Wrong Field

Something else that’s been on my mind lately is that what if I pick the wrong major. Right now I am a Computer Engineer major and I have enjoyed it so far and I see myself doing very well in the field, but I think what if there is a major or a job I don’t know about that would feel like a calling and I never know till later in life. Like if I am a good actor, singer, artist but just don’t know it or haven’t had the proper opportunity. Then you find out when you have a job and is financially settled. Just don’t want to miss the opportunity. For the most part I feel I would be well suited for the field of Computers and they interest me. I don’t know maybe it hasn’t came yet or I wouldn’t find those jobs enjoyable or I’m not good at them. I just was always told you’ll never work a day in your life if you find a job you love. I believe this and couldn’t stand the thought of being bored on a job for about 30-40 years ( It would drive me crazy).

Spring Break

A break finally we need this Spring Break. First thing it does is signify that we are halfway done with this semester and for some closer to Summer break. For me it means that I can relax without having to think about work. I have plans to go to Miami with friends for a little and enjoy myself (my friends will most likely enjoy themselves to much, I’ll have to be the designated driver). No blogs, papers, and lectures for a week just enough to prepare myself for the last Month and 2 weeks. Then when I come back I have a chance to win prizes in a tournament ( I hope I win, lot of money). So I am looking forward to these few days if not only for the reason of not having to do any work and a chance to make money that I need.

Paradigm

In class we went over the articles that we were suppose to read and we came across the word paradigm. Now I’ve heard the word before but, was not clear on how it was used (that’s why I kept quiet, I was told if you don’t know a word don’t say anything and find out later). So I found that paradigm means a pattern of some sort it has relations mainly in science, and I guess it would relate to the articles in that they all follow a pattern in how they were written. They are all intelligent, and stray away from opinions (they use big words to confuse you). The best example was “The Truth about Jena 6” the author didn’t clearly show their opinion. In class we tried to guess the race of the author, we thought she was a white lady then as it went on she could have been black (a black person named Amy, when I thought about it I never met one). For all we know she was a little Asian lady trying to confuse us. In the end all the articles do follow a kind of pattern as I said and would be a paradigm.

Every Child Left Behind

Our government during the Bush administration has come up with an act to try an improve education in America. This act is known as the No Child Left Behind Act. This act supposedly raises standards of accountability for all states. Most of its focus is on teaching the core subjects (Reading, Math, Science etc.) with more attention to the Reading. It has been criticized constantly by the media and the other news outlets (just about every person in the country). Some of the problems with it is that it could hinder effective instruction, and hinder student learning. Some states have had to lower their achievement goals and some teachers might just teach students just enough to make a decent grade on the test. One interesting thing I found in the act is that every school must submit a name and telephone number of every student to local military recruiters ( I wonder why?). Another problem could be how they qualify a good teacher. As of last year Congress is deciding on major revisions. Maybe they can come up with a better way to do this but as it stands it’s not going to work.

National Standards

Another idea that has been derived from class (mainly the article “ First, Kill all the School Boards”) was the idea of putting all states on a national standard of education rather a state standard that varies by state. In the article the author states that each state has a different idea on where there students should be like South Carolina accepts a reading passing level in the 71st percentile while Wisconsin accepts in the 14th. Now that doesn’t make sense it seems that South Carolina doesn’t care their students aren’t proficient in reading. Now I agree that the circumstances might be different state to state and other states don’t know affairs in other states, but a national standard would fix all of this. The national standard has to be high or it won’t be effective (No child left behind). The only thing I can see so far standing in the way of this is the jobs presented by each state. Example, some of the more “smarter” jobs would be plentiful in a state such as Washington where as Tennessee (mainly Memphis) would not need as many of these kinds of workers so the standards would be low so there would be a plentiful supply of workers for more manual labor ( we have FedEx headquarters, most jobs here are warehouse jobs, our school system is horrible, you do the math).

A movie to think about

A while ago we had to do movie reviews and I chose to do the Manchurian Candidate a movie that if it wasn’t an assignment I probably would not have seen the movie. I am so glad that I watched the movie. It was about a presidential candidate that has been brainwashed by a company that just wanted to use him as a figurehead while they accomplish their goals. The movie had a lot of underlining themes like big business and politics, special interest groups, and about brainwashing. In the movie our hero remembers an incident in the war but he feels that it did not happen like he thinks it does. While Shaw the presidential candidate is the hero but his mother is behind the brainwashing for power. (and she is sexually attracted to her son, gross) it is a good movie for those who want to think a little deeper and I am very glad that I watched it.

Humanistic vs. Behaviorist part 3

The next( the one I favor ) approach is the Behaviorist approach. They believe that behavior is dictated by consequences whatever they may be. You can kind of see where this is going it’s like the old eye for an eye but a little nicer. One way it was used was on me when I was little. I did something very bad my mom found a belt and I became the world’s fastest man. This also happened once in elementary school when they still gave spankings (I feel old). Anyways you get the point. In the school systems instead of metal detectors and searching lockers you get caught with a gun send them to jail because that’s where they are going to end up, no suspension just jail. Student wants to hit a teacher I think teacher has the right to knock him out. That’s what happened to my gym teacher student hit him he made him into a pretzel (he got fired the same day, what a shame). It would make every delinquent think twice about trying something and they might concentrate on their studies. Probably the only drawback is some authorities my take it a bit too far and it would border on abuse, but there is consequences for them too.

Humanistic vs. Behaviorist part 2

First I will talk about the approach that we use now, The humanistic approach. In the school systems someone decided to use this approach towards educating kids. It states that each and every person strives to be the best person they can be that we as humans by nature try to be good, (a bunch of crap). So that’s the thinking behind the school systems and I guess the main reason to the problems that we have. The first problem that I have with it is that everyone by nature is not good, (carjackers, sex offenders, terrorist, gang members etc…) and also the punishments don’t fit the crime or they don’t set an example to other kids who might want to try it. They way they encounter the problem is maybe putting brighter colors in school, more metal detectors, and increased police presence. I just think that it does very little to curb the problem. I know because when I went to school the officers or metal detectors would not stop then students at my school from fighting or shooting each other they would just do it after school or at a certain part of the campus. Besides they won’t even let the teachers try stop a student even if someone has a weapon. If a teacher even touches a student they will be fired and some ignorant mother( whose to blame, for their dumb kid anyway) will be on TV ready to sue the school board for hurting their baby when they were trying to kill half the kids at the school. We have been trying this approach for years and it has yet to work.

Humanistic vs. Behaviorist part 1

Again I the fruits of my research online about School Assessment combined with a spark from my always interesting class of Psychology. In class we began to talk about the approaches to studying psychology and the two we were comparing and contrasting were Behaviorism and Humanism. Psychology is the backbone in our education system it basically decides every decision involving the school system. It ranges from how to stop pregnancy among teenage girls to the colors they use to paint the school. These people get paid a lot of money to come up with new and better ways to solve our problems (we need to get a refund). So far of school systems have mostly adopted a Humanistic approach, not just here in Memphis but nationwide. It’s been this way for sometime but we use to rely on Behaviorism but that stopped. I think that our problems have grown from the humanistic approach and the behaviorist approach would be better, but like everything problems will come but I think the problems presented with a behaviorist approach would be more manageable than those using the humanistic approach. The next two blogs I going to compare each of them strengths and weaknesses.

1 vs. 2

This weekend our city is going to get the one of the biggest economic boosts by experiencing the #1 Memphis Tigers (Yay) vs. #2 Tennessee Volunteers (yay). This game has huge importance in the college basketball world and also to our city. I am a huge sports fan and this is a big day for me with my school having a shot for perfection. They also bring a lot of revenue to this city (and lord knows we need it) I hear people are already parking downtown so you know that going that way is probably not going to be easy and that’s the task I’ll have to face. I going to go to game and pray that there is a spot in a alley somewhere for my car (I’m in for a long walk). For the game my I think that Memphis is going to win Tennessee will put up a good fight due to differences in playing style we will pull it out. We just got to stop the three point shooting. I am excited and looking forward to Saturday for the Tennessee Tussle (good name).

Get the vote out

Brandon McMahan
English 1020
February 12, 2008


At first when I think of the slogan I don’t quite understand it. It is not a complete phrase or a sentence, but when I read the article I see that it is well thought out and the speaker is trying to explain the reasons that people should and should not vote. He first points to extreme examples that could have taken place for people who chose not to vote. He appeals to voting as a privilege and not a law. In the public eye back when the article was written he says that not voting would be viewed as unpatriotic and or unethical. Then he gives an example of an average voter who could be swayed by public opinion. The voter would chose to vote for the people who he was informed about and for those he doesn’t know he would choose at random or the most familiar name. He explains that this would be an example of how someone could vote the wrong people in office. Whereas he might vote intelligently on one or two candidates and the other ones would get a random vote or depending on their publicity campaign. According to the speaker this would result in a loss of the majority of the public’s vote.

The speaker throughout the article stresses the importance of voting intelligently and how by not voting it would do the nation a favor. They think that if you are not going to vote in an intelligent manner you’re better off not voting at all. He also shows that political parties that are not in power can prey on this and use it against the public. His evidence includes surveys done on public opinion that shows a certain proportion of the public have no opinion on many vital issues. He again tackles the idea that it is unpatriotic not to vote saying that an uninformed vote would be a useless one. He even adds a humorous tone in that uninformed people would just create more delay in voting, slowing down the results. These people would even skew the results of the balloting. The main point he is trying to get across is that instead of urging people to vote we should rather encourage people to study and form opinions. If they don’t care to do that then he thinks that they would be better off staying at home. He does not find any problem in the low voter turnout, perhaps prefers it if the majority of them vote wisely. Voting should not be seen as a patriotic thing to if people will not vote in a proper manner.

The article desperately tries to persuade the audience to vote intelligently or don’t vote at all. It starts out as a radical statement that would be heavily criticized if you skim through it or don’t read the whole thing. He seems to have no political affiliation or rather an affiliation with the most suitable candidate no matter what party he represents. It is a surprise that the article is written so long ago but still has clear meaning by today’s standards. In his time people voted with more pride in their country and that’s why they would vote in such a manner. Today people still vote with pride in their country, but there are less numbers and to his fears they would seem to be less intelligent than the people he criticized back then. There are some other issues behind voting besides being patriotic, for example why African Americans vote. African Americans vote for more than themselves they vote because of the struggle and oppression that their ancestors when through to achieve the right to vote. I still do not think that would be an excuse to not know the people for whom you are voting for. I think that we as African Americans owe those who fought for us at least this honor. Now I think that he is building upon the fact that we as a nation would better honor those who fought for this right and our country. He has the right idea in that voting without informing yourself or carelessly voting at random to fill out your ballot could be looked at as more unpatriotic than not voting, at least those who don’t vote will not affect the results of the election in a negative way.

The Storm

Tuesday Feb 5th was a normal day I went to classes and paid attention but when I got to my Chemistry lab which was suppose to last until 2:40 but I was told that classes were cancelled after 2:30 and my teacher rushed my out of the lab so he could go home. I headed home but I had some things to do before I was going to go home I got my hair cut and went to wal-mart for groceries. When I left wal-mart the sky was dark and I noticed lightning every 3 seconds which I didn’t think much of until later. Then it rained and I got home and looked at the news and saw the storm warning for the areas. I’ve seen it before so I thought it would rain really hard and pass on but I didn’t think that a tornado would hit. The tornados hit not to far from my house but we were spared the worst of the storm. Where Union University was completely destroyed and people lost their lives. So all we can do is pray for the ones who lost love ones in the tornados and those who lost their livelihood. To me it’s just a testament to what God can do and a blessing that nothing happened to me or anyone I know.

One and Done

While looking for information on my topic I ran across something interesting something that says that students today when they take the test they indicate that the student might do good on the test but when it comes to applying the knowledge to something they can’t do it. Example, a student might take a writing test and do alright but in essays they write for something like for a scholarship it would not be acceptable. It says that the teacher is only going over what is tested in this situation and the student is just doing good enough to get a decent grade on the test and what they learned isn’t really sticking to them. The person who wrote it suggest that in today’s schools we don’t just go over basic knowledge and that they focus on things that can be applied to something else. Also they say another problem is that the testing done by the state is a one shot thing where one test is not an accurate measurement of a students ability in that area. I would agree but I wouldn’t like taking multiple tests on the same thing. Maybe in the future this problem can be corrected.

From School to the Real World

Many of you have thought it, many of you have even said it to other people, I know I have said it. What I’m talking about is when you go to class like Calculus or algebra maybe even history and you think why am I learning this? I’ll never use this in everyday life. Well you might be right. In every educational institution there are prerequisites before you graduate or move on there is this course or that course you have to take and you move on and find out that what you learned was completely useless. It’s even worse if you struggled in whatever it was. That is how our school systems work you have to take the standardized test for this and that to get further but those won’t help you in real life situations. How everything was set up in grade school is you learn a balance of every subject before you get into what you do for the rest of your life. It’s not a bad thing but there is such a heavy emphasis on these tests when it only provides basic knowledge to something that needs more attention in one area than another. Like a English major learning advanced calculus, there’s no point in it their job requires more attention to English and what’s the point or learning something you will never use.

Meaning What you Say

Multiple times in my life I have written papers some good some bad. The majority of the papers I just wanted to get done because typing or writing papers are not something that I find enjoyable and they feel like a chore to do. Most the papers I found many ways just to fill them up to the appropriate amount of words without really talking about the subject. In class Mrs. Sumner explained to us that exact problem and showed us statements that were full of bulk. She showed us that the words in them carry meaning you might say, many people commit crimes, and she would point out, who is many people and what crimes do they commit. I never looked at sentences that way but I think I got it she is trying to say that we must be more specific, get off the fence and say what you really mean. When she dismantled the sentence it frustrated me and most of the class even to the point that she even began to outlaw some words. We sooner or later got it. In the end I found that it was a very important lesson, something that I will take outside the classroom which is rare.

Education Stays the Same

When I was in high school it felt like my education was dated, my books were from the 80’s ( Some didn’t need to be updated, because the subject didn’t change, Math ) and we really didn’t have the cool technology that went along with education. Now I know that in some classrooms there are laptops and some classes had computers in them, but the computers were older than me and most just had the internet. With education constantly changing as the workforce demands more out of students education might need to catch up. Now companies need workers who have analytical, problem solving and reasoning skills and education fails to live up to the expectations. Also as things move towards technology and automation students can’t just make it on basic skills anymore. Maybe a more computer savvy classroom would help things. It could open up a whole new world of possibilities in the classroom. Connection with other classrooms around the world could be possible. The only flaw, as with everything in this state or this country for that matter, is money. I don’t think I can figure out that problem but its worth a shot because our Memphis City schools need some help.

The Non-Football part of the Super Bowl

The parts of the Super Bowl the non-football fan tunes in to watch. Not to sound like a hater but I myself enjoy the ads and some of the festivities. This year was no exception the commercials were funny, like FedEx with the pigeons (priceless) and bud light with the added super powers to the beer. (I wish they could really have something that could make you fly, that would help Global Warming). What I ask is it too much maybe we are missing the point. It seems like most of the focus is on the party and celebrity appearances and not the football game. I watched the pre game show (something I never do) and the majority of the show it was this celebrity, this promotion for this movie. It was hosted by Ryan Seacrest (This guy has never touched a football) which he asked whoever he was nearby a prediction for the game and pump up the crowd. When the long wait was over the game started, my thoughts on the game in the other blog, and halftime came (Lord, why?) and the performer was (somebody and The Heartbreaks…) and I know the NFL is trying to be safe since the Justin and Janet incident (wow, didn’t expect that) but they could have done better.

Unofficial Holiday

The Super Bowl ( yes I know it’s a predictable subject for a blog but what a game!) it’s the second best holiday of the year (Christmas and My Birthday are tied for first) it’s where the best of the NFC and the AFC come together to battle for the immortality. This year the storylines behind the bowl games were huge. For the Patriots they came in 18 and 0 looking to make history and extend this decades dynasty. They had the ultimate team Hall of Fame quarterback dating a supermodel ( I’m jealous), probably the greatest wide receiving core, and a very good defense. On the other hand we have the New York Giants, counted out at the beginning of the season, Coach and Quarterback were nearly chased out of town by angry mob with torches, and could not win at home. And in the end the Giants won in probably one of the top 5 best games ever. Eli Manning had all the trouble in the world town didn’t want him he had to live under his brothers shadow, who the year before won the Super Bowl and he seemed like the bastard red headed step child. Who would have guessed a year later he would be Super Bowl XLII MVP (Now the camera might finally incorporate him at the family table in the commercials.)

Parents make the Difference

The second installment about my paper that I wrote for a class assignment. Yes I expected bad results from the Tennessee state site regarding the Memphis City Schools, but I didn’t expect it to be such a gap between them and the state, let alone Shelby County. As I said one of the main problems I think is the parents. First not many of parents are involved in what their child is doing in school. Many parents do whatever they do and leave their kids to do whatever if they don’t skip classes they go to school and just go to classes and don’t care. The other case is when their children do something wrong the parents will take the side of their child. Even when some kid talks back to the teachers and some attack the teachers and they have no power to do anything. Some of the rules are ridiculous, for example if some student attacks another student with a knife the teacher can’t stop the student because the teacher can’t put hands on a student, so they have to call for help from security or the police to stop them. Poor teachers the system ties their hands yet they are suppose to discipline the kids and it’s only going to get worse.

Memphis City vs. Shelby County

Okay I had my Idea in my head when I was going to do my paper for English. My topic was school assessment. So I researched locally about the issue and I came across the Tennessee state site where I looked up the average grades for all schools in Tennessee. It wasn’t a surprise but the comparison between Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools was not close. The ACT scores, TCAP writing, average grades, attendance, suspensions, and expulsions all were not good for Memphis. Example, Shelby County’s graduation rate was something around 94% and Memphis well guess somewhere around 82% that means about 2 of every 10 kids don’t graduate. I know it seems small but in the case of education it’s a big difference. Average ACT was 17 compared to 21 for Shelby County meaning that on average the County school graduate would get the hope scholarship and Memphis City… well tough luck. The suspensions were the stats that jumped off the paper out of 120,000 students at least 20,000 were suspended at some time. I never attended a City School so I don’t know but what is the difference (on a group level) because the individuals I have met that came from a city school seem intelligent to me ( but I do attend a college and It’s a good chance the one’s who helped the bad part of the stats are not here to tell me.)

A Rough Week

This week was a rough one (I’m out of blog topics) had a lot of assignments due at the same time. First (Most important of course) was my school assessment paper which was due Thursday and My first hearing of it was Tuesday (Second according to the teacher, I know I forgot but I still did it.) and that was not good. It wasn’t finished there I still had to do my weekly blogs from that class (which are starting to grow on me). That same day I had Chemistry and a quiz on Thursday over the periodic chart memorizing 44 elements. (The quiz only asked for 3 and I memorized all of them, I wanted to choke him). So I was worried. Not only that my Psychology class had a online quiz due on Feb 1st and they are hard (I made an 82) and to top it all off a Paper due Friday on the Salem Witch trials 3 to 4 pages. I had no time to spare and a date with a keyboard. This being the last of my assignments and just to say I am glad to be done hoping there isn’t another week like this one. (yeah this might become common practice, my poor fingers).