DEMOCRACY

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DEMOCRACY
Do They Get It?
by Holly Smith, AASU, LLP
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Freshman Comp I Assignment for E.B. White's
DemocracyMake sure you understand every word
of this text before you come to class.
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Democracy E.B. White We received a letter from
the Writers War Board the other day asking for a
statement on The Meaning of Democracy. It
presumably is our duty to comply with such a
request, and it is certainly our pleasure. Surely
the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line
that forms on the right. It is the dont in dont
shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt
through which the sawdust slowly trickles it is
the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the
recurrent suspicion that more than half of the
people are right more than half of the time. It
is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths,
the feeling of communion in the libraries, the
feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a
letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at
the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which
hasnt been disproved yet, a song the words of
which have not gone bad. Its the mustard on the
hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee.
Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the
middle of a morning in the middle of a war,
wanting to know what democracy is.
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Democracy What Do They Get?
Small Groups Pick out concepts ESL students
probably will not understand.
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Democracy What Do They Get?
Small Groups Why don't the ESL students
understand these concepts?
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Democracy What Do They Get?
Small Groups What information must you (the
instructor) provide the ESL students?
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DEMOCRACY
What they didn't get...
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Democracy E.B. White We received a letter from
the XXXXXXXX the other day asking for a statement
on The Meaning of Democracy. It presumably is
our duty to comply with such a request, and it is
certainly our pleasure. Surely the Board knows
what democracy is. It is the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
It is the xxxxxxxxxxxxx. It is the xxxx in the
xxxxxxxxxxxxx through which the
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx it is the xxxx in the
xxxxxxxxx. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion
that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx. It is the feeling of privacy in the
voting booths, the feeling of xxxxxxxxx in the
libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.
Democracy is a xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Democracy is
the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. It is an
idea which hasnt been disproved yet, a song the
words of which have not gone bad. Its the
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and the cream in the
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Democracy is a request from a
War Board, in the middle of a morning in the
middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy
is.
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Democracy E.B. White We received a letter from
the Writers War Board the other day asking for a
statement on The Meaning of Democracy. It
presumably is our duty to comply with such a
request, and it is certainly our pleasure. Surely
the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line
that forms on the right. It is the dont in dont
shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt
through which the sawdust slowly trickles it is
the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the
recurrent suspicion that more than half of the
people are right more than half of the time. It
is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths,
the feeling of communion in the libraries, the
feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a
letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at
the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which
hasnt been disproved yet, a song the words of
which have not gone bad. Its the mustard on the
hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee.
Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the
middle of a morning in the middle of a war,
wanting to know what democracy is.
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Democracy What They Didn't Get
Here's what they DIDN'T get!
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Democracy What They Didn't Get
Unedited responses from Regular Comp. I students
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Hole in the stuffed shirt through which the
sawdust slowly trickles

• This deals with the working man, who labors for
  democracy. Everyone seems to think that democracy
  is small and insignificant like the hole in his
  shirt.
• The shirt represents the government and the
  sawdust is the democratic idea, it slowly
  trickles through the government to the people.

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Hole in the stuffed shirt through which the
sawdust slowly trickles

• The people are the driving force for the
  representatives of the people they support.
• There are people who want to run this country
  their own way (stuffed shirt) and democracy
  allows us to see their bad side (sawdust).

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Dent in the high hat

• A high hat is straight and stable. In the same
  way, a dent is an imperfection in the high hat,
  democracy has it flaws.
• Dent in the high hat means that nothing is
  perfect and there will always be a flaw.
• The dent in the hat because a government will
  never be perfect.

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Dent in the high hat

• Democracy (the dent) is what prevents people with
  upper status and/or large incomes (the high hat)
  from controlling everything.
• The dent in the high hat? Common people are not
  the only ones with flaws, those in high positions
  have them also.

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Score at the beginning of the ninth

• People think that the scores in the beginning of
  the ninth do not matter. It mattered as much as
  the end of the ninth. Democracy's history is just
  as important as today's system.
• The score at the beginning of the ninth
  everything falls into place near the end.

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Score at the beginning of the ninth

• The score at the beginning of the ninth? A
  struggle for success, once you establish what you
  have it is hard to change but it can be done.
• Democracy allows us to know what the outcome of
  an election will be.

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Cream in the rationed coffee

• There is irony in the fact that an army's limited
  supply of coffee comes with cream. This leads the
  reader to think that democracy has surplus
  benefits.
• While the government may ration things that we
  like or want (coffee), democracy is the part of
  that government that makes it okay (the cream).

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Cream in the rationed coffee

• Cream in the rationed coffee? It makes what
  little you have better.

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Democracy What They Didn't Get
If this is what the native speakers understood,
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Democracy What Didn't They Get?
Then what do you think the ESL students got from
E.B. White's text?
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Democracy What Didn't They Get?
The regular students missed this reference,
too...
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Democracy
is the recurrent suspicion that more than half
of the people are right more than half of the
time. -- E.B. White
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You can fool some of the people some of the time
and all of the people some of the time, but you
can't fool all of the people all of the time.
-- Abraham Lincoln
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Well, you could have fooled me...
No matter who the student, we can't assume we're
operating from the same cultural context!
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DEMOCRACY
How can we help
them get it?
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DEMOCRACY
Do They Get It?
Thank you for your attention!
Holly Smith, AASU, LLP smithhol_at_mail.armstrong.edu
smithkovalev_at_bellsouth.net