"Generation Inspire"

Suzanne Britt Tries to communicate through “Generation A+” the lack of student motivation and perseverance found in today’s world of Education. I agree with Britt, today’s students have lost their passion for learning and no longer take learning to be serious. Because of the lack of drive and enthusiasm in today’s youth education has gone from centuries of men and women enlightening the world to men and women simply getting by with second best.

Most would find Britt’s essay to be rude and one-sided yet, I found it to be a true prospective of today’s youth. As a student I have pushed myself to achieve the very best for myself and to accomplish all goals I have set. Where as many others have grown up in schools and have had educators that let them simply get by with compromise of educational ability. The essay is simply given a true view of student’s trying everything in order to simply pass the class. Yet, Britt realizes that often times students have been given to many opportunities to get the easy A, with simple excuses such as using disabilities or extreme measures.

In Britt’s essay she say’s “Graduate school is really college, College is really high school, high school is really junior high-or even elementary school.” I agree today academic standards have changed, courses are getting easier and students are getting lazier, Even teachers are losing their standards as an educator. Coming from a college prep high school I expected more from a college experience and for myself some classes have been a challenge and others seem simply like review. Students spend much of their time in classrooms, but never really leave with the information. Has this generation forgot what learning is? I believe many of us only seek what we are here to earn a degree. As long as I get an A we don’t care and after we take a test the information no longer matters. We should want to inspire the next generation and create a legacy for ourselves, and not a generation that seems to only care about getting an A. As Britt said,” College is really like high school,” and I agree, right now as a student in 2009 I don’t feel challenged enough to think of college as college, but as high school.

There are things that I wish that teachers had stressed more in school such as Writing. It seems that writing is not a main focus, but for me I feel as if so many students don’t even know how to write a proper essay or even know the proper grammar to use in a paper. My first college English class the teacher expected us to know various modes of writing. For me I knew a few, but others I had never been taught, it was quite an eye opener.

In the last paragraph Britt stresses, “If a teacher does not teach-and students do not learn-then the stately towers of academe become a little more than strip malls for shrewd shoppers.” While we are concerned about the easiest way to get an A or pass a few classes, whose thinking about are next few Presidents or scientist. Will we have another leader willing to lead us to do great things or possibly run our nation into the ground. We as future leaders of this nation need to pursue education with passion and become “Generation Inspire” and not a generation full of failure.

Throughout my life I have strived to always achieve my very best, but one thing that I have been driven to excel at is photography. My passion for photography began with the influence of a close friend, Alicia Wines. Photography was not just about a camera for me. It was about the beauty I could capture in one moment and hold on to for a lifetime. It also allowed complete freedom from the world. Behind my camera it didn’t matter what was happening just as long as I could capture the moment.
Yet, photography doesn’t come as easy as most would like to think. I put hours of practice into what I loved. I went to school games, plays, and even took personal portraits. My practice didn’t stop there I began working for my yearbook and school newspaper taking every opportunity to snap photos. My journalism teacher, Mrs. Goodwin allowed me to express my creativity. My photos began to make their way around and I soon began taking senior portraits. The long hours of practice and traveling to various locations allowed me to begin using different elements in my pictures. I could have artsy or classic pictures or I could change from color to black and white, I could even give different angles to the event or person I was photographing. Every little thing I learned pushed me to pursue this amazing hobby even more.
Ultimately, photography had taken over a little part of my life. I never realized how much I could truly enjoy something, but photography was not just a something it was much, much more than that. I began to share this passion with my family and even more of my friends they continued to support my love for taken photos. I soon began getting e-mails for me to take portraits of families and children or attend events so that I could photograph them. All the hard work I had put into this was finally showing. I began taking even more pride in my photographs and my acquired skills. I began scrapbooking every chance I got and began showing my scrapbooks to whomever would look. I felt so amazed at all the hard work I had put into this beautiful art.
My four years of high school I pursued learning more about this craft and I took away from this much more than I was expecting to learn. By the end of my senior year I had felt like I had grown not only as a person, but as an artist. I continue to work with photography as much as I possibly can. One day I hope I can work in other elements of photography and learn more about my beloved hobby. I believe by continuing with my photography and having the support I had I was successful in every way. I learned an appreciation for art as well as for myself. Photography gave me so many opportunities in my four short years of school. I gained confidence and was able to open up and talk to everyone who approached me because I was so proud of my photographs. Now that I have experienced this passion I know I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.

A Gym Class Mistake

As a young girl I never really thought before I acted. I was always going along with others when it came to doing certain things, especially activities at school. When I was thirteen years old I loved going to school only for my social life. I would walk up the school stairs and down the plain hallway in to Mrs. Pelly’s room each day, putting away my pink book bag and going straight over to talk to my best friend, Dani Burton. We were inseparable that year. Though in our minds school was less of a place to study and more of a place to be social with our various friends. One thing that we both always hated was Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, those days’s we had to go to gym class.

Gym class was never exciting for Dani or I, we both hated running and sweating and to us Gym was just a waste of time. One Tuesday afternoon started off like any other. Mrs. Pelly called every students name to take attendance and then we shared something good that had happened to us lately. As the day stretched on we covered our various school subjects from Math to English. Once we had completed some homework our teacher called to the class to line up single filled by the door. Dani and I glanced at one another we knew it was gym time. As we lined up I squeezed in line between Dani and our other classmate Adam Scott. As the class walked down the hallway I turned to Dani and asked what she thought was in store for our class today. She replied “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter to me.” Her response was quite unusual and to my surprise she pulled a white, wrinkled note from her front pocket. She handed me the note and I quietly opened it and began to read. The note stated “Dear Mrs. Able, Please excuse my daughter, Dani Burton from gym today. She has been complaining of a sore ankle and will be seeing a doctor to see what the problem is.” I looked back at her and all I could think to tell her was how lucky she was and how I wished I had a letter from my dad so I could skip gym class. Yet, as we walked into the dressing room Dani pulled me aside and said “You know you can skip gym with me I’ll just write a note from your father.”

I looked at her in shock but I thought deep down our plan could really work. As I tore a white piece of notebook paper from my binder Dani began composing the note. Suddenly as the bell rang we ran out to class and handed Mrs. Able our notes. As we handed them over a feeling of relief came over me because Mrs. Able hadn’t said anything to us yet. But as she continued to read my note she quickly glanced up from the little white paper and stared me straight in the eye. She pulled both Dani and I into the locker room and began to yell at both of us. Her words seem to get louder and louder as she continued to glance at me. I didn’t know what to say or do. Until she looked at both of us and in a hushed, angry tone said “both of you will be participating in class today, and I will be taking these letters to Principal Busy. She will handle the consequences from there. Now start running your laps.”

I walked out of the locker room with my face looking like I had just spent a day in the heat. I felt as if everyone’s eyes could only focus on Dani and myself. As we ran our laps I could barely hold back my tears and the only thing I could think of was why did I go through with this. Dani and I began to talk and finish our laps. I couldn’t help but be angry at her, this was her idea. Class continued and what seemed like the longest gym class in my life was finally over. The day soon came to an end. As I walked through my front door I saw my mother, trying to avoid the situation I began walking up the stairs, when a terrifying voice called to me to get back down stairs. As I walked to the kitchen my mother explained to my father what had happened, and I began to cry. My mom told me that I would be going to the principal’s office tomorrow morning. I dreaded the next day but it had come and my fate lay in the hands of Mrs. Busy.

I met Dani outside the principal’s office, we both had no idea what to expect as a punishment. Finally we both took a seat in her office. She looked at me then glanced over to Dani. Finally she broke the silence, “ I wanted to paddle both of you, but because this is your first incident I will excuse you from the paddle. But you both will be writing a letter to each of your parents and Mrs. Able apologizing for your wrong doings and explaining why you forged this letter.” I sighed with relief, but I knew that just because my ideas sometime seem like the greatest plans are not always the wisest of plans. From that day on Dani and I never really complained about gym class and we never thought of forging another note again.

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Hi, my name is Brittany Culp. I'm a Nursing student at the University of Southern Indiana and I love shopping.