Examination on David K. Shipler's The Working Poor
And Related Sources.
Due: Monday April 20, Submitted by Blackboard
Preview Period: Through Monday April 13
Length: 5 pp. (More or less) typed, double spaced.
Instructions:
I concluded my notes on Shipler’s book with two short quotations.
- 1.Opportunity and poverty in this country cannot be explained by either the American Myth that hard work is a panacea or by the Anti-Myth that the system imprisons the poor. Relief will come, if at all, in an amalgam that recognizes both the society’s obligation through government and business, and the individual’s obligation through labor and family–and the commitment of both society and individual through education.
- 2.Workers at the edge of poverty are essential to American prosperity but their well-being is not treated as an integral part of this whole. Instead, the forgotten wage a daily struggle to keep themselves from falling over the cliff. It is time to be ashamed.
Choose either of these, and, letting it guide your reflections, write an essay demonstrating what you’ve learned about the social class known as The Working Poor.
Incorporate into your essay insights gained from at least one of the outside readings you’ve chosen. These can be any of the ones posted to blackboard or any of the websites I've linked to the online syllagus.
- The first step will be to analyze these two short excerpts for the assertions they contain. Each contains at least three. Choose the one you understand best.
- Then, think about what you have come to understand and believe about those assertions.
Personalize this as much as you wish. I do expect you to write in your best grammatical style, giving your ideas the respect they deserve through the care you take in expressing them.
Footnotes are not necessary. Use body notes in the text itself for reference to the sources of your ideas.
