Also, towards the end of the essay, she discusses how school might be different in such a world. She imagines that "teachers could build lessons around what students are most curious about." Very soon, I'm going to begin building a problem-based learning unit for the end of the year. What are you most curious about that could lend itself to a four-week project at the end of the year? Please be specific.
In "Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?," Ilana Strauss speculates in The Atlantic how our society might change in a world without work. What do you think?
Also, towards the end of the essay, she discusses how school might be different in such a world. She imagines that "teachers could build lessons around what students are most curious about." Very soon, I'm going to begin building a problem-based learning unit for the end of the year. What are you most curious about that could lend itself to a four-week project at the end of the year? Please be specific.
13 Comments
Hanna Bronz
6/29/2016 05:41:29 pm
In my opinion, most kids today are wired to be most curious about work: Opposite of what this article is getting at. Students and teens are out either by choice or by "adult push," trying to learn what they want to do for the rest of their life. If you happen to be interested in robots, you should start going to an engineering camp at a good college. If you are interested in caring for people, you should volunteer at a retirement home. I can't say that I have something that interests me that could become a problem based learning topic. I think the distinction between interest, and passion needs to be clarified to correctly answer your question. Someone could be passionate about cooking but you can't really do a whole school project on cooking. An interest that fits into this mold would be more along the lines of how the community works or the natural habitat around you and the species within it. There is a distinction between the two because a problem based learning event really does need to teach you and the rest of your class something. As stated before, I can't really think of a valid interest that would be a good choice for the school environment tailored around teaching an learning that specifically interests me. I guess that if I did need to pick, my problem of choice would be the destruction of habitat in and around Michigan's lakes and beaches but, this isn't a science class.
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Mr. Shaw
6/30/2016 05:05:31 am
Very helpful comments, Hanna. In reply, I would say let's dream big. Let's go for passion. I would argue that if you are truly passionate about cooking, then why couldn't you study it and learn and develop some language arts skills as well? There are people who blog about food, people who write restaurant reviews, people who create cooking videos, etc . . . So, let me clarify that I'm interest not only in what you are curious about but also what you are passionate about. Also, even though you are correct that AP Language is not a science class, there could possibly be room for something like that project. Let's get all the ideas however "crazy" on the table. While I cannot promise anybody anything at this point, if I have a better sense of what your interests and passions may be, I believe I would have a better chance of designing something that might be able to inspire more learning.
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Jacob VanderRoest
6/30/2016 12:15:46 pm
I agree with a lot of what Strauss says. Granted, I've only had to work the past three summers; as a result, I haven't had much work experience which makes my opinion of work less credible. Nevertheless, I do agree that there is a striking difference between work and play in today's society. When I wash dishes in the summer, I do not enjoy it as much as I enjoy free time around the house or with friends. Strauss is completely correct when she claims that work and play are extremely different nowadays. While I do agree with Strauss's claims about today's society, I do not believe that the idea of a "workless" society would be practical nowadays. Today, daily life is completely structured around work. Holidays are extremely enjoyable largely in part of the fact that you don't have to go to work. Everyone looks forward to the weekends because most people don't work on the weekends. Mondays are dreaded today simply because it is the start of the work week. Financial stability derives from work. Our monetary system is driven by work since people obtain money, which they use in the monetary system, through work. These examples reveal how work-oriented our society has become. As a result, abandoning that system would most likely result in the collapse of modern society. People would most likely fend for themselves and chaos would ensue. This is a massive assumption but I believe that a workless society would not function now in our modern era. The workless society pans out for the Piraha (the primitive hunter-gatherers in the Amazon) since that is how they have been conducting society forever. That society works for them since they haven't experienced modern work. The dramatic shift from our work-oriented society to a society that completely abandons that system would be, in my opinion, too drastic of a change and too different from our current society to operate effectively. Overall, I believe that the comments made by Strauss on modern society (such as the difference between work and play and the portrayal of the unemployed) are just and true; however, I do not believe that a workless society could replace our current work-oriented society. The topics that I'm most curious about wouldn't necessarily lend itself to a four-week project for an AP Language and Composition class. My interests and curiosities are incredibly broad. From finding out how the universe was started to ascertaining how practical effects are used in movies, my curiosities are extremely broad. Overall, my major curiosities revolve around science, which doesn't usually go hand in hand with English. I could certainly write articles on topics related to science or movies (which is another topic I'm very interested in) in which I could utilize literary persuasive techniques that we study in school. However, I don't think an assignment like that could take up four weeks.
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Chloe Cassidy
6/30/2016 02:22:34 pm
Perhaps not working would release the stress and "separation" from most families. Perhaps it could influence adult's to find their spark, if you will, that will make them more happy and receive more enjoyment from life as a whole. As for the last thought of schooling being based around student's interests; it's not the first time I've heard this proposal. Schooling is meant to prepare kids for the work world. If school's were to teach children their passions and curiosities in a non-working environment; perhaps everyone would be primarily happy. Furthermore, for those who get depressed from not working they could simply find a hobby or volunteer work. What am I most curious about? I guess I'm most curious about musical theatre. I'm not sure how making a project out of that would be possible; but I love performing.
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Emily Myers
7/1/2016 11:25:12 am
In my opinion a world without work would seem a little empty, but that may just be because my mind is trained to think that way. I think that a the main idea of furthering your education or pursuing a career should be about deepening a passion or hobby. So many people these days are forced in to jobs that they hate or aren't even interested in just for the sake of making money. Even after going to college for an extended period of learning, specified to what your interested in people still are roped into jobs that have nothing to do with what they aspired to be, because they're just not available. Even though these people are qualified for these high level jobs that they want there is a pecking order based on age and you must work your way up it. I believe a world without work or even a world less focused on work would allow people to pursue their aspirations and accomplish more of what they wanted to in their lifetimes without the stressed of the industrialized workplace. As for the project I would really love something more hand on student wise and hands off teacher wise. I really liked the format of the project we did at the end the year in AP lit where we went out and researched the community. I'm not sure exactly what it would be about because I'm not familiar with AP lang's curriculum but I'm really interested in the arts and am wanting to pursue something in the field of becoming a tattoo artist. That's just me, but if the project was focused more on peoples passions and preparing them for what they think their gonna be doing in college that would be very helpful, since not many classes actually focus on helping you majority when your out of school for what you wanna do specifically.
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Sydnie Avery
7/1/2016 06:28:36 pm
I believe that in a world without work, people would discover new passions that would give meaning to their life. The author wrote about how the unemployed in today’s society often become depressed because they have lost meaning in their life. I don’t think that people would feel the same way about not having a job if nobody did. The reason that the unemployed may feel so depressed is because they are outcasts in society. Though they don’t have jobs, they are unable to socialize because all of their friends have jobs. Also, they aren’t making money in a world where everybody else is working to, and that can make things very difficult and stressful. They have a lot of freetime, but there is nowhere that they can go in their free time without having to pay. On the contrary, if nobody had a job, there would always be people to interact with, and nobody would necessarily be making more money than anybody else.
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Brooke McKenna
7/3/2016 08:24:22 pm
A lot of what Strauss wrote makes sense and I agree with most of it. At the end of a work day, when I have some free time, I'm not focusing on my hobbies or anything of the such; I instead just want to sit and veg out. If we didn't have work, maybe that would open more doors for us to do new things as opposed to just lounging around, as Strauss proposed. If we didn't have work, in the beginning, we probably wouldn't know quite what to do. Heck, we might even continue as we have been on our technology and stay away from human interaction still but, over time, we might learn to come together again. It all really matters on how you're brought up. If, while you're young, you don't play with others often and you stay indoors, chances are, your future would look the same and vise versa. To quickly sum this part up, I really agree with the article.
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Rachael Roberts
7/5/2016 02:53:27 pm
Work can often be stressful for families, which can cause separation and problems within households. However, if we started children from a young age with volunteer work in fields they wanted to go into, I feel that they could have a good understanding and that they could then take courses in school that would benefit their future. If students use projects, they could find what they want to do in life, but have fun while doing it. This would cause less stress on workers of all ages. School is to teach kids how to prepare for the real world. So is the first 18 years of a child's life with their parents. If their home and school life is promoting a fun environment, this will cause great interests for them, and allow them to have passion for their jobs. With this, many great advancements can be made in different job fields. My interests revolve around science and music. While those aren't directly related, I believe that there is someway those could be incorporated into an English project.
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Isabella LeClaire
7/6/2016 09:17:16 am
Society would definitely change if there were to be no work anymore. The article talked a bit about how some people are happy at work, but they are bored and sad when not working. This could be very true. Perhaps everyone would be bored in a work free world because there would not be enough things to entertain them in their free time. Robots do not have human minds, so they would have a difficult time creating the next big things out of human interest. Playing with a three year old's toys is not a stage that lasts forever, unless a work free world might mean that people do not mature as quickly. People may not see the point in knowledge because they don't have as much of a reason to use it.
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Alyssa H
8/6/2016 11:40:57 am
A lot of what Strauss says does make sense but the world does need work to function properly. I do feel run down after work sometimes but I need to work to save up for things such as college and a house. I do see that those who do not work get treated so unfairly and that is not right in any way. I say having a job is a choice and if you choose not to have one then by all means do not get one. It would be a nicer thing to have more leisure time though. I enjoy writing and taking walks and jobs can not always leave time for that. A jobless future raises a lot of questions, what would happen to colleges? Without jobs, they will not be able to teach students about such jobs. Also, what of currency? How would anything be obtained without some sort of trading system? A jobless future just does not seem like a likely option for everyone in the world.
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jadin
8/12/2016 10:42:29 am
I agree with something that Ilana Strauss said. I agree with the idea that school would be different. I think that the school would teach us more important thing, things that we can use in life. Instead of being forced to memorize every place, river and then learning everything that happened there, we could learn things like people skills, and we could be better humans. But I don't think that a work free world is going to be a good idea. I believe that people learn thing in a work place that they can't learn from anyone else and things that they don't currently teach you in school. For teens and young adults having a job isn't that big of a deal. I don't think that a work free world is going to be a good thing for people in the U.S.
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Caitlin Demerest
8/18/2016 10:17:12 am
Not to sound completely pessimistic with this response but in my opinion, no matter what way you look at this problem, it just isn't feasible for nobody to work in everyday life or for the society we have created for ourselves. Too many kids a life without work sounds amazing. It’s why so many look forward to summer where a much needed “break for their job” is needed. At the end of the article Strauss explains how school would be different or if a mother was expecting she would receive help from neighbors. Though this sounds amazing, it's just not feasible in my opinion. A parallel to this is how studies show service dogs live longer than normal dogs because their life has more purpose in it, I think humans need to work. There's always this drive to get out and do something. Strauss mentioned how the unemployed suffer more depression than others, though arguably not the best data as they could be depressed because of financial situations and/or other triggers, this could have a link to something like the service dogs. People have a driving need to work in my opinion. Whether it is from a young age where we are taught the difference between work and play or something that’s just programed in us, humans need to fulfill that drive. A life without work may sound good in many aspects, I just don’t think it would ever work.
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Taylor Conner
10/15/2016 11:23:42 am
We look foreward to breaks from school, and breaks from work. Some may say that a world without work would be better, and people would find new passions and things to do just for fun. However, I disagree. Strauss suggested that people won't feel that they have a purpose without work. She wrote, "Without jobs to give their lives meaning, people will simply become lazy and depressed," and I think that's true. I believe that people can find their passion in their work, and what they do everyday. People just have the need to do something and achieve something, and work is needed for that. Work is needed for people to give and take away, and I don't think that a world without work would ever work.
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