Writing Assignment for “The Value of Life”
Respond to the following prompt as your final assessment of learning for this module.
“The Value of Life” learning module explores different ways of looking at life’s value. The module presents a number of different voices that provide insights into the value of a human life. For example, Hamlet’s soliloquy offers an emotional, metaphor-laden glimpse into the thinking of a young man contemplating suicide. Chris Jones’s interview with Roger Ebert uses first-hand observations and excerpts from Ebert’s blog and movie reviews to convey how the film critic, who is dying of cancer, thinks about life. Amanda Ripley’s article from Time magazine reveals problems involved in translating the concept of valuing life from abstract terms into concrete dollars and cents. “A Human Life Value Calculator” establishes specific criteria for assigning monetary value to a person’s life. Kenneth Feinberg reveals how he made changes to compensating families of victims whose deaths were deemed to be caused by government negligence resulting in a terrorist attack, and why he feels the change was necessary. Furthermore, various poems, speeches, and films provide a rich variety of perspectives regarding this concept of the value of a human life.
You might not fully agree or disagree with the texts’ various claims about the value of life. This is fine. In fact, your voice is an important part of the discussion about how we value our lives and the lives of others. What are your ideas and opinions about the value of life, and how do they fit into the terrain mapped by the other texts we have read? Is it ever right or necessary to assign dollar values to a person’s life? Do suffering and illness impact how valuable a life is?
Assuming that the audience for your piece consists of intelligent citizens interested in this issue—the same types of people, for instance, who would read Time magazine—write an essay in which you discuss different ways of looking at the value of life. Include a two-part thesis statement that clearly states your position, and be sure that whatever you say about this topic relates to your thesis. You must include references to and commentary on a minimum of four sources, which must include at least one from each of the Idea Groups below (plus one more from any of the groups.) The four poems follow this writing prompt.
Idea Group 1Idea Group 2
“Barter”What is a Life Worth? (ERWC)
Crash (film) What is the Value of a Human Life? (ERWC)
Speak (film)A Human Life Value Calculator (ERWC)
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
Hamlet’s third soliloquy (ERWC)
Idea Group 3
Stanford University Commencement Address (ERWC)
Roger Ebert: The Essential Man (ERWC)
“Ability To Matter”
“Lift Off”
As you write your essay, think about the different ways the above authors make their points about valuing life. Depending on points you are trying to make, you might want to use some metaphors for life, as Hamlet does, or share observations and anecdotes the way Chris Jones does. On the other hand, you may choose to include some words from people you interview, as Ripley does in her article, or you might even decide to establish some criteria for how human life should be calculated in monetary terms, as Feinberg did. As you construct your essay, make conscious choices about how to represent your ideas to your reader about assigning value to human life.
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers by Adrienne Rich
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
Ability to Matter by Thomas Adams
Everybody wants to matter.
Sometimes we make a difference,
But we don’t know it—or worse—
We don’t care. That’s the biggest sin.
Because who are we anyway,
To reject or dismiss the possibility,
The responsibility, or maybe simply
The ability to matter to someone else?
Haven’t we all felt the burning tears
Of rejection, the enclosing shroud
Of loneliness, the outrage
Of being chosen second, or last,
Or maybe not even at all?
When someone calls and we don’t respond
Maybe just because we aren’t overly fond
Of the caller, didn’t we just add another stone
To the wall across which we’ve scrawled
“Keep out!” “Stay away!” and “Leave me alone!”?
Everybody wants to matter, so
If you know you make a difference
In someone’s life, be there to thank them,
For theirs is the gift.
Lift Off by Donovan Livingston
“Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin,
Is a great equalizer of the conditions of men.” – Horace Mann, 1848.
At the time of his remarks I couldn’t read — couldn’t write.
Any attempt to do so, punishable by death.
For generations we have known of knowledge’s infinite power.
Yet somehow, we’ve never questioned the keeper of the keys —
The guardians of information.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen more dividing and conquering
In this order of operations — a heinous miscalculation of reality.
For some, the only difference between a classroom and a plantation is time.
How many times must we be made to feel like quotas —
Like tokens in coined phrases? —
“Diversity. Inclusion.”
There are days I feel like one, like only —
A lonely blossom in a briar patch of broken promises.
But I’ve always been a thorn in the side of injustice.
Disruptive. Talkative. A distraction.
With a passion that transcends the confines of my consciousness —
Beyond your curriculum, beyond your standards.
I stand here, a manifestation of love and pain,
With veins pumping revolution.
I am the strange fruit that grew too ripe for the poplar tree.
I am a DREAM Act, Dream Deferred incarnate.
I am a movement – an amalgam of memories America would care to forget
My past alone won’t allow me to sit still.
So my body, like the mind,
Cannot be contained.
As educators, rather than raising your voices
Over the rustling of our chains,
Take them off. Un-cuff us.
Unencumbered by the lumbering weight
Of poverty and privilege,
Policy and ignorance,
I was in the 7th grade, when Ms. Parker told me,
“Donovan, we can put your excess energy to good use!”
And she introduced me to the sound of my own voice.
She gave me a stage. A platform.
She told me that our stories are ladders
That make it easier for us to touch the stars.
So climb and grab them.
Keep climbing. Grab them.
Spill your emotions in the big dipper and pour out your soul.
Light up the world with your luminous allure.
To educate requires Galileo-like patience.
Today, when I look my students in the eyes, all I see are constellations.
If you take the time to connect the dots,
You can plot the true shape of their genius —
Shining in their darkest hour.
I look each of my students in the eyes,
And see the same light that aligned Orion’s Belt
And the pyramids of Giza.
I see the same twinkle
That guided Harriet to freedom.
I see them. Beneath their masks and mischief,
Exists an authentic frustration;
An enslavement to your standardized assessments.
At the core, none of us were meant to be common.
We were born to be comets,
Darting across space and time —
Leaving our mark as we crash into everything.
A crater is a reminder that something amazing happened here —
An indelible impact that shook up the world.
Are we not astronomers — looking for the next shooting star?
I teach in hopes of turning content into rocket ships —
Tribulations into telescopes,
So a child can see their potential from right where they stand.
An injustice is telling them they are stars
Without acknowledging night that surrounds them.
Injustice is telling them education is the key
While you continue to change the locks.
Education is no equalizer —
Rather, it is the sleep that precedes the American Dream.
So wake up — wake up! Lift your voices
Until you’ve patched every hole in a child’s broken sky.
Wake up every child so they know of their celestial potential.
I’ve been a Black hole in the classroom for far too long;
Absorbing everything, without allowing my light escape.
But those days are done. I belong among the stars.
And so do you. And so do they.
Together, we can inspire galaxies of greatness
For generations to come.
No, sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning.
Lift off.
Barter by Sara Teasdale
Life has loveliness to sell—
All beautiful and splendid things;
Blue waves whitened on a cliff;
Climing fire that sways and sings;
And children’s faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.
Life has loveliness to sell—
Music like a curve of gold;
The scent of pine trees in the rain;
Eyes that love you, arms that hold.
And for the spirit’s still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.
Spend all you have for loveliness—
Buy it and never count the cost.
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost.
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.