Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Posted by brisbois at 6:32 PM 0 comments
Monday, February 4, 2008
Entitlement Education
Daniel Bruno's Entitlement Education paper is quit true. There's a difference between passing your class while actually understanding, and passing without truly understanding. You see it all the time. I often find myself jealous of those who can study right before a test and pass, yet i can't. How do they do it? Most of the time they don't really understand the material in the class, but somehow manage to pass with good grades.
There are many downsides to what Bruno describes as " being cheated in the long run." He mentioned that although the students have remembered all the facts they don't really achieve any additional intelligence. He brought up a good point that alot of people wouldn't have thought of in terms of a students education.
I do disagree with Bruno with the fact that as the students who lag behind in high school will later lag behing in college. It's not like the students were told not to push themselves or to take the easy route. They decided what they did. Do homework for a hour and really make their paper great or rush it before class. Simple choices like that can make a total difference in whether they really learned something or if they cheated themselves. I believe the students can decide if they want to suceed, and a lot of times after graduating high school they become more mature and realize education is the key and don't lag behind like they did in high school.
Daniel Bruno's examples in the paper were very insightful. They gave you a better understanding of what he was talking about, rather than having to guess. His example of Thomas Jefferson's quote was a very good example because Thomas Jefferson is a very inspirational figure for the U.S. and people will take his words to heart.
Posted by brisbois at 10:09 AM 0 comments
Is Hunting Ethical
Living in a very woody area, I've heard many arguments on hunting. Most say hunting is ethical, but they don't usually listen to the opposites opinion. I agree hunting is ethical, but only to a certain decree.
Whether hunting is ethical is a very good argument to write about, and Ann Causey did a great job on letting the reader see both sides of the argument. Hunting can be horrible. The fact that people are just blood thirsty and find fun in blowing off several different animals up. On the other hand you have those hunters that kill solemly for food purposes.
If people were to listen to the opposites opinion instead of just thinking they're wrong 24/7, this wouldn't be such a large issue. I suppose if people remain as ignorant as they are today this topic will never disappear.
I really liked Causey's sentence after describing a movie where a rockstar and a tour guide over emphasized killing an animal for fun. It goes like this,"To inflict death without meaningful and significant purpose, to kill carelessly or casually, or to take a life without solemn gratitude is inconsistent with genuine reverence to life." That to me was a very accurate statement that i totally agree on, and wish others would share that opinion.
Her introduction to the story was something i admired. The was she described the incident made you feel like you were there. Then she put a paragraph behind it showing that she wasn't a vegetarian, which was the impression she left you with from the first couple of paragraphs. It was a nice way to show what your story was going to be about without completly writing it out plain and simple.
Posted by brisbois at 9:31 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters
It's funny how when people hear or talk about the media, it always comes down to the whole weight issue. Whether your some annorexic, skinny girl to the overly obese lady you can't help but to pay attention to what the media says about being fat or overly skinny. What Ann Marie Paulin says is true. Being what the media calls "sexy" isnt the only important thing in life. She's definetly not the first or the last person to write a paper about how the media affects how people view themselves, but she does a really good job of backing up her opinion with actual book facts. The way she expresses herself through her writing is very inspirational to not be what the media wants you to look like just so you'll buy their products.
I thought that the story of when she was 12 and watching the news an seeing a girl getting hit by a bus, and only saying, " Yeah, but at least she's thin," was very sad. To see someone so young thinking that when she should be feeling great about herself. Not to mention the horrible story in Pipher's book Hunger Pains: The Modern Women's Tragic Quest for Thinness. Isn't it crazy that a mother would care so much into what her daughter looks like to tell her that she's fat.
Her point that being fat and wanting to lose weight shouldn't be for what other people want, but for being the healthy choice is a very good one that i think everyone should share. Personally i believe that obese people see how they're portrayed in the media, get sad, then eat some more. If the media used a more positive outlook on how bigger people could change to live a healthy life maybe that could actually make a difference.
All in all this was a very good persuasive draft with alot of added emotion, great book references and some personal experiences.
Posted by brisbois at 9:17 AM 1 comments
Monday, January 21, 2008
Crimes Agianst Humanity
I really enjoyed reading Ward Churchhill's perusasive draft on how the media is portraying the Native culture. I'm Native American and I also don't agree with school's mascots being the "chiefs" or "redskins." Most school's mascots are animals, so when they have the redskins as their mascot then they're calling Native Americans animals.
I thought his made up team mascot's kind of went a little far with the racial wording, but i suppose he was using it to prove a point and i think it worked. The way he mentioned Julius streicher and how he was killed for writing taking part in a raciest tabloid really made it look like the government did something that was wrong if they're not taking part in stopping the misuse of the native culture in the media.
It's crazy how people were taking part in involuntary sterilization of the Native American women. It's just sad how a race that was so great long ago had to suffer through so many illness', deaths, wars, and the stealing of land, and then to be portrayed as an animal.
I personally don't understand why the Native race has deserved everything that has happened to us. The US took away all our land, striped us of our culture, introduced alcohol to our systems. Throughout all of this it's still being done today. For instance the suicide race in Omak. Animal rights activist say that it's cruelty to animals, if you look at the statistics not that many horses get hurt. That race has been part of the Colville Tribes culture for thousands of years. Yet theres a chance that Suicide Hill is going to be closed down for horse racing. Then we're depicted as cruel "savages" in the old westerns you see.
We're being depicted as a lower unequal race compared to others. I'm happy to see that Ward Churchhill spoke up agianst the misuse of Native American culture in the media.
Posted by brisbois at 11:00 AM 0 comments
Friday, January 11, 2008
I really like the way Cindy Bosley portrayed her emotions throughout the story. It gives the reader a special insight into what's really going on inside the writers head as she's experiencing this. An example is when she was crying after finding out that she lost and admitting to crying because of it being over not because of losing. She does use very good details in portraying her emotions.
The story was very sad, by the way she thought of herself and others. I don't think people should have to think of themselves the way that she did. She seemed to take everything her mom said into careful consideration, so that she kinda believed what her mother said. It was sad that she had to judge the ladies on the Miss America Pageant and make a point system on their flaws, even comparing herself to the other Junior Miss contenders. More sadly, was the thought that she had truly known that she was going to lose before she had even started.
The point that really got to me was in the last paragraph when every sentence began with "I'd lost..." To me it meant that the pageant wasn't really about the good characteristics about her, just the bad. She didn't want to do it. Her opinion was really laid out in black and white and I really liked how she concluded her story.
Posted by brisbois at 9:51 AM 0 comments
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Posted by brisbois at 9:43 AM 0 comments