Hi Group,
We're finally getting to the blog portion of this semester's syllabus. I'm sorry it has taken so long to get it going, but here it is. Please begin a conversation about the essays you've read so far. I look forward to reading what you have to say about them.
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Blog Assignment
Megan K. Tait
WRI 234 C
“Learning to Read and Write”
Frederick Douglas
This essay reminded me of the power of education. Although this reading wasn’t for an education class, it impacted the future teacher in me. I want to become a teacher to impact my students and cultivate a passion for learning in them. I want to show them that knowledge is important, not only to pass classes, earn a degree, and get a good job, but because it is empowering. Being able to think clearly, discern, and communicate gives life purpose and prevents one from being fooled. Being informed is paramount. Simply knowing how to read was enough to cause Douglas to work for his freedom when he otherwise would have lived as a slave with no thought to how different his life could be. It is important to remember that my future lessons as a teacher and my classes currently are more than just something to get through. Education can and does change lives.
Graduation
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is a master story-teller. Once I start reading something of hers, I am pulled into her story. Her inclusion of concrete details, beautiful phrases, and conjuring of vivid images makes me able to imagine everything she says although her stories occur in a world different from mine. Her imagery is original and not cliché. I especially love “Years of withdrawal were brushed aside and left behind, as hanging ropes of parasitical moss,” and “With that his voice nearly faded, thin, away. Like a river diminishing to a stream and then to a trickle.” Her colorful wording made the story unique.
Although written beautifully, I admire Maya Angelou’s ability to create meaning and a message through her stories. Thus her tales are more than fluff. The substance is in her message and intentions for sharing the story. I hope that I will learn to tell stories like she can. I want to share more than my experience; I want to share what those experiences taught me.
“‘I Just Wanna Be Average’”
Mike Rose
My mom teaches vocational classes. Her students learn how to create resumes and fill out applications so they look professional. She talks about work place safety and insurance plans. Her responsibility is to help her pupils transition smoothly into the work place, since they will not be attending college. Her students are the lowest achievers in the school. Many come from broken homes; some already live on their own and have children. She must fight for funding for her students; administration denies her students the funds and attention they deserve. Often times it seems that the school has given up on these students, choosing to instead focus on students who they feel have potential.
Honestly, it’s hard for me to find compassion for my mom’s students when I hear of how they flunk a class, lose a job, or mess up their life in general. I don’t understand why they can’t get it together. Often times I am like the administration; I write them off for failures.
While reading this essay and hearing of the author’s negative experience in a vocational program, I wondered what would happen if classes geared at students heading out into the work force, like my mom’s, were eliminated. Would these low-end kids be challenged and inspired if they were not simply stuck into vocational classes?
“keeping close to home: class and education”
bell hooks
Perhaps it is because I have no personal connection or emotional bond to the subject of the essay, but I thought this essay was difficult to comprehend. I couldn’t make sense of what the author was trying to say. I caught bits and pieces about how her family didn’t acknowledge the importance of her education, how academic African Americans feel like they must disown their slang to be intelligent, and how she still greets black people on the streets because she feels a connection to them. All of these components did not form a solid message for me. What am I supposed to get out of this essay? Can I not understand it because it is written to an African-American audience?
“The Recoloring of Campus Life”
Shelby Steele
Steele has a unique perspective in his essay, a perspective that I, as a white middle-class student, have difficulty relating to and understanding. From my comprehension of the reading, he blames campus racial tension on blacks feeling inferior and whites feeling that minorities are complaining, using their genetic traits to gain the upper hand. He makes his points in a logical fashion that reveals thoughtfulness and recognition of the complexities of the situation.
Although the author is credible, I don’t understand his naming “the black inferiority complex” as a primary reason for racial fighting. Everyone has insecurities. Personally, I feel like I am not intelligent enough and have not experienced enough to contribute anything to some class discussions. I am only a little farm girl. What makes the inferiorities felt by African-Americans that much greater to spur fighting? I feel that this failure to acknowledge the inferiority complexes in each person was the largest defect in the author’s rational.
“Who Makes the Clothes We Wear?”
Jesse Jackson
Oh, Jesse Jackson. Once again, he is indignant about a social plight. I can’t help rolling my eyes.
He is so impassioned that his writing and speaking lose credibility. Although he makes interesting points and is well researched, his fervor makes the logic behind points difficult for readers to trust. By demonizing Nike and pleading for the impoverished, his case relies on an emotional response from the reader, a weak argument strategy. I would respond more positively to his views if he included more logic, reduced the number of rhetorical questions used, and stopped the dramatics. Even simply conceding that Nike’s use of cheap labor makes good business sense would help me to take him seriously. This piece makes him seem like a fanatic, causing me question his discernment and ultimately, to dismiss his argument.
This essay does remind me of the importance of writer’s voice. I must use many concrete examples instead of vague inferences and use logic instead of emotion if I want to successfully convince and convict my readers.
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