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This exchange was part of the longer discussion below. For teacher commentary and the entire context of these conversations, download the case study Using Women Working Resources in Schools.
 
DAN: It’s very—snobbish—and detached sounding—it’s
kind of like—and it’s almost—it’s also kind of a little rude—or, not rude, necessarily, but, like, mean to, like, poor—er
people. It’s like, “beautify their sordid lives.”
TEACHER: Okay.
DAN: Like, “sordid lives”? It’s such a mean thing to say.
You know what I mean? And it’s like—it’s like it’s not,
like—it’s not, like, really kind and nice to them—
JOSIE: Yeah.
DAN: —but, like, really kind of mean and, like, you know,
rich people are going to live with you poor people, ’cause
they’re nice, and you should be happy. I don’t know.
DAN and ZACH: Reading together. “To study social
problems where they are bred”!
DAN: That’s being, like, only poor people have problems.
Rich people don’t have problems. The social people—uh—poorer people cause all the problems. It’s not the rich
people—which isn’t true.
JOSIE: It didn’t have to, like—’cause it didn’t—I don’t
know. Not many—it says, like, 1900. And, like, even back
then, not a lot of women were—I mean, women had jobs, but
they weren’t, like, distinguished jobs, and stuff.
JOSIE: But—yeah, but—I’m next—wait—okay. In
accordance with what Dan was saying [about how it’s]
looking down … if it is an upper-class person, I don’t
understand why they would be writing about work, because a
lot of times upper-class women just—were upper-class
women. And they didn’t—because they had, like, people to
do the other jobs for them.
REBECCA: It could be—
ZACH: Maybe it’s a newspaper article. When this exchange
ended, I confirmed that the passage came from a book.
REBECCA: Yeah, they might like to—
DAN: Maybe—
JOSIE: Yeah, unless they liked to have a job, and so they
wanted it, and then they got a job.
CLARE: It said it has to, um—making them more American
has to come through the children—like, start with the
children.
REBECCA: Yeah.
DAN: Yeah.
ZACH: Maybe those are what that set of—classes are for.
ZACH: So maybe the—this (the image of the “Housekeeping
Class”) is about—this is, like, one of the people—women who
come into the thing, and these are the children, and they’re
helping assimilate the children into the culture.
CLARE: Like, they’re all—they’re all classes, and it could
be—like, classes—of things that need to be, like, known in
American households. Like—
ZACH: We thought these people (learning the “Washing
Lesson”) were immigrants, and that would explain why they
were in the settlement house, and learning how to become
Americanized. These people (in the “Cooking Class”) were
black, and that would also explain it, because they’re kind of
a lower race—
DAN: As if he can’t believe his ears. What?
ZACH: —or poorer—well, in that time, it was—they were,
like, a lower race, and they were probably more poor, so
somebody else was trying to help them up.
CLARE: I don’t think that one (the “Housekeeping Class”)
looks—like, poor, or like immigrants. Like, it’s—
REBECCA: Yeah, [and that one] (the “Washing Lesson”)
kind of does, but—
DAN: —kind of does.
CLARE: Softly. Yeah.
DAN: Well, I mean, it could be (the girls in the
“Housekeeping Class” could be immigrants), ’cause they
were (the author was) always talking, like, “there was
always a tasteful, cheerful sitting room,” and—’cause, like,
all, like, nice, aesthetically pleasing stuff. And so, like,
maybe they would, like, have them wear, like, nice dresses,
and, like, sit in a nice room, because they wanted to be, like,
aesthetically pleasing, and stuff.
CLARE: Yeah.
CLARE: Well, I think it’s talking about, like—I think it’s
written by someone, like, in the upper class, and, like—um—they’re trying to, like, reach out and help, like, poor
immigrants and, like, building settlement houses, and—trying
to make, like, all people in America, even if they’re
immigrants, like—like—American—like, doing all things one
way.
REBECCA: Yeah.
CLARE: That’s why they’re taking, like, classes—to sort of,
like, assimilate them.
JOSIE: It’s about finding work! This book’s about finding
jobs.
DAN: No!
ZACH: Josie! His tone says, come on! Aw!
DAN: Not for the people living in the settlements! He means
those taking the classes, who the students sometimes said
“lived” in the houses, and sometimes said “went” to them.
CLARE: I don’t think that’s—
DAN: —in the settlement houses—it’s—this is for the rich
people—
ZACH: Yeah, who are like—
DAN: —the rich people, who are, like, I’m so bored, I need
something to fill my time.
JOSIE: No, it’s for women!
ZACH: It’s, like, us, and we’re going to do community
service.
JOSIE: Again. No, it’s for women! They need to find jobs.
ZACH: No, it’s not, Josie.
TEACHER: What makes you think that, Josie?
JOSIE: She shows Zach the title of the book. Oh, no, it’s not for women
who need to find jobs?
ZACH: Rich women!
DAN: But it’s not all [women]—[it’s] rich women, Josie!
ZACH: Do we—do we want to, like, make a different title?
Okay, let’s—this is the real title. How Rich Women May
Earn a Living by Teaching Poor Kids How to Do Common
Chores.
REBECCA: And then Clare could read that sentence and it
would make sense. Go, Clare, go.
CLARE: No, I’ll just say that—I don’t think it is, like, a
guide for people who are going to these, like, classes—because, um—in the way it’s written, it seems like it’s in—like, from a rich person’s perspective, ’cause it says, “not
only teaches the poor how to beautify their sordid lives,”
um, but also—but—“but shows the rich how to give purpose
to their sometimes futile ones.”
DAN: So—I’m not sure, when it says "How Women May
Earn a Living"—I’m not sure it’s meaning, like, literally—like, how women may—
ZACH: Yeah.
DAN: —earn a living. I think it’s more like, how rich
women may—help out in the community. Yeah.
REBECCA: Yeah.
CLARE: Well, it says—it says, “by deliberate intent, they
are located in the worst districts.”
JOSIE: So they can get their people in there.
CLARE: Like, they’re purposely doing that—like, so that—like, people will come, and all they can focus on is, like,
becoming better, and then leaving that bad neighborhood and,
like, being—and, like, go to the, like, real America that’s, like,
nice, like—um, nice neighborhoods, and—you’ll, like, fit in
after you’ve gone through the bad part.
DAN: Yeah. Or, like—like, taking out this neighborhood
that’s bad and, like, when you come to the settlement house,
you’ll be able to go into your neighborhood and—beautify it.
CLARE: It’s like—it’s like, the—you become the rose—like,
because you went through, um—the, like—the nice settlement
house.
For teacher commentary and the entire context of these conversations, download the case study Using Women Working Resources in Schools.
Copyright ©2009 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
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