Rebuttal: Child Actor Role Models

Rebuttal to Kimchi's opening statement:
Child actors should be seen as role models to both people their age and to the younger audiences that look up to them.  People change, over time, but as actors, it is part of their job to play good role models to all of their audiences.  You can't just tell a child that someone they admire cannot be a role model, because they won't listen to you, if they admire someone, unless they find out something they dislike about them, they will continue to look up to them as role models.  If a child actor takes some inappropriate action, children are likely to do something similar, or consider what they are doing as fine, and may do something similar when they grow older.  If someone their age likes them a lot, then they might do the same to increase their self esteem, or to make themselves feel cooler.

Miley Cyrus's behavior and style drastically changed for a while, but for a while, it seems, she has gone back to the innocent(ish) Miley Cyrus that we all first knew.  True, there are many things out there that spark controversy about her, but since she is an actor, she should be considered a role model to all her audiences, and be required to watch her actions, to make sure that the actions she takes are proper and make her a good role model.  When people see the pictures Miley Cyrus with Avan Jogia on her birthday, she created a poor role model to her audiences, and gave them the message that it is perfectly fine to hook up with someone on a birthday, wearing a skimpy outfit at a club, and getting "hot and heavy."

What exactly is wrong with an actor playing a role that is younger than their actual age?  When people watch the show, they don't always compare how well the actor is playing the role in relation to how old they actually are.  People watch it to see how convincing their acting is, and for the drama and story line in the movie or TV show.

When child actors are role models to their audience, their audiences are younger, and have much more energy to make a change if they want to.  Disney channel had all their major stars of their shows and movies participate in Friends for Change (info here).  Friends for Change has done a lot to help the planet with the help of their fans, who view them as role models.  Because they are role models, and people follow their actions, when they see actors tell them to do something, like take a particular action to help make a change for the better health of the planet, they are more likely to do it, and it makes it possible for "hundreds of Disney VoluntEARS [to] Team Up to Scour the shorelines and Clean Up" county beaches.

Child actors should be role models to all audiences, because if they are good role models, in encourages their fans to do better things, that have more positive results, than if they weren't role models, and they would not be as likely to have positive results.

Should child actors be expected to be role models? I say YES.

Child actors in shows marketed for young audiences should be expected to serve as role models for their young audiences.  Some people claim that child actors should have the right to make mistakes and to do whatever they want and not be judged so harshly by society by it, but the mistakes that they make are still seen by their younger audiences, and oftentimes, they don't understand that they are making a mistake, but that they are doing it since they are "cool" or something.  When a Disney star like David Henrie for example goes out drinking when he is 19, even if it is in Puerto Rico, where the legal drinking age is 18, younger audiences don't understand that concept.  They don't look up the legal drinking age in Puerto Rico.  They just take it as a 19 year old American actor is drinking, and that it is perfectly fine to drink alcohol.  


Even though Lindsay Lohan isn't portrayed as a Disney actor as much anymore, she first launched her career in the Disney movie, the Parent Trap.  Lohan has been in many scandals recently, including multiple DUIs and drug charges.  She was sentenced to 90 days in jail in July, 2010, 30 days for her first DUI arrest, another 30 days for her second arrest, and 30 more days for reckless driving, but in the end, she only had to serve 13 days in jail before being released and sent directly to drug rehabilitation.  Teenagers or younger audiences may absorb these events in a different manner than people who understand the situation differently will.  Younger audiences might think that driving under the influence, using drugs (like cocaine, which Lohan uses), or reckless driving is perfectly fine, because even if they do it and get arrested for it, they won't get into much trouble, since they may think that they won't need to serve the full sentence like Lohan did.  


Child actors are often seen as role models to younger audiences, and if they are constantly exposed to the actors they look up to doing things that aren't viewed as "proper" to society, they won't understand that, since they are often too young to decipher between the wrong and the right.  Child actors should act as role models to their audiences, and act in a way that won't harm others if imitated or followed.


Resources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2010/07/free-lindsay-lohan-ordered-to-jail-but-for-how-long-.html
http://backseatcuddler.com/2009/03/05/latest-disney-star-scandal-booze-skanks/ (I read a lot of the comments for opinions and some ideas.)

Vampires? Response

After honestly reading over ten blog posts, I decided to write about Vampires from Jasmine's Blog.

"Twilight basically ruined vampires for all of us vampire fans."

  Even though I am no longer a fan of Twilight, I have to disagree with the claim Jasmine is making.  Twilight is what first introduced me to the world of vampires, and without it, I would most likely not be the vampire fan that I am now.  The Twilight series (the books) written by Stephenie Meyer were truly amazing, and they captured me from day one.  The first few chapters were honestly, not that interesting, but like all other books, they set up the setting and introduced characters.  Rarely are the first few chapters truly interesting.  After reading further (my friend strongly recommended the book, so I decided to give the book a try for her sake), I found that the book wasn’t boring at all.  It was actually very creative and unique. 

I have to admit though, it is ridiculous that vampires sparkle.  It’s not normal.  Even for vampires like Edward.  Other than that though, I can make no complaints about the books.  They kept me up until two in the morning, reading under the sheets with a flashlight, at camp.  I could only fall asleep when I began to feel guilty for staying up so late, but I would still fall asleep to the thought of Bella, Edward, Jacob, and their many problems. 

The movies, unlike the books, were terrible.  They could’ve chosen much better actors to portray Bella and Edward, and directed better.  The acting was poor, and didn’t capture the essence of Twilight, and the mysteriousness that the books held.  The story was easily predictable, and effects, poor.  Even the make-up was obvious.  The vampires were much to pale, and Edward seemed very constipated and awkward.  The character Edward did not meet Robert Pattinson’s character, and he portrayed Edward much too oddly.  The scene when he first got a whiff of Bella scent made him seem like he felt sick, not nervous and uncomfortable because of how much he wanted to taste Bella’s blood. 

The movie was what led me to begin my dislike of Twilight, but I still give the books the responsibility and honor of introducing and hooking me onto vampires.

ASTI Size Increase?

Today, we had a PTSA meeting at school, and we came to the topic of the possible size increase for ASTI.  Mr. Fong talked about how AUSD was planning to increase ASTI's size to 400 students, but the grades levels would be from seventh grade to twelfth grade.  The students would not be at the portable campus only, but supposedly, we would have the seventh and eight graders at a different campus, and the ninth through twelfth graders at the ASTI and COA campus.  Even though it is somewhat a good and a bad thing to be able to increase the size of ASTI, I personally would like it better if we could keep the ASTI size the same as it is now.

As many of you know, there have been major budget cuts this year, and the Parcel Tax did not get passed, so a lot of the funding for schools has been drastically lowered, and we do not have as many funds to pay for textbooks and teachers.  Many of the schools have been planning to shut down soon and merge with another school, and grades for the school to be changed.  I heard that Encinal High School and Lincoln Middle School might shut down, or the grades in Alameda High or something would be changed so there are seventh and eight graders too.  Also, they have plans to shut down about half of the elementary schools in Alameda, I think.

Because many of the schools might get shut down, and most schools are losing privileges and teachers.  As a small school, it's a great thing if the AUSD still allows ASTI to be an early college high school without thousands of students, but I really like the small environment ASTI has opposed to the large size of other "normal" high schools.  If the school size is increased, odds are, we will be able to have a sports team and games.  We would use the college classrooms, and the seventh and eighth graders would be at a different campus, and the high schoolers would only be part time college students for all four years.  We would take a combination of both high school courses at the ASTI campus, and college classes at the COA campus. (This is what I heard from the conversation, but I don't have any official proof for it.)

Personally, I would like it if ASTI could keep its small size, instead of increasing the number of students, because then it would be able to maintain the small family-like atmosphere, and most of the students would know each other.  I really like that the teachers and students are all a very tightly knit community of families and friends, that we can all depend on.  I also like how because of ASTI's small size, it seems more exclusive, and it is easier for teachers to focus more attention for each student, instead of less attention for more students.

I'm curious what you think about the possible size increase for ASTI. Please respond by commenting and let me know what you think.

The Drinking Age Should NOT Be Lowered

Hello, we are Tiffany Cao and Amber Chan. Today, we would like to explain and share the reasons why we believe the drinking age should not be lowered.

Drinking age should not be lowered because our own body isn't capable of resisting alcohol. 21-year-old may not be mature enough to know their limitations on drinking and just lowering the age will have a bad cause. Another reason is that if we lower the drinking age we might be contributing to more fatal accidents. Drinking may also allow people to hurt themselves and others. Young adults may have a chance of not knowing their limits. Lowering the drinking age will just make it worse because young adults or teenagers are still under pressure with drugs, depression, violence, etc.

21 year old are more likely to have no limitations on drinking; therefore, it makes it worse if the government would lower it down. According to Mike John who wrote the article, Cons of Lowering Drinking Age,  Underaged Drinking," Lower drinking ages to 16, 17, or 18 like the MLDA [the minimal legal drinking age] in some European countries is inappropriate for US standards because American teens generally start driving at earlier ages and drive more often than their European counterparts. American teens are thus much more likely to drive under the influence of alcohol if the drinking age were lowered in the US."  Since teens are able to drive in America, there is a more likely chance that these teens are capable of drunk driving; which can may a fatal scenario. Teens are allowed to drive at an age much younger than the current MLDA, and because they are so young, they do not have a complete knowledge of what is good or not, or choose to ignore it, because they are so young.  

For teens who drive, lowering the drinking age has a chance of hurting the driver, the passengers, and other people driving near the teen driver, if the teen decides to drive and make the bad decision to drink and drive.  “Between 1970 and 1975, 29 States lowered their drinking ages to 18, 19, or 20. By 1983, safety concerns had led many of these States to reverse course...NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] published an analysis in 1985 and a follow-up in 1989 on...the estimated number of lives saved...The studies found that the target involvements decreased on average by 13 percent in States where the drinking age had been raised” (NHTSA).  Twenty-nine states lowered their drinking ages for less than fifteen years, and changed their MILDA back to the original drinking age: twenty-one.  Thirteen percent less people died in the states when the MLDA was 21 years old, in comparison to the higher amount of people killed when the MLDA was lowered to 18, 19, and 20.

Classmate Response

After looking through a few blogs, I decided to take a quote from a freshman that I honestly don't know very well, but I found Stan's blog interesting, and found good quotes that related to the ASTI Constitution a lot.

"When you are the one bullying you feel powerful and you feel very that you are in control of what ever it is that is going on. Sometimes you feel like you have to bully to fit in with a certain group of friends and in this situation your options are limited because if you bully them then you are friends with the new people but then you feel bad because you hurt the feelings of the kids who were being bullied, and then if you don’t bully them you feel good because you did the right thing but then you are the one who is bullied."

"When you are the one bullying you feel powerful and you feel very that you are in control of what ever it is that is going on. Sometimes you feel like you have to bully to fit in with a certain group of friends and in this situation your options are limited because if you bully them then you are friends with the new people but then you feel bad because you hurt the feelings of the kids who were being bullied, and then if you don’t bully them you feel good because you did the right thing but then you are the one who is bullied."

What Stan says connects to the ASTI Constitution in a few ways.  The ASTI Constitution reminds us to include, not exclude other students, and when Stan talks about how you feel like you need to bully others to fit in with some groups of people at times, you are not included in the group unless you decide to join the group and bully others.  To make the ASTI environment more friendly and inviting, we need to accept other for who they are, and like them for their perfection and their flaws.  We should learn to utilize each other’s differences to make friendships stronger, because that is also what brings us closer together, and makes us more diverse and unique. 

At ASTI, we also need to accept others for who they are, instead of trying to change them, so they aren’t themselves, or excluding them for being different.  We need to accept that everyone is different and can’t always be what you want them to be: nobody’s perfect.  We shouldn’t have to do things (especially mean things) to gain acceptance into a group.  We should be accepted for who we are and not who we try to be or act like we are.  Each and every one of our personalities are unique, and if one characteristic is changed so you can fit into a group, we are not being truthful to ourselves or others.

Another way that Stan’s blog post relates to the ASTI Constitution is that he talks about how others feel when people bully them, and he understands the view of where other people are coming from, and are empathetic to how they feel in situations where they are bullied by others or when someone is in the predicament where they have to choose between bulling others to impress a group of people, or to be nice to others and not bully them, but often times become a victim of bulling themselves.  

P.S. my internet crashed, so I'm posting this at Borders >.<