DYK Quiz:
In my opinion, I do think that a quiz such as the one we took in class is sufficient enough to determine someone’s self esteem, family functioning, levels of anxiety, behavioral issues, and his/her possible positive or negative outcomes when faced with obstacles, because the psychologists who came up with this test have found a repeating correlation between this tests results and these individuals’ overall family narratives. My main reasons for this view come from a study conducted by the psychologists in this article. In this study, Drs. Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush asked children from about four dozen families a series of questions pertaining to their family’s overall story, as well as videotaping several dinner table conversations. After doing so, they compared their results to the results of the various psychological tests that the children took and found an overwhelming correlation between the mental healths of the children and how strong they felt their families were. This then led Duke and Fivush to conclude that children who know more about their families are given a sense of community, a multitude of people that they could fall back on, and a feeling of belonging to something bigger than themselves, which then in turn helps them to more effectively with environmental stresses.
If this research could validated and quantified, then I think that higher scores in different people may mean that they are at the very least more adept with environmental stress. This ultimately leads me to state that I do think that this test, as an indicator, is an important measurement, because regardless of the fact that no indicator is 100% accurate, I think it is important for people to strive create a better family bond. My reasons for this are that it is true that having a successful family is a very great thing emotionally especially during tough times. One personal example that I have was the day my great grandmother died and granted it was my first experience with death as a fifth grader and it was quite devastating, because for as far as I could remember, my great grandmother has always taken care of my little sister and I, while my parents had no choice but to leave us at home so that they could go to their jobs. Eventually I got over the tragedy, but it really helped me that the thirty plus family members that I had standing alongside me were there to hold my hand and tell me that life will go on. In addition, having a unified family meant that after I came to iPoly and started to deal with the educational challenges that it presented me with, my whole family would constantly urge me to keep at it and that I’d eventually achieve my goals; furthermore, my knowledge of my grandparents’ struggles when they were my age also gave me hope that just like them I’d get through my constant struggles at iPoly.
The Big Fish:
I think that Edward Bloom wasn’t a neglectful or unloving father because he essentially always had a life lesson to teach his son with everyone of his stories. While Edward Bloom’s stories all seemed like tall tales, they all had a very important underlying lesson to teach William. An example would be Edward Bloom’s story of his giant friend who was eating all the animals at his hometown. To resolve this issue Edward Bloom bravely when up to the giant man and rather than irrationally harming him, he tried reasoning with him, which eventually did solve the problem. The moral that story was that one mustn’t view those who are different with violence, but rather to deal with them with reason. Also, Edward Bloom’s quote “I’m a big fish in a small pond,” also tells another life lesson which was that you can’t be afraid of pushing yourself out of your comfortable zone and this quotes meaning was personified in the film as Edward Bloom moving into the unknown of the big city which was later described as “the ocean,” by the circus manager. Overall, William Bloom’s dad wasn’t being unloving, rather he was just trying to put a creative twist to the cliched life lessons that everyone else is taught. Thus, I think that the film’s most important message is “A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal,” meaning that the ideals that you constantly uphold throughout life become an essential part of who you are and these ideals are what people remember you by, thus immortalizing you. The reason I think this message stands out to me is that it reminds me of all the stories my dad tells about when he was my age. Overall, my dad is pretty much the living essence of reemerging from your mistakes with hard-work and tenaciousness.
I remember my days of middle school as a time where my imagination greatly affected my life because it was the perfect get-away from my ill treatment at school. I remember how I would always imagine myself in different careers and that eventually all of my studies in school would eventually pay off and get me on a path that would eventually set me in career that I loved. And for the most part these imaginative process gave me hope for my future and it also allowed me to simulate different types of career paths that I liked or disliked. Also, I loved using my imagination to build things and at first this only happened with the leftover lego set that I had from my elementary school days, but during eighth grade I was eventually introduced to unit origami and while at first I never did follow along I used to make imaginative alien space ships and tanks using pieces of paper and then imagining battles of great carnage and destruction, which was a great way for me to relieve my stress at the time. Then I finally did learn some unit origami and so I started to flood my house with the shapes that my math teacher taught me and I really loved origami as a pastime since it prompted me to imagine the kind of uses it would have in making buildings and technology. In those ways, my imagination played a huge role in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment