Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Lesson Plan Day 17

Lesson Plan Day 17 English 102


  • How to Grade your Nickel and Dimed Essays

  • Nickel and Dimed Wrap-Up

  • The World is Flat—Book title (4, 7)

  • Globalization:

  • Globalization is the term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade and cultural exchange.

  • 1.0

  • 2.0

  • 3.0

  • What specific examples does he offer for the flat world?

4. Assign “Flatteners” chapters.

Reading Schedule for The World is Flat week one

Please have through the pages listed prior to class on that date.

January 31: pg 24
Feb 1st: 47
Feb 2nd: One chapter from “Ten Forces that Flattened the Earth” assigned in groups.
Feb 3rd: The Triple Convergence 173-181
Feb. 4th: 181-200
Feb. 5th: The Great Sorting Out 200-208
Feb 6th: 208-222

Affordable Housing Bill

House bill would help make housing affordablePublished On: January 27, 2006BY Leah Ward Page: Section: Main/Home FrontBy LEAH BETH WARD YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

The hot housing market has been very, very good to state coffers, contributing largely through real estate taxes to a $1.45 billion surplus.So, a few Democrats figure, it's time to share some of the benefits with those less likely to be enjoying the boom: those needing affordable housing, including farm workers.House Bill 2418 would spend $25 million each year for the next four years from collections of the real estate excise tax. In the first year, about $8 million would be set aside for an on-farm housing loan program and rental vouchers for migrant and seasonal workers. That sum could change through amendments.The rest of the money would be set aside for programs ranging from housing for those with developmental disabilities and victims of domestic violence.The sponsor, Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, said he had an "ah ha" moment last summer after spending a few days picking apples in Bob Brody's orchards in Brewster."It was instrumental, and I had the sore wrists and cold feet to prove it," Springer said Thursday in a telephone interview about his brief picking experience and the decision to sponsor a bill.Springer said orchardists like Brody tell him that on-farm housing would help them attract workers.With some 60,000 seasonal workers moving through the agricultural industry statewide every season, and roughly only 2,000 housing units that the state knows of, "We're not even close to meeting the need. So you have people sleeping in forests, by rivers or eight to a room," Springer said.In Yakima County, the estimated demand for year-round residences is 13,095. About 4,237 seasonal units are needed, according to the Farm Worker Housing Trust.Tom Byers, a partner in Seattle-based Cedar River Group, which assisted in organizing the Washington State Farm Worker Housing Trust more than two years ago, said the support is gratifying."We're seeing tremendous support for farm-worker housing issues compared to where we were two or three years ago. Everyone understands the need for action," Byers said.The real estate excise tax is imposed on the sale price of property at a rate of 1.028 percent.

Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Lesson Plan Day 16

1. Hand in one copy of essay.

2. Y/N O/R

3. Y= +.25

4. N= -.25

5. Y= Intro to thesis and conclusion

6. Essays scored based on average of four points

7. Essays returned +/- 1 week.

8. Please don’t ask before then.

Reading Schedule for The World is Flat week one

Please have through the pages listed prior to class on that date.

January 31: pg 24

Feb 1st: 47

Feb 2nd: One chapter from “Ten Forces that Flattened the Earth” assigned in groups.

Feb 3rd: The Triple Convergence 173-181

Feb. 4th: 181-200

Feb. 5th: The Great Sorting Out 200-208

Feb 6th: 208-222

Thursday, January 26, 2006

PBS N&D

PBS, Now

Lesson Plan Day 15 Lab Day

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 15

1. Complete Peer Review Review.

2. A story about plagiarism.

3. Integrating sources.
a. Four Parts to every quote
i. Signal phrase (As Ehrenreich notes, “alsdkfja;lsdj”)
ii. The quote, set off in quotation marks.
iii. Parenthetical citation
iv. Make use of the quote-paraphrase, explain, connect

4. Punctuation goes outside/inside.

2. Parenthetical citation (Ehrenreich 53).

a. No pg. pp. etc.

b. Period goes at very end.

c. Page number and name, if not in signal phrase. Page number alone if signal names author.


4. A couple of tricky bits

a. If you are taking words out of a single sentence, use …

b. If you are taking words out between sentences, use ….

c. If you need to include a word not in the original quote, use brackets [ ]

d. If you are quoting someone else, who is quoted someplace else, use “qtd. in”

e. Do not use … at the beginning or end of quotes (considered redundant).

f. If the work has two or three authors, they must be named in either the () or the signal phrase. More than three use et. al.

g. When the author is unknown, use the title of the article. You may abbreviate the title.

h. When the page numbers are unknown, use only the author’s name if there is one.

5. What to avoid:

i. Quotes that just lay there (PUT THEM TO USE)

ii. Dropped quotes.

iii. Not using quotation marks correctly.

iv. Not quoting accurately.

6. Works cited, see Working With Sources.

7. MLA Practice exercises
a. One
b. Two
c. Three


January 30: Draft Two Due. Bring two copies


Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Lesson Plan Day 14

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 14

1. Complete Peer Review.

2. Peer Review Review.

3. Homework:

a. MLA-2 Avoiding Plagiarism, MLA-3 Signal Phrases and Dropped Quotations, MLA-4 (340-343) In-text Citations, MLA-4b (348-352) Works Cited

January 26th: LAB: How to integrate sources. How to do a Works Cited. Online Exercises.

January 30: Draft Two Due. Bring two copies

Monday, January 23, 2006

Lesson Plan Day 10

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 10



  • Outlines

  • Intro paragraph—often written last

  • Hook

  • State background of the case

  • Lead naturally in to:

  • Thesis statement towards end (Arguable, Narrow, One-Three Sentences, changeable)

  • Put your thesis statements on the board. If you are writing a “creative” response, you should have in mind and be able to state your “implied” thesis.

  • Body Paragraphs—pick your best point and write that paragraph first then your next best until you get to your least persuasive point.

  • Topic sentence at the top.

  • Sandwich quotes

  • Signal phrases.

  • Evidence.

  • Connect the evidence.

  • One paragraph, at least should be devoted to making the case against your ideas and then “unmaking” them. Try, Some might argue that… but I argue that…

  • Transition statement?

  • Put your three best points—not the facts, the idea the facts demonstrate—under your thesis statement.

  • Conclusion

  • Keep it short.

  • Reinforce main point

How’s your outline look?


  • Part of this is developing critical thinking skills. Analytical reasoning. That’s why I can only go so far to help you without doing the thinking for you. There are two skills we are working on, skills that will keep us out of the same jobs we are writing about: communication and analytical reasoning. That’s where the money is. And in taking risks.

Peer Editing, a crash course. Your peer editors will have different topics than you do, so that you can better judge how clear it is to a fresh audience.


  • The Two Rules of Peer Editing

  • Be Kind

  • Be Honest

  • Sample Essay Peer Edit

  • Handout copies.

  • Someone other than the writer reads it aloud.

  • Mark it as you go.

  • Fill in form.

  • Discuss form with writer

  • Writer asks questions.
What is the main idea for each paragraph?What supporting evidence will you use?This can be a mix of anecdote and secondary sources(the two+ outside sources, and the book).

For most questions this mix should lean towards the use of printsources.


January 24th: Rough Draft Due. Bring four copies for peer editing.
January 25th: Complete Peer Editing. Introduction to using sources.
January 26th: Sources continued. How to integrate.
January 30: Draft Two Due. Bring two copies



Peer Editing Questions

Your Name:                              Essay writer’s Name:

  1. Number the paragraphs on the essay itself

  1. Does the opening paragraph grab the reader?  


  • Do they provide useful background information on the issue?


  • What style of introduction is the writer using? (Anecdote/question/contrast/metaphor etc)




  1. Underline, then write down their thesis/main point as clearly as you can—






  1. Is the evidence adequate, over-all?  Do they draw from N&D?  Do they draw from two other sources?



  1. Put a box around the best paragraph/evidence they offer.






  1. What is the least convincing?  Draw [brackets] around the least convincing evidence.



  1. Do they rely mainly on emotional appeals (stories, anecdotes) or logical appeals (facts, statistics, secondary sources)?




  • Put a squiggly line under the first sentence of the “counter argument.”

  • Is there an effort to provide balance?

  • How do they handle the “c-a”?  Refute, concede, modify?

  1. What paragraphs/sections are hard to follow?




  1. Identify the strongest transition between paragraphs using Good Trans! next to it.


Identify the weakest transition between paragraphs using Trans?




  1. Does the conclusion end forcefully/memorably?  



  1. What grammatical problems need to be addressed?  




  1. What is your favorite part of this essay?



  1. What could the writer do in revision to make it even better?

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Web sites you found

1. Living and Minimum Wage Debate

Canada has some of the same issues--
Anti-Living Wage points here.

http://www.epinet.org/

http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/ (Pro website)

www.balancepolitics.org

Department of Labor

2. Housing issues:
Housing and Urban Development

Tenants Association Washington States

Rentals in Yakivegas

More on Yakima housing help


Yakima housing here, but what if it gets cold?

3. Poverty Issues
NPR station in Ohio has a good page here.

Lesson Plan Day 9

In the lab.

Living Wage Slide Show

DON"T PANIC.
Work through it.
If you are stuck, just start freewriting. Re-read the book. Research. Re-read the question.
Ask: What are the issues? What do you want to say? Where can you get information?

Essay format, from book (C5-g)
Show more options for model papers on line here.
Talk about the traditional organization.
The 5 keys to a good argument:
Introduction, Statement of the Case, Proposition, Refutation, Confirmation, and Conclusion.

Thesis statement on Hacker?

We have to keep moving this fast until we hit a rough spot.
So far we're good.

Now: Two ways to go.
1. Form a thesis first and look for evidence to support it. Like Ehrenreich?
2. Pick an interesting questions, look at the evidence, form a thesis.

Today, start your research are here.
Use google to find other links and email them to me so I can post them on this site.

For documentation:
Keep track of url's, titles of articles, names of authors and overall name of site.

Homework: Read Hacker on outlines. C1-d
Create an outline for your essay for Monday.

For Outline, Ask:

What is the main idea for each paragraph?

What supporting evidence will you use?
This can be a mix of anecdote and secondary sources
(the two+ outside sources, and the book).
For most questions this mix should lean towards the use of print
sources.

January 23rd: Outline of your essay.

January 24th: Rough Draft Due. Bring four copies for peer editing.

January 25th: Complete Peer Editing. Introduction to using sources.

January 26th: Sources continued. How to integrate.

January 30: Draft Two Due. Bring two copies





Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Lesson Plan Day 8

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 9


Sort into groups according to essay topic

Freewrite for 8 minutes (1255 only)

Poster of final job

Jobs. Pay. Housing. Bosses. Physical conditions. Mental conditions. Reasons for leaving.


In those groups--Keeping your essay question in mind:

  1. Review study guide questions for “Selling in Minnesota”
    1. Questions 1 and 2 in groups
    2. Questions 3-5 as a class
  2. Evaluation
    1. Questions 2 and 3 in groups
    2. Questions 1, 4 as a class
    3. Other questions?
  3. Hand back notes, quizzes etc. Using “Evaluation” chapter
    1. Read C2-a
    2. What are the problems confronting the working poor?
    3. What are the solutions offered by Ehrenreich?
    4. What are the valid criticisms of her points that she raises?
    5. Read C6-c
    6. How does she handle these complaints?
    7. What IS the answer?

Homework:

Tomorrow meet in lab, bring something to take your work home on.

Prewriting Technique/Listing:

Go back through N&D’d and write down page numbers, section by section, that might have information for the essay you’d like to write.

Read C2, C5, including sample argument paper, pay special attention to notes in the margins that explain the structure.

Calandar:

January 19th: Paper format. Research. Writing. (lab)

January 23rd: Outline of your essay.

January 24th: Rough Draft Due. Bring four copies for peer editing.

January 25th: Complete Peer Editing. Introduction to using sources.

January 26th: Sources continued. How to integrate.

January 30: Draft Two Due. Bring two copies.


For in class discussion

According to the EVALUATION CHAPTER:


a. How did she do as a worker?


b. How did she do at “life in general”?


c. Why are the official poverty rates misleading?


d. If productivity is increasing, why aren’t wages?


e. What keeps the workers from finding better jobs? Where is the friction?


f. Explain the “vicious cycle” of labor costs described by the book.


g. What makes the working poor invisible?


h. List some of the complaints the middle and upper class have about the

working poor.

l. Why does Ehrenreich call the working poor the most philanthropic of all

social classes?

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Wal Mart Defended

November 29, 2005
Op-Ed Columnist NYTimes
The Good Goliath
By JOHN TIERNEY

Once upon a time, social activists decried the plight of workers in company towns whose paychecks vanished each week because they were being gouged by the local stores. Urban politicians, angered by the high prices charged at grocery stores in the inner city, offered subsidies to attract chain stores that would make food more affordable for the poor.

Then Wal-Mart came along, giving small-town workers an alternative to the local oligopoly and offering urbanites food at the same low prices charged in the suburbs. Now the activists and politicians have a new cause: Say No to Wal-Mart! Stop it before it discounts again!

This new crusade is especially puzzling in light of the current consensus among poverty experts. I recently moderated what I expected to be a liberal-conservative debate on the topic that was sponsored by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. It was a fascinating discussion - but as hard as I tried to provoke controversy, there wasn't much of a fight.

Both sides praised welfare reform and said the government should keep pushing people off the rolls and into jobs. And because many of these people are unskilled workers who command less than $10 per hour, both sides agreed that the government should make work worthwhile by supplementing their income through more income tax credits and other programs.

From that perspective, Wal-Mart has been one of the most successful antipoverty programs in America. It provides entry-level jobs that unskilled workers badly want - there are often 5 or 10 applicants for each position at a new store.

Critics say Wal-Mart's pay, $9.68 per hour on average, is too low and depresses local retail wages when a new store opens. That effect is debatable, but even if wages do go down slightly, these workers still end up with more disposable income, as Jason Furman, a visiting professor at New York University, concludes in a paper titled "Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story."

Furman, a former economic adviser in the Clinton administration and the Kerry presidential campaign, notes that the possible decline in wages is minuscule compared with what the typical family saves by shopping at
Wal-Mart: nearly $800 per year on groceries alone, a savings that's especially valuable to the many low-income shoppers at Wal-Mart.

The average income of shoppers at Wal-Mart is $35,000, compared with $50,000 at Target and $74,000 at Costco. Costco is touted as the virtuous alternative to Wal-Mart because it pays better wages, but it needs to because it requires higher-skilled workers to sell higher-end products to its more affluent customers.

Wal-Mart is often denounced for getting "corporate welfare" because some of its employees rely on Medicaid for health care and on other government aid.
But so do some employees at other companies or at government institutions like public schools. Wal-Mart offers health benefits that are generally comparable to what other retailers offer.

Its size makes it an easy target for enemies, like the Maryland legislators who passed a bill that would apparently affect only one company in the
state: Wal-Mart. The legislators in Maryland (and other states) want to force Wal-Mart to either increase its spending on health care benefits or to make payments to the state's health program for the poor.

But suppose Wal-Mart were forced to give health coverage to all of its part-time employees. To remain competitive, Wal-Mart would probably cut the cash wages of the workers to compensate for the additional health benefits.
The cut in take-home pay would be particularly hard on the many part-timers who don't need the benefits because they're already covered through their spouses' or other insurance.

Some of Wal-Mart's critics prefer to imagine that Wal-Mart wouldn't have to cut wages - that it could get away with raising prices a little to cover the extra health care costs. But that would force Wal-Mart's shoppers to cover costs previously paid by the government out of revenues coming largely from income taxes, which are paid disproportionately by the affluent. Instead, Wal-Mart's low-income shoppers would, in effect, pay a regressive new sales tax.

It's easy to understand the motives of some of Wal-Mart's enemies. Local merchants don't want to match its prices. Labor leaders know that they'll lose members and dues if unionized stores suffer. But why would anyone who claims to be fighting for social justice be so determined to take money out of the pockets of the poor?

Living Wage NYTimes Link

Living wage debated in NYTimes Magazine.
click for link to article.

Lesson Plan Day 8

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 8

Handout essay options and read solo.
Free write for five minutes about the options.
Discuss at tables what looks interesting to you.
Meet in groups to discuss your second choice.

Meet in groups to discuss your first choice.

In those groups--Keeping your essay question in mind:

1. Review job highlights and make poster for "Selling in Minnesota"
Jobs. Pay. Housing. Bosses. Physical conditions. Mental conditions. Reasons for leaving.

2. Review study guide questions for “Selling in Minnesota”

Homework:
Choose a topic by tomorrow.
The first chapter we will read in The World is Flat (TWIF) is “While I Was Sleeping” We won’t be discussing it for a while, but you can start now and try to get ahead.

Calandar:
Jan 17th: Prewrite on which question to take on.
Jan. 18th: Complete discussion of Nickel and Dimed. My best shot at what’s a good paper.
January 19th: Paper format. Research. Writing. (lab)
January 23rd: Outline of your essay.
January 24th: Rough Draft Due. Bring four copies for peer editing.
January 25th: Complete Peer Editing. Introduction to using sources.
January 26th: Sources continued. How to integrate.
January 30: Draft Two Due. Bring two copies.


2. We will do this in class tomorrow:

Outline the following, according to the EVALUATION CHAPTER:

a. How did she do as a worker?


b. How did she do at “life in general”?


c. Why are the official poverty rates misleading?


d. If productivity is increasing, why aren’t wages?


e. What keeps the workers from finding better jobs? Where is the friction?


f. Explain the “vicious cycle” of labor costs described by the book.


g. What makes the working poor invisible?


h. List some of the complaints the middle and upper class have about the
working poor.


i. Summarize the problems facing the working poor.


j. What are the solutions to these problems?


k. What are the objections to these solutions?


l. Why does Ehrenreich call the working poor the most philanthropic of all
social classes?

Friday, January 13, 2006

WalMart from Today

The New York Times

January 13, 2006

Maryland Sets a Health Cost for Wal-Mart

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan. 12 - The Maryland legislature passed a law Thursday that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending on employee health insurance, a measure that is expected to be a model for other states.

The legislature's move, which overrode a veto by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, was a response to growing criticism that Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, has skimped on benefits and shifted health costs to state governments.

The vote came after a furious lobbying battle by Wal-Mart and by labor and liberal groups, and is likely to encourage lawmakers in dozens of other states who are considering similar legislation.

Many state legislatures have looked to Maryland as a test case, as they face fast-rising Medicaid costs, and Wal-Mart's critics say that too many of its employees have been forced to turn to Medicaid.

Under the Maryland law, employers with 10,000 or more workers in the state must spend at least 8 percent of their payrolls on health insurance, or else pay the difference into a state Medicaid fund.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the company was "weighing its options," including a lawsuit to challenge the law because it is close to that 8 percent threshold already.

It is unclear how much the new law will cost Wal-Mart in Maryland - or around the country, if similar laws are adopted, because Wal-Mart has not publicly divulged what it spends on health care.

But it was concerned enough about the bill to hire four firms to lobby the legislature intensely over the last two months, and contributed at least $4,000 to the re-election campaign of Governor Ehrlich.

A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, Mia Masten, said that "everyone should have access to affordable health insurance, but this legislation does nothing to accomplish this goal."

"This is about partisan politics," she said, "and this is poor public policy driven by special-interest groups."

There are four employers in Maryland with more than 10,000 workers - among them, Johns Hopkins University, the grocery chain Giant Food and the military contractor Northrop Grumman, but only Wal-Mart falls below the 8 percent threshold on health care spending.

A Democratic lawmaker who sponsored the legislation, State Senator Gloria G. Lawlah , maintained: "This is not a Wal-Mart bill, it's a Medicaid bill." This bill says to the conglomerates, 'Don't dump the employees that you refuse to insure into our Medicaid systems.' "

Opponents said the law would open the door for broader state regulation of health care spending by private companies and would send the message that Maryland is antibusiness.

"The message is, 'Don't come here,' " said Senator E. J. Pipkin, a Republican. "This is an anti-jobs bill."

Several lawmakers said that in the end, the law would require Wal-Mart to spend only slightly more than it does now on health insurance. But with Wal-Mart refusing to disclose what it pays for health costs, it was unclear how much more it would be required to pay.

This is the second time that the Maryland legislature, which is dominated by Democrats, has passed the Wal-Mart bill. Governor Ehrlich vetoed it late last year, inviting a senior Wal-Mart executive to sit by his side as he did so.

Indeed, the bill is shaping up as an issue in the fall campaign, with Republicans and their business allies lining up against it, and Democrats and their labor union supporters backing it. Wal-Mart has 53 stores and employs about 17,000 people in Maryland.

Debate was particularly emotional among representatives from Maryland's Eastern Shore, where Wal-Mart recently announced plans to build a distribution center that would employ up to 1,000.

Wal-Mart executives have strongly suggested that they might build the center elsewhere if lawmakers passed the health care bill.

In a passionate speech in the State Senate, J. Lowell Stoltzfus, a Republican, warned that the bill "jeopardizes good employment for my people."

"It's going to hurt us very bad," he added,

The bill's passage underscored the success of the union campaign to turn Wal-Mart into a symbol of what is wrong in the American health care system.

Wal-Mart has come under severe criticism because it insures less than half its United States work force and because its employees routinely show up, in larger numbers than employees of other retailers, on state Medicaid rolls.

In response to the complaints, the company introduced a new health care plan late last year, with premiums as low as $11 a month.

Consumer advocates specializing in health care are hoping that the Maryland law will be the first of many.

"You're going to see similar legislation being introduced," said Ronald Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a nonprofit health advocacy organization, "and debated in at least three dozen more states, and at least some of those states will end up also requiring large employers to provide health care coverage."

Mr. Pollack suggested that he did not expect any groundswell of opposition from corporate America. Most companies, he said, provide insurance and know that the costs of medical treatment for uninsured people are reflected in their insurance premiums. Mr. Pollack said that, by his organization's calculations, the cost of such treatment drove up employer premiums by $922 a family last year. In 2006, he said, the added cost could reach $1,000 a family.

"Those employers should welcome the fact that the companies that do not offer coverage now will be forced to step up to the plate," he said.

State lawmakers here in Annapolis took repeated swipes at Wal-Mart during debate over the bill on Thursday. It appeared that the company's intensive lobbying campaign in Maryland, including advertisements arguing that the requirement would hurt small businesses, might have soured some lawmakers.

Senator Lawlah called the lobbying "horrendous" and adding, "I have never seen anything like it."

Frank D. Boston III, the chief lobbyist for Wal-Mart on the health care bill, stood in the main corridor of the Capitol building on Thursday wearing a look of resignation. Referring to unions in the state, he said, "They have a power we can't match, and we worked this bill extremely hard."

Class-Action Case in Pennsylvania

By Bloomberg News

A Pennsylvania judge granted class-action status yesterday to a lawsuit contending that Wal-Mart employees had been pressed to work through breaks and after hours.

The suit could include as many as 150,000 current or former employees in Pennsylvania who have worked at a Wal-Mart store or at the company's Sam's Club warehouse chain since March 1998, Michael Donovan, the lead plaintiff's lawyer, said.

The latest class-action filing against Wal-Mart came after a California jury last month awarded workers $172.3 million in another off-the-clock case.

Wal-Mart is appealing. The company settled a similar case in Colorado for $50 million.

Wal-Mart has given "every indication" that it will go to trial rather than settle, Mr. Donovan said. A Wal-Mart spokesman, Kevin Thornton, said the company was considering appealing the decision.

Claudia H. Deutsch contributed reporting from New York for this article.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

English 102 Lesson Plan 1/12/06

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 7


  • Homework

  • N&D Read to end of book

  • Complete Questions on Selling and Evaluation

  • Jeske lecture next Wednesday on campus. Available as 10 BP towards preDraft 2 points or as an EXABS


  1. All along the way, in any class, you should be thinking about an angle on an essay. What interests you about the topic? Where are there disagreements with what is written? What IDEAS do you want to defend or refute or change or suggest?



  • My rough draft of paper topics:

  • Ehrenreich’s investigation says something like:People who work full time jobs should be able to expect more than scraping by. According to her observations, this is very hard to do. But the solution isn’t so obvious. Assuming she has identified a real problem, what should we do to correct this problem? Go beyond education.
Here’s a quote from Salon Magazine:
But it also half-raises questions without truly answering them, escorts paradoxes onstage then shoos them off again without letting us get a really good look at them and generally shies away from admitting that however intolerable the conditions Ehrenreich describes may be, any viable alternative to tolerating them is far from obvious.


  • Some sort of investigative field work—SDSU in the lab?

  • Housing? Take 30% of Washington Minimum Wage and look for houses in Yakima.



  • Minimum Wage Debate—oral/written; some/all students?



  • Fake/Real Job Descriptions, brochures, want ads



  • Two-three questions from the discussion questions



  • Satire of investigative report on the “working rich”



  • What about low wage jobs for men? What are the difference do you think? What kind of research could you do?



  • What does it mean to be an ethical employee or an ethical employer?



  • If, as Ehrenreich points out, the working poor aren’t very vocal about their conditions, why should we do anything? In other words, if the working poor don’t seem to care, why should we?
From Salon:
A recent
survey of attitudes about poverty sponsored by National Public Radio, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government suggests that this resistance to classic left ideas about poverty is fairly common among the poor. For example, the low-income Americans surveyed were only slightly more likely than the affluent to blame the plight of the poor on circumstances beyond their control, rather than on personal failings or lack of initiative

j. Explain how poverty is also a “frame of mind”. Explore how the conditions reflect “the relentless grinding down of dignity and, by extension, hope.” What doe this suggest about possible solutions to the problem?

From Salon:
While it's not true that everyone has a broke diary, plenty of people do. I can remember times during my college years when for weeks I ate only a meagerly topped baked potato for dinner each night -- my best friend referred to one such period as "the Depression." The fact that he could joke about my penury and Nissel can treat hers as almost a lark serves as a reminder that poverty is more than a matter of low income; it's also a frame of mind. Both Nissel and my collegiate self expected our "broke diaries" to be slender volumes…. So perhaps worse than the grim mathematics of the life Ehrenreich sampled is the relentless grinding down of dignity and, by extension, hope.

k. One of the issues that comes up in the discussion of this book is Ehrenreich’s position as a tourist in the land of the working poor. Explain the “clashes” created by her attempts to right the wrongs of the social order and her coworkers desires/beliefs.

From Salon:
Ehrenreich's image of the working poor as, in fact, simply victims of an unjust social order clashes with their need to believe that they have some say in their own fates -- and to hold the people in their lives morally accountable.


A couple more quotes from Salon:
Still, Ehrenreich is right: It takes more than the work ethic to climb out of poverty today. "Nickel and Dimed" never quite makes the crucial point that it's not humanly possible to pursue the education and training required to improve your lot while you're supporting yourself (let alone children) with minimum-wage jobs -- but any observant reader can see it. There simply isn't enough time. Ehrenreich demonstrates that the method of calculating the poverty threshold is ludicrously obsolete: It's indexed to the cost of food, not housing, the mushrooming expense that more than anything else keeps people in the hole. Minimum-wage jobs should be no more than temporary stopovers on the way to better things, but that can't happen if people have to work every waking hour to keep a roof over their heads.
What makes "Nickel and Dimed" such an important book is how viscerally Ehrenreich demonstrates this. Is it fair, then, to fault her for not proffering a clear solution?

What is to be done, then, about the shameful hardships they suffer? Ehrenreich ends with an unconvincing bit of socialist bravado: "They are bound to tire of getting so little in return and demand to be paid what they're worth. There'll be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strikes and disruption." Yet nothing in "Nickel and Dimed" suggests that the working poor harbor any such inclinations. Still, I can't blame Ehrenreich for wanting to end on a hopeful note, however forced. As the poor people she met while writing "Nickel and Dimed" can testify, most of the time hope is all you've got to keep you going.

Discuss ideas to write about at tables in groups of 3-4. Present them to the class and we’ll vote on our top two.

  1. Questions 1 and 2 at tables from Selling in Minnesota

  2. Wal Mart DVD?

Useful Links

Book Web Site

Wikipedia site


NPR Interview

Another NPR Interview

NYTimes

Carolina Summer Reading Program, list of links

Study Guide for the Play

Another study guide for the play

Slippery Rock University (I'm not making it up) has lots of links

Service Workers Push for Pay Raise

SMU Reading Like a College Student


SMU Discussion Questions

Study Guide Questions from Rutgers


SDSU Links page, loads here

The other side, CJR, worth reading

The other side part 1

The other side part 2

The Controversy at UNC

UNC Keynote address

Ehrenreich responds