Tristan Arnold
9-6-16
Class Blog 1

I think learning to summarize large bodies of work will really help me out as  I move on throughout the school year in many ways. For one it will significantly reduce the amount of writing I will have to do, but still be able to get the same point across and tell the exact same thing, just in a much shorter way. I think that critical thinking is a very important part of school and every day life. If we don't put any effort into thinking about things they will just pass right through our minds and we wont retain any information. As far as using it in society, it will help us at jobs by being able to understand what we are doing, if we are doing something wrong, and how to fix problems and solve them on our own. The same goes with using the same method for family and friends. If we are listening to someone talk and just kinda listening and not really trying to understand what they're telling us, we wont ever really get to know people and if we do it wont be a very good relationship if you can't put forward the effort to really listen to that person and hear them out. As I learn to analyze texts in different ways it has really opened up my eyes to what people really mean by things, and the points they are trying to get across. Normally if I read a text where it seemed like someone was ranting about something, I would just assume they are mad and only seeing one side, but now as I read different texts like that, I can see that they are just trying to make a point, and a lot of the time a fair argument. As I read the article about veterans and financial aid I really understood where the author was coming from and how messed up some of the for-profit colleges really are.

In the article about the GI bill and veterans tuition I thought it was pretty upsetting how for-profit colleges can only take 85% of the money from the government. Both of my grandfathers are military veterans so when I hear that these people who put their lives on the line and leave family and serve our country don't get free tuition, I get a little upset. Even though for-profit colleges are almost twice as much as a regular college, the amount of veterans going to them should not affect them that much. If the entire college was veterans with free tuition I could understand a little more. Although the for-profit colleges already rely heavily on financial aid, instead of cutting the amount veterans can get, just limit the amount the normal student is applying for.  Senator Durbin is trying to pass a law that will reduce the 90% veterans can use from the government down to 85% but he will have a tough time doing so, because he will have a hard time finding support to pass the bill.