Teen Sleep Needed

Our school days here at Tremper High School begin at 7:30 A.M. The average start time of highschools throughout the United States is 8:00 A.M. While the national average is much more easy going than what we do here in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it is still way too early according to studies. One study shows that the human teenage brain is not fully functioning until 10:00 A.M. With that being said I think it would be unreasonable to start any later than 8:45 in the morning.  School’s usually argue that the reason they want to start so early is so students aren’t released too late into the day. Furthermore it would seem as if it’s almost pointless to start that early in the morning though as kid’s brains are still in sleep mode if you will. Studies show that test scores

Teen Sleep Needed

Our school days here at Tremper High School begin at 7:30 A.M. The average start time of highschools throughout the United States is 8:00 A.M. While the national average is much more easy going than what we do here in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it is still way too early according to studies. One study shows that the human teenage brain is not fully functioning until 10:00 A.M. With that being said I think it would be unreasonable to start any later than 8:45 in the morning.  School’s usually argue that the reason they want to start so early is so students aren’t released too late into the day. Furthermore it would seem as if it’s almost pointless to start that early in the morning though as kid’s brains are still in sleep mode if you will. Studies show that test scores from early morning classes are significantly lower than those later in the day.

Students coming into class to start the day often fall asleep and refuse to obey teachers orders. This often escalates into bigger disciplinary issues with the student. Everyone in the

morning is cranky and gnawing at a student to do something they already don’t want to awake for is obviously going to trigger rude and angry responses. Following that while I talk about the students who at least show up but don’t do anything there is a handful of people who won’t show up to begin with. Moving the start time of school back would ultimately end with the improvement of grades, attendance, and relationships with students and teachers. Lastly I would like to bring up health issues a lack of sleep can cause. Other than the fact of school, kids are normally involved with sports, clubs, and work. Homework often times keeps kids up past 11:00 P.M. This is an unhealthy lifestyle that can lead to several health issues such as depression. These are a few different reasons as to why sleep for teens is so important.

March Madness

March madness is a tournament that comes around once a year full of heroics, upsets and the national champion. March Madness is a multimillion dollar business and only the super bowl is bigger. The NCAA creates all the rules for all sports. Mark Emmert is the president of the NCAA making all the rules and regulations for players, coaches and fans to follow. 90% of the NCAA’s revenue comes from men’s basketball and March Madness. They have a contract with CBS to broadcast all the games and the contract is for 14 years and 10.8 billion dollars roughly 700 million dollars a year. Sonny Vacaro became the “godfather” of college basketball because of his relationship with the younger players and supplied the NCAA money. He thinks how the NCAA handles business is wrong as the players don’t see a dime from that money, even though as a coach he made money off of these players. He paid college coaches for their players for them to wear nike shoes and clothing. Vacaro became more and more upset with the business that he quit because he was upset with how the players were treated. Emerit brought Robert Griffin III

who went to Baylor to the stage to talk about how he was treated within the NCAA as he went on to talk about how he was earning his 2 degrees and then his next plan was to hopefully play in the NFL. Michael Lewis who is an author of the blind side goes on to say that college athletes are trained and spend as much time at the sport as professional athletes but just don’t get paid and also states that a big time quarterbacks value on a good college team could be as much as 5 million dollars per season. It’s convenient for the NCAA to not pay the players. Joakim Noah who is a former basketball player from florida says that it’s a bit ridiculous that the NCAA can’t go onto pay for some families to fly out to watch their son or daughter player in the national championship game when they’re making close to 700-800 million dollars per year. Some college players accept money from people when they aren’t allowed to which is unfair to the players 

who sometimes need that money. Ed o'bannon who played for UCLA was in the NCAA basketball game and never saw a penny from that game even though he was in that game. They didn’t ask for the rights to put him in that game or anything. Mark Emmrett made roughly 900,000 dollars at the University of Washington with about 37.000 employees and now makes 1.7 million with about 45 employees. The Universities rake in millions of dollars and their athletes don’t see anything.

Does the ACT Cause Stress?

The ACT is the biggest and most important test that students will ever have to take.  The stress caused by this test is overwhelming due to the fact that it could be a reason you do not get into the college you want.  High school students worry about taking the ACT their entire life. The thought of sitting in a gym or classroom for four hours to take a test that will be with them the rest of their lives is a very scary thing to think about.  Although it is just one test, the score you get seems to define you. The college you get into depends on what your ACT score is. Every year, juniors take this highly stressful test. Is the stress that the ACT causes worth it? Sixteen and seventeen year olds should not have such a large weight on their shoulders.  Their parents push them to do their best, but their best isn’t good enough. They aim for a certain score, and when they do not achieve it, they feel like they have failed themselves and their parents. Is that fair? Not all students are

good at test taking, and the ACT is the biggest test they will have to take. How smart you are should not be defined by the score you get on the ACT.  The college you want to get into looks at your ACT score, and if it does not meet their standards, you will not get in. Yes, colleges look at your class grades as well, but those should be what colleges look at to determine whether you are a good fit for their school, not your score on one test.

Social Media Platforms

Social media is a great way to interact and connect with friends and family.  You are able to post your mood, agenda, pictures, and more. A few of the best, most popular social media platforms are: 

1. Snapchat: Snapchat allows you to send pictures back and forth to your friends, but the picture disappears after you send or open it.  If you save your photos, they go to your memories, which allows you to look back and see what you’ve done since you started using snapchat.  You can also post stories for all your friends to see that appear for 24 hours.
2. Instagram: On Instagram, you post your favorite pictures for all your followers to see.  It shows them what you are doing and allows them to keep up with what is going on in your life.  Also, you can see everything your friends post, so you can keep up with their lives too!
3. Twitter: On Twitter, you tweet about what your opinions are, what is

1. going on in your life, and funny things too. You can retweet or like things that you think are funny or things that apply to you. You are able to connect with friends through this app as well.
2. Facebook: Not as many teens use Facebook, but it is still a great platform to connect with friends and family. Like Twitter, people post things about what is going on in their lives and their opinions. 

Top 10 favorite Hockey players

  Ever since I was two years old I have had a passion for hockey.  I went shopping for football pads when I was two and grabbed hockey pads, and my dad asked me if I wanted to play hockey.  I am the first one to play hockey in my family. I have a few athletes I look up to and want to try to make my game similar to theirs.

My top 10 favorite athletes are:

Patrick Kane- He plays for the Blackhawks, which is my favorite team, and he has so much skill, so he is my favorite player.

Andrew Shaw- He use to play for the Blackhawks, but I like him because he gets in fights and is a grinder.

Alex Ovechkin- I like him just because he is the G.O.A.T.

Connor McDavid-  He is the fastest player in the NHL and will possibly be known as the best hockey player ever when he retires.

Steven Stamkos- He has so much skill and so many dirty goals, he is one of my favorite players.

Ryan Getzlaf-  He's just cold, so I like him.

Sidney Crosby- He is one of the best players to play hockey.

Pavel Datsyuk-  He is playing in the Russian Hockey League now, but he was one of the best in the NHL.

P.K. Subban- He is my favorite defenseman in hockey because he drills people.

Zdeno Chara- He is huge and gets in a ton of fights and rarely loses.

The Game Changers: Movie Review

          Recently, I made time to watch the new movie The Game Changers directed by  Louie Psihoyos. It is a documentary based on star athletes and how their diet affects their performance and healing process. The movie includes olympic competitors, world record holders, and professional athletes. The documentary succeeds in showing how important a healthy diet is in everyday life. 

        The movie introduces stars like Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Wilkes, Patrik Baboumian, and more. It begins with these individuals addressing how a vegetarian or vegan diet has dictated their life as an athlete and human being. They talk of the way this lifestyle has changed the way they play and perform; they perform better, faster, stronger, and hold much more stamina. It also addresses the common concern of possible nutrition deficient and how simple it is to actually get more nutrition on a vegan diet than you would eating meat. The documentary

includes interesting experiments, for example a doctor brings in three football players and does a blood test after eating plant based and after eating meat.. A number of experiments like this are performed and the athletes are in shock about the effect their own food has on their bodies. The movie even documents the worlds strongest man, who follows a vegan diet, and the world record taker for completing the appalachian trail (48 days of running), who is also vegan. 

        The movie is well made and includes credible facts about the effects of a herbivore diet compared to an omnivore diet. It was very interesting to see how significantly these athletes improved shortly after changing their diet. It is an informational document that I believe all athletes and individuals should watch. The Game Changers movie was inspiring and provided well thought out evidence with a sufficient amount of background information on the diet. The Game Changers is a life changing movie that can truly open the eyes of society to a healthier way of living. 

Throughout my short lifetime I have learned many valuable lessons. My various successes and failures have molded me into the person I am today. Now you may ask, well, what person is that exactly? When I think about words to give the best perspective of me the first few that come to mind are perseverance, diligence, and finally autonomous.  

The first word I brought to attention was perseverance. During December of last year I joined a recreational basketball league for fun. Although it was not a competitive league to some, my teammates would give just about anything to win. About mid December I was diagnosed with mono. This setback was supposed to put an end to my season. As the starting point guard I feel like I had let my team down, and that I shouldn’t be giving up this easily. Instead of hanging up the jersey I decided to stay indoors for about 3 weeks focusing on getting better and nothing else. By the end of the third week I was feeling much better and I made a surprise return to the team helping not only my teammates, but my best friends go on to win the championship. This was one pivotal moment in my life where I learned to persevere in the eyes of adversity and it ended up being my greatest successes.     

Secondly, I used diligence to describe me. Defined as careful and persistent work or effort is a perfect way of describing my academic attitude. After four years of highschool I have learned that staying on top of your work is the best way to keep your GPA right where you want it. This diligent work ethic has lead me to be the student I am today maintaining all A’s and B’s. With college nearing my future I only see the influence on my school work getting stronger. This will serve as my main advantage in college as being on my own for the first time will come naturally because of how independent this attribute has made me. Further on in life this will help me excel in my career choice and ultimately lead to a successful life.  

The final word that I used was autonomous. This word simply means independence. In college independence is everything, if you can’t do things on your own how do you expect to lead a successful life. Going through these past four years I have gotten a small taste of what it’s like. Taking the challenging classes I did there wasn’t always someone there to rely on to hold

my hand and walk through every problem. Being on your own forces yourself to get up and do things for yourself. As a junior I took AP Psychology, at the start of the semester I was awful at this class, I finished with a C+ and it was not satisfying. I told myself I would do much better second semester and instead of going out with my friends I dedicated much more time studying for this class. To cap off the year I finished the class with a solid A.

In conclusion I have faced many successes as well as failures in my life, these are only a few examples. My philosophy is that everything happens for a reason and these reasons are what have shaped me as a student and person today. 

A quote from the CADOF Organization states “Freedom of religion does not mean freedom to discriminate.” Since the start of religion people have used it to justify their thoughts/actions of discrimination or mistreatment. Some examples of religious discrimination in the United States date all the way back to 1619 when slavery first began and some examples of this discrimination still concur today. For the 246 years of slavery in the South people used Christianity to justify the mistreatment of African Americans and to justify their discrimination against them. Another example that still concurs presently is using religion to justify discrimination against the LGBT community and homosexuality. The third and final example I’m going to talk about is how people use certain religions to discriminate people or in other words discriminating others because of their religion.

Dating all the way back to August of 1619 when slavery first started in the United States the American people used Christianity to justify the discrimination

against African Americans and after looking down on them like they were less human this them, the slave owners would use Christianity to justify the mistreatment of them. A section of the Bible called the Old Testament was often used by people who backed slavery for examples that slavery was common among the Israelites. The other section of the Bible called the New Testament was mostly ignored, except when pointing out that nowhere in this section did Jesus condemn slavery, although the story of Philemon, the runaway slave who St. Paul had returned to his master. This part was often quoted in arguments to justify the captivity. It was also known that the Latin word servus, translated as servant or slave, was often used throughout the Bible. Throughout the 246 years of slavery people used different passages from the Bible to justify their actions because their religions said it was okay. They took the words of God and the Bible and twisted them into their own, as a way to ease their conscience and justify their wrong doings. Another form of religious justification of discrimination that’s seen more

commonly in recent years and still occurs to this day is discriminating against the LGBT community using the words of the Bible to justify their opinion. Major religion worldwide promote discrimination, hatred, and sometimes violence towards the LGBT community. Because of religious beliefs, families are torn apart when religious teachings conflict the biologically determined sexual orientation and/or gender identity of a child or parent. In the LGBT community countless people are raised in religious families and experience internal conflict and pain as they try to decide between their religious learned beliefs and the reality of who they are as an individual. Not only does it happen within families but people of the LGBT community face conflict with random people in society everyday. I’ve seen first hand kids at school bullied/harassed at school or on social media. This past football season at the Indian Trail games I witnessed my peers and so called friends throw bottles and trash at the students who claim to be a part of this community. It’s overall just sad to see especially at such a young age, people don’t understand

the emotional toll they’re putting onto people. They think that because the Bible and the church they’ve attended since birth tells them this was not what God intended for us that their words and actions are justified. People need to open their mind to the fact that not everyone's the same, no matter what their religions say people are genetically made up different. At the point of the writing of the Bible and other religious texts there wasn’t science to prove that someone being lesbian or gay is technically a mental disorder that they can’t help. No matter what your religion says you can’t use it to justify your mistreatment of someone with a mental disorder. People use religion not only to justify their discrimination against others from what their religion tells them is the ‘norm’ but they also use others religious beliefs against them. For example, Muslims are grouped all into a category and discriminated. People use others religions as a way to justify discriminating them. The government is even guilty of this in the National Security standpoint. The FBI has collected racial and ethnic information and mapped American communities

around the country based on religious stereotypes about which ethnic and racial groups commit different types of crimes. The TSA searches more muslim passengers than any other for signs of deception or mal-intent.This  has caused a rise to allegations of religious profiling. The federal government encourages law enforcement agencies and ordinary citizens to report information for “suspicious activity” which turns ordinary people against their neighbors, targets First Amendment-protected activity, and results in harassment and unwarranted surveillance of American Muslims. People see that in other countries many Muslims take part in terrorist activities and stereotype them all together. People use their religion to group them together with others known to do bad things and harm society. Religion is a right and people have the freedom to choose their own. This doesn’t give people the right to discriminate against others because others of their religion have been known to harm society.  

Using religion to justify discrimination can be seen being used in all aspects of

life. Weather it’s from justifying the captivity or mistreatment of African American slaves, to using the words in the Bible to discriminate against homosexuals, people use their religious beliefs in a way these religions were never intended to be used. On the other hand, some people use others religions as a reason to discriminate them and use the fact of the religion they choose to be a part of to justify the way we treat them as humans. The fact of the matter is that life is changing day by day and evolving to today’s community. The problem isn’t people’s sexual views or someone having their own beliefs, the problem is that people refuse to change with society, some people refuse to see the other perspective. From using some word found in the bible to say being gay is wrong or using some words in the Bible to say slavery was justified because the Bible talked about it. When America first began it was new, it was evolving from what was previously known in the other countries, where there wasn’t much freedom of religion or much freedom to choose your own path. Many people moved here for greater opportunities and to further develop

their beliefs in a religion they chose. Many of them doing this end up being discriminated against. “Freedom of religion does not mean freedom to discriminate.” Religion is meant to be your belief and other people have their religions and have their beliefs, no matter what your religion is it doesn’t give you the right to justify your discrimination.