Wednesday, July 21, 2010

-In a perfect world, what and how would you change the educational system in our country?

Our educational system has been deteriorating in the past years as we can experience in our local schools. Standards are not met by students, there are behavior problems in classes, and schools complain about the money they need and they do not receive. But how would our educational system be in a perfect world? In my opinion, an educational system in a perfect world would be characterized by quality teachers and motivated students that feel the need to acquire knowledge. First of all, I think that the level of quality of teachers is very important in the success of students. Teachers that actually make their classes interesting motivate students to want to learn even in subjects that they don’t feel interested in. By being interested, students pay more attention and therefore they perform better in their classes. Opposite to teachers who make students be less motivated to learn and even make them loose their interest on the subjects they were excited to be taking before.

But I also think that if students are not motivated by the simple reason of being able to have the experience of attending school and getting an education then everything else will be useless. In a perfect world, the only reason students would need to be successful in school would be having the opportunity to go to school. Not everyone in the world has the opportunity to attend school and be educated and I think that students are not aware of how fortunate they are. There are a variety of classes in our schools but there is the lack of interest to actually learn. Students are encouraged to pass their classes in order to graduate but they are never encouraged to acquire knowledge and apply it to their lives. So, students pass their classes and forget about the information that was taught in them and that is how they pretend to head to the real world. Expectations should be set higher for them because students will only rise to the level they are expected to be at.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Using specific evidence to support your arguments, are you for or against Arizona SB 1070?

Arizona's Senate Bill 1070 which allows police officials to question anyone if they have 'reasonable suspicion' that a person is an illegal immigrant has become very controversial. As the federal government has failed to regulate immigration in the nation, states, in this case Arizona, have decided to take action. Supporters of the bill believe that illegal immigration is "associated with an increase in violent crime and flood of drugs in the state." (Stopa, 2010) This is having a negative economic impact in the state of Arizona and on the population. Governor Jan Brewer stated that this law will cause a decrease in Arizona's crime rates.

However, this issue is dividing the country. Personally I am against Senate Bill 1070. This bill, if enforced as a law, will "foster an environment of fear and paranoia among [immigrants] whether they are in the country legally or not." (Grinberg, 2010) The only thing this bill is doing is tearing families apart. This fear "will increase public health issues and make them worse for women and children who might be too scared of being deported to go to the hospital or to police if something happens to them." (Grinberg, 2010) This will make the people fear and distrust the government that they had once viewed as a government that protected their rights.


Works Cited:

Michael Stopa. "Why the Arizona immigration law makes sense here, too." Boston Globe. 15 Jun 2010, US National Newspapers, ProQuest. Web. 12 Jul 2010.

Emanuella Grinberg."Arizona students speak out on immigration law" CNN.com. Apr 30 2010.Web. 13 Jul 2010.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Per our conversation at the end of class today, I want you to have a conversation with someone (parent, sibling, relative, friend, or peer). After you have your conversation, write a reaction to your conversation.

I discussed the war in Afghanistan with my mom. I asked her what was her position about the conflict. Her position about the situation was against continuing the war. Her arguments were very similar to the ones we discussed in class. One of her arguments was that this war has been going on for too long and Osama bin Laden has not been captured yet. She believes that this war is making the government spend too much money making our economy suffer more. The money that has been spent has not gotten us very far, she believes.

However, I tried to explain to her the what others think about the conflict. I shared my opinion with her that the war could also benefit the people living in Afghanistan. US troop presence is helping them establish a less unstable government. Another benefits include the training of officers and the establishment of schools. One interesting thing about this conversation was that my mom was also confused about why we got engaged in the war for so much time. She wanted to know why are we still there?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

- In your opinion, what is the most important economical issue facing the United States right now?

In my opinion, the most important economic issues the United States is facing right now are the U.S. debt, unemployment, and the war in Afghanistan. As the article “Why U.S. debt matters to you” reports, the increasing debt can cause household incomes to suffer and therefore be a conflict for many families. The debt crisis, as believed by many, can occur in the next 10 to 20 years which means that it will affect our own generation. More surprising is that not real measures have been taken to solve this problem which makes this a more serious issue affecting all of us. I believe that this issue should be taken more seriously by our government. It is very important to start doing something significant now so it won’t be too late in the future.

In addition, unemployment is another important economic issue that is currently happening. In the article “Why good jobs are going unfilled” unemployment in the manufacturing sector continues because jobs cannot be filled due to the lack of skilled workers. This creates a problem because even though there are open job opportunities, not everyone is qualified to fill them causing unemployment rates to remain the same. Also, the war in Afghanistan negatively affects the U.S. economy by money being spent on a war that has not gotten any major advances in my opinion. It has even come to be called by many as “the ignored war” since not many people is paying attention to it. I think that since a significant amount of money is going to this war people should show more concern for it.

Works Cited

“Why U.S. debt matters to you.” CNNMoney.com. June 30, 2010.

Frum, David. “Why good jobs are going unfilled.”CNN.com. July 6, 2010.

Zelizer, Julian. “How Afghanistan became the ignored war.” CNN.com. June 29, 2010. Web. July 6, 2010.