Spent Game Reflection

I want to start about by saying I enjoyed the My Virtual Child program. There is nothing I disliked about it When I learned we would be doing this program for the class I was very excited! It was everything I thought it would be. I say this because it was more so hands on and it connected my readings in the book to what might be going on with an actual child in real life.

The author, Matthew Desmond visited Milwaukee to live with under privileged families to see how the eviction process takes place in America. Informing society and telling a first had experience that involved, evidence, research, and passion. With this in mind, he then wants to educate the public on how society can change and make poverty less of an issue in America today.

This documentary film explores the poverty issue in America. They follow three families who are struggling with financial difficulty due to the down fall of the economy. They interview the kids from each family while allowing them to freely express their feelings about being poor. These families do not come from the infamous welfare system. They are the victims of the market crash that led to the economic recession that started in late 2000’s. They explain how their parents became jobless or struggled to maintain and find new jobs. How they lost their homes due to being unable to pay for rent or the mortgage. All of their possessions were confiscated from the storage location due to unpaid rent. They share their tragedy to overcome the hunger and the frustrations of being poor. They also share their thoughts and dreams about the future. They all wish to have a steady job one day where they can make enough money and not live in poverty like their parents. All of them know that the only way they can escape from living in poverty is through education. They talk about maintaining good grades in order for them to go to college and pursue their future dreams.

They say that I have no impact. That my words have no weight in a planet of over seven billion people shouting to have their voices heard. In a world plagued with famine, war, and global warming, it is normal to feel as though we do not have any influence in the crises of our planet. However, I believe that change begins with just one person. Receiving the Calvin Coolidge scholarship would allow me the opportunity to transform my dreams into existence.

In the book Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author argues how challenging it is to live in a life of poverty. To prove to herself as well as others that this statement is accurate, she makes the decision to experience this lifestyle firsthand by taking low-wage jobs and recording the results. Ehrenreich took on jobs including a maid service, waitressing, and assisting the nursing home to make enough money for a place to sleep and food to eat. The work’s central argument is the fact that minimum and low wage workers face a myriad of difficulties in getting by in America; they receive very low pay, harsh treatments from their employers, and the inability to have an actual life. The author provides various amounts of evidence from her factual recordings, her personal insight as an effective technique, and rhetorical choices of ethos, logos, and pathos to support her position.

The Working Poor: Invisible in America David K. Shipler is a book that could be most accurately described as eye-opening. Shipler opens up the book on his claim that “nobody who works hard should be poor in America.” America is built upon the idea that the harder one works, the better off one will be. Shipler then goes on to explain how the poor, often times, work the hardest jobs and are put into the worse conditions, but still do not grow to become the most successful.

Society is a dangerous and ruthless beast. A person’s wish to belong in society can ultimately be their demise to not only their financial stability but as well as their social status which is ironic, for the actions they take to belong only further separate them from society. These actions are particularly common amongst poor folks as they wish to be a part of society, but their poor financial decisions to spend all their earnings on exquisite items only drags them further away from society’s acceptance. In Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Reading, “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, She describes her life as an African-American child born into a poor family who were able to manage their funds wisely and live comfortably while families similar to her’s, but to only manage to dig themselves into deep and unforgiving caverns of financial debt. I agree, for I have witnessed many cases of poverty stricken people drag themselves further into financial debt all for useless status symbols.

This past year in English has been rewarding and self-fulfilling. I entered the year as a new and improved Poppers in writing essays. A glance at my first paper- an essay on Ender's Game- and my last one in 9th grade, the This I Believe essay, is a great example of the incredible differences in my writing which quickly improved as a freshman. However, entering sophomore year I was struck with the false belief that I was done learning about how to write and that from then on would just be about gaining more experience. How wrong I was.

In Bell Hooks’ essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks addresses and clarifies the misinterpretations that people have of the assumptions made of the poor, how poor individuals are viewed in human culture and how the poor are represented on television. She helps the audience understand how these assumptions are wrong.

The process of reflection is central to clinical supervision. Launer (2003) describes external and internal factors in supervision whereby clinical practice and sharing skills are external and reflection is an ‘internal conversation.’

In a New York Times article, “Too Poor to Make the News,” author Barbara Ehrenreich focuses on the impact the recession has caused to the lives of the working poor. She begins her article by describing how the newly group, known as Nouveau poor, have to give up valuables where as the working poor have to give up housing, food, and prescription medicines. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to inform her readers who are blessed enough not to suffer like the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich’s article examines the impacts the recession has on the lives of the working poor, by demonstrating pathos, and makes readers aware of the sufferings the poor have to face.

As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.

“Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit” this quote was said by Mahatma Gandhi and it relates so well with this article “It is Expensive To Be Poor”, answer the question yourself, Is it expensive to be poor? This article is titled like that to get the audience's attention early and have them thinking ahead of reading. The author Barbara Ehrenreich is building a pre thought when she does this which helps support her claim. “It is Expensive To Be Poor” by Barbara Ehrenreich is an article posted on “The atlantic” “which is where you can find your current news and analysis on politics, business, culture, and technology”. Knowing what “The Atlantic” offers for readers this gives Ehrenreich a detailed look at who she is writing to. The article talks about poverty within america and the issues and resolutions connected to the economy. In “It is Expensive To Be Poor” Ehrenreich claim is that people in poverty are not in that situation because of self habits but because they simply do not have money at the moment. she explains that anyone

Poverty; a word that is commonly used so often when it comes to individuals being a low classed, low income, American citizen who struggle to find success and an efficient job that pays well. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s article It Is Expensive to Be Poor, published in the online news article company The Atlantic, on January 13,2014, she argues that those who are struggling to support their own family or find an efficient well paying job are obtaining no support from the self-centered government. Ehrenreich also tries to inform the readers that those who are in poverty are treated unfairly and unjust. Through Ehrenreich’s argumentative article, she tries to persuade the readers through reasoning, credible personal background and history, as well as emotional appeals.

First I will discuss reflection in action. Reflection in action is mostly about experiencing something in the moment, thinking on your feet, thinking about what to do next and acting straight away.For a nursing example of reflection in action you may be attending a ward meeting and contributing fully to what is going on. At the same time, a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ part of your consciousness is able to observe accurately what is going on in the meeting such as body language of nurses and how they communicate with one another. Reflection-in-action is something that can be developed with practice.