freedoms questions

I know that we have many important freedoms in the United States, and I am grateful for it, but what happens when two laws clash. For example, the case with christian scientists who refused to give their 2 year-old son medical attention. They prayed for their son instead. But the son died. So it was freedom of religion vs. manslaughter. Who judges which is more important? Is it just the judge at that time, or were there seperate rules already stated about two laws clashing. Have those been overturned? I guess it really dependes on which laws clash.

Another question I have is how do laws or court rulings get overturned? Do they have another court case? Or do they just bring it up to the government? Then how does the government judge the new information? It makes more sense to have a court case.

After research, I found there is a new court case to overturn laws. There are lots of cases that get overturned. Like the christian scientists case. It got overturned to the freedom of religion side a few years later after the case happened. But I was not able to find out how they judge laws clashing together hough.

Sources:http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_a_US_Federal_law_get_overturned

Grading

I think grades are very important in school. The purpose of grades and testing is to assess you on a certain topic. Then when the teacher grades it, you will get a letter grade to show where you stand and how much understanding you show towards the current topic. This current system is based off a 100 point scale and it's usually 90 - 100 is an A. 80-89 is a B, and so on. Or somewhere close to that.I think the current system quite accurately shows students learning and understanding. It gives an exact percentage which categorizes you into a letter grade. This letter grade shows how good you're doing or exactly how much you need to improve.

Standards-based grading is very different. In this it gives the student a very general idea of where they are. This helps teachers reduce the amount of paperwork they have to do according to this site. Which allows them to have more time to think out the next days lesson plan or anything else equally important. However, it does not give the student an exact standing. In short, the grading is very broad.

I favor the traditional grading system more because it will tell me exactly how much I need to improve. Where as, the standards will only tell me if i'm proficient, not proficient, or advanced proficient. Now most people would say what's wrong with only knowing that. However, as a gifted student, I want to know exactly how much I know where I need improvement. An advanced proficient  could be anywhere from an 80-100 or maybe 85- 100. Most people are okay with B's but not everyone. I myself think of getting B's as bad.  So the standards won't be as explanatory. The traditional system is much better than the standard system.

Creativity Crisis

The Ted Talk and article really made me rethink creativity. I never thought about how much schools are killing creativity. I was really interested in the point Ken Robinson said about the dancer. It proves how creativity can help you in life. She became a professional dancer when someone told her she had to move to learn. But someone else who doesn't appreciate creativity would just tell her to calm down. It shows teachers who believe in direct directions and no originality will not help all students. It's better to teach with creativity somehow involved with their teaching style. I have experienced lack of creativity in certain classes. Teachers state you have to do something a certain way. Even math can have different solutions to problems. Instead of thinking one way you can think of many different solutions. Ken Robinson said schools are destroying creativity and I agree. The creativity crisis article states that you can learn creativity as long as you practice, like basketball. Which teachers need to start to do.

This creativity crisis will affect the future a lot. Even now, world wide problems can be solved only with creative solutions. Like making peace in Afghanistan.  So in the future when new problems occur, we should have new ideas and solutions. This is very important and we have to continue the creativity that came from us when we were kindergartners. According to the article, creative students with teachers who are tolerant of too much curiosity and wrong answers tend to excel. When they don't they tend to drop out of high school. This shows how much we need teachers including creativity. Once we do that, creativity will no longer suffer.

I learned a lot about my learning style using the Gregorc learning style test. However, I didn't fall into an exact category. I was spread out with 17 CR and 11 AR and 16 CS and 16 AS. This basically means I'm Mostly the 3 category's. In Gardner's test i scored a 4 for linguistic, 4 for Logical and Mathematical, 2 for musical, and 2 again for spatial and bodily kinesthetic and Intra-personal, and a 0 for inter-personal. I look up to my dad and i think his learning style is logical-mathematical because he is very good in math. I look up to my mom as well and i think she is spatial because she likes art and visualizing. I admire my eldest cousin and think his learning style is also logical-mathematical because he is very good in math and likes to question and calculate.
Sai V. is logical and mathematical and his post was good because it shows how much you can surprise yourself doing these tests. Ross is also the same and I liked his post because it's very explaining.
This new knowledge of my self helps me because I know what i'm best at and i could learn easier using the learning style that's best for me.

Being Gifted

      Most people think to be gifted you have to be perfect. But there are ups and down to being gifted. There are many myths as well. Of course this means there are many truths as well. This post is going to explain the ups, downs, truths, and myths of being gifted.
      Being gifted has many ups. Most of the time, you are smarter than other people in certain subjects. Or in other words, gifted and talented kids are better than most people in certain things. If you're in a gifted and talented program, you have more confidence because you know you are special, or gifted, in some way. Because of these things gifted kids will most likely get a good job that brings in a lot of money in the areas they are strongest in. Plus, if your gifted you'll have special opportunities and in life they are better problem solvers and of course, ROGATE is boss (ROGATE is really awesome and fun).
      Unfortunately,  being gifted has many downs as well. Most gifted kids have asynchronous development (don't know what it means? click here) and more expectations. Some kids get bored in school and even adults over estimate gifted kids. Worst of all, they can feel out of place and dumbs themselves down. That's the worst crime possible.
      There are many truths and myths about being gifted as well. Most people think of gifted people as perfect, or great in everything. This is false as you can tell from the down sides of being gifted in the previous paragraph. It's also a myth for gifted kids getting A's all the time. These are not true and the myths are very wrong. All kids have weaknesses and strengths.  In addition, some truths are that we have strengths and weaknesses and are smarter than most people in certain things.
      I have had quite a few experiences myself from being gifted. Once I got a C in 6th grade in Social Studies. What happened? I simply didn't understand as well as other kids for that certain investigation. On the paper my teacher said that she expected more from me and she thought I wasn't trying hard enough. I can assure you I was trying pretty hard in the amount of time I studied for the test. She thought I should only get good grades because I am a gifted student. But that's a myth. I also had lots of ups to being gifted. Due to the fact that I am gifted and i try hard in class my teachers tend to like me. Which creates a small chain reaction because they tell my parents and they trust me more in school-related things because I really care. They aren't as much behind my back when my teacher's say good things about me. This is a great up of being gifted.
     Ultimately, don't believe everything about perfectness of being gifted.
     

intro

my name is Sai Nayan and im in 8th grade. My favorite subjects are Math and Science. My favorite topics are Math and Science again. I like to hang out with my friends in my free time. I am not sure yet, but i might want to be a doctor when i grow up. Having fun makes me happy.