Understanding American Values from Robert Kohl

HW:  For next week Tuesday please: 1) read Thrive in your packet   2)do the "nothing" assignment.

For today, I want to examine the Kohl reading and see if you can apply the values from the reading to the God Grew Tired of Us movie and to your own life.

1.  Individually, react to the Kohl reading.  What are some of the values that Kohl mentions that you easily agree Americans have?  What are some specific examples that you can cite from your own life that show these values shaping either you or your parents or another example?

Value                          Example

____________________     __________________________________________________________________

2.  Pick your best example of how these values are at play in The United States or at SHS or in your own life.  Take turns sharing each person’s best example.  Oldest person in the group goes first.  Write down the values that others share and their example:

Value                          Example

____________________     __________________________________________________________________

3.  As a group, identify values that are contradictory to U.S. values from the film God Grew Tired of Us.

Value                          Example

____________________     __________________________________________________________________

  

4.  Look at the list of values that Americans hold.  Identify American values that might compliment each other.  These are called value clusters.  List them here:

Value Cluster: ­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________________________

Now look for American values that might contradict the other American values.  These are called value contradictions.  List them here:

Value Contradiction: ________________________________________________________________________

5.  Do you think Americans value happiness?  Why? How?