Paper draft

A journey to find the true meaning of rhetoric lay before me, a whole book to thoroughly explain the concept, or so I thought. Beginning this experience with very little idea of what rhetoric is left me scrambling to find any type of dictionary definition that could at least start the process. The "User's Guide" by Ramage left me with no such definition and now in search of a new game plan to try and figure out this concept.
Starting back at square one, it seemed as though the only way to make this book work for me was to just pick out anything that made sense and then try to make those points make sense together. My starting point was a portion on the first page that described the idea at question by saying, "it always has to do with the production/interpretation of symbolic acts and usually has to do with persuasion" (Ramage 1). At this point I became intrigued at the idea of individuality and persuasion working in unison to achieve a certain effect. Think about it, if all of those "As seen on TV" products were advertised in the same exact way, yes, they would still be persuasive but not as persuasive as if they had some unique way of approaching the presentation of the product. Similarly, Miss America can't win the title without using her individuality to persuade the judges that she is the best person for the job and somehow not only that stereotypical "barbie doll" image. So it seems as though rhetoric makes sense in the combination of persuasion and individuality.
At one point I came to a screeching halt and even found myself getting really mad at a particular idea that Ramage brought up. He discusses the idea of rhetoric and schools and everyone's favorite, standardized tests. He discusses how it seems that our society has said, "schools are supposed to be 'accountable' instead of, say, 'effective'" (Ramage 48). What a great way of describing such a true phenomenon that has been taking over our society. Now as a once Elementary Education major and hopefully still someday teacher, this realization hits hard and struck a chord with how much word choice really makes a powerful difference on the outcome of something. When did the word "accountable" even surface for schools? I would assume that it comes along with the government and it's increasing role in the schools. Although I agree with the idea that there should be certain basics of uniformity that every school district should have to follow in order to achieve an overall "sameness" in education for all children, I don't understand where accountability became able to simply replace the effectiveness of teaching. Under this system, I am constantly the average to dumb kid when trying to fill in a bubble with a number two pencil. The system rewards uniformity and rewards the "serious people" who are following a "cow path" education system.


**Ok, I'm going to stop there... :)