Take Action: Amanda Dwyer

The "take action" portion of this blog was the most difficult for me.There are many different petitions that can be signed, but like Allison said it is hard to find one that I totally agreed with. There are so many different opinions on this topic. Everyone writes about their own views on the topic when it comes to petitions. Writing a letter to government was another option, but I feel like so many people do that and I doubt the government reads every single letter they receive. I feel like that would just be a waste of time because there is a good chance my letter doesn't get read. I ended up finding a petition that I mostly agreed on. It was designed after the Sandy Hook incident. The petition was designed by the president and vice president. The petition was intended to ban all assault weapons. I do agree with this because I believe the only people that need a weapon are people in law enforcement. I know there are people who have firearms because they want to hunt. I think that is fine, but they have to go through extensive background checks and take the class in order to obtain the weapon. At the top of the petition it told readers that everyday there are thirty-four Americans killed by firearms. That is a high number, especially when something can be done about it. It felt good to take action on the topic. I know that I contributed towards something crucial to the world.

I truly believe that education is an instrument for the public good. Social justice needs to be taught to children. They need to know what is going on in the world around them, so they can become better citizens. I think the classroom is the best place for them to learn this because it is a safe environment for them to learn. The teacher in the classroom has to make it a safe environment. It gives students a chance to form their own opinions on a specific topic. Often times children hear about what is happening in the world from their families so automatically they are going to believe what their families believe. If the topics are introduced in school and the teacher keeps her biases out of it than children can think and learn for themselves.

I think this current events project was great. It gave me a chance to learn more about gun laws and opinions, a topic that I have always been interested in. It was nice to take some time and do some research on the topic and learn about others opinions. It was also nice working in a group for this because you learn about your partners opinions and past experiences on the topic. I have never blogged before, so it was nice to be able to learn about blogging.

 I think this topic, gun control, needs to be taught to students in the upper level grades. They need to know the basics of it. I don't think it needs to be taught in too much detail, but just enough so they can form their own opinions on the topic and further research it if they would like. I believe it is a very important topic to teach even though it may be a little difficult.