Why do you hurt yourself?

Dear Students,

I want to tell you something that I've been noticing this month. Many of you like to hurt yourself.

For some reason, you guys like to do things that end up hurting yourselves. Some of you still refuse to complete all of your homework. In the end, if you don't do homework, who do you hurt? Do you hurt the teachers or your parents? Maybe a little bit. But if you think about it, not doing your work won't hurt me because I'll still get my paycheck. You, however, will suffer in the end because you won't be prepared for college.

If you do drugs or inhale stuff, who do you hurt? Not the teachers or your parents because we're not the ones damaging our brains. A lot of you still don't understand how hard it is to succeed in college. You will need all of the brain cells that you have right now. Each brain cell you kill means you're one brain cell dumber than other people. So, tell me, who do you hurt in the end when you do drugs?

If you act out in class, and you don't learn the stuff, who do you hurt in the end?
If you fight, and you get suspended from school, who do you hurt in the end?
If you copy homework or cheat on tests, and you don't learn the stuff, who do you hurt in the end?
If you need help with homework, and you don't come to office hours, who do you hurt in the end?
If you have a problem in your life, and you don't get help from us, who ends up getting hurt in the end?

When I said "Think before you act" in my last letter, this is what I meant. Before you actually do something stupid, think about what will happen and who you're going to hurt. I'll bet you, in the end, you will hurt yourself the most. There's enough pain in this world; why do you think adults are always looking for happiness? So, if you can't stop others from hurting you, then you can at least stop yourself from hurting yourself.

With love and respect,

Mr. Hsu

Do Now 11-30-2004
Go to your own blog and write a response to my letter; you have 10 minutes to complete this assignment. Your response should do the following:

1. Describe a situation where you had “hurt” yourself in the way that I described in my letter.
2. Discuss what you can do to prevent other students from hurting themselves.
3. Talk about whether my letter made sense or not. Do you agree or disagree with what I said? Why?

I was reading a book for my doctoral class at UCLA, and I came across some pretty interesting information. The authors studied charter schools like Animo Venice, and they surveyed the students at these charter schools. Analyze the table below and then answer the questions after that.

Source: Finn, C. E., Manno, B. V., & Vanourek, G. (2000). Charter schools in action: Renewing public education.Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

1. What are the authors trying to find out? What does the information say about charter school students?
2. How does the information in the table compare to your own experience in a charter school? What is the same and what is different?
3. How many students were surveyed? How many schools were given the survey? How many states were involved in the survey?
4. In this survey, how many students said they liked the food? How many students said they disliked the food? The answers are not percentages; they're just numbers.
5. Go to our discussion forum and cast your vote on what you like and dislike about our school. The polls are anonymous, which means we won't know how you voted.