Reading Response 2

In his essay, People Like Us, David Brooks defends his claim that the United States is not composed of those seeking a culturally diverse environment, but rather those segregating into pods of similar people. Although contrary to a commonly perceived goal of Americans, Brooks reveals how abundant this attitude is in American culture. He uses detailed statistics, broad generalizations, and at-home examples that closely capture individual Americans to prove his point. Overall, Brooks transitioned my view of a "diverse" nation into a skeptical one.
Brooks discusses the composition of University faculties such as Brown to illustrate the lack of diversity in America. He uses Universities because they are supposed to be a haven for the culturally diverse. He shows that the body of instructors is not reflective of the actual population--that a majority of Brown professors are Democratic rather than Republican and if it were diverse, it would be closer to half. While this composition of professors was not surprising to me as a college student, it did support Brooks's idea of people finding niches and reinforcing them.
Brooks also explains a marketing firm's 62 categories for people. While this seems narrow, the categories fairly accurately group all of America into tiny boxes based on their income and likes. While I found this to be scary, it shows that we as people are predictable in our interests and that we are not as unique and accepting of diversity as we would like to be.
Brooks's position of an anti-melting pot society is clearly defended by the research he has done. His use of a variety of characteristics of different groups in America has a way of bringing an individual into the article. The way Brooks describes neighborhoods and how they begin to develop personalities can be identified by anyone in the U.S.. Overall, Brooks's literary devices really aided in his attempt to display the human tendency to avoid diversity.

Interview

Ms. Kessler's classroom.


Ms. Kessler's classroom.


Ms. Kessler in her daily environment.

Article Summaries

Topic: Standardized Testing

Doug A. Archbald and Fred M. Newman assert in their academic article Assessing Authentic Academic Achievement in the Secondary School that standardized tests may not accurately measure authentic knowledge. The researchers supported this thesis by stating that these tests to not focus on “real” life obstacles, developing alternatives to the tests, and stating that admissions counselors should focus on more than one score. The researchers hope to convince schools that there are alternative methods to the standardized test. The intended audience is a scholarly one that understands the importance or weight of the tests administered, although the language used does not exclude any particular group.

Theodore Micceri states in his article, The name assigned to the document by the author. This field may also contain sub-titles, series names, and report numbers.How We Justify and Perpetuate the Wealthy, White, Male Academic Status Quo through the Use of Biased Admissions Requirements, that universities are actively collecting a more Caucasian, rich student body. He supports this by conducting a study of college applicants and their admission based on stringent test scores. The researcher hopes to definitively answer whether or not GPA and standardized test scores are similar in their disparity among differing races and genders. The researcher’s audience seems to be that of a scholarly, academic one in that he uses many previous studies to support his ideas as well as a language that is more on par with that of a college graduate.

In his article, The name assigned to the document by the author. This field may also contain sub-titles, series names, and report numbers.Preparation for College Admission Exams, Derek C. Briggs writes that test preparation methods for standardized tests are successful. He supported this claim by gathering information about different techniques and their effectiveness. He intends to convince guidance counselors and educators to implement specific training programs in order to aid in the success of their students. The audience is clearly the guidance counselors and educators in that the language excludes anyone unfamiliar with standardized testing and caters to those who are in the position to implement said programs.