Trading Places: Unemployed challenging gender roles

Trading Places: Unemployed challenging gender roles
In the article, Rubin introduces Mike Oczkowski 48 years old with a passion for graphic arts that in October 2009 was forced to leave his career of choice because it simply was not paying the bills. He therefore stepped into the career of nursing knowing that it would give him a sense of financial certainty. Rubin argues that with unemployment at nearly 9% desperate Americans are willing to cross the gender divide in order to meet their financial needs. It is more than obvious that women made this movement in order to get into careers such as law and medicine, but Rubin claims that women are making their way into more “segregated fields” like information technology, Criminal Justice, and Fire Science. The author of the article uses Coontz is author of the newly published book "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American women at the dawn of the 1960s.” Coontz states that women have been much more willing to enter the “male “ fields but it has not been like that at all for men until recent years. This tells us that the crossing of a gender divide in the workplace going both ways is something evolutionary.
I certainly believe that this so called evolutionary change is not under the same circumstances. For instance, women cross the gender divide in order to change the identity of a typical stay at home woman. This recent cross in the gender divide for men was really a case of survival of the fittest. I find it interesting how as Americans we still associate certain jobs with each gender. As a society we tend to segregate by identity. Personally, if the need was present I would enter the field necessary to pay the bills, but I naturally would be opposed to something like nursing. When we take this gender crossing into consideration it becomes clear that maybe the economic situation has not had completely devastating consequences. It remains a possibility that Gender Equality in the work force will eventually be a positive outcome of our current economic crisis.
Do you believe the economic situation is severe enough to where a significant percentage of males are entering those fields as Rubin suggests? Will the crossing of the Gender Divide have any negative effects? If you were in the need to cross the divide what area would you cross into?

Dropout Age

The article “Obama Wades Into Issue of Raising Dropout Age” by Tamar Lewin, discusses Obama’s mention of raising the high school dropout age to 18 instead of the more popular age of 16. Obama’s argument focuses on students staying in school longer and getting at a minimum a high school diploma. However, the counter argument focuses on the impact to states’ economies having to support even more kids on a limited budget; kids who don’t want to be there.

                I think that both sides have good arguments, but when viewed in the larger scheme of things, some of those arguments lose credibility. Looking at the opposing side’s arguments the only real point that has validity is the strain that would be put on an already fragile system. School systems are already over capacity and desperately lack the appropriate funding, with more kids staying in school longer, the schools’ resources would be stretched even thinner. Unless the federal government is willing to increase the funding that they give to states for their school systems, this agreement has a lot of strength. However, the opposition’s point that keeping kids in school who don’t want to be there is a waste of resources could be spread to every student in a school. No high school kid really wants to be there so its hard to see how that is a credible argument. Looking on Obama’s side of the debate, kids really don’t have the maturity at the age of 16 to end their schooling career. Students at the age of 18 might not be any more mature, but as legal adults they are responsible for their actions and legally make their own decisions.

                So what do you think? Should a student have to stay in school until they are legal adults and at least get a high school diploma, or should that student be able to leave school at the age of 16, thus putting less strain on the school system?

Blog Example #2

(This post is an example of how you may want to incorporate ideas raised in class discussion into the blog).

Today in class we were talking about ways to define "community" and specifically addressing characteristics of communities. Some of the phrases mentioned in class included similar ideals/ideas/taste, unity, and connection. We then discussed some of the different types of communities that are even present in our small 1106 class, such as people who like Italian food and who have attended a Virginia Tech basketball game.

One of the aspects that struck me about our characteristics of community is this idea of sameness and similarity. Brooks mentions this in his article when he writes that typically people form communities around others with similar interests or beliefs. But it seems like both Brooks' and the class' characterizations of community are very general and neglect to discuss how no community is 100% the same. There are always disagreements or divisive issues within communities, but does that make a community no longer a community? Take our 1106 class for example. Even though we are community of people fulfilling a university requirement at a specific time there are still probably plenty of issues on which we agree or disagree, like whether the class even should be a university requirement. Does that undermine our community?

Do you think it is important to have diversity of opinions or disagreement in a community, why or why not? What are some communities that you can think of that exemplify this thought diversity? At what point does do differences in opinion hurt the community?

Blog Example #1

I came across this article "Blogs vs. Term Papers" by Matt Ritchel in the New York Times. Ritchel is addressing the worst part of college: writing term papers. He says for many people, term papers feel like technical exercises that do not allow for much expression or creativity, but he also notes that many professors are starting to rethink the traditional term paper and move towards blogging. This approach has been spearheaded by Dr. Cathy Davidson from Duke University. Students who write blogs tend to write shorter posts more frequently. Ritchel mentions that some benefits of blogging are "the immediacy of an audience, a feeling of relevancy, instant feedback from classmates or readers, and a practical connection to contemporary communication," and that blogs are now being used in all levels of education.

I'm somewhat torn about this issue. I like blogs because they are generally freer than term papers. Most of the time term papers come with a lengthy assignment description, and there is a specific formula the instructor wants students to follow in order to get an A. Blogs encourage independent thinking, asking questions, and are generally more relevant to student interests. Plus having other students respond to blog posts opens up more of a dialogue; instead of just writing to a teacher, there is more of an exchange with 20 other people with various backgrounds. At the same time, I also recognize the benefits of a traditional term paper. In upper level classes or future careers, students will be expected to write critically and at length about a specific topic. It's hard to write a 25+ page paper if a writer has never attempted a 10 page paper because writing long pieces requires an extended thought process, which like most skills requires practice. I think teachers shouldn't eliminate term paper, but they should also include more blogging opportunities.

If you want to check out Dr. Davidson's rebuttal to the article, check it out here. She claims she was misquoted and gives a more in-depth explanation of her position.

What do you think about this issue? Would you rather write weekly blog posts, and why? What are some of the positives or negatives about using either blogs or term papers?

Welcome!

Welcome to ENGL 1106 at 10:10am with Ms. Clinnin! This is the collaborative class blog. Each week, two students will be assigned to create an original post (about 250 words long) that continues class discussion, brings in relevant outside material, and is thoughtful and incites conversation. The rest of the class will have to comment on the two blog posts for the week. Feel free to post or comment more throughout the weeks. The purpose of this is to allow you to write to a  new audience (your classmates) and to engage with each other in a more informal setting while also practicing your genre adaptation and writing skills. This is also to help you think outside of the prompt- what interests you about the class material, or what questions/thoughts do you have that weren't brought up in class?

Due dates:
If you are writing the blog post, your post must be published by Tuesday at 8pm
If you are commenting on the blogs, your comments must be published by Thursday at 8pm
These dates and times are so we can bring any relevant discussion back into the class on Friday

For the first week (January 23rd), I will post the original content, and the class will be responsible for commenting. This way you can get the hang of using Blogger while also seeing what I'm looking for.