Apoihqrepihavheoikhjafadddksahohujohag5454556ijddcxd… yes that is exactly what I feel like when researching for this paper. I keep thinking that I should narrow down my research topic more and more but when I go and try to do so it always seems to just grow back into the monster that it was before. The worst part is trying to find any concrete sources that give some detailed info on another countries education system. All I keep getting from database after database is pretty much the same information. And all that is just a basic overview of their education system. Which by the way is not even close to as interesting as it sounds…I mean okay I am passionate about the education system and all that but come on if I have to read one more article about some proposed business plan I will scream…but after all that pretty good so far at least on the home front. That is to say that I am getting some information about our own education system that I wasn’t even aware of before, and I’m pretty sure that the average Joe on the street would not be aware of this either for that matter. What I’m mostly finding is that in our education system, there is a three-way knockout drag out fight going on between that voters, teacher unions, and the local governments…which side are you on???
anoited bib
Clemmitt, Marcia. “School Reform.” CQ Researcher 29 Apr. 2011: 385-408. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
Is it the teachers fault? Asks Clemmitt. The answer is a resounding…we don’t know, some say that yes the teachers are to blame for the education slump that we are in but others blame the economy. For once in twenty years America is not leading in the academic fields. Not surprisingly the four countries that are beating us are Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and England. Many believe that the main reason for the low test scores is outside factors, such as family life, and poverty. Apparently we are the only country that has to worry about educators health-care costs and pensions as a schools cost. We also have almost quadrupled the spending for special education and immigrant children in the last ten years which contributes highly to the funding crisis most schools are in. I plan to use this article to introduce the issue at hand as well as use it as a stepping stone to go on to explain the bigger picture.
Walters, Jonathan. “School Funding.” CQ Researcher 27 Aug. 1993: 745-68. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
So in this article Walters starts to explain the rocky road education funding has had in the former 30 years. He explains that in many cases there are only two choices, “leveling up or leveling down”. Leveling up means that state gives more money to everyone but a lot of money to poorer districts. This of course has many problems as well chiefly where the money coming from. Another problem being that in order to even get the money states would have to raise taxes by quite a bit, something that many voters strongly disagree upon. The other option is to “level down” the richer neighborhoods, meaning to place a spending cap on the higher class neighborhoods on give the excess money to more poverty stricken areas. This would of course many supporters, as well as enemies. The enemies mostly being of course the very people getting a cap placed on them. I plan to use this article to correctly state the options the education system has and to provide insight into the reactions to raising taxes in the states.
what did i learn form the library
Now I have learned a couple things actually, first is that I may have bitten off more than I can chew, meaning that I may have to refine my thesis statement again…oh joy. Now by saying this I mean that I am having trouble pining down a source from the library that really goes into the detail I would be needing for this paper. I have learned about several different databases that will be very helpful once I get a chance to look through them. Those would be Ebrary, CQResearcher, and academic search. Each one should have a ton of information once I get my topic narrowed down more. I also found a book that will be helpful it’s called “the teaching gap” which goes into detail about the teaching systems in America and abroad. Lots of work ahead…fun fun
how does Huey define Social Justice?
My father is a 1/8 Sioux Native American, so this presentation hit home for me. I knew of the battle of Wounded Knee, and my father has shown me pictures of when he visited the massacre site. Justice is what is right and wrong, now the problem is right and wrong are defined by those in power at the time, and right now those in power believe that the right thing to do is to not honor the treaties previously signed by their forefathers. Am I going to go off on a tangent about the living conditions, medical care, or schooling in all, not just the Sioux, Reservations, no I’m not that time has passed. The time for reconciliation is past, the Native Americans want their land and homes back, but the American government will not give over control to a sovren state, at least not that much. Treaties have been broken over and over, words promised, and were not kept. The justice in all of this is… well there really is no justice at all here. The American government gave its word, and didn’t keep it. Is that really how the leader of the world should act? I mean we built this nation on their ground, on their Native land, and we don’t blink an eye, what’s so different about then and now…
how does stevenson define social justice/injustice?
How did Stevenson define social justice…now there’s a tricky question if I ever saw one, reason being is that he never came out , to my memory, and outright told us how he defines social justice/ injustice…I do however know that he does go on to explain how he sees this countries court system a little lacking. Stevenson explains that in Germany there is no death penalty, in light of past events, but he says that we would find it terrible if Germany still had the death penalty, now why would we feel this way even though we ourselves in many states have the death penalty. He then goes on to say; now there is a big divide in this country on the justice issue. It is easier to be rich and guilty, than to be poor and innocent. The story of the motion at the end of his speech is amazing in my eyes, because yes the judge does believe that he can make the kid into adult, but what really gets me is how Stevenson states in the motion. I motion that we judge this young man not as a poor black child, but as a rich white old man and see what happens. That is the true injustice of this country, justice is blind but not the judges apparently can see the dollar signs very clearly. Also the story of his grandmother strikes a chord in me because what was said to him when he was young is almost the same thing that was said to me when I was 8 by my grandmother.
The Things They Carried—final post
The problem with this book is that it is a collection of short stories all strung together to make a bigger story that really doesn’t make much sense. The major and obvious conflict was the war itself but enough stories have been written about that, next was man vs. self like when boker couldn’t save kiowa from the shit field. He later hangs himself…man vs. nature is easy, the rain, and rivers, and jungles, and of course that crazy Mary Ann. If there was a climax at all it would have been the shit field the rest was just falling action, tying up the loose ends like when Tim took his daughter to Vietnam and laid Kiowa moccasins in the field under the sludge. The rest of the story is how Rat is taken to Japan, and probably a mental ward, how Rat was replaced with a green field medic, and then Tim being transferred to the back lines. We see Tim go from idealistic grad student to hardened soldier, then back to civilian once he was shot his mentality changes completely; Tim learned the true value of a man is not in the future, but in the now. Over all Tim O’Brien’s book was a very good read, he creates this characters that you can’t help but love, and then he kills them…well this is a book with a main premise of the Vietnam war after all. We see how friendships are formed, and then lost. How a couple of young kids were forced to become something that they are not. Mostly you could say that this was in fact a story of growing up, about friendship and love. You don’t realize any of this until you read the final chapter and that poor girl Linda. Each man had his faults, that was true but each man also had his shining moments. They each lost friends, comrades, and brothers to the war and the memories will forever haunt them. The sins, stories, and regrets weigh much more than the things they carried.
Tim O’Briens conflicts
In “The Things They Carried” there are many different main characters all told from their view points. But the one that sticks to me the most is the story of Mark Fossie and Mary Ann…starts of as Fossie gets Mary over to Vietnam and then they live in a short of honeymoon stage for a while. That is till the conflict started to arise, three conflicts actually, man vs. man, self, and society. It was man vs. man because well it is in the Vietnam War, so you are continuously assailed by the images of soldiers and their injuries. Man Vs. self was internal, in Mary Ann and in Fossie; Mary Ann lost the battle because she succumbed to the sensations of war and became addicted to it. Fossie started to win, when he decided to send Mary Ann home. And Man Vs. society because everyone but the greenies thought that because she was a woman that she couldn’t kill someone, could wear human tongue necklaces…they were VERY wrong…this is my favorite scene so far because of the emotions behind it, Fossie brought Mary Ann over because he missed her, Mary Ann didn’t want to feel helpless so she learned how to be a field nurse, then how to shoot a rifle, and then how to move like the greenies, and finally she, well she became feral, yeah feral is really the only word that comes to mind when I think of Mary Ann…this scene is connected to the main Character conflict of man Vs. self because it shows that anyone from a hardened soldier to a pretty woman from back stateside, can go down a road that you can’t turn around from, and that is what the narrator is afraid of. He is afraid of going down that road and whether or not he already has…
the doors…
I was immediately able to find a place in nature to go. It was in my own backyard back in northern Michigan, a small clearing in the back woods of my home where I have spent many an hour sitting and listening to the woods itself, it was my safe place my place to go to relax where no one could find me. after I followed the trail past the brook and through the meadow I did find a tree, it was a very old oak tree that had been there for decades with branches reaching up into the clouds and underneath of it is where I sat and thought, some days it was my only confident, a calm soothing presence that had been there for years and will be there for years more, I left my friend to find the ruble on the side of the cliff, and in the distance I saw something. I found a doorway in the ruble and I did open the door but all I found was more doors and the more doors that I opened the more I would find, it went on and on and on with no end in sight, I wanted to go back to the tree, my guardian my friend, I wanted to be back in my little clearing safe and sound. Not worrying about which door was the right one, the one to show me to the truth, and which door would only lead me to more doors…creepy isn’t it
Today in class
We meditated today in class…interesting way to focus the class, I liked it but I’m used to it so the effect wasn’t as pronounced as maybe the rest of the class. Do I feel calm yes, centered kind of, meaning I am in the right state of mind but had problems with the body. Oh well the purpose was to “clear the mind” but I’ve never done that myself. I just let my mind wonder to whatever it wants to. This way my subconscious mind has a way to come to the surface when I am aware enough to recognize it. The stress of the day just floats away like a leaf on a river, with me on a raft going to the sea. I’m pretty sure that I took that from somewhere but I cant remember offhand. Oh well.
Meditation is
The place of mind that you go to when you want to be calm, your center, your core. Your core is the one place in your mind that hasn’t and will not ever be cluttered by petty arguments, jealousies, or needs. Now there are several ways to go to this place of mind, the traditional way and the well let’s just say the more controversial way. The traditional way to achieve this calm is to sit in a lotus position, in a quiet place, with maybe a few candles burning, some soft music playing. And just sit there until you finally reach that point where all the thoughts and worries of the day wash out of you. It is very relaxing if you do it right. I really don’t like this method myself; I just don’t have the time. What I do is do the deep breathing exercises in my everyday life, whenever I feel stressed at all I do them. So I am in a meditative state whenever I feel stressed, which has caused some people to call me cold in a situation, or in the case of my best friend, he says that in a stressful situation I am ”Zen” now him being a Buddhist that is a compliment…I think.
richardsthoughtsandactions 