We Don't Need No Education!

Writings for School: West A

Once upon a time, I attended West Allegheny School District, out in Imperial, PA, not too far from where I live now. Halfway through 10th grade I moved to Chartiers Valley due to family issues, but my experience at West A was very rewarding. I still have many wonder memories, lasting friendships- and a decent body of written work. As I noted earlier on my main page, many of the writings here from that era would not be up to my current standards; but that is a reflection of the normal development of any writer, and I am proud of most of these works. Some are dated in other respects, particularly some of my political rantings, which reflect viewpoints that have since shifted. Anyhow, here goes:

Honors Civics 9
Teacher: Mr. Prevade

In this class we had to keep portfolios of our work. Essays on current and historical events, politics, etc. were a major component of our grades. Unfortunately I decided to delete most of them at some point, but a few have been preserved, and I've compiled them here.
- Executive Department of Youth Development- in which I, under the pseudonym of Walter DeMarco, report on my election to President Prevade's newest cabinet position.
- Elian Gonzales Remember this kid? You know, the six-year-old boy who became the center of a heated international debate after he arrived upon American soil. And immigrating to the U.S. is supposed to make people's lives easier . . .
- Volunteerism Essay In this piece, a response to an article in a Chicago newspaper, I criticize the trend that is currently en vogue at high schools across America of requiring students to perform community service in order to graduate. I never really appreciated the issue, however, until I moved to CV and found myself held to the same standard.
- Contemporary Music This piece, with what I believe to be the best introductory sentence I have ever penned, is basically my way of pointing out the fallacy of dismissing new music that one does not even listen to. It is perhaps a bit dated, as many of the "new" bands that I cite are now "on the way out", so to speak, but I believe my point still stands.
CP English 10
Teacher: Mrs. Fox

Mrs. Fox was a really cool teacher, she came up with creative projects for us to do and really inspired her students to do some quality writing. I enjoyed that class a lot, it's a shame it got cut short by the move. The writings that I've posted here are parts of larger projects, and I have organized them according to those projects.
- Identity Project In this project we had to write about a certain aspect of our individual identity, for which I chose music, as that is an area that has had a substantial impact on my life. We also had to write a poem from song lyrics, and carry the identity motif forward throughout our career, and then the inevitable end in the form of an obituary. As I recall I received an A on this project; feel free to judge for yourself whether or not I deserved it :)
- Biography Project For this project, which I completed literally just days before I moved, I had to write a biography of a relative, close friend, or some other adult person who had influenced my life. I chose to write a biography of my grandfather. I ended up being very pleased with the finished product, and I also enjoyed getting to know my granddad better. Unfortunately I have not seen him for quite some time as a result of some inane family feud that I had nothing to do with, so I'm glad that I had this opportunity before all that stuff happened.
Honors World Cultures
Teacher: Mrs. Reda

In this class we dealt primarily with various cultures around the world. I got a somewhat limited view of the cultural spectrum, however, due to the curriculum shift accompanying my move. One of our units was on Middle Eastern- specifically, Jewish and Arabic/ Persian- cultures, and as a lead-in of sorts, we watched the TV movie Holocaust, starring Michael Moriarty and Meryl Streep. In my opinion that's kind of a bad way to start off such a unit, not good to begin a cultural study on such a sour note, but I enjoyed watching the movie. The writings on here come from a Holocaust project that we did after about a month of film viewing (break up an 8-hour miniseries into about 25-30 minutes per day and that's what happens), as our other projects didn't entail a whole lot of writing. I had to write a biography of Erik Dorf, a monotone Nazi bureaucrat played by Moriarty; an essay about the Holocaust itself; and an essay about what would have happened if Hitler had been an American president- i.e. what would have had to change in order to allow him do have done that, what effects it might have had, etc. I received a B on this project, if I'm remembering correctly, and I feel I got shortchanged. Anybody agree?
Horizons Newsletter 2000-01
Editor: Liz Peglow

At West Allegheny the gifted program is called "Horizons", for some odd reason. At the high school, the horizons program, coordinated by Mr. Quinn, publishes its own monthly newsletter. Due to severe editorial problems I was unable to get any writing published in 9th, but in 10th I was given a post as "On the Horizon"'s political columnist. This was a job to which I was particularly suited, although today my opinions would be quite different :) The last message is my fond farewell to many of the Horizons students- some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
- Vote Gore- My argument in favor of voting for Al Gore. But did you people listen?? NOOOOOO!!!!!! Well actually, I guess I should vent at the Florida supreme court and the antiquated Electoral College system- yeah, admit it, a lot of you conservatives supported abolishing the thing until Little Bush got into the White House because of it. That said, if I had it to do over again I would not have supported Gore, but instead Ralph Nader. But that's merely academic anyway, fact is Bush is in the White House, for better or for worse.
- Debate Results Hey, I'm no fan of Bush's public speaking skills, but Gore really screwed himself over in these debates. He ended up making Ben Stein look charismatic by comparison. The moral: don't get high before debates. There is simply no other explanation . . .
- Looking Back Thanks for the memories!
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