PEER REVIEW
Title: " I just wanna be average"
Author: Mike Rose
From: Smiljana Živkov
It is a present -day situation in schools that teachers pay more attention to those students for whom they think have potential to achieve something in their life. But how do they get to decide who will get that chance and who won’t? The school system is built that if you don't excel in the "normal" classes you will be viewed as either "slow" or just an "average" student trying to get by with minimal effort. And just like that, teachers will stop paying attention to you and you will be one of those who will, according to them, probably end up making ends meet till the rest of their lives or in the worst case, end up in prison before the age of 25.
I agree with Smiljana that such behaviour of teachers can lead to low self-esteem and the lack of self-respect. When someone is told enough times that they are dumb or just don’t expect much from them, that person will start to believe it and do work at that level. Therefore, as Smiljana states as well, teachers play an important part in our education. If they write students off at the very beginning, they may never realize their full potential and may settle for less.
Sometimes “less is more” but not when it comes to education. I agree that every student is responsible for their own education and should make a lot of effort in order to succeed but school system should not make it harder for them by placing limits who and how far can each one of them go.
Title: "What's Eating America"
Author: Michael Pollan
From: Dunja Šarić
Americans have always been known as fast food “pros”. Their way of life may not come to Europe for another 10 years. However, it seems that we all forgot where food comes from. We can’t live without it, but it can also lead to our destruction. In order to make a profit, food industry abused the soil so much that it may never recover again.
I agree with Dunja that the use of all kinds of chemicals in agriculture negatively affected the quality of food we are eating today. There is no need to mention the abnormal amounts of ammonium nitrate placed in the soil where our favourite vegetables or crops grow. When chemicals became good? Some of them kill vermins, but they don’t differentiate bad insect from a good one. It is like an endless chain. In order to get, someone else has to lose. And while we play with our health, the situation just gets worse. While we benefit from nature, the nature suffers and it is only the matter of time when this chain will end. We have to think not only about what we eat, but where that food is from. And finally, as Dunja stated as well, our self-destructive nature will eventually kill us all. But until we stop to think about the consequences, it will be too late
Title: "The Way We Lie"
Author: Stephanie Ericsson
From: Sreten Pantić
As Sreten also says , there is no person in the world who has not said a single lie in whole his life. Everyone who tells you that he does’t tell lies- he lied you. No matter which type of lie you use, once you get caught, you won’t get away with it easily. It is actually quite interesting how we hate being lied to, yet, we do it all the time. Even though we lie all the time , the fact is that not all lies are intentionally told to hurt people. Some of them are justified, we tell them to avoid hurting someone’s feeling,but most of them hurt unconsciously. Sreten mentions a person who is so used to lying that he doesn’t know how and when to stop- this is a pathological liar, the worst of them all. This is a kind of a compulsive liar who tells untruth all the time: starting from some trivial things to the more serious and damaging ones.
There is just one point on which I don’t agree with Sreten. He mentioned that lying doesn’t always get out of control and then gave an example of well-mastered manipulation of people. Those who „skillfully“ lie and manipulate other people are already pros when it comes to telling lies. Even though they are calculated,their behaviour is way out of control. They are compulsive liars who abuse truth to the great extent.
We can put ourselves on a test to see how much we can live without lying but each and every one of us will tell it eventually. Lie is just like a smile or a tear, it is the essential part of human being, it is just who we are. The fact that we lie, doesn’t make us bad persons as long as we do it for the sake of others, to protect them from being hurt.