TOW #14 "Banksy" (Visual)

Street art is very conflicted. It is both hated and loved. It is underappreciated, illegal, and misread. Lesser-known artists are rewarded with fines, and their art is labeled as vandalism.  While prominent street artists with house hold names are celebrated for their creativity, and admired for their rebellious spirit. In my TOW I chose to analyze a true founder of street art, Banksy. Banksy is identified as the worlds most secretive British graffiti artist. He frequently paints controversial, but influential images on buildings in famous cities like New York, Los Angeles, and London. The hype about Bansky is his secretive persona, no one knows who he is, which adds to the mystery he could truly be anyone. Today Banksy is a renowned street artist with an award-winning documentary called Exit Through the Gift shop, but through all of this he has managed to keep his identity a secret since his beginnings in the 90’s.

In the picture above the first thing one may notice is the contrast between the color and the tone of the street cleaner. The drawings depicted to be on a cave are dark, and reflect an ancient look. Contrasting the cave drawings is a man wearing a bright orange vest and dark gray tones to convey he is modern. The street cleaner and his water house are sharp and boldly outlined against the cave drawings. The juxtaposition of the colors is meant to isolate the street cleaner as a different entity from the cave drawings. Banksy’s purpose is to always get people thinking, and have them wonder about what he truly means by painting this piece. Banksy skillfully uses the cave as a symbol of the past. The water hose represents technology, and modernity washing away the history symbolized by the cave drawings. The big picture Banksy is trying to portray is that the tail end of society is cleaning up things they don’t want us to see. It is unlikely for graffiti artists to be given the spotlight. He is saying that the cave drawings are washed away without a thought, like graffiti. The two symbols placed together represents that the theme is history being erased by futuristic needs and wants.

I admire Banksys piece on many levels, I find the concept extremely intriguing and before viewing this piece I never gave graffiti being washed away a thought. Banksy made me think about the past and modern times, which achieved his purpose.

It’s controversial, and conflicting, but graffiti, like the historical drawings of the past is part of today’s culture that we should preserve for the sake of tomorrow.

TOW #13 "Malala Yousafzai Noble Peace Prize Acceptance Speech" (Text)

I’m 16 years old going on 17 struggling to write an AP English TOW, while Malala Yousafzai is a 17 year old Nobel Peace Prize award winner changing the future. Malala called upon world leaders to make education available to ALL children. For most people accepting the trophy is the ending and they have achieved everything they could, but for Malala this is just the beginning. Shes leading a fight for 66 million girls around the world who are deprived of education. “This award is not just for me,” she said during her speech. “It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change. I am here to stand up for their rights, raise their voice … it is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education.”Malalas speech was informative, cheerful, and powerful enough to start a movement called #thelast. #Thelast is campaign to stop denying children from education. Malala uses rhetorical devices such as repition and rhetorical devices to call upon her audience to take a stand and make an action. Although Malala addresses girls, her audience encompasses everyone. “Let this be the last time that a boy or a girl spends their childhood in a factory.

Let this be the last time that a girl gets forced into early child marriage.

Let this be the last time that an innocent child loses their life in war.

Let this be the last time that a classroom remains empty.

Let this be the last time that a girl is told education is a crime and not a right.

Let this be the last time that a child remains out of school.

Let us begin this ending.

Let this end with us.

And let us build a better future right here, right now.” She repeats the phrases “Let Us” and “Be the Last” to notify that her audience is collective, and everyone should be involved in her #thelast movement. She ends her speech with a final thought and a rhetorical question saying “  Why is it that giving guns is so easy, but giving books is so hard?”

Why is this the case? She asks her audience the question and makes them ponder upon it, there is no answer to this question but there is a driving force to why we should change this pattern.

Malala Yousafzai does an excellent job of proving her purpose of starting a movement. Every time she gives a speech I am blown away by her thoughts, and the motivation she has. It’s amazing to see a girl at the age of 17 changing the world.

TOW #12 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (IRB)

Started from the bottom now we here? In Malcom Gladwells book Outliers he examines in most cases that phrase is simply not true. As much as we want to believe a heartfelt rag to riches story it’s quite rare to see. No one actually starts from the bottom according to him, there are many factors that help aid your way to the top. Gladwell looks at various cases of individuals or groups who reached success without a humble beginning. His purpose of writing this book is to convince his readers that success is absorbed from our surroundings and how we manipulate what is around us. In order to appeal to his audience Gladwell doesn’t attack his readers with large scientific words but instead he takes a more casual approach. He knows his readers aren’t all going to be psychologists so he tries to keep the book from being dry by using human examples and human experience. Gladwell is a experienced writer for the New York Times and Washington Post, and conducts many experiments on the thought processes of psychologists. Although he is quite experienced he rarely ever mentions himself in the book. He talks to his reader as if he is reading them a story about famous icons that the audience can identify easily. Gladwells appeal to logos and narratives give his audience information they need about rethinking the idea of success.

TOW #11 "Like A Girl" Lauren Greenfield (Visual Text)

Everyone has heard the phrase “you run like a girl” but what exactly does this phrase mean? In an experiment held by Lauren Greenfield, a documentarian and brand ambassador for the company Always she explores what “like a girl” really means. She asks a group of teenage girls, older men, and young boys to act out throwing like a girl, or running like a girl. They make stereotypical efforts, and lack strength in these actions.  Then pre-pubescent girls are asked to do these same actions, but their attempts are serious and confident. The message Greenfield is trying to send is to change what “like a girl” means, and to build loyalty to her brand.

Greenfield is a Sundance film festival award winner, and commonly talks about issues with the new generation.  Competitor brands like Dove, and BBDO have been trying to run confidence campaigns for years, but none have been as effective as this one commercial. The true power behind this advertisement lies in the juxtaposition of the responses. The older audience is brought forward first and humiliates actions of girls, then after bringing humility to the phrase like a girl, pre-pubescent girls are shown. Their actions represent force and power, and capture what “like a girl” should be.

 For years companies have been trying to send a message of women empowerment, but none have come as close as Greenfields attempt. Through her juxtaposition she spreads the message that young girls believe in themselves, and believe that they are powerful but as they age they lose this feeling and think of themselves as less strong as males. Of course the purpose was to bring loyalty to the brand, but to also start a new movement of self-confidence. After seeing this video the phrase “like a girl” isn’t really an insult, and should be turned into a compliment.  

TOW #10 "A New Paradigm for Accountability: The Joy of Learning" (Text)

Image Credit

More than 12 years ago a program called No Child Left Behind started, but today how well has that program worked? In an article on the Huffington post by Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University, and a frequent blogger explores how this program crushed children’s curiosity. Ravitch shares how No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top programs have left American education demoralized. She says that common core tests are the reason why lots of students are failing, which is why we are nowhere near the top. Being in the field of education Ravitch understands what her students really need, and what they have been missing all this time. In order to make a point about the failure of NCLB she suggests a program called No Child Left Out. Because in attempt of creating NCLB the school system eliminated things that disrupted children’s curiosity.

 She poses rhetorical questions such as “How many children had the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument?”

“How many children had the chance to play in the school band or orchestra?”

“How many children participated in singing, either individually or in the chorus or a glee club or other group?”

Her purpose of the article was to get people thinking about how creativity, and how innovation has now been eliminated from school systems. Children now don’t have the ability to think out of the box and use their imagination with strict programs. Ravitch does a wonderful job of proving her purpose by her use of questions, without answering these questions the audience is forced to think about what the fate of schools has now come to. School systems should require more work than test prep for something that will soon be forgotten.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/a-new-paradigm-for-accoun_b_6145446.html