Here's a site with lots of info about the characters in Our Town.
Themes
.
Theme 1: People should appreciate life while they are living it. Even ordinary, uneventful activities are important. Indeed, they might be the most important activities of all–whether they involve smelling flowers, eating breakfast, chatting with the milkman or the paperboy, or looking out the window at the moon.
Theme 2: Carpe diem (seize the day). This Latin phrase, which has become part of the English language, urges people to live for the moment, seizing opportunities to enjoy or enrich their lives. Life is short, after all; such opportunities may present themselves only once. This is an old literary motif, written about many times over the centuries. The Roman poet Horace (65-8 B.C.) coined the phrase carpe diem in Book 1 of his famous odes, when he advised people to “seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow!” English poet Robert Herrick (1591-1674) repeated the sentiment in a memorable poem:
.......Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
.......Old time is still a-flying,
.......And this same flower that smiles today
.......Tomorrow will be dying.
In Our Town, Wilder reminds the audience again and again that time is “a-flying” with references to passing trains–which, like life, move swiftly forward–and with references to the generations of Grover’s Corners residents who have come and gone. The flowers in the gardens of Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb are still another reminder: Smell and appreciate them now, for they will not last long. So is Professor Willard’s boring speech about the geological and anthropological developments in the vicinity of Grover's Corners thousands of years ago. The wheel of history and its life cycles spins rapidly. However, "seizing the day" does not necessarily mean that people need to pursue lofty enterprises or careers or to run off to see the world. George Gibbs seizes the day by choosing to marry Emily rather than going to agricultural school. Mrs. Gibbs seizes the day by accepting the simple life of Grover's Corners rather than insisting that her husband go on vacation with her to the city of her dreams, Paris.
Theme 3: Little things in life are really big things. This theme points out that seemingly insignificant happenings in everyday life are actually among the most important ones. However, people experiencing them usually do not comprehend this truth at the time, as Emily observes in the cemetery when she says to Mrs. Gibbs, “They don’t understand, do they?
Theme 4: No town can isolate itself from the rest of the world. Grover's Corners is a pleasant, easygoing community that seems to be a separate world unto itself. But it is not. Rather, it spins on the same axis as the rest of the world and is subject to the same influences affecting outsiders. Its residents read Shakespeare and The New York Times. Trains going to Boston pass through regularly. And there comes a time when Ford cars replace horses and people begin to lock their doors, just like their big-city counterparts. Joe Crowell Jr., dies in World War I. English poet John Donne wrote in 1624:
.......No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
........ . . any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never
.......send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Grover's Corners is not an island. And when the bell tolls for Emily at the end of the play, it tolls for everyone.
Theme 5: No community is perfect, not even idyllic Grover's Corners. Grover's Corners has its town drunk, Simon Stimson, whom Mrs. Soames says is a "scandal." Believing life is not worth living, he commits suicide. Grover's Corners also apparently has a form of segregation, for there is a "ghetto," Polish town, where Polish-American Catholics live.
Things to Think About
1. In what ways is your hometown like Grover's Corners? In what ways is your town different?
2. If you were to make a movie based on Our Town, would you include elaborate sets or retain the spare sets, with few props? Explain your answer.
3. The stage manager speaks directly to the audience. How effective is this approach?
4. At the end of the play, Emily says, “Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?” Which are among the "wonderful" things about earth and life that you fail to notice?
5. The stage manager says young Joe Crowell graduated at the top of his class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yet Crowell never got a chance to put his education to use, for he died in combat during World War I. In commenting on Crowell's death, the stage manager says, "All that education for nothin’." Was his education, in fact, for nothing? Is the stage manager's comment intended to be an antiwar statement? As best you can from details provided in the play, describe Joe Crowell.
6. The stage manager thinks it would be a good idea to place a time capsule in the new bank under construction. In the capsule, he would place a copy of The Sentinel, The New York Times, the U.S. Constitution, the Bible, Shakespeare’s works, and the text of the play he is participating in, Our Town. What is the significance of these items in terms of what they tell you about Grover's Corners?
7. What does Mrs. Soames mean when she says, "My, wasn’t life awful–and wonderful"?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Classwork for Thursday 3/26/2009 and Friday 3/27/2009
Second, fourth and fifth period completed this lesson plan on Thursday, March 26th; first period completed it on Friday, March 27th.
Do Whatcha Know!
Based on this video, how do you think World War II began? What do you think will happen next?
Why do you think this happened? What happened to Germany the last time we discussed them in class?
Intro to New Material
Take notes while you watch this film.
Guided Practice
Use your notes from the film to answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1. What did the Treaty of Versailles have to do with Hitler’s rise to power?
2. List two specific events that played a determining factor in the outbreak of World War II.
3. How did England and France respond to Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia?
4. Who are the Axis Powers? Who are the Allied Powers?
5. How did the United States help Great Britain before December 7,1941?
Independent Practice
Imagine you are President Roosevelt on December 8,1941. The U.S. has been in a state of isolation up until now, and now you must make a speech to the American citizens to rally support as you declare war on Japan.
Write this speech. What would you say to the American people? How would you convince them to support the war?
Learning Log
Describe the events leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Do you believe that any of these events could have been avoided? Give at least two specific examples to justify your claim.
Do Whatcha Know!
Based on this video, how do you think World War II began? What do you think will happen next?
Why do you think this happened? What happened to Germany the last time we discussed them in class?
Intro to New Material
Take notes while you watch this film.
Guided Practice
Use your notes from the film to answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1. What did the Treaty of Versailles have to do with Hitler’s rise to power?
2. List two specific events that played a determining factor in the outbreak of World War II.
3. How did England and France respond to Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia?
4. Who are the Axis Powers? Who are the Allied Powers?
5. How did the United States help Great Britain before December 7,1941?
Independent Practice
Imagine you are President Roosevelt on December 8,1941. The U.S. has been in a state of isolation up until now, and now you must make a speech to the American citizens to rally support as you declare war on Japan.
Write this speech. What would you say to the American people? How would you convince them to support the war?
Learning Log
Describe the events leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Do you believe that any of these events could have been avoided? Give at least two specific examples to justify your claim.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
An American hero died today
John Hope Franklin was an African American pioneer in the history of the American South. As a historian, he is one of my heroes, and someone who I hoped to study with in the near future. I'll never get that chance. He died this morning in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was 94 years old.
Read about some of his accomplishments here. We will definitely be reading an excerpt from his autobiography before the year is through.
Read about some of his accomplishments here. We will definitely be reading an excerpt from his autobiography before the year is through.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Classwork for Monday March 23, 2009
Do Whatcha Know!
Look again at the photographs on your desk.
What problems are these Americans facing?
What could realistically be done to solve these problems? Who should do it?
Intro to New Material
Skim through Chapter 15, Section 1 from page 504-508.
Use the following chart to organize your notes. Include FDR, CWA, FDIC, SEC, AAA, CCC, FERA, NIRA, NRA, TVA, HOLC, FHA
Abbreviation Full Name Impact
CWA Civil Works Administration Created 4 millions jobs building schools and roads
Guided Practice
Choose 5 of the “alphabet soup” New Deal programs created by FDR.
Draw an image of each in action, showing the purpose of each in your illustration.
Independent Practice
Think about our primary sources: The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the Depression era photos.
Which of these programs would have helped the Little family or your photo subjects? Be specific about their problems and how specific programs would have helped them.
Example: The homeless man looking for a job in the newspaper could have found work building dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Learning Log
Do you think that FDR’s New Deal really helped Americans, did it go too far in spending government money, or did it not go far enough?
Explain your answer, taking care to mention who you think should have been responsible for solving the problems of individuals.
Look again at the photographs on your desk.
What problems are these Americans facing?
What could realistically be done to solve these problems? Who should do it?
Intro to New Material
Skim through Chapter 15, Section 1 from page 504-508.
Use the following chart to organize your notes. Include FDR, CWA, FDIC, SEC, AAA, CCC, FERA, NIRA, NRA, TVA, HOLC, FHA
Abbreviation Full Name Impact
CWA Civil Works Administration Created 4 millions jobs building schools and roads
Guided Practice
Choose 5 of the “alphabet soup” New Deal programs created by FDR.
Draw an image of each in action, showing the purpose of each in your illustration.
Independent Practice
Think about our primary sources: The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the Depression era photos.
Which of these programs would have helped the Little family or your photo subjects? Be specific about their problems and how specific programs would have helped them.
Example: The homeless man looking for a job in the newspaper could have found work building dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Learning Log
Do you think that FDR’s New Deal really helped Americans, did it go too far in spending government money, or did it not go far enough?
Explain your answer, taking care to mention who you think should have been responsible for solving the problems of individuals.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The White House is going to plant a garden!
Shovel-Ready Project: A White House Garden
By Jane Black
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 20, 2009; Page C01
For more than a decade, food activists have rallied, cajoled, even pleaded for a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. Now they're finally going to get it.
Today, first lady Michelle Obama will host a groundbreaking for a White House kitchen garden on the South Lawn. She will be joined by students from Bancroft Elementary in Northwest Washington, , whose participation in the project will continue past today, as they help with planting in the coming weeks and harvesting later this year.
The 1,100-square-foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach and, yes, arugula. (The selection is a wish list put together by White House chefs.) There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper. The chefs will use the produce to feed the first family, as well as for state dinners and other official events.
The White House will use organic seedlings, as well as organic fertilizers and organic insect repellents. The garden will be near the tennis courts and be visible to passersby on the street. The whole Obama family will be involved in tending the garden, White House spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld said.
Proponents of the garden see the move as a victory for fresh, wholesome food. With the Obamas as role models, it could also be a turning point in their battle to overturn the perception of organic food, farmers markets and gardens as the preserves of the elite.
"Nothing could be more exciting," said Alice Waters, chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., who has been lobbying for a garden on the White House lawn since the first Clinton administration. "The symbolism of putting a seed in the ground is a promise of a real nourishment and education for the population who visits, the people who plant the crops and the people who pick from it."
The White House appears to be casting the garden as just another strategy to encourage healthful eating. President Obama famously learned the political perils of being too familiar with "elite" vegetables such as arugula. In several interviews, Michelle Obama has talked about the importance of healthful eating and the challenges of persuading her children to eat fruits and vegetables. But she tends to use words such as fresh and nutritious rather than organic and sustainable. "We want to use it as a point of education," the first lady said in an interview in the April issue of O magazine. "We want to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet."
The Obamas' garden will not be the first at the White House. John Adams, the first tenant, planted a garden shortly after taking up residence in 1800. Woodrow Wilson brought in sheep to mow and fertilize the White House lawn in 1918, an effort to conserve resources for the war effort. In 1943, over the objection of the Agriculture Department, Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden, inspiring millions of Americans to grow their own food during World War II.
Recent efforts have been more modest. Jimmy Carter, a Georgia farmer who extolled the virtues of gardening during his campaign, declined calls in 1978 to plant a vegetable garden at the White House. During the Clinton years, a small garden was planted on the roof; the White House rejected the idea of a larger garden on the lawn, saying it was not in keeping with the formal nature of the White House grounds.
Campaigners for the White House garden were pleased but not surprised by the move. Daniel Bowman Simon, who last year drove a school bus with a sustainable garden on its roof across the country to raise awareness for the idea, said in December he had given a presentation to Rethinking Soup, a project that brought together farmers and activists to discuss food issues. Rethinking Soup was organized in part by Sam Kass, who had worked as a private chef for the Obamas and joined the White House kitchen in January. Chez Panisse's Waters said the first lady had been receptive to the idea when the two met last summer. "She said: 'I don't know why we couldn't have one,' " Waters reported. "It seemed like the most natural thing in the world."
Simon and his partner, Casey Gustawarow, called for schoolchildren and disabled Americans to work in the White House garden. They also requested that the gardeners plant heirloom seeds and use compost made from food waste from the kitchens that serve the White House, congressional buildings and Supreme Court.
"This garden is a tremendous idea, one that is both timely and in some ways overdue," said former White House executive chef Walter Scheib. "There has always been a small garden at the White House, but this commitment by Mrs. Obama to local and freshly grown product is a progressive move forward that will raise the profile and awareness of local and sustainable food both at the White House and nationally to an unprecedented level. Chef [Cristeta] Comerford and all of the chef's brigade must be thrilled to have this resource at their disposal. I know I would have been."
By Jane Black
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 20, 2009; Page C01
For more than a decade, food activists have rallied, cajoled, even pleaded for a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. Now they're finally going to get it.
Today, first lady Michelle Obama will host a groundbreaking for a White House kitchen garden on the South Lawn. She will be joined by students from Bancroft Elementary in Northwest Washington, , whose participation in the project will continue past today, as they help with planting in the coming weeks and harvesting later this year.
The 1,100-square-foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach and, yes, arugula. (The selection is a wish list put together by White House chefs.) There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper. The chefs will use the produce to feed the first family, as well as for state dinners and other official events.
The White House will use organic seedlings, as well as organic fertilizers and organic insect repellents. The garden will be near the tennis courts and be visible to passersby on the street. The whole Obama family will be involved in tending the garden, White House spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld said.
Proponents of the garden see the move as a victory for fresh, wholesome food. With the Obamas as role models, it could also be a turning point in their battle to overturn the perception of organic food, farmers markets and gardens as the preserves of the elite.
"Nothing could be more exciting," said Alice Waters, chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., who has been lobbying for a garden on the White House lawn since the first Clinton administration. "The symbolism of putting a seed in the ground is a promise of a real nourishment and education for the population who visits, the people who plant the crops and the people who pick from it."
The White House appears to be casting the garden as just another strategy to encourage healthful eating. President Obama famously learned the political perils of being too familiar with "elite" vegetables such as arugula. In several interviews, Michelle Obama has talked about the importance of healthful eating and the challenges of persuading her children to eat fruits and vegetables. But she tends to use words such as fresh and nutritious rather than organic and sustainable. "We want to use it as a point of education," the first lady said in an interview in the April issue of O magazine. "We want to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet."
The Obamas' garden will not be the first at the White House. John Adams, the first tenant, planted a garden shortly after taking up residence in 1800. Woodrow Wilson brought in sheep to mow and fertilize the White House lawn in 1918, an effort to conserve resources for the war effort. In 1943, over the objection of the Agriculture Department, Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden, inspiring millions of Americans to grow their own food during World War II.
Recent efforts have been more modest. Jimmy Carter, a Georgia farmer who extolled the virtues of gardening during his campaign, declined calls in 1978 to plant a vegetable garden at the White House. During the Clinton years, a small garden was planted on the roof; the White House rejected the idea of a larger garden on the lawn, saying it was not in keeping with the formal nature of the White House grounds.
Campaigners for the White House garden were pleased but not surprised by the move. Daniel Bowman Simon, who last year drove a school bus with a sustainable garden on its roof across the country to raise awareness for the idea, said in December he had given a presentation to Rethinking Soup, a project that brought together farmers and activists to discuss food issues. Rethinking Soup was organized in part by Sam Kass, who had worked as a private chef for the Obamas and joined the White House kitchen in January. Chez Panisse's Waters said the first lady had been receptive to the idea when the two met last summer. "She said: 'I don't know why we couldn't have one,' " Waters reported. "It seemed like the most natural thing in the world."
Simon and his partner, Casey Gustawarow, called for schoolchildren and disabled Americans to work in the White House garden. They also requested that the gardeners plant heirloom seeds and use compost made from food waste from the kitchens that serve the White House, congressional buildings and Supreme Court.
"This garden is a tremendous idea, one that is both timely and in some ways overdue," said former White House executive chef Walter Scheib. "There has always been a small garden at the White House, but this commitment by Mrs. Obama to local and freshly grown product is a progressive move forward that will raise the profile and awareness of local and sustainable food both at the White House and nationally to an unprecedented level. Chef [Cristeta] Comerford and all of the chef's brigade must be thrilled to have this resource at their disposal. I know I would have been."
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Classwork for Thursday March 19 & Friday March 20, 2009
Do Whatcha Know!
What people and objects do you see in this photo? When and where do you think it was taken? What is happening here?
Intro to New Material
Today, your table will look at photographs taken during the Great Depression to learn about how tough life could be. As you look at the images at your desk, jot down answers to these questions in complete sentences.
1. Title of Photograph
2. Name of Photographer
3. What is happening in this picture?
4A. If there are people in your photo:
a. How are these people dressed?
b. What can you infer from the expression on their faces and their posture?
4B. If there are no people in your photo:
a. Describe the condition of any man-made objects in the photo.
b. What seems to have led to these circumstances?
5. What problems or frustrations are suggested by this image?
6. What adaptations can you assume or infer people are making to these conditions?
7. What help seems to be needed here?
Independent Practice
Choose one person from the photographs your group examined. Pretend to be that person, and write a letter to you now, describing your life, and how you got to the place where you were in the photo.
Learning Log
What could be done to help the people and situations in these photographs? Who should be responsible for helping them? Why?
What people and objects do you see in this photo? When and where do you think it was taken? What is happening here?
Intro to New Material
Today, your table will look at photographs taken during the Great Depression to learn about how tough life could be. As you look at the images at your desk, jot down answers to these questions in complete sentences.
1. Title of Photograph
2. Name of Photographer
3. What is happening in this picture?
4A. If there are people in your photo:
a. How are these people dressed?
b. What can you infer from the expression on their faces and their posture?
4B. If there are no people in your photo:
a. Describe the condition of any man-made objects in the photo.
b. What seems to have led to these circumstances?
5. What problems or frustrations are suggested by this image?
6. What adaptations can you assume or infer people are making to these conditions?
7. What help seems to be needed here?
Independent Practice
Choose one person from the photographs your group examined. Pretend to be that person, and write a letter to you now, describing your life, and how you got to the place where you were in the photo.
Learning Log
What could be done to help the people and situations in these photographs? Who should be responsible for helping them? Why?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Classwork for Wednesday March 18, 2009
Do Whatcha Know!
Who is Malcolm X? What does he have to do with the Great Depression?
Intro to New Material
As a class, we’ll read the first 13 pages of Chapter 1 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. As we read, jot down notes about his description of his Depression-era childhood.
Guided Practice
1. What historical ideas or figures in the reading do you recognize from previous classes?
2. How does Malcolm X talk about those ideas or figures?
3. Which of the four major causes of the Great Depression do you see present in the reading?
4. How does the Little family survive after Earl’s death?
Independent Practice
How accurate do you think Malcolm X’s depiction of his childhood is?
Do you think that the life of the Little family was a typical life during the Depression? Why?
Learning Log
What was life like during the Great Depression? What structures were in place to help people in financial trouble?
Who is Malcolm X? What does he have to do with the Great Depression?
Intro to New Material
As a class, we’ll read the first 13 pages of Chapter 1 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. As we read, jot down notes about his description of his Depression-era childhood.
Guided Practice
1. What historical ideas or figures in the reading do you recognize from previous classes?
2. How does Malcolm X talk about those ideas or figures?
3. Which of the four major causes of the Great Depression do you see present in the reading?
4. How does the Little family survive after Earl’s death?
Independent Practice
How accurate do you think Malcolm X’s depiction of his childhood is?
Do you think that the life of the Little family was a typical life during the Depression? Why?
Learning Log
What was life like during the Great Depression? What structures were in place to help people in financial trouble?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Classwork for Tuesday March 17, 2009
Causes of the Great Depression
Do Whatcha Know!
What kind of event do you think the top cartoon describes? What clues can you find to help you?
What do the two men in the bottom cartoon represent? What do you think happened to make them so different?
Intro to New Material
Read Chapter 14, Section 1: “The Nation’s Sick Economy” from page 482 to 489 to learn about how and why the nation’s economy hit rock bottom in 1929.
Use these questions to help you take notes:
•What were some economic problems that Americans faced before the stock market crash?
•Why was Herbert Hoover elected President in 1928?
•What was Black Tuesday?
•What were some causes of the Great Depression?
•How did the stock market crash affect the nation? The world?
1. Economic problems before Depression
a. Decrease in demand, prices drop
b. Crop surpluses
c. Railroads go out of business
d. CREDIT! People living beyond means
2. Hoover elected President in 1928
a. Americans happy with Republicans, and he is one
b. Ran against Al Smith, a Catholic
3. Black Tuesday
a. October 29, 1929: stock market crashes
4. Causes of Great Depression
a. Easy credit is too available
b. Crop surplus
c. Industries have old equipment, can’t compete
d. Uneven distribution of wealth
5. Impact of stock market crash
a. Banks go bankrupt
b. People lose jobs
c. Businesses close
d. Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act: taxes imports from other countries
i. The rest of the world enters a depression, too
Guided Practice
Use this graphic organizer to show the causes and effects of the stock market crash of 1929.
Independent Practice
Pretend that today is October 29, 1929. Write a journal entry for that day, pretending to be one of the following people:
-an investor who has lost his life savings in the stock market collapse
-a wealthy investor who has lost a substantial amount in the collapse
-a stock broker
-a banker
-a news reporter witnessing business at the New York Stock Exchange
Learning Log
Why did the Great Depression happen? How do you think it will effect everyday people like you and me?
Do Whatcha Know!
What kind of event do you think the top cartoon describes? What clues can you find to help you?
What do the two men in the bottom cartoon represent? What do you think happened to make them so different?
Intro to New Material
Read Chapter 14, Section 1: “The Nation’s Sick Economy” from page 482 to 489 to learn about how and why the nation’s economy hit rock bottom in 1929.
Use these questions to help you take notes:
•What were some economic problems that Americans faced before the stock market crash?
•Why was Herbert Hoover elected President in 1928?
•What was Black Tuesday?
•What were some causes of the Great Depression?
•How did the stock market crash affect the nation? The world?
1. Economic problems before Depression
a. Decrease in demand, prices drop
b. Crop surpluses
c. Railroads go out of business
d. CREDIT! People living beyond means
2. Hoover elected President in 1928
a. Americans happy with Republicans, and he is one
b. Ran against Al Smith, a Catholic
3. Black Tuesday
a. October 29, 1929: stock market crashes
4. Causes of Great Depression
a. Easy credit is too available
b. Crop surplus
c. Industries have old equipment, can’t compete
d. Uneven distribution of wealth
5. Impact of stock market crash
a. Banks go bankrupt
b. People lose jobs
c. Businesses close
d. Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act: taxes imports from other countries
i. The rest of the world enters a depression, too
Guided Practice
Use this graphic organizer to show the causes and effects of the stock market crash of 1929.
Independent Practice
Pretend that today is October 29, 1929. Write a journal entry for that day, pretending to be one of the following people:
-an investor who has lost his life savings in the stock market collapse
-a wealthy investor who has lost a substantial amount in the collapse
-a stock broker
-a banker
-a news reporter witnessing business at the New York Stock Exchange
Learning Log
Why did the Great Depression happen? How do you think it will effect everyday people like you and me?
Monday, March 16, 2009
Classwork for Monday 3/16/2009
Today in class, we'll finish up Thursday and Friday's lesson plan on VIPs from the 1920s, and take our second benchmark exam.
I will treat students who score "Basic" and above with free pizza the Friday after test results come back. Why? Because I know that you know the information on the test, and I have no shame: I will bribe you with pizza to make sure you carefully read the directions, questions, and answer choices (you lovable little teenaged slacker people).
I will treat students who score "Basic" and above with free pizza the Friday after test results come back. Why? Because I know that you know the information on the test, and I have no shame: I will bribe you with pizza to make sure you carefully read the directions, questions, and answer choices (you lovable little teenaged slacker people).
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Barack Obama a socialist? What's that even mean?
Once again, here's another article outlining some of the problems I have with Barack Obama. But remember the political spectrum. I'm to the left of Obama. I'll include a diagram to help explain it again, though (just in case you've forgotten your Civics).
Obama's somewhere between moderate and liberal (I'd say closer to moderate). I'm somewhere between liberal and radical. Do the short definitions beneath the drawing make sense? Let me know if I can explain it better. Here's the article below...
Obama's No Socialist. I Should Know.
By Billy Wharton
Sunday, March 15, 2009; Page B01
It took a massive global financial crisis, a failed military adventure and a popular repudiation of the Republican Party to make my national television debut possible. After 15 years of socialist political organizing -- everything from licking envelopes and handing out leaflets to the more romantic task of speaking at street demonstrations -- I found myself in the midtown Manhattan studio of the Fox Business Network on a cold February evening. Who ever thought that being the editor of the Socialist magazine, circulation 3,000, would launch me on a cable news career?
The media whirlwind began in October with a call from a New York Times writer. He wanted a tour of the Socialist Party USA's national office. Although he was more interested in how much paper we used in our "socialist cubby hole" than in our politics, our media profile exploded. Next up, a pleasant interview by Swedish National Radio. Then Brian Moore, our 2008 presidential candidate, sparred with Stephen Colbert. Even the Wall Street Journal wanted a socialist to quote after the first bailout bill failed last fall. Traffic to our Web site multiplied, e-mail inquiries increased and meetings with potential recruits to the Socialist Party yielded more new members than ever before. Socialism -- an idea with a long history -- suddenly seemed to have a bright future in 21st-century America.
Whom did we have to thank for this moment in the spotlight? Oddly enough, Republican politicians such as Mike Huckabee and John McCain had become our most effective promoters. During his campaign, the ever-desperate McCain, his hard-charging running mate Sarah Palin and even a plumber named Joe lined up to call Barack Obama a "socialist." Last month, Huckabee even exclaimed that, "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics may be dead, but the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born."
We appreciated the newfound attention. But we also cringed as the debate took on the hysterical tone of a farcical McCarthyism. The question "Is Obama a socialist?" spread rapidly through a network of rightwing blogs, conservative television outlets and alarmist radio talk shows and quickly moved into the mainstream. "We Are All Socialists Now," declared a Newsweek cover last month. A New York Times reporter recently pinned Obama down with the question, "Are you a socialist, as some people have suggested?" The normally unflappable politician stumbled through a response so unconvincing that it required a follow-up call in which Obama claimed impeccable free market credentials.
All this speculation over whether our current president is a socialist led me into the sea of business suits, BlackBerrys and self-promoters in the studio at Fox Business News. I quickly realized that the antagonistic anchor David Asman had little interest in exploring socialist ideas on bank nationalization. For Asman, nationalization was merely a code word for socialism. Using logic borrowed from the 1964 thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," he portrayed Obama as a secret socialist, so far undercover that not even he understood that his policies were de facto socialist. I was merely a cudgel to be wielded against the president -- a physical embodiment of guilt by association.
The funny thing is, of course, that socialists know that Barack Obama is not one of us. Not only is he not a socialist, he may in fact not even be a liberal. Socialists understand him more as a hedge-fund Democrat -- one of a generation of neoliberal politicians firmly committed to free-market policies.
The first clear indication that Obama is not, in fact, a socialist, is the way his administration is avoiding structural changes to the financial system. Nationalization is simply not in the playbook of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his team. They favor costly, temporary measures that can easily be dismantled should the economy stabilize. Socialists support nationalization and see it as a means of creating a banking system that acts like a highly regulated public utility. The banks would then cease to be sinkholes for public funds or financial versions of casinos and would become essential to reenergizing productive sectors of the economy.
The same holds true for health care. A national health insurance system as embodied in the single-payer health plan reintroduced in legislation this year by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), makes perfect sense to us. That bill would provide comprehensive coverage, offer a full range of choice of doctors and services and eliminate the primary cause of personal bankruptcy -- health-care bills. Obama's plan would do the opposite. By mandating that every person be insured, ObamaCare would give private health insurance companies license to systematically underinsure policyholders while cashing in on the moral currency of universal coverage. If Obama is a socialist, then on health care, he's doing a fairly good job of concealing it.
Issues of war and peace further weaken the commander in chief's socialist credentials. Obama announced that all U.S. combat brigades will be removed from Iraq by August 2010, but he still intends to leave as many as 50,000 troops in Iraq and wishes to expand the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A socialist foreign policy would call for the immediate removal of all troops. It would seek to follow the proposal made recently by an Afghan parliamentarian, which called for the United States to send 30,000 scholars or engineers instead of more fighting forces.
Yet the president remains "the world's best salesman of socialism," according to Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. DeMint encouraged supporters "to take to the streets to stop America's slide into socialism." Despite the fact that billions of dollars of public wealth are being transferred to private corporations, Huckabee still felt confident in proposing that "Lenin and Stalin would love" Obama's bank bailout plan.
Huckabee is clearly no socialist scholar, and I doubt that any of Obama's policies will someday appear in the annals of socialist history. The president has, however, been assigned the unenviable task of salvaging a capitalist system intent on devouring itself. The question is whether he can do so without addressing the deep inequalities that have become fundamental features of American society. So, President Obama, what I want to know is this: Can you lend legitimacy to a society in which 5 percent of the population controls 85 percent of the wealth? Can you sell a health-care reform package that will only end up enriching a private health insurance industry? Will you continue to favor military spending over infrastructure development and social services?
My guess is that the president will avoid these questions, further confirming that he is not a socialist except, perhaps, in the imaginations of an odd assortment of conservatives. Yet as the unemployment lines grow longer, the food pantries emptier and health care scarcer, socialism may be poised for a comeback in America. The doors of our "socialist cubby-hole" are open to anyone, including Obama. I encourage him to stop by for one of our monthly membership meetings. Be sure to arrive early to get a seat -- we're more popular than ever lately.
Obama's somewhere between moderate and liberal (I'd say closer to moderate). I'm somewhere between liberal and radical. Do the short definitions beneath the drawing make sense? Let me know if I can explain it better. Here's the article below...
Obama's No Socialist. I Should Know.
By Billy Wharton
Sunday, March 15, 2009; Page B01
It took a massive global financial crisis, a failed military adventure and a popular repudiation of the Republican Party to make my national television debut possible. After 15 years of socialist political organizing -- everything from licking envelopes and handing out leaflets to the more romantic task of speaking at street demonstrations -- I found myself in the midtown Manhattan studio of the Fox Business Network on a cold February evening. Who ever thought that being the editor of the Socialist magazine, circulation 3,000, would launch me on a cable news career?
The media whirlwind began in October with a call from a New York Times writer. He wanted a tour of the Socialist Party USA's national office. Although he was more interested in how much paper we used in our "socialist cubby hole" than in our politics, our media profile exploded. Next up, a pleasant interview by Swedish National Radio. Then Brian Moore, our 2008 presidential candidate, sparred with Stephen Colbert. Even the Wall Street Journal wanted a socialist to quote after the first bailout bill failed last fall. Traffic to our Web site multiplied, e-mail inquiries increased and meetings with potential recruits to the Socialist Party yielded more new members than ever before. Socialism -- an idea with a long history -- suddenly seemed to have a bright future in 21st-century America.
Whom did we have to thank for this moment in the spotlight? Oddly enough, Republican politicians such as Mike Huckabee and John McCain had become our most effective promoters. During his campaign, the ever-desperate McCain, his hard-charging running mate Sarah Palin and even a plumber named Joe lined up to call Barack Obama a "socialist." Last month, Huckabee even exclaimed that, "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics may be dead, but the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born."
We appreciated the newfound attention. But we also cringed as the debate took on the hysterical tone of a farcical McCarthyism. The question "Is Obama a socialist?" spread rapidly through a network of rightwing blogs, conservative television outlets and alarmist radio talk shows and quickly moved into the mainstream. "We Are All Socialists Now," declared a Newsweek cover last month. A New York Times reporter recently pinned Obama down with the question, "Are you a socialist, as some people have suggested?" The normally unflappable politician stumbled through a response so unconvincing that it required a follow-up call in which Obama claimed impeccable free market credentials.
All this speculation over whether our current president is a socialist led me into the sea of business suits, BlackBerrys and self-promoters in the studio at Fox Business News. I quickly realized that the antagonistic anchor David Asman had little interest in exploring socialist ideas on bank nationalization. For Asman, nationalization was merely a code word for socialism. Using logic borrowed from the 1964 thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," he portrayed Obama as a secret socialist, so far undercover that not even he understood that his policies were de facto socialist. I was merely a cudgel to be wielded against the president -- a physical embodiment of guilt by association.
The funny thing is, of course, that socialists know that Barack Obama is not one of us. Not only is he not a socialist, he may in fact not even be a liberal. Socialists understand him more as a hedge-fund Democrat -- one of a generation of neoliberal politicians firmly committed to free-market policies.
The first clear indication that Obama is not, in fact, a socialist, is the way his administration is avoiding structural changes to the financial system. Nationalization is simply not in the playbook of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his team. They favor costly, temporary measures that can easily be dismantled should the economy stabilize. Socialists support nationalization and see it as a means of creating a banking system that acts like a highly regulated public utility. The banks would then cease to be sinkholes for public funds or financial versions of casinos and would become essential to reenergizing productive sectors of the economy.
The same holds true for health care. A national health insurance system as embodied in the single-payer health plan reintroduced in legislation this year by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), makes perfect sense to us. That bill would provide comprehensive coverage, offer a full range of choice of doctors and services and eliminate the primary cause of personal bankruptcy -- health-care bills. Obama's plan would do the opposite. By mandating that every person be insured, ObamaCare would give private health insurance companies license to systematically underinsure policyholders while cashing in on the moral currency of universal coverage. If Obama is a socialist, then on health care, he's doing a fairly good job of concealing it.
Issues of war and peace further weaken the commander in chief's socialist credentials. Obama announced that all U.S. combat brigades will be removed from Iraq by August 2010, but he still intends to leave as many as 50,000 troops in Iraq and wishes to expand the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A socialist foreign policy would call for the immediate removal of all troops. It would seek to follow the proposal made recently by an Afghan parliamentarian, which called for the United States to send 30,000 scholars or engineers instead of more fighting forces.
Yet the president remains "the world's best salesman of socialism," according to Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. DeMint encouraged supporters "to take to the streets to stop America's slide into socialism." Despite the fact that billions of dollars of public wealth are being transferred to private corporations, Huckabee still felt confident in proposing that "Lenin and Stalin would love" Obama's bank bailout plan.
Huckabee is clearly no socialist scholar, and I doubt that any of Obama's policies will someday appear in the annals of socialist history. The president has, however, been assigned the unenviable task of salvaging a capitalist system intent on devouring itself. The question is whether he can do so without addressing the deep inequalities that have become fundamental features of American society. So, President Obama, what I want to know is this: Can you lend legitimacy to a society in which 5 percent of the population controls 85 percent of the wealth? Can you sell a health-care reform package that will only end up enriching a private health insurance industry? Will you continue to favor military spending over infrastructure development and social services?
My guess is that the president will avoid these questions, further confirming that he is not a socialist except, perhaps, in the imaginations of an odd assortment of conservatives. Yet as the unemployment lines grow longer, the food pantries emptier and health care scarcer, socialism may be poised for a comeback in America. The doors of our "socialist cubby-hole" are open to anyone, including Obama. I encourage him to stop by for one of our monthly membership meetings. Be sure to arrive early to get a seat -- we're more popular than ever lately.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Colleges for Students with LD
Although most colleges have programs to help students with learning disabilities, here are a number of colleges that go above and beyond in providing extra support for students who need it. You can find a list here.
Additionally, there are some colleges specifically for students with learning disabilities. Check out Landmark College, one of these colleges. Here, they also offer a summer program for high school students, to help build skills and teach students HOW to learn (it's $4500 for 3 weeks, but they have scholarships!).
Additionally, there are some colleges specifically for students with learning disabilities. Check out Landmark College, one of these colleges. Here, they also offer a summer program for high school students, to help build skills and teach students HOW to learn (it's $4500 for 3 weeks, but they have scholarships!).
Classwork for Thursday 3/12/2009 and Friday 3/13/2009
Do Whatcha Know!
What are the characteristics of people who make a difference? Together, let’s try to come up with one for every letter of the alphabet.
Intro to New Material
Break up into pairs who will work together to learn about two people with differing points of view on important topics of the period.
Pairs are
Use your textbook, the Internet, and other information to research your person, making sure to investigate important issues, personal background and ideals, and point of view. You’ll complete the following graphic organizer that answers the following questions about your person:
Personal Background (give info source)
Issues/Ideas (give info source)
Point of View (give info source)
Significance
How successful was this person in getting across her/his ideas and point of view?
What characteristics of people who make a difference does this person exhibit?
Guided Practice
After completing the research, you and your partner will work together (using the information in your chart) to
1. Create a Venn diagram comparing your people
2. Write short monologues that you’ll use in our Independent Practice.
Each of you will become one of the people studied, and the monologue you write expresses the point of view of that person and shares important information about issues during the 1920s.
Independent Practice
Time for Happy Hour! But, it’s a 1920s business happy hour, so leave the ‘Tron at home.
After the research portion of the lesson is complete, you’ll participate in a “VIP room mixer” where you become the person you researched. Instead of performing for the class, you’ll mingle with classmates as if attending a party. You’ll introduce “yourselves” to others in attendance, share important information, and discuss issues of the while staying “in character.”
As you mingle, use the Notes Matrix to take notes.
Learning Log
1. Who were the two most interesting people you learned about today?
2. What kind of impact did they have?
3. What characteristics of people who make a difference did they exhibit?
What are the characteristics of people who make a difference? Together, let’s try to come up with one for every letter of the alphabet.
Intro to New Material
Break up into pairs who will work together to learn about two people with differing points of view on important topics of the period.
Pairs are
-Emily Post/Margaret Sanger (feminism)
-W.E.B. DuBois/Marcus Garvey (black leadership)
-T.S. Eliot/Langston Hughes (literature)
-Henry Ford/Eugene V. Debs (business)
-William Jennings Bryan/Clarence Darrow (religion and science)
-J. Edgar Hoover/Sacco and Vanzetti (politics)
-Charles Lindbergh/Al Capone (“heroes”)
Use your textbook, the Internet, and other information to research your person, making sure to investigate important issues, personal background and ideals, and point of view. You’ll complete the following graphic organizer that answers the following questions about your person:
Personal Background (give info source)
Issues/Ideas (give info source)
Point of View (give info source)
Significance
How successful was this person in getting across her/his ideas and point of view?
What characteristics of people who make a difference does this person exhibit?
Guided Practice
After completing the research, you and your partner will work together (using the information in your chart) to
1. Create a Venn diagram comparing your people
2. Write short monologues that you’ll use in our Independent Practice.
Each of you will become one of the people studied, and the monologue you write expresses the point of view of that person and shares important information about issues during the 1920s.
Independent Practice
Time for Happy Hour! But, it’s a 1920s business happy hour, so leave the ‘Tron at home.
After the research portion of the lesson is complete, you’ll participate in a “VIP room mixer” where you become the person you researched. Instead of performing for the class, you’ll mingle with classmates as if attending a party. You’ll introduce “yourselves” to others in attendance, share important information, and discuss issues of the while staying “in character.”
As you mingle, use the Notes Matrix to take notes.
Learning Log
1. Who were the two most interesting people you learned about today?
2. What kind of impact did they have?
3. What characteristics of people who make a difference did they exhibit?
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Unit 5 Test on Wednesday 3/11/2009
I distributed this graphic organizer to some students as a review aid for tomorrow's WWI test. I'd filled in some causes and some effects; I'd post them here, but I left the master copy at school. Sorry.
P.S. You have a test on World War I tomorrow.The only way you don't know this is if you haven't been to school in a week or you wear earplugs to class. But consider this your disclaimer.
P.S. You have a test on World War I tomorrow.The only way you don't know this is if you haven't been to school in a week or you wear earplugs to class. But consider this your disclaimer.
Classwork for Tuesday 3/10/2009
Do Whatcha Know!
In November 1918, Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire surrendered to the Allies. The Great War had lasted four years, and involved more than 30 nations. Twenty six millions people were killed; 10 million were homeless. $350 billion of damage had been done.
1. Who do you think should pay for the damage?
When Woodrow Wilson met with “the Big Four” – the leaders of France, Britain and Italy, plus Wilson – called for “a peace without victors,” that treated the losers fairly.
2. Think about why each nation got involved in the war and how it affected them. How do you think the rest of the Big Four felt about that? Why?
Intro to New Material
Students will work together and use pages 417-421 of their textbooks to complete a graphic organizer showing the following:
Wilson’s 14 Points
Provisions:
Weaknesses:
Opposition – who? why?
League of Nations
Provisions:
Weaknesses:
Opposition – who? why?
Treaty of Versailles
Provisions:
Weaknesses:
Opposition – who? why?
Guided Practice
Use the double-bubble graphic organizer to compare and contrast characteristics of the Treaty of Versailles and the Fourteen Points. Similarities go in the two boxes in the center; differences go in the three boxes on the right and left.
Independent Practice
If you were a member of Congress in 1919, which plan for peace would you most likely vote for?
A. Give two good reasons for why you’d vote for that one.
B. Give two good reasons for why you’d vote against the other.
Learning Log
What was the effect of the Treaty of Versailles’ war-guilt clause on Germany?
How do you think this will affect Germany’s future?
In November 1918, Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire surrendered to the Allies. The Great War had lasted four years, and involved more than 30 nations. Twenty six millions people were killed; 10 million were homeless. $350 billion of damage had been done.
1. Who do you think should pay for the damage?
When Woodrow Wilson met with “the Big Four” – the leaders of France, Britain and Italy, plus Wilson – called for “a peace without victors,” that treated the losers fairly.
2. Think about why each nation got involved in the war and how it affected them. How do you think the rest of the Big Four felt about that? Why?
Intro to New Material
Students will work together and use pages 417-421 of their textbooks to complete a graphic organizer showing the following:
Wilson’s 14 Points
Provisions:
Weaknesses:
Opposition – who? why?
League of Nations
Provisions:
Weaknesses:
Opposition – who? why?
Treaty of Versailles
Provisions:
Weaknesses:
Opposition – who? why?
Guided Practice
Use the double-bubble graphic organizer to compare and contrast characteristics of the Treaty of Versailles and the Fourteen Points. Similarities go in the two boxes in the center; differences go in the three boxes on the right and left.
Independent Practice
If you were a member of Congress in 1919, which plan for peace would you most likely vote for?
A. Give two good reasons for why you’d vote for that one.
B. Give two good reasons for why you’d vote against the other.
Learning Log
What was the effect of the Treaty of Versailles’ war-guilt clause on Germany?
How do you think this will affect Germany’s future?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Classwork for Monday 3/9/2009
Do Whatcha Know!
From its start in 1914, most Americans opposed U.S. involvement in World War I; even though they thought Germany was a bully, it just wasn’t their problem. But in 1916, Germany announced that it would begin to sink any ships entering the water around Britain, its enemy. Four American ships (and others carrying Americans, like the Lusitania) were sunk. Germany also sent a telegram to Mexico, called the Zimmerman note. This note asked for a German-Mexican alliance, and promised that if the U.S. entered the war, Germany would help Mexico get back Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
1. What do you think the United States will do?
2. What do you think should happen next?
Intro to New Material
• Together, students who support the war will read the sections “American Military Mobilization” and “American Success in Combat” from page 402 to page 406. They will answer the following questions in their own words as they read:
1. How did the U.S. raise an army for WWI?
2. What four steps did the U.S. government take to quickly build a navy?
3. How did the U.S. help the Allies win?
• Together, students who oppose the war will read the sections “Selling the War” and “Attacks on Civil Liberties” from page 411 to page 414. They will answer the following questions in their own words as they read:
1. How did the U.S. government finance the war?
2. What methods did the Committee of Public Information use to make the war more popular?
3. What was the original purpose of the Espionage and Sedition Act?
Guided Practice
• Students who support the war will summarize problems Americans faced as they prepared for and participated in WWI.
• Students who oppose the war will summarize the ways the U.S. got Americans to support the war.
Independent Practice
Students will return to their assigned seats, and teach their classmates what they learned in small groups. Students will take notes on what their classmates teach them, which will serve as evidence of the exchange of ideas.
Learning Log
Draw a cartoon showing
1. Why the U.S. got involved in World War I
2. How the U.S. fared in World War I
3. How the U.S. dealt with anti-war protesters
From its start in 1914, most Americans opposed U.S. involvement in World War I; even though they thought Germany was a bully, it just wasn’t their problem. But in 1916, Germany announced that it would begin to sink any ships entering the water around Britain, its enemy. Four American ships (and others carrying Americans, like the Lusitania) were sunk. Germany also sent a telegram to Mexico, called the Zimmerman note. This note asked for a German-Mexican alliance, and promised that if the U.S. entered the war, Germany would help Mexico get back Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
1. What do you think the United States will do?
2. What do you think should happen next?
Intro to New Material
• Together, students who support the war will read the sections “American Military Mobilization” and “American Success in Combat” from page 402 to page 406. They will answer the following questions in their own words as they read:
1. How did the U.S. raise an army for WWI?
2. What four steps did the U.S. government take to quickly build a navy?
3. How did the U.S. help the Allies win?
• Together, students who oppose the war will read the sections “Selling the War” and “Attacks on Civil Liberties” from page 411 to page 414. They will answer the following questions in their own words as they read:
1. How did the U.S. government finance the war?
2. What methods did the Committee of Public Information use to make the war more popular?
3. What was the original purpose of the Espionage and Sedition Act?
Guided Practice
• Students who support the war will summarize problems Americans faced as they prepared for and participated in WWI.
• Students who oppose the war will summarize the ways the U.S. got Americans to support the war.
Independent Practice
Students will return to their assigned seats, and teach their classmates what they learned in small groups. Students will take notes on what their classmates teach them, which will serve as evidence of the exchange of ideas.
Learning Log
Draw a cartoon showing
1. Why the U.S. got involved in World War I
2. How the U.S. fared in World War I
3. How the U.S. dealt with anti-war protesters
Sunday, March 8, 2009
My favorite poem
The last article that I published made me wonder, "Have they even heard of Allen Ginsberg?"
I know that the answer is probably "no." I had never heard of Allen Ginsberg either, until the day he died. I was a freshman in high school, and all over the news, commentators were talking about the effects of a man I'd never heard of on American life. He must not have been that important. I mean, I've never heard of him, I thought (This is a phrase that continues to cause me regret - and make me look stupid - even today). Then, one radio station played a recording of him reading his most famous poem, something called Howl.
It hit me in the gut. The first line - "I saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by madness" - struck a chord deep down inside of me, in a place that I hadn't yet known existed. I went home to our brand new computer (this was in 1996, you know? we didn't even have Google) to look him up. All of a sudden, this brand new world was opened up to me. Ginsberg came from a time and place that I understood, where people cared about the world around them, and they wrote about it. All of sudden, the alienation - the different-ness - I'd felt for my young life had a voice.
Here's the poem that did that for me.
I know that the answer is probably "no." I had never heard of Allen Ginsberg either, until the day he died. I was a freshman in high school, and all over the news, commentators were talking about the effects of a man I'd never heard of on American life. He must not have been that important. I mean, I've never heard of him, I thought (This is a phrase that continues to cause me regret - and make me look stupid - even today). Then, one radio station played a recording of him reading his most famous poem, something called Howl.
It hit me in the gut. The first line - "I saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by madness" - struck a chord deep down inside of me, in a place that I hadn't yet known existed. I went home to our brand new computer (this was in 1996, you know? we didn't even have Google) to look him up. All of a sudden, this brand new world was opened up to me. Ginsberg came from a time and place that I understood, where people cared about the world around them, and they wrote about it. All of sudden, the alienation - the different-ness - I'd felt for my young life had a voice.
Here's the poem that did that for me.
Where did all the readers go?
On Campus, Vampires Are Besting the Beats
By Ron Charles
Sunday, March 8, 2009; Page B01
In 1969, when Alice Echols went to college, everybody she knew was reading "Soul on Ice," Eldridge Cleaver's new collection of essays. For Echols, who now teaches a course on the '60s at the University of Southern California, that psychedelic time was filled with "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," "The Golden Notebook," the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the erotic diaries of Anaïs Nin.
Forty years later, on today's college campuses, you're more likely to hear a werewolf howl than Allen Ginsberg, and Nin's transgressive sexuality has been replaced by the fervent chastity of Bella Swan, the teenage heroine of Stephenie Meyer's modern gothic "Twilight" series. It's as though somebody stole Abbie Hoffman's book -- and a whole generation of radical lit along with it.
Last year Meyer sold more books than any other author -- 22 million -- and those copies weren't all bought by middle-schoolers. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the best-selling titles on college campuses are mostly about hunky vampires or Barack Obama. Recently, Meyer and the president held six of the 10 top spots. In January, the most subversive book on the college bestseller list was "Our Dumb World," a collection of gags from the Onion. The top title that month was "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K. Rowling. College kids' favorite nonfiction book was Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," about what makes successful individuals. And the only title that stakes a claim as a real novel for adults was Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns," the choice of a million splendid book clubs.
Here we have a generation of young adults away from home for the first time, free to enjoy the most experimental period of their lives, yet they're choosing books like 13-year-old girls -- or their parents. The only specter haunting the groves of American academe seems to be suburban contentment.
Where are the Germaine Greers, the Jerry Rubins, the Hunter Thompsons, the Richard Brautigans -- those challenging, annoying, offensive, sometimes silly, always polemic authors whom young people used to adore to their parents' dismay? Hoffman's manual of disruption and discontent -- "Steal This Book" -- sold more than a quarter of a million copies when it appeared in 1971 and then jumped onto the paperback bestseller list. Even in the conservative 1950s, when Hemingway's plane went down in Uganda, students wore black armbands till news came that the bad-boy novelist had survived. Could any author of fiction that has not inspired a set of Happy Meal toys elicit such collegiate mourning today? Could a radical book that speaks to young people ever rise up again if -- to rip-off LSD aficionado Timothy Leary -- they've turned on the computer, tuned in the iPod and dropped out of serious literature?
Nicholas DiSabatino, a senior English major at Kent State, is co-editor of the university's literary magazine, Luna Negra. As a campus tour guide, he used to point out where the National Guard shot students during the May 1970 riot. But the only activism he can recall lately involved anti-abortion protesters and some old men passing out Gideon Bibles. "People think we're really liberal," he says, "but we're really very moderate." Submissions to the lit mag so far this year are mostly poetry and some memoirs about parents. "The one book that I know everyone has read," he says, "is 'I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.' " So, no uprising unless the bars close early.
Perhaps this shouldn't surprise us. A new survey of the attitudes of American college students published by the University of California at Los Angeles found that two-thirds of freshmen identify themselves as "middle of the road" or "conservative." Such people aren't likely to stay up late at night arguing about Mary Daly's "Gyn/Ecology" or even Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
Professor Eric Williamson -- a card-carrying liberal in full tweed glory -- argues that "the entire culture has become narcotized." An English teacher at the University of Texas-Pan American, he places the blame for students' dim reading squarely on the unfettered expansion of capitalism. "I have stood before classes," he tells me, "and seen the students snicker when I said that Melville died poor because he couldn't sell books. 'Then why are we reading him if he wasn't popular?' " Today's graduate students were born when Ronald Reagan was elected, and their literary values, he claims, reflect our market economy. "There is nary a student in the classroom -- and this goes for English majors, too -- who wouldn't pronounce Stephen King a better author than Donald Barthelme or William Vollmann. The students do not have any shame about reading inferior texts."
Roger Kimball, editor and publisher of the New Criterion, marches in the other direction -- he has no complaints about the market economy -- but he arrives at the same dismal appraisal of the academic culture. Universities and colleges "enforce an intellectually stultifying, politically correct atmosphere that pretends to diversity," he complains. "One of the results of this is a notable uptick in superficiality and a notable uptick in the anesthetizing of that native curiosity that was once a prominent feature of the adolescent mind."
I want to start humming that classic middle-age rant from "Bye Bye Birdie": "Why can't they be like we were,/Perfect in every way?/What's the matter with kids today?"
But maybe young people's reading choices reflect our desire to keep them young. David Farber, editor of "The Sixties: From Memory to History," says that the way Americans think about the age of maturity has shifted considerably. "There's much more an emphasis now on kids thinking of themselves as kids, even into their early to mid-20s," he says. "But in the '60s, they thought of themselves as agents of historical change. The sit-ins, the civil rights movement, the possibility of being drafted focused the mind. The contagion of protest made everyone think of themselves as possible demonstrators."
That spirit is still alive and well, even if it's not reflected in kids' favorite book titles, according to Mike Connery, who writes about progressive youth politics for the Web site Future Majority. He doesn't see a generation of vampire-loving boneheads. "Young people today express their politics in very different ways than they did in the '60s, '70s and '80s," he says. Yes, they love Meyer's "Twilight" series -- even his fiancee is "obsessed" with it -- but that's just for escape. "People don't necessarily read their politics nowadays. They get it through YouTube and blogs and social networks. I don't know that there is a fiction writer out there right now who speaks to this generation's political ambitions. We're still waiting for our Kerouac."
But is anyone really waiting? As young people shift toward the Internet and away from exploring their political activism in books, the blood drains from their shelves. For the Twitter generation, the new slogan seems to be "Don't trust anyone over 140 characters." What you see at the next revolution is far more likely to be a well-designed Web site than a radical novel or a poem. Not to be a drag, but that's so uncool. For those of us who care about literature and think it still has a lot to offer, it's time to start chanting, "Hell, no! We won't go!"
By Ron Charles
Sunday, March 8, 2009; Page B01
In 1969, when Alice Echols went to college, everybody she knew was reading "Soul on Ice," Eldridge Cleaver's new collection of essays. For Echols, who now teaches a course on the '60s at the University of Southern California, that psychedelic time was filled with "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," "The Golden Notebook," the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the erotic diaries of Anaïs Nin.
Forty years later, on today's college campuses, you're more likely to hear a werewolf howl than Allen Ginsberg, and Nin's transgressive sexuality has been replaced by the fervent chastity of Bella Swan, the teenage heroine of Stephenie Meyer's modern gothic "Twilight" series. It's as though somebody stole Abbie Hoffman's book -- and a whole generation of radical lit along with it.
Last year Meyer sold more books than any other author -- 22 million -- and those copies weren't all bought by middle-schoolers. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the best-selling titles on college campuses are mostly about hunky vampires or Barack Obama. Recently, Meyer and the president held six of the 10 top spots. In January, the most subversive book on the college bestseller list was "Our Dumb World," a collection of gags from the Onion. The top title that month was "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K. Rowling. College kids' favorite nonfiction book was Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," about what makes successful individuals. And the only title that stakes a claim as a real novel for adults was Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns," the choice of a million splendid book clubs.
Here we have a generation of young adults away from home for the first time, free to enjoy the most experimental period of their lives, yet they're choosing books like 13-year-old girls -- or their parents. The only specter haunting the groves of American academe seems to be suburban contentment.
Where are the Germaine Greers, the Jerry Rubins, the Hunter Thompsons, the Richard Brautigans -- those challenging, annoying, offensive, sometimes silly, always polemic authors whom young people used to adore to their parents' dismay? Hoffman's manual of disruption and discontent -- "Steal This Book" -- sold more than a quarter of a million copies when it appeared in 1971 and then jumped onto the paperback bestseller list. Even in the conservative 1950s, when Hemingway's plane went down in Uganda, students wore black armbands till news came that the bad-boy novelist had survived. Could any author of fiction that has not inspired a set of Happy Meal toys elicit such collegiate mourning today? Could a radical book that speaks to young people ever rise up again if -- to rip-off LSD aficionado Timothy Leary -- they've turned on the computer, tuned in the iPod and dropped out of serious literature?
Nicholas DiSabatino, a senior English major at Kent State, is co-editor of the university's literary magazine, Luna Negra. As a campus tour guide, he used to point out where the National Guard shot students during the May 1970 riot. But the only activism he can recall lately involved anti-abortion protesters and some old men passing out Gideon Bibles. "People think we're really liberal," he says, "but we're really very moderate." Submissions to the lit mag so far this year are mostly poetry and some memoirs about parents. "The one book that I know everyone has read," he says, "is 'I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.' " So, no uprising unless the bars close early.
Perhaps this shouldn't surprise us. A new survey of the attitudes of American college students published by the University of California at Los Angeles found that two-thirds of freshmen identify themselves as "middle of the road" or "conservative." Such people aren't likely to stay up late at night arguing about Mary Daly's "Gyn/Ecology" or even Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
Professor Eric Williamson -- a card-carrying liberal in full tweed glory -- argues that "the entire culture has become narcotized." An English teacher at the University of Texas-Pan American, he places the blame for students' dim reading squarely on the unfettered expansion of capitalism. "I have stood before classes," he tells me, "and seen the students snicker when I said that Melville died poor because he couldn't sell books. 'Then why are we reading him if he wasn't popular?' " Today's graduate students were born when Ronald Reagan was elected, and their literary values, he claims, reflect our market economy. "There is nary a student in the classroom -- and this goes for English majors, too -- who wouldn't pronounce Stephen King a better author than Donald Barthelme or William Vollmann. The students do not have any shame about reading inferior texts."
Roger Kimball, editor and publisher of the New Criterion, marches in the other direction -- he has no complaints about the market economy -- but he arrives at the same dismal appraisal of the academic culture. Universities and colleges "enforce an intellectually stultifying, politically correct atmosphere that pretends to diversity," he complains. "One of the results of this is a notable uptick in superficiality and a notable uptick in the anesthetizing of that native curiosity that was once a prominent feature of the adolescent mind."
I want to start humming that classic middle-age rant from "Bye Bye Birdie": "Why can't they be like we were,/Perfect in every way?/What's the matter with kids today?"
But maybe young people's reading choices reflect our desire to keep them young. David Farber, editor of "The Sixties: From Memory to History," says that the way Americans think about the age of maturity has shifted considerably. "There's much more an emphasis now on kids thinking of themselves as kids, even into their early to mid-20s," he says. "But in the '60s, they thought of themselves as agents of historical change. The sit-ins, the civil rights movement, the possibility of being drafted focused the mind. The contagion of protest made everyone think of themselves as possible demonstrators."
That spirit is still alive and well, even if it's not reflected in kids' favorite book titles, according to Mike Connery, who writes about progressive youth politics for the Web site Future Majority. He doesn't see a generation of vampire-loving boneheads. "Young people today express their politics in very different ways than they did in the '60s, '70s and '80s," he says. Yes, they love Meyer's "Twilight" series -- even his fiancee is "obsessed" with it -- but that's just for escape. "People don't necessarily read their politics nowadays. They get it through YouTube and blogs and social networks. I don't know that there is a fiction writer out there right now who speaks to this generation's political ambitions. We're still waiting for our Kerouac."
But is anyone really waiting? As young people shift toward the Internet and away from exploring their political activism in books, the blood drains from their shelves. For the Twitter generation, the new slogan seems to be "Don't trust anyone over 140 characters." What you see at the next revolution is far more likely to be a well-designed Web site than a radical novel or a poem. Not to be a drag, but that's so uncool. For those of us who care about literature and think it still has a lot to offer, it's time to start chanting, "Hell, no! We won't go!"
Friday, March 6, 2009
Classwork for Friday 3/6/2009
Battles of World War I
Do Whatcha Know!
What do you think caused devastation like this? What kind of impact do you think it had on the people walking in the photo?
Intro to New Material
By 1916, the war is deadlocked
-Fighting takes place along borders of Germany
--Eastern Front: German-Russian border
--Western Front: German-Belgian and German-French borders
Three of the bloodiest battles in history are on Western Front
-Battle of Verdun (France)
--Germany vs. France, Feb-Dec 1916
-Battle of the Somme (France)
--England & France vs. Germany, July-Nov 1916
-3rd Battle of Ypres (Belgium)
--England & France & colonies vs. Germany, June-Sep 1917
Create a chart with 4 columns and 9 rows. In the first column will go prompts for details about each battle:
* where the battle occurred,
* who was involved,
* when it occurred,
* what led to its occurrence,
* battle conditions, such as the weather.
* how many casualties,
* types of weapons used,
* the end result of the war (who "won" the battle and its effect on everything around it, including civilians).
In the second, third, and fourth columns, you will fill in this information about the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme, and the Third Battle of Ypres.
Guided Practice
Use your notes to fill in the first three rows of your chart: where the battle occurred, who was involved, and when it occurred.
Independent Practice
Conduct Internet research to complete the rest of the chart. Use the PBS Great War site to help you begin.
Learning Log
By 1917, who was winning the Great War? What was the cost of this victory? What do you think will happen next?
Do Whatcha Know!
What do you think caused devastation like this? What kind of impact do you think it had on the people walking in the photo?
Intro to New Material
By 1916, the war is deadlocked
-Fighting takes place along borders of Germany
--Eastern Front: German-Russian border
--Western Front: German-Belgian and German-French borders
Three of the bloodiest battles in history are on Western Front
-Battle of Verdun (France)
--Germany vs. France, Feb-Dec 1916
-Battle of the Somme (France)
--England & France vs. Germany, July-Nov 1916
-3rd Battle of Ypres (Belgium)
--England & France & colonies vs. Germany, June-Sep 1917
Create a chart with 4 columns and 9 rows. In the first column will go prompts for details about each battle:
* where the battle occurred,
* who was involved,
* when it occurred,
* what led to its occurrence,
* battle conditions, such as the weather.
* how many casualties,
* types of weapons used,
* the end result of the war (who "won" the battle and its effect on everything around it, including civilians).
In the second, third, and fourth columns, you will fill in this information about the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme, and the Third Battle of Ypres.
Guided Practice
Use your notes to fill in the first three rows of your chart: where the battle occurred, who was involved, and when it occurred.
Independent Practice
Conduct Internet research to complete the rest of the chart. Use the PBS Great War site to help you begin.
Learning Log
By 1917, who was winning the Great War? What was the cost of this victory? What do you think will happen next?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Barack Obama and Israel
If you're my student, you probably already know that I didn't vote for Barack Obama, and you probably have some idea of why (half-hearted support of No Child Left Behind and marriage equality, voted to renew the Patriot Act, etc.).
In case you didn't, here's an article all about his unconditional (and I would say shameful) support of Israel.
In case you didn't, here's an article all about his unconditional (and I would say shameful) support of Israel.
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