Kadoka High School
Kadoka, South Dakota
Teacher: Mrs. Teresa Shuck
Have We Abandoned Excellence?
By: Fallon Riggins
11th Grade
Have we abandoned excellence? Many people have very different opinions about this subject. I don’t think that there is one definite answer to this question. I think that in some ways we have abandoned excellence and in other ways we haven’t. Here are a few ways in which we have and haven’t abandoned excellence.
There are several ways in which we have abandoned excellence. One way is technology. Some of you may read this and think, “Wait a minute, how could we have abandoned excellence in technology? Technology takes a large amount of excellence in order to come up with new technological inventions.” Yes, that is true in some ways because technology takes a great amount of excellence in school to accomplish new inventions. But the point I am trying to make is the fact that with all of these new inventions, we have made life way to easy. With the invention of microwaves, TV dinners, computers, typewriters, the telephones, and many more inventions of the 1900’s, we have shoved excellence completely out of the way.
Way back in the old days, women took pride in their home cooked meals. They would slave over a hot oven for hours and hours preparing each meal for their families. Those women took pride in how hard they worked to make their meals. Today, all you have to do is pop something into the microwave and five minutes later you have a meal.
We have also abandoned excellence with typewriters and computers. Once again, back in the old days, people used to spend hours writing letters or years writing novels. The entire constitution was not just thrown together in a matter of an hour or so by typing it up on the computer; the people who wrote it spent a long time writing it all out.
Although there are several ways in which we have abandoned excellence in the world, there are also several ways in which we haven’t. One way is in our school systems. Our schools systems recognize excellence in every way possible. Some ways in which schools have recognized students’ excellence is through scholarships, honor rolls, and student of the month programs. School systems have done all they can to recognize the students who strive to show their excellence to the world.
Another way in which excellence is still recognized is the military. I think that our military is for the most part recognized quite well. The people who put their lives on the line every day for us are recognized in several ways. They are given awards for the things that they do. People write songs about those kinds of people and they are recognized long after they are gone. I think that serving in the military can help you to show your own excellence. Being recognized for all the good that you do makes you want to do what you can to be excellent in every aspect of your life, and I think this is what the military teaches you.
Another way in which excellence is overlooked is when people choose their friends. Many people choose some of their friends for all the wrong reasons. They choose them because they are popular or have nice things. You may wonder what this has to do with excellence. Well, I think that choosing the wrong friends can keep you from reaching your own personal excellence. If you have the right friends and choose them for the right reasons such as they are there for you, and they encourage you to be the best you can possibly in every aspect of life, then this is the type of people you should choose to be around. Many people don’t think about this when choosing friends; but I think it is important, especially when you are trying to achieve your highest goals.
We haven’t completely abandoned excellence. Yes, in some ways we have overlooked it, but I don’t think we have completely abandoned it. I think that many people have tried to change the definition of excellence in order to make themselves look better. In my opinion, excellence has certain standards, and no one person should try and set a definition of excellence. Excellence is defined in many different ways. I don’t think that putting standards on excellence necessarily defines it; I think that it helps people to understand exactly what excellence is. If there were no standards on excellence, everyone and everything in the world could be considered excellent. Excellence is supposed to be something that is unique; that is what makes it great. If everything could be considered excellent, then we would have no reason to recognize it, so why would anyone want to achieve excellence?
Questions
Ask Yourself
Q1: Am I really where I want to be?
There is no definite answer to this question. Yes I am in some ways but no I’m not in others. I am not where I want to be in my schoolwork. I should be much farther ahead of where I am right now. There is no excuse for being behind of where I should be because I tend to procrastinate and do things only good enough so that they are done instead of trying hard to do my best 100% of the time.
I am however where I want to be in other aspects of my life. I like where I am at and I like my social life.
Q2: Am I moving in the direction that will enable me to make the greatest contribution?
Yes I am moving in the direction that will enable me to make the greatest contribution. I am now trying to do my best in my schoolwork so that I can achieve my goal of attending a great college or university so that I can make great contributions to the world.
Q3: If I could achieve my highest goals, what would my accomplishments look like?
If I could achieve my highest goals my accomplishments would look like I am showing my excellence to the greatest of my ability.
Q4: Do I recognize excellence and search it out or do I find mediocre acceptable and am willing to settle?
I do recognize excellence but I do not search it out. Once again that is a fault of mine. I tend to settle for things such as my grades when I could be exceeding where I am at right now.
Q5: Do I seek out people, books, movies and other things that encourage me to be the best I can be?
I don’t necessarily look for people, books, movie or other things that will encourage me to be the best I can be, but things usually seem to turn out that way. My friends encourage me to do good things and to try hard in all I do. Books and movies however I mostly only read or watch for my own interest, not necessarily to help me be the best I can be.
Q6: Do I recognize the best in others?
Yes I think I do recognize the best in others. I try to look for the more positive things about people rather than the negative. I think if all you looked at was the negative things then you would have no friends because everyone has faults. It is just how you choose to recognize them is what helps you recognize certain things about people.
Time Article
Q7: Do you agree with Morrow (paragraph seven) that: “Excellence demands standards. It does not usually flourish in the midst of rapid, hectic change. This century’s sheer velocity has subverted the principle of excellence; a culture must be able to catch its breath.”
Yes I agree with Morrow in this quote. I believe that excellence does have standards. I think that everything has some type of standard. If we did not have standards for excellence, then everyone and everything could be defined as excellent and if that was so, then no one would try to be all they can be because by definition they would already be excellent.
Q8: Interpret this quote from paragraph nine: “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.”
To be honest, I am not exactly what this quote means. I think it has to do with trouble or something bad will happen in Zion.
Q9: Argue pro and con Morrow’s contention that “Americans not yet successful (the struggling, the underclass) are apt to aim at ease, not excellence”?
I think that in a way it is good for the unsuccessful to aim at ease rather than excellence because they are less likely to fail themselves. They will feel like less of a failure if things do not turn out quite right if they don’t aim as high.
I also think that it is bad to not aim for excellence right away because if you don’t, then you will never really know what excellence is. You will always end up settling for something less of what you want or need because you will be afraid to fail.
Q10: Explain what Morrow means when he says (A) “the confusion contaminates character and disables ambition.” Do you agree?
I think what Morrow means by this is that people are scared of confusion and once they get too confused about something they lose all ambition to what they started out doing. Yes I do agree with this statement.
Q11: Argue pro and con the effect of over stimulation and under stimulation as discussed in paragraph 10.
The pro of over stimulation is that it makes excellence stand out when it is recognized. The con of over stimulation is that it makes excellence rare. It is harder to find some many people do not even try and aim for it.
The pro of under stimulation is that this keeps people from aiming to high. The con of under stimulation is that once again, the definition of excellence scares people and they tend not to try for it.
Q12: Contrast practical excellence with metaphysical excellence as used in Morrow’s last paragraph.
What is meant by practical excellence is the use of technology. All technology would be considered practical excellence because it is the practical use of knowledge.
Metaphysical excellence, however, is more the use of common sense and deep thinking.
Q13: Copy and interpret your two favorite quotes. Explain why you chose them.
Two of my favorite quotes from this selection are “Americans not yet successful (the struggling, the underclass) are apt to aim at ease, no excellence” and the other quote is “Excellence demands standards”
I completely agree with these quotes because they are both so true. In the first quote, I think that it basically means that unsuccessful people are afraid of failure.
In the second quote, I believe it means that although excellence has no definite definition, it still has to be defined in some way.