Author Archives: aorrico

Chapter 12 brings up the issue of how television and the media heavily influence children today. If it weren’t just for the purposes for this I say media has a huge effect on everyone. There is advertising everywhere; one the internet, t. v., in certain songs, in video games among others. This advertising of different things is the reason children do certain things. The influence of the media is a heavy factor in why young girls today develop eating disorders and want to look like the like girls from the reality show “Jersey Shore”. And another big thing is that sex is all over the media. This idea of sex pushes our youth to pretend to be adults when they are not ready too.

But the technology we have today, televisions, games, internet, ipods etc, are causing a huge distraction the children’s lives. Children have become less interested in doing history homework and more interested in posting pictures on face book. They would rather play black ops instead of doing geometry homework. This distraction is affecting the live of our youth. I know a lot of young people who push off homework to text on their phones and look on face book. They will stay up until after 2 in the morning because that’s the time they finally finish their homework. Now my question is do you think there is a way to harness the media to push children to focus more and put their work first?

Chapter 11 is mainly about teachers union. From the early 20^th century through, teachers have struggled with the same incentives. They want better wages, better retirement funds and pensions, and also to be more valued in society. A teachers social life is critiqued in every way. If a teacher is seen out drinking or kissing their partner in life many people look down because teachers are seen as role models. There are teachers in every profession but doctors and lawyers are held higher in the social food chain, even though teachers are the ones that taught them their trade. Will teachers ever be given the wages and pension they rightly deserve, or at least a higher social value?

Another interesting part in chapter 11 was the idea of the ideal American life. The classic American dream is still present in our society today because I can say I do long for that dream one day. I want the corner house with the white picket fence with pool in the back yard with a little garden and beautiful flowers, and I want my two kids to have whatever their hearts desire to make them happy. But instilling this lavish dream into the heads of children indirectly prompts children to work harder to attain that dream. When in all reality only a small percent of the population will reach their goal. Do you think its fair for this idea to be put into the students heads, is it just a false idea?

Chapter 10 discussed topics such as sterilization and meritocracy. The idea of sterilization is very disturbing because the students with special needs were being discriminated against. To me it is almost like a genocide of mentally challenged people because white population was scared that population of mentally challenged would grow and ultimately cause more problems. Do you think that students that are mentally challenged will every not be discriminated against?

The idea of meritocracy to me was a good idea overall. It gave good opportunities to people based on their performance rather than their economic status. I do feel this is a good concept because then what you get is based on how hard you work. But there are certain cases where this system shows its flaws. Like when it comes to standardized tests, some students are not good test takers. They can study for hours but not get the results they desire. Do you think the education system will ever come up with a meritocracy system that will study the student as a whole rather then what they fill in on a scantron?

Two key points that stood out to me in chapter 8 were the kindergarten movement and the creation of summer school. He kindergarten movement was a way try and help urban lives and those that were less fortunate. Teachers would teach their young students morals and values which they were suppose to bring back home and ideally these values were to rub off on the rest of the family. But what I don’t understand is at the young age of a child in kindergarten, a parents role is very important in the child’s life. Very often reinforcement is needed to keep the child progressing in their education. I am kind of confused on the idea of such a young child teaching their parents. Do you think this was an effective way to indirectly approach the quality of living?

The idea so summer school is also very interesting. As the chapter mentioned, parents would fight to have their child in summer school because it was seen as an extra intellectual advantage for the student. But now, anyone that goes to summer school gives the impression as not being smart and having many trouble passing classes. But recently, in the newspaper The Daily News, there was an article in which the mayor was propositioning to have the school year extended to 200 days and the school day extended to 9 hours. Do you think this added time will have a positive correlation on test scores, or will it not even make a difference?