Reader Response 3: "Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids"

“Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids”

            Anna Quindlen discusses the naivety and oblivious nature of people in our society. She details the fact that people do not acknowledge the hundreds and hundreds of homeless children walking through our streets. She uses this factor as a contributor to stress the issue that homes are becoming too expensive for the average person to afford to keep a home. Thus, people everywhere are becoming homeless with little to no way out. The strength of Quindlen’s argument is through the use of pathos appeal to connect to her readers.

            Throughout her essay, Quindlen is persuading her readers to recognize the issue that is being overlooked everywhere. People are unable to support themselves financially and are being forced on the street. Innocent people that are simply trying to make a living, hold a job and raise their children are finding themselves homeless because they are laid-off, or cannot support the number of children in the home because of their low salaries. Quindlen  says, “…if there is a bureaucratic foul-up in your welfare check or the factory in which you work shuts down, the chances of finding another place to live are very small indeed” (317). People are not getting the help they need, and a lot of them are being forced onto the street because of uncontrollable factors. Her essay is very effective because she reaches to the emotions of her readers to sympathize for these poor people, especially the children, and tying it with her persuasive tone. She is able to get her point across to the readers and have them thing about the problem that goes unseen every day. These poor children, most importantly, need homes, or at least the family needs help to be able to support and shelter these children properly.

            I personally believe people and the government should pay more attention to this pressing issue. Children and low-income families that are doing what they can to provide for themselves need the extra help. The children should not have to suffer because people are not doing what they can to help them. There is help out there, and there are people that can afford to lend some kind of support to the hundreds of families out there. Even if it’s just one family, or child, taking the initiative to let them know support is out there, is enough.

Reader Respons 2: The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation

             Grade inflation has become an increasingly, curious issue among different schools and especially colleges. Student grades have been improving in recent years and scholars and professors cannot decide whether the students actually deserve the grades they are receiving or not. Alfie Kohn argues in his essay “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation” that the idea of students’ grade point averages increasing without achievement is a bad thing is a myth. Kohn provides a series of evidence and research that shows how it is almost impossible to effectively track why students do well in school and whether they deserve the grades they are getting, thus showing that grade inflation is a myth and the real issues involving grades are being ignored.

            Teachers teach differently and students are learning differently and even easier. If grades are improving over time it does not necessarily imply that they are inflated. It could have a number of reasons, relating to the material being covered, the desire students have to learn, etc. “Maybe students are turning in better assignments. Maybe instructors used to be too stingy…” (Kohn 63). The educational system continues to change over time, thus there it is difficult to trace if the same work will get the same grade in different time periods. Also, because education is becoming increasingly important, students are being encouraged more to study and learn earlier and more effectively which could relate to the increase in higher grades.

            Overall, Kohn provides different reasons for why grades could be inflated and then refutes it by providing evidence as to why the grades are not being inflated, which increases the effectiveness of his argument. For example, he includes the idea that because SAT scores are low, students cannot deserve higher grades. “ But this is an inapt comparison, if only because the SAT is deeply flawed…the claim that scores dropping is poor basis that grades are too high…those who regard SAT results as a basis for comparison should see higher grades…”(Kohn 63-64). Grade inflation is or is not true depending on the teacher. If a teacher is simply handing out high grades for undeserved work because they are not taking the time to adequately grade them, that the grades are inflated. However, in prestigious institutions, where instructors provide challenging requirements, grade them appropriately, and students still receive high grades then the grades are not inflated, but deserved.

Kohn’s extensive research and validity of his evidence and analysis of that evidence effectively delivers his purpose. He claims that it is too difficult to prove that grades are inflated, provides opposing arguments, and refutes through proving his own argument. I agree with his argument because there are simply too many reasons as to why students are receiving and deserve higher grades than in the past. Over time, grades will continue to increase because students want to succeed.