Are We Reliving History?

This week we watched our country slip further into a recession as over 598,000 jobs were lost in January and our national unemployment rate reached 7.6%, the highest in 16 years. On ABC News with Charlie Gibson, Rhode Island and Michigan were featured as the two states with the highest unemployment, both over 10%.

As of this morning, the papers are reporting that the Senate has come to an agreement on an $780 billion Economic Stimulus Package that would combine tax cuts with increased spending for building projects. Once the bill is passed, the Senate and House members must meet on a compromise bill as the House passed version is not the same as the Senate version. Many Congressional observers write about the slow and lumbering process of getting a bill passed into law but this less then speedy system allows both the majority and minority voices to be heard.

Let me remind you that you should be watching the news each evening to keep on top of the latest developments here and abroad. The news will provide you with background knowledge that you will be able to draw upon for many of your areas of study. It will allow you to better understand what is happening in the world and how you fit into the progression of events.

AP European History

Your power points showed good teamwork and a depth of understanding of the key points of our chapter on “Life in the Emerging Urban Society.” Keep in mind that in order to earn all of your points you need to pay close attention to all of the requirements. Some of the handouts did not include the primary source as required and a copy of the slides for your classmates. If you have their emails, you may want to pass along a copy of the slides so they have access to all of the information for the test on Tuesday.

Speaking of the test...40 multiple choice and one free response (you will have four to select from). Your bold to bold notes will also be due that day.

CWI/Comparative Government/20th Century America and Globalization

As many of you know, the former requirement for US II has been eliminated from our course of study and the CWI course has become the Junior year requirement. In order to insure all our MHS students graduate with key concepts from USII we have modified the CWI/Comparative Government course to include some of those key units. We will also be including a unit on Comparative Governments. This will now be considered a year long course so your exam that you took in January will be considered a mid-year.

This week we saw how music and photos can help us better understand historical events. Listening to “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” you could hear the despair in the voice of the singer, lamenting that after all he had done for this country he was now standing in a bread line. The photo assignment gave you the opportunity to explore the many faces from the Depression and how young and old were subjected to the same realities of unemployment, lack of housing and desperation. We will be contrasting this feeling with the election of President Roosevelt and his upbeat manner and sense of confidence. His campaign song “Happy Days are Here Again” will elicit a much different response than the “Brother...” song. Stay tuned.

Some of you struggled with the Stock Analysis sheet. Your assignment asked you to figure out the cost of stocks at their high point and their low point. By subtracting the difference, and figuring out your repayment of the loan to purchase the stock, you quickly realized that you were deeply in debt. We then figured out a similar scenario as we looked at current stocks and what you might have lost if you bought at their highs and had to sell at their lows.

We will continue using current events to help us understand some key economic concepts. Your next current event is due February 12 and it must be about the economy. It is important to keep up with the current event assignments as they are an efficient way to earn lots of points. At this stage of the course you should be earning perfect scores if you follow the rubric.

Next week we will continue to look at how families coped with reduced income and changed their lifestyles to balance the family budget. The budget reductions individual families made affected the entire community and led to further declines in economic activity. The major thrust of the Obama economic stimulus package is to increase government spending. Building roads and bridges, renovating schools, increasing mass transit options and improving our electric grid are all activities that are needed to improve our infrastructure and a means to put people back to work. Families who receive paychecks from the jobs created will then have more money to spend, which in turn will help the entire economy. Tax cuts will also put more money into the hands of consumers, adding to the stimulus.

World History

This past week you worked on your first portfolio task. You were asked to do two document analysis sheets and then respond to a prompt on the industrial revolution using your prior knowledge and the two documents. You will have time next week to finish your task.

We have also started a brief unit on Nationalism and will focus on the unification of Italy and Germany. Next week we will go to the library where you can work on a project constructing a “campaign” style poster for one of the major figurers from this time period.