I am kind of in the middle on this subject. I understand that the list of banned topics are sensitive subjects to some and therefore may not need to be expressed in a classroom setting. However I also feel that it should be ok to talk about these things in a paper simply because we are on an online class and the teacher is the only person seeing it. I guess you could say that the teacher who reads it could be more judgmental toward that student if she did or did not agree with what they wrote. So as you can see I don’t really know how I stand on this. I personally would not want to wrote about any of those topics simply because I would be expressing my own opinion and don’t want to offend anyone else or their beliefs. We live in a free country and we should be able to talk about whatever we want but while in this class the teacher has the overall say on what can and can’t be discussed. It’s like religion and politics, you can’t openly talk about either one of them without someone around you stepping up and putting their opinions out there and disagreeing with you. Very rarely people talk about these subjects and someone does not get upset or their feelings hurt. I guess it would be better off just being safe than sorry and not allow the class to write about gun control, abortion, or any other banned topic.

There are several schools that are promoting the idea of "cash for grades." In this system, children who get good grades will be given money from the school. Discuss what you believe to be some of the negative and positive aspects of this policy.

Wow I wish they would’ve done this when I was a child in school! That would have been the best thing ever to receive money just for good grades. I was an A and B student until around the 8^th grade and then a few C’s every now and then. So I probably would’ve received some cash. I believe this could really help some kids now days. I have seen kids that slack at school work just simply because they are lazy. My daughter is one of them. She is in the 5^th grade and she is very smart, however sometimes she just doesn’t do her work because she doesn’t want to. If there were money involved I would bet she would never slack. Kids like to be rewarded for good behavior so I don’t see any difference when it comes to school work. The incentives are great to some people that don’t have a lot of money and that child might seek additional help from a teacher or a friend just so they could get paid. This in return will help them in the long run. Potientally help them make it to college. I have my thoughts about paying for good grades but I’m sure some people think it could be harmful. We can’t monitor the kids and what they do with the money, but I would still rather see good grades and an effort to try. We would rather see the kids with good grades than bad, so we should pay them to reward them.

Discuss whether or not you believe the use of medical marijuana is justified or should be legalized.

                I am against the legalization of medical marijuana for several reasons. I know a lot of people are for it for many reasons as well, however I just don’t think it is the best option. I believe that smoking marijuana may be beneficial to those who have medical conditions but if we make it legal more than just those people will be using it. I know there are a lot of people out there who use it now and don’t have a prescription for it but making it legal will only increase these numbers dramatically. If it is legal it would probably more likely to get in the hands of younger kids and be available to almost anyone, anywhere. It is a mind altering drug and can affect people around you in a number of ways. Marijuana causes people to react slower than they normally do and this isn’t always a good thing. While driving for instance, if you had just smoked marijuana and started driving, I wouldn’t want you to be on the same road as me and my children. I’m not saying that just because it is illegal now that we don’t have any users, I’m just saying it would increase the numbers if were legal. Sounds very dangerous to me.

                                                     Biography

I had the option of picking Harry Houdini, Elizabeth Taylor, or Malcolm X. I think all three of these are excellent people to write about. I am not all that familiar with Elizabeth Taylor’s movies mainly because they are a bit before my time. She is still an excellent actress with lots of interesting things to write about. While going over a few websites I realized I didn’t know as much as I thought I did about Malcolm X. He had quite a rough childhood. However I chose to write about Harry Houdini simply because it is awesome the things he can do! If you just watch any of his acts you will be left in awe with your jaw wide open. It amazes me how someone can do all those escape tricks. I wish I could do things like that, but I would probably just panic while trying to get out. I recently was in Florida and went to a festival on a pier one night. There was a young man doing Harry Houdini’s famous escape from the straight jacket. He was trying to beat Harry’s time and also do the trick with not only a straight jacket on but a 6 foot chain wrapped around him too. He did get loose from both and he did this in less than 3 minutes, I think. He was sweating a looked very nervous, so I can only imagine what Houdini was doing and thinking the first time he attempted all of his tricks and escapes.