BLOG #4

          The movie Waiting for Superman takes time to persuade viewers that the current public school education system is not satisfactory and that enrolling our students in charter schools will fix this detrimental problem. Another documentary our class viewed was Food, Inc. Food, Inc. is a documentary focusing on persuading consumers around the world that we are misinformed on where our meat actually comes from. Both documentaries heavily use ethos, logos, and pathos to grab their audiences attention to these problems.

          With the use of pathos, Waiting for Superman follows the life of several minority, public school students portraying their daily struggles. Personally interviewing these students makes the audience really feel for how bad of an education they are receiving. Food, Inc. uses the same approach by interviewing a mother of a young boy who lost his life because of ecoli poisoning, after consuming a hamburger at Jack and the Box on a family vacation. Visually seeing a mother cry over the lose of her soon captivates the audience emotionally to want to fix the problem. As well as interviewing the mother, Food, Inc. takes the time to interview different farmers trapped in our meat system. Seeing how farmers have to treat chickens and other farm animals so cruelly, the audience then is appealed emotionally to the problem.

          Using ethos through out both documentaries makes them more credible. Waiting for Superman has the Bush Administration, a Charter school owner, and Michelle Rhee that helps the audience feel more comfortable about who is trying to fix the problem. While in Food, Inc. the writer, Eric Scholsser is also the writer in Fast Food Nation- another documentary about the food industry. Because we know that Eric Scholsser is credible, people are more willing to believe and take action with this problem. Visually, Eric Scholsser also appears frequently in the film which helps to build a relationship between viewer and author.

          Logos is also present in both documentaries. In Waiting for Superman, a memorable info-graphic on math proficiency is used to further explain the dis-progression the US is facing. Visually showing the United States being broken down by percentages of students, makes the problem seem a lot worse than it would sound through words. In Food, Inc. mentions dangers in the food we consume and  political problems with regulations, but also uses a visual info-graphic to express to viewers on a cartoon cow and pig how few meat companies have taken over the market over time. Again, using an info-graphic to get a point across is visually appealing to the audience and makes the want to fix the problem.

          Overall, the use of visual appeals in both documentaries, like interviews, author being present, and info-graphics helps to make the audience more involved and more willing to fix the problem.

Blog #3

Close:
1) "His essay invites us to think about students' intellectual abilities that go overlooked by schools because they come in unlikely packages." Pg. 22
2) "What is not so widely noticed, however, is that these intellectual resources go unnoticed because they are tied to ostensibly anti-intellectual interests." Pg. 22
3) "My own working premise as a teacher is that inside every street-smart student (which is to say, every student) this is a latent intellectual trying to break out..." Pg. 23
4) "I wrote of my youthful inability to read with pleasure or comprehension and my alienation from the intellectual ways of talking that school and college rewarded." PG. 24
5) "Though I, too, thought I did not "dig the intellectual bit," I was unwittingly in training for it." Pg. 26
6) "Whereas schoolwork seemingly isolated you, you could talk sports with people you had never met." Pg. 28
7) "We agreed there was a problem when initiation, the critical term that motivates the unit, remains a teachers word that students are not even expected to use."
Critical:
1) I have felt like this in school before because my writing is expressed differently than my peers and it may make me look less intellectual.
2) This is also true because I have seen strict curriculum in school interfere with other things that I am intellectual about.
3) Seeing this in his article gives me hope for myself, I really need to find my breakout.
4) This point really connects to me because when I am reading sometimes I have a hard time comprehending.
5) I just thought this was a really interesting way to talk about the transition from the adolescent intellectual to an adult intellectual.
6) I agree that school work isolates me as a student. I think it refrains me from being able to let out my intellectual ability.
7) When I was reading this part of the passage I thought that the way that he used initiation made becoming intellectual seem so much more intimidating than I thought it really was.