Aww, yes. The cleverness of my title. It's amazing what four seconds of semi-interrupted thought can do for the everyday blogger. As the post title states, this entry is about the SoDa BaN that is currently going down in the City. Lame Duck NYC Mayor Bloomberg is fighting for the ban of large sodas (over 16 oz) ((That's a pint!)) in the city limits.
This seems to be quite an interesting issue in a lot of ways. The question I'm going to focus on is how could I apply this to the ELA classroom and use it to design a lesson. How? (Or in Russian, Kak?)
I first begin to think about what I've read in different editorials about the issue. Many of them have referred to the past to address this issue of the current. I might ask my students to do the same. We could dig on the Interwebs for articles about the previous bans of trans fat in the city, cigarettes in bars/restaurants, enforcing age limits on cigarettes, and even way back when they banned the booze (I have an inclination this was called Prohibition). These different government issuings all have different histories and all evoked many different opinions/arguments. I think it would be a blast to go back and search for some of these articles, find them, compare them, study their logic, and then ask my students to conclude logically which aspects of which banishments are most closely related to the current issue of the soda ban.
Another thing that could potentially be brought into the discussion is the issue of gun control. Many people have compared guns killing people as one in the same as spoons making people fat. This argument is very flawed. Gunmen don't only kill themselves. If they did, there would be no issue. But gunmen can kill people that aren't themselves. If there were such a spoon in which the wielder could use it to make other people fat, that is a spoon that I would definitely want banned. To me,this is the same type of logic that justifies the limiting of smoking in public places. When your action begins to disrupt the health of others, that is where the government can step in.
With the issue of the soda ban, no one else besides the large soda consumer is being affected health wise. HOWEVER (in Russian Kakever), other people are being affected fiscally in at least some ways as obesity related health care cost in the U.S. $147 billion!! The element of health does not factor one bit into the equation for me. People should be responsible for making their own decisions. Buuuuuuuut, when health related problems begin to affect others financially, it might be time for the government to step in.
I hope that in consulting these issues of the past, my students will be able to see the intricacies of the question and which comparisons to the bans of the past are relevant and which are not. It would also be cool for them to think about the different writing style of journalists over the past 100 years. These things, along with the research element, could lead to a pretty cool two class project/discussion.
Toto, were not in Kansas, anymore""
I also looked at implementing this study to help students write editorials (however, mine would be to look at their Spanish skills and the use of the subjunctive tense...) I think in an English class you could also use a debate, and assign the students to a particular side of the argument - if you did this, they would have to do more research (probably on the interwebs), and then they would have to do proper debate writing styles and professionalism. I think debates in English / Language arts classes are helpful, because taking a side / opinion on a controversial topic are things that they are likely to encounter at university.
ReplyDeleteMatt, there is one area of this blog for which I am unclear. What exactly do you mean by “But gunmen can't kill people that aren't themselves.” I agree with you that when someone else’s actions impacts others that is when polity should intervene. However, this Soda Ban on the size of large sugary drinks does not, in my opinion, help with the problem of obesity. If anything it may help the economy because when people are out at the movies (for example), to get their sugar rush they may have to purchase more drinks. So perhaps this ban is a way to stimulate the local economy? :-D :-D :-D I see very little impact, however, on the nation’s obesity problem.
ReplyDeleteWhoops. I met "spoon wielders can't make people obese that aren't themselves." Thanks)))
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