Ever read a book or an article where afterwards you just think, "Someone did the right thing"? Well, this article was definitely one of them. Back in 1988, Abe Pollin and Melvin Cohen were two very wealthy businessmen that established a $325,000 fund for 59 fifth graders to go to college. They wanted to help in this philanthropic movement to help these kids have a chance to go to college. The money was the equivalent of an in-state tuition to University of Maryland. Seat Pleasant Elementary was chosen by the Prince George's superintendent because they were "in dire need of help," (Schwartzman). The stories of some of the Seat Pleasant students described how there parents had the ambitions of their children going to college, but weren't sure how they were going to pay for it. I believe that the opportunity Pollin and Cohen gave to the fifth graders at Seat Pleasant was a really wonderful thing to do because they had the money to accomplish it and they found the means to.
The pathos appeal is Paul Schwartzman's strongest technique in his Washington Post article "The Promise: Two wealthy men set out to transform the lives of 59 fifth graders". The philanthropic action that Pollin and Cohen took to help those students of Seat Pleasant Elementary is a story that just warms any audience's hearts as they root for the best outcome of these students. That technique alone is Schwartzman's strongest aspect of the article. The diction is hopeful for success, however there are a lot of names used that can be mixed together by the audience. Schwartzman could have used some more description when he writes of each of the students and their parents. After reading the first article in the series of the Seat Pleasant 59, I look forward to continue reading about their journey of a free college tuition.
Source: Schwartzman, Paul. "The Promise: Two wealthy men set out to transform the lives of 59 fifth graders." The Washington Post 17 Dec. 2011, sec. Local: n. pag. The Washington Post. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.
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