We Will Remember 8th Grade

Can we all remember the day we first stepped into 8th grade? We have all changed so much, strangers around us became our close classmates, our knowledge heightened, and we became full time teenagers. This year passed faster than ever. Even though we have all been dreading for summer, it is hard to leave behind 8th grade and all the great and bad memories that come along with it. There are so many things that we can say about 8th grade; the mean projects, the tests, the conflicts, the fun, even the smallest thing like when your friend made you laugh; It's all part of 8th grade. Now we all bundle up the precious memories of the year and plant it in our memories along with memories of grade 7, 6, 5.......

It has been an amazing year, and I for one will not forget 8th grade and all my peers, even the ones who are leaving this year.

Historical Theme Park

Kids do not like learning history from textbooks. In class learning is boring, kids learn better when they get to interact with what they are learning. A historical theme park is great, not only will kids have fun, they can pick up information and facts along the way. Through a theme park, it would be like you were actually there during that historical time. Now that kids literally get their hands on history,  through seeing, hearing, touch they learn much better. Furthermore, now that kids know more about history, they can learn to appreciate and respect what happened in the past.

Courage Development

Genetic determines the color of your eyes, you hair and your skin color. But courage is not something that you are born with; nature and nurture is different. I believe that courage can be developed by "nurture" rather than being born with courage right away (nature). Your surroundings and environment can greatly effect how you can develop your courage. For example, if your family encourages you in everything you do, you might be more courageous and often step up. Or sometimes if you father is an icon you might want to become more socially courageous; sought after your father's renowned figure. Sometimes experience can make you more courageous. For instance, if you have been through worse you might compare with what you have in hand and see it as something effortless. For example, if you have been through a surgery before, putting on a cast might seem painless to you.

Courage is something that you can't get without putting effort on it.

Caring Citizens

In RIS, all students are considered very lucky people we are born within a good environment and an opportunity to education . However this does not apply to all children in Thailand, that is why being a caring global citizen is important for all of us. Last Friday,  three groups of students are divided and assigned to go to different community services. Some went to the Daycare Center, the blind or to the Children's Village. We all had different assignments and jobs to do there, but we were all demonstrating a caring global citizen. 
As for me, at the daycare we had to put our energy and effort forth into helping the kids learn and entertain them. Further more we organized the food stock. We all wanted to help, and to thank us they even gave us ice-cream as an award, this just goes to show that doing good gets you somewhere good. As for the blind, students understood and appreciated the differences and difficulties the blind have to face each day. Lastly, at the Children's Village, students there all got a taste of culture and what it felt like to farm. 
From the advisement trip we all learned an important lesson. All of us demonstrated that our abilities and responsibilities that were developed from school could be used to help both environmental and community issues as a caring citizen.

Patriotic Terrorists

It is clearly evident that the sons/daughters of liberty abhor the British. I as a student, easily got fooled by their so called name, "patriots." As their title says so, people assume that they were innocent victims of the British, who was struggling to fight for their liberty. These "patriots" boycotted the British in ways like the Boston Tea Party, where they destroyed valuable products. This I suppose was uncivilized and barbarous. Can we still call them patriots when ethnic groups like the Taliban are fighting for what they believe in? The Taliban is very much similar to the patriots. Their goals were to reform Muslims in countries like India, where British culture corrupted the Muslim ways. Now I shall ask, is there much difference in fighting for religious rights and beliefs, and fighting for the country's rights? And if we call the Taliban terrorists, should we say the same for the patriots? I say, the "patriots" are terrorists. Unlike Mohandas Ghandi who used non violent methods to drive out the British influence, the colonists repealed the British in a ruthless way. The Sons of Liberty beat up the tax collectors, scared them away and rebelled against all British products. Therefore it is legitimate to say that "patriots' are terrorists.