Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is a traditional African philosophy.  Ubuntu literally means humanness or humanity to others.It helps give us an understanding of ourselves in relation with the world around us. It states how theres a special bond between everyone, and our interaction between other human beings helps us to discover our own human qualities. "We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others." To me this means that you don't fully understand certain human qualities unless you yourself go through them and then you also see someone with the same experience. I can see others qualites and compare them to mine and see how they are the same and how they differ. It shows me how we all can share the same qualities. People may be completely different but we are all linked together because we all feel and go through some of the same things. This video relates to Jeremy Rifkins video on "the empathic civilization".  Rifkin's video is about how we are all different in many ways but we all come from one man and one woman. We are all linked together, this is just like Ubuntu because Ubuntu says theres a special bond between everyone. Both Ubuntu and Rifkins video are about how we all need to work together to bring out the good in society. These things fit in with what were doing in this unit as a class. These things make me wonder, what will happen if we actually abide by what they are saying? Will the world will be a better place? Will humans learn to be kind and caring or will we still carry on with being selfish and not caring about anything other than yourself?


-How does it fit in with what you want to learn about in this unit?

Your Not Alone

The articles that we read in class, All the Lonely People, and A Meeting of Solitudes by Roger Ebert, and the article about Being"fully" human online by Ezra Klein really got me thinking. What is it that makes people feel lonely? Does it start from a young age? Like if your parents had some affect on you? Or not having many friends to talk to? Or could it be that you have too many material things and not enough love coming from one person? Or is it just inside your brain? I honestly think loneliness starts inside you. I know many people who always say that they are lonely. But is it really that they are truly lonely or is that they don't know how to come out of there shell and be social or try and break that "loneliness bubble" that they put themselves in.

 "So many of you were abused, physically beaten, bullied, called worthless, ostracized because you were gay, or the wrong color, or too tall or short or fat or thin or -- does it matter? The reasons for your mistreatment were not in yourself, but in the minds of those cruel ones hoping to hurt you. As a response, some of you have cut off, shut down, or isolated. From your lives you have learned the lesson to seek shelter."

This paragraph in all the lonely people tied in what I wanted to learn in this unit. I believe that this is like the question we were asking about what separates people from making decisions to push through hard things or just do nothing about them and worry for the rest of your life.  Some people that have gone through all these terrible things sit at home lonely and do nothing with their lives, but some push through it and become stronger. They don't let these things hurt them. One of my family's friends had a terrible childhood that no one should ever go through. But that person is the strongest, most kind-hearted person I have ever met. Yes, she told me that she did feel lonely when she was younger but she pushed through it and now she never feels lonely.

One of the first things I thought about when reading the Ezra Klein article was the movie Avatar. The main character is in a wheelchair, but when he goes into this other world he can do anything he wants. He's not in his wheelchair anymore, and can run, walk, jump and use his legs again. Jason Rowe, one of the people Klein writes about talks about how he can have most of his abilities back in his online games. He says how it’s his window to the world.

Inspiration to the max

If you are not familiar with the Roger Ebert article, please read it here.

Roger Ebert is an exceptionally remarkable man. He has endured many surgeries to try and help him regain his speaking abilities. He has lost his jaw, and his ability to speak and eat. He has had cancer of the thyroid and cancer of the jaw. After all of his unfortunate failed surgeries, he is not a different man. He may look different and can't speak or eat. But, he is still the same man at heart. He doesn't let his disabilities get in the way of things he likes to do. He finds ways to live his life the same way but with different methods. He can still get his words and thoughts clearly out, he just cannot speak them. When given the choice to give up or move forward through these problems he chose to move forward. Although he has many problems, he still is very happy and lives a good life with people that care for him. This man has so much hope, and brings so much inspiration to everyone. Just reading this article brought tears to my eyes as to see how much hope this man has. He is a wonderful man, and I hope he brought as much inspiration to you as he did to me.

humanity,hope,human spirit? What are these things?

This humanity/hope/human spirit unit has kind of put me at a halt. I'm not quite sure where we are going with this huge unit. Hope is a strong word for me. Earlier in the year I spent an entire week in the PICU at Cooper University hospital. The PICU is the pediactric intensive care unit. I was very sick and I really had no hope. I didn't think I was going to get better. My mom, my inspiration, texted all of my friends and told them to forward around her text. Her text was telling people to text my phone and tell me to get out of bed, and get better so I could come home. I got so many texts, some from people I didn't even talk to. She gave me hope to get better.

I constantly wonder what guides people in their different directions, of either giving up or moving forward and making their lives better. I really hope  we do a part of this unit where we talk about how people choose their directions. We don't really have a class definition for humanity yet, but I hope we define it together(or at least try). Honestly, I'm not quite sure what we are going to do with the "human spirit".

What's going on?

Hey guys. Lets start out with an introduction. I'm Hannah Collier and I'm 15 years old. I'm usually very open with my thoughts and emotions. I'm usually not quiet and if I am, it means something's really wrong. I love sports, I play soccer and lacrosse and I also swim. I am in love with music, I can't survive a day without listening to it. I don't really like mainstream music. I find a lot of my own music, and don't let it get out. I'm not like others, I see things differently than most people. I've been through many things that not many people have gone through, and they have shaped my life in many ways.

I'm enrolled in the Gifted and Talented seminar year two at Northern Burlington. Yes, we are nerds and we love it. The class is challenging, but we learn a lot. Last year we tried a new technique where the students are in charge of the class. We had some problems but we got back on track quickly. This year we are trying the same technique. Our main topic for this semester is humanity. We're not quite sure where this is going to lead us, but keep up to date with our blogs and see how things go!