Non-Fiction Critical Analysis
     The Upfront article "China's Cram Schools," by Brook Larmer is about the Maotanchang High School in China. The Maotanchang High School is one of China's cram schools where 20,000 students train for multiple hours to prepare themselves for China's national-college entrance exam also known as the Gaokao. For many, passing this test is the most important thing in their lives. I think that putting so much stakes on one test isn't right. I believe it should be based on interviews and past records, they should let the colleges decide who they want.
     Yang Wei was a former student as at Maotanchang High School. He spent 3 years getting to school at 6:20 and getting home at 10:50. At Maotanchang High School, all they do is study, study, study. Yang said "If you connected all the practice tests I've taken over the past 3 years," he said "they would wrap all the way around the world." This just shows how much they do and how much the students at Maotanchang care about this test. Many families spend most of their money sending their kids to this school so they can go to a good college. An example is "Cao's family was heartbroken. His father had worked 12 hour days, 50 weeks a year, building high rises in eastern China to pay the Maotanchang fees." This is the life that kids who don't get into a college can expect. A lot of manual labor in construction or factories. Cao said "It's a lot of pressure," said Cao. "My mother constantly reminds me that I have to study hard, because my father is out working construction far from home to pay my school fees." The students feel all this pressure because they're not the only ones who need this. Their parents need it too.
    I personally don't think it's right to put so much into one test. It puts too much pressure on students because it's all or nothing. If you don't pass it then you can only expect to be working in factories or construction for the rest of your life. They should let the colleges pick who they want, because you can't learn personality through a test, you need things like interviews to determine this.
     I think that China's school system is messed up. They make it all or nothing, there's too big a risk for many people. It's not only students who suffer if they don't do well on the test, the parents who work 12 hours a day to pay the school fees suffer too because they've just wasted 4 years of their lives and so much money putting it all on their child to do well.

Zachary Gee
Blog Post
     My book "Quarantine: the Saints," by Lex Thomas is about a boy named Will and how he's trapped inside a high school with hundreds of violent kids. He falls into a gang called the Saints and becomes best friends with their leader, Gates. Gates turns out to be crazy and Will tries to escape him, but Gates is obsessed and won't let him get away. The characters in my book have many different characteristics.
     Will is a leader. He chooses his own path and does what he wants. He isn't a follower. For example, he went on the Skaters PA system and challenged Sam to a fight in the quad. When he was fighting Sam he shouted that Varsitie's whole food supply was being left unprotected to the other gangs and varsitie's food supply was gone. Gates follows Will although Gates is the leader of the gang.
     Gates is crazy, a follower, and make decisions before thinking about the results. For example, Gates scalped one of his best friends because he confronted Gates about the fact that he killed his brother Colton and then tried to get Will to say that he loved him. Gates follows Will everywhere because he thinks that Will is a new version of his dead brother and that he'll protect him from the real Colton who he believes is real. Gates never thinks about he end result. He does what he feels is right even if it's totally wrong. He kidnapped Sam because he wanted control over the parents so he could get the kids in the school whatever they wanted.
     Will and Gates are the main characters in my book. At the end Will realizes that Gates is insane and that he should get away from him. When Will graduated Gates went insane. I think that Gates should really think about what he does and make his own decisions. I think Will should reconsider who he trusts because he always manages to choose the wrong people.

Zach Gee

Revised Blog Post

            In my book “Scat,” written by Carl Hiassen, Scat is about a panther in the swamp and trying to reunite it with it’s mother. On a field trip, Nick and Marta’s teacher, Ms. Starch disappears in a fire. She is saved by Twilly and agrees to help Twilly reunite the baby Panther Cub with its mother. Duane is framed for the fire and Nick and Marta try to find out what happened to Ms. Starch. Justice was served by many different people, even those who I didn’t expect to serve justice. As always, there were people who stood in the way of justice and caused injustice.    

The people who stand in the way of justice and serve injustice are the Red Diamond Oil Company. They are drilling oil illegally from state land and on the day of the school trip to the swamp they light a fire and try to frame Duane for it. During the fire, Ms. Starch disappears. When the fire department and police come to investigate, they find that it’s arson. Their first suspect is Duane because he has previously had an arson charge for lighting a billboard on fire. However, he lit the fire because it was advertising the flight that his mom took when she left him and his dad. The Red Diamond Oil Company stands in the way of justice by preventing Twilly and Ms. Starch from getting the cub back with it’s mother. They scared away the panther by trying to shoot it because they don’t want anyone to find their illegal drilling site.

Justice is served by Twilly, Marta, Nick, Ms. Starch, and Duane. At first Nick and Marta don’t know about the panther cub and Twilly’s mission of reuniting it with it’s mom, but on their way to finding out what happened to Ms. Starch, they stumble upon their operation . Twilly and Duane are the original two who try to help the cub, then Twilly saved Ms. Starch in the fire and she wanted to help. Twilly serves justice by messing with the Red Diamond Oil Companies illegal operation and helping the cub. Ms. Starch serves justice by taking care of the cub while Twilly tries to find the mother. Duane serves justice by using his tracking skill to help find the mother. Nick and Marta serve justice by helping the mother find it’s cub when the Red Diamond Oil Company tries to shoot it.  In the end they reunite the mother with it’s cub and shed light on the Red Diamond Oil Companies illegal operation.

I didn’t expect Duane and Ms. Starch to serve justice. This is because at the beginning of the book, Carl Hiassen depicts Ms. Starch as that mean teacher that no one likes. She the person who gives a lot of classwork and homework and you just don’t expect that person to be serving justice. I didn’t expect Duane to serve justice because at the beginning of the book I thought he was just a big kid who wanted to be left alone and never did his homework. Duane surprised me. Duane and Ms. Starch get into disagreements, and in one of these he eats her pencil. Ms. Starch helped take care of the cub and Duane was one of the main reasons for the reunion, so in the end they served justice.

The social injustice that this book brings to light is greed. The Red Diamond Oil Company was willing to kill a panther, drill illegally on state land, and to set a fire just to make a couple more bucks. I don’t this that this is right. There are more important things in the world than money. If you don’t have it, you don’t have it. This book did a good job showing that.