When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web; Public Profiles Raise Questions of Propriety and Privacty

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In the article "When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web" by Ian Shapirna, the title alone explains the subject matter. This article is about younger teachers in their early twenties having public, raunchy Facebook and Myspace pages. Schools are removing and suspending teachers from their schools for raunchy posts. Some teachers do not realize that their profiles are public to anyone who wants to see them, not just friends. Some employers are scrutinizing these social-networking pages during interviews. Teachers can claim free speech, but according to the government employees can be fired if "their speech harmed the workplace's mission and function" (Shapirna 1). This article is pointing out the consequences of teachers' having public lives that can lead to questions from parents and employers alike. Sometimes the consequence can be as bad as termination of employment.

The topic of this article is logically and effectively supported. Shapirna includes several examples of questionable things that young teachers have posted onto their Facebook and Myspace pages. Shapirna also includes the consequences that have resulted from these posts. This thus proves that the article also has relevant evidence of this new Web epidemic. This article does reach it's intended audience. I believe the intended audience is the general public, as well as serving as a warning to teachers about their social-networking pages.

I personally felt indignant at the fact that employers are actually screening teachers lives outside of the schools. The article pointed out some points that can not be denied. It's true, teachers should keep their private lives private and seperate from their professional lives, but they should not be judged or have their employment terminated based upon a post on MySpace or Facebook. Teachers have stressful jobs as it is to make sure they are teaching their students effectively and serving as role models to them as well. Teachers are people like everyone else. They need to let loose and have some fun. Even models of society aren't perfect.

Sexualizing Young Girls

I'm going with a theme here, and that theme is sex and children/teens. In this image, it shows two young girls that have been photoshoped onto the bodies of older women. This ad is about statutory rape, but it still supports the idea that young girls are being sexualized.

I personally find this ad a bit uncomfortable to look at, which is why I chose it. For the normal human being, it is a bit disturbing to look at a picture of a young girl and seeing her face attached to an adult female body. Not only are they attached to adult female bodies, they are attached to female bodies that are dressed provocatively. No one thinks of young girls as provocative or sexual in any shape or form. This image is very controversial because of the imagery being presented.

The two sides of the debate over this ad are the imagery is having the opposite affect then intended and that the ad's use of shock tactics is effective. I personally believe that the ad campaign meant well when they published it, but I think it is taking it too far. This image serves more to sexualize young girls than to discourage such thoughts about them. This image can be more provocative to some individuals than offensive. The fact that they thought they had to use such imagery to discourage stautory rape disturbs me. This image can be damaging to the young girls that participated in it in the future. Because of the image, they could be interpreted as sexual creatures instead of quite the opposite.

My Thesis Statement

The lack of comprehensive sex education in schools and homes is crippling to teens today, especially since sex is a major part of U.S. culture. To drastically decrease this problem, The Boards of Education across the United States should work with their superintendents to encourage comprehensive sex education programs in schools to educate teens about sex and having parent cooperation/involvement as part of the program.

Nicole "Snookie" Polizzi, Another Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan?

If I could choose one person to "vote off the island", I would choose Snookie from the MTV show Jersey Shore. Nicole "Snookie" Polizzi has the potential to be another Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan. Just another loose woman who demonstrates through her behavior that using foul language, having no brains, binge drinking, and being overly sexual is a good thing and, of coarse, the media loves it and her. In the past, Snookie has been involved in the death of a fellow teen from binge drinking. She knew this guy had been drinking too much and did not try to stop him, which resulted in his death. Is this the kind of woman that we want girls to think they should be like? Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have already done their damage, but if I could prevent more damage I would vote Snookie off the island.

If Snookie was eliminated from the public eye, I think it would be one step closer to girls realizing that they don't have to surrender to the pressure of the media to be "the life of the party", to wear revealing clothes, to have big breasts, to be this sex goddess that all men will want. The media putting women like Snookie in the spotlight of tabloids instead of women like Sandra Bullock, which she is these days and only because of her cheating husband and not her accomplishments, is telling young girls and teen girls that they aren't anybody if they aren't like Snookie or Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan. With her and those like her gone, that would eliminate a lot of pressure for girls, thus leading to higher self-esteem and pride in who they are and what they have in themselves.

The real reason, though, why I chose to "vote Snookie off the island" is because I am so tired of the media choosing unnoteworthy women to gossip and talk about. What has Snookie accomplished besides becoming a "tabloid whore" just like Paris and Lindsey? Absolutely nothing. So why should she get to be chosen as a role model by the media instead of women like Sandra Bullock, whom I've always admired as an actress? I am tired of the media sending the message to young men that "This is the type of woman you should find attractive" and to young women that "This is the type of woman you should be". It's sickening and very very sad that the media picks a role model based on how much she flashes her breasts and how hard she parties.

My Possible Research Topics

1. Sex education in schools: I am interested in this topic because it is important for teens to be educated about sex, whether they get the education from their parents and/or get it from a class in school. It is also interesting to debate whether it should be the parents' responsiblity or if it should be passed on to the teachers.
2. Bilingual education: This topic is interesting to me because of the fact that we have so many Latino/a immigrants living here in Frederick County that don't speak English and are sending their non-English speaking children to the public schools. It is a topic very relevant to Frederick County Public Schools.
3. Plastic surgey: This topic interests me because of the fact that it is something that is being done often here in the USA. Also because its intresting because there is so much debate as to whether or not it's "fake" or acceptable because apperances matter so much in the US.
4. Making marijuana legal- Making marijuana legal is a very hot topic in the political world. It's a very interesting topic to me because of the fact that so many people have a problem with marijuana becoming legal when there is many benefits to it becoming legal.

Basically, all these topics intrest me a lot. If you could just post which topic you think I should choose and what direction you advise me to take it in that would be most appreciated :)

Jury For Sale: Bought and Paid for by Gun Company

First of all, I think that the verdict will fall in the gun company's favor because of Fitch's abundant resources accomplishing things in an illegal manner, such as handpicking the jury members based on their background checks and instructing the landlords on who to pick through hidden microphones. It is obvious that Rankin Fitch & team don't have any moral qualms about breaking the law to achieve their goals. Also, money talks. Fitch and the gun company have an abundant amount of money to work with. When Marlee approaches Fitch and Rohr to make a deal about swaying the jury in each of these mens' favor, Fitch tries to arrange things in his favor, but not because he doesn't have the funds to pay. Fitch wants to have his cake and eat it too.

The second reason why I think that the verdict will fall in the gun company's favor is because, it seems to me, that Nick and Marlee don't even care which way the verdict swings. They are just in it for the money. Nick and Marlee are both very intelligent, clever, and persuasive people. They can have any kind of outcome that they want. I think that they are trying to aim for is getting BOTH men to pay for the verdict and then they are just going to let things progress the way they do without trying to influence the other jurors votes.

Have Faith

Having faith is something that I believe is essential to having a healthy life. You can have faith in religion, you can have faith in life (that everything will work its self out), and you can have faith in yourself. I have faith in all three of those things. Having faith is what has gotten me through some very hard times in my life and it has made me into the person I am today. "Have faith" is an expression that I embrace every day.

The first thing that I have faith in is religion. I am a Baptist Christian and have been since I was born. Growing up, I was taught about Jesus Christ and what it is to be a Christian. My family and I aren't typical Christians but we have a strong love for God. I have faith that God is watching over us and loves us with his whole heart. I have faith that here is a Heaven and that I will meet those that have passed there one day. It is comforting to me to believe that there is a life after death and that there is a loving presence watching over us. I lost an uncle when I was young to leukemia and the way I got through that was leaning on my faith in my religion. I believed and was comforted by the fact the he was with God and that he was no longer in any pain. My faith in my religion has a big impact on my views of life today.

The second thing that I have faith in is life, that things will work themselves out. Over the years, I've experienced some bad things in my life. Things always seemed to constantly be going in a bad direction. My parents were fighting all the time and eventually got divorced. My uncled died, I started having seizures and almost failed the 6th grade because of them, and all the while my sister's alcoholism had progressed. But I eventually got through it all. For a while, though, I thought that things would never turn out right. But I began to learn to have faith that the things in life that seem too much to bear will eventually work themselves out. It turned out that my parents getting divorced was the best thing for them and for us because we no longer lived in a hostile environment where tension was tangible in the air. My seizures eventually stopped and, with hard work, I passed the 6th grade to move on with the rest of middle school. My grief for my uncle has never gone away, but I have learned to live with it. Even the situation that I never thought would change for the better resolved its self and that was my sister's crippling alcoholism. Today, she is a recovering alcoholic and I am very proud of her. Even though those events have had an affect on me, I was able to accept these things for what they were and how they turned out because of my faith in life. I will always have faith in life, that things will work themselves out and turn out right.

The third thing that I have faith in is myself. Wow, I really struggled with this one for many years. Sometimes it's far more easier to have faith in others than it is to have faith in yourself. To have faith in yourself is to build yourself up and you are afraid if you build yourself up that someone will knock you down. That's very painful and something no one wants to experience. But sometimes it's not even someone else that knocks you down, it's yourself. For many years, I had low self-esteem and I battled, and still continue to battle, depression. I doubted my self-worth, thought that I wasn't good enough. That I was somehow lacking as a person. To make a long story short, I felt this way all through middle and high school. Every time I would build myself up, I ended up knocking myself down with thoughts like "I am nothing" and "Nobody could ever love me". I don't know when I decided that enough was enough and that I wanted to be happy. But I guess I decided it at some point because for a while now I have been thinking more confidently about myself. I also am on medication for my depression. I can not describe the major difference in me from who I was only months ago to who I am now. I no longer have low-self esteem and I have been successfully handling my depression. I no longer have those self-loathing thoughts about myself. If it wasn't for the support of my family and my boyfriend, I really don't know if I would have been able to have faith in myself to get myself through all of that.

Having faith is an essential part of having a healthy life for me. It has gotten me through many ups and downs. I am a better person today because of my faith in my religion, in life its self, and in myself. It takes courage to have faith, because faith is not a tangible thing. Have courage and have faith and it is guaranteed that things will work out alright in the end.