Students' Complains about Homework and Grades

A lot of students are complaining about their school and their teachers. They complain about how they cannot handle the amount of homework and also about how they cannot get good grades at school. They often blame the teachers; however, these problems happen partly because of their own fault.

Some students complain about their homework. Teachers give students homework so that students can understand more about the topic. For example, mathematics. In order to excel in mathematics, students should work hard and practice a lot. The teachers actually give students the incentive to study by giving them homework, but students are just complaining without realizing the purpose of the homework. Another example, medical students. The teachers give lots of exercises because they want to make sure that the students can be safe and good doctors. We of course do not want to trust our lives to a doctor who barely passes his or her classes. In addition, if students cannot handle the amount of homework, they should invest more time to do the homework. I often hear that a lot of students do not have enough time to do their homework, but I am confused that they still have time to hang out almost two to three days a week. They cannot handle their homework because they prefer hanging out to studying; therefore, the solution to the problem is to invest more time to studying.

Some students also complain about how they cannot get good grades. Getting good grades is actually just a matter of studying hard. By studying hard, investing more time, students will be able to do better on the exams. Although there are people who can finish studying in one hour, that does not mean that we cannot get the same good grades as them. They may finish studying in one hour, but we can also get the same result if we study, for example, for three hours. As long as we get the same result, the three hours studying is worth it. Some people just stop trying and give up on their way, but if only they invest more time in studying, they would do better.

In conclusion, students should not complain about the homework and about how they cannot get good grades at school. I know that there are some teachers who are just too hard and picky, but I am sure that a lot of teachers are thinking about their students' future. Otherwise, they would make a living by doing other jobs. It is up to us, students, to invest more time in studying if we want to get more knowledge and good grades. Einstein says, "Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs." We should be happy that we take the availability of education as granted. Students' obligation is studying, therefore, we should be able to handle the homework and get good grades as long as we invest enough time in studying.

Environment or Money?

The economic world has been around for thousands of years now. The way people do business transactions started from a simple system called "barter," which is a system where people trade things which are thought of the same value. Some time later, people started to agree on several things as the official trading materials. They then agreed to use what we now call "money." Money around the world now is available in the form of paper or coins. They serve the basic need as valuable materials to be traded with other things. As business transactions get more convenient because of money, the economic world increases its activities and starts to neglect the importance of nature. Money has hypnotized a lot of people and make them either apathetic or ignorant about environment. As a result, people have only-money-oriented economic system.

Several questions arise as a respond to the money-oriented economic system. Should people keep exploiting natural resources to get money or should people try to keep the balance of nature? Should people trade the resources which are good for the balance of nature with money? Should people trade the earth with money? Is money more valuable than nature? These are difficult questions to answer.

From the perspective of a lot of businessmen, money is more valuable than nature. There are a lot of businessmen, not all of them, who are apathetic about the environment. Some say that they are just trying to survive, but when they already have more than enough money, they cannot stop. Most of the time, greed comes into play, and businessmen start to exploit the resources without thinking about the consequences. Money also gives people the power to control their lives and even other people's lives to some degree.

But, coming back to the basic facts, money is just something that is thought to be valuable. Money's value is not real, it is just an agreement made by people. The same question can be asked: are gold, silver, diamonds, and other gems valuable? How people determine whether things are valuable or not shapes the economic system nowadays. People determine valuable things as things which are difficult to get. In other words, people need to work to get valuable things. For example, a diamond feels more valuable than a plant. Plants should be more valuable to people because plants are required to produce oxygen, which is vital to people's survival. Another example, a million dollar feels more valuable than the air people breathe. The air is crucial to people's lives, but somehow they just feel that a million dollar is more valuable.

As everything which is vital for people's lives comes from nature, people just take it for granted. The easy access people have to nature makes them feel that nature is not that valuable. In fact, people cannot live without nature providing air, water, plants, and all other things. People should start to consider nature as valuable, and they should start to conserve the environment before it reaches its end. Nature and humans have to co-exist to keep each other's well-being.

The Unsuspected Effect of High price

High prices were always thought as something bad by a lot of people. But me and my brother, Kevin, realized that there is a new pattern forming in this 21st century era.

We realize that now, a lot of people are living in a "high-price oriented" ideology towards the market, that is, as what me and my brother say : a tendency to buy a product which is more expensive than another product which is cheaper, but of the same quality, build, and material.

1. Higher price is now seen as something better in quality and build because a lot of people think that with higher price, the production cost is higher; therefore, the ingredients/materials are more expensive and better in quality.

2. A glass of milkshake worth $1 with another one worth $10 do not taste the same even though they are the made from the same ingredients. The one which is more expensive is most likely to taste better because people's brains are implanted with an ideology of "expensive stuff tastes better". We think that a psychological effect is influencing our mind and make us think that something expensive is better than it actually is!

3. We tend to trust expensive products more than we trust cheap products. For example, a lot of people buy $1000 usa-made laptops instead of buying $200 chinese-made laptops with similar quality.

Our conclusion is that we need to be wise and thoughtful about how we spend our money, and we have to make sure that we aren't fooled by our own mind to buy something more expensive. We have to separate what we really need with what we want. We have to prioritize things we really need.

Is 'being rich' the Goal of Life?

A lot of people seem to think that being rich is so important. A lot of parents advice their children to choose majors which will produce a lot of money. The parents are not wrong because they think about their children's happiness in the future. They do not want their children to live in poverty. A lot of people think that having their own business is better than working under someone. As I may not have working experience yet, I look at this problem ideally. I think that being rich does not mean being happy, and having his/her own business does not mean that one would be wealthier.

One who is rich does not mean that he/she is happy. He/she can have a lot of money to spend, but he/she has no friends. Rich people, although not all of them, tend to have 'friends' who are their business partners but not real friends. These are people who care about the friendship only if the friendship has economic values. Once one is broke, he/she would lose these 'friends'. I cannot imagine how someone is going to survive without any friends.

In addition to not having a lot of friends, one would have some kind of a monotonic life. My brother and I agree that "being a researcher, [one] will never know what [he/she] will find out tomorrow, but being a businessman, [one] will always know that what [he/she] will only get is money" (Soewondo Brothers, 2010). Although a lot of people have exciting and bumpy business lives, all they would get at the end is money. If one already has a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars, what will they do with those money? He/she keeps working and working, but he/she already has more than enough money to live a very enjoyable life. Then, he/she might reach a point where everything seems to be monotonous(waking up, working, eating, sleeping, and repeat them all over again).

Middle class people who are working with other people can be happy even though they do not have a lot of money. Some people are happy when they have family, friends, and a job they like. For example, a researcher is happy although he or she does not have much money. He/she works excitingly, constantly being anxious of what will he/she get in the experiments. Another example is the workers at a non-profit organization with just decent salary. They work by helping other people in their lives, and they are happy just by helping other people. Even though they work under and with other people, they are happy.

The lives of researchers and workers at non-profit organizations are full of surprises. The researchers may make new discoveries which are exciting for them, and the workers may happily cry when the people they help have become successful. The researchers and the workers feel glad that they have helped other people to advance to the next level either in their technological side or their personal life's side.

In conclusion, rich people do not always mean happy people. Being happy loosely depends on each individual's way of defining happiness. Some people are happy by having a monotonous job with high salary, but some other people are happy just by having an exciting job with decent salary. Each side offers its own advantages and disadvantages.

Kevin n Kenny Soewondo's Thoughts on How People Walk

Me and my brother noticed something weird in the way people walk. It is actually so natural for people that they do not notice it. Obviously, when there are several people going to the opposite directions but having the same path, some of them have to move out of their way to avoid collision. What me and my brother notice is how people decide who need to move out of their way to avoid collision.

The decision is made based on several factors such as age, group size, and activities being done at the moment.

1. Age
   Most younger people would move out of older people's way. We think this happens because people respect people who are older than them. Although there are people who say that they do not respect older people, most of them still unconsciously move out of the older people's way. For example, an 18 year old person is on the path of a 40 year old person. The 18 year old is more likely to move out of the 40 year old's path despite being conscious or not. There is a sense of respect towards older people planted in people's brain.
   
   
2. Group Size
   We think that the size of the group also take parts in the decision-making process. A smaller group tends to move out of a bigger group's way. This might happen because people have a feeling of empathy towards each other. They think about each other's easiness to move. Obviously, the smaller group can move more easily than the bigger group; therefore, the smaller group would move out of the bigger group's way. For example, a group with 2 people tends to avoid a group with 3 or more people. We unconsciously empathize each other.
   
   
3. Activities being done at the moment
   We think that people who are doing less activities are more likely to move out of their way. Again, this happens because of the empathy. For example, a group who is doing nothing but walking is most likely to move out of the way of a group who is reading novel while walking.
   

In conclusion, people, whether they are conscious or not, use empathy and respect to decide who need to move out of the way. People empathize each other when they see each other, and they unconsciously calculate each other's easiness to move out of the way. People who are in a small group can move more easily than people in a big group; therefore, the small group would move out of the big group's way. Furthermore, people who are concentrating on walking decide that they need to move to avoid collision because the other group have not realized that they need to move yet. Whether people are aware of this or not, they constantly calculate other people's easiness to move and decide which way to move.

Smoking in Public Places

Smoking is an activity of inhaling air through a cigarette or a cigar. The air flows through the cigarette's body, and it brings with it the flavor of the ingredients of the cigarette. For some people, it is regarded as a way to express coolness or a way to release stress. On the other hand, some think that it is a disturbing activity for them. People have their freedom to choose to smoke, but government should provide them with some kind of area to smoke so that they do not disturb other people who are not smoking.

People who choose to smoke say that they have the freedom to smoke cigarette. Human rights give people the right over their lives; therefore, people have the right to do whatever they want to do to their bodies. Some people who are smoking say that they like the warmth and the taste of the cigarette. Furthermore, some other people who are smoking say that smoking is a way to release their stress so that they can keep working well even when they are under tension. The government cannot demand those people to stop smoking because they have the right over their own bodies.

A lot of people who are not smoking but living around the smokers feel disturbed about the smokers' behavior. Smokers are free to smoke, but they should be considerate of their surroundings. The smoke from the cigarette can cause internal injuries to those who inhale it. The injuries start from dizziness, increased blood pressure, and later, death. The government should consider providing areas for the smokers to smoke so that both sides are satisfied.

A solution that the government can use is what I call a smoker-box and a smoker-pipe. The smoker-box is a box made of glass that can be used as a helmet. As it is made of glass, people who use it can still use it while they are working or walking. The box should have a cigarette holder inside it. The only hole it has is the hole for the person's neck; therefore, only a small amount of smoke can slip outside. The smoker-box should also have a valve which can be connected to the smoker-pipe. The box allows smokers to smoke, and it allows the non-smokers to be virtually free of smoke.

The smoker-pipe is a pipe which can be connected to the smoker-box. The pipe should have connections around the city and the end point should be the forest. Just like firemen's water supply which is available all over the city, the smoker-pipe should be made available around the city so that smokers can release the smoke from inside their boxes into the smoker-pipe. The end point should be the forest because the forest can neutralize the smoke.

In conclusion, a lot of non-smokers feel disturbed by the smoke caused by the smokers. The government should provide smoker-boxes and smoker-pipes throughout the city so that the city can be virtually smoke free. The forest used for neutralizing should be a big and dense forest because it has to be able to process a big amount of smoke.