Bring Mountains Beyond Mountain to the first class

Some of you I'll see Tuesday, others on Wednesday.

If you have not already submitted your summer work on googledocs, please do so before class.

A few people have told me that they did theirs in hand writing.  If that's the case, bring it on the first day, and please make sure that it is in MLA format to get something approaching full credit.

On the first day, I'm switching this class's online presence to googleclassroom.

The code to get into the class is


z2nc9h8

sample Mountains Beyond Mountains response log

Things to note: MLA format, quote integration, advanced vocab integration highlighted in italics and followed by a quick appositive phrase defining the word, mix of summary but mostly commentary and analysis, meaningful variation in sentence structure

Thank you to Kelsey for allowing me to post this submission!

Howell

 

Kelsey Fiske

Mr. Howell

English AP 11

August 15, 2016

Mountains Beyond Mountains: Log One

    As someone who is likely to pursue a career in some medical field, I was drawn to the level of dedication and devotion of Dr. Paul Farmer as portrayed in “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder.  Dr. Farmer is presented as an ambitious and kind man who wanted to care for every ill, injured, or unhealthy person he encountered while working in the poorest areas on the struggling island nation of Haiti. Dr. Farmer is never dubious, or hesitating, but rather is shown to be a rather impressive man who is willing to sacrifice his time, money, relationships, and even his sleep to achieve his objectives.

“There’s a lot to be said for sacrifice, remorse, even pity. It’s what separates us from the roaches” (Kidder 40).   

As I was reading the descriptions of how destitute, or extremely poor, the people of central Haiti were whom Dr Farmer was treating, I began to wonder if I could ever imagine myself eagerly working in “one of the poorest parts of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere” (Kidder 20).  I found the sharp contrast between the conditions at Lamni Lasante in Haiti with those at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to be oddly similar to the differences in personality sometimes apparent in Dr. Farmer.  He is both, a man who demonstrates such kindness and concern as to be referred to as a “saint” by the villagers in Haiti, and a driven individual who can resort to haranguing, or aggressively lecturing at length, those who oppose him.  “People call me a saint, and I think, I have to work harder” (Kidder 16).  Another contrast I noticed within Dr Farmer is his belief in both the medicine and religion and his ambivalence, or contradictory feelings, about the value of each.   

Throughout the first part of the book, it became obvious to me that Haiti is not a sojourn, or temporary stay for Dr. Farmer, but his life’s work.  Dr. Farmer makes this clear to the author in stating “To see my oeuvre, you have to come to Haiti” (Kidder 17).  In considering the number of patients, challenges, and obstacles Dr. Farmer contends with on a daily basis, I came to realize the appropriateness of the book’s title “Mountains Beyond Mountains”.  Just like mountains have bumps and ridges to overcome so does Dr.Farmer's work. When he encounters a bump in his research and treatment he climbs over it. When he reaches a ridge he glides over it.  Dr. Farmer will not leave until he has done his part and cured and helped as many people as he possibly can. I find it admirable that Dr. Farmer not only anticipates the mountain in front of him but also the ones beyond it as well.  

Keep up the good work or . . .

Just so you know

Some of your peers have been getting their work in early by sending it to me via googledocs.  Yes, it's not due until 9/6 for C period or 9/7 for H period, but early birds catch more than just worms.

I greatly appreciate that extra effort!

Also, some of your peers have been going above and beyond the work requirements, sending me well-reasoned analysis that spans onto the second or third page.  I reward that effort, too.  You should know that the loads of essays we do in class are graded on the AP College Board rubric, which is quite challenging.  In other words, for those who are motivated by grades, you may be disappointed.  However, I ameliorate that effect by awarding extra points here and there for people who put in extra effort and thought in the smaller day-to-day assignments.

In sum,
work hard
get me work early
do extra, unique and insightful work on small assignments and get credit.

send all questions and work to

howellj@dy-regional.k12.ma.us

"Today's Anne Frank is a Syrian Girl" by Nick Kristoff 8/25/16

AMSTERDAM — On April 30, 1941, a Jewish man here in Amsterdam wrote a desperate letter to an American friend, pleading for help emigrating to the United States.
“U.S.A. is the only country we could go to,” he wrote. “It is for the sake of the children mainly.”
A volunteer found that plea for help in 2005 when she was sorting old World War II refugee files in New York City. It looked like countless other files, until she saw the children’s names.
“Oh my God,” she said, “this is the Anne Frank file.” Along with the letter were many others by Otto Frank, frantically seeking help to flee Nazi persecution and obtain a visa to America, Britain or Cuba — but getting nowhere because of global indifference to Jewish refugees.
We all know that the Frank children were murdered by the Nazis, but what is less known is the way Anne’s fate was sealed by a callous fear of refugees, among the world’s most desperate people.
Sound familiar?
President Obama vowed to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees — a tiny number, just one-fifth of 1 percent of the total — and Hillary Clinton suggested taking more. Donald Trump has repeatedly excoriated them for a willingness to welcome Syrians and has called for barring Muslims. Fears of terrorism have left Muslim refugees toxic in the West, and almost no one wants them any more than anyone wanted a German-Dutch teenager named Anne.
“No one takes their family into hiding in the heart of an occupied city unless they are out of options,” notes Mattie J. Bekink, a consultant at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. “No one takes their child on a flimsy boat to cross the Mediterranean unless they are desperate.”
The son of a World War II refugee myself, I’ve been researching the anti-refugee hysteria of the 1930s and ’40s. As Bekink suggests, the parallels to today are striking.
For the Frank family, a new life in America seemed feasible. Anne had studied English shorthand, and her father spoke English, had lived on West 71st Street in Manhattan, and had been a longtime friend of Nathan Straus Jr., an official in the Franklin Roosevelt administration.
The obstacle was an American wariness toward refugees that outweighed sympathy. After the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews, a poll found that 94 percent of Americans disapproved of Nazi treatment of Jews, but 72 percent still objected to admitting large numbers of Jews.
The reasons for the opposition then were the same as they are for rejecting Syrians or Hondurans today: We can’t afford it, we should look after Americans first, we can’t accept everybody, they’ll take American jobs, they’re dangerous and different.
“The United States, if it continues to be the world’s asylum and poorhouse, would soon wreck its present economic life,” the New York Chamber of Commerce warned in 1934.
Some readers are objecting: But Jews weren’t a threat the way Syrian refugees are! In the 1930s and ’40s, though, a world war was underway and Jews were widely seen as potential Communists or even Nazis. There were widespread fears that Germany would infiltrate the U.S. with spies and saboteurs under the cover that they were Jewish refugees.
“When the safety of the country is imperiled, it seems fully justifiable to resolve any possible doubts in favor of the country, rather than in favor of the aliens,” the State Department instructed in 1941. The New York Times in 1938 quoted the granddaughter of President Ulysses S. Grant warning about “so-called Jewish refugees” and hinting that they were Communists “coming to this country to join the ranks of those who hate our institutions and want to overthrow them.”
News organizations didn’t do enough to humanize refugees and instead, tragically, helped spread xenophobia. The Times published a front-page article about the risks of Jews becoming Nazi spies, and The Washington Post published an editorial thanking the State Department for keeping out Nazis posing as refugees.
In this political environment, officials and politicians lost all humanity.
“Let Europe take care of its own,” argued Senator Robert Reynolds, a North Carolina Democrat who also denounced Jews. Representative Stephen Pace, a Georgia Democrat, went a step further, introducing legislation calling for the deportation of “every alien in the United States.”
A State Department official, Breckinridge Long, systematically tightened rules on Jewish refugees. In this climate, Otto Frank was unable to get visas for his family members, who were victims in part of American paranoia, demagogy and indifference.
History rhymes. As I’ve periodically argued, President Obama’s reluctance to do more to try to end the slaughter in Syria casts a shadow on his legacy, and there’s simply no excuse for the world’s collective failure to ensure that Syrian refugee children in neighboring countries at least get schooling.
Today, to our shame, Anne Frank is a Syrian girl.

I invite you to sign up for my free, twice-weekly email newsletter. Please also join me on Facebook and Google+, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter (@NickKristof).

reprint of the summer assignment

Summer 2016 assignments

AP  English

Language and Composition

Mr. Howell

howellj@dy-regional.k12.ma.us

Welcome to the Infinite Text

    The purpose of the summer work for AP English 11 is for you to embrace the paradigm that everything is a text, and you will read that text all the time.

Newspapers, magazines, blogs, on-line aggregators, tv news, cable news, local news, social media--all media, events, technology--everything can be read and you can do that reading with a depth of insight comparable to the top thinkers in the world.

    AP English: Language and Composition is the class where you learn how to do that reading and a whole lot of writing with more sophistication than anyone else.

    The three focal points of study for the class are argumentation, and rhetorical and stylistic analysis.  The methods and practices you need to take on to make this sort of reading your own are embedded in all the activities of the class, including the summer reading during which you will have two major tasks:

1.    Habitually read on the same level as intellectuals

2.    Read and analyze a serious work of nonfiction:

        Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

    The purpose of reading this work of nonfiction is to challenge you to think about the world beyond Cape Cod.  It is the story of Paul Farmer, who grew up living in a house boat stuck in a trailer park, but despite his modest beginnings, he ended up became one of the most important doctors in the world, helping people in Haiti, Rwanda, Russia, Peru and Boston.

After getting a copy at your local library or book seller of choice, read it and write four (4) reader response logs along the lines of the ones you wrote for your freshmen and sophomore teacher.  Mountains Beyond Mountains will be the subject of a timed essay test during the first week of school in September.  Each log will be about 2 pages long and will include questions, evidence, insight, personal connections, and words (with their definitions) that Forrest Gump would find challenging.  5 words, terms, or concepts per entry should be sufficient.

The logs will be handed in on the first day of class (either 9/6 or 9/7), and graded on volume of ideas and depth of insight.  The essay will be graded along the guidelines of the AP Language and Composition rubric.

All together, our assignments include 4 logs for the book and 4 responses to the essays or articles I post on the class blog, for a total of 8 responses.

Returning to item 1, I will post articles or essays on the class blog on a weekly basis.  Read two a month and write a 1 page of analysis for two articles a month.  These writings will also be collected on the first day of class.

The class blog address is 

http://howellap11.blogspot.com/

My email address is howellj@dy-regional.k12.ma.us

Submitting early via googledocs to my email address is the best and easiest way to get your work assessed immediately at the beginning of the year.

Identify the Main Elements of the Argument in the editorial "Permanent Supportive Housing: A Plan for the Homeless"--CCTimes 8/26

If you choose to write about this editorial from the Cape Cod Times August 20th, 2016 edition, I'd like you to identify in complete sentences five major points in the essay, including the thesis, supporting evidence, concession/refutation and conclusion.

After your identification work, list and define 5 challenging words or key phrases (e.g. consensus, "permanent supportive housing"). 

Permanent supportive housing: A plan for the homeless

By Will Crocker and Anthony Schiavi|22 hours ago

The homeless issue in downtown Hyannis is a wrenching challenge, one that needs to be addressed but with solutions that are caring, competent, and meet the needs of all segments of the community.

On June 12, the Cape Cod Times published a thoughtful editorial "Clear Conscience," regarding what the community can do to resolve the issues of homelessness. The editorial correctly points out that "there are a limited number of resources for the homeless on Cape Cod, and most of these are located, for better or worse, in Hyannis." We agree.

We have listened to business people, social service providers, politicians, and our neighbors, all seeking a long-term solution – relieving downtown Hyannis of homelessness. We have observed the frustration (and anger) vented at the Housing Assistance Corp., owners of the NOAH Shelter, the town's only homeless shelter, for continuing to house homeless persons in need of emergency shelter. We have monitored the town's Transitional Living Center Steering Committee in the search for consensus, support, and locations. We have watched our public safety personnel use a variety of resources and tactics to assist.

We know from our investigation of the homeless issue that communities attempt to manage solutions by first providing emergency shelters, and when this no longer appears effective, move to transitional living centers. But transition to what? Is the transitional living center another way to "kick the can down the road?" The Times editorial notes "that a certain percentage of homeless individuals include people who suffer from mental illnesses, drug addiction, or a combination of the two." Will the transitional living center resolve the issue of homelessness? We believe it will not.

We believe that the community can more effectively address the housing and rehabilitation needs of the chronically homeless in Barnstable by proposing a permanent supportive housing facility as a long-term and better alternative to emergency shelters and transitional living centers. Indeed, the federal government's HEARTH Act, passed in 2009, amended and reauthorized the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and placed a greater emphasis on permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing as permanent housing solutions to homelessness. The shift away from transitional housing as a response to homelessness began in 2013 and continues into 2016 and beyond.

Thus, we are proposing a two-phase approach, which first provides temporary relief to our downtown Hyannis business and residential community, and secondly provides a permanent supportive housing facility in our community, where all social service organizations can coordinate and provide, in one location, the support and health services the chronically homeless population so sorely needs.

Our plan and approach is simple and achievable. We are actively discussing with state officials the potential of using Joint Base Cape Cod for a temporary one- to two-year supportive housing facility while we, as a community, come together to achieve consensus, financial support, and a location with all stakeholders to construct and manage a permanent supportive housing facility in the town. Our proposal seeks to develop a solution for up to 50 chronically homeless persons and veterans.

Why permanent supportive housing? Our investigation indicates that people experiencing chronic homelessness, who are directed to permanent supportive housing, save taxpayers' money, and that permanent supportive housing is more effective and less costly than emergency shelters and transitional housing solutions. We do not want to "erase the reality or humanity of these individuals," as noted in the Times editorial, and we believe that with the community, commonwealth, and stakeholders working together we can achieve a longer-term and workable solution. We invite and look forward to the community's participation.

Will Crocker is a Barnstable town councilor and GOP candidate for state representative in the 2nd Barnstable District. Anthony Schiavi is former executive director of Joint Base Cape Cod, and a GOP candidate for the Cape and Islands State Senate District.

To Get to Harvard, Go To Haiti by Frank Bruni, NYT 8/15/16

This summer, as last, Dylan Hernandez, 17, noticed a theme on the social media accounts of fellow students at his private Catholic high school in Flint, Mich.

“An awfully large percentage of my friends — skewing towards the affluent — are taking ‘mission trips’ to Central America and Africa,” he wrote to me in a recent email. He knows this from pictures they post on Snapchat and Instagram, typically showing one of them “with some poor brown child aged 2 to 6 on their knee,” he explained. The captions tend to say something along the lines of, “This cutie made it so hard to leave.”

But leave they do, after as little as a week of helping to repair some village’s crumbling school or library, to return to their comfortable homes and quite possibly write a college-application essay about how transformed they are.

“It rubs me the wrong way,” Hernandez told me, explaining that while many of his friends are well intentioned, some seem not to notice poverty until an exotic trip comes with it. He himself has done extensive, sustained volunteer work at the Flint Y.M.C.A., where, he said, the children he tutors and plays with would love it “if these same peers came around and merely talked to them.”

“No passport or customs line required,” he added.

Hernandez reached out to me because he was familiar with writing I had done about the college admissions process. What he described is something that has long bothered me and other critics of that process: the persistent vogue among secondary-school students for so-called service that’s sometimes about little more than a faraway adventure and a few lines or paragraphs on their applications to selective colleges.

It turns developing-world hardship into a prose-ready opportunity for growth, empathy into an extracurricular activity.

And it reflects a broader gaming of the admissions process that concerns me just as much, because of its potential to create strange habits and values in the students who go through it, telling them that success is a matter of superficial packaging and checking off the right boxes at the right time. That’s true only in some cases, and hardly the recipe for a life well lived.

In the case of drive-by charity work, the checked box can actually be counterproductive, because application readers see right through it.

“The running joke in admissions is the mission trip to Costa Rica to save the rain forest,” Ángel Pérez, who is in charge of admissions at Trinity College in Hartford, told me.

Jennifer Delahunty, a longtime admissions official at Kenyon College, said that mission-trip application essays are their own bloated genre.

“Often they come to the same conclusion: People in other parts of the world who have no money are happier than we are!” she told me. “That is eye-opening to some students. But it can be a dangerous thing to write about, because it’s hard to rescue the truth from that cliché.”

Many of the students taking mission trips or doing other charity work outside the country have heartfelt motivations, make a real (if fleeting) contribution and are genuinely enlightened by it. Pérez and Delahunty don’t doubt that. Neither do I.

But there’s cynicism in the mix.

A college admissions counselor once told me about a rich European client of his who called him in a panic, wanting to cancel her family’s usual August vacation so that her son could go build roads in the developing world. She’d just read or heard somewhere that colleges would be impressed by that.

He asked her if she had a roadway or country in mind. She didn’t.

Richard Weissbourd, a child psychologist and Harvard lecturer who has studied the admissions process in the interest of reforming it, recalled speaking with wealthy parents who had bought an orphanage in Botswana so their children could have a project to write and talk about. He later became aware of other parents who had bought an AIDS clinic in a similarly poor country for the same reason.

“It becomes contagious,” he said.

A more recent phenomenon is teenagers trying to demonstrate their leadership skills in addition to their compassion by starting their own fledgling nonprofit groups rather than contributing to ones that already exist — and that might be more practiced and efficient at what they do.

“It’s a sort of variation on going on a mission trip and figuring out that people all over the world are really the same,” said Stephen Farmer, who’s in charge of undergraduate admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I don’t mean to make light of it,” he added, acknowledging that many such trips and nonprofits have benefits, and not just for the college-bound students engaged in them.

But they’re largely reserved for students whose parents are affluent enough to assist the endeavors. And they’re often approached casually and forgotten quickly. “My concern is that students feel compelled to do these things — forced — rather than feeling that they’re answering some inner call,” Farmer said.

In many cases they are compelled. Tara Dowling, the director of college counseling at the Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, R.I., said that many secondary schools (including, as it happens, Dylan Hernandez’s) now require a minimum number of hours of service from students, whose schedules — jammed with sports, arts, SAT prep and more — leave little time for it.

Getting it done in one big Central American swoop becomes irresistible, and if that dilutes the intended meaning of the activity, who’s to blame: the students or the adults who set it up this way? Dowling noted that without the right kinds of conversations and guidance, “Kids don’t know how to connect these experiences to the rest of their lives, to the bigger picture.”

There are excellent mission trips, which some students do through churches that they already belong to, and less excellent ones. There are also plenty of other summer projects and jobs that can help students develop a deeper, humbler understanding of the world.

Pérez told me that his favorite among recent essays by Trinity applicants came from someone “who spent the summer working at a coffee shop. He wrote about not realizing until he did this how invisible people in the service industry are. He wrote about how people looked right through him at the counter.”

Helicopter parents, stand down! Pérez’s assessment doesn’t mean that you should hustle your teenagers to the nearest Starbucks. It means that whatever they do, they should be able to engage in it fully and reflect on it meaningfully. And if that’s service work, why not address all the need in your own backyard?

Many college-bound teenagers do, but not nearly enough, as Hernandez can attest. He feels awfully lonely at the Flint Y.M.C.A. and, in the context of that, wonders, “Why is it fashionable to spend $1,000-plus, 20 hours traveling, and 120 hours volunteering in Guatemala for a week?”

He wonders something else, too. “Aren’t the children there sad, getting abandoned by a fresh crop of affluent American teens every few days?”

I invite you to follow me on Twitter (@FrankBruni) and join me on Facebook.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.