English 098/108, Section 278
Readings for Writing Exercises
The following readings will serve as the basis for ten writing exercises you need to complete throughout the
semester. You should read each of the selections, and then read questions that follow the reading selection.
The questions are designed to give you ideas for completing your writing exercises.
You are only required to do one draft of these writing exercises. You may do additional drafts to make your
writing more effective, but you only need to hand in one draft to me. You write it, hand it in; I grade it and give it
back to you. Your writing exercise responses should be a minimum of 500 words each and should be written in
paragraph form—you should not just directly answer these questions one after another. You should use the
questions to give you ideas in general for what to write about. Your response here should be based on your
opinion—there are no right or wrong responses as long as you respond with at least the minimum number of
words, generally on the topic, and with as few errors as possible. Also, remember that this is about your
writing. You can refer to the readings, but there is no reason for you to quote or copy any portion of the
readings into your writing exercise responses. If you have any questions about these writing exercises, please
ask me.
Reading #1
The Ways of Meeting Oppression by Martin Luther King
Oppressed people deal with their oppression in three characteristic ways. One way is acquiescence: the
oppressed resign themselves to their doom. They tacitly adjust themselves to oppression, and thereby become
conditioned to it. In every movement toward freedom some of the oppressed prefer to remain oppressed.
Almost 2800 years ago Moses set out to lead the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of
the promised land. He soon discovered that slaves do not always welcome their deliverers. They become
accustomed to being slaves. They would rather bear those ills they have, as Shakespeare pointed out, than flee
to others that they know not of. They prefer the "fleshpots of Egypt" to the ordeals of emancipation.
There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of
oppression that they give up. A few years ago in the slum areas of Atlanta, a Negro guitarist used to sing almost
daily: "Been down so long that down don't bother me." This is the type of negative freedom and resignation
that often engulfs the life of the oppressed.
But this is not the way out. To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby
the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is
cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion
reminds every man that he is his brother's keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the
oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment
the oppressed fails to be his brother's keeper. So acquiescence—while often the easier way—is not the moral
way. It is the way of the coward. The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing he merely
increases the oppressor's arrogance and contempt. Acquiescence is interpreted as proof of the Negro's
inferiority. The Negro cannot win the respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if he
is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.
A second way that oppressed people sometimes deal with oppression is to resort to physical violence and
corroding hatred. Violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their
independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves
no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones.
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a
descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is
immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate
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rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys
community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence
ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. A voice echoes
through time saying to every potential Peter, "Put up your sword." History is cluttered with the wreckage of
nations that failed to follow this command.
If the American Negro and other victims of oppression succumb to the temptation of using violence in the
struggle for freedom, future generations will be the recipients of a desolate night of bitterness, and our chief
legacy to them will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. Violence is not the way.
The third way open to oppressed people in their quest for freedom is the way of nonviolent resistance. Like
the synthesis in Hegelian philosophy, the principle of nonviolent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two
opposites—the acquiescence and violence—while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both. The
nonviolent resister agrees with the person who acquiesces that one should not be physically aggressive toward
his opponent; but he balances the equation by agreeing with the person of violence that evil must be resisted.
He avoids the nonresistance of the former and the violent resistance of the latter. With nonviolent resistance,
no individual or group need submit to any wrong, nor need anyone resort to violence in order to right a wrong.
It seems to me that this is the method that must guide the actions of the Negro in the present crisis in race
relations. Through nonviolent resistance the Negro will be able to rise to the noble height of opposing the
unjust system while loving the perpetrators of the system. The Negro must work passionately and
unrelentingly for full stature as a citizen, but he must not use inferior methods to gain it. He must never come
to terms with falsehood, malice, hate, or destruction.
Nonviolent resistance makes it possible for the Negro to remain in the South and struggle for his rights.
The Negro's problem will not be solved by running away. He cannot listen to the glib suggestion of those who
would urge him to migrate en masse to other sections of the country. By grasping his great opportunity in the
South he can make a lasting contribution to the moral strength of the nation and set a sublime example of
courage for generations yet unborn.
By nonviolent resistance, the Negro can also enlist all men of good will in his struggle for equality. The
problem is not a purely racial one, with Negroes set against whites. In the end, it is not a struggle between
people at all, but a tension between justice and injustice. Nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors
but against oppression. Under its banner consciences, not racial groups, are enlisted.
Questions for Reading #1:

Do you think Dr. King’s words here apply to everyday conflicts that people have with each other? Why
or why not?
 Dr. King’s ideas go against some of the basic principles under which people operate. For example, we
teach our kids that they should “stand up for themselves” and that they “shouldn’t let anyone push them
around.” How can you reconcile these two ideas?
 If Dr. King came back to life and had to write part 2 of this essay, do you think he would see us as closer
to the ideal he puts forth in this essay or further away?
Due 1-28-14; no credit if turned in after 2-11-14.
Reading #2
Why Exercise Doesn’t Lead to Weight Loss by Gretchen Reynolds
For some time, researchers have been finding that people who exercise don’t necessarily lose weight. A
study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine was the latest to report apparently
disappointing slimming results. In the study, 58 obese people completed 12 weeks of supervised aerobic
training without changing their diets. The group lost an average of a little more than seven pounds, and many
lost barely half that.
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How can that be? Exercise, it seems, should make you thin. Activity burns calories. No one doubts that.
“Walking, even at a very easy pace, you’ll probably burn three or four calories a minute,” beyond what you
would use quietly sitting in a chair, said Dan Carey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the
University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, who studies exercise and metabolism.
But few people, an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise
alone, not without changing their eating habits. A new study from scientists at the University of Colorado School
of Medicine in Denver offers some reasons why. For the study, the researchers recruited several groups of
people. Some were lean endurance athletes; some sedentary and lean; some sedentary and obese. Each of the
subjects agreed to spend, over the course of the experiment, several 24-hour periods in a special laboratory
room (a walk-in calorimeter) that measures the number of calories a person burns. Using various calculations,
the researchers could also tell whether the calories expended were in the form of fat or carbohydrates, the
body’s two main fuel sources. Burning more fat than carbohydrates is obviously desirable for weight loss, since
the fat being burned comes primarily from body fat stores, and we all, even the leanest among us, have plenty of
those.
The Denver researchers were especially interested in how the athletes’ bodies would apportion and use
calories. It has been well documented that regular endurance training increases the ability of the body to use fat
as a fuel during exercise. They wondered, though, if the athletes — or any of the other subjects — would burn
extra fat calories after exercising, a phenomenon that some exercisers (and even more diet and fitness books)
call “afterburn.”
“Many people believe that you rev up” your metabolism after an exercise session “so that you burn
additional body fat throughout the day,” said Edward Melanson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the division of
endocrinology at the School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. If afterburn were found to exist, it
would suggest that even if you replaced the calories you used during an exercise session, you should lose
weight, without gaining weight — the proverbial free lunch.
Each of Melanson’s subjects spent 24 quiet hours in the calorimeter, followed later by another 24 hours that
included an hourlong bout of stationary bicycling. The cycling was deliberately performed at a relatively easy
intensity (about 55 percent of each person’s predetermined aerobic capacity). It is well known physiologically
that, while high-intensity exercise demands mostly carbohydrate calories (since carbohydrates can quickly
reach the bloodstream and, from there, laboring muscles), low-intensity exercise prompts the body to burn at
least some stored fat. All of the subjects ate three meals a day.
To their surprise, the researchers found that none of the groups, including the athletes, experienced
“afterburn.” They did not use additional body fat on the day when they exercised. In fact, most of the subjects
burned slightly less fat over the 24-hour study period when they exercised than when they did not.
“The message of our work is really simple,” although not agreeable to hear, Melanson said. “It all comes
down to energy balance,” or, as you might have guessed, calories in and calories out. People “are only burning
200 or 300 calories” in a typical 30-minute exercise session, Melanson points out. “You replace that with one
bottle of Gatorade.”
This does not mean that exercise has no impact on body weight, or that you can’t calibrate your workouts to
maximize the amount of body fat that you burn, if that’s your goal.
“If you work out at an easy intensity, you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories” than if you work out
a higher intensity, Carey says, so you should draw down some of the padding you’ve accumulated on the hips or
elsewhere–if you don’t replace all of the calories afterward. To help those hoping to reduce their body fat, he
published formulas in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research last month that detailed the heart
rates at which a person could maximize fat burning. “Heart rates of between 105 and 134” beats per minute,
Carey said, represent the fat-burning zone. “It’s probably best to work out near the top of that zone,” he says,
“so that you burn more calories over all” than at the extremely leisurely lower end.
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Perhaps just as important, bear in mind that exercise has benefits beyond weight reduction. In the study of
obese people who took up exercise, most became notably healthier, increasing their aerobic capacity,
decreasing their blood pressure and resting heart rates, and, the authors write, achieving “an acute exerciseinduced increase in positive mood,” leading the authors to conclude that, “significant and meaningful health
benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss.”
Finally and thankfully, exercise seems to aid, physiologically, in the battle to keep off body fat once it has
been, through resolute calorie reduction, chiseled away. In other work by Melanson’s group, published in
September, laboratory rats that had been overfed and then slimmed through calorie reduction were able to
“defend” their lower weight more effectively if they ran on a treadmill and ate at will than if they had no access
to a treadmill. The exercise seemed to reset certain metabolic pathways within the rats, Melanson says, that
blunted their body’s drive to replace the lost fat. Similar mechanisms, he adds, probably operate within the
bodies of humans, providing scientific justification for signing up for that Thanksgiving Day 5K.
Questions for Reading #2:
 Are you a person who exercises regularly? If so, what do you do and why do you do it? If not, why not?
 Do you think most people exercise to lose weight as the essay implies? What are some of the other
reasons why people exercise?
 Why do you think exercising seems more “noble” to people than other activities, like, for example,
watching TV?
Due 2-4-14; no credit if turned in after 2-18-14.
Reading #3
Overscheduled Children: How Big a Problem?
By Bruce Feiler, The New York Times
Now that the school year is under way, my wife and I are busy managing our children’s after-school schedules, mixing
sports practices, music lessons, homework and play dates. It can be a complicated balancing act for our elementaryage daughters, as some days end up overstuffed, some logistically impossible, some wide open. Still, compared to
when we were children, the opportunities they get to sample on a weekly basis is mind-blowing.
There’s only one problem: To absorb the conventional wisdom in parenting circles these days, what we’re doing
to our children is cruel, overbearing and destructive to their long-term well-being. For years now, a consensus has
been emerging that a subset of hard-driving, Ivy-longing parents is burdening their children with too many soccer
tournaments, violin lessons and cooking classes. A small library of books has been published with names like “The
Over-Scheduled Child,” “The Pressured Child,” “Pressured Parents, Stressed-Out Kids” and so on.
In recent years there’s been some backlash to this view. With scholars releasing studies showing the benefits of
extracurricular activities, whether paid for out of school budgets or parents’ pockets, a smattering of articles began to
appear with names like “The Overscheduled Child Myth.” Still, the more common headline reads: “10 Signs Your Kid
Is Too Busy.”
I found myself frustrated by this message. First, my wife and I work, so we don’t have the luxury of supervising
our daughters’ free time around the clock. These activities, while sometimes costly, give us some peace of mind.
Second, it’s easy to say children need to wander unsupervised in the neighborhood inventing their own activities, but
we live in the 21st century, not a Beverly Cleary novel. Finally, when we do leave our kids on their own for long
stretches, they end up wrestling on the floor, finding their way into a fight or demanding screen time.
As a work-at-home dad, this means I’m often dragged into the fray, making me long for even more lacrosse
practices or, better yet, etiquette classes, where at least they’ll learn something and get to hang with friends. Afterschool activities as enrichment? Sometimes we view them as baby-sitting with a snack.
So what’s a confused parent to do? I reached out to some of the leading voices in the children-are-overburdened
chorus and sought some advice.
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Michael Thompson, a clinical psychologist and the author of “The Pressured Child,” tried to put me at ease.
“As a general principle, there is a line between a highly enriched, interesting, growth-promoting childhood and an
overscheduled childhood,” he said. “And nobody knows where that line is.”
The real problem, he said, lies with parents, especially highly successful ones who have a high degree of control
over their own lives and who try to take similar control over their children’s lives. This leads them to make choices
about after-school activities out of anxiety instead of interest in their child’s well-being.
“When I was growing up it was clean your plate because they’re starving in China,” he said. “Now it’s go practice
your instrument because kids in China are learning violin.”
Especially with elementary- and middle-school children, he said, parents should be less fearful that their kids
aren’t getting ahead and more worried about their overall quality of life.
“Is the child getting enough sleep?” he asked. “Does the child have enough time to do his or her homework?”
Alvin Rosenfeld, a clinical psychologist and an author of “The Over-Scheduled Child,” also distanced himself
from the notion that extracurricular activities are bad.
“Enrichment activities are perfect,” he said. “They add a lot to kids’ lives. The problem is, we’ve lost the ability to
balance them with down time, boring time.”
So where did I get this idea that play dates and sports practices are too stressful? Dr. Rosenfeld answered: “Where
did I get misquoted so often? If you read everything I’ve written, the basic idea is that it’s great to have a computer,
it’s great to have software, but if you overload a computer with software it breaks down.”
The antidote to that problem, he said, is to make sure children have enough time with no activities, parents have
enough time with no work and the two sides come together to create activities of their own.
“Spend time with no goal in mind,” he said. “That will communicate to your child that you love them. And if a
child feels loved, life can present them with hardships, but these setbacks will never defeat them.”
Suniya Luthar, a psychology professor at Columbia, has done extensive studies on the role of extracurricular
activities in children’s lives. She stressed that the number of activities is not the problem.
“It’s good for kids to be scheduled,” she said. “It’s good for them to have musical activities, sports or other things
organized and supervised by an adult.”
Her research has shown that advantages include having well-rounded experiences outside of academics, the
opportunities to hone skills and working together with other children. And, since most school districts fail to provide
adequate after-school programs, she said, “there’s the big deal of giving parents a break.”
Problems arise, Dr. Luthar said, when parents overscrutinize their children’s performance in these activities.
“You don’t just play soccer for fun or play stickball in the cul-de-sac, you’re vying for the travel team by second
grade,” she said. “The only place where I say stop is where the child starts to say his or her performance determines
his or her self-worth: I am as I can perform.”
Polly Young-Eisendrath, a clinical psychologist and the author of “The Self-Esteem Trap,” was the one person I
talked to who argued that too many activities may be a problem. She blamed a generation of parents who are too
interested in the lives of their children, hanging on every word, coddling every need, communicating that parents are
just audience members for their children’s accomplishments.
Before age 11 or 12, she said, when children begin to develop self-consciousness, activities risk distracting
children from their natural development.
“Prior to then,” Dr. Young-Eisendrath said, “all these lessons and classes are about parents competing with other
parents. Children really need that time to lie around, play more freely and have periods when they are side-by-side
with their parents in the same room, being ‘alone together.’ ”
In the past, this was more possible, she said, “not just because there was a parent staying at home but because
parents didn’t have this obsessive interest in children’s lives.”
Considering the differing views of the people I called, I was struck that at least one common theme emerged: I
should worry less about the amount of time my children spent on activities and more about the messages I sent about
those activities. So how do parents make sure they don’t cross the line?
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First, know where the motivation is coming from, you or your child.
“Are you hearing laughter?” Dr. Thompson said. “Is the child giggling when you drop them off or pick them up?
Or are they solemn and dragging their feet?”
Second, watch what you say. Dr. Luthar said parents should be in touch with their own feelings to ensure they are
not communicating that exemplary performance is the only goal that matters. She warned against statements like,
“Oops, you’re not starting again?” or “Oh, dear, you’re not chosen for all-county?”
“And if you’re having trouble identifying this tendency in yourself,” she said, “ask your spouse, your sibling or
anybody you trust.”
Regardless of how many activities you schedule for your children, make sure you schedule time for yourself to be
with them.
Dr. Rosenfeld said, “Your kids need to feel there is enough time when the computer is off, the cellphone is off and
all you want to do is be together.”
It’s not just quality time, he said, it’s quantity, too.
“I always quote the Billy Joel song,” he said: No need for clever conversation, I’ll take you just the way you are.
Questions for Reading #3:


Do you know kids who are overscheduled?
Do you think the demands and expectations are different for kids today than when you were in
elementary school?
 Can you think of other reasons than the ones cited in this article for why kids may be overscheduled
today?
Due 2-13-14; no credit if turned in after 2-27-14.
Reading #4
Texting May Be Taking a Toll, by Katie Hafner
They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy
streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.
Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless,
American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of
2008, according to the Nielsen Company—almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year
earlier.
The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety,
distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.
Dr. Martin Joffe, a pediatrician in Greenbrae, Calif., recently surveyed students at two local high schools and
said he found that many were routinely sending hundreds of texts every day.
“That’s one every few minutes,” he said. “Then you hear that these kids are responding to texts late at night.
That’s going to cause sleep issues in an age group that’s already plagued with sleep issues.”
The rise in texting is too recent to have produced any conclusive data on health effects. But Sherry Turkle, a
psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and who has studied texting among teenagers in the Boston area for three years, said it might be
causing a shift in the way adolescents develop.
“Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to
become the person you decide you want to be,” she said. “Texting hits directly at both those jobs.”
Psychologists expect to see teenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous adults,
Professor Turkle went on, “but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that’s
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harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking things like,
‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ”
As for peace and quiet, she said, “if something next to you is vibrating every couple of minutes, it makes it
very difficult to be in that state of mind.
“If you’re being deluged by constant communication, the pressure to answer immediately is quite high,” she
added. “So if you’re in the middle of a thought, forget it.”
Michael Hausauer, a psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif., said teenagers had a “terrific interest in knowing
what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” For that
reason, he said, the rapid rise in texting has potential for great benefit and great harm.
“Texting can be an enormous tool,” he said. “It offers companionship and the promise of connectedness. At
the same time, texting can make a youngster feel frightened and overly exposed.”
Texting may also be taking a toll on teenagers’ thumbs. Annie Wagner, 15, a ninth-grade honor student in
Bethesda, Md., used to text on her tiny LG phone as fast as she typed on a regular keyboard. A few months ago,
she noticed a painful cramping in her thumbs. (Lately, she has been using the iPhone she got for her 15th
birthday, and she says texting is slower and less painful.)
Peter W. Johnson, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the
University of Washington, said it was too early to tell whether this kind of stress is damaging. But he added,
“Based on our experiences with computer users, we know intensive repetitive use of the upper extremities
can lead to musculoskeletal disorders, so we have some reason to be concerned that too much texting could
lead to temporary or permanent damage to the thumbs.”
Annie said that although her school, like most, forbids cellphone use in class, with the LG phone she could
text by putting it under her coat or desk.
Her classmate Ari Kapner said, “You pretend you’re getting something out of your backpack.”
Teachers are often oblivious. “It’s a huge issue, and it’s rampant,” said Deborah Yager, a high school
chemistry teacher in Castro Valley, Calif. Ms. Yager recently gave an anonymous survey to 50 of her students;
most said they texted during class.
“I can’t tell when it’s happening, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said. “And I’m not going to take
the time every day to try to police it.”
Dr. Joffe says parents tend to be far less aware of texting than of, say, video game playing or general
computer use, and the unlimited plans often mean that parents stop paying attention to billing details. “I talk to
parents in the office now,” he said. “I’m quizzing them, and no one is thinking about this.”
Still, some parents are starting to take measures. Greg Hardesty, a reporter in Lake Forest, Calif., said that
late last year his 13-year-old daughter, Reina, racked up 14,528 texts in one month. She would keep the phone
on after going to bed, switching it to vibrate and waiting for it to light up and signal an incoming message.
Mr. Hardesty wrote a column about Reina’s texting in his newspaper, The Orange County Register, and in
the flurry of attention that followed, her volume soared to about 24,000 messages. Finally, when her grades fell
precipitously, her parents confiscated the phone.
Reina’s grades have since improved, and the phone is back in her hands, but her text messages are limited
to 5,000 per month — and none between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. on weekdays.
Yet she said there was an element of hypocrisy in all this: her mother, too, is hooked on the cellphone she
carries in her purse.
“She should understand a little better, because she’s always on her iPhone,” Reina said. “But she’s all like,
‘Oh well, I don’t want you texting.’ ” (Her mother, Manako Ihaya, said she saw Reina’s point.) Professor Turkle
can sympathize. “Teens feel they are being punished for behavior in which their parents indulge,” she said. And
in what she calls a poignant twist, teenagers still need their parents’ undivided attention.
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“Even though they text 3,500 messages a week, when they walk out of their ballet lesson, they’re upset to
see their dad in the car on the BlackBerry,” she said. “The fantasy of every adolescent is that the parent is there,
waiting, expectant, completely there for them.”
Questions for Reading #4:



Why do you think that texting may be better or worse than talking on the phone?
Why do you think that texting is so appealing to people, especially teenagers?
As an English teacher, I worry about another aspect of texting: that we’re creating a communication
stream that’s a mile wide and a half-inch deep. What do you think about this?
Due 2-20-14; no credit if turned in after 3-11-14.
Reading #5
Top Students at Community Colleges to Have Chance to Raise Ambitions
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
A disparate group of colleges from across the country — public and private, two-year and four-year —
plans to announce a novel alliance on Friday aimed at producing high-achieving community college graduates
and making it easier for them to transfer into bachelor’s programs.
The coalition builds on a program called American Honors to create honors programs within community
colleges, with competitive admissions, demanding academics and intensive guidance for highly talented
students. That program, created by a for-profit company, Quad Learning, and a handful of community colleges,
is less than two years old and still small — only about 230 students at five community college campuses — but
plans call for it to grow rapidly, quadrupling the number of students by next fall.
The 27 four-year institutions in the alliance include several of the nation’s most prestigious and range
from giants like Ohio State to smaller colleges like Amherst and Middlebury. Administrators say they have been
impressed by students in the program, including the first group of 17 who graduated last spring and were
accepted as transfers to universities including Vanderbilt, Stanford and Georgetown.
Educators and policy makers see community colleges as a crucial answer to the need for more collegeeducated workers and the rising cost of education because they have lower entry requirements and much
lower prices than four-year universities. And with the number of college-age Americans falling after decades of
growth, four-year colleges are looking for new sources of students.
“Community college transfers are going to be more and more a part of the college picture, because there’s
big potential there,” said Kasey Urquidez, associate vice president for student affairs and enrollment
management at the University of Arizona, which is joining the program. “From what we’ve seen, these American
Honors students are going to be really good students who are well prepared and can persist and graduate.”
But community college becomes a morass for too many students. They get little guidance, and they rarely
finish in two years. The more ambitious among them cannot find enough challenging courses, and four-year
colleges often refuse to honor the credits they have earned because the curriculum is rarely rigorous enough.
State universities often have agreements with community colleges in their own states to automatically
admit transfer students who meet certain academic standards, and to accept certain credits. But those deals
generally do not cross state lines or apply to private colleges, which organizers say makes the new alliance the
first of its kind.
A handful of universities in the group will offer automatic admission to some American Honors graduates,
though the criteria for that, like grade point average, will vary by institution. None have pledged to accept all of
the students’ community college credits, but administrators say they have committed to accepting as many as
possible.
“We won’t guarantee admission or transferring credits, but these students will be at a distinct advantage
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over other transfer applicants,” said Carolyn Dietel, coordinator of transfer affairs at Mount Holyoke College in
Massachusetts.
“One of the appeals for us is that there will be consistency among these various sites about the kinds of
courses students will be offered, the kind of advising they will receive, that we know it will be up to a certain
standard,” she said.
A handful of community colleges have comprehensive honors programs — notably Miami Dade College,
whose program is a model for American Honors. But many more have concluded that they cannot do it on their
own.
American Honors programs began at campuses of the Community Colleges of Spokane, in Washington
State, and Ivy Tech, a community college system in Indiana. Two more Indiana colleges and two in New Jersey
are scheduled to join soon, and Quad Learning hopes to build a network of 40 to 50 community colleges, each
with 500 to 1,000 students in the honors program.
At the community colleges participating so far, students in the honors program pay about $2,000 per year
more in tuition than their classmates. Quad Learning has long-term revenue-sharing agreements with each
college.
“We like to think about the price as being halfway between a community college and a four-year, openaccess university,” said Chris Romer, president of the company. “If we can do the first two years of college for
$12,000, that’s a game changer for a lot of families.”
Questions for Reading #5:

Some people say that any lie is wrong; others say that there are good lies. What do you think?

Have you ever told a lie like the ones described in the article? Did it feel to you like you were telling a lie
at the time?

Have you ever told a lie that got you in trouble?
Due 3-13-14; no credit if turned in after 3-27-13.
Reading #6
Teaching Children Manners by Lisa Belkin
“Good manners,” etiquette expert Amy Vanderbilt once said, “have much to do with the emotions. To make
them ring true, one must feel them, not merely exhibit them.”
But in order to feel or exhibit them, children have to learn them, and a new poll released by the Web site
BabyCenter.com today hints that parents–particularly younger parents–may be particularly determined to
teach them. BabyCenter polled 1021 mothers, and 81 percent agreed that “it was more important than ever to
teach children manners.”
Why are manners newly important? The largest group of respondents said their main reason was “to give
my kids a stronger moral compass to guide them in this ‘freewheeling’ world,” the Web site says. The second
reason on the list was parents’ exposure to “other kids with bad behavior”–making those parents determined
that their own children never act like that. Coming in third was the belief that “increasing global competition
makes me want to prepare my kids” for a competitive working world.
So what do these parents mean by good manners? The more popular answers were: treating adults with
respect; saying please and thank you; sending handwritten thank-you notes for gifts; and not talking with your
mouth full.
Linda Murray, editor in chief of BabyCenter, says the results are consistent with other signs that the
youngest strata of parents “is actively taking control again.”
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“We are coming out of an era of child-led parenting,” she says, a time when the philosophy was “feed her
when she’s hungry, let her sleep when she shows signs of being tired, let her call adults by their first names.”
The average age of BabyCenter’s readership is 27, and “they are a new generation of moms,” Murray says.
“They came up at a time when the world was more of a freewheeling place, and they see it as their job to give
kids more of a grounding.”
It is a goal Amy Vanderbilt would endorse. “Parents must get across the idea,” she said, that “I love you
always, but sometimes I do not love your behavior.”
Is it only young parents that are concerned with good manners, or are we older folks on top of these things
too? What are the most important rules of etiquette at your house? And what are your pet rude-child peeves?
Questions for Reading #6:
 Do you think it’s important for people to exhibit good manners? Why or why not?
 This article says that younger parents are concerned about manners for their kids. Do you see that in
young parents that you know?
 If you were teaching good manners to a child, which are the ones that you would stress and why?
Due 3-25-14; no credit if turned in after 4-8-14.
Reading #7
In Search of Dignity by David Brooks
When George Washington was a young man, he copied out a list of 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent
Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Some of the rules in his list dealt with the niceties of going to a dinner
party or meeting somebody on the street.
“Lean not upon anyone,” was one of the rules. “Read no letter, books or papers in company,” was another.
“If any one come to speak to you while you are sitting, stand up,” was a third.
But, as the biographer Richard Brookhiser has noted, these rules, which Washington derived from a 16thcentury guidebook, were not just etiquette tips. They were designed to improve inner morals by shaping the
outward man. Washington took them very seriously. He worked hard to follow them. Throughout his life, he
remained acutely conscious of his own rectitude.
In so doing, he turned himself into a new kind of hero. He wasn’t primarily a military hero or a political
hero. As the historian Gordon Wood has written, “Washington became a great man and was acclaimed as a
classical hero because of the way he conducted himself during times of temptation. It was his moral character
that set him off from other men.”
Washington absorbed, and later came to personify what you might call the dignity code. The code was
based on the same premise as the nation’s Constitution — that human beings are flawed creatures who live in
constant peril of falling into disasters caused by their own passions. Artificial systems have to be created to
balance and restrain their desires.
The dignity code commanded its followers to be disinterested — to endeavor to put national interests
above personal interests. It commanded its followers to be reticent — to never degrade intimate emotions by
parading them in public. It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry,
fury and political enthusiasm.
Remnants of the dignity code lasted for decades. For most of American history, politicians did not publicly
campaign for president. It was thought that the act of publicly promoting oneself was ruinously corrupting. For
most of American history, memoirists passed over the intimacies of private life. Even in the 19th century,
people were appalled that journalists might pollute a wedding by covering it in the press.
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Today, Americans still lavishly admire people who are naturally dignified, whether they are in sports (Joe
DiMaggio and Tom Landry), entertainment (Lauren Bacall and Tom Hanks) or politics (Ronald Reagan and
Martin Luther King Jr.).
But the dignity code itself has been completely obliterated. The rules that guided Washington and
generations of people after him are simply gone.
We can all list the causes of its demise. First, there is capitalism. We are all encouraged to become managers
of our own brand, to do self-promoting end zone dances to broadcast our own talents. Second, there is the cult
of naturalism. We are all encouraged to discard artifice and repression and to instead liberate our own feelings.
Third, there is charismatic evangelism with its penchant for public confession. Fourth, there is radical
egalitarianism and its hostility to aristocratic manners.
The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every
week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act. For example, during the first
few weeks of summer, three stories have dominated public conversation, and each one exemplifies another
branch of indignity.
First, there was Mark Sanford’s press conference. Here was a guy utterly lacking in any sense of reticence,
who was given to rambling self-exposure even in his moment of disgrace. Then there was the death of Michael
Jackson and the discussion of his life. Here was a guy who was apparently untouched by any pressure to live
according to the rules and restraints of adulthood. Then there was Sarah Palin’s press conference. Here was a
woman who aspires to a high public role but is unfamiliar with the traits of equipoise and constancy, which are
the sources of authority and trust.
In each of these events, one sees people who simply have no social norms to guide them as they try to
navigate the currents of their own passions.
Americans still admire dignity. But the word has become unmoored from any larger set of rules or ethical
system.
But it’s not right to end on a note of cultural pessimism because there is the fact of President Obama.
Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence,
dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity. The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear,
but they may surpass his policy impact. He may revitalize the concept of dignity for a new generation and
embody a new set of rules for self-mastery.
Questions for Reading #7:

Brooks makes a link between George Washington and Barack Obama—does this connection make sense
to you?
 Do you think that Brooks’ essay is hopeful or discouraging overall? Why?
 Are there people that you could add to Brooks’ list, either in terms of the good or the bad, that would
further the argument he’s making?
 Do you think more common people still have the kind of code of conduct that Washington followed or
that people in general now are less admirable?
Due November 4; no credit if turned in after November 18.
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Reading #8
Superstitious Minds by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
I am a very rational person. I tend to trust reason more than feeling. But I also happen to be
superstitious—in my fashion. Black cats and rabbits' feet hold no power for me. My superstitions are my
mother's superstitions, the amulets and incantations she learned from her mother and taught me.
I don't mean to suggest that I grew up in an occult atmosphere. On the contrary, my mother desperately
wanted me to rise above her immigrant ways and become an educated American. She tried to hide her
superstitions, but I came to know them all: Slap a girl's cheeks when she first gets her period. Never take a
picture of a pregnant woman. Knock wood when speaking about your good fortune. When ready to conceive,
eat the ends of bread if you want to have a boy. Don't leave a bride alone on her wedding day.
When I was growing up, my mother often would tiptoe in after I seemed to be sound asleep and kiss my
forehead three times, making odd noises that sounded like a cross between sucking and spitting. One night, I
opened my eyes and demanded an explanation. Embarrassed, she told me she was exorcising the "Evil Eye"—
in case I had attracted its attention that day by being especially wonderful. She believed her kisses could suck
out any envy or ill will that those less fortunate may have directed at her child.
By the time I was in my teens, I was on speaking terms with the Evil Eye, a jealous spirit that kept track of
those who had "too much" happiness and zapped them with sickness and misery to even the score. To guard
against this mischief, my mother practiced rituals of interference, evasion, deference, and above all, avoidance
of situations where the Evil Eye might feel at home.
This is why I wasn't allowed to attend funerals. This is also why my mother hated to mend my clothes
while I was wearing them. The only garment one should properly get sewn into is a shroud. To ensure that the
Evil Eye did not confuse my pinafore with a burial outfit, my mother insisted that I chew a thread while she
sewed, thus proving myself very much alive. Outwitting the Evil Eye also accounted for her closing the window
shades above my bed whenever there was a full moon. The moon should only shine on cemeteries; you see, the
living need protection from the spirits.
Because we were dealing with a deadly force, I also wasn't supposed to say any words associated with
mortality. This was hard for a 12-year-old who punctuated every anecdote with the very "to die," as in "you'll
die when you hear this!" or "If I don't get by ten, I'm dead." I managed to avoid using such expressions in the
presence of my mother until the day my parents brought home a painting I hated and we were arguing about
whether it should be displayed on our walls. Unthinking, I pressed my point with a melodramatic idiom: "That
picture will hang over my dead body!" Without a word, my mother grabbed a knife and slashed the canvas to
shreds.
I understand all this now. My mother emigrated in 1907 from a small Hungarian village. The oldest of
seven children, she had to go out to work before she finished the eighth grade. Experience taught her that life
was unpredictable and often incomprehensible. Just as an athlete keeps wearing the same T-shirt in every game
to prolong a winning streak, my mother's superstitions gave her a means of imposing order on a chaotic
system. Her desire to control the fates sprang from the same helplessness that makes the San Francisco 49ers'
defensive team more superstitious than its offensive team. Psychologists speculate this is because the defense
has less control; they don't have the ball.
Women like my mother never had the ball. She died when I was 15, leaving me with deep regrets for what
she might have been—and a growing understanding of who she was. Superstitious is one of the things she was.
I wish I had a million sharp recollections of her, but when you don't expect someone to die, you don't store up
enough memories. Ironically, her mystical practices are among the clearest impressions she left behind. In
honor of this matrilineal heritage—and to symbolize my mother's effort to control her life as I in my way try to
find order in mine—I knock on wood and I do not let the moon shine on those I love. My children laugh at me,
but they understand that these tiny rituals have helped keep my mother alive in my mind.
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A year ago, I woke in the night and realized that my son's window blinds had been removed for repair.
Smiling at my own compulsion, I got a bed sheet to tack up against the moonlight and I opened his bedroom
door. What I saw brought tears to my eyes. There, hopelessly askew, was a blanket my son, then 18, had taped
to his window like a curtain. My mother never lived to know David, but he knew she would not want the moon
to shine upon him as he slept.
Questions for Reading #8:
 Are you superstitious? Do you know people who are?
 What do you think about superstitions? Is it morally wrong or misguided to follow superstitions?
 Do you have friends or relatives who follow superstitions even though you don’t?
 As a kid, did you do superstitious things that seemed ok then but seem foolish now?
Due November 8; no credit if turned in after November 22.
Reading #9
Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You by Jane E. Brody
Ask mothers why babies are constantly picking things up from the floor or ground and putting them in their
mouths, and chances are they’ll say that it’s instinctive—that that’s how babies explore the world. But why the
mouth, when sight, hearing, touch and even scent are far better at identifying things?
When my young sons were exploring the streets of Brooklyn, I couldn’t help but wonder how good crushed
rock or dried dog droppings could taste when delicious mashed potatoes were routinely rejected.
Since all instinctive behaviors have an evolutionary advantage or they would not have been retained for
millions of years, chances are that this one too has helped us survive as a species. And, indeed, accumulating
evidence strongly suggests that eating dirt is good for you.
In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the
millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of
a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune
system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.
These studies, along with epidemiological observations, seem to explain why immune system disorders like
multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma and allergies have risen significantly in
the United States and other developed countries.
Training the Immune System
“What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his
environment,” Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, wrote in her new book, “Why Dirt Is
Good” (Kaplan). “Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for
protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.”
One leading researcher, Dr. Joel V. Weinstock, the director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts
Medical Center in Boston, said in an interview that the immune system at birth “is like an unprogrammed
computer. It needs instruction.”
He said that public health measures like cleaning up contaminated water and food have saved the lives of
countless children, but they “also eliminated exposure to many organisms that are probably good for us.”
“Children raised in an ultraclean environment,” he added, “are not being exposed to organisms that help
them develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits.”
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Studies he has conducted with Dr. David Elliott, a gastroenterologist and immunologist at the University of
Iowa, indicate that intestinal worms, which have been all but eliminated in developed countries, are “likely to
be the biggest player” in regulating the immune system to respond appropriately, Dr. Elliott said in an
interview. He added that bacterial and viral infections seem to influence the immune system in the same way,
but not as forcefully.
Most worms are harmless, especially in well-nourished people, Dr. Weinstock said.
“There are very few diseases that people get from worms,” he said. “Humans have adapted to the presence
of most of them.”
Worms for Health
In studies in mice, Dr. Weinstock and Dr. Elliott have used worms to both prevent and reverse autoimmune
disease. Dr. Elliott said that in Argentina, researchers found that patients with multiple sclerosis who were
infected with the human whipworm had milder cases and fewer flare-ups of their disease over a period of four
and a half years. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Dr. John Fleming, a neurologist, is testing whether the
pig whipworm can temper the effects of multiple sclerosis.
In Gambia, the eradication of worms in some villages led to children’s having increased skin reactions to
allergens, Dr. Elliott said. And pig whipworms, which reside only briefly in the human intestinal tract, have had
“good effects” in treating the inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, he said.
How may worms affect the immune system? Dr. Elliott explained that immune regulation is now known to
be more complex than scientists thought when the hygiene hypothesis was first introduced by a British
epidemiologist, David P. Strachan, in 1989. Dr. Strachan noted an association between large family size and
reduced rates of asthma and allergies. Immunologists now recognize a four-point response system of helper T
cells: Th 1, Th 2, Th 17 and regulatory T cells. Th 1 inhibits Th 2 and Th 17; Th 2 inhibits Th 1 and Th 17; and
regulatory T cells inhibit all three, Dr. Elliott said.
“A lot of inflammatory diseases—multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and asthma—are due
to the activity of Th 17,” he explained. “If you infect mice with worms, Th 17 drops dramatically, and the activity
of regulatory T cells is augmented.”
In answer to the question, “Are we too clean?” Dr. Elliott said: “Dirtiness comes with a price. But cleanliness
comes with a price, too. We’re not proposing a return to the germ-filled environment of the 1850s. But if we
properly understand how organisms in the environment protect us, maybe we can give a vaccine or mimic their
effects with some innocuous stimulus.”
Wash in Moderation
Dr. Ruebush, the “Why Dirt Is Good” author, does not suggest a return to filth, either. But she correctly
points out that bacteria are everywhere: on us, in us and all around us. Most of these micro-organisms cause no
problem, and many, like the ones that normally live in the digestive tract and produce life-sustaining nutrients,
are essential to good health.
“The typical human probably harbors some 90 trillion microbes,” she wrote. “The very fact that you have so
many microbes of so many different kinds is what keeps you healthy most of the time.”
Dr. Ruebush deplores the current fetish for the hundreds of antibacterial products that convey a false sense
of security and may actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria. Plain soap
and water are all that are needed to become clean, she noted.
“I certainly recommend washing your hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after changing a
diaper, before and after handling food,” and whenever they’re visibly soiled, she wrote. When no running water
is available and cleaning hands is essential, she suggests an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
14
Dr. Weinstock goes even further. “Children should be allowed to go barefoot in the dirt, play in the dirt, and
not have to wash their hands when they come in to eat,” he said. He and Dr. Elliott pointed out that children
who grow up on farms and are frequently exposed to worms and other organisms from farm animals are much
less likely to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases.
Also helpful, he said, is to “let kids have two dogs and a cat,” which will expose them to intestinal worms
that can promote a healthy immune system.
Questions for Reading #9:

The ideas in this article seem contrary to things I’ve heard all my life about how it’s important to avoid
germs and to wash when dirty—do you believe that what is said here is true?

Would reading this article give you a different opinion on how to raise a child in regard to dirt and
germs? If not, what more evidence would you need?
Due November 18; no credit if turned in after December 2.
Reading #10
Fast Food Nation: Behind the Counter (excerpt) by Eric Schlosser
Despite all the talk in Colorado about aerospace, biotech, computer software, telecommunications, and
other industries of the future, the largest private employer in the state today is the restaurant industry. In
Colorado Springs, the restaurant industry has grown much faster than the population. Over the last three
decades the number of restaurants has increased fivefold. The number of chain restaurants has increased
tenfold. In 1967, Colorado Springs had a total of twenty chain restaurants. Now it has twenty-one McDonald's.
The fast food chains feed off the sprawl of Colorado Springs, accelerate it, and help set its visual tone. They
build large signs to attract motorists and look at cars the way predators view herds of prey. The chains thrive
on traffic, lots of it, and put new restaurants at intersections where traffic is likely to increase, where
development is heading but real estate prices are still low. Fast food restaurants often serve as the shock
troops of sprawl, landing early and pointing the way. Some chains prefer to play follow the leader: when a new
McDonald's opens, other fast food restaurants soon open nearby on the assumption that it must be a good
location.
Regardless of the billions spent on marketing and promotion, all the ads on radio and TV, all the efforts to
create brand loyalty, the major chains must live with the unsettling fact that more than 70 percent of fast food
visits are "impulsive." The decision to stop for fast food is made on the spur of the moment, without much
thought. The vast majority of customers do not set out to eat at a Burger King, a Wendy's, or a McDonald's.
Often, they're not even planning to stop for food—until they see a sign, a familiar building, a set of golden
arches. Fast food, like the tabloids at a supermarket checkout, is an impulse buy. In order to succeed, fast food
restaurants must be seen.
The McDonald's Corporation has perfected the art of restaurant site selection. In the early days Ray Kroc
flew in a Cessna to find schools, aiming to put new restaurants nearby. McDonald's later used helicopters to
assess regional growth patterns, looking for cheap land along highways and roads that would lie at the heart of
future suburbs. In the 1980s, the chain became one of the world's leading purchasers of commercial satellite
photography, using it to predict sprawl from outer space. McDonald's later developed a computer software
program called Quintillion that automated its site-selection process, combining satellite imagery with detailed
maps, demographic information, CAD drawings, and sales information from existing stores. "Geographic
information systems" like Quintillion are now routinely used as site-selection tools by fast food chains and
15
other retailers. As one marketing publication observed, the software developed by McDonald's permits
businessmen to "spy on their customers with the same equipment once used to fight the cold war."
The McDonald's Corporation has used Colorado Springs as a test site for other types of restaurant
technology, for software and machines designed to cut labor costs and serve fast food even faster. Steve Bigari,
who owns five local McDonald's, showed me the new contraptions at his place on Constitution Avenue. It was a
rounded, postmortem McDonald's on the eastern edge of the city. The drive-through lanes had automatic
sensors buried in the asphalt to monitor the traffic. Robotic drink machines selected the proper cups, filled
them with ice, and then filled them with soda. Dispensers powered by compressed carbon dioxide shot out
uniform spurts of ketchup and mustard. An elaborate unit emptied frozen french fries from a white plastic bin
into wire-mesh baskets for frying, lowered the baskets into hot oil, lifted them a few minutes later and gave
them a brief shake, put them back into the oil until the fries were perfectly cooked, and then dumped the fries
underneath heat lamps, crisp and ready to be served. Television monitors in the kitchen instantly displayed the
customer's order. And advanced computer software essentially ran the kitchen, assigning tasks to various
workers for maximum efficiency, predicting future orders on the basis of ongoing customer flow.
Questions for Reading #10:

Have you or someone close to you ever worked in a fast food restaurant?

If so, was your or their experience mostly positive or mostly negative?

How do you think fast food culture has changed the way Americans live?

Or do you think that the rise of fast food restaurants over the past forty years is more of a reaction to
changes that happened apart from the fast food industry?
Due November 27; no credit if turned in after December 2
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