Nick DiPaola's FNED 346 Blog Fall 2018

The article titled "Aria" written by Richard Rodriguez is a personal narrative explaining the struggles, and positive outcomes, of being a person with heavy Hispanic background in an American school. Truthfully, I can't relate to this article on a personal level. In attempt to gain more insight on what this may be like, I searched for similar videos and articles and compared them with what Rodriguez had to say. Please note: in order to view the hyperlinks, copy and paste the URL into a new tab on your computer. #1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ANZLNtHXfo This video tells about a story where an American middle school principal banned all students from speaking Spanish while in class. Firstly, I believe that this is a terrible rule to be implemented in a school system for a variety of reasons. America is a free speaking country and these kids were being deprived of their rights while in SCHOOL. School should be a safe environment for all children where they go ...

Colin Kaepernick (middle) protests social injustice in America by kneeling for the Nation Anthem at an NFL football game. For this post, I chose three quotes from both of the following articles: "White Privelege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh, and "The next time someone says 'all lives matter,' show them these five paragraphs" by Kevin Roose. McIntosh: 1) "I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group." This quote appears at the very beginning of the article and sets the stage for the rest of it, where the author dissects the culture behind white and male privilege. She explains that males and white people are both groups that are unwilling to accept that they are privileged, however acknowledging that their peers are disadvantaged. 2) "White privilege is like a...

In the article titled "U.S.A., Land of Limitations" the author Nicholas Kristof argues that the success of a person in America is not based on talent and hard-work, but rather the financial status of their parents and the environment in which they were raised. He includes an example of the phenomenon where his childhood friend Rick Goff had all the traits to become a big success, but simply lacked opportunity from birth. Rick's lack of opportunity stemmed from the loss of his mother and an absent father. He was punished unfairly in school and dropped out for good in the 10th grade, being forced to turn to labor to support himself. I think there is truth behind this fact that opportunity can hinder one's ability to be successful. Unfortunately, this correlates with the color of skin, as the test-score gap for different races is certainly wide. What the author is saying is that although it is possible to make it from living in poverty to being in the top 10 percent fi...

My name is Nick DiPaola and I'm from Barrington, Rhode Island. I graduated in 2016 from Barrington High School and this fall semester marks the start of my junior year in college. I have two great parents and two brothers, one older, one younger. My mom works as a teacher for Barrington High which played a highly influential role in my decision to become a teacher as well. This past summer was probably the best summer I've ever had in my entire life. I got out of my last exam around May 3rd, and I didn't have class again until August 27th, so it was basically like 4 full months. The second I got out of that last exam the fun began, where I rarely spent time alone and celebrated the end of the school year with friends. On June 5th, I flew to West Palm Beach, Florida, with my girlfriend where we vacationed for a full week. We went to all different kinds of restaurants, went shopping, the beach, and enjoyed the weekend night life in downtown. This experience was surreal, as I...