criticize others without new hypothesis and expectation is just a mere negative campaign. And it obviously make sense to teach science in science class. There is no room for creationism to take in science class.

Students and Teachers

A teacher’s ability to relate well with students, and to give knowledge are both important skills. Some may argue imparting knowledge to the students is a more significant task for educators. However, now days, there are various easy ways to get highly professional and accurate information. As the result, society needs people with different abilities compared to past. It prefers people with other skills rather than having high professional knowledge. Therefore, getting along well with students became more important issues for educators rather than giving knowledge to the students.

   To start with, relating well with students helps them to improve their social skills that they will need after graduation. Teachers who can prepare their students with social skills will have much greater impact on their future success especially in employment. We have lots of personal and official meetings that can have huge impact on life. For example, there are some chances to build up good relationships with senior officials during the meetings. If, their teachers helped them to build up good social skills, they would be able to get some positive results from those meetings.

   Furthermore, creating an appropriate class atmosphere that promotes students to speak their opinions helps students a lot. If teachers get along well with students, they can create a friendly class atmosphere. In this kind of circumstances, students are more motivated to study by themselves if certain subjects are interesting. Also, friendly class environment promotes student to speak their idea. These two effects can make students creative and to have a good speech skills. After the graduation, students will face many presentations. These two skills will prepare them to make creative and well performed presentations.

   On the whole, relating well with students is a more important skill for teachers than being able to give a lot of information. This is because proper class atmosphere that helps students build up their social skills and to be creative with good speaking skills can only be created with teachers who are able to relate to their students. Students can gain plenty of knowledge through books, essays, internet, and mass media. Appropriate way of socializing with people, and other skills required for their futures can only be acquired by having teachers who know how to relate to their students.

Who's fault is it?

           A boy who was only 14 years old committed suicide. The boy decided to commit suicide because he was being bullied severely by his classmates. Bullying is one of the most severe problems that have not been solved for long time.

           Many people and teachers came up with various solutions to get rid of bullying. They gave attention to the one who is getting bullied, tried to make a game that everyone has to work altogether, had a long talk with the students who were bullying and so on. Those solutions are all meant to change the “bad” students who were bullying a student. However, in order to solve the bullying problem. We have to step in the other’s shoe. We have to see the problem from the perspective of a bullying student.

           Why would they bully a student? They probably bully others for fun or because they are weak or because they do not act cool. Looking at the problem with eyes of a bullying student rather than a bullied student, why don’t we change the bullied one rather than admonishing and punishing the bullying ones? Changing the habits and also having interests in other hobbies may change the situation of the bullied student.

           Bullying is not a problem that can be solved with narrow mind. We have to step in the other’s shoe and understand why students are bullying a student. Then we could find a problem and solve it. We can change the school by getting rid of bullying.

Dating in Boarding School

     Including KMLA, mating is prohibited in many boarding schools. In case of KMLA, students who get caught while dating, at the worst case, they even get expelled from the school. The question is, "Is dating such trouble that should be prohibited?" "Is it such a bad sin that should be punished by expel?" I believe dating is not something that should be punished. If it can be, it even should be encouraged.


     The most important thing is that school isn't a place to just study. Another important role of school is to make student adaptable to the society. School should help students to develop social skills, and appropriate personalities. Especially, boarding school, students spend their whole time in school. Which mean school is only place that can help students to develop them socially. In this case, dating the opposite sex can provide great opportunities to have some experiences. During dating the opposite sex, they sometimes go through hard ship. They learn to how to solve problems with opposite sex. They learn to how the other would feel if you do something.


     No one is perfect from the start. Some adults say students are not old enough to take responsibilities of results of dating. Therefore they should prohibit dating in boarding school. However, people learn from their pasts. They mature from mistakes. They may say students are too young. But, they do learn from it, and those experiences would be significant in their life.

Minjok Essay (Korea in Heart, World in Mind)

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy

           “Korea in heart, world in mind” This is the school motto of Korean Minjok Leadership Academy[1]. My first impression on the motto was very positive. What a great motto it is? Being global leader and being patriot at the same time. When you feel the motto, it’s so well-made. However, when you start to think about it, it sounds quite odd. Korea in heart means having high value on Minjok[2] which refers to nationalism of Korea. In contrast to Korea in heart, world in mind refers to being a leader in the world of globalization. It is quite irony that concept Minjok(Nationalism in Korea) comes right along with globalization[3]. It’s because Minjok encourages Korean to care about ours more, ostracizing others.

           To understand better about characteristics of Minjok, I’ll briefly explain about the historical backgrounds of how the word Minjok was first coined. The term Minjok was first coined during the period of Japanese Colonization. At that time, Japan was trying to form “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere[4]”. In order to do so they were trying to put Korean under the Pan-Asiatic identity. Korean intellectuals were opposed to such state. Trying to put stop to it, they needed something that will unite the nation and give Korean identity to people. This necessity resulted in creating the concept “Minjok”. Korean intellectuals used stories, myths, and legends that strengthen the bond between people. Such stories like the founding legends of Korea[5], which emphasize the bond we had with our lands since primordial time fitted so well.

           It is sure creation of the concept “Minjok” was outstanding work Korean intellectuals did during Japanese Colonization. Minjok gave us identity, and strong bond. It eventually resulted independence of Korea. Not only that, Minjok abled us to accomplish the miracle of Han river[6]. In amazingly short period of time, Korea succeeded to take a place in few leading countries of the world from the bottom. It successfully formed a strong bond among Koreans. World Cup for example, we can see how well Koreans are united under the quote "we are the one".

Modern trend of Globalization

           However, the time has changed and the world has changed. The concept “Minjok” was needed during the Japanese Colonization. Individual was not very important at that time, uniting as one nation and having Korean identity was important. We had to get rid of imminent threat from Japan at that time. After the period of Japanese Colonization, we also needed the concept “Minjok”. In order to develop and overcome difficulties, nations had to ask individuals to sacrifice for the nation and Minjok played its roll. But! It is different today. Something important nowadays is creativeness of individuals, global mind under the globalization. Minjok does not exactly fit under these trends. Minjok has many concepts that give Korean identity and one of the extremes would be concept of “blood purity[7]”. Blood purity does not fit modern trends. Blood purity can trigger ultranationalism[8] that is opposed to trend of globalization. Also, numbers of foreigner and marriage between Korean and foreigner is increasing. Concept of blood purity interrupts those Koreans to be “Korean”.

           Now is the time for the concept Minjok to be changed. Minjok should not be gone. There still should be something that provides identity to Korean and unite people and it is quite sure Minjok is the most effective method by far. However, it should go under the processing of improving. Minjok should be changed to include those new Koreans(foreigners and foreign marriages). It should broaden its meaning to the bigger group. Also rather than just emphasizing the unification of nation, it also should include concept that encourages individuals roll, and works. Furthermore Minjok should excludes materials that can trigger ultranationalism.

           Minjok is something we must have. We had it in the past, having it in the present, will have it in the future. Minjok served as Korean identity in the past, serving as Korean identity in the present, will serve as Korean identity in the future. However, as time passes and world changes, Minjok will have to go through changes. Changes can be sometimes small, and sometimes big. Sometimes changes will occur very slowly and sometimes it will occur very fast. With this in mind we would be able to truly have “Korea in heart, world in mind”







EMBEDDED LINKS
[1]http://english.minjok.hs.kr/
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_ethnic_nationalism
[3]http://www.sustainablehistory.com/articles/definitions-of-globalization.pdf
[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-prosperity_Sphere
[5]http://koreanhistory.info/tangun.htm
[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_the_Han_River
[7]http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/09/117_9419.html
[8]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ultranationalism

VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aizlVfwAW7w

Writing or Face to Face?

            There are some circumstances, we have to complain, or we better complain about something during the life time. Some people may argue that complaining in person is better than complaining in writing. However, I strongly believe that complaining in writing is way better that complaining in person because thoughts are better organized when it’s written. Also, writing is comfortable to some shy people.

            To begin with, because one can spend lots of time when writing, complains are better organized, and in more details when it is in written form. Especially when writing is compared to speaking writing’s benefits show tremendously. To illustrate, if one writes, one can fix and feedback one’s ideas. Not only that, if needed, he or she can conduct some research to back it up. This result in perfect set of complains with details. Contrast to these good aspects, various bad results follow, when speaking is used for complaining. Spoken words can’t be erased, and spoken again. In other words, there are no ways to cover speaker’s mistakes. Also, speaker is not able to get immediate information even though they are necessary. By those comparisons, it’s easy to realize that writing is preferable method for making complains

            Furthermore, writing is a perfect method of complaining for some people with shy characteristic. Some people may have no problems speaking right in front of a person. However, quite a bit of people suffer some problems, especially when they are shy. When those people use method of speaking, they can unconsciously make logical fallacies such as, circular reasoning, inappropriate generalizations, and more on. Moreover they can have some problem in delivering their ideas. They tend to speak in small voice, and pronunciation that is hard to understand. However, all those problems are immediately solved when one decided to write down one’s complains.

            To conclude, comparing benefits, and side effects of writing, and speaking, writing is better method of making complains in various aspects. Ideas are more strongly supported and perfectly presented in the writing. In addition, writing solves the logical, or delivery problems that can occur when it’s spoken. Therefore, writing is recommended if, someone has to make complains.

Moose

     My life has changed a lot after I got into "Rhyme Factory" one of performance clubs in KMLA. I never danced before. However, after I got into "Rhyme Factory' I got interested into dancing. Especially "b-boying' since I was b-boy in Rhyme Factory. As more and more I looked up many videos and tutorials about b-boy, more I got interested into it, and more cool it looked. Step up is one of those movies and videos I got interested in after became b-boy of Rhyme Factory Crew. And "Moose" is my favorite character in the movie. He dance so powerful, and he does various kinds of dance. From pop-pin to break dancing.

     I would like to introduce more about break dancing, since it is where I belong. The break dance is part of the genre called "Hip Hop". Hip Hop is culture that originated in 1970's in African american society of New York. Hip Hop culture is characterized by the four elements of rapping, DJing, breaking, and graffiti.

Top Rock

Foot Work

Nike freeze

     B-boying can be divided into two major moves. The style move, and power move. The style move is basic of break dancing. It is consisted of Top rock, foot works, and freezes. Top rock is dancing with your body stood up. The point is that you do one move at one beat. Before top rocking you should consider the most base beats under the music. One important part of top rock is up-down. You constantly repeat ups and downs often using your chest. The next moves are foot works. You get close to the ground and than perform your moves. You try to make big moves using your legs. In this case you also have to listen closely to the beats, and do your moves accordingly to the beats under the music. The last move is freeze. Freeze is freeze as it literally mean. You get into freeze position for few seconds. Usually freeze is used at the last part of your dance as big performance. Also there are various kinds of freeze such as baby freeze, turtle freeze, shoulder freeze, chair freeze, and so on.

Nineteen ninety

Head Spin

Cricket

     The Power move is probably moves that most of people think about when they say b-boy. It consists most hardest moves of b-boy. There are style movers, but indeed most of the b-boys are able to do some power moves, and power movers are the one who are  important in battles. And at least they look cooler to me. In order to perform power moves you need to have strength, and sense of balance beyond normal people have. Also, you need a lot of practice to master one power moves. And more time to create your own. The most basic power moves are probably windmill, thomas, head spin, cricket, and nineteen ninety.


I want to practice a lot. And be like one of professional bboys. And I am planning to do some cool things at the christmas party. I hope to be able to master those moves before the party.


To give you more sense of what b-boy is I'll put a little video (bboy battle) for you to watch.

Analysis on Lord of the Flies

     Piggy and Ralph meet up in an island. They soon realize their plane was attacked and they crashed down on the island where no one lives. Wondering rather other children survived, Piggy spots a conch shell, and tells Ralph how to use it to make a noise. Ralph does so in order to call other boys who might be there on the island who crashed down with the plane. Jack and his Choir, Simon, Sam and Eric and many other boys join in an Piggy and Ralph. Rules are set down, and Ralph became the chief. There is no one else on the island but the young boys, so Jack decides to take his choir out to hunt for wild pigs, although he is unsuccessful in killing a small pig with his knife. Ralph calls another group of children, and reminds everyone that they are
completely alone on the island, and there are no grown ups. Jack recounts his failure in killing the pig, and reiterates the need for skilled hunters. Several rules are made up. Unexpectedly, an unnamed littl'un with a birthmark on his face tells about a "beastie" that he saw somewhere on the island. The general consensus from the others is that there is no such thing, and it must be his imagination. Ralph then suggests making a signal fire, which would be necessary if they hope to get rescued. The boys gathered wood to build a fire. Unsure of how to light it they couldn’t start a fire. Thinking for quite a long time, they finally grab Piggy's specs and focus the sunlight on the gathered wood to ignite their fire. They were not careful, they couldn’t control the fire and soon the fire engulfed half the forest near the mountain. The little boy with the birthmark is noticed to be missing, swallowed up by the raging fire.

     Jack was busy tracking a pig and trying to catch it. But he fails to do it. While he was doing that, Simon and Ralph were constructing huts for home. On the beach Ralph complains no other boys are helping them making their shelters, but Jack tries to argue that hunting is more important. Again Ralph talks about the importance of signal fire in order to be rescued. Still, Jack argues the importance of hunting. Ignorant to the other boys, Simon picks some fruit for the littluns and makes his way into the jungle. He goes deeper and deeper and finds the place comfortable. Roger was knocking down the sand made by littluns and was intentionally missing the target. Jack ask for help in order to paint his face for pig hunting. Ralph and the other boys are swimming in the bathing pool later on. Smoke from a ship is spotted in the distance, the signal fire was out and was not watched. They missed their chance to be rescued. Later on Jack and his hunters come proudly marching carrying their first kill, trying to convey their excitement to Ralph. When Ralph yells that a ship passed them by and there was no signal fire going, excuses were made and Jack tries to say that hunting is the most important. The fight broke out and Jack punched Piggy. Finally, the fire is lit again, the pig is roasted, and everyone eats. The hunters celebrate the success of hunting, with a wild tribal dance and one boy acting like the pig. The Chapter three and four kind of make the reader think about the means of home. A safe shelter from beastie and others. Also it makes me question about the primaries. Jack and Ralph keep fighting upon the primaries they should do. Huntings and other things like making a shelter or lighting up the fire.

       
     Ralph mentions that work isn’t quite getting done, and the rules they set were not being followed. He worries that they might not survive before they go back home. However, all the young children weren’t that much interested in what Ralph says. They were rather interested in the beast, which they believed in as some kind of animal living on the island. Jack says that he's been everywhere, and there was no beast, and Piggy says that a beast can't exist scientifically. However, a littl'un still argues that he saw something horrid in the forest, which was, actually Simon returning in the dark from his peaceful area. Another littl'un says that there's a "Beast from the water,". Simon finally tries to settle the matter by saying that there may be a beast, but that "it's only us." However, they responded by mocking and joking. A dead man from the shot down plane falls down from the sky. The man was already dead, however, and the body and parachute float up to the island, eventually snagging on rocks. The wind continually grabs the parachute, lifting the body up and down was seen by Samneric. Terrified, they ran to tell about this "Beast from the Air," and an assembly is called. Almost everyone thought they were in big danger. Then Jack suggested hunting the beast down. Jack, Ralph, and a group of hunters set out to get the Beast, while Piggy stays at the beach with the littl'uns. They first checked Castle Rock, where they had never been before. Although they find nothing, Jack thought the place would work as a great fort. They keep on searching for the beast in the mountain.

     The beast takes the one of the most important part of developing the story. The beast at first seemed like just a representative of fear. The symbol of fear everyone was scared about due to lack of information. However, the beast in the story was not just a symbol of fear. It more importantly took a role as the trigger of human’s instinct of violence and rage. The beast didn’t exist, but children set the character in the island as a beast, and even they were scared of it, at the same time they were trying to hunt it down, and they slowly lost the judgment and they started to not care about what is the beast. Hunting the beast down became the primary problem. And it able us to guess that something tragic would happen because of lack of judgment such as killing one of themselves thinking that he was a beast.

     Ralph began pondering about their dirtiness and appearance while climbing up to the mountain. He would love to cut his hair. Simon sees Ralph and assures him that they would safely get back to home. Unlike before, Ralph actively participates in the dance, and their acts became overly realistic actually striking and hurting Robert. Finally, they move on towards the mountain. Jack found a moving creature on the mountain. When they see what they believe to be the beast they make haste to attack. Jack calls assembly and point out that Beast is something that must be hunted. Ralph was upset and called the hunters coward. Enraged Jack asks people about Ralph being chief. Since their signal fire is blocked by the beast they decide to move the fire to the shore. When they got there, they noticed that most of the older boys decided to abandon Ralph. After hunting, Jack realizes that they'll need fire to cook the meat so they steal fire log from Ralph’s camp. Ralph maintains that the fire is more important. Simon meets the lord of the flies. The black cloud of flies coating the head called "The Lord of the Flies." The Lord of the Flies says I’m part of you, we are going to have fun in this island. It continues to say that if Simon tries to talk to the others about the Beast, that he will be killed by everyone, including Ralph and Piggy. After all this situation Simon collapses.

     As we also talked about it in the class before the midterm test, Ralph ponders about their dirtiness, and desire to cut his long hair. Hair which represents civilization, has grown and it means that distance between boys and civilization has been increased. Beside that, Lord of the flies finally appears in the story. Lord of the flies saying “I’m part of you” can be inferred that those brutality of the hunters, their fears about the beast and all the other things something that was inside of them. Also from saying that “we are going to have fun in this island” it can be easily expected more brutality, more fears, and more severe incidences will happen in the story. Also every incidences are showing the civilization is diminishing really fast. For example the fall of Ralph means democracy which is part of modern civilization is fallen. Only Simon remains mystery. He only does not belong to the boys who are being more separated from civilizations. He also have the role of messenger, meeting lord of the flies.

    

     When Simon finally woke up, giant storm was raging in the island. Piggy and Ralph decided to check the pig, but there, Jack asked them to show loyalty. Ralph tries to persuade the group however he fails, and the group starts the ritual. As they were playing the ritual, someone comes out from the jungle. Everyone starts to attack it saying that it is the beast. Rather than the beast Simon is beaten to death. Jack keeps his seat and others show loyalty to him. Jack has a boy tied up and beaten, for no reason except to show what happens if anyone gets in his way. Later Ralph, Piggy, and twins finally leave the fire and go to their shelters. They woke up by some noises, fearing it is the beast. But it was Jack, and his group looking for the fire. They break into the shelter and begin to fight to get the piggy’s glasses.

      

     First, as expected Simon came to death after encountering the lord of the flies. Lord of the flies promised to have some fun with him meaning that Simon would get into some trouble. Some trouble came out to be the death. Also, death of the Simon means that the last civilization and ability to reasoning completely faded out from those boys. Boys are now completely savages, and acts as their instincts tell them to. It seems like violent giant storm represents the situations of the island and the behaviors of boys. Giant storm also plays a roll as erasing the evidence of Simon’s death by carrying his body away. Not only that, the last remnants of rules, and civilizations are destroyed or lost power. Conch shell which represented the rules, had lost it’s power completely. Also, Piggy’s glasses which represented the intelligence and the civilizations is also broken. The island is completely away from civilization.

    

     Ralph and his crews went to the Castle Rock to get Piggy's glasses back. However Jack denies their request of giving the glasses back. During their argument, Roger pushed a giant rock on Ralph but Ralph avoids it. However, the great rock landed on Piggy destroying the conch and Piggy fell from the cliff and died. Then Jack captured Sam and Eric. Ralph runs away and Jack tortures Sam and Eric to join his troop. Ralph found the skeletons of the Lord of the Flies. He grabbed a stake from its head. He went to the Castle Rock and saw Sam and Eric who were guarding the Castle Rock. Sam and Eric told Ralph that Jack tries to find him and kill him so Ralph hides in the thickets. In the morning, Ralph started to escape from the thickets because he smelled fire from the jungle. Jack had set the fire to burn the forest and fire Ralph out from the thickets. Ralph ran away from Jack's crew and faints in the beach. When Ralph woke up, he saw a naval officer who was staring at him and told him that he saw the island on fire and he thought there were people in the island. Ralph and the other boys cried with joy and got rescued. However, Ralph cried with grief unlike other boys. Naval officer first thought they were having fun and joy but were disgusted after he heard what happened.

     To start off, symbols of civilizations are all destroyed. Roger’s rock not only killed piggy who was the most smart and civilized kind of guy, but also destroyed the conch shell which represented the rules, and civilizations. Moreover, Lord of the Flies is also destroyed. By destroying those things, symbols that were left representing civilization are all gone. Now Jack’s troop acts more like savage. They killed the piggy, tortured Sam and Eric, and try to hunt Ralph at last. When Ralph hides in the bush, they even set fire to hunt him down. There is one more interesting thing I found in the novel. Reminding that those kids are survivors from crashed airplane, they were in war time. Keeping this in mind, the naval officer who was disgusted at their acts is probably a soldier. This is quite ironical, while he is the one who kills people like savage, he is disgusted and shocked how those kids could turn like savages so quickly. The boys in the island were kind of miniature of real world of adults.

Irony of Our Society (The Society Where Creativeness is Repressed)

     Now a days, we consider creativeness as one of the most important perspectives. However, at the same time our society has atmosphere which turns creative person into troublemaker. No matter how creative the individual is, if no one from society supports the individual, creativeness will not be expressed easily and creative developments would not happen easily either. Surroundings of the individual not only affects how well the creativeness is expressed but also, how creative the individual can be developed and improved.

  

 

     In fact, we can easily observe many people with potentials having trouble because of bias of others. Especially it is often that more the one’s social status is low more bad impressions people have towards he or she. As the result, even though a lot of students have high potentials of creativeness, their creative acts are seemed to be troublesome and off the rules just because of their low social status. Not only for people with low social status, it is found out that people have overall negative impressions on creative people. According to the research done on 2004 by Gallop, people thinks “creative outgoing people” as “one’s who only care about themselves and careless towards social duties”. Also even teachers, they tend to prefer students with high intelligence rather than students with high creativeness. And this tendency is kept until today.

     This status quo raise one question. Why modern society shows irony of wanting creative people, but at the same time having bad images on them? Many possible answers probably exist, but to start with it’s because we only focus on results of creativeness. Actually, many parents would want their children to have creativeness developed so they can create creative results. This focus of results would create unproductive competes. And these nonproductive competes and focus on results will just make things worth. Being more estranged with creating new innovations. Then what is needed to make appropriate society? People with eyes of finding and noticing creative people and creative things, and atmosphere that encourage creative works are needed. This two features may be more important than having creative people.

 

     Most of people think they are not creative enough and, outstanding innovations are only resulted by few talented people. Few people just give up trying to be creative because they think they are too old, and creativeness is something that youngs should have. These phenomenon is very miserable. In fact, if we look at few successful cases, we can easily find out succession was carried out not by creative people themselves but by people who noticed it was creative. This shows that society not only needs me as creative individual, but also as members of surroundings of a creative person. For this, we indeed have to work hard to be creative, but also have characteristics to admit other people’s work and have open minded. As coworker, senior, educator, teacher, or parents we have ‘duty’ to be open minded, flexible, and enjoy unique thoughts. With this ‘duty’ kept, we would not pass by something creative unconsciously, and be able to work result another innovation.

Hormones of Love

Introduction

           Whenever someone makes a girlfriend or a boyfriend, it makes you wonder. Is it possible to fall in love with just one glance? What circumstances make a highly emotional feeling called “love”? Isn’t emotion also occupied by hormones made in body? Can it be pheromone that makes people to fall in love? Which chemicals work in process of love?

           With many questions bear in mind, love indeed is something that seems mysterious. Love is one of the most important emotions for a human to have. And love is also one of the most enjoyed emotions of a human. Love is something so complicated. At the same time, love is something so natural to take place in one’s daily life. I came up with scientific knowledges to know better about love and its process.

Definition

           To start with, it is necessary to define the word “love”. The word “love” has several meanings. However, the word “love” we are going to talk about is interpersonal love between a male and a female. The word “love” we’ll be dealing with is defined as “a very strong feeling of affection towards someone who you are romantically or sexually attracted to”.

Furthermore, I’ll define the word “hormone” since hormone is the main concept to explain the process of love. A hormone is a chemical, usually occurring naturally in your body, that makes an organ of your body do something. And indeed, hormone is capable of creating emotions we feel.

Stages of Love

           Helen Fisher, a leading expert in the topic of love, divides the experience of love into three partly overlapping stages: lust, attraction, and attachment. Lust is the feeling of sexual desire. Attraction determines which partner to find attractive and pursue. And attachment involves sharing home, parental duties, and mutual defense. Three distinct hormones, and also three behavioral patterns, are associated with these three romantic styles.

ⅰ. Lust

           At the first stage of love, hormones called testosterone and estrogen participate. Those two hormones are the most influential after all. Testosterone and estrogen make us to have good feeling toward the other sex. Testosterone makes a man manly, and estrogen enables a woman to have beautiful body. Also testosterone takes part in concentration, memorization, and space perception. Estrogen takes part in numerous physiological functions such as boosting metabolism, decreasing muscle tissues, adjusting menstruation rhythm. Moreover it is quite surprising how similar testosterone and estrogen looks.

ⅱ. Attraction

           The second stage of love is when you become attracted to the partner. At this stage, we often say “You are fallen love.” You become impossible to concentrate on other things beside your mate. Moreover, you may suffer insomnia. In worst case, you may even lose your appetite. At this stage, you start to stutter and your heart starts beating faster in front of your lover.

These symptoms are caused since several chemical compounds are actively made. Those chemical compounds made are called monoamine. Norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine belongs to category of monoamine. Norepinephrine and serotonin make you excited. And dopamine makes you feel happiness. Thus norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine are called compounds of love.

           An anthropologist from Rutgers University, Helen Fisher warns that there are some antidepressant drugs that facilitate production of serotonin too much, patients can rather find trouble having a romantic love. Helen Fisher says you are able to fall in love when amount of serotonin in your body is relatively low.

ⅲ. Attachment

The third stage of love is the stage of attachment. In this stage, beyond feeling the attraction, you feel satisfaction of being together with your mate. In this stage of love two hormones take an important role. Oxytocin and vasopressin are those two hormones. Oxytocin and vasopressin are nanopeptide. Nanopeptide is a compound of nine amino acids connected to each other.

Oxytocin increases attachment between lovers. Because of its ability, oxytocin has nickname called “compound of hug”. Also for female, oxytocin helps uterus shrinks while delivery, and ables breast feeding. Moreover oxytocin manifestoes maternal affection. Oxytocin in the blood increases regardless of sex, when they feel orgasm. Oxytocin is made in neurons of hypothalamus then moves to axon of pituitary gland and finally released to blood.

           Another attachment inducing hormone is vasopressin. Vasopressin also has a nickname called “compound of monogamy”. Only three percent of mammals are capable of instinct monogamy. Unfortunately human aren’t included in three percent, sometimes making marriage complicated. Rats are kind of animal that keeps monogamy, most of the results of the research on vasopressin are based on experiments on rats. After a male rat has copulation, in order to protect its mate, the male rat becomes really aggressive and they keep their attachment toward its mate. Since amount of vasopressin in their brains are relatively high while those actions of male are taken place, vasopressin is believed to take a vital role in maintaining the attachment of a mate.

           Since vasopressin is made in the same place as oxytocin is made, two hormones must be closely related. Even if we look at its chemical structure, only two of nine amino acids differs each other. Furthermore endorphin (an anodyne that our body makes) also is believed to be related in keeping the attachment. 

ⅳ. Conclusion

           It’s really impressive that totally different hormones work in the three stages of love. This means that our mental state can be read by compounds of chemical made in our body. Although, current technologies are still far away from reading our mental state accurately with compounds of chemical, there are numerous possibilities of improvements.

           By understanding which compounds of chemical have effects on our emotions, we can cure lots of mental diseases. Status quo, mental diseases aren’t easy ones to deal with. Surgery is too dangerous, and drugs have many side effects. Not only that, by understanding hormones we may be able to understand more about each other. We can know how they feel, how they think, and about their ideas. By stepping into one’s shoes (understanding each other) is the way that we can truly solve problems. We can truly change the world.

Body Ritual Among the American

           When I first read about the Body ritual of the Nacirema, I thought this essay was badly written. Overall essay was looking down on a culture of the Nacirema. Since I thought we should respect other cultures even when they are exotic and unique, the essay was full of biases about Nacirema. However, after I knew that “Nacirema” is actually “American” written backward, I realized the essay did not intended to look down on a culture but was intending to criticize the modernized culture of America.

           After realizing “Nacirema” stands for “American”, I was soon able to find numerous metaphors in the essay. “Shrines” was metaphor for “Bathrooms”, “Medicine man” for “Doctor”, “Herbalists” for “Pharmacists”, “Scraping face with sharp materials” for “Shaving”, “Laptiso” for “Hospital” and more on. The essay was actually criticizing the culture of American rather than looking down on a barbaric culture.

           I was amazed how I had absolutely no doubt on our life style. I thought it was reasonable for hospital to get fees for treating patients. But I found myself thinking how cruel Nacirema is for not treating patience no matter what if they didn’t have the gifts. I thought it was fair to do birth control. However I found myself thinking negatively towards how Nacirema avoid pregnancy and how they taboo natural phenomena. Our culture which we live in thinking how it’s so modernized, rational, and advanced had so many irony inside.

           When I first read the essay I wondered how such cultures including pain could developed. Since naturally people are built to fear pain and avoid it. In the essay it is told such culture is held due to absolute faith of people. This motivated me to rethink about our development. Our what we called science that we have absolute truth in it. People who don’t have belief in science is considered uneducated. Since science is believed to be so logical and reasonable, educated, normal people should have faith in science. Well, maybe isn’t our belief dangerous? Maybe science is having too much power in modern society. It is true science is logical and reasonable. It is also true it helped our development. But now it’s time to slow down a bit and rethink about it. Science indeed helped us have technological development but is our moral and culture following up the development? Not only advance in science is important, but advance in social awareness must follow.