N.Y.C SCHOOLS

In the article I've just finished reading about N.Y.C Schools by author, Jennifer Medina, I have found out some interesting facts about our New York City educational system. This article basically states that in recent years of taking surveys for parents and students, there has been great development within the N.Y.C school walls. Many teachers today are saying their schools maintain order and make it a priority to help student achieve. Mayor Bloomberg stated that for the first time, a major school system listened to the parents, children, teachers and principle instead of the usual behavior and act like they knew everything. The article also states how the percentage of students to walk through the halls that were scared 72% to the now lower 68% has continuously been dropping due to more a more safer environment.

The article also tells of students who made good grades but felt it never got them the type of respect they wanted. Parents say smaller classrooms would definitely change the environment in school. Parents that took the survey agree and feel very satisfied with their child's teacher. Despite giving their all to the child of the future becoming teachers, they have to deal with the central administration not listening to their concerns. More efforts were put forth to get more parents to take part in filling out the surveys.

I personally agree with a lot of what the essay states but I don't feel surveys will make the most of this. More efforts are obviously needed to make a better schooling system. The surveys are however, a smart tackle tot he problem and it is making some change. I also believe N.Y.C schools are becoming increasingly more favorable for the students and more enjoyable for everyone attending school including staff. I don't agree that all voices are being heard though. My school experience compared to this article is about the same thing. Transferring from my old school I noticed a dramatic change in everything. I was listened to more, helped out a lot more, enjoyed coming to school more often without having to worry about what type of problems I might get into that day. Smaller classrooms does help out a lot as well.

As for me taking any type of survey, no I haven't taken one before. However, I would definitely love to fill out one and have everyone see my opinion on NYC schools too. I used to find that the surveys were pointless and wouldn't be taken serious let alone looked at but I guess I was wrong. To an extent I'm pleased with my education. Money is what gets you the best education which I'm not fortunate to have tons of but I make what type of education I get worth it and enough to use to get me by and I just teach myself as I go along and you just learn form your surroundings as well. In my last school I thought the education there was terrible, I felt I would never be able to use my full potential for anything while I was there, but at my new school I see hope and that the teachers care more so I think the education is better in the sense of me being at a new school. I'm satisfied otherwise because I'm in school learning regardless.

QUOTES

From looking at the quote posted by Ben Franklin, I can infer that it means that no one person should believe anything they hear and to believe half of what you see. The quote in my opinion has a very direct definition. I believe what's stated is what the quote intentionally means. When someone tells you something there is always choice whether to believe it or not. In this case lying is a main factor why people should never believe things they hear. If you can hear, you're skeptical about whether to believe it or not, or more less taken a side to believe what you just heard because you heard it yourself. Well in some cases that isn't always the case. Lying takes a big factor in this and you never know when someones lying, so in truth how can you believe everything you hear if sometimes you're being lied to, your ears can also play tricks on you and things of that sort. Believing everything you hear makes you more vulnerable to believing almost anything that's said and that's not how one should live.

The second part of the quote I believe means that no one person should believe everything they see. Yes having something in plain sight may be very good proof for a lot of things but that doesn't mean theres no lie involved. Eyes are said to play tricks on a person and you can not always rely on your eyes sight to say somethings true. I also feel that this part of the quote means half the things you really see isn't real or half of the things you see isn't what you expected it to be.

In my case this quote refers to me because when someone usually tells me something I'm truly skeptical about it until I'm sure what they said stands corrected. At any given time when someone announces something or states something, I think it's human nature to believe it then on your own choose whether you want to look more into it to see if its true or not. A lot of things you hear now a days is that this is going wrong, thats going wrong, but you cant choose to believe it all because it all may not be true. For example, my mom convinced me we were going to Trinidad, when in truth I really wasn't going to end up going. Now I believe what ever it is that she told me about going but I actually couldn't go. Simple things as such that tell you that you shouldn't listen to everything you hear, things may also change with time. Now I also saw her packing, so that also put extra belief in my mine I'd end up going but again I'm not going to be able to.

T.V is another big example for this quote mainly because everything is advertised on the T.V if its not on the computer. As many people know, you can't always trust T.V. and the things they advertise, it sometimes just isn't worth it. Many people have complained about products bought off T.V due to the price or for any reason but when they get what they wanted, its nothing like they expected. Believing nothing they heard and half of what they saw could of prevented anything bad from happening.

I chose a quote myself by Albert Einstein stating, "Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish." This quote I feel is another quote with a direct definition in itself. I believe this quote means that in the eyes of God, our creator, no one man stands alone as different, intellectually or any other way. To God we are all equally smart and to God we are all equally foolish or in other words, lack the same knowledge as the next person. I chose this quote because I feel this quote refers to many points in life. We are all created the same but never treated equal, we all can be as smart as one another but there will always be flaws or mistakes in everyone so we are all still equal. We all can make wise choice, do wise things, but in the end theres always something "foolish" to be done up our sleeves.

To me I feel this has something to do with the way I act because I for one think there is never going to be or has been any type of equality even though we all came about the same way. In many aspects you can only see the physical difference of people. So what makes everyone not get treated equally, certain things about our life or ourselves we can't change? Again, "Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish".

SELF ASSESSMENT

Last blog of this class and I feel I've learned a lot more than expected. my experience with the blogs were some what good and bad. The good parts were obviously when it was a blog I would enjoy more than another and when I learned something new that I didn't know before hand. I've actually never done many blogs but it was a good experience and I did like expressing my opinions on some of the topics. As far as how many I did I'm truly not sure. There were times I couldn't make it to class for whatever reason, so that kind of left me backed up. One of my very first blogs, "Habits Of Mine" and one of my favorites at that, was a very interesting article and taught me somethings I never would of thought to learn about the human mind. I personally like the topic or the whole psychology towards finding out how intelligent people think when confronted with problems that they don't know the answer to right away. It was a article I'd recommend many people read.

What I didn't like about the blog post was actually having to do them and not understand the blog. I had the hardest time understanding the article by Montaigne about why liars lie and what makes a good liar. I also didn't like that all we did was blogs. It got very boring. I did like the fact I could express my opinion without another opinion being heard and that I could interpret the blogs how I wanted to whether right or wrong. As I said before I learned a lot from the blogs about things I didn't know and I really liked that. Another thing I dislike was some of the topics chose for the blogs, too political and not much of it was something I wanted to write about. However, I did enjoy the whole process of making the blogs because it was a first time experience.

Im mostly proud of just being able to finish what blogs I did, not proud of any specific blog I personally feel I did exceptionally well on the Montaigne's Essay On Liars due to the fact I barely understood any of the reading but was still able to interpret it well enough in an essay to get my point across and tell what I understood from the reading. The blog I feel I could of done a lot more for and on was the Habits of Mine. I feel this way because I was truly interested in that article but didn't get to finish. i felt a lot more effort and work could of been put into it for a better piece of work.

Based on my assignments and my absences I do feel I passed but just by a hair. I'm sure many people in this class probably did all their work and I've only manage to accomplish some but I did have excusable reasons to miss school and I think I made a great effort to make up as much work as I could. I believe I should pass based on my showing up instead of just not coming constantly and showing some type of devotion to my work when I am in class. For a grade I personally feel a 70 or 75 would be justifiable, I do not expect to fail but if I do it's understood I guess.

What I plan on doing with this blog is finishing it, then posting it to let everyone know how I feel towards the class, my work, and what I think I deserved as a grade in the class for based on my work and efforts to complete what I could. I'm actually very happy about this blog, and many others. I think I did a good share of work, a lot more than usual, made a consistent appearance when I could and I feel I got a lot out of being in this class. I'm proud to say I made it through summer school and I'll be back to finish up in September hopefully with 2 fewer credits to earn.

BUSTED

In the articles, "Web networking photos come back to bite defendants" and "Teenagers Misbehaving, for All Online to Watch", I have learned that we are always being watched online. In another article I found, it also proved the same thing with a college student on the rise of what would be a bright future. The story I found involved a college student on the verge of a teaching degree, but was sadly denied that opportunity due to pictures she posted online that portrayed her as someone that influenced bad choices onto teens. All acts in these articles were posted online and with time, all of the teens in the pictures we punished due to them being posted.

The way that most people make anything public now a days is through the computer. Everybody is out to post a hot video online or themselves and friends partying hard and not caring what nobody think. The teens of the three articles I read made the mistake of posting pictures of themselves drinking heavily and partying hard. Due to incidents that happened, prosecutors go back to these teens MySpace pages and find out what they can about them and use it in court for harsher punishments.

In the case of the first teen, the incident that took place was a drunk driving accident. Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, he found himself dressed as a prisoner, practically mocking the law and posting pictures of it as a way of showing he had no remorse for the incident. Prosecutors use this is as a way of showing the courts that the defendant isn't in anyway remorseful to the injured and should be punished to the full extent. The judge agreed with the prosecutor that a harsher punishment was definitely deserved.

This article tells a story of a group of kids, not specifically one group of kids but a lot of adolescences today, that take joy and a lot of pride in the videos they can make and post online. This article tells stories of why kids post these terrible acts online for all to watch. They also talk about why the videos get posted and what they consist of. Most videos published in this article refer to someone being humiliated or beaten up. All forms of how teens these days put their names out in the streets, how they build what they call a reputation for themselves and also how they entertain themselves in towns where they feel there is nothing else to do. In the videos of the vicious beating, they prove to be more than enough evidence to have the culprits prosecuted. In other videos, one person may actually be come a star, as did Adam Schleichkorn, 25, of Huntington, who has labeled himself the "Godfather of Fence Plowing", who landed himself on t.v for many of these childish videos. He claims he did it all for a little popularity.

The last article I read, "Be Careful What You Post Online", was about a college student on the verge of becoming a teacher, but was sadly denied that privilege due to harmless pictures of her having a good time with friends and having a few drinks. The dean at Millersville University claimed, student Stacy Snyder, of legal drinking age, was promoting under aged drinking because of a picture he spotted online of Snyder holding a cup with a party hat on and insisting it was liquor in the cup. Stacy did apologize and also found out she would later be getting her English degree, not her teachers. Although she may have this degree she isn't allowed to become a teacher without that degree and now settles for being a nanny. She has also filed a lawsuit against the university for $75,000 in damages against the university.

In any one of these cases, a lot could of been done to prevent the punishments given to these teens. I mean what teen doesn't like showing off something hot they did or saw, but it doesn't have to necessarily be for the world to enjoy. Posting these videos or pictures online can come with a price you're not willing to pay so in future cases, I feel people should just be more choice wise about what pictures they post. Make sure they don't have anything worth getting you in trouble for in them, make sure theres no acts of violence or harm towards someone. Don't act as if you don't care about the incident on hand by posting pictures of yourself mocking the law. There are tons of ways to avoid any type pf legal or lawful complications. Putting pictures private may also help and giving out certain pictures may also provide some help as well. It's always better to be safer than sorry so I'd basically just say, keep the pictures off that don't need to be posted and post everything else that wouldn't cause any trouble.

Satire

What is SATIRE?
SATIRE is a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of someone through a sense of sarcasm because of human vice or folly.

Why is this piece satirical?
This piece is satirical because the author utilizes sarcasm throughout the reading to make a point. For example, when he talks about the youth handling firearms he uses sarcasm as a way of showing that the playful use of a firearm and a very old one at that can be very dangerous. The incident was of a boy whom found a loaded gun, that of which was very old and he found himself pointing at his grandmother, merely as a joke. Little did she know the gun wasn't loaded, she took off screaming and as the child caught up with the elder woman he pulled the trigger assuring them both the gun wasn't loaded, something neither were aware of. It may have seemed funny to the child but I'm sure it was very scary for his grandmother. Then Twain says sarcastically you don't need much to fire a gun or hurt someone. Just pick it up, point and bang away and you'll surely hit a target. He also compares it to Waterloo, and what things would of been like if the boys were given old muskets, supposedly not loaded and took fire at the woman of the village. I feel there is a sense of satire here because there are some points of ridicule towards human vice.

What message is Twain trying to deliver to the youth?
The message I think Twain is trying to deliver to the youth is that you should do everything you can to stay in or keep a good character. Obeying your parents, going to bed early or on time, being respectful to your superiors, not being violent or having to resort to it, apologizing as a man when you're wrong, not lying, to never play with a firearm, read, an a lot good books and build your own character upon these precepts. All of this is what I feel is his personal guideline to becoming a better person.

How does satire work to deliver this message?
The way that satire works to deliver this message, is by again using sarcasm in certain areas to express something thats being said or to make a point.

Is this a successful piece?
I believe this is a very successful piece because I"m sure the more people that took time out to read this and apply some of the reading to their everyday lives they would be or become a better person by means of their character. I think this article provides a lot of useful information about how one should go about becoming a better person or just don't do things they shouldn't normally do.

What did I learn?
What I learned from this is what satire is and how it can be utilized in someones reading. I also learned that lying is some what of an art, that it takes time to perfect that art and you shouldn't lie much anyways. Most everything I took in from the reading I knew.

Article from THE ONION:
The article I chose form The Onion was about former Vice President Al Gore. This article shows satire because of the approach Al Gore is taking for the survival of his child and help stop global pollution and to use better forms of energy to live off of. The satire in this article is Al Gore's attempt to launch his infant child into space with the hopes of reaching a more habitable world that isn't near destruction due to its people and their pollution. Al Gore has been preaching of the awaited destruction of the planet because of the types of energy thats being used and how badly the environment is being treated. People see this as a laughing matter because in all honesty who would actually send their infant child into outer space with hopes of survival and a better life? He's totally being mocked but in reality he's accurate on the statements he's made. extensive studies show that the planet is taking a lot of damage and ice caps are melting, the ozone layer depleting and many more conflicts that only worsen due to our everyday lives. It's funny how we try to make things easier for ourselves by creating more convenient things when in truth we're just making things worse.