September 2001: Family and Community Check out these interdisciplinary activity ideas, TV programs, and online resources for your classroom. Return in October for ideas relating to Hispanic Heritage! Teaching Ideas It All Adds Up One of the things parents or caregivers have to do is to keep track of the family finances. Who keeps track of expenses in the household? Children could interview him or her to determine what different family expenses cost each month. These may include: rent or mortgage car payments food auto insurance utilities Make a pie chart to show total expenses, and what percentage of the total is from food, rent, etc. Also, calculate what each type of expense amounts to over the course of a year. Share these results with the family bill payer. Is anything surprising about the results? What steps could your family take to reduce one or more of these expenses (using coupons, turning off the air conditioning while you're away from home, etc.)? Ask grandparents or older neighbors about these expenses several decades ago. What did it cost to own a home? How much did they pay for an automobile? Try to calculate the percent increase of each type of expense. Older children can expand on this by learning about inflation and the Consumer Price Index by visiting The U.S. Government Consumer Price Index Homepage (which includes an automatic inflation calculator) and Morgan Friedman's Inflation Calculator. Younger children can expand this activity by creating a personal budget. What are their sources of income, if any? What are their expenses? Do they wish to give money to a local church or charity? Would they like to save money for anything special? How long will it take to do that? This budget might be displayed in the child's room or in the kitchen. And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor... School-Business Partnerships Nationwide, there's a lot of debate going on about commercialism in America's public schools. Those who support school-business partnerships argue that these alliances increase community interest in a school's success and supplement school budgets that are often too small to meet all student needs. Those who argue against corporate involvement in schools believe that public education should be a "commercial-free zone" and that donated materials, equipment, and curriculum are little better than direct advertising to a captive audience of students. How does your community feel about this issue? To assess how your school stands, take the school walk-through survey created by the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education. Then, poll teachers, administrators, and business leaders about their opinions. What are acceptable ways for schools and local businesses to work together? What types of involvement make members of your community uncomfortable? Visit the Communities in Schools Web site to gain additional perspectives on school-business partnerships. Results may be shared with your local school board, city government, or others. For more information about school funding, visit the PBS Merrow Report Web site. PBS Online Resources: Sites to See Economy/Business/Livelihood: Livelyhood http://www.pbs.org/livelyhood Explore how workplace trends (globalization, telecommuting, etc.) affect family and community life. Escape from Affluenza http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/escape/ How important is "keeping up with the Joneses" to your students? Investigate consumption and material spending. Troublesome Creek http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/trouble/ Read about the problems faced by family farmers. People Like Us: Social Class in America http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/ Use games, quizzes, articles, and more to learn about social classes. Store Wars http://www.pbs.org/storewars/ What happens when Wal-Mart comes to town? Learn about one community's response. Need.com http://www.pbs.org/weblab/needcom/ Interactive polls and discussion forums offer a closer look at people's responses to panhandlers. Take It From Me http://www.pbs.org/pov/takeitfromme/ Analyze the impact of welfare reforms on women and children. Family Issues: American Love Stories http://www.pbs.org/weblab/lovestories/ Take a look at some unconventional American families. Frontline: Juvenile Justice http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/juvenile/ Learn about how communities across America are dealing with the problem of juvenile offenders. Frontline: Lost Children of Rockdale County http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rockdale/ Examine how a syphilis epidemic in an affluent Atlanta suburb forced a community to reexamine its parent-child relationships. Frontline: Little Criminals http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/little/ What makes very young children commit violent crimes, and how can our society solve the problems? The Farmers Wife http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/farmerswife/ Follow the struggle of one farm family to salvage a farm and a marriage. Ready To Live (Jesse's Gone) http://www.pbs.org/pov/jesse/ Read about artistic community responses to gang violence. Just One Night http://www.pbs.org/justone/ Investigate how a drunk driving incident changes life in a New Hampshire community. Frontline: High Price of Health http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hmo/ What health care options exist for American families? Frontline investigates. On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying http://www.pbs.org/wnet/onourownterms/ Investigate how families across America are grappling with end-of-life care. Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race: Frontline: Secret Daughter http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/ Read the personal stories of a white mother and mixed-race daughter who kept their relationship secret. Homecoming http://www.pbs.org/homecoming/ Take a multigenerational look at African American family farming in Georgia. My American Girls http://www.pbs.org/pov/myamericangirls/ Spend a year in the life of an immigrant family from the Dominican Republic. Well Founded Fear http://www.pbs.org/pov/wellfoundedfear/ Spend some time inside the minds of INS officials investigating asylum applications. The New Americans http://www.pbs.org/newamericans/ Follow the stories of recent immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Nigeria. La Boda http://www.pbs.org/pov/laboda/ Learn about life and marriage in a U.S.-Mexico border community. The Forgotten Americans http://www.pbs.org/klru/forgottenamericans/ Read about the struggles of Mexican laborers in the Colonias communities of southern Texas. Twilight: Los Angeles http://www.pbs.org/wnet/stageonscreen/twilight/index.html Learn more about the 1992 L.A. riots through the work of playwright Anna Deveare Smith. Forgotten Fires http://www.pbs.org/forgottenfires/ Investigate how hate crimes haunted a small South Carolina town. Not In Our Town http://www.pbs.org/niot/ Take action against hate crimes in your community. For Younger Students: Mister Rogers: Build a Neighborhood http://www.pbs.org/rogers/R_house/build.htm Reinforce common elements of community in this online Shockwave game. Mister Rogers: Picture Picture: Factories http://www.pbs.org/rogers/R_house/picpic.htm This online activity reinforces sequential thinking while introducing children to common industries. PBS Kids Democracy Project: How Does Government Affect Me? http://www.pbs.org/democracy/kids/mygovt/index.html Click around this virtual town to see how government influences everyday places and objects in your area. Learning Adventures in Citizenship http://www.pbs.org/newyork/laic/ Use these online games, contests, and offline lessons to explore local history and the qualities of a good citizen. PBS Programs Don't miss these programs airing in September! Livelyhood: Planet Work Airs Friday, September 7 at 8:00 p.m. MT/PT In its third season on PBS, LIVELYHOOD presents the second part of a two-part special that explores how globalization of the world economy is transforming the way we work (Part 1 aired in August 2001). With a "glass is half full" approach, LIVELYHOOD goes on a global search for solutions to the growing problems of a smaller world. On the way, viewers meet people and businesses pioneering new models, where corporate, employee and community interests merge. Like it or not, most people's work lives are affected by globalization in ways only now becoming clear. This program explores how the culture of everyday work lives is changing and the challenges the new economy poses to human relationships, including differences in culture, language and time zones. Juggling Work and Family Airs Sunday, September 16 at 9:00/8:00 p.m. MT/PT JUGGLING WORK AND FAMILY focuses on the increasing tensions between job and home life in the fast-paced new economy where Americans are working long, earning more, but seeing less of their families and struggling with the resulting stress. Exploring the upsurge in working couples and single parents, the program examines how companies and unions are seeking to ease the conflict between work and family with child-care centers, subsidies and alternative work schedules that include part-time work, job-sharing and telecommuting. JUGGLING WORK AND FAMILY looks at high-tech industry, hospitals, law firms, the hotel industry and manufacturing, profiling managers, rank-and-file employees and minority group representatives. People Like Us: Social Class in America Airs Sunday, September 23 at 9:00/8:00 p.m. PEOPLE LIKE US: SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA examines American life, past and present, through the prism of the nation's unique class structure. The documentary explores how social class plays a role in the lives of all Americans, whether they live in Park Avenue penthouses, Appalachian trailer parks, bayou houseboats or suburban gated communities. As the film crew travels across the country, they find stories that resonate with viewers, regardless of where they see themselves on the social spectrum - stories of family tradition, class mobility or lifestyle choices. People talk about how they view their own social status and about how class perceptions affect their relationships. Surviving The Good Times Airs Monday, September 10 at 8:00 p.m. MT/PT SURVIVING THE GOOD TIMES was filmed over a 10-year period. It is the third installment in a series of award-winning documentaries that chronicle the Neumann and Stanley families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "I believe we have produced a definitive account of how the changes in the American economy in the last part of the 20th century have affected working families," says Bill Moyers. Since 1991, Moyers and filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes have returned often to Milwaukee, to film the day-to-day challenges faced by these hard-working families. This unprecedented project began as corporations in Milwaukee and across the industrial Midwest were eliminating manufacturing jobs and relocating them to cheaper labor markets. Terry and Tony Neumann and Jackie and Claude Stanley found their worlds turned upside down when the breadwinners in each family were laid off by two pillars of Milwaukee's economy, Briggs & Stratton and A. O. Smith. Parents in each family scrambled to find new jobs. They upgraded their skills, retooled their resumes and put in more hours on the job - for lower wages.