It's My God Given Right

For my first Action Project of the course “A Nations Argument”, we took a deep dive into the history of America's declaration of independence and the claims made within it. We challenged ourselves to decide if those words in the declaration were upheld today. Later on, we looked at other countries' declarations to see how people gain what they want. I saw a tendency for there being a war to get independence in most cases. Yesterday we visited Alderman Walter Burnett of the 27th ward and there we discussed his job and what his daily tasks are. We learned about his background and reasoning for being an Alderman also some fun facts about politics. Alderman Burnett stated that “politics are like a relationship and there’s always a mutual compromise.”Getting back to the course we were tasked to look into declaring independence from our on made up independent study of our choosing. By this creating an argument that we think is worth fighting for or rather declaring it. 

Topic: Music

Have you ever heard of a saying music to my ears or move to the rhythm? Well, hold your horses you were inspired by music bud. Music is everything it soothes and then all of a sudden takes over, Music is life. It is necessary that I deserve to be able to learn about music and how it empowers people on this planet. I understand that life is all about learning from mistakes and understanding that things don't always go your way. At least that's what elders tell me what it feels like every day. But I should learn about something that has been giving people joy for ages and still does today. This Declaration will help me understand why humans enjoy the nature of rhythm. Is it from our mothers’ heartbeat at birth or is it from a flame within that we cant see?

Purpose of School and Learning: 
The purpose of school is to supply the average young scholar knowledge that they can use in the future for their career or their ordinary day job. Also, provides them some type of figure to help contribute to society. If I'm undoubtedly true I feel the school is a waste of time and takes hours of my life that I can't get back. The purpose of learning, in my opinion, is to use what we learn and share it with others and use it to our advantage. Learning also makes us unique that everyone knows a little more than you do. When you learn something new it can affect you and your future.

Unalienable Rights:
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness/ I have the right to be a creative music Goddess and share with my peers.

• I have the right to be alive and breathing
• I have the right to Liberty, meaning my freedom of choice without any restriction by any means necessary
• I have the right to create my own happiness, whether that be playing video games, drawing, playing basketball or expressing emotions and thoughts through music
• I have the right to play music
• I have the right to discover more and reimage what music actually is

Guiding Question: 

How can music bring others together from totally different backgrounds? How will this affect the world?

I will pursue this study by examining the people before me in the world from different heritages and cultures. Beginning with experimenting with different instruments and sounds during this study. I also will track progression and see through my data how these different things make people feel and how it makes people more sociable. My objectives and outcome out of this study are to learn what makes music so powerful to influence and to see if branching this theory turns out to make some bound.

What is an argument: 

I’m arguing that maybe hate and fear in our world conquer people’s minds and makes them distant from one another. Things such as labels, stereotypes, and racism make up all today. But if we connect more this is destined to change. Roles in our society are as they are because of social systems put in place by people like me and you. I know that music impacts people’s lives daily. In fact, you’re probably listening to music now or was a few minutes ago. So if I could do something to change these low standards of life that we set for ourself it would be amazing.

Syllogism: 
P1- Music has been around since about 40,000 years ago
P2- Music effects peoples spirits
P3- Music gathers attention like a drug and brings out crowds of people
P4- Music makes people feel better when sad
Conclusion- I have the right to be able to study music for positive purposes for the change of our world

P1- I enjoy playing the guitar from time to time

P2- All humans enjoy music
Conclusion- Lets all rock out on Guitar Hero! :)

Historical Revolution/context:

Listening to music and singing together has been shown in several studies to directly impact neuro-chemicals in our brain, many of which play a role in closeness and connection. This steams for the day you are born. Music has also been linked to dopamine release found in the late 90s, involved in regulating mood and craving behavior. Music also seems to make us feel good and connect with others. The oldest discovered instrument was a flute made from a bone of an animal. The flute dated back to almost 40,000 years ago. During human, migration music played a major role in entertainment and hope to thrive to get going. Even looking into Greek mythological music played an integral role in ancient Greek society. With this, views and thoughts were changed in the process. African tribe the Mandinke what is now Mali invented the djembe drum invented in the 12th Century. This sparked a tradition for many many years of rhythm and love of people coming together and dancing.

Resource list for this Independent Study
People-Ralph Haynes, Omar Cheng, Gregg Parker, Adam Cohen, Quanzina Haynes, Deborah Moon

Musical Instruments
Guitars, Pianos, Drums, Brass, Woodwind, Percussions( maracas, tambourines, etc)

Books
The Emotional Power of Music
Music Education for Social Change

Museum

Chicago History Museum

My Official Declaration
Music is a necessity to life and to live for any creature on this planet. Music comes from the water as it ripples, it comes from the wind blowing off the trees and the birds chirping in the morning. Music is powerful and I shall the right to use my talents to bring people together.

Citations
Music and the Brain: What Happens When You're Listening to Music. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/your-brain-on-music/

Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm

Rusty Supreme: Bike Design

Over the course of three weeks in my class Design and Engineering, we have been learning all about bikes and why they are important for people all over the world. We went to two bike shops, Working Bikes, and Earth Rider. There I discovered that in some countries bikes are a necessity and without them, people couldn't survive or make money. This term itself went pretty fast but I was able to obtain some knowledge. We found out that designing a bike is a difficult challenge. We first looked at examples of how to sketch ideas and then catered towards an audience for the bike. Random groups were chosen and we were given a person to design a bike based to fit them. The process was quite a struggle but we got through it. Here's a slideshow below with some further background info.

Persona: A 12-year-old boy from a small town rides his bike to and from school. His commute isn't that
far. The only problems he faces is riding down narrow streets and carrying his bike up and downstairs.
Since he lives in a populated tourist attraction he worries about people doing things to his bike.

Need: For the average rider to and from school. Lightweight but strong going to support rider on a rough surface.

Benefit: Easy access transporting, Less risk of vandalism, easy carrying up and down the stairs, Inward handlebars so he won't bump anybody.

Reason to believe: The process to design the bike took over a month and concluded many trial and error experiments. We did a lot of research and made adjustments based on personal fits

In conclusion, the Rusty Supreme design sparked off the idea that it already looked like a piece of scrap. The process that went into designing the bike was pretty challenging since I was paired with someone who had completely different views. Things that ultimately went well was our brainstorming of ideas and are concentration on what would work and what wouldn't. I feel this project was rushed and we needed a bit more time. From the project, I would take away that communication is important without it you are in trouble.

Banning peoples thoughts and ideas

In my Humanities class called Forbidden books, we have been learning about the history of book banning. Also, what are the reasons people ban books? People ban books based on biased opinions of either race, religion, politics, and ideas. For our assignment, we were put to the test of writing an essay on a book that we wanted. The topic is should the book should be banned or not be banned. During the course, we visited a feminist book store that talking about the challenges they face in their community. In the course, I learned so much and will stick with me forever. Without any other introductions here's the essay.

Jahsia Longstreet

Forbidden Books

Sharon Holmes
March 22, 2019

Why is The Catcher and the Rye Banned?

First, imagine a book being banned just for its foul language, and funny comical jokes here and there. Why do people even ban books? What happened to our right to free speech? To get into more context, The Catcher and the Rye is a novel that was published 1951. This book was originally published for adults, but over the years teenagers have begun to enjoy the book as well. Throughout the book, the main focuses are identity and belonging as the point of interest. This book starts in Pennsylvania at a school called Pencey Prep. Here, we are introduced to the main character, Holden Caulfield. His story begins off where he had just been kicked out for failing all his classes except English. The story then tells the reader about his past of failing in school and how he basically feels about people and education. In the beginning, the word that is often used is phony. This word is used a lot through the duration of the first couple of chapters and sets the tone for the book. Throughout the book, the common theme is loneliness, death, and people being fake in front of one another. People are fighting this book because it uses a lot of profanity. But it is not just the language that got the book banned. It’s for the ideas given off into the world to other people from this book. This book should not be banned because of its profanity. It's not right to ban or censor literature because banning and censoring go against the right of freedom of expression.

The first record of The Catcher in the Rye being banned was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1960 after an eleventh grade English teacher was fired for assigning the book to his class. Banning a book should be a crime, and no one deserves to lose their job over something so little. Here's a quote from the text that intrigues some readers. “Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their legs not crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls, girls that looked like they'd be bitches if you knew them. It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean” (Salinger 72). This quote is an example of explicit sexuality expressed by the main character, Holden. This is seen as intolerable to some in the extent to calling women bitches, and basically staring at them for their attractive looks. Readers can infer within the second chapter that Holden is interested in sex. Therefore use of language, and insight of women during this time period in America people didn't expect this to be in books. The reason is attributed to its ban would be time period and diversity of certain opinions.

Books are temples to the soul mind and body. What if your religion was tested and talked about in an appropriate manner? What would you do how would you feel? This topic is though very controversial but has an effect on the structure of The Catcher and the Rye. In the book Holden says this, “I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me if you want to know the truth.”(Salinger 58). Since this quote from the text was very rude to believers of the Christian/Catholic faith many believed it should be banned because he talked about their savior. Another piece of text that goes on to why people wanted this book banned was that it had lots of frequent use of vulgar language being said by the main character Holden. The book does it a little often, one goes on to say, “Get your lousy knees off my chest,” I told him. I was almost bawling. I really was. “Go on, get off me, ya crumby bastard.” He wouldn't do it, though. He kept holding onto my wrist and I kept calling him a sonuvabitch and all, for around ten hours. I can hardly even remember what all I said to him. (Salinger 57). For many Americans in the year, 1950-1960 times were very different. The culture was calm and people young and old alike followed group norms rather than striking out on their own. So for this book to use inappropriate language like that was almost an instant ban. Especially in institutional schools. To really understand a person's ideas, and stories you sometimes need to be as truthful as possible. This book really portrays just how difficult it can be for some teens at times in life. It displays an important message for teens to be reminded with that dealing with change involved in the transition to adulthood isn't so bad. It can positively shape you for the rest of your life. The Catcher and the Rye also shouldn't be banned because we all know what swear words are. Heck most of us use them on the daily to express how we feel whether it's in a good or bad way. Language can be taken to serious at times, then in all becoming too sensitive to little things.

Finally, The Catcher and the Rye should not be banned or censored because it goes against our first amendment Constitutional right. Which states that all who are citizens have the right to free exercise, freedom of speech, and of the press. If books are able to be banned and censored our government is unlawful and unjustified for not living up to their expectations. Books are people's vessels of self-expression, taking that away from a reader can change time itself on people's perceptions. While doing a little more research I have found J.D Salinger saying this about the banning of his book, “I'm aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in The Catcher in the Rye. Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach.”(Salinger). This quote shows how he feels about the situation, and it sounds like he's broken down by his book being banned.

Book banning has been presented all throughout history and is very much alive and well all over the world today. Books are banned from two major factors. First, because people of power try to suppress minorities voices that might spark change and independence of thought. See the change in society makes tension and digressions amongst other people whose views are different. 

This leads to the reasons why books shouldn't be banned. This relates to The Catcher and the Rye because it's portraying a message that life's hard as a teenager, with that comes many problems too as the main character talks about. In the text, Holden's dialogue can be rude, and a bit offensive but if you don't like it just don't read it. Another reason books shouldn't be banned is because the government is trying to control the ideology of society. Our world is contempt of controlling others while banning books is unnecessary, and wrong to block others opinions based on your biased factors.

Works cited 

Bantam - Photo shot by Derek Jensen (Tysto), January 14, 2006

J, Anon. “BrainyQuote.” BrainyQuote, BrainyQuote, 25 Apr. 2010, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/j_d_salinger_752582.

“LibGuides: Banned Books: Reasons for Banning Books.” Butler.Edu, 2013, libguides.butler.edu/bannedbooks?p=217686.

Salinger, J.. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1951, p. 277.

“SparkNotes: The Catcher in the Rye: Key Facts.” Sparknotes.Com, 2019, www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/facts/.


“The Catcher in the Rye.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye.

Schizophrenia.....What is it?

For my STEM class called Disease here at GCE, we studied and learned about different disorders. We were introduced to a book that medical professionals use to diagnose patients called The DSM-5. This book holds key to the symptoms a person may have and what to look for to say you have it. In this term we learned about the different parts of the brain, we learned about brainwaves and also the functions of them. Over this short brief course I got to learn about a disorder that I always wanted to learn more about. This disorder is called Schizophrenia and I wanted to dive into this because it has affected my family members. I'm not sure when they were diagnosed but I know it negatively affects their lives and also others around them.Without overdoing it i’m gonna get into the presentation.

Scientific definition
Schizophrenia is a a long-term mental disorder that affects with people's thoughts, emotions, feelings, causes withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into delusions.

DSM-V main criteria/ definition
Schizophrenia is a severe and chronic mental disorder characterized by disturbances in thought, perception and behavior. Five key symptoms of Schizophrenia 1) delusions, 2) hallucinations, 3) disorganized speech, 4) disorganized or catatonic behavior, and 5) negative symptoms.(DSM-5)

1. Delusions may be a person seeing stuff that others may not see. This could be colors, figures or creatures that they can imagine also.

2. Disorganized Speech is when someone that could be in a conversation that might speak incoherently, respond to questions with unrelated answers, or shift topics frequently.

3. Negative symptoms could be wild thoughts, depression, hitting yourself, cutting yourself, thoughts of suicide, or suicide attempts.

Quote from medical professional on using prescribed drugs.

“ Drugs are not effective for all aspects of the illness. Cognitive behavioral
therapy may help with certain symptoms and supportive psychotherapy can support personal strengths and improve quality of life.”(APA) 2019

Parts of the brain affected by schizophrenia/ Brainwaves
-Frontal Lobe / Creates harder thinking ,overlapping thoughts, and harder time to process things.
-Occipital Lobe/ Affected by seeing things and have a hard time seeing whats fake and what reality.
- Hippocampus/ Puts a hold on mental learning abilities.

Brainwaves- increased spontaneous gamma activity other levels change but not as much.

Lesson plan for my class Disease class

What ?	I will give my presentation on Schizophrenia and in the background play an off putting scream. After my presentation I will show a patient with schizophrenia at a clinic, then compare some symptoms that I stated. I will go around and ask others to pretend to hear voices and talk to their neighbor. In the end I asked for any reflections or questions.	2 min 2 min 2 min
Why?	I will give this presentation to inform my classmate more on this disorder and provide interesting facts. The sounds portrayed while I was presenting reflects what goes on in a person with schizophrenia head.
How?	I did all this to effectively try my best to communicate to my peers on a broader spectrum to what this disorder actually affects. I showed this by sight and sound, also with some participation.

J.L Brain activity graph(2019)                

Piecewise function from graph

J.L (2019)

             

A common myth said about Schizophrenia is that it's the same as split personality disorder. Split personality disorder is two or more distinct personality states that occur in one person.

J.L (2019)

Works Cited
American, and American. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth / Fifth Edition :

J.LPresentation on Schizophrenia.” YouTube, 13 Mar. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGXtgpfm-Js.

Kane, John M., and Christoph U. Correll. “Pharmacologic Treatment of Schizophrenia.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, vol. 12, no. 3, Les Laboratoires Servier, 2010, pp. 345–57, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3085113/.

“NIMH » Schizophrenia.” Nih.Gov, 7 Mar. 2019, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml.

PrimaryCare Version (DSM-IV-PC). American Psychiatric Association, 1995.

‌“Schizophrenia - Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic,  , 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354443.

WebMD. “Schizophrenia Treatment:Types of Therapies and Medication.” WebMD, WebMD, 31 Aug. 2016, www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-therapy#1.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Schizophrenia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia.

Socratic Seminar- Who is the goat?

Over the last 3 weeks in my Humanities class called Forbidden Books, we have been studying about
Socrates and his struggles. Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher that is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, He basically went against societies norms and questioned everything. He questioned their Gods, leaders, and also who is actually smart. Basically in this Action Project we were given a option to pick any topic to create a Socratic seminar about. We had to give facts, important details, and make sure in the end someones opinion changed. My group decided to make one based on who is the Greatest of all time NBA player. Anyway heres our video enjoy.

From this project I have learned how to communicate effectively with my classmates and create a conversation while providing evidence to back up what I say. I have learned to question the unquestionable and question the things that people wouldn't dare to. Its OK to be different and think different, all things sometimes are meant to be changed.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

In my STEAM Disease course, we focused on different diseases that are in our world today. Also we have looked at pass viruses, and illnesses. We were told to interview a family member or friend that had been diagnosed with a disease. We were able to pick our disease so I choose Rheumatoid Arthritis. I choose this because my grandmother has it, and it affects her in the worst ways. By learning more about the disease I can maybe help, and ease the pain.Now let me introduce my patient

My patients name is Tina, she is an older age woman that lives in Chicago, Illinois. Tina first started having symptoms at the age of 30 years old and began to have pain in her lower back and knees. At first her life was very physical. She would run, jump, go to parties and love dancing. But now because of the pain she can't as much as she use to. The disease that I'm studying is Rheumatoid arthritis. This disease appears in a unpredictable pattern in certain joints and can happen at random. Also excessive exercise can cause intense pain on the joints. Tina was a childcare taker for more than 35 years. So playing with children while always moving may have caused the start of this disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that affects many parts of the body. It starts from an improper immune system that isn't properly working. It causes the joint linings to swell, which causes pain and stiffness in the joints. Effects of this is that you get tired more quickly than you used to, and began to have restless sleep. Rheumatoid arthritis most often starts in the small joints of the hands and feet. Also it causes major swelling. This disease is common, more than 200,000 are affected each year.

Now for Tina's case she has trouble standing and walking. Its very painful at times, and sometimes she uses a cane to walk. Some treatments Tina has sought out is taking medicines that reduce her pain levels. She has had Chiropractic adjustments, and has done light exercises. While interviewing Tina she said "the most effective in taking the pain away was the heavy medicines. " When I asked how come? She simply responded " I was drugged up the pain felt neutral and disappears. When hearing this I was kinda confused. How come chiropractic adjustments didn't help? While doing research I have also discovered that cannabis has potential in treating chronic pain and other symptoms. It lowers stress levels and relieves tension. Here our some key terms- of Arthritis/ Arthralgia, Inflammation, Arthropathy.

Now lets find out about the anatomy and physiology of this disease.
The main body system affected by this disease is the nervous system and Circulatory system. The nervous system is a system in our body that acts as a control center for actions in our body. While having Rheumatoid Arthritis some motor skills can deplete in efficiency causing problems from person to person. The Cardio-vascular system is affected by tension in the joints of the body and from muscles. The blood flow in your body becomes unbalanced, while your heart has to work even harder to keep you going.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic inflammatory disease mainly characterized by joint destruction. Although the impact of genetic factors is relative, the genetic basis is not sufficient to explain the triggering of the immune problems.

Etiology and risk factors of this disease?

Three factors: a relatively mild deficiency of cortisol, a deficiency of dehydro-epi-androsterone and infection by organisms such as mycoplasma. Doctors still don't know the actual cause. Risk factors of having this disease includes Obesity, increased risk of developing heart disease such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Epidemiology of the disease?

The exact cause of RA is unknown. The leading hypothesis is that RA is the result of an environmental exposure or trigger in a genetically susceptible individual. Some environmental factors related to women are at a higher risk than males.

Labeled picture of affected areas of the body

J.L(2019) Anatomy of Female

Cited Works
“Dr. Christopher L. Starks M.D., Urologist in Cleveland, OH, 44195.” FindATopDoc, www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/1422962-Christopher-Starks-urologist-New-Haven-CT-06510.




Fleischmann, Roy, et al. “Sarilumab and Nonbiologic Disease‐Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in Patients With Active Rheumatoid Arthritis and Inadequate Response or Intolerance to Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors.” The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Wiley-Blackwell, 28 Jan. 2017, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/art.39944.


“Rheumatoid Arthritis.” Rheumatology.org, www.rheumatology.org/I-Am-A/Patient-Caregiver/Diseases-Conditions/Rheumatoid-Arthritis.


“Rheumatoid Arthritis: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, and More.” Healthline, Healthline Media, www.healthline.com/health/rheumatoid-arthritis.