In the beginning of the year, we watched a short film in my English class about the children in Appalachia. It really shocked me looking at how different their lives were than ours. You always hear the jokes about states like West Virginia. Oh, they marry their cousins. Oh, they live in trailers. Oh, they overdose on anything they can find. This video showed me that those aren't just "jokes." Those are real life problems that need to be focused on.
Nobody wants to think that this stuff is going on so close to home. The United States isn't supposed to have problems like this, which makes the idea hard for people to grasp. So we are considering to bring attention to the problems that are close to home, the Appalachian children suffering from being born into "the wrong place at the wrong time."
I'm really glad you picked this problem to investigate. I saw that video, and read THE GLASS CASTLE and it became a bit more real for me.
ReplyDeleteYou might think about trying to contact Jeanette Walls, the author of THE GLASS CASTLE. I saw her speak once, and I know she goes to speak at schools. Maybe you could ask her a question or two as your interview. Even if you couldn't talk to her, maybe you could get an email response. Worth a try.
I really like this idea as a topic for your project. I like how you guys are also focusing on issues and problems that need to be fixed close to home because I do not think they get enough attention. I agree with what you said about how people do not want to think that things like the issues with the children in the Appalachian Mountains and other problems exist so close to their home. I also agree with how these things are not suppose to happen in American and that is why we should fix them first. I am a firm believer in the fact that we should fix the problems here before we try and fix the world’s problems.
ReplyDeleteI honestly never had any idea about this. I feel like this is a big problem that really no one really knows about. I think it is a very good topic, and that raising awareness to this would be a really good thing, and open the ideas to many because it is in our own country. It is a very tragic thing to think about, and just the fact that it is so close to here, I feel some people may be affected by what you are going to do in raising awareness.
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