Visual Rhetoric Depicting US Education

This political cartoon is first set in the year 1960 and shows parents blaming their kid for not succeeding academically. Then, it shows the parents putting blame on the teacher for their kid not succeeding 50 years later, in 2010. This relates to my research paper because I'm writing about the current decline in US education compared to the rest of the world, and this cartoon tries to identify what is causing this fall.

This cartoon clearly contrasts the differences in values and parenting styles from 50 years ago versus today. It tries to convince people who read it that parents are unfairly blaming the establishment, rather than their own children, for academic struggles. Although this claim may not necessarily be true, the author tries to persuade his audience through emotion and nostalgia.

The illustrator of this cartoon tries to generate an appeal to pathos by bringing back thoughts and emotions from the past for some of the audience. Using a comparison from 1960 brings back a nostalgic feeling to certain readers, which adds persuasive value. Older readers who see this will be more likely to empathize and become persuaded by it because of how the illustrator appeals to how things were in 1960.

Image source 

Analysis of a Scholarly Source

The United States education system was ranked 1st in the world among other developed countries as little as 20 years ago. But as of last year, the United States is ranked 17th in the world in education. How can we explain this sudden drop?

In order to find a credible explanation for this problem we must locate a scholarly article that has been published on the topic. On my search for good sources, I came across "No Country Left Behind" by Rodger W. Bybee and Elizabeth Stage. I found this article on Academic Search Complete, a database full of scholarly articles. After checking to ensure that the article had an abstract and had been published in a legitimate publication or journal, I could be certain that it was a scholarly article.

This article gives insight as to how the under-emphasis in math and science in the U.S. accounts for part of the educational decline we have experienced over the past 20 years. They analyze different math-based assessments given to K-12 students in the United States, and show evidence of U.S. students' lack of mathematical understanding in school. The article concludes by stating that the results of these assessments should provide the motivation to change the educational curricula around the nation. In summary, the article provides well-researched and insightful points and provides evidence to support its claims regarding the K-12 education in the United States.

Source:

Bybee, Rodger W., and Elizabeth Stage. “No Country Left Behind.” Issues in Science

            and Technology. 21.2 (2005): 69-75. Web. Winter 2005.

The Digital Age and America's Youth

America has become obsessed with letting technology entertain us. For our youth, the implications of a growing dependency on laptops and smart phones can mean shorter attention spans and a decrease in face-to-face interaction.

The ability to access almost any information on a whim can be an amazing thing. Though, more time spent using our electronic devices equals less time spent socializing with others -- and the effects of spending less time with friends and family affects our children the most. Are smart phones doing more harm than good for our youth?

Now that most modern children can escape into the virtual worlds of their phones and avoid being  forced into awkward and spontaneous social situations, their social development is at a high risk of being stunted. Melissa Ortega, a child psychologist at the Child Mind Institute in New York, states, "They don't know how to handle conflict face to face because so many things happen through some sort of technology" (link). Ortega warns how as these children progress into high school, they will begin to use their phones and portable electronics as an "avoidance strategy".

I'm all for technology and progress, but I believe that we need to be careful as we assimilate ourselves and our children into this new highly technological, quickly changing culture.

Celebrity Culture in America

America has been the center of the entertainment industry for at least the past 100 years. It’s no wonder that celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, and the Kardashian sisters have become such global personas. The contagious and popular entertainment culture in America is the main reason that so many of its prodigies have turned into international sensations.

While being the nucleus of the global entertainment industry has its benefits and can be viewed as playing a positive role in American culture, people such as Courtney Enlow strongly disagree. In Enlow’s blog, she outlines why she believes the celebrity culture in America has “ruined us” (link). Most notably, Enlow claims America indulges in what is called “Universal Schadenfreude” or receiving pleasure from someone else’s misfortune. I have seen America build people up just to tear them back to the ground. I’m sure that almost every young American is familiar with the downward spiral that Britney Spears endured, several years back. Later in her post, Enlow discusses how we, the American people, have put these celebrities on a pedestal and how we have begun to consider ourselves inferior. When we choose people to be our role models, who have such high egos, the result will likely be negative.

It is okay for us to have people we look up to, but we have to be sure that we don’t take entertainment beyond what it is supposed to be – an enjoyable outlet on the side.

Learning to Write Properly

For the majority of my life, language at home and language at school have always been two completely separate worlds, in my experience. At home, literacy and language in general simply consisted verbal communication -- whether it was telling stories or catching up with the family -- there was no need to be a skilled writer. While at school on the other hand, writing was one of the most important skill sets at times, and while I was in high school the only time writing became important for me was while I was in school. This was a very unfortunate truth for me at the time.

Because of this, I never felt it to be necessary to my future to properly learn to write and therefore I constantly struggled. This has taught me how critical motivation is to becoming a good writer. It took me all the way until senior year until I truly gained the motivation necessary to learning to write academically. It was the struggle of not knowing how to write pitted against the demand and necessity to be able to write, during my senior year, that finally led to me buckling down and teaching myself. Albeit, there is still much progress to be made in my journey to become a better writer.

Political culture in America today

Exacerbated by the previous two elections, the two most prominent political ideologies in America are (allegedly) becoming more divided and rivalrous than ever. Or are they? Stephanie Pappas, a Senior Writer with the Huffington Post, says not so fast (link). According to Pappas, a new study done by PLOS ONE (link) asserts that, "Everyone, including political moderates, overestimates the gap between liberal and conservative morals..." Not only do people overestimate their political opponents, they over-exaggerate their own values and beliefs. For example, Pappas states how liberals and moderates who participated in the online survey believed that conservatives barely cared, if at all, about "harm/care and fairness/reciprocity," while the conservative respondents showed this was not the case.

So, what is making us feel like our nation is being pulled apart? It may be partially due to the fact that the last two elections have been such "high-octane" events. It could possibly be a result of the national media employing increasingly divisive headlines and diction in order to grab their viewers' attention. Whether it is because of the media, Bush, or Obama, America has been bombarded with polarizing appeals to ethos and pathos over the past seven or eight years that has left it seemingly more divided than before. The state of political culture in America is at a low-point, and until we realize how petty most of our differences actually are, things are only going to continue to get worse.

Social media, marketing, and our changing culture

In today's world, utilizing modern technology in your business is more critical than ever. There is a profusion of statistics crawling the web that show how integrating your business with social media positively affects your firm. Like it or not, online social media is part of modern culture. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ all have a fast-growing and impressionable user-base. Kevin Jorgensen wrote an article laying out marketing statistics for businesses, pertaining specifically to Facebook (link).

Here's the beginning of the list:

Source: http://www.business2community.com/facebook/facebook-marketing-statistics-you-need-to-know-0289953

Jorgensen employs a strong appeal to logos through the constant usage of percentages, and also because of the broad range of statistics he covers. Though, he appeals to pathos as well, through his use of technical vocabulary.

I found Jorgensen's article especially interesting due the fact that his article and its conclusions apply to every type of business, regardless of culture. It indicates just how universally important social networking has become around the globe. #3 on his list "62% of Marketers Report that Social Media Became More Important to Their Marketing Campaigns in the Last 6 Months" expresses how quickly our culture continues to change. It's amazing that culture can remain constant for hundreds of years, and then almost completely change within a decade. What a fascinating age we live in.