If you do it, I'll do it too

If you were struggling with business, who would you be more willing to take advice from: Bill Gates or Bernard Madoff?  The obvious decision is made so quickly because of one thing: credibility.  Many times, if someone is told something from what they consider a credible source, they are highly inclined to believe it, regardless of if it is actually true.  As Bill Gates is to business, Jonathan Edwards is to religion.  Edwards' speech "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" carried enough power to convince millions of people to convert to the Puritan church.  His vivid metaphors of the weakness of the human being in comparison to the wrath of God brought people to tears with fear.  Why so many people believed Edwards' sermon is beyond reasons of credibility, however.
Along with deciding how true something is by it's source, humans rely on each other when making decisions.  Humans strongly support mob mentality, defined as unique behavioral characteristics that emerge when people are in groups.  While being in a group has its benefits, some mob characteristics are not always positive.  A great example is the Westboro Baptist Church, a group of forty members that holds extreme religious beliefs, most notably their disapproval of homosexuality.  Through open public protest, they convey these controversial beliefs to persuade others that it is what God wants.  Their belief system is so extreme that members are willing to kill.  It is through this strength in numbers that people sometimes make brash decisions, as well as gain the courage and bravery to perform acts that would not normally be completed alone.
To develop oneself as an individual being, it is important to spend time alone in order to develop voice and reasoning.  Being alone allows one to work through problems effectively, think deeply, and relax in solitude.  Paul Tillich states, "Language... has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone".  Living in the confines of the home has become looked down upon in society.  Those who are considered "party animals" are classified as fun to be around, interesting, and energetic, while the more introverted are "odd", "awkward", or "unsociable".  What about such things as self confidence, intuition, and awareness that are developed by being alone; are these traits of no value?

Even education can break the rules

I held a conversation with my fourteen year-old brother about a somewhat controversial issue.  He attends a private Catholic high school, and he asked me this question, "How does faith perfect reason?".
I composed an answer somewhere along the lines of, "Faith and reason cannot "perfect" eachother.  Faith relies on a personal religion and moral values, while reason uses facts".
Thinking I had totally impressed him by nailing the answer, he surprised me with his reply, "You are incorrect!"  He continued on and told me that the answer he learned in school was that faith makes a human whole, and therefore allows someone to reason.  In a public school, religion is a discouraged topic because of its controversy, while at a private, Catholic school, the topic of religion is the basis of learning. It's odd how even though we are both from the same upbringing, we hold completely different views.  Our own personal viewpoint is one we have developed through our learning and is "the only right answer".  In my opinion, many things surrounding education are much too insensitive.

While viewpoints are a majorly corrupted part of education, there are still other aspects that are also neglected.  Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven dedicates a portion of his book to his education and how it relates to that of other people's.  Alexie, a member of an Indian tribe, attends a "normal" high school, while the rest of the kids in his tribe attend the one on the reservation.  Throughout his high school career, many elements that create an education are explored, from teachers to high school mascots.  Alexie never receives the attention in school that the other white kids at school receive because he is Indian.  As Alexie graduates at the end of their senior year, he and the rest of his class are mentioned in the reservation's newspaper.  Much to Alexie's dismay, he again lacks recognition because he is presented as equal to the rest of the kids, despite the fact that Alexie is valedictorian and received a much more rigorous education at his school than the reservation kids did.  The time and effort each student puts in their work is neither acknowledged nor distinguished even by his tribe.
Alexie's message is strikingly similar to issues that supposedly have already been solved.  The famous Brown vs Board of Education court case ruled schools could no longer segregate (therefore discriminate), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights goes into detail about the rights every person has in terms of speech, expression, and personality.  Does education interfere with these rulings and freedoms?

Are you your mother (or father)?

Question: Does heritage determine who we are as people?

Heritage is defined on Dictionary.com as "something that comes from or belongs to one by reason of birth; an inherited lot or portion".  This definition certainly encompasses tangible objects and physical features that may be passed down from one generation to another through genetics, but what about such things as personality?  Jamie Derringer completed a study on variations of DNA chains associated to the release of dopamine, and revealed that 6.6% of one's desire for pleasure is due to the makeup of these DNA chains.  So technically speaking, everything one receives through their heritage is physically passed down.  But that doesn't mean one's heritage labels him or her as a person.  In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette begins the book by questioning why her mother is so content with being homeless.  She is embarrassed by her mother; when she sees her sorting through garbage, she cowards in the back seat of her taxi, ignoring her existence.  Jeannette later describes in her novel her experience growing up in a family that placed little to no value on material things.  Rather, the family centered around their bond with eachother.  While Jeannette has decided that she would like to live comfortably, she does value family as her parents did.  She has developed some of the characteristics she received from her parents, but has individualized herself.  Ultimately, she has bonded her individuality to her heritage: she found a passion for writing and was impacted  enough by her family to dedicate an entire story in their remembrance.