Ravit's Blog

“Education officials: Foreign language studies prove benefits for children in early years”, published by The Exponent Telegram is an article issued on September 10, 2017, by Kailee Gallahan. This article demonstrates the numerous benefits of learning a foreign language early on and brings to our knowledge the status quo of foreign language studies, and how it should be changed. Studies have shown that there are several benefits to learning a foreign language early on in school. First off, knowledge of a second language allows us to use other parts of our brain that would be unused otherwise. As a result, we are able to perform better in other subjects as well, including math and music, according to Dr. William Brustein. Debbie Nicholson says “Research shows that students studying a foreign language over an extended period of time have performed better on standardized tests than other students.” Furthermore, there have been studies performed showing that bilingual individuals make a...

“Milton Program Gives Students Experience in Early Childhood Education,” published by The Daily Item , is an article issued on October 29, 2017, by Rick Dandes. This article describes a high school that provides an early practical experience of working with kids to students seeking to work with children later on in their life. Milton High School is a small high school of 24 students, who train to work with handling kids in the school environment. This structure is intended to impart experience to students seeking to work with kids in future, providing them with practical experience early on. Aside from regular academics, these apprentices volunteer in several local learning centers, working with kids, such as an on-site pre-k, as well as Milton YMCA, Lewisburg Children Center, Robin Wood Daycare, Montandon and White Deer Elementary schools. They also gain great exposure to community service by helping out local children in the community. They are able to bring people together by pla...

The following information is intended to help anyone structure a rhetorical analysis. This was written with targeting the prompt from the AP English Language Exam course but will work with most other types of rhetorical analysis. In the rhetorical analysis prompt for the AP English Language and Composition, you will be given a work to analyze along with the prompt. First, you will need to read the work in order to get a sense of the author's rhetoric. While reading the work, keep an eye out for rhetorical techniques you notice that you could mention while writing your essay. Writing a rhetorical analysis entails examining the choices the author of a work makes in terms of rhetoric. When you are writing this kind of essay, keep in mind that your goal is to demonstrate the style of the author, not what they wrote (although this information may serve as evidence in proving your point). Your essay should be divided into three sections: introduction, body paragraphs, and conc...

Language was invented by humans as a method of communication. It served an important purpose a few thousand years ago when one person needed to tell something to another, such a warning or an indication that they found food. Over time, separate languages evolved in many regions of the world, dividing people into different groups. Some groups began taking advantage of others, imposing cruel and unjust treatment and control over each other in the form of dictatorships and tyrannies. Slaves, often speaking a foreign language and carrying a distinct culture, were used as a source of labor. The differences in the languages of various groups facilitate oppression, as people are unable to communicate their ideas to others, causing them to be viewed as different and providing the other group with an opportunity to promote their superiority, as well as defend themselves in their own vernacular. A common language can lead to oppression, as it brings a group closer, while at the same time limi...

I cannot say with certainty the culture from which I originate. Two sides of my life have constantly been molding my character, my family, and my social life. I have been taught essential morals, values, and principles from my family, while my education has taken care of expanding my knowledge. Although I will definitely not be able to recall each and every detail of the past, I will carry the important information away with me for life. One’s past affects the present, and the present affects the future. Several experiences, achievements, and failures have made me who I am, and, I hope to apply those in life to achieve my dreams. In my life, I have found no one specific life-changing inspirational character. Instead, all my friends, family, and teachers have collectively molded me into who I am today, little by little. My father is a prominent figure in instilling lifelong traits into my personality, such as perseverance, as well as self-reliance. My optimistic mother is always the...

We decided to break the social norm by confronting our schoolmates and friends with an awkward greeting. We decided to walk up to the targets of the experiment, bend down, and take hold of or touch their feet without explanation of why we were doing so. The three of us were excited to perform the experiment, and divided the labor as the following. One group member would hold the camera and record the actions of the other group member, who would greet the subject as described earlier. After the experiment was complete, the subject would be debriefed regarding what had just occurred and asked whether he/she would allow us to present the video. Our group was excited to begin recording the reactions of the people. Since Lunch (5th Period) was the most convenient for us to record the experiment, all of us agreed to record the videos around that time in the Cafeteria and in the hallway. Before performing the experiment, we hypothesized that the subjects of our experiment would react with mi...

Genetic Engineering Position Paper Genetic engineering is the process of modifying an organism’s characteristics by altering the genetic material within its cells, DNA. DNA contains the genes of an organism, which determine the traits of that being. Genetic engineering takes place when genes from one organism are extracted and inserted into the DNA of another organism. The cell holding the DNA treats the foreign genetic material just as if it were its own, and creates the protein associated with the gene, therefore expressing the genes of another organism. Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen were the first to use genetic engineering, when they transferred the DNA of a toad into a bacteria’s DNA. Ever since then, genetic engineering has been applied in different organisms, such as animals and plants. Personally, I think that genetic engineering is useful and can solve many of our problems, but some still argue that it shouldn’t be applied to use because we aren’t ready to put it to use. ...

Recently, I attended a concert of the South Bay Guitar Society in which Rene Izquierdo performed. My review of the concert is as follows. Summary: On Saturday, I attended Rene Izquierdo’s guitar concert. Izquierdo presented several songs, about half of which were Spanish. These songs came from a variety of time periods and composers, including J. S. Bach. The performance was solely instrumental, and was not accompanied by any voice or other instrument. The duration of the concert including the intermission was about two hours. Performers: The concert had only one main singer, although there was a fifteen minute prelude by sixteen year old Francesca Boerio. Izquierdo stood out to me because of his relaxation while presenting all the songs. He did not seem to be scared of holding a conversation with the audience, and rather than being self conscious, he enjoyed playing the music. In addition, he made jokes between the songs. Izquierdo was not even afraid to present Cuban folk song...

The following is a bill I created for Mock Congress -------------------------------------------------------------- This Bill has been drafted by Ravit Sharma, who was assigned the role of Marco Rubio to present to the Foreign Relations Committee. AN ACT TO: ESTABLISH A MILITARY BASE AND HOUSE TROOPS IN CHINA AND TO ENSURE THAT IT IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION OR STORAGE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Section 1. Definitions “Military Base” shall be defined as the facilities required to maintain a minimum of 70,000 troops. “Investigator” shall be defined as the official in charge of sitting in the helicopter during an investigation and recording any suspicious areas that could hold weapons of mass destruction. “Examination” shall be defined as the act of exploring areas found to be suspicious and destroying any weapons found to be capable of mass destruction. “Mass Destruction” shall be defined as the death of greater than five-hundredths (0.05) percent of the total population ...

“On Laziness” Analysis “On Laziness” is an essay written by Christopher Morley during the 1920s. This essay uses sufficient evidence to embody the thesis that indolence has contributed to man as a whole. He argues that laziness is not always unfavorable in the sense that it can benefit mankind by preventing undesirable events from occurring, such as World War II. In other words, the author’s purpose is to prove that laziness is beneficial, as opposed to the general consensus that it is not. Through this essay, Morley is generalizing the readers of this work of literature to anyone who is interested in the topic. Morley’s argument is that laziness is not necessarily detrimental and that it does have benefits. He uses sufficient evidence and examples to support this thesis. Although is language and diction is colloquial and somewhat comical, there are many examples of academic vocabulary, as well as satire throughout the essay. For example, he uses the word “tribulation” and “lang...

Iron Fertilization and Climate Change Iron Fertilization is the process of adding iron to bodies of water such as oceans in order to increase the number of photosynthetic organisms in the ocean, primarily plankton. Plankton depend greatly not only on energy from the sun but also on iron and other nutrients from their environment. Hence, the iron deposited in the ocean results in an increase in these organisms. The increase of these autotrophs then directly affects the air through photosynthesis, lowering the levels of carbon dioxide in the air, and increasing the amounts of oxygen. Since carbon dioxide is one of the gases that contributes to the greenhouse effect, the lower levels of CO 2 would reduce global warming. Although iron fertilization is a potential solution for stopping global warming, there are other effects of iron fertilization that play a role in affecting our environment. For this reason, I am undecided on the issue of whether iron fertilization should be used to a...

Incorporation of Elizabethan Classes into The Tempest William Shakespeare, the author of countless plays and sonnets, was born and raised in Elizabethan England. At the time a class system, which refers to the arrangement of people into categories based on rank, was prevalent. The classes in Elizabethan England ranged from the monarch, who was of the highest rank, to the laborers, who were little-respected workers. The environment in which Shakespeare was raised affected the structure and content of his plays. In The Tempest , the characters are situated by Shakespeare into a hierarchy representative of the social order in the Elizabethan Era. Around the time that The Tempest was published, residents of England were grouped into six distinct classes. These classes comprised of the monarch, nobility, gentry, merchants, yeomanry, and laborers. The monarch, being the ruler of the nation, is on top of the hierarchy; the ruler in the play is evidently King Alonso. Following the monarc...