Status Updates From Hard America, Soft America:...

http://brandywinebooks.net/?p=13835

P- I predict that within the final chapter of this book I will figure out what all the examples of things becoming hard or soft in America have been leading up to. I am excited to find this out, for the book has made some good points on its main topic.

A- How does the writing of the books "Rabbit is Rich" and "Barbarians at the Gate" truly tie into the idea of America Hardening in that time period?

F- One of my favorite things within this book are transitions from hard to soft. Throughout the different topics discussed in the story, they all transition from hard to soft or even soft to hard for different reasons. This is interesting to me because I did not think that these things were happening within our country, but some things that were mentioned in the book have been going on since the 1900's.

In the end the author talks about 9/11 and that's reminded me of all the terrible things that America has suffered from then but how none have been as bad as that because of how Hard our country has gotten and fought back.

The author noted that about eight percent of Americans work at McDonald's at one pout in their life and they say they have learned more there than in high school and I find that surprising because I expect school to teach more than a job that doesn't require any special skill.

I can connect to the book because it was talking about the different kinds of school in America and how that public schools got competition and I see how some schools here are better than others.

I really liked a quote in the book " Just as Soviets used to describe their economic system by saying 'They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work'... ' they pretend to teach us and we pretend to listen'. I like this because it is sort of how some people go through school, not paying attention, but the author said it was more true during the 1970s.

The author has been talking about how the early police force was soft. I predict that he will talk about how it hardens and gets tougher.

I can connect to when the author wrote about the baby boom after WW2 because we are learning about population growth in AP Human Geo and so I knew a bit about what the author was talking about.

When the author talked about child labor being banned in the book, it reminded me of a essay I had to write on Mother Jones and how she helped end child labor.