2019 – Page 10 – HallSpring19

rough draft

Nina Darbonne

Dr. Carrie Hall

English Comp 1 1101-D355

16 April 2019

“Sucker For Pain” and EMS Work

Many have heard of New York City’s bravest, strongest, finest, and boldest as monikers for New York’s public service departments of Fire Department, Sanitation, Police Department, and Corrections respectively. But few people know there is a department missing from the list. New York City’s Best is reserved for Emergency Medical Services. In Emergency Medical Service, EMS for short, Emergency Medical Technicians, EMTs and Paramedics work with passion for the profession. A wide array of reasons reel EMS workers into the job; whether it’s the excitement of the job, morbid fascination, riding the high from helping those in need, or being one of the last lines of defense against death. Despite the undeniable love of the job, sadly many EMS workers are overworked and underpaid. More often than not, EMS workers have three or more jobs just to make ends meet. Being exhausted from working long hours and running from one job to yet another job for another long grueling shift, leads to bitter burnt out workers. Unfortunately, EMS workers tend to leave the job either hurt from physical strain or fed up with the field of work due to years of fatigue draining the love and passion out of the job.

First responders: Police officers, Firefighters, and EMS are not able to strike because they provide essential services to the city. A strike would possibly endanger lives. Compared to other city jobs, like Mass Transit Association, MTA has had several strikes to give stock to their union’s pay and benefit demands. There is a significant pay gap amongst first responders. “EMTs are paid $47,685 a year after being on the job for five years. Firefighters with five years on the job are paid $110,293, while police officers make $85,292 after five and a half years, but ‘officers may potentially earn over $100,000 per year’ with benefits, according to NYC.gov.” (EMS1) Taking a look at other first responders, it is far less common to find a police officer or firefighter moonlighting as officers or firefighters (respectively) in another city or county.

New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio promotes ideals of “fairness and equality.” However, when questioned regarding the first responder pay gap during a press conference, de Blasio defended the unfair disparity in wages. “‘I have deep, deep respect for our EMTs and everyone who works at EMS,” de Blasio said. “I think the work is different. We are trying to make sure people are treated fairly and paid fairly but I do think the work is different.’” (EMS1) Contrary to de Blasio’s misconception, EMS workers arrive to the scene of calls along side both police officers and firefighters and encounter their own share of dangers. Moreover, the EMS department responds to the largest number of jobs of all the first responders.

EMS workers face traumatic scenes, dangerous and high stress situations on a regular basis. A survey was conducted with EMS workers and was compared to national statistical data compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC. “3,447 (86%) of the 4,022 respondents experienced CS but the shocking discovery was that 1,383 (37%) of the respondents had contemplated suicide and 225 (6.6%) had actually tried to take their own life… These statistics are roughly 10 times greater than the national average for adults in America, according to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012.” CS stands for critical stress, which is “the stress we undergo either as a result of a single critical incident that had a significant impact upon you, or the accumulation of stress over a period of time. This stress has a strong emotional impact on providers, regardless of their years of service.” (Newland)

Works Cited

Newland, Chad, et al. “Survey Reveals Alarming Rates of EMS Provider Stress and Thoughts of Suicide.” Journal of Emergency Medical Services, 28 Sept. 2015, www.jems.com/articles/print/volume-40/issue-10/features/survey-reveals-alarming-rates-of-ems-provider-stress-and-thoughts-of-suicide.html.

“NYC Mayor on FDNY EMS Pay Gap: ‘The Work Is Different’.” EMS1, 29 Jan. 2019, www.ems1.com/fdny-ems/articles/393319048-NYC-mayor-on-FDNY-EMS-pay-gap-The-work-is-different/.

For Thursday

Hey everyone! For Thursday, please print out, read and annotate ONE of the following articles by Hanif Abdurriqib:

“Zayn Malik and the Songs that Bring us to Prayer” HERE

“Tell ’em all to Come and Get Me: A Year of Being ‘Alright.'” HERE

Also, please decide what artwork (song, video, poem, story, painting, etc…) you intend to write about for this unit. You do not need to know what KIND of essay/ article/ story you’re going to write, but you do need to know what you’re going to write about!

Remember– quiz on “Sonny’s Blues!”

Alternative success(revision 1)

Alternative success

Ask any college student about their time in school, and be met with shudders and groans of all the stressful memories of exams,projects, and books of essays from their ‘12 years of hell’. The work might have been stressful and exhausting, but at the end of the day, it’s the only real way to success, or so we’ve been lead to believe. Maybe all that stress and anxiety wasn’t necessary for you to succeed, and might have even had an opposite effect on some students. Personally, I’ve seen every way a student has succeed in this system of education, and the most prominent method I’ve experienced and witnessed is through unethical methods like cramming and cheating. For every hard working straight A students, there’s just as much or even more students sneaking cheat sheets into exams, and it may be due to how our public education system is set up.
Public schools are used as a means to grant children a fair and fulfilling head start in life, with a clear path to a career, and as tech grew smarter and more complicated, so did the curriculums needed for careers. Befor, classes were taught at home, basic literature and an understanding in mathematics was all that was needed. But with advancement in technology and innovation, the standard for basic education grew with the time. With such a fast growing system, the pressure to succeed grew as well. Students now are expected to learn at a far greater rate than those of a couple generations ago, and as we’re taught to put our best into our work, sometimes our best just isn’t enough to reach such high expectations.
So why exactly would a student even consider cheating as an option? Well it might be due to the way schools put more value on actually succeeding than learning. In John Taylor Gatto’s article “Against school”, he raises the argument that “schools are meant to tag the unfit – with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments”. School has become a competitive environment made to weed out students based on how fast they can grasp information. With long school hours and piles of work, students are expected to sacrifice their already limited free time outside of classes, to accomplish what all those long hours of classes should have done. I’ve sacrificed my own health, coming into school on no sleep, stomachs flu, migraines, and more, all because of the value school puts into ‘furthering your education’, where a single day of class is worth more than a week of pain and suffering. Students are also made to conform to a specific learning style that might not cater to their abilities. In math class, I’d have difficulty understanding a problem or method during class. So I took the time afterwards to break down the problem further than my teacher would, using my own knowledge and understanding to figure out how to better see the problem. However, regardless of my answer, if I didn’t use the ‘correct method’ to solve it, my answer was as good as wrong in the eyes of the school grading system.
So can students blame their failure on the teachers for not teaching them the right way? In most cases, no. Teachers are also victims to a flawed system. They’re also limited in time, expected to cater to classes of around 30 students, some covering multiple courses, which can average to almost 100 unique and individualized learning methods to prepare. They’re also graded based on the success of their students grades. Back in my old English class,usually a topic would be chosen for the class, based on assigned articles or novels. Then, the class period would be used to discuss this single topic in great details, while the teacher would include critical ideas and counter arguments, allowing allowing the class to not only explore concepts at a comfortable pace, but to use critical analysis in key arguments and topics without much help from the teacher. However, occasionally teachers were given unexpected visits from deans and members of the board of education to be evaluated on their performance. This changed the whole environment of the class, every talking point being driven by the teacher like a monotone orchestra, as if our thoughts on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was all the same. The class went from a vivid discussion on different views, to a simplified agree/disagree discorce.
Learning is a time consuming process, that requires unique methods of understanding to each person. Public schools have systematically made this process into a filtration system that, as Gatto stated, “…produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens, all in order to render the populace ‘manageable’ “. In my 12 years of school, learning and passing were two completely different concepts, and the time needed to learn was jammed with cramming and white noise knowledge. To pass was to put myself through unnecessary anxiety, leading to habits that still haunt me through my college years. To learn was to take what precious time outside of school there was to break down the vast information given into a fine and simple concept. With no change to the current system, an increase in school time, and an increase in the want for standardized testing, this method of learning will start to become an unreachable goal set aside for more competitive and uniform learning systems.

sonny’s blues

While reading “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin, something that was big that came up was the use of drugs. That is something that is big now and at anytime because it can affect anyone. When reading Baldwin brings up that sonny is gone “ What’s going to happen to him now? I asked again. They’ll send him away someplace and they’ll try to cure him he shook his head. Maybe he’ll even think he’s kicked the habit, then they’ll let him loose… that’s all.” (21) He is saying it in a way that has a lot of truth to it. They bring up a big problem that could happen to anyone. Burning up Sonny drug problem is a good thing many don’t want talking.

Response to “Sonny’s Blues”-(KO)

Reading “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin for the second time did open a new understanding for the story. When I first read I guess I wasn’t fully putting all my attention into learning and dissecting the story properly but this time around i made sure I did. One thing that i wasn’t able to figure out and i vaguely remember my Highschool teacher asking this question of “ Who’s Telling the Story?”. And this is still a question i have after reading it again, I’m not sure who’s the person telling the story or what their relationship is with Sonny. Maybe it’s more obvious than I noticed but i don’t find it as transparent as to who is the narrator in this story. One part in the story that i found resonated with me was when Sonny’s brother went to the club to watch Sonny play that then there was a new found respect for his passion of playing music. Seeing this reminded me of my family, for a very long time I felt like I had to have a career that would guarantee a stable future. I want to make movies and a career like that doesn’t always prove success, but when my teachers told my parents i was a good writer and very creative i think that made them open more about the possibilities of my career choice.

Sonny’s Blues

The part that moved me in this story was when at the end Sonny is at the bar playing music with his friends. Sonny’s brother while listening, memories come back to him. ” I saw my mother face again and felt for the first time how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet. I saw the moonlit road where my father’s brother died.” He remembered the sad feeling his parents were going through while listening to the brother who also didn’t grow up with a happy life. In Addition, there was another part where Sonny’s brother went to visit his brother they were arguing and Sonny took his brother outside. “Then he pushed me to the door and the other people looked on as though nothing were happening, and he slammed the door behind me. I stood in the hallway, staring at the door. I heard somebody laugh in the room and then the tears came to my eyes.” His brother cares a lot about Sonny, he is trying to make him a better person, but Sonny looks like he doesn’t care about his brother’s feelings. Furthermore this line of the text moved me because earlier his mom told him that watch out for his brother when they are no longer in this world, but he replied as if nothing bad will happen to Sonny and the relationship of each other. But the mom’s words were right at the end that there will be difficult times but try to always look out for him.

“Sonny’s Blues” Reaction

As i’ve read through the work of James Baldwin in “Sonny’s Blues” I came to the conclusion that we can all be set in the same body of water but its actually up to us to teach ourselves how to swim. I also came under the impression that you could be the best swimmer of the lot but still fall prey to the dangers of the sea. This idea came into my head after reading something that the protagonists mother says when talking to him about his brother, where she states.” It ain’t a question of his being a good boy”…. “nor of his having good sense.” What this says to me is that his mother already has a good idea of the fact that in life things can happen to even the best of us. Branching off of that idea, I had come to make the connection that the best of us can fall prey to what is known as the “darkness”. This darkness clouds one’s judgement and leads them on a decline. This can be seen where the protagonist is speaking with a friend of his brothers, where he states, “they’ll let him out. And then he’ll just start working his way back again. You mean he’ll never kick the habit. Is that what you mean?” This idea is one even seen in shows demographically aimed for children. This idea of one being lead or leading themselves on a constant decline. The tragedy of this however is the fact that when compared to reality it can seem all the much better since in the show there can be an element of saving the person on the decline where in real life or reality, that’s not always the case for some.

Response to “Sonny’s Blues”

While reading “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin, I found that I related to the speaker, a lot, mainly in the beginning when he reads about his brother being on drug as well as picked up in a raid. When he sees “ that kid he hated” who use to hang out with Sonny and chose to begin speaking to him about Sonny’s drug problems it hit close to home. Reading“ What’s going to happen to him now? I asked again. They’ll send him away someplace and they’ll try to cure him he shook his head. Maybe he’ll even think he’s kicked the habit, then they’ll let him loose… that’s all.” (21) You realize that it’s a process that is spoken about so nonchalantly by this guy to Sonny’s brother, a process that it seems like he’s been through himself before he didn’t seem to trust in the process of either “ listen to let him out and then it’ll just start all over again that’s what I mean” (21). He is saying it in a way that has a lot of finality to it once to her when addict always heroin addict. It just shows the harsh reality that is drugs in the control that they can have over a person, no matter how brilliant their mind is or how much they love something in particular like Sonny when I came to his music. Even though it had such a sad start did have a very nice ending, especially when he goes to the nightclub with Sunny , he gets to see Sonny’s world with music and how it wasn’t a bad thing to start with.

response to “Sonny’s Blue’s”

In the story, Sonny’s Blue’s by James Baldwin, I immediately noticed that the author has a way with words. What I mean by that is that the words that James Baldwin use create vivivd imagery for the reader. In the first few pages, we learn a lot of information regarding Sonny, the main subject in the story. We learn that Sonny is the younger brother to the author, and that he obviously cares very much for Sonny. We also learn that the narrator is an algebra teacher. But the thought of his brother being locked up, over heroin abuse, as well as peddling, seems to be interfering with his work. The narrator has a very deep love for his brother Sonny. This is made clear when the narrator recalls how he was there when Sonny was conceived, and also was present when he spoke his first words. One passage that I found particularly interesting is on page 36. ” The silence of the next few days must have been louder tab the sound of all the music ever played…he went as far a she navy would carry him. The narrator tries to understand why his brother would want to leave Harlem, especially to join the Army, when he made it clear he has a passion for music, the piano in particular. I admire this story because it expresses raw emotion, for what it is. It’s realistic, and the conversation between these brothers is something that all siblings can relate to. That is sometimes not being sure how to express emotion to others, even though you both know deep down that you love each other. That is one of the things that stuck with me, while reading this short story.

Revision One Essay

Tell your fellow Americans that the school system is trash, and guess what most Americans will agree with your statement. There are a lot of reasons why in the United States K-12 schooling is low standard. Depending how you slice it, the public school education system in the United States conditions students to be gullible and mindless consumers. The consequences for both school and society shows that we students and teachers are potentially devastating in contribution to the system.

Someday people will cling to the hope that the school system will change, and view its service not as something that sucks and that they hate, but as something that is actually nice and that they don’t hate. In my life as I experienced K-12 schooling I noticed that when I was in middle school, each of my classes I attended we didn’t learn anything in class because the teachers couldn’t handle the students. There was only one particular class where the students didn’t misbehave and that was with our homeroom teacher.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evolvedigitas.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F04%2Feducation.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%%2Fblog%2Fthe-evolving-education-sector%2F&docid=txL_mOdGe8bVCM&tbnid=sf4LWVzNMSLWSM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwi6h7eG_cHhAhVNiOAKHQFlB0EQMwhpKAEwAQ..i&w=700&h=352&bih=657&biw=1366&q=education&ved=0ahUKEwi6h7eG_cHhAhVNiOAKHQFlB0EQMwhpKAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8

A lot of teachers in our schools don’t know how to teach and make the students enjoy school. Of course the students also need to cooperate with the teachers, however it is the teachers responsibility to guide and make the students behave in class. There are also times in school when students get bored sitting for hours just listening to teachers. As John Taylor Gatto the author of “Against School” states in his article, “One afternoon when I was seven I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head.(1)” The author also says when he was in school he was bored just as most kids during school. This also shows why most kids during school don’t want to learn, and listen to the teacher. This leads to the reason why the students do whatever they want in class because they are bored, or not interested during class when the teacher is conducting their lesson.

The goal for schools needs to be making sure that our children who are the future that they are in good place where they learn and continue progressing in school. Construct a school system where students are enjoying school with activities that involve moving around and cooperating with other students. Sitting for hours in chairs is boring and make students sleepy. Create social efficiency, the purpose of education is not to produce citizens, but productive workers that can succeed in life.

As I quickly learned in my experience, schools throw in unnecessary exams, and focuses more based on tests instead of making sure students actually learn something. “We have, for example, the great H.L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence…”(2) Thus, Gatto states that the education system doesn’t fill our young generations with knowledge as an alternative, they give us pressure with passing common core, regents, or other exams. Therefore, the modern schooling needs to be modified and reconstruct how they want to test the students learning.

In our American public school system, schools make our students to be gullible and mindless consumers. If the system would change and try to make our children into real thinkers who will benefit later on effectively is just a hope. Of course there are some people who benefited from our schooling, however there have been more who dropped out of school too. The change would help make students not being bored in classroom, but being involved in activities, and develop skills like teamwork and social efficiency with other students. Taking out of unnecessary exams that pressure students into passing them instead of testing their real knowledge. As a change this will only be a hope that our future won’t stay gullible and mindless consumers.

Year: 2019