A 'Final' Word From Tyler Brown

Throughout the time that I have been aware of the culture around me, I have found a major flaw with humanity. That is, humanity’s unwillingness to think for itself. Dictation is so much easier to live by, since it requires so little individual thought. People in society would much rather be told how to look, dress, eat, and live. This is especially present in the area of consumerism and how it relates to the everyday lives of the individual. Even before taking this class, the idea of how blind we are to the schemes of companies to entice us to buy things we don’t need sickened me. While taking this class, we ran across this subject and it excited me deeply. Obviously, many in the class had strong opinions on the subject since we spent several weeks talking about consumerism and technology. Personally, the most interesting part of the class was those three or four weeks we discussed these topics. The reason for this of course was that I have very strong feelings on those issues and the presented a strong interest for me. I found those weeks among the most fascinating and valuable weeks of the class.

As a disclaimer, I do deal in extreme illustrations that are not always absolute. This is one reason I enjoyed reading Postman. He reminded me of myself in that, both of us use very extreme, sometimes ridiculous sounding illustrations to make others think about the points we are trying to make. Most people do not consider evidence that it presented in a common way. They want something powerful, something that makes them either strongly agree, or strongly disagree. I know this to be true, from the comments I received on my blog. I made it a point to write social commentaries that exaggerated my point. The comments I received ranged from those in extreme appreciation of what I wrote, strongly agreeing with the point I was making, to long, angry refutations of the things I was saying. These are exactly the reactions I strive to produce. I want to inspire emotion, and I believe that I accomplished that quite well. The best way to inspire emotion is to deal in illustration.

Consumerism is a problem; one that cannot easily be resolved. The reason being is that the lies we have been told for so many years are so deeply engrained in the minds of people that it is nearly impossible to get rid of them. For instance, consider this. There is no such thing as fashion. “Fashion” is a marketing tool used to make people think that they need more clothing in order to keep up with the times. If clothing designers had not thought of fashion, they would only sell enough clothes to keep people warm. There would be no need to buy new things every season, rather, just wear the clothes from years before. People would have no need to constantly update their wardrobes; in fact, they might not even have “wardrobes.” This illustration may seem extreme, and it’s not necessarily true, but it is an interesting idea. I tried to see how highly fashion rules were followed by taking a quick visit to the mall this weekend. I asked around in several different stores trying to find a white pair of shoes. The same response was given at every store, all the employees having the same look of their faces. They all looked at me like I was the biggest idiot they had ever met. Their reply was, “We don’t carry white after labor day.” Of course it came with the tone of “I can’t believe YOU had the audacity to ask such a ridiculous question.” Now who decided that white was unacceptable during a certain time of year, and why do we care? Doesn’t white look the same all the time? Could it be that we should have to buy different shoes for different seasons, even though the ones we already have are perfectly useful? How would the fashion designer combat this? He would come up with a useless rule that socially prohibits the wearing of certain shoes at certain time, forcing the public to reach into their wallet and purchase new, unnecessary shoes of a more acceptable color or style. That idea seems preposterous, yet it’s a cultural mainstay. How can we be so pliable, as to follow these “social rules” made by someone with no authority? I mean, someone like the president, who has legal power over his citizens, could say that the people of his country could not smoke marijuana. The interesting thing is, people still do, but heaven forbid they wear white while they smoke illegal drugs in mid-October.

Another point that I made time and time again was consumer responsibility. I believe that people have functioning brains and that they can be informed and well-learned. They can decide which products are worth-while. Many in the class had talked about corporate responsibility. They talked about media schemes and ways that corporations “force” people to buy their products. It was not explicitly stated, but implied that certain forms of brainwashing tactics were used to coerce children into asking for new products. This is a widely held opinion. One children’s channel, Baby Einstein T.V. does not allow commercials, because they believe that the ads are tainting the minds of American children. Although these may be influencing in many ways, we as Americans are discounting the role of parents in the development of children. Parents have to be pro-active in guiding their children in the ways of consumer safety. Of course, for this to work, parents must lead by example. This means that people need to reassess what is important and what is necessary. The public needs to become aware that they do, indeed have a choice, and that consumerism doesn’t have to be the driving force of their lives. This is definitely one of the lessons I have come across this semester.

This class has definitely been beneficial to me. I have drawn a greater awareness toward the education process, consumerism, and technology. Through class discussion and personal research, I have been able to step back and look at my personal beliefs and see if I actually thought they were true or if I had just unknowingly accepted them. I appreciated this course and I know that it will help me in the future as I try to view every issue from a more objective stance until I’m able to decide for myself what I do believe.

No Child Left Behind - Reforms Needed

Our project was about the “No Child Left Behind Act.” We took an interesting approach to our topic and it didn’t end up the way we had originally planned. At first, we thought that we would just find information about the Act and present it to the class and let the class decide for themselves which position to take on the issue. Once we had started looking into the Act more, we found more and more information that lead us to take a position. We found out various reasons why the Act is not working and how it could be reformed.
We found, firstly, that the Act was setting impossible standards for schools to comply with. It was requiring close to if not perfect proficiency in order to maintain school funding. If the schools were not meeting the proficiency standards they were put on a sort of probation for a year. After this time, if the school is not meeting proficiency standards, they are in danger of losing government funding and being shut down. To counter the effects of school shut downs, the government made it possible for students in a school that doesn’t meet standards to attend another school in the district. Unfortunately, some districts only have one school and if those school don’t meet standards, students run into trouble.
Another main issue in the Act is that it is not properly funded. When the Act was initiated, the government, on the President’s request, kicked in fifty percent of the funding needed for the Act, leaving the schools and the states responsible for the remaining half of the funding. Schools are finding it impossible to find the money to cover the mandatory legislation. They are being forced to cut programs and cut faculty pay.
This Act is not all bad. The main idea is very good in theory. It is a program that forces public schools into accountability. It tries to keep students proficient with the national standards. It help school learn how to establish tutoring and after school programs to allow students to get ahead and stay ahead. It also established uniformity in the school system through the use of standardized testing to measure proficiency. Unfortunately, it is very under funded and this is a major problem. The schools who are doing well, but do not have money to support the Act are being penalized.
Once we had discovered these things, we felt that we now had a very valid presentation and that we could take it somewhere. So we turned our research in a different direction. We began emailing our instructors to ask them for a first hand account of what they thought about the Act and how it was affecting schools. Many of them replied and, surprisingly, every single reply had the same answer. The answer was reinforcement to our conclusion that the ideals of this Act were excellent in theory, but putting them into practice, especially with the lack of funding, was very hard to do. They all thought that the government was not giving enough margin for error. Many people thought that the government was overstepping its boundaries in trying to control the public school system.
We then decided that the plan could work, but it needs major reforms. First of all, adequate funding is absolutely necessary. Secondly, evaluation of each school needs to be done on a personal basis rather than on a national standard. Different regions of the nation are performing differently and cannot be evaluated the same way. The bill was too rushed and not given enough thought before it was enacted. As of now, programs are being cut, schools are being closed and teachers and faculty are receiving salary cuts. It is very important for America’s youth to be well educated, but at what cost?