Economy – The Depression Years
Themes:
Globalization, Development, Governance, Justice
Assignment:
1. Interview a member of your family who has lived through the depression of the 1930’s. Prepare a report. Include photographs and possibly artifacts. Present to the class and/or submit the report to the teacher. This could possibly be made into a PowerPoint presentation. Some suggested questions are as follows:
- How old were you?
- If you were old enough to work, could you find work? What did you do? What was your pay? What did your father do during the depression?
- What would you do on an average day? What did you do in your spare time? Did you have hobbies? In what sports did people participate? Were there many people your age in your neighbourhood? What games did children play? How involved were your parents in your day-to-day activities?
- Describe transportation, how you and your family moved about. What means did you use? What was the condition of the roads? Describe communication –how you contacted with people who were far away.
- Describe schooling and compare it to today.
- Compare occupations today with the 1930’s.
- How would someone be supported if they had no work and no money? Would families help?Government? friends?
- Describe the house in which the interviewed person lived. How was it different from the student’s home? Who lived in the home?
- Did your family shop for anything, or was everything produced at home? What were stores like? Were they different from today?