This past year I have learned a lot. Meeting new people making new friends, and leaving bad habits behind. I have matured and made better, positive choices throughout this whole year. I know that everyone I meet in these four years of high school won't be always in my life, but I will always make the time I have with them the best time. I don't think I can think of specific things I will take with me from grade eleven or this English class, but I will remember the things I learned from experience and the responsibility. People are motivated from what they have learned, and what I have learned this year socially and through education certainly has motivated me. I have a pretty good feeling that next year will go by quickly, and I am not sure if I want it to. I don't mind school, I like learning but in an exciting, expressing way I guess. I plan on making this summer the best, hopefully working a little, traveling, camping, possibly getting a new hobbie? I’ll just have to see what life has planned for me :D

"We had been taught not just brutal endings but also far more instructive beginnings" -article

I agree that we do learn more about what we could do for this to happen again and not learning how to prevent it as much. The Holocaust is something that horrifies teenagers while learning about it, but I never stop to think "what if this was to happen again? What if were to happen to my own people?" If I think back about lessons I’ve had or what we've learned in class so far, I basically remember learning how the Holocaust begun rather than ended.


"We need peace experts instead of military experts talking about Iraq on FOX TV. We need mediators instead of just lawyers on Court TV. We need movies, and heroes, and moving stories that win Academy Awards, and models for our children that lead them to the contentment of cooperation and fairness" -article

Violence will never solve anything; it will never make peace between countries, peace between races or between people. All we need is simple acts of kindness to keep the world in shape and no idiomatic leaders. I think women would make better, inspiring leaders.

Human society cannot be satisfied without justice. There will always have to be someone to blame for the mistakes people will make, even if they don't deserve the punishment. I'm not saying that someone shouldn't be punished for a crime, just for the right crime.

I think everyone thinks’ about world hunger, poverty, global warming/pollution, nature and animal conservation, natural disasters and so many other issues we have in the world. The problem is, not enough of us put enough effort to do something as little as a fundraiser, or as big as building homes and school for unhealthy countries. It's in our nature to feel anguish and shame while were putting greed and money before our own species.

Wow, i could go on forever, but i know i'll drift off topic.

I honestly do not think it is nessasary to have facebook in the classroom, it is very distracting because of all the drama. It'd better to create a webpage, for students to connect inside a classroom, if it's even nessasary. Personnally, we shouldn't be telling students to connect through a internet base, students should be learning to SPEAK UP and exspress their opinons through their own mouths. I think it's a more effective opinon with the exspression of a voice and tone.

I find it interesting at Martin is doing this just to "awe" the world - "Martin believes the globe is still big enough to awe — if someone were to conquer it all." Just to prove a point that the world isn't getting as small as we think. Instead he could be doing this for a cause or to raise money and awarness for a disease.
I'm curious to why the author wrote the article in point forms alomost, and quotes. It's almost all just what Dan Martin had to say, what his opinons were and what he needed to do to accomplish this goal.