Parent-teacher conference left someone out

  

After reading this extremely interesting article by Krista Ramsey, I was able to gather some main points of the piece. First off, the article discussed the stress and inefficiency of parent-teacher conferences. Another main idea of the piece included the new way of addressing these meetings.
     Shroder Paideia Middle School in Kennedy Heights is the most recognized to have made "the change" from the past, uncomfortable, and inefficient meetings, to the less stress, and quicker meetings. At these meetings, the students are the teachers. They put together a presentation for their parents about grades, curriculum, and overall behavior in class. The teacher, to ensure truthful presentation, circulates around the room to help students, and to answer any questions that may arise.
      A quote in this passage that grasped the main idea in this passage was "Having students accept both the praise and the responsibility for their own performance is one of the ways to make education work best." I think this quote did a great job of summarizing this piece because it allowed the reader to see that these dreaded conferences don't actually need to be as bad. An example of syntax in this piece is the long sentence length. This prevents the reading of the usual 100 word quotes some passages have, to a quote that is able to sum up the piece while still giving enough information.
     Also, after reading the three different columns by Ramsey, I was able to gather a better understanding of her writing. First off, she gathers the audiences attention while also adding details that enhance the text, further gathering the audiences attention. Another part of Ramsey's writing that was noticed, was her use of strong conclusions. These powerful conclusions not only recapture the entire text, but also allows the reader to confirm previous thoughts and ideas about the passage.
     If I ever got the chance to ask Krista Ramsey a few questions, I would diffidently ask her how she comes up with these marvelous ideas, where she gets her inspiration from, and when she decided to become a columnist?
Be sure to check it out @: http://enquirer.com/columns/ramsey/1998/10/103198kr.html