Stage Seven: Original editorial or commentary #2

Senate Bill 406 pertains to the carrying and storage of handguns by school marshals. The idea behind this bill is that implementing armed marshals in schools will reduce the likelihood of a school shooting from possible threats. 

I believe that having armed marshals on school campuses will increase the safety of students. The action of arming marshals in school makes schools harder targets. You don't see bad guys going into places where there are a bunch of armed citizens. You don't see bad guys going into NRA conventions or the like. That is because they know it is a dangerous place for them to be. Most people won’t deliberately put themselves in a position that could be harmful to them.

One of the reasons school shootings happen is because there is limited immediate threat towards the shooter. Allowing school marshals to carry a concealed firearm and informing people that there are school marshals on campus, will put potential assailants at a disadvantage.

In the animal world, creatures like bobcats pray on the defenseless. Often, given the opportunity, bobcats will slaughter more animals than they can possibly eat. They kill for sport. These predators can be accurately compared to many school shooters. A defenseless school for a demented shooter, is like an unguarded chicken coop for a bobcat. Once the predator is in, there isn’t much to stop it from killing everything it sees. It is natural for predators to attack easy targets. Therefore, we must make our schools hard targets.

Lt. Col.  David Grossman, in his book On Combat, points out that there are fire extinguishers and fire suppression systems in schools. People would go crazy if schools didn’t have these things. Yet, few people are willing to accept prevention systems of school shootings. Even though the likelihood of a school shooting happening is much higher than the likelihood of there being a school fire. 

Obviously, the school marshals must go through extensive training to learn what to do and when to do it, should an active shooter situation arise. Background checks, proper licensing, and through training must all be required of armed marshals. They will be the first responders to an active shooter situation and thus, must know what they are doing. 

Armed marshals will act as a deterrent towards evil doers, which is why I believe all schools should have them.

Upload Assignment: Blog Stage Six: Comment on a colleague's work #1

 Some constructive criticism for a colleague:

Hi Dani, nice start on this statement.

You seem passionate about the topic discussed. This is a good thing. It is often hard to write about something that you can't find passion or inspiration for. You make several good points. Such as, the loss of student funding, and the amount of money the state of Texas would save if marijuana was legalized.

However, none of your claims have weight behind them. Stating statistics in a scholarly assignment without providing sources takes away from your legitimacy as an author. For example, you stated, "There was roughly 64,000 people arrested on marijuana charges in the state of Texas in 2017." Where did you get this number? Also, you wrote, "Not only are these sanctions unfair, but black Americans are having to suffer these consequences the most even though the number of white and black people smoking are roughly the same." How do you know ethnic concentration of marijuana smokers? Why should the reader believe the numbers you present without a credible source cited?

This is my only critique: make sure you cite your sources to increase your credibility as an author, and prevent scholastic dishonesty. Aside from that, this blog post was very well written and easy to follow as a reader. I strongly encourage you to revise this post. Especially since you seem to feel strongly about the topic. This is an opportunity for you to share your opinion on legalizing marijuana. Whenever you choose to share something, I suggest you do it well.

Good job!

Blog Stage Five: Original editorial or commentary #1

In my last post, I wrote about Mimi Swarts' article on the STAAR Test. You can read my critique here. This post, I will be offering my own opinion on the topic.


The STAAR test (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) has been recently criticized for being an inappropriate method of assessing the readiness of students in Texas. It has been discovered that the STAAR tests are written at a level of up to three grades higher than the level of the students testing.

 This is a controversial topic for a variety of reasons. Students who don’t pass the series of assessments of held back until they can. This prevents potential good students from moving on to the next grade and can even disallow students to graduate high school.

According to usnews.com, Texas is ranked number 37 in education out of the 50 U.S. states. There is definitely something wrong with our education system. What? I can not say, but the STAAR test could play. In the wrong environment, forcing a child to take a test that is out of their league can cause them to lose self-confidence and drive. Two necessary attributes if one is to become successful in life. By this logic, Texas could be considered to be setting our students up for failure (although, entirely unintentional).

Although, I do not think that all the blame should be put on the STAAR test. I think there are many other factors that lead our society away from academic excellence. Such as the environment that Texas students find themselves in. especially in high school. Kids are constantly surrounded by drugs, sex, alcohol, violence, and are pressured into situations that reduce their self-confidence and affect the way they walk through life. I think that if we, society, can change the environment that current students find themselves in, into once that encourages educations, with words like “you are really smart, keep up the good work” instead of “you such a geek”. Intelligence should be admired and praised, not discouraged and made fun of.

If we, society, were able to change the environment our students find themselves in most often, into a friendly, welcoming place, that encourages intelligence, I don't it that the STAAR test being a little bit to hard would affect very much. This is because when you encourage kids to learn, and show them that learning can be quite enjoyable, they will respond with a bigger drive and lust for knowledge that will allow them to advance quicker.

I don't think should lower the difficulty of standardized testing and become content with current education  levels. Instead, we should work towards a goal of being able to concur difficult tests at younger ages.