Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Virginia & Oswell Street

I chose this street because as you see as your going your going over a bridge which to me symbolizes going over an obstacle.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Rhetorical Modes

    In the first few sections of Conover’s The Routes of man he speaks about how roads can bring different types of people together and help them through struggles. I noticed a few rhetorical modes he used such as definition, he defines what an interoceanic highway is and how he translates and defines most of the spanish words used in the writting. He used cause and effect when he's having a conversation with Alan and Alan states that if they are allowed to build the interoceanic highway then the cost of shipping will be cheaper and the wood would arrive to the markets quicker making business better. Narration is also apart of this whole book because he's telling the story but to be more specific narration was used when he spoke of his travels with Braulio & Edgardo in Braulio's fuel truck. And another one that was put to use was description like when Conover described the way Mary Luz looked when he took her to the diner.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Learning as Freedom precis

In "Learning as Freedom"-an editorial published on September 5, 2012 in The New York Times -Michael Roth argues that rather than structuring education around specific vocations, "making the grade," and turning people into "robots" designed to complete certain tasks, education should allow individuals to be free to grow and learn while gaining necessary skills and finding their own purpose and significance in life and work. Roth supports his claim by first using a quote from scholars like Charles Murray, Richard Vedder and Peter W. Wood which states "why people destined for low-paying jobs should bother to pursue their education beyond high school, much less study philosophy, literature and history." And their basically saying if some is destined to be a janitor why should they have to go to school and try to learn to be a lawyer it just doesn't make sense. He then continues to support his claim by using the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 where specific vocational education was funded in order to fill job opportunities. Although it was a well thought out successful plan it didn't allow personal growth and that was unfortunate. Roth sides with the philosopher John Dewey who says, “Education should aim to enhance our capacities so that we are not reduced to mere tools.”He believes that schools today are not fit for teaching because they all focus on teaching all children the same exact skills when all those children won’t grow up to do the same thing which means they don’t all need the same skills.