What sounds more exciting and interesting:
1.) A group of students slacks off in class, never listens to the teacher, spits gum and skateboards in all the places there are signs saying "No Skateboards" and "No Gum." They don't study for tests, shoplift in their spare time, are straight F students, bring concealed knives to class, and, after getting expelled in the tenth grade and forcibly reenrolled by their parents, they drop out of school and become violent thieves.
2.) A group of students behaves perfectly in class, always listen carefully to the teacher, take notes, and don't even dream of bringing skateboards or gum to class. They have shelves full of books on how to study right and always manage to memorize every single thing on the test. School is more important than shopping, they're straight A students, and, after graduating with honors from an Ivy League college, get high-paying jobs like accountants, insurance agents, and university deans.
I don't know, but I bet that at least some of you are going to choose the first one as the most exciting. (Let's hope that your own plans for the future are a different story.) Our present American culture seems to be such that the first would be glorified. Quite a few of the idolized rappers I've heard of have felonies or at least misdemeanors under their belt (and speaking of belt, I think that their pants are far too baggy too).
Please allow me to change the subject abruptly to sports. I have nothing against sports--except when it interrupts normal news broadcasts that I like watching. I was particularly displeased when NBC showed hockey instead of Nightly News with Brian Williams. Why can't they just make a hockey channel instead of halting the news? I don't know about you, but I see more stories about sports victories and murders than I do about someone who works hard at school and manages to accomplish their dreams.
Oh--and another sign of the degeneration of our culture? Watch the children's cartoons and shows on stations like Disney and Nickelodeon. In the good "olden days"--or at least during World War II, I believe--kids watched newsreels. They didn't waste the daylight hours watching far-too-brightly colored animated characters speaking gibberish in shrill high-pitched voices or phony acting.
This article may sound a bit conservative. I took a poll some time ago for fun. It was a poll on how old you acted. And guess what I got? 58-72.
1.) A group of students slacks off in class, never listens to the teacher, spits gum and skateboards in all the places there are signs saying "No Skateboards" and "No Gum." They don't study for tests, shoplift in their spare time, are straight F students, bring concealed knives to class, and, after getting expelled in the tenth grade and forcibly reenrolled by their parents, they drop out of school and become violent thieves.
2.) A group of students behaves perfectly in class, always listen carefully to the teacher, take notes, and don't even dream of bringing skateboards or gum to class. They have shelves full of books on how to study right and always manage to memorize every single thing on the test. School is more important than shopping, they're straight A students, and, after graduating with honors from an Ivy League college, get high-paying jobs like accountants, insurance agents, and university deans.
I don't know, but I bet that at least some of you are going to choose the first one as the most exciting. (Let's hope that your own plans for the future are a different story.) Our present American culture seems to be such that the first would be glorified. Quite a few of the idolized rappers I've heard of have felonies or at least misdemeanors under their belt (and speaking of belt, I think that their pants are far too baggy too).
Please allow me to change the subject abruptly to sports. I have nothing against sports--except when it interrupts normal news broadcasts that I like watching. I was particularly displeased when NBC showed hockey instead of Nightly News with Brian Williams. Why can't they just make a hockey channel instead of halting the news? I don't know about you, but I see more stories about sports victories and murders than I do about someone who works hard at school and manages to accomplish their dreams.
Oh--and another sign of the degeneration of our culture? Watch the children's cartoons and shows on stations like Disney and Nickelodeon. In the good "olden days"--or at least during World War II, I believe--kids watched newsreels. They didn't waste the daylight hours watching far-too-brightly colored animated characters speaking gibberish in shrill high-pitched voices or phony acting.
This article may sound a bit conservative. I took a poll some time ago for fun. It was a poll on how old you acted. And guess what I got? 58-72.