To our understanding,
To our understanding,
The short, sudden fiction “Popular Mechanics,” is written by Raymon Carter. The text portrays a couple who fight for their child. This story symbolizes the hardship of love and letting go. It shows the both the man and woman not letting go of the child, literally. If had they let go, the child will have been in the possession of the other person, but the child will be unharmed. The baby symbolizes the bond they had in the past. Neither of them want to let go of the beauty they share, but one or the other is left to be torn apart from their loss. Knowing this brings a deeper metamorphic side and greater intensity toward the reader.…
The poem Hook by James Wright is about two men going through difficult times that take place in a cold setting, much like their lives. They both have many things in common and many differences as well. The young man is seen as a pessimistic in this poem and the Sioux more of the optimistic, even with many sufferings he has gone through in his lifetime. The young man and the Sioux both have very different lifestyles, but what exactly is James Wright trying to prove with the Sioux and the young man?…
Barbara Ehrenreich's, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, is a book that strives to change the way America perceives its working poor. Achieving the American Dream can be difficult, if not impossible for many people with stumbling blocks and obstacles along the way as portrayed in Nickel and Dimed, due to the cost of living in contrast to the wage of low or middle class earners.…
Who ever said being street smart but not book smart was a bad thing? In his short essay “Hidden Intellectualism” written in 2003 Gerald Graff talks about what people call book smart (Intellectualism) can hide into what one calls “Street Smart”(Hidden Intellectualism). Graff argues about how teachers are going the wrong way on how they should do their job, stating that they can use this to their advantage by using topics that such individuals are interested in whether it’s clothing, sports or even video games to educate them. The essay was illuminating and persuasive at convincing it’s readers because of the ethos, well written counterclaim and purpose. If topics such…
This paragraph will share some aspects of information on the author Carolyn Mackler and her coauthored novel with Jay Asher, The Future of Us. First, Carolyn Mackler was born in Manhattan on Friday, July 13, 1973. When she was at the age of one she moved from Greenwich Village to Syracuse and then to Brockport, New York. Of which, all places that are in America, relating to the setting of the book, The Future of Us, which is set in Pennsylvania just ways away from New York. Second, as Carolyn grew up she found her love of reading and writing increase, she felt that she spent more time in the reality of her books than in the reality of the real world. This is a strong connection to one of the main characters Emma Nelson who spent majority of…
The novel Outliers, aims to investigate the very thing we want for our family, our students, and ourselves. For most of our lives we have believed that with hard work, anyone can achieve success. That had to be the reason that poor immigrants like Andrew Carnegie and college dropouts like Bill Gates achieved unimaginable wealth. Most of us were taught that working harder than anyone else would lead to ultimate success.…
In “Showing Up” by Angela Duckworth she investigates the high dropout rate that occurs in the United States Military Academy called West Point. This is an academy where on the most athletic and smart people can attend. They undergo an intensive training called the beast and this is where the most students start to drop out. At first Duckworth believes that in order to succeed in this rigorous training you had to have the knowledge to do it, but in the end she finds out that knowledge is not the driving force behind the success of students that accomplish the beast.…
The focus of this investigation will be “How did the Montgomery Bus Boycott lead to the rise of Martin Luther King Jr? In this process I will analyze the effects in which Martin Luther King had on his audience, as well as how other members of the nonviolence protest group, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), assisted in his emergence as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. For this investigation, it will be important to mention other leaders, such as Malcolm X or Rosa Parks, that gave King this leader image that he himself could not portray alone during the non violent protests, as well as how they set the “step stool” towards King’s rise to power during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Source 1 Source 1,…
9. What was Rudy’s father trying to teach his son on the night of the Jesse Owens incident? He should be proud of his blue eyes and blonde hair; he is the perfect image of the Aryan race.…
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, shows the development of an African-American woman living in the 1920s and 1930s as she searches for her true identity. Janie was a half-white, half-black girl growing up in Florida in the early 1930 's, living with her grandmother, struggling to find her place in life. Janie’s transformation throughout the book shows a change through language and the development of Janie’s voice through the different stages of her life. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a narrative about one woman’s quest to free herself from repression and explore her own identity; this is the story of Janie Crawford and her journey for self-knowledge and fulfillment. Hurston’s narrative focuses on the emergence of a female self in a male-dominated world, she tells her magnificent story of romantic love against the background of church and extra church modes of expression. Understanding this fact helps to explain those sections of the narrative that have been said to have no meaning beyond their entertainment value (Hemenway 218).…
Everyone likes to conform to match the norm, and will blindly follow if it means that they are part of the group. This conformity is heavily present in ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson, and ‘Examination Day’ by Henry Slesar. In both short stories, people conform to the traditions and routines that have been dictated to them. In ‘The Lottery’, a small town has a tradition of annually sacrificing one of their own, who is chosen by a raffle. The winner, a woman named Tessie Hutchinson, pleads that it isn’t fair, when the townsfolk retort that everyone had the same chance. In ‘Examination Day’, a future dystopian government gives twelve year olds an exam, and if the government deems them too smart, they are killed. Twelve year old Dickie and his…
There is a common misconception when people say no pain, no gain. Does pain necessarily reward a person or help them succeed? Although this may seem to be true there are always ways to succeed without going in “pain”. This common conventional wisdom is used all around the world. In their book Freakonomics, New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner and University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt state that “We associate truth with convenience, with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life" (86). In other words, a person chooses to acknowledge and believe what is being said or done simply because they possibly benefit from it and for their…
John Gatto, a school teacher in the Manhattan area, taught for thirty years at a variety of different schools. During these years, he realized that children were frequently bored with classroom activities as a result of how they were being taught. Students were not being challenged and often already knew the concepts behind the materials taught. Jean Anyon further supports and agrees with Gatto’s statements about the public school system. In her article, she specifies that schools in wealthy communities are far better than those of poorer communities, and they better prepare children for desirable jobs. Anyon concluded these finding by investigating schools in four different social classes, ranging from working class to executive elite schools.…
Through his logical and familiar depiction of the situation, highlighted by his use of humor, Kahn is able to translate a rather complex issue into an argument that anyone can understand and offers a solution. Even though he is the pioneer of this idea, his clear understanding and depiction of the situation lend weight to his idea, even to those who might now know who he is. Many would agree that there are problems with the education system and Kahn highlights those while also explaining why they happen. If someone then considers the success that Kahn has had with Kahn Academy, it is clear that his ideas have some merit. Perhaps the most compelling part of his argument is his portrait of what the future could be like with a better education system. With a little effort, perhaps in the not-so-distant future the education system could be improved enough to allow everyone to contribute to difficult problems facing…
Working within education for nearly a decade affords me insight into one of the world’s largest industries. The inner workings of pre-schools through Universities and the functions of the school boards are no mystery to insiders like me.…