Autism

I went to CNN.com and a picture of three of the cutest baby boys caught my attention. I started to read the article that went along with the picture and soon found out these three gorgeous babies have autism. Autism is a neurological disorder that affects children’s social abilities. They often disengage themselves with others and almost act as though they live in another world. There are other milder cases, some that just cause the kids to have trouble making eye contacting and talking to others. It is so hard to believe that such normal looking babies could have such an extreme disorder. In the article over in over you read that doctors know very little about autism. No one has been able to find what causes autism or what can be done to cure it. There are some therapies that can help but it is best to start them when the child is young. Most times doctors do not diagnose children with autism until they are older because the disorder is not well known and this means the child does not start getting help until they are older. The triplets in the CNN article started showing signs at 18 months but were not diagnosed until they were 4. My cousin was diagnosed with a mild form of autism just a few years ago. We knew he was different growing up but never thought he had some kind of disorder. Now looking back we can see how a lot of what we thought was weird was just his autism. I hope doctors can find out more on autism because I know it is very hard on the families and it affects these children’s lives tremendously.

"Cherry Picking"

Cherry picking refers to choosing certain information to use for or against one side of a position. The data collected either is all showing facts for a side or against a side. When using cherry picking an actual situation is not fully presented. Often time people will only tell what they want people to hear in order to persuade the listener to believe their side. This can be a good tactic for writing if you do not care if what you are preaching is right but only want people to be on your side of an issue. It does get your point straight across but it can also leave the writer wondering why you are only giving one side of the story. If you are trying to win an argument this is a good way of going about it but if you are writing to inform people about an issue it is best to let them know both sides and figure out for themselves what they side with. I think most times in my own writing I use cherry picking unconsciously. I know what I think about an issue usually straight from the get go and I am sure I use facts that appeal to my own beliefs. This can be good if I am trying to make a point on an issue but I know a lot of times cherry picking causes me to leave some of the most important facts out of my papers.

Christine Kenneally, Josh Prager, and Stacy Sullivan

Last night I went to hear Christine Kenneally, Josh Prager, and Stacy Sullivan read some of their pieces of work. They all are in journalism but write about completely different topics. Kenneally’s piece was about the evolution of language and how animals are very similar to people when it comes to communication. It was really neat to hear about how animals have different calls for different predators but I was confused about what she was getting at on the evolution of language. I am guessing she was talking about the many languages spoken throughout the world and how they came into existence and how it was spread. Next Josh Prager spook about and read excerpts from his book about the Giants winning the National League pennant in 1951. I found him to be the most interesting because he took something that sparked an interest to him and went so deep into find out more. He had heard that there was a rumor going around that the Giants cheated causing them to win the pennant. No one would come out and say it at first but Prager was persistent and finally was able to interview many of the Giant players. The interviews from the baseball players directly involved gave great credibility and more personal effect to his book. I cannot believe the Giants actually stole the Dodgers’ signs and watched their practices. It really makes you question a lot of things that go on in the world. Stacy Sullivan spoke last and she read from her book on the war in Kosovo. I liked hearing about all the involvement people here in the US had in helping the guerillas in Kosovo. I had no idea all of this was going on. It was really neat hearing Sullivan talk about being right in the action. She really experienced everything she reported on and it gave her book great credibility. Overall the whole night was good. It is good to experience other peoples’ worlds and here people speak on how they interpret the things they experience through words.

Topics from Josh Prager and Christine Kenneally's writings

Things to help you understand Josh Prager’s work:

“The Giants win the pennant”: This is what the announcer yelled after Bobby Thompson hit the winning homerun in the National League pennant in 1951; urban legend says that Lawrence Goldberg was a Dodger fan who sought to torture a friend who was a Giants fan by capturing and replaying Russ Hodges' heartbreak from a Giants' loss. But according to Joshua Harris Prager's 2006 book The Echoing Green about the 1951 playoff, Goldberg was actually a Giant fan.
“The shot heard around the world”: from a classic poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, originally used to refer to the first clash of the American Revolutionary War, now used toward a dramatic moment, in 1951 Giants’ baseball player Bobby Thompson hit a homerun in the National League pennant, as a result of the "shot" (baseball slang for "home run" or any hard-hit ball), the Giants won the game 5-4, defeating the Dodgers in their pennant playoff series, two games to one; underdogs rise to the top
Bobby Thompson (baseball): Giant baseball player who hit the winning homerun for the National League pennant in 1951
Ralph Branca: Dodger pitcher who entered a game in the National League pennant in the ninth inning and threw a homerun hit to Bobby Thompson that caused the Giants to win the game

Things to help you understand Christine Kenneally’s work:

“I” first person in nonfiction: taught to not use “I” in nonfiction
Creative writing vs. journalism: creative writing, analyzing others work to see how they write, helps one gain the skills needed to work in journalism

Topics within Stacy Sullivan's writing

Here are some things to know that will help you understand Stacy Sullivan’s journalism:

Milosevic: the President of Serbia from 1989 until 1997, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until 2000, led Serbia’s Socialist Party, was arrested in 2001 by Serbian authorities for suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement
Yugoslavia: existed most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, now the area is separated into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia,the Balkans
Bosnia Herzegovina: a country on the Balkan Peninsula, gained independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav war in the 1990s, made up of three ethnics: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, decentralized with two governing parties: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska
Albania: member of the United Nations, parliamentary democracy
Kosovo: under UN control, has received partial recognition of being independent from Serbia, mostly ethnic Albanians,
Serbia: in 2006 became an independent state after Montenegro left the union, Kosovo is under them but think it is independent
Ethnic Cleansing: displacing ethnic groups from a certain area to make a ethnically “pure” society
The Hague: a city in the Netherlands where all the governmental bodies are located
George Soros: Hungarian-born American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist, is very rich and fund different organizations
Detente: her eyewitness account
Abu Ghraib: in Iraq, used by United States military where many Iraqi prisoners were tortured and pictures of it were revealed through the media, Saddam Hussein also used it for a place of torture

My Thought on NCLB

Teachers are only focused on teaching to test, not to help students learn information that will be useful. Schools know their students must do well on assessment test in order for them to get funding from the government. Since schools do not want to lose their money all the focus is on how well students do on the tests. Students are being taught only the information on the tests and how to take these tests. They are not adequately taught reasoning skills but only to spit back information. Teachers are not as creative in their lesson plans because they are more worried about students being ready to take assessment tests rather than using creative and more helpful ways for students to learn. This new curriculum is only damaging to students. It is taking the focus off the students’ individual needs and placing all the emphasis on the schools performance as a whole.

No Child Left Behind overall appears to be working but has many hidden glitches. We must evaluate every aspect and the real affects it has on education. Schools seem to be making better test scores, but the standards being used are not properly chosen in regards for every student. These are the leaders of tomorrow and we must make sure they are gaining the proper knowledge. Schools need to have the magnifying glass taken off the overall school and look closer at the students individually. These tests take away from the students’ importance and the real reason students are in school, to learn. The intentions of No Child Left Behind are good but I feel it is not be the best way to achieve its goals.

Tennessee Lottery

Recently Tennessee has changed the way the winning numbers are chosen for the lottery. It used to be that balls with numbers were spun around and then dropped. Whichever balls came out were the winning numbers. Now there is a computer system that chooses the numbers at random. Right when I heard about it I did not understand how that could be equally fair. I was actually proven to be right that this electric drawing was too good to be true. They have found that there was an error in it and duplicate numbers could not be chosen. People are allowed to choose reoccurring numbers so this caused a huge problem. Those who choose reoccurring numbers had no chance of winning and therefore had to be refunded the money they spent on their tickets. The lottery is also suing the computer company that made the system. They have now done more tests and are hoping all will be fixed. Really I think this is too much trouble for something that really takes more money from people than giving. I still would not trust it because computers can get viruses and such anytime. People already have a small chance at winning the lottery and this only makes it even more unreliable.

Herenton Resigns

I was very surprised to find out Mayor Willie Herenton resigned yesterday. I do not know much about him, but from what I have seen living in the city, he has not made any obvious positive change. I think this will be good to have someone new as Mayor. It will let someone with a new point of view come in and help where things seem to be stuck in a rut. I only hope the person who takes over will be better than Herenton. I have also heard that there is talk about Herenton taking over as head of the school board. I do not know if this is a much better place for him than mayor. In either position I think he is given too much power. Our school boards need someone to come in and care about the students and not be there just for their own glory. I feel if he did take the position that he would only be doing it to help him get into a higher office. This is just what I think. I do not know exactly how things have gone while he has been in office but I do know that I am not the only one who is against Herenton.

Brooxie and My Adventure

To add a personal twist to the night of Floyd Skloot’s reading, I will tell you about Brooxie and my adventure. So like a wrote in my earlier blog, Monday night Brooxie and I went to hear Floyd Skloot speak, but there is a lot more to that night that I left out. To begin I was late getting to Brooxie’s house. That is not very hard to believe if you know me; I am always late to everything. Since I got to her house late we rushed to get downtown and parked in the first parking garage we saw. The garage was close to the corner of Union and Main. Now we knew the gallery was on south Main but we were not aware quite how far down that was until we began walking. As we walked we discussed the meaning of blocks, as in the distance. Neither of us knew exactly, but we always took it as one block being from one street to the next. Using this definition I would say we walked a good five blocks or so. We finally got to the art gallery and went to the reading. We got out of the reading about a half hour early and both were excited because we wanted to see our boyfriends that night. We were thinking about taking the trolley, but got too inpatient and decided to walk. This probably was not our best decision considering we are dumb and got lost, but it was fun none the less. I think since we were having such a good time that is why we got lost. We pasted the street our parking garage was on and did not realize we had passed it until a block down. It was pretty sad because both of us had seen two obvious landmarks by our parking garage and still did not realize that is where her car was. In the end we made it to her car around 9, at least thirty minutes after we got out of the reading. I am not sure downtown Memphis is the best place to get lost, but just because it was the two of us we had fun.

Floyd Skloot's Interview

Tuesday in class we went to see Floyd Skloot get interviewed by two English majors from the University of Memphis. I was excited to see this interview since I had heard Skloot read and speak the night before. The whole interview was really interesting. One guy interviewing Skloot asked most questions pertaining to Skloot’s mix of writing. Skloot writes in many different genres including poems, memoirs, and essays. The guy asked Skloot if he wrote each of the different genres differently since he had the brain damage. Skloot explained that he had to do everything the same. He has to take bits and pieces as they come to him and then put them together later on. The only difference was that due to the length of novels and essays they did take longer than poems. He said before he caught the virus that he was very structured in his writing and would know exactly where he was going before he began. Skloot said he thinks he has grown in his writing because he now has to take time to write his work when before he was mostly about getting his work published. It was really neat to hear how he worked through his illness and gained his art back. He defiantly has a strong will and it showed through his interview.

Floyd Skloot

Monday night I went downtown to Jay Etkin Gallery for the reading of Floyd Skloot. This was part of the River City Writers Series. To tell you the truth I was not looking forward to sitting and listening to a guy that I had no clue was read his work. I got to the place a little late and was worried I would be interrupting since it would only be an hour long, or so I thought. To my surprise everyone was standing around eating and people were still coming in. I soon found out that I was wrong and the reading would be three hours long. So I was not too happy after this and was really dreading the reading. I sat down with a few other people who were there from the class and waited for it to begin. It began with Rebekah Skloot introducing the speaker. Right away I began to become interested because she introduced the speaker as her father. I thought that was really cool and made the man more interesting. Skloot finally came up and began by reading some of his poems. He also read a memoir and an essay. All were really captivating. I liked how he wrote about every day things. He could take any event and elaborate on it so much. During his presentation, Skloot explained how he had caught a virus that took over his brain and caused great brain damage. I would have never guessed that he had anything wrong with his brain. He seemed to have no difficultly talking to us. This detail only made Skloot even more intriguing. I really enjoyed hearing how he lived with his disability and worked through it. It was a great experience to hear Skloot speak and I only hope I can read more of his work.

Time to Relax

This past week has been pretty hectic for me. I had my paper to do in English, which of course I procrastinated on yet again, I had to decide if I wanted to stay in one of my classes, and I helped my boyfriend move out. Of course I constantly wanted to help my boyfriend but I knew I had school work to do. I finally made myself get to my paper and just do it with the incentive of getting to see my boyfriend once I was done. That actually got me through the stress of my paper but only to find out we could turn the paper in on Thursday. The good thing though, that I got my paper out of the way. Now this class that I mentioned is my honors class and I have been debating for the past week or so if I should stay in it. It really was frustrating me because we had a lot of readings and my teacher graded hard. I do not need this class and I did not want it to hurt me if I ended up getting a bad grade. I decided to drop it. I think it was one of my best decisions ever. I feel so much less stressed and can give more attention to my other classes. Since I had these two big things taken off of my shoulders I was able to help my boyfriend move out the rest of the week. It has been a lot of fun but now I am ready to relax and enjoy having all these things checked off my list of things to do.

The Arts

I cannot say I am one who is much into art but it is sad to think it is going to waste. I do not have any kind of hobby or talent such as singing or painting but either would be amazing. It is so cool how people can put their feelings into such creative pieces of work. I really wish it was appreciated more. It sucks that now a day people cannot create and do the things they love as a career. People are so talented and technology is really taking it away from them. I think it is probably because kids are brought up watching TV and playing video games. People are too lazy to go and enjoy true art. Technology takes away experiences. There really is not much a painter can do with technology except put a picture or video up of their work and that is not the same as seeing and experiencing the piece in real life. I hate that America has become the way it is. It might be easier using technology but I don’t know if it is bettering society. It defiantly is taking away something as we are shown from this video. The arts do need to be saved. I would hate for future society to not be able to enjoy past arts as we have been able to do.

Propaganda Analysis

David Horsey drew a cartoon of President Bush dressed as a young child holding a report card with Ds and an F. Horsey is trying to make a point that he thinks “No Child Left Behind” is not working. He was very creative to show it through depicting President Bush as a Kid and him getting upset to see his report card since NCLB is all about schools’ report cards and how well each school is doing. Horsey makes it obvious that the cartoon is of President Bush. He exaggerates on all of President Bush’s most known features, like his ears, nose and squinty eyes. One can also tell that President Bush is supposed to be seen as a kid because of the hat and stripped shirt. He is obviously holding a report card since it says “report card” on top and it is showing how “No Child Left Behind” is doing. Horsey even went as far as to put the categories he feels NCLB should be graded on and how each scored. Federal intrusion is given a D showing that federal government is having too much power over the state education programs. Constitutionality is given an F showing that the law is unconstitutional by giving the federal government more power when it says in the Constitution that it is the states right. Education for disabled is given a D because those with disabilities are measured as equal with everyone else and lowers standards. Flexibility is given a D to show that each program cannot fit the specific population but have to follow guidelines set for the whole. I think he did not do it in color because the picture makes enough of a statement. Horsey is most likely against the law from what is seen from his cartoon. He gives it a D- which is only points away from failing. Horsey is giving President Bush some of his own medicine by drawing this cartoon. He is showing Bush that his plan is not working. The statement coming from Bush’s mouth is “They say I shoulda done my homework”. It is showing that Bush should have looked at unwanted consequences before signing No Child Left Behind into law. Him looking into it would be like doing homework.

Education in America

The Federal Government has been involved in education for years and is obviously going to remain to have a leading role in Tennessee and other states. There have been many laws over the past 40 years trying to better education. America has been operating under No Child Left Behind the past five years and is now up for reauthorization. Memphis City Schools are directly impacted and are seeing the affects from the recent law. People have seen some negative effects of this law and are trying to figure out changes that would make the law more beneficial. Throughout recent history Federal Government has seen a need to become involved in education in order to ensure that all students receive an adequate education. Since No Child Left Behind has been enacted, Tennessee has been discovering exactly how the law affects the quality of education for their students. Tennessee now has found the negative aspects and is now able to make constructive suggestions on changes. Now states need to give their input to Congress on ways to better the law so that it can truly help students and provide the resources needed. Education is an important issue and effects many areas of life. It is important to look at the youth who will be making up our society in the future. Education prepares these young people for their future and gives them a sense of hope.

Spring Break

Spring Break is often times associated with Florida and partying. Neither of these was involved in my break. I stayed home and most days stayed in my pajamas until noon. Although my break may appear as though it would be awful, I actually really enjoyed it. It was great to be away from all the stress of school. I planned on getting some work done that I knew would soon be due when I return back to school but I just couldn’t push myself to do it. Most my time was spent with my family and boyfriend. During my break an interpreter from a past mission trip came to visit and stay with my family. We had dinner one night with our neighbors who also went on the mission trip so they could visit with him as well. After dinner that night we went to see The Passion Play at Bellevue Baptist Church. It was awesome. I am constantly forgetting what Jesus really went through for me on the cross. The presentation made the stories I have read and heard for years come to life. You realize just how much Jesus went through and how bad it really was. Going to The Passion Play was probably the highlight of my week. The rest of the week was pretty much the same every day. I am really glad to have had this break. It gave me time to catch up on sleep and remember the important things in life.