I have been going to Taekwondo classes for more than 7 years and plan to continue for the foreseeable future. So I think I safely say I have a passion for martial arts. While I was researching for this assignment, I came across an article titled “The social-psychological outcomes of martial arts practice among youth”. So, as someone within this category I thought it would be interesting to read and talk about the benefits and drawbacks of martial arts and my personal experience.

Alright let’s start with the perceived positives. Firstly martial arts is believed to provide positive learning opportunities for youth. In my experience, this is correct. I believe martial arts have contributed heavily to my increased discipline and adoption of new healthy habits over the years. Secondly, it has been suggested that martial arts training can improve self-reliance, enthusiasm and self-regulation. I have personally experienced these benefits over the years. Especially over the past few years, I have found myself using my time more effectively, setting goals and creating habits on my own and being more focused in and out of school.

Finally let’s talk about the perceived negatives. Critics of the effects of martial arts say that it encourages participants to be antisocial. Though the validity of these studies have been called into question, I believe the effects on socialization are neutral. It’s not a team activity so being social isn’t baked into the sport. But it doesn’t encourage people to be antisocial. I have met and talked to many new people and the instructors encourage positive social traits like respect. Another claim that I have seen is that martial arts, specifically combat competitions, promote aggressive behavior. I think this one is partially true. Of course you’re going to get aggressive in a sparring match, you want to win. This aggressiveness can be used as fuel or motivation to do better. And from watching and competing, I find that competitors are quite respectful out of the ring. But, I do think it may encourage already aggressive people to become more aggressive, so maybe the combat competition part of martial arts shouldn’t be for everyone.

In conclusion, I believe the positives of martial arts far outweigh the negatives. Martial arts provide many benefits while many of the negative are either minor or not proven.

Hello everyone. Today I found an article written by Breitbart while looking at recent news, here in the link if you want to check it out.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/12/01/bidens-2023-border-plan-two-migrants-every-u-s-birth/\

The article claimed that the American democrat government was bringing in roughly 4.5 million immigrants a year to serve as workers in low-wage jobs as a method to bolster those already rich. The article describes why this is very negative and how it affects America. Reading this article, it’s initial claims seemed to high and some points gave me the impression of a very opinionated writer. So I decided to verify this information.

1. To start I went to their Wikipedia site to check their reputation and status as a news outlet. Checking their page I read that Breitbart was heavily biased and posted intentionally misleading stories or conspiracy theories.                                   
2.  Next I checked snopes.com to check if they had reviewed this article. Turns out they hadn’t so I moved on                                                   
3. Next I put the title of the article into google to check if anyone else had reported on this news. There was only 1 other article and it was written by a member of Breitbart. There was no other source that echoed what was written in the article.                                                                     
4. Finally I used checked Joe Biden’s official plan on immigration for 2022 and beyond. The site had no mention of attempting to increase the amount of immigrants entering the US to fill low wage jobs. Instead it describes a plan to support those who have entered America and help give citizenship to those working there.

After reviewing the validity of the Breitbart article I believe that it is incorrect. The news outlet was described as unreliable, fake and rather biased. The only article that echoed the information was written by a member of the organization. And Biden’s official plan on immigration never mentions the information claimed by Breitbart. So the facts seem to point to this article being fake.

Welcome back to the blog. Today I will be sharing my experience with take your kid to work day. I went into work with my mother, who is a Nurse Practitioner for the kidney transplant team. Due to patient confidentiality, I was limited in the things I could participate in. I wasn’t able to witness meetings with any post transplant patients in the morning. But what I did participate in was dealing with patient transfers, prescribing medications and checking on patients info who have recently received a transplant. I also learned more about how the kidney functions, creatinine, anti-rejection medication and keeping a transplanted kidney functioning

Some things I noticed about the work environment that I found encouraging was the friendliness of the workplace. Everyone I met was very respectful and friendly and that makes me feel a lot better about getting up every day to work when I get the that age. Another thing that was expected but still very welcome was the cleanliness of the environment. Always nice to work in a clean space.

On the other hand, one thing I found a little discouraging was the amount of work there was to do. There was always another patient to check on, another transfer to deal with or another prescription to change. This isn’t bad but it always feels a little discouraging to have a massive stack of thing to deal with.