Monday, November 25, 2013

What Makes a Good Leader In Terms of Projects?

There are many different types of leaders in this world, some being good and others bad. However, all leaders have one thing in common—making sure the whole group is cooperating well as a whole. There are many things you need in order to become a good leader.

I believe that the first requirement is understanding the ability of each member in their group to determine who is doing what. For example, a team that makes its strongest member do work requiring more energy will be more efficient than one that makes its weakest member do an equal amount of work. One way the leader can know his group’s abilities is by getting to know every member. Although you supervise a team, you occasionally don’t know the members as well as you thought. By studying them, you may better understand their strengths and weaknesses, which will lead to a much more powerful group. This helps you guide the group and let them get to know each other. A good leader tries to even out the workload after discussing it with everyone in a fair and unbiased way.



A good leader also needs to make sure everyone is on task. This is essential when it comes to long term projects because it is difficult to catch up with what others have done for weeks or perhaps months. The leader should always be aware of the task and make sure everyone is doing the correct thing. I think a bad leader does most of the project alone and ignores teammates’ opinions. If they do most of the work, it is unfair to them and their group members. A good leader should not only make sure that everyone is on task, but also be patient if someone hasn’t done the right thing. There may be members who intentionally don’t do their job, but that is different from someone who has tried their best but not accomplished as much as they had wanted. In this case, a good leader will confront the group and try to reach a reasonable solution. On the other hand, a bad leader will scold the teammates for not doing the proper jobs and make up for the mistake by finishing the task themselves.

I have been through many projects in my school. Most of the grades were fair, but there were times I thought that I deserved a higher grade compared to what I got. There were times I had to be the leader of the group and others when I had to follow. Being a leader wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Long term projects had many ups and downs. Since everyone thought differently, it was difficult to combine all their ideas and divide the workload evenly. However, we definitely always needed a good leader in order to finish something on time!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Is it always essential to tell the truth, or are there circumstances in which it is better to lie?

I believe that the truth is one of the most happy but painful things in life. There are truths we like to know and some we tend to avoid. Once a fact is known to be true, I find it difficult to change. However, you can make it sound false by lying, which comes in handy when you want to protect yourself or avoid certain circumstances. This may lead you to more trouble at the end. It is essential to lie depending on the situation, but the deeper the lie gets, the higher the truth exposed.

Interestingly, we learn to lie without being taught. For example, if a young child eats a cookie his mother didn’t want him to eat until dinner, he will lie that he didn’t eat it because he wants to stay away from trouble and eat another cookie after dinner. Although his parents did not teach him to lie, he learned that it was the only way to stay safe. Though lying is clearly not essential in this case, sometimes it is. Consider a national athlete and his family. This athlete has been practicing for years in order to go to the Olympics. Unfortunately, his mother passes away right on the day he competes. His family doesn’t want to contact the athlete because they all know that he has been waiting for this day. Instead, they lie to the athlete that everything is okay, which in this case, is the right thing to do. Although you can’t resurrect someone from the dead, it is better for the athlete to know about his mother’s death after the competition. The truth eventually comes out, but the timing is essential for him.

It is not always right for you to lie. For example, at a crime scene, you have to tell the truth no matter how much it hurts. If you have witnessed a crime and the police ask you to recall the situation, the best thing to do is to tell the truth in order to help them find the criminal. However, if you found out that the criminal was one of your family members, it would be hard to tell the truth because it would not only cause problems finding the criminal, but make you feel psychologically unstable. Once you have lied to the police, you will force yourself to keep lying in order to prove that the previous lie is a true statement. There will be no end and the lying will become worse until you won’t even remember what you lied about. This won’t be safe for you as well if they find out what you have been doing. The circumstances might get worse so that it would have been better off telling the truth in the first place. One lie has led to another, causing more problems than telling the truth. This stirs up more trouble for everyone, including yourself.

Reasons whether to lie or not will vary, but the truth eventually comes out. I believe that it is essential to lie if there are more advantages, but there are certain situations when you have to tell the truth no matter what. A temporary lie may be exceptional, but lies rarely last forever. It is a matter of time before the lie reveals itself.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Your school has decided (to change the dress code, to stop assigning homework on the weekend, to end summer vacations and go to year-round schooling, etc.). Write a letter to persuade the school board to make the change or to keep the policy.

Your school has decided (to change the dress code, to stop assigning homework on the weekend, to end summer vacations and go to year-round schooling, etc.). Write a letter to persuade the school board to make the change or to keep the policy.

*MADE UP*
Dear Headmaster Stones,

Greetings. I am currently a parent at Lincoln Middle School. Very recently, I heard that our school will stop having a uniform code. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with this for various reasons. By the end of this letter, I hope you will understand why we need uniforms and reconsider your decision.

Lincoln Middle School is widely known for its polite and intelligent students. We proudly placed third among the best educated private schools. Most alumni at our school have found a stable job and are now doing what they want to do. Although students get about four hours of homework daily, I believe that this is for their own future. All 350 students at your school are able to concentrate well because the school limits the use of computers. However, if our school becomes uniform-free, what may first seem an advantage won’t last long.

Middle school is the most important point in life in terms of understanding yourself and what you will do in the future. We need education it in order to understand how the world works and how to improve it. If the school decides not to have uniforms, we may become distracted from our studies. With a dress code, you don’t have to worry about what you will be wearing every day. All students know what they will be wearing to school every day, making it easier for them in the morning. They won’t be concerned about the new trend or wonder if their friends will like they’re wearing. On the other hand, without uniforms, all students will have to keep the latest fashion in mind, perhaps going shopping every other week to keep up to date. This will surely be time-consuming and unhelpful to their studies. Being teenagers, more and more students will focus on clothes instead of work, not helping them at all in high school or their future.

Also, we should continue to have school uniforms to prevent discrimination. With over 300 people in your middle school, economic status and fashion taste will vary greatly among students. Of course, those from a wealthier family will have no problems getting new clothes every weekend, but having no uniforms might become a worry to those from a lower economic class. Discrimination will occur when a group of students doesn’t approve of a particular student’s fashion and this will eventually expand. In a school known for its friendly environment, I would hate seeing students forming cliques because of their fashion status. School is meant for education and learning how to interact with others — not for discrimination.

Your wrong decisions will harm to the students at Lincoln Middle School.

Thank you for your time; I hope you reconsider.

Sincerely,

Amanda Madison