Welcome Back! I hope your Thanksgiving Break was everything you wanted it to be
For Monday, November 26, No New Readings
As we start a unit on Stud's Terkel's book Working, I'd like to have you listen to the three part Interview with Charlie Rose. The segments are linked to the pictures. Finally, listen to a remembrance of him. He died shortly before the 2008 election at the ripe old age of 96.
If you haven't packed to go yet, and there's room for Studs in the dirty clothes, I'd like to have you bring Working with you, We're doing to be working with parts of this book, and I'd like to have you help me decide which parts we'll read. The subtitle of the book, People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do. is crucial to understanding Terkel's intent. The range of occupations covered is immense: covering rural and urban jobs and all social classes. I'd like to have you look at the table of Contents. I've divided the characters/professions among you according to the list below. I want you to choose two from your group--two as different from each other as possible. We will choose who we investigate as a group from those you pick. If there's someone you want to make sure get's picked, but that person isn't in your area, feel free to trade.
This section should give us a sense of Terkel's philosophy and social stance. In a way, we've come full circle, as we investigate working as we did in Shipler. There's one major difference, however. Shipler interpreted his subjects. Terkel lets them speak for themselves. Terkel's audio tapes are slowly being posted online at a special site administered by the Chicago Historical Society. To get a sense of his interview style and also a sense of how interviewees respond to him, I'd like to have you visit the site, and listen to at least a couple of the tapes. You'll find the galleries by clicking here.
We'll spend the period watching the musical Working. It takes about an hour and a half. There's no class following ours in the room. I'll stay as long as anyone else wants to stay. Write a review of it in your Blog.
For Friday, Nov. 30
By Friday, have chosen your two Terkel Workers, and have read their segments. We're going to first, spend a little time reflecting on Working (the musical) and the rest of the time, sorting out which characters will form the basis for our Terkel work.
