Cell Phones Create Conceited People

Class is over and as people are walking out of the building what are they doing?—They’re checking their cell phones to see if anyone called them, listening to voice mails, or they are calling someone because heaven forbid they walk without a phone attached to their ear. These people think that they must be seen as important and thus they can not conceive walking down the street with no one to talk to. People with cell phones are so conceited. They think they are so important that they need a cell phone with them at all times because EVERYBODY wants to talk to them. All cell phones do is make peoples’ heads get bigger. Why do you think people leave their cell phones on vibrate during class? —Because they love to hear that lovely buzzing sound from their bag telling them that they’re someone special. They leave it on vibrate so everyone around them hears it and knows it too.

We see what cell phones have done to people in college. Just imagine what we’re doing to the children! The other day, the fifth grader I nanny for pulls out her new cell phone which was bought for “emergencies” which clearly means text messaging friends to this fifth grader. This little girl already thinks she is hot stuff because she has a cell phone. Pretty soon children won’t even have play dates and sleep overs, they’ll just talk and text about their playground drama on their cell phones. So I warn all the parents out there: Don’t think that buying your son or daughter a cell phone is going to allow you to keep tabs on them because you are instead going to produce conceited adults that can’t put their cell phones down and have obnoxious ring tones like Fergie's "Glamorous."

Children's Health Care Explained

Video clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on children's health care:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=109136&is_large=true

This clip shows Jon Stewart talking about President Bush vetoing the expansion of the children’s health care plan for low income children. The expansion would be funded through a sixty-one cent tax increase on cigarettes. Although Stewart repeatedly ridicules Bush is silly ways, like the way he compares Bush to cartoon villains, he also uses video clips in a way that enhances the validity of his arguments.

These clips often speak for themselves in their hilarity, but Stewart uses the clips and his humor to strengthen his argument that Bush’s veto is wrong. Stewart shows a clip of Senator Trent Lott, a republican representative of Mississippi, whom is of no coincidence on Fox News, making an argument that the tax increase on cigarettes will only make people stop smoking and thus the expansion wouldn’t be funded. Stewart reveals the ridiculousness of the slippery slope example Lott is trying to use to defend the president’s decision.

I also noticed that Stewart uses the video clips as an ad hominem. Although this is a fallacy of argument, I think that it is effective when considering his audience that consists mostly of democrats. Stewart often shows clips that blatantly mock the president. For example, Stewart shows Bush saying that, “My job is a decision making job…and uh…as a result I make a lot of decisions.” It’s things like that, that just make people laugh at the president's lack of eloquency in his public speeches. Stewart doesn’t even have to say anything. In fact, he looks as though he is stumbling for the right words to say, and instead he says “pass” because he knows how funny it is all on its own.

I think these types of clips help to strengthen Stewart’s argument. The clip continues with Bush’s validation for his decision. His first point is “Poor kids first,” which I’m sure left many audience members wondering to themselves “what does that even mean to you?” seeing as how that is all the explanation he gave for his first ingenious point. It shows Bush as someone who cannot explain his decisions very well and that reflects negatively on the basis for his decisions. If he can’t even tell us why he vetoed the expansion, in an intelligent and justifiable manner, why should we trust that he is making a knowledgeable decision? Stewart not only uses this clip to strengthen his argument, but it also works to show Bush’s inability to make an effective argument to defend his own points.

Bush's grammar

In Newsweek magazine, there is always a “Perspectives” page that includes comics that often pertain to recent political issues and quotable phrases that were made to mock others or published on this page to mock the person who made the statement. I am not an avid reader of Newsweek, but when I have the chance, I pick it up simply to look at this particular page. However, it wasn’t until I was reading it the other day that I appreciated the construction, message, and humor of the “Perspectives” page. Although the quotes are submitted by readers, the editors at Newsweek decide which quotes to publish and the commentary to follow which often enhances the humor of the quote made.

Found on p. 27 in the October 8, 2007 issue of Newsweek …

“You know, the president—it is no secret—sometimes makes grammatical errors.” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, on President W. Bush’s recent comment during a speech about education that “childrens do learn when standards are high”

I think that this particular quote would make people think about some of the components of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act which are, particularly for teachers, quite controversial issues. While I think this quote can be seen as simply amusing, I think that the humor in it could also drive people to irritation. Including a quote like this aims to hit readers that will simply chuckle at the irony of President Bush making a grammatical error while talking about education, but the editors of Newsweek also consider the people that question the “high standards” Bush calls for in standardized testing (especially when considering the difficulty President Bush would have with the grammar portion of an elementary level standardized test). I think that Newsweek has an agenda for what they include on this page and although it is funny, there is always an argument behind the mockery.

Solitarity

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=103035&is_large=true

Stephen Colbert’s word always strives to draw viewers’ attention to an issue through sarcasm, humor, and often a serious undertone. This episode’s word- solitarity refers to the tasering incident during John Kerry’s speech at the University of Florida, or more importantly, the reaction to the tasering by audience members, most of which sit by and watched the scene happen.

Colbert directs his word at today’s “inactive” generation. He mocks one of the members sitting in the audience saying that he “is probably thinking I wish they would stop tasering this guy so I could go home and watch this guy getting tasered on UTube.” Colbert goes on to say that if the student getting tasered expected fellow students to rise up in protest he was “asking the wrong generation.” Colbert’s word succeeds at making people laugh while thinking “that is so true…and actually pretty sad.”


Colbert’s comparison of the tasering incident to student protests during the Vietnam War highlights the seriousness associated with the need for today’s generation to become more motivated. He draws attention to the fact that today’s generation, “instead of amassing people to march on Washington, they amass hits on a website calling for a march on Washington.” Colbert focuses on the convenience associated with simply writing a blog versus taking action. As I sat and watched this episode of The Colbert Report, I tried to tell myself that I would have spoken up, but instead, I came to the conclusion that I should write about it in my blog for English 201. Isn’t that ironic.

Calvin and Hobbes

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm

Being a student and an elementary education major, I can thoroughly relate to this Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. In this instance, Calvin is arguing that the information he learns for his tests is not only “useless” but that he can simply “manipulate” the system by passively memorizing the material without actually learning anything. The ironic part is that Calvin does not even get the date the Pilgrims arrived on Plymouth Rock right. Calvin’s last comment, “they say the satisfaction of teaching makes up for the lousy pay,” makes me assume that while this strip can be enjoyed by all, especially those reminiscing of their own schooling, I think it specifically focuses on the education field as its audience. The comic strip challenges teachers to consider the value of the content they present and their forms of assessment so that their students are not simply regurgitating facts but really understanding concepts.
A theme of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips is that this little sarcastic boy talks about some pretty serious and grown up issues. The writer, Bill Watterson, does a good job of appealing to school age people who can relate to making it through classes on pure memorization skills. He also grabs educators’ attentions when he uses his sarcastic humor to imply that there is not much satisfaction in teaching when the students do not learn anything which is powerful on both a logical and an emotional level. This comic strip could even be used to argue against multiple choice type standardized testing and in favor of a performance skills based assessment. While one part of me laughs as I think about the way some of my schooling applies to this circumstance, the future teacher in me is hoping that my students will not feel the same way Calvin does. Bill Watterson is successful at producing comics that not only make the audience laugh but also think allowing the audience to take it as deep as he or she wants to.