Rockie's Blog

The kids are the main priority at my CP. All of the money we get and resources we have are used with the kids in mind. Whether it’s stickers for the kids prizes once they complete their reading goals, or new pencils/pens for them to write with, or books for them to read or take home. The process is really simple. My CP is partners with companies like Google, PG&E, KPMG, etc. They give Reading Partners annual monetary donations. My CP also hosts events to get people to donate. They also receive frequent donations from people in the community or just people who have hear what they’re doing and want to contribute. Sometimes it’s money, other times it’s books and supplies, but my CP uses it all. The money donated gets used for books and supplies and the supplies and books go straight to the kids. I’m not sure which hallmark this goes with. If any of them, I think it would be We commit ourselves to community service , and We create community among those with whom we work and with thos

My community partner operates in a few different cities and a few different towns since they have about 40 locations but they’re based in the bay area. I worked at the one in Redwood City which is a crossover between a city and a town. Redwood City definitely isn’t a single purpose government. Most of their money goes to town maintenance and things like that rather than the education system. Redwood City has a astrong-mayor-coucil structure. The mayor, Ian Bain, has a strong presence but he isn’t revolutionary. He doesn’t really like change which I think can be dangerous since change can bring out advancement. Redwood city has maybe one or two centers but aside from that and the restaurants, there isn’t much of a city life. Change isn’t something that Redwood City needs just yet so this kind of mayor will be fine for now. But once things start happening and Redwood City starts changing, I think they’ll need a new mayor to deal with advancement and growth. My community partner only en

When I think of California, I think of the kind of America that I’m proud to be a part of. I think of advocacy, fairness, and I think of protest. Everyday, I’m reminded that my voice matters, that I do have a say, and that anybody can make a change. California reminds me of equality and that’s one of the things I love about it. Lately, when I think of democracy, I think of President Trump and his new policies. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, challenged Trumps declaration of national emergency at the Mexico border. According to The Sacramento Bee, Newsom stated that all of the suits he’s filed against the federal government, Trump, “are meant to protect policies that California voters support”. California fought Trump for DACA and won it back, California lost its fight against Tumps wall but they are currently filing appeals and California isn’t going down without a fight. California is also currently fighting Trump and Texas on keeping Obama Care. California’s legislature, state

My community partner has to do with the decline in children’s literacy and how to rectify that. Only 36% of kids are reading at their grade level. That means that 64% of students are 6 or months behind their grade level. For my research project, I want to research why children’s literacy levels are so low, and what we can to do increase them. There’s a whole bunch of material out on this. A lot of people seem to think it has to do with radios and television, others think its cell phones and social media. People also bring up socioeconomic well being and how that plays a factor in what kind of education some of these kids are receiving. The idea that no one reads books anymore has also come up in my research. I plan on conducting a survey to see what people think about reading, then using that to examine how we can get kids reading at their grade level, but also figuring out how we can prevent the decline in children’s literacy to begin with.

The topic I’ve chosen for this journal entry is patronage. Patronage is “The informal power of a governor (or other officeholder) to make appointments on the basis of party membership and to dispense contracts or other favors to political supporters” (159). The way I understand it, patronage is basically when someone puts the people they want, people who have the same political beliefs as them, and put them in positions of political power. This can be extremely dangerous considering the fact that this isn’t a government that’s representative of the people. Take Trump for example, he appointed people he wanted to into positions of power and authority but they have no idea how to do their jobs. This is dangerous for America and defeats the purpose of democracy. If qualifications or the will of the people can be swept aside and people like the governor or Trump can just appoint who they want, where they want, thats not a democracy that represents the diverse people that they’re meant to

I read a case a while ago about abortion rights in Kansas. They passed a law prohibiting second trimester abortions but that challenged the state constitution so it wasn’t passed. Citizens and policy makers felt that this called for a revision in the state constitution so it was taken to court. The Washington Post mentioned that this case provided “a pathway to override restrictive state laws elsewhere”. The court ruled in favor of the state which meant that laws couldn’t be passed regarding abortions since the state constitution gave women the right to choose. I think this is interesting considering the fact that the idea of amending or challenging a state constitution would be to update it. I thought that it would be for progress towards the kind of America that we live in today. But it kind of seems like this case was backtracking. It wasn’t for progress, it was fighting for regression and that kind of shocked me. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/kansas-supreme-cou