American Christmas Songs

       This past week, I was listening to "White Christmas" on the radio while thinking of an Australian I got the chance to meet, and something occured to me; In Australia, Christmas is in the middle of the summer. They're not going to be singing of white christmases "like they used to know" because, well, unless they lived in the northern hemisphere or traveled, they've never had white christmases. Then it occured to me that there must be christmas songs with American origins, and that every country with a christian population probably has it's own christmas songs.
       It turns out that "White Christmas" was written by Irving Berlin in the 1940's. Similarly, "The Christmas song" (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire) was written in 1944 by Mel Torme and Bob Wells. Alledgedly, "White Christmas" was written in Arizona and "The Christmas Song" was written during a hot summer somewhere else in America.
      The question i'd like to ask you all is, Do you think that these American Christmas songs actually represent our christmas experiences, or do they represent the christmases we wish we had?
      "White Christmas" mentions writing christmas cards wishing others to have happy holidays, which I do, and althought I don't roast chestnuts, I remember eagerly waiting for Santa like in  "the Christmas song." How do you feel about it? Do any christmas songs you like actually relate to your experiences or not?
     Finally, Why do you think people write christmas songs? If you wrote a christmas song, what would it be about?

Separating Learning by Gender

      This news story posted this morning tells the story of a school in Virginia that decided to create a middle-school program that separates the students into classrooms separated by gender. The program has existed for three years and test score results have allegedly improved. Based on your own experiences, do you think you would learn better in a co-ed or gender separated environment?
     I attend a co-ed, public school, and I am comfortable in a co-ed environment. I had the option of going to a private, all-girls school nearby, but I chose not to. I feel that it's important to learn in a co-ed school because life is a 'co-ed' experience- there's no state or planet that has all women or all men.
     However, one of the issues brought up when discussing co-ed programs is gender stereotyping. Some people argue that teaching boys and girls together teaches them stereotypes, and others argue that teaching them separately is teaching them with a stereotype. What do you think?
     I have the opportunity to fence on my school's co-ed fencing team, and that has actually helped me to view gender stereotypes differently. To put it bluntly, guy or girl, I can beat you. Or come very close. However, I wonder, if I had taken fencing classes with only girls, would I see stereotyping (or the sport) differently?
     Another thing to consider is learning style; there is scientific evidence that boys and girls use their brains differently, but does it make so much difference that learning in separated gender schools should be more common.
      Also, if I understand correctly, when our parents and grandparents were our age, most private schools were either all boy or all girl schools, yet over the past 30 or 40 years, many of those private schools have become co-ed. Why was this decision made, and why is this Virginia district trying to reverse it?

Commentary on President Obama's address

           While watching President Obama's address to students at West Point,  one particular theme rang out to me; the unity of America. Going in, I knew that Afghanistan would be the main topic of the speech, so the amount of focus the president placed on what was going in the U.S. surprised me. Although he explained his plan to dispatch roughly 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, he also discussed the "polarized backdrop" in America. Additionally, the President and his speech writers have an extraordinary vocabulary, and I felt that some word choices were quite fascinating. 
         During the speech, President Obama said that "we were united" by the attacks of september eleventh, and suggested that America has grown apart since then, severely divided by party lines. However, he said that he believed americans can "still come together by a common purpose", and can be united by the "creed that calls us together". I find it fascinating that President Obama decided to look back to the start of our country's existence and reference the Constitution as a means to bring us together. I interpret this to mean that the President believes Americans, although divided by political beliefs, uphold similar ideals of freedom and equality to those in the constitution. I agree. What do you think?
        Additionally, I thought it was interesting that the President said that removing troops from Iraq is a "testament to the character of the men and women in uniform." I'm not sure what he means by this. According to the Oxford American Dictionary, character is "the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual", "strength and originality in a person's nature" and/or a "person's good reputation." Does this mean that the President thinks that it is original to end the war, or that it helps the reputation of America?  Personally, I think the character of the troops might be more visibly demonstrated in combat rather than at home, but I may be wrong. What do you think about his use of the word character?
     Also, here's one last question for you all; the president's speech is called "A New Way Forward." What is the message that you think the president is trying to send with this title?