Reilly Clancey FNED 346 2019

Is being bilingual an advantage? Growing up in a middle upper class family who only speaks english, some may believe we have the advantage. Students move through each year learning new ideas and a new language. As my Spanish teacher once said, “the power to speak one language d oes not compare to the power to speak more than just one as you now have the influence and ability to speak to more than just one type of person." Students are taught that more than one language is good as long as english is your first language. Correct? In Richard Rodriguez’s short story, “Aria”, he tells the story of his own experiences of being bilingual. Rodriguez had a typical bilingual household as his parents spoke spanish and he attended a school where the dominant (and only) language is English. He explains that when he was younger he was categorized as a student who needed extra help. Yet, no teacher ever encouraged his ability to speak both languages. Instead they convinced him he was beh...

Institutional Racism vs. Individual Racism  More often than not, society never specifies the type of racism that occurs, in fact, most people do not even know that there are different types of racism. Individual racism is the act of an individual or a small selection casting racism upon another group or individual. Whereas, Institutional racism is the act of racism upon systems or from the system. For example, institutional racism is the act of not providing a successful hospital to a poorer population because they are poor. South Bronx  In Jonathon Kozul's, Amazing Grace, he shines a light on both of these ideas but focuses on institutional racism. Kozul starts out his small book on displaying the train ride from Manhattan to South Bronx. "The number 6 train from Manhattan to the South Bronx makes nice stops in the 18-minute ride between East 59th Street and Brook Avenue. When you enter the train, you are in the seventh richest congressional district in the nation. W...

Is the United States  the Land of Opportunity ? From the beginning of time, America has been a place for people to have a new chance at life. These new chances, however, are limited to a selection of the population. More often then not, people come into the country hoping there are part of this small selection whom come into the country with nothing and become successful enough to be able to provide a better life for the next generation. However, within America the ability to move up the social economic ladder is almost an impossible task. “The chance of a person who was born to a family in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution rising to the top 10 percent as an adult is about the same as the chance that a dad who is 5 feet 6 inches tall having a son who grows up to be over 6 feet 1 inch tall,” Krueger observed in a speech. “It happens, but not often.” - Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist From a big picture perspective, America has wanted to h...

A short Introduction Senior soccer season team photo Following Senior Softball Season, where I received All-State, All-Division and All-Academic. For me, in particular, I have always found it tough to put into words how I feel. Yet, when asked what is important to me, the answer has remained the same since I was 3. One the most important aspects of my life is sports. By the age of five I was a competitive swimmer, I played soccer, tennis and little league softball. Since then I have tried different sports but at the age of 11 I decided upon the three sports of soccer, basketball and softball. At the age of 11 I walked into my first tryout for soccer for my first middle school team ever. I made the team and that was the start of a new beginning. Since that first day and until my senior year of high school, I have been on a rotation. This rotation included soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, softball in the spring and a mix of the three throughout the s...