May 24, 2013
Dear Rising Tenth Graders:
Students, to you ‘tis given to scan the heights
Above, to traverse the ethereal space,
And mark the systems of revolving worlds.
Still more, ye sons of science ye receive
The blissful news by messengers from heav’n,
How Jesus’ blood for your redemption flows…
-- Phillis Wheatley
The author of this poetry excerpt, Phillis Wheatley, was taken from her native Africa and
sold into slavery in Massachusetts when she was only seven years old. She served a
kind, generous family in Boston who taught her to read and write. Formally educated
alongside the master’s children, she spent much time reading the Bible and some of the
same English poetry we will read this year. Not long after Miss Wheatley wrote these
lines, a worldview shift began, one that would take society farther and farther away from
God. This year in literature, we will look carefully at the philosophies reflected in the
works we read, and we will discover how even works written by those with erroneous
worldviews ultimately give glory to God.
For most of the first quarter, we will be reading Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift,
arguably the quintessential work of satire. Your summer reading assignments are
designed to help prepare you for this challenging work.
Please complete the following reading and writing assignments:
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Read Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal” (pages 52-59).
Read the two enclosed samples of satirical proposals for solutions to current
sociopolitical issues.
Complete the attached questions on the use of satire in the Swift’s essay and the
two articles.
Write your own “modest proposal” following the directions provided.
Read (or re-read) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (copy provided).
Bring all completed work and reading materials in this packet and be prepared to
present your proposal to the class on the second day of school.
I look forward to hearing your modest proposals! Have fun with this assignment and
enjoy your summer!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Maravilla
NOTE: Please read this short historical background before you read “A Modest
Proposal.”
Over the centuries, England gradually gained a foothold in Ireland. In 1541, the
parliament in Dublin recognized England’s Henry VIII, a Protestant, as King of
Ireland. In spite of repeated uprisings by Irish Catholics, English Protestants
acquired more and more estates in Ireland. By 1703, they owned all but ten
percent of the land. Meanwhile, legislation was enacted that severely limited the
rights of the Irish to hold government office, purchase real estate, get an
education, and advance themselves in other ways. As a result, many Irish fled to
foreign lands, including America. Most of those who remained in Ireland lived in
poverty, facing disease, starvation, and prejudice. It was this Ireland—an Ireland
of the tyrannized and the downtrodden—on which Jonathan Swift attempted to
focus attention in “A Modest Proposal” in 1720.
Summer Reading Questions
1. Were you appalled by Swift’s proposal? Why or why not? Does he reveal any
reasonable solutions? If so, what are they?
2. List some examples of Swift’s sarcasm in “A Modest Proposal.”
3. What is satire? What is its goal?
4. How might satire accomplish this goal better than presenting a problem and solution
in a more realistic way?
5. List any forms of satire with which you are familiar.
6. After reading the article “Put Poor Students to Work,” answer the following
questions.
a. Subject: What is this article about?
b. Occasion: Why was it written?
c. Audience: To whom is this article written?
d. Purpose: What does the author hope to achieve by writing it?
e. Speaker: How does the author establish herself as an authority on the
subject?
7. After reading the article “Industrial Revolution Provides Millions of Out-of-Work
Children with Jobs,” answer the following questions.
a. Subject: What is this article about?
b. Occasion: Why was it written?
c. Audience: Who is this article aimed at?
d. Purpose: What does the author hope to achieve by writing it?
e. Speaker: How does the author establish himself/herself as an authority on
the subject?
Creating Your Own Modest Proposal
Step 1: Think of the most debated current social or political issues. Invent an
outlandish solution to one of these problems. You may need to research the issue in
order to complete this assignment.
Step 2: Using Swift’s essay as a model, write an essay in which you propose your
outlandish solution to the problem. Notice how Swift’s essay does not reveal the
“proposal” immediately. If you model your essay after his, you will:
1) build your case very persuasively, seriously offering your solution only after giving a
clear description of the problem and explaining why finding a solution is critical;
2) explain why your solution is the best solution to the problem;
3) briefly refute the opposition by telling why the solutions others have proposed will
not work and by pre-empting any opposition that might be brought against your
proposal.
Your essay should be at least two pages, double-spaced and typed in 12-point font.
Please proofread and edit your paper before AND after printing. You may notice more
mistakes when looking at a printed copy several hours or days after you type it.
Be prepared to persuasively present your proposal to the class on the second day of
school. Extra credit will be given for using creative elements such as propaganda
(designed by you), creative props, etc.
Industrial Revolution Provides Millions Of Out-Of-Work
Children With Jobs
NEWS • Year In Review 2009 • Business • Issue 45•51 • Dec 14, 2009
Until a factory opened nearby, this young man, 10, had gone nearly nine years without gainful
employment.
After centuries of chronic unemployment, millions of small children across the United Kingdom
saw their lives drastically improve when the Industrial Revolution at long last provided them with
steady factory work regardless of age, size, or experience.
"Before the turn of the 19th century, frail boys and girls had no choice but to sit at home all day,
playing with their younger siblings, just watching as another empty, unproductive week passed
them by," noted British scholar William Donnelley said. "Once the Industrial Revolution began,
however, any child able to fit inside a narrow mining shaft, or reach deep within a malfunctioning
textile press, could venture out into the world and find himself a job."
Added Donnelley, "It was a time of unprecedented opportunity for the nation's 5- to 9-year-olds."
According to records, the introduction of machine-based manufacturing provided a desperately
needed solution to England's toddler-unemployment epidemic. Out-of-work children, many of
whom had struggled since birth to earn any kind of wage at all, were now afforded the chance to
work seven days a week, up to 19 hours a day, in such competitive industries as iron-smelting
and steel-tempering.
Not only was finding employment easier than ever for countless preadolescents, but the
generous overtime available to them allowed boys and girls to catch up on years of experience
they had lost while learning how to walk, nurse, or, in some unfortunate cases, attend several
months of school.
"As a child of the time, it must have felt wonderful to be able to go to bed at night, confident in
the knowledge that a job as a coal-boy, furnace operator, or even bore-grinder machinist
awaited you the next morning," historian Russell Black said. "The sense of satisfaction and wellbeing all those orphans must have experienced week in and week out—it's hard to imagine."
"After all, there's nothing like a full-time job to help someone get back on his feet," Black
continued. "Especially if he's lost one of them in a horrifying threshing accident."
PUT POOR STUDENTS TO WORK
The Chronicle of Higher Education
November 22, 2011, 12:24 pm By Laurie Fendrich
A poor child learning the work ethic (Photo by Lewis Hine, c. 1910)
In his speech on Friday at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich offered an imaginative plan to lift poor students out of the cycle of poverty: Have them clean
their own schools for money. Not only would the students earn income, they’d build a strong work ethic.
The only thing holding us back from following through with this truly terrific idea are child labor laws,
which Mr. Gingrich called “truly stupid.”
Mr. Gingrich’s plan, although morally and economically sound, unfortunately doesn’t go far enough. To
instill a true work ethic in poor students, they need to double up on cleaning schools. I propose that after
cleaning their own schools, squads of them be sent out to clean rich kids’ schools—especially prep
schools. Not only would they earn even more money, they’d be inspired by having to mop the bathrooms
where rich kids relieve themselves after studying non-stop in their school libraries in preparation for
eventually going to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.
Come to think of it, we could inspire poor inner city students even more by busing them out to the
suburbs to clean suburban schools. Seeing those hard-working suburban high school students would make
them move those mops with speed.
The truth is, to instill a solid work ethic in poor people, we need to practice early intervention. If small
and young poor students would be assigned those jobs in the fields and slaughterhouses that people say
Americans won’t take, they’d not only get off to an early start in improving their work ethic, they’d help
put a stop to illegal immigration. An additional benefit would be that they’d learn the power of efficiency,
which they could explain to their lazy older brothers and sisters. Why use an old, tired adult who’s paid
minimum wage to pull up lettuce or gut a cow when you can use an agile little kid who’s much closer to
the ground?
Mr. Gingrich would like to see those dirty, whiny OWS folks take a bath. Darn right. Speaking of
cleanliness, what can be dirtier than a chimney? There are a lot of chimneys attached to all those
McMansions America has built. We’re wasting true national resources by waiting for poor kids to turn
old enough to learn the work ethic by cleaning schools. As we know from Victorian London, small poor
children can learn the work ethic by squirming into extremely tiny places, which is why they make perfect
chimney sweeps. What with obesity having become an especially big problem among poor children, a
little chimney sweeping would not only teach them a good, strong work ethic, but force them to slim
down a little so they wouldn’t get stuck inside.
And another thing. Putting poor students to work in all sorts of places where youth and agility count
would be helpful to the whole economy. Aren’t we always talking about needing jobs for the young? For
example, poor students would make excellent workers in car washes because their youthful energy would
let them clean under the driver’s seat of, say, a Bentley, extra well. As a side benefit, hanging around the
mist of the car wash would make them cleaner.
Wal-Mart could use a few poor students as workers—again, the smaller the better. They could be put into
the shopping carts as handlers who grab stuff off the shelves for the poor people who shop there and
sometimes, because of obesity, age, or some sort of handicap or other, have trouble reaching what they
need. Working in a cart at a Wal-Mart would not only instill a strong work ethic in students, but would
teach poor students to have a little empathy for poor people.
I’ve got one more idea to help those poor students learn a little of the work ethic that got people on Wall
Street where they are. After cleaning their schools, and the schools of rich kids, and maybe doing a little
chimney work or cow-gutting, they could scoot on over to Tiffany’s. There they could use their young
fingers to deftly hook the clasp of a shiny new diamond necklace around Callista Gingrich’s small neck—
something that would pose a challenge to Mr. Gingrich, what with his large fingers.
Of course, we wouldn’t want poor kids competing for jobs with poor adults, so we wouldn’t be able to
pay them government-mandated minimum wages. Merely what the market will bear. And since there are
a lot of poor children around, the market would do its miraculous work of keeping wages nice and low.
And if the poor students came from big families, having them work would cut the welfare rolls and lower
the taxes for the rest of us hard-working folk. And if we could only get a constitutional amendment
declaring zygotes are persons, we’d be able to guarantee that a lot of poor people would be born in the
future, all of whom would be able to learn a good work ethic.
Some people say Republicans don’t offer any real plans for America’s future, but I, for one, heartily
disagree.