Friday, February 26, 2010

 

Love Presentations




















Wednesday, February 24, 2010

 

Today in class after presentations

Today in class students presented their thesis on love. Please reflect on the process, that of presenter and audience. How were your views challenged or swayed?

Homework is to continue in SPHE up to Essay 2, and Half the Sky up to page 179. Students who haven't gotten their essays (SPHE Essay 1) back printed copies for me. Look in the hallway outside, L-235 (in the box by the door in the envelop) for your graded essays.

If you have to revise it, you have 1 week to get it in. "Pass" is the grade you want. If you have questions ask before revising to avoid unnecessary time. Include a brief summary of what changed between drafts and attach the first graded draft with the revision.

 

Cyber-Freewrite

Post your response to a chapter in Felicia Pride's book, The Message, here. The response should be three paragraphs. Each paragraph (about 5 sentences) should include one citation: free paraphrases and direct quote(s). Include a works cited page. See the previous cyber-freewrite for an example of the MLA for a chapter in a book and a song.

Respond to at least one student's post.

Monday, February 22, 2010

 

Half the Sky in the Theatre

Half the Sky

Event Overview
NCM Fathom and CARE, with the support of Delta Air Lines and Meredith Corporation, are partnering on a one night event inspired by stories from the New York Times bestseller “Half the Sky” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Celebrate International Women’s Day and be inspired to help women and girls everywhere turn oppression into opportunity. Featuring musical performances, celebrity commentary and the world premiere of “Woineshet,” a short film by Academy Award® winner Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone. Also with appearances from, India.Arie, Maria Bello, Diane Birch, Michael Franti, Dr. Helene Gayle, Angelique Kidjo, Nicholas Kristof, Marisa Tomei, Sarah, Duchess of York and others. Experience Half the Sky on March 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm (local time) in select movie theatres across the country and Spread the word about this inspirational event in your community.

EVENT DETAILS
Half the Sky is inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof’s and Sheryl WuDunn’s New York Times bestseller, “Half The Sky,” which follows the stories of extraordinary women around the world as they struggle to overcome oppression. Kristof and WuDunn focus on three major problems facing women – sex trafficking, maternal mortality and violence against women. They argue that empowering women is the key to alleviating poverty and uplifting communities in developing countries.

“Woineshet” is a new film about a poor Ethiopian girl who ultimately triumphs over sexual violence and discrimination. As a teenager from a small village in Ethiopia, Woineshet and her family bravely fought against brutal local traditions of rape and forced marriage. The co-directorial debut of Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone, “Woineshet” is an adaptation of this brave and inspirational true story.

Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Working in more than 70 countries, women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve education, health and economic opportunity. Learn more at http://www.care.org/.

The Half the Sky event was captured live on February 11, 2010 out of New York City and is being rebroadcast to select theatres nationwide on March 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm (local time). The time is 1 hour 45 minutes.

Ticket Prices
AMC Bay Street 16, 5614 BAY ST STE 220, Emeryville, CA 94608, (510) 457-9003. It's $12.50 on-line ($1 service charge.) We might be able to get them less expensively it we go through a student who works for AMC. Lucia is in English 1A, 9-9:50 AM. Email her at lcfallah@yahoo.com. She can get tickets for $7 each this Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 24-25.

 
Class notes and Cyber-Assignment

1. Literature Circles Assignments
Post the names and job titles of the members of the group here. Students were encouraged to name their groups. In the afternoon class, the groups ended up being fewer because only 5 students out of 21 present had read up to chapter 7. The morning class fared a bit better, but there were at least 10 students who didn't have the book, so they had yo do something else. A few had to leave and go to the library to work on SPHE.

Students were reminded to reflect on the authors' premise for the book as stated on page xxi.

2. Cyber-Freewrite: Reflect on the Lit Circle division of labor. How did it help the group engage in a focused and productive discussion? Be specific and use examples.

This reflection needs to be about a paragraph minimally.

3. SPHE --exercises up to Essay 2. If you have no questions start templates.

4. Love assignment
Presentations (What kind of love do you value the most?) will start Wednesday and continue Thursday. The essay is due later on.


The Love Assignment
is posted below. I gave students copies today.

5. In the morning class we did the MLA quiz. In the afternoon class we reviewed the exercises on pages 53-66. Homework is to keep running the exercises through page 86. We will go over Essay 2 together on Wednesday and review exercises if there are any questions.

6. Continue reading Half the Sky. If we have time, students can discuss the next chapter, 7 or 8. If not we'll spend another hour next week in discussion on Monday, March 1. Bring your book to class to share, the one by or about a woman (who is alive and living in Northern California) you plan to read and do a report on in April.

Office Hours
I encourage students to come to my office hours or schedule an appointment. I am extremely flexible: Mondays I am in D229 from 12-12:45 PM; Tuesdays, 10:30-11:50 AM in L-236 (my office), at 3 PM in A-213 on Mondays, L202E at 3-4 PM on Wednesdays, and at 10 AM to 11:30 AM on Thursdays in A-232.

Some students didn't make it to the library orientation last week. I have handouts I can share with you.

Other students came to class late and unprepared. Many students still don't have their books. We'll be completing Half the Sky in two weeks. Then students will write an essay (about 500-750 words).

Catch up and come see me in my office hours to get clarity on assignments, if you
need such.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

 
Homework
Read up to chapter 7 in Half the Sky (all of chapter 6). You can always read more. We will spend the first hour in our Literature Circles on Monday (read handout).

In Pidd continue up to page 85. We will review the exercises on Wednesday and talk about Essay 2. Essay 1 should be emailed to me by Friday. Remember to identify yourself, the assignment and the class time in the subject line of the email. Paste and attach the essay.

Do not send essays which have not been critiqued. Use the self-evaluation form at the end of the chapter.

Future assignments
Bring the book to class you are planning to do your book report on to share Wednesday, March 3.

 
King Tut
This weekend Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 20-21, at the deYoung Museum, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the King Tut exhibit has free admission all day. It is on a first come first served basis. Visit http://www.tutsanfrancisco.org/

The exhibit is up through March 28.

 

Cyber-Assignment "Love"

Sanskrit has ninety-six words for love; ancient Persian has eighty; Greek three; and English simply one." probably from Robert Johnson. This sounds cool, but it's really not true.

In English we have many words for kinds of love: lust, desire, affection, adore, longing, family, respect, admiration. We will say, "I adore him," or "I am hot for her," or "I totally respect you," or "I am fond of you," or "You are like family to me." "Yeow! No wonder we are confused about love.

Think about all the kinds of love you have known. This quote is all over the web, and I haven't sourced it yet. It's not quite true though.

From Swamp donkey, a blog: All you need is love? Friday, October 07th 2005, 11:18 pm filed under: thoughtful inklings, Philosophy


Assignment
There has been a lot written about love. Martin King spoke about it often and said there were three kinds of love: eros, philia, and agape, and of the three, agape was the most divine.

What do you think?

As a part of this reflective assignment, go to the library, find a book, a published song, a poem, or an article about love, and incorporate it into your response. How did you end up with the resource you decided to share?

Bring your notes to class February 24 along with a symbol of love's discontent, exploitation or true meaning. Think creatively. You will have 1-2 minutes to share with the class.

Post your response to the questions here by February 26. Include a reflection on the class presentation(s). What did you learn? Was your perception shifted in any way, if so, how?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

 

Book for Sale: CHEAP!

Stewart Pidd English Book for sale: $15. Contact Monique via email: MoniqueDee77@gmail.com

 
Field Trip
Let me know if you plan on going. Call me. We can meet there and sit together. Ensler was on Forum yesterday. You can listen to her interview on KQED.org radio on-line in Forum's archives.

Eve Ensler in Berkeley, Thursday, February 18, 7 PM at King Middle School - 1781 Rose Street - Berkeley

$12 advance tickets at Pegasus Books, Pendragon, Mrs. Dalloway's, Moe's, Rebecca's Books, Walden Pond, DIESEL, A Bookstore, and Modern Times or brownpapertickets.com :: 800-838-3006 ($15 door)

Eve Ensler, bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues, has won an Obie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award and numerous other major recognitions for her artistic and anti-violence work. Celebrities who have performed in The Vagina Monologues include Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Oprah. Her 2006 play The Treatment, dealing with the trauma resulting from participation in military conflict, starred her adoptive son Dylan McDermott. Her book

Insecure At Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World, emerged in 2006.

I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World is a daring and brilliantly provocative celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl, and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were meant to be.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

 
Reminder

We meet in the library for the first hour of class.

 
Read the following essay. We will discuss it on Wednesday in class in a freewrite.

Love Your Enemies Cyber-Post
This is our freewrite Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010

For the Martin King essay, "Love Your Enemies," reflect on his notion of love in three paragraphs. Why does King say we must love our enemy as ourselves? Was he always successful at this? How does he propose we do so?

Use evidence from King's sermon to support your claims.

Use three in-text citations(quotes and paraphrases), one per paragraph. Use a signal phrase, that is, introduce the speaker. For example: Martin Luther King says..."QUOTE" (page number)PUNCTUATION.


Martin Luther King's Sermon: "Love Your Enemy"

I am forced to preach under something of a handicap this morning. In fact, I had the doctor before coming to church. And he said that it would be best for me to stay in the bed this morning. And I insisted that I would have to come to preach. So he allowed me to come out with one stipulation, and that is that I would not come in the pulpit until time to preach, and that after, that I would immediately go back home and get in the bed. So I’m going to try to follow his instructions from that point on.

I want to use as a subject from which to preach this morning a very familiar subject, and it is familiar to you because I have preached from this subject twice before to my knowing in this pulpit. I try to make it a, something of a custom or tradition to preach from this passage of Scripture at least once a year, adding new insights that I develop along the way out of new experiences as I give these messages. Although the content is, the basic content is the same, new insights and new experiences naturally make for new illustrations.

So I want to turn your attention to this subject: "Loving Your Enemies." It’s so basic to me because it is a part of my basic philosophical and theological orientation—the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love. In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded by Saint Matthew, we read these very arresting words flowing from the lips of our Lord and Master: "Ye have heard that it has been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."

Certainly these are great words, words lifted to cosmic proportions. And over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an extremely difficult command. Many would go so far as to say that it just isn’t possible to move out into the actual practice of this glorious command. They would go on to say that this is just additional proof that Jesus was an impractical idealist who never quite came down to earth. So the arguments abound. But far from being an impractical idealist, Jesus has become the practical realist. The words of this text glitter in our eyes with a new urgency. Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.

Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point. This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because Jesus wasn’t playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command.

Now first let us deal with this question, which is the practical question: How do you go about loving your enemies? I think the first thing is this: In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I’m sure that seems strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by beginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation.

Now, I’m aware of the fact that some people will not like you, not because of something you have done to them, but they just won’t like you. I’m quite aware of that. Some people aren’t going to like the way you walk; some people aren’t going to like the way you talk. Some people aren’t going to like you because you can do your job better than they can do theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because other people like you, and because you’re popular, and because you’re well-liked, they aren’t going to like you. Some people aren’t going to like you because your hair is a little shorter than theirs or your hair is a little longer than theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because your skin is a little brighter than theirs; and others aren’t going to like you because your skin is a little darker than theirs. So that some people aren’t going to like you. They’re going to dislike you, not because of something that you’ve done to them, but because of various jealous reactions and other reactions that are so prevalent in human nature.

But after looking at these things and admitting these things, we must face the fact that an individual might dislike us because of something that we’ve done deep down in the past, some personality attribute that we possess, something that we’ve done deep down in the past and we’ve forgotten about it; but it was that something that aroused the hate response within the individual. That is why I say, begin with yourself. There might be something within you that arouses the tragic hate response in the other individual.

This is true in our international struggle. We look at the struggle, the ideological struggle between communism on the one hand and democracy on the other, and we see the struggle between America and Russia. Now certainly, we can never give our allegiance to the Russian way of life, to the communistic way of life, because communism is based on an ethical relativism and a metaphysical materialism that no Christian can accept. When we look at the methods of communism, a philosophy where somehow the end justifies the means, we cannot accept that because we believe as Christians that the end is pre-existent in the means. But in spite of all of the weaknesses and evils inherent in communism, we must at the same time see the weaknesses and evils within democracy.

Democracy is the greatest form of government to my mind that man has ever conceived, but the weakness is that we have never touched it. Isn’t it true that we have often taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes? Isn’t it true that we have often in our democracy trampled over individuals and races with the iron feet of oppression? Isn’t it true that through our Western powers we have perpetuated colonialism and imperialism? And all of these things must be taken under consideration as we look at Russia. We must face the fact that the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent from Asia and Africa is at bottom a revolt against the imperialism and colonialism perpetuated by Western civilization all these many years. The success of communism in the world today is due to the failure of democracy to live up to the noble ideals and principles inherent in its system.

And this is what Jesus means when he said: "How is it that you can see the mote in your brother’s eye and not see the beam in your own eye?" Or to put it in Moffatt’s translation: "How is it that you see the splinter in your brother’s eye and fail to see the plank in your own eye?" And this is one of the tragedies of human nature. So we begin to love our enemies and love those persons that hate us whether in collective life or individual life by looking at ourselves.

A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.

I’ve said to you on many occasions that each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality. We’re split up and divided against ourselves. And there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. There is a recalcitrant South of our soul revolting against the North of our soul. And there is this continual struggle within the very structure of every individual life. There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe, "There is enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue." There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Apostle Paul, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do."

So somehow the "isness" of our present nature is out of harmony with the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts us. And this simply means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.

The Greek language, as I’ve said so often before, is very powerful at this point. It comes to our aid beautifully in giving us the real meaning and depth of the whole philosophy of love. And I think it is quite apropos at this point, for you see the Greek language has three words for love, interestingly enough. It talks about love as eros. That’s one word for love. Eros is a sort of, aesthetic love. Plato talks about it a great deal in his dialogues, a sort of yearning of the soul for the realm of the gods. And it’s come to us to be a sort of romantic love, though it’s a beautiful love. Everybody has experienced eros in all of its beauty when you find some individual that is attractive to you and that you pour out all of your like and your love on that individual. That is eros, you see, and it’s a powerful, beautiful love that is given to us through all of the beauty of literature; we read about it.

Then the Greek language talks about philia, and that’s another type of love that’s also beautiful. It is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends. And this is the type of love that you have for those persons that you’re friendly with, your intimate friends, or people that you call on the telephone and you go by to have dinner with, and your roommate in college and that type of thing. It’s a sort of reciprocal love. On this level, you like a person because that person likes you. You love on this level, because you are loved. You love on this level, because there’s something about the person you love that is likeable to you. This too is a beautiful love. You can communicate with a person; you have certain things in common; you like to do things together. This is philia.

The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape. And agape is more than eros; agape is more than philia; agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.

And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, "Love your enemy." And it’s significant that he does not say, "Like your enemy." Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy." This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.

Now for the few moments left, let us move from the practical how to the theoretical why. It’s not only necessary to know how to go about loving your enemies, but also to go down into the question of why we should love our enemies. I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. [tapping on pulpit] It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.

I think I mentioned before that sometime ago my brother and I were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta. He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. They didn’t dim their lights; hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very vividly, my brother A. D. looked over and in a tone of anger said: "I know what I’m going to do. The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power." And I looked at him right quick and said: "Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody got to have some sense on this highway."

Somebody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that is the trouble, isn’t it? That as all of the civilizations of the world move up the highway of history, so many civilizations, having looked at other civilizations that refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs. And Toynbee tells that out of the twenty-two civilizations that have risen up, all but about seven have found themselves in the junkheap of destruction. It is because civilizations fail to have sense enough to dim the lights. And if somebody doesn’t have sense enough to turn on the dim and beautiful and powerful lights of love in this world, the whole of our civilization will be plunged into the abyss of destruction. And we will all end up destroyed because nobody had any sense on the highway of history. Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.

There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. And this is why Jesus says hate [recording interrupted]

. . . that you want to be integrated with yourself, and the way to be integrated with yourself is be sure that you meet every situation of life with an abounding love. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses. Psychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we develop guilt feelings and we begin to subconsciously repress or consciously suppress certain emotions, and they all stack up in our subconscious selves and make for tragic, neurotic responses. And may this not be the neuroses of many individuals as they confront life that that is an element of hate there. And modern psychology is calling on us now to love. But long before modern psychology came into being, the world’s greatest psychologist who walked around the hills of Galilee told us to love. He looked at men and said: "Love your enemies; don’t hate anybody." It’s not enough for us to hate your friends because—to to love your friends—because when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody. Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, "Love your enemies." Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.

I think of one of the best examples of this. We all remember the great president of this United States, Abraham Lincoln—these United States rather. You remember when Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln. He said a lot of bad things about Lincoln, a lot of unkind things. And sometimes he would get to the point that he would even talk about his looks, saying, "You don’t want a tall, lanky, ignorant man like this as the president of the United States." He went on and on and on and went around with that type of attitude and wrote about it. Finally, one day Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. And if you read the great biography of Lincoln, if you read the great works about him, you will discover that as every president comes to the point, he came to the point of having to choose a Cabinet. And then came the time for him to choose a Secretary of War. He looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man by the name of Mr. Stanton. And when Abraham Lincoln stood around his advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to him: "Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool? Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Do you know what he has done, tried to do to you? Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? Do you know that, Mr. Lincoln? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?" Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: "Oh yes, I know about it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job."

Mr. Stanton did become Secretary of War, and a few months later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And if you go to Washington, you will discover that one of the greatest words or statements ever made by, about Abraham Lincoln was made about this man Stanton. And as Abraham Lincoln came to the end of his life, Stanton stood up and said: "Now he belongs to the ages." And he made a beautiful statement concerning the character and the stature of this man. If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham Lincoln would have not transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.

That’s it. There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Jesus discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they believe in hitting for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating; but Jesus comes to us and says, "This isn’t the way."

And oh this morning, as I think of the fact that our world is in transition now. Our whole world is facing a revolution. Our nation is facing a revolution, our nation. One of the things that concerns me most is that in the midst of the revolution of the world and the midst of the revolution of this nation, that we will discover the meaning of Jesus’ words.

History unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some people oppressors. And there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression. One of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. But oh this isn’t the way. For the danger and the weakness of this method is its futility. Violence creates many more social problems than it solves. And I’ve said, in so many instances, that as the Negro, in particular, and colored peoples all over the world struggle for freedom, if they succumb to the temptation of using violence in their struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. Violence isn’t the way.

Another way is to acquiesce and to give in, to resign yourself to the oppression. Some people do that. They discover the difficulties of the wilderness moving into the promised land, and they would rather go back to the despots of Egypt because it’s difficult to get in the promised land. And so they resign themselves to the fate of oppression; they somehow acquiesce to this thing. But that too isn’t the way because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.

But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way. Jesus discovered that.

Not only did Jesus discover it, even great military leaders discover that. One day as Napoleon came toward the end of his career and looked back across the years—the great Napoleon that at a very early age had all but conquered the world. He was not stopped until he became, till he moved out to the battle of Leipzig and then to Waterloo. But that same Napoleon one day stood back and looked across the years, and said: "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depend? They depended upon force. But long ago Jesus started an empire that depended on love, and even to this day millions will die for him."

Yes, I can see Jesus walking around the hills and the valleys of Palestine. And I can see him looking out at the Roman Empire with all of her fascinating and intricate military machinery. But in the midst of that, I can hear him saying: "I will not use this method. Neither will I hate the Roman Empire." [Radio Announcer:] (WRMA, Montgomery, Alabama. Due to the fact of the delay this morning, we are going over with the sermon.) [several words inaudible] . . . and just start marching.

And I’m proud to stand here in Dexter this morning and say that that army is still marching. It grew up from a group of eleven or twelve men to more than seven hundred million today. Because of the power and influence of the personality of this Christ, he was able to split history into a.d. and b.c. Because of his power, he was able to shake the hinges from the gates of the Roman Empire. And all around the world this morning, we can hear the glad echo of heaven ring:

Jesus shall reign wherever sun,

Does his successive journeys run;

His kingdom spreads from shore to shore,

Till moon shall wane and wax no more.

We can hear another chorus singing: "All hail the power of Jesus name!"

We can hear another chorus singing: "Hallelujah, hallelujah! He’s King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah, hallelujah!"

We can hear another choir singing:

In Christ there is no East or West.

In Him no North or South,

But one great Fellowship of Love

Throughout the whole wide world.

This is the only way.

And our civilization must discover that. Individuals must discover that as they deal with other individuals. There is a little tree planted on a little hill and on that tree hangs the most influential character that ever came in this world. But never feel that that tree is a meaningless drama that took place on the stages of history. Oh no, it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity, and see the love of God breaking forth into time. It is an eternal reminder to a power-drunk generation that love is the only way. It is an eternal reminder to a generation depending on nuclear and atomic energy, a generation depending on physical violence, that love is the only creative, redemptive, transforming power in the universe.

So this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, "I love you. I would rather die than hate you." And I’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. And then we will be in God’s kingdom. We will be able to matriculate into the university of eternal life because we had the power to love our enemies, to bless those persons that cursed us, to even decide to be good to those persons who hated us, and we even prayed for those persons who despitefully used us.

Oh God, help us in our lives and in all of our attitudes, to work out this controlling force of love, this controlling power that can solve every problem that we confront in all areas. Oh, we talk about politics; we talk about the problems facing our atomic civilization. Grant that all men will come together and discover that as we solve the crisis and solve these problems—the international problems, the problems of atomic energy, the problems of nuclear energy, and yes, even the race problem—let us join together in a great fellowship of love and bow down at the feet of Jesus. Give us this strong determination. In the name and spirit of this Christ, we pray. Amen.



Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 November 1957. MLKEC.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

 

Posts

Look at the writing before you post or publish to make sure the formatting is clean, that is, the paragraphs are separated. Also, spell and grammar check the post in Word. I noticed many confused words in some student writing which was overall very good and on-point.

 

More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing, By Amartya Sen

Volume 37, Number 20 · December 20, 1990
http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/gender/Sen100M.html

Thanks to Rosecary for finding this article for us. If you read it and write a response you can have extra credit.

 

SPHE

Students are behind. In order to complete the SPHE essays, students have to complete the exercises. I review the answers in class, but I can't do this if students haven't completed the exercises. We are moving on next week, so have the templates for Essay 1: Sentence Punctuation done by Wednesday. We have a study hour on Wednesdays, 1-2 PM. Dominique will meet with students outside A202E. The afternoon class (1-3 PM) meets there on Wednesdays.

The next essay, Pronoun Case, we will complete in class. I will give you a quiz next week on Sentence Punctuation and MLA, which we reviewed today in class. This semester, I will collect the quizzes to keep track of student grasp of grammar skills.

If you are having a lot of trouble keeping up, then get a tutor. I am not going to slow the class to a crawl because students are not being proactive. I have not heard from any students who are having trouble. I read your silence as "everything is groovy" (smile). So if it's not groovy then ask questions, especially in class, but you can call me or email me or both.

 

Cyber-Post I Need Love

In Felicia Pride's book, The Message she reflects on what she calls 100 of hip hops greatest songs. In the section on love,we read "I Need Love," a chapter referencing LL Cool J's 1987 song by the same title. Pride writes about what the song meant to LL and what it means to her.

Now it's your turn to respond to the same. Read the song, if you haven't already done so, and write a three paragraph response to the axiom, human beings need love, what I think is an extension of the quote or song title.

Use 3 citations, 1 from Pride, 1 from the song and one from either of the two. One quote should be a free paraphrase. Don't forget to introduce the citation and put the page number in parentheses. For the song you can put the stanza or line.

Post the reflection here and respond to one classmate's post. Include a works cited page. See SPHE pages 311-322.

Recap on citations

Cool J, LL. I Need Love. Bigger and Deffer.Def Jam Records, 1987.

Pride, Felicia. "I Need Love." The Message.Philadelphia: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007.

Homework is to continue thinking about love, and its intangible and tangible manifestations, like forgiveness. Forgiveness is love.

Future Assignments
Look for another assignment on the theme of love over the following two weeks. The first will be an article or sermon by Martin Luther King to read (2/16 for 2/17).

Think about whether of not your agree with King about agape being the highest form of love; perhaps you favor philia or eros. This will be the freewrite topic on 2/17.

On Feb. 17, after the library orientation in the first hour, we will go to either A232 (10-12) or L-202E (1-3), to talk about student presentation on love, Feb. 22 and 24. Each student will bring in an object that represents love.

Monday, February 08, 2010

 
Homework is below. Scroll down (smile).

 
Course Syllabus
English 201, Spring 2010 at COA
Professor Wanda Sabir

ENG 201 A
23066 Lec 10:00-11:50 MW Sabir A 200
23067 Lec 01:00-02:50 PM MW Sabir A 213

ENG 201 B
23074 Lec 10:00-11:50 MW Sabir A 200
22075 Lec 01:00-02:50 PM MW Sabir A 213

Class Meetings: Jan. 21—May 19, 8-8:50; 1-2:50, MW Rooms D-229; A213

Drop dates: Feb. 16, April 25 (w/W) and no refund.

Holidays: 2/12-15, 3/19 (staff development), Spring Break: 4/4-10
Final Exam Week: May 24-28

Syllabus for English 201A/B: Preparation for Composition and Reading

The English 201 series (4 units) is a preparatory course designed to emphasize the thinking, reading, organizing and writing skills required for successful execution of college-level papers in all subject areas. This course is designed to for those students requiring minimal preparation for entering English 1A.

Absences must be kept to a minimum. If you miss 6 consecutive hours or 8 cumulative hours you will risk being dropped from the course, doing poorly or both. English 201 consists of weekly essays and daily assignments. This is a portfolio driven class. Keep all of your written work, graded and otherwise to turn in the last day of class. There will be an assessment, a midterm, a research project, a final and a class presentation.

As stated in the letter, Stewart Pidd will provide a context for essay writing which will hopefully allow students the opportunity to become conversant about the writing process and use grammar in context, as well as, employ MLA documentation. Keep a reading log for the Obama book noting key ideas, themes, vocabulary, questions and an analysis of primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving.

Research Project
Your research project will entail finding a woman in Northern California who is a social entrepreneur. This research project will be an extension of the themes explored in Half the Sky. The essay will be about 4-5 pages. This will include a works cited page and bibliography. Students will make 5-10 minute presentations of these papers in May. The paper will be due about two-three weeks prior to the presentation. We’ll discuss this task further later on.

New Heroes
Visit PBS.org “The New Heroes,” to read about social entrepreneurs. There is also a program called Frontline World. We will explore this assignment more, later in the course.

Why socially responsible economics?
Too often people feel helpless or hopeless when there is a lot you can do as an individual as soon as you realize the answer lies inside of you. If possible choose an entrepreneur who lives in Northern California, someone you’d like to interview and perhaps meet. Students can work on the project together, share resources. Each person has to write his or her own paper, but you can make a group presentation if you like.

Course Objectives
English 201 will look primarily at writing which persuades: argumentative writing, as well as expository writing, narrative and descriptive writing. At the end of the course students will have read work of accomplished writers, as well as practiced writing in a variety of styles to suit the writer’s purpose.

Academic Blog
In this course students will submit essays and other written work on-line. The academic blog is an opportunity for students to utilize multiple intelligences as they engage one another in a variety modalities.

Student Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course students will have an altered or heightened awareness of the world around them, especially discourse: speech and text. Students will see that everything is an argument, whether that is a cartoon, advertisement, or lyrics in a song. Students will be able to analyze and critique each incident or contact to evaluate its author’s purpose, audience, and evidence to determine whether or not such goal was met and if appropriate, act accordingly.

This course is intended to be both a group learning experience as well as an individually rewarding one. Mid-semester we will schedule conferences so students can confer with the instructor to evaluate his or her progress in the course. Classroom instruction will consist of lectures, small group work, and students working in pairs. This is an effective way for students to exchange ideas with classmates, compare reactions to readings and practice giving and receiving constructive feedback on class work.

Preparation for class, regular attendance and active participation is imperative for those students who wish to succeed in this course.

It is a student’s responsibility to contact the instructor if he or she plans to miss class. The student is responsible for all materials and information given during the class time, so please get telephone numbers for three (3) classmates in case you are late or absent. You will not be able to make up in-class assignments when you miss class.

Requirements for homework assignments:
Not late papers are accepted unless arranged in advance. Any papers below a C grade are an automatic revision or rewrite. Essays range between 2-3 pages, 500-750 words (English 201B students write the longer essays).

Choose topics which give you enough to write about. We will use documentation to substantiate all of our claims. With this in mind, I expect all papers to utilize at least two (2) different outside print sources, in addition to the occasional interview, and broadcast news, that is, radio or television, Internet also.

You will learn to document sources; we will practice citing sources in text, using footnotes and endnotes, and writing bibliographies and notes pages. Remember save all your work! This is a portfolio course.

All essay assignments you receive comments on have to be revised prior to resubmission; included with the revision is a student narrative to me regarding your understanding of what needed to be done; a student can prepare this as a part of the Writing Center visit (see below), especially if said student is unclear over what steps to take.

Library Orientations: Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010 the first hour of the class. Meet in the library at the reference desk.

We will write short essays that reflect themes and ideas discussed that week. Stewart Pidd has essay assignments attached to the text. Some of these essays will be written in class. The research essay will be an argument. There will be a midterm and a final.

Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester. List them in order of importance.

1.



2.



3.



4.



5.


Index Cards due Feb. 17, 2010
Please list your contact information: Name, Address, phone number e-mail address, best time to call.

What strengths do you bring to the class? What do you hope to obtain from the course – any particular exit skills? What do I need to know about you to help you meet your goals?

Grading
Essays: 15 percent (including Stewart Pidd essay assignments)
Cyber-Assignments posted on blog: 15 percent
Midterm: 10 percent
Final: 15 percent
Research Essay/Presentation: 20 percent
Portfolio: 15 percent
Peer Reviews from Lab teachers: 10 percent
Participation: 5 percent

The essays which take their themes from the readings are practice essays, and are about a fourth of your grade, your midterm and final are another fourth and your portfolio is the final fourth. (Save all of your work.) You can average the grades to see how to weigh the various components. Participation is included in the daily exercises and cyber assignments, along with the homework portion of the grade, so if your attendance is exemplary, yet you say nothing the entire 18 weeks, you loose percentage points.

You will also need to plan to spend time weekly in the Writing Lab (L-234-235, (510) 748-2132). It is a great place to get one-on-on assistance on your essays, from brainstorming and planning the essays, to critique in areas like clarity, organization, clearly stated thesis, evidence or support, logical conclusions, and grammatical problems. In the Writing Center there are ancillary materials for student use. These writing programs build strong writing muscles. The Bedford Handbook on-line, Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers on-line, Townsend Press, and other such computer and cyber-based resources are a few of the many databases available. There is also an Open Lab for checking e-mail, a Math Lab. All academic labs are located in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) or library. The Cyber Café is located in the F-bldg.

Students need a student ID to use the labs and to check out books. The IDs are free and you can take the photo in the F-Building, Student Services. Students also need to sign up for a free LRC course to use the labs. See your counselor of LRC personnel.

Have a tutor of teacher sign off on your essays before you turn them in; if you have a “R,” which means revision necessary for a grade or “NC” which means “no credit,” you have to go to the lab and revise the essay with a tutor or teacher before you return both the graded original and the revision (with signature) to me. Revise does not mean “rewrite,” it means to “see again.”

When getting assistance on an essay, the teacher or tutor is not an editor, so have questions prepared for them to make best use of the 15-20 minute session in the Lab. For more specific assistance, sign up for one-on-one tutoring, another free service. For those of you on other campuses, you can get assistance at the Merritt College’s Writing Center, as well as Laney’s Writing.

All essay assignments you receive comments on have to be revised prior to resubmission; included with the revision is a student narrative to me regarding your understanding of what needed to be done; a student can prepare this as a part of the Lab visit, especially if said student is unclear over what steps to take.

Students can also visit me in office hours for assistance; again, prepare your questions in advance to best make use of the time. Do not leave class without understanding the comments on a paper. I don’t mind reading them to you.

English language fluency in writing and reading; a certain comfort and ease with the language; confidence and skillful application of literary skills associated with academic writing. Familiarity if not mastery of the rhetorical styles used in argumentation, exposition and narration will be addressed in this class and is a key student learning outcome (SLO).

We will be evaluating what we know and how we came to know what we know, a field called epistemology or the study of knowledge. Granted, the perspective is western culture which eliminates the values of the majority populations, so-called underdeveloped or undeveloped countries or cultures. Let us not fall into typical superiority traps. Try to maintain a mental elasticity and a willingness to let go of concepts which not only limit your growth as an intelligent being, but put you at a distinct disadvantage as a species.

This is a highly charged and potentially revolutionary process - critical thinking. The process of evaluating all that you swallowed without chewing up to now is possibly even dangerous. This is one of the problems with bigotry; it’s easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.

More on grades, and portfolio
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily the best response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not students can demonstrate mastery of a skill – in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this session in meeting your goal.
In past semesters, students have skipped the portfolio and/or the final. Neither is optional.

Office Hours
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. I am available for consultation on Tuesdays, 10-12, and on Monday and Wednesday afternoon 3-4 and by appointment. My office is located between the academic labs in L-236 (inside L-235). My office number is (510) 748-2131, e-mail professorwandasposse@gmail.com. Let me know the day before, if possible, when you’d like to meet with me on MW. Ask me for my cell phone number. I do not mind sharing it with you.

I don’t check my e-mail frequently on weekends, so I’d advise you to exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently. Again study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult; don’t forget, you can also discuss the readings as a group in the Lab with a teacher or tutor acting as facilitator. Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio.

Students are expected to complete their work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance, to keep full credit. You loose credit each day an assignment is late and certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments prepared outside of class are to be typed, 12-pt. font, double-spaced lines, indentations on paragraphs, 1-inch margins around the written work.

Cheating
Plagiarism is ethically abhorrent, and if any student tries to take credit for work authored by another person the result will be a failed grade on the assignment and possibly a failed grade in the course if this is attempted again. This is a graded course. There might be an option to take this course C/NC. See Admission and Records.

Textbooks Recap:
Pollitt, Gary. Craig Baker. Stewart Pidd Hates English: Grammar, Punctuation, and Writing Exercises. First or Second Edition. California: Attack the Text Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 13: 978-0-9755923-4-2

Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

Students need to choose a book by a woman author or about a woman, who lives here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biographies and autobiographies are great. If you want to read a novel, let me see it first. Students will have a paper and a presentation based on the book. Choose one now and when we finish Half the Sky you can start reading it. The presentation and paper will be due in April.

Students also need a dictionary. I recommend: The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.

The Prepared Student also needs...
Along with a dictionary, the prepared student needs pens with blue or black ink, along with a pencil for annotating texts, paper, a stapler or paper clips, a jump drive to save work from college computers, a notebook, three hole punch, a folder for work-in-progress, and a divided binder to keep materials together.

Also stay abreast of the news. Buy a daily paper. Listen to alternative radio: KPFA 94.1 FM (Hardknock), KQED 88.5, KALW 91.7. Visit news websites: AllAfrica.com, Al Jazeera, CNN.com, AlterNet.org, DemocracyNow.org, FlashPoints.org, CBS 60Minutes.

 
The afternoon class didn't get to see the film. We spent a lot of time discussing the Introduction to Half the Sky after reading it aloud. Our freewrite was a reflection on the Chinese Proverb: "Women hold up half the sky."

After our discussion students worked in groups on SPHE, chapters 1-2. Many students hadn't completed all the exercises in Chapter 2, so it didn't make sense to review the answers. Homework is to complete the exercises and start the templates for Essay 1: Sentence Punctuation.

We meet in A232 on 2/10. There is no school Monday, Feb. 15. Wednesday, Feb. 17, the first hour is in the library, the second hour is in L-202E (1-3 PM)and A232 (10-12).

We will watch the New Heroes video on Wednesday in the afternoon class. It can inform our freewrite. Post your 3-paragraph summaries below where indicated. Include one paraphrase per paragraph. Put the page number in parentheses following the citation.

 

Kailash Satyarthi: New Hero

How is the work Kailash Satarthi in agreement with the work Kristof and WuDunn hope to inspire with their book, Half the Sky.

What is one of the key elements in a successful abolishionist movement, especially for the young children?

What is the link between poverty and freedom as illustrated by Kailash Satyarthis's work?

Kailash Satyarthi

Projects: Global March Against Child Labor, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), Rugmark

Locations: New Delhi, India (headquarters), partners in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Kailash Satyarthi has saved tens of thousands of lives. At the age of 26 he gave up a promising career as an electrical engineer and dedicated his life to helping the millions of children in India who are forced into slavery by powerful and corrupt business- and land-owners. His original idea was daring and dangerous. He decided to mount raids on factories — factories frequently manned by armed guards — where children and often entire families were held captive as bonded workers.

After successfully freeing and rehabilitating thousands of children, he went on to build up a global movement against child labor. Today Kailash heads up the Global March Against Child Labor, a conglomeration of 2000 social-purpose organizations and trade unions in 140 countries.

Yet even as he has become a globally recognized figure, Kailash continues the gritty work of leading raids to free slaves. Kailash believes that he must focus on a range of activities -- from the most grassroots to the most visionary -- in order to win the fight.

What Does SACCS Do?

Since its inception in 1989, SACCS and its partners have liberated nearly 40,000 bonded laborers, many of them bonded, working in various industries, including rug manufacturing. But to free such children without offering new opportunities would, in Kailash's view, be meaningless.

Bal Ashram in Rajasthan, India is a transition center where newly-freed slaves are taught basic skills. Kailash describes the arrival of a girl recently freed from a stone quarry: "It's a joyous experience to watch the changing emotions flit across this beautiful girl's face. She's like an open book, and her varying expressions tell us a story: the story of transition from slavery to a new life of freedom. When her face lights up, it is clear she is taking her first steps toward freedom and belief in others."

Since the Ashram can only serve 100 children at a time, Kailash has begun a program called "Bal Mitra Gram" to encourage Indian villages to abolish child labor. In order to be a part of the program, an entire community must agree that no child will be put to work and every child will be sent to school.

While changing India village by village is a worthwhile pursuit, such a strategy could take centuries to achieve Kailash's goal, and he is not prepared to wait that long. So he has begun attacking the problem by harnessing the immense power of market forces.

Many rugs from South Asia are manufactured using child labor. Kailash believes that if consumers around the world knew how their expensive and colorful Indian rugs were made, they would no longer think they were so beautiful. He started "Rugmark," a program in which rugs are labeled and certified to be child-labor-free by factories who that agree to be regularly inspected. Kailash plans to extend the labeling program to other products such as soccer balls, another popular product that is commonly made by children.

Kailash says "If not now, then when? If not you, then who? If we are able to answer these fundamental questions, then perhaps we can wipe away the blot of human slavery."

From: http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/meet/index.html

 

Half the Sky-Cyber Assignment

Today we read the Introduction to Half the Sky aloud. Students are to compose a three paragraph summary using three free paraphrases.

Post these compostitions here. Answer the following questions:

How do the authors structure the introduction?
What is the purpose of the book?
Why did the authors write it?
Who are they?
Talk about the evidence the authors site? How do the profiles, statistics and other data help them prove their claim that their is a problem?
Where is the treatment of women a problem? Is it a global issue?

Again in the first paragraph introduce the source or book, its authors and what you are responding to: The Introduction.

Keep reading log for the book and a vocabulary log; both will be due when you turn in your essay that takes its topic from Half the Sky.

This summary is due by Wednesday, Feb. 10, 8 AM (10-12 class).

If you are slow reader continue reading the book. We will establish literature circles at the next meeting, Wednesday, Feb. 17. (Monday, Feb.15 is a holiday.)

Other Homework and a reminder
In SPHE complete the templates for Essay 1 in the book. You can type them and bring to class. We will work on the essays Wednesday, Feb. 10. Remember, we meet in A232 on Wednesdays. Next week, Feb. 17, we meet in the library for the first hour at the reference desk.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

 

Study Hours

Dominique West hosts study hours on Mondays 12-1 PM and Wednesdays 1-2 PM in the library in the study rooms located behind the reference desk.

 

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Today in the morning class we met in A232. The afternoon class meets in A202E. We spent a few minutes getting familiar with the technology and then students opened a Word.doc and typed answers to the nine (9) questions at the end of the Salvation essay. Students were then instructed to write a brief summary (1-2 paragraphs). Each summary needs to start:

In Langston Hughes's short story, "Salvation," he....

We ran out of time, so students were instructed to post their answers and summaries later. Students also need to respond to one classmate's post. You have to mention the student's name, so we will know whose work you are referencing. Post the assignment(s) below at the link to "Salvation," not here. Oh, if the blog will not let you post because the response is too long, split it into multiple posts-label them "part 1, part 2...".

For Monday students were to continue in SPHE chapters 1-2. We will write the first essay next week. It will be due the following week. We will also have a couple of quizes and review MLA (textbook).

If students don't have SPHE use the books on reserve in the library. There are 4 copies. I think one book is in the Writing Center. I will put another one there as well.

Bring Half the Sky to class on Monday too. We will read the introduction in class.

Monday, February 01, 2010

 

"Salvation" by Langston Hughes

Post your freewrite here. Wednesday, Feb. 3, we will write a summary of the story and post it here as well. Respond to a classmate's post. In both classes we discussed the themes in the story: deception, lies, guilt, disappointment, isolation, rejection.

We practiced writing thesis sentences in the afternoon class. I added a couple more.

Hughes' voice: In "Salvation," a story that appears in my autobiography, The Big Sea, my intention was to show the guilt I felt when i lied about seeing Jesus.

"Salvation" is a story that shows a child's guilt when he lies.

LH's character's remorse shows us that "salvation" is not guaranteed and perhaps shouldn't be rushed.

Deception, lies and guilt are all themes explored in LH's story, "Salvation."

"Salvation's" protagonist learns that he's his own savior, and this depresses him.

Sometimes we are most ashamed of the deeds we get away with, as is proven by LH in his short story "Salvation."

Other work today
Before reading "Salvation" we reviewed "paraphrasing" in Stewart Pidd Hates English. We also reviewed the quiz on Confused Words.


Field Trip

A few students said they want to go to see Tim Wise on Thursday, Feb. 4, 7 PM at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th and Harrison in Oakland. The cost is $10. Bring your money to class 2/3. Call me tomorrow and let me know if you decided you want to go, but didn't sign up.

Homework
Homework is to start the first chapter, Confused Words and work through Sentence Punctuation. We will write Essay 1 next week. I will give students handouts 2/3. We will also review the exercises in Confused Words and Sentence Punctuation.

New Meeting Place for English 201 10-11:50
English 201 10-11:50 we meet in A232 on Wednesdays. I will pick you up in front of D229 this Wednesday, Feb. 3, 10:00 AM.

English 201 1-2:50 we meet in L202E (bring your laptops, if you have them.)

Note
Bring Half the Sky, as well as SPHE and your dictionaries to class daily.

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