Breakthrough Writer

1A Quiz for December 2nd: “Big World: How Clear Channel Programs America” (628)

In a 100-word paragraph, explain how powerful Clear Channel has become by analyzing its business model.

Then in a second 100-word paragraph, explain how Clear Channel is in a position to control the kind of music you listen to. 

1A Lesson for “Hopelessly Hooked on Help” by Steve Salerno (543)

 

Part One. Reading Questions

1.  What does the lack of proven efficacy regarding the self-help movement say about the typical American consumer? He naively believes in the unlimited possibilities of human potential, he believes in “giftedness” and he believes that if he pays an authority enough money he can untap his genius. We can conclude, therefore, that the typical American is a narcissist who has embraced the American dogma that we can pay for anything.

2.  What is the author’s definition of self-help? The “enterprise wherein people holding the thinnest of credentials diagnose in basically normal people symptoms of inflated or invented maladies, so that they may then implement remedies that have never been shown to work.”

3.  Why has this bogus billion-dollar industry remained unexamined and under the radar? It’s either dismissed as a joke or ineffective but at least benign.

4.  What are the destructive effects of SHAM (Self-Help and the Actualization Movement)? It breeds narcissism (I am the focal point), victimization, inflated expectations, moral relativism (parsing the meanings of right and wrong). It also erodes personal responsibility and reasonable self-expectations.

5.  Why on page 548 does Salerno opine that “failure and stagnation are central to all of SHAM”? Because the guru needs you to be a cripple. He counts on you to succumb to learned helplessness and rely on his crutch forever and ever.

6.  What influence has the Recovery Movement (A.A. and other addiction treatment centers) had on SHAM? The belief that disorders can be treated when in fact no research supports such an assumption. See page 552.

 

Part Two. Why are Americans so uniquely susceptible to the B.S. of SHAM?

1.  Americans love the idea of spending money to “fix” a problem. Not just life coaches, shrinks and the like, but personal trainers, gurus, etc. “Buying” a solution rids personal responsibility and the unpleasant prospect of changing one’s character and the bad habits that spring forth from such bad character.

2.  Americans have always embraced false prophets, those snake oil salesmen, charlatans, and mountebanks who promise to cure your ailments with no fuss or pain.

3.  Unlike other cultures that are deeply influenced by the idea of fate, Americans reject fate and believe in optimistic free will or “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps.” As such, every affliction and disorder is believed to be treatable even when empirical evidence is lacking.

4.  SHAM imitates the big circus tent revivalism that is part of America’s religious history. SHAM imitates religion with its pageantry, testimonials, community bonding, team spirit.

5.  Americans hunger for complete self-reinvention and embrace any industry that promises thorough self-transformation. America is a country of immigrants who start their lives over, often from scratch.

6.  Americans love the Conquer Adversity Narrative. Just about every Hollywood film is a variation of this narrative. Why? Because it sells. American films tend to be more optimistic than films from other countries because Americans are possessed by the Conquer Adversity Narrative.

7.  There’s enough infantile narcissists in America who are drawn to an industry that says, “Your problems are not your fault. You’re a victim, you’re a damaged and precious gift. With my help, you will heal, spread your wings, and fly. And of course, you’ll conquer your enemies, all your doubters. With my help, you will enjoy vindication (proving you’re right and others, especially naysayers, are wrong).

8.  Therapy, recovery, and self-help take complicated problems and reduce them to “12 simple steps.” This is appealing to people who are scared and who feel helpless.

9.  Americans love to feel they’re buying an “edge” over their competition even if this edge is a placebo.

10.               Americans have a history of gullibility as it pertains to pseudo science and quack psychology. Kellogg’s cereal and Graham crackers are derived from “doctors” and “ministers” who believed that cereal and graham crackers soothed the soul and purified it from sinful thoughts.

 

Part Three. Essay Option.

In a page summarize the major ideas in “Hopelessly Hooked on Help.” Then compare the neurosis, gullibility, and uniquely American character that fuels SHAM and the Baby Genius Edutainment Industry as described by Alissa Quart (450).

A thesis might look like thus:

Salerno and Quart vividly show two industries that thrive on the most imbecilic American characterized by _____________, _______________, _______________, __________________, and _______________________.

Four. Reading Questions for “Big World: How Clear Channel Programs America” (628)

1.  How powerful is Clear Channel in terms of radio exposure? See page 631. It owns 11% of the radio stations.

2.  Is Clear Channel an illegal monopoly? Research paper question.

3.  What evidence is there that Clear Channel is arrogant? See page 631.

4.  What reasons does Bryan Dilworth have to accuse Clear Channel of being the “evil empire”? See page 633.

5.  How does Clear Channel differ from the Starbucks and Borders business model? 633

6.  How is Clear Channel harming the music industry?

7.  What is the “process” of marketing music today? See pages 634-635.

8.  What is a “self-contained, nationwide feedback loop” and how does it harm music? See page 635.

9.  How is Clear Channel in a position to bully music artists into “cooperating” with the company? 635

10.               In a perverse way, why doesn’t Clear Channel have to play the role of “evil empire”? 636

Part Five. Essay Option:

In a page, summarize the essay’s major points. Then in your thesis, defend or refute the position that Clear Channel’s growing power is harmful to the music industry. Be sure to support your thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components. 

Research Link: Salon: Clear Channel

Vegetarian Debate Resources: Pro and Con

Lierre Keith

Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals Turned Me Vegan

Flesh of Your Flesh

Quitting Meat

Breakthrough Writer Study Questions for Animal Liberation

How Our Vegan Diet Made Us Ill

Weston A. Price Foundation

Death by Veganism

Chocolate War Resource Guide

Chocolate War Study Questions from Breakthrough Writer

docstoc

Groupthink

Milgram Experiment

Perils of Obedience

Against School (Full Text)

Why Schools Don't Educate

Gatto Speech

Fast Food Nation Resources for Study and Writing Research Papers

Teaching American History Study Guide. 

Center for Teaching and Learning

.dotstoc

LSU Study Guide

Complete Review (list of reviews)

McMahon Overhauling Both 1A and 1C Composition Classes Starting in Summer of 2010

Call it McMahon 2.0, if you will, for McMahon will no longer have quizzes starting the Summer Semester of 2010 for both 1A and 1C composition classes. 

His 1A assignments will be designed around four 1,500-word (6-page) research papers and two 1,000-word annotated bibliographies. This results in a total of 8,000 words, the 1A requirement. Each essay will be worth 220 points and the annotated bibliographies will be worth 60 points for a grand total of 1,000 points.

His 1C assignments will be designed around four 1,250-word (5-page) research papers and one 1,000-word annotated bibliography. This results in 6,000 words, the 1C requirement. Each essay will be worth 230 points and the bibliography will be worth 80 points for a grand total of 1,000 points. 

His book selection and syllabus for 1A and 1C will be posted as soon as he gets the summer schedule. 

1A Lesson for “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto (506)

 

One. Why are people bored? Or why do people capitulate to boredom?

Lethargy of the spirit, self-pity, being lost in a fog (acedia), learned helplessness, despondence.

Two. What are some ways to overcome boredom?

See yourself as responsible for your boredom and as such you are someone who can free yourself from being bored.

Three. Why is John Taylor Gatto opposed to 12 years of compulsory schooling?

1.  The original aims of school, to make good people, to make good citizens, and to make each person his or her personal best, has been obscured and replaced with a system of dehumanization.

2.  This dehumanization consists of “reducing as many individuals as possible to the same safe level . . . to put down dissent and originality.” (Mencken)

3.  School encourages docility over individual creativity and leadership.

4.  School encourages credulity over critical thinking and skepticism.

5.  School encourages conforming to bureaucratic rules over self-fulfillment.

6.  School is unable to treat individual talent and instead has become a giant impersonal, dysfunctional baby-sitting service.

7.  School is obsessed with “placing” and “ranking” students based on bogus tests.

8.  School often unfairly stigmatizes some students at early age as being “unfit,” “remedial,” “slow,” or some other label that encourages failure in school, career, relationships, and life in general.

 

Essay Option:

In one or two pages, summarize Gatto’s major ideas. Then in three pages write about your personal experience with school that supports Gatto’s critique.

Another Option:

In two pages, summarize Gatto’s major ideas. Then in 3 pages show how his ideas are illustrated in the film The Chocolate War. 

1A Lesson Plan for “From Degrading to De-grading” by Alfie Kohn (472)

One. Why Is Kohn Against Grading?

1.  Students become more focused on grades than learning. (Either/or fallacy?)

2.  Students avoid risks that might compromise their grade.

3.  Students don’t think as creatively.

4.  Grades encourage “fact-based” rigid curriculum (true?)

5.  Grades encourage cheating.

6.  Grades spoil relationship between students and teachers.

7.  Grades make students too competitive with each other resulting in  “spoiled relationships.”

8.  Grades are often done on a curve, which punishes students.

 

Two. What Are Some Possible Refutations of Kohn? (A Defense of Grading)

1.  Competition from grading prepares students for real world.

2.  Not all students try and perform equally. Those who are superior, as a result of their hard work, should enjoy seeing their hard work rewarded with higher grades.

3.  It’s human nature to be motivated by the carrot and the stick. Kohn is living in a candy-coated dream world that ignores the realities of human nature.

4.  Grades are not perfect, but they are an important motivational tool.

5.  Grades are not perfect, but they do help show the “cream rising to the top,” an important process in any meritocracy. A meritocracy is a society that rewards the people based on merits.

6.  It turns out that Kohn also is against homework. Thus, it appears he subscribes to the Cult of Academic Relaxation, a form of “creative laxity,” which I oppose.

 

Three. Writing Option: 

In a page, summarize Kohn's essay. Then in your thesis defend or refute Kohn with 4 or 5 mapping statements.

Four. Links That Refute Alfie Kohn and His Defense

Alfie Kohn Is Bad for You and Dangerous for Your Children

Alfie Kohn, Demagogue

Alfie Kohn's Reply to Daniel Willingham

1C Quiz for November 24: David Brooks' "One Nation, Slightly Divisible"

What ethnic and economic patterns does Brooks see (487-495) in red and blue America? 

1A Quiz for Monday, November 23rd

In one paragraph explain Alfie Kohn's reasoning for being against grades (472-483). In your second paragraph explain why you agree or disagree with Kohn's thesis.