Definition Argument

All across the world people have different views on what quality really is.  To the richest man in Japan, quality could be the finest and most expensive sushi available to him; or to an average man in Mexico, quality could be a car that is made really well .  Quality comes in different standards to individuals everywhere.  In each country across the would there are different things that are valued more than others.  For instance, in the United States healthcare is valued as a quality service that is provided to everyone.  This service is valued as something very important to people of all statures.

Every hour, every second, of everyday someone in the United States is receiving some form of healthcare.  America is equipped with thousands of wonderful doctors, nurses, technicians; you name it, this country has it.  In the land of the free, the universal healthcare system provided by our government is something that people all over the world envy.  Consider much poorer countries like India or Pakistan who do not have the privilege of being able to go to the minute clinic if they are feeling a little under the weather; think of how different it would be if you did not have a hospital right down the street from you where you could go if you became injured.  People all over the world live in severely worse conditions that we do in America.  That is why healthcare is something that the American government pays so much attention to; to make sure the quality of life here is as high as it can be.  Everyone deserves an equal quality of life in this country, no matter race or gender.  No matter what type of healthcare it is, if it is needed than it should be provided. 

In order to have the highest quality healthcare imaginable, many different aspects need to be looked at.  Under Barack Obama’s presidency, Obamacare was created which provided universal healthcare to everyone across America, and truly this was a great thing for the country.  It provided an equal quality of life for all Americans.  One institution that goes hand and hand with Obamacare is Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood provides quality sexual and reproductive healthcare to men, women, and teens all across the country.  It is an institution that really contributes to the quality of life here in the United States.  Planned Parenthood provides many medical services such as STD screenings, PAP smears, sexual education for teens, and the distribution of birth control.  This government funded institution is one of the parts of the United States that really contributes to quality healthcare for people of all ages and backgrounds. 

Recently, in the United States there has been government talk of repealing the  Obamacare Act.  If the Obamacare Act is repealed, this in turn will cause the defunding of government spending on Planned Parenthood.  This new bill that could be passed under President Donald Trump would truly impact the quality of life for Americans all over.  “The proposal would freeze enrollment in Obamacare’s expanded Medicaid program on January 1, 2020,” (Cornwell).  This proposal would severely affect the quality of life for many American citizens, and take away one of our most valuable assets as a country.  If this bill passes the quality of life for a large number of citizens in the United States will be affected in extreme ways.  There would be no more healthcare for those who cannot afford it, which would ruin the quality, as well as the equality of universal healthcare.  One of the most important things about healthcare in this country is that it is available to everyone.  If this service is no longer going to be accessible to the majority of people, than the quality of life in America is going to drop dramatically.

It seems not only would quality be affected for the consumers of healthcare, this act would affect job quality and availability for many doctors, nurses, and medical personnel the states.  “A central tenet of Obamacare is that people who have insurance will go to the doctor more, so diseases will be caught earlier and overall health care costs will be reduced. Because the law also requires physicals and other preventive care to be fully covered at no cost to consumers — providing they have insurance — it means more business for doctors,” (O’Donnell).  With less people having obtainable healthcare, that would mean there would be less business for doctors and hospitals.  This would dramatically impact healthcare in all aspects.  If doctors and hospitals are not creating business, than that would cause many to lose their jobs, as well as many hospitals to shut down.  One of the most important qualities of United States healthcare is that pretty much wherever you go there is a hospital or a doctor in the near area.  If the bill passes to get rid of Obamacare, than there may not be as many doctors and hospitals accessible to the people.  This movement would truly impact the standard of living in America.

Quality is something that the United States has always prided itself on.  We know that when something is created in America it is a quality product or service.  If the government chooses to end Obamacare and Planned Parenthood than quality will obtain a new definition in the United States.  What once was considered the American standard will cease to exist, and many peoples lives will be changed for the negative.  The freedom and access to exceptional health care services is one of the greatest things about this country, and the government should want these service to be attainable to the people.   

Works Cited

Cornwell, Susan, and Yasmeen Abutaleb. “U.S. Republicans Unveil Plan to Dismantle Obamacare, Critics Pounce.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 06 Mar. 2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

O’Donnell, Jayne, and Richard Wolf. “Five Reasons Why the Obamacare Decision Is Important.” USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 25 June 2015. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a stain on the Earth. While it is not the only garbage patch, or “trash vortex” in the world, it is the largest. Being twice the size of Texas,  it is a massive danger to the surrounding fish and wildlife. Attempts to clean up the patch have been made, but none have been fully successful.

The trash from Great Pacific Garbage Patch floats just below the surface, this makes it impossible for scientists to calculate how big the patch actually is. One theory is that it is like an iceberg, where the majority of the mass lies below, stretching down. This is one reason why it is so hard to clean up, the fact that its size is incalculable means that its price is incalculable as well.

A garbage patch is not like a dump or a landfill in the way that all of the trash is in-tact. Most of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of small splinter-bits of plastic called microplastics. Because plastic is completely non biodegradable, it can only break down into smaller and smaller pieces. This process is called photodegradation.

Microplastics are detrimental to the wildlife of the ocean. Animals of every kind consume these plastic pieces, mistaking them for food. The plastic then stays in the system of the animal, and eventually lead to death. Fish eat the plastics, mistaking them for plankton or smaller fish. Sea birds will often feed the microplastics to their hatchlings, thinking they are fish eggs. Microplastics are the cause of millions of cases of punctured organs, and death in millions of animals.

Microplastics cause a bigger problem than a few birds and fish. Microplastics are a threat to the entire marine ecosystem. By blocking out the light from above, clouds of microplastics and marine debris pose a threat to the plankton species that live below the patch. These plankton are the base for the entire food chain in the ocean. If the plankton are at risk, the entire ocean is at risk. For anybody wondering how this will effect them personally, the fish in the ocean will be killed. This means no more tuna sandwiches, or at the very least very expensive tuna sandwiches.

One solution that I am proposing, is a modified version of the Trash Wheel. Now, as it is, the trash wheel is not capable of cleaning up the garbage patch. It is simply a water wheel/solar powered barge that was implemented into the Joans Falls River in Baltimore Maryland. As of today, the trash wheel has collected 367,930 plastic bottles, 459,927 polystyrene containers, 8,905,600 cigarette butts, 6,394 glass bottles, 251,217 plastic bags, 338,079 chip bags. The garbage patch is then incinerated to help produce electricity for the city of baltimore.

Those numbers are impressive, but the trash wheel is still no match for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The trash wheel works by harnessing the power of the current. It funnels the trash onto a conveyer belt, and empties it into a dumpster. This mechanism would have to be tweaked in order to work on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, because the current is very different in the ocean than it is in the Joans Falls River.

The garbage patch is an unorthodox problem. It lies between Japan and the United States of America, and so neither country wants to take responsibility for it. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas, and it is ever growing. Due to oceanic currents, virtually any bottle tossed in the ocean from Mexico to Canada to Japan will end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The fact of the matter is that no country wants to clean it up, because it would be too expensive, and too time consuming.

The garbage patch needs to be a Global Effort. What this means is that the world needs to handle this issue together. No one country has taken responsibility for it, but frankly no country should take responsibility for it. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the result of human neglect. Human neglect is not strictly a Japanese problem or an American problem, it is a human problem.

Yes the patch is too big a problem for one country, yes the patch would be very expensive to deal with, and yes the patch would be extremely time consuming, but it is a problem that needs to be dealt with. It is an unorthodox problem, so obviously the solution to it has to be unorthodox as well. Giant nets will not work on a garbage patch the way that they might in a harbor. The answer to the garbage patch problem is not an easy one to find, but it is one that we need to find as a planet.

The ocean effects every single living thing on this planet. There would be no life without the ocean. If the ocean is in jeopardy, the human race is in jeopardy. The world is blind to the real threats to society, or in this case, to existence as a whole.

There are some things that should be agreed upon worldwide. The Geneva Convention was invented, because we decided that rules were necessary even for war. How is it that war has rules, and the ocean that we all need to survive does not? If war can be harmful enough to mankind that it requires rules, the mass extinction of millions of species of plankton and fish should have some rules as well.

The world needs to come together as one human race to solve certain issues, and the Great Pacific Garbage patch is one of them. We cannot afford to mistreat our environment any more than we already have. Human beings have been the most harmful species to the environment in the history of the world. Human beings are the cause of 100% of the Earths pollution, and it is time for something to be done about it. If something is not done soon to clean up the pollution on this planet, life as we know it will be at stake.

Works Cited:

Society, National Geographic. “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” National Geographic Society. N.p., 09 Oct. 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

“Baltimore Waterfront.” Waterfront Partnership. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

“Baltimore Waterfront.” Waterfront Partnership. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Modern-Day Slavery

Slavery has been ruling American society since its inception. For 300 years, over ten million African Americans forced into brutal labor from birth till death.  Manual slavery ended over 150 years ago; however a form of modern slavery has become ever more evident in today’s society. Common people work hard for the entirety of their life, and still struggle to make ends meet. The wealthy keep getting wealthier and the poor stay poor. Economic inequality has created a modern slavery, and many people are suffering because of this. Income inequality (the gap between rich and poor) has been widening dramatically since 1980.  The wealthy are reaping benefits, and the poor are struggling just to get by. Income inequality has become so severe in the U.S. that having simple necessities has become nearly impossible for many to attain. On the other hand, there are Americans that have too much money to know what to do with. Income inequality shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and that is the way those at the top want it, creating this problem. The government (which is controlled by wealthy companies) claims they help the poor but that is false. By way of taxing, they put in place welfare programs such as food stamps and section eight housing. However, if one would look deeper into the tax system, the only people being helped are the wealthy.As Heather Long of CNN money explains, “The U.S. tax system is supposed to help the poor. Yet even after-tax income shows that the bottom 50% averaged just $25,000 a person in 2014, according to the latest data. That’s just a touch above the $20,000 someone in the bottom half earned way back in 1974 (after adjusting for inflation).” Taxation has fed into the system, where only the rich can prosper. Treating the poor like they are ignorant (much like the masters did with the slaves), they claim they are helping. Unfortunately the government is doing far from helping the poor.

America prides itself on not only being the land of the free, but also the land of equal opportunity. A place where anybody can come to be a success. America is intended to be a place where children are almost guaranteed more wealth than their parents. Unfortunately since 1980, children aren’t becoming more successful than their parents.  GDP, corporate profit, and the top 1% growth has been rising significantly (all eclipsing over 100 percent growth).  However, the median household income has only risen 16%  (with inflation that is almost no growth). Edwin Rios explains, “Despite such overdue gains, average American households are barely making more than they did in 1980. Median household incomes have risen just 17 percent (in real dollars) during the past 35 years.” The system is designed for the rich to succeed, and the non-rich  are not a concern for the government.

The inflation rates (and in turn the groups that succeed) are largely determined by policies created by the government. This is due to the government being run by wealthy individuals and corporate entities. The average salary of a congressman is $174,000, and the average American salary is roughly $51,000. Many of these congressmen are given bonuses by corporations for them to vote on amendments that will help the company. For example, New Jersey senator Corey Booker has been given $385,000 since 2011 by big pharmaceutical companies. Just recently the senator has voted against an amendment that would allow Americans to purchase cheaper medicine from Canada. Booker is not the only congressmen doing this. Most of  the congressmen and women (both Republicans and Democrats) are being paid by giant corporations. This is why we see the wealthy getting wealthier but nobody else. Even as they are getting wealthier, the government still takes money from the non- wealthy; but claims they are helping.

Pharmaceutical ownership of politicians has created an inequality of basic needs among American citizens. Economic inequality does not only distinguish whether an individual drives a new BMW or a  Honda sedan. It also decides what type of health care one can afford. Many can afford the basic survival health care; however, those in poverty can not. This inability to receive basic health care access creates problems that shouldn’t be existent in the land of the free. Much like the slaves 150 years ago, the economic inequality is not a matter of working hard, the dedication is there. Not having basic healthcare for all has caused a life expectancy change between the wealthy and poor. As Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times reports, “For men born in 1950, that difference had more than doubled, to 14 years.” As medical advancements are made, only the rich get to enjoy the benefits. This is not what a true land of equal opportunity would do.

A large number of the upper class are made up of CEOs who dictate their own salaries. Salaries of most professions are market driven, which means exactly what it says, that the market determines the salaries. CEOs of the super companies get to raise their own income whenever they please, creating extremely high salaries. Unlike the CEOs most Americans have to wait on the the slow moving market to change their salaries. Markets take awhile to increase salaries, which is why this creates this economic inequality. The CEOs raise their salaries significantly, but the average worker’s salary raises at a slow rate.

The wealthy are given numerous opportunities to succeed, while the poor get stuck in a rut. For example, college is a place where many get to start their success in whatever they choose. Wealthy students can become successful, as the high tuition rates are not a burden for them. However, the poor cannot afford to go to college. Due to this dilemma, (more often than not), those in the low income bracket end up in their parent’s profession. The makes it difficult for children to surpass their parents wealth, which used to be a staple of America.So as the rich can keep on increasing their salary, the poor have to keep the same salary, hence inequality of the income growth.

Income inequality in America has created a problem of not only lavish things, a problem of life necessities. Many Americans can’t even afford necessary health care. As the government and its rulers are getting richer, the average American is getting poorer. Many Americans are living in more dangerous environments, exposed to deadly situations, and can only afford unhealthy food and drink options. An example is Flint, Michigan. Flint residents can’t even get clean water, while many Americans, including politicians, have money they have no idea what to do with. A communist society is definitely not the way to go; however, for America to claim it is the land of equal opportunity is a far stretch. For this claim to come true, America has to fix many issues; sadly, it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen anytime soon.

Works Cited

LongD, Heather, and “. “U.S. Inequality Keeps Getting Uglier.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 22 Dec. 2016.

Edwin_D_Rios. “These 11 Charts on Income Inequality Will Make Your Head Explode.” Mother Jones. N.p.,

Tavernise, Sabrina. “Disparity in Life Spans of the Rich and the Poor Is Growing.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Feb. 2016.

Politifact, and The Other 98 Activist Group. “Meme on Democratic Senators and ‘big Pharma’ Is Misleading.” @politifact. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.

The Bystander Effect

P1 Good people often fail to act. Although people like to think that they think for themselves, most are greatly influenced by the effects of group dynamics. When people are in a group, they feel a pressure to conform to the group’s values and social norms. Solomon Asch showed that most people will conform to a group’s answer despite being certain it was the wrong one. Humans have evolved to live in groups. When acceptance means survival, conformity can be a beneficial trait. The bystander effect is a phenomenon where the number of people in a group is inversely related to the likelihood of a person intervening. A person is more likely to get help if only one person sees them than if hundreds of people walk by them. When a person is alone, they feel a greater responsibility to help another. When multiple people are able to help, each feels less responsible because others have the ability to help. A person in a group looks to others for the appropriate response. If others are passing by, then refusing to help seems to be the proper response.

P2 The murder of Kitty Genovese may have inspired the research on the bystander effect but it is a poor example of the bystander effect. Ten days after the murder, The New York Times published an article with the memorable title, “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”. This article has distorted the public’s view of the murder. It implies that 37 people watched a person get murdered without helping. The bystander effect is the only explanation for this false scenario. The actual events are not explained by the bystander effect. The bystander effect only applies to groups. The actual number of witness that understood the gravity of the situation was 7. These 7 people were not all together and and had no way of knowing that others were watching. These people were either alone in their apartment or with one other person. The bystander effect is negligible in a group of 2. The bystander effect also relies on a person looking to others for an appropriate response. This would be impossible if the witnesses were in other apartments and all looking through their windows. Another misconception is that the witness took no action. One man shouted at the murderer to leave the victim alone. This was effective and scared him off. Another witness claims that his father called the police and said that a woman was beat up and staggering. When the murderer came back for his second attack, a witness alerted another resident who called the police and held Kitty in her arms until the ambulance arrived. Multiple witness intervened with the murder in varying degrees. Assuming that the other witnesses understood that a woman was being murdered is unfair. The murder happened in a well off neighborhood with a low crime rate. It would be outrageous for the witness to hear someone yelling and to jump to the conclusion it was a murder. One couple that the yelling was a lover’s quarrel. A sensationalist article has distorted our view of this murder and unfairly demonizes the witnesses.

P3 Although the bystander effect doesn’t apply to Kitty Genovese’s murder, it is very real. The smoke filled room experiment demonstrated the bystander effect in a controlled environment. While a subject was taking a questionnaire, smoke would come under the door and start filling the room. When the subject was alone, they would often report the smoke to someone. When the subject was in the room with others that were not reacting to the smoke, they rarely reported the smoke. They would ignore the smoke with the others. This experiment showed that a person in a group looks to the other group members before acting. Because the others didn’t react to the smoke, the subject assumed that the smoke was not a threat. If no one takes the initiative to be the first to help, no one else will help.

P4 The real world demonstration of the bystander effect was in 2009 when a sophomore was raped and assaulted  by 10 people while another 10 watched. She was found nearly nude, covered in scrapes and bruises, with head trauma, and a near fatal blood alcohol levels. Although alcohol was involved, it does not explain this atrocity. The witnesses understood what was happening. Some even announced it to others. There were multiple ways the witnesses could have stopped this. The simplest way would be to call 911. In 2009, 80 percent of teens had a cell phone. Help was just a phone call away. They could have told one of the chaperones from the dance. The chaperones would have stopped the rape and called the cops. They could also have stepped in and stopped the rape themselves. Instead, the girl was found by chance. Someone had heard a student talking about the rape and called the cops. The only explanation for this is the bystander effect. The witnesses likely saw each other just watching and thought that was the appropriate response. This incident showed how real and how powerful the bystander effect can be on witnesses.

P5 Humans can be loving and compassionate at times. We can also be apathetic and cruel. The bystander effect shows that well meaning, normal people can ignore a person in need. We see ourselves as sophisticated but our primitive traits are still linger. People are still influenced by group dynamics. We doubt ourselves when our thoughts differ from our group’s thoughts. Acceptance can mean survival and can be more important than what we think is doing the right thing. Unfortunately, the bystander effect still shows how groups can cause us to ignore our intuition and conform. People in need will still be ignored.

Works Cited

“Police: As many as 20 present at gang rape outside school dance.” CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Oct. 2009. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

“Solomon Asch’s Experiment on Conformity.” Psychminds Everyday Psychological Discussions. N.p., 01 Sept. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.

Benderly, Berly. “Psychology’s tall tales.” American Psychologica Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Gansberg, Martin. “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Mar. 1964. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Lenhart, Amanda. “Cell phone ownership.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. N.p., 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Latane, Bibb and John M. Darley. “Group Inhibition of Bystander Intervention in Emergencies.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 10, no. 3, Nov. 1968, pp. 215-221. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/h0026570.

Army Basic Combat Training is the Army’s way of washing out those not fit to serve. Through the “boot camp” method of training, the Army sends aspiring soldiers to hell and back forcing them to question every decision they have ever made. Little sleep and little food topped with constant punishment all provide the conditions required to weed out those who don’t belong and to push those who do belong to their absolute limit. This is done by getting the recruit to find an inner drive and motivation to build the resiliency skills required to last in the military. Those who are negative about the experience and are unable to find the resilience to push through simply will not make. [it?] [the grade?]

The boot camp method of training is unique to the military and is a very intriguing process. As soon as we took our first step onto the training ground, it seemed as though everyone around us had been zapped of all happiness. The journey begins at reception, considered by us to be hell on earth, consisting of very little sleep, hours upon hours of waiting in line, and a countless vaccines. Uniforms are distributed and haircuts are given, all with almost no words being exchanged. The buildings are rundown, all signs of life seem to removed and replaced with white stones and concrete. With reception not even being the start of training, the Army was quick to leave a negative first impression from the very beginning.

Tired and delusional as a result of hours of standing in line and being prodded with needles, we had no idea how much worse it could get. The reality set in quickly though, when our training company’s drill sergeants stormed the bus we were on. With an introduction of screaming and knife hands, nothing but chaos ensued. We were placed into a formation and managed to screw up everything asked of us, of course, resulting in push-ups for what seemed like days. From there, we all ran with all of our newly–issued gear over our heads to find a suitable area for an “inventory.” The reality was a chaotic dump of all of our gear leading to a mix up of just about everything. Everyone was missing at least one piece of equipment and none of us had our proper size. This, of course, led to more punishment. We did not realize it yet, but this was crucial in bringing us together because we had no choice but to spend the little free time we had trading with each other, trying to find our proper size. Those who were selfish here never built a relationship with any of us and would go on to eventually fail.

The training continued with new tasks being assigned to us everyday [every day] being followed by an unsurprising failure each time. We soon realized that it wasn’t actually possible to successfully complete these tasks, which led some to give up. It began to hurt. Our bodies began to react to the extensive amount [number] of immunizations given directly before training along with the unclean living conditions that come with living in proximity to nearly 240 people. Before long we all had the “bootcamp plague” and with that, an exhausted body. With a maximum of 10 minutes to eat an entire meal, we all felt starved and way too weak to be conducting hours of physical activity.

The boot camp effect started to take its toll on me and I had a very difficult time asking myself anything other than “is it worth it?” Although I did not know it at the time, that was the sole purpose of basic training. According to Joanna Hayden, the author of “Introduction to Health Behavior Theory,” self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s own ability to successfully accomplish something.” The Army was looking for self-efficacious soldiers who believed that no task could stop them! What better way to have the most lethal organization in the world than to have one who thinks it can take on the world. According to Hayden, those with strong sense of efficacy will take on the most difficult of tasks, ones that others would not consider doing.

What separates those who graduate from those who don’t is their internal motivation and end goal. While we all serve to work towards the goal set by the drill sergeants to graduate as effective soldiers, our determination to reach our own personal goal is what gives us the motivation to do so. While all of us share the same common goal, very few share the same personal goal. My goal was to prove to my family and my girlfriend that I had what is required to serve. When I doubted myself, I thought about my goal and how great it will feel to accomplish it. Those who are sifted out loose [lose] their direction along with their inner drive to accomplish their personal goal. When that drive is lost, the Army gets rid of them. The military has no time for those who do not have the drive to accomplish the most difficult of tasks. What the military wants is for its soldiers to have that drive to accomplish their given tasks; it does not care where that drive comes from. So it places its recruits through a rigorous process that gives them no choice but to tap into that inner drive or to fail.

Works Cited

Hayden, Joanna. “Self-Efficacy Theory.” Introduction to Health Behavior Theory. Second ed. Burlington: Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2014. 14-21. Print.

Personal Experience

                How Much Information Is Too Much When It Comes To Facebook

P1. Facebook and all technology is a luxury and entertainment item in our lives. Our society revolves around internet and technology. If we like it or not our world is evolving and making advancements that force us to use technology. Social media plays an important role in impacting our views and beliefs and allowing us to seek help, advice and guidance from people we have never meet. Facebook allows anyone with an account to view their “friends” page and find any information they would like to know about the person. That is why it is extremely important when posting personal information about yourself that we keep it limited. When a person’s “Facebook friend” tags you in a picture, your friends followers not only can see your account but also look at what you have posted. We never know who is on the other end of the screen and what information they are looking for that will result in dangers. In the article “Dangers of Myspace and Facebook with Sexual Predators” by Micah McDunnigan, he talks about sexual predators hiding behind fake profiles to lure victims, using their profile information to stalk the victims in real life or evening hacking into account to blackmail them.

P2. Sexual predators have become very good hackers. A recent story by the Associated Press says predators in Indonesia were using Facebook to collect young teenage girls, and then kidnap and traffic them. When a 14-year-old girl received a Facebook friend request from an older man, she accepted it out of curiosity. The girl was quickly attracted to the attention the older man was giving her. They exchanged phone numbers and the predator convinced the young teen to meet him at a mall. This led to the young girl facing up against a 24 year old predator, he kidnapped, drugged and raped her. According to the article, there were seven more girls that month who fell into the same exact trap. Young teenagers are too trusting in Facebook. They think no harm can happen in talking to random people online. Teenagers have to be very carful who they are allowing to follow them and how much personal information they are posting.

P3. Before Facebook became popular sexual predators would have to leave their house seeking their next victim. Now they do not even have to leave their house lowering their chances of anyone seeing their face and getting themselves caught. Young adults are prime targets they are at a stage in their lives were their parents give them enough freedom where parents are not hovering over their child’s every move. They also act on impulse causing them to post everything that comes to mind even when they know it might get them in trouble. Young adults do not notice that even posting things about their personality traits or likes and dislikes might draw predators. Predators often target a certain group that attracts them. It might be blonde hair, blue eyes, and girls that have bubbly personalities. It also might be brown hair, brown eyed girls that are attracted to having the spotlight on themselves and like attention. It all depends on what the predator is attracted to. It usually is related to someone that has come through their lives and has made a big enough impact, either in a good or bad way, that has made them go for a certain type.

P4. It is challenging to detect who can be a threat or not on Facebook, especially when teenagers main concern is how many “followers or friends” they have on Facebook. Teenagers have this outlook that if they have the most friends on social media they are popular in real life. This is one thing that sex offenders look for, the number of friends or followers the at risk teens have, if the number is high they know that they will accept anyone. Teenagers need to make sure they are only allowing those they communicate with in the real world to follow them on Facebook. Predators may also use the contact information from the victims profile to arrange meetings in real life, where then they can strike and victimize their target. This is why it is extremely important when setting up a Facebook account that you manage your privacy settings where only the people you befriend can see your posts.

P5. Girls are considered to be the most at risk compared to boys for Internet sex crimes. Girls who become sexually active during early ages are vulnerable because they were most likely involved with older males. Boy who identify as gay or are questioning their sexuality are also at risk because they might find be trying to find answers. This result in them turning to the Internet to find answers to questions about sexuality or meet potential romantic partners, thats when they meet adults who exploit them according to “Myths,realities, and implications“.

P6. Sexual Predators can use Facebook to take their actions a step further to physically stalk their victims. This is why when posting it is very important to keep in mind to avoid posting where events are taking place and at what times and turn the location off in your privacy settings. In Micah McDunnigan’s article he states the dangers of posting personal information and interests and schedules. Predators can then use this information to locate and stalk their victims in the real world and not just online. According to an article in the Journal of Adolescent Health quoted by Enough is Enough, 65 percent of online sex offenders used social media sites to collect home and school information about their victims. Posting the at risk teens location makes it especially easy for a predators to find them.

P7. Facebook has become the “go to” social media networking site in the world allowing people to connect with family members from across the country, meeting people with the same beliefs and views either politically or spiritually, or reuniting with those you went to high school or college years ago. Facebook receives hundreds of new members everyday, it has hit a billion users after nine years since it first launched. Even though there is no way to entirely eliminate the dangers of predators on Facebook users can take precautions from becoming victims. Users should take steps to make sure there privacy settings are on and only people they know in the real world can see their profile and what they are posting. By having a secure password and changing it often users can lower the chances of someone hacking them. Finally users can protect themselves by only talking to people they know outside of social media.

Work Citied

O’Donnell, Andy. “Know the Dangers of Oversharing on Facebook.” Lifewire. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Manning, Allee. “Is Using Facebook A Free Speech Right? Supreme Court Weighs Case.” Vocativ. Vocativ, 01 Mar. 2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

White Paper

Content Descriptions:

-the purpose of planned parenthood/how planned parenthood is funded

-untrue reputation planned parenthood has

-services provided by planned parenthood

-the defunding of planned parenthood

Working hypothesis 1:

Healthcare is a very important service, no matter where you live.  Fortunately, in the United States most individuals have healthcare, thanks to President Obama’s developments during his time in the White House.  Planned Parenthood is one of those branches of healthcare that most tend to take for granted, and not deem necessary.  What most people do not realize is that Planned Parenthood is not just about abortions, their main goal is to provide a number of different services to men, women, and teens all across the country.  From performing STD screenings to doctor visits, Planned Parenthood is available to everyone. 

Working hypothesis 2:

The defunding of Planned Parenthood has become a very talked about issue recently in the United States.  President Trump along with anti-abortion activists believe that it would be best to cut off all government funding to this vital institution.  Unfortunately anti-abortion activists have obtained a large following in their wanting to get rid of Planned Parenthood due to the fact that people are uneducated about what Planned Parenthood really is.  Many believe that this form of healthcare just provides abortions, when in fact they do not provide abortions at all.  Planned Parenthood is mainly government funded, and they cannot perform an abortion without government consent.  Mainly, Planned Parenthood provides sexual and reproductive healthcare to men, women, and teens of all ages.  Without it millions will go without the proper healthcare that they need, and hundreds of thousands of unwanted pregnancies will occur.

Topics for smaller papers:

-Planned Parenthood is here to PREVENT pregnancies, not abort them

Cause and Effect Argument:

The major cause and effect argument of my research paper is the affect that anti abortion activists have had on Planned Parenthood’s reputation.  There is also the cause and effect of the government not explained to people how Planned Parenthood is actually funded.  I guess to sum both of these up into more of a substantial argument would be that knowledge is power, and when knowledge is withheld from the people they cannnot make proper choices on what they believe in.

Rebuttal Argument:

Although Planned Parenthood does not fund abortions, they do still perform them in some cases.  Planned Parenthood should still be defunded because of this;

Response: Yes, Planned Parenthood performs abortions but only in very rare and extreme cases.  The only time they will perform one is if the government is behind them.  Abortions are only performed under Planned Parenthood in cases of rape, incest, or if the fetus is harming the mother.

Current State of Research Paper:

Currently I am still researching and trying to decide exactly where I want to go with my paper.  I am thinking that I would like to go in the direction of writing about how Planned Parenthood has obtained an unfair reputation, but I am not sure if that is too opinionated or not.  I absolutely want to discuss exactly what Planned Parenthood is, what it’s purpose is, how it is funded, mainly all of the essentials that have to go with this institution.  I want to show that this is a necessary part of healthcare that many people rely on, on a daily basis at that.  I am just not quite sure where to start yet.

Exploring the Purpose of Grades

P1. The purposes of grades in education systems is to measure how well students are learning by creating motivation for students. If we take a closer look, grades can have the opposite effect on both of their main purposes. If  grades are supposed to measure learning, but they actually take away from learning, then grades really accomplish nothing. They are also supposed to create motivation to learn, but actually end up just creating motivation to earn good grades, especially in college. Without any type of grading system in place for grades K-12, we wouldn’t know how well students are making progress in the classroom or understanding the topics that are being taught to them; however, many times the focus of students is not on the material they are learning with our current grading system. Grades measure the ability to get good grades, and little else.

P2. According to James D. Allen states in vol. 78 of The Clearing House’s Grades as Valid Measures of Academic Achievement of Classroom Learning, that the main goal classrooms have is to gain academic knowledge in a particular subject. By grading students’ work, teachers get to see who is absorbing the information they teach. Kyle Spencer states in Education Digest’s Standards-Based Grading that “grades were designed to see which students should be promoted to the next level.” Recording grades is a way to this. Writing grades on a academic report displays the student’s academic achievement over a course of study, and compares students to one another so we know where the bar is supposed to be set for the entire class. Since a written record of grades is recorded for each student, then guidance counselors, other teachers, parents, employers, and colleges have access to see what level of knowledge students have in a certain subject. Several different grading systems exist, and the one used commonly today is the ineffective.

P3.  The system currently used in most schools is the traditional A-F letter scale system, where students are rewarded with an A for satisfying the teacher’s standards, and those who do not satisfy standards are left with an F, leaving the work in between with a B,C, or D. Each subject they take earns one letter.  This system often takes missing assignments, homework, attendance, compliance to rules, and participation into consideration. For example, let’s say that a 7th grader finishes with a B+ in a science class. We don’t know how much of that grade is determined by factors other than academic knowledge, which demonstrates how students easily manipulate the system. We don’t know whether that student actually absorbed almost all of the course material, gathered just enough material to make good arguments, had perfect attendance and completed all assignments but didn’t do particularly well on tests, or gathered little and argues poorly but did better than other classmates who are even worse. Allen notes that some teachers believe that “effort, student conduct, and attitude” should influence final grades, since they want students to be well-rounded. Each teacher sets their own standard to what they perceive is a good student. Yes, they still measure academic knowledge, but include other factors that are not relevant to that knowledge. This can potentially leave grading practices unpredictable. Sometimes important life decisions are made based off a student’s grade, so it’s critical that grades are predictable and valid.

P4. One important life decision that is directly impacted by grades is picking a college to go to. Corrine Ruff states in Why Do Colleges Still Use Grades?  that grades are a “quick and dirty way of summarizing student outcomes for parents, graduate schools, and employers. ” The main factor colleges look at when deciding whether to accept or decline students is their GPA. Colleges want to see how students performed in subjects to see if they will be a good fit for their school. This provides motivation for students to achieve high grades. If students want to get into their dream college, then they need to work hard. The belief behind using grades as a motivation that is that using grades as consequences motivates students to want to do well. If students earn good grades, they will be rewarded, and if they don’t, there will be negative consequences. By placing so much pressure on students to earn a high GPA, learning is not a main priority for students. They don’t focus on how they can understand complex topics, but more on how they can get an A on their next test or assignment. If grades are supposed to be used as motivation to get into a good school or impress your parents, then why are they still used in college?

p5. Corrine Ruff states in Why Do Colleges Still Use Grades?, that grades originated in the 19th century in an industry-focused economy. Employers wanted to hire people who understood how to process things, so using a traditional method of grading was efficient. In our current economy, jobs are more information based. Instructors and employers are more focused on what information students learn and what they can do with that knowledge, which is why employers aren’t necessarily concerned with GPAs. They know that a GPA doesn’t define what a student has learned. A more modernized system, especially for colleges, might be beneficial.

p6. Most college students aren’t as concerned with their grades as they were in grade school and high school because the motivation factor is gone. They already got into college, so they don’t need a high GPA. They are adults now, so approval from their parents is less concerning to them. They also that know employers usually don’t look at GPAs. College students are more self-motivated. They are paying for their education, so not taking advantage of it would be a complete waste of money; therefore, actually wanting to learn becomes more prominent. College students want to learn the information and skills that will help to land them a successful job, and grades can actually get in the way of that. Ruff notes that, “grades actually get in the way of student learning. When professors cap the number of top-end grades, he argues, students enter into a fierce competition with one another, and so their interest in learning the actual material wanes.” So why not change the system? Making a more modernized system that measures mastery in each subject specifically, and maybe employers will be interested in looking at grades.

Works Cited

Allen, James D. “Grades as Valid Measures of Academic Achievement of Classroom Learning.” Clearing House, vol. 78, no. 5, May/June 2005, pp. 218-223.

Ruff, Corinne. “Why Do Colleges Still Use Grades?.” Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 62, no. 26, 11 Mar. 2016, p. 1

Spencer, Kyle. “Standards-Based Grading.” Education Digest 78.3 (2012): 4-10. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 20 Feb. 2017.