Are 16 Year Olds Really Prepared for the Road?

Are sixteen year old children prepared to drive on American roads? Because of their lack of experience, the fact that a very small portion of teens today actually take the driver education course, and because teens frontal lobes do not completely develop until their early twenties are the main reasons why teens cars explode see fig. 1. Since teens have not experienced navigating, unfamiliar or familiar territory, they are rarely very sure of where they are going. This creates very a hazardous situation in which a teen makes hasty decisions while driving. Very few teens take the Driver's Education class in their schools for various reasons. The cost usually starts at $500 and it is hard to fit another class in a high school schedule with all the requirements. Critical decision making skills are difficult for teens anyway because the last part of the brain to fully mature is the frontal lobe. Teens can make rash, and risky decisions or not focus on obvious matters because of brain immaturity. This is another reason for high alcohol and drug abuse, high accident rates, and even the highest insurance rates among teenage drivers. There are many reasons why teens are unprepared for our roads; be on the look out and be patient with them.

Responding to the Cartoon on page 227

Entrance into any internet chat room is dangerous.

Like a naive and innocent child all users that enter the chat room portal are putting themselves at risk, however, it is even more risky for all children to enter a chat room. Children are easy to take advantage of, easy to be influenced and are very trusting. What other choice do they have? They are in this world and their very existence depends on adults; why would an adult try to hurt them. It is inconceivable to a child that adults would do harm to children in such a devious way as to seek them out in chat rooms on the internet and plan to abduct them. Internet chat rooms have just added another avenue of crime and abuse to children. No matter who you are, adult or child, you have no idea who is lurking in a chat room. Some people are just there observing and taking it all in waiting to get information to possibly scam you or take your identity or worse, to make plans to abduct a child. Every person that you chat with can be a wolf in sheep's clothing; they may give a totally different perception on the internet than they would in person, therefore, making children especially vulnerable. Chat rooms are dangerous for children and should be off limits to them.

What have you learned about the textbooks we are using for this course?

I have learned that some professors actually use the textbooks that you purchased for the class. I got one of mine from my daughter that took this same class on campus last Fall (NOT same instructor). The book was still in the wrapping and bran new. She told me that the teacher never required them to use it, she ran copies in class and used power point to get them the info. I am amazed, I don't think I can write anything without the reference material, pdf files, the internet and emailing my instructor, many many times. I still wonder how .14 of an inch appears out of nowhere.

What have you learned about the writing process and/or about yourself during this lesson?

I have learned that I can change my mind several times on subjects. I have learned that I hate hate hate hate to write with a passion but in the end it really wasn't so bad and I liked what I wrote. I just really really really hate the process. I get so very much stalled on very small insignificant things. I have learned that if I have a passion about voicing information then I can write probably too much and bore people to death. If I have a purpose that is practical then I can write. I said it. I can, I just hate it.

Which outline would I not use again.

I would not use the Pros and Cons outline again because it just wasn't structured enough for me. It was quicker to come up with items. Maybe it is the topic, sometimes it is the topic and not the structure that can ruin things. I am not very passionate about the topic, it was actually something that annoyed me very much last semester in classes. The only way I would use this on my own and not being required by law of the professor is if it was used in conjunction with another outline.

Which techniques for generating ideas has been most helpful?

The formal outline and the classical outline has been helpful along with the questions and task sets in the Writing Arguments book. Anything that has a shell and all I need to do is begin to fill in the blank gets me going. It really does, after some procrastination, and some tears when things don't go my way I end up really liking what I did. I actually got so engrossed in the essay outline that argues both sides, that I argued for a cause that after the research that I did I returned back to my original opinion of when I had no info to go on just a gut feeling. I am actually arguing and working the audience for a cause I don't believe in %100. I couldn't explain why because it would be more like 8 points and we were only required 3 points to talk about. Plus I didn't want to be SUPER controversial. I did gear it toward an audience of volunteers however the person that I interviewed asked to be sent a copy of my work. If the audience were a different one, then I might have made it super controversial, but this is my life to live and I do not want to rock the waves in this community right now.

What other students may be having problems with..

What I am experiencing and many other students may have similar concerns if taking freshman level courses is inexperience with latest software and hardware. I have run a home based business and taught myself everything I thought I needed to know about word processing in the past decade. Usually I could figure something out on my own or I would discard the need for it. My main problem is with the bran new laptop, the heat and motion sensitive finger pad that hides and moves your cursor around so that you make a multitude more mistakes than before with the PC with a regular keyboard. Also the software that I purchased cheap because I am a student from www.ultimatesteal.com hasn't helped me out that much because most of my instructors don't use the latest version nor do any of my friends so when I am stuck I am really stuck. There is NO help tab!!!! HELP!!! I waste a lot of time on problems.