Choose two of the three following prompts for your midterm response. At least one response should be a 2-3 page [ XXXXXXXXXXwords] essay. The second can be an essay or PowerPoint, visual essay, or...

Choosetwoof the three following prompts for your midterm response. At least one response should be a 2-3 page [275-550 words] essay. The second can be an essay or PowerPoint, visual essay, or video presentation. You must draw from videos and readings we have covered in class so far; outside material and a bibliography are not needed. Be sure to address each part of the prompt, provide specific details, and carefully proofread your writing.

1. Poems such as “Digging” and some of our videos on the agrarian and craft life show that work can be more than a job; it can be connected to family and community. Choose two of our readings or videos and comment on the ways in which work or the work ethic can unite more than one generation of a family.


2. Some texts address the pleasures and satisfaction of work. Choose two readings or videos and compare and contrast the ways in which they depict the positive aspects of work.


3. In the Week 6 Overview, we read a quote by economic and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin about the changing nature of time relating to work. He also said: "Without the clock, industrial life would not have been possible. The clock conditioned the human mind to perceive time as external, autonomous, continuous…Time was snatched away from its biological and environmental moorings and locked up inside the gears of an automated machine that now parceled it out in steady, nondescript beats." (103) Reflect on the role of time in the working life. Select at least two readings or videos and explain how they relate to Rifkin’s quotes. How does this compare or contrast with our own conceptions of work and time?