Kadoka High School
Kadoka, South Dakota
Teacher: Teresa Shuck
What is Excellence?
By: Heather Gartner
11th Grade
What is excellence? The definition of excellence is among the finest of its kind. Through the years, “excellence” has changed, though not the definition of the word, but its standards. Too many people take “excellence” for granted in anything from home cooking, to work ethic, to food production. The only area where there is more excellence is in schooling and technology.
Today home cooking is not what it used to be. Before all the fast food and fancy sit down restaurants, the women would work for hours to prepare a delicious full course meal. After the restaurants moved in, people rarely cooked, let alone spent hours preparing a meal. Years ago women would pride themselves in how well they could cook. They would make everything from scratch: bread, pie, cake, noodles. They could not go to the general stores and buy things pre-made. Women would rather make things from scratch so they could say it was home made. Today there are people who do not even know how to cook.
Work ethic is another area where excellence has really been abandoned. If you listen to stories of elderly people, they will tell you how the work they had to do was so much harder than the work people do today. It used to be people were hired and fired, if that happened to be the case, on how well they did the job. The amount of schooling people had or how well to do their family was did not determine what kind of job they would do. How hard they worked and their skill did determine what kind of job they would get. If they worked hard to learn a trade and worked even harder to carry out the deed, they would be able to keep the job they had or move on to a better job. Today machines and assembly lines have replaced old fashion factory workers. Jobs today do not depend on how well you can do a job, or how efficient you are, they depend on how much schooling you have had.
Food production is an area where it can be argued that “excellence” has been abandoned. In recent years, food production numbers have increased considerably, but the people involved in food production do not show any more excellence than in past years. Just as in work ethics, food production now relies mainly on education. Crop growing and the raising cattle require computers to calculate thing like fertilizer ratios, feed ratios, and how much seed to plant. Instead of farmers planting fields and raising cattle by their best judgment, with the use of technology any one can grow crops and raise cattle productively. Are they really displaying excellence in food production?
Excellence has been abandoned in many areas, but education is one area where it has been improved upon. Education was once scarce and hard to get. Schoolhouses were few and teachers were fewer. As a result, only the wealthier families could afford to send their children to school, and there were not many educated people. Today education is a must. Schools and teachers are more abundant, so it is easier for children to get an education. More people are also attending colleges and universities as well as high school because of scholarships. Today almost every job requires an education of some kind. The higher the education a person has, the more important and higher paying job they will be able to get. Work ethic and skill were once the requirements for a job, but today education is the main requirement.
Another area where excellence has appeared is in technology. Because of higher education, technology has come a long way in the past years. Computers, Internet, fax machines, and copy machines are all examples of technology. All of the inventions due to technology make every day tasks easier, but look at it from another point of view. Although technology has made every ones life a little easier, is it the cause of abandoned excellence in every other area?
In areas such as home cooking, work ethic and food production has been forgotten “excellence”, but there are areas like education and technology that have lead to those little inventions that make life easier. It is the little inventions that make life easier, but they also cause people to be slack in what they do. It appears that excellence has been found in education and technology, but has it really only taken excellence away from all other things? You be the judge.
Questions
Q1- Am I really where I want to be?
I am where I really want to be because I am presently trying to further my education to better my life as well as others.
Q2- Am I moving in the direction that will enable me to make the greatest contribution?
I am moving in the direction that will enable me the make the greatest contribution by continuing through school so I can some day pass my knowledge to others through teaching or any other field I decide to major in.
Q3- If I could achieve my highest goals, what would my accomplishments look like?
If I could achieve my highest goals my accomplishments would be helping those that have helped me through community service and other organizations.
Q4- Do I recognize excellence and search it out or do I find mediocre acceptable and am willing to settle?
Q5- Do I seek out people, books, movies and other things that encourage me to be the best I can be?
I do seek out people, books, movies, and other things that encourage me to be the best I can be because if I do not push you limits and strive for the best in myself no one else will either.
Q6- Do I recognize the best in others?
I do recognize the best in others because I want others to recognize the best in me. Although the “best” is not always the first thing you notice, it is present in everyone.
Q9- 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 do agree with Morrow. With out standards how can you determine that excellence is being shown? There would be no difference between the good and the bad.
Q7- Interpret this quote from paragraph nine: “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.”
The quote “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” Means that Amos wanted to sent trouble or hard times to those who settled for what they had and did not try for excellence.
Q8- Argue pro and con Morrow’s contention that “Americans not yet successful (the struggling, the underclass) are apt to aim at ease, not excellence”?
Morrow’s contention that “Americans not yet successful (the struggling, the underclass) are apt to aim at ease, not excellence” implies that if the people would strive harder for excellence that they would be successful which may be true for some, but there are still some that do strive for excellence and are not successful.
Q9-
Explain what Morrow means when he says (A) “the confusion contaminates
character and disables ambition.” Do you agree?
Morrow is saying that the confusion of excellence hurts character and limits
people’s ambition because they do not know the standards of excellence or if
they are meeting those standards.
Q10- Argue pro and con the effect of over stimulation and under stimulation as discussed in paragraph 10.
The effects of over simulation result in under simulations like televisions and drugs,
Q11- Contrast practical excellence with metaphysical excellence as in Morrow’s last paragraph.
Practical excellence is excellence in things that are helpful, and metaphysical excellence is thinking you are doing something with excellence when in reality you are destroying the real excellence.
Q12- Copy and interpret you two favorite quotes. Explain why you chose them.
Be an individual and do what you believe in. Take responsibility for your actions. Take a good look at yourself as it you were someone else conducting a review. Anything you want to change?
I chose this quote because it is a good way to live your live, and ask yourself to try to make you a better person.
“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.” – Thomas Kempis (-1380-1471)
I chose this quote because to has a good way of saying that you can not run other people’s lives because you can not even run your own life as you want to.