Applying ethos: CGS Background Checks

In CGS we house students from our sisters schools from all over the world. The students we usually host are students that are native speakers to the language we’re learning. Many of these students have different religions than we do; some are Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, etc. Often the time they do come to our homes they are nervous and scared. The reason for this is because they’re in a new environment with people they don’t know. The principle of our school wants them to feel comforted and welcomed but how are we going to know that if we don’t if the host’s family and home isn't safe. To ensure this safety for our guests, the host’s family needs a background check. This is to ensure that the home is safe and that the family are nice wholesome people to take in another student. In CGS many of the teachers like to believe that every student has nice families and homes good enough to host another student. But sometimes that isn’t the case.  There could be a possibility that there are some actions within a home that could offend the guest. Or the house could not be fit enough for a child to be hosted. As a student of CGS I know that hosting a student is tough because that student could be very shy and speak very little. The principle most likely knows this too, so to ensure the guests safety and comfort a background check should be issued. If I were going to another country to live with someone else’s family I would like for them to get a background check. I would like to reassure my parents that it’s safe, and also reassure myself that it’s safe as well. Who wouldn’t want to be in house that’s safe and comfortable? No one I know of, so why not give the background checks? Another safety precaution for our guests can’t do any harm.

Applying Pathos: CGS Background Checks

CGS is a homey place; a place where many kids come to learn three exotic languages in the world and express themselves without any judgment. We often invite students from these exotic places and let them stay in our homes and see what it’s like to live the “American” lifestyle. CGS students also go to the countries that speak the language that they’re learning. Wouldn’t you want to go to these new places and experience the culture? Wouldn’t you want to give the students from these countries a chance to learn the life of an average American and let them create their own impressions? What a great, comfortable, safe, and culturally diverse school CGS is. But CGS is missing one safe thing and that’s getting background checks on the families that are hosting. As a student from another country I would like to know if the family that I’m staying with is safe. I wish CGS would try and ask permission from the host family if they would like to do a background check. It would reassure the students’ safety and reassure them that no harm would come to them and they would get assigned a family that best suits them. As a person who can be become quickly uncomfortable when around the unfamiliar, I know that feeling of not knowing what you’re stepping into. It’s a scary thing not only for the students that are coming from these countries, but also their parents. Think about how your parents would feel if they were sending you to another country to live with a new family for a week without knowing what the family is about. It’s a scary thing to imagine. It’s like walking through a dark room not knowing what’s there until you hit that light switch on the other side of the room. It’s scary and as CGS, the culturally diverse, homey, safe school why would we want our home stays to feel that way?

My Sentence Level Imitation on Unpaved Roads

I especially like Joan, the svelte fortyish hostess, who turns out to be a militant feminist, pulling me aside one day to explain that “men run everything-we don’t have a chance unless we stick together.” Accordingly, she backs me up when I get overpowered on the floor, and in return I give her a chunk of my tips or stand guard while she sneaks off for an unauthorized cigarette break. We all admire her for standing up to Billy and telling him, after some of his usual nastiness about the female server class, to “shut the fuck up.” I even warm up to Billy when, on a slow night and to make up for a particularly unwarranted attack on my abilities, or so I imagine, he tells me about his glory days as a young man at “coronary school” in Brooklyn, where he dated a knockout Puerto Rican chick-or do you say “culinary”(Ehrenreich 21)?

            Pave the roads please, it’s really hard to drive, and it shakes me to death, every time I go over a pothole I say “my mom’s tire-please don’t let something happen to it again.” Usually, the roads will get repaved every spring, but that hasn’t been the case for the past couple of years on my street because now we have potholes all over the place causing tire damage. It takes a lot of money to get a tire replaced now a day, so why can’t the city of Bridgeport accommodate us and say, “making BPT a better place.” If everything goes back on track, then my parents and my neighbors wouldn’t have to worry about their pockets and tires so much, making life easier for them however, I wonder why they stopped paving our roads anyway is it to “save money” if so, then they need to figure something out-or can they really “figure” this out?  

Complaints

 

Bridgeport

·         Put sidewalks in residential areas. I don’t like being almost ran over.

·         Create more magnet high schools. Not everyone can fit into Central, Hardening, and Bassick

·         Pave the roads. I don’t like being shaken to death

·         Apartment rent costing too much

Brien McMahon         

·         Get some computers that work

·         Can the kids please not say, “You’re from Bridgeport.” Like that’s a bad thing

·         Can the teachers actually try and be nice.

·         Why can’t the teachers stop bullying some of the students

·         Can the students and some teacher please learn to be grateful for the beautiful school we have. (Trust me I’ve seen waaayyyyyy worse)

·         Why can’t some of the students adapt to my culture instead of me adapting to theirs

Media

·         Stop harassing certain celebrities

Social Issues

·         Human trafficking

·         Bullying

·         Teen Dating Violence

·         Gay slurs

·         Racial slurs

·         People saying the word “retarded”

Television

·         Three minute commercials

·         The unnecessary amount of reality tv (except The Kardashians of course)

·         Infomercials

·         The crazy amount you have to pay for cable

Adults

·         Why does the adult always have to be right? Aren’t we all human and make mistakes from time to time. So why can’t they except it.

·         Abusing the adult power to put kids down

·         Not apologizing to kids when they hurt them

Social Networking

·         Why does everyone have to communicate through facebook

·         Why can’t I have the luxury of not having a facebook

·         Is tweeting about your socks really that important

·         Why are you taking pictures of food and putting it on your insta if you’re not sharing the recipe

·         Please stop with the group rates that are killing my Insta feed

·         Why are you putting quotes about your feelings on Insta? That’s for twitter, this is for pictures only.

My Refrigerator

·         Why is there only food condiments and no actual food

·         Why can’t I replace all the unhealthy food and with healthy food so I can be skinny

School

·         Why can’t some teachers realize that there are other classes that we need to tend to

Why is everything so stressful and consuming of my life. I literally barely have time to eat and shower.

 

Something Fierce; A Story about Kaela Patricia

One thing that bugs me is when a person has to write down my name and doesn’t ask me how to spell it. Why assume and end up making an ass out of u and me? Get it ASS-U-ME? I know this may seem like irrelevant information, but it’s very relevant because my name is Kaela, pronounced as Kay-la. I hate it when people have to write down my name and don’t ask me how to spell it. It’s MY name, not yours so why are you trying to spell it like it’s yours. It’s what’s on my birth certificate and how I identify myself. Why not give me the courtesy on asking me how to spell my name.

            I know what you’re saying. Why make a big deal on someone spelling your name wrong? It’s because my name is special. I’m named after my dad, his middle name is Kaylin, but my brother is the one who decided to spell it K-A-E-L-A. He passed when I was young and I didn’t know him well, so this is how I like to honor him. I also feel like my name reflects me, strong and unique. Yes, I think the way my name is spelled is strong and it’s because the “e” makes it look uniform and the “y” in Kayla makes it look really feminine and weak. No offense to the Kayla’s with a “y”.

            Kaela. It’s great right? It has many origins and meanings. Some of these origins are Arabian, Irish, and even Greek. The meanings behind my lovely name are laurel crown, which was used to represent victory and triumph in ancient Greece, slim, fair, and my favorite beloved. All these meanings represent me, which is quite interesting that my name reflects my personality; it’s not every day that this happens. I guess I have my parents and my brother to thank for that.

            A name that many don’t know is my middle name, Patricia. This name has a long history and has been in my family before; I was just so honored to receive it. This name was the name of one of my older sister’s imaginary friends. Yes you read it correctly, imaginary friend. And I know you’re probably thinking that my older sister has an imaginary friend? Well she did when she was like 10 or something along those lines. I love it! It’s not what someone who really knows me expects. I’m really quiet but when I start talking it’s a string of something fierce and powerful and in your mind you’re say, “She doesn’t seem like a Patricia.” I like that touch of unexpected with my middle name because my first name is totally me, no question.