...ENG 101-D23 LUO Professor Desiree B. Sholes 11/12/2012 To be or not to be well-educated: A Narrative Response to Alfie Kohn’s “What does it mean to be well-educated?” To be or not to be well-educated: A Narrative Response to Alfie Kohn’s “What does it mean to be well-educated?” Alfie Kohn’s essay “What does it mean to be well-educated?” begins on a personal note using his wife as an example to substantiate his hypothesis. Encountering Alisa at the very beginning of the essay was indeed a refreshing way to initiate thought into a subject not often considered. Today not everyone ponders the real relevance behind education nor does anyone contemplate just how much of education is needed to be considered well-educated. Alisa has a doctorate in anthropology and is an excellent physician yet her lack of knowledge in basic math and English leads her husband to question the implications behind what true education is all about (Kohn, 2003, pars. 1-4). My first response to this startling line of thought was that something like this had never occurred to me before. One is either educated or not. But where does one cross over from educated into well-educated and what does the latter term encompass? These were interesting premises that galvanized me into Kohn’s text, rapidly seeking a resolution for my questions. The first question that Kohn tackles involves the purpose of education. Is education meant to create better individuals or introduce better...
Words: 1128 - Pages: 5
...Personal Narrative I enjoy partaking in various activities including sports and clubs, as well as doing much community service. I am on the school swim team, in the Health Occupations of Students of America club, in and serve as the Public Relations Officer in the Business Professionals of America club, and in Student Congress. I volunteer for Volunteer North Dallas monthly by helping to make sandwiches for the homeless, for Special Olympics swimming training over the summer and track during the fall, for Lost Paws Rescue of Texas in the summer by helping rescued dogs get adopted in local areas. In addition, I help teach and tutor kids in math and reading. I will continue to participate in these for the remainder of high school, also. To...
Words: 354 - Pages: 2
...study mixed methods were implemented in order attain accurate and reliable results. The sample was obtained from the National Student Clearing house (NSC) and the data focused on 3 cohorts of University of Minnesota- Twin Cities students entering college for the first time. Finding a new definition for academic success in university among first year or transferring students was the key question. The prevailing definition of success was distorted because only the students who completed their studies at initial universities regarded as academically successful. This study focused on broadening the definition of success by including any students who transferred and graduated in another university. The new definition of academic success consisted of students who graduated from the initial university and those who transferred and graduated from other institutions. Factors that helped to broaden the definition of success were analyzed implementing the Binary logit, multinomial logit and multinomial probit models. Dependent variables were three cohorts of students from the initial school of admission and tracking each one who transferred to another school within six years period. The independent variables were First GPA, 1st choice, Pell grant … gender, ethnicity and housing. The independent variables were measured on the dependent variable...
Words: 862 - Pages: 4
...Novels are criticized to see if the author creates a book that will stand the test of time. Jane Eyre and The Joy Luck Club both connect the maternal figure and use the narrative language to tell the stories of the women in both novels. Charlotte Brontë has created a novel that is referenced often and allows coming of age novels to spring-board off of her beliefs. Amy Tan’s coming of age novel could stand to be the test of time and can be modeled after Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre not only stands the test of time by showing the importance of women in society through Jane, but also first person to iterate the importance that Charlotte Brontë draws the reader into the narrator’s feelings. The Joy Luck Club uses the narrative language which can stand the test of time for the future similarly to Jane Eyre and develop characters through first person. Often times Brontë does not mention Jane’s mother, however, when she does elaborate on a...
Words: 1506 - Pages: 7
...Assignment 1 Summary and Personal Response to “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” by Suki Kim By Monguue Tee Professor, Dr, Atia Yasmeen Course: English Composition 115 Date: January 15, 2013 Suki Kim who came from Korea, tells in this essay that is named “Facing Poverty with a Rich girl’s Habits” about new immigrant comes to America, How can she absorbs new environment, difference of culture and wealth is important or not. Writer has a few most important points in this essay. First of all she wants to answer wealth is important or is not? After her father bankruptcy, her life is very difficult and they flow to America without any penny. One day you will be rich but another day you will lose all of your things. Lost thing is not big a problem. Once she flew from Korea, she lost everything such as home, friends, relation and wealth but she might satisfy now, because she has new friends, a new home, and a new job. Our forefather told me that “If you lost the things, it is not a problem, if you lost the ethic, it’s a problem, If you lost your health, it’s big a problem”. I agree with that. Secondly, Illustrated in essay that different culture, social, life style and character between Korean and American students. For example, when the teacher entered in classroom, no one batted an eye but in Korea students and environment of school are different. Another important point of writer, however she became citizenship of America, she celebrates Korean national...
Words: 477 - Pages: 2
...stuwritten for the dents per group. Philadelphia “Conbersaychunal,” he says, allowing the fat vow- 2 Inquirer for more than els of his accented English to collide with the sawedtwenty years. off consonants. I tell him that will be fi ne, that I’m familiar with 3 Barrientos was born in Guatethe conversational setup, and yes, I’ve studied a bit mala and raised of Spanish in the past. He asks for my name and I in El Paso, Texas. Her first novel, Frontera Street, was supply it, rolling the double r in Barrientos like a pro. published in 2002, and her second, That’s when I hear the silent snag, the momentary Family Resemblance, was pubhesitation I’ve come to expect at this part of the exlished in 2003. Her column “Unchange. Should I go into it again? Should I explain, conventional Wisdom” runs every the way I have to half a dozen others, that I am Guaweek in the Inquirer. This essay originally appeared in the collectemalan by birth but pura gringa by circumstance? tion Border-Line Personalities: A Do I add the humble little laugh I usually attach New Generation of Latinas Dish to the end of my sentence to let him know that of on Sex, Sass & Cultural Shifting. course I see the irony in the situation? We selected this reading because This will be the sixth...
Words: 9852 - Pages: 40
...University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2010 Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context Leah Rang University of Tennessee - Knoxville, lrang@utk.edu Recommended Citation Rang, Leah, "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2010. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/655 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Leah Rang entitled "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Urmila Seshagiri, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Lisi Schoenbach, Bill Hardwig Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting...
Words: 30269 - Pages: 122
...neglected and her only safe place is school and she loves it. The other little girl in Edward P. Jones story her mother takes care of her and makes sure she gets to school and has everything she needs for the first day. Where these two are the same is that they are both black, they both go to school and they both love it. “The Sanctuary of School” is Lynda Barry’s narrative essay about her experience as a neglected child and how she learned to use art to cope with her situation. In her essay Barry describes a memory of being a seven-year-old child of parents who focus their attention on finances instead of her and her brother. Barry writes about an occasion when she leaves her house in the early morning hours and finds herself at her school’s playground. She is found by the school janitor, who allows her to assist him as he does his duties to prepare the classrooms. Soon after she greeted by the school secretary and a teacher who both wave at her. When her teacher, Mrs. LeSane, arrives she runs toward her in tears of relief. Mrs. LaSane asks Barry to carry her purse, which Barry feels to be an honor. It is here that Barry finds her security in art, drawing a house with a blue sky and sun in the corner and flowers. Barry learns to use this skill to help deal with her home life, describing it as a “life preserver.” “The First day”, by Edward P. Jones is about a five year old girl and her mom who went to apply for a school. The first school they didn’t get her because the address...
Words: 1033 - Pages: 5
...Ahmed Al-Matari Professor Marine English 111 October 30th, 14 Personal Narrative Life is all about making choices, but some of them can even change our life. Four years ago, I walked out the Washington Dulles International Airport for the first time. This was a significant event that changed everything about my life and me. Although leaving Saudi Arabia was a tough decision to make, I knew I would be leaving my family, my homeland, and my friends to go to a far-away place to seek for a better life. My parents supported my decision because they believe life is wonderful and the world was big. Arriving in a new country was exciting and discomforting. America is a wonderful place to live, which is full of adventure and challenge. I was highly fascinated by the Western culture. Although I lived in a westernized household and grew up in international schools, I learned English since I was a child. However, my writing and oral abilities tend not to be adequate. I had to study hard to improve my English, so that I can understand the people and the language more. Since I came to America, I made great progress not only foreign language but also adaptive capacity. I believe the most significant part of my life is when I was able to cope with the social differences I faced in two different countries. The most important social differences that affected me and made me who I am today are family, religion, and gender equality. Family is one of the most important parts of Arab culture...
Words: 909 - Pages: 4
...“A reality check for America” Mary C. Terrell was a powerful pioneer in civil rights and a powerful leader who faced many struggles of prejudices because she was a colored woman. Because she had lived a difficult life in the capital of the US, she decided it was time the world knew of her the many trajectories she continued to face along with many other African Americans. On October 10, 1906, Terrell gave a speech titled, “ What it Mean to be Colored in the Capitol of the U.S.,” to the members of the United Woman’s club in Washington, D.C. This speech was very influential and significant speech that served as a voice for other African Americans who had no voice. This speech also was a time for Terrell to explain the unnecessary hassles she and other blacks had to take on when trying to live as a citizen in the capital. Through this speech we can see an abundance of prejudice that taint the lives of African Americans in the U.S.. In the following paragraphs, I will establish the notability of this speech, analyze the historical context that sparked the discourse into existence and explore other rhetorical features that will establish my analysis’s significance. Mary Church Terrell embodies feminine style rhetoric in her argument to address the social, economic and political struggles placed against African Americans with the undertone of constitutive rhetoric, topical structure, pathos and logos to validate her point. History: Mary Church Terrell...
Words: 2386 - Pages: 10
...Vietnam was a questionable War. People either agreed with it or did not agree at all. As people fought over it back in America soldiers got an experience they will never forget. An experienced filled with terror and suffering but also filled with friendship and love. American literature has shown the struggles of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. Often times the literature tries to pull the readers in with stories to help them understand what life was like. Tim O’Brien is one of the most popular when it comes to this. In his novel, The Things They Carried, questioning morality, O’Brien gives first hand narrations of stories which show the impact of the Vietnam War on society. Tim O’Brien’s life is filled with many wonders and success. O’Brien...
Words: 1888 - Pages: 8
...Here we meet a Chinese mother's unwelcoming approach, towards her daughter's passion for the arts of ballet. The story is told by a first person narrator, from a mothers perspective. Her, her husband and her daughter migrated from China when her daughter, Pearl, was still a child. We notice - while reading the story - that the narrator shifts in the grammatical tense, which is what structures the plot of the story. In the present narrative tense, we find the mother in some sort of religious state of mind where she prays to certain gods and spirits, for example: “Ah, Amitabha, Buddha of great compassion, I whisper...” (P. 1, L. 24). While she finds herself in this state, she is reminded of their, her family's, life since they moved from China to America, these parts of the story are, obviously, told in the past tense. The story begins in the present tense, as a sort of exposition. We are introduced to the narrator's situation, the main conflict of the story: she wants to take her daughter out of ballet school, as she predicts: “I can already hear the protest from Pearl's ballet teachers - "you can't do this, she is an extraordinary talent."”(P.1, L.3-4). To find arguments as to why she should undertake this task, she looks back at her life since they first arrived in America. First she explains why they let Pearl take ballet classes in the first place, also described in...
Words: 1294 - Pages: 6
...Lower East Side Memories : A Jewish Place in America By HASIA R. DINER The Lower East Side and American Jewish Memory I'm Jewish because love my family matzoh ball soup. I'm Jewish because my fathers mothers uncles grandmothers said "Jewish," all the way back to Vitebsk & Kaminetz-Podolska via Lvov. Jewish because reading Dostoyevsky at 13 I write poems at restaurant tables Lower East Side, perfect delicatessen intellectual. —Allen Ginsberg, "Yiddishe Kopf" The poet Allen Ginsberg, born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, returned in his later years to a narrative style of expression, shifting gears from the anger and fire of his early career. In this poem from 1991 he also touched down again, after a long hiatus spent exploring Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, upon some Jewish themes, as a way of remembering the world of his youth. He described that world in one poem, "Yiddishe Kopf," literally, a Jewish head, but more broadly, a highly distinctive Jewish way of thinking, based on insight, cleverness, and finesse. That world for him stood upon two zones of remembrance. The world of eastern Europe, of Vitebsk, Lvov, and Kamenets-Podolski gave him one anchor for his Jewishness. Thai space of memory gave him a focus for continuity and inherited identity, tied down by the weight of the past, by family in particular. The other, the Lower East Side, nurtured and...
Words: 6616 - Pages: 27
...of direction. On his intense expedition down the mountain, Mortenson found himself wandering through a rural and hidden town named Korphe. There he discovered that the few male children who attended "school" sat outside in the brisk cold, and carved letters with branches in the mud. The villagers couldn't afford a full-time teacher, let alone a building. However, these people didn't hesitate to give Mortenson, someone at the time no more to them than a stranger, their best blankets, and precious sugar. Moved by their kindness, this was the tipping point when Mortenson lost interest in his own climbing goals and shifted his focus entirely on improving the lives of the people of Pakistan. He promised to build them a school on...
Words: 2025 - Pages: 9
...example providing hope to all. The complexity and contradictions of his life make his autobiography intellectually intriguing for advanced readers. To some he was known as the Sage of Tuskegee or the Black Moses. One of his prominent biographers, Louis R. Harlan, called him the “Wizard of the Tuskegee Machine.” Others acknowledged him to be a complicated person and public figure. Students of American social and political history have come to see that Washington lived a double life. Publicly he appeased the white establishment by remaining cautious in his charges and demands. Privately he worked tirelessly to undo the effects of institutional and cultural racism. Although he seemed to have made a grand compromise, first with the white south and then with white America, he worked in deepest secret to undermine the compromise and advance the social and economic position of blacks. No doubt exists as to his greatness....
Words: 13713 - Pages: 55