Paper @ MindSay 
school
Well I am in a better mood today. Nobody lost life or limb yesterday. Scared poor Randy that I wasn't in one of those killing moods. I think he thinks I am plotting his demise to collect insurance money. Silly man, I don't have enough insurance on him yet for that plan!
After choir practice yesterday, I have deiceded J the volunteer who is working this year's school choir will NOT be the one who teaches my kids and I how to play guitar. We will go with the orginal plan of action. I teach the basics and once TKD is done (to 1st dan) we will stop at that academy and go to the small lil mixed marital arts academy in town and find a guitar teacher. The man drives me crazy! He has had no formal musical schooling and treats the kids like adults and the one teacher and me as if we were children and don't know how to read music let alone read the words on the sheet music. My gods the teacher who is helping is playing an older Gibson guitar and knows how to play it! Plus she can read music and i think since she is the 7th/8th grade teacher she can read the words! I have told the man time and time again and he has gone to my HS music concerts before that I can not only read music but gasp I graduated from highschool at the top of my class!
Anyway, I made chicken cordon blue and veggies for the kids and hubby last night before pool. Then I scarfed a philly cheese steak and fries down at the Pub!:D I did rather well for myself last night. I won 1 out of 3 games last night. I was hitting nothign but slop shots in my second game and then the old lady i was playing against got on a good run. My Gods if I was happy to win one of hte games! This old lady is in her early to mid 70s and she has been playing since her early 20s! Their team consistered of the old lady, two of her daughters, one of her granddaughters, and another girl who played pretty well. We lost our over all match by two games. But we all still had fun! As Justin the bartender stated: "Ya'll should have ordered the mushrooms for a snack! Then I could have slipped in some wwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooohhhhhhhhhh mushrooms on you and you would have shot better games!" Such a smart ass!
Today the kids went to school an hour and half late! My Mommy reitred officially yesterday. Actually it is Friday but she won a 24 hour off award via the gov't so she tookt hat as a day off and then jsut requested 2 days of her 7 weeks of vk they have to pay her to take the rest of the week off. The hospital provided a staff pot luck. A lot of ppl were in tears over my moms retiring. She has put 20 some years in at the IHS Hospital and that doesn't include working 15 some years at another hospital! She has worked on ppl her age parents and grandparents, her age ppl, helped birth a lot of my friends and their children and she will be very much missed up at that hospital! The doctors even got a few digs on her and as they call her "opinions". They knew she was going to get them if they did wrong!:D Some of the other NA Indian ppl from other tribes had no clue until the Tribal Council Chairman stated that my mom's was born on the rezes and raised on the rezes and they were really suprised. When my mom got up to thank everyone for the gifts they got her and the hospital got her, she suprised even some of the tribal family and staff from our rez when she said that her family has been in the area as long as if not longer then the Bago tribe has been in this area. She gave dates and then stated the rez will always be home and then pointed to me and my kids and said our family feels welcomed here and has become members of various other families and you'll see me around!:D
It was great. Now it is time for the parental units to live it up for a while!:D Maybe Bingo or Casinos for them:P:D Heheheheheheheh. Anyway I got my rough draft of my paper complete. I jsut need to type it and get it submitted. And hopefully my next post I'll have some wonderful news.
I am off to procrstantat more and try not to be so moody!:D
I am actually pretty excited about tonight. After my long tiring weekend with friends over till late Sunday afternoon, I vegitated all day yesterday. I didn't do shit! I even took the fajitas I made Saturday and reheated the meat and veggies for last nights dinner! I should have used that for tonights dinner but that is okay! I busted out the patato soup I made a few weeks back and froze the left overs!
I need some help with two subjects for my next paper. We are doing a compare and contrast paper. I want subjects/topics that are orginal. DeLaney suggested Dogs and Cats. Coltin sugested marital arts (any two), Randy has made no suggestions. My girl Teri suggested Paganism vs Christanity (to indepth of topics I think) and my girl Bree suggested long hair vs short hair. The only thing I have come up with is washing the dishes by hand or by dishwasher!
I want topics that that is orginal but not a lot of research. I have to have all my homework done by Friday afternoon before I pick the kdis up from school. We are leaving for Sioux Falls for the weekend right after I pick them on Friday. We are going to our Regional TKD tourny. I can get the majority of my homework done today but I need my subjects for my next paper to do a compare/contrast chart for one of the assignments! Please help!
Anyway I have an IEP meeting today at 2:30 with DeLaney's speech teacher, then we have to blaze to TKD, after TKD we blaze home, I'll get the kids feed, Randy can get their homework and baths done and at 7, I'll blaze to the Pub. Our pool league starts tonight. Yay! I have decieded I am treating myself with a few drinky drinks tonight! I need them! :D
I can't wait! Tuesdays are definatally going to be my night!
This Whole Damn City
This whole damn city wants me out of it.
The weather wants me out, anxious drivers on St. George want me out,
Long lines at the TTC stations want me out,
Man on the corner on his cell phone wants me out, and all the other pedestrians, too.
My textbooks and homework forgotten at home, want me out.
The other students in my 9:00 class want me out (I talk in my sleep.)
All the goddamn paperwork the bureaucrats can muster wants me out.
My train, late again, wants me out.
My ticket, which I neglected to punch twice, wants me out.
Businessmen and women want me out, more room for them.
Pretty girls who don't talk to me want me out.
Ones that do make it dangerous to stay.
Their boyfriends want my eyeballs gone, want to pull my tongue out.
The skyscrapers want me out.
Rogers Center wants me out, but also wants to be SkyDome again, and to feel the Jays
win one more series.
Michael Lee-Chin's Crystal, hanging precariously over Bloor, wants me out
(of its proud dangerous shadow.)
This city will not stand for my indecision, and will share nobody.
If I cannot live and love here, I must not stay.
If it wanted me forever, I would not return.
KOR-SAW
First off, I want to thank those who gave me ideas... It took me awhile to finally write something, and honestly... I'm not sure if it is really that great of an argumentative essay... But it works... Here is my 5 page BLAH... Haha... Enjoy!
Textbook Tragedy
Growing up, many children dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, astronauts, teachers, and so on. As they come to the end of their high school experience though, they are rudely awakened by the possibility of never realizing their dream due to the prohibitive prices of higher education. College prices are skyrocketing out of reach for the average middle class high school graduate. Tuition fees can increase about 32% during the course of a four year degree, at a boost of approximately 8% annually. But, assuming one could conquer the extreme tuition expenses through scholarships, loans, grants and savings; let us look at another often overlooked factor of this imposing problem.
One aspect of college expenses that seems to be increasing at an exponential rate is the cost of textbooks. College textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation within the last twenty years, and have followed closely behind tuition increases. This has become quite an issue for the average college-age American because, price of textbooks aside, they already struggle with being financially cleared for classes. What can be done? There are several approaches that could be taken and some are in the process at high state levels. Yet, there still remains a need for a realistic solution.
In the United States, textbook prices nearly tripled from December 1986 to December 2004. American students pay significantly more for the same book than students of other countries. Sometimes the cost difference can be half again, or even up to two thirds more in price. What is the reason for this radical difference? Could it really be that printing costs are that much more in America, or is it simply that American publishers are greedier, and their priority is profit?
At an average of every three years, publishers are putting out “new edition” textbooks and selling them for a higher price. Often times, the only updates in these versions are simple sentence changes to keep up with the culture. Unfortunately, they then stop printing the old versions, and thus the old versions become obsolete and cannot be used unless there are enough in a campus bookstore stock to prevent purchasing for a period of time.
If the purpose of the writers and publishers is to help students develop a well balanced and exceptional course of study, wouldn’t they want it to be for as many as possible to benefit our society today? If publishers reduced their production costs, so that more students could afford to purchase their products, then their profit margin would remain the same while allowing more to participate in the education benefits which they purpose to pursue. Writers and publishers need to make a living too, but why not make their products affordable to the students so that college can be within the reach of more young people?
Approximately, 70 percent of high school students attend college within two years after graduation. For the other 30 percent, cost is often their main deterring factor. The percentage of students attending college is growing because of the educational requirement for most employment positions. Only the most determined middle and lower class students push forward and struggle with the cost. Many of these are often left with daunting loan repayments for years after graduation. Although the college prices may play a big factor in this fairly large number of those who never attend, perhaps appealing to the publishers is where this battle of bills should begin.
Part of the publishers reasoning has been thought to correspond with the rising secondary markets. Internet sites are booming with buying used textbooks and reselling them to students at a lower cost. To avoid the problem of a decrease in sales, publishers print Fourth, Fifth, and even Sixth editions, so that students have to purchase the newer versions. By this, they are making the value market for used books nearly zero.
Perhaps part of a publisher’s problem is in no longer being able to sell new textbooks because of the used book sales among students and the flourishing market of used bookstore companies. Their strategy then, is if they can keep putting out new editions, they will continue to make their profit. But, with the printed copies publishers sell now, they often sell their large quantity of textbooks, and that is all the profit they make until their new edition is printed and sold.
Thus, the argument for publishers could come into account that if their books are simply being cycled around, they will never make a profit and slowly go out of business. Where would our textbook industry go? Would new text books ever be published to inform us of new information?
In August, 2005, the Government Accountability Office said students could spend up to as much as $900 a year on new textbooks and supplies. This is definitely not uncommon. It is reasonable for some textbooks to be of a fairly high cost, because there is a price to pay for the graphics and even some of the information used in the material. Also, textbooks are often printed on high quality paper, whereas a common novel is printed with a lot less cost and can be printed in mass for much less.
What options do we, as college students, have? What can the teachers do about it? Students spend a majority of their time online, so why not offer electronic textbooks online or by CD? Professor Terry Lovell, at Yavapai College said, "Textbooks are 15th century technology; we need to step into the 21st century." Lovell also commented, "If we use (online textbooks) we can save up to 50 percent, and they can update as new information comes, instead of needing to replace them."
Publishers would still make a profit by charging students to gain access to internet based materials, and the cost would go down considerably for college students, because there would be the elimination of printing costs. The problem that could be foreseen, as far as profit goes, would be students sharing the access. However, realistically, students already share textbooks in an effort to save resources. Worse yet, sometimes they don’t even purchase them because of the prohibitive prices, thus losing the educational opportunity that would be provided with access to these resources. Some schools, in an effort to accommodate lower income students, purchase a library copy of certain textbooks so that students may have access. Obviously, while this is helpful, it severely limits students’ ability to study outside of the library’s hours of operation.
Bundled textbooks are the books that come in plastic wrap and have extra material included, such as CD’s and other supplemental materials. With these simple, cheap additional items, they feel they have the right to charge a large sum more. All publishers should make unbundled books an option to students and teachers, because the bonus material is often left unused.
Publishers want to make more profit and offer other materials, but if these materials are so important, they would be used more often. Teachers should have the option to purchase them separately if they decide that the materials are important to their student’s education. But, most professors admit that the bonus material is never used in their courses.
There have been many attempts to make a difference. Students have set up petitions, taken bills to be passed to state officials, sent letters to some of the publishers, but perhaps there aren’t enough students requesting that they do their best to make textbooks as inexpensive as possible without sacrificing the educational value. Also, we need to urge them to make new editions only when it is educationally necessary. Certainly it is understandable that certain new developments in science would warrant significant changes in textbooks, but is it truly necessary to reprint an entire edition of a poetry book? Does the content change so significantly?
Some teachers request new teacher’s materials, as well as updated and attention grabbing charts. By this simple request, they are causing publishers to put out new editions which in most cases are sold with a fifty percent increase from the previous edition. They edit minor things in the textbook itself and also tend to bundle some additional materials rather than coming up with the requested information that can be sold separately.
If the current trend continues, by the time babies today enter college, they will be paying three times the current rate for college tuition. Correspondingly, college textbooks will also rise to an extremely high cost. College degrees will become more important to attain for a supportive job and high school graduates will have an even higher need to complete college. If a family waits until their child reaches their freshmen year of high school to start saving for college, they will need to make and set aside $56.12 weekly to make the same amount they would if they set aside $10 a week at birth at 4% interest to accumulate $12,663.44. This, of course, will not cover the entire cost of college, but will set a good foundation for at least their first year.
In summary, it is important to find ways to make college education less expensive. There needs to be an emphasis for college textbook prices to decrease rather than increase. Education should be valued above money, and many institutions are barely breaking even to manage this standard. Publishers can make a difference, but perhaps they need a good push. Write letters, sign petitions, or even better, become a publisher or textbook author and put an end to the madness of the outrageous expenses of education.
Bibliography:
FinAid Page, LLC; Mark Kantrowitz, Publisher. (2008). Tuition Inflation; Savings Goals. Retrieved 2008, from http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml
Kinney, D. (2007 , May 28). Parents: It’s never too early to start saving for college. Retrieved April 2008, from http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=6123
Kirst, M. W., & Venezia, A. (2003). Undermining Student Aspirations. Retrieved 2008, from http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0203/voices0203-undermining.shtml
Longley, R. (2005, August). GAO Probes College Textbook Price Increases. Retrieved April 2008, from About.com: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/gaobookcosts.htm
Meurer, D. (2008, March 11). Yavapai College board approves tuition increase. Retrieved April 2008, from http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=53274
The Editorial Board. (2008, April 10). Retrieved April 15, 2008, from New York Times: http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/that-textbook-costs-how-much-200/
The State PIRGs. (2005, February). Retrieved April 2008, from Make Textbooks Affordable: http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/newsroom.asp?id2=15618
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