Thoughts on Reading 5

          This week is over the myth of education and empowerment. Malcolm X’s essay explains his education through book and not schooling. I believe he wanted to learn because he wanted to write letters to the person he respected and also his desire to be a speaker. He educated himself through books alone. His education gave him a sense of power. He gained knowledge from the books he read. The knowledge he learned enabled him to become a speaker. He was able to express his beliefs and opinions. Malcolm X became an influential leader because of the knowledge he gained. He proves that knowledge does not necessarily come from going to school. Reading and gaining wisdom from outside sources help a person gain education. A person does not have to go to college to be successful or intelligent. A person can learn many things simply from reading. There are millions of books out there for people to read. People have to push themselves in order to learn whether it is in school or outside of school. People can learn knowledge from their family members or friends. In order to learn anywhere, an effort must be made.

            Education can give someone a sense of empowerment. It is said that knowledge is power. I agree with that statement. People who are intelligent are in charge of important things. Someone with just a high school diploma would not be CEO of a major company or be a doctor. Knowledge and education help people grow. Experiences and knowledge gained from outside of school help a person grow even more. That kind of person can form opinions and learn from experiences themselves.

Thoughts on Reading 4

           The unit that is being focused on this week is the myth of education and empowerment. I disagree with Gatto’s argument. School can help a child learn to grow, not prolong their childhood. School can help students socialize and meet new people. People gain experience and knowledge in school. In school, students learn rules and boundaries. Students learn to respect their elders. School can help shape a person into who they become as an adult.

I do not think that schools disable students to think critically. Students have to learn to push themselves and work hard in order to succeed. Students can chose to take challenging courses where they have to think critically. Students have a choice to take challenging courses. I say this from my own experience in school. In high school, my teachers challenged their students to grow and think critically. Some teachers do not push students to think critically. But there are teachers who go out of their way to help their students. In my senior year of high school, my counselor pushed me to take more Advanced Placement classes that I had originally planned. In those classes, students are challenged to think critically.

            Because of a grant my school received, students who had certain Advanced Placement classes had to go to Saturday sessions to receive more help with the subject. My teachers wanted all of their students to succeed. My teachers give students advice about college and sometimes just life in general. School can really be a helpful experience that can allow a person to gain knowledge and figure out an idea of what they wish to do in life.

Thoughts on the Readings 3

Can gender affect individual opportunity? The answer is yes. Gender does affect individual opportunity. In society, there are expectations for people of their specific gender. People would not expect a woman to be a construction worker or people think a woman is more likely to stay at house and care for children instead of the dad. Times have changed though. Women have gotten jobs that men have had. Some women are in charge of a major company. Unfortunately, some of the women might not have received as much pay as they would have if they were a male. In society, change is hard. The gender expectations of society affect people’s individual opportunity. In Tocqueville’s essay, he stated that in the economy priorities of males and females have been divided. I agree with Tocqueville on that topic. Society has given men and women different duties in life. Some things in life are only accepted by society for a specific gender. Men are more likely to go to war then women. Most men are engineers. Most daycare centers will only hire women to work there. Even some sports are gender based. Men are football players. Women are in swimming, baseball, or another sport besides football. Some people do things that are not considered acceptable for their gender. Men are becoming nurses while there are some women who are becoming engineers in a certain field. Both men and women are doctors in hospitals. There are still gender expectations in society but some people do try to overcome them.

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           In America, there are social classes. Society has divided people into three groups based on how much they make from working. The media has affected people’s perspective on social classes.

            There are three classes: lower, middle, and upper. The media has affected some people’s perspective of social classes because of how they portray social classes. The lower class has been portrayed as struggling. They are struggling, some more than others. The problem is some people in the lower class don’t always try to get out. Some people work below the poverty line so they can receive benefits. Others work hard and get out of the lower class. Sometimes work hard is enough to get by. The middle class is portrayed as average. They make enough to get by but they are not struggling. The media portrays the upper class as rich people who always get what they want. Life is seems easy for them while other people have to work hard to where they want to be. Media makes it seem like the upper class is life people would want. Society cares too much about materialistic things. To some people being rich is the American dream and that is what makes a person successful.

            The main topic for the reading is individual opportunity. This affects social class. The media makes it seem like everyone has a chance at obtaining the life they desire. That is not true though. A person with a lot of opportunities does have the chance to succeed in life. Other people do not have all those opportunities. For example, in the essay by Newman and Chen they talk about the group of people who they consider to be the missing class. This class is between the lower class and middle class. There are some people in this group who purposely work less so they can be considered lower class and receive benefits. This lowers their individual opportunity to reach the middle class. It seems the lower class is only getting larger instead of smaller. People are getting less chances at opportunities.

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           I think everyone has opportunities to advance in life. However I do not believe everyone has equal opportunities. Dalton makes interesting points in his essay. In his opinion, race and social standing play a part in achieving success. I believe he is right about that. People have been judged because of their race and people are still judged to this day. People in other countries do not have the same chance to achieve success as Americans do.

I understand why Dalton calls Alger’s essay Rags to Riches a myth. Chances of obtaining some sort of success like the one in Alger’s essay are rare. Life is not that easy. People with high social standing have more opportunities than someone with a lower social standing. There can never be equal opportunities of achieving success because someone always better than someone else. Someone always has more advances than someone else does. College is an example. Everyone can’t get into college. Some people might only be able to go one semester to a university because of a lack of financial resources. So that person does not have equal opportunities against someone who can afford to go the whole year or longer. Everyone is different so everyone has different situations.

Another example is getting a job. An employer would hire someone who has more experience and knowledge than someone who doesn’t. So the person who received the job would have the advance over the person who did not receive the job. There are not equal opportunities in life because everyone has an advance over someone.

Thoughts on readings 2

       I think marriage is important. I think marriage should be between two people who love and care for each other. Of course, that isn’t the way it always works. Some people get married for the wrong reasons. That explains why divorce rates are so high. Some people get married so they will receive the benefits of marriage. In some cultures, there are even arranged marriages so some couples don’t have a choice. I agree that marriage isn’t for everyone. Some people just aren’t ready to make such an important commitment that could change their lives. Some people honestly don’t take marriage seriously enough. Some people just marry so they can get out of their parent’s home. That happened to a person I know and the marriage ended in a divorce after of couple of years. Marriage isn’t a simple decision because it’s life changing. I find it strange that in ancient Rome, a man wasn’t a citizen until he was married. Just shows another way how different life is now. I find it surprising that marriage cases went all the way to the Supreme Court. I had no idea that there were four concepts of marriage that the court could decide. The concepts make sense though. I like that marriage in the US is considered to be unique. I’m not entirely sure where I stand on same sex marriages. Religiously, I would be against it but morally I’m not so sure. I think it’s important to be with the person you love. Marriage could be considered a right in searching for the pursuit of happiness. The writer in the Reading America made interesting points about same sex couples not having all the rights that other marriages have. Honestly, I can’t really say if I’m for or against it. I haven’t figured that out yet. 

       The ideas in The Little Seagull were helpful. The clustering reminded me of the web for brainstorming that I learned years ago. The information about paragraphs was interesting. I never thought to use an analogy in my writings for English class. I never really used parallel structure. I always had a hard time identifying it and fully understanding how to properly use it.

Thoughts of Readings 1

          From what I gathered from the readings are ways to help form arguments. The readings described different formats and ways for people to develop arguments in essays. In They Say I Say, different ways of starting the arguments were given. Examples of a point being assumed or implied were given. So rather than the point that other person is arguing for the writer states in a way that is implied so the audience has to figure it out. This way of thinking can really get audience thinking about the argument. In the book, it is mentioned that it is important to remind that audience what the writer is arguing against. If the audience isn’t reminded, they may forget or become confused about what the writer is talking about. I agree that it is okay to summarize the other person view point so the audience can hear both sides. I don’t see why the writer would be worry about changing their mind about their own ideas after reading what the opposing person has to say. If the writer truly feels strong about their opinion they’re not going to it over what the other person says. I don’t quite understand that by summarizing, you’re putting yourself in the other person’s place. I mean if you’re summarizing you’re just telling about the other person ideas to inform the audience of what you’re going against. I don’t see how you’re putting aside your own ideas.

            I think it is an idea to summarize the ideas of what you’re opposing in your first paragraph and then go into your own ideas and beliefs in your second and third paragraph of the argument. I agree that people use verbs that have more tone to it so the point can be emphasized.