AWOL - Break HW - American Way of Birth

Break HW - More on Natural Birth

Please view most or all of the following videos (and one short text). Some of them you might have to watch a couple of times to get more meaning. After you've watched the clips please type up a 1-2 page reaction and post it on your blog. For higher quality (and grade) re-read your own post and post up a new edited draft with clearer language, better transitions, and more thinking. Some framing questions you could use to start your mini-essay include - "Natural Birth or Normal Birth?", "Why don't people talk about this stuff?", "Doctor's In Charge - What's the Problem?", or "The Beauty of Our Planet".

1 - Giraffe gives birth.
2 - Dolphin gives birth.
3 - Human gives birth. Youtube thinks this one might not be for minors. Please consult with your family. It was shown at Columbia Nursing School this semester.
4 - C-Section - Youtube thinks this is fine for minors. I think its pretty scary, so be aware that you don't have to watch it if you don't want to.
Monty Python
Ina May Talk
Ina May Interview
Look around Youtube for other clips - "home birth", "midwife", and "birth" all lead to interesting videos.

If you'd like to hear a back and forth about natural childbirth versus normal childbirth - you can listen to this debate from National Public Radio if you've got Real Player software. Check out how the moderator pretends to be neutral but isn't, and check out who seems to be the most thoughtful.

This HW should take between 1.25 hours and 5 hours, depending on your available time, concentration, and interest.

LDH2BM & AWOL - Classwork and HW Feb 10

Select the 10-15 most interesting questions from yesterday's work. Use your notes and the blogs of people in other groups to find the questions. Try to research 5 of your own group's questions and the rest from the other groups. (It can be helpful to have some degree of depth - why the 5 from one topic area helps). If you were absent, or you just feel like it, make up some new questions in addition to stealing other peoples'.

Quickly research the questions. Research this like you'd skim a book. You're finding quick answers, not really looking for complexities, confirmations, or contradictions.

Please use the following three websites the most: Google, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar. If you are using Firefox you can usually search directly in the top right search bar and click to search directly in Wikipedia.

List the 10-12 questions and answers you unite into a blog post. Copy and paste the source website URL behind the answer (or just link it to make it prettier). Write a brief paragraph interpreting these results for significance in terms of the general topic (American Way of Birth or Old Folks and the G&ML).

The sequence I would suggest is:
1. Take 5 questions from your own blog post from last night. Cut and paste them into a new blog post.
2. Look at other peoples' blogs from your section and cut and paste questions into your new blog post.
3. When you get 15 questions start looking for answers.
4. Take the first question and google it. Find the answer, type it in, cut and paste the URL.
5. Save as draft. Repeat for 10-12 answers.
6. Write an interpretative paragraph.
7. Clean up your answers so they read easier.
8. Edit your paragraph.
9. Add to your paragraph.
10. Edit your paragraph again.
11. Publish post.

For instance - I took this question from Lauren's website - "What happens to the mother if she can’t afford the medical bill?" I decided to change it into an even more basic question - "How much does a regular birth cost - with no important complications?" I googled, - cost birth -, and found this website which gave a range of costs. I took the high estimates, since we live in NYC, and found out that a vaginal birth costs around $10,200 but that a C-Section costs around $15,200. So I would then write this as item 1 on my list and move on to question 2.

1. "How much does a regular birth cost - with no important complications?"
A vaginal birth costs around $10,200 but a C-Section costs around $15,200. website
2.

HW: Feb 9 - LDH2BM & AWOL

Post up the 15 or so questions that you and your group brainstormed. Each group was assigned a particular subtopic within the larger topics (Meaningful Life and Old Folks, American Way of Birth).

If you were absent you could post up 15 questions that you find interesting about the general topic.

Stuff like:
"Do the social roles and situations commonly available to old folks in our culture facilitate living a meaningful life?" or
"What factors conspire to increase the cesarean rate in the U.S.?"

Note: This is part of the exploratory segment of the "consider, explore, listen, integrate" sequence.

LDH2BM - Old Folks Assignments So Far

• A paragraph about your current feelings about old people - how much you interact with folks that are old, some of your experiences and impressions and reactions to old people. How you think of them and how they think of you.

• Collect 4-5 interviews with old folks about living a good and meaningful life. At least one should be someone you are actually connected to, personally. Please post on your blog by Monday, Feb. 9, at 8:30 a.m.
  

AWOL - 2nd Semester Assignments So Far

• Your feelings about birth - 1-2 Paragraphs about your feelings re: birth

• Birth stories collection - 4-5 Birth Stories - possibly including your own - as detailed as possible but anonymous. Ask about emotions, physicality, preparation, interventions, situations, difficulties, pleasant parts, etc. Due Monday, Feb 9 8:30am.
  

AWOL & LDH2BM - Final Assignments of the Semester

The following smaller assignments have been due for a little while. They must be posted by Saturday at 8pm if you want to receive credit for them towards the semester's grade. Additional information on the major assignment (the big paper) is below. And more information about each of the smaller assignments is lower down on this blog.

AWOL -
Winter break and the AWOL
Marxist Analysis HW
Inauguration Analysis

LDH2BM -
Winter Break and the Good & Meaningful Life
Martin Luther King, Jr & the G&ML
Inauguration Day & the G&ML
Online Folk Culture & the G&ML

(both courses) new revised drafts of your Exhibition Style Papers must be posted by Monday 8am. the new drafts should have

• a bold and sharp thesis that works with the material we've already done
  
• major arguments that support the thesis and are supported by evidence from the course and from your own research
  
• include a lot of material from the course
• be well-edited -- I strongly suggest that you make it more readable (and writable) by chunking arguments with subheadings (like a chapter heading in a book such as "Capitalism and the American Way of Life" or "The Corporate Media Wants Us Bewildered", etc)
• around 2000 words or more now - that's the equivalent of about 8 pages in standard format (double spaced, 12 pt, etc.)
• you don't (yet) need to include Connections, OPV, or Significance- your focus should be an insightful thesis well supported by arguments and evidence.
  

LDH2BM - MLK, Jr. Assignment - Belatedly Posted

On Friday of last week I lectured on the distorted and excluded history surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr. Essentially I argued that he had been transformed into a plastic postage stamp saint rather than a complex, radical, and flawed participant in movements. This elite coopation of a radical voice of dissent into self-flattering evidence of the greatness of our culture functions through simplification, distortion, and exclusion of information. Howard Zinn (or was it Jon Kozol? maybe both) used the example of Helen Keller to demonstrate the generic process.

I assigned students to read an article re: this distorted history - and King's advocacy for radical economic change in the U.S. and allowed students to choose a speech to read for further evidence and insight including;
Letter From A Birmingham Jail
Where Do We Go From Here (1967 SCLC Speech)
Beyond Vietnam

The assignment was to consider the lecture, the article, the speech, and the coverage of MLK, Jr on the official holiday to ascertain whether we are being fed a false or distorted image of King and how that false image distorts our understanding of the AWOL or the good and meaningful life.

This assignment was mandatory for LDH2BM but optional for AWOL students.