Wiki-whaaaattt?

Although not much of a reliable source, Wikipedia is a very popular website. Many people have access to change the information on Wikipedia. The ones who change this information vary from a high end scholar to some young teenager. In the essay “The Charms of Wikipedia” by Nicholson Baker, Baker first talks about how more people use Wikipedia more than popular online sites like Amazon and eBay. Wikipedia has more than 4.6 million articles. It is a very popular source, mainly because when we Google something, Wikipedia is the first link that comes up. When we Google things, the top search is usually the most popular one. What attracted Baker mostly to Wikipedia was the fact that when it was first launched he wrote and added a lot of information to the articles, but always anonymously. When revising and editing the information, you can fix it up without having the other users know who you are. Wikipedia editors consist of a wide range of people. Baker talks about how the editors range from history buffs all the way to young people. He believes that Wikipedia flourished mainly because it was a gateway for people who were shy. Shy people were able to say anything about a certain subject and no one would ever know he or she put that article or extra information there. When Baker talks about the Poptart Wikipedia page, this proves that Wikipedia is not always accurate. People can change anything on it today. Wikipedia should only be changed to update accurate and correct information, and to be improved, not just a source that people change just for fun. Not very reliable, but very popular.

It is shocking to see how one can make a job out of requesting, saving, or deleting pages on the cite. The number of pages deleted each day- 1500. They delete pages about restaurants or businesses because the sources were not credible. While growing up, in elementary school, I would always look things up on Wikipedia. Little did I know, that some of this information is probably not true and that fact that some random people could have just included random information for the fun of it. No wonder my teachers told me to find information other than on Wikipedia because it was not a reliable source. We are so caught up in the online searching and technology that we do not spend our time doing useful things like actually looking them up in books to make sure it’s accurate. Things found online are not always true, so don’t believe everything you read.

The Blindsided Generation

“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr informs us on the ways technology is negatively effecting our brains. Carr writes that Google has made it easier for us to find information even faster. This article starts out by talking about how the internet is a resource we can use for almost anything. Every day, people use the internet to look stuff up, ask random questions, or even search for themselves. The things we look up can easily be found in a book to be more productive or something we actually already know about but still decide to research it. In result, we are becoming dependent on it in things we do. You can find anything and everything on the internet. Whatever gets posted, and even deleted later, is always going to stay up. Carr also says how technology is also a huge distraction in our lives. I completely agree with what he is saying. People now socialize and gatherings together, but just sit on their phones. Many pictures online show everybody sitting a table together but each one is on their cellular device. We are so caught up in this that we are forgetting about what a true hangout and social gathering really is about. Where we all sit together and talk. Not type. Google is trying to invent an artificial brain to replace our “slow” brains that we have. We live in a world where technology is put first. The internet has decreased the number of people that actually read books. We expect to know all the information we find online as fast as it is provided to us. Carr claims that the internet actually affects how we process information. The amount of access to information one can find on the internet is absurd, and the entertainment one finds from reading and knowing all this information is crazier.

I believe in today’s society, we are so caught up in technology. Little kids are now carrying iPads. They are so drawn to the light of a cell phone that instead of playing with plastic toys, they are now taking their parent’s phones. The amount of children’s apps in the App store to promote this makes it even worse. Playing with electronic devices at a young age, will encourage the use of it throughout their childhood and beyond. When I was growing up, I was not so attached to electronics so now that I have a smart phone, and the fact that I can’t live without it, makes me wonder how the next generation will be if they are already attached to this technology at a young age.

Everyday Education

In “Learning to Read” by Frederick Douglass, Douglass describes how he learned to read and write and the challenges he had in his condition of being a slave since childhood. His enslavers did not want him to get an education or to learn anything that could make him someone valuable because for them, slavery and education did not go well together. Although all the obstacles that his enslavers put him through were not easy, he did not stop his desire to learn to read and write to become a person of character. He looked for other ways to learn to read and write since his enslavers did not allow that. He tries to explain that education and freedom are rights that every human being should have. Education gives us the opportunity to identify ourselves to see who we are. In Douglass’s scenario, he was trying to identify himself as a slave compared to the other children who were not going to be slaves for their entire life. Douglass had a lot of obstacles in his life as a slave since childhood, but he always was perseverant in his desire to read and write. “The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers” (192). He tried to make new friends because he wanted them to teach him how to read since his mistress stopped teaching him the alphabet. By teaching him the alphabet, the first step was taken because he was interested about continuing to learn more and more. Douglass learns how to read with the help of the little white children in his neighborhood.

Having an education is very important. Whether it is a good, and strong one or not. Everyone should be able to read and write. Those are the necessities that we will always use. Without realizing it, we are using our education in all that we do. From being a housewife to a prestige doctor, reading and writing is used. We are taught to do this at a very young age, in order to improve while growing up. Education is a language. Knowing how to read and write automatically teaches us how to speak. Imagine life without being able to read and write. What would we be doing? No texting, no driving (not knowing how to read street signs, etc.), no homework (although that does not sound too bad).

Education is key

In the essay, “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mark Rose, Rose challenges the idea that intelligence can be measured by how long a person is in school or amount of year completed. He suggests that blue-collar and service jobs require more intelligence and knowledge. He describes his experiences growing up while observing his mother as a waitress in coffee shops and family restaurants. He describes his mother as a dynamic woman who loved her job and put her heart and soul into being a waitress. He described the way she memorized who ordered what, how long each dish is supposed to take to prepare, and how she became a professional at differentiating the emotional needs of her customers and coworkers. His mother quit school at a very young age to take care of her siblings. He also talks about his uncle’s work at the General Motors factory and shows the amount of intelligence that was required of him as he rose from being in the production line to supervising paint jobs (making important decisions for his job). He explains how he observed different types of blue- collar and service workers in action, and came to the conclusion that each of them have a skill that takes a lot of mind power to master.

I agree with Mark Rose that the amount of schooling a person completes does not necessarily measure their intelligence level. In the world today, many people cannot afford to further their education. Some people have the power to teach themselves things. Without furthering their education, one will not have the professional help and knowledge, but are still able to learn things from other resources. No doubt does having a better education lead you to a good job, but you are still able to succeed in what you do without that good of an education. Just because just because certain jobs require less schooling than others, does not mean that there is less intelligence and thought involved in those fields. Education is something people can gain not only in school, but in our everyday lives. What we learn and do in school, is to get good grades. We do not necessarily care about the subject, just that we do well in it. Education is not only about going to school. Education is learning. When you are learning something, you are involved in education. Therefore, learning is education.

Restriction

“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” (259) This quote in “On Writing” by Stephen King really stands out to me. Whenever I explain a situation, I usually state the facts that I remember and then also like to sugarcoat things or add things that did not actually happen to make it sound better. Many people do the same. In the essay, Stephen King writes about the influence in writing that John Gould had on him. Although he took many classes on writing, poetry, and literature, “John Gould taught me more than any of them.” This shows that no matter how many times one can be influenced by teachers or outside opinions, the ones they truly look up to can give them the greatest impact. John Gould did not change up King’s writing; he simply “took out the bad parts” and left all the other great writing he had. In school, teachers after a specific criteria and guidelines they have to follow. They cannot teach whatever they feel like teaching. If the topic somewhat does not seem interesting then we will not learn or acquire something interesting from it. In many subjects, their is one “right answer”, and one right way to solve things or figure it out. Once you actually learn something, you can take many different approaches in getting what you want. Talking to someone or getting information from an expert in something you enjoy is better than a teacher or person who is told what specific aspects to teach.

I do not like writing; especially when I am being forced to do it. I never found interest in essays. When I was younger, I only liked to enjoy writing in my journal about fun things that I find interest in. Once it became for a grade and on a specific topic, I did not like it. Teachers now grade based on other students writing. If your writing does not meet the proper standards, your grade is dropped. What if I am generally not a good writer compared to others? I will be marked down for it. Teachers also have a prompt one must write about. We are narrowed down on the options and ways of writing. When I first start writing, I usually get writers block which prevents me from starting right away. Then once I begin, I usually have a flow going on. When I have to write on a time limit, I start to freak out and get anxiety. It takes time for perfection.

The pressure is on

In the essay, “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading” by John Holt, Holt addresses the problems in teaching that has made children dislike reading and writing. One of the reasons he addresses is the failure and public humiliation that can happen when teachers make the children read aloud. If they were to make a mistake with the pronunciation of a word, the teacher or another student would point it out. This situation would cause embarrassment among the reader. Another problem Holt discussed in his article was the issue students were having with writing. They would have high IQ’s but noting to write about even if it was a topic they choose. He soon found out that students were worried about spelling and this mostly slowed them down. He then created a device named “Composition Derby.” He would divide the class into teams and when he says “go” they would have to write down anything they wanted and would not be judged by misspellings or mistakes. When he says “stop” they would count up how many words they have written, and that team wins. Surprisingly, usually the least successful students wrote the most words. These students were smart, but constantly pressured by mistakes.

Personally, I am a student who does not enjoy reading or writing unless I am actually interested in what I am reading. The more I am forced to do something, the less I actually want to do it. Think about it, every class session, we are asked to read an essay for the book and respond to it in a blog. Are we actually interested in the stuff we read every week? Debatable. In my opinion, I enjoy what we are reading, although it is somewhat forced. We choose to do our assignments every week, because we choose to succeed. I would much rather read these essays that relate to me instead of having to look through a textbook or read something historical. Growing up, I hated reading. The reading we were forced to do. Like how our homework assignment included reading for 30 minutes plus a reading log and having to write a summary. I like to read for myself. If I do not understand a word I am reading, I do not stop and look for it in the dictionary. I move on because I do not feel like it is important. On the other hand, when I am asked to read out loud in front of the class whether I enjoy the subject or not, I like to do that. I do not like reading to myself about a topic I am not interested in because then I would be blindly reading and have no clue what I am reading, or bother to want to find out.

You never know unless you try

In the NPR “The Kid Who Crowdfunded His College Education – In 1987” by Sean Braswell (which can be found at the following link: http://www.npr.org/2014/09/06/346155274/the-kid-who-crowdfunded-his-college-education-in-1987) makes us think about the question asked “Would you give a penny to help a deserving stranger attend college?” A boy named Mike Hayes could not afford $28,000 to go to college. His family was not poor, it is just that they had already sent of Hayes’s four other siblings through school, and it was very unlikely that they would be able to put together the amount he would need to attend the University of Illinois for four years. Hayes only had $2,500 from a job as a drugstore clerk. Thinking about a way in which he can earn the money needed to attend the University, Hayes has an idea. “Would 2.8 million people, Hayes wondered, each be willing to give him a penny?” A penny is nothing. Everyone has spare change laying around in their cars and can also be found on the floors of restaurants and streets. Still more than a year away from developing the World Wide Web, Hayes had to find out a way to get his idea across to earn the money. Hayes met up with a columnist, Bob Greene. Greene was captured by Hayes’s idea. He wrote about Hayes’s ‘penny-hunt’ in his next column. Hayes received “pennies, nickels and some larger donations, from all over the world”. Hayes earned 2.9 million pennies. “Hayes paid off his college bills, graduated with a degree in food science and said he planned to pay the remainder forward, by giving it to a college student from one of the families that sent him money.” Many students enter foundations in order to receive money for their education. Little did we know how easy it is to get a big group together and make our idea known to send a small amount of money.

In the essay “Look at Your Fish!” by Samuel Hubbard Scudder, the author, an aspiring scientist is given by his professor a fish. He is told to look at the fish, and will later be asked what he has seen. Ten minutes later, Scudder has seen everything he could see in that fish. He went looking for his professor, but he was gone. Scudder kept analyzing the fish but could not see anything about the fish. The professor told him to go home, and Scudder continued thinking about the fish. He later notices that the fish has “symmetrical sides with paired organs”. The professor was delighted at his new observation. For three long days after, Scudder continued to analyze the fish finding new observations. He learns that after looking at an object for a while, you can learn and find new studies.

Aim for the A

Do grades really matter in today’s world? Not really to be honest. Grades don’t really define who a person is. Some people do better in some subjects while others do better in different subjects. Everyone wants an A. Not because they want to do well and succeed, but because everyone wants to be smart. If I am an English person, and I do very well in essays and writing, why would I also want to learn formulas and equations? When will I ever need to use that junk in real life? Like honestly.
Nowadays, colleges look at how well you are doing in your education and grade point average. They look at your overall grades and understanding of material. With that information, they will never know how well you truly are or what kind of person you are. Students get pressured into different things from their surroundings in order to receive that “A”. Classwork is easy. Homework is easy. I can do amazing in those 2 parts, but once I receive a test, suddenly I forgot the entire chapter. In my opinion, tests do not ever show who a person truly is. They show how well they have the material memorized, but shortly after the test is turned in, I am sure that student has completely forgotten everything. They only had that memorized to get the “A”. Nothing more, nothing less.
For me, I only study to do well in school, rarely do I actually study for me. I study for my grades and for my future.
In class, some teachers have to give out a certain number of A’s and a certain number of B’s and so forth. So technically you can be very smart but have a certain number of people still smarter than you and barely make the mark of an A.
On the other hand, some teachers are more lenient than others. They make greater curves on tests in order to pass students. They do not really care on what the students get out of the class, just that they get the grade they want. They do everything they can to give all the students A’s so that nobody complains and students favorite the teacher. Curving tests makes students who did not do so well get higher grades and making the smarter students just have extra credit to boost their grades.
The pressure do get an A is very high because everyone wants one.

going once…going twice…SOLD

Students need motivation to do things. Unfortunately, nowadays students are so wrapped up in technology and sports that they do not really focus on education anymore. To get into college, your GPA is not the only thing that matters. You need to do extracurricular activities and participate in things other than getting good grades in school. The fact that when studying, students just focus on doing well on their tests. Not even a week after taking their test, we seem to forget everything we studied. We only had things memorized to do well. We do not actually grasp the fact of learning for ourselves but for others and for our grades and for our future.

Jeremy Gilbert has set up a website that “lets college students bet on their grades, high or low, with wagers starting at $25.” We listen/ read to know different perspectives of teachers, and students on what they think about this new method.

Students do need an incentive. Whether it is being paid, I am not quite sure. Although students love the thought of money, the technique Jeremy Gilbert has created has its pros and cons. Being paid to get good grades does encourage students to do better, but also only has students study for the money. The negative side of this situation is that if the student does not actually get the grade planned for, they technically loose their money they put down. I somewhat consider this process gambling because you are putting money down without the 100% assurance that you are going to get something out of it.

Unlike James, the student from Florida State, I believe students care more about getting the A or B rather than acquiring the general knowledge. I completely agree with Bernard, the teacher in the Northern California- Sacramento region in that “they’re not focusing on the journey of getting the education and understanding the learning and then being able to apply it, they’re focusing on the grade.” Enough focus by students is already being put on their grades, and this just adds more to it. Students sometimes stay up all night studying for an exam. Do they actually care what their learning about? Not so much. They care about the grade they are going to end up getting. If they do not do well on that specific exam, their grade will drop, and that is not what they want. Having an extra incentive would really give that student a greater boost.

Up All Night

Growing up, I was one to sleep early and wake up early. I loved the freshness of the mornings- the cool crisp air and the sound of birds chirping. I enjoyed being up and ready bright and early in order to get a head start on the exciting day ahead of me. As I got older, the more teenage side of me occurred. I loved being with my friends, and having sleepovers. Pulling an all-nighter was the “cool thing” to do. Sleep? Who needs sleep when you can stay up all night talking and laughing? Summers were always the best. The night owl in me definitely showed. I only saw the sun when it was coming up right before I was going to bed. After I realized how messed up my sleep schedule was, I tried to fix it. Instead of staying up all night, and sleeping all day, I decided to stay up only half night. LOL. Nowadays, I like to stay up late and sleep in early. Unfortunately, I was one of those crazy people who decided to take a 7 AM class during my first year of college. During the first year, wasn’t I supposed to sleep in and choose late classes so that it is not high school all over again? Yeah not so much. I enjoy starting some days earlier than others. Since I am so used to sleeping late, I often find it hard to adjust myself to sleeping early when I need to wake up early the next day. I usually get 8 hours of sleep. When I get less than that, I am often grumpy when I wake up, but get more and more awake as I get ready.

In Night Owl by Anne Fadiman, Fadiman uses much detail and description in the first paragraph to open the essay. She describes the “white wooden bed whose head posts are surmounted by two birds, carved and painted by an artist friend” that her and her husband sleep in. She also describes the birds that are on the top of each side of their beds. Fadiman has an owl on her side to describe the night owl in her. When turning off the lights at 11:30 PM, she considers that to be too early, while her husband thinks it is too late. George instantly falls asleep while Anne tosses and turns until she finds the right position, yet still does not fall asleep for another few hours (like I do!).