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.