Class in America

Money is a very important aspect of the "American Dream" and of living life in America.  We are said to be a very materilistic county, and that money is one the most important things in our lives. Because of the importance of money in our society, it is said that we will do anything to get cash in our pockets. From things such as cheating the justice system, engaging in filmed sexual interaction, and going to college. According to the Componets of Class in the "New York Times" it is said that in order for a person to be more in the upper class it is neccessary to have a great deal of college completed.   I am not meaning to step down on the "New York Times," but I do not see this as accurate.  I do not believe that one needs to attend college just to be financially successful in life. There are many examples of people that do not go to college and are still successful; people such as artists, musicans, and businessmen. These occupations are seen in our everyday lives and it seems important that they be apart of this statistic.
In the matter of connecting this to "The Great Gatsby" I came up with the example of the character Gatsby and how he did not attend college.  We all know that he worked his way around the system, and that his money really didn't help him too much in the end.  We do know that he was very successful man financially.  He had a lot of money and truely wasn't afraid to show it. " On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains". This passage from the begining of Chapter 3 really shows how much money he has and how he uses it.  It prooves that even though Gatsby did not attend a great deal of college he was financially successful and really showed it off, similar to how we do in America.

Robo- Readers YUCK

When it comes to the growing population in the United States,  the Educational Testing Service has all of our testing grading handled.  Robo-Readers have been introduced to our society as grading machines.  They are able to grade 16,000 essays in the time span of one minute, and some may say has accuracy to a living human being.  With our rapidly increasing population it seems to be the only way to aid teachers with the more essay based learning that President Obama has proposed, but the main question is , is it accurate?

 According to a study made by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation the human graded essays and the computer graded essays had very similar grades. On the contrary, Les Perelman, a director of writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that the machines have many flaws.  She states that they set a very limited and rigid standard of what good writing is.  She also adds that they do not know what truth is.  The machine is not going to know if your facts are wrong. A student's fact could be 200 years off, and the machine would simply not notice or even care.

Like Les Perelman said these robo-readers are going to have a very specific guideline for what all writing should be like.  They are going to prefer longer essays, longer sentences, longer paragraphs, and larger words.  It would be simple for a student to make there paragraphs longer and use grandiose words just to achieve a better score.  The substance of an argument is quite irrelevant, the more "sophisticacated" a person sounds the better the essay will score.

Are these Robo-Readers going to replace our teachers? Will our younger generation eventually be solely learning from teachers? With most studies and therories completed, the answer seems to be no, but only time will tell...

Maps

In this map I notice how large the description/title is for the map. In comparison to the whole state of Carolina it really is the exact same size as the most southern point of Carolina.  I’m not sure exactly why the artist of the map decided to make it so large, but I was thinking it was maybe just to emphasize how important  Carolina really is and exactly how excited the new settlers are to live/ or discover this area.  I think that this map narrates the story of how English settlers were hoping that Carolina was going to be a valuable piece of land, which is similar to how English settlers felt about the rest of the undiscovered land.  In Babb’s writing she says “this map is particularly significant for its revelation of how colonial powers saw themselves in relation to the lands they sought to conquer.”   In this quote she isn’t exactly talking about this map, but I feel as if it is very relevant.  In this map there is a picture of a crown right in the middle of Carolina representing ownership and money.  Also like I stated earlier the description is quite large representing how valuable this land could be for the settlers.

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1676s6.jpg

Inaugural Adress Analysis

After looking at exactly what our lovely presidents say I came up with a few observations:

• Although a lot of our people were not free in the 1700's, 1800's and 1900's it seems as if our presidents in the 2000's used  the word "freedom" more.  
• Years 1853-1893 we went through of a group of presidents that really enjoyed facial hair. 
• George Bush Senior had the world "hand" in his most popular. Maybe a fasination with his hands? hm. 
• None of our presidents were completly bald ever
• John F. Kennedy was the only man to have "side" in his list of most popular words. 

Song of Our Time

Even though I listen to music almost all the time, it is really hard for me to find a song that describes "our time."   I believe that the people of this 2011 year are very confident and feel like if they set their mind to something they want  they will achieve it.  That is why I picked the song, Firework by Katy Perry.  In all honesty, I really don't like the song at all, I just believe that it describes this time in our society.  It is pretty much sending the overall message that you can do anything no matter what is going on, and no matter how bad you feel.  With the economy the way it is and the difficulties the United States is facing I think it is good that we have a song like Katy Perry's. Sure, we have some bad times right now,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw&ob=av2e but her song really just prooves that no matter what it can always get better.

Lyrics

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag,
drifting through the wind
wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
like a house of cards,
one blow from caving in?
Do you ever feel already buried deep?
6 feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you
You just gotta ignite, the light, and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe
You don't have to feel like a waste of space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe your reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow
And when it's time, you'll know
You just gotta ignite, the light, and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, Oh, Oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time to let it through-ough-ough
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, Oh, Oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, Oh, Oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

Op-ed- Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights

I read a persuasive article that was featured in the New York Times called, "Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights." It talked about how schools providing sex ed in schools is taking away the rights of parents.   The author Robert P. George takes a very strong stance on the entire issue.  He believes that it is wrong for parents to have to send their child to a school where this class could be contradicting there views morally or religiously.  He states that parents have the responsiblity to raise there children morally and religiously and the government taking those duties away is wrong  He says bluntly, "To subject children to indoctrination in deeply personal matters against their parents’ consciences is no less a violation than forcing Muslim parents to send their children to a Catholic Mass".  Part of his strategies in his article are statements like that, they are very forceful and send his message across.  Another strategy he uses is directly effecting our emotions.  He brings up " our responsiblity as parents", and our " bringing and raising our children is this world".  Although they may not sound very emotional in context they really are quite convincing.  In general I thought is his article was very effictive at proving his point and really caught my attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/opinion/does-sex-ed-undermine-parental-rights.html

Deafness vs hearing

I thought that this documentry was actually very interesting.  My aunt and uncle are deaf so I actually have a deep connection to what the family was going through.  While watching the movie I was sympathetic to what the family was going through and the feelings they were having.  Deaf culture is a thing that most hearing people are not exposed to, so that is why it is so hard to understand to most. I, being in the family of a deaf person am somewhat exposed to this culture. This helps me understand why the family of Heather was so on the fence about putting  the cochlear implant.  This cochlear implant would most likely take Heather out of the deaf culture.  Sure, she may be somewhat involved because her family is part of  the culture, but it would not be the same as if she was compeltely deaf herself.  Her having a family that is all deaf would also really have an effect on her hearing life and speech life. So what is really best for Heather?  I personally believe that if I was deaf myself and had a deaf daughter I would not want her to get the implant. . If I and my husband were deaf I would raise our daughter deaf and put her in the best deaf school in the country.  The only way I would  change my mind was if she asked to get it(which is what Heather did).  I would inform her on exactly what happens when they put the implant in and tell her the chances of it working .  I feel as if that would be the best choice.  You really just need to put yerself in the shoes of a deaf person.  Having a daughter born deaf and putting an implant in before they have an opinon is just a bad choice and  could affect the realtionship of the parents and child.

I believe that it is a competely different situation if the parents are NOT deaf.  If they are not deaf I see nothing wrong with getting the cochlear implant for the child. Being in the world deaf is a hard thing.  When my aunt was younger she had to deal with a lot of hatred and abuse.  Teachers called her names and treated her as if she was nothing.  Even though it is 50 years later I would never wish anything like that on to a child and especially not my child. I would get the cochlear implant as soon as possible and have my child involved in many speech and hearing classes.  I want the best life for my child, and I believe that would be the best choice.~