No Mercy

I was asked to blog about an article or type of story called 'No Mercy' written by Malcolm Gladwell. This story was about a boy who went through a lot, and had some problems in his life. One of which his girlfriend and him broke up. Another him and his mother fighting back and forth. The boy Poisoned an apple he had given to his tutor. I don't know why he did such a thing, but the school ruled it as he was going through a lot of they let him off with a "slap on the wrist." In my judgment no matter how great of a student he was prior to these problems, it gives him no right to try to harm that poor tutor.

I've recently gone through a lot of tough changes in my life including both of his, the girlfriend situation and fighting with my mother. I have been on uneasy terms with my mother for quite some time, and recently my dad committed suicide at the start of these summer courses. Yet, with this you don't see me running around trying to poison my teachers or some other crazy stunt like that. Stating this personal stuff it only further backs up my reasoning behind why he was not pushed nearly enough, because everyone has hardships in their life, this is no excuse to end up crazy, we all have morals. In the story it talks about a football player who lost his position on the team, because something not even dealing with football. I believe this was a wise decision by the coach simply because if someone can't be trusted off the field, how can they be trusted on the field. Also, for the coach to continue to let him play, what kind of example would that make of the coach. It would show he was a push over or that the rational thoughts of his players didn't matter. As a teacher or as a coach the students and players should be a reflection of them.

With all this said I believe that the student should have been expelled from school. At least a much more stricter punishment for endangering the tutors life. They could have thought of many better ways to punish the student and still let him continue school, to contribute to the quantum theory, and to graduate. This student I'm blogging about all is know as Robert Oppenheimer.

In Praise of the F Word.

No, this paper was defiantly not about a cuss word. That is pretty obvious given that this is a school assignment. Given to us students by a very proper professor, with better respect for herself. Reading this paper I learned that the word Marry Sherry was referring to was "Flunk" It was very insightful into Mary's opinion on why kids fail in High school and other education. She firstly talks about schools in general then shifts to the teachers and how they just pass the students so they don't have to deal with the bad students any longer. The word "Flunk" does in fact increase the effectiveness of this essay simple because it refers to it as the "F word" which gives it a negative connotation. The "F word" is associated with a profanity in today's society, so, by referring the word flunk to a profanity it automatically gives the word a bad meaning. The author does this because she wants to reinforce the reader that flunking is a bad thing, and that students should try their hardest to avoid it. It always makes the paper more interesting to read when the title and story capture the readers attention.

I think that Mary Sherry's audience for this paper would have to be, the students, the teachers, and the parents. She does a decent job explaining her side of the argument, that kids that are just being passed along to move them out of the way like an assembly line is wrong. That if they don't know the information they should flunk the class, the teacher shouldn't have to rescue them. Yet, while doing great at discussing her side she didn't really touch an awful lot of the opposing argument about why the kids should be passed anyway. I don't know quite enough to back that side of the argument up, but Mary should have interviewed a teacher move in depth. This way she could attempt to know about both sides and not end up with just her personal biased information on the topic. I think that students that don't put in the effort shouldn't receive help to pass the grade or the class. I believe that education is a right to a certain degree then it becomes a privileged. In my Education Across The World class we've discussed that topic quite a bit, saying you have to earn the right by proving you can obtain the knowledge. This also gives me a good idea about what type of research I might have to do to be well informed on my topic for my argumentative essay we will be doing in English 1101.

The Internet.

I'm asked for my opinion on whether or not if the internet is good or bad. I was asked to make a list for each of these. First I want to touch on the good aspects of the internet. One could say that research has been made better, I agree with this completely. I would rather search the web for useful information, then go look through hundreds of pages in book after book to find something I could get within three seconds in a search engine. Another great thing about the internet would be the social networking sites such as; Yahoo, Hotmail, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Myspace, and even this blog. All of these I've mentioned have problems yes, many caused by their users, but allow us to communicate with one another in more ways than we can possibly imagine. Also, the internet allows us to communicate through any e-mail system. Then there is also skype and oovoo, which are programs created to have a face to face meeting with a friend, boss, coworker, or any person internationally. These allow for conference meetings to take place without you even having to show up to work for the day. One good example of this is in movies when they have the boss on the television at the end of the table giving orders from hundreds of miles away.

Now on to the bad aspects of the internet. I will start with the most obvious Porn, honestly there is no need to go into detail about this topic, besides to say that it corrupt the majority of the internet. One thing that the aforementioned social networking sites have a problem with is "Cyber Bulling". Which I believe to be very immature and very avoidable. The concept of "Cyber Bulling" is when a kid gets behind the safety of a computer and makes fun of or tries to start arguments because the power he feels that he wouldn't get in the real world. Also another example is that kids use it to continue to pick on people they already do at school or wherever else possible. These are just a few of the helpful things the internet does, along with the terribly things it allows.

What I like most about Georgia Southern so far.

I can't pick just one thing I like most about Georgia Southern. I've fell in love with the campus. It's got wildlife just running all over the side walk. Speaking of the side walks, I love the openness of walking to class it gives me a feeling of exercise, along with not having to experience the crowed halls of high school anymore. During my high school years there was plenty of kids filled with ignorance that tried to "rule" the hallways or take over sections. For instance there was a intersection of the main hall and the junior hall where the majority of the black kids went to stand, talk, and cluster the hall making it almost impossible to get through without some type of force. Then they would also act as though causing a problem was all the other persons fault that tried getting by. Then there was also a basement level of my school where auto, construction, and the P.E. classes where. On this hallway there was always the stereotypical "redneck" that would dip, make racist comments, and pretty much try to do something to everyone that was down there. Making that point is why I absolutely love the feeling of this campus. Also I love how there is plenty of trees, also the park style feeling of everything. Along with the wonderful brick buildings. I enjoy the ability to pick and choose where I go to eat and what I have to eat, without having the nasty school cafeteria food provided in high school as an only option.

I certainly could go on much longer describing Georgia Southern because I have enjoyed every minute of my experience here thus far. Yet there are some slight downfalls but nothing to effect the overall happiness I get being here. First off I dislike the bugs, mainly the ones on the first level of Southern Pines, which I figured they would have sprayed for before summer classes began. Also the nats that seem to attack me in certain areas of the campus, but that happens almost everywhere in the world. Secondly I dislike eating alone, at home I've always had the ability to just call up a friend, but here it's only the first week so I haven't made any close friends really besides a few which have a completely different schedule throughout the day. Yet in time I believe this problem will solve itself, because like I mentioned it is only the fist week, still three or four more to go.

They Don't Read!

I have been assigned to blog about an article from Rob Weir. I believe he is a professor, I'm not sure about what type of classes he teaches. In this paper he talks about why college students don't read, and what to do to get them to read, to learn new habits, skills, and so they also pay attention to the assignments. Some of the ways he talks about getting his or any students to read, seems practical, well all are practical. Yet as a student I don't feel a two minute paper is fair, but its all the professors choice. He goes into detail about really fair ways of grading the essays, only critically reading a few and just skimming through other assignments. This teaches the student to be on top of their game and not slack because and use the excuse of "There are 600 other essays to grade, mine doesn't have to be prefect."


I agree with Mr. Weir's saying that many of the students nowadays barely like to read. He compares reading to video games, cell phones, partying and internet surfing. I think it should have been past teachers jobs, along with the parents to create fun ways to get their children to be "addicted to reading" the way they are addicted to said video games. This in they will create a thirst for knowledge, myself included probably needed to be more pushed into reading. As I grew up, especially now that I've entered college level classes, I regret not "hitting the books" more. This has changed, this past year as a senior, now as a freshmen I've had a a great need of, more and more information to be thrown at me to make up for all the lost time. Which is in some ways good, and a few bad. Good because it helps my mind open up and consume the daily dosage of knowledge, but bad because the fear and ability to stress myself and become overwhelmed with to much to do. One main reason I regret not reading more is for grammatical purpose. I simple struggle at it, I feel miss informed because my past teachers never really stressed the importance. I never have a "English" teacher per say, most based their assignments off literature. I'm sure every kid that doesn't crack open a book for fun, either regrets it or has had a point in their life when they have. I've read a bit through the years like the Harry Potter series, and a few unknown authors, nothing too impressive.