Home Learning: To Kill A Mocking Bird

Interpersonal task: I sought the opinion of my sister at home about prejudice and discrimination and she told me that she felt that although history, statistics or evidence may prove that that person or race is not one of noble character or justify discrimination, we should not judge anyone without getting to know him or her first. She also said that we should never discriminate against somebody or a race just because other people do so.
I agree with what my sister says. In the 1800s to the 1900s, blacks were discriminated by the whites, especially in America. They were treated unfairly and treated as only two-thirds human beings. There were many cases of injustice to the blacks such as the incident which led to the Montgomery bus riots. The strange thing is that there was no records or statistics/evidence to show that blacks deserved to be treated that way. There was no stand for the whites to say that the blacks were inferior. However, they still chose to discriminate against the blacks, the reason probably being that the situation was that way, that everyone was doing it. Thankfully, we had people such as Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln, who fought for equal rights for the blacks, allowing the blacks to come into society and hence making all the contributions that they have made to our society.

Intrapersonal task: I would like to be friends with Atticus Finch. Throughout the entire novel, we are offered many glimpses of his noble character. He has many qualities of a good person. Humble, determination, courage and many others which i will explain.
We can see how humble he is from the incident with the mad dog. Atticus was actually a very good shooter. However, he never told his children of this ability of his. When Heck Tate asked him to shoot the dog, he said that he could not do it and asked Heck to do it instead. Only after Heck's persistent request did he do it. When Heck Tate told his children that he was the best shot in town, he told Heck to shush, showing how humble he is.
We can see how determined he is from Tom Robinson's trial. He knew that it was a gone case, that Tom Robinson would be charged with rape and sent to prison but he still tried his best, still tried to save him even though he knew it was hopeless. How many people do you know that will still try and do something even if they know they will fail. This quality of his is a rare one and one that we should all strive to have.
We can see how courageous he is from Tom Robinson's trial too. At that time, blacks were being discriminated by the whites. They were treated as inferior to the whites and treated unfairly. In this court case, Atticus was defending Tom Robinsons, a black man against Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Atticus knew how the white community would react when he chose to defend Tom and the struggles and abuse he and his family would face but still, he chose to continue as he knew what he was doing was right. He told himself that no matter what, he would do what is right. This shows how courageous he is.

Kevin Smith kicked off a plane

The director of Mallrats(1995), Kevin Smith, might want to think of losing weight. He was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for his weight and his inability to fit in a seat properly. He responded by posting over 50 angry posts on Twitter. Southwest Airlines later apologised by putting him on another flight and issued him a voucher.
In my opinion, just because he is unable to fit in his seat, hence inconveniencing the other passenger(s) sitting next to him, it does not warrant him being kicked off the plane. Furthermore, if that person does not complain, then everything will be alright, why force him off? I do not think there are any rules that say that if a person cannot fit in one seat then he or she has to be thrown off a flight. The captain of that plane should be punished for his rash actions.

Woman who sued William Tan convicted

Stephanie Chee, a 50 year-old woman, sued paralympian Dr William Tan for alleged loans that amounted to $400,000. Now she has been charged with 10 accounts of making false reimbursement claims against three charities. There was even an incident where she submitted the same claim twice to pay a plastic surgery medical bill her brother had run up.
In my opinion, I do not understand why people will go to such means just for a bit more money. If she was elected as the general managers of Parkway Healthcare Foundation, one of the charities she submitted false claims against and of Toa Payoh Senior Citizens' Healthcare Centre, I do not believe that she would be in such a desparate need for money. By doing such dishonest acts, she is putting her reputation, her job and many more at risks. If her misdeeds came to light, there would be many negative effects on her life.

World's biggest mango identified

Here are some good news for all mango lovers. Have you ever thought that growing a mango a whopping 3.5 kilograms was impossible? Well that is possible as proven by Sergio Bodiongan from the Southern Phillipines. It surpassed the previous record of a 2.4 kilograms mango grown in Canada by 1.1 kilograms! If only grapes could grow as large...