Pennies an hour

Once I started to read this paper i began to get very upset with the big companys that go to other countrys to get lower cost of labor. We the american people should some how get together to with the labors force in china to get either them a little higher pay or allow americans to work in the factorys. There are plently of people that need jobs in the U.S. In some of the reading that we have been doin talk about all poor people and what we should do with them, if somehow the goverment would get involved to get more jobs to people who need them.

Fortress Los Angeles

This particular reading upset me for a couple of reasons. When I read the part about the bathrooms inside of office buildings, restaurants, art galleries, e.t.c and how they would be built only for the use of tourists and white collared workers but not for the homeless or poor. That, to me, was just wrong. You cannot deny anyone access to a public place. Regardless of how they may appear, they still have the right to be treated with their dignity and respect. It is not right that they will sit there and say that tourists, whom they know nothing about or where they came from, can use their facilities, but a homeless man/woman cannot. That is just morally wrong. All throughout this reading, they just complain of the amount of poor people and how they are in all these different places of Los Angeles. I know that is a problem for them but unless they decide to find funding for shelters or programs that may ultimately get these people off of the streets and stop complaining, then they just need to shut their mouths and move on. Honestly, poverty and homelessness is everywhere. It's not going anywhere.

Goths in Tomorrowland

I think that this essay is a perfect way of dicribing how adults see teenagers. These goths just wanted a place that they could feel safe in because the restof society rejected them. Even though they are sometimes intimidating to approach these kids are people just like the rest of us and i find them to be very nice and accepting people. I think that it is just another form of racism and that is not write. to judge a book by its cover i think sums up this essay, you do not know a person until you talk to them and it is clear that these people are judging them.

Fortress Los Angeles

I feel really bad for these poor people pf los angeles. All they are trying to do is survive in a city that wants to eliminate every possible chance for them to do so. If they maybe were trying to get them off the streets they could go about it in a better way maybe by providing them shelters to go to. Instead i think that they enjoy being evil enough and trying every possible way that they can think of to keep them away from the rest of the city.

Fortress Los Angeles

After reading this essay, I became even more aggravated because this very well relates to the essay, Goths in Tomorrowland. All they are doing in this essay is pointing the finger and disrcimating against someone they know nothing about. Yea, they might be homeless and have nowhere to go, but that is no reason to take things away and occupy space that could be used for their stability. These people are just trying to survive and if you know nothing about them, then there is no reason to rebel against them. I feel bad for the homeless people and think it is totally wrong to do what they did. And if they were to do something so harsh and cruel, they could at least give them a place to reside or help them become part of the work force. You really think just kicking them out is going to improve a society? If you think that your crazy! All they are going to do is migrate to a different area and "bring down society" as the LAPD would say. If they really want these people off the streets the least they can do is help them out a little bit. I mean, come on, if they really expect things to be better just because these bums are out of one specific area, they have something else to think about. Give them a helping hand and help them succeed and live a better life. Doing that is something that sounds like improving a society wouldnt you say? Its logical and wouldn't hurt to be generous and hospitable once in a while.

Goths in Tomorrowland

After reading this essay "Goths in Tomorrowland," I have come to conclude that no matter how stereotypical a person can be, everybody should be looked at and treated equally. I became somewhat angered at the way these teenagers are portrayed in this essay. I understand that people can be categorized as things such as preps, goths, scenesters, emo, druggies, hippies, etc. but this doesnt cause the need to rationalize and discriminate. Every person is unique in their own way and shouldnt be looked at differently for their apparel. People do physically express themselves by the way they dress, or getting piercings, or tattoos, but this doesnt cause the need for them to be judged. This doesnt only apply to people that are being categorized, but people of different race as well. I dont think anything aggravates me more than hearing someone discriminate an individual for their race. I feel as if everybody should be treated equally and not looked at in a derogatory sense.

"They try to feed you all these races, they try to feed you all these sexes, and these creeds dont mean a thing, because we all are one under that great sun. And you must understand that my hand is the same as the next, and your neighbor right next to you should feel the same in their chest."

I could admit that I fall in to one of these "cliches" but dont think about it stereotypically. Yea, I have my lip pierced, and dress to a particular style and I would probably give most people the impression of me being "emo" or "scence." It aggravates me when people stick with the first thought that comes to mind. Because I give this first impression due to my apparel, people would judge me and maybe despise me as a contributing individual to society. I'd just like to say that i'm not "emo" and i'm not "scene" and people who go with their instinct and judge people by apparel really need to take the time to open up their minds and be open to particular styles. But, this world will never compromise and stereotypes will never die off. People are continuously going to judge and discrimnate not matter what the case is and sadly there is nothing you can do about it. I just feel as if these people need to stop judging and discriminating and make peace.

Fortress Los Angeles

After reading this paper, i begin to think how would i feel if that was me being the one who is homeless. I dont understand how people could think that by makeing streets into a place they cant sleep will just make everything better right away. They will have to go somewhere its not like there are just going to disapear. I feel that by doing something along these lines, the crime rate would only raise. I realize that the homeless can scare you when you look at them but that doesnt mean you can just throw them by the way side. If anything was to happen to the poor i believe that we should make better living places for them say somewhere in the desert around L.A.

goths in tomorrowlands

After reading this essay, story, or whatever these mass collections of works may be called, I felt a certain feeling that I lived through this, but of course all of us have. everyone has, and it's ominant no matter what walks of life we have gracefully come from, or stumbled aimlessyly through, we have all seen these "groups" in the hallways of our ourlives. everyone knows of the punks, skaters, stoners, alcoholics, partiers, preps, ganstas', etc. But when you think about it, its all the same stereotypical nonsense that we have grown to NOT realize in our everyday lives. let's put this to a scenario, say you see a gothic looking person in the grocery store, subconciously your brain begins processin what your seeing, and yourfirst instinctis to feel awkard maybe, and you may laugh, or say something to yourself that may degrade them. honeslty, ill admit to doin this myself, until, i met one of my exgirl friends, now one of my best friends, Patience. who of which is a cyber-goth. Now the goth scene itself has its own groups as well, but thats a whole new essay for me to write. All the things we think about are wrong, its just we have negative thoughts about them because of sublimidle crap that gets force fed into us, anyways..... where im goin with this primarily is that we all have judged people based on nonsense, its what our society is based on, and what happens naturally i guess, buthey what can we do. even i, ian marcheskie judge people, its like i said, natural. we can't help it, it just happens, yes it's immoral but whatever.

i, myself, i guess you could call me a hardcore kid, in older years, a skater or punk, yes they are all the same, well not really, hardcore kids, i really dont want to get into this, I as many of u know am different, i am myself, if others would like to call me hardcore, ill except that. yes i listen to hardocre, metal, speed metal, hardcore punk, screamo, post hardcore, emo, what ever you want genresize the music i listen to as, i listen to heavy scream inhanced music lets say, i myself a screamer in an experimental metalcore sythn band, anyways.... but i am not a scenester, oh no no.... i am not, i hate them.

Its society we judge, we stereotype, we jump on those fast moving bandwagons, and go for quite a ride, shooting down or raising others up in our wake. even i just now, classified myself, its sad.

what im saying is that it happens, and theres not much we can do about it, and now that i haqve made you read all of this, u may say, huh did he even relate this to the work he read, yes i related in to the context, which i belive to be sterotyping. context which is the unit we're working on now, i think? and even after this i leave you with this, stereotyping is like eating an oreo, you can eat it many ways but you always twist off the top and lick off the cream, and if u see your friends eating one, and they dont do that, you might say "hey why r u eatin an oreo like that, r u dumb or something?" haha a little moral and life event might help i don't know

------sry for all the spelling and gramatical errors, give me a break its 5 in the morning and i couldnt sleep, so i wrote this, and hell, its 5 in the morning, its expected. i still probably wrote enoughn this for like two weeks worth of blogging.

god i love ranting!!!

"Yes, Language is an art! Where words are my paint, and viewing eyes, or listening ears are my canvas."
if u like to know whose quote that is just ask, ill glady share with you who it is....

peace

goin' postal...

Mike Davis's "Fortress Los Angeles" was quite difficult to follow at first. I'm not sure if it is just me but he seemed to use a lot of intense vocabulary and in some parts it got really confusing. After deciphering, there were a lot of sentences that I highlighted. I think it's horrible that the government and police officers in Los Angeles would treat the poor like that. They created a place along Fifth Street, called Skid Row, that was a outdoor poorhouse. It said "Skid Row transformed into the most dangerous ten blocks in the world." Also, he talked about how the government made the new barrel-shaped bus bench that was very uncomfortable and offered not near enough space for someone to sleep on. He also talked about how the city opened up Skid Row Park which had outdoor sprinklers that would go off randomly in the night in order to keep bums from sleeping in the park. How ridiculous is that? They spend more time and money trying to keep poor people out of the land than they do in trying to help them. It just goes to show how messed up our society really is. I liked the last line of his selection, "For public-housing tenants and inhabitants of narcotic-enforcement zones, the loss of freedom is the price of 'security'."

Thomas Hine's "Goths In Tomorrowland" was good. It talked about how there are all sorts of groups of teenagers and that most adults are threatened by them. In the beginning, there was a line that said, "The presence of sullen clusters of costumed teens showed, some argued, that Disney had given up its commitment to family values. It was no longer possible to feel safe in Disneyland." This is a little ridiculous. Just because there were kids dressed in black clothes with make up on their face, the park is unsafe? I knew lots of kids in highschool that dressed like that, and were the most softspoken, well-mannered individuals. I also liked a line on page 70, "The typical suburban high school is occupied by groups of teens who express themselves through music, dress, tattoos and piercing, obessive hobbies, consumption patterns, extracurricular activities, drub habits, and sex practices." Well put. haha...Towards the end of the selection, he refers to "tribes" of teenagers and says, "Tribes are about a yearning to belong to a group---or perhaps to escape into a disguise.

"Fortress Los Angeles" and "Goths in Tomorrowland"

The syllabus doesn't say to post about these readings but I might as well do it now cuz I have soo much work to do. I really did not like "Fortress Los Angeles", it was kind of hard to comprehend the point of the essay. So I'll talk about "Goths in Tomorrowland" by Davis. I enjoyed reading this one... it talked about the different groups of teenagers like the "preps", "skaters", "goths", "sluts", etc. I liked how it brought up the point of how there is "alienation of teenagers from adult society." I agree because I feel that adults are afraid of our generation and judge us on our appearance. For example: our dress, tattoos, and piercings. I really don't think all that should matter.
Also on the syllabus it says that we have a rough draft due and I wanna know what for? If anyone knows anything about this please tell me!!!!!!!!

"Nickel-and-Dimed" and "Pennies an Hour"

After reading these two essays, i understand how bad some people have it coming from lower class societies. The essay "nickel-and-dimed" talked about how she living as an idividual was making a certain amount of money and living off it, while other people making the same amount had children and were able to support them. It was kind of confusing when she said that because they contradict. I dont understand how one person supporting only themself has the same opportunities of those making the same amount but to support their children. It reminded me of my boss at big boulder ski resort and how he was only living off of an $8 an hour job, but could support three children with only making that. I was making the same amount as him and gave me a better outlook on my future and how I never want to be in that position.

The essay "Pennies an Hour" was about how much people working in sweatshops get paid. It was surprising how little these people get paid and how they survive off of it. I had never worked at a sweatshop before and this was surprising to read about what they live off. People all around the world get different wages depending on what part of the world they live in. What she said about a person in bangledash and how they only get paid 1.6 cents for a hat with a logo on it, and then it sells for almost $17 or more is astonishing. It makes me curious to know if these people only getting paid 1.6 cents know that it sells for a much higher price. Reading things like these are amazing and can give an individual a different perspective on their future in the work force.

Nickel and Dimed / Pennies an hour

Nickel and Dime reminds me of that saying that the money doesn't give you happiness. It shows it in tv shows and in books and in other entertainment forms that even the richest people in the world are never truely happy while the poor or middle class are truely happy. You don't need a lot of material possessions to keep yourself happy its family and friends that do that for you. When she decided to live life on a low wage and see what it was like it was almost like she was becoming a detective. You discover how hard it is to live life on that low wage and it would me you appreciate what you have rather than always wanting more. Our society is spoiled these days. Everybody always wants more.

Pennies an hour really shocked me. I couldnt believe that they only pay those people 12 cents an hour to sew while we sit here lounging around and getting paid to do so. I thought working at Giant was bad and that I was geting paid too litle and i'm getting 7.30 an hour. It took me 2 and a half years to get there but to me it still doesnt seem like a lot. Then again America isnt a third world country or anything. Everything in america is expensive so in order to be able to buy and give money to the government they have to give us enough money while working in order to give some back. It was really unbelievable to think that anyone could support a family with kids and all for only 34 cents an hour. I think America could and should do something to help. I've always wondered where the extra money goes. It costs about 12 cents to make a shirt yet it costs 20 bucks to buy it in america... where does all that money go if its not helping pay those who worked so hard to make that flimsy shirt. I personally dont buy or support places like holister A&F and american eagle because they sell shirts for like 40 bucks when you could get just as good of a shirt at a place like tj maxx. I once got a long sleeve shirt for 6 dollars! thats what I call a deal!

Nickel and dime

This essays did not surprise me at all. Many people go trough a lot of bad things in order to survive in this country as well as in other countries. I taught it was a very good idea what Barbara Ehrenreich did. She left everything she own for an entire month. Her whole middle wage life for a low wage paying job. But I think that what she got from doing all this is just a small piece of how the low paying job life is really like, because for a month a person cant find out how it really is.

Pennies an Hour and No Way Up

I knew that the people that work in sweatshops made nothing for what they did. I just never realized that it was as low at 1.6 cents. I don't understand why ban imports made with inmate and indentured labor, but don't ban sweatshop product. Its almost like we encourage it to happen. We ban sweatshops in our country but allow the products to flow in from another. In a way I can kind or see where the people that say it is helping them get on their feet are coming from. I mean you have to take into consideration that they are still working. So that means there probably is not anything better then the sweatshops. That still doesn't make it right to have people working in sweatshops.

Nickel-and-Dimed

This essay reminded me a lot of my old job at a Giant. I remembered looked around at some of the people that worked there. Many of them were much older then me and had kids. I remember thinking about how I made more money then they did. I have no idea how they could afford to work at a Giant. The other thing was a lot of them had drug problems. I was told so many stories about how much they would spend. Seeing people like that made me never want to end up working at Giant forever. I wish she would have talked about how she felt about where she was living. I really don't think she found much out about how it is to live on $7 an hour. All she basically told us is that it sucks and that its almost impossible. Everyone already knows that. When she mentioned there possibly being some trick to live of that much money I interested, but she never did find out what the trick is.

As I am reading these two essays it comes to my attention of how lucky we are as Americans. I mean these people work their balls off for us, and all we do is recieve the goods and use them. I think that we should challenge other countries to up there pay for the workers are supplying their major consumers of their product. Even the minimum wage workers here live so much better than other people in other countries. Though I am a firm believer that one must help their own first, I think that we should do something about other countries. Sooner or later their poverty might affect us.

My Post

"Pennies an Hour and No Way Up"
After reading "Pennies and Hour and No Way Up", I was shocked and surprised at the conditions in which these people were forced to live in due to very low work wages. It hurt me to hear that they had to live in cellars with raw sewage and stuff like that. Something else that shocked me was that the young girls who work over in Bangladesh were only being paid like 1.6 cents for every hat that they sewed. I just don't understand how they can live off of these wages especially if they have families to care for.

"Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not)Getting By in America"
After reading this story, I can't say that I feel exactly what they are going through because I have never been there but I hurt for the many who do live in these conditions. I do not understand how they survive off of how much money that they make a month. It was sad to read the story and see that these people have to live paycheck to paycheck and are not financially stable/comfortable.

"Nickel-and-Dimed" was an interesting essay. Most people assume they understand how bad some people have it, but reading something like this really shows you how difficult it is to live in society today as a lower class citizen. I liked the fact that Barbara Ehrenreich reffered back to the fact that she was only a single person living off of the amount she was being payed, while most women on welfare or women working the same job as her and getting paid the same amount, have on average about two children to support. I couldn't believe that, "According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, for example, in 1998 it took, on average nationwide, an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment, and the Preamble Center for Public Poilicy estimates that the odds against a typical welfare recipitent's landing a job at such a "living wage" are about 97 to 1." Those odds are incredible.

"Pennies an Hour" also showed some horrific statistics. I couldn't believe how little the workers in sweatshops get paid. I had never seen the actual amounts, and like the people I talked about above who assume they understand how bad some people have it, I also assumed I knew. I had no idea that a young femal worker in Bangladesh gets paid only 1.6 cents for a baseball hat with a logo on it that sells for now, probably more then $17. The fact that women in Bangladesh think they could care for their children if their wages rose to 34 cents an hour is amazing. It opens your eyes to read things like this, and look at how different people live across the world.

"nickel-and-dimed..." and "pennies an hour and no way up"

I actually was interested in reading these two essays. Because today's economy allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. I found it was great to see the struggle that low-wage workers must go through. They basically survive paycheck to paycheck. In "nickel-and-dimed" Barbara Ehrenreich conducted an experiment in which she had to live at the poverty level and go in search of a job. She had difficulties surviving off of $6-7 dollars an hour. In her essay she brought up a good point of how people don't even get to go above the low-wage level and are just stuck there just getting by. "Pennies an hour and no way up" by Hayden and Kernaghan made me feel sick to my stomach because of how little people earn in other countries. We believe that people have trouble living off our poverty level when in reality it is nothing compared to the 12 cents an hour earned by people working in sweatshops in China. In other countries companies make so much of a profit because they are able to employ cheap labor in return for making more money off of an item.

Postage...

Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel-and-Dimed" was a great read. She created a solo "experiment" where she dropped everything she was doing to experience poverty firsthand. As another classmate stated in his post, other journalists write about poverty but have never been in that situation themselves. Everything that she talks about in her essay is so true. I worked at a restaurant when I was younger and there is a whole workforce of people from young to old, all qualified skill-wise far greater than what they are doing. There is a line that a highlighted on page 380 from the last paragraph, "...the camaraderie of people who are, in almost all cases, far too smart and funny and caring for the work they do and the wages they're paid."

Tom Hayden and Charles Kernaghan's quick selection was jaw-dropping. I never knew that people were making so little in sweatshops to produce petty goods here in the United States. 1.6 cents for each baseball cap, are you serious?! That's ridiculous. And to think that people in the U.S. complain about making minimum wage.

Reading these two essays “No logo” by Naomi and “hype” by kalle Lasn made me realize that we are living in a society were advisement is everywhere. It surprises me when they mention the amount of advisements marketing puts in front of us daily. In the essay “no logo” the author gives us the background of the logos. In the hype essay he talks about the many different places that we see advisements. From both of this essay I taught that Hype was more interesting. Reason that I taught it was more interesting was probably because he was more specific on the many different places that we see advertisements.

Nickel-And-Dimed

I thought that Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel-And-Dime" essay was one that I could relate to very much. Barbara created a scientific experiment in where she "experienced poverty" firsthand, by leaving her home, career, and reputation behind. I like this idea alot because their are many people who write on the issue of poverty, but have never expeienced it for themselves. It doesnt seem right for a person who knows nothing of poverty to comment on it. I think that Barbara validates her right to comment on poverty because she trys to experience it herself. I personally worked in a Dinner back in highschool and experienced many of the issues that Barbara faced. It was amazing to see how all of the adults working there lived their lives from pay check to pay check. Many of them were just like Barbara's co-workers in that they lived in trailers or motels, and worked very long hours. All in all I liked this piece very much.

Hype

Man I always forget to post these things, I never do anything like xanga and my space... So I can hardly remember to post at least 2 weeks, pathetic I know... Anyway...
I personally enjoyed reading these articles because the topics discussed were topics that I , myself have recently found an interest for. The topics of advertising in the media and brand names is a controversial topic. Rather than write a summary of the two essays I would like to give my opinion on I feel about advertising in the media. When asked the question, does the media control us or do we control the media, there is no black and white answer to be given. While we make the media by producing, manufacturing and creating certain programs through this medium, when you see 7 year old girls dressing like Brittany Spears, you know they picked that up off the television. Advertisements during television programs is like a 2 and 1/2 minute brain washing session. Distorted realities are presented through the television teaching our children obscenities and things that aren't meant for children. Since television is sometimes considered a babysitter, children who grow up constantly watching TV will have a distorted view of reality. As far as the other essay, its all about status. Status is obtained when you are distinguished among others, not everyone has what you have, your rare.. Hence giving one status. Its tough but its life.

No Logo and Hype

Sorry its taken me so long to post this but I've worked 41 hours this week (33 hours just from Friday night to sunday) it was terrible...but anyway I read No Logo and Hype. No Logo's message was really long and actually put me to sleep almost. I feel like it could be summarized by just saying how companies "brand" their names just to sell their products. They don't care about what products they make they just want to have a popular brand name that everyone wants. And Hype was actually alot better to read and caught my attention. I knew how much advertisements are out there but this essay made me realize how many more advertisements there really are. Just looking anywhere there are advertisements, even in men's bathrooms lol These two essays went along together because you can't have advertisments without advertising brand names.

Hype and No Logo

I read the essay "Hype" by Kalle Lasn first and I found it to be very true in a lot of ways. I never really notice how everyday we are exposed to millions of advertisements by the media. Advertising is virtually everywhere we look (On the streets, in malls, on t.v., etc.). The one thing that i really thought was kind of funny was that males were not bothered by advertising in the bathroom stalls. I can remember a couple times when this has happened to me and it didnt seem to have any effect on my conciousness. The only thing I dont really understand about Lasn's essay is she makes advertising out to be such a horrible thing, when in actuality I personally listen to much less than half the advertisement I hear in a day. The other essay "No Logo" was kind of hard to follow, and it seemed like she took a very long time to get her message across to the audience. She basically stated numerous times how advertisors were switching instead from selling a brand to selling a life style. I had trouble fully understanding this piece.

"No Logo" by Naomi Klein

I did not really like this reading that much. It was boring to me and it was hard to keep my attention. Something that did catch my eye was the statement that Branson, who did branding from wedding dresses to music, said that they build brands around a reputation and not around the actual product.

No logo

I didn't really like this essay that much. I found it to be boring. All she really talks about is how you need to get your companies name out to the public to be successful. This is a true statement, considering how many different companies produce identical products. I found it interesting that companies don't associate their name with a product. They focus more on associating the name with a way of life. The owner of Diesel Jeans told a magazine, "We don't sell a product, we sell a style of life." Now that sounds way more convincing then our jeans are the best.

Hype

I never really thought about how much advertising is out there. While reading this essay I couldn't help but look around my room and notice several things on my shelves with adds on them. The similarities to advertising and the brainwashing experiments done in 1950 are kind of scary. I never really thought of advertisements as a form of brainwashing. I suppose that having a add for a product in your face all day would cause it to be on your mind. Some of those add ideas were crazy. I can't believe they want to make space adds that can be seen all night. The part about the bathroom adds made me laugh, because I always read them, because I have nothing better to do while in the bathroom.

"Hype" by Kalle Lasn

After completing this reading, it made me realize that there is advertising EVERYwhere. When he said that there had been advertisments put in men bathrooms right above the urinals, that just shocked me.
I never really paid it any attention until after reading this but I know that when commercials come on television, some of them are louder so that they can grab the audiences attention.

Abstract

How important is your language to you? Would you stick by your language even if it ment no one would take you seriously and would even look down on you for speaking it? Imagine growing up in a place where you can communicate with everyone with absolutly no problems. Then one day you move to a new place where everyone talks funny. You can't understand these new people all that well. Maybe these new people can understand you but consider you ignorant for not talking "proper." Some people live in that world. They are just as smart as you and me, but are looked down on for not talking the same as you and me. My paper Culture shock shows examples of people who have to deal with these problems of being different from everyone else. They still stick by their language and even fight for it. Some risk alot and stick by there culture. How many people do you know that would do that? Would you?

Abstract for my essay, "Clash II Societies"

"We begin to grow up in a house where every true mirror shows us the face of somebody who does not belong there, whose walk and whose talk will never look or sound “right," because that house was meant to shelter a family that is alien and hostile to us" (Jordan, 145). This quote pertains to my essay that I titled, "Clash II Societies". My essay focuses on the understanding that individuals shouldn't lose themselves when going through the hardships of being accepted in a dominant society. However, I also touch base on a large part of how it’s important to practice only Standard English in the classroom, which would help to avoid difficulty communicating in the professional America. I also briefly touch base on how literacy is not simply just the ability to read and write. Furthermore, I explain in more depth, how literacy is very much related to ones power, status, and culture in a society. My goal of the essay is to give the reader a thorough understanding and ability to connect literacy in America to Jordan and Delpits' essays, and our class discussions. I also hope to give the reader a better understanding of what not only literacy is, but how it affects our acceptance in certain societies.

Abstract

Literacy is a lot more complex than just the ability to read and write. Delpit and Jordan both expalin in their essays that a persons literacy has cultural affect. With a good understanding of cultural differences, ones literacy skills can be easily enhanced and can be applied when migrating to any culture unlike their own. These cultural adaptations will not only improve a persons literacy skills, but also give them a better perspective on the world as a whole.

my abstract

Imagine living in a world where you’re always the outsider. Everything that is said is spoken around you and without your knowing. And also at times you’re asked to help keep this underground line of communication moving smoothly. By passing seemingly top secret messages to the proper recipients, all the while never knowing what is being said or whom it’s about; ostracizing or alienating you because you’re not popular or a part of a certain, level of status.
This happens every day in different schools throughout America. It’s a form of status building. Margaret J. Finders puts this occurrence into prospective for us in her writing entitled “Note-Passing: Struggles for Status.” The most interesting thing about this piece is how Margaret points out the fact that girls are more likely to par take in this form of communication than boys are. Which begs the question; are girls in more need of status groups and classifications than boys are? Or do boys classify themselves differently?

My Abstract

In Society, many are often stigmatized for their personal verbal expression. Throughout this paper, I will discuss the many different social issues that surrounded Min-Zhan Lu and the confusion as well as difficulty she faced in Communist China. The other text that I use to support my argument will be that of June Jordan and how she stated that this form of english, "Black English", is dying out all over the world today due to what society has said to be correct and incorrect grammar. Certain children are given chances to advance themselves academically because of the schools that they attend and the lessons that they learn. These advantages would not be possible if they did not live in certain geographical areas of the world. On the other hand, you have children who are underprivileged and who come from poorer neighborhoods who are not given the chance to show their academic skills because society says that these kids are academically slower.
Does the environment or culture that you grow up in affect your literacy and your learning abilities?

Abstract!

When one thinks of a person being literate they usually think of a persons ability to read and wrrite. I think that this only covers a mere portion of the issues of literacy. The stories of Lisa Delpit, Gloria Anzaldua, Min-Zan Lu all touch upon the issues of literacy and how they affect us and they cultures that we live in. To see and understand that there are differences in every culutre/languages, helps make one more literate about the world.

abstract

As the world changes and rapidly becomes more travel free, we are encouraged everyday to learn about others. But as much as we promote education of different cultures and languages, there is a limit. This paper will include examples from June Jordan’s “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan,” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Also, it will discuss how the people go through the process of education, learning history of different countries and languages, but when someone speaks a different language, people treat them like they don’t belong.

I can still remember that fight and how it all started. It wasn't your typical fight over some girl or because I got that person in trouble, but because of miscommunication due to different languages. Now by different languages I mean slang of course, but also this wasn't the only time this kind of event happened in my new school. In previous years of high school, when I attended Spring-Ford, language skills were a must, you were always reminded to make sure you used proper English. Now when I changed schools to Pottstown, language skills were still very important but you were not hounded as much to make sure everything was correct. But a weird thing that occurred to me is that I had to relearn all the catch phrases and slang at this new school, and also learn that different words could relate to many things.

After giving you that brief background, I can now tell you that in my paper, I will discuss why changing schools is like learning a completely new language. I will also discuss how it can affect ones ability to go from making minimal errors to many, also how this can screw up a person's literacy levels. I will incorporate into my paper, some views from Mike Rose's piece, "Crossing Boundaries," and either Min-Zhan Lu, or Theodore Sizer as a second reference. I will discuss where I believe they why coming from and also tie into why my paper is important to a discussion of literacy and why if some were to start reading from the middle of the paper, they would be understand why this is important to them and also to a discussion of literacy.

Is learniWhat is the meaning of learning other languague?

We are living in a variously or dynamically cultures. To communicating with other people around, one must speaks or writes a common language; conversation, reading and writing. According to Min-Zhan Lu, learning English was a very hard process. The environment is a most effective factor to Min-Zhan Lu. That's true for all students whose want to learn another language beside their natural languages. To Gloria as a Spanist speaker, she also has the ability to speak and writing English effeciency. According to Gloria, learning and speaking other language sometimes creating an outcasted environment. From Min-Zhan Lu and Gloria, learning and using other language is not as making the cookies. It takes an encourge, practice and the environment.

Darwin believed that only the strongest survive, I believe this same theory holds true for Literacy. More and more countries are teaching standard English in their schools. For my paper I am comparing Min- Zhan Lu and Anzaldua. Both of these writers struggled with their cultures and the use of standard English. Min- Zhan Lu had been thought English since she was a little girl, that was the language her family spoke in their house. As she grew up she learned about the Bourgeois and associated English with it. This created trouble because at school her classmates were part of the working class, otherwise known as proletariat. English is much like the Bourgeois, other countries have been or are adopting English as one of the languages thought in school, standard English is taking over and if it is not all ready the most wide spread language it eventually will be. Anzaldua said that her language and culture are studdorn and it will continue to live, but I disagree. English is stronger and eventually, probably never in our lifetime, other languages will die out and the whole world will know English

Voice comes in many different sounds and colors. America praises itself on being a culture melting pot. So why is there only one standard way to talk? As times change I think we should reevualate a few things in america. For one, we should become more diverse and tolerant of how others speak. Even if it isn't how you would talk, accept that others talk like that. America seems to be creating more mindless clones by the second. The school are constantly teaching children the same way it always has been. What ever happend to culture or uniquness? My paper was about the different ways American's speak and the importance of teaching fluency verus skills in the classroom. Many people are fluent however lack the skills. But who says those skills are right for everybody?

Abstract

What is the acceptable language? Who makes a particular language acceptable? Should a persons individuality be lost just to be acceptable? In the Gloria Anzaldua " How to tame a wild tongue" essay she is talking about how her life as a chicana has been. She also talks about the many different Spanish. She mentions in her story how she had to change different Spanish dialect with each different person. She says that when she would speak to some people she would sometimes instead of talking in Spanish with them she would talk English with instead. In the June Jordan essay he is saying how the media did not pay any attention to the students that wrote black English. Instead they paid attention to one student that wrote to them in standard English.
In my paper I am focusing on questioning who makes the acceptable language and what happens to the people that speak or write other languages. My paper title is "Boundaries within one's self"

abstract

Language and dialect play a huge role in society today and may become a way of ruining what we call standard english. Ever since AOL Instant Messenger arrived literacy has become a lesser thought in teens minds because of the dialects used with online conversations. Although we learn literacy in the classroom, this does not mean that we know how to use it outside of that setting when speaking standard english. The teen dialect is becoming more and more socially accepted and making literacy something of lesser importance and could one day become the very idea of literacy in the future. If we want to know all the different types of language we'd have to change our views on literacy. I will be using June Jordan's and Margaret Finder's essays to explain how dialects and languages could help and hurt literacy and the way its viewed.

Abstract

Imagine being placed somewhere not knowing a single person, not talking, dressing or even acting the same as others in the communitiy. Do you change the way you act? Try to be a trend setter? Or just accept the fact that your different? In this paper the reader will be informed about the feelings of two differnt people being placed in an enviornment that they were unfamiliar with. They were forced to adapt to thier surroundings while fighting with thier language and thier placement in a new school. These two completely differnt people had the same feeling within. They had to try to fit in while keeping their sense of self alive. This paper will make the reader think if they , or anyone they know, have been in this situation before. This connects with literacy in the fact that everyone tries to be socialy accepted.

Abstract...

Learning is a neverending process that begins at birth. At a certain age, we are told that school will "teach" us to succeed in the world and become all-around citizens. But what are we really "learning" in school? Are all the teaching methods effective for every student, or do some learn in different ways? These are questions that are important when referring to literacy in our school systems these days. I focused on the open-classroom vs. traditional control setting, "fluency" over "skills", and the benefit of progressive education on gifted children. Progressive education encourages creative expression and risk taking with the openness to mistakes and learning from them. I will be supporting my position with the works of Lisa Delpit and Theodore R. Sizer. If we don't recognize the potential of our children, how are we going to guide them to the path of success while gaining knowledge of one self?

Initial Thoughts About Paper...

My first thoughts about the paper we're that of confusion. I wasn't sure where to direct my thinking at first, but after the brainstorming day in class, I had a good idea brewing. I knew that this assignment wasn't going to be easy but I tried writing a decent paper. I had some organizational tips from one of my classmates' posts. I'm glad that Dr. Mahoney set up conferences for each individual student because I could use some help organizing all of my thoughts onto paper.

Abstract

In my paper I’m going to talk about the significance of teaching skills and fluency in schools.
Particularly I’m going to talk about what is more important skill or fluency. Some people think that it is more important to teach skills when other think that fluency is more important. I moved to United States almost two years ago. I knew English before; actually I studied it from the first grade in school. I had a lot of skill, but I was lacking fluency, because I never had a lot of speaking practice. For about a month I couldn’t even watch TV, because I couldn’t understand what they were talking about. But after a little while I could understand everything! My mom, on the other hand, did not have a lot of skills in English, and sometimes she still having troubles in understanding people. So I think in order to become fluent in something you have to build a foundation, and that foundation is skill. Lisa Delpit in her essay “Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator”, bring up an issue of teaching fluency and skills. She realizes that teaching skills is very important because you can only be literate if you are skilled.

abstract...

From the time we were little we were told that we have to attend school to get a "good" education. What is this education supposed to include? Are we getting a "good" education sitting at our desks practicing skills and repetition in order to understand literacy? In this paper I will discuss the motives of the education system in America. I will be using the essays of Lisa Delpit and Theordore Sizer to support my position. This paper will explore a myriad of issues behind the motives and structure of education on learning literacy. These issues I am going to discuss include the struggle of teaching skills versus fluency, open classroom versus traditional classroom setting, and if there is an importance for repetition of the school schedule. By the end of this paper I will have explored these concepts and unravel the motives of education of literacy. What is your view on this struggle?

Initial thoughts of paper

When we were first assigned this paper I knew it was going to be difficult. My problem whenever I have an assignment when you can pretty much choose your own topic, is that I have a problem trying to pick one and focus my paper on it. It took me about 5 days of brainstorming to see which topic would be interesting to write about, finally I decided to write about the motives of the education system. Then I had to pick the authors...I knew the essay from Lisa Delpit would be helpful but I had trouble thinking what other author would be helpful. So then I chose Theodore Sizer. Some things I am going to write about is the skills vs. fluency, open classroom vs. traditional style of teaching, and just the same repetition of the school day.

Abstract Blog

Even from the first time we meet people, race aside, we still make assumptions about others. Whether it's the way we dress, talk, or look people judge others quite quickly. I wanted to disscuss how the issue of literacy plays a big role in how we act and treat people around us. Within my paper I will be using both Jordan's and Mike Rose's essay to support my evidence and lay a foundation for my argument. Both authors focused on many issues of literacy (schooling, enviroment, culture, etc.) but i am going to touch base on how we as a society determine others as "literate" or "illiterate". My hope is to make others aware of the quick judgements they make about others, and recognize that literacy deals directly with culture. Most judgements made on others are not correct and only create more culture gaps. If we are able to understand why different people and cultures use literacy in different ways, then many problems can be avoided in the future.

initial thoughs

When I first started this assignment I knew that it probably was not going to be a very easy paper to write. I think that im going to focus mainly on getting the sympathetic readings down on paper, and then from that pick a topic to discuss on literacy. I have a couple ideas in my head right now, but I think that one will stick out clearly after I get started on the assigment. So far there seems to be a lot of topics on culture and schooling and I think that is what mostly makes up literacy itself.

Paper Topic

I'm going to use Anzaldua and Jordan essay to write my paper. I think I'm basically going to write about finding your own language. In Anzaldua's essay she knew how to speak around eight different languages but doesn't have one to call her own. In Jordans essay they are creating there own language, "Black English". In both stories they have a language that has meaning to them. The only problem is that their language is not socially acceptable. So they only really use the language among friends. I still am a bit confused on this paper. I'm sure I'll figure something out though.

my topic for the paper

i think i'm doing my paper on Delpits and Jordan's essays. Basically the topic is broken down to what is accepted in the US; standard/non-standard english. I'm going to use Jordan's essay using the Black English vs. Standard English and the dilemma of what should be taught as proper english in schools. It's all kinda connected to literacy in America, what is politically correct and what is accepted. What is taken seriously and what isn't. Im also going to use Delpits essay; progressive education versus fellow black educators...im still in the grey area of what i'm going to actually be doing for this essay...yeaaa....

Paper topic

I have tryed to put much thought into this paper and the main idea i came up with was to compare the papers of sizer and anzaldua. I think that i would write about the struggles that people have to go through just to fit in. In both papers the writters are trying there best to be like everyone else. It would be connectedto literacy by the fact that people want to be socially accepted by others. If someone could write back and let me know if i am going about this the right way that would be great. thanks

Paper Topics

I was having trouble choosing a topic for my paper but as of now I have chosen to do my paper on the different types of language that is used in society today and which of those languages is now socially accepted.
Also, when and where is it okay to express yourself, verbally, in your the comforts of your own language.
Does that sound right?

high school!!

This essay reminded me of how much i hated high school! it is such a controled environment that it just makes a kid want to go crazy. Basically know matter what high school you go to a kid's day is going to be much like the one of marks. and at the end of the day if your parents are happy then you have achieved your goal!! which is compleatly stupid.

Because of the broad range of readings we can chose to write about, I'm still having a difficulty narrowing down my topics to which essays I'd like to write about. As of right now, I'm thinking about writing about June Jordan and Lisa Delpit. I really enjoyed Delpit's essay, and how she shared her trials with the readers. Also, I liked how she experimented with different ways of "teaching." In looking at June Jordans' essay, literacy has a lot to do with culture. If anyone has anything to add to this, I'd love to hear your ideas...

paper topic

For my paper, I’m going to use June Jordan’s “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” I’m going to discuss how language influences how we live our daily lives. And how we are encouraged to be multilingual and we live in the most multicultural country but however some don’t accept different languages.

Unclear thoughts

As of yet, I have not been able to focus clearly on the topic but from the last discussion we had in class i am thinking of writing my paper on the role society plays on how we speak and write in different setting. example: how we speak at work vs. how we speak at home and what would be the outcome of us mixing the language or in othe words bring one language into the others domain.

Paper idea...

I have been thinking about the paper assigned by prof. Mahoney and coming up with a topic has been pretty hard for me! I have so many ideas but its so hard to get it organized and down on to paper! Well...this is what I have been thinking so far. I kind of wanted to do something about the motives behind the education system. I would like to touch upon the topic of skills vs. fluency, open classroom vs. traditional style classroom (so obviously I want to use Lisa Delpit as a one of the authors. I also wanted to talk about what schools should be doing: for example...should they let other students fall behind if they don't learn as quickly? I am not sure what other author I should use I am still trying to see how it falls into place. (I could possibly use Sizer in order to show how school maybe isnt serving its students the best purpose) If anyone reads this I would really appreciate some help or some other perspective cuz I could really use it!!! (Anyway you all need to have 2 comments by Sunday lol)

New topic for Paper

After class, and think about what Prof. Mahoney had asked me and had told me, I decided that a extremely good topic for my paper is to illustrate a true-life Ian experiance here. In my paper i will describe, "Why changing schools is like changing languages." Coming from one school, where langauge skills were highly concentrated on, to a school where it was more linient... Anyways, I will also talk about how literacy can change when moving from one area to another because of the new form, tone and basicically new dialect of sorts in that area.

How to tame a wild tongue!

i feel very bad for this kid who has grown up not having a solid language to fall back on. He has to speak so many different languages to please the certian members of society that surround him and his family. Even his own parents he has to speak to in a different tongue. In school if he was caught speaking Spanish he would be hit with a ruler on the knuckles for something that comes natural to him. I find that these people are very raciest and they need to learn how to appriciate diversity when they see it.

Theodore: What High School Is?

According to Theodore, high school's life is very simple to anyone. Mark is an axample. She records one day Mark acivities at his school to represent the whole high school student acrossing the country. In costrast, she tries to explain to all parents and students who are currently involving in the process of learning (in school) have to take thing as a serious job. Dont trying to take the education as a rush or unimportance. Education also need to imporve a little bit; the faculty take more serious action, school is a safety place, teachers have to know their students more. However, most of the hight school students do not understand how importance of education are.

Paper thoughts!

i think with this paper i want to look at the way different societies look at education. In lu's essay she was looked down upon for being bilingual, but in America it would be looked as a great thing. Also i wanted to talk about how in Lisa Delpit's essay they are trying to teach kids fluency and skill and it seems that it is such a hard thing to achieve but Lu has achieved both of these things in many different languages and my question is how can you think that this is a bad thing. I want to go further with some of my ideas but i need to think more over the weekend.

Lisa Delpit

This essay made me think of the way that i was taught when i was little. Writing down sentances over and over again just like Lisa stated at the beginning of the essay. I think that her battles with in herself and with other teachers, really make one think that teachers really do care what information their students are taking in. it also shows how much effort teachers put into their jobs. But on the other hand teachers do need to listen to their students more in order to understand how much they do know or do not know.

note passing and in the shadow of the image

Note-passing, i thought, was correct and incorrect in certain areas. Her analysis of how notes were written and why, were correct but when i was in middle school notes weren't the things that made you popular or cool or anything they were just a way of talking to friends in class without the teacher knowing. It was a rush to try to pass a note right behind a teachers back because you never knew when they would turn around and catch you. The skill of note folding was just for fun and pretty in my middle school/half of high school days but it was also, as she says, to keep unwanted eyes from reading. But it didn't name someone as popular if they got the most notes. So, I guess it all depends on the school that you went to and how popularity was decided in that school.
In The Shadow of the Image confused me a great deal in the beginning because it was just a bunch of random moments in time that had nothing to do with eachother. I didn't know where the story was supposed to be going or what was going on because it just kept jumping around. In the end, I guess I agree that advertisements do influence some of our decisions in life, but advertisements are not always the cause of our actions.

Possible Essay Topic

I have thought about many different topic ideas, and I have been taking into consideration the reading as well. And one reading that seems to leave a notch in my side is Mike Rose's, Crossing Boundaries. This selection is about how older citizens are not capable of reading as well as they should be able to. Crossing Boundaries, relates to me in quite a number of ways, we're all taught to read, we all have practice through elementary, junior high and senior high as well as when we move into the work or college enviroment, but some people when called upon to read something or perform something where they have to use instructions, are incapable of reading it fully and processing it correctly. So my paper is going to ask the question; Why after so many years of pracice are people unable to read, write and comprehend correctly? I am not angry about this situation but very upset with it because it is a shame that these people are unable to express thier feelings and/or arguments correctly when they need to do so. Also within my paper, I will try to explain why it is easier as a child to learn to read, and write correctly than as a young adult or older adult, beause of how the human brain works in learning.

High School

This essay basicly talks about how the average high school kid spends his day. This sounded alot like my school actually and then having the after school job at a supermarket. At one point the essay says something about teachers understanding that their students have jobs. I wish my teachers would have. All they said to me was thats life. I never really thought of school as being a way to get you ready to work at a normal day job. In the end he talks about there being standards for high schools to live up to and how hard it may be. All that really matters is that the children they teach are prepared for the next step. I was kind of confuse at the very end though because basicly what he said is that if the parents are satisfied then they did good.

essay assignment topic

I have thought about different topic ideas and I have chosen to write my paper on characteristics of a child, compared to characteristics and the ability to aquire things as a young adult. I will relate mostly to the essay by Min-Zhan Lu and the idea of the open classroom. I will basically try to explain how it is much easier for a child to adapt to things than it is for a young adult to adapt to something new. I will touch on the area of language and environments and how they impact a developing child. I think this is a very interesting topic and I will enjoy writing about it.

Wild Tongue

Gloria Anzaldua is a Chicano that can speak eight different languages but not all of them are accepted as a language. She talks about people being ashamed if they were caught listening to Chicano music. I can't imagine feeling ashamed for listening to music or speaking english. I was kind of confused at why they called themselves Mexican Americans when they about 80% Indian. I noticed that towards the end of the essay she starts sounding proud of being Chicano. I liked how she snuck Chicano readings into her classes. I guess from going through a period of hiding your background to being acknowledged as a culture would really boost your pride in who you are.

Note Passing

This story is about how Margaret J. Finders believes that passing notes is a way for kids to gain social status. Finders also refers to note passing as a form of rebellion against teachers. She says that the kids use rebellion to build up their social status. If a student can pass a note right in front of the teacher without the teacher realizing; this builds up social status because it is more rebellious than passing a note behind the teachers back. The more rebellious someone is while passing a note, the higher your social status goes up. Many different social groups make up their own code to keeps others out. Another technique the students use is folding the notes a certain way to make them easier to pass. Also whoever has the best technique for folding their note was the "coolest". I remember passing notes in high school, but I did not pass them to gain a higher social status. I passed notes to entertain myself because I was bored. As far as the techniques for folding notes, I think they are cool and all, but I don't remember anyone getting popular because they were good at origami.

In the Shadow of the Image

I do not agree that what we see on TV commercials or on billboards influences the decisions the people make. I believe that people make decisions on what they eat, drink, wear, etc on what they personally like. I don't think that just because companies put sexy women in their advertisements that it will make the product successful. The story talks about how a guy led a charge up a hill in Southern Asia that no one followed. I do not believe that this behavior was influenced by what he saw on TV, people know how to determine the difference between reality and television. However, I do understand that people are more likely the buy products that have been introduced to them through advertisements. People are more likely to buy something they are familiar with over something that they have never heard of.

possible essay topic...

I just read the reading assignments that are due for class on thursday, and after finishing the piece written by Theodore R. Sizer, I think I have stumbled across a possible topic for my essay. It is within this passage, that I have highlighted the FIRST words ever in any of my texts in my college career so far. Sizer refers to how schools basically aren't teaching much of anything and kids just "take subjects." The statement I highlighted is, "Mark, then, is known a little bit by a number of people, each of whom sees him in one specialized situation. No one may know him as a 'whole person'---unless he becomes a special problem or has special needs." This is so true and it reflects my earlier idea in class that students should be taught extensively in each subject, maybe even individually. This is what I want to concentrate my paper on: how highschool's aren't really "teaching" and that learning should be more individually based and in one main desired area. That would probably prove to have the best results for a student to become truly "educated."

"In the Shadow of the Image"

The text of "In the Shadow of the Image," many different subjects are being touched. Both authors talked about various incidents that occurred in their lives. They display advertisments that have an affect on society. The end of the reading was very interesting when they both stated "These our some of the facts of our lives". They talk about meaningless moments, and being disconnected and disassociated. The aspects of these advertisments represent these things in lives of people. People put themselves in the place of "in the shadow of the image" and take that position in their every day lives.

"in the shadow of the image"

“In The Shadow Of The Image" was a very interesting article because it touched on many subjects that are true in advertising today. The first thing that caught my attention was the use of sexuality. Examples of sexuality are the lady cockroach, the girl in the whiskey ad, and the girl in the vodka ad. The ads appealed also to the male gender. Advertisements are made to capture the attention of teens so they too can get sucked in to what is in style and seems to be cool. Whenever someone mentions that young adults just want to be "cool" it reminds me of numerous cigarette ads in today’s society.

"in the shadow of the image..."

At first it was hard to see where this essay was going, but after fully reading and re-reading the passage, it became more clear. Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen described a variety of advertisements that have some sort of effect on the public as well as the way information and cultural attitudes are passed along. I liked how at the end of the passage they tied it all together when they said "These are some of the facts of our lives; disparate moments, disconnected, dissociated. Meaningless moments. Random incidents...Viewed alone, each by itself, such spaces of our lives seem insignificant, trivial...Viewed together, however, as an ensemble, an integrated panorama of social life, human activity, hope and despair, images and information, another tale unfolds from these vignettes."---Advertisements do represent all of those things in life. People themselves choose to be in that "shadow of the image", so to speak. An example is the grocery list. Among generic names for items, are brand names to represent generic items such as 'brillo' or 'cheer'. People buy what they see, and more often than not, they like what they see. All of us live under some commercial image, whether we claim we do or not. It's just how our society has been for many years. It's not totally a bad thing unless someone becomes too saturated with commercialization. I mean, who doesn't like having a little style or some nice things? The products Amercians have seen in commercials and advertising are tools for developing ideas on what to wear, what cold medicine to take, etc.