Megan A. Devlin, Social Studies
madevli@ilstu.edu
Project F.I.R.S.T
University High School
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois 61790-7100
(309) 438-8448
"Demography, or the study of population, provides up to date statistics that government and businesses use to plan for the future. Demography has been part of government planning since the Constitution established the federal census in 1787 to keep track of the moving population for the reapportioning of the House of Representatives"
(University High School freshman).
About the time University of Chicago sociologists were going to press with their surprising findings about the sex lives of average Americans, some younger sociologists working about 130 miles to the southwest were 'publishing' some sociological findings of their own. Each freshman at University High School in Normal, Illinois recently completed a paper presenting and analyzing demographic statistics for the entire freshman class and their families. The paper was a joint assignment of the social studies and English classes in the F.I.R.S.T. (Freshman Initiative for Restructuring Schools Together) program, but it was also supported by mathematics teachers in the program and related to statistical information students gathered in their wellness classes. The FIRST program, in its second year at Univeristy High School at Illinois State, was designed to promote interdisciplinary efforts like this paper. Its first effort to draw several disciplines into a single project this year occurred almost accidentally, but over an eight-week period this paper drew students into applying skills from math, social science, and English to the single task of analyzing themselves as a social group.
"The purpose of this paper is to analyze just what a 'typical' U-High freshman really is. The information used in this paper was collected by the students from the Class of 1998....The information gathered could be beneficial to the school in planning curriculum to meet the needs of the students as they prepare for jobs and careers. I had not paid attention to demographics in the past and now I feel I have a better understanding of what demographics are and how they apply to me."
Please note: Ellipses in student text indicate a shift in author.
The analysis in writing of "A Typical U High Freshman" was almost an after thought assignment to a more basic, getting-to know-you and oral research assignment from the start of the school year. In the first weeks of the quarter the freshman class completed surveys of themselves, a parent, and a grandparent, and much of the data from these surveys were compiled for the group either in class or by teachers. Compiled statistics included facts about birth places, education levels, occupations, family size, ages when parents had their first children, and ethnic backgrounds (grouped by regions). Students then calculated percentages of the total for groups within each subject, as well as averages, medians, and modes for quantitative data like parent age and family size. Students also presented pie graphs of some of the data using protractors and angle calculations to represent the percentages. Some presentation of the information in writing seemed called for, and a hurried outline for a writing assignment was prepared for students with the idea that they would complete a basic reiteration of essential statistics in about a week's time.
The following excerpts serve as examples of students' writing.
"The typical freshman was born in McLean County. Over 57% of us were born here. Most of our parents, however, were not. ... This could be because many of our parents and grandparents have moved here after they became adults, while we have not had a chance to move yet. ...Only 2.3% of us were born outside the United States. This is probably because, again, we are only fourteen years old, and because McLean County is not a primary site of immigration."
About this time, however, students had mastered enough keyboarding skills to start using a computer writing lab for the process of drafting and revision, and the writing teachers suggested extending the deadline for a more polished product. The resulting assignment was a paper in which students were asked to identify significant statistical facts, to make generalizations, and to suggest explanations for some of the statistics. In doing so, they were encouraged to compare data across generations or with similar data from the national and county census findings. These were provided and discussed in the context of discussions of demographics and local history in their social studies classes. Students were given time in writing lab in their English classes to write initial organizing and idea drafts, with the English teachers using the assignment to emphasize that writing is a process. Classes of "Soclish" (social studies and English; the instructors dismissed "social English" as sounding too much like a disease) were even co-taught on a few occasions, when students could get comments on both the writing and content of their papers.
"The education statistics show a definite increase in the level of education between the grandparents' and the parents' generation. The trend toward more education with each generation indicates that higher education has become more available and valued."
Papers went through several drafts as students were asked to consider the data they most wanted to focus on, the reasons they could think of for the results, the way numbers could be presented to suggest different things, and applicable rules of writing (such as the rule that numbers at the beginning of a sentence should be written out, a lesson that was not fully learned by all).
"Almost nine-tenths of our parents have an education beyond high school. This number is much higher than the national average of only 39.8%.... Compared to the 1990 census, almost twice the amount of U-High freshmen parents have four or more years of college. A reason for this might be that many jobs here in McLean County require a degree in college. ...44.4% of our parents had four years of college. 15.9% have their masters and 9.3% have a Doctorate [sic]. Compare this to the 21.4% of the U.S. with any of these degrees and you will see that our parents are exceptionally well educated. This, again, can be attributed to the high rate of college education-needed [sic] occupations in McLean County, the fact that Bloomington-Normal is a two university [sic] town, and the high quality of living that attracts educated people."
Can high school freshmen do sociological analysis? The answer, at least as demonstrated by the completed work of this class is a qualified yes. Students spent over a month working with the data after they were compiled, but the writing process produced more anxiety than had been anticipated. The authors of the project agreed that in future renditions the analysis could be scaled down to focus on just one aspect of the findings instead of five. This would allow students time to think about the logic behind their interpretation of the data and more time to focus on the clearest way of presenting complex quantitative information. Even after exhortations to narrow down their focus, many students felt compelled to include every calculated statistic in their papers, burdening themselves with more facts than they could reasonably interpret.
"One of the main jobs for our great-grandfathers was farming. During this time more than one fourth (28.5%) of our great-grandfathers were farmers. The percentage of farmers dropped from one fourth to about one tenth (11.1%) between our great grandfathers and our grandfathers. It seems that when our grandfathers were old enough, approximately one half of them picked farming as there [sic] job. The reason for this could have been the reduction in family farms and the increase in education lead many to other types of work...."
"About 2/3 of the Freshmen's fathers hold white-collar jobs. Only 3 in 20 are blue collar laborers. Since about one-half of the grandfathers were blue collar workers and about a quarter of the great-grandfathers were white collar workers, it is evident that jobs have changed from physical labor to mental labor. This may be because of the advent of computers....Only .7% of our fathers work as farmers, and in the whole U.S. population there are only 2.9% making a living as farmers. This is most likely because the farmers are more productive and to be successful they need more and bigger farmland, so the small farmers have been squeezed out. The population has grown so there have to be more homes and things like that. Also, there are a lot of factories here in McLean Co., like Diamond Star Motors and Eureka, and that could take away from the farming jobs. ..."
"Three-fourths of the mothers of Freshmen work outside of the home. We can compare this to the statistic that 3/4 of the great-grandmothers worked inside the home. The reason may be because women have become more independent. ..."
"One third of U-High Freshmen have two siblings. Great-grandfathers more often had 3-4 siblings. This trend of decreasing children for parents is probably because when the great-great-grandfathers were of child bearing age, they had a use for kids as helping hands. On the other hand, most people [now] aren't living at places where children are needed."
Many students, nonetheless, made insightful statements about the aspects of their historic, geographic, economic, and sociological backgrounds that might produce the results they found. Admittedly, a few struggled to make more than basic generalizations about the data, but even these demonstrated increased skill with quantitative analysis in a science assignment shortly following the paper. For the most part, students rose to the challenge and demonstrated basic skills in numerical analysis, understanding of social factors, and improvement in their writing from draft to revision. More importantly, despite many complaints going into and through the working time, most students in their papers' introductions and conclusions suggested that they found the analysis of their own group an interesting experience. Many acknowledged gaining new insight into the ways they were typical and atypical of Americans in general, at least as represented by U.S. census data.
Who are these amazing freshmen who can do such thinking? They can tell you themselves, in excerpts from their own papers.
"A typical U-High freshman was born in McLean County in 1979. His/Her parents are white collar workers who went to college for four years. They are 43 years old. His [sic] grandparents are 70 years old. His grandfather was a blue collar worker and his grandmother worked inside the house. His grandparents received a high school education and were born in Illinois, as were their own children. The typical U-High freshman has a Northern European ethnic background."
Is there hope for an America with such analytical skills in its 14- and 15- year olds? Definitely, especially if they are not underestimated by their teachers but encouraged to work on relevant projects with the support of as many teachers and disciplines as possible. Is this work 'typical' of the kind of work freshman can do? Try it and send us the results; we'd bet our freshmen could analyze the data for you, and you might find out that yours can too.
"I have concluded, from the above, that Illinois is to America as America is to the world. We attract all different kinds of people from all different places."
Megan Devlin is one of two social studies teachers in the FIRST team, a team of ten teachers covering the five freshman core disciplines (social studies, English, geometry, biology, and wellness) at University High School in Normal, Illinois. The project described in this article was collegial developed and supported by the efforts of all the teachers on this team.