Monday, September 15, 2014

Civics 101: What's Missing from the Article

To begin this blog, I would like write a response to the article quoting my classmates that was recently published in the Rapid City Journal.


As a student of the St. Thomas More High School senior class, I am upset with the negative angle employed by Meredith Colias in the article entitled “C-SPAN bus rolls into town, but students still skeptical of political process.” Having witnessed the interview, I can attest that the quotes in this article were small sections of opinions from a fraction of our 240 students, taken out of context, to paint a picture of us that is not accurate. In addition, the statement about our students’ political participation was skewed; our students took trips to Pierre and Washington D.C. last year and have attended City Council meetings in the short weeks of this school year— not just “to satisfy class requirements.”
My class is upset to have been represented in the way Ms. Colias wrote, and we are embarrassed to have shed a bad light on our teacher, Mrs. Freidel, and our school. Although I am disheartened by the negligence shown in Ms. Colias’ writing, I am thankful that my class had the learning opportunity that this unfortunate encounter with the media supplied.  


2 comments:

  1. I agree wholeheartedly with this blog post. It was short, sweet, and got to the point quite nicely. I especially found the emphasis placed on the fact that quotes were used out of context really improved the quality of this post. The additional point of how a few students does not define an entire school is extremely valid and should have been considered in the writing of this article. All in all, this was a great post that gives great criticism of the article.

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  2. I agree with Abbey when she mentioned that you cannot from a few students words make a generalization of a whole school or all teenagers. I also admired the tone of her statements, in how she held her own opinion and wasn't afraid to say so. Finally I liked how she notes that this was a learning experience for all of us.

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