The journals will cause a mess of trouble! Even though Mr. Birkway changes the names of people and covers the fronts of the journals so they will not be recognizable, people can still determine whose journal is being read aloud. The purpose of the journal was to write down private thoughts. Private thoughts do not always translate well into public presentations. The class could tell who said what about whom. This offended many people and embarrassed everyone. Even if the comment was about a friend, not everyone gets along all the time. Thoughts written down after a moment of conflict are usually not our best, and these caused more hurt than the original conflict by being read aloud. It also created the basis for teasing, as in the case of Sal’s comments about kissing a tree and thinking that it tasted like blackberries.