Technology or Teacher?

Throughout my years of middle and high school I have really enjoyed the feedback given by teachers to my writing, which has grown and progressed over time. I believe that my writing would have ceased to improve if the various pieces of advice were never shared with me and for this reason I believe that the Robo-Reader should not be used to grade papers. Sure technology can get many papers graded much faster than a teacher can read even one as seen in Source B, “an e-Rater can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds”, but why should the convenience of time take the opportunity to get to know a student’s ability away?

Many people express their feelings and thoughts more in depth when writing class papers and essays, especially high school students. When the teacher reads and grades the assignment, it provides an opportunity to see their perspective and understand a different way of thinking. Not only does this help build relationships between teacher and student, the feedback allows the student insight on other useful ideas or tactics to utilize. Torie Bosch states that teachers are more or less inconsistent graders and so the creation of software that matches the grading of professionals is of substantial difficulty (Source D). I think many students would agree that overall teachers in McFarland are extremely consistent when reviewing student work. Also if the reader would be inconsistent for being unable to identify well with professional grading, it should not be used. As shown by Steve Kolwich, “But can a machine that cannot draw out meaning, and cares nothing for creativity or truth, really match the work of a human reader?” (Source A). A paper graded by a teacher or this new software would make for completely different experiences as the two would be searching for different criteria.

I also feel that using this Robo-Reader and E-reader software will cause the writing of people all across America to become all too similar as well as change the teachings and freedom of the English language. Michael Winerip states that “if you’re not allowed to use a sentence fragment, if you’re not allowed to use a, you know, short paragraph, sometimes that can be very dramatic. And, if those are breaking the rules, you’re going to get a more and more homogenized form of writing when the joy of writing is surprise” (Source E). As a high school student that writes many papers over the course of a year, I like having the freedom to apply my voice and style by repeating statements, making some lines shorter than others, and so on. With a Robo-Reader my creative rights would be stripped from me and I would quickly be made to conform to some boring style and mold of writing that I wouldn’t enjoy, thus taking away the fun and exciting essence that writing can have. This will give writing a bad name over the years and make students less motivated to construct a solid paper.

Though these new software programs may make work easier on the professionals, it does no justice to the students and benefits us in no way, shape, or form. True that it may be able to return papers quicker, but I would much rather wait and have personal feedback over that of a machine that searches for nit-picky things. Writing deserves to be graded upon its creative basis and I know that teacher will consider that whereas this software will not.

Not So Simple Divisions

After reading the text “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide” by Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, it definitely put into perspective just how much the class lines are blurred sometimes and how different everyone’s lives are. The class cuts don’t really fit everyone, but they serve more generally in hopes to classify large groups of people in a wide range. How is that effective? How is that efficient? It isn’t.

 One of the passages that caught my attention in this piece was in the very beginning. The text states “It has become harder to read people’s status in the clothes they wear, the cars they drive, the votes they cast, the god they worship, the color of their skin”. I could not agree more with this! I know so many people that are in financial troubles that try and wear nice clothes and have nice material things so people don’t question their current financial state. It all almost serves as a cover-up method sometimes, just so they can hide. To me this is almost irresponsible because all of that money could be going to much better things, like daily necessities and even bigger things like health bills and whatnot. My family is definitely not rich by any means, but I can still afford to buy a few things here and there when I want within reason. It’s always been a good system and I understand that my parents aren’t made of money; they made that clear long ago. Everyone comes from a different background and financial situation, but people’s actions nowadays don’t necessarily dictate how well off they are and for this reading people has become very complicated and the divisions of the social class identities are now inaccurate.

Towards the end of the reading a second excerpt that I could identify well with was that of “The scramble to scoop up a house in the best school district, channel a child into the right preschool program or land the best medical specialist are all part of a quiet contest among social groups that the affluent and educated are winning in a rout”. Overall this is 100% true and straightforward. Those that have more knowledge and are financially of a higher class have a much better shot at getting a good education and foundation for their children, though they may not always come right out and tell people that that’s what they’re competing for. In McFarland, we have an amazing education system and the land is so expensive because of property taxes, but of course, everyone wants to move here because of schooling. With that said, it only makes sense that those who can afford the high prices will be more apt to move here than someone with less cash to give. I’m grateful that my parents allowed me to grow up and be nurtured by such a great community for so long and feel for those whom aren’t able to have the same experience as I. Across the globe it is a silent battle to get the best of the best and that causes the divide between the rich and poor to be seen clearly. The rich will keep getting richer and poor poorer for they will be trying to keep up and compete.

Financial status in the United States has been a hot and controversial topic for quite some time, and though I can’t say that the divisions between classes will ever be set clear or completely accurate for each American, I know where I come from that’s what matters to me. Americans will always come from different financial situations and social classes, and that’s what makes it such a great, diverse place. Maybe if Americans didn’t judge people by looks and money, class divisions would seem much more simplistic and disappear, leaving everyone much more relaxed and happy.