APELC Class Notes
APELCers, you finished the quarter with your third free-response yesterday and today. It was also the third type of writing you’ll be required to do for the AP exam at the end of the year. I’ll have these essays and your revisions of and cover sheets for free-response 2 ready to return to you we meet after break.
You do have homework which is detailed on your class page, and I’d like you to refamiliarize yourself with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, too, so we can begin a discussion of his text.
I want to leave you with some links before I close. Two are related to free speech and its limits: “Supreme Court weighs arguments over ‘Thank God for dead soldiers’ funeral protest” and “High Court: Does Father’s Pain Trump Free Speech?”. Read the first for background then listen carefully to the second for a question by question, answer by answer summary of the hearing. What do you think?
The last link is to an NPR series that aired this week, “Living in the Middle”, about the “middle-class”. The middle-class has come up a lot in our discussions (and it’ll continue to do so), and this series of reports examines the idea of the middle-class and what it means to be middle-class in various parts of the country today. It’s really worth taking time to investigate the origins and rise of the middle-class, and then listen to the audio. As always, I encourage you talk with your parents about what the term means for them and for you. Do you consider yourself middle-class?
Have a great break. I’ll be thinking of you while I’m riding the Mad Hatter’s Teacups with the fam and eating delicious mouse-meat corn dogs.
Peace.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we processed “The Equity of Inequality” and I conferred with students over their revisions. Students synthesized their reading of Will with other texts including the Declaration of Independence and “What Is an American?”, and some students were able to apply these ideas to their revisions.
Class attitudes toward about equal opportunity were mixed. I asked: Do all Americans enjoy equal opportunities? In fourth period, most students, not all, answered in the affirmative; the opposite was the case in fifth period; and third period was too ambiguous to assess clearly. I also asked if we needed for some in society to fail so that others might succeed, if we needed “losers” so that we could also have “winners”, if we needed winners at all, and what it meant to win.
The ultimate question implied in the text and our discussion, though, was “Are we free, that is, do we act volitionally or consciously in the world and are thus responsible for our own successes and failures, or are we determined, that is, are our actions merely the result of prior causes over which we finally have no control?”
We talked about recession and the distribution of wealth of wealth in America, hot topics this election cycle, and I encouraged you to investigate recent census data concerning them. I did some of my own searching; you should read the following to help you understand these issues and their implications:
- “Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap”
- “Census finds record gap between rich and poor”
- “Income Gap Widens in America”
I also mentioned a couple of audio texts from the Planet Money Blog at NPR that highlighted two ideologies getting a lot of attention from media: Socialism and Libertarianism. I really encourage you to engage these two pieces, which may help clarify what it really means to be an adherent of each of these economic and political worldviews:
- “Is The U.S. Moving Toward Socialism? A Socialist Weighs In”
- “‘What We Can Smoke And Who We Can Marry’: Libertarianism Explained”
Libertarianism is often associated, perhaps unjustly, with the so-called Tea Party movement, but the latter label, as the name for a political movement, defies easy definition. You might listen to this interview with Kate Zernike, who recently published a book on the subject: “‘Boiling Mad’: A Tea Party Origin Story”.
It’s really important that you become familiar with the current political and economic zeitgeist kids if you hope to be informed when you officially become part of this democratic experiment. Whatever your ideological leanings, please take time to read and listen.
See you next time.
More on Prop 100
With about two and a half weeks until the May 18 vote, I wanted to post some links to information about Proposition 100, the first being the proposition page itself: 2010 Special Election Ballot Proposition 100 at the Arizona Secretary of State’s website. This is an important resource because this page details many of the arguments for and against the proposition espoused by individuals, communities, organizations, and enterprise. Ballotpedia also has an information page on Proposition 100.
Two groups, one in favor of the Proposition 100 and another against, have dedicated websites that advocate their positions: Yes on 100 and Ax the Tax, Arizona. And finally, here’s a recent story that aired locally: “UA researcher studies prop 100″.
During a discussion in English 9 a couple of weeks ago about the proposition and education financing, Kody asked “What started all this?” The budget situation in Arizona has been particularly problematic for the last several years, and was labeled the worst the country in 2008. But in regards to the immediate issue of financing for education, you might read this story from AZCentral.com: “GOP budget proposal slashes funds for Arizona education”. (Those future economists and policy-makers should examine this phenomenal resource: A timeline of news and stories about Arizona’s budget history for the 2000s. The search can be adjusted for years in question and results desired.)
I really encourage you to inform yourselves.
See you soon.
Civics
News of pending cuts to education financing across the valley and state and the budget decision made by the Amphitheater Governing Board last night engendered rumors and misinformation all over campus Monday, yesterday, and today about possible consequences for the next school year, Proposition 100, and so on. It’s my purpose as an educator in my discipline to help you become critical consumers and producers of language, and to that end, as you’ve experienced this year, I’ve always encouraged students to go beyond their assumptions and critically examine as many sides of an issue as possible to develop informed opinions. So here’re links to two stories from today’s Star that are worth reading if you’re genuinely interested in civic engagement (you may find the readers’ comments worth reviewing, too):
- “For districts across city, it’s a night of bitter cuts”
- “Sales tax hike: job generator or burden on Arizonans?”
And you might also read the April 13, 2010, Governing Board Budget Presentation that details how the proposed-now-accepted cuts will affect you directly.
The current recession, this tax referendum, and the state’s political zeitgeist have provided remarkable opportunities for you to experience robust democracy in action at a local level. You Dorados will be inheriting your birthright, that is, citizen-participation in this nation and this world very soon; indeed, some of you will be voting for the first time in your lives in a little over a month. So inform yourselves and talk all sides of these issues over with the adults in your lives and your friends. It’s in your best interest and you’ll help generate more light than heat.
See you at school, kids.