NOCTILUCA January 2018

The age of thinking in

Stereotypes By Olivia Molter

A study done by the Pew Research Center in 2017 measured Americans’ feelings toward various religious groups. Participants were asked to quantify their feelings about different religious groups on a scale of 0-100, 100 representing the warmest and most positive feelings and attitudes and 0 being the most negative or coldest feelings toward. It’s no surprise that the religious groups that received the lowest overall scores are those with very small populations in the U.S. compared to more common religions. These religions and affiliations are disliked be- cause, without significant representation in the U.S., they’re misunderstood. We wanted to give a member of a “low-scor- ing” religion a platform to address some of the stereotypes associated with her religion. Sara Zaidan Senior at Appleton North Muslim American Stereotype: That Muslims are terrorists “The thing that makes people think [that] is the media. When the media is trying to create a specific image, it’s going to extensively cover stories that promote this image, and push aside other stories. When any other person commits a crime, they are not labeled by their religion, but when it is a Muslim, that headline is everywhere. We as Muslims are often told to apologize for these bad people, but that shouldn’t be the case because they just don’t represent us. And all these attacks that happen, in Islam we are taught that killing one person is like killing all of humanity and saving one person is like saving all of humanity. So just that act of terrorism: are you even a Muslim? You’re literally disobeying the whole idea. And so instead of focusing on this small number of acts that happen in the name of Islam, meet a Muslim. The majority of Muslims don’t do these acts and you just have to go out there and meet somebody, you know? In a lot of these smaller (less diverse) places, they’re probably going to think every Muslim is a terrorist, all I see on the TV is Muslim terrorists, when that’s literally noth- ing to do with Islam. It feels like the media is trying to give that image because it gives everyone something to fear. Muslims are not terrorists, we are peaceful people.” Stereotype: That Muslim women are forced to wear hijabs “A lot of people think that we are forced to wear hijabs but that’s not the case. It’s written in the Quran that women and men alike should be modest. Not only through clothes and how we look on the outside, but through your actions; don’t buy extrav- agant things, don’t be screaming and laughing like crazy. Both men and women: be moderate in your actions, don’t go over the top with everything. So that being said, wearing a hijab is a choice that a woman makes herself. It says it in the Quran, I want to follow it, I want to obey my God, I want to wear my hijab. Like that’s not something my dad told me to do. When I was younger, I started wearing a hijab in 5th grade. I just wore it because my mom wears it, that’s what I knew, so I was like “Okay, I’m going to start wearing a hijab.” But as I grew older I started understanding the real meaning: it’s for modesty and so people judge you based on your intellect and your personality, rather than judging you based on your looks or your body. Especially in this time, with girls being reduced to their sexual allure and treated like they’re objects just based on their bod- ies and stuff, I’m rejecting this idea by choosing to wear hijab. This is keeping me respected as a human.” Closing thoughts “Islam literally means peace. For most Muslims, their actions are influenced by what God told them to do, and God didn’t tell them to do anything wrong or harmful. He simply asks us to be kind and stay God-conscious and to treat everyone equally. Stay woke kids.” For the rest of Sara’s inter- view and the full article, scan the QR code.

The Different Ways We Learn By Sonia Tallroth

Learning seems simple: you take a concept from the world and you store it in your mind where you can access it later. However, the traditional method of repetition and “practice makes per- fect” is not the best method of learning. About 10 years ago, scientists studied how the brain learns, and these findings have helped people teach better and students understand more. Howev- er, some misconceptions are still present today. Misconception: Teachers are the only people who can give a student information. Studies show that students retain more information when they are tasked with figuring out the answer themselves rather than being shown how to solve problems right away. Mrs. Klunder, a math teacher at North, embraces this in her teaching.“I don’t think that if I were to spoon feed formulas and show them how to do every type of problem they’re going to see on the test, they’re going to leave my class being thinkers.” Misconception: Most learning happens when we are in the classroom. Actually, most learning happens when we apply and practice the skill we learned. An example of this is the MIT Challenge, where Scott H. Young, a writer, taught himself the undergrad Manhattan Institute of Technology curriculum for their computer science program in a year. He emphasized steps on how he learned the material: he started out with minimal background information, and then he tried practice prob- lems and filled in his gaps of information about the subject. Misconception: Everyone has their own personalized learning style: auditory, visual, or kinetic. One learning style shouldn’t be used for every subject-- different things need to be taught in different ways. A study put out in 2008 says that there is no real evidence pointing towards 3 different learning styles. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Education told teachers to “make [their] own call on how to utilize learning styles in the classroom.”