This reading would make a great creative writing prompt. For example, students could write a descriptive passage about a place they know well being reclaimed by nature.

It rained a lot that spring. You woke in the morning
And saw the sky still clouded, the streets still wet,
But nobody noticed so much, except the taxis
And the people who parade. You don’t, in a city.
The parks got very green. All the trees were green
Far into July and August, heavy with leaf,
Heavy with leaf and the long roots boring and spreading,
But nobody noticed that but the city gardeners
And they don’t talk.
                                    Oh, on Sundays, perhaps you’d notice:
Walking through certain blocks, by the shut, proud houses
With the windows boarded, the people gone away,
You’d suddenly see the queerest small shoots of green
Poking through cracks and crevices in the stone
And a bird-sown flower, red on a balcony,
But then you made jokes about grass growing in the streets
And gags and a musical show called “Hot and Wet.”
It made a good box for the papers. When the flamingo
Flew into a meeting of the Board of Estimate,
The new mayor acted at once and called the photographers.
When the first green creeper crawled upon Brooklyn Bridge,
They thought it was ornamental. They let it stay.

That was the year the termites came to New York
And they don’t do well in cold climates—but listen, Joe,
They’re only ants, and ants are nothing but insects.
It was funny and yet rather wistful, in a way
(As Heywood Broun pointed out in the World-Telegram)
To think of them looking for wood in a steel city.
It made you feel about life. It was too divine.
There were funny pictures by all the smart, funny artists
And Macy’s ran a terribly clever ad:
“The Widow’s Termite” or something.
                                                                       There was no
Disturbance. Even the Communists didn’t protest
And say they were Morgan hirelings. It was too hot,
Too hot to protest, too hot to get excited,
An even African heat, lush, fertile and steamy,
That soaked into bone and mind and never once broke.
The warm rain fell in fierce showers and ceased and fell.
Pretty soon you got used to its always being that way.

You got used to the changed rhythm, the altered beat,
To people walking slower, to the whole bright
Fierce pulse of the city slowing, to men in shorts,
To the new sun-helmets from Best’s and the cop’s white uniforms,
And the long noon-rest in the offices, everywhere.
It wasn’t a plan or anything. It just happened.
The fingers tapped slower, the office-boys
Dozed on their benches, the bookkeeper yawned at his desk.
The A. T. & T. was the first to change the shifts
And establish an official siesta-room;
But they were always efficient. Mostly it just
Happened like sleep itself, like a tropic sleep,
Till even the Thirties were deserted at noon
Except for a few tourists and one damp cop.
They ran boats to see the big lilies on the North River
But it was only the tourists who really noticed
The flocks of rose-and-green parrots and parakeets
Nesting in the stone crannies of the Cathedral.
The rest of us had forgotten when they first came.

There wasn’t any real change, it was just a heat spell,
A rain spell, a funny summer, a weather-man’s joke,
In spite of the geraniums three feet high
In the tin-can gardens of Hester and Desbrosses.
New York was New York. It couldn’t turn inside out.
When they got the news from Woods Hole about the Gulf Stream,
The Times ran a adequate story.
But nobody reads those stories but science-cranks.

Until, one day, a somnolent city-editor
Gave a new cub the termite yarn to break his teeth on.
The cub was just down from Vermont, so he took his time.
He was serious about it. He went around.
He read all about termites in the Public Library
And it made him sore when they fired him.
                                                                               So, one evening,
Talking with an old watchman, beside the first
Raw girders of the new Planetopolis Building
(Ten thousand brine-cooled offices, each with shower)
He saw a dark line creeping across the rubble
And turned a flashlight on it.
                                                      “Say, buddy,” he said,
“You’d better look out for those ants. They eat wood, you know,
They’ll have your shack down in no time.”
                                                                             The watchman spat.
“Oh, they’ve quit eating wood,” he said, in a casual voice,
“I thought everybody knew that.”
                                                            —and, reaching down,
He pried from the insect jaws the bright crumb of steel.

I wanted to post some highlights from the letter below, but it’s all so great that I couldn’t bear to leave any of it out. You’ll just have to read the whole thing.

I think this is an effective way to get students to look at the ramifications of their consumption, and it also serves as a powerful reminder that slavery is not a thing of the past. I would absolutely use this in class, perhaps following it up with a reflective writing assignment.

Thanks Larry

If I were teaching a class on business, I would absolutely include information on this protest. In my experience, it may come as a surprise to some students that the majority of Americans are not rich. This would fit in well with activities on the distribution of wealth. One of the groups involved in the protest, We Are the 99%, offers a powerful collection of photos and narratives by the poorer 99% of Americans. This would work well with graphs illustrating the fact that, while the wealthiest 1% have seen their real income more than double in the past few decades, the rest of America has seen little to no growth. And, of course, this problem is not uniquely American. Students could be invited to present information on the distribution of wealth in their countries, or in other countries that they research. It could also be fruitful to combine these with activities looking at the distribution of wealth between countries. Whatever the angle, articles on this protest would be a great addition to a unit on business, government or wealth and poverty.

I think this game is an engaging way for students to learn about many of the issues that poor families struggle with. I would certainly consider using it in a unit on poverty and wealth. It doesn’t take very long, and could serve either as an introductory or review activity. It also touches on a number of other issues, including education, health and nutrition.

If I were doing a unit on business or the economy, I would absolutely use materials from this site. Many of the readings are fairly short, and the language is pretty down to earth.

They have lots of materials for download and I haven’t looked at all of them yet, but one in particular caught my eye. It’s called Food Production: Fact or Fib. The stated objective of this lesson is to clear up misconceptions, focusing especially on making sure students understand the difference between fertilizer and pesticide. The unstated objective, though, is clearly to make sure that students understand how necessary both of these types of chemicals are, while completely omitting any mention of harmful side-effects.

The main activity asks students to determine whether statements are facts or fibs. Here are some samples:

8. If your family pet were infested with disease-causing insects you would take them to a veterinarian to get treatment.

18. Antibiotics prevent diseases in humans, animals and plants just as vaccines do.

19. Controlling insects is one way to prevent diseases in humans, animals and plants.

And here’s the bonus question:

A doctor would prevent many diseases in a patient by making sure he/she got vaccinations. A Veterinarian would make sure every dog and cat received a rabies vaccination to keep them and their owners safe from rabies. How would a farmer protect his or her crops or animals from diseases or pests? Give more than one example.

Drawing an equivalency between how an industrial farmer feels about his or her crops and how a person feels about their pet is disingenuous. These facts are chosen to steer students into favoring the pro-chemical methods of industrial agriculture. There is literally no mention of no mention of harmful side effects, either in terms of human health or the environment. There is no mention of eutrophic deadzones or of the illnesses suffered by farm workers. There is no mention of organic farming. And there is no mention of the necessity of insects or how pesticides kill them all indiscriminately (not just the “disease-causing” ones).

Obviously, I am not recommending these materials, but I do think they could be useful an in activity that engages true critical thinking. Having students compare these materials with material that gave a truer picture of the pros and cons of fertilizers and pesticides would be interesting. I’m going to contact some local groups and ask if they have any materials like that, and if you know of any, please share them in the comments below.

It’s a real shame that, as we cut educational funding, it is increasingly likely that overworked and underpaid teachers will turn to ready-made materials produced by special interest groups.

You need to be a subscriber (or belong to a library that subscribes electronically) in order to read the full articles. If you have access, though, it’s worth checking out.

Thank Tom (via IATEFL’s GISIG)

One way to extend it would be to include some reading, either the Forbes article or this article from Yahoo. I like the language of the Yahoo one better, but both bring up interesting points that could be linked to other global issues: Why are their so few women on the list? Why is Tiger still at the top, despite his supposed loss of sponsors and poor play? And what is behind the NFL lockout? (possibly leading to a discussion of unions). Another good extension activity is comparing these salaries with the average salaries in other fields and talking about why we seem to value athletes so highly when compared to professions like nurses or teachers.