Category Archives: What’s Important?

The death penalty, a very controversial and important topic nowadays. With more and more people speaking out against the moral issues with taking any person’s life, it’s hard to stray away from the idea that it might actually be necessary. I understand that this is a sensitive topic, but there is no use in ignoring it. So I’ve been compiling facts and ideas to figure out where I stand on the issue. Whether it’s for or against it. 

First, it just seems wrong. Taking any person’s life is a hard thing to wrap your head around. Even with these serial killers, I still can’t figure out if a person deserves to die. I want to say that they do but that is a big decision to make. There also is a misconception with the “satisfaction” that the family of a victim might feel when their family member’s killer is put on death row. It would seem that the family member would reach a place of peace knowing that the terrible person that took everything away from them is now gone for good and can’t hurt anyone else. But that’s not the case. Research by Marilyn P. Armour and Mark S. Umbreit states that “family members of a victim experience higher levels of behavioral, physical, and psychological health when a perpetrator is given a life sentence that is enforced instead of the death penalty” (Armour, Umbreit). This means that families suffer less trauma when they see the killer of their loved one in prison than seeing them die on death row. This makes a good amount of sense because decent people will sympathize with anyone’s death, and no one wants to see another person die, no matter what things that person has done. Death is sensitive to everyone. 

One major reason why the death penalty could be a beneficial option to keep available is because of the overcrowding in American prisons. The United States has the highest population of people in prisons. Whether it’s for petty drug offenses or assault and murder, something needs to change.  And the reality is that the death penalty can and has reduced some of those numbers with good side effects. 

Americas “occupancy level nationwide [is] standing at 103.9 percent” obviously meaning that there are too many inmates in prison at the moment, a lot of the cells are actually filled with petty crimes by first-time offenders like possession of marijuana. (McCarthy). Yes, there is no excuse for deviance and breaking the law, but that cell should be saved for serious offenders who pose a physical threat to society. 

From seeing the benefits and drawbacks of the death penalty, I’m still not sure what I would want to do if I had a decision about the death penalty and how it can be used. Controversial topics like these provide good thinking points, but when putting these ideas in practice, It seems impossible to create the best answer.

Chief, E. Chief, Editor. “15 Biggest Capital Punishment Pros And Cons.” Vittana.org. N. p., 2019. Web. 11 Dec. 2019.

The World’s Most Overcrowded Prison Systems [Infographic] “The World’s Most Overcrowded Prison Systems [Infographic].” Forbes.com. N. p., 2019. Web. 11 Dec. 2019

In a place where independence is what we live by, travel is no exception. Every day millions of miles are traveled by people going to work, going home, or traveling for leisure and activities. As a driver, I understand the importance of being independent in your travel. But there are some negatives to this as well. The mass use of automobiles is creating a more crowded and dangerous environment. 

Think of LA as an example, it’s on the news nearly every day how there’s another major traffic jam. All you see is pictures of stopped cars on the 405. There are two reasons for this. Public transportation is awful in the states, and driving your own car is a luxury everyone wants to abuse. Think about it, when you’re in your car listening to music it feels pretty nice, there’s a sense of freedom that comes along with it. But it also just looks better, “if people can drive (from the suburbs) to their destination … the reality is (driving is) always going to be a more attractive way to get around” (Taylor). People who live in the suburbs and work in the city definitely know what this means. And for those who use public transport to get to their jobs, maybe is biking to the train station, or taking a bus to the train station. They just know what’s most economically friendly and all-around a better service to society. After all, there are way too many cars on the road anyways. “The latest 2017 data report 273 million vehicles, 225 million licensed drivers, and 3.213 billion miles driven annually” (Injury Facts). That’s billion with a B, I can’t even try to put that into perspective. 

Another negative effect of the overpopulation of cars on the road is safety. It’s a simple equation, the more cars, the more people getting hit by cars. To me, there’s no other way to reduce the number of deaths. And this has only gotten worse throughout history, “Between 1913 and 2017, the number of motor-vehicle deaths in the United States, which include all types of motor vehicles including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles increased 858%, from 4,200 deaths in 1913 to 40,231 in 2017. However, the role cars play in daily life is vastly different now than when tracking began” (Injury Facts). Since more and more people are driving, and the population in our country is only rising, it’s almost unavoidable to reduce this number of deaths by automobiles. 

From this information, I’ve been able to gather my thoughts on the situation. I’m not trying to tell people to stop driving because that’s ridiculous. I drive all the time, to school, to practice, to friends’ houses. It’s just a part of my life now. It’s simply unavoidable. But we could also make an effort to change that, by increasing the use of public transport there will be less traffic, fewer cars on the road meaning fewer accidents. The equation’s simple. 

I totally remember my first standardized test, how could I forget? It was terrible, I had no idea what was going on and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was never the smartest kid, I was just kind of average. But this test made me feel like an idiot, the whole timing aspect and how intimidating it was scared the 3rd grader like myself. I knew I wasn’t a strong reader and it usually took me a while to read any passage, but when I’m not even close to being done and the teacher announces that there are 5 minutes left, I knew I was going to hate every standardized test after this. Although some people believe that standardized tests give an accurate representation of where people’s education is, standardized tests actually hinder college’s ability to see intelligence in a person because they don’t measure, creativity, high-order thinking, and problem-solving. 

From the outside, the SAT and the ACT seem like the end-all, be-all of your life. Where everything comes together and you are being judged by this one test, about where you’ll go to college, what type of job you get, how much money you’ll make, and how happy you’ll be. But this simply cannot be true. If you think about it logically, the tests include, reading, writing, English, math and science, all very general topics, so how could something like this determine the rest of your life?  

An answer is that it really shouldn’t, there are so many things that the test is missing that make up a majority of people’s intelligence. I would be willing to bet that a majority of people find that creativity, higher-order thinking, and problem-solving are much more crucial to success in a career than memorizing the different types of problems on the exam. 

Let’s talk about creativity, it’s obviously the least important thing when taking the ACT or SAT, anyone who’s taking it would agree. The only time creativity could be used in the slightest is in the optional writing portion of the test and most colleges are straying away from it, making it an optional portion of college applications. And in the reading, English, math, and science portions of the test, all you’re doing is filling out a bubble sheet with previously selected questions on the given topics. There’s no need for reasoning, proof of the answer, or anything. It’s either you know it or you don’t. And I respect that for the most part until I start getting questions wrong, then I feel like I’d do a lot better with open-ended questions where I can explain myself a little more. 

High order thinking is a big phrase, what does that even mean? For my purposes, I’m using it as the ability to reach beyond the given questions and find greater importance in the problem at hand. This problem could be an ACT problem or a real-life problem that we encounter on a daily basis. The thing with ACT and SAT questions, they provide no room to use high-order thinking, something that we do in school all the time. We’re always asking for the bigger picture, or digging deeper into the problem during class, so why aren’t these questions being asked on supposedly the most important test of our lives? To be fair, “According to the National Center for Education Statistics, ‘The SAT is not designed as an indicator of student achievement, but rather as an aid for predicting how well students will do in college’” (Heller). So maybe these just a misunderstanding in what the test is for, or maybe not. The test is actually only really assessing you on your “first-year college grades — it is not validated to predict grades beyond the freshman year, graduation rates, pursuit of a graduate degree, or for placement or advising purposes” (Heller). Using this knowledge, why would the Colleges even want to use this test for acceptance? Because if I get a 36 on my ACT and go to MIT, the test is really only going to predict my success in the first year, it won’t tell me how driven I am, my motivation to pursue a doctorate or any higher education. This is where higher-order thinking comes in. Someone who has high-order thinking would know that the opportunity to go to a great college like MIT should lead to a prominent education with ample opportunities to apply yourself in your major. Not a first-year straight-A education with no application to work. 

Believe it or not, no matter what education you get, no matter where you live or how much money you make, you’ll run into problems in life, and I think most people would say that being able to solve your problems is an important part of living. The SAT and ACT simply don’t practice that, and they don’t assess your knowledge on it either. In actuality “The goal of standardized testing is not to find out how well you think through problems, or if you can express your opinions, or create a presentation, the goal is to find out what you were able to memorize” (Hudlow). Memorization is a very small part of real-world problems. Sure having a good memory could be helpful in any situation, but real intelligence is measured with problem-solving. When in the workforce, being able to solve problems on the fly is much more probable than being able to predict problems before they occur and then memorizing the solutions. 

I’m not trying to say that standardized testing should just be completely taken out of college’s decisions to accepting students, I’m just saying that there are much better ways of determining long term success and intelligence. The ACT and SAT simply don’t measure people’s creativity, high-order thinking, and problem-solving, all things that contribute to the intelligence and future success of a person.

Works Cited

https://news.psu.edu/story/165456/2010/08/23/standardized-tests-not-always-best-indicator-success (Heller)

https://bsmknighterrant.org/2014/01/14/standardized-testing-is-not-an-accurate-measure-of-intelligence/ (Hudlow)