Julia+P.

 inculcate- (v.) - to implant by repeated statement, to teach earnestly and persistently, to influence someone to accept an idea or feeling. An example sentence is: It is a teacher's mission to inculcate knowledge in the minds of today's youth. I found this word while reading a New York Times article called "4 TImes Journalists Held Captive in Libya Faced Days of Brutality." I had heard this word before but couldn't remember its meaning. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inculcated http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23times.html?_r=1&hp   Julia Prus Mrs. Vor  e  AP English Language 19 October 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Writer's Memo: In my editorial I choose to mimic the style of Kathleen Parker. I wrote this editorial as Kathleen Parker would have by first opening with an experience of my own and then shifting to my opinion on a related subject. I also alluded to myself and my childhood, as she would have done. She first states her opinion and then backs it up with logical and practical statements, but she still personalizes the writing with sentences from first person point of view. I worked this technique into my paper a few times. Parker does not often use many quotes, facts or figures in her pieces; she normally expresses her opinion with use of emotionally and logically appealing statements. Her experiences and logical statements stabilize her credibility and I tried to do the same. By doing this, ethos and pathos are both incorporaed into the editorial. In the closing of the paper I ended by refering back to myself and the title; she does this in many of her editorials. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">The Choice is Yours <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m a Christian, and always have been actually. United Methodist to be more exact, and after attending Sunday school since the age of six, I’ve come to learn the importance of religion and its practices. For a while though, Sundays used to just seem significant because of the big breakfast Dad used to make: eggs, sausage or bacon, biscuits, the whole shebang. As I grew older I learned it’s not really about the biscuits and butter anymore. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I also remember a younger me struggling to stay awake during the long prayers in the middle of the service in the Great Hall. The messages behind the words in those long, silent, minutes didn’t mean much until recent years; that was when I actually started listening. Church was something that I got to choose to participate in and that’s when it meant something. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">By incorporating prayer into schools, the option to participate is eliminated. It is human nature to resist what one is being forced into thinking, doing or believing. This opposition accounts for anything, and is even more prevalent in teenagers of today. Alcohol is so attractive in part because it is not legal; teenagers want to break this rule because it is required that they follow it. Religion is based on choosing what it is you believe, and forcing religion upon someone is very much against many things this country stands for. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Instead of making a distinct moment for prayer in school, why not participate in a moment of silence? By doing so, the student gets the choice to pray silently or not pray at all. The teacher has no discretion over what the student chooses to do either. A moment of silence occasionally throughout the school day or week may be the compromise that is most realistic and practical in this debate. But that’s just my thinkin ’ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">During an unremarkably hard time at my high school, the passing of our amazingly influential principal, we participated in moments of silence, and these few minutes brought some peace of mind to many teachers and students alike. If not used to pray, then they were used just to think and try and calm our thoughts. We had many things to think about during that year. But one thing that brought us together was the knowledge that those students that were not religious could participate in the same way as those who grew up in church, like me. We were united under this. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Another point of contention on whether to incorporate prayer in school is the principle of the separation of church and state. Is this not a major idea of our government? Is school considered a branch from our government or are school and government not classified together under any means? The answers to these questions may make or break the idea of prayer in school, but who has those answers? Certainly not me. Although that will not stop me from thinking that enforcing prayer is an idea that may sound wholesome, but will turn out harmful. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One theory of mine is that many religious parents want this to be put in effect to influence their children, but my question to them is why not send your children to a religious school? This does not seem like a difficult answer but then again, what do I know? If money is the issue with a religious school then scholarships and financial aid should be researched for that particular family. Instituting prayer into a public school defeats the point of it being public, it then becomes a religious institution. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In schools, teachers have no say over what religious activity the student participates in outside time of instruction. This rule allows students to individually pray if they wish to in between classes. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the Bible Jesus most often prayed alone and told his followers to do the same. Jesus was clear that prayer was private and not for show. He says that praying in front of others to merely show that you are religious is not truly praying to him, but praying for their sake. Jesus said doing this isn’t true prayer, and who knows more about prayer than Jesus? <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">So much for the eggs and sausage, that’s not why Sunday is important to me anymore. The trivialities of those years are gone. Sunday is important because I got the chance to choose. God is up to choice. He doesn’t make you believe him. He doesn’t make you love him. And he most certainly doesn’t make you pray.