Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
From my point of view the main issue that the article talks about in detail is how a change in the law can be harmful to the lifestyles of individuals who are working class. Especially when talking about the kinds of fuels that have been used in older houses for decades and the owners' reliance on them. For a person like Matt Gorbett it truly may be difficult and more expensive to find an alternative fuel source to the turf. Turf has been their heat source for as long as he can remember and it seems to be the most efficient one for him. The method of using turf for heat in houses is so old fashioned and barely used these days that the very few people who use it will only cause very negligible damage to the environment. Compared to the mass use of plastic or the never-ending amount of smog released by cars causing a lot more harm, the negative effects of turf burning do not even seem to be noticeable.However in this specific story the turf plays another important role because it is a crucial part of his everyday work. Turf cutting is Matt's living and with the new laws in place he would be expected to perhaps find a new job and his manual work would be replaced by machines. Considering that finding a new job takes developing required skills and possibly a lot of time, the process could cause terrible financial problems for a working class person like Matt. Unfortunately people who are in charge of the laws concerning ecology may often not consider the smaller groups of citizens that may be dependent on these types of traditional jobs. Furthermore I notice that the change of the old fashioned jobs to the modern professions has a number of negative effects on our society. In the “old times” employees were used to mostly manual work whereas nowadays it is considerably difficult to find a well paying job that does not require using a computer or modern technology of some kind. The machines are what causes most people to work in offices nowadays not being able to get a healthy amount of movement throughout the day. Lack of exercise can be detrimental to one's physical health because there are plenty of unwelcome results such as unhealthy weight gain, heart diseases and diabetes. However these risks could be avoided if society has stuck to manual work instead of letting technology take over. Not only is manual work better for physical health but according to the article it also has benefits for our mental health. In the beginning Matt talks about how he enjoys the total silence in the field and the lack of disastrous news that only get reported because of our modern devices. From my personal experience I can say that the amount of negative information from the media can often be stressful and affect my mood greatly. That is why I usually prefer to calm my mind by doing something manual and creative, specifically crocheting and cleaning my room. I believe that if our society was more occupied by laboring work it would cause workers to be less stressed out and healthier both physically as well as mentally. - Mária
From my point of view the main issue that the article talks about in detail is how a change in the law can be harmful to the lifestyles of individuals who are working class. Especially when talking about the kinds of fuels that have been used in older houses for decades and the owners' reliance on them. For a person like Matt Gorbett it truly may be difficult and more expensive to find an alternative fuel source to the turf. Turf has been their heat source for as long as he can remember and it seems to be the most efficient one for him. The method of using turf for heat in houses is so old fashioned and barely used these days that the very few people who use it will only cause very negligible damage to the environment. Compared to the mass use of plastic or the never-ending amount of smog released by cars causing a lot more harm, the negative effects of turf burning do not even seem to be noticeable.However in this specific story the turf plays another important role because it is a crucial part of his everyday work. Turf cutting is Matt's living and with the new laws in place he would be expected to perhaps find a new job and his manual work would be replaced by machines. Considering that finding a new job takes developing required skills and possibly a lot of time, the process could cause terrible financial problems for a working class person like Matt. Unfortunately people who are in charge of the laws concerning ecology may often not consider the smaller groups of citizens that may be dependent on these types of traditional jobs.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore I notice that the change of the old fashioned jobs to the modern professions has a number of negative effects on our society. In the “old times” employees were used to mostly manual work whereas nowadays it is considerably difficult to find a well paying job that does not require using a computer or modern technology of some kind. The machines are what causes most people to work in offices nowadays not being able to get a healthy amount of movement throughout the day. Lack of exercise can be detrimental to one's physical health because there are plenty of unwelcome results such as unhealthy weight gain, heart diseases and diabetes. However these risks could be avoided if society has stuck to manual work instead of letting technology take over. Not only is manual work better for physical health but according to the article it also has benefits for our mental health. In the beginning Matt talks about how he enjoys the total silence in the field and the lack of disastrous news that only get reported because of our modern devices. From my personal experience I can say that the amount of negative information from the media can often be stressful and affect my mood greatly. That is why I usually prefer to calm my mind by doing something manual and creative, specifically crocheting and cleaning my room. I believe that if our society was more occupied by laboring work it would cause workers to be less stressed out and healthier both physically as well as mentally.
- Mária