Summary of On Becoming a Writer John Powers Professor: Dr. Susan Ryan English 115 – Assignment 1 April 19, 2014 A literacy narrative by Russell Baker “On Becoming a Writer. In this narrative the author explains how he always wanted to be a writer from an early age. During earlier school years he did not enjoy English classes and thought they were boring. Because he was not interested in the classes he always waited until the last minute to complete his assignments. In his third year English class he had a teacher that all the students knew for being a boring teacher he was an older gentleman that didn’t relate with the kids and make the class interesting for the students.
The SAT has caused much stress through the years, and for a useless purpose. There are millions of fully qualified individuals who are rejected from their primary college choice every year because they failed to meet their SAT score standards. It is unfair to judge four years of education on one test. These days, being accepted into the college of your choice is something not many have the privilege of. In order for someone to be accepted into the college of their choice, he or she should not only need a perfect GPA, but also a high SAT score.
It has impacted the U.S. today because schools can't force students to participate in any religious activities. The reason Engel won was because it was in violation of the 1st Amendment. That is the main reason why Engel won and the case's precedent is still in effect today. Every year since then, there has been an attempted threat to introduce a constitutional amendment to overrule the Engel v. Vitale case. It has changed our country because religion is not required in school and there is a separation of church and state.
As a student you learn more about what the teacher views as important, but are evaluated on by what the state thinks is important. "Standardized tests measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful" (Procon 2) Standardized tests are not a reliable way to evaluate someone’s intelligence. In many cases teachers are encouraged to teach only material that will be seen on certain standardized tests. To quote one critic, "they are infernal machines of social destruction" (bracey 1). For this reason, teachers are forced to extract superfluous material from the course.
The subject I chose to write about is the Anti-Bullying Legislation. The Anti-Bullying Legislation is a state mandate that requires schools to have an Anti-Bullying policy but they usually are unfunded. I believe that the Anti-Bullying Legislation should be regulated nationally rather than by state. The reason for this is because not every state seems to care if the children are getting picked on in school just for being a little different than the “norm”. I also think that not only should more states care but I think there should be some sort of funding for the school so that they can boost security, not just for their property but more for the students well-being.
Breaking the law, harming science and harming the students are reasons. The first reason that intelligent design shouldn’t be taught in public schools is that it will break the law. The first amendment is a good example to support this. It states that it is prohibited to make any law respecting an establishment or religion, therefore, you cannot teach creationism in schools. There has been many cases of schools breaking laws in order to teach creationism; if the schools don’t want to break the law than they shouldn’t teach intelligent design to their students.
That is why; students should be allowed to grade their teacher. Opponents of students’ grading their teacher claim that this would indirectly give the students authority over teachers. They say that students are young, shallow, and immature. They would intentionally fail teachers who do not give them a below average amount of work or teachers who do not give them high grades. According to them, teachers will not focus on teaching the students.
But when they get downstairs all ready to go, their parents tell them about how they need them to do better in school so that later on in life they can go to college and have a real job. This can be good, because it teaches their kids to succeed at everything they do, but it can also be hard on our children to tell them things like this. Everyone will always eventually fail and something, and when they do it will not feel good, but also having the feeling that they have let down their parents, that’s worse. When children think that their parents will now hate them because they did not pass a test, or do that well in their football game, they get depressed. They think that they are worthless and can’t do anything right.
Like I said before, test scores are not what education is about, education is about learning and grasping a subject. The government is placing an emphasis on test scores when in actuality they should be focusing on learning. I feel that for education to thrive the government needs to be less critical about test scores and place more significance in creativity and originality in the classroom. It doesn’t mean abandoning these tests; it just means that we should not place so much weight on these tests. I feel like the performance on one test should not dictate whether you do or do not advance a grade.
“Millions of American children struggle in school daily because of serious learning problems” (PBS.ORG, 2002). It is unfortunate that millions of American children are faced with serious learning problems because of a physical disability, mental disability, or a learning disability. Schools are very preoccupied with their yearly State of California Testing and they fail to meet the needs of those children that struggle with simple daily school work. It is said that out of 150 children 1 in born with Autism. That means that out of a school of a thousand students, around 10 or nine students are on the Autism Spectrum Disorder; but that doesn’t include those other children with other different disabilities.