Based on your reading of Chapter 4 of They Say/I Say, in what ways do you see "The History of the Bell Curve" as agreeing, disagreeing, or doing both with other education scholars?

Compare at least two definitions of 'success' discussed in these videos, and describe how and why you think these definitions seem to 'work' for the people whos use them

          The two videos that I found the most intriguing were the videos called “The most inspiring thing ever said....” and “How MBA product manager measures success - Ramsey Pryor.” I found both of these videos extremely fascinating because they both defined their idea of "success" in under a minute, while all of the other videos spent much longer trying to explain their own definition of "success." To define such a broad term as “success” in less than a minute seems narrow minded to me in one sense or another, but in both of these videos their own ideas of "success" seems to work out just perfectly for each person.
          In the first video Michael Scott asks Dwight what is the most inspiring thing he has ever said to him and in return Dwight tells him "Don't be an idiot." In the context for this idea of "success," Dwight would assume he is successful if he does everything that an idiot would not do. While in the second video the idea of "success" for Ramsey Pryor, "success" would be defined as a good sales report and a marketable product. The way he finds out if the product is successful or not is if his sales team tells him the product is selling well and/or with the marketing data of the product. These two ideas of "success" are completely different from one another. Dwight sees "success" as merely not being an idiot, while Ramsey sees "success" as a financial gain or if it is desirable to society. In looking at these two definitions of "success," it would be a lot simpler to be able to meet Dwight's idea of "success” rather than Ramsey's idea of “success.”
          In Dwight's definition of “success” the level one would have to work at to achieve his idea of "success" is so low that it would not be hard for someone to achieve his definition of
“success." I do not watch The Office regularly, but I do watch it enough to know that Dwight does not meet his goal of "success." Dwight is seen as an idiot not only to the viewers, but also to the other characters in the show. Although everyone around Dwight and the people at home watching the show know he is an idiot, Dwight himself is unaware of this fact. Therefore in Dwight’s mind his is in fact meeting his goal which means that in his terms of “success” he is successful. Due to the fact Dwight cannot see his own idiot actions makes his definition of “success” work for himself which is all that he needs. As long as you see yourself as successful it really does not matter what everyone else around you seems to think about your own “success.”
         I believe that Ramsey's idea of "success" seems to work for him based on the video. Since his idea of "success" is having a financial gain and having a marketable product, it makes it easy for the international product manager to meet his goal. Since he is being interviewed for this show, he is an international product manager, and it seems that his opinion on the topic of “success” was taken seriously I would assume as the viewer that he has had a successful life in the market he is in. In his idea of “success” as long as his product is selling in a way where he gains profit and society is buying the product he sees himself as successful. With "success" being something as simple as making money, it is easy in the business of being a product manager because your only goal is to make money.

Select one of the discourse communities featured in the videos, briefly describe how you think it qualifies as a discourse community, and discuss how you think this particular community might define 'success'

Qualifications:         
          The community that I feel best fits the idea of the discourse community out of the nine videos is the online gamer discourse community video. I feel that the online gamer world fits into the idea of the discourse community best because it easily meets all of the requirements John Swale states that are needed to define a discourse community. It fits into the shared language requirement because all gamers have certain words they use to communicate with each other. Their lingo makes it easier for them to communicate with each other in a quicker way for when they have to achieve certain goals in their game. The online gamer community also fits the membership requirement because a gamer will know right off the bat if someone is a gamer or not. They can tell by the words you understand the relate to the gaming world and by the way you play the game. It becomes clear to people inside the gaming community and outside of the gaming community who fits and who doesn't fit into the gaming community. The people in the online gaming discourse community have very specific ways of communicating with each other. They do it through instant messaging within the game world. They can also communicate with each other through their headset pieces making it easier for them to get information across to each other without their game being interrupted by meaningless typing. The online gaming community definitely has very certain behaviors and practices. They behave very particularly while playing their games. They do not like to be interrupted or given advice by other people in the room. They almost go into their own little gaming world. They spend hour and hours on the video games trying to become better each time. They practice for hours and hours and always try their best to be the best at the game hence why they practice all of the time. They all value dedication to the game and to their teammates. They all share the common goal of becoming the best in their gaming group. They all strive to get the highest score and be the best player they can be.

"Success":
          The online gaming community would define "success" as winning the game. The ultimate goal for every gamer in the gaming community is to play the game so they can win and be the best. When they win a game they get to suck up the victory they feel knowing they beat the game system. They love to see the words winner on the screen, it gives them satisfaction for the long and countless hours they spend trying to get to their ultimate goal. All they are striving for is to win the game and get to put another game under their belt. Winning the game is like the cherry on top of the ice cream. They love to see that all of their effort is finally paying off in the end. It is the ultimate desire. They love spending time spending their lives playing these games, but they don’t do it for any reason. They do it to make sure that they can achieve their ultimate goal; to win the game.

Discourse Communities Response

1) Inventory of Groups:
Roosevelt University
UC Community
RU Proud
LGBT Community
Vens Family
Delta Gamma Pi Inc. (Pledge)
Women's and Gender Studies Board
Psychology Department
Downtown Chicago Community
The Roeper School Community
Undergraduate Research Program Community
Facebook
Tumblr
Kensington Community Church Community
Female
White
Democrat
Cat Owner
RU Honors Program Community
Lesbian Community
College Student Community
Vocal Performance Community
Dance Community
Housing Community (Roommate and Suite-mates) 
World Traveler Community
White Lake, Michigan Community
2) Membership and Power in Groups:
The Roeper School Community:
          The Roeper School is the school that I attended from 4th grade all the way up until I graduated as a senior. I became a member of this community in 4th grade because my parents found this school to be a better fit for the benefit of my education. The language we used in this community was two complete polar opposites. In the classroom we would have to speak educationally, but when we were outside of the classroom we were allowed to speak in a looser type of educational conversation. The way one behaved as a student in the community was up to them, we were encouraged to be who we are because by being ourselves we were being true to the real us. The main belief that the students had to learn while becoming part of the community was that with freedom comes responsibility. The main focus of our school was fighting for social justice and equality. The most powerful people in The Roeper School Community are the head of the school, the head of the lower school, the head of the middle school, and the head of the upper school. They all came into power by the process of student, faculty, and parent voting. Every time we had a new official come into office it was under the control of the community as a whole. They sometimes restructured the rules of the community, but for the most part they just enforced the rules of the school through The Roeper School's philosophy which was made by the founders of the school. They communicate the rules to the community by making every single student sign an agreement after they read the philosophy at the start of every school year. They also have multiple community meetings throughout the year to reinforce the philosophy to the community as a whole. When one is a newcomer to the community the best way to learn the rules of the community is by watching the philosophy work through the students and the faculty. If anyone would come into the school and just watch how we all interacted with one another they would understand the way of the school right away. If someone broke the rules of the community they would either have to attend meetings, get suspended, or be expelled. The ones who put these punishments into action were the head of the school, the students homeroom teacher, and the head of the grade level the student was in at that time. It was possible for a member of The Roeper Community to not be allowed back in, but this was a very rare occasion and a student would have to break a severe rule in the philosophy. If a student wanted to become more powerful in the community they had to show the school that they believed in everything the school stands for, they had to prove that they were passionate for the bettering of the school, and they had to prove that they were responsible. There were many ways a student could get more authority whether that was over the students grade, over the school as a whole, or in the meetings with the parents of the children attending The Roeper School. It was very possible for a student in the community to gain more power within the community as long as they were proving that they were fighting for the same main goals that the school had.
3) The Definitions Groups Use to Understand the World
          The Roeper School would define "success" in more than one way, it would be a combination of multiple ideas intertwining with each other. The main focuses someone would have to accomplish to achieve "success" in the way The Roeper School would see it fit would be to find oneself, follow their dreams, and find their true inner happiness. Although the communities main goal is to fight for social justice and to show their community members that although freedom is excellent, it comes with consequences; in the end the community just wants what is best for the person involved. The community is very different in the respect that although we are all fighting for the same thing in the end the community just wants what is right for the individuals own growth. It is very hard to define what "success" is for a community that is so open and excepting to everyone. With a community like The Roeper School "success" cannot truly ever be defined because "success" is different for everyone in the community depending on what the individual communities members heart desire.
          A community I do not fit into is the public school community. I feel the public school system would define "success" by achieving an accepted score on the national tests given by the government and by completing a high school diploma. I feel it would have nothing to do with what would be best for the students themselves, but more of the school looking out for the schools benefit. I feel they have to have this as their idea of "success" because if they settled for anything less they would lose their already extremely small amount of money they receive from the government. If I could change one thing about the public school community it would be their definition of "success" although this would not be possible unless the government changed their idea of "success" first. I feel if this community could teach me anything they wanted they would try and teach me how to become more fitted into the box that America has put its children into. I feel they would want me to follow the more cut and dry approach to life instead of living to find my own true happiness.

If you could spend ten years to become an "expert" in anything, what would it be? Why?

          If I could have the opportunity to spend ten years of my life to become an expert in any subject or field, I would chose to become an expert in LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex) history up until current events. I would choose this because the LGBTQI community has helped me find myself and be comfortable with my sexuality. I found out that I was a lesbian almost a year ago and has never had such a shocking discovery in my life. If it was not for the support and readily available bountiful information on LGBTQI issues, I do not know how I would have been able to cope with my sexuality. Due to the plentiful information available to anyone in need of a helping hand I found many LGBTQI events in my area that I could attend. These different events helped me realize I was not alone and that I could finally accept myself for the person I am today. The LGBTQI community helped me in more ways than I can probably ever begin to realize. After everything the community has done for me it is only fair that I would give ten years of my life to learn a deeper understanding of the history of the community and to continue to help fight the hardships the community fights everyday.

          I have a fairly good understanding of the LGBTQI communities history from my involvement in my minor of women's and gender studies, my involvement in RU Proud (Roosevelt LGBTQI Group), research papers, and basic involvement in different LGBTQI events. I still have a lot to learn and feel that even with ten years of studying the past and current events that surround the community I would still not be an expert in the field because it is forever changing and evolving. If I could have a solid understanding on how the LGBTQI community has developed over the past decades it would help me to further benefit my community in the process of becoming equal. The idea of one day seeing the LGBTQI community having equal rights as every other human being put onto this earth it would be the best moment in my lifetime because being gay is not a sickness, my sexuality is part of who I am.

          Since I cannot in actuality have ten years of my life dedicated to my passion fully I have chosen the next best thing. I want to get my PhD in psychology with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies to help give back to the LGBTQI community. I want to work with LGBTQI identifying teens and young adults. I would also love to work with the children of LGBTQI parents. I feel by doing my part in helping these kids find themselves through something bigger than themselves they will be able to love themselves for who the are just like I saw this same realization over the past year.

In what ways does Gladwell's examination of hockey challenge traditional notions of success as merely the result of hard work and talent?

Gladwell makes extremely legitimate points and arguments when it comes to the idea of where success comes from in the world of sports and in the classroom. He supports all of his arguments with clear data, and explains how he came to his conclusions clearly. He has clear evidence that success is not only based on how hard one works to get to the top, but in fact can have a lot to deal with issues out of one’s hand, such as their birth date. One cannot do anything to change the day that they were born no matter how hard they can try. A birth date is always set in stone. Gladwell has clear data showing that children born at the start of the cutoff date for school are way more privileged in opportunities than children born at the end of the cutoff date. He shows this to be true in not only sports, but in the classroom as well. Students born at the start of the cutoff date have a much higher chance of being put into difficult learning groups due to the amount of higher intelligence they are presumed to have. This is because the children at the start of the cutoff dates seem to be better in many different areas because of their difference in age.

Gladwell makes one question if success is really determined by hard work and talent or if in fact it is due to some higher notion that is out of one’s control. If all of Gladwell’s data is in fact correct, as it clearly seems to be, then it would be hard for someone who has read this to say that success is in fact only due to hard work and success because in fact there are other outliers that have been playing an important role in the idea of success. He also brings up the idea that one cannot truly get to the top from nothing, but has factors around them that help them get to where they are today. The idea that Gladwell paints in the readers mind about the acorn turning into a tree I found extremely eye opening. The idea that the tallest tree could not be what it is today if it weren’t for the perfect conditions surrounding it made complete sense to me.  People in the entertainment industry today who have come from “rags to riches” have not truly experienced this in most cases due to the many outside effects that have influenced them to get to where they are today. Many of the people who are famous in the media industry today are only there because they had connections, were in the right place at the right time, or had some out of the ordinary experience that made it possible from them to become the success they are today. Many people say that Madonna got to where she is today based on pure talent and hard work, but in reality, she was found by a producing agent which has led her successful path to be the face for woman talent today.

A Brief Introduction

Heyy,

My name is Kaitlin Vens,

Here are 10 facts about me:

-I am from White Lake, Michigan.

-I am a 2nd semester Freshman.

-I am majoring in Psychology and minoring in Women and Gender Studies.

-I am on the Women and Gender Studies Board and I am part of RU Proud.

-I am working on an Undergraduate Study Program on Racial Microaggression.

-I live at the University Center.

-I chose to come to Roosevelt due to my love for the mission of Social Justice. 

-I love any type of ethnic food, but my favorite food in the world is Ethiopian.

-I have been to four different countries including Canada, France, China, and South Africa.

-I want to permanently move to Cape Town, South Africa.