Author Archives: MELVIN ORTIZ

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Blog #2 Topics:

  1. Should Liberalism be Limited? We all know that independence and individual freedom is crucial in a society, but have we looked at how it affects our society today? Sure, Personal expression is fine, but what comes out of this? Protests, Riots, Vandalism, and even sometimes violence occur because of this. Maybe it’s okay to promote individual freedom, but when it is right and harmless. 
  2. Why is modern-day schooling so oppressed? Schools are meant to teach us in order for us to learn and become “successful contributional citizens” to society. But do we really learn? Schools have been given a curriculum to follow and that curriculum has been stuck into not only the schools, but into us as well. Instead of learning, we memorize whatever is told to us in school.
  3. Schools teach what is necessary for school after high-school instead of prioritizing life lessons. Oftentimes, school criteria teaches us about core subjects like social studies, history, and writing. Aren’t we missing something? Economics is a class that many schools lack. 
  4. AI development; is it bad? In today’s world, we can see technology everywhere around us. Is this good or bad? There are many malfunctions that can occur, but how do they affect us? It can be bad.

*Schools teach what is necessary for school after high-school instead of prioritizing life lessons. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/why-arent-more-states-taking-on-economics-and-personal-finance-education/2018/02 “To move the needle on economics and personal finance education, change might have to come from the ground up.” 

  • Surveys are taken on the 50 states every 2 years to analyze personal finance and economics education. It hasn’t been looking so well for many.  In many states, economics class isn’t taken seriously as a prerequisite. We need to take initiative, but where do we start?

*Why is modern-day schooling so oppressive?

https://www.rc.org/publication/presenttime/pt172_053_mp#:~:text=The%20oppressive%20system%20is%20the,young%20people%20feel%20not%20smart. “Different young people make different decisions about how they will deal with how oppressive school is” 

  • Schools are the base of oppression. They implicitly promote capitalism and oppression in society. Young people want change and change needs to happen. It starts from the base, and that is school.
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Prioritizing The Need to Focus

School; The word that has several meanings to us. To some, it can mean Seven Crappy Hours Of Our Lives. To others, it can mean the complete opposite. Regardless of the meaning, it always comes with our worst nightmare: Work. Whether it be classwork, homework, or job work, they all have one thing in common: Difficulty. Difficulty not necessarily because there is a lot of work to complete, but because of the amount of Focus needed. Schoolwork becomes a passive slouchy activity because we do not Prioritize it.

If you are like me, you struggle to complete work because of the daily reoccurring notifications from either YouTube, TikTok, Netflix, Instagram, or even your family. It can be friends messaging you, your favorite YouTuber uploading a new video, or even your siblings yelling for your name. Whatever the case is, I found a few steps that helped me and may help you in prioritizing schoolwork. Here’s what you can do:

–Get In A Quiet Setting: First and foremost, your environment is crucial. It is impossible to focus in a loud and hectic setting. It can simply be a public library, a cafe, or a park. I find the Baruch library to be a great setting. (Your room may not be the best option because your bed is right there, instead of getting motivated to work, you’ll find yourself getting motivated to sleep)

–Put Your Phone Far From Yourself Or Away: When completing Schoolwork, your phone is your worst enemy. You can say you’ll only check one thing, then find yourself scrolling through TikTok for hours. When you set your phone far from you, you cancel out all of those urges to check it.

–Set Your Phone On Focus Mode: This not only helps you focus, but it decreases your screen time. It is healthy to limit your screen time. When you set your phone on personal mode, you can mute unimportant notifications and only receive notifications from important people/things.

–Music: This one is optional. For me, music is the foundation of focusing. Lo-fi music, or study music can help me feel the work. You kind of just vibe through the work, and time goes by faster. It helps me think faster. (Try not to play your favorite rap song, or else you’ll find yourself singing your study time away)

There are many ways to helping yourself focus. You just have to find what’s best for you. Im glad that I was able to share these methods to you, and I hope that you take them into consideration. Remember: “The ability to concentrate and use time well is everything.” -Lee Lacocca

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