Presidential Immigration Stories

Is immigration good or bad for the USA?  Why?         Take the Poll

1) What were the reasons for President Trump's grandfather immigrating to US?

2) What was his experience getting into this country?

3) How did the family do since coming to the United States?

4) What is Upward Mobility?

5) Would the President's Grandfather still be welcome here under his own immigration policy?

6) How did the former president's story different from the Vice President elect's own story?

7) How has VP Harris' experience shaped her policy toward immigration?

Write at least four sensory statements around the figures regarding their views on immigration.  (How do they feel about immigration?  Would they think it was good or bad? What do they say about their children's/ grandchildren's policy toward immigrants?  What do they hear from their voters?)

 

  

Who Was Rube Goldberg?

RUBE GOLDBERG (1883-1970) was a cartoonist, an inventor, and the only person ever to be listed in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as an adjective. Of the nearly 50,000 cartoons he drew in his lifetime, Rube is best known for the zany contraptions of Professor Butts. These inventions, also known as Rube Goldberg Machines, solved a simple task in the most overcomplicated, inefficient, and hilarious way possible.

Take a look at these example Rube Goldberg cartoons and then draw and label a simple kinetic sculpture commemorating the causes of the Great Depression.

The parts of a kinetic sculpture are constantly moving. For example, a ball might hit a lever that sets off a pulley. The pulley might, in turn, pull a bucket that dumps water on a paddle wheel. The paddle wheel creates another movement. Different actions can take place independently of one another as well. But all the actions together have a combined result.

At least one part on your sculpture must represent each Key Content Term from Chapter 30. These terms may appear on your machine in any order.  You can submit your drawing on TCI, or draw it on paper, snap a photo, and email it with subject line 'Rube Goldberg.'

Letters From the Trenches

In class we have experienced the devastating effect WWI including rat-infested trenches, machine guns,  and poisonous gas.

How was propaganda perhaps the most dangerous weapon of all?

Write a letter of your own from the trenches describing the conditions and your experiences.
 How would you respond to the German Kaiser?  Be sure to include why you feel it is important to keep fighting (or not).

Get a Job

"There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work."-- Lewis Hine, 1908

Do you have a job? If you had to get a job by the end of the week what would you do? How many hours would you work? How much would you get paid? Are there any risks or dangers?

Compare your jobs to children laborers during the industrial age.

What role should the government assume in protecting workers -especially children- from the hazards of the workplace?

Who Really Owns the Land?

What is your most valuable possession? How can you prove you 'own' it?

Listen to the song

According to John Locke, one doesn’t acquire land merely by claiming it, or even by living on it. One acquires solely through productive use. Moreover, one has no right to hold more land than one can use productively.

The Indians left much of the land unused, they never farmed it, raised livestock, or mined any of it. Land, a part of the universe, belonged to all, particularly the tribe. Individual land ownership did not exist, since all were entitled to the fruits of nature. Users' rights were protected and specified in various traditions, but there was no such things as land "ownership". Generally, individuals could clear as much land as needed for farming; this land would remain in a family's possession as long as they continued to use it. Once it was abandoned, anyone else could cultivate it.  

1) What would Locke say to Yertle the Turtle? 

2) What would he say to the Indians?  

3) Did we really steal the Indian’s land?  

4) Were the Indians using all of it?  

5) How did Indians view of the land differ from the settlers?  

6) What was the Dawes Act?

7) How did the Dawes Act take advantage of the Indians?

2000 Elecition

The 2000 election, the most controversial in history, is revisited with testimony from key players who helped decide the outcome after botched results. CNN Special Report – Bush vs. Gore: The Endless Election.

Is partisanship a bigger threat to our country than China or Russia? Should we abolish the Electoral College?  Why or why not?

America In The 21st Century

The economy is a key domestic issue. But it has never been the only one. All modern presidents came into office with several goals they expected to achieve. In a country deeply divided in its party loyalties, none of them would accomplish all they had hoped. In this chapter, you will examine how well those three presidents—Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama—met their domestic policy goals after entering the Oval Office.