The Living Syllabus--Unit 1 Becoming an L/T

Capture all with appreciation:

• A Dragon Story
  
• Dye on Learning: The Three Person Problem
  
• Dye on Seeds and Stories: Carefully packaged information
  
• Dye on The Genealogy of Ideas
  
• Dye on The Heart of the L/T Role
  
• Classroom Procedures and Rules development activity
  
• Course Syllabus
  
• Discussions: Why use the Socratic method? Why study literature? What is the point of education?
  

Expand to explore the things you care about:

• Read Teaching and Learning for Exponential Growth (Gong)
  
• *Set up a blog (or journal) to keep a log on your expansions
  
• Watch the online video, Shift Happens: http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=1785&title=ShiftHappens
  
• Take the Learning Styles Inventory Test: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/
  
• Learn about surface vs. deep learning on the following website: (http://www.montclair.edu/academy/Documents/Deep%20and%20Surface%20Learning.pdf)
  
• Learn about your teacher’s teachers: Dillon Inouye, Walter Gong, Stefinee Pinnegar, Arthur Henry King, Paul Hedengren, Patricia Esplin
  
• Interview someone who is a successful learner about his/her learning
  
• Study what your own faith (if you have one) has to say about learning (Are there scriptures, articles, books, or a religious leader that you could draw upon?)
  

Teach and serve for the benefit of others:

• In-class workshop

Prompts for Oct. 27-31

This week, please write about at least one of the following:

• How is Socratic Seminar relevant to your future life? What will you have to "read" in your future career? How will being able to see from various points of view help you in your career?
• How do advances in technology affect warfare? How does warfare affect technology? What examples do you see in today's world?
• What do you make of Joan's claim that she has heard voices and seen visions? How do you evaluate the claims of people who say they have had spiritual experiences?
• Joan is one of the few women who traditionally receives much attention in world history textbooks. Is it wrong to write mostly about famous men?
  
• What did you learn about writing from composing a personal essay? What were the challenges of writing the essay? How is this type of writing different from other types of writing you are familiar with? How would you define a personal essay? Did you have any "aha!" moments as you were writing your essay?
  

The Origin of Heaven and Guilt

Ms. Evans was a guest speaker in my 7th period class this week. She spoke about the origins of some of the basic concepts of Western thought: Heaven, Guilt, History, and the Messianic Tradition. I am posting a summary of her lecture here for those who are interested. I think her thoughts are very helpful for understanding the Medieval period.

The deities (gods) of Mesopotamia and Greece are notably imperfect with very human characteristics. Reading their mythology is often like watching a soap opera on television. The gods were unpredictable, flawed, often times unjust, and subject to human passions. Their gods reflected the nature of day-to-day life. Life in Mesopotamia was turbulent, marked by frequent invasions and conquests. Even the physical world seemed chaotic. The Euphrates river would flood at irregular intervals, overflowing its banks. Sometimes the waters sustained the crops while other times they destroyed them.

Amidst this turmoil, a new civilization emerged which had a very different view of deity. The Hebrews (i.e., Jews), believed in a God who was very different. He was perfect, loving, just, unchanging, and predictable. Yet life for them was also full of misfortune and irrational suffering. The gap between their idea of a perfect God and the imperfections of the physical world led to the emergence of some of the key ideas that have shaped Western thought:

GUILT--If God was perfect and man imperfect, then man would have reason to feel guilty.
MESSIANIC TRADITION--To bridge the gap between fallen man and perfect God, a Messiah (Savior) was needed.
HISTORY--The Hebrews put the story in history. They saw human experiences as something that could be explained. If a person suffered, it was probably a just punishment for sin or a God-given test. This made history worth reading. Thus the Jews are the "people of the book."
HEAVEN--Mesopotamian and Greek perspectives on the afterlife are very dismal and limited. However, the Hebrew belief that earthly injustice would be recompensed in an afterlife created the idea of a heaven.

The Jews passed this belief system on to the Christians. Christianity was expressed as Catholicism during the Middle Ages. Medieval literature, arts, and music emphasizes the great rift between the corruption of this world and the perfection of a Heavenly realm. You see this in a stark polarization (separation) of the secular and the sacred. For example, the Canterbury Tales revels in it's baseness (bawdiness). In contrast, the Divine Comedy is obsessively attentive to structure and order, illustrating the divine order and justice of the afterlife.

Many thanks to Ms. Evans for sharing her insights with our class.

Blog Prompts Oct. 21-24

Write about at least one of these prompts this week:

• What is the value of reading the Canterbury Tales in class? Should Mr. Dye have his students read it again next year?
• Compare and contrast the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath. Compare both their characters and the stories they tell.
• Are the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner complex characters?
• Do the Canterbury Tales tell the truth about human experience?
• In the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, the host claims he has an obligation to report the truth about each of the pilgrims. He says, "When one repeats a tale told by a man, he must report, as nearly as he can, every least word, if he remember it, however rude it be, or how unfit; or else he may be telling what's untrue..." Should a writer always tell the truth exactly? If you were writing a book about life in a gang, would you repeat the words of the gang members exactly as they say them (with swear words and all)?

Blog Commandments

Blog Commandments:

1. Thou shalt use blogs to carry on meaningful dialogue outside of class.

2. Thou shalt make a minimum of one blog post each week. This post shall be at least three paragraphs long.

3. Thou shalt write a post about a topic from class (check Mr. Dye's blog for prompts).

4. Thou shalt make a minimum of two comments on other classmates' blogs each week. Comments must be substantive and at least one paragraph long.

5. Thou shalt disagree agreeably. Deal with ideas and do not make personal attacks.

6. Thou shalt use proper grammar conventions. Do not reinforce bad writing habits by practicing incorrectly.

7. Thou shalt not advocate drug usage, violence, or other illegal activities.

8. Thou shalt not use sexually suggestive language or images.

9. Thou shalt not post information that allows others to identify you (phone, address, age, school name, etc.).

10. Thou shalt not use Socratic blogs for socializing.

Selling Yourself

A line from The Canterbury Tales caught my attention this morning. The Wife of Bath said, "And therefore to all men this tale I tell, let gain who may, for everything's to sell." She sold her virtue to get her way with her husbands. I was wondering about the things we sell ourselves for.

For example, I recall a time in college when a boy tried to befriend me. He was socially backward and I knew befriending him would make me less popular. Since I was only a freshman, I thought I could not afford to be his friend, so I gave him a cold shoulder. When I could not avoid running into him in the hallways, I gave short, clipped responses to his greetings. Coldly polite. A while later I reflected on my behavior and realized I had sold myself. I had felt I should befriend this boy, but I had sold that sense of what was right for what I thought would bring me popular acceptance.

In the long run, I realized I had had purchased a forfeit.

I wonder what other things I have sold myself for: momentary pleasure, indulgence in anger, selfishness, self-aggrandizement, entertainment, laziness.

I don't think I've sold myself for money. I remember another occasion when I was faced with a decision. In high school I taught piano lessons. It was a pretty decent, lucrative job for a teenager. The day came when income taxes were due, and I realized that technically I was self employed and should have to pay taxes on the money I had made teaching piano. I also realized that realistically, no one would ever punish me if I did not pay them. The IRS certainly was not going to waste its time following up on a teenager to see if I had paid my taxes. The general consensus of those I knew was that I could just forget about it. For me, however, this was a test. What would I sell my integrity for? The price was high. The tax rate for people who are self-employed is higher than for teens who have a regular employer. Nonetheless, I was not willing to compromise. I paid the price.

It is easy to look back on that event and pat myself on the back. However, I see that on a daily basis I sell myself in less obvious ways. Last night I stayed up reading a book when I should have been sleeping. Yesterday I got frustrated with my daughter when she wouldn't let me concentrate. This morning I skimped on my personal prayer time to get in a few more prep minutes for class. Why am I so willing to sell myself when the price is so much lower?

Maybe the price is not lower. Maybe I just value things other than money more than I should. If I look at the things I am willing to sell myself for, maybe those choices will reveal some of my acting values. What did I sell myself for yesterday and today? Entertainment, getting things done, being recognized for my work. These acting values conflict with my professed values: health and well-being, family and fatherhood, and spirituality. I suppose in life we are constantly trying to bring our acting values into alignment with our professed values.

I wonder what the Wife of Bath was revealing about her acting values when she sold herself. What was it that she really wanted? What was it that she professed to want?

A perfect society?

Today in class we discussed what it takes to have a perfect society. This week you may want to blog about the following questions:

• What is your idea of a perfect society?
• Are there any examples from history or literature of perfect societies? What do we learn from them?
• Does it include economic equality? Is there money? Is there private ownership of property?
• Does it require individual people to have particular qualities? Do the members of a perfect society have to be perfect?
• What is the role of government or law in a perfect society?
• Is a perfection a product or a process?
• How would you build a perfect society?
• What do you gain or lose when you create a perfect society?

What did you think of the community of Carthusian monks that we observed in class? How does silence help this community reach for their ideals of perfection?