Is Your Education Job Security?

Is Your Education Job Security?

"Did You Know 2.0"

Did you know education was never intended to be solely used for capital gains; financial reward is a bi-product of education but never was intended to be the final goal. Doctors played a practical purpose in a community to help people that were sick; lawyers were needed to settle practical arguments over property and civil rights, and their education provided a skill set that filled a void within the community serving the other citizens and assisting and sustaining the whole. A vast majority of Education in America has shifted its focus from serving the community to serving the individual's financial dreams. It seems we are no longer thinking about going to school to cure cancer or develop affordable health care for all Americans but thinking about what profession pays the highest salary; it seems we think in terms of what kind of living do I want if the pay grade of a teacher does not allow for that type of living we move on to another that does. I am the prime example of this, I started out wanting to be a minister but it did not pay enough so I rationalized that I could serve people in another public capacity, politics and law. My real motive was the pretige and salary that came with being a lawyer not to mention the house and how much more attractive I thought I would be to women with this title, lawyer. The simple lifesyle and living of a minister was not going to pay for ski trips and SUV's but the more important problem is it would not provide financial security and comfort. These things in themself are not bad but they are when they become the goal and not the bi-product. Maybe that is why China and England have surpassed America in college graduates, maybe financial progression is not enough motivation to provide the resiliency to graduate compared to a student that is solely focused on developing technology that will benefit the other communities.

Education's sole purpose of a should never be salary, a big home, four kids and 2.3 dogs whole people in our community, nation and world have needs that are not being met. It should be the impetus of all college students that have the ability, resources and opportunity to get an education to use it to tackle and conquer a problem facing humanity. A survey was done in a sixth grade class in South Africa asking students what they would do if they had the opportunity to get an education, read their answers and compare them with your educational goals.

If you haven't got the picture yet then check out this video from a college professor expostulating about what education is and what education is for.

http://richrice.com/4360/wong.mov

Well, what do you think? Is your job going to be a necessity in ten years or will it be non-existent? What do you think about education, does this make you consider what the goal of your education should be. Think about it, you could conquer world hunger, find a way to educate even the slowest mentally handicap students, develop a way to provide clean water in countries that have none, cure cancer, cure AIDS, develop better pedagogical techniques that will prepare our future students to lead our nation... The options are limitless, the possibilities are growing along with the problems that we will face as a nation, a world and as a human-race in the future.

Why does a six-year old want to be a lawyer?

Malcolm Gladwell...

I really enjoyed Malcolm's creative avenue for encouraging diversity and linking it to happiness, I think there is a lot to take away from his discourse besides how to have/manufacture an utopian world. I would say that is implausible or cliche but that would be an unjust quick packaged summarization of Malcolm.

What I did take away from Malcolm Gladewell is: that people don't know what they want and they can't explain what they want, make them reach out for something higher and better, as a science people are still trying to explain or discover the universal ways humans behave and the key to business is understanding human variability.

Applying these to anything in life in the 21st century could help you be successful especially in America but what I find disturbing about this discourse is, America is just fine. We have food, shelter, hopitals, clean water etc.. the necesseties for a people group to survive and extremely understated, survive well. Where I fault America is why are we continually trying to make better technology, spending billions of dollars on faster internet and cable "the big switch", spending billions of dollars helping out mortgage companies that broke their own policies "don't lend to high risk individuals" and making education astronomically expensive for the common American, all the while the rest of the world is in cataclysmic dissarray. If Malcolm wants to talk Utopia, lets look at Uganda what is utopia for them. Clean water, shelter, food and clothing AIDS vaccination or prevntion that is utopia to them, that is embracing diversity or adversity.

If Amercia wants to once again be the greatest country on this planet lets focus our education on helping other helpless people groups, not democratic wars but clean water to all humans. It seems impossible as long as our most brilliant minds are developing the next i-phone and smaller computer or cars that drive themselves with automatic warmers in the head rest.

How about education? Where are we in that deal. The cost of education is consistently going up, lets take a lesson from our Asian counterparts who graduate more college graduates than we in America do and find out how the so many poor families still manage to graduate their children from college.

America used to be the leader in all of these areas, aid to impoverished countries, education, etc..
It seems there is no time for helping others as we climb our ladders which seems to be the goal in America and of our education.

Last week I was told that a first grade class was given the age old American assignment to draw what they want to be when they grow up, kids were drawing lawyers and doctors, why does a six year old want to be a lawyer?

November 5, 208

What shift has happened in my education?

My education started off like the typical affluent American youth, get a degree and get a job but it has changed. The first shift that I noticed was in my multicultural class, African-American History post 1865. In this class I began to understand why there are racial barriers in American and the real story about slavery, civil rights and colonization in Africa. This lead me to wonder what education is like in communities primarily inhabited by African-Americans and the lack of education is the same but the quality seems a little suspect.
The other major shift in my education came at a base root level of gratefulness in context of understanding theories, and concepts related to my faith. I was so thankful for the simple task of reading and writing and could not imagine what it would be like not to hear about the grace of God given to humanity through his son. The times I read and am affected by these things make me so grateful for my opportunity to be educated.

The shift is this: I now want to use my education to enhance the lives of others, be it teaching or some other mode but I certainly value my education too much to keep it for myself and just use it solely for financial purposes.

I have been able to use my education to start a non-profit and am in the process of starting my second one.

Reading and writing,
Justin

Update on Team Roles

Megan is still working very hard for us on formatting the website.

The rest of the team is focussing on website design, usability testing and discussing a key impact for the website all of which are polishing up our focus on the rhetorical situation with our audience in hopes to make a difference.

Everyone is doing well.

We all are gathering our own focus groups and we will collect information and make changes as needed and we hope to all participate in a few testimonies from our focus groups and incorporate those into the web site to make Fish Tank be more interactive.

Time-for completing the project:

We have finished compiling data and organizing onto the web page.

We hope to have usability testing done by at least five freshmen by the end of next week, October 17.

Next we will focus on editing the page to meet the rhetorical situation of our audience, this will include editing and making it speak to the freshmen. This should also be done by October 17.

For the week of October 20th, we will focus on the changes brought to our attention from the usability testing and our peer critiques.

For the week of October polishing the website and it should be ready before Nov 1 with all audience analysis issues addressed and all usability issues addressed along with all other technical problems with the page.

Hopefully we will be able to submit it for the Nov 1. deadline and get tons of feedback from freshmen as we launch it on Tech Announce as our mode of getting it out there.

Then we will make the changes needed and edit the page in hopes to finish before the deadline of Nov. 20th.

We hope to be finished between Nov. 7th-11th.

Optimistic but we it seems plausible.

Team roles:

I am compiling links for the social things freshmen might want to do or need information about such as an RSO, Religious, Intramural Sports, Civic Organizations etc...

Megan is taking care of formatting and designing the web site along with compiling all the information we have gathered.

Lauri is gathering all the information for academic necessities the freshmen might be in need of

Laura is gathering information on entertainment and leisure activities that the freshmen can do inside the city limits.

Amanda is gathering information on entertainment and leisure activities that the freshmen can do that is available within a 150 mile radius of Lubbock.

Vi is focusing on all the different Tech sporting events that the freshmen can go and participate in as Red Raiders.

Composing Application:

What a took away from the Poe writing was know where you are going to go and write backwards.

Conversely, in Carter's essay she says O'Connor writes just the opposite.  She starts out with a line or sentence and has no idea where it is going.

The biggest impact Carter's essay has left on me and will immediately affect my 4351 CW poetry class is, the idea of tension.  I have a list of things that I have to include in every poem; language, concrete details, establish setting early on, diction, meter, end with a strong image, show me what is happening don't tell me etc... but now to the list I will add tension.  Tension is huge in a part of all life.  Sometimes it is a perpetually inner tension of your success as an individual with life, or if you are smart or beautiful or skinny enough or loved.  These simple thoughts all come with tension to old and young, but the real tension is how these ideas are being worked out in your head, sometimes in your guts.  Life is all about simple basic things when writing to people. All can respond to the statement, "God is holy".  Some may say "There is no God", some may say "Amen", some may say, "Which God" whatever they may believe there is a thought preceded with tension.  This is a touchy subject to a lot of people.  It is simple and straight forward.  

The other singular impact this essay had on me is the affirmation of my perspective being unique and if I can compose that artistically it can be a well written piece. 

Assignment-3

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http://www.depts.ttu.edu/fyre

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Freshmen Artifacts

Artifact # 1- Mentor Tech
Texas Tech University offers a program called MentorTech. The artifact is designed to help only freshmen become acquainted with Texas Tech and Lubbock. It provides freshmen with a mentor to help them navigate over "barriers" in Lubbock and on Campus. Mentor Tech's website incorporated video, personal stories and music which made it appealing. The website was easy to navigate, user friendly and involved only two clicks to get to the information needed.

• It is designed to give a brief overview of the program and start the process of becoming a protege with an application/fact sheet that is quick and easy to fill out. The application for a protegee is very specific and asks many questions in an effort to find the right mentor for each freshmen.
• I discovered the artifact after typing freshmen helps on the Texas Tech homepage
• I think the artifact did its job. It conveys the message to freshmen that there is a support network available to help them and by the specificity of the 'protegee fact sheet' shows that they understand the diversity in students and their desire for a mentor with similar qualities.
• For the average freshmen I don't think this is very important. It seems like a big brother big sister program with the mentors helping them personally with college life and tips to succeed at college. It seems like this would only reach students that are overwhelmed with a university and have not had much guidance for academic success. But for those students I give it a 8 and for the average freshmen I give it a 3.

Artifact #2--First Year Raider Experience or FYRE

• This artifact for freshmen can be found at the Center For Campus Life's website, First Year Experience.
• The artifact attempts to simply be a map for students who are looking for their resources. The website only offers links to other websites as well as letting freshmen know about the freshmen camps before the semester begins.
• It does accomplish its objective, it is limited in scope seems to be more focused on the camps for freshmen prior to coming to Tech.
• There are many ways to improve this artifact. For example it offers for drop boxes with these metaphorical names like changing lanes and then only gives you about fifteen links to click on. It does not tell you what changing lanes encompasses or what links you will find under this drop box. It is this non-specific for all the drop boxes which are the only actual resources on this website. I did not entertain the websites because they just gave me links to like admissions, the rec etc... It also offered 20 things a red raider should do. These twenty things encouraged them more along the lines of school spirit and pride.
• I give this artifact a 4 of importance only because the camps are probably a good resource for the freshmen and it helps them get signed up.

Artifact #3--Is11oo website

• I found this artifact on the advising centers website. It was found on the their homepage under the link 'Your first two years'. The Is1oo0 link was easy to find only because I knew what it was from previous exposure.
• The Is 11oo website attempts to encourage freshmen to take the small course by relaying statistics that show success by other students who have taken the class. The homepage is easy to use and appealing both positive qualities needed to hold a freshman's attention. It also serves as a resource for the course and gives links to finding critical things needed for basic survival at Tech like; e-raider, webct, it help and library information. These sites are visited daily by Tech students. I really think it is good that it does not go into the discourse on being a good red raider, 'Raider Power'.
• The site accomplishes it's goal it lets freshman know about the class and how it helps success. It is thorough and some freshmen may be turned off by it but I think it is better to have to much information rather than not enough.
• I think it could be improved by more practical statistics that freshman are interested in, i.e. money after college. Give some facts about how much college grads with G.P.A's of 3.5 make compared to grads with a 2.1. I would like to see our list of Freshman Killers also as a source on this website as well as others. The name alone is captivating and makes me want to look at it to see what it is entails.
• I give this site an 8 it is very helpful, user friendly but I'm not sure of how knowledgeable freshman are about it and its where-abouts.

Artifact #4--First Time Freshmen

• I found this link on the admissions website. http://www.admissions.ttu.edu/
• The website serves as a informational guideline for administrative needs. The t's and i's that need to be crossed and dotted after being accepted at Tech. There is a link that takes the students to a Freshmen Checklist with direct them quickly and easily fulfill the requirements needed. It also suggests the Raider Camp for them and links them to that site.
• The artifact could be enhanced by linking them to mentor tech, Is 11oo, PEGASUS and other like minded programs for the freshmen.
• The artiact accomplishes what it is sets out to do. It is dealing with administrative issues and covers those only.
• I give it an 6 for lack of awareness. This is the one artifact that is poised to reach the widest range of freshmen and fails to do so by not meeting any other needs they might have. It woul be good for our website Freshmen Killers to be linked to this. Our website, http://www.freshman killers.ttu.edu/ will have all this and the other links as well as our enhancements that we discover in the class.

• Artifact#5 under construction
  

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Organization

Developing intrinsic organization after laying the foundation of extrinsic I think could be revolutionary in education. Beginning the class focusing on the concept and then taking the foundation and seeing how and where it when we give them a problem to solve or ask them to solve a problem with the information/education just presented. The cool thing is going to be all the different problems and solutions that are going to arise based on the sheer definition of intrinsic: belonging to the basic nature of someone or something. Which means potentially you could have five different problems and solutions like 4360 because the information reaches people at different levels because of demographics. The problems and solutions could have a wide scope because we are all coming from a different place. This lends itself to the idea that we could solve more problems.
You will never be able to take the concepts out of the classroom but focusing education on problems and not fact only needs could begin the process of using our education and not wasting it.
Which brings me to my last point. If you do research on a problem that you have learned about via the concept in the classroom. You not only are going to retain more of the information but you are going to begin writing your own thesis/dissertation and become a little expert on the initial concept. This idea teaches critical thinking, problem solving and most importantly understanding moves us away from memorization. This also makes the classroom fun, challenging and personal so you would gain more students time and attention thus better educating our youth. Huge!

We Can

We can, if I we can't lets quit.
My preferred Team, "Taking Advantage of Being at Tech". I have many ideas and thoughts concerning this topic/concept from: getting an education vs a degree, to the value of an education, which conflates largely into the the ability/opportunity of a college education in comparison to youth in our country that want to college and to youth in other countries that literally die trying to get into our country. I think we would be amiss not to address this possible rhetorical tool to communicate the gift of college before these freshman and try to tear down this idea of entitlement.
In light of this last comment I already have a group of South African students preparing answers to a survey focussed on this topic in hopes to juxtapose this idea of complacency/entitlement of freshmen at Tech with a group of students that are thirsty, dying and dreaming of the opportunity to be a freshmen at any college or university. I am forming the survey now and will love input and suggestions on it.
I realize my scope is limited all suggestions and thoughts are welcome.
Please advise. Thanks.

English4360

I would benefit the most from advanced grammar, being functionally literate and by attacking a problem and offering a viable solution.