Analyzing My Text's Cultural Setting

In this blog post, I will be discussing and including background information about my text, including the setting that the article was published and the setting that the author is referring to. I will provide answers to the Writing Public Lives, "Questions We Might Ask When Analyzing The Text's Relationship to Its Social or Cultural Setting," on page 79.

1. What values, ideas, norms, beliefs, even laws of the culture play an important role in the text?

To provide some context, the author is writing from the perspective of the United States, and is primarily discussing the problems found in the American education system. The culture that we live in values success, both financially and professionally. Our society believes that in order to be successful, one must have a large amount of money. Respect is earned through salary, profession and position, and our attitudes and lifestyles reflect this belief. Our culture also values performance as a whole, and strives to be ahead of other countries in the ranking system.

TBIT. "Money." 09/16/2015 via Pixabay.
CC0 Public Domain License.

2. Does the text address these cultural values, beliefs, etc. directly (by directly mentioning and responding to them) or indirectly (by presenting a scenario or narrative that addresses them)?

The author addresses these beliefs and ideas by directly responding to them. For example, Nicholas Kristof echoes our definition of success, as he relates the significance of this belief to how much teachers are getting paid. He points out the lack of respect that we have towards teachers, because of their low pay and "simple" career. The author also points out the importance of performance, whether it is talking about students, teachers, or other education systems around the globe.

3. What is the relationship of the texts to the values, beliefs, etc.? Is it critical of these aspects in our culture? Is it supportive? Does it seek to modify these aspects of the culture in a certain way?

The relationship between these values and ideas and the text is definitely negative. The author is pointing out the flaws in our society and culture that make up the way we think and act towards educators. Kristof clearly addresses the misrepresentations of teachers, and fundamentally denies these "fallacies." The text seeks to modify these aspects by evoking sympathy and emotion towards teachers and their situations, which in turn, could gain teachers respect that the author thinks they deserve.

--Jenny Bello