Negative Imagery: Don't Believe Everything You Read in the Cyberculture News
Many of the wise will tell you not to believe everything that you read or hear in the cyberculture news. The image projected by The Huffington Post in an article about Michelle Obama campaigning for her husband in York, Pa. is such an example for it smears the good names of all of the god fearing and hard working people educated in York County Pa.
To exemplify this point, listed below are excerpts from the above referenced article that highlight The Huffington Post's author's misunderstanding of the many facets that make up the excellent quality of education and life in York, Pa.
"Like a lot of the beautiful old towns in Pennsylvania, York is struggling but it's not down. The Peppermint Pattie rolled on down the road to Hershey twenty years ago (and is now headed for Mexico). Caterpillar has gone, too. But there's still Harley-Davidson and a couple of long-time family businesses. And, of course, there's health care, which has become the number one employer in so many small cities in America."
The above reference to Caterpillar leaving, Harley-Davidson and the health care providers are very confusing to the well-informed in that all of them are located outside of the York City limits. But yet, the next excerpt clearly points out that "York has no one good school." That statement is a libelous insult to the K-12 education system in York County Pa.
In addition, the article states that Villanova University, Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College
"are the good small schools that might as well be on the moon for small-town high school kids like those I met in York."
If the Huffington Post's writer checked the records of these three institutions of higher learning, she would had discovered that many students from York are presently attending colleges located on the moon. A familiar face in The Cyberculture News is a rising senior at Bryn Mawr College.
"The journey from York to Haverford is a stark display of the disparity in American education. Before and after Mrs. Obama spoke in York, I talked at length with Tim and his daughter Mary Beth about the town and county of York and about the schools there. Mary Beth, a high school sophomore, would like to go to either Yale or Swarthmore, but her suburban high school offers no A.P. courses. She was the one who taught ninth grade geometry, because the teacher didn't know the subject and just sat at her desk working at her computer during class. Mary Beth taught herself and taught her peers as she went along. Nevertheless, her school is better than those in York itself. Michelle Obama often talks about that one good school in town; but York has no one good school.
"Suburban Philadelphia, however, is rich in schools. Villanova, Bryn Mawr and Haverford College are an easy bike ride from one another. Only an hour-and-a-half from York, these are the good small schools that might as well be on the moon for small-town high school kids like those I met in York."
Now it may not had been the intent of the Huffington Post's writer to offend the general populace and education system of York County Pa., but that is the perception one can easily dwell upon. In that the initial impression is a lasting one, many first time readers of The Huffington Post, especially those educated or living in York, Pa. may be left with a negative image of The Huffington Post.
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