Violence in Schools: Brainstorming

I decided to do violence in schools. I'm not sure I can write a whole six pages...but I'm planning on doing some more research to get some background information. Violence in schools is prevalent in today's society. Deadly violence within schools struck fear in the public and particularly school-age youth across the nation. Starting in 1989, there has been an increase in school violence, ranging from verbal harassment, threats of harm, and violent crime. Public opinion is one of concern, especially over the recent school shootings in the past several years. A proposed solution to this could be increased education about bullying and school violence, touring speakers whose hardships have been the result of school violence, and so on. I think if school violence education is more prevalent, then it will raise awareness amongst all school levels and decline.

Hardest of the Hardcore

We read an essay called "The Hardest of the Hardcore". It was an interesting and insightful article, but heavy with facts and not a lot of solutions. The author didn't specifically state this as an issue in the beginning, either. He writes it out like a list..."using mercenaries in war is problematic for six major reasons". It is slightly boring by the end of the piece, and I was left thinking "okay, enough already". Again, he didn't put enough solutions in the piece to make it worth reading it, in my mind. I was also left with the so what? kind of mindset. However, he did laden his argument with ample background information, sources, and statistics. He provides good claims and evidence for the claims, but does not provide the solutions. It comes across as more of an informative essay then a persuasive, solution-proposing speech or piece of writing.