EDU 60 Memo #1

Darlene McCoy
dmmccoy@ucsc.edu
Segment 1 Memo - Option B
Yolanda Diaz-Houston - Section 1E
April 13, 2011
506 words

To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Darlene McCoy, and I’m a student at UC Santa Cruz. Merely getting to this school was a near impossible challenge for me because of where I grew up. I live in an area right outside of Sacramento – Rancho Cordova, and let me tell you, it’s not exactly the best place to go to school. When I was in elementary school, in the ‘90s, there was paper provided in the classrooms, there were pencils if someone forgot or needed one, and there were functional materials. My teachers were incredible, and happy to be there teaching each day. While my elementary school was still poor, it was alright. It wasn’t a huge challenge to get through a day of class. In high school, I was hearing about how my beloved music program might be getting cut every other week, my textbooks were falling apart, my classes were at least 30 students to one teacher, our library was a joke, and our career center was a distant memory. In school, I was in the honors/AP program - I can’t imagine what it was like to be in the normal classes, with even less material. Just this year at least half of my high school’s sports programs were cut. I’m pretty sure my music teacher got about $500 for the orchestra for the entire year. There were about fifteen people of my graduating class of anywhere from 250-300 who went to a four-year college. Our original class freshman year was about 650 students. What happened to all of them? Why is the school system failing so miserably?
I believe that if the state gave more funding to schools, that students like me, from my background, would have opportunities to thrive in life, and all of society would benefit. If my school had more funding, we could have had better classrooms, better teachers, and better material. College would not have seemed like a far-off impossible dream. Other students could have had the chance to thrive more in elective classes. We could have a library that was worth taking the time to go to, or a career center to aid us in our future endeavors. I feel like with more funding, graduation rates in my area would go up. And furthermore, because graduation rates would go up, crime rates would go down. Just the other year, at Rancho Cordova’ annual 4th of July Celebration, someone was shot, and the whole thing had to be shut down. How is education not a public good? There are far too many benefits from having an educated populace to not fund education through tax dollars. Why is it that I, my former classmates, and my community have to suffer due to our lower income? Why is the state not protecting us, not helping us become educated citizens? The cuts to education are insane – how can a society function without educated citizens that are able to perform their duties well? I expect more from my state.
Sincerely,
Darlene McCoy

The Name - Ms. Hinkle

The apple,
that fruit that hit Newton on the head,
The apple,
that fruit that is so unbelievably red,
it reminds me of Cordova - CHS
reminds me of the dear friends I've left.

Now there's one particular friend--
one crazy soul to compliment mine,
and I've not seen her in such a long time...

but hey!
This is where the apple comes in again,
it's on a spit,
sizzling and crackling, over a dancing flame.

That dance is how a friendship came to be.
Kinda neat, though I know it's hard to see.

and the apple,
even after it's smoldering waltz,
is still red
and it can still surely bruise Sir Issac's head.
but now,
the once soft skin,
the membrane encompassing the juices within,
is not so smooth, or thin.

Is a roasted apple still the same?
It sort of reeks of only
smoke and ash.
The once gentle crisp
now has a lisp.
Oh! The apple's speech is impaired!

Now, the skin is leather, a diminished red,
it resembles something like the top of a cowboy's head--
Now, the fresh crackles are gone -
the apple is dead.
The smell of sweet spring no longer exists--
and yet,
science,
still persists.

Cindy and I -
in compliance
murdered an apple
in the name of science.

My Cheeks Hurt.

From smiling.

Good lord, I am in love with the world, once again.

Hello life, hello bliss

GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE~!

... mmmm Mr. Bliss

teehee :3!

Bio teachers who look like Super Man

are good teachers.

:]

I'm so freakin' happy.
I had a wonderful day.

YAY ASTRONOMY TOMORROW! :]

End of Orchestra...

Last day of Orchestra was yesterday...

it was a fairly fun day...

Fun Awards were fun...

Friendliest, Most likely to move the farthest away from home, BEST Senior Girl (take that Sarah!! >:]) /

Yeaaaaaah, boy.

Then Senior speeches afterward... which was like all of us trying to talk at once, lol

and Stephen... telling the Freshman not to do drugs like 5 times

MarkandStephen.com! (Yes, it's a real site, no, I've never been to it, and don't plan on it)

Then the Simmies... gives us his advice...

1. Don't get preggo early
2. Don't fall in love too early
3. Have fun
4. Actually do something with your life
5. Always cherish music!

Yay...

But like... then he went on a tangent, of course,
and he just like said,

"Look around guys, 'cause this is the last time you'll be my students... take the room in."

and we all just started ballin' like babies XD

Least, we felt like it, and oh man, that was one of the saddest things ever,

I absolutely adore Orchestra... it means everything to me...

Now it's like, gone...

Sometimes, time is too short...

Today I go to school for two hours... to do nothing...

Why? 'Cause it's probably the last time I'll ever see some of those people

Do I exceptionally care? Not really.

Does it make me feel a little better? Yeah.

I just can't believe this is the end... there's so much to miss...

but oh man, have I mentioned UCSC?

The like, best school in the world?

Oh, okay!

That makes up for any sadness for leaving CHS behind...

But it might take a little bit to get used to it... :(

The delicious food may help :3

Orchestra BBQ...

The last one...

:(... so much sadpanda...

Orchestra is like my life man...

...and it's over...

...

maybe I'm being emotional, but man

9 years... and it's all like over now...

wooow, what the hell!

Was pretty fun either way, 'cept my favorite band kid wasn't there

bastard is out camping, of course...

of course!

The Orchestra gave Mr. Sims a one-of-a-kind amazing special present this year

it was a handmade quilt,

with wonderful things for him to remember us by...

and

a picture, all signed by us,

duh.

Except,

the evil one, known as Sarah David

known to my Freshman as Sarah Devil~

picked the worst picture of me, ever

'cause my face looks all retarded ._.

man, she makes my blood boil!

/simmer

but in the end, who cares?

Simmies is happy, I am happy

and I am so sad.

so, so sad.

:(

I love music... most wonderful thing in the world...

Last Concert... Prolly Ever...

IT WENT WELL, HO MY GOD~!

Like if you were to give us a % chance of failing

it'd be at least 75%

and we didn't fail!

SO AMAZING!

We've had our songs for like

maybe 2-3 weeks? Only played through 'em a couple of times

...which is not good

'cause our second violins may or may not know how to play
...or even count to 4 for that matter

Funny how much simple math is important!

Sims... I'm gonna miss the Simmies... :(

He wished us luck after high school
and hoped we'd fly on the wings of Pegasus~

Way to be a dork, Sims...

He's gonna be so happy Friday, when we give him the best Senior gift ever!

And man... no more Orchestra... my life is over dude D:

Arellano Makes Me Angry

Gov teacher made final tomorrow so I have to study and crap tonight...

I could be meriting! Gosh life is so awful!

:P !

But frsrsly, Arellano is a bastard for making final Friday /

Thee 31st of Jan!

What a wonderful, amazing, marathon of a day. :]

Woke up at 6... Ruby picked me up at like 6:55... (20 mins before I was expecting her!)
went and got Lidia...
went and got Ben & Breanna...
...went and got Rachel...

Ruby's car only holds 5 people... generally...

there was 4 of us in the back... it's a good thing I like all my friends or I'd of been very, very, uncomfortable...

we arrived at Safeway to get some index cards... and some Starbucks of course

Vanilla Bean, yummm!

btw - drinking cold things in the morning is not a good idea...
but nevertheless, so tasty!

We got to the courthouse at around... 7:50?

...and had to stand out in the cold until 8:00 when they finally let us in!

Found out defense was going first... (me!)

We were up against Florin... I think we killed them, to be honest!

I got all of my testimony right :] and I didn't giggle!

Rachel was killing people with insane objections... the judge called her a Bulldog XD

intense!

Ruby "knocked the judge's socks off"

She did amazing... her closing was just like BAM!

Yaaay, good job, totally rocked that!

Then we went out to eat at this amazing little resturant called Hamburger Patty's

I know, weird name, but oh my God the food was sooo amazing...

I had a burger smothered in Teriyaki... it came with a knife in it o,o

!!!

Mr. Manch's brother owns the resturant, so we ate a like... $80-100 meal for $50...

and then Mr. Manch just paid for it...

Free amazing food... is the best thing in the world...

Manch is so awesome!

Anyway, we got back to the courthouse around 12:35

...we got lost on the way back... <.> ...

Prosecution's turn!

Since our other attorney for that side couldn't make it, Amanda, our beast attorney had to do the case all by herself...

which, she kind of did, anyway, considering she wrote the whole thing and the other attorney was basically just reading crap off

Think we did better without the other girl!

Well, we were up against El Camino... and we got the judge from hell

Sure, he was great for educational purposes...

...if you wanted to sit there and listen to him for like 4 hours

...as the jury

...

Well, we destroyed El Camino

Amanda got like... at least 50% of their testimoney striken from the record...

and the other 50% they had was just horrid, anyway

along with their opening and closing statements...?

Their defandant freakin' fell asleep!

and their Pre-Trial Attorney...

They weren't dressed right... didn't adress the court right... I mean wow

I didn't know there was a school out there that we would look amazing against XD

So anyway, Mock Trial didn't end until about 3:45...

I had to be at home at 4 PM...?

WHAT?!

Mock Trial was supposed to end at about 2:30...

okay...

It takes about 20 mins to get back home from downtown

Nevermind the fact that we had to drop Ben off at his dad's...

I didn't get home 'til about 4:30...

...and I found nobody at my house ready to pratice

save my BFF cello, Stephen

so that was sort of, um, useless?

We went to the school around 5, because the rest of the group showed up there.

Praticed for maybe 30 mins XD people were whining it was too cold...

I like them otherwise I would have made them stay outside...

We had timing problems, and for some reason it was really hard to hear me...

but! we pulled it off...

I think the show was a success, but there was less people there than at an orchestra concert...

My friend James gave me a giant plate of spaghetti and some apple pie...

being friends with people in the cooking academy is always a good idea!

Finally got home at about 8 PM...

14 hour day... wooow...

so long, but it was really rewarding and I felt pretty good about it all...

now it's 7 AM the next day!

...and I gotta do some homework and head off to Santa Cruz :]!!

GO SLUUGS!

& buy Marron Glace, please?

Ex-Jailbait

wru Alt?! :]

...too old for Vry!

it wasn't actually on your calendar?!

Yay for being 18.

And still having a home, lol

Too bad this blog is 3 days late!

Either way, I can legally buy porn now... not that I have... or plan to... XD

and smoke... (disgusting.)

What's good about being 18, again?

Oooohhh, I can vote!

Too bad the like, most historic election ever is over.

Damnit... XD

and California is sort of crazy with their laws... at least if Prop 8 is up again I can vote no!

(Gay people should be able to marry and have the same rights, too! Damn old people.)

Oh well, my birthday was really nice...

My friends brought me balloons and Starbucks in the morning.

and my BFF Cindy brought me a giant ass piece of chocolate cake...

Oh my God, delicious.

and lots of people actually said Happy Birthday!

Only like... two did last year and it was sort of depressing...

That sounds weird, but my birthday really sucked last year... XD

Sims forgot... and I was sadd...

but yay, Happy Birthday to me!

omgomgomgomgomgomg!! :]!

CONCERT FOR ORCHESTRA WAS AWESOME!

Viva Violas~!

We didn't screw up... yay!

Finals start tomorrow... I'm a giant stress ball

But Mr. Sims gave us TWO full PIES!

Deliciousness

Yaaaaaaaaaaay :]

I also made a sort of "new" friend today...

Known for a while and been friends and all but more of friend-like... I dunno :D

Sweet girl... she is!

and I almost killed someone with my mouth >.> gotta say sorry tomorrow

Whoops...