"Teaching Tolerance in America"

In this article, by Dudley Erskine Devlin, he talks about all of the issues in high schools today. He doesn’t just talk about any problems though; it’s the problems that have been in high schools since they were started and the problems that will most likely be here to stay. The three main troubles Devlin focuses on are high school cliques, gender problems, and the differences in social classes. Devlin goes into detail about each of these problems and in the end of his article he presents solutions that could help improve these issues. Although Devlin brings up some very important and true points, overall he is being superficial about high school problems.

Most of Devlin’s article is common sense. Of course all high schools have cliques, harassment, and bullying. High schools are occupied with nothing but teenagers, which are full of backtalk, drama, and bad attitudes. All of these combined are bound to make problems no doubt about it. Some of the problems don’t even stem from the environment in high school. Racism has been a huge issue for as long as anyone can remember. It has been embedded into our heads that skin color defines a person and no one can deny it. That is never going to change. These problems exist everywhere, not just in high schools. Solving some of these problems in other places, such as elementary schools, before high schools seem more important. The kids in high schools are anywhere from 14-18 years old. They should be able to handle these types of problems better than elementary children.

As for the solutions Devlin gives, there’s nothing unique about them. Cameras, security, uniforms, same sex classes, it’s all been done before. If the kids are going to bully and harass they’re going to do it no matter what anyone does. Most kids in high school do what they what when they want because that’s their mind set. Changing what they wear or having drug dogs come in isn’t going to alter that. A lot of high school kids are rebels. When something changes that they don’t like they will break the rules. These solutions won’t help the problems that go on all the time everywhere. However, I do agree with Devlin’s last sentence about zero tolerance. When something gets grinded into a person’s head day after day they eventually will cave in and follow it. Zero tolerance would be the only way to help eliminate some of these problems in high schools. Nevertheless, unlike Devlin’s point of view, these problems will never be fully solved no matter how hard anyone tries.

“That Parent-Child Conversation Is Becoming Instant, and Online”

In the writing “That Parent-Child Conversation Is Becoming Instant, and Online” the author, John Schwartz, brings up some very interesting and important points on the instant messaging craze that has been going around for the past couple years. Schwartz talks about how instant messgaing can be a very positive tool but only if you can use it constructively. The very last sentence of the writing, “If the conversation is strictly virtual, she said, it’s not so different from saying, ‘I have a wonderful epistolary relationship with my husband, who I can’t stand’ “ (289), popped out at me and made me think the most. If all you did was sit at home and talk with people only on the computer and never in person how would you ever learn essential people skills everyone needs to succeed in life?

I fully understand how much of a help instant messaging can be. I’m a teenager and have used the hotmail messaging system plenty of times before. In his writing Schwartz talks about how instant messging can help shy kids come out of their shells, help deviate akward moments, and can actually help adults. I agree with all of his perspectives on instant messaging completely. Instant messaging can help with all of these and many more problems. If you need to get a hold of some one fast it would be way easier to just message them instead of send them an email and wait hours or maybe even days for them to reply. It’s also a good way to make new friends. It might be akward and hard for some people to make friends and instant messging can help avoid all of that.

Although instant messaging is a saint, it can also make some lives harder. If all you do is sit at home and talk to people online you will never get people to people interaction which is crucial for everyone to have. You may think you have a decent idea of who your talking to on the other end of the computer, but you don’t really know until you meet them in person. Again, the point of interaction with people being needed comes up. In addition, if you meet someone online and chat with them everyday you may think you guys would be good friends. However, when and if you meet that person it would most likely be akward because you don’t have that depth of interaction online as you do if you talk with someone in person. Don’t get me wrong, instant messaging has helped me too many times to count. But once it gets absued and used unconstructively it can do more harm then help.

"The Story of an Hour"

In the beginning we find out that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble, and news about her husband's death is brought to her "as gently as possible" (605). Her sister Josephine and her husband's friend Richards, who tells her the news, believe that Mrs. Mallard would be very upset to hear it and that it could make her even more ill. The reader expects her to be upset and it is very possible that the sad news can make her feel worse than usual. Yes, "she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment" (605), but it's just a first emotional reaction to the news, without deep thinking of what happened and how it would change her life.

She comprehends the news later, and the author shows us little by little how she comes to realize it and what helps her to understand it. She goes to her room, and "there stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank" (605). Reading these words, the reader suddenly realizes that something turns the story to a more positive way. Many things such as "a comfortable, roomy armchair" and "the open window" are symbols of how newly freed she is feeling. When Mrs. Mallard starts thinking and starts feeling this weird feeling she’s never had before, the reader understands that her soul is starting to fill with happiness of freedom, which is in everything such as sounds and beautiful trees around, in blue sky and in songs of the birds.

However in the end Mrs. Mallard's husband opens "the front door with a latchkey" (607). He enters "composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella" (607) because he doesn't even know about the accident and that his name is on the list of those who died. Mrs. Mallard then dies "of joy that kills" (607). These words carry the absolutely opposite meaning of what they should be. We understand, that the doctors are wrong, thinking that she dies from happiness of seeing her husband again. She chooses to die rather than to live again under her husband's will, especially after experiencing freedom, even just for one hour. This hour in a comfortable armchair in front of the open window made her feel happy and free, made her to understand the sense of her being, and it was the only real hour of her life.

"Beauty: When the Other dancer Is the Self"

When I came across this essay I knew it would be interesting because of the author, Alice Walker. I knew she wrote the book The Color Purple and even though I haven’t personally read it I have heard about it and knew it was appealing. I strongly commend Alice for writing about all of her very personal experiences. Nothing as traumatic as what has happened to Alice has ever happened to me but I still wouldn’t dare write about my personal incidents. Alice is a very strong women for having the courage to do that and I’m sure she has touched many lives.

In this short story Alice wrote she talks about how her brothers got new BB guns. One day while Alice and her two brothers were playing a game of cowboys and Indians her brother accidentally shot her in her eye. From then on her life was never the same. She never looked up and hated the way she looked. On top of that, her brother made her promise to never tell her parents that he shot her. Instead she had to lie and say she stepped on a piece of metal and part of it shot into her eye. In the end Alice begins to accept herself and actually likes the way she looks.

To some people this may not be a big deal and they may think Alice was being a bit melodramatic, but everyone reacts to incidents differently. Even though Alice might have handled this problem the wrong way she ended up being very brave about it and and she has more courage than anyone to write about it. This accident changed her life and is very personal. I think she writes about all of her personal tragedies to help people in the same situations know they aren’t the only ones and to show how she got through them and how giving up is never the answer. Alice is a very powerful and heroic woman and she should be an inspiration to everyone.