The House I Live In

Read the following director's statement from Eugene Jarecki about the creation of The House I Live In. If you were to make this film, would you have followed a different process? Think about the sources that you might use to make a point about the topic. 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT 
(by Eugene Jarecki, from Bmorenews.com) 
I have been thinking about making this film for over 20 years. I first met Nannie Jeter, a prominent character in the film, when I was just a few days old coming home from the hospital. From that day on, she became a second mother
to me, and her children and grandchildren a second family. I am white and Nannie and her family are black,and growing up in the wake of the civil rights movement, I think I imagined we were all living in a post-racial America—a place of greater equality and justice. Yet, as we grew older, our paths diverged; where I found privilege and opportunity, Nannie’s family found a new kind of struggle that re- emerged with a vengeance for black Americans in the post- civil rights era. 
When I asked Nannie what had happened, she felt that it was chiefly the rise of drugs in America that had ravaged the lives of people in her family. But the more I talked to experts, the more I heard the same thing: whatever damage drugs do to people has been made far worse by the laws America has enacted to stop them. Suddenly, the so-called “War on Drugs” began rising into view as something I had to investigate and better understand. I wanted to know what it was that had most fundamentally hurt people I love. 
With this in mind, I began interviewing people across the country whose families had been pulled into a vicious cycle of drugs and the criminal justice system. Alongside dealers, users, and their family members, I spoke to police, wardens, judges, medical experts, and others to begin to understand how it was that America came to launch a war against its own people.

I interviewed experts who broadened my understanding of the subject in ways I wanted to share with others. I learned that drug abuse is ultimately a matter of public health that has instead been treated as an opportunity for law enforcement and an expanding criminal justice system. I spoke with scientists desperate for a drug policy based on data rather than rhetoric. I saw how this misguided approach has helped make America the world’s largest jailer, imprisoning its citizens at a higher rate per capita than any other nation on earth, and how the drug war has become America’s longest war, now entering its 40th year and costing more than a trillion dollars to date. 
For people to understand the scale and urgency of this crisis, I felt that facts, figures, and expert testimony weren’t enough, so I sought out individuals whose lives were directly and deeply shaped by the War on Drugs, hoping their stories would reveal some of the everyday tragedies left in its wake. Ultimately, with my beloved Nannie Jeter as inspiration, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN grew into a larger examination
of race, class, and capitalism in America—of a tragically misguided system that preys upon the least fortunate among us to sustain itself. 
—Eugene Jarecki, Director 

Invention of Wings

Novels often make us think beyond our own experience, but we can also usually find something in common with sympathetic characters. There are many sympathetic characters in the book. Even though they are mostly women, what character in the novel did you most identify with? Please explain why using a few specific scenes from the book.

Paper #1 Reflection

Writing is a deeply personal task that is usually linked with a writer's emotions. It is also a mechanical task that takes several steps or a skill you learn over time.

When I entered grad school in 2012 after almost 10 years out of school, I felt that writing my first paper for class was a major step. I was nervous about the outcome of the project. I wanted my professor to respect me for what I could do. I wrote about it in this blog post: http://cccwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/09/back-to-school-and-writing-again.html

For your blog post, please write a reflection on writing your first Writing 100 paper. What steps did you take to write it? What kinds of negative thoughts hindered your progress? What kinds of inner strength and motivation did you use to complete the task? Get detailed in your post, from the mechanical steps you took to your feelings along the way.

Blog post #3 Education in Popular Culture

Teachers and students are portrayed in many different places in American popular culture. Does how we see education in movies affect how we understand education in our own lives? For instance, does watching Freedom Writers make us wish we had a teacher like Mrs. Gruwell? What makes a good teacher?


For your blog, compare your expectations of education alongside an example from popular culture. We will discuss these pop culture examples in class!

Blog post #2: You and Your education

Thinking about what you know about education from our readings, compare your own educational experiences so far. What portrayal best represents your own education and why? Include photos of your past schools if possible to illustrate what kind of schools they were. Did class matter in the school you went to? What were you taught? How did it affect your career choices later in life? Please write about your own experience in the context of what we have been learning so far this semester.

Fall 2015: Blog Post 1 Interview

Blog assignment #1:

Interviews

You will be interviewing a classmate for your first blog post. A good interview reveals something about the interviewee that we would not normally know. Make your questions in a way that will get your interviewee talking about something important to her.

The blog post will be well written in paragraph form, so you will be taking your answers and making them into a complete picture with your writing skills.

The blog post will also include photographs that your interviewee provides you. These photos should be a central part of your question and answers.

You will have time during the next week to work on perfecting your blog post before it is officially due. Please use your time wisely and proofread your work. Make it as professional and presentable as possible.

Blog 6: final blog

Please reflect on the course overall for you. What did you learn? About writing? About reading? About yourself?

Think about the texts we read, the film we watched, and the research you did. Were you surprised by anything? Were the topics relevant to you? Please make suggestions for future course topics, films, readings, novels, etc.

What will you do to keep practicing writing in the future?

Blog 5: The House I Live In

Read the following director's statement from Eugene Jarecki about the creation of The House I Live In. If you were to make this film, would you have followed a different process? Think about the sources that you might use to make a point about the topic. 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
(by Eugene Jarecki, from Bmorenews.com)
I have been thinking about making this film for over 20 years. I first met Nannie Jeter, a prominent character in the film, when I was just a few days old coming home from the hospital. From that day on, she became a second mother
to me, and her children and grandchildren a second family. IamwhiteandNannieandher familyareblack,and growing up in the wake of the civil rights movement, I think I imagined we were all living in a post-racial America—a place of greater equality and justice. Yet, as we grew older, our paths diverged; where I found privilege and opportunity, Nannie’s family found a new kind of struggle that re- emerged with a vengeance for black Americans in the post- civil rights era.
When I asked Nannie what had happened, she felt that it was chiefly the rise of drugs in America that had ravaged the lives of people in her family. But the more I talked to experts, the more I heard the same thing: whatever damage drugs do to people has been made far worse by the laws America has enacted to stop them. Suddenly, the so-called “War on Drugs” began rising into view as something I had to investigate and better understand. I wanted to know what it was that had most fundamentally hurt people I love.
With this in mind, I began interviewing people across the country whose families had been pulled into a vicious cycle of drugs and the criminal justice system. Alongside dealers, users, and their family members, I spoke to police, wardens, judges, medical experts, and others to begin to understand how it was that America came to launch a war against its own people.

I interviewed experts who broadened my understanding of the subject in ways I wanted to share with others. I learned that drug abuse is ultimately a matter of public health that has instead been treated as an opportunity for law enforcement and an expanding criminal justice system. I spoke with scientists desperate for a drug policy based on data rather than rhetoric. I saw how this misguided approach has helped make America the world’s largest jailer, imprisoning its citizens at a higher rate per capita than any other nation on earth, and how the drug war has become America’s longest war, now entering its 40th year and costing more than a trillion dollars to date.
For people to understand the scale and urgency of this crisis, I felt that facts, figures, and expert testimony weren’t enough, so I sought out individuals whose lives were directly and deeply shaped by the War on Drugs, hoping their stories would reveal some of the everyday tragedies left in its wake. Ultimately, with my beloved Nannie Jeter as inspiration, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN grew into a larger examination
of race, class, and capitalism in America—of a tragically misguided system that preys upon the least fortunate among us to sustain itself.
—Eugene Jarecki, Director 

Blog 4: Paper 2 reflection

After submitting your second paper and getting feedback on your first essay, you should feel somewhat differently than you did in your last reflective blog post. How was writing the second essay compared to the first? Did you see any change in the way you approached the topic, the assignment, or the writing process?

Please write a new reflection describing how you wrote your essay for this blog post.

Blog Post 3 Glass Castle

So far in the book, we have read about the narrator's unconventional childhood. Her parents are both neglectful of her well-being and caring about her growth and development. The life lessons they choose to teach her are often difficult ones, but she seems educated and capable as a very young child.

In American culture, parenting is depicted on TV and in movies as one thing: parents caring for children, teaching them life lessons, while facing stress to provide for them. Can you think of what looks like a typical parenting scenario on American culture? Does that depiction line up with how your own family functions? Or do you have more in common with the Walls family?

Write your blog post comparing these situations to your own.

Summer I Blog Post #2: Paper reflection!

Writing is a deeply personal task that is usually linked with a writer's emotions. It is also a mechanical task that takes several steps or a skill you learn over time.

When I entered grad school in 2012 after almost 10 years out of school, I felt that writing my first paper for class was a major step. I was nervous about the outcome of the project. I wanted my professor to respect me for what I could do. I wrote about it in this blog post: http://cccwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/09/back-to-school-and-writing-again.html

For your blog post, please write a reflection on writing your first Writing 100 paper. What steps did you take to write it? What kinds of negative thoughts hindered your progress? What kinds of inner strength and motivation did you use to complete the task? Get detailed in your post, from the mechanical steps you took to your feelings along the way.

I wrote many papers in school and graduated!

Blog post 1: You and food

In the readings this week, the authors talked about the personal and political nature of food in our lives.  As women, we are often expected to be at least partially interested in the buying, cooking, and serving of food. Women are also often in control of a family's nutritional needs. In "Having it His Way," for example, the authors discussed how fast food commercials make women out to be controlling men's freedom by controlling their food choices.

For your first blog post, I would like for you to write about your relationship with food in your life. Think about where you learned about how you think about food, nutrition, and even obesity. I am aware that this could be a deeply personal issue, so I am not necessarily asking you to self-disclose in this forum. I would like to see you do some analysis of where your relationship with food comes from. As an American woman, how do you relate to what the authors talked about?

Class Reflection: Final blog post

Please reflect on the course overall for you. What did you learn? About writing? About reading? About yourself? 

Think about the texts we read, the film we watched, and the research you did. Were you surprised by anything? Were the topics relevant to you? Please make suggestions for future course topics, films, readings, novels, etc.

What will you do to keep practicing writing in the future?

Research Reflection

For this post, think about how the research process went for you. Since research is the bedrock of scholarly writing, it is essential for students to be able to gather quality information. Meanwhile, research is a difficult skill to acquire. The more you consider it, the better your outcomes will be in all of your writing assignments. 

Please write about your challenges and triumphs. What did you learn that you did not know before you started? What did you learn about research itself?

Writing 100 Film Reaction Post

In The Queen of Versailles, the Siegel family is profiled and shown in a complicated light. As a viewer how do you see Jackie? Since she is on the cover and in the title, this is a movie about her.
 Do you think you could see her differently if the film was slightly different? If the 2008 housing market crash did not occur, would this be a different film?
Think through how the director puts together the main idea of the film through the filming and editing. Focus on at least one specific scene.

Honors 110 Film Post

As we discussed in class, documentary films have a thesis that drives them. In Monica & David, we get a picture of an almost ideal situation for a married couple with Down's Syndrome. They are comfortable and taken care of. For this post, think about what you know about the social services available to intellectually disabled citizens. Education, housing, healthcare, and life skills programs like we see in the film are all facets of these services. What do you think is available and what do you think should be available to people with disabilities?

Blog post #5: Paper 2 Reflection

After submitting your second paper and getting feedback on your first essay, you should feel somewhat differently than you did in your last reflective blog post. How was writing the second essay compared to the first? Did you see any change in the way you approached the topic, the assignment, or the writing process?

Please write a new reflection describing how you wrote your essay for this blog post.

Writing 100: The Glass Castle

So far in the book, we have read about the narrator's unconventional childhood. Her parents are both neglectful of her well-being and caring about her growth and development. The life lessons they choose to teach her are often difficult ones, but she seems educated and capable as a very young child.

In American culture, parenting is depicted on TV and in movies as one thing: parents caring for children, teaching them life lessons, while facing stress to provide for them. Can you think of what looks like a typical parenting scenario on American culture? Does that depiction line up with how your own family functions? Or do you have more in common with the Walls family?

Write your blog post comparing these situations to your own.

Honors 110: Now You See it...

In the novel, the theme of leaving home and escape from the small town are strong throughout. Each of the stories deals with how the characters either leave or stay. We have many stories like this in our American culture. There are also stories about returning home.

How does your concept of home compare to the characters in the book? Did you seek to escape and remake your identity in choosing a college? Did you stay close to home? Do you dream of moving to a city, like LA? Use the text to formulate your comparison. Find evidence from the text to explain which character you sympathize with.

Southside Bethlehem and Steel Stacks from Catholic Cemetery

Spring 2015 Blog post #3: Paper 1 reflection

Writing is a deeply personal task that is usually linked with a writer's emotions. It is also a mechanical task that takes several steps or a skill you learn over time.

When I entered grad school in 2012 after almost 10 years out of school, I felt that writing my first paper for class was a major step. I was nervous about the outcome of the project. I wanted my professor to respect me for what I could do. I wrote about it in this blog post: http://cccwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/09/back-to-school-and-writing-again.html

For your blog post, please write a reflection on writing your first Writing 100 paper. What steps did you take to write it? What kinds of negative thoughts hindered your progress? What kinds of inner strength and motivation did you use to complete the task? Get detailed in your post, from the mechanical steps you took to your feelings along the way.

I wrote many papers in school and graduated!

Spring 2015 Blog Post #2: Your Education

Thinking about what you know about education from our readings, compare your own educational experiences so far. What portrayal best represents your own education and why? Include photos of your past schools if possible to illustrate what kind of schools they were. Did class matter in the school you went to? What were you taught? How did it affect your career choices later in life? Please write about your own experience in the context of what we have been learning so far this semester.


Spring 2015 Blog post 1

Blog assignment #1:

Interviews

You will be interviewing a classmate for your first blog post. A good interview reveals something about the interviewee that we would not normally know. Make your questions in a way that will get your interviewee talking about something important to her.

The blog post will be well written in paragraph form, so you will be taking your answers and making them into a complete picture with your writing skills.

The blog post will also include photographs that your interviewee provides you. These photos should be a central part of your question and answers.

You will have time during the next week to work on perfecting your blog post before it is officially due. Please use your time wisely and proofread your work. Make it as professional and presentable as possible.