Esther Cepeda's Writing

My generation is the result of a turn of the century. We were raised off of television, microwaves, and iPod touches. Our technology, the things that we thrive in, were given to us by our parents, and the generations before them. We are viewed as nothing but lazy kids who were handed everything we own and have never experienced our own struggles or hardships. To most “grown ups”, we are malnourished in education because technology is draining us of our intelligence. Esther Cepeda of The Washington Post Writing Group, wrote about how she viewed our incompetence based off the NAEP test scores. She writes, “But I think it comes down to much the same reason we have a nation of poor readers, and underperforming math, science and history students: These subjects are hard and no one likes hard work anymore” (Cepeda). I am a 9th grade honor student at Riverglen Junior High and I do like to work hard. Her blanket statement discredits the kids who truly try. Cepeda is right about one thing however,

Teaching people to write has been around for just as long, but it seems as though students today simply aren't getting it. Students appear to be lacking in many of the writing skills, such as punctuation, grammar, and generally are falling below proficient in tests based around writing skills. Esther Cepeda of The Washington Post's writing group stated that "Just 24 percent of students in the eighth and 12th grades performed at the proficient level in writing, meaning that they demonstrated a clear understanding of the writing task they'd been assigned." If only 24 percent of students are showing that they have writing skills at the level that they should be at, then shouldn't a change be made in the curriculum for writing? It also should be noted that teachers all have their own way of teaching and writing, and I feel as though that should be more regulated so that students are all being taught the same thing for the same