Monday, December 10, 2018

Skyping with Max

Hi Everyone!!
I am so sorry I haven't posted anything before now. We are getting ready for final exams here. I can't begin to tell you how amazing it was to Skype with all of you! My students enjoyed it so much. And Max... he is still talking about it. :) It meant so much to him for all of you to go to the effort to come back to school to talk with him.

To wrap up our project this semester, my students answered the following questions. Ms. Ciupe and I would also like for you to answer them. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

1. Are there "wrongs" or injustices associated with where you live, or in your state or country as a whole? Include past and present.

2. Can we ever undo or fix the wrongs of the past? Explain your thoughts.

3. Is there a point in continuing to study things like the Civil Rights Movement or the Holocaust? Explain your thoughts.

4. What parallels or lessons can we take from these time periods and apply to today?

5. What is your vision for the kind of world in which you would like to live?

6. What responsibility do you have for bringing about that kind of world?

13 comments:

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  2. 1. Sadly, In my country there are lots of wrongs, at least in what concerns our political system things are not as they should be but there always are and there always were such problems in every country. The bad thing is that I think nothing is going to change any time soon.
    2. What is done is done and we can’t change our decisions but I think that when we make one or we choose between some things we don’t know what is going to come from the choices we make but we can always try to make the result of our choices better and we should not regret it even if it is not what we wanted.
    3. There is always a point in studying history and learning about the most important moments that have marked our living since then. And we should know what happened in the past and we must not let those things happen again.

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  3. First of all hi, my name is Catalin and I'll try my best to give my opinion on the following questions.
    1. I think every institution have it's own injustice or "wrongs" because every person is in the end a human and humans have their interests: to earn more, to admit their kids in the best schools and so on. It's pointless to point someone with the finger because in the end everyone can be just a little bit "wrong".
    2. We can not in the real meaning of changing the past but what we can do is helping the ones that suffer from that event rebuilding what there is to rebuild, "cleaning the mess" in a simpler form.
    3. Yes there is. Studying that kind of behavior and action help you understand: why is not ok to be racist-because someone racist burned milions of jews during the world war II, Why blacks should have equal rights-because in rhe mid 1950s some people decided that is not ok to make separate areas for black people because they are humans and not animals and they are civilized people like the whites are.
    4. Parallels I say you americans can make every single day when you see a black familly that needs help with the car and you're not in hurry don't be racist and just pass away and other and other situation. At us, the Romanians is a bit tricky because of the nature of our 'black people'.

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  5. 2. Probably, when we take a decision we think this is the right decision but sometimes we are wrong. We can never repair entirely a mistake because every wound leaves a trace but we have to do our best to cover up the scars. Also we have to learn from the mistakes and we must not repeat them.

    3.I think there are many reasons why we should study things that have influenced our humanity. One of the reasons is that we have to know what happened in the past and not do the same. Another reason is that these things should motivate us to change our world in a better place.

    5.In my opinion, the perfect world exist just în my mind and we can't ever make it real but we can try to aproach it. The kind of world in which I would like to live is a world where it doesn't  metter how you look or how many money you or your parents have. It must be a world where every person is treated right.

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  6. 1.In Romania, we have a lot of problems and 'wrongs', all because people want more than what they work for.The people that lead us don't want what's best for their country, they want what's best for them.When new generations will be able to take the power, maybe things like our education system, economy or even the wrong way we think about some topics will get better.
    2.Time never comes back and what decisions you take will follow you forever.We can't change the past but we can learn from it, make things easier for peolpe affected and make sure everybody understand what was wrong and never do the same
    3.We need to study these topics because we're not allowed to forget what humanity is capable of when we're lead by the wrong ones.If we stop and forget our past, these things will happen again and again
    4.We did lots of stupid things because of racism and that's the first lesson we should apply today.Even tho it's not that common now, racism is still a problem in our society.
    5.My perfect world is a place where i'm not afraid to share my creativity and opinions because i know people will say bad things about everything i say or do.A place where it doesn't matter if my skin color is darker than yours, if i believe in God or i don't believe in anything at all or if i work as a lawer or as a janitor, people will respect me regardless of these facts.
    6.A worls like that will never exist but if we want ours to start changing in that direction we have to try to become better persons. Stop suspecting someone because of the way they look, stop hating someone because who they like and start spreading love everytime and everywhere you are able to.

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  7. 1. Well there are specific wrongs associated with every country. Here, in Romania, our leaders are very corrupt and steal a lot from the people, they do what is convenient for them and don't care about the rest of the people and this has been a huge problem for a long time.
    2. What happened in the past remains in the past and it's impossible to change that, but what we could change is the future and shape it in a way that the past won't repeat itself.
    3. Yes, it's very important to study about these topics, we need to acknowledge the events from the past and learn to evolve and make a better fututre for us and for the others.
    4. Hate created lots of conflicts and even wars. People need to learn to stop discriminating and hating each other and instead love and respect each other equally because everyone is different in their own way and we shouldn't judge people for who they are.
    5. I would like to live in a world where people accept and love each other and where I don't have to be afraid of being myself just so other people won't judge me.
    6. I think we all know that world is impossible to create but we can make this world better by spreading love and positivity.

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  9. It's normal that there are "wrongs" or injustices in each country, because we are people who have different thoughts and different opinions about certain things. Romania, for sure, is a country where there are mistakes, such as politics. And about injustice, we can say that our country is judged to be a country where some people steal or behave bad. But people should not be guided by this in terms of forming an opinion about a country. Every country has good and bad things, but bad things come out more easily, a country should be judged by economy, history, culture , places .
    2. As I said, we are making "wrongs". I think these "wrongs" can be fixed, but it depends on the problem and the situation. It's a good idea to figure out the "wrongs" shortly after you've done it, because that's how you can fix it better. I think any mistake can be remedied as little, however serious as it may be. And with the attempt to fix it comes the learning of those "wrongs".
    3. We definitely should study and discuss these topics. They are related to a past, so it would be even more important to discuss them because we have to learn from the past. The Civil Rights Movement and Holocaust are topics that anyone should know about, because of these events, even if some have been worse, we have this world.
    4.All of us have an advantage for future because we see in the past the mistakes that have been made and also the consequences that have happened.To judge a person by the color or the preferences they have, things like these should stop.
    5.The perfect place for me is where people are free to say their opinions, I don't say that this is not happening in my country, but even if their color differs or how they dress ,they should be taken seriously. The physically look shouldn't matter so much.
    6.To make a better world, I think we all need to be more rational, to try to be better not just to look at bad things. We as young people , we can make a change.

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  10. 1. In my country, we have a best of problems and wrongs all these because the people don't want what's best for country, they want what's but for them.
    2. We can't change the past but can learn from it, make tkings easier for people affected and make sure everbody understand what was wrong and never do the same.
    3. One reason is that we have to know, what happened in the past and don't the same. Another is that these things sould motivate us to change our world in a better place.
    4. We did stupid things because of racism and that's first lesson we should apply today. Racism is still a problem in our society.

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  11. 1. Of course. I am sure that there are certain problems in every city from evecy country, all of which are mostly caused by people who do wrong things with the excuse that "he/she does the same." This mentality should be changed and, with it, the country's problems would reduced considerably.
    2. We obviously can`t change the past but we can learn from our mistake to avoid them in the future.
    5. My vision for the "great" world would be a world where everybody would have as principle a proverb which, in my language is "Ce ție nu-ți place, altuia nu-i face" meaning what you don`t like, don't do that to another person.

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  12. 1.Yes, there are and I think there will always be. Our country was a victim of communism for a few decades. People didn't have the right to freely express themselves and their entire lifes were controlled by the country leaders: there was a certain amount of food which they could get, people weren't allowed to go abroad (there were only some lucky people who managed to leave the country) and they could watch TV only for a few hours. Nowadays, even if Romania became a democratic state, it is dealing with politicians who don't think about our country necessities, they only think about earning more and more money. However, i want to believe that there is a hope for us because we are not the same and better generations will come.
    5. I would like to live in a world without hatred and selfishness. A world where people help each other, love is more important than skin color or social statute, kids are teached how to be good and kind,people care about the others and everyone is allowed to act how they feel, to dress how they want and to say everything that passes through their minds without being judged.
    6. As I said, even though everyone thinks a world like that will never exist, I want to believe that there is hope. I think we should stop being selfish and spiteful with each other. We should try to see the good in people, not to judge them for every little thing. We also have to tell people when they are wrong and to help them,instead of laughing at them or scolding them. "SPREAD LOVE,NOT HATE!"
    3. Yes,there is. I think it is our responsability to know about the past, so we can stop doing the same mistakes like other people did. This could help us understand that we are all the same and why we should be good to each other, to not let horrific things happen to humans.

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  13. Hi! I'm Rafael Ciceu and i will answer you a few questions:

    2. We can always fix the wrongs of the past because if these mistakes can't be canceled it means there is no evolution. Everything can be changed for the better.

    3. I think continuing to study things like the Civil Rights Movement or the Holocaust is a good idea because this i the way we will lern from our mistakes. Togheter we remember!

    4. The most important lesson we shouldall learn today is LOVE. This can save everything.

    5. The kind of the world in which i woud like to live is a world where people are helping each other, where there's no hate, greed or racism, and where everyone is trying to do the best.

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