Jordan Groll
American Society: Urban Legends in the Classroom What is it about America that causes students and people to crave an education? Could it be the intense pressures of society, or could it even be the simple fact that we want to educate ourselves? For centuries people were fine with being un-educated and life was simple and laid back, but when John Cotton (a noted Puritan Minister) established the first public school in America, people began to eat it up. And thus was the start of a race to the top and an obsession in today’s society about education. We are now living life in the fast lane, and most people don’t even have the time to stop and smell the flowers along the way. The Urban Legends, “Open Book”,
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In “Reward” the student keeps himself accountable for his own success by working diligently and giving it all of his effort, because he knows that the only way to success is to walk down a road less traveled. Is it impossible to solve a rubix cube? Its not impossible, one just needs to know the right algorithms used to solve it. This is very similar to the Urban Legend of “The Unsolvable Problem”. In this tale, a student mistakes an example of an unsolvable math problem for his assigned homework, and after several long hours of hard work and dedication, he solves it. As we can see, the student genuinely cares about his education, and he is willing to solve any problem in his path in order to be educated. This brings us back to the example of the rubix cube. With enough dedication it can be solved without algorithms. These urban legends are clearly directed towards the younger generations as they are the ones who are still in school and are sifting through the slow process of the education system. All three of these urban legends/tales have the same theme of teens and education. They are all written for a specific audience type, and in these three the specific audience happens to be teenagers or the younger generation. The Purpose of these legends is too relate to the teens in a way which will make them want to listen, and then to plant a seed or a message deep down inside of their heads which tells them to stay in school and to stress how important
In this article the author, Eric Priceman, argues that rewarding accomplishments is part of the education processes it only creates a problem when we let it. I feel as though his argument is in fact persuasive and reaches his intended neutral audience. Priceman starts by giving directions in differentiating the terms award and reward. These words are commonly used synonymously and Eric makes an underlying statement that if one is to make this argument, for or against, they must first define these two words. In addition to his initial definition Priceman establishes ethos when he brings up the fact that he has 3 adult children. His credibility is shown because his kids are no longer growing up, they have grown up and he has went through these
Margaret Heffernan once said, “For good ideas and true innovation, you need a mix of human interaction, conflict, argument, and debate.” In the article it is debated if there is any benefit in monetary rewards for students. Teachers, and parents alike are always trying to find the best way to reward and inspire there students to do well in school. Matthew G Springer is a professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University. He is also the director of the National Center on Performance Incentives. He wrote this article to display his research and studies.
This angst lead government officials to invest in education as an attempt to preserve this English and Christian culture for future generations. Initially, education in America began as an entity restricted exclusively for affluent white men. This dogma changed when governing American leaders recognized that in order to preserve and sustain their ideal American culture, including their elevated status, they must disseminate their cultural principles upon the masses. The transmission of culture came in the framework of an education system. According to Perkinson, the first educational policies began as “Revival meetings, free bibles, and tracts that were used to socialize young immigrants into moral, upright, Christian citizens” (Perkinson, pages 12-14).
America had never taken the topic of education as seriously as before, showing its want and need for education more than ever. In the 1850’s many immigrants from Europe had migrated to America to begin a new life. Moving because of famines or revolutions in the 1840’s, America was home to around three-million immigrants in total between 1850 and 1860. This massive wave of immigration caused a nativist feeling to spread over America. Americans began viewing immigrants as inferior to them and required them to go to school to “Americanize” them.
This type of motivation is influenced heavily by rewards and external incentives. It also implies the notion that “I have to do something” in order to be compliant with what someone else wants me to do. It is a motivation that is primarily influenced by the hope of attaining tangible items such as prizes, special privileges, or money. Although Drive implies the heavy use of Motivation 2.0 by the corporate world, Pink also draws attention to the fact that schools typically operate under this mode, as well, and that it can have detrimental effects on our students and on learning, in general. Motivation 2.0 is also referred to in the book as the “Carrots and Sticks Approach”, and although it may yield positive results in the short-term, the repeated or incorrect use of extrinsic rewards can actually work against what educators are trying to achieve in terms of truly motivating their students.
In the early colonies of /Eastern America, education was vital to the civilization of their new world. As immigrants from Europe, they heavily relied on their own intellect, or the common knowledge of their own country. All the ideas and intellectual knowledge of their home country was typically the only education they can fully trust as they begin their journey to a new civilized country.
A reward is a high extrinsic motivator. The reward can be monetary, gift certificate, day off with pay, a two hour lunch, or working for two hours on anything but work. All entice performance and competition in the workplace. A gold star, being the teacher’s helper for a day, no daily
The most important thing about the rubix cube is that it constructed with a perfect symmetry. If you like to know how to solve a rubix cube, than this information will help you very much, in fact the symmetry of the cube is the winning key for the solution.
This urban legend, with its narrative polish and how recently it has taken place, seems to have had its start in 1980s, when a Turkish man sold his kidney, but had told officials that it was stolen. Later it was proven that he offered to sell his kidney from a newspaper advertisement. This story became famous with its adaption to the TV crime show Law and Order. With its new found fame, many people adapted the plot to better fit their needs upon retelling it, such as changing the location. Locations started in distant countries, for instance, Brazil and the Caribbean, then moved closer to Mexico, and even within the US, New York and Las Vegas (Fine and Ellis, pg. 179-180). The major points that follow the legend through its various forms include: hotel rooms, an unknowing victim, traveling to new places, confusion and pain.
Urban legends are like a type of desire. Be it the occurrence of Roswell UFO or the conspiracies of the American dollar bill; the similarity found between them were 'realism'. Now then, how did this urban legend come about? It started as an ordinary rumor- one player holding 300 game rankings with an perfect undefeatable record including the fact he had beaten every cheats and grandmaster. The news spread like wild fire, and some had even suspected this genius gamer to actually be a hacker. Whatever the case is, this person had allowed this rumor to spread, for he had an account and ignored this, thus provided little to no information. Crowned the king of world rankings, countless of people had tried to identify this mysterious player. Nonetheless, the correct answers are usually the most boring ones...
We have all heard of strange and gory stories that are supposedly true, experienced by a friend of a friend. Whether true or not these so called "urban legends" tend to circulate throughout society thriving on each individual's fears and curiosity. What most people don't realize is, within these tales lies the attitudes and values of a community. These tales do not survive throughout the years solely on the basis of their entertainment level, but due to the fact that they reflect society's fears and anxieties. In dissecting these tales one can indefinitely find the social fallacy against females that has existed for decades, as well as the fears women have against men. However, more importantly, the values that society hold are
Many people have heard the tale of the dotty grandmother who tried to dry off her damp poodle by placing it in the microwave oven. The dog exploded, sad to say the least , and Grandma has never been quite the same since. The story is not true; it is an urban legend, circulating by word of mouth since the 1970s (Brunvand, 108). Urban legends are popular stories alleged to be true and transmitted from person to person by oral or written communication. Legends tend to arise spontaneously and are rarely traceable to a single point of origin. They spread primarily from individual to individual through various communication, and only in atypical cases through mass
The reason is that the reward is not the main thing that is backing up the action; but something else that could be self-develop, peace, etc. An example is a boy does his homework just because he was told by his parents to do his homework. Based on that the boy believes that his parents know what is best for him to do.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela. Without education, there is simply no telling of what this world would be like. There wouldn’t be doctors, lawyers, businesses etc. Life and everything around us would be fatuous. Schools and education give us a plan in life and help guide us. Throughout the years education has changed tremendously. It had its improvements throughout the decades, and it also has had its falters as well. Education in America is an issue in this country and it definitely needs to be tweaked and improved. Education is what makes us people who we are and what we will be. Nelson Mandela had it right, there is no weapon more powerful than education.
Nowadays education is often taken for granted. In the US, children have to go to school until they pass 12th grade, and many continue on beyond that, in college or other forms of school. Mark Twain's book adventures of Huckleberry Finn, took place in a