The two pieces that I read were the Obama speech to students around the world and the Thomas Friedman piece about the lack of innovation coming out of the United States and the increasing competitivenes coming from around the world notably China. Not surprisingly the two pieces took on two different views. The Obama speech giving an uplifting inspiring speech uncouraging all Americans of all backgrounds to fully commit to education with the promise of a good life at the end of the road where as the Friedman piece takes the stance that America just can't compete at the level of the world anymore and companies have no financial reason to stay either.
Even though I think that Obama gave a bit of an exagerated speech I think he was much more honest and realistic then any other president has been. Obama was actually able to make a real life connection with people who might not normally take a president seriously. However I think that he failed to show that he understands that for some people succeding in school is impossible. But perhaps having a job such as president of the United States doesn't allow you to make such remarks. Cosidering the fact that many people didn't even want the president to be talking to their kids he came dangerously close to saying something true. Hopefully there will be enough people out there who will be able to read deep into what the president said and actually make an attempt in school, but if your cutting school everyday the odds are you don't even know that the president made a speech.
The article by Thomas Friedman talked about how as the quality of education has risen over seas the quality of education in the United States has considerably decreased. Add that to the fact that opening a factory in China is considerably cheaper then in the United States that equates to a scientific market that is no longer in need of the United States. Where I disagree with Friedman is that the United States to the average consumer is where the best of everything is made, and considering the fact the Americans are the single largest group of consumers in the world its in the best interest of companies to innovate from within the United States. In other words a great product from China can go a long way, but a great product from the Unites States becomes ever lasting. However less and less Americans care about where their toys or computers are made so credibility of U.S. products is dangerously close to fading away.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
HW 42
If there is one word that might get to the heart of the American dream, what every poor non english speaking immigrant thinks of when they think of America is college. The American higher education system is one of if not the most well respected in the world. But how fair is it? Is it really possible for someone to come in straight off the boat work hard and go to Yale. Or is it more likely that a rich white kid who had grades in the low b area and a fifteen hundred on their sat get the spot? Furthermore even if the poor kid who "pulled himself up by his bootstraps" got into an ivy league school what about financial aid? Are they going to be able to pay for it? Those are the questions that I have been pondering throughout this course.
I believe that the significance of this topic is very obvious to see. Whichever side of the aisle you land on college is something that has in some way had an impact on you. Wheather your a hard working guy who looses his job because the company wants to replace you with someone with a technical degree or a rich white person who messed up in school and feels they deserve a second chance, its all quite significant.
As well as the affect that college has on individuals it also has a great affect on society as a whole. In the United States today it's increasingly difficult to make a living without a college degree. So with this change society has to take into account the fact that as our population grows our system becomes more and more competitive and the job market could possibly become more ecomocally prejudice. So therefore the question has to be asked do we need to expand affirmative action to be more ecomically centered, keep it as a more race based system or is affirmative action just generally wrong. All subjects that are incredibly signficant to ourselves and society.
I believe that the significance of this topic is very obvious to see. Whichever side of the aisle you land on college is something that has in some way had an impact on you. Wheather your a hard working guy who looses his job because the company wants to replace you with someone with a technical degree or a rich white person who messed up in school and feels they deserve a second chance, its all quite significant.
As well as the affect that college has on individuals it also has a great affect on society as a whole. In the United States today it's increasingly difficult to make a living without a college degree. So with this change society has to take into account the fact that as our population grows our system becomes more and more competitive and the job market could possibly become more ecomocally prejudice. So therefore the question has to be asked do we need to expand affirmative action to be more ecomically centered, keep it as a more race based system or is affirmative action just generally wrong. All subjects that are incredibly signficant to ourselves and society.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
HW 41
Gomstyn, Alice. "Top Colleges Mum on Legacy Admissions." abcnews.go.com. 11/4/08. ABC News, Web. 26 Feb 2010. .
This article talks about how despite the fact the ivy league colleges are accepting less people the rate of acceptance among legacies has stayed rather consistent. Furthermore I think that this article is also trying to say that even though the legacy rate has stayed constant that doesn't mean the legacy are any less capable of doing the work.
Gasman, Marybeth. "Perspectives: A “Legacy” of Racial Injustice in American Higher Education." diverseeducation. 12/1/08. Web. 2 Mar 2010.
This article is different from the one above because in this article they discuss how legacies of wealthy and important families have caused racial descrimination within the ivy league system. Also this article shows how the financial contributions of a family to a college affect the chances of a family member beeing accepted.
Karabel, Jerome. "The Legacy of Legacies." Longview Institute. Longview Institute, Web. 2 Mar 2010..
This article provides a brief history of legacy admissions and then talks about how universities have been forced to be much more selective with legacies forcing them to take the legacies that overpreform or come from very wealthy background
Golden, Daniel. "Admissions Preferences Given." WSJ. 13/1/03. Wall Street Journal, Web. 2 Mar 2010.
Cohen, Carl. "Race Preference in College Admissions." Heritage Foundation. 29.4.1998. Heritage Foundation, Web. 9 Mar 2010..
This article published by the conserative advocacy group the Heritage foundation provides a contrast to the arguement that forced racial diversity is either morally correct or an ethic necesity. This is helpfull in my work because it helps me better understand the two sides or the spectrum.
Shagall, Yelena. "Racism Plagues College Campus." Chicago Flame. University Of Illinois, 21/1/03. Web. 10 Mar 2010..
This article talks about how racism exits throughout the higher education system and how upcoming affirmative action cases could affect college racism. The article also talks about how despite the perception of a color neutral education system racism is still quite prevalent.
This article talks about how despite the fact the ivy league colleges are accepting less people the rate of acceptance among legacies has stayed rather consistent. Furthermore I think that this article is also trying to say that even though the legacy rate has stayed constant that doesn't mean the legacy are any less capable of doing the work.
Gasman, Marybeth. "Perspectives: A “Legacy” of Racial Injustice in American Higher Education." diverseeducation. 12/1/08. Web. 2 Mar 2010.
This article is different from the one above because in this article they discuss how legacies of wealthy and important families have caused racial descrimination within the ivy league system. Also this article shows how the financial contributions of a family to a college affect the chances of a family member beeing accepted.
Karabel, Jerome. "The Legacy of Legacies." Longview Institute. Longview Institute, Web. 2 Mar 2010.
This article provides a brief history of legacy admissions and then talks about how universities have been forced to be much more selective with legacies forcing them to take the legacies that overpreform or come from very wealthy background
Golden, Daniel. "Admissions Preferences Given." WSJ. 13/1/03. Wall Street Journal, Web. 2 Mar 2010.
Cohen, Carl. "Race Preference in College Admissions." Heritage Foundation. 29.4.1998. Heritage Foundation, Web. 9 Mar 2010.
This article published by the conserative advocacy group the Heritage foundation provides a contrast to the arguement that forced racial diversity is either morally correct or an ethic necesity. This is helpfull in my work because it helps me better understand the two sides or the spectrum.
Shagall, Yelena. "Racism Plagues College Campus." Chicago Flame. University Of Illinois, 21/1/03. Web. 10 Mar 2010.
This article talks about how racism exits throughout the higher education system and how upcoming affirmative action cases could affect college racism. The article also talks about how despite the perception of a color neutral education system racism is still quite prevalent.
Monday, February 22, 2010
HW 40
ME. Q. What do you think is the main reason behind teachers feeling that they have to absolutley dominate the classroom?
A: I think that it's a combination of tradition and a feeling that without a feeling of fear in the class the teacher won't be respected, furthermore the domination complex seems to be more potent in female teachers.
Q: How important is studet teacher relations i determing grades?
A: Teachers are human, therefore they make personal judgements. I thI ink that if someone shows a positive attitude towards the teacher and creates a bond with him/her they are much more likely to succeed. (Participation is a nice way they like to put it)
Person 2 (student with low grades): Q. Why do you feel that you have done poorly throughout your high school career?
A. Because all of the material that we have learned in school has no relevance in my life, and because I spent so long procarstinating about how school hasn't really done anything for me so at times when I have wanted to care my work ethic hasn't been developed enough to thuroughly complete all my work.
Q. Overall do you think that teachers are fair people?
A. Some of them are but a lot of them seem that they just want to live up to societies expectations above improving the education of individual students.
Person 3 (student with high grades) Q. How have you been able to stay succesfull throughout your high school career?
A. My parents are constantly on me about doing well in school beause their true believers in the "American dream" or whatever and basically if I want to have any kind of social life I need to do well in school, furthermore I think that one thing I've been able to do well is block out all the b.s. that comes with school and try and think of the long term.
Q. Do you think that because you do well in school your social status is tainted?
A. Absolutley, especially with the "party crowd" they seem to equate good performance in school with social mediocrity.
Person 4 (adult) Q. Do you think that the public school system gives an overall fair experience to all parties involved?
A. No, I think that students get bogged down in a bureacuracy and cheap political stats while teachers are forced to teach material that they don't find interesting and their students don't value.
Q. How do you think your school experience matches up with the modern school experience?
A. I think that it's pretty much the same thing. Maybe there's more racial equality in the school system but the economic equality is just as bad if not worse. Also when I was in school there was high stakes testing but not as much from the state much more in school testing.
For this assignment what I wanted to do was compare and contrast how different prospectives feel about school. Generally the feeling that came across the strongest was that people don't feel that their learning very important information. Something that would be interesting to investigate from that would be do that many people really feel that way or is that just something that the media and people around us say. Furthermore another thing that I noticed not only in these interviews but in life is that seldom do you find a student who is inspired to do well in school just because they want to, in other words no outside pressure or circumstances in ones life that would make doing well in school a necesity.
A: I think that it's a combination of tradition and a feeling that without a feeling of fear in the class the teacher won't be respected, furthermore the domination complex seems to be more potent in female teachers.
Q: How important is studet teacher relations i determing grades?
A: Teachers are human, therefore they make personal judgements. I thI ink that if someone shows a positive attitude towards the teacher and creates a bond with him/her they are much more likely to succeed. (Participation is a nice way they like to put it)
Person 2 (student with low grades): Q. Why do you feel that you have done poorly throughout your high school career?
A. Because all of the material that we have learned in school has no relevance in my life, and because I spent so long procarstinating about how school hasn't really done anything for me so at times when I have wanted to care my work ethic hasn't been developed enough to thuroughly complete all my work.
Q. Overall do you think that teachers are fair people?
A. Some of them are but a lot of them seem that they just want to live up to societies expectations above improving the education of individual students.
Person 3 (student with high grades) Q. How have you been able to stay succesfull throughout your high school career?
A. My parents are constantly on me about doing well in school beause their true believers in the "American dream" or whatever and basically if I want to have any kind of social life I need to do well in school, furthermore I think that one thing I've been able to do well is block out all the b.s. that comes with school and try and think of the long term.
Q. Do you think that because you do well in school your social status is tainted?
A. Absolutley, especially with the "party crowd" they seem to equate good performance in school with social mediocrity.
Person 4 (adult) Q. Do you think that the public school system gives an overall fair experience to all parties involved?
A. No, I think that students get bogged down in a bureacuracy and cheap political stats while teachers are forced to teach material that they don't find interesting and their students don't value.
Q. How do you think your school experience matches up with the modern school experience?
A. I think that it's pretty much the same thing. Maybe there's more racial equality in the school system but the economic equality is just as bad if not worse. Also when I was in school there was high stakes testing but not as much from the state much more in school testing.
For this assignment what I wanted to do was compare and contrast how different prospectives feel about school. Generally the feeling that came across the strongest was that people don't feel that their learning very important information. Something that would be interesting to investigate from that would be do that many people really feel that way or is that just something that the media and people around us say. Furthermore another thing that I noticed not only in these interviews but in life is that seldom do you find a student who is inspired to do well in school just because they want to, in other words no outside pressure or circumstances in ones life that would make doing well in school a necesity.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Art Project Photos Part 2
The photos that I listed above are all people who have influenced my view of cool. Overall they all fit the mold of a masculine male who generally uses minipulation and violence to get what they want. Even though many of the people whos photos are listed aren't commonly refered to as "hip" these days I think that they all can go under a general societal view of cool. The reason being is they all fit into at least one of four very important catagories.
1. Physically fit/ Good looking
2. Relaxed, calm collected
3. Good skills with woman
4. Ocassional violent outbreaks
1. Physically fit/ Good looking
2. Relaxed, calm collected
3. Good skills with woman
4. Ocassional violent outbreaks
Art Project Photos
http://eric.b.olsen.tripod.com/images/bogart1.jpg
http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/AAAAAAChange06/Dean1.jpg
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/041209/142618__dogs_l.jpg
http://orgtheory.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/quentin_tarantino.jpg
http://www.mcnblogs.com/filmfatale/samjacksonpulp.jpg
http://www.fanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/clinteastwood.jpg
http://michaelmanning.tv/blog/uploaded_images/inmcqueen-790331.jpg
Sunday, January 24, 2010
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