Today in Class-- October 21, 2010

In class today, we began with the following key terms:

• Hawley-Smoot Tarrif
• Hoovervilles
• New Deal
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  
• Wagner Act or National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
  
• Works Progress Administration
• Social Security

You should be able to identify all these terms.

In class, we watched the following videos for context




New Deal Programs in Appalachia: CCC, WPA, and TVA

The 9:00 and 10:30 classes compared the TVA the Obama Health Reform Act to the New Deal's TVA within the context of changing the role of government in the marketplace.

The 2:00 class wrote on the debate around Mountaintop removal by coal mining companies in the Appalacians.

For the conservative position on government and the market see Milton Friedman's lesson of the pencil below



To compare U.S. and French attitudes toward labor rights, see French Protests against efforts to raise the retirement age in France below:

Knowledgeable articles about U.S.-Arab relations

National Council on U.S. Arab Relations Publications

Today in class: gender performance and urban diversity

We began class by watching the two videos below to illustrate changes in women's gender performance over time. Then, after discussing Robin D. G. Kelley's "Yo Mama's Difunktional" we did a writing exercise relating tropes about black and brown women's sexuality to kelley's critique of urban sociological findings that tend to reinforce existing stereotypes about diverse urban populations.

Sent from my iPad

Flappers of 1920s:- So granny, what did you do when you were a girl?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc

The Victorian Guide to Women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO5AuYNWQGA

Do any of these apply to your writing?

• Your writing shows a sound understanding of the book, but it sounds like you write the way you talk. Bear in mind, next time, that writing sounds different from talking. Next time, try writing it down the way you would normally say it. Wait a day. Then read it again for errors. After that, read it aloud, and listen for errors. You might want to seek help from an LSC resource. We have a variety of support services for online students at nhcounselor@lonestar.edu. Or you can just email me.
• Your writing is sound; but next time, I'd like you to focus on just one question, and explore it in greater depth, using lots of evidence from the book and reflecting on it carefully at some length.