This issue is significant because we are fearing people that are supposed to protect us. This was stated in another [article] (https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793) , “For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.” This here picture represents an estimated lifetime risk of being killed by police by force as while as sex. This data is from 2013 to 2018. You can’t make these things up. ( check out this [link] (https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1MQj3Y27CP7t4oNlHg5QpBrF-q92kCF2rmkMvxLnxdOo/edit) for more information). In some of my ongoing research I haven’t really seen any progress to ending police brutality, but I can say I really haven’t seen anyone post something that involves police brutality. I can say that the George Floyd case is finally over and the officer was charged with murder , [link] (https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/05/04/993665655/derek-chauvin-files-for-new-trial-in-george-floyd-murder-case). I decided to create a zoom so African American young people( in the school) could have a safe space to talk about their feelings towards police brutality. It was an ok experience, this is something that I will make sure I keep track of because it’s very important as a young black American. I felt good doing this project, it felt good to learn things that I never knew. I learned that this topic was more touching to me than I thought it would be. I feel like I could have put more effort into this project. What’s still left is us getting our voices heard.

In my previous Slate Post I talked about the effects victims have after experiencing being trafficked. Whether they are affected Mentally, physically, emotionally or all three everyone’s situation should be equally justified.

The biggest way victims of sex trafficking are being supported that I found through my research is organizations that give victims the support they need. Some bigger organizations I found are the Center for Human Trafficking Awareness (Florida), National Sexual Violence Resource Center (Pennsylvania), and Project Reach (Massachusetts).

Ways that people who haven’t experienced anything like trafficking but still want to help can always do things like, sign petitions, volunteer with local organizations, educate themselves, and create a club to spread awareness. Those are just a few simple ways you could help! I think these are great ways to educate yourself, others and support victims. The first way to become an ally is to make sure you are educated on the topic. As for the organizations, I also think these are really great sources for any victims that will find comfort in them.

While I was researching for ways to be an ally towards victims of sex trafficking I stumbled across an organization, here in Philly called Dawn’s Place. The mission of Dawn’s Place is to proactively support women affected by CSE and its abuse by providing direct services to women, raising awareness through education and generating prevention, public policy reform, and community collaboration. Dawn’s Place was a local organization, the website made it sound like all of the workers were so passionate about helping these women in need. So I emailed them asking if anyone was available for me to interview and Mary Shay, the program director and trauma therapist responded! So we talked for about half an hour, if you are interested in listening to the interview I will put it at the bottom of this post and hyperlink it here.

The reason I wanted to do an interview was that I think it was one of the best ways to learn more about my topic, and to hear about it from someone who dedicates their life to it and not just researching from google. Ms.Shay was an excellent resource and interviewee. She seemed super passionate about her job and how awesome of a place Dawn’s Place is. I am incredibly grateful I was able to interview her. I hope that through this project I was able to educate others about how much of a negative impact sex trafficking can have on a victim, I definitely learned a lot myself.

At the start of this project I was pretty nervous and had no clue what I was going to do. I am a pretty shy person and didn’t know how well my project would end up because of that. But in the end, I think the Agent of change portion of my project went very well. As for my project as a whole, I am pretty proud of it. I worked really hard and learned a lot about my topic. I think I maybe could have done better in finding resources, not necessarily better ones, just maybe more of them? Obviously, there is so much to do to prevent sex trafficking but like I said earlier and if I am remembering correctly it was also said in my interview, the best way to start is to educate yourself to the best of your abilities.

This is my annotated bibliography

In this project I went to answer a very simple question ‘what makes a video game good,’ you might be saying that it is impossible to quantify that it is all about preference but I disagree on that sentiment. I say that there is an objective way to quantify the quality of video games, if that is not the case then critics would not exist. That point aside I think the traits of a good video game are pretty simple. That being that they should bring something new to the table, they should also have an interesting story and characters, lastly and most importantly they should have good gameplay. Now a game can be good without these things (except for gameplay you really need that) but they can add to the experience and immersion of the game. Aside from those three big ones there are some others that are some ‘minor’ traits such as; good music and sound design, good game and level design, good visuals, unique graphics, and a good mixture of learnability and complexity. There are obviously many more aspects and traits you need to make a good video game, but why is all of this even important? Why should we know what the specific aspects of good video games are? Well, in short you really don’t need to know. There are many topics far more pressing than video games. Yes, all of that is true but what is also true is that video games have engraved themselves into our modern society. A recent estimate put that a little more than 2.5 billion people play video games, that is nearly half of the entire population of the planet. That is why this topic is important because there are so many people playing video games more now than ever, and I can say from experience that no one wants to play a bad video game or a lazy video game or even a greedy video game (cough cough EA). And yet every year triple A games seem to get lazier and more boring, we should know the basic attributes to good games so we can steer clear from these games and to tell big game companies that we just want good games to play. In this post I may not have fancy graphs or pictures but what I do have is a passion for video games and a hope that one day we will get more good games than average ones and especially bad ones.

Everyone’s mental health has declined in this pandemic. Even if you feel like it hasn’t it most likely has. Quarantine was a very tough time for the world. We were all trapped inside with nothing to do and we couldn’t socialize. People are still afraid to go out just to get groceries because they are scared of Covid.

Quarantine started on March 13th, 2020. Basically everyone knows this since we all went through it. Mental stress and anxiety percentages have essentially skyrocketed among people in the US and the UK. The US depression rates went from 11% to 42% by December of 2020. By June of 2020 UK depression rates went from 11 to 19%. Psychologists think that we may still have these problems even after covid. OCD and multiple other problems have been caused because of quarantine. There has also been lack of sleep and massive changes in eating habits. Such as people eating more or eating less and changes in diets.

The reason I have chosen this topic is because I was curious about how mental health changed during quarantine. Personally, I was not really affected by quarantine. I had already been very stressed from 8th grade so it felt like a massive break and was very relieving. I had a lot more time to myself but most importantly I got closer to my family. Though my experience was actually mentally helping me, I know others did not go the same. Many people got very depressed and went through multiple changes. People went through different sleeping habits, diets, medicine changes, weight gain or loss, and multiple other things. This was all very interesting to me so I decided this to be my topic. I think that the biggest change personally has been school.

I am very dependent on having school physically. I get distracted very easily and have a hard time learning virtually. I have been very stressed out and due to this my mental health has been changing. I am not depressed but I am often stressed out. I am a lot more anxious about many things now as well. I know that I am not the only person going through this. People all around the world are dealing with these same exact problems. Even people close to me are experiencing the exact same thing. It somewhat makes me feel a little better to know that I am not alone. My friends and family are great motivators. The sad truth is that not everyone has supporting family and friends. Lots of families were affected by covid so people have lost supporting members.

In conclusion, mental health has changed in multiple ways. Some for the better and some for the worst. People now have more anxiety and are scared of the outside world. I hope everyone that is suffering can be healed and get better. Hopefully, these effects are not permanent and recoveries start to happen to people all around the world soon.

Could you be lucky by not having a phone these days? Having a smartphone is pretty common today except many are addicted or fear being addicted to it. I think many would agree that they fear having smartphone addiction. We are connected to smartphones, computers, and more almost every day. A lot of the time it is for work but for teens today we are constantly looking for digital rewards and micro-feedback. This issue is important to me because as a teen living in the U.S. today, I realize how much I am on my phone and with virtual school being a thing, I spend practically my whole day looking at a screen. It might not affect us now because we are young but in the future, the tendency is only to get worse.

These are the results of two surveys conducted in 2014-15 and in 2018 to find out how long most teens are online.

Smartphone Addiction is also known as nomophobia, which is the fear of being without a mobile phone. This usually results from the overuse of the internet. This overuse can lead to many negative effects. According to this article, it can lead to depression, suicide, interference with how productive we are, and even with our sleep. I know many of my friends who always complain about having a messed up sleep schedule. They will usually sleep at 3:00 in the morning and have to wake up at 6-7pm for school with no motivation to do anything. There is even a new term called “tech neck”. According to the same article, “The position of hunching over a smartphone for 8 – 10 hours a day takes a toll on physical health. Sitting with the head down puts stress and pressure on the back and spine, which is bad for posture and increases the risk of neck and back issues.” This is something that many teens have, myself included.

This image shows eventually how our posture is going to be. Having a stiff neck is painful because your neck will start to hurt and there is nothing to stop it.

We still are young, we still have time to correct or prevent ourselves from the negative consequences. Some things we can do are: remove apps that are time-consuming from our phones and start accessing them through a different device that we don’t carry around like our phones. Iphones have a new update that allows us to know how much time we spent on our phones. It even allows us to set limits to certain apps. It is called Screen Time.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/04/28/apple-statement-parental-control-app-crackdown/

This research has opened my eyes to many things such as dopamine, micro-feedback, and having a tech neck. It has also shown me that part of the reason for teens’ depression or anxiety is because of our excessive use of our phones. Now that you know some ways to prevent or stop yourself from having Smartphone addiction, will you apply these methods?

Annotated Bibliography

“Police Brutality”, is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement. In the United States “qualified immunity”, is used to protect officers from litigation after incidents of police violence. Crazy right? I know you are getting tired of hearing about how another black person has been killed by the police. Well I am and if you didn’t know I am a black African American. In the first 8 months of 2020, 164 black people were killed, stated by LI Cohen . IN THE FIRST 8 MONTHS, are you serious.
My connection to this topic is myself being a black woman. I’m tired of hearing how white police officers brutality cleaning Black Afrain American. I’m going to be totally honest. I’m scared because I feel like it’s getting worse and I fear for me and my family’s safety. I think this is important for others to know because it happens all the time and it’s not like the police get the consequences that they really deserve. This issue is significant because we are fearing people that are supposed to protect us. This was stated in another article, “For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.” This here picture represents an estimated lifetime risk of being killed by police by force as while as sex. This data is from 2013 to 2018. You can’t make these things up. I think it is important for me to know these things because I am a black woman and I have brothers and a father that at any time could be a risk. I can start to educate myself now because anything can happen. Let me tell you about a man named Walter Wallace Jr., he was a 27 year old man. He was mentally ill and his mother tried to let the police know that but they didn’t listen. He was armed with a knife but was 20 feet away from the cops and yeah should have put it down when and if they even asked him to. But as you should know cops carry teasers, they didn’t need to shoot SEVERAL TIMES, if they had TEASERS. Now read this article and tell me what you think. Crazy right? Same situation but you know the difference? He was a “vicious” black man if they were “fearing” for their lives. In conclusion, I wonder if this is ever going to stop. When are white police officers going to start using their none racist brains when it comes to handling a situation with black people? When I continue my research, I hope to learn more about defunding the police because this will solve most of the problems in the world. Like there is no reason ANYONE should be afraid of someone/system that is supposed to protect us from any harm but is causing the most harm . When it is going to happen?, is it still even something that people are stealing trying to enforce?

When you were younger, have you ever gone to a petting zoo? Do you remember your young innocent self being fascinated by cupping your hand and letting those adorable baby goats and piglets eat pellets out of your hand? You would laugh as it’s tongue tickled your hand and you were so content and happy. If that was you, flash forward to now. Do you still have that love and contentment for animals? Cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and all the other animals you pet at those petting zoos are [highly intelligent creatures] (https://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/other-issues/veganism) that live [short, fearful lives] (https://navs-online.org/articles/veganism-animal-rights/) in extremely tight crates in modern factory farms. You can start to answer this question by looking down at your plate during dinner.

The [image] (https://sentientmedia.org/slaughterhouses/) above displays terrified, dirty, and cramped pigs waiting to be killed at a horrifying slaughter house.

For this project, I was drawn to vegetarianism and animal cruelty because I was very passionate about compassion for animals, and I myself ate plant based. I would watch videos about animal cruelty and think back to those summers when I would go to a petting zoo and cry because my parents wouldn’t let me keep this one baby pig that I loved so deeply. These videos shattered my heart and that’s all it took for me to not eat meat. But I know that not all people are like this. Not all people care about animals like I do, and that’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person. My goal for this project was to bring awareness to the extremely negative outcomes of eating meat. Going into this research, I encouraged vegetarianism because it’s ethically wrong, but the more I got deeper into this topic, I realized that it’s not just about killing animals.

Animal agriculture doesn’t just affect animals, it’s what animal agriculture is doing to us humans and the earth all wrapped up in one. Some people might take it as gratitude and compassion towards animals, but eating meat from animals is also largely contributing to global warming and terrible for our human health. We can attack the topic of eating meat from so many different areas: Compassion, climate crisis, and human health. There are so many red flags that point humans away from consuming animal meat but they choose to ignore it for a short euphoric state of enjoying a medium rare steak. People don’t want to lower their meat consumption because they think they have to be fully vegan and master commitment, but the truth is [lowering your daily meat consumption] (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/19/why-you-should-go-animal-free-arguments-in-favour-of-meat-eating-debunked-plant-based) will help the environment tremendously. There are many more layers to vegetarianism than you might think.

The first point I wanted to hit was compassion. Animals are just like us, they are living breathing creatures with the same pain tolerance as humans and consciousness. The only difference between humans and animals is that animals are incomplete. Animals can’t use words like, “Hey, human! That really hurts and I am extremely in pain and uncomfortable.” Us humans take advantage of this incompleteness because animals can’t speak for their rights in this human dominant world. Animals are injected with hormones and live in horrifying conditions in factory farms. This is why us humans have to speak up for animal rights because they can’t for themselves. Meat eaters never see the horrors of slaughterhouses in the average animal product industry. The documentary [“Earthlings”,] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gqwpfEcBjI&t=1652s) directed and written by Shaun Monson, really put eating animal meat in a different perspective. The film stated, “Killing an animal is in itself a troubling act. It has been said that if we had to kill our own meat, we would all be vegetarians.” What if as humans, we ate our own kind, and we had to go through all the suffering in animal slaughterhouses? We would have a choice right? To eat our own meat or switch to a vegetarian diet. Of course we would choose to go vegetarian because it is the most humane thing to do and we would do this to save our own skin. Why can’t we do the same for animals? Humanizing the animals and seeing it through their perspective makes you human, the good kind.

The image above showcases the horrific and unhealthy conditions animals have to face in factory farms. Image credit: [Tia Schwab] (https://www.nationofchange.org/2019/12/04/if-factory-farm-conditions-are-unhealthy-for-animals-theyre-bad-for-people-too/)

It was really interesting seeing this topic intersect and merge with another problem I’m passionate about; the climate crisis. Cutting down rainforests, greenhouse gasses, burning fossil fuels, plastic pollution, and now I can add farming livestock to the list. Livestock production contributes to [15%] (https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/blogs/not-convinced-you-could-become-vegetarian-eating-less-meat-still-better-farm-animals-planet) of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is further than cars, planes, buses, and other forms of transportation put together. Rainforests are also essential to life on earth because they regulate the water cycle on this planet and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but rainforests are getting cut down to raise more cattle and livestock. This means, [for every 257 hamburgers produced every second, one football field of rainforest is destroyed.] (https://www.happycow.net/vegtopics/why-vegetarian)

The picture above shows many examples of how animal agriculture affects our planet and it’s big impact on climate change. Credit: [Cowspiracy] (https://www.cowspiracy.com/infographic)

If you’re still not convinced to switch to a more plant based diet, just know that there are benefits for you too. According to the American Diabetic Association, “Vegetarians have a reduced risk of heart disease, obesity, colon cancer, adult-onset diabetes, osteoporosis, gout, gallstones, kidney stones, lung cancer, and breast cancer.” You can avoid future health problems and stress about medical bills by simply avoiding animal meat. It’s better for the body and the spirit as well. Some people think that we need to eat meat in order to get protein, but the truth is there is no lack of protein. All the protein our body needs can be found in plant based sources like beans, nuts, and whole grains. You don’t have the weight and guilt of eating a living creature on your shoulders to be healthy, and that feels great.

The research I’ve done has really taught me to be open minded. To not expect and have a full picture of a problem in your mind. I went into this research knowing that eating animal meat was ethically wrong, and my goal was to convince others to have compassion for animals and eat plant based. Coming out of this research, my gears shifted and I noted that eating meat is a much bigger problem than I thought, and my interest for this topic expanded. It did not just kill highly intelligent and conscious animals, but it’s also slowly killing our earth and our bodies. After doing this research, it made me realize how important our role is in this situation. How important our actions are, but I know how extremely hard it is to switch to this lifestyle. I remember not being able to resist bacon on a Saturday morning when I first decided to become vegetarian. I knew all the negative impacts it had on animals, the earth, and our bodies, but I still couldn’t hold back. This made me further question if this has something to do with the reward system in our brains. What if some people just can’t stop eating meat because it increases their dopamine level which is the brain’s reward system, even if they know all the damage animals meat can do? I think learning about the brain’s reward system can get me one step closer to help convince others to eat plant based.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/11OZfEtHJE1pv1S6ib5i2BsnjN8tAx580aM9n3JArBVE/edit?usp=sharing)

Amjed Washaha Mrs. Giknis English 1 22/3/2021 Social Media Impact On Sexually Based Crimes Hello, did you know that in 2013 researchers have concluded that the number of child pornography images had increased 1500% since 1988?! Also, there was a 375% increase in the amount of child pornography websites between February of 2001 and July 2001, just five months apart! Now imagine how high that number has increased with the new modernization of computers and cybersecurity. Now if you don’t see the problem here you aren’t blind you choose not to see. This inspired me to do my own investigation into this topic. As I discussed in my earlier post, Twitter the infamous social media platform know primarily for political nonsense and cancel culture has some serious issues with the exchanging and sale of unsolicited pornography of not only minors but adults as well. Adults that are ignorant to the fact that their private photos and videos are being sold and exchanged on sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. With the amount of users apps such as Twitter have you would expect that moderation for things such as this would be good and looked after well no Twitter does nothing to fix this issue only if you report the user directly will Twitter do something. Well then report all of the accounts right? There are so many accounts that it would be impossible for me to do so and even if I do these accounts are what we call “throwaways” which are accounts that have to link to the user and can be “thrown away” at any time. After they are removed or throw away their account they just make a new one and start their operations up again. Source: Twitter Names and hashtags covered to prevent the advertising of illegal activities It doesn’t take much to fully understand what is going on here. But there are some things to explain like what does “S2R” mean, well it means “send to receive” this is a tactic these criminals use to obtain a greater stock but also make sure you are an actual buyer and not a cop or someone that is just trying to toy with them. Amongst other things we see one user state that they have 100 gigabytes of material on deck which for comparison is around 20,000 songs or in our circumstances around 200 hours in standard definition video or even 100,000 photos according to “Kenstechtips.com”. When you think about it this is one person amongst thousands in this world and he already has enough material to last him a lifetime. Now, do you see the problem?

If you have keen eyes you will see that all of these posts are very recent with the oldest being only made a day before this article was written (24/3/2021) and one even been made only nine hours ago. Source: Twitter

In this snapshot, I have made the decision to not cover the search bar. The hashtag “Megalinks’ ’ refers to an anonymous file-sharing application known as “Mega.nz”. I do not hold Mega.nz accountable for the actions we see displayed here as their services help small businesses and developers share data without the fear of the data being compromised. The reason I have decided to share this information with you is that I have come to the realization that anyone looking to purchase this crude material will go above and beyond to obtain it and it is quite easy to obtain information on this topic. From what we have concluded these accounts are “throwaways” and they share material using anonymous methods, the combination of these two tactics offers these criminals total anonymity. So what is being done about this issue? Nothing on Twitters’ part at least, Twitter hasn’t even issued out a statement on the matter. As of March 25th, 2021 the only action taken against these criminals has been mass reportings and floodings of the threads. Users will “flood” the hashtag “megalinks” with gifs and memes shaming the child pornography market as shown in the image below. Reporting doesn’t do much but this flooding tactic has a lot of potentials to help hide the users selling the nefarious photos and videos.

Here we see a user flooding the #megalink thread with something a little more friendly. Link from the Zelda series! Source: Twitter
What can you do? Even though users can make new accounts at anytime mass reporting can get the seller off the platform and make them move to more discrete and harder to reach parts of the internet. Although this might not solve the problem it will make it harder for first-timers to purchase and get addicted, it will also shield children from stumbling upon such vulgar media. Email Twitter, emailing twitter’s support center can help inform twitter of these criminals’ existence. If all else fails hit them where it hurts their wallet! Contact investors let them know what is going on in the company they have money invested into. And finally, be safe whilst doing research for this project I had to cut out many things for as it was too vulgar for a school setting I also stumbled unwarranted photos whilst looking through threads while the photo is down now I cannot say for sure if it was re-uploaded again. Thank you for reading let us make a difference!

Twitter support→ support@twitter.com List of top 5 investors and emails: .The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Email): institutional@vanguard.com .Morgan Stanley. (Email): prospectus@morganstanley.com .BlackRock Fund Advisors Inc. (Email): complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk .SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (Email): geam_web@ssga.com. .ClearBridge Investments LLC. (Email): info@clearbridge.com

What do you imagine would be an ideal body type? You probably think skinny, thin and tall. Now did you achieve that body type or are working towards that body type? Our society is making it seem like there is only one beautiful, healthy body type. It can be very difficult to feel comfortable in your own skin when you are constantly fed this narrative that fat people are ugly or people who are too skinny are unhealthy. It’s like you are only allowed to look a certain way to be deserving of self love. That’s why The Body Positivity Movement was created “…to help people with marginalized bodies (read: fat, queer, trans, bodies of color, and more) feel entitled to self-love, something that had previously been reserved for people in privileged (read: thin, white, fit) bodies,” stated by Julia Malacoff in “Where the Body-Positivity Movement Stands and Where it Needs to Go”. I want to impact the Body Positivity Movement positivity by trying to clear misconceptions that body positivity can’t be for fat or too skinny people. Everyone deserves to love and be comfortable in their own body.

I’ve always been a person to not care about expectations on my appearance but sometimes it can be hard. People constantly compare themselves to each other whether it’s consciously or subconsciously. It’s hard to see my friends cry themselves to sleep knowing they don’t have society’s ideal body type. “That is an enormous (and nonsensical) leap from trying not to hate yourself or making the effort to stop forcing yourself to fit into an impossible cultural standard.” says Kaila Prins, a body positivity wellness coach and burlesque teacher in ‘What Does Body Positivity Actually Mean?’ by Psychology Today. The standards society makes doesn’t mean you are healthy being a certain size but it doesn’t mean you aren’t healthy either. It is unrealistic. I don’t want to see people in my life starve and degrade themselves because they think they look ugly. Diversity is a good thing and we should accept our unique looks.

brief introduction to The Body Positivity Movement

There’s been a lot of misconceptions about body positivity. Especially nowadays, there’s been a lot of backlash to plus-size people promoting body positivity and the audience saying it’s promoting obesity and unhealthy lifestyle. Why can’t plus-sized people love themselves? Are only skinny people allowed to promote body positivity? Plus-sized people aren’t any less human than anyone on the streets. They have hobbies, interests, and goals. Some people have to live “overweight” in society to maintain a healthy body. It is disrespectful to assume someone is unhealthy because they aren’t the skinniest. In some cases, people don’t take care of their body and overeat but it’s unrealistic to let that group of people represent the whole plus-sized community.

There is no perfect body. We are all unique and beautiful.

Body positivity isn’t about being skinner or losing weight. It’s about feeling comfortable in your body and responding to your body’s needs such as hunger. There is no image of what a “healthy body” should look like. Everyone’s body is different therefore there shouldn’t be a standard. Everyone’s version of healthy is different. When plus-sized body positivity influencers decide to lose weight, they are portrayed as “traitors” for not showing body positivity by changing; this misconception has led their supporters to turn on them. These misconceptions make it extremely hard for anyone to promote body positivity. If plus-sized influencers have to live plus-sized forever and can no longer change their body how they want because they would be “betraying” the movement, then what’s the point of promoting to be happy with your body? Dieting and changing your body has nothing to do with body positivity as long as you feel comfortable and happy, there should be no problem. There’s research that states if you hate yourself, you won’t take care of yourself. Therefore, if plus-sized influencers can’t diet or lose weight for their personal reasons then I see no reason why they’ve been supported so long.

Deep insight of plus-size models and judgements as a body positivity influencer

I don’t blame supporters or daily people for not understanding the body positivity movement. There is no official definition for body positivity. Our society has fed us too well with lies and unrealistic expectations. I always thought body positivity was very straightforward but after diving in, I realized how big the spectrum is. Not only plus-sized people getting backlash but skinny people are getting backlash also. I’m glad certain magazines decide to ban photoshop on their pictures and clothing brands expanding their sizes. There is progress to be made but at least we are going somewhere. I wonder when people will feel like being fat isn’t gross or only skinny people are pretty. I hope I can learn more on the pressures of not only being an influencer but a body positivity influencer. How does it feel that your image is based on your body? Is it scary to change your body and constantly be examined by your supporters? Being a promoter of body positivity, is it more beneficial to you or your supporters? Why?

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c9rvk1PNyb74YR5yqH7Y9UDttaeQWZvLic3hRLQuwaY/edit?usp=sharing

Education is the backbone of our society. Sometimes, it’s more of an invisible one. If you aren’t in school, it’s especially easy to brush the whole idea out of your way, because it no longer concerns you. Doesn’t it? Except education is the biggest tool we give to the next generation. What we teach, what we don’t teach, who we teach, who we don’t teach. How we teach the next generation to follow in our footsteps, or how we teach them to create their own path. As important as education is, there are still so many issues with it. Are teachers really being appreciated? Are students actually learning? Do they want to go to school? Why are we giving one set of opportunities to one group of kids, while another group’s opportunities are being taken away? Throughout my research, I wanted to learn about these questions and more, and see what I could do about it.

My mom has been a teacher for 20 years. Now she is getting her PHD in music education. I’ve seen her many schools, seen how she teaches, and even how she learns from her students. I’ve been to teacher strikes, seen the arts as more than an add on, and been there to watch from the other side. Something that struck me about all the schools I’d ever seen was funding. I remember going to a school when I was younger that had classes for engineering for toddlers. There were smart boards in every room, bathrooms on every floor and a clean feel to the entire school. Other schools I went to were great, but I remember things like having the only bathroom be in the basement, having 30 kids or more in classes while other schools only had 15. It was one of the first things that came to my mind about schools, and I was curious about the federal budget, so that’s where I started.

SOURCE 1:

The first source I looked at was called “Federal Spending: Where does the money go?”. This source goes in depth about the way federal spending is used in the United States. This article shares that federal spending is divided into three sections: Discretionary spending, Mandatory spending, and interest on debt. This article also goes into depth about the way federal spending was used in 2015. In that year, the budget was 3.8 trillion dollars, which was 21% of the US economy. The Discretionary spending made up 29.34% of the budget (1.11 trillion), the mandatory spending made up 64.63% (2.45 trillion), and interest on debt was 6.03% (229.15 billion). It gives pie charts as well that describe the way this money was used for each section.

The ‘National Priorities Project’, which is the site where the article is found, seems to be a well respected and trusted force. There isn’t a direct author of the article, but there is a team for the organization which includes Lindsey Koshgarian, Ashik Siddique, Lorah Steichen, and their consultant Jason Leveille. Their mission is to inspire “individuals and movements to take action so our federal resources prioritize peace, shared prosperity, and economic security for all”. The bias of this source would probably be to only show the flaws of the system. Some of the information is also a little outdated, from 2015. It is helpful in understanding the past, but in order to get the best possible information it must be corroborated with a more recent source.

{English 9} (www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/)

{You and the World} (www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/)

These pie charts are really attention-getting because they aren’t balanced. There are times when some things are prioritized over others, but it poses the questions: ‘who decides what is prioritized? And for what purpose? Is profit valued, or people?’. The discretionary chart is the most shocking, because the Military gets 53.71% allotted to it, whereas other categories like food and agriculture (1.18%), science (3.51%), housing and community (5.68%), and education (6.28%) get the far lower end of the deal. And why was the military given so much in the first place? The other chart is also imbalanced, but it seems more reasonable that ‘medicare and health’ and ‘social security, unemployment, and labor’ were given more money.

{You and the World} (www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/)

The specifics:

Science: 0.78%- 29.81 billion Energy and Environment: 1.17%-44.85 billion International Affairs: 1.31%-50.22 billion Housing and Community: 1.60%-61.48 billion Transportation: 2.22%-84.99 billion Education: 2.67%-102.26 billion Food and Agriculture: 3.54%-135.7 billion Veteran’s Benefits: 4.19%-160.63 billion Interest on Debt: 5.97%-229.15 billion Military: 15.88%-609.3 billion Medicare and Health: 27.42%-1.05 trillion Social Security, Unemployment, and labor: 33.26%-1.28 trillion

The final graph had the best representation of the federal budget as a whole. The website showed the different percentages and values for each slice of the pie, as seen above. Again, the military in the whole amount was surprising compared to all others that were scrunched up near the top. There was also a solid percentage for education, 2.67%, which would be corroborated to make sure the information was still accurate.

After looking at this source, I had a better understanding of the way the federal budget was divided. But I also wondered: “Is the federal budget the main source of funding for many of these programs? To what degree does the money given to each change the outcomes?”. I needed to not only corroborate my information, but I needed to see how it related to my issue of Education Funding.

SOURCE 2:

This site was an infographic. There is a series of graphs that show how the federal budget was used in 2019. It gave information on the revenues, where the money came from, and how the money was spent. Just like in source 2, the site described specifics in Mandatory, Discretionary, and Interest on Debt. It even provided additional information on deficits and surpluses, and each category of the federal budget provided more facts and graphs to hopefully display the information. This infographic came from the website “Congressional Budget Office”, which was a site founded in 1975. Each year, the economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports stating objective, impartial analysis on the economy. It was important to keep an eye out for any biases, but the site was true to its word and provided only the facts. It seemed to be a reliable source.

{You and the World} (www.cbo.gov/publication/56324)

This showed very similar percentages to the year 2015. Since source 1 had been out of date, this source was very helpful in figuring out what was accurate and what was not. They were actually very similar, and there weren’t huge changes. Mandatory was still about 61% (2015 65%), Discretionary was 30% (2015 29%), Interest on Debt 9% (2015 6%). However, 2020 was also a huge year for the economy, with Covid 19 and lots of unemployment. It was much easier to understand the struggles of the past with this graph, but there was still more to understand. After learning the federal budget only accounted for about 8% of education, it was easy to wonder if this section of research was all that helpful. But things had changed a lot in 2020 and 2021, so it still felt like there was information missing.

{You and the World} (www.cbo.gov/publication/56324)

As for this graph, I wanted to compare it to the one found in source one:

2015:

Social security, Unemployment, and labor: 33.26%

Medicare & Health: 27.42%

Science: 0.78%-
Energy and Environment: 1.17% International Affairs: 1.31% Housing and Community: 1.60% Transportation: 2.22% Education: 2.67% Food and Agriculture: 3.54% Veteran’s Benefits: 4.19% ^^^^^^^17.48

Military: 15.88%

Interest on Debt: 5.97%

2019:

Social security: 23%

Medicare & Medicaid: 24%

Other & Nondefense: 30%

Defense: 15%

Net interest: 9%

As you can see above, the two years were actually very similar. Percentages were used to have a more equivalent comparison. Everything was close together, which was helpful to know because in a regular year, it seemed that this was what the percentages would be. The categories were a little hard, because they used some different sections throughout the sources. However, most of the gist was still there. This information was corroborated across sites and years, so it was pretty clear what a regular year would be like. However, Covid 19 had changed the economy, and it felt important to gather that information in the future.

This source helped me corroborate the information in source 1. I knew what I had was an accurate representation of a regular year in the United States. But I also realized that a regular year wasn’t the only thing I needed, because in order for my information to have an impact, it needed to relate to our situation now, in 2021. I also needed to be able to see how much the information I found impacted my issue in the first place. If the federal budget doesn’t have a huge impact on education funding, it would be more beneficial to focus my efforts elsewhere.

SOURCE 3:

This article, “Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 schools” by Lisette Partelow, explores the question and problem of Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 schools. They explore deep cuts in education, and how schools have responded to that. Specifically, the article talks a lot about the aftereffects of the 2008 Great Recession, where many states systematically disinvested in K-12 funding. They describe the effect that money, salaries, and lack of funding affects schools and describe ways to address and solve these problems. They came to the conclusion that “If education is truly to be an engine of opportunity and economic mobility, states and the federal government must invest far more in the communities that need resources most.”. This website, “Center for American Progress” has more than a hundred people working on it, all different types of researchers and positions. It is clearly a well established organization. It has a real author, a full bibliography at the bottom, and is very thorough. It is very likely a reliable source. The source’s bias would most likely be giving information that states their cause only. They are less likely to show things that contradict what they are saying, so it would be helpful to again corroborate other sources.

“On Average, 47 percent of K-12 education funding comes from state revenue, while local government provides 45 percent, and the federal government provides the remaining 8 percent.”

“In addition, the federal government can play a role in investing in teacher pay, first, by rejecting administration efforts to cut funding and, then, by expanding existing funding streams. It can also bring forward any of a number of proposals to improve teacher compensation that have recently been introduced in Congress.”

This bit of information was really helpful, because it helped clear up some questions that were brought to attention in source 2. The first quote specifically was able to show how much schools were really impacted by the federal budget, which was only 8%. This was able to put things into perspective, showing that state revenue and local government were far more influential.

But, like the second quote shows, the federal government can still play a substantial role. They do have the power to reject efforts while expanding others, and can create new proposals that can cause far more change. So, they are still an important factor for the success of school funding.

{You and the World} (www.cbo.gov/publication/56324)

This particular graph shows the progress from 2008 (The Great Recession) to 2015. But progress has been all over the place. While some states were able to make a comeback, many of them only caused a range of 0-10% increase. Even more of the states had from -1%—30% and greater. After 7 years, the majority of states have barely made a comeback and even decreased education funding for particular states. This graph clearly shows the problem the nation faces. Education is how the nation teaches students, how they empower students, how everyone learns. If education is not prioritized for students what kind of nation will the United States become? What nation will be lead as the next generation follows in the same path? It’s a very powerful image.

This source had a lot of helpful information and was able to put into perspective the effort that has been given to this problem in the past. I was also able to see that the federal budget only made up 8% of education budget, which led me to realize that the federal budget wasn’t even that influential in this issue. Of course, the federal budget still has an impact, especially with either speeding the process along or slowing it considerably. but it did make me rethink my topic.

SOURCE 4:

This article, ‘Special Report/ The Funding Gap’ by Amy M. Azzam, was about the funding gap in schools. They say that a big concern in schools is the achievement gap, but behind that is the concerning problem of the funding gap between high poverty and low poverty districts, and low minority and high minority districts. The article discusses a study that looked at annual financial data for the 2001-2002 school year. Then, they suggest courses of action and goals that need to be achieved in order to help solve the problem. This source is reliable because it’s data comes from U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of education, there is a reliable author who researches and writes articles for student education. The site is a little outdated, so the bias had to be kept in mind because not all the statistics would necessarily be the same.

“ The Education Trust recommends that states adopt the following proven policies to close the school funding gaps: Reduce reliance on local property taxes to fund education. Target extra funds to help low-income children. Fix funding gaps for individual schools within districts Improve state education funding in terms of increased spending on public education.

Closing the achievement gap starts with closing the funding gap. Only by providing the necessary resources can states help ensure quality education for all students”

This quote was very helpful, because it provided a clear statement for what needed to be done in order to help close the funding gap. It talks about starting small by fixing funding gaps within districts, and using money to the best ability. Instead of sharing the money evenly, share the money equitably. It addresses the issue that some kids need help financially before they can focus on their schoolwork, and to work to add more opportunities and increase spending over time. It’s not a quick process, it’s one that takes time and dedication. But it will pay off, because as the second to last sentence says “Closing the achievement gap starts with closing the funding gap.”. It’s like that saying, where you give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. But it would also be super helpful to give a man a fishing rod, a tool to help them learn. That’s what the funding is for these students, because once they have tools to help them, they can focus on school for real and have many more opportunities to succeed. Maybe this isn’t the only way to help, as the last sentence suggests, but those resources may be the difference needed for many students who struggle in their families in high poverty districts. Once the funding levels out, it can surely only help the achievement gap shrink as well.

This source helped to give me an idea of what direction I could take this project in order to have the best impact.

SOURCE 5:

This article, “Impact of the President’s FY 2020 budget on K-12 Information” was about the president’s proposed plan for many cuts and eliminations that would impact the budget for education in 2020. It gave detail about which programs the plan would affect and why they mattered. This source was a little tricky to test reliability, because it was a PDF. It came from the organization “First step” and the only person I could find listed was the Assistant Director, Drew Aherne. It’s bias was also the fact that this entire article was a proposed plan, and didn’t show exactly what had happened. But it did show the kind of power the Government and President had, and what the impact could be.

“One major request that would have a negative impact on K-12 education is the elimination of 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which are a critical source of funding for many local afterschool programs and serve about 1.4 million students at over 9,500 locations. Another harmful request is eliminating the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program that provides grants to state and local education agencies to increase student achievement through teacher development and class-size reduction. These grants are important because teacher quality is one of the most significant factors in promoting student learning.”

Teacher quality is clearly an important factor in student learning. A lot of teachers would probably be way more enthusiastic if they had higher pay. But this also brings into question a lot of these actions. Education was already struggling, causing students to suffer and strikes to be held because teachers were fed up. Plus, now there is online school where students are losing motivation and struggling with mental health. Now more than ever schools need support and the government need to give back to the teachers that have been driving the whole process. There cannot be continual budget cuts and eliminations of programs that benefit so many schools. There was already so much cause to add more funding to schools, but now, in a crisis, a pandemic, these problems need to be addressed and solutions need to be found.

This helped to show the effect of the people in power on education.

Overall, I learned a lot, but I think I need to redirect myself and go into more detail about the questions I have asked throughout my research. There are many problems to address in order to create an impact and educate people on this issue. My research has been all over the place, but it has helped to narrow down where I should go and what I should do. I will continue to do research to answer the following questions:

-What can we as citizens do to help?

-How has 2020 impacted Education Funding?

-Where can I find information to prove the point that Education Funding is an issue we need to address?

I will work to create a more polished presentation of my work and find a way to spread my work even online.

SOURCE 1:

“Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go.” National Priorities Project, www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/.

SOURCE 2:

“The Federal Budget in 2019: An Infographic.” Congressional Budget Office, 15 Apr. 2020, www.cbo.gov/publication/56324

SOURCE 3:

Lisette Partelow, Sarah Shapiro. “Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 Schools.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/09/20/457750/fixing-chronic-disinvestment-k-12-schools/.

SOURCE 4:

Lisette Partelow, Sarah Shapiro. “Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 Schools.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/09/20/457750/fixing-chronic-disinvestment-k-12-schools/.

SOURCE 5:

https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/FACT-SHEET-Presidents-FY20-Budget-K-12-Education.pdf

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZWkFMLwMXKT1AbQJb4_wUAiCaJGLSDAJl_0lFQxYDlg/edit?usp=sharing