Work Cited Page

Work Cited

Diyanni, Robert. One Hundred Great Essays. 4^th ed. New York: Pearson. Print.

Dylan, Bob. Perf., “Forever young”. Planet Waves. Asylum Records 1974. CD.

Fielding, Kent. “DDF Performance Showcase 2008” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 14 Nov. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.

Kennedy, M. David and Lizabeth Cohen. The American Pageant. 15^th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013. Print.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

Print.

Lippman, Walter. The Cold War. Primary Sources Workshops in American History. Learner.org, n.d. Web. 28 April 2015.

Roosevelt, Franklin. Day of Infamy. 7 Dec. 1941. Radio clip.

Star Wars. Disney.com, n.d. Web.28 April 2015.

X, Malcolm. The Ballot or the Bullet, 1964. Social Justice Speeches. Web. 28 April 2015.

Open Question Dissent ... good or bad?

Al Weber

Open Question

The colonies of Britain, that later founded to become the United States, was built by dissent. One group, a minority, disagreed with the governing power so instead broke away. Dissent, and not being popular or the majority, are not bad things, no matter what our society tells you. Daniel J. Boorstin in The Decline of Radicalism argues that Dissent is “the cancer” of democracy. I disagree. Dissent and the power to break away from a corrupt majority causes the majority to be checked just as our three branches of government check themselves. There are examples of positive dissent everywhere, in our history, in our literature, and even happening all around us today.

Being an American citizen gives us many freedoms and rights that we have become accustomed to. However, each minority has had to battle for and earn those rights through the use of dissent. One example of positive dissent can be found in the Greensboro sit-ins. On February 4^th 1960 four black men sat at the lunch counter inside the Woolworth store at Greensboro, North Carolina. They were refused services and stayed until closing. The next day more students came and joined the movement. Until finally the Woolworth store desegregated their lunch counters. This was a non-violent movement that led to sit ins throughout the country that eventually brought forth desegregation of all public works. Without this radical motion of “sit ins” there would be absolutely no change because white people would not be forced too change. By desegregating public accommodations we, as Americans, can now non-hypocritically say that we are the land of the equal and free.

Another important movement in America’s history is Women’s rights. Zora Neale Hurston’s book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” explores women’s traditional roles, and the importance of uniqueness. The title portrays Janie, the main character, as watching her “god” or her husband. She is oppressed and hardly able to think for herself. The title is basically admonishing the woman and pushing her and others like her to speak up and raise their voice. Everyone, including her Nanny thought that Janie should simply grit her teeth and take the punishments that Logan put her through because that was what a woman, and a wife, were meant to do. Janie, the minority disagreed and instead ran off with Joe, a good-looking southern man who treated her nice and gave her delicacies that she had previously never been allowed. Joe and his successor, Tea Cake, both do not work out for various reasons. This leaves Janie home, alone. By ending “Their Eyes Were Watching God” with Janie being by herself the author effectively states that women do not need to have men as crutches or suppressors, but rather are individual unique selves.

In the news recently there has been a stir over Gay equality. More specifically, in Indiana legislation called the “Religious Freedom” bill has passed and been approved by the Governor. This bill allows hotels and other privately owned public buildings to refuse service to anyone if they have a religious reason to deny them.  Restaurants such as ________________have begun to place signs in their windows stating that they will serve anyone. Further more, some states (such as Connecticut), through positive dissent, have placed an embargo upon Indiana to show their disapproval of this new law. By dissenting and speaking up there will hopefully be a movement to support everyone, no matter their sexual preferences, color, or gender. MAJOR CORPORATIONS

“• NCAA. Offices of the college athletic association are in Indianapolis, but NCAA president Mark Emmert said the law could affect its future relationship with the state. "The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events,” he said in a statement. “We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees. We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week's Men's Final Four in Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill. Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce."”

Communist Manifesto Precis

Karl Marx, in his compelling utopian essay titled "The Communist Manifesto" persuades the working class of all countries to unite and share the profits of their labour with the bourgeoisie (or middle class).  Marx uses __________  to lead his readers into a unified unit that uses communism to rise and gain equality. Karl Marx, with his ________, makes it very clear that _____________________________________________. Marx is directly addressing the working class, whom only own their own labour, but indirectly he is writing to the entire world persuading them to convert to communism and share in the joyous profits of everyone's wealth. 

Television

Television has never portrayed normal life, mostly because it is impossible to determine an “average” of an ever fluctuating family structure. Watching television has never boosted anyone’s position on the social ladder, except maybe, in trivia. Ehrenreich is right to call the world inside the black box “eerie and unnatural”; It was never intended to be anything else. 

Ever since it was first invented television has been used as an escape from your normal everyday work life. It has been used to entertain and to bring family and friends together to enjoy a movie night. In my household we annually watch movies and television shows together. This is our family night. Whereas before the television was invented families would gather around and listen to each other take turns reading, now everyone stares zommbily at the screen and have no communication or connection except for “pass the popcorn” or “give me back the blanket”.

While this removal of communication is concerning, it does not have to be detrimental to the family structure. Television, in moderation, is not bad for you. However, spending the whole day re-watching the first season of Glee or Gossip Girl  is not okay. This is mainly due to the removal from nature in our everyday lives. As we are sucked into the living room to watch T.V we see less and less of nature. This has become so bad for humans that doctors have started advising people to visit an Eco therapist whom takes their patients outdoors as a form of treatment.

So why do we keep on watching? The answer is simply, we continue to watch television to unwind, to forget about the stress of our jobs, our lives, our world. This does not mean that we have an all day pass to veg out on the couch. We still should be getting up and playing outside with our friends. It is unrealistic to ask everyone to cut television completely out of our lives, but it should simply be asked to reduce the consumption time.

Ownership

Ownership traditions

To own something is to have it become a part of your identity. The thing that you own does not have to be physical; it can be an idea, trait, or tradition. All of these things come together to become part of your character and define your personal self. There are many examples of ownership in literature and our everyday surroundings.

Traditions that occur throughout history become a part of your character. There are holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas where you form memories, and rituals such as church where you are taught how to conduct your life. These traditions change and enhance your identity. In The Jungle by Upton Sinclair the emigrant family clings to a Lithuanian wedding tradition, the veselija, that costs hundreds of dollars. There is a large feast held and no visitor is turned out. Free beer and food is costly for the hosts and even though they may go broke from the event they still do their best to uphold this age-old ritual.  This form of loyalty and devotion to an idea causes a person to own the tradition.

An American tradition that brings many families into the home to surround the television is Super Bowl Sunday. This observance of the champion football game entails many masculine characteristics in the form of yelling, drinking beer, gambling, and competition. Football and the manly connotation of watching football have become an essential part of American nature. By watching the Super bowl Americans are characterizing themselves as the stereotypical jock; tough, manly, and (in their mind) superior.

Another habit that has become part of the American culture is education. While many students see this as mandatory and not enjoyable it has become one of our basic rights to be educated. This sets us apart from other countries such as Somalia where only 10% of the children go to primary school, who have very limited education systems. (theguardian.com) By completing the traditional high school education young adults in America have changed their identity to informed, and prepared for the real world. 

An object, an idea, a human, these can all be owned. They must be incorporated into the owner’s character and personage. Traditions and habits define who we are and give us guidelines for how to conduct our lives. 

2010 Free Response Question

In the 1950s consumer culture in America boomed. This brought on the advent of televisions and radios. New forms of communication that would continually get expanded upon to the point that they are at today. Before the radio families would spend their evenings reading books together and would go to bed earlier before electricity allowed them to continuously have light. Although technology allows students to connect to teachers and their works in new ways the negatives outweigh the positives in school.

Technology negatively impacts students life by removing imagination from work this effectively automates the children into robots. It also makes students have short term attention spans. I am currently at an Art festival where we were told to draw a Form line design on a skateboard. As we began I realized that 90 percent of the students had, without even trying to form an idea of their own like good little robots, immediately whipped out their phones to gather information and designs off of the internet.

            Schools must regard the fact that although technology is the “modern” way of learning a deficiency of valuable skills is formed due to the ignorance and unproductivity, formed by technological advancements. As a result, students have grown less cultured and less intelligent. According to David Gelernter, “Our skill free children are overwhelmed by information even without the internet.” (Source E) The rise of technology has not improved the quality of schooling. Children have begun to play more and more video games (which is very unproductive according to Dyson in Source C), develop a lack of skills. Just because kids have the opportunity to utilize technology does not mean that it is beneficial.  Gelernter notes the irony in Clinton’s argument that technology can give kids access to worldly information, unable to be achieved without things like the internet. Kids are falling behind due to technology, don’t let schools do the same.

            Furthermore, technological devices have been known to distract children, causing a lack of imagination due in part because of the lack of nature around them. In Source C Esther Dyson believes that  the rite of technology in school curriculums is not necessarily a good thing, but that it is a significant “social problem”. He argues that in today’s children live in an “environment that often seems to stifle a child’s imagination rather than stimulate it” (Source C) The “over-feeding” of information causes children to easily lose focus and causes shorter attention spans. If schools were to adapt and bring new technologies in they would be fostering an unimaginative and robotic-like mindset in their students.

            In addition, due to the increasing power of technology children are spending less time in nature. The cartoon in Source F depicts situational irony by depicting a child inside, watching the nature channel, instead of playing outside. Students should learn from experience, not simply watching a screen.

            Before schools fall into the trap of electronics they must consider all of the negative side effects of removing that experience and connection that student shave when they actually have hands on work rather than stimulations. By taking a 3D experience and converting it into a flat screen you remove all of the valuable lessons that students learn by doing. Technology, although easy to use, teaches students to not think for themselves. However, school is all about teaching students to think for themselves.

2014 Free-Response

2014 Free-Response (The next essay is soon to come)

As a Junior in High School, I feel the pressure of the upcoming doom of college and have often wished it to just not exist. However, I realize that this is unrealistic and that college, although expensive, if done right, will leave you with invaluable knowledge and a foot up in the career industry. A college education is beneficial because it helps you prepare for your future life by increasing your knowledge and job availability.

Upper level education is invigoratingly difficult. This challenge causes our young brains to grow and expand to compasses that high school could not bring us to. Michael Roth in The Huffington Post wrote, “Liberal Learning introduces them to books, and the music, the science, and the philosophy that form disciplined yet creative habits of mind that are not reducible to the material circumstances of one’s life” (Source B) Education is priceless. The experience and knowledge that we receive while at college level will “develop the ability to continue learning” (Source B). Thus benefiting our life throughout the future. In fact, among survey respondents who graduated from a four –year college, 74% say their college education was very useful in helping them grow intellectually. (Source F)

My mom, as an employer receives many resumes every year for potential employees. Those that have a college degree, not even necessarily in the field that they are being employed in, stand out compared to the other resumes. It shows that they are hard workers and willing to commit.  In “The Case for Working with your Hands” (Source A) Mathew B. Crawford argues that students should focus on vocational work such as electricity and plumbing because these are jobs that “cannot be sourced to India”. Crawford argues that colleges force you to waste your life to work in a cubicle instead of going into these secure vocational jobs. However, many of theses jobs such as a mechanic requires special certification in order to be competent and get a good paying career. Personally, I will be going to college to become a Nurse Practitioner, which is a job that could not be sourced out, however I must achieve a Masters degree before I can begin working “hands on” with people. Even in careers that do not require a degree college education is helpful. A study by Anthony Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose of Georgetown breaks down the college premium by occupations and shows that college has big benefits even in many fields where a degree is not crucial” (Source D) Among survey respondents who graduated from a four –year college, 55% say it was very useful in helping them prepare for a job or a career” (Source F)

While many people argue that the expense is not worth the education according to Source D many colleges are not very expensive, once financial aid is taken into account. Average net tuition and fees at public four-year colleges this past year were only about $2,000. Furthermore, “an overwhelming majority of college graduates -86%-say that college has been a good investment for them personally” (Source F) People are also panicked that by getting a college degree students’ chances will not improve on the labor market. However, Source D states “sending more young Americans to college is not a Panacea,” says David Autor, An M.I.T Economist who studies the labor market. “Not sending them to college would be a disaster.”’