Escalante vs. MacFarland

Yes and no.  I see Mr. MacFarland as similar to Mr. Escalante in a couple of ways such as the way he turns the outbursts of disruptive students into the petulant cries of one that is lacking intelligence then immediately showing them a better way.  The way that he gets personally involved with the students by letting them visit him at home in order to further educate them and instill the desire to learn is akin to Mr. Escalante’s methods.  However it seems to me that Mr. MacFarland only does this for a select few whereas Escalante was not picky.  Furthermore Mr. MacFarland does not take a disparaged bunch of kids that the rest of society gave up on and turn them around he just teaches well and inspires a few to want to learn and write. Both teachers are somewhat unimpressive to begin with but are able to impress the students enough with their knowledge and teaching ability that it doesn’t matter.  Now there is no knowing that if Mr. MacFarland was thrown into a situation like Mr. Escalate that he would show the same tenacity and passion, but as far as the story of Mike Rose and the movie compare I just do not see the same level of passion. 

Mr. Escalante's success

               Tying the second half of the movie into my opinion of Mr. Escalante only builds upon the foundation that I gave in the last blog entry.  The passion that he shows when teaching these kids that the rest of the world had given up on is meaningful for reasons beyond that of the immediate.  His selflessness and sacrifice were felt for many years and the results of his work only grew as the years went by.  Not only were his adaptive methods of teaching paramount to his success, they also enabled him to breach the divide of the socio-economic stigmas of the time (which unfortunately still exist today). 

               During the second half of the movie I witnessed the passion that I spoke of before when Mr. Escalante suffered a heart attack.  Despite this serious health issue he still reached out to the kids with the help of a nurse and continued to teach.  He even returned to work before the doctors recommendations because the students were in a crunch time for the AP test.  There were numerous occasions where the students were about to descend back into the depravity they had ascended from yet they were saved because of the mere influence that Mr. Escalante had had on them.  His passion is what they needed in order to acquire the desire to learn.  So all in all I believe that the key to his success was his passion from which stems all the attributes mentioned earlier and in other blogs posts.

Mr. Escalante's journey

            So far it appears to me that Mr. Escalante is the epitome of what I look for in a teacher.  When we wrote about what I value in a teacher I told you of the ability to inspire the desire to learn as well as a sense of duty to the students.  Mr. Escalante has demonstrated those traits and so many more that all add up to make him a superb teacher. 

My first glimpse of Mr. Escalante was as he was driving to work through a seemingly seedy side of town.  This was depicted with graffiti and a rundown look to the neighborhood he drove through.  When he arrived at the school, I saw conditions that were similar to the neighborhood to include vandalism, theft, and feces.  As you picture the scene as I have explained it, remember back to when I said that kids are a product of their environment.  It is no different in this case.  In his first class the students are unruly, disrespectful, and completely uninterested in learning.  The class is interrupted by an obviously mistimed bell which the students gladly take advantage of.  They even go so far as to physically assault Mr. Escalante! 

The first part of the movie progresses to show Mr. Escalante whipping the kids into shape through various methods.  That is what I think makes him such a good teacher is his adaptability.  He is able to use different methods for the variety of issues that arise, and at the same time he inspires the desire to learn in the students.  That normally would be enough but he goes even further and personally intervenes in several students’ lives in order to ensure they are able to succeed.  What more could you ask for in a teacher.

how to write an essay

               How do you write an essay you ask?  Well I am here to enlighten you.  There are a couple of guidelines/steps to writing an essay.  Typically you start out with some prewriting techniques which I will explain in further detail later.  Then you jot down your introduction paragraph which contains your thesis and some hints at the supporting paragraphs.  Speaking of which, the supporting paragraphs are next closely followed by the concluding paragraph. The concluding paragraph is the easiest because you basically just sum up the gist of the supporting paragraphs with an affirmation of your thesis.

               So now let’s dive into the prewriting ideas that I mentioned earlier.  Now for some of us we could go almost our entire educational career without using these but they are definitely helpful.  The first idea is brainstorming. You need to ask yourself a couple of questions so as to know what the flow of your essay is going to take.  What is the target demographic?  What do you hope to achieve with your essay?  Now that you have those answers in mind you need to develop your thesis statement.  Notice that it is called a thesis statement.  That means that it should not be a question and should be very direct and to the point.  An example is the one I used in our writing strategies lesson “Fast food will be the downfall of America” the thesis was that fast food is unhealthy.  I followed this thesis statement with some supporting facts to include referencing a health professional’s article.  Now that lesson only required a paragraph but I could have easily followed it with some supporting paragraphs and ended it with a conclusion. another useful tool would be to use an outline which you can use to guide yourself in the general flow of the paper.  There you go you now know the basics of writing an essay.  Good luck.

what i value the most

               What I value most in a teacher is not particularly their teaching ability; it is their ability to inspire the desire to learn.  Sure there are teachers out there that have classes with high test scores with the ability to make their students remember a subject; however that is only relevant for the tests that the students must pass.  In order for a person to be successful in life they must be knowledgeable.  As Mrs. Williams, my first grade teacher, told me time and time again “knowledge is the key to success”.  She made the difference in my life by putting me in the SMART program (Start Making A Reader Today).  Although my educational career was fraught with laziness and inattentiveness, I still read books on my own time and expanded my knowledge in that way.  I owe that to Mrs. Williams for inspiring me with the desire to learn.

                Another aspect that I value in a teacher is involvement, or maybe a sense of duty, a teacher that is invested in the education of their students.  The worst kind of worker or mentor is one that does not care about the quality of their product.  If the teacher actually cares then the students will most likely excel and will be less likely to be involved in negative activities.  Of course a teacher’s technical knowledge, ability to present that knowledge and their interpersonal skills are important as well.  All the same, without the ability to inspire and the involvement in the students’ wellbeing, I think a teacher would be unable to make the desired impact on students.

how the teachers are portrayed

     I see three teachers in Audre Lorde’s essay, Mrs. Baker, The kindergarten teacher (a.k.a. Miss Teacher), and Sister Mary of Perpetual Help.  From what I read, Mrs. Baker was the best and most memorable.  In a way she reminds me of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Williams.  Miss Teacher and Sister Mary were abhorrent teachers though and there are a few glaring examples that I will explain later.

     I have read thousands and thousands of books ranging from technical books about physics and psychology all the way to science fiction/fantasy.  I owe my enjoyment of reading to Mrs. Williams and the SMART Program (Start Making A Reader Today).  I believe that I have learned more about life from fiction books than I have from any real life sources.  This is what Mrs. Baker gives to Audre Lorde which is intimated by her statement of “I was sold on reading for the rest of my life" (From Zami 65).

     As far as the other two teachers go, it seems to me that they did everything in a manner that was harmful instead of helpful.  To start, Miss Teacher punished Audre Lorde for overachieving.  Sure I can see the not listening to instructions part but why was she punished for being able to use a real pencil and writing her whole name instead of just the first letter?  Sister Mary seems to be the worst, the way she segregates the class as an attempt at motivating the students to learn instead of doing some one on one tutoring is seriously wrong.  The degrading way she handled the whole glasses incident blew my mind especially at such a young age.  Both these teachers should take a leaf out of Mrs. Baker’s Book. I got these impressions because of the way Audre wrote about the teachers and what she decided to tell us about.  I am sure that there were some positive aspects to Miss Teacher and Sister Mary, but for the most part Audre recounted the negative aspects.

2nd paper brainstorming

So you have asked me to brainstorm ideas for my second paper.  My second paper will be a compare/contrast between two teachers.  Seeing as I have not seen the two movies, which have the teachers I that I will be writing about, I do not know what to tell you.  My paper depends entirely on the roles they portray so as of yet I do not know if I will be comparing or contrasting.  I could write about two teachers from my past but none of them really stand out except my first grade teacher.  Seeing as that happened about 17 years ago, all I have is a general idea that she was a good teacher. I am hoping that the teachers in the movies are in line with what was said by Robinson though as he has some very good ideas on the path that the education system is going with respect to creativity.  I was also very impressed with his idea of academic inflation, because I have sensed this fact for a while now.  In the end I hope that the teachers portrayed in “Stand and Deliver” and “Dead Poets Society” play the roles necessary for me to contrast one as promoting creativity and the other as an advocate of the university system.

A Lesson for life.

To our newest submariner,

Hello son, so you are our new sailor, yes?  Are you ready to kick ass and take names on one of the world’s finest and most devastating warships?  Be advised kid, we are here standing by to visit violence upon those who would wish our country harm.  I am not talking about some little missile that can take out a building; I am talking about missiles with the capability to level entire countries.  So are you ready to get your hands dirty and start doing what needs to be done to protect the 314,000,000 people of the United States of America?  Well not so fast, you may be all bright eyed and bushy tailed, but as it stands you are nothing but a N.U.B. or Non Useful Body.  You have a stack of qualification cards to complete before you can even think about doing anything useful for the ship.  Along with a bigger stack of qual cards to complete before you can start helping out your division.  When you first start out it will seem extremely overwhelming.  They throw so many tasks at you, then the next time they see you, they start ranting and raving about how they aren’t done yet.  Fear not little buddy, as long as you keep your feet to the deck plate and keep working on your quals, you will do just fine.  The following is an introduction to you qualification path along with the experience I had while qualifying aboard this mighty warship which is when I learned the most important lesson in my life so far.

I mentioned two different stacks of qual cards that you have to work on but I am going to focus on one for now which is your submarine qualifications.  This is the most important qualification you will ever complete while in the navy.  You have 12 months to complete this one and if you fail to complete it on time you will be recommended for separation from the submarine fleet.  This card is so important because the knowledge you gain from it will ensure that you are able to fight the ship in the case of a fire or other casualty.  It basically represents the crews trust in you to have their back.  You will learn the basics of how to operate nearly every piece of equipment on this boat as well as the purpose for each.  From the engine room and the nuclear reactor to the sonar dome, you will learn it all along with damage control measures for casualties.  It is broken down into five phases and each phase has different sections for the different systems in that category.  The first phase is general submarine orientation which consists of the basics such as how to talk on the communication circuit on the boat and where everything is.  The second is all about damage control, how to fight a fire, stop flooding, or what to do in case of a torpedo attack.  The third is where just qualifying to stand two watches.  The fourth however is where the rubber meets the road.  This phase is all about the different systems on the boat.  Such as the systems that are used to dive and surface the boat or the system that is used to turn a drop of seawater into electricity. The final phase is the final examination which I will explain in more detail further on.  The most important advice I have for this card is to not fall behind!  Once you do it is even harder to catch up than it was to stay even.  Also you can group some of the knowledge factors together as some are very similar.  When you go for the knowledge factors it helps to take a buddy with you as well so that he can answer anything you don’t know.

When you complete all the checkouts on your qual card the senior leadership aboard the great ship USS Nebraska will test your knowledge as well as your mettle in what is known as a husker run which is part of your final examination.  This is a comprehensive practical and knowledge based test that will prove you have what it takes to join the submarine community.  During mine I learned the most important thing about myself.  Approximately 4 years ago I was in the scullery (dishwashing room) washing dishes and minding my own business when a first class petty officer ran up to me yelling “Husker Run, Husker Run Petty Officer Senn.  Flooding in the Engine Room GO GO GO!”  I ran back to the engine room as fast as I could while grabbing the equipment I would need to fight the casualty.  Once I got back there I paused to assess the situation.  Immediately people started to panic and they turned to me for answers, “What do we do Senn?”  Everyone was looking to me for the answers.  I was lost at first and overwhelmed with the sudden dependence of others on my knowledge and as they kept reminding me, the longer I hesitated the more people would die.  Suddenly, like a dam bursting, the knowledge that I had spent the last 12 months learning flooded into my mind.  Now knowing what to do and actually doing and/or directing others to do it is totally different.  This is where I learned my most valuable lesson, confidence in myself.  This first casualty set the tone for the rest.  After the flooding I went to a room with a couple of senior enlisted personnel and an officer who all fired off questions faster than I could think. Following that was a fire in the systems that basically recycle the air in the sub along with another session of questioning.  Wrapping up the exam was a hydraulic rupture which I conquered flawlessly.

 After the examination was an award ceremony in which the captain of the boat himself awarded me with the submarine qualification insignia.  This is a ceremony that is steeped in tradition.  My chief read a story from some of the histories of the submarine force which describes the qualities that are necessary for a submariner.  The histories exemplify the Navy’s core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment.  Before that day I never really had a sense of confidence in myself but as I was standing there having saved the theoretical lives of 150 people, I learned to trust in myself and what I had learned.  From that day forward I have been able to rapidly assess a situation and take the appropriate actions without second guessing myself.  Hopefully you will gain the same confidence as I did during your husker run and I wish you the best of luck.


Sincerely,
MT2/SS Lee Senn

the second draft.

Hello son, so you are our new sailor, yes?  Are you ready to kick ass and take names on one of the world’s finest and most devastating warships?  Be advised kid, we are here standing by to visit violence upon those who would wish our country harm.  I am not talking about some little missile that can take out a building; I am talking about missiles with the capability to level entire countries.  So are you ready to get your hands dirty and start doing what needs to be done to protect the 314,000,000 people of the United States of America?  Well not so fast, you may be all bright eyed and bushy tailed, but as it stands you are nothing but a N.U.B. or Non Useful Body.  You have a stack of qualification cards to complete before you can even think about doing anything useful for the ship.  Along with a bigger stack of qual cards to complete before you can start helping out your division.  When you first start out it will seem extremely overwhelming.  They throw so many tasks at you, then the next time they see you, they start ranting and raving about how they aren’t done yet.  Fear not little buddy, as long as you keep your feet to the deck plate and keep working on your quals, you will do just fine.  The following is an introduction to you qualification path along with some tips and methods I used while qualifying aboard this mighty warship.

Life in the navy is all about qualifications.  You are not allowed to do your job unless you have proven that you know the ins and outs of the task that you are to perform and the system that it is being performed on.  In order to prove that you have the requisite knowledge the navy uses a qualification system broken into specific watches that one would stand or more specifically a system that one would use.  The basic flow of a qual card is as follows:  references, prerequisites, knowledge factors, practical factors, test, and interviews.  When handed a new qual card you first looks at the references.  These references contain most of the knowledge needed to qualify that watch or system.  The prerequisites are simply there to ensure that you start at the right level.  It would be pointless to start out at the top if you do not have the basic knowledge that is obtained from the lowest qualification.  The knowledge factors are the meat and potatoes of qualifying something.  You are required to memorize the components and procedures used to operate a system and further more must be able to explain, to a diagram level, the functional description of that system.  The practical factors are there to ensure that you can actually operate the system and not just talk about how it is operated.  I could explain to you how to do open heart surgery, but unless I have actually done it before my first time would likely result in the death of the patient.  The test is to ensure that you have retained the knowledge that you received throughout the qual process and the interview is for the supervisors to ascertain if the individual is actually ready to stand the watch.  All in all it is a lengthy process with a steep learning curve for those just starting out but it is an excellent way to understand how to do your job and provides the means for others to ensure that you are adequately trained to perform it satisfactorily.

I mentioned two different stacks of qual cards that you have to work on but I going to focus on one for now which is your submarine qualifications.  This is the most important qualification you will ever complete while in the navy.  You have 12 months to complete this one and if you fail to complete it on time you will be recommended for separation from the submarine fleet.  This card is so important because the knowledge you gain from it will ensure that you are able to fight the ship in the case of a fire or other casualty.  It basically represents the crews trust in you to have their back.  You will learn the basics of how to operate nearly every piece of equipment on this boat as well as the purpose for each.  From the engine room and the nuclear reactor to the sonar dome, you will learn it all along with damage control measures for casualties.  The most important advice I have for this card is to not fall behind!  Once you do it is even harder to catch up than it was to stay even.  Also you can group some of the knowledge factors together as some are very similar.  When you go for the knowledge factors it helps to take a buddy with you as well so that he can answer anything you don’t know.

When you complete all the checkouts on your qual card the senior leadership aboard the great ship USS Nebraska will test your knowledge as well as your mettle in what is known as a husker run.  This is a comprehensive practical test that will prove you have what it takes to join the submarine community.  During mine I learned many things about myself.  Approximately 4 years ago I was in the scullery washing dishes and minding my own business when a first class petty officer ran up to me yelling “Husker Run, Husker Run Petty Officer Senn.  Flooding in the Engine Room GO GO GO!”  I ran back to the engine room as fast as I could while grabbing the equipment I would need to fight the casualty.  Once I got back there I paused to assess the situation.  Immediately people started to panic and they turned to me for answers.  I was lost at first and overwhelmed with the sudden dependence of others on my knowledge and as they kept reminding me that the longer I hesitated the more people would die.  Suddenly, like a dam bursting, the knowledge that I had spent the last 12 months learning flooded into my mind.  Now knowing what to do and actually doing and/or directing others to do it is totally different.  This is where I learned my most valuable lesson, confidence in myself.  Before that day I never really had a sense of confidence in myself but as I was standing there with the theoretical fate of 150 people in my hands I learned to trust in myself and what I had learned.  From that day forward I have been able to rapidly assess a situation and take the appropriate actions without second guessing myself.  Hopefully you will gain the same confidence as I did during your husker run and I wish you the best of luck.

my unedited, unfinished rough draft

Hello son, so you are our new sailor, yes?  Are you ready to kick ass and take names on one of the world’s finest and most devastating warships?  Be advised kid, we are here standing by to visit violence upon those who would wish our country harm.  I am not talking about some little missile that can take out a building; I am talking about missiles with the capability to level entire countries.  So are you ready to get your hands dirty and start doing what needs to be done to protect the 314,000,000 people of the United States of America?  Well not so fast, you may be all bright eyed and bushy tailed, but as it stands you are nothing but a N.U.B. or Non Useful Body.  You have a stack of qualification cards to complete before you can even think about doing anything useful for the ship.  Along with a bigger stack of qual cards to complete before you can start helping out your division.  When you first start out it will seem extremely overwhelming.  They throw so many tasks at you, then the next time they see you, they start ranting and raving about how they aren’t done yet.  Fear not little buddy, as long as you keep your feet to the deck plate and keep working on your quals, you will do just fine.  The following is an introduction to you qualification path along with some tips and methods I used while qualifying aboard this mighty warship.

Life in the navy is all about qualifications.  You are not allowed to do your job unless you have proven that you know the ins and outs of the task that you are to perform and the system that it is being performed on.  In order to prove that you have the requisite knowledge the navy uses a qualification system broken into specific watches that one would stand or more specifically a system that one would use.  The basic flow of a qual card is as follows:  references, prerequisites, knowledge factors, practical factors, test, and interviews.  When handed a new qual card you first looks at the references.  These references contain most of the knowledge needed to qualify that watch or system.  The prerequisites are simply there to ensure that you start at the right level.  It would be pointless to start out at the top if you do not have the basic knowledge that is obtained from the lowest qualification.  The knowledge factors are the meat and potatoes of qualifying something.  You are required to memorize the components and procedures used to operate a system and further more must be able to explain, to a diagram level, the functional description of that system.  The practical factors are there to ensure that you can actually operate the system and not just talk about how it is operated.  I could explain to you how to do open heart surgery, but unless I have actually done it before my first time would likely result in the death of the patient.  The test is to ensure that you have retained the knowledge that you received throughout the qual process and the interview is for the supervisors to ascertain if the individual is actually ready to stand the watch.  All in all it is a lengthy process with a steep learning curve for those just starting out but it is an excellent way to understand how to do your job and provides the means for others to ensure that you are adequately trained to perform it satisfactorily.

I mentioned two different stacks of qual cards that you have to work on.  You will need to work on these concurrently as you are being tracked on all of the starter quals, not just one at a time.  The most important one is your submarine qualifications.  You have 12 months to complete this one and if you fail to complete it on time you will be recommended for separation from the submarine fleet.  This card is so important because the knowledge you gain from it will ensure that you are able to fight the ship in the case of a fire or other casualty.  It basically represents the crews trust in you to have their back.  You will learn the basics of how to operate nearly every piece of equipment on this boat as well as the purpose for each.  From the engine room and the nuclear reactor to the sonar dome, you will learn it all along with damage control measures for casualties.  The most important advice I have for this card is to not fall behind!  Once you do it is even harder to catch up than it was to stay even.  Also you can group some of the knowledge factors together as some are very similar.  When you go for the knowledge factors it helps to take a buddy with you as well so that he can answer anything you don’t know.

While you are working on your sub quals don’t forget about divisional. 

and the winner is.....

Out of the three narratives, mike rose’s is the one that resonates the most with me.  His take is the perfect example of my views on the American education system.  To reiterate, I explained how I feel that the effects caused by the views of society have the most detrimental impact on lower income children.  Not only does it affect them on an educational level but also on an emotional and psychological level as well.  These factors enable a mindset in the children that it is ok to fail.  Luckily mike rose was able to wake up from this delusion with the help of ken Harvey and his statement of “I just wanna be average” (Rose-3).

Mike rose explains the situation even further by telling us that it is not only the social views, although that is the most prevalent reason, but also the normal changes that are taking place in a high school environment.  Things like puberty, new social dynamics, and the mix of religions and political views that come when a hodge-podge group of people are thrown together.  For the economically challenged or ethnically different, one of the answers to this challenge is to embrace the views that are thrust upon them and strive to emulate the views in a way that is harmful for them.

more stuff that i am going to put in my essay

Hello son, so you are our new sailor, yes?  Are you ready to kick ass and take names on one of the world’s finest and most devastating warships?  Be advised kid, we are here standing by to visit violence upon those who would wish our country harm.  I am not talking about some little missile that can take out a building; I am talking about missiles with the capability to level entire countries.  So are you ready to get your hands dirty and start doing what needs to be done to protect the 314,000,000 people of the United States of America?  Well not so fast, you may be all bright eyed and bushy tailed, but as it stands you are nothing but a N.U.B. or Non Useful Body.  You have a stack of qualification cards to complete before you can even think about doing anything useful for the ship.  Along with a bigger stack of qual cards to complete before you can start helping out your division.  When you first start out it will seem extremely overwhelming.  They throw so many tasks at you, then the next time they see you, they start ranting and raving about how they aren’t done yet.  Fear not little buddy, as long as you keep your feet to the deck plate and keep working on your quals, you will do just fine.  The following is an introduction to you qualification path along with some tips and methods I used while qualifying aboard this mighty warship.

the differences and similarities

The stories that Malcolm X, Benjamin Franklin, and Mike Rose wrote, are all educational narratives, as you well know.  What is important in them all is the motivation that led them to really pursue an education.  They all kind of drifted through life until a set of circumstances and choices enabled them to realize their inherent thirst for knowledge.  However each had very different motivation to pursue and education.

 Malcolm X started out on the streets.  As a hustler he was considered articulate, but he began to realize that in order to speak with the man that changed his life, Elijah Mohammed, he would need a more rounded education especially in the English department. He wanted to pass on the knowledge he gained from Elijah on to his fellow African Americans and the vocabulary of a street hustler just would not cut it for that task.  That being said I believe that Malcolm X’s motivation was the desire to help his people, a self-less desire to be admired.

Benjamin Franklin on the other hand started out with an innate desire to learn and had the opportunities to do so.  He came from a well to do family who continually tried to set him up for success.  It seems to me that he had a more selfish motivation though as referenced when he speaks of his rival.  This rivalry is between himself and john Collins and it was his desire to surpass john intellectually that I think was the real motivation behind his education.  This seems to be more for a personal gain than Malcolm’s desire to help others.

 Mike Rose is more along the line of Malcolm x.  He tells of the social/ economic struggle that is depicted in the story of Malcolm X as well as the intro where it tells us he is a proponent of uplifting those who are socially crippled based on their economic or ethnic backgrounds.  Unlike Malcolm however, mike first bows to the views of society in a manner that is detrimental to his education.  Then one auspicious moment changed his outlook on life and education.  Thanks to Ken Harvey and his statement of “I just wanna be average” (Rose-3).  He takes a slight Benjamin Franklinesque tone at this point and starts to learn for his own benefit.

how this blog is helping

So far I have not been taking advantage of the idea of blogging as put forth in this class.  The only time I have read my peers blogs was when I was asked to comment on them.  As far as my blog goes I am noticing that there are ways that I can improve my writing. Another aspect that I can see as helping me toward writing my first educational narrative is that I am getting a chance to read the narratives written by some of the most influential people in history.  From now on I will be more diligent in reading my classmates post in order to broaden my writing horizons.

my use of strategies.... or lack thereof

Seeing as the last class was the first time I have heard about these strategies, I cannot really say I have used any of them successfully in the past.  Sure I wrote some papers when I was in high school but that was 6 years ago and I cannot recall if there were any strategies involved.  The closest I can come is the paper I wrote about my views of the American education system.  Looking at it again I think it resembles an argumentative strategy but that was not really in my mind at the time.  When I write I do not think of strategies in the formal sense of this paper is going to be enumerative, or a cause/effect, or argumentative.  I just write.  I generally do not have a rough draft or any of the things that would probably make my paper that much better.  I start out with an idea and let it bounce around my head for a while until I come up with the general idea of the paper (There are no prewriting exercises at this point either).  I generally try to have an introductory paragraph that contains my main idea and the gist of the three supporting paragraphs which are to follow then a conclusion that restates my original idea with a mention of the supporting ideas.  Then as I write the paper just unfolds under my fingers.  Whether it turns out to resemble one of the strategies is either a subconscious thought or just luck.

mike rose

     Rose’s life in vocational education was basically an educational cesspit where the views of society played a bigger role in the success, or lack thereof, of the students than their own desires.  This ties back into my views on the American education system and the strength of the lower economy’s societal influence on their youth.  It seemed like his teachers did not care about their job.  They were just there to collect a paycheck.  I mean, according to their views, it was pointless to try to teach these young hoodlums wasn’t it? So why try?  Luckily I did not experience any teachers like that in my upbringing, except maybe that 8^th grade teacher.

     Voc. Ed. Affected the children in it in a manner that told them it was ok to be mediocre because that was all that was expected of them.  Again we go back to the idea that it is ok to fail.  Their intellect was never properly stimulated which stunted their educational growth as well as the emotional maturity that could have been realized.  Socially it offered them an excuse to personify the views thrust on them by others.  Seeing as Rose was never properly instructed in the use of math, he never learned the basic rules.  That lack of base knowledge is the reason that he had such a hard time catching up.

      High school is disorienting for students like ken Harvey because they not only have to first worry about the learning curve but also the views that are thrust upon them amid a tumult of hormones and bodily changes.  Not to mention the potential domestic disputes which may be taking place?  He copes with it by embracing the ideas that he is labeled with as his own.  Others may try to ignore them, prove them wrong, or even drop out and give up.  Either way the education of those students suffers.

      As this is my first class I do not really have any disorienting attributes to tell you of.  Maybe once I have taken a few more classes.

      My experience may be similar to Mike rose’s seeing as I basically said the same thing.  Or close enough at least. I think that the societal views of my economic group and the people I was surrounded by had the idea that it was ok to fail.  The same way that the kids in the handout were forced to adopt a persona that fit with what others thought of them.

an enumerative start to my narrative

Life in the navy is all about qualifications.  You are not allowed to do your job unless you have proven that you know the ins and outs of the task that you are to perform and the system that it is being performed on.  In order to prove that you have the requisite knowledge the navy uses a qualification system broken into specific watches that one would stand or more specifically a system that one would use.  The basic flow of a qual card is as follows:  references, prerequisites, knowledge factors, practical factors, test, and interviews.  When handed a new qual card the individual first looks at the references.  These references contain most of the knowledge needed to qualify that watch or system.  The prerequisites are simply there to ensure that an individual starts at the right level.  It would be pointless to start out at the top if you do not have the basic knowledge that is obtained from the lowest qualification.  The knowledge factors are the meat and potatoes of qualifying something.  An individual is required to memorize the components and procedures used to operate a system and further more must be able to explain, to a diagram level, the functional description of that system.  The practical factors are there to ensure that you can actually operate the system and not just talk about how it is operated.  I could explain to you how to do open heart surgery, but unless I have actually done it before my first time would likely result in the death of the patient.  The test is to ensure that you have retained the knowledge that you received throughout the qual process and the interview is for the supervisors to ascertain if the individual is actually ready to stand the watch.  All in all it is a lengthy process with a steep learning curve for those just starting out but it is an excellent way to understand how to do your job and provides the means for others to ensure that you are adequately trained to perform it satisfactorily.

the argumentative strategy

Fast food will be the downfall of America.  Back in the day Americans had to work for the food they needed to survive.  With the invention of items and services designed to streamline time and reduce the effort needed to acquire the necessities of life, we are promoting a sedentary lifestyle.  This lifestyle, which is epitomized by genetically enhanced fast food, is extremely unhealthy. In fact, according to PL Chang “Independent studies have shown that genetically modified food can increase the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, birth defects, infertility, and organ failures.” With an unhealthy body our minds also suffer and if the minds of Americans suffer then naturally the nation suffers in some way as well.  Eventually, if we do not get a hold on this epidemic, it will be the end of America. 

malcolm vs benjamin

              Like so many others, including Malcolm X, Benjamin Franklin kindled his appetite for knowledge with the act of reading.  Benjamin took it a little farther than Malcolm in that he sought to perfect the use of his knowledge in the form of writing whereas Malcolm used his to help others.  Both were given a set of circumstances that enabled their natural desire to learn the chance to flourish.  Malcolm’s was prison and the desire to help others while Benjamin’s was basically forced on him by his father despite his wishes to go to sea.

 Neither of the circumstances was the ideal one for those two individuals and yet they may have been a veritable cornerstone of the people they were to become.  Imagine if you will that Malcolm never went to prison.  Do you think he would have learned to read?  Or would he have continued to hustle on the streets?  What course would that have set for the fate of African Americans?  The same thought goes for Benjamin Franklin.  Let’s say he went to sea as his heart desired.  Would we have the modern luxury of electricity?  Or would it have taken another form?  In the end I see both their stories as the same song just played to a different tune.

pre-writing techniques

              Ok so this may come as a surprise to you but I am 78.3% positive that I have never used any of the pre-writing techniques explained in Writing Simplified.  Sure I used them when I was taught about them in school, but that was only to prove that I understood the concept of the techniques.  The idea of listing just seems like a waste of time to me.  I have a fairly good vocabulary but for some reason if I am asked to start spouting off anything more than normal words I draw a blank.  Brainstorming does not work for me as I do not feel comfortable voicing my opinion to others unless I have thought about it a lot and am confident in the thought.  I cannot think of a reasonable argument against looping, it just seems nonsensical to me.  The same goes for mapping, branching, and clustering.

The reason I’m only 78.3% positive, is that my writing style may be similar to freewriting.  Freewriting, of the stream of consciousness variety, is a continuous writing stint which is then analyzed and the best idea or sentence is then picked out and elaborated on.  My writing style is different in the sense that I am continuously analyzing and planning what I am going to write next as I am writing.  I just write and then I am done.  I go back and do an editing check and occasionally change the structure of a sentence but besides that what I write the first time is generally very close to the final product. There is no picking of a sentence and elaborating on it and there is no need to brainstorm for an idea as most of the time we are given a topic or general idea and I formulate the gist of the idea in my head prior to writing and then finalize while writing.  That is why I do not think that I use a type of pre-writing described in WS.

Malcolm X

         Malcolm is a paradigm of the natural thirst for knowledge that most people have.  The difference between Malcolm and those without the drive to learn is that he had a convenient set of circumstances that allowed him to slake his thirst for knowledge.   Circumstances and the necessity that he felt when he spoke about learning whatever he could to help out his fellow black man are similar to my experiences in the navy.  The right sort of circumstances, the desire to strike out on my own and straighten myself out, is what led me to join the navy.  If I hadn’t my life would have turned out a lot different and I wouldn’t own a home or car and would probably have a lot less self-respect.   

        The desire to help out his fellow black man is not so different from the entire reason for the qualifications on a submarine either.  We learn to fight fires, flooding, other ships etc. all so that if the time ever came to actually combat such a casualty we would know what to do in order to save the lives of others.  My narrative will most likely turn out to sound a lot like Malcolm’s especially in the sense of the steep learning curve that eventually seems like second nature.  I don’t know if I can write with the same passion as he, but I hope that I will be able to convey the same sense of accomplishment and purpose.

what i learned from feross

              How I learned to program computers is definitely a good example of how to write an educational narrative.  Especially as I have never written one.  As I read his expose on programming I noticed a few ideas/methods that I think I can work into my own narrative.  The most prominent to me is how he basically wrote this in order to educate someone, not just tell his story.  My paper will be about the qualification path that I had on-board a submarine as I would write it to a newly reported sailor.  Alas I will not be able to use pictures as he did seeing as the ones I would use are classified.

In addition to it being an educational blog it was also more personal than I would imagine I would receive if I just looked up how to program computers.  I could look at any how to and it would list the requisite steps needed to accomplish a task but it would not give me a background on the actual process and what goes into it. I noticed that he broke down each of his projects and told his readers the value that he received from each.  That, I think, is the most important aspect of his writing.  Hopefully I will be able to convey the same sense of purpose and accomplishment in my narrative as I received from his.