CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING

High School
Noam Chomsky An Afternoon with by Claudia Padilla, HS Student
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When Mr. Balog, my 10 th grade
biology teacher, asked my group
(Francisco García-Bedoy,
Constanza Aceves, Pamela
Quirarte, and myself) to choose
which unanswered question in
science we wanted to learn
about, we decided on: What is
the biological basis of language
and universal grammar?
I didn’t know anything about the
subject, but I was eager to learn
about it. When I began to
research language and grammar,
I found out that there are many
theories regarding language
acquisition which go beyond
just Spanish or English. After I
looked at several Web pages and
articles, I realized that there was
one name that I saw over and
over. This name was Noam
Chomsky.
I had no idea who he was or
what he had done. The only
thing I knew was that he was a
famous linguist and that he had
several theories of language
acquisition. For this project, we
needed to interview scientists
that are important in the field. I
found out that Noam Chomsky is
a professor at MIT, and I emailed
him. I was very happy because
we needed to send as many
emails as possible to scientists
in order to get a response by the
end of the week. I told Mr. Balog
that I had just sent an email to a
guy named Noam Chomsky, and
that from my research I knew
that he was well known in
linguistics. Mr. Balog told me
that it would be amazing just to
get a response from him.
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Two days later, I got a response saying, “Interested to learn of your plans and concerns. But I
am utterly deluged with interview requests, and it’s a physical impossibility to keep up. The
most I can say is that I’ll try, but can’t promise.” When I saw this email, the first thing I did
was grab my Webster’s World Dictionary and Thesaurus to understand all the words he was
using. Then, after several more emails to him and his secretary, I scheduled a phone
interview for January 25 th , 2013. At that time, it was only the end of November, but I had an
interview with Noam Chomsky! I knew I could wait.
During Christmas break, I went to Barnes & Noble and asked if they had anything written by
Noam Chomsky. The employee thought I was majoring in linguistics. When I told him that I
was only a 10 th grader who happened to be lucky enough to have an interview with Noam
Chomsky, he couldn’t believe me. He sat down with me for about an hour and explained
everything I needed to know about Chomsky’s books. I ended up buying four books. One of
the books was Linguistics for Dummies, because before this assignment, I barely knew what
that subject was. I also got a comic book explaining Chomsky’s work, and two books written
by him: Language and Thought and Language and the Problems of Knowledge.
I had to look up most of the things in the books on the Internet, as well as several words in
the dictionary. In the three weeks left before the interview I became an “expert” in Noam
Chomsky’s work regarding linguistics. With the help of Mr. Balog, I came up with several
questions to ask him in the interview. I researched his theories, languages that have been
lost over time, isolated children, and even bonobos (great apes studied by some linguists).
After creating a set of questions, I sorted them out from most important to least important.
I thought I was set for the interview.
It was Friday, January 25 th , and I was very nervous. I had his phone number, and I would call
him when the time came. I called him right on time, but after a while his secretary answered
and told me to call back in 15 minutes. Again, he is Noam Chomsky, so I could wait as long
as he wanted. I called back about 20 minutes later and he answered.
I wasn’t quite sure what to call him – Professor? Doctor? Noam? Mr.? I just went with my
instinct. I began to introduce my group and my class, but he cut me off and told me to start
asking the questions. I first asked him what he thought about the bonobos and the
research that scientists had done regarding them being able to speak. He told me that was
a stupid question, and I just wanted to die. But he gave us a very interesting answer to why
he thought the research done on bonobos had nothing to do with linguistics, and told us
that it was the same as studying bees’ communication and comparing it with humans.
After talking to him for a while, he realized that I was well-prepared and that my questions
were very well-researched. That gave me a lot of confidence to continue with the
interview. I think the best feeling was half-way through the interview when I began to
hear him lighten up and laugh a bit.
After the interview my group and I had to make a podcast explaining the biological basis
of language and grammar. This project made me realize that the American School gives
us the tools to be greater and to achieve success, but we need to do it ourselves. We have
to trust ourselves to be able to grow and improve and to step out of our comfort zones
every once in a while. We can’t give up the first time we don’t succeed at something; if we
really want something we have to fight for it. I learned that the more you read about a
topic and the more you research it, the more you will know – and the more confident you
will feel about what you know.
CreativeMessageinOurProject
by Joana de Freitas and Miki Kuribayashi, HS Students
In our video production class,
we were assigned to make a
stop motion video. In a
stop-motion video, many
pictures are put together and
fast-forwarded to create a video, kind of like a flip-book.
When we discussed our project, we came up with two
ideas; a video about a potato, or a video using paper. Our
first idea was to create a story based on the life of a
potato, from the supermarket to our dining table, but then
we came up with a better idea. We did not want our
project to be something ordinary; we wanted it to be
something special, something that had a meaning. Our
idea was to use our project to deliver a message. We
changed our main focus to paper recycling. We thought
that if our idea included an eco-friendly theme, it would
be a positive message, and the video would apply to
everyone.
Our video starts with a crumpled paper, thrown away by
children because he was ripped. No one wanted to draw
High School
on him. He starts crying because he wants someone to
draw on him. Then a pencil asks him the reason for his
tears. After hearing from the paper, the pencil has the
great idea of drawing on the paper to make him happy.
The paper, first crumpled, morphs into a paper without any
wrinkles. This shows the paper’s joy at the words from the
pencil.
After the pencil finishes his drawing, markers appear to
add color. At the end of the video, the drawing gets hung
because it is beautiful, even if the paper is ripped. This
idea shows, like the Ugly Duckling, how something with
humble beginnings can turn out to be something of
beauty.
In making this video, we wanted to be creative in our
delivery of the message to our audience. We decided the
video should be simple, but valuable as a tool of societal
change. The film’s simplicity makes it understandable to
all ages and hopefully elicits sympathy. We tried to make
the video with few words and simple movement of
characters. The sense of wonder that a child has when
creating a drawing is a universal theme to which anyone
in our audience can relate. We hope that our message
inspires not only a more eco-friendly audience, but a more
creative one.
You can watch our video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4JI9811jDI
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