No, to Budget Cuts in Higher Education

Education doesnt come cheap.  Everyone in American knows this. But with modern society's emphsis on higher education in order to get a better job and to make more money to take care of yourself and your family. But with education prices rising people are forced to take out huge loans which is nothing but huge debts and right now our country can not take anymore debts like this.

Elizabeth Medina uses a lot of facts and statistics to make her point int he writing. She makes the point that cutting higher education budgeting would affect students, faculty, and staff.  Education has taken a big enough hit here in Georgia and our law makers need to have that in mind every time they try to cut money.  Georgia students wont measure up to other students from other states if we keep cutting education. They are fully aware of that bu they seem to pretend that they don't notice it.

I know that Georgia is in debt as many other states are, but we need to do what we can to continue to educate our citizens so that we can be ones to help create new businesses and generate revenue for the state.

A Modest Proposal

In this famous writing by Johnathan Swift from the 1700's is a powerful piece that is still widely read in today's times.  Swift wrote a satire piece about the poor and how they should raise their children to be eaten and how this will help with the hunger rate of the poor. 

Now I am a fan of funny dark humor, but this was a  bit too much for me. I truly thought that Swift was serious about  eating children, he did such a good job doing that, but he did an even better job bringing attention to the oblivious rich people in the country that there was a large problem with the poverty level in the country.

Swift's writing that a brilliant piece of writing can be done in many different ways. Though some people today might feel that what he wrote went beyond tackiness and tastelessness, they can not argue that it did not get them thinking about how serious the poor problem had to be for some to suggest such a thing.

Why Schools dont Educate

 John Gatto is a New York City teacher of many years and an author of a few eductional books. He was a true education advocate, he understood the importance of teaching children in and outside of school which he stressed in Why Schools Dont Educate.

After reading this paper, it really had me thing about how often I allow my son to explore the world around him.  It is clear that the public schools system here in Georgia are limiting in their education tacticts yearly. Cutting funding for schools, have enlarged class sizes, cut field trips, and limited classes like arts, music, and other extra curricular activities. Gatto pointed out that based on the amount of time children are in class and when they get home, the amount of television they are allowed to watch cuts into the actual time kids have left each day to just be kids. Its seems that kid now a days might be less well rounded then their parents and their parent's parents and this is a problem, People need to be able to adapt to all situation and circumstances, but if they are not given the opportunity to as children, it is a possibility they will grow up lacking the basic life tools to be productive and successful.  Gatto really opened up my mind to the amount of television my child was watching and how he needs to get out more and just enjoy his life as a child.

Girls Will be Girls, Unfortunately

" Cliques are to girls as bullies are to boys"

Ellen Goodwill wrote a column in 2002 about "mean girls" in today's society.  A lot of what Goodwill talked about was true and valid.  At times she almost went overboard with her examples ( ie. the Columbine Massacre example) but I can understand the harsh example and tone.  In today's time young girls and grown women can be very mean...to simply put it.  Women want to surround themselves with other women that look like them, act like them, and want to do what they want to do, and for some, especially teenage ladies, those women that don't "fit in" with the group or clique are not welcomed and often times become the target for ridicule and separation.  Some girls can handle being outcasted but others can not and this sometimes is the cause of teen depression and suicide. I believe that without guidance young girl put to much emphases on irrelevant issues and these issues will cause them to take part in things that would be detrimental to another girl and to themselves. And with things like camera phones, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc things can be recorded and later shared with millions of peoples and a lot of times this is the method these girls are using to exploit other teenage girls and make them embarrassed and shunned by other students and people. So the important thing to do her is understand that kids are cruel and its important to stay on top of our young ladies to insure as much as possible that understand the importance of being an individual and following a crowd. And just teaching them that being a "nice girl"  is way better and beneficial then being a mean one.

Indirectness is Not Insecurity

In her article Deborah Tannen writes on the effects of gender on communication. Tannen suggest that women use indirect orders to get there employees to follow direction and get things done men tend to be straight forward and direct.  She centered this communications difference in the modern day work place.  she showed how a woman approach could be just as effective as the mans.

I dont agree with Tannen, I believe that we have to adapt an communication tactic that works best for the individuals who I am managing. If they do better with a sternness and more direct means of communication, then that tactic should be used. But if I have people working for me that need more of a sensitive indirect way of being communicated with then I would use that, but only to a certain extent.  I believe that as a woman we are looked at a sensitive creatures and sometimes this gets in the way of managing certain types of people.  When men are being managed by women they might tend to dismiss a sensitive woman as a boss and not take her seriously.  so maybe using a more universal method of communication in the workplace would workout best. Strong, but not overbearing seems to be good.

A Deadly Education

In a writing titled "A Deadly Education" by T. Maxwell, he wrote about the harmful effects of second hand smoke and how being a student at Clayton State University, how it was hard to avoid this second hand smoke when walking around campus.

I truly understand the concerns of the non-smokers, but people pay to go to school here, this is a public University so I do not believe that someone should be told that they can not smoke on campus. I am a student here and I see people everyday smoking and I have just learned to walk around it. I have not seen that many people smoking where it is a cause for alarm or a problem for me to just avoid. It is the same thing these non smokers would have to do outside of public building and other places, so I guess I I just don't understand the big deal?

Should This Student Be Expelled?

In an article written by Nat Hentoff for the Village Voice,  Hentoff discusses the case of Doug Hann,  a varsity football player for the prestigious Brown University.  In 1990 Hann was involved in a situation where he went on a drunken rant, on his 21st birthday,  were many racial slurs were used. This rant had taken place on campus, and witness by many other students.  At first the slurs were not targeting one specific individual, but when another student asked Hann to calm down and lower his voice, Hann began to use racial and sexual slurs at specific people. Later when some students had had enough, they began to follow Hann and his friends and Hann's began to make demeaning comments to the students of other races, even trying to fight a few of them. It was later found out that this was not Hann's first time getting drunk and spitting out racial slurs. He was ordered two years prior to the birthday night incident to take race relations workshop for calling  man a "nigger" in a bar. 

Months later Hann was expelled, with no chance of re-admittance,  from Brown University for the birthday night rant. Hann was expelled under the "Hate Speech Code" that had been adapted by other schools arcoss the nation. Some agreed with the code and others did not. It was clear that Hentoff was one that did not agree that code. Personally it caused me to do some serious deep thinking.

Racial slurs are wrong and as a society we know that, but I think almost everyone is guilty of using them at times, but not in a public setting. Most people aren't racist but just calling someone stupid or ugly or even when a women is called a bitch or a whore: people use words that they know will hurt the person or persons they are aimed after.  Its doenst mean thatthey person using the terms has a real serious biased against the race, sexualaitly or gender of the person, but what Hann did showed, in my opinion, thay he was rascist.  He didnt mind using such terms in a public setting and was even educated enough to know what the Israli flag looked like to evenn make anti-semtic slur at that person.  Alcohol played a little role in his behavior to me, and becuase this situation took place on campus, I blieve the school did exactly what was appropiate. He had already had one cance two years ago to fix his issues, but he choose not to. That is his fault.

Now I believe in Free Speech, but what he did was not that. This was not a clan rally an individual speech to a crowd of followers. This was a racist grown man allowing alcohol to show his true self.  Colleges at the end of the day are to have a since of unity, and speaking hate on campus has no place there. If this was take place off campus grounds I would not agree to have Hann expelled, but since it was the school acted correctly.