As you all should know, today is the “official” last day to turn in any missing assignments.  Reminder – I am human.  I would like to take late work up until the last second, but the amount that I have received in the last few days is almost overwhelming and I need enough time to record your grades.  If you need an extension, you must let me know (come talk to me or send me an e-mail).  Also, please check your grades online.  If I have made a mistake (again, human) you need to let me know ASAP so I can correct it. 

Most importantly, if you have completed a blog post and have not received a grade for it, please let me know!  Send me an e-mail or write your name on the board – I need some kind of notification that the post is complete and needs to be graded.

The posts that I have been reading have been great, and I hope to be able to read more of your outstanding work.

Mr. Cochran

Overall, I have been very pleased with the articles that everyone has written about to date in Modern Problems. I am noticing a trend, however, of a heavy reliance on American news sources. I can’t say I am surprised – after all, we are Americans and these are the sources we are most familiar with.

What I have compiled is a short, but solid list of international news sources outside of the United States to get you started on the never-ending exploration of the truth! Please subscribe to any or all of these if you are lacking in sources outside of the United States.

BBC News Online – read by 15 million users worldwide

Al Jazeera – essential news source from an Arab perspective

The Guardian – newspaper from the UK, great international section

Der Spiegel – German or European perspective on world news

The Mail and Guardian – arguably the most well-written newspaper in Sub-Saharan Africa

So there you go.  Hopefully this will help you in your efforts to become more globally informed and provide you with a perspective of the news that you are not accustomed to.  If you know of any other international news sources, please share with the class by leaving a comment.

Information for this post found here.

The due dates I had listed on your Group Blog Handout were tentative, and it appears I already need to make drastic changes. The new (and hopefully final) due dates for the first three individual blog posts are: Feb. 22, March 7, and March 21.

You may also notice that I didn’t necessarily “change” our course curriculum, but rather “rearranged” the order of topics we will be exploring.

One last, but major issue – Weekly Articles. Many of you followed the directions for this assignment well, but far too many did not. Some key elements:

• 10 point double-spaced Times New Roman 3/4 to 1 page, or 1 1/2 to 2 pages handwritten
• If found online, simply provide me a link -I do not need you to print the article.
• Your writing should be in the ballpark of 50% summary and 50% reflection.
• Reflection – This was the part of the assignment that I noticed the most problems. Think of the reflection as your voice. I already have knowledge of the article based on your summary, so now I am interested in what you think. This must be related to a modern problem! Ex. If your article is discussing extreme weather, your reflection needs to connect this to a large-scale problem – maybe you could talk about the idea that global warming could be responsible for the increase in extreme weather around the world, or focus on the relief efforts.

As promised, here is a list of the URL’s to each group’s blog. I am just going off of the lists I received, so if I have somehow forgotten/misspelled a name, or even a whole group (I hope this doesn’t happen), let me know and I will fix it as soon as I can.

2nd Block:

Aaliyah, Jasmine, Gabriela, and Ngoc – Religion

Alissah, Stuart, Trevor, and Reggie – Foreign Conflicts

Elvisa, Angela, and Hannah – Global Warming

6th Block:

Cathy, Julie, Jessica, Kayla, and Tino – Urban Issues

Becky, Tatijana, Lea, and Aqueelah – Teen Issues

David, Cally, Leila, Barbara, Lisa, Alisa, and Dani – Human Rights

Abe, Lucas, and Holly – War

Mary, Brandon, Noah, Josh, Matt, and Terrence – Immigration

Leigh, Asia, Brandon, Alexis, Alex – Environment

7th Block:

DeUnique, Mariah, Eric, and Randi – Education

Taylor, Tim, Seb, and Sammie – Violence/Crime

Mike, Emily, Mario, and Jelimo – Globalization

Piper, Erin, and Taurean – Drugs and Alcohol

Tyler, Hannah, and Audrey – Animal Rights

I was very pleased with the amount of topics each block was able to brainstorm for Modern Problems. Below is a list of the great ideas that were brought up in each block. Keep in mind some issues may not appear on the following list because they were grouped together with a broader topic (ex. the topic of school dropouts would fall under education).

Immigration. War in Iraq. Poverty. Global Warming. Media Censorship. Health Care. Globalization. Religious Persecution. Elections. Discrimination. Human Rights. Drugs. Welfare. Child Labor. U.S. Foregin Policy. Crime. National Debt. Pollution. U.S. Economy. Genocide. Disease. Eating Disorders. Homelessness. Animal Rights. Consumerism. WMD’s. Torture. Affirmitive Action. Internet Regulations. 2008 Olympics. Conflict in Kenya. Rape. Stem-cell Research. Teen Violence. Starvation. Terrorism. Darfur. Gun Control. Overpopulation. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Media Coverage.

Other issues that were discussed I felt could be categorized into one of these larger issues. If there is anything you feel I left off the list, feel free to leave a comment.

Each week we will be discussing a particular issue. The articles that you research should focus on this topic. The following is a tentative schedule of what we will be doing in Modern Problems for the first nine weeks.

Week 1: Introduction to Modern Problems

Week 2: Media Bias

Week 3: Elections

Week 4: Global Warming

Week 5: U.S. Foreign Policy

Week 6: Terrorism/War in Iraq

Week 7: Discrimination

Week 8: Education

Week 9: Censorship

If there are specific issues within these broad topics that you would like to discuss in class, again leave a comment and let me know. We will try to stick close to this schedule – if there are going to be any changes, I will post them immediately and let you know as soon as I can.

At this point, I suspect that everyone has a lot of questions regarding the group blog project.  The purpose of this post is to explain what it is I am looking for from you when you are writing your individual posts.  Let us pretend I am a student in Modern Problems contributing to a blog about the issue of immigration.  A broad issue such as this could be broken down into national issues or even looked at on a global scale.  In this post, I will be focusing on the impact of immigration legislation on our educational system here in the U.S.

Educating Illegal Immigrants

Immigration is an issue that has received a lot of political attention in the U.S. in recent years.  There is no doubt that there are millions of illegal immigrants in our country today.  Politicians have debated over what should be done about this, with talks ranging from tighter border control to the deportation of millions of immigrants.  What I find interesting is the impact this is having on our educational system, or rather the strong opinions from both sides of this issue.  Should we be educating illegal immigrants?  Like any issue, there are arguments for both sides.

By educating illegal immigrants, we are essentially rewarding families through the benefits of our educational system that they are receiving for free.  Because of the importance of education, this could easily be seen as a motivating factor for families illegally entering the U.S. in search of a better future for their children.  If this were to be removed, or if we were to start charging tuition to public schools for the children of illegal immigrants, the motivating factors to enter the U.S. illegally would be taken away and families would have to consider relocation.  Paying tuition for public schools may not be as ridiculous as it sounds.  After all, schools are funded by taxes that are avoided through illegal immigration.  On a debate posted on helium.com, James Coles talks about this “contract” between U.S. citizens and education:

Therein lies the inherent inequity of the illegal immigrant’s demand for a ‘free’ American public education for his or her child(ren)…while illegal residents of this country make some contribution to the social-economic contract, they don’t come close to paying their fair share of the costs incurred in the contract. 

If such a bill were to be passed requiring tuition to be paid or denying post-secondary education, who are the ones that would be affected?  The children, of course.  Children who were not responsible for making the choice to enter the U.S. illegally.  Would it be ethical to deprive someone of an education based on an act of their parents that they had no control over?  George E. Brooks of the Salt Lake Tribune believes this would be a horrible mistake, and discredits the economics behind such an idea:

The argument that resident tuition for these students puts any kind of undue strain on the state is false. In the 2003-2004 school year, the 117 students statewide who took advantage of this resident tuition cost the state about $300,000 in lost tuition, according to state System of Higher Education figures. 

That same year 10,424 nonresident students paid $34 million in tuition and fees over the in-state rate. And when one considers the long-term benefits of having motivated, well-educated, well-integrated second-generation Americans, the cost becomes even more negligible in comparison.

As an educator, I believe the benefits of creating well-educated children for our future far outweigh the short-term costs of educating illegal immigrants.  In our globalized world, having an educated society is more important now than it has ever been.  I understand that illegal immigration in the U.S. is a very tricky situation to deal with because there are so many factors one must take into account when trying to formulate a solution.  Both sides have valid arguments, but I tend to disagree, however, with the overall notion to deny children education based on matters that are completely out of their hands.  Not only do I see this as unethical, but I think it makes little sense for the future of our country.

Hello and welcome to the most important class you will ever take. This blog will run as the official homepage to Modern Problems and serve many purposes. For one, vital class information will be posted on this blog. I would suggest syndicating this site using RSS through Google Reader. I will also be taking the role of the student throughout the semester by writing my own responses to issues discussed in class using a variety of news sources. I hope this will serve as an example for what I expect to see when visiting your own blogs. In addition, this site will contain links to every student created blog in Modern Problems, making it that much easier for you to navigate through the great work of your classmates.

I hope you are enjoying Modern Problems and if you have any questions about anything, you know how to reach me.

Mr. Cochran