Everyone faces conflicts in their lives, and the best way to overcome them is to read a book about a character who faces similar problems. These characters can help you understand your own challenges better, and make you feel less alone in the world. Over time, stories change, books change, characters change, but the main conflicts in the book are all relatable ones that many people may experience. This is evident in the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, a book written literally over two hundred years ago. It tells the story of people struggling to overcome misconceptions and vanity that keeps them from being happy. The characters must find a way to get past preconceived notions and biased ideas about the other people around them. In modern times, many people choose to act like the way people want them to, and they often keep to themselves. They do this to get respect and seem more superior than the people around them. Others might not understand their behavior, and think of them as proud. The character Mr. Darcy is a perfect example of this. Born into a wealthy family, he is intent on maintaining his social status at any cost. His cold, reserved behavior intimidates people, and it makes him very antisocial and awkward when connecting to new people. Even though Mr. Darcy is a character in another time period, people living in modern times can connect to his way of thinking. Some people make themselves appear cool and classy thinking it gives them a good reputation, but this can deprive them of a good social life, especially since true relationships are built on being open and honest. I see examples of this almost every day. At school, some of my classmates try to appear as impressive as possible, and they look down on the other kids who might not be as fashionable as them. Most of the other kids assume that they are just too proud and vain to be friendly to people they consider beneath them. Their social circle is slowly being reduced to just the kids who act like them, and I don’t think they are very happy. They would learn something from Mr. Darcy’s change of behavior in the book, and Pride and Prejudice has also helped me to understand why people act this way. Even though this book is about two hundred years old, and was written primarily for adults, its lesson can be valuable to people of all different ages and time periods. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Penguin, 1813. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Book Club Report: The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
An update from our twenty-fifth Book Club meeting! On Saturday, March 27, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall. The Penderwicks, the first book in a series of five, is about four sisters and their father, and all of the adventures they encounter when they rent a summer home in the Berkshires. Our Book Club meeting, which was attended by around 35 participants from multiple countries, started with everyone being sent into small breakout rooms, so they could get to know each other a little bit better. Their conversation starter was “spring”, and what spring looks like where they live! When we all came back together, we debriefed the book (most everyone enjoyed it!) and then split into four breakout rooms—led by myself, Laura, and two of our Book Club facilitators: Lucy and Madeline). In these rooms, we talked about The Penderwicks in more depth, including the characters, setting, plot, and themes. When we shared out about our discussions afterward, we found that many people had picked up on the sort of “reverse fairy-tale” motif carried throughout the book, and we were able to have a fun conversation about this! Next, we talked about inspiration. As writers, what other authors have inspired our work? We used The Penderwicks, which is inspired by Little Women (by Louisa May Alcott) as an example. After we analyzed those novels and their similarities and differences, we talked about our own inspirations, including authors such as Rick Riordan, Markus Zusak, and J.R.R Tolkien. Our final activity was a writing prompt. The Penderwicks, although it is realistic fiction, seems to take place in a magical setting, because it is so idyllic. So, we asked our participants to write about a summer experience they had that felt magical. We shared our answers in breakout rooms, and it was really fun to hear about summer homes, lakes, hiking, and more! At the end of Book Club, we chose our next book, which will be discussed on April 24—the first meeting of our spring Book Club session! To sign up for the spring/summer session of Book Club, visit our Eventbrite page here. Our Next Book (to be discussed on April 24): Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
My Viewpoint on Virtual Learning
Virtual school has been taken seriously with the dreadful presence of COVID-19, and we have to make fair use of the time when it comes to school. I shall share my viewpoint of virtual learning. There are many vital things to consider, like communication and academic performance. I will talk about three advantages and three disadvantages of virtual school to represent the overall viewpoint. Advantage #1: Efficiency of doing virtual assignmentsVirtual school has a special freedom in doing academic tasks, which is absent in regular school. In virtual school, I can do homework early and can easily work on major projects because of this freedom. The freedom is that virtual students can access assignments with ease at almost anytime because of the assignments being almost entirely digital. This freedom results in more efficiency and comfort in doing tasks, giving you an advantage in school. Advantage #2: Flexibility of virtual school Flexibility is very high in virtual school for me, of course. I have an X-Period (Extra Period) at my school that is usually very restricted in regular school. However, virtual students like me do not have to attend anything during these 40 minutes, and it, therefore, can be considered as free time. Although virtual students can catch up on academic assignments at this time, this is not really an “advantage” of virtual learning. The reason is that regular students have the same ability to do so in X-Period. To explain more about this useful flexibility, I can also leave classes early sometimes when I finish my classwork before the end of them. Being able to do this results in more free time that I can use. Overall, flexibility can really help in many things. Advantage #3: More opportunities outside virtual school I can save a lot of time as a virtual student, leading to more opportunities outside of school. Regular students would have to get home after school, which can take increased time due to things like transportation. On the other hand, I can just jump out of my chair and move on with the day with tremendous ease as a virtual student. I have time saved for things like music class preparation, sports, and hobbies. Overall, virtual learning is comfortable and time-saving. Disadvantage #1: Being “school-sick” as a virtual learner If you are a virtual student, you eventually will be “school-sick” as time goes. Let me explain what being school-sick basically means. If you were a regular student before being a virtual one, you would have no problem at the start of virtual school as you are adapting to it leisurely. As time grows, within 3-4 weeks, you will suddenly miss regular school and its fun qualities like talking to friends at lunch. This is normal, as traditional or regular school has been the only type of school decades before. Nonetheless, you will not be motivated to be the same person you were in regular school as a virtual student because of this “school-sick” feeling that lingers for a long time. Disadvantage #2: An unpredictable workload of virtual tasks I explained the comfort and efficiency of doing virtual assignments earlier. Still, there is, of course, a bad side to it. It is the actual work you do to maintain that efficiency and advantage. Regular students have unique guidance when doing assignments, but virtual students don’t have that guidance. This virtual workload is “unpredictable” because of the projects, homework, and other things piling up at unexpected times. Virtual work can increase stress for you and can even affect your academic performance and grades if you don’t keep up with it. Disadvantage #3: Virtual school’s effects on your health Virtual school can also impact your health negatively. Screen time is one of these negative factors that come in when you are learning virtually. You have to look at a screen almost all the time as school passes each day. If you think of the duration of school, which is nearly 6 hours and 30 minutes for me, the bad things of screen time will almost certainly come to virtual learners. One of these things is that excessive screen time will stress your mind and negatively influence you. Another significant negative factor is that your physical health will be degraded while being a virtual student. As regular students walk around the halls to their classes and carry materials, you would not do this as a virtual learner. My Physical Education class alone has only video workouts instead of engaging sports, instructed exercises, and group interaction that is usually there in regular school. This lack is due to the technical difficulties of having a Physical Education class virtually. All of this makes you less motivated to do physical things, and your physical skills will drop as time goes by when being a virtual learner. Your overall health can be hugely impacted by being a virtual learner, which is really bad, especially for children. My viewpoint on virtual school overall is pretty balanced in terms of advantages and disadvantages. The ultimate thing to advise to virtual students is that virtual learning can be hard or easy for you depending on how you figure it out and use it in your academic and daily lives. I do things like setting up my room and changing it in different ways to make virtual school more enjoyable. You can do far more things to power through virtual school, like having a journal to write in or exercising for your better health during the current pandemic. Hopefully, this article can help you in this current situation.
