By Sunday, 10-13-13, blog the thesis of WA#4 and one of the body paragraphs (one that you have not written before). Bring a hard copy to conference on Monday or Tuesday. Conferences will be held in my office (Sturges 313).
Although torture can be harsh and many people are against the practice, it is vital in some situations because it can save an innocent life.
The first supporting detail that Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke use to confirm their theory is that torture can help save innocent lives. The authors state, “Torture is permissible where the evidence suggests that this is the only means, due to the immediacy of the situation, to save the life of an innocent person.” If there is an innocent life on the line, torture is an acceptable option. In some cases, it could be the only option. For example, if evidence finds someone guilty of kidnapping, it is a race against the clock to save the innocent life. The quickest option to find the location of the victim would be through the one who put them there. Torture would be the quickest and easiest way to find the information that they need. We should feel no sympathy for the one being tortured because they are most likely directly involved in the situation. If they are in custody and we have full knowledge and proof that they were involved in the crime, then we should find out everything that we could before the situation gets worse. If the convicted are unwilling to give us the information that we need, then they put the torture on themselves. They should feel the same pain that their victim is facing. If an innocent life is on the line, we should hold nothing back to help save that life. If torture is necessary, then by all means get to it.
Torture is undoubtedly unnecessary and immoral, and has more negative effects than positive ones in the majority of situations.
When a snowball rolls down a hill of snow it keeps building bigger and bigger and rolling even faster as it progresses down the slope. In a similar way, making a form of torture found acceptable in society will have communities react and tend to result more and more to torture as an acceptable way to resolve a conflict. Even when it is not necessary for a person to be tortured it will still happen and loop holes will be found for people to justify why it was not assault or abuse, but simply torture to resolve a situation. How do you distinguish the difference between abuse and torture? The answer is you do not, torturing a person is the same as abuse, you both mentally and physically harm a person whether the deserved it or not it is still immoral to bring pain to another human being. Once a snowball starts rolling down that hill it becomes uncontrollable, the word will spread saying that torture is acceptable and people will grasp onto that as a new way to get revenge or gain results faster. Where do we know where to stop and separate abuse from torture. Where is the end going to be where someone draws the line saying that torture is wrong that it is dehumanizing and immoral. There is no way to determine this line once the ball gets rolling and torture becomes more accepted by society, which is why no form of torture not even in hostage situations should be found moral.
Sending students home with F’s would not force more parents to pay attention to their kids because they would still be lazy, have no time to sit down with their child, and would not know the material he or she is writing. Parents always make excuses so that they can’t help children with their work. Most are piled with work, and don’t have the time to spend working with their child. A lot of parents are still going to be lazy, it will not cause them to get off the couch and help their child.
Students coming home with F’s would not drive parents to get off their sofa’s because they still are going to have their eyes glued to the television no matter what. They will be tired after a long day at work, and will just want to relax. I know this because this is how my dad was when I was struggling in High School. My mom would go nuts because he would sit on the couch, and listen to her yell at me about my course work. I know he cared about my grades dropping, but he didn’t have the energy to lecture me about how I have to do better. When it comes down to it parents will not help their children, as much they try, they will be too lethargic to reprimand them.
Well-being and physical condition are increasingly becoming part of “public health” when they should always be a part of personal responsibility, according to Radley Balko. Balko’s essay “What You Eat Is Your Business” is his response to the government’s and other group’s efforts to bring health into the public realm through banning, taxing, and labeling unhealthy foods and habits. Instead of stepping into the people’s lives, Balko argues that the government should promote individual responsibility. “Socialized” health care is another area of concern for Balko. He believes that not paying for one’s own health care supports a lack of responsibility. However, if people had to pay for their choices, then he believes that people will make better, more responsible choices. Overall, Balko calls for a return to individual responsibility from government control. Indeed, health should be a matter of personal responsibility, and with the obesity on the rise, personal responsibility is needed now more than ever. More and more people, kids included, are living unhealthy life styles that affect their health in profound ways. Obesity in itself poses threat to the well-being of individuals but it also causes many other problems in regard to health, many of which are life threatening. Obviously if people are still eating unhealthy and becoming obese, then the current system is not working. Personal responsibility must be taken by each individual to better his or her own health.
Torture is not only proven to not work, but is morally wrong and has negative consequences to the interrogator.
Some may think that torture only causes harm to the individual who is being tortured. That may be true, but torture also could cause mental harm to the person doing the torturing. According to John Davis, author of “Torture Breaks Everyone, Including the Torturers,” “They become secret sociopaths, alcoholics, drug users or worse.” A good example that shows the effects of torture on the interrogator is a man who interrogated suspects in Afghanistan in 2004.He stripped another man of his clothes and deprived him from sleep until he gave up information. The interrogator says years later, “The tables have turned.” He explains that he is tormented each and every night by nightmares. As you can see, the effects of PTSD are tremendous on a human’s soul. Another interrogator, a military intelligence specialist in Iraq, explains that there is nothing more powerful than the power of guilt. Both examples are living proof that the torturer could be effected just as much as the person being tortured.
“What You Eat is Your Business” an essay written by Radley Balko talks about the problems with todays healthcare system. The way our healthcare system is going we are all responsible for everyone else’s health. If we decide to eat unhealthy foods and suffer from a related illness our fellow citizens will have to pay for our bad choices. When there is not an incentive for people to eat healthy foods they tend not too. People to respond to incentives. According to Balko, “a society where everyone is responsible for everyone else’s well-being is a society more apt to accept government restrictions.” When we are responsible for our own actions and have to pay for our own doctors’ visits we tend to take better care of our bodies. It is our personal responsibility to take care of our bodies, not matters of “public health.”
Dalia Lorenzo Students in this day and age have different ways to communicate and learn. By giving out F’s to students some may not respond effectively to the F. He explains that giving these F’s that is going to be given will help the students learn the material and will eventually add on to their skills, when they arrive to college. I believe there more effective ways to help students learn the material then simply giving F’s. The better option would have them in mandatory tutoring or a more thorough understanding why the students didn’t understand the material or maybe if the students had a fluke. We need to have a better understanding of what went wrong, that this student got a bad grade instead of just giving them F’s. In my line of being a teacher assistant, and a second teacher, some students do not react well when they are given a bad grade, and not until I explain it to them on the places that they have gotten wrong they have a full understanding on where they can do better. Giving the student F’s will only lead them for self-doubt and confusion. Thesis: Giving students F’s will only result to more negativity in their education then having positive results.
In David Zinczenko’s essay “Don’t Blame the Eater,” Zinczenko makes a case about personal responsibility for what you eat. To begin, he starts by telling us about how McDonalds was sued by two kids who believe that it is McDonalds fault that they got fat. Zinczenko question weather this was the right thing to do or not. He questions that maybe they should have taken more responsibility for what they were eating. However, he does take the side of the kids. Since he used to fall into the trap of fast food eating, he understands how they feel. He believes that Fast food restaurants should provide more nutritional information about their food.
Thesis: It is my belief that people are responsible for what they eat and Mcdonalds should not be blamed for the consquences of the girls decision to eat what they wanted to eat.
Tentative Thesis: Giving students Fs does not motivate them to work harder, it in many cases does nothing but shatter their confidence, leading them to potentially dropping out of school.
When I was in middle school, I was struggling a lot with my school work. My parents and teachers alike were very much encouraging me to do my work and tried to help me get on track in their own way. So, I reluctantly started studying more for tests. When I did not see an immediate improvement in my grade, I began to believe that it wouldn't matter if I studied or not, I would still do poorly. Giving students Fs does not motivate them to work harder, it in many cases does nothing but shatter their confidence, leading them to potentially dropping out of school. It has been proven that students who fail a grade, even as early as second grade, have almost an 80% chance of dropping out of school before they graduate high school. Students who fail a grade later in their life, such as in middle school and on, have a 90% or greater chance of failing. It has also been proven that positive reinforcement works better than punishment, instead of failing students, I believe focusing on their strengths and showing them how to develop them, and use them to improve their study skills would be significantly more effective.
America's health crisis is one of the nation's most contemporary controversial issues. It is obvious that obesity is increasing al around the country, and that something has to be done about it. The question is who has to act, the government, or the people. In David Zinczenko's "Don't Blame the Eater", he argues for government intervention to help regulate the food industry and what people eat. However, there are ways that individual citizens can take responsibility for their own health and well - being, including looking up nutrition facts, exercising, and choosing the right types of food o eat, and the right restaurant's to eat it at.
It is ideal that each individual be responsible for themselves and the food they eat, but food corporations have taken away that personal freedom by marketing unhealthy products at a convenient price. Until the large business cease to monopolize on the human’s need for food, the government will have no choice but to continue being socialistic in its dealings with public health.
Large food corporations such as McDonalds are well aware of the weapon they have created. They provide a service to the American public by supplying warm, delicious meals anytime, anywhere, and for a low price. If only it was healthy. For many busy, low-income families, the choice between spending half their paycheck on groceries or spending $10 on a greasy, fattening hamburger dinner for the entire family is simple, they choose the cheapest option each time. The most sickening part of the whole situation is how aware fast food companies are of the inevitability of consumers to choose their calorie laden dinners. The McDonalds ad with the words “You know you want me,” written above a picture of a quarter pounder says it all.
Thesis: Torture is acceptable and effective, in cases that involve saving innocent lives.
The implementation of torture may be successful in some cases. However, the majority of the time that does not seem to be the case. Over the years, the use of torture has shown drastic consequences for not only the tortured, but also the torturer and the relationships with other countries. “The Effects and Effectiveness of Torture as an Interrogation Device: Using Research to Inform the Policy Debate,” written by Mark A. Costanzo and Ellen Gerrity, torture has more negative contributions. They acknowledge that torture can be effective in some situations, but they also mention that the so-called “useful information” obtained is usually inaccurate. The tortured, having been subjected to torture until he or she is in agonizing and unbearable pain, have sometimes given accurate information. Then again, many accounts documented have shown that the tortured purposely gave information that was completely untrue, or that was missing key evidence. “The goal was to appease the torturer, not to reveal the truth.” Thus, there was no way for the torturers to know how much of the information they received from the prisoners, had been manipulated or altered.
“Think for a moment about the implications of a massive dispense of failing grades.” Sounds ridiculous right? Well in Carl Singleton’s essay, “What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s”, he explains why it wouldn’t be ridiculous at all. Singleton doesn’t feel every student should receive an F, just the ones who haven’t learned the material. He feels the need that if teachers start grading harder and failing more, students would be forced to learn the material. Moreover Singleton believes that the education of the student belongs in the hand of the parents. So if a student came home more often with F’s the parents would be more inclined to help or force the student to study. The parents would be able to dictate how the student used their time, like not watching TV and then reading a book instead. However, the main point Singleton is trying to make is that students are moving from grade to grade without actually learning what they need to learn, so in conclusion, he thinks that with giving them a negative feedback they will react positively and try harder. However, I do not feel that is the right course of action to take if the ultimate goal is the success of students. I think that if you give a little bit of both positive and negative feedback, then it will give the student hope and force the student to try harder. From a student’s perspective, if you’re getting an F in every class, all the time, then your self-esteem will go down so much that you’re not going to have the energy to try any harder because you’re already expecting to be let down. When I was a sophomore in high school I was taking Biology and Geometry. I would go into every class and would be able to understand all of the information taught, which is what gave me hope. But when I went home to try to do it for myself I was never able to replicate what I had learned it class. And no matter how hard I tried or how many times I reread the books and did extra problems, nothing was clicking for me. Naturally, when I went to take the tests, I would fail them. And that result brought my self-esteem down so much that half way through the year I stopped trying, and I just did horrible. This scenario will be inevitable for everyone, if teachers just kept failing kids.
Thesis: I agree with Bagaric and Clarke’s in that torture, even though it is not always successful, should still be considered, but as a last resort.
Torture has to exist in, for example, extreme circumstances such as terrorism. The USA has used this method before to be able to retrieve information from a dangerous suspect. For example, in the movie Zero Dark Thirty, they show how they torture a member of Al Qaeda to get information on Osama Bin Laden’s location. In this case, it was one of their last options to be able to get information. There is controversy about if this movie is really depicting what happened. According to the director of the movie, they were able to speak to “Jen,” who the movie is based on, and get her first-hand experiences from her. They also interviewed some of the Navy Seals that were involved in this. All of these first-hand experiences are the ones being depicted in the movie. So think about this, if the CIA would not have inflicted torture on this member of Al Qaeda, where would we be? If the CIA would not have even though of torture as a last resort, Osama Bin Laden might have still been alive, and we would still be at risk of his actions.
Parental involvement in childhood education can be both effective and ineffective depending on what is needed.
As a child growing up in one of California's most advanced public schooling systems there was a lot of pressure for me to succeed in school at a young age. Luckily I was a part of a household that communicated well and had parents that were comfortably involved in my education. When I brought home my first F, there was nothing I wanted more than to not tell my mom and dad. Finally my guilt over took me and I told my mother, staring at the floor in agony. I will never forget the look on my fathers face after ten minutes of yelling giving me a feeling that seemed to stick with me for a week. My dad’s explosion definitely made an impact on me but did not motivate me to work harder at all. Over time I have realized that if my parents took another angle at the issue, they could have been much more beneficial to me getting back on track. Instead of my dad yelling and lecturing at me for an hour, if he had made an effort in telling me how to fix the problem and how to get my grades up after the test I might have walked away with a lesson learned.
Thesis= The effects of torture outweighs the life saving side. One is because of the damage it brings to the torturer.
Another logic they use to support torture is that as long as it saves life, the effect they have on the torturer is negligible. But they haven't considered that torturing doesn't always take place in sanitary areas. Torturers have to put people in places that have scary things to put that person in fearful mental state. They have to put them in a place that have dead bodies, blood , dark underground rooms and so on. This also means the torturer has to be present with the person being tortured. His presence there will do nothing but harm him. If the torturer is in a room with a dead body he will have to in hail a terrible stench that will most definitely provoke is sinuses and he'll have respiratory track problems. Another harm he'll face is exposure to different diseases that are caused by blood transfusion;if that person has open wounds of some sort and he touches that blood ,he could catch all sorts of deceases. If torturer is taking place in an underground dark room, molds, fungi and different air born bacteria could be in the air. Even if the torturer is trying to save a person in danger he shouldn't have to go through that that much self sacrifice . The torturers child could be the next one to get the air born bacteria,who knows?The attempt to save a life might or might not succeed but his health will be damaged. Our attempt to save life will turn around to harm a life and we would be doing no good.
Thesis: Sending students home with more F's will not motivate their parents because they are busy, lazy, and unskilled.
"Sending students home with such bad grades could have the complete opposite outcome. From personal experience I have seem the lack of interest from parents in their children's education. For instance, some parents may seem like they care by telling their children that they can't watch television until their homework is finished. They may even send them to their rooms so they can focus alone, but in reality they don't actually check to see if any progress is being made. Many parents use these tactics to seem like they care about their child's success, even though they aren't actually helping.
Carl Singleton, the author of "What Our Education System Needs Is More F's," believes that the "basic problem of our educational system is the common practice of giving credit when none has been earned." He found that the source of students failure to be literate and progressive thinkers on the college level to be a result of the parents, student board, and teachers negligence to give students F's so that they will learn the necessary material to be successful in life. I think the basic problem of our educational system is not having enough allocated funds to support the educators, students, and parents in our school's system so that our children are passing their classes and becoming influential leaders of our society. The United States globally does not rank very high in terms of our educational system. It is a flawed system that has continually failed many of our students, enrolled in either public or private institutions. Being an African American girl born and raised in Chicago my chances of getting enrolled in to a “good” school was slim to nothing. Our educational system has become a game, even a lottery at best with parents fighting to get their kids into a school that can offer a “good” education. Why do our schools not offer a good education from the start? It shouldn’t be a race to the finish line, but it is and it’s because the money for schools are not equally allocated. Every student deserves a “good” education. The game playing and corruption must stop.
thesis- failing students not only makes them unmotivated, but along with that, there isn't much that the parents can do to help.
A student’s goal is to strive for excellence in the classroom. We know it is a crucial part in our lives and without an education success will be hard to achieve. So, when students receive bad grades, it discourages them and makes them believe they are not able to get that grade back up. According to a recent OECD study by professor Andrew Martin of the university of Sydney, repeating years can disadvantage students’ achievements. In the study, he looked at a broader range of factors that affected student’s grades such as motivation, engagement, self-esteem and others. Self-esteem is a big factor in a students work and once it goes down, so does the motivation to do well in the class. In my high school I have seen how failing students respond to bad grades. Once they realize they are failing, they tend to show up to class less and less every week. This lack of motivation comes from not being able to succeed. Students have a lot on their plate all the time. There is so much to do and so little time. Maybe those little boost in the grade to help with their self- esteem and may become motivated to do well. Failing students will not help anyone. It can only make it worse.
The events that followed my first test of advanced placement United States history showed that when parents realize their children are getting F’s, they could have a positive effect on their children. It was my sophomore year of high school and I had never been in an AP class before, so I was nervous. Our first test was coming up and I thought I was going to do well. I studied myself, took the test, and low and behold I received an F. That day, I went home and told my mom what had happened. Immediately, she wanted to help. As the following weeks went by my mom and I reviewed all of the material. Everyday, after a long day of work, she would always ask me if I did my homework and if I wanted to study. The day came for the next test, and I was so nervous I was shaking. I took the test and I felt like I did a lot better. The results came in and I earned a B. I told my mom what happened and she was proud of me. For the rest of the year we studied the same way and I ended up receiving an A- in the class. My mom really took an interest in my schoolwork, but not just for that class. Parents do care about their children’s grades, and in many cases, it can have a positive impact on the child.
I confirm Carl Singletons argument on giving students more F’s across America. Depriving learners a proper education is the very prejudice that drives our countries morale on jobs straight to the ground. Many of us who graduate college or high school are not equipped for the expectations of the current job market. In fact, the basic skill requirements are not present in the next generation who go on to pursue a Ph.D. Continuing to let students get by with mediocre work will not only result in unemployment, but can also hurt those walking in the same footsteps. Something has to be done not just for the present, but in fact the future as well. Our upcoming generation is absolutely oblivious to what’s coming and the time to act has never been so urgent. Bringing change to our nation first starts with teachers and pupils because a good education is this nation’s back bone.
Thesis: Giving students more F’s won’t encourage parents to take a better and more active role in their children’s educational process.
Even though, it is recommended for parents to participate at a higher rate in their children’s educational process, especially during the first years of school, it is also known that too much parental intervention can create negative consequences on teenager’s adolescence. In other words, there is a period of time where parents can interfere in their kid’s life, but at a certain age it is endorsed for teenagers to start making their own decisions about their future life, which include education. According to the article, “Can too much parental involvement be bad?” by Kay Ireland, some of the negative consequences caused by “overparenting” are: lack of confidence and self-esteem, anxiety, depression, absence of autonomy and inability to make decisions on their own. So, as the article also states, sometimes it is better to let children learn from their mistakes, that way they’ll develop a more accurate skills to face the world by themselves.
Torture is not “morally permissible” because there is no assurance that torture can truly come in handy for any situation, torture is not relatable to any job, torture does negatively affect its participants, and the societies that accept it.
Marko Bagaric and Julie Clarke present many arguments that support permissible torture, that is it morally OK. Yet, the bottom line though is that torture, in any shape or form, is not morally permissible. Torture is not “morally permissible” because; there is no assurance that torture can truly come in handy for any situation, torture is not relatable to any job, torture is often used in corrupt scenarios based on racisms, torture does negatively affect its participants and the societies that accept it. Arguments in this essay like torture is a useful tool in the war on terrorism, legalization would reduce torture, or blaming the society for not accepting torture on behalf of punishing “wrongdoers” in this brutal way, are all full of holes. Economically or politically they might sound somewhat sane, but in the end these arguments do not convince me, they in turn enrage me because of the thick headedness voiced through extremely presumptuous means.
We cannot continue to breeze through basic material like reading, writing, math and science. Our young adults who graduate college cannot look for a job in the newspaper or internet if they do not know how to read. As a result, millions of corporations will have empty positions which need to be filled for potential employees. The job market will be in peril all because our citizens have no reading skills. Even if companies take the extra mile and do advertising, this would still prove inefficient. Try imagining all the books in the world with blank pages. All of us would wonder where the words are because we can’t write. Every memory or encounter of reading a book would've never occurred in our lives. The same goes for math and science. NASA’s entire educationally background is based on these two subjects and without them, flying to the moon would've never made history.
Although torture can be harsh and many people are against the practice, it is vital in some situations because it can save an innocent life.
ReplyDeleteThe first supporting detail that Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke use to confirm their theory is that torture can help save innocent lives. The authors state, “Torture is permissible where the evidence suggests that this is the only means, due to the immediacy of the situation, to save the life of an innocent person.” If there is an innocent life on the line, torture is an acceptable option. In some cases, it could be the only option. For example, if evidence finds someone guilty of kidnapping, it is a race against the clock to save the innocent life. The quickest option to find the location of the victim would be through the one who put them there. Torture would be the quickest and easiest way to find the information that they need. We should feel no sympathy for the one being tortured because they are most likely directly involved in the situation. If they are in custody and we have full knowledge and proof that they were involved in the crime, then we should find out everything that we could before the situation gets worse. If the convicted are unwilling to give us the information that we need, then they put the torture on themselves. They should feel the same pain that their victim is facing. If an innocent life is on the line, we should hold nothing back to help save that life. If torture is necessary, then by all means get to it.
Torture is undoubtedly unnecessary and immoral, and has more negative effects than positive ones in the majority of situations.
ReplyDeleteWhen a snowball rolls down a hill of snow it keeps building bigger and bigger and rolling even faster as it progresses down the slope. In a similar way, making a form of torture found acceptable in society will have communities react and tend to result more and more to torture as an acceptable way to resolve a conflict. Even when it is not necessary for a person to be tortured it will still happen and loop holes will be found for people to justify why it was not assault or abuse, but simply torture to resolve a situation. How do you distinguish the difference between abuse and torture? The answer is you do not, torturing a person is the same as abuse, you both mentally and physically harm a person whether the deserved it or not it is still immoral to bring pain to another human being. Once a snowball starts rolling down that hill it becomes uncontrollable, the word will spread saying that torture is acceptable and people will grasp onto that as a new way to get revenge or gain results faster.
Where do we know where to stop and separate abuse from torture. Where is the end going to be where someone draws the line saying that torture is wrong that it is dehumanizing and immoral. There is no way to determine this line once the ball gets rolling and torture becomes more accepted by society, which is why no form of torture not even in hostage situations should be found moral.
“What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s”
ReplyDeleteSending students home with F’s would not force more parents to pay attention to their kids because they would still be lazy, have no time to sit down with their child, and would not know the material he or she is writing. Parents always make excuses so that they can’t help children with their work. Most are piled with work, and don’t have the time to spend working with their child. A lot of parents are still going to be lazy, it will not cause them to get off the couch and help their child.
Students coming home with F’s would not drive parents to get off their sofa’s because they still are going to have their eyes glued to the television no matter what. They will be tired after a long day at work, and will just want to relax. I know this because this is how my dad was when I was struggling in High School. My mom would go nuts because he would sit on the couch, and listen to her yell at me about my course work. I know he cared about my grades dropping, but he didn’t have the energy to lecture me about how I have to do better. When it comes down to it parents will not help their children, as much they try, they will be too lethargic to reprimand them.
Well-being and physical condition are increasingly becoming part of “public health” when they should always be a part of personal responsibility, according to Radley Balko. Balko’s essay “What You Eat Is Your Business” is his response to the government’s and other group’s efforts to bring health into the public realm through banning, taxing, and labeling unhealthy foods and habits. Instead of stepping into the people’s lives, Balko argues that the government should promote individual responsibility. “Socialized” health care is another area of concern for Balko. He believes that not paying for one’s own health care supports a lack of responsibility. However, if people had to pay for their choices, then he believes that people will make better, more responsible choices. Overall, Balko calls for a return to individual responsibility from government control.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, health should be a matter of personal responsibility, and with the obesity on the rise, personal responsibility is needed now more than ever. More and more people, kids included, are living unhealthy life styles that affect their health in profound ways. Obesity in itself poses threat to the well-being of individuals but it also causes many other problems in regard to health, many of which are life threatening. Obviously if people are still eating unhealthy and becoming obese, then the current system is not working. Personal responsibility must be taken by each individual to better his or her own health.
Torture is not only proven to not work, but is morally wrong and has negative consequences to the interrogator.
ReplyDeleteSome may think that torture only causes harm to the individual who is being tortured. That may be true, but torture also could cause mental harm to the person doing the torturing. According to John Davis, author of “Torture Breaks Everyone, Including the Torturers,” “They become secret sociopaths, alcoholics, drug users or worse.” A good example that shows the effects of torture on the interrogator is a man who interrogated suspects in Afghanistan in 2004.He stripped another man of his clothes and deprived him from sleep until he gave up information. The interrogator says years later, “The tables have turned.” He explains that he is tormented each and every night by nightmares. As you can see, the effects of PTSD are tremendous on a human’s soul. Another interrogator, a military intelligence specialist in Iraq, explains that there is nothing more powerful than the power of guilt. Both examples are living proof that the torturer could be effected just as much as the person being tortured.
“What You Eat is Your Business” an essay written by Radley Balko talks about the problems with todays healthcare system. The way our healthcare system is going we are all responsible for everyone else’s health. If we decide to eat unhealthy foods and suffer from a related illness our fellow citizens will have to pay for our bad choices. When there is not an incentive for people to eat healthy foods they tend not too.
ReplyDeletePeople to respond to incentives. According to Balko, “a society where everyone is responsible for everyone else’s well-being is a society more apt to accept government restrictions.” When we are responsible for our own actions and have to pay for our own doctors’ visits we tend to take better care of our bodies. It is our personal responsibility to take care of our bodies, not matters of “public health.”
Dalia Lorenzo
ReplyDeleteStudents in this day and age have different ways to communicate and learn. By giving out F’s to students some may not respond effectively to the F. He explains that giving these F’s that is going to be given will help the students learn the material and will eventually add on to their skills, when they arrive to college. I believe there more effective ways to help students learn the material then simply giving F’s. The better option would have them in mandatory tutoring or a more thorough understanding why the students didn’t understand the material or maybe if the students had a fluke. We need to have a better understanding of what went wrong, that this student got a bad grade instead of just giving them F’s. In my line of being a teacher assistant, and a second teacher, some students do not react well when they are given a bad grade, and not until I explain it to them on the places that they have gotten wrong they have a full understanding on where they can do better. Giving the student F’s will only lead them for self-doubt and confusion.
Thesis: Giving students F’s will only result to more negativity in their education then having positive results.
In David Zinczenko’s essay “Don’t Blame the Eater,” Zinczenko makes a case about personal responsibility for what you eat. To begin, he starts by telling us about how McDonalds was sued by two kids who believe that it is McDonalds fault that they got fat. Zinczenko question weather this was the right thing to do or not. He questions that maybe they should have taken more responsibility for what they were eating. However, he does take the side of the kids. Since he used to fall into the trap of fast food eating, he understands how they feel. He believes that Fast food restaurants should provide more nutritional information about their food.
ReplyDeleteThesis: It is my belief that people are responsible for what they eat and Mcdonalds should not be blamed for the consquences of the girls decision to eat what they wanted to eat.
"What our education system needs is more Fs"
ReplyDeleteCon
Tentative Thesis: Giving students Fs does not motivate them to work harder, it in many cases does nothing but shatter their confidence, leading them to potentially dropping out of school.
When I was in middle school, I was struggling a lot with my school work. My parents and teachers alike were very much encouraging me to do my work and tried to help me get on track in their own way. So, I reluctantly started studying more for tests. When I did not see an immediate improvement in my grade, I began to believe that it wouldn't matter if I studied or not, I would still do poorly. Giving students Fs does not motivate them to work harder, it in many cases does nothing but shatter their confidence, leading them to potentially dropping out of school. It has been proven that students who fail a grade, even as early as second grade, have almost an 80% chance of dropping out of school before they graduate high school. Students who fail a grade later in their life, such as in middle school and on, have a 90% or greater chance of failing. It has also been proven that positive reinforcement works better than punishment, instead of failing students, I believe focusing on their strengths and showing them how to develop them, and use them to improve their study skills would be significantly more effective.
America's health crisis is one of the nation's most contemporary controversial issues. It is obvious that obesity is increasing al around the country, and that something has to be done about it. The question is who has to act, the government, or the people. In David Zinczenko's "Don't Blame the Eater", he argues for government intervention to help regulate the food industry and what people eat. However, there are ways that individual citizens can take responsibility for their own health and well - being, including looking up nutrition facts, exercising, and choosing the right types of food o eat, and the right restaurant's to eat it at.
ReplyDeleteIt is ideal that each individual be responsible for themselves and the food they eat, but food corporations have taken away that personal freedom by marketing unhealthy products at a convenient price. Until the large business cease to monopolize on the human’s need for food, the government will have no choice but to continue being socialistic in its dealings with public health.
ReplyDeleteLarge food corporations such as McDonalds are well aware of the weapon they have created. They provide a service to the American public by supplying warm, delicious meals anytime, anywhere, and for a low price. If only it was healthy. For many busy, low-income families, the choice between spending half their paycheck on groceries or spending $10 on a greasy, fattening hamburger dinner for the entire family is simple, they choose the cheapest option each time. The most sickening part of the whole situation is how aware fast food companies are of the inevitability of consumers to choose their calorie laden dinners. The McDonalds ad with the words “You know you want me,” written above a picture of a quarter pounder says it all.
Thesis: Torture is acceptable and effective, in cases that involve saving innocent lives.
ReplyDeleteThe implementation of torture may be successful in some cases. However, the majority of the time that does not seem to be the case. Over the years, the use of torture has shown drastic consequences for not only the tortured, but also the torturer and the relationships with other countries. “The Effects and Effectiveness of Torture as an Interrogation Device: Using Research to Inform the Policy Debate,” written by Mark A. Costanzo and Ellen Gerrity, torture has more negative contributions. They acknowledge that torture can be effective in some situations, but they also mention that the so-called “useful information” obtained is usually inaccurate. The tortured, having been subjected to torture until he or she is in agonizing and unbearable pain, have sometimes given accurate information. Then again, many accounts documented have shown that the tortured purposely gave information that was completely untrue, or that was missing key evidence. “The goal was to appease the torturer, not to reveal the truth.” Thus, there was no way for the torturers to know how much of the information they received from the prisoners, had been manipulated or altered.
“Think for a moment about the implications of a massive dispense of failing grades.” Sounds ridiculous right? Well in Carl Singleton’s essay, “What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s”, he explains why it wouldn’t be ridiculous at all. Singleton doesn’t feel every student should receive an F, just the ones who haven’t learned the material. He feels the need that if teachers start grading harder and failing more, students would be forced to learn the material. Moreover Singleton believes that the education of the student belongs in the hand of the parents. So if a student came home more often with F’s the parents would be more inclined to help or force the student to study. The parents would be able to dictate how the student used their time, like not watching TV and then reading a book instead. However, the main point Singleton is trying to make is that students are moving from grade to grade without actually learning what they need to learn, so in conclusion, he thinks that with giving them a negative feedback they will react positively and try harder. However, I do not feel that is the right course of action to take if the ultimate goal is the success of students. I think that if you give a little bit of both positive and negative feedback, then it will give the student hope and force the student to try harder. From a student’s perspective, if you’re getting an F in every class, all the time, then your self-esteem will go down so much that you’re not going to have the energy to try any harder because you’re already expecting to be let down. When I was a sophomore in high school I was taking Biology and Geometry. I would go into every class and would be able to understand all of the information taught, which is what gave me hope. But when I went home to try to do it for myself I was never able to replicate what I had learned it class. And no matter how hard I tried or how many times I reread the books and did extra problems, nothing was clicking for me. Naturally, when I went to take the tests, I would fail them. And that result brought my self-esteem down so much that half way through the year I stopped trying, and I just did horrible. This scenario will be inevitable for everyone, if teachers just kept failing kids.
ReplyDeleteThesis: I agree with Bagaric and Clarke’s in that torture, even though it is not always successful, should still be considered, but as a last resort.
ReplyDeleteTorture has to exist in, for example, extreme circumstances such as terrorism. The USA has used this method before to be able to retrieve information from a dangerous suspect. For example, in the movie Zero Dark Thirty, they show how they torture a member of Al Qaeda to get information on Osama Bin Laden’s location. In this case, it was one of their last options to be able to get information. There is controversy about if this movie is really depicting what happened. According to the director of the movie, they were able to speak to “Jen,” who the movie is based on, and get her first-hand experiences from her. They also interviewed some of the Navy Seals that were involved in this. All of these first-hand experiences are the ones being depicted in the movie. So think about this, if the CIA would not have inflicted torture on this member of Al Qaeda, where would we be? If the CIA would not have even though of torture as a last resort, Osama Bin Laden might have still been alive, and we would still be at risk of his actions.
Parental involvement in childhood education can be both effective and ineffective depending on what is needed.
ReplyDeleteAs a child growing up in one of California's most advanced public schooling systems there was a lot of pressure for me to succeed in school at a young age. Luckily I was a part of a household that communicated well and had parents that were comfortably involved in my education. When I brought home my first F, there was nothing I wanted more than to not tell my mom and dad. Finally my guilt over took me and I told my mother, staring at the floor in agony. I will never forget the look on my fathers face after ten minutes of yelling giving me a feeling that seemed to stick with me for a week. My dad’s explosion definitely made an impact on me but did not motivate me to work harder at all. Over time I have realized that if my parents took another angle at the issue, they could have been much more beneficial to me getting back on track. Instead of my dad yelling and lecturing at me for an hour, if he had made an effort in telling me how to fix the problem and how to get my grades up after the test I might have walked away with a lesson learned.
Thesis= The effects of torture outweighs the life saving side. One is because of the damage it brings to the torturer.
ReplyDeleteAnother logic they use to support torture is that as long as it saves life, the effect they have on the torturer is negligible. But they haven't considered that torturing doesn't always take place in sanitary areas. Torturers have to put people in places that have scary things to put that person in fearful mental state. They have to put them in a place that have dead bodies, blood , dark underground rooms and so on. This also means the torturer has to be present with the person being tortured. His presence there will do nothing but harm him. If the torturer is in a room with a dead body he will have to in hail a terrible stench that will most definitely provoke is sinuses and he'll have respiratory track problems. Another harm he'll face is exposure to different diseases that are caused by blood transfusion;if that person has open wounds of some sort and he touches that blood ,he could catch all sorts of deceases. If torturer is taking place in an underground dark room, molds, fungi and different air born bacteria could be in the air. Even if the torturer is trying to save a person in danger he shouldn't have to go through that that much self sacrifice . The torturers child could be the next one to get the air born bacteria,who knows?The attempt to save a life might or might not succeed but his health will be damaged. Our attempt to save life will turn around to harm a life and we would be doing no good.
Thesis: Sending students home with more F's will not motivate their parents because they are busy, lazy, and unskilled.
ReplyDelete"Sending students home with such bad grades could have the complete opposite outcome. From personal experience I have seem the lack of interest from parents in their children's education. For instance, some parents may seem like they care by telling their children that they can't watch television until their homework is finished. They may even send them to their rooms so they can focus alone, but in reality they don't actually check to see if any progress is being made. Many parents use these tactics to seem like they care about their child's success, even though they aren't actually helping.
Carl Singleton, the author of "What Our Education System Needs Is More F's," believes that the "basic problem of our educational system is the common practice of giving credit when none has been earned." He found that the source of students failure to be literate and progressive thinkers on the college level to be a result of the parents, student board, and teachers negligence to give students F's so that they will learn the necessary material to be successful in life. I think the basic problem of our educational system is not having enough allocated funds to support the educators, students, and parents in our school's system so that our children are passing their classes and becoming influential leaders of our society.
ReplyDeleteThe United States globally does not rank very high in terms of our educational system. It is a flawed system that has continually failed many of our students, enrolled in either public or private institutions. Being an African American girl born and raised in Chicago my chances of getting enrolled in to a “good” school was slim to nothing. Our educational system has become a game, even a lottery at best with parents fighting to get their kids into a school that can offer a “good” education. Why do our schools not offer a good education from the start? It shouldn’t be a race to the finish line, but it is and it’s because the money for schools are not equally allocated. Every student deserves a “good” education. The game playing and corruption must stop.
thesis- failing students not only makes them unmotivated, but along with that, there isn't much that the parents can do to help.
ReplyDeleteA student’s goal is to strive for excellence in the classroom. We know it is a crucial part in our lives and without an education success will be hard to achieve. So, when students receive bad grades, it discourages them and makes them believe they are not able to get that grade back up. According to a recent OECD study by professor Andrew Martin of the university of Sydney, repeating years can disadvantage students’ achievements. In the study, he looked at a broader range of factors that affected student’s grades such as motivation, engagement, self-esteem and others. Self-esteem is a big factor in a students work and once it goes down, so does the motivation to do well in the class. In my high school I have seen how failing students respond to bad grades. Once they realize they are failing, they tend to show up to class less and less every week. This lack of motivation comes from not being able to succeed. Students have a lot on their plate all the time. There is so much to do and so little time. Maybe those little boost in the grade to help with their self- esteem and may become motivated to do well. Failing students will not help anyone. It can only make it worse.
The events that followed my first test of advanced placement United States history showed that when parents realize their children are getting F’s, they could have a positive effect on their children. It was my sophomore year of high school and I had never been in an AP class before, so I was nervous. Our first test was coming up and I thought I was going to do well. I studied myself, took the test, and low and behold I received an F. That day, I went home and told my mom what had happened. Immediately, she wanted to help. As the following weeks went by my mom and I reviewed all of the material. Everyday, after a long day of work, she would always ask me if I did my homework and if I wanted to study. The day came for the next test, and I was so nervous I was shaking. I took the test and I felt like I did a lot better. The results came in and I earned a B. I told my mom what happened and she was proud of me. For the rest of the year we studied the same way and I ended up receiving an A- in the class. My mom really took an interest in my schoolwork, but not just for that class. Parents do care about their children’s grades, and in many cases, it can have a positive impact on the child.
ReplyDeleteI confirm Carl Singletons argument on giving students more F’s across America. Depriving learners a proper education is the very prejudice that drives our countries morale on jobs straight to the ground. Many of us who graduate college or high school are not equipped for the expectations of the current job market. In fact, the basic skill requirements are not present in the next generation who go on to pursue a Ph.D. Continuing to let students get by with mediocre work will not only result in unemployment, but can also hurt those walking in the same footsteps. Something has to be done not just for the present, but in fact the future as well. Our upcoming generation is absolutely oblivious to what’s coming and the time to act has never been so urgent. Bringing change to our nation first starts with teachers and pupils because a good education is this nation’s back bone.
ReplyDeleteThesis: Giving students more F’s won’t encourage parents to take a better and more active role in their children’s educational process.
ReplyDeleteEven though, it is recommended for parents to participate at a higher rate in their children’s educational process, especially during the first years of school, it is also known that too much parental intervention can create negative consequences on teenager’s adolescence. In other words, there is a period of time where parents can interfere in their kid’s life, but at a certain age it is endorsed for teenagers to start making their own decisions about their future life, which include education. According to the article, “Can too much parental involvement be bad?” by Kay Ireland, some of the negative consequences caused by “overparenting” are: lack of confidence and self-esteem, anxiety, depression, absence of autonomy and inability to make decisions on their own. So, as the article also states, sometimes it is better to let children learn from their mistakes, that way they’ll develop a more accurate skills to face the world by themselves.
Torture is not “morally permissible” because there is no assurance that torture can truly come in handy for any situation, torture is not relatable to any job, torture does negatively affect its participants, and the societies that accept it.
ReplyDeleteMarko Bagaric and Julie Clarke present many arguments that support permissible torture, that is it morally OK. Yet, the bottom line though is that torture, in any shape or form, is not morally permissible. Torture is not “morally permissible” because; there is no assurance that torture can truly come in handy for any situation, torture is not relatable to any job, torture is often used in corrupt scenarios based on racisms, torture does negatively affect its participants and the societies that accept it. Arguments in this essay like torture is a useful tool in the war on terrorism, legalization would reduce torture, or blaming the society for not accepting torture on behalf of punishing “wrongdoers” in this brutal way, are all full of holes. Economically or politically they might sound somewhat sane, but in the end these arguments do not convince me, they in turn enrage me because of the thick headedness voiced through extremely presumptuous means.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot continue to breeze through basic material like reading, writing, math and science. Our young adults who graduate college cannot look for a job in the newspaper or internet if they do not know how to read. As a result, millions of corporations will have empty positions which need to be filled for potential employees. The job market will be in peril all because our citizens have no reading skills. Even if companies take the extra mile and do advertising, this would still prove inefficient. Try imagining all the books in the world with blank pages. All of us would wonder where the words are because we can’t write. Every memory or encounter of reading a book would've never occurred in our lives. The same goes for math and science. NASA’s entire educationally background is based on these two subjects and without them, flying to the moon would've never made history.
ReplyDelete