Writing the Draft

Today I started actual writing the draft for my paper. I have a little over a page done right now. I am starting out by talking about the other views on the issue, that I do not necessarily agree with. I asked Nick Randle why he hates his language class so much, since he is quite outspoken about it. He ended up giving me some good stuff to write about that I had not thought about before. I am still planning to do one more interview, hopefully with someone who has another different opinion that will help me write more on the other views of the issue. I think I'm going to have a really hard time not writing a biased paper. I'll be glad when I'm finished with this draft. I am really liking this assignment though. I actually enjoy reading other peoples' blogs, because everyone has chosen such interesting topics. Commenting on like 204938890 blogs was not that hard. :-)

New Research

So I am still having trouble finding different sides to my topic of teaching foreign language at a younger age. But I did find yet another article that supports my opinion. It is titled "All primary schools to teach foreign languages by 2010." The English government announced back in March of this year that every child in England will start to learn a foreign language in primary school starting at the age of seven by the year 2010. The government will require the students to learn the language from age seven to fourteen. After this age, it will no longer be mandatory to take the language. This was the only part of the article that I did not agree with. I think the language should be continued to be taught all through high school. In 2002, England changed the rule that said that taking a language was mandatory for 14-16 year olds. Recently, there has been in a drop in the numbers of teenagers that are choosing to take a language. They are also recommending immersion courses for the students. The seven years of learning the language will help the students to build their confidence and knowledge in the language.

Progress and such...

So I forgot to write a blog last night, so I am having to write it today. I have not actually started to write my paper, I have plenty of ideas written down though. It is my process to write it all at once and not just a little each day. I have, however, been researching the topic pretty often. Tommorrow I am planning on interviewing Sra. Seldner. I picked her because she is a native speaker of Spanish, and learned English later in her life, so I am interested to see what she thinks about my topic and opinion, and if she has any good sources for me to use. I am also planning on interviewing at least one student, I am not sure if I will interview them for this draft or the one after this. I might do it for this one, because this person could have a different view than mine, and it would help me write this draft. We'll see.

Another articulo I found...

My most recent article is "Teaching Language for National Security and American Competitiveness." The title sums up the argument that I am planning to make in my paper, which is nice. In the article, which I found online, it talks about how there is a critical need for foreign language skills because it is necessary for us to advance national security and global competitiveness. The article has some good statistics including the fact that only 31% of elementary schools in the U.S. report teaching foreign languages. And 79% of those schools focus on introduction to the language instead of proficiency. Only 44% of high school students in the U.S. are taking a foreign language. All of these statistics are kind of depressing. What I did not even think about before this article, was the fact that most of these students are only taking Spanish or French. It is really sad that what few students are taking a language, are all taking the same ones. We need to start branching out and learning other languages.

Researching of the topic

I found an article on online that is a press release from a study done in Europe that was looking at the age that foreign languages are started being taught. The title of the article is "Language teaching: 50% of young Europeans learn a foreign language from primary school onwards." In most European countries, at least one foreign language starts being taught during primary school. It continues to be mandatory throughout the rest of the people's education. Some countries even recommend learning two foreign languages at a young age. By the time that European students are in secondary school, a second foreign language usually becomes mandatory as well. Of course, English is the most common language being taught in primary school. This study just shows how low American standards for languages are.

The Proposal

So I finally wrote the two page proposal that was due today. It was not super difficult and I think I picked a good topic. I got really worked up just writing the two pages. I did a little research online last night as well, and there are a lot of articles that support my view on language being taught at a younger age. I am a little worried about finding another point of view on this. I am planning on interviewing Sra. Seldner, Sra. Bolinger and Madame Swann about what their opinions are on this subject. I think that all of them will produce some really interesting information and help me write a good paper. Later today I am going to start reading some more articles about my topic and hopefully I will find some with a different point of view. I am also thinking about interviewing some of the people in our class about what they think.

The paper...

As of now, I have decided to write my paper about how I think that schools should start teaching foreign languages starting in preschool, or grade school. Our country is one of the few that starts foreign language so late, and does not require all citizens to learn at least two while they are in school. This just shows how far behind we are. We won't be the only superpower in the world much longer, and it will be more and more necessary for all of us to be able to speak a language besides english. In our country, we have a lot of hispanic immigrants, and it is becoming more and more important for us to be able to speak spanish. I think that it should be requred for all schools to start teaching at least spanish in preschool or grade school. As you get older, I still think it should be required for you to take spanish, but you also have the option of choosing to take another language. It is so much harder to learn a completely new language once you are in high school. If we start teaching the language more gradually, we will learn the language younger and it will be easier.

My topic for my proposal paper...

My ideas for my paper right are as follows. I kind of stole this one from this Jordan, but the effects of the pressure to be "perfect" in our society's standards are making plastic surgery more prevalent and common. And then I can explore the positives and negatives of plastic surgery, and I feel pretty pationate about it. Another option would be exploring the issue about the idea that girls have to be a size 0 or 2. Really people are bigger than this. And it bothers me that people think they have to be that size because models and manicans are so tiny. I'm not a size 2 and I'm ok with it, but I know so many other teenage girls that are always wanting to lose wait and always want to be smaller.

A Proposal for Universal Health Insurance in the U.S.

This proposal argument was quite effective. The author did all of the things that are required to write a proposal argument. Bonicillo starts out with a story which appeals to the emotions of the reader, and then goes on to give many reasons why Universal Health Insurance is so important. He gives statistics about poverty stricken people that don't have insurance versus people with decent jobs and healthcare that support his argument well. He even has a nice little pie graph that shows statistics about Americans under 65 in 2001. He then goes on to propose what he thinks that we should do. For example, he says that the first thing that we need to do is to break the linkage between employment and health insurance. He even addresses the fact that Universal Health Insurance would be quite difficult to accomplish, and his last paragraph explicitly states this. I think this is all effective because when I finished reading this he had me convinced that we need Universal Health Insurance. He accomplished persuading his audience to want to act.

Ellis and overcoming racism

C.P. Ellis' story definitely offfers a credible way of overcoming misunderstanding and hatred between races. He completely changed his beliefs, and in a good way. It's credible because it's true. Ellis found his own unique way of overcoming his hatred of African Americans. On a larger scale, this would probably not work as well. It was a personal choice of Ellis to change his opinion and it was because he made friends with the people that he would have originally hated, and he realized that they were just like him. He was just blaming all his hate on a group of people without really getting to know any of them. Not everyone is willing to make the personal decision that Ellis made. There are some people who have hate so deeply instilled in them, that it is very hard for them to completely change their way of thinking the way that Ellis did. This is one personal story, and everyone is different.

"Mainstream"

Yoshino says that the myth of "mainstream" is referring to the population this is straight and white. Mainstream is what is most widely accepted. It is what is considered "normal." The problem is, it is hard to define normal. Who is the definition of normal? Everyone has something about them that makes them unusual and unique. Whether it's the color or style of their hair, or the way that they dress, or how many piercings they have.

In our society, having certain haircuts and piercings and style of dress can limit your professional options. To get a good job, you have to dress professionally, not have cornrows, and not have eyebrow, lip of tongue piercings. You have to be mainstream. They are asking you to be like everyone else. They are in a sense, asking you to take away part of your individuality. There is also the example that derek brought up in class about him having a mohawk and his work told him that he had to cut it or he would be fired. His mohawk wasn't bright green and it was scraggly and greasy. It was fairly subtle and they still did not allow him to have it. They wanted him to blend in with everyone else.

Linda's mixed feelings...

After finally escaping to the North and being reunited with both of her children at different times, Linda is still not completely free. After Dr. Flint dies, his daughter writes to Linda and tells her that she is still her property. Then the Fugitive Slave Act is passed which says that every runaway slave that is found must be returned to their owner even if the state has a law that says slavery is illegal. This worries Linda even more, and then Emily Flint and her husband come to New York to capture Linda, who is forced to go into hiding yet again. Mrs. Bruce (her employer) offers to buy Linda, but Linda doesn't want this because she can't stand the idea of being bought and sold again. Mrs. Bruce buys her anyway, which at the time frustrates Linda which causes her to realize just how much she hates slavery. By the end of the book, Linda is grateful to Mrs. Bruce for buying her.

A passage from Incidents in the life of a slave girl...

It was too hard for me to pick just one passage in which Jacobs uses honesty and her experience to establish her credibility, so I decided to choose all of chapter 15 (pgs68-73.) This chapter is a disturbing one, in which Dr. Flint, still upset with Linda for having children with another white man, tortures Linda by saying horrible things about selling her children for good prices and reminding her that she is her property and always will be. When Linda's son tried to protect her, Dr. Flint threw him across the room and wouldn't let her go to him. I think this chapter really shows the cruelty of slavery.

Jacobs is showing credibility here by telling something that actually happened to her. She shows the horrible and abusive side of slavery, she went through all of it and knows what it is like. She knows that it needs to end. And real-life experiences are always powerful. She is telling this story to try and get people to understand how bad slavery is and to instill the desire to put an end to it.

Douglas and 4th of July

Douglas says throughout the speech that he doesn't think that 4th of July is a day of freedom for African Americans, and it isn't. They weren't free on that day. It technically shouldn't even be a holiday for them. So when Frederick Douglas was asked to speak on this day it is kind of offensive. Asking a former slave to speak about a day that was a great day for all white people, and definitely not for African Americans.

Douglas is appealing to pathos in his speech, because you can definitely tell from reading it that he was passionate while he was giving it. This is very important in being a good speaker, which Douglas was known for. He appeals to the emotion of the audience by explainingn why it isn't a day of freedom for African Americans. I would say that he appeals to pathos more than ethos or logos. He doesn't appeal to logos very much, but he doesn't need to in this speech, and back when he gave it, it would have been really hard to come up with statistics and data to support his argument.

The Socialization Process

According to Parrillo the socialization process is, as it says in Rereading America, how people obtain their values, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of their culture and others. Parrillo says that we usually turn out the way that our parents want us to and fulfill their expectations. I really like the point that he brings up about children usually accepting these concepts without questioning them. I completely agree with what Parrillo is saying here. For example, my parents are Lutheran, and because that is what I have been exposed to since I can remember, I am also Lutheran. My parents have instilled their values in me as well. And when my parents were little, their parents were also Lutheran and did the exact same thing. Yes, there are people who don't believe in the same things as their parents, but that is not nearly as common. You surroundings dictate how you act, and what you believe. This even ties into the previous unit of the myth of individual opportunity, and how if your culture or society doesn't value education, then there aren't going to be a lot of educational opportunities.

The real Jefferson

In our history classes we are taught that Thomas Jefferson is a really great man who was the author of the Declaration of Independance, and was a good president. Jefferson accomplished some pretty big things in his lifetime, and we should recognize him for them. The Declaration of Independance is a huge thing, and the fact that he was the author of it is quite amazing. Notes on Virginia brings to light a very different side of Jefferson that most people don't know about. It made me not like Jefferson as much. I found his thoughts on slavery and the treatment of blacks disturbing. The most upsetting part for me was when he talked about wanting to put blacks in their own colony and limit mixing blacks and whites. This is a really wierd opinion since he actually fathered some mixed children himself. He can't talk about wanting to free slaves when he owns slaves, it's contradictory. I still think Jefferson was a great leader, and brilliant, but he had some serious flaws.

Loman vs. Tucker

These two are very interesting to compare for a couple of reasons. They both wanted to be succesful in their lives, but only Tucker really was. Willy tried so hard to accomplish as much and to be as successful as Cora was in her life. The main difference between them is that Willy worked his way up being a salesman and was on the right track to be successful, but then everything went down hill, whereas Cora kept working her butt off and managed to become successful and accomplish everything that she wanted to do in her life. Cora was successful in something that was really important and helped other people, she wasn't as self-centered as I think that Willy was.
Another really interesting thing about Cora is that she was not very well-liked, she was almost the opposite of what Willy thinks is so important to be as successful as she was. Yes, she had small following, but there were many people that didn't like her. That was why they slashed her tires and soaked her bed in gasoline. In the story there was a woman mentioned who was really excited to hear Cora speak, thinking that she would be this great and eloquent speaker, but in fact she wasn't. Cora was an extremely brave woman fighting for something incredibly important in her society, and Willy was a man trying to be successful in life and in a job that has gone downhill for him.

Willy Loman's idea of success

Willy thinks that it takes one thing to become successful, and it is to be well-liked. He doesn't understand when someone is successful when they are not well-liked. I think it is really interesting that he is so stubborn about this. He can't wrap his mind around the fact that someone who is unpopular is successful. His popular, football star son was not nearly as successful as he had hoped that he would be. I have almost the opposite opinion on this matter. I think it is much more common for the nerdy, unpopular kids to be successful. The popular football players are not usually successful, unless they are amazing at football and play professionally. Nowadays, there is the stereotype that football players are not going to be successful unless they are extremely talented. It might have been different back when this play was written, which makes it an even more interesting thing to discuss.

Brittney's presentation

I enjoyed listening to Brittney's speech in class. First of all, it was brave of her to volunteer to go first for the day. I thought she did a really good job speaking. She spoke loudly, clearly and kept me interested throughout. I like that she chose an organization that none of us had heard of. That was one thing that a really liked about this assignment in general. I hadn't heard of a lot of these organizations and it's amazing how diverse they are, and how many there are out there. But back to Brittney's presentation, I still remember clearly what she said in her speech, which is really good, because persuasive speeches are supposed to be memorable. She had me convinced to donate at least a few of my donor bucks to her organization. I could really tell that she had practiced her speech, and she was passionate which is so important.

Speeches Today

I really enjoyed Alex Mergaglia's speech. I thought he presented it really well. In the beginning, he scared me a little becuase he started out so powerful. I liked that he started out strong and stayed strong throughout the entire thing. I liked how he started out with the "[picture yourself homeless...)" it really drew me in from the start. I wasn't expecting something like that. My favorite part of the speech was the end when he said "Goodwill, good cause." I thought it was so cute, and it's catchy and has been stuck in my head the whole day. He was very well practiced and delievered the speech well. And the whole reason that I'm writing about his speech now is because the whole thing was memorable, and it made me want to donate. I learned a lot about Goodwill that I didn't know before. It's very interesting to get the background on some of these well-known organizations.

"Self Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson says that it takes a lot of hard work and staying true to yourself to be successful, and I completely agree with him. There are a couple things that Emerson says in this piece that stood out to me, including "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." I liked that sentence becasue I think it really shows Emerson's opinion of staying true to yourself. Most people do have to work very hard to be successful. Of course, there are a few exceptions, that include heirs and heiresses but that is not as common. I don't think that working hard to be successful is an easy thing, but I do believe that if you set your mind to something and don't give up and then you will most likely succeed. It's a long and difficult process but if you want it badly enough then you will do anything it takes to get there.

Organization I chose

I chose the Julian Center because I think it's not a very well known non-profit group. It is a center that is based in Marion County, so it is something close to us and affects the people around us. I think people will want to help an organization that is based near them, so they can go see the difference that they're making. The Julian Center is a place for women and children that have been sexually, physically or emotional abuse. It provides a shelter, counseling, and education for the victims. The center helps steer these women in children in onto the right path in order for them to be successful. I picked this center because I think it's doing something really important. Abuse is a fairly common thing, and I think it's great that there is place, close to us that really helps the people who are unfortunate enough to go through this.

"Extending the Critical Context" #9

I think it's hard for a cultural myth to be challegened or "robbed of its mythical power." Cultural myths have usually been around for a while, and it's hard for people to just forget about them, or not believe them anymore. But, if a myth is consistently being analyzed and exposed for being a myth than it will probably not be around anymore. The more people realize that the myth is in fact a myth, the less they will believe in it, thus causing it to lose its myth power. The word will spread, and eventually the myth will die. The problem is, that it can be hard for people to accept that myths aren't true. There are people out there who are incredibly stubborn and that is why I think it's so hard for myths to be buried. I think there are even rare occurences when even though myths have been proven wrong and unrealistic, they are still around. For example, the Fountain of Youth that the spanish explorers were looking for. Obviously, there is no fountain of youth, we know that it doesn't exist, but there are probably people out there who still believe that it does exist. People sometimes choose what they want to believe because it's easier than accepting the truth.

Ragged Dick

This is an example of an extremely unrealistic piece of the American Dream. Dick saves a boy's life and all of sudden he becomes rich and famous. This rarely ever happens. Once in a while, a person who saves another's life will get recognition, but they will not get rich from it. I would not consider this the American Dream, it has nothing to do with working hard to get out of poverty. This is about what could happen if you are lucky. I guess it kind of goes back to the first essay that we read in Rereading America and how the American Dream is a myth. The idea that anyone can pull themselves out of poverty and change their class. It's more like there will be a lucky few who will achieve this. The American Dream is really if your lucky, you can pull yourself of poverty and become wealthy. The more I read out of this book, the more depressed I feel about this country. There are so many myths, and when they're exposed it's very depressing. Our country is not as great and perfect as we are taught to believe that it is.

"Engaging the Text" #3

According to Terkel, the American Dream is "governed not by education, opportunity and hardwork, but by power and fear."(pg. 356) I have never heard this side of the American Dream, but based on the author's experiences, I would say that he is right. The American Dream wasn't, at the time that this was written, what we all think of it as being. Terkel says that the only reason that he was living the American Dream was because the companies he worked for wanted to have him on display. They wanted to show that they were diverse, but they wanted him to "get to know their business," or as he puts it "fall in line." I would like to think that today, this practice of diversifying companies just to look good is not nearly as common as it was back then. This whole book is showing a side to America that I never took the time to consider before.

Engaging the Text (#2)

I do not think that the essay is making the case that the wealthy are exploiting the poor. I think Mantsios is just trying to show expose the myths and class problems in America. The author has a lot of factual evidence to back up his claim. The data that is used as evidence can't really be interepreted any way except to support the author's argument. The evidence that the author uses is overwhelming. There were so many statistics in the essay, I can't remember most of them. By the time I finished reading this I couldn't remember a lot of the data, I mainly remember the data stating that sexism and racism affect class. For some reason this piece of information stuck with me. The author really opened my eyes to all the myths of America, and how we all think that middle class is the dominant class. It makes me extremely uncomfortable to talk about class, and I never really thought about why until after I read this. I have always believed that the middle class was the largest, and that you can always work your way up from whatever class you are in. Yes, it is difficult and rare to do this, but it's possible. It's more possible in this country than in any other country in the world.

Evaluation of the argument presented in "A Letter to Jim"

The argument presented in this essay is a good argument. It's definitely debatable, and the author explains and gives evidence to back up her argument. This is a better argument than the one presented in "A Case For Torture," because she explains why she believes what she does, and she does explain the other side of the argument as well. I think she did a really good job explaining her side, because after reading this essay, I wish that I didn't love meat so much, because I feel bad eating it now. I think that this argument is appealing to a carnivorous audience. The author's logic is explaining why eating meat is so bad , and her credibility is that she is a vegetarian. This argument is not new, vegetarians versus meat eaters has been going on for a long time, and I think the author did a good job of presenting her side of the argument, and showing the other side at the same time, which is difficult.

My real-life Pseudo Argument

Recently, I came home from a friend's house at around 11:45 p.m. When I went upstairs to tell my parents that I was back, my dad was up and was sitting in his room reading in a book. As soon as he saw me he started not yelling, but speaking in an unnecessarily loud voice. "Kendal Christine it's 11:50 and your curfew is 11:30!" I answered him by saying in a much calmer manner, "umm we never discussed any curfew, ever, so how was I supposed to know that I needed to be home by 11:30?" Not lowering his voice at all, he said "Well now you know." Thinking that the situation was extremely unfair, and that the curfew was too early, I reminded him that my brother didn't have a curfew, to which he reponded that it was different with me because I'm a girl.

This whole argument upset me greatly. Not only did I have to be home, what I considered early, but my dad was treating me differently and unfairly because I'm a girl. There was no way that I could change my dad's mind, because he is extremely stubborn, and would not even consider my side.

Ethos, Pathos, and Ethics

Chapter 4 "Pathos"

The third type of argument, is Pathos. It is the type of argument that appeals to the senses and emotions of the audience. The book says on page 75, that the "pathos appeals more specifically to an audience's imaginative sympathies-their capacity to feel and see what the writer feels and sees." The pathos arguments affect the readers emotionally, which makes them care more, and want to argue more. When you can affect people emotionally, it makes them become the most passionate. I think it's the most effective type of argument because it will get the most and the greatest reactions. The emotional part of the argument makes it personal and a lot of people care a lot more when it affects them personally. I know that this type of argument is the one that gets me into the most heated arguments, and the other kinds don't affect me as much.

THE AP EXAM!

After reading the lovely 43 pages about the AP English Exam I feel overwhelmed. Even though I am nervous about the entire exam, I am the most nervous about the essays. I take a really long time to write essays, and having time limits is going to make me nervous and stressed. The synthesis essay scares me the most, creating an argument from the sample sources. It takes me a long time to plan what I want to say. I think I need to work on time management during essays. I also think that tying in all of the sections of information that they give your for the essay could be difficult. I think the essay part will also be the hardest part for me. For some reason, in really big tests like ISTEP, I have a really hard time writing essays. It's not just the time that gets to me, but the stuff they choose for us to write about it just so awful, that it makes it even more difficult. I'm not really comfortable with any of the things on the exam, since there are only two. But I think I'm more comfortable with the multiple choice questions that the essays. Even if they ask things like what does the author mean when she says shizoid in line 12?

"A Case For Torture"

I really enjoyed all of the conversations that we had about this piece. And I think it's difficult to choose a side, because I understand the reasons for both. But, I have to agree with the author. In rare cases torture is ok. In cases where one life is sacrificed for hundreds or thousands. I really like the point that the author makes about the terrorists having already volunteered to give their lives, whereas the hundreds of people that they put in danger did not. I thought it was clever of the author to make a point about Hitler, that everyone hates, and how we could have killed him and saved millions, but we didn't becasue it was morally wrong. I think this point would affect a lot of people. One person's life was saved, and millions were killed. I think that we should always do what is right for the majority.

A really freaky part to this article was that the author made the point back in 1982, that there would come a time very soon when terrorists would attack and we would have to make a choice about terror. And not too long after, 9/11 happened.

The ad on pg. 1 vs. the ad on pg. 24

To be honest, when I looked at the cartoon on page 1 for the first time i really didn't understand what point it was trying to get across. It made me feel really stupid, because I felt it could be interpreted in many different ways. But after some thinking and a little discussion with my peers I was able to understand it. Both of these pictures are making statements about genetically enhanced foods. They are both trying to make the argument that Genetically Engineered foods are bad. On page 1, the cartoon is saying that genetically engineered food is so bad that people would not even feed it to starving people. And in the ad on page 24, it is showing under nutrition facts, that we don't need to know what we're putting in our bodies, which scares people and makes them think that there is something in there that could hurt them. In both cases, the pictures are pretty powerful, they affected me and I had no idea that this argument about genetically enhanced foods was even going on. These pictures go back to the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. The pictures are both examples of implicit arguments that were talked about back in chapter 1.

Explicit vs. Implicit Arguments

Before reading the section on arguments in the book Writing Arguments, I had no idea that there were different kinds of arguments. I thought all arguments were the same, and I had never heard of explicit or implicit before. An explicit argument is one that is directly states the argument and supports the argument in various ways. It's the argument that is more obvious, that you don't have to look for, it's stated in the writing. Implicit arguements are arguments that are more subtle. In Writing Arguments it even says that implicit arguments don't look like arguments. In the book they give the example of the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. The poem does not say war is bad, but explains how it's bad so that the reader realizes on his/her own that it is horrible. Both types of arguments make the audiences believe and see their point of view. After reading this section, I will think more about the types of arguments being made in things that I read or see.

My Memoir

When I was 8 years old my family went to visit my Aunt and Uncle and
cousins on their farm. When we got there my cousin Kent was bringing out
the mini bike that he built with his dad. We were all pretty impressed, it
worked well, but it didn’t have a brake. My cousin let my brother ride it
around for a while. I wanted to try it, but I was a little scared. After a
while, the boys asked me if I wanted to try it. My dad was standing next to me
and kept telling me to Try it! So I got on the bike and pulled on the
gas. The bike shot forward and I couldn’t control it or steer because I was
in shock at how quickly it took off. The bike seemed like it was going 100
mph, and everything was in a blur. All of a sudden I saw a big green
object in front of me and then everything went black. I opened my eyes
and heard screaming. My dad was sitting right next to me asking me if I
can hear him. I looked up and I was half under one of my uncle’s tractors,
and my shirt has blood all over it. I couldn’t feel anything yet, but I
started crying because I was scared of all the blood on my hands and
shirt. My aunt came running over to me with a ton of towels and ice. The
bleeding wasn’t stopping, and my face started to hurt pretty badly, so my
parents decided to take me to the hospital, and in the car on the way
there I was sitting on my mom’s lap, and having calmed down, I looked over
at my brother who was sitting in the seat next to me, and he was crying. I
was extremely surprised that he was that upset, because he was always so
mean to me.. We got to the hospital pretty fast, and we waited in the
emergency room for a while. I had stopped bleeding, and was just sitting
there with my face throbbing. A nurse finally came to get me and she took
me and my mom to a room where she put a big heavy cape to on me and takes
x-rays of my head. A little while later, we sat waiting in an examination
room, and my mom told me too look through the little window into the next
room, and I saw x-rays of my head hung up on a lit up board. I thought it
was so weird to see something like that. The doctor came into the room not
long after that, and all I remember him saying was that I could eat all
the popsicles and ice cream I wanted to help with the swollen face. So the
whole 5 hour car ride home, I tried to eat popsicles, but every time it
touched any part of my swollen face, it burned so badly that I got tears
in my eyes, it was an extremely frustrating experience.
This experience affected me in a couple of ways. I learned that my brother
really did love me, even though he was a jerk sometimes. And that
experience has made me extremely cautious about trying new two wheeled
things.

My favorite discussion so far...

My favorite discussion that we have had was one of the first ones in which we talked about the Great Gatsby. Our discussions in class about this have really helped me understand the book. Before coming to class, I really didn't like the book. But after the discussion I'm starting to understand it more, and started actually liking it. In class we have talked about a lot of things that I didn't even notice when I read it over the summer. I didn't realize how complex Gatsby's character is. I did not even think anything of the green light and its significance. The book actually kind of confused me at first. I didn't realize that Gatsby lived where he did because he could see Daisy's house from it. It's actually kind of scary to me that he was that obsessed with her. The book has a lot more to it than I ever expected, and I'm starting to understand why it's so famous.

How I started to Write- Carlos Fuentes

I picked audience as one of the five questions that I would answer. I think that Carlos Fuentes was targeting an American audience. He is constantly explaining aspects of Hispanic culture throughout the book. He explains the importance of a lot of famous hispanic poets and writers. Fuentes writes about his experience as a Mexican boy in America, and what happened to him there, and other hispanic countries that he describes so that Americans would understand. If he were writing to a Hispanic audience he wouldn't have to do this, and it probably would have been written in Spanish. I think the whole point of this piece was to appeal to an American audience. The essay refers to a time when Americans were prejudice towards Mexicans because of an oil problem, and how badly he was treated at school becuase of this. This is something that would affect an American audience greatly, and would be something that they could relate to.

My thoughts on "I Could Tell You Stories"

I enjoyed reading this short story, and I don't think that it was just becuase it was an easy read, especially after "The Crack Up," I thought the story was interesting. I thought it was funny that this girl was so interested in watching this middle-aged woman and her young husband. And that them kissing sparked her thinking about how she has never been kissed like that and she has never been loved like that.

In my opinion, when the middle-aged woman says "I could tell you stories" she means that a lot of things have happened to her and the young man that are interesting. I don't think that she would actually have told them, but she is implying that they have had a very interesting time together. For example, the fact that everyone thinks that they are mother and son probably has made for some interesting experiences. People aren't used to seeing a mother and a son kissing passionately in public. I really don't think that the woman was being narcissitic or lying. The situation is unusual enough that it would make for interesting storires.

I really love the quote that we talked about in class, "A story, we sense, is the only possible habitation for the burden of our witnessing." When I first read this I didn't understand it, but after we talked about it in class, it makes perfect sense and I think it's very true. Listening to stories really is not the same as being there, but it is definitely the closest we can get. A lot of important things in our society are based on stories including religion. I really like one of the last things that we talked about, that stories are our responsibility to relay these important moments. It's true, we depend on stories in a lot of important things like in court cases, or in historical things.

AP English so far...

So far AP English has been interesting. We have had homework every single night and, especially this week, it was stressful for me. Coming up with sentences for the vocabulary has actually been kind of challenging for me. Earlier this week, during the double, we had one of the most in depth class discussions I have ever had and at times I felt like it was way over my head. The essay that we read this week that F. Scott Fitzgerald was hard for me. Partially because I was trying to read it at 11:00 at night and I really didn't like F. Scott much after reading it. I thought he was crazy and extremely intolerant. My favorite part of that essay was him listing the kinds of people that he likes, girls until their 14, boys after the age of 7, he hates all strangers etc. I haven't read the next essay yet, but I'm hoping it's not quite as difficult. I enjoy our class discussions, and I really like talking about the Great Gatsby. When I first read Gatsby, I really didn't like it, but now after we've talked about it, I understand it more and am starting to like the book.