Female Vice Presidential Pick?

The author’s commentary that I am about to critique is from Mean Rachel’s blog and the title is "Can Romney Bring Sexy Back?" This was written back in July but it’s about how the author of the blog, Rachel, is stating how Romney was thinking about having a female as his vice presidential pick. The author’s intended audience is for the people that are planning on voting during this year’s election because she’s trying to argue that having a female as Romney’s vice presidential pick will not make a difference in what kind of presidential platform he has. The author of this blog is a democrat so it’s obvious what kind of stance she takes against Romney since he is a republican. She provided a linked video about this information and she also linked one of her own posts from the previous election that states how Sarah Palin decided to work with John McCain. I watched the video she provided and a couple of women were interviewed about how they felt about Romney’s decision and some of them said that it didn't change their mind about Romney but the others said that it depends on which female he chooses. Rachel was also featured in this video and she says how Romney hasn't changed his views about equal pay for men and women yet he was thinking about having a woman as his vice presidential pick. I do agree with the author and what she has to say about Romney because I don’t think having another person represent him, whether it’s a male or female, will change the values that Romney stands up for. 

Education in Texas

The author's editorial that I am about to critique can be found here: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/education/recent-editorials-from-texas-newspapers/nSDs3/. The title of the article is "Our schools: Texas must improve education". The editorial was written by The Associated Press for El Paso Times and published on September 17, 2012. The author’s intended audience is for everyone basically because the author is trying to inform why education needs to be improved. Obviously, it is mainly geared towards the government and how they should pay attention to schools since educating children should be a priority since they are the future. The author seemed to provide facts that show why the education system has been declining. For example, the author states how teachers focus on having the students pass their standardized tests instead of focusing on the basic courses such as math and science. Without the proper knowledge of these basic courses, the students will feel unprepared for the future classes they may have to take in order to further continue their education. Standardized tests don’t prepare students for their future because it’s just a way to memorize facts in order to pass a test. The author’s argument is that the Texas government should try to give a reasonable budget for education instead of taking it away so that education can be improved. The author states how cities like Houston and Dallas have been taking steps that help improve the education in their cities but it costs money to do those things. I agree with the author because I am a student myself and I think that education is vital for people since it gives us not only knowledge but it will also lead to careers that we will have in the near future in order to maintain the society.