How Safe Are Our Children?

There is new trend arising among well-educated, wealthy families; these families are opting out of routinely scheduled vaccinations. Why? Those who believe in the dangers of vaccines argue that the additives and preservatives in these products, including formaldehyde, lead, and aluminum, are contributing factors in such childhood illnesses as juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), asthma, ADHD and a certain form of Autism Spectrum Disorders, “regressive autism”. The preservative thimerosal mentioned in the clip by Robert Kennedy, Jr. is a form of mercury. This additive had been banned by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999 but has continued to be used in influenza vaccines today.

Those who do decide to opt out of vaccinations are not met receptively by those in the medical profession and the Center for Disease Control. In extreme cases it has been shown that when a parent chooses to limit or opt out of the vaccination schedule, official threats of medical neglect charges are brought forth. Parents are thrown out of their doctors’ offices and children have been refused entry into school. It is a common misconception that vaccines are required for school entry. In actuality vaccines may be “mandated” by the CDC, but are not “legally required” if proper exemption protocol is made.

1. Why do you think parents are scrutinized for opting out of routine vaccination even after they have done the research and decided immunization is too risky?

2. Why do you believe the preservatives in vaccines have not been as tightly regulated as the food we feed our children, despite of the fact that vaccines are injected directly into the blood stream?

3. For what reason would you CHOOSE TO vaccinate your child(ren) or future child(ren)?

blog post #2 due 3 Mar

-blog post due 3 Mar-

I encourage you to make this assignment useful to you; link it to your project! With that in mind, here are three options for your post (choose one! don't do all three!)

1) Post an article + response like before, but choose an article that you plan to use as part of your research.
2) Post a summary of project #1, so you can get feedback from the class that will help you revise.
3) Post a draft of proposal #2, so that you force yourself to write it early and get some feedback.

No matter what you do, be sure to write a specific question or two at the end for classmates to respond to. Also, keep your audience in mind: since we're not required to respond to all posts, you'll have to catch our attention and engage us as readers if you want responses!


-3 responses- due 5 Mar

Make these useful as well!
Read your classmates' posts with an eye toward what they do particularly well that you can learn from. Read them with an analytic eye so you can spot writerly moves that they're making, and think about whether those moves might be worth adding to your own repertoire.

midterm survey and some free points for you. deadline: Friday 27 Feb

Hi everyone, and happy-almost-Mardi Gras!

I mentioned in class on Thursday that I'd like you to complete a survey about our class. I will use it to plan the rest of the semester, so the more feedback you give me, the more likely the class is to meet your needs. I hope you'll share your earnest thoughts with me here.

I estimate that the survey will take you 20 minutes, maximum.

It is anonymous, so there will be no retribution for criticism. =) On the contrary: please be as liberal in your critique as you are in your praise. Both are extremely helpful.

Since it's anonymous, I can't tell whether you individually completed it, so here's how I'll do the bonus: if I get the same # of responses as there are students in the class before one week from today (Friday, 27 Feb), everyone will get one free participation/assignment grade. So...go, team!

Click Here to take survey

I've been looking over your projects, and I have to say, I'm as impressed with your work on them as I have been with your comments and assignments for class. Y'all are some brilliant people, and I'm not saying that just to put you in a good mood before you do the survey...

Optional Viewing...follow up on our discussion of the Declaration of Independence

Michael Eric Dyson, a renowned scholar who's currently teaching at Georgetown, here examines the links between "the American Dream," Martin Luther King's "I have a dream," and Langston Hughes' "What happens to a dream deferred?"

He looks at the same apparent contradictions in the Declaration of Independence that many of you noticed, and offers a really hopeful answer.

No Dreams Deferred? Interesting and similar to some of our conclusions, he notes "the innate flexibility" of that document.

The Gay Marriage Debate. due 12 Feb

Your task is to evaluate FOUR of the following sources by answering these questions in depth. You do not have to share your personal opinion about the issue; instead, focus on the texts and how they affect you (which, of course, might be related to your opinion, but not necessarily).

1. What is the rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, writer, topic, genre, context--note that the topic is the same for all of them, and the context is the same for all but #3).
2. As a reader/viewer, what does it make you think, do or feel? Be honest and describe it in depth...this will help you identify with your own audience when you're writing.
   
3. How credible is this source? What, specifically, leads you to this conclusion? How does the issue of credibility impact your reaction to it (as described in #2)?
   

No need to post your evaluation on the blog; bring it to class with you instead. We will discuss your thoughts and I will collect it for a grade.

• Interview with Rick Warren (optional: follow the "see the full interview" link below the video)
• Stephen Colbert's interview with Dan Savage (optional: skip to 2:15 in)
• Jonathan Rauch, "A More Perfect Union: How the Founding Fathers would have Handled Gay Marriage" p. 588 in Promise of America.
• Interview with Senator Rick Santorum
  
• Bob Ostertag "Why Gay Marriage is the Wrong Issue"
• "Proposition 8: The Musical"
• "Consequences of Gay Marriage"