TOW #20: "Teen Spirit Helicopter parenting has crippled American teenagers. Here’s how to fix it." by Dan Griffin

Writing/Reading Goals

• Analyze rhetorical devices/strategies effectively
• Have decent transitions
• Read something somewhat controversial

We’ve all been coddled by our parents at one point in our lives.  We may have been annoyed when it happened, but our parents helped us feel good about ourselves and made sure we stayed focused.  However, according to Dan Griffin, a psychologist and therapist in Washington D.C. and author of “Helicopter parenting has crippled American teenagers. Here’s how to fix it.”, the pampering must stop.  He argues in the text that parents must take a step back from monitoring their kids in order for their children to learn about failure and become responsible for their own actions.  To his audience of overbearing parents, Griffin accomplishes his purpose of proving that they must loosen their reins on their children by sharing a true story about a patient.

The backbone of Griffin’s argument relies on a true story that proves that kids will have greater achievement without their parents’ aid.  In Washington D.C., a child’s parents oversaw the completion of his homework every night due to his lack of motivation and focus.  Griffin wrote, “Every evening, they reviewed his homework assignments, made a list of priorities, kept track of upcoming tests, reviewed long-term projects, and made plans to get a tutor if the work was confusing. Then the next night, they did it again.”  By supervising their son’s work and ensuring that he did well in school, “Ian’s” parents believed they were fulfilling their role as supportive, helpful parents.  In reality, the coddling was preventing “Ian” from reaching his true potential.  Since “Ian” wasn’t doing any work of his own volition, Griffin argued that he would fail later in life if always cajoled into accomplishing tasks.  His parents then stopped helping, causing “Ian” to experience failure.  As a result, “Ian” was forced to help himself.   By doing so, “Ian” learned that he must be responsible for his own actions if he wanted to experience success.  Being accountable for his own failures and successes has ensured “Ian” the greater probability of a prosperous life and has demonstrated that parents must stop trying to save their kids from failure.

The Coddling of Helicopter Parents

 

http://www.cambridgenannygroup.com/blog/helicopter-parents-when-helping-hurts/

TOW #19: "Winter Olympics in Sochi are offering summer temperatures, challenging conditions" by Dave Sheinin

According to Dave Sheinin, a Washington Post award-winning reporter, in his article, “Winter Olympics in Sochi are offering summer temperatures, challenging conditions,” snow has not been as plentiful in renowned cold Russia as has been on the eastern coast of the United States of America.  He wrote, “The high reached 61 degrees, which for comparison’s sake, was warmer than Monday’s forecast highs for Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Ala., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.”  Since, as he says, these are the winter and not the summer Olympics, the snow is inhibiting the competition.  The article, which helps interested Olympics viewers understand what’s going on in Sochi, such as why Jean-Philippe le Guellec of Canada ended up in 26th place, has the main purpose of showing how the lack of snow and the abundance of sunshine have impacted the winter games. The purpose is accomplished by Sheinin’s use of quotes to create a greater sense of credibility.  In order to appeal to ethos, Sheinin makes sure to include a lot of evidence as to the effect of the strange weather on the competition as well as quotes, almost all of which come after said evidence.  For example, Sheinin wrote about afforemented le Guellec, “Jean-Philippe le Guellec of Canada was leading the race when he crashed, breaking one of his skis. He dropped out of medal contention while waiting for a replacement and finished 26th.”  Here he shows evidence of how the weather has impacted the winter games.  A person who was seemingly about to win gold fell and had his dreams crushed because the course that he was on was too soft due to a lack of ice.  Sheinin then posts the athlete’s reaction.  le Guellec told the Associate Press, “Honestly, I want to punch a wall and hopefully break through it.”  Not only has the lack of cold weather caused numerous practice events to be cancelled, it has also caused the dreams of athletes to go down the tubes.  

Jean-Philippe le Guellec

http://www.canada.com/olympics/news

TOW #18: How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg (IRB Post)

“How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous,” is written by author Georgia Bragg, who wrote two other books, one of which is also about famous people.  In the book, Bragg goes into detail about the deaths of nineteen famous figures in order to show the medical conditions of the world at the times when the celebrities died as well as to convince her readers how lucky they are to have modern medicine.  She writes, “Readers will be interested well past the final curtain, and feel lucky to live in a world with painkillers, X-rays, soap, and 911.”  In order to entice her younger audience and accomplish her aforementioned purpose, Bragg uses sarcasm and humor and unrealistic illustrations.  Bragg uses sarcasm and humor to appeal to her younger audience while also getting her points across.  In an excerpt of the book, she writes, “Doctors "treated" George Washington by draining almost 80 ounces of blood before he finally kicked the bucket.”  By having treated in quotation marks, Bragg demonstrates that she is making a sarcastic remark about the treatment of George Washington before his death.  As most people know, kids and teenagers love to use sarcasm so her use of the device establishes a sort of credibility with her readers as someone who is similar to them.  Also, by demonstrating how he died, without any real medical care, Bragg is able to accomplish her purposes of showing the medical world as it was back then and making her readers appreciate the world that they live in.  The unrealistic illustrations drawn by Kevin O’Malley also appeal to her audience because they are not very graphic and are in the form of cartoons.  Kids love cartoons.  Anyway, since I have yet to read the book, I don’t know if they aid in accomplishing Bragg’s purposes or not but I’m sure they will be relevant.  In conclusion, the rhetorical devices that Bragg uses seem to help accomplish her two purposes.  

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9111463-how-they-croaked

TOW #17: Poster Satirizing the ASPCA Commercial that has Sarah McLachlan Singing in the Background

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/519180663264422730/

If anyone has ever watched, the ASPCA, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, commercial with Sarah McLachlan’s song, “Angel”, in the background, then they understand the hilarity of this image.  All across America, animal cruelty exists and the ASCA’s role is to rescue abused animals.  In the commercial, the ASPCA tries to convince people to donate to the foundation by showing pictures of abused animals on the screen along with McLachlan’s singing in the background.  Essentially, it’s the most depressing commercial ever.  Unlike the commercial which is made by a credible foundation, this does not seem to be made by a credible because the grammar is incorrect, therefore making the poster lack any intimidation.  Since the poster isn’t very credible, its satirization in an effort mock the commercial and ward off its audience of potential shoplifters is especially funny.  The purpose of the poster is to give a threat to potential shoplifters and mock the ASPCA’s commercial by satirizing said commercial.  As previously mentioned, the commercial is basically the saddest thing to ever have to watch.  There are adorable animals that are injured and wearing grim expressions on their faces.  If that’s not bad enough, “Angel” starts playing and just seems to make the animals look even more depressed.  The satirization of the commercial is shown by the picture and the words underneath it.  Like the commercial, the poster has a picture of a cat with huge eyes that makes it look sad.  Thus, the potential shoplifters feel bad for the cat.  They then feel even worse for the cat because of the next lines that read, “Think of the kittens.”  By saying that, the potential shoplifters realize that shoplifting is not worth watching sad, innocent kittens being beaten up and bloody.  Basically, the commercial is so sad that being forced to watch it is not worth stealing anything.  Therefore, although an empty threat, the poster accomplishes its purpose of evading the chance of shoplifting in the store as well as mocking the ASPCA’s commercial.  In addition, it makes the public laugh.