Unit 3: Vocabulary from Readings 4

Today, far too many of our 1.7 million high school students are prepared for neither the demands of skilled employment nor the rigors of higher education.

More than half of students entering California State University need remediation in reading or math.

Students who take rigorous courses are also less likely to drop out, and they perform better in vocational and technical courses.

We must redefine high schools as institutions that provide all students with a strong academic foundation, whether they are bound for college or the workplace after graduation.

And it will establish a state “seal of approval” process for high school instructional materials, giving districts guidance in choosing materials that are standards- aligned, and therefore more rigorous than many used in high schools today.

Guiding students to an easier academic pathway, even if they show little early motivation or curiosity about possibilities beyond high school, virtually guarantees they won’t be prepared with important foundational skills.

From its origins as the pineapple-sized “car phone” exclusive to power-suited 80's business executives to its current incarnation as camera/computer/life coach, the cell phone has gone from convenient utility to graven idol of instant gratification.

Scores of modern social phenomena are directly attributable to cell phones including textual flirtation, Bluetooth use disguised as schizophrenia and the ringtone as a profound expression of personal identity.

I am thus shackled to their whim, subjecting me to their contact when it may not be desired.

Cell phones are currently dirt cheap to manufacture, but their true cost is insidious and pervasive.

Cell phones are currently dirt cheap to manufacture, but their true cost is insidious and pervasive.

The most alluring thing about cell phones for the younger generation (i.e., us) is their efficacy as instruments of spontaneity.

We can also cancel plans at the last minute without condemning ourselves to evenings of loneliness—instead, we can just use the opportunity to insinuate ourselves upon everyone else in our electronic phone books.

If I can call someone at any time to obtain or verify information, it lessens my incentive to actually listen to them the first time they tell me something, which is inadvertently disrespectful and powerfully habit-forming.