Assessment - "When the Levees Broke"

Due Date: January 7, 2010.

Over the last few weeks, we have viewed the film When the Levees Broke. During that time, we have had many thoughtful and meaningful discussions. For what it is worth, Katrina caused America to take pause and challenged our government's values.

Now the time has come to assess what you've learned from this experience. This is a MAJOR assessment piece.

What do I have to do?

You are going to write a five (5) page essay, based on the questions below. Note that the essay does not have to answer the questions in any sort of order. It has to reflect your thoughts on these questions. These are questions that we have explored in nearly every class session since the first day of school. Use these questions to guide your writing...

What does it mean to be a citizen?

What type of citizen are you?

What is the role of government?

Should the federal government help the less fortunate or provide a safe atmosphere to allow people to become fortunate?

In what areas was the government successful?

In what areas did each level of government fail?

What were the major reasons behind the government's success or failure?

Obviously, the government made some mistakes, but have we learned from the mistakes?

In the aftermath of Katrina were decisions made based on race? class? Or need?

Now that we have all seen the Spike Lee documentary what is our responsibility to our fellow citizens?

Have your ideas about the responsibilities of government changed as a result of seeing this film? Why, or why not?

Sources/Research: It is expected that you will provide at least two sources besides the movie for your information. The teaching guide which I shared with you previously would be a great place to start, particularly the section entitled "What Does it Mean to Be a Citizen?"

Requirements: Your essay must

1. Be typed, and printed in BLACK INK ONLY. Sorry, no Google Docs, or emailing files. We're going "Old School" here.

2. Use a Font Size that may be NO LARGER THAN 12 point. Please use "business" style fonts.

3. Be Spell and Grammar checked.

4. Contains a bibliography, listing all sources used. You must cite any direct quotes that you use from a source in the proper manner.

Please note that if your essay fails to meet any of the above conventions, it will not be accepted.

Here is a copy of the RUBRIC which will be used to evaluate your paper.

Deadline: January 7, 2010. Any essay turned in late will be subject to the following:

Turned in January 8: Reduction of 10%

Turned in January 11: Reduction of 25%

Any assignment turned in past January 11 will be given a grade of 'F'

Failure to submit any assignment will automatically result in a grade of "incomplete."

FYI - When the Levees Broke is available on iTunes. You can purchase and download.

1. Carefully read the article below

2. After reading the article, consider the following questions, and write a thoughtful response to each.

- How might NYC schools change if busing is no longer supplied by the MTA for free?

- Do Students have a right to a free, and public education?

- Does Race/Class play a factor in this situation?

Students See Hard Future if Free Fares Are Ended

By SHARON OTTERMAN

When Alejandro Velazquez, 15, was selecting a high school last year, he decided on Washington Irving in Manhattan because of its strong Spanish-English bilingual program. It was a 40-minute trip from his home in the Bronx, but his mother assented, in part because he could travel free.

His family’s calculus, he said, would have been different had he needed to pay $40 a month or more to get to and from school, a reality that will begin next fall if budget cuts passed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday are carried out. His mother, an immigrant from Ecuador, works as a cook in a Bronx restaurant to support him and his 10-year-old brother, and there is little cash to spare.

“If I had to pay for the MetroCard, my mother would have preferred a school closer to me — there’s one right down the block from our house,” he said.

The cuts to the student subsidies for the MetroCards are not yet final. The M.T.A. board will have a public comment period over the coming weeks, and then another vote early next year. If the cuts are approved, the 584,000 city students who receive free or half-fare MetroCards would all receive half-fare cards beginning next September. In September 2011, they would pay full fares — nearly $700 for a school year at current rates.

As elected officials wrangle over the responsibility to pay for the program, parents, administrators and students on Wednesday painted a drastically different school landscape were the cuts to go through. It would be one in which school choice, a program expanded under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would be limited by students’ ability to afford transportation across the city. Absenteeism and truancy, many students predicted, would rise.

Students have had free transportation in New York City for decades, although urban areas in the state are not legally required to provide it, said Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Education. (Rural areas are.) Even so, the system is the backbone of the competitive high school system, which has eliminated most high zoned schools in the city.

Robert Rhodes, the principal of Millennium High School, a sought-after college preparatory high school with a liberal arts focus at 75 Broad Street, said he feared that the change would significantly alter the composition of the school.

“We value the diversity of taking kids from different neighborhoods and different income levels,” he said. “Will it become a school that’s only available if you have enough money and live in a certain radius? Is that the kind of school that we want?”

Jamillah Burke, 24, is the legal guardian of her 13-year-old sister, who takes two buses to a Leadership Academy school each day from their house on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue. Ms. Burke, who recently lost her job, said she could not afford to pay for her sister’s MetroCard.

“I know a lot of kids who are not going to come to school,” said Iquan Richardson, 15, of Bushwick, as he arrived at the Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuvyesant in Brooklyn. “Or they’ll jump the turnstile.”

David Bloomfield, the former general counsel for the city’s Department of Education, said that the state would most likely face legal challenges were the cuts to go through. “If suburban students have the right to transportation,” he said, urban families would probably press for the same right.

“I believe it would have a devastating impact, especially on kids over 17,” he said. “This might be just another reason for dropping out of school.”

Participation in after-school programs would also suffer, students predicted. Right now, student MetroCards are good for three trips per day, to give students the opportunity to travel to competitions or other events.

The transportation authority says students took 7.3 million rides on the subway in October, and 7.2 million bus rides, a typical month during the school year.

As the cost of the program rose from $162 million in 2000 to $239 million in 2008, based on average fares, the city and state contribution remained relatively constant: about $45 million from the state and $46 million from the city. In 2009, however, the state’s share fell to $25 million, then $6 million.

Several members of the transportation authority’s board said that while they are legally required to pass a balanced budget before the end of the year, they would not vote for many of the specific cuts later. The mayor’s office said his four appointees on the board would not approve the student-fare cut when it comes up for a vote again.

State officials, citing severe shortfalls, say the transit agency should be able to find the money in its operating budget, which is due for an overhaul. The agency says it should not have to bear most of the burden for what is essentially an education benefit.

“No other transit agency in the country subsidizes free or discounted student travel,” said Kevin B. Ortiz, a transit agency spokesman. “Transporting students usually falls on the government body responsible for educating them.”

Karen Zraick contributed reporting.

Tonight's HW - Due Monday 12/14

Opening Activity
Read the following passages:
Passage 1
The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so
intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there
for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on
the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo
were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The
closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to
the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had
scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This pro-
duced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became
unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and
brought on a sickness among the slaves. . . .

—First-person account of conditions on a slave ship
during the Middle Passage, from Olaudah
Equiano, The Life of Gustavus Vassa
Passage 2

The pungent aroma of backed-up toilets, unwashed bodies,
decaying food, mold and who knows what else. Sweltering
heat. An awful din. Rumors of unspeakable crimes. . . .
“I can’t stand to even look at pictures of that time,” said
Terrie Green, 41, who went to the Superdome with her three
children and infant granddaughter on Tuesday, August 30,
after being rescued from their flooded Ninth Ward home.
By the time we got out of there we were all sick. Sick from
the heat, sick from that stink that was there. Just worn out.”
Because of the heat—outside temperatures soared into
the high 90s, and it reached an estimated 125 degrees inside
the Superdome—the family, including little Alea, only 2 days
old when the storm hit, moved to the concourse that runs
around the exterior.

The heat took a toll on the baby, who developed a rash
and became dehydrated. After they evacuated to Houston,
the infant was hospitalized for a week.
“She’s still kind of sickly,” said Green, who remains in
Houston looking for work.

—Description of conditions in the New Orleans
Superdome during Hurricane Katrina, from Mary
Foster, “There was the fear, the heat, the misery,
but most of all—the smell,” Associated Press,
August 27, 2006

Questions:
1. What similarities can you identify between the description of conditions in the two passages?
2. Do you think the comparison of the two situations is valid? In other words, is it accurate or acceptable to compare the two situations? Why? Why not?
3. How might your views on the evacuation of Katrina victims be different, if this hadn't happened in New Orleans, but in a place that had little history of slavery?
4. Would your views be different if you were from a different racial, or ethnic group? If you were poor, rather than middle class? If you were a man, rather than a woman, or a woman, rather than a man?
5. CLICK HERE. Read the account of life for Katrina survivors in the FEMA trailer park known as Renaissance Village. In what ways might conditions in this trailer park be similar to conditions in quarters inhabited by slaves? Is this a valid comparison? Why?

Tonight's HW 12/7/09

1. Research the charts on pp. 46, 47, 48, and 60.

2. Then, please read the "Handouts" on pp. 75 and 76 of the Teaching the Levees Workbooks.

3. Based on the materials dicsussed, do you believe the tragedy associated with Katrina, and the breaching of the Levees was fundamentally shaped by race, and class?

If not, what alternative hypotheses can you offer?

Back up your statements with evidence!