Transcript Slide 1
American Experience Individual Opportunity Myth • Horatio Alger: “Ragged Dick” – How Does “Ragged Dick” Go From Rags To Riches? What Independent Variables Are Necessary For The Dependent Variable Of “Success?” – What Are The Lessons From “Ragged Dick?” • Pursuit Of Happyness And Horatio Alger – Does The Chris Gardner Story Contain All Of The Ingredients Of A Horatio Alger Story, As Noted In The Story “Ragged Dick?” – Read The Biography Below After Seeing The Movie. Is The Film Story Accurate, Or Just Hollywood? – Harlon Dalton Claims That The Horatio Alger Story Is “Dangerous.” Why Is That, And How/Is The Film Possibly “Dangerous?” – Does The Story Demonstrate The Equality Of Opportunity, Or Reinforce How Difficult The American Dream Is To Achieve? http://www.chrisgardnermedia.com/main/biography.htm http://www.wuacc.edu/sobu /broach/algerres.html American Experience Individual Opportunity Myth http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/m/materialism.asp • Harlon Dalton: “Horatio Alger” – What Is The “Alger Myth,” According To Dalton? – Why Does Dalton Find The Myth Dangerous? • Gregory Mantsios: “Class in America, 2006” – According To Mantsios, What Type Of Class Are Americans Willing To Recognize? – Why Don’t Americans Recognize The Others? – Provide At Least Three Myths That Mantsios Notes, As Well As His Evidence To Refute These Myths. – How Has This Changed Over Time? http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/breaking-down-99-percent-where-fit-145717114.html http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/19/what-percent-are-you/ American Experience Individual Opportunity Myth • You Be The Mythbuster: The Way We Were – Alger Provides Stories. Dalton Critiques Him. Mantsios Provides Contemporary Statistics. But How Has Poverty Changed Over Time? – Analyze These Statistics, And Collect Your Own Information About What Americans Make & What http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf They Own. American Experience Individual Opportunity Myth • Testing The Horatio Alger Myth – Multivariate Models • More Than One Independent Variable Can Influence A Dependent Variable X1 Independent Variable + X2 = Independent Variable Y Dependent Variable • Provide A Multivariate (Multiple Independent Variable) Theory Of Success In America, Based Upon The Alger Story Myth. – View The Movie “The Pursuit Of Happyness” • What Are The Variables That Factor Into Chris Gardner’s Success? (What Are The I.V.s?) • Do These Variables Show Support For Alger Stories? Or Do They Show He Is The Exception, Rather Than The Rule?