Pre-Reading Blog #3

True or False: Schools Fail Immigrants

Richard Rothstein an author who wrote The Way We Were: Myths and Realities of America’s Student Achievement, The Charter School Dust-up, and All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Different? His credentials include being a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute, a senior correspondent of the American Prospect, and was a national education columnist of the New York Times.

This article appeared in the New York Times on July 4, 2001, so as far as relevance to today’s educational system, it’s credible. Rothstein seems to spend a great deal of emphasis writing about education, so he most likely has a great deal of insight on the topic. Being a research associate, he also probably includes statistics in his writing to help support his claims.
In this article, based on the title, Rothstein will probably investigate immigrants failing in American schooling. Due to the fact that the title includes “true or false,” it should explore both sides of the argument equally. I expect to see a few statistics and historical trends included in this article considering Rothstein’s background. I don’t notice any notable bias from his background, so it should be a non-bias article.

It’s All about Him

David Von Drehle wrote this deductive argumentative article which appeared in Time on April 30, 2007. His current occupation is the senior writer at the Washington Post. He has been a national political writer, magazine staff writer, New York bureau chief, and assistant managing editor.

Considering this article was written about three years ago, it should be relevant still today depending on the topic. The title doesn’t give too much away unfortunately for a better pre-reading prediction. However, the title does hint that it could revolve around the term narcissism, which refers to the personality trait of egotism, hinted by “it’s all about him.” The article refers to “him,” so it’s obviously going to revolve around the narcissism of men. As far as what kind of man, I’m going to have to predict either men in a relationship who make all the calls or men who let their narcissism lead to violence.