Progress on topics

I have made some progress tonight on both of my topics. I searched the bureau of motor vehicles’ website. There I found the terms for getting your driver’s license. I agree with the regulations for sixteen year-olds that have not had driver training. It states that anyone over sixteen who has not taken a driver training course must wait 180 days to get their license. That seems reasonable. As for the other topic about weighting AP course, I have found that most public schools do weight their honors courses. I think the AP courses should be counted as honors classes and should more credit than regular classes. I am going to continue to research these two, but I think I am heading more towards the driver’s license issue.

potential ideas

I have a couple ideas for my inquiry contract. I wanted to think of topics that have affected or are currently affecting me. The first thing that came to my mind was the amount of time you have to wait after you turn sixteen to get your license. I never have understood why you must wait a month and one day after your birthday, and then you must wait three months after that to take anyone with you who is younger than 21. I have some good solutions in mind for this idea. The next thing I thought about was the credit AP students receive for their classes. I think that our classes need to be weighted. Students take AP courses as a challenge and it should be treated like an honors course. AP grades should be worth more than regular class grades. I have solutions for this one as well. I think I will be able to discuss these fairly easy, and I have a good background of information.

Tips for the Host= no

I believe that the proposal to pay hosts a tip is a good solution, but I do not feel that hosts deserve a tip. The hosts I have encountered don’t really do much more than take you to your table, and they give you a menu. I have never witnessed a host clean table, or actually do something, like a server, that catered to me. Tips are only needed when a service has been done for you. Servers work harder than hosts, and I think it would be hard to convince an audience to tip hosts. The author may have a point that hosts need a higher salary. However, I think servers would have a problem with giving up their tips for the host.

C.P. Ellis

Ellis’ story does show a credible way of overcoming misunderstanding and hatred between races. Of course there were tough times and a lot of people at first did not want to get involved. However, Ellis and Ann realized that they were not that much different. Their children suffered the same hardships and so did they. Ellis described that only real reason people had joined the Klan was that low-income whites needed someone to hate and blame for their hardships. Black people seemed their only target. I do not think the solution would work on a large scale. It is a lot harder to persuade a larger group compared to a town. There would be a lot more opposition on a larger scale and it would overshadow the supporters.

Yoshino and mainstreamers

Yoshino feels that the term “mainstream” is a myth, because those who are considered mainstream are not truly mainstream. They too lack “an expression of their full humanity. The so-called mainstreamers do not experience the rights that minorities and gays are always urging to receive. These people are just being “obstacles” against the minorities and gays. I think his reasoning for this topic well represented. Why should someone receive rights that other people can not. Everyone, no matter their race or sexual preference, is lacking the same right to express themselves fully. My definition of mainstream is the practices of the majority in a certain area. The mainstream is considered the “normal” or “ideal” person of that region. This may not feel right to people, but it is what society has decided on throughout history.

Freedom at a Price

Linda wants her freedom badly. Dr. Flint’s daughter and her husband, Mr. Dodge, have come to take Linda back. She was never released from the daughter’s custody, so she is technically still property of Mrs. Flint Dodge. Linda and her daughter are sent away to avoid confrontation with Mr. Dodge. Mrs. Bruce hires a man to negotiate the freedom of Linda and her children. Mr. Dodge agrees to $300 for her freedom and her children’s. This angers Linda because she was sold like property. Even in New York, slavery still existed to her. A bill of sale was posted proving she had been sold. Linda did not hate Mrs. Bruce for buying her freedom, but yet she hated the Dodges for demanding a payment to release her. She loves her freedom, but yet she still has the feeling of being owned by someone.

Credibility through honesty

“When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” Jacobs is establishing credibility by telling the tales of he life as a female slave. The entire novel shows her honesty, and the credibility is created through that. Jacobs wants to show that male slaves had a bad life, but women other things they dealt with on top of the punishments males received. The novel shows the mental and sexual torture she is put through. In addition, she is physically beaten by her master like most slaves were. True stories of someone’s life are enough to make something credible. Truth equals credibility, and that is what this entire novel is about.

Slave girl ch. 1-9

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl has been quite intriguing so far. The novel had to be truth because it is based on history and actual events. If the book were fiction, then the events could not have the meaning that they possess. The editor was right in not cleaning up any of the story in terms of language or content because that is what gives the novel its power and relativity to the time period. The language of the narrator shows the level of education and expresses the true feelings of that person. Content in any novel should never be changed. Altering it would not allow the events to have the same amount of meaning. The exact details are always good. This novel is telling the life of one girl’s struggles in slavery and how she is overcoming it day by day. I look forward to the rest of it.