Teaching The Levees 7 Times-Picayune staff graphic by Emmett Mayer III; staff photos by Ellis Lucia, Alex Brandon, and Devaunshi Mahadevia Teaching The Levees A Curriculum for Democratic Dialogue and Civic Engagement 7 MARGARET SMITH CROCCO, Editor Teachers College Columbia University New York R This work is dedicated to the residents of the Gulf States, who survived the ravages of Hurricane Katrina by helping one another, and to those who died so tragically. R Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 Copyright © 2007 Teachers College, Columbia University. All rights reserved. This publication was made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following sources for permission to use their materials: Afro-American Newspapers Archives and Research Center for excerpt The Opportunity Agenda for reprinting of “The Opportunity from “Spike Lee captures pain, hope of Hurricane Katrina Agenda’s six core values” survivors,” by Zenitha Prince (August 26, 2006) Pew Research Center for reprinting of “Katrina has only modest AlterNet for excerpt from “Media hurricane is so much hot air,” by impact on basic public values” (September 22, 2005) Rory O’Connor (September 14, 2005) The Poynter Institute for excerpts from “Best practices: Images of The American Conservative for an excerpt from “The emperor’s new disaster and how they were captured,” by David Frank consensus,” by Scott McConnell (October 10, 2005) (September 3, 2005), and from “Katrina photos: A gallery & notes Associated Press for excerpts from “For now the offi cial Hurricane from photo editors,” by Kenny Irby (September 4, 2005) Katrina death toll stands at 1,697” (October 29, 2006) and from Reuters News Service for excerpt from “US censoring Katrina “Up to 35,000 kids still having major Katrina problems,” by Janet coverage,” by Deborah Zabarenko (September 8, 2005) McConnaughey (February 2, 2007) Joni Seager for excerpt from “Natural disasters expose gender divide,” Philip S. Balboni for an excerpt from “Documentary journalism Chicago Tribune (September 14, 2005) vanishes from network and local television” (Fall 2001) Amardeep Singh for excerpt from “Race and Hurricane Katrina: BBCNews.com for excerpt from “Viewpoint: Has Katrina saved US Two questions,” blog (August 31, 2005) media?” by Matt Wells (September 5, 2005) Michael Smith for excerpt from “Mardi Gras Indians: Cultural and The Boston Globe for excerpt from “The wake-up call,” by Derrick Z. community empowerment” (August 1997) Jackson (November 15, 2006) Social Studies Research Council for excerpts from “Women and Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program for reprinting of “Key girls last? Averting the second post Katrina disaster,” by indicators of entrenched poverty” (2005) E. Narson (June 11, 2006), and from “The geography of social Thomas J. Campanella for excerpt from “How to rebuild New vulnerability: Race, class, and catastrophe,” by Susan L. Cutter Orleans,” Salon.com (September 30, 2005) (June 11, 2006) CNSNews.com for excerpt from “Statistics suggest race not a factor in United Media for excerpt from “Lost in the fl ood,” by Jack Shafer Katrina deaths,” by Nathan Burchfi eld (December 14, 2005) (August 31, 2005) Columbia Journalism Review for excerpts from “Are watchdogs an endangered species?” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel (2001), Excerpts from the Times-Picayune Publishing Company: and from “Monkey see, monkey do,” by David K. Shipler (2005) “Evoking King, Nagin calls New Orleans ‘chocolate’ city: Speech Randy Cox for excerpt from “Best practices: Images of disaster and addresses fear of losing Black culture” (January 17, 2006) how they were captured” (September 3, 2005) “Congress approves offshore oil revenue sharing” by Bill Walsh The Earth Institute, Columbia University, for use of “Katrina death (December 9, 2006) and missing persons toll,” by John Mutter “Buzzwords,” Living Section (January 1, 2007) Danny Heitman for excerpt from “In the 24/7 news cycle, repetition “America gets a dose of the Corps’ inaction” by Jarvis DeBerry is not revelation” (September 23, 2005) (January 30, 2007) Michael Lewis for excerpt from “Wading toward home” (March 2006) “The Big Easy: Can a documentary alter history?” by Peter Aspden John R. Logan for excerpt from “The impact of Katrina: Race and (December 2, 2006) class in storm-damaged neighborhoods” (September 8, 2005) Scott London for excerpts from the interview of Richard Rodriguez, Insight and Outlook Radio Series Photographs and graphics used with permission Mark Crispin Miller for excerpt from “What’s wrong with this picture?” of the following sources: The Nation (January 7, 2002) The Times-Picayune Publishing Company National Public Radio for excerpt from “More Stories Emerge of Rapes The Federal Emergency Management Agency in Post-Katrina Chaos,” by John Burnett (December 21, 2005) Maureen Grolnick ISBN 978-0-8077-5100-8 Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 10 09 08 07 4 3 2 1 Contents 7 Letter From Judith Rodin vi Letter From Susan Fuhrman vii Introduction 1 Margaret Smith Crocco Hurricane Katrina Timelines 6 Katrina Timeline: 2005–2007 6 Putting Katrina in Context: 1993–2007 10 Viewing Guide 12 Questions by Chapter 12 Opening and Closing Scenes 17 People Appearing in the Documentary 19 1 An American City 21 Cally Waite, James Alford, and Sharon Pearson 2 In Our Own Image 25 Using Representations of Katrina to Empower Media-Literate Citizens Judith Cramer, David Boxer, and Duane Neil 3 Race, Class, and Katrina in When the Levees Broke 41 Lessons Designed for Adult Audiences Jeanne Bitterman, Addie Rimmer, and Lucia Alcántara 4 New Orleans: Past, Present, and Future 55 A Curriculum for College Students Ellen Livingston 5 What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen? 69 A Curriculum About Katrina Using Civics and Government Anand Marri, Christina Morado, and Christopher Zublionis 6 Third World Conditions in a First World Country 77 Using Economics to Understand Events Before and After the Levees Broke Anand Marri, Christina Morado, and Christopher Zublionis 7 A Sense of Place, A Sense of Home 85 Using Geography to Understand the Levees Catastrophe William Gaudelli, Thomas Chandler, and Yom Odamtten 8 Learning From History in an Effort to Understand the Tragedy of Katrina 94 William Gaudelli, Thomas Chandler, and Yom Odamtten 9 Three Options for Summative Activities 103 vi OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Dear Educator, Enclosed you will fi nd “Teaching The Levees: A Curriculum for Democratic Dialogue and Civic Engagement.” This package is produced in cooperation with HBO and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. It includes a DVD of the Spike Lee documentary and a curriculum developed by faculty, students, staff, and alumni of Teachers College, Columbia University. The curriculum explores the profound issues of citizenship, race, democracy, and equality raised by the fi lm and by the disaster caused when the levees were breached after Hurricane Katrina. The curriculum invites participants from all points of view to move beyond Katrina and New Orleans to ask: What kind of country do we want to be? This valuable teaching tool can be used to stimulate profound and searching discussions of topics that we too often evade in everyday life. It enables participants to both draw upon and stand apart from their gut emotional responses as they develop an understanding of both the complexity of the Katrina crisis and the myriad social, economic, and governmental issues it raises. Perhaps most importantly, we believe it will prompt both young people and adults to engage with each other as they confront a chapter in American history to which, if nothing else, no one can remain indifferent. We hope you fi nd “Teaching The Levees” as useful and powerful to teach as we at Teachers College did to create and develop. We would greatly welcome your comments, insights, and refl ections about using it, as well as those of your students. With great admiration for your diffi cult but invaluable work, Susan H. Fuhrman President Teachers College, Columbia University BOX 163, 525 WEST 120TH STREET NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027-6696 • (212) 678-3131 • (212) 678-3205 vii “levee”: an embankment designed to prevent the fl ooding of a river Times-Picayune staff photo by Chris Granger Side view of the thickness of the Industrial Canal levee wall where it broke in the Lower Ninth Ward, October 24, 2005 Introduction Margaret Smith Crocco In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Elie Wiesel concluded his remarks by referring to suffering people everywhere in the world: What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifl ed we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs. The miseries experienced by citizens of the Gulf States as a result of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, were felt widely, both inside and outside the United States. The cata- strophic breaching of the levees resulted in seventeen hundred people dead or missing in New Orleans. It is now understood that the extent of this loss had a great deal to do with human Maureen Grolnick 1 “USA TALK ABOUT RACE & POVERTY,” Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, failure. The recognition that the chief victims of this disaster February 2007 were our most vulnerable “neighbors” has challenged our sense of who we are as a nation. In this curriculum project, educators from Teachers College, stimulate dialogue about these tough issues by posing the ques- Columbia University, hope to encourage democratic dialogues tions: Who are we as a country? What kind of country do we and civic engagement about the issues raised by the events want to be? associated with Hurricane Katrina, as so artfully illuminated by Spike Lee’s fi lm, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Goals of the Curriculum Acts.