Socratic Seminar

Yesterday's Socratic Seminar was pretty cool and interesting. I like how a s a class we got to discuss how the "Left Hand Of Darkness" as one whole big class. This was a good activity that got many people talking and asking questions abut this book. Even though I did not participate I know what to expect if we do another one of these. Yes I do regret not speaking yesterday. I should said a little something, but I did not. I also liked how as class we were asking very good questions about the book. This type of an activity you have to participate and announce your feelings about whatever the topic we are talking about as a class. For the next semester I hope we do another one these kind's of activities. I really did enjoy this and the other flip side is that I got a better understanding of the book. I know if we do another Socratic Seminar as a class I will have to participate and just ask questions about whatever it is we are talking about as a class. All and all fun day yesterday in fourth period.

Hello period 4!

I am feeling quite confused with the book we are reading in class. I feel a bit stressed knowing we have a quiz tomorrow on the chapters we have read. I just wanted to know if anybody is feeling the same way. If so, give me your input and hopefully we can clear things up for each other! :)

BREAK

Hello everybody! I hope you have had a wonderful, relaxing break. It is almost time for us to return back to school. I know we love being on break, and don't want to return, but I believe we need to conquer the rest of this semester! We are almost there. We are stepping closer and closer to graduating. The faster we return to school, the faster we will be out! It is a scary thing to think about, but I know we are all capable of finishing this next semester with enthusiasm and energy. Cant wait to see all of you! Have a good weekend :)

Another Change of Heart About Animals Post

First of all, I totally agree with Jeremy Rifkin on how animals should be treated with the respect and care they deserve. People should extend more “empathy” to animals because they do have feelings and emotions, and are very similar to humans; more than we ever imagined. Rifkin proved that animals are intelligent by talking about the crow bending the straight wire to retrieve food and Koko, the gorilla, learning sign language. Both stories are quite fascinating by learning how smart animals are and we do not even recognize it. Also animals can have feelings and show emotion such as depression. Rifkin talks about how elephants stand next to their dead kin for days and display a mourning period. This heartwarming story showed how animals are alike to humans by having feelings. The articles we read in our packet in class all had topics supporting animal rights but there was none with a counter-argument. The only thing close to this was the letter to the editor which was simple and cheap. Although I believe in animal rights, I am afraid that too many of other classmates may have a different view but do not have any supporting backup; therefore they just choose the side everyone else joins.

The Value of Life

In her thread "Animal Rights," Kaitlyn mentioned that animals should be given rights "so... their lives [are not] wasted" during experimentation. I found this very interesting because it reminded me of our previous unit of the value of life. Though we merely focused on the monetary value of a human life depending on money needed to support a lost loved one’s family, I feel that we should think the same with animals. Of course we wouldn’t give them money (What good would that do?), but in its place something much more valuable for animals to allow them protection and comfort from painful and harmful experimentation: rights! So many animals are suffering from abuse, mistreatment, neglect, and other terrible treatments, so I thought that it would be nice to give them a helping paw. What do you think about granting animals rights, and if so, to what extent- un-human personhood, or simply enough to prevent animals living in harsh conditions under the hands of oppressing mankind?

Undecided

I am sure many of us check the undecided box when talking about animal rights.  We are conscious that animals feel pain, but scientist convince us that animal research is for the better.  I speak for all of us who are indecisive when I say, that I am in the middle.  I do not think that animals deserve the same rights we, the superior beings, have.  As I read through the articles, I noticed that all of them were biased towards the need for animals rights.  A Change of Heart added how the Swiss believe that their should be some plant rights...now, in my opinion, I think they have gone too far at that point.  If animals do not obtain the same intellectual thinking we possess, what makes them think plants do?  My point is that many believe that animals feel the pain and emotions we can, which is why they think that they deserve equal rights, but they will never get to our level.  We have become very advanced in technology and our knowledge has expanded to great lengths.  Animals, not even dogs or monkeys, will always be below us and that may sound harsh, but it is true.  All in all, I believe that animals should not be abused for any type of enjoyment, but if animal research will truly help, I give my full support.

A change of heart about animals

After reading and annotating the article 'A change of Heart about Animals'  by Jeremy Rifkin it has me thinking more about how animals really do have feelings like us humans and how they are more like us than we thought.  In this article Rifkin talked about how two crows strategized a way to get food with just a hook and a straight wire from inside a tube, I don't know about you guys but I was pretty amazed that two crows could figure that out on their own. I was also amazed by the gorilla he talked about that was taught sign language and mastered it and also scored between 70 and 95 on a human IQ test. I have tried to learn a little bit of sign language myself and it's  hard, so for a gorilla to know over a 1,000 signs is crazy to me. By reading this article I've learned a lot of new things about animals that I didn't know before, they are really capable of doing most of the things that we do they just may take a little longer learning how to do them.