Month: March 2015

Dear Mr. Dastagir

March 20, 2015 / / 6 Comments

Dear Mr Dastagir,

I have come to you today to address a huge problem throughout the school which I feel is causing pain. I have come here today to break the shackles and free the victims of the mental pain. I have come here today to address ‘ banter’.

Banter has become an excuse for the pupils to insult others,’ as a joke ‘, and this is affecting the pupils of the school in lots of ways; like mentally lowering self-assurance, creating fights in many classes. Overall, banter is distracting pupils from their learning.

The reason that I feel ‘banter’ is an issue needing to be dealt with forcefully is because people use it as an excuse. People use it as an excuse to insult others, bring families into the matter, be racist, and many more insults. This is why I feel ‘banter’ has to be dealt with ‘forcefully’.

‘Its just Banter’ is just a way of saying it isn’t my fault that you were hurt, and saying that it was meant to be just a joke. They use ‘banter’ to say, also, it isn’t their responsibility that you didn’t take the ‘banter’ as a joke, but as an insult.

The penalty for using the phrase, ‘it’s just banter’ should have ruthless sanctions, perhaps one hour detention, for not taking responsibility for mentally injuring the ‘victim’s’ self esteem and mind-set.

‘Banter’ is also used slip past the sanctions for racism, and this is making students of this school feel that they are in-charge and this must be dealt with because it leads to fights, eventually. It leaves students feeling they have the rights to undermine a teacher and be rude to them.

One of the worst outcomes that ‘banter’ can cause is bullying, when one pupil begins to insult another, then calling it ‘banter’, the victim feels that they have been bullied. But the bully, (not aware that they are a bully), just explains that it is a joke, (which it was in the beginning, or it was meant to be,) hence attempting to escape the claws of the sanctions. And for a school with a ‘perfect ethos’ it has been destroyed, internally, by the students themselves. This is why I think that ‘banter’ must be dealt with very soon.

One of the worst insults that ‘banter’ is used to cover, is racism. Racism is covered by ‘banter’ because one pupil will say something to do with their skin color or their home country, as a joke, but the second student will probably not take it as a joke. A serious issue that must be dealt with emerges. When the 1st pupil calls it ‘banter’ when they are told off for being racist, that just makes it worse because the 2nd student does not feel they are equal to the 1st. This leads to further problems throughout the school; thus, this is one of the worse things banter covers.

Mr Dastagir, I hope you take this in as a serious problem, and please reply with any ideas that you have to dampen the sincerity of the situation. A few ideas that I had were, maybe you give a thirty minute or an hour detention. Or, possibly you could put anyone who calls the cussing (insults) ‘banter’ in referral for 2 days.

Yours sincerely,

Luke Spencer.

an unusual character

March 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments

The rain pounded on the windows, begging to be let in, as if fearful for it’s lives; the hail was crashing down onto the rugged pavement below. A silhouetted figure swept past the window; at once the rain stopped, perhaps he was back… The one… The one who creates… The creator…

How Does Salman Rushdie Create An Atmosphere In Chapter 1?

March 5, 2015 / / 2 Comments

HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES

The atmosphere in chapter one is set by many descriptions and events throughout chapter one. The most important description is on the first page and tells us that there will be a theme of sadness which will be further emphasised throughout the book. The quotation is,
“A city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten it’s name”
This quote is one of the most important parts of the description because it gives a huge emphasis on the sad atmosphere by the word ‘ruinously’ which means that the sadness was so bad that it had ruined a once legendary city. This is a foreshadowing of extremely sad events to come later on throughout the book. A few of these events are: Soraya, haroun’s mum, Leaves him and his dad; his dad forgets how to tell stories and then becomes sad like everyone else in the sad city. This is how Salman Rushdie creates an atmosphere in chapter one.

The author, Salman Rushdie, also has a main theme of storytelling which, has a few mentions throughout the book, like “Arabian Nights”, ” Tangled” and there is couple more in the book, i believe, because Rashid tells stories and is called “the ocean of notions” because he tells elaborate stories of by heart whenever needed. Thus, he is a happy citizen of the sad city, again, emphasising on sadness and desparity, compared to the fact that 1 in about 1000 is happy in the world. This prepares you for the events to come throughout the book, which make you feel for the characters in the book. Making you drawn in to keep reading through the book and find the final outcome for the family’s future. This is another way in which Salman Rushdie creates an atmosphere in chapter one.

There are some ideas that Salman Rushdie puts into chapter one and develops later on. One of these is the mentioning of ” story water “. This substance of ” story water ” is what Rashid says gives him the power to tell elaborate stories. But in chapter five, Rashid is sad ( because his wife, Soraya runs away ) and loses his ” subscription ” to the ” story water ” and it is removed from Rashid’s bathroom. Another one of these ideas is a theme of sadness and despair; many events in chapter one which happen, emphasise sadness and desparity throughout the chapter. One of these events is when Soraya, ( Rashid’s wife ) runs of with her neighbour ( Mr. Sungupta ) this leaves a hole in Rashid’s heart which emphasises on sadness and despair. This is also how Salman Rushdie creates an atmosphere in chapter one.

Another idea in chapter one is about ” Khattam Shud ” being the end. Whereas in chapter four, it becomes the name of a forbidden villain; A feared villain. I think this is because “the end” is a threatening phrase, thus becoming a forbidden name, like ‘Voldemort’ from Harry Potter. This is another idea that Salman Rushdie puts into his book, ” Haroun And the Sea Of Stories ”