“No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this—‘devoted and obedient.’ This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.”
Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing (1860)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged women's history
This week’s Text, in observance of Women’s History Month 2021, is a reading on Marie Curie and radium with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Over time, there will be a variety of Marie Curie-related material on this blog: I have several things in a Women’s History Month folder, and there is already a brief biography of her posted on Mark’s Text Terminal.
This reading concerns Madame Curie’s work with radium, and the extent to which her discoveries about the element drove innovations in medical care, particularly the x-ray and radiotherapy for cancer treatment, as well as radium’s utility as a way to understand the structure of the atom. The reading also contains a brief biography of Madame Curie and her husband. I hadn’t realized that Marie Curie coined the term “radioactive.”
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine. You need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or a major movie star. If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word ‘collectible’ as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success.”
Fran Lebowitz, Social Studies “Parental Guidance” (1981)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, women's history
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Isadora Duncan. This is a short worksheet, three questions, that could be expanded to include a couple more. I expect this would be high-interest material to certain students, so I’ve tagged it as such.
And, of course, Ms. Duncan’s rich life, in the hands of an interested student, is the stuff of a variety of avenues of inquiry, from modern dance to the life of a bohemian, and beyond. Incidentally, did you know that her sister Elizabeth Duncan was also a dancer? Or that her brother Raymond Duncan was as well? Finally, a second brother, Augustin Duncan was an actor and theatrical director who continued to perform and direct even after he had gone blind.
So, a couple of big questions that come out of even this cursory knowledge of the Duncan family are What is an artistic family? and How does an “artistic family” become artistic?
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Margaret Atwood: (1939-) Canadian novelist, poet, and critic. Atwood’s critical work, Survival (1972), argues that victimization is a major theme of Canadian literature and identity; she elaborates this motif in her own writings. Atwood first gained recognition as a poet with The Circle Game (1966), This and later collections of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970), Procedures for Underground (1970), and Power Politics (1971), bitingly expose the myths of everyday life from various perspectives. Atwood’s early novels, The Edible Woman (1969), Surfacing (1972), Lady Oracle (1976), Life Before Man (1979), and Bodily Harm (1981), develop these themes as she describes women’s struggles to cope with a male-dominated society and consumerism. A futuristic dystopia, The Handmaid’s Tale (1984) depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by a misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property. In Cat’s Eye (1988) and The Robber Bride (1993), Atwood returns to a Toronto setting. Her short stories, Dancing Girls (1973), Murder in the Dark (1983), Bluebeard’s Egg (1983), and Wilderness Tips (1991), are less well known than her novels, but the form is well suited to Atwood’s sardonic humor and use of startling imagery. Good Bones (1992) is a potpourri of eclectic writings.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, women's history
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on feminism. This is about as bare bones as these worksheets come: a one-sentence reading followed by one question.
Nonetheless, it is a solid basic introduction to feminism, and something that could prompt a conversation on, among other things, whether feminism is a “radical ideology.”
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
[Arguing for the admittance of women to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court;] “The glory of each generation is to make its own precedents.”
Belva Lockwood, Speech to National Convention of Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, D.C., 16-17 Jan. 1877
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman, in 1984, nominated to run on a presidential ticket.
Specifically, Ms. Ferraro, at the time a United States Congresswoman, was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate on the ticket the included Walter Mondale, himself a former vice president in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. She served first in 1993 as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, after which President Bill Clinton elevated her to the position of United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Along the way, she served in the various kinds of think-tank and media sinecures (including a time on CNN’s execrable “Crossfire,” as well as on Fox News) generally available to retired politicians.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“What Mary Shelley novel is sent in the future? The Last Man (1826). Set in the twenty-first century, it depicts England as a republic and describes the destruction of humanity by plague.”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, readings/research, women's history
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Charlotte and Emily Bronte. Are the Brontes taught in high school?
If nothing else, this is an interesting artistic family: lesser-known sister Anne also a writer, perhaps because she originally published her novels under the name Acton Bell which may account for her public status among her more famous sister; she also died young, at 29, of tuberculosis. She was also the youngest of six children–in addition to the four siblings mentioned here, two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, rounded out the family. Branwell Bronte, also a writer and an accomplished translator, was also a painter, for which he is primarily known. He too died young, the result of unhappiness and, apparently, drug addiction.
The patriarch of the family, Patrick Bronte (Branwell Bronte carried the full name Patrick Branwell Bronte, after his father and his mother’s–Maria Branwell–maiden name), was a clergyman of humble Irish origins.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
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