Additional questions for discussion/possible talkback paper topics

• What is the “ideal culture” of NTHS?  What lessons come from the football rituals, the “real culture” of NTHS; i.e the game itself, politics, race, gender...?

• Why did Trujillo quit coaching and leave Northtown? What does this tell us about race and power in Northtown?

• What does Foley believe to be the “cultural significance” of “rituals of inversion” (p.49) like the powder-puff football game?  Are there parallels in other societies we’ve studied, at LHS?

• What is the relationship between inversion rituals and power hierarchies?

• How did “impression management” play out at NTHS? “Those youths who aspired to be socially prominent had to master this cultural contradiction.  In response, they learned to live dual public and private….” (p.62) How does it play out at LHS?

• Foley states“...schools are a site of popular culture practices that stage social inequality.” (p.27)  How does football prove this thesis?

• Other key issues, questions, ideas or themes that come out of “The Great American Football Ritual”?

The goal of a talkback paper is to take an issue and fully explore it - using material from LCC, Not Just a Game, your own experiences, etc.  It’s not a long or overly formal paper; the key is a critical perspective and a willingness to ask questions:  what do I think, why do I think that way, what evidence do I have?