Carrollton High School
Carrolton, Ohio
Teacher: Carol Wilking

 

 

 

Improving Our Community

By Amanda Abel

Grade- 12

 

 

Everyone has a role in improving life in our community. Decreasing our divorce rates would improve our community. The community could be improved by the rules of the schools. The relationship between the older generation and the younger generation could also play a major role in the success of our community. Improving our lives in our community will take work from the community in decreasing our divorce rates, work from the schools and both generations working together.

 

Decreasing our divorce rates would make our community better. There are too many divorces today. In Ohio alone there is a 4.5 divorce rate, and in the United Stated there is a 4.6 divorce rate. One way that we could decrease the divorce rate is to not allow young children to get married. Most of the divorces are because young people have gotten married, thinking they were in love, and then less than two years later they are divorced.  Another way the divorce rate could be decreased is to have marriage counseling available in our community. Many people would much rather go through counseling than to go through a divorce. There are too many young children these days that are traumatized by seeing their parents get divorced. Children do not need to see this, and the community should do everything they can to help those that are thinking about divorce. Most likely the children of those that have been divorced will get divorced themselves.

 

Second, the schools in the community also have a huge role in the well being of the community.  The children play a huge role in our community and what goes on in our community.  Keeping the children safe should be a major concern of everyone. There should be a stricter dress code enforced at our schools.  A school full of students all wearing the same clothes would help form integration among the classroom. With a dress code, all the students are made to feel more comfortable by wearing similar clothes. The less fortunate students do not have to worry anymore about being made fun of or being thought of as less trendy. A strict dress code would help students learn more because they would not be distracted by someone else’s bell bottom pants or a girl’s spaghetti strapped shirt.

 

The students will soon realize that even though everyone looks similar, their ideas and abilities are so different. When these students go out in the real world to try to find a job, they will see their co-workers as being the same, but they will realize that they all have different ideas. This will enable to students to be open minded with others that they do not know anything about. Students that have a stricter dress code tend to be more clean, organized and responsible. This dress code would benefit each student to help them move forward successfully into their career and life.

 

Lastly, the relationship between the older generation and the younger generation could help our community a lot.  Older people live in fear of the younger generation these days. With all the violence involving our youth, who could blame them?

 

First of all, we need to cut down the violence among our youth. Our community does not need to be torn between two generations. The younger age group will have to become more responsible so our older generation does not have to live in fear of them. One way to do this would be to set up a program which the younger people could go and visit the older people. This would let the younger people see what the older people have to go through and vice versa. Being able to help the elderly would very much help the youth.  The elderly people would very much appreciate spending time with younger people. It would help them seem like they were young again.

 

Another way to keep these two generations from feuding is to get the younger generation involved in helping the community. This would show that there are nice responsible young people out there.  The community should share the good things that these young people do with everyone. There are many good things that young people do for older people and their community, but nobody knows about these things. If a young person were to go out and shovel snow for his neighbors after a huge snowstorm, it would never be known by all of the people in the community. The only things that people know about are the bad and dangerous things that these youngsters do.  If a young kid were to go out and shoot a dog, then everyone would know about that.  Good things shared with everyone would help the older generation to realize the younger generation is not all so bad as everyone thinks they are.  There would be many more good things than bad things that the older generation would know about the younger generation, and there would not be a problem with these two generations.

 

To sum it up, in making our community better it will take work from both generations, stricter rules from the schools and help in lowering our divorce rates. Our community is a good one, but if we want it to be the best that it can be, then it will take hard work and dedication from everyone.

 

Questions

 

Q1- How does society invest in marriage in the USA and in Manus?

In USA we invest in marriages as if they are not very necessary. Many people live together and have babies without being married. In Manus, their main goal is to get married and stay married for a long time. They think getting married is wonderful, and they have just won the lottery.

 

 Q2- Interview 10 married people. (No names.) State the length and number of each one’s marriages and a line or two of advice from each on how to maintain a long, happy relationship.

    How long they’ve been         # of Marriages          Advice

 

1. 18 months(current)                3         Don’t be possessive. It is a give and take 

 

2.   2  years                              1         Go out a lot and have fun. Be honest

 

3.   4 years(current), 7 years     2         Do surprising things for your mate,

 

4.   4 years(current), 3 years     2         Do what your partner wants you to do,

 

5.   9 years 4 months                 1        Trust your partner 100 percent.

 

6.   12 years(current), 2 years    2        Honesty and trustworthiness.

 

7.   16 years                             1         Respect, and frequent vacations.

 

8.    27 years                            1         Communication is the key.

 

9.    40 years                            1         Be honest, and give and take.

 

10.  52 years                            1         Make the relationship 50-50.

 

Q3-According to Richard Eckersley, what should our collective goal be?

 The collective goal should be to dematerialize society without reducing their quality of life.

 

 Q4-Write a worthy goal for your community.

A goal for my community would be to get the people more involved in the community and the school.

 

 Q5- Comment on the excerpts from “Tomorrow’s Child”

Children don’t get to be around their parents as much. As income grows, people will not work together but will do all they can and whatever they can to better themselves.

 

Q6- How does the fact the USA is a democracy make lawyers particularly helpful, according to Kathleen Sullivan? How does our diversity, wealth and size make lawyers particularly helpful?

Lawyers are helpful because they create a form of public responsibility and accountability that would not happen in an untrammeled democracy. Our diversity, wealth and size also make lawyers helpful. For diversity, lawyers help mediate diversity of customs and beliefs. Wealth is another one, because people look to the law to solve problems such as clean air, clean water, Medicare and Medicaid. Since we are a large society, lawyers have a lot to do. They help us set up transactions among other people in a cheaper way.

 

Q7- Ms. Sullivan claims bad practices are changed either by regulations or punitive damages. Which do you prefer and why? Can you think of an alternative?

I prefer regulation; therefore, nobody can complain about something like the temperature of the coffee. Every coffee would be the same temperature.

 

Q8- Briefly describe three ways society would benefit from the coming of baby boomers, according to the required reading.

Society will benefit from the retirement of baby boomers, because a  lot of the retirees will start their own business, hire other retirees and work for them, and they will offer services to the Generation Xers.

 

Q9- Evaluate the likelihood of President Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real impact. Give at least three reasons to back up your conclusions.

President Clinton’s anti-poverty program will not make a very big impact. The same rural areas that are in poverty now were in poverty a half a century ago. The economy is at full capacity, meaning there will always be poverty no matter how many new jobs they give to people. They give money to poor areas, but that money will only last for so long, then they will be back to poverty.

 

 Q10- Name three things Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have in common.

Three things Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have in common are they both were involved with children. Cathy became a Sunday school teacher, and Lewis visited local school for his program. They both believed in the Lord. Truett did not work on