The MET Field Trip

By Juli S. and Charlotte Z. 

On April 27^th, 2011, the 8^th graders all took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. We split into groups of ten and looked at art from different countries. We saw Islamic art, which we learned about in World Cultures earlier this year. We knew about these designs because of a project we did in art involving Islamic style. We saw Mesopotamian art, which consisted of ancient jewelry, old weapons, and miscellaneous sculptures. We also visited the Chinese art and the art of South Asia. In these sections we saw pieces ranging from artifacts from the Forbidden City to Buddhist and Hindu sculptures. After we had rekindled some of our knowledge about Mesopotamia, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and China, we were allowed to roam around the museum in small groups.

 The highlight of the trip was going to the Ming garden. Workmen were brought in from China in order to build an authentic Chinese garden. The door leading into the garden is circular, and it is meant to only fit one person at a time. Inside the garden is a little waterfall surrounded by rocks that lead into a pool with fish. That is the only source of noise in the garden. This is because the garden is supposed to be peaceful and serene.  

In our group in particular, Ms. Post gave each student a post-it with contrasts to find within the garden.  Once we found an example, we sat down and shared them as a group. One contrast was light and dark.  For this we said where the sun shines through the skylight and where the rocks formed a cave.  We thought it was very interesting to see how the Chinese really liked to incorporate so many different contrasts. 

The trip to the MET was very fascinating because we got the chance to actually see pieces of art that we learned about during the course of the year.  We definitely learned a lot from this trip, and it was a fun diversion from our busy year. 

The Crisis in the Middle East

By Charlotte Z.

We all heard about the historic crisis that took place in Egypt a few months ago. The riots in Egypt forced their leader of the last 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, to step down. Although the rioting has ceased in Egypt, many other countries, such as Libya, Syria and Bahrain are revolting against their own leaders. The Egyptians have always hated the dictatorship, but it took them 30 years to finally protest for democracy. They were inspired to protest because of their anger over rising taxes, by the fact that Mubarak wanted his son to succeed him, and finally, the man who set himself on fire in Tunisia moved them. Then, a young girl made a YouTube video telling Egypt that she was going to hold a rally against the government, and she asked others to join her. 

The pro-democracy Egyptians were not satisfied when Hosni Mubarak decided he would resign in September, because they wanted him to step down immediately. On the other hand, western nations hoped Mubarak would stay in power because they were afraid of losing an important ally. The country most concerned was Israel. Mubarak was corrupt, but under his power he maintained the 1978 peace treaty with Israel. It is vital that Egypt keep their peace treaty with Israel. Thomas Friedman from the New York Times interviewed a man from Tel Aviv who said, “Well, everything we thought for the last 30 years is no longer relevant.” I fear that people in the Muslim Brotherhood who will not want to negotiate with the United States or Israel will replace him and his empty cabinet once an election is held. Also, Egypt is the Arab country that gets the most aid from the United States because of the peace treaty, but I don’t think that the Egyptian people realized this as they rallied in the streets. If they decide to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, it means that the United States may stop sending as much aid to Egypt. On the other hand, I think that if Mubarak had stayed longer, as he had said, Egypt would have resorted to bloodshed and violence. 

I am glad that the Egyptian government didn’t turn to the violent means that Libyan leadership did.  I think that the situation in Egypt is too complicated to just decide whether or not we wanted Mubarak to stay or go. I think that if there were someone moderate poised to lead, I would have fully wanted Mubarak to go. Unfortunately, it is unclear who will lead.

I am interested to see what is going to happen in the future, now that Mubarak has stepped down. Since Mubarak stepped down, it seems as though nothing has changed in Egypt. I wonder who is going to take over as president, whether or not Egypt will become a democracy, what party will fill the empty cabinet seats, and what effect it is going to have on relations with Israel. 

I hope that the rest of the Middle East will move towards peaceful democracies, and I am interested to see how these changes will affect the rest of the world.