Reflection #3: A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public (1729)

Summary:
The author, Jonathan Swift, has written an op-ed piece to suggest a possible economic solution to the increasing poverty and starvation in the streets of Ireland. He begins his piece by describing what this poverty looks like to a passerby as well as suggesting that there is really no means of interrupting the condition of the poor, as they are forever having more children. Swift ironically proposes a solution that, while efficacious, is nonetheless abhorrent in its dehumanizing representation of the poor as being little more than livestock.

Pedagogical use of the book:
This is a classic piece of literature often assigned in high school English, Civics or Rhetoric classes in the US. The vocabulary is very formal and academic with some old-fashioned terms as well. I could see using this in a college level ESL classroom with students who have at least an ACTFL Advanced level. Knowledge of the general academic vocabulary in this essay would be quite useful in supporting ESL learners’ understanding of other academic texts they will be required to read in a university program. Therefore, I do believe incorporating this authentic text into the curriculum would be beneficial and could be developed into authentic tasks.

I would begin with an activity targeting global understanding of the text, having the students watch the following short film version of the text on EDpuzzle with embedded comprehension questions.(see below)
A Modest Proposal 2013 (Short Film)
1. What societal concern is Swift trying to remedy?
2. How will his plan correct this problem?
3. What problem does he see as concerns infants?
4. What is his solution?
5. How would you characterize his plan?
6. Why does he object to his friend’s plan?
7. What are the benefits of his proposal?
8. What is the only objection to his plan that he anticipates people will have?
9. What does he profess to be his motivation for writing this plan?

Next, I would have learners read the text to answer more detailed questions regarding new vocabulary. For example, vocabulary building via gap filling exercises with the following words could be quite useful. :

Academic vocabulary from the text:
Deplorable
Prolific
Scrupulous
To censure
Encumbrance
Emulation
Enumerate
Brevity
Expedients

Discussion Points for Students Reflection:

Finally, we could compare this text from 1729 to today, almost 300 years later, with questions such as these:
1. What pejorative terms does Swift use to describe the poor ?
2. What are some comparable pejorative terms used today in the US?
3. Who profits from the existence of such terms and how do they profit?
4. What societal problems from Swift’s Ireland are still in existence today in the US?
5. How does the US provide or not provide for the poor?
6. Why might the ruling class not want to provide for the poor?
7. What reasons are given by Swift for his time period? What about today?
8. Do you think satire is an effective way to raise awareness to poverty? Why or why not?
9. How and by whom is satire used in the US to raise awareness ?
10. How could this essay be updated to today’s world? What would be the setting? Would we need to make other adjustments to set it in the modern US ?

Core-concepts of Social Justice:
Sadly, this text continues to be relevant as the classist attitude satirized by Swift is still in existence today. US society is still vilifying the poor, labelling them criminals, and considering them to be lying in a bed entirely of their own making.

Rebecca Jot

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