Answer to Question 1
An ideal response will:
1. Discuss the challenges faced by women and people of color in the United States, for example, struggles for political and economic equality.
2. Explain how the change in perspective might change the student's perception of equality and equality of opportunity in America by making it seem harder or easier.
3. Discuss how it could change other aspects of the student's lifefor example, the student might cite the fact that more women and people of color live in poverty and suffer discrimination in employment and education.
4. Explain how it could affect the student's views, using examples such as the fact that women and minorities tend to support the Democratic Party over the Republican Party.
5. Provide a clear and effective conclusion.
Answer to Question 2
An ideal response will:
1. Explain how, in making those statements, de Tocqueville was referring to the geographically large and politically isolated nature of the United States.
2. Discuss how America's geographic isolation allowed it to develop relatively free from the interference of other major powers.
3. Discuss how the United States has been relatively safe from attack within its continental borders, with rare exceptions, those being the War of 1812 and the terrorist strikes at the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001.
4. Explain how America's geographic isolation may be less important because of the changing nature of threats (terrorists) and advances in technology.
5. Present an argument as to whether de Tocqueville's observation remains correct in light of the previous points.
6. Provide a clear and effective conclusion
Ogburn's Processes of Social Change
Climate Change
How to solve any percent change problem
Rock cores as indicators of environmental change
The ability of a community to cope, adapt to, and mitigate the accelerating impact of climate change
Change is hard at first messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end