Category: 8th Grade English

Did Thompson provide persuasive evidence that South’s slave system was morally evil? First, I want to tell you who Thompson  really was. Thompson’s full name was John Thompson. He was born in 1812 on a plantation in Maryland as a slave. He grew up there with his family consisting of his mother, his father, and his six brothers and sisters. Also, even still at a young age, he experienced the very true act of slavery when his sister was sold and never seen again. Like his sister, it was not long after when he was separated from his family as well by being sold away.

Back then, slavery was very very wrong. According to Google, slavery means “the state of being a slave.” According to Google, a slave is “a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.” That means that somebody owns another person (that person is the other person’s property) and forces him to do his bidding (work for him). The slave people were Black people. People captured these black people for slaves. I do not know why, but I think that it was just that either the whites were just evil evil men, or the whites captured the blacks because they thought that the blacks were ‘animals’. I mean, just because blacks have different skin color or they have different religious beliefs does not mean that they are of any less importance than the whites. As it says in Acts 17:25-28, “²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring”. People capturing people and forcing them to work as slaves when they have done nothing wrong is just wrong. The black African people have been peaceful for years. But then, Americans came in and captured the blacks and forced them to work as slaves. All men are created equal, and yet, the Americans were treating the Africans like animals. It is a miracle that slavery is now abolished (no more) to this day.

(As you may know, I copied a little of a recent paper into this paper. The paper I copied is titled “What was Thompson’s theory of the relationship between sanctions and slavery?”.) So, back to our topic, Did Thompson provide persuasive evidence that South’s slave system was morally evil? The answer is yes. He explains slaves getting wiped, not being able to learn, working hard all day and night, and so much more. He very much so persuaded me to answer that question as a yes.

Which aspect of the plot of In His Steps so far sounds most implausible? In His Steps was written by Charles Monroe Sheldon. It is said to be one of the best-selling books of all time selling over fifty-million copies first being published in 1896. The full title of the book is In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do. I recently read it as a school book and I really liked it. It is nick-named What Would Jesus Do because at the beginning of the book Rev. Henry Maxwell, the pastor of a church, challenges everyone in the church that in every situation or problem they have they ask themselves “What would Jesus do?” for a whole year (but they did not have to do it if they did not want to). This phrase is referred to throughout the book. Some Christians even use this phrase now, two hundred years after the book was even published.

What I think is most implausible (which means not likely to happen) is when a random person comes to Rev. Maxwell’s house and asks Maxwell to find him a job. Maxwell says he probably can and the person leaves. The next day at church the man comes to church, comes to the pulpit, and says that the church treated him very badly (we never find out how) and passes out. He dies a few days later. I think this is implausible because people randomly passing out and dying later is not possible, and if it is, it is extremely rare.

What I think is also implausible is not the What Would Jesus Do challenge that Rev. Maxwell gives the church, but how many people in the church agree to do it. I mean, how often do you see a ton of people agree to a challenge like this? And doing it for a whole year just makes it sound even more implausible. Who, in present time, would do that besides Christians? I know no one that would. Do you?

Another implausible thing is when Rev. Maxwell is elected to give a tent meeting to the people about not going back to the town’s saloon and why it is bad to go back to the saloon and that the saloon is an evil place. When Rev. Maxwell finishes the meeting everyone who attended goes back to the saloon and ignores everything Rev. Maxwell told them. No one even stayed for the after meeting. Who does that!? Rev. Maxwell gave an hour speech on why the saloon is bad and why they should never go back there again. Why would they even ever go back? How often does that even happen? To me, extremely rare.

There are a lot of other implausible points in the book, but there is too much to mention them all. There is a Bible verse that says that through God, everything is possible. I love that verse. It is a very good and influential verse. I love the book and I recommend it as a book you need to read.

How should church members have tried to find out what Jesus would have done in their situations? They should have read there Bible. 2Peter 1:3 says, By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. This verse means that every single question we have is answered in the Bible. God has also given us instructions to how to live our lives like Jesus did through his word, the Bible.

Which dream in Looking Backward seemed more realistic: When he woke up in 1887 or 2000? First, lets recap the book. Our main character, a man named Julian West, lives in the year 1887. He is thirty years old. One night after a attending a party, he falls asleep and when he wakes up, it is the year 2000!  The assumption is that Julian has been asleep for one hundred and thirteen years! The crazy thing is that he did not age at all while he was asleep, he was still 30 years old. Julian was forced to learn how to live in the future. There many strange things that Julian saw in the year 2000, like computers and electronics.  After a few days of living in the year 2000, he falls asleep again and this time when he wakes up, he is back in the year 1887. It seems it was all a dream. It must have been an extremely realistic dream because Julian has to relearn how to live in the year 1887 where there are no computers, no electronics, and no cars. He was quite thankful to be back in his own time, especially since he had a girl that he was going to marry. She did not exist in his dream, nor did his friends or his family. 

When I began reading this book I actually thought that he was in the year 2000 when he woke up the first time. It was all so realistic, the things he saw, the things he heard, and the things he experienced. The plot line was a little bit hard to believe though, but then I realized that the book was science fiction so that made it a little more believable. The one thing that I had a hard time believing is the fact that he did not at all age. It is just not humanly or physically possible for someone to not age. The book did not even have some science twist to it. The book did not explain how he did not age. It is not like somebody cast a spell on him like in Sleeping Beauty. And he definitely did not get frozen in ice like in Captain America. So that really confused me. But near the end of the book he woke up from the dream and I finally understood how he could sleep for that long. It was all a dream! He never really slept for that long. Besides, who could!? It is more believable he experienced a really long dream that lasted days, but it his own time, it has only been a short time. If normal time and dream time went at the same rate and you had a dream that lasted days, than you would have been asleep that lasted days, and there is no way that you could be asleep for days because you have to wake up at some point. I have never had a dream that lasted days and I hope that I never do, but it is fun to imagine it.

I began reading “Looking Backward” by Edward Bellamy a few days ago for my English class. It is a piece of Utopian literature. A utopia is “an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens” according to Wikipedia. So a piece of Utopian literature is a work of fiction that takes place in an idealized world. A lot of times utopian fiction is also science fiction, where the author investigates what life would look like in a perfect society and what conflicts might possibly arise from living in a perfect, or almost perfect, society. 

Since this book is a piece of Utopian literature, it has numerous unbelievable things written in its pages. However, the one thing that I have read so far that is the most unbelievable thing is the fact the main character, Julian West, has been asleep for one hundred and thirteen years! When I first read this I was so confused! I know this book is fiction, but that seemed pretty extreme. I have no idea why the author is writing about someone who has been asleep for over one hundred years. This is not physically possible! No one could be asleep for that long. The longest anyone has ever slept for a seven-year old boy who slept for eleven days straight. The doctors have no idea what caused or how he was able to sleep for that long without any medication. 

There are other fictional stories of characters sleeping for an extremely long time. In the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” a spell is cast on a young girl named Aurora where she is put into a deep sleep. In the real fairy story Aurora is asleep for one hundred years! During these one hundred years she does not age even by one day. Another fictional character who sleeps for a long time is Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle slept for twenty years after drinking liquor from dwarfs he meets in the woods. Rip Van Winkle, unlike Sleeping Beauty, did age while he was asleep. He woke up looking like an old man. The last example of a literary character who slept for a very long time is Captain America. Captain America was a fictional World War II hero who super-human strength. He crashes an airplane into the Arctic in order to save the world from Red Skull and his Hydra army. He gets knocked out during the crash and is then frozen in the ice and is found seventy years later. He was still alive after he defrosted and showed no signs of aging. Extended sleeping is definitely a fictional trait that can not possibly happen in real life. 

In “Looking Backward” it tells the reader that Julian West, the main character, did not age at all. When he awoke he was still thirty years old, the same age he was when he fell asleep one-hundred and thirteen years ago. Again, not only is it not possible to sleep for that length of time, but it is also impossible to not age while sleeping.   

Why a blog site with lots of content will help me get my first full-time job after college. A student in the “normal” school system has assignments and papers and tests that he or she must complete in order to earn good grades and do well in the class. A good student will work hard on his or her assignments. They will study, they might spend many hours in a library doing research, they might even interview people. They turn in their paper with pride knowing they have worked hard and have done a good job. But what is the point? The teacher may like it, you may get a good grade, but where will it go? Most likely it will be stored in the teachers files and trashed at the end of the year. Even if the student still gets his paper back, it may still end up in the trash. This is not the case with the Ron Paul Curriculum. I still do papers. I still do the same assignments as “normal” schools. I still do research. I still ask questions. But here’s the big difference. Instead of my papers ending up in the trash or a filing cabinet, I get to post my papers on my blog and let the whole world see them.

I have a lot of content on my blog that can help me in the future. This is how. First of all, I want to tell you what my blog is. It is called “Herping With Owen”. It is where I type in and keep all of my school papers. I have a blog so that people all over the world can read my papers and maybe even learn something. If I want to get a good  job I can show the company my blog and they can see that I have been interested in that job and maybe they can give me the job. I also have a YouTube channel about herpetology. If I want a job as a herpetologist than I can show them my channel and they can see that I really want a job as a herpetologist and maybe give me a job.

My school makes me publish my content to the internet to help me build skills that real business’s need. WordPress powers thirty-five percent of the internet. That is about four hundred, fifty-five million websites that use WordPress. So that means that the business that you want to work for will most likely use WordPress. So lets say that there is a business that uses WordPress and they need a new employee and there are two people who want to sign up. One knows how to use WordPress and the other does not. Which one do you think the business will hire? Well, it has to be the one who knows how to use WordPress. Same thing with you. If you want to be part of a business that uses WordPress, than you need to practice your skill in knowing how to use WordPress. My blog is built on WordPress so I know how to use it. Same thing applies to YouTube. My school is structured around preparing me to add value to a business.  

Is it better to determine one’s own ideas of right and wrong or follow the crowd? Imagine you are walking on the sidewalk on your way home from school and some some kinds want you to throw rocks at passing cars with them. What do you do? You should make your own decision on whether it  is right or wrong. And then you should make your choice. In this case you should not follow the crowd because the crowd is doing wrong. Imagine you are in church and the crowd is singing praises. In this case is it better to follow the crowd or make your own decision? It is better to follow the crowd because the crowd is doing right. Now, if you see the crowd doing wrong and you know it is wrong, don’t do it. But if the crowd is doing right, follow along with the crowd.

Do you believe it would be better to raise the driving age to 21? Imagine the driving age is 21 and you are 18. It is your first day of college. You can’t drive yourself to college so your mom has to. What if your mom has work so you have to walk. Or what if your late. What if your mom or dad has to drive you every where you needed to go. To school, to a friends house, on a date. Not good. That is why the driving age should stay at where it is at, at 16.

Their is good argument for raising it to 21 though. This is because 21 year old’s tend to be more responsible and mature than 16 year old’s. They are also less likely to break the law and get into accidents. If the driving age has to stay at 16, then 16 year old drivers need to learn to be more responsible.

Should students be able to listen to MP3 players of headphones while studying? I think so. One reason is that music soothes the mind. It makes you feel relaxed while you do school. It also helps you concentrate better. It even makes you feel more good about life. Different kinds of music can help you do these different things.

Music also keeps you from being distracted. If you go to school, or if you homeschool, their might be some distractions. Well, music came help you if you let it. Just turn on some music, and listen to it while you do your school. It will help. 

Music can also help you with memorization. It clears your mind so you can focus on your school. It can also help aid endurance. Most children are bringing  headphones with them to study halls to listen to music. That way they can study better. 

I used to listen to music when I did school. I homeschool, so when I have to read a book online, I sometimes turn on some music and read. It really helps. Also, sometimes at night, my dad lets me listen to music on my headphones when I read at night. Music can also really help if you have problems. Music is just amazing.

Should celebrities who break the law face stricter penalties? I do not agree with this statement. Celebrities are famous people like, movie stars, television stars, musicians, bands, politicians, movie directors, and sports players. These celebrities are just the same as people who are not celebrities. One reason is that we are all part of  the human race. Also, we all work for a living. In the end, God is going to judge us all by the same standards. 

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t always agree with me. Recently, there was a collage admissions scam where celebrity parents lied and cheated to get their children into collage. They were caught sentenced to minimal prison time. One celebrity mom only got two weeks in prison! The reason they got so little prison is because they were worth so much money. They Did not have to lie or cheat to get they kids into college. They had the money, but they thought that since they were celebrities that they could get away with it.

All people are individuals. We all generally agree that people should not be judged differently because of their skin color, their origin, or their net worth. The statue of Lady Justice is portrayed as a woman wearing a blindfold holding a beam balance and a sword. Since Lady Justice judges people and deals out punishment, as represented by her sword, she should not be bias by peoples attributes.

If a celebrity does something good like donate a lot of money to a children’s hospital, people praise them. We cheer them on when they win an award that none of us would ever be able to win. But how quickly we change our minds when they do something wrong. We do not cheer them on when they receive less punishment than you or I would get if we did the same wrong thing. This is called a double standard. Until the people stop holding the celebrities in high esteem, the double standard will remain.