Notes for Instructors
A look at Markland raises many questions about the nature of social
assistance, "make work" projects, "workfare"
and income support. Attitudes towards those on social assistance, and
the relationship between those in authority and those who partake of
social programs are also at issue in this piece. The fear that adequate
social assistance will somehow make people unwilling or unable to work
to support themselves is a theme that still crops up in the news media,
and even in political policy papers today. You may wish to discuss what
the experience of people in Markland says about these questions.
The section "Trouble in Markland" and the final section
"Did We Learn Anything from Markland?" are relevant
to a discussion of basic rights and freedoms. (See the Integrated Unit
GOVERNMENT AND THE LAW, Rights and Freedoms, pp. 45-46 in the ABE Level
I Instructor's Handbook.) Examination of
the Commission of Government era can help to show students what happens
to basic rights in a non-democratic system. A number of other essays
in this series also look at Newfoundland and Labrador during the Depression
and address similar issues. See Carmelita McGrath's "Dole and
Desperate Measures: Life in the Great Depression in Newfoundland"
and "Hard Boots and a Hoe," Kathryn Welbourn's "Pierce
Power and the Unemployed Riot of 1935," and Ed Kavanagh's "'Those
Eighty-Eight Unfortunates:' Logging in Newfoundland in the 1930s."
Topics for Discussion
- Government-sponsored employment projects, then and now.
- How to make feelings known to those in political power under the
present, democratic system, and how this has changed since Commission
of Government.
- Basic rights and freedoms, personal and political.
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