Greek Mythology and Modern Day Life

We are curently studying greek mythology in my english class right now. We are working on power points and we will be doing a research paper on whichever topic it was that we chose. I've heard a lot of the kids at school saying things like " I don't see what mythology has to do with anything and I think that it's a waist of time to study old myths that nobody cares about", and I can't help but think about it, why do we study mythology? Personaly, I've been looking forward to studying mythology ever since I found out that we did study it in 9th grade. Besides Shakespeare, it's one of my most favorite things about 9th grade english. I was thinking about what that girl said about how mythology has nothing to do with anything and it's just useless stories. I think that we have a lot of the same ideas that they show in these myths. One example that I can think of is that there are times in the myths that beauty is chosen over brains which happens a lot in our society today. They also have characters that are similar to characters in some of the religions that we have now. I'm doing my research paper on Pandora and she is a lot like Eve from the bible. She was the first mortal on the earth and so was Eve. Pandora was given a box that she was not supposed to open ever but she still did, and as a result all the evils that now affect man were released. Eve was not supposed to eat the forbidden fruit but she did and that caused her to become mortal and able to die. There are many different things in myths that relate to life now. It's not just a bunch of useless stories but really gives us a better understanding of how the greeks lived and what thier beliefs were.

Honesty

Yesterday I was sitting in church and my teacher started telling us about how you should never lie and how honesty is always the best way to handle things. I couldn't help but to wonder if that was really true. It sounded right but I still thought that there had to be at least one time in history when lieing was the best thing to do.

I thought about all the reasons why honesty would be the best. If you're with a friend and you're getting ready to go somewhere and they put on something completly ugly and they really want to impress somebody that will be there, you might want to tell them to wear something else. Another one is your parents. If you lie to them then you have to keep lieing to cover it up and then when you get caught you just get in bigger trouble than if you had just told the truth in the first place, not to mention you could have saved yourself alot of time and effort.

But honesty isn't always the best. Lets put yourself back in the position where your friend and you are going somewhere and they look hideous. What if they thinhk they look really good and their really happy with their outfit, you don't want to crush them by telling them that it's not that great. Then they would spend the rest of the night trying to decide what to wear. Also, if you think about major things in history, there was often alot of lieing involved. Take the Hollocaust for example, the people that where hiding jews had to lie in order to keep the jews and themselves alive.

I don't think that just one way to do things can be right all the time. There are exceptions for everything and one way is better than the other.

Winter Break

The holidays are coming soon and you know what that means, winter break! For alot of kids the words "winter break" bring thoughts of relaxation, sleeping in, and hanging out with your friends. Even though winter break is supposed to be our time off, it seems that more often than not, teachers are assigning big projects over the break. Instead of going sledding some kids are stuck at home doing their science project.

Some people would say that kids should do their reports and projects over the break because they aren't constantly doing something and they'll have more time to do a better job. I don't think thats true because honestly only about 1/5 of Junior High kids are worried about doing an amazing job on a project that they would give up their free time, even if they are just sitting there doing nothing.

I think that teachers should try and assign the projects a few weeks before the break so that by the time the break comes they could be done or close to it. Then we could all take a real break where you don't have to worry about assignments and grades. All you would have to worry about was having fun.

How badly do you need a vacation?

Well, yet again I have a ton of time on my hands so I decided to make a quiz. Tell me what you get on this one too!

Question #1
What kind of classes are you taking?
a. One Honors class and drama 2.
b. All the easy ones, art, choir, and lunch!
c. All the honors classes, drama 2, and comp.tech, not to mention the extra curricular activities.
d. Whatever is required.

Question #2
What do you usually do after school?
a. About an hour and a half of homework and then I go to soccer practice after that.
b. Get on the computer and talk to my friends on msn until my TV shows come on.
c. 2 hours of homework followed by violin practice, extra credit projects, and AR reading.
d. The least amount of homework possible and then I hang out with my friends.

Question #3
What do you do in your free time?
a. Every Friday I go to my friends house and hang out.
b. Whatever, I always have free time.
c. Free time? What free time??
d. A little of this, a little of that, just whatever I have time for.

Question#4
What are your plans for high school?
a. Graduate with a 3.0 and try to go to college.
b. Plans? What plans?
c. Get a job, save my money, graduate with high honors, go to Princeton,etc.
d. Graduate and maybe go to a local college or something.

Question #5
How long do you sleep?
a. 6-7 hours
b.10-11 hours
c. 5, if I'm lucky...
d.7-8 depending on how much I need.

Alright, now go back and see what you got.

~Mostly A~ ~*It would be nice*~

~Mostly B~ ~* You're already on one*~

~Mostly C~ ~*GO, NOW!*~

~Mostly D~ ~* No, you're pretty relaxed as it is*~