My Political Blog

Campaign K-12

Campaign K-12 blog talks about education at these levels, and news on rebuilding schools or the best way to educate students. These are two examples of the first two blogs. They present the recent issues going on and because of this 2008 election for president, they quote the candidates on the issues.

Compared to my other blogs, this blog deals obviously with a political issue (education in this case). The fashion and celebrity blogs are set up different. What I mean by that is when you go to the celebrity blog it has videos as posts and then a brief description of what the video is. The Fashion blog differs because the Campaign K-12 blog deals with important issues and goes in-depth, whereas the fashion blog entries are more about celebrities and their lives (also relates to their styles and other fashion related things), and the layout is more bright and glittery trying to appeal to people. The campaign k-12 layout is more of a serious blog, with serious matters.

One of the last issues posted was "Rebuilding Schools as an Economic Stimulus". In this entry they are talking about how Obama was renewing his call for a second economic-stimulus package which would help the economy. It was basically just talking about Obama wanting to create a $25 billion fund to help build schools and highways, which would provide about 1 million new jobs. (This was according to his "emergency economic plan".) After reading this, I think this could be a good idea because it helps provide jobs for people who are need of a job. I do not have prior knowledge of Obama's emergency plan or this economic stimulus package, but I think this is a good way to help people.

Blogs of Interest

Celebrity Blog

In this blog, there are updates frequently on the different celebrities. The most recent is one on Britney Spears. There are other links to see the blogs from the past. I am very interested in the lives of celebrites and like to see the latest news.

Fashion Blog

In this blog it gives updates on new clothes, styles, makeup and all the rest of that. I chose this blog because I love fashion and everything and I wanted to follow up on them. If your interested they have fashion tips and sites within the blog to look at. It is a nice set up and a good way to keep up with one of my favorite interests.

Dumbest Generation ?

After reading the Emory University English Professor's "8 Reasons Why We Are The Dumbest Generation", I asked myself whether or not I believed those reasons, and I'm sad to say I find them to be true. I agree that we are relying on technology to help with simple tasks, and spending time focused on things of lesser importance. In the following paragraphs I'll give 3 examples to support why I feel that we aren't as smart as we could be.

1. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either

I think this one is most important. Students tend to gravitate towards magazines instead of substancial reading books, unless required to do so in school. Books they get in school are to be read for understanding; however students take the easy way out by reading sparknotes and other sites that break down the book so they don't actually have to read it. By reading only the cliff notes, there's no depth of understanding about the book.

2. They don't store the information

Mark Bauerlein says that "Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.''


I agree with what he said because students use the Internet, like cliffnotes, and don't absorb the information in the sites, but use it to finish homework for the next day. Students also don't use the Internet to learn more but rather use it for entertainment purposes. Where some students use the internet for what it was designed for, others do not take advantage of the benefits the Internet has to offer.

3. Because their teachers don't tell them so

"Their parents don't check their bedrooms at midnight to halt the instant messaging..."Kids are drowning in teen stuff delivered 24/7 by the tools, and adult realities can't penetrate," Bauerlein says.
This statement is beyond true. Kids of all ages would rather focus on socializing or other teenage activities than learning or doing homework. Parents don't help the cause by not checking to make sure their kids are doing their homework or studying. Teachers can only do so much to educate a student; it takes a student who's will to learn for the teaching to be effective.

In conclusion, I agree with the statement that our generation is the dumbest, and that we don't use the Internet to our advantage. If students realized this, they would be better off in the world and reach their full potential. Teens are the future, but they need to embrace the information out their instead of finding the easy ways out.