AMST 355  Class and Culture     Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
M - Th,  3:30 - 5:00             Office: CAS 110
CAS 228          Hours,  T:  9:30 - 11:00
Roger Williams University           MWF:  1:00 - 2:00
Spring Semester. 2009    Phone:  ext 3230
E-Mail:  amst355@gmail.com
Index
For Monday, February 9
Read, in Shipler,
Chapter 1, Money and its Opposite, 13 - 38
The head quote for this chapter, “You know, Mom, being poor is very expensive,” is a good point of entry into the chapter’s content.  Two themes intertwine here...the first, institutional efforts to improve the lives of the working poor, and the second, institutional practices which harm the lives of the working poor.  The chapter considers all sorts of institutions, public and private.  At the Center is the program known as the Earned Income Tax Credit.  Make sure that you understand what this program is and how this program works.  Take note, too of the alphabet soup of programs designed to help the working poor, including SCHIP and WIC.  Are there reasons why these programs are not always effective?
Click for U. S. A. Today report on the Working Poor
ALSO

There is a wealth of information on anti-poverty programs available on the Internet, and I want you to broaden your individual knowledge base and thereby broaden the knowledge base of the class as a whole.  One organization which has provided a collection of data is the Finance Project, which describes itself and its mission thus: 
What has the Finance Project attempted to convey through its masthead picture?
The Finance Project was founded in 1994 with support from a consortium of national foundations interested in ensuring the viability and sustainability of promising initiatives that contribute to better futures for children, families, and communities.
Our Mission: To support decision-making that produces and sustains good results for children, families, and communities. The Finance Project develops and disseminates research, information, tools, and technical assistance for improved polices, programs, and financing strategies.
The Assignment.

The Finance Project has produced a very large list of resources.

I’d like to have each student in this class select one from this list to download, read, and bring to this class.  I’d like to have as great a variety of these chosen possible, and to ensure this, I’d like to try this as an experiment.
I’ve put a new Link on on Blackboard.  You’ll find it on the left hand side of the page, called Finance Project. Here’s how to proceed.

Choice will be on a first-come, first served basis.
There are ample (386 at last count) articles from which to choose, so everyone should be able to find one or more of personal interest. I want you to be able to refer to these informally in these initial discussions, and then as appropriate bring them back into the discussions as we work our way through Shipler's book.
For Thursday, February 12  (Happy Lincoln's Birthday)

A Comparison Project.
I’d like to have you compare your community with another, using resources available on the internet: Google Earth, Google Maps, and the United States Gazetteer.  You will need to download google earth to your home computer, if you haven’t done so already.  It is free and lots of fun.  Installing it is simple.  Go to http://earth.google.com/, and follow the simple instructions.

Part I. 
A visual Comparison of your community with another community, using Google Earth and Google Maps.
These two Gogle programs allow one to search for a location by zip code, and while zip code boundaries aren’t quite the same as community boundaries they are close enough to give one a sense of what is available.  The layers on Google earth allow one to experiment and see what resources are available within the boundaries of a zip code... civic resources and social/cultural resources as well.

Part II.
A Statistical comparison of your community with another community using the American Fact Finder

The American Fact Finder is a service of the Department of the Census.  We’ll have recourse to using it and other census features frequently.


Make a simple side-by-side chart comparing your zip with the zip you’ve chosen.  Come prepared to talk about this on Thursday, and save it for use later in the semester.  Put this in your journal.  Below is the kind of data set which is available.
Click to reach the American FactFinder
Eligible Zip Codes

Worcester, MA
01603
01604
01605
01606
01608
01610

Providence RI
02903
02904
02905
02906

New Haven,  CT
06510
06511
06513
06519
Portland, ME
04101
04102
04103
04104

Manchester, NH
03101
03103
03104

In 2003, USDA’s Food Stamp Program (FSP) provided assistance to an average of 9.2 million low-income households per month. In about a quarter of these households, at least one member was working at a job, though their low earnings still left them eligible for FSP benefits. Even so, nearly half of working households eligible to participate did not. The reasons for not participating vary—lack of knowledge about the program, low benefits, fear of being stigmatized, inaccessible offices, and burdensome requirements, to name a few.
Percent of Persons 25 Years and Over With High School Diploma or More Education: 2000