TOW #7: Education Reform: Not Complicated--but Seriously Difficult by: David M. Steiner

The first marking period of my junior year is coming to a close, and I’ll have to admit--my grades aren’t all they could be. However, my courses are vigorous to say the least. I take three AP’s: English, U.S. History, and Biology and the rest honors. My electives aren’t so easy either, Research Methodology is a course that calls for a self-structured research project where the teacher is really just there to guide you and help you if you run into trouble. David Steiner, founding director of the CUNY Institute for Education Policy at Roosevelt House, writer for the Huffington Post, and the author of Education Reform: Not Complicated--but Seriously Difficult, writes an article that calls the average American citizen to action.

Steiner aims to get citizens to care more about the education system. He emphasizes that courses need more vigor (to which I was hyperventilating just thinking about), better teachers, more funding, and higher expectations. Throughout the article, Steiner references a book published on international education practices by Amanda Ripley. First, he cites the main things that work when implemented in an education system, such as “demanding and coherent criteria” (Steiner). Then, Steiner uses this analysis of foreign education systems to parallel our own. He says, quite bluntly, “if all U.S. schools applied the rigor and attention to their academic offerings that our high schools apply to their highest-profile sports programs, our students would come far closer to matching their demographic peers in high performing countries” (Steiner). Not only that, but Steiner utilizes the pronoun “we” so as not to seem to critical. Instead of seeming like he blames other people, or our government directly, the use of “we” makes Steiner seem like he is self-analyzing. The word “we” suggests he is reflecting on his own choices and makes the article seem less accusatory.

As a student reading this article, a lot of its effectiveness was because of personal preference. At first, when I read that Steiner wanted more academic vigor, I felt nauseous. However, I understand that I am a driven student taking college-level courses who is involved in extracurriculars as well. After reading the article, I understood who Steiner was trying to target. It’s the students and teachers of the regular level classes not even necessarily at schools like mine, but at schools in worse areas. Steiner points out that the U.S. does not have a good idea of what we want high school graduates to actually know and be able to do skill-wise. In result, as a whole, the students of America are not up to par. After reading this article, I can agree with that. It all comes down to how much we as Americans care about our educations.

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TOW #6: Vigineo Home Security Advertisement

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This advertisement for Vigineo home security systems is quite simple, yet eye catching. The goal of the advertisement is simply to sell home security systems. The advertising executives and employees at Vigineo aim to accomplish this through minimalism and fear.

Pictured here is a white background with a hand with it’s fingers crossed, which symbolizes someone hoping for good luck. However, drawn on the fingers is a picture of the face of a tough-looking man with a knife to another man’s throat. The text at the top reads: “Because you can’t always trust good luck.”

Aimed to target homeowners, this ad is effective because of its minimalism and play on fear. The average time people look at advertisements is about one second. Homeowners are most likely working people, and do not spend time looking at advertisements for long. The fact that the only thing in the picture directly relates to the point that Vigineo wants to get across cuts through any fluff right away. Viewers get the point. The white background helps to bring out the hand even more, and the use of black inc for the faces drawn on the fingers draws the eye directly to it. The play on fear utilized in conjunction with the minimalism drives the point home.

The text at the top reads: “Because you can’t always trust good luck,” which refers to the man with the knife to the other man’s throat. The advertisement is essentially telling the viewer that they can’t just rely on luck to be safe in their own home. This play on fear is effective because the reader sees exaggerated, but plausible consequences of not getting home security, and the play on the crossed fingers for good luck ties everything together. Thus, through this simple and funny ad which plants a small seed of fear within viewers’ minds, Vigineo effectively prompts people who don’t have home security to think twice about their safety, and of course to use Vigineo.

TOW #5: Like apparel are we headed for ultra-casual? by Jerry Epperson

In the October issue of the magazine Furniture Today, well-respected furniture critic Jerry Epperson wrote his usual opinion piece. However, in Like apparel, are we headed for ultra-casual?, he barely mentions furniture at all. Instead, he begins with describing how people used to dress nicely in general. Then, he goes on to tell his experience and observations when he went to eight different department stores. Epperson mentions furniture only once, saying, “I decided to go shopping and look at today’s styles in apparel, which is often a leading indicator of what is about to occur in home furnishings” (Epperson). For most of the piece, Epperson seems to be merely griping about the latest fashion trends. However, like the title states, his purpose is for the readers, mostly people who are literate in the furniture world, to take caution about new trends in fashion, because they may carry over into the furniture world.

Epperson does not achieve his purpose flawlessly. He writes, “My observations included:” and then proceeds to list what he observed at the department stores he visited (Epperson). Epperson does not take an objective stance on his observations, throwing in comments like: “Wearing exercise clothing has no requirement that the wearer exercise, evidently” (Epperson). This detracts from his purpose because he spends the majority of his piece throwing in lines like this instead of telling the reader how this could affect new furniture styles directly. Epperson seems to air more on the criticizing than analyzing side.

Not only does his list full of snarky comments detract from his argument, but Epperson’s rhetorical questions do not serve his purpose either. At the end of his piece, Epperson writes: “Will everything all blend together in one neutral style that is ultra-casual? Is that our fate?” (Epperson). He closes with this sweeping statement, but instead of enforcing the fear and caution Epperson set out to do, he makes a sweeping statement that readers can easily argue with. Besides complaining about people’s clothing style, Epperson offers no evidence of these styles carrying into the furniture world. Therefore, these questions, intended to strike fear in the furniture business, do absolutely nothing.

This furniture set up looks pretty put-together to me

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TOW #4: Outliers (IRB) by Malcolm Gladwell

       The book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, a well-known thinker and National Bestselling author, is about how successful people find their success. In the book, Malcolm Gladwell argues that people are not successful because they work for it; they are successful because they were lucky and born in good circumstances. Gladwell aims to flesh out all of the apparent misconceptions common people have about success. He argues that success cannot be acquired by just anyone. In the first half of the book, he essentially tells all of the people looking to be successful, like young entrepreneurs or young people just entering the work forces or people going through school, that the “outliers” are not truly outliers at all. He wants to assure his audience that successful people essentially had help being successful.

       Gladwell uses facts frequently to forward his theory. When Gladwell argues that phenomenon like relative age affect a person’s success in the world of sports, he offers tables listing teams of professional athletes. Gladwell explains that whichever month a sport’s cut off is in, the best players will have their birthdays close to the cut off because they were always at a couple-month advantage athletically and developmentally. Not only does he prove this by listing the roster of the Medicine Hat Tigers, the best junior hockey team in Canada, but also by listing rosters for the Czech junior hockey team, and Czech national soccer team. By offering multiple pieces of evidence, Gladwell is able to appeal to logos, which enhances his argument. This may also appeal to ethos because his evidence will impress a reader who tends to respond to logos.

        Anecdotes are also a large part of Gladwell’s argument. He uses anecdotes to illustrate large portions of his subject’s lives. When Gladwell begins the “10,000-hour rule” chapter, he uses Bill Joy, legendary computer programmer as an example. Instead of just telling the reader where Joy grew up and such, Gladwell crafts his life into an interesting snippet. He writes: “Joy came to the University of Michigan the year the Computer Center opened. He was sixteen. He was tall, and very thin, with a mop of unruly hair. He had been voted ‘Most Studious Student’….,which, as he puts it, meant he was a ‘no-date nerd’” (Gladwell 35-36). Gladwell goes on to tell about how Joy got lucky with the fact that he was enrolled in the University of Michigan. These short anecdotes are sprinkled throughout each section, and they help Gladwell to appeal to pathos, like with the fact that Joy was a ‘no-date nerd’. They also help to forward his purpose because the anecdotes serve as the context to many of his arguments. By utilizing both facts and  anecdotes, Gladwell achieves his purpose in an intriguing but believable way.

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