A 9-year-old's solutions to a LOT of problems.

I interviewed my 9-year-old brother to see what he had to say as for a bunch of modern issues. He had some interesting solutions...

What do you think should be done about the burning of fossil fuels?

We should use electricity.

Well, where would we get this electricity?

Lightning.

Okay, but how would we harness it?

We revive Benjamin Franklin.

But… nevermind. So what about homeless people?

um… we put them in apartments.

What apartments?

The apartments down the street.

But what about the people living there?

We take them out and then build towers and then put them in the towers.

I don’t think there’s enough room in the apartments down the street for all the homeless in the US.

They share.

But wouldn’t that lead to overcrowding?

They can have towers too.

But what about deforestation?

What’s deforestation?

Cutting down trees.

That’s why they live by the canyon, where there’s not as many trees and they can see burrowing owls.

What do you think the biggest world issue is?

Natural disasters.

I think you misunderstand what a world issue is…

What’s a world issue?

It’s something that people can usually fix, but that’s pretty much all around the world. What do you think of taxes?

I think that they should be higher, because that way the schools, and jobs, and electricity, and water would be better.

What do you think of gay marriage?

Gay? umm… it’s okay.

What do you think of how teachers teach?

It shouldn’t be very harsh. Some teachers are too harsh.

But you’re an honor student. If teachers weren’t as harsh, you wouldn’t get as good of an education and would probably be bored.

The ones that aren’t too harsh are fine, they still teach good.

What do you think of standardized tests?

I think the teachers should have to take the test, instead of interrupting our class time to make the kids take a test that really actually tests the teachers. (I may have reworded a bit here, but he approved it)

Sherlock.

What?

Sherlock. You look like Sherlock. You were doing the weird mouth thing.

Thanks, I guess. Tobacco. What do you think of tobacco and smoking?

People shouldn’t do it. We should just make a thing that makes the weird feeling when you’re smoking but it isn’t bad for you. Like carrots.

You don’t think that people should try to quit smoking, and not have anything addictive at all?

Well, there’d be a problem with beer then too.

So do you think we should ban beer too then?

Close the bars. Get rid of the bars and get rid of the cigarette stores.

What about poor people how should we help them?

Make it rain money.

Where would we get this money?

The thing that makes the money. Then we put in in an airplane and open its bottom and lets out all the money.

….

How would you convince people to vote for you?

I’d give everyone a free pizza and cake every year if I’m president. I’d probably get elected 3 times that way. That way everyone gets 12 cakes. maybe I’d be elected 100 times, and everyone would get 400 cakes!

What would you say to people who disagree with you?

Well, then they wouldn’t get a free pizza and cake, and no raining money. They’d get a force field over them that keeps the raining money from them. But I don’t think anyone would want to not elect me

Sorry, I don't speak French...

Short post this time, sorry (or your welcome, depending on your perspective...)!

I'm sure we've all encountered a point where you wish you could speak Spanish, or French, or Chinese, or Korean, or some other language. I know I have, and many times too. Speech is an essential part of society, and without it, civilization cannot function nearly as well. But when you can all speak, just not understand each other, it gets even more frustrating. This is a clear issue and I don't feel the need to argue it.

On to a solution. Not likely to happen any time soon, but it is a good one. What would probably work best is having a universal language that is taught to and spoken by everyone. I'm not saying that it should be English. In fact, I think it shouldn't be English. English is hard to learn and complicated. But something that uses an alphabet, and all the rules are constant and grammar is simple and flexible. It should be easy to learn and easy to speak.

Of course, like I said, this is unlikely to happen any time soon. I mean, the US can't even switch to the metric system. How are we going to adopt a whole new language?

And finally, I'm not saying that we should ban all other languages, though I think that it would be most effective if people were encouraged to speak this universal language in public places. Other languages could be spoken at home, or for religion, but not for business. 

Too many tests and too little money!

I'm a student. A high school student. I've seen the way the current education system works, and I'll be perfectly blunt, it's pretty bad. I'm going to do my best to be diplomatic about this, but there are times when I have to be extremely blunt to get my point across. As always, if you disagree or think of a better solution to a problem I mention, you are more than welcome to leave it (politely) in the comments.

 I for one don't like teachers who don't care about what they're doing, or who think memorizing words is a good way to learn a subject. That just isn't right.

Standardized Tests: I can see why there might be an appeal to standardized testing; you don't get rewarded on a class where the teacher gives you a sticker and a 100% for copying a paragraph from a book and penalized in a class where the teacher actually makes you work and truly learn. But school systems have taken this too far. Tests
that are just there so they can do something is not okay at all. Tests that don't actually affect us - or our grades - are useless and a waste of teaching and learning time. If it were me deciding how all of this worked, I would instead have a curriculum that lead up to the final exam that WAS standardized, but not have any standardized tests until then. Any tests given in the meantime would be created my the teachers, but would be looked over my some kind of review board before they were given.

Teacher Salary: I think part of the reason teachers get so lazy in their jobs is that they don't feel they are being paid enough to do a better job. I know that teacher funding comes from the state government and nobody likes paying taxes, especially not when they don't have a child in public schools, but can we please try to remember that the kids in public school will someday be running the world? Do you really want a load of uneducated stupid people running the world you'll live in as an elderly citizen? What if we took some money from the people who were actually running the government - if I remember correctly, the North Carolina state governor makes over $130K per year. The Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney General, and Lieutenant Governor all make over $120K per year. The Chief Justice makes over $140K. The Associate Justices make over $135K. The average North Carolina public school teacher salary in the 2008-2009 school year was $48,648. When you think about how important these very teachers will be, how these teachers will impact the world in even just five years, you have to see that they deserve more than just $48 grand. Do you want your country to be viewed as the one that was taught faulty, even false information, and is now trying to run the world, believing that the sun goes around the Earth? I know I wouldn't.

Anyways, the school system is pretty sucky and there is nothing we can really do about it until people stop being so greedy with their money. Just to sum it all up.

"Accept God!" "I will when He accepts me!"

I can fully respect if you are religious and go to church/mosque/temple or whatever religious site. That is not what I have an issue with. I have an issue with you when you start trying to convert people to your religion. When you start threatening them with damnation if they don't follow your religion. Then we have a problem.

What I truly don't understand is why you care if someone goes to Hell. That should be their choice, and if they enjoy their time while they are on Earth, maybe they consider it worth it.

Another thing that bothers me is when people try to make laws based on religion. Laws like gay rights, for example. If two people fall in love and both decide they want to get married, who are you to tell them they can't. If you bought a burger and I stole it and threw it away because I was on a diet, you'd be pissed off, right?

Now I have to bring up the hypocritical people who say they're against gay marriage because it says it's a sin in the Bible. But then they shave their beards, eat shellfish, and wear cotton-polyster mix clothes.

Then there are the people who say they're against it because they're defending the sanctity of marriage. Funny how I don't see anyone trying to make laws about marriages like Brittany Spears'... Why is it that no one complains if the two have only known each other for a matter of hours, all of which both of them were drunk off their rockers, or if they are both on their seventh spouse, just so long as it's a man and a woman?

I suppose it boils down to mind your own business and don't try to make laws based on your religion. And if you do decide to make laws that totally invade privacy such as marriage, don't complain when some of your private matters have laws interfering them as well.


Sorry if that was ranty, this is one of my big pet peeves. Leave me a comment!

Hello!

Hi! I'm Megan. I felt there was a need for this type of blog, because who knows? Maybe one day somebody important who is more equipped to make a change than I am will see it and actually make something better happen. 

I apologize in advance if I start ranting, I have a bad habit of doing that. Feel free to, in the comments section, let me know if you think I'm ranting too much.

I am that kind of person who feels really strongly about a lot of things, but never has time, means, or courage to actually try to make a change. I happily acknowledge that I'm not perfect, and I will frequently add in a post something like, "however I am guilty of this myself..." because I don't want to be projecting an image that I think I'm perfect and never mess up or do anything that could possibly hurt someone. Because I'm not. That's why I started this blog- because I'm a busy person who hates confrontation and I can't stand telling a person in real life that I think what they're saying is a load of crap.

Another thing- I try not to curse a lot, but it happens, especially in a setting like this where I am talking about something I feel strongly about.

First real post coming soon! Stay posted (see what I did there?!)!!