Letter of Concern

January 19, 2010

Ikil Yunao
729 Chemical Warfare Rd.
Death Row, British Colombia
D1E N0W

Mr. Kleats
Central High School, 123 Main Street
Sportstown, British Colombia
Canada, V2A 1W3

Dear Mr. Kleats:

Recently, after attending several of my son's Soccer practices of which you are currently coaching, I have some possible recommendations I would like you to consider. I believe that it is my duty as a parent of a child in your program to bring these concerns to your attention.

More often than not, it would appear that it may be in both the best interests of yourself, and your team that you pay more attention to your punctuality; it is not an uncommon occurrence for myself, and most of the team to be waiting in anticipation for you for 20 minutes or more at practices and games, sometimes even resulting in several players leaving early from practice, or games starting without your presence. At most practices, it would also be my opinion that many of the players often become confused as to what you are requiring them to do, and an increase in organization could be beneficial to the structure, and skills of the team.

In many games that I have observed, it has come to my attention that several members of your team would appear to be experiencing substantially less play time than others, and with more could increase the productivity of themselves, as well as the team. Seeing as the children you are couching are only 14, it would probably increase your credibility as a role model for these boys to use more respectful and appropriate language.

I acknowledge that you are a very competitive man, but I think that changing your emphasis from winning, to more teamwork, and leadership skills would also be a very positive change for the players and the team.

I hope that you can consider these recommendations, and I appreciate any and all feedback on my recomendations. Also, I would be willing to help you instigate these changes, should the need arise, and wish you and the team the best in the future.

P.S. Inclosed in this letter is Anthrax. Good Day

Sincerely,


Ikil Yunao

Synthesis Essay: Respect...

Respect is one of the most important aspects of a Parent-Child relationship, and if a parent fails to adequately show respect for their next of kin, than that child could grow up thinking that they should teat others in the same manner. Both Neil Millar's "The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask..." and Budge Wilson's "Be-ers and Doers" show examples of Parent-Child relationships. Although both show a distinct approach to parenting, "The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask..." manages to show a more respectful style of parenting than "Be-ers and Doers."

Neil Millar's "The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask..." attempts to persuade readers to give their children responsibility, instead of taking care of every aspect of life for them. Contrary to what some children may think when met with responsibilities such as cooking dinner, or doing the laundry, these acts can help a child learn to survive later in life. Millar expresses that "A Maasai tribe leader appointed a seven year-old girl as the person in charge of two-thirds of his villages wealth... Maybe we could trust our children with a vacuum or a mop or a duster twice a week!" That being seen as quite a stretch for many parents, they could always "begin by directing [their] children to take on small tasks." Many parents choose to take complete care of their children, and become a "nanny" of sorts, instead of a parent. Millar expresses that parents instead "have a responsibility to first nurture, then educate [their children], then, as soon as they are ready, hand over responsibility for their well-being to them." If a parent refuses to do such, and care not for their children's future needs, than they may become people who tend to "[disrespect] both other human beings and the environment."

Budge Wilson's "Be-ers and Doers" shows a mostly unfavourable, but yet surprisingly common, form of parenting where the parents wish to mold their children, as if clay, to their own idea of what they should become. This approach is generally unstable, and does not succeed much, due to the child's needs and wants being neglected in favour of the parents ideals of what they should become. As early on as the baby is born, the mother had "made up her mind that Albert was going to be a perfect son." This is a potentially fatal mistake, as the mother has no clue as to what the child's interests will even be, and does not care either way, so long as she gets the child she wants. Once Albert became a teenager, he "[could not] see [any] sense in workin' hard at something [he will] never use." He is content with what he has, and does not have any aspirations of somehow becoming great, although he did do well in English Class, and enjoyed literature. Albert had chosen, by the time that he became 15, that he admired his father and his way of life more than his mother; not surprising when you factor in all the nagging he is forced to endure from her. Three years later, after saving his family from a potentially horrible fire, of which Albert saved his family from, his mother expresses that "[she is] just proud of [Albert.] So terrible proud!" Albert, seeing the actual meaning behind this states that "[He's] not gonna be what [his mother wants]... [He's] gonna be [himself,]" showing that he has finally declared his revolt to his mothers iron-fisted rule over his conscience, his thoughts, and his future.

It is true that respect is a necessity of any relationship, and should not be taken for granted. Budge Wilson's "Be-ers and Doers," and Neil Millar's "The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask..." show very opposing ideals of how one should parent their children, but there is no doubt that Neil Millar expresses a much more respectful approach to being a parent.

An abomination of a Christmas Dinner

Everyone has encountered, or is due to eventually encounter a situation where everything doesn't exactly go "according to plan." Dave, The Protagonist in Stuart Mclean's "Dave Cooks the Turkey," encountered a very interesting case of exactly this on possibly the worst time for such a thing to occur; when preparing Christmas Dinner. Dave is put in charge of "taking care of the Turkey," and finds himself rushing to find a turkey and cook in an alternative way. McLean uses awkward situations, humorous descriptions, and situations of which one can relate to create humour for the reader. Awkward situations are not necessarily fun for the participants of such, but are often humorous to read about or watch. Dave finds himself in numerous awkward situations during the course of the story, such as when he enters a hotel waiting room, holding his dripping turkey, when he notices his neighbour, "Jim Scoffield [standing] beside an elderly woman whom Dave assumed must be Jim's visiting mother." Furthermore, the use of various humorous and creative descriptions are used to incorporate humour into the story. This is noticeable being when Dave is observing the "Grade B Turkey," and realizes that it "looked like it had made a break from the slaughterhouse and dragged itself a block or two before it was captured and beaten to death." Finally, Mclean uses many situations that readers can relate to in the story, such as taking a direction, and then suddenly realizing later that either you forgot something, or that you were wrong with the original intentions of the direction. This is evident when Dave is told by his wife to take the turkey out of the freezer, and after meticulously checking both freezers and finding nothing, he comes to the sudden realization that "looking after the turkey, something he had promised to do, meant buying it as well as putting it in the oven." Stuart McLean is truly a master of creating comical and interesting stories, and this attempt is no exception.

Expository: Maturity and stuff

Certain experiences mark the beginning of maturity. Now of course there are all the generic things that everyone thinks fits this category, such as getting your drivers license, or moving out of your parents house, but most of the experiences that mark the beginning of maturity are not in fact physical happenings, but instead things that can happen inside the human mind. Such things as realizing the difference between "wants" and "needs," as well as accepting responsibilities for ones actions.

Many people grow up in our modern day capitalist society, and take much for granted. Babies and small children often get what they want, when they want. They think that they "need" it, even though it is usually simply an accessory of life, and is essentially pointless to their survival. But that doesn't deter them in any way, they still "need" this item, even though they only want it, and do not in fact need it. Whether they lack the rational thinking skills to realize that they don't actually "need" it, or if they are just too young to know or care. Even some adults these days lack these skills, they decide to go out and buy big TV's and other pointless things, often with credit cards, when they have no money to actually buy such things, and the store is more than willing to cash in with these fools, with their decrepit minds, who buy first, and rack up credit card debt second, and then think third. In most ways, the adults who choose to do this are not quite mature; even though they are mature in age, and body, they are immature in mind, which is more crucial to the survival of a human being.

Everyone has, at one point in their life thus far, done something wrong, and have failed to do anything about it. Mostly evident in immature children who fear the possible consequences of their actions, and choose to not tell anybody of what they did wrong. They do not have such a sense of right and wrong, they are bent on what benefits them the most. But when someone find what the other has done wrong, they can be blamed for something they have not done, or they could be forced to clean up what a careless individual accidentally did. Perhaps some of these people simply live too much "in the present," believing that they will deal with it later. But then they keep thinking that and procrastination takes over, and nothing gets done. Some people also just might think that if they don't tell anyone, no one will know that it was their fault, and thus they wont get into trouble, and thus solving the problem. Well unfortunately, that is a bad belief to hold in modern day society, and those who choose to take responsibility for their actions are definitely more mature than those who do not

Maturity is a difficult thing to describe, but there are definitely certain experiences that can mark the start of maturity in humans. Such experiences are vast, and almost innumerable, but many of them cannot be described, and to achieve all of them, even in a lifetime, would be particularly difficult. Nonetheless, two of such experiences are evidently the ability to distinguish between "needs" and "wants," and accepting responsibility for ones actions. These are very important parts of truly developing and becoming mature, and if one were to not accept these traits, they could find themselves in a lot of trouble down the road