This is a film that portrays the Scopes Trial (the question of teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in public schools).

Last week, I wrote up a post about one of my recent academic failures – namely, the unfortunate experience of being placed on probation due to falling short of the 3.5 GPA required by Macaulay.

Today, I am going to attempt to cheer myself up by reflecting on a recent academic success. (I realize that not all successful experiences have to be academic, but since I am a Macaulay Honors student, most of my life is spent on academics and most of my successes are in that field.)

As I indicated in my bio, I graduated at the top of my class in high school and was honored with the tremendous privilege of delivering the valedictory address. I believe that this was really the high point, the pinnacle (if you will), of my academic career.

There is no way to recount how many sleepless nights I had while in high school or how many times I would wake up at dawn to finish that English paper or to study for that AP US History exam that I would be taking in a few hours.

It is also worth noting that I dropped two of my courses – physics and calculus – to ensure that I would, in fact, be valedictorian.  If I had taken those courses, they would likely have proven to be a formidable challenge that may have hindered my prospects of being valedictorian.

In any event, I was a real nerd back in high school, and I prepared my valedictory address as early as February (when graduation wasn’t until June). Being valedictorian was a goal that I had from the day that I began high school, and when I got my report cards and saw that 97% GPA (or, occasionally, G-d forbid, a 95%), I knew that the day would come when I would meet my goal. And indeed it did.

Just a quick research journal about a book that is very relevant to my topic of interest-

Approximately a year ago I read a book called Gideon’s Trumpet. This book deals with the issue of a defendant’s right to be provided with a lawyer if he cannot afford to get one on his own. I do not remember the exact details, but I know that the case was started by an indigent defendant who wrote a letter to the Supreme Court, claiming that he could not adequately defend himself without an attorney, and eventually the court ruled that indeed the State (meaning, the government) must provide defendants with a lawyer if necessary.

The case raises some interesting issues. Conservatives would argue that it is perhaps contrary to public policy that the taxpayers should have to pay for lawyers for all the criminals who demand to have them. True, the state/ prosecution has a lot of resources that the defendant doesn’t, but at the same time a person is in theory capable of defending himself without a lawyer, especially if he didn’t do the crime, so why should the taxpayers be responsible for paying for a lawyer for every single criminal defendant who insists on having one provided for him? It’s true that defendants have rights that need to be protected, but how far should those rights go – and at whose expense?

Besides, the lawyers that are provided by the State are not necessarily competent ones (e.g., public defenders who graduated from law school approximately two weeks ago and are already representing people who are accused of murder). That is another issue that needs to be taken into consideration.

If the defendant is capable of writing letters to the Supreme Court and standing up for his rights, then why isn’t he capable of defending himself in a courtroom setting? It’s true that having a lawyer can help, but I think that it’s important to consider both sides of the issue – both the position that a lawyer should be provided by the State, as well as the opposite position. In recent decades, there has been a trend to give defendants more and more rights (Miranda warnings, right to a lawyer, etc.) They are certainly entitled to some rights (after all, the United States is not – and should not be – a dictatorship), but we have to know where to draw the line. Otherwise, we will be giving the alleged criminals more rights than their alleged victims. It is a complex matter that needs to be decided not by bleeding-heart liberals or tough-on-crime conservatives, but rather by level-headed people on both sides of the ideological spectrum who should come together and decide what course of action is best for our society.

~Michael

http://macaulay.cuny.edu – Yes, that’s right, I think that the Macaulay site is a pretty effective one. For one thing, that’s where I go to find the information I need about Opportunities Funds (free money) and all the other great things that Macaulay has to offer.

It has conveniently arranged categories and drop-down menus at the top of the page.

It has a calendar of upcoming events on the left side of the page.

It has a search box where you can search for any key term (it’s always very important to have this option on any Web site, in my opinion, and indeed many good Web sites do have this feature).

And there are many more great things about our college’s Web site that I hope to point out in today’s class discussion.

Overall, my academic career has been a relatively good one. I had the great privilege and honor to graduate from high school at the top of my class. I had the good fortune to be accepted into the Macaulay Honors Program.  I had a perfect score on the Writing Section of the SAT. However, like all people, there have been times when I failed – when I didn’t do the best job I could, when I neglected to reach my full potential.

One such time was in Brooklyn College, when I took a course in Classical Cultures – a course that required me to read extensive amounts of Greek literature. Given the good academic fortune that I had enjoyed in the past, it seems that I became complacent with my schoolwork and my grades; I became overly satisfied and decided to slack off, a decision that I would sorely regret.

In that Classical Cultures class, I failed to do the required readings. Many times, I just skimmed over the tens of pages that I had been required to read. When it came time for midterms and finals, there was no way for me to make up all of the material that I had missed. Even though I had attended every class session religiously, my failure to do the assigned readings took a toll on my grades. I flunked the midterm, and my performance on the final wasn’t much better. In the end, the professor had mercy on me and gave me a C.

What happened next was even worse. My GPA sank below the required 3.5, and I was placed on academic probation and threatened that if I didn’t fix up my act, I would be expelled from Macaulay (Heaven forfend!). That accursed “C” had been a sorely needed wake-up call for me to cease being complacent and to start following along in the readings just like everybody else.

Alas, I had been thrown off my high horse. I had been toppled from the lofty status of high school valedictorian. Now, I was on probation, and it was pretty humiliating  that a person who had proudly delivered a valedictory address several years ago was now sitting in a room together with people who had been placed on probation – and I, too, was one of them.

A humiliating experience that, in the end, turned out well. After a series of probation meetings, I was able to re-focus on my studies and finally, this past semester, I brought my GPA to 3.52 and am no longer on academic probation. Let us hope and pray that it will stay that way.

In the meantime, however, my “failure” was a lesson in humility and caused me to have the stark realization that even a model student and a class valedictorian can fall, and fail, and be toppled from the pinnacle of his high school glory to the abyss of academic probation.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Arfm3HPYiXUwdHY3X0p4TXhrRzdkNkJSX3c1c1pncGc&output=html

This is my new e-portfolio. I will be posting news and information here periodically.