To Work or Not to Work, That is the Question!

The following is a poem by Marge Piercy called "To Be of Use". Also, here is a link to an article about whether or  not high school students should work. Take position and defend it.
https://blog.collegevine.com/should-your-teen-work-during-high-school/

To be of use

BY MARGE PIERCY

The people I love the best

jump into work head first

without dallying in the shallows

and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,

the black sleek heads of seals

bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,

who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,

who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,

who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest

and work in a row and pass the bags along,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters

but move in a common rhythm

when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

Marge Piercy, "To be of use" from Circles on the Water. Copyright © 1982 by Marge Piercy. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Source: Circles on the Water: Selected Poems of Marge Piercy (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)

Another Modest Proposal

At the beginning of the 18th century, Ireland was experiencing an awful famine due to several years of bad harvests.  The country was also experiencing extreme political turmoil.  As a response and recommended remedy for how to fix the economic problems at hand, Jonathan Swift, an Irish satirist, essayist and political pamphleteer, anonymously published a satirical essay in 1729 entitled “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick.”  In the piece, more commonly referred to today as “A Modest Proposal,” Swift ironically attempts to “find out a fair, cheap, and easy method” for converting the starving children of Ireland into “sound and useful members of the Commonwealth.”  As the lengthy title suggest, Swift wants the people of Ireland to fatten their children up so that they can be sold in meat markets.  He states, “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.”  Swift goes into great (albeit graphic) detail about how the children should be seasoned and cooked so that their parents and the country will neither be further burdened by them nor continue to be hungry.  More importantly, though, Swift argues using hard-edged economic reasoning as well as a self-righteous moral stance as he attempts to turn this problem into a solution.

It is your mission for next week’s blog post to come up with a Modest Proposal of your own:

1) Re-Reading Swift’s A Modest Proposal first may help you to better understand the task at hand. (http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html)

2) Identify a social, financial, economic problem present in the United States (or world if you choose) today. For all of our Atheist friends, we are taking the week off in regards to church bashing. Pick something else. That's getting boring. And its a safety net. 

3) Come up with a creative way that the problem could be fixed… Just like Swift’s proposal, your Modest Proposal does not need to be feasible! We are looking for clever (and funny?) ideas with their own internal logic.  One of the reasons Swift’s is effective is that in its mock-seriousness it conveys the attitude of this could be real.Have fun!

Ha Ha, Very Funny!

In his 2004 book, Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton argues that the chief aim of humorists is not merely to entertain but “to convey with impunity message that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly.” Because society allows humorists to say things that other people cannot or will not say, de Botton sees humorists as serving a vital function in society. Think about the implications of de Botton’s view of the role of humorists (cartoonists, stand-up comics, satirical writers, hosts of television programs, etc.). Then write an essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies de Botton’s claim about the vital role of humorists. Use specific, appropriate evidence to develop your position.

Argue on the fly!

Today in class, we went over a prompt from Question #3 on the AP Language Exam. We did a prompt from Oscar Wilde and a prompt from Empire of Illusion from Chris Hedges. We also read an example of a good response in class. So, for your blog, you are to complete the essay. Period 2 is to respond to the Oscar Wilde prompt and period 3 is to respond to the Chris Hedges prompt. I have included a link to each prompt for those of you who were absent and for those who might have misplaced the prompt.

Chris Hedges scroll down to question 3

Oscar Wilde scroll down to question 3

When commenting, score the essay of TWO CLASSMATES with commentary!You may say what was done well, but you MUST give suggestions about what could have been done better as well. Comment on the essay OPPOSITE of the one you wrote. Every essay should have at least one score. Remember to score from 0-9.