" Should College Athletes Be Paid? " by Veronica Majerol- Non- Fiction Critical Analysis

"Should College Athletes be paid?" is a non-fiction article, found in upfront, about the debate on whether college athletes should due paid for participating in big-time college football or basketball programs. The article presents to us different sides of the opinions, with yes meaning they should be paid, and no stating that it would ruin the fun! The author seems to lean more toward the debate that they SHOULD be payed due to their ability and age. One way in which they do this is, the author presents to us a college football player's life outside of the field, showing how not getting payed has a negative effect on the players themselves. "There are nights that I go to bed and I'm starving." This fact is life-threatening and I bet that no one would have expected to hear that. Another way in which the author tries to get her point across is by predicting the outcome of college players' lives if they were to get paid, she looks into the future and presents to us ideal situations of how the players' lives would change in a good way. Lastly, she presents her argument by her use of language, which implies that it is unfair how college players are treated as mega stars but don't get the power and acknowledgement as people with the same job, yet just 10 years older. She presents it to us in a way where she says that they aren't being given the acknowledgement they deserve in their industry, which furthermore adds on to her bias, that college football and basketball players should be paid.

The author hopes to persuade kids that college players' should be paid because they are being treated unfairly, just due to their age. She wants us to feel the pain that some people have to go through in this industry, because they aren't being paid for what they do on a daily basis. One way in which the author persuades us is by using a big company to make her point. " At the same time, the NCAA and its member universities benefit enormously from popular athletes, who brings in millions of dollars in TV revenues and memorabilia sales, increase alumni donations and attract new students." This is a 'power' company in the industry, who seem to benefit from the paying so it seems to prove the author's thoughts as they both have the same viewpoint. Also, the author uses her own bias by using very strong language to persuade readers that college players should be getting paid. " The NCAA gets a cut; universities get a cut; coaches get a cut. The only ones not cashing in, it seems, are the players themselves." The author uses very persuasive language, for example; she could have said not being paid but instead she says 'not cashing in.' It is just more persuasive and it makes us feel like we are siding with her.

The article made me think about the lives of these college athletes, and that they aren't all wonderful. I agree that the players should get paid, as they aren't being treated fairly for the work that they do, however I think that most of the money that they get given should be put in trust funds, so that they aren't influenced by what big time players spend their money on. My thoughts have changed because I had never thought about the negative effects that college players have to go through, and quite frankly I had no idea that they didn't get payed.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue fish- Social Action questions

Whilst I was reading ‘One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish’ by Dr Suess, I started to realize that there is a deep message portrayed in this kid’s allegory text. The book is about how there are many different ‘species’ of fish and that they are all great at something. It also touches upon how each fish in the sea have separate talents and can each help function a place if they participate in their ‘specialities’. As you all probably realize, this book is a child classic, where I have not met anyone who hadn’t read this as a child. However, most kids just read the outside layer of the book but if you re-read and dig deeper into the text, you find that there is a discrete message that is a representation for a real-life issue.

            The first social action question was the first thing that I thought about whilst reading the text, what really difficult or complex things are happening in the text? The story portrays a message of slight racism and segregation to being with. This is portrayed at the beginning of the story because we are introduced to so many different fish, that are all different in talents but they are al treated differently. It isn’t quite the section of racism that we are accustomed to, for example: The Civil War. But in fact, it is the kind of racism where you are judged on your looks. Throughout the book, these fish are assessed due to the colour of them or the way that they do things. They aren’t acknowledged for their personality but more for the way they look etc. However, towards the end of the book, the message takes an unravelling turn and we realize that the message is portrayed in two different ways. From the beginning of the book and to the end, we are portrayed with the same issue but kind of a resolution to the first aspect. For example, in the text, towards the end of the book, we learn that everyone is different yet each equal because everyone is the same being deep down and have equal value inside and out. It shows that everyone is unique, and has different qualities, but each person is the same truthfully and people should be equally respected and not just observed by their looks. We learn this by just observing the different characters and you start to observe a pattern, where we find that each person walks the same way and are the same, but just have a different skin colour and different talents.

            Whilst I continued to observe the 1^st social action question, I was almost intrigued by the 2^nd one, whose point of view is missing? The story is about the fish but yet told by a boy. The point of view that is missing is the ‘fishes’. The only person’s POV that is shown are the narrators and the one human’s voice. I think the author chose not to include the fishes point of view because they might have had different opinions about each other because of their looks, which may be not agreeable with the author’s issue that is tried to be shown. It shows that the author was choosing who gets to be heard just to fit his perspective. It doesn’t show a fair way to portray the book, because if we are learning about these fish, then why aren’t they being allowed to speak? It causes us to have less trust in the author and we aren’t accustomed to how the fishes feel about their way of life. The perspective of the one human being is included because it is seemed to be the ‘typical’ and ‘normal’ people looking in on the different people’s perspective and views.

The third social action question, is justice served, was a hard one because honestly the answer isn’t clear. At the beginning, justice isn’t served because each fish is being ‘racist’ towards each other and not joining and acknowledging people’s opinions because they are all base each other on their looks and how they are different. It shows no justice because they don’t give each other a chance to express their true ideas and perspectives but that they are automatically crossed out because they look different and have a different approach to things. It isn’t fair because you could meet your best friend but if they don’t look nice or ‘normal’ then you would never know that. They don’t acknowledge anyone’s similarities but only the differences between everyone. But in the end, justice is served because everyone realized that each other are the same deep down and that their looks don’t define them.

In conclusion, we learn a lot of messages throughout the book, which all have a deeper meaning than you would already think about. Not only do we approach the different perspectives in a deeper way, but also we realize how some kid’s books actually aren’t just for kids. The messages in the book, wouldn’t make sense for a child, so then we think, who is the author’s true audience. I feel as if this is another question that could be asked because it gives insight into the authors intended audience for the book.