Discussion Prompts Week of 7/6

1. The first source I’d like to do an annotation on is an article titled “Why some principals say screening students can actually help schools hang on to diversity.”  Throughout the article, the author argues how the entire screening process can actually increase diversity rather than past beliefs that argue how it actually hinders it. Using statistics and quotes from faculty and staff of various schools, the author does a great job at getting his point across to the reader. One principal said it was difficult to ensure diversity through screening because the city doesn’t provide the schools enough information such as the socioeconomic status of the student. However, the process can still be integrated to help diversify schools. I feel that the incorporation of the quotes helped the article flow nicely and the quotes raised interesting questions. One of them being what factors do schools priories the most when trying to diversify schools better?

This article raises the question whether screening is good or bad for schools. I am going to use this source to argue why it can be beneficial and use another source I found to show why it may not be. I feel that it is important to show both sides of it because it is a heavily debated topic. I would also like to show how beliefs may be different across different types of schools and depending on where it is. This article also includes the importance of diversity and why it is so essential in schools. I want to show why diversifying the education system is important so this source helps with that.

2. The section under the subheading “A lack of privacy makes anxiety worse” intrigues me because I feel like I can resonate with it. Just from prior experiences, I tend to feel more comfortable doing work while no one else is watching or judging. When people are, I feel pressured and as a result, makes the work lesser quality because I just want to get it done as fast as possible. When I am by myself, I have the time to think through and hopefully produce better work. The author is doing a great job at explain responses by people to then prove her points. The author is explains how women tend to be more comfortable when they aren’t in a large open spaces and how there are often places they go to settle down a bit and avoid all the eyes on them. The author uses the responses and builds upon her argument which is really effective.