American Dream

The Author's American dream was to become the president of the United States of America.  He believed that being gay would get in the way of having his dream come true.  He came from a very conservative family, and did not want to tell them that he was gay because he thought that they would not be accepting of him, so he didn't tell anyone for a long time.  He even tried to kill himself.  However, he realizes the most powerful thing, that by fighting for his rights he is living the American dream.

I think that this is a very powerful quote.  Everyone needs to realize that a "true American" is not just a rich white man.  There is not one single right or wrong way to be a true American.  To me being an American means being diverse and different.  No one should ever have to change themselves for anyone because the only person you have to make happy is yourself.  Because everyone's American dream is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

racism: white guilt

How I think that we can define and change white guilt:
Get information: Get to know people for who they really are. If people became more aware, then they would also become more understanding and really be able to get informed by people of different cultures.
Do something what: Get to actually know people, and don't judge a book by its cover.  Make friends with people from other cultures and backgrounds and you will feel more diverse and will be more understanding.
Listen: There are many guest speakers who talk openly about their ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. I once went and saw a speaker who was doing a speech about quanza.  I found it very interesting because it helped me see where that person came from.
Talk: Talk to anybody who feels compfortable telling you about themselves.  Also get to know people out of your normal group of friends. If you become friends with people of other cultures you will become wiser and more caring.
Back to the past: I think the easiest way to go back to the past is by research and reading.  Pick up books about different ethnicites and discover what they went through to become who they are today. I think that it would be a good way to learn about their traditions and customs, and also a good way to find out how those traditions came about.
Finding our heros and sheros: Heros can be different to anyone based upon their beliefs.  Personally, my parents are my heros because I think that growning up they taught me to be very accepting of everybody.  I think that they set a great example for me as to how to be accepting.

Paraphrase.

Many students overuse direct quotations when writing research papers. Only around 1/10 of the final paper should be direct quotations, so paraphrase when reading sources. (James, 1976).

Sex Trafficking In Cambodia Response

First of all this paper had a huge shock value to it.  It almost made me uncompfortable to read about because although I have heard about sex trafficking, I never realized how horrible it actually still is.  She did this by using many statistics and solid facts which emphasized her creadability for the subject.  What I found to be most disturbing was how parents will just sell their children to make a quick few bucks.  I just don't understand how a parent could do that to their child, especially knowing that they will never see them again.  I think that her greatest strengths were her ability to include statistics in a flowing manner and her passion for the subject.  They way she included statistics just flowed with the rest of the paper so it made it seem more sophisticated writing.  With her passion she really made me aware of why this is such a big deal.  I think that she had some action portions such as mentioning the organizations and just being informative, however, I think that it would have been good if she told us how we as individuals can get involved to stop sex trafficking. 

Reflection on Breaking The Code

I now feel much more confident about what I have to do to find the proper information that I am looking for to include in my social action project.  I thought that it would be much harder to analyze the articles that I have found but the questions you had us look for made it much simpler.  I definitely gained lots of confidence by doing this activity not only because I know how to analyze my sources, but that I have chosen good sources to analyze.  

Summary for 3.4

In this article the author discusses the differences between Serious music, such as Mozart, and Pop music, such as Madonna.  He suggests that serious music is of more musical value and that Pop music is generally aesthetically pleasing.  The author insists that serious music is timeless and that pop music is just a fad that is socially popular at the time and goes out of style.

Research Questions and Key Words

How can we ensure an equal opportunity education for all students with disabilities and special needs in the urban areas of the United States?

Education, Equality, Disabilities,  social class, North America.

Finding Sources

These are three good sources that I believe will help me narrow my research question.  I think that I am now leaning towards social class issues and their educational equality instead of special education.

Class and schools: using social economic and educational reform to close the achievement gap

 Higher education and social class: issues of exclusion and inclusion

 By Louise Archer, Merryn Hutchings, Alistair Ross

Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives

 By James A. Banks, Cherry A. McGee Banks

Is Google Making Us Stupid? : Response

First off, I never realized that Google is more than a search engine.  But besides that, I truly agree with what most of the article said.  Since Google has become an everyday stop on a person's web browsing experience it truly has changed the way that we read and process information.  I can honestly say that I was an avid reader before the search engine known as google came along with the rest of the internet "experience".  The internet is an extremely fast way to find information about almost anything.  When I find information on a website I generally do what the article said most people do, just skim through the information and read summaries.  It does make it much harder to read an entire article or story and retain all the information because our brains have changed.  We are used to going to Google and typing in a question and skimming for the answers, so full length articles now just look to intimidating most the time.   

I was not aware that Google was trying to build somewhat of an Artificial Intelligence.  To me that is kind of scary.  I didn't know that whenever I used Google they were basically trailing me and storing my information at "The Googleplex".  I am the type of person that is very weary about new technology, and this makes me somewhat anxious to use Google after reading this article.  I think that they are on the right track to make what they call a perfect search engine, however, at what cost?

Focusing Question

Focus Question:

Why is equal education for special education students important for the youth of the United States?

Possible Sub Questions:

• Should there be more funding for public schools?
• Should private and public schools teach the same curriculum and have the same tools for success? 
• How is education different in suburbs vs inner city schools?
• Should state requirements for teachers become more difficult?
• Should each state have the same standards and curriclum? 
• Has educational equality become greater within the last 20 years?
• Should all schools include inclusion classes or should special education students have their own classrooms?