Reading+Reflections

Throughout the play, Higgins insults Eliza many times.Higgins becomes very harsh and crosses the line. For example, he states that Eliza "might as well be blocks of wood." Although these are harsh words I believe Higgins insults Eliza for a very explainable reason. Higgins insults Eliza to push her to do better. Although this is not the ideal way to teach, he accomplishes success by pushing Eliza to do better.
 * 1: Higgins's Insults**

Miss Jean Brodie most definitely "crosses the line" between teacher and friend. Brodie tells the young girls all about her love life. She acts very inappropriately as a teacher. In addition, she would also spend a lot of time outside of class with the "Brodie Set" Brodie also talks about very personal topics such as relationships, sex, and gives many opinions. For example, she teaches subjects she enjoys, in the manner she enjoys to teach them. In closing, teachers sometimes find it difficult to stay a teacher and not a friend.
 * 2: Teacher vs. Personal Life**

Brodie is a strong believer in the "leading out" of knowledge that students already contain. She strongly disagrees with subject matter. Also, teaches based on her own opinions and morals. In my opinion, Brodie's style of teaching is ineffective. She does not have a serious focus on helping the students learn content. Also, I do agree that students do have knowledge, but the point of having to teachers is to //teach// unfamiliar knowledge.On the flip side, Higgins is very focused on getting Eliza to speak proper English like a lady. At times, it almost seems as though Eliza is Higgins's "experiment." He is very focused on her learning to speak properly and has no concern for Eliza at all. Higgins feels no sympathy for Eliza when he continually insults her.
 * 3: Brodie vs. Higgins.**

At first, I thought the betrayer would be the least expected student. However, after reading not far into the book, the student who betrayed Brodie became quite obvious.Throughout the book, I believe it is quite obvious whom while betray Brodie. There seems to be a lot of focus on Sandy in the chapters. The author made it obvious who betrays Miss Brodie by focusing on Sandy as one of the main characters. Also, Sandy carries on an affair with Mr. Llloyd. This affair also leads me to believe that Sandy will be the one who betrays Brodie and gets her fired.
 * 4: Sandy as the Betrayer**

Quarter 2

1: The Moral Life of Children-Ruby's Attitude Although most may think peace and happiness is the best advice to give someone, in Ruby's case it is not. I don't believe that continually smiling at people who are calling you names is healthy. In a way, it almost seems as though Ruby isn't facing reality. Ruby praying for the racist people is not a good way to deal with her problem. I think Ruby should be able to openly talk about what she thinks about these people. Also, she should be able to think that these racist people are wrong and shouldn't be allowed to say harsh things. She needs to know that the way they speak should never be accepted. Overall, Ruby should be able to express her feelings and decipher that these racist individuals are wrong.

2: Moment to moment or search for the meaning? The very beginning of the book juggles how people "live." People are identified to live in two ways "moment to moment" or "search for their meaning." I think everybody struggles with this issue. I think the attempt is for everyone to live positively "moment to moment." However, I think it is very difficult to follow through with this concept. Everybody is always in search for the meaning or their life or what they are to live for. In accordance with the novel, raising a child to find the "meaning" in life is one of the most difficult tasks. I agree with the novel in the sense that every child should learn "step by step" starting with understanding themselves as a person.

2: Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling"/"Cinderella" The short story by Hans Christian Andersen, "The Ugly Duckling" relates to the classic story "Cinderella." Both Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling act as the underdog. Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling are seen as the innocent characters that were born in unfortunate situations. Cinderella is treated as the maid in her household and the Ugly Duckling was born the ugliest child. Both characters seem to be frowned upon for reasons that are out of their control. Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling are both seen as the most unfavored children in the family.

3: Beginning of __The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time__ Analysis of the character, Christopher John Francis Boone Christopher seems to have the typical symptoms of an autistic person. He is exceptionally good in math and memorizing the capitals and states. However, Christopher seems to have a communication problem, as does many autistic children/adults. When the policeman questions him about the dead dog, he has trouble answering. Christopher found the dog already dead and did not have any part of the murder, but, he cannot communicate this to the policeman.

Quarter 3: 1. Christoper vs. Donald (from __Mozart & and the Whale)__ Christopher Boone compares to Donald from __Mozart and the Whale.__ Both characters are exceptional at math. Also, they both show that they have communication problems. Christopher shows communication problems when speaking to the police officer. Donald has trouble communicating with Isabelle about the way he feel about her throughout the movie.

2. Reflection on Christopher's disorders In the book, Christopher seems to flat out state the problems he has. I was quite surprised by this because I thought that autistic people are unaware of all the problems they have. Christopher also was able write out a list of all the problems he has. He seemed to describe some symptoms of OCD disorder. He had a problem with the colors of brown and yellow. Christopher's problem of OCD also shows when his dad hands him dinner that is specifically separated and NOT touching. Also, he seemed to state he had a huge problem with any sort of change. This is a typical problem for autistic people, they cannot deal with new places or people.

3. Christopher Plays Detective Christopher has an obsession with figuring out who killed Mrs. Shear's dog, Wellington. He goes around questioning several neighbors about there whereabouts on Thursday night. He also questions the neighbors and asks them if they heard anything the night Wellington was killed. I think this shows that Christopher cares deeply about animals and also has a big imagination. He wants to find out the murderer and comes up with many different ideas while writing his book. I think that Christopher makes some good assumptions by guessing that the murderer might be someone that is closely related to Mrs. Shears. I believe Christopher can think very logically at times.

4. Flowers for Algernon Teacher and Student Relationship

5. Cognitive Development Video I enjoyed watching the video on Cognitive Development. A part of the segment I found interesting was that children of certain age not being able to recognize numbers past 1. The child was able to put one "fish" in the "pond." However, when the child was asked to put 2 "fish" in the "pond" she put 5 or 6. I found this study very interesting. I also got a deeper understanding of Piaget's Levels of Cognitive Development. I learned that in Piaget's Four Stages you cannot skip a stage. I also found it interesting that Piaget's Stages are broken up by age groups.