Knowledge by the bulk

Albert Einstein once said that, "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." In response to Micheal Moore's writing Idiot Nation, even though poorly supported, Moore has made valid points regarding today's education. Ones that I saw particularly was the ones talking about how low education has been on the governments priority list. Teachers need to be paid better and kids need to be taught to think for themselves not regurgitate information.

When I saw what teachers make on an average compared to a congressmen, it really shocked me. Teachers are the primary source of where we gain our knowledge from and with out them we would be still in the stone age. Teachers dedicate so much of their time and effort for us kids and the only reason why there is so many unqualified teachers is because we refuse to believe that maybe education has something to do with a better future.

With saying that, the system at which students learn from is inefficient to the future demands and needs to be upgraded to the modern days. In which, hands on education is being taught so that the student may experience what they are learning, instead of absorbing information from outdated text books. The learned behavior students are being taught is that it is better to be a robot than a person cause that is what is is going to get you success.

However, in regards to the recent transition in office, the call for change in education may have arrived. Some examples from Obama's education plan is to reform no child left behind, work to recruit more qualified teachers, and give a 4,000 dollar tax credit to full time college students. This to me says that if these policies are established then, maybe we are moving towards our intended goal.

Family Boundries

In the reading Changing American Families, Judy Alutte depicts how family structure can vary according to social class, race, and gender. In this depiction, I found it interesting that she not only used examples from authors that would support her points but also used controversial text such as the Moynihan report to let us see that many people have this perspective on the structure of the family. As an academic writing, this was definitely not a page turner but it did make a point in helping the reader see how many factors can affect the way a family can be ran.

In more detail on the Moynihan report, my initial reaction to this essay was that is was based on ignorance and lacked support from other sources beyond the authors perspective. I also saw that this essay conveyed the essence of the times where women were inferior to men. So when suggested that men should be put back in "their place" only made sense according to the times. However, this does not necessarily mean it should be justified because if looked from current times I would say that this essay is incredibly flawed. Some flaws that are mentioned is if black women were so dominate and powerful to cause such a strain in the African American society than they you would see more black women in congress and see black women earning more than white men.

In addition, more research was done on low-income black neighborhoods by Carol Stack and found that the structure in the families were very well organized being based on both kin and non-kin parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to help each other out when responsibilities became to heavy for one. This structure may be looked on by those in middle-class nuclear families as disorganized and the wrong way to go about having a family, but in the perspective of these families this is very functional.

In my opinion, I believe this kind of mentality plays a huge role in America's society today. For example, the controversial issue of gay marriage is considered the destruction of the meaning of marriage, and it is if you only see if from that perspective. conversely, if it is decided to step out side of our beliefs and try to understand the other side we will see that not everyone fits under the same standard because we emulate the essence of diversity.

Comma Splice That!

I have a problem with comma splices. I have always thought that as long as they are relating to the same thought they just need a common in-between them. However, I learned that they have to relate, but needs to have a coordinating conjunction such as; and, so, or, but, and yet. For example, a comma splice would look like this:
I woke up late this morning, I did not have enough time for breakfast.

The correction version would look like this:
I woke up late this morning, so I did not have enough time for breakfast.

Another way you could make this sentence work is if you add a subordinate:
Because I woke up late this morning, I did not have enough time for breakfast.

If you want more information on Comma splices go to
http://www.towson.edu/ows/moduleCS_FS.htm

"Dont Just Do Something, Sit There!"

What I liked about this cartoon was how it showed the little guys asking for help, but the one that can help is using the "Don't just doing something, sit there" technique. This also showed the interpreted reaction that the country saw from president bush when we this economical crisis was underway,which was clam and non- responsive.

In detail, if you look at the cartoon you can tell that the artist is trying to put President Bush in a negative light because he is sitting in his airplane just watching the people of his country slowly getting sucked into this economic meltdown. In addition, he also points out that this is not the big corporations that need help but the little guys which President Bush doesn't seem very interested in helping.

Big Goverment Vs. Big Business

This cartoon pointed out a very good point because in the beginning all of the big companies where complaining that their should be no regulation on free trade or on other affairs of business, but now that they are going bankrupt they want a hand out from the government. Also, even though the business is becoming more and more inferior they keep saying the same thing until they are utterly helpless. This show that that either the big business were being ignorant to what was going on, or in the end they knew that what ever happened they could be saved by the government.

Some of the details that I picked up from this cartoon was the way they depicted the big business as fat, middle aged, and irrational. This shows that the message that the artist is trying to convey is that the big business are oblivious to their situation because of their greed and that their true character resembles that of a helpless child.

The Cruel Semi Colons.....

To start, semi colons have never made sense to me. I have tried to never use them and I have tried to overuse them, but in the end I have never understood the rule that goes along with the placing of semi colons. The reason I can not understand it is because it is not an absolute rule and it can vary from situation to situation.

Through some research, I have discovered the correct usage of a semicolon. The two main usages are separating elements (when a comma is insufficient or unclear) and linking elements (without a conjunction or sentence separation). For example,Dan has decided to be a vegetarian; therefore, he chose the vegetable dish on the flight to India. A semicolon was used here because a period would leave it uncompleted, and a comma could result in a comma splice; therefore you use a semi colon to connect two independent clauses. The second usage is when linking elements that may be a contrast,addition,cause,affect between two fairly short clauses. For example,the Smiths went up north for their vacation; the Johnsons went down south for theirs. This exemplifies a contrast between two short clauses that would be incomplete with a period and informal with a comma.

To learn more about this rule go to http://www.whitesmoke.com/punctuation-semicolon.html#sep

Golly... What Happened To The Good Old Days?

In response to the readings, I found it interesting to compare the two authors perspectives in which one showed their message through the eyes of a naive child making the reader use interpretative skills, while the other author expressed them through statistics and facts in which lets the reader see it in a more literal sense. Spite their differences, both of these authors broadcast a similar message of how the the "American Dream" is somehow skewed.

In the first story a young boy tries to imitate the perfect family that he sees on television. On the surface this issue seems to be innocent but in reality the television is sending subliminal messages about women, race, and family. In turn the boy tries to change his family to the family on the television, believing that by doing this his problems will be solved. He also believes that by going out and finding work around the neighborhood he will become rich, this can relate to immigrants coming into the country because to them this country is the land of opportunity and when they come here they will be able have a better life. However, they find that they come to low quality jobs that make them work long hours for low pay.

In the next story, the author uses the literal information to back up the statement that the 1950s were not everything we once thought it to be. It really surprised me to find out that the amount of sexual activity among teenagers were slightly higher in the 1950's than it is now in days, therefore showing that even though the surface picture looked perfect the underlying issues were still the same and could not be ignored. It was also eye opening to realize that the reason divorce rates doubled in towards the 1970s was because before then women were held in a marriage due to lack of income, but when they were able to go out and gain independence through jobs they realized they did not have stay in the bad marriages that a lot of them were in.

In relation in today, we may see due to our beliefs something on a petastool, however when you look beyond the surface you see many deep issues that may be just as oppressive or destructive as some issues found in the 1950's. I believe going back to the first post that it is important to question even things that seem to be with out flaw because you never know what you will find.

The American Paradox

In response to the introduction of Rereading America, I believe an American citizen is one who has chosen to see themselves as fitting the standards and expectations of the American society. In addition, the understanding that I have come to see through my environment is that a American citizen is someone who is patriotic and supports everything that this country has come to be. A obvious example is the president of the United States, Barak Obama. The reason I think he is the epitome of an American citizen is because he is educated, financially successful, patriotic, family oriented, and obviously supports what the country has come to be. More importantly, he has defined himself as an American citizen because he has chosen to live by the standards of society, or in other words the "American Dream" by going through traditional education so he may find a successful job, which leads to being financially successful. Therefore, an American citizen is not a specific class, race or gender it is anyone who has reached the expectations that American society has set.

Conversely, this text complicates this idea of the American citizen because they put in perspective what some people from south and central America believe, because after all America is not only limited to the United states. However, because the United States has endorsed the idea that United states is "America," many people believe that no other place should be granted the recognition to be called America because there are in someway inferior. Collectively, this cultural belief is the basis of our patriotism and for us to follow along with this idea is to say that the country that stands for equality is contradicting itself.

In all, this text is meant to question what we view as common sense or obvious so that we may become critical thinkers. This is important in our lives because it strengthens our ability to be creative and think out side of the box, so in return we will have more genuine intelligence and get more out of our learning instead of just absorbing knowledge. Also, this skill is not only important for us individually it is important for our generation because with so much technology it is becoming easier and easier to forget the true meaning of knowledge and what lies beneath the obvious.