IS MUSIC MORE THAN JUST A FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT?

Yes, I think music is definitely more than just a form of entertainment (for me anyway). I think it changes your mood instantly, it makes you see the world and the people in it differently, it can make you happy, miserable, heartbroken, excited… Even as I write this blog post, I’m listening to music.

 

I’m the sort of person that listens to music ALL THE TIME. I listen to it walking to the tram stop, on the tram, walking to school, during electives, sometimes during classes (that don’t involve loads of talking), during recess, during lunch, on the tram home, walking home, while reading, while using the computer, while doing chores around the house, sometimes even while I’m in bed trying to sleep. I remember when my Ipod (I think it was my phone at the time) was confiscated one night and I can’t even describe the dread it brought to think about having to endure the day without listening to music. What was I supposed to do on the tram? I guess I could read, but what about walking home? I spent the entire night thinking of different ways to get it back, borrowing my sister’s phone, borrowing my mum’s phone, even finding the confiscated phone and bringing it anyway. (I ended up surviving the day with a good book)

 

The trail that my group went on really proved that music is much more than just entertainment. We had a lesson on music therapy, where we all had to name the instruments that we played and then pick and instrument that had no connection whatsoever with the instrument that we played, so that there was even playing ground for everyone. I play the piano, flute, and I dabble a little in guitar, so I couldn’t take anything like the piano, for instance, the xylophone was a definite no. There were no woodwind instruments, so playing the flute didn’t really limit me, and I don’t think the guitars ended up getting brought out. I got the bells the first time round, when we were asked to play to the emotion ‘happy’. It sounded like complete and utter chaos, until someone decided to actually start up a rhythm, and we all just sort of fell into place.

 

I don’t think we were really getting ‘happy’ across, seeing as I ended up just being annoyed (and the constant feeling of the bells hitting my knee got REALLY irritating ((and it hurt)), but it definitely shows that music can make a real difference to the way you’re feeling, and that people acknowledge this and know that this is what music can do.

 

Musicians do try to get across feelings and emotions, and I believe that it really works. Obviously music is more than just a form of entertainment, when we’re feeling sad, happy, any emotion really, we use our creative sides to put together a piece of music. When you think about the amount of effort, the amount of thought and hard work that’s gone into thinking up the lyrics, the bass line, the overlaying instruments, even the dedication that’s gone into finding someone to produce the song, the album, the album cover, it just gives music another infinite amount of feeling from the singers, composers, musicians and producers that gives you another infinite amount of feeling while listening to the song.

 

Is it easy to do the right thing?

This is a question I honestly can’t choose a side to stand on with. My initial reaction was to definitely say no, because I feel like when you’re told what you HAVE to do, it makes you more reluctant to do it, because you want to feel rebellious, you don’t want to give satisfaction to the person telling you what to do, or just because you don’t like being told what to do. But then, going in the opposite direction, when it comes to doing the right thing, there’s a strict line between what’s right and wrong, therefore you should know exactly what you have to do, and just do it. But then you realise that what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are just a set of rules someone told you to follow, and then we start getting into what is right and wrong?

In our philosophy lesson, we were given a few scenarios, where we had to move to different sides of the room according to whether we agreed or disagreed. A few of the questions really got me thinking about the concept of right and wrong, and moral values. Obviously one of them was: ‘There is no grey area between right and wrong’. I went to the disagree side because I don’t know what is right and wrong. Yes, maybe killing someone is wrong, but how do you know that? I know that because someone told me, and I bet they know that because someone told them. I do feel in my ‘heart’ that taking someone else’s life is ‘wrong’, because I know that I have my own life and thoughts and so much complex… stuff going on in my head that the thought of ending someone’s life just isn’t right. But even as I talk about how right and wrong are just concepts that people put into our heads, I’m using the phrases ‘taking someone else’s life is wrong’, because I just can’t think of a better way to put it. 

There was also a question about if there were four people tied to one branch of a train track, and one tied to the other,  if the train was out of control and had to go one way or the other, and the train was heading for the branch with four people and you had the switch, would you use it to change the course? I didn’t really have to think about this question, and I don’t really see why. Let four people die or one? Do I need to answer at all? There were a few people who were unsure because they said that turning the switch would make them murderers, and that they couldn’t live with that. I’m sorry if I’m being rude, but I just think that’s incredibly selfish. Are you saying that you would rather indirectly kill four people than take a blow to your conscience? I think that you’d feel worse about the fact that you could’ve saved four people than the fact that you killed one. 

I think that what this all basically boils down to is that, according to me, there really is no such thing as ‘right and wrong’ at all. It’s all just a set of rules someone decided to make us live by, and we’re taking it as gospel. You should be able to take a situation and think about it according to your own values, and then act according to what you think is ‘right and wrong’, not what someone else told you to believe.

 

Reflection (Choose your own adventure week #1)

Looking at our class now (9S1), I’d say that the two Sharman classes have definitely bonded. I think that we’re still extremely competitive, and both classes think that they’re better than the other, but I’m FAIRLY sure that everyone basically knows that S1 is better. It seems like sometimes I can’t even differentiate between who’s in my class and who’s in the other. As for myself, I don’t REALLY feel like I’ve bonded with anyone in 9S1, apart from people I already knew ( not by choice, I just never really found myself in a situation where I was having a great friendship breakthrough with anyone…) 

I thought that this weeks trail was really interesting, we learnt a lot about values and what’s right and wrong. I figured out that my #1 value for the future is passion. I just think that if in the future I’m not working in an industry that somehow incorporates one of my passions into the work that I do, there’s really no point. Because if I’m not doing something that I’m passionate about, I (most likely) won’t be happy. And isn’t being happy what everyone wants in life? You could argue that the point of a job is to make money, but I guarantee that that money that you’re making is going towards making you happy (in the long run), so why not just get a job that you enjoy, and get the best of both worlds?

As for team project groups, I think that after the mess that was Mini-Trail, we’ve tried to clean up and organise ourselves, but it just seems like the assigned leaders for particular tasks’ opinions aren’t really being taken seriously, and everyone’s just going their own way and then when someone does what they were meant to, it doesn’t correspond with what anyone else did, and we’re right back where we started. But we’re making an effort to get organised, and with a little more practise, I think we could get things together in time for options trail. 

Is Melbourne Fair?

Without really thinking about the question at all, my immediate reaction was to write about how great Melbourne’s political system is compared to other countries around the world, but after really thinking about it I realised that maybe comparing us to other countries wasn’t a good idea at all, because we may be better than other countries, but in our own right, our political system (standing alone) isn’t really so great at all.

The first thing I think about when I think of the unfair laws in Australia/Melbourne, is, obviously, the most talked about (I believe) issue in the law for a while, illegal gay marriage. It may not be a big deal to some, but even so I just think that the law is stupid and unfair. Usually the reason people oppose gay marriage is because of their beliefs, and the fact that God says that only marriage and love between different genders is acceptable, but our prime minister, Julia Gillard, is an atheist! I don’t think she’s ever really given a reason as to why she won’t just change the law. There are many people who believe that she won’t change it because she doesn’t want to lose the respect of the people of Australia, but she’s already lost my respect because of this choice.

It is also extremely common in court cases of murder, rape, kidnapping, burglary etc. for the accused to be extremely in favour. There are many cases were the accused claims to be depressed and/or mentally unstable, and the judge, instead of trying to decide how long to jail them for, will spend a large majority of the time concerned about what the ‘jail conditions’ would do to them.

There are also many cases of corrupt police in Australia, it’s always been a pretty big problem for us. In the 1980’s and 90’s, many members of the public believed that he Melbourne police force were corrupt, and working against the people of society, instead of for them. Ciitizens were being shot at, gas bombs were being placed in streets for no apparent reason, there was no real aggravation. There were also quite a few allegations that some of the topmost officers in the police were actually part of The Civil Service. None of these rumours and allegations were ever really denied or confirmed though, so the people of Australia just continued to gossip and create rumours about our police squad.

I don’t really get affected by the law and justice system in Australia so much, as I am a 14 year old, so I don’t really have any examples of where the unfair/fair justice system affected me personally, but form what I’ve seen on the news and in newspapers, our legal system isn’t all that great. I think that they try extremely hard to please us, and to make us think the most of them, but not so much about our real welfare.

Camp Reflection

so. Camp. Overall I’d say it was a pretty enjoyable experience, although, as with all memories, there were things I regret and things I enjoyed especially.

I’d probably say one of my top moments of camp was (incredibly) the 8k hike. I’ve always regarded myself to be extremely unfit, as me and sport are sport are 2 things that don’t mix. But I found that on the hike, I was ahead of most people for quite a while, and could continue up the steep hills, while others had to stop for many breaks and such. So I’ve come to the conclusion that I may be fit when it comes to walking, but if you were to tell me to run that entire hike, I probably would’ve collapsed on the floor after 15 metres. 

The dinner on the first night wasn’t as boring as I expected it to be (although the food was a little worse than I expected it to be), making dinner was actually quite fun, although it took ages to cook the sweet potatoes for the curry. We ended up having heaps left over, even though everyone else finished of the second pot, we had the leftovers from our plates that went to Eva, and I’m not entirely sure what she did with them.

The ‘trail’ on Friday was good as well, we ended up going to the shopping centre and basically walked around and bought food for 2 or so hours ( and got dirty looks from the Ballarat civilians) and then got back on the bus at around 2:30, and got back to school at about 4-4:30 I think. 

 

CRITICAL QUESTION – Evaluated.

I think that to improve my critical question next week, I should include more perspectives on the point that I’m trying to make. I’ve obviously been choosing one argument that I’m going to go with and sticking with it, when I should be pointing out ways that the opposition could have a good point and things along those lines.

I also should do a little more research on my responses, using newspaper articles and internet reports to back up my theories. I also think that adding some more photos and pictures into my responses could make it a lot more interesting to read and appealing to the eye.

It also seems that I may not be questioning my own opinion enough, which ties into putting different perspectives into my writing, and seeing its flaws and weaknesses from different points of view.

Education Week

What I remember most about his week was definitely the NAPLAN testing. Which wasn’t really a part of galileo really, but it went with the theme for the week (ironically I guess)

So we started off the week with a video about the school system, things like the way we are tested and how all of our school work and testing leads up to getting a job and a spot in a good University. I agree that the way education is set up isn’t exactly ideal, but I highly doubt that there’s another way to do that would agree with people more than what we have now. I think that Galileo is a great way to get a break from normal school and learn some real life skills that will stay with me for a really long time, and I really do think that it’s making me more independent (I didn’t expect it to), whereas sometimes normal school sort of pushes you to rely on other people.

On the Monday of education week we went on our mini trail. Anna wasn’t there on that day so it was just me, Eva, and Sam. We had arranged to go to The Wheeler Centre, and had sent an email to someone working there on the Stella Prize, but they never actually returned any of our attempts to make an appointment. So we went there without really knowing what to expect, and I guess we got a little more than we had expected… We were basically given some booklets on The Wheeler Centre and told a little about what sorts of things they did there. We were then told that everything we needed for our literature project would be on their website, and ushered out the door. We weren’t entirely sure what to do with the 2 hours or so we had left, to we decided to go to the bookstore across the street. We spent around 45 minutes in there, looking at different books and reading, basically just browsing. It may sound boring, but bookstores have always been a place that I could easily spend hours in without getting the slightest bit bored.

The skills workshop on Tuesday morning was definitely the best yet. We learnt how to play chess (I already basically knew the rules, because of playing as a child) and then had to partner up and play. Anna and I basically failed our game, studying the board for 5 minutes at a time, trying to find a move that wouldn’t disturb any other pieces on the board (opposition’s pieces included). I found that I became accustomed to moving my queen or king one square to the left or right and then moving it back on my next turn just to get out of disturbing the serene state of the game, while Tracey and Rebi had already both won the game once and were starting their third game. Quite a few times John would come around to check on the games would come over and tell me that I was in check or that Anna’s bishop was right in line to take my queen, and we would realise that both the pieces had been in the same spots for at least 5 turns, and we hadn’t even realised.

The multiple intelligences class was also very interesting. I went into the class thinking I was good at thinking visually, musically and linguistically, and came out of the class having learnt I was very mathematical/logical,kinaesthetic (????), and linguistic. But I think that the tests were just a little too specific, like I’m just particularly skilled at hoola hooping and I’ve always been good at Sudoku. But when we did the online test I learnt I’m very musically, linguistically and mathematically intelligent. But then again I think that the test was mostly based on your own view of your skills, so if you ended with a score with lots of extremely high numbers, you’d obviously put mostly 5’s for questions like ‘You are good at solving maths problems’, which would probably be a lot more accurate with ACTUAL tests. But as we saw with the tests set by the Galileo teachers, it’s kind of hard to really tell where you are intelligent. These were my scores:

 

 

 

LEARNING GOALS REFLECTION

SKILLS

For my first learning goal I had communication. I still feel as though communication is a goal of mine, and I haven’t REALLY been able to improve on it yet. If I’m put in a group with people I dont know, I’d say im a little more comfortable with talking to other people, and thats a good start for me.

Leadership. I’d say my skills as a leader haven’t improved much at all yet, but hopefully I’ll get better.

I’ve gotten a little better at listening. To the teacher and to other students as well, but as with all my other goals, I could improve a lot. I still get distracted REALLY easily, and i still cant seem to stop drawing on my hands and arms.

KNOWLEDGE

I’ve learnt a little more about divergent thinking. Now that we’re in education week I feel like I’ve learnt about the flaws in the education system, which was a large factor that was touched on in the divergent thinking youtube video.

We went to the Magistrates Court and Parliament House, so I’ve learnt ALOT more about justice and the law. But i still feel like I’ve only brushed the subject.

I dont really feel like I’ve learnt much about sustainable living at all yet. We’ve learnt a little about eating healthy and stuff along those lines for camp, but it hasnt really come up yet.

PERSONAL

I think that I may have started to focus a little more in class, but I’m sure that I can go a lot further to improve my learning.

I’m not entirely sure why, it’s probably all the random groups that we’ve been put in, but I do feel like my confidence has risen a lot over this term. But obviously (as with the other goals) I could be more comfortable around people I dont know very well.

As we dont have much to bring to call in galileo, theres not MUCH to go on as to whether my organisational skills have improved. But I hardly ever bring my folder into class, so I think I should really improve on that, and I am almost always late to class, which is beginning to become a problem.

 

I think that health week was the most enjoyable week yet, and I expected to really hate it because I REALLY hate sport, and I just assumed that that was going to be the only aspect of health we were going to talk about, and if not, it was only going to be about personal goals and other boring and unnecessary things, mostly because of health class (sorry), but I learnt that wasn’t the case.

 

We did a few lessons about ‘what is health’ and things along those lines, coming up with the idea of physical – exercising and dieting mostly, mental – self esteem and stress, and social – your friends, family and community relationships. On Tuesday morning we watched an insight video that was vaguely disturbing… then we found out our community service groups and I was glad to see that I had ascot vale special school. I’d been hoping for it because I really wanted a chance to work with the kids with learning difficulties. We chose our trails and thankfully I got the one I was hoping for, the Collingwood children’s farm, over the other two which were both mostly about physical health if I remember correctly.

 

On the Wednesday we went on our trails, and I was SO glad I chose the Collingwood children’s farm. It was surprisingly really fun, even though we spent a lot of time cleaning up the garden bed. We then went to lunch at lentil as anything, which had seriously good quality food for whatever price you thought it was worth, or however much you could afford. I think that it’s a great way to accommodate for people who may not have enough money to go out and buy food for themselves to be able to eat as much as they need to.  It was a great day and I really do think it improved my mental health for the day, as it gave me an excuse to get out into the sunshine and to do something for the community.

History week was all about, well, history. I’ve left this a little bit late so I don’t remember much about history week, but this is what I remember.

So we had a lesson on ‘iconic historical moments’ where about half the class were in loft with John. We looked at a few photos that depicted iconic moments in history, such as the little girl on fire running from the Vietnam war, the monk who set himself on fire to make a statement etc. There were also some photos of people like Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson (sort of…) who were just extremely iconic people. We listened to a few iconic songs and then we were told to pick an iconic photo and song ourselves. I couldn’t really decide on a song but I decided on this photo of Albert Einstein with his therapist that id seen somewhere a while ago.

I just thought it was a really great photo, showing how even though he was genius, maybe even BECAUSE he was a genius, he had problems just like the rest of us.

The for trail we all went to the Koorie heritage museum where we got a tour of the flagstaff gardens with a woman named donna (I think). She told us all about where the trees came from, the different uses for them and white settlement. Then we went into the museum where we sat down and listened as she talked to us about all the different languages that the people in all the aboriginal tribes in Australia spoke. Then we got to look at some old aboriginal spears and boomerangs and a wombat fur cloak. It was an overall fun and interesting experience.