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Whether you’re religious or not, you’ve probably noticed a major decline in religion over the past 50 years or so. It could be that you have a grandfather that is very religious, a father who is somewhat religious, and you might not be religious at all. Religious unaffiliation rose from 16% in 2007 to over 22% in 2014, and newer statistics would only reveal an even larger percentage of unaffiliated americans. This is quite common in recent years, and is a result of more scientific research backing up evolution along with other theories, and partially due to  the fact that people are being given more choice over what religion they want to become a part of. It has also, and most importantly, given people the option of what they would like to be taught in school, as they have the option of being taught evolution in a public school, or going to a school that teaches their religion. However, this freedom certainly did not exist in Tennessee from 1925 to 1967.

 

The Scopes Trial consisted of John Scopes, a science teacher in Tennessee, and two lawyers, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. It all started when it was reported that John Scopes was teaching the theory of evolution in his science class, which was outlawed in Tennessee by the Butler Act. The Butler Act stated: “… it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.​” (Butler Act) The Butler Act made it illegal for teachers to deny the Bible’s theory of how life started, and outlawed teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. John Scopes was held in jail, and the legal battle that followed soon after has greatly impacted life as we know it.

 

Both lawyers were nationally renowned, and they both put on quite a show. William Jennings Bryan, born in Illinois, ran for president of the United States three times, and served as Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson in 1912. William Jennings Bryan prosecuted John Scopes in the Scopes trial. John Scopes’ defense lawyer was Clarence Darrow, who was born in Ohio and was a lawyer for many other high profile cases, as well as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. In the end, John Scopes was found guilty by the lower courts, and thus was fined $100 so that the case could be elevated to a higher court. The ruling was later overturned on a technicality and he was not retried. The case created great controversy between biblical religion and science. As Clarence Darrow stated, “I think this case will be remembered because it is the first case of this sort since we stopped trying people in America for witchcraft, because here we have done our best to turn back the tide that has sought to force itself upon this modern world, of testing every fact in science by a religious dictum”(Scopes Trial). As Darrow pointed out, a great divide existed between religion and science, and legislation always seemed to use religion to prove or disprove science, even though religion could not be proved or disproved.

 

The Scopes Trial was much more than questioning a law in Tennessee, since it provided insight into America and the unwillingness to find a middle ground. During the Scopes Trial, there was no compensation or agreement, it was strictly black and white, and there could only be a right or a wrong. No one suggested that it would be smart to give the option of what should be taught, instead of just saying to teach or to not teach evolution This sets the tone for a lot of events that follow the Scopes Trial, and has many similarities to today’s political atmosphere. People seem to only want to accept what is true for their side of the spectrum. If they agree with something from the other side, it is very unlikely for that person to publicly admit that. The Scopes Trial separated the religious and the nonreligious people in the 1900’s. This was a time of great controversy and change, socially and politically in the US. Many people thought that traditional views were being threatened by modern ones. The Scopes Trial related to all of this because it questioned everyone’s prior way of living, and threatened their beliefs and morals.

 

John Scopes did the brave and heroic task of challenging America’s legal system where change was necessary. There have been many people who have challenged laws and created change in our country such as Brown v. Board of Education, a class action lawsuit which ultimately overturned laws requiring black students to attend racially segregated schools. During the women’s suffrage movement of the mid-19th century, women fought to have the right to vote, and finally won with the passage of the 19th amendment. There are also people such as Edward Snowden and others uncovering laws and policies which violate every American’s basic human rights, without them even knowing. America needs more people like this, willing to risk their careers to speak up and make a change.

 

I would rate the Scopes Trial a rather boring and predictable 5 out of 5 stars, because of the way that John Scopes handled the situation, and because of the manner that the law was handled after the Scopes Trial. John Scopes made an ethical choice, whether to debate the law publicly in order to make a change, or to break the law and take a stand. While it is generally wiser to simply debate the issue, it is obvious that in the midst of the time, this option would not have worked. There was immense political division between the traditional views of religion versus the modern views of science and evolution, which can still be seen today. But the issue expands further than religion, since traditional versus modern views can be applied to almost anything, including marriage, technology, and even cooking. There was simply too much controversy to be able to have a civil conversation about such a topic, and therefore John Scopes had no choice but to be brave and challenge the law. I give the Scopes Trial 5 out of 5 stars.

 

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Hello! I hope everyone is doing well! I haven’t had a chance to post an update in a while because we had been working on an exciting project in Humanities. We all chose an issue in Greenwich that we wanted to focus on, and then everyone took a role in producing a film that talked about the issue and what steps needed to be taken to solve the issue.

 

At the end of the whole project, everyone had to complete a reflection, where we each talked about the benefits of making the documentary, what we learned, and what we learned that we could’ve don’t better. This was beneficial, as it allowed all of us to really analyze what we had been rushing to finish, and give it more of a general overview instead of a cut by cut look. It helped us to see what we could improve on, and how the class worked well together.

In general, there was only positive feedback, but I think what really stood out to me was my tendency to prefer to work alone on projects, and not have to rely on other people to do their fair share. This is true in a lot of my other classes, where people will do sections, but there is only one person doing a job. For instance, in our project, everyone edited pieces, which in the end turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. People were handing stuff in late, there would be music where there shouldn’t be, pieces went missing, etc. This is prevented in single person editing. However, obviously in a class environment, you can’t only have one person editing a class project, so it was understandable. Overall, I give working in groups a 2 ½ /5.

Second, the reflection helped us to figure out what we could’ve done better next time. For me, this would be really trying to work better with others, and to overall put more effort in. In the beginning, I didn’t put effort in where I could have, and I was wishing that I had by the end. With my background in cinematography, videography, and editing, I think I could have helped a lot. I give my overall effort a 3/5.

 

Thanks for checking in, and I hope to see (or not see, because that would be weird) next time!

 

-Graham Ornstein

Hello!

In this blog post, I will attempt to teach you my favorite method of persuasion, including psychology tricks and I will also get into a topic called ‘People Hacking’, which is similar to social engineering.

Persuasion is a paramount tool, whether you are in charge of marketing, sales, or almost any other job or position. It can help to connect you with a customer to sell a product, or you could use it to try and get out of a speeding ticket (although this is not recommended).

Persuasion, defined as “cause (someone) to do something through reasoning or argument”, is an interesting, and sometimes cruel, way of getting what you want. With tools such as Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, along with many others, persuasion is a very broad topic.

 

First off: Let me explain my favorite way of obtaining information from people. I’m not sure of the name of this technique, I’m not even sure that it is a known technique, but I have found that it works approximately 90% of the time. Have you ever been in conversation with someone, when they bring up some issue, but then say that they don’t want to talk about it, or “never mind”? That’s the perfect scenario for this to work. After they say “I don’t want to talk about it”, or something similar, you want to say, “are you sure? I just want to help.”, or something along those lines. That will allow them to feel safe when talking to you, but they will most likely still say that they don’t want to talk about it, so that they don’t seem “weak” for changing their mind. That’s when this trick comes into play. If they say “never mind” again, just say “Okay, I won’t pressure you but just know that I’m here for you.” This lets them know that you want to help, but also makes them feel slightly guilty, since they know that you have good intentions, and they feel bad for not letting you help. That is key, if you can put even the slightest amount of guilt in their head, then in no time, they will come back to talk about it.

That’s my favorite way of obtaining information from someone. But let me be clear, you shouldn’t take advantage of this, since the person is trusting you to keep secret what they tell you. You should want to actually help the person, but you need to know what is going on, not that you just want to know what they’re hiding.

 

The other method of persuasion, people hacking, is just about the exact opposite. The point of people hacking is to gain access or information to something or somewhere that you should not have access to. For example, say you’re trying to get into a building that you don’t have credentials for. The easiest way to gain access is through people hacking, and to say that you are there for some sort of maintenance, and that you will need access to (fill in the blank) room. If they write you out a visitor badge, you might try sighing heavily to indicate that they are being an inconvenience to your work, and that you are in a hurry. If they do not give you access, there isn’t much more you can do. People hacking is an important tool, but it’s a big topic, and I won’t go any more into it.

 

Hopefully you enjoyed this blog post of effective persuasion, and hopefully you learned a thing or two. Just remember to be ethical if you try any of these methods. Thanks,

 

-Graham

Hello!

In this blog post I will be talking about how we shared our expertise in a certain area with the rest of our Design Studio class. We did this to learn about each other and to learn about each other’s interests. The lessons that we gave each other were mostly interactive, and ranged from dance stretching to drawing anime. It was great to have a variety in what we were learning, as it showed our diversity, which can be utilized in our projects throughout the year.

 

In my presentation, I talked about the laws of thermodynamics, and the difference between AC power and DC power. AC, or alternating current, power is the type of power that gets transmitted over power lines on streets. DC, or direct current, power is the type of power that most appliances and devices run off of. I explained the fight between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, Edison creating DC and Tesla creating AC. I then went over voltage, current, resistance, and even three phase power.

 

Here is a slide from my presentation:

I also went over how resistance through an object affects the current through an object, which is why touching the leads on a car battery would not hurt a person. Even though it is roughly 2000 amps at 12.6 volts, its true current, taking human resistance into account, would only be 0.0000157777778 amps, when 0.1-0.2 amps would be lethal.

Here is the slide for the car battery example:

Finally, I talked about some of the myths involving electricity, including the fact that a lot of people think that it’s the current that kills, when in fact current cannot travel without voltage, meaning that it’s the combination of voltage and current that kills.

Here is the slide for that:

If you are interested in reading the rest of my presentation, click the link below to view it on Google Slides.

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gnDhB3mMV37J5CSTsCozzUbPwMkhMfPAnyBFgcrFi7Y/edit?usp=sharing

 

Thanks,

I hope you enjoyed this blog post!

 

-Graham

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Hello!

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<p>I am going to be talking about my previous years at schools, and I will be comparing those years to how my current year is progressing.

In second grade, I transferred to a small school called Stanwich School, which has recently merged with Greenwich Country Day School. I spent 6 years there, and I loved it. The classes were very small, ranging from 6-12 kids in each. I greatly appreciate working in a classroom with a small number of kids, because you get more time with the teacher to get extra help, etc. After 8th grade, I decided to transfer to Greenwich High School because of the immense opportunity and possibility at the bigger school.

Freshmen year for me was hard – coming from such a small school required me to adjust to the larger classroom environment, and I also had to balance making friends with worrying about academics. My grades were poor and I missed many of assignments. After having my brother go through Innovation Lab and loving it, I decided to give it a shot. I am a hands on learner, and love the small classroom environment, so Innovation Lab is definitely the best option for me. It allows you to work on long term projects, and almost everything is hands-on.

So far, joining Innovation Lab has been a great decision, since all the teachers are wonderful, and it has all the amenities I had hoped for; small class size, caring teachers, long term hands-on projects, and very friendly kids. I would compare this year so far to my 8th grade year, which had the smallest class size, the most freedom, and the most hands-on classes including chemistry and others. Since 8th grade has been my best year yet, and since it is so similar to this year, I believe this year is going to be a great year.</p>

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Thanks,

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-Graham Ornstein

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