For this week please read "Idiot Nation" in ReReading America. Write a post detailing your response to this essay.
Also, remember to post comments on two blogs you have not commented on before and post your grammar post.
Very Busy
13 years ago
Hey guys, I have read several posts about the lack of references in Michael Moore's excerpt from his book "Stupid White Men...and other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation" Chapter 5 - Idiot Nation. I thought I would provide those for you all just in case you were curious.
ReplyDeleteHere they are: Moore, Michael:
Stupid White Men "Idiot Nation" Chapter 5 Pg. 85. References Pg. 264. Chapter 5 - Idiot Nation Literacy figures come from the Dept. of Education National Adult Literacy Survey: Literacy Volunteers of America. Bush's gaffe is detailed in the New York Times, "Deep U.S. Europe Split Casts Long Shadow on Bush Tour," Frank Bruni, June 15, 2001. The contents of his commencement address at Yale are described in the Associated Press, "George W. Bush commencement address at Yale University," May 21, 2001. Previous incidents of government officials' lack of knowledge came from the St. Petersburg Times, "Politics is Nothing New in Choosing Ambassadors." July 21, 1989; The Economist, "Ambassadors; What Price Monaco?," March 4, 1989; the Associated Press, "European Press Has Fun with Clark Performance," Jeff Bradley, February 4, 1981. Accounts of Bush's lack of knowledge of the capitals of major countries were reported in Salon.com, "Briefs or No Briefs?," Jake Tapper, April 26, 2001. The Des Moines Register reported on the basic history test that top college students failed in "America's Best & Brightest Are Clueless About our History," Donald Kaul, July 7, 2000. It was also featured in University Wire (UVa), "Education without Knowledge," Bryan Maxwell, July 13, 2000. Statistics about university class offerings came from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "The Selling Out of Higher Education," Samuel Hazo, September 3, 2000; and New York Times, "Much Ado-Yawn-About Great Books," Emily Eakin, April 8, 2001. Negative quotes about teachers come from the New York Times, "Education Panel Sees Deep Flaws in Training of Nation's Teachers," Peter Applebome, September 13, 1996; the New York Post, "the Teacher-Pay Myth" (editorial), December 26, 2000; Investor's Business Daily, "Why Bad Teachers Can't Be Fired," Michael Chapman, September 21, 1998; Doulas Carmine, quoted in the Montreal Gazette, "Bring Back the Basics," Brandon Uditsky, January 6, 2001; National Review, "Firing Offenses," Peter Schweizer, August 17, 1998. The story about hiring teachers from abroad: New York Times, "Facing a Teacher Shortage, American Schools Look Overseas," Kevin Sack, May 19,2001. Teacher shortages in New York are from the New York Times, "Nation’s Schools Struggling to Find Enough Principals," Jacques Steinberg, September 3, 2000; New York Times, "Survey Shows More Teachers are Leaving for Jobs in Suburban Schools, Abby Goodnough, April 13, 2001. School facility information comes from the Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Conditions of Public School Facilities. The Washington Post, "26 DC Schools Cleared," Debbi Wiloren, September 12, 1997; and "Angry Judge Closes 4 More DC Schools," Valerie Strauss, October 25, 1997. The janitor shortage was reported in the New York Times, "Janitorial Rules Leave Teachers Holding a Mop," Shaila Dewan, May 28, 2001. Information about Bush's library tax cut comes from the Dallas Morning News, "Libraries Want to Shelve Bush's Proposed Cuts" April 13, 2001. Jonathan Kozol's discussion of the state of school libraries, "An Unequal Education," was featured in the School Library Journal. Additional information on school libraries and Richard Nixon's connection to them can be found in the Christian Science Monitor, "even in Information-Rich Age, School Libraries Struggle," Marjorie Coeyman, February 6, 2001; and Education Week, "Era of Neglect in Evidence at Libraries," by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, December 1, 1999. Sources for the answers to the pop quiz: Annual salary-Source U.S. Vital Statistics, Table #696 - Bureau of Labor Statistics; 911 response - Ladies Home Journal, "Before You Call 911: Is this emergency number the lifesaver it should be?," Paula Lyons, May 1995; Extinction count-Associated Press, "11,000 Species Said to Face Extinction with the Pace Quickening," September 29, 2000; Ozone hole size - The Christian Science Monitor, "Ozone Woes Down Below," Colin Woodward, December 11, 1998; Detroit vs. Africa: Detroit = 19.4% (1991) - Annie E. Casey Foundation, "Kids Count" Report, April 25, 2000; Libya = 19%, Mauritius = 19%, and Seychelles = 13% - UNICEF; Newspaper Guild; Justice Policy Institute, "School House Hype: School Shootings and the Real Risks Kids Face in America," Elizabeth Donohue, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Zidenberg, 1999. Much of the information about corporate presence in the schools comes from the Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education, Third Annual Report of Trends in Schoolhouse Commercialism, September 14, 2000. Additional material comes from the Associated Press, "Marketing to Free-Spending Teens Gets Savvier," by Dave Carpenter, November 20, 2000; "The Commercial Transformation of American Public Education," 1999 Phil Smith Lecture by Professor Alex Molnar, October 15, 1999; Mother Jones, "The New (And Improved!) School," Sept/Oct. 1998; Mother Jones, "Schoolhouse Rot," Ronnie Cohen, January 10, 2001; New York Times, "Five-Shift Lunches to End?," Richard Weir, May 17, 1998; Atlanta-Journal Constitution, "Coca-Cola Learns a Lesson in Schools," by Henry Unger and Peralte Paul, March 14, 2001; The Nation, "Students for Sale: How Corporations Are Buying Their Way into American's Classrooms," Steve Manning, September 27, 1999; the Washington Post, "Pepsi Prank Fizzles on 'Coke Day'," by Frank Swoboda, the Washington Post, March 26, 1998. The threatening kid profile came from "Risk Factors for School Violence," Federal Bureau of Investigation Study of School Shootings, September 2000.
Just in case you were interested :).