Height of "literacy"

Height of "literacy" in Kerala:
A beggar was crying.
A policeman passing by asked him, 'What is the matter?'
Beggar: 
Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass

😝😝😜

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The New American Dreamers

Ruth Sidel:  a professor of Sociology at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

New American Dreamers = young women in the United States

Sidel, in this article, describes the hopes and dreams that young American women have for their personal and professional lives. She focuses the goal and aspiration of young American women who dream about controlling their own personal and professional destinies and achieving material success. Outlining the lives of several young women from different ethnic backgrounds and social classes, Sidel addresses the questions of how realistic these women’s chances are of actually achieving the American Dream. She maintains that young American women from all social classes, ethnic groups, and geographical areas have the same dream for the future: being able to control their own personal and professional destiny and achieving material success. Despite American women’s optimistic view with hard work, the chances to accomplish what they want are limited for many of them.

The major aspects she describes are:

- the good life that includes one’s own home, professional career and material success.

- a happy marriage with children and joint parental responsibility.

- a sense of optimism that includes upward social mobility.

- Personal choice and

- a belief that with enough hard work and determination, one can control one’s own destiny and have it all.

In the past, women wanted to find their identity from marriage. But in the later days, they prefer their own way in the world and determine their own destiny before they form a significant and lasting intimate relationship. For them, material richness, work, career and own identity is more important than marriage and children. They want freedom, no dependence, own choice and own way of life. No matter whatever family class they come from, every American lady dreams of a good life with material success.

Ruth Sidel: an example of confident, outgoing, knowledgeable active young woman. She is stylish to face young people’s vital issues like sex, drug and alcohol and takes them seriously, thoughtfully and frankly. She takes good control of her life, plans carefully; works hard, makes right decisions and leads well planned life. She desires to have material goods of her choice, will get married if she wishes and probably have children.

 Beth Conant: is a 16 year old junior high school student from middle class family. She lives with her mother (a librarian) and step-father (a stockbroker) and has five brothers, 4 older and one too younger. This excellent public high school junior lady hopes to study at Yale College and develop her career in the field of acting. She wants to have a great life, be really independent and materially affluent. By the age thirty, she will get good roles, buy a house in the country, get married with a cooperative man. She will get a baby if she has time and will make one more movie after one year.

Amy Morrison:, a small, black, 15 year old 10^th grade student from working class family, lives in Ohio. She lives with her mother, a part-time worker and her father who works in a local art museum. Her ambition is to join a medical school and become a surgeon so that she can earn a lot of money. She wishes to get married only after she has a good secure job. She also intends to cohabit with someone till then. She is not sure whether she will get a baby or not but wants to earn more and more money, buy a car.

Jacqueline Gonzalez: is a confident 19 year old Mexican- American lady. She is a 10^th grade student in a community college in South California. She is the second youngest child of her parents’ six children. Her father is a self employed contractor and mother is a house wife. She is the first in her family to go to college. Her goal is to go to law school and then go into private practice. After professional achievement, she wants to get married, have one or two children and lead an upper-middle class life.

Arizona: a 16 year old unmarried mother of a 4.5 month old baby looks forward to a professional career in a bank or with a computer company. Her ambition is to have own house, a nice car, ability to buy good clothes for her son. She is looking for dating but not for marriage. Another17 year old black unmarried mother of an infant hopes to be a professional model, have a lot of cash, be rich and then have another baby but not sure to have a partner.

18 year old Hispanic lady:  is an unmarried mother. She hopes to be her own boss in a large company, have a beautiful home, and send her daughter to the best school.

Simone Baker: is a dynamic, bright, 18year old black woman from Louisiana. Her mother is a seamstress who has been off and on welfare over the years and her father is a drug addict. She herself has been addicted to drugs of one kind or another since she was 5. She has been in and out of drug-abuse facilities. Although she attended school for many years and was upgraded from one class to another, she can barely read and write. When Sidel met her in a drug rehabilitation center, she was struggling to become drug-free so that she could join the Job Crops.  She wants to finish high school and obtain some vocational training. When asked, she replies that she wants to be a model, to have a Jacuzzi, to have big house and big family – three girls and two boys. She wants to have a hard working cooperative husband who is sensible and sensitive to her feelings.  He will be a lawyer. Her ambition seems to be completely impossible.

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Sex, Sighs, and Conversation

In this article, the writer explores cross-cultural differences in the ways females and males use language and the frustrations these differences cause when women and men converse. Tannen’s basic contention is that females use language to make connections and foster intimacy, whereas males use language to preserve independence and negotiate status.

According to Tannen, females use language to negotiate intimacy. Language helps women share feelings, make connections, and create a sense of closeness and harmony. In contrast, males tend to use language to preserve independence and negotiate their status. Language helps men remain the center of attention, challenge and compete with others, and demonstrate knowledge and verbal agility.

Tennen means that although people like to see themselves as unique individuals, they are always a product of their culture. In order to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and other problems, men and women need to be aware of gender differences in language use.

The writer maintains that there are gender differences in the use of language and that this often leads to frustration when women and men converse. On order to minimize conflict and improve relationships, men and women need to be aware of these cross-cultural differences in the use of language.

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Student Shall Not Download, Yeah, Sure.

In this article, Kate Zernike focuses on college student’s attitudes about the ethics of downloading music from the internet. This article deals with the computer ethics in particular and the information technology ethics in general. It also raises issues about ethics of downloading music from the internet and it questions the ethical nature of different computer related behaviors. This article deals with the issues such as using material in a paper without citing the sources or authors, plagiarism or intellectual theft, hacking computer systems, spreading virus, stealing software, piracy, misusing the internet in the job, illegally copying CDs, DVDs, reading other’s e-mail secretly and so on.

  The writer talks about the plagiarism and the downloading of copyrighted material in paragraph 13 and says, “the ease of going online has shaped not only attitudes about downloading, but cheating as well, blurring the line between right and wrong so much that many colleges now require orientation courses……..” According to her, the new generation has grown with the new technologies including the internet and in such world where everything seems free, therealize that downloading music is not inappropriate and unethical.

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Computers and The Pursuit of happiness

 Advantages of Internet

→ We can find each and every part of information about anything we want.

→ Saves money and time:

We can perform our work easily without spending much time in computer and increase their efficiency. We can communicate almost with everyone wherever we are through the net

→ The cheapest and fastest and most influential means of communication:

We can have the latest news at the click of the mouse. The internet is such a medium that it can give many options for the kind of the information required. The wide reach offered by mass media phenomenal. It can target a global audience.

→ The most influential means of education, entertainment, business and social mobility. Television, movies, internet and the radio are some of the best form of the entertainment. Mass media can be used for educational purposes in an effective manner.

 Disadvantages of internet

→ It turns the real life into a virtual one:

The uses of internet have created a new turn in the old rules and pattern of love and relationship. Though people tie the relationship through net but the decision of staying together is not taken randomly as such form of bonds lack trust. Chat rooms meetings and the email communication can end by serious misunderstanding and misrepresentation from both the sides.

→ It promotes and facilitates inhuman and illegal activities:

When two online daters meet in real life usually they get shocked due to non-matching in that they have shared in internet. There is no any proof that the people whom you met on line are anything like the people that they say they are.

Various crimes like hacking, stealing of money from bank accounts, operation of company in websites, blackmailing, fake email ID and useless harassing messages, etc. are well facilitated.

News can be manipulated to influence the mind of audiences. For example, a particular political party may manipulate reports in their favor, which would indicate the political control in media. Media bias can occur due to various issues. A journalist or an editor may give personal preference to an issue

→ It is misused in war and destruction:

→ No sensor, no control and no authenticity over what appears on the screen:

A particular event and a celebrity may receive undue importance and set wrong ideals amongst youngster. Unnecessary sensationalism of an issue may project wrong information to public. Misleading messages may divert young mind towards a wrong path. Wrong interpretation of the news may lead to unrest and violence in certain place.

Summary

The essay, ‘Computer and the Pursuit of Happiness,’ written by David Gelernter, deals with the influence of the computer and internet on individual and on the society. This reading is followed by a letter to the editor disagreeing with the various aspect of argument. In this essay, Gelernter addresses three questions/ issues:

- Whether thanks to Computers and the Internet, we are now living in a new information age. He says that we are not living in a new information age and computers and the Internet do not represent a revolutionary development in human history except in science and engineering. He disputes the claims of those arguing the existence of a new information age.

-  Whether computers have been beneficial or harmful to humanity over the last fifty years. He answers it negatively. He says that despite the information and wealth that computers have generated, human happiness hasn’t increased on the whole. New technologies have come into existence, but the social structures they have created haven’t necessarily improved and the human element associated with the old structures has decreased.

-  Whether computers are likely to have positive or negative influence over the next half century. As response to this question, he states that technology will have little to do with human happiness in the future

Gelernter raised the issues like whether we are living in information age, whether the old age has ended and we are living in new age, whether the computer have been good or bad for the mankind over the last half-century , and whether the computer are likely to be good or bad over the next half-century. He tries to give powerful answer to the above mentioned question through historical comparisons. He came to the conclusion that we are not living in the revolutionary information age. According to the writer, the computer and the internet have not brought happiness and prosperity in the modern life; neither will they bring welfare and well being in future life. He further says that the computer and the internet do not stand for revolutionary development in human history. On the whole, human happiness has not increased but decreased because of so called great advancement of technology. Though, a kind of technological revolution has occurred, the social structures that have been created have not improved. Thus, according to the writer, the modern technology will have little to do with human happiness in future.

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The teacher who changed my life

Nicholas Gage: a Greek war refugee who immigrated to the US.

In the essay, Nicholas Gage describes why and how he migrated to the US and points a vivid picture of the seventh grade English teacher named Marjorie Hurd who inspired him to pursue a career in the field of journalism.

Nicholas Gage: When he came to the US and entered Chandler Junior High, he met Marjorie Hurd. He learned many important things from Mrajorie Hurd: he learned the value of diligence and hard work, journalism skills, the logic and structure of the English language, Greek literature and the power of the written word.

Marjorie Hurd: was an inspirational teacher who paved the way for his career as a writer. Nicholas finds Miss Hurd an inspirational teacher for numerous reasons. She encourages students, especially those from troubled homes, with tough love. She has students read stories about real people, especially underdogs, doing extraordinary things. She introduces him to Greek literature, which provides a new perspective on, and pride in, his native country. She challenges him to confront the painful memories of his mother’s death and his escape from Communist guerrillas. She publishes his essay in the school newspaper and submits it to a contest, for which he wins a medal. She attends his family celebrations, participates enthusiastically, and provides moral support.

Eleni Gatzoyiannis: was the writer’s mother. She sacrificed her life in order to save her four children. She was imprisoned, tortured and shot by communist guerrillas for sending them to live with their father in the US.

Nicholas Gage was born in a village of Greece in 1939. He and his sisters were sent to the US in 1949 because of severe conflict in Greece. Their departure was very painful. When Communist guerrillas occupied their village, took their home and food, His mother made a secret plan to escape her children to be safe with their father in the US. During the time of departure, she told him to be brave, hung a silver cross around his neck and kissed him promising to come to him later but she was imprisoned, tortured, and shot dead by Communist Guerrillas for sending them to freedom.

When they reached the US, they met their father who took them to their new home, a tenement in Worcester, Mass and joined Greendale Elementary School where they were kept in a class for the mentally retarded. After four years, he met Marjorie Hurd and got the roadmap of his life.

He used to live in a refugee camp and go to Greendale Elementary School, his first school in the US.

Nocholas Gage was very much inspired by Marjorie Hurd, his dear teacher. She inspired and motivated him when he was staying and studying in the US. He learns many important things from her. From her, he learns the value of diligence and hard work as well as journalism skills, Greek literature, the power of written word and the logic and the structure of the English language. She taught him stories about real people, especially underdogs and extraordinary things. She inspires him quite a lot for a long time and enables him to be successful and to win the awards. He was always loved, cared and encouraged by Miss Hurd who was really all-loving, all-caring and inspirational teacher.

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How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers

David Rothenberg:

-is a professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

 In this essay, he discusses the recent decline he’s noticed in the quality of his students’ writing, critical thinking and originality due to their increasing reliance on the World Wide Web as a research tool. In addition to outlining the Educational hazards of the World Wide Web, he stresses the responsibility of teachers to help develop students’ critical thinking ability, including the hard work of reading closely, working through arguments and assessing and synthesizing sources.

  In the past before the arrival of World Wide Web, he could read and evaluate students’ research paper with their own ideas and thoughts that came up after his guidance and classroom discuss. But this semester, he finds students’ research papers declining in both the quality of writing and the originality of thoughts.

In the past, he could read research papers which students made after they studied many books, consulted teachers, experts and concerned people and visited field. They were the result of students’ careful study, hard work and under the guidance of their teachers or experts.

But in recent days, in students’ research papers, he finds bibliography with no books or books containing outdated information. There are beautiful pictures and graph neatly inserted in their papers, they look impressive as if they were the outcome of careful work and analysis, however they are the cut and paste from World Wide Web, they contain nothing that represent students’ own idea, thought and analysis; furthermore, the pictures and graphs inserted have no or little relation to the subject described. They add unattributed quotations and only the information that are available on the net.

Rothenberg is not against the new technology that provides instant information but opposes the hunt-and-peck method of writing paper. He also claims that the decline in the quality of students’ research papers is not only the fault of the students and www but also the fault of teachers. Stressing on the fact that it is better to rely on books, library and other reliable source for originality and critical thinking, he wants teachers to be aware of such new arrivals in the market.

David Rothenberg’s major criticisms:

While writing research papers using the World Wide Web, students have:

-declined the quality of writing, critical thinking and originality of thoughts,

-used outdated sources that consist of articles and Web links but not in depth commentaries found in books.

-used graphs that look impressive but often bear little relation to the paper topic.

-used random, superficial research methods avoiding careful, analytical and logical work and synthesis of sources.

-increased plagiarism and neglected the use of library.

-become lazy and inattentive.

Opposing view

Richard Cummins in his letter to the editor suggests that Rothenberg overemphasizes the influence of World Wide Web and falls to the common misleading notion of blaming the medium instead of the ways it is used. He says that World Wide Web provides an opportunity for students to reflect on topics that are relevant to their academic success including the nature of critical thinking, information against knowledge, plagiarism and locating evaluating and documenting library and web sources.  Www is a recent arrival as a source. We should teach our students the strategies how to use it and take it just as a tool.

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Where do we stand?

In this short article, Davis focuses on cross-cultural differences in the use of personal space and on the conflicts and misunderstandings that often arise from these differences. She maintains that, with enough training or coaching, people can learn the nonverbal habits of other cultures and minimize intercultural problems.

According to Lisa Davis, the types of nonverbal communication are: Personal space, eye contact, touching, greeting (shaking hand), kissing, bowing, smiling, body orientation and posture and smell. They can be grouped under proxemics (the study of variations in posture, inter-personal distance and tactile contact in human communication), haptics (relating to or involving the sense of touch) and olfactics (connected with the sense of smell).

The major cause of non-verbal conflicts is the tendency for people to interpret the nonverbal patterns of another culture in terms of the patterns within their own culture. This ethnocentric viewing of reality often results in misinterpretations, negative value judgments and feeling of discomfort. In this article, the writer maintains that cultural differences exist in the use of personal space, and this often leads to intercultural conflicts and misunderstanding, especially, in an increasingly global world. With enough training and practice, however, people can learn the nonverbal patterns of other cultures and minimize problems.

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American values and assumptions

The main purpose of this chapter is to find out similarities and     differences in values, beliefs and  practices and the conflicts and   misunderstandings that arise when people from different cultures    interact. It also describes the issues like verbal and non-verbal  communication, perceptions of time,  cultural adjustment, and   concepts of friendship.

American values and assumptions

Althen: a foreign student advisor at the University of Lowa.

Althen in this chapter focuses on nine central values and assumptions shared by the majority of people living in the US. He contrasts these cultural patterns with those of other nations and describes the types of problems and misunderstandings that can occur when people from different cultures, with diverse beliefs and perceptions, interact.

The most important thing to understand about Americans is probably their devotion to individualism  the fundamental value of a free, self-reliant individual is closely related to all the other cultural values Althen discusses and helps explain many aspects of US behavior and thinking like child rearing, independence and personal freedom, heroism, common idiomatic expression, competition and communication style.

Althen focuses on two major consequences of cultural variations in values and assumptions: first negative value judgments, which often result in intercultural misunderstandings and second, difficulties people from different cultures have understanding each other and the negative feelings caused by these differences.

Althen also contends that cultural variations exist in values and assumptions relating to human nature, social relationships, activity, time and people’s relation to nature. He maintains that this can cause problems when individuals from different part of the world interact.

Although this is underlying idea of the excerpt, students often provide another possible answer to this question: Althen’s   main point is to introduce visitors to the United States to the predominant cultural values and assumptions of the country, especially individualism, in order to minimize intercultural tension and misunderstanding.

Individualism: Americans are devoted to their individualism. From the very beginning of their life, they are trained to lead their individual life and to be responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies. American children from the very beginning of their life are expected and taught to be a self reliant individual. Parents help and teach their children to make their own decision and to be accountable for their money and anything else. American adult are expected to live apart from their parents. For them, being dependent is immaturity.

Competition: For Americans, competitiveness pervades the society. They are taught to think that they are in the world of competition. There is no nepotism and favoritism. They themselves should try to be faster, smatter, richer, and better looking.

Privacy:  Americans feel comfort when they are alone. They think that they need some time to think about things or recover their spent psychological energy. They think people who dislike being alone is weak.

Equality: Americans think that all people are created equal so they are of equal value and should be treated equally, none is born superior and none is junior. All the people whatever their status or position are treated equally.

Informality:  Americans are quite informal in their behavior and with their relationship with other people. They prefer being informal in their speech, dress, and body language.

The future, change and progress: Americans are quite less concern about future. They think history does matter; it is the future that counts. For them, a matured sensible person is one who looks ahead, sets goals for the future and works systematically towards them.

Time: For Americans, time is money, it is highly valued. An ideal person is punctual and is considerate of other people’s time. They do everything in the right time.

Achievement, action, work and materialism: Americans are hard working. They respect work. For them, an ideal person is one who works hard.

Directness and Assertiveness: Americans are frank, open and direct in their dealings with other people. They state clearly and openly what they think and what they want from others.

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