Teen Publish – Helping Teens & Young Adults in their daily lives, best way to blog socially about anything & make friends!

Get Some Class

Written on January 7, 2011 by theboneshavespoken

Filed Under: General Talk

You know it. I know it. We all know it. Classics dominate English classes. Thoroughout all of high school, you’re bombarded with almost nothing but classics. The Catcher in the Rye. To Kill a Mockingbird. Three Sisters. Candide. The Dubliners. Fahrenheit 451. You name it, you read it. And if they’re not shoving some antique book down your throat, they’re making you decipher The Road Not Taken for the fifth year in a row.

This is not to say that all classics are bad. But neither are all classics good. Let’s try on Waiting for Godot for size. After the second day of reading this book, I went up to our teacher and asked, half-jokingly, “Is there any plot in this?!” – to which he replied, “No.” He was grinning, but serious. And he was right. Insomniacs, this is the book for you! It sure helped me sleep, anyway.

There are some really good, thought-provoking classics out there. Fahrenheit 451 is the best book I ever had to read for school. The writing style isn’t difficult to understand, and the story flows well. The plot is, well, existent for starters, and it goes a step further by being interesting. F 451 is all about censorship – the word that every teen’s ear catches, because you know that if something’s censored, you’re not supposed to know about it, and that just goes against teenage dignity. If you ever have a chance, take a gander at the list of Banned Books. Most of what you’ve read in school is probably on there. http://www.banned-books.com/bblist.html

There are always going to be classics you just can’t stand. Look at me – I never finished Waiting for Godot, and I was one fancy side-step away from tossing The Great Gatsby into the shredder! (Please note that I am not advocating the destruction of books. If I had self-restraint, too can have it too.) My suggestion is not to shun all classics altogether just because the books you read in school are classics, and you didn’t like them. There are two reasons for this: for one, I’m pretty sure it’s a law that there has to be at least one book each year that someone hates. For the second, if you cut yourself off from things you might not like, you’re losing the chance to find something you love.  I used to think all classics would be dry, wordy and difficult to understand without a teacher’s guidance. After buying The Jungle Books on a whim, I discovered how wrong I was. (Best $6 I ever spent.)

I’m not trying to encourage you to go to the nearest Barnes and Noble to buy a random classic, but I think that if you give a classic a shot, you might like it. And classics are more diverse than you might imagine. Dracula is a vampire story, and who in this age doesn’t like vampires?

Write Between the Lines

Written on April 5, 2010 by theboneshavespoken

Filed Under: Advice, Solving a Problem

…Huh? You’re probably wondering why I butchered the popular idiom, “read between the lines.” I don’t normally butcher idioms, or anything else for that matter, but that cliché idiom just begs to be butchered, especially for the purposes of this article. I’m going to be talking about outlining – the ways outlining can be used, the reasons to use it, its qualities, its flaws, and its traps.

Writing Between The Lines

You probably hate that word, “outlining.” Especially if your teacher just told you to outline twenty pages from your history textbook (don’t worry, at least five of those pages will probably be sources – wink). Well, I like the word; it’s euphonic. (If you want a truly cacophonic word, try “drill;” nothing makes me wince like being reminded of the dentist.) Anyway, getting back on track, not only do I like the word “outlining” for the way it sounds, I like it for what it is, too. It’s useful for a couple of different things – like note-taking for school, or for forming the plot of a story.

Personally, I find outlining to be the best form of note-taking there is. (This must be said: Cornell notes, you suck. I’m sorry, but you do. You’re a waste of paper.) Especially, especially, especially if you’re outlining while you’re reading. (I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t flat-out read a history book to save my life. I’ll fall asleep within minutes, no matter how interesting the material is or isn’t. So writing while I read really helps me focus on what’s important – while actually getting through the reading.)

In addition, outlining makes your notes organized in a way that just taking straight bullet points never will. “Pilgrims sail to America…Colonies form…Wait, how did I get all the way to the American Revolution?” With outlining, everything is under headings, and each heading tells you exactly what you’re looking at (this satisfies the first rule of teaching: “tell them what you’re going to tell them”). That way, you don’t have to squint at your notes, wondering where the breaks are and why everything seems like one huge, jumbled pile of facts. Read More

The Flu’s Got Nothing On…

Written on January 18, 2010 by theboneshavespoken

Filed Under: Advice, School Life, Solving a Problem

Okay, so maybe the flu has some downsides, too: fever, aches, sneezing, coughing, even nausea depending on the severity of your bug…but I digress. The truth is, unless you were really unlucky and got H1N1, your symptoms probably didn’t last longer than a week or so, right? Well, there’s another flu out there – a mental one, and this one can last for weeks, even months. The symptoms for this flu are often mind-boggling obvious, but since people rarely tend to watch for them, they can wreak astronomical damage on a person. Those symptoms include: lack of interest (in school), procrastination, spontaneous napping, elevated count of SparkNotes visits, diminished grade count, and an interest in the internet, games, TV, or any fun activity that borders addiction.

This flu is Senioritis. Read More