Baby Daddy

Do you think that men should get to leave work for paternity leave? In all honesty, my answer to this question would have to be no. Am I being out of line and not treating men and women equally? One difference commonly known between men and women is the idea that only a woman can create new life.  Sure, a man has to be a part of the action; but who is actually having the baby here? Going into labor, as I hear, can be extremely painful and agonizing. It’s no walk in the park. A woman needs to be able to fully recover from this shocking new life and the after affects that happen to a woman’s body. 

Nowadays, men are taking time off for paternity leave, and I personally think that the idea is rather silly. A previous High School teacher of mine reportedly took three weeks off of work, paid, so that he could “bond” with his new child. So, he was compensated to sit on his butt while they paid another teacher to do his job. He should have plenty of time to bond with his child when he’s not at school, but men can take time off for these things. Let’s just say the guy seems pretty shady to me anyway, and I have a hunch that the only reason they even let him take paternity leave is so the district could begin searching for a better replacement teacher.

On the other hand equality has always been the goal for things here, and I assume that not many men take paternity leave anyway. It’s just a few instances like this that seem silly to justify, but, hey, I am only one vote in the matter. 

I lost my job to a Kindle…

Today, the well-known bookstore, Borders announced bankruptcy, accounting for over 6,000 employees to lose their jobs. Borders is now closing 30 percent of their businesses nation wide, including 16 more closings in Illinois, most of which are supercenters. Last month also marked the closing of Border’s giant two-story building on Michigan Avenue. Who’s the culprit capable of such a monstrous thing? Is the bookstore’s competitor, Barnes and Noble, reliable for this disastrous mess? It could very well be possible. I, by chance, have a different perspective on the matter. It’s called E-Readers: Kindles, iPads, and Nooks. E-Readers are starting the book wars, and companies like Border’s are found at the bottom of the marketing barrel because of this.

I wonder if at this moment the CEO’s and cooperate leaders of Border’s are just kicking themselves about the lack of effort to support an e-reader with a better, faster, and quicker approach? If you think about it, how far is this going to go before all books are converted into tablet readers? Border’s Kobo, is probably one of the least familiar tablet readers on the market, and a reason for this would have to be that they waited so long to endorse this sort of project. Who would have thought a machine would make a paper book obsolete? The idea sounds cool at first, but I don’t ever want to see a world without paper books…this sort of feels like Fahrenheit 451. Ok, not really. It does seem rather menacing though how people are losing their jobs, and one of my favorite hangouts is in jeopardy on account of this trendy piece of machinery. The fight is on for E-Readers, who will win the war? Or will Amazon’s online approach amount to the non-existence of actual bookstores? For the sake of Border’s, as well as Barnes and Noble, I hope this trend dies out before it wipes out everything an old school book nerd stands for! 

Borders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

by Reuters

http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2011/02/borders-files-for-chapter-11.html

May the Advertisements Adhere You.........get it?

The Super bowl is an event that people all over America recognize as a time for family, fun, food, competition, and best of all COMMERCIALS! Super bowl commercials are, for most people, the central entertainment for the night. A good laugh and some wicked, new stuff on the market is the main reason as to why people can’t help but (for once) keep the channel on FOX when the program is suspended for commercials. Each commercial cost companies a cool three million dollars for a brief, but intriguing, thirty-second spot in the lineup.

One of my personal favorites, and an interesting addition to the 2011 set of Super bowl commercials was the Volkswagen: “The Force” commercial that turned out to be the number one commercial of the year, according to Fanhouse,com. What could they have done to achieve such a brilliant commercial? It’s emotional views and logicality lead to the popularity and success of this one-minute commercial.

According to Rottenburg, a commercial advertisement…”is a short argument that makes an obvious policy claim, which may or may not be explicit: You should buy this product”(p71). Volkswagen had several modes of persuasion that lead to the success of their humorous claim of policy. They used traditional values of family and security to draw in the audience of the average parent. The child moving through the home in a Darth Vader costume made people chuckle at the imagination of a child, and appealed to both children and young adults that know (of) Star Wars, along with the powers of “the force”.

The commercial was a great success due to the fact that no one was excluded from the audience; it contained something for everyone. The values were simple and wholesome. I think this offset the idea that this company was actually selling something, (in a good way) because it took away from the aggressiveness found in some car commercials.  The key to the success of Volkswagen’s claim was its light-heartedness and mild humor. The ad wasn’t vulgar or viciously attacking a certain group of people (cough, cough-Groupon.com), and that is why it became the top commercial of Super bowl XLV.

Hey kid…what do you want to be when you grow up?

Do you remember being asked what you wanted to be in the 5h grade? What did you say? Well, most likely it wasn’t the same thing you aspire to be today. A new study projects an interesting form of European ideology that suggests kids start training right out of middle school for jobs that only require vocational training opposed to learning with the idea that they will be attending a four-year college. I believe that this program, which relies on the response of middle school kids, would hurt America’s children more than it would help them.

The article discussing this profound issue was found at Yahoo.com by the informative title: “Study says college isn’t for everyone”. Liz Goodwin wrote this intriguing article based upon a study done by Harvard University.

School is a place where everyone has a chance to become the President of the United States. A classroom is a place that doesn’t judge you, but teaches you with the promise that someday you will be greater than it. A program lead by a European country is obviously going to work in a European country, but who is to say that a learning style such as this will be held successful in this country. The article states that the point is not to profile children into taking these opportunities, but I can’t seem to agree with that. Children don’t always know what’s best for them.

I believe the education system tries to excel everyone equally by giving him or her the same opportunities and chances. A child that struggles in school doesn’t deserve to be punished and thrown into another field just because he or she doesn’t excel quickly enough; I feel that a system that gives children a chance to give up will do this to them. What struggling children need is a good teacher to inspire them to be anything in the world, not a person telling them that there is an easy way out of this solution.