David Brooks
Lady Gaga and the Life of Passion 
The New York Times
October 25, 2015

When I first saw the title of this post I was very intrigued as to what David Brooks could possible have to say about Lady Gaga and I have to say I wasn't disappointed with what I read. lady Gaga has always made a statement whether it be with her clothes, music or performances; personally, I always thought of her as being quite odd and taking things a little bit too far but Brooks has definitely put another perspective of her into play. He states that she always lives a life of passion and he goes on to discuss  what that means and what people who live passionately do. I really enjoy how Brooks discusses topics that are relevant to any and all ages; I think that this benefits him as a writer by enabling him to connect with everyone. In this article Brooks had the power to explain how passionate people live and it caused me to reflect on my own life and contemplate how I could tweak the way I live my own reality in order to achieve the feelings that he describes. 

David Brooks
School for Wisdom
The New York Times
October 18, 2015


In this article Brooks focuses on the education system by referring to a documentary called "Most Likely to Succeed". The documentary claims that the American school system is "unsuited for the modern workplace" because students aren't being taught what they need to be in order to thrive in the real world. Brooks argues weather or not the switch from content to life skills is the proper response because with one, you would have to sacrifice the other. Brooks appeals to logos by stating what could go wrong with a drastic change in how the educations system works and he gives an example of a school that has done this and points out the pros and cons of it. 

David Brooks
The Prison Problem
The New York Times
October 11, 2015

David Brooks sticks to the facts of his topics; he doesn't beat around the bush or give a bias opinion on the topic. Throughout his post about The Prison Problem Brooks sites Leon Neyfakh when discussing the releasing of drug offenders and John Pfaff  when discussing the Mandatory Minimum Theory; which is a binding length of time needed to be spent in prison depending on the federal or state crime committed. Brooks appeals to pathos in this post because he discusses releasing "once violent criminals" and I think that when a parent or even teenager reads that a shiver goes up there spine at the thought of violent criminals being let loose, weather or not they have proven not be violent.