The Next America: Chapters 1-3

I loved chapter 1 so much. Calling the GOP "Pale, Male, and Stale" was so accurate and true that I started laughing out loud while reading it. I had an easy time reading this introduction as a lot of what was said was talked about in my politics class here, so this first chapter was basically a review of what I have been learning for the past couple of weeks. Something that I did find interesting however, was the fast growing support for the legalization of marijuana, as the percent of support seems to keep on rising ever so quickly.

Just reading the first page left me in awe in chapter 2. 10000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day!? Thats only baby boomers! While reading, the idea of putting a life on hold is weird to me. I understand that he can't do anything about it, however just relaxing and not trying to break free is the issue I see. If he's too comfortable, he will never want to leave. This safety net is making millennials less worried about the future, and worry can be a good thing sometimes. I had never heard of this boomer die websites before, but they sounded creepy. Who cares if your bashing baby boomers on the web anyways? Most Baby boomers will never see it. Thats what I believe anyways, theres not point to complaining to the internet if you want something done, and even if you were going to complain, what would you say? People complaining about baby boomers aren't helping a cause at all, they are just complaining.

Again, I love all these percentages they are throwing at us! 41% of children are born to unmarried couples? That's crazy! As long as the children are being cared for, I don't mind. I just think it's crazy that that number is so high! I'll end this post with another great quote, that was sassy and snarky and makes me love this book more and more.
"Silent Generation: Uneasy with [...] the size of growing government. But hands off their social security and medicare!"

Synthesis Draft 1

Sherry Turkle argues in her article How Computers Change the Way We Think that computers have dramatically changed the way we are thinking, not only about computers but in life in general. Turkle argues that computers have been helping people due to their convenience and easy of use, and she used an example of a writer to show her point.  The essence of Turkle’s essay is that computers have created a new way of thinking, and that millennials are taking it with stride. Millennials are becoming more efficient because of their adaptability to the technology they are presented with.  Turkle explores how millennials are  always trying to cut corners and figure out the fastest and effortless way to get jobs done. The intended audience is well educated people, specifically well educated people who read The Chronicle. Turkle supports the idea that millennials are far from lazy, they are innovators. Catherine Rampell wrote the article A Generation of Slackers? which critically addresses what is happening with the millennials’ work habits. She supports the notion that generation gap is what is driving conflict between generations, and that if this animosity did not exist the baby boomers could come to understand how the millennials work, and also have the millennials make some compromise too. Catherine Rampell agrees with Turkle on the point that millennials are just misunderstood and are starting off in jobs on the wrong foot. Both authors are sympathetic for millennials, and are not overtly for one side or the other.

The Millennials in the Workplace, a satirical video made by Official Comedy, shows the “lazy” millennial in a satirical way. This video hurts the millennial even though its satire. People see this video and laugh about it, but realize some parts hold truth to them. Millennials can act normal in the workplace and be productive, and people do realize this, however the video does contain bad press for the millennial.

(The different colors are different sources, heres a monocolored version.)

Sherry Turkle argues in her article How Computers Change the Way We Think that computers have dramatically changed the way we are thinking, not only about computers but in life in general. Turkle argues that computers have been helping people due to their convenience and easy of use, and she used an example of a writer to show her point.  The essence of Turkle’s essay is that computers have created a new way of thinking, and that millennials are taking it with stride. Millennials are becoming more efficient because of their adaptability to the technology they are presented with.  Turkle explores how millennials are  always trying to cut corners and figure out the fastest and effortless way to get jobs done. The intended audience is well educated people, specifically well educated people who read The Chronicle. Turkle supports the idea that millennials are far from lazy, they are innovators. Catherine Rampell wrote the article A Generation of Slackers? which critically addresses what is happening with the millennials’ work habits. She supports the notion that generation gap is what is driving conflict between generations, and that if this animosity did not exist the baby boomers could come to understand how the millennials work, and also have the millennials make some compromise too. Catherine Rampell agrees with Turkle on the point that millennials are just misunderstood and are starting off in jobs on the wrong foot. Both authors are sympathetic for millennials, and are not overtly for one side or the other.

The Millennials in the Workplace, a satirical video made by Official Comedy, shows the “lazy” millennial in a satirical way. This video hurts the millennial even though its satire. People see this video and laugh about it, but realize some parts hold truth to them. Millennials can act normal in the workplace and be productive, and people do realize this, however the video does contain bad press for the millennial.

Outline

The two interrelated issues I selected were: Millennials are entitled and Millennials are lazy.
I believe that Millennials are entitled, however they are not lazy, they are creative and hardworking.

The first source I chose to use for my article relates to both of my points, Sherry Turkle's article on "How Computers Change the Way We Think". The article talks about how computers have been influencing our daily lives. They have made people better writers, as they can edit and change their writing on a whim. It makes people more efficient, and makes people think about the best way to handle situations. This part relates to the lazy aspect, as even though millennial are lazy, they still want the most efficient ways to do things. The ability to have all of these different features at our fingertips does make us entitled, as we expect everything to work correctly and fast while working on computers. The stance of this article points to support of how computers are changing the way people think. The intended audience is well educated people, specifically well educated people who read The Chronicle.

The next source I began looking at to relate back to my two interrelated issues was the article by Catherine Rampell, A Generation of Slackers? The article critically addresses what is happening with milennials and their work habits. There is a generation gap that is making it hard for the two generations to really understand how they are supposed to be working together. This article helps support my argument that milennials are misunderstood, and they are not lazy, they are hardworking and are always trying to find the easiest most efficient way to do things. Their stance during the article seems to be sympathetic for millennials, as she wrote the article to try and understand how they work.

The final source I will be using is the "Millennials in the Workplace" video by Official Comedy. This is a satirical video that shows what baby boomers think of millennials in the workplace. Their stance seems to be pointing out the flaws they hold in the workplace. Even if it is satricial, there is some truth, as they believe they are entitled. They believe the company is lucky to have them, that they should be paid as much as the seniors at the workplace, and that they should be given their freedom because they have always had it.

I plan to use a prezi to convey my message about milennials. Prezi's are interactive with the viewer as the transitions used in the presentation keep the reader interested, while the small number of words on each slide keeps the pacing fast and inclusive. Prezi's are a great presentation tool because the program was built entirely off of the idea of speaking presentations with visual aides. The biggest downside and barrier for a prezi in the context of this project is slide length. With 1500 words, there is going to be a lot of slides. With a presentation, visual aides are supposed to be aiding the speaking portion, not the reverse. I am going to have to find a good amount of information to put onto a slide in order to keep the prezi flowing nicely while also reaching the needed 1500 words. If I can find the right balance with strong, credible information, a prezi will work wonderfully.

The criticism that millennials face is a paradox, as our laziness drives us to create the most efficient ways to do things, so really, by being lazy, we are the exact opposite of lazy. Millennials seem lazy, however our drive to be lazy causes us to think critically about how to be the most efficient version of ourselves and how to improve what we use. Therefore, even millennials are the common idea of lazy, they are not lazy, and instead are very productive members of society. Some forms of arguments that could be used to argue this include block by block. It sounds out of place at first, but by showing one story in the unefficient form and then one story in the efficient form, the argument for the hard word millennials put in could be seen. The problem solving aspect  could also be strongly shown from a problem/solution strategy for arguing.
On the other hand, millennials are entitled. We have had everything handed to us and we do take things for granted. We complain about wanting new iPhones when they come out, and being up to date with the latest fashions. While we are enabled by our parents and relatives, that is not the point of the argument. The point is that we are entitled, it does not matter how or why we are, the simple fact is that we are entitled because of our societal circumstances. We believe we deserve a lot of things for minimal or no work whatsoever. Some good forms of proving this would be anecdotal, as the iPhone example is a great example. Cause-Effect could also prove useful, as it could explain the whole process of entitlement anyways.

With the first source I am using, my stance correlates with their stance. We both believe that millennials are just trying to find the most efficient ways to achieve progress and innovation, and while some may perceive them as lazy because of the end results of their methods, they are actively trying to make things better. This article also alludes to how millennials have access to all of these great technologies to help people, however I feel like millennials are entitled because of it, and while entitlement is not bad in this day and age in the sense of expecting the societal norms, entitlement exists.  The second source argues that millennials are slackers in the workplace due to generation gaps. This is true, but its not what I am trying to argue. I am trying to argue that millennials work best when they are left to make things better themselves. Millennials with a drive to get something done are some of the hardest workers out there, because we want to achieve something, we do not like being beaten. Finally, with the third source, I agree that millennials are being too entitled. They believe that they can start a job and already be as important as someone who has been there for twenty years. It doesn't happen that easily, yet millennials are too self absorbed to care.

Midterm Reflection

To think rhetorically means to create opinions in your head, and start creating an argument for your opinion. Part of rhetoric is also being able to persuade people to your opinion or away from others. As this class continues on, the definition will shift to being able to go through all the steps we are going through now in our head. We will be able to create stances in our head after reading articles, as well as being able to identify rhetorical parts or ideas in articles we read. The biggest sticky point for me is opening up in my writing. I'm used to writing like a robot with no emotion. This class has challenged me to put my thoughts and emotions into my writing and let them shine, instead of just following a certain pattern to get an A. By being able to better express myself, I feel like a stronger writer. The blog posts have been working really well. They have been causing me to think carefully about the articles and write what I feel about the article. The only thing I would like is less questions to go along with the article. I feel like I actually pay more attention to the article when I am able to freely read it and respond to it, rather than just looking for keywords to answer questions.

Midterm Version of "A Balancing Act" (Risky Play Final Draft)

Parents of the millennials think they are helping their children by keeping them safe. However, overprotective parenting is being linked to a lack of child development relating to independence. Atlantic article author Hanna Rosin talks about how risky play among children has fallen due to overprotective parenting over decades of time. Children need to be able to figure out their own paths and to explore their surroundings, which are constantly being monitored and hindered upon by adults. When children do get access to unsupervised play however, they expand on their knowledge of their surroundings and figure out what to do themselves, without help from adults. Risky play is the act of doing dangerous play to help children grow. Children should be allowed to have some risky play to grow as a human and to learn how to handle experiences on their own.
Risky play will always be a necessity of life, whether adults or other authority figures will try to stop is irrelevant, it will happen. Kids need to be able to experience some things on their own to learn how to deal with adult situations better. If they are confined to their own household and the protections of their parents they will be safe, but they will never learn about what is in the world outside of the house, what some of the other kids are doing, which their parents probably wouldn't approve of without their supervision.
Growing up, I definitely stayed inside the house a lot, or in my backyard where my parents could see me. However, every once in a while I would take my bike and ride it around the block on the sidewalk, to where my parents couldn't see me and I felt free. I was by myself, and I was a  11 year old paranoid kid, so I wasn't worried about where my parents were, I was more worried about the people walking along the sidewalks or scary cars driving by. Over time, I became more comfortable with doing activities without adult supervision, like walking home from school and staying home by myself, and I continued to grow as a person thanks to that.
Mary E. Stapleton School was right down the street, exactly one mile away from my house. Cameron Middle school was exactly in between my house and Stapleton, exactly one mile away. When I was in middle school, I did not like being home alone, so I would always walk over to my mom’s work, Stapleton, where she is a kindergarten teacher. My brother is two years older, and would walk with me there, with his friends and my friends tagging along too. For whatever reason, I wanted to get back to Stapleton fast, so I had my brother’s friend ride my over, with me standing on his bicycle pegs. Everything was fine as we we’re going there, but as we were getting close I thought it would be a great idea to jump off the pegs, instead of waiting for him to stop. I did, ended up doing a flip, and I landed on my back. I ended up being fine, and I did not realize how scary it was until after the fact. There were not adults involved, and I walked away with just a couple of scrapes. I did not tell anyone because no adults were there for it and I was not too badly hurt, so I did not see the problem with it. This radically different than the normal me, who would have sat there and cried. This type of speedy, unsupervised play could have gotten me seriously injured, but it did not.
Adults have begun to move away from risky play because they don’t want to be seen as a bad parent.
During her Atlantic article, “The Overprotected Kid,” Rosin stated “As the Tribune reader had intuited, the cultural understanding of acceptable risk began to shift, such that any known risk became nearly synonymous with hazard”.  This quote brings out a lot of meaning, and an almost chicken and the egg situation. Did the overprotected kid come first, and harsher regulation due to parent’s needs, or did the parents hear about accidents, push for higher regulations, and then just snowball from there? If my parents were there when I jumped off the pegs, I could not even fathom what would have happened. I did something dangerous, however I took responsibility for myself and I ended up okay. The types of overprotected parents talked about in the article probably would have quarantined the whole block and called in every agency imaginable to get something done about, while simultaneously lobbying in the state congress to get a ban on bicycle pegs.
Rosin had been writing the article about this type of parenting where kids do their own activities away from their parents and then she finally sees her kid do it. When she watches her son go to roll down the hill and get muddy and wet, she thinks he is going to cry, but instead he stands up and shakes it off. I believe in this moment she realizes that it can be a good thing for kids to learn by themselves without being sheltered. During the article, she was writing it like a stranger looking in, comparing her experience to the modern child’s experience, and even she had forgotten what she had done as a child for she was not prepared to let her kid go free, yet he thrived when he got to the playground. I think the generations are polarizing, one generation gives too little freedom, so the next gives too much.
There needs to be a balance in order to have a healthy lifestyle, because being too cooped up can be bad for someone, but being always free can be just as bad. Once a balance is found, parents can be better parents. Both Rosin’s kid and I chose not to cry when we faced danger while playing unsupervised. Instead, we learned that we had to be able to deal with problems ourselves and adapt to situations. The parallel between myself and Rosin’s child is a great bridge to show that this is something kids will naturally learn to do, and should be given the option to learn, because everyone should be able to have unsupervised play sometimes. If children were allowed to just go off and do anything without any supervision, they could become seriously injured because they believe they can do anything without serious repercussions. Sometimes, the adult voice of reason is beneficially to children.
Risky play is necessary for the development of children, and while it is not okay all the time, it should be permitted to help foster our children’s learning. Parents, at the heart of things, are only looking out for what is best for their children because they truly care about them and want them to succeed. However, these parents are shielding their children from the world. By letting children have the essence of freedom, they will become more comfortable with their surroundings.  Children need to grow on their own, and if adults are putting a stop to that, it threatens the child’s development, which is ironic because the adults think they are helping the child grow up normally.

White People

The main point/argument that the video is trying to show is that white people hold too much power in today's society, and that we are moving away from that, and becoming more accepting. This video is making the argument that white people have had it good for so long, and that their time is moving more towards equality between other people, not just whites. The main tactic used in this video is satire, a form of humor. The video being satirical makes it very easy to show what the counterargument believes, and why its not okay. The audience in this case is the SNL viewers, who come in expecting it to be satirical, meaning there's no point in having to explain why this is satire, as the audience is expected to know its satire. They also use data, to show how we have had white presidents and senators.

Strategies for Arguing

"Our destiny is stitched together like those 50 stars"
 Obama said this during one of his speeches, and it saying that America began with unity of the people for common goals, and that America today is still aiming for common goals, even though they might be different compared to the original goals. We are all on the same team, and we should not be fighting each other, we are all Americans. Classification is putting something into a group, effectively defining it by the terms by which that group is defined by. For example, if you classify a beagle as a dog, they are assumed to have 4 legs, a tail, and bark. Moving onto comparing and contrasting;

There are two different ways you can compare/contrast in an essay.
Block by Block examines one story at a time, effectively showing the differences, for example:

Molly bought a new 2007 Mustang for $20,000. The color of the Mustang she bought is red.
Alex bought a new 2007 Mustang for $15,000. The color of the Mustang he bought is blue.

while Point by Point is what I prefer, where there is less flow to a story but it clearly compares/contrasts what your trying to do, for example:

Molly bought a new 2007 Mustang for $20,000. Alex also bought a new 2007 mustang, for $15,000! Molly's Mustang is blue, while Alex's is red.

You'll want to define keywords when you are arguing in your writing. When you give a clear definition, people will have a harder time disputing that and your argument will be stronger. Strong descriptions use intense imagery, and lots of it. You want to paint pictures. Storytelling is an important part of writing, and the clearer you can make the scene, the more immersive it will feel. This is exactly what author Terry Tempest Williams does, and what makes his excerpt in the chapter so strong.

Of the three types of Rhetoric, Pathos has the ability to be the strongest, as it can evoke intense emotion. Steve Jobs invoked pathos when talking about his cancer when he explained what they did and how they ran tests on him, and then in his final paragraph where he is telling what he learned in life. He is appealing to the reader's emotions, and making them feel for him and what he has had to go through.

As long as something isn't true to be completely neutral and unbiased, humor can always be used in academic texts, in finite amounts. Satire is fine, and people will be able to catch on to satire due to the language of the text, and other humor is usually few and far between. The Onion is a popular online satirical newspaper, and in this chapter an excerpt from it talks about issues about how athletics are becoming an increasingly big part of colleges, and people are getting into colleges just for being good at athletics, and then majoring in something random just to keep playing their sport.

In order to develop their problem/solution speech, writers must reiterate what the problem is, and how they want to solve it. They must also back it up with research. Martin Luther King's speech has been able to resonate with people for over 4 decades because of it's sheer power. He was an incredible public speaker, and his words were the voice of the civil rights movement. He was the figurehead of the civil rights movement, and that is why his famous speech in DC is still resonating today.

Computers Change the Way We Think

This article was so interesting! Before even reading the article, the title reminded me of something I learned in my computer science class. It had to do with making us faster readers, and the when we watched words flashing at an increasing pace we could actually becoming faster readers by doing it for a prolonged period (not all at one time, over a period of a week or more) to achieve results.

Once I began reading the article, I was a bit sad that what I just talked about wasn't in the article, but the article was interesting nonetheless. Presentations are such a big deal for us, and powerpoint has made it easier and more interactive and interesting for us to listen and now watch presentations. I believe that computers are making life so much better for us.

One of the downsides to computers however is that people aren't really learning as much. I have always been a pretty good speller, but for some people they rely on spellcheck to fix all of their words for them. This is bad as people won't always have spellcheck with them where ever they are in life, and that they will have to figure out how to spell something on the spot, or ask someone.

Computer Culture is huge, and it is a part of everyone's daily lives now, and it is one of the most important aspects of many people's lives today.

They're like pets that do work sometimes

In this first video, "Millennials in the Workplace", the video takes a satirical view on what millennials believe they are entitled to when working. The video is making fun of the common stereotypes that millennials are subjected to, and they are shown as lazy, and even stupid sometimes, as with the example of time. The title of this post is from the end of the video, where it was shown at the bottom for a second or two. This quote is rude to the millennials, even if the video itself is satirical. Believing that we are pets because we find different ways to do things that don't meet their exact quota's is wrong.

The second video acts like a backslash to the first video. While the first video trashed millennials, mostly by the Baby Boomers (and maybe a one or two Gen Xers) the second video is all millennials who are taking the offensive against Baby Boomers. They talk about how it was the baby boomers that put them in the situation in the first place, and that if they should be blaming anyone, its themselves. Just because we do things differently now does not make us stupid or lazy.

Both of these videos displayed their message clearly, with the first taking a satirical approach and the second taking a mix of satire/condescending. Their messages were passing blame between generations, which is childish from both sides, to be honest. If people spent more time working together instead of insulting other generations, we could be getting more done.

The Me Decade to the Me Millennium

The idea of narcissism and how it relates to our everyday lives is a big topic, and author Imogen Tyler handles it beautifully. Identity politics, as she describes it, is similar to narcissism in that people are trying to think what is best for themselves in this world, and many people see that as narcissism. She talks about how the "new narcissism" is about self-gratification, which is different than what "old narcissism" is, which is basically what it is defined by, a love of oneself over all others.
Minorities were the target of many of these narcissism papers she provided in the article, showing how it was hurting the dominant white males in society. Then the president Jimmy Carter starts talking about how narcissism will destroy the social structure of America. What? People caring about themselves and their ideas is going to destroy everything? No. People will constantly have to depend on each other, but now you actually have to treat other people with respect instead of just telling people what you want. These authors that Tyler has showcased only prove that narcissism is the right direction for us. The old power players are scared of the narcissism rising in our world. Let them be scared, they can't trick the masses anymore.

Final draft of Risky Play!

Parents of the millennials think they are helping their children by keeping them safe. However, overprotective parenting is being linked to a lack of child development relating to independence. Children need to be able to figure out their own paths and to explore their surroundings, which are constantly being monitored and hindered upon by adults. When children do get access to unsupervised play however, they expand on their knowledge of their surroundings and figure out what to do themselves, without help from adults. Risky play is the act of doing dangerous play to help children grow. Children should be allowed to have some risky play to grow as a human and to learn how to handle experiences on their own.
Risky play will always be a necessity of life, whether adults or other authority figures will try to stop is irrelevant, it will happen. Kids need to be able to experience some things on their own to learn how to deal with adult situations better. If they are confined to their own household and the protections of their parents they will be safe, but they will never learn about what is in the world outside of the house, what some of the other kids are doing, which their parents probably wouldn't approve of without their supervision. Growing up, I definitely stayed inside the house a lot, or in my backyard where my parents could see me. However, every once in a while I would take my bike and ride it around the block on the sidewalk, to where my parents couldn't see me and I felt free. I was by myself, and I was a  11 year old paranoid kid, so I wasn't worried about where my parents were, I was more worried about the people walking along the sidewalks or scary cars driving by. Over time, I became more comfortable with doing activities without adult supervision, like walking home from school and staying home by myself, and I continued to grow as a person thanks to that.
Mary E. Stapleton School was right down the street, exactly one mile away from my house. Cameron Middle school was exactly in between my house and Stapleton, exactly one mile away. When I was in middle school, I did not like being home alone, so I would always walk over to my mom’s work, Stapleton, where she is a kindergarten teacher. My brother is two years older, and would walk with me there, with his friends and my friends tagging along too. For whatever reason, I wanted to get back to Stapleton fast, so I had my brother’s friend ride my over, with me standing on his bicycle pegs. Everything was fine as we we’re going there, but as we were getting close I thought it would be a great idea to jump off the pegs, instead of waiting for him to stop. I did, ended up doing a flip, and I landed on my back. I ended up being fine, and I did not realize how scary it was until after the fact. There were not adults involved, and I walked away with just a couple of scrapes. I did not tell anyone because no adults were there for it and I was not too badly hurt, so I did not see the problem with it. This radically different than the normal me, who would have sat there and cried. This is connected to Gray’s article, which included a part about how children need to keep their emotions in check. This type of speedy, unsupervised play could have gotten me seriously injured, but it did not.
Adults have begun to move away from risky play because they don’t want to be seen as a bad parent. During her Atlantic article, “The Overprotected Kid,” Rosin stated “As the Tribune reader had intuited, the cultural understanding of acceptable risk began to shift, such that any known risk became nearly synonymous with hazard”.  This quote brings out a lot of meaning, and an almost chicken and the egg situation. Did the overprotected kid come first, and harsher regulation due to parent’s needs, or did the parents hear about accidents, push for higher regulations, and then just snowball from there? If my parents were there when I jumped off the pegs, I couldn’t even fathom what would have happened. I did something dangerous, however I took responsibility for myself and I ended up okay. The types of overprotected parents talked about in the article probably would have quarantined the whole block and called in every agency imaginable to get something done about, while simultaneously lobbying in the state congress to get a ban on bicycle pegs.
Rosin had been writing the article about this type of parenting where kids do their own activities away from their parents and then she finally sees her kid do it. When she watches her son go to roll down the hill and get muddy and wet, she thinks he is going to cry, but instead he stands up and shakes it off. I believe in this moment she realizes that it can be a good thing for kids to learn by themselves without being sheltered. During the article, she was writing it like a stranger looking in, comparing her experience to the modern child’s experience, and even she had forgotten what she had done as a child for she was not prepared to let her kid go free, yet he thrived when he got to the playground. I think the generations are polarizing, one generation gives too little freedom, so the next gives too much. There needs to be a balance in order to have a healthy lifestyle, because being too cooped up can be bad for someone, but being always free can be just as bad. Once a balance is found, parents can be better parents. Both Rosin’s kid and I chose not to cry when we faced danger while playing unsupervised. Instead, we learned that we had to be able to deal with problems ourselves and adapt to situations. The parallel between myself and Rosin’s child is a great bridge to show that this is something kids will naturally learn to do, and should be given the option to learn, because everyone should be able to have unsupervised play sometimes.
Risky play is necessary for the development of children, and while it is not okay all the time, it should be permitted to help foster our children’s learning. Parents, at the heart of things, are only looking out for what is best for their children because they truly care about them and want them to succeed. However, these parents are shielding their children from the world. By letting children have the essence of freedom, they will become more comfortable with their surroundings.  Children need to grow on their own, and if adults are putting a stop to that, it threatens the child’s development, which is ironic because the adults think they are helping the child grow up normally.

Thinking Rhetorically (Everyone's an author)

To think rhetorically means you have to be open to listening to other people, for starters. You need to be understanding of the people you are listening to, and really pay attention to what they have to say. Once you hear their views, you have to think about why the hold those views, what is their life like, what is the context of the situation they are in, ect. After listening and thinking about another person’s point of view, you create your own opinion of the situation, which was probably influenced by what the person you talked to said.

A rhetorical situation is an event in which a rhetorical speech takes place, and it takes note of everything. The audience of a rhetorical situation is whoever the speech is intended for, as a speech would sound different if it was for a six year old compared to a thirty year old. The purpose in a rhetorical situation is what your goal is. Why are is the speech being made? Stance, is well, the stance you have on the topic your talking about. If the speech is informative, you should try to be objective. The context of the situation deals with what is already known about the topic, and how you are working on it. If you don’t have a lot of time, your project could suffer. The medium and design of a rhetorical situation deals with how to present your project. Should it be spoken? A poster? A handout? The project lead needs to decide which is the best course for their project.  The genre in a rhetorical situation deals with how to organize your project, whether it should be casual, formal, or somewhere inbetween.

Watson and Crick understood what the demographic of Nature would be, and thus used mainly ethos, which is making sure you are a credible source, to show their audience that they knew what they were talking about. By analyzing the demographic of Nature, they were better prepared to match their writing for the target audience.  

As we are learning in this class, writers need to have a voice. If they are writing about something they have only studied in books and haven’t actually thought about being in a position like that, they can sound drastically different that how they might want to sound. Thinking rhetorically lets them better understand the subjects they are writing about, and allows them to critically think about their writing more than they normally would.

Doing your homework in the sense of this article means to analyze the information you can find about the topic, and then synthesize the information you have learned to make a conclusion. In the example of buying a car, you would want to analyze the data such as MPG, color, cost, brand, ect. Then, after analyzing it, you would pick what is best suited for your needs. A personal example would be picking a college, analyze the colleges to see which have your majors, how far away they are, cost, and then synthesize the information to choose which one you want to attend.

Thanks for reading! 

“Any known risk becomes synonymous with hazard”

Parents of the millennials think they are helping their children by keeping them safe. However, overprotective parenting is being linked to a lack of child development relating to independence. Children need to be able to figure out their own paths and to explore their surroundings, which are constantly being monitored and hindered upon by adults. When children do get access to unsupervised play however, they expand on their knowledge of their surroundings and figure out what to do themselves, without help from adults. Children should be allowed to have some risky play to grow as a human and to learn how to handle experiences on their own.

Risky play will always be a necessity of life, whether adults or other authority figures will try to stop is irrelevant, it will happen. Kids need to be able to experience some things on their own to learn how to deal with adult situations better. If they are confined to their own household and the protections of their parents they will be safe, but they will never learn about what is in the world outside of the house, what some of the other kids are doing, which their parents probably wouldn't approve of without their supervision. Growing up, I definitely stayed inside the house a lot, or in my backyard where my parents could see me. However, every once in a while I would take my bike and ride it around the block, to where my parents couldn't see me and I felt free. I was by myself, and I was a paranoid kid, so I wasn't worried about where my parents were, I was more worried about the people walking along the sidewalks or scary cars driving by. Over time, I became more comfortable with doing things without adult supervision, like walking home from school and staying home by myself, and I continued to grow as a person thanks to that.

Mary E. Stapleton School was right down the street, exactly one mile away from my house. Cameron Middle school was exactly in between my house and Stapleton, exactly one mile away. When I was in middle school, I did not like being home alone, so I would always walk over to my mom’s work, Stapleton, where she is a kindergarten teacher. My brother is two years older, and would walk with me there, with his friends and my friends tagging along too. For whatever reason, I wanted to get back to Stapleton fast, so I had my brother’s friend ride my over, with me standing on his bicycle pegs. Everything was fine as we we’re going there, but as we were getting close I thought it would be a great idea to jump off the pegs, instead of waiting for him to stop. I did, ended up doing a flip, and I landed on my back. I ended up being fine, and I did not realize how scary it was until after the fact. There were not adults involved, and I walked away with just a couple of scrapes. I did not tell anyone because no adults were there for it and I was not too badly hurt, so I did not see the problem with it. This radically different than the normal me, who would have sat there and cried.[Ma1]  This type of speedy, unsupervised play could have gotten me seriously injured, but it did not.

Adults have begun to move away from risky play because they don’t want to be seen as a bad parent. Du[Ma2] ring her article, “The Overprotected Kid”, Rosin stated “As the Tribune reader had intuited, the cultural understanding of acceptable risk began to shift, such that any known risk became nearly synonymous with hazard”.[Ma3]   This quote brings out a lot of meaning, and an almost chicken and the egg situation. Did the overprotected kid come first, and harsher regulation due to parent’s needs, or did the parents hear about accidents, push for higher regulations, and then just snowball from there? If my parents were there when I jumped off the pegs, I couldn’t even fathom what would have happened. I did something dangerous, however I took responsibility for myself and I ended up okay. The types of overprotected parents talked about in the article probably would have quarantined the whole block and called in every agency imaginable to get something done about, while simultaneously lobbying in the state congress to get a ban on bicycle pegs.

Rosin had been writing the article about this type of parenting where kids do their own thing and then she finally sees her kid do it. When she watches her son, she thinks he is going to cry, but instead he stands up and shakes it off. I believe in this moment she realizes that it can be a good thing for kids to learn by themselves without being sheltered. During the article, she was writing it like a stranger looking in, comparing her experience to the modern child’s experience, and even she had forgotten what she had done as a child for she was not prepared to let her kid go free, yet he thrived when he got to the playground. I think the generations are polarizing, one generation gives too little freedom, so the next gives too much. There needs to be a balance in order to have a healthy lifestyle, because being too cooped up can be bad for someone, but being always free can be just as bad. Once a balance is found, parents can be better parents.

Risky play is necessary for the development of children, and while it is not okay all the time, it should be permitted to help foster our children’s learning. Parents, at the heart of things, are only looking out for what is best for their children because they truly care about them and want them to succeed. However, these parents are shielding their children from the world. By letting children have the essence of freedom, they will become more comfortable with their surroundings.  Children need to grow on their own, and if adults are putting a stop to that, it threatens the child’s development, which is ironic because the adults think they are helping the child grow up normally.

The Shitty First Draft

      Lamott says it perfectly, the first draft is like the little kid version of your essay, where anything is okay to say, because most people will not see it. You can make mistakes with your grammar (although if I catch grammar mistakes I will fix them because they are annoying!), leave blanks where words you can't think of should go, and just be yourself in your draft. You can put all your ideas in and just sort them out later. That is why its a draft, its not meant to be presentable the first time you write it. Revision will fix what needs to be fixed when you get there, but for the first draft, just write what you want to include in your paper. It's almost like digging for gold through your own paper. Say you have just written 3000 words, and the essay needs to be 1500. Go through the essay and start marking what you like or alternatively, start deleting or highlighting what you don't. Then with the remaining "good" writing, fix up the flow of the paper and see how it looks from there. If it needs more, go back and look at some of the stuff you got rid of, or if it needs less, just delete some more unnecessary information. The writing from this style seems like it would be a lot more personal too, which can be a good thing. It can show your passion for a topic and make your opinion present in an essay.

Overall, the idea of a shitty first draft is something I would like to try, but I tend to rigidly stick to rules I have learned it might be hard for me to do so.

The Inspired Writer!

Everyone has experienced the Inspired Writer in one way or another, everyone believes that some people are just naturally gifted writers. However, there are always misconceptions when people are uninformed. Misconceptions about published writers include always feeling the need to write. People perceive writers as always wanting to write, no matter when or where they might be. This leads into the next misconception, they do not have writers block, and are able to write continuously as they want, for they will always have ideas flowing. Another misconception includes that they will not make mistakes when the write, for they have perfect grammar and the first time they right, everything will be perfect and no revisions will be necessary.  I believed in these misconceptions just like many others. My teacher last year helped me through some of them though. My toughest writing assignment was my senior year research paper in high school. My teacher pushed us to think critically and create the best possible piece of writing we could do. He made sure we we’re making inferences and not just stating facts, or “fancy facts”. I was pushed to my limits to write that paper, and because of all the work I put into it, it came out great.

Allen’s writing process seemed very lost when she got to college. She didn’t really learn any new ways of revision that what she had learned in high school. She felt like she was trudging through writing, it didn’t seem to come natural to her, which she believed meant she wasn’t going to be a good writer, thanks to her idea of the inspired writer. I am surprised she didn’t see herself as a good writer in college. If she didn’t think she was that good, I would have assumed she would have switched majors to something else she thought she could be good at, instead of sticking with a major she thought she was bad at. As she grew up she adapted to a writing formula, which she still recommends and uses. The writing formula starts off with an introduction telling the reader why the paper is going to be important. Stating what the problem of the paper’s topic is the next step in the formula. The next part of the formula is to choose two examples of your topic to show how the problem affects people and/or the environment/surroundings. Next, identify the most common problem with the topic, and how it has tried to be addressed before. Finally, address the problem from a new (your) perspective, and how you would deal with the problem. When this process becomes too restrictive, she turns to other readers, however they need to be accredited. The author’s reason for writing seems to be wanting to communicate with people and share why she believes her ideas are important. My reasons for writing vary. If it is assigned writing about certain topic I don’t find interesting, my writing will suffer. However, if I am passionate about what I am writing about, it will turn out significantly better. 

The Play Deficit

      Both Rosin and Gray believe that freedom is key to child growth and development. Both believe that freedom will make children grow up without needing to rely on adults. They both believe that adults play too much of a role in the lives of kids these days, with Gray citing how “pickup games” have transferred into leagues run by adults with adults coaching and officiating the games. The main theme of these two articles is that kids are losing their independence, and the authors are looking at attempts of trying to bring back a time where kids learned ways of being independent. Gray rose points during his article about how the education establishment really only focuses on getting test scores up. People don’t learn life skills in their classes, they learn about their classes specifically to score well on the tests to prove they understand the material that was given to them. Many students lose out on skills because they never got to have certain experiences as children. Something interesting about Gray’s article was that he talked about the Sudbury Village School, which is actually in my hometown. It isn’t that well known in my town, I had never heard of it before, and most of my friends hadn’t heard of it either. One of the most powerful quotes from Grays article for myself was “You can’t teach creativity.” It really shows that kids need to be able to experience life in order to think outside of the box, instead of becoming another cog in the machine of administrational education.

Summarizing "The Overprotected Kid"

      One of the main points throughout our classes’ posts was that children are being hindered from exploring because of their parent’s over protectiveness. The children at the Land are being sent free into it, where they can learn, play, and figure out the world for themselves, instead of having parents tell them what they should and should not do. Kids should have the hands on experience and be able to refer to that when the encounter situations like it in their future, they need to be able to experience the situations, not hear about them. From the blogs I read, almost everyone every one experienced at least one of the six kinds of risky play. However, Victoria didn't get to experience any of them by herself. This isn't bad, however she still holds most of the same viewpoints that we have when referring the article, so maybe those viewpoints do not hold as much sway as we think. Another outlier viewpoint was Rachel, who was playing Devil’s Advocate on Julia’s blog. She said that prevention is an important part of the learning process, for if something is explained, such as why it should be prevented, children can take that with them instead of having to learn by doing. Children are becoming dependent on technology instead of experiencing events outside for themselves. It’s just easier for the parents as they know their kid is protected while inside of their home. This also relates to another main theme present in the blog posts, that being that kids do have to have a level of independence in order to really experience life and how to better deal with situations on their own. 

The Overprotected Kid

The Millennials face a tough battle against the world as they age, for most never had true freedom growing up and being thrown into society might be a culture shock for them. Hanna Rosen wrote her concerns involving Millennials, including not having enough free will, and due to parents taking control of the kids lives and protecting them, the children seldom got to leave their sight. These parents are a concerned for the Millennials, because they never got to go explore and learn things for themselves. The children need this sense of “free range”, the signifigance of this free range play is that the kids get to feel like they are truly growing up. The older they get, the farther they can go without their parents, and the older they will feel because they feel like they have more responsibility than before.

            Personally, I have always loved being active and playing outside. Starting from childhood, I loved feeling the wind in my hair as I ran and cycled around the neighborhood. I started riding my bike when I was in kindergarten, and I used to ride around the block with my brother, who is two years older than me. We used to go fast down the street, because seldom did cars come down the street in the first place, and if one did, we were always close to the sidewalk anyways. Risky play allows you to see the dangers in the world for yourself, and understand why some things should not be done, instead of just being told that something should not be done.

            However, some children have grown up using only technology, like watching television and playing video games, always inside the safety of their home instead of exploring the outside of their house. Children are more prone to technology now, they would rather stay inside on an iPad than go out and make new friends while doing physical activity. The children probably also are so used to being in their house they become comfortable there, with their parents, and don’t want to explore what else is going on in the world, because they are comfortable where they are. While I personally would not go to this extreme and spend all my time inside with my parents and technology, I also would not want to go to the other extreme, and go to this playgrounds such as The Land.

            The Land is a type of playground where Imagination is key. Modern playgrounds have adults supervising their kids while they play. The Land however, promotes independence in the kids, encouraging them to be themselves and act on their own, without parent supervision. This type of  playground would be called insane by most parents because of how it operates, the kids are free to do whatever they want in the park, and if something is deemed too dangerous, the employees of the playground will step in, but only if they are needed.

            In closing, the author left her own viewpoint about this type of playground. Rosin conveys near the end of the article that as a parent, she knows it can be hard to let your child have their space and be themselves, but it will be fine. They understand the decisions they are making and they need room to experiment, which is why he lets his son roll down the hill instead of trying to stop him. Personally, I believe that that while the Land is definitely addressing a real problem, I would be apprehensive to go there myself, or with my children.