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Graphic Organizer

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In case you forgot!

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Use this one or make your own!

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Read this carefully before you start!

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Not Taco Bell's Canon!

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pachelbel's Canon in D--Soothing music(the best version)

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When should kids officially be considered adults and why>

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through the Industrial Age

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credit : History of the Newspaper from Yannik Rockstroh http://vimeo.com/13119563

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"Dear Grads, Don't Do Something that You Love"

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(by Carl McCoy, The Wall Street Journal) - ...Commencement speakers across the country are exhorting graduates not to settle. They are urged instead to find their passion - to "do what you love." But is this the best advice for college students entering a tough labor market?

For those grads who do get jobs, the work will often be low-paying, with little in the way of long-term prospects. Some will soon go on to better jobs, but many will stay in these "day jobs" for years, waiting for their big break, waiting to be discovered - or simply waiting to find out what exactly it is that they truly love.

"Do what you love" is an important message, but it's unwise to build a career on the notion that we should all be paid for our passions. The advice captures only part of the story. It tells us how excellent work might be accomplished - by loving it - but it doesn't tell us why the work should be done. What is the point of all the effort? What is being worked toward?

The answer lies in working with a deeper sense of purpose or vocation. ...Without a higher purpose where all this love and ambition can be directed, we don't have a very useful guidepost for meaningful success. We simply have a call to discover what it is that we love, and then to do it.

Sure, there are many people doing what they genuinely love. But how many of us love just one thing? It's romantic to imagine that each person is destined for a particular career path, one capable of being discovered with sufficient soul-searching. But most people have multifaceted interests and abilities and could probably be successful and happy in several fields.

Then there are those who love things that will never pay very well. As someone who has tried living as a starving artist, I can attest that there's nothing romantic or noble about being impoverished in pursuit of doing what you love. When you're working two or three jobs, and you can't pay your bills, it doesn't matter how much you love any of them. You just get worn out.

Maybe there's another way to encourage new college graduates to think about their careers. Maybe all those commencement speakers would send more young people into the world likelier to be happy in their jobs if the speakers talked about love as a consequence of meaningful work instead of as the motivation for it.

Does the doctor love going into the hospital to see a patient in the middle of the night? Does the firefighter love entering a burning building? Does the teacher love trying to control a classroom full of disrespectful children? Not likely. But the work is performed with a sense of purpose that "love" doesn't capture.

We don't all have to become first responders or social workers. And we can't all find jobs with such obvious benefits to society. When diplomas are being handed out, though, it might be worthwhile for graduates - and the rest of us - if the popular "do what you love" message were balanced with a more timeless message to find work that, even in some small way, truly matters.
Mr. McCoy is a writer and English language instructor at the Showa Boston Institute for Language and Culture in Boston. His website is www.carl-mccoy.com. Published May 27, 2012 at The Wall Street Journal. Reprinted here June 6, 2013 for educational purposes only. Visit the website at wsj.com.
Questions

1. What is the main idea of Carl McCoy's commentary?

2. The purpose of an editorial/commentary is to explain, persuade, warn, criticize, entertain, praise, exhort or answer. What do you think is the purpose of this commentary? Explain your answer.
Please note: Daily posting for the school year ends June 7, and will resume at the end of August. "Answers by Email" resumes Tuesday, September 3rd.

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(by Carl McCoy, The Wall Street Journal) - ...Commencement speakers across the country are exhorting graduates not to settle. They are urged instead to find their passion - to "do what you love." But is this the best advice for college students entering a tough labor market?

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7 Responsibilities You Have as an American

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(by John Hawkins, Townhall.com) - You hear a lot about "rights" in America. You have a right to an attorney. You have a right to remain silent. You have a right to free speech, a right to "keep and bear arms," a right to "due process," and a right to have "equal protection under the law."

Cruel and unusual punishment? Unreasonable search and seizure? Being tried twice for the same crime? Those would be violations of your rights. We're told that we have a right to privacy, a right to have an education, and a right to worship as we choose.

We hear about individual rights, civil rights, human rights, and constitutional rights. Stop somebody from doing something he wants to do and as likely as not, he'll tell you, "I have a right to do that and you have no right to stop me. After all, it's a free country and I have my rights!"

All that's well and good, but know what you don't hear a lot about anymore?

Responsibilities.

Responsibilities are the flip side of rights. In fact, the only reason we have rights at all is because there are people who fulfill their responsibilities. Yet, if you ask people what their responsibilities as Americans are, you'll usually get vacant expressions and maybe a mumbled statement about jury duty or paying taxes.

With that in mind, here are a few basic responsibilities that you, I, and all of us have as Americans.

1) It's your responsibility to pay your own way. Nobody owes you a living and that includes other taxpayers. You have a responsibility to pay your own bills and not be a leech. That means, over the course of your lifetime, paying as much in taxes as you take out in services and direct payments from the government. If, by some horrible set of circumstances you feel compelled to go on the dole, you should at least be ashamed to take hand-outs from your fellow citizens.

2) It's your responsibility to take care of your children. If you have kids, you have a duty to take care of them. That means paying money to feed, clothe, and house them. It means being a part of their life and doing your best to raise them, teach them right from wrong, and help them have a better life than you've had. This seems to be so simple that it's practically instinctive to most people, but apparently, a lot of people don't get it.

3) It's your responsibility to look out for future generations of Americans. Whether you think of America as "the land of opportunity, "a shining city on a hill," "the land of the free and the home of the brave," or the "last, best hope of mankind," we all have a duty to preserve what's great about this nation so that future generations of Americans can experience it just as we have. How careless, how irresponsible, how unforgivable it would be if our children and our children's children have to grow up in an America that is no longer extraordinary.

4) You have a responsibility to be an informed voter. In recent years there has been a big push to get all Americans to vote. That's sort of like giving everyone a gun and encouraging them to immediately squeeze off a few rounds. If they don't know anything about what they're doing, they're as likely to hurt themselves or someone else as they are to do good. The same goes for voting. Not everyone has to be a political junky, but it would be nice if people took the time to become well-informed about the ins-and-outs of the basic political issues we have to deal with in this country instead of voting on who has the best attack ads. Being an informed voter is a responsibility. Being an uninformed voter is flipping a coin - heads, America wins and tails, it loses.

5) You have a responsibility to support and defend the Constitution. The Constitution is the "set of rules" that we go by as a people and most of the "rights" are guaranteed by the Constitution. Yet, the Constitution is under daily attack in this country by activists and politicians who feel the ends justify the means along with judges who claim to believe in a "living Constitution," which is functionally no different than not having a Constitution at all. You may not win every fight to adhere to the Constitution, but it's a battle worth fighting because no document does more to safeguard the rights of all Americans.

6) You have a responsibility to put America first. The UN, other nations, and "the world" don't really care very much whether you live or die. Not that Americans in Boston are going to shed tears if an American in LA passes on either, but we at least have a certain small, but meaningful level of kinship with each other by virtue of being Americans.

9/11 was a good example of that. Most other nations around the world said a few kind words for us and seemed to have a few days to a few weeks' worth of goodwill towards us over it. But nearly 10 years later, it was other Americans who got revenge for the fallen by putting a bullet in Bin Laden's forehead. You should always look out for your own country because it's the biggest group of people on the planet who might actually care whether you live or die.

7) You have a responsibility to be a good person. As Samuel Adams noted way back in 1779,

A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

Honesty, honor, godliness, industry, respect for the law, morality, and truthfulness are the wheels on which our entire republic rides. If the American people are no...good, then no matter how well the Constitution is written, how well we're governed, or how much good fortune comes our way, we are doomed as a nation.
Posted at Townhall.com on June 7, 2011. Reprinted here Feb. 9, 2012 for educational purposes only.
Questions

1. What is the difference between "rights" and "responsibility"?

2. What is the main idea of John Hawkins' commentary?

3. Mr. Hawkins makes 7 assertions about responsibility. For each one, write agree or disagree and explain your answers.

4. Do you think schools (K-12) should place more emphasis on teaching students what our responsibilities are as citizens? Explain your answer.

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7 Responsibilities You Have As An American

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(by John Hawkins, Townhall.com) - You hear a lot about "rights" in America. You have a right to an attorney. You have a right to remain silent. You have a right to free speech, a right to "keep and bear arms," a right to "due process," and a right to have "equal protection under the law."

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"Taco Bell's Canon"

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(by James E. Courter, The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com) - Is it true that college students today are unprepared and unmotivated? That generalization does injustice to the numerous bright exceptions I saw in my 25 years of teaching composition to university freshmen. But in other cases the characterization is all too accurate.

One big problem is that so few students are readers. As an unfortunate result, they have erroneous, and sometimes hilarious, notions of how the written language represents what they hear. What emerged in their papers and emails was a sort of literary subgenre that I've come to think of as stream of unconsciousness.

Some of their most creative thinking was devoted to fashioning excuses for tardiness, skipping class entirely, and failure to complete assignments. One guy admitted that he had trouble getting into "the proper frame of mime" for an 8 a.m. class.

Then there were the two young men who missed class for having gotten on the wrong side of the law. They both emailed me, one to say that he had been charged with a "mister meaner," the other with a "misdeminor."

Another student blamed "inclimate weather" for his failure to come to class, admitting that it was a "poultry excuse." A male student who habitually came late and couldn't punctuate correctly had a double-duty excuse: "I don't worry about my punctual errors."

To their credit, students are often frank when it comes to admitting their shortcomings and attitude problems. Like the guy who owned up to doing "halfhazard work." Or the one who admitted that he wasn't smart enough to go to an "Ivory League school." Another lamented not being astute enough to follow the lecture on "Taco Bell's Canon" in music-appreciation class.

Many students have difficulty adjusting to life in dormitories. One complained that his roommate was "from another dementian." Another was irritated by a roommate's habit of using his "toilet trees" without asking. A female student, in describing an argument over her roommate's smelling up their room with cheap perfume, referred to getting in her "two scents' worth."

Some find you can't go home again. After several weeks at school, one coed returned to her childhood house only to find life there "homedrum."

To be fair, many of the young men and women I encountered over the years are capable of serious thinking on social issues and international affairs. The Iraq War, in what one student called "nomad's land," was very much on their minds. Some were for it, some against it. The most ardent supporter was the guy who described his attitude as "gun-ho." One student lamented that we're becoming a society that "creates its individuals in a lavatory." Another worried that education reform might result in school being in "secession" year round.

When it comes to relationships, it is, in the words of more than one undergraduate, "a doggy-dog world." But I'm sure most of us could sympathize with the girl who said she resented being "taken for granite" by her boyfriend.

One struggling freshman summed it up for all of us when he wrote, "Life has too much realism." Maybe so, but I don't recommend coping like the guy who referred to getting away from it all by spending the day "sitting on a peer."

Among students' biggest complaints is that they have to write so much in college. In his end-of-semester evaluation, one honest soul complained that "writhing gives me fits." Sad to say, it's not uncommon to hear students remark on how much they look forward to being done with English.

Who knows what language they'll use then?
Mr. Courter recently retired from teaching at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill. Published July 9, 2012 at The Wall Street Journal. Reprinted here September 20, 2012 for educational purposes only. Visit the website at wsj.com.
Questions

1. The purpose of an editorial/commentary is to explain, persuade, warn, criticize, entertain, praise, exhort or answer. What do you think is the purpose of Mr. Courter's commentary? Explain your answer.

2. How many of the mistaken/misunderstood words/phrases given by Mr. Courter's students can you correct?

-the proper frame of mime
-mister meaner / misdeminor
-inclimate weather
-poultry excuse
-halfhazard work
-Ivory League school
-Taco Bell's Canon
-another dementian
-toilet trees
-two scents
-homedrum
-nomad's land
-hun-ho
-creates its individuals in a lavatory
-school being in "secession"
-doggy-dog world
-taken for granite
-sitting on a peer
-writhing gives me fits

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(by James E. Courter, The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com) - Is it true that college students today are unprepared and unmotivated? That generalization does injustice to the numerous bright exceptions I saw in my 25 years of teaching composition to university freshmen. But in other cases the characterization is all too accurate.

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Have you seen the movie "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus?"

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Have you seen the movie "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus?"

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It was inspired by a real editorial in The New York Sun.

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We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun: Dear Editor- I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say

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The Augusta Chronicle: Local & World News, Sports & Entertainment in Augusta, GA