Researching, because apparently they didn't find it the first time!

My experience with writing research is one full of blood and gore. Violent and aggressive measures have been taken to avoid writing a research paper. I have never won the battle. Time and time again I find myself writing a paper about some topic given to me against my will! When the words "Research Paper" are spoken to me I instantly think of one class, freshman year English. My teacher was this 68 year old marathon runner who used references from epic novels to communicate to her students. This woman being a terribly outdated teacher gave me the awesome topic of "Fetal Farming" to write a 8 page research paper. What is "Fetal Farming" you ask? As a freshman in high school I enjoyed researching the process and market for genetically engineering stem cells to grow organs and other tissues as replacement parts for people. Joy! This was easily the worst experience in an English class I have ever had. The pure hatred seeped from every pore and my writing became more of an attack of the teacher rather then about the black market for human organs and the artificial growth of body parts I didn't even know existed. Whats a duodenum? I have had a couple very good experiences. I was very lucky my senior year of high school getting to write about the salary caps in professional sports. Although research papers and I have a similar relationship to that of the Fellowship of the Ring and the Orcs, I cannot say with the right topic they are somewhat useful. So bring it Mr. Bob. Do your worst!

Kentucky - An English Teacher's Nightmare

Mr. Bob mentioned something about me writing about my experience in Kentucky. I was in Kentucky for a week and a half and learned quite a bit about the literacy of the people. This ties nicely in with what we're talking about in class. The majority of the people living in Harlan, Kentucky are not well educated. If they were lucky they graduated the 8th grade. The people have a very unique twang and a way of missing letters all together as they talk. They often change their vowel sounds as well. Examples of this would be the word "Down" would come out like "Dern". A common phrase was "Ya'll aint got nothing". Another infuriating sentence was " I seen yous yesterday." I saw! I SAW!! The fact that I knew the people did not have a very good education helped me understand why the people talked so horrifically, but also their culture comes into play. Everyone talks like that down there. Its just how they are and how they grew up. They don't have anyone who speaks so called "Perfect English" within 100 miles of them. This being said and even with all these factors clearly present I unfortunately judged these people as not being very intelligent. Something about the way they talked made me feel superior when that is anything but the truth. It was a very good lesson learned for me. I worked on a house with people from the area. These men could each build a whole house on their own. Each one could start from scratch and put up a house, a barn, or anything. They were supreme carpenters and masons. Each person I met could tell you the history of Harlan and the history of Kentucky. The people were in no way stupid or unintelligent. Unfortunately just the way they talked made me judge them as so. Moral of this story? Don't assume you know anything or anyone until you have all the facts.

Better Late Than Never Cantor

Cantor says that the biggest thing universities can do is promote diversity. It is very important to introduce students to more of the world and broaden their horizons but at the same time I feel it is much more important to make the real goal the education being given. The ability to welcome international students and a diverse student body is fantastic but they should be coming to the university because of the great academic excellence demonstrated there. The process of accepting students should be completely unbiased even to the point of trying to diversify the community. There are valid points for making a diverse community. You need a diverse community to ensure that the best possible people are working together especially in a research university. It is beneficial to expose people to other culture so create a tolerance and therefore harmony among different races and cultures of people. This being said, I still believe that the education comes first before the life experience.

Multiculturalism

            Multiculturalism, what does it mean for Western Michigan University? This is a question that needs to be answered. I see the diversity and multiculturalism present on campus everyday. I see people from all over the world. I hear different languages and see different cultural wardrobes in all my classes. My floor in the dorms is home to three people from oversees. Having talked to them, they seem happy and very welcomed. Western Michigan's website states that it is trying to create a diverse atmosphere and want to be supportive and welcoming to all people. I see this everyday and I am very proud to help sustain that. I think the greatest evidence of how well Western Michigan promotes diversity and multiculturalism is the amount of foreign students it has. The students are coming and staying here to get an education. The university is obviously doing something right. The fact that Western has so many foreign students really shows the quality of the classes and teachers. We should be very proud of our school.