SWA 10

Becoming American

http://www.mashupamericans.com/listen/podcast-ep-20-becoming-american/

The podcast that I choose for this SWA is about What it means to become an American and the process that some people most take in order to become an American.

They first start off the podcast by discussing about what the Citizens test is, and the long process that it takes for people to become an US citizen. After explaining the long process, they then take their own close version of the citizenship test that most everyone is expected to pass.

Afterwards they then jump into interviewing people that just passed their citizenship test ad are now official citizens of The United States of America. One of the many questions they asked people well interviews was , how it felt to now be an official citizen. A common response that people gave was that they felt grateful and more free.

SWA 8

Essay #3 topic proposals:

1. Should colleges have the right to limit professors rights to freedom of speech?  SOURCES-
   1. Lukianoff and Haidt, “The Coddling of the American Mind” link
      1. I would use this essay as my main bases well also pulling from my previous essay #2.
   2. Young, “Should Writer’s Use They Own English?” PDF
      1. pullout points to show the right to use of ones own English or right to speech
      2. most likely wont use, but will read over again
   3. Plato, “Allegory of the Cave” PDF [citation info:http://books.google.com/books/about/Republic_Grube_Edition.html?id=5ZjRDTmOCMoC and note that the excerpt we read is in Book VII]
      1. use to make the point students and colleges should expand not retract.
   4. Brooks, “People Like Us” PDF

I would also admit to connect back to Transy and other colleges and how they set up an environment tat caitoring to student promoting them to become over sensitive.

2.  Does the United States lack Diversity?

1. Brooks, “People Like Us” PDF
2. Plato, “Allegory of the Cave” PDF [citation info:http://books.google.com/books/about/Republic_Grube_Edition.html?id=5ZjRDTmOCMoC and note that the excerpt we read is in Book VII]

 

 

SWA 6 winter fys

The article I chose for my second writing assignment was Lukianoff and Haidt’s article called “The Coddling of the American Mind”.

In the article d”The Coddling of American Minds”, written by Lukianoff and Haidit, they talk about the recent extents teachers and professors have to go through these days to protect themselves from their own students. Lukianoff and Haidit both discuss several precautions that teachers and professors must take. One of the many things teachers must learn to avoid bringing up in class are trigger words. Lukianoff and Haidt bring this up and give several examples of what trigger words are. Afterward both the authors being to discuss possible reasons why this current generation has become so sensitive within the classroom. Many possible reason were thrown around. one of their many reasons was putting the blame on the baby boomers generation for over protecting their kids growing up.

The key parts of the article, “The cuddling of American Minds”, written by Lukianoff and Haidt are…

1. Limitations set on teachers
2. why kids have become so sensitive
3. how to solve this problem

I plan on responding to these point by making each one there own paragraph. I also plan on pulling quotes from the article its self and other past reading y teach has assigned us.I plan on responding to these pint with my own opinions not arguing with them.

SWA 5

After reading Kings letter from Birmingham jail and visiting the Black Bone exhibit it is clear to see even though it has been many years since Kings time there is still little diversity among people in the United States. Grant it may not be as obvious or as bad as then, it is still there. Especially now that our new president is openly bias towards others of different cultures and sets out to “block them out”I think it is time for the country to take a step back and learn from our past.

What I took away from our recent readings and visit to the Black Bone exhibit is that not only are people still being oppressed but they are reaching out and attempting to make a change. This changes important it shapes their future and our future. Ad I believe people should follow them in example, instead of using violence that clearly had no good outcome when people in the past did.  It is honestly silly to me that now in 2017 people who are not white still have to be fight for there rights or even question them. We are repeating ourselves again the only way to fix it is to learn from the past and trust that one day there will be change for the better.

SWA 2- FYS Winter

In the article “People Like Us” written by David Brooks, Brooks discusses his thoughts on diversity in America. More specifically he talks about how over the generations people in the United States have been choosing places to live where they free the most comfortable. Brook suggest this as evidence towards more segregated neighborhoods that have been growing over time. To prove his point Brook continues on without the article giving more evidence of segregated living. One of his main arguments to why this has been happening is money.

I believe the purpose of Brooks writing this article is to let people know that even in today time there is still segregation happening. And David Brook wants his readers to look around their lives and see if they live in a diverse life.

I believe Brooks is trying to target to the general public. He goes on to talk about how neighborhoods are segregated, so I think that’s him trying to point out to the public as a whole that they might be apart of a segregated neighborhood.

SWA 1- FYS Winter

After reading Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Martin Luther King’s “The Burning Truth in the South” I notice many connection between the two readings. The first connection I made while reading King’s paper was when he begin to talk about World War II. During this King discusses about “young negro men” in the military and the promise that is made to them by the nation. He goes on to say how these men believed in that promise leaving the military and coming back home to reality. This is where the connection in made between Plato and King, these men left an environment were they were treated as equals and left with the belief that this would continue at home. Similar in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” Plato talks about the life inside the cave and how it reflects a false reality and how the outside is reality. Continuing on both King and Plato both write about the difficult transition that both people had coming back to reality and how both peoples were lead astray when told what the “true” reality is. King then goes on to talk about that African-American people in the South face during that time. This then leads to another connection made between King and Plato. When King states, “It has discredited the adversary, who knows how to deal with force but is bewildered and panicky in the face of the new techniques. Time will reveal that the ··students are learning lessons not contained in their textbooks”, that I am able to see the connection to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Both King and Plato are suggesting that it may not be the peoples fault that they think one way but maybe their ignorance is the result of poor teaching. This interesting concept made by the two historical figures is further elaborated on in their own way. King goes on to say “It is equally significant that on a mass scale students and adults in the North and elsewhere have organized supporting actions”, to help further his idea of why people in the south might just be ignorant.

SWA 11

For Essay 3 I plan to discuss and describe the Louisville culture with a focus on students from Tansy from Louisville. To do this I plan on interviewing people from Louisville and asking them a series of questions to help me better understand the culture. Not only will I interview people from Louisville but I will also interview people from outside of Louisville like Lexington to get their insight on Louisville and people from there. I will also make sure to collect data and info from other sources.

After completing most of my interviews I am planning on splitting my essay into several parts for the most commons topics brought up during the interviews. The intro paragraph will most likely be informational giving a very typical view of the the city. the and will go into slang or phrases.

The next few paragraphs will talk about daily life activities. the first would be school life and dicussing school rival, dress codes, schedules. the next paragraph will talk about bid events like the derby and leading up to it. Also what they do at the derby. Finally the next paragragh will talk more about pros of living there and cons.

The second to last paragraph will talk about the differences I see comprared to my hometown and Louisville. Then finally the last paraghed will tie in all the topics and give what I believe to be a good description of life in Louisville.

SWA 9

The Lake

When I was a child growing up my father would always take my brothers and I to the lake, even though we do not go anymore I can still remember being there like it was yesterday. I can remember waking up to firm hands and a deep voice telling its time to get ready. I would always hesitate at first not want to leave the warmth of my bed and feel the freezing floor. But after a few minutes of small sobs I would finally arise and join my brothers outside to eat cereal. This was one of my favorite moments at the lake for me. Stepping outside our RV at five in the morning to see the water as smooth a glass and hear the birds singing in the trees. Even I could only appropriate it for short amount of time before we had to go to work it was worth it because what followed shortly after was the best part.

After we finish eating our cereal and arguing who gets to wake board first for a couple of minutes we then start to pack the boat up with all the necessary items we need for a full day on the lake, Now, this part was probably the worst part for everyone because it so early and nobody wants to get into cold water when its still cold outside, I remember always having to jump all the way in the freezing water before I could do anything else just so I can get use to it fast. But I am almost positive I just made it worst form my self because I would have get on the boat and drive around for what seemed like years.

Once we had every thing packed up and ready to go and we driven to our favorite wake boarding spot we would then bring down our wake boards and prep them. Even though we would always argue over who is going first it never matter what was said cause it always went by date of birth. Which met I went second and my older brother Sinjin went first. While my brother would wake board I would hold the flag up for whenever he would fall. Which of course was not often. Watching my older brother wake board always inspired me because I wanted to be just as good as him. When ever he would flip in the air or skid across the wake I would always  be in awe of how easy he would make it look.

Finally once my brother was to tired to go on it was my turn. This was the best part of my entire day at the lake. From the moment I squeeze my small feet in to the tight boots of the wake board and strap them tight I have basically already thrown myself in to the cold waters. But by this I don’t even notice because I am bursting with excitement. Once I am in the water I take a few minutes to look around and take in the beautiful view of the glass like lake against the powerful mountains and the growing forest. Then I give my dad a thumbs up and I’m off. Once I am up it feels like I’m gliding over the water.

 

Group Revision

Even though I did not attend the swg on Monday after speaking with them this what they talked about and what we decided , we felt very strong about the draft we submitted. The student sample, research, and observation notes definitely helped us put all of our perspectives together into one joint effort. Everyone worked well together despite our original scheduling concerns. Although our observations were mainly Landon’s idea, everyone agreed and found time to attend each event as a group. We all found the essay to be an interesting piece of work that allowed us to discover why musicians act and think the way the do.

During small writing groups, we received feedback from both professors and the in class writing groups. We all felt the feedback was positive and will help us shape and clean the paper to our liking. The biggest revision will be to further explain each observation and how we conducted them. Although both concerts are self explanatory, the survey interviews with staff, and the tour of the DART Lab could be explained in the paper a little better.

Landon went around Transy’s campus (going to friends first, then walking around public areas like the Beck Center and the Campus Center) and surveyed 100 students, professors, and employees. This verbal survey was conducted on 10/19/26. The survey consisted of the following questions: 1.) Do you listen to music? 2.) What music do you listen to? 3.) Do have a personal connection with this type of music? The results of this this survey were that 98 of the 100 listened to music, the top genres of music were country and rap, and 98 of the 100 had a personal connection with style of music. This proves that both musicians and non musicians have a connection/listen to music. Our job now is to explain this more in depth in our paper.

The interviews we conducted were left out by mistake. Our interviews were with Choral Director Brittany Benningfield and Dr. Polashek of the Music Technology Program. We will explain the interviews in our revision process and signify why they are important to support aspects of a musician’s subculture. Theses interviews will be used to support an observation (made by any of our group members) about a musician’s subculture rather than using them as their own paragraph.

Last but most definitely not least, the tour of the DART Lab. We will further explain our tour of the DART Lab by giving the reader more details about our experience. We were shown the equipment within the lab, given a tour of a standard workstation, shown inside the sound booths, and a brief introduction to a recording software called pro tools. Although this is not directly related to all musician’s subculture, it is important for professional artists in terms of the business, industry, and recording/studio process of a musician’s subculture

SWA 6

Box 11

While being here in Lexington, Kentucky I have really open my eyes and began to truly notice things I am grateful for. The first thing that I noticed was that I am very lucky to have been born in raised in San Diego, California. Even though I have lived there my whole life I did not think about haw spoiled I am when it comes to the weather, being here in Lexington and having to by sweaters, coats, pants, and boots for actual seasons really just opened my eyes to how spoiled I am compared to others.

This later lead me too talking to my teammates about the differences from Kentucky and California and although some are obvious like the weather others were quite a shock. Like how public school systems here are undermined by the state and do not get enough funding to make gyms in middles schools big enough for a P.E. class of 60 to comfortably fit. Or just the fact that these public schools are being overfilled with students and no does anything about it. Throughout K-12 for me in San Diego the biggest class I have ever been in was a class of 27 and that was my pushing in for a P.E. class. In a conversation with my friend Harper the only one of my friends here that went to a public school, she informed me that her school was so over filled that it would take her 10 minutes just to go from one class to a class that was 4 classes down the hall because the hall was so crowded. After hearing this we both pulled up pictures of our high schools and compared them in size and look. After looking at each others schools it was obvious that my school that held the same amount of students as hers was 5 times the size of hers with classes more spread out throughout the campus and it still took me at max 3 minuets to get to my furthest class that was on the opposite side of the campus. While comparing our schools differences I also was told that in middle school it is only required to take one quarter, not even a full year, of P.E.and after that it becomes optional. In the state of California it is required for all student from grades 6th-10th to grade a P.E. class of some from. So to hear that kids are not able to have that opportunity like I did made me sad. P.E. was my favorite class and though I did not like when we had to run 2 miles in middle school I would never want the school to take that run away because I knew it was to make me healthier.

I guess what I am saying is that I’m privileged with many things like the amazing public school system back in San Diego, and if you would have asked me 3 months ago what I am grateful for I would never thought twice about my school expreince until I came here to Kentucky.