Free Response Answers

The relationship between the Europeans and the Native Americans during the colonial period were similar to a mentor and mentee relationship when exposing the ignorant in mind to a world and culture unknown. European colonizers and explorers came to American soil with no knowledge about the terrain. Many had their minds set on acquiring riches to either gain individual wealth or add onto their affluent rulers who sponsored their costly voyages. The local natives were the first inhabitants of the unknown landscape Europeans had encountered when first arriving and their knowledge and expertise on the unfamiliar land was valuable in their conquest. The narratives on Cabeza de Vaca are an example of one of the first European explorers to come to America and have personal experience with the locals. The Native Americans became “tour guides” to many of the explorers and their knowledge on the land was valuable to their survival. The story of Cabeza de Vaca having to live off the terrain for many months in harsh weather under the guidance of the Native Americans is an example of the knowledge of the locals being of value. All the Indians of this region either are ignorant of time by sun or moon…They understand the seasons in terms of ripening fruits, the dying fish, and position of stars in which they are adept. (Cabeza de Vaca) explains how many of the locals and the explorers understood each other when concerning time and season. Because Native Americans were void of any numerical calendar, they relied to natures own time to distinguish times and seasons; better helping the explorers survive in harsh months and weather when concerning the food to eat and how to prepare such delicacies. With the Native Americans vast knowledge on the lands seasonal periods, explorers had a better percentage of surviving the most brutal of times with the aid of the locals as well. We always went naked like them and covered ourselves at night with deerskin. (Cabeza de Vaca) portrays how local Natives guided the European explorers into making articles of clothing to shield their nakedness from the elements of nature when time required it. Without the knowledge from the Native Americans, European explorers would not have known to use the carcass of a deer to make clothing to keep their body’s warm- let alone capture one without scarring it off into the wilderness. I bartered with these Indians in combs I made for them and in bows and arrows and nets. (Cabeza de Vaca) shows how Europeans learned the personalized techniques of artistry of the Native Americans to make a living in the trade to stay alive; selling or exchanging what they created to gain food and sustenance to live by during their months in unknown lands. The lessons in skill from Native Americans had given these naïve explorers tools of survival and slight independence from their “hosts”.
However, the stereotypes of Native Americans being savage and inhumane are the representation Europeans give their saviors in their narratives back home. Although many of the narratives representing Native Americans show how the aid of the locals helped keep oblivious explorers alive and well, they do so in a manner that depicts the average Native American as savage and ghastly. We always went naked like them (Cabeza de Vaca) depicts Native Americans as wild, ill-mannered, and uncivilized as they roam free in shameless nudity; not having anything to clothe themselves with or having any manners to shield their privates in a land where the customs are free nudity is frowned upon. They joined another tribe, the Arbadaos, who astonished us by their weak, emaciated, swollen condition. (Cabeza de Vaca) shows the Natives as inept to take care of themselves in order to live a healthy life amongst men who have hygienic rituals daily. There is no chief (Cabeza de Vaca) portrays them as a nation under no rule of morale. The men bore one of their nipples, some both, and insert a joint of cane two and a half palms long by two fingers thick. (Cabeza de Vaca) shows that their customs of self-expression are odd and unnatural. Narratives from European explorers portray the Native Americans as a type of new “specie”. It is something unknown and confusing yet tantalizing.

European colonizers used their narratives to mediate the relationship with authority figures by mainly focusing on what the costly voyages and journeys could do for the rulers in who sponsor their trips. Christopher Columbus used his narrative to persuade the dominant leaders of his country that the voyages they were sponsoring would pay off largely for their own benefit. His letter to Luis de Santangel demonstrated that his efforts in financing his first voyage would largely pay off for his benefit instead of his own. And there I found very many islands filled with people innumerable and of them all I have taken possession for their highness… (Christopher Columbus) Columbus writes to Santangel in an effort to demonstrate that his authority over the unknown territory is already advancing on the general population of Natives for the ultimate takeover for the King and Queen. He also goes into detail throughout the narrative stating that the islands he had found from his journeys named after the authoritative figures that sponsored his voyage. Reference to the Divine Majesty and the current King and Queen of Spain demonstrate that the islands name entitles complete ownership and rule by those who governs it. By naming the islands after political leaders, Columbus establishes ownership of those lands and gives them to those authorities. This island and all the others are very fertile to a limitless degree, and this island is extremely so. (Christopher Columbus) Columbus uses imagery to depict the lustrous lands and fertile grounds that are of use for an advantage in their nation’s agriculture or other cultivation advantages that can benefit well financially for the good of national economy. Cabeza de Vaca uses his stance on conversion to gain the support to the Catholic Majesty that installed the support for his voyage. …for those who go in your name to subdue those countries and bring them to knowledge of the true faith and true Lord and bring them under the imperial dominion… (Cabeza de Vaca) demonstrates the main argument that the rule of the dominant ruler be enforced on the general population of the new lands and the enforcement of their religion and political government will be in effect for a wider spread of domination for their majesty. These narratives are the base of their argument for continuous support for the leaders and authorities who sponsor and support these costly trips to foreign lands.

The first European explorers envisioned the Americas as a project they could conquer and rule to enforce dominant rule and authority of their nation. Columbus conveys the Americas as an “enterprise” and won the support from the King and Queen due to his ideas of expansion of their ultimate power of authority. The support was won due to the guarantee of something being in return for the cost of their sponsorship. The promise of domination and power over the new lands was the settling factor is the result of the decision. The lands were thought to have luscious lands, wide fields, and invaluable riches that are immeasurable. I believed that their example would have been to the profit of others. (Christopher Columbus) demonstrates how Columbus already acquired preconceptions of what the land would look like and how it could benefit the ultimate beneficiary.

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The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the biennial report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
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college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.
“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.
“When we come out of the recession,” Mr. Callan added, “we’re really going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be competitive. Already, we’re one of the few countries where 25- to 34-year-olds are less educated than older workers.”
Although college enrollment has continued to rise in recent years, Mr. Callan said, it is not clear how long that can continue.
“The middle class has been financing it through debt,” he said. “The scenario has been that families that have a history of sending kids to college will do whatever if takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt.”
But low-income students, he said, will be less able to afford college. Already, he said, the strains are clear.
The report, “Measuring Up 2008,” is one of the few to compare net college costs — that is, a year’s tuition, fees, room and board, minus financial aid — against median family income. Those findings are stark. Last year, the net cost at a four-year public university amounted to 28 percent of the median family income, while a four-year private university cost 76 percent of the median family income.
The share of income required to pay for college, even with financial aid, has been growing especially fast for lower-income families, the report found.
Among the poorest families — those with incomes in the lowest 20 percent — the net cost of a year at a public university was 55 percent of median income, up from 39 percent in 1999-2000. At community colleges, long seen as a safety net, that cost was 49 percent of the poorest families’ median income last year, up from 40 percent in 1999-2000.
The likelihood of large tuition increases next year is especially worrying, Mr. Callan said. “Most governors’ budgets don’t come out until January, but what we’re seeing so far is Florida talking about a 15 percent increase, Washington State talking about a 20 percent increase, and California with a mixture of budget cuts and enrollment cuts,” he said.
In a separate report released this week by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the public universities acknowledged the looming crisis, but painted a different picture.
That report emphasized that families have many higher-education choices, from community colleges, where tuition and fees averaged about $3,200, to private research universities, where they cost more than $33,000.
“We think public higher education is affordable right now, but we’re concerned that it won’t be, if the changes we’re seeing continue, and family income doesn’t go up,” said David Shulenburger, the group’s vice president for academic affairs and co-author of the report. “The public conversation is very often in terms of a $35,000 price tag, but what you get at major public research university is, for the most part, still affordable at 6,000 bucks a year.”
While tuition has risen at public universities, his report said, that has largely been to make up for declining state appropriations. The report offered its own cost projections, not including room and board.
“Projecting out to 2036, tuition would go from 11 percent of the family budget to 24 percent of the family budget, and that’s pretty huge,” Mr. Shulenburger said. “We only looked at tuition and fees because those are the only things we can control.”
Looking at total costs, as families must, he said, his group shared Mr. Callan’s concerns.
Mr. Shulenburger’s report suggested that public universities explore a variety of approaches to lower costs — distance learning, better use of senior year in high school, perhaps even shortening college from four years.
“There’s an awful lot of experimentation going on right now, and that needs to go on,” he said. “If you teach a course by distance with 1,000 students, does that affect learning? Till we know the answer, it’s difficult to control costs in ways that don’t affect quality.”
Mr. Callan, for his part, urged a reversal in states’ approach to higher-education financing.
“When the economy is good, and state universities are somewhat better funded, we raise tuition as little as possible,” he said. “When the economy is bad, we raise tuition and sock it to families, when people can least afford it. That’s exactly the opposite of what we need.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 4, 2008 Because of an editing error, an article on Wednesday about the increasing cost of higher education gave an incorrect context for two figures: the 439 percent increase in college tuition and fees and the 147 percent increase in median family income since 1982. Those figures were not adjusted for inflation. The error was repeated for the data in an accompanying chart. A corrected chart appears at nytimes.com/national.
The article also described incorrectly the report for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education that cited the figures. It is produced every other year, not annually.


W.E.B. Dubois’s argument in Chapter three of The Souls Of Black Folks revolves around the central idea that Blacks are easily persuaded to alter their political and moral views due to the substantial rise of one of their own without knowing the facts behind their political leader’s upbringings. His central image of African-American power comes from the example of Booker T. Washington, the main figure of dominance among Black culture that has risen from poverty to complete economic and education supremacy. Dubois states that, although many African-Americans admire and idolize Washington, they disagree with his morality and ideas of uplifting and bringing progress amongst the African-American race. Among his own people, however, Mr. Washington has encountered the strongest and most lasting opposition(Page 48) Dubois demonstrates that this dislike comes from pure envy and jealousy of seeing a Black man succeed while many of his own people are still working for any scrap and/or penny they can get their hands on. Dubois, also, demonstrates that most of the dislike comes from bright, intelligent, and highly respected Black leaders that have a feeling of deep regret, sorrow, and apprehension. These feelings of mixed emotions come from the ideology of Washington's plan that ultimately keep colored people as slaves, working in the field to get by and make a decent living.The typical African-American would disagree with Washington's plan if he did not have majority of coloreds and white Americans in favor of his program and logic. Largely silenced in outward expres- sion by the public opinion of the nation. (Chapter 3, paragraph 6) is shown to suggest that the outward expression of dislike for Booker T. Washington's program was frowned upon amongst the nation and especially towards Black people. Typical mindset would be that they should be grateful for a Black man to be in such power in such a day in age and should bow their heads and nod gracefully with acceptance. The plan, however, much didn't thoroughly know about in full detail. It silenced if it did not convert the Negroes themselves (Chapter 3, paragraph 2) tells that the Negroes only went along with the plan because of majority vote and/or they did not fully comprehend what Washington was asking. If the average Black man knew his opposing side- the supremacist- were in favor of a Black man, than he would become pressured to follow by example and support his own. If an average Black man did not know what Washington was asking of his people due to the fluid and articulate language from his profound education, then he would most likely follow in the footsteps of Washington's followers and support him based on the single evidence that he was African-American.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/education/03college.html?_r=1&em