Thoughts and ideas…..

Leaving the city for schools, and regretting it.

This article taken from the New York times, talkes about how families leave the city to move to the suburbs in hopes of better public schools. This article states that most of the time, the schools are just the same or even worse. I thought that public schools in the suburbs would be way better then public schools in the city. Guess I was wrong. The advantage that public schools in the suburbs have over public schools in the city, are more extra ciricular actitivies and the reason for this is because the residents living in these suburban neighborhoods pay higher taxes which support those activities. One family interviewed for this article talks about how she left New York City to move to Weschester so that her children can go to a better public school. While living in westchester, her kids had to be put in private schools because she did not like the system. She felt as if she got cheated. This was a move she really

Nickel and Dimed was a good book. I really enjoyed reading it. I really like that on some pages, at the bottom, there would be a little explation of what she was talking about in that page. The topic the author, Barbara Ehrenreich chose to write about  was very interesting. Every one knows that poverty exsists but to actually go out there and face the struggles and challenges a poor person has to face most of been really hard for a middle class person. Even though she did a good job during her research, i felt that maybe she could of gone farther past her comfort zone. In the first few pages she talks about how she will take the lowest cost of housing for her standards. This is not the case for poor people. They have to take whatever is available no matter how run down and unsafe it could be. Alos she said that she will never miss a meal and as soon as things started to get bad with money she would just quit that assignment and move on to the next. This is not a option that poor people have. Sometimes they do have to skip a meal to make ends meet. She would of been able to get a better perspective if she would of went through the whole aspects of being poor, not just the finding work and house part of it.

Nickel and Dimed was a good book. I really enjoyed reading it. I really like that on some pages, at the bottom, there would be a little explation of what she was talking about in that page. The topic the author, Barbara Ehrenreich chose to write about  was very interesting. Every one knows that poverty exsists but to actually go out there and face the struggles and challenges a poor person has to face most of been really hard for a middle class person. Even though she did a good job during her research, i felt that maybe she could of gone farther past her comfort zone. In the first few pages she talks about how she will take the lowest cost of housing for her standards. This is not the case for poor people. They have to take whatever is available no matter how run down and unsafe it could be. Alos she said that she will never miss a meal and as soon as things started to get bad with money she would just quit that assignment and move on to the next. This is not a option that poor people have. Sometimes they do have to skip a meal to make ends meet. She would of been able to get a better perspective if she would of went through the whole aspects of being poor, not just the finding work and house part of it.

Last month, the college of Saint Rose hosted an AIDS awareness day. Along with this, there was a quilt display in Saint Jospeh’s auditorium.  When i went to this display, i was overwhelmed by the beauty of all these quilts. They were quilts put together to represent a person who has passed away from AIDS. When i walked around all these displays i realized that anyone can get AIDS. There where quilts dedicated to women and men and people of all different back grounds. There was this one quilt that had a Cuban flag then the name of a young man. Then this other one that had a dress sewn onto it. It was so pretty. The whole atmosphere of the place was so calm and relaxing. Everything about it was so peaceful. If only AIDS were as simple and calm as the exhibit was. 

St. Rose student lied about campus dorm room attack

I’m pretty sure every one has heard this story now, but for those who hasn’t, ill quickly go over it. Allegedly, a St. Rose student living in brubacher hall said that she walked into her room one night and saw 2 men going through her belongings. She also claimed that they had raped her. Well it turned out that this whole thing was a lie. Apparently, the reason for her doing this was because she wanted to go back home. I think this was the stupidest thing a person could of done. Not only did she lie, she put the campus into the eyes of the public she made it seem as if St. Rose is not a safe campus when it really is. She made the U. Albany police department send so much time and effort on this case when they could of been doing something more productive. If she wanted to go home why couldn’t she just tell her parents. Now she has to go through so much more stuff. This could of been avoided. There are other ways of getting attention and other ways of having to leave the school. This whole incident was a waste of time. All it did was worry people for no need.

Three men were stabbed, one fatally, and a woman was beaten early yesterday during an argument outside a club on Dyckman Street in Inwood, the police said. The dispute began inside the club, Mirage, and spilled onto the street sometime after 4 a.m., the police and club employees said. Three men were stabbed, and one of them, Jose Orroyo, 24, died at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital, the police said. A woman, 26, whom the police did not identify, was punched in the face and suffered a head injury, officers said. They did not say what had caused the dispute.-The New York Times

So your probably wondering why i decided to write about this. It really does not have to do with anything important. The reason why i decided to write about this incident is because it happened in my neighborhood, right across the street from my apartment. So let me tell you about my neighborhood. Dyckman is just like a typical Manhattan neighborhood. There is countless numbers of stores on the stripe and a bunch of buildings around it. People are always outside, no matter the time or weather. There’s 5 clubs all about 2 blocks away from each other. This incident happened at one of the clubs. Stuff like this happens alot in Dyckman. The reason why this one is getting publicized, i really don’t know. Dyckman has this unspoken rule of not snitching and keeping the cops away, far away. I find it really sad that people got injured and killed during this. I am just guessing that it was typical club fight that got a little bit out of hand. 

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yells at the court as the verdict is delivered during his trial, held under tight security in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday. Iraq’s High Tribunal found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to die by hanging-Daily News

Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. He will be hanged to death. This is so crazy to think that not so long ago this man held so much power. He was such a strong dictator and people followed him so loyally as if he were a God or something. But sentenced to death by being hanged sounds a but too outrageous. Doesn’t that count as cruel and unusual punishment. Its like something they would do way back in the olden days. I think that form of death is way to much. Like i know he killed so many people himself while he was in power but still. What I find werid is that the U.S. is actually O.K with killing him this way. I thought that part of the consitution was against cruel and unusual punishment. I just think that if they are giving thim the death penalty them atleast they should do it in a right way

I found this reading to be very boring and hard to follow. It seemed to be very long, way longer then it actually is. I could not find a way to relate to it, it also was hard to get into and the language the author used sort of threw me off a couple of times. I felt that politics and a neighborhood bar can not really relate as much as the author makes it seem like it does. And from my own understanding, I thought people would go to bars to drink and just basically have fun. Not to argue over presidency and all sorts of things like that. The one thing i guess i could agree with in this writing was the part about “class culture”. I do believe that people go to places according to which class they belong to. The rich people go to rich bars and the middle class people go to middle class bars. I dont see where politics tie into the whole bar and class idea. I really did not get this reading.

This writing, i found to be very interesting as well as mind bugling. Also i found it easy to relate to. Interesting because i find it amazing and hard to believe how a person can be closer to their own family. I thought family came before everything else, especially reading. I can relate to it in the way that my mother barely speaks English and every-time she would try to , i would correct her and laugh at her many times trying to say it right. Also, I found it amazing how he learned English so quick. I know reading had a big role in it but still. I read alot. Its one of my most favorite past times but i still talk English with such an accent and i confuse the words so much. But anyways that’s totally besides the point and I’m heading way off topic.

“A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that i couldn’t forget that schooling was changing me and separating me from the life i enjoyed before becoming a student”
I’m trying to figure out how change from a life someone enjoyed so much could lead to success in the classroom. Success in the class room is something hard and stressful. A person has to really apply themselves in order to get success. So why would one want to give up the good life, the one they enjoyed so much to live a life of studying and reading. Sure at the end its all going to pay off and bring something good but still is it worth putting one’s family aside??? 

“In choosing between public and private schools, education can be as much about whom your children sit beside as what they learn.”

This quote was taken from the New York Times education section. I feel that this is basically trying to say that the amount of education a child receives is based on what type of school they go to, public or private school. Do i agree with this? In a way yes. I have been through both systems. I was in private school for kindergarten and first grade then public school for second grade until fourth then private for fifth to eighth grade then back to public for high school and now in a private college. Which one do i like best? I have to say it would be private school. The reason for this is because i felt that i learned more in such an environment. In a private school, there are less students meaning more attention from teachers and way less distractions. Also i like being in a tight-knit community and a private school offers this more then a public school. Also for some reason i feel that private schools aremore disciplined then public schools. Like for example during JR. high school, i would do all my homework on time do all the extra credit assignments and actually study. In high school, i got out of that habit. I rarely did homework. Barely went to school and still passed with an 83 average. I know this is not true for many situations, it is just my opinion. Public schools have alot to offer too. It just depends on the person and their learning habbits.