assignment #3-"real-life" writing

Diego Rivera Pan American Mural

Diego Rivera was a womanizer and revolutionist. He was born in Mexico but studied in Europe where he became renowned for his paintings. He was then invited to join the “Art In Action Program” hosted by the 1940 season of the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco by Timothy Pflueger. Timothy wanted Diego’s mural to be incorporated in the San Francisco Junior College Library; however, construction of the library was halted due to US’s entry into WWII and Pflueger’s death.

The “Pan American Unity” is an al fresco mural representing all of America—North America versus South America. Diego’s most powerful panel is the middle panel or panel number three. The Golden Gate Bridge in the top right corner symbolizes the bridge between two cultures – North and South. On the left side of the central figure is the Aztec goddess Coatlicue. She is the goddess of death and the earth. Coatlicue has her right hand fully extended in the air with four jade calluses representing wealth. Coatlicue believes when you work with the soil or earth you are wealthy she also depicts the South and ancestral side. The other half of this central figure depicts modernization and the North. The central figure is a auto plant stamping machine, which is most likely belongs to the Ford Motors Company. The auto plant stamping machine is the central figure to demonstrate the present. At the bottom of the panel Frida Kahlo his wife and Mexican artist has a paint brush and palette in hand ready to work on a new portrait. Behind Frida is Diego with Charlie Chaplin’s wife planting the “tree of life” showing the closeness of Pan Americanism. Possibly even depicting his love affair with Paulette behind Frida’s back. Above them is a wooden carving of a ram, which is the San Francisco City College’s mascot. On the bottom right corner of the panel Diego painted Timothy Pflueger. Timothy has his blue prints of the San Francisco City College Library in hand that was never built due to his sudden death. This panel informs the viewer of current events for the time period while incorporating the ancestral arts of the South.

The murals colors are all earthy tones. Diego makes his own paint through natural resources. Diego paints the South using more vibrant and traditional colors creating warmth. The North is painted with an industrial look and cold feeling. The cold feeling is due to the lack of light.

The first panel shows the beginning of Mexico City and how it was derived with the high mountains and volcanoes. Quetzalcoatl a high priest is in the upper left hand corner teaching the Indians. The Indians are utilizing the earth by making their own gold jewelry, sculpting, carving, and painting. A feather serpent is coming out of their hut and crossing the land. The serpent’s head which is made of stone lands in panel two. Panel two begins the incorporation of the past and present.

Assignment #3-"real-life" writing

Assignment #3

I have to write a 3-5 page written analysis of the "Pan American Unity" mural at the Diego Rivera Theater at City College of San Francisco.

Explain what you see as the main goal of the writing, its purpose is to become a mural expert and share my expertise with others through critical written essay that discusses Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity mural.

Explain what you see as the challenges you face as you begin to work on this piece of writing- what makes murals different than other forms of art , understanding the content of the artwork -the time period and the events that are happening when the piece was created and who are the people in the mural- what roles did they play and why did Diego include them in mural and my introduction.

Final Draft- Essay #2

Essay #2- Against School

After reading John Taylor Gatto’s article entitled “Against School”, my perception of what school stands for and its motives have drastically been altered. I initially believed that school was a sanctuary for knowledge, and it was implemented to create well-rounded, self- driven, ambitious individuals, who could positively influence the market and work place. I assumed that the purpose of school was to teach social norms, ethics, goal setting, time management, and self-control. I equally felt that teachers were there because of their passion to help and to fulfill an internal desire to help develop individuals to their maximum potential. I was under the impression that schools structure their curriculum to reflect current historical, political and environmental challenges that our society is faced with today. Furthermore, promoting the idea that school should be a safe haven for children to experience and be exposed to new cultures, different diversities, and offer their students the ability to gain life experiences through structured programs, clubs, and communities, then to see school as a factory or a prison was shocking. School was, at least before I read this article, a place for children to grow and become self driven, knowledgeable, and responsible adults. I too, was under the impression that school was implemented to make good citizens, better people and to aid people in achieving their personal best. However, post reading Gatto’s article I have been shown a new perspective of school that is very unsettling.

I never would have thought that schools were implemented as a strategic battle plan adopted from the Prussian empire which intended to “produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens- all in order to render the populace “manageable.” The key word being “manageable” is exactly what teachers strive for today and until reading this article I did not see it. Those teachers who struggle with “managing” their students are the ones who have a stronger negative view of children and are more incline to use destructive labels for children. Constructing a “factory” that nurtured children to be more interdependent on authority, they want kids to rely on people of power to dictate what is right from wrong, what is acceptable within their society, and to manufacture a society that questions nothing and follows orders efficiently. This is an underlying motive that when I was in school I was oblivious to. I did not have the historical knowledge base to analyze and disassemble why school was structure the way it was. Nor was I empowered enough to think beyond the scope of school and see the bigger picture as it correlated to social influence. In school those who challenged the instructor were ostracized from their student population and where outsourced to someone who held higher authorities. The vice principal’s job is to intimidate students to the point so that they break and conform to the schools social expectation of them. There are strict punishments in place for those who rebel and great rewards for those who conform. There is great validity in comparing compulsory secondary schooling with that of prison.

Prison like school is forced upon, and promotes change with an alternative motive, giving no power to those who are imprisoned (student or inmate). Prisoners are placed in designated wards to prevent uproar and conflict; they have set schedules, agendas and time frames. Those who do not meet these set rules, face disciplinary action. School too, has many similar attributes, such as laws requiring students to be involved for a set time period, student’s schedules set with an agenda that leaves little room for electives, and lack of teaching students to think “outside the box”. Students are expected to follow their “prison” rules and if they fail to meet and obey the authority, one is faced with suspension or possibly expulsion. Both realms utilize separation and categorization of populations as a tool for identification purposes. Inglis states that “dividing children by subject, age grading, and by constantly ranking children through testing… will separate the ignorant masses of mankind.” This quote means that through using separation and categorization both students and prisoners go through a selection process. For example, schools utilize placement testing as a way to dictate where a student will be placed and therefore promotes segregation in the sense of intelligence level. And, prisoners are assessed and assigned to specific ward and occupational tasks that reflect their initial placement within the prison ward. In essence, both prisoners and students become codependent on the system, hence not giving them any coping skills that could be used to deal with the realities of life. These systems perpetuate a lack of self-awareness, creativity and leadership, therefore causing a cyclical environment.

Inglis presents the idea that school posses six basic functions: adjustive or adaptive function, integrating function, diagnostic and directive function, differentiating function, a selective function and lastly a propaedeutic function. Adjustive or adaptive function is the notion that school denounces critical judgment, meaning no room for personal perspective within their curriculum because one cannot measure ones flexible obedience. Integrating function, also known as the “conformity function” intends to create a melting pot effect, when people go with the grain and conform then they are less of a threat and are predictable. The diagnostic and directive function is used to determine a child’s social goal. They do this through standardized testing and through school grades. Its function is to gauge a person’s weaknesses and strengths, in turn designating their proper social role within society. The differentiating function is used when schools begin to sort children post assessment into classes that shall reflect their social roles, then training students accordingly. Schools strictly provide book training and refrain from offering real life experience. This function totally goes against my initial perspective of school because how would you truly know if that job field is right for you without having firsthand experience. Life is all about choices and challenging yourself to go beyond societal dictations and be the best that you can be for yourself. The selective function goes hand in hand with Darwin’s theory. I am in agreement with this theory because people in my opinion are discriminated upon due to race, color, gender, and sexual orientation. The theory is emplaced to deter integration between varying cultures, social classes and intellects. The hope is to make those who are brighter not procreate with those who are not at their caliber. Lastly, the propaedeutic function selects the leaders who are the top of the hierarchy pyramid, causing the determination of the classifications within our society.

In conclusion, I see that school is as much about teaching conformity and sorting students into social roles as it is about manipulation. Before reading Gatto’s article I believed that the school system was fairly implemented to give everyone an equal right to an education and the skills set to successfully succeed in our economy. But after reading this article it made me realize that there are underlying motives within the schools system that promotes segregation, labeling and inferiority. For example, someone who does not do well on standardized testing is automatically rejected from State Universities. Hence, separating the so-called “elite” from the rest is prejudice and extreme bias. No one should have the power to make a judgment call on any one individual and reduce their chances for a better education and a chance to succeed. Just because one may not be intellectually equipped for taking tests does not mean that a student should be deprived the opportunity to attend a State University.

assignment 1- Final Draft

Assignment #1- Final Draft

In Nancy Sommers article it seems that there is a significant difference on how student writers and experienced writers view revision, as depicted by these two excerpts from her article, “The students understand the revision process as a rewording activity” and the experienced writer “It means taking apart what I have written and putting it back together again.” I was taught to revise and write in school from my English classes. My teachers always focused on grammar, punctuation, lexical repetition and structural errors rather than what I had to say in my paper. I was either told or it was written in red ink on my paper to “fix”, “change” or “re-do” my paper. This teaching has caused me to focus with more micro issues like the student writers in Sommers’ article, rather than my ideas, points or arguments like the experienced writer. Reading this article was an eye opener for me because I then reflected on my own writing to see how and why I write the way that I do when dealing with the concept of revision and writing papers.

Essentially, English courses caused me to focus more on lexical repetition as opposed to conceptual repetition as Sommers wrote in article. “The students place a symbolic importance on their selection and rejection of words as the determiners of success or failure for their compositions….” From my past experience I would agree to the above quote because I was taught to utilize the thesaurus dictionary in search of different words to express the same idea or feeling. For example, I had to write about a school field trip to the Exploratorium and I am trying to explain the feeling of being stimulated by the various artwork and science projects and my next step would be to look through the thesaurus dictionary to find different words for “stimuli” in order not to repeat the same word twice. The teacher would focus on the word choices, my spelling and grammar as opposed to the content or ideas that I had experienced on the field trip. I would write for the assignment and conform to what I thought the English teacher wanted rather than validating my creative beliefs and my ideas. Just as was stated by one student writer in Sommers, research, “The changes that I make are usually just marking out words and putting different ones in.”

Historically English students are taught structurally and my perspective is very similar to other student writers as described by Sommers. For example "re-doing means cleaning up the paper and crossing out" and another example described by Sommers "reviewing means just using better words and eliminating words that are not needed." The English phobia that creates lack of creativity or motivation to write contributes to a student writer to become fearful of writing due to no positive reinforcements of conceptual writing.

I feel conceptual revisions are lost in the process of writing because as a student writer you are more focused on word choice, sentence run-ons and fragment sentences etc. For me, this experience has decreased my desire to write. I feel “what’s the point, I will get a “C” anyways as long as my grammar and word choices are good. Another example, I remember writing papers about books I had read and the teacher was so focused on how it was structured clearly because all I saw was red ink everywhere as opposed to my interpretation of the book. As a student writer English writing does not seem creative and it goes with the experience that I have had in the past with English teachers. My past English teachers would always make comments on my papers “ too many passive words” or cross out words or circle misspelled words in red or black ink. The English teachers that I have experienced in my past have never included positive feedback causing me not to try my best and maintain a “C” average. I believe if teachers gave me positive feedback such as “ Great Job Yvonne, you might want to explore a few more ideas of what x y and z means” rather than focusing on my grammar mistakes it would have increased my interest in writing and perhaps increased my writing skills. Per Sommers’ article, the experience writer states, "My first drafts is usually very scattered. In rewriting, I find the line of argument. After the argument is resolved, I am much more interested in word choice and phrasing.” I really liked this line because I never really actually got to put any creative thoughts or “the line of argument” into any of my past English papers. Furthermore, I would have learned the concept of what effective writing is all about by doing rough drafts without caring about words or grammar and just focus on my idea and later write a final draft to clean up the paper.

In conclusion, after reading Sommers’ article in comparing student writers vs. experienced writers it has given me a new outlook of how to write a good paper. It also gave me an insight of how I use to write and why I did not like to write. Sommers’ article also helped me to identify the importance of revision and what constitutes revision, the difference between lexical and conceptual repetition. “I ask major theoretical questions of my ideas, respond to those questions, and think of proportion and structure, and try to find a controlling.” I really like this quote because you are questioning your ideas and really processing information instead of memorizing/focusing on words. I agree with Sommers’ article regarding revision strategies of student writers vs. revision strategies of experienced writers based on my personal experiences. I now believe what makes good writing is not how good the grammar is, but the “concept” or ideas that you have been conveying to your readers. Writing should not come from an overly structured place but from a creatively liberated place in the mind that can flow freely and passionately. When one is not preoccupied with structural confines, creativity will flow more fluidly, thus, producing a well written paper where ideas and thoughts are not lost during the editorial process.

Essay #2

Essay #2- Against School

After reading John Taylor Gatto’s article entitled Against School, my perception of what school stood for and its motives have drastically been altered. I initially believed that school was a sanctuary for knowledge. It was implemented to create well-rounded, self- driven, ambitious individuals, who could positively influence the market and work place. I assumed that the purpose of school was to teach social norms, ethics, goal setting, time management, and self control. I equally felt that teachers were there because of their passion to help and to fulfill an internal desire to help develop individuals to their maximum potential. I was under the impression that school the structures their curriculum to reflect current historical, political and environmental challenges that our society is faced with today. Again, promoting the idea that school should be a safe haven for children to experience and be exposed to new cultures, different diversities, and offer their students the ability to gain life experiences through structured programs, clubs, and committees, to see school as a factory or a prison was shocking . School was, at least before I read this article, a place for children to grow and become self driven, knowledgeable, and responsible adults. I too, was under the impression that school was implemented to make good citizens, better people and to aid people in achieving their personal best. However, post reading Gatto’s article I have been shown a new perspective of school that is very unsettling.

I never would have thought that schools were implemented as a strategic battle plan adopted from the Prussian empire which intended to “produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens- all in order to render the populace “manageable.” The key word being “manageable” is exactly what teachers strive for today and until reading this article I did not see it. Those teachers who struggle with “managing” their students are the ones who have stronger negative view of children and are more incline to use destructive labels for children. Constructing a “factory” that nurtured children to be more interdependent on authority, they want kids to rely on people of power to dictate what right from wrong, what is acceptable within their society and to manufacture a society that questions nothing and follows orders efficiently. This is an underlying motive that when I was in school I was oblivious to. I did not have the historical knowledge base to analyze and disassemble why school was structure the way it was. Nor was I empowered enough to think beyond the scope of school and see the bigger picture as it correlated to social influence. In school those who challenged the instructor were ostracized from their student population and where outsourced to someone who held higher authorities. The vice principals job is to intimidate students to the point where they break and conform to the schools social expectation of them. There are strict punishment emplaced for those who rebel and great rewards for those who are conform. There is great validity in comparing compulsory secondary schooling with that of prison.

Prison like school is forced upon, promotes change with an alternative motive and gives no power to those who are imprisoned (student or inmate). Prisoners are placed in designated wards to prevent uproar and conflict; they have set schedules, agendas and time frames. Those who do not meet these set rules, face disciplinary action. School too, has many similar attributes such as; law requiring students to be involved for a set time period, student’s schedules are set with an agenda that leaves little room for electives and is not taught to think “outside the box”. Students are expected to follow their “prisons” rules and if they fail to meet and obey their authority, one is faced with suspension or possibly expulsion. Both realms utilize separation and categorization of populations as a tool for identification purposes. Inglis states that “dividing children by subject, age grading, and by constantly ranking children through testing… will separate the ignorant masses of mankind”. This quote means that through using separation and categorization both students and prisoners go through a selection process. For example, schools utilize placement testing as a way to dictate where a student’s will be placed and therefore promoting segregation in the sense of intelligence level. And prisoners are assessed and assigned to specific ward and occupational tasks that reflect their initial placement within the prison ward. In essence, both prisoners and students become codependent on the system, hence not giving them any life skills that could be used to cope with the realities of life. These systems perpetuate a lack of self awareness, creativity and leadership, therefore causing a cyclical environment.

Inglis presents the idea that school posses six basic functions: adjustive or adaptive function, integrating function, diagnostic and directive function, differentiating function, a selective function and lastly a propaedeutic function. Adjustive or adaptive function is the notion that school denounces critical judgment, meaning no room for personal perspective, within their curriculum because one cannot measure ones flexible obedience. Integrating function, also known as the “conformity function” intends to create a melting pot effect, when people go with the grain and conform then they are less of a threat and are predictable. The diagnostic and directive function is used to determine a child’s social goal. They do this through standardized testing and through school grades. Its function is to gauge a person’s weaknesses and strengths, in turn designating their proper social role within society. Differentiating function is when school begins to sort children post assessment into classes that shall reflect their social roles, then training students accordingly. Schools provide strictly book training and refrain from offering real life experience. This function totally goes against my initial perspective of school because how would you truly know if that job field is right for you without having firsthand experience. Life is all about choices and challenging yourself to go beyond societal dictations and be the best that you can be for yourself. The selective function goes hand in hand with Darwins theory. I am in agreement with this theory because people in my opinion are discriminated upon due to race, color, gender, and sexual orientation. The theory is emplaced to deter integration between varying cultures, social classes and intellects. The hope is to make those who are brighter not to procreate with those who are not at their caliber. Lastly, the propaedeutic function selects the leaders who are the top of the hierarchy pyramid, causing the determination of the classifications within our society.

In conclusion, I see that school is as much about teaching conformity and sorting students into social roles as it is about manipulation. Before reading Gatto’s article I believed that the school system was fairly implemented to give everyone an equal right to an education and the skills sets to successfully succeed in our economy. But after reading this article it made me realize that there are underlying motives within the schools system that promotes segregation, labeling and inferiority. For example, someone who does not do well on standardized testing is automatically rejected from Ivy League schools. Hence, separating the so called “elite” from the rest, that itself it prejudice and extremely bias. No one should have the power to make a judgment call on anyone individual and reduce their chances for a better education and a chance to succeed. Just because one may not be intellectually equipped for taking tests does not mean that a student should be deprived the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school.

As a student, I recognized myself in Sommers' description of inexperienced writers.

As a student, I recognized myself in Sommers' description of inexperienced writers because of how I was taught to write. Sommers' gives examples that inexperienced writers did not use the term revision. When I write I look at the word choices I use and how many times I have used the word I also edit when I am writing as oppose to writing drafts I correct as I am writing so therefore causing me waste alot of time in editing as opposed to just writing down all my ideas and then cleaning up my ideas. It my past experience in all my previous english courses teachers were concerned more with format, spelling mistakes, sentence run ons as opposed to my ideas or what i really wanted to say, it was more like what i thought the teacher wanted to see and now reading th e differnce between the experienced writer and inexperienced writer and what it means i can really identify why i have such a phobia of writing english papers , i always felt it was not good enough or really want to try because in my head wahat is the point of writing i am just going to get a "C' so i will just do bare minimal and not really give much thought into the paper , by gettign red inked or letter grades has decreased my self confidentcet as awriter thinking that i really dont have the skills when in actually all i need to do is get down my ideas and then correct formating and grammar and all the other stuff into place at the end and then i can organize my thoughts. i never really use revision, i call it editing while i am writing just so i can gt the paper done and not really put my passion or creative thoughts into place. so i am trying to let go the learned behavior of an inexperienced writer and think more like an expereienced wrtier and just write everything down and then get back to it and realizeing it is not going to make much sense but and tjat is okay and I can do later because a paper is better when thought and revision is done to it and to keep in mind that famous authors masterpieces is not done in one session.

assignment 1 - Draft #3

Assignment #1- Draft #3.

In Nancy Sommers article it seems that there is a significant difference on how student writers and experienced writers view revision, as depicted by these two excerpts from her article, “ examples “. I was taught to revise and write in school from my English classes. My teachers always focused on grammar, punctuation, lexical repetition and structural errors rather than what I had to say in my paper. I was either told or it was written in red ink on my paper to “fix”, “change” or “re-do” my paper. This teaching has caused me to focus with more micro issues like the student writers in Sommers’ article, rather than my ideas, points or arguments like the experienced writer. Reading this article was an eye opener for me because I then reflected on my own writing to see how and why I write the way that I do when dealing with the concept of revision and writing papers.

Essentially, English courses caused me to focus more on lexical repetition as opposed to conceptual repetition as Sommers wrote in article. “The students place a symbolic importance on their selection and rejection of words as the determiners of success or failure for their compositions….” From my past experience I would agree to the above quote because (explain). I would write for the assignment and conform to what I thought the English teacher wanted rather than validating my creative beliefs and my ideas. Just as was stated by one student writer in Sommers, research, (put in another quote that supports my experience). I feel conceptual revisions are lost in the process of writing because as a student writer you are more focused on word choice, sentence run-ons and fragment sentences etc. For me, this experience has caused a phobia when I have to write an English paper. (I have to explain exactly with my experiences and the phobia it crated for me & put in a quote from a student writer if any) I personally become stressed out, have the thought of “what’s the point, I will get a “C” anyways and lose all interest in writing.

As a student writer English writing does not seem creative and it goes with the experience that I have had in the past with English teachers. My past English teachers would always make comments on my papers “ too many passive words” or cross out words or circle misspelled words in red or black ink. The English teachers that I have experienced never included positive feedback causing me not to try my best and maintain a “C” average. (Insert examples of positive feedback that I think would have been helpful to me and explain why it would have been helpful and explain been more constructive and effective than the typical comments.) Per Sommers’ article the experience writer states, "My first drafts is usually very scattered. In rewriting, I find the line of argument. After the argument is resolved, I am much more interested in word choice and phrasing.” I really liked this line because I never really actually got to put any thought really into any of my past English papers. I never got a chance to learn what revision really means. This ultimately would result in a loss of self that caused writers block. (Explain idea fully throw in example from article to support my point)

Historically English students are taught structurally and my perspective is very similar to other student writers as described by Sommers. For example "re-doing means cleaning up the paper and crossing out" and another example described by Sommers "reviewing means just using better words and eliminating words that are not needed." The English phobia that creates lack of creativity or passion to write contributes to a student writer to become fearful of writing due to no positive reinforcements of conceptual writing

The English phobia that I have experienced has created has created a lack of passion or desire to write. (I need to restate each of my arguments for above paragraphs & discuss what I have learned from this process of analyzing my writing)