America is Like a Plate of Food

America is often referred to as a melting pot, where people from different backgrounds come together, while mixing their cultures and beliefs. This is not completely accurate, and a look around the country at how the different people that live here have managed to separate themselves from the modern American culture, can prove that. America is actually more like a plate of food, because they are both composed of separate elements that come together to form something good.

            America is a country of immigrants. People from all races and cultures come here to live, making America one of the most diverse countries in the world. New immigrants have found that America has formed its own culture, and earlier in history Americans were not accepting of people bringing their own cultural backgrounds with them. They had the option to assimilate or stay true to their native roots.

            One of the greatest things about America is that, immigrants chose not to completely assimilate, and leave behind their culture. As the country has progressed, people from different cultures have been able to get along and live peacefully with one another, while still holding onto their cultural beliefs and practices.

America can be compared to a plate of food, because much like a plate holds many separate foods, America is composed of many different types of people. Food on a plate stays separate, and then mixes together when we eat it to form nutrients, which helps our bodies function. In America people from different backgrounds can remain separate within their cultures, but come together in families, workplaces, and schools to form institutions that help the country function.

The Problems With Tenure

Teachers are some of the most important people in children’s lives. Their skills and expertise are relied on to educate children. At some point a trend occurred, with teachers becoming greedy about their job and benefits, and they stopped caring about the students. The public education tenure system needs to be changed because it is unfair to the students who do not receive a quality education.

            Geoffrey Canada stated it well in the film Waiting for Superman when he says teachers believe they are entitled to their jobs. The current tenure program leaves the school system powerless to fire teachers that are not helping their students learn. It is a teacher’s job to educate students, and if the students are not learning then the teacher is failing, and they should be able to get fired. A teacher that is consistently doing a bad job of educating children does not deserve to keep his or her job.

            What children learn depends greatly on their teachers. Children learn more when taught by teachers who care and are good at educating.  It is not fair for children to be stuck with teachers that the school knows are not doing a good job. Somehow a teacher’s job became more important than a child’s education. Some teachers just do not care about educating kids; once they get tenure and cannot get fired they stop trying. When seeking tenure, public school teachers should follow the same process as college professors. Then only the dedicated teachers who know how to educate would receive tenure.

 

The Motivation to Learn

There has been debate about education inequality in public schools. Some feel that students living in upper class communities receive a better education than those living in lower class communities. Education inequality is not a valid excuse for those who attend lower class schools because what someone learns is based on the determination and effort put into the learning process.

            The school system is often blamed if a child receives a poor education or does not match up to students from upper class schools. Schools are said to not be challenging enough and the teachers are accused of not teaching anything. These are all excuses made by people who criticize lower class education. There may be some truth to these accusations in some schools, but in reality schools and teachers cannot force students to learn or do their work. The student is responsible for what he or she learns while in school.

            A student will learn as much as he or she wants to learn. A student who is unmotivated to learn and unwilling to try at school has no one to blame for his or her lack of education. If a student is willing to learn, the type of school he or she goes to should not affect his or her education. Reading “Learning to Read” shows that Malcolm X was able to educate himself while in prison, if students today would show that type of dedication to learning we would not have this debate on education inequality. As long as a student has the motivation to learn, he or she can be educated in any setting.

America's Need for Schools

Education is an important part of American society. It is hard to even find job today without some form of education. I disagree with Gatto’s opinion that schools prolong childhood and are obsolete.  Public education is needed in the country because it increases maturity and provides knowledge and skills.

            Gatto was very wrong in his opinion that schools prolong childhood. In my experience, school actually promotes maturity. Childhood is a time to play and have fun with friends, schools do allow time for this at recess, but that time is short lived and cut off after elementary school. In middle school and high school childishness is punished. Students are discouraged from acting childish with consequences such as detention, referrals, and revoking of privileges. In high school you are expected to act mature in preparation for entering society as an adult.

            In contrast to Gotto’s opinion, education is beneficial to society. There are parents and families that are unable to educate their children due to substance abuse problems or a lack of education themselves. At school students are taught appropriate social behavior and manners that they may not learn at home. School provides students the opportunity to learn challenging subjects such as chemistry and geometry, which would be hard to learn without help from someone educated. School encourages students to seek higher education and provides them with the resources necessary to go to college. Gatto was very wrong to suggest that we do not need schools because they are a very important part of helping children grow and prosper.

Making Decisions Before Puberty

A rising hot topic that has come about is transgendered children. Families are struggling with children that insist that they were born into the wrong body. Parents are torn between guiding their children’s mind towards ignoring their feelings and accepting their bodies or having their children undergo medical treatment to change their bodies. Parents are allowing their children as young as eleven to make these life altering decisions. Children should not be allowed to make decisions concerning their own medical treatment until they have reached well into puberty because only then can they truly understand their bodies.

            Having children wait until puberty to do any kind of medical treatment for gender identity problems is the best moral decision for parents. Rosin gives an example of a girl that struggled with wanting to be a boy but soon after she started her period her views changed and now she is living a happy life as a female (Rosin 562). This example shows how children’s minds change during puberty, so it’s crazy that parents would allow their pre-pubescent children to undergo such drastic changes to their bodies.

            Critics that disagree with waiting, bring up the fact that puberty blockers only work if you use them before a child goes through puberty.  Allowing your child to do this could potentially make things worse if they have a bad reaction to the drugs or undergo ridicule from peers due to the difference in their appearance. Having any kind of medical gender treatment is a major decision that many parents make due to the wishes of their children. The roles of parents are to protect their children and make the best decisions possible for them. Waiting until children are mature enough to know if they want these changes is the best option for parents.

America's Misconception of Poor

We live in an amazing country that provides us with multiple opportunities and freedoms. We have so much opportunity and freedom that we put ourselves in a bubble, ignoring the struggle of those living in countries less fortunate than ours. Americans have a misconception of what it means to be poor because of the media portrayal of the rich and famous.

            Our image of wealth and success comes mostly from the media. The media constantly bombards us with images and stories about the rich and famous. We start to idolize those people and desire to be like them. Once we realize how unlikely it is that we will reach their wealth, we feel insecure about own wealth and lifestyle, and consider ourselves poor and unsuccessful. The media also depict poor people very negatively. Television shows portray poor people as dirty, substance abusers, and harmful to themselves and others (Kendall 334). This image guides us to believe we are better than the poor and warns us never to be at that level of society.

            What some people fail to realize is that the poor in America are richer than in other countries. This country provides many shelters and programs to aid the poor and keep them from starving, something unseen in other countries. We consider someone poor based on how much money they make, while in other countries the poor have no money. In America we focus on what we don’t have compared to the rich people, when we should be focusing on how abundant our lives our compared to the truly poor in third world countries. As Americans we need to realize that we are much more fortunate than we give ourselves credit for.

Money and Success Week 1

In America there is a vast difference between the upper and lower class. This has caused some to wonder why some people are not as successful as others. Dalton suggests that it is impossible for the lower class to be successful without changes to the structure of economy and availably of public resources (Dalton 274).  This is an invalid assumption. All Americans have equal opportunities because anyone can be successful with hard work and initiative.

            Everyone has the ability to strive for success. Some people use the unpredictability and unfairness of life as an excuse for being poor and not succeeding. There are many opportunities for people to find jobs, make money and become a success. All children have the ability to attend public school and gain a high school diploma. Financial Aid is available for students with poor families to attend community college. The military is also an option that pays well and can provide a career. There is a program called Job Corp that provides room and board while paying you to learn a trade. There is little room for excuse when you live in a country that provides you with so much opportunity.

            Anyone can accomplish their goals if they work hard enough. The options I listed are not spoon-fed to people. They require the effort to seek them out and work for them. Some people are lazy and do not want to pursue them, others just do not care. All successful people you see today have either worked hard or continue to work hard for their success.

In the reading material My Big Fat Straight Wedding, Andrew Sullivan discusses topics such as homosexuality being an “involuntary characteristic” and marriage being a basic right to all individuals. My Christian view point leads me to disagree with his opinions. Homosexuality is unnatural and gay marriage should not be permitted because God created marriage to be between a man and a woman.

            I support the idea of homosexuality being a chosen behavior. I’ve known people that have chosen to become gay due to past heterosexual relationships. I also know people that have decided to stop being gay. People aren’t born gay they are products of the influence of sin on our world today.

            I don’t agree with the California courts ruling that marriage is “one of the basic inalienable civil rights guaranteed to an individual”. Marriage originated in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:24 refers to Adam marrying Eve. This example shows that God meant a male and a female to marry.  Evan Wolfson argues in What is Marriage that gay couples should be entitled to the rights straight couples obtained through marriage. I agree that gay couples should get those rights, but they should seek them through a manner other than marriage. In the courts view, anyone could marry anything. Incest marriages aren’t allowed, people don’t marry objects. Yet gay marriage is treated different. Sullivan talked about how his life changed after being married. That joy and accomplishment came from the ceremony. It’s not illegal to have a marriage ceremony. The legality issue comes from obtaining a marriage license. If gay people want to get married they should have the ceremony and work on getting marriage rights through other laws.

Modern American Family

The American culture has created a family structure that has been emulated and sought after for decades. This idea is that a modern American family should consist of a working father, stay at home mom, children and even a pet. This family structure has been tested as the economy changes and different cultures enter America. Although there are less examples of this structure today and there are many families that are functioning fine with a totally different standard of what a family looks like. The modern American family structure is the most efficient because it promotes a stronger, well rounded relationship among family members.

            In the fifties this idea of a family was glamourized by media and white families of the time. Today the modern American family is criticized and deemed flawed. There is no such thing as a perfect family, but this family idea can be very successful when it’s formed by loving individuals that want to make it work. Criticism comes from groups that feel that this structure was intended and only works for white, heterosexual people. This is false, although the example given in the fifties gave this idea, anyone can have this family structure. Many non-white, non-heterosexual households are working very successfully as modern American families.

            Families with two parents are positive examples for children. They create well-rounded individuals that do better in school and have positive outlooks on life. There are factors that can change these results but happen in every family situation.

            The families demonstrated by Soto and Jack are not examples of modern American families. In Soto’s story, the dad wasn’t represented, and in Jack’s, the boy lived with his grandma. In Looking for Work there is an example of wanting to imitate the families portrayed on television. The families in these stories do appear happy, but may have been more successful had they represented the modern American family.

An Introduction of myself

            My name is Connie Bills. I am eighteen years old and proud to attend Oklahoma Baptist University. I plan to major in Nursing and work as an ER Nurse. I am very shy around people I don’t know, but once I get comfortable with someone I can act myself around them.

            I am from Midwest City, Oklahoma. At home I live with my mom and dad. I plan to see them on weekends since they’re only forty minutes away. My best friend is Chrissy Daniel. I met her six years ago in Middle school. She is my longest friend and we see each other often. My hobbies are: watching television, listening to music, and hanging out with my friends. My favorite music is Country and my favorite movie is Avatar.

            I attended Star spencer High school. I enjoyed high school. I made many friends and got along well with all of my teachers. I was very academically successful. I graduated as the Valedictorian of my class along with being a member of the National Honor Society. My favorite part of high school was being a member of JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps). I learned leadership skills that helped me become the Battalion Commander (the highest position in the program) and will continue to help me in life. 

            I am a practicing Christian, and I try to center my life on God. At home I attend Dickson Baptist Church. I recently got baptizes before coming to college. One of the reasons I chose OBU was due to the Christian environment.

            In conclusion, I am a Christian who is eager to learn and has dreams of becoming an ER Nurse. I am very excited about my future here at OBU and I’m anticipating the challenges and success that comes with a Christian Liberal Arts Education.