WOW! So, it has been awhile since I have even looked at my blog from college. It was very interesting to read some of my old posts.

I don't know what to really post in here at the moment but my mind cogs are turning and I think I will be back shortly.

Aloha!

Against School / I Just Wanna Be Average

This weeks reading assignment was to use rhetoric in these two pieces from Rereading America. Gatto is writing a pieces on the overall effectivness of our nations schools. He starts off with his own lifetime experinces and what he has made witness to. His over all purpose of these article is to really look deep into ouor nations schools and see if they are really providing what our students need. His writing uses alot of fact, to which has actually witnessed. Gatto actually poses the question "do we really need school?". Of course we need schooling but at whose expense? The students or the governements? This is where is emotion takes over and wants to drive home the point that we are not really educating our young people today but merely providing a place for them in society till the grow up.

Rose's artical I Just Wanna Be Average is an interesting piece. Rose look at the schooling he recieved as a young child. He is in a vocational education school in California and it seems to be a place for misfits and kids who have a hard time learning in a regular classroom. I really like the statement he made " Students will float to the mark you set." A really bold remark aimed at students, teachers and adminastration alike. He is very passionate about his relationships he has with his classmates and also is very respectful of his teachers. Gatto also pin pointed out the teachers who were good teachers as well as the bad or lazy ones. He says some were prepared and some were just there and didn't know how to engage the minds of the children who were scuttling at the bottom of the pond. I really like this article the most because he is remembering a childhood that made him who is today, an edcuations that took a kid floundering to a well rounded student.

Michael Moore's "Idiot Nation"

Before reading this chapter, I had my reservations. Not a fan at all of this man and I do not think I will ever be one. However I was quite intrigued in his knowledge and factual intellect. He is a very smart man and has credible information. Michael is an incredible genius and so much to offer our country.

In his chapter the Idiot Nation I was very alarmed at the percentages and statistics he rambled off on how the education system is a bunch of crap and those who run it are a bunch of crap to. How our government is a mirror of our education system. And yes I feel pretty much the same way. The only best advice he gave out of the whole chapter was how we should respect our teachers for the efforts and sacrifices they endure to take care and educate the young people of this country. Contrary to this was the statement he made at the end of the chapter on "How to Be a Student Subversive Instead of a Student Subservient". it would be nice if the young people he were influencing in this manner were to go about following this outline by the rules but as I can see it as a smokescreen for disruptive behavior.

Like I said Michael Moore, I am not a big fan. Take your ramblings, name calling and disruptive behavior and turn it into something better than a drama filled reality TV show.

Some Pics from the 1950's

Some reasons to go back to the 1950's !!!

What We Really MIss About the 1950's By Stephanie Coontz

Ms. Coontz does a alot of research in this article. She exposes alot of information and did some in-depth analyzing of number from different time periods of the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's and even up into the 90's.

Something unique about her research is that she seems to be looking for the real reason one may miss the 1950's or is just a cliche because it is a time period that people who lived during those times had fun, times were great, the money was good, the war was over America was thriving and prospering.

Coontz could also be asking a question why would you want to go back to the 50's? Were the times that good? Did we really have that great? This being the results of her research, she is like laying all the numbers on the table and saying here are your 1950's, were they that good?

What i find interesting is that we have a nostalgia for some time in our life that was enjoyable and memorable. I think we find that most often our younger days have more meaning and set us up for who we are going to be in life and when our lives do not turn out how we expected or we just run into old friends and we get to thinking about how swell our lives were back then and wish we could go back and relive those magical moments again.

Looking for Work by Gary Soto

Looking for Work by Gary Soto captures everyone dreams in American. The dream of living in a beautiful house in a suburb, with green grass, 2 cars in the drive way and a white picket fence out front. He uses the analogy of a Tv show to bring his point across.

Mr. Soto writes this short story from the eyes of a nine year old mexican american and all he wants is the perfect family so everyone will like them. He writes the story with great detail describing a day in the life of this young boy who is seeking to become rich.

There is alot foreground culture built into this story. You know from the story that this young boy lives in a pretty okay neighborhood and that it it not Beverly Hills but it seems to be a okay area. He goes and does odd jobs for the neighbors and he seems to be accepted by the adults. You know he is a mexican - american and he is spiritual. The boy is kind, sharing and concerned for the welfare of others.

You know from reading this story I see alot of what everyone wants. Not just a mexican - american boy who goes out to do odd jobs or take his sister swimming but entire nation. We are all fed this idealistic world out there by what we see on tv and in the media. We set our selfs up in society for this and structure ourselves socially so that we can all dream for the better.

A few things I found interesting is that he never spoke of his father and what he did for a living, just what all the neighbors do. He does mention his mother a couple times and it seems she is the one runs the household but this would be typical for the time period this young boy grew up in and that the father worked and that is all he did and the mother was the one to take of all the things in the house and kids.

Below is a what a house in a working clas neighborhood may have looked like in the 1950's

Political Cartoons I might use for my paper.