ASSIGNMMENT INSTRUCTION
In this final major assignment you are to write a 2500 word personal essay in which you address each of the topics introduced in these essays: policing in America, the public school system, and issues with parenting in our increasingly strange new world. You must cite (using MLA citations and an MLA Works Cited page) each of the three essays included in the course. You can approach this assignment in several ways.
1. Discuss each of the issues are you have personally experienced them focusing on a specific moment: when you were pulled over, an assignment in a high school class, and an especially difficult day parenting in these days of co-vid/work/school. (You can discuss watching parents, or watching a moment with a teacher. If you have never spoken to a police officer, you can include a real moment from TV [not a fictional story]).
2. Discuss each of the issues from a moment you have seen of television: i.e. the day you first saw what happened with Mr. Floyd, a statement Betsy DeVoss has made about public school, a parent writing about how hard it is to parent these days. If you write based on what you seen and read, make sure to cite (using MLA) where you got you information, where you saw the video, where you read the blog, etc.
3. The big thing is to be as specific as possible – tell stories that take place in a specific moment. Don’t tell us what would happen (as in day in day out) tell us what did happen on a specific day. Include sensory details – sight, smell, taste, sound, touch. Use the sources from the class! This is a major part of the grade as is your use of MLA.
4. In general, you want to make statement about your wishes for improvements in these areas; having said that, you do not have to make a political statement. This can be a completely personal essay in which you are simply sharing your experiences with the world so that the world might really know what it’s like to walk in your shoes. Avoid being combative or strident in your essay. Tempered anger can be useful but yelling on paper isn’t. Imagine that you are talking to someone who wants to hear your experiences and is an interested and curious reader. Try to get this in by Jan. 6 at midnight.
5. There is an Example A paper posted below this assignment.
6. Write with any questions you might have for this assignment. I look very forward to reading your essays.
Literature Rubric
Literature Rubric
Criteria
Ratings
Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeCONTENT
30 pts
This project has content developed according to the principles and ideas discussed in class and shows clear understanding of course materials. In the development of content, the author has carefully considered the audience for this project.
24 pts
This project has content developed according to most of the principles and ideas discussed in class and shows some understanding of course materials. In the development of content, the author has considered the audience for this project.
18 pts
This project has content developed according to some of the principles and ideas discussed in class and shows some understanding of course materials. In the development of content, the author has somewhat considered the audience for this project.
12 pts
This project has content developed according to a limited amount of the principles and ideas discussed in class and shows some understanding of course materials. In the development of content, the author has not considered the audience for this project.
6 pts
This project has content developed according to a limited amount of the principles and ideas discussed in class and shows some understanding of course materials. In the development of content, the author has not considered the audience for this project.
0 pts
No Marks
30 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeORGANIZATION
30 pts
This project does an excellent job of organizing information visually and in writing. It uses clear thesis and topic sentences when relevant. All details included are relevant to main ideas.
24 pts
This project does an good job of organizing information visually and in writing. It uses thesis and topic sentences when relevant. Most details included are relevant to main ideas.
18 pts
This project does an acceptable job of organizing information visually and in writing. It uses thesis and topic sentences when relevant. Some details included are relevant to main ideas.
12 pts
This project does an inadequate job of organizing information visually and in writing. It does not use thesis and topic sentences when relevant. Minimal details included are relevant to main ideas.
6 pts
This project does an inadequate job of organizing information visually and in writing. It does not use thesis and topic sentences when relevant. Minimal details included are relevant to main ideas.
0 pts
No Marks
30 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeFORMAT
20 pts
This project follows all rules and guidelines for formatting this project’s genre.
16 pts
This project follows most rules and guidelines for formatting this project’s genre.
12 pts
This project follows some rules and guidelines for formatting this project’s genre.
8 pts
This project follows few rules and guidelines for formatting this project’s genre.
4 pts
This project follows few rules and guidelines for formatting this project’s genre.
0 pts
No Marks
20 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeLANGUAGE
20 pts
Language used in this project is clear and concise. Conventions of grammar are followed throughout the project. Language used is appropriate for the given audience, and jargon is defined when it is used.
16 pts
Language used in this project is clear. Conventions of grammar are followed throughout most of the project. Language used is appropriate for the given audience, and jargon is defined when it is used.
12 pts
Language used in this project is somewhat clear and concise. Conventions of grammar are followed throughout some parts of the project. Language used is appropriate for the given audience, and jargon is usually defined when it is used.
8 pts
Language used in this project is not clear and concise. Conventions of grammar are not followed throughout the project. Language used is not appropriate for the given audience, and jargon is not defined when it is used.
4 pts
Language used in this project is not clear and concise. Conventions of grammar are not followed throughout the project. Language used is not appropriate for the given audience, and jargon is not defined when it is used.
0 pts
No Marks
20 pts
Total Points: 100
Example of Essay
My Life Reconsidered: A New Worldview
The human experience is filled with struggle, and everyone deals with various challenges and tribulations depending on their upbringing, race, gender, religious beliefs, and age. I have been fortunate as someone who was born Caucasian and male. I am fully aware of my privilege and the opportunities and benefits that have been afforded to me. These are not advantages that I have earned—I was simply born into a race that is not discriminated against as much as minorities and a gender that is sadly seen as superior. In America, both women and minorities have been oppressed throughout the nation’s history. The institution of slavery led to a deeply rooted belief that African Americans were somehow inferior. Even after slavery was abolished, minorities in America continued to suffer across legal, social, and economic lines. Women in America were not given the right to vote until 1920. In addition, gender stereotypes have been reinforced through pop culture, politics, and religious communities. Another critical issue in America that has led to a major disparity in both access to power and access to wealth is the issue of the country’s educational system. The recent shocking and tragic video of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer was a wake-up call for many Americans (and for me as well). By looking at three separate essays on education, racial injustice, and parenting (and three separate personal experiences tied to them), I have begun to better understand how disadvantaged people in America have battled various forms of adversity.
2Education in America has gone through numerous transformations. Early on in the nation’s founding, a well-rounded education was important in order to fully understand history, religion, literature, mathematics, politics, and philosophy. The transcendentalists of the nineteenth century placed a great deal of value on educational pursuits. Intellectual thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau advocated for a reconnection with the natural world as a way to obtain the truest forms of knowledge. Frederick Turner, in his essay “Still Ahead of His Time,” points out that Emerson, “argued that we need fear neither scientific progress nor the grand claims of religion.” In fact, Emerson believed that nature embodied a “divine intelligence” that allowed people to fully understand and process universal truths. Sadly, contemporary American society is a far cry from the idealistic intellectualism that Emerson supported. To put it bluntly, the current state of education in America is abysmal. Whether it is a lackluster curriculum, outrageous tuition costs, or underfunded and under-resourced school systems, Americans are not receiving the education they did in generations past. The value of quality education cannot be understated. Teachers have the power to inspire and ignite their students by helping them tap into their truest passions. In his personal essay “I Just Wanna be Average,” Mike Rose, the educational scholar, reflects on his educational experience in high school and college. After being accidentally relegated to the vocational track because of a name mix-up, Rose was thrust into an eye-opening world of poorly equipped teachers and doomed students. As Rose points out in his essay, “Mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond” (2). This is precisely what young minds need: to be inspired by those who they trust, whether it comes from teachers, parents, friends, or even celebrities. It is a teacher’s responsibility to both impart information and take a personal interest in their students. This helps
3young people know that they are valued, appreciated, and have something to offer the world. Despite having the odds against him, Rose was fortunate in that he was assigned a single teacher who changed everything for him: Jack MacFarland. A rough and demanding force, MacFarland helped Rose get into college and ultimately steered him back on track.Reading this essay reminded me of a personal encounter I had with an inspiring educator. In my junior year in high school, I was pretty unhappy. I was struggling academically, especially in my algebra class. As a result, I had withdrawn and felt like I was not capable of making decent grades. My confidence sank extremely low, and I felt that I might not even graduate high school. On the first day of my junior year, I walked into my English class expecting yet another miserable experience where I was constantly discouraged. I did enjoy writing, but I assumed that my creative work did not have a place in high school curriculum. My teacher, Mrs. Louis, completely changed my perspective. She was short, middle-aged, and had striking platinum white hair. Her demeanor was fiery, loud, and passionate. I remember that first day vividly: I walked into her classroom, noting that there were posters of Edgar Allan Poe and Shakespeare on the walls, and I took a seat in the back row. I was tired because it was the end of a long day, so I was going to put my head down and nap. But as soon as Mrs. Louis opened her mouth, my ears perked up and she had my full attention. She said she was throwing out the course textbook and instead wanted us to read the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Most of the class was upset, but I was thrilled because I love westerns (even though the book is over 800 pages long). I was the only student who read the entire novel, and I became one of Mrs. Louis’s favorite pupils. She was impressed with my writing, and she gave me the confidence I truly needed at that time in my life. She used to call on me all the time by saying, “Let’s hear from Cooper—he always has good things to
4say.” It is my belief that if young people are inspired early on in their academic careers, they might be better equipped to avoid some of the pitfalls that lead to dangerous habits such as substance abuse, crime, and dropping out of school. As Rose succinctly puts it, “It enabled me to do things in the world” (7). Mrs. Louis was also instrumental because she opened my eyes to racial injustice in America. I had never really thought about my privileged upbringing, and it was sickening to realize how unfair so many Americans are treated. This truth became painfully evident in the summer of 2020 when the video of George Floyd’s murder went viral.On June 1, 2020, the online world was stunned and then outraged when the video of an African American man’s murder at the hands of police went viral. The man, George Floyd, was suffocated to death underneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer by the name of Derek Chauvin. I remember seeing links to the video in my Facebook feed, but I was reluctant to watch it because I knew how upsetting it would be. After a couple of days, I felt that I had an obligation to bear witness to the injustice that had occurred. I will never forget the experience of watching that horrifying video on YouTube. My hand was covering my mouth in disbelief as Floyd cried out “I can’t breathe,” and the police officer did not budge. The look on Chauvin’s face, one of smug satisfaction as he took the life of another human being, is seared into my brain. The protests (and sometimes riots) that took place in major cities all over the country following the incident were long overdue and completely understandable. Racial injustice in America has long and deep roots that are still firmly planted in the social soil of the nation. Minorities are frequently targeted and profiled by police, and then they are subsequently treated with hostility and unfairness.In Anthony Sutton’s essay “American Jail,” the graduate student and adjunct college instructor was pulled over for failing to make a complete stop at a stop sign. What followed was
5an illegal search of his backpack, which provided police with a charge: a bottle of Adderall that had not been prescribed to Sutton. As a result, he was arrested and the incident momentarily upended his life. In his essay, Sutton breaks down how police can go about escalating a routine stop by searching someone’s belongings. As Sutton states, “The actual, minor offense (often a traffic violation) is the launching point in which a search is implemented based on the chance that some type of drug can be found” (2-3). This process went down exactly as Sutton outlined in the George Floyd incident. All too often, minorities are targeted simply because of the color of their skin. On a personal level, I lived an admittedly sheltered life. On the one occasion I was pulled over for speeding, I was not overcome with the fear that the officer might arrest, or worse, shoot me. At the time, I was simply annoyed that I received a ticket and would have to pay a fine. But too many minorities fear much more than fines when they see the blinking lights in their rearview mirror.Sutton’s essay, which outlines his entire experience in jail, reminded me of another famous essay written from behind bars: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The letter, written before America had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, documented the injustices that African Americans had faced for far too long. King had been imprisoned for protesting racial injustice in Birmingham in a non-violent demonstration of civil unrest. In his letter, King states, “An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law” (3). This sentiment applies directly to Sutton’s situation in which the young man is arguably pulled over for no other reason than the color of his skin. His subsequent search and arrest are equally unjust. It is perplexing that America has been incapable of shedding its racist past and still engages in discriminatory practices that often result in the death of innocent minorities. As Sutton points out in his essay, “It’s suddenly clear to me that at each juncture there are options, even if just a
6simple way and a hard way, the system keeps choosing which path to follow each time.” The system that Sutton is referring to is designed solely to benefit the ruling class and keep minorities oppressed and disenfranchised. Sutton’s essay hits a personal note for me because one of my high school friends was the subject of a racist encounter with authorities. My senior year in high school, I was at a party with a couple of friends. One of them was African American and played on our football team. I’ll refer to him as Mike for the purpose of this story. Because Mike is muscular and tall, some people are intimidated by the sight of him, but the truth is that he is one of the friendliest and most compassionate people I know. Around 11:15 p.m., the party was broken up by police because the music was too loud and there was some underage drinking happening. I had driven in a separate car from Mike, but we had plans to reconvene after the party at a local diner. When the police arrived, I headed for my car. An officer stopped me and said, “you better go home right now.” I got into my car and drove to the diner where I waited for my friend to show up. It took Mike over half an hour to show up at the diner, at which point he informed me that he had been detained and questioned by the police at the party. Whereas I simply received a verbal warning, Mike was interrogated for over 25 minutes. I can only assume that he was treated more aggressively than I was simply because of the color of his skin. Although I was aware that racial profiling was a reality, this was the first moment that I had evidence based on a real-life experience. It was deeply upsetting and disheartening to know first-hand that racism is truly alive and thriving in America today.Another form of oppression that cannot be denied in America is in regard to how women are treated. Again, I am fully aware of my privilege as a white male who has not had to deal with both race and gender-based discrimination. In her essay “Early Motherhood Has Always Been
7Miserable,” Jessica Grose sheds light on the misconceptions that have surrounded motherhood in America for hundreds of years. In her essay, Grose observes, “Some version of the pristine influencer mother has been pushed on American women since the 1800s — and it’s always been a lie.” Grose goes on to differentiate between the image of influencer mothers as compared to the reality of the experience (one filled with exhaustion, stress, and sometimes even deep depression). Reading her account of motherhood felt a bit like visiting a foreign world. As a young, male college student, parenthood is nowhere on my radar. That said, I know all-too-well the struggles that women, especially young mothers, face. My aunt was a new mother when her husband abandoned her for another woman. She was left to raise their newborn son entirely on her own, all while working a full-time job. The struggles that she endured were painful to witness. She was constantly seeking the help of my parents who were more financially stable. But not until reading Grose’s account did I fully understand how social media can reinforce unreasonable expectations of motherhood. As Grose makes clear in her essay, my aunt was expected to adhere to a certain concept of both what motherhood and femininity should be. Grose breaks down how women have been force-fed throughout American history the right way to behave and exist in the world. It is a sad commentary that contemporary society is so obsessed with ideal versions of people that we fail to see human beings for being beautiful because of their flaws (not in spite of them).There is no doubt about it: I grew up living a truly sheltered life. I was born into a middle class family as both male and Caucasian. While I was unaware of my privilege growing up, it is no longer an excuse to say that I simply do not know the struggles that other people are made to endure. I have experienced concrete evidence that both racism and sexism are troubling issues that still exist in America today. Battling such backwards thinking and primitive mentalities
8starts with the nation’s educational system. We need to reinvest in education and examine why we have become a society that views intellectualism in a negative light. I firmly believe that knowledge is power and that we cannot progress as a species if we continue to deny the true nature of reality. By reading and identifying on some level with the writings of Rose, Sutton, Grose, And Dr. King, and by sitting through the gut-wrenching YouTube video of George Floyd’s murder, I have come to better understand my privileged position in American society. I know that I can help to make a difference in battling racism, oppression, and misogyny. My only hope is that, through properly educating my future children and ensuring they are receiving truth in the classroom, the next generation will better understand how to treat one another with respect, dignity, and compassion.
Works Cited
Grose, Jessica. “Early Motherhood Has Always Been Miserable.”
The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/opinion/sunday/babies-mothers-anxiety.html. Accessed 26 November 2020.“How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody | Visual Investigations.” YouTube, uploaded by The New York Times, 1 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksEJR9EPQ8&t=2s&bpctr=1606234385King, Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963) [Abridged], University of Texas, 16 Apr. 1963, liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/1963_MLK_Letter_Abridged.pdf. Accessed 29 November 2020.Rose, Mike. “I Just Wanna Be Average’. Free Press, 1989, userwww.sfsu.edu/mmartin/rose.pdf. Accessed 25 November 2020.Sutton, Anthony. “American Jail.” HCC, Sept. 2020, https://eagleonline.hccs.edu/courses/134958/files/21423446?module_item_id=6828028. Accessed 26 November 2020.Turner, Frederick. “Still Ahead of His Time.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 May 2003, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/still-ahead-of-his-time-82186396/.
Books treated in class
“I Just Wanna Be Average” MIKE ROSE
Mike Rose is anything but average: he has published poetry, scholarly research, a textbook, and two widely praised books on education in America. A professor in the School of Education at UCLA, Rose has won awards from the National Academy of Education, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Below you’ll read the story of how this highly successful teacher and writer started high school in the “vocational education” track, learning dead-end skills from teachers who were often underprepared or incompetent. Rose shows that students whom the system has written off can have tremendous unrealized potential, and his critique of the school system specifies several reasons for the ‘failure” of students who go through high school belligerent, fearful, stoned, frustrated, or just plain bored. This selection comes from Lives on the Boundary (1989), Rose’s exploration of America’s educationally underprivileged. His most recent book, Possible Lives (1996), offers a nationwide tour of creative classrooms and innovative educational programs. Rose is currently researching a new book on the thinking patterns of blue-collar workers. It took two buses to get to Our Lady of Mercy. The first started deep in South Los Angeles and caught me at midpoint. The second drifted through neighborhoods with trees, parks, big lawns, and lots of flowers. The rides were long but were livened up by a group of South L.A. veterans whose parents also thought that Hope had set up shop in the west end of the county. There was Christy Biggars, who, at sixteen, was dealing and was, according to rumor, a pimp as well. There were Bill Cobb and Johnny Gonzales, grease-pencil artists extraordinaire, who left Nembutal-enhanced swirls of “Cobb” and “Johnny” on the corrugated walls of the bus. And then there was Tyrrell Wilson. Tyrrell was the coolest kid I knew. He ran the dozens1 like a metric halfback, laid down a rap that outrhymed and outpointed Cobb, whose rap was good but not great-the curse of a moderately soulful kid trapped in white skin. But it was Cobb who would sneak a radio onto the bus, and thus underwrote his patter with Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, the Coasters, and Ernie K. Doe’s mother-in-law, an awful woman who was “sent from down below.” And so it was that Christy and Cobb and Johnny G. and Tyrrell and I and assorted others picked up along the way passed our days in the back of the bus, a funny mix brought together by geography and parental desire. Entrance to school brings with it forms and releases and assessments. Mercy relied on a series of tests…for placement, and somehow the results of my tests got confused with those of another student named Rose. The other Rose apparently didn’t do very well, for I was placed in the vocational track, a euphemism for the bottom level. Neither I nor my parents realized what this meant. We had no sense that Business Math, Typing, and English-Level D were dead ends. The current spate of reports on the schools criticizes parents for not involving themselves in the education of their children. But how would someone like Tommy Rose, with his two years of Italian schooling, know what to ask? And what sort of pressure could an exhausted waitress apply? The error went undetected, and I remained in the vocational track for two years. What a place. My homeroom was supervised by Brother Dill, a troubled and unstable man who also taught freshman English. When his class drifted away from him, which was often, his voice would rise in paranoid accusations, and occasionally he would lose control and shake or smack us. I hadn’t been there two months when one of his brisk, face-turning slaps had my glasses sliding down the aisle. Physical education was also pretty harsh. Our teacher was a stubby ex-lineman who had played old-time pro ball in the Midwest. He routinely had us grabbing our ankles to receive his stinging paddle across our butts. He did that, he said, to make men of us. “Rose,” he bellowed on our first encounter; me standing geeky in line in my baggy shorts. “‘Rose’ ? What the hell kind of name is that?” “Italian, sir,” I squeaked. “Italian! Ho. Rose, do you know the sound a bag of shit makes when it hits the wall?” 1 A verbal game of African origin in which competitors try to top each other’s insults.
Rose 2 “No, sir.” “Wop!”Sophomore English was taught by Mr. Mitropetros. He was a large, bejeweled man who managed the parking lot at the Shrine Auditorium. He would crow and preen and list for us the stars he’d brushed against. We’d ask questions and glance knowingly and snicker, and all that fueled the poor guy to brag some more. Parking cars was his night job. He had little training in English, so his lesson plan for his day work had us reading the district’s required text, Julius Caesar, aloud for the semester. We’d finished the play way before the twenty weeks was up, so he’d have us switch parts again and again and start again: Dave Snyder, the fastest guy at Mercy, muscling through Caesar to the breathless squeals of Calpurnia, as interpreted by Steve Fusco, a surfer who owned the school’s most envied paneled wagon. Week ten and Dave and Steve would take on new roles, as would we all, and render a water-logged Cassius and a Brutus that are beyond my powers of description. Spanish I – taken in the second year – fell into the hands of a new recruit. Mr. Montez was a tiny man, slight, five foot six at the most, soft-spoken and delicate. Spanish was a particularly rowdy class, and Mr. Montez was as prepared for it as a doily maker at a hammer throw. He would tap his pencil to a room in which Steve Fusco was propelling spitballs from his heavy lips, in which Mike Dweetz was taunting Billy Hawk, a half-Indian, half-Spanish, reed-thin, quietly …
