TOW #30- Letter to New APELC Student

Dear Future APELC Student,

            For those of you who were wondering, much of what you heard about the AP English Language and Composition course is true. It is certainly one of the hardest and most frustrating classes at Wissahickon, but you will never become a better reader and writer if you are not challenged.

            Early in the year, you will turn in your summer essay and likely write your first graded in-class essay, and when you get the grade back, chances are you will not like it. Although, it is important to keep your head up and keep trying to get better the rest of the year. In APELC your writing is graded as if you are a college students, and since you are in just 11^th grade, I doubt anyone will be able to write a perfect college paper. Just make sure that you keep improving on aspects of your writing that are lacking, and put forth full effort on the in-class essays. Most of them are not graded, but they are the best time to practice in preparation for the AP exam. Also, when you peer grade each other’s essays, offer as much advice as possible to the other person, so he or she can get a grasp on what they are doing wrong or not enough of.

            By all means, AP English is a time consuming class, but there is not that much assigned homework each class. Usually once or twice a cycle you are asked to read a passage or essay and to annotate it. I found that really taking the time to read them and comprehend the author’s use of rhetoric is very beneficial to success in AP English. Throughout the year, I picked up on certain techniques authors used in their writing to convey a purpose or make an argument and learned to effectively use them in my own writing.

           

            Best of Luck,

                                    Nate DeGroat

TOW #29 (Documentary analysis)- "Food, Inc."

            The trillion-dollar American food industry has changed in many ways over the past 50 years. The driving force behind much of this change is profit. Everyday, farmers constantly seek newer technology and better farming techniques to increase efficiency and decrease the cost to raise crops, in order to make the greatest profit. This has resulted in large companies taking control of the food industry, largely due to the use of many immoral farming techniques. The documentary Food, Inc., does a great job of analyzing and showing the atrocities of these many immoral actions within the food industry, especially the exploitation of workers. Obviously one of the greatest costs of farming is labor, and to have the lowest labor costs, large food companies often higher immigrant workers and force them into low paying jobs that are very labor intensive and require them to work in poor conditions.

            In my opinion, this claim is certainly valid and has a large impact on our country. In my experiences and reading, I have found the exploitation of immigrant workers is prevalent in America and that the government is doing little to stop it.

            Last summer, I experienced such exploitation of workers first hand. Working for a small landscaping company, which enlists mostly Mexican migrant workers, I found that the low wageworkers were treated as expandable resources or tools rather than human laborers. Once a week, our boss would call a short meeting before heading out to discuss the work schedule for the upcoming week. On multiple occasions, I remember several workers say that they will not be able to work weekends due to family plans or early in the morning. In response to such requests, our boss would appear angry and often threaten them by saying, “You will work when I want you to, or you will be fired and I will find another employee.” So, throughout the summer, I witnessed many workers get let go, and sure enough, the next day there was another Mexican worker in his place. Even on such a small scale, the exploitation of workers within the landscaping companies was a major problem, and could only be worse within the large food industries that require thousands of workers.

            When thinking about my experiences working as a landscaper, I was astonished at how quickly workers could be replaced, often by other migrants. And while reading an article on CNN, I found my answer. In America today, immigration continues to grow, especially from Mexico and Latin America, despite various restrictions placed on it by the government. In addition, the federal government issues thousands more work visas to migrants than they did 10 years ago. Meanwhile, millions of Americans have struggled to find jobs for years and unemployment remains at almost 7% nationally, so where are all these migrants going to work? The answer is in low wage jobs that usually require a lot of labor, more than most Americans are willing to complete. And as a result, companies that hire immigrants are able to set wages low and do little to improve working conditions because workers are easy to replace, and there is always someone looking for a job. Therefore, this horrific cycle of worker abuse and exploitation will likely end due to the influx of immigrants and need for a job.

            As seen in the documentary and in my experiences and reading, the exploitation of workers is a major problem in America. It can be seen in almost every industry today, but is especially prevalent in the growing food industry that is dominated by large companies and corporations.