God Save the College!

College is this magical place in my head that everything seems to depend on; it has all the excitement and fulfillment. "That's where you'll meet your best friends." "It'll be the best time of your life." "You'll meet the one there." AHH! What else could I think of but the anticipation and especially fear. 

In Lawrence B. Schlack's article "Not Going to College is a Viable Option", the college dream is flipped inside out and realities are laid on the table. There are different ways to live your life after high school other than college, and that college isn't as important as it seems. Studies indicate that college has actually tainted the perception of students, denying those that are not the particular kind that is needed. People vary in interests and skills, and because of the ever changing world (greatly affected by technology), many are no longer fit to survive, benefit from or, most importantly, afford the college route. This struck me as heartbreaking and unfair. 

I believe that all people are naturally students, but are unique in their own way of learning and applying knowledge and skills. And, I also believe that the current education system has robbed many of the chance to understand that. School is essential for the molding of minds to be set free as strong producers of solutions. Without the disciplinary guidance of college, students may not be able to acquire such values and our future may end up being run by mindlessness and passivity, or worse machines.   

I do not want to watch college become inadequate or reserved for the elite or the "accepted". I do not want people to depend on machines and not discover their full potential. College is for the students, all of them, no matter what kinda of student they may be. 

There are different ways to go and live, but truly, knowledge is human power. 

What is college to you?

Nonstop Free Writing

By now every ERW student knows what nonstop free writing is, if you don't well I have no clue what you have been doing in class for the past couple weeks. To the point at hand, in almost every Peter Elbow presentation we have heard this idea of nonstop free writing that helps to help create your masterpiece of a writing. Not only have we heard the method in many presentations but we have also experienced it first hand when writing in our notebooks to the beautiful music Ms.Fletcher plays. What is the point of this method though? Why does Ms.Fletcher want us to write nonstop for ten minutes straight while listening to Watermelon Man? It's actually very simple and that's to get use to writing all your thoughts and ideas on a piece of paper without stopping to think. To allow all those ideas and thoughts just flow out of your head onto a piece of paper. Being the brilliant teacher Ms. Fletcher is she helps the process of allowing your ideas to flow out. For example Ms. Fletcher always makes sure the room is completely silent so nothing can get in the way of your ideas such as sound, you might think well the music she is playing is sound and can get in the way, well I'm sorry but your wrong. Scientifically music like the one Ms.Fletcher plays, Jazz and Classical, helps people to write better and more. You can imagine how this idea of nonstop free writing is important because it is, Peter Elbow stresses the importance in it and so does Ms. Fletcher the reason is because of the results the method brings.

Not Going to College is a Viable Option

To everyone who is reading that title you maybe thinking its late and, Nathan has lost his mind tonight. Let me assure you I do plan on attending college and achieving a bachelors degree in Psychology, but that's not the point. The reality of it all was brought to light in a article that Ms.Fletcher has bought to all of ERW's attention. Lawrence Schlack discusses how in the world today college has almost become mandatory, and it seems he is almost encouraging us to rethink that whole idea. Now he doesn't say, "Dont got college your wasting your time", but simply states find something that you know you can do. Only about twelve percent of colleges in the United States require a Bachelors Degree. If you know that what you realistically want to do in life you don't have to take the college route. By the end of high school even the seniors that already have their mindsets do not know what they want to major in or pursue a career in. Schlack talks about this "gap year" which is very common in Europe, and it's a year to just think about whats best for you away from school. All throughout high school we've been rushed to hurry up and get things done, so this doesn't seem like a bad idea in theory. If you ever thought about not going to college think about what your good at, and choose something that you love. You don't have to follow the trend, but it also doesn't hurt to have a degree to fall back on.

Keepin' It C14ssy

We are seniors now! Hard to believe right? It seems as if it were only yesterday we thought this Mayfair place was so big because we just entered from elementary school. What we need to do to memorize this year forever and make the most of it is just to stay stress free. I admit that some of us are challenged academically and are under a lot of pressure. It is a difficult and stressful time for us, and often we tend to forget how to really make our senior year the best. Well, LETS JUST TAKE CONTROL OF OUR LIFE NOW! It is us who have the responsibility to give our best and do all of our work this year. Besides that, join a club or a sport! STAY OCCUPIED. Sports are great for taking our minds off of any kind ofwork, But if you are too tired, playing music or listening to your mp3 player can give you stress relief as well. 
STAY STRONG CLASS OF 2014! Try to avoid Senior1t4s!

"What a waste, we think, that one who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work."

Gerald Graff suggests that a potential reason some students do poorly in school is a result of the type of work schools are assigning to their students. He feels that many students have "street smarts"that are overlooked in our education system because school's are focusing too heavily on classic "weighty and academic" subjects instead of subjects that interest the student. I agree that this could contribute to a student's performance in school and that students can be intelligent in other subjects not related to academics. However, I feel the type of work given to students is only a minimal contribution to their ability to perform well in school. I think the biggest reason student's don't perform well in school is a result of their own self-motivation. It is the student's job to motivate and push themselves to complete assignments to the best of their ability no matter how hard or boring it seems. If the work seems boring, uninteresting, or even challenging the student should be responsible enough to find ways to make the assignment more understandable for them rather than toss out the thought of trying to understand and complete the assignment. A person's intelligence is still a great measure of their academic performance, but, ultimately, the result lies in how much effort a student puts in to their academic work.

Other People Presentaion

First off I want to say well done to Thomas and Brandon on their presentation today.  It was well detailed and I was able to take lots of information from it.  I feel like the main topics, about a safe and dangerous audience, was spot on.  When I have to write knowing people I don’t know are going to read it I get nervous.  I feel like they are going to critique me harshly.  For example, when I took my AP U.S. History test last year, I was scared about what the graders might think.  They didn’t know me and the way I write so they might feel like my writing was dumb.  Especially because everyone has a different grading scale, I was worried about how each person might interpret my essays.  It’s so different writing for friends or family.  They won’t judge you to harshly, nor will they make fun of you.  Instead if you mess up at some part they might just laugh but try to help you afterwards.  They actually care in trying to make you a better writing.  When you write to a stranger, that’s it.  Your first paper is your final.  After reading your first, they’ll make an assumption about you right away.  They’ll assume you’re a good sought out writer or perhaps a poor writer who needs to improve promptly.  It sucks that we cant always avoid those “dangerous audiences” but at least we can try to get rid of our fear.  Once we overcome such fear, we may become better writers.

"You are already that person, now put yourself in that place."

As application season has finally arrived, we are all being forced to look into ourselves and ask what do we really want from ourselves? Something so basic that we all do constantly, but when time comes to answer to someone else, there seems to be no certain answer.
In "The 10 Most Common Excuses for Not Going to College" the author talks about how many student feel really lost about the whole application when in fact there is a lot of good advice available and all you have to do do is ask for it. I feel this is applicable to a lot of the struggles we face when it comes to making choices about our future and how to reach our goals. We are overcome with this feeling of competition and needing to do everything right that we end up not doing anything.
I've heard the phrase "I want to apply but I'm not smart enough!"and that is where the problem starts. Once we doubt ourselves, we direct ourselves downward. For years I didn't join the Art Academy because I simply thought I wasn't good enough. It wasn't until my junior year when I was having a conversation with my art teacher and told him how I'd wanted to be in the academy, when he stopped me in my sentence and said, "I always thought you should be in the academy, I just thought you weren't interested!". A goal I had that could have been achieved long ago had I only believed in myself enough to go after it.
A lot of times, the only thing that is stopping us is ourselves. Don't be scared to be motivated about your goals. How do you know you're not good enough unless you apply? You may surprise yourself.