"Aria"

In his short excerpt from "Tongue Tied," "Aria," Richard Rodriguez describes the troubles that many families face with attempting to become bilingual speaking families, in order to succeed in school systems. Rodriguez stands by the fact and argues that it is important to speak different languages. In his excerpt, Rodriguez talks about his personal experiences with and without bilingual education, saying "Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease," (pg. 1). It was just interesting how he uses his own personal connections in order to build his argument for bilingual education, and that it is something actually needs to be implemented.


Question: What are the big reasons for schools not to have a bilingual teaching method.

https://www.idra.org/resource-center/current-problems-in-bilingual-education-part-i/

"All Lives Matter"

In his article, "The Next Time Someone Says 'All Lives Matter,' Show Them These 5 Paragraphs," Kevin Roose talks about how certain wording of a phrase can often times have different outcomes than how it was intended to be taken. Some of the interesting quotes that stuck out in this article were:

1. "Imagine that you're sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don't get any. So you say "I should get my fair share." And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, "everyone should get their fair share." Now, that's a wonderful sentiment — indeed, everyone should, and that was kinda your point in the first place: that you should be a part of everyone, and you should get your fair share also. However, dad's smart-ass comment just dismissed you and didn't solve the problem that you still haven't gotten any!" What Roose means by using an example like this is that by simply saying that "I should get my fair share," it can be taken to generally, and given the dad's response of "everyone should get their fair share," often times incorrectly as well. 

2. "That's the situation of the "black lives matter" movement. Culture, laws, the arts, religion, and everyone else repeatedly suggest that all lives should matter. Clearly, that message already abounds in our society." This quote just undermines the entire idea of "black lives matter." With the second part of the quote speaking about how parts of everyday life already agree with this statement, it would also argue that the entire idea of this movement don't seem to make sense. Everyone that I've ever known his respected the idea of everyone of every race being equal, and about 99% of society is in agreement with this. 

3. "Just like asking dad for your fair share, the phrase "black lives matter" also has an implicit "too" at the end: it's saying that black lives should also matter. But responding to this by saying "all lives matter" is willfully going back to ignoring the problem." What was most interesting about this quote was how it compared to other parts of the article, how Roose spoke about society already agrees with the concept of all lives do matter, and now he is saying that people are finding ways to completely ignore the problem by just saying "all lives matter," and not trying to focus on solving the problem. 

So with all of this said, a question remains: how do we, as a society, correctly address the idea of "all lives matter?" without sounding racist or insulting? 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-damiani/every-time-you-say-all-li_1_b_11004780.html 

Land of Limitations?

In his article, "U.S.A., Land of Limitations?" Nicholas Kristof talks about the socio-economic aspects of America. He begins his article by saying that the term often coined to describe America, the "Land of Opportunity," is not exactly true. Kristof also pointed out that America likes to call itself a land that has people that have made and people that are going to make it. But the overlaying message in his article is that often times if people start off/are born into a more lower economic class, they most likely won't leave that class of  people. This type of thing really resonates with me. My parents, who worked hard during their whole lives, were below the average socio-economic standard and didn't have much when they were younger. But during their lives, they worked hard and broke out from the class they were in since childhood, and now stand as "wealthy, middle class" citizens. This is an amazing case of breaking the limitations, but sadly there are so many stories of people, including some of my close friends from high school, that their parents haven't broken through the barrier into a better class. It was interesting also how the article talked about how the rich are seemingly expecting things to just be handed to them, and how rich children are expecting to be given everything. One article reviewing Kristof's article, written by an unknown author, described it as "thought-provoking" and bashes the Republicans for not saying anything about the growing inequality and class rigidity. In short, Kristof's article describes the socio-economic struggles that face the land of limitations, and how solutions to the problem will not come easy.

So the only thing to really ask is: what are the biggest obstacles facing people that are trying to break out of the "class?"

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/8/9/1410207/-U-S-A-Land-of-Limitations

Introductions......

My name is Christian McElroy,  and I am 19 years old. I am current student at Rhode Island College and reside in Barrington, RI. I am an education major and enjoy listening and playing music in my spare time, or breaking cement and doing martial arts at Rocky Silvas American Karate. 

RSAK logo

For my job, I work as an independent sales representative and assistant manager at Vector Marketing in Cranston, and I've been doing that during summer vacation.

Vector Marketing (my job) 

 In addition to this, I played music with some new friends, relaxed and enjoyed new school for 4 months. I enjoy playing video games with my friends and making sure that no minute of my life is wasted. But the most important thing in my life is my relationship with God and my family. Thats pretty much me!