Final Blog

    Throughout this year, the classes focused on numerous topics such as politics, media, war, companies, and much more. Three years have passed since we first attended Mr. Paterson's classes. Overall, this year's was the most complicated but profound in my own opinion. Although I from time to time struggled to understand the principles introduced through the videos we watched, the shocking truths and footage of the media and war influenced me hugely. Despite the fact that I used to show no interest in war documentaries until the start of this year, after learning through these classes, I found myself riveted in watching, and deeply concentrating on a television documentary about Ukraine the other day. Such changes in my movements allowed me to notice how influencing the classes were and finally leads me to this blog, where I will reflect on the most inspirational classes I had this year. 

   First, is the class where we discussed creating a country from scratch. My team decided in implementing Geniocracy as our base system, with an original plan to create a whole generation where everyone is equal in each content. After creating 30 generations of such, an intelligence test regarding knowledge and character tests would be enforced for everyone in order to decide the most "intelligent" person suitable for the countries leader. One of the biggest notices through the discussion was, "whether which system we decide on, media would affect each individual." In order to create an equal generation, we assumed that for the 30 generations, everyone would be able to attend school for free. However, based on which school/teacher they decide on, the students would automatically be influenced by the teachers; who are influenced by the media that they see. Even more, even "us" who are discussing how to make our country, is somehow biased by what we have seen in the media, and who we have been involved with. I notice that perhaps it would be almost impossible to create a completely "unbiased" country. Such notices lead me to acknowledge how the media truly has an unavoidable effect on our lives. In addition, I realized how important it is to attain the skill to prevent ourselves from being influenced by a certain media.

    Second is the creativity classes we had throughout the year such as the spaghetti and the one-stroke challenge. For the spaghetti challenge, we started off well but ended up losing half of the height of the tower. Despite the fact that we actually came up with using more spaghetti, none of us came up with asking for more. As for the one-stroke challenge I basically did horrible without being able to clear any of the steps. Such experiences made me consider whether I had loosed some of the creativity I used to have after being accustomed to Japan's rule society. Although many of us complain about these strict rules, no one tries to fix them. I feel the rules that were supposed to protect the students have been destroying their creativity and important problem-solving abilities. Such notices motivated me to keep in mind the importance of creativity in any situation. 

    The third is the class where we watched a video of Palestinian students being hindered from entering their houses due to security fences built by Israelis. The video contained a woman asking the Israeli guard "why?" multiple times but being rejected rudely. Another scene was about a woman who executed a suicide bomb. Such intentions do not occur naturally during daily life. I wondered how much suffering results in an individual committing a suicide bomb; certainly not a normal level. I was hugely shocked towards how children of the same age as me were suffering from such realities. In addition, how I never knew these facts until that moment, made me consider how indifferent I had been towards these problems. The war occurring in Ukraine is being reported in the news daily. How serious they report it makes it seem as if this is the only and rare war that has been happening in the whole wide world, while similar situations have been continuing for more than years in countries such as Palestine. How the media conceals inconvenient truths is truly unequal.

    In conclusion, these are the most impressive classes for me throughout this year. All of them gave me a great understanding, especially of the media and war. In addition, it is really dependent on us to spread these truths and our positive learnings to society. I really believe that this is where what we learned through the whole three years will help us. To be honest, the presentations and essay assignments were really tough for me at the start. However, reading the first blog I wrote three years ago, made me noticed how much I had learned, and how valuable all the classes were. Presentations became one of the biggest strengths in daily life. Lastly, I would really like to thank Mr. Paterson for what I truly believe were life-changing classes.