This present a real problem. It is very easy to get it wrong and alienate a student, the way I was by all the arcane terminology and passionate rhetoric.
I think there are some simple prerequisites. It is important that the student have a job or had a job that was typical as in unfriendly, demanding, under paid, and useless for anything except some money. My first `real' job was a busboy in a suburban Jewish Deli-Restaurant. The only thing good was the food, which as a worker, you had to buy if you wanted a sandwich after the noon rush. The pay was standard minimum for the era 1.09/hr (1959). I worked half time during the summer and was paid once a week in cash. After the first few brutal days, it was tolerable but I was al The other requirement is history. Marxism is completely opaque without knowing something about 19thC industrial development and colonial expansion in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Even a simple picture book is almost enough as long as there are locations and dates. Lewis Hine is a good start http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/ For comparison, type `chinese labor' and click `images' in google. You will get page after page of images of vast factory floors where all `our' stuff is made. These images will need some analysis which isn't too hard. Notice there are hundreds of people. People are the largest cost of production. People have to earn what they cost first, and only then can they produce. Often, people are cheaper than a machine that could replace them. For example there were no machines in my part of the kitchen. I was the machine and the closer I learned how to imitate a machine, the faster and more efficience I was. I learned this as soon as I could figure it out, because it made my job easier. But I had to watch out because the boss would just add more work if I looked too fast at what I was doing. I also had to keep him in food supplies ... He worked like a machine at the grill and behind the counter. I noticed every needed item had a place and dispenser so he could choreograph his motions. So it helps a lot to know about the clip pace and rhythm of work. In other words learn how to become a machine. CG _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
