Riley Lucente

Per 3
Learning logs

1/19/17

Learning log 1: Should juveniles be treated the same as adults when they commit a crime?
Should they be sent to life in prison for violent crimes?

No, never. As Paul Thompson states in his Startling Finds on the Teen Brain article;

But what really caught our eye was a massive loss of brain tissue that occurs in the teenage
years. The loss was like a wildfire, and you could see it in every teenager. Gray matter, which
brain researchers believe supports all our thinking and emotions, is purged at a rate of 1 percent
to 2 percent a year during this period. Stranger still, brain cells and connections are only being
lost in the areas controlling impulses, risk-taking, and self- control.

Children and Teenagers dont have the same cognitive control and structure that adults do, and
should not be tried the same as a fully matured adult. Children have lapses in the logic centers of
their brains, making critical thinking difficult, and causing them to act impulsively, which can lead
to tremendously bad decisions.

Teen and kids should still be persecuted, but age must be a consideration, perhaps have
punishments divided into age groups (1-3, 4-7, 8-12, 13-16, 17-19) where the same crime has a
different maximum number of years detained for different age groups. This could better help
figure out how to deal with child criminals, and would stop them from being tried as adults.
Riley Lucente
Per 3
Learning logs

2/3/17

Learning Log 2: Use the following frame to write up a review of the Socratic Seminar.
Then, add 1-2 paragraphs discussing the pros and cons of this seminar. Last, write 1
paragraph discussing what you think would help to encourage a healthy discussion
about politics.

In recent discussion of _juvenile justice, a controversial issue has been whether_Gary Olson
should be tried as an adult, or as a juvenile, after murdering his emotionally abusive parents. On
the one hand, some argue that _He was 14 at the time, and should have known better than to kill
his parents, he should have understood it was the wrong thing to do. From this perspective,
_adult punishment seems like the ideal choice, as he was totally aware of his actions. On the
other hand, however, others argue that_He was a child, a middle-schooler at that, only 14, his
brain was not totally developed, and was in a chaotic transitionary period, along with being in a
house where nobody cared about him, and where he was being emotionally abused; murder
may have seemed like the only way out. In the words of_Ahsley AA if they had mentioned off
hand to their own parents, maybe, but at the same time: would I have done that? YOu should,
but I am not sure if everybody would or even take it seriously. they probably thought he was
joking.. one of this view's main proponents, "_Neglect_." According to this view, _Gary is much
more helpless, and needed support, and he would have never killed anyone if he had it_. In sum,
then, the issue is whether _Gary should be tried as an adult who knew what he was doing_ or as
a child that didnt__.
My own view is that _He should have been tried as a minor. Though I concede that __what he did
was atrocious, and should not go without punishment, I still maintain that __he was a child, that
was in an awful situation. For example, __He states his mom constantly ignored and neglected
him, even going so far as to ignore his comments on murder and suicide. Although some might
object that__what he did was unforgivable, I would reply that _we need to forgive, and
understand what kind of hell he was going through. This issue is important because __it may
determine how children are treated in our judicial system all together.
Riley Lucente
Per 3
Learning logs

3/6/17

Learning Log 3: If you had to rank the four texts in this module (Brooks, Tannen, Young,
and Lorde) from easiest to hardest, how would you rank them and why? How did the
ease or difficulty of each reading affect your willingness to consider the author's
arguments? What did you do during your reading to make sure you understood the
difficult texts? Be sure to include your evaluation of all four texts.

Lorde - Easiest to read, best argument, I agree with this one the most, and I quite like everything
she says. Very enthralling and easy to read,

Young - Extremely well written, engaging and compelling, great arguments. It was a pleasure to
read, attention was grabbed from the first paragraph.

Tannen - A bit harder to follow, sources not cited, argument is lacking, but there was a few good
paragraphs. Not as fun to read, a bit of a chore, frustrating at times.

Brooks - Good opening, terribly written, un-cited statistics, baseless, terrible arguments, that
were nearly impossible to follow; good intentions, horrible execution. Extremely frustrating to
read, I kept waiting for an explanation or citation which never came