Historia Liberorum

Post #13: 2nd Critique

2005-05-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

Here is my critique of Brendan's final paper:

Brendan did a good job of combining narrative with evidence to support his thesis that Mattel was an innovator in the children’s toy business. I found his paper both informative and interesting. Though I was aware of the popularity of Barbie dolls with girls and Hot Wheels with boys, I never knew the story behind them or that they were both Mattel products. That the Barbie doll originated from a German bachelor party gag gift, or that its proportions equate to a 38”-18”-33” “real life” figure are just a couple of the anecdotal facts making this paper an entertaining read.

There was also a good deal of evidence in the paper to show that Mattel was an innovative company. In addition to the Barbie doll and Hot Wheels toys, the paper mentioned newer toys such as video games. It also addressed the business aspects of selling these toys by discussing Mattel’s innovative marketing solutions which included sponsorships and licensing. Further, the paper dealt with a few of the social implications of these toys, such as perceptions of beauty, portrayals of ethnicity, and inculcation of consumerism. The topic sentences of most of the paragraphs did a pretty good job of serving as bridges from one idea to the next, so the paper was basically a smooth read.

While the main strength of the paper was its argument and supporting evidence, one of its weaknesses was the incompleteness of its beginning. The first thing I noticed, before I even started reading the paper, was the absence of a title page. Obviously, I knew who wrote the paper since Brendan e-mailed it to me himself, but if someone else picked it up, they would have no way of knowing who wrote it. Additionally, a title page would have been an opportunity to grab the attention of potential readers and give some indication of the paper’s subject matter. The introductory paragraph would have helped accomplish those things if the paper had dealt only with Barbie dolls. Since the paper was broader than that though, a brief mention in the introduction of some of the other topics (e.g. Hot Wheels, sponsorship, licensing, video games, etc.) would have been appropriate.

I found a number of mechanical errors that would have been relatively simple to spot and fix through careful editing. There were some misspellings such as “was” instead of “ways” in the opening paragraph or “Psychaitry” instead of “Psychiatry” in the bibliography. In some instances, it would have been advisable to break paragraphs down into smaller ones. Page two was one such instance. The footnotes were somewhat problematic. Footnote number four was missing and footnotes eight and eighteen had extraneous numbers next to them. Footnote 10 only needed the truncated form “Ibid.” Additionally, period placement in parenthetical references or in cited passages was inconsistent and thus, sometimes incorrect. There were also a number of passive constructions. Just to give an example, the middle of page six reads, “Mattel would be compensated for allowing their products to be distributed in this manner.” Lastly, the visuals in the appendix certainly added to the enjoyment of the paper, but figures three and four were too blurry to read.

This paper presented a relatively sound argument. It was an informative as well as interesting read that made some effort at connecting the topic to larger social concerns. An academic audience would likely offer criticism that the paper needs more sources to substantiate its thesis. The bibliography was about half a page, so given the constraints of the course, perhaps something closer to a full page would have been desirable. There was no one overwhelming error, but there were many small ones. I realize this may be due, in large part, to Brendan’s unfortunate encounter with Murphy’s Law. Taken individually, most of the errors were relatively minor and easy to correct, but collectively, they were a significant detraction from the paper. For that reason, I’d have to say this paper is still somewhere in the “B” range.

Post #10 & 12: 2nd Draft/Final Paper

2005-05-12T14:43:00.000-04:00

My 2nd draft and final paper are the same since the 1st draft due date was delayed one week and there were no other class sessions between the time of receiving initial professorial feedback and the time the final paper was due. As with the first draft, I am unable to post my final paper here because Blogger requires that a file be already present elsewhere on the web or on another server to upload it onto the blog. I have e-mailed a copy of my final paper to the professor and a classmate for critiquing. I will gladly e-mail a copy to anyone else who is interested in reading it.

Post #11: 1st Critique

2005-04-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

My critique of Brendan's paper can be found here on his blog under the comments section of "Post 10: Second Draft."

Post #9: 1st Draft

2005-04-07T15:20:00.000-04:00

Put Me in Coach, I'm Ready to Play!: The Story of Girls and Little League Baseball

Since files cannot be uploaded to this blog unless they are already located elsewhere on the web or on another server, my draft should be posted shortly by Professor Petrik on her website in the student section here.

Post #8: Outline

2005-03-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

Here’s a skeleton outline. I must confess I’m not much of an outline-style writer. Usually, I come up with no more main points/themes than I can count on one hand, and let my writing branch out from there. Much more detail than that starts to feel like a writer’s straitjacket. However, since a paragraph-by-paragraph outline was requested, I have attempted to list the topics I want to address in roughly the order in which I intend to address them. I plan to refer back to this outline and make changes/add details (e.g. sources and quotes I have decided to cite) as a tool to help work through the paper.

Put Me in Coach, I'm Ready to Play!: The Story of Girls and Little League Baseball

Paragraph 1: Introduction and Statement of Thesis (open with Linda Crooks’ GWS News quote)

Thesis: As a widespread, deep-rooted, American institution, Little League ultimately changed its membership policies to reflect the prevailing social attitude of American society toward girls' participation in youth baseball.

Paragraphs 2-3: The Founding of Little League Baseball (LLB) (including excerpts of 1941 rules and by-laws)

Show that LLB was an organization founded with only boys in mind.

Paragraphs 4-6: Kathryn "Tubby" Massar, the First Girl to Play LLB (including excerpts from the Corning Leader, her hometown paper)

Tell the story of this girl who made her Little League team by trying out as a boy and the rule change that appeared the very next year, precluding girls from participating in Little League.

Paragraph 7: Maria Pepe and Three Big Little League Games

Introduce the girl who paved the way for all girls to play Little League.

Paragraph 8: The Baseball Significance of Hoboken, NJ

Briefly tell the story of this, the site of the birth of modern baseball.

Paragraphs 9-11: Maria Pepe and Three Big Little League Games (cont.)

Paragraph 12: The Legal Battles Begin: NOW, LLB, and the NJ Division of Civil Rights

Briefly introduce the course of events that led to legal action by NOW on behalf of Maria.

Paragraph 13: Pro Ballplayers Weigh In (including results of a New York Times poll on whether girls should be allowed to play LLB with boys)

Tell the story of the Pepes' visit to Yankee Stadium for a Yankees game and relate some of the opinions of Yankees and Mets ballplayers concerning girls and Little League.

Paragraphs 14-17: The Legal Battles Begin: NOW, LLB, and the NJ Division of Civil Rights (cont.)

Follow the course of the court proceedings. Include testimony of physiology Ph.D. and executive vice president of LLB, Dr. Creighton J. Hale. Discuss LLB's legal arguments: risk of physical injury to girls, LLB's claim to be a private organization, and LLB's federal charter.

Paragraphs 18-20: Female Firsts in LLB

Discuss some milestones that have marked girls' participation in Little League since Maria's landmark court case.

Paragraphs 21-22: Title IX and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution

Begin to "invert the funnel" in preparation for the conclusion. Place the events that occurred in Little League into the larger social and historical context of women's rights and the women's rights movements of the time.

Paragraph 23: Closing (including the story of Dr. Creighton Hale's granddaughter who now plays Little League and his quote, "What goes around, comes around."

Post #6: Brief Update

2005-03-24T13:09:00.000-05:00

I spent two days in Williamsport, PA, the headquarters of Little League Baseball (LLB), over spring break. I was able to gather a fair amount of information, but it was not the gold mine for which I was hoping. I spoke with the director of the Peter J. McGovern Little League museum, Mrs. Janice Ogurcek, who said she herself is in the process of digging up material on Little League's integration of the sexes. She mentioned that this, naturally, is not exactly a part of Little League's past that it wants to highlight. Thus, much of the relevant documents are buried deep in dusty file cabinets, often in a not too terribly organized fashion, and not likely to come out for display. There were two moderate displays, however, focused on girls and Little League. A good portion of this was concerning the softball end of Little League which is not the focus of my research. I did, however, return home with much more information than when I had left. As an additional bonus, I got Mr. Van Auken, who works at LLB headquarters, and is the author of Play Ball!: The Story of Little League Baseball (which I first came across during the LOC trip), to sign a copy of his book which I purchased at the musuem.

Before I begin writing the paper, I would like to find a copy of the federal charter granted to LLB by Congress in 1964 as well as a few of the legal documents from the many sexual discrimination lawsuits brought against LLB from all across the country. I have been able to get a significant amount of information on the legal battles by means of newspaper articles. The case which ultimately broke the sex barrier occurred in Hoboken, N.J., so the New York Times covered that case quite extensively and followed some of the other cases to a lesser extent.

Post #7: Bibliography

2005-03-24T12:39:00.000-05:00

Here is a working bibliography. I should note that the bulk of my sources are newspaper articles from the early 1970s. However, Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations says, "News items from daily papers are rarely listed separately in a bibliography or reference list." I guess this means I only cite them with notes in the body of the paper. I will ask about this though.

P.S. I indented multiple line entries in my Word file, but when I cut and paste them here, everything becomes left justified.

Crooks, Linda. “How Far Have Girls Come?” GWS News. 31 October 1997, 6.

“First and Fearless.” Sports Illustrated, 15 July 2002, 116.

Frommer, Harvey. Growing Up at Bat: 50 Years of Little League Baseball. New York: Pharos Books, 1989.

Goodman, Matthew. “Little League Justice.” The Utne Reader, September 1990, 118.

Klinger, Dara-Lyn. “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Philadelphia Magazine, July 1991, 31.

“Milestones in the History of Women’s Sports & Fitness.” Women’s Sports and Fitness, February 1994, 27.

New York Times. 7 July 1971-27 December 1974.

Newman, Gerald. HappyBirthday, Little League. NewYork: F. Watts, 1989.

Pogrebin, Letty Cottin. “Baseball Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Ms., spring 2002, 30.

Shirts, Morris A., and Kent E. Myers. Call it Right! Umpiring in the Little League. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 1977.

Stotz, Carl E. A Promise Kept: The Story of the Founding of Little League Baseball. Jersey Shore: Zebrowski Historical Services Pub. Co., 1992.

Taves, Isabella. Not Bad for a Girl. New York: M. Evans, 1972.

Van Auken, Lance, and Robin Van Auken. Play Ball!: The Story of Little League Baseball. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.

Washington Post. 16 April 1972-15 June 1975.

Post #5: Library of Congress Trip

2005-03-09T23:13:00.000-05:00

The trip to the Library of Congress was about as productive as I could have expected considering the time constraints. I had already formed a list of books and their call numbers the night before by browsing through the online catalog. So, when we finally got to the main reading room just before 2 o’clock, I checked the catalog again to see whether the books I intended to request had already been charged to someone. Fortunately, they were not charged out and my request slips were stamped at 2:11 p.m. The books weren’t delivered until nearly an hour and a half later though, leaving me just over an hour to look through them.

The four books that I requested were: Jackie Robinson’s Little League Baseball Book (written by Jackie himself as the title suggests); Happy Birthday, Little League by Gerald Newman; Play Ball!: The Story of Little League Baseball by Lance and Robin Van Auken; and Growing Up at Bat: 50 Years of Little League Baseball by Harvey Frommer. Jackie Robinson’s book did not deal with integration, but rather was an instructional how-to book with regard to developing specific baseball skills (hitting, throwing, base running, etc.) Mr. Newman’s book was geared for juvenile readers and did not touch on integration either. The Van Aukens’ book, however, did have a decent amount of useful information. There were a couple pages dealing with racial tension in the South Carolina little leagues in 1955, as well as a whole chapter on Little League’s integration of the sexes. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I was unable to take much of a look at Mr. Frommer’s book. I was able to photocopy some of the relevant parts of the Play Ball! book before closing time though.

I will return to the Library of Congress if I am unable to find these, or the other books I have on my LOC catalog list, at local libraries. My next main step will be to visit the Little League Baseball Museum in Williamsport, PA over spring break. I also plan to start looking for some newspaper articles at that time.

Post #4: Topic Statement

2005-02-24T14:52:00.000-05:00

I have decided on a topic quite different from that in my prior posts. In those posts my focus was on the juvenile justice system and on trying children as adults. I chose not to pursue a paper along those lines due to my difficulty in finding a novel angle in what has been an extensively examined topic.

That having been said, the nearness of spring and the arrival of the Washington Nationals got me thinking about baseball. Since this course centers on history involving children, I will naturally need to examine an aspect of youth baseball. Little League is synonymous with youth baseball, so I have chosen it to be the specific type of youth baseball at which I will be looking. The particular historical aspect of Little League Baseball that I want to delve into is its integration. Thus, my topic is the integration of Little League Baseball.

The story of Jackie Robinson and the breaking of the color barrier in major league baseball are widely known, but I personally have never heard anything about the segregation that occurred in Little League Baseball. Little League Baseball has been around since 1939, so it has experienced the same types of social change common to many other American institutions which have been around since that time. The integration of schools and other public places met with violent resistance in many areas. Did Little League have any such experiences? How do the Little League and big league integration experiences compare and contrast? What did the kids themselves think about integration? These are just a few questions I want to answer. As far as sources are concerned, since I just came up with this topic this week, I haven’t had much of a chance to gauge the scope of relevant materials. I expect I’ll find a few books for use as secondary sources and plan to rely on newspapers and other periodicals from the period in question as the main primary sources. Depending on the extent of the materials I am able to find, and the appropriateness for the size of this paper, I could potentially expand the Little League integration issue with a twofold approach: first, integration of the races, and second, integration of the sexes.

My comment on Nick's post can be found here.

Post #3: Examples of Primary Sources

2005-02-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

Justice Stewart dissenting in re Gault

2005-02-17T14:53:00.000-05:00

Justice Stewart dissenting in re Gault (cont.)

U.S. Supreme Court
In re Gault
387 U.S. 1 (1967)
Justice Stewart's dissent
obtained from the Legal Information Institute website of Cornell University
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/histories/USSC_CR_0387_0001_ZD.html

I first came across this primary source in the Childhood in America text (pp.578-584). There, however, the one dissenting opinion of the 8-1 decision was not included, so I have included it here (if the image is too difficult to read, use the link above.) This case was historic in that it established due process rights in the juvenile court system. This introduced much of the more confrontational nature of the adult sytem into the juvenile one and significantly lessened the capacity of the juvenile court judge to decide cases with what, to that point, had basically been full parental discretion. The re Gault decision has been pointed to as the change in the juvenile justice system which paved the way to the more punative and adult-like nature of juvenile courts today.

2005-02-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

Letter written by teenager in lockup to the teacher of a writing class that he is taking at the facility where he is detained.(1998)

Salzman, Mark. True Notebooks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003 p.275.

"To Whom It May Concern...
Since I joined Mark's writing group I've noticed a lot of changes in my life. Writing has helped me open up to other people and have an open mind to their opinions. Writing has taught me a lot about myself that I never knew I had bottled up inside. Everybody thinks I'm a "hardened criminal" because of the charges against me, but they don't know the real me. For most of my life I didn't even know the real me until writing helped me dig deep down inside and extract my true self. My teacher has helped me, encouraged me, and done everything in his power he can to be more than just a teacher, he's our friend! I'm glad to have been fortunate enough to be in this class. I believe it's been one of my most cherished experiences."
Kevin Jackson
August 5, 1998

This source is valuable in that it offers insight into the experience of a juvenile in lockup. This particular letter shows a positive impact of the writing class at Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. There are many other student letters in Mark Salzman's book, and they give expression to feelings other than gratitude such as anger, regret, despair, and hope. Salzman taught the writing class as part of the Inside Out Writers program of the nonprofit Alethos Foundation. Sources like this book can be useful in assessing the efficacy of various reformatory programs.

2005-02-17T13:26:00.000-05:00

Detention home/jail use by Fairfax County for juvenile confinement in the year 1970.

Annual Statistical Report
Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court
1970/1980
VREF 345.08 F (Virginia Room of Fairfax Regional Library)

"Conditions at the Northern Virginia Regional Juvenile Detention Home remain crowded. This court shares that facility with Arlington County and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. The overflow must be housed in the county jail. Table L shows the data for the current year regarding use of jail and detention. Table M shows the yearly use of detention declined from an average length of stay of 14.6 days in 1969 to an average length of stay of 10.7 days in 1970. Use of jail declined from an average length of stay of 8.9 days to an average length of stay of 7.2 days for 1970, as a reaction of the over crowding, as well as reallocation of court resources in that direction. Though the number requiring confinement rises they are held for a shorter time."

Hopefully the tables are legible since they cannot be easily recreated in the blog.

Data such as these are obviously useful for tracking change over time. These two tables show how the number of juveniles passing through the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court has increased over time and accordingly placed an increased strain on the physical facilities. It is interesting how back in 1970, the only demographics included were "White", "Negro", "Male", and "Female." Just glancing over the data I picked up on what appears to be an error in the "Total Held" column of Table M for 1970. I believe the numbers add up to 940 and not 990.

Post #2: Reading for Topic Ideas (cont.)

2005-02-10T13:13:00.000-05:00

This week I read sections relating to the juvenile justice system, a topic of interest touched upon in my reading from last week. The sections included “The Establishment of Juvenile Courts” and “Juvenile Court and the Artistry of Approach” (pp.559-569) as well as “Juveniles’ Right to Due Process” and “Punishing Very Young Criminals” (pp.578-586), all of which were from Childhood in America. In The Children’s Culture Reader, I read the section “Popular Culture and the Family” (pp.485-495) which also was concerning juvenile delinquency. These readings were all undergirded by the theme that juvenile delinquents were not truly criminals but that they were the morally misguided products of their environment which could itself be altered to accordingly effect positive moral change in these youth.

“A child who today is simply neglected may be dependent tomorrow, truant the next day and delinquent the day after that.” This notion is quoted from historian Susan Tiffin’s article, “The Establishment of Juvenile Courts” (p.561) in Childhood in America. She traces the roots of the juvenile justice system back to the latter 19th century and states that the nation’s first juvenile court was established in Illinois in 1899. At that time it was thought that the state should act in a sort of parental capacity to delinquents. This new category of court systems, which had been implemented in every state, save for two, by 1925, dealt not only with delinquency, but also with issues of dependency and neglect. The system relied nearly entirely upon the wisdom of the judges and probation officers or social workers, all of whom were to handle matters very much from a parental standpoint. Guidance, not retribution or punishment, was the goal. Judge Ben Lindsey of Colorado emphasized in his article “Juvenile Court and the Artistry of Approach” the importance of “understanding judges” and “intelligent enforcement agencies.” In the latter half of the 20th century, much of the parental or summary nature of juvenile courts was altered by the inclusion of due process rights for juveniles such as right to counsel, right to cross-examination, right against self-incrimination, right to appellate review, etc.

The articles in the “Popular Culture and the Family” section of The Children’s Culture Reader examined possible reasons behind juvenile delinquency. Social reformer Frederic Wertham, in his 1953 article “Such Trivia as Comic Books,” pointed to a corrupting influence of violent comics. He used specific cases of delinquency in which the juvenile spent a significant amount of time immersed in such materials. Dorothy Walter Branch, a writer of parenting books, in her article from 1949, “The Play’s the Thing,” tried to explain the psychology behind children’s interest in violent entertainment. She argued that these forms of violence merely gave expression, but not rise, to feelings of aggression already naturally present in all children. Those who became delinquent did so for lack of outlets to release their aggression.

My reading this week has me leaning toward a research topic related to the juvenile justice system. I’m still interested in the trying of children as adults. It seems an extremely difficult proposition to uniformly assign legal responsibility at the passage of some set period of time. If, on the other hand, individual judgment and mitigating circumstances are allowed to enter the equation, the problem becomes a lack of uniformity and the attending appearance, if not verity, of unequal justice.

My comment on Laura's post can be found here.

Links to Classmates' Blogs

2005-02-02T19:32:00.000-05:00

Nicholas
John
Lori
Laura
Kelly
Francie
Madeliene
Nghinh
Brendan
Jazmine
Rickita
Sarah C. S.
Sarah S.

Post #1: Reading for Topic Ideas

2005-02-02T18:37:00.000-05:00

I chose to read the "Discipline" section (pp. 200-232) in Childhood in America, edited by Paula S. Fass and Mary Ann Mason. I also read the "Children at War" section (pp. 476-484) in The Children's Culture Reader, edited by Henry Jenkins. The two sections approached their particular topics differently. The section on discipline utilized historical, sociological, and legal perspectives. The section on children during war took a strongly psychological approach. One common theme that may be drawn from these two sections is one of childhood responsibility. Regardless of the period of history, children were expected to have some level of accountability for their actions, be they concerning matters of discipline and obedience or war and the war aid effort.

"If Dennis the Menace were around, he'd be shackled hand and foot, with Mr. Wilson chortling as the cops hauled his mischievous butt off to juvenile hall." Annette Fuentes authored that quote in her article "Cracking Down on Kids" found in the compilation Childhood in America. Hers was the last in the series of sources tracing the disciplining of American children from the 17th century to present day. At first, corporal punishment was used on a regular basis for the purpose of subduing children and breaking their will. For children under the age of 16, this sort of discipline was more of a corrective measure handled by the family, in the confines of the home. There was a general belief that children not yet 16 years old were to be taught responsibility but not to be held ultimately responsible for their actions until they were older. Starting sometime in the 18th century, corporal punishment began to lose favor among parents, and gentler discipline was promoted by John Locke and others. To the present day, the gentler variety of discipline is preferred within the home, but in a striking dichotomy, legal discipline or punishment has sought to place greater responsibility on increasingly younger children. Fuentes mentioned the prosecution of children as adults (even at the age of seven for certain felonies in New York) and "no tolerance" school policies as evidence of this trend.

Much of the source material in the "Children at War" section exhorts children during World War II to accept various responsibilities and to do what they can to help win the war. Angelo Patri, a progressive educator, told them that they had been enlisted as citizen soldiers and that they too must work to secure their freedom. Clearly there was a belief among adults that children could make a positive, meaningful impact. This sentiment appears to have been reversed today. Fuentes cited a study from 1997 which found that "58 percent of those surveyed think children and teens will make the world a worse place or no different when they grow up." That's disconcerting if one is concerned about the future and holds the belief that children will live up or down to the expectations of their elders.

I generally found all these readings interesting but was most absorbed by Fuentes' "Cracking Down on Kids." I was struck by the negativity of the modern attitude toward children. As far as a potential paper topic is concerned, I would like to do some more reading, but the legal trend of trying children as adults might be one possibility.

My comment on Lori's post can be found here.