US HISTORY
102
PAPER 1
PAPER 2
PAPER 3
Teacher Response:
You do a fine job with this paper. In your paper you provide solid examples to make your points.
Richard Coop
PAPERS
Hi Haley! I enjoyed reading your letter. It was interesting to learn that children were treated so differently by doctors. Quarantining the children thinking they would infect people, when most likely they had the same thing as the adults, shows the ignorance of our medical professionals at the time. It's amazing to think, just how far we have come in America and how fortunate we are to have all the advances in medical science to take advantage of. Your paper demonstrated how archaic the medical system was in the treatment of children but that there were still some people who cared. They tried to improve the quality of life for the children despite their lack of knowledge and supplies. The letter also shows how woman have advanced out of the home and were starting to fill valuable roles in the professional community. Good letter!
Responses to Classmates
Brittney-
I liked reading your letter, you were very descriptive and I could picture what everything looked like and how they were all dressed. Your letter shows the opulence that the upper class had. It is a stark contrast when you think about how the lower classes lived and struggled. What you have written is a great display of how American society was at the time, and the divisions between the classes. I knew a lot of people died, but I didn't realize only about 35% survived. It must have been terrifying to have been on the ship when this happened. I can only imagine how awful it was to see all of the bodies floating in the water and how bittersweet the rescue must have been. Nicely done!
Responses to Classmates
Hi Melanie!
I appreciated the creativity you used in selecting your object whose point of view you chose to write from. It was an interesting perspective to use and I found it intriguing that the klan member's hood didn't share the opinions of his master. The anguish of the hood is apparent, you are a good story-teller. I didn't occur to me that younger people were involved in the klan, I always pictured angry adult men. It makes sense that they would indoctrinate the children young and try to get them when they didn't know any better. I also, didn't realize that the klan had been banned in Arkansas or that Martial Law had been enacted in Tennessee to deal with it. Your letter demonstrates the rampant racism that was still occurring, but view of the hood also shows the change in philosophy that was starting to take over. Great job!
Responses to Classmates
Your paper is a fun read! I love the creativity and the story line! I felt as though I could picture Nellie Marie and what she might look like. The struggles of child labor were depicted in a unique way and made me really feel for her story. I enjoyed how you incorporated happenings of the time throughout the letter. I could not imagine working at such a young age and on top of it all only making $4.50 a week! Great letter!
-Jamie Poma
Marcie,
I enjoyed reading your letter about child labor. I never knew how hard young children had to work back in the day. Being paid such a little amount would be such a bummer. I thought the greatest strength of your paper was how your voice really captures the feeling of the past. This paper shows how much progress has been made for the lives of children in America's history. Today we have things such as child labor laws that have vastly improved their lives. I bet the children of today are so grateful they aren't forced to work in textile mills!
-Jeremy Yee
Marcie,
What a beautiful letter! I felt like I was reading a real girl's letter who worked in the mill. It is hard to imagine what the bosses or foremen were allowed to do or at least get away with! I liked how you mentioned that young boys were allowed to work in mines, it is something that I have forgotten about. I also like how this letter mentions the west and how there were people who dreamed of getting rich. I am so glad that today we have laws against child labor. Once again, it was very beautiful and I loved every part! Thank you!
-Megan Gubler
What a great presentation in your paper! The angle you took on child labor from the child's point of view is very clever and a great way to share the information. I really enjoyed reading the paper, and even learned some new information. I did not realize that children could work at the young age of 6 (other than in factories that ignored children's ages). What a sad time in American history that parents were paid so meagrely that they could not support their own families. Sending young children to work instead of to school so they could participate in the family finances is just so opposite of the initial dreams of the founding fathers. The extreme class struggles between the workers living in poverty while the factory owners lived such lavish and wasteful lifestyles was just one of the problems that people faced at this time. The other, as demonstrated in this paper, were the poor working conditions and lack of protection.
-Lauren Browning
Marcie,
You did a wonderful job portraying a child's voice. I like how you chose the perspective of not wanting to end child labor because of the money. Your paper was entertaining to read and very detailed.
-Melanie Chabin
Responses from Classmates
Teacher Response:
You do a fantastic job with this paper. You provide specific and substantial facts to support your points of view. Best of luck to you in the future!
Richard Coop
Teacher Response:
You do a nice job with this paper. You use solid examples and the paper flows nicely.
Richard Coop
Hi Marcie,
Thanks for writing about this movie. I thought of doing this one but I cant bring myself to watch this movie. It is too heartbreaking for anyone especially for a Jew. I cant believe want the Jewish people had to go through. My daughter did a report on the Holocaust last year and the pictures were horrific. People need to know what happened so history will not repeat itself.
-Kelli Lavi
Marcie,
I think this movie portrays one of the most intelligent and bravest forms of kindness. It took Schindler an absolute affirmation in himself to risk his own life imprisonment on a group of people that his country was trying to exterminate. He was before his time to see any person as simply an individual. It is people like him that understand the true meaning of being human.
You did beautifully in capturing his essence in your letter. Thank you.
-Melanie Chabin
Hi Marcie,
This was a beautiful paper. I actually thought Oskar Shcindler was writing it himself. I had seen the movie before but it was when I was young and I was horrified at how evil people can be. I learned from reading your paper that Oskar was able to retrieve the woman and girls on the train to Auschwitz by bribery. He may have been an immoral man, but he did what was right in the end. Once again good job.
-Megan Gubler
I enjoyed reading your paper on Schindler's List. I learned so much from it. I never knew there was a Nazi that helped Jews during the Holocaust. I thought the greatest strength of your paper was how you gave great specifics when it came to details. An example of this is how you told us that there are less than 4000 Jews alive in Poland but around 7000 descendants from Schindler's Jews. Your paper shows how not everyone in history is as bad as they are portrayed by the history books. What I mean by this is that we would never heard read about Schindler in a history book because the writers are focused on showing all of the negative parts. It makes sense but it is a bit unfortunate that we can't get the whole truth.
-Jeremy Yee
Responses from Classmates
Megan-
I enjoyed your letter regarding the Nuremberg Trials. My letter was on Oskar Schindler, who for a while could have been sentenced to death by these trials had he been caught before he was found innocent. I really appreciate how your letter shows that the Americans wanted justice for the crimes but would have been happier had they never happened. Americans are believers in "liberty and justice for all" and I am glad that the Nazi's (at least the ones they caught) were held accountable for their heinous disgusting crimes. I do not understand how these criminals could even attempt to plead not guilty with the mountains of evidence stacked against them. I think you did a great job summarizing the movie and I found the part about the Nazi's putting the children on the fire especially horrifying but necessary to show the magnitude of the atrocities. The greatest strength with your letter is how you let us know which parts are historically accurate and which parts aren't. Good job!
Responses to Classmates
Ronique-
I really liked your letter! I felt the strength was in your writing style and how you wrote it like Celie would have written. I find it appalling that a man could do that to a child but unfortunately stuff like that still happens. I would have liked for you to show some things that happened in the movie and how they related to real life historical events. It's amazing to see the lack of child welfare that went on in the rural areas in the early 1900's. I am glad that the woman's lib was so successful, it's crazy to think how women and girls were treated like property. Her "dad" was tired of her and some man wanted a wife so he just gave her to him without any input from her or care for her feelings. Your letter made me want to watch the movie again.
Responses to Classmates
Marshal-
Your letter was fun and entertaining. I really liked how you wrote it like Muhammad Ali spoke and feel this is the greatest strength of your letter. I would have liked for you to point out some of the exact real life struggles he went through and specific historical events. I didn't realize Muhammad Ali was a Muslim or that the government gave him a hard time. Muhammad Ali grew up in the South, in a time when parts of America were still segregated, especially the South. He overcame the discrimination a grew up to become one of the greatest boxers ever. He was a great real life example of religious freedom and racial justice.
"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."
-Muhammad Ali