TEACHSOC: Re: MINDBOGGLING

[klausner]

Hi Jen: Thanks so much for your compelling post. I'll forward the listserve address to you; I'm sure that others will be interested in your experience and would want to share their own. It's difficult for me to understand how students could be so oblivious to Katrina and its aftermath given the extensive news coverage. If they did nothing more than listen to a five minute syndicated radio broadcast while dressing/eating it would be an improvement. There are so many sociologically relevant aspects to the the event and its aftermath it's hard to know how to begin. Here are a few: Experts say that global warming (humanmade) increases the *intensity* of hurricanes. (See Prof. Emanuel's article in Nature. The Bush administration refused to sign the Kyoto treaty and still says that whether or not GW exists is problematic. State/local authorities were denied the amount of funds they said were neeeded to shore up the levees. The federal government gave them just a fraction of what was needed. Environmental laws were NOT enforced in the area because of the political lobbying/influence of the chemical industries. As a result, the toxic pollutants are much more prevalent and lethal than would be the case if those laws were enforced. The integration FEMA into the HomeLand Security Agency made FEMA less effective than if would have remained an autonomous, independent agency. National Guard troops, many from the area struck, were in Iraq instead of where they belonged, in their respective states..ditto for the equipment they had which was sorely needed....this precluded their rapid and effective deployment . The NATIONAL Guard was *never* meant to fight overseas wars. Yes, people were told to leave and most of those owning vehicles (the middle class, rich) did leave. How were the poor (a large proportion of the area's residents) to leave. The authorities should have provided transportation for those people. I could go on and on and indicate how various sociological concepts/theories could describe/explain these and related phenomena. I welcome the suggestions of others and how they will be incorporating the Katrina an its aftermath into their classes. Best Wishes, Michael Jen Hlavacek wrote: Michael, I don't know how to post this on the listserve.  I am teaching social problems at University of Colorado/Boulder.  I stayed up until 2 a.m. watching t.v. coverage and re-doing my plans for the class session on Thursday.  My students had just read the chapter on Poverty and Wealth and Katrina offered up a particularly great "teaching moment."   I have 70 middle-class, white students.  It would not have surprised me if many of them didn't have details of the hurricane.  I felt it was my job to make sure that they understood the historical moment and social consequences of this disaster.  So I started out with the question, "How many of you are aware of the fact that we have just experienced perhaps THE largest natural disaster in the United States?"  Then I asked, "Who has any relatives or friends in the Gulf Coast area where Hurricane Katrina hit?"  Then I called upon them to tell their personal stories, just as I am told about my courageous niece who evacuated her patients from a nursing home in New Orleans.  After the personal stories, we have a very interactive and interesting brain storming session on 1.  what the evacuation plan told us about our view of poverty stricken people and 2. what social effects could we expect in the future?  It was a great session.  They actually talked to one another, instead of trying to tell me the "right answer."   I have to admit that when I first walked into the classroom and said to one student (poli sci major), "I was so busy with Katrina that I didn't get the quizzes graded" and his response was "who is Katrina?"  He vaguely knew that a hurricane had hit, but he didn't have the details. I knew then not to expect many of them to have watched all the media coverage on Wednesday.   However, I think in these entry level soc courses and survey courses that one of our jobs is to get the students interested in current events.  I feel we can do this by constantly explaining how sociology affects THEM and their everyday life.   Now, I was surprised that my own sociology department was not quicker to bring the professors together to pool knowledge and brainstorm how to best "teach Katrina."  I bet some will start addressing it next week but if we could have come together to talk about it, we could have created synergy on a critical way to teach the social effects of the storm. Fortunately, we did have one of the faculty interviewed on ABC Dateline.  Kathleen Tierney is the director of our center on disasters and hazards. Jen Hlavacek, Ph.D.  University of Colorado/Boulder       ----- Original Message ----- From: klausner To: Teachsoc Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 3:35 PM Subject: TEACHSOC: MINDBOGGLING Hi, After discussing the notion of the "Sociological Imagination" I asked students to relate it to the aftermath of Katrina...I was shocked when one student raised her hand and said that she did not know anythng about the aftermath...only that a Hurricane occurred. While we are in a small town we: have a CNN affiliate on the local radio station, the newspaper program we have enables students to get FREE same-day copies of: THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY AND THE LOCAL PAPER. They are in "stands" in the cafeteria and other places on campus. We get NPR from State College and from Buffalo. There is a HUGE TV in the Commons and a dozen in the Sports Center. It is mindboggling to me that ANYONE does not know about the tragic situation occurring in the aftermath of the Hurricane. I was so exasperated that I have now required students in the Intro class to BRING a newspaper to class each session. Anyone have a similar experience? Thanks, Michael