Task 3

Leon Botstein states in his essay, “Let Teen-Agers Try Adulthood”, that “…the American high school is obsolete and should be abolished” (205). I’m still torn between his essay for the simple fact that I highly disagree with points he makes throughout the essay but their were also some points I found myself agreeing with him a little bit. At one point the makes the statement, “The team sports of high school dominate more than student culture” (Bostein 205). I’ve experienced this first hand in high school. I’ve always been a student athlete for as long as I can remember. I specifically remember my teachers treating me different just because I had a “big” game that day or needed a certain grade in order to play. I know this is extremely unfair and even though I got special treatment I still didn’t agree with it. Bostein’s point has been proven true in not only my case but I‘ve also seen it happen to my friends as well. On the other hand Bostein states “We should entirely abandon the concept of the middle school and junior high school”(206). I highly disagree with this statement. Kids need time to mature and this takes time in order to happen. During middle school is generally when kids start to go through puberty. By eliminating middle school, this would put them behind. Graduating at the age of 16 seems unrealistic. I could not imagine heading into college when I was 16. I would not have been fully ready and mature to handle the“real” world at such a young age.

Do you think your experiences in high school and college are similar or different from other people’s experiences?

No one person is like another. They can be similar but not identical or just completely different. This same concept can be applied to their experiences they’ve been through as well. In my case, I had a very up and down high school career. I lost another friend, my uncle and my grandpa all within six months during my sophomore year. That year was extremely hard for me to over come but I eventually did it. Other people may or may not have had a similar experience with losing people that are close to you but they most likely have lost something close to them. Now education wise, my high school was very wealthy and could afford certain things normal high schools could not. An example would be that my school bought smart boards (huge touch screen computers) that hung up in every single classroom. These I found very effective because with me, I learn better by interacting with what I’m learning and the smart boards made it easier for me to learn. Some peoples high schools may not even be able to afford books and computers. This would make it very difficult and frustrating to learn without the necessary tools needed. I find myself very lucky that I went to the high school I did because I learned a lot not just because of the right and most effective materials but also because we had experienced teachers who knew what they were doing. I’m sure there are other high schools that are better and worse than my high school. I think some peoples experience in high school may be the same as mine were but also could be very different at the same time.

Experiences of college

My experiences of college have been pretty overwhelming so far. The more the goes on the more I get overwhelmed, especially since basketball started. I’ve felt many emotions such as frustration (because of my acl rehab), stress (school work and basketball) and home sickness. I believe I am in college because ever since I was little it was my goal to play basketball in college and also to receive a college degree. Not everyone in my family has finished college and I am the first college athlete in my family. Without any doubt in my mind believe college is worth the time, effort and expense because it will all pay off in the end. Even though college may be stressful, frustrating, overwhelming and many other mixed emotions, I fully believe that my college education will be well worth it in the end.

Task 2 thoughts

What is the thesis for your paper?
The thesis of my paper was how my mom used both what she learned from events from her past and also what she learned in school to make a bright future out of her life.
List the points you make in your paper.
Dads and alcoholic, inappropriately touched, raped, abused, schooling.
What was the most helpful advice you received from your peer evaluation?
The most helpful advice was someone told me to be more descriptive of the events that happened to my mom such as giving more examples of how each event effected my moms life.
What was the most helpful information you received in class for your paper?
The most helpful information given to me in class was to make sure not to get off topic when writing your paper. This helped because since my mom is very significant to me I was afraid of wanted to let the reader know everything about my mom and I didn’t want to get off topic.
How many drafts of this paper do you think you wrote and how/when did you write them?
I think I wrote about 3 different drafts but I wrote them as the rough draft. I did use an outline and wrote a little at a time would take a break and then write again. This helped me avoid writers block.
What would you do differently with this paper to make it more effective, or what did you try to do that you just don’t think you got a good handle on?
I tried to not get off topic but I think in the end I didn’t have enough detail as I should have. I need to find a median in between to much detail and not enough detail and I don’t think I’ve quite found that yet.
What are you most pleased with about this paper?
I please because I think I did well at outlining my moms past and education backgrounds.

Education point

Education can vary meanings from person to person. I believe that a good education can’t be only what someone learns in school. I believe that a person needs to also have schooling from their personal lives. It could be what they learn from their parents or significant events that had happen to them throughout their lives. With their parents, they could have shown them their personal views on issues. Like with abortion or political views. With my parents they were both against abortion but only in certain cases. That’s what I grew up with and that’s also what I believe. Along with my parents teaching views I also take what I learn from things that have happened in my life. I’ve lost people that are closer to me and it makes me stronger as a person because it made me realize that life can be cut off short without realizing it. With both my past, my parents and also what I learn while in school, I think that is what makes up my education and what I’ve learned.

Interview response

What questions still remain?
Questions that still remain after my interview mostly are ones about my mom giving examples of cases when she missed classes due to being hungover from drinking so much the night before or examples of how she overcame dealing with her hurtful past. 
How'd it go?
I felt like it went pretty well overall. There were some parts during the interview where we got a little off topic but i expected that because my mom and I get along so well. I found out specific details about her past that I hadn't known before I interviewed her. The interview not only gave me a good base for what I was going to write about in my paper but it also gave me more of a background on my mom and what she went through. It made me realize that it was her past that made her who she is today.
Where did you conduct it?
Since I do live about 13 hours away from my mother, I was impossible to conduct my interview in person like i would have preferred. Instead we conducted it over the phone and I typed everything she said on my laptop. I went back after the interview and picked out the things I specifically wanted to use in my paper.
What did you learn?
Before being assigned this paper, I had never interviewed anyone. I have however, been interviewed but it was always for basketball. It was difficult for me to narrow down what type of questions I wanted to ask at first but I learned as I started my paper which ones to keep and which ones to throw away. I also learned alot about my mom's background.
How do you intend to transition to the writing process?
I intened to make my mom's answers to my questions flow into my paper and make sense effectively.
What concerns do you have?
Grammar and structure are always my top two concerns whenever I am writing a paper. For this specific paper another concern would be that my quotes flow effectively throughout my paper.
I expect to reread my paper and also have others read it was well to get alot of feedback to make sure my paper is effective and makes sense.How do you expect to overcome them?

5 questions

1. Why did you decide not to go to college right out of high school?
2. Who influenced you the most in high school? What made them so special to you?
3. What provoked you to go back to college? What steps did you have to take to be able to do so?
4. How did you decide what you wanted to major in?
5. Good or bad what events stuck out the most during your high school career?

These are just random five questions I have chosen. They aren’t in any order right now. I want to ask these questions because I feel they will give me good information to put into my paper to make it interesting and organized. My mother went through a lot as a high school student and up into her college career. These questions will help to understand more about what she went through and what she had to over come in order to achieve an education. Also it will also tell me who helped influence her in her decisions and also who helped her out through her tough times. Along with these questions I have other questions as well. These are the most important ones in my opinion. Hopefully these questions will also give me the information I need to write an interesting paper that keeps the reader interested, as well as shows my mother’s education experience throughout her life.