10/21-We began our unit Progress and Power. We looked at the growth of business in America and the idea of people like Rockefeller and Carnegie. We went over a few vocabulary words that can be found on the link at the bottom. This captains of industry made their money by creating monopolies and integrating their businesses.
Quickwrite 1-
Recently Bernie Sanders said there should not be any billionaires. Do you agree with him? Is it good for our nation that there is people making that much money and yet their workers are not? Do you think it should be more balanced or is that what make America special that you can make unlimited amounts of money?
10/22-Captains vs Robber and Integration-Students looked at examples of both sides of these individuals. They did a lot of great things, pushing technology and wealth. They also at times did bad things to get an advantage. We looked at horizontal integration and vertical integration and how it helped companies make more money. We also looked at a map of how andrew carnegie was able to do this.
10/23-Students worked on researching about 3 different captains of industry and what they did to get into the position they were in. It is supposed to be done for homework.
10/24-We started looking at workers instead of the businessmen. Unions began to be formed to unite workers together. Many of them failed but it was a way to try to fight together for change. The first strike we looked at was the Homestead Strike in Andrew Carnegie's plant. Carnegie's manager called in an army to break the strike. People ended up dead on both sides. We watched a clip from the men who built america after reading about what they did.
Quickwrite # 2
What power do workers have? While today
workers have far more rights than they did in the Industrial Age, what can you
do when their pay is too low, or their hours are unfair? Even if you think
owners should be able to dictate how their company is handled and run, why is
it important that workers are treated fairly?
10/25-We looked at one final strike at Pullman and how the news reported the events differently based on their biasness. Students then looked at small places improvement happened. Most notably the 1902 coal strike. We finished by looking at a part of the video on the triangle shirtwaist fire.
10/28-We finished the video of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Students completed the questions on the back of their Reform paper. They are due Tuesday. After I talked about different areas of life that the fire impacted. Child Labor, Women's Rights, and Workers rights were all impacted by it. Also government regulation in business is still strong today. Toward the end of class we looked at Race in America during this progressive age. It is the one area where things were not really progressing. The notes are including on the 29th posting.
10/29-Today we did quickwrite 3 which can be found in the notes. We read a poem by Dudley Randall on Booker T Washington and WEB Dubois. These two civil Rights leaders tried to promote change in Civil Rights through Education and occupation. They just did it in different ways. Toward the end of the period we began to look at Lynchings in America and how Ida Wells tried to bring it to the attention of Americans.
Notes and quickwrites 1-3
