My TED Talk

Thesis: In my TED Talk I would like to talk about how 4-H has been a positive aspect in my life, it has taught me to be more creative, and it has also taught me how to have responsible work habits. 

The organization of my thesis for my TED talk may change between now until when I actually give the speech.  This is because I want to make sure that I word it in a way that will portray my points in the best way.  I plan to think of some stories that will help me explain the things I have learned and experienced since none of the people I will be speaking to will really be able to relate to what I am talking about since none of them live on farms or are in 4-H.

I previously watched a TED Talk that was about how schools are teaching their students out of creativity, so I was going to try and tie this into how 4-H has helped me to stay creative.  I am still trying to figure out where I am going to go with it after that point. If any of you who read this have any ideas please let me know.  I think there are a lot of things that I can tie into the topics of 4-H and creativity but I just need to start getting it started. 

Double Entry Journal

Ron McCallum is a blind man that is very humble about his life, he doesn't feel ashamed of the gift he has been given he embraces it.  In his TED talk he said, "I miss family members and friends reading to me."  This was one way that he defined love.  He felt that this was how his family and friends showed him love since he could not see their love.  This was a bond that he build with them through listening to them read to him, since he was unable.

I can relate to this in many ways.  The main one is that my mother and I used to ride horse together a lot.  She is the main reason that I know how to ride horse so well.  We would go on rides that lasted for hours.  Now that she has began to get older she doesn't like to ride as much anymore.  It is very hard on her body.  This was time that her and I spent together and I felt as though it was a time to share our love with each other.  Since she hasn't been riding with me very much I realize now how much it meant to me and how much I miss it.  I hope that again some day my mother and I will end up riding horse together. This was a bond that we build together through horse back riding.

People need to build bonds like this more.  The memories that can be made during times like this are rare and can be life changing.

Double Entry Journal from Classmate

"It changed for me personally..." Mike Rowe spoke in his TED talk about how a lot of thing came into perspective for him when he was castrating a lamb.  Before he went to the farm he did some research.  He called PETA to see how they thought castration should be done. They told him by banding them.  Then he contacted the human society and asked them how they thought castration should be done and they responded the same way by saying that they should be banded.  So Mike goes to the farm prepared to band lambs.  When he gets there and asks how they will be castrating the lambs they tell him they won't be using bands they will be using a knife and their teeth.  This concept was new to Mike. It seemed to be more inhuman than banding to him.  Then the owner of the farm showed him how a lamb that was banded reacted compared to a lamb that was castrated the farmers way.  The lamb banded became sickly looking and laid down in a corner, while the one who was castrated the farmers way was up and running right away.

What changed for him personally was his perspective on things.  He realized that there are probably a lot of things in life that he doesn't know much about.  This is true for most people.  This also proves the point that you cannot always believe what you hear.  When Mike was researching this topic he only contacted facilities that think they are against inhuman treatment of animals.  This proves that sometimes people perceive things wrongly due to a lack of experience and knowledge in certain areas.  So before you assume that you know everything about a certain thing or topic, go out and see what it is really like or how it is really done. 

The Wife-Beater Falacies

"The Wife-Beater" by Gayle Rosenwald Smith is an  essay that talks about shirts that many men wear as undershirts that is commonly referred to as a wife-beater.  There are many fallacies made in this essay.

In fact the first sentence is a fallacy.  It says, "Everybody wears them".  This is a hasty or sweeping generalization.  Not all men wear these kinds of shirts.  Neither my dad or brother have ever worn one before.  Therefor this is a fallacy.  You cannot include all people in your opinions because chances are that not all people will fall into that category because everyone is different.

Another fallacy that comes from within this essay is that a wife-beater is worn by husbands who are physically abusive.  This is a fallacy because we all know that all men who are physically abusive to their wives do not wear these shirts.  This is another generalization. 

"The association of the undershirt and the term wife-beater arose in 1997 from varied sources, including gay and gang subcultures and rap music." This was said by Jesse Scheidlower, in a section of the New York Times who is the principal editor of the Oxford English Dictionary's American Office.  This is an example of a appeal to doubtful authority.  How do we know this is really when this term arose?  This is just stated there are no facts to back it up.  Even though she is of high authority in her job status, that doesn't mean that every word she says is true.

TED Talk Topics

For my TED talk I would like to talk about the topic of roping.  Roping is what people do in rodeo's.  The person doing the roping is on a horse and the horse is chasing the calf.  There are usually two people doing this at a time. This is called team roping.  Someone tries to catch the head and someone tries to catch the feet.  The only reason I am not sure I want to choose this topic is because I am not sure I will be able to talk about roping the whole ten minutes.  So I was thinking I could broaden the topic and talk about rodeos in general.

Today in Senior Social II Mr. Toward showed us this video that showed tests that were done to see how paying students for their grades helps persuade them.  This is another interesting topic that I could talk about. It brings up many questions like how parenting affect their children's grades and if it is right to persuade them in this way. I feel like this would be a little easier to talk about for five minutes.

One of my close family friends has lung cancer, and he has not been doing very well.  I respect him a lot and I was thinking I could talk about how good of a friend he has been to my family.  I would define friendship by giving examples of how he been a part of my families life. The reason I would probably have a hard time talking about this is because he may not still be with us by then and it might be really hard for me to talk about it.

The other two things I have been thinking about talking about for my TED talk are 4-h because that has been a huge part of my life and trap.  These two things have been very huge part of my life for the last few years of my life and I think talking about them would be fairly easy and would be easy to memorize and would flow nicely.

If I could get feedback from you guys on what you guys think and what would be the most interesting topic, that would be great, thanks!