Understandings in the Middle Ages

Standing up to oppression takes great individual courage. I believe that this statement is true, because usually when someone stands up against an oppressor, say a dictatorial government they don't come out on top. In the Middle Ages, a great example of someone that was courageous like this was John Ball, an English priest. He believed that the new laws and taxes that the King introduced were unfair to the general public, so he staged a revolt against the new regulations. This was incredibly risky, because if he was caught evading the taxes, or telling others to do likewise, he would be imprisoned or maybe even killed. You see, the King was desperately in need of money to fund the war effort in France, so he had to introduce a tax called the Poll Tax, which every single person in the country was required to pay, and if people didn't pay the tax, the King wouldn't get his money and wouldn't be able to pay for the war, and they'd lose in France. However, this tax wasn't the only thing contributing to the anger of the public; there was also the Statute of Laborers, which made it so serfs and peasants couldn't ask for higher wages and would be bound to the one who hired them. Because of these things, people like John Ball got groups of people to rebel against the taxes, and hide from the tax collectors. As I said before, this was very risky for Ball, because if he was caught, he would most likely be executed. Eventually, after the rebels killed the Archbishop of Canterbury and a few other people who were high up on the totem pole, Ball and a few other leaders of the rebellion were hung and drawn and quartered.

1066 - Who had the Best Claim to the Throne?

   In my opinion, Harold Godwinson definitely had the best claim to the throne, and here are my reasons to think this. First off, Harold Godwinson was British, so he was a local, and usually people want someone who is a local to rule their country, not some weird foreigner like Hadrada or William. Next, Harold was the person who was originally chosen to be the king's successor, so he had the rights to the throne, and would have become king had Hadrada and William not decided to invade England. Thirdly, Harold was the king's brother in law, because the king had married his sister, so in a way Harold was part of the royal family. This made Harold the only member of the royal family old enough to rule England, because the king's nephew was too young. Also, Harold was known as a strong leader who wouldn't just run the country into the ground, and this reputation was a big part of why he was chosen as the next king. The nobles also agreed with Harold becoming king, because it would benefit him. Due to the fact that Harold was such a good leader, he would be able to make sure that the nobles remained powerful and wouldn't be overthrown.
   The other two competitors for the throne didn't have as good claims as Harold.
 Hadrada's claim to the throne was that a distant relative of his (Cnut) had ruled England a long time ago, so he thought that this made him the rightful king of England, which it didn't. He would only have the rights to becoming king if Cnut's son had become king, and then the family had managed to retain they're power over England. However, the British took back control over England, and the Norwegians had to go back to their country.
  William's claim to the throne was much better. He said that Edward (the king of England), had made a promise stating that he would make William the next king of England. William also captured Harold, and made Harold make an oath saying that he would help William become king. Niether of these things happened. Instead of William, Edward chose Harold to be his successor, and when William found out about this, he was outraged. He called Harold an oath-breaker for not helping him become king. Now, you may think being called an oath-breaker isn't a very bad thing, but it was back then. When William accused Harold of this, he gained support to forcibly take over England from the Pope, who said that the invasion of England would be a "Holy Crusade".
 Overall, I think that Harold definitely had the best claim to the throne, because he had the most reasons to become king, and he was in a way related to the king.

Values and Decisions

Values and Choices:

belonging
bullying
bystander
conformity
exclusion
inclusion
membership
ostracism
peer pressure
victim


Write:
Think about a time you witnessed bullying/ostracism/peer pressure/exclusion/discrimination/violence. How did you respond? How do you wish you had responded? What stopped you from responding that way?
I have not just witnessed bullying/ostracism, I have actually been the victim of those things. There have been a few occasions where I have been excluded from a group purely because of my hair colour, and the way I responded was by choosing the right persuasive words to get into the group. I also let them know that they were being jerks, and that I wasn't happy with how they were acting.
Respond to the questions below
1.Where have we seen examples of bullying/ostracism/exclusion occurring in texts studied so far this year- factual as well as fictional?

The main example that comes to mind would be the whole Holocaust unit, where the Germans, Nazi or not, ostracized the Jews, purely because the government told them to, not because they actually held grudges on the Jews. The German people were brainwashed into believing everything the Nazi government said, because their propaganda was so believable and well made. The Germans purposefully made the Jews outcasts, which is definitely ostracism, and later killed them off.
The In-Group
Watch the video clip below
Eve S: The In Group

1.Select one line/phrase/group of sentences that are significant to you. Explain why.
"In most cases where students get picked on, it is because they aren't good at sports, read too much, they wear the wrong clothes, or are of a different race." This quote is definitely true, because I've seen people get bullied for at least the first two jokes, and have made some jokes about races which could be considered mildly racist due do the fact that they are based off of racial stereotypes. All these reasons that she stated are real, because people are bullied for those reasons, which are quite frankly, retarded.
To think about:
How is ostracism different from other forms of bullying? When does ostracizing or excluding someone from a group become part of bullying?
1. What is familiar about the incident Eve describes? I found the part where she was laughing at the other girl's diary part somewhat familiar, 

because I have made jokes at other people's expense and laughed at quips made by someone 

about someone else before.

2.What surprised you? The fact that she still laughed at that other person's diary even though she had been through the same stuff herself. She should have tried to stand up for the girl, because she had experienced first hand what it was like to be bullied.

3. How does Eve’s story relate to bullying? Was she bullied? Did she bully? How would you explain her behavior?( perpetrator/bystander/victim?). make sure you justify( back up your answer.
Eve was a victim of bullying who just sat there and took it, and made no effort to stand up for herself. However, later on, she was also a bystander, because as I said before, she laughed at the other girl's diary and did not even attempt to stand up for her, even though she knew what it felt like to be bullied.
Psychologists Michael Thompson and Lawrence Cohen point to the powerful influence of peer groups in guiding our behavior: ‘We all know that groups can go terribly astray in terms of their moral reasoning. Everyone not in the group can be considered an outsider, a legitimate target…It affects every group because we are all prone to that feeling of us versus them and the idea that if you’re not with us you’re against us. Speaking out against a risky, immoral or illegal decision is hard to do because that makes you an outsider yourself’.

4.How did Eve’s need to belong affect the way she responded when another girl was being mocked? Why does her response still trouble her? How do you like to think you would have responded to the incident? Eve felt like the only way to get the other people to stop bullying her was to conform and act like them. This is the easy way out, by just acting like everyone else and not having your own personality. I think the main reason that she is still troubled by what she did is because she laughed and made fun of that girl, even though she had been through the same stuff herself, and knew what it felt like. Then, she was siding with the bullies, and making someone feel bad about themselves, just like how she felt when she was bullied.
5. Eve concludes “Often being accepted by others is more satisfying than being accepted by oneself, even though the satisfaction does not last.’ What does she mean?

  What she means is that it feels better to be accepted by everyone else and make friends with more people than to have no friends and keep your conscience clear of bad memories and feelings. Anyone would prefer to have a bunch of friends and maybe one or two unpleasant memories than have no friends and be a total loner, but with no bad memories about bullying or treating someone unfairly.   

Schindler's List

What makes a person "heroic"? Does a hero possess certain qualities? Or is a hero defined by his or her actions? Was Schindler a hero?

A person is "heroic" when they put themselves at risk so that they can save others, or if they just help people in a big way, which usually involves them putting themselves at risk.

For the most part, heroes have good morals and have been do-gooders, however, sometimes, people who are successful businessmen who are in a fine position themselves do good things, as did Oskar Schindler. Heroes are also defined by their actions, because they do great things, which is what makes them heroes. I don't think you can actually BE a hero without doing some great things.

Personally, I think Schindler was a hero, and I highly doubt that his motives for hiring the Jews were purely for his profits. I say this because after the war had ended, Schindler felt that he could have saved more Jews from dying, and actually felt bad about his not hiring more than the 1,100 Jews he did manage to get. Schindler did not disagree with what the Nazi's were doing, so he made a stand and managed to save 1,100 Jews, who now have over 10,000 living descendants. I personally think that Schindler actually helped increase the Jewish population by saving those Jews, so now, there are more Jews thanks to him than there would be if he was like most other Germans and didn't bother to save them.

Sonia Weitz: My Black Messiah

The poem of Sonia Weitz's that I chose was called "My Black Messiah", and it was about Ms. Weitz's experience of seeing a black GI who was one of the troops who liberated the camp she was held in.

I annotated this poem by simply writing down what I thought some of the metaphorical sentences meant. I also found a possible theme for the poem, and that theme was "confused", mainly because the GI seemed shocked and confused at what he saw before his eyes, as anyone who didn't know what was happening to the Jews would.

One part of the poem that stood out to me a bit more than the rest was this small section: " He didn't weep, he didn't cry

But deep within his gentle eyes

... A flood of devastating pain,

his innocence forever slain."

Now, the reason this part caught my eye was that it was a particularly touching part of the poem, which described how devastated the GI was when he saw the camp, and that that would be a memory forever stamped into the man's mind, and also, it is saying that his naivety would disappear, and that he would have a new, possibly worse, outlook on the world.

You may be wondering why I say that he might have had a worse outlook on the world, so here's why I think that. I said that because this GI might have come to realize how cruel and merciless some humans can be if they get the chance, and it may have scarred him permanently and even made him ashamed to be part of a species that could do something so horrid to a minority group.

In all honesty, I cannot make a personal connection to this poem other than that when I first learned of the whole Holocaust thing, I felt just as shocked and surprised as the GI did.

This poem made me feel quite sad, because it is meant to be a sobering story of how Ms. Weitz was liberated from the camp, and the reaction of the GI and how he was crushed by what he saw. I must say, I feel quite sorry for the poor GI (and all the Jews and other people affected by the Holocaust, of course), because before he liberated the camp he was probably a carefree late-teens or early 20's guy, but after seeing the camp and the people held within and the conditions they had to live in, he was scarred for life, and would never forget the awful things he saw that day.

What Allowed Hitler to Gain Power?

There are a bunch of factors that allowed Hitler to gain power of Germany; the economic crises, the Reichstag fire, and a couple more things. Firstly, there was the Treaty of Versailles, which gave the Nazi party a goal that would catch the interest of the general population. What I mean is that Hitler could gain some following by saying that if the Germans voted for him, he would abolish the Treaty and bring Germany back to its former glory. Then, along came the hyperinflation crisis in 1923, which gave the Nazi party and even better political foothold, because they could say the same thing "vote for us and we'll fix the economy!" Next, in 1929, there was another, and even bigger economy crash, which gave Hitler even more leverage, because Germany was floundering, the Weimar government wasn't doing anything that was going to help the country out anytime soon, so the Germans were beginning to get mad at the Weimar government, and the Nazi's seemed to offer a quick way out. Then, when Hindenburg croaked, the current government had no choice but to appoint Hitler chancellor, so they did. And then came along the final nail in the coffin: the Reichstag was set alight. This gave Hitler a massive chance to gain complete power over Germany, so he blamed the fire on his biggest political enemy: the communists. Due to the fact that he was already Chancellor, the German people believed him and agreed with him, so they elected him to be Fürher of Germany, and he threw all the communists in jail. This marked the beginning of the end for the Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws

1. Who could now be defined as a "Jew"?

According to the laws, anyone who had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents was declared a Jew, regardless of what religion that person was.
2. What was meant by "Aryanizing" Jewish Businesses?

The Nazis Aryanized Jewish businesses by replacing Jewish shop or business owners with non-Jewish Germans.
3. How were Jews who were professionals (lawyers, doctors etc.) restricted?

Jews who were doctors were prohibited from treating non-Jews, and Jews that were law students were not allowed to practice law anymore.
4. What did Jewish identity cards need to include now?

The government made it so that all the Jewish identity cards had a red J stamped on them (for Jew), and if they did not have a Jewish sounding first name, they had a middle name that sounded more Jewish put into their names, "Isreal" for men, and "Sara" for women. This enabled German police to identify Jews far more easily than before.
5. What was the "Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People" (sum up in your own words)?

The "Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health of the German People" made it so that any two people who wanted to get married had get a certificate from the public health authorities that stated that those two people were fit to marry. These certificates were not given to people that had hereditary illnesses or contagious sicknesses or were trying to marry, but were violating the Nuremberg Laws in any way, like a Jew wanting to marry and Aryan.