17. What would your subject think about communism?

You have finished reading a biography of a figure of the 20th century. For the next three, and last three, web logs I shall give you a topic and you will write your posting as the indivigual you have read about.

Q- In your own words what is Communism? Are you for or against it and why?

16. Biography part of the Exit Project

Your assignment is to read three biographies or autobiographies of people who lived in the 20th century. This week’s homework assignment is to go to the Brooklyn Public Library and check out three biographies and write their authors and titles to this post. The book must be over a hundred pages and at least 9th grade reading level. DUE Monday April 14th.

assignments to be announced

15. Shareece's Grandmother distrusts the welfare system. She thinks God helps those who help themselves. FDR would disagree with her. Due March 15t

http://www.wnyc.org/radiorookies/sohodoor/star_transcript.html

Listen to the above story. I suggest downloading it to your ipod. If you cannot listen to it, read it.

WNYC RADIO ROOKIE
First Broadcast: February 27, 2008
SHIRLEY “STAR” DIAZ
“Radio Rookie Shirley Diaz is on the brink of aging out of the foster care system when she turns 21 this fall. Many young people face huge challenges when they leave the system. And a disproportionate number of New York City’s 17,000 kids in foster care struggle with homelessness at some point in their lives. Braced for adulthood, Shirley—whose nickname is Star—looks to herself for support. ”
FDR and the New Deal is the starting point in American history for welfare. Your web log will answer the following questions:

a) What is a definition of welfare? Give examples of the kinds of welfare Diaz has been on or may go on.
b) From FDR’s perspective, why is welfare important to keeping the entire Nation healthy, not just the people who get it?
c) Do welfare programs merely create increased dependency? Should they be abolished altogether? Or should additional funds be invested to develop more comprehensive job-training and childcare programs that might reduce the number of chronic welfare recipients?

14. What does it mean to you to be financially responsible?

My Grandma will walk out of a restaurant rather then pay more then 8 dollars for a meal. She cans the peaches from the trees in her backyard, reuses tinfoil and for Christmas I get a 5 dollar bill. She is cheap because she grew up in The Great Depression. The memories of doing without have been a powerful motivation for how she lives her life. I am thankful for the conservative financial values she has instilled in me. Your assignment is to talk to someone who has lived through an economic depression. Economic depression means to be broke, poor, having to do without. Ask them what it was like, how they survived and how it changed their relationship with money.

13. 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

Nicole Forbes asked, “Ms. Frederick, back in the 60s what was it like being a hippie?” You’re new homework assignment is inspired by that question. Task: If you had to travel back in time to live though a decade of theTwentieth Century in these United States – which would you choose? Be specific, describe at least five major events which support your answer. Wikipedia is an unacceptable resource for most all of the academic historiography we do but for a flip assignment like this I believe it’s quite fun and suggest you check out their decade summaries. ex. 1960s

12. The State of the Economy. Due Fri. Jan. 19th

Katherine Newman, a sociology professor at Princeton, has studied the plight of the Americans she terms the "missing class"--people who are not classified as poor but whose incomes are so low that they lead what she calls a "fragile existence." Her findings are the subject of the first student reading which I handed out in class. Proposals to address the needs of the "missing class" are itemized in the second reading. The inquiry activities that follow include suggestions for researching how the current presidential candidates would address the problem of low-income Americans.

Assignment: Go to a presidential candidate's website. Find out what proposals and/or programs, if any, does this candidate support that would benefit "the missing class"? Write a short response on what reasons are there to believe a particular proposal would work? What reasons are there that it would not?.