Internet... On the School Bus

As technological advances continue to affect the American society on a daily basis, I find myself questioning whether or not they are furthering our society or hindering it. I read an article recently that discussed how some school buses in Arizona have chosen to install wireless internet access so students can access the internet on their way to and from school. And I couldn't help but ask myself, is this necessary?

For students on living in the Vail School District, commuting to school can take up to an hour. But lucky for them, if they have a laptop, time flies. Anything they can do on the internet, they can now do on the school bus.


Sterling Pratz, the CEO of Autonet, says, "People went from connecting their homes to connecting their handsets. And now they're moving into the next evolution of connecting things. And vehicles are the next logical step."


Maybe it's naive of me to think this, but I don't see this as necessary or extremely logical. When I used to take the bus, I would just talk to friends. I guess being able to access the internet could be a useful way to maximize good use of time, but I doubt that students use their computers to play games more than to finish homework. But regardless of how they choose to use the laptops, it seems that human relationships are continuously become less important as a result of new technologies, and to me, establishing personal relationships is really important. As technology advances, will making social connections and friendships continue to demean? How will this change America in the future? Do you think these changes will be positive or negative?

White-Washing America

I came upon a New York Times article this morning that considered the controversy surrounding the recent changes in American history textbooks in Texas. This article reminded me of the TV tokenism presentation that Mr. Bolos made and the continued discussion during class yesterday. It made me think about the implications of the idea of "tokenism" not only in television, but in our society today-- more specifically in how it shapes the history of our nation. Or at least how it is used to shape the history of our nation.

The article gave me a nice background of this current issue in Texas, but what struck me the most was an inset image (left). Gary Bledsoe, the man in the image, is the President of the Texas NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and continues to fight for the preservation of ethnic presence in American history, something he feels is being ignored in the new Texas law. Right now, individuals like Bledsoe are fighting "merely to keep the woefully inadequate mentions of African-American, Latino, and female contributions to society from being removed" from textbooks. 

Bledsoe also argues that, "It appears that there is a desire to not have an honest discussion of America and its history of race... A desire not to address the issue of slavery directly to portray African-Americans as an afterthought."

Honestly, I don't really understand why Texas would try to "white wash" American history. We talked in class about how history is a construction and textbook-makers have the right to choose what to include and what to exclude, but I think this decision to "portray African-Americans as an afterthought" is simply an inaccurate portrayal of American history. Although it is not something to be proud of, slavery was an integral part of us becoming a nation. By not addressing it, I think that Texas is indirectly continuing (and promoting) this race-hierarchy. So if our nation really is one that promotes diversity, why would they do this? Is this an issue only in Texas? Is this an example of tokenism?

Goodbye, Junior Theme

So... I haven't blogged in a while, but I figured I would get one more post in before the JT was over. Before we started the Junior Theme, I was intimidated by the idea of it because of all the hype that surrounds it, but at the same time I underestimated the difficulty of it. I didn't realize how much more to the process there is than just finding a topic and writing about it. For me, centering in on a why question proved to be a difficult task, but that was nothing compared to generating a thesis statement. After I had a thesis, everything else started to fall into place.

Reflecting on this process as a whole, I can say that I've learned a lot about myself as a writer. Being clear and concise at the same time is something I have struggled with a lot this year, but I think (I hope) I have accomplished it in this paper- at least more than in other papers I have written this year. I hope that the skills I've gained through this process will continue to influence papers I write in the future, and more than anything, I'm just glad that I'm done!