AP Synthesis Prompt In-class Practice (03-21-11)

Write an essay in which you develop a position on the effects of advertising. Synthesize at least three of the sources for support.

             From the start of ‘modern days,’ when the birth and development of mass media occurred, the formats of advertisement had been improved together. As the capitalism society encouraged more and more competitions between companies, the companies began to find the way to make people attracted by their own products-and eventually consume their goods. However, more and more advertisements don’t seem to make the overall society healthier today. They might improve the income of certain companies and give economy health by increased consumption, but don’t contribute much on the well-being of social individuals. Indeed, they even harm average people’s life under the name of free market economy.

             One of the most important features of the advertisements is that their initial purpose is to let people buy or do something which certain organizations or companies want. People may become more satisfied with a new high-quality shampoo, or more comfortable with a newly developed robot home cleaner. Also, people might get proud of themselves after donating their own precious blood to volunteering organization. And the most important point is the fact that most of our consumptions are based on such advertisements in these days. Perhaps it’s very natural phenomenon since our lives are saturated with ads today. However, in other words this means advertisements seriously interfere in our way of life. Like the dandruff shampoo, which nobody cared at all before advertisers mentioned.(# D) The advertisements, even more as the media around us developed, set the standard of our lives without our consent. It should be us who decide what we need, not the advertisements.

             In addition, today’s advertisers focus more on the profits of their companies or organization than on the general well-being of the consumers. Why people buy or do something after all? It’s because they want to be happier and more comfortable, more satisfied by those actions. If smoking cigarettes cannot do any good for the smokers, they would quit it as soon as possible. However, although there are piles of reports on the physical, social and other risks of smoking, the smokers don’t quit. Because they believe there are still some positive sides of cigarettes, for example looking cool. Then who, at the very first, set such social images of smoking? It was cigarette advertisers. I strongly doubt that they didn’t notice the possible danger of smoking cigarettes in old days. However, they made advertisements which emphasize some good images of smoking to sell their products.(# B) Although it’s bad for people’s health, they recommended cigarettes through their ads-indirectly and immorally-to make money. This is one example which shows how the desire for profit ruined the reasonable and moral role of producers, under the name of healthy and free market economy.(# F)

             There may be some positive side effects of advertisements in society, like informing people some up-to-date data(# C) and encouraging them to do social good.(# A) However, considering the most initial background for the birth of advertisements, and the advertising itself, they exist for the benefit of producers, not for the bigger social good. In present age, with the appearance of more effective media like internet, the means of ads armed themselves with more powerful accessibility and come into our lives unconsciously. And they set the shape of ‘desirable life’ regardless of our opinions, sometimes even against moral common senses. This is why the advertisements have more bad side effects than good ones. 

03 21 2011 Chang Woo Jung

AP Lang @ KMLA

Future of Education / Rough Ideas and Sources

“What is the purpose of education?”

In my opinion, the recent educational issues can be compacted into these two disputable arguments

“One genius supports one 10 thousands normal people. (Lee Kun-hee)”

-“Upbringing of gifted students” in Nation-scale

vs.

“Everybody should get the same educational opportunity”

-Removing educational polarization

What’s happening in South Korea?

1. The “highest quality” education : KMLA / Science schools in Korea

http://kimss58.cafe24.com/zero/zboard.php?id=kssline01&page=8&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=subject&desc=desc&no=928&PHPSESSID=57e97f973ddcde05e4b0deaa90d83bec This article talks about the importance of supporting and raising genius. After all, those gifted children will be the precious national resources-the resources which produce amazing ideas among each of their team.

2. Alternative education : E-woo school in Korea

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201007152056341&code=940401

This school talks about “total education reform” in Korea. It picks its new students not based on the grades, but depends on everything about the students, even including family environment. The fundamental purpose of this school is to let every normal student know their own possibilities and abilities, and produce the students with talent of cooperation.

3. Abroad institutions, famous for the quality of education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%89coles

This Wikipedia article briefly introduces the Grand ecoles, which are higher education establishments outside the main framework of the French university system. They traditionally produce most of France's high-ranking civil servants, politicians and executives as well as many scientists and philosophers.

http://www.understandfrance.org/France/Education.html

This article talks about the overall educational system in France, which concentrates on producing students with one specialty-which is one difference from Korea’s newly rising educational trend, which emphasizes the education for one student’s all-sides.

Personally I stand for the first argument: if there should be any ignition for not only education but also broader society, the answer will be prodigies. But then, we would confront with one serious question: “Who do we call as a ‘genius’?”

Here is a video clip for Taylor Mali’s “What teachers make,” which lets us think about the true meaning of education. What is education? How can we define “educating a child?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU&feature=related

What teachers make / Taylor Mali

He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn 
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?" 
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers: 
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his 
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests 
that it's also true what they say about lawyers.
Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.
"I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor," he says. 
"Be honest. What do you make?"
And I wish he hadn't done that 
(asked me to be honest) 
because, you see, I have a policy 
about honesty and ass-kicking: 
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. 
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor 
and an A- feel like a slap in the face. 
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall 
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups. 
No, you may not ask a question. 
Why won't I let you get a drink of water? 
Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home: 
I hope I haven't called at a bad time, 
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today. 
Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?" 
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are 
and what they can be.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder, 
I make them question. 
I make them criticize. 
I make them apologize and mean it. 
I make them write, write, write. 
And then I make them read. 
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful 
over and over and over again until they will never misspell 
either one of those words again. 
I make them show all their work in math. 
And hide it on their final drafts in English. 
I make them understand that if you got this (brains) 
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you 
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true: 
I make a goddamn difference! What about you


03 14 2011 Chang Woo Jung
AP Lang @ KMLA

Pink Plastic Flamingo

          After the fierce and long-lasting WWII had been gone, Americans could enjoy the sense of freedom from the pressure of wartime experience. With the recovery of economic abundance in domestic level, the American 50s are now remembered as the time of flourishing. Price, in her recent essay, took her peculiar approach to this era of productive social atmosphere with the figure of pink plastic flamingo, especially in cultural context. Using proper diction to draw the lively sketch of 50s and hiring apt examples for the detailed images of the period, Price tried to explain the meaning of pink plastic flamingo in the writing. Moreover, she also pointed out the ironical etymology of the term to catch the impact and meaning of it, which eventually supports her idea quite efficiently.

           The first important feature of Price’s writing is the usage of appropriate dictions. From the very start, she used “splashed” and “boldness,” in which contain the remarkable impact of pink plastic flamingo. Through this terminology, her essay gives the hint of what this newly rising trend in 50s influenced on the American society-she is indirectly saying the huge impact of pink flamingo. Also, at the example of Miami beach’s Flamingo hotel in 1910s and 1920s, Price mentions “wealth and pizzazz” as the example of pink flamingo’s popular social image in old America. While the Miami beach story focus on the meaning of flamingo itself, the quote from Tom Wolfe effectively conveys the nuance of “pink” to the readers. The “sassy pink” color was one of the ‘electrochemical pastel’ hues produced under the idea of forward-looking, rather than old-fashioned. Together, these dictions she used imply the background atmosphere of 50s, when there was a compensation psychology of Americans about terrible wartime experiences through the fashioning of pink flamingo.

           While Price’s vocabularies give readers the social nuance of pink plastic flamingo, the anecdotes she quoted produce the minute phase of American 50s. She wrote about the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, in 1946. It says, when the pink flamingo was located in the middle of desert, the impact of this ‘sassy’ symbol became even more striking. Furthermore, Price wrote about the motels, restaurants, lounges and other building with the pink flamingo concept. These examples show the reason behind such great popularity: pink flamingo was the symbol of brightness and freshness after hard war, and American people in 50s already accepted it as an emblem of productivity and wealth. The most fundamental question under her anecdotes and examples is nothing but straightforward. “Why pink plastic flamingo became the symbol of American 50s?” And Price answered to the question by herself, providing the significant social evidences from history. She took some historical images of flamingo as the sun God Ra of Egypt, and flamingo in Mexico and Caribbean. Emphasizing the specialty of flamingo itself, there are enough examples in her essay which support socioeconomic trend of flamingo in American 50s.

           Lastly, Price questioned the irony of the terminology itself. “Why it’s ‘pink’ flamingo, as if they could be blue or green?” This is very curious point indeed, since every flamingo is pink naturally. Additionally, she focused on the fact that plastic flamingo products are even more pinkish than the actual one, while the real flamingo itself is already quite noticeable in color. Through this ironical situation, Price emphatically conveying the meaning of pink to Americans in 50s. As she mentioned, the bright sassy pink became popular trend for the Americans who experienced Depression and WWII. Maybe the hard times they went through are the strongest reason for putting ‘pink’ in front of the word ‘flamingo’, which is already pink-so to produce brighter image from it. By pointing out the etymology, Price explained why the richness and ampleness of pink color had such huge social context in 50s, like Elvis Presley buying a pink Cadillac, not blue or green ones.

           In conclusion, we can understand from Price’s writing that social atmosphere of 50s created the tempting image of pink flamingo, and brought the syndrome all over the States. Through the usage of diction, examples, and question to basic etymology, Price successfully crafted her essay, making her readers notice the social relationship between American 50s and pink plastic flamingo.

03 08 2011 Chang Woo Jung
AP Lang @ KMLA