Childish Vs. Childlike

     I volunteer at my church by being a lector, which is a person who reads the bible out loud. This morning, I was given a part of the first letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians to read, and a line in it caught my attention.
    It reads, "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things."
    When I first saw this, I was a surprised; I often like characteristics and experiences associated with childhood, and I don't think it's easy to just shed those things and leave them behind.
     I like to joke that I'm made of of two different people; a five year old and a thirty year old. The five year old side of me likes shiny things, birthday parties, disney movies, and playgrounds. That side also has an intense imagination. The thirty year old side is where I balance my responsibilities and attempt to get things done on time. At least, in my defense, 30 and 5 average out to be slightly over my age.
     My first opinion on the reading today was that it advised readers to stop having that five year old side, but then I realized there is a difference between being childish and childlike. Additionally, I think our society gets the two confused.
     Let me start with the definitions; according to my dictionary, childish is "silly and immature," whereas childlike is "having good qualities associated with a child." I think that our society often groups enjoying play, imagination, and enjoying activities we did as children into "silly and immature"  when those things don't belong to either category.
     I don't think our society actually thinks imagination or play is bad; James Cameron used his imagination to develop the world in Avatar, which has grossed almost $2 billion worldwide, and Apple's App Store, where plenty of games are available, has 140,000 apps.
    However, I think that adults are afraid of being associated with the negative aspects of children, such as wining or selfishness, so they are afraid to behave like kids in general.
     How do you think our society views adults having "childlike" characteristics? Should we see things that way? 

Google; Helping Hackers

       Today, I read an editorial by Bruce Schneier about how Google ended up helping Chinese hackers in a "politically motivated attempt" to find information. In order to help law enforcement personel, google created a "back door" acess system to Gmail. This system was created in order to help governments catch criminals, but it was just used by criminals to research governments. While i'm not exactly sure what happened, one thing is clear; something entended to keep us safe has made the internet a lot more dangerous.
      Like the article suggests, this is similar to the NSA's phone wiretapping. Here's where my question to you comes in; at what point are these information-getting and security invading practices crossing the line? At what point do these safety procedures become unsafe?
     If you were a society to make a law regarding when the invasion of privacy is okay, how would you write it? Would you say it is okay when there is a warrant? Is it okay whenever as long as the invasion is by the government? Or would you say invasion of privacy is never okay under any circumstances? Is there an option i'm missing? 
      How and at what points should companies assist a government's invasion of privacy?
      I tend to think that "back-door" access are unsafe. Whether it's wiretapping or entrance into someone else's email, companies should not make special systems because they could be hacked or abused. However, if there's a dangerous criminal on the loose, and his email hints his location, I can't say i'd be opposed to looking at it. It's a fine line, and I don't know where I stand. How do you feel?

"The State of the American Woman"

     While browsing TIME's website, I saw an article headline which I knew would discuss our current Women and Children in America unit; "The State of the American Woman: What Women Want Now." The article compared today's world to that of the 1970's. Their central argument was that there have been significant, unrecognized changes in the battle for women's equality, and that men believe the sexes are equal but women do not. First of all, in the work world, do you feel that men and women are equal? Are you a man or a woman, and how has that effected your response? 
      Personally, I know that women still make around 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, but my experiences in the work world have been quite positive. Let me explain; I am still a high school student, but I work as a receptionist once a week in an office that has about the same amount of men as women. However, the men do have the higher up positions. Yet, I am the youngest person in my office and one of the newest people, so that would explain my positioning in the office hierarchy. On another note, I am one of the increasing numbers of varsity female athletes.
     For the past eight months, my mom has been the breadwinner in my family, not my dad; he got laid off eight months ago, and my mom went from part time teaching to full time teaching to fill in the gaps. According to the article, my family is one of many where this has happened.
     How do you feel about gender in the workplace? Do you think things are equal, or not? What, if anything, do we still need to do to make things equal?

Hawaii cuts school days

        Taking desperate measures to reduce costs, Hawaii is cutting fridays from the school calendar for at least the rest of the year and possibly for the next two years. Here's a bit more info if you'd like know.
        Do you think this is an appropriate measure to save funds? Is it practical, or beneficial? As a student, i'd admit to liking having fridays off, but I don't know how it would help me or hurt me as a student. I'd have more time to sleep, and relax, and my life would be less stressful. However, some of my more experience and discussion based classes, like spanish, english, or band, would seriously suffer from the lack of class time; part of the integral learning experience of those classes is to interact with others, so class time is precious.
       Also, this isn't solving the problem of lack of money; it's postponing the issue. By shortening the school week, Hawaii is spending less money, but Hawaii is not learning to spend less money while keeping 180 days in the year. Also, this doesn't make any money, it just avoids spending. There's a difference.
      How would you solve this problem? Would you congratualate the Hawaii state government for a practical solution, or tell them that something seriously needs to be changed?