My Journey to Become a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
A Journey Through My College Papers: Undergraduate Series
675
A Journey through My College Papers Undergraduate Series Deborah K. Barry
Transcript of A Journey Through My College Papers: Undergraduate Series
A Journey through
My College Papers
Undergraduate Series
Deborah K. Barry
2 A Journey Through My College Papers
Published by:
Debbie Barry
2500 Mann Road, #248
Clarkston, Michigan 48346
USA
Copyright © 2013 by Deborah K. Barry. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means
without the written permission of the author.
ISBN-13: 978-1484870280
ISBN-10: 148487028X
Undergraduate Series 3
Introduction I began my college career in the fall of 2008 at Olney Central College in Olney, Illinois.
OCC is part of the Illinois Eastern Community Colleges system. I spent two semesters at OCC,
until I moved in the summer of 2009.
I transferred in the fall of 2009 to Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa. I took advantage
of the online education offered by Ashford, which allowed me to study at my home in Clarkston,
Michigan. I had two concurrent majors with Ashford: first: social sciences with an education
concentration; and second: English.
The papers in this book are the collected written assignments of my undergraduate career
at Olney Central College and Ashford University. They are presented in chronological order
within each course, and the courses, aside from the first semester, are given in consecutive order.
The papers in the first two semesters were written using MLA format, with subsequent papers
being written in APA format, as required by the individual schools.
I completed by undergraduate studies in April of 2013 and graduated from Ashford
University in the spring.
A complete list of sources for all of the papers in this volume is provided at the end of the
book for the reader’s convenience.
4 A Journey Through My College Papers
(Word Cloud created using Tagxedo.com, 2013 April 27)
DISCLAIMER: References to members of my family, my friends, and places where I have lived,
studied, or worked are included in my writings as examples of the topics being discussed and do
not represent my actual family or friends or actual places and/or situations. Although they may
resemble real people, places, or events, they are to be taken as no more than creations of my
imagination.
Undergraduate Series 5
Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 3
FALL SEMESTER, 2008 ................................................................................................................ 17
ENG 1111: COMPOSITION 1 ........................................................................................................ 17
Writing Competition .......................................................................................................... 17
Friday Evening ................................................................................................................... 19
Storm ................................................................................................................................ 20
Media Violence .................................................................................................................. 21
MTH 1121: MATH FOR ELEMENTARY MAJORS ................................................................................ 23
Experiences ....................................................................................................................... 23
SPRING SEMESTER, 2009 ............................................................................................................ 24
ENG 1121: COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS ....................................................................................... 24
The Tragic Emily Grierson .................................................................................................. 24
Arnold Friend ..................................................................................................................... 26
White Elephants ................................................................................................................ 29
On Marriage Forms ........................................................................................................... 31
FALL SEMESTER, 2009 ................................................................................................................ 49
EDU 108: INTRODUCTION TO POLICY & EDUCATION .......................................................................... 49
Examining a Racial Policy .................................................................................................. 49
Altering Power Relationships ............................................................................................. 50
The NEA Opposes School Vouchers .................................................................................... 51
Charges Dropped Against Teacher Accused of Forcing Student to Eat From Garbage ........ 52
Defining Education Ideology .............................................................................................. 53
Freedom and Equality ........................................................................................................ 54
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act ........................................................................ 55
Stop the Bullies .................................................................................................................. 57
Interconnected Policy Agendas .......................................................................................... 58
Implementation Barriers to NCLB....................................................................................... 59
Michigan Legislative Process ............................................................................................. 60
Theoretical Frameworks .................................................................................................... 61
Policy Evaluation ............................................................................................................... 62
PSY 202: ADULT DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE ASSESSMENT ..................................................................... 63
Response to the RALI exercise ............................................................................................ 63
Skinner's Operant Conditioning.......................................................................................... 63
Holland's Hypothesis on Personalities ................................................................................ 64
The Endless Change Rule ................................................................................................... 65
6 A Journey Through My College Papers
Family and Work Changes .................................................................................................. 66
Reaction to Writing a Paper ............................................................................................... 66
With Six Months to Live ...................................................................................................... 67
The Life Maps ..................................................................................................................... 67
Institutional Outcomes ....................................................................................................... 68
SPRING SEMESTER, 2010 ............................................................................................................ 69
HIS 324: HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION ................................................................................... 69
Forces in Education ............................................................................................................ 69
Learning Stages .................................................................................................................. 70
Colonial Education ............................................................................................................. 71
American Leaders ............................................................................................................... 73
National Standards in Education ........................................................................................ 74
Progressive Education ........................................................................................................ 76
Gifted and Talented............................................................................................................ 78
Technology in the Classroom .............................................................................................. 80
Education Topics in the Courts ............................................................................................ 80
Impact of the Internet ........................................................................................................ 81
HIS 303: THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION ......................................................................................... 83
Affecting Presidential Power .............................................................................................. 83
Anti-Federalist Papers ........................................................................................................ 84
Benefits of the Articles of Confederation ............................................................................ 86
Checks and Balances .......................................................................................................... 87
Chisholm v. Georgia ........................................................................................................... 88
Gridlock .............................................................................................................................. 90
Hobbes and Locke .............................................................................................................. 91
Supreme Court Docket ........................................................................................................ 93
Unitary, Federal, or Confederal .......................................................................................... 94
Justice Sonia Sotomayor ..................................................................................................... 95
Senate and House Sites ...................................................................................................... 96
Speech Codes in Education ................................................................................................. 98
INF 103: COMPUTER LITERACY .................................................................................................... 102
Air Travel Database .......................................................................................................... 102
Artificial Intelligence......................................................................................................... 103
Electronic Monitoring ....................................................................................................... 107
Smart Cards ..................................................................................................................... 110
PHI 103: INFORMAL LOGIC ......................................................................................................... 111
Addressing Stereotypes .................................................................................................... 111
Thinking Critically ............................................................................................................. 113
Moral Reasoning .............................................................................................................. 114
Undergraduate Series 7
Homosexual Marriage ..................................................................................................... 115
SOC 101: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY ...................................................................................... 119
Social Settings ................................................................................................................. 119
Sociological Perspective ................................................................................................... 120
Shrinking Middle Class ..................................................................................................... 120
Life Chances..................................................................................................................... 121
Death Penalty .................................................................................................................. 122
Social Norms.................................................................................................................... 124
McDonald's Goes East ..................................................................................................... 125
Human Rights .................................................................................................................. 127
Social Interactions ........................................................................................................... 128
Social Movements ........................................................................................................... 129
Impact of Sociological Theories on the Institution of Family ............................................. 131
FALL SEMESTER, 2010 .............................................................................................................. 134
PHI 107: PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN CONDUCT ................................................................................. 134
Principle of Charity .......................................................................................................... 134
Conflict Between Reason and Feelings ............................................................................. 134
Veil of Ignorance ............................................................................................................. 135
Cultural Relativism .......................................................................................................... 136
Just Desserts .................................................................................................................... 136
Virtuous Behavior ............................................................................................................ 138
Intent in Moral Acts ......................................................................................................... 139
Moral Consensus ............................................................................................................. 139
Taoism............................................................................................................................. 139
Susan Wolf ...................................................................................................................... 140
Posner and Singer ............................................................................................................ 140
Stay-at-Home Mothers Deserve Respect .......................................................................... 141
SOC 315: CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES.................................................................................... 145
Social Cleavages .............................................................................................................. 145
Quarrels of the Britons..................................................................................................... 147
Right Amount of Welfare ................................................................................................. 147
Democratic Deficit ........................................................................................................... 148
Japanese Spirit, Western Things ...................................................................................... 149
Middle Way ..................................................................................................................... 152
The Quiet Revolution ....................................................................................................... 153
Caste System ................................................................................................................... 153
Muslim Modernization .................................................................................................... 154
Political Diversity in the Developing World ....................................................................... 155
Major Trends, Issues and Prospects ................................................................................. 156
8 A Journey Through My College Papers
The British Disease ........................................................................................................... 158
ENG 125: INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE ...................................................................................... 162
Creating Art ..................................................................................................................... 162
Literature and Life ............................................................................................................ 163
Shared Values .................................................................................................................. 165
Reflecting on your Reading ............................................................................................... 166
Literature in Community ................................................................................................... 166
Poems and Feelings .......................................................................................................... 168
Reading Poems................................................................................................................. 169
Langston Hughes and Alice Walker .................................................................................. 170
Reading Drama and Plays ................................................................................................ 171
Imagery in Literature ........................................................................................................ 172
My Reading Experience .................................................................................................... 176
LIB 320: GLOBAL SOCIOECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ........................................................................... 176
Historical Perspectives ...................................................................................................... 176
Technology and Globalization .......................................................................................... 177
International Organizations ............................................................................................. 179
Transnational Crime ......................................................................................................... 180
Criteria for Armed Intervention ........................................................................................ 181
Global Civil Society ........................................................................................................... 183
GNP.................................................................................................................................. 184
India and China ................................................................................................................ 185
Maintaining Peace ........................................................................................................... 186
Universal Human Rights ................................................................................................... 187
Convention against Torture .............................................................................................. 188
Responsibility to a Broader Humanity ............................................................................... 189
SPRING SEMESTER, 2011 .......................................................................................................... 194
PSY 104: CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................... 194
Experiential Learning ........................................................................................................ 194
Theoretical Perspectives: Cognitive .................................................................................. 194
Child Development ........................................................................................................... 195
Early Child Care ................................................................................................................ 196
Infant Mortality ................................................................................................................ 197
Infant and Toddler Nutrition ............................................................................................. 198
Parenting Styles ............................................................................................................... 200
Gender Information .......................................................................................................... 201
Information Processing .................................................................................................... 202
Cognitive Development .................................................................................................... 203
Psychosocial Development ............................................................................................... 205
Undergraduate Series 9
Psychotherapy ................................................................................................................. 206
Key Learning .................................................................................................................... 208
Article Review .................................................................................................................. 208
Developmental Theories .................................................................................................. 209
PSY 370: LEARNING & THE BRAIN ............................................................................................... 212
Fundamentals of Brain-based Learning ............................................................................ 212
Brain Dominance ............................................................................................................. 213
Physiological Effects on Learning ..................................................................................... 214
Physical Movement and the Brain.................................................................................... 215
Brain-based Learning Strategies Benefit Students ............................................................ 216
Memory Strategies .......................................................................................................... 218
In the Classroom .............................................................................................................. 220
Sensory Contributions to Learning ................................................................................... 221
The Role of Emotion in Learning ...................................................................................... 223
Advantages of Brain-Based Learning Environments ......................................................... 224
Brain-based Compatible Classrooms ................................................................................ 229
EDU 321: INTRODUCTION TO SERVING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS ................................................ 231
Sara ................................................................................................................................. 231
Lupe ................................................................................................................................ 231
Theories........................................................................................................................... 232
Teaching Strategies ......................................................................................................... 233
Bianca ............................................................................................................................. 234
Mini-lesson: "I before E" .................................................................................................. 235
Cultural and Linguistic Differences ................................................................................... 236
HIS 204: AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 .................................................................................... 237
American Slave Narratives ............................................................................................... 237
Corporations and Big Business ......................................................................................... 238
Elections of 1912 ............................................................................................................. 239
World War I Propaganda ................................................................................................. 240
American Imperialism ...................................................................................................... 242
Automobile and America ................................................................................................. 244
WWII-Related Events ....................................................................................................... 245
Summer of Hate .............................................................................................................. 246
Hollywood/Fiction - Hollywood Blacklists ......................................................................... 247
Iran Hostage Crisis ........................................................................................................... 248
Sit-Coms .......................................................................................................................... 249
African Americans in Post-Civil War America ................................................................... 252
ENG 341: STUDIES IN LITERARY GENRES ....................................................................................... 258
Parables, Fables, and Tales .............................................................................................. 258
The Short Story ................................................................................................................ 259
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FALL SEMESTER, 2011 ............................................................................................................... 260
ENG 201: AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1865 ................................................................................... 260
Iroquois ............................................................................................................................ 260
Sinners ............................................................................................................................. 261
Letters .............................................................................................................................. 262
Franklin ............................................................................................................................ 264
Fiction .............................................................................................................................. 265
Oppressions...................................................................................................................... 266
Commentary in Fiction ..................................................................................................... 267
Douglass/Autobiography.................................................................................................. 268
Rhetorical Analysis ........................................................................................................... 270
American Poetry ............................................................................................................... 271
Racial Tensions ................................................................................................................. 272
Nature in Early American Literature ................................................................................. 273
ENG 202: AMERICAN LITERATURE AFTER 1865 .............................................................................. 277
Narrative Writing ............................................................................................................. 277
The Essay ......................................................................................................................... 278
The Wrong Race ............................................................................................................... 279
Modernist American Literature by Women ....................................................................... 281
The Harlem Renaissance 1900 – 1940 .............................................................................. 282
Modern American Writers ................................................................................................ 283
Modern American Fiction ................................................................................................. 284
Literature in the Postmodern Era ...................................................................................... 285
Language and Rhetoric..................................................................................................... 285
The Immigrant Experience ................................................................................................ 287
Indifferent Universe .......................................................................................................... 288
ENG 345: BRITISH LITERATURE I .................................................................................................. 292
Beowulf: Reading for Theme ............................................................................................ 292
Christian Content in Beowulf ............................................................................................ 293
Chaucer: Reading for Imagery .......................................................................................... 295
Chaucer: Reading for Lexicon ........................................................................................... 296
Satire in “The Wife of Bath”.............................................................................................. 297
The Bible: Reading for Context ......................................................................................... 299
Paradise Lost: Reading for Character and Imagery ........................................................... 300
Renaissance Love Poetry: Reading for Lyricism ................................................................. 301
Early 17th Century Elegy, Epigraph , and Friendship ......................................................... 302
Swift’s A Modest Proposal ................................................................................................ 303
Reading for Global Significance ........................................................................................ 304
The Evil of Grendel ........................................................................................................... 305
Undergraduate Series 11
ENG 346: BRITISH LITERATURE II ................................................................................................ 310
Innocence/Experience ...................................................................................................... 310
Conversations in Poems ................................................................................................... 311
Religion and Myth in Romantic Poetry ............................................................................. 312
Romantics into Victorians ................................................................................................ 314
Victorian Science ............................................................................................................. 315
Heart of Darkness ............................................................................................................ 316
Poetry of the Great War .................................................................................................. 317
Themes in Romantic and Victorian Poetry........................................................................ 318
Feminist Manifesto and Woolf ......................................................................................... 320
Tradition .......................................................................................................................... 321
The Kind Aspect of Leopold Bloom ................................................................................... 321
English Poetry from Around the World ............................................................................. 323
Process ............................................................................................................................ 324
Religion and Myth in English Poetry ................................................................................. 325
ENG 325: INTERMEDIATE COMPOSITION ....................................................................................... 330
Writing Competition ........................................................................................................ 330
Writing a Final Paper ....................................................................................................... 332
Tipping the Tank .............................................................................................................. 333
Explaining Concepts ......................................................................................................... 335
Defining Family................................................................................................................ 336
Tipping the Tank .............................................................................................................. 337
Defining Family................................................................................................................ 339
Evaluation ....................................................................................................................... 340
Defining Family................................................................................................................ 341
Our School’s Behavior Code ............................................................................................. 343
Oral Argument................................................................................................................. 344
Evaluating a School’s Behavior Rule ................................................................................. 346
Taking a Position Online .................................................................................................. 348
Position Papers ................................................................................................................ 349
American Students Are Crippled By Cultural Diversity Education ...................................... 349
SPRING SEMESTER, 2012 .......................................................................................................... 354
ENG 321: INTRODUCTORY LINGUISTICS ........................................................................................ 354
Animal Communication versus Human Speech................................................................. 354
The Lateralization of Language in the Brain ..................................................................... 355
Morphology and Creativity .............................................................................................. 355
Semantic and Pragmatic Meanings in a Cultural Context ................................................. 356
The Prosodic Qualities of Language ................................................................................. 357
Phonetics and the International Phonetic Alphabet ......................................................... 358
12 A Journey Through My College Papers
A Critical Period for Language Acquisition ........................................................................ 359
Computers That Talk and Listen ....................................................................................... 360
Disappearing Languages .................................................................................................. 360
Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European ................................................................................ 361
Picturing the First Writing ................................................................................................ 362
ENG 317: INTERNATIONAL VOICES ............................................................................................... 367
Reflection on Artistic Expression in Your Everyday Life ...................................................... 367
Reflection on Artistic Expression in Your Everyday Life: Food ............................................ 368
Artistic Expression and Culture ......................................................................................... 369
Rebellion and Personal Identity ........................................................................................ 370
Language, Perception, and Artistic Creation ..................................................................... 372
The Meanings of Words ................................................................................................... 373
Language and Personal Identity ....................................................................................... 374
The Past’s Presence Today:............................................................................................... 376
Historical Representations in Art and Literature ............................................................... 376
Audience Reception and the Influences of History and Culture.......................................... 377
Identity Within and Without ............................................................................................. 378
Research on an Aesthetic Movement................................................................................ 382
Analyzing a Literary Work in Relation to Sociopolitical Contexts and Movements ............. 383
Comparing Satrapi and Nafisi ........................................................................................... 384
Identity Within and Without ............................................................................................. 385
Personal Reflection on Global Culture ............................................................................... 390
Artistic Representations of the Effects of Intersecting Cultures ......................................... 391
ENG 318: CREATIVE WRITING ..................................................................................................... 392
Sharing and Writing Events from Our Lives ....................................................................... 392
Reading and Critiquing Creative Writing........................................................................... 393
Sheltered .......................................................................................................................... 394
Thinking About Plots, Tension, and Conclusions ................................................................ 395
Maypole in Vermont ......................................................................................................... 397
Analyzing Poetic Structure ................................................................................................ 400
Three Poems by Debbie .................................................................................................... 401
Understanding Dialogue and Character ............................................................................ 403
Sheltered – Revised .......................................................................................................... 404
Maypole in Vermont – Revised ......................................................................................... 406
Tommy – Revised ............................................................................................................. 410
Escaping the Famine – Revised ......................................................................................... 411
The Child‘s Sonnet – Revised............................................................................................. 411
Reflection on Creative Writing .......................................................................................... 412
Finding Stories and Poems – Mining for Ideas by Reading Literature ................................ 413
Peer Review and Revision Process .................................................................................... 414
Undergraduate Series 13
ENG 438: LITERARY THEORY ...................................................................................................... 415
Introduction to Literary Analysis ...................................................................................... 415
Analysis of Here at “The New Yorker” .............................................................................. 416
New Criticism and Unification .......................................................................................... 416
Reader-Response and Rhetorical Tradition ...................................................................... 417
Forgiving My Father ........................................................................................................ 418
Structuralist Theory ......................................................................................................... 419
Deconstructing The New Yorker Cartoon ......................................................................... 420
Something Is Wrong In London ........................................................................................ 421
Distinguishing Between Historical and Biographical Theories .......................................... 424
Marxism versus Postcolonial Theory ................................................................................ 425
Celebrating Ecstatic Life................................................................................................... 425
Psychological Analysis ..................................................................................................... 428
Gender Based Theories and Stereotypes .......................................................................... 429
Symbolic Serpents ............................................................................................................ 430
ENG 380: LITERARY RESEARCH ................................................................................................... 434
Literary Experiences ......................................................................................................... 434
Experience with Library Resources ................................................................................... 435
Psychoanalytical Theory in Literary Criticism ................................................................... 436
Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper .................................................................................... 438
Exploring the Ashford University Library Databases ......................................................... 439
Critical Analysis of Gilman’s Gothic Allegory .................................................................... 440
Doing More with Google .................................................................................................. 442
Research and Response ................................................................................................... 443
Poetry Analysis "ABC" ...................................................................................................... 444
The Value of Critical Theory in Literary Analysis ............................................................... 445
Analyzing The Yellow Wallpaper ...................................................................................... 446
FALL SEMESTER, 2012 .............................................................................................................. 450
ENG 341: STUDIES IN LITERARY GENRES ....................................................................................... 450
Parables, Fables, and Tales .............................................................................................. 450
The Short Story ................................................................................................................ 451
Short Stories .................................................................................................................... 452
Literary Terms ................................................................................................................. 453
Elements of Poetry – Part One ......................................................................................... 454
Elements of Poetry – Part Two ......................................................................................... 456
Images of Brotherhood and Death ................................................................................... 458
Elements of Drama: Characterization .............................................................................. 463
Elements of Drama: Imagery, Symbolism, and Allusion .................................................... 464
Elements of Drama: Plot and Character ........................................................................... 465
14 A Journey Through My College Papers
Thinking Critically about Drama: the Contemporary Significance of Ibsen ........................ 466
PSY 372: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY .......................................................................................... 467
Week 1 Journal ................................................................................................................. 467
Effective Teachers ............................................................................................................ 468
Educational Psychology .................................................................................................... 469
Intelligence....................................................................................................................... 470
Intellectual Exceptionality ................................................................................................ 470
Intelligences, Correlations, and A.D.H.D. .......................................................................... 471
Reinforcement and Conditioning ...................................................................................... 473
Reciprocal Teaching ......................................................................................................... 474
IDEAL Problem-Solving ..................................................................................................... 475
Memory ........................................................................................................................... 477
Preferred Learning Style ................................................................................................... 478
Week 4 Journal ................................................................................................................. 479
Corporal Punishment Debate............................................................................................ 480
To Test or Not to Test? ..................................................................................................... 480
Intelligence Tests and Student Placement ......................................................................... 481
ENG 497: ENGLISH CAPSTONE .................................................................................................... 487
Literary Periods ................................................................................................................ 487
The Canon Wars ............................................................................................................... 488
The Making of the Canon ................................................................................................. 489
Considering Gender in A Doll House.................................................................................. 490
Writing an Annotated Bibliography .................................................................................. 491
Literary Research.............................................................................................................. 492
Literary Analysis of “Who’s Irish”...................................................................................... 493
Examining Gender in A Doll House .................................................................................... 494
Final Paper Progress ......................................................................................................... 498
Language and Literary Studies ......................................................................................... 499
Reflecting on the Course ................................................................................................... 500
Examining Gender in A Doll House .................................................................................... 501
SPRING SEMESTER, 2013 .......................................................................................................... 506
EDU371: PHONICS BASED READING & DECODING ........................................................................... 506
Literacy Statistics ............................................................................................................. 506
Reading and Writing Instruction ....................................................................................... 507
Literacy Standards ............................................................................................................ 508
Reading Instruction Theory............................................................................................... 509
Week 2 Assignment .......................................................................................................... 510
Decoding Skill Teaching Methods ..................................................................................... 512
Instructional Techniques................................................................................................... 513
Undergraduate Series 15
Week Three Assignment .................................................................................................. 514
Systemic Phonics Curriculum............................................................................................ 515
Principles for Reading Success ......................................................................................... 517
Week Four Assignment .................................................................................................... 518
Diagnosis and Assessment Principles ............................................................................... 520
Practicum Experience ...................................................................................................... 521
Reflections on Teaching Action Reading........................................................................... 522
EDU360: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION ......................................................................................... 527
The Faculty Debate .......................................................................................................... 527
The Functions of Schools .................................................................................................. 528
Motivation to Learn ......................................................................................................... 529
Where Do You Stand? ...................................................................................................... 530
Performance Pay versus Tenure ....................................................................................... 531
Effective Teachers ............................................................................................................ 532
Why I Wish to Become a Teacher ..................................................................................... 533
Historical Foundations of Education in America ............................................................... 534
Case Study: Evolution of Theories of Learning .................................................................. 538
Case Study: Assessment ................................................................................................... 539
The Social and Cultural Contexts of Education ................................................................. 541
Aligning a Personal Philosophy of Education with Curriculum .......................................... 543
The Impact of Educational Philosophies and Theories ...................................................... 544
Curriculum Change .......................................................................................................... 546
Issues Surrounding Curriculum Development ................................................................... 548
Elements of Curriculum Content and Delivery .................................................................. 549
Facing the Future of Education ........................................................................................ 550
Why Do We Teach? ......................................................................................................... 553
A Personal Philosophy of Education ................................................................................. 554
EDU 490 INTERDISCIPLINARY CAPSTONE ....................................................................................... 559
Critical Thinking ............................................................................................................... 559
Mr. Rodriguez .................................................................................................................. 560
Chapter One Synthesis ..................................................................................................... 562
Ms. Valdera ..................................................................................................................... 562
Teaching Challenges ........................................................................................................ 565
Chapter Two Case Study Scenarios .................................................................................. 566
Chapter Two Synthesis ..................................................................................................... 570
Michael Alvarez ............................................................................................................... 570
Scenario .......................................................................................................................... 572
Chapter Three Case Study Scenarios ................................................................................ 573
Chapter Three Synthesis .................................................................................................. 576
Scenario and Strategies ................................................................................................... 577
16 A Journey Through My College Papers
Anna Martin ..................................................................................................................... 578
Chapter Four Synthesis ..................................................................................................... 580
Chapter Four Case Study Scenarios ................................................................................... 581
Joseph Hanson ................................................................................................................. 584
Case Study Scenarios ........................................................................................................ 586
Critical Reflection ............................................................................................................. 588
Week Five Capstone Essay ................................................................................................ 589
COMPLETE LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 594
INDEX ........................................................................................................................................ 627
Undergraduate Series 17
Fall Semester, 2008
ENG 1111: Composition 1
Writing Competition September 10, 2008
One of the most significant events in my high school career was my participation in the
Vermont Honors Competition for Excellence in Writing. The competition was sponsored by the
University of Vermont, and was held for the first time when I was a sophomore at Mount Anthony
Union High School.
The competition consisted of three levels: local, regional, and state. The first level was
held in the fall. Each student had to write an impromptu essay in class. We were not told at that
point that we were participating in a competition, so I thought nothing of it. We were given the
subject for the essays just moments before we began to write. I don’t remember what the subject
was for that essay. At the end of the class, we were told that our essays would be entered in the
state writing competition. I was a little bit nervous upon hearing that, and worried whether I had
written well enough, but I was used to getting A’s on my papers, so it was only a slight bit of
anxiety, and it didn’t last long.
We didn’t hear anything more about the essays or the competition for several weeks.
With everything else I had to think about, I forgot about it entirely during that time. Then, one
morning, the winner for each of the four grades was announced over the public address system. I
knew I was a competent writer, but I did not have a lot of confidence in myself. As a result, I was
very surprised to hear my name announced. I sat in home room, staring at the public address
speaker for several moments, unable to think or speak, until the bell shattered the moment.
It only took a few minutes for surprise to be replaced by pride and satisfaction. Although
I would have denied it if I had been asked, I knew that I would have been very disappointed if
anyone else had won the competition in my grade. I have always been a perfectionist, and it
would have crushed me if I had not won.
In February, I went to the high school in Randolph for the regional level of the
competition. There were five schools in our region. It was a bit unsettling to be in an unfamiliar
school, surrounded by students I didn’t know. I didn’t even know the other participants from my
own school. I had been calm and confident up until that point, but now my stomach began
churning, and there was not quite enough air. The students from the other schools seemed to be
larger than life. I was sure they were all smarter than I was.
I’m sure we only had to wait a few minutes for the competition to begin, but those
minutes passed like hours. I was sure that I would fail miserably. I concentrated on taking each
new breath, hoping I would not embarrass myself by being sick there in the hall. We were finally
ushered into a classroom with twenty empty desks. It was time to begin.
Small, blue composition books and sharpened pencils were handed out, and we were each
given a sealed envelope containing the subject for our essay. My hands trembled as I tore open
my envelope. The sophomore topic was the person in history we admired the most, and why we
admired him or her. I thought about it for several minutes, near panic as no good candidates came
to mind. I considered and discarded several possibilities. I finally decided to write about
Abraham Lincoln.
I had one hour to complete my essay, beginning with the moment I had opened my
envelope. Once I started writing, all of my nervousness and insecurity melted away, and I wrote
18 A Journey Through My College Papers
steadily and confidently. I finished my essay about forty-five minutes into the allotted time, and
turned in my booklet.
Once again, there was a wait of several weeks between the writing and the announcement
of the winners. This time, however, I never forgot about the competition. Each morning, I
listened carefully to the announcements, hoping to hear the results, yet dreading that I would hear
a name other than my own. One morning, the announcement finally came. I had won the regional
level, and would be going on to the final competition at the state level. My fear that I would
embarrass myself by not winning the regional level of the competition evaporated as relief at
learning that I had won washed over me. I released the breath I had not realized I was holding.
My relief was quickly replaced by pride and happiness as I received congratulations from nearly
everyone I passed, with the feeling that I deserved nothing less. I had succeeded, and everyone
around me knew it.
The local and regional competitions were just a foretaste of the real competition. The
final level of the competition was held on May 9, 1985, at the University of Vermont. I was a
bundle of nerves as my English teacher, Ms. Woodard, drove me more than three hours north to
face the four other top sophomore writers in Vermont.
I knew it was a very important day, no matter how the competition ended. In
consideration of the day’s importance, I dressed in my most mature outfit: a peach linen skirt suit,
a white blouse with a ruffled front and ruffled cuffs, and high-heeled pumps. Although I looked
very grown-up on the outside, I felt very young and unsure of myself inside.
The final level of the competition was held in the morning, and consisted of two essays,
with a very brief break between them. Once again, we each received a blue composition book,
several sharpened pencils, and a sealed envelope. We were given one hour in which to write. I
tore open the envelope and read my first topic. I had to write an essay comparing the views of
teenagers with those of adults. My essay, which I titled “Teenagers Versus Adults,” took me
about forty minutes to write. As I began writing, all of my doubts vanished. As I had done in
Randolph, I wrote quickly and steadily. When I turned in my booklet, I was confident that I had
given my best effort. I sat quietly, watching other students finish their essays as I waited for the
break.
The second half of the morning was very much like the first half. My second topic was
to decide whether or not fantasy or imagination was important, and to support my position. I
wrote “The Importance of Fantasy” in just over thirty minutes. When I sat down after turning in
my booklet, a senior boy whispered to me to ask why I had rushed through without trying. I just
smiled and sat quietly until the time was up.
Ms. Woodard and I had lunch and walked around the town during the afternoon. I was
very, very worried, but I tried to act like I was relaxed. I couldn’t concentrate on my conversation
with my teacher, or on my surroundings.
Evening finally came. There was an elegant banquet before the awards ceremony. The
lights were low, and the tables were draped with real tablecloths. I hardly tasted the food that was
served, and have no memory of anything that I ate. The air crackled with expectancy and anxiety.
Conversations seemed stiff and unnatural, and laughter seemed just a bit too loud. By the time the
dessert dishes were cleared, and the competition officials stepped up to the podium, the air
practically sang with tension.
I could hardly breathe when they started announcing the winners. They started with the
fourth runner up in the twelfth grade. There were cheers and applause as each name was called,
and each student made his or her way through the crowd of tables up to the podium. Finally, they
reached the tenth grade, and I listened anxiously for my name. I was relieved when I was not the
fourth runner up. I felt dizzy after I was not called for the third runner up. My stomach clenched
into knots when I was not the second runner up. I was paralyzed as the official opened the card
Undergraduate Series 19
with the name of the first runner up. I strained forward, sure it would be me, but hoping it would
not be. I screamed out loud when my name was not called. I felt like my entire body had just
been released from suffocating bonds. Ms. Woodard and I hugged each other with tears on our
cheeks. When my name was called as the tenth grade winner a few moments later, my joy and
triumph were dizzying.
I hardly felt the floor under my feet as I went up to receive my certificate and a check for
$1,500.00. I heard the applause as no more than a dim murmur in my ears. I was trembling as I
shook hands with the president of the university. A reporter for the Burlington Free Press took
my picture, and I was sure life couldn’t possibly be any better.
I don’t remember hearing the ninth grade winners announced. Nothing else mattered,
now that I had won. I bounced in my seat as I waited for the ceremony to end so I could call my
mother with the news.
Ms. Woodard drove me home that night, and I got there in time to watch myself on the
late news with my mother and grandmother. It had been an amazing day, and sharing it with my
family was the perfect ending.
Friday Evening September 17, 2008
The silence is not silent at all. The sibilant humming of the cicadas echoes outside my
window, their noise almost deafening. As I hold my pen poised to begin writing, the cicadas’
murmuring rises and falls, distracting me from the words which clamor to be written. Vague,
childhood memories of the waves cresting and crashing on the pebbly shores in New Hampshire
drift behind my eyes.
The music of the cicadas is punctuated intermittently by the strident chirruping of a
cricket. Each time the cricket pauses between his chirps, I am lulled by the susurration of the
cicadas, only to be startled again each time the cricket rejoins the song.
Twilight is falling outside the window. The sky is a smooth, even blue, the color of well-
honed steel. The brilliant colors of the day fade into muted greys. As evening comes, I feel the
encroaching shadows deepening in the room around me. It is strange how darkness feels.
Sometimes it is a warm, soft blanket, enfolding me in safety and comfort. When I am alone,
though, as I am now, the darkness is a looming beast, stealthily stalking me as the shadows
deepen.
I huddle closer to the safe, familiar refuge of a sheet of bright, white, notebook paper. It
is a beacon of safety in a sea of dark uncertainty. The single 40-watt bulb next to my desk casts a
buttery-yellow pool of light across the paper, holding back the darkness.
The clock ticks in the corner behind me. Its steady heartbeat adds to the menacing
gloom.
I take a deep breath of the thick, heavy air to settle my nerves. It pours into my lungs,
oppressively warm, leaving me sluggish instead of refreshed. My arm sticks to the satiny wood of
my desktop as I move to turn the page. A fine film of perspiration clings to my flesh as beads of
moisture form on my forehead. The humidity drenches the fine hairs at the back of my neck. I
listen to the scratch of the cheap, ballpoint pen on my paper, savoring the familiar and dearly
loved sound of words being woven into a tapestry for the imagination.
My attention shifts suddenly away from my writing, and the darkness is momentarily
forgotten. The scent of fried chicken wafts on the breeze from the shop in front of my home, and
my mouth waters at the savory aroma. My tongue remembers the peppery tingle of the crisp,
golden crust, and the juicy tenderness of chicken fresh from the fryer. My stomach rumbles
20 A Journey Through My College Papers
emptily, and I remember that lunch was many hours ago. For a few moments, I imagine biting
into a thick piece of fried chicken breast. In my mind the golden juice trickles down my chin as
the subtly blended flavors of the delicate meat and the crisp, spicy crust burst into my mouth. It is
only a memory, though, swept away as the wind shifts, and carries the smell of fried chicken away
from my window.
The darkness feels deeper and darker with the warm aroma gone. The oppressive
shadows press threateningly close against my back. I hunch my shoulders against the force of the
darkness, leaning further into the light falling across my desk. In just these few minutes, the sky
has gone from steely blue to a heavy, leaden grey. All color has been leached from the world
outside my tiny sphere of lamplight. Soon, the day will yield to the dark of night.
I jump, startled, as a wash of Arctic air pours over my feet from the vent under my desk.
My heart thuds in my chest as the air conditioning renews its battle with the sultry autumn
weather. A shiver runs up my legs as the welcome cool billows into the room. Beads of
perspiration on my forehead and neck yet disbelieve the coming cool, as the dense, humid air
resists being dispelled by the cool draft.
I write on, the pen and paper my steadfast companions. Line by line, page by page, my
words fill the paper, my pointed scrawl pouring out my feelings in the way my words know best.
The outer darkness is complete now. At least, it is as complete as it can be in a busy,
modern town. From my refuge in the pool of incandescent light, the outer night is a black void of
unseen dangers.
The cool air continues to push back the heat of the evening. The air becomes clear and
light, and fills my lungs, giving me strength to face the darkness.
The cicadas are still now. The cricket is silent. The only sounds in the surrounding
darkness are the steady ticking of the clock and the frenetic scratching of my pen. I am alone in
the cool and the dark, surrounded by the monsters of my imagination, sheltered by the lamplight.
The light reflects warmly from the dark surface of my desk, picking out the bright, russet lines of
the grain between the wider bands of chocolate richness.
I continue to write, unwilling to stop, the words filling the pages, the writing my shield
against the loneliness of a silent, empty house. Such is the way of a Friday night, when my
children are visiting their father, and the silent darkness threatens to consume me.
Storm September 24, 2008
The sharply metallic tang in the air tingles on my tongue, leaving a coppery aftertaste.
On the distant horizon, flickering tongues of blue arc between the low, scudding mass of clouds
and the darkly shadowed earth. I nervously tug the sleeves of my favorite, worn, purple cardigan
down over my hands as the wind soughs mournfully among the waving green and golden
cornstalks. My heart misses a beat and a sob catches in my throat for a moment as the deep
rumble rolls across the plain. Five seconds. I take a steadying breath and wrap my arms across
my chest, holding my sweater close against the chill wind that whips my hair across my face.
Another flash of electric blue crackles between heaven and earth as the first drop splashes
coldly on my face and runs down my cheek. The inky, blue shadows between the cornstalks
deepen as the indigo clouds race across the lemon yellow sky, blotting out the watery afternoon
light. My shoulders hunched against the rain, I search the horizon. The patter and splash of fat,
heavy raindrops is overtaken by a deep crash and boom. Three seconds.
The image on my snug, warm kitchen, just a few feet away beyond the closed door,
beckons me in from the mounting tempest. No windows face the west, though, and I must
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vigilantly scan the farthest edge of the growing storm. Water trickles down through my hair and
into my face. The quickly saturated sweater is scant protection from the icy needles as the rising
wind drives across the field and batters against me.
I jump as the sky is lit as bright as noontime by a huge, branching bolt of lightning. “One
one-thou…” I don’t get to finish counting. The porch trembles, the weathered boards creaking in
protest, as the thunder cracks over my head, followed instantly by another searing flash and a
roaring crash. My eyes dart to the horizon one last time, and my heart pounds frantically in my
chest, urging me to escape. My mind barely registers the empty sky between corn and clouds, but
it is enough. I turn and flee before the wild onslaught, into the safety on the dry, cozy house, as
the deluge beats relentlessly against the sturdy walls and tightly locked door.
Media Violence November 25, 2008
Although media violence is certainly a contributing factor in the spread of violence in
today’s world, it is not the sole cause of world violence. As Marilyn Manson noted in his article:
“Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised,” (Manson, pars.
3). Interpersonal violence has existed in the world since humans first existed, and violence does
not depend on television, films, video games, or any other modern media for its continued
existence.
Violence existed when the only medium available to capture and report it was primitive
cave painting and stories passed from tribal storyteller to tribal storyteller. If the Bible is to be
believed – as a history of the Jews, even if not as a holy text – the first violence between humans
was the murder of Abel by Cain, the first human offspring in the world. Certainly, there can be no
reasonable argument that the numerous and almost innumerable wars throughout history were not
violent, and neither were they caused by violent television and films. The Spanish Inquisition was
a time of atrocious violence, but it was not predicated on children playing violent video games.
To paraphrase Manson, the Civil War was hardly civil (Manson, pars. 3).
It is not unusual for us as a society to use modern media as scapegoats for the violence
which surrounds us, especially when that violence is perpetrated on or by children. We blame the
most heinous acts of violence on television and video games, because we do not want to accept
that it is our fault that the violence has occurred. I say “we,” and include myself in this
condemnation, because it is necessary to acknowledge that every person is responsible to some
extent for the prevalence of violent behavior. It is not enough for the person who perpetrates
violent behavior to take on this responsibility alone; those who stood back and watched the
violence, those who encouraged the violence, and those who did nothing to prevent or to stop the
violence bear equal responsibility for the violence. Manson expressed it well when he said:
“When it comes down to who’s to blame …, throw a rock and you’ll hit someone who’s guilty,”
(Manson, pars. 4). He was referring to the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, but he
could just as easily have been speaking of any violent act, anywhere in the world.
Psychologists and sociologists use studies and statistics to try to prove that exposure to
media violence causes children to grow up to be violent adults, but they fail to consider the
children who are not exposed to a lot of violent television or video games, or to consider the home
and social environments of the children who are included in the studies. A fifteen-year
longitudinal study of 557 children from the Chicago area, which began in 1977, is one such study:
Psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D., Jessica Moise-Titus, Ph.D., Cheryl-Lynn
Podolski, M.A., and Leonard D. Eron, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan undertook
the study as a follow-up of a 1977 longitudinal study of 557 children, ages 6 – 10,
22 A Journey Through My College Papers
growing up in the Chicago area. In that study, children identified which violent TV
shows they watched most, whether they identified with the aggressive characters and
whether they thought the violent situations were realistic. Some examples of shows rated
as very violent were Starsky and Hutch, The Six Million Dollar Man and Roadrunner
cartoons. (“Childhood Exposure”, pars. 2).
The report on the study identified the children as being from the Chicago area, but did not
identify the children’s home neighborhoods. Neighborhoods in Chicago range widely from
affluent, safe neighborhoods to impoverished, dangerous neighborhoods, in a relatively compact
geographical area. In addition, the study made no mention of the family dynamics of the children
who were studied, to identify whether the children came from stable, loving homes, from abusive
or neglectful homes, or from some style of home-life between those extremes. Finally, the study
dealt with only 557 children, which seems to be too small a sampling to be representative of
children in Illinois, much less a representative sampling of children in the United States or in the
world.
I would not attempt to argue that media violence is not a contributing factor in the spread
of violent behavior in the world. To do so would be foolish to the point of being delusional. No
one can reasonably argue that modern media does not glorify violence, when almost every news
broadcast shows images of bombings, murders, riots, road rage, child abuse, and an almost endless
catalog of vicious, violent activity. It is possible, however, to reduce the influence of media
violence on children:
Research has shown that parental co-viewing of and commenting on the programs seems
to reduce the effects of TV violence on children, probably because it reduces the child’s
identification with the person committing the violent act, reduces the child’s perception that the
violence is real and reduces the likelihood that the child will act out the violent act in fantasy or
play immediately after seeing it on TV. (“Childhood Exposure”, pars. 7).
What the research does not tell us is what effect a lack of violent television has on the
developing behavior of children. It does not tell us how many children who do not watch violent
programming grow up to be non-violent adults or, conversely, how many children who do not
watch violent programming grow up to be aggressive or violent adults. The research also does not
tell us how many children grow up identifying with violent characters in their real lives, such as
abusive relatives and friends. It does not tell us how many children grow up not just perceiving
the violence in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods as real, but knowing that it is real and
immediate in their lives. It does not tell us for how many children violence is neither fantasy nor
play, or how many of those children carry that violence into their adult lives regardless of the type
or amount of television and other electronic entertainment they experienced as children.
It is wise and necessary to recognize that violence is a growing problem in the world. It
is important to identify those experiences and activities which may increase children’s likelihood
of growing up to be violent adults, and to reduce children’s exposure to those harmful influences.
It is reasonable to include media violence – both real and fictional – in the list of experiences
which increase that likelihood. However, it is foolish and dangerous to choose one harmful
influence and make it the scapegoat for all of the violence in the world. It is necessary to
recognize and acknowledge that the violence has always been there, in the human psyche, and will
always be there, and that we are all equally responsible for perpetuating violence in our societies.
Media violence does contribute to violence in the world, but it is certainly not the one, ultimate
cause of that violence. The ultimate cause is the human condition, from which no amount of
rationalizing and blaming will ever let us escape.
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Works Cited
“Childhood Exposure to Media Violence Predicts Young Adult Aggressive Behavior,
According to a New 15-Year Study.” 3 Nov. 2005.
<http://www.apa.org/releases/media_violence.html>.
Manson, Marilyn. “Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?” 28 May 1999. Rolling Stone. 3 Nov.
2005. <http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5923915>.
MTH 1121: Math for Elementary Majors
Experiences September 12, 2008
Experiences as students, both good and bad, influence a future teacher’s decision to
teach, and the way he or she approaches teaching.
A particular bad experience I had in school occurred at the very outset of my public
school education. I had already attended an academic preschool eight hours a day, five days a
week, for three years at Bennington College, in Vermont. My mother took me for my
kindergarten entrance test at North Bennington Graded School.
In the course of the test, I gave a number of responses which caused the teachers to tell
my mother I was mentally retarded. She made them go over the test with me again, with my
mother present, so she could see where they had got that impression of me.
One test item that had concerned the school was about a stick figure. I was given a partial
drawing, and told to finish it. The initial drawing had a body, a head, one arm with three fingers,
one leg, one eye, and a mouth. I added a second arm with five fingers, a second leg, and a second
eye, and I added two fingers to the original three. The school objected to the two extra fingers on
each hand, saying I was only supposed to have copied the existing half of the figure.
Another part of the test which had caused concern was about identifying shapes. I was
given a picture of assorted shapes. I correctly pointed out the triangles, circles, and squares. When
asked to pick out the rectangles, I chose all of the rectangles, including the squares. I did know
that a square was a kind of rectangle, but my mother was told that a child my age couldn’t know
that.
A third part of the test that caused concern was about my parents’ jobs. I said my mother
was a teacher, and that was fine. I then said my father was an MTMTSE. The teacher told my
mother I didn’t know what my father’s job was. My mother told them to ask me what MTMTSE
meant, and I told them Daddy was a method time management time study engineer. That was the
most accurate name for the job he did as an industrial engineer for Stanley Tools.
I have always resented the fact that knowing more than was usual for my age group
almost got me labeled as learning impaired. It was that experience that made me swear never to
allow my own children to be held down to an educational standard if they were ready to know
more.
In the same vein, that experience will make me more aware of the struggles faced by
children who learn differently from other children. In particular, it will help me be sensitive to the
needs of unusually advanced students, who are often under stimulated by the curricula of our
public schools.
There were also many good experiences in my education. There were so many, in fact,
that it is difficult to choose one. Nearly every good experience I remember was in English, though
a few were in science.
24 A Journey Through My College Papers
My eleventh grade English teacher, most of all my teachers, had a positive impact on me.
I also had him for the twelfth grade English elective. He was a teacher who pushed me to be my
very best, while allowing my creativity very free rein in interpreting his assignments. He always
treated all of us with respect, and encouraged every student to find the strengths within himself or
herself.
It’s hard to define a single moment, but I think my experience over those two years with
this teacher may be considered one experience. It was because of him that I had several stories,
essays, and poems published before I graduated from high school.
My positive experiences with this teacher affect me to this day. I believe that, largely
because of him, I will be able to see each student as an individual deserving of respect and needing
encouragement. It will help me to remember that a unique approach to an assignment need not be
a wrong approach.
From my educational experiences, both good and bad, I have developed an appreciation
for creative learning, and for individual differences, which I hope to carry into my future
classroom.
Spring Semester, 2009
ENG 1121: Composition and Analysis
The Tragic Emily Grierson 26 January 2009
Emily Grierson is the tragic heroine of “A Rose for Emily.” Through the somewhat
convoluted timeline of the story, the reader sees Emily live through a series of personal tragedies,
which need to be explored in order to clearly see the real tragedy of Emily Grierson, and which are
more easily considered according to the chronology of her life than according to the order of the
narrative. Although Emily’s family has a history of mental illness, Emily’s own mental state
would not have become as strange as the reader sees it in this story if her life had unfolded
differently. The mental illness the reader observes in Emily is greatly increased by her reactions
to the emotional traumas of her early life.
The tragedies which form the framework of Emily’s life appear to begin with the death of
her father in 1894, which leaves her as one of the last orphaned remnants of the South’s
impoverished nobility. Faulkner gives a hint of her genteel poverty when he writes, “Alive, Miss
Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating
from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris – he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman
should appear on the streets without an apron – remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from
the death of her father on into perpetuity” (Faulkner 700-701). As Emily had been a duty and a
care for the town, the reader may surmise that she is not entirely able to care for herself. It would
have been an embarrassment to the town to allow Emily to live according to her poverty after
having been part of one of the neighborhood’s elite families, so the town feels an obligation to
maintain her in her accustomed lifestyle. The fact that Colonel Sartoris saw a need to ease
Emily’s financial burden by remitting her taxes into perpetuity also indicates her level of poverty.
In this, the reader sees that Emily’s tragedy at the death of her father is two-fold: she loses her
primary caregiver, on whom she has depended for everything throughout her life, and she becomes
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a charity case for the town to support for the rest of her life. To add to the tragedy of Emily’s
situation, it appears that she is never aware of how pathetic her life has become.
The reader’s next view of Emily appears late in the story, though it is less than a year
ahead in her personal chronology. Emily’s tragic circumstances have continued with an extended
illness after her father’s death. “She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair
was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored
church windows – sort of tragic and serene” (Faulkner 704). This image of Emily as a lost, young
girl struggling to live without her father, who has been her buffer from the rest of the world for her
entire life, instead of the woman she is, makes the townspeople and the reader alike feel a bit sorry
for Emily. In this time immediately after her father’s death, the town is still able to feel sympathy
for Emily, and to dismiss her oddness as a result of her grief: “We did not say she was crazy then.
We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away,
and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as
people will” (Faulkner 704).
Two years after her father’s death, Emily experiences yet another tragedy when her
sweetheart, who is expected to be her future husband, deserts her (Faulkner 702). Faulkner
doesn’t tell the reader much of anything about the sweetheart, except for his existence and his
disappearance, but the reader may note the tragic pattern of the important men in Emily’s life
leaving her by one means or another.
In the summer of 1894 or 1895, the neighborhood around Emily’s house sees
improvements in the form of sidewalks, bringing to the neighborhood an array of common
laborers. It appears that the project took some time to complete, because the reader may note that
the improvement began in the summer after Emily’s father died, and appears to have continued
until after her sweetheart leaves her. For a short time, then, Emily’s life appears to become less
tragic and more hopeful, as she finds a romantic relationship with a Yankee day laborer named
Homer Barron, a man decidedly below Emily’s social position, but who appears to make her
happy. Even that happiness has a tragic overtone, though, in that the community – and especially
the women – think Emily’s behavior with Homer is “a disgrace to the town and a bad example to
the young people” (Faulkner 706).
The pattern of tragedy in Emily’s life continues when Homer, who was supposed by
some in the town to have become her husband, such beliefs being based on her purchases of
intimate, personal items for him, but whom the reader knows was not interested in marriage
because of Faulkner’s comment that “Homer himself had remarked – he liked men, and it was
known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk’s Club – that he was not a marrying man”
(Faulkner 706), disappears shortly after he returns to Emily’s house after the two female cousins
leave, as the reader knows from the comment that “that was the last we saw of Homer Barron”
(Faulkner 707). It is easy for the reader to see that the pattern of men leaving Emily’s life
continued with Homer’s disappearance, even though she was the reason for his disappearance, but
the reader discovers the scope of Emily’s tragedy with Homer only in the final paragraphs of the
story, where Emily’s need for arsenic appears to be explained by the decayed remains of a man’s
body in a bed in an upstairs bedroom of Emily’s house. The man appears to have died while
embracing someone – presumably Emily (Faulkner 709). The tragedy becomes truly macabre
when the reader realizes that Emily’s hair, a strand of which was found on the pillow next to the
corpse, did not achieve its iron-gray color until several years after Homer was last admitted to the
house by the Negro manservant.
“A Rose for Emily” begins with the tragedy of Emily Grierson’s death and funeral, it
ends with the grim tragedy of her apparent murder of Homer and continued occupation of the
marriage bed, and it meanders through a series of tragic vignettes of Emily’s life. Throughout the
story, Emily does not appear to change a great deal from one stage of her life to another. She is
26 A Journey Through My College Papers
steadfastly set in her own ways of living, and appears to care little about what her neighbors think
of her or want her to do. She is almost tragic enough to be pitied by the reader, except that it is
quite plain that Emily Grierson would never “have accepted charity” or anyone pitying her
(Faulkner 701).
Throughout the story, there are physical descriptions of Emily which also contribute to a
description of her as tragic. One, shortly after her father’s death, is given earlier in this discussion.
Later, when Emily is keeping company with Homer, Faulkner describes her: “She was over thirty
then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the
flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a
lighthouse-keeper’s face ought to look” (Faulkner 705). This strained look about the eyes
suggests a life of tragedy, which has drained much of the vigor of life from Emily’s countenance.
A generation later, when the new aldermen attempt to collect Emily’s taxes, the reader has another
view of her:
They rose as she entered – a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending
to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her
skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in
another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water,
and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of
coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated
their errand. (Faulkner 701)
It would be easy to see only the fat woman in this description, but a closer reading reveals
to the reader that she is entirely in black, even to her cane. The gold head of the cane is tarnished,
indicating not only disuse or neglect, which would keep it from being well-polished, but also the
poor quality of the cane head, which appears to be gold – which cannot tarnish – but is clearly
made of a lesser metal. Looking at Emily herself, the reader sees that she has ceased to be
unusually thin, as she was in her thirties. Tragically, she has not attained a healthy weight, but has
become so obese that her eyes are lost in the fat of her face.
Emily’s appearance as “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water”
(Faulkner 701) gives the impression that she is existing in a mental and emotional vacuum. She is
stagnant, like the water, and is unable to go back in time to recapture what she has lost, but she is
also unable to move forward in time and allow her losses to slip into the past.
On the surface, Emily Grierson might appear to be a strange, even crazy woman. She
might even appear to be evil, for the premeditation of Homer’s murder. If the reader looks more
deeply into her life, however, as this discussion has attempted to do, all of Emily’s oddities and
behaviors may be attributed to the pall of tragedy which lay over the whole of her life, from the
loss of her father to her own death.
Arnold Friend 22 February 2009
Arnold Friend represents one of the greatest dangers in our society: an element of evil
disguised by a thin veneer of good. Arnold is no friend to Connie as the reader discovers in the
course of the Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” In fact, he
embodies the destruction of her world. Arnold attempts three methods of approaching Connie:
first by relating to her as another teenager, then by coaxing and cajoling her as a man who wants
her to be with him, and finally by revealing his true nature of evil by threatening and terrorizing
her.
Undergraduate Series 27
When the reader first encounters Arnold, there are already signs that he is not all that he
seems to be. Connie sees Arnold at the drive-in restaurant where she and her friends gather to
escape the parentally-determined bounds of life and to explore the new experiences of
adolescence. Arnold appears to be just another teenager “with shaggy black hair, in a convertible
jalopy painted gold,” but he does not blend in with the other young people as well as he might
hope to do as the reader sees when Connie tries not to look at him but “she couldn’t help glancing
back and there he was still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, ‘Gonna get
you, baby,’ and Connie turned away again…” (Oates 332). Because of Arnold’s appearance as a
teenager, Connie does not hear his comment as any more than the macho braggadocio that is
common in many teenage boys on the threshold of manhood. The reader, however, sees this scene
as a foreshadowing of the evil that overcomes Connie’s life.
When Arnold next appears in Connie’s life, she is at home alone on a Sunday afternoon.
At first, Connie’s only concern on finding Arnold and his companion in her driveway is her
appearance and she “whispered ‘Christ, Christ,’ wondering how bad she looked” (Oates 334). It is
a reflection of the shallowness of Connie’s personality, which the reader sees as she wanders the
mall with her friends, and Arnold is ready to capitalize on the defect in her character. Connie does
not recognize the car, but she does recognize Arnold, and she gives no indication that she is
pleased to see him, nor does she do anything to encourage him. The reader sees new clues to
Arnold’s artifice and to the evil beneath Arnold’s surface as Connie sees him in the sunlight: “he
had shaggy, shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig and he was grinning at her… the driver’s
glasses were metallic and mirrored everything in miniature” (Oates 335). The appearance of
Arnold’s hair as a wig indicates the falseness that surrounds him, and its shabbiness gives the
impression of something undesirable about him. The mirrored glasses hide Arnold’s eyes,
preventing Connie from seeing that his smile does not reach his eyes and thus keeping her from
recognizing the dishonesty in the grin he displays to put Connie at ease.
From the time Arnold arrives at Connie’s house, his true essence and identity quickly
become clear. He is the embodiment of evil, even Satan himself, and his one goal is to lure
Connie to him. He shows Connie that he knows a great deal about her, suggesting a degree of
omniscience, as he tells her, “’He ain’t coming. He’s at the barbecue’…‘Aunt Tillie’s. Right now
they’re…drinking. Sitting around,’ he said vaguely, squinting as if he were staring all the way to
town and over to Aunt Tillie’s backyard…‘Sitting around. There’s your sister in a blue
dress…and high heels, the poor sad bitch…And your mother’s helping some fat woman with the
corn…I know all about you’” (Oates 340). It is clear that Connie believes in what Arnold is
telling her, and believes that he does see and know these things, as she answers him: “’What fat
woman?’ Connie cried…‘Oh, that’s Mrs. Hornby…Who invited her?’” (Oates 340). The reader
can see at this point that, although Connie has not yet yielded to Arnold, she is beginning to fall
under his influence. Where she would normally question how Arnold knows these things, Connie
now accepts his knowledge as a matter of course.
Arnold makes his immediate plan for Connie quite clear once he has her attention. He
still maintains his friendly appearance, but his words hold menace for Connie as he tells her what
he plans to do to her: ‘I’ll tell you how it is, I’m always nice at first, the first time. I’ll hold you so
tight you won’t think you have to try to get away…because you’ll know you can’t. And I’ll come
inside you where it’s all secret and you’ll give in to me…Don’t you know who I am?’ (Oates 340,
342). Arnold’s words hold two meanings for Connie: physical and spiritual. When he says he
will come inside her, he is telling her about the rape he has planned for her, and about the sexual
activity he intends to engage in. Even if she gives in and goes to him willingly, she is a child, and
sex between them will be rape. His words have spiritual meaning, as well, in his role as Satan, as
he says he will come inside her. He is telling her that his evil will come into her soul and take
over her spirit, becoming a spiritual rape of the childish innocence that she works hard to hide in
28 A Journey Through My College Papers
her daily life by her flirtations with boys, her confrontations with her mother, and her disdain for
her sister.
Throughout Arnold’s conversation with Connie, he works to make her feel at ease so she
will go to him of her own accord. He seduces her with attention she doesn’t get from her family,
tempting her to leave the security of her home and enter his world. Ironically, his world is bright
and sunny while the inside of the house is darker, as houses tend to be when compared with sunny,
summer days. As Arnold coaxes Connie toward his spiritual darkness – and toward the physical
evil of rape that he suggests in his promise that ‘I’ll come inside you where it’s all secret’ (Oates
340) – and away from the spiritual light of the innocence of childhood, he appears to be
encouraging her to leave the darkness of her home and step into the light with him. Connie resists
Arnold at first, responding with ‘Like hell I am’ when he tells her ‘We ain’t leaving until you
come with us’ (Oates 339). She continues to resist, even threatening ‘If I call the police they’ll get
you, they’ll arrest you…You’re crazy,’ she whispered” (Oates 342), as he pushes her more and
more compellingly, and Arnold’s façade crumbles.
She looked out to see Arnold Friend pause and then take a step toward the porch
lurching. He almost fell. But, like a clever drunken man, he managed to catch his balance. He
wobbled in his high boots…out of the side of his mouth came a fast spat curse, an aside not meant
for her to hear. But even this “Christ!” sounded forced…She watched this smile come, awkward
as if he were smiling from inside a mask. His whole face was a mask, she thought wildly, tanned
down onto his throat but then running out as if he had plastered makeup on his face…Evidently
his feet did not go all the way down; the boots must have been stuffed with something so that he
would seem taller. (Oates 341-342)
Arnold is losing control of his disguise as his evil, which was well-concealed under the
artificial nighttime lights of the drive-in restaurant, is now revealed in the bright sunlight of
daytime at Connie’s home. He is unable to walk properly, and is unable to keep his words
banteringly light and friendly as they have been up to this point. Connie recognizes the mask that
incompletely covers Arnold’s wickedness, and which is a darker version of the mask she wears
when she makes herself up to go out with her friends. Arnold’s mask of innocence covers a core
of evil, whereas Connie’s mask of indifferent sophistication covers a core of teenage innocence
and insecurity. When Connie recognizes her own reflection in Arnold’s subterfuge, she is afraid
of him, and wants to get away from him: “’What – what are you doing? What do you want?’
Connie said. She backed away from the door but did not want to go into another part of the house,
as if this would give him permission to come through the door…’Leave me alone,’ Connie
whispered” (Oates 342-343). Connie’s fear is new for her as she begins to recognize the evil that
has come to her life. Her family life, with its dysfunctional relationships, has not prepared her for
the vileness that exists in the world, and her assumed maturity and sophistication fall away as she
realizes that this boy – whom she now sees is not a boy at all – is very far out of her league, and
poses a distinct threat to the equilibrium of her life.
When Arnold sees that appealing to Connie’s need for attention and affection is not
working, he drops the pretense of friendliness and his true character becomes visible. ‘It’s all over
for you here, so come on out. You don’t want your people in any trouble, do you?’ (Oates 343).
He abandons his attempt to charm Connie, and instead threatens her family, appealing now to her
innate goodness and to her love for her family to lure her into his plans. Fear for her family is the
most effective weapon Arnold uses against Connie; she does love her family, even though she
doesn’t like her parents and sister most of the time, and the threat against her family sends Connie
into a panic.
She ran into the back room and picked up the telephone. Something roared in her ear, a
tiny roaring, and she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it – the telephone
was clammy and very heavy and her fingers groped down to the dial but were too weak to touch it.
Undergraduate Series 29
She began to scream into the phone, into the roaring. She cried out, she cried for her mother, she
felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend were
stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness. A noisy sorrowful wailing rose all about
her and she was locked inside it the way she was locked inside the house. (Oates 344)
Where Connie sees the door as a barrier to keep Arnold out when he first arrives at her
house, she now sees it as a barrier that holds her in the trap that her home has become. She cries
for help, but she has distanced herself – physically and emotionally – from her family, and there is
no one to hear her pleas for help now that she has recognized the darkness in her life and wants to
escape from it. Arnold embodies all that is wrong in Connie’s life, and in him she recognizes her
own doom. She is powerless to call for help when she is surrounded by evil and most needs to be
rescued.
In the end, Arnold’s darkness drives Connie to do the best, brightest, and noblest thing
she has done in her life. She has a decision to make and “She thought, I have got to think. I have
to know what to do” (Oates 344). In this moment, when she has recognized Arnold as the Devil
and has passed through fear and panic, Connie becomes calm and detached. “She felt her
pounding heart…it was nothing that was hers” (Oates 345). She yields to him and gives herself
over to evil not because she is an evil person, but because beneath her shallow, self-centered
exterior she is truly good and filled with love for the family she really doesn’t like. She goes to
Arnold coolly to protect her family from being harmed. “She brushed her hair back out of her
eyes…she watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were safe back
somewhere…watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where
Arnold Friend waited” (Oates 345). Connie has already left her body behind. In her final
moments, as her physical form steps into the “limp…embarrassed embrace” of evil (Oates 345),
her spirit rises above the fear and the danger as she sacrifices herself for her family.
Arnold Friend destroys Connie’s physical world. He terrorizes her and threatens to harm
the only people Connie truly cares about. He shows her the evil behind his friendly mask, and
forces her to look behind her own mask. Ironically, as he seeks to draw her into his darkness, he
instead reveals to Connie the light that is inside her, and so is unable to capture her spirit when he
captures her body. In the title of the story, Oates asks “Where are you going? Where have you
been?” By her sacrifice, Connie goes from where she has been in the darkness and desolation of
her unfulfilling teenage life to where she is going in the safety of light and goodness.
White Elephants 23 March 2009
The setting for Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is the Ebro Valley of Spain in
the 1920s. The story takes place outside a train station which is set between two very different
geographical areas, which come to represent the different ways Jig and the American each view
their situation and the unnamed, but readily inferred, “it”. On one side of the station where the
majority of the story takes place, “there was no shade and no trees… in the sun” (Hemingway
172). This is a hot, barren stretch, marked by one of the two railroad tracks which flank the
station. Little grows on this side of the station. This is a place of lifelessness and hopelessness,
and there is little promise in the hard, hot earth. On the other side of the station, where the story
ends, “were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river,
were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and…the river through
the trees” (Hemingway 175). This is a lush, fertile landscape, marked by the second of the two
railroad tracks, which stretches into the far distance. Life grows abundantly on this side of the
station, and the fertile land holds the promise of future life to come. The station, positioned
30 A Journey Through My College Papers
directly between the two diverse landscapes, and between the two railroad tracks with different
destinations, represents a turning point at which a decision must be made whether to go forward
into a new life or to go back into the life which is familiar.
The two sides of the station have very different meanings for Jig and the American, the
two main characters of the story. For Jig, the barren, empty landscape represents the emptiness
that will become her life if she has the ‘awfully simple operation’ that is ‘not really an operation at
all’ (Hemingway 174). The emptiness represents the loss of a family she could have had, and the
loss of a future as a wife and mother. Although Hemingway never tells whether Jig is Spanish,
American, or something else, in the 1920s it is expected that a woman, regardless of ethnic
background, will marry and raise a family, and it is reasonable to believe that Jig harbors a secret
belief that having the American’s baby will bind him to her and cause him to follow the social
conventions of the period and marry her. For Jig, the lush, fertile landscape on the other side of
the station represents the fullness and abundance that will become her life if she does not have the
operation and in which she and the American ‘can have the whole world’ (Hemingway 175). This
side represents having her dreams fulfilled, and living the life that is the proper destiny of a young
woman of the 1920s. The lushness represents Jig’s role as a wife and mother, and her being
completed by having a family. It represents success for her as a woman of her time.
For the American, on the other hand, the barren landscape represents the end of his
carefree, casual life and a future of commitment and responsibility. As a bachelor, the American
has few responsibilities, and is free to travel as he wishes. In the 1920s it is not unusual for young
men of good families – or even middle-aged men, if they have the means – to take a long,
unfettered tour of Europe; it is, in fact, a desirable way for a young man to get his adventurous
spirit under control before he settles down to the serious business of having a career, marrying,
and raising a family. When the American tells Jig, ‘We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were
before … That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy’
(Hemingway 174), it is clear that he has not yet reached the point in his life where he is willing to
give up the freedom and flexibility of bachelorhood for the responsibilities of adult life. The
barren plain is symbolic of stepping out of his youthful irresponsibility and taking on the yoke of a
wife, a family, and all of the responsibilities which are expected of him by both American and
European society. For the American, the lush, fertile landscape signifies the freedom that will
continue to be his life if he and Jig are not encumbered by the need to nurture another life. It is a
sign of continuing his youth, even if he may actually be a bit older than many of the young men
touring Europe. The lushness indicates continued frivolity and fun, without a firm schedule or a
clear set of responsibilities. Losing his freedom and responsibility to the need to marry Jig and
raise her baby is not something the American wants to have happen, as becomes clear when he
says, ‘We can have everything … We can have the whole world’ (Hemingway 175). By saying
this, the American is attempting to make Jig see the world the way he does; he wants her to see
that they live by their own rules, not those imposed on them by society. He wants her to want the
life he wants, with nothing holding them back and with the world as their home, instead of just a
little house somewhere where they will be confined and constrained to the dictates of society. He
knows that the prevailing Western culture of his time will require him to give up his idle pastimes
and become a sensible, responsible, adult husband and father, and will require him to settle down
and provide a stable, decent life for his new family. He believes that they cannot have the whole
world if they have to settle down and raise a family, but that they can have everything if Jig has
the operation.
The two sides of the station represent the two sides of the decision which Jig has to make
before the train from Barcelona arrives. Despite all of the American’s prodding and cajoling, only
Jig can make the decision which will define both of their lives, possibly forever. Jig tells the
American, ‘Once they take it away, you never get it back’ (Hemingway 175). Although Jig
Undergraduate Series 31
appears hopelessly young and naïve through much of the story, she exhibits wisdom when she
expresses that her decision regarding the ‘awfully simple operation’ (Hemingway 174) will have
permanent repercussions.
On the one side, the dry, barren plain represents the masculine side of life. It is a strong,
rugged area, with sharp, clear lines, unsoftened by the curves of growing plants. The plain is
simple and uncluttered, as a treeless plain in Spain will be, and is reminiscent of the clean, spare,
unyielding lines and forms which were associated with men in the 1920s. Looking out over this
plain represents seeing the American’s side of the situation, and remaining on this side of the
station, and taking the train which stops on this side of the station on its way to Madrid, represents
accepting his choice to have the operation and go on with life as they have been going all along.
On the other side of the station, the lush, fertile, green land, with the rising swells of the
hills, represents the feminine side of life. The fields of grain and the trees are burgeoning with
life, saturated with the constant renewal of life and creation. “The hills across the valley of the
Ebro were long and white” (Hemingway 172), and the rounded, rolling hills evoke an image of the
primordial shape of the mother goddess that still shadows mankind’s image of woman: the
roundness of the ancient goddess’s belly, pregnant with the creation of life; the roundness of the
maternal hips which allow life to come forth, the roundness of the breasts by which the goddess
nurtures life. The gentle swelling of the hills carries a promise of life. The river represents the
waters of life, and more specifically, the rushing waters of birth, which bring life into the world.
The water of the Ebro gives life to the grains, grasses, and trees, and promises the continuation of
life. Looking out on the lushness and vitality of this side of the station clearly represents seeing
Jig’s view of the situation, and choosing to board the train which will pick up on this side of the
station represents accepting the choice to forgo the operation and keep the baby.
At the end of the story, Jig and the American appear to come to a decision to not have the
operation. The American acquiesces to Jig’s desire to choose life as he says, ‘I’d better take the
bags over to the other side of the station’ (Hemingway 176). In moving the bags to the lush,
verdant, living side of the station, he indicates that he is no longer fighting Jig’s inclination to have
the baby. He tells her, ‘I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go
through with it’ (Hemingway 176). By “it”, the American means the operation they have spoken
of so obliquely throughout the story, and which is clearly a veiled reference to an abortion. The
American gives in to the fact that having the baby will make Jig happy. When he moves the bags
to the green side of the station, turning his back on the dry, barren side, he frees Jig to make the
decision to have the life she wants and to ‘have everything’ (Hemingway 175). When “She smiled
at him … she said … ‘I feel fine’” (Hemingway 176), the stress of the decision is relieved, and she
is able to relax and be happy in the abundant, thriving, luxuriant promise of creation, new life, and
a future that stretches out before them.
On Marriage Forms 31 March 2009
Donna is a middle-aged, white woman living in a small town in the mountains of western
Virginia in the first half of the twenty-first century. She and her two sons attend a popular
Christian church on Sundays and several times during the week. Her sons do well in the local
public school, and she is active in both of their classes. To all appearances, Donna is a very
ordinary mom, but there is more to her story. Donna shares household responsibilities with Bobbi.
Donna and Bobbi are co-wives, and their husband, Lucas, is the father of all of their children.
Because they live in the United States, where monogamy is mandated by law, Lucas is legally
married only to Donna, but they all three share an agreement that Bobbi is also his wife. This
32 A Journey Through My College Papers
arrangement works well for Donna and Bobbi, who share child rearing responsibilities and divide
household responsibilities, and they present an appearance of solidarity. It is not an ideal
situation, however, as Bobbi is sometimes jealous of the benefits Donna accrues from her legal
marital status, and as Donna is sometimes jealous of Lucas’s clear favoritism towards Bobbi’s
children, but the co-wives have learned to talk through their differences in the interests of
maintaining the family’s economic stability.
Donna, Bobbi, and Lucas live in the United States, where their family structure is looked
on with scorn and disgust, and where Donna is often pitied by those who perceive Lucas as an
unfaithful husband and Bobbi as an immoral mistress. They are judged by the prevailing Judeo-
Christian view of marriage in this country. However, although monogamy is the most common,
and the best-favored, marriage form in the United States, and is the norm against which our culture
measures the marriage forms of other cultures, it is not the only correct marriage form for humans
worldwide. 1
Roberta Lenkeit notes that “monogamy, the form of marriage in which one woman is
married to one man, is the most common form of marriage around the world. It is not, however,
the most preferred; monogamy is the ideal and preferred form of marriage in only eighty-one
cultures out of a sample of four hundred cultures, according to a 1967 survey” (Lenkeit 152). In
fact, a 1967 study by the anthropologist Murdock shows that “among the 849 human societies
examined … the vast majority (83%) practiced polygyny, men having more than one wife;
monogamy was characteristic of only 16% of the societies” (Hughes para. 13). With almost four
times as many societies favoring polygyny as those that favor monogamy, it is clear that polygamy
is the most viable marriage form for a very large part of the world’s population, not monogamy.
Unfortunately, the United States takes a more narrow-minded view of relationships than its
international neighbors and attempts to force others to do the same by attaching negative
connotations to any lifestyle choice that is more accepted than monogamy.
Many forms of marriage are practiced throughout the world, and they are generally
divided into two categories: monogamy2 and polygamy
3. Monogamy is further divided into loose,
patriarchal monogamy, which excuses or even condones men having extramarital relationships
with other women, and strict monogamy, where there is no sexual concourse by either spouse with
any other partner. In various parts of the world, very specific forms of monogamy are also
practiced: levirate, or brother-in-law marriage4; sororate, or sister-in-law marriage
5; same-sex
marriage; and ghost marriage, which will be addressed later. Polygamy is divided into three
categories: polygyny6, polyandry
7, and group marriage, with two or more husbands and two or
more wives in one marital group. In almost every culture there may be found examples of both
monogamy and polygamy, regardless of the prevalent form for a particular culture, and even
regardless of the laws, customs, and taboos of the culture. The only reason for this is that there is
no one, absolutely correct form of marriage that works for every family in every culture, and each
different marriage form is “correct” for those who choose to practice it.
Marriage, in its many forms, is an important factor in human relationships. Every society
has some form of marriage (Lenkeit 151), which may confer status to one or more of the spouses,
establish inheritance rights, create bonds between and among families and other social groups,
provide for the economic security of the spouses, legitimize the children of a married couple, and
fulfill religious or ceremonial requirements. Some marriages only fill some of these roles, other
marriages fill other roles, but it is clear that marriage is important. It is dangerously myopic for
Americans to view every marriage that is anything other than the exclusive, monogamous union of
one man and one woman as wrong, and yet that is often what happens, resulting in stigmatization
and ostracism of not only the parties involved, but also the children in the family. Rather than
force everyone to conform to one standard, Americans need to recognize the diversity of cultures
Undergraduate Series 33
in the world, and to accept and value the uniqueness of other cultures, both inside and outside the
borders of the United States.
In the United States, it is generally accepted that marriage is a sacred institution and that
a marriage consists of one man and one woman who promise to be faithful to each other. This
view of marriage continues to be held in American society despite the prevalence of divorce and
cohabitation without marriage. Although “there is no constitutional requirement that marriage
exist solely between a man and a woman” (Hamilton para. 20), “in order to preserve marriage as
that of ‘one man with one woman’… in 1890…the US government systematically led a criminal
and economic assault on a religion and essentially at a point of a gun, forced its religious leaders
to recant a core part of their religious beliefs” (Newman para. 8). This action on the part of the
United States government underscores how strongly people feel about marriage, and to what
lengths society is willing to go to preserve what it believes to be the best – indeed the only – way
for families to exist.
What the United States government fails to realize, however, is that monogamy is not the
only form of marriage in the world. Polygamy is common in cultures in Africa, India, and even
North America. In many cultures, polygamy is the preferred way of life, and monogamy is seen as
being unusual. Even in North America, polygamy is more common than most people realize,
despite the laws which have been passed to prevent it. “Indeed, studies have found polygamy
present in 78% of the world's cultures, including some Native American tribes. (While most are
polygynists — with one man and multiple women — there are polyandrists in Nepal and Tibet in
which one woman has multiple male spouses.) As many as 50,000 polygamists live in the United
States” (Turley para. 9). The estimates of how many polygamists actually live in North America
vary from source to source because polygamy is a crime and polygamous families usually prefer
not to be identified too openly. Many families do continue to practice polygamy in the United
States and Canada, however, indicating that monogamy is not as universally accepted as most
politicians and religious leaders wish people to believe: “Polygyny is widely practiced in certain
areas of the U.S. states of Utah and Arizona and the Canadian province of British Columbia
among Fundamentalist Mormon denominations. Various individuals and groups estimate that
many tens of thousands of adults -- up to 100,000 spouses -- are involved in polygynous
relationships” (Robinson para. 11). Clearly, if so many individuals are willing to risk having legal
action taken against them because they engage in polygamous marriages, there must be some
merit in polygamy as a marriage form.
Unfortunately, the United States government has a long history of causing difficulties for
families which practice polygamy, dating back to 1862 (Selick para. 9). The Morrill Act and the
Edmunds Act, which were both enacted in the nineteenth century to suppress and eliminate
polygamy in the Mormon Church, are examples of the United States government’s attempt to
mandate monogamy within its borders.
In 1862, Congress enacted the Morrill Act, making bigamy a felony in order to stop
Mormons from practicing polygamy. The Supreme Court upheld the law in Reynolds v. United
States in 1879…In 1882 Congress passed the Edmunds Act making “bigamous cohabitation” a
misdemeanor which, along with a jail sentence, would bar a person from serving on a jury, voting,
or holding public office. This led to 1,300 Mormon men being jailed and disenfranchised under
the law in the 1880’s. (Newman para. 6)
In the Supreme Court’s 1879 decision,
the court refused to recognize polygamy as a legitimate religious practice,
dismissing it…as “almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and African
people.”…the court declared polygamy to be “a blot on our civilization” and
compared it to human sacrifice and “a return to barbarism.”…the court found
34 A Journey Through My College Papers
that the practice is “contrary to the spirit of Christianity and of the civilization
which Christianity has produced in the Western World.” (Turley para. 6)
These laws worked in opposition to the United States Bill of Rights, which states that
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof” (Jordan 45). The Mormons, against whom the Morrill and Edmunds Acts were
enacted, are a well-recognized religious group, and they are unable to openly practice polygamy,
which is a part of their faith, because of the United States Supreme Court’s insistence that Western
civilization is based on Christianity.
If one recalls the scenario that opened this study, under the Edmunds Act of 1882,
although Lucas is only legally married to Donna, it is necessary to note that Donna, Bobbi, and
Lucas are a bigamous family, and bigamy is a form of polygamy. Donna, Bobbi, and Lucas are
not Mormons; they live together because each woman is the mother of two of Lucas’s four
children and it is economically practical for Lucas to support one household instead of trying to
support two separate households. Donna, Bobbi, and Lucas are not criminals, and they are not
seeking to harm anyone by their way of life, but their behavior “is in their case a victimless
crime—a mere offence against state fiat” (Selick para. 6), and is classified as criminal; they are in
constant danger of being arrested for their attempts to provide a safe, stable, loving home for their
children.
Although the laws of the United States forbid polygamy, “many people take the attitude
that … polygamy should just be left alone as a matter between consenting adults” (“Polygamy a
factor” para. 3). The Supreme Court’s 2003 decision Lawrence v. Texas, in which the United
States Supreme Court “ruled that governments cannot criminalize private activities by adults just
because the majority considers them to be immoral” (Robinson para. 11), and “that extends to
private, consensual sex acts - including sodomy8, whether homosexual
9 or heterosexual
10 - that
ensures that such acts cannot be criminally prosecuted” (Hamilton para. 14), “has probably given a
boost to those favoring polygamous and polyamory living arrangements” (Robinson para. 11), and
may be a step toward easing or eradicating the current marriage laws, which are established by the
individual states, but which universally prohibit polygamy in the United States. In a time when
personal freedoms are on the wane, this is a promising development for families. If the Supreme
Court’s ruling is interpreted correctly, it will overturn the Morrill and Edmunds Acts and
reestablish a safe environment for American families to arrange themselves in whatever
configurations work best for the individual families, without fear of government repercussions.
If one is willing to stop looking at marriages in the United States through prejudiced eyes
and to consider the evidence that polygamous marriages are the successful, accepted norm in a
number of other cultures worldwide, one will see that the United States does not set the standard
for marriage practices, and even that polygamy continues to exist in the United States despite the
laws against it. Examining several of these other cultures which allow and even encourage
polygamy will illustrate the social and economic advantages which polygamous families enjoy
when they are free to live according to family structures which best serve their individual needs.
Before discussing the advantages of non-monogamous marriages, it is necessary to
address the arguments against them. As stated earlier, the loudest and most common arguments
against polygamy and in favor of traditional monogamy – marriage between one man and one
woman -- are based on religious convictions that monogamy is the only way two people can be
married in the eyes of God, and an investigation of these beliefs will show that they are not
universally held and that the arguments based on these beliefs lack rational, objective support, no
matter how popular they may be, and that the sacred texts which are cited as proof that polygamy
is wrong actually offer numerous examples of polygyny in the history of their faith. These
convictions are most often Christian, and they are based on the teachings of the Holy Bible.
Undergraduate Series 35
The first argument is that “God created Adam, and provided for him a single wife. He did
not provide multiple wives for him, nor do we have any evidence that Adam ever had another
wife. This original marriage relationship powerfully exposes God's intent for mankind's marriage
relationships” ("Polygamy: What the Bible says" para. 14). The problem with this is that the Holy
Bible is the only source for the argument, and there are no historical records other than the Holy
Bible that record mankind’s history back to Adam, nor any that definitively state that Adam never
had any other wife. This argument also assumes that everyone else in the world accepts the Holy
Bible in the same way that Christians do, as the perfect and uncontestable word of God. Based on
the vast number of different religions in the world, and on the variety of holy texts in print, it is
clear that this assumption is untrue, and that the Holy Bible is no more than a work of mythology
literature to many people around the world, having no authority over their thoughts, words, or
actions.
Another argument offered by Christians against polygamy is: “Once a man has left his
father and mother's authority and household to marry, he cannot leave that household again! This
means that when a man first marries a woman, he does so upon leaving his parent's authority. If he
were to subsequently marry another woman, he would not be leaving his parent's authority again,
and thus would not fulfill the definition of marriage as outlined in Matthew 19 and Genesis 2:2411
”
(“Polygamy: What the Bible says” para. 13). This argument is also based solely on the Holy
Bible, with the same difficulties that were mentioned for the first argument. This argument does
not leave any option available for the widower or the widow to remarry, as the widower would not
be leaving his parents’ authority to do so, even though in I Corinthians 7:8-9 of the Holy Bible the
Apostle Paul gives permission for the widow to marry: “I say therefore to the unmarried and
widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for
it is better to marry than to burn” (I Corinthians 7:8-9). When the source of an argument
contradicts itself, as this source does, the argument itself cannot stand, and must be dismissed until
a stronger support for the argument is found.
Continued study reveals that the Old Testament of the Holy Bible offers many examples
of patriarchs of the Judeo-Christian faith practicing polygyny, which is ironic, since many of the
patriarchs are celebrated and praised throughout Scripture as being faithful to God and living
according to His will. However, in the eyes of modern society, these faithful, godly men would be
looked upon with scorn and derision. Among the patriarchs are Elkanah12
, Jehoiada13
, Lamech14
,
Esau15
, Jacob16
, Ashur17
, Gideon18
, King David19
, King Solomon20
, Rehoboam21
, and Abijah22
.
“Deuteronomy contains a rule for the division of property in polygamist marriages. Old Testament
figures such as Abraham, David, Jacob and Solomon were all favored by God and were all
polygamists. Solomon truly put the ‘poly’ to polygamy with 700 wives and 300 concubines”
(Turley para. 8). Another argument against polygamy, which is refuted by the Holy Bible, is:
“Rampant polygamy (and possibly all polygamy) was prohibited for kings, because it would cause
them to turn from God... The Israelites should have reasoned that if this were true for kings, it
would be true for others, hence polygamy was something they ought to avoid” (“Does God
approve” para. 5). King Solomon is generally recognized as one of the most powerful kings of his
period, and he is known best for his great wisdom. As noted above and described clearly in the
Holy Bible, he also had seven hundred wives (1 Kings 11:3). King David is acclaimed as a great
king who started out as a simple shepherd, saved his people when he slew Goliath with a sling and
stone, and was later heralded as the head of the genealogical line from which Jesus Christ of
Nazareth was born. In addition, the Holy Bible supports a man’s right to take multiple wives when
it says: “If he take him another [wife]; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not
diminish” (Exodus 21:10) and “Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows
shall not weep” (Job 27:15). Clearly, if a woman’s food, clothing, and status (duty of marriage)
are not diminished by being taken as a man’s additional wife, then their marriage is to be
36 A Journey Through My College Papers
considered right and appropriate, because if their marriage was considered adulterous then the
woman would be stoned for adultery. Similarly, if having multiple wives is considered to be
wrong, then the women associated with a man are not his widows after his death; instead, they are
his concubines, as concubinage23
is common in Old Testament times. Religiously-accepted
polygamy continues to exist in mainstream religions of the West today: “Martin Luther at one time
accepted polygamy as a practical necessity. Polygamy is still present among Jews in Israel, Yemen
and the Mediterranean” (Turley para. 8). In addition to Judeo-Christian examples of polygamy,
“Mohammed had 10 wives, though the Koran limits multiple wives to four” (Turley para. 8).
There are arguments against polygamy which are not based on religious beliefs or sacred
texts. One of these is the argument that “polygyny … is a violation of women’s rights” (Anyolo
para. 6). Against this is Celestine Obi’s research among the Igbo in Nigeria and other tribes
around the world. “Igbo women, do not detest the husband's marrying other wives. As for the
Igbo, so also the Kaggirs, the Ashanti, the New Guineans, and the Eskimos. An Akikuyu East
African woman gave the following message to the women of Europe: ‘Tell them two things, one is
that we never marry anyone we do not want to, and the other is that we like our husband to have as
many wives as possible’" (Obi para. 39). The Akikuyu woman’s opinion is quite clear: she does
not feel that her rights are being violated, nor that she is in any way being exploited or mistreated.
In fact, in some cultures, including that of the Igbo, “polygyny is widely regarded as a moral
virtue; to support as many fellow human beings as possible is not only a mark of wealth but a form
of philanthropy” (Obi para. 39). In these cultures, polygyny is seen as saving women from
loneliness and misery by giving the women husbands and the opportunity to have social and
economic stability and to produce babies.
An additional argument against polygamy is that “underage girls have been coerced into
polygamist marriages” (Turley para. 12). This arises from the polygynous cults which have
appeared in the news from time to time, in which a single charismatic male leader takes a large
number of very young wives and keeps all of them, with their resultant children, in a fortified
compound with nearly Draconian rules for the women and children. Turley goes on to say that
“There are indeed such cases. However, banning polygamy is no more a solution to child abuse
than banning marriage would be a solution to spousal abuse. The country has laws to punish
pedophiles and there is no religious exception to those laws” (Turley para. 12). Child abuse
occurs throughout the United States, and around the world, but it is not caused by monogamy,
polygamy, or any other marriage form. Polygamy has become a scapegoat for heinous acts
against young girls, but that is not the basis of polygamy, and so should not be the basis for laws
which are enacted out of fear or ignorance.
One last argument against polygamy which needs to be addressed is the idea that
monogamous marriage favors natural selection among humans. “In fact, out of all mating
systems, monogamy is arguably the one most conducive to natural selection, since it curbs
‘marrying up’ and condemns most low-status individuals to eventual genetic death (their places
being taken by downwardly mobile descendants of higher-status individuals)” (P. Frost para. 3).
What Frost fails to recognize is that low-status individuals all over the world marry and produce
offspring every day of every year. There is no shortage of such individuals and families in the
world, and they may be seen in every major city, small town, and tribal village. In past times in
Europe, these were the peasantry. In every age they represent the bulk of the workforce for low-
level jobs that higher-status individuals will not lower themselves to perform. These are the
people who fill our public aid offices, who occupy our shelters and low-income housing, and
whose children grow up to study technical trades and follow in their parents’ footsteps.
Monogamy does not keep the poor or the disadvantaged from marrying; rather, monogamy
prevents some low-status individuals from moving up in the world as second or third spouses to
higher-status men and women.
Undergraduate Series 37
Far from interfering with natural selection, polygamy has been shown to have health
benefits for individuals who practice it. “New research suggests that men from polygamous
cultures outlive those from monogamous ones” (Callaway para. 1) and “it seems that fathering
more kids with more wives leads to increased male longevity” (Callaway para. 17). If polygamy
increases longevity, then it appears that polygamy, not monogamy, favors natural selection by
allowing polygamous men to survive longer than monogamous men. Additionally, since “the
male is programmed to fertilize as many females as possible, while the female aims to seduce as
many males as possible so that she may choose the best of all” (M. Frost para. 2), it is only
reasonable that polygamous men and women should enjoy better health as they act with the
natural urges and impulses of their bodies, instead of expending a great deal of mental, emotional,
and physical energy fighting against nature. Chris Wilson, an evolutionary anthropologist at
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says: ‘It doesn't surprise me that men in those societies
live longer than men in monogamous societies, where they become widowed and have nobody to
care for them’ (Callaway para. 19). Rather than cutting low-status individuals out of the breeding
pool through monogamy, “polygamy was a way by which the carriers of the best ‘genetic
material’ could sooner or later couple and procreate better offspring after a number of trials and
errors” (M. Frost para. 7). With more opportunities to create strong, healthy children to continue
the race, polygamous cultures allow natural selection, instead of human selection, to do its work.
While it might seem that the arguments against polygamy are many and persuasive, it is
important to look at each one carefully, and not to get caught up in an emotional whirlwind of
rhetoric. As has been shown above, each argument against polygamy has a clear, rational answer
which shows that polygamy is not the evil that Americans imagine and fear. Polygamy is instead
a natural response to mankind’s need for personal status, security of family life, a clear pattern for
the accumulation of wealth and its inheritance, personal and societal health, and a reduction in
societal violence, as will be shown below.
In many cultures, polygamy – specifically, polygyny – confers status on the husband who
is able to attract, win, and support multiple wives. At the same time, being married confers status
on the wives, who are often defined in their cultures by their roles as wives and mothers.
Polygyny dignifies a woman, and marriage is a status symbol. It prevents immorality in
the community and controls diseases. Polygyny is a strategy to ensure that almost all women get
married in order to wipe out all evils that accompany the existence of a large population of eligible
but unmarried women. It also reduces the large number of men’s extramarital affairs. Polygyny
offers more children for the security of family life without the stigma of being born out of
wedlock. (Anyolo para. 14)
This description from a study of the Ovambadja in the Okalongo area of Namibia
indicates that polygyny represents many positive things for the people who practice it. For the
Ovambadja, polygyny creates a stable, workable family structure, in which the women are
protected, the men have no reason to seek companionship outside of marriage, and the children
have a secure future with clear rules of inheritance. Many other cultures have the same
experiences of polygyny and polyandry: their marriage practices give status to the men (or the
women, in the case of polyandry), dignify the women, and ensure the legitimacy and security of
the children and the future.
Polygyny grants status to the husband because it tells his society that he is important or
powerful enough to attract multiple wives, strong enough to keep them with him, and wealthy
enough to provide for his wives and their children. In many cultures, the man also has to pay a
bride price to the woman’s family for each of his wives, and his ability to do so increases his
status. This feature of polygyny is found in cultures around the world: “Among Alaskan
Eskimos, among New Guinea mountain Papuans, and among relatively untouched South
American Indians, polygamy is widespread, and it is the individual with leadership qualities who
38 A Journey Through My College Papers
has the greatest chance to have several wives” (P. Frost para. 1). Among the North American
Eskimos, as well, “it has observed that whereas each husband married one wife, a man of fair
means could marry two or more to make himself socially important” (Obi para. 31). This also
carries over to segments of the monogamous culture of the United States, in which strong,
powerful, wealthy men often support mistresses as a way of displaying their power to their
associates. In other cultures, this is called concubinage, and has been an accepted practice since
before the Christian era, but in the United States, with its requirements of monogamy, this practice
is viewed as immoral, decadent, and wrong. If polygyny was an accepted practice in the United
States, men like these could marry their women and accrue legitimate social status, instead of the
illicit status they now bear among their peers.
As observed among the Ovambadja, polygyny is recognized as helping to reduce
immoral behavior among those who adopt this family structure. As Newman notes in his
discussion of polygamy and same-sex marriages, “equating polygamy with degeneracy24
raises a
few issues” (Newman para. 2). Newman discusses the legal actions that were taken against the
Mormons in the nineteenth century and states that “however you feel about polygamy, the
historical assault on it within the United States should shame everyone” (Newman para. 5). In
many cultures outside the United States, polygamy in its various forms is seen not as degeneracy,
but as a legitimate means of preventing immoral behavior. “Polygyny well understood and as it
exists among Igbos is as distinct from promiscuity25
as darkness is from daylight” (Obi para. 36).
While polygyny is, by the strictest definition of the word, a form of promiscuity, in that the
husband does have multiple sexual partners, it is not promiscuity in the moral sense, in which it is
understood to be illicitly having more than one sexual partner. In polygyny, the man’s wives are
his legitimate, licit sexual partners.
In cultures which practice polygamy, the marital form ensures the stability of the family.
Again recalling the scenario referenced at the start this paper, Donna, Bobbi, and Lucas live as
they do so that all of their children will grow up with their father, so that Donna and Bobbi will
each have less work to do by sharing household responsibilities, and so that Lucas can afford to
provide a better standard of life for his family by not having to support two separate households.
In British Columbia, Canada, there is a community called Bountiful in which this same family
stability is the norm. In Bountiful, “a group of breakaways from the Mormon church are
practicing polygamy” (Selick para. 4). It does not surprise too many people to hear about
polygamy in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as Americans tend to think of those places as
primitive and backward, despite the fact that mankind had its start in the Middle East and the
cultures of Africa and Asia were ancient and thriving before the European Middle Ages.
However, despite this historical fact, it is more troubling for many Americans to learn that
polygamous families are flourishing in North America, because American prejudices say that
polygamy is counter to the ways of Western civilization, but families such as Donna, Bobbi, and
Lucas’s and communities such as Bountiful indicate that polygamy can be a viable way of life for
North American families. In her article in the August 2005 issue of Canadian Lawyer, Selick
says:
Although sharing a husband with another woman wouldn’t be my cup of tea, I don’t
understand why our lawmakers insists that polygamy be outlawed. Some of the Bountiful women
declare unambiguously that they enjoy their way of life, that they are there voluntarily, and that
they don’t want their “plural marriages” broken up by criminal charges. They cite the sharing of
household chores and the caring relationship with their co-wives as among the advantages. (Selick
para. 5)
As in the United States, it is illegal in Canada for three or more adults to live together and
have sexual activity between any one adult and any two or more other adults, singly or otherwise,
and that behavior is considered to be polygamous, regardless of marriage or its absence. However,
Undergraduate Series 39
these laws fail to consider that the women of Bountiful are content with their life, and are there of
their own free will. Their polygynous marriages provide them with advantages which contribute
to the stability of their personal and family lives.
The stability associated with polygamy is not limited to North America. In Nepal,
“polyandrous households appear to have more continuity and stability than extended families
made up of monogamous couples” (“Nepali Marriage and Family” para. 2). In Nepal,
monogamous husbands, with or without their wives, often have to seek employment outside the
village or even outside the country in order to earn enough money to support their families.
Although polygyny is practiced in Nepal, “a number of Tibetan-speaking people, such as the
Nyinba, Sherpa, and Baragaonli, practice variant forms of fraternal polyandry” (“Nepali Marriage
and Family” para. 1). In those families, where one woman has two or more husbands who are
brothers to each other, there are fewer tensions regarding status and inheritance, and the husbands
are more likely to be able to support their families without having to leave their village, so the
family structure is more stable than for the monogamous families of Nepal.
Among the Igbo of Nigeria, polygyny is also important to the social status of women.
“Inu nwunye (marriage) states Dr. Basden, ‘has a foremost place in Igbo social economy…a
childless woman is regarded as a monstrosity…in fact the birth of the child gives her the title of
wife, before this time she may be said to be a wife only in anticipation’” (Obi paras. 1-3). A
woman of the Igbo must marry in order to have children and to fulfill her proper role in her
society. In order that every woman may have a husband and family, “just as it is the custom that
among the Lango people of Uganda, there is no limit, so also among the Igbos there is none either.
It is not uncommon to find a man with 5 to 10 wives or sometimes even more…where it is
difficult to obtain a husband, polygyny creates a situation that will make it possible for many more
women to be absorbed into the married state” (Obi paras. 35-36). A man with five, ten, or more
wives also accrues increased status from his ability to provide for so many wives and children,
although the wives and children also contribute to the family’s economic success, as discussed
below.
Along with conferring status on the men and dignity on the women who practice it,
polygamy strengthens a family’s economic status and provides clear lines of inheritance. Brian
Schwimmer defines marriage as: “a relationship established between a woman and one or more
other persons, which provides that a child born to the woman under circumstances not prohibited
by the rules of the relationship, is accorded full birth-status rights common to normal members of
his society or social stratum” (Schwimmer, “Defining Marriage” para. 5). The other persons may
be a husband and co-wives, or they may be two or more co-husbands, but the goal is the same: to
provide full birth-status rights, or legitimacy, to the woman’s children. “Polygyny produces wealth
not only for the man, but for the whole family – which is one of the reasons why there is no
poverty in societies that practise polygyny” (Anyolo para. 15). When there are no unwed mothers
and illegitimate children to draw on a society’s resources, everyone experiences improved
economic stability. In a polygynous society, every woman is able to marry, even if there are fewer
men than women, and her children are recognized as being legitimate. When more individuals are
contributing to a family’s income, or to its production of food and other goods, the entire family
profits from the increase. In addition, polygamy may be practiced if a spouse is unable to produce
or raise children or if a spouse becomes incapacitated and cannot continue to perform the
functions of a spouse, so that the remaining spouse does not have to shoulder all of the
responsibilities of the family alone.
Polygamy exists in the United States for more than just religious or economic reasons.
Sometimes, when a spouse becomes incapacitated due to trauma or illness, the healthy spouse will
seek a new partner to fill the void the impaired spouse leaves in the family. Often, the new partner
not only takes the original spouse’s place in the family, but also provides care for the co-spouse.
40 A Journey Through My College Papers
An example of this sort of family arrangement is the family of Dennis and Julie, who live in
central Vermont in the last decade of the twentieth century. They have been married for fifteen
years, and Julie has been raising Dennis’s son from a previous marriage. Thirteen years ago, Julie
developed brain cancer which had to be surgically removed, taking with it a small portion of her
frontal lobe. Three years ago, when Dennis’s son was 16 years old and Julie had regressed to a
mental and emotional age of 6 years old, Dennis met Diane and asked her to move in with the
family. Diane was aware that Dennis and Julie were married, but she was also aware that Julie
was no longer capable of fulfilling even the most basic roles of a wife and mother because of her
condition. Also because of Julie’s condition, Dennis felt that he could not in good conscience
divorce her or cease to provide for her. Diane is now the de facto wife in Dennis’s household.
She takes care of Dennis, his son, and Julie. Diane has taken on the role of step-mother to
Dennis’s son, and has seen him through his formative teen years. Because Dennis and his family
live in the United States, he and Diane are unable to marry, but they share physical and financial
responsibility for their home and family.
By becoming Julie’s caregiver and co-wife, Diane has eased the burden of living with a
handicapped spouse for Dennis. Her presence in the home has allowed Dennis to work without
having to worry about Julie’s welfare while he is away from home each day. She has obviated the
need for Dennis to spend a significant portion of his earnings on hiring outside caregivers for Julie
and a housekeeper to take Julie’s place in the daily upkeep of the home. The family structure has
secured the family’s economic stability. 26
Just as Dennis, Julie, and Diane experience improved domestic conditions in their home
from the interaction of co-spouses who can share the burdens of life, families throughout the
world, such as the Dongria Kondh of India, enjoy the benefits of shared responsibilities and
experiences, as well as increased economic security, through their practice of polygyny. “The
Dongria family is normally simple nuclear family consisting of father, mother and their unmarried
children… is patrilocal27
and patrilineal28
…and polygynous…the woman is more diligent and hard
working in comparison to their male counterparts. She does all sorts of household work…she is
treated as an economic asset to the family” (Kanungo paras. 3-4). Among the Dongria Kondh, the
more wives a man has, the more economic stability and wealth his family has. His wives
represent a labor force for the family, as do their children as they become old enough to do work
in the home and the fields. In addition, a “girl child is preferred over boy child” (Kanungo para. 4)
because a man will collect a bride price from the family of each daughter’s husband before she is
allowed to marry, so a man with many daughters will accrue a large amount of money from their
marriages, but a man with many sons will have to pay a bride price for each of his sons to marry.
This is the reverse of the practice in monogamous cultures of Europe and North America, where a
man had to pay a dowry for each of his daughters to marry, but was paid a dowry by the parents of
each of his sons’ wives.
The Nayar of India is a matrilineal29
society which practices an unusual form of
polyandry. Among the Nayar, “sambandan involved a man having a ‘visiting husband’
relationship with a woman. While such relationships were considered to be marriages by the
woman's family, especially when they occurred with males of higher subcastes or castes, the males
tended to view the relationships as concubinage. Traditionally Nayar women were allowed to
have more than one ‘visiting husband’ either simultaneously or serially” (“Nayar Marriage and
Family” para. 1). To properly understand and discuss this visiting husband arrangement, it is
necessary to include a more detailed account of Nayar marriage practices:
Before puberty a Nayar woman was formally married to a man from a family with whom
her family had a special relationship. The two were together for a few days, and then the marriage
ended. The woman usually never saw this husband again, though she and her future children
might mourn when this man died. After this marriage the woman was considered an adult and
Undergraduate Series 41
was free to take up to a dozen lovers. Each lover was part of a formal relationship approved by
her family, and the man was required to give the woman gifts three times a year until the
relationship ended. The “visiting husbands” as they were called, spent the night with a woman,
leaving a shield or sword outside of her door so that other men with whom she had a similar
relationship knew that another “husband” was visiting that night. The visiting husbands never
resided with a woman, did not have any economic obligation to her, and came and went as their
military duties dictated. When a child was conceived, one of the visiting husbands established the
child’s legitimacy by claiming paternity and presenting gifts to the woman and to the midwife who
delivered the child. He had no further economic responsibilities for this child, though he might
take a social interest in it. The child lived with and was the economic responsibility of the
mother’s group. (Lenkeit 151-152)
The Nayar system exists because of the warlike nature of the Nayar. It is usual for all of
the men to be away from their villages for the majority of their adult lives in military service.
Since Nayar men are not available to settle in villages and establish families in any of the usual
patterns – monogamous, polygynous, or polyandrous – the Nayar contrived the system of visiting
husbands. In this system, it is not important which man genetically fathers which child, but only
that one of the mother’s husbands claims paternity for each child; the children’s inheritance is
through the maternal line, from mother to daughter, and the mother’s maternal female relatives
ensure economic provision and cultural security for all of the children born to their group.
Although “the ‘visiting husband’ had…no responsibility for any children he might sire” (“Nayar
Marriage and Family” para. 2) the men of the Nayar are not excused from providing economic
support for the women. “His main responsibilities were for his sister's children” (“Nayar Marriage
and Family” para. 2). Thus, the men of the Nayar provide for their mothers and sisters, and not for
their wives and children, who are in turn provided for by the wives’ brothers and sons.
In certain patrilineal cultures special arrangements have been made to provide for the
inheritance of men who have no male heirs. Among these arrangements are woman-to-woman
marriage, ghost marriage, Nwunye Nhachi or “wife of the village”, and Nwunye Nkuchi or
“inherited wife”.
Woman-to-woman marriage is not lesbian marriage, and the women do not engage in
sexual activities with each other. It is practiced by the Zulu women of the Neur and the Nandi in
Africa. Among the Neur, “a rich and influential Zulu woman may marry another woman by
giving marriage cattle for her, and she is the pater of her wife's children begotten by some male
kinsman of the female husband” (Obi para. 26). By having the wife mate with the brothers and
male cousins of the female husband, the children born of the marriage do, indeed, carry the female
husband’s genes, and the children are true heirs of the female husband.
Woman-to-woman marriage for the purpose of producing heirs and securing inheritances
is also important to the Nandi of Africa who “practice patrilineal descent…the most common
option for a woman without an heir is woman-to-woman marriage, in which the woman with no
male heir becomes a husband to another woman…children born to this couple are considered heirs
of the female husband. In other words, when the ‘wife’ has a child, that child is considered to be
the heir of the female husband” (Lenkeit 203-204). When the Nandi practice woman-to-woman
marriage, the female husband takes on the male gender roles in the family, and the wife continues
to perform the female gender roles. The spouses do not live together, however, so that the wife is
able to take male lovers in an effort to become pregnant. It is understood that, regardless of who
biologically fathers the wife’s children, they are the heirs of the female husband. The female
husband typically does not take lovers of either gender while in a woman-to-woman marriage.
Ghost marriage is practiced among the Igbo of Nigeria and among tribes in East and
Central Africa. “'Ghost marriage'…consists in a woman being married to the name of a man who
died unmarried so that his line need not die out. Consequently, children born of this marriage
42 A Journey Through My College Papers
should bear the name of this unmarried dead man” (Obi paras. 27-28). The wife of the dead man
takes male lovers in an effort to provide heirs for her husband, and, as with woman-to-woman
marriage, it is understood that any children born to the wife are the heirs of her dead husband,
regardless of who actually fathers the children.
Nwunye Nhachi or “wife of the village” is another marriage form used by the Igbo of
Nigeria to secure lines of inheritance for men who die without male heirs. “When a man dies
without a male issue, one of his daughters stays back, selects lovers with whom she cohabits to
beget children on behalf of her dead father” (Obi para. 29). In this case, the daughter is
theoretically married to her father after his death, and does not marry another man. Any children
born to this daughter-wife are her heirs – and by extension, her siblings.
Nwunye Nkuchi or “inherited wife” is also practiced by the Igbo, and is something of the
reverse of Nwunye Nhachi. “A man by this practice takes over his dead father's wife or dead
brother's wife where there is no heir, or male issue or if the heir is a minor” (Obi para. 27). In this
case, the husband provides economic support for the widows, and future heirs born to the widow-
wives are the heirs of their dead husbands because their marriages continue after their husbands’
deaths.
In many societies where polygamy is the prevalent form of marriage, not only does
polygamy provide economic stability and secure inheritances but there is a reduction in the
occurrences of domestic violence as compared to societies where monogamy is the prevalent form
of marriage. In her study of the Ovambadja of Namibia, Prisca Anyolo notes that “at present,
violence against women in Namibia is more prevalent through domestic violence, followed by
rape and the killing of women…but none of the cases of violence has so far been attributed to the
practice of polygyny…such violence and social discrimination against women is prevalent in
almost all 13 Regions of the country, and even more so in Regions where polygyny does not exist”
(Anyolo paras. 8, 13). Although violence against women does exist in areas where polygyny is
practiced, it is clear that there is less violence in these areas, and as with the counter-argument
about child abuse which is presented earlier in this discussion, one cannot assume or expect that
violence against women will summarily stop if any relationship other than monogamy was
allowed, any more than one may assume that violence against women will summarily increase if
all relationships other than monogamy are prohibited.
Violence is not limited to the atrocities of beatings, rape, and murder. Violence in a
family also includes jealousies among family members and drawing distinctions between and
among individuals to establish the relative value of the individuals. In these cases, as well, the
occurrence of violence is reduced in polygynous families. “As a rule, the jealousy of co-wives is
not the characteristic of Igbo polygyny” (Obi para. 36). Like Donna and Bobbi, Igbo co-wives are
able to work out the small differences which inevitably exist between and among people who live
and work in close contact with one another, so any jealousies which arise are quickly disposed of.
Unlike monogamous wives whose husbands conduct extramarital affairs without the approval of
their wives, Igbo wives do not need to be jealous of their co-wives, because they all live together
by their own will and share equally in their husband’s time, attention, and resources.
Culture exists in part to create systems for living which promote the best interests of the
members of the group and which secure the orderly existence of the society. Marriage forms a
part of this system of orderly existence. “At the time polygyny was established as the legal form
of marriage” in Liberia, “the ratio of women to men in Africa was about 10 to 1” (Nyanseor para.
8). An African woman’s role is to marry and to produce children, not unlike the traditional
expectation for Western women, who are still seen primarily as wives and mothers despite the
‘women’s movement’ and ‘equal rights’. An African woman’s secondary role is to keep the house
and to help her husband produce a living for her family. With a ratio of ten women to each man,
polygyny is the only way most women are able to fulfill their role in their society. The Liberian
Undergraduate Series 43
leaders recognize this concern and the “elders, including women, decided to come up with a
marriage system that would address this problem. Their aim at the time was to provide a balance
and equal distribution of social, material, security and economic benefits to both women and men”
(Nyanseor para. 8). Polygyny is the solution the Liberian elders devised, and it fulfills the aim of
providing that balance. When Christian settlers from America arrive in Liberia, they bring the
idea of monogamy with them, but the Christian settlers do not practice true monogamy. Instead,
they practice a new form of marriage, which becomes known as Chrismonopoly.
“Chrismonopoly…is an arrangement in which a male settler is married to his monogamous or
Christian wife and at the same time is engaged in polygynous relationship with ‘native African
Liberian women’” (Nyanseor para. 14). The settlers do not view their own behavior as polygyny,
although that is what it is. They do not treat their Liberian wives and children equally with the
way they treat their American wives and children, unlike the polygynous Liberian husbands, who
treat their wives and children equally. In the settlers’ families, “a distinction was made as to who
were ‘inside or outside children’” (Nyanseor para. 18), which causes dissention and strife for the
settlers, but “this was never the case in a polygynous relationship” (Nyanseor para. 18). By
treating his wives and children equally, a polygynous Liberian husband avoids the family violence
which his monogamous Christian neighbor creates in his own family.
Among the Eskimo of North America, jealousy among co-wives is nearly non-existent.
A wife who is unable to bear children “pays for a new life on behalf of her husband, or she
provides him with the necessary funds for a new marriage, with a view to raising children for her
husband by proxy as we may put it” (Obi para. 25). The first wife welcomes the new co-wife and
accepts the co-wife’s children as part of the family. In an interview about why her husband takes
another wife, an Eskimo woman reports that 'I asked him myself, for I am tired of bearing
children' (Obi para. 36). For this woman, having a co-wife means she is relieved of some of the
pressure and stress of her wifely duties; the first wife benefits from her polygynous lifestyle, as
does the co-wife, who can fulfill her role of wife and mother, but also has stability and protection
because of the family structure.
A form of polygamy which is less familiar than polygyny and polyandry is group
marriage. Most Americans associate group marriage with the communes of the 1960’s, and some
of those were, in fact, group marriages. Group marriage is not about orgies30
or sexual free-for-
alls, however, and it is not polyamorous31
wife-swapping; it is true marriage involving at least two
husbands and at least two wives. A notable occurrence of group marriage is “the Kaingang in
Brazil, where 8 percent of the population practiced this marriage form during historic times. The
remainder of the population practiced monogamy (60 percent), polygyny (18 percent), or
polyandry (14 percent). Obviously there are diverse ideas about marriage among the Kaingang”
(Lenkeit 155). Although group marriage is not the most prevalent marriage form among the
Kaingang, eight percent of the population represents a significant number of people engaged in
group marriage. An additional example of group marriage is the Gilyak tribe of the island of
Sakhalin, in which “every Gilyak has the rights of a husband in regard to the wives of his brothers
and to the sisters of his wife; at any rate, the exercise of these rights is not regarded as
impermissible” (Engels, "Appendix. A Recently Discovered Case of Group Marriage" para. 3).
Among the Gilyak, the entire tribe is one large, group marriage, with each adult the parent of each
child, regardless of which two adults produced the child. This arrangement is very similar to the
punaluan marriage custom of Hawaii, in which
a number of sisters, own or collateral (first, second or more remote cousins)
were the common wives of their common husbands, from among whom,
however, their own brothers were excluded; these husbands now no longer
called themselves brothers, for they were no longer necessarily brothers, but
punalua -- that is, intimate companion, or partner. Similarly, a line of own or
44 A Journey Through My College Papers
collateral brothers had a number of women, not their sisters, as common wives,
and these wives called one another punalua. (Engels, "The Punaluan Family"
para. 2)
Among the Hawaiians, unlike the Gilyaks, a spouse’s siblings of the opposite sex could
not be included in the spouse’s group marriage. Siblings, in this case, refer to cousins as well as to
conventional siblings.
One additional marriage form exists which is not a form of polygamy, but is also not
traditional monogamy. This is same-sex marriages other than those discussed above as means of
securing inheritances. This is, instead, homosexual marriage between two men or two women
who love each other and who wish to bind themselves together with a formal commitment of
marriage. Same-sex marriage is not a new concept, despite its frequent appearance in the media in
the last decade. “Data demonstrate that same-sex unions, including marriage, have been
recognized in the histories of many cultures – Greek, Roman, and pre-Columbian Native
American cultures, as well as various African cultures and numerous cultures in Asia and the
Pacific” (Lenkeit 156). Same-sex marriage is not often spoken of openly in Western society
because it is alien to people who believe in strict monogamy, and who have grown up being taught
that the Bible forbids homosexuality32
. Many cultures, however, do not recognize the Holy Bible
as the true law, or even as anything more than a work of mythological fiction, and so those
cultures are not guided by the Holy Bible. In the United States, only Connecticut, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont allow same-sex marriages; each
of the other 43 states has a law which bans same-sex marriage, although New Hampshire, New
Jersey, and Oregon allow same-sex civil unions distinct from marriage, and Alaska, California, the
District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, and Washington allow certain protections for same-sex
couples (Stritof).
While marriage should be a matter between and among the spouses, in the United States
marriage has become a sore point of politics. For almost a century and a half, the United States
government has legislated what constitutes a marriage and who may marry whom. Many fear that
the increased tolerance for same-sex marriage in the United States may open the way for
polygamous marriage to become a legally accepted fact of American life and fear the collapse of
their own systems of morals and ethics if monogamy ceases to be the only legal and accepted
marriage form in the United States. What these people fail to recognize is that, with the
legalization – or at least tacit legalization by not banning – same-sex marriages in seven states, and
with an estimated 100,000 individuals living polygamous lifestyles in the United States,
monogamy has already ceased to be the only accepted form of marriage in the United States. “Just
as it is said that no system of government, is necessarily the best, so also it can be said that all
things being equal, no system of marriage is necessarily the best” (Obi para. 37). Throughout the
world, and even within the cultural bastion of the United States, this comparison has proven to be
true; no one system of marriage emerges from the fray as the one, single, definitive best form of
marriage for every family and every situation. Each form has its merits, and each form has its
drawbacks, and each individual, couple, and group needs to have the freedom to openly choose
which form is best for that particular situation.
With the many personal and social benefits experienced by polygamous families, group
families, same-sex families, and monogamous families, it behooves Americans to learn tolerance
for ways of life which are different from mainstream American culture. As editorial columnist
Jonathan Turley writes in the October 3, 2004, issue of USA Today,
I personally detest polygamy. Yet if we yield to our impulse and single out one hated
minority, the First Amendment becomes little more than hype and we become little more than
hypocrites. For my part, I would rather have a neighbor with different spouses than a country with
different standards for its citizens.
Undergraduate Series 45
I know I can educate my three sons about the importance of monogamy, but
hypocrisy can leave a more lasting impression. (Turley paras. 16-17)
Each person is capable of living a full, satisfying life without needing to control what is
going on in the bedrooms next door, down the street, across the state, or on the other side of the
world. It is up to each parent or parental group to raise its children with a set of values which
allow the children not only to make good choices for their own relationships, but also to respect
and honor the relationship choices which are made by others. Far from monogamy being the only
correct marriage form in the world, it is only one of many forms, each of which is “correct” for
those who choose it as their way of life.
End Notes: 1. Donna, Bobbi, and Lucas are real people, and the situation described is real. Their names have
been changed to protect their privacy. 2. “The state or custom of being married to one person at a time” ("Monogamy").
3. “Marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time”
("Polygamy"). 4. “A marriage custom in which a widow marries her deceased husband’s brother” (Lenkeit G-5).
5. A marriage custom in which a widower marries a sister of his deceased wife” (Lenkeit G-8).
6. “The state or practice of having more than one wife or female mate at a time” ("Polygyny").
7. “The state or practice of having more than one husband or male mate at one time”
("Polyandry"). 8. “Anal or oral copulation with a member of the same or opposite sex; also: copulation with an
animal” ("Sodomy"). 9. “Of, relating to, or involving sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex”
("Homosexual"). 10
. “Of, relating to, or involving sexual intercourse between individuals of opposite sex”
("Heterosexual"). 11
. “And he answered and said unto them, ‘Have ye not read, that he which made them at the
beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and
mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no
more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder’”
(Matthew 20:4-6).
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). 12
. “And he had two wives; the name of the one [was] Hannah, and the name of the other
Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children” (1 Samuel 1:2). 13
. “And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters” (2 Chronicles 24:3). 14
. “And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the
other Zillah” (Genesis 4:19). 15
. “And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite,
and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite” (Genesis 26:34).
“Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the
daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife” (Genesis 28:9). 16
. “And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with
him yet seven other years” (Genesis 29:30). 17
. “And Ashur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah” (1 Chronicles 4:5). 18
. “And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives”
(Judges 8:30).
46 A Journey Through My College Papers
19. “And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded
the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the Lord
hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with
Abigail, to take her to him to wife. And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to
Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife. And she
arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant
to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass,
with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and
became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives.
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of
Galim” (1 Samuel 25:39-44).
“And unto David were born sons in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the
Jezreelitess; and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third,
Absolom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the
son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah
David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron” (2 Samuel 3:2-5).
“And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from
Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David” (2 Samuel 5:13).
“And David took more wives at Jerusalem: and David begat more sons and daughters” (1
Chronicles 14:3). 20
. “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women
of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, [and] Hittites; of the nations [concerning]
which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they
come in unto you: [for] surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto
these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his
wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, [that] his wives turned
away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as [was] the
heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and
after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD,
and went not fully after the LORD, as [did] David his father. Then did Solomon build an high
place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that [is] before Jerusalem, and for
Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives,
which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods” (1 Kings 11:1-8). 21
. “And Rehoboam took him Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David to wife, [and]
Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse; which bare him children; Jeush, and Shamariah,
and Zaham. And after her he took Maachah the daughter of Absalom; which bare him Abijah, and
Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith. And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom above
all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines; and
begat twenty and eight sons, and threescore daughters.) And Rehoboam made Abijah the son of
Maachah the chief, [to be] ruler among his brethren: for [he thought] to make him king. And he
dealt wisely, and dispersed of all his children throughout all the countries of Judah and Benjamin,
unto every fenced city: and he gave them victual in abundance. And he desired many wives” (2
Chronicles 11:18-23). 22
. “But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and
sixteen daughters” (2 Chronicles 13:21). 23
. “Cohabitation of persons not legally married” ("Concubinage"). 24
. “Sexual perversion” (“Degeneracy”) 25
. “Promiscuous sexual behavior” ("Promiscuity").
“Promiscuous - not restricted to one sexual partner” ("Promiscuous").
Undergraduate Series 47
26. Dennis, Julie, and Diane are real people, and the situation described is real. Their names have
been changed to protect their privacy. 27
. “Of or relating to residence with a husband's kin group or clan” ("Patrilocal"). 28
. “Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the paternal line” ("Patrilineal"). 29
. “Tracing descent through the maternal line” ("Matrilineal"). 30
. “A sexual encounter involving many people; also: an excessive sexual indulgence” ("Orgy"). 31
. “The state or practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at a time”
("Polyamory"). 32
. "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination" (Leviticus 18:22).
Works Cited:
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<http://www.kas.de/upload/auslandshomepages/namibia/Women_Custom/anyolo.p
df>.
Callaway, Ewen. "Polygamy is the key to a long life." 19 Aug 2008. New Scientist. 5 Feb 2009
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14564-polygamy-is-the-key-to-a-long-
life.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news2_head_dn14564>.
“Concubinage". 2009. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online. 13
Mar 2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concubinage>.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/degeneracy>.
"Does God approve of polygamy?" Rational Christianity: Christian Apologetics. 20 Feb 2009
<http://www.rationalchristianity.net/polygamy.html>.
Engels, Frederick. "Appendix. A Recently Discovered Case of Group Marriage." Origins of the
Family, Private Property, and the State. 17 Mar 2009
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/appen.htm>.
—. "The Punaluan Family.” Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State. 17 Mar
2009 <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-
family/ch02b.htm>.
Frost, Martin. "Monogamous marriage ceases to be acceptable form of sexual and family
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<http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/dec2006/mono_poly.html>.
Frost, Peter. "Polygyny and human evolution." 18 Feb 2008. Evo and Proud. 4 Feb 2009
<http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2008/02/polygyny-and-human-evolution.html>.
Hamilton, Marci. "The Marriage Debate and Polygamy." 29 Jul 2004. 20 Feb 2009
<http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20040729.html>.
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Mar 2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heterosexual>.
Holy Bible, The. Trans. King James Version. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1979.
“Homosexual". 2009. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online. 13 Mar
2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homosexual>.
Hughes, James J., Ph.D. "Monogamy as a Prisoners Dilemma: Non-Monogamy as a
Collective Action Problem." Dec 1990. 4 Feb 2009
<http://www.changesurfer.com/Acad/Monogamy/Mono.html>.
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Kanungo, Akshaya K., M.A., M.Phil. "Problems In Educating Tribal Children: The Dongria
Kondh Experience." 23 Sep 2005. 4 Feb 2009
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DONGRIA-KONDH.htm>.
Lenkeit, Roberta Edwards. Introducing Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill,
2009.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/matrilineal>.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monogamy>.
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<http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Nayar-Marriage-and-Family.html>.
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<http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Nepali-Marriage-and-Family.html>.
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Feb 2009 <http://www.nathannewman.org/archives/003169.shtml>.
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<http://www.theperspective.org/polygyny.html>.
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<http://www.afrikaworld.net/afrel/igbo-marriage.htm>.
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<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orgy>.
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<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/patrilineal>.
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<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyamory>.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyandry>.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polygamy>.
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<http://www.eadshome.com/polygamy.htm>.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polygyny>.
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2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/promiscuity>.
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Mar 2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/promiscuous>.
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<http://www.religioustolerance.org/ssmpoly.htm>.
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Undergraduate Series 49
“Sodomy". 2009. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online. 13 Mar
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Fall Semester, 2009
EDU 108: Introduction to Policy & Education
Examining a Racial Policy November 17, 2009
The question asks for an issue from the past 5-20 years, but I would like to examine a
policy that was implemented in my school when I was in 11th grade, in 1985-86.
I attended a relatively large high school (grades 9-12) in a predominantly white
community in southern Vermont. Near the middle of 11th grade, a policy was implemented in the
supervisory union that required that all students of color must be referred to as "African-
Americans."
At that time, there was a very popular student in my class who was intensely dark-
complected, verging on literally black skin. His parents were from upper-class families in India,
and he and his sisters were the first members of the family to be born in the United States. My
classmate was not of African extraction, and was certainly not African-American.
In response to the implementation of this policy, nearly every student in the top 25% of
the student body united to stage a strike. We protested that the policy was racist against non-
African people of color, and that it too narrowly defined a segment of our society. Students and
parents sent letters to the local newspaper and to the supervisory union and local school districts to
complain about the policy. Within a matter of days, the policy was withdrawn. It was replaced
with a policy that was generally well-received as being more appropriate for local needs, which
prohibited the use of the word "nigger" in the schools.
The original policy was intended to address concerns about racial diversity in response to
"pressures for multicultural curricula ... [and] the complexity resulting from diversity" (Fowler,
2009, 10).
The issue in this case was defined as a need to establish a school environment in which
"African-American children [who] were consistently disadvantaged [by] 'separate and unequal'
education" (Fowler, 2009, 6) would be able to receive an equal education without the stresses of
racial slurs and stereotypes.
As students, we were not aware of the agenda setting or policy formulation stages for this
issue. I do know, however, that the policy was passed for the Southwest Vermont Supervisory
Union, which oversaw a number of local school districts, but which was below the state level, so it
was addressed at this intermediate level. The policy was adopted by the supervisory union.
The implementation of this policy took place first in the high school, which served all of
the districts in the supervisory union. In chapter 1, Fowler (2009) states that "[r]esearch suggests
that often new policies are ... substantially modified during implementation" (17). This is what
happened when we, as a community, protested the new policy. Policy makers were forced to
evaluate the policy very quickly and to take it back to an earlier stage in the policy process for
reconsideration (Fowler, 2009, 15, Figure 1.1).
50 A Journey Through My College Papers
Altering Power Relationships November 18, 2009
The case study presented by Fowler (2009) at the end of chapter 2 begins with a
dangerous misassessment by Bob Mathews of the power wielded by Clyde Ruggles based on
Bob's class bias and assumption that Clyde was a "harmless crackpot" (48). That should never be
allowed to happen, but it does happen over and over again in our supposedly class-less society.
Bob and his board need to overcome several problems in order to resolve this problem in
a positive, ethical manner(Fowler, 2009):
1) Clyde's people are using emotionally charged language such as "devil [,]...
Satanism, ... and witchcraft" (Fowler, 2009, 48) to build popular support for their
position;
2) The press is using Clyde's charged language to report the story in a
sensationalized way, which also builds support for Clyde's position;
3) Clyde is asserting that the school district is teaching a particular religion, in
violation of the Establishment Clause, which is likely to stir a sense of patriotism in the
local population, thus adding to Clyde's position; and
4) There are also additional, related problems, most of which will be solved by a
successful resolution of these three problems.
Bob and the school board need to defuse the language which Clyde and his group are
using. They need to remain calm and to present a strong, united front to the community as they
explain that "Satanism, magic, and witchcraft" (Fowler, 2009, 48) are not accurate words to
describe what is in the language arts books. Unfortunately, this is not the time for a discussion of
comparative religion, and it would probably be pointless for Bob to point out that Satanism and
witchcraft are ideologically and religiously mutually exclusive, as the mob mentality has already
taken effect and few people will care about the distinction, if they are even able to understand it at
this stage of the problem. Still, it is necessary for Bob and the school board to educate the local
population about what is really contained in the books.
In order to alter the power relationships in this situation, Bob and the board first need to
establish that they are not the "[c]owards" (Fowler, 2009, 49) that they have been accused of
being. The board needs to work from a position of strength, asserting the legitimacy of its
authority (Fowler, 2009, 29) by demonstrating "competent authority" (Fowler, 2009, 30) and to
show the community that it is confident of a positive, peaceful solution. The board needs to draft
a letter to the REA, reassuring the teachers that the school district is not practicing censorship even
if it decides to stop using the current textbooks in favor of newer, less emotionally charged
textbooks. It should be stressed that any changes that may be made will be in the best interests of
the students. A similar letter should be sent to each of the school principals.
Mr. Brook and Mr. Trotwood need to be reassured that the board is looking into the
complaint about the textbooks, and that it will address the situation in a rational manner. It is
important that both men know that the board has not lost control of the situation. Charged words
like "kooks" (Fowler, 2009, 49) should be avoided by Bob and by the board.
Pastor Powers and Pastor Bachfeld need to be reassured that the schools are not teaching
Satanism, nor are they endorsing any religion. It should be made clear that the separation of
church and state is being preserved in the schools. Both pastors should be assured that the board is
taking Clyde's complaint seriously, and that it will investigate and deal with the complaint in a
prompt, rational, and respectful manner.
Undergraduate Series 51
Ms. Brouilette should get a statement from Bob that echoes the messages of reassurance
to each of the groups above. Under no circumstances should Bob or the school board tackle the
subject of Satanism with the press.
Once all of the telephone messages -- including the inevitable flurry of similar messages
in the following week -- have been addressed in a calm, rational, confident manner, the board must
follow through by conducting an investigation of the material that was identified in the complaint.
This might be a very good time for the school board to examine potential new curricula, and to
select a new language arts series that could be introduced in the schools in the next one to two
years.
In a case like this, it is more important to preserve the public's confidence in the school's
ability to address the problem and to provide sound educational leadership in the community than
it is to defend the existing curriculum. Curricula change frequently, for many reasons, and such a
change could be presented to the community as a routine move. Yielding to public opinion while
maintaining the outward appearance of calmly conducting business as usual preserves the integrity
of the school board.
In the future, Bob should be more careful when he assesses the power (Fowler, 2009, 42)
of an individual or group, to avoid being caught unaware by his personal biases.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
The NEA Opposes School Vouchers 11/20/2009
The National Education Association (NEA), which is recognized as “the voice of
education professionals” ("NEA's Vision, Mission,…," n.d., para. 1), advocates against the
adoption of school vouchers because the voucher system is effective only for higher income
students and because it uses money to provide those students with school choice at the expense of
the many children from lower income households whose public schools receive reduced funding
due to vouchers (“NEA on Vouchers: Opposed,” n.d.).
With the declining quality of public schools in many regions of the United States,
parents, educators, and administrators are seeking options to “prepare every student to succeed in a
diverse and interdependent world” ("NEA's Vision, Mission,…," n.d., para. 3). School vouchers
“redirect the flow of education funding, channeling it directly to individual families rather than to
school districts” (Coulson, 1998, para. 1) in an effort to provide greater school choice to the
families that receive them. While the need to improve education in the United States is widely
acknowledged, “[t]he school choice movement is divided over tactics and faces enormous
establishment resistance” (“Teachnology,” n.d., para. 3), including the opposition of the NEA.
By opposing school vouchers, the NEA maintains the balance of theory, practice, and
power in its position. The NEA’s position maintains the balance of theory and practice by
supporting equality in education and by rejecting a policy that would reinforce the stratification of
American society by enhancing the privileges of the elite and undermining the education of the
disadvantaged. The NEA maintains the balance of power in its position because it wields its
“competent authority” (Fowler, 2009, 30) to “advance the goals of a group … [not] to enhance
[the] group’s power” (Fowler, 2009, 46), to benefit the majority of students in the United States.
52 A Journey Through My College Papers
The NEA supports the equal education of all students by opposing the school voucher
issue and instead supporting “improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement
and making schools safer, better places to learn” ("NEA's Vision, Mission,…," n.d., para. 11).
References
Coulson, A. (1998). School vouchers. Retrieved November 20, 2009, from
http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/vouchers.htm
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Nea's vision, mission, and values. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2009, from the National
Education Association Web site: http://www.nea.org/home/19583.htm
Teachnology. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2009, from http://www.teach-
nology.com/edleadership/school_vouchers/pro/
Charges Dropped Against Teacher Accused of Forcing Student to Eat From
Garbage November 21, 2009
My initial reaction as a parent would be shock and disgust that a child was made to eat
food from a garbage can. There may have been nothing wrong with the food, but there is no way
of knowing what the food came in contact with after it was thrown away. No doubt there was food
waste from other students which could have carried any number of germs and bacteria. Also, the
inside of a garbage can is just not usually a clean place. If this had been done to my child, I know I
would have been all over the school and the school board about it.
My initial reaction from the viewpoint of the student would be humiliation at being made
to eat garbage, even if it was only in the garbage can for a matter of seconds or minutes. By the
time a child is in kindergarten, he or she usually knows that people do NOT eat out of the garbage,
and that it is yucky, nasty, etc.. The child might have had good reason to not eat his food. For
starters, a kindergartener's stomach is very small, and he might simply have been full, especially
if, as happens in many kindergartens, he ate a snack at mid-morning. The child might not have
been feeling well that day. He might have reached a growth plateau and didn't need as much food
that day. Typically, kindergarten students aren't allowed to choose or refuse food in the lunch line,
but are given a tray exactly like the trays the other children get. There is going to be waste in such
a system.
Oops. You didn't ask for the student. My statements remain, however, as I think the
child's perspective is important.
As the teacher, I can understand being frustrated with seeing food wasted day after day.
The teacher was aged 67, meaning she was part of a generation where children were required to
clear their plates, no matter what. She wanted the child to eat his food and to learn not to waste,
but I believe she went too far. I doubt she thought so, however.
As the principal, I would have to look at all sides of the situation, including its impact on
the child. I would assure the parent that I would talk to the teacher about the matter, and that the
situation would not be repeated. I would try to calm the parent to avoid legal action, which either
didn't happen or didn't work in the actual case. I would talk to the teacher, but knowing the teacher
was about to retire, I doubt any disciplinary action would have been particularly effective.
In response to the final disposition of the matter:
As the teacher, I would be relieved that the charges were dropped. I would probably feel
vindicated.
Undergraduate Series 53
As the teacher, I would be relieved, as well, because charges against a teacher reflect
badly on the school. I would also be relieved that the teacher in question had retired.
As the parent, I would be irate that the charges were dropped and that the teacher was not
punished for her treatment of my child.
Defining Education Ideology November 24, 2009
Based on the results of Activity 1 on page 128 of the text (Fowler, 2009), I have no clear
image of exactly which one ideology I most agree with, but i have a good idea of which ideologies
I do not agree with and which three ideologies I believe I agree with.
I ranked the eight values listed in the activity thus:
Liberty
Quality
Fraternity
Order
Individualism
Equality
Efficiency
Economic growth.
The activity directed me to group my first four qualities, and to use those to determine
which ideology I lean toward. Interestingly, the only one of the eight ideologies which favors two
of my top four values is Right-Wing Extremism, of which Fowler (2009) says: “they are likely to
blame social problems on racial, religious, or ethnic minority groups, often believing that these
groups are conspiring to destroy the way of life they hold dear” (127). I hesitate to align myself
with an ideology that includes “Timothy McVeigh… [,] the Ku Klux Klan… [,] the Aryan Nation,
the Posse Comitatus, and various militias” (Fowler, 2009, 127), but I cannot deny that I do support
some of the positions described in the text, such as: “severely controlling immigration… and
reducing the power of the government” (Fowler, 2009, 127). My recent concerns about and
dislike for public schools is also in alignment with Right-Wing Extremism.
In analyzing the results of the activity, I decided to reject Right-Wing Extremism because
of its strong and well-known association with violent action, and because, although I have serious
issues with the government at this point, I do not hate the government. Instead, I identified
Religious Conservatism, New Politics Liberalism, and Christian Democracy as the major
components of my personal ideology.
Religious Conservatism “most emphasize[s] … order” (Fowler, 2009, 124), which is the
fourth value in my list. Fowler (2009) states that “Christians must work through the political
system to restore traditional values” (124). I feel strongly that traditional family values are
important, and that a return to traditional values would be beneficial to our nation, but I stop short
of believing that the government should legislate values. I also support “parents’ right to raise
their children without interference … and oppose most sex- and drug-education programs”
(Fowler, 2009, 124), which are identified as features of Religious Conservatism.
New Politics Liberalism “tend[s] to believe that many, perhaps most, of the problems in
U.S. society result from a history of discrimination and oppression based on factors beyond
individual control” (Fowler, 2009, 125). Where Religious Conservatism emphasizes order, New
Politics Liberalism emphasizes equality and Fraternity (Fowler, 2009, 124-125). Fraternity is
among the top four values on my list, but I do not subscribe to the victim attitude inherent in this
ideology. “In education policy, new politics liberals advocate equal access to quality education for
54 A Journey Through My College Papers
all children” (Fowler, 2009, 125), which I strongly agree with. However, while I do support equal
educational opportunity, I do not support the sort of educational equality in which all children are
expected to obtain equal results in education. Instead, I support ability grouping in education in an
effort to provide every student an equal opportunity to reach his or her highest potential.
Christian Democracy, which emphasizes fraternity and equality, just like New Politics
Liberalism,
object[s] to business conservatism on the grounds that it is based on a cynical
view of human nature … believe[s] that democratic leaders should seek to build
a humane and just society in which everyone’s basic needs are met, yet people
are free to develop their full potential without undue interference from either
government or employees … [and] advocate[s] full political democracy, a mixed
economy, a moderate welfare state, and participative governance structures in
both the private and public sectors. (Fowler, 2009, 128)
This is the one ideology with which I most identify, although it is not quite a full
representation of my own education ideology.
My personal education ideology is a mixture of the traditional values of Religious
Conservatism, the equal educational opportunity of New Politics Liberalism, and the “humane and
just society [and] moderate welfare state” (Fowler, 2009, 128) of Christian Democracy. It appears
that this makes me generally liberalist and strongly religious with an emphasis on Christianity. I
agree with this assessment, although there is certainly a conservative sub-stratum to my personal
ideology.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Freedom and Equality November 28, 2009
The values for freedom and for equality are important factors in education policy, and are
both 'fundamental principle[s] of democracy" (Fowler, 2009, 110).
Freedom in education includes "the constitutional right to speak out, to form
organizations, and to assemble peacefully ... [and advocates] the adoption of school choice
policies, arguing that such policies are an inherent aspect of parents' freedom to raise their children
and also of freedom of religion" (Viteritti, 1999, cited in Fowler, 2009. 110). Equality in
education "provid[es] every child with access to a public elementary school ... [and] secondary
education ... [and] policies were adopted to improve the access of minority children, girls, and the
handicapped to various portions of the school system" (Fowler, 2009, 112).
As in every aspect of life, educational freedoms are limited by the need for educational
equality. Educational freedom ensures teachers' and students' Constitutional freedoms of speech,
press, association, and assembly, while educational equality assures that those freedoms do not
interfere with the rights of marginalized groups such as racial minorities, girls and women, low-
income and working-class families, people with disabilities, English as a Second Language (ESL)
students and teachers, and members of religious minority groups.
Freedom of thought provides "access to knowledge, encouragement of open debate, and
presentation of a range of ideas" (Fowler, 2009, 111, Fig. 5.3) to students and faculty, and equality
in education provides "equality of opportunity ... [and] economic equality ... [to] racial minorities
... girls and women ... people ... with disabilities ... people whose native language is not English ...
Undergraduate Series 55
[and] members of religious minority groups" (Fowler, 2009, 113, Fig. 5.4). If a value for freedom
is balanced with a value for equality, then education can serve students, parents, and teachers and
help them all reach their greatest potential. If a value for freedom is significantly greater than a
value for equality, then students, parents, and teachers have the freedom to achieve greatly, but
those who are disadvantaged have no protections to ensure that they reach their full potential. If a
value for equality is significantly greater than a value for freedom, then each student, parent, and
teacher is given the same opportunity to achieve, but their intrinsic human rights and
Constitutional rights are not protected and one person's rights may be violated so that another
person may reach his or her potential.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act
11/28/2009
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act combines the values of equality of
opportunity, efficiency, and quality. As such, it appears to fit the new politics liberalism ideology,
the social democracy ideology, or a combination of the two. In a summary of the act by the U.S.
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) (n.d.), published at
http://help.senate.gov/HR2669_summary.pdf, it states that the act “will increase access to higher
education and ensure our scarce federal dollars are going where they are most needed – to
students” (HELP, n.d., para. 1). This mission statement clearly illustrates the three values that
have been identified.
In Policy Studies for Educational Leaders, Fowler (2009) states that “[e]qual opportunity
exists when everyone has a similar chance to get a good education or find a decent job, regardless
of race, sex, sexual orientation, handicapping condition, age, or national origin” (111-112). The
College Cost Reduction and Access Act fulfills that definition by “[i]ncreasing access for low-
income students… protecting working students… increase[ing] access to and preparation for
college… [and] [p]rotecting students” (HELP, n.d., paras. 2-3, 7). By improving and ensuring
educational access to disadvantaged students, the act provides more students with the opportunity
to get the best education possible. According to HELP’s summary, then, if the College Cost
Reduction and Access Act works as it designed to work, more students from marginalized groups
will be able to obtain quality educations in the future than have been able to do so in the past. No
student will be discriminated against based on his or her skin color, gender, or almost any other
factor outside of academic performance and school or criminal behavior, so that the education
system will benefit from increased diversification of students, teachers, and administrators.
Also in Policy Studies, Fowler (2009) identifies efficiency as “obtaining the best possible
return on an expenditure or investment” (114). HELP’s act accomplishes this by [e]asing the
burden on borrowers by cutting student loan interest rates in half… directing unnecessary lender
subsidies to student aid… [and] [h]olding colleges accountable for rising costs” (HELP, n.d.,
paras. 2-7). By reducing student loan interest rates and redirecting funds into student aid, the
College Cost Reduction and Access Act increases the number of students who are able to obtain a
quality education by making it easier for students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to
afford an education. By reducing or removing economic barriers to education, the act will ensure
that students of disadvantaged groups may have a realistic opportunity to break out of the mold
and move into a world of greater social, economic, and professional advantage.
56 A Journey Through My College Papers
Fowler (2009) states that “quality of education usually takes the form of seeking higher,
more intellectually demanding standards in school” (117). The College Cost Reduction and
Access Act fosters a value of quality in education by “creat[ing] incentives for good teachers to
teach in high-need schools by establishing new TEACH Grants… [and] serving many of our
nation’s minority students who would not otherwise obtain a degree” (HELP, n.d., paras. 4-6). By
placing better teachers in the schools that need them, the act provides schools with the opportunity
to provide a higher quality education to their students. Historically, the highest quality educational
experiences have only been available to students in middle- to upper-class communities, where
students, parents, and teachers feel safe and have access to more resources. The best teachers have
traditionally gone to safe, pleasant communities, leaving schools in more dangerous, usually
poorer communities to make do with less skilled, less enthusiastic, more stressed teachers to face
the additional social challenges inherent in those communities. The College Cost Reduction and
Access Act would level the playing field by enticing good teachers to work in communities that
need to improve.
According to Fowler (2009), “[t]he major values of new politics liberals are equality and
fraternity, understood as solidarity within an oppressed group” (125). /based on the College Cost
Reduction and Access Act’s value of equality of opportunity, then, the act might fit within the new
politics liberalism ideology. In HELP’s summary of the act (n.d.), solidarity among students from
minority and other marginalized groups appears to be served in several ways, including
“increase[ing] access to and preparation for college by both restoring funding for Upward Bound,
a key college access program, and creating College Access Challenge Grants to increase college
outreach activities in every state” (HELP, n.d., para. 3). In addition, “[t]he College Cost Reduction
and Access Act would invest an additional $500 million in [minority serving] institutions” (HELP,
n.d., para. 6), which would improve equality of educational opportunity for minority students.
Like new politics liberalism, “[e]quality and fraternity… are the key values for social
democrats” (Fowler, 2009, 128), so the College Cost Reduction and Access Act fits into the social
democracy ideology in just the same way that it appears to fit into the new politics liberalism
ideology. In addition, “social democrats… advocate economic growth” (Fowler, 2009, 128),
which meshes well with the act’s commitment to financial improvements, including “increasing
the maximum Pell Grant by $500 next year and to $5,400 by 2012, and… increasing the income
level at which a student is automatically eligible for the maximum Pell” (HELP, n.d., para. 2), and
also by “ensur[ing] the system works for students and sav[ing] taxpayer dollars” (HELP, n.d.,
para. 5). With these economic considerations, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act may
then fit better into social democracy than it fits into new politics liberalism.
It is possible that, like most other aspects of life, the College Cost Reduction and Access
Act does not actually fit just one ideology, but that it fits a blending of two compatible ideologies.
With its three identified social values of equality, efficiency, and quality, the generally liberal
College Cost Reduction and Access Act embraces a combined ideology of new politics liberalism
and social democracy.
References
College cost reduction and access act, the: a new commitment to students and families (n.d.).
Retrieved November 27, 2009, from the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Web site: http://help.senate.gov/HR2669_summary.pdf
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy studies for educational leaders: an introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Undergraduate Series 57
Stop the Bullies December 2, 2009
In the case study "Stop the Bullies" (Fowler, 2009, 164-165), I identified nine separate
policy stakeholders that fit descriptions in our text. I initially identified parents and teachers as
stakeholders, since they do have a stake in the policies that are enacted, but I did not find
appropriate labels for non-organized parents and teachers, as such, in the text, so I did not include
them in my final list.
I identified one stakeholder from the legislative branch, about which Fowler (2009) says:
"[f]ifty-one legislatures exist in the United States: the U.S. Congress and the fifty state legislatures
... A major function of every legislature is, of course, the development and passage of statutes ...
[and] legislatures often hold hearings where experts provide testimony on public issues" (142). In
the case study, I indentified the Ohio General assembly as being a policy stakeholder from the
legislative branch because the Ohio General Assembly is Ohio's legislative body. Fowler (2009)
states that "the legislature as a whole [is] quite influential in relation to education policy" (145-
146).
In the case study, I identified two stakeholders from the executive branch. Fowler (2009)
tells us that "[a]lthough Marshall et al. (1989) found that governors have considerably less
influence on education policy than the legislature, their influence is nonetheless substantial" (146).
I identified Governor Taft as one policy stakeholder from the executive branch. "Governor Taft
appointed a Commission for Student Success to study the issue and make recommendations"
(Fowler, 2009, 164). In doing so, he interacted strongly with the policy process in this case. I also
identified the State Board of Education as a policy stakeholder from the executive branch. Fowler
(2009) states that "State Boards of Education (SBEs) ... have an important administrative role and
... SBEs are second only to legislatures in exercising direct authority over education policy at the
state level" (147).
Under the local government heading, I identified "[a]dministrators and their
organizations" (Fowler, 2009, 164). "[M]ore superintendents are becoming active in the state-
level policy-making process and seeking to give state officials advice about policy development
and evaluation" (Fowler, 2009, 151). The case study identifies two specific superintendents who
complained about the situation that was created by the excessive testing and reporting
requirements, and also states that "[a]dministrators and their organizations began to criticize both
the tests and the district report cards publicly" (Fowler, 2009, 164).
I identified three interest groups in the case study: the grassroots group "Stop Ohio
Proficiency Tests," the Commission for Student Success, and the Ohio School Board Association.
Thomas and Hrebenar (2004) identified an interest group as "an association of individuals or
organizations ... that, on the basis of one or more shared concerns, attempts to influence public
policy in its favor" (Thomas and Hrebenar, 2004, cited in Fowler, 2009, 152). Of these, the
Commission for Student Success and the Ohio School Board Association are education interest
groups, and "Stop Ohio Proficiency Tests" is a type of noneducation interest group called a single-
issue ideological group. Fowler (2009) tells us that "in recent years, single-issue ideological
groups ... have grown in influence in many states" (154). In the case study, we see that members
of "Stop Ohio Proficiency Tests" "wrote numerous letters to newspaper editors, appeared on
television, gave testimony before the State Board of Education, and held noisy demonstrations on
the lawn of the state capitol" (Fowler, 2009, 164). By doing these things, and thus engaging other
policy stakeholders in their concerns, the members of "Stop Ohio Proficiency Tests" exercised a
great deal of influence on the policy process.
58 A Journey Through My College Papers
Under policy planning organizations, which Weiss (1992) says "gather empirical data
about public policy issues and then communicate those findings to governments" (Weiss, 1992,
cited in Fowler, 2009, 155), I identified the Commission for Student Success, which was set up by
Governor Taft. "[Policy-planning organizations] are arguably the most important actors in the
policy process" (Fowler, 2009, 155), so the Commission was certainly an important stakeholder in
the case study.
Finally, I identified the media as a policy stakeholder in the case study. "The mass media
... not only report on policy issues and some stages of the policy process, but are also important
actors in it ... Often, such media attention leads the general public and political figures to become
so concerned about a problem that they insist it be addressed" (Fowler, 2009, 156). When the
members of "Stop Ohio Proficiency Tests" "wrote numerous letters to newspaper editors, [and]
appeared on television" (Fowler, 2009, 164), they utilized the media to have a strong impact on the
policy process.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Interconnected Policy Agendas December 3, 2009
Figure 7.8 (Fowler, 2009, p. 182) shows how policy agendas relate to one another. At the
center of the figure is the stage at which problems are defined. No matter what the policy issue
may be, it must begin as a problem that needs to be defined. Problems may be defined by any
number of stakeholders, including special interest groups and think tanks, but they are usually
defined by research groups. "In the United States, almost all education policy issues are defined
within a loosely linked set of institutions that some call the education policy planning and research
community (EPPRC)" (Fowler, 2009, p. 170).
Once problems are defined, some move to the professional agenda, which "consists of
those issues under discussion within various interest groups, education policy networks, and
education associations as well as among informed professional educators" (Fowler, 2009, pp. 180-
181). Although Figure 7.8 (Fowler, 2009, p. 182) shows professional agendas as a smaller circle
than the other agendas, the reality is that "far more education policy issues are on the professional
agenda than the other agendas can accommodate" (Fowler, 2009, p. 182).
Issues on the professional agenda may move directly to the governmental agenda, but
some make a concurrent or an interim move to the media agenda or the public agenda, which can
include social interest groups or nongovernmental organizations. Because of the nature of the
mass media, policy issues that make it to the media agenda are disseminated to the public through
television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and over the internet. As the arrows in the figure
indicate, when the public becomes aware of policy issues on the media agenda, the issues can
become part of a public agenda, which can put pressure on government agencies to move issues to
the governmental agenda. Also, when an issue moves from the professional agenda to the public
agenda, it is not unusual for special interest groups and private individuals to bring the issue to the
media, which also puts pressure on the government to move issues to the governmental agenda.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Undergraduate Series 59
Implementation Barriers to NCLB December 9, 2009
The major challenge for implementation of NCLB at the federal and state level is "how
federal funds are distributed and used" (U.S. Department of Education, Title I School Choice and
Supplemental Education Services: Final Report, n.d., para. 1). As Fowler (2009) notes in the text,
"[a]nother common mistake is adopting a policy that does not match the resource level of a school
or district" (p. 287). A large number of schools that have difficulty meeting the adequate yearly
progress (AYP) requirements are in economically disadvantaged districts in urban areas, but
"federal funds were more targeted to high-poverty districts than state and local funds but did not
close the funding gap between high- and low-poverty districts" (U.S. Department of Education,
Accountability Under NCLB: Interim Report, n.d., para. 3). The schools in the high-poverty
districts remain disadvantaged despite receiving federal funds, so their students are less able to
achieve AYP.
Additional challenges are often related to the economic status of a school district. As
Kerstin Carlson LeFloch et al. (2007) reported in an article for the U.S. Department of Education,
"[h]igh-poverty, high-minority, and urban schools were less likely to make AYP, and many of the
schools that were identified for improvement reported needing technical assistance, especially to
serve students with special needs, such as those with disabilities or limited English proficiency"
(cited in U.S. Department of Education, Accountability Under NCLB: Interim Report, n.d., para.
1). As noted in the news article by J. Anderson (2005), "[i]f one group of students -- white, black,
Hispanic, special education, Limited English Proficiency or low-income -- fails to meet all its
goals, the school or district is put on a 'school improvement list'" (cited in Fowler, 2009, p. 307).
Without adequate resources, many students in these categories cannot reach AYP.
Another barrier to the implementation of NCLB is the appropriateness of the policy itself.
Fowler (2009) states that policy makers should consider whether "this policy [is] appropriate for
our school or district" (p. 286). While it is generally accepted that it is appropriate for every
school and district to have high expectations for its students, and for every child to receive support
and encouragement to reach his or her fullest potential, it is not appropriate for any school or
district to expect every student to achieve the same level of academic performance across all
socio-economic groups. Implementing NCLB as it currently exists ignores individuality,
uniqueness, talents, and needs in America's students. It punishes schools and districts that work
with disadvantaged students, and ultimately punishes the students when schools are closed due to
a perennial inability to meet AYP, forcing students to be moved to other schools, which are often
already overcrowded and overtaxed by their existing student populations. As Superintendent
Williams stated in the article in our text, "[t]o assume that we can assure that every child will be
proficient in a system that serves children of a broad spectrum of ability would be similar to
saying that we can make every child a proficient athlete, artist,, musician or actor" (Fowler, 2009,
p. 307).
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Development, Policy and
Program Studies Service. (n.d.). State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left
Behind Act: Volume III — Accountability Under NCLB: Interim Report.
Retrieved December 8, 2009, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/RP1303/
60 A Journey Through My College Papers
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Development, Policy and
Program Studies Service. (n.d.). State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left
Behind Act: Volume VII — Title I School Choice and Supplemental Education Services:
Final Report. Retrieved December 8, 2009, from
http://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/RP1383/
Michigan Legislative Process December 10, 2009
A summary of the Michigan legislative process is available online on a page titled How
does a Bill become a Law? at http://www.michigan.gov/som/0,1607,7-192-29701_29704-2836--
,00.html .
In Michigan, a bill is introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, or
jointly by both. "At the beginning of each biennial session, House bills are numbered
consecutively starting with House Bill No. 4001 and Senate bills are numbered starting with
Senate Bill No. 1. In both houses, joint resolutions are assigned a letter" (State of Michigan, 2004,
para. 2).
A bill must be introduced twice in the Senate and once in the House, for a total of three
times, with at least the title read each time. This corresponds with the top level of the California
legislative process shown in Figure 8.2 (Fowler, 2009, p. 201). The bill is then printed and must
be "in the possession of each house for at least five days" (State of Michigan, 2004, para. 3).
A bill is then referred to a standing committee, where it is discussed and debated. There
are eight actions a committee may take on a bill:
a. Report the bill with favorable recommendation.
b. Report the bill with amendments with favorable recommendation.
c. Report a substitute bill in place of the original bill.
d. Report the bill without recommendation.
e. Report the bill with amendments but without recommendation.
f. Report the bill with the recommendation that the bill be referred to another
committee.
g. Take no action on a bill.
h. Vote to not report a bill out of committee. (State of Michigan, 2004, para. 6).
“In both houses, a majority vote of the members serving on a committee is necessary to
report a bill” (State of Michigan, 2004, para. 8). In some cases, a bill is not reported, which then
requires further action.
Once a bill is favorably reported, the bill is moved to General Orders or to a Second
Reading, depending on in which house it originated. A House bill that advances then receives a
Third Reading. At this point, a bill
is either passed or defeated by a roll call vote of the majority of the members
elected and serving … or one of the following four options is exercised to delay
final action on the bill: (a) the bill is returned to committee for further
consideration; (b) consideration of the bill is postponed indefinitely; (c)
consideration is postponed until a certain date; or (d) the bill is tabled. (State of
Michigan, 2004, para. 11)
The vote may still be reconsidered if a legislator questions it, with reconsideration in the
Senate within the next two days of the session and reconsideration in the House within the next
day of the session.
Undergraduate Series 61
In Michigan, a bill must be printed and be “in the possession of each house for at least
five days” (Constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 26, cited in State of Michigan, 2004, para. 13) before it can
become a law, and it cannot take effect until at least 90 days after the end of the session.
In order for a bill to be enacted into law by the Michigan legislature, once it passes in one
house it must be sent to the other house and go through the same process in the other house, just as
it is stated in the Schoolhouse Rock video I’m Just a Bill (McCall, 1975).
Once a bill passes through both houses in an identical form, the bill is enrolled in the
originating house, printed again, and sent to the Governor. If it is not in an identical form, any
amendments must be accepted in the house of origin before it can go on, or it has to go to a
committee to work out a compromise between the houses concerning the changes.
Once a bill finally reaches the Governor, the Governor must act on the bill in one of three
ways within 14 days. The Governor may sign the bill into law; the Governor may veto the bill,
which causes the bill to be returned to the house of origin; or the Governor may choose to neither
sign nor veto the bill. If the Legislature has not adjourned, bills that are neither signed nor vetoes
become law after the 14 days. If the Legislature has adjourned before the 14 days end, bills that
are neither signed nor vetoed do not become laws.
“The Legislature may override the veto by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to
and serving in each house. The bill then becomes law” (State of Michigan, 2004, para. 19). If the
Legislature does not vote to override a veto, the bill may fail, it may be tabled for future
consideration, or it may be returned to a committee to try again to pass it.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
McCall, D. (1975). I'm just a bill. [Video]. Retrieved December 9, 2009, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuI2oa5Stk
State of Michigan. (2004, March 29). How does a bill become a law? Retrieved December
9, 2009, from the State of Michigan Web site at
http://www.michigan.gov/som/0,1607,7-192-29701_29704-2836--,00.html
Theoretical Frameworks December 16, 2009
After reviewing Fowler's (2009) four theoretical frameworks to evaluate education policy
historically (pp. 334-336), I believe the current turbulence in education policy is caused by an
ongoing shift from basic, localized education to globalized education. The world has become
much smaller because of rapid advances in electronic and digital communications, and as world
markets become more homogeneous, so do "the school systems around the world ... becom[e]
more like each other" (Fowler, 2009, p. 336). This fits with the theoretical framework of
international convergence described by Fowler (2009, p. 336).
At the same time, there appears to be a shift from bureaucratic and professional structures
in America's education system to more of a market structure. This shift, described by Fowler
(2009) as institutional choice (p. 335) produces turbulence as American students transition from
having "clearly defined role[s]" (Fowler, 2009, p. 335) in an ordered hierarchy to being consumers
in a competitive atmosphere. Education in the United States has been largely bureaucratic for
much of its history, with parents, students, teachers, and administrators knowing how education
worked, what to expect, and how to interact with one another. Although a shift to an educational
market will ultimately bring about "efficient operations and high-quality products" (Fowler, 2009,
62 A Journey Through My College Papers
p. 336), meaning improved educations for students, the transitional period is, by necessity, more
turbulent than earlier times have been, as the parents, students, teachers, and administrators adjust
to a world where choice replaces routines and where schools and districts adjust their educational,
social, and other products to attract student-consumers and to provide more consumer satisfaction
to America's society. It is to be hoped that this transition will be able to progress smoothly so that
the resulting turbulence can be reduced, and eventually eliminated, as quickly as possible. It is
reasonable to expect that, once the turbulence of transition has passed, education in the United
States will be better than it has been in a very long time.
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Policy Evaluation December 17, 2009
It is essential for education leaders to understand policy evaluation because the results of
evaluations can affect what policies are and are not adopted in a district or state. By understanding
policy evaluation, education leaders can prepare for the results of evaluations and can avoid being
blindsided when a policy fails because it does not take important factors into account, as happened
in "The Middle school Proposal Goes Down in Flames" (Fowler, 2009, pp. 329-330), or when an
undesirable policy is passed.
It is necessary for education leaders to not only understand policy evaluation in general,
but also to understand the differences among the several types of evaluations. It is one thing to go
through a summative evaluation of a long-standing policy, to maintain funding or authorization; it
is another thing entirely to go through a politically controlled study to determine whether it is
politically expedient to continue a policy, or to go through a public relations evaluation, in which
the results "must be positive, [and] must add luster to the public image that has already been
created" (Fowler, 2009, p. 317). If an education leader is undergoing a public relations evaluation
but believes he or she is actually going through a summative evaluation, the leader might easily
cause the evaluation to go in a way other than the way the commissioner of the evaluation wants it
to go. An education leader who knows and understands the several types of evaluations will be
better able to facilitate the creation of the type of results that are needed for the particular policy
evaluation. In addition, if an education leader understands policy evaluation, he or she may guard
against "the standard approaches to derailing a successful study" (Fowler, 2009, p. 322). This
vigilance is necessary due to "the inherently political nature of policy evaluation" (Fowler, 2009,
p. 321).
In our case study, the panel that recommended the switch to a middle school organization
failed to address the needs of certain stakeholders, thus failing in the area of feasibility (Fowler,
2009, pp. 315-316), when it did not address the "leadership ... [of the] sixth-grade students"
(Fowler, 2009, p. 329) that the elementary school would lose, or the "potential over-crowding"
(Fowler, 2009, p. 329) of the high school if the proposed policy was adopted. If the education
leaders who made up the panel had been more familiar with policy evaluation, they might have
considered the concerns and addressed both the concerns and possible responses to the concerns in
their recommendations.
Undergraduate Series 63
References:
Fowler, F.C. (2009). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction (3rd ed). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
PSY 202: Adult Development and Life Assessment
Response to the RALI exercise September 28, 2009
I did the RALI exercise before reading the assigned chapters of Boyd and Bee's Adult
Development in order to see what preconceived ideas I might have about adult learners. I had
three errors on the RALI exercise:
14. Compared with youth, adults usually require a longer time to perform learning tasks.
16. Age in itself does little to affect an individual's power to learn.
31. A major change in distance acuity occurs between 50 and 60 years of age.
I believed that the first two of these were false and that the third was true.
Numbers 14 and 16 deal with mental abilities. I based my answers on my own
experiences with learning new skills at the same time my two sons, now ages 9 and 8, were
learning them. In almost every case, I have performed the learning tasks more quickly than my
sons have performed them, and my elder son has performed the learning tasks more quickly than
his younger brother has performed them. I believed that any perception that adults take longer to
learn things than younger people take was due to ageism (Boyd and Bee, 10). Similarly, I read
number 16 as meaning a negative effect, and I felt that a belief that increased age has a negative
effect on a person's power to learn would be a result of ageism.
After reading the text, I understand that age does appear to have a negative correlation to
memory functions. Figure 1.2 clearly illustrates this negative correlation if one allows for a slight
aberration in the 30s (Boyd and Bee, 13).
Number 31 deals with physiological factors. I believed that a major change in distance
acuity does occur between 50 and 60 years of age. According to the grading key at the end of the
RALI exercise, there is a sharp decline in vision from age 40 to 55, which is somewhat younger
than what I believed it would be.
The assigned text dealt with development in children. Although I did read about memory
abilities in older adults, and there was some mention of the different roles of older adults in
Western cultures as contrasted with other cultures, I did not see any discussion or research which
would suggest an age at which an adult's vision would be expected to decline.
I found the text interesting and engaging, although I covered most of it in my general
psychology class last fall. The RALI exercise was also interesting, and I was somewhat surprised
to find that the majority of my ideas about adult development were supported by the exercise.
Skinner's Operant Conditioning September 29, 2009
B. F. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning, which is discussed in the Boyd and Bee
text Adult Development, says that learning occurs in response to desirable and undesirable stimuli.
Skinner divided the stimuli in operant conditioning into two groups: reinforcements and
punishments. Reinforcements cause the learner to continue behaviors which produce pleasant or
desirable experiences. Punishments cause the learner to cease behaviors which produce
unpleasant or desirable experiences (Boyd and Bee, 30-31).
64 A Journey Through My College Papers
As a parent of two children in elementary school, I deal with reinforcements and
punishments every day. When my sons behave as I wish them to behave, such as by cleaning their
bedroom, eating sensible meals, and going to bed without a fuss, they are reinforced in these
behaviors by being allowed to play on the internet, by being allowed to eat dessert, and by having
me read to them, respectively. When my sons behave in ways they are not supposed to behave, on
the other hand, such as by fighting with others, by telling lies, and by not coming home when they
are expected to come home, they are punished by being sent to bed early, by being spanked, and
by being grounded from playing at their friends' houses, also respectively. Through consistent use
of these and other reinforcements and punishments, I have been able to begin conditioning my
sons so that they are much more likely to exhibit the desired behaviors than they are likely to
exhibit the undesired behaviors.
It is my personal experience that reinforcement is more effective in the long term than
punishment, but that it is sometimes necessary to employ punishments to stop undesirable
behaviors in order to keep people safe. It is necessary to consider what behaviors have been
reinforced and what behaviors have been punished during a person's life, especially during
childhood and adolescence, when dealing with an adult who exhibits unexpected or undesirable
behaviors. Often, such an adult was rewarded for aggressive or otherwise negative behavior as a
child, or that adult witnessed another person who was or appeared to be rewarded for such
behavior. It is very difficult to overcome childhood conditioning as an adult, but it is my
experience that reinforcing an adult's acceptable or desirable behaviors is more effective than
punishing the adult's undesirable behaviors in trying to override and replace the adult's
conditioning with conditioning that will help the adult function in society.
It is also necessary to keep in mind that, although we tend to think of reinforcements and
punishments as responses which come from people, every action or behavior also has natural
reinforcements and punishments, some of which may be at odds with those that come from people.
Eating a piece of milk chocolate is reinforced by the sweet, pleasant flavor of the candy, while
eating a raw chili pepper is punished by the harsh, burning flavor of the pepper. In society,
however, eating chocolate is often punished by negative comments about indulgence or about
eating excess calories, while eating peppers is rewarded by positive comments about their
nutritional value or about eating "grown up" foods. Of course, not all natural reinforcements and
punishments are in conflict with social reinforcements and punishments. Touching a thorn is
punished by the pain of a prick to stop a behavior which can cause harm, for example.
Holland's Hypothesis on Personalities October 5, 2009
John Holland hypothesized that an individual will fit into one of six predictable
personality types, and that he or she will usually choose a vocation that matches his or her
personality (Boyd and Bee, 105-106). Table 4.1 lists the six personality types as realistic,
investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional, and gives a brief description of each
type (Boyd and Bee, 106).
From my experience in dealing with friends, family, and coworkers over the last two
decades or so, I agree with Holland's hypothesis. I have seen that the people who are the most
successful and productive are those who work in fields which most closely match their
personalities. While anyone can do any job of which he or she is physically and mentally capable,
he or she will tend to do substantially better at a job for which he or she is also suited by
personality, or by temperament.
Undergraduate Series 65
I have taken numerous personality tests through the years, usually associated with
employment applications, with beginning volunteer activities, or with beginning educational
activities. Almost every test I have taken has had almost exactly the same result, placing me in
Holland's artistic personality type with a lesser tendency toward Holland's investigative
personality type. I have found that these results are accurate, and that I do my best work in
"unstructured, highly individual activity" (Boyd and Bee, 106), and that, to a lesser extent, I
"prefer ambiguous, challenging tasks, but [am] low in social skills" (Boyd and Bee, 106).
References
Boyd, D., and Bee, H. (2006). Adult Development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
The Endless Change Rule October 8, 2009
In LifeLaunch, Hudson and McLean (2006) report that the Endless Change Rule states:
"Conducting the journey is more important than the destinations, since all arrivals are temporary.
There are no steady-state resting places, only continuous change throughout all the years of our
life" (39-40). Simply put, life is about changes.
The strengths of this rule are:
that it discourages a person from becoming complacent in life, thus reducing the
likelihood that life will stagnate;
that it reflects observable conditions in the natural world, of which humans are still a part,
despite the trappings of civilization; and
that living by this rule prepares a person for the inevitable changes of life -- growing up,
getting married, having children, letting adult children go, retiring, and dying -- so that
those changes may be faced more calmly, and may be assimilated into the person's life.
The weaknesses of this rule are:
that accepting a life of changes may cause a person to seek change more often than is
natural for life, thus creating instability in the person's life;
that it fails to take into account the possibility that some things in life, such as basic,
moral values, may not change significantly once maturity is reached; and
that it provides the opportunity for a person to have an excuse for not making lasting
commitments in life.
The Endless Change Rule reflects Levinson's model of adult development, illustrated in Adult
Development, in which "[e]ach stable life structure is followed by a period of transition in which
that structure is re-examined" (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 89). Hudson and McLean (2006) state that
"competent persons need to know how to renew themselves, over and over" (40). This echoes
Levinson's theory, which says that "individuals respond psychologically to these tasks and
conflicts by creating new life structures" (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 89).
The Endless Change Rule is a stage rule, as each period of change represents a stage in a
person's life. I don't believe the rule represents any one level of moral reasoning, as change begins
with conception and occurs repeatedly throughout every age of life. In fact, each level of moral
reasoning could be seen as a change in a person's life.
Each of the major psychoanalytic theories fits into the Endless Change Rule. Freud's three
personality parts (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 24) -- id, ego, and superego -- each represent a change in a
person's personality and consciousness. Erikson's psychosocial stages (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 27)
represent eight specific periods of personality changes in a person's life. Each of the major
66 A Journey Through My College Papers
behaviorists, such as Pavlov, Skinner, and Bandura, describes how changes in behavior occur
through various forms of learning (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 29-32).
In the online article "Rules For Life: The 12 New Rules"
(http://www.lightconnection.org/libraryofinformation/articles/rulesforlife.htm) by Frederic
Hudson and Pam McLean (2000), authors of LifeLaunch, it states that "[g]lobal change is the
major force in your life, and in the lives of everyone on earth" (para. 2). The article further says
that "[y]our life is an adventure, a journey through time. There are no lasting arrival points and
few lasting endings" (para. 4). For me, this is a good description of the Endless Change Rule.
Family and Work Changes October 14, 2009
The most challenging family-related change in this period of my life is a positive
challenge, not a negative one. I am engaged to be married, and I am helping my children adjust to
living with my fiancé and accepting him as part of their parent group. I am very happy and
excited as I go through this change, but I am also apprehensive because I have a very bad track
record with relationships in general and with romantic relationships in particular, and I am afraid
this happy, harmonious, stable period will not last.
My most challenging work-related change is my enrollment in college, which i hope will
be a precursor to beginning meaningful employment. I have only worked for a handful of months
in the last dozen or more years, having been a stay-at-home wife and mother for most of that time.
I think I have been stuck in an area between Erikson's identity-versus-role confusion
stage and his intimacy-versus-isolation stage (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 27) for a good deal longer than
many adults, partly because of the effects of clinical depression and partly because of a pervading
social awkwardness that began in early childhood and was exacerbated by the combined shocks
of my parents' divorce and my best friend's suicide in my early teens. I think I need to move
through Erikson's stages into his generativity-versus-stagnation stage (Boyd and Bee, 2006, 141),
as "generativity is positively related to satisfaction in life and work and to emotional well-being"
(Ackerman, Zuroff, & Moskowitz, 2000, cited in Boyd and Bee, 2006, 141). I will need that
satisfaction and well-being to succeed in this change in my life.
Reaction to Writing a Paper October 14, 2009
Writing a paper feels very familiar and comfortable to me. I was in a face-to-face college
setting last year, where I took composition in the fall semester and composition and analysis in the
spring semester, generating about a dozen planned papers, several impromptu papers, and a 30-
page thesis paper between the two semesters. I greatly enjoy writing most of the time, and also
write for pleasure.
I have some concerns about adjusting to the APA formatting, as all of my educational
experiences to date have included MLA, but keeping Ashford Guide for Academic and Career
Success at hand so I can refer to the APA examples will help me adjust to the differences. My
other concern is the need to contain my writing in a maximum number of pages, but practicing
succinct writing and minimizing descriptive and explanatory elements in my writing will help me
overcome that concern.
Undergraduate Series 67
With Six Months to Live October 15, 2009
If I knew that I was going to die in six months, my primary concern would be my two
sons. I would spend every possible minute with them, building as many strong, happy memories
for them as possible. I would teach them things they have been asking me to teach them, such as
cooking and sewing, and I would take them to the zoo, to the science museum, and to pretty much
anywhere they wanted to go, as often as possible. I would spend lots of time reading books to
them and playing their favorite board and card games with them. Most importantly, I would tell
them, and Pat, how much I love them all as often as possible, and tell them how proud I am of
them, and how much I believe it them.
I would spend the time when the boys were in school securing their future. I would move
up our wedding so that Pat would have a stronger legal claim to raise the boys. I would push to
settle the custody issues with my ex-husband so that Lewis would not get custody of the boys once
I was gone. I would write my will, giving Pat and my mother joint custody of my sons, and I
would verify with CitiCorp that my sons would eventually receive my share of the family trust
when my father died.
I would spend any unaccounted-for time printing and binding two copies of the book of
memories that I wrote over the last ten years, and that is waiting on my computer, so that my sons
would each get a copy. I would gather all of my remaining artwork and photos and give them,
along with my grandmother's pearls and our mementos box, to Pat, so that he would already have
control of those things and could preserve them for the boys without having to worry about
possible difficulties in probate.
I would prepare a third copy of my memories book, with special annotations, and give all
three copies to Pat so he could give the first two copies to my sons and the annotated copy to my
mother. That would accomplish not only sharing my memories, but also clearing my conscience
by providing my mother with complete explanations of certain facets of my life that I have kept
from her up to now, and by providing my children less explicit accounts of those same events. I
would also take the precaution of leaving Pat a letter so that he would know to give the annotated
copy of the book to my sister, Patty, if my mother was not alive or was not mentally capable of
receiving the book, and to save it until my sons were adults and give it to them if neither my mom
nor my sister could receive it.
I would write love letters and apology letters to several dozen people from my past for a
range of unfinished issues, and leave the letters with Pat, to be delivered after I was gone.
I would not try to gather a lot of material goods, to travel to exotic locations, or to binge
on food, alcohol, or drugs, as I have heard others say they would do in such a circumstance. None
of these things is truly important to me. I would continue taking my medications so as not to
reduce my time any more than it was already reduced.
I feel secure in my relationship with God, and with the condition of my soul. With the
letters I mentioned, my conscience would be clear on any remaining concerns, and I would be
prepared to move on.
The Life Maps October 27, 2009
In creating the five maps, I considered aspects of adult life that I had not considered or
that I had taken for granted before this point. I have known for some time that life is a series of
changes or cycles, but working on Map 1 showed me a clear pattern for these changes, and
68 A Journey Through My College Papers
presented me with a phase called cocooning which I had not previously recognized in the changes
which make up my life (Hudson and McLean, 2006).
Map 2 challenged me to identify the passions that are important at this stage of my life,
and to consider which passions I may expect to embrace as I move through middle age into my
elder years. In this process, I realized that my development has been retarded in some ways, and
that I am experiencing in my middle years some passions that I think most adults experience much
earlier in life.
Map 3 made me look at the five major adult roles, and how I distribute my time and
energy among those roles. I realized that I spend far more time and energy between family and
work/school roles than I spend on personal or couple roles, and also that this discrepancy has been
reducing over the past year. Map 3 also made me consider how my commitments to the various
roles in my life are likely to change in the future.
Examining the adult life cycle in Map 4 reinforced for me the fact that "[t]rue maturity is
based upon... experience, not... your chronological age" (Hudson and McLean, 2006, 88-89). It
made me look back at the cycle of changes from map 1, and to consider that the stages of adult life
that are illustrated in Hudson and McLean (2006, 89) are a series of transitions. It also made me
consider anew the reality that "dying is the final stage of living" (Hudson and McLean, 2006,
104), rather than something apart from life.
Map 5 was particularly pertinent to my current life, since I returned to formal schooling
in my middle years, when "[a]dult learning is most frequently related to experiential concerns, not
to formal instruction" (Hudson and McLean, 2006, 109). I have always believed that learning is a
lifelong activity, and it was no surprise to me to read about experiential learning, nor was it a
surprise to read about the need to unlearn previous knowledge in order to learn new information.
Creating the five life maps did not help me in writing my paper, as I had already written
my paper before I created them. I did, however, go back to my rough draft before I submitted it
and added some thoughts from map 1 to my paper, which focused on life as a series of changes.
Institutional Outcomes October 27, 2009
The Ashford Institutional Outcomes set out the most basic, minimum expectations that
the faculty and staff of Ashford University have for each and every student who graduates from
Ashford. As a future teacher, each of the outcomes applies directly to my chosen program of
study. As a teacher, I will be required to read, think, and communicate effectively. In our rapidly
changing world, it will be necessary to communicate through technology, some of which we may
only imagine at this point. In order to deal with students, I will certainly need to possess a strong
sense of self-worth, and to respect diversity and to recognize the interdependence of all life. The
rest of the institutional outcomes should be equally applicable to students in all programs of study,
particularly the ability to demonstrate competence in the student's field of study, as that is the
purpose of obtaining an education.
It is important for an institution to identify institutional outcomes and learning outcomes
to establish a benchmark for evaluating the success of the institution's programs. Ashford's
institutional outcomes are worded fairly loosely, so that application of the outcomes can be
subjective, and so that most students can reasonably achieve the outcomes.
Search the Web to determine how the first three presidents (or any groups of presidents)
affected the powers of the presidency. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.
Undergraduate Series 69
Spring Semester, 2010
HIS 324: History of American Education
Forces in Education 1/5/2010
The medieval tradition in education was based largely on religion, in the form of the
Catholic Church, and was not available to most people in the early part of the period. As Robert
Guisepi (n.d.) reports in his History of Education, "[i]n the early Middle Ages the elaborate
Roman school system had disappeared. Mankind in 5th-century Europe might well have reverted
almost to the level of primitive education had it not been for the medieval church, which preserved
what little Western learning had survived the collapse of the Roman Empire" (para. 22). This
religious orientation in education impacted early American education, which relied heavily on the
Bible and religious teaching, as illustrated by Pulliam and VanPatten (2007) in our text: "[a]t the
dawn of the eighteenth century ... [l]earning ... is considered a serious matter and a duty for every
child. Today the opening exercise is a lecture on the behavior God expects from good children
and the consequences of failure to meet those expectations" (p. 7).
The greatest impact of the European Renaissance on education was the invention in 1440
by Johannes Gutenberg of the printing press. As reported in our text by Pulliam and VanPatten
(2007), "the most salient invention [of the past 1,000 years] in terms of its impact on human life
and culture originated as educational technology" (p. 2). The Renaissance is known as the "rebirth
of learning" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 21). It spanned about three centuries, and turned the
emphasis of education away from religion and toward human concerns, "art, literature, and the
government" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 21). According to Steven Kreis (2000),
"Renaissance culture adapted itself to conditions unknown in Italy, such as the growth of the
monarchical state and the strength of lay piety ... Intensely Christian and at the same time
anticlerical (shades of what was to come!), the people ... found in Renaissance culture the tools for
sharpening their wits against the clergy -- not to undermine faith, but restore its ancient apostolic
purity" (para. 1). This rise in secular education was enabled by the growing "availability of books
at a low cost" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 21) that was made possible by Gutenberg's
printing press. Along with the ready availability of the written word and the associated rapid
dissemination of information, the effect of the European Renaissance on modern education may be
seen in the secularization of public education.
Scientific thinking in the 16th to 18th Centuries grew out of the "classical humanism of
the Renaissance period ... [as] commercial interests and cultural diversity gave rise to the growth
of scientific facts and methods" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 21). These centuries exploded
with the discoveries of men whose names are household words in modern America: daVinci,
Bacon, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Newton, Descartes, among others. Although the
scientific methods that were developed during this period were not embraced in American
education until the period was ending in the 18th Century, the impact of the period of scientific
thought may be seen in almost every modern American classroom. The scientific method is a
common feature in our public schools today, and is taught from kindergarten through high school
and college.
The Protestant Reformation gave rise to "universal education for all children, regardless
of wealth ... [and] Protestants also provided secondary education of higher quality for the elite
destined to enter positions in the government or the Church" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 22).
70 A Journey Through My College Papers
The impact of this educational movement is felt today as universal public education for all
children, and is echoed in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which provides equal education
for all American children. Separatism, which came out of the religious reformation period, also
impacts modern education in our policy of the separation of church and state, and in the
subsequent removal of religion from most public classrooms. Separatism "denied the
establishment of religion and held that each man must be free to worship as he thought fit"
(Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 23).
References
Guisepi, R. (n.d.). The history of education. Retrieved January 5, 2010, from http://history-
world.org/history_of_education.htm
Kreis, S. (2000). The printing press. Lectures on modern European intellectual history.
Retrieved January 5, 2010, from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/press.html
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Learning Stages 1/7/2010
Gagné and Piaget both espoused theories of learning stages in the development of a
learner. Their theories are similar, in that each theory begins with learning very basic skills and
progresses by adding more complex concepts in a clear sequence. Gagné and Piaget differed,
however, in the way they believed learning was determined.
Gagné believed that "developmental stages of learning ... are determined by what is to be
learned" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 70). He did not believe that a learner's age or maturity
was as important to learning as making sure that learning occurred in the right order. He stressed
the sequence of learning, stating that "no learning stage can be skipped" (Pulliam and VanPatten,
2007, p. 70).
Piaget differed from Gagné in that Piaget believed that the stages of learning are
regulated by the learner's age and maturity, with specific types of learning taking place at each
given age range. Piaget's "stages or levels are related, but they are determined by a combination
of age and experience" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 71).
Taken together, Gagné's and Piaget's theories are useful in the organization of curriculum
to optimize learning in today's classrooms. It is already a common practice to organize curricula
so that simpler concepts are taught before more complex concepts. By the nature of linear time,
then, the simpler concepts of Gagné's theory are taught during the earlier age ranges of Piaget's
theory.
For example, with the exception of children with special needs, who must be considered
apart from children with normal development, children in the United States usually learn to recite
the alphabet by age 3 or 4, after which they learn to recognize and identify the letters of the
alphabet and to arrange them in order. The vast majority of children then learn to recognize
simple words before learning to put words together to form written sentences. This building
concept upon concept continues as students learn progressively more complex words, sentences,
and, eventually, literary forms.
Problems arise when educators try to take either Gagné or Piaget without the other. In
general, Piaget was correct in his assessment of what kind of learning takes place at what age, but
there is a wide range of learning abilities in American students, and some students learn much
faster or much more slowly than the norm. It is an unfortunate habit, in my experience with public
Undergraduate Series 71
schools over the last ten years, for educators to require all students to learn at the speed of the
average student, leaving faster students frustrated with boredom and slower students floundering
and struggling to catch up.
Although Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori method, did not agree with Piaget
in regard to the specific ages at which children learn specific material, Piaget "was heavily
influenced by Montessori and her method" (Enright, 1997, para. 6). Thus, although Montessori
predated Piaget, a similar concept to Piaget's theory of developmental learning continues in the
popular Montessori schools, which "cover infant education through matriculation from high
school" (Kennedy, 2010, para. 3).
The combined theories of learning stages contribute to education in that students build up
their knowledge and are better able to retain and use the information they have acquired at earlier
stages as they use that earlier learning to accomplish later learning. This is particularly useful in
teaching math concepts, in which Gagné's idea that "[s]kills should be learned on [sic] at a time
and each new skill should build on previously acquired skills" (Dahlen and Kumrow, 1999, para.
6) allows students to learn simple concepts first, and to use those as a foundation on which to build
more complex concepts.
Gagné's learning stages, which are not age-dependent, are also useful for teaching
students with learning delays, including Autism. According to Equidel's (2007) Web site,
Theoretical Foundations, "children with Autism are more attentive and motivated, are less
resistant to learning, and exhibit a reduction of nonproductive learning behaviors" (para. 2) when
presented with computer assisted instruction (CAI) that is "developed on the tenets of Gagné's
(1970) instructional design. In Gagné's theory, a specified list of building blocks is called a
learning hierarchy. To teach a specific skill, a teacher must first identify its prerequisite skills and
make sure that the student possesses them" (Equidel, 2007, para. 5). Thus, using learning stages in
a special education environment can enable students who are not able to learn at a normal pace to
learn at their own pace, and to build on what they have already learned.
References
Dahlen, B. and Kumrow, D. (1999). Learning theory. Retrieved January 7, 2010, from
http://www.csulb.edu/dkumrow/conference/learning_theory.html
Enright, M. (1997, August). Foundations study guide: Montessori education. Retrieved January
7, 2010, from http://www.objectivistcenter.org/showcontent.aspx?ct=48&h=44
Equidel. (2007). Theoretical foundations. Retrieved January 7, 2010, from
http://www.computhera.com/theo.html
Kennedy, R. (2010). What is a Montessori school? Retrieved January 7, 2010, from
http://privateschool.about.com/od/privateschoolfaqs/f/montessori.htm
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Colonial Education 1/12/2010
Early education in the American colonies, particularly the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
"ranked as a high priority" (Zellner, 2003, para. 1). Colonial schools were controlled by Puritans,
and children's education
included reading, writing, simple math, poems, and prayers ... [t]he boys studied
higher math, Greek, Latin, science, celestial navigation ..., geography, history,
fencing, social etiquette, and plantation management ... [g]irls learned enough
72 A Journey Through My College Papers
reading, writing, and arithmetic to read their Bibles and be able to record
household expenses. (Colonial Education, n.d., paras. 1-3).
These were the earliest public schools in America, and "the first 'public school' was
established in 1635" (Massachusetts Bay Colony, n.d., para. 15). These schools were the free
Latin schools, and "[a]ll the students in the Latin grammar school hoped to be admitted to a
college" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 98). These public schools were funded by taxes, and
attendance was free for all students. The first of these schools evolved into Harvard College.
Schools in the Middle Colonies were "sponsored by many different kinds of religious
denominations, rather than just the Puritan Church" (Colonial Education, n.d., para. 5). During the
Revolutionary period in the Middle Colonies, particularly in Pennsylvania, "parents taught their
children to read and write at home using a bible and a hornbook" (Early National Education, n.d.,
para. 1). The population of the Middle Colonies was more diverse than the population in New
England, and "they tended to develop many kinds of schools" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p.
92). This era and region saw the Quaker schools, which "were excellent in quality ... [and] taught
reading, writing, arithmetic, and probably bookkeeping as well as religion" (Pulliam and
VanPatten, 2007, p. 93). These schools were not only for affluent boys, but also for poor students
and for girls. The academy also appeared in the Middle Colonies, although "[t]he academy, a
terminal secondary school that prepared students for a vocation, did not become highly significant
until the national period" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 94). Where the early educational focus
in New England had been on religion and theology, the educational focus in the Middle Colonies
was on a "practical education" (Colonial Education, n.d., para. 5).
Southern society "emphasized the enjoyment of the cultured life, which included
gambling, dancing, literature, music, art, books, and the breeding of fine horses" (Pulliam and
VanPatten, 2007, p. 87). Religion did not direct education as it did in the North, and "Governor
Sir William Berkeley of Virginia held that every man should instruct his own children according
to his means" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 88). A wide variety of educational forms existed
in the South, largely due to the social inequalities of the region. While Dame schools, which
"involved parents leaving their children with a neighborhood lady ... who would teach the children
their letters ..., numbers, and prayers while she went about her daily tasks" (Colonial Education,
n.d., para. 6), are among the best known of the educational forms of the South, an interesting
school of this area was the old field school. This type of elementary school was "built by
members of a community on one of the fallow 'old' fields that had lost its productivity through
overuse" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 90). These schools were community controlled, and
they generally included "provision[s] for impoverished scholars" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007,
pp. 90-91). Contrasted with early education in New England and with education in the Middle
Colonies, education in the South was more secularized and more utilitarian.
References
History of education in America, The. (n.d.). "Colonial education." Retrieved January 12,
2010, from http://www.chesapeake.edu/library/EDU_101/eduhist_colonial.asp
-- "Early national education." Retrieved January 12, 2010, from
http://www.chesapeake.edu/library/EDU_101/eduhist_earlynat.asp
Massachusetts Bay Colony. (n.d.). Retrieved January 12, 2010, from
http://www.quaqua.org/pilgrim.htm
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Zellner, C. (2003). The schools in Charlestown: An historical sketch. Retrieved January 12,
2010, from http://www.charlestownonline.net/schools.htm
Undergraduate Series 73
American Leaders 1/13/2010
Noah Webster quite literally defined education in early America. In his first dictionary,
which gave rise to a series of dictionaries in America that are still in use today, Webster (1828)
defined education as
The bringing up, as a child, instruction; formation of manners. Education
comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline, which is intended to
enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and
habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give
children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give
them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests
on parents and guardians who neglect these duties. (Webster, 1828, cited in
Shenandoah, 2002, para. 2).
Webster espoused the importance of education for girls as well as for boys, and he
believed that "all American children could learn the virtues of liberty, just laws, morality, hard
work, and patriotism" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 117). To that end, Webster supported the
government's formation of free, public schools, and he wrote numerous textbooks that contained
"a strong patriotic and nationalistic flavor" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 117).
Where Webster was the dictionary for early American education, Thomas Jefferson's
approach to understanding the entirety of the intelligible world, natural and
human, and each in relation to each other was encyclopedic in the original
meaning of the word; that is it aimed at the development of an all inclusive
knowledge of facts related to each other within a continuum of natural historical
life. (Sparagana, 2002, para. 10).
Jefferson believed that literacy was the key to a successful life, and "[h]e embraced
education as the equalizer for all children" (Sparagana, 2002, para. 4). Jefferson saw education
and learning as a life-long endeavor, and he divided formal schooling into three parts, which
correspond to our modern system of education. His elementary schools, which taught "Grecian,
Roman, English and American history as well as reading, writing and arithmetic" (Brulatour, n.d.,
para. 3), corresponded to our modern elementary schools, although he believed that "three years of
public schooling" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 117) was sufficient for "the average citizen
who belonged to the 'laboring' class" (Sparagana, 2002, para. 3). Jefferson's male-only grammar
schools, which taught "Greek, Latin, and English grammar, advanced arithmetic, geometry,
navigation, and geography" (Brulatour, n.d., para. 3), corresponded to our modern middle and high
schools. Girls were excluded from this advanced education, and Jefferson is quoted as saying: "A
plan of female education has never been a subject of systematic contemplation with me. It has
occupied my attention only so far only as the education of my own daughters occasionally
required" (Jefferson, n.d., cited in Brulatour, n.d., para. 4). Finally, Jefferson's structure of formal
schooling included the university, in which "requirements were limited to a proficiency in Latin
and Greek—a graduate had to be able to read and understand the classics with ease; although
scientific studies were encouraged students were free to attend any class and 'listen to whatever he
thinks may improve the condition of his mind'" (Brulatour, n.d., para. 3), and which corresponded
to our modern colleges and universities. In addition, Jefferson set the stage for the exclusion of
religion from schools, believing that "histories, not bibles, should be put in the ands [sic] of
children, so that 'their memory may be stored with the most useful facts' from ancient and modern
times" (Sparagana, 2002, para. 13). He also "dividing the states into small districts ... [which
74 A Journey Through My College Papers
would] supervis[e] and support ... the schools" (Brulatour, n.d., para. 2), which eventually gave
rise to our modern school districts.
References
Brulatour, M. (n.d.). Background for the state of education in New England: post-
Revolutionary War to mid-19th century. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/edhistory.html
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Shenandoah, A. (2002, March 4). History of America's education: Noah Webster &
education in early America, second of three parts. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from
http://www.american-partisan.com/cols/2002/shenandoah/qtr1/0304.htm
Sparagana, J. (2002, May 13). The educational theory of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved January
12, 2010, from http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Jefferson.html
National Standards in Education 1/15/2010
Since the beginning of our country, there has been a struggle between those who would
have education controlled by a national government and those who believed that education should
be controlled on a local or, at most, by each state. This conflict continues today as the United
States government seeks to impose national academic standards on education and opponents of
national standards argue that “[t]he absence of any specific mention of education [in the U.S.
Constitution], coupled with the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment, renders education a state
function” (Guthrie, 2010, para. 3). Although it is true that the U.S. Constitution, in containing no
specific provision for education, gives control of education to the states by default, the challenges
of the current global community demand that American education become standardized so that the
United States may be able to keep up and compete with the other advanced nations of the world.
An examination of recent reports on American education will support the claim that the time has
come for the adoption of national educational standards, and that the majority of Americans agree
with this view.
The U.S. Constitution is the ultimate law in the United States, and it defines what may
and may not be legislated by the federal government. In so doing, it also limits the power of the
federal government to enact national legislation in any area not specifically designated as the
province of the federal government. Over the course of America’s history, the Constitution has
been amended numerous times to add national laws that were not foreseen by the framers of the
Constitution. In this way, freedom of speech was guaranteed to all citizens, along with the
freedom of religion, and the freedom from illegal search and seizure. Later amendments provided
for suffrage for women, for Blacks, and for citizens over the age of 18. Although the argument
has been made that “Supreme Court rulings … find no constitutional mandates for federal control
of education; therefore, education is a responsibility of the individual states” (Yudof, et. Al., 1992,
cited in Rhoads, Sieber & Slayton, 1999, para. 1), it is possible for the Constitution to be amended
yet again to require “national academic expectations and standards for students in all states” (Idea
of the Day, 2008, para. 1). Despite the resistance of Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman, who
“insisted that the process [of improving standards] shouldn’t ‘federalize education’” (Hoff, 2009,
para. 6), in 2009, 46 states and the District of Columbia united in “an effort to craft a single vision
for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation”
(Glod, 2009, para. 1), and an August, 2007, survey funded by the Gates and Broad Foundation
Undergraduate Series 75
reported that “63 percent of Americans” (Idea of the Day, 2008, para. 1) support national
standards for all American students.
One of the greatest problems in American education is the disparity among the various
states’ standards and curricula. As Melissa Kelly (2010) writes in an article targeted to secondary
school teachers, “[e]ach state develops its own standards according to their own system. This
creates a system whereby a tenth-grader who moves from Texas to Florida halfway through the
school year will be faced with quite a different curriculum and standards that need to be met”
(para. 2). Families in the United States are more mobile now than they have been since settlers
fanned out across the continent to establish this country over a century ago. National control of
education and national education standards would improve education by ensuring that a student
could receive a relatively seamless and consistent education, no matter whither or whence he or
she moved or how many schools he or she attended. In an article for the Atlantic Monthly, Paul
Gagnon (1995) reports that “[p]olls showed overwhelming public support, even for a national
curriculum” (p. 68). Even
[m]any of the founding fathers of the United States feared that leaving education
in the hands of private families, churches, local communities, or philanthropic
societies would not guarantee the survival of a democracy … [and]
[c]onsiderable effort was made to obtain a national university. (Pulliam and
Van Patten, 2007, p. 122).
How much more important, then, are national education standards now that our country has grown
to such proportions? It is important to keep in mind that “school leaders, teachers, parents and
citizens need to understand what they are up against, what has to be done differently, and how
much is at stake” (Gagnon, 1995, p. 65).
Efforts have been made at various times in America’s history to establish national control
of education, although “[a]t the time of the nation’s founding, transportation and communication
were primitive by twenty-first-century century [sic] standards … [and] states generally saw fit to
delegate authority for school operation to local school districts” (Guthrie, 2010, para. 4).
Transportation and communication are no longer primitive, and a student may walk out of a
California classroom one day and enroll in a New York classroom the next day. Students in
Oregon, Texas, Maine, and on a U.S. military base in Europe, Asia, or the South Pacific may all
share a single virtual classroom online. In order for these students to have equal opportunities to
succeed in school, they must have access to the same curricula, and their schools must all be held
to the same academic standards. “Instituting such standards implies that students will learn the
same content regardless of where they reside” (Rhoads, Sieber & Slayton, 1999, para. 2). A
beginning was made in this regard with the Lanham Act of 1946, “which evolved into the Federal
Impact Aid program” (Guthrie, 2010, para. 21), by which the federal government began to be
involved in the operation of schools. More recent, and better known, efforts include the
controversial No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which attempts to ensure an equal education to
every American student.
Although the United States does not yet have nationally mandated academic standards,
NCLB brings the future reality of national standards closer. U.S. Education Secretary Arne
Duncan is quoted as saying that “today’s patchwork system amounts to ‘lying to children and their
parents, because states have dumbed down their standards’” (Glod, 2009, para. 7). Under the
present system of local controls, on a reading exam in 2007 in Mississippi, “only 51 percent had at
least ‘basic’ or ‘partial mastery’ on the test known as the Nation’s Report Card” (Glod, 2009, para.
8). On the same test, 69 percent of students in Maryland and 74 percent of students in Virginia
“reached at least a basic score” (Glod, 2009, para. 9). With national curricula and national
standards, states could expect higher percentages of students to achieve at least basic mastery of
reading, and scores from state to state could be expected to be more uniform. “Gene Wilhoit,
76 A Journey Through My College Papers
executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said the new expectations would
be ‘higher, clearer and fewer’” (Glod, 2009, para. 10).
National standards would improve education in the United States in several ways. Along
with making it easier for students to move from one state to another without disrupting their
education, national standards would allow all schools to use the same textbooks, which would
reduce the confusion that can arise when different schools, or even different teachers in a single
school, use different textbooks. Additionally, national standards would allow schools to hire
teachers regardless of where the teachers were educated and certified. This would allow greater
mobility for teachers, and would allow teachers from areas with more teachers to move and teach
in areas where certified teachers are scarce, with less need to adjust to a new school system.
At present, although initiatives like NCLB are a step toward national education standards,
educational control still rests with local school districts and with the states. However, the time has
come when the United States needs national education standards in order to compete in the global
community. It is time for a new constitutional amendment to guarantee an equal education to
every American student.
References
Gagnon, P. (1995, December). What should children learn? [Electronic version]. The Atlantic
Monthly, 276 (6), 65-74.
Glod, M. (2009, June 1). 46 states, D.C. plan to draft common education standards. The
Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from
http://www.wahingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102339_pf.html
Guthrie, J.W. (2010). State educational systems – the legal basis for state control of
education, school organization models, the school district consolidation
movement. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2448/State-Educational-Systems.html
Hoff, D.J. (2009, February 24). Governors endorse ‘common core’ of standards, leave debate
for later. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/NCLB-
ActII/2009/02/governors_endorse_common_core.html?print=1
Idea of the day: establish national standards for schools. (2008, May 28). Retrieved January 14,
2010, from
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/ideas/2008/05/052808.html/print.html
Kelly, M. (2010). State versus national standards. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from
http://712educators.about.com/od/curriculumandlessonplans/a/standards.htm?p=1
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Rhoads, M., Sieber, R. & Slayton, S. (1999, February 25). Examining national standards.
Retrieved January 14, 2010, from
http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/issues/papers/National_Standards.html
Progressive Education 1/19/2010
Progressive education, which is sometimes called organic education because it is "highly
innovative and flexible" (Osborn, 2005, para. 7), gained prominence from the very end of the
nineteenth century into the twentieth century, under the guidance of Marietta Johnson, Junius
Meriam, John Dewey, and other like-minded, innovative educators. In progressive education,
Undergraduate Series 77
educators focus on "the importance of the emotional, artistic, and creative aspects of human
development" (Brief overview, 2002, para. 3).
The purpose of the start of progressive education was to oppose "a growing national
movement that sought to separate academic education for the few and narrow vocational training
for the masses" (Brief overview, 2002, para. 3), and to create an educational model that would
reflect the observation that "children move through distinct stages as they grow and that parents
and teachers should key their educational efforts to the developmental process" (Marietta Pierce
Johnson, 2010, para. 2). Educators associated with this experimental program believed that by
allowing children to learn at their own pace and to be driven in learning by their own interests,
educators could produce students who were more confident in themselves and in their knowledge,
and who were socially engaged, as well as who were adept at critical thinking.
Progressive education was targeted at children in the elementary grades of school,
particularly the lower elementary grades. The thought was that children were being exposed to too
much structured, institutionalized instruction too soon in their educational careers. An early
progressive educator, Marietta Johnson "steered students away from books until the age of nine.
Younger children, she maintained, were not ready for print" (Marietta Pierce Johnson, 2010, para.
5). Progressive high schools also served the needs of older students, and a report by the
Progressive Education Association in 1942 "showed that students in the progressive high schools
did at least as well in college as their counterparts in traditional secondary schools and that they
were better oriented to adult life" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, p. 219).
Although progressive education did not become the norm for education in the United
States, aspects of progressive education found their way into modern education in a number of
different ways. Flexible scheduling and individualized instruction are examples of practices that
came out of progressive education, as are open classrooms, team teaching, and nongraded schools
(Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, pp. 222-223). A modern application of progressive, or organic,
education is Bright IDEA, a North Carolina educational initiative that teaches teachers to "use
organic principles with ... K-2 Title 1 children" (Osborn, 2005, para. 13).
Bright IDEA students show strong self-motivation, self-organization and self-
discipline and plenty of imagination and initiative. They internalize a
metacognitive vocabulary of learning — skills like listening with empathy,
thinking flexibly, solving problems, persisting, metacognition ... — and
enthusiastically identify these concepts in other people and apply them to their
own learning. (Osborn, 2005, para. 17).
Bright IDEA and similar programs bear little outward resemblance to Marietta Johnson's School
of Organic Education, but they successfully carry the concepts of progressive education into the
twenty-first century.
References
Brief overview of progressive education, A. (2002, January 30). Retrieved January 19, 2010, from
http://www.uvm.edu/dewey/articles/proged.html
Marietta Pierce Johnson (1864-1938) -- Organic education, new trends in education. (2010).
Retrieved January 19, 2010, from
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2138/Johnson-Marietta-Pierce-1864-
1938.html
Osborn, H. (2005). Organic education: update 2005. Retrieved January 19, 2010, from
http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/osborn.htm
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
78 A Journey Through My College Papers
Gifted and Talented 1/20/2010
Researching the topic for this discussion took me back to my own elementary school
years, as I saw myself in nearly every article I read. It is profoundly difficult for me to even
imagine a good reason to not support separate programs for gifted and talented students in public
schools, because I attended school in a district that did not "believe in acceleration" (Kearney,
1996, para. 21). Still, I made an honest effort to find research that did not support separate
programs for gifted and talented students. There were remarkably few sources in that final group,
as the majority of sources I read were overwhelmingly in support of separate programs. Even
those that offered arguments against separate programs did so only in passing, and were generally
in favor of separate programs for gifted students.
Holly Hertberg-Davis (2009), writing for The Gifted Child Quarterly, observes that
"gifted students are regarded as a diverse lot whose individual talents and needs cannot be met
with a single 'gifted' curriculum" (para. 2). From this observation, it may be construed that placing
gifted students in a dedicated gifted program may retard the development of their individual gifts.
It might me argued that such students could find greater scope to excel in a differentiated
inclusionary classroom than they could find in a separate gifted classroom.
Another consideration in support of placing gifted students in inclusionary classrooms is
the idea of fairness, and of improving a student's self esteem by avoiding the stigma of being
segregated from the student population for being different from the student's age-mates. Glenn
Hartz (2000), in an article for the Christian Science Monitor, notes that "the idea behind [the
inclusion] movement is the notion, popular in the realm of politics, that fairness means equality.
Exclusion of any kind somehow means we value certain students more or less than others" (para.
6). In our age of "everyone wins" sports programs and non-traditional grading practices (such as
replacing the A-F grading scale with E, S, and N, for "exceeds expectations," "satisfactory
progress," and "needs improvement"), it has become more important than ever before to shelter
every child from ever being better, worse, or different from any child, and to ensure that no child's
ego is ever bruised.
One argument in support of separate programs for gifted students is that teachers in
inclusionary classrooms are not appropriately trained to meet the needs of gifted students. In a
1994 study by Reis, Renzulli, and Westberg, it was reported that "61% of public school teachers
and 54% of private school teachers at the elementary level reported that they had never had any
training in teaching gifted students" (cited in Culcross, 1997, para. 10). As a result of this lack of
teacher training, "[m]ost regular classroom teachers make few, if any, provisions for talented
students" (U.S. Department of Education, 1993, cited in Kearney, 1996, para. 23). Hertberg-Davis
(2009), sums up the problem of insufficient teacher training:
For all these reasons - lack of sustained teacher training in the specific
philosophy and methods of differentiation, underlying beliefs prevalent in our
school culture that gifted students do fine without any adaptations to curriculum,
lack of general education teacher training in the needs and nature of gifted
students, and the difficulty of differentiating instruction without a great depth of
content knowledge - it does not seem that we are yet at a place where
differentiation within the regular classroom is a particularly effective method of
challenging our most able learners. (para. 11).
As supporters of inclusion argue the need to consider the emotional needs of gifted
students, so do supporters of separate programs also offer arguments in favor of protecting the
emotional needs of gifted students. Rachel Mendleson (2009), writing for Maclean's, in reporting
Undergraduate Series 79
on the reduction in the number of gifted programs in recent years, notes that "[s]tudies have shown
that gifted students, who make up about two per cent of the population, risk social alienation and
boredom, which can give way to underachievement and behaviour problems" (para. 4). M.J.
Morelock (1992) reports that "[t]oo many extremely gifted children do not feel included [in full
inclusion]; out-of-sync with other children developmentally, and with the cognitive capacity to
know they are different ... they often find themselves in one-size-fits-all schools" (cited in
Kearney, 1996, para. 30), and Ian Warwick and Matt Dickenson (2009) agree that "[a] 'one-sized'
view of G&T cannot be inclusive of all students" (para. 8). It is important for administrators to
consider the emotional and social needs of gifted students when planning educational requirements
for this group. As we see in our text, "[f]ollowing the NDEA ... [i]t was found that gifted and
talented students often felt socially isolated and sometimes had difficulty in adjusting to group
norms" (Pulliam and VanPatten, 2007, pp. 323-324).
As a gifted child who was hopelessly bored throughout elementary and secondary school
because I was forced to participate in an inclusionary classroom setting, I strongly support special
programs for gifted and talented students, to allow these students to be challenged at their own
levels so that they may achieve their full academic potential. As Richard Thompkins and Pat
Deloney (2010) state in their article for Social/Emotional Development and Learning (SEDL),
"gifted students are better served when they are able to work with other gifted students ... in a
'pull-out' program" (para. 11)
References
Culross, R.R. (1997, January/February). Concepts of inclusion in gifted education.
Teaching Exceptional Children, 29(3), 24-26. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from
ProQuest Education Journals database.
Hartz, G. (2000, January 11). Inclusion or exclusion? It all depends; [ALL Edition]. The
Christian Science Monitor, 13. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from ProQuest
Education Journals database.
Hertberg-Davis, H. (2009, Fall). Myth 7: Differentiation in the regular classroom is
equivalent to gifted programs and is sufficient: classroom teachers have the time,
the skill, and the will to differentiate adequately. The Gifted Child Quarterly, 53(4), 251-
253. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals database.
Kearney, K. (1996). Highly gifted children in full inclusion classrooms. Retrieved January
19, 2010, from http://www.hollingworth.org/fullincl.html
Mendleson, R. (2009, March 2). No room for gifted kids. Maclean's, 122(7), 40-41.
Retrieved January 20, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals database.
Pulliam. J.D. and VanPatten, J.J. (2007). History of education in America. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Thompkins, R. and Deloney, P. (2010). Concerns about and arguments against inclusion and/or
full inclusion. Retrieved January 19, 2010, from
http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues43/concerns.html
Warwick, I. and Dickenson, M. (2009, December). Gifted and talented education -- the case for
inclusion: part 1. Retrieved January 19, 2010, from
http://www.teachingexpertise.com/e-bulletins/gifted-and-talented-education-case-
inclusion-7708
80 A Journey Through My College Papers
Technology in the Classroom 1/27/2010
Introducing technology in the classroom was an important movement for education
reform. Jeff Utecht (2008) discusses how to evaluate the use of technology in the classroom using
questions based on Marc Prensky's (n.d.) "process of technical adoption" (cited in Utecht, 2008,
para. 4). Technology in the classroom is an educational reform that has not only survived the
passage of time, but that has also flourished and expanded with the development of new
technologies. From the early introduction of adding machines and typewriters, we have advanced
to "[p]ublishing a piece of writing in Word ... using an LCD projector instead of a white/black
board ... researching on the Internet ... [and] visiting a battle site via Google Earth" (Utecht, 2008,
paras. 8-12). Technology in the classroom, when it is used appropriately, can significantly
improve and enhance the educational experience. Utecht (2008) cautions, however, that if "a
teacher is only ever 'dabbling' or doing 'Old things in Old ways'" (para. 23), then technology may
not be contributing to that teacher's classroom in an optimal way. In order for technology in the
classroom to continue to grow from a movement in education reform to an integral part of modern
education, teachers need to understand the available technologies and to teach students to take
advantage of the full educational potential of the technologies.
References
Utecht, J. (2008, January 23). Evaluating technology use in the classroom. Retrieved January 26,
2010, from http://www.thethinkingstick.com/evaluating-technology-use-in-the-classroom
Education Topics in the Courts 1/27/2010
Although many cases in America's courts have had significant impact on the state of
education today, there are a few that have made such an impact on American education and
society that their titles have become household phrases, even if not everyone remembers why they
reached the courts in the first place. Two of the most significant, in my opinion, are the 1954 case
of Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which began the racial desegregation
of American schools, and the 1925 case of Tennessee versus John Scopes, which is commonly
known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, and which brought to the public eye the need to teach
American children about science topics that might not agree with Biblical teachings.
In Brown v. Board of Education, "Oliver Brown ... sued the Board of Education for not
letting Linda Brown, his daughter, attend Summer Elementary School, an all-white school"
(Brown v. Board of Education, n.d., para. 10). The case was in court over a period of 18 months,
during which time the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
argued in favor of equal education for all children, regardless of race. A major argument in the
case was that "[s]egregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives
children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical
facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal" (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954, para.
1.d), however, "[a]lthough the facilities were supposedly equal, the fact was that the facilities
were, by far, unequal. The tar-paper shacks, which were used as the school buildings for blacks,
could be mistaken for chicken farms" (Brown v. Board of Education, n.d., para. 10). There were
two rulings in Brown v. Board of Education. The first "declared racial segregation in public
school illegal" (Brown v. Board of Education, n.d., para. 15). The second, coming a year later,
"ruled that students must be admitted to schools without discrimination" (Brown v. Board of
Undergraduate Series 81
Education, n.d., para. 17). In the end, it took nearly two decades for racial integration of public
schools to become the norm in America. There are those who would argue that racial
discrimination still exists in some American schools where de facto segregation still occurs, even
though de jure integration is practiced in theory. The integration of American schools needed to
occur in order for the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees "citizens of the United States ...
equal protection of the laws" (cited in Brown v. Board of Education, n.d., para. 13) to be upheld.
The Scopes Monkey Trial opened a debate that continues to this day. The case began
because of a 1925 law in Tennessee "making it unlawful 'to teach any theory that denies the story
of divine creation as taught by the Bible and to teach instead that man was descended from a lower
order of animals'" (Linder, 2000, para. 3). When John Scopes "assigned readings on evolution
from the [state-approved textbook] for review purposes" (Linder, 2000, para. 5), he was accused
of breaking the new law. The case brought out hundreds of spectators and a "carnival
atmosphere" (Linder, 2000, para. 7). The defense team argued not that Scopes was innocent, but
that the law was unconstitutional. The trial grew to amazing proportions, and near the end of the
single week of arguments, "[b]efore a crowd that had swelled to about 5,000, the defense read into
the record, for purpose of appellate review, excerpts from the prepared statements of eight
scientists and four experts on religion who had been prepared to testify" (Linder, 2000, para. 15).
William Jennings Bryan stated on the stand that "the words of the Bible should not always be
taken literally" (Linder, 2000, para. 17). Scopes was found guilty, but the decision was reversed
by the Tennessee Supreme Court a year later. Although there was no clear resolution to the
Scopes trial, and debate continues about whether science or the Bible is right, the Scopes Monkey
Trial was important to education because it opened the door for people to think, and to discuss and
debate opposing views about science and religion. The promotion of thinking is the single most
important thing this case could give to education, as the freedom and ability to think are the keys
to a good education
References
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483. (1954). Retrieved January 26, 2010, from
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=347
&invol=483
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2010, from
http://library.thinkquest.org/10718/body.htm
Linder, D. (2000). State v. John Scopes ("The Monkey Trial"). Retrieved January 26, 2010, from
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm
Impact of the Internet 2/3/2010
The internet has had, and continues to have, both positive and negative impacts on
education and educational instruction. As with any technology, it is important to remember that
the internet is a tool which may be used or misused, and one of the greatest challenges for the
future will be ensuring that students use the internet for its educational benefits and do not misuse
the internet for harmful purposes.
A great positive impact the internet has had on education instruction is the emergence of
online education, both for college and university students and for K-12 students. This class that
we are taking together is an outstanding example of the success of online education. As Coillege-
University-Directory.com states, with online education, "barriers to learning [have] been removed
82 A Journey Through My College Papers
... [and] [t]he flexibility of the internet is perhaps the greatest advantage for online education"
(Internet's Significant Impact, 2006, paras. 1-6).
A feature of the internet that has had both a positive impact and a negative impact on
educational instruction is that the internet gives users almost instantaneous access to almost any
information about almost any subjects they can think of. In addition, the internet provides real-
time and reduced time communications options and multimedia access, which make "collaboration
about numerous kinds of educational activities" (Hardin and Ziebarth, 2000, para. 7) possible for
nearly everyone who has access to a computer and an internet connection.
Access to information and the ability to collaborate have had a positive impact on
educational instruction because students and educators have access to more information, more up-
to-date information, and more dynamic information than has been possible at any previous point in
history. Students are able to learn about discoveries as they are being made, and are able to be
well-informed learners.
Access to information on the internet also has a negative impact on educational
instruction in that it has never before been so easy for students to commit plagiarism. According
to Paula Laurita (2009), "[m]any parents stated that their young-adult students didn't know that it
was wrong to copy information from the Internet" (para. 4). Many colleges and universities,
including Ashford University, use programs to scan for this sort of plagiarism in papers, but not
every school or teacher is able to scan every assignment from every student at every level of
education. It is necessary to stress the teaching of educational ethics, and to adopt a zero-tolerance
policy for plagiarism to combat this problem. Stressing the importance of correctly punctuating
and citing references to outside sources, as we do in this course, will also help.
Related to the plagiarism issue is the negative impact of homework help sites on the
internet. While online homework help sounds like a good thing, "[s]ome online services provide
specific areas to assist with assignments, including the ability to send questions or homework
problems via e-mail to experts in a subject area and receive responses in as little as three hours ...
[w]ould the ... student simply plug into one of these services and wait for answers to homework
problems?" (Laurita, 2009, paras. 3-4). It is one thing to have a student get help for how to do an
assignment; it is another thing entirely for a student's homework to be done by an online service.
The internet offers the opportunity for many positive aspects on education, from video
conferencing to virtual field trips and virtual dissections to expanded language and cultural
education, to truly individualized, progressive education. The dangers of the internet cannot be
overlooked, however, if the students and educators of the future are to enjoy the internet's benefits.
References
Hardin, J. and Ziebarth, J. (2000, January 2). Digital technology and its impact on
education. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from
http://www2.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/hardin.html
Internet's significant impact on education, The. (2006). Retrieved January 31, 2010, from
http://www.college-university-directory.com/internet_1.html
Laurita, P. (2009). Education lite -- the impact of the internet on education. Retrieved January
31, 2010, from http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3019.asp
Undergraduate Series 83
HIS 303: The American Constitution
Affecting Presidential Power 3/4/2010
The first three presidents of the United States, George Washington, John Adams, and
Thomas Jefferson, affected the powers of the presidency, first, by creating the presidency in the
first place. Before George Washington became the first President of the United States, no
government system like the U.S. presidency existed. Before Washington became President,
though, Jefferson set the stage by writing the Declaration of Independence, with contributions
from Adams and from Benjamin Franklin, thus ending the official power of the British monarchy
in the new United States.
Of the first three presidents, Washington made the most impact on the power of the
presidency while serving. Adams was actually considered to be a weak president with "poor
leadership skills" (O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, 13.4.1, para. 3), and Jefferson's greatest impact on
the power of the presidency was before he became President.
George Washington, as the first President, had no precedents on which to base his
actions, so each act and decision of his presidency became the original precedent for future
American presidents. Washington "established precedents that would last for generations and did
more to flesh out the skeleton of the presidential office than anyone could have expected or
predicted" (Impact and Legacy, n.d., para. 3). Among these precedents, the most famous is that he
"set the standard for two presidential terms" (Impact and Legacy, n.d., para. 4). Among his other
precedents, Washington "took every opportunity to establish the primacy of the national
government" (O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, 13.4.1, para. 2); he set precedents for "including the
cabinet as part of the President's office ... [and] allow[ing] the President to choose his or her own
cabinet" (Impact and Legacy, n.d., para. 4). He extended the power of the President in regard to
the judicial branch by setting a precedent that would allow "future Presidents to draw from a
diverse pool of talent beyond the [Supreme] Court's aging incumbents" (Impact and Legacy, n.d.,
para. 4) when appointing the chief justice. In addition, Washington set a precedent "for presidents
to claim the right to determine foreign policy unilaterally" (DeConde, 2010, para. 12). After the
French Revolution in 1792, Washington established precedent for "prompt de facto recognition of
a government when it demonstrated effective control of a nation" (DeConde, 2010, para. 11),
when he acknowledged the new government of France.
John Adams, the second President of the United States, was not considered to be a strong
leader, and did not make a truly great impact on the power of the presidency while he was
President. Adams' greatest contribution in that regard was the success of his effort to get Thomas
Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence, which set the stage for the creation of the
presidency. Adams made two other significant contributions to the presidency when he signed the
Alien and Sedition Acts. According to John S. Cooper (2004), "[t]he Alien Act gave the President
the power to deport dangerous aliens ... without a trial ... [and] [t]he Sedition Act made it illegal to
criticize or ridicule the President or Congress" (paras. 3-4). In accordance with the law, "on the
evening of November 1, 1800, John Adams moved into the White House" (Cooper, 2004, para.
11). Although this last did not directly affect the powers of the presidency, it did establish the
permanent residence of the President of the United States.
As I have stated earlier, Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, made
his greatest contribution to the power of the presidency long before he became President.
O'Connor and Sabato (2008) tell us that, during his presidency, "Jefferson took critical steps to
expand the role of the president in the legislative process" (13.4.1, para. 3). Jefferson was an
84 A Journey Through My College Papers
expansionist president, making the Louisiana Purchase "without consent of congress" (Stroupe,
n.d., para. 67), which set a precedent for presidents to bypass the Congress as they see fit. In
addition, "Jefferson determined that the United States also had a claim over west Florida"
(Stroupe, n.d., para. 67), and arranged the now-famous expedition of Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark "to explore the country between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean"
(Stroupe, n.d., para. 63).
References
Cooper, J.S. (2004, November 28). John Adams: Administration and Events (Part II).
Retrieved March 1, 2010, from
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/presidents_and_first_ladies/111856
DeConde, A. (2010). "Presidential Power." Encyclopedia of the New American Nation.
Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-
W/Presidential-Power.html
"Impact and Legacy." (n.d.). American President: George Washington. Retrieved March
1, 2010, from
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/washington/essays/biography/9
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change,
[Electronic version]. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Stroupe, F. (n.d.). Jefferson, Thomas. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=271
Anti-Federalist Papers 2/11/2010
The Anti-Federalist Papers were a response to the Federalist Papers, which were
"explanations of the Framers' intentions as they drafted the new Constitution" (O'Connor and
Sabato, 2008, p. 55). There are many Anti-Federalist papers, most of which are essays
masquerading as letters. The three I chose, each of which was written in 1787, six years after the
writing of the Articles of Confederation, a matter of weeks after the writing of the United States
Constitution, and two years before the creation of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution,
are The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of Pennsylvania to their
Constituents, by Samuel Bryan; the Speech of James Wilson, by James Wilson; and the
unattributed Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican. Each of these papers discusses
perceived dangers in the wording of the U.S. Constitution, and each outlines the changes that
would need to be made to remove the dangers. I will address a few of these dangers in this
discussion.
Before proceeding with the dangers of the U.S. Constitution, it is necessary to note that
the current United States reflects the concerns of the Anti-Federalists, because many of the
concerns of the Anti-Federalists were addressed by the first ten Amendments, which are
commonly known as the Bill of Rights. Thus, although the U.S. Constitution itself is a Federalist
document, the United States as we know it today is largely Anti-Federalist.
One of the greatest concerns of the Anti-Federalists was that "the powers vested in
Congress by this constitution, must necessarily annihilate and absorb the legislative, executive,
and judicial powers of the several states" (Bryan, 1787, para. 26). Wilson (1787) wrote in his
speech at the Pennsylvania State House, later known as Independence Hall, "the federal
constitution, as not only calculated, but designedly framed, to reduce the State governments to
mere corporations and eventually to annihilate them" (para. 7). The unnamed Federal Farmer
Undergraduate Series 85
(1787) held the same view: "unless the people shall make some great exertions to restore to the
state governments their powers ... the state governments must be annihilated, or continue to exist
for no purpose" (para. 8). This was a serious concern for the Anti-Federalists, who saw the
government under the U.S. Constitution as becoming a despotism, and as stripping the individual
rights from the states. Had the Federalists got their way, and had the Constitution stood as it was
originally drafted, this might have been a fair concern. Instead, the tenth Amendment to the
Constitution states that "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" (U.S.
Constitution, cited in O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p. 84).
Another serious concern of the Anti-Federalists was for the in-born, human rights of the
citizens of the new country. Bryan (1787) stated that "[t]he first consideration ... is the omission
of a BILL OF RIGHTS [capitalization and italics his], ascertaining and fundamentally establishing
those unalienable and personal rights of men, without the full, free, and secure enjoyment of which
there can be no liberty" (para. 45). Similarly, Wilson (1787) wrote that "the omission of a bill of
rights [is] a defect in the proposed constitution" (para. 3), and the Federal Farmer (1787) stated
that "[t]here are certain unalienable and fundamental rights, which in forming the social compact,
ought to be explicitly ascertained and fixed" (para. 5). Had the Anti-Federalists not had their way,
the United States would not be a nation of civil rights as it is today. As it is, the Anti-Federalists
did, in time, prevail, and the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution i 1789, and ratified in
1791. The first Amendment in the Bill of Rights reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances. (Cited in O'Connor and Sabato, 2008,
p. 80)
There are some Anti-Federalist ideas that were not included in the amendments to the
Constitution. At the time the Anti-Federalist papers were written, there were thirteen states in the
United States. The Federal Farmer (1787) wrote: "We have about 200 state senators in the United
States, and a less number than that of federal representatives cannot, clearly, be a full
representation of this people" (para. 1). A body of 200 senators for 13 states averages 15 or 16
senators per state, as opposed to the two senators per state that we have today. Had the Anti-
Federalists prevailed in this area, the Senate would now consist of 750 to 800 Senators for 50
states, instead of the 100 Senators currently serving. This would make the government even larger
and more unwieldy than it is today.
Wilson (1787) wrote that "[t]his constitution ... is of a pernicious tendency, because it
tolerates a standing army in the time of peace" (para. 5). Had the Anti-Federalists succeeded in
removing the possibility of a standing army, as provided for in Article I, Section 8, of the U.S.
Constitution (1787), "[t]o raise and support Armies ... provide and maintain a Navy ... provide for
calling forth the Militia" (cited in O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p. 71), we would not have been
able to mount an immediate response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and we would not be
able to live with a feeling of relative safety, knowing that our armed forces stand ready to defend
the United States. Bryan (1787) was concerned that "[a] standing army in the hands of a
government placed so independent of the people may be made a fatal instrument to overturn the
public liberties" (para. 71), but history has proven the opposite to be true as the United States
military has defended public liberties in the United States and abroad.
86 A Journey Through My College Papers
References
Bryan, S. (1787, December 12). The address and reasons of dissent of the minority of the
convention of Pennsylvania to their constituents. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://www.constitution.org/afp/pennmi00.htm
Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican. (1787, October 9). Retrieved
February 9, 2010, from http://www.constitution.org/afp/fedfar02.htm
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change, 2008
Edition. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Wilson, J. (1787, October 6). Speech of James Wilson. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://www.constitution.org/afp/jwilson0.htm
Benefits of the Articles of Confederation 2/11/2010
"The Articles [of Confederation] created a type of government called a confederation ...
[which] derives all of its powers directly from the states" (O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p. 39). The
Articles paved the way for the later creation of the United States Constitution, and gave structure
to the early government of the United States.
Although it is common to hear about the drawbacks of the Articles, there were a few
benefits for the new country in the provisions of the Articles. One of the most significant benefits
was that "[i]t allowed a large number of people of divergent backgrounds and circumstances to
live together with a minimum of internal strife for eleven years of transition from being subjects of
a monarch to becoming self-governing free men" (Emory, 1993, para. 1). The Articles set down a
system of rules for the interaction, governance, and defense of the new states, while at the same
time maintaining the sovereignty of each state. They provided for the states to work together
[F]or their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and
general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered
to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion,
sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever. (Articles of Confederation,
1781, Article II)
This gave the new country the chance it needed to grow and develop the more lasting set
of rules, the U.S. Constitution, under which we live today.
The Articles "required a supermajority for action ... [which] made it harder for Congress
to trample citizens' rights" (Emory, 1993, para, 4). Article IX of the Articles set up a "Committee
of the States" (Articles of Confederation, 1781, Article IX), which functioned much like a Senate,
with the committee members having limited terms, so that the members of Congress did not have
to be permanent, professional politicians, and could "thereby remain citizen legislators" (Emory,
1993, para. 5).
The Articles provided for legal actions in any of the States to be equally binding in all of
the States, so a person could not escape the law by moving to another State, and marriages,
inheritances, etc., would remain valid if a citizen moved between States. Had this not been so, a
man might have been able to have a wife under the laws of one state, and to have a different wife
under the laws of another State.
The Articles also required that no delegate to Congress "be capable of holding any office
under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees or
emolument of any kind" (Articles of Confederation, 1781, Article V). This requirement reduced
the possibility of delegates having special interests in particular areas of government that might
affect their decisions in Congress.
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Article VIII provided for all taxes to be "laid and levied by the authority and direction of
the legislatures of the several States" (Articles of Confederation, 1781, Article VIII), so that the
government was not able to directly tax the populace. After the excessive taxation the Colonists
had experienced under British rule, this was certainly a reassuring measure of law for the citizens
of the new United States.
References
Articles of Confederation. (1781, March 1). Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp
Emory, B.Y. (1993, October). An analysis of the Articles of Confederation as a model for
the institutions of freedom. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://libertariannation.org/a/ppe1.html
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change, 2008
Edition. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Checks and Balances 3/11/2010
Each of the three branches of the United States government is checked and balanced by
each of the other two branches. The legislative branch of the government is charged with creating
the laws of this country, while the executive branch is responsible for carrying out those laws. It
falls to the judicial branch to interpret the law, making me picture the popular recycling icon of
three arrows in a circle when I think of the branches of government.
The executive branch checks and balances the judicial branch only in that the President of
the United States "appoints Supreme Court and other federal judges" (Kelly, 2010, para. 5). The
executive branch's checks and balances of the legislative branch are the President's power to veto
bills that are passed by Congress, the ability of the President to call special sessions of Congress,
the ability of the President to recommend legislation to be considered by Congress, and the power
of the President to appeal to the people to seek support for or resistance to pending legislation,
upcoming elections, and other issues.
The legislative branch checks and balances the executive branch in that it holds the power
to overturn a presidential veto by a two-thirds vote. In addition, Congress controls funding for the
actions of the executive branch, and also holds the power to "remove the president through
impeachment" (Kelly, 2010, para. 2). The Senate, which is one of the two houses of Congress, has
special checks and balances of the executive branch, in that the Senate must approve all treaties,
and must also approve all presidential appointments. The legislative branch checks and balances
the judicial branch by creating lower courts, by approving the appointment of judges, and by
removing judges through impeachment.
The judicial branch checks and balances the executive branch in that, once a judge has
been appointed for life, the judge is "free from controls from the executive branch" (Kelly, 2010,
para. 6). Also, through application of the judicial review, the courts can examine executive
actions and judge them unconstitutional. The judicial branch checks and balances the legislative
branch only through the judicial branch's ability to "judge legislative acts to be unconstitutional"
(Kelly, 2010, para. 7).
The power of the President to veto legislation, and of Congress to overturn a veto are
both very effective checks and balances between the executive and the legislative branches,
because neither branch can pass a new law until both branches have considered it. Although
Congress can overturn the President's veto, it takes a two-thirds vote, instead of simple majority
88 A Journey Through My College Papers
vote, to do so. The judicial branch ruling on the constitutionality of laws is also effective, as it
effectively checks not only the legislative branch, but also, to some extent, the executive branch.
References
Kelly, M. (2010). Checks and Balances: Defining Government Authority. Retrieved March 9.
2010, from
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/a/checks_balances.htm?p=1
Chisholm v. Georgia 2/18/2010
The U.S. Supreme Court case of Alexander Chisholm of South Carolina against the State
of Georgia, which took place in 1793, was significant to the history of Constitutional law both in
its original decision, and in the constitutional amendment that was created in response to the case.
The case under consideration was that of Alexander Chisholm, the executor for the estate
of the late Robert Farquhar. Chisholm had filed suit in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of
Georgia for “100,000 pounds in sterling silver for payment of the debt plus interest” (Chisholm v.
Georgia, 2005, para. 2). The cause of the debt is contested, but is not necessarily relevant to the
case, with one version saying that it was restitution for “lands Georgia had confiscated during the
Revolution” (Levy, 1986, para. 2), and the other version saying that “[i]n 1777, the Executive
Council of Georgia authorized the purchase of needed supplies … [and] [a]fter receiving the
supplies, Georgia did not deliver payments as promised” (Chisholm v. Georgia, n.d., para. 1).
Justice James Iredell, serving as a circuit judge, “dismissed the suit for want of jurisdiction”
(Levy, 1986, para. 3). Chisholm appealed to the Supreme Court under the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which “gave [the Supreme Court] original jurisdiction in cases regarding suits between states and
citizens of other states” (O’Connor and Sabado, 2008, [Electronic version], section 9.3.1.1, para.
2). The Supreme Court entered a default judgment in favor of Chisholm because “officials [of
Georgia] refused to appear in court and vigorously denied the Court’s jurisdiction” (Chisholm v.
Georgia, 1999, para. 1).
This case raised questions about the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution only two years
after the Constitution was ratified. The first question was whether or not the Constitution gives
the Supreme Court jurisdiction in a case in which a State is named as the defendant. Article III,
Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution (1791) reads:
The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this
Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under
their Authority … to Controversies between two or more States; -- between a State and Citizens of
another State; -- between Citizens of different States. (Cited in O’Connor and Sabado, 2008, p. 77)
The second question raised by this case is related to the first, and asks whether or not the
sovereignty of a State gives the State immunity from being sued in federal court, regardless of
Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
Chief Justice John Jay (1793), who was a member of the Supreme Court that heard
Chisholm v. Georgia, stated in his opinion on the case that
[A]ny one State in the Union may sue another State in this [Supreme] court, that
is, all the people of one State may sue all the people of another State. It is plain,
then, that a State may be sued, and hence it plainly follows that suability and
state sovereignty are not incompatible. (Cited in Chisholm v. Georgia, 1999,
para. 3)
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Jay (1793) further states that “I am clearly of opinion that a State is suable by citizens of
another State” (Cited in Chisholm v. Georgia, 1999, para 12).
The original decision in the case of Chisholm v. Georgia was that “final sovereignty
resided in the people of the United States, and at least for the purposes of this lawsuit Georgia was
not a sovereign state” (Chisholm v. Georgia, 2005, para. 6). In effect, this decision extended the
interpretation of Article III, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution to say that a private citizen in one
state was equally as entitled as a State to sue another State, and to say that a State that was sued by
a citizen could not claim immunity from the provisions of Article III based on the sovereignty of
the State. That decision was highly significant, because the States at that time maintained their
sovereignty and believed that “no sovereign state could be sued without its consent unless
Congress so authorized” (Levy, 1986, para. 2).
Four out of the five Supreme Court Justices, in seriatim opinions [1 Seriatim – in a series.
(Seriatim, 2010)], decided in favor of Chisholm. The fifth, Justice Iredell, who was the same
Justice who had dismissed the case in Circuit Court, dissented from his fellow Justices. Iredell
contended that
[T]he states enjoyed the same sovereign immunity as the English King at the
time of the American settlement. Article III did not alter the states' immunity
from being sued without their consent … [and] even if the Constitution would
admit of the exercise of such a power, a new law is necessary for the purpose,
since no part of the existing law applies. (Chisholm v. Georgia, 2005, para. 7)
The original decision in this case set a powerful, and potentially dangerous, precedent for
the interpretation of Article III of the U.S. Constitution. It set the stage for citizens to sue the
States at will, and “seemed to open the treasuries of the states to suits by Tories and other
creditors” (Levy, 1986, para. 3). It established that “the people of the United States, rather than
the states or people thereof, had formed the Union and were the ultimate sovereigns” (Levy, 1986,
para. 2). This situation caused a great deal of consternation among the several States, as “[e]ach
state understood the implications of being forced to pay Revolutionary War debt at a time when
the state treasuries were struggling to avoid insolvency” (Chisholm v. Georgia, 2005, para. 8).
The States rightly assumed that this decision not only opened the States to being sued, and to
being forced to pay debts the States could not afford to pay, but also that the decision was “an
untenable intrusion on state authority … [and] was also considered a confirmation of Anti-
Federalist fears that such a reading of Article III would ‘prove most pernicious and destructive’ to
states’ rights” (O’Connor and Sabado, 2008, [Electronic version], section 9.3.1.1, para. 2).
Of equal significance to the original decision in the case of Chisholm v. Georgia is
Congress’ response to the decision. “The Court’s decision provoked widespread criticism, and
two days later the Eleventh Amendment was proposed in Congress” (Chisholm v. Georgia, 1999,
para. 1). The Eleventh Amendment, which was ratified on February 7, 1795, reads:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any
suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States
by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
(Cited in O’Connor and Sabado, 2008, p. 85)
The Eleventh Amendment was drafted to supersede any precedence established by
Chisholm v. Georgia, and to protect the sovereignty of the states. As O’Connor and Sabado
(2008) state:
The Eleventh Amendment nullified the result in Chisolm [sic] but did not
completely bar a citizen from bringing suit against a state in federal court.
Citizens may bring lawsuits against state officials in federal court if they can
satisfy the requirement that their rights under federal constitutional or statutory
law have been violated. (p. 85)
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As the first case of Constitutional law to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court,
Chisholm v. Georgia is greatly significant. It “forced the Court to grapple with contentious
debates over federalism or the proper balance of power between the state and federal
governments” (Chisholm v. Georgia, 2005, para. 10). The case itself established that the citizens
of the United States held the sovereign power in the United States. When the case was superseded
by the Eleventh Amendment, the sovereign power of the States was re-established.
References
Chisholm v. Georgia. (1999, August 18). Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
http://www.cornellcollege.edu/politics/courses/allin/365-
366/documents/chisholm_v_georgia.html
“Chisholm v. Georgia.” (2005) West’s Encyclopedia of American Law. Retrieved
February 15, 2010, from
http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G2:3437700826
Chisholm v. Georgia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2010, from the Oyez Project Web site
at http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1793/1793_0
Levy, L.W. (1986). Chisholm v. Georgia 2 Dallas 419 (1793). Retrieved February 15, 2010,
from http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/eamc_01/eamc_01_00430.html
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change, 2008
Edition. New York: Pearson-Longman.
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change,
[Electronic version]. New York: Pearson-Longman.
“Seriatim”. (2010). Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved February 18, 2010, from http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/seriatim
Gridlock 2/18/2010
I believe that gridlock, "the natural result of those 'checks and balances' we all learned
about in government class" (Neuendorf, 1994, para. 5), is essential to the preservation of personal,
local, and state rights and liberties in the United States. Without the slow and cumbersome
structure of legislation, Americans would likely fall victim to "overly passionate legislation ...
[and] knee-jerk mistakes" (Deck, 2009, paras. 1-2) in the creation of laws to govern this country.
The Framers of our country instituted a system of checks and balances among the three
branches of government "to prevent either branch from gaining too much power" (Williams, 2009,
para. 2), because they were only too aware of the abuses of power that could happen when the
Executive held too much power, as they had experienced with Great Britain. The system was nor
designed to make life difficult for the lawmakers, but to preserve the quality of life for the people.
As O'Connor and Sabado (2008) tell us, "[t]he Framers, fearing tyranny, divided powers between
the state and the national governments" (section 8.1, para. 10).
Over time, gridlock "actually helped Americans to avoid certain nutty laws being
enacted" (Deck, 2009, para. 7). Deck (2009) goes on to list a few of the constitutional
amendments that were proposed, but that never became law because the system of checks and
balances worked, including a 1914 proposal to make divorce illegal in the United States, a 1916
proposal "that all acts of war be put to a national vote. Anyone who voted to go to war -- had to
join The Army" (Deck, 2009, para. 9), and a 1938 proposal to make drunkenness illegal in the
United States.
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If the gridlock of checks and balances was removed from our government, then it might
make the government function more efficiently, but it would do so at the expense of the rights of
the states and the liberties of the people. Allan Bevere (2006) writes that
[W]hen one party holds both Congress and the White House, after time,
especially if it is more than one term, such power tends to lead to corruption ...
[but] when there is gridlock, both parties are able to hold each other
accountable. (paras. 4-6)
Checks and balances keep one leader, one branch of government, or one party from
riding roughshod over the liberties of the governed. "[I]n the end [gridlock] safeguards the people
from corruption of power and abuse of authority -- by either side" (Hamilton, 2004, para. 10).
References
Bevere, A.R. (2006, November 9). In Praise of Gridlock. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
http://arbevere.blogspot.com/2006/11/in-praise-of-gridlock.html
Deck, L. (2009). America LOVES Gridlock!. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
http://www.thecheers.org/Entertainment/article_1428_America-LOVES-
Gridlock.html
Hamilton, L. (2004). Congress and the President. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
http://congress.indiana.edu/radio_commentaries/congress_president.php
Neuendorf, D.W. (1994). Motherhood, Apple Pie and Gridlock. Retrieved February 15,
2010, from http://www.neusysinc.com/columnarchive/colm0001.html
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change,
[Electronic version]. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Hobbes and Locke 2/10/2010
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were both strong influences on the Framers of the
United States government, even though Hobbes and Locke did not fully agree on how government
should work. In fact, it appears that Hobbes' greatest influence on the Framers was in showing
them what they did not want for the government of the new republic. Dr. Ozodi Osuji (2008) tells
us that "[Hobbes] believed that the people needed an absolute monarch to make them do the right
thing and punish them if they stepped out of line" (Thomas Hobbes, para. 6). Rather than follow
this belief, the Framers composed Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution (1787), which
states that "[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America"
(cited in O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p. 73), and which goes on to detail who may serve as
President and how said person shall be chosen.
It appears that John Locke had a more direct influence on the Framers than that of
Hobbes. Locke's influence may be seen clearly in a comparison of his words and those used by
Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson's (1776) famous words: "[w]hen
in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them" (cited in
Constitutional Underpinnings, n.d., table 1), echoes Locke's (1690) words, from his Second
Treatise of Civil Government: "[w]hen any one, or more, shall take upon them to make laws whom
the people have not appointed so to do, they make laws without authority, which the people are
not therefore bound to obey; by which means they come again to be out of subjection, and may
constitute to themselves a new legislature" (cited in Constitutional Underpinnings, n.d., table 1).
92 A Journey Through My College Papers
In essence, both men were saying that, when a government is intolerable and unlawful, the people
should separate themselves from the old government and form a new government. The parallels
between Locke's Second Treatise and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence occur over and
over, demonstrating that Jefferson was strongly influenced by Locke.
According to our text, "[Hobbes and Locke] argued that all individuals were free and
equal by natural right" (O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p. 9). This was echoed by Jefferson (1776) in
the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (cited in O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p.38). In
addition, the fourth Amendment (1789) to the Constitution echoes this natural equality and
freedom when it guarantees "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons" (cited in
O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, p. 81).
According to Cox (2008), "Locke thought everyone needed to form a society together
where there is a system of checks and balances" (para. 5), which is echoed clearly in the Framers'
creation of our three branches of government, as laid out in the first three articles of the
Constitution: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Each of these branches is checked
and balanced by the other two branches, so that no one branch may dominate the government.
Even today, the system of checks and balances may be seen in the United States government,
despite complaints during the last two presidencies about abuses of government power in the
declaring of war in the Middle East without Congressional action, or the perceived appointment of
a United States President by the Supreme Court. Even though some governmental actions may be
misunderstood by some people, the system of checks and balances espoused by John Locke and
adopted by the Framers continues to work.
Locke believed that "political society and government are established by mutual consent
forming 'one body politic under one government'" (Dillbeck, n.d., para. 9). When Jefferson (1776)
drafted the Declaration of Independence, he included the concept of mutual consent in the words
We, therefore, the Representatives on the united States of America ... do, in the
Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be,
Free and Independent States ... we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes and our sacred Honor. (cited in "Declaration of Independence," 1964,
p. 67).
In addition, Locke believed that "[i]n the best circumstances the people desire that
government which provides them with security but also is limited in its scope of power" (Osuji,
John Locke, 2008, para. 4). Today, there is much discussion in many venues about the people's
desire for the government to see to the security of the people, whether through the War on Terror,
or through social welfare programs, or through government bailouts of banks and corporations. At
the same time, there is a similar level of discussion about the need to prevent the government
becoming too powerful or restricting too many of the people's rights.
References
Constitutional underpinnings. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://www.runningromans.com/Academics/Government/Review%20Notes/01.htm
Cox, S. (2008, September 14). Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau: Great political philosophers lay
foundation for today's politics. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from http://great-
philosophers.suite101.com/article.cfm/hobbes_locke_and_rousseau
"Declaration of Independence." (1964). In The World Book Encyclopedia, 5 (pp. 66-69).
Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation.
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Dillbeck, B. (n.d.). Social contract, The. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper222.html
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change, 2008
Edition. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Osuji, O.T. (2008, April 14). John Locke. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://www.chatafrikarticles.com/articles/1315/1/John-
Locke/Page1.html/print/1315
--. (2008, April 11). Thomas Hobbes. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from
http://www.chatafrikarticles.com/articles/1314/1/Thomas-
Hobbes/Page1.html/print/1314
Supreme Court Docket 2/25/2010
In examining the civil rights section of the Supreme Court docket on Oyez.com, I found
only eleven civil rights cases listed since the beginning of 2005, and no civil rights cases listed
after June of 2006. Of these eleven cases, only two cases came close to dealing with the U.S.
Constitution and the Amendments. Three cases dealt with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964. Two cases dealt with the Reconstruction Civil Rights Acts. Of the four remaining cases,
one dealt with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one dealt with Immigration and Naturalization, one
dealt with Medicaid and provisions of the Social Security Act, and one dealt with Education of the
Handicapped and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Acts (IDEA). Of the two cases with
Constitutional applications, one dealt with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and with
the Eleventh and Fourteenth Amendments; the other dealt with Equal Protection under the
Fourteenth Amendment (Cases -- Civil Rights, n.d.). For my discussion, I have chosen the case of
the United States v Georgia, which was unanimously decided in favor of the United States on
January 10, 2006.
The facts of the case are that a paraplegic inmate in a Georgia prison, Tony Goodman,
sued the state of Georgia "for maintaining prison conditions that allegedly discriminated against
disabled people and violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)" (United States
v Georgia, 2006, para. 1). Georgia claimed sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment.
The Supreme Court found that "Title II abrogates sovereign immunity ... [and] Congress can
enforce the 14th Amendment against the states ... which can involve abrogating state sovereign
immunity" (United States v Georgia, 2006, para. 4). In his opinion on the case, Justice Antonin
Scalia referred to Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections v Yeskey, 524 U.S. 206, 210 (1998), when he
stated that "[w]e have previously held that [public entity] includes state prisons" (United States v
Georgia et. al., 2006, para. 4), while explaining how the provisions of the ADA applied to
Goodman's case.
The Constitutional issues in this case are:
The sovereign immunity of the state of Georgia, provided by the Eleventh Amendment;
and
Goodman's right to equal protection, provided by Section 1 of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
A reading of Chapter 6 of the text by O'Connor and Sabato (2008) shows that the major civil
rights cases of the 1950s and the 1960s addresses matters of racial discrimination. Brown v Board
of Education occurred in 1954, and was revisited in 1955. This famous case resulted in the racial
desegregation of public schools in the United States. In 1955, "Rosa Parks made history when she
refused to leave her seat on a bus to move to the back to make room for a white male passenger"
94 A Journey Through My College Papers
(O'Connor and Sabato, 2008, 11.4.2), and her case made it to federal court in 1956. The Civil
Rights Act was passed by Congress in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.
The arguments of United States v Georgia differ from the cases of the 1950's and 1960's in
that Goodman's case was not based on issues of race or gender. However, the case is similar to the
cases of the 1950's and 1960's because the original case of Goodman v Georgia et. al. was based
on an issue of discrimination, just as the cases of the 1950's and 1960's were based on issues of
discrimination. Goodman claimed that he was discriminated against for his disability, while the
discrimination in the cases of the 1950's and 1960's was generally based on race or gender. The
differences are actually fairly minor, and may be attributed to the laws that were passed in the
1960's. We still hear about cases of racial discrimination and gender discrimination in today's
world, especially in relation to employment equality; those cases just didn't happen to be on the
Supreme Court docket when I accessed it. The similarities among the cases may be attributed, at
least in part, to human nature, and also to ingrained social habits. Many people feel better about
themselves when they feel that they are superior to people who are different from them, so people
often discriminate against groups of people who are different. Also, people get used to treating
others, or being treated, in certain ways, and it is often very difficult for society to learn new
habits. Individuals may be able to learn to be accepting and affirming of people who are different
from them, but it is much more difficult for society to change.
References
Cases -- Civil Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2010, from
http://www.oyez.org/issues/Civil%20Rights
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change,
[Electronic version]. New York: Pearson-Longman.
United States v Georgia. (2006, January 10). Retrieved February 22, 2010, from
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2005/2005_04_1203
United States v Georgia et. al.. (2006, January 10). Retrieved February 24, 2010, from
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/04-1203.pdf
Unitary, Federal, or Confederal 2/18/2010
It is first necessary to understand what unitary, federal, and confederal governments are,
before discussing why a political system should adopt one or another of these.
A unitary government is one that "is governed constitutionally as one single unit, with
one constitutionally created legislature" (Unitary State, n.d., para. 1). In this form of government,
all power originates at the top, and any power that is held by local governments comes from the
national government. This is the type of government that the American Colonists had left behind
in Great Britain, and that they did not wish to have for the United States.
In a federal government system, "[p]ower is shared by a powerful central government and
states or provinces that are given considerable self-rule, usually through their own legislatures"
(Thomson, n.d., para. 2). In this form of government, powers "derive ... from the people"
(O'Connor and Sabado, 2008, section 8.2, para. 2). This is the form of government that currently
exists in the United States, and that was established by the U.S. Constitution.
A confederal, or confederate, government is a "weak or loose organization of states [that]
agrees to follow a ... weak central government" (Thomson, n.d., para. 5). As the Framers
discovered under the Articles of Confederation, the central government, which gets all of its power
from the states, may have very little power at all.
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The Framers of government for the United States chose a federal government after
freeing the United States from a unitary government, and after a failed experiment in confederal
government. They did this so that the central government would have the power to govern and to
defend the nation, and to raise the funds needed to operate the government and to provide for
defense. At the same time, the states retained most of the power to govern within their borders,
and the people retained their personal liberties. It is my opinion that the Framers made a wise,
well-informed choice, as evidenced by the fact that we continue to live under the federal system
that they devised. As E. Wood (n.d.) states:
The framers at the Constitutional Convention tried to balance the perceived
tyranny of the unitary system with the chaos created by the confederal system by
outlining a hybrid federal system in the Constitution. Federalism, then, became
a major building block for preserving freedoms while still maintaining order in
the new nation. (para. 4)
If the United States was to hold another Constitutional Convention, I believe we would
still retain the federal form of government in the end. There are those who would argue in favor of
a unitary government, or of a socialist government, because some would like the government to be
able to make quick, unilateral decisions, and because others would like the government to provide
for every material need of the people, but, in the end, cooler heads would remind such a
Convention of the excesses and abuses the United States has fought against in the past century,
and reason would prevail. The federal government has enough power to defend and protect its
people while allowing its people to make their own choices and to craft their own successes.
References
O'Connor, K. and Sabato, L.J. (2008). American government: Continuity and change,
[Electronic version]. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Thomson, G. (n.d.). Federal, Confederate and Unitary Governments. Retrieved February
15, 2010, from
http://www.nusd.k12.az.us/nhs/gthomson.class/assignments/uni.fed.confed/uni.fed.
confed.html
Unitary State. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2010, from http://www.spiritus-
temporis.com/unitary-state/
Wood, E. (n.d.). Chapter Two: Federalism. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
http://phs.prs.k12.nj.us/ewood/amergov/USGov5th/chaptertwo.htm
Justice Sonia Sotomayor 3/11/2010
Justice Sonia Sotomayor grew up in a poor family in New York, with one brother, Juan
(Lewis, 2010). Both of her parents worked at low-paying jobs until her father died, when she was
nine years old, after which her mother "worked hard to raise the children as a single parent" (Sonia
Sotomayor Biography, 2009, para. 3). Sotomayor "excelled in school" (Lewis, 2010, para. 9),
"graduat[ing] as valedictorian of her class at Blessed Sacrament and Cardinal Spellman High
School in New York" (Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2009, para. 7), and "graduat[ing] summa cum
laude from Princeton in 1976" (Sonia Sotomayor Biography, 2009, para. 5), then "earn[ing] a law
degree from Yale Law School in 1979" (Lewis, 2010, para. 9). Sotomayor's mother stressed the
importance of reading and education, and worked hard to provide her children the materials they
needed for a good education.
96 A Journey Through My College Papers
Justice Sotomayor served as a trial lawyer in the district attorney's office in Manhattan,
New York, after passing the bar in 1980, and later went into private practice of law, where she did
pro bono work for several agencies (Sonia Sotomayor Biography, 2009). Sotomayor was
[N]ominated by George H.W. Bush on November 27, 1991, to serve as a federal
judge, and she was confirmed by the Senate on August 11 of 1992. She was
nominated on June 25, 1997, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second
Circuit, by President William J. Clinton, and was confirmed by the Senate on
October 2, 1998. (Lewis, 2010, para. 11)
"President Barack Obama nominated [Sotomayor] as an Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009" (Justices of the Supreme
Court, n.d., para. 9).
Justice Sotomayor is known as "a sharp and fearless jurist who does not let powerful
interests bully her into departing from the rule of law" (Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2009, para. 12).
In addition, Justice Sotomayor "understands that upholding the rule of law means going beyond
legal theory to ensure consistent, fair, common-sense application of the law to real-world facts"
(Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2009, para. 14).
Justice Sotomayor is firm in her support of the Constitution, and in her refusal to bypass
constitutional law in her interpretation of the law. She continues to emphasize the importance of
education, operating a summer youth program for students in inner city high schools to learn about
the practice of law. She has a strong commitment to family. She believes in giving back to her
community, and has served with several organizations, including the second Circuit Task Force on
Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts, and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and
Education Fund (Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2009).
In a White House press release on May 26, 2009, the day she was appointed by President
Obama, Justice Sotomayor was identified as "the only Justice with experience as a trial judge"
(Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2009, para. 3), and the press release goes on to emphasize the
importance of the fact that "[s]ince joining the Second Circuit, Sotomayor has honored the
Constitution, the rule of law, and justice, often forging consensus and winning conservative
colleagues to her point of view" (Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2009, para. 140.
References
Judge Sonia Sotomayor. (2009, May 26). Retrieved March 9, 2010, from the White House
Web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/background-on-judge-Sonia-
Sotomayor/
Justices of the Supreme Court, The. (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2010, from
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf
Lewis, J.J. (2010). Sonia Sotomayor Biography. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/publicofficials/p/sotomayor.htm?p=1
Sonia Sotomayor Biography. (2009). Retrieved March 9, 2010, from
http://www.biography.com/articles/Sonia-Sotomayor-453906?print
Senate and House Sites 3/4/2010
I first visited the opening page of the U.S. Senate Web site and the opening page of the
U.S. House of Representatives Web site. Even those opening pages show some differences. The
Senate site discusses the way voting occurs in the Senate, as well as a bit of Senate history, on the
first page, and the page is decorated with a piece of a classical painting. The page is inviting,
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accented in royal blue and red, and it appears to favor educating visitors. In addition, the bar of
navigation links is easy to find, and it includes a link for "Art & History" (U.S. Senate, n.d.,
header).
The first page of the House Web site, in contrast to the Senate site, is stark and utilitarian,
accented in dark grey. It contains simple, vertical lists of links, with minimal pictorial buttons and
with no historical information. Featured on the page are a search tool for locating one's
Representative, as well as a section for information about the H1N1 flu. Where the Senate site
appears to be intended for the upper class visitor, the House site appears to be designed for the
common man, echoing the historical makeup of the two houses of Congress, in which the senate
has often been seen as the house of the aristocrats and the House has often been seen as the house
of the common people.
Seeking to find content differences or similarities between the two sites, as well as the
initial aesthetic differences, I then went to the schedule of activities on each site. The Senate site
lists the schedule of committee meetings and hearings for March, 2010. The Senate schedule for
March includes many entries for appropriations and finance issues, several entries for judiciary
issues, several entries for armed forces and veterans' affairs issues, energy and natural resources
issues, and a scattering of other topics. Reading beyond the titles of the issues, many of the
meetings and hearings that are not overtly financial in nature also deal with budget concerns.
In contrast with the senate's schedule of upcoming business, the House site provides a
recap of the previous day's business, reading very much like the minutes of a meeting, listed in
reverse chronological order. Similar to business in the Senate, the House activities for February
26, 2010, includes several matters involving appropriations and budgets. In the minutiae of the
House day, I was struck by an entry reading: "The Clerk was authorized to correct section
numbers, punctuation, and cross references, and to make other necessary technical and conforming
corrections ... [a]greed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required)" (Legislative Activities, n.d., para.
6). I can see that this is important to the accurate record keeping of the House, but the time stamps
indicate that authorizing technical corrections to a single bill took ten minutes, whereas a matter
involving appropriations for intelligence activities took only nine minutes.
With both the entry pages of the Web sites for the Senate and the House, and the
activities pages of the sites, I have the impression that the Senate puts more effort into being
inviting and accessible to the people than the House does. It seems that the difference goes back
to the impression, which I mentioned earlier, that the Senate is more associated with a sort of
American aristocracy, while the House is more associated with the common, working class in
America.
References
Daily Didest Committee Meetings/Hearings Schedule. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2010, from the
U.S. Senate Web site at
http://senate.gov/pagelayout/committees/b_three_sections_with_teasers/committee
_hearings.htm
Legislative Activities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2010, from the U.S. House of Representatives
Web site at http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.html
United States House of Representatives, 111th Congress, 2nd Session. (n.d.). Retrieved March
1, 2010, from the U.S. House of Representatives Web site at http://www.house.gov
United States Senate. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2010, from the U.S. Senate web site at
http://www.senate.gov
98 A Journey Through My College Papers
Speech Codes in Education 3/15/2010
Although it is well known that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is
often treated as the crown jewel in the Bill of Rights, protects the freedoms of speech and
expression for Americans, that constitutional protection is frequently not extended to the speech
and expression of students in America’s schools, colleges, and universities. This seeming
inconsistency not only stands up to scrutiny under the law, but is popularly accepted in the spirit
of political correctness, but legality and acceptance do not make the practice right. American
students deserve to be protected by the same rule of law that applies to Americans who are
enrolled in school.
The erosion of students’ rights to free speech and expression has been progressing over
the last two decades or longer, with “federal courts … erod[ing] the First Amendment protection
of students' speech in the public schools” (LoMonte, 2009, para. 3). It is noteworthy that the
restriction of students’ rights is not happening only within the schools, but that it has been fed by
the actions of the federal courts. It is also important to note that “private colleges are generally not
bound by the First Amendment” (Gould, 2001, para. 24). The Constitution only limits restrictions
imposed by the federal government, and, by extension, those schools that operate with federal
funds; the government has no power to influence speech rules in private. Therefore, this
discussion will only deal with those public educational institutions that are subject to
constitutional law.
Not all schools have restrictive speech codes, nor should they have such codes if they
truly intend to educate, inform, and shape students, but many schools, even public schools that are
subject to constitutional law, not only have speech codes but have added such codes in recent
decades. Jon B. Gould (2001) reports “[b]y 1997 the percentage of schools with speech policies
had jumped 11% [since 1987], and … offensive speech codes had tripled” (para. 44). One
explanation for this increase is that “high-level administrators … instigated hate speech regulation
… [because they] sought to diffuse racial unrest on campus and deliver ‘symbolic, perhaps even
cynical’ gestures to appease marginalized groups and keep pace with … [a] ‘mainstream’
academic administration” (King, 2006, para. 3). It is one thing to restrict hate speech that is
directed at a particular person or group, or that represents or incites violence and, in fact, it is
reasonable that “public entities may prohibit words ‘which by their very utterance inflict injury or
tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace’” (Gould, 2001, para. 21), however; it is quite
another thing to restrict all speech that might be perceived as offensive to anyone, and many
schools that enacted the former restrictions went too far and enacted the latter restrictions. As
Bryan R. Warnick (2009) writes in the Educational Researcher, “people do not have a right to live
forever unoffended” (para. 31). In educating students, schools at all levels prepare students for life
in the real world of adult life, and being protected from any possibility of offense does not prepare
students to face the world; rather, students need to be taught to face potentially offensive speech
and other forms of expression with grace and dignity, and to be taught how to glean what is good
and useful from that speech that might tend to offend. The censorship inherent in institutional
speech codes does not allow such teaching and learning to occur.
In his article for the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, Frank D. LoMonte (2009), tells
us that “[f]orty years ago the Supreme Court resoundingly affirmed that young people attending
public schools do not ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the
schoolhouse gate’" (para. 1). He goes on to tell us that “the Supreme Court recognized … that …
administrators may restrict student speech only if such speech ‘materially and substantially
disrupts the work and discipline of the school’" (LoMonte, 2009, para. 8). By these reports,
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students should enjoy the same protections of their speech and expression that are enjoyed by
anyone who is not enrolled in school, and that is the way it ought to be. Every student attending a
public institution, from the youngest preschooler to the eldest college or university student,
deserves to be able to express his or her ideas and opinions, barring only those expressions that are
almost universally rejected as “fighting words,” and those that are hate speech directed toward a
particular person or group, or that represent or incite violence, as discussed earlier. Any other
restriction also restricts the free exchange of ideas, the free flow of discussion and academic
inquiry, and the free development of the personalities and social skills of the students who are thus
restricted. As Patrick Tucker (2006) writes, “speech codes … not only prohibit students from
practicing their constitutionally protected rights, but they also undermine the very mission of
higher education. (para. 8). Sadly, this is not the case in many of America’s schools, and
LoMonte (2009) reports that “courts are increasingly willing to tolerate school punishment …
[for] speech that would enjoy full First Amendment protection if written by anyone not enrolled in
school (para. 2), and that “students never … have First Amendment rights coextensive with those
of adults. (para. 22). In fact, Patrick Tucker (2006), writing for The Futurist, reports that “students
and faculty have been punished for engaging in what would be protected speech off campus …
[including] eviction from housing, suspension, mandatory psychological counseling, and threats of
expulsion” (para. 5). An atmosphere of fear, especially the fear of exploring and expressing ideas
and concepts that come out of academic study, will retard students’ ability and motivation to take
part in discussion with their peers, and even their ability to learn.
This brings out two specific concerns about the control of speech in schools: that there is
a distinct disparity between speech by students and speech by non-students; and that there is an
apparent assumption that all students are children, to be treated differently than adults are treated.
The first concern suggests that, by being enrolled in school, students become less valuable citizens
than people who are not students. First Amendment rights are stripped from students as they are
not stripped from any other class of citizens. Making the problem worse is the fact that attendance
in school is mandatory for students through secondary school, so students are unable to avoid the
circumstance that strips away their rights. In a country in which so many have fought and died to
protect the freedoms of the citizens, it borders on criminal for the federal government, through its
agents in the education system, to limit or to deny the full freedom of speech and expression to
any of its citizens based on their status as students. The second concern may be viewed in two
ways. Either the government fails to recognize that many students, in fact, the majority of
students, attending colleges and universities, as well as a number of high school students, are
adults, having reached the age of majority at age 18; or the government finds that it is acceptable
to treat adult students as though they were children, further stripping away their constitutional
rights based solely on their role as students. Regardless of which interpretation is correct, or
whether the truth is some combination of the two options, it is an untenable situation. An adult
student, by the simple definition of being an adult, must “have First Amendment rights
coextensive with those of [other] adults. (LoMonte, 2009, para. 22), just as an adult doctor, an
adult laborer, and adult stay-at-home mother, an adult welfare client, or even an adult felon has
such rights. The operative word in each of these designations is “adult.” It might be true that a
child does not have the same rights as an adult, but it is a gross oversimplification to assume that a
student is the same as a child.
Aside from the simple, and supposedly unalienable, rights of students to have their
freedom of speech protected within the venue of the public school, there are additional reasons
that such protection must be assured for students. One very simple reason, which is often
overlooked, is that “[c]hildren and adolescents can know more than adults about specific issues”
(Warnick, 2009, para. 18). Students, including those who are children, have knowledge, ideas,
viewpoints, opinions, and dreams that deserve to be heard. Often, such speech goes beyond
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deserving to be heard and needs to be heard by parents, by administrators, and by society.
Unfortunately, under the rule of speech codes in the schools, students who attempt to inform
society are often silenced and punished for their speech. In one case in which students wrote
articles for a school newspaper, a “high school principal ordered the removal of [the articles in] …
which teenagers discussed their perspective on divorce, pregnancy, and other social issues”
(LoMonte, 2009, para. 11). In a time in which parents are urged to encourage their children to talk
about their lives and their thoughts, it is unconscionable to quash a student’s attempt to express his
or her perspective on a difficult topic of development and family life. Instead, teachers,
administrators, and legislators need to encourage students to express themselves honestly,
thoughtfully, and creatively, so that students may have a safe outlet for such expressions, and so
that school and government authorities may better understand what interests, motivates, and
concerns students.
Similarly, rigid speech codes prevent students expressing their emotions, including
potentially violent emotions, through non-violent, creative media. LoMonte (2009) writes that
“the Fifth Circuit found no constitutional violation in a … decision to remove a high school
sophomore from school and transfer him to a disciplinary alternative school in response to a
violent fantasy story written in a notebook the student was carrying in his school backpack” (para.
18). Students need safe outlets to express their emotions, and creative writing is an excellent
vehicle for self-expression, just as painting, sculpture, music, and dance are creative options that
should be encouraged and nurtured in students, not repressed and punished. In this instance, the
student might have benefitted from talking to a mental health worker about the emotions behind
his fantasy story, but moving him to a school that would leave a permanent stain on his academic
record and future résumé was an extreme response to the situation. The student in question should
have been protected by the First Amendment in his writing of a fantasy story, but he was denied
this constitutional right because of his status as a student. Had this student not been a student, a
story written in a notebook that he kept in his backpack would have been protected speech.
Instead, since “[c]hildren outside school environments … have rights that children within school
environments do not … [and] even adults who are students might have their free expression
limited in school contexts” (Warnick, 2009, para. 22), this student’s private expression was not
allowed to be protected speech.
When students’ speech and, by extension, writing and art, is not protected by the First
Amendment, even when that speech is private, as in a story in a notebook, an email message, or a
text message, students are held to a different standard than other Americans are held to. Even
though the speech is intended to be private, if it originates with a student, then “the speaker is
charged with anticipating that his message will be shown, without his authorization, to people with
whom he never intended to communicate (LoMonte, 2009, para. 22). In the case of electronic
speech, such as email, text messages, and messages on social networking sites, as well as blogs
and Web sites, that are produced by students, “online speech is punishable as on-campus speech
because the effects of the speech will be felt on campus … [and is] even more perilous …
[because it] can apply equally to all speech, online or not” (LoMonte, 2009, para. 22). This is
dangerous to students’ free expression, as it can reasonably be argued that any speech or writing
by anyone, whether or not a student, may be felt on campus. News reports about the race, gender,
past experiences, or approach to the issues of a presidential candidate should be expected to be felt
on campus. News of the Challenger disaster, of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, of the World
Trade Center disaster, of the sexual indiscretions of the President of the United States, and of
various school shootings have all reached school campuses over the past several decades, but the
writers of these examples of speech and expression have been protected because the originators
were not students. On a smaller level, LoMonte’s quote, above, makes it risky for a high school
student to tell his friends at the local pizza parlor that he and his girlfriend broke up, because the
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effects of his off-campus speech are likely to be felt on campus. If a student posts on her blog that
her boyfriend proposed to her at the prom that night, the effects of her off-campus speech are
likely to be felt on campus. It is even intimidating for a student to consider addressing a school
board meeting about his knowledge of the deplorable conditions in the school’s bathrooms, or
about her observations about on-campus drug use, because the effects of that off-campus speech is
certain to be felt on campus. As Mary McCarthy (2009) writes in the Journal of Law and
Education, “schools are not required to show that speech will cause disorder, disturbance, or
material disruption of class work or school discipline for it to be curtailed” (para. 16), and
LoMonte (2009) writes that “Tinker permits not merely preemptive action to stop a potential
disruption, but after-the-fact punishment of a potential disruption that never came to pass” (para.
32). In the face of this, students are vulnerable to punishment in the schools for any and all
speech, whether it is hate speech, offensive speech, or merely speech that might have an effect at
school, no matter where the speech takes place, or in what context. Such restrictions are
potentially dangerously repressive of students, and may be expected to impede the work of
educating students as they live in fear of what will happen based on anything the students say. In
order to protect students, and to promote education and learning, it is necessary to protect student
speech. In fact, “the compulsory nature of schooling seems to require some heightened protection
of student speech rights” (Warnick, 2009, para. 32).
Those who support rigid speech codes in schools sometimes argue that “[c]hildren …
lack the rational ability that is a prerequisite to the meaningful application of traditional free
speech theories" (Hafen, 1987, cited in Warnick, 2009, para. 16). However, Warnick (2009) goes
on to point out that “[i]f we assume that all adults have the intellectual faculties necessary for free
speech, we should … grant that children, too, may … possess such capacities and may … deserve
access to speech rights” (para. 19). I disagree with Hafen that all children inherently lack the
rational ability that is possessed by all adults, or even that all adults possess this rational ability. It
should not matter, in the end, how much rational ability a child possesses, when protecting First
Amendment rights. The Framers did not selectively protect the speech of only the most rational
citizens. The Framers did not stipulate that the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights applied
only to those persons who were not enrolled in school. The Framers did not even state that speech
would be protected only for adults and not for children. Instead, the Framers designed the
supreme law of the United States to protect the rights of every United States citizen. Although the
protection of the First Amendment over speech and expression is not presently extended to
students in many of the public schools, colleges, and universities in the United States, the
language and the spirit of the First Amendment include these students in its protection. Speech
codes at private educational institutions stand up to scrutiny under constitutional law, but speech
codes at public educational institutions must collapse under such scrutiny. In order to guard
education, students must be free to speak without fear. Students’ speech rights must be protected
under the First Amendment.
References
Gould, J.B. (2001). “The precedent that wasn’t: College hate speech codes and the two faces of
legal compliance.” Law & Society Review, 35(2), 345-353. Retrieved February 24,
2010, from ProQuest database.
King, R.D. (2006, September). “Speak no evil: The triumph of hate speech regulation.” Law &
Society Review, 40 (3), 734-736. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from ProQuest database.
LoMonte, F.D. (2009, May). “Reaching through the schoolhouse gate: students’ eroding
First Amendment rights in a cyber-speech world.” Newsletter on Intellectual
Freedom, 58 (3), 73-83. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from ProQuest database.
102 A Journey Through My College Papers
McCarthy, M. (2009, October). “Curtailing degrading student expression: Is a link to a
disruption required?” Journal of Law and Education, 38 (4), 607-621. Retrieved
February 24, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Tucker, P. (2006, March/April). “Speech codes and the future of education.” The Futurist, 40
(2), 1. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Warnick, B.R. (2009, April). “Student speech rights and the special characteristics of the
school environment.” Educational Researcher, 38 (3), 200-215. Retrieved
February 24, 2010, from ProQuest database.
INF 103: Computer Literacy
Air Travel Database 4/7/2010
The Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) was developed to allow
air carriers to determine which passengers are unknown or high security risks. CAPPS takes basic
identification information and runs it through "commercial data providers" (Subcommittee on
Aviation, 2005, para. 3.1) to create a "risk assessment 'score' [for] each passenger: green for
minimal, yellow to spark heightened security procedures, and red for those judged to pose an acute
danger, who would be referred to law enforcement for possible arrest" (EPIC, 2008, para. 7). One
example of this process is CAPPS "conduct[ing] risk assessments using government databases,
including classified and intelligence data, to generate a risk score" (Subcommittee on Aviation,
2005, para. 3.3). Another example is CAPPS "us[ing] information from the passenger’s itinerary
to search for certain behavioral characteristics determined by the FAA ... to indicate a higher
security risk" (Subcommittee on Aviation, 2005, para. 2).
CAPPS collects several kinds of personal information, "including full name, date of birth,
home address and home telephone number" (Fiorino, 2004, para. 2). In addition, CAPPS collects
"'financial and transactional data,' which could include credit card and other consumer-purchase
data, housing information, communications records, health records and ... public source
information such as law enforcement and legal records" (CAPPS II Data-Mining, 2003, para. 8).
The first group of data -- name, data of birth, address, and phone number -- is provided by the
passenger, and the rest of the data is accessed based on those basic data.
CAPPS has the potential to seriously infringe on personal privacy. "[T]he basic
information of name, address, telephone number and date of birth could be easily obtained by a
terrorist intent on assuming a less risky identity" (Subcommittee on Aviation, 2005, para. 16).
Along with the risk of damage to personal privacy from identity theft, "there is a risk that a
CAPPS-II system might be deployed for the government to control access to all forms of
transportation, including ships, trains, and buses, and might also encompass government buildings
and public spaces" (EPIC, 2008, para. 8). Additionally, the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) "indicated ... that many private and public entities might gain access to the
personal information used in the passenger screening database" (EPIC, 2008, para. 9). The
January Federal Register (2003) states that "a yellow code in a person's file could be shared with
other government agencies at the federal, state and local level, with intelligence agencies such as
the CIA and with foreign governments and international agencies" (cited in CAPPS II Data-
Mining, 2003, para. 6). With all of these agencies and entities having access to passengers'
personal information, there is a serious risk that the information could be held against individuals
when they apply for employment or for government benefits. Barry Steinhardt, Director of the
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ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, warns that "CAPPS II threatens our liberty, but its
security benefits are far from clear" (CAPPS II Data-Mining, 2003, para. 11).
Although I recognize that CAPPS II is intended to make air travel safer, and, by
extension, to make America safer, I would prefer to travel without the CAPPS. Like all rules and
laws, it will work to keep law-abiding citizens in order, but it is unlikely to be an effective
deterrent for those who are intent on circumventing the law. As a traveler, my privacy is at risk
from too many agencies without my clear knowledge of which agency has what information, but
anyone who wants to wreak havoc on a flight can just use a false identity to get on a flight. As a
result, I actually feel less safe with CAPPS than I would feel without it.
References
CAPPS II Data-Mining System Will Invade Privacy and Create Government Blacklist of
Americans, ACLU Warns. (2003, February 27). Retrieved April 6, 2010, from
http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/capps-ii-data-mining-system-will-invade-
privacy-and-create-government-blackli
EPIC -- Electronic Privacy Information Center. (2008). Retrieved April 6, 2010, from
http://epic.org/privacy/airtravel/profiling.html
Fiorino, L. (2004, June 25). Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System to make
skies safer. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4183/is_20040625/ai_n10061646/
Subcommittee on Aviation Hearing on The Status Of The Computer-Assisted Passenger
Prescreening System (CAPPS II). (2005, April 27). Retrieved April 6, 2010, from
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/2004_h/040317-memo.htm
Artificial Intelligence 4/19/2010
In the not-so-distant past, artificial intelligence, or AI, was the stuff of science fiction
books and movies. One of the most famous examples of AI is the HAL 9000 computer, which
was a major character in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL interacted with the
human character, Dave, on an almost human level. Today, however, AI has ceased to be the sole
property of science fiction and has become, instead, a very real and practical reality in our modern
world.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online (2010) defines artificial intelligence as “a
branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers …
[and] the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior” (para. 1). The scientific
effort to develop AI got its start in the 1950’s, when “a group of scientists decided to try to
provide the computer with intelligence. Their goal seemed attainable due to a common
metaphorical identification of the computer with a brain” (Gozzi, 1997, para. 2). In the early
1960’s, AI received attention from the government, with “funding from the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Office of Naval Research (ONR)” (Waltz, 1996, para.
6). Government interest in AI continued into the 1970’s, with the U.S. Army, NASA, and other
government agencies adding their support to AI research (Waltz, 1996). AI did not remain only in
the U.S., of course, and “[b]y the early 1980's an "expert systems" industry had emerged, and
Japan and Europe dramatically increased their funding of AI research” (Waltz, 1996, para. 7). In
1970, Darrach predicted:
In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence
of an average human being … [and] [i]n a few months it will be at genius level
104 A Journey Through My College Papers
and a few months after that its powers will be incalculable. (cited in Gozzi,
1997, para. 5)
While that prediction has not come true, the Chinook checkers program, developed by
Jonathan Schaeffer of the University of Alberta, has advanced to the point where “[t]here isn’t a
human alive today that can ever win a game anymore against the full program” (Grayson, 2007,
para. 2) because it has been programmed to learn and to adapt. AI affects many aspects of modern
life, with Amtrak, Wells Fargo, Land's End, and many other organizations … replacing keypad-
menu call centers with speech-recognition systems … [,] General Motors OnStar driver assistance
system rel[ying] primarily on voice commands, … [t]he Lexus DVD Navigation System
respond[ing] to over 100 commands and guid[ing] the driver with voice and visual directions … [,
and] avatars … becoming common” (Halal, 2004, paras. 15-33).
With traditional, digital
computers, it requires “the output
of an entire power station”
(Watson, 1997, para. 6) to
perform 1016 operations per
second, while the human brain
can do the same amount of work
“while consuming less power
than an electric light bulb”
(Watson, 1997, para. 6). (See
Figure 1.) Newer, analog
computers, on the other hand, can “run at a
computational speed a million times faster than
the human brain” (Berne, 2001, para. 6). (See
Figure 2.) With this increase in computational
power, it is now possible to build “absolutely
creative computers whose probably-useful
output is unpredictable even in principle
effectively creative computers whose probably-
useful output is unpredictable in practice”
(Caulfield, 1995, para. 3). In other words, it is
now possible to build a computer that will
behave like a human brain. As a result, “[i]n
the second decade of this century … it will be
increasingly difficult to draw any clear
distinction between the capabilities of human
and machine intelligence” (Berne, 2001, para.
5). It is estimated that, by the end of this
century, “humans will be able to use scanning
technology for the purpose of … downloading
the brains contents into another receptacle”
(Berne, 2001, para. 8). Ultimately, some
researchers believe, this downloading of the
brain’s contents will “mak[e] a form of
immortality “ (Markoff, 2009, para. 11).
Figure 1
Figure 2
Undergraduate Series 105
Authorizing Financial Transactions Configuring Hardware and Software
Credit card providers
Telephone companies
Mortgage lenders
Banks
U.S. Government
AI systems detect fraud and expedite financial
transactions, with daily transaction volumes in
the billions.
Custom computer systems
Communications systems
Manufacturing systems
Track the rapid technological evolution of
system components and specifications.
Systems currently deployed process billions of
dollars of orders annually.
Diagnosing and Treating Problems Scheduling for Manufacturing
Medical:
Diagnosis
Prescribing treatment
Monitoring patient response
Technological:
Photocopiers
Computer systems
Office automation
Monitor and control operations in factories
and office buildings
Manufacturing operations
Job shop scheduling
Assigning airport gates
Assigning railway crews
Military settings
AI technology has shown itself superior to less
adaptable systems based on older technology.
Table 1
While AI-assisted immortality is still a thing of the future, AI is in common use in four
areas of life now: in authorizing financial transactions, in configuring hardware and software, in
diagnosing and treating both medical and technological problems, and in scheduling for
manufacturing (Waltz, 1996). (See Table 1.) Anyone who has ever called a business or a
government agency and has talked to a voice-recognition program to navigate through the menu to
reach a particular department has interacted with artificial intelligence. Anyone who has
instructed a hands-free cell phone to “call home” has interacted with artificial intelligence. The
popular Tom-Tom navigation system, which tells drivers where to turn, and which helps drivers
find the correct route when they miss a turn, uses artificial intelligence. “[F]or the most part, AI
does not produce stand-alone systems, but instead adds knowledge and reasoning to existing
applications, databases, and environments, to make them friendlier, smarter, and more sensitive to
user behavior and changes in their environments” (Waltz, 1996, para. 2).
These examples of AI do not yet fully imitate humans, as they are not yet self-aware, nor
do computers yet exhibit beliefs, desires, or emotions, but they are a major step toward the future
that was embodied in “the HAL 9000 computer from Arthur Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey or
the superhuman android, Lieutenant Commander Data, of the television program ‘Star Trek: The
Next Generation’” (High-performance artificial intelligence, 1997, para. 5). It is expected that
computers will continue to learn human traits, however, including “beliefs and desires, even
emotions” (Sparrow, 2004, para. 1), and “they will become fully fledged self-conscious ‘artificial
intelligences’” (Sparrow, 2004, para. 1). While the AI devices that are used today are merely what
is known as “weak AI,” the latter sort of AI, which works “towards the creation of genuine
artificial intelligence – a project known as ‘Strong AI’” (Sparrow, 2004, para. 5). The
development of strong AI may one day lead to the creation of artificial intelligence not unlike “the
sort made popular by speculative fiction and films such as ‘Blade Runner’, ‘The Terminator’,
‘Alien’, ‘Aliens’ and ‘AI’” (Sparrow, 2004, para. 46). In the pursuit of strong AI, “researchers
[using neuromorphics] are capturing in silicon … the ‘essence’ of biological subsystems”
106 A Journey Through My College Papers
(Watson, 1997, para. 2). This concept harks back to another famous Arthur C. Clarke story: “Dial
F for Frankenstein,” as well as a 1993 paper by Vernor Vinge: “The Singularity” (Markoff, 2009).
Following the work of British mathematician Alan Turing, Daniel Dennett of the MIT Artificial
Intelligence Lab has created an intelligent robot called Cog (Proudfoot, 1999). Cog has been
designed to resemble a human in form as well as intelligence, having “’hips’ and a ‘waist,’ and …
hav[ing] skin and a face” (Proudfoot, 1999, para. 1). Cog will be able to learn, and it will “delight
in learning, abhor error, strive for novelty, [and] recognize progress" (Proudfoot, 1999, para. 1).
As we move through the 21st Century, it is not unreasonable to expect “a modest version
of the talking computer made famous in 2001: A Space Odyssey” (Halal, 2004, para. 40) to
become a reality, although Halal’s (2004) prediction that such a computer would be available in
2010 fell a bit short of the mark. It will be important, as research and development of AI
advances, to guard against the creation of anything like "’Terminator Salvation’ [, which] comes
complete with a malevolent artificial intelligence dubbed Skynet, a military R.&D. project that
gained self-awareness and concluded that humans were an irritant … to be dispatched forthwith”
(Markoff, 2009, para. 1). While “[t]he history of artificial intelligence is littered with the wrecks
of fantastical predictions of machine “ (Proudfoot, 1999, para. 3), AI continues to advance, and to
become entrenched in more and more aspects of daily life, and “it is dangerously presumptuous to
claim that science will never progress to the point at
which the question of the moral status of intelligent computers arises” (Sparrow,
2004, para. 5). Instead, it may be wiser to accept the probability that AI will
advance to this point in time, and to consider “whether such machines might be
the ‘machines of loving grace,’ of the Richard Brautigan poem, or something far
darker, of the ‘Terminator’ ilk” (Markoff, 2009, para. 17).
While the world waits for “a personal computer … to simulate the brain-power of a
trillion human brains” (Berne, 2001, para. 6), “[s]cientific advances are making it possible for
people to talk to smart computers … [and to] exploit … the commercial potential of the Internet”
(Halal, 2004, para. 1). Rollo Carpenter has developed a program called Cleverbot, which is
designed to learn conversational language. Cleverbot “chats” with human users on the Internet “to
learn how to generate better dialogue over time” (Saenz, 2010, para. 1). Cleverbot does not, yet,
interact with its human users on the level of the HAL 9000, but it “uses a growing database of 20+
million online conversations to talk with anyone who goes to its website” (Saenz, 2010, para. 1),
which is located at http://www.cleverbot.com.
From cell phones to navigation systems to medical diagnostics, AI has moved out of the
realm of science fiction and has become a very present, practical reality of modern life. As
chatterbox programs like Cleverbot advance, the future of AI appears bright, and almost limitless.
For now, we can all contribute to the development of AI by logging on to chat with Cleverbot
while we wait on hold for voice-recognition customer service answering systems on our Smart
Phones.
References
“Artificial Intelligence”. (2010). Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved April 13, 2010,
from http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/artificial+intelligence
Berne, R. (2001, Fall). “Robosapiens, Transhumanism, and the Kurzweilian Utopia: Why
the Trans In Transhumanism?” Iris, 43, 36. Retrieved March 16, 2010, from
ProQuest database.
Caulfield, H.J. (1995). “The computer subconscious.” Kybernetes, 24 (4), 46-52. Retrieved
March 16, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Gozzi, R. (1997, Summer). “Artificial Intelligence – Metaphor or oxymoron?” Et Cetera,
54 (2), 219-224, Retrieved March 16, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Undergraduate Series 107
Grayson, B. (2007, July 19). The Next Jump in Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved March 16, 2010,
from http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/the-next-jump-in-artificial-
intelligence/article_print
Halal, W.E. (2004, March/April). “The Intelligent Internet: The Promise of Smart Computers and
E-Commerce.” The Futurist, 38 (2), 27-32. Retrieved March 16, 2010, from ProQuest
database.
“High-performance artificial intelligence.” (1997, August 12). Science, 265 (5174), 891- 892.
Retrieved March 16, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Markoff, J. (2009, May 24). “The Coming Superbrain.” The New York Times. Retrieved March
16, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/weekinreview/24markoff.html
Proudfoot, D. (1999, April 30). “How human can they get?” Science, 284 (5415), 745.
Retrieved March 16, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Saenz, A. (2010, January 13). Cleverbot Chat Engine Is Learning From The Internet To Talk
Like A Human. Retrieved April 13, 2010, from
http://singularityhub.com/2010/01/13/cleverbot-chat-engine-is-learning-from-the-
internet-to-talk-like-a-human/
Sparrow, R. (2004). “The Turing Triage Test.” Ethics and Information Technology, 6, 203-213.
Retrieved March 16, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Waltz, D.L. (1996). Artificial Intelligence: Realizing the Ultimate Promises of Computing.
Retrieved March 16, 2010, from
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/lazowska/cra/ai.html
Watson, A. (1997, September 26). “Why can’t a computer be more like a brain?” Science, 277
(5334), 1934-1936. Retrieved March 16, 2010, from ProQuest database.
Electronic Monitoring 3/31/2010
There are many types of electronic monitoring and electronic surveillance. Generally,
one is likely to be aware of monitoring measures, but one may be entirely unaware of surveillance
measures. Electronic monitoring and surveillance devices include those used in corrections, those
used by businesses to monitor employees and customers, and those used by the government to
monitor possible seditious or terrorist activities. "The following are types of electronic monitoring
devices utilized by Oakland County [, Michigan,] Community Corrections Division: Global
Positioning System (GPS)[,] Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM)[,]
Breathalyzer Monitor[, and] Ignition Interlock " (Electronic Monitoring Devices, 2010, para. 2).
With GPS, "[t]he offender's movements are tracked via satellites and reported at regular intervals,
in the event of a violation, the offender's movement is reported in as close to real time as possible"
(Electronic Monitoring Devices, 2010, para. 3). The SCRAM system "uses transdermal ...
analysis to determine the offender's Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) every hour at least 24 times per
day" (Electronic Monitoring Devices, 2010, para. 5). The breathalyzer monitor "randomly
monitors and screens the defendant for alcohol while he/she is at home" (Electronic Monitoring
Devices, 2010, para. 6). Finally, the ignition interlock "is a breath analyzer installed into a vehicle
to prevent a person from starting the engine if alcohol is detected in their system" (Electronic
Monitoring Devices, 2010, para. 7). These measures make me feel more secure, as I live in
Oakland County, Michigan, and these measures help keep offenders from being dangerous to
society.
Monitoring measures used in businesses include card scanners, which "detect ... the
proximity of a portable ... security card that may contain a coded magnetic strip or embedded
108 A Journey Through My College Papers
electronic circuitry that identifies the holder as an authorized visitor" (Definition of Card scanner,
2010, para. 1); fingerprint scanners, which "can scan a fingerprint and compare the digitized
image/data with fingerprints in a database of authorized visitors" (Definition of Fingerprint
scanner, 2010, para. 1); keypad entry devices, which "require ... the user to depress keys in a
predetermined order, either sequentially or simultaneously" (Definition of Keypad entry device,
2010, para. 1); retinal scanners, which "can scan a retinal image and compare the digitized
image/data with retinal scans in a database of authorized visitors" (Definition of Retinal scanner,
2010, para. 1); and voice recognition devices, which "can accurately distinguish voice
characteristics and compare the digitized voice data with voice prints in a database of authorized
visitors" (Definition of Voice recognition, 2010, para. 1). Businesses may also use security
cameras and magnetic security devices inside or attached to products, or metal detectors, to
improve security.
Monitoring and surveillance measures used by the government include metal detectors, x-
ray devices, and security cameras, as well as the FBI's Carnivore Program. The Carnivore
program "is a packet 'sniffer' diagnostic tool that the FBI's Engineering Research Facility (ERF) in
Quantico, Va. developed to covertly search for e-mails and other computer messages from
criminal suspects" (Telecommunications Industry Association, 2010, para. 2).
Knowing that electronic security devices are in place sometimes makes me feel more
secure, as I stated in the first paragraph, above, but it sometimes makes me feel that my privacy is
being compromised, as with certain surveillance cameras that are placed in restrooms or in
changing rooms. I recognize the need for security measures, but I don't always enjoy experiencing
those measures.
Electronic surveillance equipment in public places, or in places where individuals do not
have a reasonable expectation of privacy, do not constitute an invasion of privacy, but surveillance
equipment that enters individuals' homes, personal communications, or rest room facilities, or that
cause a violation of privileged communications, such as with a doctor, with legal representation,
or with clergy, is an invasion of privacy. In an article in Smart Computing, it was reported that
"the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported on its Freedom Network in several 1998
and 1999 articles that 50 million Americans are being electronically monitored at work" (At-Work
Privacy, 2010, para. 1). In addition, "[m]any employers have installed hidden video cameras in
locker rooms and bathrooms, sometimes inside the stalls. Many of these devices are specifically
targeted against women" (Workplace Voyeurism, n.d., para. 1). The AFL-CIO, as reported in At-
Work Privacy (2010), states that "electronic surveillance invades workers' privacy, erodes their
sense of dignity, and frustrates their efforts to do high-quality work by a single-minded emphasis
on speed and other purely quantitative measurements" (para. 10).
There have been a number of court cases that involve privacy issues associated with
electronic monitoring and surveillance. In a five-year case that began in 1993, "Frank Etienne and
Brad Fair, employees of the Sheraton in Boston ... discovered their employer was secretly
videotaping them in the men's dressing room ... it was settled for $200,000" (At-Work Privacy,
2010, para. 13). Several cases in which the employers prevailed include Bourke vs. Nissan Motor
Corp (1993), Flanagan vs. Epson America, Inc (1991), and Smyth vs. Pillsbury Co (1996), all of
which involved monitoring of e-mail communications (At-Work Privacy, 2010). Cases involving
monitoring of bathrooms and locker rooms include Florida's Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and
Liberti v. Walt Disney World Co; Illinois' Brazinski v. Amoco Petroleum Additives Co. and Benitez
v. KFC Natl. Mgt. Co; Kansas' Thompson v. Johnson County Community College; Maine's
Delledonne v. Dugrenier; Michigan's Lewis v. Dayton Hudson Corp; and Wisconsin's Gallun v.
Soccer U.S.A, Inc.
A case involving electronic monitoring, rather than surveillance, is People v. McNair, 87
N.Y.2D 772 (1996), in which the "defendant -- an admitted alcoholic -- received a sentence of six
Undergraduate Series 109
months of incarceration, five years probation, and a one year period of electronic monitoring"
(People v. McNair, 1996, para. 1). McNair appealed the sentence of monitoring, and "[b]ecause
the court deemed the electronic monitoring imposed on Defendant to be fundamentally deterrent
or punitive and without express legislative authority, the court rejected its force as a condition on
Defendant's probation" (People v. McNair, 1996, para. 7).
Privacy is a fundamental human right, and in most cases I would say that privacy in an
individual's home or in his or her personal communications should be of paramount importance.
However, individual privacy cannot supersede the need for security in government or in business,
nor can privacy supersede issues of national security. Businesses have a right to protect their
interests, and employees and customers of businesses have no reasonable expectation of privacy
while on the premises of a business. "No matter how small your business might be, security
should be high on your priority list" (Electronic Security Devices, 2010, para. 1). Businesses use
electronic surveillance to improve employee productivity, to reduce losses due to theft, and to
reduce industrial espionage (At-Work Privacy, 2010). Employees need to be careful about using
employers' equipment and resources for personal communications, such as phone conversations
and e-mails, as "[t]he courts have exploited the doctrine of implied consent to find that employees
and applicants have consented to workplace surveillance wherever employers gave advance notice
of such monitoring" (At-Work Privacy, 2010, para. 15).
References
At-Work Privacy. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/g0804
/20g04/20g04.asp
Definition of Card scanner. (2010, March 11). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.apt.gc.ca/ap11140E.asp?pId=514
Definition of Fingerprint scanner. (2010, March 11). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.apt.gc.ca/ap11140E.asp?pId=515
Definition of Keypad entry device. (2010, March 11). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.apt.gc.ca/ap11140E.asp?pId=516
Definition of Retinal scanner. (2010, March 11). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.apt.gc.ca/ap11140E.asp?pId=517
Definition of Voice recognition. (2010, March 11). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.apt.gc.ca/ap11140E.asp?pId=518
Electronic Monitoring Devices. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from the Oakland County,
Michigan, Community Corrections Division Web site at
http://www.oakgov.com/commcorr/program_service/electronic_monitor.html
Electronic Security Devices for Businesses: Security System Tips. (2010). Retrieved March 29,
2010, from http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/management/
d924556083.brc
People v. McNair, 87 N.Y.2D 772. (1996, April 4). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/comments/i96_0075.htm
Telecommunications Industry Association. (2010). Surveillance Technology. Retrieved March
29, 2010, from
http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/technology/calea/surveillance_technology.cfm
Workplace Voyeurism. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from
http://www.workrights.org/issue_electronic/em_videomonitoring.html
110 A Journey Through My College Papers
Smart Cards 3/25/2010
Smart cards are identification cards that contain more personal information than
conventional identification cards because smart cards include electronic chips that contain special
information such as "fingerprints or retina scans" (Gross, 2005, para. 10), as well as "credit card
accounts, your check card account, and possibly even your health records" (Gross, 2005, para. 1).
They are commonly in use in school IDs now, as well as some key cards and bank cards, but we
don't usually call these limited-use cards smart cards. Smart cards "use single cards ... to bundle
different services and with them authentication systems created to support them" (Schwartz, 1998,
para. 6).
Smart cards have economic and privacy benefits. Economic benefits include being able
to digitally sign documents and to "automate payment functions" (Ham and Atkinson, 2002, para.
3). An advantage to this would be "the reduction in fraud that leads to the 'hidden tax' we all pay
through higher credit card interest rates" (Ham and Atkinson, 2002, para. 3), because the smart
card would improve the identification of card users.
Some privacy benefits of smart cards include using thumb prints, instead of passwords, to
access information, because thumb prints cannot be stolen as easily as passwords. "Smart cards
also make it easier to create a digital paper trail on government employees who access your data"
(Ham and Atkinson, 2002, para. 4). In addition, smart cards can reduce identity fraud because
"[e]ven if a thief were able to copy the information on a passport's smart card, he wouldn't be able
to change it because the information will be encrypted ... [t]he encrypted photograph on the smart
card wouldn't match the thief's face if he tried to use it to cross a border" (Gross, 2006, para. 5).
Some smart cards combine economic and privacy benefits, "such as a student ID on a
university campus which allows access into buildings, pays for meals and serves as a library card"
(Schwartz, 1998, para. 3). "[S]mart ID cards may even reduce racial profiling. Airlines, for
instance, could have expedited security procedures for frequent fliers that rely on smart ID cards;
an individual who might otherwise be singled out for additional security screening due to race
could avoid that with a smart ID card" (Ham and Atkinson, 2002, para. 9). This has both
economic benefits for the airlines and personal benefits for the card holder.
There are also privacy concerns surrounding smart cards. One of the prime concerns is
that "giving someone the key to your car ... would be in effect giving them the key to your life"
(Schwartz, 1998, para. 10). Once a person gains access to another person's smart card, the concern
is that the new person gains access to the card owner's personal information, financial data, and
keys to any vehicles or buildings the card owner has access to. The answer to this concern,
however, is that "[w]hile smart cards, by themselves, are privacy-neutral, their on-card intelligence
uniquely enables systems that use them to comply with many of the recommended privacy
guidelines" (Privacy and Secure Identification Systems, 2003, para. 7).
According to Nancy Libin of the Center for Democracy and Technology, "smart cards are
not foolproof. For example, fingerprints could be digitally copied and duplicated ... [and] [u]nlike
passwords, biometrics aren't secret, and they cannot be easily modified ... [o]nce that biometric has
been ... compromised, it's done. It cannot be reissued, it's finished" (Gross, 2005, paras. 19-20).
I am in favor of the use of smart card technology. When my sons were in an elementary
school in southern Illinois last year, they were required to wear smart ID badges with their
photographs and fingerprints, which were used for attendance records, breakfast and lunch
accounts in the school cafeteria, and for library and computer lab usage. Having all of my
information in one card, which would be "accepted as federal ID, required for activities such as
boarding commercial airplanes" (Gross, 2005, para. 9) would be very convenient. If a smart card
Undergraduate Series 111
could replace a house key, a car key, a driver's license, a bank card, and a library card, I would not
have to carry several keys and cards that are easy to misplace; I could keep one card that would be
much easier to keep track of.
Recently, I took my children to an identification clinic where their personal information,
details of custody, digital fingerprints, still photographs, and audio and video recordings were
placed on computer CDs. They also received traditional photo ID cards. If we were able to use
smart cards, all of the information could be placed on the cards, which would make it more
efficient for the police to find the children if anything should happen.
References
Gross, G. (2005, September 14). Smart ID Cards Debated. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from
http://www.pcworld.com/article/122537/smart_id_cards_debated.html
--. (2006, August 16). Privacy not a problem, say smart-card vendors. Retrieved March
21, 2010, from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9002508/
Privacy_not_a_problem_say_smart_card_vendors
Ham, S. and Atkinson, R.D. (2002, January 18). Frequently Asked Questions about Smart ID
Cards. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from
http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=140&subsecid=290&contentid=
250075
Privacy and Secure Identification Systems White Paper. (2003, February). Retrieved March 21,
2010, from http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-privacy-report
Schwartz, A. (2007, March 21). Smart Cards at the Crossroads: Authenticator or Privacy
Invader?. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://opt-
out.cdt.org/digsig/idandsmartcards.shtml
PHI 103: Informal Logic
Addressing Stereotypes 6/4/2010
Although it is extremely common for people from every walk of life to judge other
people according to stereotypes that are based on appearances, roles in society, age, religion, and
many other factors, it is inappropriate to judge any individual based on stereotypes of the group to
which that individual belongs. Some groups that are commonly subjected to stereotyping include
politicians, tattooed persons, feminists, and senior citizens.
A common stereotype regarding politicians is that politicians cannot be trusted. In the
past, politicians were often accorded increased respect based on their roles in society, but that is
rarely the case in modern society. Jayaprakash Narayan (2006) writes that “[a]ll democracies
view their politicians with some derision” (para. 2). To be sure, politicians are not viewed in the
same terms by all segments of society. Members of the wealthy upper-class tend to view
politicians as sophisticated peers. Members of the working class tend to view politicians with
distrust, and to have as little to do with politics as they can manage. Members of the poorer lower-
class tend to view politicians as evil, self-serving criminals, whose sole purpose is to destroy the
country and make life as difficult as bureaucratically possible. The stereotype arises somewhere
between the middle and lower classes, since these groups constitute the majority of the population.
There is some truth to the stereotypes about politicians. Some politicians are dishonest,
despite presenting a façade of high integrity. The various peccadilloes of politicians receive a lot
of air time on television, on the radio, and on the internet, as well as a lot of space in print, such
112 A Journey Through My College Papers
that it is often difficult for the public to see the honest, diligent politicians who keep society
working.
Tattooed persons tend to be stereotyped as “being unsuccessful in school, coming from
broken homes, having an unhappy childhood, rarely attending church, having poor decision-
making skills, usually obtaining body modifications while inebriated, and being easy victim to
peer pressure” (Martin and Dula, 2010, para. 5). Persons with tattoos are often referred to as
“freaks,” and it can be very difficult for them to secure employment or to be accepted as credible
witnesses or sources of information. Exceptions to this impression occur when the tattooed
persons are artists or musicians who have achieved national or international acclaim, at which
point the tattoos may be viewed as appropriate symbols of their success.
Some tattooed persons, who belong to urban gangs, or who are employed in occupations
that are commonly viewed as belonging to the undereducated, the lazy, and the violent members
of society, give the truth to the stereotypes about tattooed persons. As in the case of politicians,
the examples that prove the stereotypes are often more visible than the persons who go about
normal, industrious lives, making positive contributions to society, and who just happen to have
tattoos.
Feminists form several different groups within society, but the word “feminist” tends to
evoke images of women who are militantly opposed to any instance of masculine power or
privilege. The stereotype feminist “"is unapologetically sexual [and] understands that good
pleasures make good politics, ...[and] knows that making social change does not contradict the
principle that girls just want to have fun” (Showden, 2009, para. 21). Feminists are often
portrayed as verbally, emotionally, or socially emasculating men. Typically, this stereotype is
perpetuated by men and by women who prefer the earlier “stereotypes of women as gentler, fairer,
more believable, less violent, more victimized, etc., than men” (Showden, 2009, para. 10).
As with the groups discussed above, there are feminists who illustrate the truth of the
stereotypes. Entertainment media has provided many examples in this group, with dominating,
forceful female characters in many movies and television programs. Again, as with the other
groups, the very visible feminists who prove the stereotypes make it hard to notice the many
elegant, successful feminists who live well-balanced lives.
Senior citizens are often referred to as “old” or as “elderly,” each of which evokes an
image of obsoletion. Senior citizens are typically stereotyped as slow, frail, forgetful, sickly, and a
bit eccentric. In the past, senior citizens were revered as the wise men and women of society, and
were accorded exceptional respect, but it the modern world, senior citizens are often tucked away
in nursing homes and retirement communities to save their progeny the trouble of having to care
for the senior citizens. Narina Nunez, et al. (1999) writes that:
Studies examining the perceptions of the elderly in the courtroom ... have yielded mixed
results... asked participants to consider a witness who was a typical 6-, 8-, 21-, or 74-year-old and
rate the hypothetical witness on his or her probable accuracy, suggestibility, honesty, and the
weight they would give to each testimony. They found that only on the dimension of honesty was
the elderly witness rated the same as the younger adult. On all other dimensions they were viewed
more negatively. (para 3)
This study indicates that senior citizens are viewed as being generally inaccurate and
suggestible. Even senior citizens themselves seem to have accepted the stereotypes, and to have
internalized the stereotypes, thus causing the stereotypes to become true.
Nearly everyone knows at least one senior citizen who proves the truth of the elderly
stereotypes. There are many, many senior citizens who truly are slower than they used to be, who
are losing their memories and cognitive powers, and who are relegated to care facilities to await
the end of their lives. It can be hard to recognize the senior citizens who give the lie to the
stereotypes, because these individuals often have physical appearances that look much younger
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than their actual ages. Many senior citizens spend many quality years employed in volunteer
activities, travelling around the country and around the world, and raising generations of
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
There is a degree of truth to any stereotype, and living examples may be found that
appear to prove the veracity of the stereotype claims. As I have indicated above, it is entirely
possible to find a number of dishonest politicians, a group of shiftless and unreliable persons with
tattoos, many militantly overbearing feminists, and senior citizens who have become slow, frail,
and forgetful. It is also possible to find pedophiliac Catholic priests and undereducated African-
American basketball players, as well as examples of every common or obscure stereotype that
exists. However, it is, arguably, easier to find honest, diligent politicians; responsible, stable
persons with tattoos; charming, independent feminists; active senior citizens, devoutly celibate
priests; and well-educated African-Americans of many professions. It is unwise and irresponsible
to judge each and every member of any stereotyped group according to the stereotype, whether the
particular stereotype has positive of negative connotations for the members of the group.
In reading about rhetoric and stereotypes, as well as the many other fallacies of logic that
we have considered during the past week, I have come to realize that I am guilty of thinking in
stereotypes, and of giving in to rhetorical arguments. I do tend to avoid persons with tattoos,
particularly if a person has a lot of tattoos, or if the tattoos contain particular images that my mind
connects with violent activity or with truck drivers. I know that this is an irrational reaction,
particularly since my husband, who is one of the most responsible, reliable, decent people I know,
has a tattoo on his arm. Similarly, I know that I tend to lump politicians together under the
stereotype of being untrustworthy, despite having grown up knowing a number of state and federal
politicians, and despite being quite proud of the political figures in my ancestry.
Stereotypes are easy to accept, because they make it unnecessary for people to think and
to discern for themselves. The easy way is not always the best way, however, and this is one of
those cases. No matter how easy a stereotype may be, it is inappropriate to judge any individual
based on stereotypes of the group to which that individual belongs. It is a much better thing to
consider each individual on his or her own merits, as a unique person. If each person will take the
time to do this, he or she may be pleasantly surprised by the gifts and talents of people he or she
might have overlooked, avoided, or dismissed if he or she had based impressions on stereotypes.
References
Martin, B., and Dula, C.. (2010). “More Than Skin Deep: Perceptions Of, and Stigma Against,
Tattoos.” College Student Journal, 44(1), 200-206. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from
ProQuest Database.
Narayan, J. (2006). “Bridging the Gap Between People and Politicians.” Fellowship, 72(9-12),
37. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Nunez, N., McCoy, M.L., Clark, H.L., and Shaw, L.A.. (1999, August). “The Testimony
of Elderly Victim/Witnesses and Their Impact on Juror Decisions.” Law and Human
Behavior; 23, 4. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Showden, C.. (2009). “What's Political about the New Feminisms?” Frontiers, 30(2), 166-
198,200. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Thinking Critically 6/24/2010
I believe the most important thing I have learned about critical thinking during the course
of this class is how to recognize fallacious arguments. Being able to recognize a fallacy of logic
114 A Journey Through My College Papers
allows me to better respond to an argument, and to seek the true focus of the argument. It also
allows me to recognize if there is no actual point to an argument.
This skill is particularly useful when one is faced with the constant flood of advertising in
today's world. By recognizing and identifying the fallacy in an advertisement, I am better able to
judge whether or not I really want or need a given product or service. It also helps me decide what
to believe and what to discount in the claims of political advertisements. Being able to make
these distinctions reduces my stress by making me able to dismiss many ads that are designed to
promote a feeling of urgency in viewers.
Being able to recognize and to identify fallacious logic in editorial writing is also a
benefit in my life. It allows me to decide whether or not to accept or to reject a writer's opinions
on a given topic. Recognizing fallacies helps me avoid falling prey to the fallacies, and leaves me
free to make up my own mind about a given subject.
In addition, being able to recognize and to identify fallacies in another's argument helps
me to filter my own speech and writing to avoid making fallacious arguments. Conversely, it
helps me to use certain kinds of fallacious logic in a constructive manner. Since most people do
use fallacious logic from time to time, it is useful to understand the fallacies and to avoid them
whenever possible. It is also useful to use them with deliberation, rather than by accident, when
the circumstances indicate that judicious use of a fallacious argument is in order.
Last, understanding and recognizing fallacious logic myself allows me to better educate
my sons about the world. Teaching my children to recognize fallacies in advertising helps them to
discern which claims they should believe and which claims they can dismiss as gimmicks.
Developing this skill early in life will help them to be more responsible consumers in the future.
Moral Reasoning 6/24/2010
After reading and considering the five major perspectives on moral reasoning, I see that
the virtue ethics perspective is most in line with my personal views. I was brought up with the
idea that it was necessary to be a person of good character. I was taught that it is not only
necessary to avoid doing wrong and causing wrong, but that it is also necessary to avoid doing
things which give the impression of wrongdoing.
In virtue ethics, which comes from the ancient Greeks, the important thing is being, not
doing. It is about maintaining a middle ground between the extremes in every situation, and about
making choices that maintain a constant, even balance in life. By knowing their own limits and
abilities, people are able to make the right choices in situations. A person who follows virtual
ethics chooses to be a person of good character, rather than concentrating on each single action.
My parents stressed the idea that Moore and Parker (2006) state in the text, that "virtue is
a matter of habit ... a way of living" (p. 430). Although I sometimes fall short of the goal, I do try
to make virtue, or good character, I believe that keeping a calm, steady line in life is the best way
to live. By trying to maintain a good character, which includes personal integrity, dependability,
and faith, I am more likely to make the right decisions when I am faced with choices. There is a
certain element of utilitarianism in my approach to moral reasoning, as well. This involves "duties
and obligations" (Moore and Parker, 2006, p. 426), which are part of integrity and of
dependability. It is necessary for a person to be true to his or her word, and to keep promises and
commitments, if one is to have integrity. When a person consistently keeps promises, that person
is also dependable, and may be expected to make right choices in life.
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References:
Moore, B. N. and Parker, R. (2006). Critical Thinking (Custom 8th ed.). New York :
McGraw-Hill.
Homosexual Marriage 6/25/2010
Thesis:
Homosexual couples should be allowed to marry in the United States, and around the
world. Marriage, even for heterosexual couples, is more intimate and binding than non-marital
cohabitation. Homosexual couples should have the same right to that increased intimacy that
heterosexual couples have had since the beginning of human history. In addition to being more
personally binding than cohabitation, marriage is more legally binding. Homosexual couples
deserve to have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.
Marriage is about a great deal more than having unlimited access to sexual intercourse
with one’s partner. It is about more than sharing a physical address. Marriage is also more than
sharing finances with a partner, or even about raising children with a partner. All of these things
are available to any couple, whether homosexual or heterosexual. “The purpose of marriage, as a
form of heavily obligated cohabitation[is] to protect the economically weaker cohabitant from a
form of exploitation that would reflect opportunistic behavior emanating from an asymmetry in
the life cycle of men compared with women” (Dnes, 2007, para. 12). What this means is that
marriage is a legal construct that keeps a financially stronger partner from taking advantage of a
weaker partner. Traditionally, that has meant that a dependent wife has been protected from
certain kinds of abuse by a husband who controls the family’s financial and material resources.
Practically, it has meant that a widowed wife was legally guaranteed an inheritance, and that a
divorced wife was legally provided with an income or a financial settlement to support her and any
children the couple had. In today’s world, the final phrase, “of men compared with women”
(Dnes, 2007, para. 12), is rendered relatively obsolete by the fact that many women earn as much
as, or more than, their husbands earn. It is not so unusual, today, to find a dependent husband with
a supporting wife. Still, regardless of which spouse is supporting and which is dependent, the
simple fact that a couple is married provides legal, financial protections for the spouses.
Homosexual couples deserve to have the same protections that are enjoyed by their heterosexual
counterparts. If a homosexual partner dies, his or her surviving partner deserves to inherit. If a
homosexual couple separates, the dependent partner deserves to have legally provided support. To
this end, homosexual couples should be allowed to be legally married, with all of the legal
protections associated with marriage.
To be sure, not every homosexual couple desires marriage, just as not every heterosexual
couple desires marriage. That does not negate homosexual couples’ right to have the same
opportunity as heterosexual couples to make the choice about whether or not to marry. It is wrong
to grant one group of humans protection under the law while denying that same protection to
another group of humans. Each and every person deserves to have exactly the same protection
under the law. A couple’s sexual preference should have no bearing on that couple’s right to enter
into a legal marriage.
Antithesis:
Many people, particularly members of various Christian faiths, hold that homosexual
couples should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to marry. This belief has found its way
into the laws of the United States. In 1996, “Congress pass[ed] the Defense of Marriage Act …
116 A Journey Through My College Papers
deciding that ‘the word 'marriage' in all acts of Congress means only a legal union between one
man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the
opposite sex who is a husband or a wife’” (Miluso, 2004, para. 2). Under the act, no homosexual
couple can be legally married, because the two partners are not of different genders.
In a 2009 article in The Weekly Standard, Schulman (2009) states that “[g]ay marriage is
not so much wrong as unnecessary” (Schulman, 2009, para. 2). Homosexual couples may cohabit
at will. They are allowed to open joint bank accounts. They are able to adopt children, and to
raise any children either partner might have from past relationships. Given that, and the fact that
homosexual couples do not procreate together, there is no need for them to be able to marry.
The Vatican, widely recognized even by most Protestants as the voice of authority on
matters of faith, issued a statement in 1992 that “officially rejected the concept of lesbian and gay
"human rights," asserting that there is "no right" to homosexuality” (Tatchell, 2001, para. 8). An
article in Conscience went a step further, saying that “[m]arriage is holy, while homosexual acts
go against the natural moral law” (The Church and State, 2003, para. 1). Homosexuality is seen as
“immoral” (Bidstrup, 2000, para. 23), and so homosexual marriage “violate[s] the sacred
institution of marriage” (Bidstrup, 2000, para. 23). In the eyes of the church, homosexual couples
live together in violation of God’s will for mankind. Homosexual couples have no rights in the
church, and are excluded from the sacramental joining of their lives in marriage, which is
“[r]estrict[ed] … to heterosexual couples” (Shell, 2004, para. 32).
As well as being unholy, “[g]ay sex is unnatural” (Bidstrup, 2000, para. 45). Sexual
union exists for procreation, and homosexual sex is biologically incapable of resulting in
offspring. Marriage is a legal means of “ensuring the continuation of the species” (Bidstrup, 2000,
para. 24), and bishops of the Roman Catholic church state that “same sex unions cannot be given
the same status as marriage because they ‘do not express full human complementarity and because
they are inherently non-procreative’” (The Church and State, 2003, para. 2).
Beyond the immorality of homosexuality, as defined by the Church, and the unnecessary
nature of having a sexual union that is not intended to produce children, there is a belief that
“[s]ame-sex marriage would start us down a ‘slippery slope’ towards legalized incest, bestial
marriage, polygamy and all manner of other horrible consequences” (Bidstrup, 2000, para. 28).
As Susan Shell (2004) writes, “gay marriage represents a direct assault on the grounding authority
by which life at its most serious and intimate is lived” (Shell, 2004, para. 2). Many people fear
that creating a law that allows one deviation from the safe and comfortable norm of traditional
family life will, by necessity, lead to more laws that will allow more and more deviant behaviors
to erode and destroy the lives of decent people. If homosexuals are allowed to marry, then sooner
or later siblings will be allowed to marry, or fathers will many their daughters and mothers will
marry their sons. Worse, some may take advantage of such laws and combine legal homosexual
marriage with legal incestuous marriage, thus allowing a father to marry his son, or allowing a
man to marry his brother. This is a deeply rooted fear, and the possibility of such a future inspires
violent revulsion. To prevent such abominations, it is believed, homosexuals must not be allowed
to marry.
Homosexual marriage not only opens the possibility of other perversions of marriage, but
it also causes uncomfortable changes in other aspects of traditional family life. If homosexuals are
allowed to marry, then they will raise children who believe that homosexuality is normal. The
children will grow up with two mothers or with two fathers, or even with a mother and a father
who are both of the same gender. Such practices will confuse children, and will confound their
understanding of what makes a family and of what parents are in the structure of a family. It is not
unreasonable to think that some of these children will even grow up to have homosexual
relationships. Some, who are naturally inclined to be heterosexual, but who grow up surrounded
by homosexuality, may even be so confused as to practice polyamory or polygamy as adults.
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These are very troubling thoughts for anyone who believes that traditional, heterosexual marriage
is the only right, proper, and acceptable way of life.
Preventing homosexual marriage is necessary to be in harmony with God and with the
Church. It is necessary to ensure a natural pattern of procreation, and reliable continuation of the
species. It is also necessary to avoid the spread of any number of perversions and abominations.
Synthesis:
Despite a great deal of rhetoric against homosexual marriage, the fact remains that
homosexual couples should be allowed to marry, both in the United States, and around the world.
Sexual orientation should not be a consideration in deciding whether or not a couple should be
allowed to marry. Likewise, the genders of the partners should not be an issue in such a decision.
Where the Defense of Marriage Act stated that marriage is “a legal union between one man and
one woman as husband and wife’” (Miluso, 2004, para. 2), the language should be changed to a
legal union between two consenting adults as mutual spouses. In a world where a postal employee
is a mail carrier, not a mailman; and where a member of Congress is a Congress person, not a
Congressman; it is right that gender should also be removed from the subject of marriage.
It has been stated that “[g]ay marriage is not so much wrong as unnecessary” (Schulman,
2009, para. 2). That may be true but, if it is, then the same can be said of heterosexual marriage.
It is not unusual in the modern world for unmarried heterosexual couples to cohabit, to produce
children, and to share finances. Most people, however, still agree that heterosexual marriage is
socially, emotionally, and economically desirable, and heterosexual couples are generally
expected to marry. Since marriage is equally necessary or unnecessary for both homosexual
couples and heterosexual couples, the choice to unite in marriage should also be equally available
to both groups.
The many religious objections to homosexual marriage sound strong and convincing on
the surface. These objections are not held in common by all belief systems, however. They do not
take into account that not every couple belongs to, or subscribes to the beliefs of, the particular
sects that are making the objections. In the United States, the federal government cannot base its
laws on religious theory or on religious doctrine. It is true that a particular church or clergy person
may refuse to perform or to recognize any given marriage, but the government is constrained
against such behavior by the separation of church and state. No matter what the Vatican, or any
other religious group, may say about there being “absolutely no grounds for considering
homosexual unions … [in] God's plan for marriage and family” (The Church and State, 2003,
para. 1), homosexual marriage should be equal to heterosexual marriage under civil, secular law.
Bidstrup (2000) calls “[g]ay sex … unnatural” (para. 24), and Edward Vacek (2003)
states that “homosexual unions … violate human nature and the common good” (Vacek, 2003,
para. 7). These are statements that trigger fear in many people’s minds, but they are not true. As
Bidstrup (2000) tells us in the same article, “gay couples … [are] loyal to their mates, are
monogamous, devoted partners. They value and participate in family life” (Bidstrup, 2000, para.
12). The devotion of homosexual partners to their mates seems to be in line with the common
good, not at odds with it. Monogamy, too, appears to promote the common good, especially in an
age where diseases are passed on through indiscriminate sex, and where approximately half of
heterosexual marriages end in divorce. Fostering strong, devoted, monogamous relationships by
allowing the partners to marry, regardless of gender or sexual preference, is a natural response that
the government needs to make. Such a move promotes stable families, and helps to stabilize the
society at large.
It has been stated that allowing homosexuals to marry will lead to the legalization of
numerous perversions and abominations. This suggests to many that allowing homosexuals to
marry will somehow cause, or increase the occurrence of, these atrocities. Such an idea is simply
118 A Journey Through My College Papers
silly fear-mongering. Homosexual marriage has no bearing on the perversions and abominations
in the world. As far as “incest, bestial marriage, [and] polygamy” (Bidstrup, 2000, para. 28) are
concerned, we need only return to my original rewording of the Defense of Marriage Act. If
marriage becomes defined as a legal union between two consenting adults as mutual spouses, then
those concerns are automatically excluded. The requirement for two prevents polygamy. The
requirement for consenting prevents bestial marriage, since animals cannot give consent. The
requirement for adults prevents most instances of incest, as children cannot marry. Currently
existing laws, such as Michigan’s Manual on Michigan Marriages, which “prohibits marriages up
to 2 generations apart (up to grandparents; down to grand-children), and also prohibits many but
not all ‘in-law’ (e.g., son's wife and wife's mother, but not brother's wife or wife's sister) and ‘step’
unions (e.g., stepmother)” (Manual on Michigan Marriage, 2003, para. 18), prevent other incest
cases, since siblings and parent-child pairs are not allowed to marry.
Homosexual couples already raise children, whether born to one or the other of the
partners or adopted by the couple. This removes any validity from the argument that homosexual
marriage will teach children that homosexual relationships are acceptable. This already happens
without the benefit of homosexual marriage. Allowing homosexual couples to marry would not
taint the children of homosexuals; it would teach their children the importance of making a
commitment through marriage.
Allowing homosexual couples to marry, and to have all the rights and privileges of
marriage that are currently enjoyed by any heterosexual couple that chooses to marry, is the right
thing to do. As Susan Shell (2004) states in Public Interest, “gay marriage is … a celebration of
the individual's heroic struggle to find love and validation in a hostile world … [and] it is no one
else's business” (Shell, 2004, para. 3). When a heterosexual couple marries, the community
celebrates with the newlyweds. Even relative strangers celebrate the marriage of a heterosexual
couple. The same should be true for every homosexual couple that chooses marriage. Every
couple, regardless of gender or of sexual orientation, should be allowed to experience the special
joy and intimacy of marriage.
References
Bidstrup, S. (2000). Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives. Retrieved June 21,
2010, from http://www.bidstrup.com/marriage.htm
“Church and State, The.” (2003). Conscience, XXIV(3), 8. Retrieved June 21, 2010, from
ProQuest Database.
Dnes, A.. (2007). “Marriage, Cohabitation, and Same-Sex Marriage.” The Independent
Review, 12(1), 85-99. Retrieved June 21, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Manual on Michigan Marriage Law. (2003, February 18). Retrieved June 25, 2010, from
http://courts.co.calhoun.mi.us/book012.htm
Miluso, B.. (2004). “Family ‘De-Unification’ In the United States: International Law
Encourages Immigration Reform For Same-Gender Binational Partners.” The George
Washington International Law Review, 36(4), 915-946. Retrieved June 21, 2010, from
ProQuest Database.
Schulman, S. (2009, June 1). "The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage: It isn't going to work."
The Weekly Standard, Vol. 14, No. 35. Retrieved June 21, 2010, from
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/533narty.asp
Shell, S.M.. (2004). “The liberal case against gay marriage.” Public Interest,(156), 3-16.
Retrieved June 21, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Tatchell, P.. (2001). “Stop the Vatican's Anti-Gay Crusade.” Conscience, 22(3), 22.
Retrieved June 21, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
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Vacek, E.C.. (2003). “The meaning of marriage.” Commonweal, 130(18), 17-19.
Retrieved June 21, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology
Social Settings 7/1/2010
It is difficult for me to choose a single social structure as coming closest to matching my
social setting. Tonnies' and Lenski's systems are very different, not unlike comparing apples to
oranges. If I was only looking at Durkheim and Tonnies, I would say with confidence that my
social setting is a Gemeinshaft. This deals with how people interact in a smaller society, and
describes my setting. Where I grew up, where I spent my early adulthood, and where I live now
are all small communities. In each of these communities, relationships are very close, similar to
kinship relationships. Everyone knows everyone, and strangers and newcomers are identified
immediately. Everyone knows else's business, and there is little real privacy.
However, I must also look at Lenski. Lenski's postmodern society collides with Tonnies'
Gemeinshaft in my social setting. There is a combination of ascribed status and achieved status in
my setting, particularly in relation to race and gender. I come from an area where racial
integration was rare, though it was not overtly opposed. The area where I live now has some
integration, but my social interactions with church, social and service organizations, and with my
sons' Scout troop, almost never involve multiple races. In both locations, gender roles are very
traditional, and males have greater ascribed status than females.
Social roles are also clearly understood in my social setting, with the expectation that
each person will have knowledge of his or her occupation. As a stay-at-home mother, I am
expected to know about children and about cooking and sewing. Achieved roles, and related
status, are harder, as people do not expect or easily accept deviations from the norm. People are
often surprised to discover my roles as a student and as an artist, because of my status as a stay-at-
home mother and as a middle-aged woman.
My primary group consists of four people: my husband, me, and my two sons by a
previous marriage. My husband works outside the home to provide the income needed to support
the family. I cook, clean, and raise the children and, beginning this fall, I will be facilitating my
sons' education through an online charter school. The boys, who are still in elementary school,
leave our home for an extended period each summer to visit their father in another state.
Other primary groups for me are our church community, which is much like an extended
family; my brothers and sisters in the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star; and the
"household" my husband and I associate with in our medieval reenactment organization.
(Explaining how the household works would take too long for this discussion, but it is a clan-like,
fraternal, social group.)
I suppose Ashford University is a secondary group for me, as classmates never really get
close. I don't have a lot of interactions beyond my primary groups to form secondary groups,
which fact takes me back to Gemeinshaft.
When I identified Lenski's postmodern society, it was not so much about interpersonal
relationships as about world influences on my life. In an average month, my family is likely to eat
at On the Border, a Mexican restaurant; at Tokyo Sushi, a Japanese restaurant; and at Pita Way, a
Mediterranean restaurant; as well as to enjoy take-out from Chinese, Thai, and Italian restaurants
that my husband visits. Everyone in my home primary group uses the Internet, and I am likely to
chat with friends in London, Wales, and Dubai on any given day on Facebook. Many products
120 A Journey Through My College Papers
that we buy are manufactured in other countries, and we are impacted by global economies. So,
while the atmosphere of my social setting matches well with Gemeinshaft, it is set in a backdrop
of postmodern society.
Sociological Perspective 7/1/2010
The practice of prostitution involves a person, usually a woman, selling the use of her
body in exchange for money or for services. Akpom and King (2002) define prostitution as ""the
act or practice of engaging in sexual activity for money or its equivalent" (para. 1). A conflict
theorist might interpret prostitution as a reflection of gender inequality, which permits men to
exploit women's need to support themselves. A man, it might be argued, can work at a job that not
only supports him and his family, but that also allows him to pay for sexual favors. A conflict
theorist might argue that women who cannot get such jobs are forced to sell what they have to get
by.
A functionalist view of prostitution might see the practice as fulfilling the third functional
prerequisite: that of providing a service. So long as some members of society wish to purchase
sexual activity, there is a need for prostitutes to provide this service. In that view, prostitution
ceases to be a shameful, illicit activity, and becomes a necessary profession. Where conflict
theory cast prostitutes in the dim and demeaning light of women who can do no better for
themselves, functionalist theory casts women in the strong, steady light of providing a necessary
service.
The feminist view, in this instance, would likely agree with the conflict view. The
feminist view sees society treating women as inferior to men, which matches the view of
prostitution as being the result of women having to struggle to survive in a male-dominated world.
On the other hand, a feminist might view prostitution as a form of female empowerment.
Whereas men have historically taken sexual satisfaction with women who had no choice but to
submit, prostitution gives women the power to choose with whom they will have sex and under
what circumstances. A prostitute can make a man pay for sex, instead of submitting to him taking
what he wants for free.
References:
Akpom, K. and King, T.A.. (2002). "Prostitution." Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health
[Electronic Version]. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from
http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/prostitution?utm_term=prostitution&utm_m
edium=mw&utm_campaign=article#hl2
Shrinking Middle Class 7/8/2010
According to our text, a middle class family is one "whose income falls between 75 and
125 percent of the nation's median household income" (Schaefer, 2009, p. 189). Fewer than a
quarter of American families qualify as middle class (Schaefer, 2009, p. 189).
The dangers of a shrinking middle class can be seen in the feudal societies of medieval
Europe. When there was little or no middle class, the wealthy had all of the power, and the poor
were powerless to improve their lot in life. When there is a small or nonexistent middle class, jobs
with good wages become scarce, low-paying and temporary jobs become more common, and
members of the lower class find themselves unable to support themselves and their families.
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In modern America, unlike in medieval Europe, there are social programs in place to
provide supplemental income, food, housing, medical care, child care, education, fuel assistance,
transportation, and various other services to the lower class. As the middle class in America
dwindles, many social programs are running out of money. Every day, the news reports cases of
agencies being unable to extend unemployment benefits, cases of schools closing for lack of
funds, and increasingly high unemployment rates. (The unemployment rate in some areas is
falsely improved when people whose benefits have run out cease to be counted among the jobless,
even though they are still unemployed.)
While the poor get poorer, and face dimmer and dimmer prospects for a return to
financial stability, the rich in America seem to be getting richer. Those who already have money
are able to keep earning more money, and are able to take advantage of tax exemptions and other
opportunities to keep more of their money. Typically, the wealthy are able to get good educations,
which allows them to get better jobs, which in turn allows their children to get better jobs, thus
perpetuating the cycle.
Specific dangers of a shrinking middle class include increased poverty and homelessness,
an increased drain on public resources, increased health concerns as people become less able to
afford health care, and increased crime and violence. These factors tend to lead to increased
stresses for families, which often lead to the fracturing of families, the corruption of family values,
and the increase and continuation of the problem.
Living just outside of Metro Detroit, it is difficult to write about the declining middle
class without extreme emotion. Most communities feel the effects of this decline in today's world.
References
Schaefer, R.T. (2009). Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Life Chances 7/8/2010
I tried to do the assignment as instructed and to imagine a society in which there are no
social classes, but I was unable to stretch or to bend my mind to meet the task. I cannot think of a
time in history, even back to that history recorded in cave paintings before the creation of written
language, in which there have been no significant differences in people's wealth, income, and life
chances. Admittedly, there have been times when the differences were larger or smaller than they
are today, but there have always been strata in human societies.
If a truly equal society ever did arise, every person would have an equal social
opportunity to survive and to succeed. However, success would be defined as maintaining the
status quo, which would not provide anyone with any challenges to meet or to overcome. Meeting
challenges is what causes creativity and invention to thrive, and I imagine that both would be lost
in an equal society.
It seems to me, after watching a large cage of white mice at the pet store yesterday, that
social stratification is a natural fact of life. In that cage, certain mice seemed to influence other
mice, with the more powerful mice keeping control of the food bowl and of the water bottle, while
the other mice were left to scrabble with each other over the scraps of food that fell out of the
bowl. In many ways, humans are not so different from those mice. The stronger, smarter, and
more ambitious members of human society exert physical, fiscal, and social controls over the
weaker, less intelligent, and slower members of society. Even when a play yard full of toddlers
starts with each child having the same number of toys, the naturally dominant child always ends
up with more toys than anyone else, and the more submissive children end up toyless.
122 A Journey Through My College Papers
As I have illustrated with the mice and with the toddlers, an equal society is unstable, and
will stratify over time. If the members of the society make a conscious effort to maintain the
equality of the society, it might take longer for the society to stratify, but stratification will
inevitably occur.
Max Weber believed that a person's position in society is based on that person's "class,
status, and power" (Schaefer, 2009, p. 190). In a society in which there are no social classes, there
is, in fact, just one class. Therefore, at the beginning of an experiment with an equal society,
every person would be of the same class as every other person. Status and power, on the other
hand, would define each person in the society. Even if matters of race, color, gender, language,
and religion were all equal, age and generation affect a person's status and power. A parent has
higher status than a child, even in the animal kingdom. At the same time, a parent has power over
a child, simply as a matter of biology; a parent controls a child's access to food and shelter, and
can exert that power by providing or by withholding the things a child needs. This creates a
natural stratification in a society. In addition, superior strength and superior intelligence represent
power, and contribute to defining a person's position in society. The strong person, who can use
force to get what he or she wants, can rise to the top of an otherwise equal society. The intelligent
person, who can solve problems and invent things that people want and need, can also rise to the
top of an otherwise equal society. An intelligent person who also possesses physical strength, or
who can control and direct people with physical strength, can rise to the highest point of all in a
previously equal society. Weak and less intelligent people slip to the bottom of a society that
includes strong and intelligent people. In such a society, the single economic class can be
expected to break apart into multiple classes as the members of the society sort themselves into
various strata.
References
Schaefer, R.T. (2009). Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Death Penalty 7/12/2010
The death penalty is an antiquated form of punishment that is no longer necessary for the
good of society, and it should be abolished. Many countries, including “28 European countries[,]
have abolished the death penalty” (Bedau, 1992, para. 78). Amnesty International (2010) reports
that “[i]nternational death penalty trends are unmistakably towards abolition” (para. 1).
The death penalty does not serve as an effective deterrent to crime. Although Richard T.
Schaefer (2009) writes that “sanctions against deviant acts help to reinforce society’s standards of
proper behavior” (p. 176), “the consensus among criminologists is that the death penalty does not
add any significant deterrent effect above that of long-term imprisonment” (Radelet and Lacock,
2009, para. 41). If the threat of extended incarceration is at least as effective as the death penalty
in deterring crime, then it is time to retire the death penalty. Further supporting the abolition of
the death penalty, especially in today’s poor economy, is the fact that it costs almost three times as
much to employ the death penalty in a criminal case as it costs to sentence an inmate to a life
sentence in prison (Schaefer, 2009, p. 177).
Crime rates in the United States are high in comparison to much of the rest of the world
for several reasons. One reason is that American culture “has long tolerated, if not condoned,
many forms of violence” (Schaefer, 2009, p. 175). This tendency goes back to the birth of our
country, with the celebration of the civil rebellion that came to be called the American Revolution.
The Wild West has been romanticized, as have organized crime activities, in literature, television,
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and movies. Another reason for the high crime rate in the United States is that “[c]rime rates are
strongly affected by economic” (Niskanen, 1994, para. 5). The United States has been in a state of
economic crisis for some time, which has added to the increased crime rate.
The world view on the death penalty is split, with some countries, including Japan, Iraq,
and Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States, continuing to execute criminals. The trend,
however, is toward finding alternatives to execution. “In Great Britain, [the death penalty] was
abolished … in 1971; France abolished it in 1981. Canada abolished it in 1976” (Bedau, 1992,
para. 78).
Juvenile criminals are of particular concern in a discussion of the death penalty.
Amnesty International (2010) reports that “juvenile offenders … face possible execution in Saudi
Arabia” (para. 7). In the United States, youths also face the possibility of the death penalty, and
“many states, such as New York, set 13-yes 13-as the age of full criminal responsibility” (Blecker,
2006, para. 13). Bradley (2006) reports that “the American Psychiatric Association … forbids
diagnosing any patient under 18 as a psychopath or a sociopath” (para. 15) because children are
not considered to have a fully developed understanding of what is and what is not acceptable in
society. Children, who are not considered to be responsible enough to make legal decisions, or to
sign contracts, before age 18, cannot be held responsible for their behavior in the same way that
adults are held responsible. Blecker (2006) writes that "retribution is not proportional if the law's
most severe penalty is imposed on one whose culpability or blameworthiness is diminished, to a
substantial degree, by reason of youth and immaturity" (Blecker, 2006, para. 16). I believe that
the death penalty should be abolished worldwide. Although I understand the emotional appeal of
killing a person who commits a crime such as murder, treason, or child molestation, law and
justice cannot be predicated on an excess of emotion. It is hypocritical to sentence a person to
death for the crime of killing another person. That is, in effect, justifying murder by the
government, and I find it to be abhorrent.
The death penalty also removes any possibility of a conviction being overturned and of a
convict being freed if additional evidence comes to light. Death cannot be reversed, and there is
the real danger that innocent people will be wrongly convicted and executed.
On a simple, practical level, it is much less expensive to sentence a person to life in
prison than to sentence a person to the death penalty. Schaefer (2009) reports that “imprisoning a
person for life costs $1.1 million, but sentencing a person to death costs $3 million” (p. 177).
With the difficult economy in the United States, it makes clear, financial sense for the government
to save $1.9 million for each person who would be executed by instead sending these people to
life in prison.
The death penalty has outlasted its time, and it needs to be abolished. It does not
significantly deter crime, and it justifies the taking of human life. It is financially costly, and it is
morally costly in the risk of executing the innocent. The United States should join the majority of
European countries in doing away with the death penalty, and in encouraging the abolition of the
death penalty throughout the world.
References
Amnesty International USA. (2010). International Death Penalty. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from
http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/international-
deathpenalty/page.do?id=1101074
Bedau, H.A.. (1992). The Case Against The Death Penalty. Retrieved July 12, 2010,
from http://users.rcn.com/mwood/deathpen.html
Blecker, R.. (2006). "A Poster Child For Us". Judicature, 89(5), 297-301. Retrieved July
9, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
124 A Journey Through My College Papers
Bradley, C.M.. (2006). “The Right Decision On The Juvenile Death Penalty.” Judicature,
89(5), 302-303,305. Retrieved July 9, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Niskanen, W.A.. (1994). Crime, Police, and Root Causes. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-218es.html
Radelet, M., & Lacock, T.. (2009). “Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates?: The Views
Of Leading Criminologists.” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 99(2), 489-
508. Retrieved July 9, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Schaefer, R.T.. (2009) Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw
Hill.
Social Norms 7/14/2010
The norms in a high school environment include many formal norms, since rules of
behavior need to be spelled out for the safety of the children who are entrusted to the school. If I
had to serve temporarily as a high school principal, there are several formal norms that I would
expect from my students:
Safety:
o Students will not possess or use alcohol or illegal drugs on school property.
o Students will not possess prescription or over-the-counter medications on school
property; all medications will be secured in and dispensed by the school office.
o Students will not possess or use firearms, knives, or other weapons on school
property.
Academic:
o Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
o Excessive unexcused absence will not be tolerated.
o Cheating will not be tolerated.
Social:
o Racial and other hate language will not be tolerated.
o Revealing or provocative dress will not be worn by students on school property.
o Students will not use MP3 players during classes; students will not use cell
phones, text, or email during classes.
o Informal norms are generally set by the student body, or by groups within the
student body, rather than by the administration. However, I would use
incentives to encourage the student body to reinforce desirable, informal norms.
These would include:
o Students will "go green" at school by using recycling containers, and by turning
off unneeded lights and water.
o Students will practice good citizenship by helping each other.
o Students will practice stewardship by taking responsibility for cleaning up their
own messes, and by cleaning up messes that they find.
In general, it seems that formal norms are those that tell what one may not do, and that
provide consequences for failure to comply. It seems that informal norms are more often those
that encourage and reward desirable behavior.
Formal and informal norms for college students are not that different from the norms for
high school students, or, at least, they were not very different at the community college I attended
in the 2008-2009 school year. Because college students are usually legal adults, while most high
school students are minors, some formal norms that would apply in high school might not apply in
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college. From the list above, for example, high school students cannot be allowed to carry
medications in school, because they are children, but adult college students may carry prescription
and over-the-counter medications for their personal use.
McDonald's Goes East 7/19/2010
Often, when Western businesses expand into the Middle and Far East, they take Western
culture with them. Sometimes, Western culture is well received. More often, the companies must
adapt to local cultures in order to survive; those that fail to do so are often forced to withdraw
from the foreign regions.
Gordon Fairclough is the co-author of two companion articles in the Wall Street Journal
that discuss some of the difficulties that McDonald’s encountered when it started doing business
in China, as well as some of the strategies that McDonald’s adopted to deal with doing business in
China. “Drive-Through Tips for China” (2006), co-authored by Geoffrey A. Fowler, explores
McDonald’s efforts to introduce the Western “grab-and-go lifestyle” (Fairclough and Fowler,
2006, para. 8) in China. “Dispatch: Burger time: McDonald's beefs up presence in China with
Quarter Pounders, racy ads” (2006), co-authored by Janet Adamy, discusses how Western
misconceptions about Chinese food preferences missed the mark, and about how McDonald’s
changed its approach in China.
In “Drive-Through Tips for China” (2006), Fairclough and Fowler compare McDonald’s
efforts in China with the efforts of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). McDonald’s has achieved an
advantage over KFC in the drive-through market because of a deal that McDonald’s made in 2006
to open drive-through locations at filling stations owned by China’s Sinopec Group. The article
identifies this deal as a response to McDonald’s falling market share in China, and to KFC’s rising
market share in China for the same period. McDonald’s is responding to the rapidly growing car
culture in China, but the introduction of fast-paced food habits is taking time to catch on in a
country whose people prefer “to sit down for leisurely meals” (Fairclough and Fowler, 2006, para.
8). This difference in the pace of life between the American market and the Chinese market has
been a challenge that McDonald’s has had to face in doing business in China.
In “Dispatch: Burger time: McDonald's beefs up presence in China with Quarter
Pounders, racy ads” (2006), Fairclough and Adamy discuss how McDonald’s has adapted its
advertising in China to promote its beef products, especially the Quarter Pounder. The initial view
of Chinese food preferences by the West has been that the Chinese prefer chicken products and
products that resemble native Chinese foods. McDonald’s has learned that beef is desired by
Chinese diners, especially men, because “beef boosts energy and heightens sex appeal. The word
‘beef’ in Chinese has connotations of manliness, strength and skill” (Fairclough and Adamy, 2006,
para. 4). McDonald’s is using this image of beef in China, and is making its ads for Quarter
Pounders sexy. McDonald’s has also discovered that its Chinese customers are embracing
Western culture in their dress and electronics, and McDonald’s is becoming part of that cultural
shift.
One challenge that is highlighted in these articles about McDonald’s moving into China
is the misunderstanding about what the Chinese want to eat. Western belief was that the Chinese
wanted mostly chicken offerings, and that they wanted foods that tasted like Chinese foods.
McDonald’s has been known for offering “local” foods in the countries where it does business,
including “a Big Mac made of lamb” (Adams, 2007, para. 4) in India, “mashed potato, cabbage
and katsu sauce, all in a sandwich” (Adams, 2007, para. 7) in Japan, and “burgers … between, not
burger buns, but two patties of glutinous rice” (Adams, 2007, para. 12) in Hong Kong. In China,
126 A Journey Through My College Papers
McDonald’s considered introducing “an Asian-style triangle-shaped wrapper filled with beef or
chicken and rice” (Fairclough and Adamy, 2006, para. 3), and this approach of tailoring foods to
local cultures, which has been successful in other countries, fueled by Western misconceptions
about China, caused McDonald’s market share in China to drop by 1.3% from 2002 to 2004
(Fairclough and Fowler, 2006, para. 13). As McDonald’s looked for a way to “claw its way back”
(Fairclough and Fowler, 2006, para. 16), it discovered the appeal of beef for Chinese men, and it
has responded to this discovery by designing racy ads to promote the Quarter Pounder in China.
In one spot, a man and a woman eat Quarter Pounders, and close-up shots of the woman's
neck and mouth are interspersed with images of fireworks and spraying water. The actors suck
their fingers. The voice-over says: "You can feel it. Thicker. You can taste it. Juicier."
(Fairclough and Adamy, 2006, para. 6)
Another hurdle that the articles bring out for McDonald’s in China is that “China’s eating
culture [doesn’t] mix well with American grab-and-go lifestyle” (Fairclough and Fowler, 2006,
para. 8). To help the Chinese deal with American-style drive-through restaurants, “employees
were deployed in the parking lots to direct drivers to the drive-through lane … [and] customers
place[d] their orders with a person, rather than through a speaker” (Fairclough and Fowler, 2006,
para. 5). China is not the only place where McDonald’s has had to make changes in how
customers order food in order to fit in with the local culture. In Kuwait, McDonald’s has had to
designate a “male-only line” (Leiby, 2003, para. 1) to conform to Islamic laws.
The articles also draw attention to how the pace of life in the United States clashes with
the slower, more traditional pace of life in China. Americans are accustomed to grabbing food on
the go, and to packing as much activity as possible into every day. Fast food appeals to
Americans because it provides instant gratification, and because it frees them to hurry on to the
rest of their day. The Chinese, on the other hand, “prefer to eat their meals in … restaurants, or
take it home with them” (Fairclough and Fowler, 2006, para. 11). Fairclough and Fowler (2006)
report that McDonald’s is responding to China’s slower culture by “learning to slow down from its
fast-paced U.S. roots” (para. 17). McDonald’s is designing its Chinese restaurants not to
maximize speed, but to “reinforce their role as gathering places” (Fairclough and Fowler, 2006,
para. 17).
Unlike many Western companies, McDonald’s is becoming adept at responding and
adapting to local cultures, rather than “attempt[ing] to export U.S. cultural values to another
country” (Schaefer, 2009, p. 68). Even so, McDonald’s has been hurt by the effects of Western
culture invading other cultures. In the UAE (United Arab Emirates), for example, “McDonald’s,
like many other fast food chains, was hit by a boycott of western brands” (Derhally, 2003, para. 5).
McDonald’s survived the boycott in part because of its sensitivity to local cultures, and to its
willingness to offer foods that appeal to local tastes. The McArabia carried McDonald’s through
the boycott. The McArabia is “two grilled chicken patties, dressed in Arabic flatbread, and
seasoned with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and garlic sauce [and] is very close to the traditional
chicken shawerma or shish taouk” (Derhally, 2003, para. 3).
McDonald’s market share in China “slid to 8.7% in 2004 … from 10% in 2002”
(Fairclough and Fowler, 2006, para. 13). Similarly, “[i]n 2002 … the sale of US food … was
down a staggering 25 percent” (Alkhereiji, 2003, para. 4) in Saudi Arabia. As of 2005, China is
working to “halt sliding market share and revive McDonald’s performance” (Fairclough and
Adamy, 2006, para. 14) in China.
Unlike Wal-Mart, which “fail[ed] to adjust to the national culture” (Schaefer, 2009, p.
68) in Germany, McDonald’s is making adjustment and adaptation its rule for its international
market. McDonald’s menu has a chameleon-like quality, which allows it to survive and to
succeed in many markets. From burgers topped with “not ketchup – avocado paste” (Adams,
2007, para. 9) in Chile, to “the McLaks, a sandwich made of grilled salmon and dill sauce”
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(Adams, 2007, para. 8) in Norway, to non-Kosher “’McPitzutz’ ice creams and cheeseburgers”
(Adams, 2007, para. 13) in Israel, and even to beer in Germany (Adams, 2007, para. 5),
McDonald’s is embracing the cultures in which it does business, instead of trying to impose
Western culture on the countries in which it operates. McDonald’s flexibility and sensitivity to
local markets should ensure its success around the globe, even as other businesses “fail to adjust to
new cultures when they enter foreign markets” (Schaefer, 2009, p. 68).
McDonald’s has established itself as a success in the global marketplace because it is
willing to adjust to other cultures. This is a good model for other companies to follow when
entering other countries. Although McDonald’s may not always be a resounding success in every
country, despite its willingness to adapt, it is more likely to succeed in more places than
companies that are unable or unwilling to change.
References
Adams, B. (2007, July 19). Mcdonald’s Strange Menu Around the World. Retrieved July
13, 2010, from http://trifter.com/practical-travel/budget-
travel/mcdonald%E2%80%99s- strange-menu-around-the-world/
Alkhereiji, M.. (2003, March 5). “McDonald’s Launches McArabia.” Arab News.
Retrieved July 13, 2010, from
http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=23313&d=5&m=3&y=
2003
Derhally, M.. (2003, March 5). McDonald’s rolls out McArabia. Retrieved July 13, 2010,
from http://www.arabianbusiness.com/475954
Fairclough, G. and Adamy, J.. (2006, September 21). "Dispatch: Burger time: McDonald's beefs
up presence in China with Quarter Pounders, racy ads." The Wall Street Journal Asia, p.
32. Retrieved July 13, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand.
Fairclough, G. and Fowler, G.A.. (2006, June 20). "Drive-Through Tips for China." Wall
Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. B.1. Retrieved July 13, 2010, from
ABI/INFORM Global.
Leiby, R.. (2003, March 17). “You Want Falafel With That?” Washington Post.
Retrieved July 13, 2010, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-
dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A35653-2003Mar16
Schaefer, R.T.. (2009) Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw
Hill.
Human Rights 7/21/2010
Human rights are defined as "universal moral rights possessed by all people because they
are human" (Schaefer, 2009, p. 229). Whether in a state of peace or in a state of war, humans
remain humans, and they are always and everywhere entitled to human rights. If we allow
exceptions to who is entitled to human rights, we run the risk of losing those same rights
ourselves. There is never, ever a time when violations of human rights are, or could ever be,
excusable.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it was easy to succumb to
fear, and to think, in the confusion of the time, that it would be acceptable to limit or eliminate the
rights of a certain segment of the world's population. Sitting in front of the television with my two
sons, then 11 months old and 11 days old respectively, it was tempting to adopt as "us and them"
mentality, where "we" deserved every possible protection and "they" could be deprived of their
128 A Journey Through My College Papers
privacy and their liberty for the sake of our safety. When the initial mental haze cleared, however,
I realized that it was not an entire race or ethnic group that had attacked the United States; it was a
group of individuals. I remembered that it was not so many generations ago that my own
ancestors the "them" of their time: Irish immigrants in New England, who could not even apply
for, much less hold, decent jobs, and who were abused and reviled for their ancestry. Other
groups have had similar experiences, including the descendants of the African slave trade, and the
Japanese-Americans during World War II. Dividing humanity into "us" and "them" is a dangerous
business. In the aftermath of the 2001 disaster, human rights should have been protected even
more rigorously than they had been before. Reducing or suspending the human rights of even one
person as a reaction to the attacks placed the rights of every American, and of every human on the
globe, at peril of being stripped away. Human rights were not rigidly and universally upheld, so
now we see an erosion of those rights for all people.
References
Schaefer, R.T. (2009). Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Social Interactions 7/21/2010
The ascribed status of race and ethnicity, especially that based on differences of physical
appearance, plays a large role in how different racial and ethnic groups interact. In the United
States, it is typical for people who appear to have white, European ancestry to have greater status
than people of other groups. In my personal experience in several states, racial groups seem to be
stratified thus: Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, and Native Americans, although
achieved status sometimes changes the order of the non-white races.
The roles that are typically held by various racial or ethnic groups in society also impact
interactions among the groups. In the United States, it has historically been expected that Whites,
especially White men, hold positions of authority, and that Whites tend to have the more desirable
jobs in general than other groups. This has been changing, and we now have an African-American
president in the White House. In the private sector, however, Whites are still likely to get the best
jobs. In my personal experience, Asians tend to elevate their roles above the order I listed for
status, by attaining jobs in the medical field. Granted, most of my experience has been in White-
dominant communities, and the circumstances might be very different in areas that are Black-
dominant, Asian-dominant, etc.
In many areas, a person's primary groups are mainly composed of people who all share a
common racial or ethnic background. In many places, that is less true for secondary groups, in
which an individual may have casual acquaintances of many racial and ethnic groups.
Some examples of how status, role, primary groups, and secondary groups impact
interactions among racial and ethnic groups include:
o Status: White men holding the majority of positions of power and authority in the United
States. President Obama has proved that this is changing.
o Role: Whites holding most "white-collar" jobs, while Latinos often find employment as
housekeepers and taxi drivers.
o Primary groups: Families are often mono-racial, although mixed-race families are
becoming more common. In many areas, individuals tend to form friendships within
their own racial or ethnic groups. Often, this has as much to do with shared ethnic
culture and similar points of reference as with race itself.
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o Secondary groups: A college campus or a large business is likely to have a variety of
racial and ethnic groups represented, even in communities that are largely, and
unofficially, segregated.
Pluralism seems to be gaining popularity, and I see this as a good thing. Unlike
amalgamation and assimilation, where ethnic traditions are likely to be lost, pluralism allows
people to experience and to embrace multiple traditions.
Social Movements 7/29/2010
Richard T. Schaefer (2009) defines social movements as "organized collective activities
to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society" (p. 401). A sub-set of
this is new social movements, which are defined as "organized collective activities that address
values and social identities, as well as improvements in the quality of life" (Schaefer, 2009, p.
403). There are always social movements of one kind or another, whether on a local, regional,
national, or global scale. I have identified six social movements that have been in evidence in the
last decade.
The American family values movement seeks to improve the quality of life for American
families, and especially for children, by promoting marriage and the two-parent family. "Between
the years of 1970 and 1996, the number of children living in two parent homes decreased from 85
percent to 68 percent" (Pan, 2008, para. 1). In 2001, Bill O'Hare (2001) reported that "[o]ver the
last five years, ... [t]he share of children born to unmarried mothers has stabilized, the divorce rate
continues to fall, and the share of children living in single-parent families has stabilized and
inched downward" (para. 2). In an effort to support and promote this movement, in 2002,
"President Bush's budget provides $64 million ... to fund community and religious groups that
promote fatherhood, marriage education, and conflict resolution" (O'Hare, 2001, para. 9). If this
movement is successful, it will serve to help stabilize American families, and to help restore the
American middle class. It has the potential to reduce the crime and violence that are often born of
broken families. it may reduce the strain on public assistance programs by providing two incomes
in a family, or by reducing the need for child care programs by enabling families to have a parent
at home with the children while the other parent works.
The gay liberation movement of the 1970s has become the gay rights movements, with "a
new generation of activists dedicated to radically re-imagining the possibilities for human
sexuality and gender expression" (Solidarity National Office, n.d., para. 11). Of prime concern for
this movement is the legalization of same-sex marriage, followed closely by allowing same-sex
couples to adopt children. In 2000, "Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally
recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples" (American Gay Rights Movement, 2009,
para. 12). As recently as June 17, 2009, "President Obama signs a referendum allowing the same-
sex partners of federal employees to receive benefits" (American Gay Rights Movement, 2009,
para. 29). At least eight states and the District of Columbia now recognize same-sex unions. If
this movement continues to succeed, it will redefine marriage and the structure of the American
family. It will also promote tolerance and acceptance of differing lifestyles, and the development
of new folkways.
The immigrant rights movement seeks to "pass an immigration policy that would create a
roadmap to citizenship, without detours, for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the
[U]nited [S]tates" (Miller, 2010, para. 1). According to the Solidarity National Office (n.d.), "by
2004 [the U.S. immigrant population] had risen fourfold (approximately 34.2 million)" (para.5).
The movement attempts to "strike a blow against ignorance and misunderstanding" (Miller, 2010,
130 A Journey Through My College Papers
para. 6). Related to the immigrants rights movement is the immigration reform movement. The
chief aims of this movement are "keeping families together by reducing visa backlogs; [and]
requiring those in the country illegally to pay a significant fine and begin the process of
legalization" (Briseno, 2010, para. 13). "Local organizer and UBM president Tony Barreda said ...
he was moved 'to hear so many speak in one voice against the oppressive nature of the present
broken-down immigration laws and to urge Congress for a moral and just reform of immigration
laws'" (Briseno, 2010, para. 14). These are controversial movements, as many Americans do not
agree with allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States to become citizens.
These movements will bring more people who are already in the United States under the same
government taxation and controls as other citizens. It will allow better utilization and allocation of
taxes. It will reduce crime resulting from immigrants' illegal status, and from the attendant under-
the-table employment, housing, and other activities.
The environmental justice movement seeks fair treatment of poor and minority
communities in the disposal of toxic wastes. "The trend to turn urban areas into toxic wastelands
and dumping grounds is being opposed now in an organized way" (Caffee, n.d., para. 7).
Dumping these wastes in urban areas causes exposure of local populations to serious health
problems, including an "epidemic of developmental, learning, and behavioral disabilities ... [and]
[a]sthma and other respiratory illnesses" (Caffee, n.d., paras. 13-14). Encouraging communities to
find green alternatives to dumping, and to stop targeting low income communities and
communities of racial minorities for dump locations, will improve the quality of life for many
struggling people. It will reduce the occurrence of certain childhood illnesses and developmental
disabilities, especially in low income groups, thus reducing the drain on tax dollars from public
health care programs. If green alternatives are used, it will improve the environment for future
generations.
The global justice movement opposes "'free trade', privatization, deregulation,
unregulated capital markets, structural adjustment, corporate welfare, [and] user fees on
education" (Peart, 2010, para. 3). In general, the movement is against big business, and
"demand[s] that social justice, sustainability and democracy are integral to peace" (Peart, 2010,
para. 10). The movement supports fair treatment of the common person on a financial level, and
supports small, local businesses and entrepreneurism. It seeks "a decentralization of economic and
political power, and at the same time advocate[s] a borderless world in which people can move
freely" (Peart, 2010, para. 2). With global justice, consumers are encouraged to support local
economies by buying and using products that are grown and produced locally. People are
encouraged to oppose government bailouts for big businesses, and to support local development.
References
American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline, The. (2009). Retrieved July 29, 2010, from
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0761909.html
Briseno, O. (2010, January 19). Immigration debate spurs call for social movement.
Retrieved July 29, 2010, from
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/article_0b7f1608-521d-5a68-9ed5-
d609deb714e8.html
Caffee, V. (n.d.). Environmental Justice: A New Social Movement. Retrieved July 29, 2010,
from http://www.iamsaam.org/user.images/wp2003.pdf
Miller, D. (2010, June 30). Immigrant Rights Movement Received Jumpstart As Thousands Of
Immigrants March In Manhattan On Saturday. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from
http://www.qgazette.com/news/2010-06-
30/Features/Immigrant_Rights_Movement_Received_Jumpstart_As_Th.html
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O'Hare, B. (2001, July). The Rise -- and Fall? -- of Single-Parent Families. Retrieved July 29,
2010, from http://www.prb.org/articles/2001/theriseandfallofsingleparentfamilies.aspx
Pan, W. (2008, December 29). Single Parent Family Statistics -- The Increase in Single Parent
Families. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from
http://bizzywomen.com/2008/single-parent-family-statistics-the-increase-in-single-
parent-families
Peart, S. (2010). What is the global justice movement?. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from
http://scottishsocialistparty.org/international/esfssp2.htm
Schaefer, R.T. (2009). Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Impact of Sociological Theories on the Institution of Family 8/2/2010
Families may be found in every culture and society in some form or another. Schaefer
(2009) defines the family as “as a set of people related by blood, marriage or some other agreed-
upon relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring
for members of society” (p. 288). The family serves different functions in society, depending
upon which sociological theory is applied to it, even though the family itself remains the same,
despite being viewed from different perspectives. We will consider the institution of the family
according to the functionalist theory, the conflict theory, and the interactionist theory.
Each of the three sociological theories takes a different view of the social institution of
family. According to the functionalist theory, “[t]he family performs six paramount functions,
first outlined more than 70 years ago by sociologist William F. Ogburn” (Schaefer, 2009, p. 292).
These functions have been identified as reproduction, protection, socialization, regulation of social
behavior, affection and companionship, and the provision of social status. The reproductive
function of a family is fairly obvious, as it is necessary for people to reproduce if the society is to
continue into the future. The protective function of a family goes along with the reproductive
function, since it is not enough to produce infant members of a society if those members are not
protected from harm. Socialization and the regulation of social behavior go together, as
individuals in a family learn what social behaviors are and are not acceptable as they are socialized
by interactions with other family members. For most people, the family is the first and most
important source of affection and companionship. The assignment of social status is a function of
the family as an individual becomes a spouse, a parent, or a grandparent. Children often acquire
social status because of the roles their relations play in society. Similarly, parents and other
family members may gain or lose social status based on the social status of one or more members
of the family.
Similar to Ogburn’s functions of the family, “Murdock argued … that the nuclear family
… existed universally because it fulfilled four basic functions for society : the sexual,
reproductive, economic and education functions” (Haggar, 2010, para. 2). The sexual and
reproductive functions relate to Ogburn’s reproductive and affection functions. The economic
function relates to Ogburn’s functions of protection and of providing social status. The education
function relates to Ogburn’s functions of socialization and of regulating social behavior.
Schaefer (2009) states that “[c]onflict theorists view the family not as a contributor to
social stability, but as a reflection of the inequality in wealth and power that is found within the
larger society” (p. 292). Where functionalists view the family as a cohesive unit, conflictists view
the family as a disparate collection of individuals who act upon one another in a variety of ways.
Conflict theorists see the power and status that are often accorded the husband and father as a
representation of the power and status that men typically hold over women in the world. Schaefer
132 A Journey Through My College Papers
(2009) goes on to note that conflictists “also view the family as an economic unit that contributes
to social injustice. The family is the basis for transferring power, property, and privilege from one
generation to the next” (p. 292). In this way, conflict theory resembles Murdock’s functionalist
view of the family, as both theories recognize the economic role of the family in society. More
affluent families transfer more power, property, and privilege to new generations than poorer
families are able to do.
Unlike functionalist and conflict theories, the Interactionist theory looks not at how
families relate to the society, but at the “micro level of family and other intimate relationships …
[and] in how individuals interact with one another, whether they are cohabiting partners or
longtime married couples” (Schaefer, 2009, p. 292). Interactionists examine the relationships that
actually make up a family. These may include spousal relationships, parent-child relationships,
sibling relationships, and also the modern variations, which include single parent families, blended
families, and same-sex couples in families. They may also include self-proclaimed family groups
that do not involve any relationships by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Functionalism and conflict theory are different in that functionalism examines how the
institution of family contributes to the stability of society, whereas conflict theory examines how
the family reflects the inequalities and problems in society. Interactionism is different from both
functionalism and conflict theory because it examines the internal workings of the family, while
they are concerned with the family’s interaction with society.
Functionalism affects the views of the individual who is a part of the family in that it
tends to identify the roles of the members of the family. Parents are assigned the functions of
reproducing, and of educating the children that result from reproduction. Husbands are often
given the function of providing for the material needs of the family, while wives are often given
the function of providing for the emotional and spiritual needs of the family. Caitlin Flanagan
(2009) notes that “a lasting covenant between a man and a woman can be a vehicle for the nurture
and protection of each other, the one reliable shelter in an uncaring world — or it can be a
matchless tool for the infliction of suffering on the people you supposedly love above all others,
most of all on your children” (para. 8). When a family is a source of nurture, it serves to help
stabilize the society around it, but when a family becomes a source of suffering, it serves to
destabilize society.
Conflict theory affects the views of the family member as each individual recognizes his
or her role in the family as a representation of social and economic inequality in the larger society.
A husband may see himself as the head of his household, with power and status over the rest of
the family, if the society includes male domination of positions of authority. Wives and children
may be financially dependent on the male head of the family, reflecting the economic disparity
between the upper and lower classes in society.
Individuals’ views are affected in a family under Interactionism as each individual
considers how he or she relates to each other family member. “Attachments to parents, children,
and friends are attachments that in part constitute human flourishing. Without some attachments
along these lines, we could plausibly hold that a person's life is diminished” (Driver, 2007, para.
37). It is these attachments, as well as the occasional lack of these attachments, that interactionists
study, and that affect the individual’s view of his or her place in the family.
Functionalism does not favor social change within the institution of the family, since
functionalists seek the stability of society. Social change does not, by its nature, promote stability.
Rather than seeking social change, under functionalism, “[a]ll families despite their economic
status … share the same goal: to provide for their families and ensure a bright future for their
children” (Vega-Marquis, 2008, para. 4).
Conflict theory tends to welcome social change within the family institution, as that
change tends to mirror the changes that take place in society. Not all social change is positive, and
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this is reflected in families. The current economic recession in American society is reflected in
“[o]vercrowded living conditions, with relatives doubled up and sharing housing in cramped
conditions … [because of] raised unemployment and housing loss” (Po, 2010, para. 9).
Interactionism affects the approach to social change within the family by considering
how social change alters the relationships between and among the members of the family. When
women began working outside the home and contributing to the finances of the family,
relationships between husbands, who had been the wage earners, and wives, who had been the
home makers, had to change. Changes of this type are often slow in coming, and the particular
changes between husbands and wives, in which household responsibilities become equally shared
in families in which both spouses work, have not yet taken root in many families.
Within the institution of the family, functionalism affects the views of society as it
identifies how the family contributes to the stability of society. When society looks at the function
of the family, it often becomes the function of society to bolster those family functions that are not
working. For example, if a family cannot adequately feed its members, then society may institute
programs to assist families in obtaining food. Society also develops opinions about the functions
of families and their members. Laura Purdy (2009) notes that “being instrumental in bringing a
new child into the world is to have at least a prima facie moral obligation to it” (para. 9). This
reflects one of society’s views of the function of the family. Haggar (2010) states that “even if the
family is no longer a unit of production , it is a unit of consumption” (para. 4). This reflects
society’s view of the family since more children are being produced outside of traditional families,
but the family consumes many goods and services regardless of whether or not the family
produces children.
Conflict theory influences the views of society toward the family as society views the
“socioeconomic status of a child’s family” (Schaefer, 2009, p. 292). The unequal relationships of
power and status within the family contribute to the inequality of society.
Society’s view of the family is influenced by interactionist theory as the relationships
within families change or stay the same. Society makes decisions about what is normal and
acceptable in society based on what kinds of relationships are most prevalent in society. Blended
families, which were unusual in the 1970s, became accepted in society because of the growing
prevalence of blended families, until they are commonplace today.
As we have seen, the family serves different functions in society. Which functions the
family serves, whether contributing to the stability of society, contributing to social inequality, or
defining interpersonal relationships within the family, depends upon which sociological theory is
applied to it. In the end, the family is the family, regardless of which perspective is used to view
it.
References
Driver, J.. (2007). “Cosmopolitan Virtue.” Social Theory and Practice, 33(4), 595-608.
Retrieved July 23, 2010, from ProQuest Research Library.
Flanagan, C.. (2009, July 2). Is There Hope for the American Marriage?. Retrieved July
23, 2010, from http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1908243,00.html
Haggar, R.. (2010, July 3). Functionalism and "the" Family: A Summary. Retrieved August 1,
2010, from http://www.earlhamsociologypages.co.uk/functfamsum.html
Po, V.. (2010, May 21). “In Families Squeezed by Recession, Kids Show Effects.” La Prensa
San Diego, pp. 8-9. Retrieved July 23, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand.
Purdy, L.. (2009). “At the Crossroads: Families and Society.” Social Theory and
Practice, 35(2), 303-318. Retrieved July 23, 2010, from ProQuest Research Library.
Schaefer, R.T.. (2009) Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw
Hill.
134 A Journey Through My College Papers
Vega-Marquis, L.. (2008, August 29). “Listen Up! America’s Families Demand Action.”
La Prensa San Diego, p. 6. Retrieved July 23, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand.
Fall Semester, 2010
PHI 107: Philosophy of Human Conduct
Principle of Charity 8/26/2010
The principle of charity, as it applies to ethics, requires that the opposing opinion be
viewed as strongly and as fairly as possible. Ideally, each side of an argument should be treated
with equal fairness and should be represented with equal accuracy for the meaning of the
argument. Bruce N. Waller (2008) says of the principle of charity that "you should interpret
opposing views and arguments as generously, fairly, and honestly as you can" (p. 4). Nigel
Warburton (2007) defies the principle of charity as "[i]nterpreting arguments or positions adopted
by others in the best possible light" (para. 1).
The principle of charity is important for avoiding the strawman fallacy. An argument
that ignores the principle of charity is likely to be weakened by fallacious reasoning, because the
opposing view is likely to be misrepresented. An argument that cannot stand on its own merit, and
that needs to undermine the opposing argument by disregarding the principle of charity, might
need to be reconsidered to see whether or not the argument is really what the arguer is trying to
say.
Warburton (2007) warns that the principle of charity is not always appropriate in every
argument: "the charitably interpreted argument may be the wrong argument to consider altogether
if you are trying to engage with another person's actual thought rather than an idealised version of
it" (para. 4). It is necessary in any argument to assess what is actually being argued, what the
opposing position actually is, and what result one wishes to gain from the argument -- whether it
be a solution to a real problem, or whether it "might simply be an intellectual exercise"
(Warburton, 2007, para. 4).
References:
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed).
New York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Warburton, N. (2007, January 21). Principle of Charity -- another draft for new edition of
Thinking from A to Z. Retrieved August 25, 2010, from
http://virtualphilosopher.com/2007/01/principle_of_ch.html
Conflict Between Reason and Feelings 8/26/2010
The basic conflict between those who base ethics on reason and those who base ethics on
feelings and affections arises from the difference between reason and feelings. Reason is the
deliberate consideration of what is. Ethics based on reason states that "[t]o act ethically, it is
essential to overcome one's feelings and suppress sentiments in order to follow true rational moral
principles" (Waller, 2008, p. 36). On the other hand, feelings, emotions, and affections come from
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inside each person, and are intuitive, rather than deliberate. Reason and emotion are generally
seen to be polar opposites, and to be mutually exclusive. It is popularly considered that reason is
preferable to emotion in morals and ethics, because reason can be controlled, directed, and
predicted. Reason appeals to those for whom rules and order are cardinal virtues. The conflict
can be seen is a comparison of the thinking of Immanuel Kant and David Hume. Kant's moral
thought is that "of a reason that is practical in itself" (Kivumbi, n.d., para. 3), while Hume's moral
thought is that (such feelings as benevolence and generosity are proper moral motivations"
(Kivumbi, n.d., para. 3).
Feelings and affections cannot be controlled, directed, or predicted in the same ways that
reason can be. It is popularly considered that emotion is unreliable as a guide for morality because
emotion is capricious and variable. Many people are unsettled by unpredictability, and fall back
on rules and reason to restore a sense of balance when emotion becomes too disordered.
In my opinion, there needs to be a balance between reason and emotion in the
development of ethical thought. While an excess of emotion can cause anarchy and chaos, an
excess of reason can cause arbitrary cruelty and disinterest. Ethics should be based on emotions,
tempered by reason; or ethics should be based on reason, tempered by feelings and affections.
Rules should be tempered by mercy.
When ethics are based solely on reason, the "right" choice is determined by what is
required by rules and laws. When ethics are based on reason but tempered by emotion, the "right"
choice may sometimes be an exception to rules, which allows for compassion and extenuating
circumstances.
References:
Kivumbi Articles. (n.d.) Difference Between Kant and Hume. Retrieved August 26, 2010,
from http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-kant-and-hume/
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Veil of Ignorance 9/2/2010
The veil of ignorance means approaching situations as if we do not know any of the
"talents or status [we] will inherit at birth" (Piccard, 2005, para. 25). What this means is that "it
helps us look at our society without the various prejudices and preferences we accumulate because
of gender, race, economic class, religion, or political allegiance" (Waller, 2008, p. 74). When we
make decisions behind the veil of ignorance, we make decisions that will be fair for everyone, no
matter who it may be. We do not make decisions that particularly favor any one group over any
other group.
Rawls' theory of justice is that "disadvantages to some [cannot] be justified by advantages
to others" (Kilcullen, 1996, para. 3). Rawls believes that society's rules should be fair and
impartial to everyone. With the veil of ignorance, those rules are fair and impartial. The veil of
ignorance is central to Rawls' theory, providing a tool that we can use to be sure that rules and
policies are fair. It causes us to consider "[h]ow would [we] like it if [we] were in that position"
(Waller, 2008, p. 74).
References:
Kilcullen, J. (1996). Rawls: The Original Position. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from
http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y64l13.html
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Piccard, D. (2005, April 4). A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls. Retrieved September 1,
2010, from http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/piccard/entropy/rawls.html
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed).
New York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Cultural Relativism 9/2/2010
According to our text, cultural relativism is "the claim that not only do differing ethical
codes exist, but ethical judgments can only be made relative to a given culture" (Waller, 2008, p.
90). Chris Gough (2010) defines cultural relativism as "a perspective which asks that we evaluate
other cultures according to their standards, not ours" (para. 1). What this means is that a culture's
ethics cannot be compared against the ethics of another culture, but only within their own culture.
In cultural relativism, universal ethics do not exist. No one culture is better or worse than any
other culture; instead, "all cultures are of equal value and need to be studied from a neutral point
of view" (Glazer, 1994, para. 1).
A major advantage of cultural relativism is that it "remind[s] us that other cultures may
have values that are not the same as our own" (Waller, 2008, p. 90). This helps us to have
understanding and tolerance for different cultures, and to develop peaceful interactions between
members of different cultures.
A disadvantage of cultural relativism is that it can result in conflicts when an individual
belongs to multiple cultures simultaneously. If two or more of those cultures have conflicting
values and principles, then it can be difficult for the individual to reconcile those values and
principles.
Another disadvantage of cultural relativism is "the problem of ethical reform" (Waller,
2008, p. 92). This is because, if something is seen to be right in a culture, then it is difficult to the
point of impossibility to get a culture to change its values or beliefs.
A third problem with cultural relativism is that it "trivialize[s] our ethical concerns"
(Waller, 2008, p.92). This means that, under cultural relativism, we must accept large differences
between cultures, as well as small differences. It is one thing to accept that two cultures have
different dietary or dress rules, but another thing entirely to accept that one culture believes that
slavery is right, or that prostitution or cannibalism is right, when our culture believes that these
things are wrong. Cultural relativism does not allow for that value difference, and considers all of
these differences to be of equal importance. It requires us to accept all of the beliefs of another
culture as being right in the context of that culture.
References:
Glazer, M. (1994, December 16). Cultural Relativism. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from
http://www.utpa.edu/faculty/mglazer/theory/cultural_relativism.htm
Gough, C. (2010). Overview: Cultural Relativism. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from
http://www.helium.com/items/169733-overview-culture-relativism
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Just Desserts 9/6/2010
In a truly just world, each person would be rewarded or punished according to the
rightness or wrongness of his or her actions. This is, of course, the way the world should work,
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even though the real world does not always, or even often, work this way. As J. McDole (2010)
reminds us, “deciding whether an action is positive or negative is difficult” (para. 4). Difficult or
not, it is absolutely essential to determine the quality of an action before assigning a reward or a
punishment to that action. The difficulty arises from the fact that rightness and wrongness are
relative, and that what is right in one situation might be very wrong in another situation, while
what is wrong in most situations might be right in specific situations.
In what might be called a perfect world, the people who do good things would always be
rewarded by having good things happen in their lives. The people who do bad things would
always be punished by having bad things happen in their lives. At the same time, it would be
reasonable, in such a world, to assume that people for whom good things happen are good people,
while people for whom bad things happen are bad people. This is far too simplistic. While a
person who does bad things, such as lying, stealing, cheating on his or her partner, or putting
others down, might deserve to be punished by having bad things happen in his or her life, it is
often better to try to rehabilitate a wrongdoer by giving him or her a few good things as an
incentive to do better things in the future.
More difficult than deciding what punishment is appropriate for a given wrong action, or
than deciding whether or not wrong actions should be punished, is deciding what actions are
wrong in what situations. Most people in Western cultures would easily agree that lying, cheating,
stealing, and killing other humans are all wrong actions. Most people would not even need to
think about the question. What would happen, however, in the case of a fourteen-year-old single
mother who finds herself and her baby suddenly living on the streets without a home, without a
job, without an education, without family supports, and without food? She has been turned away
by the over-crowded shelter. She has been turned down by social services because she lacks
identification, being a minor. She turns to prostitution to provide her baby with the food they both
need to survive. Should she be punished? It is true that she has broken a law by selling her body,
but has she done wrong? If she has truly exhausted every legitimate option that she can think of,
then she has not done wrong by taking the only option she can find to provide for her child.
Instead, she has done right, by obeying her maternal mandate to care for her baby. Society has
failed her, causing her to fall into circumstances that are beyond her ability to overcome by
accepted means. She is a child in need of help, not a criminal in need of punishment. She
deserves to be rewarded for caring for her child by being given a fresh start in society, so that she
and her baby can have a chance to succeed in life and to be better than her childhood.
Louis Pojman (1999) says “we should strive to make this a world where … the virtuous
are rewarded and the vicious punished in proportion to their relative deserts” (Cited in McDole,
2010, para. 8). While I object to the characterization of all those who do wrong as being vicious, I
appreciate Pojman’s (1999) use of the term “relative deserts” (Cited in McDole, 2010, para. 8).
McDole (2010) defines desert as “the effort put forth by individuals” (para. 2). He goes on to
define merit as “the rewards earned by people according to their behaviors” (McDole, 2010, para.
2) Peter Vallentyne (2003) defines moral desert, or moral effort, as “a matter of how deserving
one is from the perspective of morality” (para. 9). So, relative deserts refers to the efforts put forth
by individuals from a moral perspective and relative to the individual’s circumstances and to the
efforts of others. Everything in justice, then, is relative and conditional. There is no absolute
good that should always be rewarded, and there is no absolute wrong that should always be
punished. Instead, each individual’s effort should be considered relative to the individual’s
circumstances. It is also important to remember that the merit of one’s efforts “is not directly
changed by things that happen to one when one had no ability to deliberately influence them”
(Vallentyne, 2003, para. 15). According to this, a person may be a victim of circumstance, and is
not responsible through his or her actions for the good or the bad that may result from such
circumstances. Through this lens we see that a person deserves the opportunity to rise above his
138 A Journey Through My College Papers
or her fullest potential. If that potential turns out to be for good, then the individual deserves to be
rewarded for the good that he or she does. If that potential turns out to be for wrong-doing,
despite overcoming circumstances that were beyond his or her control, then the individual
deserves to be punished for the wrong that he or she does.
Each person should be rewarded or punished according to the rightness or wrongness of
his or her actions, but only relative to the individual’s circumstances. Right and wrong are
relative, conditional issues, and what is right or wrong in one situation may be just the opposite in
a different situation. Each person deserves the opportunity and the means to overcome
circumstances that are beyond his or her control, and each person deserves the rewards or
punishments that he or she earns for those deliberate actions that the individual does control.
References
Belrad, B.. (2010). Let the punishment fit the crime: The law of just desserts. Retrieved
September 1, 2010, from http://www.helium.com/items/930352-let-the- punishment-fit-
the-crime-the-law-of-just-desserts
McDole, J.. (2010). Let the punishment fit the crime: The law of just desserts. Retrieved
September 1, 2010, from http://www.helium.com/items/1747644-virtue-and-vice
Vallentyne, P.. (2003). Brute Luck Equality and Desert. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from
http://klinechair.missouri.edu/on-
line%20papers/Brute%20Luck%20Equality%20and%20Desert.doc
Virtuous Behavior 9/9/2010
Several virtue theorists have somewhat different ideas of what counts as virtuous
behavior but, in general, "the virtuous person in one who consistently does right acts for the right
motives" (Waller, 2008, p. 104). So, virtuous behavior is doing what is right or good for the right
reasons. If a person who consistently does wrong does an isolated good act, that good act is not
virtuous behavior. If a person who consistently does right does the same good act, then that act is
likely to be virtuous behavior.
Aristotle, Rosalind Hursthouse, and Philippa Foot all put forth that "virtue is what
promotes human flourishing" (Waller, 2008, p. 106). This means that virtual acts are those that
allow people to reach their best potential, and to lead good lives. This seems reasonable to me, as
virtuous acts are generally good acts, and things that are "good" usually contribute to happiness
and well-being.
Aristotle also theorizes that "virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate"
(Waller, 2008, p. 107). He says that virtue avoids both positive and negative extremes, seeing
extremes of goodness and of badness as vices to be avoided. I agree that moderation in all things
is a good thing, but I'm not sure that I agree that moderation is virtue, as it seems that leaning
toward goodness a bit more might be the better way.
Aristotle also specifies that a virtuous act requires the actor to know what choices exist,
to consciously choose the good act, and to choose the act for the right reasons. If the person does
not know what choices there are, then doing something right is not virtuous. If the person does
not consciously choose the right act, but does it unthinkingly or accidentally, then the act is not
virtuous. If the person does the right thing for the wrong reason, then the act is not virtuous. I
think, though, that if a person mistakenly chooses a wrong act for the right reason, it might be a
virtuous act, since the intent was right, even though the result might have been wrong.
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References:
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Intent in Moral Acts 9/9/2010
Intent is an important element of ethical judgments because it is possible to do something
with good results without intending to do something good, and it is necessary to use intent to be
able to determine whether or not an action was simply good, or whether it was morally good. In
the case where there is no intention to do something good, the act is not morally or ethically good.
In order to be an ethically good act, the actor must intend to do something good. The act cannot
be an accident, or motivated by an intent to do something else, in order to be a morally good act.
Intent to do something good is required for moral acts. "[M]otives need not stem from
deliberation" (Waller, 2008, p. 143). The important thing is the intent to do the good act, not the
intent to "do a good ... deed" (Waller, 2008, p. 145).
References:
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Moral Consensus 9/16/2010
Moral realists believe that it is necessary to "put aside religious fervor and cultural biases
and heated rhetoric" (Waller, 2008, p. 180) in order to develop a consensus on our moral views.
They believe that people generally agree on the most basic moral issues, but that they are unable to
see that they agree because the details surrounding the moral issues are too emotionally charged
for clear thought. When we "think calmly, observe carefully and without prejudice, and consider
thoughtfully" (Waller, 2008, p. 180), we are able to move beyond rhetoric, beyond religious
indoctrination, and beyond cultural influences, to understand the basic moral truths associated
with the issues.
Unfortunately, while individuals may be capable of being calm and thoughtful, society as
a whole appears to be unwilling to view issues calmly and without rhetoric and, in fact, incapable
of doing so. Until calm and thoughtful consideration is possible for the masses, it is severely
unlikely that a moral consensus can be reached.
References:
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Taoism 9/16/2010
Taoism is the most natural of the ethical theories that are discussed in our text. Taoism
believes that we should "follow natural ethical feelings" (Waller, 2008, p. 187) in order to develop
good moral lives. This is in contrast to Kantian and Platonic ethics, which both require adherents
to deny their natural inclinations in order to achieve a moral life. It is important to note that
140 A Journey Through My College Papers
Taoism calls on us to follow "natural ethical feelings" (Waller, 2008, p. 187), and not to follow
our base inclinations. This suggests that we cannot live with no impulse control, but that we must
listen to what some would call our conscience to guide our inclinations to be ethical. Inclinations
to do things that harm others, and that are selfish, are not ethically good, and Taoism seems to
assume that these negative inclinations are not the natural inclinations that people will follow.
References:
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Susan Wolf 9/23/2010
According to Susan Wolf, "free will consists of acting in accordance with Reason, with
full knowledge of the True and the Good" (Doyle, n.d., para. 1). Put a different way, free will
"requires doing the right thing for the right reason" (Waller, 2008, p. 206). her argument for this
view is that having the ability to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, or to do the wrong thing
for any reason, removes free will. It is not enough to do the rigt thing; it is necessary to use reason
to choose the right thing, and to use willpower to hold to the right thing once it has been chosen.
References:
Doyle, B.. (n.d.). Susan Wolf. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from
http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/wolf/
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Posner and Singer 9/23/2010
Richard Posner does not believe that non-human animals should be given the same basic
rights as are given to humans. He says that "the painless death of a human being causes on
average a greater loss of utility than the painless death of a mouse" (Waller, 2008, p. 279). In a
June 12, 2001, letter to Peter Singer, Posner writes: I do not agree that we have a duty to (the
other) animals that arises from their being the equal members of a community composed of all
those creatures in the universe that can feel pain" (Posner, 2001, in Animal Rights, 2001, para. 7).
Posner does not advocate cruelty to animals, but he maintains that human responses to animals are
based on human empathy and emotions, rather than on ethical arguments.
Peter Singer believes that all beings capable of feeling pleasure and pain, whether human
or non-human animal, should be given the same rights and equal consideration. According to
Singer, "no adequate reason can be given for taking species membership, in itself, as the ground
for putting some beings inside the boundary of moral protection and others either totally or very
largely outside it" (Waller, 2008, p. 283). In a June 11, 2001, letter to Richard Posner, Singer
writes: "if an animal feels pain, the pain matters as much as it does when a human feels pain"
(Singer, 2001, in Animal Rights, 2001, para. 2). Singer equates speciesism to racism and sexism,
claiming that "all of these prejudices use an arbitrary, and morally irrelevant fact ... as if it were
morally crucial" (Waller, 2008, p. 284).
Posner and Singer appear to have diametrically opposed views on the matter of animal
rights. Posner believes that non-human animals do not have equal moral status with humans,
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while Singer believes that non-human animals do have equal moral status with humans. Posner
believes that the needs of humans trump the needs of animals, while Singer believes that the needs
of an animal may come before the needs of a human if favoring the animal increases overall
utility.
I have to agree with Posner. While I support efforts to minimize animal pain and
suffering, I could never advance the rights of an animal at the expense of harm to a human. It is
not a matter of humans being superior to animals; rather, it is a matter of species survival, just as
members of any species will ultimately preserve its own species above the needs of other species.
I agree with Posner that protecting a child from an attacking dog, even if the dog experiences pain
in the process, "would not be a weakness; it would be a sign of sanity" (Waller, 2008, p. 279).
References:
Animal Rights. (2001, June). Retrieved September 22, 2010, from
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/interviews-debates/200106--.htm
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Stay-at-Home Mothers Deserve Respect 9/27/2010
Stay-at-home mothers should not be treated as second-class citizens in comparison to
mothers who work outside the home. Instead, stay-at-home mothers should be judged according
to their individual talents and abilities, and should receive credit in society for the work that they
do for their families. The decision of a stay-at-home mother to provide full-time care for her
family and for the family home is a social contract among the members of the family, which
defines the roles and responsibilities of the family members. This social contract is entered into
for the best interests of the children’s growth and development.
A stay-at-home mother is not quite what she sounds like. A stay-at-home mother is
rarely at home all day long; instead, she spends most of her days hurrying to libraries, to play
groups, to sports activities, to volunteer activities, and to run errands to support her home.
According to a 2007 Pew Research Center survey, “at-home moms are slightly younger, on
average … [and] have less formal education and lower household incomes than working mothers”
(Parker, 2009, para. 19). In reality, a stay-at-home mother may be of any age or of any income
level.
As a stay-at-home mother, I often experience the scorn and disappointment of society
when I associate with adults who work outside the home for pay, and with those who work at
paying jobs at home. Mine is not an unusual case, as many stay-at-home mothers have similar
experiences. Often, stay-at-home mothers are treated as though they are not as good, or as
valuable, as working moms. Ralph Gardner (2010) writes of a stay-at-home mother: “[s]he felt
her ‘insuperiority’” (para. 58). Kyanna Sutton (2010) writes that “a mother-at-home … may be
the worst child-rearing arrangement of any culture” (para. 4). In fact, however, the stay-at-home
mother performs a virtuous act when she stays at home with her children to give them a stable,
morally grounded upbringing. She gives up her personal time and the opportunity to have a career
for the good of her children. As Waller (2008) writes, “[i]t is this deep natural feeling of
compassion, rather than rational reflection or strict rules, that guides humans to act virtuously” (p.
36). It is this compassion that mothers feel for their children that causes them to choose to stay at
home with their children.
142 A Journey Through My College Papers
It is necessary, in order to understand what a stay-at-home mother is, and why she should
be treated with understanding and respect, to know who is not a stay-at-home mother. Aside from
the obvious fact that mothers working outside the home are not stay-at-home mothers, some
mothers at home are also not stay-at-home mothers. A mother who would normally work outside
the home, but who is at home because she is temporarily out of work, is not a stay-at-home
mother. A mother who can no longer work because of health concerns, and is therefore at home,
is not a stay-at-home mother. A mother who is forced by her parents or by her partner to remain at
home, when she is not allowed to exercise her free will, is not a stay-at-home mother. A stay-at-
home mother chooses to remain at home in order to do what is right for her children. She does
“the right thing for the right reason” (Waller, 2008, p. 206). She “consider[s] what specific act
would produce the best overall consequences” (Waller, 2008, p. 52), and she chooses to be a stay-
at-home mother.
One criticism that stay-at-home mothers experience from working adults, and sometimes
from their own children, is the stigma of not working. A teenage girl, identified as Sophie, says,
“Mom, why don’t you do something? You’re so lame. Everybody else’s mother does something”
(Gardner, 2010, para. 57). Lisa Belkin (2008) counters this charge, saying: “Don’t all parents
work? Just because you don’t get paid for it, does that mean it’s not work?” (para. 7). Gardner
(2010) is even more direct: “[n]onworking mother is an oxymoron” (para. 50). Adults who work
outside the home need to recognize that stay-at-home mothers do work, and that most work at
least as much as do parents who work outside the home. Stay-at-home mothers should be judged
on the basis of moral responsibility to their children, acknowledging that the stay-at-home mother
“deserves … praise” (Waller, 2008, p. 227) for her moral decision to remain at home with her
family.
Stay-at-home mothers are frequently told that they need to work outside the home, and
that it is wrong for them to assume the traditional roles of women by remaining at home as wives
and mothers. Nancy McDermott (2007) goes so far as to say “when … women choose to leave
work, they are harming other women and society as a whole” (para. 16). Meghan O’Rourke
(2006) adds that “it’s imperative for women not to ‘opt out’ of employment to stay home with the
kids” (para. 1). Studies conducted by the Pew Research Center seem to agree with these claims,
with reports showing that “[75%] of Americans … believe that both husband and wife should
contribute to the family income … [and] 19% agree that women should return to their traditional
roles” (Parker, 2009, paras. 1-9). Stay-at-home mothers disagree with these views. Heidi Brennan
(2010) says that “[s]taying home … is a mother’s duty” (Cited in Houghton, 2010, para. 6).
Brennan’s statement reflects the concepts of “womanly virtues … [and] a feminine ethic” (Waller,
2008, p. 128), which are found at level three of Kohlberg’s scale (Waller, 2008, p. 122). Mothers,
especially stay-at-home mothers, are deeply involved with “focusing on the details of how to
maintain relationships and promote the welfare of family and friends” (Waller, 2008, p. 122). For
stay-at-home mothers, adopting the traditional roles is the right moral decision, for their own
benefit and for the benefit of their families. For those who choose to be stay-at-home mothers,
and who do not have the role of stay-at-home mother thrust on them, the decision to stay at home
increases utility by adding to their own pleasure and to the pleasure of their families.
Another claim about stay-at-home mothers by working adults, which is hurtful and
disrespectful to stay-at-home mothers, is that stay-at-home mothers are unfulfilled. O’Rourke
(2006) writes that “any woman who stays at home is choosing an impoverished life” (para. 4).
McDermott (2007) writes that stay-at-home mothers are “settling for half a life … [and that] they
have been duped” (paras. 11-12). Jessica Brown and Jeremy Sammut (2010) describe stay-at-
home mothers as “moping around the house is a dystopian fulfillment of John Howard’s 1950’s-
style family fantasy” (para. 2). Gardner (2010) even goes so far as to write that “full-time
motherhood causes brain damage” (para. 22). None of these claims is made by a stay-at-home
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mother, but only by adults working outside the home who believe that “[o]nly by working … can
women have a fully ‘flourishing’ life” (O’Rourke, 2006, para. 1), and that “self-esteem suffers”
(Working Moms vs Stay-at-Home Moms, 2009, para. 6) when mothers stay at home. Stay-at-home
mothers have a particular temperament that suits them to make the choice to remain at home, and
“the most basic philosophical issues [are] decided … by temperament” (Waller, 2008, p. 60). Far
from “moping around the house” (Brown and Sammut, 2010, para. 2), stay-at-home mothers are
busily active. Stay-at-home mothers are often the classroom moms at their children’s schools, and
they are the most frequent chaperones for school field trips. Stay-at-home mothers join book
clubs, sewing circles, Bible studies, or other personal enrichment groups that suit their individual
interests. Stay-at-home mothers take their younger children to play groups, to library groups, and
to parks and cultural opportunities. When my two sons were small, I took them to the reading
group at the library once a week, where I helped them with their games, songs, and craft projects
once story time was over. I took them to a weekly mommy-and-me play group at a local church,
where I socialized with other stay-at-home mothers while our children played, sang songs, and
made crafts. I took my sons to peewee soccer three evenings each week for practices, and I
cheered from the benches with the other stay-at-home mothers. When the park department offered
concerts targeted for children, I sang under the trees with the other stay-at-home mothers and our
children. There was never time to mope or to feel unfulfilled by my choice to be at home with my
sons. Only when working adults denigrated my choices and minimized the importance of my
decisions did I feel that “our society really doesn’t walk the walk of placing value on the day to
day tasks of raising young kids” (Mint, 2008, para.7). The problem was not that I made a bad
choice in staying home with my sons, but that working people perceived my choice as wrong
simply because the same choice would be wrong for them. In “An Introduction to the Principles
of Morals and Legislation,” Jeremy Bentham (1823) writes that “[i]t is vain to talk of the interest
of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual” (Cited in Waller,
2008, p. 61). The interest of a stay-at-home mother is best served by her remaining in the home,
and by her receiving due recognition from society for the good that she does. Her interest is not
served by being told that “feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence are increased by … working
outside the home” (Houghton, 2010, para. 11). Rather, her feelings of self-esteem and of self-
confidence are increased, and her interest is served, when working adults accept her moral
decision and acknowledge the legitimate work that she contributes to society by concentrating her
energies on raising her children to be good, moral members of society. With such acceptance and
acknowledgement, we as a society can “maximize pleasure and minimize suffering for everyone”
(Waller, 2008, p. 55).
A third complaint that stay-at-home mothers hear with unsettling frequency is that stay-
at-home mothers are too dependent on men to support them and to provide for their material
needs. Working parents believe that mothers should be financially independent of their partners.
Leslie Bennetts (n.d.) says that “[w]hen women make themselves dependent on a man … more
than half will end up on the wrong side of the odds” (Cited in McDermott, 2007, para. 7). While it
may be true that “when [women are] divorced or widowed they [are] left with little or no income”
(McDermott, 2007, para. 10) if they do not work for pay, it is not necessarily true that they have
“few prospects and no social status” (McDermott, 2007, para. 10). Most stay-at-home mothers
have strong ties to their extended families, to churches or other worship groups, and to a network
of friends and agencies that are available to help a stay-at-home mother survive the trauma of
divorce or of the death of a partner. Further, most stay-at-home mothers are accustomed to living
on a single income, and their lives do not reflect “the prevailing standards of our culture of
privilege and consumption” (Waller, 2008, p. 191), but to a simpler standard of love and moral
responsibility. All of this aside, stay-at-home mothers are independent thinkers, with their own
opinions and desires, and are no more interested in having their lives meddled with than would be
144 A Journey Through My College Papers
any other adult. “If I cannot make my own moral decisions, follow my own drummer, and
exercise control over my plans and purposes … then I cannot be a full moral being” (Waller, 2008,
p. 228). Although rarely in these exact words, this is the frequent refrain of stay-at-home mothers
whose families, friends, neighbors, and other members of society try to tell them that they need to
leave the home and do “real work.” There are few words that can make a stay-at-home mother
bristle with anger and resentment more than the word “real.” When she is told to get a “real job,”
she gets the message that others see her work at home as fake, or as make-believe, and her self-
esteem is threatened. While taking a break from doing research for this paper, I received a
message on one of my social network sites from my step-father, wishing my younger son a good
first day at his “REAL school.” My son was transitioning from an online charter school to a brick-
and-mortar school, and it was an emotional time for our family. My step-father’s use and
capitalization of “REAL” in his message made me feel that he considered the online school to be
an imitation, and that he did not respect my choices for my sons. “If you try to … offer
unsolicited advice, I shall feel resentful. After all, it’s my life, and I want to make my own
choices” (Waller, 2008, p. 228). Many people offer advice to stay-at-home mothers, or offer
opinions about the choices that stay-at-home mothers make, and this causes stay-at-home mothers
to feel resentful toward the working adults who do these things. As a stay-at-home mother, “[t]o
live morally, I must make my own choices” (Waller, 2008, p. 229).
Many people, when faced with the charge that stay-at-home mothers are undervalued in
society, claim that the reverse is true. They claim that stay-at-home mothers are actually valued
more than working mothers. Jennifer Livengood (2010) writes that “[p]eople favor not only a
mother, but also her child and their relationship when she is not employed outside the home full-
time” (para. 2). She writes further that “[p]eople also devalue mothers employed full time outside
the home … [and] perceive their children to be troubled and their relationships to be problematic”
(Livengood, 2010, para. 4). Dulce Zamora (2006) concurs, writing that “there’s actually more
status to not be a working mom” (para. 6). This sounds good, and may well be the perception that
working mothers have about themselves and their position in society, but it is not the reality that
most stay-at-home mothers experience every day. Stay-at-home mothers are frequently accused of
not properly socializing their children by placing them in day care centers. Stay-at-home mothers
are accused of spoiling their children by being more accessible to their children than working
parents are to their children. Stay-at-home mothers are often required to identify themselves as
“unemployed” when filling out forms for the government, for financial institutions, and for
schools, but “stay-at-home mothers don’t think of themselves as unemployed” (Gardner, 2010,
para. 32). Far from being valued more than working mothers, stay-at-home mothers experience
the feeling that their “contribution … goes unnoticed” (Mint, 2008, para. 6).
Stay-at-home mothers make a moral decision to remain at home with their children out of
a feeling of love and compassion for their children. These mothers make an intentional choice to
put their children’s needs before their own needs, and they find fulfillment in this virtuous act.
Stay-at-home mothers deserve to be treated as social equals with adults who work outside the
home. It is morally wrong for society to punish stay-at-home mothers for accepting the feminine
ethic by working inside their homes for the betterment of their families. This punishment of stay-
at-home mothers causes harm to these mothers and to their families, causing a reduction of utility
in society that cannot be counterbalanced by shaming, coaxing, or forcing mothers into the
workplace. To reverse this reduction of utility, and to improve the overall utility of society,
mothers need to be allowed to exercise their free will and to choose to stay at home for the best
interests of their children, of society, and of themselves, and to so so with the respect of the other
adults in society.
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References
Belkin, L.. (2008, November 10). The Loaded Language of Parenting. Retrieved
September 07, 2010, from http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/stay-at-home- parents/
Brown, J. and Sammut, J.. (2010, May 28). Equal help for home and working mums.
Retrieved September 07, 2010, from
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/equal-help-for-home-and-working-
mums/story-e6frg6zo-1225872280227
Gardner, R., Jr.. (2010). “Mom Vs. Mom.” New York Magazine. [Electronic version.]
Retrieved September 07, 2010, from
http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/family/features/n_7837/
Houghton, K. (2010). “Stay at Home Moms vs Working Moms -- Can't We All Just Support
Each Other?” The Huffington Post. [Electronic version.] Retrieved September 07, 2010,
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-houghton/stay-at-home-moms-vs-
work_b_602264.html
Livengood, J.. (2010, February 18). Study shows people not only judge mothers based on
work status, but also judge their kids. Retrieved September 07, 2010, from
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/ksu-ssp021810.php
McDermott, N.. (2007, November 30). Is stay-at-home motherhood only ‘half a life’?.
Retrieved September 07, 2010, from http://www.spiked-
online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/4133
Mint, K.. (2008, October 17). Equal Value?. Retrieved September 07, 2010, from
http://www.svmoms.com/2008/10/equal-value-dra.html
O’Rourke, M.. (2006, June 26). A Working Girl Can Win. Retrieved September 07, 2010,
from http://www.slate.com/id/2144505/
Parker, K.. (2009, October 1). The Harried Life of the Working Mother. Retrieved
September 07, 2010, from http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/745/the-harried-life-of-
the-working-mother
Sutton, K.. (2010). Do Working Moms Make Better Moms?. Retrieved September 07, 2010, from
http://life.familyeducation.com/working-parents/child-care/36134.html
Waller, B. N. (2008). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (2nd ed). New
York, NY: Pearson/Longman.
Working Moms vs Stay-at-Home Moms. (2009, January 25). Retrieved September 07, 2010, from
http://www.enotalone.com/article/19281.html
Zamora, D.. (2006, May 8). Hard Choice for Moms: Work or Stay Home?. Retrieved
September 07, 2010, from http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/hard-choice- for-
moms-work-stay-home
SOC 315: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Social Cleavages 9/30/2010
The four main social cleavages that interest political scientists are social class,
geographic region, religion, and urban-rural.
Social class refers to the "[l]ayer or section of population of similar income and status"
(Roskin, 2011 [sic], p. 583). Society is divided into two general social classes: the middle- and
upper-class, and the working class. In today's world, there is also a lower, impoverished class of
the unemployed and severely under-employed. This social cleavage interests political scientists
146 A Journey Through My College Papers
because each class tends to have different political views, with the elite class tending toward social
conservativism and the working class tending toward social progressivism.
Geographic region refers both to different parts of the world and to different regions
within the political boundaries of a country. Roskin (2011) tells us that we "must study the
regions of a nation, what their politics are, and how they got to be that way" (p. 14). A region's
history, especially of warfare, can affect the politics of the geographic region for years, or even for
centuries.
While most religions espouse peace and harmony, the reality is that religion can divide
people more definitely than almost anything else. "Religion accounts for the formation of more
political parties than does social class" (Roskin, 2011, p. 14). Protestants clash with Catholics,
Christians clash with non-Christians, Hindus clash with Muslims, and individual sects within a
given religion often clash with each other.
Urban-rural is an important cleavage because urban areas tend to be more modern and
more politically progressive, while rural areas tend to be more traditional and more politically
conservative.
All four of the main social cleavages have affected my social and political views.
Growing up in a middle-class family, with upper-class grandparents, I was raised to embrace
political conservativism, and to be something of a social elitist when dealing with the working and
lower classes. When life changed and I found myself at the bottom of the lower class, I had a
social wake-up call, and my political views in many matters shifted sharply to the left. Now
returned to the middle class, I find some of my views settling back into the patterns of my
childhood, while my memories of life in the lower class keep some of my views much more
liberal than the views of most of my peers.
Growing up in the United States, my geographic region affected my political views. I
favor democracy and the separation of church and state. Despite all the study I have undertaken, I
still have a negative emotional reaction to Communism, to the former Axis powers, and to the
former Soviet Union, which reaction I must consciously control. I am further influenced by
having grown up in New England, where politics tend to be more conservative, and where
individualism tends to be more popular, than many other regions of the United States. New
Englanders are generally taught a certain social elitism in relation to other regions of the country.
For most of my life, I have been a Protestant Christian. The denomination in which I was
raised tends to be socially traditional while also being politically liberal. At times in my life, my
religious affiliations have changed, and I have witnessed social cleavage in my mother's reaction
to my religious choices. When I was in the Roman Catholic church, she was uncomfortable, and
she mourned the loss of her Protestant daughter. When I explored Judaism, she was afraid for me,
and she expressed her belief (founded on her religious upbringing, and wholly incorrect) that the
Jews would harm me. In the non-denominational Christian church that I attended in the South, the
social and political views were seriously conservative. In the non-denominational Christian
church that I attended in the Midwest, on the other hand, the social and political views were the
most progressive that I have encountered. At this point in my life, my religious experiences have
settled down, influencing me to be slightly more socially traditional and slightly more politically
progressive.
I have never lived in a true urban area. Most of my life has been spent in very small
towns, where many people are related and where nearly everyone knows nearly everyone else.
The social and political views in these towns have almost always been traditional and
conservative, but with a degree of socialism that happens in communities where everyone looks
out for everyone else.
In addition to these main cleavages, I have been influenced more toward liberalism
because of being a woman, and because of being responsible for raising my children.
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References:
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Quarrels of the Britons 9/30/2010
A quarrel faced by modern Britons is that of racial and religious problems. Once an all-
white nation, Britain created an empire that included colonies that were predominantly non-white,
including lands in Africa, Asia, the Asian Subcontinent, the Americas, and the Caribbean. In
1948, Britain "legally made the natives of its many colonies British subjects" (Roskin, 2011, p.
81). This move allowed the new British subjects to live in the United Kingdom, which was a
desirable destination for many former Colonials. In Britain, most white Britons "looked down on
anyone from across the English Channel" (Roskin, 2011, p. 83). Non-whites in Britain were still
referred to as "coloureds" (Roskin, 2011, p. 83) until recent decades, and most colonial immigrants
to Britain made do with "lowly jobs that Britons did not want" (Roskin, 2011, p. 81). The
race/religion problems in Britain are not just about immigrant "coloureds," but also about
Pakistani Muslims and Muslim jihadis. Not only do white Britons discriminate against Muslims,
but Muslims keep themselves largely segregated in an effort to "preserve their original faith and
culture" (Roskin, 2011, p. 82).
Because of Britain's geographic identity as an island, separated from the rest of Europe,
the British culture developed as a unique, individual entity. "Britons did not see themselves as
Europeans" (Roskin, 2011, p. 83). In Britain's earliest history, up to about the fifth century,
Britain was invaded rather frequently, and the Celts, the Romans, the Scandinavians, and the
Germans of that period -- all white -- blended to form the Anglo-Saxon culture, and eventually
became the Britons. "The last successful invasion of England ... was in 1066" (Roskin, 2011, p.
22). Since that time, Great Britain became a powerful nation and extended its power around the
world as it conquered lands and made them part of the British Empire. During this imperial
period, the Britons maintained a sense of social superiority over the natives of the British colonies,
and that history of social superiority has developed into the current problem of race/religion in
Britain.
While Britain exerted imperial control over its colonies around the world, within the
British nation the political structure evolved from a monarchy to a parliamentary system with a
Prime Minister; the Queen is more of a figurehead today than a political figure. Today, a political
party in Britain seeks "the expulsion of all 'coloureds' back to their native lands" (Roskin, 2011, p.
81). This only makes Britain's race problems that much worse.
References:
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Right Amount of Welfare 10/7/2010
Of the three countries to be considered, Germany has the greatest amount of welfare.
The United States has a middle level of welfare, while Japan has "practically no welfare" (Roskin,
2011, p. 290). It is difficult to determine what the "right" amount of welfare is, because each of
148 A Journey Through My College Papers
these countries has a different history, different traditions, and different values. What is right for
Germany would not be right for Japan, and what is right for the United States would be right for
neither Germany nor Japan.
Because of the German welfare system, Germans have "short work weeks ..., long
vacations ..., the world's highest pay, lush unemployment benefits, male retirement at 63 ... with
fat pensions, and almost no strikes" (Roskin, 2011, p. 228). The German welfare system is very
comprehensive, but it is also very expensive for the German nation.
"The US does not ... have a unified welfare system" (An introduction to Social Policy,
n.d., para. 17). The system is complex and "is also unusually expensive" (An introduction to
Social Policy, n.d., para. 18). Many in the United States, who have experienced the welfare
system first-hand, would say that the system is flawed and broken, and that it works just enough to
be indispensable. People in the United States do not experience the level of welfare that is the
norm in Germany, but a great many Americans depend on the welfare system for the survival of
their families.
Japanese culture is vastly different from Western culture, so it follows that Japan's
approach to welfare is different from the approach of any Western nation. Japan has "public
assistance programs benefiting about 1 percent of the population" (Japan: Social Welfare, 1994,
para. 5). "Japanese work hard and produce much but ask for little ... [and] Japan never developed
a social safety net or social security system, so Japanese save for hard times and retirement"
(Roskin, 2011, p. 282). The reason such a low level of welfare works in Japan is that the
Japanese, unlike Westerners, are trained to be obediently pluralistic, rather than individualistic.
No one expects society to give him or her anything, and everyone expects to work hard. This
system is much less expensive for Japan than the systems in Germany and the United States are
for their respective countries.
If the cost to the nation is the prime consideration, then almost nonexistent welfare, as
found in Japan, is the "right" level of welfare. Since most of the rest of the world would find it
almost impossible to shift to a Japanese mindset, however, the moderate level of welfare that is
found in the United States is closer to being the "right" level of welfare, even though the system in
the United States could still benefit from a great deal of restructuring and demystifying.
References:
Introduction to Social Policy, An. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2010, from
http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/wstate.htm
Japan: Social Welfare. (1994, January). Retrieved October 4, 2010, from
http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-7136.html
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Democratic Deficit 10/7/2010
In regard to the European Union (EU), the phrase "democratic deficit" refers to the fact
that "the EU is not a democracy" (Roskin, 2011, p. 249). Although "new members are admitted
only after they demonstrate they are democracies" (Roskin, 2011, p. 251), the EU itself is not a
democratic body, does not elect an executive, and does not even have a ratified constitution or
similar document. "The EU relies heavily on the European parliament to provide democratic
legitimacy" (Mulvey, 2003, para. 17), but most "Europeans believe that the Europarliament is less
important than their own parliaments" (Roskin, 2011, p. 248). In order to turn the democratic
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deficit around for the EU, the EU's representative democracy needs to become stronger, and
members of European nations need to think of themselves as Europeans.
Voter turnout for the European Parliament elections are notably low for several reasons.
The greatest reason is the one cited above: "Europeans believe that the Europarliament is less
important than their own parliaments" (Roskin, 2011, p. 248). Voters will not turn out for an
election that they do not consider to be important to them; they will consider it to be a waste of
their time and effort if the election is not personally relevant for them, if they worry about it at all.
Another problem is that "many Europeans are now skeptical or even hostile to the EU" (Roskin,
2011, p. 250). Voters will not turn out to support a government or an organization (since the EU
is not yet, truly, a government, but more of an economic organization) about which they are
skeptical. Even less will voters support an organization to which they are hostile.
Europeans are nationalistic, and there is a long and complicated history of European
nations fighting against each other to form and define those nations. Putting aside those centuries
of nationalistic sentiment and history is a very difficult proposition, and the memories of "[o]ld
grudges ... [, b]orders, languages, wars, and symbols" (Roskin, 2011, p. 245) will inhibit people's
desire to vote in elections for the European Parliament. There is an underlying fear that one's
historic adversary may be represented in the parliament while one's own country goes
unrepresented.
Voter turnout could be improved somewhat if elections were timed better. "In the UK,
there is a good chance that turnout will be higher than last time -- because to vote will be held on
the same day as local elections" (Mulvey, 2003, para. 38). Coordination of all of the local
elections throughout Europe with the vote for the European Parliament, however, would be an
unrealistic goal.
References:
Mulvey, S.. (2003, November 21), The EU's democratic challenge. Retrieved October 4, 2010,
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3224666.stm
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Japanese Spirit, Western Things 10/11/2010
The article, “Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things – 150 years after
Commodore Perry” (2003), discusses how Japan has modernized since the West forced Japan to
end its self-imposed isolation in 1853. The most important point of the article is that Japan
“mastered the art of opening up on its own terms … [and] decid[ing] for itself how to make the
process of opening suit its own aims” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things,” 2003,
para. 5). By opening to the West on its own terms, rather than on the West’s terms, Japan has
been able to preserve its own culture and to modernize without Westernizing.
Japan was not a backward nation when Commodore Perry forced it to open to Western
modernization. “Japan was distinctive, prosperous, and highly developed” (Roskin, 2011, p. 264)
by the time Perry arrived. Nevertheless, the Japanese needed to “save Japan by modernizing it
quickly, before the West could take it over” (Roskin, 2011, p. 265), and as a result, “Japan
emerged as one of history’s great economic success stories” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit,
western things,” 2003, para. 2).
Another important point of the article is that America cultivated Japan’s modernization
because America needed Japan as an economically, especially in the nineteenth century.
150 A Journey Through My College Papers
“America’s main goal in opening Japan was “to enlist Japan’s support in creating a global
marketplace” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things,” 2003, para. 19). Japan did,
indeed, become an important economic power, and today Japanese products are well-respected.
As an example, “Japan’s Toyota Motor said … total global sales of its Prius hybrid topped the two
million mark” (“Toyota,” 2010, para. 1). Japan has also become important in modern science,
with Japanese citizens receiving eighteen Nobel prizes – seven Nobel prizes in chemistry – before
2010 (“Two Japanese and an American,” 2009). Japan’s Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) works “in cooperation with US space agency NASA” (“Japan’s Hayabusa probe,” 2010,
para. 4).
It is important to recognize that modernization is not the same thing as modernity.
“Japan’s industrialization, with its rapid shift from a politically isolated and feudal nation to the
second largest economy in the world, demonstrates that neither Westernization nor modernity is
necessary for modernization” (Buntrock, 1996, para. 1). Indeed, Japan “has shown clearly that
you do not have to embrace ‘western’ culture in order to modernize your economy and prosper”
(“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things,” 2003, para. 10). Japan has modernized its
technology, its industry, and its economy, but it has labored diligently to preserve its Japanese
history, culture, and values. Japan has taken “the best of the West” (Roskin, 2011, p. 265),
without becoming Westernized. Japan modernized its economy without embracing Western
culture by “absorb[ing] western technology in a way that would shield them from political
competition and protect their interests” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things,” 2003,
para. 16). Japan learned to “control the aperture through which new ideas and practices streamed
in” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things,” 2003, para. 11), so Japan was not
overwhelmed by its interactions with the West. Japan achieved economic modernization without
succumbing to the lure of Western modernity.
Modernization in Japan has been fabulously successful. “[I]n a generation Japan went
from the Middle Ages to the modern age” (Roskin, 2011, p. 265). Japan and America have
become the economic allies that nineteenth-century Americans hoped they would be. “America
has helped Japan by opening it up … [and] Japan has helped America by improving on many of its
technologies, teaching it new manufacturing techniques, spurring on American firms with its
competition, and venturing into East Asia to trade and invest” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit,
western things,” 2003, para. 22).
Although Japan’s success at modernization has been dramatic, its meteoric rise to the top
of the economic world may be ending. “In 1990,… Japan’s extraordinary economic growth ended
with a major recession and unemployment” (Roskin, 2011, p. 289). This poses a problem for
Japan, which “has public assistance programs benefiting about 1 percent of the population”
(Japan: Social Welfare, 1994, para. 5). With such a small portion of the population being served
by government welfare programs, unemployment pushes Japanese workers to consider
“employing more western things to help lift Japan out of its mess” (“Special Report: Japanese
spirit, western things,” 2003, para. 28). Modernization may lead to modernity, with a greater
connection to the West, and to America in particular, since “[y]ounger Japanese, educated and
traveled, [see] how people in other countries [do] not live in rabbit hutches and pay exorbitant
prices. Many [are] no longer willing to support the status quo” (Roskin, 2011, p. 289). “The
International Monetary Fund … forecast Japan’s real economic growth in 2011 … 0.3 percentage
point lower than predicted” (“IMF lowers nation’s 2011 growth estimate,” 2010, para. 1). If this
financial situation continues or worsens in Japan, it may soon become necessary to reconsider how
successful Japan’s modernization has been. While modernization itself “can be said to exist when
the country in question has arrived at a point comparable to the technological development of
other leading nations” (Buntrock, 1996, para. 3), the success of such modernization depends on
the country’s ability to remain at that point of comparability, and to maintain its economic growth.
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There are several factors that I can see potentially occurring in Japan’s economic and
social environment that might affect further cooperation between Japan and America. One
possibility is that Japan’s economic downturn, coupled with younger Japanese’s enculturation in
the West, could push Japan to become more and more Westernized, and to have closer bonds with
America. As American foods – “McDonald’s and KFC have become, respectively, Japan’s first
and second most popular restaurants” (Roskin, 2011, p. 282) – clothing, and values permeate
Japan’s younger generation, younger Japanese look and act more and more Western. Already,
“[y]ounger Japanese switch their jobs and their votes and oppose corruption” (Roskin, 2011, p.
282), which was unheard-of behavior in previous generations.
Another possible event that I can imagine happening is Japan once again “rapidly
slamming shut” (“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things,” 2003, para. 11) in an attempt to
restore its culture and traditions by shutting out the West. Since Japan has almost no import
economy, closing itself off would not pose a significant material hardship for Japan. However,
Japan’s prodigious export economy would present a very significant hardship for the rest of the
world if Japan closed its borders. In this eventuality, I could imagine the United States once again
forcing Japan to open its doors to the West, this time with imperial intentions toward Japan, and
occupying Japan. I would hope that this possibility is far less likely than the former possibility,
should a significant shift in Japan’s relations with the West occur.
Other possible factors that could affect relations between Japan and America could come
from outside either country. With the political and military situation in North Korea uncertain, a
change in America’s relations with North Korea could positively or adversely affect America’s
relations with Japan. An open war between America and any East Asian country would be likely
to affect relations with Japan. I would not like to have to guess which alliance Japan would
choose in that case: a modern, economic alliance with America; or an ancient kinship with other
Asians. “Japanese … ancestors came from other parts of the Pacific Rim, especially from Korea
… [and] Japan and Korea both owe much to Chinese culture” (Roskin, 2011, p. 261). The
Japanese revere their ancestors, and the ancient tie might be enough to end the cooperation
between Japan and America in the event of a war with North Korea. It would be hoped that the
fact that “Japanese look down on Koreans” (Roskin, 2011, p. 261) might be enough to keep Japan
from siding with North Korea in that case, if Japan did not side with America.
Japan modernized reluctantly, to protect itself from being overwhelmed by the West. Its
modernization was uncommonly rapid and remarkably successful, but may be reaching an end.
Japan has successfully maintained its rich and ancient culture in the process of modernizing, but
that, too, may be coming to an end. If Japan cannot find a way to balance its culture with its
modernization, then one or the other may have to be sacrificed to preserve the Japanese people.
References
Buntrock, D.. (1996, December). “Without Modernity: Japan’s Challenging Modernization.”
Architronic, 5 (3). Retrieved October 10, 2010, from
http://corbu2.caed.kent.edu/architronic/PDF/v5n3/v5n3_02.pdf
“IMF lowers nation’s 2011 growth estimate.” (2010, October 7). The Japan Times
[Electronic version]. Retrieved October 7, 2010, from
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20101007a2.html
Japan: Social Welfare. (1994, January). Retrieved October 4, 2010, from
http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-7136.html
“Japan’s Hayabusa probe may have brought home space dust – reports.” (2010, October 6).
Herald Sun [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 7, 2010, from
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japans-hayabusa-probe-may- have-
brought-home-space-dust-reports/story-e6frf7k6-1225935055269
152 A Journey Through My College Papers
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
“Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things – 150 years after Commodore Perry.” (2003,
July 12). The Economist, 368 (8332), 20. Retrieved October 3, 2010, from
ProQuest database.
Toyota: over two million Prius sold since launch. (2010, October 7). Retrieved October 7,
2010, from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i5sNTEbE-
M6nvzJZFQUqFcWVq7DA?docId=CNG.617fcb341028c061553240385e14f91f.
451
“Two Japanese and an American win Nobel Prize in Chemistry.” (2009). News on Japan
[Electronic version]. Retrieved October 7, 2010, from
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/84289.php
Middle Way 10/14/2010
There can be a middle economic way between capitalism and either socialism or
communism, but such a system is doomed to be short-lived, and to fail. As Roskin (2011) states
in our text: "a little bit of capitalism is like being a little bit pregnant" (p. 434). The nearest thing
to a middle way is welfarism, in which a government provides "medical, unemployment,
educational, housing, and other programs to lift up the lower rungs of society" (Roskin, 2011, p.
362), while also permitting free market economics. This system works in Scandinavia, and it also
works to a certain extent in Germany and in the United States. This welfarism is actually a form
of capitalism, however, because the government controls only a portion of the distribution of the
nation's wealth, not the means of producing that wealth. No matter how many pseudo-socialist
programs a government offers to its people, if the means of production in that nation are held in
the private sector, then the system is capitalist.
When a nation tries to follow a middle way, two things may happen. Either that nation
will give up its socialist or communist beliefs and practices to become an openly capitalist nation,
or the nation will crush capitalist development and revert to a state of socialism or of communism.
Either of these responses is an attempt to rescue an economy that will inevitably blow itself up or
collapse in on itself. When the Gorbachev government attempted to find a middle way between
socialism and capitalism for Russia, the "Russians felt angry and betrayed" (Roskin, 2011, p. 358)
as they "witnessed the explosive growth of inequality" (Roskin, 2011, p. 358). Under socialism, a
few had been rich, but the government had preached against the middle class, and most people had
been equal. When the door was opened for capitalism, the gap between the rich and the poor
grew. Public finances became dangerously weak, and "the Yeltsin government simply printed
more money" (Roskin, 2011, p. 358). The Chinese also tried to find a middle way, introducing
elements of capitalism into their communist system. When a nation does this, "[t]he private sector
keeps bumping into the state sector" (Roskin, 2011, p. 434). It is not yet clear how the conflict
between communism and capitalism in China will end, but "China's elite is still firmly
Communist, [and] has no desire for democracy" (Roskin, 2011, p. 434), so it doesn't look like it
will end well.
References:
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
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The Quiet Revolution 10/14/2010
China has been able to build up a huge industrial infrastructure that produces wealth for
the country by maintaining state control of the instruments of production, while giving the
impression of allowing private, capitalist firms, and also by allowing and encouraging foreign
companies to operate in China. This has created a vast gap in incomes for the Chinese, with the
urban upper- and middle-classes centered in eighteen coastal cities while the under-class of
peasants lives on a pittance in rural areas. For the time being, China appears to have found a sort
of middle way between it Communist government and its capitalist economy. In addition, the
development of the household responsibility system has promoted "both ... rapid economic
development and ... rapid increase in income disparity" (Bloom, 2009, para. 7). This program
undid the communes established by Mao and gave the land to farmers. The system is feudal in
nature, with the government still owning the land itself, and requiring the farmer to contribute a
set amount of his produce to the state, but it allowed some farmers to accumulate personal wealth
through motivated labor.
Since the late 1950s, the Chinese have fought repression, usually by quietly ignoring the
government to find illegal, private employment, and sometimes more openly, as in the case of the
student demonstration in Tiananmen Square in 1989. There is no reason to believe that these
moves toward greater demands for respect of civil rights and political freedoms will end. "You
cannot reform the economy alone, for economic reform generates demands for political reform,
namely, democracy" (Roskin, 2011, p. 434). However, "[d]o not count on China moving to
democracy automatically or peacefully, no matter what its economic growth" (Roskin, 2011, p.
434). Communism is deeply entrenched in China, but it seems likely that it must eventually give
way to democracy if China continues to encourage and to support a free market economy, or
anything that strongly resembles a free market economy.
References:
Bloom, A.. (2009, July 21). China's Income Gap: Capitalism in Communism. Retrieved October
14, 2010, from http://admanb.com/posts/1
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Caste System 10/21/2010
Ending India's caste system sounds very straightforward. Make a law that abolishes the
caste system and that makes all Indians equal under the law. Prohibit discrimination based on a
person's former caste status, and punish anyone who discriminates against anyone else on the basis
of caste. This method was tried in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Abraham Lincoln abolished America's caste system by abolishing slavery. Black Americans were
made equal with White Americans. Banning discrimination against Blacks took several
generations longer, but that was done, as well. It looks good on paper, but it wasn't actually that
simple in America, and it will not be that simple in India. The American Civil War was fought, in
large part, over the issue of slavery, and there is likely to be violence accompanying the end of
India's caste system. Discrimination against Black Americans still happens, and discrimination
against Indians based on caste will continue to happen.
154 A Journey Through My College Papers
If I had to end India's caste system, I would do all of the things I described, despite the
fact that they won't really end it, because it is necessary to build a legal foundation for this sort of
revolution. Afterward, I would introduce specific laws by which Indians would receive equal
opportunity employment, housing, education, and services. I would end the current quota system,
in which "15% of the government jobs and 15% of the students admitted to universities must be
from Scheduled Castes" (Daniel, 2005, para. 7), since we learned during America's civil rights
struggle that quotas do not produce non-discrimination or equality. I would flood the country,
especially the less-modernized northern part of the country, with educational campaigns that
demonstrate that caste has nothing to do with inherent worth or with personal ability. I would also
publicize the 1997 genetic study by the University of Utah and Andhra Pradesh University that
indicates that the upper caste is descended from "invaders known as Indo-Europeans, or true
Aryans, [who] came from Eastern Europe or western Asia and conquered the Indian subcontinent"
(Cooke, 1999, para. 12), and that the lowest castes are actually the most pure Indians.
Opposition to any attempt to get rid of the Indian caste system will come from members
of all of the castes. I would expect more opposition from the rural populations than from the
urban populations, since rural populations are almost always more resistant to change than are
urban populations. In urban areas, such as Chennai, caste is already less of an issue, with Indians
becoming socially mobile (Polgreen, 2010, para. 3), while "in some rural areas there is still
discrimination based on castes and sometimes also on untouchability" (Daniel, 2005, para. 2).
Opposition will also come from the Brahmin caste, and the elimination of the caste system would
threaten the status and the authority of the priests. Indian individuals, who believe that they were
born into their castes as a result of karma and reincarnation, will present additional opposition, as
they believe that they deserve their position in society. Along with this, opposition will come
from the simple fact that the caste system has been around for so long, and has become so deeply
embedded in the Indian psyche, that cultural inertia will make it difficult for many Indians to
change what they believe and what they do.
References:
Cooke, R.. (1999, May 26). "History of Ancient Indian Conquest Told in Modern Genes,
Experts Say." San Francisco Chronicle [Electronic edition]. Retrieved October
21, 2010, from http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/casteindia.htm
Daniel, A.. (2005). Caste system in modern India. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from
http://adaniel.tripod.com/modernindia.htm
Polgreen, L.. (2010, September 10). "Business Class Rises in Ashes of Caste System." The New
York Times [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/world/asia/11caste.html
Muslim Modernization 10/21/2010
While Islam does not, of itself, impede modernization, "hatred of anything Western"
(Roskin, 2011, p. 548) does impede modernization by Western definitions. "[O]ne of the major
responses to western modernization and occupation of the Muslim world was Islamic modernism"
(Baraz, 2010, para. 1). Islamic modernism allows a people that has been conquered time after
time to enter the modern world without "admitting the West is superior" (Roskin, 2011, p. 548).
This is important because "Islam teaches it is superior to all other civilizations and will eventually
triumph worldwide" (Roskin, 2011, p. 548).
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Islam teaches that it is "in harmony with the principles discovered by scientific reason ...
[and is] the religion demanded by reason" (Baraz, 2010, para. 3). Early in the history of Islam,
"Islamic civilization was for centuries far ahead of Christian Europe in science, philosophy,
medicine, sanitation, architecture, steelmaking, and much more" (Roskin, 2011, p. 548). The
decline of this technologically advanced Muslim society was brought on "by forces of Western
colonialism" (Baraz, 2010, para. 2).
Modernization is coming to some Muslim countries. In Indonesia, the "trend is trying to
adapt to globalization" (Lacey, 2009, para. 6). Also, "[t]he modernization that has been changing
Amman [, Jordan,] daily has affected the outward appearance of the city, especially through the
young" (Lee, 2010, para. 3). Lee (2010) goes on to tell us that, in Amman, "[o]n one street, there
will be girls fully covered and veiled, girls wearing a hijab with skinny jeans and a tight skirt, girls
without the hijab, and girls wearing shorts or skirts with a t-shirt" (para. 3). In Malaysia, "many
Malays have become prosperous and content not only through secular capitalism, but through the
country's renewed sense of Islamic identity, on which ... [it] embraced modernization" (Ooi, 2005,
para. 2).
No Muslim country is fully modernized ... yet. Even when a Muslim country does
modernize, it may maintain certain practices that are important to the beliefs of its people, and that
might make it look less modern to Western observers. It is important for us to remember that the
founders of the United States came here to escape religious persecution and to secure the right and
freedom to worship as they chose, and for us to extend to other cultures the courtesy of
recognizing their rights to believe and to worship as they see fit. It is wrong for us to suppose that
Westernization is the only right thing for a country's development, or that a non-modernized
country lacks social or cultural value. It is important not only to not retard modernization, but also
to not rush modernization so much that the beauty and uniqueness of a culture is lost.
References:
Baraz, Y.. (2010, May 10). Islamic Modernism: Responses to Western Modernization in
the Middle East. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from
http://www.studentpulse.com/248/islamic-modernization-responses-to-western-
modernization-in-the-middle-east
Lacey, T.. (2009, November 27). "Muhammadiyah -- A century of Muslim modernization." Sri
Lanka Guardian [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/11/muhammadiyah-century-of-muslim.html
Lee, S.. (2010, October 7). Seungah Lee on the Face of Islam in the Midst of Modernization.
Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/letters/seungah-
lee-on-the-face-of-islam-in-the-midst-of-modernization
Ooi, K.B.. (2005, August 31). Islam as a Tool of Modernization. Retrieved October 21, 2010,
from http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/beng1/English
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Political Diversity in the Developing World 10/28/2010
Developing countries have far more things in common than otherwise. Developing
countries are mostly poor and non-white. Most, including Mexico and Nigeria, have been
colonized by various European countries, including Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain,
Portugal, and, less often, Germany and Italy. Most developing countries are in hot areas, close to
156 A Journey Through My College Papers
the equator. They are unstable, and they are prone to political unrest and revolution. Developing
countries are generally marked by crime and corruption, which are often interwoven in their
politics. "In a weak state, politics, because it is unrestrained, easily turns violent. Crime, because
it has little to fear from the state, ignores state power" (Roskin, 2011, p. 495). In most developing
countries, the rural populations are poor and illiterate. The rural populations tend to flock to the
cities to seek better lives, even though "life is so wretched in the barrios ... [, because] it is even
worse in the countryside" (Roskin, 2011, p. 498). Although "barrios" refers specifically to the
shantytowns in Mexico, the statement applies just as well in other developing countries.
Developing countries are religiously diverse, with many being predominantly Muslim,
others being predominantly Christian, others being predominantly Hindu, and a few having no
religion. Despite having been anticlericalist, Mexico is largely Christian, and "[t]hree-quarters of
Mexicans are professed Catholics" (Roskin, 2011, p. 495). Nigeria, on the other hand, is more
evenly divided, and "[h]alf of Nigerians are Muslim; another 40 percent are Christian, and 10
percent are indigenous faiths" (Roskin, 2011, p. 517).
Developing countries are divergent in how their economies are supported. Some
developing countries depend on oil and petroleum products. Others depend on agriculture. Few
are industrialized, but a few, such as "Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea" (Roskin, 2011, p.
377) are exceptions.
Economic development and representative democracy run into difficulties in Latin
America and in Africa, because "[p]oor countries rarely sustain democracy" (Roskin, 2011, p.
569), and the developing countries in Latin America and in Africa are poor -- desperately poor in
rural areas. Economic development has trouble in these areas because of the political turmoil in
the regions. Political turmoil causes social instability and uncertainty, which prevents the
development and the maintenance of a strong economy. The economic and political difficulties
have become a vicious cycle, perpetuating itself and spiraling countries like Nigeria down to
"weak state" status, bordering on the edge of becoming a "failed state." Democracy is tentatively
establishing itself in Mexico and most other Latin American countries. If democracy becomes
stable in those countries, then stability might give their economies a chance. The same could be
true in Nigeria and other African countries.
References:
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Major Trends, Issues and Prospects 10/28/2010
The role of women in society is an important topic in any modern nation. As Muslims
move into the modern world, the role of women in Muslim society, and the role of Muslim women
in Western society, becomes more important.
In some traditionally Muslim countries, women are gaining some rights that are usually
associated with Western women. For example, on a single street in Amman, Jordan, "there will be
girls fully covered and veiled, girls wearing a hijab with skinny jeans and a tight skirt, girls
without the hijab, and girls wearing shorts or skirts with a t-shirt" (Lee, 2010, para. 3). This is not
the case in most Muslim countries, however, even in the twenty-first century. Even in Britain, a
modern, Western nation, it is not unusual to find "Muslim women in full-face veils" (Roskin,
2011, p. 82).
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In India, where modernization has made education more available to women, "it appears
that these factors have been relatively more detrimental to Muslim women's wage employment
compared to their enrollment [in schools]" (Rastogi, 2007, para. 1).
Interestingly, the segregation of Muslim women is not an historical practice that is slowly
relaxing, but a relatively modern development that "is not in the Qur'an" (Cole, 2010, para. 2). In
the past, the veiling of women was only required for the wives of the Prophet, and later, for
wealthy women. "Most Muslim women in history never veiled or were secluded" (Cole, 2010,
para. 3). The relaxing of the segregation rules for women in some Muslim countries is actually a
return to practices that were common until two centuries ago.
As we learned in Roskin's (2011) text, "Iranian women drive cars, go to school, work
outside the home, and participate in politics" (p. 552). Even so, women in Iran face "tough
restrictions on dress, contact with males, and travel" (Roskin, 2011, p. 552), and Iran is one of the
better countries for Muslim women.
Recently, Sheik Abdul-Mohsen al-Obeikan has introduced a sort of compromise in "an
attempt to create a wider circle of men with whom women can legitimately interact in public"
(Cole, 2010, para. 10). The practice he has offered in a social institution called milk kinship, in
which "a nanny ... might breastfeed the aristocratic baby at the same time that she breastfed her
own infant, and that practice was considered to make the children a kind of sibling" (Cole, 2010,
para. 5). Drawing on that pre-Muslim tradition, al-Obeikan's ruling is "that if a woman needs to
appear without her veil in front of an adult, unrelated male, she has the option of breast-feeding
him, because it establishes a mother-son bond in Islamic tradition" (Michael, 2010, para. 12).
While this is certainly an option to allow women to expand their social interactions, it is not a
modern option by Western standards. Still, it is a nod toward the fact that Muslim women need to
have access to unrelated males, and it may be a step toward more modern options, and, possibly,
toward the establishment of rights for Muslim women.
References:
Cole, J.. (2010, June). A Sign of Modernization: Saudi Clerics Promote Kinship by Sharing
Breast Milk. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/saudi-clerics-promote-kinship-by-sharing-breast-
milk.html
Lee, S.. (2010, October 7). Seungah Lee on the Face of Islam in the Midst of Modernization.
Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/letters/seungah-
lee-on-the-face-of-islam-in-the-midst-of-modernization
Michael, M.. (2010, October 10). "Saudi Arabia: Moving toward modernization?" Sioux City
Journal [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/a1/article_57c5d8d3-3d3c-58e7-9bc1-
3a1f3dc29f0e.html
Rastogi, S.. (2007, April 30). Indian Muslim Women's Education and Employment in the
Context of Modernization, Religious Discrimination and Disadvantage, and the Rise of
HinduFundamentalism and Muslim Identity Politics. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/6861
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
158 A Journey Through My College Papers
The British Disease November 1, 2010
The British class system is dangerous to British society, and the class system needs to be
torn down, and to have its social constructs and entitlements and restrictions outlawed. The
worst example of the dangers of the British class system is the current racial problem in Britain.
The British class system, which may be referred to as the British disease, dates back at
least to 1066, when “William [the Conqueror] replaced the Saxon ruling class with Norman
nobles” (Roskin, 2011, p. 22). The mention of an existing ruling class at that time suggests that
British classism goes back much farther than the eleventh century. In the beginning, there was not
the sharply defined difference between the ruling class and the aristocratic class, as evidenced by
the oath sworn to a new monarch by the nobles of Aragon: “We who are as good as you swear to
you, who are no better than we, to accept you as our king and sovereign lord provided you observe
all our statutes and laws; and if not, no” (Roskin, 2011, p. 22). The British aristocracy in modern
times has “mysteriously given way to snobbery, stupidity, extravagance and buccaneering”
(Mandler, 1998, para. 5).
There are those who believe that the class system in Britain is a laudable social
institution, and that members of the aristocracy are entitled to the privileges that their class affords
them. Michael G. Roskin (2011) writes that “only a minority [of Britons] would abolish the
monarchy in favor of a republic with a president” (56). The monarchy is, of course, the pinnacle
of the British class system. Others deny that a problem of class even exists. Dave Cameron, “a
direct descendant of King William IV … [and] fifth cousin twice removed” (Behr, 2008, para. 11)
of Queen Elizabeth II, states: “I don’t believe this is a class-ridden society … I think that’s a load
of rubbish” (Behr, 2008, para. 11). Stephen Heathorn (2002) describes the aristocratic class as an
“elite culture that … was actively promoted as the ‘national’ code of masculine deportment” (para.
26). While it is true that much of the world admires the apparent civility and decorum of Britain’s
upper classes, “the lingering cultural influence of the British aristocracy” (Mandler, 1998, para. 7)
is “notions of racial superiority [that are] still found … among all classes within British society”
(Smith, 2008, para. 10). Far from benefitting the Britons, this legacy could destroy civilized
society in Britain.
The British class system does not serve a useful purpose in modern Britain. In the
Middle Ages, when the class system got its start, it was useful for the aristocratic class to rule over
a nation of low-class serfs in a feudal society, with a middle class of merchants and tradesmen to
supply the needs that could not be supplied from the land. Today, the British class system is no
more than a symbol and a tradition. Even Queen Elizabeth “reigns but does not rule” (Roskin,
2011, p. 36). The British monarch, like the rest of the class system, has become a symbol and a
tradition. “The monarch, as head of state, is a dignified office with much symbolic but no real
political power” (Roskin, 2011, p. 36). Roskin (2011) goes on to tell us that “[t]he typical Briton
likes traditions and symbols” (p. 56). The symbols and the traditions of the British class system
do not serve a political or an economic purpose. They do not serve the best interests of the British
people. “[T]hey … serve to deepen British feelings about the rightness of the system” (Roskin,
2011, p. 56), but the system is no longer right, and the systems that support the British class
system need to be removed and reworked until the people are served. Only in that way can the
collateral affects of racism and of anti-foreign sentiment be cleansed from Britain’s culture.
The racism associated with the British aristocracy goes back to British imperialism. The
British set out to claim colonies because the British believed themselves to be the superior race
and culture. “Lord Hugh Cecil … declared it to be the duty of the government ‘to keep for the
Anglo-Saxon race whatever the Anglo-Saxon race has won’” (Heathorn, 2002, para. 5). This is an
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odd attitude for a race that was formed over more than a millennium from an admixture of “Celts,
Romans, Angles and Saxons, Danes, and … Normans” (Roskin, 2011, p. 21), but it was class, not
race, that truly prompted Lord Hugh’s remark. In Britain’s imperial age, Britons simply added a
new, lowest class to their social hierarchy: the colonial native. Evan Smith (2008) writes that
“even the lowest ranks of British society could feel superior to the highest members of the colonial
societies” (para. 11), and Katherine Foxhall (2009) writes of “the imperial roots of contemporary
British racism” (para. 6). Most of these colonial natives were non-white, meaning that white
Britons were setting themselves above the natives on the basis of race as well as of class.
An example of “prevailing racial and elite … ideologies” (Heathorn, 2002, para. 4) may
be found in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. This war was to “promote the causes of
civilization and Christianity, to improve the economic and spiritual condition of the lower races, to
crush slavery, and to bring all parts of the habitable world into closer material and moral union”
(Heathorn, 2002, para. 5). This idea, which is originally attributed to J.A. Hobson, identifies non-
Britons as “the lower races” (Heathorn, 2002, para. 5), and thus suggests that imperial Britons are
a higher, or more deserving race. It expresses the “sometimes latent, sometimes overt racism that
is deeply embedded within British society” (Garside, 2010, para. 5). This, of course, is the root of
the problem: British society. It is not that there is anything inherently better or worse about a
Briton than about a person of any other culture, but that the British class system has taught the
Britons that they are better than everyone else. The British class system makes a segment of
British society, the aristocratic class, believe that it is entitled by some unfathomable difference
inside each of its members to “fame and fortune, power and prestige, place and office, rank and
title, ancestor worship and family pride” (Mandler, 1998, para. 5). It has also made another, much
larger segment of society, the working class, believe that it is not entitled to all of those things to
which the aristocracy is entitled, and has made both the aristocratic class and the working class
believe that the lower class and non-native Britons – meaning non-white Britons – are entitled to
none of the benefits of British class structure. The “nuances of class … [have] invited snobbery”
(Weight, 2010, para. 4) from the British aristocracy, and have pushed “British workers … [into]
showing solidarity with their ‘mates’” (Roskin, 2011, p. 75). The class structure in Britain is so
ingrained in the British psyche that it is not only the privileged aristocrats who perpetuate the class
system; the members of the working class also display “deep-seated attitudes resist[ing] change”
(Roskin, 2011, p. 75). The situation would have been bad enough if Britons had remained in
Britain, largely cut off from much of the world by the fact that Britain is an island nation, but
Britons went forth to build and empire. Imperialism did not weaken the British class system but,
rather, imperialism strengthened and bolstered the divide between the aristocracy and the working
class as it added the colonial working class and the class of colonial natives to the bottom of the
hierarchy. The British working class was thus elevated, and “racism born of empire helped to
create a sense of superiority among the British working class” (Smith, 2008, para. 11).
Simply declaring social equality for all residents of Britain is not enough to wipe away
millennia of class division. In order to save Britain, the British class system must be completely
dismantled, with every hereditary title and entitlement being outlawed. Not only must class
divisions among white Britons be removed, but non-white and Muslim Britons must be legally,
and publicly, recognized as being fully equal with all other Britons. No segment of Britain’s
population can be labeled as a “problem population,” and prisons cannot be used to regulate poor,
black, and Middle Eastern populations that have committed no crimes. The government and the
police force must be diligent and scrupulous about enforcing a measure to dismantle the British
class system, and about ensuring that such a measure is applied to each and every British resident
equally and impartially. The “disproportionate targeting by criminal justice agencies of young
men of black and Middle Eastern appearance and ethnicity … to curb the social turmoil generated
at the foot of the urban order” (Garside, 2010, paras. 5-7) must be stopped. “Britain in 1948
160 A Journey Through My College Papers
legally made the natives of its many colonies British subjects, entitled to live and work in the
United Kingdom” (Roskin, 2011, p. 81), but that is not enough, as evidenced by the ongoing and
escalating racial tensions and race- and religion-related violence in Britain. Former colonials and
natives of former colonies must be made legally and socially equal – not only with working-class
Britons, but with all Britons, in a class-free society.
Racism, and discrimination on the basis of race, is not just a feature of Imperial Britain,
but of modern Britain, as well. Racial issues were not left behind in Africa, in India, in the Far
East, and in other colonial lands when the Britons retreated back into Britain. Instead, “West
Indians arrived from the Caribbean, then Indians and Pakistanis, taking lowly jobs that Britons did
not want and then sending for relatives” (Roskin, 2011, p. 81). Even after colonial natives were
recognized under British law as British citizens, “the traditional view … of black workers as still
‘colonials’ or ‘outsiders’” (Smith, 2008, para. 1) is still prevalent in Britain.
The upper classes of the British class system do not bear all of the blame for the racial
tensions in Britain today, although the British class system as a whole is at fault. Britain’s middle
and lower classes also contribute to the problem. Even the colonial natives against whom British
society discriminates help to perpetuate the racial intolerance of which they are the victims.
Muslims are discriminated against in Britain for their race, for their religion, and for their culture.
Still, it is common in many parts of Britain to see “Muslim women in full-face veils” (Roskin,
2011, p. 82), which draws attention to their differences, and which serves to reinforce their
segregation from the rest of British society. Members of the working class are proud of their class
status, and they feel superior to the non-white workers who do the dirtiest, most dangerous, most
undesirable jobs in Britain. Sometimes, these non-white residents of Britain take racism to the
extreme themselves, lashing out at the white upper classes with violence. “In 2005 four Muslim
youths … set off three bombs on London’s Underground and one on a bus, which killed 56 and
injured 700” (Roskin, 2011, p. 82). Incidents like that only increase racial tensions in Britain.
In order to heal the social wound of racism, and to cure the British disease of classism,
every person in Britain must be socially and legally equal to every other person in Britain. This
cannot only mean that a piece of legislation must be signed; it must mean the changing of
attitudes, emotions, and ideas held by the people of Britain. There is a way to approach this
monumental task that has a chance of working to reduce racist attitudes and behaviors over time.
David Lammy (2006) presents the possibility of building “an ‘encounter culture’ in which it
becomes easier and more rewarding to interact with and respect others” (para. 2). To replace a
hierarchical social structure, “Gordon Brown … has argued that a ‘thicker’ conception of shared
national citizenship is needed as a basis on which other, more particular identities can be overlaid”
(Lammy, 2006, para. 5). At first glance, this might be seen as re-establishing the identity of
British superiority that gave birth to British imperialism, but it is something else entirely. Where
“[c]olonial paternalism aptly describes … Britain’s relationship with the ethnic national
minorities” (Glais, 2010, para. 20), the encounter culture calls for “the next generation in Britain
… [to] re-learn how to live together successfully” (Lammy, 2006, para. 2). “The emphasis on
anti-colonialism … served to reinforce the ‘foreignness’ of immigrant workers” (Smith, 2008,
para. 5), but an encounter culture seeks to create bonds among all of the people of Britain that will
develop a national identity of Britishness for everyone, including immigrants. Without a divisive
class structure of entitlement and disenfranchisement, an encounter culture seeks to
build a civic space in which people engage with people who look, sound and live
differently from themselves, who are from different backgrounds, age brackets or areas,
and with whom they share a common destiny as residents of the same street, users of the
same service or voters for the same council. (Lammy, 2006, para. 6)
This means that black Britons, white Britons, Muslim Britons, and Christian Britons would all live
and work together, simply as Britons. Members of Parliament, clerks, hospitality workers,
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university professors, journalists, street sweepers, and workers in every business and industry
would work and live together without regard for skin color, religious belief, income level, native
language, or residential location. No more would being an MP imply white skin, or would being a
waiter imply black skin, or would being a domestic employee imply brown skin.
Michael G. Roskin (2011) writes that “the only way to save Britain [is] to change British
culture” (p. 75), and he is quite right. The British class system needs to be outlawed, and the
social vestiges of the class system need to be swept away, because the class system is divisive to
the British people, and it is dangerous to British society. The Britons do not need the trappings of
aristocracy to establish the legitimacy of the British nation or the identity of the British people.
The days of British imperialism are long past, and their legacy of the Britons’ sense of superiority
over any people who come from anywhere other than Britain needs to be relegated to the past.
Likewise, the days of aristocratic leisure, fed by the labor of feudal lower classes, or, more
recently, by the industry and ingenuity of the working middle classes, is ready to come to an end.
Britons of every race, color, belief system, and walk of life need to become equal, and need to
learn to accept one another’s differences.
References
Behr, R.. (008, November 9). “Is there a new class war?” The Observer [Electronic version].
Retrieved November 1, 2010, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/09/class-war-mosaic-database
Foxhall, K.. (2009). “The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives.” Journal of World History,
20(2), 293-296. Retrieved October 12, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Garside, R.. (2010). “Punishing the Poor: The Neo-liberal Government of Social
Inequality.” Renewal : a Journal of Labour Politics, 18(1/2), 150-152. Retrieved
October 12, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Glais, N.. (2010, March 6). The Task of the British Working class against racism and class
oppression and the struggle for Socialism in the 21st century. Retrieved
November 1, 2010, from http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2010/03/task-of-
british-working-class-against.html
Heathorn, S.. (2002). “’The highest type of Englishman’: Gender, war, and the Alfred the great
millenary commemoration of 1901.” Canadian Journal of History, 37(3), 459-484.
Retrieved October 12, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Lammy, D.. (2006, April 23). “Close encounters.” Prospect Magazine, 121 [Electronic version].
Retrieved November 1, 2010, from
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2006/04/closeencounters/
Mandler, P.. (1998). “Aspects of Aristocracy: grandeur and decline in modern Britain.”
European Review of History, 5(1), 105-106. Retrieved October 12, 2010, from
ProQuest Database.
Roskin, M.G. (2011). Countries and concepts: Politics, geography, culture (11th ed.). New York:
Longman.
Smith, E.. (2008). “’Class Before Race’”: British Communism and the Place of Empire in
Postwar Race Relations.” Science & Society, 72(4), 455-481. Retrieved October
12, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
Weight, R.. (2010). “Family Britain 1951-57.” History Today, 60(2), 59-60,63. Retrieved
October 12, 2010, from ProQuest Database.
162 A Journey Through My College Papers
ENG 125: Introduction to Literature
Creating Art 11/4/2010
After completing the required readings for this week, discuss how you see the theme of
creating art developing in the different stories and poems. What did you learn about the human
impulse to create? Give examples from one of the stories and at least two of the poems that you
think influenced this theme. Respond to at least two of our fellow students' postings.
The clearest expression of the theme of creating art is in Raymond Carver's story,
"Cathedral," when Robert and the narrator draw a cathedral: "First I drew a box that looked like a
house ... I put a roof on it ... I drew spires ... I kept at it. I'm no artist ... I closed [my eyes] ... It
was like nothing else in my life up to now" (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, pp. 464-465). The seeing
man's hand guides the blind man's hand to draw a cathedral, encouraging the narrator to draw
without looking, so he can experience the activity through the senses of a blind man. Neither of
these men is familiar with what a cathedral looks like, and the narrator has only seen images of
cathedrals in one television program. Although he hardly knows Robert, and he resents and is
jealous of Robert, he draws to let Robert "see" a cathedral after the narrator's attempt to describe a
cathedral fails miserably. Along with creating a drawing on a paper bag, the narrator and Robert
together create a bridge over the differences between them, and they create a personal bond
between them, which illustrates the human impulse to create. We create in order to form
connections with ourselves and with other people.
The vivid descriptions in Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" express the
author's creative impulse. In order to fully convey to the reader the experience of the setting of the
story, he includes descriptive details that would not otherwise be necessary for the narrative of the
story. "He pointed out to her the dazzling fittings of the coach ... the sea-green figured velvet, the
shining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool
of oil" (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 483). The description of the velvet, in particular, changed my
mental picture of the scene; left to my imagination, I would have pictured the interior of the coach
car with smooth, red velvet, but sea-green, figured velvet brightened the visual experience, and the
attendant emotional experience, for me.
Emily Dickinson creates visual images of the moments after death with the delicately
macabre poems, "I died for Beauty -- but was scarce" and "I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died." In
"I died for Beauty," she creates an image of two brothers who find each other in the persons of
strangers in death. She illustrates how truth and beauty are two representations of the same thing,
and she suggests that truth and beauty outlive the memory of individual names: "For Beauty ... for
Truth -- Themself are One ... so, as Kinsmen, met a Night ... Until the Moss had reached our lips --
And covered up -- our names" (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 926). "I heard a Fly buzz" also creates
an impression that something lasts beyond the individual's identity: "I willed my Keepsakes --
Signed away/ What portion of me be/ Assignable -- and then it was/ There interposed a Fly --"
(Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 927). She creates an image of the incorruptible part of the person
leaving the body before the fly brings the corruption of mortal death and decay to the body.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
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Literature and Life 11/4/2010
After completing the required readings for this week, what connections have you made
between literature and everyday life? Use examples and quotes to support your thoughts from at
least three of the readings. Respond to at east two of your fellow students' postings.
Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" connects with everyday life in the
interaction between Scratchy Wilson and Jack Potter. Scratchy and Jack have a ritual game in
which Scratchy gets drunk and then Jacks fights with Scratchy and subdues him. Jack's marriage
to a girl from San Antonio changes the dynamics of his relationship with Scratchy, and the game
is no longer fun for Scratchy. In getting married, Jack has grown up, moving beyond the activities
of youth, while Scratchy is still "a simple child of the earlier plains" (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p.
489). This reminds me of my own life, and of the way my unmarried friends responded when I
married and started a family. It seemed to confuse them that I was no longer available for
adolescent activities, and those friends drifted out of all but the periphery of my life, much the way
Scratchy walked out of Jack's life, even though they would still interact peripherally in the town,
"[h]is feet ma[king] funnel-shaped tracks in the heavy sand" (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 489).
Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," with its emphasis on the alcohol, tobacco, and drugs that
the characters use to ease the discomfort of lives that don't really fit them well, vividly portrays the
pain that many people experience in their everyday lives. The narrator speaks plainly about his
wife's life before their marriage, and his resentment and jealousy are starkly visible in the plain,
undecorated narrative. It is clear that they are a couple that exists together, and that is perhaps
affectionate together, but that they are not a couple with a passionate love, or with deep ties
between them. They are typical of many, many real-life couples in almost any city.
It is harder to connect the poetry of Emily Dickinson to everyday life. "I dwell in
Possibility" describes an approach to the tawdry nature of ordinary life with its imagery of an
escape into an inner, spiritual life. The description of a house of poetry, comprised of nature in a
cedar wood, under the open sky, creates a mental picture for me of a cathedral. It reminds me of
my own inner spiritual life, and of how I can escape from the narrow confines of everyday life into
a bright and beautiful contemplation of God and of nature.
The peculiar punctuation in Dickinson's poetry reminds me of something my priest said
in a study group last spring. She was talking about how the psalms were written in early times --
the calligraphy, not the composition -- with dashes inserted at the ends of lines or of phrases. She
said those dashes were the precursors of the asterisks that we use in the modern church to indicate
where the lector should pause in reading a psalm to allow the congregation to respond with the
next line or phrase. In ancient times, the dashes were not used to indicate a congregational
response, but to signal a pause for prayerful meditation on the words that had just been read.
When I read Dickinson's poetry, I see her dashes as opportunities to pause in my reading and to
consider what I have just read. It is easy to treat her dashes as commas, and to hurry past them, or
even to skip over them as inconvenient distractions. Consider, for a moment, three arrangements
of Dickinson's "I reckon -- when I count at all." The first is her original arrangement. The second
removes the distracting dashes, representing the hurried way in which we often read poetry. The
third emphasizes the pauses provided by her dashes. To make the point easier to see, I am leaving
out the [ ] brackets where I alter the punctuation in the second and third versions.
[1.] I reckon -- when I count at all --
First -- Poets -- Then the Sun --
Then Summer -- Then the Heaven of God --
164 A Journey Through My College Papers
And then -- the List is done --
But, looking back -- the First so seems
To Comprehend the Whole --
The Others look a needless Show --
So I write -- Poets -- All --
Their Summer -- lasts a Solid Year --
They can afford a Sun
The East -- would seem extravagant -- And if the Further Heaven --
Be Beautiful as they prepare
For Those who worship Them --
It is too difficult a Grace --
To justify the Dream -- (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, pp. 929-930)
[2.] I reckon when I count at all First Poets Then the Sun, Then Summer, Then
the Heaven of God, And then the List is done. But, looking back, the First so
seems To Comprehend the Whole The Others look a needless Show. So I write
Poets, All, Their Summer lasts a Solid Year. They can afford a Sun. The East
would seem extravagant And if the Further Heaven Be Beautiful as they prepare
For Those who worship Them, It is too difficult a Grace To justify the Dream.
(Cited in DiYanni, 2007, pp. 929-930)
[3.] I reckon --
when I count at all --
First --
Poets --
Then the Sun --
Then Summer --
Then the Heaven of God --
And then --
the List is done --
But, looking back --
the First so seems To Comprehend the Whole --
The Others look a needless Show --
So I write --
Poets --
All --
Their Summer --
lasts a Solid Year --
They can afford a Sun The East --
would seem extravagant --
And if the Further Heaven --
Be Beautiful as they prepare For Those who worship Them --
It is too difficult a Grace --
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To justify the Dream -- (Cited in DiYanni, 2007, pp. 929-930)
In the third version, but the dashes and the spaces between the stanzas invite pauses, not
just to take a breath, but to contemplate the words. I wonder whether that was Dickinson's intent
when she wrote her poetry: to stop and to reflect before moving on. I think we do that too often in
everyday life, as well as in reading poetry: we miss moments for contemplation because we hurry
too much, skipping over the distractions in life instead of benefiting from the opportunities to slow
down and to appreciate what we have just experienced.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Shared Values 11/11/2010
"The Lesson" illustrates the difference in values between the poor, black families of New
York City's slums and the wealthy, presumably white families of New York City's Fifth Avenue.
When Miss Moore takes a group of children to F.A.O. Schwartz, the children discover that the
wealthy families' children play with toys that cost more than the poor families pay for rent. "A
clown that somersaults on a bar ... Cost $35 ... Thirty-five dollars would pay for the rent and the
piano bill too" (Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 431). Miss Moore asks the children to
"[i]magine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it
would cost to feed a family of six or seven" (Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 432).
To the poor, money is something that is needed to survive. Very rarely is it splurged on
anything that is purely for pleasure. Even when money is spent on fun things, poor families spend
far less actual money, but a far greater percentage of their income, on the fun thing. For the
middle and upper classes, spending money on pleasure is done almost carelessly. The farther up
the economic ladder, the more expendable income is available for non-survival purchases. Until
the children went to Fifth Avenue, they had no conscious awareness of this, although they
probably had some sense of the social injustices around them.
I have experienced the dichotomy between rich and poor in my own family. For a
number of years, I was an unemployed, single parent. My sons and I lived in a HUD apartment in
a low-income neighborhood, with $188 per month in food stamps and $172 per month in
government cash assistance. I paid $55 for rent and over $100 each month for diapers. That didn't
leave much for shampoo, toilet paper, and other necessary items, or for bus fare to get to stores
and doctors, and it certainly didn't leave money for anything fun. My children learned very early
that they shouldn't ask for anything extra because there was no money to buy extras.
On the other side of things, my parents were very wealthy at that time. They had a
summer home in Vermont and a winter home in South Carolina. They traveled whenever they
wanted to, and they stayed in multi-room suites when they traveled. They had all of the newest
electronics as soon as they came out. They traded stocks, using a slush account that had nothing
to do with the accounts they used to pay the bills. My parents and I could not understand each
other's lives. They could never understand why my children wore second-hand clothing and
played with toys that were bought at the Salvation Army. I could never understand or appreciate
their traveling, or their eating at different restaurants every day instead of cooking at home, or
their having an empty house waiting for them while they lived in another house. Because of this, I
was able to sympathize with the confusion of the children in "The Lesson." I was able to relate to
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not really comprehending how other people could take money so lightly.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Reflecting on your Reading 11/11/2010
"This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie (1956) is a very familiar song from my
childhood. When I saw it on the reading list, I didn't realize that it was the same piece, but when I
turned to the reading, I was awash in warm memories and emotions. I paused to note this reaction
in my journal, while humming the familiar camp fire tune.
The first four stanzas of "This Land is Your Land" are the verses that I learned as a child,
and that I have taught to my children. I was not aware of the existence of the final three stanzas
until I read the assignment. Before I reached those stanzas, I was enjoying a feeling of universal
brotherhood and belonging that the words evoked. I also felt a sense of pride, and of ownership of
America with all other Americans. When I reached the fifth stanza, however, I stumbled over:
"As I went walking, I saw a sign there,/ And on the sign it said 'No Trespassing'" (Guthrie, 1956,
Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 898). I had to reread these lines several times. I had trouble with the
intrusion of a non-unifying idea in a song that has always represented unity for me.
As I read onward, I discovered that "This Land is Your Land" is actually a protest against
social injustice, instead of a celebration of unity and brotherhood. This is a difficult mental shift
for me, since the song is so closely tied to summer camp, camp fires, and singing on long school
trips in hot, crowded school buses. It is uncomfortable to think about the segment of society that
does not usually feel that this land was made for them. I think that is what Guthrie is trying to
make us realize, though: that this country is for everyone, not just the wealthy, the well-fed, and
the well-employed. It is an appeal for social justice for the people who cannot speak out for
themselves.
I still like this poem. I will still sing this song. I will teach my children all of its verses,
not just the warm-fuzzy ones.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Literature in Community November 15, 2010
A community can be as small as a family, or it can be as large as the population of the
earth. Each person belongs to at least one community, and most people belong to multiple
communities. In each of our second week readings, we see how individuals relate to the
communities to which they belong. In “The Lesson,” by Toni Cade Bambara (1972), we see how
the narrator, Sylvia, relates to her home community in New York City’s slums, and we see how
she is unable to relate to life in the nearby community on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. In
“A&P,” by John Updike (1961), we see how Sammy, a cashier in a small grocery store, views the
community of teenage girls that inhabits the beaches north of Boston, and we see how he responds
to the middle-class community to which his employer and his parents belong. In “The
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Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka (1915), we see how Gregor relates to the community of his
family after he is overtaken by a debilitating and, ultimately, fatal affliction, and we see how he is
ostracized from his community because of the changes that his condition produces in him.
Sylvia’s is a tight-knight community, united by race, by culture, and by economic
condition. Most of her close friends are known to us only by nicknames: “Flyboy … Fat Butt …
Junebug … Q.T. … Rosie Giraffe” (Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 428). The
children, who are the main characters of the story, are ill-educated, rude, and prone t minor acts of
violence: “Rosie Giraffe shifting from one hip to the other waiting for somebody to step on her
foot or ask her if she from Georgia so she can kick ass … Flyboy a faggot … making farts with
our sweaty armpits” (Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 428). Still, the children stick
together in a pack, and we get the impression that they are united against the world when they
travel to Fifth Avenue: “the rest of us tumble in like a glued-together jigsaw done all wrong”
(Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 431). The children understand their life in the slums,
and they identify as a black community when Sylvia generalizes that “[w]hite folks crazy”
(Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 429).
Sammy is an observer of the beach community when the girls enter the A&P. Along
with his fellow cashier, Stokesie, he is a member of the community of young, working men who
are no longer children, but who are not yet part of the adult establishment. Sammy distinguishes
between “these three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (Updike, 1961, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p.
32) and “[t]he sheep pushing their carts” (Updike, 1961, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 33). Although
all of the characters share the community of the town north of Boston, Massachusetts, where they
live, each of their smaller communities is distinct and separate from each of the others.
Before his metamorphosis into a giant bug, which can easily be taken as a metaphor for
acquiring any seriously debilitating illness, Gregor is at the heart of the small community that is
his family. After his father’s bankruptcy, Gregor’s role “had been to arrange everything so that
the family could forget as soon as possible the financial misfortune that had brought them to a
state of complete despair” (Kafka, 1915, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 624). He provides an
apartment for his parents and his sister, with a staff of servants that is appropriate for a middle-
class family in his time and place.
When people in a given community are faced with the values of another community, it
can be confusing, or even frightening. When an individual’s role in his or her community changes
dramatically, it can cause upheaval not only for the individual, but also for the entire community.
We see this when Sylvia and her friends are confronted with the wealth that is suggested by
F.A.O. Schwartz. We see it again when Lengel, the manager of the A&P, confronts the girls about
their apparel, and also when Sammy takes a stand for his principles by quitting his job. We also
see it as Gregor’s changed condition forces his family into poverty and shame, and as Gregor’s
relationships with the members of his family fall apart.
In “The Lesson,” Sylvia expresses the children’s reaction to being in the wealthy, white
community: “when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I’m scared, what’s there to be afraid
of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame” (Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 431).
The children don’t understand the wealthier community or its culture. Sylvia asks us: “Who are
these people that spend that much for performing clowns … What kinda work they do and how
they live and how come we ain’t in on it? Where we are is who we are … [b]ut it don’t
necessarily have to be that way” (Bambara, 1972, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 431). Seeing what
life is like outside of their own community gives the children something to think about.
In “A&P,” Lengel tells the girls that they cannot shop in his store in bathing suits: “We
want you decently dressed when you come in here … come in here with your shoulders covered.
It’s our policy” (Updike, 1961, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 35). The girls have stepped out of their
beach community into Lengel’s middle-class community, and he expects them to meet his criteria
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if they wish to function in his world. Although we are given the impression that Sammy’s family
belongs to Lengel’s middle-class community, Sammy steps out of his comfort zone by standing up
against Lengel, and by quitting his job. While the action will do no practical good, Sammy is
acting on principle, defending the girls’ right to not be embarrassed by Lengel. He is also, by his
action, refusing to condone Lengel’s behavior.
In “The Metamorphosis,” “[t]he household was ever more reduced in circumstances. The
servant girl had been dismissed … various pieces of family jewelry … were sold … they had been
afflicted by misfortune such as had struck no one in their circle of relatives and acquaintances”
(Kafka, 1915, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, pp. 632-633). Gregor’s changed role in the family
community, from provider to dependent, causes the entire family to suffer. Gregor’s parents and
sister, all of whom have been frail, take jobs to help support the family. At the same time, as
Gregor’s condition slowly degenerates and his humanity is subsumed by his affliction, his
family’s care of him becomes less and less compassionate. In the end, even his sister, who has
been closest to him, and who has been the most patient with his needs, can take no more: “We
must try to get rid of it … When people have to work as hard as we do, they can’t bear this kind of
constant torture at home. I can’t bear it anymore” (Kafka, 1915, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 637).
The communities in these stories are all different, but each story shows us how its
characters relate to their own communities. Each character belongs to a community – even
Gregor, even at his lowest point, is still a member of his family community, even though it has
become dysfunctional. Each of us is a member of at least several communities. Reading about
diverse communities that resemble our own helps us to gain perspective about our roles in our
communities, and it helps us to appreciate other communities.
References
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Poems and Feelings 11/18/2010
Different poems have elicited different feelings this week, which is as it should be.
When I read "The Street," by Octavio Paz (n.d.), I feel the poet's fear as he senses someone
following him in the dark. I feel his sense of hopelessness in the words: "Everything dark and
doorless ... turning and turning among these corners/ which lead forever to the street" (Paz, n.d.,
Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 1052). The idea that everything is doorless gives the feeling that the
writer sees no way out of his troubles. The endless corners make me feel that he is never getting
anywhere in life, no matter where he turns. Having lived with depression and despair, I can relate
to these feelings, and it makes me feel sad for the writer's experience.
Emily Dickinson's (1863) "Because I could not stop for Death" is an old friend, so I have
mixed feelings when I read it. I feel pleasure and the warmth of familiarity because of my past
experience reading this poem. I also feel the writer's acceptance in the face of death when she
writes: "And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too,/ For His Civility --" (Dickinson, 1863,
Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 810). In the third stanza, I feel Dickinson's sense of nostalgia as she
passes the children playing in the schoolyard. The description of the grave as a house in the
ground is welcoming, and makes me smile to think that she is going home, rather than into a
mouldering grave.
Robert Frost's (1916) "The Road Not Taken" is another old friend, with that same feeling
of warm familiarity. This poem makes me feel good, as the writer makes the less popular choice
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and takes the less traveled path. I feel a slight pang of regret in the third stanza, at the thought that
there probably won't be another chance to try the other choice, but that is overshadowed by a
feeling of satisfaction when he writes: "I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the
difference" (Frost, 1916, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 809).
"The Raven" and "She walks in beauty" are also old, familiar friends, that make me
happy just for having read them again, even though they are very different poems.
"Golden Retrievals," by Mark Doty (1998) makes me smile. I feel the happy energy of
the playful dog as he dashes this way and that: "Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who's -- oh joy --
actually scared ... I'm off again" (Doty, 1998, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 1031). I feel the dog's
bemused frustration with the human's inattention to the moment.
I feel frustration with "The Cadet Picture of My Father," by Rainer Maria Rilke (n.d.). I
don't understand what the writer is trying to convey, beyond the visual description of the
photograph. Not understanding this poem makes me not like it, and even after several readings,
all I get is frustration.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Reading Poems 11/18/2010
I have always read and written poetry (my first book is at the publisher now), and I enjoy
it, so I don't think my ability to read poetry has changed with this week's readings. I always look
for the imagery in poetry, and I enjoy the more indirect imagery of "She walks in beauty,"
"Because I could not stop for Death," and "The Street" better than the direct, concrete imagery of
"The Fish," "Theme for English B," and "Golden Retrievals."
In "She walks in beauty," I love the description of the woman: "And all that's best of dark
and bright/ Meet in her aspect and her eyes" (Gordon, 1815, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 1111). In
"Because I could not stop for Death," the description of the grave captures my imagination: "We
paused before a House that seemed/ A Swelling of the Ground --/ The Roof was scarcely visible --
/ The Cornice -- in the Ground --" (Dickinson, 1863, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 810).
In general, I find that I am more deeply moved by the flowery language of older poems
than by the starker language of more recent poems. I get a smile from "Golden Retrievals," but
the clear language of the first six lines, and maybe even the whole poem, reminds me of poetry
that my fourth- and fifth-grade sons read. In particular, it reminds me of the poetry of Jack
Prelutsky. I find it hard to be deeply moved by: "Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention/
seconds at a time. Catch? I don't think so" (Doty, 1998, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 1031). On the
other hand, I am moved by "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
fearing,/ Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" (Poe, 1845, Cited in
DiYanni, 2007, 1173). I feel a stirring of dark excitement and anticipation as I read "The Raven."
When I read the poems, I find myself rereading lines and phrases that I don't understand.
I reread "The Cadet Picture of My Father" in its entirety several times, hoping to find some
meaning in the poem. I reread much of "My Papa's Waltz," especially: "The whiskey on your
breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy;/ ... At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a
buckle./ You beat time on my head" (Roethke, 1942, Cited in DiYanni, 2007, p. 773). I was
trying to decide whether it was describing an innocent romp, or abuse by a drunk father. It struck
a nerve with me, and my imagination went from an image of a man playing with his son to a
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memory of my children's step-grandfather throwing one of my sons across the living room, then
running after my other son, shouting that he was going to kill him. It hurt me to think that an
abusive experience might be immortalized in a poem that was provided to students for study.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Langston Hughes and Alice Walker 11/27/2010
In "Dream Deferred," Langston Hughes (1951) answers his main question with a list of
other questions because he isn't actually answering his main question. Instead, he is asking the
reader to consider several possibilities. It is interesting to note that the first five possibilities are
expressed as similes, while the final possibility does not compare a deferred dream to anything
else. All of the possibilities offered by Hughes (1951) are undesirable results, but the first five are
passive, while the sixth is active. A dream deferred might become useless if it "dr[ies] up/ like a
raisin in the sun" (Hughes, 1951, p. 896). If it "fester[s] like a sore ... [or] stink[s] like rotten
meat" (Hughes, 1951, p. 896), then it has gone bad, and must be discarded. However, a dream
deferred might still yield creative results in the wake of destruction if "it explode[s]" (Hughes,
1951, p. 896).
I think Hughes (1951) is expressing societal values in "Dream Deferred." Very often,
people defer their dreams for a variety of reasons. They may defer dreams until finances get
better, so they can afford their dreams. They may defer dreams because young children or
disabled family members require their attention for a period of time. They may defer dreams
because they are too busy building careers or amassing money and power to pursue their dreams.
They may defer dreams while they search for themselves in people, places, or activities that take
them away from their dreams. Hughes (1951) suggests to the reader that dreams should not be
deferred, because dreams deferred are likely to be corrupted by the time the dreamers finally get
around to them. Dreams should be realized in the course of life, not as an afterthought when life
makes time for them.
The theme of dreams deferred appears in "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker (1973). The
mother, who narrates the store, at first appears to have deferred her dreams in order to stay at
home to care for Maggie. By the end of the story, however, we realize that Mama's dream has not
been deferred; it has been realized in Maggie's knowledge of her family, and in Maggie's
awareness of what is truly important in life.
Maggie's dreams also appear to have been deferred at the start of the story. "She has
been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the
other house to the ground" (Walker, 1973, p. 744). By the end of the story, however, we realize
that Maggie, like her mother, has been living her dream through her life. "I can 'member Grandma
Dee without the quilts" (Walker, 1973, p. 748).
Dee seems to have achieved her dream of being someone intelligent and important at the
start of the story. By the end, however, we see that she has deferred this dream in favor of
pursuing the trappings of style and sophistication. When she comes home to visit Mama and
Maggie, Dee is intent on connecting herself to her heritage, but she doesn't want to get too close to
her family's real life; she only wants to collect pictures and objects that she can display in her
sophisticated home after her visit. A part of Dee has dried up, "like a raisin in the sun" (Hughes,
1951, p. 896). She does not care about the real lives of the real people of her family, and her
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feelings for those relatives have dried up.
References:
Hughes, L.. (1951). “Dream Deferred.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction,
poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed., p. 896). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Walker, A.. (1973). “Everyday Use.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry,
and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed., pp. 743-749). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Reading Drama and Plays 11/27/2010
"The Importance of Being Earnest," by Oscar Wilde (1896), is a British comedy. Jack
Worthing pretends to have a younger brother named Ernest so that Jack can lead a respectable life
in the country while also living a disreputable life in town under the persona of his brother. Jack
wishes to marry Gwendolyn, and they become engaged, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, refuses
consent when she learns that Jack was found as a baby in a handbag in Victoria Station. Jack's
friend, Algernon, who is Gwendolyn's cousin, pretends to be Jack's brother, Ernest, and visits
Jack's ward, Cecily, in the country; Algernon and Cecily become engaged. When Gwendolyn
arrives in the country, looking for Jack, she meets Cecily. The women discover that they are both
engaged to Ernest Worthing. Jack arrives in the country with the news that Ernest has died, only
to find Algernon posing as Ernest. Jack admits that Ernest never existed. Lady Bracknell arrives
in the country and discovers that Cecily's tutor was once Lady Bracknell's sister's nanny. The
tutor, Miss Prism, admits that she accidentally left the baby in her charge in a handbag in Victoria
station. Lady Bracknell realizes that Jack is her long-lost nephew, and Algernon's elder brother,
whose real name is Ernest. The couples find themselves able to marry, and they fall into each
other's arms.
"The Importance of Being Earnest" evokes feelings of irritation at the shallowness of
most of the characters. It takes a bit of reading to become comfortable with the fact that a great
deal of what the characters say is actually opposite to what ordinary people would say in similar
situations. When Jack tells Lady Bracknell the true story of his origins, the reader feels sympathy
for him being a foundling, and feels sorry for him, even though the account is related with almost
no emotion. Jack says, "I don't actually know who I am by birth. I was ... well, I was found"
(Wilde, 1896, p. 1947). This is one of the few truly earnest lines in the play, and it turns out to be
of critical importance in the final scene. Lady Bracknell's response to Jack's story is an example
of shallowness: "To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag ... seems to me to display a
contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life" (Wilde, 1896, p. 1948). The very end of the
play, where Jack -- who is now known to be Ernest -- and Algernon are reunited as brothers,
evokes feelings of happiness and sentimentality, and can elicit tears.
The play expresses several ideas. Algernon says, in the first act, "The truth is rarely pure
and never simple" (Wilde, 1896, p. 1941). Throughout the play, the characters play fast and loose
with the truth, giving the reader the idea that truth is not something to be desire or to be respected.
This is done in a farsical manner, so that the reader is left with the opposite impression: that the
truth is very important.
Another idea is that love and marriage are undesirable and unfashionable: "Mary
Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband ... it is not even decent" (Wilde, 1896, p. 1942).
This is ironic, since the story of the play is primarily concerned with the engagements of two
couples, and with the obstacles to marriage that the couples have to overcome.
An idea that is addressed only briefly is that clerical celibacy is undesirable. The tutor,
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Miss Prism, tells Canon Chasuble: "by persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a
permanent public temptation ... this very celibacy leads weaker vessels astray" (wilde, 1896, p.
1956). This is a comment on religion, and on the undesirable strictures of religion. Clerical
celibacy is required by the Roman Catholic church, but not by the Anglican church, which is the
church to which Canon Chasuble must be connected in nineteenth-century England.
I last saw "The Importance of Being Ernest" as a stage production over twenty years ago.
I enjoyed it then, and I enjoyed reading it today. I have always liked the story of the baby in the
handbag, and I enjoy the great coincidence of Jack being that baby. The entire play is sarcastically
funny, as British humor tends to be. I almost always enjoy British humor plays, as long as they
aren't too campy, and that includes this play.
References:
Wilde, O.. (1896). “The Importance of Being Earnest.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature,
reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th
ed., pp. 1937-1979). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Imagery in Literature November 29, 2010
Imagery is the heart of literature, which allows the reader to become immersed in the
story, the poem, or the play. It provides all of the “details of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch”
(DiYanni, 2007, p. 779) that elicit emotional responses from the reader, and that allow the reader
to experience the settings, the characters, and the actions in the piece. Without imagery, literature
would be dry and sterile, and would be hard-pressed to touch the reader’s imagination.
The most common imagery in literature is the imagery of sight, because it is the easiest
sense to articulate. Visual imagery can be very concrete and detailed, and it serves to paint vivid
pictures in the reader’s imagination. “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” contains a great deal of
rich, visual imagery. From the very first sentence, the reader begins to see the setting and the
action: “the plains of Texas were pouring eastward. Vast flats of green grass, dull-hued spaces of
mesquite and cactus, little groups of frame houses, woods of light and tender trees, all were
sweeping into the east, sweeping over the horizon, a precipice” (Crane, 1898, p. 482). The words
“pouring” and “sweeping” give the sense of rapid, smooth, forward motion as the train crosses the
plains. The short snippets of what the train is passing, without a lot of descriptive detail, gives the
impression that the train is going too fast for the passengers to register the details of the landscape;
the passengers see the groups of plants, the clusters of houses, the grassy flats for just moments
before those features vanish in the distance.
The description of the interior of the train car in “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” is
more detailed than the exterior descriptions. The details draw the reader into the car, to witness
the exchange between the bride and the groom on a more intimate level: “the sea-green figured
velvet, the shining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface
of a pool of oil … a bronze figure sturdily held a support for a separated chamber … on the ceiling
were frescoes in olive and silver” (Crane, 1898, p. 483).
Descriptions of the characters in works of literature are as important to a reader’s
experience of a piece as are descriptions of the setting. In “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,”
Crane (1898) describes Scratchy Wilson:
A man in a maroon-colored flannel shirt … In either hand the man held a long, heavy,
blue-black revolver … his boots had red tops with gilded imprints, of the kind beloved in
winter by little sledding boys … The man’s face flamed in a rage begot of whisky. His
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eyes, rolling, and yet keen for ambush … He walked with the creeping motion of the
midnight cat … the little fingers of each hand played sometimes in a musician’s way.
Plain from the low collar of the shirt, the cords of his neck straightened and sank,
straightened and sank, as passion moved him. (p. 487)
By this, we see a man who is a study of reds, from his maroon shirt, to his flaming face, to the red
tops on his boots. The red suggests rage and violence in scratch Wilson, but the red boot tops, “of
the kind beloved in winter by little sledding boys” (Crane, 1898, p. 487), give the impression that
he might at the same time have some childlike qualities, suggesting to the reader that Scratchy
might be a bit simple in his thinking. The hands that hold heavy guns, and the visible cords in his
neck, give the impression that he is a physically strong man, although his drunken rage suggests
that he might have some emotional weakness. All of these details are gleaned from visually
descriptive imagery.
In “The Metamorphosis,” Kafka (1915) describes the creature into which Gregor Samsa
has changed, allowing the reader to see the transformation:
he found himself transformed into an enormous insect … a back as hard as armor … a
jutting brown underbelly divided into arching segments … many legs, pitifully thin in
comparison with the rest of his bulk … the spot that itched: it was covered with small
white dots that he couldn’t identify … he was strangely broad … many little legs which
were continuously moving in every direction. (pp. 612-614)
The description, especially of the legs waving in the air, elicits a thrill of horror from any reader
who has ever dealt with bugs of any kind in his or her home. The horror is magnified by the
realization that this bug is the size of a man, and that it actually was a man only a short time ago.
The spots on his belly are a detail that most readers are unlikely to notice in a normal insect, and
they evoke a feeling of revulsion that the reader is being introduced so intimately to the giant,
unnatural bug.
Sometimes, visual imagery can best be achieved by describing what a thing is not. In
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” William Shakespeare (1609) describes his mistress’
plain, unlovely appearance by describing the beautiful things that are opposite to her appearance.
“Coral is more red than her lips’ red” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 1187) suggests that her lips are pale.
“I have seen roses damasked, red and white,/ But no such roses see I in her cheeks” (Shakespeare,
1609, p. 1187) gives the reader the impression that his mistress’ complexion is pale, and possibly
that it is sallow. These seemingly negative descriptions highlight the dept of his love for his
mistress, because despite all of this, and despite her reeking breath, “by heaven, I think my love as
rare/ As any she belied with false compare” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 1187).
Sometimes, imagery in literature brings to life the sounds in a piece. Sounds can elicit
emotional responses to the reading, especially the emotions of fear and suspense. The sounds of
voices and of dialects also serve to produce sympathy or antipathy in the reader, and can
underscore or overturn social prejudices in the reader. In “The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe (1845)
creates an atmosphere of fear with his imagery of sounds: “suddenly there came a tapping,/ As of
some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door … silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain/ Thrilled me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” (Poe, 1845, p.
1173). As the narrator becomes afraid, the reader’s pulse quickens in sympathetic fear, enhanced
by the cadence of the poem itself. “But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token”
(Poe, 1845, p. 1173). Silence can become a sound unto itself, and Poe uses an almost unnatural
silence to punctuate the tapping, rapping, and rustling that are unnerving the narrator.
A master of terror and suspense, Poe (1845) does not stop at the vague, unsettling sounds
of the night, or at the pregnant silence while the narrator frets in the night; he introduces the
surreal, or even supernatural raven with what the narrator perceives as human speech. “Quoth the
Raven ‘Nevermore’ … Then the bird said ‘Nevermore’ … What this grim, ungainly, ghastly,
174 A Journey Through My College Papers
gaunt, and ominous bird of yore/ Meant in croaking ‘Nevermore’” (Poe, 1845, pp. 1174-1175).
Four more times does Poe (1845) repeat “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore’” (p. 1175). Poe (1845)
also uses the device of alliteration to create sound imagery, as quoted above: “grim, ungainly,
ghostly, gaunt” (p. 1175). The repetitive use of the letter “g” evokes images of another “g” word:
a ghost, which is what the narrator seems to really fear as he thinks about the lost Lenore.
Emily Dickinson (1862) uses a very common sound to elicit feelings of horror in the face
of death. “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –/ The Stillness in the Room” (Dickinson, 1862, p.
926). These lines combine two different sound images at opposition to each other. The buzzing
of a fly is familiar to most readers, and the sound of a buzzing fly brings to the reader’s mind
images of death and decay. The stillness is similar to Poe’s (1845) use of silence in “The Raven,”
and Dickinson (1862) uses it to indicate the silence of death. Also, the fact that the fly’s buzzing
can be heard emphasizes the silence. No one wants to think that the fly that feasts on offal will
land on his or her own body to celebrate the moment of death.
In “The Lesson,” Toni Cade Bambara (1972) uses the sound imageries of diction and
dialect to give the reader an image of Miss Moore’s children, and of their lifestyle. The casual use
of mild vulgarities that are consistent with children living in New York’s slums in the middle of
the twentieth century is an effective use of diction that conveys the children’s rough environment
and their lack of education: “his sorry-ass horse … pissed on our handball walls … without a
goddamn gas mask … this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree … so she can kick
ass … Flyboy a faggot … get the hell out … bringing it up in the first damn place … she know
damn well … smelly-ass stationery … Your father, my ass” (Bambara, 1972, pp. 427-430). Each
of these instances of vulgarity, and each additional instance in the story, is gratuitous, and could be
omitted in the simple telling of the story, but these instances of vulgarity are necessary to establish
the atmosphere of the story, and to define the characters of the story.
Along with the diction of the story, the dialect used by the characters is important for
creating an image of the characters and of their environment. The children’s speech is not
grammatically correct. They do not enunciate their words: “we kinda hated her … she was black
as hell, cept for her feet … cause we all moved North the same time … got some ole dumb shit
foolishness … it’s purdee hot and she’s knockin herself out … Messin up my day with this shit …
ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin” (Bambara, 1972, pp. 427-432). If Bambara (1972) had
used correct grammar, and if she had spelled all of the children’s dialogue correctly, then the
reader would be left without the impression of their poverty, or of the life that they lead.
The sense of taste is difficult to convey in words, but taste imagery can help a reader to
more fully experience the lives of the characters in a piece of literature. In “The Metamorphosis,”
Kafka (1915) describes how Gregor’s sense of taste has changed as a result of his transformation.
Gregor sees a dish of fresh bread and milk, and his human memory makes him happy to see food
that he knows is good. His insect senses, however, tell him something different: “the milk …
didn’t taste good to him at all. He turned away from the basin with something like revulsion”
(Kafka, 1915, p. 6220. Later, Gregor’s sister provides Gregor with food to satisfy his new
appetite: “old, half-rotten vegetables; bones from last night’s meal, covered with congealed white
sauce … a cheese that Gregor had declared inedible two days before … In rapid succession,
amidst tears of joy, he devoured the cheese, the vegetables, and the sauce” (Kafka, 1915, p. 623).
Where Gregor is sickened at the thought of eating fresh foods, the reader’s gorge rises when
reading about Gregor’s new diet.
The sense of smell is also very difficult to convey in words, and it must sometimes be
hinted at by other, more visual imagery. At other times, a clear description of a smell that is
generally familiar to most readers is the best choice. In “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke
(1942) opens with: “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy” (p. 773). The
imagery is clear and immediate. The reader who has ever smelled the breath of a person who is
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drunk on whiskey will smell the overpowering reek that threatens to give the child a sort of
contact high from breathing the fumes. For most readers, this imagery elicits feelings of disgust
and anger for the father, and it elicits feelings of concern for the child. In Roethke’s (1948) “Root
Cellar,” he writes of the root cellar as being “dark as a ditch … mildewed crates … what a
congress of stinks!/ Roots ripe as old bait” (p. 1181). The stinks, as the poet expresses them, are
wet and rotten. The reader smells the strong odors of decay and neglect, and the list of specific
odors of “Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,/ Leaf-mold, manure, lime” (Roethke, 1948, p. 1181) feeds
the reader’s imagination with very clear and specific odors, each of which is better avoided when
possible. These strong images of smells suggest that the root cellar is a place where no one goes
any more, and that it is a place where no one should want to go.
Touch is another sense that can be hard to convey, since people’s opinions differ in
regard to what constitutes soft, hard, warm, cold, and so forth. Touch is often conveyed best by
similes and metaphors, which cause the reader to make connections between his or her own tactile
experiences and the tactile imagery in a piece of literature. In “A Blessing,” James Wright (1963)
uses simile to describe the experience of petting an Indian pony: “the light breeze moves me to
caress her long ear/ That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist” (p. 1218). He could have used
many combinations of words to describe the smooth, soft delicacy of the pony’s ear without the
use of simile, but his use of simile expresses the texture of the ear simply and elegantly, in terms
that are familiar to most readers.
Imagery is essential to literature because “it is through our senses that we perceive the
world” (DiYanni, 2007, p. 793). When the reader is able to experience the sights, the sounds, the
tastes, the smells, and the touches in a piece of literature, then he or she is better able to apprehend
and to appreciate the piece of literature. Literature would be sere and vacant without the imagery
that draws the reader into an intimate experience of literature.
References
Bambara, T.C.. (1972). “The Lesson.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry,
and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed., pp. 427-432). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Crane, S.. (1898). “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature,
reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th
ed. , pp. 482-489). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Dickinson, E.. (1862). “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died.” In R. DiYanni (2007).
Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed. , pp. 926-927).
New York: McGraw-Hill.
DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Kafka, F.. (1915). “The Metamorphosis.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction,
poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th
ed. , pp. 612-641). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Poe, E.A.. (1845). “The Raven.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and
drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed., pp. 1173-1175). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Roethke, T.. (1942). “My Papa’s Waltz.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction,
poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed. , p. 773). New York: McGraw-Hill.
--. (1948). “Root Cellar.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama
(Ashford Custom 6th ed., p. 1181). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shakespeare, W.. (1609). “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” In R. DiYanni (2007).
Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed., p. 1187). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Wright, J.. (1963). “A Blessing.” In R. DiYanni (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and
drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed., pp. 1217-1218). New York: McGraw-Hill.
176 A Journey Through My College Papers
My Reading Experience 11/29/2010
Many of the pieces that we have read in this course were already familiar to me. In some
cases, it was because I had read them for school at some point, but, more often, it was because I
already love to read, and I read widely. I love the writing of Edgar Allen Poe, and have read a
great deal of his work. I would very much enjoy reading more of Poe's work, or rereading some of
the pieces I have already read. I feel similarly about Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, and
Robert Frost. Conversely, I have reaffirmed my prior feeling that I would be quite happy to never
read Franz Kafka again. While "The Metamorphosis" was reasonably interesting, I did not really
enjoy it as I usually enjoy reading stories.
The same writers whose work I would like to read further are those about whom I would
like to know more. A writer's life contributes to his or her writing, so it feels as though it makes
sense to want to know more about the writers whose work interest us. It might also be interesting
to learn more about Oscar Wilde.
A reading session for me is any time I am not doing other things. I nearly always carry a
book with me, and I will read anywhere. For this course, my preferred reading situation has been
in the quiet times while my children were at school or asleep. Snuggling into a comfortable chair
with a favorite comforter, so I could lose myself in what I was reading, has been my favorite
position for reading. Although I don't normally take notes on my reading, I have done so for this
course, and I have generally written my notes and impressions after reading a piece, rather than
interrupting the flow of the reading to make notes.
I think I have come closest to using the reader-response criticism theory, but I do not
intentionally use any of the theories on a normal basis. I tend to immerse myself in whatever I am
reading, allowing my imagination to weave pictures for me as I read.
LIB 320: Global Socioeconomic Perspectives
Historical Perspectives 12/9/2010
As stated in the text by Viotti and Kauppi (2009), realists "hold pessimistic views on the
likelihood of the transformation of the current world into a more peaceful one" (p. 16). Some of
the best-recognized political realists are Niccoló Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean Bodin.
Realism is one of four perspectives on sovereignty and international relations "that focuses on
power and a balance of power among states in international relations" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p.
88).
Machiavelli promotes national unity as a means of ensuring peace. He writes that "the
ruler of the city of Florence ... needed to use his resources to unify Italy" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009,
p. 405). Similarly, Hobbes promotes the development of governments "with the necessary power
to maintain law and order and thus provide security" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 487). Each of
these realists recognizes the importance of security.
Machiavelli writes that "a wise prince takes care to devise methods that force his citizens,
always and in every sort of weather, to need the government and himself; and always then they
will be loyal" (Chong, 2005, para. 19). As a realist, Machiavelli knows that people need to be
united, and to be guided; he does not believe that individuals should be allowed to act with
autonomy, because that would likely result in anarchy.
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Hobbes also recognizes the need for order. He "rationalized a will to defend a semblance
of order amidst the national arbitrariness of disorder in human affairs" (Chong, 2005, para. 24).
He posits that conflict is the natural order for man, and that governments need to unite their
citizens to establish and to maintain order. Hobbes writes that "before covenants and laws were
drawn up, neither justice nor injustice, neither public good nor public evil, was natural among men
any more than it was among beasts" (Chong, 2005, para. 25).
Bodin believes that governments must guide their citizens into becoming ready for the
higher ideals of peace and cooperation, just as parents must prepare their children to get along
with their playmates. Bodin writes that
one cannot conceive of educating a child until it has developed a capability for learning in the
same way that commonwealths must first provide for human subsistence and prudence 'sufficient
for the defence of the state against its enemies', before concerning themselves with philosophy and
'the moral and mental sciences'. (Chong, 2005, para. 43)
Bodin, like Machiavelli and Hobbes, recognizes the importance of governments maintaining peace
and security.
Realists recognize that ununited individuals, as well as ununited, independent nations and
states, will tend toward anarchy and violence. As the head of a household must exert authority
over the members of the household to maintain peace among them, so must a sovereign exert
authority over the citizens of a state to maintain peace among them. Realists recognize that the
only way to achieve a more peaceful world is to unite more states under supreme rulers who can
exert authority over the member states to maintain peace among them. Realists realize that the
unification of the nations of the world under a single head is unlikely to occur. As Viotti and
Kauppi (2009) state in our text: "No central, global power exists to enforce peace among the
various political units, whether they are city-states, empires, principalities, or modern states" (p.
89).
References:
Chong, A.. (2005). "Classical realism and the tension between sovereignty and intervention:
constructions of expediency from Machiavelli, Hobbes and Bodin." Journal of
International Relations and Development, 8 (3), 257-286. Retrieved December 8, 2010,
from ProQuest Database.
Viotti, P., & Kauppi, M.. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security, economy,
identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Technology and Globalization 12/9/2010
Globalization is defined by Viotti and Kauppi (2009) as the "continual increase in
transnational and worldwide economic, social, and cultural interactions that transcend the
boundaries of states, aided by advances in technology" (p. 4). The most prevalent and visible
example of globalization is the use of the Internet. People in every corner of the world can have
instant access to communications, education, commerce, entertainment, news, and almost anything
else. This has made the world a much smaller place than it has ever been before.
In this past week, I had occasion to tell my sons about international correspondence when
I was in my early teens, when the world was much larger than it is today. This was in response to
my younger son's frustration that his email friend had not yet replied to a message that had been
sent about an hour earlier. I told my son about writing letters on paper, in longhand, then buying
special, more expensive stamps to post the letters to my friends in several foreign countries. I
178 A Journey Through My College Papers
explained that it was not unusual, then, for letters to European addresses to take a week to be
delivered, while letters to Middle Eastern and African addresses often took two to three weeks to
be delivered. I told him about being unsurprised when letters of response were delivered to my
mail box as long as four to six weeks after I posted my original letters. He was stunned. I realized
that, as much as I appreciate email, instant messages, and my Facebook connections, not to
mention these classes, globalization has caused the next generation to lose the skill of patience. It
has produced an expectation of immediate gratification. The art of letter writing has very nearly
been lost. At the same time, I am reminded of the adage that "familiarity breeds contempt," and I
see that being able to post instant thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, and similar sites, from anywhere
in the world that has cell phone access, is causing a breakdown in the habits and traditions of
respect for authority, respect for other people, and even respect for oneself.
I am not the only one who has noticed this negative trend stemming from globalization,
as evidenced by Viotti and Kauppi's (2009) text: "there is another trend ... crises of authority" (p.
7). In addition, "[t]hough such media as the Internet help transmit scientific information essential
to economic development, such networks also allow political dissidents to communicate with the
outside world or encourage global dissemination of potentially dangerous information" (Viotti and
Kauppi, 2009, p. 7). There are other negatives to globalization and technology. Professor
Carrasco (2007) writes that "the placement of technology in developing countries often causes
social costs, as well as costs in the form of urbanization, employment displacement, and the
'digital divide'" (para. 3). When technology replaces human labor, it results in unemployment,
which can seriously influence the well-being of a region.
Another concern about technology and globalization has to do with how equally the
benefits of technology are distributed. For example, "the introduction of new drugs reveals global
disparities of wealth and class, since many individuals cannot afford access" (Carrasco, 2007,
para. 3).
Technology and globalization are not all bad, of course. While there are some concerns
about the Internet, the ready availability of information on almost any conceivable topic is a boon
to research. While instant communications may result in a loss of patience, the ability to
communicate quickly with people in other countries brings people closer together. This is
especially important to military families with individuals deployed to distant lands.
Other types of technology "can play an integral role in population stabilization"
(Carrasco, 2007, para, 7). Technology that improves the production and distribution of food
obviates the need for families in rural areas to raise large families to provide manual labor for food
production. In addition, "technology will decouple population growth from land and natural
resource consumption through recycling, end-use efficiency, and industrial ecology" (Carrasco,
2007, para. 7).
Technology shrinking the world is not a new idea. "Indeed, advances in technology,
particularly during the last five hundred years, have shrunk the globe dramatically" (Viotti and
Kauppi, 2009, p. 22). Electricity, petroleum-based fuels, telecommunications, plastics, synthetic
fabrics, weather-related technology, irrigation and other agricultural technologies, and many other
technological advances have changed, and generally improved, style and quality of life for most
people in the world.
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References:
Carrasco, E.. (2007, May 13). Technology & Globalization. Retrieved December 9, 2010, from
http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/issues/globalization/readingtable/technology.shtml
Viotti, P., & Kauppi, M.. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
International Organizations 12/16/2010
International organizations, as a whole, are not just the playgrounds of major powers.
While it is true that "some states may cooperate in order to exploit weaker states economically"
(Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 197), that is the exception, not the rule. Rather than advancing the
interests of the more powerful member nations of these organizations at the expense of less-
powerful countries, most organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), the World Trade Organization (WTO),
the Gulf Cooperation Council, and others, protect the interests of less-developed countries.
Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and the Red Cross provide
humanitarian relief in developing countries and in lands that are ravaged by war or by natural
disasters, often in conjunction with UN peacekeeping forces. UN peacekeeping forces "have
never been intended to fight wars" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 215), and instead are exactly what
their name implies: guardians of peace around the world.
During the first Gulf War, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Western European Union,
and the Arab League united to relieve Kuwait, a small nation that had been invaded by Iraq. They
were there to provide security not only for Kuwait, but for the region, and "security is the
collective good ... they produce" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 203). Rather than exploiting a weak
country to benefit the members of this temporary alliance, the members worked for collective
security, "[t]he essential idea [of which] is 'all against one' as in a common law-enforcement or
police action against an aggressor state" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 205). In a similar way,
"NATO members have also played an important role in providing peacekeeping forces in
Afghanistan" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 205).
International organizations, such as the UN, "facilitate dialogue and negotiation between
disputants" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 209). The EU is "committed to strengthening economic
and political ties among its members" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 210). The Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) "works to expand free or open trade and
contribute to economic development not only in advanced-industrial and postindustrial countries
but also in developing countries" (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 301). Assisting open
communications, improving ties among nations, and building economic development in pre-
industrial countries sounds like excellent stewardship, not like powerful countries treating
international organizations as playgrounds.
References:
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
180 A Journey Through My College Papers
Transnational Crime 12/16/2010
Dr. Cecil E. Greek (2006) identifies the three most important examples of transnational
crime as "global terrorism ... trafficking in people ... [and] the internet and international crime"
(paras. 3-19). In our text, Viotti and Kauppi (2009) further identify: "Colombian drug cartels'
assassination and bombing campaign ... Sicilian Mafia attacks on the Italian state ... rise of
criminal organizations in Russia and other areas of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe ...
[e]xtension beyond Japan (Yakuza) and China (Triads) of long-established criminal networks ...
[and] trafficking in nuclear materials in Europe" (p. 274). Among Internet-related crimes, Dr.
Greek (2006) includes: "Illegal interception of telecommunications ... Electronic vandalism and
terrorism ... Stealing telecommunications services ... Telecommunications piracy ... Pornography
and other offensive content ... Telemarketing fraud ... Electronic funds transfer crime ... Electronic
money laundering ... [and] Telecommunications in furtherance of criminal conspiracies" (para.
26). Along with the groups identified above, I would include al-Qaeda as a serious transnational
terrorist group.
"Strong law enforcement institutions ... are vital to preventing a wide array of
transnational threats to our hemisphere, from drugs to other forms of organized criminal activity to
terrorism" (Johnson, 2008, para. 3). The United States uses law enforcement institutions to combat
illegal drug trafficking, human trafficking, Internet crime, terrorism, and other forms of
transnational crime. "The Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Anti-Terrorism Act of 1986 ...
strengthens so-called long-arm statutes that enable the ... FBI ... to arrest individuals overseas who
are charged with committing a terrorist-related criminal act against U.S. citizens" (Viotti and
Kauppi, 2009, p. 271). In Central America, the U.S. uses local law enforcement to help in the
campaign against illegal drugs, but "[e]ven where U.S. in-country enforcement efforts have been
somewhat successful ... the result has been simply to spread coca production into other countries"
(Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 281). The U.S. and other countries have instituted many security
measures in regard to international travel, in order to reduce terrorism, but these are not
completely successful, as evidenced by the Detroit underwear bomber of Christmas Day, 2009,
who fell through the cracks in the security.
It is very difficult to eradicate transnational crime because there are countries that
support, and even harbor, the criminals. Also, international law is not uniform, so criminals are
not always punished. As with the coca production, crack-downs in one country simply cause the
criminals to move to another country. Peasants in developing countries don't want to speak out or
to act against criminal organizations and regimes because the peasants fear retribution against
themselves and against their families.
References:
Greek, C.E. (2006, September 7). Specific Types of Transnational Crime II. Retrieved
December 16, 2010, from http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/transcrime/week7.htm
Johnson, D.T. (2008, April 29). Combating Transnational Crime and Joint Efforts to
Safeguard the Western Hemisphere. Retrieved December 16, 2010, from
http://mexidata.info/id1825.html
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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Criteria for Armed Intervention December 20, 2010
Conflicting criteria exist for determining when to use armed intervention in other states.
If I were the president of the United States, I would support the use of armed intervention in
extreme cases of human rights violations. I would reject the use of armed intervention for any
other reason, other than for the direct defense of the United States and its territories and
possessions. In this discussion, I will identify the current criteria for initiating armed intervention,
I will examine the use of armed intervention in cases of humanitarian relief, and I will explore my
reasons for rejecting armed intervention in other matters that do not include direct national
defense.
Paul R. Viotti and Mark V. Kauppi (2009) identify the five criteria for making decisions
on the use of armed intervention as: “Sovereignty … National Interest … Human Rights …
Expected Net Effect on the Human Condition … [and] Degree of Multilateralism” (pp. 186-187).
In addition to these criteria, “the United Nations Charter (1945) does specify conditions under
which force may legally be used … Unilaterally in self-defense … Multilaterally when authorized
by the UN Security Council ‘to maintain or restore international peace and security’ … [and]
Multilaterally by regional collective defensive action” (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 183). It is
necessary, when determining whether or not to initiate armed intervention, to reconcile any
conflicts between the first stated set of criteria and the three UN criteria. “[M]any believe that
there is a legal right to use force in the most extreme cases of humanitarian need” (Wilmshurst,
2004, para. 4), but “[t]he UN charter prohibits a state from using force in another country without
the latter’s consent” (Wilmshurst, 2004, para. 2). Similarly, “[t]he genocide convention is
sometimes thought to give authority for states to intervene in other countries … [b]ut that does not
give the legal right to intervene militarily” (Wilmshurst, 2004, para. 7). What this means is that
what might be perceived by many people around the world as the right course of action may not,
in fact, be the legal course of action. Government leaders are constrained to make legal decisions,
even though “[a] consensus has been forming … that human beings have rights that may
supersede those claimed by sovereign states” (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 186).
Viotti and Kauppi (2009) write that “states are normally prohibited from intervention in
the domestic affairs of other sovereign states” (p. 186). As Artur Victoria (2010) states:
“’Domestic’ matters are not subject to [sanction intervention’s] jurisdiction” (para. 2). In the case
of a civil war, “outside intervention in such an internal matter [is not] legitimate under
international law” (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 184). When one state desires to intervene in
another state’s civil war, the intervening state must show that the civil war endangers
“international peace and security” (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 183) in order to act legally.
The Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty has identified six criteria, which
resemble the first set of criteria identified in this paper, for initiating armed intervention for
humanitarian purposes: “just cause … right intention … last resort … means used must be
proportionate … reasonable prospects of success … [and] lawful authority” (Wilmshurst, 2004,
paras. 10-11). It is noteworthy that this list includes a requirement for lawful authority, so that
armed humanitarian actions are still subject to the constraints of the UN charter.
If decisions regarding armed intervention were left up to me, I would support the
“responsibility to protect – unanimously adopted by more than 150 states at the UN World
Summit in 2005” (“The UN and humanitarian intervention,” 2008, para. 3). This would be legally
acceptable because “human rights violations are also understood to endanger international peace
and security” (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 186). I would make this decision because it is the
responsibility of every reasoning person – and, by extension, of every state – to protect people
182 A Journey Through My College Papers
who are weak or vulnerable. This is a moral truth that I have held since early childhood, when I
learned it as part of my religious education. While I recognize that some developing countries,
including “Cuba, Egypt, Russia, Algeria and Myanmar have been vocal opponents” (“The UN and
humanitarian intervention,” 2008, para. 12) of the responsibility to protect, I feel that it is
appropriate to employ “military force in situations of gross human rights violations and grave
breaches of international humanitarian law” (Slim, 2002, para. 2). In severe cases of crimes
against humanity, I believe that the United States and other advanced-industrial and postindustrial
nations have a responsibility to recognize that “saving human lives might in some extreme
circumstances override sovereignty” (“The UN and humanitarian intervention,” 2008, para. 2).
I do not mean that I would initiate armed intervention as a first response to every instance
of human rights violations. In most cases, it is preferable for such offenses to be corrected through
diplomatic negotiations whenever possible. “[H]umanitarian intervention … refers to the use of
international military force to stop the massive abuse of human rights in another state” (Slim,
2002, para. 13). Massive human rights violations include “genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing
or crimes against humanity” (“The UN and humanitarian intervention,” 2008, para. 11), but they
do not usually include lesser violations of human rights, which are integral to various cultures.
I would reject initiating armed intervention in other countries in the interest of preserving
the safety of the United States and its citizens. I would not hesitate to launch an armed defense of
the United States, or to take action to safeguard United States citizens and business concerns in
other countries. “Armed intervention is an option often weighed against considerations on
national interest and … national objectives” (Viotti and Kauppi, 2009, p. 186). In my opinion, it
is in the national interest to stay out of foreign military actions. Tax dollars would be better spent
on domestic education, health, welfare, and employment programs than on maintaining massive
military forces all over the globe. In the past, “power has [been] used in the international scene to
push forward national interests and agendas, sometimes without any regard to the nations and
people they may directly or indirectly affect” (Shah, 2001, para. 1). Serving national interests and
agendas, however, does “not necessarily mean that they are good for the international community”
(Shah, 2001, para. 3). I believe that national interest can be better served by improving the quality
of life of the citizens of the nation.
Although there are conflicts among the criteria for determining the use of armed
intervention in other states, the criteria given by the United Nations charter (1945) resolve some of
those conflicts by stating clearly what is required for armed intervention to be legal. Regardless of
how justifiable an action might appear, as in the case of human rights violations, if it does not
meet the UN’s requirements, then it is not a legal action, and it must not be undertaken. I would
support armed intervention to relieve extreme cases of human rights abuses, and for the direct
defense of the United States, its citizens, and its possessions. I would reject armed intervention for
other purposes, because I believe that national resources should be allocated for improving quality
of life in the United States, rather than for waging military actions in other countries.
References
Shah, A. (2001, July 14). Foreign Policy – National Interests. Retrieved December 20, 2010,
from http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/101
Slim, H. (2002). Military Intervention to Protect Human Rights: The Humanitarian Agency
Perspective. Retrieved December 14, 2010, from http://www.jha.as/articles/a084.htm
“UN and humanitarian intervention, The.” (2008, May 15). The Economist [Electronic version].
Retrieved December 20, 2010, from http://www.economist.com/node/11376531/
Victoria, A. (2010). Armed Intervention in States’ Sovereignty. Retrieved December 20, 2010,
from http://ezinearticles.com/?Armed-Intervention-in-States- Sovereignty&id=3596439
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Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wilmshurst, E. (2004, October 14). “Rules of Engagement.” The Guardian [Electronic version].
Retrieved December 14, 2010, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk.world/2004/oct/14/sudan.guardiananalysispage
Global Civil Society 1/6/2011
International law has affected trade, human rights, and the environment in several ways.
In regard to trade, international law requires "that ships carrying cargoes [are] free to transit the
high seas without interference ... [and] piracy threatening international commerce [is] understood
as a crime" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 30). Organizations such as the World Trade Organization
(WTO), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund deal with import taxes, treaties,
international lending, and international liquidity. In addition, international law deals with
"copyrights and patents across national borders" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 31), which protect the
intellectual property of authors, artists, and inventors. International law in regard to trade may not
eliminate crime in these areas, but it provides relief for victims of crime, and consequences for
perpetrators of crime. In particular, with the widespread use of the Internet, international laws that
protect intellectual property are becoming more and more important. They protect against
electronic piracy of media and of commercial plans and designs in much the same way that older
international laws protect against piracy on the high seas.
In regard to human rights, international law allows humanitarian intervention in the form
of "the use of international military force to stop the massive abuse of human rights in another
state" (Slim, 2002, para. 13). Unfortunately, Emma Fanning (2010) reports that "communities
identified key barriers to their protection as a lack of information about ... international laws,
difficulty in approaching military and civilian authorities, and lack of knowledge about where to
refer victims of abuse" (para. 4). Clearly, for international law to serve populations effectively,
the people need to be educated as to what international laws apply to them, as well as how to seek
relief under those laws. From 1948 to 1975, at least ten United Nations (UN) conferences and
treaties to "guide human conduct and protect human rights" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 32) came
into existence. Only the most serious human rights violations warrant international intervention
under current international laws, and "[u]niversal acceptance of ... international law ... is a
decades-long process" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 32).
"A growth area in the construction of international law for global civil society is the
physical environment within which human beings, plants, and animals live" (Viotti & Kauppi,
2009, p. 33). Sweeping international law for environmental issues is not yet extant, but the Kyoto
Protocol (1997) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) are steps in the
right direction. "To date, the United States is among the few countries that have chosen not to be
bound by these restrictions on the use of fossil fuels" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 33). It is to be
hoped that future international law will bring the United States into line with other nations to
preserve the environment.
International laws to reduce piracy, both physical and electronic; to relieve abuses of
human rights, and to protect the environment of the planet have contributed to the development of
a global civil society. These efforts "have facilitated bringing diverse peoples around the globe
into ever-greater and more frequent contact in economic or commercial, cultural, and social
matters" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 33). Having uniform international laws contributes to the
development of a global civil society by establishing common values and goals for the people of
184 A Journey Through My College Papers
the world. Sadly, it is not an entirely positive process, as the bringing together of the peoples of
the world, and the effective reducing of the relative size of the world, also makes way for "the
globalization of terrorism and crime, environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and the ability
of extremist religious and secular movements to disseminate their hate-filled messages" (Viotti &
Kauppi, 2009, p. 34).
References:
Fanning, E.. (2010). Challenges of protection. Forced Migration Review, (36), 37-38.
Retrieved January 6, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Slim, H. (2002). Military intervention to protect human rights: The humanitarian agency
perspective. Retrieved December 14, 2010, from http://www.jha.as/articles/a084.htm
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
GNP 1/6/2011
According to Paul R. Viotti and Mark V. Kauppi (2009), the "[t]wo important
components of gross national product (GNP) ... are annual consumption and investment" (p. 289).
These components refer to how a nation uses its resources, represented in terms of value in
currency.
The GNP understates the aggregate production in Third World countries because "goods
and services produced and consumed in a household cannot be measured directly ... [and] Third
World economies ... typically have a higher proportion of household production and consumption"
(Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 290). Third World countries have a higher annual consumption than is
reflected in their GNPs because much of their production never reaches markets that measure that
production, or its subsequent consumption.
Per capita income (PCI) is the "mean or average income for each person. Calculated on
an annualized national basis it is gross national product or gross domestic product divided by the
total population" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 551). According to Farid and Lazarus (2008), in
regard to post-industrial nations, "absolute per capita income has increased over time, but the
mean SWB [subjective well-being] ... has remained constant" (para. 11). If the SWB of a nation
does not increase with its PCI, then PCI may not be a good measure of the level of living that
people enjoy. In a country with many people living in poverty, but with a reasonable GNP due to
international trade, the PCI may be skewed, making it appear that the people enjoy a better living
than they actually do. Conversely, in a country with a low GNP caused by products being
consumed where they are produced, instead of being measured in the markets, the PCI might
indicate that the people's living is lower than that which they actually enjoy. In many Third World
countries, the leaders of the countries often enjoy great personal wealth, while the rest of the
population lives in poverty. In this case, the data resulting from calculating PCI will be skewed.
References:
Farid, M. & Lazarus, H.. (2008). Subjective well-being in rich and poor countries. The Journal
of Management Development, 27 (10), 1053-1065. Retrieved January 6, 2011, from
ProQuest database.
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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India and China 1/13/2011
It has been proposed that the countries of India and China have the "right" to pollute the
environment until they catch up with more industrialized countries. I maintain that no country,
regardless of its economic status, has the right to pollute the environment. The environment is not
the sole province of any one or several nations, to use or abuse at will; it is the public good, and
each nation must be held accountable for maintaining the environment for everyone. As our text
states, "the environment ... [is] a human security issue" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 374).
China and India together represent "40% of the world's population" (Diener & Frank,
2010, para. 1). Environmental actions of these nations, positive or negative, therefore, directly
affect almost half of the world's population, without even considering the other 60% of people
everywhere. Unfortunately, environmental abuses are not contained in single countries; they
affect the entire planet. "Acid rain affects more than one-third of China's land, including its
farmland, before drifting eastward over Japan" (Diener & Frank, 2010, para. 6). Acid rain
infiltrates the world's water when it enters rivers and oceans, affecting millions of people and
causing "millions of deaths" (Diener & Frank, 2010, para. 6). Global warming, which causes
flooding, droughts, and severe weather around the world, is also affected by China's and India's
environmental actions. "CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions ... lead to further global warming ...
[and] China is ... the number one emitter of greenhouse gasses" (Diener & Frank, 2010, paras. 13-
14).
India and China have the means to reduce their pollution of the environment at this time.
"India was the fourth biggest producer of wind power in the world [in 2003] and its Suzion Energy
is one of the five biggest wind turbine manufacturers in the world. China's Suntech is the world's
third largest manufacturer of solar cells" (Diener & Frank, 2010, para. 12). By using wind power
and solar power, India and China can reduce their coal consumption, thus reducing their emissions
of CO2, carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid, nitrous oxide, and mercury into the environment.
Granted, converting to an alternative energy source would require an initial investment to change
equipment, but the net benefit to the world should make it worth the short-term expense.
Otherwise, the projected growth in energy usage for these two countries over the next few years
"would require a level of energy supplies literally beyond the world's energy resources" (Diener &
Frank, 2010, para. 11).
The instruction for this assignment was to debate the proposition, which implies
presenting at least two opposing views. I can imagine that one might argue that China and India
have the "right" to pollute the environment because their economies are not yet mature, and so
they should not be expected to be able to clean up their own environmental messes. One might
argue that they should have this right because it isn't fair to expect them to be as responsible as
more mature nations, or because it isn't fair that more advanced nations have stronger economies
than their economies. Frankly, I find that I cannot in good conscience play the Devil's advocate
and argue these views. As a parent, I hear that the two children should not have to clean up their
messes because they are too young. I hear that it is not fair that the child should be responsible
like his more mature siblings and schoolmates because he is young. I have always taught my
children that if they are old enough to do the thing that makes the mess, then they are old enough
to take care to minimize the mess, and to clean up their mess. When my children mess up their
environment by leaving toys, dirty dishes, and papers strewn about the house, I expect them to
clean up the mess and to learn to be more responsible in their actions. I would expect China and
India, likewise, to avoid making environmental messes in the first place, and to be responsible
enough to clean up their messes. In regard to fairness, I would, likewise, tell China and India that
186 A Journey Through My College Papers
it is not fair for China and India to get special treatment to help them catch up with more
developed nations, and that it is most certainly fair for more advanced nations to have stronger
economies than China and India have, because the more advanced nations have worked to develop
those economies.
References:
Diener, B., & Frank, W.. (2010). The China-India challenge: A comparison of causes and
effects of global warming. The International Business & Economics Research Journal,
9(3), 21-26. Retrieved January 13, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Maintaining Peace 1/13/2011
According to our text, the various methods of maintaining peace and unity in binational,
multinational, and multiethnic states are: partition, assimilation, consociation, federation, and
confederation (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, pp. 419-423).
Partition is "[d]ivision and separation of peoples, particularly those with a propensity or
demonstrated record of engaging in intercommunal violence" (Vioti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 550).
Partition can ease regional violence in the short term, but that appears to be its only strength. On
July 2, 2010, Albanian deputy Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ilir Meta stated that "[t]he
ideas of partitioning Kosova [Kosovo] or to exchange territories constitute a serious danger to
peace, security and stability, not only in Kosova, but throughout the region and further" (Ideas on
Kosovo partition, 2010, para. 1). Partition does not really stop conflict. Warfare between the
partitioned nations does not address the differences between the parties; it only physically
separates them.
Assimilation is "[a] strategy to create a single national identity out of diverse
populations" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 535). When it is non-repressive, this can be a successful
option. The United States is a good example of assimilation, in which "[s]eparate ethnic and racial
identities ... commonly identify themselves as 'Americans'" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 421).
When divergent populations are allowed to maintain their individual identities, while uniting
under a group identity, this is effective. A weakness of assimilation is when it is repressive, and
people are forced to give up their distinct ethnic identities when they take on the new group
identity.
Consociation is "formal arrangements for sharing power in society among diverse
national, ethnic, or other groups" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 538). This method allows divergent
groups to retain as much local autonomy as possible, while dividing decision-making power over
the whole group among the member groups. "In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement
(GFA) was meant to solve conflict through a system of elite power sharing known as
consociationalism" (White, 2007, para. 1). The strength of this system is the local autonomy that
it allows. A weakness is that a consociated group will require a great deal of maintenance over
time to keep all of the power-sharing arrangements in balance.
A federation "is [a state] in which there is a division of power between the central
government and constituent governments in states or provinces" (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 553).
Confederation is "[a] loose federation or association of component states or provinces ... [that] can
be used to integrate societies often divided by regional, national-ethnic or other cleavages" (Viotti
& Kauppi, 2009, p. 538). The strength of these systems in that member states retain a great deal
Undergraduate Series 187
of autonomy, while a central government controls agreed-upon matters for the entire group. A
weakness, as the United States discovered with the Articles of Confederation, is that the central
government is limited in its ability to control the member states.
References:
Ideas on Kosovo partition are "serious danger to peace" - Albanian minister. (2010, July 2). BBC
Monitoring European. Retrieved January 13, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
White, T.. (2007). Civil society and peace in Northern Ireland. Peace Review, 19(3), 445.
Retrieved January 13, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Universal Human Rights 1/20/2011
While I acknowledge that there is a great need for improvements in human rights around
the world, and especially in Third World countries, I do not believe that the United States should
take a more active role in universal human rights, as a government, at this time. I do believe that
individuals should be free to work for universal human rights if they feel morally bound to do so,
but I do not believe that US federal funds should be allocated for such activities.
My reasons actually have little or nothing to do with the issue of universal human rights.
I am not against the issue. I believe that all people everywhere are equally entitled to live in
safety, and without fear. However, I was brought up to believe that each person should make
things right within himself or herself before trying to make things right in another person's life.
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to
cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (The Holy Bible, 1979, Matthew 7:5). I believe that
the same is true for nations (or states, or countries, or however such a body may be called). For
the United States to take a more active role in support of universal human rights, I believe that it
must first address and deal with internal, domestic issues. (I believe this about our military
involvement around the world, as well, and about our financial aid to other countries, but those are
separate discussions.)
I believe that before the U.S. can spend money to stop women in other countries being
forced into lives of prostitution, it must first spend money inside the U.S. to relieve the situations
in many of our major cities that force American women, girls, and even boys into lives of
prostitution. The pimps and the drug dealers, who force these unfortunates to sell their bodies, and
who make it impossible for many of them to leave the lifestyle alive and healthy, are at least as
bad as their counterparts in other countries. It is unconscionable to allow such human rights
abuses to continue in New York, Los Angeles, and other U.S. cities while our government pours
U.S. resources into stopping the same abuses in Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and
other regions.
I believe that before the U.S. can spend money to try to end hunger in other countries, it
must first work to eradicate hunger in the U.S.. Food stamp programs and food pantries are not
enough to ensure that no American goes hungry. I can speak to this from direct, personal
experience. When my sons were 21 months and 10 months old, the three of us became homeless
despite all of my efforts to stop it. There was no room for us in any local shelter. We were
fortunate that our church allowed us to sleep on an air mattress in its nursery. However, since I
did not have a fixed address, I was denied both food stamps and WIC benefits. We fell through
our government's cracks. We were lucky, and members of the church provided our needs until we
188 A Journey Through My College Papers
were able to get a HUD apartment, but thousands -- more probably millions -- of families, of
women, of children are not so lucky, and go without the most basic needs of food and shelter in
this country. It is abhorrent to me that American children should go hungry, and that American
families should be without shelter, while American money goes to feed the people of other
countries.
If private citizens and private organizations want to spend their private funds on
humanitarian aid in other countries while Americans experience human rights abuses and neglect
in our own country, then they are within their rights to do so. I cannot, and the government
cannot, dictate their moral choices. However, if the U.S. government wants to spend tax dollars,
raised from the American public, in such a way, then they should not be allowed to do so.
Humanitarian relief should begin in the streets, alleys, shelters, and neighborhoods of our own
country. Once we have our own house in order, then we should do what we can to support
universal human rights.
References:
The Holy Bible [King James Version]. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1979
Convention against Torture 1/20/2011
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CAT) was signed in 1985 by twenty-five countries. It is noteworthy that the United
States did not sign the CAT. The definition of torture, contained in the CAT (1985) is long, and it
includes: "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally
inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining ... information or a confession, punishing ...
intimidating or coercing ..., or for any reason" (Convention against Torture, 1985, part 1, art. 1,
para. 1).
The CAT applies to contemporary conflicts in the form of the wars in Iraq and in
Afghanistan. Torture has been an issue throughout the so-called War on Terror that is being
fought on both of these fronts. Speaking of torture in an episode of Frontline, reported Jim
Gilmore says, "It's not at Abu Ghraib anymore. It's all over Iraq. The infantry admits they're
torturing people in their homes" (Kirk, 2005). By the time Gilmore makes this statement, Abu
Ghraib is a U.S. prison, no longer an Iraqi prison. Similarly, "[r]eports from a lawyer for
detainees currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp ... claim that rampant
abuse has continued at Guantanamo and possibly other U.S. sites" (Swanson, 2009, para. 2).
Reports of torture by Americans at U.S. facilities abroad are not only troubling, they are also
reports of violations of the CAT.
According to Manfred Nowak (2006), "[o]n 26 June 2004, ... President Bush reaffirmed
US commitment to worldwide elimination of torture" (para. 3). Based on that reaffirmation, the
U.S. should apply the CAT to its overseas intelligence-gathering activities. Even though no
signature for the United States appears on the Convention against Torture, as a member of the UN,
the US should still be bound by the CAT. Americans who use or have used torture in current and
recent conflicts should be held responsible for, and should be punished for, their actions. "No
circumstance whatsoever, including war, the threat of war, internal political instability, public
emergency, or an order from a superior officer or public authority, may be invoked as a
justification for or defense to committing torture" (Nowak, 2006, para. 4). There are no excuses
for committing torture. No one, even up to and including the president of the United States,
should be exempt from reprisals for committing, or for causing to be committed, acts of torture.
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The abuses at Abu Ghraib and at Guantanamo Bay came to light, and torture at these
locations was stopped. The Convention against Torture should be applied equally to all those who
committed, caused to be committed, or knowingly allowed to be committed acts of torture.
References:
Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
(1985, February 4). Retrieved January 20, 2011, from
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
Kirk, M. (Writer, Director, & Producer). (2005, October 18). The torture question
[Television series episode]. In Frontline. Boston: WGBH Educational Foundation.
Retrieved January 20, 2011, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/
Nowak, M.. (2006). What practices constitute torture?: US and UN standards. Human Rights
Quarterly, 28(4), 809-841, 1094-1095. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from
ProQuest database.
Swanson, D.. (2009). Torture probe: Who's being protected under the searing bright light?
The Humanist, 69(4), 16-18. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Responsibility to a Broader Humanity January 24, 2011
In this modern world, where people around the globe communicate with each other via
text messages and electronic social networks, it is easy to forget that we are each a part of a living,
breathing humanity. It is a strange paradox that, as we become able to interact with more people
in more places than ever before, we simultaneously become more isolated from real human
contact. This is a dangerous situation for our shared future. While “there is a real sense that the
world is rapidly growing smaller” (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 8), there is also the very real fact that
the world’s resources are diminishing. Thomas Malthus believed that “human ingenuity would
run up against the Earth’s limits to produce” (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 390). That time appears
to be approaching. As members of the human community, each of us has a responsibility to a
broader humanity.
Each of us makes an impact on the world around us. Each of our actions affects other
people beyond us. “[E]very action you take, every decision you make, no matter how small and
seemingly inconsequential, has a ripple affect [sic] that goes immediately beyond you to those
around you … and then beyond to those around those around you … until it impacts everyone on
earth for all time” (Carroll, 2010, para. 1). As each of us impacts a broader humanity, so each of
us must be responsible to a broader humanity. “[I]t is essential that people are engaged at a deeper
level” (Reynolds, 2010, para. 38). When a person is connected to the world only through his or
her iPhone, or only through status messages and news feed messages on Facebook, then he or she
is not likely to be deeply engaged with the world. It becomes easy to become strongly
consumerist in our actions, and it becomes easy to forget “how simple individual actions could
make a difference to the environment” (Reynolds, 2010, para. 18). It is important for each of us,
as a member of the human community, to promote “the global consciousness needed to support
human rights and ecological sustainability” (Andrzejewski & Alessio, 1999, para. 1).
Each of us has a personal responsibility for ecological sustainability. If we do not
conserve the resources of our planet, then it will not take long for the human community to be
homeless and bereft. “[T]he environment … should … be even more broadly as a human security
issue” (Viotti & Kauppi, 2009, p. 374). If humanity uses up the world’s resources, then there will
be nothing left, but if humans individually and collectively take responsibility for the world’s
190 A Journey Through My College Papers
resources, then humanity may have a home for a very long time. “When people pursue their
passions and interests, their capacity to impact the world with their effort is endless” (Carroll,
2010, para. 5). We must each become passionate about caring for the world in which we all live.
We must each take a sincere interest in “the needs of fellow human beings” (Wharton, 2002, para.
3). As members of the human community, we each need to choose “a life of active engagement to
make a difference in the lives of others” (Chickering & Braskamp, 2009, para. 6). When we do
this, then we will be able to develop habits, plans, programs, and technologies that will increase
humanity’s ecological sustainability on the planet.
“Since the beginning of recorded time, communities have been grounded in family, tribe,
and place” (Chickering & Braskamp, 2009, para. 7). The human community is unique in that it
encompasses every family, every tribe, and every place. Together, we are all one family, sharing
“responsibility in a common world” (Wharton, 2002, para. 5). We cannot afford, in this ever-
shrinking world, to allow differences of color, language, spiritual belief, or political ideology to
stand in the way of caring for our shared human family, or for our shared home planet. “All
humankind on the globe is presumed to be our brother – and sister – for whom we have a human
responsibility” (Wharton, 2002, para. 27). Because of our shared human history, and because of
our shared human destiny, we must “live our lives and actively participate in creating a safer, more
humane, sustainable world” (Andrzejewski & Alessio, 1999, para. 2).
Along with our responsibility for ecological sustainability, as members of the human
community we each have an obligation to society. “Who is responsible for maximizing the
‘common good?’” (Wharton, 2002, para. 13). Because our “choices and decisions are rippling out
into the universe” (Carroll, 2010, para. 6), we are responsible – individually, severally, and
collectively – for the common good. It is important for each of us to recognize, and to understand,
his or her unique and irreplaceable role in the promotion of the common good. In order to do this,
we must each make a genuine, personal connection to the human community. We must recognize
and remember the human element in each of our daily interactions – from greeting one’s child,
one’s significant other, one’s neighbors, and one’s coworkers, to sending and receiving text
messages on one’s hand-held device, to sending and receiving emails, instant messages, and even
electronic “pokes” on the Internet. Whether we see the faces behind the words or not, we must
remember that a real human being is directly involved with each of these interactions, whether the
interactions are vitally important or largely trivial. This consciousness and acknowledgment of
the humans with whom each of us interacts is crucial because “persons with a civic and moral
identity and sense of obligation to society are more apt to behave in ways that fulfill individual
and social responsible goals” (Chickering & Braskamp, 2009, para. 4). It is critical, as well,
because we must each learn to value the members of our human community in ways not unlike the
ways in which we value the members of the local communities with which we each identify.
“[P]eople are more motivated to engage in behaviour change – particularly more difficult
behaviour change – when they are led to do so through an expression of what they value
intrinsically – their friendships, their communities, the places they live, or their own sense of self-
development” (Reynolds, 2010, para. 39). When we value the members of our human community,
then we are more likely to change our behavior in ways that reflect our shared responsibility to a
broader humanity.
In Great Britain, the “Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
has its own Environmental Behaviours Unit, whose remit is to ‘protect and improve the
environment by increasing the contribution from individual and community action’” (Reynolds,
2010, para. 7). This is a positive example of taking responsibility for a broader humanity.
Individual action and community action are both ways in which we can fulfill our obligation to
society. Through individual action, whether it is humanitarian action, ecological action, or other
action, “every single person is changing the world in their way” (Carroll, 2010, para. 2).
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Individual actions do not have to be grandiose in order to make a difference in the world.
Greeting each person whom each of us encounters during the day – even if only with a smile or
with a nod – makes a positive difference in one’s own life, as well as in the lives of each of those
other people. The emotional effect of the greeting, of the smile, or of the nod will ripple out until
it touches people whom we have never even met; it will produce a salutary emotional response in
each person whom we greet. Making the individual decision to put a beverage can or bottle into a
recycling container, instead of into a trash can, makes an impact on the world. Not only does it
conserve that resource, but it also encourages others who see that individual action to follow the
example by putting their cans and bottles into the recycling container. Making the individual
choice to keep a reusable mug at work or at school, and using the mug instead of using disposable
paper or Styrofoam cups, makes a very similar impact on the world. When it comes to making
individual choices, “doing something will always be better than doing nothing” (Reynolds, 2010,
para. 37).
There are those who do not agree that we have a responsibility to a broader community.
They maintain that we have a responsibility only to ourselves. Some will allow that we have a
limited responsibility, as well, to our immediate family and to our friends, but they do not go
farther than that. “Americans, [Alexis de Tocqueville] wrote … [are] indifferent to the larger
community … They form the habit of thinking of themselves in isolation and imagine that their
whole destiny is in their own hands” (Purdy, 2009, para. 2). It is unfortunate that any persons
should become so self-absorbed that they can become indifferent to the broader humanity of which
they are a part. It is rather like a finger that believes that it is independent of the rest of the body.
The finger still draws warmth and nourishment from the body’s circulatory system. It still takes
its direction from the body’s nervous system. It is connected by bone, tendons, and ligaments to
the body’s skeletal system. It is enclosed within the body’s skin. Such a finger deludes itself
when it believes that it is independent of the rest of the body. In the same way, a person deludes
himself or herself by believing that he or she is isolated from the broader humanity. Even a person
who lives entirely alone in the wilderness, hunting and fishing for meat, farming and foraging for
other foods, still impacts the world as it is, in turn, impacted by the world. His or her footprint on
the world may be small, but it still exists. This person is affected by the rest of the world in the
form of global warming, of air and water pollution, and even of light and noise pollution,
imperceptible as these forces may seem to the individual.
The “I look out for myself” (Benar, 2010, para. 9) way of thinking, described by Dr.
David Katz, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, is dangerously short-
sighted. While we must each look after one’s self, we cannot stop there. “Americans have
embraced stronger forms of individuality and self-realization, and they have begun seeking out
communities that help to fulfill these goals” (Purdy, 2009, para. 3). Seeking out communities is a
good first step toward Americans reconnecting with their shared destiny with, and responsibility
to, a broader humanity. Purdy (2009) goes on to write: “They enter community out of a sense of
responsibility and a wish to be connected and make a difference beyond themselves” (para. 21).
Recognizing one’s personal responsibility opens the door for accepting one’s wider “responsibility
for global welfare” (Wharton, 2002, para. 27).
Simple individualism is not the whole of the problem with people’s perceptions of their
responsibility to a broader humanity. Wharton (2002) writes that “there are genuine reasons for
concern about the darker side of globalization” (para. 7). As the world grows smaller, and as
populations continue to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult for people to avoid interacting with
other people who are racially or ethnically different from themselves. “Cultural division could
present a serious barrier to ambitious initiatives” (Purdy, 2009, para. 12) in the promotion of
global ecological sustainability and for the promotion of humanitarian actions. It is necessary to
educate people all over the world about their responsibility to a broader humanity, and to
192 A Journey Through My College Papers
encourage them to set aside or to accept the differences between and among them. “Creating
experiences of shared effort … can affect participants’ attitudes beyond those experiences and
make them open to broader visions of national community” (Purdy, 2009, para. 13). Shared
experiences can help individuals to feel connected to the broader humanity. Such experiences can
help individuals to see past personal and cultural differences to the deeper, shared similarities
throughout humanity. “There are things that people simply will not do for others with whom they
have only a weak feeling of common fate” (Purdy, 2009, para. 12). However, when people begin
to form relationships with others, and to feel a common bond among them, then they will be
willing to embrace a responsibility to a broader humanity.
It is clear that “we must be responsible for how we are contributing to the world”
(Carroll, 2010, para. 7). When we adopt “a simple pro-environmental behaviour, we then come to
see ourselves as ‘the type of person who does things to help the environment’, and may be more
likely to engage in other similar behaviours” (Reynolds, 2010, para. 35). Becoming active in the
human community is a positive response to the world in which we live. When we take
responsibility for a broader humanity than that which we see around us each day, then we can see
“the broader landscape on which [we] can help bring peoples of the world together” (Wharton,
2002, para. 2).
Education looms large on that broader landscape in “defining global citizenship as
knowledge and skills for social and environmental justice” (Andrzejewski & Alessio, 1999, para.
19). Education must begin with the individual, and then expand to communities, to nations, and to
the world. “[E]ducation can prepare students to become socially responsible global citizens”
(Andrzejewski & Alessio, 1999, para. 13). More than a decade after the publication of this
statement, American schools are preparing students to take their places as global citizens. This
past fall, my younger son, who is in fourth grade, was assigned to do a project in which he
collected post cards from around the United States, and from around the world. Each person who
sent a postcard to the students in my son’s class was asked to write a paragraph or two about
where he or she lived. My son collected cards from several American states, and also from
England, from Germany, from Kenya, from New Zealand, and from Australia. A card that was
sent from Dubai, UAE, never arrived, and the class talked about how the postal system in that
region is different from the U.S. postal system. Other students in my son’s class had cards from
Central and South America, from other countries in Europe and Africa, and from the Far East in
Asia. The students took a virtual tour of the places whence their cards originated, utilizing Google
Earth on the Internet. This project engaged the students’ interest and imagination, and it helped to
“educat[e] students to be citizens of a global society” (Chickering & Braskamp, 2009, para. 1).
While “education at all levels has a responsibility to prepare global citizens to address the
problems of the world” (Andrzejewski & Alessio, 1999, para. 8), the main focus of global
education in the United States appears to be in colleges and universities.
One of the four essential learning outcomes of a liberal education advocated by the
Association of American Colleges and Universities is for students to develop a sense of
personal and social responsibility. Through its Core Commitments initiative, AAC&U
(2007) is working with colleges and universities to make this goal a central part of a
movement in higher education to change the way we can think and educate our young
people for the twenty-first century. (Chickering & Braskamp, 2009, para. 1)
Developing a sense of personal responsibility is the first step toward developing any broader
responsibility. Although this is a stated goal of the AAC&U, it actually begins with much
younger students. Children in preschool and in kindergarten begin learning personal responsibility
from the moment when they first enter a classroom. By the time these students reach college, they
should each already have a strong, well-defined sense of personal responsibility. At the college
level, each student’s sense of personal responsibility should be supported and reinforced. If a
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student does arrive at college without this sense, then it is certainly reasonable for the college to
help him or her to develop it.
The college’s larger function should be to help the student to expand his or her sense of
personal responsibility into a sense of social responsibility, and then to a sense of global
responsibility. “The traditional-aged college student needs to develop and internalize a global
perspective into her thinking, sense of identity, and relationships with others” (Chickering &
Braskamp, 2009, para. 2). Many non-traditional-aged college students will already have
developed strong senses of identity, but students of all ages will benefit from gaining a global
perspective of social, cultural, religious, political, and other issues. Students, particularly
traditional-aged students, have great potential to reach out into the world, and to see how the
ripples of their individual actions and decisions affect the world and their relationship in it.
Each of us, regardless of age, race, religion, nationality, or any other divisive factor, has a
responsibility, as a member of the human community, to a broader humanity. Each action that any
one of us takes, and each decision that any one of us makes, ripples far beyond the individual to
affect the world, and to affect all of humanity. We are each responsible for ensuring the
ecological sustainability of this planet, so that the human community will continue to have a
home. Our education systems can help each of us to develop a broader sense of personal and
social responsibility to help us to become responsible global citizens. We are each a member of
the human family, and of the human community, and we are each and all responsible to a broader
humanity.
References
Andrzejewski, J., & Alessio, J.. (1999). Education for global citizenship and social
responsibility. Progressive Perspectives: 1998-99 Monograph Series [Electronic
version.], 1(2). Retrieved January 10, 2011, from
http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/monographs/glomono.html
Benar, N.. (2010, July 13). Unites States shifts focus to food marketing in battle to reduce
childhood obesity. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 182(10), E459-60. Retrieved
January 10, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Carroll, G.. (2010, October 2). The butterfly effect: Personal power and global responsibility.
Retrieved January 10, 2011, from
http://proactiveblackparenting.blogspot.com/2010/10/butterfly-effect-personal-power-
and.html
Chickering, A., & Braskamp, L.A.. (2009). Developing a global perspective for personal
and social responsibility. Peer Review, 11(4), 27-30. Retrieved January 10, 2011,
from ProQuest database.
Purdy, J.. (2009). Community. Democracy, (11), 16-22. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from
ProQuest database.
Reynolds, L.. (2010, January). The sum of the parts: Can we really reduce carbon
emissions through individual behaviour change? Perspectives in Public Health, 130(1),
41-46. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Viotti, P.R., & Kauppi, M.V. (2009). International relations and world politics: Security,
economy, identity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wharton, C.R.. (2002), April 4). Responsibility in a modern world: My brother’s keeper?
Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.kon.org/archives/forum/14-1/wharton.htm
194 A Journey Through My College Papers
Spring Semester, 2011
PSY 104: Child and Adolescent Development
Experiential Learning 1/27/2011
During my freshman year of college, I participated in ten hours of clinical teaching
experiential learning as a member of the Future Teachers Club. Each Friday for ten weeks, I spent
one hour in Mr. Taylor's third grade classroom at East Richland Elementary School. I worked
one-on-one with various students, listening to them read aloud and helping them improve their
reading fluency. On three occasions, when there were substitute teachers in the class, I did the
morning attendance and exercises with the students.
This experiential learning benefited me as I prepared for a teaching career. Helping the
substitute teachers was the most useful thing for me, as I was very nervous about being in charge
of a classroom. When Mr. Taylor was in the room, I was a helper, but I was not in charge; when
there was a substitute, I was in charge for that hour. Another way in which this experiential
learning helped me was in narrowing down the area of education in which I want to work. Before
I had this experience, I thought that I wanted to teach early elementary grades. By the time I
completed my ten weeks, I had realized that I would prefer to teach adult learners.
During the time when I was working with the third grade class, I was also tutoring
remedial college classes, and I was assisting in the GED class at my college. This experience
helped me to realize that I love to teach adult, or non-traditional-aged, students. The non-
traditional-aged students in the remedial classes were my favorite students. I found it difficult to
work with the GED students, most of whom were there because of court requirements of one kind
or another, and did not really want to be there. Many of the traditional-aged students in non-
remedial classes were unwilling to take tutoring seriously. The non-traditional-aged students who
were there voluntarily were a joy to work with because they wanted to learn, and because they
worked hard to improve their grades.
Experiential learning helped me to understand myself better as I learned to do the job that
I hope will be my future career. I found out what methods worked best for my students in ways
that I never could have learned by sitting in a lecture hall.
Theoretical Perspectives: Cognitive 1/27/2011
The cognitive perspective is the "[v]iew that thought processes are central to
development" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 33). It is largely based on the theories of Jean
Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Piaget and Vygotsky had different ideas about how children's thought
processes develop. Piaget believed that cognitive development occurs in a series of stages, which
he identified as "organization, adaptation, and equilibration" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 34).
Vygotsky believed that children "learn through social interaction" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 34).
Vygotsky's theory also included stages, of a sort: the "zone of proximal development (ZPD), the
gap between what [children] are already able to do and what they are not quite ready to do by
themselves" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 35).
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Whether children's thinking develops in clearly defined stages, or whether it develops
through a series of ZPDs, children achieve psychosocial development as they achieve cognitive
development. How a child thinks will change as the child moves from infancy through
toddlerhood, early elementary age, upper elementary age, and adolescence, to young adulthood. If
a child's thought processes do not develop and mature, then the child's psychosocial development
will be similarly retarded.
An example of cognitive development comes from my two sons:
When they were infants, if they needed a bottle, a diaper, a blanket, or some cuddling,
then they would cry, and they would expect to just get what they needed.
When they were toddlers, they learned that there were other things that they wanted, but
they did not yet know the difference between want and need. They learned that they had
to use words to identify the items that they wanted, or I would not give the items to them.
When my boys reached the early elementary age, they learned that some of the things that
they wanted could be had just by asking me for them. These were called needs. Other
things could be had in exchange for good behavior, and sometimes these things could not
be had. These were called wants. They learned that they had to ask for things by using
full sentences that started or ended with "please," and that they had to say "thank you"
after receiving anything or they would receive fewer of their wants in the future.
My sons are now in the upper elementary age group. For the last year, they have had to
perform chores in order to earn money that they can spend on their wants. Each chore
has a set monetary value, and they have learned that they can earn more by doing the
harder chores than by doing the easier ones. They have savings accounts, and they keep
track of their own funds. They are learning to evaluate the relative importance of the
things that they want, and to adjust their savings and spending to get what they want the
most. They are learning to control impulses, and to spend deliberately, instead of
frivolously. Their cognitive responses to needs, wants, and money have developed as
they have moved through various stages of physical development. Their development
has reflected Vygotsky's ZPDs more than Piaget's stages of development.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Child Development 1/27/2011
The three most important influences in child development are "heredity ... environment ...
[and] maturation" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 12).
Heredity deals with what is passed genetically from a child's biological parents. A child
my be genetically predisposed to specific personality traits and behavior traits that are independent
of how he or she is taught to behave.
Environment deals with everything in a child's "world outside the self" (Papalia, et. al.,
2008, p. 12). This includes not only the physical place where a child grows up, but also the
relationships, behaviors, and life examples of the people who are around the child. Culture and
ethnicity affect a child's environment, as do family composition, socioeconomic condition of the
family, and the geopolitical issues of where the child lives. Environment also includes non-
genetic, inborn traits, such as fetal alcohol syndrome or health problems, associated with the
mother's nutritional issues or use of/exposure to substances during pregnancy. Premature birth can
196 A Journey Through My College Papers
also result in problems that would be considered environmental, such as breathing problems,
because the problems would be caused by forces outside the child's self.
Maturation is "the unfolding of a universal, natural sequence of physical changes and
behavior patterns" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 12). Hereditary and environmental influences can
affect the rate at which a child experiences these changes. Maturation includes normative and
nonnormative influences. Normative influences "are highly similar for people in a particular age
group" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 16). Normative maturation events are what is usual or average for
children at particular ages, and they include both biological and social events in a child's
development. Nonnormative maturation events are those that affect individuals, rather than
generally affecting groups. They may be ordinary events that take place at unusual times in a
child's life, or they may be unusual events -- both positive and negative, emotionally -- that happen
in a child's life and causes stresses that influence the child's development.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Early Child Care 2/3/2011
Parental employment and early child care have a psychological effect on many
individuals today. Based on the information in the text and other resources, how might this impact
the children in our society? Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ postings.
The effects of parental employment on preschool-aged children varies according to
several factors. In more affluent or better educated families, "children whose mothers worked
full-time in their 1st year after giving birth were more likely to show negative cognitive and
behavioral outcomes at ages 3 to 8 than children whose mothers worked part-time or not at all
during their 1st year" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 240). This is largely because "children
derive their sense of self-esteem by the quality and quantity of direct care provided by their
parents" (Direnfeld, 2008, para. 3). Children at this socioeconomic level have better self-esteem
and self-image when they spend most of their waking hours with at least one of their parents.
These children tend to be more confident, and to experience fewer behavioral problems, than their
peers who are cared for outside the home.
Another view is that "children are given positive role models when both parents work"
(Working parents, 2002, para. 3). In this case, it is important for the children not only to see that
the parents work on a regular basis, but also to "understand that you are working for them"
(Working parents, 2002, para. 6).
In low-income families, children "tend to benefit academically from the more favorable
environment a working mother's income can provide" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 240). Children in
low-income families, in my personal experience, are aware that their lives are better overall when
their parents work to provide for them. For these children, for whom parental contact is
necessarily limited, "time together must include opportunity for pleasurable activity and
engagement between parent and child" (Direnfeld, 2008, para. 7). Just being present with the
child is not enough; "stimulating interactions with responsive adults are crucial to early cognitive,
linguistic, and psychosocial development" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 241). Although interactions
with fathers is important for children, the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development,
funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), reports that
"[t]he quality of interactions between mothers and children was more important for children's
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development that [sic] the quality of the childcare" (Arnst, 2006, para. 10). With many low-
income families being single-mother families, this is particularly important. Despite the need to
work and to care for the home and the child, a mother also needs to make time for meaningful
activities with her child.
In all groups, children "who spent 30 or more hours in child care each week showed
somewhat more problem behavior ... and had more episodes of minor illness than children who
spent fewer hours in child care each week" (Arnst, 2006, para. 8). This suggests that a child being
placed in child care while the parents work has a negative effect on the child's behavior and on his
or her health. A study by NICHD reports that "the more time a young child spends in nonmaternal
care, the greater the risk of problem behavior" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 243). In contrast, children
who are placed in child care "tended to have stronger cognitive and language skills ... than
children who had spent little or no time in center care" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 242). It is
necessary, then, to weigh several factors when deciding how parental employment affects child
development. In low-income families, the improved living provided by parental employment
appears to outweigh the negative effects on a child from being placed in child care. In other
situations, a child's behavior and general health are negatively influenced by the child being placed
in child care while the parents work, but the child's cognitive, language, and other learning skills
are improved by spending time in child care. Whether or not a parent works, it is the parent who
most strongly affects a child, by the parent's choices regarding employment and child care, and
also by the parent providing "well organized routines, books, and play materials" (Arnst, 2006,
para. 6) for the child.
References:
Arnst, C.. (2006, October 3). New study: It's the family, not the care. Retrieved February 3,
2011, from
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/archives/2006/10/new_
study_its_t_1.html
Direnfeld, G.. (2008, September 12). Working parents and child development. Retrieved
February 3, 2011, from http://www.boloji.com/parenting/02340.htm
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Working parents and child development: The two income family is alive and well, but are
they healthy?. (2002). Retrieved February 3, 2011, from
http://www.essortment.com/all/workingparents_pio.htm
Infant Mortality 2/3/2011
The major factors in infant mortality are "preterm delivery ... sepsis or pneumonia ...
asphyxiation at birth ... [b]irth defects ... sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), maternal
complications of pregnancy, and unintentional injuries" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 165).
Preterm delivery, or premature birth, can result in infant mortality because the baby is not
fully developed. "Preterm birth accounts for nearly half of all neurological birth defects, such as
cerebral palsy, and more than two-thirds of infant deaths" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 128). If the
heart, lungs, or other major systems are not fully developed, then the child may experience
"[a]noxia or hypoxia ... [resulting in] permanent brain damage, causing mental retardation,
behavior problems, or even death" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 123). In many cases, modern medical
technology can prevent infant mortality from preterm delivery in developed countries.
198 A Journey Through My College Papers
Sepsis and pneumonia are among the "primary causes of neonatal death worldwide"
(Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 165), as is asphyxiation at birth, but neither of these is a primary cause in
the United States. With appropriate medical care, many cases of sepsis and of pneumonia can be
cured.
Birth defects are often caused by genetic factors or by prenatal exposure to various
substances or prenatal injury. Birth defects include "such rare genetic conditions as PKU
[phenylketonuria] ..., congenital hypothyroidism ..., galactosemia ..., and other, even rarer,
biochemical disorders" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 125).
"Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), ... is the sudden death of an infant under age 1
year in which the cause of death remains unexplained after a thorough investigation that includes
an autopsy" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 167). There are a number of factors that are believed to
contribute to SIDS, including an "underlying biological defect ... a delay in maturation of the
neural network that is responsible for arousal from sleep in the presence of life-threatening
conditions ..., a disturbance in the brain mechanism that regulates breathing ..., or a genetic factor"
(Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 167). In addition, there is believed to be "a relationship between SIDS
and sleeping on the stomach" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 167).
Maternal complications during pregnancy can include drug or alcohol use, gestational
diabetes, and illnesses or injuries during pregnancy. "Early, high-quality prenatal care, which
includes educational, social, and nutritional services, can help prevent maternal or infant death and
other birth complications" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 108). This is one of the most preventable
causes of infant mortality, since the mother can take measures before conception and during
pregnancy to ensure the health of her baby.
Unintentional injuries include "falls ... ingesting harmful substances ... and by burns"
(Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 168). Unfortunately, some infant deaths are homicides, not unintentional.
Like maternal complications, injuries are often preventable.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Infant and Toddler Nutrition February 7, 2011
The quality of nutrition in an infant’s or a toddler’s first months of life is critical for the
child’s development and future health. Infant nutrition actually begins in utero with the quality of
the expectant mother’s nutrition. “Undernutrition is the … cause of over a third … of all child
deaths … [, and] [a]fter age 2 years, undernutrition will have caused irreversible damage for future
development towards adulthood” (Horton, 2008, para. 3). It is generally accepted that, after
ensuring a mother’s prenatal nutrition, the key to good nutrition for an infant is the consumption of
human breast milk, preferably by means of nursing.
Infant nutrition works in concert with genetic factors and other environmental factors to
determine how a child will grow and develop. Children who are “well-nourished … grow taller
and heavier than less well-nourished … children” (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 145). This is
actually true only to an extent, as poorly-nourished children are often prone to obesity as a result
of the high quantities of sugar and fat in their diets. Healthy weight involves sturdy bones, strong
muscles, and efficiently-functioning organs, not layers of fat.
Mothers are strongly encouraged to breast-feed their infants. Breast-feeding should
continue until the infant is at least six months old, and should continue through the child’s first
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year of life, if possible. Some infants, such as those who are born prematurely, are unable to nurse
from their mothers, but human milk is still the best food for an infant. Breast milk can be
expressed manually, or by using a specially designed milk pump, and can then be fed to the infant
using a bottle. In the event that the mother is unable to produce sufficient milk to meet her
infant’s nutritional needs, human milk can be supplemented with iron-fortified formula. A study
by the Dunn Nutrition Center of Cambridge, England, reports that “infants fed mother’s milk with
a formula supplement for four weeks postnatally had a significantly higher IQ at seven-and-a-half
to eight years of age than those who received only formula” (Nutrition is key, 1994, para. 1). This
fact clearly illustrates the importance of good nutrition in an infant’s cognitive development into
early childhood.
In addition to improving an infant’s future IQ, breast milk reduces a child’s risk for a
number of health concerns, including “diarrhea, respiratory infections, otis media …, and
staphylococcal, bacterial, and urinary tract infections” (Papalia, et. Al, 2008, p. 147). Breast
feeding also reduces a child’s long-term risk of obesity, as the child learns to regulate his or her
intake by nursing only until he or she is full, rather than trying to empty a bottle of formula.
Mothers with transmittable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, should not feed their breast milk
to their infants, in order to protect the infants from infection. Some medications and medical
treatments, including radiation, can also negatively affect an infant’s health, and mothers with
these risk factors should not breast feed. The infant’s risk of contracting a disease, or of having an
adverse reaction to substances in breast milk, must outweigh the usually-assumed developmental
benefits of breast feeding.
Infants and toddlers with good nutrition grow and develop at fairly predictable rates, and
they have different nutritional requirements at each stage of development. “In the first two months
of life, a baby should gain about an ounce a day” (Coila, 2010, para. 3). To achieve this, an infant
should nurse every two to three hours. If the infant is fed formula instead of breast milk, he or she
should take in about six ounces in that same time span. Infants and toddlers grow rapidly, and
their food intake increases accordingly. Infants should not begin eating solid foods until six
months of age, except on the advice of a physician. When a child does begin to eat solid foods, it
is usual for the infant to start with an iron-fortified rice cereal, then to progress to puréed fruits and
vegetables.
When my two sons were infants, I was unable to produce breast milk for more than a few
weeks after each delivery. Tommy, my elder son, had a negative reaction to milk-based formula,
and he began to lose vitally important ounces due to a lack of nutrition. The pediatrician
prescribed a soy-based formula, as well as a thin gelatin mixture that helped to ease his colic, and
he began to thrive. By the time Tommy was four months old, the pediatrician had advised us to
start feeding him rice cereal, as well as his formula. Tommy rejected jarred baby foods, and he ate
mashed-up table food by six months of age. Robby, my younger son, suffered from
gastroesophogeal reflux disease (GERD) from birth. He was unable to tolerate my milk because it
was too thin to stay down after he ate. He had the same problem with regular formula, as well,
and he lost precious ounces due to projectile vomiting. The pediatrician prescribed a special
formula that was fortified with rice cereal, beginning before Robby was two months old. By the
time Robby was four months old, he was eating jarred baby food with rice cereal mixed into it,
along with his formula, and he was thriving. Like Tommy, Robby was eating table food, on the
advice of his doctor, by age six months. My sons’ stories are not typical for American infants.
However, they illustrate the fact that each child has unique nutritional needs, even though the
norm is for infants to breast feed for at least one year, and to begin eating solid foods after six
months of age.
Nutrition is important for toddlers, as well as for infants. It is during the toddler years
that children often learn poor eating habits, as it becomes easier to tempt a child with French fries
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than to ensure that the child eats nutritious foods. Toddlers need to eat lean meats, whole grains,
and fresh fruits and vegetables, just as their parents need to eat so. “By 19 to 24 months, French
fries become the most commonly consumed vegetable” (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 148). Faulty
nutritional decisions like the one that creates this statistic increase the probability that a child will
be overweight, may develop diabetes or heart disease, and will have other nutrition-related health
issues.
Providing infants and young children with good nutrition takes effort on the part of
parents and care-givers, but the healthy growth and development of a child is worth the effort.
Whenever possible, an infant should have an exclusive diet of breast milk during the first six
months of life, and should continue to consume breast milk at least until the child’s first birthday.
Solid foods should be added to an infant’s diet after the first six months. Toddlers need to eat
healthful foods to continue growing and developing well, even though it is often easier to give a
toddler a less-healthful snack than to get the child to sit down to a sensible meal. Regardless of
the age of a child – or of an adult – good nutrition is essential for good health and proper
development.
References
Coila, B.. (2010, January 20). Infant nutrition & development. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from
ProQuest database.
Horton, R.. (208). Maternal and child undernutrition: An urgent opportunity. The Lancet, 371
(9608), 179. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Nutrition is key to intelligence – infant development. (1994). USA Today [Electronic
version.]. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2587_v122/ai_15173055/
Papalia, D. E., Olds, Wendkos S., Feldman, Duskin R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Parenting Styles 2/10/2011
The three main parenting styles are authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Most
parents have a primary parenting style, but occasionally slip into one or the other of the other
parenting styles.
The authoritarian style is very strict and rigid. Children are expected to "conform rigidly"
(Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 316) to rules and expectations, and are punished when they do
not conform. Authoritarian parents tend to be less affectionate to and connected with their
children, resulting in children who are often unhappy, and who have difficulty getting close to or
trusting others.
The permissive style is the polar opposite of the authoritarian style. Permissive parents
tend to become more like friends to their children as they allow the children to make their own
choices. They have few rules, and they seldom punish their children. While the children may
benefit from a warm relationship with the parent, the lack of structure in the child's life causes a
lack of maturity in the child.
The authoritative parenting style falls between the authoritarian style and the permissive
style. Authoritative parents tend to be loving and nurturing, and they encourage their children to
develop into strong, confident, caring individuals. They also have rules and standards for their
children, but they prefer to correct unacceptable behaviors through discipline, punishing only
when necessary. Authoritative parents tend to produce "self-reliant, self-controlled, self-assertive,
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exploratory, and content" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, pp. 316-317) children who are accustomed to
talking about their problems and reaching reasonable accommodations.
An additional parenting style is the neglectful style. Neglectful parents "focus on their
own needs rather than on those of the child" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 317). Parental neglect may
be caused by depression or by another health issue, or by stress. Unfortunately, this parenting
style is entirely too common, and it usually results in children having emotional and behavioral
problems. In addition, neglectful parenting can cause nutrition and health problems in children,
which can impair healthy development.
Of all of the parenting styles, the one that seems to be best for children is the authoritative
style. Under this style, children are taught stability and consistency, along with warmth,
confidence, and communication. Children learn limits, in contrast with permissive homes, without
learning to fear testing those limits, in contrast with authoritarian homes. Parents are neither too
distant nor too indulgent in authoritative homes, but they are firmly supportive. In the
authoritative home, the parents "set sensible expectations and realistic standards" (Papalia, et. al.,
2008, p. 317) for their children.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gender Information 2/10/2011
"A gender schema ... is a mentally organized network of information about gender that
influences behavior" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 306). The types of information contained
in a gender schema may include a child's knowledge of gender-associated interests and activities,
gender-associated play, gender-associated dress, gender-associated roles in the family and in
society, and cross-gender relationships with playmates. Gender schema theory "has shed light on
how gender-schemic processing affects attention, organization, and memory of gender-related
information" (Bussey & Bandura, 1999, p. 5). Children develop gender schemas from their
observations of gender roles in the world around them. They watch how males dress, act, play,
and talk; and they watch how females dress, act, play, and talk; then they categorize the various
behaviors as "male" or "female" in their memories. Younger children have less-well-developed
gender schemas than older children. Younger children will play cross-gendered games, and may
wish to wear cross-gendered clothing. They will play with children of either gender. Older
children will choose gender-indicated clothing. They will usually give up cross-gendered toys
before they give up opposite gender friends. Boys are more likely to adopt rigid gender roles than
are girls.
"Social learning theory ... has also been used to explain gender-role stereotyping of
occupations by children" (Helwig, 1998, para. 5). The social learning theory of Albert Bandura
(1977) states that "from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed,
and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action" (Cited in Cherry, 2011,
para. 1). According to this theory, children can learn about gender-related behaviors and activities
by observing how other people behave. Consequently, much that children learn under the social
learning theory is heavily influenced by the child's culture. If a child observes that men go to
work and that women stay at home with the children, then those gender roles will become part of
the child's gender schema. Through observation of the behaviors modeled by the child's parents
and other close adults, the child learns how each gender dresses, what interests are held by each
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gender, in what activities each gender participates, and even what foods are preferred by each
gender.
What children learn about gender identity and gender schema influences how they will
develop socially. Studies show that "children show, on average, significant sex differences:
gender identity self-labeling, sex-of-playmate preference, toy and activity interests, roles in
fantasy play, forms of social interactive behavior..., parental rehearsal play, and so on" (Fridell,
Owen-Anderson, Johnson, Bradley, Zucker, 2006, p. 729). Children who choose clothing, toys, or
activities that are commonly associated with the opposite sex will often experience ridicule and
social ostracism, especially once they reach school age. Children who are secure in their gender
identities tend to have better self-confidence, and they are better able to develop emotionally, than
children who are unsure of gender roles, or who feel repressed by society's expectations of gender
roles.
The three ways in which information is processed, according to social cognitive
(learning) theory, are modeling, enactive experience, and direct tuition. "Modeled activities
convey the rules and structures embodied in the exemplars for generative behavior" (Bussey &
Bandura, 1999, p. 16). For most children, the exemplars are their parents or guardians. Children
learn by observing the behaviors modeled by their parents. In enactive experience, children learn
gender behaviors "by observing the positive and negative consequences" (Bussey & Bandura,
1999, p. 20) of various gender-related behaviors. Children see not only how socially-acceptable
behaviors are rewarded in society, but also how socially-unacceptable gender behaviors are
punished in society. Positive consequences usually involve having friends and being included in
activities. Negative consequences, which can have distinct negative impacts on psychosocial
development, often include ridicule, humiliation, bullying, and social isolation. Direct tuition of
gender ideas involves adults and older children telling children directly what is expected for
gender-appropriate behavior.
References:
Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and
differentiation. Psychological Review, 106, 676-713. Retrieved February 10, 2011,
from http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Bandura1999PR.pdf
Cherry, K. (2011). Social learning theory: An overview of Bandura's social learning theory.
Retrieved February 10, 2011, from
http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/sociallearning.htm
Fridell, S.R., Owen-Anderson, A., Johnson, L.L., Bradley, S.J., Zucker, K.J. (2006). The
playmate and play style preferences structured interview: A comparison of children
with gender identity disorder and controls. Springer Science & Business Media, Inc., 35,
729-737. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Helwig, A.A. (1998). Gender-role stereotyping: Testing theory with a longitudinal sample. Sex
Roles, 38 (5/6), 403-423. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Information Processing 2/10/2011
Young children do not process information the same way adults do. Young children
often have difficulty understanding the concept of cause and effect, and they also have difficulty
with the concept of time. Young children use symbols to represent ideas in their thinking, and
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they have difficulty extrapolating one idea into another. Most children work with concrete ideas,
rather than with abstracts. They do not think linearly, as adults do, but they think in the here and
now. Past and future exist for young children, but "tomorrow" might just as easily represent
tomorrow, next week, or next year.
Children learn a great deal through deferred imitation, which "is based on having kept a
mental representation of an observed action" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 269). A child will
play-act the things he or she has seen adults and older children doing, without necessarily
understanding just what the adults and older children are doing, or why they are doing it.
In place of cause and effect, young children use transduction to connect events that have
a correlation with each other, such as being in the same place at the same time, without regard for
whether or not there is causation between the events. Studies show that, even though children do
not use cause and effect for reasoning, they are often able to "grasp cause and effect" (Papalia, et.
al., 2008, p. 271).
Young children establish identities for objects and ideas by mentally organizing them into
categories. Children tend to have difficulty with the idea that there can be exceptions in their
categories. Culture can have an influence on how children categorize specific objects, depending
on what they hear and observe of the beliefs of the people around them.
Children are better able to relate to situations, and to answer questions and express ideas,
within a familiar context. Asking a child an abstract question is not likely to be useful. As a
child's experience grows, the child has a greater range of contexts on which to base his or her
thinking.
Very young children "hold mental representations of reality, which can sometimes be
wrong" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 275). Children tend to be truthful by nature, but they learn to be
less truthful as they get older. In a similar vein, children often have difficulty distinguishing
between fantasy and reality. "Magical thinking in children age 3 and older does not seem to stem
from confusion between fantasy and reality" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 277), and it is different from
false beliefs or deceptions.
Because of the different ways in which children process information, their early
educational experiences should be designed to take these differences into account. Children
should learn simple concepts at first, and should build upon those concepts as the children
categorize new ideas and develop new contexts for connecting ideas. Instructions should be
simple, and only one to three consecutive steps should be given at one time.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cognitive Development 2/17/2011
One approach to cognitive development in middle childhood is Jean Piaget's concrete
operations, in which children "about age 7 ... can use mental operations to solve concrete (actual
problems" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 351). Piaget's concrete operations stage addresses
several aspects of cognitive development:
Spatial thinking
Cause and effect,
Categorization,
Seriation and transitive inference,
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Inductive and deductive reasoning,
Conservation,
Numbers and mathematics. (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 351, table 13-1)
Spatial thinking allows children to understand concepts such as maps and models, which
represent real space in a condensed form. Children at this stage have a better grasp of relative
distances, and of how to get from one place to another. They "can more easily remember the route
and the landmarks along the way" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 352). This is an advance from the pre-
operational stage, where children might not realize that a thing that is out of sight still exists.
A new understanding of cause and effect in the concrete operational stage allows children to
judge how their actions affect the world around them. This awareness of cause and effect
improves with a child's experience, and children at this stage are better able to remember what
cause and effect relationships they have experienced, as well as to predict cause and effect
relationships.
Categorization includes seriation and transitive inference. Seriation is "arrang[ing] objects in
a series according to one or more dimensions" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 352). In the concrete
operational stage, children recognize groups of objects that can be arranged in series, and they are
able to arrange the objects. Transitive inference is "the ability to infer a relationship between two
objects from the relationship of each of them and a third object" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 352).
For example, my sons like to help pack snacks in the morning. Last week, we had leftover pizza
and bread sticks. Robby noticed that the bread sticks were too large for the snack bags that he had
out. He also recognized that the pizza slices were larger than the bread sticks. He decided not to
try to put the pizza in a snack bag, and instead got out sandwich bags, which he knew were larger
than snack bags. The pizza fit in the sandwich bags. Without realizing it, he used transitive
inference first to know that the pizza could not fit in the snack bag, and second to choose a bag
that would hold the pizza.
Piaget says that children in the concrete operational stage (ages 7-11) use only inductive
reasoning, not deductive reasoning. At this stage, he expects children to make observations about
members of a class, and to "draw general conclusions about the class as a whole" (Papalia, et. al.,
2008, p. 352). My personal experience with children in this age group agrees with the findings of
Galotti, Komatsu, and Voelz (1997), who discovered that "second graders ... were able to answer
both [inductive and deductive] problems correctly" (Cited in Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 353).
Children at the concrete operational stage have a better grasp of conservation than pre-
operational children. They are able to understand the concepts of identity, reversibility, and
decentration. They think in two dimensions, while pre-operational children think in just one
dimension.
Children in the concrete operational stage have a better grasp of numbers and mathematics
than have children in the pre-operational stage. As with many cognitive functions, "children learn
to add and subtract through concrete experience in a cultural context" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p.
353). In a family of four, a child may have the daily task of setting the table for dinner. The child
knows to put out four plates each evening. When the child's grandparents are coming to dinner, he
or she is able to figure out that six plates are needed. In my home, we use a chore chart for my
sons to earn money. Robby, who is 9, knows that if he washes the dishes every day for a week,
then he will earn $5.25. However, if he is asked to multiply 75 by 7 on a math test, then he is at a
loss. He knows that he earns twice as much for mopping the kitchen as he earns for sweeping the
kitchen, but 5 0 divided by 2 or 25 times 2 will confuse him. "[T]eaching math through concrete
applications may be more effective than teaching abstract rules" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 354).
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I think Piaget has a lot of it right for this age group. There will always be exceptions who
exceed expectations or who develop more slowly than others, but concrete operations works for
the majority of children aged 7 to 11 years.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Psychosocial Development 2/17/2011
Two of the primary relationships in psychosocial development in middle childhood are
sibling relationships and friendships. Both of these relationships are peer-oriented, rather than
oriented on an authority figure and a subordinate, such as relationships with parents, care givers,
teachers, etc..
Siblings are usually children born to the same parents, but they may also include half-
siblings, step-siblings, and foster-siblings. "Siblings influence each other, not only directly,
through their own interactions, but also indirectly through their impact on each other's relationship
with the parents" (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 397). In my experience, siblings squabble,
bicker, and even get into physical fights with each other, but they will present a united front if
anyone outside the sibling group tries to interfere with any of the siblings. Siblings tattle on each
other to try to improve their own standing with the parents by making their siblings look bad, but
they keep each other's secrets to keep their siblings out of trouble in situations that they deem to be
important. Sibling relationships reflect the parents' relationship, and also the parent-child
relationship. "[W]hen the parent-child relationship was warm and affectionate, siblings tended to
have positive relationships as well. When the parent-child relationship was conflictual, sibling
conflict was more likely" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 397). Often, older siblings have some degree of
responsibility for teaching and for safeguarding younger siblings. In my experience, while a pre-
school-aged child mat be threatened by the birth of a new sibling, children in middle childhood
will often be possessive and protective toward the new sibling. My sons, who are 9 and 10,
squabble almost constantly, but they are warmly solicitous toward their 4-year-old half-sister and
toward their 3-year-old half-brother, and they have been so toward them since the little ones were
born. When the boys visit their father, much of their time is occupied with tending to the little
ones.
Friendship usually occurs between two children who are similar in age and who have
similar interests. By middle childhood, most friendships will be between same-gender children.
"With their friends, children learn to communicate and cooperate" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 399).
A child's self-image at once affects and is affected by his or her ability to make and keep close
friendships. A child with a positive self-image will usually have an easier time making friends
than will have a child with a negative self-image. Even generally unpopular children are able to
form friendships, "but they have fewer friends than popular children and tend to find friends
among younger children, other unpopular children, or children in a different class or a different
school" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 399). Through friendships, children learn how to resolve
differences and how to be sensitive to each other's needs. They tend to stand by their friends, even
to the point of forming cliques. Children's friendships change as they mature, though they may
still have the same friends in redefined relationships. Sometimes, when a child has reached the
level of intimate, mutually shared relationships, two friends may become emotionally akin to
siblings. I see this happening with my elder son, Tommy, and his best friend, Kyle. Unlike his
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brother, who makes friends with almost anyone, Tommy has always had trouble forming
friendships. Tommy met Kyle when we moved to Michigan almost two years ago, and they have
been inseparable since they met. At ten years old, there is only a week of difference between
them, and they are firmly in Selman's third stage of friendship. "School-age girls care less about
having many friends than about having a few close friends they can rely on. Boys have more
friendships, but they tend to be less intimate and affectionate" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 401). Boys
and girls who form friendships with each other during middle childhood do so rather tentatively,
in most cases, because friends of both genders are likely to tease them about having a romantic
involvement. A mixed-gender group of three friends is less likely to face this difficulty. Since
being teased in this way often leads to embarrassment and to a reduced self-image, many children
avoid cross-gender friendships.
References:
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Psychotherapy 2/17/2011
Three forms of child psychotherapy that my own children receive are individual
psychotherapy, play therapy, and drug therapy. Because of my personal experience of these
forms, they are the forms that I will discuss.
"In individual psychotherapy, a therapist sees a child one-on-one, to help the child gain
insights into his or her personality and relationships and to interpret feelings and behavior"
(Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p. 407). In reality, in order to avoid accusations of inappropriate
behavior being made against the therapist, individual therapy for children is no longer truly private
between the therapist and the child. A parent or other responsible adult must be present during
each session. As a result, I am present for my sons' sessions, and I have come to believe that the
lack of true privacy and confidentiality impairs a child's ability to speak openly and honestly with
a therapist. Still, the goal in individual therapy is for the therapist to listen to the child, guiding the
session with questions that cause the child to work through his or her issues to try to find
solutions. "Listening to the child is essential" (Hartmann, 2008, para. 6). This form of
psychotherapy requires a great deal of trust between the child and the therapist so that the child
feels comfortable expressing thoughts, feelings, memories, and ideas. In the new setting, it is
important for the witnessing parent to always remember -- and to remind the child before and after
every session -- that nothing the child says in a therapy session is ever subject to punitive action
by the parent. Sadly, "psychological services for youths may not lead to significant symptom
reduction" (Ash & Weis, 2009, p. 400). This is very frustrating for parents and children alike.
Frequent sessions may keep symptoms to a minimum, but it is rare that symptoms are ever truly
resolved. Both of my sons have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) caused by experiences with
their father and his family. In addition, Tommy has high-functioning Asperger's Syndrome, and
Robby has moderate ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Weekly sessions with their
therapist help keep their symptoms under control, but if they miss a week due to illness, holidays,
etc., then they almost have to start over the following week.
"In play therapy, a child plays freely while a therapist occasionally comments, asks
questions, or makes suggestions" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 408). The therapist usually provides
several toys or sets of toys from which the child may choose. When Tommy was 15 months old,
and already exhibiting symptoms of Asperger's, he was not yet verbal, so the therapist used play
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therapy. He was offered a box of toy cars and a bag of toy dishes. Sometimes he chose the cars,
and other times he chose the dishes. The therapist took copious notes of what he chose and of
how he played. He almost invariably sorted toys by size and by color, even at that age. He made
precisely straight lines of cars of each color, and he was upset if his sorting was disrupted. From
the way Tommy played, the therapist was able to make deductions about his thought processes,
and to help us to cope with his condition. Today, the boys' therapist uses play therapy in concert
with individual therapy. They assemble puzzles, build with blocks, and play with clay. The play
provides a distraction that helps the boys to verbalize more freely. Freud stated that "play involves
suspension of reality in the service of reworking unpleasant experiences" (Levy, 2008, p. 282). A
well-trained child psychologist can observe a child's play and understand what the child is
thinking or feeling subconsciously, but "[m]any child therapists find it difficult to understand and
respond therapeutically within the frame of play" (Levy, 2008, p. 281).
"The use of drug therapy ... to treat childhood emotional disorders is controversial"
(Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 408). Drug therapy is almost always in conjunction with individual
therapy. The most common condition that is treated with drug therapy for children is ADHD.
"Although stimulant medication is quite effective for the majority of children with ADHD, up to
42 percent do not respond as intended ... and some show increased behavior problems" (Doggett,
2004, p. 74). There is a wide range of "stimulants ... [,] anti-depressants, selective serotonin-
reuptake inhibitors ..., anti-hypertensive drugs, [and] anti-seizure medication" (Doggett, 2004, p.
74). Different children respond well to different drugs or combinations of drugs. The intent of
drug therapy is to control a child's behavior and to help a child focus. Children with ADHD who
do not take medication tend to have difficulties at school because they have poor impulse control,
excessive energy that is inadequately directed, and difficulty focusing. Although drug therapy is
the preferred treatment for children with ADHD and related disorders, "the effects of
antidepressant medication are weaker in children than in adults" (Conner, 2006, para. 1).
References:
Ash, S.E., & Weis, R. (2009). Recovery among youths referred to outpatient psychotherapy:
Reliable change, clinical significance, and predictors of outcome. Child &Adolescent
Social Work Journal, 26(5), 399-414. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from ProQuest
database.
Conner, M. G. (2006). When are antidepressants better than psychotherapy? Retrieved
February 17, 2011, from
http://www.oregoncounseling.org/ArticlesPapers/Documents/TherapyVsRx.htm
Doggett, A.M. (2004). ADHD and drug therapy: Is is still a valid treatment? Journal of Child
Health Care, 8(1), 69-81. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from
http://scottsdale.brainadvantage.com/PDF/ADHD%20and%20drug%20therapy.pdf
Hartmann, L. (2008). Magical moments of change: How psychotherapy turns kids around.
The American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(5), 655. Retrieved February 17, 2011,
from ProQuest database.
Levy, A.J. (2008). The therapeutic action of play in the psychodynamic treatment of children: A
critical analysis. Clinical Social Work Journal, 36(3), 281-292. Retrieved February 17,
2011, from ProQuest database.
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Key Learning 2/24/2011
Infant mortality has several varied causes, including delivery before the pregnancy
reaches full term, illnesses such as sepsis and pneumonia, birth defects resulting from genetic
anomalies or from fetal trauma, sudden infant death syndrome, complications experienced by the
mother during pregnancy, unintentional injuries that occur after birth, and intentional injuries
resulting in unintentional death or intentional homicide. Most causes of infant mortality can be
prevented by good prenatal care, by good neonatal medical care, and by attentive care by the
parents or by the primary caregiver.
Article Review 2/24/2011
In a local magazine on children and child development, Metro Parent, Dolly Moiseeff
(2010) explains why sibling rivalry occurs, and how parents can reduce episodes of sibling rivalry.
Sibling rivalry includes any competition, bickering, or fighting between siblings. It is usually a
sign that one sibling is trying to place himself or herself in a position that is superior to that of the
other sibling. To avoid sibling rivalry, parents should talk to children about the children's
concerns, and should remind each child that everyone is good at some things, even though not
everyone is good at the same things. Setting aside individual time for each child to spend with the
parent each day also helps reduce siblings' feelings of needing to compete with each other for
position in the family. Moiseeff (2010) suggests that parents use instances of sibling rivalry to
help children learn conflict resolution skills.
The author's children, who are the example in the article, are three boys, aged 8 years, 6
1/2 years, and 20 months. The focus is on the two older boys, and it illustrates aspects of two of a
child's primary relationships in middle childhood: the sibling relationship and the parent-child
relationship. Moiseeff (2010) writes that she sees "a lot of friendship ... but I don't see a lot of
competition" (paras. 2-4) among her sons. She attributes the friendship between her two older
boys to their close ages, as well as to her own efforts to defuse problems that arise between the
boys. She writes that "sibling rivalry ... is a battle for position ... between siblings" (Moiseeff,
2010, para. 7). This parallels the statement by Papalia, Olds, and Feldman (2008) that "[s]iblings
influence each other ... through their own interactions, but also indirectly through their impact on
each other's relationship with the parents" (p. 397). When the siblings know that each has a
strong, affectionate relationship with the parents, then they do not need to compete for position.
In regard to the parent-child relationship, James Windell (2010) writes: "Parents need to
mediate ... conflicts so they get resolved in ways that represent compromises and resolution"
(Cited in Moiseeff, 2010, para. 15). With children in middle childhood, parents need to guide
sibling interactions to avoid rivalry to help the children "to be relatively free from negative
emotion, and to cope with problems constructively" (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 386).
This publication has a paper edition that is local to the Metro Detroit area, where I live,
and I read it each month for its articles about issues in child development. Almost every article in
each issue relates in some way to the topics that we have studied in the past five weeks.
References:
Moiseeff, D. (2010). Sibling rivalry and school-aged kids: Individual attention and quick conflict
resolution are key to eliminating issues. Metro Parent [Electronic version]. Retrieved
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February 24, 2011, from http://www.metroparent.com/Metro-Parent/December-
2010/Sibling-Rivalry-and-School-Aged-Kids/
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: infancy through
adolescence (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Developmental Theories February 28, 2011
Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Erik Erikson each had a different view of child
development, but their views had marked similarities among them. In order to truly understand
the cognitive and psychosocial development of children, it is appropriate to create a synthesis of
the three theories.
Jean Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory states that the “cognitive perspective focuses on
thought processes and the behavior that reflects those processes” (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008, p.
33). Approaching child development from a different direction, Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural
theory asserts that “complex forms of thinking have their origins in social interactions rather than
in the child’s private explorations” (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 40). Approaching child development
from the psychoanalytical perspective, as opposed to the cognitive perspective of Piaget and
Vygotsky, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory states that development continues
throughout the entire life span, and that it occurs in eight stages. This theory states that
“development result[s] from the interaction between internal drives and cultural demands” (Boyd
& Bee, 2006, p. 26).
Jean Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory emphasizes mental processes. He tells us that
“cognitive development begins with an inborn ability to adapt to the environment” (Papalia, et. al.,
2008, p. 33). He determined that cognitive development occurs in four qualitatively different
stages during childhood: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational
stage, and the formal operational stage. The sensorimotor stage is found in infancy, when a child
“understands the world through … senses and … motor actions” (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 35). The
preoperational stage is normally the pre-school and kindergarten stage. At this stage, a child
“use[s] symbols both to think and to communicate” (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 35). Preoperational
children engage in pretend play, and they sort the objects and people in their lives into categories.
The concrete operational stage normally includes children aged 7 to 11 years. This stage is
marked by the “development of new internal operations, … but is still tied to the known world”
(Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 35). Children at this stage have improved skills in categorization and
mathematics, and they are able to understand conservation and inductive reasoning. The formal
operational stage encompasses adolescence and the teen years. A child in this stage “begins to
manipulate ideas as well as objects; … [and] thinks hypothetically” (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 35).
Children at this stage are able to employ deductive reasoning.
Along with the four stages of cognitive development, Piaget identifies three interrelated
processes that influence cognitive growth. Organization is the “tendency to create increasingly
complex cognitive structures” (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 34). Adaptation is “how children handle
new information in light of what they already know” (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 34). Equilibrium is
“organizing new mental patterns that integrate the new experience” (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 34).
Organization, adaptation, and equilibrium occur with each new experience in each of Piaget’s four
stages.
Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes the social and cultural processes that
guide children’s cognitive development. He sees “cognitive growth as a collaborative process”
(Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 34). Vygotsky believes that children learn through social interaction, not
210 A Journey Through My College Papers
just on their own, and that “adults or more advanced peers must help direct and organize a child’s
learning before the child can master and internalize it” (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 35). Vygotsky
identified zones of proximal development (ZPD), which are defined as “the gap between what
[children] are already able to do and what they are not quite ready to do by themselves” (Papalia,
et. al., 2008, p.35). The ZPDs have been associated with the concept of scaffolding, which is “the
temporary support that parents, teachers, or others give a child in doing a task until the child can
do it alone” (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 35). It is key that the support remain temporary, so that the
child can stand on his or her own developmentally once the task is mastered, just as a building
stands on its own once its physical scaffolding has been removed.
Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory emphasizes the influence of society on
developing personality. Erikson asserts that “to achieve a healthy personality, an individual must
successfully resolve a crisis at each of the eight stages of development” (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p.
26). Erikson believes that psychosocial development continues throughout a person’s life, and
that the life span is divided into eight distinct developmental stages. Each of these stages is
marked by a crisis between a positive trait and a negative trait, and by a virtue that is attained
when the crisis has been resolved. The first crisis is between trust and mistrust, and its associated
virtue is hope. The second crisis is between autonomy and shame and doubt, resulting in the
virtue of will. Purpose is the virtue that results from the crisis between initiative and guilt.
Successful resolution of the crisis of industry and inferiority results in the virtue of competence.
The fifth crisis, between identity and role confusion, results in the virtue of fidelity. Resolving the
sixth crisis, between intimacy and isolation, results in the virtue of love. The virtue of care is
associated with the crisis of generativity and stagnation, while wisdom is associated with resolving
the final crisis between integrity and despair. (Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 30).
To achieve a synthesis of the developmental theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson, it
is necessary to examine the shared points of similarity among the three theories. One marked
similarity is that each of the three theories defines cognitive and psychosocial development as
occurring in stages or on rungs. Whether the parts of development are called stages or rungs, they
are all progressive steps by which learning and development advance. Each step, regardless of the
theory, builds on the steps before it. Piaget’s formal operations builds on concrete operations,
which builds on preoperations, which builds on sensorimotor experience. Each of Vygotsky’s
zones of proximal development builds on the development that the child has already achieved.
Each of Erikson’s eight psychosocial stages builds on the successes of the crises that have come
before it.
A second similarity among the three theories is that, in each case, children develop as
they learn, and they also learn as they develop. In other words, cognitive learning contributes to
psychosocial development. At the same time, as a child achieves psychosocial development, he or
she is able to achieve more cognitive learning. This also means that delays in cognitive learning
can impede psychosocial development, and that delays in psychosocial development can retard
cognitive learning.
While Piaget believes that children will develop cognitive skills on schedule, without
outside social input, Vygotsky’s and Erikson’s theories are similar to each other in that each of
their theories requires social interaction to promote cognitive and psychosocial development.
Vygotsky’s zones of proximal development require that the child have the support of adults and of
older children to help him or her to master each new skill. Children “learn through social
interaction. They acquire cognitive skills as part of their introduction into a way of life” (Papalia,
et. al., 2008, p. 34). According to Vygotsky’s theory, a child who is without a social support
system lacks necessary tools for cognitive and psychosocial development. Similarly, Erikson’s
eight stages, with their crises, require social interaction. Each crisis involves the relationship of
the child to his or her society, and each virtue gained by the successful resolution of a crisis is a
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tool to help the child to succeed in society.
It is also necessary to consider the differences among the three theories when creating a
synthesis of the theories. Understanding the differences allows us to reconcile the three theories as
we seek to understand the cognitive and psychosocial development of children. One of the chief
differences among the three theories is the differing foci of the theories. Piaget’s cognitive-stage
theory concentrates on the mental aspect of cognitive development. Social development is
noticeably absent from Piaget’s theory. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory concentrates on the
cultural aspects of cognitive and psychosocial development. The way of life in which a child is
raised is central to how the child will develop, according to Vygotsky’s theory. Erikson’s
psychosocial development theory concentrates on the societal aspect of psychosocial development.
Cognitive development is subordinated to social development in Erikson’s theory, as the child
faces social crises and attains personal strengths in the form of virtues.
A second difference among the theories is between the cognitive approach that is favored
by Piaget and Vygotsky, and the psychoanalytic approach that is favored by Erikson. The
cognitive perspective “focuses on thought processes and the behavior that reflects those processes”
(Papalia, et. al., 2008, p. 33). The psychoanalytic perspective, on the other hand, “views
development as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behavior” (Papalia, et. al.,
2088, p. 27). The cognitive approach deals with thought, while the psychoanalytic approach deals
with the unconscious.
A third difference among the three theories is in how each theory organizes the stages of
a child’s development, and in what is considered to be important to a child’s development
according to each theory. Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory expects that children will achieve
definite development at specific ages. He gives four stages, neither more nor fewer, in which
children develop. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory does not give definite ages for specific stages
of development. Instead, it offers zones of proximal development, which may be close together
for a child who is developing rapidly, or which may be farther apart for a child who is developing
slowly or who has reached a temporary developmental plateau. Erikson’s psychosocial
development theory gives a series of age-related stages at which the developing child must resolve
crises between a positive social aspect of his or her personality and a negative social aspect of his
or her personality, in order to define and develop his or her personality.
Cognitive development, physical development, and emotional development interact in the
overall development of a child. Both a child’s heredity and a child’s environment impact all three
types of development. A child may develop more rapidly in one aspect of development, such as
cognitive, while developing more slowly in other aspects, such as physical and emotional.
Society has archetypes for two of the three imbalances of development. The stereotyped nerd is
more developed cognitively and less developed physically and emotionally. The stereotyped thug
is more developed physically and less developed cognitively and emotionally. The third
imbalance is more developed emotionally and less developed cognitively and physically, and it is
uncommon enough that it does not have an archetype in society. In any event, developmental
imbalance is not desirable. In order for a child to grow into a healthy, successful adult, it is
necessary for the child to experience appropriate growth in cognitive development, in physical
development, and in emotional development. A child who is not well-developed either
cognitively or physically is likely to face self-esteem issues that will negatively impact his or her
emotional development. A child who is not well-developed either physically or emotionally may
be prevented from developing cognitively. Good physical health, good emotional health and
support, and good cognitive stimuli and support work together to produce a healthy, well-balanced
adult.
Understanding normal child and adolescent development is important in assisting
children to reach their potential because it allows parents, teachers, care givers, and other adults in
212 A Journey Through My College Papers
a child’s environment to support and promote a child’s development. Also, it allows adults to
recognize when a child exhibits abnormal development, and to provide appropriate supports and
interventions to assist the child to achieve his or her potential. While some abnormal development
might mean that a child’s development is retarded in some way, other cases of abnormal
development might involve a child developing with extraordinary rapidity in one area or another.
It is necessary to encourage and to support children who are developing normally, so that their
development will continue without interruption. It is also necessary to encourage and to support
children who are developing abnormally. In some cases, medical or psychiatric intervention may
be required to correct physical or chemical anomalies that are interfering with normal
development. In other cases, special educational arrangements may be required to help the child
who is markedly behind his or her peers, or the child who is significantly ahead of his or her peers.
Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Erik Erikson each had a different approach to child
development, but their similarities allow us to synthesize their approaches when working with
children. We are able to draw from each of the three theories to aid our understanding of child
development, and to provide the best developmental environment for children. All three theories
are based on stages, or steps, of development. All three theories link child development with
learning. Erikson and Vygotsky agree that child development requires social interaction. Piaget
and Vygotsky approach development from a cognitive perspective, while Erikson approaches
development from a psychoanalytic perspective. Piaget concentrates on the mental aspects of
development, Vygotsky concentrates on the cultural aspects of development, and Erikson
concentrates on the societal aspects of development. Piaget identifies definite development at
definite ages, while Vygotsky identifies zones of proximal development, and Erikson associates
the resolution of crises with the acquisition of virtues. It is important to understand normal child
development so that we are able to help each child to reach his or her potential.
By fitting Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development into Piaget’s four stages of
cognitive development, and by allowing Vygotsky’s zones of proximal development to bridge the
gaps as children move from what they can do to what they will soon be able to do, we are able to
achieve a synthesis of developmental theories. This synthesis allows us to truly understand the
cognitive and psychosocial development of children.
References
Boyd, D., and Bee, H. (2006). Adult development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Papalia, D. E., Olds, W.S., Feldman, D.R. (2008). A child’s world: Infancy through adolescence
(11th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
PSY 370: Learning & the Brain
Fundamentals of Brain-based Learning 3/3/2011
A student's brain learns in order to survive. A student is more likely to learn better in an
environment which encourages student engagement, group physical activities, and creativity. A
student can memorize facts in stressful situations, such as the "Survival of the Fittest" (Jensen,
2008, p. 5) model, in which students must succeed or fail. "Memorization of isolated facts can be
accomplished under high-stress conditions, but higher-order and creative thinking may be lost"
(Weiss, 2000, p. 29). Students learn more effectively in more relaxed settings, where they are able
to reflect on what they are learning, "so that desired behavior emerges as a natural consequence"
(Jensen, 2008, p. 6).
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Learning happens when sensory input is processed in the thalamus, sorted, routed to the
relevant lobes of the brain, then stored in the cortex of the brain. "The original processing takes
place at lightning speeds, but the subsequent stages and storage process can take hours, days, and
even weeks" (Jensen, 2008, p. 10). Each bit of information is sorted, first in the short-term
memory of the frontal lobe, then in the hippocampus. Irrelevant and unimportant details, as
determined by the frontal lobe, usually do not make it past the frontal lobe. The information that
is retained is sorted, and it is also linked by association with other information in an amazing and
ever-growing matrix. As long as the brain is stimulated, the connections formed by axons and
dendrites continue to grow, but "with impoverishment, you lose them" (Weiss, 2000, p. 28).
The student's brain learns "optimally in the most conducive environment" (Jensen, 2008,
p. 6). The most conducive environment can vary from student to student, so teachers need to be
creative in designing learning environments that provide enough stimuli to promote learning,
while at the same time providing a calm, safe environment to allow students to process and
analyze the material they have learned.
References
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Weiss, R.P. (2000). Brain-based learning: The wave of the brain [Electronic version].
Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://fleen.psych.udel.edu/articles/AEP04.2.6.PDF
Brain Dominance 3/3/2011
The paradox of left-brain processes is that, even though the left hemisphere of the brain is
usually associated with logic, and with analytical thought processes, creativity is also present in
the left hemisphere of the brain. Musicians, in particular, "process music to a greater degree in the
left hemisphere" (Jensen, 2008, p. 21). This is because music is a mathematical construct that uses
logical, sequential thought. Using music to help teach math encourages the involvement of both
hemispheres of the brain, and improves learning. Emotions, which are usually associated with the
right hemisphere, are also associated with the left hemisphere, and "the left hemisphere functions
to regulate the intensity of the emotional reaction" (Jensen, 2008, p. 21). Emotional upset can
negatively impact student learning, so educators should be aware of the impact of emotions on
both hemispheres of the brain, and should facilitate discussions that help students to express and
process emotions to free the students for more effective learning.
The paradox of right-brain processes is that, even though the right hemisphere of the
brain is usually associated with creativity and art, while the left brain is associated with language,
right-brain processes are critical to the proper understanding of language. Language arts
instructors should keep in mind that "the right hemisphere processes the inflection, tonality,
tempo, and volume of the communication" (Jensen, 2008, p. 20). Artists, who are unquestionably
creative, "must consider very specific ... rules of proportionality, color, balance, and order"
(Jensen, 2008, p. 22), which occurs in the right hemisphere through intuitional logic. Art teachers
should remember that right-brain logic is not the same as left-brain logic, as it is more random
than left-brain logic. Science teachers dealing with artistically-inclined students should remember
that the students are as capable of advanced logic as left-brain-dominant students, but that their
thought process are less likely to be sequential than the thought processes of left-brain-dominant
students.
In regard to student learning, it is important to remember that each student uses both
hemispheres of his or her brain, regardless of seeming to favor one hemisphere or the other.
214 A Journey Through My College Papers
"[T]he right hemisphere seems to deal with a general sense of space, while the left hemisphere
deals with objects in specific locations" (Brain Mythology, 2011, para. 11). A left-brain-dominant
learner will prefer a structured learning environment with sequential learning. A right-brain-
dominant learner will prefer a more open-ended learning environment with spontaneous, random
learning experiences. Left-brain-dominant learners tend to prefer working from individual parts to
whole concepts, while right-brain-dominant learners tend to prefer starting with the whole picture
and working down to the parts. "Further, the female brain processes both language and feelings at
the same time far more efficiently than the male brain does" (Jensen, 2008, p. 20). It is important
for educators to present both broad overviews and specific directions in the classroom, in order to
fully engage the brains of all of the students.
References
Brain Mythology. (2011). Retrieved March 3, 2011, from
http://www.positscience.com/human-brain/facts-myths/brain-mythology
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Physiological Effects on Learning 3/10/2011
There are a number of functional differences between the genders that influence learners.
Some of these include:
Female hearing is more attuned to differences in sound quality and nuance than male
hearing.
Females are more likely than males to have greater range of vocal tone and "greater vocal
clarity" (Jensen, 2008, p. 35).
Females have faster and more accurate verbal memory than males, as well as better visual
memory.
Females are better able than males to interpret "facial clues and context" (Jensen, 2008, p.
35).
Females have a more "sensitive sense of touch" (Jensen, 2008, p. 35) than males, and
females can handle pain for longer periods than can males.
Females tend to have better fine motor ability than males.
Females are more sensitive to odors and aromas than are males.
"Males have better distance vision and depth perception" (Jensen, 2008, p. 35) than have
females, and males' vision is better in bright light.
Males are more reactive than females to changes in temperature.
Males tend to be better than females in regard to mathematics and to "manipulating
spatial relationships" (Sabbatini, 1997, para. 14).
Males tend to have a stronger "perception of time and speed" (Sabbatini, 1997, para. 14)
than have females.
As a teacher, I might meet the gender-specific needs of learners by providing some periods of
bright light in the classroom and some periods of lower light. Alternatively, I might have different
light levels in different parts of the classroom. This would allow boys, who see better in bright
light, and girls, who see better in lower light, to have equal opportunity to optimize their visual
capabilities.
Another way I might meet the gender-specific needs of learners would be to provide both
visual and tactile aids, along with written and auditory instructions. This would allow girls, who
have better visual memory, and boys, who have better spatial and tactile memory, to relate to the
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lesson. It would also give boys, who tend to do better with written language, and girls, who do
better with auditory cues in "voice, music, and other sounds" (Jensen, 2008, p. 35), to understand
and to remember instructions.
In math and science, which tend to be easier for boys than for girls because "a brain region in
the cortex, called the inferior-parietal lobule (IPL) ... is significantly larger in men than in women
... [and] IPL's size correlates highly with mental mathematical abilities" (Sabbatini, 1997, paras.
11-12), I would try to provide auditory and olfactory connections, as well as verbal and visual
aids, to help girls to keep up with boys.
In language arts, which boys usually master "one to two years later than girls do" (Jensen,
2008, p. 36), I would provide reading topics that appeal to socio-culturally influenced gender
differences as far as topics, in order to make the material relevant to the students, and to help hold
the students' attention. I have seen the importance of this in my sons' elementary school classes,
where stories and articles about sports, adventure, and science have held the attention of the boys;
while stories and articles about animals, family life, and history have held the attention of the girls.
In general, I would try to keep in mind the results of a study at Michigan State University in
2007, which showed that "[f]emales preferred unimodal learning, whereas males preferred
multimodal learning" (Wehrwein, Lujan, DiCarlo, 2007, para. 11). With girls preferring to have
information presented in only one way -- predominantly kinesthetic, followed by read-write, then
by visual, according to the study (Wehrwein, et. al., 2007, para. 13) -- I would try to offer
unimodal lessons, recognizing that the read-write mode would, of necessity, be the most
commonly used mode in the classroom. To accommodate boys' preference for multimodal
learning, I would try to offer lesson enrichment options that would involve all four learning
modes: visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic.
References:
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Sabbatini, R.M.E. (1997). Are there differences between the brains of males and females?
Retrieved March 10, 2011, from
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n11/mente/eisntein/cerebro-homens.html
Wehrwein, E.A., Lujan, H.L., DiCarlo, S.E. (2007). Dender differences in learning style
preferences among undergraduate physiology students. Advances in Physiology
Education, 31(2), 153-157. Retrieved March 10, 2011, from
http://advan.physiology.org/content/31/2/153.full
Physical Movement and the Brain 3/10/2011 7:14:20 PM
Six points that I would include in a presentation on the importance of physical education and
the brain are:
1. Exercise "enhances circulation so that individual neurons can get more oxygen and
nutrients" (Jensen, 2008, p. 38).
2. Exercise, especially "sports and games that require high coordination skills, as well as
cognitive action to guide strategy during play" (Berg, 2010, para. 9), promotes the
"production of nerve growth factor" (Jensen, 2008, p. 38) that improves the functioning
of the brain.
3. Repetitive motion associated with exercise, especially gross motor activity, "can
stimulate the production of dopamine" (Jensen, 2008, p. 38) in the brain. This is a
chemical that contributes to improved mood.
216 A Journey Through My College Papers
4. Exercise promotes the growth of new brain cells, "including the production of new
neurons and increased intersynaptic connections" (Berg, 2010, para. 1).
5. Aerobic exercise "trigger[s] a fast adrenaline-noradrenaline response" (Jensen, 2008, p.
38), which improves thinking and improves the ability to handle challenges.
6. Exercise "uses 100 percent of the brain" (Jensen, 2008, p. 39), which is a claim no other
cognitive activity can make.
It is interesting to note that "students' fitness was more strongly associated with math
achievement than with English achievement" (Davenport, 2010, para. 4).
Many schools in the United States "are reducing physical activity time at schools because of
time constraints and pressures related to the federal No Child Left Behind Act" (Jensen, 2008, p.
37). While it is not mentioned in the literature that I used for this discussion, it is a commonly
known fact that this decision is often based on budgetary constraints, as well as the need many
teachers experience to "teach to the test." In Detroit, which is close to where I live, many classes
that are not directly related to NCLB -- and, hence, to government funding -- are being eliminated.
Physical education, art, and music are usually the first things to be cut. Kris Berg (2010) states
that "reductions in the time allocated for physical education in schools imply a continuation of the
traditional Western schism of mind and body" (para. 2). While it is possible that there is such an
ideological component to the reduction of physical education instruction in the United States, it
does not seem to be a compelling enough explanation for why "an astonishingly low 36 percent of
K-12 students in the United States participate in a daily physical education program" (Jensen,
2008, p. 39). It is more likely that financial considerations cause teachers to push standardized
testing, which causes the elimination of what is seen as an extraneous class.
References:
Berg, K. (2010). Justifying physical education based on neuroscience evidence. Journal of
Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 81(3), 21-29, 46. Retrieved March 10,
2011, from ProQuest database.
Davenport, M. (2010). The relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement.
Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 81(6), 12. Retrieved March 10,
2011, from ProQuest database.
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Brain-based Learning Strategies Benefit Students March 14, 2011
Incorporating brain-based learning strategies in the curriculum, including physical
activity in the classroom, will help improve students’ learning. In order to maximize students’
ability to learn, and to improve test scores, educators need to break the accepted mold of keeping
students in their seats for hours on end. Educators need to use physical activity to stimulate brain
function, to help students to focus and to remember, and to improve students’ ability to face
challenges as eustress instead of as distress.
Physical education and physical activity in academic classrooms have a pronounced
positive effect on students’ learning. In a 2005 study at Naperville Central High School, in
Naperville, IL, “students who took PE prior to class showed one and a quarter year’s growth on
the standardized reading test after just one semester, while the exercise-free students gained just
nine-tenths of a year” (Richardson, 2009, para. 14). In the same study, “exercising students
increased their math test scores by 20.4 percent, while the rest gained 3.9 percent” (Richardson,
2009, para. 15). Michael Davenport (2010) reports that a 2009 study in the Cambridge Public
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School Department, in Cambridge, MA, found that “students’ fitness was more strongly associated
with math achievement than with English achievement” (para. 4). These results strongly suggest
that exercise improves students’ ability to excel at the standardized tests that have become the
measure of success for students and for their schools, and that help to determine how much federal
funding schools receive.
Physical activity does not have to be protracted or profound in order to have a positive
impact on learning. In the classroom, even such subtle activities as using “modeling clay or
playdough is an especially good way for children to grow new connections [in the brain]” (Renew
– Exercise, 2004, para. 41). Growing new connections in the brain means “the production of new
neurons and increased intersynaptic connections” (Berg, 2010, para. 2), which allows learning to
occur. “In humans, three weeks of repetitive finger-movement training appears to enlarge the
primary cortex” (Berg, 2010, para. 10). The cortex houses almost three-quarters of the human
nervous system, with a great deal of its area not assigned a specific function, “which gives humans
extraordinary flexibility and capacity for learning” (Jensen, 2008, p. 11). Enlarging the primary
cortex through physical activity expands the ability of students to learn. According to Juliet Boyd
(n.d.) of the Seattle, WA, YMCA, “the health benefits of exercise can be achieved in 30 minutes
per day, even when done in blocks of 10 minutes at a time” (para. 2).
Even in a busy classroom that is focused on meeting the requirements of the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB), there are opportunities to include physical activities in the curriculum.
Such simple activities as having children march once around the classroom between learning
blocks can increase circulation to the brain, which helps the students to focus on the next learning
block, while also helping them retain in their long-term memories what they have just learned.
The gross motor activity of marching around the classroom “can stimulate the production of
dopamine” (Jensen, 2008, p. 38), which can improve students’ moods and make them more
receptive to learning.
Along with increased physical activity in the academic classrooms, students benefit from
daily physical education. At present, “Illinois is the only state that requires daily PE for all
grades” (Richardson, 2009, para. 18). Physical education gives students the opportunity for
aerobic exercise, which “trigger[s] a fast adrenaline-noradrenaline response” (Jensen, 2008, p. 38)
that improves cognition and improves students’ ability to handle challenges in a positive way.
Physical education also introduces students to “sports and games that require high coordination
skills, as well as cognitive action to guide strategy during play” (Berg, 2010, para. 9). These more
complex physical activities often involve bilateral movements that stimulate both hemispheres of
the brain, and they promote the “production of nerve growth factor” (Jensen, 2008, p. 38), to
improve brain function.
It is important when considering the inclusion of brain-based learning strategies in the
curriculum to consider what happens to the brain in distress. Distress is the “negative form of
stress … [that] occurs when we feel threatened by some physical or emotional danger,
intimidation, embarrassment, loss of prestige, fear of rejection or failure, unrealistic time
constraints, or a perceived lack of choice” (Jensen, 2008, p. 43). Brain-based learning is not only
about including physical activity in the classroom; it is also about helping children to reduce
distress in order to promote brain health and improved learning. When the brain is in distress –
whether from stimuli at school, at home, or in other aspects of the student’s life – the brain
becomes unable to “correctly interpret subtle clues from the environment” (Jensen, 2008, p. 43), to
store and to retrieve information correctly, to recognize patterns and relationships, and to hold
information in long-term memory. It also becomes “more automatic and limited in its responses”
(Jensen, 2008, p. 44), overreacts to situations, and reverts to older and more familiar ways of
doing things. The brain in distress “is less able to use higher-order thinking skills” (Jensen, 2008,
p. 44). For students, this means a reduction in the ability to learn and to succeed in school. A
218 A Journey Through My College Papers
student in distress experiences an impaired immune system, and “more test stress means more
illness and missed classes, which eventually means lower test scores, and the cycle of failure
repeats” (Jensen, 2008, p. 44).
As educators, we are responsible for helping students to learn. This means not only
teaching our students, but also providing them with an environment for learning that reduces
distress. To this end, educators need to adopt classroom rules and behaviors that reduce students’
experiences of embarrassment and humiliation. Students need enriched learning environments
with plenty of support from educators, from other responsible adults, and from their peers.
Educators need to be sensitive to signs of students’ distress, and they need to help students to
overcome their fears and insecurities in the classroom.
Increasing students’ physical activities in the classroom and through formal physical
education classes helps to make students brains stronger for better learning. Decreasing students’
mental and emotional distress in the classroom through enriched learning environments and strong
support systems helps to keep students’ brains stronger for better learning. Incorporating these
brain-based learning strategies in the curriculum, and continuing to be aware of the brain-based
needs of students, will help improve students’ learning. Improving students’ learning will
improve students’ performance on standardized tests that are required for NCLB. Improved
performance on standardized tests will benefit the school. Thus, brain-based learning strategies
should be incorporated in the classroom in the best interests of the school and of its students.
References
Berg, K. (2010). Justifying physical education based on neuroscience evidence. Journal of
Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 81(3), 21-29, 46. Retrieved March 10, 2011,
from ProQuest database.
Boyd, J. (n.d.). Exercise benefits the brain. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from
http://www.seattleymca.org/files/25/Exercise%20benefits%20the%20brain%20-
%20City%20of%20Seattle.pdf
Davenport, M. (2010). The relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement.
Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 81(6), 12. Retrieved March 10,
2011, from ProQuest database.
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Renew – Exercise. (2004). Retrieved March 7, 2011, from
http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html
Richardson, V. (2009). A fit body means a fit mind: Along with physical strength, a little exercise
helps kids build brainpower. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from
http://www.edutopia.org/exercise-fitness-brain-benefits-learning
Memory Strategies 3/17/2011
To teach students when to use a comma, I would help the students to develop cues for
when a comma is needed by having them read or write aloud and pay attention to their breathing.
As the student speaks aloud what is to be written, he or she can hear and feel a short pause for
breath. Generally, that is where a comma belongs. This works for lists, for the commas that
appear in a written address, and at most other times when a comma is used. The pause for a breath
becomes the student's cue, and "recalling the cue ... will help the student recall [when to use a
comma]" (Thorne, 2006, para. 12). Eventually, the student will only have to speak under his or
breath, and will finally be able to find the pauses in the silent thinking of the thing to be written. I
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know that this method is effective, because I used it with GED and adult remedial students when I
was tutoring at Olney Central College two years ago. Students were able to correctly place
commas in their writing, and when editing unpunctuated passages, by paying attention to the cue
of pausing briefly to take a breath. I have also used this method to teach my sons the correct use
of commas.
To help students recall the parts of a cell, I would engage multiple memory pathways by
having the students build and label model cells. This would produce episodic memories for the
students, as they would recall the shapes and colors of the parts of their models during a test.
Also, I would use The Cell Song by Robin Walling (2011), or The Animal Cell and The Plant Cell,
both by Heather Carter (2011), and have the children sing the song while pointing to the parts on a
picture or poster as the parts come up in the song. Carter (2011) provides colorful cross-sections
of an animal cell and of a plant cell, which could be used with an overhead projector. This method
uses "storytelling, visualization, and metaphors ... [and] new learning on a ... poster" (Jensen,
2008, p. 167).
To help children remember the chronological order of satellites that have been launched
into space, I would have the class create an amusing acrostic of the names of the satellites in order.
This method was effective for me when I was in school. I will never forget "My very educated
mother just served us nine pizza-pies." This triggers the memory of a list: Mercury, Venus, Earth,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. With modern developments in science, the
version that I am teaching my sons ends: "just served us nuts," since Pluto is no longer a planet.
The same method is used by music teachers to remember which musical notes are on the lines of a
staff, and which are in the spaces. "Every good boy deserves fudge" identifies the notes on the
lines: E, G, B, D, F. "Face" identifies the notes in the spaces: F, A, C, E. Of course, we all also
remember "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally," which helps students to remember the order of
operations in math. This is a very powerful mnemonic device, and it would be rendered even
more memorable by having the students select the words or phrases to complete the acrostic. The
students would have an episodic memory from the creation of the mnemonic, as well as the
mnemonic itself.
To help children remember the names of the first three presidents of the United States, I
would look on the Internet to find a song. (I found half a dozen or more while writing this.) I
have run across several songs that list the presidents, in the course of educating my sons. While
singing the song, I would show the students pictures of the presidents. Really, this method could
help the students learn all of the presidents, from Washington to Obama and beyond, if desired.
Alternatively, I would also use an acrostic of the presidents' last names, having the students create
phrases to help them remember the presidents in order. When I was in eighth grade, we had to
learn all of the presidents up to that point, and the only method of memorization that was offered
was frequent repetition. That was a painful and frustrating method, and I remembered the list only
long enough to complete the unit test. Combining music with pictures, along with repetition,
could secure the names of the presidents in long-term memory.
References:
Carter, H. (2011). The animal cell. Retrieved March 17, 2011, from
http://teamcarterlces.com/cell_song.htm
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Thorne, G. (2006). 10 strategies to enhance students' memory. Retrieved March 17, 2011,
from http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/memory_strategies_May06.php
Walling, R. (2011). The cell song: Teaching cellular components and their functions.
Retrieved March 17, 2011, from
http://www.songsforteaching.com/scienceinsong/cells.htm
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In the Classroom 3/17/2011
To teach a class of 5th graders the historical significance of the Civil War, I would do
several things, listed here in no particular order. First, of course, would be to assign the textbook
reading, but that would involve very little of the three factors of relevance, emotions, and context.
I am aware that there are numerous Civil War reenactment events where I live in south-
east Michigan, that are open to the public. When we lived in North Carolina, and later in Virginia,
there were even more events available. I would schedule a field trip to take my students to one of
those events, where the students could see, hear, and talk to men, women, and children portraying
participants in the Civil War. Seeing this could help put the war into context for the children, and
could engage their emotions for the lifestyle of soldiers and civilians during this period. Hearing
that units from their own towns fought in the war could make the war more relevant for the
students.
If the school did not allow field trips, as is the case sometimes, I would take advantage of
certain personal resources at my disposal and invite a reenactment group in to do a demonstration
in the classroom. The group to which my in-laws belong does educational presentations in school
by invitation. I realize that this would not be an option if we lived elsewhere.
In order to increase the relevance of the Civil War for students, I would assign a family
tree project that would focus on identifying ancestors and other family members who served in the
Civil War or who were freed from slavery as a result of the war. For children whose families were
not in America at the time of the Civil War, I would offer the option of researching a person who
is known to have been in the war. Many children might find that they had relatives on both sides
of the war. I would ask the students to write reports or to make posters to tell about their Civil
War participants. This project would be likely to raise a lot of emotions in the students, including
pride and anger, and I would encourage the students to discuss their feelings in a classroom forum.
I would assign the reading of Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt (1964). I read this book
as an assignment when I was in fifth grade, and it provided a look at the social context of the war.
I would ask students to produce book reports that emphasize the context of the Civil War. In fact,
I bought a copy of this book several weeks ago for my sons to read.
I would attempt to connect the Civil War to current conflicts in Europe, Africa, and the
Middle East to help the students find relevance in the Civil War. I would ask the students to find
news articles and pictures of current or recent wars, and then have the students discuss the
similarities and the differences between the modern wars and the Civil War. I expect that this
would also form emotional and contextual connections for the students.
I would have the students draw maps of Civil-War-era America, labeling the states, and
have them color the maps to show Union states and Confederate states. This would help establish
the context of the war through the geographical borders of the two sides.
Incorporating math with social studies, I would have the students research the cost of
various goods during the Civil War, and compare those costs to present-day prices. This would
involve all three factors, as there is little in this world that makes things seem real to people than
attaching price tags to it.
I would ask the children to perform skits about the Civil War, portraying Union soldiers,
Confederate soldiers, civilians on each side, and slaves, without intentionally typecasting anyone,
and rotating roles from skit to skit. I would include scenes from just before the war, from during
the war, and following famous battles of the war. I would ask the students to do some research on
the Internet to see how various characters in the skits would think, feel, talk, and act at various
points of the war. I would include a skit in which brothers or close relatives met on the battlefield
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on opposite sides of the conflict, as well as a skit in which slaves chose to fight for the
Confederacy and one in which slaves escaped to fight for the Union. This role-play would
increase relevance by exposing students to "understanding and valuing the people and lessons of
the past" (Jensen, 2008, p. 180). Trying to recreate the emotions of characters in the skits would
provide an emotional connection.
Last, I would have a discussion in the classroom in which I would ask the students first to
brainstorm the ways in which their lives would be different if the Civil War did not happen, then
to brainstorm the ways they would have been different if the South had won the war, and then to
discuss what good things they believe came out of the Civil War. How their lives might have been
different would provide relevance. How their lives reflect the effects of the Civil War would
provide emotional connections. Discussing what might have been but wasn't would provide
contextual clues.
References:
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Sensory Contributions to Learning 3/24/2011
The sense of sight contributes to brain-based learning because "90 percent of the brain's
sensory input is from visual sources" (Jensen, 2008, p. 56). According to Eric Jensen (2008),
"[t]he essential elements enabling our eyes to compose meaning from our visual field are contrast,
tilt, curvature, line ends, color, and size" (p. 55). In the classroom, having soft lighting helps
students to learn. Fluorescent lighting, which flickers, can invoke a stress response, causing an
increased cortisol level, which impairs students' ability to learn. Using colorful peripherals in the
classroom, such as posters, bulletin boards, models, and displays of students' work, helps to
reinforce memory for the subjects being taught. The brain has an "immediate and primitive
response to symbols, icons, and other simple images" (Jensen, 2008, p.56), so using such symbols
in conjunction with lectures and other teaching will help to fix lessons in students' memories.
In teaching math, I would use bright, contrasting colors to teach such things as fractions.
When I took math for elementary majors in my freshman year, we had math manipulatives to
work with. For each fraction set, we had a circular tray with wedge-shaped pieces that fit inside to
make a whole. There were two red pieces for halves, three orange pieces for thirds, four yellow
pieces for quarters, and so on to eighths, moving through the rainbow to sevenths, and adding aqua
and pink for eighths and a whole, respectively. The bright colors were engaging, and they made it
easy to remember the fractions. The sets used were molded plastic, but students could make their
own sets of colored fractions with computer print-outs on colored card stock to cut out, or by
tracing patterns onto sheets of colored craft foam. Having the children use crayons to use the
same colors when filling in fraction exercises on worksheets would reinforce their memory of the
fractions.
Another use of color to stimulate the sense of sight in the classroom would be to build
sentences on a word wall. Nouns could be red, verbs could be blue, adjectives could be yellow,
and so on, with each standard part of speech getting its own color. The thing to avoid would be
having all of the words in black and white, which does not help with memory. The colored words
could be arranged by students on a magnet board, a flannel/felt board, or with loops of tape on the
back, to form sentences. Individual worksheets could be used on which students would use the
same colors to underline or to trace words in sentences to identify the parts of speech. Again, the
colors would reinforce students' memory of the parts of speech.
222 A Journey Through My College Papers
The sense of touch "is as important as vision for learning and retaining information"
(Cabrera & Colosi, 2010, para. 2). It is clear to see how important touch is to learning if one looks
at an elementary classroom, with its "wooden blocks, math beads, coins, letters made of
sandpaper" (Cabrera & Colosi, 2010, para. 8) and other manipulatives, including the fraction sets
that I already discussed. "Touching and manipulating objects also promotes the symbolic thinking
essential to learning language and mathematics" (Cabrera & Colosi, 2010, para. 10). According to
a study by Charles H. Wolfgang (2001), "children who had played the most with blocks ... had
significantly higher standardized math scores in seventh grade and high school" (Cabrera &
Colosi, 2010, para. 10). A study by Karyn Wellhousen and Rebecca Giles (2006) showed that
"children who frequently played with blocks ... also built larger vocabularies" (Cabrera & Colosi,
2010, para. 15). Taking the two studies together, it is clear that touch contributes to increased
learning.
An article by Sandy Stone and Basanti Chakraborty (2010) offers a series of touch-based
learning activities that involve inexpensive pieces of ribbon. Brightly-colored ribbons incorporate
sight, as well as touch, in the lessons. The ribbon lessons draw on the students' spatial
intelligence, as well as counting and sorting skills. Ribbons are used for math lessons, such as
estimating, by having the students estimate the length of a piece of ribbon, then check the estimate
by measuring the ribbon with a ruler. For language arts, the authors recommend having students
use pieces of ribbon to form letters on the classroom floor. The ribbon lessons are generally
intended for use in preschool and kindergarten classes, but they could also be useful in a special
needs classroom. I know that my sons, one of whom has Asperger's Syndrome, and one of whom
has ADHD, often used pipe cleaners, pieces of yarn, twigs, and even pretzel sticks to help them
learn to form letters when they were younger. They still do, when they feel stressed, and it helps
with learning.
In a classroom, I would use puzzles of maps to help teach geography. I would blow up a
map and cut out large shapes of the states from construction paper or felt. The students could then
fit the shapes together to form the United States. By holding the pieces in their hands, they could
gain a better understanding of how small the New England states are in contrast with the Western
states. They could feel the more irregular borders of the eastern states and the straighter borders of
the western states. Understanding the sizes and shapes of the states can lead to a better
understanding of the history that established those states.
For math, the same fraction sets that I mentioned earlier would appear in my lessons. I
would also use units, rods, flats, and cubes to teach students about numbers and about the decimal
system. I have diagrams in my old math notebook, which I kept, that I would use to show students
how to use the units, rods, flats, and cubes not only to count, add, and subtract, but also to multiply
and divide. Manipulating the pieces would help students to remember the concepts of the lessons.
In addition, I would use prisms, cylinders, pyramids, cones, and spheres in the classroom. I would
bring in -- or have the students bring in -- collections of objects that the students would sort by
type. From a jumbled pile, the students would sort prisms (cereal boxes, books, etc.) onto one
desk; cylinders (cans, cups, etc.) onto a second desk; pyramids (those might take some work to
find) onto a third desk; cones (funnels, ice cream comes, traffic cones, etc.) onto a fourth desk; and
spheres (oranges, balls, etc.) onto a fifth desk. Students could them explain why the items in a
given group were similar, and they could identify the properties of each group. They could also
identify similarities and differences between and among the groups.
References:
Cabrera, D. & Colosi, L. (2010). The world at our fingertips: The connection between touch and
learning. Scientific American [Electronic version]. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-world-at-our-fingertips
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Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Stone, S. & Chakraborty, B. (2010). Classroom idea-sparkers. Childhood Education, 87(2),
E7-E8. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
The Role of Emotion in Learning 3/24/2011
Emotions are important in the learning process because they "bind the learning ... help us
determine what's real ... activate long-term memory ... help us make faster decisions ... [and] help
us make better-quality decisions" (Jensen, 2008, p. 90). Creating positive emotions in the
classroom allows learning to occur, while negative emotions produce a "fight or flight" response
that blocks learning.
Eric Jensen (2008) tells us that from "excitement to calm, from depression to euphoria,
[neurotransmitters and neuropeptides] influence our thinking and behaviors" (p. 83). As emotions
influence thinking, so emotions must influence learning. One example of how emotions
negatively affect learning is when a memory of a past experience causes the amygdala to send a
message that launches a person into a "defensive posture" (Jensen, 2008, p. 87). When this
happens, the brain goes into survival mode and meaningful learning is all but impossible. For this
reason, it is important for teachers to foster a calm, non-threatening, positive emotional
environment in the classroom.
According to Larry Squire (1987, 1992), "emotions are so important that they have their
own memory pathways" (Cited in Jensen, 2008, p. 91). This is a second example of how emotions
are important to learning. If students are emotionally invested in the subject matter, then they will
form stronger, deeper memories of what they are learning.
In teaching geography and history, which are rarely separated in teaching, in the
classroom, I would attempt to get students emotionally involved in the lesson. One strategy I
would use to do this would be to have the students find out what countries their ancestors came
from, then have the students put on a cultural festival. Each student would do a project of one or
more things that represent that student's heritage, including, but not limited to, costumes, art works
and music, models, collages, slide shows, and foods. I would encourage the students to focus on
aspects of their heritage that give them positive emotions, such as pride, sense of belonging, and
joy. Each country represented would be located on a map of the world.
Another strategy I would use to incorporate emotions in teaching history would be to ask
my students to write reflective essays about their emotional responses to the historical events in
each lesson. I would provide them with writing cues to help them start their essays, including:
asking them to imagine that they are characters from the lesson, or from the area where
the events took place;
asking them to imagine that they are archaeologists exploring the area where the events in
the lesson took place; and
asking them to consider how life today might be different if the events in the lesson had
not happened.
If a particular lesson appeared to be producing negative emotions or emotional distress in my
students, I would take time out to hold a discussion forum with the students to let them express
what they are feeling. Some history lessons, by their nature, will evoke negative emotions for
many students, but I would talk with my students about moving past, or controlling, the negative
emotions. I would help them realize that the events of the past do not pose a threat to them in the
safety of the classroom. This is a conversation my husband and I often have with our sons when
224 A Journey Through My College Papers
we watch television programs about the atrocities of the World Wars. Emotional involvement in a
lesson is not useful if it triggers a defense response that shuts down learning.
References:
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Vail, P.L. (n.d.). The role of emotions in learning: An expert explains how emotions affect
your chid's learning, memory, and performance in school. Retrieved March 24, 2011,
from http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/teaching-values/the-role-of-emotions-in-
learning.gs?content=751&page=all
Advantages of Brain-Based Learning Environments April 4, 2011
Brain-compatible learning environments provide significant cognitive advantages for
students, in contrast with traditional learning environments. Students “learn best when they are
immersed into the subject area” (McCarthy, 2010, para. 3), which engages all of the students’
senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, as well as the proprioceptive and vestibular senses.
While the five basic senses are familiar to almost everyone, the last two senses might not be. “The
proprioceptive sense gives us information about where our body parts are and what they are doing.
The vestibular sense gives us information about our position in space and the movement of our
head in relation to gravity” (Stensaas, 2008, para. 2). “It's the snap, crackle and pop of neurons
combined with the senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell that help the human mind form
thoughts” (Smith, 2009, para. 1). Learning environments that serve the five basic senses, and that
incorporate movement, provide the best learning opportunities for students.
“90 percent of the brain’s sensory input is from visual sources” (Jensen, 2008, p. 56). In
education, the sense of sight usually involves movement, lighting, and color in the classroom.
Educators can keep students’ attention by moving about the classroom as they teach. Movement
provides stimuli for the brain, which increase the brain’s ability to learn. “When speaking to a
group, the teacher needs to move around the room, increasing and decreasing distance from the
audience” (Wilmes, Harrington, Kohler-Evans, Sumpter, 2008, para. 6). Students who are
compelled to watch and listen to a teacher who sits or stands still in a given spot while teaching
are likely to become sleepy and inattentive, and they will not retain the lesson.
Lighting is important for a brain-compatible learning environment. In fact, “one of the
most critical physical characteristics of the classroom is lighting” (Ali, Hukamdad, Ghazi, Khan,
2010, para. 3). “[S]oft, full spectrum lighting is optimal for learning” (Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para.
9), while bright or harsh lighting impairs learning. Natural lighting from windows is the best for
learning. Fluorescent lighting, which flickers, can distract students from learning, and can
produce increases in hyperactivity among students. This type of lighting produces a stress
response in the brain, causing an increase in the brain’s level of cortisol, which can “wreak havoc
on the brain” (Jensen, 2008, p. 44). Brain-compatible learning environments provide soft lighting
in the classroom, with areas of brighter lighting and of lower lighting available to students.
Turning off the lights for very brief intervals allows students to reflect on what they have learned,
and allows an opportunity for the brain to move information from short-term memory to long-term
memory.
“Color in the visual environment is particularly important because of its powerful impact
on the brain” (Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para. 7). Color is important in the brain-compatible
classroom because color affects mood, attention, and memory. A dull, colorless classroom, with
white, grey, or brown walls, does not stimulate learning, but a bright, colorful classroom engages
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students’ attention and imagination and promotes learning. For classroom walls, “yellows, beiges,
or egg shell white are the best for creating an optimal learning environment” (Collins, 2011, para.
2.4). Brightly colored peripherals, using bold, simple symbols, reinforce memory for the subjects
that are being taught. Reds and oranges increase alertness, while blues and purples have a calming
effect on students. Color-coding handouts, notes, bulletin boards, and manipulatives helps
students to sort facts and to develop patterns of association that increase the number and
complexity of neural connections in the brain to improve learning and memory. Brain-compatible
learning environments use colorful visual aids in conjunction with lectures, and with other
teaching activities to help fix lessons in students’ memories.
Besides its importance for memory, color is important in the brain-compatible learning
environment because of the impact of color on the emotions of learners, and because of
“relationships between emotions, memory and the brain” (Kaufman, Robinson, Bellah, Akers,
Haase-Wittler, Martindale, 2008, para. 3). Morton Walker (1991) writes that “[r]ed tends to raise
blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration, perspiration, and excites brainwaves … Orange is similar to
red … Blue tends to lower blood pressure and pulse rate … Green is also a fairly calming color …
Yellow … stimulates a sense of well being and optimism” (Cited in Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para. 7).
When the brain reacts to reds and oranges, the amygdale usually triggers a survival response.
When this happens, the brain is unable to engage in learning. Thus, a learning environment with
predominantly red or orange walls, furnishings, or lighting is likely to keep students in a state of
emotional arousal that impedes learning. When the brain reacts to blues, and to greens and purples
that tend toward blue, “[c]ool colors … bring about reverse effects such as muscles relaxing more
and sleep being facilitated” (Ali, et. al., 2010, para. 19). Jennifer Lloyd (2010) writes that
“students who are mentally, [or] emotionally … engaged … might understand the underlying
concept more easily” (para. 3). The emotions associated with yellows are the most conducive to
effective learning.
After sight, hearing is the sense that is most often involved in learning in the classroom.
“It is possible to use … music memory techniques to help students retain more information and
provide them with multiple modes or [sic] information retrieval” (Brewer, 2011, para. 1). Playing
classical music in the classroom while teaching “engages the entire brain … [and] the nerves in the
ear have more extensive brain connections than any other nerves of the body” (Wilmes, et. al.,
2008, para. 12). Learners who listen to music while learning facts will tend to associate those
facts with the music. Hearing the same music at a later time will facilitate retrieving facts from
the learner’s long-term memory. Brain-compatible learning environments avoid distractions from
outside sources, such as street sounds, and the distraction of silence itself, by playing music that is
appropriate to the type of learning that is taking place.
[M]usic can be used in the classroom to accomplish various learning goals including:
creating a relaxing atmosphere, establishing a positive learning style, providing a multi-
sensory learning experience that enhances memory, increasing attention by creating a
short burst of energizing excitement, developing rapport, providing inspiration, and
adding an element of fun. (Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para. 14)
Soft music, such as classical music or New Age music, and recordings of melodic nature sounds,
are played during lectures, independent reading times, reflective periods, and during testing, to
help learners to integrate the learning or to retrieve prior learning. “It can help students
understand and remember lessons better” (Collins, 2011, para. 2.1). More energetic music is
appropriate for group project times and for other kinesthetic activities. Stirring, lively music is
good for celebrations and for physical activity periods. “As teachers, we can increase sensory
input during learning by using music intentionally during memory activities” (Brewer, 2011, para.
2).
Music in the form of song is very common and useful in a brain-compatible learning
226 A Journey Through My College Papers
environment. Nearly everyone – from preschool teachers to marketing executives – knows that
songs make information easy to remember. Children learn to sing the alphabet song almost as
soon as they learn to speak. Children’s television programs, such as Sesame Street, the Wiggles,
and Dora the Explorer, use songs to teach a dizzying number of ideas and lessons. Advertising
jingles flood television, radio, and even cinema previews. Almost any educational topic can be
arranged into a memorable song, as evidenced by the popular 1970s television series, School
House Rock, which is still utilized in America’s classrooms thanks to You Tube. When learners
sing the material that they are learning, more connections are made in the brain to help retrieve the
material at a later date. Songs become deeply embedded in long-term memory, and it often
requires no more than a few notes of the song’s melody for the entire song to flood into conscious
memory. “Words of songs are very easily remembered … and, therefore, are often used as
educational tools” (Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para. 14). This is a huge advantage for educators in
brain-compatible learning environments, as it takes much less time and effort to teach lasting
lessons with songs than with textbook readings and lectures.
The senses of sight and hearing work very well together to make lessons even more
memorable. Using colorful pictures of symbols with songs connects the pictures, words, and
music in the brain, thus creating more and more neural connections. Learners are later able to
recall all three elements – pictures, words, and music – when they encounter any one element.
The strongest recall in such an event happens when the learner encounters the music.
Smell and taste are not actively employed in most classrooms to the same extent as sight
and hearing, and “the senses of smell and taste are often overlooked in the learning process”
(Make Sense, 2001, para. 1). Smell, however – and taste to a lesser extent – is important to
learning because “[i]t is through the sense of smell that we gather messages about the environment
around us … [and] smell plays a powerful role in the way we … recall memories” (Haughey,
2011, para. 1). In a brain-compatible learning environment, the educator makes an effort to
control the aromas to which students are exposed during learning activities. “Pleasant smells can
improve cognitive functioning … [and] one study showed that a combination of floral aromas was
associated with double the speed of learning” (Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para. 22). The sense of smell
is widely recognized as the most powerful sensory trigger for memory, as the slightest whiff of an
aroma will bring back otherwise-forgotten memories. “The use of aromas produces similar effects
as music in the learning environment” (Wilmes, et. al., 2008, para. 19). Teachers are able to use
essential oils and other fragrance-producing items in the classroom to reinforce students’ memory
of the lessons. Scented stickers and pens with scented inks are popular incentive rewards that
have been in American classrooms for at least three decades. Joan Collins (2011) tells teachers to
“[s]timulate your student’s minds with … cinnamon, lemon, peppermint, basil … and rosemary”
(para. 2.2).
It is important that educators avoid having odors in brain-compatible learning
environments that trigger negative responses in students unless a strongly negative memory is
specifically desired for a particular lesson. Odors such as sewage, garbage, vomit, burned hair,
and strong disinfectant many have their places in very specific history lessons, for example, but
they are likely to trigger a stress response in the amygdale and prevent effective learning if they
are not managed very carefully. It is more effective for students to associate learning with the
aromas of flowers, fresh-baked goods, citrus, herbs, spices, and fresh air, than with negative odors.
Taste is greatly neglected in many traditional classrooms, but educators are bringing taste
into the classroom more often in brain-compatible learning environments. Classes often include
samplings of foods from various nations, cultures, or ethnicities. Students at my sons’ school had
the opportunity to sample fresh tamales that were made in the classroom by the mother of a
Hispanic student for Cinco de Mayo two years ago. When they studied the Chinese New Year,
they ate egg rolls and dumplings in the classroom. A recent study of Hawaii concluded with a
Undergraduate Series 227
celebration that featured pineapple and other treats from the South Pacific. Each year, the school
celebrates Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner, and the students celebrate the winter holidays in
their classes with peppermint candy canes before getting out for vacation. Since smell and taste
are closely related, taste has much the same effect as smell on the creation, the reinforcement, and
the retrieval of memories.
The sense of touch “is as important as vision for learning and retaining information”
(Cabrera & Colosi, 2010, para. 2). The sense of touch includes not only haptic activity, but also
spatial intelligence, responses to textures, elevations, and air pressure; and responses to
temperature. For the purposes of this paper, proprioceptive and vestibular senses are also grouped
within the sense of touch. “The sense of touch allows us to make a better connection between
sight and hearing and therefore helps [students] to learn to read” (CNRS, 2008, para. 1). Also
related, to a certain extent, to the sense of touch is the need for teachers to “[k]eep students from
dehydrating … [because] dehydration can impair cognitive performance and affect mood” (Lloyd,
2010, para. 5).
“Kinesthetic refers to knowing through touch or by doing” (Massaro & Wallis, 2004,
para. 3). Many learners favor the kinesthetic modality of learning. In a brain-compatible
classroom, students are immersed in the subject matter. Not only do they learn by reading texts,
listening to lectures, and performing practice drills, but they also learn by handling math
manipulatives, by building models and other projects, by performing skits, and by actually doing
what is being taught through field trips and internships. “A ‘sensory smart’ classroom provides
children with many opportunities for heavy work, movement, and other … activities to improve
their ability to attend and focus” (Stensaas, 2008, para. 4). Deborah Laurel (2011) offers an
example of how profoundly kinesthetic activities can affect learning for some students:
John … didn't participate in the banter, or offer answers to questions, or even ask
questions … He had no affect and no emotion in his face … After the second morning
break, … [i]t finally dawned on me that John was a kinesthetic learner … I found a wide
purple rubber band. I gave John the rubber band and explained that it might help his
ability to learn if he kept his hands busy. I suggested he just play with the rubber band
during the rest of the class … Within a minute, John was animated, joking around,
making constructive suggestions, answering questions, and completely engaged. (paras.
5-8)
Kinesthetic learners need to be physically engaged during learning, even if the physical activity is
not actually related to the learning. Squeezing a bit of clay or putty, or playing with a rubber band,
or any of a vast number of small activities can help a kinesthetic learner get through the inevitable
lecture portions of the classroom experience. Educators in brain-compatible learning
environments provide models and manipulatives along with visual and auditory instruction. The
physical activity secures the visual and auditory components of the lesson in the student’s
memory. “When designing learning environments, teachers should focus on what the children
will be doing, and on what objects and materials they can provide for the children to handle and
observe” (Stone & Chakraborty, 2010, para. 1).
“While many types of obstacles are known to impair learning, heat stress is one of the
most preventable” (Jensen, 2008, p. 60). Students cannot learn effectively if they are too warm or
too cold. A warm classroom without adequate air circulation will lull students to sleep. A hot or
cold classroom will trigger a survival stress response, and students will be unable to learn.
Teachers need to “[c]reate the perfect learning environment by setting the thermostat to the
optimal temperature for the day” (Collins, 2011, para. 2.5). For most students, 70ºF is the best
temperature for effective learning, and teachers in brain-compatible learning environments strive
to maintain this classroom temperature.
The brain-compatible learning environment takes into account not just the basic senses,
228 A Journey Through My College Papers
but also the need for students to move around during the day. Physical exercise promotes the
“production of nerve growth factor” (Jensen, 2008, p. 38) that improves brain function.
Movement is not limited to physical education classes. Students should stretch and walk around
the classroom, at the minimum, every 45 minutes to an hour to improve their alertness.
“Strategies that work movement into the school day boost blood flow to the brain” (Lloyd, 2010,
para. 21). Physical activity can be paired with music to further enhance education.
Brain-based learning and brain-compatible learning environments foster learning more
effectively than most traditional classrooms. In traditional classrooms, students are often faced
with grey or tan walls that do not promote optimal learning. Many traditional classrooms feature
fluorescent lighting or inadequate lighting, either of which is deleterious to effective learning.
Many traditional classrooms include loud fans or other environmental control devices, the noise
from which is distracting for students. Extraneous noise can also keep students from hearing the
lesson clearly. Traditional classrooms often use very little music and few songs in their lessons,
although learning songs are found in some traditional classrooms. Many traditional classrooms,
especially those in older or urban buildings, smell strongly f the disinfectant that is used to clean
them. It is not unusual to smell dirty rest rooms, or to smell Dumpsters and local city odors in
these schools. Negative odors do not permit effective learning. Students in traditional classrooms
often spend hours sitting still at their desks. The only exercise provided in some schools is
walking to and from the cafeteria or to and from the rest room; some schools do not even offer the
movement of a physical education class.
Brain-based learning is finding its way into more and more classrooms. Bright
peripherals and hands-on manipulatives can be found in most American schools. As more schools
develop brain-compatible learning environments, the quality of student learning will improve.
“Providing the setting for effective learning using a brain-based model creates an individualized
and multisensory approach by fostering learning as a process of discovery, deepening learning”
(Roizman, 2010, para. 5). Brain-compatible learning environments involve all of the senses,
which causes the brain to develop more connections for learning and memory. The brain is
“involved in everything we do learn and achieve at school” (McBeth, 2007, para. 7). Because
brain-based learning environments teach the whole student, by immersing the student’s senses in
an array of experiences, brain-based learning environments provide significant cognitive
advantages for students of every learning modality.
References
Ali, R., Hukamdad, Ghazi, S., Khan, H. (2010). The impact of brain based learning on students
academic achievement. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business,
2(2), 542-556. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Brewer, C. (2011). Music memory activities. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from
http://www.songsforteaching.com/brewer/memory.htm
Cabrera, D. & Colosi, L. (2010). The world at our fingertips: The connection between touch and
learning. Scientific American [Electronic version]. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-world-at-our-fingertips
CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange) (2009). Touch helps make the connection between
sight and hearing. Science Daily. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/03/090318112937.htm
Collins, J. (2011). How to create a brain-based classroom. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from
http://www.ehow.com/how_5926946_create-brain_based-classroom.html
Haughey, S.F. (2011). The sense of smell. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from
http://fairydustteaching.blogspot.com/2011/02/saturday-senses-sense-of-
smell.html
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Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Kaufman, E., Robinson, J., Bellah, K., Akers, C., Haase-Wittler, P., Martindale, L. (2008).
Engaging students with brain-based learning. Techniques, 83(6), 50-55.
Retrieved March 21, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Laurel, D. (2011). A kinesthetic learner - How the sense of touch can literally transform
learning. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Kinesthetic- Learner-
--How-the-Sense-of-Touch-Can-Literally-Transform- Learning&id=3885150
Lloyd, J.R. (2010). Beyond the lesson plan: Brain-based learning. San Antonio Express-News, A-
9. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Make sense of your learning. (2001). Retrieved April 4, 2011, from
http://www.solida.net/sense/learning.html
Massaro, C. & Wallis, S. (2004). Using your senses for fast learning. Retrieved March 24, 2011,
from http://www.selfgrowth.com/print/519922
McBeth, N. (2007). Brain-based learning advocated: ‘Revolution’ in research – speaker [1
Edition]. The Southland Times, 5. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from ProQuest
database.
McCarthy, A. (2010). Brain based learning. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from
http://rowanclass09.blogspot.com/2010/04/brain-based-learning.html
Roizman, T. (2010). What are the benefits of brain-based learning? Retrieved March 21, 2011,
from http://www.livestrong.com/article/169539-what-are-the-benefits-of-brain-based-
learning/
Smith, J. (2009). Tickling the mind: Experts explore education the brain-friendly way. The
Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Stensaas, A. (2008). Feelings, nothing more than feelings: Sensory integration in the
classroom. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from
http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/155_SI.pdf
Stone, S. & Chakraborty, B. (2010). Classroom idea-sparkers. Childhood Education, 87(2), E7-
E8. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Wilmes, B., Harrington, L., Kohler-Evans, P., Sumpter, D. (2008). Coming to our senses:
Incorporating brain research findings into classroom instruction. Education, 128(4), 659-
666. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Brain-based Compatible Classrooms 3/31/2011
Planning a curriculum with the brain in mind requires knowing, and taking into account,
the physical, chemical, and psychological ways in which the average brain learns. The educator
must consider the circadian and seasonal rhythms of the brain, as well as the effects of brain
dominance and gender differences, all within the framework of what the school and the school
district require students to learn on what schedule. Educators must also consider sensory
contributions to learning when developing curricula, and they must build a variety of learning
activities into the curricula to accommodate the several learning modalities.
"Psychologists tell us that a student learns only when a task is a little too hard for that
student" (Dobush, 2011, para. 6). Students should not be exposed to high stress in the classroom,
which would result in their brains shutting down into survival mode, but neither should they
experience such low stress levels that their brains shift into sleep patterns. Moderate stress
produces learning when students are in their zones of proximal development. When preparing
brain-based curricula, educators must plan to stimulate student learning by providing "some
230 A Journey Through My College Papers
challenge, or environmental press that generates stress ... to activate emotions and learning"
(Lackney, n.d., para. 25). Educators must be prepared to adjust teaching in response to students,
so that students are appropriately challenged without feeling threatened.
Curricula should "[i]mmerse learners in complex, interactive experiences that are both rich
and real" (Silvestri, 2011, para. 2). This immersion carries through Eric Jensen's (2008) seven
stages of brain-based planning:
1. Pre-exposure;
2. Preparation;
3. Initiation and acquisition;
4. Elaboration;
5. Incubation and memory encoding;
6. Verification and confidence check; and
7. Celebration and integration. (pp. 215-217)
Immersion involves both brain-dominance considerations and sensory contributions to learning. It
also involves "learning across disciplines" (Jensen, 2008, p. 216), as a reading lesson is likely to
include history or science; a history lesson will include reading, art, and science; and a science
lesson will include reading, math, and possibly history. Brightly-colored peripherals, "color,
texture, ... displays created by students" (Lackney, n.d., para. 1) contribute to the immersion
experience.
Curricula planning must "[e]nsure that learning activities offer auditory, visual, and
kinesthetic components" (Jensen, 2008, p. 221) to serve students with different learning
modalities. Incorporating art projects, physical movement and exploration, music and learning
songs, individual and group models and projects, field trips, cultural celebrations, and guest
speakers into the curriculum provides students an array of sensory learning experiences. "[T]he
best way to learn is not to be lectured but to take park in activities that allow learners to try new
things in safety" (Silvestri, 2011, para. 4).
Students must feel safe in order to learn, and it is important, when planning curricula, for
educators to take physical and emotional safety into account. Students must feel that it is safe to
ask questions, to put themselves forward, and to make mistakes without fear of embarrassment,
humiliation, or reprisals.
Learning must have relevance and emotional connections for students. In planning brain-
based curricula, educators must consider "what possible value and relevance the topic has to [the
learners] personally" (Jensen, 2008, p. 215). Schools in different areas have different cultural and
socio-economic demographics, and it is important to consider these demographics when
determining what will constitute relevance and emotional connectedness. Students from an upper-
class neighborhood will respond to different connections than will students from a lower-class
neighborhood. Students from a predominantly Christian neighborhood will respond differently
than students from a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. Educators must adjust their
presentation of lessons and learning activities to reflect the needs and interests f the students
whom they serve.
Educators need to expect students to succeed, to be positive about letting students know
that they can succeed, and to reward student success with celebrations and rewards. This is as
important as the curriculum itself, because students who receive frequent, positive feedback for
their learning will be more receptive to continued learning, and they will retain more of what they
learn. Students at all levels -- from preschool through graduate school -- respond well to such
simple rewards as positive comments or motivational stickers on papers. It may seem childish, but
the brain responds to even the simplest positive feedback.
Educators have no choice, especially in primary and secondary school, but to "teach to
the test." Nevertheless, it is possible to use brain-based learning techniques in almost any
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curriculum. Allowing students to learn in multiple modalities, and to have downtime away from
active learning to process what has been learned, takes into account the needs of the brain.
References:
Dobush, K. (2011), Differentiated instruction. Retrieved March 31, 2011, from
http://webhost.bridgew.edu/kdobush/Strategies%20for%20Teaching%20Reading/H
andbook/Diff_Inst/Differentiated%20Instruction.htm
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning (2nd ed). California: Corwin Press.
Lackney, J.A. (n.d.). 12 Design principles based on brain-based learning research.
Retrieved March 29, 2011, from
http://www.designshare.com/Research/BrainBasedLearn98.htm
Silvestri, E. (2011). How to use brain-based learning in designing lessons. Retrieved March 31,
2011, from http://www.ehow.com/how_5139511_use-brainbased-learning-designing-
lessons.html
EDU 321: Introduction to Serving English Language Learners
Sara 4/7/2011
Sara has lived in the United States for six months. She seems withdrawn and does not
socialize much with other students. She was educated in her home country and, in fact, studied
some English as a foreign language in school. Her teachers are pleased with her work, given the
limited time she has been in the country
Sara appears to be a limited bilingual student, though she is not far from being a
monolingual/literate student. She is at the early production level. Sara would benefit from a
traditional bilingual education program, because she has learned some English, but she still needs
the scaffolding of sheltered instruction in English.
It is likely that Sara is withdrawn, and that she does not socialize with other students,
because she is not comfortable with the language and cultural features of her classmates and their
activities. She probably has better receptive English than expressive English, as she is afraid of
being embarrassed by her limited ability to communicate. Having Sara participate in integrated
non-academic classes, while learning English in a sheltered program, may help her to overcome
her emotional and social limitations.
Lupe 4/7/2011
Lupe has lived in a large urban United States city for 10 years. She was in bilingual
classes in elementary school and is now mainstreamed for all subjects, although her English is not
completely fluent. She is friendly and cooperative when she is in class but has a high rate of
absenteeism. She seems to prefer talking with friends to completing assignments. Teachers think
she has academic potential but worry that she will eventually drop out of school because of
persistent underachievement.
Lupe needs a combination of tier 1 and tier 2 interventions, though mostly tier 1. Her
absenteeism may indicate issues at home, possibly including lack of parental support for academic
232 A Journey Through My College Papers
achievement. Her school issues may also indicate inadequate fluency in academic English, which
may be causing her to withdraw from academic achievement.
The first intervention that I would recommend would be a combination of "involv[ing]
the parents in the teaching and learning process" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 24) from tier 1,
and talking to Lupe's parents about her absenteeism and her lack of assignment completion, from
tier 2. If necessary, since I barely speak anything other than English, I would have an interpreter
present for the discussion. It is possible that the parents are not aware of Lupe's difficulties, and
that increased parental involvement will produce improvements.
The second intervention that I would recommend for Lupe would be reassessment of her
readiness for fully mainstreamed classes. If her English is not fluent, then she might be masking
academic frustration with increased social activity. It is likely that her academic English is not yet
fluent enough for her to grasp the lessons. Reassessment might result in a recommendation for
sheltered instruction in English. Improved facility with English and improved understanding of
assignments will be likely to turn Lupe's underachievement around. She may have moved from
bilingual classes to monolingual English classes too soon. This is from tier 1: "Identify what the
student can and cannot do academically and linguistically based on assessment data" (Echevarria
& Graves, 2007, p. 24).
The third intervention that I would recommend is from tier 1: "Encourage goal setting
and consistent measurement of academic progress with mechanisms for self-report and regular
reports to parents" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 25). Setting attainable goals can encourage
Lupe to be present in class in order to reach her goals. Regular reports to her parents, both about
her academic performance and about her behavior and attention during class, can encourage Lupe
to pay attention, to not socialize during work times, and to complete required assignments.
References:
Echevarria & Graves, (2007). Sheltered content instruction teaching English Language
Learners with diverse abilities (3rd Edition). Boston, MA : Pearson Education, Inc.
Theories 4/14/2011
After reading the descriptions in our text, I find that I identify most closely with a
combination of cognitive learning theory and behavioral learning theory. In the example of Mr.
Gimplin's class (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 41), I see many hours that I have spent teaching
math to my own sons. Students are more likely to retain learning that they discover on their own,
with careful guidance, than to remember learning that is dictated to them. Also, I believe strongly
in the importance of mnemonic strategies. Just last night, I was helping my younger son practice
verbal rehearsal so he can pass the recitation test on the Preamble to the Constitution tomorrow.
I also see myself in the example of Ms. Smith's Sea World reports (Echevarria & Graves,
2007, p. 42). Setting out a clear list of objectives for a project or learning activity, then assessing
and reporting on each objective as it is completed, instead of only at the end of the entire activity,
helps make assignments less overwhelming for students. Assessment at each stage of the
assignment allows students to adjust their work as needed to achieve the best final result.
By combining these two theories, the structure involved with behavioral learning theory
will help to reduce the difficulty for ELLs that is caused by a lack of structure in the methods of
cognitive learning theory. I would need to be aware of the need of ELLs to have clear vocabulary,
so that a lack of English proficiency can be mitigated. The exploration and discussion that seems
to go with cognitive learning theory will help to provide the ELLs with authentic English language
Undergraduate Series 233
practice that is often missing from behavioral learning theory. I could insert opportunities for
discussion during assessments to increase the opportunity for practice.
After reading each of the theories, it is clear that no one theory is really best for ELLs.
As a teacher, I will need to create an eclectic learning theory that is an amalgam of all of the
theories in our text. It is necessary to provide mnemonic strategies, step-by-step processes for
objectives, individual and group exploration, journaling and group sharing, and leading prompts
for students, as well as to allow students to work at their own levels of function while providing
scaffolding assistance to encourage students to successfully reach and work through their zones of
proximal development.
References:
Echevarria & Graves, (2007). Sheltered content instruction teaching English Language
Learners with diverse abilities (3rd Edition). Boston, MA : Pearson Education, Inc.
Teaching Strategies 4/21/2011
My plan is to teach adult learners in a junior college setting, with a focus on English and
composition. The following five teaching strategies, in descending order of anticipated
effectiveness, are those that I believe I would use in a classroom with ESL/ELL students.
Providing students with activities that will promote success in reading and writing uses
journaling, literature-based instruction, and language arts activities that are relevant to the lives
and experiences of students, to encourage acquisition and use of English-language writing skills. I
believe that this would be the most effective strategy because it ties in directly with college-level
English skills. Having the students write in journals "at the beginning of each class day"
(Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 83), then responding in each student's journal at the end of each
week, reinforces language development, and it also provides a forum in which students can work
through, and receive support for, their feelings about their educational and linguistic experiences.
Actively involving students in their own education gives students a sense of ownership of
the educational experience. When students feel a sense of ownership, then they are more likely to
take an interest in being successful at learning. "Teachers who actively engage students
meaningfully often are more successful than teachers who do not" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007,
pp. 85-86). I believe that this would be my second most effective teaching strategy, because the
students will have a better feeling about learning if they are actively interested and involved in
learning.
Using alternate grouping strategies involves organizing students into pairings or groups
in which the "students can learn from each other" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 87). It also
involves teaching small groups with similar needs to maximize learning. Partner and group
sharing activities require communication between and among group members, which contributes
to improved language skills. That is why I believe this would be my third most effective teaching
strategy. By rotating group assignments, I could provide the students with exposure to a variety of
personal skill sets and linguistic abilities, which would foster deeper learning opportunities.
Focusing on students' background knowledge that is relevant to the lesson, or to the topic,
allows students to apply the lesson to their own lives and experiences. As a college English
teacher, I could have students compare the experiences of the characters in assigned literature to
their own life experiences. This teaching strategy "maximizes the amount students learn by
linking new knowledge to existing knowledge" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 84). I believe this
would be my fourth most effective teaching strategy, although it might take a higher ranking if it
234 A Journey Through My College Papers
was combined with the journaling in my first-ranked strategy. Asking students to apply
information from the lesson to their own lives helps to build additional pathways to memory,
which improves learning.
Finally, while creating roles in the classroom for family members might seem to be more
appropriate for primary and secondary students than for college students, having family members
of ESL/ELL students serve in the classroom could help the students to acquire English language
skills, while helping other students learn and understand something of the languages and cultures
of the ESL/ELL students. For college students, this might include parental involvement, but it
might also involve the participation of spouses, siblings, or even the children of students when the
children have greater English fluency than the parents. I ranked this teaching strategy last because
of my intended student group. It is familiar to students in primary grades for family members to
help in the classroom, but it is less common in post-secondary settings.
References:
Echevarria & Graves, (2007). Sheltered content instruction teaching English Language
Learners with diverse abilities (3rd Edition). Boston, MA : Pearson Education, Inc.
Bianca 4/21/2011
Bianca is an eight year old who was orphaned by a devastating tsunami in Indonesia at
the age of five. Bianca was recently adopted by an English speaking family in Indiana and
enrolled in third grade at James Madison Elementary. Her native language is Bahasa Indonesia
and her adopted family only speaks limited phrases of this language.
Prior to coming to James Madison Elementary, Bianca's education has been sporadic
and her English language development is limited. The practice for English Language Learners at
James Madison Elementary is total immersion. Bianca is in a traditional third grade classroom
and receives support from an ESL teacher (English as second language) for thirty minutes twice a
week. Her teacher, Mrs. Perkins, is concerned because Bianca has made limited progress over the
past three months and is essentially a non-reader. During a parent-teacher conference, Mrs.
Perkins spoke with Bianca's parents concerning her language struggle and academic progress.
She is considering referring Bianca for testing to determine if she has a specific learning
disability. Bianca's parents fear labeling their young daughter and think she will catch up once
she becomes proficient in English. They have asked Mrs. Perkins for additional intervention
strategies before agreeing to assess for a specific learning disability.
On reading Bianca's story, I do not believe that testing for a specific learning disability is
the appropriate next step, because her affective difficulties appear to be due mainly to her lack of
English fluency, and to her lack of language support in Bahasa. One hour of ESL instruction per
week is not sufficient for Bianca to learn even conversational English, much less to acquire
academic English fluency at her grade level. Testing Bianca for a learning disability at this stage
will only cause additional harm to her self esteem. Total immersion is probably not appropriate
for Bianca, who needs a newcomer program to help her acquire English language and culture
skills.
As her teacher, I would request, as a minimum, that she receive daily ESL support, and
that she be assigned a classroom aide who speaks Bahasa. However, I recognize that Bahasa is
not a common language in South Bend, Indiana (the school actually exists), so I realize that this
would probably not be possible. Bianca lacks native language support at home, so she needs more
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language support at school. If possible, involving one of Bianca's parents in her ESL instruction at
school would help improve Bianca's confidence, and would probably help in her acquisition of
English.
I would advise Bianca's parents to use visual clues to help Bianca learn English
vocabulary at home. If they could learn more Bahasa, it might encourage Bianca to learn more
English. Bianca's fluency in Bahasa is probably at or below a second grade level, so she will not
have existing native-language vocabulary on which to build her English vocabulary.
Bianca has several affective issues. First, she probably remembers her family of origin,
and it is unlikely that she has adequately dealt with their loss. She probably fears losing people in
her life, as a result. Fears and grief will retard learning, even in one's native language. Second,
Bianca has no native language support. She is probably confused and frustrated by the barrier to
communication. She may also be embarrassed by this difficulty in dealing with her peers. Third,
Bianca's cultural experience is Indonesian. Without language to help her understand the cultural
differences in her new home, she probably feels alienated from her family and from her
classmates. Fourth, Bianca is probably overwhelmed by the total immersion experience. She has
to try to keep up with content learning in a language she cannot yet decode. Again, this is
probably causing her frustration and confusion. She may be experiencing anger and/or fear at her
situation.
As an aside, the name of the hypothetical school in this exercise seemed familiar, so I did
some checking. James Madison Elementary School is located in South Bend, Indiana, which
explains the familiarity, as I used to live in Indiana. As of this school year, the school has 619
students in grades K-6, with a student-to-teacher ratio of just under 17:1 (School Tree, 2011,
figure 1), 3% of the students, or about 19 students, are Asian and Pacific Islander (School Tree,
2011, figure 4), which would include Indonesia. 17% of the students are identified as Hispanic
(School Tree, 2011, figure 4), which probably includes at least some ESL/ELL students. Based on
these statistics, it seems likely that better ESL support should be available to Bianca at James
Madison Elementary, and Mrs. Perkins should push for improved language accommodations for
her before seeking to label her as learning disabled.
References:
SchoolTree.org. (2011). James Madison Elementary School. Retrieved April 21, 2011, from
http://indiana.schooltree.org/public/James-Madison-Elementary-030655.html
Mini-lesson: "I before E" 4/28/2011
My mini-lesson is one that I used with adult remedial students when I tutored at a
community college a few years ago. It was taught to me so long ago that I don't remember
learning it, and it is familiar to most English language students.
I would teach the students a poem to help with the S (Spelling) of COPS:
"I before E,
except after C,
or when sounded as A,
as in neighbor and weigh" (Anonymous, n.d.).
English being the slippery language that it is, I would warn the students that there are "weird"
words that break the rule.
I would use the board or the overhead to print the poem as I said it the first time, then I
would point to the words as I had the students repeat the poem. I would put up a poster of the rule
236 A Journey Through My College Papers
as a reminder for students, along with a list of common "weird" words for the students to look out
for.
I would use this mini-lesson with any grade from about third grade up. I would use it in
language arts, in and social studies class, in any science class, or in any class where students were
required to write. I would repeat this lesson at intervals through the semester or the year, asking
students to repeat the poem aloud before beginning a writing assignment.
Before this mini-lesson is taught, students need to have mastered the alphabet, so they
can recognize the key letters: I, E, and C. The students need to be able to hear and to recognize
word sounds, so that they will know when they hear the long A sound.
I will encourage students to employ the O (Overall) of COPS when using this lesson, as
well. It is easier for students to employ correct spelling when the overall quality of their work
includes legibility.
This is an effective mini-lesson, according to my experience. Not only was it successful
with my remedial students at the community college, but I have used it with my sons, who are
now 9 and 10 years old. Poems and songs are effective mnemonic tools, because they create
additional neural pathways to facilitate memory retrieval.
References
Anonymous. (n.d.).
Cultural and Linguistic Differences 5/5/2011
One instructional strategy that could be used to support Maria would be to use
cooperative learning, or alternate grouping strategies, in the classroom. Maria has social English
proficiency, but she appears to lack academic English proficiency. By working in a group that
includes native English language students who possess grade-level academic English proficiency,
Maria could improve her own academic English proficiency while learning the content material of
the various subject lessons. "Working with peers provides academic supports and creates more
opportunities to practice language skills" (IRIS Center, How does linguistic diversity influence
classroom performance?, n.d., para. 5). Maria's social English proficiency would allow her to
receive support from her classmates, so she would have "an equal opportunity ... to participate
actively" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 87).
Another instructional strategy that could be used to support Maria would be to build on
her background knowledge, and to be responsive to her cultural and personal diversity. "Students
from ethnolinguistically diverse backgrounds may have experienced ignorance, prejudice, or
disrespect, and may have been targets of abuse" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 92). It is entirely
possible that Maria's academic Spanish proficiency is not much better than her academic English
proficiency, despite Spanish being her probable first language from her life in Mexico. Mr.
Bennett or an ESL support teacher should use "information gathered from students, their families,
or a bilingual liaison" (IRIS Center, How does linguistic diversity influence classroom
performance?, n.d., para. 6) to understand Maria's background and experiences before her arrival
at the school. This should involve a native language assessment for Maria, as well as one or more
visits with Maria's parents, which might require an interpreter. Understanding Maria's background
might help Mr. Bennett to know how to teach her. Also, as assessment might reveal that Maria's
parents are English illiterate, afraid to deal with authority figures, or both. This could explain why
sending notes home has been unsuccessful. Being responsive to Maria's cultural diversity might
also help to solve the problem of her frequent tardiness.
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A third instructional strategy that could be used to support Maria would be the use of
word walls that include not only the English spellings or definitions of words, but also spellings
and definitions in the other native languages that are represented in the classroom. This would
help to provide native-language support to Maria, helping her to acquire "the transfer and
comprehension skills necessary for learning a new language" (Echevarria & Graves, 2007, p. 87).
Maria might need more or different words on her walls than might be needed by her English-
language classmates, and it might be possible for her to have word lists in both English and
Spanish on her desktop or on a portable folder or testing screen, such as many schools use now.
From the information given, it sounds like Maria is in a full-immersion English-language
classroom, when she needs to be in a newcomer program. She has little cultural background on
which to build her new, English vocabulary. She needs, at the least, ESL support in the
classroom. Also, both Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Casey need to receive some sensitivity training about
ELL students, based on their comments that "you don't need to know how to read English to do
math" (IRIS Center, Challenge transcript, n.d., para. 9). Maria would benefit from sheltered
instruction, but she is trying to keep up in full immersion.
References:
Echevarria & Graves, (2007). Sheltered content instruction teaching English Language
Learners with diverse abilities (3rd Edition). Boston, MA : Pearson Education, Inc.
IRIS Center. (n.d.). Challenge transcript. Retrieved May 5, 2011, from
http://isir.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/clde/challenge_trans.html
--. (n.d.). How does linguistic diversity influence classroom performance? Retrieved May
5, 2011, from http://isir.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/clde/clde_06.html
HIS 204: American History Since 1865
American Slave Narratives 5/12/2011
According to our text, freedom for former slaves during the period of Reconstruction
meant that they could live their lives without the interference of Whites. It meant that they could
"travel without a pass or white permission" (Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytl, Stoff, 2008, p.
482). It meant that Blacks could legally marry and raise families, and that they could have
surnames. It meant that Blacks could work, and that their "labor would be for their own benefit"
(Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 482). In general, freedom meant an improvement in the lives of
American Blacks.
Not all freed slaves agreed that freedom was better for their lives than had been slavery.
Freedom was better ideologically, because no person should ever be owned by another person, but
freedom meant a more difficult life for many former slaves. Fountain Hughes (1949) said, in an
interview with Hermond Norwood: "We didn' have no property. We didn' have no home. We had
nowhere or nothing. We didn' have nothing only just, uh, like your cattle, we were jus' turned out"
(Cited in Norwood, 1949, para. 31). Freedom for Hughes meant being left to his own devices,
without any sort of preparation, resources, or support. Some former slaves didn't even understand
that they were free. Joseph Holmes (1937), in an interview with Ila B. Prine, said: "Talkin' 'bout
n[-----]s bein' freed, 01 Miss tole us us wuz free but hit wuz ten or twelve years atter de Surrender
befo' I railly knowed whut she meant" (Cited in Prine, 1937, para. 4). Some former slaves felt that
their lives had been better before they were free than they were after they were freed. In an
interview with Travis Jordan (1997), Tempe Herndon Durham said: "Freedom is all right, but de
238 A Journey Through My College Papers
n[-----]s was better off befo' surrender, kaze den dey was looked after an' dey didn' get in no
trouble fightin' an' killin' like dey do dese days" (para. 10). Former slaves were used to being
provided for by Whites, and they were never prepared for the possibility that they might have to
provide for themselves. For those Blacks, freedom seemed like a shock and a burden. Many
former slaves were, in many ways, like little children, despite their strong bodies and their years of
life; they expected to be taken care of, and to have the necessities of life provided to them. Like
children growing up, however, once the shock of being free adults passed, the former slaves found
that it was good to be free, and to provide for themselves.
I agree that many of the events of Reconstruction cast a long shadow over race relations
for future generations. I do believe that America missed an opportunity to create a true multiracial
society, but the beginning of today's society was in the Reconstruction. Former slave owners were
no more prepared than former slaves for the changes that came with Black freedom. Generations
of Whites believing that they were racially superior to Blacks, and of Blacks believing that they
were racially inferior to Whites, could not be changed in a matter of a few months or years. More
than a century was required for the majority of society to truly accept that all people are equal. If
President Johnson had pushed Black equality on the nation, equality might have come sooner, but
it still would not have changed people's beliefs in the first years after the Civil War. It would have
required a generation growing up with a false, enforced equality for Blacks, before a true, genuine
equality could be achieved. That is what did, eventually, happen in my generation, but it could
have come sooner if Johnson had forced the states to "allow African Americans any political rights
or make any effective provisions for black education" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 474).
I believe that the accounts in the several former slave narratives that I read, and that are
cited above, are accurate. I also believe that they paint a rather one-sided picture of slavery and
new freedom, because it seems that the former slaves who were intervewed were all treated rather
better than the common understanding of how slaves were treated in America. It is possible for
these narratives to be accurate in and of themselves, while still presenting an inaccurate picture of
slavery in general. I believe that there is value in every personal narrative, no matter how
prominent or how obscure the person may be. Each person's narrative is important to that person,
and those who were close to, or who came after, that person.
References:
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Soff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Jordan, T.. (1997). Tempe Herndon Durham, 1312 Pine St., Durham, North Carolina.
Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/durham1.html
Norwood, H.. (1949). Fountain Hughes, Charlottesville, Virginia. Retrieved May 10, 2011,
from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/hughes1.html
Prine, I.B.. (1937). Joseph Holmes, Mobile, Alabama. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/holmes1.html
Corporations and Big Business 5/12/2011
During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, business in the United
States shifted from artisanal manufacturing and family-owned business to vast, interstate
corporations that employed vertical integration to increase production and profits by controlling all
aspects of the manufacturing process, from the production of raw materials to distribution to the
consumer. The first modern big business was the American railroads, which provided a template
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on which other big businesses, such as Western Union and AT&T, were built. "By lowering
transportation costs, railroads allowed manufacturers to reduce prices, attract more buyers, and
increase business" (Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 547). As big business
replaced artisanal businesses, laborers worked for owners they usually never knew, instead of for
themselves. Workers in manufacturing jobs worked long hours, without breaks, for low pay. The
rise of big business thus brought back almost a form of feudalism, with employees' lives immersed
in work that ultimately profited the wealthy, while leaving the employees scrabbling to maintain
lives above the poverty line.
The American economy went through a series of economic depressions as a result of the
meteoric rise of big business. Banks "could not always keep pace with the demand for capital"
(Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 556). Still, "[t]he economic changes resulting from the rise of big
business were generally beneficial to consumers and investors" (Carey, 2010, para. 17). Big
business produced more goods more efficiently for less cost than had the smaller business model
that preceded it. Consumers in Boston could enjoy beef that was processed in Chicago. Steel and
other building materials could be shipped anywhere the railroad went, to facilitate building larger,
stronger buildings and bridges.
Big business moved many unskilled laborers from the fields to the factories. Men,
women, and children worked in dangerous conditions, but not all workers were paid the same
wages for the same work. White men earned the highest wages, followed by white women, and
then by white children. Black men and women, along with other non-white groups, earned less
than Whites. Americans earned more than immigrants, and English-speakers earned more than
non-English-speakers. (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 559). Factory workers often earned less than
was needed to support a family, so women and children were often forced to work. "Big
businesses ... made the gap between rich and poor more apparent than ever" (Davidson, et. al.,
2008, p. 556). While big businesses did contribute to national wealth, and did pride increased
access to goods and services, big business also ended the simple, self-sufficient lifestyle that many
Americans had enjoyed in small communities after the Civil War.
References:
Carey, C.W.. (2010). Corporations and big business. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from
http://www.informationaccess.com/DigitalCollections/whitepapers/4_GML33607_
Corporations_whtppr.pdf
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Elections of 1912 5/19/2011
In the 4-way race for president in 1912, Socialist party candidate Eugene V. Debs failed
to get a single electoral vote. Debs' campaign issue was to make "the working class the ruling
class" (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 654). Debs represented the American
laborer, and promoted putting laborers into positions to lead the country, instead of the pseudo-
aristocracy that held most positions of power in the United States.
Incumbent President William Howard Taft was the Republican party candidate in 1912.
"Taft emphasized that political parties had the responsibility to endorse and defend fundamental
constitutional principles" (Milkis, 2003, para. 17). Unfortunately for Taft, "voters found the
Republican Taft beside the point" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 654). Supporting the U.S.
Constitution was not the issue that resonated with the majority of voters in 1912.
240 A Journey Through My College Papers
Former President Theodore Roosevelt was the Progressive party candidate in 1912. The
Progressive party "embraced and helped legitimize new social movements and candidate-centered
campaigns, [and] pioneered a plebiscitary form of governance" (Milkis, 2003, para. 2). Social
welfare was at the heart of Roosevelt's platform, but the American people were not yet ready for
that level of government involvement in their lives, and Roosevelt accrued only 28% of the
popular vote and 17% of the electoral vote (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 654).
New Jersey's Governor Woodrow Wilson was the Democratic party candidate in 1912,
and he won the presidency. Wilson's platform was based on the "limitation of governmental
power" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 654). Wilson supported protecting the free market by limiting
the growth of big business. In 1912, Americans were ready to be freed from the yoke of the trusts
and big business, and were ready to elect Wilson to make that happen.
Although not the Progressive party candidate, President Wilson was a progressive leader.
Americans were ready for a degree of progressivism in 1912, and they were ready to allow the
government to step in to defend social welfare by regulating big business. The broader social
goals of progressivism were still too much for Americans in 1912; however, as the people
generally valued individual achievement. "[T]he failure of the 1912 experiment and the
Progressive Party's demise underscore the incoherence of the Progressive movement" (Milkis,
2003, para. 25). The progressive reform movement needed better definition before it would
appeal to the American public again.
References:
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Milkis, S.M. (2003). Why the election of 1912 changed America. Claremont Review of Books.
Retrieved May 16, 2011, from
http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/winter2002/milkis1912.html
World War I Propaganda 5/19/2011
There are a number of recurring themes in the posters found at
http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/usa.htm: saving food to support the Army and the Navy;
working to support the Army and the Navy; recruiting soldiers and sailors; buying Liberty Bonds;
the role of churches and religious groups in support of the Army and the Navy; humanitarian relief
in the Near East; and women and children supporting the war effort. Lesser themes include
wartime entertainment, tourism in the Near East, and a campaign to stop the spread of disease that
featured the slogan: "Kill the rat!" (Duffy 2, 2009, poster 4).
A large part of the money for the war "came from the sale of 'Liberty' and 'Victory' bonds and
war savings certificates" (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 675). Among the
posters on the Web site were many that urged or encouraged Americans to buy bonds or thrift
stamps. A few of these are:
A picture of two young children holding hands with a uniformed American soldier. The
text reads: "Help him win by saving and serving" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 40).
A picture of the Statue of Liberty. The text reads: "You buy a Liberty Bond lest I perish"
(Duffy 1, 2009, poster 16).
A picture of the Liberty Bell. The text reads: "Ring it again ... Help Your Country and
Yourself" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 17).
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A picture of a woman leaving a grocery store. The text reads: "Take your change in thrift
stamps" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 23).
Numerous posters promote the 2nd Liberty Loan with slogans like "help win the war" (Duffy 1,
2009, poster 15), and the 4th Liberty Loan with slogans like "We like our pay -- but if we have to
we can go without it" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 14). "Boy Scouts sold [bonds] under the slogan
'Every Scout to Save a Soldier'" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 675).According to Treasury Secretary
McAdoo, on the subject of bonds, "Every person who refuses to subscribe ... is a friend of
Germany" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 675).
Saving food to support the Army and the Navy was a serious matter. "The Food
Administration encouraged farmers to grow more and citizens to eat less wastefully" (Davidson,
et. al., 2008, p. 675). Posters urged Americans to eat more fish and cottage cheese, and to leave
meat and wheat for the troops. A few specific posters read:
"Food will win the war ... Waste nothing" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 43).
"We have promised to feed the hungry millions of Europe ... Save food" (Duffy 1, 2009,
poster 51).
"Save Food -- Don't Waste It" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 21).
"Get behind the girl he left behind him -- Join the land army" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 41).
The land army refers to raising beef, pork, and wheat to feed the soldiers, and to raising vegetables
to feed the nation at home. "Huge publicity campaigns promoted 'wheatless' and 'meatless' days
each week and encouraged families to plant 'victory' gardens" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 675).
Americans were exhorted to stay at their jobs and to put in a full day's work every day in
order to support the war effort. One poster told Americans to "be true to the boys who are giving
their lives for you" (Duffy 1, 2008, poster 7). Another poster, which featured a picture of an
American soldier, read: "We don't put down our tools till quitting time" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster
61).
Recruiting posters encouraged American men to join the Army and the Navy. The most
famous of these is James Flagg's "I Want You for the U.S. Army" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 678)
poster, which features a picture of Uncle Sam pointing at the viewer. Other posters took
advantage of the German nickname for the U.S. Marines by proclaiming a "Devil Dog Recruiting
Station" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 25). Boys who were too young to serve in the military were
encouraged to serve in other ways, with posters declaring that "every American boy should enroll
in the Victory Boys" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 11).
Religion-based organizations supported the war effort with posters. The American Red
Cross had numerous posters that called attention to the Red Cross nurses in the European theatre.
One Red Cross poster featured a picture of Jesus and a church towering over a war nurse as she
tends the wounded in the field (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 82). A Salvation Army poster proclaims
"Soldiers Soul Dressing Stations" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 27). The Knights of Columbus had
posters for the National Catholic War Council, and also a poster that read "Helping your boy
through No Mans Land" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 35).
Humanitarian relief posters featured pictures of women and children living in poverty. A few
specific posters read:
"2 1/2 Million Women and Children Now Starving to Death -- You Can't Let Us Starve"
(Duffy 1, 2009, poster 19).
"Lest we perish" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 39).
"Humanity Calls! Dare You Refuse" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 31).
"The 'War' Bread that You get would seem like Cake to the children of Europe" (Duffy 1,
2009, poster 54).
242 A Journey Through My College Papers
Most of the humanitarian relief posters were in support of the people of Serbia, and the rest were
in support of the people of the Near East. These campaigns called on Americans to donate money
to the relief effort.
Women who were not already working at jobs to support the war effort were exhorted to
"Knit a bit for our first line of defense" (Duffy 1, 2009, poster 74). I remember my grandmother
talking about knitting scarves, and about knitting squares for blankets, when she got home from
work in the evenings and on Saturdays, to be sent to the soldiers in Europe.
American propaganda posters in World War I encouraged Americans to take several
specific actions:
Eat more fish, grains, vegetables, and dairy, so the Army can have more meat, wheat, and
sugar.
Don't waste food.
Put in a full day of work every day.
Do without luxuries so soldiers can have essentials.
Donate money to humanitarian relief.
Serve in the Army or in the Navy.
Above all else, buy war bonds.
References:
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Duffy, M. (2009). Propaganda posters -- United States of America (1). Retrieved May 16,
2011, from http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/usa.htm
--. (2009). Propaganda posters -- United States of America (2). Retrieved May 16, 2011, from
http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/usa2.htm
American Imperialism 5/23/2011
American Imperialism developed in the second half of the nineteenth century because of
a combination of social and economic imperatives for our young country. The social imperatives
included “an underlying belief in manifest destiny, our nation’s fate and duty to settle our North
American lands coast to coast” (Chimes, n.d., para. 3). Social imperatives also included the idea
that “Americans had a moral responsibility to bring progress, self-government, and material
prosperity to the so-called weaker races of the earth” (Rice, 2010, para. 3). The economic
imperative for American Imperialism was expressed by Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1890, when he
“argued that great nations were seafaring powers that relied on foreign trade for wealth and might”
(Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 613). America imposed imperialist control
over other countries not only by formal annexation of the countries, but also by technological and
economic superiority over the other countries’ economies. In addition, the rapidly vanishing
American frontier in North America prompted America to push beyond its continental borders to
expand into distant lands.
Beyond Mahan’s belief in the need for foreign trade, American Imperialism was
rationalized as a purer form of imperialism than the form practiced by European powers.
“Americans could be portrayed as bearers of long-cherished values: democracy, free-enterprise
capitalism, and Protestant Christianity” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 612). America was then
viewed as an Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Christian nation, and many believed that social Darwinism
proved that Anglo-Saxons were the superior race when compared to all non-white races. While
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much of American Imperialism was really about making money and about building economic and
political power in the world, it was touted as the noble and necessary fulfillment of America’s
duty to “assert their dominion over ‘lesser peoples’ of the world” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 613).
In particular, the occupation of the Philippine Islands was rationalized as “White Man’s Burden”
to teach “the virtues of Western civilization, Christianity, democracy, and self-rule” (Davidson, et.
al., 2008, p. 623) to the Filipinos.
Because of the policy of American Imperialism in the late nineteenth century, the United
States came into conflict with Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and Japan. The
United States was involved with Russia in 1867, when Secretary of State William Henry Seward
purchased Alaska. Revolts in Cuba led, in part, to the Spanish-American War. America acquired
Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines in 1898, as part of the Treaty of Paris and a
financial arrangement between the United States and Spain. In the same year, America annexed
Hawaii in the Pacific. In addition, the United States became involved in China, and American
Secretary of State John Hay “brashly announced that the open door in China was international
policy” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 625).
The Anti-Imperialist League was founded after the American acquisition of Cuba, Puerto
Rico, and the Philippines, by Americans who “feared racial intermixing and the possibility of
Filipino and other Asian workers flooding the American labor market” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p.
623). The Anti-Imperialist League was not a group of disgruntled rabble or of radical, anti-
government troublemakers. “[M]any of the nation’s most illustrious citizens – including Andrew
Carnegie and William James” (Halsall, 1997, para. 1) were involved in founding the League. In
the League’s official platform, Carl Schurz (1913) stated that “imperialism is hostile to liberty and
tends toward militarism” (Cited in Halsall, 1997, para. 2). The Anti-Imperialist League opposed
America’s actions in the Philippines, and promised “to contribute to the defeat of any person or
party that stands for the forcible subjugation of any people” (Halsall, 1997, para. 9). The League
was unsuccessful in its attempt to stop the annexation of the Philippines, and a Filipino revolt in
1899 began a war that lasted until 1902, bridging American Imperialism into the twentieth
century.
American Imperialism influenced society in the twentieth century. The second open-door
note in China was signed in 1900, right at the threshold of the new century, and those notes helped
“to open closed markets and to keep open those markets that other empires had yet to close”
(Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 625). The benefit of this policy is still felt in the twenty-first century,
when Americans can buy many inexpensive products that are made in China.
The end of the Philippine War in 1902 led to the future independence of the Philippines
in 1946. The American colonies of Puerto Rico and Guam that were annexed in 1898 are now
referred to as American territories, and they continue to be held by the United States. Other
American territories and possessions, which continue American Imperialism through the twentieth
century and into the twenty-first century, include American Samoa, Baker Island, the Howland
Islands, Jarvis Island, Johnson Island, Kingman Reef, the Midway Islands, the Northern Mariana
Islands, Palmyra Atoll, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wake Island (Internal Revenue Service, 2010,
paras. 1-2). Alaska, purchased in 1867, and Hawaii, annexed in 1898, became American states in
the twentieth century. During World War II, bases in Hawaii, and on Midway and on Guam,
served the American Navy, and Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and Midway, are famous for their roles in
major battles during the war. Secretary of State James G. Blaine’s effort “to cancel the Clayton-
Bulwer Treaty (1850), which shared with Great Britain rights to any canal built in Central
America” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 615) led to the building of the Panama Canal in the first part
of the twentieth century. Theodore Roosevelt’s acquisition of the needed land in Panama was
another example of American Imperialism in the twentieth century.
244 A Journey Through My College Papers
American Imperialism in the latter part of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of
the twentieth century developed to forge economic and political power for the United States, to
fulfill America’s moral mandate to civilize and to Christianize the non-white people of the world
under the White Man’s Burden, and to fulfill America’s Manifest Destiny to spread across the
North American continent and beyond. American Imperialism was more about economic control
of other lands than about military force, at least in theory. America did buy or annex a number of
colonies and territories, two of which achieved statehood, and several of which continue to exist as
American possessions today.
References
Chimes, M. (n.d.). American foreign policy in the late 19th Century: Philosophical
underpinnings. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from
http://www.spanamwar.com/imperialism.htm
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Halsall, D. (1997). Modern history sourcebook: American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1899antiimp.html
Internal Revenue Service. (2010). Retrieved May 23, 2011, from
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97321,00.html
Rice, M. (2010). His name was Don Francisco Muro: Reconstructing an image of
American imperialism. American Quarterly. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from
ProQuest database.
Automobile and America 5/26/2011
The automobile changed American culture in several ways. The most obvious change
was that "[r]ural Americans could drive around freely and examine the world around them ... [and]
urban Americans would drive into the hustle and bustle of the city" (Elliott, 2011, para. 4). This
increased mobility "fueled urban sprawl, real estate booms ... and a new roadside culture of
restaurants, service stations, and motels" (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 695).
Since the "1920's were ruled by the youth of the country ... [and] an intense feeling of rebellion
and breaking away from society's boundaries" (Elliott, 2011, para. 1), the increased mobility
appealed to a great many people. People wee able to move out of the city into the suburbs without
giving up their jobs in the city. "Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living any people had
ever known" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 693). The cultural changes brought by the automobile
were not all good, however. "Because of this increased sense of personal freedom ... many
American families fell apart" (Elliott, 2011, para. 4). Women and children had greater freedom to
leave home and to find their own lives, which disrupted the stable home lives that they had known
in earlier decades.
Henry Ford's "success came after he formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903" (Bellis,
2011, para. 9). Ford adapted the assembly line from "a practice of Chicago meatpacking houses"
(Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 694), which cut the time for assembling an automobile in half. As well
as introducing the assembly line, which is now in use in practically every field of manufacturing,
Ford "established the 'Five-Dollar Day,' twice the wage rate in Detroit. He reduced working hours
from 48 to 40 a week and cut the workweek to five days" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 694). By
improving working conditions and doubling wages, Ford made the tedium of the assembly line
Undergraduate Series 245
more bearable. Also, with the increased wages, Ford helped to boost the post-war economy, since
"workers with extra money in their pockets would buy enough to sustain a booming prosperity"
(Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 694). Other companies adopted Ford's assembly line, but used their
own business strategies.
References:
Bellis, M.. (2011). The first mass producers of cars -- the assembly line. Retrieved May 26, 2011,
from http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsassemblya.htm?p=1
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Elliott, S.. (2011). The roaring 1920's: The effects of the automobile on American life.
Retrieved May 26, 2011, from
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/94668/the_roaring_1920s_the_effects_of
_the.html
WWII-Related Events 5/26/2011
Executive Order 9066 was created to allow "the exclusion of any person from designated
military areas" (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 781). It was largely an excuse
to get the Japanese off the West Coast because Caucasians believed it to be "a question of whether
the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown man" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 781). The
excuse that was given to the American public was that the loyalty of Japanese Americans, both
Nisei and Issei, was in doubt because of their Japanese heritage, and that they needed to be
contained until after WWII so they wouldn't aid the enemy.
The Order was presented as a wartime necessity, but the evacuation of Japanese
Americans to internment camps was unconstitutional. "Together, [Executive Order 9066 and
Public Law 503] constituted a Bill of Attainder which were unconstitutional enactments against
Japanese Americans pronouncing them guilty without trial" (Ostgaard, Smart, McGuire, Lanz,
Hodson, 2000, para. 3). By depriving the Japanese Americans of liberty without a proper trial
violated their constitutional rights. "In 1976, ... President Gerald Ford declared the evacuation a
'national mistake.' And in 1988 HR 442 is signed into law by President Ronald Reagan providing
for reparations for surviving internees Beginning in 1990 $20,000 in redress payments were sent
to all eligible Japanese Americans" (Overview, 2011, para. 7). This small financial reparation
was hardly more than a token for Nisei who had taken huge losses when they were evacuated.
While internment camps in America were better than German concentration camps, the
fact remains that they were concentration camps. An effort was made to keep families and family
groups together, but those families had to live in single-room accommodations in barracks with "a
few cots, some blankets, and a single light bulb" (Davidson, et. al., p. 781). At Camp Harmony,
the barracks had "walls with one tiny window every twenty feet in the rear wall, no windows on
the side, and a small door (no window in it) at the front. Over all a tarpaper roof ... Each room is
about 20 feet square and separated from the next room by a partition that runs up part way to the
roof ... The floors laid right on the ground. Mud everywhere ... No plumbing facilities" (Physical
Layout, 2011, para. 7). Residents of Camp Harmony were subjected to curfews, and "[o]ther
regulations denied basic rights such as the right to assemble ... religious freedom ... speech ... and
privacy" (Civil Liberties, 2011, para. 3). This was a gross violation of the U.S. Bill of Rights, but
it was justified as a military necessity. At Camp Harmony, "by way of toilets are two wooden
planks with six holes but out by the carpenters in each plank, the [holes] facing back to back.
246 A Journey Through My College Papers
Under the twelve holds [sic] is a large zinc lined pan through which water is flushed every so
often" (Housing, 2011, para. 4). In all, detainees were treated as subhuman prisoners. Life was
harsh and humiliating for the proud and fastidious Japanese. Japanese language materials and
Japanese religious practices were not allowed.
References:
Civil liberties. (2011). Retrieved May 26, 2011, from
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/exhibit/civil.htm
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Housing. (2011). Retrieved May 26, 2011, from
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/exhibit/housing.html
Ostgaard, K., Smart, C., McGuire, T., Lanz, M., Hodson, T.A.. (2000). The Japanese-
American internment during WWII: A discussion of civil liberties then and now.
Senate Publication Number 1028-S [Electronic version], 30-34. Retrieved May 26,
2011, from http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/rightsviolated.html
Overview. (2011). Retrieved May 26, 2011, from
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/exhibit/intro.html
Physical layout. (2011). Retrieved May 26, 2011, from
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/exhibit/layout.html
Summer of Hate 6/2/2011
The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and the police riot at the
Democratic convention in Chicago, are connected by an ideological generation gap. The gap was
opened from a hairline crack to a chasm by the violence of the Tet Offensive, which "awoke the
American ... people to the fact that years of bombing had not had the predicted effect" (Golding,
n.d., para. 2). Conservative Americans, including in great part of the elder generation, who
supported the war in Vietnam, found themselves faced by the liberal Americans, who were mainly
the young adult generation, and who protested the war. The war was not the only issue over
which the generations were split; civil rights and segregation also polarized America. "The nation
split between the old and the new -- between parents and their children" (Nilsen, 2008, para. 53).
The situation was not limited to America, with students protesting a number of issues in China,
Cuba, Italy, France, and Czechoslovakia. "Almost all the forces dividing America seemed to
converge in 1968 ... [and] students worldwide ... showed remarkable unanimity in condemning
one event on the world stage: the American war in Vietnam" (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle,
Stoff, 2008, pp. 893-895).
King and Kennedy "exemplified the liberal tradition" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 895).
The liberals challenged the status quo, and opposed the war in Vietnam. The two men appealed to
"the poor and minorities ... [and were] popular among traditional white ethnics and blue-collar
workers" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 895), which posed a threat to the American establishment.
With their assassinations in the spring of 1968, they became martyrs for the cause to "change U.S.
policy in Vietnam and end the draft and provide racial equality for Americans" (Nilsen, 2008,
para. 63). The shock and anger that followed the assassinations flowed into the Democratic
convention in Chicago, but it was not the American populace that caused the violence there.
Demonstrators who were afraid that "no major candidate would speak for Americans disillusioned
with the war or the status quo" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 895) did throw "eggs, rocks, and
Undergraduate Series 247
balloons filled with paint and urine" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 895), so they were not wholly
innocent. It was the Chicago police who "took off their badges and waded into the crowd,
nightsticks swinging, chanting, 'Kill, kill, kill'" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 895). Stan Robinson
(2008) was in Grant Park in Chicago at the time of the riot, and he reported: "We were tear gassed,
beaten by the police and arrested ... this time it was Americans against Americans" (Cited in
Nilsen, 2008, para. 43). Marilyn Zeitlin (2008) reported: "We were in Grant Park when the police
charged the protestors. It was impossible to get away from them" (Cited in Nilsen, 2008, para.
45).
The violence of 1968 preceded the 1968 election of Richard Nixon as President of the
United States. The liberal cause of peace and civil rights was lost in the violence of massacre,
assassination, and rioting. "The majority of the American electorate seemed to have turned their
backs on liberal reform and the idea of an activist government" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 896).
Where peaceful activism might have established liberal reform, rampant violence shocked and
frightened America into a more conservative position. Nixon appealed to conservative and
moderate Americans, which allowed him to win the presidency.
References:
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Golding, B.. (n.d.). The summer of hate. Retrieved June 2, 2011, from
http://www.pressrecord.com/politic/chicago68.html
Nilsen, R.. (2008). 1968: Slipping into darkness. The Arizona Republic [Electronic version].
Retrieved June 2, 2011, from
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/0217sixtyeight0217.html
Hollywood/Fiction - Hollywood Blacklists 6/2/2011
The HUAC focused its attention on the Hollywood Ten because the ten men "refused on
First Amendment grounds to say whether they were or ever had been Communists" (Davidson,
Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 816). The committee assumed that the "unfriendly" ten
remained silent in order to conceal the fact that they were, in fact, Communists. The assumption
was accurate, as "the Hollywood Ten who were all held in contempt of congress, later admitted to
being or having been members of the Communist Party" (Mills, 2007, para. 8), but the assumption
should never have been made in America, where citizens are assumed to be innocent until proven
guilty.
The Hollywood Ten, who were eleven until "Bertolt Brecht left the country" (Mills,
2007, para. 5), were questioned about their ideologies because "[t]he HUAC interviewed 41
people who were working in Hollywood ... [who] named nineteen people who they said held left-
wing views" (Dresler, Lewis, Schoser, Nordine, 2005, para. 1). Of the nineteen, eight people
answered the committee's questions. The whole process took place because the HUAC "began to
investigate Communist influence in the film industry" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 816). America
was marked by fears that Communism would be promulgated through subtle wording in film
scripts. The situation was, in some ways, more frightening than combating Europeans during
WWII because "Communist spies ... spoke without accents and looked much like the rest of us"
(Mills, 2007, para. 2). An easily-identified enemy or threat is always less terrifying than one that
hides in plain sight. Fears of Communists hiding in American society led to the paranoia that
triggered the investigations by the HUAC.
248 A Journey Through My College Papers
References:
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Dresler, K., Lewis, K., Schoser, T., Nordine, C.. (2005). The Hollywood Ten. Retrieved June 2,
2011, from http://www.mcpld.org/trumbo/WebPages/hollywoodten.htm
Mills, M.. (2007). Blacklist: A different look at the 1947 HUAC hearings. Retrieved June 2,
2011, from http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/blacklist.htm
Iran Hostage Crisis 6/9/2011
At the beginning of Ode's captivity, he was kept restrained, with his hands tied together
some of the time, and with his hands "tied to each side of the chair" (Ode 1-50, 1981, p. 3) at other
times. The hostages were moved frequently, and were often blindfolded. At times, the hostages
were made to sleep on the floor, while they were allowed to sleep in real beds at other times. The
hostages were not allowed to talk to one another, and Ode was relieved of his personal
possessions.
At the middle of the captivity, Ode reported cases of disciplinary harassment. The
hostages were allowed books, games, and cigarettes, and they were allowed to communicate with
each other. Ode was allowed to write letters and to keep a diary. The hostages ate poorly some of
the time, and they ate very well at other times. On June 6, 1980, Ode wrote: "Things are really
going from bad to worse here" (Ode 1-50, 1981, p. 37). The biggest problems seem to have been
boredom and irregular communication with family and friends.
On November 9, 1980, Ode wrote: "Last year I was lying on the hard floor" (Ode 51-100,
1981, p. 48), while that night he "[p]ut on a warmer blanket tonight" (Ode 51-100, 1981, p. 48).
Although he was still a hostage, his circumstances had improved in a year. The hostages were
giving in to depression, as Ode described: "Don ... spent most of his day in bed ... Jerry did the
same thing. He just lies and stares at the ceiling, picking his nose or sucking his fingers! Today
he got into his pajamas and crawled back into bed again after being there all night! He really is in
a depressive state" (Ode 51-100, 1981, p. 50).
The Americans were taken hostage because "the United States admitted the ailing Shah to
an American hospital for medical treatment" (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p.
937). The Iranians wanted the Shah returned to Iran, and the students who took the hostages were
seeking revenge for the U.S.'s support of the Shah.
The Iran hostage crisis created "a crisis of confidence" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 937) in
America. I was in seventh grade when the crisis came to an end, and I remember all of the adults
talking about how the Iranians were waiting for Reagan to be President before releasing the
hostages, because it would embarrass President Carter.
Economically, the Iran hostage crisis caused problems in America. The "problems of
energy dependence and the economic instability interacted to create a political crisis ... [and]
OPEC increase[d] ... the price of oil" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 937). The American economy
suffered from the crisis, and "[s]oaring energy costs soon drove up inflation to near 14 percent and
some interest rates above 20 percent" (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 937).
References:
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Undergraduate Series 249
Ode, R.. (1981). Calendar of events: Robert Ode [Electronic version]. Retrieved June 9, 2011,
from http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/r_ode/Ode_pages1thru50.pdf
--. (1981). Calendar of events: Robert Ode [Electronic version]. Retrieved June 9, 2011, from
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/r_ode/Ode_pages51thru100.pdf
Sit-Coms 6/9/2011
All in the Family and M*A*S*H each addressed controversial social issues of the time,
with many of the same issues appearing in both shows. Both shows were often condemned by the
religious right because they offered a "permissive, even positive portrayal of unmarried women,
premarital sex and drug use, profanity, homosexuality, nudity, and violence" (Davidson, Delay,
Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 932). They caused people to think about issues that had not
previously been acceptable in television shows, and sometimes not even in mixed company. They
also addressed racism and minorities, and the futility of war and criticisms of the American
government.
All in the Family included "many controversial topics including rape, sex, homosexuality,
death, and other topics that were relevant to the 1970's, especially political strife and inflation"
(All in the Family, 2011, para. 3). Some specific topics that were addresses were:
Sex and reproduction:
Episode 6: "Gloria suffers a sudden miscarriage" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010,
para. 6).
Episode 28: Edith faces "the approach of menopause" (All in the Family Episodes,
2010, para. 28).
Episode 110: Gloria has problems "announcing her unexpected pregnancy because of
Mike's stubborn attitude toward overpopulation" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010,
para. 110).
Episode 130: "Mike and Gloria's sex life suffers" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010,
para. 130).
Episode 148: Unmarried sex is an issue when the family discovers its boarder "in bed
with her boyfriend" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 148).
Episode 152: Female enjoyment of sex, which was not an acknowledged subject of
the time, comes up when "Edith sneaks a peek at a best-selling sex manual" (All in
the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 152).
Inequality of the sexes:
Episode 11: "Gloria leaves the house in a rage when Mike refuses to recognize her as
an equal partner in her marriage" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 11).
Episodes 88 and 91: Archie is upset about Edith and Irene getting jobs.
Episodes 186: "Edith is disillusioned when her bank refuses to grant a loan without
her husband's signature" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 186).
Homosexuality and transsexuality:
Episode 113: "Archie gets a rude shock when the tall, classy dame whose life he
saved in a taxicab turns out to be a man" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para.
113).
Episode 159: The Bunkers learn at "the funeral of Edith's cousin Liz ... that she'd
been living with a lesbian roommate for years" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010,
para. 159).
250 A Journey Through My College Papers
Violence:
Episode 60: Gloria deals with "an attempted sexual assault" (All in the Family
Episodes, 2010, para. 60).
Episode 160: On Edith's birthday, "a rapist holds her at gunpoint in her own living
room" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 160).
Episode 168: The Bunkers are shocked when a friend "is brutally murdered by street
thugs at Christmas" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 168).
Drug and alcohol use:
Episode 71: "Archie spends a long night contemplating his life through the haze of a
drunken stupor" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 71).
Episode 163: "Archie takes a few pep pills ... and winds up with an amphetamine
addiction" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 163).
Nudity:
Episode 15: "Mike ... agrees to let Gloria pose as a nude model" (All in the Family
Episodes, 2010, para. 15).
Racism and prejudice:
Episode 57: "Archie wakes up to find a swastika painted on his front door" (All in
the Family Episodes, 2010, para. 57).
Episode 165: "Archie is nominated for membership in ... the KKK" (All in the
Family Episodes, 2010, para. 165).
Episode 196: "Archie is forced to reevaluate his religious prejudice after [his neice]
tries to conceal the fact that she's Jewish" (All in the Family Episodes, 2010, para.
196).
Cancer:
Episode 76: "Edith tries to hide the fact that she may have breast cancer" (All in the
Family Episodes, 2010, para. 76).
M*A*S*H "was initially developed as a critique of the Vietnam War" (M*A*S*H, 2011,
para. 3). A combination of pointed comedy and poignant drama, the series addressed many social
issues within its episodes. Heavy drinking to escape the war, often supplied by the home-made
still in Hawkeye’s tent, and very liberal sexuality and lechery, feature in most of the episodes.
M*A*S*H "criticized the politicians who mired the United States in Vietnam" (Davidson, et. al.,
2008, p. 932). Some specific topics that are addressed are:
Slavery:
Episode 5: "Hawkeye ends up winning a Korean girl as servant from the sergeant
who purchased her. The girl, unfortunately, has a hard time understanding Hawkeye
when he attempts to set her free" (Krause, 1997, para. 5).
Faked illness and self-inflicted injuries:
Episode 7: "Hawkeye fakes insanity" (Krause, 1997, para. 7).
Episode 9: Hawkeye and Trapper John get "Radar to fake an illness to get Henry to
return" (Krause, 1997, para. 9).
Episode 104: "Danny Fitzsimmons has shot himself to get out of combat" (Krause,
1997, para. 104).
Suicide:
Episode 15: While not an actual suicide, Hawkeye tells the camp that "Capt. Tuttle
leaped from a chopper without a parachute" (Krause, 1997, para.15). Capt. Tuttle
was a fictional character created by Hawkeye.
Racism:
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Episode 33: "A bigoted sergeant seeking the right-'colored' blood learns a lesson in
prejudice" (Krause, 1997, para. 33).
Episode 228: "[T]he doctors suspect pre-judice when an inordinate number of black
casualties are brought in from a single unit" (Krause, 1997, para. 228).
Homosexuality:
Episode 46: "Burns tries to slap a dishonorable discharge on a decorated soldier who
admits to being a homosexual" (Krause, 1997, para. 46).
Alcohol and drugs:
Episode 65: When a visiting doctor needs to do an artery transplant, "Dr. ... Borelli's
drinking problem to interfere at the worst time" (Krause, 1997, para. 65).
Episode 143: "Charles takes amphetamines to keep up his energy level, and even
drugs Radar's mouse" (Krause, 1997, para. 143).
Episode 209: "One of Margaret's nurses tries to hide her severe drinking problem"
(Krause, 1997, para. 209).
Death:
Episode 72: "Radar announces that Henry has been killed when his plane was shot
down over the Sea of Japan" (Krause, 1997, para. 72). This scene was presented
with incredible realism, and "public sentiment toward the event was so negative that
the producers promised never to have another character depart the same way"
(M*A*S*H, 2011, para. 3).
Deaths of patients occurred in many episodes, as did the deaths of various civilian
minor characters.
Extra-marital sex:
Episode 114: Despite being a happily married man, "B.J. consoles [Nurse Carrie],
and they spend the night together" (Krause, 1997, para. 114).
Episode 246: "Colonel Potter discovers that his son-in-law has had an affair"
(Krause, 1997, para. 246).
Mental trauma:
Episode 251: "A deeply troubled Hawkeye has been sent away to the psychiatric
hospital ... [to] find the cause of his breakdown, which is associated with a tragic
incident on a trip back from R&R at the beach" (Krause, 1997, para. 114). This was
the final episode, and Hawkeye's repressed memories were very intense as he
recalled having seen a Korean mother kill her own child to make it be quiet to keep
them from being discovered by the enemy.
References:
All in the Family. (2011). Retrieved June 9, 2011, from http://www.tv.com/all-in-the-
family/show/201/summary.html
All in the Family episodes. (2010). Retrieved June 9, 2011, from
http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/episodes.shtml
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Krause, D.. (1997). M*A*S*H faq: Episode guide. Retrieved June 9, 2011, from
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/mash/guide/
M*A*S*H. (2011). Retrieved June 9, 2011, from
http://www.tv.com/mash/show/119/summary.html
252 A Journey Through My College Papers
African Americans in Post-Civil War America 6/12/2011
Although America has elected an African American president in the twenty-first century,
African Americans have faced anti-black racism continuously through the period since African
Americans were freed from slavery. The issue of race “has cursed the nation from the beginning,
and we have never gotten it right, or even close to right” (Nuechterlein, 2011, para. 1). Racism is
often less obvious in the twenty-first century than it was in the nineteenth century, but it still
pervades much of American society. “America's racial divide on public opinion began in 1619
when the first African slaves were transported to these shores” (Contemporary controversies,
2000, para. 20). Most white people in America at that time agreed with black slavery, while most
Africans in America vehemently disagreed with the concept. Even today, “the old prejudices lurk
not far beneath the opposition [Barak Obama] encounters” (Nuechterlein, 2011, para. 16).
In Unit One, African Americans moved from slavery to freedom, and from agricultural
work to urban factory work. Although African Americans received pay for their work as
freedpeople, which they had not done as slaves, they still received less pay and poorer living and
working conditions than whites. “Blacks could not gain effective freedom simply through a
proclamation of emancipation” (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008, p. 472). In order
to have true freedom from the oppression that they had suffered during the centuries of slavery,
African Americans needed to acquire land and to establish their economic independence. In the
early days of Reconstruction, it was difficult for African Americans to acquire land, and not many
African Americans did so. Still, “in spite of racial prejudice, harsh conditions, and inferior
equipment” (Clendenin, 2005, para. 4), African Americans worked to make their freedom a
reality.
“At the end of the Great Civil War, approximately 180,000 African Americans served in
the Union Army” (Clendenin, 2005, para. 2). After Emancipation, military service did not
significantly improve for African Americans. Even African Americans who had graduated from
military academy at West Point found themselves discriminated against by their white classmates.
Other African Americans moved from the location of their former slavery, in the American South,
to the perceived opportunities of the frontiers in the American West. In the West, many African
Americans “worked as miners, farmers, soldiers, housewives, prostitutes, newspaper publishers,
hotel owners, restaurateurs, barbers, and even politicians” (Hardaway, 2001, para. 1). There, they
were able to do much of the same work that was done by their white neighbors, but they “could
not stay in white hotels, eat in white restaurants, or patronize white prostitutes” (Hardaway, 2001,
para. 8). Even on the frontier, African Americans continued to encounter racial discrimination.
In response to the discrimination that African Americans experienced between the end of
the Civil War and the beginning of the twentieth century, African Americans asserted what rights
they were able to claim by leaving the places where they had been enslaved; a few freedpeople
stayed with their former masters, but most freedpeople agreed with a cook who said, “I must go.
If I stays here I’ll never know I’m free” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 482). African Americans,
most of whom had only had first names to identify them during slavery, “adopted last names ...
without white interference” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 482). Another response to the
discrimination and racial prejudice was African Americans working to become literate and
educated. They knew that they could best establish their economic freedom, and thus achieve true
freedom, if they could read.
The outcome of the African American response to prejudice and discrimination in this
period was that African Americans began to form families, schools, and churches. They began to
earn their way in the world, even though many were still forced by circumstances to work for
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white land owners. This was just the beginning of freedom for African Americans, and there was
no real solution to the issue of racial prejudice.
In Unit Two, African Americans experienced racial prejudice and segregation in the
beginning of the twentieth century. “Jim Crow segregation forced ‘black people to encounter the
color line differently’" (Inwood, 2009, para. 1). The color line divided whites from blacks in
American society. “Most African Americans found that industries in Buffalo [, New York,] drew
the color line, preferring to hire recent immigrants rather than African-American migrants from
the south” (Cha-Jua, et. al., 2002, para. 5). African Americans were still working to confirm their
true freedom through economic equality, but they were fighting continued discrimination. In
some areas, racial prejudice and discrimination led to violence. In “Brooklyn, Illinois class and
color divisions led to such political chaos and factionalism by 1915, that the sheriff had to declare
martial law to maintain law and order in the town” (Cha-Jua, et. al., 2002, para. 6). Brooklyn was
just one of many cities where African Americans met with white resistance.
American institutions also discriminated against African Americans. African Americans were
denied benefits of Social Security when it was first established, “through a shifting web of
alliances of white policymakers that crossed regional and political parties . . . who genuinely
sought to build a fairer and better world, and devoted their waking hours to that challenge, but
whose vision was steeped in racial privilege" (Archenbaum, 2007, para. 3). Prejudice was already
so much a part of the white American psyche that this sort of unintentional discrimination was
rampant. The denial of benefits to African Americans were done subtly, and without actually
identifying African Americans as the target of the exclusions, by requiring “the exclusion of
agricultural and domestic workers" (Archenbaum, 2007, para. 5), which group included a great
majority of African Americans. In Mississippi, the “new state constitution required voters to pay a
poll tax and pass a literacy test” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 605). The new requirements blocked
some few white Mississippians from voting, but it also “eliminated the great majority of black
voters” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 605). The discrimination of this rule was legal because it was
not overtly directed at African Americans, and so, African Americans continued to face
discrimination.
African Americans entered the military and served in World War I. “African Americans
volunteered in disproportionately high numbers ... [and] [o]nly 10 percent of the population,
blacks made up 13 percent of all draftees” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 674). Where African
Americans were generally not considered to be good enough to live in society, they were
considered to be well suited to fight and to die for society. Even in the military, African
Americans faced racial discrimination. The army employed “new intelligence tests ... and almost
80 percent of blacks showed up as ‘inferior’” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, pp. 674-675).
A part of the African American response to the continuing racial discrimination of the
late nineteenth century was the 1896 establishment of the National Association of Colored
Women. In 1900, Booker T. Washington, a former slave, “organized the National Negro Business
League” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 607). In 1909, “a coalition of blacks and white reformers
transformed the Niagara Movement into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People {NAACP]” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 645).
The outcome of the response to racial discrimination in the late nineteenth-century and
the early twentieth century was that African Americans began to have some support for their
freedom. They were not yet free of racial prejudice and discrimination, but the NAACP, which
continues to support the interests of American Americans today, and the African American
contributions to the war effort helped to begin integrating African Americans ever-so-slowly into
American society.
In Unit Three, African Americans gained some social footing with the rise of mass media
and the culture of celebrity, and with the creation of jazz. “Jazz was a remarkably complex blend
254 A Journey Through My College Papers
of several older African American musical traditions, combining the soulfulness of the blues with
the brighter syncopated rhythms of ragtime music” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 703). This music
was denounced by many white purists, but Paul Whiteman said, “Jazz is the folk music of the
machine age” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 705). On the airways, African Americans were
portrayed to mainstream America on the popular radio program Amos ‘n’ Andy, “a comedy about
African Americans created by two white vaudevillians in 1926” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 702).
African American musicians from the 1930s and 1940s included “Benny Goodman, The Dorsey
Brothers, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Guthrie, etc”
(Karagirova, 2009, para. 1).
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) opposed African Americans, as well as other racial and
cultural groups. The KKK was “a throwback to the hooded order of Reconstruction days ... [that]
worried about ... African Americans who refused to ‘recognize their place’” (Davidson, 2008, p.
712). The KKK “touted white supremacy ... [and] resorted to floggings, kidnappings, acid
mutilations, and murder” (Davidson, et. Al., 2008, p. 712). The overt prejudice and racial hatred
of the KKK was a clear danger to African Americans in many states.
African Americans served in World War II, but they faced racial prejudice, and they were
assigned to segregated units. “When World War II began, Americans lived in a society deeply
segregated along racial lines” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 781). African Americans lived and
worked alongside white Americans in this period, but they were not treated equally with whites.
In the poor economy between the world wars, African Americans found it particularly difficult to
get meaningful work. “Angry white supremacists called for ‘No jobs for niggers until every white
man has a job.’” (Recollections, 2008, para. 6). The anger and hostility of whites toward African
Americans represented a deepening of racial prejudice in America. “African Americans arrived in
the city with a culture of poverty that lowered aspirations and earnings” (Woodard, 2010, para. 3),
and it was difficult for African Americans to rise above that poverty to realize their true freedom,
even so long after Emancipation.
In response to the improved opportunities that became available to select African
Americans in the age of celebrity, more African American youths aspired to achieve success
through professional sports and through entertainment. In the decades that followed, African
Americans achieved prominent roles in movies, in music, and in sports. There was not much
response that could be made to the attitudes of the KKK at that time, but the KKK “was undone by
sex scandals and financial corruption” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 712) within itself, making it a
much less significant threat. In response to the discrimination in employment opportunities, the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was developed and became “the most powerful black labor
organization” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 782). In addition, President Roosevelt “issue[d]
Executive Order 8802 barring discrimination in the hiring of government or defense industry
workers” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 782).
One outcome of these responses was that African Americans are still prominent in the
entertainment and sports industries in the twenty-first century, and that the early African American
celebrities are still remembered. Executive Order 8802, and the subsequently established Fair
Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) have not always been so successful, as “[m]ore than
half of all defense jobs were closed to minorities” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 782), even after the
FEPC began. Non-government jobs were not covered by Executive Order 8802, so employment
discrimination continued.
In Unit Four, African Americans fought for and won increased civil rights and civil
liberties during a period of cultural revolution. In the 1950s and the 1960s, “the rise of large black
voting blocs in major cities created political pressures that helped force the nation to dismantle the
worst legal and institutional barriers to racial equality” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 859). African
Americans had been left since the period of Reconstruction “without any real enforcement of the
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civil rights that would have given meaning to the word freedom” (Gauthier, 2011, para. 20), but
civil rights and civil liberties began to be important to American society in this period. The
NAACP “convinced the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court ruling in Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka (1954)” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 861), which finally opened education
equally to African Americans as well as to whites. African Americans had known since before the
end of slavery that education was a key to freedom, and that was finally made available to them in
1956. Still, in the same year, “19 senators and 81 representatives ... declared their intent to use ‘all
lawful means’ to reestablish legal segregation” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 861), so African
Americans continued to face racial prejudice and discrimination. “[T]he essential, even the sole,
black problem was white prejudice” (Nuechterlein, 2011, para. 11). This was the heart of most of
the problems faced by African Americans, and it had been so for the nearly a century since
Emancipation.
In response to the racial segregation of the 1950’s, African Americans began to make a
stand for their civil rights. The most famous example of this stand for civil rights is the African
American Rosa Parks, who was arrested when she refused to “give up her seat for a white man”
(Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 863) on a public bus. This arrest gave rise to the Monday boycott,
which protested segregation on buses. In addition, Martin Luther King, Jr., began preaching non-
violence in race relations.
One outcome of this response was that African American civil rights were brought to the
attention of the American public as they had never been before. The arrest of Rosa Parks drew
attention to the wrongness of the Jim Crow laws. School segregation issues came to a head in
Little Rock, Arkansas, when the governor closed the schools rather than allow racial integration,
and President Eisenhower’s intervention brought desegregation of America’s schools into the
public consciousness. “From 1955 to 1959 civil rights protesters endured over 200 acts of
violence” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 864). This was an outcome of the effort to establish the civil
rights of African Americans. Despite everything, “[t]he civil rights laws did not strike at the de
facto segregation found outside the South” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 867), and racial prejudice
and discrimination continued.
In Unit Five, African Americans continued to face a racial divide right up to the end of
the text. While African Americans have achieved positions of power and influence in
entertainment, in the military, and in politics in modern America, as well as in nearly every other
field of endeavor, racial prejudice and discrimination still exist all around us. An African
American in almost any city in America may still be “stopped by the police for ‘Driving While
Black ... [or be] called a ‘Nigger.’” (Goldstone, 2005, para. 2). We cringe away from admitting
that such a hateful epithet can still exist in this country, while our African American neighbors
wish “for it to be possible ‘for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed
and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face’”
(Goldstone, 2005, para. 13). America is a powerful nation that polices the rest of the world for
civil rights violations, but a significant percentage of its population is still marginalized, if only in
subtle, hard-to-distinguish ways. Even the name “African American” discriminates against the
man or woman whose ancestors arrived on a slave ship in the seventeenth century. My own
ancestors arrived from England in 1636, after the beginning of the slave trade, but I am not an
“English American.” We do not designate the ancient origins of any race in America except
African Americans and Native Americans. All the rest of us are generally referred to only as
Americans.
Following the attacks by Islamic extremists in 2001, Cornel West (2002) identified all
Americans with the experiences of African Americans when he said,
I would argue that America was 'niggerized.' What I mean by niggerized is that between
1619 and 2002, to be a nigger is to be unprotected, is to be subject to random violence
256 A Journey Through My College Papers
and hated. And America as a whole has never been hated, never been unprotected, and
never subject to random violence. (Cited in Goldstone, 2005, para. 14).
West recognized that African Americans have been subjected to hatred and violence because of
their race. White Americans, even when certain immigrant groups faced discrimination for short
periods of time, never experienced the helplessness and the fear that are experienced by African
Americans, until Al Qaeda flew aircraft into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Amiri
Baraka (2001) echoed that idea when he said, “Black Americans have suffered from domestic
terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery ... denial of rights, national oppression,
racism, character assassination” (Cited in Goldstone, 2005, para. 17). “Although the situation of
African Americans had improved vastly compared with their position in the 1950s, race still
mattered [in the 1990s]” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 974). The 1991 beating of Rodney King by
four white police officers in Los Angeles, California, outraged Americans. Racial violence was
still alive in America.
African Americans in the early twenty-first century are still not free of racial prejudice
and discrimination from their white neighbors. In many communities, “local race relations [are]
governed by "polite racism" that maintain[s] white supremacy while allowing a unique degree of
African American political participation” (Jolly, 2010, para. 2). In the town where I live now,
African American children are suspected of local crimes before white children are considered in
relation to the same crimes. “There is no reason to believe that the severe current recession will
not result in ... a widening of the racial attainment gap between whites and blacks” (Recollections,
2008, para. 7). That such a sentiment can still exist in America paints a vivid picture of the racial
prejudice and discrimination that white Americans still inflict on African Americans.
Affirmative Action effectively ended in California in 1996, although it had only “been
reduced in scope but not abolished” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 975). Affirmative action is the
“practice of actively seeking to increase the number of racial and ethnic minorities, women,
persons in a protected age category, persons with disabilities, and disabled veterans in a work
place or school” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. G-1). When it is capitalized in the common
vernacular, it is generally understood to refer to minorities, and particularly to African Americans.
It was set up in 1967 by the Johnson administration, and it initially applied to the building trades.
California Proposition 209 “eliminated racial and gender preferences in hiring and college
admissions” (Davidson, et. al., 2008, p. 975). Other states followed suit.
Just beyond the end of the text, in 2008, America elected its first African American
president, Barak Obama. President Obama’s election should have been a sign that African
Americans were finally free of racial prejudice and discrimination, but that was not the case.
“African Americans ... held out hope for a black president, yet ... did not expect ever to see such a
momentous event occur within their own lifetimes” (Gauthier, 2011, para. 12). The momentous
event occurred, resulting in “America congratulating itself for being willing to consider a black
man for president, with the subtext being that the United States had finally liberated itself from its
racist past” (Serwer, 2008, para. 3).If racial prejudice was a thing of the past, it would not be
necessary for such congratulations to take place, but it is necessary. Amina Gautier (2011), in her
discussion of post-racial America in the age of Obama, describes a poster that was displayed at the
college where she teaches: “A poster for the College Republicans depicted President Obama as the
Joker from Dark Knight, the 2008 film that is part of the Batman film series” (para. 21). She
explains how President Obama depicted as the Joker is “as undoubtedly ‘racial’ as any picture of a
black man in whiteface must be ... unquestionably a terrorist; a man who disguises his face ... and
prefers anarchy to democracy” (Gauthier, 2011, paras. 21-22). Although an African American –
and truly African American, as slave descendants are not, since his father is a black Kenyan and
his mother is a White American – is the President of the United States, even he is not free from
racial prejudice, discrimination, and profiling. He is painted, quite literally, as a criminal, on a
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college poster. He “continues to face a series of arbitrary and shifting public tests merely because
he is black” (Serwer, 2008, para. 3). President Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863. Almost a century
and a half later, President Obama still faces discrimination, merely because of the color of the skin
– even though none of his ancestors was ever a slave in America.
The response to discrimination in the twenty-first century is yet to come. Most African
Americans “shake their heads and move on” (Serwer, 2008, para. 13) when they encounter racial
prejudice. It is not yet possible to know what the full response will be, or what outcomes may
emerge from those responses. History continues to unfold around us, and only the future will tell
us how racial discrimination may end.
African Americans have faced racial prejudice and discrimination since the first captive
Africans were sold into slavery in the American colonies in 1619. Despite being freedpeople, and
later becoming citizens, they have continued to face anti-black racism continuously through the
period since the Emancipation Proclamation. Although America has elected an African American
president in the twenty-first century, African Americans still face racial discrimination in
American society. It is to be hoped that racial prejudices may be erased in the future, and that
racial discrimination may end. African Americans have been free in America for 148 years. It is
my hope that is does not take that long from now for people of all races to be truly equal in
American society.
References
Archenbaum, W.. (2007). The segregated origins of social security: African Americans and the
welfare state. Journal of Social History, 41(1), 207-208. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from
ProQuest database.
Cha-Jua, S., Williams, L.S., Wickett, M.R.. (2002). America’s first black town, Brooklyn, Illinois,
1830-1915. Urban History Review, 30(2), 53-55. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest
database.
Clendenin, D.. (2005). The Buffalo Soldiers: Unsung heroes of the American West. Social Studies
Review, 45(1), 38-39. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Contemporary controversies and the American racial divide. (2000). The Journal of Blacks in
Higher Education, (29), 138. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Davidson, J.W., Delay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., Stoff, M.B.. (2008). Nation of nations: a
narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Gauthier, A.. (2011). On post-racial America in the Age of Obama. Daedalus, 140(1), 90-94, 97.
Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Goldstone, D.. (2005). An African American professor reflects on what 9/11 meant for African
Americans, and herself. The Journal of American Culture, 28(1), 29-34. Retrieved May
24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Hardaway, R.D.. (2001). African American cowboys on the western frontier. Negro History
Bulletin, 64(1-4), 27-32. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Inwood, J.. (2009). Upbuilding black Durham: Gender, class, and black community
development in the Jim Crow South. Southeastern Geographer, 49(3), 313-315.
Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Jolly, K.S.. (2010). Grassroots at the gateway: Class politics and black freedom struggle in St.
Louis, 1936-75. The Journal of American History, 97(2), 569-570. Retrieved May 24,
2011, from ProQuest database.
Karagirova, M.. (2009) Music of 1930-1945. Retrieved June 12, 2011, from http://team-4-pop-
culture.blogspot.com/2009/06/assignment-1-5-culture-and-society.html
Nuechterlein, J.. (2011). Race matters. First Things, (210), 3-5. Retrieved May 24, 2011,
from ProQuest database.
258 A Journey Through My College Papers
Recollections of the Great Depression “No jobs for niggers until every white man has a job”.
(2008). The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, (62), 29. Retrieved May 24, 2011,
from ProQuest database.
Serwer, A.. (2008). Obama’s racial catch-22. The American Prospect [Electronic version].
Retrieved June 12, 2011, from
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=obamas_racial_catch22
Woodard, K.. (2010). African American urban history since World War II. The Journal of
American History, 97(1), 260-261. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from ProQuest
database.
ENG 341: Studies in Literary Genres
Parables, Fables, and Tales 6/16/2011
In parables, which are "often religious or spiritual in nature" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 30), the
tone is usually serious and didactic. This is evident in Luke’s The Prodigal Son from the lack of
details, such as personal names, that could detract from the lesson of the parable. When Luke
writes: "A certain man had two sons" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 27), he does not tell where the father and
sons live, when they live, or anything about their lifeways. He leaves it open for the reader to
imagine any father with two sons, so that the reader can understand the moral of the parable
without hindrance.
In fables, which are "brief stories that point to a moral" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 43), the tone
is usually lighter than that of the parable, and it is often satirical. In Aesop's The Wolf and the
Mastiff, the tone is first set by anthropomorphizing the wolf and the dog. The animals interact in a
way that creates a mental image of two men meeting : a scruffy, scrawny outcast or outlaw, and a
comfortably well-situated city guard or police officer. The moral, "Better starve free, than be a fat
slave" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 44), shows that the true life situations of the wolf and the dog are rather
the reverse of what they appear to be at the start of the story. The wolf is free to live his life, while
the dog is the slave of his human masters.
Another of Aesop's fables, The Ant and the Grasshopper, also anthropomorphizes its
main characters: a grasshopper and an ant. This is a very common feature of fables, which makes
the stories and their morals more appealing to readers. This fable teaches a serious moral lesson in
a light and whimsical manner. When the grasshopper asks, "Why bother about winter?" (Aesop,
n.d., para. 4), the reader can see that the silly creature is setting itself up for disaster.
In tales, which relate "strange or fabulous happenings" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 44), the tone is
harder to define. It may be serious, as with a parable, but it is more likely to be lighter and more
intimate. A tale draws the reader into the story to provide entertainment, and it may not contain
any clear lesson. In Petronius' The Widow of Ephesus, the tone is that of telling a secret about a
woman who is first pathetic, and later clever. It begins as a tragedy, but ends as a romantic
comedy, when she tells her lover, "better far, I say, to hang the dead than to kill the living"
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 46). The widow saves the life of her lover by having her dead husband's body
hung on the cross in place of the missing body of a thief.
References:
Aesop. (n.d.). The ant and the grasshopper. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from
http://aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheAntandtheGrasshopper&&antgrass.ram
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Di Yanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
The Short Story 6/16/2011
Plot and structure are crucial elements of fiction because they are the devices around
which a story is constructed. The plot is the series of events through which the story unfolds, with
"a sequence of incidents that bear a significant causal relationship to each other" (DiYanni, 2008,
p. 49). Without the causal relationship, the account might be a sort of history, but it would not be
a story plot. The plot usually follows a predictable pattern, with an introductory bit, called the
exposition; a bit of crisis or complication that builds tension and interest in the story; a climax,
where the tension peaks and a significant event in the story occurs; a period of falling action,
where the tension eases away; and a conclusion, resolution, or denouement, which wraps up the
threads of the story and provides closure.
The "structure is the design" (DYanni, 2008, p. 50) of the story. It includes the patters of
the story. "Plot directs us to the story in motion, structure to the story at rest" (DiYanni, 2008, p.
51). The structure gives a story its balance and order, and it guides the reader through shifts of
scene or focus in the story.
Frank O'Connor's (1931) Guests of the Nation follows the classic plot order of exposition,
complication, climax, falling action, and denouement. Chapter one provides the exposition,
introducing the characters, suggesting the setting through oblique references to being in Ireland,
and indicating the time period through mention of the "German war" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 53).
Chapter two provides the complication of possibly needing to execute prisoners who have become
friends. Chapter three stretches out the tension of the rising action as the Irish guards take the
English prisoners to be executed. Chapter four begins with the climax of the story. The execution
of one prisoner is the climax, but the execution of the second prisoner leads into the falling action,
providing something of an anti-climax. The final quarter of chapter four is the denouement. The
dead men are buried, and the story slows to a close.
The structure of Guests of the Nation provides the tempo of the story. The beginning of
the story is sow, taking half of the story to build the relationships among the characters. Hawkins'
argumentative nature is contrasted with Belcher's quietly accepting nature. Noble and the narrator
are shown to be sympathetic with the prisoners, while Donovan is shown to be more distant. The
tempo quickens as the first execution approaches, then drops off abruptly between the two
executions. The tempo drifts slowly to a stop at the end of the story.
Margaret Atwood's Happy Endings is not so much a story as a spectrum of related
stories. Each option represents a sort of alternate reality option. Each lettered option follows the
classic plot structure in miniature. The structure of the six separate stories into one story is key to
this piece. Part A has almost no real plot, although the story moves from getting married, through
getting settled, climaxing with the birth of children, falling through retirement, and concluding
with death. Part B has interesting action, with complications that make the reader keep reading.
Part C is similar in tension levels to B, and its complications keep the reader engaged. The same
is true of the subsequent parts, and several of the parts have the potential for being strung together
to form a longer story with multiple mini-climaxes. Happy Endings has a clear point: each of the
stories ends with the death of the characters, but it is "the stretch in between" (DiYanni, 2008, p.
291) that the makes the stories interesting to read. Each plot in the story is different from the other
plots, but each plot has the same resolution. The overarching resolution of Happy Endings is the
260 A Journey Through My College Papers
acknowledgement that it is the body of the story, between the exposition and the denouement, that
makes a story worth reading.
References:
Di Yanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Fall Semester, 2011
ENG 201: American Literature to 1865
Iroquois 7/18/2011
In "The Great Binding Law," nature plays a practical role in several ways. First, when
Dekanawidah plants the Tree of the Great Peace, which is also called the Tree of the Great Long
Leaves (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 29), he is not literally planting a growing tree in the
earth. Rather, he is using the tree as a metaphor for establishing an overarching covenant among
the Five Nations. He uses the image of a great tree because it is familiar to the people of the
American Northeast, which was heavily forested with old-growth trees. A tree is strong, but it can
yield to the forces of the world in order to survive; it is stronger because it is not brittle or
unyielding. A tree represents a place of shelter from scorching sun, blowing winds, and soaking
rains, so it is a symbol of the Great Peace protecting the people of the Five Nations, and especially
those leaders who will gather under "The Great Binding Law."
Another role of nature in "The Great Binding Law" is: "Roots have spread out from the
Tree of the Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one to the south and one to the west"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 29). Just as the tree is a metaphor, so are the roots that are
"Peace and Strength" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 29) a metaphor. As the roots spread out
from the tree, they carry peace and strength from the conference of the leaders of the nations to the
people of the Five Nations. The roots are not a physical thing; the roots represent the oneness of
the people who have joined the Five Nations together to live as one people.
At the top of the tree is "an Eagle who is able to see afar" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p. 29). The eagle is a symbol of power. It is strong and fierce, and it has extraordinary vision.
When the eagle is placed atop the tree, it suggests that the eagle's nest is in the tree. The eagle will
guard its nest, and will be vigilant against any threat to the tree in which the nest is built. The
eagle here is a metaphor for how carefully the representatives of the Five Nations who are in the
council will guard against any danger to the people of the Five Nations. This is not only in the
sense of physical danger from other tribes or from Europeans, but also in the sense of being
mindful of dangers that may be faced by the leaders. The leaders must guard against any action or
decision that is not right for the people of the Five Nations.
In the opening ceremony of the Council, the Onondaga offer thanks to many aspects of
nature for providing the needs of the people:
[T]hanks to the earth where men dwell, to the streams of water, the pools, the
springs and the lakes, to the maize and the fruits, to the medicinal herbs and
trees, to the forest trees for their usefulness, to the animals that serve as food and
give their pelts for clothing, to the great winds and the lesser winds, to the
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Thunderers, to the Sun, the mighty warrior, to the moon. (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 30)
The thanks continue, to include what Europeans would call angels, and to include God.
In this case, nature is not being used as a metaphor. The people give thanks to each being of
nature, as they believe that each thing in creation is a being with which the people of the Five
Nations share the world. It is necessary to acknowledge and honor each being for its contribution
to the lives of the people.
"The Great Binding Law" has parallels to the Constitution of the United States. "The
Council of the Mohawk shall be divided into three parties as follows: Tekarihoken,
Ayonhwhathah and Shadekariwade are the first party; Sharenhowaneh, Deyoenhegwenh and
Oghrenghrehgowah are the second party, and Dehennakrineh, Aghstawenserenthah and
Shoskoharowaneh are the third party" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 30). These are not
political parties, but they are more similar to the houses of Congress, except that there is a third
house.
Another similarity to modern government is in the arrangement of the various nations in
the Council. The Mohawk and Seneca Lords are like the House of Representatives, or the "lower"
house of Congress, where a bill may first be considered. When they reach a decision, the matter is
passed to the Cayuga and Oneida Lords, who are like the Senate, or the "upper" house of
Congress, where a bill may be considered for a second time. They either agree with or disagree
with the Mohawk and Seneca Lords. The matter then goes to the Onondaga Lords, who are like
the President, who ratifies or vetoes the bills that are sent up from Congress, for a final decision on
the matter. If the Onondaga render an inappropriate decision, then "the Two Sides shall reconsider
the matter" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 31), and the Onondaga can be "compelled to confirm
their joint decision" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 31). This reminds me of the passage of bills
in Congress, with presidential ratification or veto, and with the ability of Congress to overturn a
veto.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Sinners 7/18/2011
Jonathan Edwards' 1741 sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is filled with
rhetoric that is designed to evoke fear in its audience. Edwards' sermon was "spoken with
dramatic calmness and restraint" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 155), which makes his words
more serious and frightening than they would be if they were delivered loudly, with wild
movements, as often happens with sermons about doom and damnation.
"Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea,
doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, that, it may be, are at ease and quiet, than
He is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.
157). This would have been terrifying for many Puritans. It was well known and widely accepted
that the souls in hell suffered eternal anguish because they had incurred God's anger. To learn that
one, or one of one's neighbors, might be the object of greater anger from God than were the souls
in hell would make a Puritan afraid that he or she would not be counted among the elect in
Heaven. Each Puritan lived in the hope and expectation of spending eternity with God, and any
chance of missing that would have been a great source of fear.
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"The wrath of God burns against them; their damnation does not slumber; the pit is
prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now
rage and glow" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 157). The commonly accepted punishment for
heresy in the 17th and 18th centuries was burning. Even witches were only hanged, but heretics
were burned. The thought that one's sins were a heresy against God, and that God had prepared
not a brief, killing fire, but an eternal, tormenting fire would cause terror in the heart of a Puritan.
Since the Puritans were educated, they would know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, and the description would call it to mind even before Edwards mentioned it later in the
sermon. They would recall that the three brothers were saved by God from the fiery furnace, and
they would be afraid at being told they would not be saved.
"And you children who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to
hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God who is now angry with you every day and every
night?" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 166). Even in Puritan times, when it was believed that
everyone bore the stain of Original sin, the idea that a child might bear God's wrath would be
frightening. Aside from the horror evoked by the thought of children suffering in hell, this would
have made adults think how much more danger they, who had lived lives that were not wholly
blameless, were in, if innocent little children had incurred such anger from God.
Over all, I do not think this sermon would have the same power over a congregation, or
over the general population, today as it had when Edwards first delivered it. A great many
Americans do not follow an organized religious practice, so those would not even hear it. Many
of those who did hear it would dismiss it, as hell as come to be seen by many to be a fiction.
Others, who go to church only to hear about love and salvation, would be offended at the reminder
that God punishes sinfulness. A select few would still hear the message to convert or face eternity
away from God, and some would hear that they were irretrievably doomed, but these would be the
minority.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Letters 7/27/2011
In "Correspondence," there are several ways by which the authors seek to establish trust
with their intended audiences. One way is to employ humility, so that the reader finds honesty
that causes the reader to trust other statements by the writer. In Jefferson's letter to Madison,
Jefferson writes: "I do not pretend to decide what would be the best method of procuring the
establishment of the manifold good things in this constitution, and of getting rid of the bad"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 181). By honestly admitting a limitation, Jefferson gives the
impression that the rest of the letter is similarly honest, thus engendering Madison's trust. In
Banneker's letter to Jefferson, Banneker uses a similar degree of honesty when he reveals his race:
"Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 189).
Another means of gaining trust is to state the writer's agreement with the known ideas of
the reader. In Jefferson's letter to Adams, he begins, "I agree with you that there is a natural
aristocracy among men" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 182). Having established the intimacy
of common ground between the writer and the reader, Jefferson can be confident of having also
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established trust. In Adams' letter to his wife, Adams likewise uses mutual agreement to establish
trust: "It is very true, as you observe" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 187).
A third means of gaining trust is to refer in an intimate manner to the reader's life, locale,
or experiences. In Jefferson's letter to Adams, Jefferson uses this manner of writing: "like your
townships ... as your people have so often done" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, pp. 183-184). By
comparing the proposed division of counties to Adams' townships, Jefferson establishes the
desirability of making the divisions. By comparing proposed actions to the way Adams' people
have done things, Jefferson suggests that the proposed actions are the correct actions.
When Benneker writes to Jefferson, Banneker employs name-dropping to obtain
Jefferson's trust: "by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 190).
By establishing an implied relationship with a prominent man in society, Banneker raises his own
status by association.
Jefferson uses an interesting device to establish trust in his letter to Banneker: "our black
brethren ... Sir, Your most obedient Humble Servant" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 191).
Jefferson implies in the use of the first person possessive that he and Banneker have similar status.
More, the slave-holder styles himself as the servant of the black man, whom he calls Sir. The
leveling of the social playing field engenders trust.
In his essays, or sermons, Paine uses the first person pronouns "we" and "us" to engage
the trust of his audience. He establishes solidarity with his audience when he writes: "when we
suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.
273). Had he preached "you" instead of "we," his audience would have been less inclined to trust
the rest of his message. Again, he uses this first-person-plural solidarity when he "quotes the
Declaratory Act of Parliament" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 274): "Britain ... has declared
that she has a right ... to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 274). By identifying himself with his audience, Paine secures the trust of his audience.
Red Jacket addresses his audience as "Friend and Brother" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p. 369), or simply as "Brother," throughout his speech. By establishing kinship with his audience,
Red Jacket establishes the trust of his audience. He also uses the device of first-person solidarity,
in the same manner as that used by Paine.
Red Jacket also uses the beliefs of the Seneca in order to engender trust in his audience:
"It was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet together this day" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 369). By invoking the Great Spirit, Red Jacket establishes the authority by which he
addresses his Seneca brethren.
According to Merriam-Webster, a speech is "something that is spoken ... usually public
discourse" (Speech, 2011, para. 2); a sermon is "a religious discourse delivered in public usually
by a clergyman as part of a worship service" (Sermon, 2011, para. 1) Based on these definitions, a
sermon is a kind of speech, and it is only set apart by being of a religious nature. Paine's speeches
are generally secular in nature, so they are simply speeches. Red Jacket's speech invokes the
Great Spirit, which makes the communication of a religious nature, so it is properly designated as
a sermon.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.).
New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Sermon. (2011). Merriam-Webster [Electronic version]. Retrieved July 27, 2011, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sermon
Speech. (2011). Merriam-Webster [Electronic version]. Retrieved July 27, 2011, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speech
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Franklin 7/28/2011
Some details are important in storytelling, while other details are only important to
formal recordings of history. In Franklin's "The Autobiography," details such as the precise
location of Bradford's establishment in Philadelphia would have disrupted the intimate rhythm of
the narrative. Conversely, the information that Bradford's "quarters were presumably somewhere
on the forty-five-foot lot, located eighty feet south of the southwest corner of Second and Market
streets, which extended west one hundred and thirty-two feet to Strawberry Alley" (Roach, 1960,
pp. 129-130) is a treasure for the serious historian.
Other details are appropriate to an autobiography, but would clutter a historical account.
"The Autobiography" devotes just over three pages of description to Franklin's journey to Boston
to ask his father's help to set up a printing business, including a description of Franklin's visit to
his brother's shop: "I was better dress'd than ever while in his Service, having a genteel new Suit
from Head to foot ... This visit of mine offended him extreamly ... he said, I had insulted him in
such a Manner before his People that he could never forget or forgive it" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 220). The account is filled with intimate details of dress, of persons met along the way,
and of Franklin's activities, which details draw the reader into the story. Roach (1960) devotes
only sixty words to the same adventure, writing that Franklin "made a short trip to Boston in a
search for capital with which to set himself up in business ... the search proved fruitless, Franklin
returned to Philadelphia" (p. 133). Both accounts are truthful and accurate, so far as can be
determined, but the homely details of Franklin's account provide depth to the story, which is
missing in the historical account.
Similarly, Franklin devotes several pages to his first stay in England, while the historical
account devotes only a few short paragraphs to the experience. However, Franklin skips over the
period of 1726-1730 almost entirely, while the historical account goes into some detail about that
period. Roach (1960) writes: "Franklin was still debtor to Denham for the £10 passage money
which Denham had paid to Captain John Crain on December 29, 1726" (p. 136).
The manner of storytelling in "The Autobiography" reminds me a great deal of the stories
that my grandmother told throughout my childhood. Like my grandmother, Franklin is telling his
story to his family, so that his posterity will know who he was and what his life was like. He tells
the story from his own memory of events, without recourse to any journals, letters, or other papers
that might have contained exact dates, addresses, financial information, and other clinical details.
The omission of such clinical details, and the inclusion of intimate, personal details in the story
gives the story a warmth and a depth that simple, historical facts could not convey. The truth of
Franklin's life is manifest in his autobiography, even though it may lack the academic accuracy of
Roach's (1960) account.
Writing about personal experiences is difficult when the audience is not a family member
or a close acquaintance. When writing for someone I do not know personally, I find it necessary
to add explanatory details, such as how a named person relates to the story, while omitting other
details that are too personal to be presented to an anonymous audience. This assignment comes at
a rather difficult time for me to complete it, as it is not hypothetical for me. After I submit this
response to the class, I must write out my memories of my step-mother, to be included in a booklet
at her funeral this weekend. Coming up with the memories is easy; writing the memories to be
read by strangers is a daunting task. I need to write in such a manner as to honor her memory,
leaving out details that, while wholly innocent, and even amusing, in the context of family, would
tend to make outsiders think ill of her.
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I think the same challenge faces anyone who writes about personal experiences for an
impersonal audience. In writing a book of my own life memories, which will be part of my future
legacy for my children, I am writing very differently than I would write if I intended my book for
open publication. For my posterity, I am writing the narratives as I remember them; for open
publication, I would need to be more circumspect about relating events that could hurt or
embarrass anyone other than myself.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Roach, H.B.. (1960). Benjamin Franklin slept here. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography, 84(2), pp. 127-174. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.stable/20089285
Fiction 8/4/2011
Poe uses many nature symbols in his stories and poems. In both "Sonnet -- to Science"
and "The Tell-tale Heart," Poe uses the vulture as a metaphor for what is evil and frightening.
"Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,/ Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 491). In this instance, Poe uses the entire vulture as a metaphor
for science, which strips away the romantic beauty of the world by replacing poetry with cold
facts. "He had the eye of a vulture" (Poe, 1843, para. 2). Here, Poe refers only to the vulture's
eye, which seeks out dead things on which the vulture may prey. The vulture's eye is evil and
threatening, and Poe's narrator is compelled to destroy the eye.
Poe also uses water as a symbol in his poems. "Sonnet -- to Science" asks: "Hast thou
not torn the Naiad from her flood" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 491). "To Helen" speaks of
"desperate seas" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 491). "The City in the Sea" speaks of
"melancholy waters ... [and] some far-off happier sea" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, pp. 492-
493). The Naiad's flood is a symbol of happy innocence, unblemished by the complications of
science. Tearing her from her flood indicates the rending of innocence by the advent of science.
Desperation and melancholy are both negative emotions. The waters represent those emotions in
the poems. One may be carried along by such waters, influenced but unharmed; or one may fight
against the pull of such waters; or one may be overpowered by and drowned in such waters. In the
same way, one may be affected in various ways by the experiences of desperation and melancholy.
It seems likely that Poe was fighting such emotions, and that he was losing the battle.
Irving describes an idyllic area of upstate New York in both "The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," he introduces the terror of
Crane's walk home by describing "[w]hat fearful shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the
dim and ghostly glare of a snowy night" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 422). The shadows are
repeated often in the story, providing hiding places for the "ghosts and goblins ... direful omens
and portentous sights" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 421). Even casual mention of darkness or
shadows is enough to stir up fear in the human imagination. The unknown is in the shadows. The
thief and the predator lurk in the shadows. Even most Western religions refer to darkness as the
abode of evil. Irving's use of the symbol to evoke fear, terror, and dread is apt.
Similarly, in "Rip Van Winkle," Irving describes the land that faces away from the Dutch
settlement as "wild, lonely ... and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 408). again, the shadowed land is frightening, as it is separated
266 A Journey Through My College Papers
from the "fair and settled" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 404) land where the Dutch have
established civilization.
The community of Sleepy Hollow is described: "[I]t is in such little retired Dutch valleys
... that population, manners, and customs, remain fixed; while the great torrent of migration and
improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts of this restless country,
sweeps by them unobserved" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 418). Even at this early date,
expansion and progress are happening in the larger world, while Sleepy Hollow remains a sleepy,
dreamy, old-fashioned place.
The spectre of the Headless Horseman as "the ghost of a Hessian trooper" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 418) recalls a violent, martial time in the area's history. The Hessian is
frightening, with or without his head, because he disturbs the complacent tranquility of Sleepy
Hollow.
The community in "Rip Van Winkle" is a similarly quiet place. It is still a Colonial
settlement, with its inn "designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the Third"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 406). After Rip's supernatural sleep, he finds the community
larger, busier, and less peaceful. The inn has been redesignated "the Union Hotel" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 411). The painting of the king has been repainted to represent George
Washington. Rip has slept through the Revolution, and does not understand the new, American
community. When he innocently declares himself "a loyal subject of the king" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 412), he causes a public upset, but he does not realize what is wrong.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.).
New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Poe, E.A. (1843). The tell-tale heart. Retrieved August 4, 2011, from
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/telltale.html
Oppressions 8/4/2011
Red Jacket and Black Hawk have different styles of writing. Most noticeably, Red Jacket
addresses the white missionaries, and uses a direct, personal tone. He calls the missionaries
Brother. Black Hawk addresses the Indians, writing in a semi-personal, narrative style. Both Red
Jacket and Black Hawk recall injustices of the whites against the Indians. Red Jacket does this
calmly, writing: "They wanted more land; they wanted our country. Our eyes were opened, and
our minds became uneasy. Wars took place ... and many of our people were destroyed. They also
brought strong liquor amongst us. It ... has slain thousands" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p.370). Black Hawk writes more forcefully, stressing some of his words. He writes: "We knew
very well that our Great Father has deceived us, and thereby forced us to join the British ... what
they had said was a lie!" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.438). Red Jacket writes more about the
beginning of relations between whites and Indians, while Black Hawk writes more about the
Indians' customs and habits.
Anne Hutchinson uses simple, direct language to express herself in response to questions
put by Governor Winthrop. She does not write a paper herself. She says: "Do you think it is not
lawful for me to teach women, and why do you call me to teach the court? ... I desire that you
would then set me down a rule by which I may put them away that come unto me and so have
peace in so doing" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.27). Maria Stewart writes in the style of a
sermon or oratory. She makes references not only to the Bible, but to other nations. She writes: "I
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have enlisted in the holy warfare, and Jesus my captain; and the Lord's battle I mean to fight, until
my voice expire in death. I expect to be hated of all men, and persecuted even unto death for
righteousness and the truth's sake" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.609). Both women espouse
the cause of the oppressed, each in her own time and place. Hutchinson's words are from 1637,
while Stewart's words are from 1832. Hutchinson defends her actions in holding educational
meetings in her home for women. In her time, women were required to keep to their place in
society. Hutchinson cites the book of Titus, in the Bible, as her authority for teaching the women.
Stewart cites many passages from the Bible to support her exhortations to her female audience to
live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to raise up women, and especially to raise up "the descendants of
fallen Africa" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.609). Stewart concludes her sermon: "O woman,
woman! ... let me exhort you to cultivate among yourselves a spirit of Christian love and unity,
having charity one for another" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.611). The two women express
themselves differently because of the social differences at either end of two centuries. Hutchinson
could not have spoken out as forcefully in the 17th century as Stewart spoke out in the 19th
century, without certain punishment. By 1832, Stewart was able to have a voice, at least before
female audiences, to effect social change.
Black Hawk and Maria Stewart both write at a time when freedom of the new United
States is translating into a quest for other forms of freedom from oppression. In 1832 -- the same
year in which Stewart writes -- William Lloyd Garrison describes slavery as "a system of the most
atrocious villainy ever exhibited on earth" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.387). In 1848, "a
group of men and women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, to discuss the issues surrounding
the rights of women in American society" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.397). Where
Hutchinson is barely allowed to speak in public in 1637, and Stewart addresses only women in
1832, men and women are talking together about the rights of women in 1848. The notes in
"Reading in Historical Context" show that the styles of writing and public speaking change as
history moves forward.
We cannot judge Red Jacket's writings in 1805 and Black Hawk's writings in 1833
through the lens of 2011. Likewise, we cannot judge Anne Hutchinson's testimony in 1637
against Maria Stewart's sermon in 1832. Each writing must be considered against the social and
political atmosphere of its own time. It is evident from the writings that these four individuals
share a common passion for what each believes, but that each is constrained by society to express
that passion -- or to repress it -- in a different way.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Commentary in Fiction 8/11/2011
In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne comments on how people who appear to be
good, pious people in the light of day, all have dark or evil secrets that they hide from society. He
enumerates some hidden sins: "how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton
words to the young maids of their households; how many a woman, eager for widow's weeds, has
given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep in her bosom ... and how fair damsels ...
have dug little graves in the garden" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 628). Goodman Brown
sees his own father and grandfather, the minister, and other good people at the unholy rite in the
forest. Hawthorne shows that there is darkness in every person, and writes: "Evil is the nature of
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mankind" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 628). Goodman Brown resists the lure of evil,
clinging to the supposed purity of his wife. When he realizes that she, too, has darkness inside
her, he becomes "[a] stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 629). By setting his story in an earlier time, when good and are
more clearly defined, Hawthorne avoids openly accusing 19th century Americans of putting pious
faces on their secretly impious lives. He reveals the lie of hubris by showing that those who are
proud of their godly reputations do not fully live good lives.
In "Bartleby, the Scrivener," it is harder to discern the social commentary in the person of
Bartleby. The narrator hires Bartleby, in part, because he is "a man of so singularly sedate an
aspect" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 669). The employer hires someone he believes will
make his office look good, without checking his references. At first, Bartleby does very good
work, but he soon becomes a burden as he refuses to perform time after time. Finally, the
employer moves, rather than deal with the problem. The employer continues to have an assumed
social responsibility for Bartleby, even after moving to a different office to get away from his
erstwhile employee. The story is written too early to be a social commentary on the sense of
entitlement found in the welfare state, but Bartleby certainly seems to feel entitled to receive
support without having to work for his support. I am not well-associated with the history of the
early- to mid-19th century, but I suppose there may be a growing problem with people feeling
entitled to unearned support. Also, the employer seems to be unable to control his employee.
This could be a veiled reference to the slaves in the South, or to the rise of the working class and
the decline of the gentry, although both became more distinct issues somewhat after Hawthorne's
time.
In Franklin's "Autobiography," we have an example of a life built on hard work and
enterprise. Franklin does not feel a sense of entitlement to anything for which he has not worked,
in apparent contrast to Bartleby. Irving's character, Rip Van Winkle, seems to feel more of the
sense of entitlement, but he is an amiable character, unlike Bartleby. Rip avoids work in order to
enjoy life, while Bartleby appears to avoid work in order to remove himself more thoroughly from
life.
Jonathan Edwards preaches against the hidden evils that Goodman Brown encounters in
the woods. Edwards preaches: "God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now
on earth, yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, that, it may be, are at ease
and quiet" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 157). He is addressing those who, like Hawthorne's
characters, are apparently at ease, and are piously attending the sermon, but who harbor in their
secret hearts a wide range of faults, sins, and crimes. Edwards and Hawthorne both write of the
darkness that outwardly good people carry in their souls.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Douglass/Autobiography 8/11/2011
Douglass is a slave, first to Auld and then to Covey. Auld is an inconsistent, weak-willed
man. He does not inspire respect in his slaves, and he is incapable of controlling them. Douglass
does not refer to Auld as Master, and is "hardly disposed to title him at all" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 768). Douglass is an educated slave, having spent six years learning to read in
Baltimore. He is not well suited to plantation work, and writes: "My master and myself had quite
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a number of differences. He found me unsuitable to his purpose" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p. 769). The one area in which Auld is consistent is in the mean way in which he feeds his slaves,
which forces them to bed and to steal to survive. "Not to give a slave enough to eat, is regarded as
the most aggravated development of meanness even among slaveholders" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 767). The lack of food causes Douglass to be intentionally careless about Auld's horse so
Douglass will have to go retrieve it when it runs away to Mr. Hamilton's farm. Douglass does this
because "Master William Hamilton ... always gave his slaves enough to eat. I never left there
hungry" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 769).
Covey is very different from Auld. Covey has "acquired a very high reputation for
breaking young slaves" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 769). Douglass tries to obey Covey, but
Covey beats him when he is unable to do the work. At times, Douglass admits that he does not
always comply with Covey's instructions, but he does not mention any consequences for those
events. He writes: "I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of
this discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and
spirit" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 772). After this, however, Douglass resists Covey and
beats him in a brawl:
[A]t this moment ... I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I
seized Covey hard by the throat ... He asked me if I meant to persist in my
resistance. I told him I did, come what might; that he had used me like a brute
for six months, and that I was determined to be used so no longer ... We were at
it for nearly two hours. Covey at length let me go, puffing and blowing at a
great rate, saying that if I had not resisted, he would not have whipped me half
so much. (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 776).
The fight put an end to Douglass' being beaten by Covey, and it "recalled the departed self-
confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p. 776).
Douglass is largely indifferent with Auld. With Covey, Douglass is broken, then restores
himself by standing up to his master in the manner of an equal.
I believe the fragment of the narrative in our text is true. The details may or may not be
fully accurate, but the accounting is truthful. I believe this in large part because Douglass does not
conceal his own faults, but reports them in the course of the narrative. If he wished to write an
untrue narrative to gain sympathy or support, he would not include his own misbehaviors.
While Benjamin Franklin will always be a master of words, it is easier to read Douglass'
autobiography than to read Franklin's autobiography. Douglass uses more standardized spelling,
and less florid language than does Franklin. Both accounts are interesting and compelling, but
they describe men of very different backgrounds. Franklin's well-known joviality comes through
in his colorful account of his life. Douglass' struggle against the abuses suffered by a slave come
through in his earnest account. Franklin's account is written to his son, for the sake of posterity.
He writes:
Having emerg'd from the Povert and Obscurity in which I was born and bred, to
a State of affluence and some Degree of Reputation in the World, and having
gone so far thro' Life with a considerable Share of Felicity, the conducing Means
I made use of, which, with the Blessing of God, so well succeeded, my Posterity
may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own
Situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.
201).
Douglass is more reserved and direct in his writing: "I have now reached a period of my life when
I can give dates. I left Baltimore, and went to live with Master Thomas Auld, at St. Michael's, in
March, 1832" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 766).
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References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Rhetorical Analysis 8/15/2011
In “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Frederick Douglass writes of the hypocrisy
of American government. He writes of the treatment of slaves, and of how American laws
degrade slaves. In “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau also writes about the hypocrisy of
American government. Like Douglass, Thoreau writes about how slaves are treated. Both
Douglass and Thoreau support the abolition of slavery, and the acknowledgement that slaves are
men just as much as whites are men. Both writers decry a government that does not correct, or
that perpetuates, the wrongs of its society.
Douglass declares the hypocrisy of American law that declares the equality of all men,
while excluding a significant portion of the population from that equality. He writes: “I am not
included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 779). As
a freed slave in 1852, Douglass does not share in the celebration of freedom from tyranny that is
experienced by white Americans. He has only been free for half a decade, instead of for a century,
and he is still barred from the enjoyment of true freedom. Thoreau also writes of how laws can be
“abused and perverted” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 784), as the declaration of the equality
of all men, in the “Declaration of Independence,” has been perverted to disallow certain
Americans. He also writes: “I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the
priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 794). There is a clear
hypocrisy to laws that require the separation of church and state, but that force citizens to pay the
support of the clergy. The clergyman is not taxed to support anything, because of the law
forbidding the establishment of religion by the state, but the clergyman is supported by a tax on
those who do not follow the clergyman.
Douglas writes: “There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if
committed by a black man … subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these
same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.
780). This sentence demonstrates the inequality between the treatment of the black man and the
treatment of the white man, under the law. The law clearly favors the white man, who receives
lighter punishment for most crimes than does the black man. This continues Douglass’
commentary on the hypocrisy of American jurisprudence. Thoreau is very direct in his writing
about American laws. He writes: “Unjust laws exist” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 790). He
illustrates this fact when he writes: “If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine
shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know of … but if
he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, pp. 790-791). The law favors the man who commits an intentional
crime, rather than the man who refuses to be taxed unfairly.
Both Douglass and Thoreau write against the unjust treatment of slaves. Douglass writes
that the celebration of the Fourth of July is, to a former slave, “a day that reveals to him, more than
all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 781). He also writes that “it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob
them of their liberty … into obedience and submission to their masters” (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 781). The Fourth of July reveals the mistreatment of the black man, because the white
man celebrates liberty while keeping the black man enslaved. Thoreau writes: “[I]f one HONEST
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man … ceasing to held slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked
up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America” (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, pp. 791-792). Thoreau supports a peaceful revolution against the laws that
perpetuate slavery. He supports the end of slavery, and he also supports the same peaceful
revolution by men of conscience against any law that treats any man unjustly.
Speaking as a black man, and as a freed slave, Douglass writes that “we are called upon
to prove that we are men!” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 781). Black men in his time are not
considered to be truly men, or even to be truly human. In calling attention to the need to prove
that he is a man, Douglass shows the injustice of laws that make him, according to the law, less
than a man. Thoreau writes: “This people must cease to hold slaves … though it cost them their
existence as a people” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 787). The end of slavery is so important
to Thoreau that he considers it better for America to end than for Americans to hold each other in
slavery.
Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” is similar to Red Jacket’s “Speech
Against the Foundation of a Mission Among the Senecas.” Both men write about how the white
man has acted against people of other races. Red Jacket writes: “Our eyes were opened, and our
minds became uneasy” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 370). Douglas writes: “The sunlight that
brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me” (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 779). Each man shows that what benefits the white man brings uneasiness and trouble to
the Native and to the black man. With its educated language, and with its references to passages
from the Bible, Douglass’ work is similar to Maria Stewart’s “An Address Delivered Before the
Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston.” Stewart writes: “I am a strong advocate
for the cause of God, and for the cause of freedom” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 609). Like
Douglass, Stewart comes from a segment of society which has been repressed and denied social
freedoms. Broth writers support freedom based on their experiences of having been denied
freedom by white men.
Douglass connects with his audience in “What to the Slave in the Fourth of July?” by
identifying himself and his audience with the greeting, “Fellow-Citizens” (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 778, 779). After establishing equality between himself and his audience, Douglass
changes to an “us versus them” theme, in which he identifies himself with the slaves in opposition
with the white men. By placing himself in this juxtaposition of a black man who is a fellow
citizen with his white audience, Douglass seeks to make his audience realize that the black men
whom the whites keep as slaves are also equal to the white men.
Douglass and Thoreau write against the injustice and the hypocrisy of a government that
perpetuates the subjugation of a segment of its society. Proclaiming the equality of all men, while
enslaving the black man, is a perversion of the laws of the land. Black men are men, not brutes,
who should not be forced to prove that they are men. Both Douglass and Thoreau promote the
abolition of slavery, and of social injustice of any kind.
References
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
American Poetry 8/17/2011
In reviewing the poetry of Emerson and Poe, and in reading the poetry of Longfellow,
Whitman, and Dickinson, I find that they all seem to deal heavily with death. Emerson and Poe
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seem to write more directly, at least some of the time, while Longfellow, Whitman, and Dickinson
hide their meaning in more symbolic imagery.
Longfellow writes of war and suffering in "The Arsenal at Springfield," and he writes of
religious persecutions, death, and the fall of nations in "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport." He
writes: "But ah! what once has been shall be no more!/ The groaning earth in travail and in pain/
Brings forth its races, but does not restore,/ And the dead nations never rise again" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p.904).
In "Song of Myself," Whitman covers practically every subject, but death is an
overarching theme. His death phrases include: "the horrors of fratricidal war ... the dead young
men and women ... it is just as lucky to die ... the suicide sprawls on the bloody floor ... my man's
body up dripping and drowned ... as to you Death, and your bitter hug of mortality ... I bequeath
myself to the dirt" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, pp. 1051-1095). He also describes many people
and places, describes various aspects of nature, and refers to both science and God. His poem is a
blend of clear descriptions and symbolic imagery.
Dickinson's most common theme is death. She also writes of nature being more
important to her than religion: "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --/ I keep it, staying at
Home --/ With a Bobolink for a Chorister --/ And an Orchard, for a Dome" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p.1140). She also writes: "'Faith' is a fine invention/ When Gentlemen can see --/
But Microscopes are prudent/ In an Emergency" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1137). Unlike
the earlier poets, whose poetry often appealed to God, Dickinson writes of science and nature as
more desirable than God.
Dickinson's most significant images are of death and mortality. "Safe in their Alabaster
Chambers --/ ... Lie the meek members of the Resurrection --/ Rafter of Satin -- and Roof of
Stone!" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1138). Dickinson writes in this poem about dead people
who are buried in coffins. The reference to the Resurrection suggests that Dickinson believes that
the soul is separate from the body, and that the soul will rise one day. In another poem, she writes:
"Until the Moss had reached our lips --/ And covered up -- our names --" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p.1144). In this, she tells how death silences us, and how even our names are forgotten as
time passes and moss covers our tombstones. It seems that this may be a commentary on the
transience and futility of life, that is forgotten after death. I notice that Dickinson writes of death
in the first person and in the past tense, as one who is already dead. It is known that she is
reclusive, and I wonder whether she feels as lonely and as dead inside as her many poems seem to
suggest.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Racial Tensions 8/17/2011
From the writings of Stowe and Jacobs, I see that slaves are not regarded as fellow
humans in bondage, but as domestic beasts to be used and traded at the white man's will. Some
individual whites treat the slaves well, as in the case of Stowe's Shelby, but even they do not
regard slaves as humans. The slave trader, Haley, says, "These critters an't like white folks, you
know; they gets over things, only manage right" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 929). Selling a
slave's child is no more to the whites than would be selling a sow's piglets. The trader says, "[G]et
the gals out of the way ... and when it's clean done, and can't be helped, they naturally get used to
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it" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 931). Similarly, Jacobs writes: "These God-breathing
machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they
tend" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 994). This treatment of the slaves echoes the treatment of
Native American's by the white man in Black Hawk's "Autobiography." He writes: "[T]o be
driven from our village and hunting grounds, and not even be permitted to visit the graves of our
forefathers, our relations and friends" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 440). The white man
drives the Native away in the same way he would drive away a pack of wolves or a herd of wild
horses that is occupying land that the white man wants. The white man has no regard for the
human needs of the Natives to honor their dead. The slave is expected to get over the sale of her
child, and the Native is expected to get over the loss of his ancestral home.
From Lincoln's two addresses, and looking back to Stewart's speech, I see that there is a
segment of society in the mid-19th century that does not approve of or support slavery. Lincoln
and Stewart both support freedom for all men, not just for white men. In the "Gettysburg
Address," Lincoln reminds his audience that the United States is "conceived in Liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.
1019). In Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address," he calls into question the rightness of slavery
when he writes: "It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God's assistance in
wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1020).
Lincoln does not believe that one man should force another man to work against his will. Lincoln
does not believe that any people should be held in bondage. He believes that all men are equal,
regardless of race or color. Stewart writes: "I am a strong advocate for the cause of God, and for
the cause of freedom" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 609). She does not specify that the
freedom that she supports is that of the black man, but it may be so inferred from the fact that she
is addressing the African-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston.
The growing awareness, in the mid-19th century, of the wrongness of slavery contributes
to the freedom and equality experienced by people of African-American descent in the 21st
century. This awareness contributes to the Civil War, at the start of which, "[o]ne eighth of the
whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in
the Southern part of it" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1020). By writing about the treatment of
slaves, Stowe, Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass all raise awareness of the need to free the slaves,
and to acknowledge them as human beings who are equal to writes. President Lincoln is
universally recognized as the president who freed the slaves, and his words are known by nearly
everyone.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Nature in Early American Literature 8/17/2011
Trees represent strength tempered by flexibility, and also shelter from danger. Birds
variously represent power, watchfulness, rapaciousness, threat, and evil, depending on the type of
bird. Rivers, lakes, and seas; mosses and grasses; a variety of animals; and many other natural
elements and entities take on a wide range of meanings, from literal to deeply symbolic. Nature is
a pervading theme in much of the body of early American literature. The fifteenth century
writings of the Iroquois, which are rich with nature imagery, are largely ignored by Jonathan
274 A Journey Through My College Papers
Edwards in the eighteenth century, but they are echoed by the nature imagery in the writings of the
transcendentalist writers of the nineteenth century.
In “The Great Binding Law,” the Iroquois use natural images as metaphors for greater
truths and higher ideals. They also address elements of nature as living entities with which the
Iroquois share the earth. Dekanawidah writes: “I plant the Tree of the Great Peace … Under the
shade of this Tree of the Great Peace … There shall you sit and watch the Council Fire of the
Confederacy of the Five Nations” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 29). The Tree of the Great
Peace is a metaphor for “The Great Binding Law.” The tree is a metaphor for establishing an
overarching covenant among the Five Nations. A tree represents strength and durability, but it is
also able to yield when necessary in order to survive; it is stronger because it is not brittle or
unyielding. In “Certain Iroquois Tree Myths and Symbols,” Cadwallader Colden “says that the
Five Nations always express peace under the metaphor of a tree” (Parker, 1912, p. 608). The tree
reflects the “tree of the upper-world” (Parker, 1912, p. 609), which is the Iroquois symbol of what
Christians call Heaven, so peace established under a tree is peace established under the divine
protection of Heaven. Also, a tree represents shelter from the elements, thus symbolizing how the
Great Peace will protect the people of the Five Nations from harm.
Continuing the metaphor of the tree, Dekanawidah writes: “Roots have spread out from
the Tree of the Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one to the south and one to the west.
The name of these roots in The Great White Roots and their nature is Peace and Strength”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 29). As the tree represents the covenant of the Five Nations of
the Iroquois, so the roots of the tree, which spread out in every direction, are a metaphor for how
the establishment of the Great Peace will spread peace and strength from the conference of the
leaders of the leaders of the Five Nations to all the people in the land. The roots of a tree reflect
its branches, and are stronger than the visible branches of the tree. Roots are very tough, and
difficult to break, so the peace of the “Great Binding Law” is to be strong and difficult to break.
The roots of the tree also show that the laws that are enacted by the Council are rooted in the
people’s desire for peace and strength from their leaders.
To establish a safeguard for the council fire of the Five Nations, Dekanawidah writes:
“We place at the top of the Tree of the Long Leaves an Eagle who is able to see afar. If he sees in
the distance any evil approaching or any danger threatening he will at once warn the people of the
Confederacy” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 29). The eagle is a symbol of both power and
vision. It is strong and fierce, and it is known for its keen eyesight and for its vigilance in
guarding its children or, in this case, the tribes of the Five Nations. Placing the eagle atop the tree
symbolizes how vigilant the Council will be to guard the Five Nations from any threat. The threat
may be from other tribes or from white men; or it may be any act or decision that the leaders may
consider that might not be in the best interests of the people of the Five Nations. The eagle
assures the people that the leaders will be vigilant against selfish or unwise decisions that could
harm the people.
The Iroquois’ reverence for nature is an indivisible part of their religion, culture, and
identity. They use natural images of trees, tree roots, eagles, and other aspects of nature so that the
people of the Five Nations will better understand the deeper truths that are represented. The
Iroquois revere the Great Spirit, and they address in their writings the spirits of many parts of
nature as conscious entities. The Iroquois’ nature images continue to be seen in American
literature, art, and culture throughout American history into the twenty-first century.
Jonathan Edwards’ understanding of nature is that it is a base, ungodly state. He
preaches that natural man is below what is divine, but that man can rise above nature with God’s
help. In “A Divine and Supernatural Light”, Edwards writes: “Those convictions that natural men
may have of their sin and misery is not this spiritual and divine light” (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 151). Edwards describes natural men as having thoughts or beliefs, which he calls
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convictions, that are not from God. By writing that natural man’s convictions are not from the
divine light, he states that man is below the divine because he is natural.
Edwards writes: “Natural men may have lively impressions on their imaginations; and we
cannot determine but the devil … may cause imaginations” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 152).
Edwards attributes imagination to the devil, and he writes that man is affected in this way because
he is natural. Man’s nature predisposes him to baser ideas, and makes him accessible to the devil.
Edwards uses “nature” not only to describe that which is base or godless in man, but also
to describe man’s inner identity and inclinations. He writes: “God … deals with man according to
his nature or as a rational creature” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 154). Edward writes about
man as a rational being, capable of thought and understanding. Man has the ability to reason, and
God uses this rationality to deal with man, because man is the one creature that has the ability to
listen to and to understand God.
Edwards’ understanding of nature is shaped by Puritan religious teachings, which state
that “human beings are not what they ought to be and reason is in a somewhat weakened
condition” (Brauer, 1987, p. 50). In his view, natural man is below the level of the supernatural
Holy Spirit. He believes that man can, and should, aspire to rise above the bonds of nature, but
that man should not expect to get very far. Man’s nature as a rational creature is a different use of
the word “nature,” and refers to man’s essential state of being, rather than to the natural world.
Edwards does not share or understand the Iroquois’ harmony with nature; in that, he is
representative of his time and culture.
The transcendentalist writers of the nineteenth century are influenced by the early
writings of the Iroquois. Three prominent transcendentalist writers of this period are Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Each of these writers recognizes goodness
in nature, although each writer approaches nature from a slightly different angle.
Ralph Waldo Emerson echoes the belief by the Iroquois that nature is a reflection of the
divine, and that nature is intrinsically good and beautiful. In the introduction to “Nature,”
Emerson writes: “The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their
eyes” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 546). Emerson identifies that he sees God and nature
through the experience of earlier generations. His use of nature in his writings echoes the poetic
use of nature images in the writings of the Iroquois.
In an article in The North American Review, W. Robertson Nicoll (1903) writes of
Emerson: “Though not a scientific observer himself, he asked why America should not have a
poetry and philosophy of nature” (pp. 676-677). Emerson sees a need for nature in America’s
literature and culture. In particular, he calls for poetry and philosophy, not for dry prose or
sermons. His own essays, although written in prose, have the lyric sense of poetry in his
discussion of nature. This reflects the poetic undertone in the writings of the Iroquois.
Emerson sees nature as a positive force. Nicoll (1903) writes that Emerson “had no
doubt that the nature of things was kind and righteous” (p. 678). Emerson ignores the eighteenth
century writers, such as Jonathan Edwards, who treat nature as base, and instead Emerson sees
nature as right and good.
Henry David Thoreau believes that it is necessary to leave busy society behind and to
return to nature. He views nature as reflecting Eden in the world. In Walden, Thoreau writes:
“Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen
with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 802).
Thoreau has a dim view of modern society, as it exists in his time. He believes that the local men
who labor constantly just to survive would have had better lives if they had been raised away from
human society. In his opinion, they are not living up to their potential as men because they are
constrained by society, and they would fare better if they gave up society and lived at one with
nature.
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In “Henry David Thoreau, the State of Nature, and the Redemption of Liberalism,” Philip
Abbott (1985) writes: “The river itself becomes for Thoreau a metaphor of his own liberation from
false human relationships in society” (p. 185). As the river flows freely through the countryside,
restrained only by its own natural banks, and not by human intervention, so Thoreau wishes to
flow through a life at one with nature. In “A Week,” Thoreau uses natural images as metaphors
for the good that can be found when one returns to nature. While his natural references, including
the river, are metaphors, Thoreau is literal when he promotes a return to living with nature. In
“Walden, echoing the metaphor of the river,” Thoreau writes of watching a lethargic snake resting
in at the bottom of a calm pond” because [the snake] had not yet fairly come out of the torpid
state” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 824). He reflects that “for a like reason men remain in
their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of
springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 824). If man allows himself to move with the river, instead of
lying torpid in the calm pond, man may achieve a higher state of existence.
In an essay that compares and contrasts Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, Nicole Smith
(2010) writes: “Thoreau takes a slightly more radical or extreme stance, advocating a literal return
to nature” (para. 5). She explains that Thoreau’s approach to nature is to see life away from
society, immersed in nature, as necessary for achieving man’s full potential. His belief is not only
in a need for a philosophical return to nature, but in a need for an actual return to living in nature.
Walt Whitman writes of the earthly realities of nature. While he does not consider nature
to be a base, ungodly thing, as does Edwards, he also does not exalt nature as idyllic or edenic, as
do Emerson and Thoreau.
In part 36 of “Song of Myself,” Whitman writes: “Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of
sedgy grass and fields by the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors” (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 1082). Whitman describes odors that trigger images of death even in people
who have no earlier memory of the scents. He describes nature just as it is, without embellishing
or idealizing it, even though descriptions of natural death odors might be off-putting to many
readers in his time.
In “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” Whitman describes a summer scene from his
memory: “Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive, / Out
from the patches of briars and blackberries, / From the memories of the bird that chanted to me”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1106). The description evokes the sights, scents, and sounds of
a simple, natural briar patch. The blackberries add detail to the shapes and smells of the scene.
Only the chanting of the bird strays from the plain-written description of nature, and that appears
to be more of a poetic device to maintain the tone and rhythm of the poem than an attempt to
anthropomorphize the bird.
In an article in The North American Review, Louise Collier Willcox (1906) writes:
“There is a profound sacredness, he wishes to assert, in every human experience, since to bring it
to the birth, the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one plant or animal” (p. 283).
She asserts that Whitman sees nature and the human experience as sacred. As such, Whitman
accepts all aspects of nature equally, allowing him to write with equal honesty about death, decay,
and other dark aspects of nature, as well as about the beauty and goodness of nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman are among the
transcendental writers of the nineteenth century. Each is influenced by, and echoes, the beliefs of
the Iroquois in regard to nature, but each in his own manner. All three writers recognize the
intrinsic goodness of nature. Emerson delights in the total goodness and rightness of nature, and
in the connection to the divine that nature provides to man. His writing echoes the joyful
reverence for nature in “The Great Binding Law.” Thoreau presents nature as the essential
environment for man to achieve true manhood. Thoreau rejects the depravity of society, and he
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embraces a true return to nature. His writing echoes the Iroquois’ lives in and with the entities of
nature. Whitman recognizes the sacredness of nature in all of its forms and guises. He represents
both the light side and the dark side of nature, delighting in the deep truth in all of nature. His
writing echoes the Iroquois’ oneness with nature, and their honest thanksgivings for every aspect
of nature.
The early writings of the fifteenth century Iroquois are echoed and reflected in the
transcendental writings of the nineteenth century. America’s understanding of nature was briefly
warped by the Puritan teachings of the eighteenth century, but America’s joy in nature was
restored by the middle of the nineteenth century. Much of early American literature is illuminated
by descriptions of nature and nature-oriented metaphors.
Whether nature is a connection to the divine, an escape from human society, or a
representation of the sacred, American literature is filled with references to and descriptions of
nature. American thought about nature reaches back through history to a time before European
colonists arrived in America, when the Native peoples lived in unity with the natural world that
surrounded them. Americans have resisted the call of nature in our literature, but we continue to
return to the acknowledgement that we need and delight in nature.
References
Abbott, P. (1985). Henry David Thoreau, the state of nature, and the redemption of liberalism. The
Journal of Politics, 47(1), 182-208. Retrieved August 8, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2131071
Brauer, J.C. (1987). Types of Puritan piety. Church History, 56(1), 39-58. Retrieved August 17,
2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3165303
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Nicoll, W.R. (1903). Ralph Waldo Emerson. The North American Review, 176(558), 675- 687.
Retrieved August 8, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25119398
Parker, A.C. (1912). Certain Iroquois tree myths and symbols. American Anthropologist, 14(4),
608-620. Retrieved August 17, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/659833
Smith, N. (2010). The role of nature in transcendental poetry: Emerson, Thoreau &
Whitman. Retrieved August 8, 2011, from
http://www.articlemyriad.com/nature_emerson_whitman_thoreau.htm
Willcox, L.C. (1906). Walt Whitman. The North American Review, 183(597), 281-296.
Retrieved August 8, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25105615
ENG 202: American Literature After 1865
Narrative Writing 8/25/2011
There are more stylistic differences than similarities between "Story of the Bad Little
Boy" and "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." One similarity is that both stories are written in
the third person, with the narrator outside the story. Another similarity is that both stories deal
with main characters who have performed misdeeds.
Twain gives almost no setting to his story. Jim might live in almost any part of the
United States, but the reader doesn't have good clues to tell where he lives. The story proceeds
without the need to set it in a particular time or place, or to identify Jim's social or economic
status. Bierce, on the other hand, describes the setting clearly, including a great deal of visual
278 A Journey Through My College Papers
detail, as well as a clear time and place. "A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern
Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below ... The water, touched to gold by
the early sun ... Circumstances ... had prevented him from taking service in the gallant army which
had fought the disastrous campaign ending with the fall of Corinth" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
pp. 1461-1463). From this, the reader knows that the story is set at a river or creek in northern
Alabama, early in the morning on a day not too long after May, 1862. The setting or lack of
setting influences the reading of the story. Twain's lack of a defined setting results in a series of
individual, mental vignettes of Jim's various misdeeds. Bierce's detailed setting results in a rich
mental image that draws the reader into the story.
Twain's tone is informal and conversational. It gives the reader the impression of being
part of an intimate conversation with the narrator. "Once there was a bad little boy whose name
was Jim -- though, if you will notice, you'll find that bad little boys are nearly always called James
in your Sunday-school books" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1184). Bierce's tone is formal.
The narrator does not interact with the story or with the reader.
Twain's story is told in a series of related, but non-consecutive, incidents, and it has a
tone of confusion or amazement on the part of the narrator. There is a second story under each
story of Jim's adventures, as the narrator clearly relates a story of what does not happen to Jim.
Jim's actual experiences bracket the stories of the experiences he does not have. "[B]ut all at once
a terrible feeling didn't come over him, and something didn't whisper to him, 'Is it right to disobey
my mother?...' and then he didn't kneel down all alone and promise never to be wicked any more,
and rise up with a light, happy heart" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1185). Twain relates
almost as much about what does not happen to Jim as he relates about what does happen to Jim.
Bierce's story is told by a combination of a flashback and a dream or a hallucination. Farquhar
experiences most of the action of the story in a mental flash in the instant between the sergeant
stepping off the board and the breaking of Farquhar's neck.
The narrative style of these stories differs from other essays, including speeches and
sermons, in that narratives tend to involve the reader's imagination and emotions in the experience
of reading their accounts. Narratives have characters with whom the reader can relate, or to whom
the reader can react in a range of emotional ways. Narratives usually include aspects of fictional
writing, such as rising action, a climax, and falling action. All of these are advantages that
narrative writing has over other forms of essays. Narrative writing allows the clear
communication of concrete actions and events, while non-narrative essays are better for the
communication of intangible concepts.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Essay 8/25/2011
The essay is an effective genre because it allows the writer to communicate facts and
concepts in a clear, organized manner. The essay is not free of emotion, but it presents ideas that
may be emotionally charged in a format that allows the reader to focus on the information that is
presented, rather than on the emotional impact of the information.
As with most of Twain's writing, the tone of his essay is light, but his subject is serious.
He presents the replacement in the South of the serious, Catholic church with the frivolity of
Mardi Gras: "Sir Walter has got the advantage of the gentlemen of the cowl and rosary, and ... the
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grace-line between the worldly season and the holy one is reached" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p. 1169). Twain blames Sir Walter Scott's romantic writings for drawing the South back to certain
medieval practices, and for preventing the South being "wholly modern, in place of modern and
medieval mixed" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1170).
Tourgée's essay is written with a more formal tone than that of Twain's essay. Tourgée
discusses the politics of the South, focusing on the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan. He presents
the Klan as "a huge joke which certain pretended ghostly night-riders were playing upon the
ignorant freedmen of the South, making them believe that they were the spirits of slain
Confederates hailing from hell and slain in some great battle" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.
1175). Tourgée shows up the tensions between the landed, Southern whites and the new, black
freedmen. He shows the philosophical tension associated with the improved conditions of former
slaves, writing of the "Invisible Empire" that "no one motive was at the bottom of it, except the
very broad and general one of an organized hostility to the elevation of the colored race ... that
they would never submit ... their slaves were made their equals, or were likely to be, and perhaps
their superiors, to rule over them" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1177).
Twain's essay deals with the light, social issues of the day in the South, including the
perpetuation of older-style dress and customs. Tourgée's essay deals with the dark, philosophical
and political issues, including white supremacy and the repression of black freedmen. The two
writers present different views of Southern society,
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Wrong Race 8/29/2011
Growing up in an influential, white family in rural Vermont in the 1970s and 1980s, I
didn’t know how deeply racial tensions ran in the rest of the country. I only knew a few blacks –
we didn’t know to say African American then. Learning the truth about racial discrimination and
racial violence was a journey for me, and an encounter with the American Experience. In the
process, I learned more about racial tensions than I could have imagined in my youth.
Bobby is a black man, who is about two years my junior, and he was a bright, personable
child. We played together in the church nursery. It never occurred to me to wonder why Bobby’s
skin was brown while his family was white. Race was not an issue then, and I didn’t know that
many people thought it should be otherwise.
About the time I started junior high, Doris, the daughter of the wealthiest elderly widow
in our church, returned from serving almost two decades as a missionary in Nigeria, bringing her
family to Vermont with her. Her husband was one of the tallest men I had ever met. His skin was
ebony. He was a professor in Nigeria, and he came from a noble family. Their three teen-aged
children were almost as dark as their father, and they bore little resemblance to their small, blonde
mother; they were beautiful. I thought they were delightful. That first Sunday, though, I learned a
bit more about racial tensions than I had known before. Most of the fine, upstanding, moral
members of our Congregationalist church demanded that Doris take her half-breed family and
leave the church. I had never heard that word before, and I had never before witnessed the hatred
and hostility that I saw that day on the faces of adults whom I loved and trusted. My own parents
and Bobby’s parents were among the very few who stood against the body of members who
demanded the family’s removal. In the end, I learned another unpleasant lesson about the adults
280 A Journey Through My College Papers
who taught my Sunday-school lessons. The question was settled when Doris’ mother, told the
church that it would accept her daughter’s family or she would remove the church from her will.
Greed won out, but the lingering racial tensions pushed the family out of the church after a few
months, anyway.
Many years later, racism finally came home to me in a very personal, very frightening
way. We were living in North Carolina at the time. My husband and I fell on hard times when he
lost yet another job, and we became homeless when we were unable to pay to stop an eviction.
The church allowed us to stay in the church nursery while we figured out what to do, but my
husband took the car and his clothes, and he left for Indiana. I was alone with two babies under
two years old.
It took a few weeks for me to find an apartment. The pastor and a social worker helped
me apply for public assistance and for public housing. The public assistance office was staffed
with white women, and I was treated with some compassion and respect there. The public
housing office was staffed with black women, and I was treated with open contempt there. The
contempt and disrespect got worse when the church and the social worker applied pressure to
move me to the top of the list to receive housing.
On the morning when we got our apartment, the public housing worker drove my sons
and me to see it. As we drove into the long cul de sac, I saw many black children playing in the
street and in front of the apartment buildings. I saw black faces pressed to windows, and I saw
black heads thrust out of doorways. Every face was curious. When we were seen in the back seat,
every expression became one of open hostility. I didn’t see a single white face outside of that car.
I learned very quickly that we were the only non-black family for three densely-
populated blocks in any direction. I locked my doors and covered my windows for the first time
in my life, because black children and teens peered through any crack they could find during all
hours of the day and night, and they tried to push their way into the apartment. I kept my children
inside as I listened to the endless taunts about my race, and to the endlessly shouted demands that
we go back where we belonged. When we did need to leave the apartment for any reason, hands
grabbed and slapped at us as we went.
One day, a police officer told me to keep my children in the upstairs bedroom until he
returned to tell me it was safe to move. Two young men with loaded guns were fighting over a
young woman right outside our door. Another day, I saw two young men exchange a sandwich
bag of white pills for a handful of cash at the foot of my steps. Every day, I was told many times
over how my sons and I would be beaten, raped, and killed if we didn’t go back where whites
belonged. I lived in constant terror.
After only two weeks, which felt like months, two large, white, male police officers came
to my door to check on our well-being. They had seen and heard the threats on several days, and
they told me that I needed to move. They said that they would talk to the public housing office on
my behalf. That was late on a Friday afternoon. On Monday morning, the housing office
assigned us to an apartment in a different neighborhood, for our safety.
Several pickup trucks and several cars came from our church, all filled with white men.
While a few packed our things and loaded them in trucks, the pastor and the rest of the men
formed a barrier around us. The apartment was empty in under an hour. The threats and insults
continued throughout the loading process, and a crowd ran after our caravan of cars and trucks,
continuing the verbal abuse until we left that neighborhood.
I had known about racial discrimination and racial violence before I lived in the South. I
had learned in school about the civil rights movement. Until I was a victim of racial violence,
though, I did not truly understand it. I did not have true compassion for the victims of such hatred.
After my experience, my outlook changed. Instead of politely disapproving of racist behavior, I
was outraged by it. I learned to have true compassion for the victims of racial injustice. My
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encounter with the American experience of racial violence changed how I view people of any race,
and how I am raising my sons. Racial tension has been part of the American Experience since the
white man first enslaved the black man. No one is truly free of it, no matter how he or she was
raised, or what color his or her skin may be.
Modernist American Literature by Women 9/1/2011
The heroine of The School Days of an Indian Girl is Zitkala Sa, a young Dakota girl who
has been taken from her reservation and forced to endure a Quaker school. The heroine of Trifles
is Mrs. Wright, a middle-aged woman who has been arrested for the murder of her apparently
abusive husband. Zitkala Sa tells her own story autobiographically, using descriptions from the
culture of her origin. Mrs. Wright does not actually participate in the story, but her life and
actions are described and discussed by other characters. Both Zitkala Sa and Mrs. Wright have
been taken out of lives of freedom and happiness, and have been subjected to loneliness and
cruelty by people who possess social and physical power over them.
These are both stories of how the heroines respond to their abusers, as much as about the
abuses that the heroines suffer. Zitkala Sa, being a child, has few options, but she takes small
revenge on her abusers. "[A]s I sent the masher into the bottom of the jar, I felt a satisfying
sensation that the weight of my body had gone into it ... the pulpy contents fell through the
crumbled bottom to the table" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1615). Zitkala Sa pours her
suffering into mashing the turnips, and she smashes the bottom of the container. "A few moments
later, when I was ready to leave the room, there was a ragged hole in the page where the picture of
the devil had once been" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1616). After she has a nightmare about
the devil, she destroys his picture in one of the school's books. Mrs. Wright, being a childless
housewife with no friends, gets a pet bird. The reader is led to conclude that Mr. Wright killed the
bird by wringing its neck, and that Mrs. Wright killed her husband in a manner similar to the way
the bird died, by strangling him with a rope. Both Zitkala Sa and Mrs. Wright strike out against
those who torment them.
These stories fit the mold of Modernism. Zitkala Sa's autobiography is based in realism.
She does not shape her story with traditional pleasantries or euphemisms. She tells her memories
of a traumatic period in her life. She describes her experience of being indecently exposed: "I felt
like sinking to the floor, for my blanket had been stripped from my shoulders. I looked hard at the
Indian girls, who seemed not to care that they were even more immodestly dressed than I, in their
tightly fitting clothes" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1612). This is a depart5ure from the
formulaicly polite writing of earlier times, as it allows the reader to be discomfited by stark reality.
Mrs. Wright's story is told more abstractly. The reader is never actually told that Mrs. Wright
murdered her husband. The women discover the truth by examining the minutiae of her life,
which the men deem to be mere trifles. From the quilt block, whose stitches are "all over the
place" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1715), to the dead canary in the box, to the final
comments about knotting the quilt, the things that are important to a woman are the real clues to
what has happened. This story is also a social commentary on men and women, and it shows that
the things that men dismiss as trifles in women's lives may actually be important and significant
facts. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale conceal the evidence of the canary in a show of solidarity with
Mrs. Wright against the male power structure.
The theme of Zitkala Sa's indoctrination at the school as a representation of the
repression of Native Americans by white supremacists is important because it goes against the
Anglo-American society of the time. It brings into the light the injustice of forcing Native
282 A Journey Through My College Papers
children to become like Anglo children. The theme of Mrs. Wright's response to male domination
of and disregard for women is important because it shows how women's lives and ideas are
important, and how women deserve to be free to find happiness in their lives. Both stories include
the theme that the oppressed can strike out against the oppressors. Neither story is happy or
pretty, but each story shows important truths.
I think these works are steps toward progress, rather than triumphs of progress. They are
powerful, compelling stories that help pave the way toward establishing rights for oppressed
segments of the population.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Harlem Renaissance 1900 – 1940 9/1/2011
McKay and Cullen use the convention of the sonnet. Both "White Houses" and "Yet Do
I Marvel" employ iambic pentameter with a first-third/second-fourth rhyming pattern that reflects
traditional poets, especially Shakespeare. Johnson's poem also follows traditional forms, using
iambic pentameter with couplets, varying the line break and the rhyming in the third and fourth
lines for the sake of fluidity.
Grimke, Cullen, and Hughes use a lot of open verse and free verse, sometimes with
rhyme but an uneven rhythm, sometimes with rhythm but no rhyme, and sometimes with neither
rhyme nor rhythm. Grimke's "The Black Finger" is imagery-rich free verse. She describes a tree
as a black finger. It connects beauty to something black, drawing on the African American
experience and saying that things that are black can be beautiful, and can point upward toward a
higher, nobler truth. "Why, beautiful still finger, are you black?/ And why are you pointing
upwards?" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1802). Cullen's "Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song"
is an open verse commentary on the rape trial in Alabama. "The foe smug in his citadel"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1805) is the white establishment, which was jarred by the news
of the legal atrocities of the case. The versification of the poem is intense, with a quick, uneven
rhythm, and with a loose collection of couplets and triplets punctuated by unrhymed lines. All of
Hughes' selected poems are open or free verse. His work is filled with commentary on the black
experience. The river imagery in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" draws a picture of the history of
the African American. The history flows and changes as the rivers flow and change. Hughes
writes: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1865). There is
a huge, irresistible strength in the depths of the large rivers in the poem, which is usually
concealed by a still, even surface. The black spirit is similarly strong beneath a still exterior.
Jazz reflects and projects the African American heritage in music. Cullen's "Incident"
relates the experience of being put down by whites. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" has a rolling,
musical quality that echoes the movement of a deep river. While I am largely unacquainted with
jazz, beyond the few lines in our text and a vague impression of music heard on television, I can
hear this poem set to a piano and a saxophone. "Aunt Sue's Stories" has the same musical feel, as
the varied rhythm lends itself to the varied tones of music. More formal sonnets and other
structured forms would have too much of the sing-song for jazz, I think, but these poems, and the
rest of Hughes' poems, relate aspects of the African American heritage and experience, and of the
human experience, in comfortable, expressive forms. "I've known rivers:/ I've known rivers
ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins/ ... I've known rivers;/
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Ancient, dusky rivers" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1865). These lines flow musically and
echo what I believe are the rhythms of jazz.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Modern American Writers 9/8/2011
The apparent truth in "In Another Country" seems to be the inevitability of loss and
death. Throughout the story, the reader finds one form of loss after another. "There were usually
funerals starting from the courtyard" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1846). The constant
presence of death begins the story, as a strong memory in the mind of the narrator. Loss of
physical function is also a pervading theme: "My knee did not bend and the leg dropped straight
from the knee to the ankle without a calf" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1846). Losses of
friendships and prestige are presented: "I was never really one of them ... because it had been
different with them and they had done very different things to get their medals" (McMichael &
Leonard, 2011, p. 1849). Even apart from the war, the loss in death is still present: "the major's
wife ... had died of pneumonia" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1850). Loss permeates the story
in the same way that an awareness of death and loss permeates contemporary society.
The apparent truth in "Barn Burning" seems to be that, while a parent may be beyond
redemption, a child may still be redeemed. Sartoris is abused and neglected. His father is a
violent criminal who is always on the run from his past. Despite his violent upbringing, Sartoris
goes against his father at the end and warns Major de Spain. "He did not look back" (McMichael
& Leonard, 2011, p. 1863). At the end, Sartoris walks away from his violent childhood, and
enters life with the good deed that he has done in the night.
In "In Another Country," the narrator sees the losses that surrounds him. I believe he
comes to an understanding of the truth of the inevitability of loss when he witnesses the major's
grim determination after his wife's death. In "Barn Burning," Sartoris recognizes the truth that he
can break away from his father's way of life, and that he doesn't have to come to his father's end.
I think that "In Another Country" tells us that the human spirit is able to continue on,
despite the losses that a person experiences. The narrator seems to be resilient, and hopeful about
moving on, while the major seems to be bitter and grim in the face of loss. Both characters, and
the boy with the rebuilt nose, continue their therapy to help them move past losses to lead
productive lives. The story indicates that the human condition requires that each person will face
loss differently, but that each person must seek balance after loss. The major seeks that balance by
apologizing to the narrator: "I am so sorry ... I would not be rude. My wife has just died. You
must forgive me" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1850). The human potential in this story is the
ability to endure and to recover from pain and loss.
In "Barn Burning," the message about the human spirit is that a person who is abused,
neglected, and raised in violence does not have to remain in that life. Sartoris loves his father, and
is proud of his father, but he rises up against his father's violence. It is part of the human condition
to want justice in life, and Sartoris realizes that Snopes has evaded justice. It is also part of the
human condition to want a better life, and Sartoris seeks that better life when he walks away. The
story points up the human potential to rise above one's base beginnings, and to be a better person
than one's upbringing has raised one to be.
284 A Journey Through My College Papers
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Modern American Fiction 9/15/2011
"Winter Dreams" and "The Chrysanthemums" both deal obliquely with love, although the
theme of love is more obvious in "Winter Dreams." Dexter Green and Elisa Allen both have
good, stable lives. Dexter is a caddy who achieves the American Dream by building himself up to
become a wealthy man. Elisa is a rural housewife on a prosperous farm. Neither character is truly
satisfied by his or her life.
Dexter seeks love with Judy Jones, and he achieves a sort of frustrated infatuation. She
makes herself unattainable to him. She is spoiled by her family's wealth, and she behaves like a
brat to the men who follow after her. "Well, there's a house there that I live in ... in that house
there is a fella waiting for me ... Come to dinner tomorrow night" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
pp. 1835-1836). Judy unashamedly admits her fickleness, and she stays true to form for most of
the story. Dexter has a chance at love with Irene Scheerer, but there is no passion with her. He
leaves the stability of Irene for the passion of Judy, and he ends up with neither. He is successful
in business, but he is alone. "He wanted to care and he could not care ... he could never go back
any more" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1845).
Elisa Allen has a comfortable, stable life with her husband, Henry. He recognizes her
abilities and encourages her interests. "You've got a gift with things" (McMichael & Leonard,
2011, p. 1870). Elisa is bored with being a farm wife. Her world is grey, like the "high grey-
flannel fog ... like a lid on the mountains" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1869). The
anonymous tinker represents a life Elisa cannot have, and his life challenges her to want a more
exciting life. "I wish women could do such things" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1874).
When Elisa sees the flower sets on the road, her spirit is crushed.
The real love in "Winter Dreams" is not romantic love, but love of an ideal. Dexter wants
to achieve a life beyond that which his parents had. "[H]e wanted the glittering things themselves"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1833). In "The Chrysanthemums," the real love is for the
chrysanthemums, which also represent an ideal. Elisa wants to be good at something beyond
housework. Her flowers represent her value as a person, at least in her own eyes.
The tone in "Winter Dreams" is one of hope and expectation. Dexter's future is before
him, and he keeps working to achieve it. The tone in "The Chrysanthemums" is one of frustration
and loneliness. Elisa is stuck in her life, and is stagnating. She has a good life, but she wants
more. Dexter's life represents the upwardly-mobile young men of the industrial age, and the
superficiality of their social lives. Elisa's life represents the rural housewife of the first half of the
twentieth century, and the helpless loneliness of their lives.
Elisa seems like a counterpoint to Minnie Wright in "Trifles." Both women are lonely,
rural housewives. Elisa's husband encourages her attempts to have beauty in her life, through her
flowers. Minnie's husband stripped beauty from her life by killing her bird. The two women are
opposite representations of the same lifestyle in similar times.
Dexter sees the futility of seeking love when he hears how marriage and children have
faded Judy. Elisa sees the same futility when she finds the plants in the road. While the two
stories deal with people of very different socio-economic groups, the two stories are generally
parallel in their style.
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References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Literature in the Postmodern Era 9/15/2011
I can relate to Anne Sexton's and to Sylvia Plath's need to pour out their feelings about
their private lives through published poetry, since it is less than a year since I published my own
volume of poetry. There is catharsis in expressing one's emotions through poetry, and it is not
surprising to me that Sexton's and Plath's poetry is so revealing of their inner turmoils. Publishing
such poetry is not unlike the oral sharing that takes place in a group counseling session, where the
pain of experiences is lessened by sharing it with others. I suspect that this is the purpose these
women had in submitting their work for publication: to release their pent-up anguish, and to
expose their secret hurts and fears. Sexton expresses her pain in addition: "It's a kind of war/
where I plant bombs inside/ of myself" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1952). Plath expresses
her pain in the loss of, and the memories of, her father: "The vampire who said he was you/ and
drank my blood for a year ... There's a stake in your fat black hear" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p. 1960). Expressing these things publicly helps the writer to begin to heal, or at least to survive.
The socially-acceptable response should be that yes, the writers have divulged too much.
I disagree with that view. The writers did not force others to read what they had written; they
merely made their words available to be read. The reader can close the book at any time, so the
reader is not forced to endure the pain that is exposed in the works. On the other hand, it seems
that it was personally necessary to Sexton and to Plath to reveal as much as they did about
themselves. Reading it might be uncomfortable, but they had to write it, and to publish it, to
relieve their own discomfort.
"[O]r the black sacrament" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1952). Sexton alludes to the
ritual communion practiced by the Church of Satan, which is a corruption of the communion
practiced in most denominations of Christian churches. She compares her ritualized taking of
drugs to the ritual consumption of bread and wine, specifying that it is the Satanic, or evil rite, not
the good, Christian rite. By comparing her addiction to an evil ritual, Sexton sets the tone of her
poem, making it clear that she condemns, rather than celebrates, her drug use. The theme of her
poem, then, is her fear and suffering as an addict, not the numbing effect of the drugs to hide that
suffering.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Language and Rhetoric 9/22/2011
First, I was surprised to find that the link in the assignment for Dr. King's speech did not
work. Due to copyright issues, none of the video links I found for the speech worked, but I finally
found an audio recording of the speech. I am amazed at a few lines from Dr. King's speech that
are omitted from the transcript in our text, which I will discuss in a moment.
Both Dr. King and President Obama use intentional repetition of words and phrases to
emphasize points, and to embed their words in the memories of their audiences. Dr. King repeats
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the phrase "One hundred years later" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1906) three times. He
repeats "go back" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1908) five times. He repeats "I have a
dream" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1908) nine times. He repeats "With this faith"
(McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1908) three times. He repeats "together" (McMichaels &
Leonard, 2011, p. 1908) five times in a single sentence. He repeats "let freedom ring"
(McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1909) eleven times. Similarly, President Obama repeats "For
us" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1915) three times. He repeats "we will" (McMichaels &
Leonard, 2011, p. 1915) six times in a single paragraph. he repeats and stresses "and"
(McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1917) between pairs of virtues four times in a single sentence.
President Obama also repeats "Our" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1915) five times in a single
paragraph, in which he identifies himself with his audience: "Our workers ... Our minds ... Our
goals ... Our capacity ... our time" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1915). These repetitions are
a sort of alliteration, which forms stronger memory connections than would do a series of similar
words for a single idea.
Understandably, given his role in the church, Dr. King's speech has the meter and
cadence of a Southern Baptist sermon. His voice rises and falls rhythmically, almost stressing
every other syllable. The meter and cadence make the speech almost musical, which helps to form
additional memory pathways for his audience. President Obama's speech is more even and less
cadenced than that of Dr. King, but there is a lyric quality to specific phrases that he wishes to
embed in the memory of his audience: "So it has been; so it must be" (McMichaels & Leonard,
2011, p. 1914) stresses the first and fourth syllables of each phrase, producing a rhythm of "dum
da da dum, dum da da dum." Later, he uses the same rhythm: "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves
off ... begin again" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1915); and again: "these things are old.
These things are true" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1917).
Both Dr. King and President Obama reference Scripture. Dr. King's speech is peppered
with allusions to Psalms, Amos, Exodus, Isaiah, and the Gospels, as explained in the footnotes for
readers who are unfamiliar with the references (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, pp. 1906-1908).
Such references are to be expected in a speech made by a minister, and they would have resonated
with much of his contemporary audience. President Obama references First Corinthians when he
says, "the time has come to set aside childish things" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1915).
The scriptural reference would have caught the attention of the Christians in the audience, but the
speech is not filled with scriptural references that might alienate or exclude audience members of
other faiths.
In the audio recording of Dr. King's speech, there are several phrases that are omitted
from the transcript, and that would have made the speech more memorable to his audience. In the
fourth paragraph of the transcript, we read: "all men would be guaranteed" (McMichaels &
Leonard, 2011, p. 1906), but the same sentence in the recording says: "all men, yes black men as
well as white men, would be guaranteed" (King, 1963). The emphasis that black men are included
in all men would have been significant for his audience. In the fifth paragraph of the transcript, a
sentence has been omitted after the third sentence. It reads: "Now is the time to make real the
promises of democracy" (King, 1963). Again, the sentence would have been significant to Dr.
King's audience, much of which had been denied the promises of democracy. In the fourth
paragraph on page 1908 of our text, the first sentence begins: "I have a dream that one day the
state of Alabama, whose governor's lips" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1908). In the audio,
the sentence is worded differently: "I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor whose lips" (King, 1963). The audience would have remembered the
original, explicit commentary that was censored from our text.
President Obama echoes Dr. King's speech when he says: "why men and women and
children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall"
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(McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1917). Dr. King's similar words are: "when all of God's
children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to
join hands and sing" (McMichaels & Leonard, 2011, p. 1909). Both men speak of a future of
peaceful integration and equality among all people, without regard to age, gender, color, or creed.
Dr. King's speech was made at a time when African Americans were beginning to get the
freedoms that they deserved as Americans. The Jim Crow laws were crumbling, and there was a
lot of social unrest as many people were unsure how to live with equality between blacks and
whites. President Obama faces social unrest in regard to Muslims, and to others of Middle Eastern
descent, as well as in regard to homosexuals. There was domestic terror as African Americans
sought equality in the 1960s, and there is domestic terror as Muslims seek to impose their beliefs
on Americans in the twenty-first century. There was social unrest as women sought equality in the
1960s, and there is social unrest as homosexuals seek equality today. Dr. King's speech was
compelling for contemporary audiences because he addressed the social situation: "The marvelous
new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white
people ... Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive" (McMichaels &
Leonard, 2011, pp. 1907-1908). It is compelling to modern audiences because of the paragraphs
that declare Dr. King's dream for a nation of equality, and because of his declarations of freedom
for all.
References:
King, M.L. (1963, August 28). I have a dream. [Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]. [MP3
recording]. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Immigrant Experience 9/22/2011
"No Name Woman" and "Half and Half" both deal with Chinese women whose lives are
affected by American culture. In "No Name woman," Kingston tells the story of an aunt who
committed suicide. The story has been passed on to the narrator to keep the narrator from
repeating her aunt's mistakes. In "Half and Half," Tan provides a first-person narrative of a
Chinese-American girl whose young brother drowns during a family outing. The story shows how
the Chinese family struggles to fit in as Americans, and how its Chinese culture makes it
impossible to fit in.
Kingston writes: "Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out
how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fit in solid America"
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, pp. 2029-2030). She describes how difficult dating was for her
because all Chinese are closely related: "Any man within visiting distance would have been
neutralized as a lover -- 'brother,' 'younger brother,' 'older brother' -- one hundred and fifteen
relationship titles ... As if it came from an atavism deeper than fear, I used to add 'brother' silently
to boys' names ... [it] made them less scary" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.2033). Most of
Kingston's story deals with the narrator's aunt. The narrator describes the sort of person her aunt
may have been, since the family does not speak of the aunt, and there is only supposition
available. The silence results from the aunt's adultery, her illegitimate child, and her murder-
suicide by drowning in the family's well.
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Tan writes: "We were all blind with the newness of this experience: a Chinese family
trying to act like a typical American family at the beach" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.2120).
She describes how the family walked in single file, as contemporary Chinese families would do.
She describes her mother's superstitions about how children can be hurt. She writes of the Chinese
concept of responsibility that her parents perpetuate in America: "Why did I have to care for
them? And she gave me the same answer: 'Yiding.' I must" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
pp.2120-2121).
The culture in which the aunt grew up, in Kingston's story, is very different from
American culture. The sons of a family remain with the parents, bringing their wives to live with
them in "the ideal of five generations living under one roof" (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p.2033). The home, the crops, and the livestock of an entire family of this sort are destroyed by
the villagers to punish an adulteress, and the family accepts the violence as the normal course of
events. In American culture, it is usual for only two generations to share a home, and for married
couples to move out of their parents' homes to start new families in their own homes. While an
adulteress giving birth to a lover's child might bring shame in contemporary America, it would not
result in wholesale destruction, as it did in the story.
The narrator of Tan's story is growing up between two cultures. He mother's culture is
one of superstition and responsibility. The American culture around her involves studying at UC
Berkeley. Later in her life, the narrator is unable to talk to her mother about getting a divorce,
because her mother does not believe in giving up hope. Both the narrator's mother and Ted's
mother warn against the marriage because of the racial issues.
Both authors use flashbacks to tell their stories, anchoring the narrators' points of view in
their contemporary, American lives, while describing the Chinese culture of their families. This
allows the narrators to comment in retrospect on the traditions and superstitions of the past.
References:
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Indifferent Universe 9/26/2011
Robert Frost and Langston Hughes express the indifference of the universe in their poems
about death and destruction when Frost focuses on the dual dichotomies of fire and ice and of
desire and hate, while Hughes focuses on the dichotomy of wealthy whites and poor blacks. In
“Fire and Ice,” Frost expresses that fire or ice would suffice equally to destroy the world, and, in
“Question,” Hughes refers to Death as a junk man, who gathers the dead indiscriminately.
Destruction comes to individuals, it comes to relationships, and it comes to entire worlds, each in
its turn; we will examine how the universe is indifferent to death and destruction in regard to the
individual, in regard to relationships, and in regard to the eventual destruction of the world.
Fire and ice are elemental opposites. Fire cannot exist when it is surrounded by ice.
Neither can ice exit in the midst of fire. Neither fire nor ice contributes anything of value to the
other; each substance cancels out and destroys the other substance. Frost brings these two
antagonistic elements together to demonstrate that it is not important how destruction is
accomplished; the inevitability of death, destruction, and loss, and the indifference of the universe
to that inevitability, are the things that matter.
Frost begins “Fire and Ice”: “Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1609). Frost’s personal world ends time and time again during a
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life marked by tragedy: "[Frost’s] father ... died early; his sister in a hospital for the insane ... his
first born dying in infancy, the second in young manhood by his own hand ... his wife ... left him
in death ... his daughter Lesley ... wouldn't take him in" (Fraser, 1998, p. 47). The ice of death is a
common theme in Frost’s life, as he loses one loved-one after another. Death is cold and
indifferent in its finality. The fire of betrayal is also a common theme, as a young boy
undoubtedly feels betrayed by the father who dies too young and by the sister whose mental
illness brings shame to her family and as a man is betrayed by the daughter who abandons her
father in the time of trouble. Betrayal burns through the heart with indifference for the life that it
destroys. Ice and fire destroy Frost’s personal world time after time.
The indifference of the universe is embodied in the words, “And would suffice”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1609). Sufficiency is neither great nor terrible. Ice would suffice
for the destruction of the world just as fire would suffice to accomplish the same result. The
universe does not care how the world will end; it is not relevant to any supreme plan for the world
to end in one way or in another way. It is merely inevitable that the world will be destroyed in
some way in the course of time. Just as the indifferent heat of fire destroys ice by melting it into a
puddle, so the world will inevitably end. Just as the indifferently suffocating cold of ice destroys
fire by freezing away the heat that is needed for the fire to continue to burn, so is the destruction of
the world unavoidable. The agent of destruction is irrelevant to the universe; death and
destruction will inexorably come to the world eventually.
In showing that death and destruction are inevitable, Frost reminds the reader that life
will end in death. Death is inevitable. Whether life ends in cold and lonely emptiness, as by ice,
or whether life ends in a dramatic conflagration, as by fire, it is inevitable that each life will end.
As the universe is indifferent to the destruction of a whole world, even more so is the universe
indifferent to the death of any person. Life may end in fire, or life may end in life, but life will
end.
Frost writes: “From what I’ve tasted of desire … [and] I think I know enough of hate”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1609). It is important to notice that Frost’s dichotomy is
between desire and hate, not between the usual opposites of love and hate. Frost equates desire
with consuming fire and with raging infernos that are capable of destroying the world. He equates
hate with freezing ice that is likewise capable of destroying the world. He does not suggest that
love is hate’s opposite, or that love has anything to do with death and destruction. Instead, he sets
desire as hate’s opposite.
"[A] great deal of Frost's poetry deals with human limitations and with the tragedy of the
human condition" (Durham, 1969, p. 61). Desire and hate are human limitations, and they are
both involved in the tragedy of the human condition. Desire is a carnal force, not an emotion, and
it has the power to blind individuals to the real possibilities in interpersonal relationships. Desire
is superficial to relationships, and it is a transient force in life. If desire is devoid of love, or if it is
lacking sufficient love, then desire can destroy a relationship. Desire is able to tear a relationship
apart, leaving the individuals empty and broken. Conversely, hate is one of the strongest emotions
in existence. It has the power to bind people together in relationships of destruction. Hate is a
perversion of love, and hate freezes the life out of a heart as surely as ice freezes the last leaves of
autumn, sucking the life from the heart and leaving emotional death and destruction in the wake of
the hate.
Either desire or hate will serve with equal efficacy to destroy a relationship, and the
universe is indifferent in regard to which condition ultimately causes the destruction.
Contemporary relationships are less relevant than earlier relationships, and they often lack
substance as the post-war generation finds itself “devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization
they [feel] no longer [makes] any sense” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1561). Relationships
are fleeting, and as the participants find themselves alleviated from society, so do they cling to
290 A Journey Through My College Papers
desire and to hate alike to form the bases of their relationships. Contemporary relationships, in the
same manner as the world in Frost’s poem, even experience destruction twice in many cases: first,
the relationships are destroyed by the flames of desire, which consume the participants in the
relationship, but which are unable to leave a foundation of love and trust behind on their own
because desire is too shallow to contain love and trust. Second, the relationships are destroyed by
the ice of hatred, which freezes the heart, leaving no place for love and forgiveness to abide.
The relationship that is destroyed by the ice of hate resembles Hughes’ “suck of oblivion”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1866). Each is an indifferent void, consuming everyone without
regard for whom or what is destroyed in the process. The difference between hate and oblivion is
that hate remembers every detail of that which is hated, and it destroys the hater continuously,
while oblivion forgets what is destroyed and why and how the destruction was accomplished. It
makes no great difference in eternity whether destruction comes with the long memory of hatred
or with the complete forgetfulness of oblivion, since everything is always destroyed, and all
destruction is equal.
"Hughes' poetry ... reflects so much of his own life. It poignantly relates his own personal
experiences with racism, poverty, and loneliness ... in Kansas, where he spent most of his
childhood" (Scott, 1981, p. 1). Hughes’ “Question” explores the dichotomy of wealthy whites and
poor blacks in the persons of “a white multi-millionaire … [and] A Negro cotton-picker”
(McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1866). Despite the fact that Hughes is writing almost sixty years
after Reconstruction, there is still a vast difference in American society between blacks and
whites. His is a time in which “racial and other sorts of bigotry [are] on the rise, even including
the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1561). Hughes wonders
which man Death will find “Worth more pennies of eternity” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011,
p.1866). The question is multifaceted, as it considers race, it considers economic status, and it
considers the lifestyle of each man. Is the white man more valuable than is the black man when
Death collects their bodies? The universe is indifferent to the color of a person’s skin, of a
person’s hair, or of a person’s eyes, as each body rots away to dust just as well as each other body.
Is the rich man more valuable to eternity than is the poor man? The universe is indifferent to
economic wealth, as there is no use for money or material goods in eternity. Is the multi-
millionaire – who may or may not have worked hard at manual labor in his life, or who may or
may not have lived off the toil of others – more valuable than the man who picked cotton in the
fields all of his life? The universe is indifferent to the deeds and occupations of men, whose lives
are not long enough to register as specks on the timeline of eternity. Death does not care about the
differences among the dead, nor even does Death notice the differences, because they are all equal
in death. The universe is indifferent to kings and to peasants, to tyrants and to slaves, and to the
color of any person’s skin.
Langston Hughes’ “Question” and Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” both describe the
indifference of the universe toward mankind and toward the world. Frost expresses that either fire
or ice would suffice equally to destroy the world, and Hughes refers to Death as a junk man who
indiscriminately gathers the dead. The three dichotomies – of fire and ice, of desire and hate, and
of wealthy whites and poor blacks – all illustrate the vast indifference of everything in the face of
the inevitability of death and destruction.
Hughes writes: “When the old junk man Death/ Comes to gather up our bodies/ And toss
them into the suck of oblivion” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1866). Death is portrayed as a
junk man, or as a rubbish collector. Death is not collecting anything of value; he is only collecting
the bodies of the dead, which are destined to decompose, and which are of no further use to
anyone. He does not identify the bodies as he gathers them up. He does not extol the virtues and
the accomplishments of their lives. He does not denounce their failings, or the evils that they have
done. He does not even place them in his cart with any degree of care. Death is indifferent to
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everything that is valued in life. Death comes to each of us in turn as casually as the trash
collector picks up the litter that is scattered carelessly along the roadside. Death is even more
indifferent to the bodies that he collects than is the trash collector to the detritus that he gathers,
who may care enough about some trinket to pocket it and save it along the way; Death throws each
of the dead “into the suck of oblivion” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1866), saving none from
destruction.
Frost writes: “I hold with those who favor fire … for destruction ice/ Is also great/ And
would suffice” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p. 1609). Just as the universe in Hughes’ poem is
indifferent to who is destroyed, so the universe in Frost’s poem is indifferent to the manner of
destruction. In death and destruction, everyone and everything is equal. Death is the end that
cannot be avoided. Destruction is the destiny that is always certain. Whether it is a single life that
is destroyed in death, or whether it is an entire world that is destroyed by a cataclysm, the universe
is too big and too distant to so much as notice the loss, much less to care that the world is gone.
The junk man clears away the debris, and all that was destroyed by whatever means is equally
forgotten in oblivion.
The universe lacks the passion to care whether the world is destroyed by fire or by ice. It
lacks the passion to care whether death comes to a white man or to a black man. “The bittersweet
tone and view of life reflected in Hughes’s perspective … is consistently mirrored in his poems”
(DiYanni, 2008, pp. 701-702). “What really disturbs Frost is the absence of intense feelings”
(Durham, 1969, p. 71). Both Frost and Hughes write about the lack of feeling in the universe.
Hughes’ treatment of the subject reflects the bitterness of an African American in Post-
Reconstruction America. He is free, but his people continue to live and work in much the same
way as did their forbearers, under the oppression of white society. He sees the universe as being
indifferent to the history of the African American, to his plight, and to his future fate. Frost’s
treatment of the subject reflects the pain of a life marked by loss after loss. He has lost his father,
his sister, his children, and his wife. He sees the universe as indifferent to his personal suffering.
He sees that his life is irrelevant in a world that is vastly insignificant to the universe.
In “Fire and Ice” and in “Question,” Robert Frost and Langston Hughes express the
indifference of the universe toward human suffering, toward death, and toward destruction by
exploring the dichotomies of fire and ice, of desire and hate, and of wealthy whites and poor
blacks. Frost expresses the passionless, equal sufficiency of fire and of ice for the destruction of
the world, while Hughes expresses the equality that unites all men in death, through his portrayal
of Death as an indiscriminate junk man. Sufficiency is an unemotional, passionless, indifferent
state, which expresses no preference for one mode of destruction over another mode of
destruction; any agent of destruction will serve equally well to accomplish destruction. No
individual life is spared the destruction of death and loss, if only that individual’s own final
demise. No relationship is spared the destructive forces of desire and of hate, whether within the
relationship, or battering the relationship from the outside. Even the apparently timeless,
permanent world on which we reside has not been spared the destruction of fire from volcanoes,
from crashing meteors, and from war; and of ice from creeping glaciers. It will not be spared its
final destruction in the fullness of time, whether by fire from the death of the sun, or from the final
destruction in human technology and warfare; or by ice as the earth’s internal fires burn out and
the world succumbs to the endless cold of space. Destruction will come, and the universe will
neither notice nor care that our world is gone. Individual bodies, dead at the end of our short,
irrelevant lives, will be gathered indiscriminately by the indifference of Death, making us all equal
in the end, regardless of who we were in life.
Frost and Hughes express great bitterness and desolation in their poems, which I do not
share. I do not believe that the universe is indifferent to the fate of the humblest creature, much
less that the universe is indifferent to the destruction of a world. I do believe that they are both
292 A Journey Through My College Papers
right in believing that death is inevitable, and that it does not discriminate between the white man
and the black man, between the rich man and the poor man, between man and woman, or in any
other way; death is the great equalizer, regardless of how death comes, or to whom. Will the
“white multi-millionaire … [or the] Negro cotton-picker” (McMichael & Leonard, 2011, p.1866)
have more value in eternity? They will be equal, as they should have been equal in life.
References
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Durham, J.M. (1969). Robert Frost: A bleak, darkly realistic poet. Revista de Letras, 12, 59-89.
Retrieved September 4, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27666084
Fraser, R. (1998). Frost in the waste land. The Sewanee Review, 106(1), 46-67. Retrieved
September 12, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27548472
McMichael, G. & Leonard, J. S. (2011). Concise anthology of American literature. (Eds.). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Scott, M. (1981). Langston Hughes of Kansas. The Journal of Negro History, 66(1), 1-9.
Retrieved September 12, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716871
ENG 345: British Literature I
Beowulf: Reading for Theme 9/29/2011
An example of the theme of salvation through glorious sacrifice is found in lines 671
through 687 of Beowulf. Beowulf is preparing for his battle with Grendel. Since Grendel does not
use weapons in his attacks on Heorot, Beowulf will not use weapons in his contest with Grendel.
Beowulf says, "When it comes to fighting, I count myself/ as dangerous any day as Grendel ... He
has no idea of the arts of war,/ of shield or sword-play ... No weapons, therefore,/ for either this
night" (Beowulf, n.d., lines 677-684, cited in Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 47-48). By choosing to
meet Grendel on equal terms, Beowulf does three things. First, Beowulf uses this gesture to
improve his own image and prestige. By fighting the monster without a weapon, Beowulf
displays his strength and endurance. In Beowulf's time, a leader attracts followers, in part, by his
displays of strength and power. Second, Beowulf honors Grendel as a worthy opponent by
fighting Grendel on equal ground. Beowulf garners more personal glory by fighting a worthy
opponent than he would gain by fighting an inferior opponent, or by fighting an unarmed
opponent with armor and weapons. Third, Beowulf's actions reflect the theme of salvation
through glorious sacrifice. Salvation comes when Beowulf saves Heorot and the Danes from
Grendel's depredations. The glorious sacrifice is because Beowulf puts his life at risk by facing
Grendel without shield or sword. Beowulf offers himself as a sacrifice if he is not successful in
subduing Grendel, but Beowulf redeems the honor of the Danes by killing Grendel, and so adds
glory to himself and to his deed.
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo Baggins undertakes a quest to return
the One Ring to the fires in which it was forged in order to free his world from evil. Frodo has to
fight the seductive evil of the One Ring as he transports it across Middle Earth. The long journey
that Frodo and his companions undertake to travel from the Shire to Mordor to free Middle Earth
from the evil ravages of Sauron resembles the long journey that Beowulf and the Geats undertake
to travel from Geatland to Denmark to free Heorot from the evil ravages of Grendel. Frodo and
Beowulf each begin his quest with a group of companions; Frodo's band totals nine members,
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while Beowulf's band totals fifteen members. Although each hero begins with companions, each
hero faces his final battle with his final opponent alone. Frodo leaves his remaining companion,
Sam, and "runs to the top of Mount Doom on his own" (The lord of the rings, 2011, para. 34).
Similarly, Beowulf is alone to fight Grendel: "One man, however, was in fighting mood,/ awake
and on edge, spoiling for action" (Beowulf, n.d., lines 708-709, cited in Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
48). A great difference, however, is that Frodo does not defeat Sauron on his own at the end;
Gollum bites off Frodo's finger, which bears the One Ring, then falls to his death in the fires of
Mount Doom, which also destroy the One Ring. Beowulf does defeat Grendel on his own; the
swords of those who try to help Beowulf are useless against Grendel, but Beowulf rips off
Grendel's arm and leaves Grendel to run off to die of the fatal injury.
It is interesting to me to note that Beowulf could not have prevailed against Grendel if
Beowulf had chosen to use his shield and sword against the unarmed monster because swords are
ineffective against the monster. Only by stripping himself of the symbols of his power and
authority, including his shield and his sword, and meeting Grendel as a worthy equal is Beowulf
able to defeat him. To fight an unarmed opponent with a sword would be dishonorable, but
Beowulf fights and wins through his honorable choice.
An additional echo of Beowulf in Lord of the Rings is the entire concept of rings. The
Danes and other Germanic kings of Beowulf's time give rings to the leaders among their followers
as symbols of loyalty between the kings and the thanes, as well as giving rings as a distribution of
treasure. In Lord of the Rings, rings of power have been distributed to the leaders of the races in
the distant past. Rings as symbols of loyalty and relationship continue into the present, with class
rings showing loyalty to schools, Super Bowl rings honoring successful football players,
Episcopal rings worn by the prelates of several Christian denominations to show their loyalty to
the church, and wedding rings exchanged between spouses as symbols of their fidelity and eternal
union. This is a lasting and universal connection between the tale and society.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The lord of the rings: Plot overview. (2011). Retrieved September 29, 2011, from
http://www.sparknotes.com/film/lordoftherings/summary.html
Christian Content in Beowulf 10/3/2011
The central conflict of good versus evil in Beowulf is imbued with the religious
convictions of the Middle Ages not in the original, oral tradition, but in the written interpretation
of the poem by the Christian writer who first recorded it. Beowulf predates the conversion of
Anglo-Saxon England to Christianity, and “[i]t is admitted by all critics that the Beowulf is
essentially a heathen poem” (Blackburn, 1897, p. 205). Because Beowulf is transcribed from an
oral tradition to a written manuscript during the European Middle Ages, it is necessary for the
transcriber to adapt the poem to be acceptable to a world that is dominated by the Christian
Church. The power of the Church during this period is nearly absolute, and it is unacceptable for
heathen or pagan heroes to be triumphant over the forces of evil. In order to honor God and the
Church, the transcriber “ignor[es] all that was pagan in the story, [and] present[s] his personages
as if they had been Christian” (Stevick, 1963, p. 80). By adapting the heathen poem to contain
vague allusions to Christianity, the transcriber makes the epic tale palatable to his Christian
audience.
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When Beowulf is assumed to be a Christian tale, strong allegories may be found in the
characters of Beowulf and Grendel. Beowulf, the Geatish warrior, is an allegory for Jesus Christ.
Just as Jesus came to the Israelites to save them from eternal destruction by the devil through sin
and evil, so Beowulf comes to the Danes “to perform to the uttermost/ what your people wanted or
perish in the attempt” (ll. 634-635) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 47). Although Jesus is generally
recognized as being humble, while Beowulf is represented in the poem as being boastful, there are
clear similarities between the two heroes. Jesus and Beowulf each fight an evil that is too great to
be defeated by the people. Each hero is prepared to sacrifice his life in order to gain salvation for
the people to whom God has sent him. Beowulf represents Christ in the epic poem even though
Beowulf contains no “reference to Christ, to the cross, [or] to any doctrine of the church”
(Blackburn, 1897, p. 216).
Grendel stands as an allegory for evil as a whole, not for Satan as an individual. “[T]he
poem turns on Beowulf’s three great fights against preternatural evil, which inhabits the dangerous
and demonic space surrounding human society” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 31). Grendel is one
of the three manifestations of this evil, and he is the first manifestation which Beowulf must face.
Grendel attacks the center of the Danes’ social order in order to wreak havoc on the people, rather
than randomly attacking the individual homes in the community. His evil seeks to destroy Danish
society from the top down, leaving the people without the security of leadership or infrastructure
to protect them from the nameless evils that surround them. As such, Grendel is an allegory for
the destruction of ordered, civilized society.
While good and evil are common themes in pre-Christian folklore and hero tales, the
attribution of these themes to a Christian basis for Beowulf comes from the Christianization of
Anglo-Saxon society. The heathen hero tale is Christianized by the poet who transcribes the oral
tradition “because the poet was attempting to produce a major, written poem about Beowulf that
avoided inconsistency in Christianized and non-Christianized matter with which he was working”
(Stevick, 1963, p. 84). The fact that the poet-transcriber finds it necessary to Christianize the
Germanic hero tale tells us something about the society in which the poem originates, and
something about the society in which the Christian writer lives. The original poem tells us that its
society values great acts of courage and great feats of strength. It is a society in which extolling
one’s own accomplishments is regarded as a worthy pastime, and in which it is appropriate to
accrue to oneself as much honor and prestige as possible.
The society of the transcriber, on the other hand, is ruled by the Church. All honor and
prestige must be given to God, and to those whom God favors. Success in battle is no longer
achieved through one’s own strength and skill, but by the will of God. One does not boast of
one’s daring, courage, or prowess, but of one’s faith that God will deliver victory over evil to
those who are righteous. Beowulf’s “text belongs to Christianized Anglo-Saxon society and the
oral materials existed prior to conversion of the kingdom of Britain” (Stevick, 1963, p. 81). While
the oral tradition may continue in its heathen form for some time, the written text is adapted to
include many references to God and the Biblical themes. Christ is not mentioned, but frequent
appeals to God by the characters and attributions to God of the positive aspects of the story, makes
Beowulf acceptable to the Christian society of medieval Britain.
The central conflict of good and evil has been converted in Beowulf from the heathen
concepts of Germanic hero tales to the Christian concept of God’s triumph over evil. This
parallels, and is coextensive with, the conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain to the new faith of
Christianity. “Grendel is Evil and Beowulf is Righteousness” (Stevick, 1963, p. 86) because the
Church does not tolerate a monster that is not associated with Satan; nor does it tolerate a heathen
hero who triumphs over evil without the support of God. Beowulf is a victim of the revisionist
history that is often evident when Christianity overtakes an existing culture and appropriates the
beliefs and symbols of the old culture to suit the new, Christian culture.
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References
Blackburn, F.A. (1897). The Christian coloring in the Beowulf. PMLA, 12(2), 205-225.
Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/456133
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Stevick, R.D. (1963, November). Christian elements and the genesis of “Beowulf”. Modern
Philology, 61(2), 79-89. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/435497
Chaucer: Reading for Imagery 10/6/2011
"An housbonde wol I have, I wol nat lette,/ Which shal be bothe my dettour and my
thral,/ And have his tribulacion withal/ Upon his flessh whil that I am his wif./ I have the power
during al my life/ Upon his propre body, and nat he" (ll. 160-165) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
260). In this passage, Alice says she will not give up on getting a husband. Her husband will be
her debtor and her slave, and she will have power over his body while they are married. This
gives us an insight into the characterization of Alice. She does not intend to submit meekly to the
domination of a husband, as would be the normal situation for a woman in her time and culture;
instead, Alice intends to control her husband. Alice is a strong individual, who has learned
through experience what she wants from life and from marriage. The passage also provides
insight into the theme of "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale." The theme is feminism, in
contrast with the misogynism that is prevalent in England in Chaucer's time. Alice is pro-
feminism. In the prologue, she relates to her fellow travelers how she gains dominion over each of
her five husbands. Her fifth husband is misogynistic, but she bends even him to her will after he
strikes her and renders her deaf in one ear. In the tale, Alice has the old wife lecture the young
husband on the relationship between husbands and wives. He does not want to be intimate with
his wife because she is old, ugly, and from a low social class, but she brings him around to her
way of thinking by means of a long speech.
"Thou saidest this, that I was lik a cat:/ For whoso wolde senge a cattes skin,/ Thanne
wolde the cat wel dwellen in his in;/ And if the cattes skin be slik and gay, She wol not dwelle in
house half a day,/ But forth she wol, er any day be dawed,/ To shewe her skin and goon a-
caterwawed" (ll. 354-360) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 264). Alice explains how her husband
compares her to a cat. She says that if a cat's owner makes it ugly, then it will stay at home to
avoid being seen; but that a cat that is sleek and happy will roam away from home to show off its
beauty and to celebrate. Likewise, if Alice's husband keeps her in unstylish, ugly clothes, then she
will stay at home and be faithful to him; but if Alice is able to choose her own clothes, and to be
beautiful, then she will go out into society and her husband will not trust her fidelity. This speaks
to the characterization of Alice's fifth husband, who believes that women should be dominated by
their husbands. It is interesting that he chooses to compare her to a cat, since cats are generally
seen to be sexually promiscuous and to be mean-spirited and secretive, as in the adjective "catty"
to describe a woman who verbally attacks a rival. The choice of a cat suggests that he believes
that Alice will not just go out into society, but that she will cuckold him with other men. The
passage also speaks to the theme of feminism versus misogyny, as it presents a misogynistic view
of Alice.
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References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Chaucer: Reading for Lexicon 10/6/2011
"Up sterte the Pardoner and that anoon:/ 'Now dame,' quod he" (ll. 169-170) (Greenblatt,
et. al., 2006, p. 260). "I knowe you for a trewe wif, dame Alis" (l. 366) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 264). These two quotes from "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" identify Alice as "the wife or
daughter of a lord" (Dame, 2011, para. 1.b). This shows that Alice is, at the lowest, a member of
the middle class, and that she may be a member of the upper class. The Pardoner may not be
expected to know her exact status, but he addresses her in this respectful manner because he
recognizes status in her manner and appearance.
"My fifthe housband -- God his soule blesse! --/ Which that I took for love and no
richesse" (ll. 531-532) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 268). This statement by Alice suggests that her
fifth husband is of a lower socio-economic class than her own. He is represented in the prologue
as a clerk who left school to marry, suggesting that he is not a rich man. The statement also
reinforces the idea that Alice belongs to an upper class of society. She can afford to marry for
love in a time when marriage is usually about dynastic and economic concerns.
"And wered upon my gaye scarlet gites" (l. 565) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 269). This
line further illustrates Dame Alice's position in the middle or upper class. Red clothing is
generally restricted to the upper class by the sumptuary laws of the period. "Red stood for power,
passion, wealth, and blood" (Hartman, 2001, para. 20), and it is usually associated with men. The
fact that Alice wears scarlet gowns underscores the anti-misogynistic, feministic theme of the
story, because she goes against social customs of her culture in her sartorial choices.
"And so bifel it that this King Arthour/ Hadde in his hous a lusty bacheler" (ll. 888-889)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 276). Since only noble-born men were able to be knights in this
period, this passage identifies the knight as a member of the upper class. In addition, the knight is
residing in the house of a king, further identifying his high social class.
"Save on the greene he sawgh sitting a wif --/ A fouler wight ther may no man devide./
Again the knight this olde wife gan rise" (ll. 1004-1006) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 278). In this
passage, a foul, lower-class person rises from the ground when the knight approaches her. That
she is sitting on the ground, unattended by any companion or servant, is an indication that she is of
the lower class. The description of her as foul reinforces this image. If she was a woman of the
upper class, she would be likely to remain seated, and to allow the knight to salute her first; by
rising to show respect to the knight, she demonstrates that she is of a significantly lower class than
is he.
"For though that I be foul and old and poore" (l. 1069) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 280).
The old wife speaks plainly and explicitly identifies her status in the lower class in this line.
"For prively he wedded hire on morwe" (l. 1086) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 280). The
knight marries the old woman secretly in the morning. "Prively" is closer to "privily," or in secret,
than it is to "privately," or not in public. Marrying her in secret suggests that the knight is
ashamed to be marrying the foul, old, lower-class woman. His shame at having to keep his
promise shows that he lacks the nobility of spirit that is usually attributed to the upper class, and
especially to knights.
"It wol nat been amended nevermo./ Thou art so lothly and so old also. And thereto
comen of so lowe a kinde,/ That litel wonder is though I walwe and winde./ So wolde God myn
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herte wolde breste" (ll. 1105-1109) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 278). This speech by the knight in
his marriage bed further illustrates that he lacks nobility of spirit. He insults his wife, and he
bemoans the necessity of keeping his promise to her. He whines and complains of his plight in the
same way that women are thought to whine and complain in the period. While he may be of the
nobility, or at least of the gentry, his behavior is neither noble nor genteel.
"Now ther ye saye that I am foul and old:/ Thanne drede you nought to been cokewold,/
For filthe and elde, also mote I thee,/ Been grete wardeins upon chastitee,/ But natheless, sin I
knowe your delit,/ I shall fulfille youre worldly appetit" (ll. 1219-1224) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 283). The old wife is kind and gracious to her husband, despite his churlish behavior toward
her. She pledges to keep her side of the deal, and to give him what society views as his by right.
She exhibits nobility of spirit, despite her low origins.
References:
Dame. (2011). Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved October 6, 2011, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dame
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Hartman, R. (2001). Sometimes a codpiece is just a codpiece: The meanings of medieval clothes.
Retrieved October 6, 2011, from
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2001/20011022/medieval_clothing.shtlm
Satire in “The Wife of Bath” 10/10/2011
Literature is often defined by the values that are contemporary to its readers, rather than
by the values that are contemporary to its writers. It is easy to fall into this trap when reading
Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.” Alison’s stories appear to be early feminist
literature, but it is actually a satirical treatment of women’s role in medieval society. Although
modern readers see the work as feminist literature that defends the role of women in society, the
piece is a satire that reflects the antifeminist values of its time. An examination of Alison’s
account in the prologue of her marriages, and of the romantic fairy story in her tale, reveals the
work’s satire.
Alison describes her marriages as being opposite to the values of her time. In the Middle
Ages, a wife is submissive to her husband. He has full control over her body and her actions.
Alison’s description of the next marriage that she hopes to have is a satire of the conventional
roles of wives and husbands: “An housbonde wol I have, I wol nat lette,/ Which shal be bothe my
detour and my thral,/ And have his tribulacion withal/ Upon his flesh whil that I am his wif./ I
have the power during al my lif/ Upon his proper body, and nat he” (ll. 160-165) (Greenblatt, et.
al., 2006, p. 260). Modern readers see this passage as evidence that Alison is a medieval feminist
who controls her husbands. Instead, this is an example of Chaucer’s use of satire to underline the
contemporary view that a proper wife serves her husband, and does not expect him to be her
servant. In a contemporary setting, Alison is an unnatural woman. Susan Crane (1987) writes:
“[A]ntifeminist satire is nonnarrative, organized instead by an authoritative voice that rigidifies
and fragments femaleness into a set of discrete exempla and negative topoi on nagging, mercenary
dependence, overbearing sexuality, and so on” (p. 21). This applies to Alison’s statement that her
next husband will be her debtor and her slave, as well as to her claim that she will control his
body. Alison’s mercenary dependence on her husband is illustrated by his role as her debtor. He
owes her a living and support. While a medieval husband does support his wife, she is not able to
298 A Journey Through My College Papers
make claims or demands of him. Alison’s overbearing sexuality is clear in her boast that she
controls her husband’s body. In medieval society, a man has the right to require sexual
satisfaction from his wife whenever he chooses to do so, and to withhold sexual satisfaction from
her at his whim. A wife does not have the right to demand sexual attentions or to withhold sex
from her husband. The satire exists in Alison’s assertions that her marriage is opposite to
everything that her contemporaries expect in marriage.
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Chaucer uses romantic literature to achieve his satire of the
anti-feminine values of his time. Kenneth J. Oberembt (1976) writes: “The thrust of the Wife’s
Prologue and Tale is only to criticize and to correct Authority by means of Experience, not to
depose it” (p. 294). The romantic story of the knight and the poor, old wife provides this
connection in its commentary on the social order. Chaucer provides this speech that the old wife
makes to the knight in their marriage bed:
For God it woot, men may wel often finde/ A lords sone do shame and vilainye;/ And he
that wol hans pris of his gentrye,/ For he was boren of a gentil hous,/ And hadde his
elders noble and virtuous,/ And nil himselven do no gentil deedes,/ Ne folwen his gentil
auncestre that deed is/ He nis nat gentil, be he duc or erl –/ For vilaines sinful deedes
maken a cherl.” (ll. 1156-1164) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 281)
In this passage, Chaucer accomplishes three things: first, he satirizes the relationship between men
and women; second, he satirizes the role of women in society; and third, he makes a strong social
commentary on the noble virtues of the nobility.
The relationship between medieval men and women is weighted in favor of the man,
especially in marriage. A wife does not lecture her husband on moral issues. A husband has
authority over his wife, and he instructs her in proper behavior. In the wife’s lecture to her
husband, Chaucer overturns the accepted relationship. The wife lectures in a learned manner,
moralizing to her husband. Since the husband does not interrupt the lecture, the reader finds that
the husband is submitting to his wife. Many modern readers see this as evidence that the tale is a
feminist work that supports a woman’s authority. Reading the passage in a contemporary context
shows that it is a satire that reinforces the propriety of a husband’s authority over his wife.
The old wife’s speech is a lecture on morality that resembles speeches made by clerics in
the medieval period. According to the accepted social order, women are not well educated, and
they do not give morality lectures. Clerics are generally the only educated members of society.
While a woman may enter holy orders as a nun, only a man is allowed to be a cleric. A secular
woman, such as the old wife, does not presume to lecture a man. By presenting a woman who
lectures like a cleric, Chaucer underscores the contemporary view that such a woman is unnatural,
and he supports social norms against this behavior.
The wife chastises her husband’s behavior when she tells him that being born to a noble
house does not guarantee that a lord’s son will exhibit noble behavior. Her husband promises that
he will grant her one desire if she helps him, but he tries to get out of his promise when she desires
to marry him. He behaves churlishly, and she lectures him that ignoble deeds will turn a lord’s
son into a churl. She tells him that nobility does not come from noble ancestors; it comes from
noble deeds and behavior. This is a major social commentary in a period when social status
depends almost exclusively on a person’s ancestry. That this point is made by a woman, who is at
the bottom of the social order, is another example of Chaucer’s satirical treatment of women in
contemporary society.
In a discussion of medieval women that centers on “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and
Tale,” S.H. Rigby (2000) writes: “What was originally meant as a satirical defence of women can
come to seem a convincing refutation of medieval misogyny” (p. 157). While modern readers
infer this refutation, Chaucer’s story is a satire. He ends Alison’s romantic tale with the wife’s
prayer: “And Jesu Crist us sende/ Housbondes meeke, yonge, and fresshe abedde –/ And grace
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t’overbide hem that we wedde,/ And eek I praye Jesu shorte hir lives/ That nought wol be
governed by hir wives” (ll. 1264-1268) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 283-284). She asks for
meek, young husbands who will be fresh in bed, and she asks to outlive her husbands. It is
common for older medieval men to marry young women and girls. Despite being much older than
their wives, many men outlive young wives who die as a result of childbirth. The knight’s wife
prays for the opposite of what is usual in contemporary society. This is the satirical defense of
women that highlights the antifeminism of Chaucer’s period. The wife desires a social role in
opposition to the actual role of women; she desires power in her marriage, while women in her
period are forced by society to relinquish all power to their husbands.
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” satirizes the role of the wife in medieval society.
In the prologue, Alison describes how she gains dominion over her husbands; in the tale, the
husband and wife reverse the traditional roles in the wife’s morality lecture. Modern readers find
Alison to be a feminist, but the reader sees the original satirical nature of the story when the reader
considers the contemporary context of the work.
References
Crane, S. (1987, January). Alison’s incapacity and poetic instability in the wife of Bath’s tale.
PMLA, 102(1), 20-28. Retrieved October 4, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/462489
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Oberembt, K.J. (1976). Chaucer’s anti-misogynist wife of Bath. The Chaucerian Review, 10(4),
287-302. Retrieved October 4, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25093359
Rigby, S.H. (2000). The wife of Bath, Christine de Pizan, and the medieval case for women. The
Chaucerian Review, 35(2), 133-165. Retrieved October 4, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25096124
The Bible: Reading for Context 10/13/2011
In the mid-sixteenth century, one of the controversies surrounding the interpretation of
the Bible in England is the debate over whether salvation and damnation are predetermined by
God, or whether they are determined by the acts and the works of the individual. The Catholic
view is that salvation must be earned by prayer and by good works, while the Protestant view is
that salvation is a gift of faith. A third view that is supported by John Calvin is that salvation is
predetermined by God, and that it is not dependent on the faith, works, or character of the
individual. Calvin (1561) writes: "God by eternal and unchangeable counsel hath once appointed
whom in time to come he would take to salvation, and on the other side whom he would condemn
to destruction" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 627). In Calvin's view, a person is not able to do
anything to affect his or her fate. Regular attendance at church does not ensure salvation. Doing
good works to help the less fortunate is equally ineffective. There is no way for anyone to know
who is or who is not saved. This causes great controversy for those who believe that Jesus Christ
died to give salvation to all who believe in Him. The doctrine of predestination is equally
troublesome for those who believe that salvation is given to those who work for it, and that
salvation is denied to those who are selfish or who do no good works. In a world in which the
institutional Church has held power over the people, and has grown rich from the tithes and gifts
of the people because the people believe that they can earn their way to Heaven by donating to the
Church to support the poor, predestination is a devastating concept. People who do not believe
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that prayer or good works will save them have little incentive to listen to the teachings of the
Church or to follow the rules of the Church in secular life. As a result, the Church begins to lose
power and authority in England.
I see this controversy all around me in my life today, so I know that it continues. I have
friends, both here in Michigan and in the several other states where I have lived, who believe that
they do not need to attend any sort of worship activities or do any sort of community service
because it does not matter in the end. These people, including my first two husbands, believe that
they will go to Heaven or to Hell as God wills it, and that they are powerless to change His will.
On the other hand, I have friends who are passionate in their belief that good works will guarantee
them places in Heaven, but only if they are constantly busy with doing good works. They work in
the soup kitchens, the counseling programs, and many other outreach projects that do a great deal
of good for people who are in need. I also know many people who believe that salvation is
secured through the act of baptism, or through a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ. I will
not say what I believe, but there are good people in each of these groups. There are also those
who live immoral personal lives while outwardly doing good works or professing faith in Christ,
and there are deeply moral, faithful people who neither do good works nor publicly witness their
faith. Sadly, the controversy continues to separate people, and the fracture the Church into sects
that do not agree on specific points of doctrine.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Paradise Lost: Reading for Character and Imagery 10/13/2011
Satan is the main character in the assigned portion of Paradise Lost. Milton describes
Satan's physical appearance: "With head uplift above the wave, and eyes/ That sparkling blazed,
his other parts besides/ Prone on the flood, extended long and large/ Lay floating many a rood, in
bulk as huge/ As whom the fables name of monstrous size" (ll. 193-197) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 1836). The most notable part of this description is Satan's great size. He is not of any human
stature; he is as large as the largest creatures in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern myths. Milton
names many of these monsters to strengthen the visual imagery for readers who are familiar with
classical mythology.
Milton uses imagery to show how Satan thinks. Satan is depicted as evil and proud as he
repeatedly takes pleasure in being the lord of evil. "[R]ound he throws his baleful eyes/ That
witnessed huge affliction and dismay/ Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate" (ll. 56-58)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1833). Satan views suffering with pride in his eye. This echoes the
blazing eyes in his physical description, and shows that his evil is expressed in his eyes.
Typically, a person can show almost any demeanor in his or her face, but true personality and
emotions show in the light and movement of the eyes. That Milton describes Satan's eye as
baleful reinforces the impression that Satan is a malignant character.
In his speech to Beelzebub, Satan says, "But ever to do ill our sole delight,/ ... If then his
providence/ Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,/ Our labor must be to pervert that end,/ And
out of good still to find means of evil" (ll. 160-165) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1836). Satan
chooses to make the most of his new situation; he does not just accept the role of evil-doer, he
chooses to embrace his role, and to delight in it. Not only does he choose to do evil, he chooses to
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pervert goodness into evil. This further reinforces Satan's depiction as a being of evil. He is not
forced to take pleasure in evil, but his evil nature causes him to choose pleasure.
Perhaps the most famous line from Paradise Lost also illustrates Satan's evil character:
"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n" (l. 263) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1838). Satan
served in Heaven before he was cast out, and he prefers to rule evil than to serve good. The visual
image in this line is the juxtaposition of an infernal king in the dreary realm that Milton describes
in the story, against a servant in the hall of a heavenly king in the glorious realm to which Milton
alludes in the story.
The recurring motifs that illustrate Satan's pleasure with doing evil, and with witnessing
suffering, show his character as sadistic and cruel. I could have a degree of sympathy for him in
his exile if he did not take pleasure in causing suffering. Until he chooses to delight in evil, he is a
victim of his circumstances, but when he uses free will to make that choice, he takes control of his
destiny, and I can no longer pity him.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Renaissance Love Poetry: Reading for Lyricism 10/20/2011
In "Sonnet 64," Edmund Spenser uses a blazon of flowers to describe the features of the
lady whom he kisses:
Her lips did smell lyke unto Gillyflowers,
Her ruddy cheeks lyke unto Roses red;
Her snowy browes lyke budded Bellamours,
Her lovely eyes like Pincks but newly spred,
Her goodly bosome lyke a Strawberry bed,
Her neck lyke to a bounch of Cullambynes;
Her brest lyke lillyes, ere theyr leaves be shed,
Her nipples lyke yong blossomd Jessemynes. (ll. 5-12) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 905).
He describes her in whites and reds, even describing her eyes with this color scheme. I am
interested in Spenser's decision to capitalize all of the flowers except the lilies; capitalization
suggests personification, and the one flower that usually represents Christ is not personified.
Beauty is the common theme among the four poems in this week's assignment. Philip
Sidney's "Sonnet 52" deals with Stella's "beauty and her grace" (l. 9) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
984). Love claims Stella's beauty, but Virtue disdains beauty and claims Stella's inner self. Her
outer beauty is not the feature that identifies Stella; virtue is the more important feature. Spenser's
"Sonnet 64" describes a lady's beauty as a flower garden. The lady's odor, or personal essence, is
more attractive than the beauty of the flowers, as Spenser writes in lines 13-14: "Such fragrant
flowres doe give most odorous smell,/ But her sweet odour did them all excell" (Greenblatt, et. al.,
2006, p. 905). William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 16" describes how love endures even though
beauty yields to Time. He writes: "Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/ Within his
bending sickle's compass come" (ll. 9-10) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1073). The appearance of
the lips and cheeks changes with the passage of time, but these changes do not influence love.
Thomas Campion's "There is a garden in her face" describes the beauty of a lady's face, using a
blazon of flowers and fruit to illustrate beauty. He writes: "Her eyes like angels watch them still;/
Her brows like bended bows do stand,/ Threatening with piercing frowns to kill/ All that attempt
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with eye or hand/ Those sacred cherries to come nigh" (ll. 13-17) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp.
1230-1231). These lines tell that a beautiful woman will not be used by those who are attracted to
her beauty; she will guard the cherries that are her lips from being kissed without her permission.
The theme of beauty indicates that Elizabethan women are judged according to their
beauty. However, virtue and love go beyond beauty and endure the passage of time. This
suggests that Elizabethans rate virtue and love higher than beauty. According to Reginald Waddy
(1912), "Love is the first subject of the Elizabethan lyric" (p. 23). The ascendance of love over
beauty in this week's readings is in line with Waddy's identified theme. Waddy (1912) identifies
"monosyllables or dissyllables" (p. 25) as the preferred diction for Elizabethan lyric poetry. The
assigned poems tend to follow this trend, with only a few words that have more than two syllables
in any of the poems.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Waddy, R. (1911-1912). Elizabethan lyrics and love-songs. Proceedings of the Musical
Association, 38, pp. 21-39. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/
Early 17th Century Elegy, Epigraph , and Friendship 10/20/2011
I find it difficult to clearly identify a theme of honor common to the four poems in the
assignment. Mary Wroth's "Sonnet 103" has a clear theme of honor. She writes: "And thus leave
off, what's past shows you can love,/ Now let your constancy your honor prove" (ll. 13-14)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1461). For Wroth, honor exists in being constant in one's love for
another. It is not enough simply to love; love must be secure from threats of being ended by
restless fancies. Honorable love is faithful and constant.
Honor is harder to find in Alexander Pope's "Impromptu to Lady Winchilsea." Pope
writes: "I knew Ardelia could not quote the best,/ Who, like her mistress on Britannia's throne,/
Fights and subdues in quarrels not her own" (ll. 6-8) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2596). By
comparing Ardelia to Queen Anne, Pope is trying to honor Ardelia. He calls her the greatest
female wit, who cannot quote the best because she is the best. When Pope does this, he does not
succeed in honoring Ardelia; Pope dishonors Ardelia because the tone of the poem is
condescending to her, and it is demeaning to female writers.
In the first two lines of "The Answer (To Pope's 'Impromptu')," Anne Finch exhibits
honorable behavior: "Disarmed with so genteel an air,/ The contest I give o'er" (ll. 1-2)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2596). In giving over the contest, Finch yields the debate about
female writers rather than fighting with Pope on the subject. She is courteous, and she protects her
honor by taking the higher moral position in her debate with Pope. At the end of the poem, Finch
reminds Pope to behave honorably toward female writers, and to learn from her poem.
Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is difficult to follow. The
excerpt in the assignment begins: "The struggleing Pangs of conscious Truth to hide,/ To quench
the Blushes of ingenuous Shame" (ll. 1-2) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. A9). Gray's shame is his
devotion to luxury and to pride. If he does not feel shame, then his honor is tarnished; he does feel
honest shame, so his honor is redeemed. The epitaph in the final three stanzas of the poem
confirms his honor: "Large was his Bounty & his Heart sincere;/ Heaven did a Recompence as
largely send./ He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a Tear./ He gain'd from Heav'n, 'twas all he wish'd, a
Friend" (ll. 77-80) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. A10-A11). He is sincere and generous, and he is
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sorrowful when he encounters misery. He does not seek fame or wealth; he seeks only friendship.
He has honor in life.
The meaning of honor changes from one poem to another. Wroth and Gray use the noun
form of honor. It is a thing to be valued, and it is part of a person. Honor includes honesty,
humility, kindness, generosity, and compassion. A person with honor is virtuous. Wroth's virtue
of constancy in love is an element of honor. Gray's virtue of honest shame for one's faults is an
element of honor.
Pope uses the verb form of honor. He honors Ardelia, or shows her respect. In fact, in
trying to honor her, Pope dishonors Ardelia, because his respect for her appears to be insincere
mollifying instead of true esteem.
Finch's use of honor is close to that used by Wroth and Gray. She preserves her honor by
not squabbling with Pope. She then reminds Pope to be honorable, using the adjective form of
honor. She does not tell him to have honor, but to behave like someone who has honor.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Swift’s A Modest Proposal 10/27/2011
The social situation in Swift's time is described well in his list of expedients he does not
want to be told of. Ireland uses too many products of foreign manufacture. Landlords treat their
tenants cruelly, "devour[ing] most of the parents" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2464). Merchants
are dishonest and cheat their customers. Many people beg for money to support their children, and
the children become thieves at an early age to support themselves. Ireland is largely Catholic, and
it is at odds with England.
Suggesting that the children of the poor, especially those born in bastardy, should be
killed as food because their parents cannot afford to raise the children might be a catalyst for
reducing the number of children born to unwed mothers. Swift writes: "[T]hese children are
seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages" (Greenblatt, et.
al., 2006, p. 2464). Since the work is blatantly satire, this passage tells the reader that children
should be born in marriage.
Swift writes: "Neither indeed can I deny that if the same use were made of several plump
young girls in this town ... the kingdom would not be the worse" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
2465). He is referring to the pampered rich of the kingdom who live dissipated lives of luxury and
leisure without contributing to society. In suggesting that the kingdom will not suffer from such
people being eaten. Swift shows that society will benefit from a reduction of this morally and
economically useless segment of society.
In describing the poor of the kingdom in terms of animals that are raised for the
slaughterhouse, Swift illustrates how bad living conditions have become. Being culled for food
gives people as good a life as cattle and swine, that being an improvement over their present
conditions. This may be a catalyst for the eventual end of feudal habits and the beginning of
social welfare programs that improve the lives of the poor. Swift's mention that "the poorer
tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2466) refers to the feudal state of affairs. The poor are the tenants of
the rich, and the belongings of the poor may be seized to pay the debts of the poor. The idea that
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infants might be seized as property is abhorrent, and may be a catalyst for eliminating the laws that
allow such seizures.
To the monarchy and to the common people alike, the idea of rich people dining on the
children of the poor should point to the impression that the monarchy devours the people through
taxes and through laws that prevent people rising to higher social status. Clearly, it is wrong to eat
children; in the same way it is wrong to crush the people with unjust laws and taxes. The satirical
presentation of the contemporary social situation strengthens Swift 's arguments against the abuses
committed by the ruling class. Swift compares his proposal to the fictional land of Formosa,
which the people of his time should recognize as being absurd to the point of horrific in its
practices of cannibalism and human sacrifice. This parallel should further strengthen Swift's
argument on behalf of improved conditions for the poor.
I believe that revolutionary writing is necessary in society when the actions of the ruling
class jeopardize the lives and livelihoods of the poorer classes, but not when society is running
well. Revolutionary writing serves to draw attention to the elements of society that need to be
changed. It holds the ruling class responsible for its actions, and calls on the ruling class to
change its actions to the good or to be overthrown by those whom it rules. Revolutionary writing
serves to empower the common people to rise up against a government that represses or abuses the
people. It can incite an actual revolution, but if the ruling class heeds the message of
revolutionary writing there can be social change without the destruction of revolution.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Reading for Global Significance 10/27/2011
Burke identifies six reasons for Americans' spirit of liberty. Of these, four address the
conflict between human rights and the rights granted by the laws of England; descent and
remoteness are not associated with rights. "[T]he people must in effect themselves, mediately or
immediately, possess the power of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty could
subsist" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2846). This passage deals with government and taxes.
People have a basic right to choose how and when to give their money to a government. The laws
of England require taxes to be paid to England by the American colonies without the benefit of
representation.
"[T]he Church of England, notwithstanding its legal rights" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
2847). The Church of England is the legally constituted church of the English colonies. The King
or Queen is the head of the church. This is in conflict with the human right of the individual to
full freedom of, or from, religion.
Although England abolishes slavery in 1772, at the time of Burke's writing, "in Virginia
and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2848). This
Southern manner of slavery is supported in the colonies by the laws of England, but it is in direct
opposition with the human rights of the slaves to be free and equal citizens in society.
"I mean their education, In no country, perhaps, in the world is the law so general a
study" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2848). It is a human right for each individual to be educated.
The laws of England in this period limit all but the most basic education to the upper class.
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Burke's reference to taxes, above, speaks to the way economics play into the decisions
made by the empire. By taxing the colonies, the empire raises money to continue imperial
expansion and the defense of imperial holdings.
Johnson writes: "A man may accept life from a conquering enemy on condition of
perpetual servitude; but it is very doubtful whether he can entail that servitude on his descendants"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2849). Human rights preclude involuntary servitude, or slavery, in
opposition to the rights granted by English law for individuals to hold slaves.
Johnson further writes: "Inhabitants of this island can neither gain riches nor power by
taking away the liberty of any part of the human species" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2850).
While this should be true, the empire learns that slaveholders and their governments can make a
great deal of money by using slave labor, especially in agriculture. Slavery is abolished in
England, but it continues in the colonies for some time.
Equiano writes: "I would have freely parted with [ten thousand worlds] to have
exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country" (Greenblatt, et. al.,
2006, p. 2851). He is not afraid to be a slave, only to be a slave in the British Empire. Human
rights require that a person be treated decently, not captured and frightened. The laws of England
allow slaves to be forcibly taken from family and friends, and to be terrorized by their captors.
Equiano further writes: "[O]n my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid
me across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely" (Greenblatt,
et. al., 2006, p. 2852). Human rights do not allow one person to beat another, especially when the
victim cannot defend himself or herself. Slave traders are given the right under law to punish
slaves.
Equiano writes: "Many merchants and planters now came on board, though it was in the
evening" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2854). Slavery is a lucrative business, and there is a great
interest in slaves in the English colonies in this period. Slave holders make a lot of money by
using slave labor, so the empire allows slavery to continue in the colonies.
I think the exposure of cruelties associated with slavery might influence the empire to put
a stop to slavery, but history tells me that slavery lasts far beyond this period. The discussion of
the American love of freedom might influence the empire to change its policies, especially in
regard to taxation, to keep peace in the colonies. The American Revolution tells me that the
empire does not pay heed closely enough to these writings.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The Evil of Grendel 10/31/2011
Grendel is described in Beowulf as “feond” (Lancashire, 2011, l. 962), which is modernly
translated as “fiend,” or a creature of evil. He is later described as seeking the company of
“deofla” (Lancashire, 2011, ll. 755-757), the plural of deofol, which is modernly translated as
“devil.” Although these Middle English words that appear to describe Grendel as a fiend and as a
devil may also be translated into less monstrous words in modern English, it is the early
definitions that are important to an understanding of the original nature of Grendel as a creature of
evil. Grendel is a fiend and a devil, a monster that represents evil in society. He is an enemy of
God, and God sends the hero Beowulf to defeat Grendel. Grendel is also a descendant of Cain,
who is marked by God as a monster after Cain murders Abel in the Biblical creation story. By
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attacking the mead hall, Grendel attacks the social and economic center of contemporary Danish
society, which is also a reflection of God’s kingdom, becoming a representation of evil in society.
Jeffrey Helterman (1968) compares Heorot the mead hall with heaven when he writes: “If the
symbolic import of Heorot is accounted for, i.e., it is a place where the temporal brytta [dispenser,
giver] repeats the acts of the spiritual brytta, then the throne is Hrothgar’s which stands for God’s”
(p. 8). When Grendel attacks Heorot, he attacks the throne of God, branding Grendel as a creature
of evil.
F.A. Blackburn (1897) contends that the understanding of Grendel as evil is based on a
mistranslation of the original text into modern English. He writes: “[I]t is not certain that feond,
which strictly means 'foe,' has here the later sense that we now attach to the word 'fiend,' and
deofol … does not refer … to the devils of hell, but to the ocean monsters like Grendel, into whose
company he wishes to escape” (pp. 209-210). A foe is not necessarily either good or evil; a foe is
merely an entity in opposition with another. The characterization of a foe as evil, based on the
condition of being a foe, is highly subjective, and is not sufficient to equate “foe” with “fiend.”
Similarly, a sea monster is not necessarily evil; it is strange, perhaps ugly or strange in appearance,
and possibly dangerous, but that is not sufficient to characterize a sea monster as evil. Feond
sounds similar to fiend, just as deofol sounds similar to devil, and the homophonic quality of the
words tricks modern readers into characterizing Grendel as a fiend and a devil.
While it is possible to translate feond as foe, and to define a deofol as a sea monster,
these are just two words in the entire text of Beowulf. Nicolas K. Kiessling (1968) explains the
use of the descriptive word “maere” in relation to Grendel when he writes: “When the poem was
written, however, maere would have been a most appropriate term if applied to the ravager,
Grendel; and the weight of the evidence … would seem to point not to ‘famous,’ but to ‘incubus,
night monster’ as the more probable meaning of the word maere in lines 103 and 762 of Beowulf”
(p. 201). An incubus is an ancient creature of evil that sucks the souls from its victims. As an
incubus, or a monster in the same category as an incubus, Grendel is evil. He is not merely a foe
of the Danes; he is the evil enemy of God. Grendel is not simply a sea monster, he is an evil
creature of the night that ravages Heorot and seeks to destroy the West Danes.
The battle between good and evil is classic in literature. Ordinary humans are often
caught in the middle of the debate, with evil threatening to destroy human society, and with good
protecting humanity by defeating the forces of evil. In Beowulf, Grendel represents evil and is
defeated by Beowulf, God’s instrument of good. In the classic conflict, good and evil compete for
possession of humans, and for possession of creation. In Beowulf, Beowulf and Grendel battle for
possession of Heorot. Beowulf represents God as the ultimate good; Grendel represents the
ultimate evil as he kills Hrothgar’s men and destroys the peace of Heorot each night.
Grendel is a monster that represents evil in society because God guides Beowulf to
defend the Danes against Grendel as against an enemy of God. Since God is the source of all
good, especially for the early Christians, any enemy of God is evil. There is no neutral ground
between good and evil. “Holy God/ has, in His goodness, guided [Beowulf] here/ to the West-
Danes, to defend us from Grendel” (ll. 381-383) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 42). The author of
Beowulf states clearly that Beowulf intervenes between Grendel and the Danes because God wills
that Beowulf should do so. God takes this action because Grendel is God’s enemy, the opposite of
good; Grendel is evil. Robert D. Stevick (1963) writes: “Hygelac's paganism … Hrothgar's
Christianity: both belonged historically to pre-Christian times, while both give thanks to God for
Beowulf's success” (Stevick, 1963, p. 82). Both the Pagan Hygelac and the Christian Hrothgar
acknowledge God’s role in Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel. Pagans and Christians are rarely
depicted on the same side of any issue in literature, but Grendel’s evil is so great that these two
characters agree on his nature. If Grendel is not evil, then there is no reason for God to orchestrate
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Grendel’s defeat. God does not intervene in mortal matters unless He is called upon to fight and
destroy evil, or to promote and propagate goodness.
“Grendel … disrupted the joyful life of Hrothgar's kingdom; he is a hellish fiend who
perpetrated terrible crimes. He lives in the moors, keeps the region of monsters that are descended
from Cain” (Stevick, 1963, p. 85). In destroying Heorot, Grendel tears apart the fabric of Danish
society; he destroys the heart of social, economic, and political infrastructure for the West Danes.
Heorot is the center of society for the local area, and the West Danes depend on the safety and
security of Heorot to provide for the safety and security of the common people and the
community. Heorot is the center of government, of finance, of defense, and of socialization.
Hrothgar reigns over the West Danes from his throne in Heorot. He makes laws from this center
point, and he dispenses justice among his followers in the mead hall. As king, Hrothgar
distributes wealth to his supporters in the mead hall. It is the custom of the early Germanic tribes
for the ruler of a tribe or nation to give gold rings and other treasures to the men who distinguish
themselves by their prowess in battle or by their service to the ruler. The soldiers or heroes who
serve Hrothgar congregate in Heorot, and they often sleep in the mead hall. It is usual for
unmarried men, in particular, to use the mead hall not only as a place to eat and drink, but also as a
place to sleep. In addition, men who travel through a tribe’s territory often sleep in the tribe’s hall,
and Heorot is used in this way. The men of the West Danes gather in Heorot to socialize, to sing
songs and hear stories, and to eat and drink together. The people tell stories and sing songs to
teach history to each generation and to share their adventures and achievements with the
community. When Grendel ravages the hall, he strikes not only at a group of men who happen to
be there at night; he strikes at the center of life and power in the community. Similarly, God rules
creation from His throne in Heaven. God gives gifts of every kind to His faithful followers from
Heaven. God defends the faithful from evil from His seat of power. God’s faithful gather in His
kingdom in the afterlife to live together in peace. When Grendel attacks Heorot, he symbolically
attacks Heaven, as evil makes war on good. The Christian devil attacks Heaven as the center of
God’s kingdom, and God casts him out of Heaven. When Grendel attacks the center of the
kingdom of the west Danes, Beowulf casts Grendel out of Heorot. Grendel is evil, and he
represents the ultimate evil.
Grendel is described in Beowulf as a demon that is related to the Judeo-Christian devil
and to the demons of Germanic mythology. Robert L. Chapman (1956) writes: “Grendel is not, in
virtue of the same new tone, merely a troll, but ‘an impersonation of evil and darkness, even an
incarnation of the Christian devil.’" (p. 335). In the time of Beowulf’s author, any creature of the
night, or of darkness, is a creature of evil. The evil beings of the ancient Germanic beliefs live in
caverns and tunnels under the mountains, or in caves under lakes and swamps. The Christian
devil, after he is cast out of Heaven, establishes his kingdom of Hell in caverns under the earth.
All things good reside in the light, while all things evil lurk in the darkness. The people gather
indoors at night with hearth fires and torches to hold the creatures of the night at bay. Natural
creatures of the night, such as wolves, are a danger to people who are out of doors after dark; it is
reasonable that early imaginations fill the darkness with supernatural beings of evil that threaten
the safety of the people. Grendel does not attack Heorot during the day, when Hrothgar’s men
may safely occupy the mead hall; Grendel attacks Heorot under the cover of darkness. He waits
until the men in the mead hall have fallen asleep and the fires and torches have likely been banked
for the night or burned out, allowing darkness to enter the hall. Grendel does not reside above
ground, in the light of day; he hides in a cave under the earth in the way of Germanic trolls, or in
the manner of the Christian devil in his underworld Hell. Grendel does not even face the
protecting light of torches and hearths; he moves in darkness, and he does his evil among the West
Danes in the darkness.
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It is notable that Grendel attacks only those people who are in the mead hall, not those
who spend the night in the security of their homes in the community. Grendel attacks the center of
power, not those places where there is no power in contemporary society. He attacks men, never
women or children. Like the heroes of the time, Grendel fights only with those who are worthy
opponents. Unlike heroes, who fight on the side of good, however, Grendel ravages sleeping men
who are unable to offer any more defense against the attack than could the women who sleep in
the houses. This cowardice is never an attribute of forces of good in contemporary sagas;
cowardice is assigned to forces of evil that hide and skulk in the shadows at the periphery of life.
Kiessling (1968) compares Grendel to other evil creatures of darkness when he writes:
“[M]aere, incubus, night monster, describes such a demon very well … Striae, strigae, lamiae
vulgo mascae. These witches could consume the insides of men and so kill them, or they could act
as vampires (Grendel himself sucked out the blood of Hondscioh)” (pp. 192-196). Witches and
vampires are exemplars of evil. Both groups of evil creatures are denizens of the dark that incite
terror by their very existence. The particular types of Latin witches to which Grendel is compared
are especially horrible, as they do not merely cast spells and enchantments; these witches destroy
men from the inside, leaving nothing alive. Similarly, vampires suck the life out of their victims
with the victims’ blood. Grendel sucks the life out of the society of the West Danes when he
ravages Heorot night after night, terrorizing Hrothgar’s people under the cover of darkness.
Grendel is a monster that represents evil in society is that Grendel is cursed by God and is
cast out of the world of men. Just as Satan is cast out of Heaven as an enemy of God, Grendel is
cast out of human society because he is God’s enemy. Grendel is the embodiment of evil, which
he inherits from his murderous ancestor, Cain. Grendel is identified in Beowulf as a descendant of
Cain, from the Biblical creation story. “He had dwelt for a time/ in misery among the banished
monsters,/Cain’s clan, whom the Creator had outlawed/ and condemned as outcasts” (ll. 104-107)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 36). Cain is cast out of human society by God, and Cain’s
descendants are also cast out.
Marie Padgett Hamilton (1946) writes: “The analogy between Cain and Grendel is well
sustained. Guilty alike of envy, anger, murder, and impenitence, both were outlaws from the
genial fellowship of men and estranged from the favor of God” (p. 316). Cain is envious of his
brother, Abel, because God favors Abel. Cain is angry because of his jealousy, and his anger
drives him to murder his brother. Similarly, Grendel is envious of the happy, prosperous West
Danes. His envy drives him to a rage of anger and he ravages Heorot, murdering many of
Hrothgar’s followers. Cain is unrepentant when his crime is discovered, and he is cast out of the
society of his original people to wander in the wilderness. He is marked by his evil, but he is
protected by God from human retribution for Cain’s crime. Grendel is similarly unrepentant, as
evidenced by the continuous repetition of his evil violence against the occupants of the mead hall.
Unlike his accursed ancestor, Grendel is not protected by God; God guides Beowulf to kill
Grendel to end the carnage at Heorot.
“Suddenly then/ the God-cursed brute was creating havoc:/ greedy and grim, he grabbed
thirty men/ from their resting places and rushed to his lair” (ll. 120-123) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 36). The author of Beowulf identifies Grendel as cursed by God. There is no greater horror in
the medieval world than to be separated from God and from human society by being damned or
cursed by God. Again the poet writes: “God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping./ The bane of
the race of men roamed forth” (ll. 711-712) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 48). Grendel is beyond
the reach of divine grace. He is cut off from the sacraments of the medieval church, and he is
destined to spend eternity in Hell. He is worse even than a person who is excommunicated from
the church because that person has the opportunity to receive the sacraments until he or she is
excommunicate, but Grendel never has the opportunity to experience those blessings. He is the
enemy not only of God, but of the human race. He is evil, and apart from God.
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“Grendel, as a diabolic agent … was damned at birth” (Chapman, 1956, p. 336). Grendel
is not evil because of his own actions; he is evil by nature. He is marked as an agent of the devil
from the beginning, and he does not have a choice between good and evil. Because he is damned
by God, Grendel is beyond the possibility of being redeemed from evil, and he must live as an evil
monster.
Despite modern translations that assign benign or neutral meanings to Middle English
words used to describe Grendel, Grendel is an evil monster that attempts to destroy the socio-
economic center of the West Danes by repeatedly and savagely attacking Heorot. He is
comparable to incubi, witches, and vampires that haunt the night and drain the life out of their
victims. He is a demonic fiend that is marked by God’s curse on his ancestor and his entire line.
When Grendel ravages Hrothgar’s West Danes in Heorot, God guides Beowulf to cross the sea to
save the Danes from the evil that is destroying the center of their society.
Grendel’s evil exists on several levels. Grendel is evil by virtue of his birth, and he is
unable to escape the curse that Cain suffers after murdering his brother. Grendel is evil by virtue
of his own actions. He lives in the darkness, takes refuge from the world among the sea monsters,
and terrorizes contemporary society with extraordinary and repetitive acts of unprovoked violence.
Grendel represents the evil of Germanic pagan demons and the Christian devil. He is the enemy
of God, and he makes war on God and Heaven when he attacks Hrothgar and Heorot. Grendel
represents the evil that erodes the fabric of society as he destroys the social, political, and
economic infrastructure of the West Danes. Grendel is beyond the possibility of redemption for
the evil in his life, and he is cursed to an eternity of division from God’s good grace.
Grendel is not only evil, but he is the epitome of evil. He is the embodiment of all that
medieval readers fear in the dark and unexplained fringes of the world. He attacks in the night,
hiding in darkness, and he sucks the life out of his victims as evil sucks the life and goodness out
of society. A monster out of man’s nightmares, Grendel is only able to be defeated by Beowulf,
the agent of God. He is evil that cannot be defeated by ordinary men, but only by divine good.
References
Blackburn, F.A. (1897). The Christian coloring in the Beowulf. PMLA, 12(2), 205-225.
Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/456133
Chapman, R.L. (1956, March). Alas, poor Grendel. College English, 17(6), 334-337.
Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/372370
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.1).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Hamilton, M.P. (1946, June). The religious principle in Beowulf. PMLA, 61(2), 309-330.
Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/459354
Helterman, J. (1968, March). Beowulf: The archtype enters history. ELH, 35(1), 1-20.
Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872333
Kiessling, N.K. (1968, February). Grendel: A new aspect. Modern Philology, 65(3), 191- 201.
Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/436467
Lancashire, I. [Ed.]. (2011). Beowulf. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/19.html
Stevick, R. D. (1963, November). Christian elements and the genesis of “Beowulf”. Modern
Philology, 61(2), 79-89. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/435497
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ENG 346: British Literature II
Innocence/Experience 11/3/2011
"Songs of Innocence" focuses on images of happiness and of youth. The Lamb is a
natural images of innocence, gentleness, and purity, and it is also a reference to Jesus Christ as the
Lamb of God, who is entirely void of sin. In "Introduction," Blake writes: "On a cloud I saw a
child,/ And he laughing said to me,/ 'Pipe a song about a Lamb'" (ll. 3-5) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 81). In "The Lamb," Blake writes: "Little Lamb, who made thee?/ ... He is callèd by thy name,/
For he calls himself a Lamb" (ll. 1, 13-14) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 83-84). Both of these are
references to Jesus Christ, who brings innocence and goodness into the world to challenge the
supposed wisdom and experience of the Pharisees. Blake continues this symbolism in "The Little
Black Boy" when he writes: "When I from black and he from white cloud free,/ And round the
tent of God like lambs we joy" (ll. 23-24) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 84). In this case, Blake uses
lambs to show that everyone is equally free and innocent in God's sight. This appears to be a
comment on racial inequality just a few years after slavery is banned in England; black and white
are clouds that obscure the fact that all people are the same inside as God's creations. Again,
Blake uses the image of lambs in "Holy Thursday" when he writes: "but multitudes of lambs,/
Thousands of little boys & girls" (ll. 7-8) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 86). In this instance, the
lambs represent the children, who are still innocent in their youth and lack of experience.
Throughout "Songs of Innocence," Blake also uses the nature imagery of the rising sun,
of birds in song and birds in nests, and of young children. "The Sun does arise,/ And make happy
the skies./ ... Look on the rising sun: there does God live/ ... Till the morning appears in the skies"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 82-86). Spanning three poems, these images are of light, hope, and
goodness. The rising sun represents youth or the beginning of life, when a child is still innocent
for lack of experience in the world.
"Songs of Experience" contains varied nature images that indicate the loss of innocence
and happiness through experience. In "Introduction," Blake writes: "Calling the lapsèd Soul/ And
weeping in the evening dew" (ll. 6-7) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 87). The evening dew
represents the end of life, when the experiences of life replace the innocence of youth and result in
sadness and weeping for what is lost. In "Earth's Answer," Blake writes: "Cold and hoar/
Weeping o'er/ I hear the Father of the ancient men" (ll. 8-10) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 89).
Hoar is another word for frost, which is a nature image for winter, or the end of the year. Winter
is often a symbol for the last part of life and, again, it indicates sadness for the loss of youth's
innocence. In "The Chimney Sweeper," Blake writes of how religion takes away innocence. He
writes: "They clothed me in the clothes of death,/ And taught me to sing the notes of woe./ ... And
are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,/ Who make up a heaven of our misery" (ll. 7-12)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 90). The narrator of the poem is happy in the innocence of nature, but
he is miserable in the experience of religion. A similar theme is in "The Garden of Love," when
Blake writes: "'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;/ ... it was filled with graves,/ And tomb-stones
where flowers should be" (ll. 6-10) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 94). Again, religion destroys
innocence as rules and commandments turn love's beauty into the emptiness of death.
"Songs of Innocence" promotes the innocence and purity of you and nature. By
extension, it promotes the good qualities of the first era of the world, before man-made religion
corrupts the ideas of nature. "Songs of Experience" sorrows in the loss of innocence and beauty
through experience in maturity. Paralleling "Songs of Innocence," this can extend to regretting the
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loss of innocence in nature in the modern age, with both reason and religion replacing nature in
man's concepts of good and evil, innocence and experience.
"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" joins the ideas from "Songs of Innocence" and
"Songs of Experience." Innocence represents Heaven and experience represents Hell. In the prose
sections of the reading, it is evident that Blake values the wisdom of experience over what he
views as the foolishness of innocence. Blake writes: "A fool sees not the same tree that a wise
man sees" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 113). Blake makes many comparisons between innocence
and experience in his collection of proverbs. He uses numerous images from nature and from
Judeo-Christian religion in his discussions. He appears to change his mind and to prefer nature
over experience when he writes: "Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of
Religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the Lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 114). Man-made religion is bad and nature-based religion is good.
Blake's work is full of the juxtaposition of innocence and experience and of nature and
religion. Over all, he commends what is innocent and natural and he rejects what is experiential
and artificial.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Conversations in Poems 11/3/2011
As the subject for this discussion suggests, both Wordsworth and Coleridge use
conversations and conversational language within their poems to bring their ideas within the
readers' scope of understanding. It is easier to understand an exchange between two characters
than it is to understand the elaborate descriptions and generalizations that are common in poetry.
In "Simon Lee," Wordsworth describes his title character in conversational language, and he also
talks directly to his character. Wordsworth describes Simon Lee: "And he is lean and he is sick;/
His body, dwindled and awry,/ Rests upon ankles swoln and thick;/ His legs are thin and dry" (ll.
33-36) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 246). The language is simple and direct, similar to the
language of a common conversation about a neighbor's health. In "The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner," Coleridge uses similarly conversational descriptive language: "There passed a weary
time. Each throat/ was parched, and glazed each eye./ A weary time! a weary time!/ How glazed
each weary eye" (ll. 143-146) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 434). Each poet's description is simple
and clear so ordinary readers can understand it. Conversational language makes the writing
immediate to the reader, whereas grand, eloquent language would make the writing appeal only to
the upper class.
Each poet writes sad ballads of loss. Wordsworth writes of a child's insistence that her
dead siblings should still be counted among her family. "We Are Seven" reminds me sharply of
my elder son, Tommy. When asked about his siblings, he says he has two brothers and three
sisters: one brother lives with us, one brother and two sisters live in North Carolina with their
father, and one sister is buried in a graveyard in Virginia. Tommy is as earnest in counting even
the deceased as is the cottage girl in the poem. It is the simple honesty of Wordsworth's writing,
and the common, conversational language and subject of his poem, that make such a connection
possible for a reader. Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is also a story of sadness
and suffering as the title character in the sole survivor of a doomed voyage.
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The strongest connection between the two poets is Coleridge's "To William
Wordsworth." This poem is clearly addressed to Wordsworth, and Coleridge confirms the
friendship between the two poets: "O Friend! my comforter and guide!/ Strong in thyself, and
powerful to give strength! --/ ... yet thou thyself/ Wert still before my eyes" (ll. 102-106)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 473). Wordsworth and Coleridge "quarreled bitterly" (Greenblatt, et.
al., 2006, p. 425) in 1810 and they are not reconciled until 1828. Coleridge's poem is written in
1817, in the midst of their rift, showing that their friendship survives the difficulties between
them.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Religion and Myth in Romantic Poetry 11/7/2011
William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge use images and
themes of religion in their poetry; John Keats uses images and themes of mythology in his poetry.
Nature images, which may be taken as a sort of religious imagery, appear in the poetry of all three
writers, but they are not the subject of this discussion.
Nicholas O. Warner (1982) writes: “Blake uses traditional motifs as thematic signals to
his reader-viewers” (p. 220). Throughout Blake’s Songs of Innocence, the traditional image of a
lamb represents the purity and innocence of Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God. In
"Introduction," Blake writes: "On a cloud I saw a child,/ And he laughing said to me,/ 'Pipe a song
about a Lamb'" (ll. 3-5) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 81). In "The Lamb," Blake writes: "Little
Lamb, who made thee?/ ... He is callèd by thy name,/ For he calls himself a Lamb" (ll. 1, 13-14)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 83-84). In each of these poems, the Lamb is a religious image of the
salvation of Man through the literal innocence of Christ. Christ is not innocent in the sense of
being unaware of the sins and grief in the world; he is innocent in the sense of being wholly and
eternally without sin. Blake’s contemporary readers are very much aware of the immaculate
nature of Christ, and the image of the Lamb in Blake’s poetry resonates with his readers as Blake
pairs innocence the joyous themes of laughing children, sunrises, and nesting birds. Blake
continues this symbolism in "The Little Black Boy" and in "Holy Thursday," using lamb imagery
to show that all are equal in God’s sight.
Wordsworth employs the theme of religion in “We Are Seven” when he writes: “Two of
us in the church-yard lie,/ My sister and my brother” (ll. 21-22) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 248).
The little cottage girl evinces the simple religious faith that her deceased siblings are still alive and
part of her family, even though they are dead. Contemporary religious belief teaches that the dead
live forever with Jesus Christ in Heaven. The child tells the poet: “In bed she moaning lay,/ Till
God released her of her pain” (ll. 50-51) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 249). Blake uses the
religious idea that God intervenes in human lives to show how the child’s sister is freed from pain
in death. Wordsworth uses religious imagery in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” as well.
When he writes: “Thou Child of Joy,/ Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy
Shepherd-boy!” (ll. 34-35) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 308), Wordsworth uses traditional imagery
to refer to Jesus Christ. Christ is the Child of Joy when he is born in the stable and is worshipped
in the manger by the shepherds. Christ is also the Good Shepherd, who protects his flock of
faithful mortals. Later in the same piece, Wordsworth writes: “Not in utter forgetfulness,/ And not
in utter nakedness,/ But trailing clouds of glory do we come/ From God, who is our home” (ll. 62-
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65) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 309). Wordsworth here uses trailing clouds that are traditional
images of angels to show that Man is connected to Heaven. Man does not entirely forget that he
came from God, and that provides a basis for religious beliefs that mortals will return to Heaven
one day.
Coleridge uses religious images and themes in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Coleridge makes frequent references to “The wedding-guest” (ll. 14, 17, 31, 37) (Greenblatt, et.
al., 2006, p. 431) and to a “Wedding-Guest” (ll. 346, 597) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 439-445).
The capitalization of the title is significant, as it evokes images of the wedding feast described in
Matthew 22:1-14 (King James Bible, 1769 version), which is familiar to contemporary readers.
The wedding feast is an allegory for Heaven, and Jesus is the Wedding Guest. The poem includes
Marian references that are familiar to contemporary readers as references to the mother of Jesus
Christ: “Heaven’s Mother send us grace!” (l. 178) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 435) and “To Mary
Queen the praise be given!/ She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,/ That slid into my soul” (ll.
294-296) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 438). Coleridge invokes Mary’s help for his title character,
employing the religious theme that the Virgin Mary will help those who call on her, and that
earthly salvation is had from Mary as eternal salvation is had from Jesus Christ.
James D. Boulger (1961) writes: “For Keats it was a quest of a special kind to create a
symbolic world in which the qualities of the spirit modify harsh facts of nature, yet where the
colors, sounds and attitudes of the natural world are the realities of the poetic vision” (p. 244). In
“Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on Melancholy,” Keats creates his symbolic world by using
themes from Roman mythology and from the Bible. In both poems he references the river Lethe
in Hades, where the souls of the dead forget their earthly lives. In “Ode to a Nightingale” he writes
: “One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk” (l. 4) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 903); and in
“Ode on Melancholy”: “No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist/ Wolf’s-bane, tight-rooted, for its
poisonous wine” (ll. 1-2) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 907). In both poems, Keats uses the image
of the river Lethe in reference to suicidal behavior; in the former, he takes opium, and in the latter
he references wolfs-bane, each of which is a strong and dangerous drug. Keats also uses happier,
more beautiful myth references in “Ode to a Nightingale” when he writes: “That thou, light-
winged Dryad of the trees,/ …Tasting of Flora and the country green,/ … Full of the true, the
blushful Hippocrene” (ll. 7-16) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 903). A dryad is a beautiful, Roman
tree spirit. Flora is the Roman goddess of flowers. The Hippocrene is the “Fountain of the Muses
on Mount Helicon” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 903). The images of trees, flowers, and a fountain
of inspiration are beautiful, and are familiar to contemporary educated readers who study classical
mythology.
Keats also refers to Judeo-Christian religion in “Ode to a Nightingale” when he writes:
“Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,/ She stood in tears amid the alien corn” (ll.
66-67) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 904). Ruth is an Old Testament heroine who worked in the
fields to support her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. She gathered the fallen bits of grain that
would otherwise be wasted and took them home to feed Naomi. The story of Ruth is powerful,
and is familiar to contemporary readers, who recognize the sacrifice Ruth makes by remaining
with Naomi when Ruth is not by law or custom obligated to do so.
I expect to focus on the religious images and themes of Blake’s work and on the
mythological images and themes of Keats’ work in my final paper. Blake’s lamb images of
innocence and of Christ compare and contrast well with Keats’ myth images of natural elements
and Roman gods.
References
Boulger, J.D. (1961). Keats’ symbolism. ELH, 28(3), 244-259. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872068
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Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
King James Bible [Electronic version]. (1769). Retrieved November 7, 2011, from
http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/book.php?book=Matthew&chapter=22&verse=1-
14
Warner, N.O. (1982). The iconic mode of William Blake. Rocky Mountain Review of
Language and Literature, 36(4), 219-234. Retrieved November 5, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1347359
Romantics into Victorians 11/10/2011
I disagree that Victorian poets "cannot sustain the confidence that the Romantics felt in
the power of imagination" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 996). I think the Victorians approach
imagination differently than do the Romantics, but I do not think the Victorians have less
imagination than the Romantics. The Victorian imagination that I see in Elizabeth Barrett
Browning is a power to help the reader see what is in her poems. She applies imagination to real
life, sometimes using some of the Romantic imagery to capture the attention of her audience. In
"The Cry of the Children," Browning echoes Blake's imagery of the innocence of lambs when she
writes: "The young lambs are bleting in the meadows,/ ... But the young, young children, O my
brothers,/ They are weeping bitterly" (ll. 5-10) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1079). By placing the
image of lambs close to the reference to children, Browning causes her reader to imagine that the
children should be innocent lambs. That the children are weeping with premature experience
reflects back again to Blake's writings on innocence and experience. In Browning's "22," from
Sonnets from the Portuguese, her imagination is evident when she writes: "Let us stay/ Rather on
earth, Belovèd, -- where the unfit/ Contrarious moods of men recoil away/ And isolate pure spirits,
and permit/ A place to stand and love in for a day" (ll. 9-13) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1084).
She imagines a place that is apart from the rest of the world, where she and her husband can be
together in peace.
Lord Tennyson's imagination is evident in the tragic "The Lady of Shalott." He paints a
vivid picture of a magical scene from Arthurian legends, so that his reader can see the lady on her
island and Lancelot as he rides close to her location on his way to Camelot. In fact, the poem stirs
the imagination so well that lines 100-104 are quoted by a character in the Disney Channel movie
"Avalon High." Tennyson's imagination is contagious in his description of the people of Camelot
coming out to view the tragic heroine in her death boat: "Under tower and balcony,/ By garden
wall and gallery,/ A gleaming shape she floated by,/ Dead-pale between the houses high,/ Silent
into Camelot./ Out upon the wharfs they came,/ Knight and burgher, lord and dame,/ And round
the prow they read her name,/ The Lady of Shalott" (ll. 154-162) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
1118). The reader sees through the poet's imagination the lady's boat slipping silently down the
river among the buildings, with people of all but the lower classes leaving their homes to witness
her passing.
Blake touches briefly on the suffering of poor children in "Holy Thursday" when he
writes: "Is this a holy thing to see,/ In a rich and fruitful land,/ Babes reduced to misery,/ Fed with
cold and usurous hand?/ ... And so many children poor?/ It is a land of poverty!" (ll. 1-8)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 90). Elizabeth Barrett Browning gets much closer than Blake to the
subject of childhood poverty and misery in "The Cry of the Children" when she writes: "They look
up with their pale and sunken faces,/ And their looks are sad to see,/ For the man's hoary anguish
draws and presses/ Down the cheeks of infancy;/ ... Alas, alas, the children! they are seeking/
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Death in life, as best to have" (ll. 25-28, 53-54) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1080). Blake speaks
of the children's misery, but Browning describes their misery in uncomfortably clear, stark images
of near-starvation. She describes the children's preference for death over the life that they
experience. Later in the poem sh writes: "They know the grief of man, without its wisdom;/ They
sink in man's despair, without its calm;/ Are slaves, without the liberty of Christdom,/ Are martyrs,
by the pang without the palm" (ll. 141-144) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1082). Browning again
echoes the Romantic themes of innocence and experience while expressing the contrast of the
themes with Victorian realism. The children in her poem have lost their innocence to experience
without gaining the benefit of wisdom that adults have from experience. She also references
Christian images of martyrdom and of the glory, honor, and sacrifice of the Crusades in the image
of the palm. The children give their lives without the benefit of giving them freely for their
beliefs. The children suffer the pang, or pain, of sacrifice, but they do not accrue honor or
salvation, only grief and despair. Browning gets very close to her subject, and she draws her
reader close, to illuminate the wrongs that the poor children suffer in English society.
References:
Gillard, S. (Director). (2010). Avalon High [Motion Picture]. United States: Sudden Motion
Productions.
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Victorian Science 11/10/2011
Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde share the theme of the struggle for existence. The Descent of Man and
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde share the theme of the nature of Man.
In The Origin of Species, Darwin writes: "A struggle for existence inevitably follows
from the high rate at which all organic beings tend to increase" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1540).
Each living thing, whether plant or animal, seeks to survive. Since the world can hold only so
many of any organism, each must work to be one of the few to make it. This results in only the
strongest or most intelligent specimens reaching maturity, unless artificial assistance or
impediments are imposed on the population. This is a clinical, scientific view of the struggle for
existence, and it does not take into account any emotional aspects that might influence the
individual's struggle.
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson writes: "I began to be
tortured with throes and longings, as of Hyde struggling after freedom" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 1681). At this point in the story, Hyde has experienced a great deal of freedom, but Jekyll is
restraining that aspect of his identity. Hyde has become an independent entity, although he shares
memory with Jekyll. Ultimately, only one entity can occupy the body, and Hyde is struggling to
become the dominant entity so he can get rid of Jekyll and survive as the sole occupant of the
body.
In The Descent of Man, Darwin writes that Man has "risen ... to the very summit of the
organic scale ... Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1549). Man is the ultimate survivor, and has risen above the
development of any other species. Despite this, Man still carries lower attributes within each
individual. These lower attributes form the base nature of each person. Darwin comments on the
relative moral nature of the beasts that are Man's supposed developmental or evolutionary inferiors
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and the humans from whom modern Man has developed in recent centuries: "I would as soon be
descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life
of his keeper ... as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up blood sacrifices,
practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is
haunted by the grossest superstitions" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1549). Being the evolutionarily
fittest species does not automatically make Man the best or the most moral species.
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll is a tall, physically fit man with
features that are recognized in England as those of a person of good birth. Nevertheless, he seeks
to make himself even better, and to purify himself by removing the base or evil side that he
recognizes in his nature. Stevenson has Jekyll write: "Though so profound a double-dealer, I was
in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid
aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of
knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 1675-1676). The
dual nature of Man that Stevenson explores in his characters of Jekyll and Hyde is the duality of
good and evil, of the noble nature and the base nature, and of the evolved Man and the primitive
Man. Through an error in his experiment, Jekyll releases his evil self to become Hyde, but still
has a dual nature, not a purely good nature, when he is Jekyll.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Darwin's works are accepted by many as
scientific fact. Only those who believe that the Bible must be read as literal truth dispute the
theory of evolution. As various sciences provide more and more evidence to support Darwin's
theories, more is learned about the development of the earth, of the origins and evolution of
various organisms on the earth -- including Man -- and of the structure of the universe. From
these discoveries, scientists are able to make reasonable predictions about how Man and nature
will continue to develop.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a popular science fiction horror story. It
has been retold in numerous televisions and movies, and in countless animated series. Nearly
everyone knows the general story, but the warnings of the original story about the dangers
associated with the base side of Man's nature often seem to be overlooked. Allowing the base side
dominance too often or for too long gives the base aspect strength to overpower the noble side of
an individual's nature. Once released, Man's base side resists being repressed, and it struggles to
express its darker inclinations in the individual's behavior. Developing a habit of allowing base
behavior to control an individual's actions produces a callousness in the individual for the evil of
his or her behavior, and the habit sometimes leads to an acceptance of despair of reasserting the
individual's more noble side. In modern times, these moral lessons tend to be ignored in favor of
viewing the story as no more than a fantastic horror tale.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Heart of Darkness 11/17/2011
The first choice that is offered is to become like one of those who exploit Africa's
resources for financial gain. One image of nightmare that Marlow relates is the chain gang at the
Inner Station: "Six black men advanced in a file ... Black rags were wound round their loins ... I
could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on
his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them"
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(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1900). The six men are enslaved by the white Europeans to work
removing earth to make way for a railroad. The human resources of Africa are exploited by the
nominally civilized whites in the interest of making more and more money for the several
European empires. The image of chained humans who are visibly starving and neglected is part of
the nightmare of becoming like the Manager.
Another image of the nightmare of becoming like the Manager is that of the pilgrims at
the Inner Station, who have come to Africa to exploit its resources: "They wandered here and there
with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a
rotten fence. The word 'ivory' rang in the air ... You would think they were praying to it. A taint
of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 1906). Those who come to Africa for financial gain worship ivory like a pagan idol, and they
give the appearance of being under a spell. It is a nightmare to think of people being so consumed
by greed that Africa's material riches become like deities to the Europeans.
The nightmare of becoming like Kurtz is embodied in Marlow's description of Kurtz:
"The wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball -- an ivory ball; it had
caressed him, and -- lo! -- he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into
his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of
some devilish initiation" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1925). Africa destroys Kurtz. I disagree
with the assumption that Kurtz is an idealist, since he exploits Africa's material and human
resources no less than does the Manager. Kurtz collects ivory for material gain, and he fears that
the Company will claim his collection without payment when he dies. He uses native tribes to
gather ivory for him, and he allows the Africans to worship him as a god. As he strips resources
from Africa, Africa strips health from Kurtz.
One moral challenge in the story is that of how one should treat other humans. The
African natives are enslaved by the Europeans to work for the advancement of European wealth.
and power. They are forced to carry burdens as if they were pack animals. They are collared and
chained to make them work on railroads. When he sees these things, Marlow is shocked.
Another moral challenge is in the way the natives worship Kurtz. He has allowed himself
to be treated as a god, and he "came to them with thunder and lightning" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 1931). Tricking Africans who do not understand European technology into believing a man is a
god so the Africans will help the man exploit their land for financial gain is immoral.
Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers that Marlow refuses to give to the Company.
Even though Kurtz's behavior with the natives is immoral, Marlow's loyalty to Kurtz's final
request is moral. He is keeping a promise by taking the papers to Kurtz's intended wife instead of
turning them over to the Company.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Poetry of the Great War 11/17/2011
Edward Thomas writes about the loneliness of war. In "Adlestrop," he writes about an
empty platform at a train station: "No one left and no one came/ On the bare platform. What I
saw/ Was Adlestrop -- only the name" (ll. 6-8) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1957). The towns are
empty because the men have gone to the war. Similarly, in "The Cherry Trees," there are no
couples to be married because the men have gone to the war. "On the old road where all that
318 A Journey Through My College Papers
passed are dead" (l. 2) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1958). The only men in town are the returning
war dead; the living men are away fighting.
Wilfred Owen writes about the young men who die in war, and those who are disabled by
the war. He creates images of suffering: "And moans down there/ Of boys that slept wry sleep,
and men/ Writhing for air" (ll. 14-16) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1973). Men not only dig to
mine coal, but also to create tunnels under the enemy in which to set off explosions. Men who
write for air are suffocating in mines and tunnels with deadly gases, or that have caved in and have
no air.
Robert Graves writes both poetry and prose. In his poetry, he writes of death and
suffering: "A word of rage in lack of meat, wine, fine,/ In ache of wounds beyond all surgeoning"
(ll. 29-30) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1989). Wounds beyond the help of surgery may be wounds
that require amputation, wounds that kill, or wounds of the mind and spirit that debilitate even a
person of sound body.
Siegfried Sassoon also writes both poetry and prose. His poetry is about suffering and
death in war, but it has a lighter side than has the work of the other poets. In "They," he uses irony
to soften the reality that the named boys are all severely wounded: "The Bishop tells us: 'When the
boys come back/ They will not be the same; for they'll have fought/ In a just cause ...'/ '... you'll
not find/ A chap who's served that hasn't found some change.'/ And the Bishop said: 'The ways of
God are strange!'" (ll. 1-3, 10-12) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 1960-1961). The Bishop's
prediction comes true, but not in the way he expects. The boys come back broken by the war, not
strengthened by it.
The use of military language in war poetry creates a sense of immediacy for the
contemporary reader. For the modern reader, such language gives the poetry a sense of historical
authenticity.
Although I know from the biographies which writers died in the war and which ones
survived the war, it does not seem to change my experience of the poetry. For those who did die
in battle, they did not know they would do so, and their future fate did not change how they wrote.
I read the poetry from their perspective as soldiers in a war, not as soldiers who would die soon. I
don't think the poetry benefits or suffers from the reader's knowledge that some of the writers died
in the war.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Themes in Romantic and Victorian Poetry 11/21/2011
The poetry of the Romantic period includes the themes of nature, of the contrast between
innocence and experience, and of dissatisfaction with Christian ideology. All three themes appear
in the work of William Blake. The poetry of the Victorian era includes the themes of social
injustice, of romantic love, and of the loss of innocence. Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes about
social injustice and about romantic love, and Alfred Lord Tennyson writes about the loss of
innocence.
Blake uses the nature imagery of the lamb in several of his poems. The lamb is a symbol
of innocence and purity. It is also a reference to salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, who is
depicted as the Good Shepherd and as the Lamb of God. In "The Lamb," Blake writes: "Little
Lamb, who made thee?/ ... He is callèd by thy name,/ For he calls himself a Lamb" (ll. 1, 13-14)
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(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 83-84). In this poem, Blake is using the lamb first to refer to a child
when Blake asks the question. He then uses the lamb to refer to Christ when Blake tells the child
that Christ made the child.
Blake contrasts innocence and experience in his paired poems from Songs of Innocence
and Songs of Experience. In his two poems that are each called “Holy Thursday,” Blake illustrates
this contrast. In the first of the poems, Blake writes: “O what a multitude they seemd, these
flowers of London town!/ Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own./ The hum of
multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,/ Thousands of little boys & girls raising their
innocent hands” (ll. 5-8) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 86). In the second poem by the same name
Blake writes: “Is this a holy thing to see,/ In a rich and fruitful land,/ Babes reduced to misery,/
Fed with cold and usurous hand?” (ll. 1-4) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 90). The first version of
“Holy Thursday” depicts the beautiful innocence of childhood. The second version contrasts it
with the miserable experience of the children of poverty in industrialized England. The nature
imagery of the lamb is repeated in this poem, referring to the innocent children.
Dissatisfaction with Christian ideology is evident in Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and
Hell. Blake writes a section of “Proverbs of Hell” that mimics the book of Proverbs in the Old
Testament of the Bible. Among the perverted proverbs, Blake writes: "Prisons are built with
stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the Lion is the wisdom of God. The
nakedness of woman is the work of God" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 114). Blake opposes the
common beliefs that prostitution and nudity are in opposition with Christian religion, and that
pride, lust, and wrath are sinful. Blake uses the nature imagery of the peacock, the goat, and the
lion in these proverbs. The peacock is a symbol of beauty and pride, the goat is a symbol of lust
and sexual appetite, and the lion is a symbol of wrath and aggression.
Barrett Browning writes about social injustice in industrialized England when she
describes the lives of poor children who are forced to work in the mines in “The Cry of the
Children.” She writes: "They look up with their pale and sunken faces,/ And their looks are sad to
see,/ For the man's hoary anguish draws and presses/ Down the cheeks of infancy;/ ... Alas, alas,
the children! they are seeking/ Death in life, as best to have" (ll. 25-28, 53-54) (Greenblatt, et. al.,
2006, p. 1080). Browning describes the children’s misery in uncomfortably clear, stark images of
near-starvation, and she describes the children's preference for death over the life that they
experience.
Browning writes about romantic love in Sonnets from the Portuguese. One of the most
famous lines from poetry is in poem “43”: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” (l. 1)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1085). In “22” she writes: "Let us stay/ Rather on earth, Belovèd, --
where the unfit/ Contrarious moods of men recoil away/ And isolate pure spirits, and permit/ A
place to stand and love in for a day" (ll. 9-13) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1084). She proposes
remaining on earth with her husband rather than going to Heaven, so they can remain together in
their love for each other. She imagines a place that is apart from the rest of the world, where she
and her husband can be together in peace.
Tennyson writes about the loss of innocence in “The Lotos-Eaters.” “Tennyson expands
Homer’s brief account into an elaborate picture of weariness and the desire for rest and death”
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1119). The characters in Tennyson’s poem have lost the innocence of
seeing the beauty in “Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies./ … cool mosses
deep./ And through the mosses the ivies creep” (ll. 52-54) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1120).
Tennyson uses the nature images of moss and ivy to evoke a feeling of calm and an image of lush
life. With the loss of innocence, the characters experience the discomforts of a life of experience:
“Why are we weighed upon with heaviness,/ And utterly consumed with sharp distress,/ While all
things else have rest from weariness?” (ll. 57-59) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1120). This shift
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from the beauty of innocence to the suffering of experience returns to the Romantic theme of
innocence and experience in the context of Victorian poetry.
References
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Feminist Manifesto and Woolf 11/25/2011
Mina Loy writes angrily and violently about the genders and their relationship to each
other. She defines feminism in terms of a woman "expressing herself through all her functions"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2017). She argues that a woman must integrate the various roles of a
woman's life to enjoy her full identity as a woman.
Virginia Woolf writes about the many ways in which women are put down and held back
by men and by social conventions. Her definition of feminism is that in order to be a complete
woman a woman must have her own income so she will not be dependent on the support of a man.
She writes: "[I]t is remarkable ... what a change of temper a fixed income will bring about. No
force in the world can take from me my five hundred pounds ... I need not hate any man; he cannot
hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2111).
She discusses the living conditions of women from Shakespeare's time up to the early twentieth
century, and she concludes that poor women lack opportunity and power because of their poverty.
She writes: "Moreover, in a hundred years ... women will have ceased to be the protected sex"
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2112). She correctly predicts that women in the twenty-first century
will be independent.
The difference between Loy's view of feminism and Woolf's view of feminism is mostly
in the tone of each piece. Loy's commentary is adversarial from the first phrase: "The feminist
movement as at present instituted is Inadequate" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2016). Woolf's
commentary is calmly reflective about the issues that affect the lives of women in England. Loy
comments on a woman's sexual virtue and reproduction; Woolf comments on a woman's
opportunities and lack of opportunities in a patriarchal society.
Loy's unconventional format makes it difficult to take her seriously. Her use of
exaggerated font sizes, capitalization, and underlining, combined with her random punctuation at
the ends of her thoughts, makes it difficult to focus on the message in her writing. The largest
words jump off the page, demanding the reader's attention, while the words that appear in the
smaller font recede into the background. The paragraph structure of Loy's work is also difficult to
read, especially in her own time when readers are not used to seeing left-justified block paragraphs
that modern readers often see in hypertext documents.
Woolf's traditional presentation is comfortable to read. Some of her paragraphs are too
long, so the reader's eyes tend to become unfocused in the middle of a paragraph. The varied
sentences and common capitalization help put the reader at ease. Woolf writes in a stream-of-
consciousness style that feels as though she is having a casual conversation with her reader. Her
prose uses common language that is accessible to most readers.
Each writing is a valid expression of the views of its author. The style and presentation
of Wool's piece gives it credibility, but the style and presentation of Loy's piece detract from its
credibility.
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References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Tradition 11/25/2011
Modern poetry is influenced by the poetry of the Romantic and Victorian eras. The
nature imagery of the Romantic era establishes conventions for the use of nature imagery that
carry over into the twentieth century. In "Down by the Salley Gardens," Yeats writes: "In a field
by the river my love and I did stand,/ ... as the grass grows on the weirs" (ll. 5-7) (Greenblatt, et.
al., 2006, p. 2024). The image of the field suggests innocence, such as that written about in the
Romantic period. The growing grass suggests nature reclaiming man's technological intrusions as
the grass grows over the weirs, or dams. This also reflects the inclusion of industrial themes that
appear in both the Romantic and Victorian eras.
In "Tradition and the Individual Talent," Eliot writes that "the past should be altered by
the present as much as the present is directed by the past" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2321).
Auden's "As I Walked Out One Evening" contains nature imagery that reflects the poetry of the
Romantic era. At the same time, his use of nature imagery alters the perceptions of nature
imagery that were established in the past and redefines the images for the present. Where Yeats'
river imagery, above, suggests innocence, Auden's river suggests the experience of maturity. He
writes: "And down by the brimming river/ I heard a lover sing" (ll. 5-6) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 2427). Auden's river brims with experience and emotion. He is close to his subject in the style
of the Victorian era, while using imagery that echoes the Romantic period.
The poets of the twentieth century write of love, fear, sadness, and loss, just as do the
Romantic and the Victorian poets. Eliot writes: "Great variety is possible in the process of
transmutation of emotion" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2323). Modern poets take the innocent,
detached emotions of the Romantic period and the deep, personal emotions of the Victorian era
and apply the emotions to the busy, chaotic, industrialized, war-torn issues and events of the
twentieth century. In "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," Thomas encourages the emotion
of anger in the face of death and grief when he writes: "Do not go gentle into that good night,/
Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (ll. 18-19) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2450). Thomas'
rage echoes the poverty of England's children in Blake's Romantic poetry (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006,
p. 90). It also reflects the sorrow about the misery and suffering of England's children in
Browning's Victorian poetry (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 1079-1082).
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The Kind Aspect of Leopold Bloom 11/28/2011
In the “Lestrygonians” section of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom appears as a man who has
sympathy for the poor and who helps people in need. He is critical of the self-serving behavior of
Catholic priests, and of the Catholic Church. He is disgusted by gross manners and prefers to dine
in clean, decent establishments. He endures his wife’s infidelity without lashing out in anger at
322 A Journey Through My College Papers
her lover. He is a member of the Freemasons, and is a moral person. Leopold Bloom is a kind,
decent, upstanding man.
Bloom feels sympathy for the poor of Dublin. As he walks through the city, he sees a
thin, ragged, young girl, and his mind focuses on her for a few moments. He thinks, “Good Lord,
that poor child’s dress is in flitters” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2215). He notices not only the
tattered condition of her clothing, but also that she is thin and hungry. Bloom expresses his
sympathy for others in the way he treats the people with whom he comes in contact. When Mrs.
Breen needs someone to talk to about her husband’s mental illness, Bloom takes the time to listen
to her. He thinks, “Let her speak. Look straight into her eyes. I believe you. Trust me”
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2219). Bloom pays attention to Mrs. Breen, meeting her eyes and
letting her know by his actions that she can trust him.
Bloom is recognized by other characters as a kind man. Nosey Flynn tells Davy Byrne
about Bloom: “He has been known to put his hand down too to help a fellow” (Greenblatt, et. al.,
2006, p. 2234). It is one thing for a person to perform an isolated act of kindness once in a while
and another thing entirely for a person to be known in the community for helping others. The
former is likely to be an aberration of behavior if the individual is not kind or helpful on a regular
basis. The latter suggests that the individual is a philanthropist in ordinary life, helping others and
performing acts of kindness and compassion as an expression of the individual’s personality.
Flynn’s identification of Bloom as a person who is known for helping others indicates that
Bloom’s personality and identity are those of a kind and compassionate man.
Bloom is critical of the self-serving behavior of Catholic priests, and of the Catholic
Church. He considers it ludicrous that Catholic families are encouraged by the Church to have
large families as a display of their obedience to the church. When Bloom sees the daughter of
Stephen Daedalus, he is reminded of this Catholic tradition and he thinks, “Birth every year
almost. That’s in their theology or the priest won’t give the poor woman the confession, the
absolution. Increase and multiply. Did you ever hear such an idea?” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
2214). These thoughts indicate that Bloom disagrees with the practice of raising huge families for
religious reasons. The practice of having many children serves the church, not the family, in
Bloom’s time, producing many new members to make the church grow, while making it difficult
for families to feed so many children. Bloom views this idea as wrong.
Bloom is a decent, discerning person who is disgusted by gross dining habits. He prefers
clean establishments where people are respectful and courteous. When he enters a restaurant
where men are eating gluttonously, he finds an excuse to leave without eating: “Smells of men.
His gorge rose … Not here. Don’t see him. Out. I hate dirty eaters” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
2228). Bloom finds his way to Davy Byrne’s restaurant, where he is able to relax and dine
without being disgusted by slovenly customers. His sense of decency and good manners are
aspects of his personality that contribute to his identity as a decent, upstanding man.
Bloom is aware that his wife is having an affair with another man. Bloom does not rage
in his mind about being cuckolded; he worries that his wife’s lover might infect her with a
venereal disease, but he “puts the thought from him as incredible” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
2216). A man is expected to be furious when his wife is unfaithful, but Bloom appears to be
resigned to his situation. Bloom is not unfeeling about his wife’s infidelity: “A warm shock of air
heat of mustard hanched on Mr. Bloom’s heart” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2230) Bloom’s
reaction comes when he realizes that it is time for his wife to be meeting her lover. Even when
Bloom encounters his wife’s lover in the street, however, his decent and kind character makes him
avoid a confrontation instead of attacking his opponent: “Straw hat in sunlight … It is. It is”
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2238). Bloom recognizes his wife’s lover and “tries to avoid an
encounter” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2238). A less upstanding man would have confronted the
lover and prevented the meeting with his wife, but Bloom’s character is such that he accepts what
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is happening and avoids making a scene that will make the situation worse for everyone involved.
This is an act of kindness toward his wife and her lover.
Flynn identifies Bloom as a member of the Free and Accepted Order of Freemasons:
“He’s in the craft … Ancient free and accepted order. Light, life and love, by God” (Greenblatt,
et. al., 2006, p. 2234). The Freemasons have a bad reputation in Catholic Ireland in Bloom’s time,
but members of the Order are good, moral, upstanding men. No man who is not decent and moral
is allowed to be a member, and membership guarantees the character of a member. As a
Freemason, Bloom can be trusted to keep his word and to safeguard confidences, and to serve the
good of mankind.
Leopold Bloom is kind and sympathetic to those in need. He is a decent, upstanding
man, who is recognized in his community for the quality of his character. He disapproves of the
excesses of the Catholic Church and of gluttonous people. He accepts wrongs against him in order
to avoid causing harm to others. He is trustworthy and moral. All of the various aspects of
Bloom’s character contribute to his identity as a kind, compassionate man.
References
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
English Poetry from Around the World 12/1/2011
Claude McKay's "Old England" can be taken two ways: either it is a sincere tribute to
England as the center of the world for history, honor, and grandeur; or it is a sarcastic comment on
the ancient sites of the center of a collapsing empire. I see the sarcastic side in McKay's
descriptions of St. Paul's Cathedral and of City Temple: "I ... would hear some of de great/
Learnin' comin' from de bishops, preachin' relics of old fait';/ ... I'd go to de City Temple, where de
old fait' is a wreck,/ An' de parson is a-preachin' views dat most folks will not tek" (ll. 9-14)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2463). This doesn't sound like the admiration of a loyal colonialist,
but rather like the derision of a former colonial for the empire that no longer rules him. McKay
seems to see England as a sort of museum that isn't relevant to the modern world, full of grand
relics of the past.
Philip Larkin's poetry is filled with disillusionment. In "Church Going," he expresses
disillusionment with the church: "Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,/ And always end much at a loss
like this" (ll. 19-20) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2567). In "Talking in Bed," he expresses
disillusionment with intimate relationships: "Talking in bed ought to be easiest,/ ... Yet more and
more time passes silently./ ... It becomes still more difficult to find/ Words at once true and kind"
(ll. 1-10) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2569). "This Be The Verse" expresses the harm that each
generation does to its next generation, and "Aubade" expresses the slow and steady approach of
death. Larkin's poetry says that his parents fail him, religion fails him, his youth fails him by
passing away, and death fails him by refusing to pass by. In all, the world Larkin sees is bitter and
depressing.
Thom Gunn writes about his life in San Francisco, and about death and AIDS. The
leather jacket and tattoos in "Black Jackets" represent a rite of passage into his new society
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2583). Both "Still Life" and "The Missing" consider Gunn's
encounters with death, and the end of "The Missing" suggests that his encounter with AIDS might
have been very personal: "Trapped in unwholeness, I find no escape/ Back to the play of constant
give and change" (ll. 27-28) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2586). I wonder whether he feels trapped
324 A Journey Through My College Papers
because his friends are dying of AIDS, or because he has contracted the disease. Gunn's
biography in the San Francisco Chronicle does not clear up the matter, reporting that "[a]n
autopsy was performed and a medical examiner's report dated Sept. 17, 2004, lists 'acute
polysubstance abuse' as the cause of death" (Guthmann, 2005, para. 8). Whether Gunn had AIDS
or not, his world is his friends in San Francisco and the realities of disease and death.
Seamus Heaney's poetry describes a world of domestic scenes. In "Digging," he
illustrates that he has traded his traditional paternal work as a potato farmer for his own work as a
writer. He has exchanged his shovel for a pen (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 2824-2825). In
"Clearances," Heaney reveals vignettes of his relationship with his mother, even admitting to an
almost oedipal relationship when he mentions "our Sons and Lovers phase" (l. 82) (Greenblatt, et.
al., 2006, p. 2835).
Eavan Boland's poetry is filled with feelings of displacement. Her world is one in which
she has no firm anchor. Her feeling is probably the result of her frequent moves during childhood
as the daughter of a diplomat. In "Fond Memory," she writes: "I thought this is my country, was,
will be again,/ ... And I was wrong" (ll. 16-18) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2849). In "The Lost
Land," she writes: "I see myself ... saying all the names I know for a lost land" (ll. 31-34)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2852). Boland does not feel that she belongs to any land because she
lived in several lands during her childhood.
Salman Rushdie's magical miracle story is told in the same Oriental tradition as the
"Thousand and One Nights" and the stories of Aladdin. Wrongdoing and greed result in the
moneychanger being compelled to become strictly observant of religious laws. In the end, nearly
everyone dies as a result of doing the wrong things, regardless of the reasons for their actions. His
is a moral story about greed, deceit, and thievery, and it presents a world that contains too many of
these wrongs. The powerful man seeks to collect more power. The thief cripples his children so
they can beg in the street. The daughter shows her face in public, which is unacceptable in her
culture.
These worlds are different from those of earlier British poets because the earlier poets are
firmly grounded in the land, history, and traditions of England. The modern writers have lost
stability as the British Empire collapses around them. Earlier writers feel secure in their culture,
but later writers are forced to redefine culture in their lives. World views of disillusionment, of
the transitory nature of life, and of not belonging all come out of the shifting social realities of the
growth and decline of empire.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Guthmann, E. (2005, April 26). A poet's life part two: As friends died of AIDS, Thom Gunn
stayed healthy -- until his need to play hard finally killed him. San Francisco
Chronicle [Electronic version]. Retrieved from http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-04-
26/entertainment/17368566_1_mike-kitay-thom-gunn-bill-schuessler/5
Process 12/1/2011
After reading the introduction and footnotes, I do not see that the writing process has
changed significantly since the time of Blake, except for the introduction of the computer. For
writing that is done on paper, the process of crossing out and replacing words, lines, and stanzas in
poetry, and sentences and paragraphs in prose, remains the same. I tend to prefer manuscript
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composition, and many of my personal and academic writings look like the examples in our text
before I commit them to the computer.
It does appear that the timing of writing revisions has changed over time. "The selections
from William Blake ... [etc.], are drafts that were written, emended, crossed out, and rewritten in
the heat of first invention; while poems by ... Yeats [, etc.,] are shown in successive stages of
revision over an extended period of time" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. A1). The earlier poets
wrote and revised their work quickly, with passion for the writing. The later poets wrote and
revised their work slowly and deliberately, sometimes over a period of years, to produce final
works that were refined and perfected.
It appears that earlier poets revised their work to use more elaborate vocabulary; the later
poets, such as Yeats, revised their work because "occasional prosaic words give the impression of
an active man speaking" (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. A20). As society became industrialized and
left the Romantic period behind, poets incorporated more practical language in their poetry,
editing out some older, more courtly vocabulary.
Computers offer a change in the way writings are composed and edited. A writer can
type a composition directly into a word processing program. Words can be changed, added,
deleted, or rearranged with a few clicks of a mouse. The original form of the piece is not seen
after it is edited, and it is usually ready for immediate publication when the author is done. Spell-
check and grammar-check further ease the writing process, and most computers have on-board
dictionaries and thesauruses and access to vast on-line resources. The word-processing
capabilities of our on-line classroom are a ready illustration of the writing aids that are available to
modern writers. Still more radical are voice-to-text programs that transcribe the author's spoken
words into text files that can be revised after the fact.
As a personal note, I'm a paper-bound writer. My best work is composed with a ballpoint
pen, not with a keyboard. There's a sense of process in crossing out and inserting words, and in
arrows and margin notes. Manuscript writing forces me to slow down and interact with my
writing. I fear that future writers will lose that sense of connectedness as pen and paper are
pushed to the wayside.
References:
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Religion and Myth in English Poetry 12/5/2011
The poetry of William Blake and of John Keats is representative of the Romantic period
of English poetry, just as the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and of Alfred Lord Tennyson
represents the Victorian era and the poetry of William Butler Yeats represents Modern poetry.
The poetry of Blake and of Keats expresses the dichotomy between the innocence of youth and the
experience of life. Blake uses traditional symbols from Christian religion to express innocence
and purity, and Keats uses a combination of Judeo-Christian religious imagery and Roman
mythological imagery to express experience. In the Victorian era, Browning uses Blake’s
religious imagery to express the premature experience of children in industrialized England, and
Tennyson uses Arthurian mythological imagery to express the loss of innocence. In the Modern
age, Yeats uses imagery from Greek and Irish mythology and from Judeo-Christian religious
beliefs to express sadness at the loss of beauty and innocence in the world. From the work of
Blake and Keats to the work of Yeats, the use of religious and mythological imagery begins with
326 A Journey Through My College Papers
images of hope and faith in the Romantic era, becomes more intellectual and conflicts with science
in the Victorian period, and passes through the metaphysical to focus on the sadness of loss in the
twentieth century.
In the Romantic era, Blake uses traditional Christian imagery as signals for his readers.
Nicholas O. Warner (1982) writes: “Blake uses traditional motifs as thematic signals to his reader-
viewers” (p. 220). The lamb image is a familiar Christian religious motif that will evoke
innocence and purity in the reader’s imagination. Throughout Blake’s Songs of Innocence, the
traditional image of a lamb represents the purity and innocence of Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb
of God. In "Introduction," Blake writes: "On a cloud I saw a child, / And he laughing said to me, /
'Pipe a song about a Lamb'" (ll. 3-5) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 81). In this poem, the child
sitting on the cloud is a familiar image of the cherubic angels in Michelangelo’s paintings on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The angelic child refers to Jesus Christ as a Lamb. Blake’s readers
recognize these images from common religious stories in the English church. Blake repeats the
Christ reference in "The Lamb" when he writes: "Little Lamb, who made thee? / ... He is callèd by
thy name, / For he calls himself a Lamb" (ll. 1, 13-14) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 83-84). This
time, Blake connects children to Christ by first addressing a child as a lamb and then identifies the
child’s creator as a Lamb. In Blake’s time, children in literature are assumed to be innocent.
Again, in “Holy Thursday,” Blake connects children to Christ by referring to children as lambs
when he writes: “The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs, / Thousands of little
boys & girls raising their innocent hands” (ll. 7-8) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.86). The children
are raising their hands in praise of Christ on the day that celebrates Jesus’ last supper with his
disciples before his crucifixion.
The use of religious imagery in Blake’s poetry offers a vision of hope and faith. The
innocence of lambs presents a hopeful view of a world where there is goodness and purity. The
representation of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd in the lamb images offers spiritual support for
the reader through Christian symbolism of salvation.
Keats uses Roman mythological imagery to represent the harsh realities of nature, and he
uses Biblical imagery to offer the possibility of goodness and purity through Judeo-Christian
religious faith. James D. Boulger (1961) writes: “For Keats it was a quest of a special kind to
create a symbolic world in which the qualities of the spirit modify harsh facts of nature, yet where
the colors, sounds and attitudes of the natural world are the realities of the poetic vision” (p. 244).
Keats creates his symbolic world by using themes from Roman mythology and from the Bible.
The river Lethe, the dryads, and the Roman goddess Flora evoke classical images of, respectively,
forgetfulness, the beauty of trees and forests, and flowers. In “Ode to a Nightingale,” he writes:
“One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk” (l. 4) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 903). The river
Lethe is the place in Hades where the dead bathe to forget their mortal lives. Keats is writing
about taking opiates to forget the experience of life. He uses additional Roman references to
describe the pleasant flavor of the wine that he drinks when he writes: “That thou, light-winged
Dryad of the trees, / …Tasting of Flora and the country green, / … Full of the true, the blushful
Hippocrene” (ll. 7-16) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 903). He describes the happiness of the Dryad,
who is the Roman tree spirit, and the beauty of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. The
Hippocrene is a reference to the waters of inspiration, presumably as a reference to his inspiration
as a poet. In “Ode on Melancholy,” Keats writes: “No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist/ Wolf’s-
bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine” (ll. 1-2) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 907). In this
passage, he again invokes the river of forgetfulness, but this time he cautions not to forget the
experience of life. He warns not to take Wolf’s-bane, which is a poison that will cause the
permanent forgetfulness of death.
Keats also refers to Judeo-Christian religion in “Ode to a Nightingale” when he writes:
“Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, / She stood in tears amid the alien corn” (ll.
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66-67) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 904). Ruth is an Old Testament heroine who gathered barley
in the fields of Boaz to support her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. She gathered the fallen bits
of grain that would otherwise be wasted and took them home to feed Naomi. Boaz was merciful
to Ruth, and ordered that handfuls of barley be dropped for her to gather as she worked. Ruth’s is
powerful, and is familiar to contemporary readers, who recognize the sacrifice Ruth makes by
remaining with Naomi when Ruth is not by law or custom obligated to do so.
The use of religious and mythological imagery in Keats’ poetry offers a mixed vision of
hope and faith and of a desire to escape the experience of the world. The beauty of forests and
flowers present a hopeful view of a world where there is goodness in nature. The reference to the
story of Ruth offers the reader a reminder of the goodness of human nature through the story of
faith and self-sacrifice. The references to Lethe and to Wolf’s-bane as instruments of
forgetfulness are reminders that experience can be painful, and that a person might wish to forget
life’s experience and return to a state of innocence.
In the Victorian period, Browning uses Christian religious references in her poetry,
echoing Blake’s use of lamb imagery to represent children who suffer poverty and misery under
Victorian industrialization. In "The Cry of the Children," Browning writes: “We know no other
words except ‘Our Father.’/ And we think that, in some pause of angels’ song, / God may pluck
them with the silence sweet to gather, / And hold both within His right hand which is strong. /
‘Our Father!’ If He heard us, He would surely/ (For they call Him good and mild)/ Answer,
smiling down the steep world very purely, / ‘Come and rest with me, my child’” (ll. 117-124)
(Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 1081-1082). The children know the first two words of the Lord’s
Prayer that Jesus teaches to his disciples in the New Testament, but they do not know the full
prayer. They cling to those words as a protection from the misery that they suffer in the poverty of
industrialized England. Browning echoes Blake's imagery of the innocence of lambs when she
writes: "The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, / ... But the young, young children, O my
brothers, / They are weeping bitterly" (ll. 5-10) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1079). The children in
Victorian poetry are not portrayed as innocent lambs as they are in Romantic poetry. Instead,
Browning draws a distinction between the innocent lambs in a pastoral setting and the experience-
ravaged children in urban settings. The children are no longer wrapped in the safety of their faith,
but they cling to the edges of their faith for release from suffering.
Browning shows that the children are weary of their lives of poverty and suffering when
she writes of the children praying that God will pluck them from life as one might gather flowers,
and that God will call the children to rest with him in death. This is a change from the comforting
faith and joy of religious imagery in Romantic poetry. The Victorian image is not of happiness on
earth based on religious faith, but on relief in death and eternal life based on God’s mercy. By
placing the image of lambs close to the reference to children, Browning causes her reader to
imagine that the children should be innocent lambs. That the children are weeping with premature
experience reflects back again to Blake's writings on innocence and experience.
Tennyson uses the Arthurian myth imagery of Camelot and images from Greek
mythology to illustrate weariness with life, and to present an escape from the trials of life in
response to a desire for rest in death. In “The Lady of Shalott,” Tennyson writes: “There she
weaves by night and day/ A magic web with colors gay./ She has heard a whisper say,/ A curse is
on her if she stay/ To look down to Camelot./ … She looked down to Camelot./ Out flew the web
and floated wide;/ The mirror cracked from side to side; / ‘The curse is come upon me,’ cried/ The
Lady of Shalott” (ll. 37-41, 113-117) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, pp. 1115-1117). Tennyson uses
mythological images of magic and of curses to weave a picture of a long lost age of mystery.
Tennyson uses specific images of the legends of Camelot, especially the character of Sir Lancelot,
to draw the reader into the world that is outside the tower of the Lady of Shalott. The reader finds
an escape from the harsh realities of Victorian industrial life in the fairy tale magic of Tennyson’s
328 A Journey Through My College Papers
poetry. When the title character breaks the rules and looks out at the world of Camelot, her
existence is shattered and she dies in a boat, floating on the current of the river into Camelot.
In “The Lotos-Eaters,” “Tennyson expands Homer’s brief account into an elaborate
picture of weariness and the desire for rest and death” (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1119).
Tennyson’s treatment of Homer’s mythological story from The Odyssey reflects the weariness and
suffering of the working poor of Victorian England, who seek an escape from their suffering.
Tennyson writes: “Why are we weighed upon with heaviness, / And utterly consumed with sharp
distress, / While all things else have rest from weariness? / … ‘There is no joy but calm!’ --/ Why
should we only toil” (ll. 57-69) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 1120). In Homer’s story, Odysseus’
crew eats the lotus and loses all volition to do anything but stay and keep eating the lotus. The
crew is stuck in what will be an endless cycle of doing the same thing day after day if they are not
forced to leave the island. Tennyson compares that experience with the experience of Victorian
workers, whose lives are defined by constant labor and unchangingly wearisome conditions.
The industrialization of the Victorian age brings suffering to the poor as lower-class men,
women, and children are forced to work excessively long hours under grueling conditions to
support industrialization. Readers seek an escape from misery, and Tennyson’s poetry offers the
spiritual escape of Arthurian mythology and the image of the physical escape of rest in death.
In the Twentieth Century, Yeats' poetry is filled with both Judeo-Christian religious
images and Greek and Irish mythological images in an attempt to find the religious sense that has
been lost in modern times. Yeats’ poetry expresses sadness and weariness in the modern world, in
which the age of myths and legends has passed into the background, and in which the institutional
church is no longer the driving force in English lives. Laura Marvel (1986) writes: "Yeats himself
says in A Vision that his mind 'had been full of Blake from boyhood up and [he] saw the world as a
conflict -- Spectre and Emanation -- and could distinguish between a contrary and a negation'" (p.
95). Yeats’ poetry is influenced by the Romantic poetry of William Blake, and by Blake’s
exploration of the contraries of innocence and experience through religious and natural imagery.
In “The Stolen Child,” Yeats writes: “Come away, O human child!/ To the waters and the wild/
With a faery, hand in hand,/ For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand” (ll. 9-
12) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2023). He uses the Irish mythological image of faeries to
represent the innocence of childhood in the same way that Blake uses the Christian religious
imagery of lambs. The poem echoes the Victorian sense of sadness in the world as the faery offers
to lead the child away from the misery of modern life. Yeats refers to water as an escape from
pain; water is a symbol of life and restoration in Judeo-Christian religious beliefs and in many
world mythologies. Calling the child to the waters is an invitation to be cleansed of the sorrow of
the world and to be healed and restored by the life-giving properties of the water. Water cleanses
original sin in Christian baptism, and the invitation to the water may also be an invitation to return
Christian religious practices and beliefs, in which the faery may take the role of an angel or of the
Holy Spirit in restoring humanity to a sacred innocence.
In “The Rose of the World,” Yeats writes: “Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,
/ And Usna’s children died” (ll. 4-5) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2024). In this passage, Yeats
combines the Greek mythology of Troy with Irish mythology of Usna or Usnach, the father of
Ulster warriors in Irish legends, to reflect the loss of beauty in the world. The city of Troy is
destroyed when Menelaus and Odysseus use the Trojan horse to retrieve the beautiful Helen from
her abductor, Paris, in a well-known and popular story. The destruction of Troy represents a loss
of great beauty in the world as a result of human greed and lust. The children of Usna are killed
by Conchubar after they abduct the beautiful Deirdre in a popular Irish story that parallels
Homer’s story of Troy.
Richard Fallis (1976) writes: “The Keatsian poet remains, as in Yeats's striking image of
Keats himself … For Yeats, obsessed with the business of making unities, neither detachable ideas
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nor fragmentary beauty could be enough. But disunity and fragmentation were, he realized,
essential hallmarks of Victorian middle-class culture" (pp. 91-92). Yeats recognizes that the
Modern age requires solid, definable, immediate images to replace the more ethereal Romantic
images of Keats. In “The Sorrow of Love,” Yeats writes: “Doomed like Odysseus and the
laboring ships/ And proud as Priam murdered with his peers” (ll. 7-8) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p.
2025). Yeats refers to a fragment of Greek mythology in Homer’s The Odyssey that speaks of
doom and murder as the sorrow of lost love. He compares love to the ships that are destroyed in
the myth, saying that love is likewise doomed to destruction. This reflects the losses of his period
as the world enters the twentieth century. Yeats writes the final version of the poem in 1925, amid
the emotional losses of the First World War.
In “Adam’s Curse,” Yeats writes: “It’s certain there is no fine thing/ Since Adam’s fall
but needs much laboring” (ll. 21-22) (Greenblatt, et. al., 2006, p. 2028). This verse recalls
references to labor and toil in Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters.” It expresses the disunity between
the beauty of fine things and the meanness of physical labor. Yeats illustrates that beauty cannot
exist without labor since mankind lost its innocence in Adam’s experience with the forbidden fruit
in the Biblical account in Genesis. The title of the poem itself recalls religious ideas, as the story
of Adam and Eve in Eden is familiar to his readers
Yeats’ poetry is based on the foundations of Romantic and Victorian poetry, especially
on the poetry of William Blake. He takes the pastoral nature images of Christ and transforms
them into Irish mythological images of faeries in order to recapture the reader’s imagination in the
wake of the Great War. Yeats’ modern poetic images reflect earlier symbols from popular myths,
legends, and religious teachings in ways that make the images accessible to modern readers.
The use of pastoral, Christian and Judeo-Christian religious imagery and classical Roman
mythological imagery in Romantic poetry presents both a vision of hope and faith and a desire to
escape the experience of the world. Victorian Christian religious imagery and Arthurian and
Greek mythological imagery are transform the simple Romantic dichotomy of innocence and
experience into a more intellectual form that resonates with the scientific and industrialized
thinking of the Victorian era, displaying the suffering of industrialized poverty and the desire to
escape misery in death. Modern poetry echoes Romantic and Victorian poetry in its use of
Christian and Judeo-Christian religious imagery and of images from world mythology to represent
sadness and weariness with life in the Modern age.
From the pastoral nature of life in the Romantic poetry of Blake and Keats, through
Browning’s and Tennyson’s poetry about the industrialization of the Victorian era, to Yeats’
search for meaning in life in the period around World War I, themes of religious and mythological
images and symbols permeate British poetry. As the world progresses through the social unrests
and upheavals of the twentieth century into the worries and struggles of the twenty-first century,
images from many world religions and mythologies continue to express the emotions of modern
poets. Mankind creates religions and myths to express and to explain the world, and to offer
lessons and hope to the world. The poetry of the future is sure to follow in the path of the
Romantic, Victorian, and Modern poets in using religious and mythological images to speak to the
world.
References
Boulger, J.D. (1961). Keats’ symbolism. ELH, 28(3), 244-259. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872068
Fallis, R. (1976). Yeats and the reinterpretation of Victorian poetry. Victorian Poetry, 14(2), 89-
100. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40002375
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.) (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature (8th ed., Vol.2).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
330 A Journey Through My College Papers
Marvel, L. (1986). Blake and Yeats: Visions of apocalypse. College Literature, 13(1), 95-
105. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111689
Warner, N.O. (1982). The iconic mode of William Blake. Rocky Mountain Review of
Language and Literature, 36(4), 219-234. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1347359
ENG 325: Intermediate Composition
Writing Competition 12/6/2011
One of the most significant events in my high school career was my participation in the
Vermont Honors Competition for Excellence in Writing. The competition was sponsored by the
University of Vermont, and was held for the first time when I was a sophomore at Mount Anthony
Union High School.
The competition consisted of three levels: local, regional, and state. The first level was
held in the fall. Each student had to write an impromptu essay in class. We were not told at that
point that we were participating in a competition, so I thought nothing of it. We were given the
subject for the essays just moments before we began to write. I don’t remember what the subject
was for that essay. At the end of the class, we were told that our essays would be entered in the
state writing competition. I was a little bit nervous upon hearing that, and worried whether I had
written well enough, but I was used to getting A’s on my papers, so it was only a slight bit of
anxiety, and it didn’t last long.
We didn’t hear anything more about the essays or the competition for several weeks.
With everything else I had to think about, I forgot about it entirely during that time. Then, one
morning, the winner for each of the four grades was announced over the public address system. I
knew I was a competent writer, but I did not have a lot of confidence in myself. As a result, I was
very surprised to hear my name announced. I sat in home room, staring at the speaker on the wall
for several moments, unable to think or speak, until the bell shattered the moment.
It only took a few minutes for surprise to be replaced by pride and satisfaction. Although
I would have denied it if I had been asked, I knew that I would have been very disappointed if
anyone else had won the competition in my grade. I have always been a perfectionist, and it
would have crushed me if I had not won.
In February, I went to the high school in Randolph for the regional level of the
competition. There were five schools in our region. It was a bit unsettling to be in an unfamiliar
school, surrounded by students I didn’t know. I didn’t even know the other participants from my
own school. I had been calm and confident up until that point, but now my stomach began
churning, and there was not quite enough air. The students from the other schools seemed to be
larger than life. I was sure they were all smarter than I was.
I’m sure we only had to wait a few minutes for the competition to begin, but those
minutes passed like hours. I was sure that I would fail miserably. I concentrated on taking each
new breath, hoping I would not embarrass myself by being sick there in the hall. We were finally
ushered into a classroom with twenty empty desks. It was time to begin.
Small, blue composition books and sharpened pencils were handed out, and we were each
given a sealed envelope containing the subject for our essay. My hands trembled as I tore open
my envelope. The sophomore topic was the person in history we admired the most, and why we
admired him or her. I thought about it for several minutes, near panic as no good candidates came
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to mind. I considered and discarded several possibilities. I finally decided to write about
Abraham Lincoln.
I had one hour to complete my essay, beginning with the moment I had opened my
envelope. Once I started writing, all of my nervousness and insecurity melted away, and I wrote
steadily and confidently. I finished my essay about forty-five minutes into the allotted time, and
turned in my booklet.
Once again, there was a wait of several weeks between the writing and the announcement
of the winners. This time, however, I never forgot about the competition. Each morning, I
listened carefully to the announcements, hoping to hear the results, yet dreading that I would hear
a name other than my own. One morning, the announcement finally came. I had won the regional
level, and would be going on to the final competition at the state level. My fear that I would
embarrass myself by not winning the regional level of the competition evaporated as relief at
learning that I had won washed over me. I released the breath I had not realized I was holding.
My relief was quickly replaced by pride and happiness as I received congratulations from nearly
everyone I passed, with the feeling that I deserved nothing less. I had succeeded, and everyone
around me knew it.
The local and regional competitions were just a foretaste of the real competition. The
final level of the competition was held on May 9, 1985, at the University of Vermont. I was a
bundle of nerves for the three hours that it took for my English teacher, Ms. Woodard, to drive me
north to face the four other top sophomore writers in Vermont.
I knew it was a very important day, no matter how the competition ended. In
consideration of the day’s importance, I dressed in my most mature outfit: a peach linen skirt suit,
a white blouse with a ruffled front and ruffled cuffs, and high-heeled pumps. Although I looked
very grown-up on the outside, I felt very young and unsure of myself inside.
The final level of the competition was held in the morning, and consisted of two essays,
with a very brief break between them. Once again, we each received a blue composition book,
several sharpened pencils, and a sealed envelope. We were given one hour in which to write. I
tore open the envelope and read my first topic. I had to write an essay comparing the views of
teenagers with those of adults. My essay, which I titled “Teenagers Versus Adults,” took me
about forty minutes to write. As I began writing, all of my doubts vanished. As I had done in
Randolph, I wrote quickly and steadily. When I turned in my booklet, I was confident that I had
given my best effort. I sat quietly, watching other students finish their essays as I waited for the
break.
The second half of the morning was very much like the first half. My second topic was
to decide whether or not fantasy or imagination was important, and to support my position. I
wrote “The Importance of Fantasy” in just over thirty minutes. When I sat down after turning in
my booklet, a senior boy whispered to me to ask why I had rushed through without trying. I just
smiled and sat quietly until the time was up.
Ms. Woodard and I had lunch and walked around the town during the afternoon. I was
very, very worried, but I tried to act like I was relaxed. I couldn’t concentrate on my conversation
with my teacher, or on my surroundings.
Evening finally came. There was an elegant banquet before the awards ceremony. The
lights were low, and the tables were draped with real tablecloths. I hardly tasted the food that was
served, and have no memory of anything that I ate. The air crackled with expectancy and anxiety.
Conversations seemed stiff and unnatural, and laughter seemed just a bit too loud. By the time the
dessert dishes were cleared, and the competition officials stepped up to the podium, the air
practically sang with tension.
I could hardly breathe when they started announcing the winners. They started with the
fourth runner up in the twelfth grade. There were cheers and applause as each name was called,
332 A Journey Through My College Papers
and each student made his or her way through the crowd of tables up to the podium. Finally, they
reached the tenth grade, and I listened anxiously for my name. I was relieved when I was not the
fourth runner up. I felt dizzy after I was not called for the third runner up. My stomach clenched
into knots when I was not the second runner up. I was paralyzed as the official opened the card
with the name of the first runner up. I strained forward, sure it would be me, but hoping it would
not be. I screamed out loud when my name was not called. I felt like my entire body had just
been released from suffocating bonds. Ms. Woodard and I hugged each other with tears on our
cheeks. When my name was called as the tenth grade winner a few moments later, my joy and
triumph were dizzying.
I hardly felt the floor under my feet as I went up to receive my certificate and a check for
$1,500.00. I heard the applause as no more than a dim murmur in my ears. I was trembling as I
shook hands with the president of the university. A reporter for the Burlington Free Press took
my picture, and I was sure life couldn’t possibly be any better.
I don’t remember hearing the ninth grade winners announced. Nothing else mattered,
now that I had won. I bounced in my seat as I waited for the ceremony to end so I could call my
mother with the news.
Ms. Woodard drove me home that night, and I got there in time to watch myself on the
late news with my mother and grandmother. It had been an amazing day, and sharing it with my
family was the perfect ending.
Writing a Final Paper 12/8/2011
The last fairly long paper that I completed was the final paper for the class that ended this
past Monday. The last long project that I worked on is a personal project that is still in progress.
It is a memory book for my sons, and I am writing it because I fear losing the ability to share my
memories and family stories with them later, in case my father’s Alzheimer’s disease is hereditary.
My methods for the two projects are quite different, so I will explain each project. The intended
audience for the academic paper was my course instructor, and I also considered my classmates as
a reasonable audience group for the piece. The intended audience for my personal project is my
sons, once they are adults, and my potential grandchildren and future descendants. When I write, I
rarely share my in-progress work, so no one has contributed to the development of my projects,
except for the instructor’s feedback on the outline of the academic paper.
The academic paper was a discussion of how religious and mythological imagery was
used in Romantic, Victorian, and early twentieth century British poetry. For this paper, I began by
“practice[ing] critical reading” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 9). I highlighted instances of the specific
imagery in the texts, using margin notes to remind myself why I had highlighted those lines when
I went back to write my paper. About the second week of the course, I used the Ashford Online
Library to look up sources for my paper. For each source, I headed a WordPad document with the
bibliography entry, then pasted selected quotes and page numbers in the document. An outline
for the paper was due in week three of the course, and I assembled the outline on the due date. I
pasted my bibliography entries from my note documents, and I pasted my selected quotes from my
outside sources and from the textbook into my outline. Over the next two weeks, I filled out the
outline as we read more material for the class. I didn’t convert the outline to a prose draft until the
morning of the paper’s due date. I made minor revisions to the sentences and paragraphs from my
outline to streamline the language, but I did not make major changes. I did expand on the
thoughts from the outline, adding an introduction to the thesis statement, and adding a summary
Undergraduate Series 333
and synthesis of the body paragraphs to the conclusion. This is my usual method for a formal
literary analysis paper.
The personal project has been a recursive effort. It has been “a fairly chaotic process”
(Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 12). I started it about ten years ago. I began by dumping my memories
to paper without filtering myself. Each discrete memory began on a new sheet of paper; some
memories were very short, taking less than a page each, and others used several pages each. As I
wrote, if another memory tried to surface, I jotted a note on a growing list of writing prompts.
When I had several hundred pages written, I went through and marked the top right corner of each
memory with a number representing my age at the time the event took place; I had to guess at the
ages for some of the memories. I then shuffled the pages into something resembling chronological
order. I then typed the entire collection into a Word document. As I typed, I revised the diction of
the pieces, correcting sloppy spelling and grammar. Sometimes, I expanded on particular
descriptions, added the proper names of people in the stories, or trimmed out extraneous bits of
prose. It took moths to type what I had already written, and I was still writing more memories. I
went back to add the new memories in the proper order in the Word document. I am still adding
memories, and I have added a table of contents that updates itself, thanks to the contents option in
Word. I also added photos to the book after I typed it, using photo captions to add further details
to the book. Many of the stories in this project are important to me, but they are inappropriate for
children to read for various reasons, so this document remains locked. I go back and revise some
of the stories from time to time, expanding descriptions and details as I can remember them to fill
out the sketchy, original texts. I have also added journal and blog excerpts and certain emails to
the text as my memories have begun to catch up with my current life. The memories remain
discrete vignettes of my life, and I do not plan to convert them to a straight narrative with smooth
transitions; each memory has a separate title and an introduction of its own. Eventually, this
project will have a detailed index. It is an ongoing project, with no clearly projected completion
date.
References
Axelrod, R.B., Cooper, C.R., & Warriner, A. M. (2011). Reading critically writing well (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Tipping the Tank 12/8/2011
One of my most exciting memories took place when I was seventeen years old, during
my first encampment as a cadet member of the Civil Air Patrol. I had the opportunity to drive the
big Army tanks at Underhill Firing Range in northern Vermont. It should have been one of my
proudest moments, but events did not play out as I had expected them to do. I didn't mean to do
anything wrong, but I panicked under stress. As a result of one afternoon’s misadventure, ours
was the last group of cadets that was allowed to drive the tanks.
It was the end of June, and it was hot even at the Canadian border. Sweat soaked our
olive drab uniforms in the afternoon sunshine. Despite the heat, out group of over a hundred
teenagers was in high spirits. We laughed and chatted while the soldiers in charge of the tanks
divided us into groups, with just a few cadets in each tank. My friends, Vicky, Art, Missy, and
Chris, were in the tank that I was driving. I had been in Civil Air Patrol for a little over a year, and
I shivered in awed excitement at the idea of actually driving the tank.
I climbed into the cramped driver’s seat of the tank with a bewildering array of levers
where I had expected to find pedals and a steering wheel. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the
334 A Journey Through My College Papers
same time. The rest of the group dropped through the hatch at the top of the tank into the dark,
confining body of the machine. The voice of an instructor from the Vermont National Guard
crackled in my ear muff-like headphones as he guided me with voice commands to start driving
the tank around the dirt track.
All was going well as I drove confidently on the flat, dirt track until we came to a good-
sized hill on the far side of the course. I started to guide the tank up the hill, and the instructor
shouted at me to get up more speed. Without enough speed, we would never get up the hill.
“More speed! More speed! Faster! Faster!” I began to be flustered under the verbal barrage as I
gave the tank more or more gas and we rumbled upward and upward.
Suddenly, we reached the apex of the hill. With horror, I realized that it was not the
rolling sort of hill I was accustomed to, but a huge pyramid of earth. The tank crested the hill and
plunged down the other side, no longer under my control. Ever obedient to gravity, the tank
continued to accelerate as it hurtled down the hill. The instructor frantically yelled at me.
Panicking, I moved levers, screaming into my microphone that I didn't know how to slow it down.
I had the terrible realization that while I knew how to make the tank go, I had never been taught to
make it stop.
Do you remember Sir Isaac Newton? He said that a body in motion tends to stay in
motion. The part of the law that everyone forgets is that it is only true unless the body is acted
upon by an outside force. I had no idea which lever was the brake. I was frighteningly sure that
the tank was going to stay in motion. Then we were acted upon. Rather, we acted upon something
much bigger than we were. Either way, we stopped. Suddenly. Jarringly. The tank stood on its
nose, with its tracks spinning idly in the air. I was dazed from the abrupt cessation of motion. I
was aware of a lot of terrified screaming, most of it in my headset and some of it in the steel
compartment behind me.
At the bottom of the steep hill was a large, exposed piece of bedrock. It was this expanse
of native granite that had stopped our headlong plunge. A great many soldiers ran across the
driving course and tipped the tank back onto its treads. When the tank was finally righted, the
soldiers determined that it was largely undamaged, and I drove it very slowly to the parking area.
In the aftermath of my personal disaster, I felt the sweat of panic cool on my clammy skin inside
my clinging tee shirt. I was humiliated. My face glowed scarlet from more than just the sun.
As though one adventure would not suffice for the day, the soldiers shuffled us into an
Armored Personnel Carrier for another trip around the track. Vicky got to drive this time, and the
rest of our group piled into the back. We sat shoulder-to-shoulder on a hard, vinyl-covered bench
in the close, windowless compartment. Chris was the closet to the front of the vehicle, followed
by Missy, Art, and me.
I was vaguely aware of the APC’s movement up the hill, but the ponderous vehicle
moved so smoothly that we hardly felt it in our steel cocoon. I was jarred to full awareness when
we were all thrown forward against the front wall, which had suddenly become the floor. We
landed in a pile, arms and legs tangled as we all thrashed to right ourselves.
Vicky had repeated my accident on the rock at the bottom of the hill. The soldiers came
out again and tipped the vehicle off the rock again, laughing at the unlikely repetition. Vicky drove
back to the parking area, where a medic checked us all out. Chris, who had been at the bottom of
the thrashing pile in the passenger compartment, had a broken arm. Everyone else was fine, except
for a bit of humiliation for Vicky and for me.
Undergraduate Series 335
Explaining Concepts 12/15/2011
Recently, I had a discussion with my mother in which we each had a very different
definition of a concept that is familiar to everyone. She was upset because she saw in my wedding
booklet that I wrote that I have six siblings. She was outraged that I would consider my father’s
five step-children to be my siblings, and she said that my family loyalty was askew because I do
not consider my one full sister to be my only sibling. I had never anticipated the need to explain
to my mother my concept of family, but I was faced with that situation. She also berated me for
acknowledging my children’s half-siblings (the children of their father and step-mother) as their
siblings because she said their siblings could only be my children, not children of their father.
I was forced to analyze my own assumptions about the concept of family, and to rapidly
analyze what I was discovering about her concept of the same thing. “Assumptions … influence
our opinions and judgments by leading us to value some things and devalue others” (Axelrod, et.
al., 2011, p. 220). It was important for me to understand both sets of assumptions so I would be
able to explain my concept to my mother in terms that she would understand. My assumptions
about family are:
1) that everyone who is connected to me by blood lines is part of my family;
2) that everyone who is connected to me by my marriages or by the marriages of
my blood relatives is part of my family; and
3) that everyone who is connected to me by adoption or by fosterage is part of
my family.
I inferred from my mother’s statements that she had different assumptions about family. For her,
family is only those people with whom one shares a direct blood line. She considers her family to
be her parents, my sister and me, and my two sons. She does not even consider her husband to be
part of her family.
Once I had a reasonable grasp of the assumptions that were in play, I was able to try to
explain my concept of family to my mother. I first tried to classify the groups of people who are
part of my family, as I outlined in my assumptions. I thought it would help to “divid[e] a concept
into parts to consider each part separately” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 223). That approach failed
when I got to the idea of family-by-marriage, and I never got to adoptive family as I tried to calm
her down to try again.
I next tried comparison and contrast, “pointing out how the concept is similar to and
different from a related concept” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 223). I tried to show that my step-
siblings were related to me through my father’s remarriage in much the same way that my step-
father is related to me through my mother’s remarriage. It was at this point that I learned that my
mother does not believe her husband is part of our family. That line of reasoning was not
working.
I did not pursue the explanation further. Instead, I tried to tell my mother that it was valid
for the two of us to have different concepts of family. When that didn’t work either, I realized that
it is sometimes impossible to make a given audience understand a concept if the audience has
strong preconceptions about the concept, and if the audience is not open to the possibility of valid
arguments that do not agree with those preconceptions.
References
Axelrod, R.B., Cooper, C.R., & Warriner, A. M. (2011). Reading critically writing well (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
336 A Journey Through My College Papers
Defining Family 12/15/2011
Every person has a family. Exactly which individuals in an individual’s life constitute
the individual’s family is a matter of interpretation. Stuart and Terry Hirschberg (2012) write that
“each family is different, with its own uniquely characteristic relationships and bonds” (p. 28). A
family may be defined as those people who are related to one another by direct blood line. The
definition may be expanded to include those people who are related by blood line and/or by
marriage. A family may also include those people who are related by adoption or by fosterage. In
some cultures, everyone in the local community is defined as a family, and many organizations
consider their members to constitute a family. A family, then, is that group of people who are
connected by ties of lineage, marriage, or fraternal affection, and who provide a social structure
for the individual.
A family is those people who are connected to one another by direct blood lines. This is
a very narrow definition of family. It includes the individual, his or her parents and grandparents,
his or her siblings, and his or her children and grandchildren. It might also include aunts and
uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews, but only if they are in the same line of blood descent. It
can be traced backward or forward in history as long as the relationships are always traced through
the blood line. This definition excludes step-parents and step-children, relations-in-law, families
by adoption, and families in which a child is raised by a foster parent. This definition of family is
useful for establishing lines of inheritance, but it is not a particularly nurturing family dynamic.
A family is those people who are connected to one another by direct blood lines, by
marriage, or both. This is a more nurturing family dynamic because it includes more of the people
who make up the individual’s personal social structure. This model includes spouses, relations-in-
law, step-relations, and the marital relations of the individual’s blood relations, as well as those
with whom the individual shares a blood line. In many modern families, children are raised by a
parent and a step-parent, and the child may have another parent and step-parent at another
location. Often, a child will have step-siblings, as well, and will know his or her step-
grandparents as well as he or she knows his or her biological grandparents. By including marital
relations as family members, the individual has a broader, more diverse foundation on which to
build his or her personal identity.
A family is those people who are connected to one another by blood line and/or by
marital bonds, as well as those who are connected by adoption or by fosterage. This is a broader
definition of family than either of the previous definitions. In this model, family includes those
people who nurture a child to adulthood, regardless of the child’s biological or marital connection
to the family group or lack thereof. A family that adopts a child becomes the child’s “real” family,
even though the child may remember his or her family of origin. Similarly, a family that takes in a
foster child, whether through a private contract with the child’s family of origin or through a legal
agreement with the state, may become the child’s “real” family. D. Bellissimo (2006) writes that
"the definition of family … include[s] brothers and sisters, grandparents, grandchildren, parents-
in-law, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces, guardians, foster
parents and wards" (para. 5). An adopted or foster family may or may not retain a connection with
the child’s family of origin, but the adoptive or foster family becomes the child’s family.
Sometimes, if there are still good feelings between the child and his or her family of origin, the
adoptive or foster family may expand to include the original family as part of itself.
A family is any and all of these models, and it is also those individuals who choose to be
related to one another by mutual bonds of fraternal affection and understanding. Organizations
that foster this kind of family model include, but are not limited to, the Free and Accepted
Undergraduate Series 337
Masons, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, and most college
fraternities and sororities. The members of these and similar organizations consider the members
within each organization to be brothers and sisters without regard for blood lines or marital ties.
Similarly, an individual may gather around himself or herself a group of friends who become the
individual’s family.
An individual’s definition of family may be very traditional, or it may be unique to that
individual. It may reflect any of the models described here, and it may take parts of different
models and blend them to form an entirely new model. In the modern world, the definition of
family has expanded to include same-sex couples, single-parent families, and families in which a
grandparent raises grandchildren in the absence of the grandchildren’s parents. In some cultures,
even within the United States, polygamous families still exist. Each of these family structures is a
valid definition of family for the individuals who call it a family. Each individual’s concept of
family is valid, even if it does not agree with the concept of family that is held by others in the
individual’s social structure. Every person has a family, and every person’s concept of what
constitutes a family is valid.
References
Bellissimo, D. (2006, October). Change to the E.I. definition of "family member" for
compassionate care benefits. Update, 34(2), 7. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Hirschberg, S. & Hirschberg, T. (2012) One World, Many Cultures (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Tipping the Tank 12/19/2011
The ground rushed up at me as I tried frantically to stop our headlong plunge! My ears
rang with the shouts of my instructor, and my vision was filled with the gray expanse of Vermont
bedrock. I searched in vain for the brake. We were going too fast! Panic gripped me. Then we
stopped in a jarring, terrifying crash.
I was seventeen years old, attending my first encampment as a cadet member of the Civil
Air Patrol. I had the opportunity to drive the big Army tanks at Underhill Firing Range in
northern Vermont. I was excited that morning, and could hardly eat my breakfast in my hurry to
get to the range. It should have been one of my proudest moments, but events did not play out as I
had expected them to do. It was just as well that I didn’t have much in my stomach after all. I
didn't mean to do anything wrong, but I panicked under stress. As a result of one afternoon’s
misadventure, ours was the last group of cadets that was allowed to drive the tanks.
It was the end of June, and it was hot even at the Canadian border. Sweat soaked our
olive drab uniforms in the afternoon sunshine. Despite the heat, our group of over a hundred
teenagers was in high spirits. We laughed and chatted while the soldiers in charge of the tanks
divided us into groups, with just a few cadets in each tank. I was thrilled that my friends, Vicky,
Art, Missy, and Chris, were in the tank that I was driving. I was driving! I still get chills when I
remember being one of the cadets chosen to drive the tanks. I had been in Civil Air Patrol for a
little over a year, and I shivered in awed excitement at the idea of actually driving the tank.
I climbed awkwardly into the cramped driver’s seat of the tank, dropping down into the
seat with a bewildering array of levers where I had expected to find pedals and a steering wheel. I
was terrified and exhilarated! The rest of the group dropped through the hatch at the top of the
tank into the dark, confining body of the machine, landing with heavy thuds of booted feet on
solid steel. The voice of an instructor from the Vermont National Guard crackled in my ear muff-
338 A Journey Through My College Papers
like headphones as he guided me with voice commands to start driving the tank around the dirt
track.
Driving the tank was easier than I expected. My nerves calmed and I began to relax. All
was going well as I drove confidently on the flat, dirt track. Then we came to a good-sized hill on
the far side of the course, and the trouble began. I started to guide the tank up the hill, and the
instructor shouted at me to get up more speed. Without enough speed, we would never get up the
hill. “More speed! More speed! Faster! Faster!” I became flustered under the verbal barrage as I
gave the tank more and more gas and we rumbled upward and upward.
Suddenly, we reached the apex of the hill. My heart missed a beat. With horror, I
realized that this was not the rolling sort of hill I was accustomed to, but a huge pyramid of earth.
The tank roared over the crest of the hill and plunged down the other side, no longer under my
control. Ever obedient to gravity, the tank continued to accelerate as it hurtled down the hill. The
instructor frantically yelled at me. “Slow it down! Brakes! Brakes!” I panicked! I moved levers
as fast as I could, not knowing which lever I needed, screaming into my microphone that I didn't
know how to slow it down. I had the terrible realization that while I knew how to make the tank
go, I had never been taught to make it stop.
Do you remember Sir Isaac Newton? He said that a body in motion tends to stay in
motion. The part of the law that everyone forgets is that it is only true unless the body is acted
upon by an outside force. I had no idea which lever was the brake. I was frighteningly sure that
the tank was going to stay in motion. I saw the ground rushing upward to meet me. Then we were
acted upon. Rather, we acted upon something much bigger than we were. Either way, we stopped.
Suddenly. Jarringly. The tank stood on its nose, with its tracks spinning idly in the air. I was
dazed from the abrupt cessation of motion. I heard a lot of terrified screaming, most of it in my
headset and some of it in the steel compartment behind me.
At the bottom of the steep hill was a large, exposed piece of bedrock. It was this expanse
of native granite that had stopped our headlong plunge. Seconds passed, or perhaps it was minutes,
all in a blur of sound and motion. A great many soldiers ran across the driving course and tipped
the tank back onto its treads. When the tank was finally righted, the soldiers determined that it
was largely undamaged, and I drove it very slowly to the parking area. In the aftermath of my
personal disaster, I felt the sweat of panic cool on my clammy skin inside my clinging tee shirt. I
was humiliated. My face glowed scarlet from more than just the sun.
As though one adventure would not suffice for the day, the soldiers shuffled us into an
Armored Personnel Carrier for another trip around the track. Vicky got to drive this time, and the
rest of our group piled into the back. We sat shoulder-to-shoulder on a hard, vinyl-covered bench
in the close, windowless compartment. Chris was the closet to the front of the vehicle, followed
by Missy, Art, and me.
I was vaguely aware of the APC's movement up the hill, but the ponderous vehicle
moved so smoothly that we hardly felt it in our steel cocoon. I was jarred to full awareness when
we were all thrown forward against the front wall, which had suddenly become the floor. We
landed in a pile, arms and legs tangled as we all thrashed to right ourselves.
Vicky had repeated my accident on the rock at the bottom of the hill. The soldiers came
out again and tipped the vehicle off the rock again, laughing at the unlikely repetition. Vicky drove
back to the parking area, where a medic checked us all out. Chris, who had been at the bottom of
the thrashing pile in the passenger compartment, had a broken arm. Everyone else was fine, except
for a bit of humiliation for Vicky and for me.
Twice in one day, I had hurtled helplessly toward the earth. Twice, I had emerged
unharmed from the experience. I was embarrassed by my failure to stop the tank. Embarrassment
and humiliation were overshadowed by the sense of pulsing vitality that comes from surviving a
life-threatening experience. Even more, the sheer sense of teenage invulnerability, which had
Undergraduate Series 339
been shaken during the crash, was reinforced by the knowledge that I had crashed headlong into
the earth – not once, but twice – and I had walked away. It was an amazing experience.
Defining Family 1/3/2012
Every person has a family. Exactly which individuals in an individual’s life constitute
the individual’s family is a matter of interpretation. Stuart and Terry Hirschberg (2012) write that
“each family is different, with its own uniquely characteristic relationships and bonds” (p. 28). A
family may be defined as those people who are related to one another by direct blood line. The
definition may be expanded to include those people who are related by blood line and/or by
marriage. A family may also include those people who are related by adoption or by fosterage. In
some cultures, everyone in the local community is defined as a family, and many organizations
consider their members to constitute a family. A family, then, is that group of people who are
connected by ties of lineage, marriage, or fraternal affection, and who provide a social structure
for the individual.
For many people, a family is those people who are connected to one another by direct
blood lines. This is a very narrow definition of family. It includes the individual, his or her
parents and grandparents, his or her siblings, and his or her children and grandchildren. It might
also include aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews, but only if they are in the same
line of blood descent. It can be traced backward or forward in history as long as the relationships
are always traced through the blood line. This definition excludes step-parents and step-children,
relations-in-law, families by adoption, and families in which a child is raised by a foster parent.
This definition of family is useful for establishing lines of inheritance, but it is not a particularly
nurturing family dynamic.
In addition to those people who are connected to one another by direct blood lines, for
many individuals, a family is those people who are connected by marriage. This is a more
nurturing family dynamic because it includes more of the people who make up the individual’s
personal social structure. This model includes spouses, relations-in-law, step-relations, and the
marital relations of the individual’s blood relations, as well as those with whom the individual
shares a blood line. In many modern families, children are raised by a parent and a step-parent,
and the child may have another parent and step-parent at another location. Often, a child will have
step-siblings, as well, and will know his or her step-grandparents as well as he or she knows his or
her biological grandparents. By including marital relations as family members, the individual has
a broader, more diverse foundation on which to build his or her personal identity.
In some cases, a family is not only those people who are connected to one another by
blood line and/or by marital bonds, but also those who are connected by adoption or by fosterage.
This is a broader definition of family than either of the previous definitions. In this model, family
includes those people who nurture a child to adulthood, regardless of the child’s biological or
marital connection to the family group or lack thereof. A family that adopts a child becomes the
child’s “real” family, even though the child may remember his or her family of origin. Similarly,
a family that takes in a foster child, whether through a private contract with the child’s family of
origin or through a legal agreement with the state, may become the child’s “real” family. D.
Bellissimo (2006) writes that "the definition of family … include[s] brothers and sisters,
grandparents, grandchildren, parents-in-law, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts,
nephews and nieces, guardians, foster parents and wards" (para. 5). An adopted or foster family
may or may not retain a connection with the child’s family of origin, but the adoptive or foster
family becomes the child’s family. Sometimes, if there are still good feelings between the child
340 A Journey Through My College Papers
and his or her family of origin, the adoptive or foster family may expand to include the original
family as part of itself.
In addition to these definitions of family, family is also those individuals who choose to
be related to one another by mutual bonds of fraternal affection and understanding. Organizations
that foster this kind of family model include, but are not limited to, the Free and Accepted
Masons, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, and most college
fraternities and sororities. The members of these and similar organizations consider the members
within each organization to be brothers and sisters without regard for blood lines or marital ties.
Similarly, an individual may gather around himself or herself a group of friends who become the
individual’s family.
An individual’s definition of family may be very traditional, or it may be unique to that
individual. It may reflect any of the models described here, and it may take parts of different
models and blend them to form an entirely new model. In the modern world, the definition of
family has expanded to include same-sex couples, single-parent families, and families in which a
grandparent raises grandchildren in the absence of the grandchildren’s parents. In some cultures,
even within the United States, polygamous families still exist. Each of these family structures is a
valid definition of family for the individuals who call it a family. Each individual’s concept of
family is valid, even if it does not agree with the concept of family that is held by others in the
individual’s social structure. Every person has a family, and every person’s concept of what
constitutes a family is valid.
References
Bellissimo, D. (2006, October). Change to the E.I. definition of "family member" for
compassionate care benefits. Update, 34(2), 7. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Hirschberg, S. & Hirschberg, T. (2012) One World, Many Cultures (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Evaluation 1/5/2012
Recently, a friend asked me to recommend a good place for a family with children to
have lunch. There are many restaurants in our area, but immediately I suggested Leo’s Coney
Island, which is my family’s favorite place to eat. In explaining why I made this recommendation,
I considered “which qualities [of Leo’s] are essential and which are minor distractions” from the
experience of taking a family there to eat (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 331). I decided that the
essential qualities are the quality of the service from the wait staff, the quality of the food, the size
of the portions, and the prices of the menu items. The minor distractions are the noise level in the
restaurant and the cleanliness of the restrooms. I wanted my friend to understand that my family
really likes Leo’s, and that our experience of the essential qualities has been overwhelmingly
positive. I told her that the waitresses and the busboys are very friendly and polite, and that they
work hard to get the food to the tables as quickly as the kitchen can get the food ready. They are
ready with drink refills and are happy to take special requests about food preparation. I told her
that the food is always delicious, no matter which menu items we choose. The food is always
served at appropriate temperatures, with hot foods being hot and cold foods being cold. The
portions are generous, and we have never left there feeling unsatisfied with the amount of food we
have been served. I told my friend that it is not unusual for my family of four to spend near or less
than $30.00 for a full meal, which is very reasonable for our area. It comes out to about $1.00
more per person than a high-fat, high-sodium meal at a fast food chain, and we have large portions
Undergraduate Series 341
of fresh, nutritious food. I did warn her that Leo’s is a very busy place all day long, and that the
service is sometimes slow as a result, which is one of the few negatives we have ever experienced
there. The minor distractions are both negative for our family, since the restaurant is always loud
and the restrooms always have a slightly unclean feeling. I explained to her that the noise might
be a good thing, though, since no one was likely to notice if her children were a bit noisy; noisy
children can be a problem for a family in a restaurant that tends to be quiet. Over all, my
evaluation of Leo’s was positive, with only minor negative aspects. Since I was evaluating the
restaurant verbally, I was able to watch and listen for reactions from my friend to indicate times
when I needed to explain my points more clearly.
I don’t watch a lot of television, but I do enjoy Antiques Road Show on PBS. In each
episode, experts evaluate antiques and other personal and family treasures that guests bring to the
show. These evaluations are interesting to me because the experts examine and explain details
about the quality and provenance of the items in a way that reveals a lot of historical value and
artistic value in the pieces. Often, the guests share interesting stories about how the items came
into their possession, which adds to the interest of the evaluations. The experts provide specific
criteria for each evaluation to “give reasons to justify” their final evaluations of the objects
(Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 282). The experts do not just offer a personal opinion of a piece and a
assign a monetary value to the piece; they give solid reasons why the piece has a particular value,
showing both the positive and the negative aspects of the piece.
References
Axelrod, R.B., Cooper, C.R., & Warriner, A. M. (2011). Reading critically writing well (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Defining Family 1/5/2012
Every person has a family. Exactly which individuals in an individual’s life constitute
the individual’s family is a matter of interpretation. Stuart and Terry Hirschberg (2012) write that
“each family is different, with its own uniquely characteristic relationships and bonds” (p. 28). A
family may be defined as those people who are related to one another by direct blood line. The
definition may be expanded to include those people who are related by blood line and/or by
marriage. A family may also include those people who are related by adoption or by fosterage. In
some cultures, everyone in the local community is defined as a family, and many organizations
consider their members to constitute a family. A family, then, is that group of people who are
connected by ties of lineage, marriage, or fraternal affection, and who provide a social structure
for the individual.
A family is those people who are connected to one another by direct blood lines. This is
a very narrow definition of family. It includes the individual, his or her parents and grandparents,
his or her siblings, and his or her children and grandchildren. It might also include aunts and
uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews, but only if they are in the same line of blood descent. It
can be traced backward or forward in history as long as the relationships are always traced through
the blood line. This definition excludes step-parents and step-children, relations-in-law, families
by adoption, and families in which a child is raised by a foster parent. This definition of family is
useful for establishing lines of inheritance, but it is not a particularly nurturing family dynamic.
A family is those people who are connected to one another by direct blood lines, by
marriage, or both. This is a more nurturing family dynamic because it includes more of the people
who make up the individual’s personal social structure. This model includes spouses, relations-in-
342 A Journey Through My College Papers
law, step-relations, and the marital relations of the individual’s blood relations, as well as those
with whom the individual shares a blood line. In many modern families, children are raised by a
parent and a step-parent, and the child may have another parent and step-parent at another
location. Often, a child will have step-siblings, as well, and will know his or her step-
grandparents as well as he or she knows his or her biological grandparents. By including marital
relations as family members, the individual has a broader, more diverse foundation on which to
build his or her personal identity.
A family is those people who are connected to one another by blood line and/or by
marital bonds, as well as those who are connected by adoption or by fosterage. This is a broader
definition of family than either of the previous definitions. In this model, family includes those
people who nurture a child to adulthood, regardless of the child’s biological or marital connection
to the family group or lack thereof. A family that adopts a child becomes the child’s “real” family,
even though the child may remember his or her family of origin. Similarly, a family that takes in a
foster child, whether through a private contract with the child’s family of origin or through a legal
agreement with the state, may become the child’s “real” family. D. Bellissimo (2006) writes that
"the definition of family … include[s] brothers and sisters, grandparents, grandchildren, parents-
in-law, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces, guardians, foster
parents and wards" (para. 5). An adopted or foster family may or may not retain a connection with
the child’s family of origin, but the adoptive or foster family becomes the child’s family.
Sometimes, if there are still good feelings between the child and his or her family of origin, the
adoptive or foster family may expand to include the original family as part of itself.
A family is any and all of these models, and it is also those individuals who choose to be
related to one another by mutual bonds of fraternal affection and understanding. Organizations
that foster this kind of family model include, but are not limited to, the Free and Accepted
Masons, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, and most college
fraternities and sororities. The members of these and similar organizations consider the members
within each organization to be brothers and sisters without regard for blood lines or marital ties.
Similarly, an individual may gather around himself or herself a group of friends who become the
individual’s family.
An individual’s definition of family may be very traditional, or it may be unique to that
individual. It may reflect any of the models described here, and it may take parts of different
models and blend them to form an entirely new model. In the modern world, the definition of
family has expanded to include same-sex couples, single-parent families, and families in which a
grandparent raises grandchildren in the absence of the grandchildren’s parents. In some cultures,
even within the United States, polygamous families still exist. Each of these family structures is a
valid definition of family for the individuals who call it a family. Each individual’s concept of
family is valid, even if it does not agree with the concept of family that is held by others in the
individual’s social structure. Every person has a family, and every person’s concept of what
constitutes a family is valid.
References
Bellissimo, D. (2006, October). Change to the E.I. definition of "family member" for
compassionate care benefits. Update, 34(2), 7. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Hirschberg, S. & Hirschberg, T. (2012) One World, Many Cultures (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Undergraduate Series 343
Our School’s Behavior Code 1/5/2012
Our local elementary school has a behavior rule for the students that has made me
uncomfortable ever since my sons transferred to the school three years ago. Students are taught
that the only actual rule in the school is: “You are free to act in any way that does not create a
problem for you or anyone else in the world” (Santola, 2012, para. 1). The school serves students
in kindergarten through fifth grade, and these children are expected to figure out for themselves
what actions are or are not acceptable under this rule. While I agree with the idea of teaching
children to think for themselves, I disagree with expecting young children from a wide variety of
cultural and socio-economic backgrounds to make good, independent judgments about what sort
of behavior will not cause any problems for them or for anyone else in the world. The school’s
behavior rule is too vague, and the school needs to provide more specific behavior rules for the
students.
When my family moved to Michigan, my sons were 7 and 8 years old. Despite my best
efforts, they had been exposed to a lot of people making very questionable, damaging decisions all
of their lives, from the domestic violence and criminal activities of their father and his side of the
family to the emotionally damaged women and children among whom we lived at the domestic
violence shelter. Many of their classmates lived in dilapidated homes with boarded-up windows,
no running water, and no decent food aside from the breakfast and lunch provided at the school.
My sons had very few examples of behavior that did not create problems for people. As a result,
the first weeks and months of school involved many family discussions about appropriate
behavior. I made many calls to school to try to understand the problems that my sons were
experiencing; the secretary finally recognized my voice on the phone before I identified myself
when I called. The principal and my sons’ teachers maintained that my sons just needed to sit and
think about their behavior and about what they should do to improve their behavior. My husband
and I were not and are not happy with that response.
The school behavior rule has two parts. The first part involves a student not causing
problems for himself or herself. The second part involves the student not causing problems for
anyone in the world. Even taken separately, each of these parts is too broad for a young child to
reason out without adult guidance. To a young child, causing a problem for himself or herself can
mean causing other children to make fun of the child. It can mean causing the child to be
mistreated at home. It can mean making the child uncomfortable about a social paradigm that is
unfamiliar to the child. It can mean making a teacher think something is mentally or emotionally
wrong with the child when the child has a different world view from that of the teacher.
My younger son has ADHD, so he has trouble sitting still in class. In his previous
schools, a teacher would remind him to sit still, be quiet, and stay on task. In his new school, a
teacher would send him out of the classroom to think about his behavior; the teacher would not tell
him what he had done that he was supposed to be thinking about. By being restless in his seat, he
had caused a problem for the students who were working near him, but I had to call the school
several times before that was finally explained to me. Once I could tell my son what he was doing
wrong, we were able to work on strategies to help him change his behavior. His therapist
contacted the school to explain his situation. My elder son has Asperger’s Syndrome. He
responds to stress by becoming introverted, and by reverting to infantile speech patterns. His
teachers saw this as behavior that caused problems for the students around him because he did not
work well in groups, and because the teachers thought his speech patterns were an attempt to be
funny or to mock the teachers. Again, I had to call the school several times before anyone told me
what he was doing wrong. Again, the therapist had to call the school, and even had to visit the
344 A Journey Through My College Papers
school psychologist to explain the situation. Once we understood the problem, we were able to
work out strategies for him to help him deal with stress at school. In each case, the school rule
was too broad for the children to modify their behavior on their own. The teachers were not
providing guidance to help the boys alter their behavior, or even to help them understand why or
how their behavior was a problem.
Causing a problem for anyone else in the world is too broad a concept for a young child.
A child’s world is usually confined to the immediate family, a school, a place of worship, and a
few friends outside of school. During my sons’ first year at this school, they would often ask how
they could know whether their behavior caused problems for people in China or India. They were
unsure of themselves with this lack of clearly defined rules of behavior. At home, we had rules
about not taking things that did not belong to one. We had rules about not hitting or kicking
others, about not biting each other, and about not breaking other people’s belongings. We had
rules about not using certain words, and about remembering to use other words of courtesy. At
school, there were no such explicit rules, but students were expected to know that physical or
verbal violence causes problems, and that neglecting to use courtesy words such as “please” and
“thank you” also causes problems.
Chip Wood, Deborah Porter, Kathryn Brady, and Mary Forton (2011) write: “Children
are able, even eager, to rise to high standards of behavior, but they need to know exactly what
those standards are. Often we assume students already know what we expect of them, when they
may not. When you use the technique of explicit modeling, you make your expectations clear and
easier for students to meet” (para. 3). Children need to have explicit rules of behavior laid out by
the adult authority figures in their lives. The school’s vague rule of behavior does not inculcate
concepts of courtesy and responsibility for the students. The rule leaves children feeling lost, and
it hampers their ability to make clear value judgments as they grow up. The teachers may model
behaviors that they want the children to exhibit, but they do not explicitly model these behaviors
in ways the children will understand. Since the school cannot assume that the children experience
explicit modeling of appropriate behaviors in the home and in the community, the school needs to
make its specific expectations clear for the children.
The behavior rule at our local school does not clearly express the standards of behavior
that are expected of the students. The rules need to be set out explicitly so the students can
understand how the school requires them to behave.
References
Santola, J. (2012). Love and Logic. Retrieved from
http://www.clarkston.k12.mi.us/education/components/links/links.php?sectiondetail
id=20 982&PHPSESSID=667cc24f2f8698a506118a051fc5da7d
Wood, C., Porter, D., Brady, K., Forton, M. (2011). Everyday rules that really work!
Scholastic Instructor. Retrieved from
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/everyday-rules- really-work
Oral Argument 1/11/2012
The position argument with the most personal relevance for me recently was my
discussion with my mother and step-father about family. I addressed this topic in the discussion of
concepts, as well. I took the position that family can include not only blood relatives, but also
people who are related by marriage, by adoption or fosterage, or even by choice. My mother took
the position that family can only include blood relatives of a close degree of relationship. My
Undergraduate Series 345
step-father expressed that he agreed with my mother, but he seemed to waver between her position
and my position.
When I took my position I already knew a great deal about the concept and composition
of family. I had given it a great deal of thought, and I was familiar with examples of many types
of families. I had close relationships with my blood relatives, with my step-parents and my step-
siblings, with my relations-in-law, and with members of my father’s birth family and of his
adoptive family.
My original interest in arguing my position on this topic came from a confrontation with
my mother. She accused me of trying to hurt her because I included my step-siblings in my
biographical information in our wedding booklets. I felt the need to explain to my mother about
my position on what constitutes a family. “[I]t is wrong to manipulate [others] with false or
exaggerated emotional appeals” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 593). I also felt the need to defend
myself against my mother’s accusations, and against the various red herrings that she threw into
the conversation in an attempt to make me feel guilty enough to yield to her position, and to
“distract [me] from the real issue” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 592). The need to assert myself as an
independent adult and the need to validate my own beliefs and opinions in the face of my mother’s
role as an authority figure made me care very strongly about the subject, and about helping my
parents see my point of view as a valid position.
The audience for my argument was my mother and my step-father. I knew that the entire
conversation would be related to my younger sister, so she became part of the audience by
extension.
In taking my position, I hoped to make my parents recognize that I have a different
understanding about the concept of family than their understanding of the concept. I also hoped to
make my mother understand that she cannot control me through guilt and emotional blackmail,
and that it is okay for me to have views that differ from their views. I did not expect to change
their beliefs; I expected only to make them accept that I have my own beliefs, and that my parents
cannot dictate what I will believe.
“Assumptions … influence our opinions and judgments by leading us to value some
things and devalue others” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 352). While I went into the argument with
the assumption that my parents were already familiar with the many valid types of families, I
discovered that my preconception was flawed. I discovered that my parents devalue many family
types that I value, and that made it difficult to present my argument clearly and concisely. I had to
break down the various types of family relationships in a great deal of detail. I had to present
specific examples and make comparisons with relationships that I thought they would understand.
It was very difficult to remain calm during this process, and I did respond badly to my mother’s
emotional blackmail at first. We took a break for several hours, during most of which time I was
crying over the many attacks my mother had made. When we resumed the conversation, I was
better prepared to remain in control, and to explain my position calmly and rationally.
My step-father seemed to understand my position by the time we were done, and he
agreed that he would stay out of my decisions about whom to include in my family. My mother
finally seemed to realize that she had lost the power to twist the argument with red herrings and ad
hominem attacks, and she grudgingly acknowledged that she and I have very different ideas about
what constitutes a family member.
References
Axelrod, R.B., Cooper, C.R., & Warriner, A. M. (2011). Reading critically writing well (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
346 A Journey Through My College Papers
Evaluating a School’s Behavior Rule 1/16/2012
A local elementary school has a behavior rule for the students that makes many parents
uncomfortable. Students are taught that the only actual rule in the school is: “You are free to act
in anyway that does not create a problem for you or anyone else in the world” (Santola, 2012,
para. 1). The school serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and these children are
expected to figure out for themselves what actions are or are not acceptable under this rule.
Children need to be taught to think for themselves, but young children from a wide variety of
cultural and socio-economic backgrounds should not be expected to make good, independent
judgments about what sort of behavior will not cause any problems for them or for anyone else in
the world. The school’s behavior rule is too vague, and the school needs to provide more specific
behavior rules for the students.
When Robby and Tommy moved to Michigan, the brothers were 7 and 8 years old. Their
experiences at the local elementary school illustrate the problems with the school’s behavior rule.
Despite their mother’s best efforts, they had been exposed to a lot of people making very
questionable, damaging decisions all of their lives, from the domestic violence and criminal
activities of their father and his side of the family to the emotionally damaged women and children
among whom they had lived at a domestic violence shelter. Many of their classmates lived in
dilapidated homes with boarded-up windows, no running water, and no decent food aside from the
breakfast and lunch provided at the school. The brothers had very few examples of behavior that
did not create problems for people. As a result, the first weeks and months of school involved
many family discussions about appropriate behavior. Their mother made many calls to the school
to try to understand the problems that her sons were experiencing; the secretary finally recognized
her voice on the phone before she identified herself when she called. The principal and the boys’
teachers maintained that the brothers just needed to sit and think about their behavior and about
what they should do to improve their behavior. The boys’ mother and their step-father were not
and are not happy with that response.
The school behavior rule has two parts. The first part involves a student not causing
problems for himself or herself. The second part involves the student not causing problems for
anyone in the world. Even taken separately, each of these parts is too broad for a young child to
reason out without adult guidance. To a young child, causing a problem for himself or herself can
mean causing other children to make fun of the child. It can mean causing the child to be
mistreated at home. It can mean making the child uncomfortable about a social paradigm that is
unfamiliar to the child. It can mean making a teacher think something is mentally or emotionally
wrong with the child when the child has a different world view from that of the teacher.
Robby has ADHD, so he has trouble sitting still in class. In his previous schools, a
teacher would remind him to sit still, be quiet, and stay on task. In his new school, a teacher
would send him out of the classroom to think about his behavior; the teacher would not tell him
what he had done that he was supposed to be thinking about. By being restless in his seat, he had
caused a problem for the students who were working near him, but his mother had to call the
school several times before that was finally explained to Robby’s family. Once Robby’s parents
could tell him what he was doing wrong, they were able to work on strategies to help him change
his behavior. His therapist contacted the school to explain his situation.
Tommy has Asperger’s Syndrome. He responds to stress by becoming introverted, and
by reverting to infantile speech patterns. His teachers saw this as behavior that caused problems
for the students around him because he did not work well in groups, and because the teachers
thought his speech patterns were an attempt to be funny or to mock the teachers. Again, Tommy’s
Undergraduate Series 347
mother had to call the school several times before anyone told the family what he was doing
wrong. Again, the therapist had to call the school, and even had to visit the school psychologist to
explain the situation. Once Tommy’s family understood the problem, they were able to work out
strategies for him to help him deal with stress at school. In each case, the school rule was too
broad for the children to modify their behavior on their own. The teachers were not providing
guidance to help the boys alter their behavior, or even to help them understand why or how their
behavior was a problem.
Causing a problem for anyone else in the world is too broad a concept for a young child.
A child’s world is usually confined to the immediate family, a school, a place of worship, and a
few friends outside of school. During the brothers’ first year at this school, they would often ask
their parents how they could know whether their behavior caused problems for people in China or
India. They were unsure of themselves with this lack of clearly defined rules of behavior. At
home, the family had rules about not taking things that did not belong to one. They had rules
about not hitting or kicking others, about not biting each other, and about not breaking other
people’s belongings. They had rules about not using certain words, and about remembering to use
other words of courtesy. At school, there were no such explicit rules, but students were expected
to know that physical or verbal violence causes problems, and that neglecting to use courtesy
words such as “please” and “thank you” also causes problems.
Chip Wood, Deborah Porter, Kathryn Brady, and Mary Forton (2011) write: “Children
are able, even eager, to rise to high standards of behavior, but they need to know exactly what
those standards are. Often we assume students already know what we expect of them, when they
may not. When you use the technique of explicit modeling, you make your expectations clear and
easier for students to meet” (para. 3). Children need to have explicit rules of behavior laid out by
the adult authority figures in their lives. The school’s vague rule of behavior does not inculcate
concepts of courtesy and responsibility for the students. The rule leaves children feeling lost, and
it hampers their ability to make clear value judgments as they grow up. The teachers may model
behaviors that they want the children to exhibit, but they do not explicitly model these behaviors
in ways the children will understand. Since the school cannot assume that the children experience
explicit modeling of appropriate behaviors in the home and in the community, the school needs to
make its specific expectations clear for the children.
The behavior rule at this school does not clearly express the standards of behavior that
are expected of the students. Students are expected to understand appropriate social behaviors
without adult guidance. The rules need to be set out explicitly so the students can understand how
the school requires them to behave. The children need to have clear, explicit directions for how
they are expected to behave as children, and as they grow up and enter the real world.
References
Santola, J. (2012). Love and Logic. Retrieved from
http://www.clarkston.k12.mi.us/education/components/links/links.php?sectiondetail
id=20 982&PHPSESSID=667cc24f2f8698a506118a051fc5da7d
Wood, C., Porter, D., Brady, K., Forton, M. (2011). Everyday rules that really work!
Scholastic Instructor. Retrieved from
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/everyday-rules- really-work
348 A Journey Through My College Papers
Taking a Position Online 1/19/2012
I chose Why SOPA and PIPA Won’t Stop Real Piracy by Christina Warren
(http://mashable.com/2012/01/18/sopa-and-pipa-wont-stop-piracy/). Warren (2012) presents the
issue in which she is taking a position: “Supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA …
argue that legislation is needed because online piracy puts jobs and industries at risk” (para. 1).
She expands on the details of the issue as she presents the points of her position.
Warren (2012) presents her thesis in her second paragraph: “the language and
implications of SOPA has the potential to hurt the very industries and content creators the bills
purport to protect” (para. 2). Clearly, she opposes SOPA, and her position is that the proposed
bill will do harm if it becomes a law.
Warren does establish credibility in her writing. “Readers often are more willing to trust
a writer who expresses concerns that they also have about an issue” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p.
357). Warren expresses her concerns about the issue by explaining how media pirates will not be
affected by SOPA because of their ability to get around the proposed law, and how “[a]rtists and
content creators” (Warren, 2012, para. 2) will not be protected by anti-piracy legislation. Warren
also admits that she has used pirated media over the last decade, and explains how easy it is to
obtain pirated material.
Warren counters the opposing view that SOPA will protect creators, producers, and
distributors of entertainment media by explaining how the law will not apply in other countries.
“In parts of Asia, such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it’s a chore to find content for sale that
is not pirated” (Warren, 2012, para. 5). She also explains how an Internet site sold pirated music
“under a Russian copyright loophole” (Warren, 2012, para. 8). By explaining how the opposing
argument is inaccurate, she effectively counters the opposing view.
The online environment is full of position papers in the form of formal articles,
professional and amateur web sites, and informal blog posts. Positions are taken in status updates
on social networking sites, which is how I became aware of Warren’s article. Some positions that
are published online are credible, offering clear positions, background information, and references,
and acknowledging the opposing view. Other positions are less credible, sometimes straying into
the totally fantastic in their claims and supposed proofs. Because most people in North America,
Europe, Asia, and Australia, and many people in South America and Africa, have access to the
Internet, a position that is published online will reach a great many people. A person who could
not have presented a position to a large audience not so many years ago can now present a position
to an international audience with a few keystrokes or clicks of a mouse. For this reason, it is
important to be critical when reading a position and to take account of the author, the sources, and
the issue that are involved. It is also important to note the site that publishes a position, and to
avoid buying into satirical positions, such as those published by TheOnion.com. The Internet is a
great place to read positions and to find out about issues, but readers must be very careful when
choosing to accept or reject any given position.
References
Axelrod, R.B., Cooper, C.R., & Warriner, A. M. (2011). Reading critically writing well (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Warren, C. (2012). Why SOPA and PIPA won’t stop real piracy. Retrieved from
http://mashable.com/2012/01/18/sopa-and-pipa-wont-stop-piracy/
Undergraduate Series 349
Position Papers 1/19/2012
As a reader and writer of position papers, I believe it is very important to give clear
reasons for one’s position, and to present credible supporting evidence for one’s position. “To be
convincing, a position paper must argue for its position by giving readers strong reasons and solid
support” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 345). If a position is stated without clear reasons, then there is
nothing to cause readers to accept the writer’s position. Similarly, if a position is given with
reasons, but there is no evidence to support the reasons, then the reader has no cause to accept the
position. Also, if reasons and evidence are given, the reasons need to be demonstrable, and the
evidence needs to be reliable. Reasons that are stated but that cannot be demonstrated are not
credible. Evidence that comes from unreliable sources, or that doesn’t actually apply to the issue,
is not credible, and is not valid support for a position.
When people argue positions on television, on the radio, and online, they often offer
emotional appeals that sound like reasons and evidence on the surface, but that may have no real
substance. People who present positions in this way are not trying to convince readers, listeners,
and viewers through reason and logic, but by influencing the audience’s emotional responses to
desires for wealth, beauty, popularity, etc., or to the audience’s emotional responses to social and
political injustice, suffering, animals and small children, patriotism, etc..
The purpose of people who present positions in the media that appeal to emotional
responses is different from the purpose of people who write position papers for academia. An
academic position paper appeals to logic and critical thinking to influence its audience and it
“depends on giving reasons rather than raising voices” (Axelrod, et. al., 2011, p. 345). A student
or a credible media writer presents supportable facts and verifiable sources. The purpose is to
present facts, not to present emotional appeals.
Position papers contribute to society by offering critical thinking and reasoned
arguments. They encourage the audience to learn more about the issue that is presented, and to
take a stance on the issue based on facts and evidence. Position papers promote logical thinking,
instead of offering society ready-made opinions that can be adopted without recourse to serious
thought. In a society that is being lulled into an inability to make critical judgments, position
papers force readers to make critical judgments of the issues that are presented.
References
Axelrod, R.B., Cooper, C.R., & Warriner, A. M. (2011). Reading critically writing well (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
American Students Are Crippled By Cultural Diversity Education 1/23/2012
Bibi Aisha is a teenage girl from Afghanistan. She ran away from the abusive Taliban
fighter whom she had been forced to marry. As punishment for running away, Bibi Aisha’s
family cut off her nose and ears and left her to die. She was saved by an American hospital, but
she is permanently disfigured by the open holes where her nose and ears used to be (O’Leary,
2011, para. 6). When Stephen L. Anderson asked his senior philosophy class to discuss what
happened to Bibi Aisha, “They seemed not to know what to think. They spoke timorously, afraid
to make any moral judgment at all. They were unwilling to criticize any situation originating in a
different culture” (O’Leary, 2011, para. 9). Anderson’s students were confused about whether or
nor Bibi Aisha’s treatment was wrong because they were taught in school that all cultures are
350 A Journey Through My College Papers
equally valid, and that what is horrible and wrong in one culture may be right and proper in
another culture. The students were unable to take a moral stand because they had not been taught
to make critical judgments about moral issues. Bibi Aisha’s story and the reactions of Anderson’s
students are just one example of how American students’ ability to take a firm stand in regard to
the virtue or the vice of an ethical issue is eliminated by the teaching in American public schools
that all cultures are equally valid and that what is a vice in one culture can be a virtue in another
culture.
Although all humans are equally valuable, not all cultures are equally valid in terms of
ethical behavior. Bibi Aisha is part of the culture of Afghanistan, where “women are regarded as
chattels, exchanged as compensation for a crime or to settle a debt” (Sengupta, 2006, para. 14).
Although American students are taught to support human rights, women in Afghanistan are
afforded no such rights. They are treated as objects that are used, abused, or discarded at the
whim of Afghan men. In Afghanistan, Bibi Aisha’s treatment at the hands of her family is
considered to be right and proper. She was punished for running away from an arranged marriage.
According to “Womankind Worldwide, 60 to 80 per cent of all marriages in Afghanistan are
forced” (Sengupta, 2006, para. 14). Women are not allowed to go against the decisions of the men
in their families. There is a vast difference between Afghan culture and American culture in
regard to the treatment of women. In America, women are free to choose their own husbands, or
to choose not to marry. American women can walk away from marriages and relationships
without fear. Women are protected by law from physical and mental abuse by men.
What are right and wrong? American students are losing the ability to answer this
question. If all cultures are equally valid, and if what is wrong in one culture is right in another,
then the students’ confusion is understandable. Virtue is defined as “the quality or practice of
moral excellence or righteousness” (Virtue, n.d., para. 1). Vice is defined as “an immoral, wicked,
or evil habit, action, or trait” (Vice, n.d., para. 1). Virtue is what is right, and vice is what is
wrong. Both Islamic tradition and Catholic tradition provide clear answers, as well. “The moral
virtues, therefore, are: wisdom, courage, chastity, and justice. The opposite qualities of these are:
ignorance, cowardice, concupiscence (gluttony and lust), injustice and tyranny” (Sa’dat, n.d., para.
3). That is the Islamic tradition. The Catholic tradition identifies four cardinal virtues: “prudence,
justice, fortitude, and temperance“ (Richert (Cardinal Virtues), 2012, para.1). It also identifies
seven deadly sins: “pride, covetousness (also known as avarice or greed), lust, anger, gluttony,
envy, and sloth” (Richert (Deadly Sins), 2012, para. 3). Under these definitions, the treatment
received by Bibi Aisha was wrong. It was pride, cowardice, injustice, anger, and tyranny.
American schools no longer teach students clear-cut definitions of virtue and vice. “The new view
is that courage and cowardice have no intrinsic reality. Neither does the classical virtue of justice
or the vice of injustice” (O’Leary, 2011, para. 15). Schools teach students to think in terms of
gray areas, where there is no definitive right or wrong. In doing so, American schools fail to
prepare students to make clear, critical moral judgments in the real world.
An awareness of cultural diversity is important in American schools. Students need to be
able to accept cultural differences among classmates. Students need to understand that different
traditions of dress, speech, and behavior are equally valid in the school setting, and they need to
learn that different cultural foods and holidays are equally valid. This is necessary to create a safe
learning environment for students from many diverse cultures. Students need to be prepared to
experience cultural differences in global society when they are adults. The same cultural
differences that students encounter in schools are also present in the outside world, and adults need
to be able to interact with each other without giving offense to others who have different cultural
backgrounds. Despite this need to understand diverse cultures, students also need to understand
that cultural differences do not excuse culturally-based violence, oppression, and other vices.
“One outcome has been the popular convention that all cultures are of equal value” (O’Leary,
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2011, para. 16). Students are taught that all cultures are equally valid without qualification, even
though what is considered to be absolutely wrong in one culture may be considered to be right and
proper in another culture. American students need to be able to distinguish between right and
wrong. In order to do this, students need to understand that there is a right and a wrong in many
situations, and that being accepted by a particular culture does not automatically render a
particular behavior a right behavior. Just as American schools need to teach students about the
importance of understanding culturally diversity in modern society, so do the schools also need to
teach students to make informed, critical, moral judgments about the diverse cultures among
which they live.
Just as Anderson’s students were unable to judge whether or not Bibi Aisha’s family was
wrong when it chopped off her ears and her nose, American students are losing the ability to make
moral judgments about many crimes against human rights in the world. American students are no
longer taught that there is right and wrong, only that there are shades of gray in regard to moral
behavior. They are taught that “the overriding message is ‘never judge, never criticize, never take
a position.’” (O’Leary, 2011, para. 13). Teaching students not to criticize, judge, or take a
position on moral issues prevents students learning to use critical thinking skills. This position is
called cultural relativism. “[C]ultural relativism … is incoherent and self-contradictory, … erects
barriers to communication and understanding between people coming from diverse cultures; and
… implies moral relativism, negating any basis for universally-valid ethical concerns” (Davidson,
2007, para. 2). Such extreme and contradictory cultural diversity education hampers a student’s
ability to make a logical argument for or against any moral position. Instead of preparing students
for life in a global society, it makes students unable to properly understand cultural diversity in the
outside world.
“All Member States of the United Nations have a legal obligation to promote and protect
human rights, regardless of particular cultural perspectives” (Ayton-Shenker, 2005, para. 18).
While American schools are teaching students to accept all cultural perspectives on morality, the
United Nations is committed to promoting moral behavior through the protection of human rights
despite diverse cultural perspectives. As American students learn to view all cultures as equally
valid, they become less able to function in the real, adult world outside of the classroom.
“Textbooks and school activities that promote destructive forms of multiculturalism are
proliferating in U.S. public schools” (Holland & Soifer, 2010, para. 1). It is good to teach students
to get along with people from diverse cultures, but it is a danger to society when students are
taught to ignore all cultural differences among the people with whom they associate. Textbooks
and school activities that promote this stripping of cultural differences deny students a basis for
understanding cultural differences and for making ethical decisions as adults.
It is good to teach students to get along with people from diverse cultures, but it is a
danger to society when students are taught to ignore all cultural differences among the people with
whom they associate. Textbooks and school activities that promote this stripping of cultural
differences deny students a basis for understanding cultural differences and for making ethical
decisions as adults.
Students are numbed to the concepts of right and wrong and of winners and losers by the
prevalent “everyone wins” concept in American public schools. This concept is part of the
cultural diversity education in the schools, and it is designed to boost the self-esteem of every
student by never allowing any student to lose, fail, or be markedly different from other students.
While raising a student’s self-esteem is a positive goal, eliminating differences among students
from diverse backgrounds is a disservice to all students. Individualism and uniqueness are
important to building a strong self-image, and that requires acknowledging cultural differences as
well as successes and failures. American schools teach students to blend into the whole when the
schools promote an “everyone wins” mentality and intentionally blur the lines among the diverse
352 A Journey Through My College Papers
cultures represented by their students. “The movement, which is most prominent in academia, is
referred to as multiculturalism. Its stated aim is to equalize all cultures in the estimation of the
student” (Chojnowski, 2011, paras. 3-4). When all cultures are equalized in a student’s mind, the
student becomes unable to process the differences between cultures. When this happens, the
richness of an individual’s heritage becomes lost. In addition, any judgment about the relative
merits of the beliefs and behaviors of different cultures is lost as all cultures are seen to be equal.
“Conventional common sense morality is learnt by children in a manner similar to how
they learn their mother tongue” (Tännsjö, 2007, p. 127). Children internalize the morality and
ethics of the adults among whom they grow up. A child who learns English, for example, in an
environment of regional dialects and slang, will not learn proper English. Similarly, if the child
grows up surrounded by questionable moral choices, the child’s basic morality and understanding
of ethics will be skewed from universal norms of behavior. Bibi Aisha grew up in a culture in
which women are treated as property. Although the Afghan government prohibits domestic
violence, it is common practice in Afghanistan for women and girls to be brutally beaten, maimed,
and even killed. Bibi Aisha’s family did not think it was doing wrong when it “hacked off her
nose and ears, and left her for dead in the mountains” (O’Leary, 2011, para. 6). The members of
her family believed that she was the one who did wrong by fleeing an abusive marriage. They
believed that it was right and appropriate from them to punish her for her disobedience and to
leave her to die. They believed these things because they grew up surrounded by a cultural
morality that supports those ideas. In America, women are equal to men. Domestic violence by
anyone against anyone, regardless of age or gender, is not accepted in American society.
Americans believe that a person who is being abused has a right to be safe from abuse, and
abusers are punished for their crimes. Americans believe these things because they grow up
surrounded by a cultural morality that is still based in large part on the cardinal virtues and the
deadly sins.
As a result of students being taught that all cultures are equally valid, students are unable
to use critical thinking skills to evaluate whether a given action or behavior is right or wrong.
“The students could not go from their vague discomfort to a rational ethical conclusion because
they have never learned traditional philosophy of ethics” (O’Leary, 2011, para. 20). The students
were unable to make critical judgments about the story of Bibi Aisha because they were taught to
excuse any cultural behaviors on the basis of all cultures being equally valid in terms of morality.
Students are afraid to single out a behavior associated with a particular culture because doing so
might offend members of that culture. Worse, in the opinion of students in whom cultural
relativism has been inculcated, judging a particular cultural belief or behavior might elevate or
lower the moral status of a particular culture. A student finds it difficult to say “It is wrong to
permanently disfigure a teenage girl for running away from an abusive marriage,” because saying
such implies that the culture that supported the abuse is wrong. If American schools taught
students to judge behaviors by the virtues and vices of Islamic tradition or by the virtues and sins
of Christian tradition, as was the custom in America until just a few decades ago, then students
could easily say that the action of abusing a 16-year-old girl is wrong, without pronouncing
judgment on the girl’s native culture. Instead, American schools now teach that what is wrong in
one culture may be right in another culture, and that judging a particular belief of a culture is
tantamount to judging the entire culture.
Modern belief holds that teaching cultural diversity to students in American public
schools prepares the students to embrace cultural diversity in the adult world and makes them
better citizens of a global society. It does not limit the students’ critical thinking ability. Torbjörn
Tännsjö writes that “there is a kind of moral relativism we could call ontological, according to
which, when two persons pass conflicting moral verdicts on a certain action, they may both be
right. The explanation is that they make their judgments from the perspective of different, socially
Undergraduate Series 353
constructed, moral universes” (Tännsjö, 2007, p. 123). This is the moral and cultural relativism
that is taught in American schools. The belief that differing cultural backgrounds can make a
given action both right and wrong at the same time is the belief that is confusing and crippling
American students. If nothing is definitively right or definitively wrong, then students lack any
support for judging the moral quality of any action. They are able to accept oppression, domestic
violence, sexual deviance, theft, marital infidelity, lies, and even acts of war based on these actions
being accepted in one or more other cultures. They are unable to take a clear stance against
violence, against the abuse of women, against the degradation of minority groups, or against any
other action that would have been deemed morally intolerable by their parents’ and grandparents’
generations. The students’ ability to form judgments based on critical thinking are retarded or
even petrified by the ontological moral relativism that they learn in their schools.
The teaching in American public schools that all cultures are equally valid and that what
is a vice in one culture can be a virtue in another culture cripples American students’ ability to
take a firm stand on in regard to the virtue or the vice of an ethical issue. Classical morality in
multiple cultures clearly defines those behaviors that are universally right and those behaviors that
are universally wrong, but American students are not taught these universal morals. Instead, they
are taught cultural and moral relativism, which renders all cultures equally valid, and which
renders all behaviors morally equal based on cultural differences. In order to be strong, successful
members of the modern, global society when they become adults, students must be equipped to
employ critical thinking in forming moral judgments. Students must not be hampered by the fear
that making a moral judgment is morally wrong in itself. Students must be able to see heroism
and to praise it as a virtue. They must be able to see cruelty and violations and basic human rights
and to denounce them as vices. They must be able to make these judgments so that they will be
able to act on their moral judgments to protect the helpless, to preserve the environment, and to
promote peaceful understanding among members of the diverse cultures that populate the planet.
American schools prevent students making these judgments, and American schools need to change
in such a way that students are fully enabled to be unique, strong, moral citizens of the future.
References
Ayton-Shenker, D. (1995, March). The challenge of human rights and cultural diversity.
Retrieved from http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1627e.htm
Chojnowski, P. (2011). Multiculturalism: "Diversity" for the Culturally Clueless. Retrieved
from http://www.sspx.org/against_sound_bites/multiculturalism.htm
Davidson, B. W. (2007). The pitfalls of cultural relativism. Retrieved from
http://cicministry.org/scholarly/sch006.htm
Holland, R. & Soifer, D. (2010, September 16). Radical multiculturalism a growing problem in
public schools. The Daily Caller [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/16/radical-multiculturalism-a-growing-problem-in-
public-schools/
O’Leary, D. (2011, December 3). Is it still wrong if another culture says it is right? A
teacher’s surprising discovery. Education Forum [Electronic version.], 27-29.
Retrieved from http://www.thebestschools.org/bestschoolsblog/2011/12/03/wrong-
culture-right-teacher%E2%80%99s-surprising-discovery/
Richert, S. P. (2012). The cardinal virtues: The four hinges of the moral life. Retrieved from
http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/tp/Cardinal_Virtues.htm
Richert, S. P. (2012). What are the seven deadly sins? Retrieved from
http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/f/FAQ_Deadly_Sins.htm
Sa'dat, S. (Translator). (n.d.). Moral virtues and vices. Jami' al-Sa'adat [Electronic version].
Retrieved from http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/felicities/3.htm
354 A Journey Through My College Papers
Sengupta, K. (2006, November 24). Abuse of Afghan women: 'It was my decision to die. I
was getting beaten every day'. The Independent [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/abuse-of-afghan-women-it-was-my-
decision-to-die-i-was-getting-beaten-every-day-425580.html
Tännsjö, T. (2007). Moral relativism. Philosophical Studies, 135(2), 123-143. Retrieved
from ProQuest Research Library.
Vice. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary (Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition). Retrieved
from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vice
Virtue. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary (Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition).
Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/virtue
Spring Semester, 2012
ENG 321: Introductory Linguistics
Animal Communication versus Human Speech 1/26/2012
Animal communication is not the same as human speech. Animals use sounds to
communicate, but they lack a grammar to organize their communication in the way human
language is organized. Animals use set systems of sounds and movements to convey specific
messages to others of their species, but animals are unable to creatively rearrange their
communications to produce an infinite number of different messages.
Honeybees use a limited set of dance-like movements to convey to other honeybees "the
location and quality of the food source" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 24). Although the honeybee
can convey a large number of very specific messages about a food source, it is unable to
communicate on an unlimited number of subjects. The inability to created infinite numbers of
messages about many subjects differentiates honeybee communication from human language in
the area of creativity in grammar. Humans do have the ability to create an infinite number of
unique sentences to express an infinite number of messages by arranging a finite number of words
in different combinations. Also, human language is not controlled by stimuli, as are the
communications of honeybees about food sources.
Certain parrots and mynahs acquire relatively large vocabularies of human words through
sound mimicry. The use of human speech, however, does not equate to human language, since the
birds are unable to arrange the words into coherent sentences to express ideas. The birds lack the
ability to use syntax with the words that they have learned to mimic. They also lack human
language morphology, as a parrot may say several verbs, but it is unable to add appropriate
morphemes to the verbs to express tense. Similarly, it is unable to convert a noun in its
vocabulary to express the plural. "[When animals vocally imitate human utterances, it does not
mean they possess language" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 23). Parrots and mynahs mimic human
speech, but they are unable to use human language to communicate. The sound system of human
words is not sufficient to be language without grammar to organize the sounds into an infinite
number of sentences that express meanings.
Studies with chimpanzees and bonobos show that these primates are able to "understand a
number of individual words" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 26).Some chimps are able to achieve a
limited use of human language, but they do not achieve the language abilities even of a three-year-
old human. The animals were unable to understand and use sentence structure. A normal human
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child understands word order in sentences by about age three, and "by the ages of three and four,
without explicit teaching or overt reinforcement, create new and complex sentences never spoken
and never heard before" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 27). This facility has not been demonstrated in
other primates, and "the natural communication systems of these animals are quite limited"
(Fromkin, et. al., 2011., p. 26).
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
The Lateralization of Language in the Brain 1/26/2012
Split brain experiments provide evidence of the lateralization of language in the human
brain. "In humans who have undergone split-brain operations, the two hemispheres appear to be
independent, and messages sent to the brain result in different responses, depending on which side
receives the message" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 56). When the corpus callosum is severed, the
two sides of the brain are unable to communicate with each other. Thus, when linguistic stimuli
are seen or hear by the right brain (being seen or heard on the left side of the body), the stimuli
cannot be named. However, when the same stimuli are introduced to the left side of the brain (by
the right eye or right ear), the stimuli can be named and described.
The plasticity of the brain relates to the lateralization of language in the brain. If a child's
left hemisphere is damaged after the child has begun to acquire language, or if the child undergoes
a hemispherectomy of the left hemisphere, then the right side of the brain takes over and the child
can "reacquire a linguistic system that is virtually indistinguishable from that of normal children"
(Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 54). This ability of the right hemisphere to take over language functions
demonstrates the plasticity of the brain. The later in a person's life that severe injury, brain
splitting, or a hemispherectomy occurs, however, the less able the right hemisphere is to
compensate for language lateralization. Brain plasticity decreases with age. An adult or older
child who undergoes a left hemisphere hemispherectomy will experience a "severe loss of
language function" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 54). In these cases, plasticity is not evident and the
right brain will not be able to take over the language functions.
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
Morphology and Creativity 2/2/2012
In our home, we have created the word "sushify." It is a verb, having the base "sushi" (a
Japanese dish consisting of cold, cooked rice and sweetened rice vinegar, usually in combination
with fish or other seafood) and the suffix "ify" (a verb suffix used to indicate that the subject is
turned into the base noun). We sushify many foods, such as fried chicken, roast beef, various
vegetables, and even fruits by using them in combination with vinegar-seasoned rice to form rolls
(contained in roasted seaweed). Similarly, sushification is a noun that refers to the process of
turning a non-sushi-related food into sushi. An ingredient that has already been turned into sushi
has been sushified, with the "-ed" suffix signifying past tense. An ingredient cannot be
356 A Journey Through My College Papers
desushified once it has been sushified, so the prefix "de-" is blocked from use with this stem, but
an ingredient can be unsushified when the prefix "un-" indicated that the ingredient has not been
used in sushi. The person who prepares the sushi (usually me) sushifies the chosen ingredients by
adding them to the seasoned rice, with the suffix "-es" indicating the present tense. That person is
the sushifier, or the one who makes the ingredient into sushi, and is sushifying the ingredients
when adding them to sushi. Some ingredients are sushifiable, and can be made into sushi, but my
children have decreed that peanut butter and jelly, which a friend recommended as sushi
ingredients that would be good for children, are definitely unsushifiable, and cannot be used as
sushi ingredients. Sushifiability and unsushifiablity are matters of individual taste, and what one
person may consider a sushifiable ingredient may be considered unsushifiable by another person.
Morphology allows creativity in language because the addition of various affixes to a
base creates an array of words with various meanings. Nearly any verb may be turned into a noun
or an adjective, nearly any noun can be turned into an adjective or a verb, and nearly any adjective
can be turned into a noun or a verb, all by means of morphology. New words enter a language by
means of morphology, as discrete morphemes are combined to represent new or changing objects,
actions, and ideas.
Semantic and Pragmatic Meanings in a Cultural Context 2/2/2012
Semantically, the phrase, "That's a sick ring tone" doesn't make a lot of sense. The
adjective "sick" modifies the noun "ring tone," suggesting that the sound is in ill health. In a
cultural context, however, the adjective "sick" has come to mean "good," or even, "awesome."
Thus, pragmatically, in certain modern cultural settings, "That's a sick ring tone" is a compliment
to the owner of the cellular phone that has that particular ring tone.
Another example of a phrase that illustrates a semantic versus pragmatic meaning
distinction is "That party was so gay!" Semantically, the phrase suggests that the party was
lightheartedly happy. An intermediate meaning might be that the party was characterized by
homosexuality, as "gay" has come to mean "homosexual." A pragmatic understanding of the
phrase in a modern context is that the party was bad, specifically that it was stupid or pointless.
"Gay" has come to be used in a negative context that has no connection to happiness or to
homosexuality. Thus, in a cultural context, "That part was so gay" means "That party was so
stupid and pointless."
I learned this bit of cultural knowledge from my sons' friends in upper elementary school
and middle school. The children use both "sick" and "gay" as they appear in the above examples.
Another, which I had to have the kids spell for me, is "That dress looks phat!" I heard, "That dress
looks fat," and I was offended, but several preteen girls explained that "phat" means "good, in a
stylish way." Culture creates the distinction between semantic meanings and pragmatic meanings
through common usage of words and phrases. Language evolves over time, and word meanings
are sometimes changed or replaced as that evolution occurs. Each generation creates its own
slang, and some words and phrases from that slang creep into the common vernacular for future
generations. Sometimes, slang creation has to do with rebelling against authority or the
establishment. Sometimes, it is more a matter of technical jargon associated with emerging
technologies. Sometimes, it is a cultural group seeking to identify itself. All of these factors
contribute to distinctions between the semantic meanings of particular phrases and the pragmatic
meanings of the same phrases.
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The Prosodic Qualities of Language 2/9/2012
Merriam-Webster defines prosody as "the study of versification; especially : the
systematic study of metrical structure" (Prosody, 2012, para. 1). Prosody deals with how "the
placement of stress on particular syllables" affects the meanings of words (Fromkin, et. al., 2011,
p. 252). The concept of prosody comes from the structure of poetry, and deals with the rhythmic
quality of poetic verse and how the stressing of particular syllables in verse affects the meaning of
the verse.
The prosodic features are length, pitch, and stress. How long or short a particular
consonant or vowel sound may be can change the lexical meaning of words in certain languages.
It can also change the pragmatic meaning of a word without changing its lexical meaning. "What
a mess!" Can be a simple expression that a room is a mess if the sounds are not lengthened, but
"Wha-a-a-at a mess!" emphasizes the quality of the mess, suggesting that it is a large or significant
mess, and "What a me-e-e-ess! emphasizes the fact that there is a mess.
The pitch assigned to a word or to a syllable within a word can alter the lexical and
grammatical meanings of words in tonal languages. It is how high or low a sound is, and how the
sound moves from high to low or from low to high. English is an intonation language, in which
the pitch of a word may change the contextual meaning of a word or of a sentence, but the lexical
meaning remains the same.
The stress placed on particular syllables of words changes the lexical meanings of certain
words in English. Stressed syllables are "louder, slightly higher in hitch, and somewhat longer in
duration than other syllables in the word" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 252). A person may desert his
or her post, with the stress on the second syllable of "desert," or a person may long for water in a
desert, with the stress on the first syllable of "desert." The spelling is identical for the two words,
and the meaning is determined by the stress in the word.
Prosodic features of words occur in vocal speech, but not in ordinary, written language.
They must be heard in order to be understood unless special characters, such as those of the
international phonetic alphabet, or stress markers over particular vowels, are used to indicate
prosodic features in written language. The lack of prosodic features can make a letter or email
more ambiguous than a telephone call or a face-to-face communication. The meaning of a word
that is heard may be understood out of context, as in "desért" or "désert," but the word "desert"
requires context to be understood when written in its common form.
Prosodic features of a language are recognized by speakers of the language, but a non-
native speaker of a given language is likely to have an accent when speaking the language if the
prosody of his or her native language uses sound lengths, pitch, and stress differently than does the
non-native language.
In the case of individuals who use computers to translate text to speech, prosodic features
are usually lost because the computer generates uninflected speech. Our family watches a lot of
science documentaries, and we often hear the computer-generated voice of Stephen Hawking. His
speech does not have normal prosody because it uses a computer, instead of the relationships
among the tongue, the palate, the teeth, and other parts of the vocal tract, to produce speech
sounds.
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
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Prosody. (2012). Merriam-Webster [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prosody
Phonetics and the International Phonetic Alphabet 2/9/2012
The tongue, the vocal cords, and the lips are all involved in producing the sounds of
human speech. The position of the tongue in relation to the palate, to the velum, to the teeth, and
to other parts of the vocal tract affect the articulation of sounds. The tongue may be high, low, or
neutral in the mouth. It may touch or extend between the teeth it produce particular sounds. It
may block or direct the movement of air. The tongue is involved in producing interdentals and
dentals, palatals, alveolars, velars, and uvulars.
The vocal cords control the movement of air through the glottis by relaxing to open the
glottis or by constricting to close it. The vocal cords may allow air to move freely, or they may
produce a different sound by vibrating. The vocal cords are involved in producing glottals, and in
providing or restricting air flow for other sounds.
The lips may form a rounded shape or they may be spread out in a line or a smile-like
form. They may touch the teeth, the tongue, or each other to produce different sounds. All of the
parts of the vocal tract work together, moving constantly during speech, to produce the wide range
of sounds that belong to human speech. The lips are involved in producing bilabials and
labiodentals.
"Stops are consonants in which the airstream is completely blocked in the oral cavity for
a short period" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 241). Fricatives do not involve the complete blocking of
airflow, but "the airflow is so severely obstructed that it causes friction" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p.
242). The difference between stops and fricatives is the amount of airflow associated with the
sound. The airflow may be blocked or obstructed by any of several parts of the vocal tract, and
each type of stop or fricative has its own name, but the airflow is the key. Both stops and
fricatives are consonants.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is important because it assigns a unique
symbol or notation to each and every distinct consonant and vowel sound in human speech. It
may be used to phonetically represent any human language, including those that seem exotic to
English speakers because of the inclusion of clicks and trills that do not exist in English. The IPA
distinguishes between the soft th sound in "this" and the hard th sound in "then." It distinguishes
among the many sounds that are represented by the English letters a, e, i, o, and u. The IPA
provides a universal alphabet that applies to all languages, so a student of languages does not have
to juggle the many different alphabets that are used in diverse languages.
Our text presents several quotes from Pygmalion, but I find myself flashing on scenes
from its derivative musical, My Fair Lady, as I read chapter 6. Teaching a person a different
dialect of that person's native language is not far different from teaching a foreign language, as the
sounds that are used from one dialect to another vary. The vocal tract is trained during early
childhood to produce the particular sounds of the child's native language(s), and the vocal tract
must be retrained to produce the different sounds of a new dialect.
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
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A Critical Period for Language Acquisition 2/16/2012
There is evidence for a critical period in language acquisition, beyond which a child will
not be able to acquire a first language. According to Eric Lenneberg, "If a first language isn't
acquired by puberty ... it may be too late" (Secret of the wild child, 1997, para. 66). This assertion
is based, in part, on the experiences of Victor and of Genie, each of whom was isolated from
human society for approximately ten years, and neither of whom was able to achieve native-like
speech after being re-introduced to society (Secret of the wild child, 1997).
Children around the world typically acquire a first language (L1) during the first three to
five years of life. This is equally true for children learning spoken language in homes with
speaking parents and for deaf children learning sign language in homes with signing parents.
Children may learn two or more languages simultaneously during this period with each language
being an L1 for the child. A child is born with the ability to learn any human language(s), and
loses the sounds and innate grammar of other languages as he or she specializes in his or her first
language.
Acquisition of a second (or subsequent) language (L2) occurs when a child has already
acquired a first language and then learns another language. "The younger a person is when
exposed to a second language, the more likely she is to achieve native-like competence" (Fromkin,
et. al., 2011, p. 365). A young child, especially before the age of 8 years, has a better chance of
learning a second language than has a student in middle or high school or has an adult. The older
an L2 learner is, the more difficult it is to acquire the grammar of a new language, and to acquire
the particular sounds of another language.
Current language curricula typically begin in or after grade 6, which usually corresponds
with a child's entry into puberty. Students who are exposed to L2 instruction in preschool,
kindergarten, and lower elementary grades are more likely to achieve native-like competency in
the additional language(s). Students who come from bilingual or multilingual homes need to be
encouraged to use both or all of their languages, in order to maintain and improve both L1 and L2
fluency. Additionally, studying a second language in a classroom setting for 30-90 minutes per
day at school will not produce the same language competency as will immersion in a bilingual or
multilingual classroom or home environment. "Success may depend on a range of factors,
including ... whether you are in the country where the language is spoken or sitting in a classroom
five mornings a week with no further contact with native speakers" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p.
362). Based on the evidence, I would recommend that schools introduce L2 instruction and/or
bilingual classrooms for all students beginning in kindergarten, instead of waiting to introduce
languages in middle school. I would encourage academic preschool programs to offer bilingual or
multilingual programs, as well, with the main focus on the languages most commonly spoken at
home in the school's local area.
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
Secret of the wild child [Television series episode (Transcript)]. (1997). In Nova. Boston, MA:
PBS. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html
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Computers That Talk and Listen 2/16/2012
Computers and speech-recognition software make mistakes in interpreting human speech
in part because of coarticulation in ordinary human speech. The computer has difficulty
determining the meaning of a sentence when words are run together as in "whatcha for what are
you" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 393). Regional dialects and accents, speech impediments, and
background noises can also interfere with a computer's ability to correctly interpret human speech.
Also, words that sound alike but that are spelled differently and have different meanings can pose
problems for a computer. Examples of homophonetic words would be read and reed, read and red,
threw and through, do and sew, sow and so, etc..
Listening software in various electronic devices continues to improve, and the accuracy
with which human speech is interpreted by computers is likely to continue to improve as
psycholinguists and software designers work together. However, I don't think computers will ever
be able to correctly interpret every utterance by every user. The human brain gets tripped up by
irregular speech, and it is reasonable to assume that computers will face the same impediments.
Human brains filter out background noise, scratchy throats, lisps, and dialectic differences without
conscious thought, and most people are able to distinguish between strictly semantic meanings and
pragmatic meanings in what they hear. Among other things, it is unlikely that a purely
mechanical/electronic computer will ever be able to understand the subtleties of humor, although I
have some slight hope of a bio-mechanical system managing humor in the distant future.
Both talking accurately and listening accurately are difficult for computers. Talking
accurately is difficult because many words have multiple meanings, and a computer must
determine which words to speak in which circumstances. In a text-to-speech application, a
computer will not be able to handle typographical errors, misspellings, or ungrammatical
constructions, and abbreviations will also present problems. Listening accurately is difficult for
the reasons given above. Humans do not usually speak the way we write, and idiomatic language
can be tricky even for other humans from different parts of the world. Much of human speech
requires contextual clues for comprehension, and it would be nearly impossible to program a
computer with every contextual clue in the human experience.
Most of us were familiar with HAL when we were growing up. Many of us are familiar
with the Star Trek: TNG character Data and the Star Wars character C-3PO. It's fascinating to
imagine a world where computer technology has advanced to the point where those characters
could really exist, but it seems unlikely to me that computers will ever be truly fluent in receiving
and producing human conversational speech.
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
Disappearing Languages 2/23/2012
Language embodies culture in that speakers of a language often use language --
especially specific dialects -- "as a means of positive group identification" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011,
p. 443). Language may reflect ethnic groups, socio-economic groups, and even gender groups.
Language contains prestige dialects that are used by those who are in positions of social,
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economic, or political authority; and language contains banned or taboo words that are not socially
acceptable, as well as euphemisms to replace taboo words in polite speech.
"A language dies and becomes extinct when no children learn it" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011,
p. 518). No children may learn a given language for any of several reasons. The last speakers of a
language may die, leaving no one to pass the language on to any children. The native speakers of
a language may choose not to speak the language due to political pressures, thus preventing the
children hearing and learning the language. A minority language may give way to a dominant
language over time, eventually dying out due to disuse. A language may also die out as a spoken
language but be retained as a written and/or ceremonial or liturgical language, as happened with
Latin and Hebrew (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, pp. 518-519). Any language may become extinct if it is
not used and passed on to new generations. Unfortunately, the loss of a language is the loss of
part of a culture and a cultural identity.
Linguists record and preserve the world's languages, and attempt to reconstruct dead
languages, in order to understand human history, and to preserve a record of current human
languages for future generations. Understanding the development of language can help scientists
to understand how humans developed language, and how humans spread across the globe and
interacted with other groups of people. The evolution of languages gives evidence of the social
values of the times during which a language changed, as changing morphology, syntax, and lexical
changes connect modern languages to earlier protolanguages and to related sister languages. It is
as important for linguists to record and understand the world's languages as it is for
anthropologists to continue the search for early ancestors of modern humans. By studying the
past, and by recording the present for future generations, we are better able to understand
ourselves, those around us, and those who came before us. Language is part of the human
identity, and preserving a record of that identity is of great importance.
References:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European 2/23/2012
The existence of a larger, older family of languages than the Romance languages and the
Germanic languages, called the Proto-Indo-European languages, can be seen in the closely-related
beginning consonants in equivalent words in Romance and Germanic languages. In English, we
have the word "fish," which begins with a /f/. The German word for the same noun is "fisch,"
which also begins with a /f/. "[W]here an English word begins with f, the corresponding word in a
Romance language often begins with p" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 491. The French and Spanish
words for "fish are, respectively, "poisson" and "pescado," and the Latin word is "piscis." "We
posit a /p/ rather than an /f/ [in Proto-Indo-European words] because more languages show a /p/ in
these words" (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 491).
The Indo-European probably came out of Africa into western Asia, then spread westward
across Europe. The two daughter languages of Indo-European, Romance and Germanic, split from
each other, probably due to geographical divisions. "[T]he main event in the spread of the
Western Branch of [Indo-European] languages was the initial spread of farming out of the Near
East, providing a population 'wave' ... that swamped out the languages of hunter-gatherer groups,
speaking non-Indo European languages, that had previously existed in the area" (Adams & Otte,
n.d., para. 2).
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We know that the proto-language divided into related language groups because the
Romance group and the Germanic group maintain sound correspondences even into modern times.
From this, we know that the Indo-European, as a cultural or ethnic group, did not stay in one
place. The people traveled and established new groups over the western part of the Eurasian
continent, displacing or absorbing earlier occupants of the same areas. We know the Indo-
European spread in this manner because we can trace the similarities among the various languages
that are believed to have descended from the Proto-Indo-European group.
References:
Adams, J. & Otte, M. (n.d.). Did Indo-European languages spread before farming? Current
Anthropology [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/Indo2.html
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
Picturing the First Writing 2/27/2012
Modern Western writing finds its roots in the earliest societies of Africa. When humans
first think to record events of their lives by carving or painting images on rocks and on cave walls,
writing is born. This first pictorial writing gives rise, over many generations, to systematic picture
writing, called hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs, in turn, evolve into alphabets that are used by many
languages today. “[I]t is through Ancient Egypt that the Western world shares an important
legacy with Africa: the emergence … in Egypt of a form of writing from which all modern scripts
are genetically descended” (Abraham, 2011, para. 3). Many experts believe that the European
Phoenician alphabet is the mother of all modern scripts, but archaeological evidence suggests that
the Phoenician alphabet also has its roots in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Although written language
developed independently in human cultures all over the world, modern writing is a descendant of
pictorial communications in ancient Africa.
The first evidence of writing, or of recording ideas and events in a lasting, visual manner,
is found about 15,000 BCE, when cave drawings first appear. “Cave art, called petroglyphs … are
literal portrayals of life at that time” (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 541). Petroglyphs of realistically-
rendered animals, people, and the activities of ancient people provide a vivid record for modern
scientists of ancient human cultures. “The ability to record thoughts and sounds goes far back in
human antiquity” (Houston, 2004, p. 223). The recording of ideas in pictures or in organized
writing illustrates the creativity of the human mind, and a desire to keep a permanent record of
ideas that may be passed on to future generations. These pictorial communications, or
petroglyphs, represent whole words and ideas with individual pictures. The meaning of a painting
or etching of a running stag with antlers is concrete, meaning a running stag with antlers. As far
as can be ascertained, it is not yet a representation of an abstract idea.
“Pictographic writing has been found throughout the world, ancient and modern: among
Africans, Native Americans including the Inuits of Alaska and Canada, the Incas of Peru, the
Yukagirians of Siberia, and the people of Oceania” (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 542). Pictographic
records have been identified in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, where writing systems
appear to have developed independently in parallel with one another. Regardless of geography,
humans have a desire to make lasting records of the events of their lives. Stephen D. Houston
(2004) writes that “script origins … occur in moments of societal change: the Olmec decline, the
institution of expansive dynastic control in Egypt, city-state administration in Mesopotamia, the
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appearance of Shang” (p. 239). No doubt, the first occurrences of petroglyphs in Africa also take
place is periods of societal change, as proto-humans become fully-aware humans and begin to
build human civilization.
Archaeological evidence shows that early man may communicate through drawings
before he uses verbal language. Arthur J. Evans (1903) makes the claim that “Man drew before he
talked” (p. 51). In modern humans, verbal language comes naturally for young children and
written language must be learned with some effort. Even in modern humans, however, young
children and persons with developmental disabilities that limit the acquisition of spoken language
will draw to express thoughts and emotions. “Engraved patterns on the side of ostrich eggs dating
back to the Stone Age could be the oldest form of written communication known to man … The
etchings, thought to be 60,000 years old, were used to mark the eggs, which had been turned into
water flasks by hunter-gatherers in Africa” (Alleyne, 2010, paras. 1-2). These etchings date to the
period in which Homo neanderthalensis lived in northern Africa. Anya Luke-Killam (2001)
writes that “any speech production capabilities in Homo neanderthalensis would have been
severely limited by the physiology specific to that species” (p. 1). Also living in Africa at this
time are Homo erectus and Homo habilis. According to Luke-Killam (2001), “it is not clear that
Homo habilis fossil brain evidence is sufficient enough to claim that this hominid had language-
like skills. Likewise, fossil brain evidence does not clearly indicate that Homo erectus had
definite language abilities” (p. 2). The ostrich egg etchings, then, are evidence that written
language exists in northern Africa before humans acquire the physical ability to use verbal
language.
Sumerian cuneiform writing and Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appear at roughly the
same time in human history. About 4,000-3,000 BCE, both of these systems flourish. “Over the
centuries the Sumerians simplified and conventionalized their pictography. They began to
produce the symbols of their written language by using a wedge-shaped stylus that was pressed
into soft clay tablets” (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 543). The wedge-shaped marks are a more
refined, reproducible form of picture writing, with each symbol representing an object or an idea.
Similarly, “Egyptian hieroglyphics made up a formal writing system used by the Ancient
Egyptians that contained a combination of pictographs … and ideographs … that later evolved
into a phonetic … script” (Abraham, 2011, para. 4). The Egyptians use highly stylized images to
represent objects and ideas, which become syllabic writing. Where petroglyphs only record
objects and their interactions, cuneiform and hieroglyphics carry human expression further by
representing ideas. Each symbol in cuneiform or in hieroglyphics represents a word or a part of a
word. Two or more symbols may be required to represent a single thought, and the same
individual symbol may occur in two or more words with very different meanings. Dr. Konrad
Tuchscherer asserts that every modern script descends from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic
traditions: “’Every modern script is descended genetically, in some way … from the ancient
Egyptian script tradition,’ says Dr Konrad Tuchscherer, associate professor of history and director
of Africana Studies at St John's University in New York” (Abraham, 2011, para. 24).
Tuchscherer’s claim excludes Chinese and other East Asian scripts. He holds that, although
cuneiform and hieroglyphics occur concurrently in history, cuneiform dies out and hieroglyphics
remain as the ancestor of written language. Dr. Gunter Dreyer and his team of German
archaeologists support this claim with their research that shows that “the world's earliest examples
of writing were … from Africa, an estimated 500 miles south of the Nile Delta and dating to the
33rd century BCE” (Abraham, 2011, para. 29). From this origin in Egyptian hieroglyphics,
written language then moves north to the Phoenicians.
The Phoenician alphabet, which is often identified as the source of modern writing,
grows out of Egyptian hieroglyphics about 1,500 BCE. The Phoenicians refine earlier
pictographic writing into a consonantal alphabet. With this new language, symbols represent
364 A Journey Through My College Papers
discrete sounds. The symbols, which may now be called letters, may be combined in limitless
ways to produce a limitless number of words. This new alphabet allows a broader expression of
human thought through writing, as any spoken words may now be written. There are still limits to
written language, however, as vowel sounds are not depicted in the West Semitic syllabary of the
Phoenicians. The same combination of consonants may have several different meanings,
depending on the vowel sounds that are inserted between the consonants. The letters of the
Phoenician alphabet reflect the sounds of verbal speech in the Semitic world.
The limitation on the consonantal alphabet is eased about 1000 BCE when the “Ancient
Greeks borrow the Phoenician consonantal alphabet” (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p.553). The Greek
alphabet includes letters that represent discrete vowel sounds, as well as consonants. Greek words
include the required vowels in their spelling, so each word is distinct. The reader no longer needs
to divine which vowels the writer intended to include between the consonants in order to
understand the meaning of a word. Including clear vowel sounds in the Greek alphabet reflects
the changing sounds of verbal language as written language moves around the eastern end of the
Mediterranean from north-eastern Africa to southern Europe. Recent archaeological discoveries in
Greece confirm the use of writing in Europe in this period. “Archaeologists have found a clay
tablet bearing the earliest known writing in Europe, a 3,350-year-old specimen that is at least 150
years older than other tablets discovered in the region” (Maugh, 2011, para. 1). “Found in an olive
grove in what’s now the village of Iklaina … the tablet was created by a Greek-speaking
Mycenaean scribe between 1450 and 1350 B.C.” (Than, 2011, para. 3). Maugh and Than both
discuss the same discovery, made in the summer of 2010, of a small, clay tablet that is found is the
remains of an ancient fire in Iklaina, Greece. The tablet is inadvertently preserved when it is
burned in a rubbish heap, thus firing the clay and making it strong and hard. The tablet can be
read, and is written in a Greek language called Linear B, which “is related to the older hieroglyph
system used by the ancient Egyptians” (Than, 2011, para. 18). The discovery of this tablet is
physical evidence that Greek writing descends from Egyptian hieroglyphs, which, in turn, descend
from ancient petroglyphs.
Approximately 750 BCE, “Etruscans borrow the Greek alphabet” (Fromkin, et. al., 2011,
p. 553). In the spring of 1881, “the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston received … [an] interesting
little unguent vase or perfume bottle” (Norton, 1881, p. 165). The jar is important because it is a
piece of Etruscan pottery from Corneto, Italy. On the jar is a series of Etruscan letters that Signor
Gian Francesco Gainurrini interprets as “M I M U L U K A V I I E S I” (Norton, 1881, p. 165).
The letters, a facsimile of which appears in the article about the jar, are plainly visible, and where
the interpretation shows a “U,” the original inscription contains a character that looks like an
English “Y.” “Signor Gamurrini reads the words composing the inscription, Mi mulu kaviiesi,
and translates them, … ‘I am Mulus, or Mulvius, the son of Cavius’" (Norton, 1881, pp. 165-166).
The Etruscan writing is rendered left to right, just as modern English, French, and related
languages are written. The spelling of “kaviiesi” appears to give the clue that Mulus is the son of
Cavius, using an inflectional morpheme to indicate the relationship. This Etruscan inscription
shows the use of both consonants and vowels to produce written words. The Greek and Etruscan
alphabets are both known as epichoric alphabets, which means that they are “peculiar to a limited
area” (Epichoric, 2012, para. 1). It is interesting that the inscription is written as a single word,
without spaces or symbols to indicate where one word ends and the next word begins. Also, the
letters are all majuscules – what are modernly called capitals or upper-case letters – and that there
are no minuscules, or lower-case letters in use. This lack of minuscules is because “minuscule or
lower case letters first appeared sometime after 800 AD” (Ager, 2012, para. 3). At the time the
Etruscan unguent jar was crafted, there was not yet a distinction drawn by the use of two different
forms of the same letter.
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Features of modern writing develop in Greek and Etruscan writing. “Around 500 BC the
direction of writing changed to horizontal lines running from left to right … [and] [d]iacritics to
represent stress and breathings were added to the [Greek] alphabet in around 200 BC” (Ager,
2012, para. 4). Modern European languages are written horizontally across the page, running from
left to right. Many modern languages, including French, Spanish, and Greek continue to use
diacritic marks to indicate stress or to give particular letters special sounds.
About 500 BCE, “Romans adapt the Etruscan/Greco alphabet to Latin” (Fromkin, et. al.,
2011, p. 553). The Roman, or Latin alphabet is used to this day, and “[m]ost European alphabets
use Latin (Roman) letters, adding diacritic marks to accommodate individual characteristics of a
particular language” (Fromkin, et. al., 2011, p. 553). Latin letters are familiar to every person
who reads and writes modern English. While the letters may be rendered in many decorative fonts
that may include added curlicues, whorls, serifs, and any number of decorative features, the letters
remain intelligible to English readers. The many artistic flourishes that may be added to Latin
letters do not change the meanings of the letters. The cuneiform and hieroglyphic systems of the
past must be rendered with great precision, avoiding any extraneous marks, or the written message
will be changed. Although diacritic marks may change the meaning of certain letters of the Latin
alphabet, artistic flourishes neither add nor subtract meaning.
Culture, unlike artistic flourishes, does change the meaning of words written with Latin
letters. While the letters of Beowulf are the same letters as those used to write the Declaration of
Independence, the sounds associated with the letters has changed dramatically over time. As
verbal vocabularies and language sounds change over time, the spelling of written words also
changes. Spelling is irrelevant in verbal speech, which is based entirely on sound and inflection,
but written language requires conventions of spelling to express the sounds of verbal language in a
way that will be intelligible to readers. The progression of the spelling of various words according
to the way they sound in spoken language at a given period may be observed by examining the
words at the ends of rhymed couplets in the poetry of Chaucer and of Shakespeare. While the
words may not appear to rhyme in modern English, it is clear that they did rhyme, or sound alike,
in Middle English.
Alphabets descending from Egyptian hieroglyphics through the Latin alphabet continue
to evolve into the modern era. The minuscule letter, which is the most common form of the letters
of the modern English alphabet, was introduced in the 8th century CE as the “Carolingian
minuscule letter” (The origins of abc, 2010, para. 35). Majuscule and minuscule forms of the
same letter share the same sound. A word may be written using any combination of majuscules
and minuscules without changing the meaning of the word, and there have been periods in the
history of written English when either form of a letter might be used interchangeably in a
manuscript. In modern English, there are rules and conventions for the use of majuscules, which
are now called capitals. Capital letters are used only in specific ways in modern English, and
minuscules, or lower-case, letters, are used for the majority of English writing.
With the advent of the Internet and digital communications, there is a growing trend to
reintroduce certain pictographic symbols in modern, written communication. These symbols,
which are usually called emoticons, are reminiscent of the Egyptian hieroglyphics from which
modern writing descends. They are made from series of punctuation marks and a few letters, and
some are fairly complex. The most common are the smile and the wink. The smile is made with a
colon and a closing parenthesis, and some computer programs with translate that combination into
a pictogram of a circle containing two eyes and a smiling mouth: . The wink is similar, using a
semicolon in place of a colon: ;). As online social networking sites and chat rooms flourish, these
modern pictograms or hieroglyphics become more and more common. Many younger Internet
users use more complex pictograms in their communications, such as a heart to indicate a feeling
of love from the writer of a message to the reader of the message: <3. A pictogram the purpose of
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which appears to be a mystery to adult users, but which is popular among young users, is the
shark: (^^^). As written language continues to evolve, it is possible that these, or similar,
pictograms may enter the alphabet or the written lexicon as formal expressions of written ideas.
Although written language developed independently in human cultures all over the world,
modern Western writing is a direct descendant of the petroglyphs of north-eastern Africa. The
Phoenician alphabet, which is often given as the mother of all modern scripts, has its roots in
Egyptian hieroglyphics. Ancient petroglyphs may be created by early humans who have not yet
acquired the physiological capacity for articulate speech. The concrete ideas contained in
petroglyphs are distilled by the Sumerians and the Egyptians into systems of stylized images that
represent syllables; Sumerian cuneiform writing dies out, leaving Egyptian hieroglyphic writing as
the ancestor of modern writing. The Phoenicians borrow the Egyptian hieroglyphics and create a
consonantal alphabet that uses letters instead of syllabic symbols to create written words. Later,
the Greeks borrow the Phoenician alphabet and add letters to represent vowel sounds. The
Etruscans carry the Greek alphabet into Italy, where it becomes the Latin alphabet that is still used
in many modern languages, including French, Spanish, and English. Over time, letters are added
to and subtracted from alphabets to accommodate the sounds of languages, and some modern
languages use diacritic marks to indicate stress. As spoken and written languages continue to
evolve, alphabets may also continue to evolve. Specialized symbols used in Internet
communications, called emoticons, may one day be accepted letters of an expanded alphabet.
References
Abraham, C. (2011). Africa had its own writing systems! New African, 509, 82-87.
Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Ager, S. (2012). Greek alphabet. Retrieved from http://www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm
Alleyne, R. (2010, March 2). Ostrich egg markings could be earliest form of writing. The Daily
Telegraph, 7. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Epichoric. (2012). Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epichoric
Evans, A. J. (1903). Pre-Phoenician writing in Crete, and its bearings on the history of the
alphabet. Man, 3, 50-55. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2840854
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston,
MA: Wadsworth.
Houston, S. D. (2004). The archaeology of communication technologies. Annual Review of
Anthropology, 33, 223-250. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25064852
Luke-Killam, A. (2001). Language capabilities of Homo erectus & Homo neanderthalensis.
Retrieved from http://www.lllf.uam.es/~clase/acceso_local/LgCapabili.pdf
Maugh, T. H. (2011, April 3). Preserved tablet rewrites history of ancient Greece. Tulsa World,
A12. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Norton, C.E. (1881). An ancient Etruscan unguent jar. The American Art Review, 2 (10), 165-166.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20559876
Than, K. (2011, March 30). Ancient tablet found: Oldest readable writing in Europe. National
Geographic News [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
https://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/tag/athens-archaeological-society/
The origins of abc. (2010). Retrieved from http://ilovetypography.com/2010/08/07/where-
does-the-alphabet-come-from/
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ENG 317: International Voices
Reflection on Artistic Expression in Your Everyday Life 3/1/2012
My family lives in an eclectic culture, made up of contributions from the many ethnic
groups that live together here in Metro Detroit. Even so, I come from a much more conservative
culture, and that is evident in much of my life. I grew up in a very, very white community in
southern Vermont. We are the descendants of English immigrants who came to America in the
1500s, and of Irish immigrants who came to America during the famine in the 1800s. That is the
culture that shaped my childhood, and that is still evident in the sturdy, round, hardwood table that
dominates my kitchen, and in the couch covered with well-squashed, decorative pillows and hand-
crocheted afghans. It is reflected in the Vermont landscape, painted by my grandmother, that
hangs in my living room. Our connection to family, and to our heritage, may be seen in the many
family photos that hang on the walls, and in the cluster of coats of arms of notable ancestors above
my desk.
The digressions from the culture of my childhood are a counterpoint in the aesthetics of
our home. A terracotta Buddha shares the living room with a soapstone statue of Saint Francis of
Assisi, and each represents a part of my family's spiritual and cultural journey. A Western dragon
hangs from the ceiling opposite a large mosaic of medieval Constantinople, and again, each
represents an expression of the personal journeys of the members of our nuclear family.
Just last week, my husband and I bought a car. We have been driving a 1998 conversion
van. It is large, bulky, and unpleasantly tan. The car we bought is a 2010 Chevrolet HHR. It is
bright, cherry red with a black interior. We bought a car because we needed better gas mileage for
my husband's daily two-hour commute; we bought that particular car because it is cute and classy,
and because we won't be embarrassed to park it at our church on Sundays. It represents our view
of our place in our society, and our yielding to a middle-class American culture that equates bulky,
old vans with low social status, and new, stylish cars with higher social status.
I have one piercing in each earlobe. "The act of piercing is often part of a ritual change
of status" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 114). I got my ears pierced when I was 12 years
old, as a sign that I had passed from being a little girl to being a young woman. I love jewelry,
and I wear a variety of earrings. Dangling earrings, usually matched with a necklace, are my
favorite, and it is rare that I leave the house without putting in a pair of earrings. When I need to
be modestly dressed, I am most likely to wear a pair of diamond solitaires that my cultural
background tells me are "innocent" or "respectful" jewelry. The rest of the time, I enjoy big
jewelry in bold colors. This is a departure from the behavior of the culture in which I grew up,
which valued small, delicate, understated jewelry.
I have a fear of getting something as permanent as a tattoo, but I do wear makeup. Just as
it is rare for me to go our without jewelry, so is it rare for me to go out without eye shadow,
mascara, and a spritz of cologne. "Rituals and ceremonies often require people to wear certain
kinds of makeup, clothing, or hairstyles" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 111). Special events
call for more makeup, and I went so far as to buy acrylic fingernails for my wedding two years
ago. I felt a cultural imperative to wear powder, blush, and lipstick, as well as to hide my short,
ragged nails with sleek, pink ones. I will also admit to hiding the encroaching gray in my hair
with dye, and to getting regular haircuts to maintain a short, fluffy hair style that projects an image
of youth. All of these decorative efforts are part of our American culture, in which makeup and
haircuts identify our positions in a social order.
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For special events, such as carnivals and festivals, my sons still like to wear face paint.
The girls in their classes like to get glittery fairy wings painted on the sides of their faces, from
their eyes to their temples, but the boys prefer to have Western dragons painted on their cheeks.
These artistic expressions are not for everyday life, just for public festivals, and my sons choose
dragons to express their personal interest in all things medieval and/or fantasy. They see dragons
as symbols of strength, courage, and honor.
"World-wide travel, large-scale migrations, and increasing access to global networks of
communication mean ...a kaleidoscopic mix of traditional practices and new inventions"
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 110). While the authors are referring to body art, the same is
true of food. A normal menu in our home, over a two-week pay period, includes at least one night
of homemade sushi, at least one night of Mexican or Tex-Mex foods made at home, at least one
meal of German or Polish sausages with fried potatoes, and at least one pot roast or meat loaf that
recalls the culture of my own childhood. We live in an eclectic community, and our diet reflects
the eclectic culture in which we live. Whereas I could not have told the difference among Thai,
Japanese, and Middle Eastern foods when I was a child, my sons know the difference, and when
we eat out, they request the ethnicity that they prefer at the moment. They know the difference
between shawarma and kafta, and between sushi maki and sashimi, all of which were outside my
experience until just three years ago.
References:
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Reflection on Artistic Expression in Your Everyday Life: Food 3/1/2012
The foods my family chooses to eat reflect not only where we are now, but also where we
came from and the experiences that we have had. I grew up in a very, very white community in
southern Vermont. We are the descendants of English immigrants who came to America in the
1500s, and of Irish immigrants who came to America during the famine in the 1800s. As a result,
I never had what my family would call "ethnic" food until I was in my mid-teens. The closest we
came to Chinese food was a can of La Choy. Dinner was usually meat loaf, baked chicken, or fish
sticks. There was little variation, and the food was rarely seasoned with anything more than salt
and pepper. This bland, predictable diet reflected our English heritage, and our Puritan past.
As we grow, our personal cultures may change. Meeta Kaur experienced this as she went
through a personal identity crisis in college (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, pp. 61-64). Her
inner change was brought on by the outer pressures of American life. Outside forces can change
our cultural experiences in a variety of ways. When I was in my early 30s, my children and I lived
in North Carolina. Life had brought sharp economic changes, and affording good food was
difficult. Our diet during those years reflected the culture in which we found ourselves: poor,
Southern, and the white minority in a largely black and brown population. Meals included a lot of
beans, especially pinto beans, which had not been part of my childhood experience. Biscuits
smothered in a thick, peppery, white gravy -- with a bit of sausage when finances permitted the
luxury -- were a staple. Chicken was inexpensive there, and ham was surprisingly cheap, so those
were the meats of my children's first years. Poverty in the American South is a culture in itself,
and these carbohydrate-heavy meals were part of that culture.
Now, in my early 40s, life is different for my family. We live in a moderately affluent
suburb of Detroit, although we are at the lower end of the local middle class. The racial mix here
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is the most even of my experience, with white, brown, black, and every shade in between living
and working together. I am able to raise my children in a very different culture from that in which
they began life. "World-wide travel, large-scale migrations, and increasing access to global
networks of communication mean ...a kaleidoscopic mix of traditional practices and new
inventions" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 110). While the authors are referring to body art,
the same is true of food. A normal menu in our home, over a two-week pay period, includes at
least one night of homemade sushi, at least one night of Mexican or Tex-Mex foods made at
home, at least one meal of German or Polish sausages with fried potatoes, and at least one pot
roast or meat loaf that recalls the culture of my own childhood. We live in an eclectic community,
and our diet reflects the eclectic culture in which we live. Whereas I could not have told the
difference among Thai, Japanese, and Middle Eastern foods when I was a child, my sons know the
difference, and when we eat out, they request the ethnicity that they prefer at the moment. They
know the difference between shawarma and kafta, and between sushi maki and sashimi, all of
which were outside my experience until just three years ago.
Just as our diet reflects an eclectic cultural identity, so does our home. Although our
furnishings are generally Western, out living room includes both a statue of Saint Francis of Assisi
and a terra cotta Buddha, as well as models of various Western dragons built by our sons,
paintings that I have made in a medieval French style, and many tools and accessories associated
with our reenactments of the medieval period and of the French and Indian War. It is a hodge-
podge of Western and Eastern, of traditional and eccentric aesthetic elements that all combine to
express our family identity.
My ancestors came from a very clear, distinct culture: that of English gentry and nobility.
I still treasure that connection, but my culture is new and different. I have become something of a
chameleon, adapting to the many ethnic contributions that make up my family's culture as they
come along. I will never be mistaken for anything but the daughter of an aristocratic New
England family, but I embrace the variegated culture in which I now live.
References:
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Artistic Expression and Culture 3/1/2012
Meeta Kaur's autobiographical story about her struggle for personal identity presents a
strong connection between the aesthetic, the everyday, and culture (Hirschberg & Hirschberg,
2012, pp. 58-67). As a Sikh, Kaur's hair is an expression of the aesthetic in her life. Great care is
taken with the grooming of a person's hair in her culture, and long hair is considered the aesthetic
ideal for both males and females. Kaur grows up in the United States, where her family's culture
is often eclipsed by the prevailing American culture. Most Americans cut their hair, and a child's
first haircut is a milestone from infancy to young childhood for most American families. For
Kaur, cutting a child's hair is unthinkable. The long, thick, black hair is shampooed and combed
with great attention, and the hair is the individual's connection to the spiritual in the world. When
Kaur cuts her hair in college, the effect is almost something from a fairy tale. With the loss of her
long hair, Kaur loses her personal identity and her self-worth, and she also dishonors her family.
After a period of searching, Kaur returns to the practices of her culture, which she learned in
childhood. As her hair regains its length, she regains her identity and restores her self-worth.
Kaur's everyday life is deeply tied to the aesthetic of her hair because of her Sikh culture. She
370 A Journey Through My College Papers
does not realize how deeply ingrained is her culture until she goes against the beliefs and traditions
of her culture by cutting her hair.
Like Kaur's story, Saira Shah's story shows how a family will cling to the aesthetic of its
traditional culture when the family is surrounded by an alien culture (Hirschberg & Hirschberg,
2012, pp. 382-386). Shah's father uses the artistic expression of telling story's to establish a
connection for his children in England with the culture they left behind in Afghanistan. "My
father understood the value of stories ... we were never allowed to forget our Afghan background"
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 383). He also uses the artistic expression of cooking
traditional Afghan foods to strengthen his children's connection to the family's cultural heritage.
Shah and her siblings helped prepare their father's Afghan recipes, and it was only in adulthood
that she learned that her father had adapted his culture to the culture around him such that his
recipes "diverged subtly from their originals ... [but] tasted indistinguishable from the originals"
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 384). The stories and the recipes that Shah's father passed on
to his children in everyday life connected the children to their cultural heritage through the
aesthetic of oral tradition, and through the aesthetic of creative family cooking extravaganzas. The
cooking created good, solid memories of family times for the children to carry into adulthood and,
possibly, to pass on to their own children. The art of oral storytelling is a very powerful tool for
connecting people to the past, and for implanting the essence of culture in their imagination and
personal identity.
Kaur's mother and Shah's father each worked hard to weave her or his cultural heritage
into the subconscious identities of Kaur and Shah by making specific, aesthetic aspects of each
culture a part of everyday life.
References:
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Rebellion and Personal Identity 3/5/2012
Each person grows up with the teachings of his or her parents or primary care-givers. For
some, the teachings of childhood are filled with deep, cultural and religious significance. For
others, the teachings are intended to help the child to set aside cultural beliefs and practices in
order to assimilate into the dominant culture. Regardless of which kind of teachings a child
receives, the child’s identity is shaped by the beliefs or by the priorities of the child’s parents. At
some point, a child goes through a transitional time that is often fraught with personal crises.
During this period, the child is likely to rebel against the teachings of childhood in order to find
his or her personal identity. Meeta Kaur’s journey through youthful rebellion to the discovery of
her personal identity is a reflection of a similar journey in the life of each person in every culture.
Kaur’s autobiographical story, Journey by Inner Light, describes four distinct stages in
her journey toward the realization of her personal identity. When she is a child, Kaur’s mother
teaches her the beliefs and behaviors of a Sikh woman. Just as most children are not aware that
they are learning cultural traditions when their parents tell them stories or help them establish
grooming practices, so Kaur is unaware that the daily ritual of washing her hair and of grooming
her long, thick hair is inculcating Sikh cultural beliefs and practices. “Mama piles the strands of
hair atop my head and squeezes out more shampoo. She beams as she sculpts my hair into a
temple” (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 59). Kaur describes her mother’s artistic expression
as well as her early understanding of the cultural significance of the ritual grooming when she
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writes of her lathered hair as a temple. When my mother washed my long, dark hair when I was a
little girl, she piled it atop my head, just as Kaur’s mother does with Kaur’s hair. I always thought
my mother was building fairytale castles out of my hair, but Kaur describes the hair sculpture as a
temple. It is an early indication that her mother is already teaching Kaur that her spiritual identity
resides in her thick, unshorn hair, as though it resides in a temple.
When Kaur is a teenager, she discovers the religious background for the aesthetic of her
long hair. During her visits to India, she learns that her hair has a symbolic function. “I learn, in
preserving this natural uniform, that I commit to the equality between men and women, rich and
poor, black and white, Muslim and Christian” (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 60). Kaur’s
mother chose a spiritual and a moral path for her young daughter, and Kaur faces that path as she
discovers its historic and cultural context during her early teenage years. Whereas the child Kaur
immerses herself in the look and feel of her hair and of her mother’s hair, the teenage Kaur begins
to discover that the aesthetic is accompanied by a moral responsibility. “I follow my pleasures
and passions as a young adolescent American girl who has bought into the illusions of this world”
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 61). Kaur does not feel the religious teachings as part of her
personal identity; she is influenced more by the dominant culture that surrounds her daily life than
by the family culture that her mother teaches her.
Many young women rebel against their mothers when they reach their late teens and early
twenties. Kaur is no different. She is strongly influenced by American culture, and she is under
enormous social pressure to fit in with other women of her own age. She has lived all of her life
according to the cultural and moral dictates of her mother, and she needs to find her own path in
life. “[S]omething about my hair feels stale, like old bread. It is ancient, musty, and tired”
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 61). This is the only way Kaur knows to express that her
mother’s teachings feel outdated and irrelevant in Kaur’s life. Her hair is the outward symbol of
her Sikh heritage, and its heavy length binds her to a culture that is chosen for her before she is old
enough to choose for herself. She makes the agonizing decision to cut her ties to her mother’s
culture and beliefs by having her hair cut. Just as Kaur rebels against the life path that her mother
has chosen for her, so did I rebel against the life path that my mother chose for me. My mother
scripted my life from my birth to the anticipated birth of my own children. To rebel against the
identity that my mother chose for me, I opted not to attend college after high school, and to join
the military instead. Like Kaur’s rebellion, my rebellion involved cutting hair that fell below my
waist; my pixie-style military haircut was an aesthetic symbol of my rebellion. Just as Kaur’s
mother is deeply disappointed in and hurt by Kaur’s decision to cut off the hair that connects her
to the spiritual forces of her world, so was my mother deeply hurt by and disappointed in my
decision to throw away my education and social training for the coarse, crude, rough life that she
believes military service to be. The method of rebellion is different in Kaur’s life and in my life,
but each act of rebellion is the beginning of an adult journey of self-discovery.
When a young woman rebels against her mother and against her cultural heritage, there is
often a period of depression which is not unlike the period of mourning that follows a death. Kaur
experiences this dark period of transition. “I have no center, so I drift out to sea without direction
or guidance. I lose my connection to myself and to the world. I lose my connection to a deeper
sense of who I am” (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, pp. 63-64). For some young women,
rebelling against the teachings of childhood frees them to follow a new course in life. For Kaur,
her rebellion leaves her without an independent course. Over a period of time, she begins to adopt
for herself the rituals and habits that were once thrust upon her by her mother. She is able to
discover that her inner identity is that of a Sikh woman, not because her mother says it is so, but
because Kaur experiences that it is so. Kaur’s youthful rebellion allows her the freedom to return
to her cultural roots unencumbered by the uncertainty of whether her identity comes from her
mother or from within herself. She discovers that the aesthetic of long, thick hair is a beautiful
372 A Journey Through My College Papers
reminder of her connection to herself, to her culture, and to her world. “My hair becomes witness
to all the love and atrocities in the world” (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 66). Kaur’s journey
through youthful rebellion to personal, inner identity is complete, and she is free to embrace her
culture as her own. Her hair is a symbol of her culture and of her identity, a deeply meaningful
aesthetic presence in her everyday life. Like Kaur, I also found freedom after the dark transitional
phase of my rebellion against my mother. I embraced the culture of my youth and returned to
religious practices from which I had strayed. I left the military and began a family, and I have
returned to school to pursue a career in education, just as my mother planned that I should do.
Rebellion allowed me to discover that my inner identity is not so much different from the identity
that my mother strove to create for me during my childhood. Kaur and I are like so many other
young women around the world. We rebelled against our mothers and our cultures in a journey
that, ultimately, shows us that we are the women that our mothers wished us to be.
Each person is connected to his or her culture by beliefs and practices that are represented
by the aesthetics of everyday life. Changing the artistic expression in a person’s life, whether by
cutting one’s hair or by donning a military uniform, gives one the freedom to discover whether
one’s beliefs and life path come from outside teachings or from an inner identity. Reclaiming the
practices, rituals, and artistic expressions of one’s youth is an affirmation of the discovery of one’s
personal and cultural identity. The journey is different for each individual, but each journey is
similar to all of the personal journeys of young people around the globe. Each person’s
connection to his or her culture and identity is represented in the artistic expressions of everyday
aesthetics.
References
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Language, Perception, and Artistic Creation 3/8/2012
Language shapes and describes our world views and our experiences of ourselves and of
the world. Just as Amy Tan notices the effect of her childhood language on her writing, I notice
the effect of my childhood language on how I write the first sentence of this discussion (Tan,
1990). I feel compelled by the formal English of my childhood to insert a few words into my
rewording of the discussion prompt. Writing less formally makes me uncomfortable, just as
reading informal writing makes me uncomfortable. This is because it is not only language that
shapes a person's perception of the world; it is which language is dominant in a bilingual speaker
or which dialect of a language is dominant in a unilingual speaker.
A bilingual or multilingual speaker is influenced by the language in which he or she is
thinking at the moment when an event occurs. Professor Lera Boroditsky (2011) of Stanford
University writes that "linguistic differences influence how people construe what happened and
have consequences for eyewitness memory" (para. 14). Whether a person is thinking in a
language that uses nonagentive forms for verbs, such as Spanish or Japanese, or whether that
person is thinking in a language that is very specific in regard to interpersonal relationships or
directional orientation, such as Chinese or Kuuk Thaayorre, has a deep impact on the memories
that person will have of a given event. Language defines experiences and memories because
different languages and different dialects make an individual more or less aware of various details
of an experience.
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In discussing the non-standard form of English that dominated her childhood, Amy Tan
(1990) writes: "That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things,
made sense of the world" (para. 6). The language to which she refers is neither English nor
Chinese, but a form of English that follows, to some extent, the syntax of Chinese. This childhood
language allows her to form vivid mental images based on brief phrases, but it limits her ability to
form analogies between disparate subjects in English (Tan, 1990, para. 15).
Language informs an individual's perception of the world, and an individual's vision of
the world and of the many relationships in the world determines the artistic expressions of the
individual. Artistic expression is found in every place where humans live, and the forms of artistic
expression vary from one cultural group to another. The way is which humans perceive numbers,
colors, spirituality and religion or lack thereof, aesthetic beauty, and relationships between humans
and the world and among humans influences the way those perceptions are expressed through the
arts.
References:
Boroditsky, L. (2011, Feb.). How language shapes thought. Scientific American, 304(2), 62-65.
Retrieved from EBSCO Host database.
Tan, A. (1990). Mother Tongue. Retrieved from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13297165/Mother-Tongue-By-Amy-Tan-I-Am-Not-A
The Meanings of Words 3/8/2012
In "My Name," Esperanza discusses her feelings about her name, and about her Mexican
heritage. She describes her name as "sadness, ... waiting ... A muddy color ... like sobbing"
(Cisneros, 1984, para. 1). Translated into English, Esperanza means hope, but the author sees her
name as something negative, even as something ugly. She is a Mexican woman, and she has a
Spanish name. Too often, in the United States, individuals with Mexican heritage are seen as
lower-class. The advent of Dora the Explorer has made Spanish a bright, positive language for
many modern American children, but for Esperanza, being Latina is probably colored by earlier
stereotypes of cheap domestic help and illegal border crossings into California and Texas. Even if
those stereotypes do not apply to Esperanza and her family, she still feels the social stigma of her
native culture and language.
Esperanza explores possible substitutes for her name. She considers names that have
more positive connotations than have Esperanza. Lisandra comes from "Alexandros, a Greek
name meaning 'Protector of men'" (Lisandra, 2010, para. 1). Maritza is a Hebrew name that
means: "Wished-for child" (Maritza, 2010, para. 1). Each of these names has a positive meaning,
just as hope is a positive meaning of Esperanza, but neither Lisandra nor Maritza is a Spanish
name, so neither name carries the social stigma attached to Americans of Mexican descent.
I have difficulty relating to the author's feelings about the English language in this essay
based on my own experience with English. I relate to her feelings only through my interaction
with others. I am forcing myself to think back to when my sons and I were the only non-Hispanic,
white family in our neighborhood when we lived in North Carolina. I had several Mexican and
Puerto Rican friends there, as well as some who were born in the Dominican Republic. They each
spoke Spanish as a native language, and they spoke English with varying degrees of fluency.
Those who were more fluent in English, and who were either very white or very black in skin
tone, were treated better in the community than were those who spoke more "broken" English and
who had distinctive, brown, Mexican features. Just as Amy Tan interacts with the world on her
374 A Journey Through My College Papers
mother's behalf when standard English is needed, so did I often see and hear Lily interact with
state agencies, doctors, and others on behalf of her mother and step-father (Tan, 1990, paras. 9-
13). Lily's English is very clear, but her mother speaks very little English, and it often required
every scrap of very broken Spanish that I possess to communicate with her. I saw in those
interactions that my friends' language, culture, and ethnicity influenced their lives and their social
status.
For myself, as I mentioned in my first paragraph, I was raised in a family in which formal
English was the norm. My father and each of my grandmothers took pains to correct our speech
whenever we made mistakes. My mother, a teacher and a pastor, saw to it that our writing was
formal, as well. I am aware of these influences, but it takes conscious effort to relax my speech.
Errors in writing disturb me, and I must force myself to overlook them when I communicate
online. English is my only language, even though I know a smattering of several other languages.
I have been accused of being elitist in my speech, and I won't refute it because I know that I was
taught to be so.
References:
Cisneros, S. (1984). My Name. The House on Mango Street, 25-27. New York: Vintage Books.
Retrieved from http://theliterarylink.com/mangostreet.html
Lisandra. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.babynamer.com/lisandra
Maritza. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.babynamer.com/Maritza
Language and Personal Identity 3/12/2012
Language is an integral part of life for nearly every person on the planet. Language is an
important way in which individuals express needs, wants, hopes, dreams, and fears. Infants hear
language while they are still in the womb, and their first years are spent absorbing language. The
words of an individual’s language represent the cultural beliefs and ideas of the group to which he
or she belongs. An individual’s native language is closely tied to his or her sense of personal
identity.
In “My Name,” the narrator discusses the cultural significance of her name, and how that
culture relates to her personal identity. She is called Esperanza, which is the Spanish word for
hope. Her name has a beautiful, positive meaning in her native language, but Esperanza does not
live in a place where Spanish is the dominant language, so she does not associate the positive
meaning of her name with her personal experience and identity. Esperanza lives in the United
States, where English is the primary language, and where native speakers of Spanish are often
viewed as second-class citizens at best. Esperanza describes her name as "sadness, ... waiting ... A
muddy color ... like sobbing" (Cisneros, 1984, para. 1). Her experience as a Mexican woman in
the United States has literally colored her perception of her own name, so that she thinks of her
name in terms of a dirty, brown color.
Esperanza’s family comes from Mexico, where Spanish is the dominant language, so it is
natural that she has a Spanish name. It is likely that her Mexican parents gave her a Spanish name
in order to provide her with a connection to her cultural heritage. Esperanza describes the
“Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving” (Cisneros, 1984, para.
1). Her father’s desire to listen to the music of his native culture suggests that Esperanza’s family
values that culture, and that her parents intended her name to be a source of cultural strength and
pride for her. Instead, Esperanza’s view of her Mexican heritage is probably colored by
stereotypes of cheap domestic help and illegal border crossings into California and Texas. Even if
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those stereotypes do not apply to Esperanza and her family, she still feels the social stigma of her
native culture and language in her Spanish name.
“[I]n Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver” (Cisneros, 1984,
para. 5). Esperanza is aware that her name is not negative in Spanish, but she lives in an English-
speaking culture, apart from the original culture of her parents and her ancestors. She is unable to
see herself as the softly glowing, silver hope that her parents intend her to be when they name her.
Instead, her identity reflects the sad, waiting, brownness of a Mexican woman in a predominantly
white world. Her personal identity is connected to the white stereotype of Mexican women, and to
the hopeless waiting for something better that accompanies the stereotype.
Esperanza connects her Spanish language and heritage with the negative stereotypes that
surround her. She wishes to change her identity not by changing her personal outlook on her life,
or by changing her own actions and activities, but by changing her name. Esperanza is a Spanish
name, and she wishes to escape the Mexican identity that her Spanish name creates for her. She
looks to languages that have positive associations for white Americans for possible replacements
for her name and her personal identity. “I ... would like to baptize myself under a new name, ... as
Lisandra or Maritza” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 5). Lisandra comes from "Alexandros, a Greek name
meaning 'Protector of men'" (Lisandra, 2010, para. 1). Maritza is a Hebrew name that means:
"Wished-for child" (Maritza, 2010, para. 1). Esperanza thinks that changing the language
associated with her name will change her personal identity from the sadness and waiting of her
Mexican heritage to a stronger, more positive – perhaps more educated or more civilized – identity
with the culture of Greece or that of Israel. By choosing a name from the Greek language,
Esperanza may hope to create a personal identity that reflects the heroes of Classical Greece. The
Greek language is the language of Homer and of Aesop, and it does not carry the stigma of under-
paid housemaids and day laborers in American cities. By choosing a Hebrew name, Esperanza
may hope that a connection to the Bible and to Biblical places and stories might define her
personal identity.
Esperanza’s personal identity comes not from her name, as she believes, but from the
social stigma attached to her linguistic and cultural heritage. Esperanza’s personal identity would
be filled with hope and beauty if it was defined by her Spanish name. Instead, her personal
identity is one of sadness and of the dark, dull colors of a marginalized race. Spanish has become
for Esperanza a symbol of loss and oppression in the United States, instead of the symbol of
beauty, color, and celebration that it was for her Spanish ancestors. Underlying the stereotype of a
Mexican woman, however, Esperanza has hopes and dreams. Beneath the identity that she accepts
for herself from the culture around her, Esperanza embodies the identity of hope that her name
provides. Esperanza dreams of her great-grandmother, whose name she shares. She refers that
earlier Esperanza as “a wild, horse of a woman” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 3). The young Esperanza
dreams of escaping her name and of creating a new identity with a new name. Esperanza’s dreams
demonstrate that she has not given up and resigned herself to a sad, muddy social stigma. She has
hopes for her own future, and for the identity that she can find for herself.
An individual’s sense of personal identity is closely tied to his or her native language.
Esperanza attaches great importance to the power of language to define identity. She wishes she
could change the language of her name in order to create a more positive identity for herself. Her
language defines her culture, and her language influences how she interacts with the dominant
culture in which she lives.
References
Cisneros, S. (1984). My Name. The House on Mango Street, 25-27. New York: Vintage Books.
Retrieved from http://theliterarylink.com/mangostreet.html
Lisandra. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.babynamer.com/lisandra
376 A Journey Through My College Papers
Maritza. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.babynamer.com/Maritza
The Past’s Presence Today:
Historical Representations in Art and Literature 3/15/2012
"The Convocation," by Marjane Satrapi, and "Reading Lolita in Tehran," by Azar Nafisi,
both present the lives of female students in Iran, and each offers a view of how the history and
culture of Iran impact the activities of women.
Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel describes her experiences as a new student at a
college of arts in 1989. She uses both words and pictures to show how young, Persian women
express their individuality even while wearing the required robes and scarves of their culture. The
young women are moving into the modern world under the garments of their traditional world,
and "year by year, women were winning an eighth of an inch of hair and losing an eighth of an
inch of veil" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 75). Even as the young women are slowly
gaining personal freedoms, however, the college still maintain the traditional segregation of male
students from female students. "[A]t the main campus ... girls and boys had to take different
staircases, while where we were, everyone used the same staircase" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg,
2012, p. 77). Also, Satrapi and her male friend, Reza, must avoid being seen together in her car,
or risk expulsion from school. At Satrapi's arts college, the relatively greater freedom of
expression experienced by artists helps the students move forward in history, if only by
increments. Persian laws that promote the chastity of women give way in tiny ways to modern
practices of climbing a unisex staircase. Satrapi has modern ideas about the traditional garments
of her gender, and she risks severe punishment to express her views in an assembly about moral
conduct. She is fortunate that the representative of The Islamic Commission who talks to her
about her modern views is also beginning to move forward in history, and that he is willing to
entertain a compromise that preserves the historic values of the Persian culture while allowing
women certain freedoms to assist in personal and artistic expression.
Nafisi's introduction to her book offers a glimpse of her experiences as a teacher in Iran
in 1995. The students who met at Nafisi's home to study literature "were all women-to teach a
mixed class in the privacy of my home was too risky, even if we were discussing harmless works
of fiction" (Nafisi, 2004, para. 1). Historical taboos against men and women who are not related
to one another socializing in mixed-gender groups are still strong in Iran, and Nafisi could get into
a lot of trouble if she had a single male meet with her female students. Nima, who takes the
photographs that Nafisi describes in her text, is different because he is married to one of the
women, and so is not a threat to the other women. Nafisi's students take the opportunity of being
in her private home to remove their anonymous, black robes and scarves and to express their
individuality in the clothes that they wear under the robes. These women are unable to use artistic
expression to reveal their personal identities to the world at large, but they use creative expression
for themselves by wearing colors and styles of clothing that empress their personalities under their
traditional garments. "Against the tyranny of time and politics, imagine us the way we sometimes
didn't dare to imagine ourselves: in our most private and secret moments, in the most
extraordinarily ordinary instances of life, listening to music, falling in love, walking down the
shady streets or reading Lolita in Tehran. And then imagine us again with all this confiscated,
driven underground, taken away from us" (Nafisi, 2004, para. 16). Iran has a history of oppression
against women, and Nafisi and her students escape from that oppression for brief moments during
their Thursday gatherings.
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Both Satrapi and Nafisi show young women escaping the historic oppression in Iran
through very limited personal, artistic expression. Satrapi studies art and stands up for making
small changes that improve the lives of female students. Nafisi teaches literature and allows her
students the freedom of individual clothing choices in her home. Each writer shows how the
historic oppression of women in Iran is slowly losing its hold on young, Persian women, while it
still holds sway with the Iranian establishment.
References:
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Nafisi, A. (2004). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Retrieved from
http://www.enotalone.com/personal-growth/5201.html
Audience Reception and the Influences of History and Culture 3/15/2012
Audience awareness of the historical and cultural circumstances in Iran in the 1990s is
important for an understanding of the significance of Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran." If
a reader is not aware of the historic oppression of women by Persian authorities in Iran, the
meaning of the two photographs that Nafisi discusses in her text is lost. Also, the cultural
background of the audience influences audience reception of the characters in Nafisi's work; a
Middle Eastern audience is likely to be offended by Nafisi's descriptions of the individual
personalities and experiences of her students but a Western audience is likely to appreciate the
descriptions and to be offended by Persian cultural restrictions that do not allow a male student to
join the discussions at Nafisi's home.
Nafisi describes two photographs that were taken on her last night in Tehran. In one
photo, she and her students are dressed in the robes and scarves that are required by law. The
other photo shows the women in Western dress. "Each has become distinct through the color and
style of her clothes, the color and the length of her hair; not even the two who are still wearing
their head scarves look the same" (Nafisi, 2004, para. 4). To a Western audience, the second
picture is appealing; it allows each woman to express her individuality and her sense of artistic
expression through her physical appearance. To an Eastern audience, the second picture is
offensive and may embarrass the audience in its openness.
The second picture triggers Nafisi's memories of the young women it depicts, and she
shares those memories in her text. Each young woman has a distinctive appearance, which is
hidden by the required garments in the first picture. Nafisi shares the cultural background of her
students, and she covers herself in concealing robes and scarves when she is in public, just as they
do. She is aware of the prohibitions of her culture, so she does not risk allowing a young, single
man to participate in the gatherings in her home. To a Western audience, it seems as though the
young man should have been allowed to join the group, but an awareness of the historical and
cultural influences in Iran reveals that including him would be too great a danger for Nafisi to take
the risk.
My own reactions to art and literature are influenced by my Western heritage. More
specifically, my preferences in art and literature, and my reactions to the same, are shaped by my
childhood in a white, rural village in northern New England. When I read Nafisi's text, the part of
me that has grown up and moved out into the world understands the juxtaposition of historic
gender oppression with individual artistic expression. The part of me that is forever connected to
my childhood upbringing is offended that Nafisi needs to worry about whom she invites into her
378 A Journey Through My College Papers
home. As a Western woman, I grew up in a cultural of personal freedom; growing up in walking
distance of Bennington College (a liberal arts college with a large hippie population) in the 1970s
taught me to embrace individual academic achievement and artistic expression.
Understanding the historic and cultural context of a piece of literature, of visual art, or of
performance art is critical to understanding the significance of the piece in question. Writers and
artists include clues to history and culture, usually intentionally, but even unintentionally, and it is
important for audience understanding of a work of literature or of art for the audience to be able to
recognize those clues.
References:
Nafisi, A. (2004). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Retrieved from
http://www.enotalone.com/personal-growth/5201.html
Identity Within and Without 3/19/2012
Each person has at least two identities: the inner, personal identity that is created by the
individual’s hopes, dreams, and ideas; and the outward, public identity that is like a veneer, and
that is created by society’s beliefs, expectations, and stereotypes about the individual and about the
individual’s ethnicity, origin, language, and other factors. Amy Tan, of “Mother Tongue,” and
Esperanza Cordero, of “My Name,” each describe experiences that illustrate how language and
culture influence each woman’s personal and public identity. Neither Tan nor Esperanza is a
native speaker of English, but each of their stories suggests that they are each fluent in English as
a second language. Amy is a young woman of Chinese descent, and Esperanza is a young woman
of Mexican descent; each young woman’s parents speak their native language at home. In the
United States, both Chinese immigrants and Mexican immigrants have experienced hardships as a
result of their inability to use Standard English. Like Amy and Esperanza, many women in
America, for whom English is a second language, are faced with the social stigma of being lower-
class, unintelligent, and unimportant in society, which shapes both their public identities and their
personal identities.
English-speaking Americans tend to treat linguistic differences “as a single
sociolinguistic process reflecting the perception of social norms ... [and] variants associated with
nonprestigious groups may become stigmatized and avoided” (Irvine, 1985, p. 558). Women who
do not speak fluent English have historically taken jobs as farm laborers, as domestic help, and as
workers in manufacturing plants, because they lack the English fluency needed to obtain more
prestigious, professional employment. This is especially true for Chinese women and for Mexican
women. “Chinese ... worked in large numbers in the mines and on the railroads ... they turned to
the agricultural sector as their main source of occupation ... or specialize in those occupations
rejected by or noncompetitive with the whites” (Wong, 1980, p. 511). The assumption among
English-speaking Americans, especially among those of white, Western European descent, is that
these non-prestigious jobs represent the identities of the women who work in them. Because the
jobs that are often done by women who speak broken or limited English are low-paying jobs of the
lower class, the women who work in these jobs are believed to be lower-class citizens. The
assumption becomes a stereotype, which is then applied to any person who does not speak
Standard English. The stereotype, then, becomes part of the public identities of these individuals.
In “My Name,” Esperanza feels the public stereotype of Mexican-Americans as lower-
class people. She discusses her feelings about her name, and about her Mexican heritage. She
describes her name as "sadness, ... waiting ... A muddy color ... like sobbing" (Cisneros, 1984,
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para. 1). The images of sadness and of dirt represent the lower-class stereotype with which
Esperanza lives. It is the identity that society has created for her. Esperanza is aware that the
stereotype is based on the linguistic source of her name. She is a Mexican woman, and she has a
Spanish name. Esperanza “would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the
real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 5).
Lisandra is a Greek name, and Maritza is Hebrew. Neither Greek nor Hebrew has the negative
social stigma that is attached to Spanish. Esperanza believes that she can change her public
identity if she can escape the stigma of her Spanish language.
Although Esperanza is a fictional character, her story illustrates how society’s
perceptions of her language influence her sense of identity. This reflects “Puerto Rican women’s
Spanish narratives showing internalization of majority attitudes toward them” (Urciuoli, 1995, p.
536). Even her inner, personal identity is shaped by these influences as she struggles with her
dislike of her name, and with her feelings about the fate of her great-grandmother, after whom she
is named. “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness
on an elbow” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 4). Esperanza seeks to create a personality that does not
include watching her life from the sidelines. Esperanza wishes to create an inner personality that
is active and vital, and that is able to escape the stigma of being lower-class.
Amy Tan (1990) recognizes that she uses more than one form of English. “Recently, I
was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use” (para. 3). Tan uses a blended form of
English and Chinese, with some code switching, and with some grammar from each language, in
her communication with her family. This form of English is part of her personal, inner identity,
and it gives her access to the rich imagery of the Chinese language. In professional and academic
associations, however, Tan uses Standard English. By allowing Standard English to describe her
public identity, Tan overcomes the lower-class stigma of being Chinese-American because
English-speaking professionals hear a social equal when she speaks Standard English.
Esperanza and Tan provide examples of how people who speak English as a second
language (ESL) are treated in society. A 1975 study “found a strong relationship between the race
and perceived socioeconomic status (SES) of ... children ... and the teachers' expectations for their
academic success or failure: white children and children of perceived high status were more often
chosen for success” (Boocock, 1978, p. 7). Chinese and Mexican children, and children of other
non-white groups, are often the ESL students in America’s schools. As the study shows, teachers
tend to have lower expectations for these students, so that the students find themselves in a lower
social class even in school. “This process is a challenge for members of stigmatized, negatively
valued groups, who may attempt to dissociate themselves” (Howard, 2000, p. 369). Esperanza’s
desire to assume a non-Spanish name is an example of her dissociation from her Mexican heritage
in her outward identity.
Some non-fluent speakers of English are professionals with excellent educations and
post-graduate degrees in their native languages and countries of origin. Additionally, jobs that
Western society equates with the lower class are honorable, upper class professions in other
societies. “Chinese tradition holds that the businessman is beneath the scholar, farmer and laborer.
Only the soldier was below the merchant” (Wong, 1980, p. 517). ESL individuals who were
middle-class or upper-class workers in their original cultures are forced to choose how the clash
between that past and the stigma of the American lower class impact their identities. Like
Esperanza, who equates her Spanish name with sadness and with waiting, many ESL persons
allow lower-class stereotypes to define their identities.
Along with the stigma of being lower-class citizens, women like Tan and Esperanza
contend with the social stigma of being unintelligent because they do not speak fluent English, and
“language often serves as a key indicator of ethnic identity” (Schnittker, 2002, p. 58). English-
speaking Americans tend to judge intelligence based on a woman's fluency in Standard English.
380 A Journey Through My College Papers
ESL women are judged to be unintelligent because they lack English fluency, regardless of their
actual intelligence. “People act in ways that are taken as ‘having’ a language, which is equated to
‘belonging’ to an origin group” (Urciuoli, 1995, p. 525). Having Spanish or Chinese as a primary
language contributes to a person’s cultural identity, and carries with it the stigmas associated with
that culture. In the United States, many languages, as well as regional dialects of English, are
associated with a lack of intelligence. Tan, who is a well-educated, intelligent, Chinese-American
woman, describes her mother’s intelligence: “She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street
Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease--all
kinds of things I can't begin to understand” (Tan, 1990, para. 6). Tan’s mother is treated as though
she is unintelligent when she deals with medical professionals because she does not speak fluent
English, but she is an intelligent woman. Tan speaks fluent English in professional situations,
such as academic presentations, so her intelligence will not be masked by the blended Chinese-
English of her childhood.
“Of the formal adaptations associated with acculturation, language use is perhaps the
most prominent” (Schnittker, 2002, p. 58). In the United States, non-English individuals are
usually encouraged to learn English. In the past, non-English children were forced to abandon
their native languages and to speak only English in school. Children who do not adapt to English
are stigmatized as unintelligent, and they also face the stigma of being trouble makers or of being
lower-class citizens, as discussed above. In her story, Tan describes using a form of broken
English at home, and she comments “there are other Asian-American students whose English
spoken in the home might also be described as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’” (Tan, 1990, para. 17). Not
only individuals who speak English as a second language, but also those who speak certain
English dialects, such as the “Redneck” dialect of the American South, Ebonics, or urban ghetto
dialects, are treated as unintelligent because they are not fluent in Standard English.
“Students in every ethnic group are allowed to misinterpret feedback on their level of
effort and achievement, but the process is stronger among ... Spanish-surname students”
(Boocock, 1978, p. 11). This misinterpretation may be a factor in Esperanza’s desire to have a
non-Spanish name. She does not mention her surname in her story, but she discusses the linguistic
source of her given name. ESL students with Spanish names are allowed to believe that they are
unintelligent because they are not fluent in Standard English. The social stigma of being
unintelligent can become self-fulfilling in some individuals whose outward identity is defined by
the language-based stereotype. When the outward identity of being unintelligent persists, the
individual may begin to believe the stereotype, and to adopt an inner identity that rejects the
individual’s true intelligence in favor of society’s view of non-English speakers.
In addition to being stigmatized as being lower class and being unintelligent, ESL individuals in
American society are treated as though their ideas and concerns are unimportant because the
women lack English fluency. They can be dismissed by English-fluent professionals, such as
doctors and lawyers, because of the women's broken English.
Esperanza discusses her great-grandmother’s feelings of being unimportant. “She [was]
sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her
name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 4). Esperanza’s
outward identity includes the sense of watching life from a window and not being important
enough to influence the events of her life. Esperanza’s inner identity rejects that role, and seeks to
be empowered in her own life. “Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do” (Cisneros, 1984, para.
5). Esperanza chooses to shape her inner identity with personal strength and the ability to choose
her own path. By choosing to adopt a non-Spanish name, she also seeks to change the outward
identity that society assigns to her.
Tan describes the stigma of unimportance associated with not speaking fluent English:
“when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was
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ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say ...
the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did
not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear
her” (Tan, 1990, para. 8). Her mother’s outward identity is defined by her broken English. She is
not taken seriously in society because she does not speak the prestigious Standard English. In
order to be taken seriously as a writer, Tan develops fluency in English. Her inner identity
includes her childhood shame over her mother’s perceived unimportance, and she perfects her
formal English so that her outward identity will be that of a person of importance and value in
society.
Like many women in America who do not speak English as their first language, Tan and
Esperanza are faced with the social stigma of being lower-class, unintelligent, and unimportant in
society. Society’s stereotypes and social stigmas define the outward identities of these women.
Each of these women has learned to speak and to write fluent Standard English so that she will be
taken seriously in society. Esperanza rejects her native language, creating an inner identity that
sets aside the social stigma of being a Spanish-language Mexican-American. Tan, on the other
hand, chooses to embrace the broken Chinese-English of her mother and of her childhood, once
she has already attained an outward identity as a famous writer. Her inner identity includes the
rich imagery of her Chinese language heritage. Society’s perceptions of an individual are often
shaped by the language in which the individual communicates with the world. The individual’s
response to these outward perceptions form the individual’s outward identity. The outward
identity does not necessarily define a person’s inner identity. Just as Tan embraces the broken
English of her childhood as part of her inner identity, so can any individual choose to accept or to
reject any part of his or her culture, and of society’s perceptions, in defining his or her personal,
inner identity.
References
Boocock, S.S. (1978). The Social Organization of the Classroom. Annual Review of
Sociology, 4, 1-28. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2945963
Cisneros, S. (1984). My Name. The House on Mango Street, 25-27. New York: Vintage Books.
Retrieved from http://theliterarylink.com/mangostreet.html
Howard, J.A. (2000). Social Psychology of Identities. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 367-393.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/223449
Irvine, J. T. (1985). Status and Style in Language. Annual Review of Anthropology, 14, 557-581.
Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155606
Schnittker, J. (2002, March). Acculturation in Context: The Self-Esteem of Chinese
Immigrants. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65 (1), 56-76. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090168
Tan, A. (1990). Mother Tongue. Retrieved from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13297165/Mother-Tongue-By-Amy-Tan-I-Am-Not-A
Urciuoli, B. (1995). Language and Borders. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 525-546.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155948
Wong, M.G. (1980). Changes in Socioeconomic Status of the Chinese Male Population in
the United States from 1960 to 1970. International Migration Review, 14 (4), 511-
524. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2545425
382 A Journey Through My College Papers
Research on an Aesthetic Movement 3/22/2012
The Iranian women's movement is a recent development. Before the 1979 revolution in
Iran, women had Western-style rights in marriage and divorce, and they were not veiled. "For
decades, Iranian women had been unveiled, had divorce and marriage rights, had the right to
choose a husband, rather than have one chosen for them, and were very visible in public life. And
then, almost overnight, it changed" (Lyden & Ardalan, 2009, para. 2). When the Ayatollah
Khomeini came into power in Iran in 1979, women were forced to wear the gowns and veils that
are required by Islamic law, and most human rights of women were removed. In the 1990s,
women in Iran, and women who left Iran to live in the West, began to resist the oppression of
Iranian women. This is the Iranian women's movement.
Iranian women today resist oppression against them, but "they see feminism as a western
and secular struggle that holds little value for them or their society" (Stewart, 2001, para. 8). They
do not equate resisting oppression with feminism. Persian social customs require women to be
modest and secretive about their personal lives. "Modesty and secrecy prevented Iranian women
from recording our life narratives until recently" (Goldin, 2004, para. 12). Memoirs and other
biographical literature by Iranian women assists the Iranian women's movement by giving Iranian
women a voice in the world. Women often have difficulty using literature to express their
experiences because family members threaten them with harm if the women write about family
experiences or members of their families. Iranian women in the West are better able to write
about conditions in Iran because they are separated from the oppression in their native country.
In 1979, many young women were part of the revolution in Iran. Lyden and Ardalan
(2009) quote the well-known Iranian author, Azar Nafisi: "I was one of the dissenters. I was very,
very active in the student movement here" (para. 11). In 2004, Nafisi wrote Reading Lolita in
Tehran, which helps Western audiences to understand something of the oppression experienced by
women in Iran. In her book, Nafisi describes a group of female students who met for discussions
in her home: "Splashes of color separate one from the next. Each has become distinct through the
color and style of her clothes, the color and the length of her hair; not even the two who are still
wearing their head scarves look the same" (Nafisi, 2004, para. 4). The colors and the individual
styles of the women are concealed by the robes and veils they are required to wear in public;
wearing clothing of their own choice under the veils is part of the young women's resistance to the
oppression of women in Iran. Resisting oppression in secret is the Iranian women's movement.
Unlike the women's movement in the United States, in which women held marches and
demonstrations, making a lot of public noise about their need and desire for equality with men, the
women's movement in Iran is quiet, modest, and subtle on the outside. Iranian women have a long
history of being private about their views, and secretive in their dealings with the world. These
cultural traits are being maintained as "year by year, women were winning an eighth of an inch of
hair and losing an eighth of an inch of veil" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 75). Restoring the
freedoms of Iranian women is "not just about women's rights, but Iran's ancient tradition of human
rights" (Lyden & Ardalan, 2009, para. 25). Many Iranian women helped to overthrow the
Westernized Shah and to bring a return to traditional Islamic practices in Iran. In doing so, they
lost many human rights and freedoms that had been supported by the Shah in the decades before
1979.
References:
Goldin, F. (2004). Iranian women and contemporary memoirs. Persian Heritage. Retrieved
from
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http://www.iranchamber.com/culture/articles/iranian_women_contemporary_memo
irs.php
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Lyden, J. & Ardalan, D.I. (2009). Despite odds, women's movement persists In Iran.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100039579
Nafisi, A. (2004). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Retrieved from
http://www.enotalone.com/personal-growth/5201.html
Stewart, D. (2001). In search of Islamic feminism: One woman's global journey. Asian Journal of
Women's Studies, 7(4), 132. Retrieved from ProQuest Central.
Analyzing a Literary Work in Relation to Sociopolitical Contexts and
Movements 3/22/2012
In Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi illustrates how the Iranian women's movement
is regaining ground that was lost after the 1979 revolution. The One Million Signatures Campaign
identifies the necessary elements of social change as: "Public Sensitivity, Awareness, legal
protection, Open and Candid discussion ... and Continued Education" (Farokhnia, 2009, para. 5).
Nafisi's story encompasses all of these elements except legal protection.
By writing about the young women who met in her home for literary discussions, Nafisi
promotes both awareness of the conditions of women in Iran, and public sensitivity to these
condition. She opens her story with a discussion of two photographs of herself with her students.
In one picture, each of the women is swathed in the required hijab; in the other, the same women
have removed the hijabs, and each woman's individual personality is expressed in her hair and
clothing choices. "Splashes of color separate one from the next. Each has become distinct through
the color and style of her clothes, the color and the length of her hair; not even the two who are
still wearing their head scarves look the same" (Nafisi, 2004, para. 4). The juxtaposition of these
two photographs illustrates how women in Iran are oppressed and effaced by the anonymity of the
hijab, while women in Iran quietly assert their individual ideas and personalities in secret, under
the robes and veils.
Nafisi's story represents the element of continued education. "In the fall of 1995, after
resigning from my last academic post ... I chose seven of my best and most committed students
and invited them to come to my home every Thursday morning to discuss literature" (Nafisi, 2004,
para. 1). Nafisi is no longer teaching in a formal, academic environment, but she continues to
encourage learning and academic discussion in the privacy of her home. By allowing -- or even
encouraging -- her students to removed their hijabs while discussing literature in her home, Nafisi
encourages open and candid discussion among the young women. Nafisi's group includes a poet,
a comedienne, and a painter. Each of the seven young women is a unique individual, who brings
her personality to the discussions.
Nafisi evokes public sensitivity to the plight of women in Iran by discussing not only the
women in the photographs, but also one young woman who is not pictured. "Nassrin ... is not in
the photographs ... my tale would be incomplete without those who could not or did not remain
with us. Their absences persist, like an acute pain that seems to have no physical source" (Nafisi,
2004, para. 11). Iran is not a safe place for women in the Iranian women's movement, and Nafisi's
story suggests that Nassrin is not simply gone from the group, but that she is permanently gone.
Nafisi is an Iranian woman who writes about Iranian women and about life in Iran.
"Through politics, literature, religion and poetry, women's voices have at times been like roars,
384 A Journey Through My College Papers
and at others, like whispers of dissent" (Lyden & Ardalan, 2009, para. 1). Nafisi's voice has
become a roar for the women's movement as she has become a best-selling writer; the
interpretation of Reading Lolita in Tehran into a motion picture by Industry Entertainment and
Nick Wechsler Productions has made her story available to a vast, Western audience. Nafisi does
not push for loud, fast, radical changes in Iran, as much as she encourages the young women in her
literature group to expand their thinking and to express their individuality in safe, careful ways.
References:
Farokhnia, S. (2009). Challenges of the Iranian women’s movement – old & new.
Retrieved from http://www.changeforequality-
ca.org/English/ChallengesIranianWomenMovement.html
Lyden, J. & Ardalan, D.I. (2009). Despite odds, women's movement persists In Iran.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100039579
Nafisi, A. (2004). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Retrieved from
http://www.enotalone.com/personal-growth/5201.html
Comparing Satrapi and Nafisi May 1, 2013
There are many ways to tell a story, and to increase public awareness of a social concern
or a political movement. An author may write an essay, a poem, or a novel to get the message out.
Each literary genre presents a different aspect of a situation and appeals to a different audience.
While “Convocation,” by Marjane Satrapi, and Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, illustrate
similar cultural and political themes, the two stories are from different literary genres and appeal
to different Western audiences.
“Convocation” is part of a graphic novel. This is a literary form that appeals to modern,
young audiences in the West and in the Far East. In order to follow the dialogue and narration, the
reader must move back and forth between and among dialogue bubbles. This back-and-forth
movement of the eyes resembles the movement that occurs when one watches and listens to a
conversation between or among two or more people in a face-to-face setting. Using this format
allows Satrapi to draw the audience into the story and to allow the audience to experience the
events of the story as though the reader is present in the story. In contrast, reading Lolita in
Tehran is written in a traditional, narrative form. The reader follows Nafisi’s thoughts and
experiences through the smooth flow of one paragraph following another in a logical progression.
This literary form appeals to more mature, Western audiences that are more comfortable with
writing that is presented in an essay format.
The different literary styles of the two stories are also evident in the illustrations, or lack
thereof, in the two works. As a graphic novel, “Convocation” is heavily illustrated. The
depictions of the people and places of the story are rendered in black-and-white, with no grayscale
images to soften the lines of the illustrations. The drawings are simple, with little detail in the
features of the characters, but they evoke strong emotions for the story by their stark lines.
Reading Lolita in Tehran does not contain visual images or illustrations. The imagery of the story
is presented through Nafisi’s evocative descriptions of her subjects, and of her experiences. “Next
to Manna is Mahshid, whose long black scarf clashes with her delicate features and retreating
smile” (Nafisi, 2004, para. 6). The reader sees the strong contrast between the black scarf and the
girl’s delicate features. In both stories, the audience is called to feel the difference between the
cultural and legal restrictions of Iran and the personal identities of the young, female characters by
the use of black and white, or harsh and delicate, imagery. While the two stories differ in the ways
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in which they present imagery to the audience, each story upholds the elements of the Iranian
women’s movement by offering to the audience public sensitivity to and awareness of the
conditions of women in Iran (Farokhnia, 2009, paras. 4-5).
“Convocation” and Reading Lolita in Tehran are both autobiographical stories, each of
which illustrates some of the challenges associated with being a young woman in Iran.
“September 1989. I was finally a student” (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 74). “In the fall of
1995, after resigning from my last academic post, I decided to indulge myself and fulfill a dream”
(Nafisi, 2004, para. 1). “Convocation” is set in 1989, while Reading Lolita in Tehran is set in
1995. Each story takes place in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution of 1979, and each story
illustrates the oppression of Iranian women that exists since the fall of the Shah. “Convocation” is
written as a story of a specific chain of events, including follows the classic plot order of
exposition, complication, climax, falling action, and denouement. The main complication of the
story is the assembly, at which officials dictate how female students should dress. The climax
comes at the end of the assembly, when Satrapi’s character speaks out against the increased
oppression of female students and is then “summoned by the Islamic Commission” (Hirschberg &
Hirschberg, 2012, p. 80). The denouement comes when Satrapi is allowed to help find a
compromise that will give women some freedom while still observing the modesty requirements
of her culture. Reading Lolita in Tehran is an introspective memoir of Nafisi’s final group of
students as she remembers the individual qualities of each young woman. The story does not
follow the classic plot order; it is the musings of a woman in exile as she looks at a pair of
photographs that represent the outward oppression and the inner individuality of Iranian women.
In each story, the author expresses the ways in which the female characters express
themselves through different hair style and clothing choices under the required hijabs. Each story
has one male student who is not allowed to associate socially with the female characters, thus
making the point that males and females are segregated in modern, Iranian culture. Although
“Convocation” is a graphic novel and Reading Lolita in Tehran is an introspective essay, the
themes of female oppression and of secret female expression of personal aesthetics are the same
from one story to the other. Each story raises public sensitivity to and awareness of the plight of
young women in Iran, and each provides a degree of “candid discussion” of the issues faced by
young, Iranian women (Farokhnia, 2009, para. 5). By telling similar stories in such dissimilar
literary forms, Satrapi and Nafisi appeal to a wider, Western audience than can be reached through
a single literary medium.
References
Farokhnia, S. (2009). Challenges of the Iranian women’s movement – old & new.
Retrieved from http://www.changeforequality-
ca.org/English/ChallengesIranianWomenMovement.html
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Nafisi, A. (2004). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Retrieved from
http://www.enotalone.com/personal-growth/5201.html
Identity Within and Without May 1, 2013
Each person has at least two identities: the inner, personal identity that is created by the
individual’s hopes, dreams, and ideas; and the outward, public identity that is like a veneer, and
that is created by society’s beliefs, expectations, and stereotypes about the individual and about the
386 A Journey Through My College Papers
individual’s ethnicity, origin, language, and other factors. Amy Tan, of “Mother Tongue,” and
Esperanza Cordero, of “My Name,” each describe experiences that illustrate how language and
culture influence each woman’s personal and public identity. Neither Tan nor Esperanza is a
native speaker of English, but each of their stories suggests that they are each fluent in English as
a second language. Amy is a young woman of Chinese descent, and Esperanza is a young woman
of Mexican descent; each young woman’s parents speak their native language at home. In the
United States, both Chinese immigrants and Mexican immigrants have experienced hardships as a
result of their inability to use Standard English. Like Amy and Esperanza, many women in
America, for whom English is a second language, are faced with the social stigma of being lower-
class, unintelligent, and unimportant in society, which shapes both their public identities and their
personal identities.
Linguistic differences may be as small as speaking a regional or class-based dialect of the
predominant language of one’s geographic area, or they may be as large as speaking a language
that is entirely different from the local language. English-speaking Americans tend to treat
linguistic differences “as a single sociolinguistic process reflecting the perception of social norms
... [and] variants associated with nonprestigious groups may become stigmatized and avoided”
(Irvine, 1985, p. 558). In the United States, Standard English is the prestige dialect of English; the
social status of an individual is often determined in large part by how well he or she speaks
Standard English, or by how much his or her linguistic ability deviates from Standard English.
Even in cultural groups in the United States that value dialects other than Standard English, many
members of a group will strive to attain fluency in Standard English in order to compete in the
professional job market. Individuals who do not speak fluent English have historically taken jobs
as farm laborers, as domestic help, and as workers in manufacturing plants, because they lack the
English fluency needed to obtain more prestigious, professional employment. This is especially
true for Chinese women and for Mexican women. “Chinese ... worked in large numbers in the
mines and on the railroads ... they turned to the agricultural sector as their main source of
occupation ... or specialize in those occupations rejected by or noncompetitive with the whites”
(Wong, 1980, p. 511). The assumption among English-speaking Americans, especially among
those of white, Western European descent, is that these non-prestigious jobs represent the
identities of the women who work in them. Because the jobs that are often done by women who
speak broken or limited English are low-paying jobs of the lower class, the women who work in
these jobs are believed to be lower-class citizens. The assumption becomes a stereotype, which is
then applied to any person who does not speak Standard English. The stereotype, then, becomes
part of the public identities of these individuals. When the stereotype persists over several
generations, individuals will often assume the public identity of being lower-class citizens as part
of their inner, personal identities. When this happens, it becomes very difficult for the individual
to overcome the lower-class stigma to rise to a more prestigious level of society.
In “My Name,” Esperanza feels the public stereotype of Mexican-Americans as lower-
class people. Her feelings about her language and about her cultural heritage are colored by the
actions and reactions of the people around her. She discusses her feelings about her name, and
about her Mexican heritage. She describes her name as "sadness, ... waiting ... A muddy color ...
like sobbing" (Cisneros, 1984, para. 1). The images of sadness and of dirt represent the lower-
class stereotype with which Esperanza lives. It is the identity that society has created for her.
Esperanza is aware that the stereotype is based on the linguistic source of her name. She is a
Mexican woman, and she has a Spanish name. Esperanza “would like to baptize myself under a
new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza”
(Cisneros, 1984, para. 5). Lisandra is a Greek name, and Maritza is Hebrew. Neither Greek nor
Hebrew has the negative social stigma that is attached to Spanish. It is not only her own Spanish
name that Esperanza dislikes. “But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like
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silver, not quite as thick as sister's name Magdalena--which is uglier than mine” (Cisneros, 1984,
para. 5). Esperanza acknowledges that there is some beauty in her name when it is considered in a
Spanish context, even though her name depresses her when considered in an English-dominated,
American context. She dislikes her sister’s name even more than she dislikes her own name.
Esperanza believes that she can change her public identity if she can escape the stigma of her
Spanish language.
Although Esperanza is a fictional character, her story illustrates how society’s
perceptions of her language influence her sense of identity. This reflects “Puerto Rican women’s
Spanish narratives showing internalization of majority attitudes toward them” (Urciuoli, 1995, p.
536). Even her inner, personal identity is shaped by these influences as she struggles with her
dislike of her name, and with her feelings about the fate of her great-grandmother, after whom she
is named. “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness
on an elbow” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 4). Esperanza thinks of her great-grandmother as being
imprisoned by the dictates of her Mexican heritage, which is represented in Esperanza’s life and in
her ideas by her Spanish language. Esperanza seeks to create a personality that does not include
watching her life from the sidelines. Esperanza wishes to create an inner personality that is active
and vital, and that is able to escape the stigma of being lower-class.
Amy Tan (1990) recognizes that she uses more than one form of English. “Recently, I
was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use” (para. 3). Tan uses a blended form of
English and Chinese, with some code switching, and with some grammar from each language, in
her communication with her family. This form of English is part of her personal, inner identity,
and it gives her access to the rich imagery of the Chinese language. In professional and academic
associations, however, Tan uses Standard English. By allowing Standard English to describe her
public identity, Tan overcomes the lower-class stigma of being Chinese-American because
English-speaking professionals hear a social equal when she speaks Standard English.
Esperanza and Tan provide examples of how people who speak English as a second
language (ESL) are treated in society. A 1975 study “found a strong relationship between the race
and perceived socioeconomic status (SES) of ... children ... and the teachers' expectations for their
academic success or failure: white children and children of perceived high status were more often
chosen for success” (Boocock, 1978, p. 7). Chinese and Mexican children, and children of other
non-white groups, are often the ESL students in America’s schools. As the study shows, teachers
tend to have lower expectations for these students, so that the students find themselves in a lower
social class even in school. These expectations are often self-fulfilling prophecies for ESL
students, who often achieve lower grades and less-prestigious adult employment because they
have learned not to expect anything better from themselves. “This process is a challenge for
members of stigmatized, negatively valued groups, who may attempt to dissociate themselves”
(Howard, 2000, p. 369). Esperanza’s desire to assume a non-Spanish name is an example of her
dissociation from her Mexican heritage in her outward identity. She seeks to achieve a higher
social status, and to improve her own sense of self-worth, by eschewing her native language and
assuming a new name from a language with fewer negative social connotations.
Although individuals who do not speak fluent English may be viewed as lower-class
citizens in the United States, many of these individuals do not come from the lower classes in their
countries of origin. Some non-fluent speakers of English are professionals with excellent
educations and post-graduate degrees in their native languages and countries of origin.
Additionally, jobs that Western society equates with the lower class are honorable, upper class
professions in other societies. “Chinese tradition holds that the businessman is beneath the
scholar, farmer and laborer. Only the soldier was below the merchant” (Wong, 1980, p. 517). ESL
individuals who were middle-class or upper-class workers in their original cultures are forced to
choose how the clash between that past and the stigma of the American lower class impact their
388 A Journey Through My College Papers
identities. Like Esperanza, who equates her Spanish name with sadness and with waiting, many
ESL persons allow lower-class stereotypes to define their identities.
Along with the stigma of being lower-class citizens, women like Tan and Esperanza
contend with the social stigma of being unintelligent because they do not speak fluent English, and
“language often serves as a key indicator of ethnic identity” (Schnittker, 2002, p. 58). English-
speaking Americans tend to judge intelligence based on a woman's fluency in Standard English.
ESL women are judged to be unintelligent because they lack English fluency, regardless of their
actual intelligence. “People act in ways that are taken as ‘having’ a language, which is equated to
‘belonging’ to an origin group” (Urciuoli, 1995, p. 525). Having Spanish or Chinese as a primary
language contributes to a person’s cultural identity, and carries with it the stigmas associated with
that culture. In the United States, many languages, as well as regional dialects of English, are
associated with a lack of intelligence. An English-speaking individual from America’s Deep
South, or from many ethnic enclaves in urban centers, may be judged to be unintelligent because
his or her regional or ethnic dialect of English deviates from Standard English in much the same
way that an ESL individual may be judged to be unintelligent. Tan, who is a well-educated,
intelligent, Chinese-American woman, describes her mother’s intelligence: “She reads the Forbes
report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley
MacLaine's books with ease--all kinds of things I can't begin to understand” (Tan, 1990, para. 6).
Tan’s mother is treated as though she is unintelligent when she deals with medical professionals
because she does not speak fluent English, but she is an intelligent woman. Tan speaks fluent
English in professional situations, such as academic presentations, so her intelligence will not be
masked by the blended Chinese-English of her childhood.
“Of the formal adaptations associated with acculturation, language use is perhaps the
most prominent” (Schnittker, 2002, p. 58). In the United States, non-English individuals are
usually encouraged to learn English. In the past, non-English children were forced to abandon
their native languages and to speak only English in school. In many American schools, students
are still required to participate in full-inclusion classrooms with English as the primary language
for all students, regardless of the individual’s English fluency. Children who do not adapt to
English are stigmatized as unintelligent, and they also face the stigma of being trouble makers or
of being lower-class citizens, as discussed above. They are often viewed as trouble-makers
because of their linguistic difficulties, or they are passed over as not being worth the teacher’s
time and effort. In her story, Tan describes using a form of broken English at home, and she
comments “there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also
be described as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’” (Tan, 1990, para. 17). Not only individuals who speak
English as a second language, but also those who speak certain English dialects, such as the
“Redneck” dialect of the American South, Ebonics, or urban ghetto dialects, are treated as
unintelligent because they are not fluent in Standard English.
“Students in every ethnic group are allowed to misinterpret feedback on their level of
effort and achievement, but the process is stronger among ... Spanish-surname students”
(Boocock, 1978, p. 11). This misinterpretation may be a factor in Esperanza’s desire to have a
non-Spanish name. She does not mention her surname in her story, but she discusses the linguistic
source of her given name. ESL students with Spanish names are allowed to believe that they are
unintelligent because they are not fluent in Standard English. The social stigma of being
unintelligent can become self-fulfilling in some individuals whose outward identity is defined by
the language-based stereotype. When the outward identity of being unintelligent persists, the
individual may begin to believe the stereotype, and to adopt an inner identity that rejects the
individual’s true intelligence in favor of society’s view of non-English speakers.
In addition to being stigmatized as being lower class and being unintelligent, ESL individuals in
American society are treated as though their ideas and concerns are unimportant because the
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women lack English fluency. They can be dismissed by English-fluent professionals, such as
doctors and lawyers, because of the women's broken English.
Esperanza discusses her great-grandmother’s feelings of being unimportant. “She [was]
sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her
name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window” (Cisneros, 1984, para. 4). Esperanza’s
outward identity includes the sense of watching life from a window and not being important
enough to influence the events of her life. Esperanza’s inner identity rejects that role, and seeks to
be empowered in her own life. “Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do” (Cisneros, 1984, para.
5). Esperanza chooses to shape her inner identity with personal strength and the ability to choose
her own path. By choosing to adopt a non-Spanish name, she also seeks to change the outward
identity that society assigns to her.
Tan describes the stigma of unimportance associated with not speaking fluent English:
“when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was
ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say ...
the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did
not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear
her” (Tan, 1990, para. 8). Her mother’s outward identity is defined by her broken English. She is
not taken seriously in society because she does not speak the prestigious Standard English. In
order to be taken seriously as a writer, Tan develops fluency in English. Her inner identity
includes her childhood shame over her mother’s perceived unimportance, and she perfects her
formal English so that her outward identity will be that of a person of importance and value in
society.
Like many women in America who do not speak English as their first language, or who
lack the linguistic competency to speak fluent Standard English, Tan and Esperanza are faced with
the social stigma of being lower-class, unintelligent, and unimportant in society. Society’s
stereotypes and social stigmas define the outward identities of these women. Each of these
women has learned to speak and to write fluent Standard English so that she will be taken
seriously in society. Esperanza rejects her native language, creating an inner identity that sets
aside the social stigma of being a Spanish-language Mexican-American. Tan, on the other hand,
chooses to embrace the broken Chinese-English of her mother and of her childhood, once she has
already attained an outward identity as a famous writer. Her inner identity includes the rich
imagery of her Chinese language heritage. Society’s perceptions of an individual are often shaped
by the language in which the individual communicates with the world, and by the fluency with
which the individual speaks the dominant language of the local culture. The individual’s
responses to these outward perceptions form the individual’s outward identity. The outward
identity does not necessarily define a person’s inner identity. Just as Tan embraces the broken
English of her childhood as part of her inner identity, so can any individual choose to accept or to
reject any part of his or her culture, and of society’s perceptions, in defining his or her personal,
inner identity.
References
Boocock, S.S. (1978). The Social Organization of the Classroom. Annual Review of
Sociology, 4, 1-28. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2945963
Cisneros, S. (1984). My Name. The House on Mango Street, 25-27. New York: Vintage Books.
Retrieved from http://theliterarylink.com/mangostreet.html
Howard, J.A. (2000). Social Psychology of Identities. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 367-393.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/223449
Irvine, J. T. (1985). Status and Style in Language. Annual Review of Anthropology, 14, 557-581.
Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155606
390 A Journey Through My College Papers
Schnittker, J. (2002, March). Acculturation in Context: The Self-Esteem of Chinese
Immigrants. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65 (1), 56-76. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090168
Tan, A. (1990). Mother Tongue. Retrieved from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13297165/Mother-Tongue-By-Amy-Tan-I-Am-Not-A
Urciuoli, B. (1995). Language and Borders. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 525-546.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155948
Wong, M.G. (1980). Changes in Socioeconomic Status of the Chinese Male Population in
the United States from 1960 to 1970. International Migration Review, 14 (4), 511-
524. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2545425
Personal Reflection on Global Culture 3/29/2012
Globalization is evident in my life in the things I buy and use, in the foods I eat, and in
the many non-English signs I see in many public places. As I look around my desk area, there is a
Dynex television, which was made by the Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Company. My
MyTouch phone was made by the Chinese company, Huawei. The shirt I am wearing says "Made
in India," while my trousers say "Made in Taiwan." Many of my children's toys are made in
various Asian countries, as well. Global trade has made all of these things available to our
Western culture, and most of us use foreign-made products every day. Even producing this post
involves a keyboard that was made in Thailand, a mouse that was made in China, and a monitor
that was made in Taiwan; I was pleasantly surprised to see that the computer itself was made in
Irvine, California.
My family eats a wide variety of foods that would not be available, or even known to us,
without globalization. I am preparing homemade sushi for tonight's dinner, using nori (roasted
seaweed), gari (pickled ginger), and miso (a soup) that I buy online from three different companies
in Japan. We regularly eat foods from Mexico, India, the Middle East, Italy, Poland, Japan,
China, and Thailand. We learn the native names of the foods we eat, and sometimes the customs
for how to eat them.
Yesterday, I took a friend's 3-year-old daughter for lunch. Because she watches Dora the
Explorer, she knew what a warning sign that was printed in Spanish meant when I read it to her.
She knew that "cuidado piso mojado" meant to be careful because the floor was wet. She comes
from an English-only home, and knows no speakers of Spanish, but our global culture has taught
her to recognize a Spanish warning.
My personal cultural identity is a blend of English, Irish, and Scot. Growing up, I was
not exposed to other cultures beyond the influence of pizza and spaghetti, and my mother's idea of
Chinese food was opening a can of La Choy chicken chow mein. Certainly, we had things that
were made in other countries, but we were not actively aware of other cultures. As I grew up, my
awareness of global influences increased. A Japanese-American classmate shared the packages of
snack foods that her grandmother sent from Japan. A Nigerian-American family in my church
was my first contact with racial hatreds (from the white members, not from the Nigerians). An
Indian-American (subcontinent) classmate had to defend his right not to be called African
American based on his skin color. As an adult, my enriching involvement in an extended family
of Hispanics added to my awareness. On the other hand, my family being physically and verbally
attacked by black neighbors who told us to go back to the white neighborhoods where we
belonged was a very negative experience that added to my cultural awareness. Each of these
events has contributed to my cultural identity. Today, I interact with very few non-whites, simply
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because I live in a fairly white suburb, but there are Chinese, Hispanics, African Americans, and
others in my church, with each of whom I am very pleased to interact on a social level.
I appreciate the wide variety of inexpensive products that globalization has made
available, but I find the loss of products made by local craftsmen to be a challenge to my sense of
balance in the world. I appreciate the many non-local foods that we eat, but I feel a similar
challenge to balance when fresh, local foods are hard to find or expensive to buy. I deeply value
the friends I have made who came from other cultures, and I have learned important lessons from
even the most difficult interpersonal encounters. If I'm really honest, I would be willing to give up
a lot of the cheap, foreign-made things in my life if I could replace them with local products. I
yearn for the age of barter, and many of my close associates still use barter and trade among
ourselves. I feel like the Ladakhis in our reading: "In the traditional culture, villagers provided for
their basic needs without money ... Now, suddenly, as part of the international money economy,
Ladakhis find themselves ever more dependent" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 192). I feel
dependent on money, and my experiences have taught me that dependence is a weakness that
hinders and harms the dependent person. My family responds to the challenges that we face by
using more locally-crafted products, made from natural materials, and by eating less processed
food than we used to eat. It is an opportunity to examine our lives, and to make some positive
changes that will increase our personal senses of independence.
References
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Artistic Representations of the Effects of Intersecting Cultures 3/29/2012
In "China Chic: East Meets West," by Valerie Steele and John S. Major, the clash
between cultures is evident in the efforts of the Western missionaries to convince the Chinese that
"the practice [of foot binding] was 'barbaric,' unhealthy, and oppressive to women" (Hirschberg &
Hirschberg, 2012, p. 421). For a millennium before that point, the practice of binding the feet of
Chinese girls "simultaneously provided reassurance about their social status, proper gender
relationships, and Chinese identity" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 419). When the Western
missionaries arrived, this cultural tradition was overturned in a relatively short time.
Imposing Western ideas on the Chinese produced conflict among the Chinese as part of
the society adopted the Western ideas and another part continued to embrace the female-oriented
customs. The Chinese survived many clashes with other Eastern cultures over the course of a
millennium without substantial harm to the practice of foot binding, but intersecting with Western
culture ended the practice, although the Qing dynasty did try to forbid the practice.
Reading this article reminded me of a fairy tale by Frances Hodgson Burnett, called "The
Story of Prince Fairyfoot." In the story, big feet are a sign of beauty, while tiny feet are
considered ugly. The title character seeks magical help from the fairies to make his feet large. He
finds a pool that will change his feet, but discovers that he prefers his natural foot size at the end
of the story. (Burnett, 1888). Traditions and cultures serve to shape personal identity. Just as
Burnett's characters define their personal identities based on the size of their feet, so, too, did
Chinese women define their identities based on the sizes of their feet, and so did Western women
define their identities by how near they could come with corsets to "the sixteen-inch waist"
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 420). When Chinese women interacted with the West, they
392 A Journey Through My College Papers
had to give up the practice of foot binding and allow the natural growth of their feet, because
"China could be strengthened vis-à-vis the West, if only Chinese women became stronger
physically" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 421). Western influence on Chinese culture
changed Chinese culture to be more like that of the West.
The practice of foot binding "hindered national efforts to resist western imperialism"
(Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 421). The use of the word "imperialism" has a strong,
negative connotation. It implies that the West intended to conquer China to add China to an
empire, rather than to work with China as global partners that could share ideas and cultures. The
word causes the reader to look unfavorably on the West's interaction with China, so that the
intersection of cultures becomes Western interference in Chinese culture. Alternatively, the article
refers several times to the pain suffered by Chinese women, and it refers to the women whose feet
have been modified as being crippled. Crippled is another word with strongly negative
connotations, as a crippled person is somehow inferior to a person who is whole and healthy.
While "imperialism" suggests that the influence that ended foot binding was bad, "crippled"
suggests that the practice itself was bad. By presenting both viewpoints, the article gives a fairly
balanced view of the practice and of its demise.
References
Burnett, F.H. (1888). The story of Prince Fairyfoot. Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories.
Retrieved from http://www.online-literature.com/burnett/3044/
Hirschberg, S., & Hirschberg, T. (Eds.) (2012) One world, many cultures. (8th ed.). United
States: Pearson Education, Inc.
ENG 318: Creative Writing
Sharing and Writing Events from Our Lives 5/7/2012
Loss is one thing that is shared by every person on the planet. Some losses are relatively
minor, such as the loss of a baby tooth in early childhood. Other losses are much larger, and affect
our lives in more profound ways. I experienced my first profound loss in April of 1985, when I
was in the tenth grade. That was when my best friend left me alone in the world. One morning he
was in my life, and the next morning he was gone forever. More than a quarter of a century has
passed, and the tears still well up in my eyes and in my heart when I allow myself to recall the
moment when I learned that Rick's mother had found his body in his father's den, the gun still in
his hand, dead.
Rick's suicide impacted every relationship in my life, if only for a time. The first
morning after he died -- I learned about it several hours before my classmates because his father
worked with my step-father -- I withdrew even from myself. I walked the halls of the high school,
seeing friends huddled together in weeping clusters, but I was unable to cry. I was unable to feel.
I walked across campus to my first class, which was in a building away from the rest of the school.
I heard the principal announce Rick's death over the public address system. When the principal
called for a moment of silence, my grief erupted from somewhere deep inside. I don't remember
arriving at the classroom; I only remember sobbing hysterically. I wept through the entire first
class. I couldn't think a single coherent thought. Only vaguely do I remember walking back
across campus to the biology lab. I could not stop crying. The students who sat near me took me
out of class and called a ride to take me home. Three girls who had only been friendly
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acquaintances until then stayed with me in the office until the ride arrived. Later, I realized that
they were real friends: the kind of friends I could depend on in a crisis.
My friendships and my associations with my peers changed after Rick's death. I
discovered that he was my only real connection to the circle of people with whom I had been the
closest during that school year. After watching Rick's girlfriend flirt with his friends at his
funeral, I was too disgusted to associate with her or with them. I became close to Rick's parents,
who had always been very kind to me. I'm still in contact with his mother to this day. I drifted
without a circle of friends for several months while I grieved the loss of my closest friend.
Like most teens, I had felt virtually indestructible before Rick's death. Experiencing the
death of a friend my own age was a stunning revelation about the tenuous nature of life. I
discovered that there are shadows in the world. Over the course of many years, I discovered that
this first experience of deep loss interfered with my ability to form and maintain healthy
relationships. I have had to work hard to overcome this influence and to form a healthy, adult
relationship.
I believe this story is worthy of a creative work because the experience of loss is
universal. Readers can connect with the emotions of loss, and can find hope for their own loss
experiences in my recovery from grief and despair. Reading a creative work about a teenage girl's
experience of loss in her friend's suicide can help a reader to "access the past and connect it to the
present and the future" (Thiel, 2005, p. 8).
References
Thiel, D. (2005). Crossroads: Creative writing exercises in four genres. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Reading and Critiquing Creative Writing 5/10/2012
The central idea of "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
is that creative expression is not the cause of madness; creative expression is an outlet by which a
writer avoids madness and remains sane.
In the essay, Gilman discusses why she wrote her story. The mental problems she suffers
before she follows a doctor's instructions to stop writing include fatigue and melancholy, but they
do not include madness. When she stops writing, she approaches "so near the borderline of utter
mental ruin that I could see over" (Thiel, 2005, p. 395). Avoiding creative expression pushes her
to the brink of madness. This is one point of support for the thesis of the essay. A second point is
that Gilman's return to writing is a "narrow escape" from madness (Thiel, 2005, p. 395). When
she resumes her normal work of writing, she reclaims her personal direction and power, which are
anchors for her sanity. Gilman's third supporting point is that her doctor "altered his treatment of
neurasthenia" after reading her story (Thiel, 2005, p. 395). Reading "The Yellow Wallpaper"
helps the doctor understand his error in recommending that Gilman give up writing.
The tone of the essay is at once explanatory and triumphant. Gilman explains her reason
for writing her story, and her final words express her satisfaction at the result of her writing: "and
it worked" (Thiel, 2005, p. 395).
The conclusion of the essay is effective, in that it makes the reader want to read the
original story to see how and why the story worked. The author's successful escape from madness
and her ability to help others by influencing the practices of the specialist encourage the reader
that creative expression is useful and valuable.
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The introduction encouraged me to keep reading in that it piqued my interest in Gilman's
experiences. She presents two opposing views of her original story: one that claims the story
could cause madness, and one that praises the story's "description of incipient insanity" (Thiel,
2005, p. 394).
I might encourage the author to elaborate somewhat on the details of the three months
during which she followed the doctor's instructions to abstain from writing, but I would make such
a suggestion with caution, as too much added detail might interfere with the flow of the essay.
References:
Thiel, D. (2005). Crossroads: Creative writing exercises in four genres. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Sheltered May 1, 2013
“Are you bleeding on any part of your body?”
The question brings me back to the present moment. I am sitting in a chair next to a
large, cluttered desk in a small, crowded office. It is the middle of July. The tall, slim, blonde
woman sitting at the battered, grey, steel desk is being very kind to me, but she has to ask her
questions. It’s a fair question, since this is a domestic violence shelter, but it isn’t a question I was
expecting to answer. The truth is, even though I visited the shelter a few days ago, and I asked the
questions I could think of, I really don’t know what to expect here. My fingers move to the
seeping wounds that hide under my hair, on my scalp, as I nervously answer the question. In my
mind, I wonder whether bleeding will help secure my place here, or whether it will make me too
great a risk to be admitted to the shelter. I take a deep breath, glance around the room, and decide
to be honest.
“Yes, I’m bleeding on my scalp. I pick the scabs when I get nervous or upset, so they
don’t really heal.”
Karen, the intake worker, makes a note in the file on the desk in front of her, but she
doesn’t comment. She glances at me from the corner of her eye as she writes. She has more
questions, which swirl together and blur in my mind. As I answer them, I find myself trying to
explain that it was my mother-in-law’s boyfriend, not my husband, who caused me to bring my
children to this place. Karen asks more questions, trying to understand. Since this is a domestic
violence shelter, Karen assumes that I have been abused by my husband or boyfriend. She isn’t
used to the idea of domestic abuse by anyone else.
Taking my sons to a shelter is at once humiliating and empowering. It is humiliating
because taking such a step makes me feel that I have failed as a parent. I am unable to give them
the safe, stable home that they deserve. Even the other residents of the shelter look at me as if I
should have done better for my children. I take comfort in the feeling of empowerment that
almost drowns out the humiliation. I am not allowing that crazy, drunk, stoned, violent, little man
to hurt my children again. I am taking them out of his reach, beyond his power to make good his
threat to kill my younger son. I am making a decision for my family; I am no longer allowing my
husband and his family to control me.
The afternoon of questions in the intake office is a beginning. My sons and I are given a
bedroom in the shelter, and we are able to sleep in peace and safety. During the days, we learn to
live without fear. I take classes and take part in counseling sessions to help me assert control in
my life. I take responsibility for my decision to leave the abuse and to take my children to a
shelter, despite the social stigma that attaches to victims of domestic abuse.
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We stay at the shelter for a mere seventeen days, but it feels like we are there for months.
Because I am working hard and cooperating with the shelter’s programs, I am rewarded with
placement in the transition program. My sons and I are given an apartment in a decent
neighborhood. The worker assigned to our case helps me enroll in college, and she helps me
secure a part-time job as a peer tutor. I have not worked in many years, and earning my own
money is an affirmation of the personal power that I am learning to embrace. I learn to form
healthy relationships with other adults who are not abusive, and I make real friends for the first
time since I met my husband. I file for divorce, and it is granted on my fortieth birthday; I
celebrate my birthday with my victory in the courtroom. I feel like a butterfly emerging from a
chrysalis as I emerge into the world.
During the ten months in the transitional apartment, I blossom in several ways. I enjoy
my classes and my work as a tutor, and I experience personal success for the first time in many
years. I rediscover art, which was a focus in my life before I met my husband and had children.
Painting is a catharsis for me, and I am prolific during these months. I begin to walk where I need
to go, since I do not yet have a car. Walking gets my heart pumping and gives me energy.
Walking also helps me begin to lose the weight that represents the emotional burdens of the years
of abuse and fear, and it frees me to seek new paths in my life. Church and school both provide
opportunities for personal growth, and I shed my past solitude and loneliness as I develop healthy
relationships with both women and men. Through counseling at the shelter and a divorce care
program at my church, I learn not to choose again a relationship with a man like those in my past,
and to expect better in my life.
Many people tell me that I should not talk about my time in the shelter. People who
mean well say it is shameful to go to a domestic abuse shelter, and I will be unable to go forward
in life if people in my life know that I have this experience. I know that people who say these
things want to help, and that they believe what they say. They are wrong. I am not ashamed of
having stayed in a shelter. I am proud of my decision to take my children out of fear to safety.
Like my ancestors who braved the North Atlantic in ships to seek safety and a better future in
America during the Irish famine, I brave social degradation to give my children hope for a safe,
successful future. There is no shame for a mother in making her children safe, or for a woman in
reclaiming her personal power and dignity. These are the things I accomplish by taking my
children to the shelter.
The shelter experience changes me in ways I never imagined while I existed in the bonds
of fear and abuse. When I remarry, my husband is a man who cares about what I think and how I
feel. He is a man who loves my sons, and who does everything in his power to protect them and
to help them grow into good, decent, successful men. I continue to succeed in college, and I plan
a future that includes a graduate degree, which was beyond my dreams for so many years. I
become an advocate for domestic violence shelters and for the families that find refuge in such
places. I watch with pride as my sons turn their shelter experience into compassion for classmates
they see in fear, pain, and loneliness; the shelter changes the boys just at it changes me.
Taking the step from abuse to shelter is one of the most important actions in my life.
Moving from fear to strength, from impotence to empowerment, from hopelessness to a promising
future is like moving out of deep shadows into the light and warmth of the sun.
Thinking About Plots, Tension, and Conclusions 5/17/2012
In "The Wife's Story," by Ursula K. LeGuin, the classic, human horror story of the
werewolf is told in reverse. Until the end of the story, when the male wolf becomes a man by the
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light of the noonday sun, the tale is almost indistinguishable from iconic werewolf tales. The
young couple meets, lives together, and has children. When the father behaves strangely and
frightens the children, the mother worries and protects her children. When the husband becomes
what his kind fears the most, the pack comes to the family's rescue and destroys the threat.
This could just as easily be a story of a father who becomes secretive and abusive in a
realistic, human family without the overtones of fantasy and myth. In werewolf tales and in many
incidents of domestic abuse, the man (female werewolves are a relatively modern re-interpretation
of the tale) seems to be good, loving, and innocent, but he changes in ways the woman or the
family do not expect and cannot accept at first.
The couple in "The Wife's Story" face very simple obstacles at first to their happiness as
a couple. The wife's sister moves out of the home the two females share so the couple can be
together. Other obstacles are not overcome so much as they are overlooked, as is common in any
story in which a character changes from an innocent to a monster. "He's come back late, and worn
out, and pretty near cross for one so sweet-tempered -- not wanting to talk about it" (Thiel, 2005,
p. 239). The husband's uncharacteristic behavior is an obstacle to his relationship with his wife
and family, but the wife makes excuses for the behavior, not wanting to look behind the behavior
to find the truth.
LeGuin's use of reverse details in the setting of the story give clues to the plot. "Always
it happens in the dark of the moon" (Thiel, 2005, p. 239). Werewolves change in the light of the
full moon. The dark of the new moon is the opposite lunar phase, and it is in the absence of the
moon when the husband changes. Similarly, the husband wakes while the family sleeps during the
day, whereas a classic werewolf is abroad in the night: "he gets up because he can't sleep, and goes
out into the glaring sun, and goes off all alone" (Thiel, 2005, p. 239). At the moment of
exposition, the sun is bright once again while the family sleeps. These details are subtle enough to
be missed during a first reading of the tale, but they are clear markers for the plot with close
reading.
The tale ends with the pack killing the husband under the noonday sun, while he is in his
human form. Just as humans kill the wolf in the classic werewolf story, the wolves kill the one
who threatens their society by being dangerously different.
An alternate ending to the story, which might appeal to modern, human society, with its
emphasis on politically-correct, non-violent stories, is one in which the fleeing man escapes the
pursuing pack. The man, naked and terrified as the alien, human instincts overpower his natural,
canine faculties, stumbles into an open gardening shed at the edge of a human village, frantically
pulling the door shut and dropping the latch into place. As the members of his pack attack the
closed door, making the thin walls of the shed tremble, the man huddles in a ball, his obscenely
naked arms wrapped about his too-long, hairless legs. He tries to howl his fear, frustration, and
defiance of those who would kill him for his curse, but all that comes out is a thin, weak, human
wail that ends in wracking sobs. The man cowers in the shed all the rest of the long, bright day,
watching as narrow beams of light grow shorter and darker near the chinks between the boards in
the shed's walls. As the sun sets and the cool sliver of moon rises, the pack retreats back to its
dens, the wife's sister making her way to the family's den to comfort the man's family. As the
wolf-man falls into an exhausted sleep, his features shift, his face lengthening as his feet shrink
back to their proper form. His hair returns, covering the hated man-flesh. When he has rested, he
pushes the latch with his nose and springs free of the cramped shed that reeks of man-scent. He
knows that he cannot return to his family or he will be killed the next time the moon is dark, so he
lopes away in the familiar, comforting darkness to seek a place where he can live in lonely
solitude. He must do this, so his children can grow up in safety.
I actually prefer LeGuin's original ending, but I recognize that an ending in which the
tortured man disappears from society to protect his wife and children is appealing. He is
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transformed from a monster that must be eliminated to a tragic hero who puts love of his family
before his own happiness.
References
Thiel, D. (2005). Crossroads: Creative writing exercises in four genres. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Maypole in Vermont May 1, 2013
My roots run deep in the rich, dark soil, tendrils spreading out beneath the forest floor,
twining with the living roots of the many trees and plants that share my home. I am young, as
trees go, and the sweet, cool, living water that mingles with the life of the soil refreshes me, gives
me strength, and helps me to grow straight and strong. The tips of my roots tingle as they reach
outward, growing longer and more complex as I grow taller and spread my branches wide above
the forest floor.
The sun shines on the forest, and my leaves greedily lap up the warm, life-giving rays.
There have been many days of cold darkness, when even the light of the sun has been feeble and
pale, and has not warmed the leaves. I shudder as I remember those recent days when my
branches were stark skeletons against a chilly, grey sky. My fresh, green leaves, newly unfurled in
the sun's tender warmth, tremble as I shudder, and the gentle music they make as they rustle
against each other reminds me that the cold time has ended, giving me renewed peace and joy.
My thoughts turn from the past cold to delight in warmth and new life. As the leaves
drink in the light of the sun, the cool water of life that flows up from my spreading roots turns
thick and sweet. My veins throb with the force of creation as the sap in my veins spreads energy
from my strong, even trunk to the tiniest, newest leaves bursting tender and green from the purple
buds on my smallest, youngest twigs.
The wind whispers softly through the forest, a gentler face of the violent, frigid gales that
whipped my branches in the cold time. I am strong and confident, and my trunk sways with the
rhythm of the swirling currents. The swish and shush of leaves rubbing against each other sings
with the whoosh and whirl of the music of the wind.
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I am immersed in peace and contentment. My life is just beginning, and the future
stretches out before me, pregnant with possibilities and promises of glorious growth amid my
sister trees and the multitude of plants of the forest.
“Papa! Papa, come quick! That’s the tree! That’s the prettiest, perfectest tree in the
forest!” A strange, piping voice shatters the singing stillness as the warm sun curves across the
highest point of the impossibly high sky. The effort to focus on one small, noisy, human creature
is unpleasant, as I cannot stretch myself out to communicate with earth and trees, sun, wind, and
sky when I must gather my senses into my center to pay attention to this intruder.
“Why, Azubah, that really is a fine, young tree.” The deeper, calmer voice comes from a
larger human. It rubs its leafless twigs against my smooth, silver trunk. There is unfamiliar
warmth in the strangely soft twigs, and I feel an odd sense of dread. More of the small humans
come out from between my sister trees, their strange, rootless trunks split grotesquely in two to
allow them movement over the earth. The small humans squeal and screech as they surround my
trunk, all of their strange, soft twigs grasping at me at once.
Suddenly, the larger human makes a sound and the small humans move back into the
forest. Sure that the humans need my attention no longer, my senses flow back into the
comforting, familiar rhythms of the earth and sky.
The pain is sudden and unexpected. The human’s steel cuts deeply into my tender bark,
slicing through delicate veins filled with sap, parting first my harder, outer wood, coming to rest in
the softer, sensitive, heartwood just above the place where the rich earth shelters my hidden roots.
I feel the sweet, clear sap leaking from my veins, bleeding out across the smooth, deadly steel. I
shudder and cry out in silent agony to the surrounding forest, but there is no help against the
humans. I gasp, shuddering my twigs and leaves, as the steel is pulled out of my trunk. The gash
is horrible. Why am I being hurt? What have I done but give cooling shade and breathe out the
toxic oxygen that the humans crave to breathe?
The second strike cuts deeper than the first. My heartwood bleeds life-giving sap that
will now never reach the fresh, green leaves at my crown. I have no time to think of the pain as
the axe – yes, that is the name of the human’s weapon, as I have heard in the thoughts of older
trees, an axe – bites deeply again, and yet again. Small pieces of my bark, my sapwood, my
heartwood fly away from the gaping wound at my base. Droplets of sap spatter into the air, falling
on the moss and grasses at my feet. With each strike, I feel my life-force ebbing, my strength
draining away from me. I can no longer feel the roots that twine with mine, because my roots are
being severed from my trunk. The sun seems to darken as fewer and fewer of my tender leaves
feel its warmth.
“Watch out, girls! Don’t let it fall on you!” The larger human shouts to the small ones in
a voice that is deep for his kind, but that sounds shrill in my raw, mindless agony.
It is over. The last cut of the axe breaks the last, tenuous connection between my trunk
and my roots. I fall to the forest floor, crashing through the branches of my sister trees, but no
longer able to feel their cries of pain and outrage. I am alone within myself, cut off from the earth,
the sun, the sky, and all that which has been my world since my first sprout put forth my first,
hesitant root into the earth. The silence of my solitude is deafening, and I fear that I will go mad.
I am living wood, but I have no real life now that I have lost my connection to the forest.
The small humans swarm over my trunk, climbing onto it, shrieking their triumph over
my noble form. I try to ignore the humiliation. Before reason can begin to assert itself, the agony
begins again. The axe bites into my trunk just below my majestic crown. I shudder and retreat as
deeply into my living core as I can as the horrible carnage continues. My crown is severed from
my trunk, cutting off the last whisperings of twigs and leaves, forever stilling the music of my
foliage. Again I scream my silent pain and anger to the universe, and again there is no help.
When my crown is gone, the axe chops away my branches until there is nothing left of me but a
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naked, bleeding, mutilated trunk. The forest floor is littered with pieces that were part of me
hardly a heartbeat before.
The larger human lifts my trunk with his – hands. Some random, rational bit of me
remembers that the old trees tell that the humans call their branches arms and their twigs hands. It
lifts my top end from the ground, and the smaller ones join together to lift my bottom end. I hand
suspended in the air among them, not even allowed the final mercy of resting with my branches
and leaves on the forest floor. The humans carry me out of the forest, passing between the sister
trees whose selves I will never touch again.
The humans move me to a small, open meadow, surrounded by large, strange forms that
are built of the bodies of oaks and pines, maples and cedars. I shiver at my core to be surrounded
by the dead remains of so many once-living trees.
Many humans surround the meadow. More emerge from the structures made from the
dead trees. They all shout and cry out to the humans that carry me. Other hands take me from the
small humans and I am carried to the center of the meadow.
“Oh, Papa, will they put it up now? Is it time, Papa?”
“Mama, Mama, Look! They got a pole!”
“The pole! Townsend’s got us a pole!”
There are too many voices shouting about a pole. What is a pole? As the pain slowly
deadens in my gruesome wounds, confusion wells up in me. Why has this happened to me? What
will the humans do to me? What is a pole?
Dizziness engulfs me as the humans raise me upright. I have no time to wonder what
they are doing now, or to examine the new wave of fear that washes through me. They drop me,
upright, into a hole in the earth. The hole is not deep, and it is just wide enough to encircle my
trunk. The humans shovel moist, living earth into the hole, filling all of the spaces around my
bark. The earth is cool, and a surge of hope overtakes me. I struggle to reach out, to extend new
roots into the earth, as I did when I first sprouted from the seed so long ago. My straining is in
vain. My severed veins have sealed, and will never again draw water from the earth or touch the
grasses and plants that grow in the earth around me. The veins at my top are closed, as well, and
will never again send out buds to unfurl into tender leaves that drink in the rays of the sun.
Something new is happening. One of the humans places something close beside my
trunk. Revulsion fills me as I recognize that this, too, like the larger structures, is made from the
dead wood of once-living trees. The human climbs to the top of the dead thing. Without warning,
new agony fills me. The human is pounding a long, cold stick of biting steel into the center of the
top of my ravaged trunk. Long vines fall from the steel stick to hang about my trunk, coiling in
piles on the earth at my base.
“Mama, look at the ribbons! They look like flowers!” One of the tiniest humans squeals
and points at the vines. The pounding has stopped, and I am free to notice that the tiny human is
right. The vines are the colors of buttercups, violets, primroses, and other flowers of the forest and
the meadow. Have the humans given me new leaves to mock me? Is the earth about my rootless
base to taunt me for what has been stripped from me?
“Azubah, Mary, Maggie, hurry and get in the circle.” Three of the small humans who
carried my trunk from the forest join a circle of their kind about my base. All humans look more
or less alike, but these are nearly identical to each other. They look like huge reflections of the
delicate lilies-of-the-valley that carpet the forest floor. Each one bends to the earth, a strange echo
of the way the lilies dip to the earth when they are heavy with new at the rising of the sun after the
short darkness. The pain fades as I focus out of my core, reaching toward these humans.
Each human in the circle picks up one of the – ribbons. The tiny human called the vines
ribbons. The circle spreads out, and each small human is strangely connected to me through the
ribbons. The tiny one runs toward me, and a large one places a chunk from an ancient tree against
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my base. The ancient one is not quite dead, although all of her roots and branches are gone, and
there is hardly any moist sap left in her living wood. The tiny one climbs onto the ancient one’s
remaining bit of trunk.
“Hail the Queen of the May!” Nearly every human shouts at once, surprising me with the
life-giving force that flows among them in this moment.
“Ruthie, smile for the camera. You’re the Queen of the May,” calls the one called
Azubah. All of the small humans turn to face one of their kind, and a tiny sun explodes from an
object I do not know.
The ones holding the ribbons begin to move about my trunk in a dizzying display. Some
circle about me one direction, while the rest circle the other direction. As they go round and
round, they move closer to my trunk. I realize that I am being covered with a pattern of flower
colors as the ribbons weave together about me. I feel the life and the energy of the dancers, and I
hear music deep in my core such as I never thought to hear again. I discover that I have been
severed from my life in the forest so that the humans can celebrate life and draw strength from the
earth, from the sun, from the colored ribbons, and from me. Suddenly, I know what a pole is. I
am the pole. I am the center of a celebration of life. I feel the ancient one affirming my discovery
as the last glimmer of life seeps from her bit of trunk into the living earth.
I am living wood. I am part of the world, even though I have become apart from the
world. I am the pole. I am wrapped in life, in love, and in hope for the future.
Analyzing Poetic Structure 5/22/2012
Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" is written in the iambic pattern, with "an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable" (Thiel, 2005, p. 128). All but two of the lines
have four beats (eight syllables) each, making the poem essentially iambic tetrameter. Two
identical lines break this pattern, appearing as the final lines of the second and third stanzas.
These two lines, written in iambic dimeter, are proclamatory lines: "We wear the mask!" (Thiel,
2005, pp. 296 and 297). These two lines are the repeated refrain of the poem.
The poem is written as a rondeau, having "13 lines divided into three stanzas ... not
including the refrains" (Thiel, 2005, pp. 143-144). The first and third stanzas each have five lines,
while the second stanza has three lines, conforming to the structure of a rondeau. The poem also
conforms to the rondeau in that it has "two rhymes ... [and] the pattern is: aabba, aabR, aabbaR"
(Thiel, 2005, p. 144). The rhymes in this case are the -ies or -ise sound and the -ile sound.
The mask is the primary metaphor in the poem. It refers to the outward demeanor of each
person as he or she interacts in society, and to the way in which one's outward demeanor conceals,
or masks, one's inner thoughts, dreams, hopes, feas, and turmoils. "With torn and bleeding hearts
we smile,/ And mouth with myriad subtleties" (Thiel, 2005, p. 296). The smile is the mask that is
shown to the world; it hides the pain of loss and heartbreak. At the same time, the torn heart is
another use of imagery, in that it describes the way the heart feels when a person suffers loss, but
it does not allude to an actual, physical, bloody heart.
"We smile, but O great Christ, our cries/ To thee from tortured souls arise" (Thiel, 2005,
p. 296). This pair of lines employs apostrophe, as Dunbar appeals to Christ, thus "addressing
something not usually spoken to" (Thiel, 2005, p. 30). Christ is often addressed in prayers, but is
not present to engage in ordinary conversation.
"Why should the world be over-wise" (Thiel, 2005, p. 296). This line displays
personification as the author gives "human characteristics to something nonhuman" in the form of
the world (Thiel, 2005, p. 30).
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"We sing, but oh the clay is vile" (Thiel, 2005, p. 296). The clay is a metaphor for mortal
existence, and it alludes to the creation of Adam from a lump of clay in the book of Genesis in the
Bible. The author calls the clay vile because humanity is viewed as being corrupt and imperfect.
It is this inner corruption that is hidden by the mask of outward appearances.
The theme of the poem is that man, or humanity, is corrupt, hurting, and in other ways
unpleasant on the inside, so humanity adopts an outward appearance and demeanor that is more
pleasant in an attempt to hide the unpleasantness. "We wear the mask that grins and lies" (Thiel,
2005, p. 296). The outward appearance or demeanor is the mask. It is unclear whether the refrain
is a proud declaration of the ability to hide inner feelings and faults; whether it is a statement of
unity in that every person presents a different outward identity from his or her inner identity;
whether it is an admission of a shared shame for having to hide behind the mask and not reveal too
much of one's true self; or whether the refrain is a cry of pain because the inner self must be
concealed from society. "Nay, let them only see us, while/ We wear the mask" (Thiel, 2005, p.
296). Humanity hides its reality behind a facade of pleasantness.
References
Thiel, D. (2005). Crossroads: Creative writing exercises in four genres. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Three Poems by Debbie May 22, 2012
Tommy
A tiny flutter, a growing inside,
The first hint of the life to be,
Growing and changing day by day,
A round swell proclaims your coming.
Heart beating, thid-thud, thid-thud,
Form shifts and changes,
Fingers and toes wiggle and grow,
Life quickens within now.
Rolling, kicking, pressing ribs,
The swelling belly grows and ripples,
Tiny eyes, ears, nose, and lips,
A flutter becoming you.
Heart beats, lungs pump,
Growing, growing, larger each day,
Soon now, patient waiting,
Radiating joy in life.
It’s time, it’s time!
Eager to burst forth, you push
To no avail, too large!
Fear engulfing, life must be,
You finally arrive
In an operating room.
Perfect fingers, perfect toes,
Perfect eyes, ears, lips, and nose,
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Perfect miracle, my child,
My son. You are born.
Escaping the Famine
Across the waves from shore to shore,
Huddled so close in fear and shame,
To build new lives, hunger no more –
America, whisper the name.
We leave our homeland,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
To America
Storm-swept, wave-beaten, illness falls,
Fresh water fails, parched lips, we cry
For help, for the children, hope calls
We sail on to our destiny.
We leave our homeland,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
To America
Ship comes to shore, voyage is past.
Some left to sleep beneath the waves,
A new life beginning at last,
Thanking God who most of us saves.
We leave our homeland,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
To America
Green, rolling hills like Eire we left,
Home, food, new life, safe once again,
Arrived on hope’s shore not bereft,
But blessed with the future we gain.
We leave our homeland,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
To America
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Child Song
Child of the age of old,
In your wonderland of gold,
Love comes sweetly with the dove
From our Father up above.
Morning cries hopeful yearning
And the child life is learning.
Now you age to elder man
Live life well while yet you can,
Find life’s love before the knell
Sounds with Heaven's tolling bell.
Evening cries in mourning song
For a man who did no wrong.
Once home on this earthly plane
Rise to Heaven’s heights again;
God in splendor bids you come
To your everlasting home.
Suns and moons turn days to night,
Life and death reflect God’s light.
Understanding Dialogue and Character 5/31/2012
The word choice in Marilyn Nelson's sonnet, "Chosen," reveals that Diverne is an
African American woman, and that she is probably in the American South in the nineteenth
century. Her ethnic origin is indicated in lines 6 and 7: "Pomp Atwood might have been another
man:/ born with a single race, another name" (Thiel, 2005, p. 307). It is confirmed that she is the
African American, not Pomp's father, in the final words of the poem: "And his whip" (Thiel, 2005,
p. 307). An African American man would not have used a whip on a white woman, but a white
man might well have used a whip on an African American woman.
The difference in economic status between Diverne and the man is shown by the
descriptions of their houses. He comes "out of a twelve-room house" (Thiel, 2005, p. 307). This
indicates that he is a person of wealth and privilege. Her home is a "close shack" with a
"cornshuck pallet" (Thiel, 2005, p. 307). The description of her house indicates that it is small and
poor. The description of her bed confirms the impression of poverty, as she has only a pallet on
the floor, filled with corn husks, instead of an actual bed with a mattress.
The word choice shows that Diverne is a submissive personality when she excuses rape.
The poem insists that she was not raped while using her terror and his whip to show that she was
raped (Thiel, 2005, p. 307). She is a loving mother, despite the circumstances of her son's birth, as
Pomp is "her life's one light" (Thiel, 2005, p. 307). The man is revealed as a dominant personality
with a cruel streak as he uses his whip to force Diverne to have sex with him. Her terror helps to
define his cruelty.
The conflict in the poem is not the rape itself, but the racial issue. It is revealed in lines 6
and 7: "Pomp Atwood might have been another man:/ born with a single race, another name"
(Thiel, 2005, p. 307). If Diverne and the man had both been white or had both been African
American, then the rape would have been the primary conflict. Since Pomp is revealed to be
biracial, race is the primary conflict. The power of a white man to force himself on an African
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American woman who lived on his property, not even ten feet from the main house, and who was
probably his slave, gives the woman no choice in whether or not to have sex. She does have the
power to end her own life, but not to control what happens in her life.
Diverne's feelings about the conflict are expressed in the first three lines of the poem:
"Diverne wanted to die, ... She wished so hard, she killed part of her heart" (Thiel, 2005, p. 307).
She did not want the man to force himself on her. She was a victim because of her race. The
man's feelings about the conflict, which he probably couldn't recognize as a conflict, are expressed
in lines 10-12 as he "ran to her/ close shack ... to leap/ onto her cornshuck pallet" (Thiel, 2005, p.
307). He runs and leaps, eager to do what he will to Diverne. He sees no obstacle to his will, and
he does not seek permission for what he does.
Despite the violence of his conception, Pomp's birth gives Diverne hope. "Pomp was
their/ share of the future" (Thiel, 2005, p. 307). The mixed-race child has a life in the future, and
Diverne would not have this child if she had not been raped by the white man. Some good comes
out of evil.
References:
Thiel, D. (2005). Crossroads: Creative writing exercises in four genres. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Sheltered – Revised June 5, 2012
“Are you bleeding on any part of your body?”
The question brings me back to the present moment. I am sitting in a chair next to a
large, cluttered desk in a small, crowded office. It is the middle of July. The tall, slim, blonde
woman sitting at the battered, grey, steel desk is being very kind to me, but she has to ask her
questions. It’s a fair question, since this is a domestic violence shelter, but it isn’t a question I was
expecting to answer. The truth is, even though I visited the shelter a few days ago, and while I
was here I asked the workers all of the questions I could think of, I really don’t know what to
expect here. My fingers move to the seeping wounds that hide under my hair, on my scalp, as I
nervously answer the question. In my mind, I wonder whether bleeding will help secure my place
here, or whether it will make me too great a risk to be admitted to the shelter. I take a deep breath,
glance around the room, and decide to be honest.
“Yes, I’m bleeding on my scalp. I pick the scabs when I get nervous or upset, so they
don’t really heal.”
Karen, the intake worker, makes a note in the file on the desk in front of her, but she
doesn’t comment. She glances at me from the corner of her eye as she writes. She has more
questions, which swirl together and blur in my mind. As I answer them, I find myself trying to
explain that it was my mother-in-law’s boyfriend, not my husband, who caused me to bring my
children to this place. Karen asks more questions, trying to understand. Since this is a domestic
violence shelter, Karen assumes that I have been abused by my husband or boyfriend. She isn’t
used to the idea of domestic abuse by anyone else.
Taking my sons to a shelter is at once humiliating and empowering. It is humiliating
because taking such a step makes me feel that I have failed as a parent. I am unable to give them
the safe, stable home that they deserve. Even the other residents of the shelter look at me as if I
should have done better for my children. I take comfort in the feeling of empowerment that
almost drowns out the humiliation. I am not allowing that crazy, drunk, stoned, violent, little man
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to hurt my children again. I am taking them out of his reach, beyond his power to make good his
threat to kill my younger son. I am making a decision for my family; I am no longer allowing my
husband and his family to control me.
The afternoon of questions in the intake office is a beginning. My sons and I are given a
bedroom in the shelter, and we are able to sleep in peace and safety. During the days, we learn to
live without fear. I take classes and take part in counseling sessions to help me assert control in
my life. I take responsibility for my decision to leave the abuse and to take my children to a
shelter, despite the social stigma that attaches to victims of domestic abuse.
We stay at the shelter for a mere seventeen days, but it feels like we are there for months.
Because I am working hard and cooperating with the shelter’s programs, I am rewarded with
placement in the transition program. My sons and I are given an apartment in a decent
neighborhood. The worker assigned to our case helps me enroll in college, and she helps me
secure a part-time job as a peer tutor. I have not worked in many years, and earning my own
money is an affirmation of the personal power that I am learning to embrace. I learn to form
healthy relationships with other adults who are not abusive, and I make real friends for the first
time since I met my husband. I file for divorce, and it is granted on my fortieth birthday; I
celebrate my birthday with my victory in the courtroom. I feel like a butterfly emerging from a
chrysalis as I emerge into the world.
During the ten months in the transitional apartment, I blossom in several ways. I enjoy
my classes and my work as a tutor, and I experience personal success for the first time in many
years. I rediscover art, which was a focus in my life before I met my husband and had children.
Painting is a catharsis for me, and I am prolific during these months. I begin to walk where I need
to go, since I do not yet have a car. Walking gets my heart pumping and gives me energy.
Walking also helps me begin to lose the weight that represents the emotional burdens of the years
of abuse and fear, and losing the weight frees me to seek new paths in my life as I begin to look
and feel healthier than I have been in years. As I walk along the tree-lined streets of the small,
mid-western town where my life is changing, my heart, mind, and spirit begin to walk new paths
of safety, confidence, and personal peace. Church and school both provide opportunities for
personal growth, and I shed my past solitude and loneliness as I develop healthy relationships with
both women and men. Through counseling at the shelter and a divorce care program at my
church, I learn not to choose again a relationship with a man like those in my past, and to expect
better in my life.
Many people tell me that I should not talk about my time in the shelter. People who
mean well say it is shameful to go to a domestic abuse shelter, and I will be unable to go forward
in life if people in my life know that I have this experience.
On the first Wednesday evening after arriving at the shelter, I go to the Divorce Care
group at church. Phyllis, the moderator of the group, takes me aside. “Sweetie, I know you’re at
the shelter. I’m real proud of you for gettin’ out of that awful place, but you gotta be careful about
tellin’ folks where you an’ the kids are. Folks won’t understand. Just tell ‘em y’all moved outa
there. ‘Kay?”
I look at Phyllis in hurt surprise. She works in the church office, so she knows that three
of the ministers helped us move to the shelter. I expected her to be supportive, but she sounds like
my mother, who told me just last night, on the phone, that I should hide the fact that we are
staying in the shelter. I can’t find words to answer Phyllis, any more than I could find words to
answer Mom, so I just nod, shrug defeatedly, and slip into one of the chairs that form a circle in
the middle of the room.
I know that people who say these things want to help, and that they believe what they
say. I know that Mom and Phyllis are trying to help me in their way. They are wrong. I am not
ashamed of having stayed in a shelter. I am proud of my decision to take my children out of fear
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to safety. Like my ancestors who braved the North Atlantic in ships to seek safety and a better
future in America during the Irish famine, I brave social degradation to give my children hope for
a safe, successful future. There is no shame for a mother in making her children safe, or for a
woman in reclaiming her personal power and dignity. These are the things I accomplish by taking
my children to the shelter.
The shelter experience changes me in ways I never imagined while I existed in the bonds
of fear and abuse. It teaches me that I have the inner strength to overcome obstacles in my life. It
shows me that I am a valuable human being, and that I should be proud of who I am. It reminds
me that I can love and be loved without giving up freedom and safety. When I remarry two years
later, my husband is a man who cares about what I think and how I feel. He knows what I have
experienced, and he loves me as I am now. My husband is a man who loves my sons, and who
does everything in his power to protect them and to help them grow into good, decent, successful
men. He tells me in everything that he does that the people who put me down were wrong, that
the people who pressed me to hide my shelter experience were wrong, and that I am good, right,
and loveable.
Taking the step from abuse to shelter is one of the most important actions in my life.
Moving from fear to strength, from impotence to empowerment, from hopelessness to a promising
future is moving out of deep shadows into the light and warmth of the sun.
Maypole in Vermont – Revised June 5, 2012
(Photo: Fletcher, 2012, p. 35).
My roots run deep in the rich, dark soil, tendrils spreading out beneath the forest floor,
twining with the living roots of the many trees and plants that share my home. I am young, as
trees go, and the sweet, cool, living water that mingles with the life of the soil refreshes me, gives
me strength, and helps me to grow straight and strong. The tips of my roots tingle as they reach
outward, growing longer and more complex as I grow taller and spread my branches wide above
the forest floor.
The sun shines on the forest, and my leaves soak up the warm, life-giving rays. There
have been many days of cold darkness, when even the light of the sun has been feeble and pale,
and has not warmed the leaves. I shudder as I remember those recent days when my branches
were stark skeletons against a chilly, grey sky. My fresh, green leaves, newly unfurled in the sun's
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tender warmth, tremble as I shudder, and the gentle music they make as they rustle against each
other reminds me that the cold time has ended, giving me renewed peace and joy.
The tiny birds rest on my branches, the newly-hatched youngest ones piping hungrily for
their parents to bring them worms and insects. The parent birds chirp and twitter the same songs
that they have sung in my branches since I was a very young sapling.
My thoughts turn from the past cold to delight in warmth and new life. As the leaves
drink in the light of the sun, the cool water of life that flows up from my spreading roots turns
thick and sweet. My veins throb with the force of creation as the sap in my veins spreads energy
from my strong, even trunk to the tiniest, newest leaves bursting tender and green from the purple
buds on my smallest, youngest twigs.
The wind whispers softly through the forest, a gentler face of the violent, frigid gales that
whipped my branches in the cold time. I am strong and confident, and my trunk sways with the
rhythm of the swirling currents. The softly sighing swish and shush of tender leaves rubbing
together sings a harmony for the whirling whoosh and whisper of the wind over my branches.
I am immersed in peace and contentment. My life is just beginning, and the future
stretches out before me, pregnant with possibilities and promises of glorious growth amid my
sister trees and the multitude of plants of the forest.
“Papa! Papa, come quick! That’s the tree! That’s the prettiest, perfectest tree in the
forest!” A strange, piping voice shatters the singing stillness as the warm sun curves across the
highest point of the impossibly high sky. The effort to focus on one small, noisy, thing is
unpleasant, as I cannot stretch myself out to communicate with earth and trees, sun, wind, and sky
when I must gather my senses into my center to pay attention to this intruder.
“Why, Azubah, that really is a fine, young tree.” The deeper, calmer voice comes from a
larger thing with a crown of oddly dark leaves. It rubs leafless twigs at the end of its disturbingly
flexible branches against my smooth, silver trunk. There is unfamiliar warmth in the strangely
soft twigs, and I feel an odd sense of dread. More of the small things come out from between my
sister trees, their strange, rootless trunks split grotesquely in two to allow them movement over the
earth. The smaller thing squeal and screech as they surround my trunk, all of their strange, soft
twigs grasping at me at once.
Suddenly, the first thing makes a sound and the smaller things move back into the forest.
Sure that the intruders need my attention no longer, my senses flow back into the comforting,
familiar rhythms of the earth and sky. My roots touch the roots of cheerful maples, confident
oaks, and aloof pines. I feel the fainter thoughts of the grasses and flowers on the forest floor. My
consciousness drifts peacefully into a future that has no end.
The pain is sudden and unexpected. The thing cuts deeply into my tender bark, slicing
through delicate veins filled with sap, parting first my harder, outer wood, coming to rest in the
softer, sensitive, heartwood just above the place where the rich earth shelters my hidden roots. I
feel the sweet, clear sap leaking from my veins, bleeding out across the smooth, deadly object in
the thing’s branches. I shudder and cry out in silent agony to the surrounding forest, but there is
no help against the hateful attacker. I gasp, shuddering my twigs and leaves, as the source of my
pain is pulled out of my trunk. The gash is horrible. I am shocked and confused. Why am I being
hurt? What have I done but give cooling shade and breathe out the toxic oxygen that the humans
crave to breathe?
The second strike cuts deeper than the first. My heartwood bleeds life-giving sap that
will now never reach the fresh, green leaves at my crown. I have no time to think of the pain as
the axe – yes, I clutch at the name of the thing’s weapon, as I have heard in the thoughts of older
trees, an axe – bites deeply again, and yet again. Small pieces of my bark, my sapwood, my
heartwood fly away from the gaping wound at my base. Droplets of sap spatter into the air, falling
on the moss and grasses at my feet. With each strike, I feel my life-force ebbing, my strength
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draining away from me. I can no longer feel the roots that twine with mine, because my roots are
being severed from my trunk. The sun seems to darken as fewer and fewer of my tender leaves
feel its warmth.
“Watch out, girls! Don’t let it fall on you!” The attacker shouts to the small ones in a
voice that is deep for its kind, but that sounds shrill in my raw, mindless agony.
It is over. The last cut of the axe breaks the last, tenuous connection between my trunk
and my roots. I fall to the forest floor, crashing through the branches of my sister trees, but no
longer able to feel their cries of pain and outrage. I am alone within myself, cut off from the earth,
the sun, the sky, and all that which has been my world since my first sprout put forth my first,
hesitant root into the earth. The silence of my solitude is deafening, and I fear that I will go mad.
I am living wood, but I have no real life now that I have lost my connection to the forest.
The small things swarm over my trunk, climbing onto it, shrieking their triumph over the
felling of my noble form. I try to ignore the humiliation, but it is difficult. Before reason can
begin to assert itself, the agony begins again. The axe bites into my trunk just below my majestic
crown. I shudder and retreat as deeply into my living core as I can as the horrible carnage
continues. I cling to the life and consciousness that rest in the liquid sap that remains in my veins.
In a small corner of my mind, apart from the horror of being severed from my roots, I wonder how
long my living core will remain. My crown is severed from my trunk, cutting off the last
whisperings of twigs and leaves, forever stilling the music of my foliage. Again I scream my
silent pain and anger to the universe, and again there is no help. When my crown is gone, the axe
chops away my branches until there is nothing left of me but a naked, bleeding, mutilated trunk.
With each branch that is severed, more sap is lost, and the final death comes closer. The forest
floor is littered with pieces that were part of me hardly a heartbeat before.
I hear the birds, but only in the flat, empty way in which I hear the rootless ones. The
murmuring voices of trees, grass, moss, flowers, and the earth itself are silent to me. I hear only
sounds, not the living consciousness of the world.
The destroyer of life lifts my trunk with its – hands. Some random, rational bit of me
remembers that the old trees tell that these things with the two trunks that are not rooted in the
earth call their branches arms and their twigs hands. It lifts my top end from the ground, and the
smaller ones join together to lift my bottom end. I hang suspended in the air among them, not
even allowed the final mercy of resting with my branches and leaves on the forest floor.
Desperately, I try once more to connect to the life and rhythm of the forest, but I find nothing but
death and deafening silence. I am carried out of the forest, passing between the sister trees whose
selves I will never touch again.
My murderers move me to a small, open meadow, surrounded by large, strange forms
that are built of the bodies of oaks and pines, maples and cedars. I shiver at my core to be
surrounded by the dead remains of so many once-living trees. I have heard of such abominations,
but I never believed that the stories could be true.
Many two-trunked things surround the meadow, the leaves of their tiny crowns the color
of the sun, of the moon, of the soil, and of the dead leaves that fall from the branches of the maples
at the end of the hot time. More of these rootless things emerge from the structures made from the
dead trees. They all shout and cry out to the ones that carry me. Other hands take me from the
small ones and I am carried to the center of the meadow.
“Oh, Papa, will they put it up now? Is it time, Papa?”
“Mama, Mama, Look! They got a pole!”
“The pole! Townsend’s gone an’ got us a pole!”
There are too many voices shouting about a pole. I am disoriented, frightened, and
terribly alone. What is a pole? As the pain slowly deadens in my gruesome wounds, the sap
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drying into thick, golden scabs, confusion wells up in me. Why has this happened to me? What
will the humans do to me? What is a pole?
Dizziness engulfs me as I am raised upright. I have no time to wonder what my
tormentors are doing now, or to examine the new wave of fear that washes through me. They drop
me, upright, into a hole in the earth. The hole is not deep, and it is just wide enough to encircle
my trunk. The hateful things shovel moist, living earth into the hole, filling all of the spaces
around my bark. The earth is cool, and a surge of hope overtakes me. I struggle to reach out, to
extend new roots into the earth, as I did when I first sprouted from the seed so long ago. If I can
reach the life force in the earth and grow new roots, I may yet live. I strain desperately to find life,
but my straining is in vain. My severed veins have sealed, and will never again draw water from
the earth or touch the grasses and plants that grow in the earth around me. The veins at my top are
closed, as well, drying quickly in the hot, midday sun; I will never again send out buds to unfurl
into tender leaves that drink in the rays of the sun.
I force myself to focus on the meadow around me. Something new is happening. One of
the rootless ones places something close beside my trunk. Revulsion fills me as I recognize that
this, too, like the larger structures, is made from the dead wood of once-living trees. The small
one climbs to the top of the dead thing. Without warning, new agony fills me. It is pounding a
long, cold stick of something harder than wood and sharper than stone into the center of the top of
my ravaged trunk, biting through the scabs of dried sap into my still-moist heartwood. Long vines
fall from the stone stick to hang about my trunk, coiling in piles on the earth at my base.
“Mama, look at the ribbons! They look like flowers!” One of the tiniest two-trunked
ones squeals and points at the vines. The pounding has stopped, and I am free to notice that the
tiny one is right. The vines are the colors of buttercups, violets, primroses, and other flowers of
the forest and the meadow. Have my attackers given me new leaves to mock me? Is the earth
they have packed about my rootless base to taunt me for what has been stripped from me?
“Azubah, Mary, Maggie, hurry and get in the circle.” Three of the small ones who
carried my trunk from the forest join a circle of their kind about my base. All humans look more
or less alike, but these are nearly identical to each other. They look like huge reflections of the
delicate lilies-of-the-valley that carpet the forest floor. Each one bends to the earth, a strange echo
of the way the lilies dip to the earth when they are heavy with new at the rising of the sun after the
short darkness. The pain fades as I focus out of my core, reaching toward these rootless ones and
finding only that which I can see and hear, without and connection to their lives or their thoughts.
Each one in the circle picks up one of the – ribbons. The tiny one called the vines
ribbons. The circle spreads out, and each small one is strangely connected to me through the
ribbons. It is the first connection I have felt since I was severed from my roots, and I cling to it.
The tiny one runs toward me, and a large one places a chunk from an ancient tree against my base.
The ancient one is not quite dead, although all of her roots and branches are gone, and there is
hardly any moist sap left in her living wood. Seeing this ancient one with so little living sap left in
her veins fills me with fear as I remember that I will die the forever death when the last drops of
life have dried from my veins. The tiny one climbs onto the ancient one’s remaining bit of trunk.
“Hail the Queen of the May!” Nearly every rootless one shouts at once, surprising me
with the rush of life-giving force that flows among them in this moment.
“Ruthie, smile for the camera. You’re the Queen of the May,” calls the one called
Azubah. All of the small ones turn to face one of the two-trunked ones, and a tiny sun explodes
from an object I do not know.
The ones holding the ribbons begin to move about my trunk in a dizzying display. Some
circle about me one direction, while the rest circle the other direction. As they go round and
round, they move closer to my trunk. I realize that I am being covered with a pattern of flower
colors as the ribbons weave together about me. I feel the life and the energy of the moving,
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swaying, swirling, rootless ones, and I hear music deep in my core such as I never thought to hear
again. I discover that I have been severed from my life in the forest so that the humans can
celebrate life and draw strength from the earth, from the sun, from the colored ribbons, and from
me. Suddenly, I know what a pole is, and I am flooded with joy in this knowledge. I am the pole.
I am the center of a celebration of life. I feel the ancient one affirming my discovery as the last
glimmer of life seeps from her bit of trunk into the living earth, leaving her dry and dead at my
base.
I am living wood. I am part of the world, even though I have become apart from the
world. I am the pole. I am wrapped in life, in love, and in hope for the future. The sacrifice of
my life brings new life to these strange, two-trunked, rootless ones, and I am content.
References
Fletcher, Z. T. (2012). Zoa has her way. (p. 35). Bloomington, IN: Wordclay.
Tommy – Revised June 5, 2012
A flutter, growing inside,
The first hint of life to be,
Growing and changing day by day,
Round swell proclaims your coming.
Heart beating,
Thid-thud, thid-thud,
Form shifts and changes,
Fingers and toes wiggle, grow,
Life quickens now.
Rolling, kicking, pressing ribs,
Belly, swells, ripples,
Tiny eyes, ears, nose, and lips,
A flutter, becoming you.
Heart beats, lungs pump,
Growing, growing,
Larger each day,
Soon now, patient waiting,
Radiant joy.
It’s time, it’s time!
Eager to burst forth, you push,
No!
You are too large!
Fear engulfing me,
Life must be,
You arrive
In an operating room.
Perfect fingers, perfect toes,
Perfect eyes, ears, lips, and nose,
Perfect miracle, my child,
My son.
You are born.
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Escaping the Famine – Revised June 5, 2012
Across the waves from shore to shore,
Huddled so close in fear and shame,
To build new lives, hunger no more –
America, whisper the name.
Leaving home we quest,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
America there.
Storm-swept, wave-beaten, illness falls,
Fresh water fails, parched lips, we cry
For help, for the children, hope calls
We sail on, for future we try.
Leaving home we quest,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
America there.
Ship comes to shore, voyage is past.
Some left to sleep beneath the waves,
A new life beginning at last,
Thanking God who most of us saves.
Leaving home we quest,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
America there.
Green, rolling hills like Eire we left,
Home, food, new life, safe once again,
Arrived on hope’s shore not bereft,
But blessed with the future we gain.
Leaving home we quest,
The children of Eire,
We sail to the West,
America there!
The Child‘s Sonnet – Revised June 5, 2012
Child of the age of old,
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In your wonderland of gold,
Love comes sweetly with the dove
From our Father up above.
Morning cries hopeful yearning
And the child life is learning.
Evening cries in mourning song
For a man who did no wrong.
Once home on this earthly plane
Rise to Heaven’s heights again;
God in splendor bids you come
To your everlasting home.
Suns and moons turn days to night,
Life and death reflect God’s light.
Reflection on Creative Writing June 5, 2012
Creative writing is an important means of communicating ideas and events to readers in
an informal manner. It allows readers to experience the emotions of an event or to relate to a
concept in ways that are not facilitated by formal, academic writing. There are numerous genres
within creative writing, of which this course focuses on three: non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.
Each writer has one or more genres that are easy or comfortable for that writer, as well as one or
more genres that give the writer more difficulty. Understanding which genre or genres are easy
and which genre or genres are difficult is important for any writer, as well as understanding why a
given genre is easy or difficult, in order to help the writer grow and improve.
Of the three genres in this course, I find that I most easily write non-fiction. While I
enjoy creating fictional stories in my mind, for my own enjoyment, I feel a greater sense of
personal fulfillment when I am able to recount stories of real people and actual events. There is a
great deal in real life that is fascinating when explored through literature, and sharing the amazing
stories of true events helps readers to understand and appreciate what has happened in the past.
Exploring the lives of real people, even if they are not major players in the history of society,
reveals a great deal about the human condition, about human relationships, and about how and
why societies and cultures flourish or fail. I love to write these stories, especially when they are
accounts of my life that I am writing for the future, or when they are accounts of the lives of my
ancestors that I piece together from the fragmented records of their lives that have survived.
Knowing the facts of what happened in a true story of the past helps to shape the plot of a story
that I choose to write. Knowing who was related to whom in what way, where the people lived or
traveled, and what happened in the people’s lives provides a framework for a story. For me,
writing fiction can be cumbersome because I try to create characters, settings, plots, and
conclusions that are unique, but writing non-fiction flows smoothly because the underlying
architecture of the story is already set by history.
Revision is an essential part of good creative writing. Pouring out the words of a first
draft is essential for getting the story or poem onto the paper or the computer screen, but editing
that first draft refines the story or poem into something more palatable for a reader. The hardest
thing for me, when revising either prose or poetry, is paring down the words to remove
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distractions while adding or maintaining the right words to convey the meaning and emotion of the
piece. When I write descriptively, I tend to over-use adjectives and adverbs, and it is difficult to
choose which words to keep, which words to discard, and which words to replace with other
words.
I believe my greatest strength in creative writing is my use of descriptive language to
present a setting, a character, or a bit of action. I like to use a variety of words, and I try to avoid
unintentional repetition in my writing. I believe that another of my strengths in writing is my
willingness to get to know the story and the facts behind my story, especially when writing non-
fiction. Accurate details in writing help readers to experience the story beyond reading the written
words.
My greatest weakness in creative writing is in creating believable dialogue. I have a lot
of difficulty writing informal conversations and using regional or ethnic dialects. I try to pay
attention to dialogue when I read, in hopes of gaining some insight into how to create a unique
voice for each of my characters. The hardest part of that, for me, is using idioms in conversation.
I write from the specific cultural group in which I grew up, and with the childhood influence of
British children’s novels, in which the language is often very proper. I am aware of this weakness
in my writing, and I try to work past it when I write. In order to improve my dialogue writing, I
also listen to the way people speak, not just to the things they say. I try to be aware of diction and
pronunciation, as well as to the speed with which individuals speak. I hope these activities will
help me in my writing, and I plan to keep practicing until I improve in this area.
Understanding that non-fiction is the easiest genre in which I write, and that fiction is
more difficult for me is important in helping me focus on my strengths and improve my
weaknesses. Poetry, which is not discussed above, falls between non-fiction and fiction for me,
and the ease with which I write poetry depends directly on how I feel about the subject about
which I write. Recognizing my strengths and weaknesses in writing, which span all of the genres
with which I am familiar, allows me to focus on areas in which I need improvement. The peer
review process has allowed each student in this class to experience the writing of several other
writers, and to benefit from the insights and experiences of other students. I believe that working
with other students in a writing workshop environment has given me a fresh view of writing and
of the writing process that I can carry forward into my educational and professional career.
Finding Stories and Poems – Mining for Ideas by Reading Literature 6/7/2012
A number of years ago, I started to write a fantasy novel that was centered around a
character I used to play AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). As I wrote, I believed that I
was writing a unique story of my own. It was only after I had completed about ten chapters that I
realized that my story paralleled Hawkmistress by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Hawkmistress had
been one of my favorite novels during my teen years, and I had read it several times. I had not
realized that Bradley's novel had given my the idea for my own story, but it is clear to me, in
retrospect, that the idea for my story came to me as a result of reading Bradley's work.
Looking back at that story, it was Bradley's plot of a young woman being forced into
marriage with a much older man, escaping the marriage and running away, and making an
independent life for herself that inspired my writing. While the details about the characters, the
setting, and the adventures in my story are very different from those in Bradley's story, the
foundational plot is very similar to Bradley's plot.
Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" could be converted into modern America.
Rather than setting the story in a 19th-century, English town house, I would set the story in a
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penthouse or high-end condo in New York City's Upper East Side. The main character is the
young, dilettante executive assistant to an elderly, retired multi-millionaire who lives as a recluse
due to advanced age and failing health. The young man proceeds through much of the action from
the original story in a bright, ultra-modern setting, slipping into madness as tending to the old
man’s whims and infirmities pushes him over the edge. To add interest, the old man might have a
private collection of hunting trophies, preserved by a taxidermist, with the glass eyes of the
animals and birds always reflecting the young man's activities in the apartment and reminding him
of the old man's blind, glass eye. The glass eyes of the animals and the old man's glass eye would
echo the eyes of the old man in Poe's story: "One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale
blue eye, with a film over it" (Thiel, 2005, p. 276). When the young man finally snaps and kills
his employer, he can't hide the body under the floorboards in a modern apartment, so he might
hide the body in or under one of the stuffed trophies, or he might wrap it up and put it down the
garbage chute. When the New York police arrive to question the young man about complaints by
neighbors over the noise of the murder, or about a smell coming from the apartment, or even
because the old man failed to show up at a charity event and was reported missing, the young man
could play out the final scenes of the original story. "No doubt I now grew very pale: -- but I
talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased -- and what could I
do?" (Thiel, 2005, p. 276). At this point, the young man could see the gleaming, glass eyes of the
stuffed trophies accusing him of his crime. Perhaps the eyes of the one large animal, possibly a
bear, in which he has hidden the body, seem to follow him as he moves around the room, trying to
deflect the questions of the NYPD, until he finally cracks. It would be a nicely ironic connection
to the original story if the old man had a stuffed vulture near the chair where he most liked to sit,
so that the vulture's eye unnerved the young assistant throughout the story. Translating the
madness of dark-paneled, heavily-draperied, 19th-century England to brightly white-and-chrome,
window-walled, 21st-century New York brings the story up to date, showing that the theme is still
relevant, and that the murder and madness are still horrifying and thrilling across the generations.
References:
Thiel, D. (2005). Crossroads: Creative writing exercises in four genres. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Peer Review and Revision Process 6/7/2012
This is the first class in which I have experienced the peer review process since I finished
high school in 1987, and it has been an interesting experience. Receiving feedback from multiple
sources gives me a clearer view of my writing, and of the areas of my writing that will benefit
from revision. I can edit my own work for technical errors in spelling, punctuation, etc., but
editing my own work for content, clarity, and fluidity is more difficult. Reading the comments
and the suggestions of my peers helps that process.
Reading my classmates' work allows me to see other approaches to the writing
assignments. Each writer has a personal style, and reading several pieces on a given topic or
theme helps me develop and refine my own style. Seeing how other students approach
descriptions, dialogue, and other parts of writing gives me ideas for improving my own writing,
and helps me be more aware of the strengths and weaknesses in my writing.
Reading the work of my peers helps me recognize that I still have difficulty writing
dialogue. I read the dialogue in my peers' work, and I see that my own dialogue lacks originality
and authenticity because it is stiff and formal in many cases.
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I revise as I write, as well as after I write. Only rarely do I write a piece without
concurrent revision. Once I finish a piece, I go over it for technical details first, correction
spelling and punctuation errors. I read over the work, then shift words, sentences, and paragraphs
to improve the flow of the piece. The hardest part of the process, for me, is trimming down
extraneous details and adding in elaborating details without making the writing too sparse or too
heavy.
My revision process is often very much like that of Eugene Ionesco: “They came out very
quickly. A few tiny details I changed, but I wrote them like that ... I hardly ever change it”
(Calonne, 2006, p. 155). I often make very few revisions, other than correcting typographical
errors. Until the past year, my writing and revision was similar to that of Samuel Beckett; I wrote
in longhand on paper, then revised my work as I typed it into the computer. "First he wrote in
longhand, then he typed them ... Things change between longhand and typing" (Calonne, 2006, p.
158). I'm still not entirely comfortable writing and revising my work entirely on the computer, but
I'm learning to adapt to the technology.
References:
Calonne, D. S. (2006). Creative writers and revision. Revision: History, Theory, and
Practice. (pp. 146-176). Anderson, SC: Parlor Press. Retrieved from
http://wac.colostate.edu/books/horning_revision/chapter9.pdf
ENG 438: Literary Theory
Introduction to Literary Analysis 6/13/2012
The major modes of critical theory that are covered in our text are new criticism, reader-
response criticism, structuralist and deconstructive criticism, historical criticism, postcolonial
criticism, cultural studies, psychological criticism, political criticism, and feminist criticism.
Historical and postcolonial criticism and cultural studies are presented as a group, and feminist
criticism is presented as a subset of political criticism.
New criticism and reader-response criticism are opposite approaches to examining
literature. "New Criticism focuses attention on the work itself, not the reader or the author or
anything else" (Lynn, 2011, p. 17). "Reader-response criticism starts from the idea that the critic's
interest ultimately ought to be focused on the reader rather than the text itself or the author" (Lynn,
2011, p. 19). New criticism, then, guides the reader through a close reading of the work being
analyzed, while reader-response criticism guides the reader by focusing on the reader's reactions to
the work being analyzed. New criticism relies more heavily on the "oppositions, tensions,
ambiguities" of a piece (Lynn, 2011, p. 18). Reader-response criticism relies on how those factors
influence the reader's response to the piece. New criticism considers the unity of a piece, and how
the elements of the piece contribute to that unity. Reader-response criticism is not focused so
much on unity as it is on the way the elements of a piece work to guide the reader's reactions and
responses to the piece by addressing the reader's anticipated expectations of the piece.
Psychological criticism resonates with me the most of the major modes of critical theory.
I am fascinated by the way writing reveals aspects of the human condition and of human society,
even when a story appears to be devoid of deeper meaning on an initial reading. Writers embed
emotions and conflicts in their writing, whether or not they intend to do so, and psychological
criticism allows those emotions and conflicts to be examined by the literary analyst.
Psychological criticism reveals the archetypes of society and of human relationships, hopes, and
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fears by examining the diction of a piece to find patterns of imagery and symbolism. A writer's
word choice reveals what the writer is thinking, and what messages the writer is trying to convey
through the writing, particularly in the choice of descriptive words and phrases.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
Analysis of Here at “The New Yorker” 6/13/2012
In the psychological analysis of Brendan Gill's Here at "The New Yorker," Lynn
discusses the connection between Gill's text and Freud's Oedipus complex. Lynn identifies Miss
Gould as representing Gill's mother in the story, which is an element of the story that I did not see
before I read the analysis. Another element that I missed on first reading the story is the editor,
Botsford, as a representation of Gill's father. Both Miss Gould and Botsford are authority figures
in Gill's world, and the psychological analysis makes that dynamic clear. A third element I did not
notice is the phallic nature of the dangling modifier. Instead of being the sword-like symbol
usually associated with this term, the modifier dangles as Miss Gould's editing renders Gill
"impotent and emasculated" (Lynn, 2011, p. 31). Additional phallic symbols are identified in the
analysis, including the dolphin and the pen, combining with the dangling modifier to express Gill's
"fear of castration" in the form of losing his personal power (Lynn, 2011, p. 31).
Each analysis of Gill's essay is effective in its own way. I think the most effective mode
of analysis, in this case, is the deconstructive analysis. When I first read the story, my initial
reaction was that working at "The New Yorker" tears down a writer's confidence and forces
writers to accept a sort of mediocrity in which their own work is never good enough, and in which
they must sacrifice their original, creative writing to the will of the editors. No matter what they
write, the writing is never quite good enough. The deconstructive analysis highlights this sense of
the powerlessness of the writers. "In the end, both writer and editor are defeated by their inability
to control their language" (Lynn, 2011, p. 24). For a writer, controlling written language is the
focus of life. Finding himself wholly unable to really control the language of his writing is
crushing for Gill. The analysis shows how efforts to improve a written work fail, despite all of the
rules and conventions that control the construction of formal writing.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
New Criticism and Unification 6/21/2012
New Criticism works to find meaning in a text by examining the "tensions, ironies,
paradoxes, oppositions, ambiguities" in the text (Lynn, 2011, p. 45). The new critic assumes that
literature that is worth reading is made of a series or a sort of cloud of conflicts and juxtapositions.
The diction of the writing is important for identifying and relating the concepts or images that are
in conflict with one another. In Lynn's analysis of the film, Napoleon Dynamite, he points out the
conflict between Napoleon being a hero and Napoleon being ridiculous. He also shows the
conflict in being a "forbidding hero ... [and a] great object of derision" (Lynn, 2011, p. 47). The
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concepts of being a hero and being ridiculous are in opposition with each other, and the adjective
"forbidding" seems incongruous as it modifies the noun "hero." Conflicting images like these are
at the heart of New Criticism, and the new critic seeks to connect the discrete conflicts in a literary
work to the main theme of the work, unifying the conflicts.
Lynn's New Criticism analysis of Here at "The New Yorker" is effective at showing the
unity of the work by examining the paradoxical concepts and images of the piece. The concept
that "sometimes 'right is wrong'" is a unifying theme for the piece (Lynn, 2011, p. 19). This
concept is echoed in the imagery of the dolphin "diving skyward" and Gill's "progress downward,"
as Lynn explains in his analysis (Lynn, 2011, p. 19). These oxymorons pave the way for the key
oxymoronic truth of the story: that "the story itself is resolved by the notion of a correct error"
(Lynn, 2011, p. 19). The unity is found as each element of imagery points to the main theme of
the piece.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
Reader-Response and Rhetorical Tradition 6/21/2012
According to L. Kip Wheeler (2012), of Carson-Newman College, "Rhetoric is the
ancient art of argumentation and discourse" (para. 1). As argument, it is a way of convincing
others to adopt or agree with a particular opinion or point of view. As discourse, it is not only
expounding one's own ideas, but also listening to and considering the opinions and views of others
on the same subject. Steven Lynn (2011) writes that "Rhetoric is concerned primarily with how to
generate a response ... in such a way as to elicit the desired reaction" (p. 69). Rhetoric, in relation
to reader-response criticism, is the writer's use of words, images, and structure in a piece to
influence the reader's anticipated response to the work.
Reader-response criticism approaches literature from the responses that the literature
elicits from its readers, not so much on the clear, defined unity of a piece that is the hallmark of
New Criticism. Whereas New Criticism examines the literature itself, without regard for how the
literature will impact the reader, reader-response criticism examines how the rhetoric in literature
affects individual readers.
Recognizing the comparison between reader-response criticism in literature to rhetoric in
other writing genres does help clarify what is expected of reader-response criticism. Not only
explaining how a literary work affects a reader, but also identifying why the work has that
particular effect is the purpose of reader-response criticism. Considering the parallel with classical
rhetoric helps the reader-response critic to examine the language and structure of a piece and how
these elements contribute to the reader's experience of the work.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston,
MA: Pearson Education
Wheeler, L.K. (2012). Rhetoric. Retrieved from
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_rhet.html
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Forgiving My Father June 25, 2012
In “forgiving my father,” by Lucille Clifton, the daughter releases her deceased father
from the failings in his life so that he can rest at peace in his grave beside the daughter’s mother.
While the poem reads like a litany of faults recited by an embittered daughter, the list of the
father’s failings is a purging that allows his debt to be forgiven once it has been recounted. Since
the father is dead, there is no point in preserving his indebtedness. The daughter does not merely
set aside the hurts that she and her mother suffered at her father’s hands; by forgiving his debt in
her life, she erases the debt entirely.
There are repeated references to the father being deceased, even though the opening lines
of the poem suggest that the daughter is coming to her father for money to pay the week’s bills: “it
is friday. we have come/ to the paying of the bills” (Lines 1-2) (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). The first
suggestion that the father is dead is in lines 3 and 4: “you have stood in my dreams/ like a ghost”
(Lynn, 2011, p. 55). Referring to the father as a ghost in line 4 foreshadows the end of the poem,
with the father in a coffin: “you lie side by side in debtors' boxes/ and no accounting will open
them up” (Lines 22-23) (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). Lying “side by side” suggests lying in graves, while
the reference to “debtors’ boxes” suggests poor or low-cost coffins (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). In line
20, the daughter calls the father “old dead man” (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). Again, this refers to the
father being dead and beyond the daughter’s ability to find satisfaction for the wrongs against her
mother.
Emphasizing the father’s death are references to the father running out of time to fulfill
his obligations. In line 4, the father is “asking for more time” from his daughter (Lynn, 2011, p.
55). More specifically, it is his ghost that asks for more time, seeking to complete in death the
tasks that he leaves incomplete in life. Traditionally, a ghost is the spirit of a person who has died
without completing some important task in life. The symbolism of the ghost in this poem, asking
for more time, indicates that the father needs more time to settle his debts with the mother and the
daughter. In lines 8 and 9, the daughter tells the father’s ghost: “there is no more time for you.
there will/ never be time enough daddy” (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). The father has no more time to settle
his debts. Unless his debts is forgiven, and thus erased, he is destined to remain a ghost, haunting
the daughter’s dreams in his quest to find more time to settle his debts. The daughter’s
forgiveness frees the father to be at rest, and to cease haunting her dreams.
While it is likely that, in life, the daughter does approach her father for money to pay the
bills each week, once her mother dies, standing in for her mother, as suggested in lines 6 and 7:
“my mother's hand opens in her early grave/ and i hold it out like a good daughter,” the poem is
about paying the social and moral debts of life in death (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). Not only does the
daughter hold the father accountable for paying the mundane, financial bills of life, but the
daughter holds the father accountable, on her mother’s behalf, for the father’s social and moral
obligations to the mother and the daughter.
In life, the father is not equal to the expectations of life. In the first two lines, the
daughter tells the father: “it is friday. we have come/ to the paying of the bills” (Lynn, 2011, p.
55). This is in opposition with: “you are the pocket that was going to open/ and come up empty
any friday” (Lines 17-18) (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). The daughter does not expect the father to pay his
worldly bills, or to meet his moral and social obligations to his family after his death. He is
responsible for the bills, and for the debts in his life, but he does not have the means to meet his
debts. Only through the daughter forgiving the father’s debts can he be free of his debts and
obligations, since he cannot pay his debts.
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The words “collecting” and “accounting” in lines 21 and 23 echo the word “payday” in
line 5 (Lynn, 2011, p. 55). These are financial terms in which the debts that are collected on
accounts are paid on payday. The father’s habitual failure to pay a debt, and the suggestion that
the failing crosses generations, is illustrated in line 12 by the description of the father as the “only
son of a needy father,” and by the description in line 20 of the father as “daddy old pauper”
(Lynn, 2011, p. 55). Needy and pauper are terms of poverty that illustrate the inability to pay a
debt. The daughter says that the father is not able to pay not only his financial debts, but also his
moral debts.
The debts of a dead man’s life cannot be paid from the grave, but they can be forgiven by
those to whom they are owed. The daughter forgives her father’s moral debts, allowing his ghost
to rest as his body rests in a grave beside the mother. The daughter is able to break the cycle of
needy fathers and sons by giving forgiveness instead of clinging needily to the wrongs of the past.
The accounts no longer need to be collected, because they are forgiven.
References
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
Structuralist Theory 6/28/2012
A signifier is simply a word or a set of words that express an image. Signified is "the
concept that the signifier is pointing to" (Lynn, 2011, p. 104). Any word or image that directs a
reader to a particular concept is a signifier. No word really has meaning unless it is paired with
the concept represented by the word.
In structuralist theory, the signifier and the signified are used to determine the structure of
a literary work. It is necessary for the reader to understand what is signified in order to understand
how and why the particular signifier is used in the piece. If a writer describes an object as "black,"
the reader might get one idea of what the object looks like. If the same object is described as
"glittering jet," or as "ebony," the reader is likely to get an entirely different visual image of the
object, depending on which description is used and on the reader's understanding of the terms.
"Black," "glittering jet," and "ebony" are each a signifier for the appearance of a thing. The image
or concept that each word or phrase conjures for the reader is the signified of the signifier.
I do think that understanding the difference between the signifier and what is signified
helps to decipher the meaning of a text. The word, or signifier, may not mean much on its own,
but it takes on layers of meaning when its one or several signifieds are attached to it. Also, while
the writer might intend a particular concept when choosing a word or a phrase, the experiences of
the reader ultimately control what is really signified by the signifiers in a piece.
For example, if I write the word "turnip," most readers will visualize a root vegetable.
Depending on the reader's experiences, it may be a large, lumpy, tan vegetable that yields a
yellowish-orange pulp when boiled as food; or it may be a smaller, white vegetable with a purplish
top that can be used as a substitute for potato in stews and pasties. In my family, and in our circle
of friends, Turnip is the nickname of an active, curly-haired, blonde, blue-eyed preschooler, whose
siblings are Spud and Squish. (I use their real names so seldom that I don't even remember them
most of the time.) My point is that the concept, or signified, the reader perceives from the
signifier depends on context and experience. "We're having Turnip for supper" and "We're having
turnip for supper" mean two very different things.
420 A Journey Through My College Papers
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
Deconstructing The New Yorker Cartoon 6/28/2012
The cartoon shows a woman who appears to be preparing a meal. She is holding an
electric mixer in a bowl of something, and there is what might be a dead chicken on a plate. The
man appears to be adjusting the position of a framed picture that is hanging from a nail in what
may be presumed to be a wall. The caption reads: "Am I hanging the painting on the wall ... or is
the wall hanging itself on the painting?" (Lynn, 2011, p. 106).
Looking more closely at the cartoon, one may see that the lines that represent the strings
or wires that should support the painting appear to be slack. Is the nail even supporting the
painting's weight? If the nail is not supporting the weight of the painting, then the painting is not
hanging on the wall and, at the same time, the wall is not hanging on the painting.
Of course, the reader knows that it is absurd to think that a wall could be hanging on a
painting at all, but it is common to say that the rust/paint/posters/etc. is all that is holding an object
together. While this sort of expression is usually said sarcastically, or tongue-in-cheek, it could be
applied to a wall hanging on a picture. If the picture holds the wall together, literally or
metaphorically, then the wall might be hanging on the picture.
© The New Yorker Collection, 1992, Stephanie Skalinsky from cartoonbank.com. All Rights
Reserved.
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“If we choose to say one thing, we are leaving out another thing. And there is always a
gap, a space in the text, that the reader cannot ultimately fill in” (Lynn, 2011, p. 107). In the case
of the cartoon, the gap that cannot be filled in is whether or not the picture is essential to holding
the wall together, whether physically or aesthetically. If the picture is essential, then the wall
might be said to be hanging on the picture. If, however, the picture is merely an ornament on the
wall, then the picture might be said to be hanging on the wall.
There is another possibility, however. With the apparently slack line over the nail, might
not the man be removing the painting from the wall? The reader has not seen the wall before or
after the scene in the cartoon, so there is no way of knowing whether the painting was on the wall
before the scene and was gone later, or whether the painting is added during the scene.
Additionally, the painting might have been on the wall all along, and the man is merely adjusting
the straightness or crookedness of its placement on the wall.
Along with all of this is the anthropomorphication of the wall. The action of the man and
the action of the wall are in opposition in the question. The man does not ask, "Am I hanging the
painting on the wall or am I hanging the wall on the painting?" The question gives life,
movement, and choice to the wall. Is the wall equal in some way to the man? Does the wall get a
say in what hangs upon it, or a choice as to upon what it will hang itself? The question is silly, of
course, since the wall is an inanimate object, just as is the painting, but the man's question implies
something different.
Not mentioned in the caption is the woman's response to the man. There is a thought
bubble coming from her head that contains what might be an asterisk. What is the woman
thinking? Her eyebrow is raised, and her eyes are shifted toward the man without turning her head
to actually look at him. Is she considering the utter absurdity of his question? Is she wondering
why he is hanging or adjusting a picture right above her head while she is preparing food?
Oops. I just re-read the assignment, but I'm going to let the preceding stand as I answer
the questions. The caption is an example of deconstructionist perspective because the question
addresses two opposing ideas and gives each concept consideration, even though the second
option is ridiculous. Yes, the cartoon can be critiqued using deconstruction, in my opinion, as I
did above. (I must read the directions more carefully.) Before playing with this cartoon, I didn't
think I liked deconstruction, but deconstructing the cartoon was fun. I like the option to explore
meanings beyond the obvious. Some potential meanings are absurd, and can probably be
disregarded, but looking at the absurd can make the real meaning of a piece clear. It can also
reveal some of the subconscious thoughts of the writer that unintentionally get buried in a text, as
well as revealing some of the reader's unconscious or subconscious reactions to a piece. In some
cases, deconstruction might even reveal subtexts that are intentionally buried in a piece, such as a
political or religious agenda, that might not be revealed by ordinary reading.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
Something Is Wrong In London July 2, 2012
There is something wrong in London. The common people are sad, angry, and in pain.
The social institutions upon which they build their lives are tarnished and damaged. The Church,
which is a symbol of God’s light in the world, is blackened, so that God’s light is diminished or
422 A Journey Through My College Papers
obscured. The walls of the Palace, which protect the people from the depredations of the world,
run with the blood of its soldiers. The institutions of the family, marriage and children, are
likewise besmirched. The marriage coach, which carries the newly married couple from the
wedding into married life, is replaced by the image of a hearse, which carries the deceased for
burial. The newborn infant cries, shedding tears that are cursed, suggesting a lifetime of suffering.
In his poem, “London,” William Blake speaks out against this decay of the social institutions in
the city of London, England, at the end of the eighteenth century.
Blake opens his poem with references to London’s charters: “I wander thro' each
charter'd street, / Near where the charter'd Thames does flow” (Lines 1-2) (Lynn, 2011, p. 129).
What does it mean to be chartered in eighteenth century London? The use of the term in relation
to London’s streets refers to “a document, issued by a sovereign or state, outlining the conditions
under which a corporation, colony, city, or other corporate body is organized, and defining its
rights and privileges” (Charter, n.d., para. 1). This defines the streets of London as being
established by a strong social convention. The use of the term in relation to the Thames has a
different meaning, since the organization and privileges of a river cannot really be defined by
edict. Instead, the chartered nature of the Thames probably refers to its use as a primary means of
transportation in and to the city: “of or pertaining to a method of travel in which the transportation
is specially leased or hired” (Charter, n.d., para. 11). The streets of London are chartered by
sovereign mandate, and the waters of the Thames are chartered for transportation in the city. Both
the streets and the river serve society.
The idea that something is very wrong in the city of London is presented in Blake’s
observations as he walks the city’s streets: “And mark in every face I meet/ Marks of weakness,
marks of woe” (Line 3-4) (Lynn, 2011, p. 129). Every person Blake sees shows weakness and
sadness. The faces of the common people reflect the health and prosperity of a city, and the faces
of the people of London reflect the troubles of the city. This is echoed in the universal description
Blake gives in lines 5 through 8: “In every cry of every Man,/ In every Infant's cry of fear,/ In
every voice, in every ban,/ The mind-forg'd manacles I hear” (Lynn, 2011, p. 131). Blake speaks
of every man, of every child, and of every voice, suggesting that the trouble in the city is so
widespread that he does not see any person whose face reflects the health and prosperity that one
would expect to find in a powerful city like London.
It is important to realize that Blake is walking the streets of London, not the halls of its
palaces and mansions. The men and children he is seeing are the common folk, not the privileged
nobles and sovereigns who create the charters and who issues bans against various actions and
activities of the populace. They are also not the privileged clergy in the churches and cathedrals of
London, who issue bans of a different sort: the announcements of a coming marriage, one of the
three key institutions of society. Blake considers only the common man. By grouping all men, all
children, and all voices of the city, Blake suggests a brotherhood among the common people.
Michael Ferber (1978) writes that “Blake may have believed universal brotherhood to be
imminent ... If he did, he did not despair, or despair long, when it failed to appear, but returned to
his labor on its behalf” (p. 447). Blake moves from the universal identification of the people of
London to a more specific examples. In lines 9, 11, and 14, Blake identifies three individuals who
are signifiers of London’s lower class, the Chimney-sweeper, the hapless Soldier, and the youthful
Harlot (Lynn, 2011, p. 131). The Chimney-sweeper is technically part of London’s working class,
but he is the lowest example of his class. He makes his living clearing the filth from inside the
chimneys of London, and is himself covered in filth as a result of his labors. His literal unclean
condition represents the spiritually unclean aspects of the city that appall the Church in line 10
(Lynn, 2011, p. 131). The Church of London’s eighteenth century is more concerned with its own
wealth and with the support of the ruling establishment than it is with the plight of the dirty
common people of with the fearful cries of the city’s children. Blake sees the dirty laborer, who is
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excluded by the ruling class, and includes the Chimney-sweep and those like him in his universal
brotherhood.
The Soldier is described as hapless, meaning unlucky or having ill fortune, which is more
evidence that something is deeply wrong in London. The Soldier’s blood runs on the Palace
walls, suggesting that he defends the city, and especially the nobility, but that he is shut outside of
the seat of government to fend for himself. He sighs his resignation that his blood goes
unremarked by those within the Palace, but Blake sees the Soldier’s sacrifice and counts him in
the fraternity of common folk who are overlooked by those who rule.
Blake does not exclude the women of London from his brotherhood, as the noble class
overlooks women. “But most thro' midnight streets I hear/ How the youthful Harlot's curse”
(Lines 13-14) (Lynn, 2011, p. 131). The youthful Harlot is a young prostitute, and she is a
signifier for all young women who are forced by circumstance to labor among the lowest classes
of society in order to survive. Christine Roth (2012) MA Director of the University of
Washington, Oshkosh, writes that eighteenth-century prostitutes, or harlots, in London are
“primarily young, single women, between the ages of 18 and 22” (para. 3). That a young woman
is compelled by the conditions of society to engage at such a young age in dangerous work that is
banned by the church, and that causes her to be unclean in the eyes of both church and state, is a
strong indicator that something is dreadfully wrong in London.
Blake identifies the three key institutions of society in lines 10, 12, and 16: the Church,
the Palace, and Marriage. The concept of state government is signified by the Palace, while the
concept of family is signified by Marriage. The damage to these institutions, as described in the
introduction to this paper, shows the deep damage that has been done to London society. The
wealthy, privileged, ruling class of both government, embodied by the Palace, and the Church, is
set apart from the everyday existence of the common person. The men, women, and children who
live in the streets of the city of London are sad, frightened, hurting, and angry. The Harlot curses
her condition, and the curse “Blasts the new born Infant's tear,/ And blights with plagues the
Marriage hearse” (Lines 15-16) (Lynn, 2011, p. 131). The anger of the common person,
constrained by “mind-forg'd manacles” causes lasting harm to the people of London, down to the
youngest new-born baby (Line 8) (Lynn, 2011, p. 131).
Manacles are restraints that are used on prisoners. Manacles forged in the mind, then, are
thoughts that bind one’s actions or imprison one from within. Beliefs can be manacles, imposed
by the institutions of society but applied by the individual’s mind. The poverty and social strata of
London impose psychic restraints on the people of the city. Thus bound, it is almost impossible
for the Chimney Sweep, the Soldier, or the Harlot to escape the social bonds of his or her social
position and move to a higher, cleaner, more desirable level of society. These “mind-forg’d
manacles” are what is wrong in London (Line 8) (Lynn, 2011, p. 131). The universal cries point
to these bonds. The dirty laborer, the wounded soldier, and the fallen women of the city illustrate
the power of these mental restraints. The common people of London have been bound, like
prisoners, by the idea that the common person must remain common and wretched, and that the
elite class will remain above and apart from the masses. The people know that they are prisoners
in society, just as the convict knows that he is bound by the steel manacles around his wrists, but,
like the convict, the people can see no way to free themselves. The Church is blackened by the
corruption of spiritual values. The Palace is bloodied by the sacrifices of those who faithfully
defend what they can never attain. Marriage and family lead not to joyous life, but to death.
Something is wrong in London. Blake shows the reader the decay of the social institutions in the
city of London, England, at the end of the eighteenth century. The universal fraternity that Blake
anticipates is trapped in the manacles of social traditions and beliefs that trap the poor in ever-
deeper poverty. The manacles must be broken, and the social institutions of government, religion,
424 A Journey Through My College Papers
and family must be restored to balance, so that the cries of every voice may be cries of
brotherhood, not of bondage.
References
Charter. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved from
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/charter
Ferber, M. (1978). Blake's idea of brotherhood. PMLA, 93(3), 438-447. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/461865
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston,
MA: Pearson Education
Roth, C. (2012). "The great social evil": Victorian prostitution. Retrieved from
http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/Prostitution.htm
Distinguishing Between Historical and Biographical Theories 7/5/2012
Biographical criticism seeks to understand the life and experiences of the author in order
to better understand a literary text. It also uses an author's writings to gain a better understanding
of the author, and of the author's motivations for writing the text. "[B]iographical criticism offers
to help us understand both the work and its creator, as we relate one to the other" (Lynn, 2011, p.
140).
Historical criticism, on the other hand, explores not the author's life, but the historical
events that take place around the time and place in which the author is writing. "Historical
criticism considers how military, social, cultural, economic, scientific, intellectual, literary, and
(potentially) every other kind of history might help us to understand the author and work" (Lynn,
2011, p. 142). History is the written, or textual, representation of the events of the past; it is not
the past. It is a record of putative facts that provides context for literature.
While there are clear differences between biographical criticism and historical criticism,
as one focuses on the microcosm of the author's life and the other focuses on the macrocosm of the
events and influences of time and place, there are also similarities between the two modes of
analysis. In particular, biographical criticism is a sort of subset of historical criticism, since
biographical information about the author is a textual representation of the author's life, not the
author's actual life. Biographical criticism and historical criticism each rely on the factual
reliability of the textual records of the subjects that they explore.
Whether I would choose a book based on biographical criticism or a book based on
historical criticism of a given literary text would depend on what I hoped to gain from reading the
book. If I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the life, experiences, ideologies, and
motivations of the author, then I would choose the biographical book. If I wanted to gain a better
understanding of the local, regional, or world events that shaped society's experiences, ideologies,
and motivations, or of how those events interacted with each other and impacted society, then I
would choose the historical book. In general, I think I would be more likely to select books of
historical criticism than I would be to select books of biographical criticism, because I tend to
want to know about history and its influences.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
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Marxism versus Postcolonial Theory 7/5/2012
Postcolonial studies examine how a history of European colonization impacts cultural
and ethnic groups that have been colonized in the past. Whereas Marxist criticism concentrates on
the relationship between workers and the elite classes, postcolonial criticism concentrates on the
relationship "between dominant and subjugated cultures, races, and ethnic groups" (Lynn, 2011, p.
156). Workers in Marxist criticism are distinct from subjugated races (usually in African and
Asian lands) in postcolonial criticism. That said, there is also a strong parallel between the
workers and the subjugated races. In each case, analysis deals with the relationship of an
oppressed group and the group of oppressors. In Marxist criticism, the proletariat is oppressed by
the bourgeoisie, and in postcolonial criticism the native cultures of lands outside of Western
Europe are oppressed by Empire (usually British, French, or Spanish, but arguments could be
made to include the postcolonial literature of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or any
other empire that colonized and oppressed other ethno-cultural groups).
In general, I find postcolonial theory to be more interesting than Marxist theory. I
acknowledge that this may be a knee-jerk reaction to the ideology promulgated by Karl Marx.
While I am sympathetic to the plight of the common laborer, being a member of the unemployed
working class myself, I am more interested in reading about the results of and recovery from
imperial domination in subjugated countries. Classism exists in nearly every culture, to one extent
or another, and the basic story of the struggle of the working class is more or less the same from
medieval English fiefs to modern America, Russia, China, etc. The struggle of previously
colonized peoples to reassert or reinvent their cultural identity after a period of colonial occupation
is interesting, and seems to be unique from one group to another. Each group assimilates or
rejects different aspects of the former colonies while rediscovering, reclaiming, or recreating
different aspects of the original culture of the group or region. This rebirth and recovery is
beautiful and fascinating, even if it occurs by means of the ugliness of warfare and revolt. Even
groups like Japanese-Americans who were detained during World War II might be classified as
postcolonial cultures, with the American government being the subjugating power and the
descendants of the detainees attempting to redefine their cultural identities after the removal of
government oppression.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
Celebrating Ecstatic Life July 9, 2012
Emily Dickinson is the elder daughter, and middle child, of an affluent, Puritan,
Massachusetts family. Aífe Murray (1999) writes that the “Dickinsons were among the most
prominent families in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts ... they were, for generations, social
and civic leader” (p. 701). Dickinson receives a classical education beginning in the local primary
school and continuing with a seven-year stay at Amherst Academy. Like the Lily in line two of
her poem, Dickinson passes assuredly through the early years of her life (Lynn, 2012, p. 98).
While Emily Dickinson’s poetry is often described as being morbidly devoted to discussions of
death, “Through the Dark Sod” is a celebration of life and of growth.
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The second half of the 19th century is a time of growth for the United States, and it is also
a time of growth for Emily Dickinson. During her childhood, the United States learns from John
L. O’Sullivan that it “has a "manifest destiny" to occupy the North American continent” (Mintz,
2012, para. 128). “Through the Dark Sod—as Education—/ The Lily passes sure—“ (Lines 1-2)
(Lynn, 2012, p. 98). Just as the lily passes through the sod as it comes into being, so is the United
States growing as it expands westward. At the same time, Dickinson is growing and emerging as
a young woman through her education at Amherst University.
Dickinson’s education is a key part of her life, and the men who influence her education
are pivotal characters in her life. George F. Whicher (1934) writes that “not one man, but several
men in succession were of great importance to her ... tenderly as she was attached to them all, the
relationship that she demanded of each in turn was not that of lover, but of teacher ... Four men
were explicitly recognized by Emily Dickinson as her ‘tutors’” (Whicher, 1934, p. 3). Murray
(1999) writes that Dickinson and her sister “did not marry and remained at the family home their
entire lives” (p. 704). Dickinson, then, never married, and there is no record of her having any
romantic relationships; her intellectually intimate connections with her several mentors are as
close as she comes to having relationships with men. In her poem, Dickinson identifies the Dark
Sod with Education: “Through the Dark Sod—as Education—“ (Line 1) (Lynn, 2012, p. 98). The
speaker in the poem moves through education into life just as the lily growing in the field moves
through the dark soil as it grows. As Dickinson identifies her entry into life through her education,
the men who lead her education are part of the dark sod through which she passes, nourishing her
intellect.
The speaker in Dickinson’s poem does not fear emerging through education into life.
“Feels her white foot—no trepidation—/ Her faith—no fear—“ (Lines 3-4) (Lynn, 2012, p. 98).
The speaker is sure and confident in her growth and development. While the date on the poem is
uncertain, only placing it sometime before her death, the affirmative nature of these lines suggests
that it is from an early part of Dickinson’s life. Beginning with the death of a cousin, Sophia
Holland, in her teens, Dickinson is affected by a series of deaths, apparently resulting in her
seclusion through her later life, and possibly causing her to experience depression. These deaths
include two of her mentors, Benjamin Franklin Newton and Leonard Humphrey, and her mother.
The faith and lack of trepidation evinced by Dickinson’s speaker echo the faith and
conviction of American expansionists during her lifetime as they spread the idea of Manifest
Destiny across the American West and beyond. Similarly, both black slaves and American
women emerge through the dark sod into the light of freedom with faith that precludes fear during
this time. The American Civil War of 1861-1865 brings an end to slavery in America, and former
slaves emerge to freedom as the lily emerges from the sod. In the next decade, Susan B. Anthony
promotes women’s suffrage in the United States. The suffrage movement helps American women
emerge through the dark sod of social oppression to the freedom of voting and having a voice in
government. The oppressed in Dickinson’s time move into freedom, and Dickinson moves into
adulthood, with faith and without fear, just as “The Lily passes sure—/ ... no trepidation—/ ...
fear—“ (Lines 2-4) (Lynn, 2012, p. 98).
The second half of Dickinson’s poem celebrates mature life after the emergence from the
sod. “Afterward—in the Meadow—/ Swinging her Beryl Bell—/ The Mold-life—all forgotten—
now—/ In Ecstasy—and Dell—“ (Lines 5-8) (Lynn, 2012, p. 98). The Meadow, for the Lily, is
the place where life occurs. It is the setting of life’s experiences. For Dickinson, who is a recluse
in her adult life, the setting of life is her family’s ancestral home on Main Street in Amherst,
Massachusetts. The setting for her inner life, however, is much broader, as she corresponds with
many friends and acquaintances that she does not see in person.
The reference to the “Beryl Bell” is difficult to define (Line 6) (Lynn, 2012, p. 98). Beryl
is a semi-precious gem that is usually green, but that may be blue, yellow, or pink. It is an odd
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description for a lily, which is often assumed to be white, especially in poetry. The white lily that
is associated with death and burials, however, is not the only kind or color of lily. Lilies come in a
wide range of colors, including green, yellow, pink, and orange. A beryl bell probably refers to
the yellow trout lily or dogtooth violet, which Gerry Williamson (2011) identifies as a wild lily
that grows in Massachusetts and that has a bell-shaped, yellow blossom. Swinging the beryl bell,
then, refers to the Lily living freely in the meadow. For the United States in the late 19th century,
swinging the beryl bell refers to the country reaching its maturity as it expands to cover the
continent from east to west. As the nation spreads its influence through manifest destiny, the lily
spreads out its golden, or beryl, petals.
The Mold-life has multiple meanings. In the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas
Harper (2012) defines mold: “loose earth ... since late (Christian) Old English, ‘the earth of the
grave.’ ... to knead, shape ... Figurative sense (of character, etc.) is from c.1600” (paras. 3-4). For
the Lily, the Mold refers to the earth, or the Dark Sod of the poem’s opening line. For
Dickinson’s speaker, it is the period of education, during which her intellect is molded by her
teachers and mentors while her identity is molded by her family life and social life. For the
nation, as for the speaker, the Mold-life is the period of formation. With the Civil War and with
the westward expansion of Manifest Destiny, the United States is formed and molded into the
modern nation that exists in Dickinson’s later years. The Lily forgets the Mold-life in line 7,
moving beyond the difficulties and darkness that give it shape. Dickinson’s speaker, likewise,
moves past the difficulties of growing up, forgetting the troubles of her young life as she moves
through adulthood. After the Civil War, as Reconstruction redefines the United States, the
troubles of slavery and rebellion are set aside to allow the nation to blossom into its modern form.
The past that molds a person or a nation is not truly forgotten, but it is allowed to fade into the past
so that growth and prosperity may be allowed to happen.
The final line of Dickinson’s poem makes clear the fact that this is a poem of celebration.
“In Ecstasy—and Dell—“ (Line 8) (Lynn, 2012, p. 98). Ecstasy is extreme happiness or pleasure.
The Lily lives in the Meadow in Ecstasy. In 1854, Emily Dickinson writes in a letter to the Rev.
Edward Everett Hale of Worcester, Massachusetts: “Mr. Newton became to me a gentle, yet grave
Preceptor, teaching me what to read, what authors to admire, what was most grand or beautiful
and nature, and that sublime lesson, a faith in things unseen, and in a life again, nobler and much
more blessed” (Quoted in Whicher, 1934, p. 5). One of the four tutors who deeply influence
Dickinson’s education and life teaches her the joy of a faith in eternity. This allows her to
experience ecstasy in life, knowing that what comes after life is “nobler and much more blessed”
(Quoted in Whicher, 1934, p. 5). For the nation, the end of the Civil War and the coming of the
Industrial Age represent as sort of ecstasy. The United States moves exuberantly into the future,
leaving the past behind.
Through this poem, Dickinson celebrates her life, which takes place in a turbulent and
formative period of America’s history. Although Dickinson “protested that she was not to be
identified with the speaker in the first person of her verses,” her life and experiences are reflected
in the eight brief lines of this poem (Whicher, 1934, p. 3). Dickinson rises through the dark sod of
a rich and intellectually nourishing education that molds her mind and her personal identity. Her
faith is a blessed and noble afterlife allows her to face life with sureness, and without fear, and to
experience the ecstasy of her mature life. She sets aside the experiences that form her and devotes
her adult life to the writing of letters and poems, of which “Through the Dark Sod” is just a small
example. Because of her affluent childhood, Dickinson receives the excellent education that
allows her to write memorable poetry. Dickinson breaks free from the dark sod and celebrates the
ecstasy of life and growth.
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References
Harper, D. (2012). Mold. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mold
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston,
MA: Pearson Education
Mintz, S. (2012). A chronology of American History: 19th century. Digital History.
Retrieved from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/chron19.cfm
Murray, A. (1999). Miss Margaret's Emily Dickinson. Signs, 24(3), 697-732. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3175323
Whicher, G.F. (1934). Emily Dickinson's earliest friend. American Literature, 6(1), 3-17.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2919683
Williamson, G. (2011). US Wildflower's database of yellow wildflowers for Massachusetts.
Wildflowers of the United States. Retrieved from
http://uswildflowers.com/wfquery.php?State=MA&Color=Yellow
Psychological Analysis 7/12/2012
A basic knowledge of Freud's theories, and of the theories of other well-known
psychological theorists, aids in critical creativity and brings about a potentially richer analysis
because such an understanding opens the text for consideration of the unconscious contributions to
the work by the author. Using psychological theory to analyze a work of literature allows the
reader to consider how the writing represents the oppositions among the writer's id, ego, and
superego, especially in regard to the speaker's repressed desires, fears, and impulses.
Psychological analysis also considers how the literature presents the writer's or the speaker's
isolation from events, or even the denial of the existence of certain events and circumstances.
Freud's theories assume that "the unconscious is inherently sexual" (Lynn, 2012, p. 193). By
projecting a character's motivations on another character, or by projecting the writer's motivations
on his or her speaker, sexual ideas may be revealed. Similarly, displacing a speaker's concerns to
a different subject, or reversing a situation by attributing a speaker's feelings to the object of those
feelings can reveal sexual and other psychological undertones in a literary work. Using the
theories of Freud and of other theorists, such as Jung, Klein, and Sullivan, to examine and expose
the conflicts in a literary work allows the reader to suppose things about the writer and about the
message of the work based on the characters, the setting, and the dialogue in the piece. As Lynn
(2012) illustrates with his analysis of Hamlet's soliloquy in Hamlet, Act IV, scene vi, examining
the text in light of Freud's psychological theories reveals a great deal about the emotional conflicts
in the title character, and discovers possible reasons for Hamlet's hesitation about killing Claudius
(pp. 203-205). When Freud's Oedipus complex is applied to the text, Lynn finds that Hamlet
"finds at some deeper level himself excited and unable to be enraged at Claudius for carrying out
his own deep-seated wish" (Lynn, 2012, p. 206). While theorists other that Freud have somewhat
different ideas about psychological theory, most theories are based on Freud's work, and any
theorist's ideas may be used to reveal underlying themes and conflicts in literature. Recognizing
these themes and conflicts, and identifying them in a text, leads to a richer analysis of the work.
References:
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
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Gender Based Theories and Stereotypes 7/12/2012
Feminist, post-feminist, gender, and queer theories challenge preconceived stereotypes by
"disrupting comfortable patterns of thinking" (Lynn, 2012, p. 222).
Feminist theory "is concerned with the status of women" (Lynn, 2012, p. 221). Women,
in literature and in history, are often portrayed as weaker and less intelligent than men, as inferior
to men, and as needing the control and protection of men. Women are often portrayed as either
wholly innocent and helpless, or as evil and seductive; rarely, in literature, are women portrayed as
well-developed characters equal or superior to men.
Post-feminist theory goes beyond the feminist agenda of establishing gender equality; it
"focused on the distinctive needs of women" (Lynn, 2012, p. 221). Post-feminist theory seeks to
open people's thinking to different representations of both men and women in society, and to
people of either gender taking on roles that are traditionally biased to the other gender.
Gender theory, as a separate theory, does not seem to be addressed in the text, but the
difference between sex (a scientific fact) and gender (as determined by social and psychological
forces) is presented. Sex identifies male from female, and is a chromosomal or physical attribute.
Gender includes men, women, bisexuals, trans-sexuals, and homosexuals, and is not clearly
definable as a generalization.
Queer theory addresses homosexuals and other non-heterosexual orientations and their
representation in literature. Queer theory states that "dividing humankind into stereotypical men
and women can be problematic since there is no simple genetic or hormonal or physiological test
that will clearly divide all humans into 'male' and 'female'" (Lynn, 2012, p. 223).
These different theories have the potential to open a text to deeper meaning when the
roles of the sexes and gender roles that are presented or omitted from a work are considered
according to these theories. I believe that, in some cases, these theories do open the door to over-
analysis. In particular, a reader may apply language from modern feminist or queer theories to
texts that are written before the modern usages of some words come into play. In the text, Lynn
(2012) applies the modern, homosexual usage of "gay" to Samuel Johnson's 1746 poem (p. 242).
This is an appealing interpretation for some readers, especially when Lynn (2012) identifies "the
gay alcove" (Line 9) with a homosexual coming out of a closet (pp. 235, 242). The use of "gay" to
mean "homosexual" "begins to appear in psychological writing late 1940s, evidently picked up
from gay slang and not always easily distinguished from the older sense ... a male prostitute using
gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious
Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889" (Harper, 2012, paras. 2-5). The usage exists in 1889, and
comes into common parlance in the 1940s, but does not exist when Johnson is writing in 1746, so
applying the usage to the poem appears to me to be serious over-analysis of the work. While
much of literature has a gender bias, and feminist theory might be appropriately applied to many
works, it is important to consider the historical and cultural contexts of literary works when
applying modern theories and concepts.
References:
Harper, D. (2012). Gay. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gay
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education
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Symbolic Serpents July 16, 2012
Exploring the significance of snakes and dragons in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and
Marianne Moore helps the reader appreciate each author’s understanding of personal power.
Snakes and dragons represent power. The snake represents masculine power as a phallic symbol.
The dragon, in Western tradition, represents a different form of masculine power: the power of the
warrior. The snake’s power is insidious, dominating the less-powerful through stealth as it “The
Grass divides as with a Comb –“ (Line 5) (Dickinson, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 211). The
dragon’s power is honest and direct, “a symbol of the power of Heaven” (Line 4) (Moore, quoted
in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Dickinson’s “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” illustrates Freud’s “feminine
Oedipus attitude,” which Jung later calls the Electra complex (Cherry, 2012, para. 3). Moore’s “O
to Be a Dragon” is a yearning to escape from the prison of powerlessness that is defined by the
Freudian Oedipus complex and the Jungian Electra complex. Both Dickinson and Moore present
responses to the masculine power structure of their time period. Whereas Dickinson’s speaker, a
boy, is incapacitated by his encounter with masculine power in the form of a snake in the grass,
Moore seeks to attain power of her own in the form of a dragon.
The different ways in which Dickinson and Moore view serpents and write about serpents
in their poetry informs certain differences between the two authors. If the reader identifies each
poet’s speaker with the poet herself, it is possible to learn about each poet through her poem. In
the case of Dickinson, it is reasonable to postulate this identification, as Dickinson
“anthropomorphizes ... the snake ... Identifying herself with them, she identifies them with her”
(Gillespie, 1973, p. 262). While Moore’s identification with her speaker lacks similar support, it
is reasonable to assume that a writer’s unconscious contributes to the choice of words and phrases
because of the influence of the id, which is “largely the territory of the unconscious” (Lynn, 2012,
p. 195). as a result, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the poets through the diction
and syntax of their poetry.
Snakes and dragons are traditional symbols of evil, especially in Western cultures.
According to Biblical tradition, a snake, or a serpent, tricked the first people in creation into
committing the Original Sin. Western tradition "emphasizes the negative side of their [dragons’]
power and energy; the dragon-foe became synonymous with Satan and has come to symbolize
evil" (Snyder, 2011, para. 3). Both snakes and dragons are serpents. Traditionally, humans fear
serpents, especially in Western cultures. “[T]he dragon is what remains of our instinctive reaction
to the three most deadly predators for our primate ancestors: the snake, the eagle and the large cat”
(Glaser, 2009, para. 3). Dickinson’s poem deals with the ancient, instinctive fear of the snake
directly; Moore deals with the ancient construct of the dragon that represents humankind’s earliest
adversaries. In Dickinson’s final lines, she reveals that she does fear the serpent: “But never met
this Fellow/ Attended or alone/ Without a lighter breathing/ And Zero at the Bone —“ (Lines 21-
24) (Dickinson, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Unlike Dickinson, Moore does not fear the
serpent. For her, the serpent is not the snake, but the dragon. “O to be a dragon,/ a symbol of the
power of Heaven” (Lines 3-4) (Moore, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Moore challenges the
common stereotype of the dragon as a creature of evil when she equates it to Heavenly power.
Moore sees the dragon as a noble creature. Her final line, “Felicitous phenomenon” (Line 6),
describes being a dragon as a lucky and unusual occurrence (Moore, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p.
213). Whereas Dickinson is rendered numb and powerless by her fear of the snake, Moore is
empowered by her reverence for the dragon.
Freud’s Oedipus complex is the “desire to do away with the father and join with the
mother” (Lynn, 2012, p. 194). The feminine Oedipus attitude, or Electra complex, is “a
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psychoanalytic term used to describe a girl's sense of competition with her mother for the
affections of her father” (Cherry, 2012, para. 1). The two complexes are opposite sides of the
same coin, with the Oedipus complex applying to boys and the Electra complex applying to girls.
Freud maintains that one or the other of these complementary complexes is present in every child.
When the complex continues, “repression happens ... eventually creating psychological trouble”
(Lynn, 2012, p. 194). Alternatively, the complex is destroyed “by the boy’s perception that is
father is superior,” allowing healthy psychological growth to occur (Lynn, 2012, p. 194). This is
equally applicable to destroying the Electra complex when the girl perceives that the mother is
superior.
Dickinson, spending much of her life as a recluse and having no romantic connections,
represses many of the desires that are natural for a woman. Her continuous repression manifests
in the fear of the phallic symbol of the snake that is evinced in her poem. “A narrow Fellow in the
Grass/ ... A spotted shaft is seen –“ (Lines 1, 6) (Dickinson, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 211). In
Dickinson’s poem, the narrow shaft is a clear reference to a male erection, representing the most
primal exercise of power by one human over another. The “Whip lash/ Unbraiding in the Sun”
(Lines 13-14) presents the image of a whip, which is yet another phallic symbol (Dickinson,
quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Upbraid comes from the Old English “up ‘up’ + bregdan ‘move
quickly, intertwine’" (Harper, 2012, para. 1). “[W]hen the snake looks to the poet much like a
‘Whip lash / Unbraiding in the Sun,’ the image is both aural and visual. If, when stationary, the
creature looks as if it were ‘unbraiding,’ we are to recall the aptness of describing the moving
snake as the lashing out of a whip” (Monteiro, 1992, para. 3). The lashing whip is not only a
strongly phallic symbol, it also suggests keeping the weaker person in a subservient state through
the power of the whip. A whip is used to make animals obey their masters, and during the time of
slavery, it is used to make the slaves work for their master and to punish any slave that defies his
or her master. The whip, then, is a symbol of power that is to be feared. While upbraiding means
scolding in modern usage, its etymology reinforces the serpentine image of the snake in the grass.
Snakes are known to move quickly, and the side-to-side movement of a snake’s body along the
ground may be described as intertwining with the grass through which it passes. The lines of the
poem, then, have a double meaning. Dickinson is describing the snake moving quickly when she,
as the boy in the poem, encounters it. Additionally, the poet displaces the scolding power of her
mentors to the snake in the grass. The snake exerts power over the boy by scolding and by
behaving like a whip. In Dickinson’s life, a series of male authority figures, including four male
tutors and mentors, exert power over the author (Whicher, 1934, p. 3). The snake in the grass
illustrates the power that these male mentors have in Dickinson’s life, subtly exerting masculine
power over the weaker poet.
The boy in Dickinson’s poem challenges the snake by attempting to grab it, exerting the
boy’s power over the snake. When he finds the snake scolding him, the boy reaches out, but
“When stooping to secure it/ It wrinkled, and was gone –“ (Lines 15-16) (Dickinson, quoted in
Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Again, the comparison of the snake to a penis is apt. When the power of the
oppressor, represented by the snake, is resisted by the oppressor’s target, the oppressor’s forcefully
erect penis shrivels to a small, weak, wrinkled shadow of its power. Just so, the snake wrinkles up
into nothing and is gone when the boy tries to pick it up. This reversal of the power balance
between Dickinson and the male power structure allows the poet to explore the possibility that she
might be able to challenge the status quo. In doing so, Dickinson attempts to destroy the Electra
complex, represented as the Oedipus complex of the boy in her poem.
Assuming the aspect of a boy in her poem allows Dickinson to protect herself mentally
through displacement. She projects her fears and hopes onto the boy, allowing him to face the
masculine power of the snake. Having the snake wrinkle up and go away allows her to explore
how it feels to overcome that power without putting herself at risk by facing the masculine power
432 A Journey Through My College Papers
that orders her own life. For Dickinson, “Nature is narrow, constricting, like a coffin (or a snake).
Anything ‘straight’ is distasteful, because ‘numbing’" (Gillespie, 1973, p. 261). The straight,
narrow shaft of the snake is a negative image for Dickinson, but reducing the image to something
wrinkled and inconsequential, as the boy does, releases Dickinson’s unconscious from the
numbing fear of the snake’s power.
Moore’s poem suggests that the desire to have the power of a dragon is a wise desire, as
the opening lines name the putative wisest man in the Bible: “If I, like Solomon,.../ could have my
wish—“ (Lines 1-2) (Moore, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Moore does not claim to possess the
wisdom of Solomon; Moore intellectualizes her desire for power by musing that she would choose
that power if she was wise. The suggestion in the poet’s wish is that she does not believe she is
wise enough to express such a wish, thus repressing her inner desire for power. “[T]he dragon is
a fighter, a serpent, and in mythic terms, an insatiable warrior” (Martin, 1984, p. 192). Unlike
Dickinson, who views power in terms of the elusive snake, Moore views power in terms of a
courageous warrior. The speaker in Moore’s poem wishes to assume that power and to become a
powerful warrior. Unlike Dickinson, whose male role models exert considerable power in her life,
Moore has few male role models. She is raised by her grandfather after her father is committed to
a mental hospital before her birth (Liukkonen, 2008, para. 3). Moore’s conflict with her mother,
as defined by the Electra complex, then, is in competition for the affection of her grandfather in
the absence of her father.
In associating a dragon with good instead of with evil, it may be that Moore is in denial
about the true nature of the creature that she selects as a symbol of power. “O to be a dragon,/ a
symbol of the power of Heaven” Lines 3-4) (Moore, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Another
possibility is that Moore experiences reaction formation in regard to dragons, believing or hoping
that, if she says they are symbols of Heaven, then they are good. If she is experiencing reaction
formation, it is likely to be a manifestation of her id as her inner dragon contending with her ego
as it tries to make her good. “In western literature dragons symbolize intense passion and
represent the battle knights must fight against immorality” (Snyder, 2011, para. 3). Using this
image, the dragon is the unconscious passions of Moore’s id, and the knight is her ego, wielding
her personal power to prevent her falling into immoral behavior. If the symbolism is applied
universally, the dragon represents the repressed passions of humanity, and Moore’s wish is that
people could release those inner passions and embrace the power of honest expressions of desire
and emotion.
Moore’s desire to be a dragon is a mask for the desires of her id. She wishes to be bold
and powerful in the world. She desires to be a warrior who can fight for herself to establish
herself as a powerful individual. Because women are only beginning to have power in society in
Moore’s lifetime, a woman is forced to repress her desires. Moore’s ability to express in writing
the desires that she represses in society suggests that she has successfully destroyed her Electra
complex and is establishing a healthy mental identity for herself as a strong individual.
In contrast to Moore’s evident desire to be a bold, warrior-like dragon, she expresses her
desire to be “at times invisible” (Line 5) (Moore, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 213). Sometimes,
power lies not in being seen, but in the ability to be unseen or unnoticed by those by whom one
may be oppressed. Moore does not wish to be invisible all the time; she does not desire to cease to
exist in society. Instead, she desires to be invisible at times. It is reasonable to assume that the
times at which she wishes to be invisible are those times that she chooses to go unnoticed, not
those times at which she is overlooked or ignored by others. The former option allows Moore to
assume personal power in her life, while the latter choice abdicates her power to the oppression of
others.
Both Dickinson and Moore explore the concept of size in their poetry. Dickinson
compares the relatively large size of the snake’s shaft at the height of its power to the small size it
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assumes when it wrinkles up with the loss of its power to frighten the boy. For Dickinson, size
has a direct correlation to power and to self-image. When she feels powerful, she is large and
purposeful, like the snake that parts the grass. When she feels others exerting power over her, she
is small and wrinkled in on herself, like the snake that is threatened by the boy’s attempt to grab it.
For Moore, size is a lesser concern. The dragon may be “of silkworm/ size or immense” (Lines 4-
5) (Moore, quoted in Lynn, 2012, pp. 212-213). A silkworm is very, very small, but it has the
power to spin threads that are immensely strong. Moore acknowledges this potential for great
power to come in a small size, but she does not rule out the value and power of a very large
dragon.
“Since antiquity, dragons have represented the vast primal forces that support the
material realm” (Snyder, 2011, para. 2). Large or small, Moore appears to be wishing for these
vast forces, not for a vast physical form, when she wishes to be a dragon. While Moore, like
Dickinson, never married, women in general take into themselves the vast primal forces when they
create life through procreation. It is possible that Moore wishes to take on the power to mold
primal forces through motherhood. A mother’s body appears small, like a silkworm, as
childbearing begins, but attains what many women consider to be immense size before the baby is
born. The desire to produce life is an unconscious drive that is imprinted in every woman, and
Moore may be regretting her decision to remain childless. Certainly, many women who have no
children yearn to take on the vast power of nature to reproduce, even if that desire is repressed in
favor of striving for other kinds of personal and social power.
Dickinson suggests that she gets along with some parts of nature, thus intensifying the
image of the fear that she feels for the snake. It is not all of nature that frightens her, just as not all
of society frightens her. It is the snake that numbs her with fear, just as she is rendered powerless
by the oppressive power that is exerted over her life. Dickinson is known to consider the things of
nature to be “narrow, constricting, like a coffin " (Gillespie, 1973, p. 261). Nevertheless, she
writes: “Several of Nature's People/ I know, and they know me --/ I feel for them a transport/ Of
cordiality –“ (Lines 17-20) (Dickinson, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). These lines are in denial of
her usual reactions to nature. As such, they reinforce her conflict with the snake, and with the
power that it represents.
Dickinson and Moore have very different relationships with the serpents that they choose
for their poetry. In “A Slender Fellow In the Grass,” Dickinson encounters the snake
unintentionally. It surprises her as “His notice sudden is –“(Line 4) (Dickinson, quoted in Lynn,
2012, p. 211). The suddenness of the encounter is frightening for Dickinson, who comments that
she “never met this Fellow/ Attended or alone/ Without a lighter breathing/ And Zero at the Bone
–“ (Lines 21-24) (Dickinson, quoted in Lynn, 2012, p. 212). Every encounter with the snake
leaves Dickinson afraid. The masculine power of the snake numbs her ability to respond, just as
surely as do freezing temperatures. She feels the cold of fear and powerlessness in her bones, at
the core of her being. In “O to Be a Dragon,” on the other hand, Moore is, or seeks to be, the
dragon. She assumes the power of the dragon, taking on, accepting, and claiming the dragon’s
power as her own. Whereas Dickinson is overcome by the masculine, phallic power of the snake,
Moore is empowered by the masculine, warrior power of the dragon.
The symbolic serpents in the poems of Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore provide a
basis for understanding how each poet relates to personal power and to the power structures that
surround her life. Through an understanding of these two poems, and of how Freud’s Oedipus
complex and Jung’s Electra complex relate to the lives of Dickinson and Moore, the reader is able
to appreciate how living in fear of oppressive, masculine power structures can influence the
expression of a person’s unconscious desires and fears. Dickinson encounters power as something
to be feared; Moore embraces power as something to be sought in life. The snake in the grass and
the mighty dragon are two sides of a single coin, with incapacitating fear on one side and
434 A Journey Through My College Papers
wondrous possibilities on the other side. A serpent may be a snake, or it may be a dragon. Just as
Dickinson and Moore each respond differently to the serpent, each person is free to choose
whether to be powerless with fear or to be empowered by wisdom and courage.
References
Cherry, K. (2012). What is the Electra complex? Retrieved from
http://psychology.about.com/od/eindex/g/def_electracomp.htm
Gillespie, R. (1973). A circumference of Emily Dickinson. The New England Quarterly, 46(2),
250-271. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/364117
Glaser, E. (2009). Dragons in our genes: An examination of the collective unconscious.
Retrieved from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/4148
Harper, D. (2012). Upbraid. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=upbraid
Liukkonen, P. (2008). Marianne (Craig) Moore (1887-1972). Retrieved from
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mmoor.htm
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston,
MA: Pearson Education
Martin, T. (1984). Portrait of a writing master: Beyond the myth of Marianne Moore.
Twentieth Century Literature. 30(2/3), 192-209. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/441113
Monteiro, G. (1992). Dickinson's a narrow fellow in the grass. The Explicator, 51(1), 20.
Retrieved from ProQuest Database.
Snyder, M. (2011). Dragon dreams. Retrieved from
http://whiteknightstudio.blogspot.com/2011/11/dragons.html
Whicher, G.F. (1934). Emily Dickinson's earliest friend. American Literature, 6(1), 3-17.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2919683
ENG 380: Literary Research
Literary Experiences 7/26/2012
As an English major, I have had a good deal of academic experience with literary
criticism, beginning in my first composition course in my freshman year. Nearly every class has
required the analysis of one or several pieces of literature, sometimes individually, and sometimes
in relation to one another. As a reader, I have experienced literature in a variety of genres almost
since birth, and I read almost constantly. My kindergarten teacher was surprised when I read Little
Women during my time in her classroom; I learned to read around the age of three. I enjoy reading
classical literature, especially British literature of the Victorian period, and I enjoy prose, poetry,
and plays alike.
As an adult, I continue to read both serious literature and light, recreational literature.
Most of my experiences with literature have been positive, and there have only been a few books
in the course of my life that I have been unwilling to finish reading.
As a student, however, some literary experiences that were positive when I first read the
assigned literature have become negative as I have been assigned to read and analyze the same
short stories over and over again. "A Rose for Emily" is the prime example of this transformation
from a positive literary experience to a negative experience through repetition; I have encountered
this story in no fewer than five classes at this point.
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It is hard to identify a single piece of literature as my favorite work, but I think I can say
that a fairly obscure work, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, is my all-time favorite. It
runs a close race with the science fiction cult favorite, Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert A.
Heinlein. The Little White Horse is a fairy tale that features strong, female characters who must
end a feud that is perpetuated by stubborn, proud, male characters. Stranger In a Strange Land
pokes fun at many human and societal foibles, and it has just always appealed to me since I first
read it at age 12.
Each literary theory discussed in our text is appealing in specific settings and for certain
texts, but the most appealing to me, over all, is psychoanalytic criticism, which we studied in my
last class as psychological criticism. "Psychoanalytic criticism focuses on a work of literature as
an expression in fictional form of the inner workings of the human mind" (Kirszner & Mandell,
2010, p. 2054). Psychoanalytic criticism is revealing on several levels, as it can reveal details
about the speaker of a poem or about the characters in a work of prose, about the writer of the
work, and about the reader or hearer of the work. The striving between the id and the ego as it
relates to a character's actions and expressions in literature is fascinating, and often reveals
something of the writer's inner struggles. The way the reader interprets seemingly insignificant
parts of a work of literature exposes the reader's desires, hopes, and fears, of which the reader may
not even be consciously aware.
References:
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Experience with Library Resources 7/26/2012
I use scholarly sources in my academic assignments in every course. Most written
assignments require at least a few scholarly sources, and some discussion assignments also require
scholarly sources.
Over all, I am comfortable with finding sources for my academic work. There are times
when it is difficult to find authored, peer-reviewed sources for particular topics and positions, but
persistence usually results in success. When using sources outside the Ashford library, I am
usually comfortable finding reliable sources and excluding inappropriate sources from my
research.
The most challenging part of locating, evaluating, and using scholarly materials in my
writing is that some topics are not covered extensively in scholarly sources, so finding materials
can be difficult at times. Another, related challenge can be sifting through the irrelevant materials
that come up in a library search to find those particular articles that are relevant.
The one thing about my research abilities that I would like to improve is my ability to
construct effect search strings, both for library searches and for broader searches of the Internet.
When doing research for my assignments, I usually begin with the Ashford library. I
prefer to use JSTOR or ProQuest for most of my research, and I am not very familiar with most of
the other library databases. Sometimes, I also use Google to search for additional materials to
support my writing. I usually use keywords in my searches, although Google allows the
researcher to pose a question and obtain a list of sites that may answer the question. I don't
usually use the "author" or "subject heading" options, as I don't usually know those things when I
begin a search. I sometimes use the suggested topics in ProQuest if my initial search does not
bring me the material I need.
436 A Journey Through My College Papers
To determine whether or not an article will be useful to my research, I begin by reading
the abstract, if one is provided. Sometimes, I search within the article for a particular keyword to
determine whether or not the article will be useful to me. Most often, I need to read or skim the
text of the article before I can decide whether or not the article will be helpful in writing my paper.
Relating my ideas and arguments from those expressed in my sources varies from paper
to paper. I usually use quotes or summaries from source texts to illustrate my points, or to more
clearly articulate an idea that I share with another writer. Sometimes, source materials help to
explain my ideas, and sometimes I present opposing ideas from two sources to support my ideas
and to refute opposing ideas.
Psychoanalytical Theory in Literary Criticism July 30, 2012
Within each piece of literature, there exist clues to guide the reader to a deeper
understanding of the literary work, of the author of the work, and even of the inner workings of the
individual reader. Using psychoanalytical theory to analyze a work of literature allows the reader
to consider how the writing represents the author’s repressed desires, fears, and impulses.
Psychoanalytical analysis also considers how the literature presents the author’s isolation from
events or even the denial of the existence of certain events and circumstances through
identification of the inner workings of the mind. Modern psychoanalytic theory, based largely on
the work of Dr. Sigmund Freud, provides the literary critic with a guide to discovering, revealing,
and examining the truths that are hidden in literary works. “After 1950, psychoanalytic critics
began to emphasize the ways in which authors create works that appeal to readers’ repressed
wishes and fantasies” (Murfin & Ray, 1998, para. 3). In addition to appealing to and revealing the
unconscious desires of a work’s anticipated audience, authors reveal their own unconscious
desires in their writing. The key components of psychoanalytical theory are the struggle among
Freud’s Id, Ego, and Superego; Freud’s understanding of the unconscious; and literature as a
representation of the inner workings of the mind. Psychoanalytic theory is a useful tool for
evaluating literary works to gain a richer understanding of the work, the author, and the reader.
One of the key components of psychoanalytic theory is Freud’s concept of the Id, Ego,
and Superego. The id is “[t]he part of the mind that determines sexual drives and other
unconscious compulsions that urge individuals to unthinking gratification (Kirszner & Mandell,
2010, p. 2055). Opposing the id is the superego, which “seeks to repress the demands of the id
and to prevent gratification of basic physical appetites” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 2055). The
ego balances the primal needs of the id and the civilizing demands of the superego (Kirszner &
Mandell, 2010, p. 2055). Freud is well-known for his attention to sexual desires as the primary
need of the id. Psychoanalytical theory applies Freud’s Oedipus complex to literature by seeking
images in the text that reveal the author’s unconscious sexual fantasies and desires. These images
provide the critic a richer understanding of the writing, as well as insights into the minds of the
author and the reader.
Freud “believed that literature could often be interpreted as the reflection of our
unconscious life” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 2054). Psychoanalytical theory works from this
belief and seeks images in a text that will provide an illustration of the author’s unconscious life.
“[L]iterary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author”
(Delahoyde, n.d., para. 1). Even when an author is not writing autobiographically, the speech and
behavior of the author’s characters and the descriptions of settings and events are usually imbued
with some of the author’s personality, desires, and fear. In analyzing a literary work, the critic
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discovers clues to his or her own unconscious life by recognizing that the critic’s identification
and interpretation of the images in a work is informed by the critic’s unconscious.
By projecting the author’s motivations on the characters of a literary work, sexual ideas
may be revealed in the work. Similarly, displacing the author’s concerns to a subject in a literary
work, or reversing a situation by attributing feelings to the object of those feelings can reveal
sexual and other psychological undertones in the work. "An unconscious dynamism ... begins to
influence the writer and even often imposes upon him forms of expression which he does not
intend to use consciously" (Von Franz, 1980, p. 119). The author’s unconscious life leads to the
more complex inner workings of the human mind, which are a combination of the conscious and
the unconscious, and which are populated by the id, the ego, and the superego, and which manifest
in projection, displacement, and other literary techniques. Psychoanalytical criticism of literature
“focuses on a work of literature as an expression in fictional form of the inner workings of the
human mind” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 2054). By creating a fictional representation, the
author is able to explore an array of concepts in a non-threatening venue, and the literary critic is
able to sift the original, inner thoughts from the writing. “A ... concept so important to literary
critics ... is the Oedipus complex” (Knapp, 2004, para. 6). The representation of inner thoughts
and ideas often exposes elements of Freud’s Oedipus complex in literature. The Oedipus complex
is drawn from the famous story of a young man who kills his father and marries his mother, and it
represents for Freud the primary inner conflict for any person. “The complete complex postulates
a pre-oedipal desire for both parents ... which must be transformed in the Oedipus complex in the
interest of solid ego formation.” (Donovan, 2002, para. 1). Literary critics using the
psychoanalytical theory seek images in texts that reveal the character’s or the author’s struggle to
overcome the urge to remove the same-sex parent in order to form an intimate bond with the other
parent. The author may not be aware of his or her Oedipal inclinations, but with attentive close
reading, the literary critic is able to uncover hidden truths that may be translated into universal
truths about the human condition. By so doing, the critic achieves a deeper understanding of the
literary work, of the author’s inner thoughts, and of the reader.
Through use of Freud’s theories of the unconscious; identification of the elements of the
id, ego, and superego; and recognition of the Oedipus complex underlying literary texts;
psychoanalytic theory is a useful tool for evaluating literary works to gain a richer understanding
of the work, the author, and the reader. The literary critic identifies symbols and images in a
literary work that reveal the author’s unconscious desires and fears. The struggle of the ego to
balance the desires of the id and the superego informs the literary critic about the author’s struggle
with his or her personal identity and with his or her balancing of primal needs and civilized
responsibilities. The psychoanalytical critic is able to reveal the tricks of repression, displacement,
isolation, reversal, attribution, and other factors to identify themes, ideas, and messages that are
hidden in a literary work. Understanding the psychological messages in a literary work leads to an
understanding of the author of that work. This understanding can guide the critic to deeper self-
awareness.
References
Delahoyde, M. (n.d.). Psychoanalytic criticism. Retrieved from
http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/psycho.crit.html
Donovan, S.K. (2002). Overcoming Oedipal exclusions. Philosophy Today, 46, 128.
Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
438 A Journey Through My College Papers
Knapp, J.V. (2004). Family-systems psychotherapy and psychoanalytic literary criticism: A
comparative critique. Mosaic : a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of
Literature, 37(1), 149-166. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Murfin, R. & Ray, S.M. (1998). Definition of psychoanalytic criticism. Retrieved from
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_psycho.html
Von Franz, M. (1980). Analytical psychology and literary criticism. New Literary History,
12(1), 119-126. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/468809
Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper 8/2/2012
When I read Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," I feel a sense of horror. I am
horrified to watch a decent, middle-class woman's decline from simple melancholia to complete
insanity. Before reading Gilman's subsequent essay, I believed Gilman's writing to be a new,
feminist incarnation of the work of Edgar Allen Poe, since her account of the narrator's suffering is
reminiscent of the madness that is found in many of Poe's stories. Upon reading "Why I Wrote
The Yellow Wallpaper," however, I realize that Gilman's story is a highly autobiographical sketch
of her own experience with the so-called rest cure that was popular in the late 19th century.
The narrator of Gilman's story tells her audience that "there is really nothing the matter
with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency ... So I take phosphates
... and am absolutely forbidden to 'work' until I am well again" (Kirszner, 2010, p. 460). This
description of the beginning of the narrator's troubles is paralleled in Gilman's essay when she
writes: "For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to
melancholia -- and beyond ... I went ... to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in
the country. This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure ...he concluded there was
nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to ... "never to touch pen,
brush, or pencil again" as long as I lived" (Gilman, 1913, p. 10). Just as Gilman is told never to
write again, so she writes the same restriction for her main character. The story allows Gilman,
after she has abandoned the rest cure and has resumed writing, to explore what could have been
her fate had she compliantly adhered to the psychological treatment that she received from her
doctor.
Understanding Gilman's essay that explains the purpose of her story helps the reader to
understand the story. It is not a story meant to entertain and excite stories in the manner of one of
Poe's stories. Instead, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a cautionary tale about the dangers of allowing
the mind to be idle, as well as the dangers inherent in living too solitary a life. Gilman's narrator is
sequestered in a bedroom in a secluded house in the country. She has very limited contact with
anyone, even with her own child, who is kept from her so she can rest: "[T]he baby is well and
happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wallpaper" (Kirszner, 2010, p.
465). The narrator is so isolated that she begins to see a woman in the wallpaper of her room, and
in the garden outside her window. Graham Stokes (2000) writes that "We are social creatures. All
people need human contact ... It is crucial to wellbeing" (p. 109). In the absence of human
contact, the narrator's mind creates an entity with whom she can socialize. The entity, taking the
form of the woman behind the flowers on the wallpaper, eventually takes over the narrator's mind
as madness overtakes her. In her real life, Gilman writes that she "came so near the borderline of
utter mental ruin that I could see over" (Gilman, 1913, p. 10). She escapes her isolation and thus
recovers her sanity. She writes the story of how her treatment might have ended "to save people
from being driven crazy" (Gilman, 1913, p. 10).
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Both Gilman and her narrator are told to cease working and not to write as part of trying
to treat their emotional difficulties. Both the real woman and the fictional character are forced to
repress their creative urges and to allow their minds to grow fallow. In writing about Gilman's
story, Conrad Shumaker (1985) writes: "By trying to ignore and repress her imagination, in short,
John eventually brings about the very circumstance he wants to prevent" (p. 590). By not
allowing her imagination to be repressed for long, and by writing about her experience, Gilman
avoids the circumstance of madness that she writes for her narrator.
References:
Gilman, C.P. (1913). Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The
Yellow Wallpaper (1899). Retrieved from
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/yellowwallpaper.pdf
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Shumaker, C. (1985). "Too terribly good to be printed": Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow
Wallpaper". American Literature, 57(4), 588-600. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Stokes, G. (2000). Challenging behaviour in dementia : A person-centred approach.
Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Exploring the Ashford University Library Databases 8/2/2012
In researching my response to this week's first discussion, I performed two separate
searches. The first was for general information about Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. I
used EBSCOhost for the search, using the term "The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman" in the first
search box. I used the fourth result as a source for my discussion. I used the titles and types of the
results to eliminate the first three results. Once inside my chosen result, I simply read the article
to find relevant information.
My second search on EBCSOhost used the term "human need for social contact." This
returned only two results, of which I chose the second. Since the chosen text is a full-text e-book,
I began by using the "search within" option to find "social contact," then selected "Social and
Human Contact Needs" from the several occurrences on the term in the text (Stokes, 2000, p.
109).
I repeated both searches using Google. The search for "The Yellow Wallpaper by
Gilman" returned about 256,000 results. Among the top ten results were entries for Wikipedia,
Sparknotes, and E-notes, each of which is an inappropriate source site. The Google search for
"human need for social contact" was remarkably better than I expected, with the only Wikipedia
entry being an article that connects Charlotte Gilman to the lack of social contact, which would be
a useful connection if it appeared in a credible source (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 2012).
Using the database provided a shorter, more concise, more relevant list of sources for
each of my searches than did using Google for the same searches. For a literary search like these,
the library databases are more useful and efficient than using a more general search engine.
Additional information from the search engines might be useful to add details to a literary paper,
but the search engines would not be my first choice for this sort of project. In writing a paper on a
current events topic or a popular culture topic, on the other hand, it is useful to use a search engine
to get more recent information than is available in a library database.
The advantages of using a library database are peer-reviewed sources and not needing to
sift through pages of noncredible sources to find appropriate sources for a paper. The main
440 A Journey Through My College Papers
disadvantage is that the databases rarely have the most current information on new developments
in technology and culture. The advantages of using a general search engine include easy access to
up-to-the-minute information about science, technology, politics, and culture. The greatest
disadvantage is the profusion of non-credible wiki sites, blogs, and personal websites that lack
appropriate supporting documentation.
References:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman. (2012). Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Stokes, G. (2000). Challenging Behaviour in Dementia : A Person-centred Approach.
Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Critical Analysis of Gilman’s Gothic Allegory August 6, 2012
Greg Johnson’s “Gilman's gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in ‘The Yellow
Wallpaper’" argues that the true theme of The Yellow Wallpaper is the repressed rage of a 19th-
century woman who is subject to the patriarchal society of her time, and the woman’s redemption
from repression through the creative outlet of writing. The complete APA citation for the article
is:
Johnson, G. (1989). Gilman's gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in "The Yellow
Wallpaper". Studies in Short Fiction. 26(4), 521-530. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
The thesis of Johnson’s article addresses the larger question of the submissive role of women
under the dominance of a male-centered social structure, as well as the question of the rebellion of
women against social repression through artistic expression.
I find the article’s argument convincing in that it clearly expresses the social inequality of
men and women in late 19th-century America. The author provides an anecdote from the real life
of Emily Dickinson’s mother that illustrates the rage and rebellion of a woman who is repressed
by the rule of her husband, and the author goes on to identify the parallels between Mrs.
Dickinson’s experience and the experience of the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. Barbara A.
Suess (2003) writes that “Gilman's story chronicles how women have been socially, historically,
and medically constructed as not only weak, but sick beings” (para. 2). This identification of
women as weak and sick supports the depiction of 19th-century American women’s inequality with
men of their period.
In his article, Johnson assumes that both Mrs. Dickinson and Gilman’s narrator are
somewhat depressed, middle-class women who submit to the control of their husbands. The
assumption is supported by John S. Bak (1994) when he writes: “By placing her in this room,
John, the narrator's husband, resembles the penal officers of the eighteenth-century psychiatric
wards or penitentiaries” (para. 10). Representing men as penal officers identifies men as authority
figures who control the women in their society. The reference to a mental ward or a prison further
supports the idea that women are weak or unruly, and that they need to be controlled by men.
The author further assumes that rebellion through artistic expression serves to free
women from patriarchal repression. Writing about the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper, Johnson
(1989) writes: “An experienced writer, she understands the healing power which inheres in the act
of writing” (p. 527). Writing, as an artistic expression, is a source of healing for the narrator, and
it is a means of escaping the control of her husband.
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A third assumption is that the male-dominated, physical world is a world of daylight,
reason, and structure, while the female-centered, inner world is a world of nighttime darkness,
fanciful imagination, and disorderly fantasy. “Two of the story's major structural devices are its
contrasting of the husband's daylight world and his wife's nocturnal fantasy, and the religious
imagery by which she highlights the liberating and redemptive qualities of her experience”
(Johnson, 1989, p. 523). Barbara Hochman (2002) also comments on the dichotomy between the
masculine and the feminine in The Yellow Wallpaper: “The narrator’s ‘‘romantic’’ sensibility is
elaborated through many details in the text, and it has often been seen as part of the contrast
between her and her husband, a contrast sharply drawn along stereotypical gender lines” (p. 95).
This supports Johnson’s assumption of a contrast between masculine and feminine and between
practical and romantic or fanciful. The difference between male and female is key to the feminist
theme of the story, and Conrad Shumaker (1985) also addresses this point in regard to the wider
society in America: “Woman is often seen as representing an imaginative or ‘poetic’ view of
things that conflicts with ... the American male's ‘common sense’ approach to reality” (pp. 589-
590). This also supports Johnson’s assumption that the masculine is realistic and that the feminine
is imaginative.
The primary critical approach in the article is feminist theory, supported by historical and
biographical theory and by psychoanalytical theory. These theories are appropriate for a
discussion of the social position of women in The Yellow Wallpaper, and for a discussion of the
feminine mind and the narrator’s descent into madness and escape from repression through writing
and through her madness. Historical and biographical theory are appropriate for explaining the
social and culture setting in which The Yellow Wallpaper takes place, and for relating the
experiences of Gilman’s narrator to Gilman’s own life experiences.
A discussion of this article will contribute to my discussion of the feminist and
psychoanalytical themes in The Yellow Wallpaper. The article presents strong arguments about
the role of women in the story’s setting of time and place, and the discussion of repression, rage,
and redemption contributes to an understanding of the psychology of the story. I am till refining
my final thesis, but I expect it to address the feminist and psychological themes in the story, and
how each theme informs the other. As such, the theme and argument of this article will support
and illustrate my thesis.
Given the relationship between my tentative thesis and the thesis of this paper, I will need to
connect the patriarchal repression of women and the artistic rebellion of women against repression
to my discussion of the feminist aspects of the story. I expect to use this article to support my
discussion of the psychoanalytical images in the story and how those images describe the
psychological damage caused by social isolation and creative repression. In particular, I expect to
use Johnson’s (1989) discussion of The Yellow Wallpaper as a sign of the Gilman’s narrator using
her writing to subvert the authority of her husband and to escape from both her physical prison and
her social prison by continuing to write in secret (p. 527). Ultimately, despite the creative outlet
of her writing, Gilman’s narrator merges with her hallucinations and escapes into madness;
exploring this degeneration with the help of Johnson’s article will help illustrate my thesis about
the psychoanalytical aspects of the story.
References
Bak, J. S. (1994). Escaping the jaundiced eye: Foucaldian panopticism in Charlotte Perkins
Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. Studies In Short Fiction, 31(1), 39-46. Retrieved
from EBSCOhost.
Hochman, B. (2002). The reading habit and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. American Literature,
74(1), 89. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Johnson, G. (1989). Gilman's gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in "The Yellow
Wallpaper". Studies in Short Fiction. 26(4), 521-530. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
442 A Journey Through My College Papers
Shumaker, C. (1985). "Too terribly good to be printed": Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow
Wallpaper". American Literature, 57(4), 588-600. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Suess, B. A. (2003). The writing's on the wall: Symbolic orders in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'.
Women's Studies, 32(1), 79. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Doing More with Google 8/6/2012
I used Google Scholar for this assignment, and I was quickly frustrated. I used "The
Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman" as my search string, just as I used it in EBSCOhost when doing my
initial research this weekend for my final paper.
The first article that looked useful was the sixth result on the page. When I clicked it, it
brought up a JSTOR article. Since I don't have a personal JSTOR account, I was forced to follow
the prompts to use Ashford's account, which resulted in accessing the library through the Student
Portal after about twice as many clicks as it usually takes to access the library. I did, finally, arrive
at a full-text version of Lanser's (1989) article.
The second result that looked useful took me to
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00497878.1986.9978632 where I was directed to a
page that requires $169.00US to access the full text of the article.
Beate Schöpp-Schilling's article looks like it could provide valuable insights into the
feminist themes of The Yellow Wallpaper. She writes: "Elaine Hodges ... praises it [The Yellow
Wallpaper] as a feminist document 'which directly confronts the social politics of the male-female,
husband-wife relationship'" (p. 284). Unfortunately, having accessed the article through Google
Scholar, I was again denied access to the full article on JSTOR unless I went through the Ashford
Library, which is not the point of an exercise in using a Google product.
Greg Johnson's article about the story (1989), which I analyzed in my week 2 written
assignment, and which I originally found in the Ashford Library is on the first page of results in
Google Scholar, but the link leads to the abstract only, with no option to view the full text
(Johnson [Abstract], 1989). Other articles that I have already located in the Ashford Library for
use in my final paper also come up in Google Scholar, but again there is either the JSTOR issue or
a requirement to pay for access to the documents. The same is true for each of the new articles in
the search results that look interesting and relevant to my topic: they require JSTOR access or they
charge an access fee.
I cannot adequately determine the theses of the articles that were returned from my
search, as I have been unable to read most of the articles. The materials that I found using Google
Scholar have not contributed to my view of The Yellow Wallpaper in any meaningful way because
it has been so hard for me to find relevant articles that can be accessed as full-text documents.
Using EBSCOhost through the Ashford Library over the weekend, I readily identified seven good
sources for my final paper, but using Google Scholar seems like an impossible task to me -- and it
is rare that I refer to any research project as impossible. I'm sure that Google Scholar may be a
useful tool for many searches, but it is an impediment to my research for the final paper.
References:
Johnson, G. (1989). Gilman's gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in "The Yellow
Wallpaper". Studies in Short Fiction. 26(4), 521-530. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
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Johnson, G. (1989). Gilman's gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in "The Yellow
Wallpaper" [Abstract.]. Studies in Short Fiction. 26(4), 521-530. Retrieved from
http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facpubs/1938/
Lanser, S.S. (1989). Feminist criticism, "The Yellow Wallpaper," and the politics of color
in America. Feminist Studies, 15(3), 415-441. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3177938
Schöpp-Schilling, B. (1975). "The Yellow Wallpaper": A rediscovered "realistic" story.
American Literary Realism, 1870-1910, 8(3), 284-286. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27747979
Research and Response 8/9/2012
The Things They Carried, as presented in our text, is a series of excerpts from a larger
story about the Vietnam War. Set in the jungles around My Lai, the excerpts deal with a platoon
of men at Than Khe. The author, Tim O'Brien, draws from his experiences as a soldier serving in
the My Lai region from 1968-1970 as he writes about the physical and emotional baggage carried
by the men. He lists myriad physical items that the men carry, and intersperses the physical items
with weighty emotional baggage that may be more significant than all of the actual "things."
O'Brien's experiences as a soldier who was drafted to fight in Vietnam help shape the
story that he tells. In an interview with Martin Naparsteck, O'Brien says: "In my own particular
case, I hated the war in Vietnam and didn't want to go. I had no desire to test my capacity to
charge a bunker; I had no desire to do that. Some guys did. And I never really understood it, from
the moment of basic training. Why would guys want to die? Take the chance of dying? I just
didn't get it ... and the writing probably echoes that" (Naparsteck & O'Brien, 1991, pp. 4-5).
O'Brien's characters reflect his hatred for the war in Lavender's fear, Cross's clinging to imagined
love, and Kiowa's reaction to Lavender's death. While the lists of physical objects carried by the
men seem to dominate the story, the intangible weights of fear, superstition, guilt, and disbelief are
by far the most weighty things in the story.
The Vietnam War is not actually a war in legal or political sense because it was never
declared a war by the United States government, but this detail is irrelevant to the men who fight
the war. "United States involvement in the Vietnam War lasted from the early 1960s until the mid
1970s" (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 473). The events in The Things They Carried take place
about 1970, near the midpoint of the conflict. Some of the items listed in the story, such as Kool-
Aid, Dr. Scholl's foot powder, and Kodachrome photographs, illustrate the time period from the
standpoint of the world beyond the war (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, pp. 473-474). C rations, a
PRC-25 radio, and lists of various firearms illustrate the military time period with the Vietnam-era
technology of war.
Reading "An interview with Tim O'Brien" added to my understanding of The Things
They Carried because it offers the author's own thoughts and perspectives on the war in his own
words. It is not another researcher's interpretation of O'Brien's life experiences, but his own
expression of those experiences. When asked about the characters in the story, O'Brien replies:
"'Speaking of Courage,' [a chapter of The Things They Carried] for example, came from a letter I
received from a guy named Norman Bowker, a real guy, who committed suicide after I received
his letter," and when asked whether O'Brien knew Bowker, whose name is used in the story, he
replies "Yeah, in Vietnam" (Naparsteck & O'Brien, 1991, p. 7). Realizing that O'Brien's story is
based on experiences that he had near My Lai, and on people he knew in the war, adds a sense of
realism to my understanding of his story.
444 A Journey Through My College Papers
My middle brother served in Vietnam around the same time that O'Brien and Bowker
served there, and The Things They Carried brings to my mind the few stories he sometimes tells
about the war. Like the characters in the story waiting around for the helicopter to take Lavender's
body away, my brother (also named Tim) describes many periods of just sitting and waiting in the
jungle. For me, my brother's experiences are another source of context for O'Brien's story, as he
could be describing my brother's experiences as easily as he describes his own experiences.
References:
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Naparsteck, M. & O'Brien, T. (1991). An interview with Tim O'Brien. Contemporary
Literature, 32(1), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208335
Poetry Analysis "ABC" 8/16/2012
"ABC" by Robert Pinsky is a fascinating, short poem. It is written in free verse, with
neither rhyme nor meter. The poem consists of exactly 26 words. The first letter of each word is a
different letter of the alphabet, arranged in alphabetical order. This ordering of the words suggests
the inescapable order of life that is represented in the text of the poem. The poem states that "Any
body can die" (Line 1) (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 885). It then goes on to lament the sad
circumstances under which many people die, and the speaker's assumption that not many people
die happy, leaving "joy,/ Knowledge, love" behind them (Lines 2-3) (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010,
p. 885).
The voice of the poem is anonymous. It is not clear that the speaker is the author, so the
reader has the impression that the poem expresses universal truths about life, death, happiness, and
despair. If Pinsky had written the poem in a first-person voice or a second-person voice, the sense
of universality would be absent, and the poem would not have the emotional impact that it has
with the anonymous voice. "ABC" expresses the ideas of happiness and despair, which echo the
title of his first book: Sadness and Happiness. Barry Goldensohn writes that "a Modernist myriad-
mindedness emerges clearly in Pinsky's first book ... Sadness and Happiness" (Goldensohn, 2009,
para. 2). This idea of the myriad mind encompasses the anonymous voice and reinforces the
universality of the poem.
The tone of the poem is reflective, as suggested by the word "evidently" in the first line
(Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 885). This qualifier keeps the opening statement from being the
pronouncement of an absolute truth, even though the poem suggests a universal truth. Pinsky
seems to make definite statements about life and death, and about death by suicide, and it is easy
for the reader to overlook the thoughtful qualifier of "evidently."
The final three lines of the poem are puzzling. "Sweet time unafflicted,/ Various world:/
X = your zenith" (Lines 6-8) (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 885). A zenith is defined as "the
highest point" (Zenith, n.d., para. 2). "Sweet time unafflicted" appears to describe the time after
death, when the deceased is no longer afflicted by the difficulties of life that caused his or her
suicide, as described in line 4: "Need oblivion, painkillers" (Line 4) (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.
885). "Various world" also describes a life after death, as a world that varies from the world in
which the deceased lived. The "X" is the most puzzling part of the poem; the letter needs to have
meaning in the poem beyond filling the required space in the alphabet, because the letter is
equated to the zenith, or highest point. If the X is assumed to represent the crossing out of an
afflicted life, then death by suicide is represented as the highest point of a person's life.
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Happily, Pinsky does not paint a completely black picture in his poem. The speaker does
not say that no one has a happy life and death, only that "Few/ Go happily, irradiating joy,/
Knowledge, love" (Lines 1-2) (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 885). These few words offer the
hope that life can be happy, and that the reader may be among the few who escape the need for
quick oblivion. The even, orderly arrangement of the poem supports the happy, loving,
knowledgeable life of the few, just as it illustrates the progression of all lives to death.
References:
Goldensohn, B. (2009). Myriad minded: The poetry of Robert Pinsky. American Poetry Review,
38(1), 33-35. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Zenith. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged. (10th ed.). Retrieved
from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zenith
The Value of Critical Theory in Literary Analysis 8/21/2012
The use of critical theory adds to one's ability to make skillful judgments about literature
because critical theory forces the reader to examine the literature more closely than would usually
be involved in a surface reading of literature. A given literary work may lend itself more to some
of the forms of critical theory than to other forms. The literary critic needs to decide which of the
forms of critical theory may best be applied to a piece of literature in order to draw out the deeper
meaning in the work.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper lends itself to several critical theories.
A psychological or psychoanalytical analysis of the story might address the imprisonment imagery
of the bars on the nursery windows and the perceived bars in the design of the wallpaper. It might
also address the description of the wallpaper as having broken necks and bulbous eyes (Kirszner &
Mandell, 2010, p.462). A deeper psychoanalytical analysis of the work might explore the Electra
Complex elements in the narrator's relationship with her husband who is a parental figure in the
story.
A feminist analysis of the same story might address the infantilization of the narrator by
her husband and the way the characterization of the wife as a child reflects the “nineteenth-century
equation of non-maternal women ... with helpless children” (Johnson, 1989, p. 524). The same
discussion might include a discussion of the husband's control over the narrator as he imposes the
rest cure and orders her not to work. The analysis might discuss how women occupy a submissive
role in the patriarchal society of 19th century America.
A reader-response analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper might focus on how the reader
responds to the American Gothic style of the story. The reader-response critic might discuss
feelings of horror evoked by the descriptions of the country mansion and of the woman caught
behind the design of the wallpaper. This critical theory focuses on how the reader is affected by
the literature, so the critic might write about how the description of the narrator's descent into
madness elevates the reader's heart rate and produces a feeling of suspense and anticipation.
Two or more critical theories may be combined to develop a deeper understanding of a
given work. In my final paper, I am combining psychological theory and feminist theory.
Historical or biographical analysis can create a deeper understanding of a feminist or other cultural
analysis. In each critical theory, the reader is forced to perform a deep reading of the literary work
in order to expose the elements that relate to the critical theory that is being used.
446 A Journey Through My College Papers
References:
Johnson, G. (1989). Gilman's Gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in "The Yellow
Wallpaper". Studies in Short Fiction. 26(4), 521-530. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Analyzing The Yellow Wallpaper August 21, 2012
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a semi-autobiographical American
Gothic novel with vivid psychological and psychoanalytical imagery and a powerful feminist
message. Gilman uses the traditional Gothic literary devices of the “distraught heroine, the
forbidding mansion, and the powerfully repressive male antagonist” to frame her indictment of
patriarchal marginalization of women and of women’s issues (Johnson, 1989, p. 522). The
narrator is distraught by the forced inactivity of the rest cure for which she is taken to a country
mansion by her authoritarian husband. In an article in American Literature, Barbara Hochman
(2002) explains how The Yellow Wallpaper represents contemporary concerns that women read in
order to escape their lives. This escapism is illustrated in Gilman’s book as psychological markers
and feminist themes in the story work together to present a theme of escape from repression,
escape from imprisonment, and escape from an unfulfilling life.
The Yellow Wallpaper is rich with symbolism and imagery. The narrator of the story
seeks, and ultimately finds, escape from physical imprisonment, from a forced state of infantilism
that is imposed by her husband and by the patriarchal society of 19th
century America, from the
perceived scrutiny of the floral elements of the wallpaper that gives the story its title, and from her
own identity.
The narrator experiences physical, mental, and emotional imprisonment at the hands of
her husband, John, and his sister, Jennie. Throughout the story, the upstairs nursery bedroom is
represented as a prison. The floral design on the yellow wallpaper appears, to the narrator, to be
bars imprisoning the woman the narrator imagines to be behind the lurid, floral design. “At night
in any kind of light ... it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it as
plain as can be” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.467). The narrator, who is imprisoned by the male-
dominated culture of 19th century, middle class America and by the confines of the isolated
upstairs bedroom of an isolated country estate, projects the image of a prison onto the design of
the wallpaper in the room that serves as her physical prison. In her furtive writings, the narrator
states that “it is the pattern that keeps her so still” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.467). She
imagines that the design on the paper keeps the imaginary woman behind the design still in the
same way that her husband imprisons her intellectually by commanding that she be still and not do
any writing or work while she experiences the rest cure. The patterned prison does not keep the
woman still, however, as Gilman writes: “The front pattern does move ... The woman behind
shakes it!” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.468). This reflects the narrator shaking the bars of her
intellectual prison by continuing to write in secret.
The imprisoning bars in the wallpaper mimic the actual, physical, metal bars on the
windows of the nursery room. The bars are mentioned throughout the story, reinforcing the idea
that the narrator is imprisoned and needs to escape. The narrator reports that “the windows are
barred for little children,” and she later mentions “the barred windows, and then the gate at the
head of the stairs” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, pp.461-462). John S. Bak writes: “By placing her
in this room, John, the narrator's husband, resembles the penal officers of the eighteenth-century
psychiatric wards or penitentiaries” (Bak, 1994, para. 10). It is noteworthy that the narrator sees
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the bars as a means of containing children in the room, and not as a means of punishing a criminal,
making the nursery more like the psychiatric ward than the penitentiary. Women in her class and
culture are treated as children by their society, but they are not seen as evil or as wrong-doers.
Late in the story, Gilman writes: “To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but
the bars are too strong even to try” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.470). This suggestion of suicidal
thoughts again signals the unifying theme of the narrator’s need and desire to escape from the
nursery room and, presumably, from her life of repression under male control.
Just as the narrator seeks escape from imprisonment in her physical surroundings, she
also seeks escape from a kind of repression exerted by her contemporary society. She experiences
enforced infantilism at the hands of her husband, John. John does not infantilize the narrator in
order to be cruel to her; as Greg Johnson (1989) writes, “he is merely following the nineteenth-
century equation of non-maternal women ... with helpless children” (p. 524). The narrator is seen
to be treated as a child because the room in which she lives is meant to be a nursery. She is kept
in the nursery, but the baby is not. Although John shares the nursery with his wife, she is often
kept there by herself while he is away from the house on business, so it is as though she is
confined in the nursery by herself.
In addition to placing his wife in the nursery, John forbids the narrator to do any work.
This is a primary feature of the rest cure, but it also casts the narrator in the role of a child who
does not work for the support of her family. The narrator experiences forced dependence on her
husband and his sister, who take parental roles in the narrator’s life. These circumstances
reinforce the narrator’s need for escape; she seeks to escape from the childlike role assigned to her
by her husband and by society, and she seeks to escape from the restrictions on her work.
The infantilizing of the narrator progresses in her own mind until she is reduced to
crawling on the floor like a young child. The narrator writes: “here I can creep smoothly on the
floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010,
p.471). Gilman describes a mark or smooch on the wall where the narrator’s shoulder has rubbed
the design off the paper as she crawls about the room (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.468).
Gilman’s narrator anthropomorphizes the floral elements of the yellow wallpaper. These
elements represent the scrutiny society makes of lives of women, and especially of creative
women and of women who are not obedient to their husbands. The narrator is one such woman;
her writing informs her creative nature and her surreptitious continuation of her writing informs
her marital and feminine disobedience. While she is not scrutinized by members of contemporary
society while she is sequestered in the country mansion, her internal feelings of guilt at violating
the rules of her society cause her to imagine that the wallpaper watches her. Gilman writes that
“the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Kirszner &
Mandell, 2010, p.462). Bak (1994) discusses the scrutiny the narrator experiences from the eyes
that she perceives in the wallpaper (para. 10). The narrator seeks to escape the scrutiny of the
wallpaper and, by extension, the suffocating scrutiny of society and the behavioral requirements of
society, when she systematically tears the wallpaper from the walls of the nursery throughout the
story. The narrator expresses how society’s scrutiny represses women when she says of the
pattern on the wallpaper: “it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads ... the pattern
strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!” (Kirszner &
Mandell, 2010, p.468).
The narrator’s anthropomorphizing of the pattern on the wallpaper assumes a darker
aspect when the narrator writes: “when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance
they suddenly commit suicide” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.461). The word choice in describing
the pattern as committing suicide is significant because it again reinforces the narrator’s need to
escape from the nursery and from the repressive, patriarchal society that the room and its
wallpaper represent. “This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!”
448 A Journey Through My College Papers
(Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.462). Not only does the narrator watch the wallpaper, the watches
the narrator. This indication of the narrator’s growing paranoia indicates her declining mental
state. It also indicates that she feels trapped by the scrutiny of the wallpaper and that she
recognizes that being trapped is something undesirable.
The narrator experiences a break with reality in the course of the story, which represents
an escape from her ordinary life. She begins to relate to the woman she perceives behind the
wallpaper. “I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about
behind that ... front design” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.463). At first, she only perceives the
woman vaguely. At this point, the woman in the wallpaper is a completely separate entity from the
narrator. As the narrator’s need for escape increases, she begins to associate herself more and
more deeply with the woman. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she
wanted to get out” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.465). The narrator knows on an unconscious
level that she is trapped by society and by her controlling husband, but she is unable to escape her
physical reality. Instead, her imagination starts to have the woman in the wallpaper try to escape
from behind the floral design with its watchful eyes. The woman shakes the pattern of the
wallpaper just as the narrator wishes she could shake herself free of the patriarchal controls of
society. As the narrator entertains the imaginary idea of escape, she becomes more hopeful for her
own escape. “I think that woman gets out in the daytime! ... I’ve seen her!” (Kirszner & Mandell,
2010, p.468). The narrator projects her desire for escape onto the woman, and the narrator
imagines that the woman has become free of her imprisonment, if only for short periods. This
coincides with the narrator’s periods of escaping her husband’s control by writing during the day
when he is away at his work. “The wife in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ escapes by denying one self
and merging with another--physically safe, but insane, at least for the moment, in her nursery-
prison” (Delashmit & Long, 1991, para. 3). While physical escape from contemporary society and
from the constraints of her own life is impossible for the narrator, she is able to find escape in the
imaginary woman in the wallpaper. Bak (1994) writes that “the madness to which Gilman's
narrator is led ... paradoxically frees as it destroys” (para. 20). The narrator seeks freedom at any
cost, even contemplating suicide at times, and the destruction of her sanity is a small price to pay
for her escape from imprisonment. “I’ve got a rope up here ... If that woman does get out and tries
to get away, I can tie her! ... I am securely fastened now by my well-hidden rope” (Kirszner &
Mandell, 2010, p.470). The narrator first claims that she will tie up the woman, but she has tied
up herself instead. In fact, she has done exactly what she says she will do, since she has become
the woman and by tying herself she has also tied up the woman. This also connects to the earlier
suicide image of jumping out the window and finding escape from life by ending her life.
The narrator’s identification with the woman in the wallpaper is complete when she
declares: “I’ve got out at last ... in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so
you can’t put me back!” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p.471). In an article in Women’s Studies,
Barbara A. Suess writes: “Jane is no longer Jane, floundering in what she perceives as an orderless
world. Instead, Jane is the woman who fought her way out from behind the oppressive bars of the
outside pattern” (Suess, 2003, para. 37). Through her complete identification with the woman, the
narrator has achieved freedom in her own mind. Physical reality is no longer relevant for her since
she has succeeded in tearing the wallpaper from the walls and releasing the woman who was
trapped behind the paper. The narrator cannot remove the constricting bonds of her male-
dominated society, but she has succeeded in symbolically freeing herself by destroying the
wallpaper that represents, in her mind, her imprisonment.
Shawn St. Jean (2002) describes The Yellow Wallpaper as “a story exposing patriarchal
oppression” (para. 35). The story addresses the feminist issues of a woman’s status in society and
of the patronization of women and women’s creative efforts by a repressive, male-dominated
society. “The story, then, is ... an effective indictment of the nineteenth-century view of the sexes”
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(Shumaker, 1985, p. 598). The narrator in Gilman’s story is controlled by her husband, John, who
iconically represents male-dominated society in 19th century America. Shumaker writes that “the
story does indeed raise the issue of sex roles in an effective way, and thus anticipates later feminist
literature” (Shumaker, 1985, p. 589). John tells his wife where to live and what she may and may
not do. He suppresses her creative urges by denying her need to write to express herself. The
control exerted by the narrator’s husband becomes a prison from which she must escape. “With
its dominant pattern, its subordinate pattern, and its emerging image of a woman behind bars, the
wall-paper has often been seen to represent the ‘patriarchal text’ in which literary women —in
fact, all women—are trapped” (Hochman, 2002, p. 91). The narrator represents all middle class
women in 19th century America and her husband represents all men in contemporary society.
When John controls his wife, the reader sees that the patriarchal society of the time controls the
behavior of women, and that women are trapped by that control.
“Woman is often seen as representing an imaginative or ‘poetic’ view of things that
conflicts with (or sometimes complements) the American male's ‘common sense’ approach to
reality” (Shumaker, 1985, pp. 589-590). The narrator is forced to endure a rest cure, presumably
to combat the effects of postpartum depression, which has not yet been defined in this period. She
is required to desist from writing, and to be quiet and undisturbed. Her creative and imaginary
impulses and expressions are dismissed by the dominating male. “He laughs at me so about this
wallpaper! ... he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a
nervous patient than to give way to such fancies” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2010, p. 462). When the
husband discovers that the narrator is unsettled by the pattern of the yellow wallpaper, he laughs at
her as a parent might laugh at a child who fears a monster under the bed. By dismissing the
narrator’s ideas as fanciful, the husband asserts his superior social position and forces her into an
inferior social role. This creates the situation from which the narrator must escape, as she is
forced by the conventions of her society to submit to the superiority and the authority of her
husband.
“I ... am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again” (Kirszner & Mandell,
2010, p. 460). Following the pattern of social conventions, the narrator’s husband treats her as a
weak person, incapable of making decisions. “John’s view of his wife as fanciful serves his effort
to dismiss her ideas, keep her from creative work, and confine her to domestic functions”
(Hochman, 2002, pp. 95-96). John’s insistence that his wife not do any work not only creates and
reinforces the prison from which she must escape; it also provides her with the means of achieving
her escape. The narrator sees that her work is dismissed as unimportant, something she can just
give up, but she resists this control by her husband. She continues to write the story of her
imprisonment, chronicling her own descent from depression to true madness. This rebellion
against the patriarchal authority of her husband is the first step in the narrator’s escape. It is a
model for women of her class to emulate as they seek to overthrow, or to escape, the yoke of
repression in their male-dominated society.
The Yellow Wallpaper uses vivid psychological and psychoanalytical imagery and a
powerful feminist message to present a theme of women’s need to escape from imprisonment by
their patriarchal society. The narrator’s identification with the woman in the wallpaper is also
symbolic of her identification with women of her class in the greater society beyond the confines
of the country mansion. She experiences the scrutiny of society through the perceived scrutiny of
eyes in the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. Her isolation from social contact and the forced
cessation of her writing add layers of repression to her life, forcing her to find escape in madness
when she is unable to find physical escape from the nursery of the country mansion or social
escape from male domination. The Yellow Wallpaper is a cautionary tale against the subjugation
of women by men, against the repression of women’s creative expressions, and against the dangers
inherent in the social isolation associated with the 19th century rest cure.
450 A Journey Through My College Papers
References
Bak, J. S. (1994). Escaping the jaundiced eye: Foucaldian panopticism in Charlotte Perkins
Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. Studies In Short Fiction, 31(1), 39-46. Retrieved
from EBSCOhost.
Delashmit, M., & Long, C. (1991). Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. Explicator, 50(1), 32-33.
Retrieved from EBSCOhost
Hochman, B. (2002). The reading habit and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. American Literature,
74(1), 89. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Johnson, G. (1989). Gilman's Gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in "The Yellow
Wallpaper". Studies in Short Fiction. 26(4), 521-530. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R., eds. (2010). Literature: Reading, reacting, writing. (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Shumaker, C. (1985). "Too terribly good to be printed": Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow
Wallpaper". American Literature, 57(4), 588-600. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
St. Jean, S. (2002). Hanging 'The Yellow Wall-Paper': Feminism and textual studies. Feminist
Studies, 28(2), 397. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Suess, B. A. (2003). The writing's on the wall: Symbolic orders in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'.
Women's Studies, 32(1), 79. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Fall Semester, 2012
ENG 341: Studies in Literary Genres
Parables, Fables, and Tales 9/5/2012
In parables, which are "often religious or spiritual in nature", the tone is usually serious
and didactic (DiYanni, 2008, p. 30). The lack of details that could detract from the lesson of the
parable, such as personal names, in Luke's The Prodigal Son from the lack of details, lends to the
didactic nature of the story. When Luke writes: "A certain man had two sons", he does not tell
where the father and sons live, when they live, or anything about their lifeways (DiYanni, 2008, p.
27). He leaves it open for the reader to imagine any father with two sons, so that the reader can
understand the moral of the parable without hindrance. Since the story is a parable, it has
universal application and appeal, which would be diminished if the story identified too closely
with any one person, place, or culture.
In fables, which are "brief stories that point to a moral", the tone is usually lighter than
that of the parable, and it is often satirical (DiYanni, 2008, p. 43). In Aesop's The Wolf and the
Mastiff, the tone is first set with the wolf and the dog taking roles that might otherwise be assigned
to two people. The animals interact in a way that creates a mental image of two men meeting: a
scruffy, scrawny outcast or outlaw, and a comfortably well-situated city guard or police officer.
The moral, "Better starve free, than be a fat slave", shows that the true life situations of the wolf
and the dog are rather the reverse of what they appear to be at the start of the story (DiYanni,
2008, p. 44). The wolf is free to live his life, while the dog is the slave of his human masters.
Another of Aesop's fables, The Ant and the Grasshopper, also casts the grasshopper and
the ant in the roles of people. This anthropomorphizing of animals as human-like characters is a
very common feature of fables, which makes the stories and their morals more appealing to
readers. This fable teaches a serious moral lesson in a light and whimsical manner. When the
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grasshopper asks, "Why bother about winter?", the reader can see that the silly creature is setting
itself up for disaster (Aesop, n.d., para. 4).
In tales, which relate "strange or fabulous happenings", the tone is harder to define
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 44). The tone may be serious, as with a parable, but it is more likely to be
lighter and more intimate than the tone of a parable. A tale draws the reader into the story to
provide entertainment, and it may not contain a clear lesson. Petronius' The Widow of Ephesus, is
a story that tells a secret about a woman who is first pathetic, and later clever. It begins as a
tragedy, with a serious tone, but ends as a romantic comedy, with a light tone, when the widow
tells her lover, "better far, I say, to hang the dead than to kill the living" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 46).
The widow saves the life of her lover by having her dead husband's body hung on the cross in
place of the missing body of a thief.
References:
Aesop. (n.d.). The ant and the grasshopper. Retrieved from
http://aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheAntandtheGrasshopper&&antgrass.r
am
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
The Short Story 9/5/2012
Plot and structure are crucial elements of fiction because they are the devices around
which a story is constructed. The plot is the series of events through which the story unfolds, with
"a sequence of incidents that bear a significant causal relationship to each other" (DiYanni, 2008,
p. 49). Without the causal relationship, the account might be a sort of history, but it would not be
a story plot. The plot usually follows a predictable pattern, with an introductory bit, called the
exposition; a bit of crisis or complication that builds tension and interest in the story; a climax,
where the tension peaks and a significant event in the story occurs; a period of falling action,
where the tension eases away; and a conclusion, resolution, or denouement, which wraps up the
threads of the story and provides closure.
The "structure is the design" of the story (DiYanni, 2008, p. 50). It includes the patters of
the story. "Plot directs us to the story in motion, structure to the story at rest" (DiYanni, 2008, p.
51). The structure gives a story its balance and order, and it guides the reader through shifts of
scene or focus in the story.
Frank O'Connor's (1931) Guests of the Nation follows the classic plot order of exposition,
complication, climax, falling action, and denouement. Chapter one provides the exposition,
introducing the characters, suggesting the setting through oblique references to being in Ireland,
and indicating the time period through mention of the "German war" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 53). The
complication of possibly needing to execute prisoners who have become friends is introduced in
chapter two. The tension of the rising action stretches out in chapter three as the Irish guards take
the English prisoners to be executed. The climax of the story begins in chapter four, with the two
executions filling different roles in the story. The execution of one prisoner is the climax, but the
execution of the second prisoner leads into the falling action, providing something of an anti-
climax. The final quarter of chapter four is the denouement. The dead men are buried, and the
story slows to a close.
The structure of Guests of the Nation provides the tempo of the story. The beginning of
the story is slow, building the relationships among the characters over the course of the first half
452 A Journey Through My College Papers
of the story. Hawkins' argumentative nature is contrasted with Belcher's quietly accepting nature.
Noble and the narrator are shown to be sympathetic with the prisoners, while Donovan is shown to
be more distant. The tempo quickens as the first execution approaches, and then it drops off
abruptly between the two executions. The tempo drifts slowly to a stop at the end of the story.
Margaret Atwood's Happy Endings is not so much a story as a spectrum of related stories. Each
option represents a sort of alternate reality option. Each lettered option follows the classic plot
structure in miniature. The structure of the six separate stories into one story is the key to this
piece. Part A has almost no real plot, although the story moves from getting married, through
getting settled, climaxing with the birth of children, falling through retirement, and concluding
with death. Part B has interesting action, with complications that make the reader keep reading.
Part C is similar in tension levels to B, and its complications keep the reader engaged. The same
is true of the subsequent parts, and several of the parts have the potential for being strung together
to form a longer story with multiple mini-climaxes. Happy Endings has a clear point: each of the
stories ends with the death of the characters, but it is "the stretch in between" that the makes the
stories interesting to read (DiYanni, 2008, p. 291). Each plot in the story is different from the
other plots, but each plot has the same resolution. The overarching resolution of Happy Endings is
the acknowledgement that it is the body of the story between the exposition and the denouement
that makes a story worth reading.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Short Stories 9/12/2012
DiYanni (2008), in his glossary, describes point of view as: "The angle of vision from
which a story is narrated" (p. G-7). There are several points of view that may be used in a story.
Point of view may be first person, with the narrator telling a story about events in his or her life. It
may be third person, with the narrator telling a story from outside the story. In either case, the
point of view may be limited to the knowledge of a single character, which is called limited
omniscience, or it may be omniscient, with knowledge of what is going on in the minds and
feelings of all of the characters. "[W]ith an objective point of view, the writer shows what happens
without directly stating more than readers can infer from its action and dialogue" (DiYanni, 2008,
p. 77).
William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is told from the point of view of the town as an
entity. No specific individual is identified as the first person plural narrator who begins the story:
"When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 79).
The point of view is limited, with the telling of the story confined to the actions, dialogue, and
physical descriptions in the story. The reader is not told what is happening in Emily's mind; her
motives must be inferred from her words and actions. When Emily buys the arsenic, the narrator
does not reveal what she is thinking or feeling; instead, the narrator describes what the druggist
can see: "She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag ... Miss Emily just stared at
him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got
the arsenic and wrapped it up" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 82). In the context of the story, the reader may
infer that Emily buys the arsenic to kill Homer Barron, especially when the narrator writes:
"Homer Barron was back in town. A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door
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at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 83).
Again, the limited omniscience of the narrator allows only a description of events, not any insight
into what Homer, the Negro servant, or anyone else thinks of the events.
Using a limited omniscient, plural first person point of view allows Faulkner the build up
the suspense of the story. The reader must draw conclusions from the action and dialogue, and
must revise those conclusions as more of Emily's life story unfolds. Even at the end of the story,
when the townspeople find a man's body, "in the attitude of an embrace ... rotted beneath what was
left of a nightshirt," it is not clearly stated that Emily uses the arsenic to murder Homer (DiYanni,
2008, p. 84). The true horror of Emily's life is revealed in the final two sentences: "Then we
noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from
it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in our nostrils, we saw a long
strand of iron-gray hair" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 84). The first person plural narrator, being the
townspeople of the anonymous town in which Emily lives and dies, does not break the pattern of
limited omniscience to relate the emotional responses of those who find the hair, and the reader is
left to consider the horror of how and why such a hair is found in such a place with a long-dead
corpse.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Literary Terms 9/13/2012
In his glossary, DiYanni (2008) defines irony as: "A contrast or discrepancy between
what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen in life
and in literature" (p. G-5). Irony can take several forms, including verbal irony, irony of situation,
dramatic irony, and ironic vision. In verbal irony, what is said is the opposite of what is meant.
Similarly, in irony of situation, what appears to be is opposite to what really is, or what happens is
the opposite of what is expected to happen. In ironic vision, the tone of a work of literature
suggests the opposite of how the writer presents characters and events in the work.
DiYanni (2008) defines a symbol as: "An object or action in a literary work that means
more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself" (p. G-8). Symbolism can be difficult to
identify in a work of literature, and can represent something different for one reader than it does
for another reader, depending on the reader's experience.
In "The Rocking Horse Winner," the love between the mother and Paul is illustrated by
the symbol of the wooden rocking horse, which represents the mother's feeling of being unlucky
contrasted with Paul's feeling of being lucky with horse races. It is ironic that, when the parents
are seemingly unable to provide enough money to support the family, their young son uses his toy
horse to help him to raise money to support his parents and his sisters. Rather than being guided
by his parents, he follows the guidance of the family's gardener, providing another irony in the
story. Late in the story, the mother reveals to Paul that her family, and his by extension, "has been
a gambling family" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 108). It is implied that the family has been unsuccessful in
the past, leading to the mother's financial woes, but Paul is a successful gambler and makes good
money with his wagers. When Paul arranges for his mother to have a comfortable income from
his winnings, and then allows her to have the full sum of five thousand pounds at once, the
family's need for money, ironically, increases, instead of decreasing. Paul's love and care for his
mother feeds her appetite for expensive things and makes the situation worse when he means to
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make the financial situation better. The end of the story is ironic, as well, as Paul dies from the
emotional frenzy of winning seventy thousand pounds for his family. Paul's love for his mother
has pushed him to provide enough money for her to live on, but it has resulted in his death.
In "Heaven-Hell," the Indian clothing and foods are symbols of the Bengali life that the
family left in Calcutta. Early in the story, they are symbols that build the family, drawing Pranab
into Usha's family circle. The names used by Pranab and by Usha's family to denote specific
degrees of kinship also symbolize the life the characters knew before arriving in America. "I was
taught to call him Pranab Kaku ... he called my father Shyamal Da .. and he called my mother
Boudi, which is how Bengalis are supposed to address an older brother's wife" (DiYanni, 2008, p.
244). When Pranab meets Deborah, her loose hair and American dress clash with Boudi's
traditional, Bengali braid and sari. The food in the story is symbolic. When Boudi feeds Pranab
leftover curried mackerel and rice, she is drawing him into her Bengali household; when Deborah
thoughtfully serves fish to Usha's parents at the wedding in place of the beef that she knows they
do not eat, Boudi feels alienated and marginalized. Years later, Usha's family is invited to
Thanksgiving dinner with Pranab and Deborah, and the traditional turkey dinner is a symbol of
Pranab's acceptance of his American wife's culture and customs and his desertion of his original
Bengali culture and customs. For the Thanksgiving celebration, Usha's clothing is symbolic of her
family's culture: "I was furious with my mother for making a scene before we left the house and
forcing me to wear a shalwar kameez" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 253). Usha has grown up as a Bengali-
American, not as a Bengali girl, and her change from the shalwar kameez into American clothes
after dinner is important: "Deborah gave me a pair of her jeans and a thick sweater and some
sneakers, so that I looked like her and her sisters ...in the jeans I'd had to roll up and in which I felt
finally like myself" (DiYanni, 208, p. 254). Usha feels like herself in American dress and is
uncomfortable with the Bengali culture that her mother forces on her. At the end of the story, it is
ironic that Deborah turns to Boudi for comfort when Pranab leaves Deborah for another Bengali
woman. Boudi falls in love with Pranab early in the story, and feels that Deborah has stolen
Pranab from her, and now Deborah feels that the other woman has stolen Pranab from Deborah.
Deborah does not turn to her own mother and sisters for comfort, but to Boudi.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Elements of Poetry – Part One 9/19/2012
In Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," the voice is a dramatic monologue, spoken by
the Duke of Ferrara to an ambassador. Browning uses the duke's monologue to construct a sinister
tone by having the duke tell the representative of his prospective bride about the duke's last
duchess. The duke explains how his last duchess did not properly appreciate him when he says:
She thanked men, -- good! but thanked
Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift (DiYanni, 2008, p. 513).
The duke goes on to tell the ambassador how the duke repays his last duchess for her lack of
attention and appreciation by ordering her death: "I gave commands;/ Then all smiles stopped
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together. There she stands/ As if alive" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 513). The Duke of Ferrara tells the
ambassador these things by way of warning the ambassador of how his last duchess died and how
his next duchess can expect to be dealt with if she is not attentive enough to the duke.
In William Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud," the denotation and connotation
of the daffodils in line four are quite different from each other. The denotation of the daffodils is a
large cluster of yellow flowers. Dictionary.com defines daffodil as: "a bulbous plant, Narcissus
pseudonarcissus, of the amaryllis family, having solitary, yellow, nodding flowers that bloom in
the spring" ("Daffodil," 2012, para. 1). Daffodils are common, spring flowers, that are easily
recognized by contemporary and modern audiences. The connotation of the "golden daffodils;/ ...
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze" is of a crowd of the beautiful, wealthy society people of
Wordsworth's time (DiYanni, 2012, p. 519). As Wordsworth's speaker wanders through life
alone, he sees beautiful people dancing and frolicking near a lake, and he is reminded of lovely,
golden flowers waving in the breeze. The repetition of daffodils at the end of the poem again
denotes flowers, but it again connotes wealthy people. As an educated man, Wordsworth knows
the popular Greek myth of Narcissus, and calling the idle rich daffodils is a play on the flower's
scientific name, which references the self-adoring Narcissus in both the genus and the species.
In "First Death in Nova Scotia," Elizabeth Bishop uses a range of white imagery to
represent the innocence of the dead child and to represent the coldness of death. Little Arthur's
childish innocence is suggested by "one lily of the valley" that Arthur is given to carry with him to
the grave (DiYanni, 2008, p. 525). The lily image is repeated in the final stanza, reinforcing
Arthur's innocence, "clutching his tiny lily" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 526). The lily of the valley is a
very small, white, bell-shaped flower that grows quietly in solitary, shaded places. As one of the
smallest lilies, it is more appropriate than the more usual, funereal, Easter lily for a child's funeral.
White imagery that represents Arthur's childlike innocence also includes a description of Arthur as
an unfinished doll, or child's toy:
Arthur was very small.
He was all white, like a doll
that hadn't been painted yet ...
Jack Frost had dropped the brush
and left him white, forever." (DiYanni, 2008, p. 526).
Jack Frost is meant to bring the color of life into little Arthur's cheeks, but the child is white in
death, and will always look like an unpainted porcelain doll. The white imagery that represents
the coldness of death is winter imagery. A stuffed loon on a marble table is on "his white, frozen
lake," which is repeated in the second and third stanzas (DiYanni, 2008, pp. 525-526). The ermine
robes of the royal party and the "ermine trains" are references to thick, white fur, often dotted with
black, that comes from the ermine, a member of the weasel family (DiYanni, 2008, p. 526). The
wintry clothing of white fur evokes an image of white, and it is followed in the same, and final,
stanza with "the roads deep in snow" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 526). When a person dies, the body
becomes cold, and it is then placed in a cold grave under the earth. The ice and snow in the poem
describe the coldness of Arthur's body in death, and the silent cold of the grave. Another white
image that is only suggested and is easy to miss is "a little frosted cake" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 526).
A small cake is usually frosted with sweet, white, sugar frosting, which is an ironic addition to the
poem because small cakes suggest children having happy parties, but Arthur cannot take part in
any more parties because he has died.
In the sonnet, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day," William Shakespeare uses the
poetic convention of simile to compare his subject, who is probably a woman, to the various
aspects of a day in summer. He does dot say that his subject is a summer's day; rather, he says that
456 A Journey Through My College Papers
his subject is "more lovely and more temperate" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 606). Similarly, in the sonnet,
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," Shakespeare employs simile to compare aspects of
his subject to an array of items. Rather than use metaphor to speak of his subject's lips as coral, he
uses simile to compare her lips to coral: "Coral is far more red than her lips' red" (DiYanni, 2008,
p. 849). Interestingly, Shakespeare does not compare his subject favorably with the beautiful
items in his poem; he contrasts the subject's features against the beauty of coral, snow, roses, and
perfumes (DiYanni, 2008, p. 849).
References:
Daffodil. (2012). Dictionary.com. Retrieved from
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/daffodil
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Elements of Poetry – Part Two 9/20/2012
Emily Dickinson's poem, "Because I could not stop for Death," is allegorical. It tells the
story of the journey from life to death, and from the physical world to eternity. In lines 9-13,
Dickinson writes:
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess -- in the Ring --
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain --
We passed the Setting Sun --
Or rather -- He passed Us -- (DiYanni, 2008, p. 541).
The School and the Children represent youth, innocence, and learning about life. As the speaker
travels in Death's carriage, she (for the speaker's clothing establishes the speaker as female)
reviews the progress of life. The gazing grain suggests maturity, since grain is only able to "gaze"
when it ripens out of its budding stage into ripe kernels in its maturity. Thus, the speaker sees her
life move from the innocent play of childhood past the maturity of ripened grain. The setting sun
symbolizes the end of life, as the light of day dies and is replaced with the darkness of night. The
sun passes by Death's carriage, and the speaker rides on beyond the end of life.
In lines 17-20, Dickinson writes:
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground --
The Roof was scarcely visible --
The Cornice -- in the Ground -- (DiYanni, 2008, p. 541).
The house in the ground is the grave in which the speaker is buried after death. A new grave
appears to be a swelling of the ground as the earth is piled atop the coffin in the grave. That the
cornice of the roof, which is the top-most projection of a house, is in the ground, further indicates
that the house is a grave, which is entirely underground. That the grave is represented by a house
indicates that the speaker envisions an on-going life after death; she does not need a house if there
is no more living to do. The house is a symbol of safety and security, where the speaker's spirit
may rest at ease for eternity.
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I, "Towhomitmayconcern," Sonia Sanchez uses syntax to control the pace of the poem.
There is very little punctuation to slow the pace of the longer lines, and the periods that are used
break the poem into just five sentences. The shortest sentence is just one word: "man" (DiYanni,
2008, p. 846). The isolation of the single word gives it strong significance, as the speaker
addresses, identifies, and perhaps describes her subject. The reader is forced by punctuation to
pause a moment and to notice the man. Sanchez uses variable line length to control the pace of
her free-verse poem, as well. The reader moves quickly along the longer lines, building tension,
and then is forced to slow down or to pause on the shorter lines, giving the shorter lines force and
power. The two two-word lines of the poem are warnings, filled with menace by the energy
generated by the rapid pace of the longer lines that precede them: "this time" and "watch out"
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 846). "[T]his time" warns the subject of the poem that he (the man of line 8)
will experience the speaker's punishment this time, suggesting that he has not experienced it
before. The reader stops on the line, and feels the definitive nature of the words. It didn't happen
last time, but it will happen this time. "[W]atch out" is a warning. It is two unpunctuated words,
standing alone, and it is a warning. The tone is imperative.
The prevailing meter of Anne Sexton's "Her Kind" is iambic tetrameter, but Sexton varies
the meter to move the poem along. The caesuras in many of the lines force the reader to pause to
reflect or to absorb the descriptions of the witch and the speaker's identification with the witch, as
in the first two lines: "I have gone out, [//] a possessed witch,/ haunting the black air, [//] braver at
night" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 563). The caesuras divide these two lines into four distinct ideas, giving
the reader a moment in each line and at the line stop to notice that the phrases may be rearranged
into "I have gone out, haunting the black air" and "A possessed witch, braver at night." This
subtle use of meter gives the reader an insight into the mind of the speaker that might be missing
without the brief pauses. There are two instances of enjambment without line stops in the poem:
In lines 3-4, Sexton writes, "I have done my hitch/ over the plain houses" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 563).
In lines 17-19, she writes: "survivor/ where your flames still bite my thigh/ and my ribs crack
where your wheels wind" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 563). In each case, the lack of punctuation at the end
of the line invites the reader to read on without pausing, thus increasing the pace and intensity of
the poem for those lines. Both the caesuras and the enjambments influence the rhythm of the
poem, slowing the pace for the caesuras and hastening the pace for the enjambments.
Langston Hughes' "I, Too" has a generally rising, hopeful tone because of the
preponderance of iambs and anapests in the poem. Hughes uses dactyls, a trochee, and a solitary
stressed syllable in lines 12-14 to give those lines a sober, serious tone, as the speaker considers
how his masters will treat him in the future: "Say to me,/ Eat in the kitchen,/ Then" (DiYanni,
2008, p. 708). Throughout most of the poem, Hughes uses a combination of iambs and anapests to
give the speaker's words and ideas a sense of strength and courage. The self-identified "darker
brother" speaks of a day when he will be recognized and accepted by the masters of his country
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 708). The speaker identifies how he is oppressed, but he expresses his
response to oppression in positive terms that resonate in the iambic and anapestic rhythm: "But I
laugh,/ And eat well,/ And grow strong" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 708). The words "laugh," "well," and
"strong" are stressed, making each line a strong, declarative statement, so that the three lines
together express the speaker's confidence and certainty that things will be different and better in
the future.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
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Images of Brotherhood and Death September 22, 2012
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado represents Poe’s frustration and sense of
personal insult at being refused membership in the Freemasons as reflected in the character
Montresor and as illustrated by the copious Masonic imagery found in the story. Dan Burnstein
(2009), co-author with Arne de Keijzer of Secrets of the Lost Symbol, writes in an article
celebrating Poe’s bicentennial birthday, that “few will realize, or be told by their teachers, that The
Cask of Amontillado has Freemasonry and also anti-Mason history at the heart of it”(para. 3). Poe
uses Masonic imagery that includes and incorporates death imagery to create an atmosphere of
horror to further the plot of vengeful murder, and also to foreshadow how the murder is to be
committed. While the Masonic imagery of the story is obscure to many modern readers, who have
little knowledge of or connection with Freemasonry, “Nineteenth-century readers would have
understood most or all of Poe’s Masonic references” (Burnstein, 2009, para. 5). A discussion of
this imagery provides insight to and understanding of the anti-Masonic message in The Cask of
Amontillado.
A surface reading of The Cask of Amontillado gives the reader reason to believe that
Montresor’s madness, or his over-reaction to a perceived slight, is the cause of Montresor’s
murder of Fortunato. Montresor perceives that Fortunato “ventured upon insult,” which becomes
the basis for Montresor’s decision to murder Fortunato (DiYanni, 2008, p. 144). The specific
insult suffered by Montresor is his exclusion from membership in the Freemasons, which mirrors
Poe’s denial when he seeks such membership. In a 2012 article, Ross Bonander says, of
Freemasonry, that “[e]xclusion is an insult, and those not in the know must learn the secret” (para.
1). Poe suffers insult at the hands of the Freemasons when “the Masons refused to consider him
for membership” (Shelokhonov, 2012, para. 31). Taking these three facts together, Montresor’s
insult at the hands of Fortunato reflects Poe’s insult at the hands of the Freemasons, so that
Montresor’s revenge on Fortunato is Poe’s revenge on the Freemasons, which he is unable to
exact in real life.
Poe gives the reason for Montresor’s murder of Fortunato as the story begins: “The
thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I
vowed revenge” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 144). As happens in many friendships, Montresor
experiences or perceives various injuries from Fortunato before the opening of the story; these
injuries are not identified, and Montresor admits that he can bear injury from Fortunato. Insult is
the thing that Montresor cannot bear, and The Cask of Amontillado tells the story of Montresor’s
revenge against Fortunato for a very specific but not explicitly identified insult. The insult is
clearly one of great significance in that Montresor deems necessary the murder of his friend to
redress the insult.
Understanding the insult that Montresor perceives or believes that he has received from
Fortunato is the key to understanding the anti-Masonic subtext of The Cask of Amontillado.
“Exclusion is an insult, and those not in the know must learn the secret” (Bonander, 2012, para. 1).
Bonander refers to exclusion from membership in the Freemasons, and his comment addresses the
insult Fortunato has done to Montresor. Fortunato attempts to identify himself to Montresor as a
Mason, hoping that Montresor will recognize his gesture and give an appropriate response
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 146). In Freemasonry and in Masonic-affiliated fraternities, there are specific,
unique signs, verbal passes, and hand grips to identify on Mason or member of an affiliated
fraternity to another; each such sign has a specific, unique gestural or verbal response that must be
given to establish Masonic identity. Montresor fails to give the required response to Fortunato’s
gesture, replying instead with improvisation as Montresor displays the trowel to identify himself
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as a Mason. Fortunato is intoxicated from the carnival celebration, so he is incautious and accepts
Montresor’s counterfeit symbol as proof that the two mem share Masonic brotherhood. This
exchange establishes Fortunato’s identity as a Freemason, which is something to which Poe
himself aspires, but from which Poe is excluded, and is shows Montresor’s willingness to deceive
his friend and to impersonate a Freemason. The insult that Montresor suffers from Fortunato,
then, reflects Poe’s experience of insult when he is from membership in the Freemasons.
Bonander (2012) goes on to write that “[m]iserable people need to blame others for their
misery, and who better than a loose confederacy of do-gooders gathered around precepts like
wisdom, strength and beauty” (para. 19). This further reflects Poe’s exclusion from the Masons,
which is projected onto Montresor, whom we may assume from the insult he suffers and from his
imitation of a Freemason has been excluded from the Freemasons. Montresor is miserable
because of the perceived insult of exclusion and expresses his misery by taking the life of
Fortunato, the closest representative of the group that has wronged Montresor.
There is a second Freemason-related insult that Montresor could perceive to be done to
him by Fortunato: the insult of too-honest speech. “Most Masons did not hesitate to speak their
minds, even if it meant challenging a higher power-or a friend. Perhaps this straightforwardness is
what gets Fortunato into trouble with Montresor in Poe's story” (Moss & Wilson, 1997, para. 6).
While it is likely that Fortunato’s insult to Montresor is related to membership in the Freemasons,
it is also possible that the insult perceived by Montresor is Fortunato’s frank speech at a time when
polite conversation is often circumspect and filled with euphemisms. In this second possible
scenario, the insult to Montresor still involves the Freemasons, because it is Fortunato’s
membership in the Order that prompts Fortunato’s plain speech. Montresor, then, kills Fortunato
for being a Freemason, because being a Freemason causes Fortunato to speak freely.
The insult of exclusion from the Freemasons is one aspect of anti-Masonic imagery in
The Cask of Amontillado. The Masonic idea that all Freemasons are social equals, regardless of
their relative statuses in the world at large, is another way in which Poe employs Masonic imagery
to present an anti-Masonic message. As discussed in an article by Elena V. Baraban (2004), Poe’s
descriptions of Montresor and of Fortunato during the carnival scene at the beginning of the story
serve to establish the relative social standing of the two men, with Fortunato’s masquerade of a
classical fool serving to set him below Montresor’s social station while Montresor’s elegant black
cloak serves to elevate his social station above that of Fortunato (p. 54). Masonic imagery in the
story serves as a social leveler between men, and Montresor’s false assumption of the role of a
Mason is another attempt to level the social differences between him and Fortunato.
Poe presents Montresor and Fortunato as members of the same level of society, relating
to each other as equals. While Montresor comes from a wealthy and powerful family, as
evidenced by the extensive burial vaults under his palazzo and by his possession of a coat of arms
that the reader is led to believe is hereditary, Montresor’s comments to Fortunato reveal that
Montresor no longer enjoys the social standing that he once had. Fortunato, on the other hand, is
identified as a man who possesses wealth and power in the present; there is a social gap between
the two men. Masonic imagery in the story serves as a social leveler between men, and
Montresor’s false assumption of the role of a Mason is another attempt to level the social
differences between him and Fortunato.
While the setting of The Cask of Amontillado is not clearly identified, Montresor’s
roquelaire sets the time at the end of the 18th century, and Montresor’s references to Italians and to
the catacombs of Paris suggest that the action takes place in Italy or in France, not in England or in
America. In this setting, relative social status is important, and a man of lesser status may not
touch or compel a man of higher status. At the same time, the rise of the newly rich and the
decline of the ancient nobility confuse the issue of relative social status. ”Fortunato ... was a man
to be respected and even feared ... The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped
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dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells ... Fortunato possessed himself of
my arm. Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person, I
suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo” (DiYanni, 2008, pp. 144-145).
“The black mask and cape worn by Poe's Montresor and the court jester's costume
favored by Fortunato were both popular as well ... a carnival setting serves as a stark contrast to
the dark underworld of Montresor's vaults in the short story” (Moss & Wilson, 1997, para. 3). The
contrasts between the levity of Fortunato as a fool and the gravity of Montresor as the executioner,
and between the levity of the carnival and the gravity of the burial vaults illustrate the inequality
of social roles in the story. The lighter elements of foolishness and carnival bear less significance
than bear the weightier, grave elements of the executioner and the burial vaults, thus giving
Montresor a temporary, superficial superiority to Fortunato.
Montresor tells Fortunato, “You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as
once I was” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 145). Poe’s word choice is noteworthy as he describes his
interaction with Fortunato. First, Montresor acknowledges that Fortunato is a powerful, but
Fortunato wears a carnival costume that casts him in the role of a fool. In contrast, Montresor
wears a silk mask and a fine cloak, casting him in the role of a nobleman. Montresor’s costume is
also reminiscent of the costume of an executioner, which foreshadows Fortunato’s death for the
careful reader. Second, Montresor suffers Fortunato to hold Montresor’s arm and to compel
Montresor to the Montresor palazzo. Social rules do not permit a man of lesser status to touch a
man of greater status, and it is nearly impossible for two men to have fully equal social status.
Montresor’s suffering, then, identifies his social status as higher than Fortunato’s status; if
Fortunato is of greater social status than is Montresor, then there is no occasion for Montresor’s
suffering the interaction.
Montresor’s family is older than is Fortunato’s, as suggested by Fortunato’s reaction to
the age and size of the Montresor vaults, but Fortunato has greater wealth than has Montresor.
Montresor, therefore, has greater social status than has Fortunato, but Fortunato has more apparent
social status than has Montresor. As a Freemason, Fortunato shares equal social status with all
other Masons; in representing himself as a Mason, Montresor attempts to share the social leveling
of Freemasonry. “A line in the Fellow Craft degree of Masonic ritual informs the brother that the
mason’s tool, the level, reminds us that ‘we are traveling along the level of time, to that
undiscover’d country, from whose bourn no traveler returns’” (Hodapp, 2010, p. 52). The
Masonic level reflects the leveling of social status between Montresor and Fortunato. When
Fortunato inadvertently identifies himself to Montresor, under the influence of drink, as a Mason,
Montresor takes advantage of Fortunato’s error to masquerade as a Mason. The masquerade is a
clever reminder that the story is set during carnival, and that the men assume roles that are not
their own. By claiming membership in the Freemasons, of which Fortunato is a member,
Montresor levels, or equalizes, the two men’s respective social statuses in a way that is impossible
in the ordinary society of his time, but that is automatic among Master Masons. This leveling is
illusory, since Montresor is not actually a member of the Masonic brotherhood.
Along with the suggested Masonic imagery of the level, Poe uses the physical imagery of
the Masonic trowel. “Montresor shows Fortunato his sign, a trowel. Soon Fortunato is walled up
by that trowel” (Henninger, 1970, p. 37). Montresor presents his trowel as false proof of his
membership in the Freemasons when Fortunato demands proof of the same. “’Producing a trowel
from beneath the folds’ of his cloak, Montresor mocks Fortunato’s membership in the Order of
Masons” (Baraban, 2004, p. 54). The trowel becomes not only a false sign of a leveling of social
roles between the two men, but also a tool that allows Montresor to rise above Fortunato by
controlling life and death for Fortunato. Montresor’s mocking of Fortunato’s Masonic
membership is a further example of Poe’s anti-Masonic imagery and message in the story. It
expresses Poe’s feeling of frustration at being excluded from Masonic membership.
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Montresor opens several bottles of wine to share with Fortunato as the men pass through
the Montresor vaults. The bottle that Fortunato tosses upward when he offers a sign to identify
himself to Montresor as a Mason is “a flagon of De Grâve” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 146). “By making
Fortunato try De Grâve, Poe ‘no doubt means a pun on the word ‘grave’ ...
for Montresor the drink has been from the outset a secret, figurative reference to death itself and in
promising a taste of Amontillado, he has ... been speaking of Fortunato’s destruction” (Baraban,
2004, pp. 55-56). Montresor offers Fortunato the grave as Montresor leads Fortunato to the grave
in which Fortunato is to be buried alive.
The Montresor vaults are filled with the death imagery of bones and skeletons that are
associated with Masonic imagery. Without [the] historical context [of Masonic ritual], this tale is
simply another example of Poe’s skillful manipulation of gothic effects–the praise usually given in
commentary on the tale” (Burnstein, 2009, para. 5). The Masonic associations of the death images
in the story add a dimension of mystery associated with the secretive society of Freemasons to the
Gothic horror of the tale. The nitre in the vaults is an image of death, since “Saltpeter, also called
Nitre ... [is formed] by exposing heaps of decaying organic matter mixed with alkalis (lime, etc.)
to atmospheric action,” with the decaying organic matter understood to be the bodies that are left
to decompose in the ancient burial vaults (Lotha, 2012, paras. 1-2). In addition, the niche in which
Montresor confines, and then walls in, Fortunato is suggestive of a Masonic chamber of reflection,
of which Mark Stavish (2002) writes: “It is only in solitude that we can deeply reflect upon our
present or future undertakings, and blackness, darkness, or solitariness, is ever a symbol of death”
(para. 2).
Dan Burnstein (2009) writes that Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado “embodies a cultural
narrative about democratic values” (para. 5). While this is a reasonable assessment of the story,
based on the leveling of social statuses in the story, the more prevalent theme of the story is the
Freemason-related death imagery that runs throughout the text.
As Montresor leads Fortunato through the burial vaults under the Montresor palazzo, the
two men pass walls and piles of bones and skulls. “We passed through walls of piled bones ... [the
crypt’s] walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of
the great catacombs of Paris” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 146). Montresor calls Fortunato’s attention to
the nitre on the walls of the caverns and passages, making an oblique reference to a Masonic story
involving lime, which will be presented in this discussion. “’[B]ut observe the white web-work
which gleams from these cavern walls’ ... ‘Nitre?’ he asked ... ‘Nitre,’ I replied ...’The nitre!’ I
said; ‘see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults ... The drops of moisture trickle among
the bones’” (DiYanni, 2008, pp. 145-146). Lime is a component in the production of nitre, which
also includes organic matter such as human remains.
The piled bones in the vaults are popular symbols of death; Poe uses the bones to create a
sense of horror as Montresor leads Fortunato into the realm of the dead. The nitre on the walls of
the cavern gleams white in the light of the men’s torches in the otherwise dark ossuary. Nitre is
formed in the burial vaults when lime is mixed with decaying human remains, creating a slick,
gleaming, macabre patina on the walls of the vaults. The gleaming white in the darkness is eerie,
and a deeper understanding of its source reinforces the horror of the scenes.
Editor of the Journal of the Masonic Society, Christopher L. Hodapp (2010), writes in
one of his several Freemason-centered books: “The skull has appeared for centuries as a common
symbol of mortality ... in various degrees of Masonic ritual ... skulls and death imagery are more
plentiful in some jurisdictions outside of the U.S.” (Hodapp, 2010, pp. 52-53). The Cask of
Amontillado is set outside of the United States, probably in Italy or France, where skulls and bones
as death imagery are common in contemporary Masonic temples and rituals. Hodapp’s research
and expertise in Masonic imagery and ritual supports Poe’s use of the piled bones along the walls
462 A Journey Through My College Papers
of the vaults, and especially of those used to conceal Fortunato’s crypt, as Masonic imagery in
Poe’s anti-Masonic horror tale of revenge.
Montresor calls Fortunato’s attention to the gleaming, white nitre on the walls of the
caverns that make up the Montresor vaults. The nitre connects to Masonic imagery as it relates to
a story associated with the Travelling Masons, a branch of Freemasonry: “[S]everal artists were
supping ... at Florence ... their table was placed near a heap of lime, in which a trowel was
sticking. One of the guests seized the trowel, and threw ... some lime into the mouth of another
guest, exclaiming, at the same time: 'The trowel! the trowel!” (Macoy, 1989, p. 386). The lime
that is thrown from the trowel, a Masonic tool and symbol that is also significant in The Cask of
Amontillado, is a component of the nitre that runs through Montresor’s burial vaults and
Fortunato’s final resting place. Lime is a toxic substance as identified by the Pesticide Action
Network (PAN) Pesticide Database that causes coughing and shortness of breath when inhaled. If
ingested, as suggested in the story of the trowel of lime, the chemical causes abdominal pains and
vomiting, as well as skin burns around the mouth (“Signs and Symptoms,” 2010, table 1).
“Saltpeter, also called Nitre ... [is formed] by exposing heaps of decaying organic matter mixed
with alkalis (lime, etc.) to atmospheric action” (Lotha, 2012, paras. 1-2). The composition of the
nitre in the vaults, as is discussed above, adds a macabre horror to the story as the reader envisions
the “moisture trickl[ing] among the bones” of the decaying bodies in the vaults (DiYanni, 2008, p.
146). Lime, which connects to the Freemasons and the Masonic symbol of the trowel, mixes with
the decaying organic matter in the human remains in the vault to create the eerily gleaming
whiteness of nitre on the cavern walls. Poe’s knowledge of the inhalation factors of nitre, which is
composed of lime, is evident in his description of Fortunato’s onset of coughing in the vaults
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 145). Nitre, then, is a Masonic-related death image as nitre and lime
themselves are toxic, and as lime combines with decaying corpses to form nitre.
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado reflects Poe’s sense of insult at being denied
membership in the Freemasons and channels that sense of insult through Montresor’s quarrel with
Fortunato, using Masonic imagery of social equality and death imagery of bones, burial vaults,
and dripping nitre to weave a tale of horror and suspense. The many images of Freemasonry and
of death, both subtle and overt, contribute to Poe’s anti-Masonic message as he uses his story to
express his personal sense of insult at his exclusion from membership in Freemasons. The Cask of
Amontillado is set in a time and place in which social equality is not a familiar concept, but the
Freemasons, represented by Fortunato, practice absolute social equality within their brotherhood.
Montresor is the antithesis of a Freemason as he strives for social superiority over Fortunato by
murdering the latter; as he prevaricates to impersonate a Freemason with Fortunato in the vaults;
and as he does willful violence against the helpless Fortunato by murdering the same. Poe’s use
of Masonic imagery indicates that he has a good, working knowledge of the symbols, rituals, and
history of the Freemasons. His subtle use of the nitre in the vaults is an example of Poe’s ability
to tie obscure details together, as he incorporates the nitre into his prevailing, anti-Masonic theme.
References
Baraban, E.V. (2004). The motive for murder in "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe.
Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 58(2), 47-62. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566552
Bonander, R. (2012). 5 Things you didn't know: Freemasons. Retrieved from
http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/special_feature_200/200_special_feature.ht
ml
Burnstein, D. (2009). Happy 200th birthday: Edgar Allan Poe. Retrieved from
http://secretsofthelostsymbol.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/happy-200th-birthday- edgar-
allan-poe/
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DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Henninger, F.J. (1970). The bouquet of Poe’s Amontillado. South Atlantic Bulletin, 35(2),
35-40. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3197006
Hodapp, C.L. (2010). Deciphering The Lost Symbol: Freemasons, myths and the mysteries
of Washington, D.C. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press.
Lotha, G. (2012). Saltpetre. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/519935/saltpetre
Macoy, R. (1989). A dictionary of Freemasonry. New York, NY: Outlook Book Company,
Inc.
Moss, J. & Wilson, G. (1997). “The Cask of Amontillado”: Events in history at the time the short
story takes place. Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/the-cask-of-
amontillado-events-in-history-at-the-time-the-short-story-takes-place
Shelokhonov, S. (2012). Biography for Edgar Allan Poe. Retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000590/bio
Signs and Symptoms of Lime Poisoning. (2010). Retrieved from the PAN Pesticides
Database at
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35220#Symptoms
Stavish, M. (2002). The chamber of reflection. Retrieved from
http://www.hermeticinstitute.org/docs/chamber.pdf
Elements of Drama: Characterization 9/26/2012
In the first two acts of A Doll House, Henrik Ibsen gives clues to the character of Torvald
Helmer, but Ibsen does not provide a physical description of the character. From Torvald's
comments to his wife, Nora, the audience learns that Torvald has the common nineteenth-century
attitude that women are silly, frivolous beings that must be humored and protected. Torvald calls
Nora "my little lark ... [and] my squirrel" (DiYanni. 2008, p. 1106). While a modern audience
might find this character trait to be chauvinistic and condescending, a contemporary audience is
more likely to find that Torvald is a good husband who indulges his wife's desires while protecting
her from the world and from her own folly. In the context of the play, this paternalistic
protectiveness is a positive trait.
In the early scenes, Torvald is also shown to be a man who is careful with money, and
who is improving his financial status by taking a better job than the one he has had up to the time
of the play. He believes in making his own fortune, and in being his own man, as the audience
learns when he tells Nora, "No debts! Never borrow! Something of freedom's lost -- and
something of beauty, too -- from a home that's founded on borrowing and debt" (DiYanni, 2008, p.
1107). Torvald is a hard worker, as evidenced by the amount of time the audience is aware of him
spending in his study and going over papers for the job he will soon start.
At the end of Act I, the audience learns something of Torvald's moral character and
compassion when he tells Nora, "Almost everyone who goes bad early in life has a mother who's a
chronic liar ... I literally feel physically revolted when I'm anywhere near such a person"
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 1124). Torvald shows a strong moral sense in his feelings against liars and
deception. His strong statement about being revolted indicates that he has little compassion for a
person who lies. Specifically, Torvald tells Nora that Krogstad's past crime is forgery, a very
specific sort of lying, which Torvald can accept under limited circumstances: "I'm not so heartless
that I'd condemn a man categorically for just one mistake ... Plenty of men have redeemed
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themselves by openly confessing their crimes and taking their punishments" (DiYanni, 2008, p.
1123).
By the end of the play, Torvald is still paternalistically protective of Nora. He places
honor above love as he says, "I'd gladly work for you day and night, Nora -- and take on pain and
deprivation. But there's no one who gives up honor for love" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1152). Torvald
is willing to disown Nora for her lies until his honor is no longer threatened; only then is Torvald
able to forgive Nora, resuming his protective attitudes. When Nora decides to leave Torvald, he is
unable to believe that she can live without him He pleads with her to stay with him, only now
realizing that she might not actually need him to care for her.
I don't believe Torvald is capable of sharing the kind of marriage that Nora describes at
the end of the play. I think he wants to believe he is capable of doing so, but I don't think he really
sees her as an equal, adult person with whom to share a life. He says, "For a man there's
something indescribably sweet and satisfying in knowing he's forgiven his wife ... she's become
his wife and his child as well. From now on that's what you'll be to me -- you little, bewildered,
helpless thing" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1149). A man does not go from proclaiming his wife as his
child to accepting his wife as his equal partner in the few minutes that comprise the closing scenes
of the play.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Elements of Drama: Imagery, Symbolism, and Allusion 9/27/2012
There are several visual details that serve as symbols in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House.
Among these are a packet of macaroons, the family's Christmas tree, and the door to the study.
Both the macaroons and the study door appear at the beginning of the first act, and recur
throughout the play: "Drawing a bag of macaroons from her pocket, she eats a couple, then steals
over and listens at her husband's study door ... Putting the macaroon bag in her pocket and wiping
her mouth" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1106). Macaroons are small, sweet pastries, which are common
enough in contemporary society to be easily recognized. The confection is an indulgence that is
favored by children and by the wealthy, and is made ground almonds or coconut, sugar, and egg
whites. In the play, the sweets are a secret indulgence for Nora, with which she disobeys her
husband and even lies to him:
HELMER: Hasn't nibbled some pastry?
NORA: No, not at all.
HELMER: Not even munched a macaroon or two?
NORA: No, Torvald, I assure you, really -- (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1108).
As the play progresses, the macaroons are connected with additional lies and deceptions,
symbolizing the fraud that Nora commits by forging her father's name on a loan document, and
also symbolizing Nora's rebellion against Torvald's control of her.
NORA: ... (Taking the bag out of her pocket) Dr. Rank, a little macaroon on that?
RANK: See here, macaroons! I thought they were contraband here.
NORA: Yes, but these are some that Kristine gave me.
MRS. LINDE: What? I --?
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NORA: Now, now, don't be afraid. You couldn't possibly know that Torvald had
forbidden them ... And I'll also have one, only a little one -- or two, at the most (DiYanni,
2008, p. 1116).
The bag of macaroons is the same bag that is in the first scene, before Kristine Linde is introduced.
Nora admits that she is not allowed to have the sweets and blames her friend for their presence.
Once again, the macaroon is a symbol of Nora's deception and a symbol of her rebellion against
her husband. At the end of the second act, Nora's rebellion comes into the open just before her
original deception comes to light when Nora sends the maid for champagne and macaroons to go
with dinner, in Torvald's presence: "And some macaroons, Helene. Heaps of them" (DiYanni,
2008, p. 1138). As the audience sees Nora's rebellion become more open, her final rebellion
against her husband is foreshadowed by the heaps of macaroons.
The study door, which appears in the first quote, above, is a symbol of the division
between Torvald's world of business and serious matters and Nora's world of domestic activity and
frivolous ideas. Nora cannot -- or does not, in the play -- cross through the door into Torvald's
study, but Torvald passes freely into Nora's living room whenever he pleases to do so. The door is
a symbol of Torvald's authority and of Nora's inferiority, even within her home. Only near the end
of Act II does Nora use the study door against Torvald, thus beginning to break away from his
control of her: "She goes and bolts HELMER'S door" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1136). Nora does not
enter the study, but the door that has symbolized Torvald's control of Nora's actions now allows
Nora to control Torvald for a short time.
The Christmas tree is a symbol of Torvald and Nora's marriage. In Act I, before anyone
knows about Nora's deceptions, the Christmas tree is fresh and alive. Nora decorates the tree with
flowers and candles that symbolize light, hope, and happiness. At the beginning of Act II, the
Christmas tree "stands stripped of ornament, burned-down candle stubs on its ragged branches"
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 1124). The Helmer marriage begins to fall apart in Act II as Nora becomes
more and more frightened about what she has done. The bright, fresh Christmas tree of Act I is
replaced by the used-up Christmas tree of Act II, which stands on the stage throughout the act as a
reminder that things are going wrong in Nora's world. Act III begins with the words, "Same
scene," which suggest that the Christmas tree remains in the room, since there is no mention that
the tree has been removed, despite other changes in the room being listed in the setting (DiYanni,
2008, p. 1139). In this act, Nora stands as her own person and leaves Torvald after the details of
her forgery and subsequent deception are revealed. The Helmers' marriage is a burned-out shell of
what it has been for eight years, just as the bedraggled tree with its candle stubs is a shell of its
glory.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Elements of Drama: Plot and Character 10/4/2012
Nils Krogstad, Dr. Rank, and Kristine Linde are all characters from the Helmers' past as
well as in their present. Krogstad provides a focus for much of the drama of the play. He is
Nora's counterpart and her moral mirror. Krogstad abets Nora's rebellion against her husband by
providing her a loan of money without Torvald's permission, becoming a knowing party to her
deception when he discovers that Nora forged her father's signature on the loan document.
Krogstad is also a forger, and he forces Nora to understand what she has done. Krogstad's past
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association with Torvald has colored Torvald's opinion of the man, and it is while speaking of
Krogstad that Torvald reveals his feelings about liars: "Almost everyone who goes bad early in life
has a mother who's a chronic liar ... I literally feel physically revolted when I'm anywhere near
such a person" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1124). Krogstad's past relationship with Kristine gives a slight
gloss of romantic comedy to a play that is otherwise more of a tragic drama.
Dr. Rank is the man Nora wishes Torvald could be. Dr. Rank is attentive to Nora and has
time to indulge her ideas. Dr. Rank treats Nora more like a social equal than does Torvald. In the
end, Rank expresses his love for Nora to Nora. Dr. Rank provides a bit of dramatic irony in that
Nora was able to save Torvald's life when he was seriously ill, but Torvald does not treat Nora as
an equal, but Nora is unable to save the life of Dr. Rank, who does treat her as an equal.
Kristine is an example of an independent woman. She is Nora's childhood friend, but the
two women have very different life experiences. Where Nora is pampered, Kristine has to work.
Kristine is the adult woman against whom Nora's childish life is measured.
Ibsen arouses the audience's curiosity by revealing only small parts of the plot at a time.
The full details of Nora's deception with the loan and the forgery are revealed in small pieces,
leaving the audience to wonder what will be revealed next. The tempo of the play varies from a
slow, sedate opening to a faster, busier point when Kristine, Krogstad, and Rank all visit Nora in
rapid and somewhat overlapping order. The first act closes with a slower scene between Nora and
Torvald, then the tempo in Act II picks up again with Nora and Kristine discussing Dr. Rank, only
to be interrupted by Torvald. The pace slows again as Nora flirts with Rank and Rank reveals to
her his secret, then slows briefly as Rank leaves. In general, scenes with Nora and Torvald are
slow, suggesting the monotony of their life, and scenes with Nora and Krogstad have a rapid
tempo that underlines the tension and conflict between the two characters. Changes in tempo
indicate changes in emotion throughout the play. The final scene is slow as Nora tells Torvald she
is leaving him. The slow tempo allows the audience to absorb the sense of tragedy as the marriage
ends.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
Thinking Critically about Drama: the Contemporary Significance of Ibsen 10/4/2012
I believe Nora's decision to leave her family is the right decision for her by the end of
Ibsen's play. Divorce is not as common in Nora's world as it is in the modern world, but it is not
unheard-of, and it is necessary for the Helmers. I would have the opposite opinion if I thought
there was the slightest reasonable chance that Torvald is willing to change to make his marriage
work, but I do not believe that is the case. When Torvald suggests to Nora, "But couldn't we live
here like brother and sister," he reveals that he does not understand what Nora wants from their
marriage (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1152). I had a little trouble when I first thought about Nora leaving
her children; as a mother, the six weeks each summer when I have to give up my sons nearly
destroys me. After some thought, I realize that Anne-Marie is more of a mother to the children
than is Nora, and the children will be better off with their children's maid than they would be with
Nora, so Nora's behavior in leaving her children is also the correct choice for the situation.
Since Ibsen is the playwright, it seems reasonable to accept his assessment of his play as
representing what he has in mind in the play. Kristine's independence and Nora's final decision to
seek independence illustrate the women's rights issues in the play. Looking deeper, however, Dr.
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Rank's choice to die alone, with dignity, addresses a human rights concern about personal choices
and quality of life. Certainly, women's rights are encompassed within the sphere of human rights,
and A Doll House need not address one issue to the exclusion of the other. Krogstad's right to
redeem his past wrongs by trying to build a new and better life also illustrates the human right to
personal and social redemption. Within the social limits of his day, Ibsen seems to be addressing
human rights in his play, including women's rights as a major theme of the piece.
References:
DiYanni, R. (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw Hill.
PSY 372: Educational Psychology Week 1 Journal
October 6, 2012
There have been many instances in my educational career in which teachers have
provided encouragement and personal validation by praising my work. A notable example comes
from my freshman composition and analysis course at Olney Central College. Professor Payne,
who prefers to be called Kelly, remains one of my favorite teachers. She makes time for
conversations with her students outside of class, and is interested in her students’ lives and
interests.
My final project in Kelly’s class was a research project on marriage forms around the
world, comparing the relative merits of monogamy and polygamy and exploring the various types
of polygamy. Her written comment on the final paper is one of the most encouraging comments I
have received in the course of my education. She wrote: “Really fabulous work! By far, the most
thoroughly researched, persuasive argument I’ve seen in ENG 1121. The time & effort you put
into this final paper (indeed, the entire project) is clear to see – and it’s been a joy watching it
develop over the days & weeks. Well done!” (K. Payne, personal communication, March 31,
2009).
Kelly’s written praise made, and still makes, me feel successful and important. A student
needs positive feedback – oral, written, and non-verbal – to encourage the student to keep going.
School can be challenging and stressful for a student at any stage of education from kindergarten
to post-doctoral studies. While I find it useful to be shown where I have made a mistake in my
work, it is the positive encouragement that helps me continue to move forward through the many
courses that are required t reach my educational goals.
As a parent, I remember how I feel when my work is praised, and I try to remember to
praise my children’s efforts and accomplishments at least as often as I criticize their errors. As a
future teacher, I plan to do the same thing. Each student has positive attributes that can be foci for
praise and encouragement that will encourage the student to work to his or her best ability to
succeed as a learner. I know that I will need to correct students for errors in order to help them
learn, but I will provide my students with praise and positive feedback to support and uplift them.
I will use both verbal and written praise and encouragement with my students.
Along with verbal and written praise, a teacher encourages learning and positive student
attitudes with open, encouraging body language. Whenever possible, I will step out from behind
my desk or podium to remove the physical barrier between my students and me. This will
encourage my students to interact with the lesson and to participate in classroom discussions and
projects. In the same vein, I will make an effort not to cross my arms in front of my body to avoid
erecting a barrier with my body language. I will smile and nod to encourage students who ask
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questions or add to discussions in class. If the classroom environment allows it, and especially if I
am teaching younger students, I will move about the classroom as I teach, thus making myself
accessible to students to encourage them to participate in discussions and activities.
Just as effective parenting benefits from a positive outlook on the part of the parent, so
does effective teaching benefit from a teacher’s positive outlook and accessibility to his or her
students. Praise, encouragement, and smiles help teachers uplift students so the students are
motivated to succeed.
Effective Teachers 10/11/2012
One characteristic that competent, and perhaps outstanding, teachers possess is a strong
and deep knowledge and understanding of the subject matter being taught. In table 1.1, drawing
from information for the INTASC, LeFrançois (2011) identifies this knowledge of subject matter
as understanding "the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or
she teaches" (p. 6). This characteristic of competent teachers calls to mind an example that my
mother tells from her days as a college student at a teacher's college. She was taking calculus, but
the instructor assigned to teach the class had not himself taken calculus while he was a student.
My mother says that it was very clear that the instructor was struggling to keep ahead of his
students in the assigned text. As a result, she did not learn calculus well, and was unable to teach
it to her students when she taught high school during my childhood. On the other hand, I have
been fortunate to have many teachers who are passionate about the subjects they study, and who
know a great deal about their subjects beyond the limits of the assigned texts. These teachers
inspire students to attain knowledge of the subject matter, as well, and to look beyond the lessons
for more information and enrichment in the subject at hand.
A second characteristic of competent and outstanding teachers is an understanding of
child development and an ability to apply that understanding to the process of teaching. This
characteristic is important because teachers who understand how children develop understand
"that concepts of proportion cannot easily be taught to 7-year-olds, nor can conservation of
volume be taught to 5-year-olds" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 56). In other words, teachers who
understand child development understand what is appropriate to teach to students at different ages
and how to teach different age groups.
One of the most common examples of how teacher beliefs impact student learning
involves gender stereotypes. Many teachers expect male students to excel in math and science,
but not in reading and writing, while expecting the opposite achievements for female students.
Similarly many teachers expect white students to achieve better grades in school than are achieved
by black of Hispanic students. LeFrançois (2011) writes that "[b]oys receive more instructional
time, more attention, even more praise and encouragement [than do girls] ... they are also more
often reprimanded and punished" (p. 39). Gender inequity is a belief that denies students the
opportunity to reach their full potentials by limiting their opportunities for success.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Undergraduate Series 469
Educational Psychology 10/11/2012
Student gender is important to educational psychology in large part because of the
common stereotypes regarding gender and different subject matter. "Stereotypes about the
different abilities and interests of boys and girls may well lead teachers to treat them differently
and to expect them to perform differently" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 36). It is important for teachers
to conscientiously avoid promoting gender stereotypes, and to encourage students of both genders
to excel in every subject. Teachers should not allow gender stereotypes to be used as excuses for
aggressive behavior in male students, or as excuses for not "getting" subjects that are usually
associated with the opposite gender. At the same time, it is important for teachers to be sensitive
to the learned gender roles of students, and to accept that some gender roles are related to students'
home cultures and cannot be fully overcome in the classroom.
As a female teacher, I will need to be on guard against calls to allow male students to be
more disruptive and less attentive than their female counterparts. As a mother of two boys, I have
taken a lot of criticism for allowing my sons to have baby dolls and doll houses in their preschool
years, and for teaching them to cook and to sew and do fiber crafts as they approach adolescence.
As a female student, I was belittled for wanting to take wood shop, and for being more interested
in the science club than in going out for cheer leading. I hope I will take these experiences into
the classroom with me to help me remember that it's okay for boys to be sensitive, artistic readers
and for girls to be athletic scientists if that is what they want to do.
Understanding psychosocial stages in childhood and adolescence is important for a
teacher because children learn in different ways at different ages and stages of development.
"[T]eachers can do a great deal to enhance self-concept. They can also do much to facilitate the
adolescent's occasional struggles with issues of identity" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 44). In order to
help students develop a strong self-concept and to help students establish identity, a teacher needs
to understand the psychosocial stage of a student in order to understand how the student thinks and
reasons, and what developmental crisis the student may be dealing with. Also. understanding
psychosocial stages helps a teacher to understand how a student processes information and ideas
so the teacher can shape the teaching to fit the student's stage of thinking and understanding.
A good example of this is illustrated in Figure 2.6, which shows how a student's
perception of conservation develops over the course of several years during Erikson's industry
versus inferiority stage or Piaget's intuitive and concrete operations stages. A teacher who
understands the psychosocial stages will recognize that trying to get a 6-year-old student to grasp
the concept of conservation of area is not appropriate, but asking a 10-year-old student to
understand the same concept is reasonable.
Another example is my elder son, who just turned 12 years old. He is at the later end of
Erikson's industry versus inferiority stage. While his personal interests, when his peers are not
present, include art, writing, and cooking, he adapts his behavior in the company of his peers to
playing violent video games, wearing a hood to hide his face almost everywhere he goes, using
bad language, and resisting parental authority. He does this to "interact with and be accepted by
peers" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 41). It is important for teachers to recognize these efforts to fit in,
and to encourage and praise students as the students seek to find identity through assimilation in
the culture of their peers and through partial or total dissociation from the culture of their parents.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
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Intelligence 10/18/2012
When I took the I.Q. test from IQ Test Labs this week, I got the same score that I have
got on every I.Q. test I have taken since I was first tested at age 12 (31 years ago): 131 with
average score for all test takers being 100, and classified as gifted. The analytical report from this
test reads, in part: "You have the ability to think critically, conceptualize ideas and form your own
conclusions. Your ability to think in patterns and to produce order out of chaos enables you to
handle complexities and see logic in everything" (Full analytical report, 2012, para. 5). Based on
the consistency of the score and on this part of the analysis, I do agree with the results of this I.Q.
test.
In general, I am in favor of I.Q. testing for students as a means of assessing appropriate
placement of students in school and vocational programs. In the past, I was concerned about the
problem of socio-economic bias in group I.Q. tests, based of discussions I heard between my
mother (then a high school special education teacher) and other adults about tests that were
designed to favor students from upper-middle-class and upper-class, white, English-speaking
backgrounds. The test I took this week appeared to be less biased than others I have taken in the
past. From our text, I have learned that my earlier impression that there is a variety of I.Q. tests
was accurate. I learned that there are different kinds of intelligence, and that I.Q. tests do not
usually assess many of these intelligences. "Most of our test focus on mathematical, linguistic,
and logical tasks" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 80). My experience with I.Q. testing, and with
standardized testing in general, is mostly in line with the text, as I have been aware that I.Q. tests
address only those areas that can be represented in a pencil-and-paper test.
If a parent asked me what I thought about I.Q. testing, I would respond in support of I.Q.
testing. I would be sure to caution the parent that the test is not a comprehensive assessment of a
student’s complete intelligence, talents, and abilities, but that it is a useful tool for predicting
academic ability. "There is a relatively high correlation between measured IQ and performance in
school" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 82). A parent needs to know that the I.Q. test is a valid tool in the
teaching-learning process, but the parent should be aware that I.Q. testing has limits, and that the
parent, teacher, and student should also consider the student's kinesthetic, naturalistic, and inter-
and intra-personal intelligences when considering educational plans and goals for the student.
References:
Full analytical report for Debbie Barry. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.intelligencetest.com/test/1.php?ID=106238&Email=dkbarry2010@gma
il.com
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Intellectual Exceptionality 10/18/2012
Some of the common characteristics of gifted students include "a significant advantage in
intelligence, creativity, or motivation -- or, most likely, all three" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 109).
Specific ways in which a teacher could accommodate the needs of a student who is gifted in the
mainstream education classroom include ability grouping, individual academic acceleration,
student enrichment activities, tutors, mentors, and individualized education plans (IEPs)
(LeFrançois, 2011, pp. 110-111). Encouraging brainstorming and creating a "supportive
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classroom climate" are also ways a teacher can accommodate giftedness in the classroom
(LeFrançois, 2011, p. 114).
Some of the ways in which both high achieving students and students with disabilities are
served in the mainstream classroom include the social benefits of "increased peer acceptance and
decreased rejection of students with disabilities by their peers; mutually beneficial social
interactions between students with and without disabilities; and the learning of socially
appropriate behaviors by students with disabilities" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 117). In this quote,
"exceptionalities" can be substituted for "disabilities" with equal accuracy, since talented and
gifted students are often socially isolated in the same ways as are those who are disabled. Other
ways the mainstream classroom serves students with disabilities is that "inclusion often has clear
academic benefits for learners with disabilities" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 117).
Gifted and talented students and students with disabilities are often best served by a
partial inclusion plan that allows the students to be integrated in the mainstream classroom for part
of the day and that allows students to be segregated into smaller groups outside the mainstream
classroom for academic enrichment activities or for special assistance and services, as required by
the individual students. Gifted and talented students need to be allowed and encouraged to
accelerate or enhance their learning, while disabled students need to be able to work at a slower
pace or to have special assistive support and technologies to address their disabilities.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Intelligences, Correlations, and A.D.H.D. October 22, 2012
Educational psychology includes, among other topics, the study of intelligence and of
exceptional learners. Within the sphere of intelligence and exceptionality, it is important to
consider the educational implications of the views of intelligence advanced by Cattell, Sternberg,
and Gardner; the difference between correlation and causation; and the most important symptoms
of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.).
Raymond Cattell “makes a distinction between two kinds of capabilities: fluid abilities
and crystallized abilities” (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 76). Fluid abilities can deteriorate with age, and
are intrinsic abilities that are not affected by the external factors of experiences of cultural
differences. Crystallized abilities, on the other hand, tend to increase with age and reflect those
external factors. Cattell’s theory, developed with John Horn, “suggests that intelligence is
composed of a number of different abilities that interact and work together to produce overall
individual intelligence” (Cherry, Fluid intelligence, 2012, para. 2).
Robert Sternberg stresses the importance of “successful intelligence—as opposed to
measured IQ (or psychometric intelligence)” (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 77). His theory suggests that
intelligence is more closely related to those abilities that result in a successful life than to those
abilities that can be measured with a standard intelligence test.
Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences “proposed that there are eight intelligences, and
has suggested the possible addition of a ninth known as ‘existentialist intelligence’” (Cherry,
Gardner’s theory, 2012, para. 2). LeFrançois (2011) identifies these eight intelligences as:
“logical-mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal,
and intrapersonal” (p. 79).
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Some of the educational implications of the theories of Cattell, Sternberg, and Gardner
include the difficulties inherent in measuring and understanding intelligence in students. Standard
group and individual intelligence tests are limited by virtue of being pen-and-paper tests. Such
tests tend to measure Cattell’s crystallized abilities and Gardner’s logical-mathematical and
linguistic intelligences while ignoring fluid abilities, successful abilities, and all the rest of
Gardner’s intelligences. As a result, the special abilities of students may be overlooked in the
school setting. In particular, students who are gifted in music, art, sports, or other areas that are
not measured by intelligence tests may not be identified to receive services for gifted and talented
students.
Understanding the various kinds of intelligence and learning abilities is not sufficient for
a teacher. Teachers and others involved in the educational process need to understand why
correlation does not prove causation in regard to intelligence and intelligence testing. Correlation
exists between two things or events when there is any connection between them. “If one variable
causes another, there will be a high correlation between the two” (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 83). This
does not mean that all correlations are the results of causation, or that one variable in a correlation
must always cause the other variable to be so. Often, there is an appearance of causation in a
correlation when no causation is present; such a situation is a correlation fallacy. For teachers, it
is important to understand that, while “[t]here is a relatively high correlation between measured IQ
and performance in school,” a high IQ does not guarantee high performance in school and a lower
IQ does not guarantee low performance in school (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 82). Each student is
unique and has individual challenges and individual advantages that contribute to the student’s
relative success or failure in school.
Along with an understanding of intelligences and abilities, a teacher needs to understand,
identify, and address different types of learning disorders in the classroom. Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.) is perhaps the single most common learning disorder in
American schools today. The most important symptoms of A.D.H.D. are: “excessive general
activity for the child’s age; difficulty in sustaining attention and apparent forgetfulness; and
impulsivity (tendency to react quickly, difficulty taking turns, low frustration tolerance)”
(LeFrançois, 2011, p. 126). A student who is unable to sit still, to remain focused on the lesson,
and to stay on-task with assignments and other tasks may be identified as having A.D.H.D., but it
is important that a teacher use care when making such an identification because “[o]verdiagnosis
may well be a function of the most apparent features of ADHD” (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 126).
A.D.H.D. is more common in male students than in female students, and a great many students are
medicated in school, using specific categories of stimulant medications to achieve a paradoxical
sedative effect to help affected students to focus.
Intelligence tests provide a limited measure of student intelligence, while ignoring other
factors of intelligence that help students to succeed in life or that define students as gifted or
talented. A deeper understanding of intelligence, as defined by Cattell, Sternberg, and Gardner,
helps teachers and other adults involved in education to identify and serve gifted and talented
students who do not achieve high scores on standard intelligence tests. Understanding the
difference between correlation, in which two things are related to each other, and causation, in
which one thing causes another thing, in important for teachers. It is especially important to
understand that high or low I.Q. scores are often correlated with achievement in school, but the
scores do not cause such achievement. One of the most prevalent learning disabilities is
A.D.H.D., which is characterized by excessive energy and activity, inability to focus and to
remember things, and impulsivity. Teachers need to be aware of the symptoms of A.D.H.D., and
to be prepared to make accommodations in the classroom to help students with A.D.H.D. to
achieve their educational potential.
Undergraduate Series 473
References
Cherry, K. (2012). Fluid intelligence vs. crystallized intelligence. Retrieved from
http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/a/fluid-crystal.htm
--. (2012). Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Retrieved from
http://psychology.about.com/od/educationalpsychology/ss/multiple-intell.htm
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Reinforcement and Conditioning 10/25/2012
Reflecting on my educational experience, there are many examples of classical and
operant conditioning that were implemented in the classroom. As far back as preschool (I went to
an academic preschool that was run by Bennington College), the attitudes, facial expressions, and
vocal inflections of my teachers were stimuli of classical conditioning that elicited responses in
my attitudes and behavior. Because of the welcoming, encouraging, friendly manners of my
teachers between my 2nd and 5th years of life, I learned to expect school to be a positive
experience, and I learned to love learning. I learned to dislike my teacher and to dislike second
grade, however, because my teacher was always cross and snappish. I learned later that she went
through a divorce that year, but I still experience strong, negative emotions when I think about
second grade. Other classical conditioning involved the school bell system. When the bell rang,
we all ran inside if we were outside, or we all got up to leave if we were at our desks. In third
grade, while we were studying electricity, many students fitted our desks with tiny light bulbs,
bells and buzzers with batteries and switches. One boy had a bell that sounded just like the school
bell, and many students got up from their desks when he rang his bell, even in the middle of a
lesson, until the teacher finally took the bell away.
Operant conditioning, which involves both positive and negative reinforcement for
behaviors, was common during my primary and secondary education. "A stimulus is a positive
reinforcer if it increases the probability of a response occurring when it is added to a situation. A
negative reinforcer has the same effect when it is removed from the situation" (LeFrançois, 2011,
p. 155). Aversive reinforcement seems to be more memorable in the long run, as I remember most
clearly those incidents of operant conditioning that were designed to make undesirable behaviors
stop. One incident was in seventh grade English class. The teacher always returned test papers
face-down. On a particular occasion, she placed my test paper face-up and announced in a loud
voice that I had got an F. It was known that I always got As, and her announcement got my
attention, embedded itself as a memory, and provided the motivation of humiliation for me to
never let that happen again. As long as I returned to getting As and stopped getting Fs, she would
stop announcing my grades. Another example of operant conditioning, again involving aversive
stimuli, was school gym class. I am not, and never have been, athletic, but gym teachers don't
always understand that. One teacher would yell at me, taunting me for doing poorly, in an attempt
to make me do well. I saw the method work with some classmates who were able to do well to
escape the taunting, but I was never able to perform well enough to escape her tongue. These two
examples were both painfully humiliating, and each of these made the rest of high school more
difficult for me than it should have been.
Other examples of operant conditioning involve positive reinforcements. In third grade,
the teacher gave students small, decorative, potted plants for successful memorization and
recitation of multiplication tables and for other memory work. I had a large window garden in my
bedroom at the end of that year, and the memorization stayed with me. In ninth grade earth
474 A Journey Through My College Papers
science, if a student's grade for the term was high enough, the student did not have to take the final
exam for the term. This was positive incentive to do well in class.
A particularly memorable example of punishment that I experienced in elementary school
was the result of a reward that went wrong. It is an example of "castigation; sometimes called
presentation punishment" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 155). As a reward for my high grade in reading,
I was allowed to read aloud books into a tape recorder to give to students who had trouble reading.
A teacher was in the small room with me as I read, and that made me nervous. As a result of my
nervousness, I accidentally juxtaposed two words as I read. The teacher stood up and slapped the
stop button on the recorder, yelling at me that I was careless and stupid to read the words wrong
like that. This was a punishment, not a negative reinforcement, because I was not allowed to try
again and to improve my reading aloud, but just taken back to the classroom, where my regular
teacher was told in front of the class how I had failed.
Each of these incidents impacted my learning. In the English class, I worked more
diligently than ever, and never again got a grade lower than a B in any English class. In gym, I
was very discouraged, and my ongoing inability to improve caused me to give up and not care
about gym. To this day, I dislike any physical activity where anyone can watch and judge my
performance. In contrast, my memorization and math skills have always stayed good, and I
worked hard to always please the teacher who gave me the plants. I worked so hard in earth
science that not only did I not have to take the final exam for the year, but I was allowed to write
the exam for my classmates. As a result of the reading incident, I never wanted to read aloud in
class, or even to speak out much. It took many years for me to learn to like reading aloud again,
and I still experience panic if I hear myself mispronounce or stumble over a word while reading
aloud.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Reciprocal Teaching 10/25/2012
In the YouTube video, “Watch & Learn: Text Comprehension," the students assume
responsibility for helping one another learn by asking each other questions about the material they
are reading, and by discussing and clarifying any words that may be unfamiliar to members of
their reading group. The students use the four steps of reciprocal teaching: asking a question,
clarifying the meanings of unfamiliar words, summarizing to find the main idea of the reading,
and making predictions from the reading (WETA Public Television, 2008).
These four steps of reciprocal teaching are strategies that allow teachers to prepare their
students for student-run discussions. The strategy of opening a discussion with a question about
the reading allows the students to start thinking and to analyze for themselves what they have read.
The questions can be of any degree of complexity in order to match the learning level of the
students. Starting a discussion with a question instead of with a declarative statement holds
students' attention and leads them to find answers and to generate their own questions.
The second strategy, of having the students clarify word meanings among themselves,
empowers the students by encouraging them to teach one another. A student who is unsure of a
meaning learns from his or her peers, which is less threatening than learning by direct instruction
from a teacher, so the meanings will stay with the students longer and with greater clarity.
Undergraduate Series 475
The third strategy, of finding the main idea of the reading by summarizing the reading,
allows students to consider what they have read and to work out the main ideas as a group.
Students are more likely to remember the main ideas and to have increased reading comprehension
when they figure out the main ideas than when a teacher tells them the main ideas.
The fourth and final strategy, of making predictions from the reading, calls on students to
develop and use critical thinking skills and to apply what they have already read to what they
anticipate will come later. This strategy encourages students to think logically about the reading,
and requires that they understand the reading in order to make reasonable and accurate predictions.
Used together, these steps or strategies of reciprocal teaching can increase reading
comprehension because students are immersed in and interact with the reading in a peer setting.
The students use articulation, reflection, and exploration to achieve a deeper, more meaningful
understanding of the reading, which results in longer retention of the reading (LeFrançois, 2011, p.
200).
Reciprocal teaching helps diverse learners because students work together to arrive at
comprehension of the reading. Where one student's language, reading skills, or other abilities may
be weak, other students with stronger abilities can help the student to understand the discussion.
Each student contributes individual abilities and experiences to the discussion in a non-threatening
setting.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
WETA Public Television. (Producer) (2008). Watch & learn: Text comprehension [Web].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbnwBVrJVdY
IDEAL Problem-Solving 10/25/2012
My example for a problem that can be used to illustrate the IDEAL problem-solving
strategy comes from a real-life conversation this week with my son, Robby.
Robby is saving up to buy a new bicycle. Since he lives in a region with heavy winter
snowfalls, he has decided to shovel driveways to earn the money he needs. The bicycle that he
wants costs $169.97 plus 6% sales tax. His parents will not allow him to charge more than $10
per house to shovel. Robby expects to shovel driveways three afternoons each week this winter.
Robby usually spends $1.69 plus 10 cents deposit for a lemonade and $1.99 plus 6% tax for a slice
of pizza each Saturday, which will come out of his earnings. Robby needs to figure out how many
driveways, at minimum, he needs to shovel this winter to buy the bicycle in the spring, and how
many weeks he will need to shovel.
The primary learning outcome for this problem is calculating sales tax by multiplying
percentages and decimals. Additional math skills are also required, including adding and
subtracting decimals.
My solution:
The five steps of IDEAL problem solving are: "Identify problems and opportunities[,]
Define goals and represent the problem[,] Explore possible strategies[,] Anticipate outcomes and
Act[, and] Look back and Learn" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 194). My solution to the problem, using
these five steps, is:
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1. Identify: The problem that Robby needs to solve is three-fold: 1) how many driveways will he
need to shovel, 2) how much will his weekly snack take away from his earnings, and 3) how many
weeks will he need to work to achieve his goal.
2. Define: Robby's goals are:
1) Determine how much the bicycle will actually cost, including the tax.
2) Determine how much the weekly snack will cost, including the bottle deposit and the
tax on the pizza.
3) Determine how many driveways he can shovel in one day. This may require an
estimate or an assumption.
4) Determine how many weeks of steady work it will take to earn the money.
5) Determine how many driveways he needs to shovel to earn the money he needs.
3. Explore: Robby's possible strategies include estimating each of the above math problems and
calculating each of the problems. The best solution to this problem uses algorithms to solve the
math problems. The estimate required in the third goal requires heuristics, or a "best educated
guess" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 196).
4. Anticipate and Act: Robby needs to produce math equations to solve his problem, as follows:
1) Cost of the bicycle: $169.97. Sales tax: 6%. Total cost of the bicycle:
a) First, calculate the sales tax. $169.97 x 0.06 = $10.1982. Round the tax to
10.20.
b) Next, add the tax to the cost of the bicycle. $169.97 + $10.20 = $180.17.
2) Cost of the lemonade: $1.69. Amount of the deposit: $0.10. Cost of the pizza: $1.99.
Tax on the pizza: 6%. Total cost of the weekly snack:
a) First, calculate the total cost of the drink. $1.69 + $0.10 = $1.79.
b) Next, calculate the total cost of the food.
i) First, calculate the tax. $1.99 x 0.06 = $0.1194. Round the tax to
$0.12.
ii) Next, add the cost of the food. $1.99 + $0.12 = $2.11.
c) Third, add the cost of the drink and the cost of the food for the total cost.
$1.79 + $2.11 = $3.90.
3) Estimate, based on experience from last year, that Robby can shovel 3 driveways per
day.
4)Robby earns $10.00 per driveway and can shovel 3 driveways per day. $10.00 x 3 =
$30.00 per day. $30.00 per day at 3 afternoons per week: $30.00 x 3 = $90.00.
a) Subtract the weekly snack from the weekly earnings. $90.00 - $3.90 =
$86.10.
b) Cost of the bicycle with tax: $180.17. Weekly earnings: $86.10. $180.17 /
$86.10 = 2.092. Round the result up to 3 weeks.
5) Driveways per week: 3 driveways per afternoon, working 3 afternoons per week: 3 x 3
= 9. 9 driveways per week for 3 weeks: 9 x 3 = 27. However, Robby really only needs
to work for 2 weeks plus one driveway to earn his money: $86.10 per week for 2 weeks:
$86.10 x 2 = $172.20. Add $10.00 for one driveway: $172.20 + $10.00 = $182.20.
Robby needs to shovel 19 driveways to earn his bicycle, with $2.03 left over.
5. Look back and Learn: Looking back over the IDEAL steps, Robby will learn a lot of math
involving decimals and percents. He will learn how his regular spending affects how he saves for
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special purchases, which will serve him well when he goes to buy a house or a car in another ten
years or so. He will learn that the ticket price of an item is not always the true price of the item,
and that he needs to allow for taxes and other fees when planning a budget.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Memory 11/1/2012
Understanding how memory work impacts education in several ways. By understanding
memory, teachers are able to help students retain information through rehearsal of material, to help
students develop strategies for elaboration of learned material, and to help students organize
information to maximize memorization (LeFrançois, 2011, pp. 216-217). Also, by understanding
how forgetting relates to memory, teachers can provide memory aids for students in the classroom.
Sensory memory can be used to enhance learning in the classroom through the use of
visual aids; through songs, poems, and sayings; and through kinesthetic activities such as touching
or manipulating objects or dancing or using rhythmic motions in conjunction with learning. Using
aromas in the classroom can provide students with sensory retrieval cues because "our memories
for odors appear to be astonishingly stable and long lasting" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 213).
Instruction that requires the use of short-term memory and of long-term memory may
involve analyzing and summarizing literature or other reading in the classroom. Short-term
memory includes semantic encoding of words and phrases in the reading (LeFrançois, 2011, p.
212). Long-term memory of material that is read allows the student to "remember the gist" of the
reading to summarize the main idea of the reading (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 214).
Aids for memory can be included in instruction. To avoid memory loss caused by fading,
teachers can "[p]rovide opportunities for repetition and rehearsal" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 220). In
other words, teachers can assign drills for spelling words, math functions, lists, etc.. Teachers can
avoid repression of memories by students by avoiding emotional traumas in the classroom and by
providing positive, nurturing classroom experiences. Teachers can avoid the danger of
interference with memories by teaching students with an eye to transfer of learning, showing
students how new learning is similar to or different from old learning and how new and
accumulated learning can be applied to new situations. Teachers can overcome retrieval cue
failure by providing students with specific retrieval cues and mnemonic devices to aid memory.
Finally, teachers can combat distortion of memories by emphasizing "the most important and most
salient features of what is to be learned" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 220).
When I am required to commit facts to memory, I usually resort to a great deal of
repetition and rehearsal. I also try to find a pattern in what I am memorizing. For instance, if I
need to memorize a speech, I look for groupings of words or phrases, and remember that I need to
know this set of four things, then this set of three things, then this set of five things, for example.
If I can associate facts with specific visual images, I am more likely to remember those facts, as
well.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
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Preferred Learning Style 11/1/2012
In order to best answer the question of what is my preferred learning style, I went to
learningstylesonline.com to take a learning styles inventory assessment similar to the one
mentioned in Psychology For Teaching (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 247). According to the inventory,
my three highest scores are 18/20 in verbal and 17/20 each in visual and solitary (Learning Styles
Inventory, 2012, table 1). I agree with this assessment, as I do learn best with visual and verbal
cues, and I prefer solitary learning and activities to group activities in many cases. Therefore, my
preferred learning style is visual-verbal.
The educational approaches that are most compatible with the visual-verbal learning style
involve a lot of reading and writing, which is why the online education structure at Ashford has
been so effective for me. Also, I benefit from pictures, graphs, maps, and graphic representations.
Personally, that usually means I benefit from doodling during lectures, making diagrams in the
margins of my texts and notebooks, and using several different colors of highlighters in my
textbooks and in my notes. The third strong factor in my learning style is that of the solitary
learner. Working on my own, rather than in groups, works best for me. I can work in a one-on-
one situation, but I tend to fade into the background in groups.
The traditional classroom, complete with direct instruction, has always been the most
comfortable setting for my learning needs except that I have often been held back by teaching that
is geared to the lowest-performing students. A gifted and talented classroom situation works
better for me, allowing me to read and write work at my own pace. Ideally, I prefer to work in a
well-lit but not overly-bright space with little or no background noise. I prefer to work with
printed books and to write and draw on paper rather than reading and writing on a computer, but I
am becoming more comfortable with typing my work on a keyboard. I work best when I am able
to get up to use the restroom and to get a drink of water when needed. A quiet learning
environment with opportunities for restroom breaks and adequate hydration increases my ability to
learn because it reduces physical and mental distractions in my learning environment. Being able
to work without distractions allows me to focus on my work, which increases my arousal and thus
increases my motivation to learn. In addition, for me, learning and achieving high marks in
education satisfies my self-esteem needs as identified by Maslow (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 252).
The greatest obstacles to the creation of my ideal learning environment are the demands
of life outside the classroom. I do not live in a cloister, where I could devote the majority of my
time to study; rather, I am a housewife and a mother, and I often have squabbling children, noisy
television, and other distractions in the background. These are presently unavoidable. In a brick-
and-mortar school setting, large group classrooms or lecture halls can seldom be avoided, so
working in silence and solitude is not realistic. In many settings, working at my own pace is also
precluded by curriculum-based instruction and this situation is also fairly unavoidable.
References:
Learning styles inventory. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.learning-styles-
online.com/inventory/results.php
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Undergraduate Series 479
Week 4 Journal November 5, 2012
Educational psychology has been an interesting and engaging course for me. Much of
the course work has been a review of topics that were introduced in earlier psychology courses,
especially introduction to psychology and child and adolescent development.
The most engaging assignments for me were the week two examination of intelligence
tests and the week four exploration of learning styles. These two assignments were engaging for
me in large part because each one involved an interactive test that tells me more about myself.
The learning styles assessment that I used in week four was not required for the assignment, but it
seemed necessary to me in order to have a clear understanding of my learning style and of what
the elements of my learning style mean for my actual learning and teaching. Self-discovery is an
important aspect of education, and these two tests helped me to achieve a measure of self-
discovery.
Since most of the course work has been a review of prior learning, there has not been a
lot of new material for me. Reciprocal instruction was new for me, as I had not previously heard it
called by that name or defined so clearly. The concept itself was familiar from my experiences
with my children’s schools, but I was not previously aware that it was actually a structured method
of instruction.
I hope that I will you my knowledge of the stages of development, of intelligence testing
and exceptionalities, and of learning styles to help my students be effective, successful learners.
By remaining aware of the stages of development, including adult development that I learned in
my adult development course and that will be more useful in teaching college students than will be
stages of child development, I will be able to present topics at an appropriate level for my students
to understand and retain what I teach them. I will be able to use examples and activities that are
relevant to my students’ level of development. Intelligence testing will help me place my students
in appropriate groups when needed so that each student’s needs are met. Being aware of special
needs students and of gifted and talented students will help me at any level of teaching, from early
childhood education through teaching college, since there are exceptional students at both ends of
the learning spectrum at all levels of education. Recognizing exceptionalities in the classroom
will allow me to accommodate the needs of my students. Similarly, recognizing and identifying
different learning styles among my students will allow me to meet their special learning needs
more effectively and to help students to be more successful learners.
Writing this journal requires evaluating my work so far in this class. The grade book
shows that I have scored 100% in everything that has been graded so far. In which activities have
I excelled and in which activities could I have done better? My grade to date suggests that I have
excelled in each assignment so far. No assignment has been accomplished without effort, reading,
and thought, however. Achieving good grades does not mean that the grades have come easily. I
think that is something I need to remember when I am teaching: good grades do not always mean
that the work is easy, just as bad grades do not always mean that the work is hard. I need to be
aware of, and to reward, the efforts that students put into their work, and I need to evaluate
whether students need more or less challenging work or more or less motivational assistance to
achieve.
Understanding how students develop and learn is valuable. Even though much of the
course has been review, it is valuable learning because review strengthens learning. I appreciate
being reminded of past learning so that I will be successful in my future teaching career.
480 A Journey Through My College Papers
Corporal Punishment Debate 11/8/2012
After reading the text and watching the CBS Report, “Corporal Punishment in Schools," I
do not believe that corporal punishment is an appropriate means of behavior management in
schools. This belief also reflects my own experiences as a student in public schools in the 1970s
and 1980s, and my experiences as a parent of two boys who are now in middle school. Corporal
punishment evokes fear, anger, and distrust in students, each of which responses is an impediment
to effective learning. Students are distracted from learning when they fear corporal punishment.
Corporal punishment results in "lowered self-esteem, social withdrawal, [and] increased
aggressiveness ... [and] corporal punishment simply does not work" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 298).
Corporal punishment does impact a child's psychological development. Along with
reduced self-esteem and increased aggression, corporal punishment leads to "increased
maladjustment and misbehavior" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 298). Corporal punishment is physical
violence, and educators who use corporal punishment in schools model physical violence to their
students, who are likely to emulate and recreate this behavior in the future. A student who is not
inclined toward violence may instead respond by becoming fearful and withdrawn, and is likely to
learn to fear and to distrust authority figures.
Corporal punishment does not align with the humanistic, democratic, behavioristic, or
eclectic management models presented in our text. The most severe punishments in our text
include time-outs, suspensions, and expulsions. It should be noted, however, that reprimands do
align with the models in our text, and that care should be taken that reprimands are not allowed to
become abusive; verbal abuse is just as damaging to a student's ability to learn and to a student's
psychological development as is physical abuse or corporal punishment, and it is more difficult for
a student to successfully challenge and overcome a situation of verbal abuse than a situation of
physical abuse.
My personal opinion is that an eclectic blend of the democratic and the behavioristic
models of management works the best in most situations. A combination of teacher-directed
rules, a token reward system, judicious use of time-outs, modeling acceptable behaviors and
values, and instilling students with beliefs and values that lead to intrinsic rewards for desired
behaviors fosters an effective learning environment for students.
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
To Test or Not to Test? 11/8/2012
In today's educational culture, testing does still matter, but different types of testing are
more or less appropriate for assessing different types of learning and achievement.
Assessment and measurement are valid tools for teaching and learning because educators
cannot determine which students are ready to move on to learning new material unless the
educators are able to assess and measure the students' understanding of material that has already
been taught. Both objective testing and essay tests are useful for assessing students' understanding
and for measuring student's progress.
Whether or not there is a better way to evaluate students' needs than by testing is a
controversial question. I believe that performance-based assessments are more effective for
Undergraduate Series 481
evaluating the needs of individual students than are standardized tests. Performance-based
assessments "provide more authentic, direct appraisals of student competence" (LeFrançois, 2011,
p. 328). Performance-based assessment takes into account different learning styles and
exceptionalities that are rarely addressed in standardized testing.
A teacher can design effective instruction by basing said instruction on experience from
previous years' classes, but the most effective instruction plans are based on assessments of
students prior to teaching. Pre-tests help a teacher know what the students already know so the
lesson can address new material without leaving out instruction that the students are missing. If a
pre-test shows that the majority of students know the material, valuable instructional time can be
saved by not re-teaching the material; this also reduces potential behavioral problems associated
with student boredom.
In order to create effective instruction, I will use pre-tests, or formative testing, to assess
what the students know and what they need to learn. Since most schools require standardized
testing, I will use prescribed tests to evaluate what my students need to learn. Here in Michigan,
students are required to take two weeks of standardized tests, called the MEAP (Michigan
Educational Assessment Program) each year at the beginning of October. As required in my state,
I will use the results of the MEAP in my instruction planning. That said, I object to most high-
stakes testing in schools. My personal experience is that teachers in my area spend all of
September teaching students to take the MEAP. Students who spend much of their classroom
time learning to take high-stakes tests are not learning critical thinking skills, problem-solving
skills, and other higher learning that they need to be successful, creative members of society. As
our text reports, "teaching-to-the-test has some negative effects. These include a 'dumbing down'
and a 'narrowing' of the curriculum" (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 336).
References:
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Intelligence Tests and Student Placement November 12, 2012
Standardized testing, including intelligence testing, is a popular and useful tool for
placing students in appropriate educational programs. A student’s I.Q. (intelligence quotient) is a
measurement of the student’s intelligence as compared with other students of the same age. Thus,
I.Q. can be used to help identify gifted and talented students and to identify students with learning
disabilities. Many researchers and educators are now arguing against the use of intelligence
testing for student placement. Arguments against the testing include psychological and emotional
harm to students, racial bias in the tests themselves, and the limited scope of tests that address very
few types of intelligence instead of assessing the whole student. Despite the popularity of I.Q.
tests, they are no longer the best or most effective way to identify and to place exceptional
students.
Annotated Bibliography
Access to Curriculum. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.educationrightscenter.org/Access_to_Curriculum.html
This article, produced by the Education Rights Center at Harvard University School of
Law, discusses how standardized testing, including intelligence or I.Q. testing, is used to
determine the placement of students in ability tracking programs in schools. The article discusses
482 A Journey Through My College Papers
some of the problems associated with ability tracking and with placement of students based on
standardized test scores, including unequal quality of education between higher tracks and lower
tracks and a tendency for low-income and minority students to be placed in lower ability tracks.
This article contributes to my knowledge and understanding of the way intelligence
testing and other standardized testing contributes to students’ educational experiences by
clarifying some of the common pitfalls associated with depending on test scores for student
placement. The article offers specific, concrete lists of advice for parents to help parents ensure
that their students are assigned to appropriate ability tracks, and to ensure that students in lower
ability tracks receive a quality of education equal to that found in higher tracks. This advice helps
me form a better understanding of the options that are available to students and their families.
Understanding that standardized testing, including intelligence testing, is not an infallible criterion
for ability tracking is important to understanding the use of such testing.
This article is well-written, although several typographical errors are evident. The article
is written to assist families and, as such, it is a useful article. There is no clear evidence of the
research behind the assertions in the article, so its credibility is based more on its provenance as a
product of Harvard University than on its basis in research.
The article confirms information in the course text about the effectiveness of inclusive
classrooms as opposed to ability tracking for students. The article supports LeFrançois’ assertion
that intelligence testing can be used for predicting student success, not by agreeing with
LeFrançois that intelligence testing is a useful tool for placing students, but by stating that ability
tracking based on early intelligence testing can influence a student’s self-esteem and future
success.
A Place to Start: Is My Child Gifted? (2004). Retrieved from
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10112.aspx
This article, prepared by The Davidson Institute for Talent Development, discusses the
various tests and other methods of assessment that are used to place students in gifted and talented
(GT) programs. The article specifies that intelligence testing is not the most effective means of
determining student placement because IQ tests are not designed for identifying students at the
extremes of the IQ scale. The latter half of the article is a list of questions to help parents choose
an appropriate professional to assess students for the GT program.
This article contributes to my understanding of the uses of testing, especially intelligence
testing, in identifying and placing gifted and talented students. The article helps me better
understand the ineffectiveness of intelligence tests for this sort of assessment and placement.
This article is well-written for use by families of gifted and talented students. It is well-
researched, being based on the opinions of a panel of experts who are identified within the article
and are listed at the end of the article.
Like the Harvard University article, this article shows that intelligence testing is not the
best way to place students in ability-based programs. The article mentions portfolios and tests of
creativity, thus echoing LeFrançois’ discussion in chapter ten of the course text of portfolios as
tools for student motivation and student assessment.
Cohen, P. (2012, Nov 04). I.Q. rising. New York Times. Retrieved from ProQuest
database.
Cohen’s article in the New York Times focuses on how and why American intelligence
has risen over the last several decades. She also discusses how social and technological changes
cause children’s vocabularies to improve more slowly than the vocabularies of their parents since
the 1950s.
Undergraduate Series 483
The article contributes to my understanding of intelligence and why intelligence testing
may not be the most effective method of assessing students. It makes me aware that social and
cultural factors influence what students know, and so influence how students score on intelligence
tests and similar tests.
The article is clearly written in language that is appropriate for a broad range of readers.
The article reports the research results of social scientist James R. Flynn, but does not appear to
include any additional research.
The vocabulary shifts discussed in this article appear to relate to LeFrançois’ discussion
in chapter three of the course text about crystallized abilities and successful intelligence.
Crystallized abilities include information found on vocabulary tests such as the vocabulary tests
that Flynn uses in his research. Successful intelligence involves those abilities that allow one to
succeed in life, and students’ use of communications technology, which is essential to success in
modern America, has eroded students’ active vocabularies.
Glaser, S. (1993, Jul 30). Intelligence testing. Retrieved from
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/vollarj/intelligence_testing.htm
Glaser’s article discusses the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of intelligence testing for
academic and employment placement. The article presents many of the problems inherent in
using intelligence tests for student placements, and offers as alternative assessment tools the
portfolio system and performance testing. The article includes a long and detailed history of
intelligence research and testing in America, as well as a timeline of events associated with
intelligence testing.
This article gives me a clearer understanding of how and why intelligence testing
developed as part of the American education system. The article clarifies points about the relative
ineffectiveness of intelligence testing for student placement, and presents arguments both for and
against this use of intelligence testing.
The article is well-written, clear, and comprehensive. It is well-researched and includes
an extensive list of footnotes along with an impressive bibliography. The article cites several
studies with large samples that provide credible evidence for the author’s assertions.
Glaser’s article includes a great deal of discussion of the work of Howard Gardner,
paralleling the material on multiple intelligences that is found in chapter three of the course text.
Glaser’s treatment of multiple intelligences, and of the need to find other means than intelligence
testing for assessing students whose strengths are in different intelligences, amplifies my
understanding of LeFrançois’ discussion of the topic.
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
LeFrançois’ text provides the basis for my understanding of intelligences and the
educational applications of intelligence testing. The text explains traditional views of intelligence
and presents alternative views of intelligence, including Gardner’s multiple intelligences. The text
explains ability tracking, especially in regard to gifted and talented students and to students with
learning disabilities.
Machek, G. (2012). The role of standardized intelligence measures in testing for
giftedness. Retrieved from
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/giftednessTesting.shtml
This article, prepared for Indiana University to assist parents of gifted and talented
students in obtaining appropriate assessment and placement of their students, asserts that the
results of intelligence tests are good predictors of academic success while also asserting that
484 A Journey Through My College Papers
intelligence testing should not be the sole criterion for identifying and placing gifted and talented
students. The article begins with a discussion of intelligence, focusing on Gardner’s multiple
intelligences, and then provides advice for parents on how to have their students evaluated for
giftedness and talent.
The discussion of multiple intelligences reinforces my understanding of the concept and
of the need to use other methods than just intelligence testing to assess students. The advice for
parents regarding the process many schools use to assess students for gifted and talented programs
helps me understand that such assessment is not a simple matter of administering a multiple choice
test; there is a long and involved process involved with assessment.
The article is generally well-written, but it directs readers to many links to other Internet
pages for further information on the topics that are presented, rather than incorporating all of the
information in a cohesive paper. The article is well-researched and includes a brief but credible
bibliography. In-line citations enable readers to references the works cited, including well-
recognized sources that include Gardner and Plucker.
Machek’s discussion of Gardner’s multiple intelligences and of the need for more
involved methods than intelligence testing for assessing students echoes LeFrançois’ discussion of
Gardner’s theories in chapter three of the course text and of alternative methods of assessment in
chapter ten of the text. Considering the actual process by which schools assess students for
placement in educational programs increases my understanding of the learning for the course,
including a clearer understanding of the role of intelligence testing in American schools.
Rogers, D. (2011). The ups and downs of children's IQs. The Times Educational
Supplement, (4968), 14. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Rogers’ brief article explains a British study in which a group of students takes an
intelligence test in early adolescence and then takes a second intelligence test four years later.
Each student has a brain scan at the time of each testing. The results show that students’ IQ can
rise or fall significantly over that four year period, and that the changes correlate with grey matter
development over that time.
The article adds to my understanding of the role of intelligence testing in assigning
placement of students in school programs. I was not aware of the possible fluctuation of a
student’s IQ, or of the correlation with grey matter development, before reading the article.
The article is well-written, using language appropriate for reading by the general public.
The research sample is quite small, but it appears that the research is done well and is reported
appropriately. The article also refers to a much larger, earlier study that has a very large sampling
and that covers approximately fifty years instead of four years. While the earlier study seems to
refute the four-year study, the article identifies several factors that make the conditions of the two
studies too different for a valid comparison.
The findings in the article reflect LeFrançois’ discussion in chapter two of the course test
regarding the physical development of the brain and the specialization of different areas of the
brain. The article mentions that verbal skills are controlled by the left motor cortex, while certain
non-verbal skills are controlled by the anterior cerebellum. The study is also supported by
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, as discussed in chapter two of the course text. The
students in the four-year study are in the concrete operations stage of development when they are
first tested, and they have reached the formal operations stage of development by the time of the
second testing; this may help to account for some of the changes in the students’ IQ results over
this period.
Sortino, D. (2012, Apr 01). Close to home: Children, IQ testing and true intelligence.
The Press Democrat. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Undergraduate Series 485
Sortino’s brief article expresses his opposition to intelligence testing for young students.
The article cites the Larry P. v. Riles lawsuit over the racial bias of intelligence testing in
California to support the argument. The negative emotional and psychological impact of
intelligence testing on young students is also cited.
This article reinforces my thinking that intelligence testing, while popular as a placement
tool in education, is not necessarily the best placement tool to use with young students. The article
is written by a retired educator in response to a request by a parent to have a young student take an
IQ test, and this gives me a more personal perspective on the testing practice.
The article is written with emotion, and is reasonably well-written. While the article
mentions a 1966 study and the California lawsuit, no formal research citations are given, and there
is no bibliography of sources cited. The article appears to be written based on the author’s
personal knowledge as an educator.
The article discusses labeling students based on IQ scores, which LeFrançois discusses
briefly in chapter four of the course text. Sortino addresses racial biases that LeFrançois’s barely
gloss over, so Sortino’s article adds to my learning about the drawbacks of intelligence testing for
young students.
Summary
The research regarding the use of intelligence testing and other, similar tests to identify
and place gifted and talented students and students with learning disabilities, and to track students
by ability within the classroom, is overwhelmingly against such testing. Assigning I.Q. scores to
students as identifying labels is psychologically damaging to young students, as discussed by
Sortino (2012). In addition, I.Q. testing is considered by many to be racially and culturally biased,
favoring students from white, middle-class backgrounds and discriminating against minorities and
low-income families. Glaser (1993) illustrates the racial and socioeconomic bias of I.Q. testing
when she writes that “tests of black and white children from different socioeconomic status (SES)
repeatedly find that low-SES white children score as high as high-SES black children” (para. 51).
Intelligence testing is shown to be less effective for identifying gifted and talented
students than was previously believed because I.Q. tests do not measure all types of intelligence.
Methods other than traditional I.Q. test, including portfolio assessment and performance testing
are shown by the research to be more accurate, effective means of identifying exceptional students
whose special talents and intelligence cannot be measured by a written test of verbal and math
skills.
Similarly, intelligence testing is not the most effective means of predicting future success
in life beyond academia. While such predictions, based on I.Q. scores, are often self-fulfilling,
many individuals who score low on I.Q. tests are very successful in life and pursue successful
careers, while many individuals who score high on I.Q. tests are not successful in life and are
unable to achieve success in careers. This is, in part, because I.Q. tests do not take into account
Sternberg’s successful intelligence, which is identified in the course text as “the use of an
integrated set of abilities needed to attain success in life, however an individual defines it, within
his or her sociocultural context” (LeFrançois, 2011, p. 77). In many cases, however, students who
are identified as having high I.Q. scores are more highly motivated and encouraged by parents and
teachers to be high achievers in life, while students who are identified as having low I.Q. scores
have few educational enrichment opportunities and are discouraged from trying to do better in life
than their scores suggest for them. When students are motivated or discouraged based on their
I.Q. test scores, then the tests are an accurate predictor of future success because students live up
to or down to their test scores.
The role of intelligence testing in education, and especially in the identification of gifted
and talented students, is important to my professional goals as a teacher. It will be important for
486 A Journey Through My College Papers
me to be able to identify students who need additional educational challenges as well as to identify
those students who need academic support because they are less-strong learners. By the time
students reach me, in my intended role as a college teacher, most will already have been tested and
tracked in primary and secondary schools. It is my hope that it will not yet be too late to identify
and to cultivate students with high potential who may have slipped through the cracks earlier in
their education. It will be important for me to see the individual talents of my students, and not
only to rely on test scores.
My deepened understanding of the role of intelligence testing in educational placement
and the research on this topic apply to my personal goals as my personal goals intersect with my
professional goals. My goal is to teach, whether in a formal classroom or as a parent to my sons.
Understanding the educational psychology associated with I.Q. testing and student achievement
helps me prepare to work with students. I am able to apply my knowledge of multiple
intelligences when assessing educational needs, recognizing that I.Q. testing provides only a
partial description of a student’s abilities and potential.
In my current role as a mother to two pre-teen boys, both of whom are at the cusp
between the concrete operations stage and the formal operations stage of development,
understanding the different methods of assessing ability, giftedness, and talent helps me provide
more effective support for my sons’ continuing education. My deepened understanding of the
shortcomings of I.Q. testing, which I previously held in very high regard, helps me to be more
aware of my sons’ other intelligences, creativity, athletic ability, and personal talents. This
empowers me to encourage them to find ways to follow their dreams and talents to achieve
success in life. Whatever may be my professional successes and achievements, helping my sons
to achieve their potentials is the greatest achievement I can ever experience.
While I have learned, through research and study, that intelligence testing is only a part
of the equation in evaluating students’ abilities and in placing students in appropriate educational
programs, knowing is not enough. In order for this learning to be of value, I must find ways to use
my knowledge in my personal life and in my professional life. Many schools still rely heavily on
I.Q. tests as the primary, or even as the sole, means of sorting students into ability groups and
special programs. As a teacher, I will be required to follow the directives of my school and my
school district, whether I teach in primary schools, secondary schools, or college programs. My
expanded understanding of the alternatives to I.Q. testing requires that I become an advocate for
educational reform if I find myself limited by policy to use I.Q. testing and similar testing and
restrained from evaluating students by the more holistic methods of portfolio evaluation and
performance testing. These two alternatives have emerged from my research and study as the
most effective means of assessing true learning and mastery of learning, and of identifying
students’ talents that may elude traditional testing.
Intelligence testing is not the most effective method for identifying and placing gifted and
talented students in the education system. I.Q. scores become labels that motivate high achievers
to higher achievement, and that discourage low achievers from trying to achieve anything better.
Students who take I.Q. tests at a young age are not well-served, as their brains and associated
intelligences are still developing; their intelligence scores may fluctuate significantly through their
school years, but they can become trapped in ability tracking based on early I.Q. scores.
Assessments and evaluations that consider multiple intelligences, and that allow students to be
evaluated based on portfolios or on performance of learned skills are better methods of identifying
and evaluating gifted and talented students and students with high potentials.
References
Access to Curriculum. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.educationrightscenter.org/Access_to_Curriculum.html
Undergraduate Series 487
A Place to Start: Is My Child Gifted? (2004). Retrieved from
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10112.aspx
Cohen, P. (2012, Nov 04). I.Q. rising. New York Times. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Glaser, S. (1993, Jul 30). Intelligence testing. Retrieved from
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/vollarj/intelligence_testing.htm
LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.
Machek, G. (2012). The role of standardized intelligence measures in testing for
giftedness. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/giftednessTesting.shtml
Rogers, D. (2011). The ups and downs of children's IQs. The Times Educational
Supplement, (4968), 14. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Sortino, D. (2012, Apr 01). Close to home: Children, IQ testing and true intelligence. The
Press Democrat. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
ENG 497: English Capstone
Literary Periods 11/20/2012
The oldest major literary period is the Old English period, also called the Anglo-Saxon
period, which covers the years 450 to 1066 CE. This period is characterized by a "juxtaposition of
church and pagan worlds ... [and] heroic warriors who prevail in battle" (Aguirre, 2010, p. 1).
The Middle English period, covering the Norman Conquest in 1066 to 1500, is
characterized by moral tales and morality plays that are designed to "instruct the illiterate masses
in morals and religion" (Aguirre, 2010, p. 2).
The Early Modern, or Renaissance, period spans the years 1500 to 1660, and is
characterized by a shift in literary focus from religious concerns to temporal concerns.
The Neo-Classical period covers the years 1660 to 1785. It is characterized by "an
emphasis on reason and logic" (Aguirre, 2010, p. 4).
The Romantic period, spanning 1785 to 1832, includes the Industrial Revolution and is
characterized by a preponderance of nature images.
The Victorian Age is a literary period covering the years 1832 to 1901 and it is marked
by "the conflict between those in power and the common masses of laborers and the poor"
(Aguirre, 2010, p. 6).
Modernism covers the first half of the 20th century, from 1901 to 1945, including the two
world wars. This period is characterized by "a new self-consciousness about modernity and by
radical formal experimentation" (1890-1940s Modernism, 2007, para. 1).
Postmodernism runs from the end of the modern period to the present. It is characterized
by "a mixing of styles ... in the same text; discontinuity of tone, point of view, register, and logical
sequence; apparently random unexpected intrusions and disruptions in the text; a self-
consciousness about language and literary technique, especially concerning the use of metaphor
and symbol, and the use of self-referential trope" (1940s-Present Postmodernism, 2007, para. 2).
The postmodern period is as chaotically eclectic as is modern culture, and it embraces more
literary experimentation than do earlier periods.
I believe a literary period is defined, in large part, by changes in the ways in which
people express themselves. A literary period reflects what is socially important during that period,
such as the move from rural poverty to modern poverty, the classism of the Industrial Revolution,
the rise of feminism and of racial equality, and calls for social justice. A literary period may be
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defined by military or political events, but only insofar as those events define the things people
think about. A literary period may be long (the Old English period covers over six centuries), or it
may be relatively short (the Modern period covers only about four decades). Literary periods may
be defined by centuries, but such a simplistically arbitrary division does not consider social and
cultural concerns and changing modes of expression. Each literary period has a fairly
recognizable voice, which speaks for the issues and values of its time, and a new literary period
forms when that voice changes.
References:
1890-1940s modernism. (2007). The American Novel. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/modernism.html
1940s-present postmodernism. (2007). The American Novel. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/postmodernism.html
Aguirre, J.E. (2010). Timeline and characteristics of British literature. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/jeaguirre/timeline-and-characteristics-of-british-
literature-5512725
The Canon Wars 11/20/2012
The literary canon affects the study of literature because the canon determines what most
students of literature will study. Many students are not even exposed to works that fall outside the
canon, so their knowledge of the literature of a period is limited to and molded by the works that
are part of the canon. This results in students of literature being conversant with the same texts
with which their colleagues are conversant, and it allows students to focus on only those texts that
they can expect their colleagues and their students to encounter. The negative of this is that the
canon limits the imaginations of students by not exposing them to a wide variety of literature that
is outside the canon. Most literature in the canon is written by white men, and students who study
only those works in the canon miss out on the writings of women and of non-white writers.
I think having a canon is a positive, because the canon ensures that all literature students
will be exposed to a standardized list of important literature. I think the canon needs to be updated
and expanded over time to include outstanding and exemplary writings by minority writers, but
that care needs to be taken in such an undertaking so that the quality of the canon is not diluted by
the inclusion of works just for the sake of representing women and non-white writers. Each work
in the canon must meet the high standards of literature that already exist in the canon.
When determining which works are included in the literary canon and which are not, care
should be taken to ensure that the quality of the works is considered and that the race and/or
gender of the author is not a primary consideration. Each work should stand on its own merits
when its author is anonymous. Whitla (2010) identifies several features of literature including "its
power to stimulate and move feelings and emotions ... express[ing] the continuing core of
humanity ... express[ing] the aesthetic value of beauty ... [teaching] general principles and larger
truths ... [and] foster[ing] ... an appreciation ... but also a healthy skepticism [of what one reads]"
(p. 9). I believe works that are included in the canon should include these features. Literature in
the canon should be iconic, representing the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of humanity
through its works.
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References:
Whitla, W. (2010). The English handbook: A guide to literary studies. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.
The Making of the Canon November 26, 2012
There are many things to consider when choosing which works will be included in the
official, literary canon, and when examining a particular literary work to determine whether or not
to include it in the canon. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a very short work of fiction
from the end of the 19th century. It is written at the very end of the Victorian period, and it
reflects some of the social issues of its day. William Whitla (2010) identifies among the features
required for inclusion in the literary canon an ability to arouse the reader’s emotions, an
expression of aesthetic beauty, and an expression of “general principles and larger truths” (p. 9).
“The Story of an Hour” is included in the canon of literature for academic study because it meets
all of these requirements with simple sophistication and evocative imagery.
The reader is moved to compassion for Louise Mallard when reading the account of her
response to her husband’s death in a railway accident. The reader is concerned for Mrs. Mallard’s
health from the opening sentence of the story, which reveals that “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with
a heart trouble” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 38). Chopin does not burden the reader with details about the
nature of the heart trouble; the simple statement is enough to stimulate the reader’s concern and to
draw the reader into Mrs. Mallard’s life. Later, the reader discovers that Mrs. Mallard is not
mourning the loss of her husband so much as she is discovering and celebrating her own freedom
as a widow. A single woman in Victorian society is controlled by her father and her other male
relatives. A married woman is controlled by her husband. Only a widowed woman is free to
control her own life and to make her own decisions in this culture, and Mrs. Mallard realizes that
she is “Free! Body and soul free!” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 40). The reader moves from concern,
through grief and the fear of the future, to rejoicing with Mrs. Mallard’s freedom. The story ends
with the reader’s feeling of irony and sadness as Mrs. Mallard dies from the shock of losing her
new-found freedom when her husband arrives home alive and well.
Chopin’s descriptions in “The Story of an Hour” are simple expressions of aesthetic
beauty. Mrs. Mallard’s confining room looks out over an expanse of natural beauty: “She could
see ... the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain
was in the air ... There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds”
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 39). As Mrs. Mallard discovers her freedom and the beginning of her new life,
the reader is introduced to images of freedom in the sky and clouds, and images of the new
beginnings of spring. The descriptions are simple and uncluttered, allowing the reader to
experience the beauty of the scene through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes. Mrs. Mallard is, herself, an
example of aesthetic beauty, as the reader discovers in Chopin’s description of her: “She was
young, with a fair, calm face” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 39). The description is minimal, using very few
words, and the simplicity itself creates an image of feminine beauty. It is unnecessary for the
reader to know Mrs. Mallard’s hair color or eye color; knowing that she is young, fair, and calm is
enough. Chopin’s simple descriptions of beauty are skillfully rendered, thus fulfilling the
aesthetic requirement for inclusion in the canon.
“The Story of an Hour” uses the details of Mrs. Mallard’s experiences to draw attention
to greater truths about the society in which she lives. Mrs. Mallard is presented throughout the
story with the formal title that signifies her married state. Only her sister uses Mrs. Mallard’s
given name, and then Josephine uses the name only in private as she calls through the keyhole. In
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Victorian culture, only intimate family members address one another by their given names, and
then only in private. In public, formal address is required by social convention. Thus, Mrs.
Mallard is identified as her husband’s wife, not as an independent woman. Mrs. Mallard’s relief
and private joy at discovering that she is a widow draws the reader’s attention to the plight of
women in Victorian society, as described above. Only as a widow can a woman of good social
status be in control of herself and her own life. This feminist theme is important as the Victorian
period comes to a close and the modern era looms on the literary horizon. By its inclusion in the
literary canon, “The Story of an Hour” makes accessible to readers the conditions of Victorian
women, and the feeling of Victorian women that they wish to be freed from repression by their
male relatives. Mrs. Mallard welcomes freedom more than she mourns her husband because her
husband represents her repression under the rules of her society.
“The Story of an Hour” is included in the literary canon because it evokes a range of
emotions from its readers, because it expresses aesthetic beauty in a few simple words, and
because it uses the story of one woman’s experience to describe the condition and desires of
women in Victorian society. The story itself is very brief, and might escape notice if it was not
included in the literary canon; as a part of the canon, Chopin’s story allows readers to gain a better
understanding of women’s role in Victorian society, and of how women welcome the freedom of
widowhood in Victorian society. The simple writing does not impede the reader’s access to Mrs.
Mallard’s dawning joy or to her shock at being deprived once again of her freedom when she
discovers that her husband lives. The descriptions of the freedom outside the window contrast
with the confinement of married life, and allow the reader to understand how much the Victorian
wife longs for freedom from male repression. “The Story of an Hour” belongs in the canon to
bring awareness of feminist concerns to the students who read the canon.
References
DiYanni, R. (Ed.). (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.).
New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Whitla, W. (2010). The English handbook: A guide to literary studies. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Considering Gender in A Doll House 11/29/2012
In A Doll House, Henrik Ibsen uses stereotyped gender attributes to characterize Nora
and Torvald. Nora and Torvald, as a married couple in the late Victorian period, are foils, each
representing "binary oppositions of men and women, male and female" (Whitla, 2010, p. 292).
Torvald, as the patriarch of the family, represents authority, power, and financial responsibility,
and he takes on a parental role over his wife. In the first scene of the play, Torvald asks Nora,
"Has the little spendthrift been out throwing money around again?" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1106).
With this one sentence, Ibsen identifies Torvald as the fiscally-conscious spouse, and as the
patronizing male parent figure. Using masculine traits to identify the primary male character as
strong and controlling is typical for nineteenth century literature.
Nora, as the wife in the family, represents submission to authority, weakness, and
illogical caprice. Nora is the mother of three young children, but she is still cared for by the
children's maid, who was Nora's mail during her childhood. Nora has no real maternal
responsibilities, and she functions very much as another child in the family. Nora's interactions
with Krogstad, from who she borrows money in the back story of the play, identify her as weak
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and foolish. These attributes are typically associated with feminine characters in the literature of
the period.
In the final scene of A Doll House, Ibsen reverses the gender roles of Nora and Torvald,
surprising the audience with this departure from literary norms. Nora tells Torvald that she is
leaving him, saying, :I have to stand completely alone, if I'm ever going to discover myself ...
From here on there's no use forbidding me anything. I'll take with me whatever is mine. I don't
want a thing from you, either now or later" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1150). Nora addresses Torvald
from a position of calm strength, employing reason and invoking her unique humanity. These
strong behaviors are normally associated with male characters in literature. In response to
learning that his wife is leaving him, Torvald first attempts to reassert himself as the patriarchal
figure in Nora's life, saying, "O, you blind, Incompetent child! ...Why can't you understand your
place in your own home?" (DiYanni, 2008, pp. 1150-1151). A typical, feminine response is for
Nora to yield to the masculine pressure that is exerted against her, but Nora remains strong and
determined. Since masculine and feminine roles are binary oppositions in literature, Torvald is
unable to remain strong in the face of his wife's strength. As she assumes the masculine traits of
strength and reason, Torvald succumbs to the corresponding feminine traits of weakness and
emotion. He says, "You no longer love me ... Can you tell me what I did to lose your love?"
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 1151). In the final moment of the play, Torvald "sinks down on a chair, face
buried in his hands" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1153). In this moment, Torvald is the weak, emotional,
feminine character, despite being a man, and Nora, who resolutely stands for herself and leaves an
unhealthy relationship, is the strong, logical, masculine character, despite being a woman.
By introducing familiar, expected gender roles throughout his play and then inverting the
roles at the conclusion of the action, Ibsen comments on the fallacy of the perceived roles of men
and women in literature. A man need not always be strong, logical, and responsible, and a woman
need not always be week, emotional, and foolish. Each sex is capable of experiencing the
stereotypical traits of both genders. A woman can be strong and competent. A man can be weak
and irrational. Ibsen broadens his audience's experience and understanding of the relationship
between men and women, and between masculine and feminine.
References:
DiYanni, R. (Ed.). (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.).
New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Whitla, W. (2010). The English handbook: A guide to literary studies. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Writing an Annotated Bibliography 11/29/2012
I first encountered the annotated bibliography in my freshman year of college, in the fall,
2008, semester of composition I. Since then, I have written many annotated bibliographies in the
various courses that lead to my degree in English. I have written annotated bibliographies for
several of the courses in my social sciences with an education concentration major, as well.
Writing annotated bibliographies has given me practice summarizing the main points of
the articles I have used in my research for numerous papers. It has helped me to identify which
articles have been worth keeping for use in my writing and which articles I have needed to discard
from my research.
If an annotated bibliography was not required in a course, I might or might not create
one, depending on the subject of a paper and the complexity of the research which I collected for
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the project. I usually prefer to read articles, collect quotes that may be useful in the final writing,
then eliminate those articles that do not yield useful information. I suppose this process is not too
dissimilar to writing an annotated bibliography, since both efforts require reading research and
evaluating the relevance and usefulness of specific articles for the research in question. I do
recognize that an annotated bibliography requires the researcher to clearly identify how the article
relates to the proposed thesis, and it also requires the researcher to clearly state the credibility or
lack thereof of each article that is annotated. These steps are less defined in my preferred method,
and I might use an annotated bibliography if I feel the need to clearly define these aspects of my
research.
Literary Research 12/6/2012
The most current trends discussed in the text are poststructuralism and postmodernism,
each of which is a form of literary analysis that began in the first half of the last century.
Poststructuralism includes deconstruction, which seeks meaning in what is missing from or
inconsistent in a text. As Whitla (2010) writes: "A deconstructive reading ... foregrounds those
very elements that critical readers have been taught to either ignore or explain away" (p. 279).
Postmodernism uses similar ideas, "decentering ... the subject ... Now the 'I' does not refer to an
author as an individual, but is an absent center" (Whitla, 2010, p. 282). Examining the absent in
deconstruction and experiencing an absent subject in postmodernism both point to social trends,
especially in America, of recognizing and elevated the absent or marginalized members of society
and previously suppressed and repressed ideas in modern literature.
Literary research is rather different from literary criticism. Current trends and methods in
literary research involve comparing and contrasting texts within and across or between genres to
find deeper meaning in a primary text. Referring to the assigned text for information on current
trends and methods in literary research is difficult, since the assigned chapters address reading
strategies and critical practice, but they do not address literary research. With that caveat in mind,
literary research has changed in recent years because of the growing popularity and power of the
Internet. Nearly every college and university now provides students access to online databases
such as JSTOR, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest, which offer collections of articles and other scholarly
texts that can be used to explicate and expand upon the themes of primary texts. A variety of on-
line sites offer full-text versions of primary texts, as well as secondary texts that discuss primary
texts and that are useful to students who are studying the texts. There are a number of major sites
for texts, including Project Gutenberg and Google Books, that "cover major documents in
philosophy, history, and literature from the ancient world to the modern age" (Whitla, 2010, p.
41).
Personally, while I am a huge proponent of printed books -- on paper most of the time,
but on vellum or parchment when I can get them -- I have not used the research facilities of a
brick-and-mortar library since I acquired reliable Internet access. Searching an electronic archive
is faster than browsing through the stacks, even though there is a serious aesthetic loss of the smell
of well-used books. Skimming an article with the search function on the computer is faster than
visually skimming a full text. Deep immersion in the books that discuss a topic has been replaced
by the sterile economy of finding information quickly and anonymously.
References:
Whitla, W. (2010). The English handbook: A guide to literary studies. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.
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Literary Analysis of “Who’s Irish” 12/6/2012
Gish Jen's "Who's Irish" is written in 1998 and set in an unidentified American town. It
is a postmodern text that overturns the idea that Chinese immigrants are lazy and that they are
inferior to white, Irish Americans. Jen's theme is the binary opposition between the narrator's
Chinese heritage and work ethic and the Irish heritage and lack of work ethic of her daughter's
husband and his family. "I am work hard all my life, and fierce besides ... My daughter is fierce
too, she is vice president of the bank now" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 235). The narrator contrasts herself
with her daughter's husband and his brothers, saying, "every one of them is on welfare, or so-
called severance pay, or so-called disability pay. Something. They say they cannot find work,
this is not the economy of the fifties" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 236). Jen writes as the narrator thinks
and speaks, in broken English, suggesting that the narrator is inferior to her white neighbors, but it
is the narrator's Chinese relatives who work hard and their Irish in-laws who are unemployed and
supported by society.
The contrast between traditional, Chinese child-rearing and modern, American child-
rearing is a prominent theme of the story. "It is inside that she [Sophie] is like not any Chinese
girl I ever see ... All my Chinese friends had babies, I never saw one of them act wild like that"
(DiYanni, 2008, p. 238). The Chinese grandmother expects the three-year-old Sophie to be well-
behaved like the Chinese children with whom the grandmother is familiar. Sophie's Chinese-
American mother and her Irish-American father are indulgent about their daughter's behavior and
support their daughter instead of her grandmother, the narrator. This contrast between the two
cultures from two different generations on two different continents illustrates how modern society
has become less interested in the values of the past and has attached a newer, deeper value to
creativity and self-expression.
At the end of the story, the narrator's efforts to care for Sophie in the park instead harm
the child. With this scene, Jen suggests that the old ways, represented by the Chinese
grandmother, are harmful to the modern ways, represented by Sophie. Sophie's parents keep her
away from her grandparents after this, suggesting that traditional customs and methods should be
set aside in favor of modern, American lifestyle choices. The grandmother is too old to climb into
the hole to get Sophie out, indicating that the narrator and her generation are becoming obsolete.
Finally, the Chinese narrator goes to live with Sophie's Irish, paternal grandmother. The
two elderly women come from different cultures, but they come from the same time period, and
they are able to keep each other company while their children and their shared granddaughter go
on without the interference of past customs, traditions, and expectations about the way people
should live and the way children should behave.
The entire story is a commentary on the way in which modern society sets aside
traditional customs and cultures. Modern children are allowed, and even encouraged, to be wild.
Women support husbands who do not work. Traditional values about gender roles, work ethics,
and the behavior of children are supplanted by new ideas.
References:
DiYanni, R. (Ed.). (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.).
New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
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Examining Gender in A Doll House December 10, 2012
Throughout much of English language literature, gender and sex are equated with
specific human traits. Strength is male and weakness is female. Men are stable and women are
capricious. Logic is masculine and imagination is feminine. Often, a literary character can be
identified as being male or female simply based on the character’s behavior or on the ways in
which other characters respond to the character in question. “One of the most obvious issues that
Ibsen brings to his audience is that of late nineteenth-century gender roles” (Parker, 2003, para. 1).
Ibsen uses stereotypical gender attributes in his characterization of Nora and Torvald throughout
the body of A Doll House, and then abruptly reverses the stereotypes in the final moments of the
play to show that inner strength and weakness are functions of being human, not functions of
gender.
“When A Doll's House debuted, its ending -- perhaps the most celebrated in modern
drama – shook the foundations of fin-de-siècle domesticity” (Westgate, 2004, p. 502). Domestic
life is centered around the supposed stability of the gender roles of Victorian society; fin-de-siècle
refers to the final years of the 19th century, or the end of the Victorian age. “The play is set in the
19th century, and it explores the unequal gender roles of the time” (Sukhoterina, 2011, para. 3).
Men are men, running businesses and commanding households; women are women, yielding to
their male relatives, tending to the homes, and raising the children. Including Nora and Torvald,
there are six major characters in A Doll House. Three major characters are women and three
major characters are men. The female characters are Nora, Mrs. Linde, and Anne-Marie; and the
male characters are Torvald, Dr. Rank, and Krogstad. This balance of gender roles is intentional,
and each character’s role in the story contributes to the final revelation that women can be strong,
men can be weak, and strength and weakness are human traits, not gender traits. “In many cases,
‘manly ideals’ (courage, dignity, seriousness) were elevated to ‘human ideals’ and female ideals
(gentleness, kindness, active sympathy) were desirable only in the home ‘and certainly not in
literature’” (Nash, 1996, p. 561). Nora and Torvald represent the stereotypical ideals of their
respective genders throughout much of the play while Mrs. Linde, Dr. Rank, Anne-Marie, and
Krogstad foreshadow the final message of the play by displaying personality traits outside the
stereotypes.
Among the traits associated with women in Victorian society are physical, mental, and
moral weakness; mental and emotional instability, and a tendency to be fanciful, imaginative, or
illogical. These are parts of the female ideals that are deemed to be undesirable outside the home.
As Ibsen’s leading female role, Nora embodies all of these traits until the final minutes of the play.
“Ibsen conceived of Nora as a woman trapped in a patriarchal society” (Otten, 1998, p. 512). As
such, Nora is portrayed as weak, unstable, and imaginative.
As is common in Victorian society, “Nora is more of a possession and an amusement
than a companion to her husband” (Parker, 2003, para. 2). In the opening scene, Torvald
establishes for the audience his ownership of Nora as a pet when he says, “Is that my squirrel
rummaging around? ... When did my squirrel get in?” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). Torvald uses several
similar, diminutive nicknames for Nora in the opening scene, also calling her a lark and a
spendthrift (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). In addition, Torvald “takes her by the ear,” thus establishing
physical as well as emotional and financial control of Nora (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). By accepting
Torvald’s pet names and physical control, Nora exhibits her feminine weakness.
An important, feminine weakness in the Victorian age is society’s requirement that men
be responsible for the legal and financial affairs of women. “Nora could not borrow any money
without her husband’s consent. On the other hand, a husband could do whatever he pleased with
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property that was his wife’s before the marriage” (Parker, 2003, para. 6). The inability to enter
into a contract forces artificial weakness on Nora; habitual weakness of this nature can lead to a
woman believing that her weakness comes from the nature of her gender, and can cause her to
forget that her weakness in imposed by society.
Victorian society assumes that women are mentally and emotionally unstable, and that
they are given to unpredictable or impulsive behavior. When Nora arrives home with her
Christmas shopping and gives the delivery boy a generous tip, she is displaying the impulsivity of
her gender (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). Interestingly, if a man gives the same amount for a tip, he is
not characterized as impulsive in Victorian society but as generous and philanthropic.
While creativity in running a household is valued in the Victorian age, imagination,
flights of fancy, and illogic are undesirable traits that are associated with the feminine. As Nora’s
personal drama begins to overwhelm her in the course of the story, Nora imagines seducing Dr.
Rank then imagines taking her own life (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1132, 1139). Her imaginings are
examples of her feminine instability. “Feminists and others have pointed out that Nora plays the
role of coquette throughout to gain empowerment in a male-dominated world” (Otten, 1998, p.
515) Related to emotional and mental instability is moral instability, which is evident in Nora’s
habit of lies and deceptions. A fairly innocent example of Nora’s lies is the macaroons that she
smuggles into the house, eats secretly, and tells Torvald she has not eaten (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1106-
1108). She lies about the macaroons again when she accuses Mrs. Linde of bringing the pastries
into the house and giving them to Nora (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1116). This minor deception is a
backdrop for Nora’s larger, darker lies about forgery and borrowed money throughout the story.
Kristine Linde does not fit the stereotype of a Victorian woman controlled by a
patriarchal society. Mrs. Linde is introduced as an old friend of Nora’s whom Nora has not seen
in a number of years. Mrs. Linde is a widow, which frees her from many of the constraints of her
society against women. Mrs. Linde is able to live on her own, to make her own decisions, and to
enter into contracts. She is strong in contrast with Nora’s weakness, and it is interesting to note
that “it is only because she is widowed that Mrs. Linde is allowed to work outside her home”
(Parker, 2003, para. 5). Mrs. Linde’s strength is a subtle foreshadowing of Ibsen’s message at the
end of the play that a woman can be strong.
Mrs. Linde is practical in contrast with Nora’s fanciful behavior. Mrs. Linde recognizes
this difference between the two women and she asks Nora, “Nora, Nora, aren’t you sensible yet?”
(Ibsen, 1879, p. 1110). By this question, Mrs. Linde suggests that Nora can overcome her
feminine imagination and become a strong, sensible woman. It is only later, at the end of the play,
that Nora accepts the possibility and becomes sensible and strong herself.
Mrs. Linde is a practical woman in contrast to Nora’s impracticality. Women of
Victorian society are often occupied with needlework. Nora’s activity consists of “needlework,
crocheting, embroidery, and such” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1110). Mrs. Linde, who makes her own way
as an independent woman, spends her time on practical knitting, which prompts Torvald to
criticize her by saying that knitting “can never be anything but ugly” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1143).
Mrs. Linde is a former schoolmate of Nora’s, but Mrs. Linde is more mature than is Nora.
Whereas Nora’s childish behavior has been cultivated as part of her role as a Victorian wife, Mrs.
Linde has gained maturity by supporting an invalid mother and young brothers, and later by
supporting herself as a widow (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1111). The experiences that have given Mrs. Linde
maturity have also given her a strength that supports Nora’s strength in the final scenes of the
play.
Anne-Marie is the Helmers’ children’s maid. She is an older woman, and she was Nora’s
maid when Nora was a child. Nora is a servant, so her activities are controlled by society, but as a
children’s maid in a good household she is not under the direct control of a male relative and thus
has more autonomy than has Nora. Anne-Marie is a mother who gave up her presumably
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illegitimate child many years ago to become Nora’s maid. She made a difficult but practical
decision for her child, whom she gave “to strangers” to raise (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1125). The decision
was practical for Anne-Marie, as well, as she could not find respectable employment as a single
mother, but as a childless woman she is able to be both Nora’s maid and maid to Nora’s children
in their turn.
Male traits of strength, stability, and logic or reason are valued in Victorian society.
These traits are typically associated with men, and their occasional presence in women is often
ignored or glossed over. Torvald is a stereotypical example of the strong, stable, rational male.
“Torvald is in charge, society's darling and the male head of the household” (Johnston,
2000, para. 31). As stated above, Torvald exhibits strength in opposition to Nora’s weakness.
Torvald is in charge of his home and his family, and he controls all of the money. Torvald
weakens Nora with pet names, as illustrated above. He calls her a squirrel and a lark. “These [pet
names] all go to show how he views Nora’s relationship to him. He never consults her on matters
of any importance and leaves almost no responsibility to her” (Parker, 2003, para. 2).
Torvald’s strength is also reflected in society’s opinion of him and of how he conducts
his marriage and his other affairs. Torvald, like many men of his society, derives pleasure and
prestige from society’s view of him. “[A]n important component in these feelings is the social
satisfaction [Torvald] derives from having a beautiful young wife all to himself, someone he can
parade around in front of other men as his trophy, arousing their jealously when he takes her away
from the party to gratify the sexual stimulation he has gained by her public dance” (Johnston,
2000, para. 21). It is understood in Victorian society that Nora does not exhibit herself of her own
accord, but only as a representation of her husband’s desires and his strength and control in her
life.
Torvald represents stability in opposition to Nora’s impulsivity. “[Torvald] only sees it
as his duty to look after [Nora’s] best interests by being her provider and making sure she has
nothing to worry about. This was the accepted position of the day” (Parker, 2003, para. 5).
Torvald has a prestigious position at a large bank, and he has held a respectable job before the
bank job. Torvald tells Nora that “it’s so gratifying to know that one’s gotten a safe, secure job,
and with a comfortable salary” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1108). Torvald’s economic security parallels the
security of his social position and his reputation. This stability is represented throughout the play
by the inner sanctum of Torvald’s study, which is entered only by men, and by the work that
Torvald attends to over the holiday.
In Victorian society, men are considered to be reasonable and logical in contrast with the
fanciful imagination of women. Torvald’s dispassionate dismissal of Krogstad from the bank to
protect the bank’s reputation is an example of Torvald’s calm reason.
Dr. Rank is an older gentleman who is close friends with both Torvald and Nora. He is a
respectable man of good reputation and apparent wealth, but he does not fit the complete
stereotype of a Victorian man. Dr. Rank is not strong; he is weakened by illness and the
awareness of imminent death. He tells Nora in confidence that the illness that is taking his life is
an inherited disease, and that Dr. Rank is “serving time for my father’s gay army days ... the
unhappy bones that never shared in the fun” (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1130-1131). Both the illness and
the willingness to confide in another man’s wife are indications that Dr. Rank, despite being a
man, is not strong. In addition, Dr. Rank expresses his feelings to Nora when he tells her that
Torvald is not the only man “[w]ho’d gladly give up his life for you ... [and] I’ve loved you just as
deeply as somebody else” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1132). In the Victorian age, it is not usual for a man to
express tender emotions. That Dr. Rank is able to do so supports Torvald’s emotional expressions
at the end of the play, which illustrate that a man can have and express emotions.
Nils Krogstad is a widower with young children. Although being a widow bestows
strength on a Victorian woman, being a widower is a liability for a Victorian man. Men in
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Krogstad’s society are not trained or equipped to raise children, so he is forced into a position of
weakness by his bereavement. Krogstad is further weakened by scandal that attaches to his name.
He tells Nora, “a good many years ago, I did something rather rash ... every door was closed in my
face from then on” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1119). Losing his reputation in society forces on Krogstad
weakness and instability.
Krogstad is a man who is able to express emotion. When he is reunited with Mrs. Linde,
he tells her, “When I lost you, it was as if all the solid ground dissolved from under my feet”
(Ibsen, 1879, p. 1140). Krogstad’s emotional expression, paired with that of Dr. Rank, supports
Torvald’s ability to express emotion at the end of the play.
After establishing Nora and Torvald as stereotypical examples of gender-associated
personality traits, Ibsen reverses gender roles. He does this to make the point that he has been
alluding to throughout the pay in the supporting characters of Mrs. Linde, Dr. Rank, Anne-Marie,
and Krogstad, that strength and weakness, stability and impulsivity, logic and fancy are all human
traits. Ibsen shows that these traits are held and displayed equally by both women and men, and
that neither gender has a monopoly on any one human trait.
Torvald’s role is reversed in the final scenes as he expresses a range of emotions from
anger to love to despair. When he reads Krogstad’s letter about Nora’s deceptions, Torvald flies
into a rage, blaming Nora for ruining Torvald’s life and reputation (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1147). When
Torvald realizes that Krogstad no longer plans to make Nora’s deception public, Torvald forgives
Nora and expresses his tenderness toward her (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1148-1149). As the play closes,
Torvald realizes that he has lost Nora, and he sits alone, “face buried in his hands” in despair
(Ibsen, 1879, p. 1153). Torvald has realized that he is not in control of his own life since Krogstad
has the power to ruin him. Torvald is not in control of Nora since Nora has walked out on Nora
and the children. Torvald is weak, emotional, and broken. In other words, he is human.
Nora discovers that “her gender role was an obstacle to her personal fulfillment” (Urban,
1997, para. 2). Nora’s gender roles reverse with this discovery and she becomes rational and
strong. After the dance and after learning of Dr. Rank’s death, Nora talks seriously to Torvald
about their life and their marriage. She tells him, “You don’t understand me. And I’ve never
understood you either – until tonight” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1149). Nora is calm and rational in the face
of Torvald’s protests in the conversation. Even her decision to leave her husband and her children
and to go into the world on her own is a logical, rational, mature decision in the best interests of
the entire family.
In talking honestly with Torvald, and in following through with her decision to leave her
home and her family, Nora exhibits great strength. “Nora must go out into the world and educate
herself, which, in the context of the play, means to support herself” (Urban, 1997, para. 12). Nora
faces the greatest unknown of her life; as a Victorian woman, Nora has been controlled and
protected, first by her father and then by her husband, for her whole life. Now, Nora sets out to
support herself and to take responsibility for her life. She begins by resisting Torvald in a serious
matter for the first time in their marriage. She has resisted him in small ways by spending money
and by indulging in sweets, but resisting Torvald’s efforts to keep Nora from leaving home
requires a different strength from Nora. “[Nora] was aware of the male ego and did not want
Torvald to feel threatened so she played dumb most of the time. The fact was that not only was
she more capable than him but was also more than a match for him intellectually” (Rakshit, 2010,
para. 7). Because strength is a human trait, not a gender-defined trait, Nora’s strength was always
inside her, and she calls upon it in the final scene. She is no longer so concerned with bolstering
Torvald’s ego as she is with discovering her own identity as an independent individual.
Torvald and Nora epitomize the stereotypes of their genders throughout the play so that
the reversal of their gender roles in the final scene will have a significant impact on the audience,
demonstrating that inner strength and weakness, stability and impulsivity or caprice, and logic and
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imagination or fancy are human traits, not gender traits. “Unfortunately discrimination on the
basis of gender is prevalent in many cultures and societies till this present day” (Rakshit, 2010,
para. 1). Ibsen teaches an important truth through the story of a family’s collapse over the three
days of the Christmas holiday. Men can be weak and women can be strong. Women can be
rational and men can be emotional. Men and women can be logical, illogical, reasonable, and
fanciful. The stereotypes imposed by society on masculine and feminine genders need not define
each individual within the society, and each person has and exhibits a wide range of personal traits
that together describe the unique individual. There is no special honor to strength, rationality, and
reason, and there is no special shame attached to weakness, impulsiveness, and imagination. Each
trait is a facet of humanity; humanity would be lessened by the exclusion of any one of these traits
in one gender or the other, and humanity is strengthened by the inclusion of strength and
weakness, stability and caprice, rationality and imagination in each and every individual,
regardless of gender.
References
Ibsen, H. (1879). A doll house. Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd
ed.), 1105-1153. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Johnston, I. (2000). On Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Retrieved from
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/ibsen.htm
Nash, J. (1996). Gender roles and sexuality in Victorian literature by Christopher Parker.
Victorian Studies, 39(4), 560-562. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3828945
Otten, T. (1998). How old is Dr. Rank?. Modern Drama, 41(4), 509-522. Retrieved from
EBSCOHost.
Parker, B.D. (2003). Gender issues in A Doll’s House. Retrieved from
http://www.charminggeek.net/words/docs/ADollsHouse.pdf
Rakshit, I. (2010). A feminist reading of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. Retrieved from
http://suite101.com/article/gender-and-status-of-women-in-society-as-portrayed-in-
literature-a251751
Sukhoterina, Y. (2011). 'A Doll's House' explores gender roles of the 19th century. The South End.
Retrieved from
http://thesouthend.wayne.edu/article/2011/10/039a_doll039s_house039_explores_g
ender_roles_of_the_19th_century
Westgate, J.C. (2004). A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Theatre Journal, 56(3), 500-502.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069492
Final Paper Progress 12/12/2012
With the draft of my paper submitted at the end of week three, I am nearly done with my
final paper. I don't like to submit partial drafts, so I wrote a full first draft for that assignment.
Now, I am waiting for feedback on the draft so I can use Dr. Henry's markups to polish my paper
for final submission.
The actual writing of the paper went very smoothly and I encountered few frustrations
because I was thinking about and mentally working out my thesis and my supporting discussion
from the beginning of class. My topic is the use of gender roles in Ibsen's A Doll House, so my
outline included sections for female gender roles, male gender roles, and Ibsen's reversal of gender
roles at the end of the play. Constructing an outline, then sorting into it the quotes I gathered from
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my preliminary research and from the primary text was a huge help to keeping my thoughts in
order and my writing on track.
One of the most important things in a final paper that I think may be overlooked in the
struggle to gather and synthesize research is making sure the paper is well-written. In today's
world, it seems to be exceptionally easy for writers to be too casual in their spelling, punctuation,
and grammar. Even a well-researched paper will not be well-received if it has sloppy spelling and
sentence construction, so I try to pay particular attention to these technical details. Microsoft
Office Word has a very useful grammar and spelling check function that helps avoid the errors that
can draw attention away from a strong argument through weak writing. As a result, my
suggestion to any writer is to pay close attention to the details of formal writing to support and to
showcase a strong argument and painstaking research.
Language and Literary Studies 12/13/2012
In reading chapter 8 of our text, I learned a few linguistic terms to which I had not
previously been exposed. "Enthymeme" sent me searching in online dictionaries for a definition,
and then for a refresher on the meaning of "syllogism," before I read a few lines further in the text
and discovered that an enthymeme is "an argument that omits a premise or conclusion when the
speaker can predict that the audience will supply the missing stage of the argument, so that the
conclusion will follow logically" (Whitla, 2010, p. 232). This is a concept that I will need to
explore in greater detail before I feel comfortable with the construction.
The outline of the six paragraphs of a classical argument is fascinating to me. I hope that
learning the structure of this sort of document will help me to recognize it when I find it in
literature, which will enhance my understanding of such an argument.
A review of alliteration, assonance, and anaphora is especially useful to the study of
literature, as it is important to notice these patterns and to recognize the significance of the
messages being transmitted by these schemes.
Linguistics can be used to analyze a text in a variety of ways. The diction, syntax, and
euphony in a text can identify class and regional distinctions (Whitla, 2010, p. 240). Simpler
words and phrases can suggest a lower class while more complex words and phrases can suggest a
higher socio-economic class. Levels of language can also indicate class and educational
distinctions, registers can influence the sound of language in a text, and dialects can represent
geographical regions and socio-economic classes (Whitla, 2010, p. 241).
Poe's "The Black Cat" uses a variety of figures of speech. The narrator identifies his
drinking problem by referring to "the Fiend Intemperance ...for what disease is like Alcohol! ...
fumes of the night's debauch .. plunged into excess ... drowned in wine ... [and] half stupefied, in a
den of more than infamy" (DiYanni, 2008, pp. 138-139). Each of these references illustrates for
the reader that the narrator's drinking is a negative thing in his life: even that it is evil, as he calls it
a fiend and a disease. The narrator uses similar figures of speech to refer to the second cat: "I
avoided the creature ... a brute beast ... the hot breath of the thing upon my face ... an incarnate
nightmare ... the crafty animal ... still my tormentor came not ... I had walled the monster up
within the tomb" (DiYanni, 2008, pp. 140-143). The diction and syntax of the final example are
ironic since the narrator refers to the cat as the monster when it is actually the narrator himself
who is the monster who has murdered the first cat and the wife and has then walled up his wife's
body and slept soundly after the deed.
The level of language in "The Black Cat" is generally fairly high, using vocabulary that
identifies the narrator as a member of the upper-middle class. The register of the language is also
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high, so that the prose of the story has a poetic quality. Poe personifies concepts by beginning
certain nouns with capital letters, as in Perverseness, Man, and Law, thus imbuing these ideas with
a greater importance for the reader than the words would have if they were not capitalized.
Poe foreshadows the murder and its final discovery from the beginning of the story by
writing in the first paragraph: "Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream. But to-
morrow I die, and today I would underben my soul" (DiYanni, 2008, p. 137). The arrangement of
words, or the syntax, in these two sentences is poetic in the placement of the verbs and of the
negative modifier "not." A more usual expression would be: "I am not mad, and very surely I do
not dream. I will die tomorrow, and I would unburden my soul today." Poe's version is more
musical, and by his placement of "not" in the two phrases he draws attention to the madness and to
the sense that the narrator is dreaming.
References
DiYanni, R. (Ed.). (2008). Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.). New
York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Whitla, W. (2010). The English handbook: A guide to literary studies. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Reflecting on the Course 12/17/2012
Through this English capstone course, and through my other English courses at Ashford,
I have gained a more detailed understanding of the various theories of critical analysis. I was
unfamiliar with deconstructionism when I began my studies, and other theories were familiar in
hazily defined ways. I now feel comfortable applying a range of diverse critical theories to
literary analysis.
Going forward, I plan to apply my current knowledge to continuing education as I apply
for graduate programs. I am currently torn between a graduate program for rhetoric and
composition and a graduate program for linguistics. In either program, I will be able to use the
concepts that I have learned while building toward my undergraduate degree. My ultimate goal is
to teach entry level college English, especially composition and remedial English skills for adult
students. I have been exposed to a wide range of literature in my courses -- some very familiar to
me and some wholly new to me -- which will help me to teach students about analyzing existing
literature and about creating their own, original literature.
While I have gained valuable information in the course of my studies, I regret that there
has been very little instruction in pure writing. I have enjoyed the many literary analyses that I
have written, but I would feel more confident about going on with my personal and professional
goals if I had received more instruction and practice in professional writing for academic
publication, which will be a critical component of my graduate school experience. Still, I have
had a great many opportunities to write in these courses, and that has helped me develop writing
habits that should be helpful as I go forward.
All of my English textbooks will remain in my personal library as resources for future
study and for personal reading for pleasure. There are many, many stories, poems, and plays in
these anthologies that did not factor in my course work, and I look forward to exploring this
additional literature at my own pace.
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Examining Gender in A Doll House December 17, 2012
Throughout much of English language literature, gender and sex are equated with
specific human traits. Strength is male and weakness is female. Men are stable and women are
capricious. Logic is masculine and imagination is feminine. Often, a literary character can be
identified as being male or female simply based on the character’s behavior or on the ways in
which other characters respond to the character in question. “One of the most obvious issues that
Ibsen brings to his audience is that of late nineteenth-century gender roles” (Parker, 2003, para. 1).
Ibsen uses stereotypical gender attributes in his characterization of Nora and Torvald throughout
the body of A Doll House, and then abruptly reverses the stereotypes in the final moments of the
play to show that inner strength and weakness are functions of being human, not functions of
gender.
“When A Doll's House debuted, its ending -- perhaps the most celebrated in modern
drama – shook the foundations of fin-de-siècle domesticity” (Westgate, 2004, p. 502). Domestic
life is centered on the supposed stability of the gender roles of Victorian society; fin-de-siècle
refers to the final years of the 19th century, or the end of the Victorian age. “The play is set in the
19th century, and it explores the unequal gender roles of the time” (Sukhoterina, 2011, para. 3).
Men are men, running businesses and commanding households; women are women, yielding to
their male relatives, tending to the homes, and raising the children. Including Nora and Torvald,
there are six major characters in A Doll House. Three major characters are women and three
major characters are men. The female characters are Nora, Mrs. Linde, and Anne-Marie; and the
male characters are Torvald, Dr. Rank, and Krogstad. This balance of gender roles is intentional,
and each character’s role in the story contributes to the final revelation that women can be strong,
men can be weak, and strength and weakness are human traits, not gender traits. “In many cases,
‘manly ideals’ (courage, dignity, seriousness) were elevated to ‘human ideals’ and female ideals
(gentleness, kindness, active sympathy) were desirable only in the home ‘and certainly not in
literature’” (Nash, 1996, p. 561). Nora and Torvald represent the stereotypical ideals of their
respective genders throughout much of the play while Mrs. Linde, Dr. Rank, Anne-Marie, and
Krogstad foreshadow the final message of the play by displaying personality traits outside the
stereotypes.
Among the traits associated with women in Victorian society are physical, mental, and
moral weakness; mental and emotional instability, and a tendency to be fanciful, imaginative, or
illogical. These are parts of the female ideals that are deemed to be undesirable outside the home.
As Ibsen’s leading female role, Nora embodies all of these traits until the final minutes of the play.
“Ibsen conceived of Nora as a woman trapped in a patriarchal society” (Otten, 1998, p. 512). As
such, Nora is portrayed as weak, unstable, and imaginative.
As Parker (2003) describes, as is common in Victorian society, Nora’s husband does not
view her as an equal but rather an “amusement” or “possession” (para 2). In the opening scene,
Torvald establishes for the audience his ownership of Nora as a pet when he says, “Is that my
squirrel rummaging around? ... When did my squirrel get in?” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). Torvald
uses several similar, diminutive nicknames for Nora in the opening scene, also calling her a “lark”
and a “spendthrift” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). In addition, Torvald “takes her by the ear,” thus
establishing physical as well as emotional and financial control of Nora (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106).
By accepting Torvald’s pet names and physical control, Nora exhibits her feminine weakness.
An important, feminine weakness in the Victorian age is society’s requirement that men
be responsible for the legal and financial affairs of women. “Nora could not borrow any money
without her husband’s consent. On the other hand, a husband could do whatever he pleased with
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property that was his wife’s before the marriage” (Parker, 2003, para. 6). The inability to enter
into a contract forces artificial weakness on Nora; habitual weakness of this nature can lead to a
woman believing that her weakness comes from the nature of her gender, and can cause her to
forget that her weakness is imposed by society.
Victorian society assumes that women are mentally and emotionally unstable, and that
they are given to unpredictable or impulsive behavior. When Nora arrives home with her
Christmas shopping and gives the delivery boy a generous tip, she is displaying the impulsivity of
her gender (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1106). Interestingly, if a man gives the same amount for a tip, he is
not characterized as impulsive in Victorian society but as generous and philanthropic.
While creativity in running a household is valued in the Victorian age, imagination,
flights of fancy, and illogic are undesirable traits that are associated with the feminine. As Nora’s
personal drama begins to overwhelm her in the course of the story, Nora imagines seducing Dr.
Rank then imagines taking her own life (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1132, 1139). Her imaginings are
examples of her feminine instability. “Feminists and others have pointed out that Nora plays the
role of coquette throughout to gain empowerment in a male-dominated world” (Otten, 1998, p.
515) Related to emotional and mental instability is moral instability, which is evident in Nora’s
habit of lies and deceptions. A fairly innocent example of Nora’s lies is the macaroons that she
smuggles into the house, eats secretly, and tells Torvald she has not eaten (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1106-
1108). She lies about the macaroons again when she accuses Mrs. Linde of bringing the pastries
into the house and giving them to Nora (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1116). This minor deception is a
backdrop for Nora’s larger, darker lies about forgery and borrowed money throughout the story.
Kristine Linde does not fit the stereotype of a Victorian woman controlled by a
patriarchal society. Mrs. Linde is introduced as an old friend of Nora’s whom Nora has not seen
in a number of years. Mrs. Linde is a widow, which frees her from many of the constraints of her
society against women. Mrs. Linde is able to live on her own, to make her own decisions, and to
enter into contracts. She is strong in contrast with Nora’s weakness, and it is interesting to note
that “it is only because she is widowed that Mrs. Linde is allowed to work outside her home”
(Parker, 2003, para. 5). Mrs. Linde’s strength is a subtle foreshadowing of Ibsen’s message at the
end of the play that a woman can be strong.
Mrs. Linde is practical in contrast with Nora’s fanciful behavior. Mrs. Linde recognizes
this difference between the two women and she asks Nora, “Nora, Nora, aren’t you sensible yet?”
(Ibsen, 1879, p. 1110). By this question, Mrs. Linde suggests that Nora can overcome her
feminine imagination and become a strong, sensible woman. Nora can accomplish this by not
relying on being the coquette to get what she wants, but instead finding that inner self-confidence
to finally be who she is, or at least to figure out who she is as an individual. It is only later, at the
end of the play, that Nora accepts the possibility and becomes sensible and strong herself.
Mrs. Linde is a practical woman in contrast to Nora’s impracticality. Women of
Victorian society are often occupied with needlework. Nora’s activity consists of “needlework,
crocheting, embroidery, and such” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1110). Mrs. Linde, who makes her own way
as an independent woman, spends her time on practical knitting, which prompts Torvald to
criticize her by saying that knitting “can never be anything but ugly” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1143). This
comment on the relative aesthetics of embroidery and knitting showcases Torvald’s and, initially,
Nora’s penchant for relying on the surface of things, maintaining the proper image, rather than
developing the substance of one’s character.
Mrs. Linde is a former schoolmate of Nora’s, but Mrs. Linde is more mature than is Nora.
Whereas Nora’s childish behavior has been cultivated as part of her role as a Victorian wife, Mrs.
Linde has gained maturity by supporting an invalid mother and young brothers, and later by
supporting herself as a widow (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1111). The experiences that have given Mrs. Linde
maturity have also given her a strength that supports Nora’s strength in the final scenes of the
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play.
Anne-Marie is the Helmers’ children’s maid. She is an older woman, and she was Nora’s
maid when Nora was a child. Anne-Marie is a servant, so her activities are controlled by society,
but as a children’s maid in a good household she is not under the direct control of a male relative
and thus has more autonomy than has Nora. Anne-Marie is a mother who gave up her presumably
illegitimate child many years ago to become Nora’s maid. She made a difficult but practical
decision for her child, whom she gave “to strangers” to raise (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1125). The decision
was practical for Anne-Marie, as well, as she could not find respectable employment as a single
mother, but as a childless woman she is able to be both Nora’s maid and maid to Nora’s children
in their turn. Ultimately, Anne-Marie become the surrogate mother to the Helmer children when
Nora leaves her home, and her children, at the end of the play.
Male traits of strength, stability, and logic or reason are valued in Victorian society.
These traits are typically associated with men, and their occasional presence in women is often
ignored or glossed over. Torvald is a stereotypical example of the strong, stable, rational male.
“Torvald is in charge, society's darling and the male head of the household” (Johnston, 2000, para.
31). As stated above, Torvald exhibits strength in opposition to Nora’s weakness. Torvald is in
charge of his home and his family, and he controls all of the money. Torvald weakens Nora with
pet names, as illustrated above. He calls her a squirrel and a lark. “These [pet names] all go to
show how he views Nora’s relationship to him. He never consults her on matters of any
importance and leaves almost no responsibility to her” (Parker, 2003, para. 2). How well Torvald
really “controls” the money in the family is suspect. Nora knows that she is playing the game of
the coquette; at one point, she remarks to Mrs. Linde about never telling Torvald what Nora has
been doing, for fear it would “upset the balance” of their relationship. It seems unlikely that
Torvald really knows or sees that he is being manipulated, as such knowledge would completely
shatter his view of Nora as the stereotypical, weak-minded female. But again, his failure to see
what’s right in front of him all along perhaps hints that, just as society glosses over strength or
logic in women, society also assumes their presence in men?
Torvald’s strength is also reflected in society’s opinion of him and of how he conducts
his marriage and his other affairs. Torvald, like many men of his society, derives pleasure and
prestige from society’s view of him. “[A]n important component in these feelings is the social
satisfaction [Torvald] derives from having a beautiful young wife all to himself, someone he can
parade around in front of other men as his trophy, arousing their jealously when he takes her away
from the party to gratify the sexual stimulation he has gained by her public dance” (Johnston,
2000, para. 21). It is understood in Victorian society that Nora does not exhibit herself of her own
accord, but only as a representation of her husband’s desires and his strength and control in her
life. This idea is reinforced when, after the party, Torvald instructs Mrs. Linde to look at Nora
because he thinks she is worth looking at. Nora’s success at the party is a direct reflection on
Torvald, so they must leave the party after her dance, before that image is tarnished, and then he
determines her worth.
Torvald represents stability in opposition to Nora’s impulsivity. “[Torvald] only sees it
as his duty to look after [Nora’s] best interests by being her provider and making sure she has
nothing to worry about. This was the accepted position of the day” (Parker, 2003, para. 5).
Torvald has a prestigious position at a large bank, and he has held a respectable job before the
bank job. Torvald tells Nora that “it’s so gratifying to know that one’s gotten a safe, secure job,
and with a comfortable salary” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1108). Torvald’s economic security parallels the
security of his social position and his reputation. It is vital to him that image be maintained; he is
horrified that people might think he would succumb to “outside influence” or, even worse, that his
wife could actually influence his opinions on important matters. This stability is represented
throughout the play by the inner sanctum of Torvald’s study, which is entered only by men, and by
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the work that Torvald attends to over the holiday.
In Victorian society, men are considered to be reasonable and logical in contrast with the
fanciful imagination of women. Torvald’s dispassionate dismissal of Krogstad from the bank to
protect the bank’s reputation is an example of Torvald’s calm reason.
Dr. Rank is an older gentleman who is close friends with both Torvald and Nora. He is a
respectable man of good reputation and apparent wealth, but he does not fit the complete
stereotype of a Victorian man. Dr. Rank is not strong; he is weakened by illness and the
awareness of imminent death. He tells Nora in confidence that the illness that is taking his life is
an inherited disease, and that Dr. Rank is “serving time for my father’s gay army days ... the
unhappy bones that never shared in the fun” (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1130-1131). Both the illness and
the willingness to confide in another man’s wife are indications that Dr. Rank, despite being a
man, is not strong. In addition, Dr. Rank expresses his feelings to Nora when he tells her that
Torvald is not the only man “[w]ho’d gladly give up his life for you ... [and] I’ve loved you just as
deeply as somebody else” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1132). In the Victorian age, it is not usual for a man to
express tender emotions. That Dr. Rank is able to do so supports Torvald’s emotional expressions
at the end of the play, which illustrate that a man can have and express emotions.
Nils Krogstad is a widower with young children. Although being a widow bestows
strength on a Victorian woman, being a widower is a liability for a Victorian man. Men in
Krogstad’s society are not trained or equipped to raise children, so he is forced into a position of
weakness by his bereavement. Krogstad is further weakened by scandal that attaches to his name.
He tells Nora, “a good many years ago, I did something rather rash ... every door was closed in my
face from then on” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1119). Losing his reputation in society forces on Krogstad
weakness and instability. Krogstad is a man who is able to express emotion. When he is reunited
with Mrs. Linde, he tells her, “When I lost you, it was as if all the solid ground dissolved from
under my feet” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1140). Krogstad’s emotional expression, paired with that of Dr.
Rank, supports Torvald’s ability to express emotion at the end of the play.
After establishing Nora and Torvald as stereotypical examples of gender-associated
personality traits, Ibsen reverses gender roles. He does this to make the point that he has been
alluding to throughout the pay in the supporting characters of Mrs. Linde, Dr. Rank, Anne-Marie,
and Krogstad: that strength and weakness, stability and impulsivity, logic and fancy are all human
traits. Ibsen shows that these traits are held and displayed equally by both women and men, and
that neither gender has a monopoly on any one human trait.
Torvald’s role is reversed in the final scenes as he expresses a range of emotions from
anger to love to despair. When he reads Krogstad’s letter about Nora’s deceptions, Torvald flies
into a rage, blaming Nora for ruining Torvald’s life and reputation (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1147). When
Torvald realizes that Krogstad no longer plans to make Nora’s deception public, Torvald forgives
Nora and expresses his tenderness toward her (Ibsen, 1879, pp. 1148-1149). As the play closes,
Torvald realizes that he has lost Nora, and he sits alone, “face buried in his hands” in despair
(Ibsen, 1879, p. 1153). Torvald has realized that he is not in control of his own life since Krogstad
has the power to ruin him. Torvald is not in control of Nora since Nora has walked out on him
and the children. Torvald is weak, emotional, and broken. In other words, he is human.
Nora discovers that “her gender role was an obstacle to her personal fulfillment” (Urban,
1997, para. 2). Nora’s gender roles reverse with this discovery and she becomes rational and
strong. After the dance and after learning of Dr. Rank’s death, Nora talks seriously to Torvald
about their life and their marriage. She tells him, “You don’t understand me. And I’ve never
understood you either – until tonight” (Ibsen, 1879, p. 1149). Nora is calm and rational in the face
of Torvald’s protests in the conversation. Even her decision to leave her husband and her children
and to go into the world on her own is a logical, rational, mature decision in the best interests of
the entire family. Nora tells Torvald: “I’m a human being, no less than you – or anyway, I ought
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to try to become one” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 1151). This comment demonstrates that Nora believes
that her most important, most paramount duties are human duties—not duties defined by her
gender.
In talking honestly with Torvald, and in following through with her decision to leave her
home and her family, Nora exhibits great strength. “Nora must go out into the world and educate
herself, which, in the context of the play, means to support herself” (Urban, 1997, para. 12). Nora
faces the greatest unknown of her life; as a Victorian woman, Nora has been controlled and
protected, first by her father and then by her husband, for her whole life. Now, Nora sets out to
support herself and to take responsibility for her life. She begins by resisting Torvald in a serious
matter for the first time in their marriage. She has resisted him in small ways by spending money
and by indulging in sweets, but resisting Torvald’s efforts to keep Nora from leaving home
requires a different strength from her. “[Nora] was aware of the male ego and did not want
Torvald to feel threatened so she played dumb most of the time. The fact was that not only was
she more capable than him but was also more than a match for him intellectually” (Rakshit, 2010,
para. 7). Because strength is a human trait, not a gender-defined trait, Nora’s strength was always
inside her, and she calls upon it in the final scene. She is no longer so concerned with bolstering
Torvald’s ego as she is with discovering her own identity as an independent individual.
Torvald and Nora epitomize the stereotypes of their genders throughout the play so that
the reversal of their gender roles in the final scene has a significant impact on the audience,
demonstrating that inner strength and weakness, stability and impulsivity or caprice, and logic and
imagination or fancy are human traits, not gender traits. “Unfortunately discrimination on the
basis of gender is prevalent in many cultures and societies till this present day” (Rakshit, 2010,
para. 1). Ibsen teaches an important truth through the story of a family’s collapse over the three
days of the Christmas holiday. Men can be weak and women can be strong. Women can be
rational and men can be emotional. Men and women can be logical, illogical, reasonable, and
fanciful. The stereotypes imposed by society on masculine and feminine genders need not define
each individual within the society, and each person has and exhibits a wide range of personal traits
that together describe the unique individual. There is no special honor to strength, rationality, and
reason, and there is no special shame attached to weakness, impulsiveness, and imagination. Each
trait is a facet of humanity; humanity would be lessened by the exclusion of any one of these traits
in one gender or the other, and humanity is strengthened by the inclusion of strength and
weakness, stability and caprice, rationality and imagination in each and every individual,
regardless of gender.
References
Ibsen, H. (1879). A doll house. Literature: Approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama (2nd ed.),
1105-1153. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Johnston, I. (2000). On Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Retrieved from
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/ibsen.htm
Nash, J. (1996). Gender roles and sexuality in Victorian literature by Christopher Parker.
Victorian Studies, 39(4), 560-562. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3828945
Otten, T. (1998). How old is Dr. Rank?. Modern Drama, 41(4), 509-522. Retrieved from
EBSCOHost.
Parker, B.D. (2003). Gender issues in A Doll’s House. Retrieved from
http://www.charminggeek.net/words/docs/ADollsHouse.pdf
Rakshit, I. (2010). A feminist reading of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. Retrieved from
http://suite101.com/article/gender-and-status-of-women-in-society-as-portrayed-in-
literature-a251751
Sukhoterina, Y. (2011). 'A Doll's House' explores gender roles of the 19th century. The South
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End. Retrieved from
http://thesouthend.wayne.edu/article/2011/10/039a_doll039s_house039_explores_gender
_roles_of_the_19th_century
Westgate, J.C. (2004). A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Theatre Journal, 56(3), 500-502.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069492
Spring Semester, 2013
EDU371: Phonics Based Reading & Decoding
Literacy Statistics 1/10/2013
As Jeannie Eller discusses in the FUNdamentals Instructional Video DVD, every reader
needs a solid foundation on which to learn reading skills (Eller, 2000). Eller addresses adult
literacy students in her introductory lesson, referring to students who may have driven 35 MPH in
a 30 MPH zone, or who may have gone through the "10 items of less" register with 11 items
(Eller, 2000). Clearly, these examples apply not to child learners, but to adult learners. Adult
literacy is a serious concern in this country, and the National Assessment for Adult Literacy
(NAAL) reports that approximately 11 million American adults are illiterate, scoring below the
Below Basic level when tested for literacy (Miller, McCardle, Hernandez, 2010, p. 102). Adult
illiteracy is not just a matter of social stigma for the illiterate adult; adult illiteracy poses
significant health and safety problems as the illiterate are unable to read and understand
information associated with basic health care, employment-related materials, and public signs and
notices. In addition, the children of illiterate adults are at greater risk of being illiterate because
they lack reading support in the home. The educational strategies presented in Eller's video
instruction series are useful for teaching adult students, as well as traditional elementary aged
children, to read. Adult students can move from identifying objects by looking at shapes, colors,
and pictures to reading the actual words and gaining a better understanding of their world through
reading.
In a 2009 study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), researchers
learned that American fourth grade reading test scores showed no improvement between 2007 and
2009, and showed only four points total improvement from 1992 to 2009 (Nagel, 2010, para. 4).
A concurrent study by the NAEP on eighth grade reading scores showed only one point of
improvement from 2007 to 2009, with a total of four points improvement from 1992 to 2009
(Nagel, 2010, para. 3). The slow or nonexistent rise in reading test scores suggests that a new
teaching approach is needed to prevent currently low-achieving students from becoming part of
the adult illiteracy problem later in life. Eller's fundamental approach to decoding reading through
an understanding of the 44 sounds of English and the 70 phonographs that represent those sounds
can help students become fluent readers and writers of English (Eller, 2000). Students in fourth
and eighth grades are not too old to learn to use phonetics to decode reading and to thus raise test
scores across the board.
References
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Miller, B., McCardle, P., & Hernandez, R. (2010). Advances and remaining challenges in adult
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literacy research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 43(2), 101-7. doi.:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022219409359341
Nagel, D. (2010) NAEP: Reading scores flat at grade 4, up slightly at grade 8. The Journal
[Electronic version.] Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/03/24/naep-
reading-scores-flat-at-grade-4-up-slightly-at-grade-8.aspx
Reading and Writing Instruction 1/10/2013
The history of reading education in America has been closely tied to the fluctuations of
politics. Two schools of thought have been at opposite ends of a swinging pendulum: phonics-
based education and whole-language education (Nichols, 2009). In her FUNdamentals
Instructional Video, Eller (2000) dismisses the whole language approach as unwieldy and
promotes a study of phonics that allows students to decode any English words without the need to
memorize thousands of words that must be recognized by sight. Nichols (2009) defines phonics
as: "a word analysis skill that breaks words into their constituent parts and sounds" (para. 5); this
definition coincides with Eller's description of the system. In the course of American educational
history, the pendulum has swung back and forth between the two schools of reading education,
with each change from one method to another promoted as being new and original. The current
trend seems to be a return to phonics education, which allows students to achieve greater fluency
in less time than is required for whole language education.
The Four Blocks Literacy Model presents educational research on reading instruction.
Patricia and James Cunningham and Richard Allington, researchers for Four Blocks, report that
most American schools adopt research-based reading and writing instruction and that phonics and
phonemic instruction are useful for giving students a firm foundation for learning to read fluent
English (Cunningham, Cunningham, Allington, 2002). While Eller (2000) suggests that phonics
instruction is equally effective for any student from the earliest grades through late adulthood,
Cunningham, Cunningham, and Allington (2002) report that phonics instruction is not effective
for reading instruction beyond the first grade (p. 2). Cunningham, et. al. (2002), resist the
recommendation that phonics instruction should be completed by the end of the second grade,
however, citing the many complicated words that students encounter beginning in third grade as a
reason for continuing phonics education in conjunction with a study of morphology throughout a
student's education (p. 3).
A report by the National Right to Read Foundation recommends to use of phonemics and
phonics education in teaching students to read (Federally Funded Research, n.d.). These
recommendations are based on research conducted over a period of 30 years by the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the related Project Follow
Through Study (Federally Funded Research, n.d., para. 1). The research in these studies does not
support the whole language instruction that is often at odds with phonics instruction, to the point
that whole language instruction is not even mentioned in the report. It appears, from this
education research, that American reading instruction is again at the phonics end of the pendulum
of education history.
References
Cunningham, P.M., Cunningham, J.W. & Allington, R.L. (2002). Research on the components of
a comprehensive reading and writing instructional program. Retrieved from
http://www.wfu.edu/education/fourblocks/ComLitInstr(Specific).doc
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Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Federally funded research: Principles of reading instruction based on the findings of scientific
research on reading. (n.d.) Retrieved from The National Right to Read Foundation
website at http://www.nrrf.org/nichd.htm#brp
Nichols, J.B. (2009). Pendulum swing in reading instruction. Rivier Academic Journal, 5(1)
[Electronic version.]. Retrieved from www.rivier.edu/journal/ROAJ-Spring-2009/J257-
Nichols.pdf
Literacy Standards 1/17/2013
The Literacy in Learning Exchange is an online resource to help teachers give support
and find support for discovering and utilizing new methods for teaching reading and writing and
for improving literacy in the United States (Dunsmore, 2012). This support is useful for teachers
who work to meet or exceed the core standards for literacy in each state and as defined by the
National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE), which makes available the Literacy in Learning
Exchange website.
The state of Arizona has been instrumental in developing literacy standards that help
ensure that students are prepared to succeed as college students and as members of the workforce
when they complete high school. An Internet search for literacy standards shows that similar
programs are in place in every state in the nation. Eller's foundation of phonics-based reading
skills in FUNdamentals is one of many similar reading instruction programs that help teachers and
students to reach the minimum standards of literacy. Phonics instruction helps students to achieve
required literacy for success. The document that lays out Arizona's standards for English language
arts (ELA) for kindergarten states: "Reading Process consists of the five critical components of
reading, which are Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension of
connected text. These elements support each other and are woven together to build a solid
foundation of linguistic understanding for the reader" (Strand 1, 2012, para. 1). These components
reflect the teaching on Eller's instructional video, in which we learn about phonemics (how sounds
make words), phonics (how letters are symbols that represent sounds), and fluency (sliding from
sound to sound more quickly to blend sounds and form words) (Eller, 2000).
In the CDs assigned for this week, our students learned the foundation of reading by
learning the /ah/, /buh/, /cuh/, and other sounds and by forming these sounds into words. Students
then learned to recognize and to reproduce the letters or symbols that represent these sounds to
enable the students to read printed text. The games and songs on the CDs reflect the creative
teaching methods that are encouraged by the Literacy in Learning Exchange. Applying reading
skills to play, to music, and to other areas of interest reinforces literacy education. These same
lessons from the CDs meet Arizona's standards for literacy, including: "Recognize that print
represents spoken language and conveys meaning ... Start at the top left of the printed page, track
words from left to right, using return sweep, and move from the top to the bottom of the page ...
[and] Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of
letters" (Strand 1, 2012, PO 1-6). Eller's CDs explain how letters represent sounds. They teach
and remind students to move across the page from left to right and from top to bottom. They teach
students to combine sounds to make words and to print words using the letters that represent the
sounds (Eller, 2000).
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References
Dunsmore, K. (2012). Welcome to the Literacy in Learning Exchange. Retrieved from
http://www.literacyinlearningexchange.org/blog/welcome-literacy-learning-exchange
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Strand 1: Reading process (Kindergarten). (2012). Reading Standard Articulated. Retrieved from
the Arizona Department of Education Website at http://www.azed.gov/standards-
practices/files/2011/09/rdgstrand1final.doc
Reading Instruction Theory 1/17/2013
There is a variety of methods of reading instruction, each with its proponents and its
detractors. Based on a 2001 study in Brazil teaching Brazilian children to read Portuguese, the
most effective method appears to be phonics-based instruction. The researchers in this study
report: "Following 3 months of phonics instruction, kindergarten students could read unfamiliar
words and they did not show any evidence of a partial alphabetic phase" (Cummings, Dewey,
Latimer, & Good, 2011, para. 5). While this study deals with the teaching of Portuguese, the
findings can be applied to the teaching of English to similar-aged students in the United States.
Phonics instruction focuses on teaching students to use the sounds associated with letters to read
and understand written language. In the first two of Eller's instructional CDs, assigned for this
week, students learn to recognize sounds first, then to associate the sounds with the letters that
symbolize those sounds. Students "write" words using pictures that represent letter sounds such as
an apple for /ah/, a book for /buh/, and a can of cola for /cuh/ (Eller, 2000). Later in the lessons,
Eller has students associate the pictures and the sounds with the letters that the students will
encounter when reading texts. Using sounds in this way allows students to decode unfamiliar
words as the students encounter words in reading.
In addition to phonics instruction, other methods of reading instruction are: look and say,
language experience approach, and context support method. The look and say method requires
students to memorize and recognize lists of common words and sentences by sight. The producers
of Teaching Treasures Publications report that the look and say method of reading instruction
"denies the students the tools used in the Phonics system but teaches them to learn through rote
memorization" (Look and Say, 2012, para. 5).
The language experience approach to reading instruction involves the student drawing a
picture and the teacher writing a sentence under the picture to express the idea of the picture.
Teaching Treasures Publications offers this example: "Your student may draw a picture of Dad in
the car. In that case you would write underneath the drawing; Dad is in the car" (Language
Experience Approach, 2012, para. 1). The student is expected to draw many pictures, each of
which is captioned by the teacher. The pictures are eventually gathered into a book that the child
reads over and over to learn to read.
The context support method of reading instruction can be combined with any of the other
methods to encourage students to learn to read. It involves using books on subjects that appeal to
the student to hold the student's attention. Students learn simple words about their favorite
subjects while teachers read longer sentences on the same topic.
Ann Duffy, Jill Anderson, Cheri Durham, and Amy Erickson (2003) report that, in a 1998
study, "99% of teachers of grades K-2 reported that they viewed teaching phonics in their
classrooms as being essential or important" (para. 4). In the same report, Duffy, et. al., (2003)
report that there is "little research on the effectiveness of the use of decodable texts ... such as 'The
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fat cat sat on the mat'" (paras. 6-7). Decodable texts use related sight words to help students learn
word groups. In the example given, students are learning the sound /at/. Eller's method of
teaching students to sound out words allows students to read beyond memorized lists of words and
to tackle complex, unfamiliar words, as in her example of the word "fantastic" in the instructional
video (Eller, 2000).
References
Context support method. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/homeschool/reading-methods/context-support-
method.html
Cummings, K.D., Dewey, E.N., Latimer, R.J., & Good, R.H.. (2011). Pathways to word reading
and decoding: The roles of automaticity and accuracy. School Psychology Review, 40(2),
284-295. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/878143959?accountid=32521
Duffy, A.M., Anderson, J., Durham, C.M., Erickson, A., et. al. (2003). Responding to the rhetoric:
Perspectives on reading instruction. The Reading Teacher, 56(7), 684-687. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203277835?accountid=32521
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Language experience approach. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/homeschool/reading-methods/language-experience-
approach.html
Look and say. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/homeschool/reading-
methods/lookandsay.html
Week 2 Assignment January 21, 2013
Teaching with CDs 1 and 2 was a challenge because the disks took a long time to load
and had frequent pauses resulting from the loading process. This created distractions for Robby as
he attempted to follow along with the recorded instruction. The concept of calling letters by their
sounds, such as /ah/, /nuh/, /muh/, and /ku-suh/, instead of by their names was unfamiliar to
Robby, but Eller’s explanation of why this is necessary added to his phonemic awareness and
helped him adjust to the new format. Robby resisted the sound /ku-suh/, but he made the
adjustment to the unfamiliar sound. Despite ongoing struggles with ADHD, Robby was engaged
by the varied activities on the disks.
The first disk introduced the sounds of the letters in the alphabet, and reinforced these
sounds with pictures and with recitation drills (Eller, 2000). Following the order of the alphabet
by pointing to the picture cards helped with making the mental switch from the symbols of the
letters that Robby learned in school to the sounds of the letters that facilitate phonics education.
One difficulty with the cards was that some of the pictures were obscure and difficult for Robby to
associate with their sounds and letters; these included the Ethel card for /eh/, the itch card for /ih/,
and the doctor card for /ahh/ (Eller, 2000).
Identifying words that were spelled with the pictures from their cards was an effective
way of breaking up the handwriting drills, and Robby enjoyed the challenge of these exercises.
Since he is already a strong reader, most of the activities were too simple for him, and seemed to
make him feel self-conscious, but the puzzles and games helped him connect to the lessons as he
listened to them on the CDs. Also, while he was confused about the reason for the lesson about
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the origins of letter symbols, he did enjoy that segment and it held his attention (Eller, 2000). At
the end of the segment, I was able to see him moving from confusion to understanding.
Using board games to reinforce the phonics lessons is an effective strategy for teaching
phonics. Like many students, Robby tired of the drills with the cards and the workbook pages
quickly, but the opportunity to compete in a game engaged his imagination. It also reinforced
counting and following directions, along with reinforcing the phonics instruction. During this
week, Robby and I played the first four games in the FUNdamentals program. Three of the games
each use a die and two pawns, which is similar to many board games played by children. In “First
Steps,” Robby practiced recognizing sounds from the pictures that he learned on his flash cards
(Eller, 2000). This was the only game on disk 1, and I kept Robby focused on the lessons early on
the disk by promising him the game near the end of the session. Anticipation of a reward is a
strong inducement for him to stay on task. The first game on disk 2, “Keys to Reading,” helped
Robby move from associating sounds with pictures to associating sounds with symbols, or printed
letters (Eller, 2000). This game also encouraged keyboarding skills, which are essential to modern
communications and literacy. Robby enjoyed this game and asked to play it several times. “Aah
Buh Cuh Bingo” was Robby’s favorite game this week. He used M&Ms as bingo markers, and he
was allowed to keep the M&Ms after successfully completing the game. We played bingo several
times, until I ran out of candy. Since Robby doesn’t get candy often, the promise of a chocolate
treat after the game helped him focus on his task. The final game for this week, “Shortcuts for the
Super Highway,” involved the concept of taking a consequence in exchange for gaining an
advantage, which is an important lesson for Robby (Eller, 2000).
Disk 2 built on the material Robby learned on disk 1 and introduced more complex
concepts. Adding shortcut letter combinations /an/, /en/, /in/, /on/, and /un/ made reading words
with these sound combinations smoother, and Robby understood the concept of shortcut sounds
easily.
When Eller (2000) instructed Robby to underline shortcut sounds in a list of words on a
page of the workbook, we had to make a small adjustment. Robby found that underlining with
pencil made the page too cluttered and too difficult for him to understand. Instead, he used a pink
highlighter to mark the shortcut sounds, which helped Robby to see and recognize shortcut sounds
in the words on the page. Robby uses this method in school, too, because the bright color helps
focus his attention, which is impaired by ADHD.
Including handwriting drills with reading lessons was helpful to Robby. While he is a
good reader, his handwriting needs work, and he recognizes this need. He worked hard to form
his letters according to Eller’s verbal instructions and according to the examples in the workbook
(Eller, 2000). The handwriting system that uses tails on the letters to aid in the shift from printing
to cursive was unfamiliar to Robby, who learned in school to make letters with straight lines and
no serifs. He caught on quickly, and worked hard to keep the slant of his letters even.
Handwriting is a particular challenge for Robby because he is left-handed, and teachers in his
various schools have tended to focus on the right-handed students.
References
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
512 A Journey Through My College Papers
Decoding Skill Teaching Methods 1/24/2013
Intensive and systematic phonics instruction is the decoding skill teaching method
represented by Jeannie Eller's (2000) Action Reading program. Intensive and systematic phonics
instruction teaches students to read by beginning with the most basic understanding of the sounds
of letters of the alphabet and combining those sounds to form words. In a paper prepared for the
Michigan English Language Arts Framework Project, Constance Weaver (1997) wrote that
"systematic phonics at the very beginning tends to produce generally better reading and spelling
achievement than intrinsic phonics, at least through grade three" (para. 4). As an example of
systematic phonics instruction, the lessons on this week's CDs from Eller's FUNdamentals
program (2000) build on the letter sounds that were taught on the first CD of the series and on the
shortcut sounds and the combination sounds on the second CD. The sounds /ah/ and /nuh/ became
the shortcut sound /an/ and the letters representing the sounds /tuh/ and /huh/ were combined to
form the sound /th/. In the third and fourth CDs, which we are using this week, Eller continues to
build on these skills and also introduces the concept that the second vowel in a word makes the
first vowel say its name. Thus, /ai/ is a long a sound, /ee/ is a long e sound, etc..
In contrast to intensive and systematic phonics instruction, intrinsic and embedded
phonics require students to pick up phonics skills while memorizing sight words. Jefferey M.
Jones, M.D. (1995) criticizes intrinsic and embedded phonics instruction. He explains that
students learn to read "using context, pictures, syntax and structure analysis clues to predict
unknown words [and] using fix-it strategies such as word skipping or substituting words" (para.
4). He refers to these reading strategies as guessing and bluffing (Jones, 1995, para. 4). Echoing
Dr. Jones' reaction to intrinsic and embedded phonics, Angela Dorman (2000) wrote in the
Edmonton Journal: "I found that children today are being taught to guess at words" (para. 9).
In a study for the National Institutes of Health, Barbara Foorman (n.d.) stated that:
"children receiving direct instruction with phonics were at the 42nd percentile on a standardized
test of reading, whereas children receiving an embedded (incidental) phonics approach were at the
23rd percentile (if the teachers were trained by the researchers) or at the 21st percentile (if the
teachers were trained by the district)" (Cited in Thomas, 1996, para. 4). Based on these findings,
intrinsic and embedded phonics instruction is not as effective a decoding skills teaching method as
is intensive and systematic phonics instruction.
References
Dorman, A. (2000, Mar 12). When your youngster can't read and school doesn't help. Edmonton
Journal. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/252707445
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Jones, J. M. (1995, Oct 19). Parents favor phonics because it works. Madison Capital Times.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/395097966?accountid=32521
Thomas, C. (1996, May 30). The coming phonics revolution in education. Los Angeles Times
Syndicate. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/381134852?accountid=32521
Weaver, C. (1997). On research on the teaching of phonics. Retrieved from
http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/08894/08894f2.html
Undergraduate Series 513
Instructional Techniques 1/24/2013
There are a number of different instructional techniques for teaching spelling in early
elementary grades. Patrick Groff (1995) writes that students who receive phonics-based
instruction have fewer spelling errors than have students of whole-language instruction (paras.
11.1-11.3). Phonics instruction, such as Jeannie Eller's (2000) Action Reading program, teach
students to recognize how letters and sounds interact to form words. In this week's CDs, for
example, Eller (2000) teaches students that the second vowel in a word makes the first vowel say
its name, whether the two vowels are adjacent to each other, or whether the silent "Ethel on the
end" gives the earlier vowel in the word its name, or its long vowel sound. Similarly, Eller (2000)
teaches students about combinations of consonants, such as those that form the shortcut sounds
/th/, /sh/, /ch/, and /wh/, and the vowel-consonant shortcuts sounds /ar/ and /or/ and the sound-
alike shortcuts /er/, /ir/, and /ur/, and /ui/, /ue/, and /ew/. Learning these rules of written English
help students to spell words when they write, as well as to sound out words when they read.
A very different spelling instruction technique in the earliest grades is inverted spelling.
This is not so much a matter of actual instruction, but of letting young students write words the
way they sound. Andrew Gottesman (1993) quotes teacher Jyl Barnabee about the reason for
allowing this spelling technique: "All they hear are sounds. That's why you can encourage them to
write more and more and more" (para. 18). The idea is that students will begin by recognizing the
first and last consonants of a word and will eventually fill in the missing consonants and then the
vowels, possibly over a year or two of schooling, so that "'KD' might become 'KLOSD' and then
'CLOSSED' and finally 'CLOSED'" (Gottesman, 1993, para. 24).
Similarly, there are a number of instructional techniques for teaching vocabulary at all
grade levels. In this week's CDs and companion workbook, Eller (2000) uses pictures to help
students identify words and build vocabulary. For example, after learning the shortcut sounds /sh/,
/ch/, and /th/, students select one of a pair of pictures each for the words "ship," "bench," "fish,"
"brush," and "path" (p. 26). Students use lists of words, identifying specific sounds and shortcut
sounds, and applying the rules to make vowels say their names, at the same time adding these
words to their vocabularies.
The recommended article on vocabulary instruction for this assignment, from Pearson
Education, presents a number of techniques that teachers can use to help students learn
vocabulary. Students can add to their vocabularies through conversation and through reading
materials that include complex and unfamiliar words in contexts that help students grasp the
words' meanings (Building vocabulary, 2013, paras. 8-10). Sandip Wilson (2006) agrees with this
method, writing that "vocabulary is learned through exposure to different situations and activities,
and the informal learning from the context of personal reading, reading aloud, and conversation is
one area for instruction" (para. 3) Other techniques presented by Pearson Education include word
hunting and word sorting activities, building word webs, and deconstructing complex words to
understand their parts (Building vocabulary, 2013, paras. 24-25). It is important to note that
Pearson Education cautions against the traditional practice of teaching students lists of vocabulary
words out of context, whiting: "Researchers have found that teaching dictionary definitions of
words out of context does not enhance the comprehension of a text containing those vocabulary
words" (Building vocabulary, 2013, para. 12). Vocabulary instruction is meaningful and is the
most effective when vocabulary is taught in a context to which students can relate so that
vocabulary words have memory tags that help students access word meanings when the students
encounter the words in text or in oral communications.
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References
Building vocabulary. (2013). Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/teaching-methods/48607.html
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Gottesman, A. (1993, Oct. 28). Educators praise `invented spelling'; detractors unconvinced.
Chicago Tribune. Las Vegas Review, 14B. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/259905134
Groff, P. (1995). Ideology and empiricism in spelling instruction. Journal of the Simplified
Spelling Society, J18, 7-10. Retrieved from
http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j18/ideology.php
Wilson, S.L. (2006). Teaching vocabulary in all classrooms. (3rd ed.). New England Reading
Association Journal, 42(2), 42-43. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/206037584
Zutell, J. (1996). The directed spelling thinking activity (DSTA): Providing an effective balance in
word study instruction. The Reading Teacher, 50(2), 98-98. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/203268083
Week Three Assignment January 28, 2013
Working this CDs 3 and 4 was a continuing challenge because the disks continued to take
an extraordinary amount of time to load and Eller’s teaching was disrupted by the loading. Robby
persevered in the lessons, however. He was better able to anticipate what he needed to do in the
lessons than he was in the first week of the program because Eller (2000) was consistent in the
ways in which she presented the materials.
The third disk of the series continued the combination sounds, or two-for-one sounds,
that were introduced at the end of the second disk. Robby and I played the tic-tac-toe game using
/ch/ and /sh/, and each of us said the sound as we took each turn. We also played the tiddlywinks
game, which looked very much like a dart board (Eller, 2000). Since both Robby and I were
having trouble flipping the light, foam playing pieces onto the board, we instead rolled the die
onto the board, proceeding to score the game as though we were using the game pieces. This
helped Robby avoid frustration so he could focus on the game, which also gave him practice in
math as he kept score for the game.
Introducing /ar/, /or/, and the homophonic /er/, /ir/, and /ur/ added to Robby’s collection
of sounds, and he added the associated cards to his set. The names of the children in the pictures
were more confusing for Robby than they were helpful, since the pictures do not explicitly
represent the sounds. This continued to be an issue as children’s pictures were introduced to
represent /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ on disk four (Eller, 2000).
Decoding words using the pictures that represented sounds continued to help hold
Robby’s intention in the second week of the program, just as the challenge of solving the puzzles
helped him in the first week. Using puzzles and substitution codes helped make the work
interesting for Robby. He enjoyed solving the puzzles and circling the correct picture to represent
the word that was spelled by the pictured sounds. One issue that came up in this activity on both
disks three and four was that Robby found some of the word pictures to be vague, and he often
chose the picture because he knew the other picture in the pair did not fit the word that he had
sounded out.
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Robby continued to use the highlighter when marking shortcut sounds in the workbook
while using disks three and four. When working with /er/, /ir/, and /ur/ on page 34 of the
workbook, Robby used three different highlighter colors to help him keep track of the shortcuts
that had different spellings but the same sound (Eller (2000).
The handwriting drills that Eller (2000) continued to include in the exercises for each
new sound helped Robby work on improving his handwriting. Robby went back and forth
between printing and cursive, but was otherwise well-focused when working on the writing drills.
Robby was more distracted than helped by the songs on disk four, which he felt to be
silly and childish. Part of the problem was that the CD continued to have difficulty loading each
track, so the songs were fragments and hard to follow. If the CD had loaded more readily, the
songs would probably have been more engaging and more effective for Robby’s learning.
Robby did well with the concept that “when two vowels go walking, the first vowel does
the talking” (Eller, 2000). This was only an issue when a pair of vowels was preceded by a “qu,”
as in “queen.” The letter “u” in these words made Robby want to make the “ee” cause the “u” to
say its name, so we had to discuss how the “q” has to be followed by the “u” in English so the “q”
can make its /kwuh/ sound.
Robby was resistant to doing the various activities associated with card 14. He was self-
conscious about clapping or buzzing in place of saying the vowel sounds. He was also resistant to
doing the jumping jacks and other physical activities associated with the sound review on disk
three and the head-shoulders-knees-toes activity on disk four. The latter activity reminded him too
strongly of a preschool song that he learned when he was two years old, and the association caused
him discomfort when it came up in this course.
Robby did well with the concept of “Ethel on the end,” successfully identifying the silent
/e/ that made the vowel before it say the first vowel’s name. Similarly, he did well with
understanding that /e/ says its name at the end of a word with no other vowels, and that /o/ says its
name when it appears at the end of a word.
Marking vowels with arrows to indicate which vowels make which other vowels say their
names was easy for Robby. However, Robby did not want to underline shortcuts, circle two-for-
ones, and divide syllables in the same words in which he had to draw the arrows. With Robby’s
ADHD, using too many symbols on a single word was distracting, so I let him leave out those
markings as long as he marked the elements that were part of the lesson on which he was working.
References
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Systemic Phonics Curriculum 1/31/2013
Studies indicate that research-based systemic phonics curriculum is beneficial for
students who are learning how to read (Manyak, 2008, para. 1; Manyak & Bauer, 2008, para. 2;
National Institutes of Health, 2000, para. 2). Manyak (2008) writes that phonics instruction
develops phonemic awareness and "has a positive effect on the students' word reading" (para. 2).
Phonemic awareness is of particular importance in reading instruction. Students learn to recognize
the sounds that make up words. In Eller's (2000) CD set and companion workbook, students learn
to put sounds together to make words before they learn to use letters and letter combinations to
write words. Eller (2000) introduces multi-letter phonemes by presenting shortcuts and two-for-
516 A Journey Through My College Papers
one sounds. In disks 5 and 6 this week, Eller (2000) continues to introduce new phonemes in
groups that help students understand the relationships between and among phonemes. While
working with more reading comprehension exercises, Eller (2000) introduces the /e/ sound of "y"
and the silent "gh" in the /i/ sound of "igh" and the /a/ sound of "eigh". Phonemes that sound
almost alike but are spelled differently are introduced, as in "au" and "aw" for /aw/ and "ou" and
"ow" for /ow/. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) (2000) writes that "explicitly and
systematically teaching children to manipulate phonemes significantly improves children's reading
and spelling abilities" (para. 10). Eller's (2000) program begins with the sounds represented by
individual letters and systematically adds phonemic groups to build students' phonemic awareness
and reading abilities.
Systemic explicit phonics instruction is shown to be effective for teaching students to
read quickly and fluently. Starfall is one of many systemic explicit phonics programs, just as is
Eller's (2000) Action Reading such a program. The producers of Starfall write in their address to
educators: "As your children master speech sounds, they will be able to apply them to letters in
predictable ways" (para. 4). This is the same as Eller's method with the instructional CDs and
workbook. Over the past weeks, we have taken our students through a systematic program of
learning sounds, learning to combine sounds to form words, and learning to combine words to
form sentences. Each CD has built on the previous lessons until, this week, our students are
reading sentences and paragraphs for comprehension. The NIH supports systematic phonics
instruction, based on a Congressional study of how children learn to read, and they write:
"[R]esearch literature provides solid evidence that phonics instruction produces significant
benefits for children from kindergarten through 6th grade and for children having difficulties
learning to read" (para. 11). It is gratifying that the NIH promotes phonics instruction through 6th
grade, instead of through 2nd or 3rd grade as is usually recommended, because students need to
learn to read more words and more complex words as they complete elementary school and move
up into middle school and high school. Using systematic explicit phonics instruction helps
students master these new and harder words quickly and smoothly, just as it does for students who
are just learning to read.
References
Dear educators. (2012). The Starfall Store. Retrieved from http://www.starfall.com/n/N-
info/educators.htm
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Manyak, P.C. (2008). Phonemes in use: Multiple activities for a critical process. The Reading
Teacher, 61(8), 659-662. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203286198
Manyak, P.C., & Bauer, E.B. (2008). Explicit code and comprehension instruction for English
learners. The Reading Teacher, 61(5), 432-434. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/203280438
National Institutes of Health. (2000, Apr. 13). National reading panel reports combination of
teaching phonics, word sounds, giving feedback on oral reading most effective way to
teach reading. National Institutes of Health News. Retrieved from the US Department of
Health and Human Services website at
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/pages/nrp.aspx?from=reading
Undergraduate Series 517
Principles for Reading Success 1/31/2013
While some websites offer as many as ten or twelve essential components of reading
instruction, there are five components of reading instruction in our current program of study.
These five components are: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension. These five components build upon each other to produce successful, independent
readers. First, students need to gain phonemic awareness by understanding that words are made
up of sounds. In the Action Reading program, Eller (2000) establishes phonemic awareness by
introducing and combining sounds before she allows students to connect the sounds to the letters
of the alphabet. Phonics builds on phonemic awareness by connecting the sounds or phonemes
with the letters that represent the sounds in written English. This system works for any alphabetic
language. Once a student gains phonemic awareness and masters systematic explicit phonics, the
students gains fluency and reads quickly and smoothly. As students read with fluency, they
develop a sense of the meanings of words and develop a vocabulary that helps them understand
what they read. With the expansion of a student's vocabulary and understanding of words comes
his or her comprehension of what he or she reads through understanding how the meanings of
individual words, the arrangement of words, and the use of punctuation work together to give
meaning to sentences, paragraphs, and longer works of writing. In disks 5 and 6 of Eller's (2000)
Action Reading this week, students move into more reading comprehension exercises. The
workbook pages are filled with sentences and paragraphs that allow students to use the phonics
skills they have built over the past few weeks so they can read a paragraph and then answer
questions about the content of the paragraph. Students have been learning to slide the sounds
together in words, and to slide together the sounds of words to make sentences, thus improving
their reading fluency so they can gain reading comprehension and reading enjoyment.
Phonemic awareness, then, is "the understanding that spoken words are made up of
separate units of sound that are blended together when words are pronounced" (Learning Point
Associates, 2004, p. 4). Katlyn Joy (2013) explains that phonemic awareness "begins when
children identify sounds in their spoken language and how it occurs in written language in words"
(para. 2). The separate units of sound are called phonemes, and a phoneme may be represented by
a single letter or by a set of two or more letters. For example, "ate" and "eight" are homophones,
or words that sound alike: /a/ /tuh/. A student learns to recognize that the sounds /a/ /tuh/
represent each of these words. "Man" is represented by the sounds /muh/ /an/.
Phonics is "a set of rules that specify the relationship between letters in the spelling of
words and the sounds of spoken language" (Learning Point Associates, 2004, p. 12). Joy (2013)
explains that students "learn the alphabet and the corresponding sounds and sound combinations
and begin to connect the letters and sounds" (para. 3). At this point, students who gained
phonemic awareness of /a/ /tuh/ learn to associate the sounds with the letters that represent the
sounds. In systematic explicit phonics instruction, such as that used in Jeannie Eller's (2000)
Action Reading, the student learns the simpler representation of the sound and then builds on that
understanding to learn the more complex representation of the sound. So, a student would first
learn that /a/ /tuh/ is represented by the letters "ate," then later would learn about vowel pairs and
how the "i" makes the "e" say its name and the "gh" is silent so that "eight" also represents the
sounds /a/ /tuh/ and has a different meaning.
Fluency is "rapid word recognition that free[s] up space in the reader’s working memory
for use in comprehending the message of the text" (Learning Point Associates, 2004, p. 17). At
this point, the student is "no longer slowly sounding out each sound but has gotten to a point of so
quickly recognizing the word in print on a page" (Joy, 2013, para. 4). Reading is easier when the
518 A Journey Through My College Papers
reader is able to apply phonemics awareness and phonics knowledge to words with little or no
effort, and fluent readers are more like to do more reading than are non-fluent readers.
According to Learning Point Associates (2004), there are four kinds of vocabulary:
listening, speaking, reading, and writing (p. 22). A student may have greater listening and
speaking vocabularies than he or she has reading and writing vocabularies. As babies develop,
their listening vocabulary grows first, then they later add to their speaking vocabularies from their
listening vocabularies. When students begin to read, they apply their listening vocabularies to the
words that they are learning to read. Writing vocabularies usually come last, and they build on all
of the other vocabularies. More simply, Joy (2013) defines vocabulary as "a sense of the
meanings of words," which is enough of a definition for most people (para. 5). As students
encounter and learn more words, their vocabularies expand.
Learning Point Associates (2004) writes: "Comprehension involves constructing meaning
that is reasonable and accurate by connecting what has been read to what the reader already knows
and thinking about all of this information until it is understood" (p. 30). This is a complex way of
saying that reading comprehension is understanding what is read. Joy (2013) writes:
"Comprehension is the key stage of reading because without the understanding of what is read,
reading is useless" (para. 6). As a reader masters phonics, gains fluency, and builds a growing
vocabulary, he or she understand more of what is read and gains reading comprehension. With
increased reading comprehension, the reader is able to communicate with others and to learn any
subject that is written in the reader's language.
Reading success depends not just on phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, but on
building on that foundation to achieve fluency and comprehension in reading. Usually, writing or
printing will be learned concurrent with reading, so the successful reader has the tools to be a
successful communicator, as well.
References
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Joy, K. (2013). The 5 Principles of Reading for Preschoolers. Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/info_12041850_5-principles-reading-preschoolers.html
Learning Point Associates. (2004). A closer look at the five essential components of effective
reading instruction: A review of scientifically based reading research for teachers, 1-45.
Retrieved from http://www.learningpt.org/pdfs/literacy/components.pdf
Week Four Assignment February 4, 2013
With CD 5, Robby continued to work with vowels and added the vowels’ cousin y,
enjoying the idea that y is “tricky and sly” (Eller, 2000). Robby progressed quickly through the
exercises in the workbook; he understood the rule that y says /i/ when there is no other vowel in
the word, and that y says /e/ when there is another vowel in the word, even though that rule was
not explicitly taught to him in school.
Robby enjoyed the reading comprehension exercises, and he was very successful until he
got too confident and tried to answer the questions without reading the stories. We had to talk
about following directions and about reading the entire story before answering the questions. I
explained to him that these comprehension exercises are not just about learning to read: they are
also good practice for the sort of standardized tests that he will need to take in high school and
college. Robby was frustrated with his inability to answer the question about comfortable shoes
Undergraduate Series 519
on page 69 of the workbook without reading the preceding story, but he calmed down and tried
again when he understood that college placement tests require comprehension samples like the
ones in the book (Eller, 2000).
Robby was having more ADHD symptoms than usual when we did CD 5, which made it
difficult for him to focus on the work. Robby did not like the singing games associated with card
14 (Eller, 2000). He resisted card 14 during CDs 3 and 4, as well, and he expressed that clapping
and buzzing in place of saying the vowels was confusing for him. In order to help Robby remain
receptive to the rest of the teaching, I put card 14 away and did not make him do those drills this
week.
Robby benefitted from the breaks to do jumping jacks and toe touches during the lessons
on CD5. The physical exercise helped reduce his ADHD symptoms and helped him focus on the
stories and the comprehension questions. When he got restless, we paused the disk and let him
walk around and get a drink of water, which also helped.
Robby continued to do well with the stories and reading comprehension questions on CD
6. We did this disk on a snow day, when Robby was out of school and wanted to play outside, but
he worked hard and was much more focused than he was for CD 5. These behavioral concerns
came from his ADHD, not from Eller’s (2000) Action Reading program, but they affected how
Robby responded to the lessons. If Robby had been an actual beginning reader, these concerns
would have impacted his learning for the sessions. Reflecting on this helped me recognize that I
will need to keep students’ learning differences in mind when I teach in the future.
Robby was very confused by question 2 on page 71 of the workbook: “If ‘ow’ is at the
end of a word it might sound like [ ] umbrella. [ ] Arlene. [ ] Otis” (Eller, 2000, p. 71). Robby
thought the answer had to have an ending sound that matched one of the sounds of “ow.” I
explained that the question was looking for the /o/ in Otis; having the words spelled out was
confusing for Robby after having used the pictures of the umbrella for /uh/, of the girl Arlene for
/ar/, and of the boy Otis for /o/. Once I showed him the examples on the story and added a few
other words that end in the /o/ sound of “ow,” he was able to continue working.
Robby grew up with more than 44 sounds in English because of the region in which I
grew up. When he encountered “aught” and “ought” on page 72, he pronounced them /aw/ /tuh/
and /aah/ /tuh/, as he learned those sounds in early childhood (Eller, 2000, p. 72). He did not
pronounce them both alike as Eller (2000) did on the CD. I explained to him that regional
pronunciations of English sometimes have more or fewer than the 44 sounds that Eller (2000)
mentioned on the first disk.
Teaching Robby the /ing/, /ang/, /ong/, and /ung/ sounds was difficult because he
objected to Eller’s (2000) characterization of the sounds as Chinese. Robby felt that Eller (2000)
was making fun of the Chinese ethnic group and of its language, and he did not want to continue
the lesson. At school, Robby was learning about cultural awareness and about political
correctness, so he had difficulty accepting the reading lesson. Once he calmed down, however,
Robby enjoyed the ringing sounds game on card 15. It was easier for him to accept /ing/, /ang/,
/ong/, and /ung/ as bell sounds than as Chinese sounds.
Although CD 6 ended with page 98 of the workbook, Robby did not want to leave the last
few pages incomplete. He completed the final four pages without the CD, exploring the silent w,
k, and p in the sounds /ruh/, /nuh/, ans /suh/ on page 99, and the silent g in /nuh/ and the silent h in
/guh/ on page 100 (Eller, 2000, pp. 99-100). Since Robby was already a strong reader, he was
able to go through the /fuh/ of ph and the /sh/ of the several letter combinations on page 101
(Eller, 2000, p. 101).
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References
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Diagnosis and Assessment Principles 2/7/2013
Continuous student assessment is necessary so that teachers are equipped to diagnose
students' reading levels and any learning differences that can affect a student's learning.
Assessment can take many forms, from standardized tests and other written tests of a student's
knowledge to performance evaluations to portfolios. In describing the unique challenges
associated with assessing students in a non-graded, multi-age school, Sue Beth Arnold, Barbara
Kidwell, and David Rossman (1998) expressed student assessment needs that apply to any
learning environment: "[I]n order to describe students' academic progress, we need to know their
initial level of functioning, what they currently know and can do, and what they need to be able to
do to reach certain benchmarks" (para. 2). These are the goals of every educator who uses
assessments to diagnose student learning: to determine the student's beginning level, to determine
what the student already knows, and to determine what the teacher needs to do to help the student
achieve desired learning goals. Early and continuous assessment allows students to be placed in
the correct educational programs from the beginning of their education, including programs for
gifted and talented students and programs for students with learning delays and learning
disabilities. Continuous assessment allows teachers to adjust teaching and materials to meet
students' needs.
Effective student assessments lead to appropriate selection of materials to be used in the
classroom and in other educational settings. In a 2013 article, the National Council of Teachers of
English (2013) write: "Creative teachers take advantage of opportunities to use materials which do
not lend themselves to the formal selection process e.g., current newscasts, television programs,
articles, student writing samples, or materials for short-term projects" (para. 23). These materials
are used to support and augment instruction based on traditional text books, work books, and
student hand outs. Materials must be selected with the age and background of the student in mind,
as reading materials must be age-appropriate. John F. Haskell (1978) reminds educators that
"[w]hen choosing texts for use in the language classroom, your goal is to select passages that
challenge the students without being too difficult" (para. 1). Student materials should allow
students to practice their previous learning while challenging students to expand their learning in
non-threatening increments. To do this, materials should increase in difficulty gradually rather
than abruptly.
References:
Arnold, S.B., Kidwell, B. & Rossman, D. (1998). Multiage assessment: One school's plan.
Primary Voices K - 6, 6(2), 36-43. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/221698737?accountid=32521
Haskell, J.F. (1978). Assessing reading difficulty. Classroom Practices in Adult ESL. Retrieved
from http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jm0031e/7.1.html
National Council of Teachers of English. (2013). Guidelines for selection of materials in English
language arts programs. Retrieved from
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/selectingelamaterial
Undergraduate Series 521
Practicum Experience 2/7/2013
I used the first six CDs of Eller's (2000) Action Reading program with my 11-year-old
son, Robby, who is in the sixth grade this year; I did not have a younger reading student available
to me. Compressing the program into the three weeks allowed by the structure of our course
worked for Robby, as he is already a strong reader, but I got the impression that a true beginning
reader would read to spend a great deal more time with each instructional unit than Robby was
able to spend with the program. This imitated the findings of Francesca Pomerantz and Michelle
Pierce (2004) that "time constraints and instructional materials often interfered with the content
and methods their former students wished to use" (para. 3). Teachers often find that they need to
spend less time on each unit than the teachers would like in order to meet the requirements of the
educational system.
Robby did well with the Action Reading materials. Robby has ADHD, and often has
trouble staying focused on given tasks, by Eller's (2000) CDs held his attention for the most part.
The codes and puzzles in the workbook, in which Robby had to figure out what word was
represented by a series of sound cards, or in which Robby had to match cards to numbers to insert
the needed sounds in words and sentences, made the Action Reading program interesting for
Robby.
Robby had to make some adaptations to the Action Reading exercises in the workbook.
Underlining, circling, and otherwise marking letters within a word was alright in the earliest parts
of the program, but as soon as there were two or more markings on a given word, Robby's ADHD
kicked in and the words became too confusing for him to read them. To solve this problem,
Robby used different colored highlighters to replace the various pencil markings. He uses this
adaptation in school, as well. Robby was able to decode the text when it was marked with colors
instead of with pencil marks. Adaptations like this are important for teachers who have students
with learning exceptionalities, and my experience with Robby and the Action Reading program
will help me in future teaching situations where students need to use different methods to reach the
goals of instruction.
The songs in Eller's (2000) Action Reading program really annoyed Robby because they
are intended for much younger learners. Music and songs are an excellent way to help students
learn, especially when rote memorization is desired, but songs, like reading materials, need to be
age-appropriate for the students.
Robby enjoyed the reading comprehension stories, even though he felt that some were
too young for him. The examples made him think in order to arrive at the correct answer in
several cases. Robby and I discussed how standardized tests that he will need to take in high
school and for college placement often include reading comprehension exercises like the ones in
Eller's (2000) workbook.
Dorothy Suskind (2007) studied the practicum experiences of a group of student teachers.
She found that their challenges in the classroom included "how will they integrate authentic
writing experiences into the school day; how will they utilize multilevel text into instruction; and
how will they address the unique needs of every learner in their future classroom" (para. 16).
Beginning with the handwriting exercises in Eller's (2000) workbook, Robby worked on writing
alongside reading in the Action Reading workbook. Looking back to my freshman year of
college, during which I spent ten hours over a period of several weeks working in a third grade
classroom at East Richland Elementary School in Illinois, I remember the challenges of working
with students in the same grade who were at very different reading levels. In that setting, I spent a
lot of one-on-one time with students at lower reading levels, listening to them read aloud from
522 A Journey Through My College Papers
books that matched their reading levels and helping the students correct their pronunciation and
improve reading fluency. I watched students write stories and reports about their families, homes,
and experiences, and about the stories they read for language arts, social studies, and science.
Such writing activities integrated authentic writing experiences into their learning. With the
Action Reading program, Robby had no such opportunity to apply authentic writing to the reading
included in the program. I believe my practicum experience would have been enhanced if Eller's
program had included guiding the student through creating writing instead of only copying
sentences that were provided.
Robby enjoyed the games in the Action Reading program, and they provided welcome
breaks from phonics and handwriting drills, even though phonics were included in the games.
Using games in education is a useful way for students to "un-school" for brief periods through the
school day, learning without being aware of or stressed about learning.
References:
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
Pomerantz, F., & Pierce, M. (2004). From literacy methods classes to the real world: Experiences
of PreService teachers. New England Reading Association Journal, 40(2), 55-62.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/206037284
Suskind, D.C. (2007). Going public: NCLB and literacy practices in teacher education. Language
Arts, 84(5), 450-455. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/196875205
Reflections on Teaching Action Reading February 11, 2013
Jeannie Eller (2000) produced the Action Reading program titled “FUNdamentals” to
teach students to read using a combination of phonemic awareness and phonics. The word “FUN”
was capitalized in “fundamentals” to stress that students who used the Action Reading program to
learn to read had fun with the lessons and the activities included in the program. For the
practicum portion of my studies in phonics based reading and decoding at Ashford University, I
worked with my younger son, Robby. Robby was eleven years old when we worked through the
Action Reading audio CDs and consumable workbook. He was a student in middle school, and he
read at a 9th grade reading level, which made authentic teaching and learning of beginning reading
and writing challenging for Robby and for me. Robby’s struggles with diagnosed ADHD also
posed challenges during the program, which are described in this paper.
Robby completed the first six of the eight CDs included in the course over a period of
three weeks. He completed the lessons on one CD per day, and he worked on the program during
two days of each of the three weeks. Each CD required about an hour and a half for Robby to
complete when he worked steadily, but he needed two or more hours on each of several occasions
because he paused the program when he needed more time. Robby used a workbook, flash cards,
game sheets, a six-sided die, and two game pieces, all of which came packaged with the set of
audio CDs, to complete the lessons and exercises in the program. Robby’s experience with
Jeannie Eller’s (2000) Action Reading program was positive and successful; had he been a true
beginning reader, Robby would have gained the necessary phonemic awareness, phonics tools,
and beginning vocabulary and comprehension skills to learn to read English quickly and with
fluency.
Teaching with CDs 1 and 2 was a challenge because the disks took a long time to load
and had frequent pauses resulting from the loading process. This created distractions for Robby as
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he attempted to follow along with the recorded instruction. The concept of calling letters by their
sounds, such as /ah/, /nuh/, /muh/, and /ku-suh/, instead of by their names was unfamiliar to
Robby, but Eller’s explanation of why this is necessary added to his phonemic awareness and
helped him adjust to the new format. Robby resisted the sound /ku-suh/, but he made the
adjustment to the unfamiliar sound. Despite ongoing struggles with ADHD, Robby was engaged
by the varied activities on the disks.
The first disk introduced the sounds of the letters in the alphabet, and reinforced these
sounds with pictures and with recitation drills (Eller, 2000). Following the order of the alphabet
by pointing to the picture cards helped with making the mental switch from the symbols of the
letters that Robby learned in school to the sounds of the letters that facilitate phonics education.
One difficulty with the cards was that some of the pictures were obscure and difficult for Robby to
associate with their sounds and letters; these included the Ethel card for /eh/, the itch card for /ih/,
and the doctor card for /ahh/ (Eller, 2000).
Identifying words that were spelled with the pictures from their cards was an effective
way of breaking up the handwriting drills, and Robby enjoyed the challenge of these exercises.
Since he is already a strong reader, most of the activities were too simple for him, and seemed to
make him feel self-conscious, but the puzzles and games helped him connect to the lessons as he
listened to them on the CDs. Also, while he was confused about the reason for the lesson about
the origins of letter symbols, he did enjoy that segment and it held his attention (Eller, 2000). At
the end of the segment, I was able to see him moving from confusion to understanding.
Using board games to reinforce the phonics lessons was an effective strategy for teaching
phonics. Like many students, Robby tired of the drills with the cards and the workbook pages
quickly, but the opportunity to compete in a game engaged his imagination. It also reinforced
counting and following directions, along with reinforcing the phonics instruction. During this
week, Robby and I played the first four games in the FUNdamentals program. Three of the games
each used a die and two pawns, which was similar to many board games played by children. In
“First Steps,” Robby practiced recognizing sounds from the pictures that he learned on his flash
cards (Eller, 2000). This was the only game on disk 1, and I kept Robby focused on the lessons
early on the disk by promising him the game near the end of the session. Anticipation of a reward
was a strong inducement for him to stay on task. The first game on disk 2, “Keys to Reading,”
helped Robby move from associating sounds with pictures to associating sounds with symbols, or
printed letters (Eller, 2000). This game also encouraged keyboarding skills, which are essential to
modern communications and literacy. Robby enjoyed this game and asked to play it several times.
“/Aah/ /Buh/ /Cuh/ Bingo” was Robby’s favorite game this week. He used M&Ms as bingo
markers, and he was allowed to keep the M&Ms after successfully completing the game. We
played bingo several times, until I ran out of candy. Since Robby does not get candy often, the
promise of a chocolate treat after the game helped him focus on his task. The final game for this
week, “Shortcuts for the Super Highway,” involved the concept of taking a consequence in
exchange for gaining an advantage, which was an important lesson for Robby (Eller, 2000).
Disk 2 built on the material Robby learned on disk 1 and introduced more complex
concepts. Adding shortcut letter combinations /an/, /en/, /in/, /on/, and /un/ made reading words
with these sound combinations smoother, and Robby understood the concept of shortcut sounds
easily.
When Eller (2000) instructed Robby to underline shortcut sounds in a list of words on a
page of the workbook, we had to make a small adjustment. Robby found that underlining with
pencil made the page too cluttered and too difficult for him to understand. Instead, he used a pink
highlighter to mark the shortcut sounds, which helped Robby to see and recognize shortcut sounds
in the words on the page. Robby uses this method in school, too, because the bright color helps
focus his attention, which is impaired by ADHD.
524 A Journey Through My College Papers
Including handwriting drills with reading lessons was helpful to Robby. While he was a
good reader, his handwriting needed work, and he recognized this need. He worked hard to form
his letters according to Eller’s verbal instructions and according to the examples in the workbook
(Eller, 2000). The handwriting system that used tails on the letters to aid in the shift from printing
to cursive was unfamiliar to Robby, who learned in school to make letters with straight lines and
no serifs. He caught on quickly, and worked hard to keep the slant of his letters even.
Handwriting was a particular challenge for Robby because he is left-handed, and teachers in his
various schools have tended to focus on the right-handed students.
In the second week of the activity, CDs 3 and 4 continued to take an extraordinary
amount of time to load and Eller’s teaching was disrupted by the loading. Robby persevered in
the lessons, however. He was better able to anticipate what he needed to do in the lessons than he
was in the first week of the program because Eller (2000) was consistent in the ways in which she
presented the materials.
The third disk of the series continued the combination sounds, or two-for-one sounds,
that were introduced at the end of the second disk. Robby and I played the tic-tac-toe game using
/ch/ and /sh/, and each of us said the sound as we took each turn. We also played the tiddlywinks
game, which looked very much like a dart board (Eller, 2000). Since both Robby and I were
having trouble flipping the light, foam playing pieces onto the board, we instead rolled the die
onto the board, proceeding to score the game as though we were using the game pieces. This
helped Robby avoid frustration so he could focus on the game, which also gave him practice in
math as he kept score for the game.
Introducing /ar/, /or/, and the homophonic /er/, /ir/, and /ur/ added to Robby’s collection
of sounds, and he added the associated cards to his set. The names of the children in the pictures
were more confusing for Robby than they were helpful, since the pictures do not explicitly
represent the sounds. This continued to be an issue as children’s pictures were introduced to
represent /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ on disk four (Eller, 2000).
Decoding words using the pictures that represented sounds continued to help hold
Robby’s intention in the second week of the program, just as the challenge of solving the puzzles
helped him in the first week. Using puzzles and substitution codes helped make the work
interesting for Robby. He enjoyed solving the puzzles and circling the correct picture to represent
the word that was spelled by the pictured sounds. One issue that came up in this activity on both
disks three and four was that Robby found some of the word pictures to be vague, and he often
chose the picture because he knew the other picture in the pair did not fit the word that he had
sounded out.
Robby continued to use the highlighter when marking shortcut sounds in the workbook
while using disks three and four. When working with /er/, /ir/, and /ur/ on page 34 of the
workbook, Robby used three different highlighter colors to help him keep track of the shortcuts
that had different spellings but the same sound (Eller (2000).
The handwriting drills that Eller (2000) continued to include in the exercises for each
new sound helped Robby work on improving his handwriting. Robby went back and forth
between printing and cursive, but was otherwise well-focused when working on the writing drills.
Robby was more distracted than helped by the songs on disk four, which he felt to be
silly and childish. Part of the problem was that the CD continued to have difficulty loading each
track, so the songs were fragments and hard to follow. If the CD had loaded more readily, the
songs would probably have been more engaging and more effective for Robby’s learning.
Robby did well with the concept that “when two vowels go walking, the first vowel does
the talking” (Eller, 2000). This was only an issue when a pair of vowels was preceded by the
letters “q” and “u” as in “queen.” The letter “u” in these words made Robby want to make the
double vowels in the word cause the “u” to say /u/, so we had to discuss how the letter “q” has to
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be followed by the letter “u” in English so the letter “q” can make its /kwuh/ sound. At the end of
the discussion, Robby understood that the letter “u” did not count as a vowel when it was paired
with the letter “q.”
Robby was resistant to doing the various activities associated with card 14. He was self-
conscious about clapping or buzzing in place of saying the vowel sounds. He was also resistant to
doing the jumping jacks and other physical activities associated with the sound review on disk
three and the head-shoulders-knees-toes activity on disk four. The latter activity reminded him too
strongly of a preschool song that he learned when he was two years old, and the association caused
him discomfort when it came up in this course.
Robby did well with the concept of “Ethel on the end,” successfully identifying the silent
letter “e”/ that made the vowel before it say the first vowel’s name: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, or /u/.
Similarly, he did well with understanding that the letter “e” says its name, /e/, at the end of a word
with no other vowels, and that the letter “o” says its name, /o/, when it appears at the end of a
word.
Marking vowels with arrows to indicate which vowels make which other vowels say their
names was easy for Robby. However, Robby did not want to underline shortcuts, circle two-for-
ones, and divide syllables in the same words in which he had to draw the arrows. With Robby’s
ADHD, using too many symbols on a single word was distracting, so I let him leave out those
markings as long as he marked the elements that were part of the lesson on which he was working.
With CD 5, Robby continued to work with vowels and added the vowels’ cousin, the
letter “y”, enjoying the idea that the letter “y” is “tricky and sly” (Eller, 2000). Robby progressed
quickly through the exercises in the workbook; he understood the rule that the letter “y” says /i/
when there is no other vowel in the word, and that the letter “y” says /e/ when there is another
vowel in the word, even though that rule was not explicitly taught to him in school.
Robby enjoyed the reading comprehension exercises, and he was very successful until he
got too confident and tried to answer the questions without reading the stories. We had to talk
about following directions and about reading the entire story before answering the questions. I
explained to him that these comprehension exercises were not just about learning to read: they
were also good practice for the sort of standardized tests that he will need to take in high school
and college. Robby was frustrated with his inability to answer the question about comfortable
shoes on page 69 of the workbook without reading the preceding story, but he calmed down and
tried again when he understood that college placement tests require comprehension samples like
the ones in the book (Eller, 2000).
Robby was having more ADHD symptoms than usual when we did CD 5, which made it
difficult for him to focus on the work. Robby did not like the singing games associated with card
14 (Eller, 2000). He resisted card 14 during CDs 3 and 4, as well, and he expressed that clapping
and buzzing in place of saying the vowels was confusing for him. In order to help Robby remain
receptive to the rest of the teaching, I put card 14 away and did not make him do those drills for
the rest of the week.
Robby benefitted from the breaks to do jumping jacks and toe touches during the lessons
on CD5. The physical exercise helped reduce his ADHD symptoms and helped him focus on the
stories and the comprehension questions. When Robby got restless, we paused the disk and let
him walk around and get a drink of water, which also helped.
Robby continued to do well with the stories and reading comprehension questions on CD
6. We did this disk on a snow day, when Robby was out of school and wanted to play outside, but
he worked hard and was much more focused than he was for CD 5. These behavioral concerns
came from his ADHD, not from Eller’s (2000) Action Reading program, but they affected how
Robby responded to the lessons. If Robby had been an actual beginning reader, these concerns
526 A Journey Through My College Papers
would have impacted his learning for the sessions. Reflecting on this helped me recognize that I
will need to keep students’ learning differences in mind when I teach in the future.
Robby was very confused by question 2 on page 71 of the workbook, which is worded as
follows: “If ‘ow’ [sic] is at the end of a word it might sound like [ ] umbrella. [ ] Arlene. [ ] Otis”
[brackets included in the original] (Eller, 2000, p. 71). The names of the sounds were spelled out
as words in the workbook question instead of being shown as /uh/, /ar/, and /o/, as shown in the
quote, and that confused Robby. Robby thought the answer had to have an ending sound that
matched one of the sounds of the letters “o” and “w” in sequence in the spelling of the required
answer. I explained that the question was looking for the /o/ in “Otis”; having the words spelled
out was confusing for Robby after having used the pictures of the umbrella for /uh/, of the girl
Arlene for /ar/, and of the boy Otis for /o/. Once I showed him the examples in the story and
added a few other words that end in the /o/ sound of the letter combination “o” and “w,” he was
able to continue working.
Robby grew up with more than 44 sounds in English because of the region in which I
grew up. When Robby encountered “aught” and “ought” on page 72, he pronounced the sounds as
/aw/ /tuh/ and /aah/ /tuh/, as he learned those sounds in early childhood (Eller, 2000, p. 72). He
did not pronounce them both alike as Eller (2000) did on the CD. I explained to him that regional
pronunciations of English sometimes have more or fewer than the 44 sounds that Eller (2000)
mentioned on the first disk.
Teaching Robby the /ing/, /ang/, /ong/, and /ung/ sounds was difficult because he
objected to Eller’s (2000) characterization of the sounds as Chinese and he resisted the lesson as it
was presented. Robby felt that Eller (2000) was making fun of the Chinese ethnic group and of its
language, and he did not want to continue the lesson. At school, Robby was learning about
cultural awareness and about political correctness, so he had difficulty accepting the reading
lesson. Once he calmed down, however, Robby enjoyed the ringing sounds game on card 15. It
was easier for him to accept /ing/, /ang/, /ong/, and /ung/ as bell sounds than as Chinese sounds.
Although CD 6 ended with page 98 of the workbook, Robby did not want to leave the last
few pages incomplete. He completed the final four pages without the CD, exploring the silent
letters“w”, “k”, and “p” in the sounds /ruh/, /nuh/, ans /suh/ on page 99, and the silent letters “g”
in /nuh/ and “h” in /guh/ on page 100 (Eller, 2000, pp. 99-100). Since Robby was already a strong
reader, he was able to go through the /fuh/ of the letter combination “p” and “h” and the /sh/ of the
several letter combinations on page 101 (Eller, 2000, p. 101).
Through his use of the Action Reading program, Robby gained the necessary phonemic
awareness, phonics tools, and beginning vocabulary and comprehension skills to learn to read
English quickly and with fluency, and he reinforced reading and handwriting skills that he already
possessed as an advanced reader. The activities in the program were able to be modified to
accommodate Robby’s learning differences without a substantial change in the lessons as Eller
(2000) presented them. While many of the lessons were designed with traditional-age beginning
readers in mind, the reading and handwriting skills that were taught in the program were also
suitable for teaching older beginning readers or for helping English-as-a-second-language (ESL)
learners learn to read English.
Through my work with Robby and the Action Reading program I gained practicum
experience that will help me in future teaching jobs. I had to learn to adapt lessons and exercises
so they would suit my student’s learning differences. I had to keep Robby on task while also
allowing him adequate time to achieve understanding of the lessons. I had to work within time
constraints to complete the practicum activity in the allotted three weeks; this was a very
important concept, as there will be times in my future teaching when I will have to push through
academic units more quickly than I will wish to do in order to meet the requirements of a school or
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a school district. My practicum experience in the phonics based reading and decoding course
taught me skills that I will carry into my future personal and professional experiences.
References
Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program.
Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.
EDU360: Philosophy of Education
The Faculty Debate 2/14/2013
“It is late Wednesday afternoon and classes have been dismissed at West High School. A
few students remain in the music practice rooms preparing for the upcoming music contest. The
sound of a whistle in the gym echoes down the hall.
The faculty workroom is also empty, except for three teachers engaged in a heated
discussion. Ms. Nichols, who has taught introductory chemistry for nine years, appears upset
over the school district’s new policy concerning electives. She makes a passionate argument to
her colleagues, alleging that it is a mistake to allow students a choice in determining their own
program of study. She believes adolescents are not capable of making such choices and that they
will opt for the easiest and least demanding courses. Mr. Lopez, who has taught courses in
sociology and psychology for four years, attempts to argue an opposing viewpoint. He counters
that adolescents, and even very young children, are capable of making high-quality educational
decisions.”
Ms. Nichols is expressing the existential education theory, in which a teacher must
"[g]uide [a] learner in self-development" (Stallones, 2011, p. 49). She believes that students are
children who require adult guidance in making important decisions. Mr. Lopez is expressing the
pragmatic philosophy, in which "children are inherently curious and ... their education should
consist primarily of exploring their world" (Stallones, 2011, p. 42). He believes that students have
a natural desire to learn, and that they will choose classes that will facilitate their exploration and
discovery of the world.
Ms. Nichols' assertion is valid in that children, including high school students, are still
developing in many ways. The Partnership for a Drug-free America (2013) reports that the
uneven development of the brain from "early adolescence through their mid-20s" causes students
to be more likely than older adults to make poor decisions and to take unnecessary risks (para. 1).
Since students cannot be counted on the make appropriate, well-considered choices, parents and
educators should guide students in making decisions about courses and electives that they should
take. Parents and educators may use scaffolding to help students develop the critical thinking
skills that are necessary for choosing academic and elective courses, so that the students' brains
may develop more evenly and may produce more neural pathways to access decision-making
knowledge and skills in the future, but the adults must continue to guide and support the students.
Mr. Lopez, who has a background in sociology and psychology, should be aware that,
although students are curious and wish to learn, the students cannot be depended upon to make
responsible choices until they are older. While it may be appropriate to discuss academic choices
with students, it is the responsibility of parents and educators to make decisions for the students.
528 A Journey Through My College Papers
References:
Partnership for a Drug-free America. (2013). "Adolescent brain and behavior." A Parent's Guide
to the Teen Brain. Retrieved from http://teenbrain.drugfree.org/science/behavior.html
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
The Functions of Schools 2/14/2013
It is my belief that schools exist to inculcate reading, writing, grammar, rhetoric,
mathematics, science, history, geography, and arts to students. Although I recognize the benefits
to modern society, I do not believe that schools should be centers of social work or health care, as
they seem to be in many places. That being the case, in an effort to provide quality education
within the bounds of a fixed budget, I would advocate a back-to-basics program in the schools.
This would not eliminate physical education, but it would require sports programs to acquire
outside financial sponsorship in the community. Likewise, it would not eliminate chorus/choir or
music theory and appreciation, but it would require school bands to seek outside financial
sponsorship, as well. I would advocate moving driver's education to an extracurricular activity
and charging a reasonable fee for students to take the course.
Where I live now, vocational technology is a necessary program, but I would recommend
concentrating vocational students in a separate, dedicated facility beginning with grade 9 or 10,
continuing their math and language arts classes but otherwise focusing on technical training. In
my area, outside Detroit, that would be likely to involve automotive subjects, construction skills,
engineering, and computer technologies. In a rural area, such as where I lived in western Virginia,
vocational education would be more likely to include agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry,
mining and resource management, forestry, and related topics; many school districts there have
already implemented this sort of change.
While the core academics of English language arts, mathematics, and general sciences
and social studies are important for all students, advanced classes in any or all of these subjects
and in foreign languages are generally intended for college preparatory students. Every student
should have the opportunity to attend college, but not every student needs to attend college to be
successful in life. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, and some engineers need college. Construction
workers, retailers, food service workers of various types, automotive specialists, transportation
specialists, sanitation specialists, forestry workers, parks and recreation workers, and many others
are poorly served by being forced to perform in college preparatory classes. With that in mind, I
would make all except English language arts and general mathematics (through algebra or
geometry) optional for students desiring to pursue technical training for a non-college track.
I believe that arts and music are essential to education. Aesthetically pleasing
environments stimulate creativity and higher reasoning, and improve memory development and
retrieval. While a fixed budget does not allow for the professional beautification on a boxy school
building, visual arts classes can be allowed to design and paint murals in hallways, stairwells,
cafeterias, libraries, other common areas, and even in classrooms and on the outside of school
buildings. Such projects can be combined with literature studies, cultural studies, and even math
and science to reinforce learning.
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Motivation to Learn February 18, 2013
When I was in my early twenties, I experienced a crisis of faith. As the daughter of a
Congregationalist pastor, I had learned my religion well, but my personal beliefs were at odds with
the theology of my religion. In order to address this crisis of faith, I employed three of the basic
activities of philosophy: synthesis, speculation, and analysis (Stallones, 2011, p. 14). This process
took several years, since gathering data for me required leaving the denomination of my childhood
and acquiring personal experience of other faith paths. I spent time studying and practicing
nature-based Pagan religions. I spent a year studying for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults
(RCIA) in the Catholic Church, while participating actively in the prayer and worship of a local
Roman Catholic Church. I spent several months studying and worshipping with the local Jewish
community at a synagogue. For several years, I visited a variety of churches of different Christian
denominations. I also spent time not attending or participating in any organized religion. I
gathered data from each of my experiences in an act of synthesis, although I was not then aware of
that meaning of the word. During the times without organized religious observance, I engaged in
speculation about God and gods, about mortality and immortality, and about the existence of good
and evil in the world. Finally, and after each new experience along the way, I engaged in analysis.
I compared and contrasted the religions I had experienced after leaving the Congregational church
to the beliefs and practices of my childhood church. I decided which aspects of my religious
experiences were valid in my life, and which aspects I would set aside. In the end, through a
combination of synthesis of experiences and beliefs, speculation about what constituted truth for
me, and analysis of the information that I gathered through synthesis and speculation, I arrived at a
personal statement of faith and a personal description of how I need to practice faith to achieve
personal fulfillment. This process led me not back to my childhood church, but to the American
Episcopal Church, in which I have been active and happy for a number of years.
The four habits, or activities, of the philosopher’s task are synthesis, which involves
gathering information from various sources; speculation, which involves considering ideas that
cannot be tested by the senses; analysis, which involves questioning and examining ideas and
information; and prescription, which involves choosing a course of action (Stallones, 2011, pp. 14-
16). The most valuable of these activities for teachers are synthesis and analysis, each of the four
activities is necessary in the classroom. Synthesis is important for the teacher because effective
teaching requires drawing on multiple sources for information and for methods of transmitt ing
information to students. A teacher needs to be able to draw information and ideas from traditional
textbooks, from the literary canon, from popular media, from the experiences of other educators
and of members of the community, from other educational disciplines, and even from the teacher’s
students. Analysis is important for the teacher because analysis allows the teacher to examine
information from various sources and to use critical thinking to bring the more accurate and
pertinent data into the classroom. A teacher also instills the habit of analysis in his or her students,
teaching the students to apply critical analysis in a variety of real and hypothetical situations in the
classroom.
I believe it is important for me, as a future teacher, to have an understanding of
philosophy. In general, I am a realist; I believe that “important truths about reality can be learned
from observing the natural world” (Stallones, 2011, p. 9). At the same time, I recognize that there
are truths beyond the reach of the natural world and of logical enquiry, so I am at least partly an
idealist. I am not certain that any person is wholly an idealist or wholly a realist, but only that a
given person may be more inclined toward one group or the other. I am open to discovering that
truths beyond the natural realm may be described or explained by logic and science in the future;
530 A Journey Through My College Papers
at the same time, I am open to the idea that some truths are just too big to be apprehended by
human thought and science, and so must be left to the realm of the supernatural.
References
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Where Do You Stand? 2/21/2013
The results of my Educational Philosophies Self-Assessment are as follows:
Information Processing: 23;
Cognitivism/Constructivism: 21;
Progressivism: 20;
Perennialism, Behaviorism, and Humanism: 18 each; and
Essentialism: 17 (Educational philosophies self-
assessment scoring guide, 2013).
There is not a huge spread from the highest of my scores to the lowest, which suggests to me that I
have an eclectic educational philosophy that is dominated by information processing. The official
results, however, indicate that my personal educational philosophy is in the information
processing group. Information processing "explains how a given body of information is learned
and suggests strategies to improve processing and memory" (Educational philosophies self-
assessment scoring guide, 2013, para. 6). As long as this philosophy is not required to stand alone
as the total of my educational philosophy, I do agree that I favor facilitating the learning of new
information and the retrieval of information from long-term memory. To that end, I prefer a
teaching approach that provides as many connections as possible to the learning so retrieval of
information can be as easy and reliable as possible. This does seem to fit the definition for the
information processing philosophy.
My formal education began at age 2 with a full-day, academic preschool, and continued
through the public school system in Vermont. My education was structured along the lines of
Thomas Jefferson' free, public schools that taught "reading, writing, arithmetic, and English, along
with classical and American history" (Stallones, 2011, p. 66), but it was also strongly influenced
by the liberal education system of ancient Greece. Beginning at an age when some children are
still mastering walking and talking, my friends and I were taught reading, writing, mathematics,
and the beginnings of history and science, along with the arts and games associated with early
childhood centers. This was an early liberal education. My public elementary school had one
classroom per grade, and was structured along the lines of the common school. Jefferson's
proposed subjects for schooling follow the liberal education tradition, and I received an early
liberal arts education throughout kindergarten and elementary school. These same traditions
carried into my education at the public high school, where the division between students studying
vocational arts and students studying liberal arts resembled the description of slave schools and
free schools in ancient Greece (Stallones, 2011, p. 58).
My personal educational philosophy does not fully mesh with the results of the self-
assessment, above. My personal philosophy, like my own childhood experience, blends the
educational proposals of Thomas Jefferson with the ancient Greek liberal arts education for all
young students and for students who plan to enter professions that require higher liberal arts
educations, and vocational arts educations for those older students who plan to pursue professions
in skilled trades and service professions. Based on that, I suppose I must choose the liberal arts
educational philosophy and the Socratic method of teaching. The liberal arts education of ancient
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Greece are identified as: "grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and
music" (Liberal Arts Education, 2012, sidebar). While I recognize that the list needs to be
adjusted for modern times, I still agree that grammar or language arts, the dialectic of reasoning
(thesis and antithesis), the rhetoric of persuasive argument, the geometry and arithmetic of
mathematics, astronomy and other physical sciences, and music and other aesthetic arts need to be
taught to all young students to give them a solid educational foundation. Social studies and
languages are also needed. The Socratic method of questioning ideas should be a part of each of
these studies, as the student will learn more effectively if he or she reasons through learning
instead of just memorizing and regurgitating information.
Formulating my personal philosophy of education, and learning to refine and articulate
that philosophy, will impact my future students by allowing me to understand not only what the
curriculum requires me to teach, but also why I choose to teach and what I want my students to
gain from my teaching.
References:
Educational philosophies self-assessment scoring guide. (2013). Retrieved from
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/scoringguide.html
Liberal arts education. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.rollins.edu/academics/liberalarts.html
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Performance Pay versus Tenure 2/21/2013
I find myself assigned to the group that supports performance-based teacher pay.
Performance-based teacher pay requires teachers not only to teach, but to teach well. Teachers
whose students routinely fail to achieve high scores on standardized tests and other assessments
are paid at a lower rate than those teachers whose students routinely score well on such tests. In
order to achieve the best pay possible for their work, then, teachers in a performance-based teacher
pay system will work hard to teach students as much information as they can teach and to teach
the information as effectively and as efficiently as possible.
Teachers in this kind of system have a strong, external motivation to succeed as teachers
by helping their students achieve as learners. A teacher with performance-based pay will not
allow students to fall behind, and will work hard to be sure the lowest-achieving students in each
class meet or exceed the minimum requirements for the grade. Economic incentives are strong
motivators for high performance, in teaching as in other professions. According to Beth Lewis
(2013), a teacher with ten years of experience in California, "Incentivized teachers will work
harder and produce better results ... The simple possibility of extra cash would most likely
translate into smarter teaching and better results for our children" (para. 6). Performance-based
pay is the norm for most professions in the United States today, but "85 percent of school districts
nationwide still use the outdated uniform single-salary schedule that pays teachers like factory
workers" (Van Beek, 2012, para. 3). Teachers who know they will be rewarded for more
successful teaching will work harder to achieve success in the classroom by helping their students
become successful learners.
Jared Stallones (2011) notes that "[s]ome states experimented with incentive pay to
attract teachers into the areas needed, but teachers’ unions generally oppose such differential pay
schemes" (p. 104). Despite the opposition by teacher's unions, differential pay that rewards
successful teachers with performance-based teacher pay benefits teachers, students, and the
community. When teachers are given tangible incentives to teach well, students learn more and
532 A Journey Through My College Papers
retain more of what they learn. Students then grow up to be stronger, better-prepared citizens who
are able to have a positive impact on society.
References:
Lewis, B. (2013). Pros and cons of merit pay for teachers: Should teachers be rewarded for
performance like everyone else? Retrieved from
http://k6educators.about.com/od/assessmentandtesting/a/meritypay.htm
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Van Beek, M. (2012). Merit-based teacher pay rewards everyone. Retrieved from
http://www.mackinac.org/17130
Effective Teachers February 21, 2013
If I must choose between pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge for the most
important knowledge for a teacher, I will choose pedagogical knowledge. In actuality, I agree
with J. J. Schwab that teachers need to have “pedagogical content knowledge” (Stallones, 2011, p.
106). Schwab’s idea combined both pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge,
acknowledging that both kinds of knowledge are essential for a teacher.
Content knowledge is “a deep and thorough understanding of the subjects they [teachers]
teach” (Stallones, 2011, p. 106). It is important for a teacher to have this degree of understanding
if possible. However, there is a difference between knowing a subject and being able to transmit
that knowledge to students. If a teacher has content knowledge but lacks pedagogical knowledge,
then the teacher will be unable effectively to transmit that knowledge to his or her students.
Student learning is greatly impaired when an expert in a field of study is unable to impart his or
her knowledge to others.
Pedagogical knowledge is “the knowledge and skills required to effectively teach”
(Stallones, 2011, p. 106). A teacher with strong pedagogical knowledge can teach any subject
about which he or she has or can obtain information. A teacher may lack deep content knowledge,
but the teacher can read just ahead of the students in the text and effectively teach the information
to students. The teaching will lack substance when it occurs in this way, and often students can
recognize when a good teacher lacks deep knowledge of the subject being taught, but students will
learn more from a teacher who possesses pedagogical knowledge and lacks content knowledge
than they will learn from a teacher who possesses content knowledge and lacks the pedagogical
knowledge with which to impart the content knowledge.
In most cases, teachers possess both some content knowledge and some pedagogical
knowledge. In a few wonderful cases, a teacher will possess an abundance of each of the two
kinds of knowledge. Those latter cases are when the best teaching and learning take place. A
teacher with deep content knowledge and a strong grasp of pedagogy will inspire students to learn
and to seek additional learning in the subject. That is the sort of teacher I hope to be.
I have been the teacher who knew how to teach my students, but who had to struggle to
learn the content ahead of having to teach it because I was given a class and a text and I was
simply told to teach the text so the students would pass the six unit tests and the final,
comprehensive exam. It was a daunting challenge to teach content with which I was not deeply
familiar, but because pedagogical knowledge is just slightly more necessary than is content
knowledge, I was able to teach the material to my class and to see each of my students pass each
test in turn. So, if I must say that either pedagogical knowledge or content knowledge is the most
important knowledge for a teacher, my choice must be pedagogical knowledge.
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References
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Why I Wish to Become a Teacher February 21, 2013
I wish to become a teacher for several reasons. First, I love learning and knowledge,
especially reading, and I have a strong desire to share that love of learning with others. I feel an
almost physical pain when I encounter someone who can learn but who has not had access to good
teachers to impart learning. Second, I wish to teach so that the knowledge and skills of the past
may be preserved and passed on in the future. In my experiences with historical reenactment, I
have been exposed to amazing literature, art, and culture that are in danger of being forgotten and
lost in time. As long as I can teach others about the knowledge from the past, I can help keep
history alive and vibrant for the future. Third, I wish to teach because I have a strong urge to
nurture and to help others, and teaching is an aspect of nurturing the mind and the spirit of the
student. I want to equip others with the skills and knowledge not only to survive in the world, but
also to succeed and to thrive in the world. Learning, especially literacy, is the key to moving
beyond survival to success and personal enrichment.
I was blessed with having many very good, caring, effective teachers at each level of my
education. It is difficult to choose a favorite teacher from among the many. If I must choose just
one, however, it must be Robert A. Hutchins. Mr. Hutchins was my eleventh grade English
teacher, he was my twelfth grade writing seminar teacher, and he was also the faculty advisor for
the school’s literary magazine, on which I worked in my senior year of high school. Mr. Hutchins
cared about each student, and he went to the trouble of getting to know each student as a person.
Mr. Hutchins recognized my love for English, and especially for creative writing, and he went out
of his way to nurture that interest in me. He encouraged me to write, and he was always available
to read my work, even when it was not for his class. He gave me the freedom to be creative and to
explore literature and writing. I was last in his class in 1987, but he and I still correspond with
each other. I know this is not a unique situation for him, because he used to tell our classes about
letters he had received from his alumni over the twenty or more years of his teaching before our
classes.
Mr. Hutchins seemed to believe that each student is an individual, and that each
individual needs to be able to discover his or her own, personal gifts and talents. He seemed to
believe that the purpose of teaching was to give his students a foundation on which to build
personal knowledge and scholarship, and also to expose students to ideas that would inspire his
students to seek more ideas and more educational experiences.
As an English teacher, Mr. Hutchins provided a lot of experiences with literature. We
read novels, short stories, poems, and plays. Mr. Hutchins took our class to the North Shore of
Boston to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed in an outdoor amphitheater. He
encouraged us to memorize, analyze, and present to the class works by modern poets. He passed
out random pictures that he clipped from magazines and had us write vivid, descriptive papers
about what the images looked like and what the images meant or made us feel.
In Mr. Hutchins’ class, I was motivated to learn by his positive feedback, by his
encouragement, and by his evident passion for the material that we learned from him. He had
taught in that same classroom since before I was born. When I last spoke to him, several months
ago, he still teacher English in that same room. He has eschewed advancement in order to teach
534 A Journey Through My College Papers
teenagers to love literature and writing. His example was motivation to learn then, and it still is
today.
I hope I will be able to bring some of Mr. Hutchins’ passion for literature and passion for
teaching to my own teaching. Thanks to him, I have seen what a really good teacher is, and I have
seen him inspire students to learn. I plan to teach English at the junior college level, and I will
follow his example by allowing my students to express their creativity as far as the prescribed
curriculum allows. I will be enthusiastic about the literature that I teach, and about the unique
responses that each class of students will bring to the discussion of literature. I have seen that
teaching can be a lifelong vocation, not just a job that lasts a few years and serves as a stepping
stone for administrative, and later to political, advancement that I have seen from some other
teachers.
Historical Foundations of Education in America
February 25, 2013
Society has grown and changed over decades and centuries, and schools have always
been part of that growth and change. Although the concerns of society shift from one generation
to another, some core ideas of education persist over time. From the teaching of John Comenius
in the 17th century to modern schools in the 21st century, teachers and principals continue to put
the needs of students first. An examination of the careers of three American principals from the
1960s, the 1980s, and the 2000s shows that the basic philosophies of education are similar across
the decades, but that the concerns facing the principals of the 21st century are quite different from
the concerns of principals in the mid-20th century.
Charlotte C. Beamer was the principal of Margaret Beeks Elementary School in
Blacksburg, Virginia, from 1963 to 1971. During her career, Beamer exhibited a tendency toward
the humanistic philosophy of education. Humanistic is defined in Philosophy of Education as:
“Having to do with human beings” (Stallones, 2011, p. 79). In a 1989 interview, Beamer spoke of
the goodness of the teachers, students, administrators, and parents with whom she worked during
her term as principal. She said, “I wanted teachers to be free to use techniques that they were
familiar with using and techniques that they felt free to use and they felt comfortable, because I
don't think any person, principal or anyone else, can go in and tell a teacher this is the best way to
teach something” (Charlotte Beamer Interview, 1989, para. 16). Throughout her interview,
Beamer stressed the importance of considering the needs of the individual, both the teachers under
her leadership and the students under her care. In the description of humanism, the Educational
Philosophies Self-Assessment Scoring Guide (2013) states that “people are free to act but must be
responsible; behavior is the consequence of human choice” (para. 6). Beamer addressed student
behavior in her interview, stating that “most discipline problems comes through the lack of the
instruction, that's the reason they misbehave” (Charlotte Beamer Interview, 1989, para. 62).
Beamer clearly attributed behavior problems in young children, who are not yet fully capable of
making choices for themselves, to the choices of teachers who do not provide adequate or
appropriate teaching for their students.
Beamer also believed in the progressive philosophy of education. In the words of the
Educational Philosophies Self-Assessment Scoring Guide (2013), she expressed her desire for
students to “be active and learn to solve problems by experimenting and reflecting on their
experience” (para. 4). Beamer discussed her feeling that students should have less paper work in
the classroom, saying: “You get away from stimulating a good discussion with children in the
classroom, listening to their ideas, letting them express their opinions whether they have any facts
Undergraduate Series 535
to back up that opinion. So, what? At least let them give it. Really stimulate communication in the
classroom” (para. 54). Beamer wanted students to learn through dialogue and through exploring
their own ideas, which is very similar to the Socratic method of asking students open-ended
questions to stimulate critical thinking.
Beamer’s primary concerns centered around bureaucracy and paper work that took up
most of her time as a principal. Along with her concerns that students had to do too much paper
work in the form of work sheets that made the students work in isolation from each other,
Beamer’s administrative paperwork isolated her from the teachers and students of her school by
forcing her to remain in her office for much of each day. Beamer’s concerns about paperwork
connect to her humanistic approach, since the enforced isolation imposed by paperwork at all
levels prevented human interaction among students, among teachers, and between Beamer and the
students and teachers in Margaret Beeks Elementary School.
Ethel S. Haughton was a principal at a combined elementary and middle school in Oil
City, Arkansas. Spurred by her experiences with an African-American student at a school that
primarily served military families at the beginning of racial integration in the 1960s, Haughton
developed a progressive philosophy of education that she carried through her career as a principal
until her retirement in the early 1990s. In her interview, Haughton stated: “I firmly believe that
our school systems should be for all children ... every child has the right to obtain an education”
(Interview, 1995, para. 61). Haughton’s career spanned the period from the beginning of racial
integration in education to the early 1990s, when every child in the United States has the
opportunity to receive a free education. Haughton’s belief that every child should receive an
education aligns with the progressive focus on the child. Stallones (2011) describes progressive
education as “characterized by integrated curriculum designs, social learning activities, and
learning by direct experience” (p. 80). Haughton describes the way she and her teachers organized
the curriculum in the school to shift the instructional focus to the needs of the students and
teachers: “in math in the elementary, and did away with a-lot of the books ... we went into a
science lab situation with science ... we began doing more with the novels, moving away from
basils [basics]” (Interview, 1995, para. 19). Removing the text books and allowing students to
learn through laboratory activities and through literature combines the child-focus of
progressivism with the human growth perspective of humanism, which was also evident in
Haughton’s educational philosophy. In this way, the philosophy of Haughton in the 1980s was
similar to the philosophy of Beamer in the 1960s.
Haughton’s primary concern as a principal, like Beamer’s concern two decades earlier,
was the paper work associated with her position. When asked to comment on the problems she
encountered, Haughton replied: “Oh... paperwork!. ... Through the eight years that we, the eight
or nine years that I was in the principalship, I saw the paperwork continue to grow and grow and
grow ... we spend a tremendous amount of time just taking care of paperwork” (Interview, 1995,
para. 63). In addition, Haughton identified the efficiency of curriculum and instruction as a matter
of concern in her school while she was the principal. Haughton’s concern with paper work was
very similar to Beamer’s concern, but Haughton’s concern with the efficiency of curriculum was
different from Beamer’s experiences. Beamer felt that the teachers worked together to make
curriculum run smoothly, but Haughton worked in a very large school district where curriculum
was less efficient.
Arthur Jacoby was the principal of the The Urban Family Center (UFC) Mini-School on
Henry Street, on the Lower East Side, in New York City until his retirement in the early 2000s.
Jacoby’s philosophy of education was that schools and educators bring about social change, which
identifies him with the progressive philosophy of education. The UFC Mini-School was a special
middle school that operated inside a shelter for homeless families and families that were victims of
domestic violence. Jacoby’s work at UFC was designed not only to educate the students, but also
536 A Journey Through My College Papers
to equip them with skills, knowledge, and motivation to break out of the cycle of homelessness
and violence and to become productive members of society. In a 2008 interview, Jacoby said:
“teachers have a much greater chance of influencing students than counselors ... as an
administrator at Henry Street my orientation was to bring about real change” (Arthur E. Jacoby
Interview, 2008, para. 6). Jacoby’s philosophy also included the humanist philosophy of
education, in which he and his teachers treated students as individuals and respected their
individual experiences. Because of the special conditions of the UFC Mini-School, Jacoby’s
students came to the school with a variety of personal tragedies, traumas, and experiences that
required special, individual attention and encouragement to help each student reach his our her
potential for growth and development.
Jacoby’s issues as a principal were very different from the concerns of Beamer and
Haughton. Beamer and Haughton were most concerned with paper work, but Jacoby was more
concerned with transitory students who might be in the school for only a few weeks or months
while their families were in the shelter. These students lacked continuity in their lives and
educations. In addition, Jacoby had to deal with violence in the school, not so much from the
students as from the batterers who had caused the families to enter the shelter and who would
bring continuing violence into the shelter and the school. Unlike the schools of Beamer and
Haughton, Jacoby’s school had to deal with social workers on the staff, and there was a greater
need in Jacoby’s school to help students overcome traumas by celebrating every accomplishment.
Whereas Beamer and Haughton found paper work to be their greatest concern as principals,
Jacoby hardly mentioned paper work in his interview.
Across the decades of the 1960s, the 1980s, and the 2000s, the ways the three principals
discussed issues related to student learning were often similar. Like Beamer in the 1960s and
Haughton in the 1980s, Jacoby combined progressivism and humanism in his term as a school
principal. While the educational philosophies of the three principals were similar, the times in
which they taught were different. Beamer discussed issues of student learning as very satisfying
and gratifying for her. Her primary goal was to help her students achieve their potential.
Haughton’s discussion was similar to Beamer’s discussion, except that Haughton’s educational
practices in the 1980s were impacted by her experiences of racial integration in the 1960s.
Haughton had interacted with students who had been denied an education prior to integration, so
her focus was on ensuring that every child received an education. Jacoby was a principal in the
inner city after the turn of the 21st century, and his discussion was very different from the
discussions of Beamer and Haughton. Jacoby discussed education in terms of social change and
helping students overcome experiences of violence in their lives.
If Beamer was sitting in the back of a classroom today, she would observe that students
have moved from the isolation of text books and work sheets to the deeper isolation of virtual
education with computers, tablets, and other digital devices in even the youngest classrooms. At
the same time, she would observe that students do more group work and have more freedom of
movement in the classroom than was usual in her time. Haughton, observing a modern classroom
would make similar observations to those made by Beamer. Haughton would be less surprised by
the use of computers in the classroom than would be Beamer. Both principals would notice that
schools today emphasize the needs of the students. Jacoby’s classroom was not far removed from
the classrooms of today. Jacoby would notice the accommodations for learning differences, for
English Language Learners (ELL), and for intervention by social workers for students at risk.
John Amos Comenius was a great educator who lived in the Czech Republic from 1592
to 1670. Comenius’ educational philosophy was not far different from the philosophies of the
principals Beamer, Haughton, and Jacoby. “Comenius devoted himself to studying, improving,
and establishing better ways of educating than he had experienced” (Schwarz & Martin, 2012,
para. 3). Comenius believed in a progressive philosophy of education that included holistic
Undergraduate Series 537
learning, development of the individual, a focus on personal experience, and the education of all
children (Schwarz & Martin, 2012, para. 2). Modern educational practices draw extensively from
the educational ideas of John Comenius, who “laid out a comprehensive school system starting
with young children attending a kindergarten-like classroom, proceeding through elementary and
secondary schools, and concluding with college and university” (Stallones, 2011, p. 63). Some of
the core similarities between Comenius’ educational ideas and modern teaching practices are
shown in the Venn diagram, below.
As can be seen in a comparison of Comenius and modern education, and in the
educational philosophies of Beamer, Haughton, and Jacoby, central teaching practices remain
largely unchanged over time. Every so often, society will experiment with an educational practice
or system that departs from proven methods, but such experiments are generally short-lived. The
persistence of teaching practices over decades and centuries is a product of the success of these
teaching practices. Education that is focused on the needs of the child and that takes into account
the individuality of the student is successful. Students learn more effectively when they are safe,
happy, and engaged in the subjects being studied, and so progressive, humanistic education
promotes efficient and effective learning.
While educators must adapt to changing social concerns, from racial integration to
widespread domestic violence and homelessness to immigration and ELL students, the basic ideas
of education remain the same. Educators from generation to generation teach successfully by
remaining aware of the needs of their students and by putting their students first.
References
Arthur E. Jacoby Interview. (2008). Retrieved from
http://www.library.unlv.edu/faculty/research/principalship/printview.php?recId=510
538 A Journey Through My College Papers
Charlotte Beamer Interview. (1989). Retrieved from
http://www.library.unlv.edu/faculty/research/principalship/interview.php?recId=477&ter
m=
Educational philosophies self-assessment scoring guide. (2013). Retrieved from
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/scoringguide.html
Interview. (1995). Retrieved from
http://www.library.unlv.edu/faculty/research/principalship/interview.php?recId=165&ter
m=
Schwarz, G., & Martin, J. (2012). Comenius: Dead white guy for twenty-first century education.
Christian Scholar's Review, 42(1), 43-56. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1114118531
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Case Study: Evolution of Theories of Learning 2/27/2013
After reading the case study about Mr. Brandt making students who don't turn in
homework stay in from recess to copy states and capitols, I am impressed with his approach
(Stallones, 2011, p. 133). For many students, sitting still through recess is a time to rest and relax,
not a punishment. I was a student who was often corrected for sitting still during recess, so I
would have loved that disciplinary method. In my elementary school, the favorite punishment for
missing homework was very similar to Mr. Brandt's method: we were made to stay in the
classroom and copy spelling lists, writing each spelling word ten times. For misbehavior, the
punishment was to stay in and copy sentences that varied depending on the offense; traditional
choices such as "I will not tell lies" or "I will not hit other students" were common. I do think the
method I grew up with, which is essentially the same as Mr. Brandt's method, is an acceptable
punishment for missed work and poor classroom behavior.
One of the strengths of the suggested approach of teaching good behavior by using
content as a punishment is that replacing play with work effectively extinguishes poor behavior in
most students. Recess becomes a reward for being good and for doing the work that is required of
the student. Losing the reward of recess is incentive for good behavior. Another strength of the
approach is that students who experience the punishment reinforce learning. Copying states and
capitols or copying spelling lists may not replace the missing work (i.e. math or science
homework), but it does teach the student something. Repetition reinforces long-term memory of
the content that is being copied. In a study of students learning Japanese as a second language,
Mori and Shimizu (2007) report that "students considered rote memorization most effective and
metacognitive strategies least effective" for learning the new language (para. 1). While rote
memorization does not replace critical thinking, rote memorization does build a knowledge base.
One of the weaknesses of the suggested approach is that it takes away time for physical
activity that is important for students. Students need the release of active play during recess to
revitalize them, and to wake them up for learning later in the day. Pellegrini and Bohn (2005) cite
the cognitive importance of the social aspects of recess for students: "positive social and emotional
development is crucial to successful cognitive performance and adjustment to school" (para. 10).
A punishment that removes recess may make a child less able to concentrate on learning toward
the end of the school day because the student's cognition is impaired by the lack of social activity.
Reporting on a 1995 study of the effect of recess on children's attention in school, Pellegrini and
Bohn (2005) write: "in all experiments that children were more attentive after than before recess"
(para. 19). Another weakness of the approach is that the content associated with the punishment
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does not replace the content in the missing work. A student who regularly stays in to copy states
and capitols for missing math homework, for example, may memorize the states and capitols but
may fall behind in math.
I like this approach in general, but there are details I would change. With my sons at
home, unacceptable behavior often results in the offender having to write an essay of one or two
pages explaining why what he did was wrong, what impact his behavior had on another person or
the family, and how he should change his behavior in the future. We only buy college-ruled
paper, so they have plenty of room to write, and spelling, grammar, and handwriting count. For
students who are old enough for this option, from first or second grade up, I would use this
exercise to fill the time of the lost recess, and I would require that the missing work be turned in
for a reduced maximum grade the next school day. I believe this alteration in the suggested
method will promote critical thinking skills and writing skills at the same time it is discouraging
unacceptable behavior and encouraging good behavior in students.
I believe Skinner's operant conditioning approach to behaviorism is the philosophical
approach I believe is best able to help teachers address classroom management issues. Stallones
(2011) reports that behaviorism views learning as "nothing more than memorizing and repeating a
response to a particular stimulus" (p. 124). Teachers need to provide appropriate stimuli to
encourage good behavior and to extinguish unacceptable behavior in order to manage behavior
issues in the classroom. Students will respond to the stimuli of losing recess and of being made to
do extra work by adjusting their behavior and acting in ways that avoid repetition of the
punishment. In most cases, students require multiple repetitions of a stimulus to learn the
appropriate response, so a given student may lose several recess periods before changing his or her
behavior, but the student will change his or her behavior to avoid the punishment and obtain the
reward.
References
Mori, Y., & Shimizu, H. (2007). Japanese language students' attitudes toward kanji and their
perceptions on kanji learning strategies. Foreign Language Annals, 40(3), 472-490.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216010338
Pellegrini, A.D. & Bohn, C.M. (2005). The role of recess in children's cognitive performance and
school adjustment. Educational Researcher, 34(1), 13-19. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/216899660
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Case Study: Assessment 2/27/2013
Alec Hulbert is a new sixth-grade teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. Alec took
advantage of the days before school began to review the records of the 20 students who would be
in his class. He was pleased to see that most of the students were performing at or above grade
level on the standardized tests in reading comprehension, science, and mathematics.
During the first week of school, Alec randomly asked students questions related to the
last unit they had covered in the fifth grade to determine what knowledge and skills had been
mastered and what might need to be reviewed. Alec was surprised when it became clear that most
of the students had mastery of little more than the most basic facts. To get a more accurate
assessment of student knowledge and skills, Alec developed a diagnostic assessment that he
administered the following Monday. The results were disappointing. They indicated that the class
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as a whole did not perform at the level that would have been expected given their scores on the
state standardized assessment.
In the case study, Mr. Hulbert used two distinct types of informal assessment to
determine how much learning hi new sixth grade students had retained from their fifth grade
classes. The first informal assessment Mr. Hulbert used was asking the students random questions
about their prior learning. This is usually a good way to survey what an individual or a group
knows. It is unclear from the case study whether Mr. Hulbert directed a given question to one
student at a time or whether he queried the class as a whole and selected respondents from those
students who volunteered by raising their hands. Another possibility is that Mr. Hulbert could
have queried the class as a whole and allowed students to call out answers. Each of these three
variations is an acceptable method of informal assessment of a group of students, and each yields
different results. In the first approach, the teacher asks a question of one student at a time. Unless
the teacher asks the same question of every student in the class, which would be prohibitively time
consuming, the teacher may miss students who know the correct answer, which skews the
teacher's assessment of the knowledge of the class. In the second approach, only students who
know the correct answer, or who think they know the correct answer, will volunteer to respond.
This means the teacher does not find out what the other students know or do not know. Also, shy
students may have the correct answer but may not volunteer to respond. The third approach is
similar to the second, except that the teacher may hear more responses than if the teacher calls on
individual volunteers to respond. Again, those students who are unsure of the answer or who are
shy are unlikely to respond.
The second informal assessment Mr. Hulbert used was a diagnostic assessment that he
developed and then administered to the students. The benefit of this method is that the teacher can
see what each student knows about each question on the assessment. It is unclear whether Mr.
Hulbert used multiple choice questions, short answer questions, or other items on his diagnostic
assessment. Multiple choice questions allow students a better chance of getting the right answer
by guessing than do fill-in-the blank, short answer, essay, or label-the-diagram questions, and each
different type of question provides the teacher with a different amount of information about the
students' knowledge.
I believe it is likely that the students scored well on the standardized tests given the
previous year because of the intensive coaching that students often receive prior to high-stakes
testing. Along with teachers "teaching the test," students are often encouraged to cram for
standardized tests, committing information to short-term memory, but not learning the material
well enough for learning to survive in long-term memory over the several weeks that students
usually have for summer vacation between grades.
If I was Mr. Hulbert, I would use the results of the diagnostic assessment to plan for
instruction and improved student learning by designing a review of the prior learning that students
did not retain, which would take a few days or up to a week or two of the school year before
beginning the subject matter for the current grade. Depending on how much material the class as a
whole needed to relearn, I would try to combine the review material with new material wherever
the prior learning had relevance to the required new learning. If only a few students were behind,
I might set up tutoring or review classes before or after school or during the lunch (while eating,
not taking away lunch) for the group of students that needed the review. These are methods that I
have seen used effectively in my sons' schools. I would also plan my teaching of the current year's
material to ensure that the students learned the material fully during the year so there would be
little or no need for the students to cram for the test at the end of the year. I would also work with
students to develop good study practices so their learning will be imprinted not only on the short-
term memory that is needed to pass unit tests, but also on the long-term memory that will carry
over to the next grade. These methods would be effective because they would first accomplish the
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repair to learning that is needed to transition from the previous grade, and they would then equip
students for deeper learning of the new subject matter
The Social and Cultural Contexts of Education 2/28/2013
There are a number of ways in which differing cultural values impact student
achievement and educational attainment. One of these is the difference between urban and rural
communities, which have different tempos for life and often have different moral bases. In many
cases, rural communities tend to be more conservative than are urban communities, and the rural
communities tend to favor traditional ideas and traditional morals. Urban communities are often
more liberal and progressive, and tend to favor the introduction and exploration of new ideas and
more open moral stances. Suburban communities often feature urban views on new ideas coupled
with more rural approaches to moral issues. Adjusting teaching to particular communities requires
an awareness of these differences.
Socioeconomic status (SES) is also an important cultural concern for teachers. As
Stallones (2011) reports, "children who live in poverty develop academic skills more slowly than
those who do not" (p. 156). Teachers need to be aware of classes from high or low SES groups,
and of classes with a mix of students from different SES groups. In addition, racial or ethnic
differences impact student learning. "Children from ethnic and racial minorities spend
considerably more time consuming media, especially television, than do white children" and
"young people who consume more than 16 hours of media per day, are more likely to earn poor
grades in school" (Stallones, 2011, p. 155). Unfortunately, in many areas, non-white students are
also more likely to be low-SES students than are white students.
Teachers also need to be aware of religious and faith-based differences among students in
their classrooms. Some religious groups deny scientific teachings and certain aspects of history,
while other religious groups are tolerant or accepting of such teachings. In my personal
experience, there is also a need for teachers to be aware of potential tensions between members of
the three "book" religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) and the growing population of
students from Pagan backgrounds who may focus on nature, on the occult, or on other
supernatural ideas.
The Internet, including social media, has a mixed impact on learning. As noted above,
"young people who consume more than 16 hours of media per day, are more likely to earn poor
grades in school" (Stallones, 2011, p. 155). That is a definite drawback to students interacting
with the Internet and social media. On the other hand, the Internet allows students access to vast
quantities of information to which they would not have access in a non-Internet environment.
Students have access to new and different ideas about the world and world issues, and they are
able to interact with people in many different places and cultures on a real-time basis that has both
great benefits and significant drawbacks when compared to the pen-and-paper pen pals of students
in past generations. Social media can be a benefit to learning when it is used to interact with
others for collaborative learning, but social media can be an addictive distraction from learning
activities. Social media have the unfortunate tendency to promote poor communication skills, in
the form of misspelled words, poor grammar, excessive expletives, and various abbreviations, all
of which can migrate into students' academic communications and written work.
As a teacher, I could mitigate any influences from cultural issues or from the Internet and
social media that might be perceived as negative by using negative instances as teachable
moments to help students achieve an understanding of and tolerance for cultural differences. I
could encourage students to use the Internet and social media to research cultures in question and
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to explore the similarities and differences between and among different cultures, both in the local
community and in the world. I could make use of the time students like to spend with media,
giving them educational games to replace games with little educational value. I could also reduce
the time students spend in media-induced isolation by require face-to-face team or group projects.
For certain cultural concerns, such as low-achieving students from low-SES or ethnic homes, I
could use a partner or buddy system to support and scaffold the low-achieving students to higher
levels of achievement, using higher-achieving buddies to help the low-achieving students to
improve their learning.
As do most teachers, I would suggest that parents of young students read aloud to their
children. I would suggest to parents of all students that they have the students read aloud to the
parents, and that the parents be involved in the children's homework and projects. I would
recommend that parents limit children's time spent with media, and that parents supervise Internet
and social media time to guide students to use these media to enhance learning. I would strive to
make parents aware of the cultural diversity in the classroom, perhaps through cultural awareness
open houses, and ask parents to discuss cultural diversity with their students. In our local
elementary school and middle school, the Hispanic community hosts an annual festival in each
building. The festivals are open to students, families, and the community, and they promote
cultural understanding and acceptance. Each of the schools also holds a world cultures open house
each year, where students present cultures from each of the six continents (always excluding
Antarctica) to students, families, and the public. The students research assigned cultures in small
groups, then produce posters, traditional foods, handicrafts when possible, and approximations of
traditional dress. Students sometimes find traditional music on the Internet, and they make
extensive use of the Internet to research and produce their displays. These festivals are something
I would like to carry into my classroom if I end up teaching in the elementary or secondary school
system, and I can see possibilities for carrying it into my intended school level in the junior or
community college.
A culturally responsive teacher recognizes and acknowledges the legitimacy of each
culture represented in the teacher's classroom, school, and community. The teacher uses the
cultural experiences and personal knowledge of culturally diverse students to inform and enrich
the learning environment. The teacher includes literature, music, and art from a variety of cultures
in the classroom, avoiding a culturally homogeneous classroom that ignores "non-dominant"
cultures. This includes incorporating multicultural literature and resources in the curriculum. The
culturally responsive teacher actively guides students to accept and acknowledge the cultural
diversity in their learning environment, and attempts to help students bridge the differences
between their home cultures and their school culture. The teacher would "incorporate everyday-
life concepts, such as economics, employment, consumer habits, of various ethnic groups"
(Culturally Responsive Teaching, 2002, para. 3). This would support and validate the cultural
diversity of the students.
References
Culturally responsive teaching. (2002). Retrieved from
http://www.intime.uni.edu/multiculture/curriculum/culture/teaching.htm
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Undergraduate Series 543
Aligning a Personal Philosophy of Education with Curriculum February 28, 2013
My results for the Birmingham Grid for Learning - Multiple Intelligences (Secondary)
Assessment are shown in the figure below. According to the graph, my strongest area of
intelligence is logical intelligence, followed closely by intrapersonal intelligence. My weakest
area of intelligence is musical intelligence, followed closely by kinaesthetic intelligence
(Birmingham Grid for Learning, 2013). I am surprised that my linguistic intelligence is behind
both my naturalistic intelligence and my visual/spatial intelligence, as I would have expected my
linguistic intelligence to be among my highest areas of intelligence, if not the highest.
In the words of the Birmingham Grid for Learning summary (2013), I enjoy and tend to
be good at “reading, writing and talking about things” (What are Multiple Intelligences?, 2013,
para. 5). This is why I would have expected my linguistic intelligence score to be higher than the
graph indicates. I do not tend to prefer mathematics, although I am good at math and I enjoy
doing the grid-style logic puzzles. This probably explains why I scored so high for logical
intelligence.
I wholeheartedly agree that I lack musical intelligence. I love to sing, but I have no talent
for it. I can only follow a tune that I hear, not carry a tune on my own. While I can differentiate
among many values of colors, I am hard-pressed to identify what instrument I am listening to,
aside from the piano or drums. On the other hand, I am surprised that my kinaesthetic intelligence
score is so low because I spend a great deal of time working with my hands, making a variety of
handicrafts, and I enjoy building things. I suppose my utter lack of traditional athleticism
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contributes to my low score in this area, since tests don’t ask about obscure physical activities like
archery and kneading bread dough, or about my favorite moving activity: spinning yarn from wool
on a drop spindle, which requires a lot of hand and arm motion. This is an example of the way the
contexts of students’ lives can affect test scores, “as different students bring to the test very
different background experiences and knowledge” (Stallones, 2011, p. 148). I don’t like to walk
or run because of residual effects of a congenital dislocated hip and the effects of a back injury
twenty years ago, which is part of my personal background experience, so the questions on the
survey about walking and jogging negatively influenced my kinaesthetic intelligence score.
Similarly, I agree that I am short on interpersonal intelligence. I tend to be a solitary
introvert most of the time. I break out of that for short periods at certain kinds of parties, but I tire
of crowds and social activity quickly. I suffer from social anxiety disorder, so large crowds and
crowds in enclosed spaces tend to give me panic attacks. On an academic and business front, I
tend to prefer to work alone, and team activities make me very anxious.
In the middle, even before linguistic intelligence, I find naturalistic intelligence and
visual/spatial intelligence on the graph. I am surprised that I scored so high on naturalistic
intelligence, since I tend to be an indoor person. The summary reports for naturalistic intelligence:
“You will like the world of plants and animals and enjoy learning about them” (What are Multiple
Intelligences?, 2013, para. 11). My extensive reading on nearly every subject with which I come
in contact and my interest in science probably influenced my score in this area. The visual/spatial
intelligence score may relate to my activities as an artist. Whether my interest in art elevated my
score or whether my visual/spatial intelligence influences my art is hard for me to say.
Over all, while some of the scores on my graph are a surprise to me, I find on reflection
that I agree with the assessment. The one area I did not address above is my intrapersonal
intelligence, and that comes into play in my reflection on my scores. Intrapersonal intelligence is
how I know my own strengths and weakness and how I know myself. I do keep a diary of sorts,
although I tend to gather my postings from my social media into a journal that I then annotate with
additional thoughts and reflections and augment with scrapbook-type additions of event tickets,
playbills, special receipts, etc. It is a reflection of my life and my ideas, and represents what is
important to me. I fully agree with my high score for intrapersonal intelligence, because I have
developed a strong awareness of self through my life experiences.
References
Birmingham grid for learning. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/results/results_a
ction.cfm
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
What are Multiple Intelligences? (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/what.cfm
The Impact of Educational Philosophies and Theories March 4, 2013
The lesson plan, All About Me Unit, contains a long list of individual lesson plans that are
intended to teach first grade students beginning literacy through self-awareness. The lesson plan,
written by Laura (no last name given), is published on Teachers.Net on the World Wide Web at
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1140.html. In addition to literacy skills, the lesson teaches the
math skills of graphing, grouping, and counting; aesthetic awareness through art in the form of
drawing activities; and the social skills associated with working on a group project.
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The lesson plan is an example of the axiology philosophy of education. Jared Stallones
(2011) writes that “children learn best by exploration and inquiry driven by their own interests” (p.
7). The All About Me lesson plan appeals to a child’s personal interests by focusing the student’s
attention on his or her own name and information about the individual student before drawing
each student’s information into the community of the classroom through group activities. In
addition, axiology includes the study of aesthetics and the lesson plan employs aesthetics by
having the students draw self portraits and other illustrations to represent to student’s self image.
The lesson plan mirrors the existentialist theory of education. In describing
existentialism, Stallones (2011) writes that “[d]eveloping an authentic, satisfying sense of self is
seen as the main task of learning” (p. 127). In the class graph portion of the lesson plan, students
print their names on index cards, count the letters in their names, and then work as a group to
create a graph that shows how many students’ names contain how many letters (All About Me
Unit, 1999, paras. 4-5). In the class data portion of the lesson plan, each student prints his or her
name on a piece of paper and draws a self portrait under the name. The students assemble the
papers on a large poster, and then the class counts how many boys are in the class, how many girls
are in the class, and how many students are in the class (All About Me Unit, 1999, paras. 7-8). In
the class book portion of the lesson plan, each student completes a fact sheet about himself or
herself, and then the sheet is attached to a large sheet of paper with a photo of the child; the child
adds illustrations to the paper, then all of the pages for the class are bound together into a class
book (All About Me Unit, 1999, paras. 9-11). Each of these activities requires the student to learn
through a study of self, beginning with personal identity embodied by a name and including
representations of self in self-portraits and in fill-in-the-blank fact sheets.
The lesson plan also includes pragmatist elements as the pragmatist theory of education
states that “learning is a social activity also implies a relationship between teachers and learners”
(Stallones, 2011, p. 126). Each of the self study activities of the lesson plan also includes the
concept of the student as a part of a community, with the students and teacher in a relationship
among them. In graphing the lengths of students’ names, the students are drawn into a
relationship with one another. In sorting the students by gender for counting and then counting the
students as a group, the students are engaged in the social activity of inclusion. In collecting the
personal stories of the several students into a class book, the students are made parts of a
community that lives and works together in the context of the shared classroom.
The All About Me Unit lesson plan has several strengths. First, the lesson plan serves as
a way for young students to introduce themselves to their class without the social pressure of
having everyone focus on one student at a time. This can help students overcome anxiety and
shyness as they add their names, self-portraits, and pages to the group activities. Second, the
lesson plan combines elements of multiple academic subject areas in each activity. The class
graph and class data activities combine language arts and math by having the students write their
names and then use counting, sorting, and graphing. The class book activity includes more
advanced language arts skills in the form of questions for which students must read questions and
write out responses. Each activity includes art and aesthetics to some extent, with the greatest
instance being the self portraits. Third, the lesson plan provides an opening to begin cultural
diversity education as students may have unfamiliar names with ethnic origins or may have non-
English names. Self portraits may show various skin tones, hair colors and styles, and eye colors.
The class book may include preferences, interests, and hobbies that represent a variety of cultures.
Using these activities as a beginning for cultural diversity acceptance is a strength of this lesson
plan.
There are very few things I would change in this lesson plan. The class graph activity
includes the instructions: “Then have the children come up as you call the numbers and glue their
name going up the side. They then color in the number of boxes to match the number of letters in
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their name” (All About Me Unit, 1999, para. 5). Instead of putting the names on the side and
coloring squares on the graph, I might let each child’s index card become a unit in the graph by
adding the name cards directly into the graph in the appropriate columns based on the number of
letters in each names. This would help the students connect their names directly to the graph data,
instead of asking students to understand the abstraction of colored blocks representing their
names. This would not be such a concern for older students, but it might be too abstract for
incoming first grade students.
Over all, this is an interesting, engaging lesson plan. It has several advantages and few
drawbacks. This lesson plan could be repeated with older students who might enjoy going back
over their past class books in future years and comparing the books of younger grades to older
grades. The activities encourage the students’ self images and self expression.
References
All about me unit. (1999). Retrieved from http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1140.html
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Curriculum Change 3/7/2013
Curriculum should be designed to meet the needs of society insofar as curriculum
produces informed, responsible citizens to lead society into the future. In addition, curriculum
should be designed to promote and to perpetuate the underlying values and principles of society,
such as democracy (or other valued government structure), integrity, self-reliance, and a work
ethic, among other possibilities. Curriculum should meet the needs of individual students by
encouraging students to discover truths about themselves and about the world around them. In
addition, curriculum should meet the needs of the individual student by providing the student with
an academic foundation upon which the student can build his or her education throughout life.
John Locke addressed this idea of providing a foundation of learning hen he argued that "the first
task in educating children is to teach them the prerequisite basic literacy skills and to instill in
them a love of learning" (Stallones, 2011, p. 173).
My primary subject area is English. While it is my intent to teach at the college level, the
current and ongoing debate in early English education between proponents of phonics-based
reading instruction and whole language reading instruction is of key importance to my subject area
at this time. Proponents of phonics education argue that students must learn the phonemes that
make up words and learn the symbols (letters and letter combinations) that represent those
phonemes to enable students to sound out and read any word in English. Proponents of the whole
language option argue that students need to memorize frequently-occurring sight words and to use
context to figure out unfamiliar words that they encounter while reading. A third group argues
that phonics and whole language methods should be combined when teaching young children to
read English Which method of reading instruction prevails in my students' early educations will
influence the way the students read and the way they approach learning new words and ideas. As
a result, I will need to be sensitive to the educational differences among my students when I teach
college English.
Legally, curriculum prescription should be a state matter, not a federal matter. The tenth
amendment to the United States Constitution (1791) states: "The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people" (para. 1). The power to mandate curriculum for schools is not
delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor is such power prohibited by the
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Constitution to the various states, so the determination of curriculum should be a state matter. My
personal opinion is that there is a need for a federally-mandated core curriculum, to which states
can add elective courses as they see fit, because the increase in mobility in the United States has
resulted in many students experiencing a variety of curricula as they move from place to place.
This fractured experience of core curricula does not well serve students' academic needs; the
adoption of federal curriculum requirements would make transitions from state to state easier for
students.
One of the forces that will have the largest influences on curriculum in the next twenty
years will be "a need to shift from an industrial model of schooling to one that focuses on
equipping students for a knowledge economy" (Barber & Mourshed, 2009, p. 11). This will
require that, rather than requiring students to absorb a large amount of information through direct
teaching, schools will need to encourage critical thinking and exploration of ideas. Another force
that will have a large influence on curriculum is the ongoing globalization of world markets and
the accompanying increase in cultural diversity in American classrooms. Students from various
cultural backgrounds will have different educational needs from their classmates as they bring
different information processing abilities to school. Stallones (2011) writes that "[t]o be effective,
curriculum must be tailored to the unique needs of its recipients" (p. 195). In the coming decades,
curriculum will increasingly need to take cultural diversity into account. A third force that will
have a large influence on curriculum is information technology, including the Internet, but also
including information technologies such as the Cloud, Android phones and tablets, and other
devices that we may not yet fully envision. The way students access and interact with
information, as well as students' social activities through social networking sites and systems, will
influence the way curriculum needs to be designed and implemented. This has already had a large
influence on American education in the last two or three decades, and it is difficult to accurately
predict how information technology will impact curriculum in the next two decades.
Teachers can prepare for the changes in curriculum in several ways. One way is to shift
the focus in the classroom from rote learning of traditional information to dynamic explorations of
literature, history, cultural issues, math, science, and technology. Equipping students to seek
answers, to synthesize information and ideas from multiple sources, and the apply critical thinking
to solving problems and to understanding the world will help teachers prepare for the changes in
curriculum.
Another way in which teachers can prepare for the changes is to learn about the cultures
represented in their classrooms and about the different ways in which students in different cultures
learn. For example, I have a friend who lives in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. She and her
husband are Australian citizens who live in the Middle East for employment reasons. They
recently adopted three young adolescent girls from Ethiopia. The girls are learning English well,
but they are having a hard time with other subjects because they grew up with a time system that
includes only "now," "before," and "later" (K. Schmidt, personal communication, February 10,
2013). They have been unable, in the past year, to grasp the concept of time measured by clocks
and calendars. A cultural learning difference of this sort will wreak havoc in an American
classroom if the teacher is not aware of the differences his or her students bring to the table.
A third way in which teachers can prepare for curriculum changes is to anticipate the
changes by beginning to integrate new communications technologies in the classroom. This
anticipation of future uses of technology is already underway. On this morning's news, I heard a
story about a new tablet called Amplify. The tablet uses an Android operating system that "has
been heavily modified for its use in the classroom, with remote access to disable certain
applications, the option to send mid-lesson quizzes, and even an, 'Eyes on teacher' warning on the
screen should the student’s attention wander" (Boxall, 2013, para. 3). This is just one example of
the way technology will impact the presentation aspect of curriculum in coming years.
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References
Barber, M. & Mourshed, M. (2009). Shaping the future: How good education systems can become
great in the decade ahead. Education Practice [Electronic version.], 1-44. Retrieved from
http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/southeastasia/knowledge/Education_Roundtable.pdf
Boxall, A. (2013, March 6). News Corp pushes its way into the classroom with educational
Amplify tablet. Retrieved from http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/amplify-tablet-
announced-for-schools/
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
U.S. Constitution - Amendment 10. (1791, December 15). Retrieved from
http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am10.html
Issues Surrounding Curriculum Development 3/7/2013
Parents, community members, and local leaders should have some input in what is taught
in local classrooms, but the final determination of what is taught should be left to professional
educators. While parents and others may have the best interests of the students at heart, many
parents and community members lack the education and training to make informed decisions
about what should be taught and how teaching should be conducted. Teachers, educators, and
other professionals select curricula that serve the needs of the student population and of the school,
which is necessary to serve the differentiated learning needs of diverse classrooms. Parents do
have the option of controlling their children's curriculum by placing students in private schools or
even by home schooling students, but the majority of students are still served by the public school
system in which education professionals need to determine and control the curriculum.
It is inappropriate for all students to be taught the same curriculum. Undifferentiated
education does not take into account the differenced learning of students, whether differenced by
physical, mental, or learning disabilities; by cultural diversity, or by simply different individual
rates of learning. Teaching all students the same curriculum means requiring that all students
achieve the same level, which is the goal with much of the high-stakes testing associated with No
Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (RTTP). Alfie Kohn (2001) writes that "declaring
that everyone must reach the same level is naïve at best, cynical at worst, in light of wildly
unequal resources" (para. 2). The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (2006)
promotes a balanced approach to education, instead of a uniform approach. In a 2006 pamphlet,
the department writes: "Reaching the needs of all learners does not mean providing the same
instruction, for the same amounts of time, in exactly the same way, to all students" (para. 2).
Effective education of diverse students needs to be differentiated education that takes into account
the strengths, weaknesses, and other experiences and cultural diversities of the students.
Teaching religious studies is different from teaching religion. The former suggests a
study of various religions and faiths, which promotes cultural awareness and helps to inform
studies of history, literature, and other topics. The latter suggests the indoctrination of students in
a particular religion or faith system, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or Wiccan.
American public schools should teach students about world religions as part of an education in
cultural awareness, but teaching a specific religion has no place in a secular, public school. There
are many sectarian schools available for families who wish to have their children taught the
precepts and practices of a given religion, and most sectarian schools offer scholarships so that
financial distress does not block students from attending those schools. Public schools serve
diverse populations with students who represent a variety of religions and faith traditions all
studying together. Teaching any one religion in public schools would marginalize students of
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other faiths and those with no religious affiliation and would promote the students of the taught
religion as superior to other students. It is better for public schools to not teach any religion,
except in terms of a cultural study, so that no student is elevated above the rest and no student is
left out.
At the same time, schools should not require that students of any faith refrain from
wearing or displaying religious symbols unless all students are prohibited from such displays;
allowing some religious displays while banning others is a covert curriculum that teaches that the
allowed religion is superior to other religions. This is a difficult situation, because the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the rights of students to freely express their
religious beliefs by wearing religious symbols such as crosses, crucifixes, and the Star of David.
If students are allowed to wear these symbols, then Islamic, Wiccan, Buddhist, and other religious
symbols must also be allowed in school. Teaching comparative religion and world religion classes
in schools creates a better awareness of cultural diversity in students so that students are not
threatened by non-Judeo-Christian faith symbols that are currently banned in many schools.
References
Kohn, A. (2001). One-size-fits-all education doesn’t work. Boston Globe [Electronic version.]
Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/onesize.htm
NC Department of Public Instruction. (2006). Reaching the needs of all learners. Retrieved from
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/curriculum/whatworks.pdf
Elements of Curriculum Content and Delivery March 7, 2013
The key elements of curriculum content are a combination of those that make up the
ancient liberal arts and those that help students prepare for college and careers. In other words,
students at all levels should be taught grammar and reading, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry,
music, and astronomy or the sciences in general. These courses, which depend on essentialist
teachings, create a foundation on which the student may build his or her individual education. In
addition to these subjects, students should be taught history, geography, a second language, and
drawing or visual arts. From kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade, these courses are sufficient
for most students. As students progress into secondary education, students who plan to attend
college or university should continue to learn these subjects; students whose academic progress
does not suggest college or who plan to go into the skilled trades or other work after secondary
school should continue to study reading, writing, and math, but should exchange some or all of the
other subjects for vocational or technical classes that will prepare the students to enter trade school
or apprenticeships or to enter the work force. This differentiation of instruction would be best
served by magnet schools, in which “the assembly of students based not on economic status,
ethnicity, or neighborhood, but on a common interest” (Stallones, 2011, p. 199).
Teachers should use a blend of direct teaching and teacher-facilitated student exploration
to teach the liberal arts subjects. Some subjects, such as the various maths, spelling, and foreign
languages, are most effectively taught be direct teaching. The sciences, social sciences, arts, and
vocational subjects may be better taught by student explorations and integrated instruction of
related subject matter. Vocational subjects and the arts, in particular, should involve as much
hands-on work from the students as is possible since these are not theoretical subjects that can be
learned through reading and lectures.
All students, regardless of race, creed, culture, gifts, or disabilities should be taught to
their greatest potential. Some students require different learning environments and opportunities
550 A Journey Through My College Papers
than are required by other students, and student diversity should be taken into account whenever
possible in education. Grouping students by their interests, as is done in magnet schools, is an
excellent way of optimizing the educational experience for all students. Students who plan to
attend college should be taught subjects that prepare the students for college-level courses with an
emphasis on college-level writing. Students who are drawn to the arts, including music and dance,
should have the opportunity to receive special education in their chosen disciplines. Students
who are drawn to skilled trades, such as carpentry, plumbing, and automotive topics, should be
able to study those subjects. The same applies to students who wish to go into agriculture,
sanitation, cosmetology, and any number of other areas. In every case, continuing education in
reading, writing, and math should be required for every student in every program, because these
are skills that every adult needs to use in daily life.
My feelings about what should be taught, how it should be taught, and to whom it should
be taught is a combination of essentialist and pragmatist philosophies. I believe that there are
certain things that every person must know in order to be considered an educated person. This is
essentialist. I also believe that “children learn best by doing” (Stallones, 2011, p. 178). This is
pragmatist. Along with these, I subscribe to the Aristotelian belief that students can discover
truths by studying the world around them, and I believe that students should always be encouraged
to explore their world. I believe in using the Socratic method of engaging students in conversation
with open-ended questions to make students think for themselves and work out the solutions to
problems. All of this combines to make my thoughts about education rather eclectic, much like
the eclectic student population that I hope one day to teach.
References
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Facing the Future of Education 3/14/2013
Expansive school choice options will affect public schools because public school funding
is based on student enrollment and the transfer of students from public schools to the numerous
schooling alternatives takes funding away from the public schools. Stallones (2011) writes:
"Public school funding is based on the number of students enrolled, while private schools are
supported primarily by tuition" (p. 261). I see this issue every week on my local morning news as
the Detroit Public School (DPS) system struggles to increase student enrollment in public schools.
DPS has launched a recruiting campaign over the last few years to draw students back to public
schooling from private schools, charter schools, and home schooling. Because of the competition
for educational funding, DPS has been forced to clean up a lot of its schools, while at the same
time closing many others and consolidating the public school population in the remaining,
renovated school buildings. DPS is just one example of a situation that affects schools across the
country. Expansive school choice options force public schools to improve their image, their
curriculum, and their extra-curricular and co-curricular offerings to entice students to enroll in
public schools; without student enrollment, public schools lost federal funding and school districts
are forced to close under-populated schools. This competition for enrollment is good for public
schools because the public schools are forced to keep up with the academic and other offerings
and standards of alternative schooling options, which results in a better education for the students
who are enrolled in public schools.
Choosing a public school education or an alternative educational choice for students can
pose difficulties for parents. Kirk Anderson (2006), in an article on school choice, writes:
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"Parents may actually be justified in sending their children to the kind of school they would prefer
not to exist. So parents don't necessarily have to choose between principle and practice" (para. 4).
There are several actions that can be taken to increase the likelihood that parents will make
informed choices as they select the school for their children. First, schools need to make available
to parents literature about the mission statement and annual yearly progress (AYP) of each school,
presented in terms that are intelligible to the general population, not couched in academic
language that may be outside the experience of many parents. Second, parents need to avail
themselves of the information resources that are offered by the various schools that serve students
in their areas. These resources may be print media, but electronic media make information
accessible to many more parents more quickly and easily than do print media. Third, school
districts may offer school choice fairs, similar to job fairs, where schools and home schooling
groups can present information to parents. A school choice fair allows parents to learn about and
to compare and contrast multiple schools at once. Fourth, before making a schooling choice,
parents need to take time to really consider what they want from their children's education, what
they want to avoid for their children, and what their children's strengths and interests are. This
thought process helps inform parents' school choice.
The Academy of Waterford is a public charter school that is familiar to me because one
of my best friends is preparing to send her daughter to kindergarten there next year. The school's
mission statement, as given on the school website, is to "enhance the future by providing
opportunities for all students to learn by engaging in educational and entrepreneurial activities"
(Academy of Waterford, 2013, para. 2). The school, which serves students in kindergarten
through eighth grade, strives to prepare students to succeed in the world of business and to become
part of the global economy. The school is organized into traditional age-based grades in
classrooms with a 25:1 student to teacher ratio (School Flyer, 2013, p. 2). The school runs
according to the pragmatic philosophy, which is evident because the students learn through social
experiences and hands-on projects in business and entrepreneurship. The student population is
drawn primarily from a middle-class, suburban neighborhood in Metro Detroit, with some ethnic
diversity. The school's student flyer is printed in Spanish on one side and in English on the other
side, suggesting that the school serves a multilingual student population.
Home schooling has both advantages and disadvantages for students. Since many of my
friends home school their children, I used Facebook to poll their experiences. While many people
who support public schools decry home schooling for its lack of socialization for students, the
home schooling families I talked to cite the richness of socialization as a benefit of home
schooling. Kimberly Jacobs writes: "My kids get lots of opportunities to interact with many
different kinds of people and have a wide variety of experiences" (Personal communication,
March 13, 2013). Similarly, Skye Savage writes: "In the real world, and even on a typical
playground, kids are meant to interact with people of all ages, exposing them to older children
with more mature behaviors, and younger children with less mature behaviors. This leads them to
a richer developmental experience, where they learn to to mimic better problem solving skills
(older kids) and deal with less rational people (younger kids)" (Personal communication, March
14, 2013). Home schooling allows students to learn among people of varied ages and experiences,
which better prepares students for life in the real world of adulthood. Another advantage of home
schooling is the opportunity for parents to choose the curriculum for their children and to include
or exclude specific materials to suit the family's beliefs and traditions. Parents have the option of
using a rigid curriculum that mimics the public school experience, of using no set curriculum and
allowing students to learn naturally through life experiences by unschooling, or to choose anything
in between. Home schooling is also advantageous for families with unusual scheduling issues,
such as families that do a lot of traveling that would interfere with traditional school attendance.
Another advantage of home schooling is the freedom from "sexualization and peer pressure" (S.
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Savage, personal communication, March 14, 2013). Skye has two daughters, as does Kimberly
Jacobs, and in each family the freedom from gender-based peer pressure allows the girls to
develop strong personal identities where they are not held back by their gender.
A disadvantage of home schooling is that it often requires a remarkable commitment of
time and energy from the parent or other adult who is responsible for the bulk of the teaching.
Unfortunately, society does not yet fully accept home schooling as a valid option, which leads to
another disadvantage. Gina Melton, who home schools her teenage children, writes: "So far, the
only downside has been when local authorities and school districts aren't supportive" (Personal
communication, March 14, 2013). There is a tendency for neighbors to misunderstand home
schooling families and to report as truant students who are seen to be at home during the
traditional school day. A third disadvantage of home schooling is that students are often unable to
earn traditional high school diplomas and must take the General Educational Development (GED)
examination to prove that they have completed the academic requirements for their states or
districts. Many colleges, employers, and the military often consider the GED to be less valid than
a high school diploma, which can become a barrier to higher education and employment. This is
slowly changing, however, as states change the requirements for college admissions to be less
discriminatory toward home schoolers. The New York State Board of Regents enacted changes in
2004 that "will enable a homeschool student to be treated as any other applicant seeking admission
to a community college or university in New York. The rules have been changed to provide
several different options for homeschool students to demonstrate satisfactory evidence of their
preliminary (high school) education" (Breakthrough for homeschoolers, 2004, para. 7). With
these changes, SAT and ACT scores are considered, rather than whether the student has a diploma
or a GED certificate.
Over the next ten years, I see technological advances enabling even greater parental
choice in education. Many charter schools already offer online options for students. Several years
ago, my sons were enrolled in an online charter school here in Michigan that was run by the K12
system of online schools. As technology advances, I see the probability that more and more
schools will use teleconferencing and virtual classrooms not only for home schooling, but also to
project teaching into classrooms so that several schools in a district can benefit from the teaching
of a single teacher or other expert in a subject. Students in many schools already have access to
textbooks and other materials on the Internet and in formats that can be accessed through personal
electronic devices such as tablets and cell phones; I see a growth in this sort of information access,
possibly to the exclusion of paper books from future classrooms. As technology advances,
students may have the opportunity to receive progressive educations through the use of computer
programs that allow students to progress through curricula at their own paces, with slower students
receiving additional support through programs that offer additional practice. Social media, such as
Facebook, already allow students to connect with and learn from people all over the world, and I
believe this trend will continue and grow in the next ten years. Students will have access to
cultural and scientific information that was undreamed of when their parents were in school.
References:
Academy of Waterford. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.charteracademies.com/academy-of-
waterford/index.htm
Anderson, K. (2006). How not to be a hypocrite: School choice and the morally perplexed parent.
The Journal of Educational Thought, 40(1), 97-100. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/213814123
Breakthrough for homeschoolers seeking admission to New York colleges. (2004). Retrieved from
http://www.hslda.org/Legislation/State/ny/2004/BoardRegentsDraftRegulation/default.as
p
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School Flyer. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.charteracademies.com/academy-of-
waterford/pdfs/school-flyer.pdf
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Why Do We Teach? March 16, 2013
Education should serve the needs both of the individual and of society. If education
serves only the individual, then society will collapse under the weight of hedonistic anarchy, as the
individual will not be prepared to be a useful member of society, or to care about the needs of
others and of society. If education serves only society, without regard for the individual, then the
society will be composed of disaffected individuals whose needs have not been met and whose
curiosity and creativity have been neglected. As Stallones (2011) writes: “[A] well-educated
population is a social good as well” (p. 248). When education serves both the individual and
society, then the individual will thrive and grow and society will be preserved and perpetuated by
the educated individuals. As the individual’s curiosity and creativity are nurtured by the school
system, so will the individual use his or her gifts, talents, and learning for the betterment of society
as a whole.
While the efficient delivery of content appears appealing in the face of ever-larger class
sizes, schools should, so far as is possible, be more concerned with individual learning differences.
The phrase “learning differences” does not refer only to those students with mental disabilities or
learning disabilities, but also with those students who are gifted and talented, and also to those
students whose academic ability is in the average range but who simply learn the same content
better in one way than in another. If individual learning differences are not recognized and
accommodated in the schools, then students are apt to be left behind those who learn more
quickly. Also, those who are gifted and talented may not develop gifts and talents that can benefit
society in the future. The world would be a much poorer place if the gifts and talents of Homer,
Virgil, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Raphael, Einstein, Copernicus, Beethoven, and so many others
had been unrecognized and suppressed by the weight of standardized testing of efficiently
delivered classroom instruction. Each student should have the opportunity to learn to his or her
greatest potential, and should be able to learn in the way that serves the individual student best,
whether through reading texts, listening to lectures, watching presentations, or working hands-on
with projects.
Inspiring surroundings affect learning because, as the phrase implies, such surroundings
inspire students. Students who are taught in a well-lit space with colorful visual aids are more
likely to learn well than are students who are taught in dark, windowless rooms with industrial
gray walls and few visual aids. Light and color stimulate the brain, as do classical music and
aromas such as lemon and peppermint. When the brain is stimulated, the student is more awake
and alert for learning, and the brain creates more connections for memory and recall. For most
Western students, columns, crown moldings, sculpture niches, and other decorations reminiscent
of classical Greek and Roman architecture serve as inspiring surroundings for learning. Modern,
factory-style school buildings with low ceilings, dull walls, and little aesthetic relief do not, of
themselves, serve as inspiring surroundings, so teachers in such school settings need to use light
and color to brighten classrooms and other school spaces to inspire students to learn.
Technology affects learning in several ways, both positive and negative. One of the
positive effects of technology on learning is the vast increase in access to information that comes
with computer technology and the Internet. Students are able to research topics that might not be
available in school or public libraries. Students can monitor current world events in real time.
554 A Journey Through My College Papers
Students can communicate with other students, experts in many fields, and others through email,
text messaging, social network sites, and even through video conferencing. In addition, students’
individual learning styles and rates can be accommodated with Internet technology, which allows
students to learn at their own pace without holding back other students in their classes.
Among the negative effects of technology on learning is the lowering of student grades.
"[Y]oung people who consume more than 16 hours of media per day, are more likely to earn poor
grades in school" (Stallones, 2011, p. 155). Students are often distracted from learning by the lure
of television, video games, and the many applications on their tablets, cellular phones, and other
personal devices. Students view content that does not encourage them to practice critical thinking,
so their education suffers. Social media and text messaging corrode students’ writing skills as
students use an entire new language of abbreviations and phonetic spellings to communicate with
their peers. Even the program with which I am writing this contributes to academic laziness as it
prompts me to correct spelling and grammar errors as I type, freeing me, and students who use this
and similar software, from the need to have strong spelling and basic grammar skills.
References
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
A Personal Philosophy of Education March 18, 2013
A teacher’s personal philosophy of education is unique to the individual, but it is
informed by philosophical activities and theories that can be clearly identified and articulated as
parts of the whole. Stallones (2011) defines a philosophy of education as “applying philosophical
methods and tools to the theory and practice of education” (p. 16). As a future teacher of college-
level basic English and composition, with a specialization in remedial English instruction for non-
traditional students returning to the classroom as adults, I apply these methods and tools to
describing my personal philosophy of education. The seven philosophies of education identified
by Oregon State University for its Educational Philosophies Self-Assessment are: information
processing, cognitivism and constructionism, progressivism, perennialism, behaviorism,
humanism, and essentialism (Educational philosophies self-assessment scoring guide, 2013).
Information processing is the educational philosophy that considers how the individual mind
interprets, remembers, and retrieves information. Cognitivism and constructivism are taken
together and deal with how the student responds to and acts upon experiences in the real world.
The progressivist philosophy considers the student instead of the subject matter being taught.
Perennialism focuses on the great ideas and values of Western civilization as the most important
subjects to teach to develop the intellect. Behaviorism uses aspects of operant conditioning to
teach students appropriate behaviors and to discourage unacceptable behaviors. The humanist
philosophy deals with helping students achieve their highest human potential. Essentialism
promotes teaching a core of basic knowledge and skills and often favors direct instruction over
other teaching methods. My personal philosophy of education is an eclectic blend of the first three
philosophies, and also including aspects of the remaining four philosophies.
The overall purpose of education is to prepare children to be responsible, productive,
compassionate adults, and to preserve and perpetuate the best aspects of society while using the
worst aspects of society as examples of what students should not do. The concept of education
goes back to the dawn of human history with adults teaching children the skills needed for life
through example and hands-on practice, and with the history and spirituality of each group of
people being taught to children through stories, music, and art. In modern times, children still
Undergraduate Series 555
learn a great deal from stories. Author Theodor Seuss Geisel, writing under the well-known
pseudonym Dr. Seuss, wrote many books for children. In his 1978 book, I can Read with my Eyes
Shut, Geisel wrote: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you
learn the more places you’ll go” (Cited in Hollister, 2011, para. 2). This endorsement of
education encourages children to learn to read and to read as much as possible to gain knowledge
that will give them success in life.
While education can be acquired almost anywhere, teaching each child individually is not
feasible in the modern world. Schools began to form as soon as it became desirable to teach
students in groups instead of teaching them individually. Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s
Lyceum taught groups of students in ancient Greece as far back as 400 B.C.. I believe that schools
are essential in an industrial society in which the majority of adults work outside the home and
children need to receive efficient, uniform educations to prepare them to join the industrial
workforce. In our post-industrial world, schools are also centers for social development, for
developing students’ attitudes and beliefs about social justice, and places where children can be
warm and safe and can get decent food and some health care while their parents work. This last
purpose of modern schools is heart breaking, but it is a reality that cannot be ignored. In order to
eliminate this use of schools, schools teach students the knowledge and skills needed for the
students to build better lives for themselves and their children, and to contribute to solving social
problems that lead to poverty and hunger.
While everyone needs to be educated, not everyone needs to be educated in the same
way. Just as medieval European society had different types of education for people in different
career paths, modern students can benefit from different kinds of education. Every student should
learn reading and writing, mathematics, and some history and science. Once these basics are
mastered, however, students should be able to receive specialized instruction, with some learning
vocational skills and others learning advanced academic subjects to prepare them for careers in
education, law, medicine, and religion. This is not a popular viewpoint in the present political
climate, but schools that offer vocational specialization are becoming more and more prevalent.
Magnet schools and charter schools allow students to specialize in music, art, drama, business,
health care, and even aviation technologies. There will always be a need for general education
schools and for college preparatory schools, but diversifying education through special interest
schools promises to provide a brighter future for today’s students.
Of the classical educational philosophies, secular idealism seems to be the closest match
with my personal philosophy. In particular, my philosophy is similar to that of Immanuel Kant,
who “sought to bridge the divide between Idealists and Realists” (Stallones, 2011, p. 44).
According to Liz Jackson (2007), Kant promoted the importance of the individual and of
interactions between individuals in education (p. 336). Kant believed that the individual needed to
have the freedom to speak freely and to explore ideas and concepts. He is quoted as saying: “It is
only through the efforts of people of broader views, who take an interest in the universal good, and
who are capable of entertaining the idea of a better condition of things in the future, that the
gradual progress of human nature towards its goal is possible” (Cited in Jackson, 2007, p. 340). I
agree that people in society need to develop broad views of the world, and that it is the purpose of
education to develop such broad views. Individual freedom to learn in the manner that is best
suited to the learner is required for this. In order to best achieve individual learning, an eclectic
blending of information processing, cognitivism, and progressivism is necessary so that teachers
understand how the student’s mind works and how the student responds to the world, and that
teachers also consider the individual student’s needs, gifts, interests, and talents.
While I embrace the idea of concentrating on the needs of the individual in education,
there is a definite role for education in society, as well. Education serves society first by preparing
each new generation of students to take its place as the next generation of adults in society.
556 A Journey Through My College Papers
Children need to be taught how to be productive, successful adults, and to do whatever good they
may do for society as a whole. Education produces young adults who are prepared to contribute to
society.
Education also serves society by perpetuating the culture of the society through teaching
children the literature, history, and arts of the culture. As modern times bring people of many
cultural backgrounds together in an eclectic society, education helps students learn to understand
and embrace cultural diversity, and to pass on aspects of the several cultures of the society as one
larger, diverse culture. In the United States, education serves society by instilling democratic
ideals in students and by teaching students to use the democratic process to solve problems.
As a teacher of college students, and especially of adults who return to college after being
away from formal education for a period of time, my role is to facilitate my students’ learning. As
a teacher of English, it is my role to help students learn to read deeply to find meaning in texts and
to employ rhetoric and grammar to write effectively. For non-traditional students, my role will
also be to help the students develop an academic mindset that will enable the students to learn.
One of the most important responsibilities of a teacher of any age group or grade level is to
facilitate student explorations and inquiries that result in student learning. A teacher must be
responsive to the individual learning styles of his or her students, and must take care to employ a
variety of teaching methods that will help the greatest number of students achieve their greatest
learning potentials.
In today’s world, prospective teachers must be prepared to deal not only with the
requirements of teaching academic subjects, but also with the requirements of facing a culturally
diverse classroom. It is important for teachers to have a working knowledge of subject matter and
to be conversant with pedagogy, but the greatest challenge for many teachers is facing a class of
students from a variety of ethnic, socio-political, and socio-economic cultural backgrounds, as
well as students with a variety of native languages, and also students with physical, mental, and
learning disorders. Teachers must be taught to be sensitive to multicultural classrooms, and to
avoid trying to assimilate students into a single, dominant culture in the classroom. Teachers must
learn to respect different beliefs, traditions, and learning styles, and to teach in such a way that no
student feels excluded on the basis of his or her culture.
The role of the student in education appears simple, but is actually fairly complex. On
the surface, the student’s role in education is to learn what he or she is taught. This is not,
however, a sufficient description of the student’s role. In some ways, the student is a consumer
and education is a service. Frances M. Hill (1995) of The Queen's University in Belfast, United
Kingdom, writes of education as a service and students as consumers: “One distinctive aspect of
services is that consumers are often part of the production and delivery processes” (para. 4). This
is a good description of the role of the student in education: the student participates with the
teacher to produce the education that the student receives and the student participates in the
delivery process of education to the student. To participate in the production of education, the
student shows up for class, brings the necessary books and materials to class, studies and works on
projects and assignments, and participates with the teacher and with other students in discussions
and explorations that support the material being taught. The student participates in the delivery
process by paying attention, by asking questions to clarify information, and by studying. Working
on projects that require research and hands-on activities also help the student participate in the
delivery of education to the student.
The student has an additional role in education. Just as teachers must be prepared to
teach a culturally diverse student population, so must the student participate in the cultural
diversity in the classroom. In order to prepare to be part of adult society, the student must learn to
accept and respect diverse cultures, and to move beyond cultural differences to work with other
students in the process of being consumers of the service of education.
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Not every student is intrinsically motivated to learn. Heather Voke (2002) write that
“research attests that students are most likely to be engaged in learning when they are active and
given some choice and control over the learning process—and when the curriculum is
individualized, authentic, and related to students' interests” (para. 1). Students who are interested
in learning, and who are curious to find out about the world or some aspect of it, are motivated to
learn, but common teaching methods often stifle this motivation. The lack of student motivation
can be seen in the results of a recent study of student dropout rates. “One recent study showed a
5% high school dropout rate for gifted students compared with a 5.2% dropout rate for non-gifted
students” (Phillips, 2008, para. 2). Teachers have the power to motivate students by presenting
subject matter in ways that engage the interests and attention of the students. The specialized
schools discussed above offer an opportunity for students to pursue an education in subjects in
which they are interested, thus providing students with the motivation to learn.
There is no one, ideal curriculum that can serve all students at the same time. Various
curricula are necessary to meet the needs of a diverse student population. An ideal curriculum
would have to address the individual learning styles, cultural backgrounds, interests, and
personalities of all of the students who would be taught the curriculum, and such a curriculum
would be too complex for any teacher to present it effectively.
While an ideal curriculum is impossible, there are certain things that should be included
in any curriculum in the United States. Curriculum should meet the needs of society by teaching
students how to become informed, responsible citizens who will be the leaders of the future, and it
should motivate students to become those informed, responsible citizens. Curriculum should also
promote and perpetuate the values and principles of American society, inculcating students with
the concepts of democracy, independence, and a strong work ethic.
In the early years of a child’s education, curriculum should include reading, writing,
history, geography, mathematics, life science, physical science, art, and music. Each student
should receive a firm foundation in these subjects, blending perennialist literature and ideas with
more recent literature and ideas from a variety of cultures. In the middle years of education, the
curriculum should be structured such that students can begin to specialize in subjects in which
they are interested. The curriculum needs to expand to include an array of vocational subjects
designed to promote college and career readiness. In the later years of high school, curriculum
should be as specialized as possible for several college and career paths so that students are best
equipped to enter the adult world.
Schools should be structured into three general learning periods to coincide with the three
levels of curriculum previously discussed. The three groups that I believe would work best, based
on my own educational experiences, are ages 3 through 7 in one school, ages 8 through 12 in
another school, and ages 13 through 18 in a third school. Within each school, I believe the best,
most natural organization for effective instruction is to have non-graded, multi-age groupings in
which students work together to learn the various subjects that are taught at the given level.
Whenever possible, a classroom should have no more than 20 or 25 students at one time so that
the teacher can give each student as much individual attention as possible. This is an organic,
natural method of teaching that is usually found in home school situations. The older students help
the younger students learn. In so doing, the older students develop a deeper understanding of the
subject matter. In such situations, the overt curriculum of the various subjects can be taught
effectively, and the covert curriculum of working together and of each student learning at an
individual pace will also be taught. Working in multi-age groups prepares students for the adult
world better than does traditional classrooms in which all of a student’s peers are the same age as
the student.
Standardized testing to assess student learning is likely to remain the norm for at least
another generation, and it may prevail in American schools for much longer than that. In Finland,
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students were shown on the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to be
“the best young readers in the world” (Hancock, 2011, para. 7). This is significant because
“[t]here are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’
senior year in high school” (Hancock, 2011, para. 9). It is my view that American schools should
be run more like Finnish schools when it comes to student assessment and eliminate the majority
of high-stakes, standardized testing. In addition, final exams that cover an entire semester or year
of teaching are not effective assessments of student learning. Keith O’Brien (2010) writes:
“Across the country, there is growing evidence that final exams – once considered so important
that universities named a week after them – are being abandoned or diminished, replaced by take-
home tests, papers, projects, or group presentations” (para. 4). I agree with this trend toward
assessing students throughout the year with smaller tests, papers, and projects. Performance
assessments allow students to show what they have retained in long-term memory and the
assessments allow students who may not be good at taking written tests to showcase their talents
and abilities.
When I am teaching, I may be forced by the school to use standardized tests, in which
case I will do so. As a college English teacher, I will assess students by assigning papers to be
written outside of class, papers to be written in class with advance preparation, and impromptu
papers to be written in class. I will also use a quiz at the end of each unit, in which I will use
multiple-choice questions as seldom as possible. Short-answer questions and short-essay
questions are better measures of authentic learning in an English composition class than a
standardized test can be. I will know that my students have learned when they produce thoughtful
papers that are on-topic and that are relatively free of errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
My philosophical beliefs about education will influence my work as an educator by
making me aware of and sensitive to the needs of my individual students. My belief that a teacher
should understand how a student’s mind works will drive me to present information in multiple
formats that take into account Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences; it is likely that I will ask
students to complete a learning styles inventory, such as the one found online at
http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/results.php . The results of the inventory will
help me to present subject matter in ways that help my students to learn. My belief that students
learn by acting upon and responding to the world will drive me to expose my students to research
opportunities and to ask my students to reflect on their research. Over all, my belief that education
should focus on the student will guide me to seek my students’ learning exceptionalities and to
encourage each student to reach his or her greatest potential in learning and in life.
My personal philosophy of education is an eclectic blend of several different
philosophies. Because of this, I am able to adapt to a variety of teaching situations, and to apply
the concepts of various philosophies in my teaching. The purpose of education is to prepare
students to be responsible, productive members of society, and to preserve and perpetuate the
important thoughts and ideals of the society. As such, education simultaneously serves both the
individual student and the society. Teachers and students have specific roles to play in education,
and neither group functions effectively without the other group. Teachers facilitate student
learning and students participate as consumers in their education. Curriculum should be structured
to give every student a firm foundation in basic subjects and to allow students to diversify their
educations according to their strengths and interests. Instruction should feature the organic
learning associated with mixed-age groups so that learning can be accomplished naturally and so
that students retain as much education as possible. Assessment, similarly, should be a natural
process of performance evaluation instead of the artificial standardized testing that is prevalent in
the United States today. In practice, I expect that I will have to accept teaching conditions that do
not fit perfectly with my philosophy of education. In doing so, I will model adaptability and
acceptance of philosophical differences for my students.
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References
Educational philosophies self-assessment scoring guide. (2013). Retrieved from
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/scoringguide.html
Hancock, L.N. (2011). Why are Finland's schools successful? Smithsonian Magazine [Electronic
version]. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-
Finlands-Schools-Successful.html
Hill, F. M. (1995). Managing service quality in higher education: The role of the student as
primary consumer. Quality Assurance in Education, 3(3), 10-21. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/213732977
Hollister, T. (2011). Words of wisdom from Dr. Seuss. Retrieved from
http://hobnobia.net/content/content/words-wisdom-dr-seuss
Jackson, L. (2007). The individualist? The autonomy of reason in Kant’s philosophy and
educational views. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 26(4), 335-344. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11217-007-9045-3
Learning styles inventory. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.learning-styles-
online.com/inventory/results.php
O'Brien, K. (2010, October 3). The test is canceled. The Boston Globe [Electronic version].
Retrieved from http://keithob.com/stories/the-test-is-
canceled/?/stories/2010/11/the_test_is_can.html/
Phillips, S. (2008). Are we holding back our students that possess the potential to excel?
Education, 129(1), 50-55. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/196417832
Stallones, J. (2011). Philosophy of education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Voke, H. (2002). Motivating students to learn. Student Engagement, 28 [Electronic version].
Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/policy-
priorities/feb02/num28/Motivating-Students-to-Learn.aspx
EDU 490 Interdisciplinary Capstone
Critical Thinking 3/28/2013
In 2011, Foundation for Critical Thinking defined critical thinking: "Critical thinking is
the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying,
analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by,
observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action"
(Defining Critical Thinking, 2011, para. 3). The definition is complex because the concept and the
activity of thinking critically are complex. In order to think critically, it is necessary to set aside
preconceived ideas about the subject at hand and to draw information and ideas from multiple
perspectives. Thinking critically requires the thinker to challenge assumptions until and unless
those assumptions are substantiated by credible evidence.
In this class, I plan to model critical thinking by seeking information from credible
authorities before making statements on the topics we will discuss. I will seek, and cite,
information that will inform my views and that will clarify my understanding and communication
of ideas and concepts.
When I am teaching my future students, I will attempt to foster critical thinking by asking
them to engage in critical analysis of the texts that I will assign. I will teach my students about
informal logic and logical fallacies so that they will be better prepared to seek deeper meaning in
the literature and other media that we use in class and that they encounter in life. Scott Jaschik
560 A Journey Through My College Papers
writes that "32 percent of students each semester do not take any courses with more than 40 pages
of reading assigned a week, and that half don't take a single course in which they must write more
than 20 pages over the course of a semester" (Jaschik, 2011, para. 8). I will strive to assign
rigorous, but reasonable, amounts of reading and to require a substantial amount of writing from
my students. Since it is my intent to teach college freshman English and/or composition, I expect
to be able to achieve this goal.
References
Defining critical thinking. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-
critical-thinking/766
Jaschik, S. (2011). ‘Academically Adrift’. Inside Higher Ed [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_large_numbers_of_college
_students_don_t_learn_much
Mr. Rodriguez 3/28/2013
[Part One]
Angel Rodriguez has been teaching 5th grade for six years. He considers himself
an enlightened teacher. Colleagues often remark on his classroom management skills,
ability to relate to all learners and his drive to know what it is that each learner knows
and is able to do. Mr. Rodriguez credits most of his teaching ability to his understanding
of how students learn. Each day before class, Mr. Rodriguez prepares for his learners by
reflecting on his own teaching practice.
As the students enter the room he asks them to stand and repeat the phrase, “I
am here today as an active participant and learner. I will do my very best to collaborate
with my peers, give my personal best and discover new knowledge. Today is a great day
to learn something new.”
[Part Two]
After direct instruction, Mr. Rodriguez asks students to get into groups. Mr.
Rodriguez provides avenues through group work to tap into the individual modalities of
learners. He assigns roles to each group member as follows: speaker, a note taker/visual
aid analyst, a public relations reporter, and a time keeper.
[Part Three]
After group work, Mr. Rodriguez asks students to return to their seats and
answer three questions from the lesson on an exit slip before being excused to lunch.
After lunch, he meets with individual students while the rest of the class is reading
silently. During the meetings Mr. Rodriguez works with each individual student and
reviews their completed exit slip to determine which concepts were understood and why.
He then helps any struggling student understand the concepts. (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez,
Wahab, & Walton, 2012, p. 6)
In part one of this example, Mr. Rodriguez credits his teaching ability to understanding
how students learn because not all students learn in the same way and it is important for a teacher
to recognize learning differences in order to teach effectively. "Student’s cognition will vary
depending on their individual life experience, biology, and environment. A classroom with
learners at a variety of developmental stages means the teacher must provide a variety of
instruction" (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012, p. 4). Mr. Rodriguez recognizes
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that some students learn best from direct instruction, while others learn best by reading the
material, and still others learn best by hands-on activities and role-play. By being aware of
learning differences and multiple intelligences, Mr. Rodriguez is able to incorporate many
different teaching methods in his daily routine, resulting in effective teaching for the greatest
number of his students.
A possible benefit that comes from daily reflection on teaching practice is that the
reflection tends to prevent teachers getting into a teaching rut. By daily reflection on teaching
practice, the teacher is able to evaluate what is working and what is not working, and to adjust his
or her teaching accordingly.
In the example, Mr. Rodriguez's uses the daily mantra, "I am here today as an active
participant and learner. I will do my very best to collaborate with my peers, give my personal best
and discover new knowledge. Today is a great day to learn something new" (Kajitani, et. al., 2012,
p. 6). This mantra relates to verbal anchoring because the daily repetition ingrains the words in
the minds of his students. The words of the mantra express positive attitudes and positive
expectations for the students who recite the mantra, and the mantra gives the students an emotional
anchor to the classroom and to learning, leaving negative thoughts and expectations outside the
classroom as much as possible. Through daily repetition, the students assimilate the positive
attitude of the mantra into their personal mindsets, equipping them to be better, more successful
students.
In part two of the example, Mr. Rodriguez uses group work to create a flexible learning
environment and to serve as an avenue to tap into the varied learning modalities of his students.
The small-group setting allows flexibility because students are not sitting at their desks absorbing
direct instruction; the students are able to move about and to interact with each other. Students are
able to express their ideas, and students are able to learn from each other's perspectives on the
group work. Mr. Rodriguez assigns a different responsibility to each student, presumably drawing
on each student's strengths to facilitate each student's learning of the subject at hand. This allows
more vocal students to speak in the groups while quieter students are able to observe and to absorb
learning without the stress of having to speak out as much.
In part three of the example, students answer questions on exit slips, which Mr.
Rodriguez discusses with each student individually after lunch. Along with the written exit slips,
Mr. Rodriguez could ask questions of the class or of individual students. He could use a variation
of Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or another game format to assess student knowledge. He could use a
multiple-choice quiz of the material instead of the exit slips, which sound like fill-in-the-blank or
short answer questions from the description provided. He could have students work individually
or in groups to put together visual or oral presentations or computer-based slide shows or other
presentations based on the learning.
Mr. Rodriguez is creating a personalized learning experience for each of his students by
discussing with each student, individually, the responses on the exit slips each day. In addition, he
is providing a personalized learning experience for each student by presenting opportunities for
learning in different learning modalities each day. By recognizing, identifying, and facilitating the
multiple intelligences and learning styles of his students, he allows each student to learn in the
way that is best for that student. By interacting with each student individually, he is empowering
each student by affirming the student's self-worth and the student's sense of being valued as an
individual by his or her teacher (an authority figure with the power to strengthen or to break down
a student's self image).
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
562 A Journey Through My College Papers
Chapter One Synthesis February 18, 2013
No two students learn in precisely the same way. Differences in student cognition are
influenced by a number of factors, including the student’s home environment and culture, past
experiences, sense of personal identity, and physical development of the brain. Teachers need to
be sensitive to these factors, and teachers can best help students utilize or overcome mental and
emotional baggage by developing personal relationships with their students, by effectively
communicating with their students, and by providing consistency for their students within the
classroom.
Along with the personal factors of environment and experiences, there are cultural and
generational factors that influence learning. The baby boomer and generation X generations
include most of America’s teachers, while the millennial and net generations make up most of the
current and future generations of students in America’s schools. Each of the four named
generational groups is influenced by the cultural and political events of its time, resulting in
different ways of thinking and of dealing with authority, work ethic, scholarship, and personal
responsibility and entitlement. Teachers need to be aware of and to understand these learning
differences in the new generations in order to teach effectively. As millennial and net generation
students spend more time alone, using new information technologies to explore the world and to
learn, teachers need to facilitate students’ learning more than actively teach information to
students. Students look to teachers and other authority figures to help the students make decisions,
which is a change from the attitudes of baby boomers and members of generation X, who grew up
wary of authority figures and willing to challenge authority. (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, &
Walton, 2012).
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Ms. Valdera 4/3/2013
Part One
After receiving her teaching credential, Maria Valdera accepts a job teaching summer
school, which will run from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for one month. The goal of the class is to
improve the reading level of the participants. Although the students in the class will be entering
6th grade at the beginning of the next school year, it has been determined that all of the students
are currently reading at or around the 3rd grade level. While the summer school class size is
much smaller (10 students) than a normal class (32 students), all of the students in the class are
enrolled in the course because they did not do well over the last school year. In addition, at the
end of their 6th grade year, these students will be entering middle school, where the curriculum is
regarded to be much more challenging, and taught at a faster pace.
Part Two
After speaking with the school’s principal, Ms. Valdera meets with the school’s
attendance clerk, who gives her copies of the students’ attendance records from the past year. She
notes that 5 of the 10 students enrolled in the upcoming class were absent at least 30 days (out of
180 total) last year. Ms. Valdera is also able to search the cumulative folders of each of the
students, as well as their report card histories (See Table 2.1, below and in Chapter Two of your
text).
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Student
End of
5th
Grade
Reading
Grade
State Test
Reading
Results*
Teacher Comments
Juan A. D Below Basic Nice kid. Quiet. Tries really hard.
Lindsey
J. F
Far Below
Basic Talks out in class a lot. Can’t seem to sit still in her seat.
Tyler D. C- Below Basic Hums to himself in class and does not seem to pay attention.
Decent reader, but does not complete homework.
Eugenia
K. D Below Basic
Enjoys participating in class discussions; however, received
several suspensions for fighting last year.
DeShawn
M. F
Far Below
Basic Polite, respectful young man. Very funny.
Vy L. F Below Basic Absent a lot. Parents seem uninvolved in Vy’s life, as she often
takes care of several younger siblings.
Jazzeel
H. C Below Basic Works hard. Learning English.
Tamika
P. D Basic
Has trouble staying at her desk. Often finds reasons to wander
around the room. Usually returns to her seat immediately
when asked to.
Carlos R. F Far Below
Basic Disinterested and bored. Has trouble staying awake in class.
Julia S. F Below Basic No comments available.
*On the state reading exam, students are ranks as Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below
Basic, and Far Below Basic.
Part Three
Two days before the class begins, Ms. Valdera calls the home of each of the students on
her roster. First, she introduces herself to the parents, and lets them know exactly why their child
will be attending summer school. She lets them know that the students will have homework every
night, and asks the parents to provide a quiet, safe place for the student to complete it. She also
tells the parents that she will call them on any morning that the homework has not been
completed. Next, she speaks to the student, and introduces herself, and tells him about the
upcoming class, as well as the supplies he will need to bring to class each day. She also asks the
student what his favorite hobby is, and the name of the best book he has ever read.
Based upon her conversations with the students, Ms. Valdera goes to the school library,
and checks out as many of the “favorite books” as are available. She displays them on a shelf in
her classroom, so the students will make a connection with books they have already read, and
already enjoy. She then decorates one of the walls in her classroom with a sign that says,
“Activities We Love,” and posts pictures of activities students cited as their favorite hobbies.
Throughout the summer, Ms. Valdera plans to refer to as many of these activities as possible while
the class is discussing the readings. She knows that having a visual reminder of the activities on
the wall will help both the teacher and students remember what they are, and incorporate them
into the daily curriculum.
564 A Journey Through My College Papers
On the first day of class, Ms. Valdera begins with a discussion of why the students are
attending the summer school class, and acknowledges their need to improve their reading skills.
She firmly sets the tone of the class, explains the procedures and routines that they will be using,
as well as the behavior expectations and consequences. The class then begins on their first
activity…
In the case study provided in the text, before the summer school class begins, Ms.
Valdera should attempt to learn what she can about the learning styles of her ten students
(Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012, pp. 31-32). She can do this by talking with the
students' regular teachers, and by contacting the students' parents. She should also find out
whether any of her students have IEPs or 504 plans, in case that information does not make it to
the summer school program. Ms. Valdera should find out whether any of the students are ELL
students, as well.
Along with the students' most recent teachers and the students' parents, Ms. Valdera
should speak to the school principal, or to other school staff involved with school discipline, to
learn what these authorities know about the students. Such individuals may have valuable
information about the students' behavior concerns and about socio-economic and/or domestic
concerns that may affect the students' learning.
Based on the information given in Table 2.1, above, the only thing all ten students have
in common is the need to take a summer reading class. Two students are identified as being quiet
or polite. Two students are identified as trying hard. Two students have difficulty keeping still
physically, and two students have trouble keeping still vocally. Two students do not pay attention
in class in one way or another.
There are numerous differences among the ten students. One student appears to be an
ELL student, as he or she (I can not be sure based on the name) is learning English. One student
has a problem with violent behavior. One student is raising her own siblings while in 5th grade.
One student has trouble staying awake, which may suggest a lack of adequate rest or sleep at
home. One student exhibits no signs of trouble except a failing grade.
To engage her students and tap into their interests, Ms. Valdera should devote the first
part of the first day of summer school to activities that help her get to know her students and that
help break the ice among her students. One possibility is to have the students sit in a circle and
introduce themselves, naming a favorite sport or hobby. Another is to have each student draw a
picture of a favorite activity and of a least-favorite activity, and to write a caption for each picture,
then to share the pictures with the class. Ms. Valdera could take a few minutes to talk privately
with each student while the others are drawing their pictures. There are several name songs
available for classes to use; I would suggest using the "I Have a Friend" song on Dr. Jean
Feldman's website as a means of getting to know students (Feldman, 2009, song 6). In order for
the getting-to-know-you activities to lead into the work of the class, Ms. Valdera could ask each
student to name a favorite book the student has read and to explain why the student liked the book.
Given the varied learning styles of her ten students, Ms. Valdera can design several types
of lessons for her students. In order to appeal to both auditory and visual learners, she can read
aloud to the class while the students follow along with a book or a printed text. She can also
project the pages of the class text onto a screen or a Smartboard and use a cursor or a laser pointer
to follow along as she reads. She can also have students take turns reading aloud while the others
follow along. Ms. Valdera can have students act out the scenes they are reading in order to serve
the auditory and the kinesthetic learners. She can also have the students take short breaks to walk
around the perimeter of the room, do simple calisthenics, or dance between periods of reading.
Since each class is four hours long, she will want to vary the activities every 15-30 minutes in
order to hold the attention of her students. If the physical education or health department has them
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available, Ms. Valdera might make exercise balls available for Lindsey and Tamika to sit on so
these students can stay at their desks and have some physical movement at the same time, thus
reducing distractions during class.
In order to keep the students' level of engagement high, Ms. Valdera might wish to
arrange the ten desks in a circle instead of in rows, so the students can see each other and can see
her. If a screen or Smartboard is in use, a horseshoe arrangement might be better. Since this is a
reading class, it might be good to have some floor space with beanbags and/or cushions where the
class can sit more comfortably for silent reading or for reading aloud by turns. If students are
going to pair off to read to each other or to discuss an assignment, placing desks so that each pair
faces each other, or so two desks are side-by-side and facing opposite directions will provide the
best face time for each pair of students. With long class periods every day for a month, varying
the arrangement of seating by the hour or by the day will be effective for maintaining high student
engagement. Rearranging the desks at the end of the hour can also serve as a motion break
between sessions of sitting, and it will help the students claim some responsibility for their
learning environment.
References:
Feldman, J. (2009). Name songs. Retrieved from
http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2010/07_Jul/
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Teaching Challenges 4/4/2013
When I was doing my ten-hour practicum during my freshman year, working in a third
grade class, I experienced a teaching challenge that might serve for this discussion. I was in the
classroom at the start of the day on a Friday, and the regular teacher was out. The substitute did
not know the morning routine, so she asked me to handle the first hour, after which the students
would divide up to go to "specials" (art, phys ed, music, reading support), and I would return to
the college for my classes.
The morning routine involved the students entering the classroom, doing pre-assigned
chores without prompting, then completing the daily worksheet at their desks. When the bell rang,
I counted heads and wrote the number on the whiteboard. Following the daily routine, I called on
a student to go to the board and represent the number of students by drawing coins on the board. I
then asked for a show of hands of students who had brought lunch from home, counted hands, and
wrote that number on the board. The students calculated how many students would be eating hot
lunch so the count could be reported to the kitchen. As soon as that was done, I went over the
worksheets with the class. This is where the challenge came in. I read each question aloud, using
the opaque projector to display the question on the board. The students raised their hands to
answer the questions. For the first question, I called on a girl, M, to respond. She gave the correct
answer and I wrote it on my sheet, projecting the answer on the board. As soon as I looked up
from writing, I saw that the happy, productive atmosphere of the room had been replaced by a
sullen attitude. Only M looked happy. I asked the next question, and only M raised her hand. I
called on a couple of others anyway, but they each refused to answer, so I called on M again. She
again gave the correct answer. This went on for several more questions.
Finally, the bell rang and the students formed their lines to leave. One boy, T, stayed
behind. He told me the class was angry with me for calling on M. He said the regular teacher
566 A Journey Through My College Papers
made a point of not calling on her because she lorded it over the others whenever she had a right
answer. T said I should have called on anyone except M, and the class wouldn't cooperate with
me because of it. I sent T to his specials class, then told the substitute what T had said. She and I
each wrote a note to the regular teacher, reporting what had happened.
In response to the teaching challenge, I first must say that I disagree with the practice of
intentionally excluding a student who raises his or her hand. Had I been the regular teacher in that
class, I would have dealt with M's attitude early in the year by teaching all of the students about
fair play and about being good winners and good losers. Rather than punish M for her attitude, I
would have rewarded students who were "caught" being good winners and good losers. The
school already had a system of "BUG tickets" (Being Uncommonly Good) that the students could
save up and spend on tangible rewards, similar to using green stamps, and I could have used the
BUG program for this purpose.
As a temporary student teaching assistant, in the class for an hour a week for ten weeks, I
was not aware of the underlying problem. Not being the regular teacher, or even the substitute
teacher, I was on unsteady footing with this situation. There are several things I could have done,
even with the short time I had in the classroom, to try to solve the challenge. When I realized that
the mood of the class had changed, I should probably have stopped to find out what was wrong.
At the least, I should have done so when the problem persisted and worsened. It might have been
a good idea to switch to another activity for a short time, to give the students a chance to relax, and
to go over the morning work later. It might have been useful to get the students out of their seats
to do some sort of moving activity to defuse the tension in the room.
I did hear from the regular teacher later. He apologized for the episode and confirmed
what T had told me. He admitted that he needed to find a better solution for the problem with M.
Chapter Two Case Study Scenarios April 8, 2013
Case Studies:
Sarah is a 7th grade math teacher at a small middle school that serves a
farming community. She has worked at the school for four years and has learned that it is
a community that thrives on three things: family, farming, and football. Every boy
growing up in town has aspirations of varsity football glory, but most will end up
spending their lives working the family farm. Walking into her third period class on the
first day of school, she finds herself faced by 18 rambunctious teenagers. Even scarier,
15 of them are boys. As she begins the year, Sarah wants to grab her students’ attention
by providing an engaging introduction to the practical value of math. Her first unit of the
year introduces the adding and subtracting of fractions and she wants to build on the
knowledge her students already have acquired, both in and out of school.
Megan recently accepted a job as a first year kindergarten teacher in a
community that is primarily Hispanic. A majority of her students are second language
learners and many have parents who do not speak English. Megan has never spoken a
second language, ignoring two years of high school French that left her conversational
but not very confident. She is worried and anxious about how best to bridge the language
gap in her classroom. As she prepares for her first year as a teacher, she wants to be sure
she does as much as possible to help make the transition easier and to facilitate clear
communication between her and her students/their parents.
Steve is in the middle of his tenth year as an honors high school social studies
teacher. As part of a unit on the Vietnam War, he is having his students read The Things
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They Carried, a Vietnam-focused novel. His specific interest is in conveying to students
the social, economic, and cultural influence that the war had on people at home. As a
culminating assignment to the three-week unit, he asks students to create a portfolio
comprised of a number of smaller assignments that are to be completed during the
reading. The portfolio is to include a journal entry written as one of the book’s
characters, a photograph of one scene from the book, a letter home written by one of the
characters, and five reading logs completed at various points during the reading. Steve
wants to ensure that his students stay on track during the assignment and that they are
not allowed to procrastinate and finish the assignment at the last minute.
Eunice teaches 10th grade English in a suburban high school. Her third unit of
the school year is focused on the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a book that she has
taught many times, but the last time she did she was less than pleased with the results. As
an end of unit assessment, she had students write an essay discussing how one specific
character in the novel changes. While she did receive one or two fantastic essays last
time around, the majority of her students seemed unable to analyze with the amount of
depth she had hoped for. Many of her students ended up with C’s or worse on the essay
and in many cases it impacted their overall course grade. This time around, she is hoping
to improve results by properly frontloading the assignment and making her expectations
more clear. After collecting the essays, Eunice is pleased with the overall organization
and the amount of insight provided by the students. Unfortunately, she finds that many
students have issues with spelling and grammar that need correcting.
In the case of Sarah, who teaches 7th grade math in a farming community that favors
football, a specific strategy to activate the prior knowledge of Sarah’s students would be to begin
by asking for a show of hands of those students who played on the school football team last year.
After counting hands, Sarah’s students can create a fraction of last year’s players out of the total
class. If Sarah knows about football, as I do not, then she can use her knowledge of positions,
scoring, and last year’s game schedule to create other fractions that the students will be eager to
add and subtract. If Sarah does not know about football, then her students will be eager to teach
her about the game by discussing positions, scoring, and so forth, which will also yield fractions
for the students to work with. Sarah can use the same method to identify farmers among her
students and to use types of farms, livestock, crops, and other farm information to get students
talking about and working with fractions.
Sarah’s students are the best resource Sarah can use to gain a further understanding of the
students’ existing knowledge base. “Tapping into prior knowledge helps students make
connections, thus greatly enhancing the meaning of any new information presented” (Kajitani,
Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012, p. 25).Sarah can use a written pre-teaching assessment to
gain a better understanding of her students’ prior knowledge of math, including a review of 6th
grade math and a preview of 7th grade math. Sarah should also review her students’ grades from
the previous year and any comments made by previous teachers, especially previous math
teachers. Sarah might try playing math games with the students at the beginning of the year, as
well, to help her assess her students’ existing knowledge base.
In order to immediately engage the class, Sarah might combine what she knows about her
students and the community by setting up a project in which the students use fractions to analyze
the strengths and weaknesses of local football teams, including the home team, and to make
predictions for the coming football season. The students could then continue to use their
knowledge of fractions to analyze the teams, plays, and scores of the games during the season.
Megan is a first year kindergarten teacher in a primarily Hispanic community. In order to
determine what level of language capabilities her students have, Megan might start the year with a
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variation on the picture walk idea. She can use pictures of a number of common objects, perhaps
taken from magazines or from coloring books, and she can ask the students to identify the objects
in English. Since the students are entering kindergarten, it is likely that only a portion of the class
has been in a classroom environment before. Megan might try to contact area daycare centers to
ask about the students’ language capabilities, but that is unlikely to be helpful. It might be more
useful for Megan to spend a little bit of time talking and listening to each child individually,
asking each student to tell her about his or her interests and family. “ELL is the fastest growing
group of students in the United States today” (Kajitani, et. al., 2012, p. 43).
On the first day of class, Megan can begin by telling the students that she does not speak
Spanish, and inviting the students to teach her Spanish as she teaches them English. Young
children love to teach, and most students will be pleased with the opportunity to exchange
knowledge. Megan might also employ realia, sending notes home before the first day of school
asking each student to bring in an object to share with the class (Kajitani, et. al., 2012, p. 46). On
the first day, Megan could have the students sit in a circle and take turns sharing their objects,
using English to tell about the objects as much as possible. In addition, Megan might choose to
embrace a bilingual classroom environment, despite not knowing Spanish herself, and might
prepare the classroom by labeling as many objects as possible in both Spanish and English. On
the first day, she could have a parent come to read the Spanish labels (avoiding contamination of
accents in language acquisition by using a native speaker to pronounce the words), then read the
corresponding English labels. She could then play a game with the children, finding and
identifying objects as she calls out the names of the objects in either language.
There are many opportunities to include aspects of her students’ language and culture in
Megan’s plans for the school year. She can find books that are written in both Spanish and
English, such as many of the Dora the Explorer picture books, or books in English about Hispanic
children and their culture. She can continue to use bilingual labels in the classroom. She can use
Hispanic music, dance, costumes, and foods, especially around various holidays, to give added
meaning to her lessons. She can encourage her students to preserve their native language and
customs and not try to assimilate the students into Anglo-American culture, while still teaching the
students about American history and traditions. She can also invite Hispanic family members to
come to class to share stories, crafts, foods, and other cultural details with the students. In my
sons’ elementary school, there was a large Hispanic population. The school hosted a Hispanic
Culture Festival each year that featured costumes, music, dance performances, storytelling, and
Hispanic foods. Megan might try a mini version of the festival in her kindergarten class. One of
my elder son’s favorite memories from elementary school is the day one of the Hispanic
grandmothers came to school and taught the 3rd grade class to make authentic tamales in the
classroom. She had the students help wrap the tamales in corn husks. Megan could have a family
member of one of her students teach the children to make tamales, chocolate (Spanish hot cocoa),
or other authentic foods or crafts.
Steve’s honors high school social studies unit on The Things They Carried covers a three
week period with several different assignments during the period. In order to ensure that the
students stay on track during the assignment, Steve can establish a timeline for completion of the
various stages of the portfolio. Each of the items in the portfolio can be set as a milestone of the
assignment. Milestones are “specific factors that will be completed en route to fulfilling the final
goal” (Kajitani, et. al., 2012, p. 36). In particular, the five reading logs should be given
completion dates on the timeline, and Steve could require that each student complete one of the
three larger items (the journal entry, the photograph, and the letter home) in each of the three
weeks of the unit. Steve could check the portfolios each week to be sure that the completed work
is present. By breaking the portfolio assignment into milestones set along a timeline, Steve can
make a large project more manageable.
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At the outset of the Vietnam unit, Steve has a responsibility to ensure that his
expectations are clear to all of his students. Steve should go over the assignment carefully,
perhaps handing out a printed outline that shows the parts of the assignment, and also outlining the
assignment on the board. He needs to be sure that each student understands what he means by a
journal, a photograph, a letter home, and a reading log. Steve needs to provide each student with a
copy of a rubric for the assignment, possibly including separate rubrics for the several parts of the
assignment, so each student has a clear understanding of what is required in each part of the
assignment and how each part of the assignment and the whole assignment will be graded. Steve
needs to allow the students to ask questions to clarify the assignment in their own minds, as well.
Steve might enlist the help of other teachers on campus by asking the art teachers to help
the students create their photographs. He might work with English teachers who might be willing
to cover The Things They Carried as literature assignments concurrent with the social studies
assignment, which would give the students a deeper understanding of the story. Steve could enlist
parental support at home to help students reach each checkpoint by sending home a description of
the assignment, including the timeline and a list of milestones. He could ask parents to talk to
their students about the assignment, and to remind students of reading requirements and due dates.
Parents could help students create photographs from the story, in particular. In the course of this
assignment, Steve might also enlist the help of community members by bringing in Vietnam
veterans from the American Legion or other veterans’ group to talk to the students. This first-
hand information could bring authenticity to the journals and letters that the students produce as
they hear about the veterans’ experiences in their own words.
Eunice is teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to her 10th grade English class, and she is
discovering too many problems with spelling and grammar errors in her students’ essays. In
presenting the assignment of writing an essay discussing how one specific character in the novel
changes, Eunice can give students a detailed rubric that tells how the assignment will be graded.
She can draw the students’ attention to the portion of the rubric that deals with mechanics, and
explain the importance of using correct spelling and grammar in their essays. Eunice can give the
students sample sentences with poor spelling and grammar and can have the students correct the
sentences to see how they need to write for their essays. It may be appropriate for Eunice to
devote one or two class periods to a review of basic grammar and commonly misspelled words, as
well as to reminding students that phonetic spellings that are common on social media sites on the
Internet, and in text messages, are not appropriate in academic writing.
Eunice can use targeted feedback and revision to help remediate those students who
struggle with the project. She can require students to turn in a rough draft of the assignment
before the final assignment is due. She can provide targeted feedback in the margins, making
corrections or suggestions regarding spelling and grammar as well as content and style. She can
then tell her students that they need write final drafts of their essays, incorporating the comments
that she made on their rough drafts. Along with corrections and suggestions, Eunice can
encourage students who are doing good work by making positive comments in the margins. All of
Eunice’s comments and suggestions must be written constructively, to help each student succeed,
and she should avoid negative comments about the students as she makes corrections to their
work.
Eunice can properly recognize those students who contributed exceptional work by
including specific praises in the comments on their final essays. By being specific, Eunice can
encourage her students to continue to produce exceptional work. In addition, she can keep
samples of exceptional work, or copies of such work, to hold up as examples for future classes.
Kajitani, et. al., (2012) write: “[O]nce students have mastered the content, have them teach that
content to another class!” (p. 39). Eunice can recognize the exceptional work of her students by
asking them to come back to teach other students what they have learned.
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References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Chapter Two Synthesis April 8, 2013
Students learn in a variety of ways that can be sorted into three learning groups: visual
learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. Visual learners prefer to watch their teachers,
watching videos, reading text, and taking notes. Teachers can help visual learners by using a
print-rich environment, color-coding information, and including illustrations, charts, and diagrams
in lessons. Auditory learners prefer to listen to lectures and discussions. Teachers can help
auditory learners by reading aloud to the class, including music in lessons, and allowing students
to talk and discuss lessons during class. Kinesthetic learners prefer to work hands-on and to move
about while learning. Teachers can help kinesthetic learners by providing opportunities to move
about the classroom, including exercises or dance in the lesson, and providing plenty of hands-on
projects.
Each student brings prior knowledge to his or her learning, including personal beliefs,
experiences, cultures, and ways of relating to the world. Teachers need to tap into students’ prior
knowledge and to find ways to relate to students and their interests in order to engage students and
help them learn. Teachers can use a K-W-L chart to help students relate what they already know
to what they want to learn, and to record what they have learned at the end of a lesson or unit.
Teachers use targeted feedback, practice, and applied learning to help students improve.
They use timelines and milestones to help students stay on track, and to break up large
assignments or goals into manageable pieces. Teachers may use a variety of alternate forms of
assessment to evaluate student learning, in addition to traditional written tests.
Students with special learning needs include students with IEPs and students in the
GATE program, as well as ELL students and students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and
students at risk. Teachers are able to make accommodations to help students in these special
categories to learn. It is important for teachers to recognize and respond to the unique needs and
abilities of their students. (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012).
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Michael Alvarez 4/11/2013
Overview
Michael is a 15-year-old native Spanish-speaking student in a 9th grade ELL (English
Language Learners) class of 23 students in a suburban California public school. He has been in
the United States and attending school for the past three years, having emigrated from Mexico
City with his parents and two younger siblings.
Problem
While Michael speaks English well – he is skilled in the face-to face conversational
fluency known as BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) - he struggles with reading
and writing English. He manifests his frustration in a variety of ways including, but not limited to:
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routinely arriving late to class; failing to complete homework assignments; interrupting his
teacher when she is explaining an upcoming assignment; refusing to participate in collaborative
groups. Michael’s openly disruptive behavior is impacting other students in the class. Three
Spanish-speaking students (two males and one female) have begun conversing across the
classroom with Michael in Spanish.
Key Players
Ms. Watkins, Michael’s ELL teacher. In addition to two ELL classes, Ms. Watkins also
teaches three sections of Advanced Placement English Language.
The other ELL students in the class, each of whom is at a different level of English-
language mastery.
Sabrina, Michael’s 8 year old sister.
Victor, Michael’s 11 year old brother.
Contributing Factors
Michael is currently repeating all of his classes – except for Introduction to Algebra –
that he failed the previous year;
At 15, he is older than most of the students in his ELL class;
Several students in Michael’s ELL class have expressed to Ms. Watkins their discomfort
with Michael’s behavior;
Michael’s sister Sabrina is fluent in reading, writing and speaking English. Sabrina is
currently placed at grade level in a 3rd grade mainstream class.
His brother Victor is also moving toward full fluency in English. Victor is currently at
grade level in a 6th grade ELL class.
Michael is working part-time job after school and on Saturdays and is unable to attend
remediation or support classes;
Michael’s parents have not attended Back-To-School night and have not responded to
Ms. Watkins’ e-mails and phone messages.
In the case of Michael Alvarez and his disruptive behavior in the classroom, I would choose a
behaviorist approach because behaviorism claims that "learning requires an external change in a
student’s behavior that can be observed" (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab & Walton, 2012, p. 60).
Michael's behavior needs to undergo an observable, external change in order for him to succeed in
class and to stop making his teacher and classmates uncomfortable.
In order to select strategies that would work best to improve Michael's classroom behavior
and participation, it would be helpful to understand Michael's motivations. Michael spoke Spanish
for the first 12 years of his life; although he is conversationally fluent in English, having Basic
Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), there is probably a cognitive gap that keeps Michael
from being comfortable with academic English. Based on this assumption, I would use a few
strategies at once with Michael. One strategy would be to use a system of rewards and
punishments to condition Michael's behavior in the classroom. The exact nature of the rewards
and punishment would require a better familiarity with Michael than the scenario provides, but
which I would probably have as his regular teacher. Rewards for good behavior might involve
coupons that Michael could spend in an in-class "store" for tangible rewards. This is a popular
reward in lower grades, but could be made appealing for a teen. Punishments should include
removing Michael from the classroom when he becomes disruptive and placing him in a space
with no other students and no distractions except his class work. Many schools have short-term
isolation or detention rooms for this purpose. Another strategy would be to try to help Michael
bridge the gap between his conversational English and his academic English. Academic English is
different from conversational English, and it can be confusing for ELL students. Michael might
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need some sheltered instruction in English to scaffold him to the level of his classmates. It might
be helpful to enlist Michael's younger brother, Victor, to help Michael at home, as well. Michael
might be embarrassed to let his much younger sister, Sabrina, help him, both because of the age
difference and because of cultural issues regarding gender relations. A third strategy, which the
teacher has already tried without success, would be to involve Michael's parents in a discussion
with Michael about his behavior in class. Ms. Watkins might want to enlist the help of a Spanish
teacher to contact Michael's parents in case a language barrier is the reason she has been unable to
make contact with them. Depending on their English proficiency, they may feel intimidated by
speaking to an English language teacher.
In order to encourage Michael to complete and submit assignments on time, I would try to
engage Michael's internal motivation by having a frank discussion with him about why it is
important to do these things. This is a conversation I already have on a regular basis with my own
sons: explaining to them that they need to turn in work on time because they will need to have that
habit in the workplace. At a job, in the adult world, schedules and deadlines are definite, not
relative, and an employee who does not complete work on time will be fired. Since Michael
already has a job, I would use that to draw the parallels for him. I would also remind him that
failing in school and being held back can negatively impact future employment and earning
potential. The same conversation would also help encourage Michael to establish personal
learning goals, as higher learning is usually associated with better and more lucrative employment.
I would also seek to discover Michael's personal dreams and goals, and work the potential for
success in achieving his dreams and goals into the conversation.
Michael's parents should be involved in supporting Michael's learning goals. Ms. Watkins
needs to determine why they seem to be uninvolved. His parents can work with his employer to
give Michael more time for study and for remediation and tutoring. They can ensure that he
completes assignments, and that he takes completed assignments to school on time. They can talk
to Michael about how his behavior impacts his future prospects. Michael's siblings appear to have
adapted to the American school system better than Michael has done. If he is willing to have their
help, Victor and Sabrina can help Michael understand assignments, assuming that a cognitive gap
is contributing to him not completing assignments. They can also appeal to him as their big
brother, reminding him that he is the example they need to be able to follow, and that he needs to
set a good example for them in school.
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Scenario 4/11/2013
Last month, I participated in Career Day at my sons' school. I was a volunteer assigned
to assist a local yoga instructor who was presenting to the students. Each presenter was given a
classroom or other space, and the 7th grade students (for whom the event was given) each received
a "class" schedule for the morning. Each session was 20 minutes long, with a 5 minute break
between sessions for students to move between classrooms. The yoga presentation was set up in
the front of the library, in an area with many windows, that was partitioned off from the rest of the
library with temporary screens.
The yoga instructor had the students sit in a long oval on the floor while she spoke to
them for about 5 minutes about yoga and asked them what they already knew or thought about
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yoga. She then spent 10 minutes taking the students through a series of basic yoga exercises while
she moved among them, and ended by having the students lie still on their backs for 2 minutes
before teaching them a traditional word of parting used by yoga practitioners.
In the third session, there were two girls who talked to each other throughout the session.
They sat closer together than the instructor asked them to sit, and they were continually petting
and stroking each other's arms, shoulders, and backs during the session.
If this happened in my classroom when I was the teacher, I would want to stop the girls'
behavior without significantly disrupting the class, and without drawing undue attention to their
behavior. Public displays of affection, without regard to gender, are not permitted in the local
school. My first response, as I moved among the students, would be to very gently move the
students farther away from each other and to tell each one very quietly that the behavior was
unacceptable and needed to stop. If they returned to the behavior after I moved on to other
students, my next response would be to separate the girls entirely, quietly guiding one of them to
the far side of the room. If the students persisted by moving back together and resuming the
behavior, I would quietly escort them out of the room and send them to the office under the
supervision of whatever staff member or adult volunteer was available.
While the students were breaking a written rule of the school, if they responded
appropriately to the first intervention, I would not report the violation to the office unless the
administration or other appropriate authority asked me about it directly. At 12 years old,
hormones and emotions are confusing enough, and the recent publicity regarding marriage
equality and gay rights only adds to students' curiosity, so I would try to have some compassion if
they corrected their behavior. If I had to go to the second response and the students then
responded appropriately, I would hesitate to report the violation, but I would keep the students
after class to talk about the incident, to ask why they were behaving as they were, and to determine
whether they understood that they were breaking the rules. Depending on their responses and
attitudes, I might let it go, as above, or I might report the violation. If I had to resort to removing
the students from the class, there would certainly be a report and the students would face
disciplinary action from the office.
Chapter Three Case Study Scenarios April 15, 2013
Case studies:
Shelley teaches a 7th grade Math class at a small 7-12 school in a rural area of
Nebraska. The school she teaches at has a total student population of 185 students, and
her 7th grade math course includes every 7th grade student. As a result, she has a room
filled with various ability levels, from struggling through advanced. Her highest
achieving student Nathaniel is routinely bored with the lessons as his skill level is far
above the other students in the course. Shelley has tried a variety of techniques to engage
Nathaniel, and has spoken on multiple occasions with him about how impressed she is
with his abilities. Still, Nathaniel has become withdrawn and lately has even taken to
acting out in class, something that he never has done before.
Suzie teaches 5th grade math at a suburban elementary school. She prides
herself on her creativity in the classroom and constantly works to include paired and
group activities to keep her students engaged. Still, she has to lecture her students from
time to time and lately has found that her students seem bored or distant when she is
speaking in front of them. As a student, Suzie was always responsible and attentive so her
first reaction is to become frustrated with the work ethic of her students. Ultimately, she
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realizes that it is her professional responsibility to find ways of engaging her students
while also delivering the information she feels they need. On Wednesday, she plans on
lecturing her students for 30 minutes about how to calculate the area of shapes. Her
worry is that they will tune out again, and she will need to reteach the concepts later.
Shannon has been teaching elementary school math for twenty years and, over
time, she has developed her own methods of teaching, classroom management, and
planning. For the first time in her career, she is switching schools due to a transfer in her
husband’s employment and so will be starting fresh with a new group of teachers and a
new school. As part of the opening week of school, she will be meeting in a four hour
session with the other math teachers to discuss the year. She is anxious about how she
will fit in with them, both personally and professionally. As a result, she has been
preparing a list of questions that she can ask so as to ease her transition into the group.
She has mapped out her own first month of school, but she wants to map the curriculum
with her colleagues to make sure that they are unified as the school year begins.
Mike is a 9th grade English teacher at a city in downtown Phoenix. In his class
of 25 students, 22 have lived in Phoenix for their entire lives. As his third unit of the year,
Mike decides to read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck with his students and begins by
teaching his classes about farming and life on early 20th century ranches. He knows that
most of his students will not be familiar with the setting of the story: 1930’s rural
California farmland. He provides them with relevant vocabulary and prepares a
PowerPoint presentation that goes over the basics of John Steinbeck’s life and 1930’s
American history. He spends several days ensuring that his students know the meanings
of the words and gives them a quiz on the material on the 4th day. Nearly every student
fails. Mike is extremely disappointed by the results and decides to look back on his
planning to determine what went wrong.
Nathaniel is a high achieving student who is not being sufficiently challenged in
Shelley’s 7th grade math class in a rural Nebraska school. Shelley needs to discover strategies to
engage Nathaniel in her class. One strategy that Shelley might try is allowing Nathaniel to
accelerate beyond the rest of the class, working ahead in the textbook as far as he is able to go
without direct instruction. This is the exact method my 7th grade math teacher used when I was in
Nathaniel’s place. She allowed me to work ahead at my own rate as long as I continued to do A-
level work. I answered the problems presented at the end of each unit in the text to assess my
learning. A second method Shelley might try, which was also my own teacher’s second method
with me, would be to allow Nathaniel to help or tutor classmates who are falling behind the rest of
the class. Scaffolding his classmates’ learning will engage Nathaniel in the work the class is doing
and will also reinforce Nathaniel’s own learning. “The teacher skilled in differentiation taps those
students who have mastered a specific skill or concept as instructors and guides for those students
who need the knowledge of the group to scaffold their learning” (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab,
& Walton, 2012, p. 70). By having Nathaniel help instruct other students, Shelley would be using
differentiation to maximize learning in her classroom. A third method Shelley might use to
engage Nathaniel is to have a conversation with him about his role in her class. As her highest
achieving student, Nathaniel may be a role model for his classmates. If he begins to act out in
class, lower achieving students may follow his lead and act out as well. Shelley can impress upon
Nathaniel the need for him to continue to be a positive role model for the other students, thus
enlisting his support for her classroom management and for his classmates’ continued learning.
Suzie’s suburban 5th grade math class has trouble focusing on the lesson when direct
instruction by lecturing is required. A plane geometry lesson in calculating the area of shapes
gives Suzie the opportunity to use the strategy of including kinesthetic instruction with her lecture.
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Kajitani, et. al., (2012) recommend that teachers provide “ongoing opportunities for kinesthetic
learning” (p. 73). Instead of just lecturing at the front of the class while students take notes, Suzie
can have the students calculate the areas of shapes at their desks as she teaches each method. This
is one strategy that my geometry for elementary majors professor used during my freshman year
of community college. For each shape, the students should apply the teaching immediately and
calculate the area. Shapes may be drawn on worksheets, or manipulatives may be used to add
more kinesthetic learning to the lesson. Another strategy Suzie could use would be to connect the
area lesson to real life. “When students understand the ‘why’ of your lesson, they will engage
more fully and more deeply in the learning” (Kajitani, et. al., 2012, p. 73). Instead of just talking
about the areas of rectangles, Suzie might talk about finding out how much carpeting is needed to
cover the floor of a room. The area of a circle might become the amount of mulch needed for a
round flower bed. The specific examples should come from the students’ lives in order to tap their
prior knowledge and to engage their interest. A third strategy might be to change things up by
sending the students home with the lecture notes and a written assignment and then spending class
time going over the assignment to see what parts of the lesson the students understood and what
parts Suzie needs to review with the students. For the first two strategies, Suzie can use a
traditional, written assessment to find out whether the teaching strategy worked. She can have
students calculate the areas of shapes on a printed test, or she can have them complete a lab by
calculating the areas of various objects around the classroom. The third strategy has assessment
built in, since Suzie will go over the homework with the students and will learn right away
whether or not the students understand the work, allowing her to reteach immediately, if needed.
Shannon needs to learn to work with a new staff of teachers when she moves from one
school to another. She needs to find strategies to ensure alignment of her teaching practices with
the standards and with the other teachers at the new school. Shannon and her new colleagues
should spend part of their four-hour planning session discussing the content to be taught in each
grade. Shannon needs to be aware of what she is expected to teach her students. If possible,
Shannon might wish to review the lesson plans of her predecessor to find out what she should be
teaching, at what level, and at what pace. A second strategy Shannon and her colleagues might
use is to discuss the state and local standards that must be met, and how individual teaching
methods and methods of classroom management fit with the standards. Shannon needs to find out
whether her established methods are compatible with the requirements in her new school.
Shannon and her new colleagues should establish a written schedule for reviewing curriculum
mapping, and they should establish a standard format for presenting data to the group. Kajitani,
et. al., (2012) write that “all teachers must hold to the same data-collection timetable” (p. 77). A
third strategy would be for Shannon to be paired with a teacher who has been at the school for
some time and who can act as her mentor as she adjusts to the new school environment. This
mentor could answer Shannon’s questions about local standards and about any known background
on her students, their siblings, and their home situations, which can help Shannon transition into
the group of teachers. A mentor gives Shannon an anchor so she doesn’t feel adrift in her new
assignment until she can integrate herself with the faculty and the local school culture.
Mike’s attempt to prepare his 9th grade English class in Phoenix to understand the setting
for Of Mice and Men has not succeeded because he has failed to impress upon his students the
relevance of the lesson. Kajitani, et. al., (2012) write that “classroom success is predicated on
knowing as much as possible about your students: their interests, their learning styles, their prior
knowledge” (p. 63). As a constructivist teacher, Mike has failed to take into account his students
prior knowledge or, in this case, their lack of prior knowledge of the subject. Mike’s students are
from the desert, and they have no personal context for understanding rural Californian farm
country. According to constructivist theory, Mike needs to address the misconceptions his
students are likely to have about depression-era California farms. Mike might employ modern
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technology to take the students on a virtual tour of the setting for the book. He might have the
students view films taken in 1930s California to familiarize them with the difference between their
environment and Steinbeck’s setting. Mike needs to make the material relevant to the students,
and providing them with lifeless vocabulary and facts did not work with his students. In order to
better align with a constructivist philosophy of education, Mike needs to concentrate more on how
the students learn than on what they learn. “Good teaching can be as much
about unlearning as it is about learning—getting students to recognize and correct their
misconceptions” (Kajitani, et. al., 2012, p. 63). He needs to bridge his students’ cognitive gap as
he taps their prior knowledge and previous learning and corrects the misconceptions that block
them from acquiring new learning. Mike might invite speakers who remember the 1930s to speak
to the class, or he might try to arrange a field trip to a museum to give the students a better
understanding of the book. Mike needs to give special consideration to the students’ socio-
economic and cultural backgrounds that are very different from the socio-economic and cultural
backgrounds of Steinbeck’s characters and setting. Students in 21st century Phoenix are unlikely
to have an instinctive grasp of the conditions of life in rural California during the Great
Depression of the 1930s. When Mike makes the story and its setting relevant for the students,
they are more likely to understand the lesson.
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Chapter Three Synthesis April 15, 2013
The three learning theories are behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.
Behaviorism is concerned with how students interact with their environments, and it involves an
observable change in behavior to reflect learning. In behaviorism, students learn through a
combination of modeling, shaping, and cueing. Cognitivism is concerned with how students
think. It emphasizes meaningful effects and transfer effects that make information easier to learn
and that take into account students’ prior learning. Constructivism is concerned with effecting
changes in a student’s thought processes. Constructivist teachers are more concerned with how
students learn than by what they learn. Constructivism requires teachers to know their students’
backgrounds, both their home lives and cultural backgrounds and their backgrounds in prior
learning.
Differentiated learning is concerned with classrooms that include a range of student
ability levels and teaching each student well. Differentiated instruction is individualized to meet
the educational needs of each student, including individualized instruction and assessment.
Students in differentiated classrooms learn the relevance of the subjects, which helps them to learn
the subjects. Formative assessments help evaluate learning in a differentiated classroom, as does
allowing students to be creative in demonstrating their learning.
Teachers need to develop lesson plans. While teachers can work from existing plans,
each teacher develops plans that best suit the teacher, the students, and the lesson being taught.
Students need to know why a lesson is taught in order to be engaged with the lesson. Lesson plans
should make students be active, not passive, learners, and should enable students to apply their
learning after the lesson. Teachers should engage in curriculum mapping with colleagues to
ensure that questions are addressed, to ensure appropriate lesson content, to align with required
standards, and to maintain a timetable for assessment.
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Students require internal and external motivations to keep them engaged in learning.
Honest exchange of ideas and respect in the classroom help establish good relations between
teachers and students to foster learning. Students need to know the goals and relevance of
learning, how they will learn, and when and how learning will be assessed. Good classroom
management helps students stay on track to maximize learning. (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab,
& Walton, 2012).
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Scenario and Strategies 4/16/2013
During my freshman year of college, I worked as a tutor in the learning support
department of my community college. One of the jobs I would like to have in the future is
tutoring college students and adult learners, so this was useful experience for me. One of my
students was a man in his late 20s or early 30s who had been at the community college for over
five years, according to my supervisor. When he was assigned to me, he was taking a business
communications course. I had two significant issues while working with this student, each of
which could arise again in a future classroom or tutoring situation.
The first issue involved academic integrity. The student's writing skills were very
limited, and he had significant difficulties with spelling, punctuation, grammar, and cohesion in
his writing. Officially, I was assigned to tutor him to improve his writing skills. Unofficially, my
supervisor told me to do anything necessary to make him pass the course so he could move
forward. She said I should completely rewrite his work and have him turn in my writing as his, if
that was what it took. Doing this would have been a blatant violation of the school's academic
integrity policy, as it would have been bald-faced cheating. For several weeks, I tried to tutor the
student. I helped him revise his work, but I did not do it for him. Finally, under pressure to do the
student's work for him so he could pass the class, I reported the situation to the dean of students at
our college. Faculty and staff asking one student to cheat for another student is always
unacceptable, and must always be reported to the school's authorities as designated in the school
handbook or other policy document.
The second issue involved sexual harassment and stalking. As I was tutoring this
particular student, he began to make me uncomfortable. He would follow me in the corridors of
the school and he would be standing outside the door whenever I left a classroom. When I used
the library or the computer lab, he would sit or stand across from me and just stare at me, even if I
changed seats. I asked him to leave me alone outside our tutoring sessions. On several occasions,
he approached me and made up-and-down hand gestures near his groin, asking me personal
questions associated with the gesture. I asked him to stop and told him I was uncomfortable.
Several times, I reported this behavior to my supervisor and she told me he was a special needs
student and that I needed to give him leeway. I asked to be relieved of my assignment with the
student, and my request was granted. The behavior continued to escalate. Finally, with the
support of a professor, I went to the dean's office to report the behavior. The dean interviewed
quite a few witnesses, including other women who had experienced the same behavior from the
student and the same reaction from the supervisor. The student was instructed to stay at least 10
feet away from me in the corridors and not to be in a classroom with me (we did not share any
classes); if he failed to comply, he would be expelled immediately.
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I am satisfied with my responses to the two issues, and I would respond the same way
again if I was asked by my school's administration (the equivalent of my tutoring supervisor) to
cheat for a student. If a student, regardless of gender, stalked me as a teacher and/or practiced
sexual harassment , then the first response is to ask the student to stop. The next response is to
report the behavior to the designated authority at the school. In rare cases, it may be necessary to
report escalating behavior to law enforcement. If the student is a minor, it is appropriate to add the
step of addressing the behavior with the parents before reporting it to the school authorities, unless
the behavior poses imminent danger that precludes taking the time for the extra step. In that case,
the parents must be notified as soon as possible.
A student does not have to be an adult to pose a danger to a teacher or to a classmate.
The same responses I would use for stalking and sexual harassment also apply to bullying. Any
behavior that produces an uncomfortable or fearful school environment for students, teachers,
staff, or others in the school environment must be addressed before the behavior escalates to acts
of violence.
Anna Martin 4/17/2013
Part One
Anna Martin is a young teacher, in her second year of teaching and first year in a second
grade class. She has had great success working with students and she makes great connections
with her students.
On Monday, Anna found her district benchmark scores in her mailbox. These district
benchmark tests are given three times a year, and they measure student growth on a series of
standards based areas. The benchmark assessments include a math test, a special math problem
solving assessment, a long reading exam, and a writing prompt. In her report she found a set of
charts with all the students’ scores in columns across the page. The writing scores, however,
weren’t on the chart because the teachers will be scoring those at the next staff meeting.
The charts are an array of colors; with red scores indicating students who are below
target, green for those who have made the district target, and blue for those students who are
working above grade level. Unfortunately, this time there is much more red and it seems like the
students didn’t make “district growth.”
Part Two
Anna decided to take the benchmark scores home and look for signs of hope. The district
gave her an Excel file and her first step was to sort the students from highest score to lowest.
“What will sorting do for me?” she asked. She already had the students organized in
reading and math groups by their academic levels. But she remembered how huge the chart
seemed. She feels a bit overwhelmed and wondered if there was better way to organize this list.
Part Three
Anna decided to focus on one area, the reading test. First, she sorted the students by
overall reading score. By doing so, she saw some persistent problems: Vocabulary and Word
Analysis, or for another group of students, problems in Reading Comprehension, and for some
students they showed problems in both areas.
For the past two months, Anna has followed the district adopted text book and put
students in small reading groups based on reading level. The groups had worked through the
intervention materials. The textbooks seemed to only ask the students comprehension questions
that asked the students to answer questions about what happened.
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Anna looks at the Excel file and realized that the district test didn’t tell her anything
except which student was low, which was high, or who was in-between. She wondered how she
could get more information about how her students were trying to comprehend this material.
Part Four
Anna decided she needed to get the students more directly involved. She wondered if she
was using the teacher’s edition too much and thought about how she was responding when
students made mistakes. She had posted the reading strategies on a wall she pointed to them when
they made a mistake, and told them to focus on the skills. She told them a lot what they were doing
right and what they were doing wrong.
She thought about what else in the past month she could have done to see these patterns
emerging. Lastly, before heading for the solace of a frozen yogurt, she wondered what her
students would think, if anything, if she asked them about these results.
The assessment Anna has received is a benchmark assessment. Its value lies in its ability
to show Anna how her students perform relative to the grade-level expectations for the subjects
represented. Anna can use the assessment to determine which students are at, above, or below
grade level in specific subjects, and can use this information to adjust her teaching to bring all of
the students up to or above grade level.
The feedback on a benchmark assessment is intended for the teacher. The assessments
are "given at set times through the year to determine progress to date on key standards or long
term learning goals" (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab & Walton, 2012, p. 95).
According to the case study, Anna has her students grouped by academic levels in
reading and math. In order to make better use of the math scores on the benchmark assessment,
she might sort the math scores according to these preset groups of students to determine whether
or not the students are grouped appropriately. She could use the results of such a sorting to adjust
the composition of the students' ability groups.
The final result Anna is probably trying to achieve is using the assessment results to
improve the effectiveness of her teaching and to ensure that all of her students meet or exceed
expectations for the year.
Some of the underlying causes that might have caused the particular results for Anna's
students might include multiple intelligences, the structure of instruction in the classroom, and
Anna's attention to district standards in her teaching. Multiple intelligences among students can
produce skewed test results for auditory and kinesthetic learners, who do not always perform as
well as visual learners on written tests. Other forms of assessment might be more accurate
evaluations of the learning of these students. As a new teacher, Anna might need to rethink the
way she presents information in the classroom to help her students understand and retain the
information. If more students than previously are below grade level so that the students are not
achieving district growth, Anna might need to review the district's standards and to adjust her
lesson plans to better align with the district. Other considerations might be external to the
classroom, as with students in recent crisis situations resulting from the Sandy Hook Elementary
shootings or the Boston Marathon explosions. A large number of students in a class might have
lower than expected scores if testing occurs soon after a local or regional trauma, simply because
they are hurt, afraid, or otherwise distracted. In reviewing the assessment results, Anna should
consider whether this is a possible factor.
It might be helpful for Anna to consider what proportion of her students have IEPs, are
GATE or ELL students, are from refugee or itinerant families, or have suffered a recent trauma, as
above. Most of these factors should already be available to Anna, and the rest should be available
from the office or the counseling office. Past scores for individual students might also be useful, if
available, and should be in student files or in the office.
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To find out what she should be teaching her students, Anna should check with other
teachers on her team and in the school, as well as with the district. District and local standards
should be available to help Anna realign her teaching as needed. Anna should also be using a
variety of formative assessments in the classroom to track her students' learning and to help her
make adjustments in her teaching to keep all of her students at or above grade level.
If I was helping Anna, I might ask her how the distribution of scores on the benchmark
assessment aligns with her current grouping of students by academic levels? What additional
instruction or scaffolding might be needed for students with low test results to bring them up to the
level of district growth?
If Anna speaks with her students about the assessment results, as I believe she should do,
she might want to ask the students whether they are surprised by their test results, and whether it is
a good surprise or a bad surprise. Her students are very young, so it is essential to keep the
concepts and language of such questions simple, but second grade students should be able to tell
their teacher whether they think they are doing well or poorly, and what they think might help
them learn more effectively. These are questions Anna could ask her students.
Before the next district benchmark, Anna might gather evidence of student learning in the
form of student portfolios and interactive student logs. These alternative forms of assessment are
likely to provide a more accurate picture of how the students are performing, and it levels the field
a bit for students who are strong learners but who are not strong visual learners or takers of
standardized tests.
The most important information Anna can get from her teammates at tomorrow's meeting
is a better understanding of district and local standards. It might also be useful to learn whether
her students' results are similar to or different from the results in other second grade classrooms,
and how her students compare to other grades in the school in relation to district growth. As a
new teacher, Anna can also get advice from more experienced teachers about ways of improving
her students' performance on the next district benchmark.
In regard to standardized testing in general, while I appreciate the value of measuring
benchmarks, I do not feel that standardized tests are a good measure of actual learning because of
the many factors that such tests cannot measure. I think Anna should take the benchmark
assessment as an indicator of student achievement in the measured areas, but that she should not
take it as the sole authority on her students' learning. She should rely more heavily on a variety of
formative and summative assessments in her classroom for that.
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Chapter Four Synthesis April 19, 2013
Assessment, whether formative or summative is essential to teaching because it helps
teachers, administrators, parents, and students understand what the students have learned, what the
students still need to learn, and how teaching should be adjusted to help the students learn. The
key elements of assessment are balance, purpose, and neutrality. Balance is achieved by using a
variety of kinds of assessment to get a clear picture of learning. Purpose is essential because each
assessment must have a clear purpose for it to be used. Neutrality ensures that each student is
assessed without bias on the part of the teacher or the administration so that intentional or
inadvertent discrimination is avoided. Assessment is feedback, and it may be intended to inform
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the student, the teacher, the district, or the parents; each intended audience requires a different
form of feedback. Feedback to students must be constructive, and it must support communication
between the student and the teacher.
Assessment plans are designed from the top down, beginning at the district and
culminating in the classroom. Assessment helps teachers formulate learning goals for students.
Teachers need to give students clear examples of what students are expected to produce for
assessment. Learning goals are then used to create meaningful assessments, and then the results of
the assessments must be clearly communicated. Including students in designing assessments
empowers them. Backward design of assessments starts with the assessment and then builds
curriculum planning to support the assessment. Instruction requires understanding what is to be
learned, learning the required skills, and then applying the learning.
Standardized testing helps educators make decisions to improve student learning.
Benchmark testing helps teachers track how their students compare to grade level expectations at
set points through the year and to adjust teaching accordingly. Standardized testing is extremely
expensive, and it covers only a small portion of student learning; it cannot measure many types of
learning. (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012).
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Chapter Four Case Study Scenarios April 22, 2013
Case studies:
Eileen teaches elementary school math at a small school near Burlington, Vermont. Most
of her students come from wealthy families who live in suburban Burlington and who come to
class very prepared skill-wise for the teaching that takes place in her classroom. As a final
project, she wants each of her students to present one of the concepts from the term to the rest
of the students. Within their presentation, she wants each student to define the concept, give
an example of it, and present a real world situation where the concept would be useful. She
also asks each student to speak for at least two minutes. When she assigns the presentation,
she wants to be certain that students understand the requirements of the assignment and how
specifically they will be assessed. She also wants parents involved throughout the entire
process.
Kate teaches at a Kindergarten near Boston at a school that serves one corner of
Boston’s downtown population. Most of the students in her all day class are African-
American and the school itself is located downtown and surrounded by the Boston cityscape.
With Thanksgiving approaching, Kate wants to devote time in class to the history of
Thanksgiving and how the holiday relates to American history. On one specific day of class,
she decides to focus on the importance of the first meal. As one element of her instruction, she
plans to teach students how to create turkeys using their hands.
Megan teaches a sixth grade art class in a small school near Austin, TX. Most of her
classes have 15-20 students of varied skill levels, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds.
Some of access to computers and technology, but many live in homes where technology is not
readily accessible. She wants to find a way to embrace the varied backgrounds of her students
in a project, and begins planning a multimedia project that requires students to share a
specific element of their culture with the class in a 2-3 minute presentation. While she wants
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every student to put in the same amount of work, she also wants to give students a choice of
projects. In all cases, she wants all presentations to include a creative visual element of some
kind, a short speech that details how this element of each student’s culture has impacted them
individually, and a brief history/timeline of the cultural element.
Kevin is a middle school U.S. History teacher in a suburban school near Philadelphia.
Many of his students are children of Professors or other employees of nearby Penn
University. As a result, many of his students have already been introduced to the many
historic sights in and around Philadelphia. As a project to finish the quarter, Kevin wants to
have each student visit a local historical landmark and teach the class about it. Before they
present to the entire class, he wants to make sure that they are prepared and that they have a
chance to practice their presentation. Specifically, he wants to make sure that all students are
prepared to talk about the landmark’s history, their experience visiting it, and that they sound
professional and prepared. Unfortunately, he does not have class time to listen to every
student in class to make sure they are prepared.
In order to ensure that her students are prepared to present one of the math concepts from
the year to the rest of the class, Eileen needs to give her students at least three specific resources.
The most obvious resource Eileen can provide is the text book that she used for the course. Each
student can refer to the text for explanations of the concepts that have been covered in the class. A
second resource Eileen can make available is the Internet. Students can access the Internet at
school if they do not have access at home. There are many websites that offer math concepts and
examples that the students might use. One example of such a website is Math Goodies (2013) at
http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/toc_vol3.html. A third resource Eileen could provide for
the students would be access to art supplies and various manipulatives in the classroom that the
students could use to produce visual aids to demonstrate the math concepts. As the students
present their projects, Eileen can be certain she is actually assessing what she claims to be
assessing by using a rubric that she has provided to and explained to her students before the
beginning of the project. A rubric is “a set of grading descriptions organized by a scoring scale,
detailing a hierarchy of achievement” (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012, p. 99).
Using a rubric removes subjectivity and potential teacher biases from the grading of the projects.
Eileen can also use the rubrics to give the students specific feedback on their presentations. She
can do this by writing her observations on the rubric during each presentation, and then having a
one-on-one conference with each student after all of the presentations are completed to discuss the
student’s rubric and Eileen’s observations about his or her presentation. Another option would be
to write observations on each rubric and hand the rubrics back to the students with their
presentation grades and written feedback, similar to the way many Ashford professors use rubrics
to provide specific feedback to students.
Kate wants to have her kindergarten class create hand turkeys as part of a unit on the
history of Thanksgiving. As a pre-assessment of the students’ knowledge, Kate could ask her
students what a turkey looks like. Based on the age of her students, she might prompt them to
describe a turkey’s head and neck, its body, its legs, and its tail. While the work is being
completed, Kate should move about the room and look at the turkeys that the students are
producing. Kate might have all of the students use one method of making a hand turkey, or she
might invite creativity by suggesting several methods. For example, Kate might have each student
trace his or her hand on a sheet of paper, with the fingers spread out, and then color the thumb to
be the turkey’s head and color the fingers to be the feathers of the turkey’s tail. Another option
would be the have each student use poster paint to make a handprint on a sheet of paper, with the
fingers spread out as before, and then to paint the details of the turkey on the handprint. A third
option would be to have each student trace his or her hand three times (once each on three
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different colors of paper), spread as before, and then cut out the hand shapes and glue them to a
sheet of paper to form a fan of feathers, then cut a circle to glue on for the body and other shapes
to glue on for other details as desired. A summative assessment should involve a simple rubric
that Kate explained to her students at the start of the project. If all of the students were to use one
method, the rubric could indicate how they followed directions, how neat their work was, and
whether they completed all aspects of the project. If greater freedom of creativity was allowed,
then the rubric should include all of those aspects plus a section related to creative expression.
In order to include a creative visual element, a discussion of the element’s importance,
and a brief history/timeline of the cultural element, Megan might offer her students three specific
choices for their art projects. One choice might be to create a poster or multi-media collage that
presents aspects of the student’s particular culture. Megan could encourage her students to include
images that create a timeline or suggest a historical narrative from past to present in the poster or
collage. The student could then present the piece to the class, pointing out each part of the piece
while talking briefly about how each element of the culture represented on the poster has impacted
the student. A second choice might be to construct a model or a diorama that shows the history of
a culture or a cultural element. A then-and-now model might be a good project. Again, the
student can point out the differences between past and present while explaining how the cultural
element impacts his or her life. A third choice might be to make a video using digital devices such
as cell phones, tablets, or video cameras, which might belong to the school or to individual
students or their families. The students could then include costumes, music, and dance to present
their cultures. The speech might be included as the narrative on the video, which would be helpful
for students who might be uncomfortable talking in front of a group of people but might be able to
talk to a camera or recording device.
Kevin needs to find a way to let his students practice their presentations about the historic
sites of the Philadelphia area without using the class time to hear each student practice
individually. The best solution to this would be to use student pairs or groups of no more than
four students each. Within each group or pair, each student could give his or her presentation to
the other members of the group. The students should use the same rubric that will be used for the
official presentations to assess the practice presentations. By using groups or pairs, Kevin can
drastically reduce the amount of class time because several students are practicing their
presentations at one time. The only drawbacks to this are that students may be distracted by other
presentations going on at the same time and students might not be able to practice the appropriate
vocal volume when practicing in small groups. If Kevin has access to a space where the groups
could be spread out more, such as a gym, that might help. In good weather, he might take the
class outdoors to reduce the distraction of too many voices practicing in an enclosed space at one
time. Kevin might take advantage of this sort of group practice session to do a peer review
assessment. Kajitani, et. al. (2012), explain the peer review assessment: “Pairs or groups of
students are graded not on the task but on how well the group followed the process and provided
supportive, helpful feedback” (p. 107). The peer review is not part of or essential to the final
presentations, but Kevin should not waste the opportunity to assess the students’ ability to work
together and to support each other. At the end of the group practice, each student should have one
or more rubrics with specific feedback from his or her peers from which he or she can improve the
presentation that will be made to the whole class.
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone
in education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Math Goodies. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/toc_vol3.html
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Joseph Hanson 4/24/2013
Overview:
Joseph Hanson lives in a small community in southern California with a school
district that serves approximately 4800 students. He is a parent of two boys and one girl.
His oldest son is academically gifted and filled with a love of learning that’s evident
regardless of who his teacher has been along the way. His daughter is academically
satisfactory but has found great success as a three sport athlete in high school. While she
has yet to connect with her teachers in a way that challenges her, the coaches in all three
of her sports have acted as terrific mentors as they encourage her to pursue athletics at
the college level. Joseph has been pleased with the success of his oldest son and
daughter, but his concerns and energy have been focused on his youngest son Kyle.
Along with his wife he has been actively engaged in his education and has worked
diligently to support the educational progress of all students as they volunteers on a
weekly basis at school. Joseph and his wife had hoped that their presence on campus
would allow them to develop meaningful partnerships with the staff in a way that would
lead to better support for Kyle, but unfortunately that has not been the case.
Problem
Kyle, while struggling academically, would not be a student that you might
classify as “special needs.” Because of this, he has not qualified for any special
interventions. All of his teachers have felt that he is the cusp of proficiency and will most
likely make it. The problem is that he never does. He is the classic case of a sub-
satisfactory student academically that masquerades as “proficient”. After numerous
appeals to support Kyle and students like him are ignored, Joseph decides to attend a
school board meeting in search of answers.
Upon attending the school board meeting, Joseph receives a copy of the
district’s strategic plan. He reads about the priorities to support gifted students in
gaining scholarships to college, and plans to improve all athletic facilities in a way that
“can make our town proud!” As the board meeting gets underway, the agenda that has
been advertised to the community focusing on the new district’s bullying policy and data
driven intervention plan, has now been replaced with a single topic agenda dedicated to
approving the new salary increase for all district staff members. Joseph leaves the
meeting appalled. He goes out in search of answers to questions like:
How are citizens with no understanding about education elected in the first
place?
What is expected to take place at a board meeting and how much can a citizen
expect to be accomplished by a district whose board meets once a month?
What steps can a parent take to be a part of school-wide solutions at the site
level?
After participating on a school site council for a year, Joseph has decided that his
role on the council is simply to approve budgets that the principal and district were
supportive of in the first place. Because of his lack of fulfillment in the process, he
decides to run for the school board. His positive spirit resonates with the community as
the vast majority of the voters select him as the newest member of the board of five.
From the beginning of his term in office, Joseph’s proposals to his colleagues as well
as district office personnel appeared to be ignored. His suggestions about how to offer
more autonomy to the seven schools within his district are replaced with ideas on how to
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mandate uniform steps to ensure that all teachers within each school are participating in
the same curriculum that are aligned to state standards. In spite of the data that shows
that this approach has not worked for the last 15 years, the subjective opinions of the rest
of the board always win over. It hasn’t taken long for him to notice that there are no
specific methods for how decisions are made by the board, and he is surprised at how
willing the superintendent is to go along with the recommendations of the elected
officials.
During a private conversation over breakfast, the superintendent confides in Joseph
about his frustration with the board. He shares of the progressive ideas that he has for
the district and about the steps that he wants to take to develop exceptional success for
every student. Finally, this well educated superintendent with a doctorate degree shares
that he is considering leaving the district in search of a venue that might allow him to be
more progressive and move beyond the small town politics that are encouraging
mediocrity. He shares about his exhaustion in dealing with the day to day scandals,
complaints, and politics of education. He, like Joseph, wants to be a part of a community
in search of better ways to support their neediest students through approaches that are
focused on data and results.
Joseph Hanson wants to find better ways to support the neediest students in a school
district that places most of its focus on college-bound GATE students and on athletic programs.
One of the most obvious issues at the district level is the lack of focus on meeting the needs of all
students in the district. Joseph has appealed to the school repeatedly to support Kyle and other
students who are struggling but who do not qualify for extra support as special needs students.
The school's inability or refusal to address the problem is another issue, which appears to exist at
both the local level and the district level. The school board's inability or unwillingness to stick to
an agenda that addresses bullying and intervention, instead focusing on salary increases for district
staff, is another issue. Salaries belong on the agenda, but should have been scheduled on the
published agenda, not allowed to usurp the time allotted for the important issue of bullying. The
problems Joseph observes on the local and district levels appear to stem from a greater interest in
serving the needs and wants of the board and the staff than in serving the needs of the students in
the schools. There is a sense of complacency in the scenario, which can lead to administrative
inertia in which no one with the power to effect change expends the effort needed to do so.
One of the key issues that are impeding the success that Joseph and the Superintendent
want for the community is the desire of the board to keep all of the schools on exactly the same
path together, without allowing individual schools to creatively form cultures that respond to the
needs of their students. Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, and Walton (2012) write that "[t]here is
no one-size-fits-all model in schooling ... [and] [b]efore a school can be innovative, it must first
adopt a spirit of innovation" (p. 133). The school board and the district staff appear to believe the
one-size model works in the district; they lack the spirit of innovation that is needed to allow them
to embrace the changes that Joseph and the Superintendent wish to make. Another key issue is the
sense of defeatism exhibited by the Superintendent. He has given up trying to change things in his
district and is considering moving out of the area and leaving the mess for the next
Superintendent. Until that move happens, the Superintendent is giving in to the board, rather than
exerting any leadership or authority to guide the board toward making progressive decisions in the
best interests of the students.
Because this board is absent of any systems that guide their decision making, one of the
first protocols I would set up is a list of rules regarding how agendas are set up and how they are
followed, to prevent board members replacing agenda items at will.
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To generate and implement forward thinking solutions for the district, I would bring
several stakeholders into the mix. I would try to bring in representatives of the PTA/PTO to
represent the concerns of the parents in the district. As has been done in our local school district, I
would bring in a student representative from the student government of each school to represent
the interests of the students and to offer a uniquely fresh perspective on the issues facing the
schools. If bullying and other violent activities are a problem in the district, I might try to bring in
a law enforcement representative.
If I was Joseph, I would respond to the Superintendent's frustration and consideration to
leave the district by encouraging the Superintendent to stay at his post. I would encourage him to
stop taking a passive role with the board, and to start being proactive for the students and teachers
in the district. I would point out to the Superintendent the many parents and community members
who share his vision for progressive change, and I would encourage him to network with those
community members and groups that support forward thinking in the schools. I would remind
him that by leaving the district he would not solve any of the problems, but would leave all of the
problems for his successor and would empower the local and district representatives to continue
their myopic approach of forcing the schools of the district into an unproductive lockstep.
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Case Study Scenarios 4/24/2013
Case Studies:
Simon teaches 11th grade English in a wealthy community outside of New York
City. He has taught at the same school for ten years, and has increasingly found
technology to be a frustration in the classroom. At this point, all of his students have cell
phone, iPods, or both. While he does his best to monitor their use in the classroom, he
knows he is not always able to catch students sending text messages or using the internet
during class. He has become increasingly frustrated and fed up with the amount of
instructional time lost to these devices. Recently, a colleague mentioned to him that the
technology in his classroom might actually be used for good. He has never considered
this notion, instead focusing on the distractive nature of the devices. Simon begins to
think of ways to harness the power of technology in his classroom and decides to try to
include elements of social networking in his unit on The Great Gatsby.
He assigns each student a character and has them create a Facebook page for
the character, complete with their background information and interests. He then asks
the characters to interact via Facebook, even going so far as to have them use their cell
phones in class to update the pages. To Simon, the results are incredible. His students
are engaged and their posts are thoughtful and reflect an understanding of the text. He
hears students in the hallway talking about the book in a way he never has before. As a
result, he is shocked when he returns to his classroom and finds a message from an irate
parent who is furious that he is letting students use their phones during class. In the
message, the parent tells him that he will be meeting with the Principal to discuss
Simon’s unprofessionalism.
Matt teaches U.S. History at Brookville East High School outside of Nashville,
TN. Brookville is known for its boys’ basketball team, a tradition that dates back to the
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1970’s when their superstar Guard led the team to four straight state championships.
This year, the team has been getting a lot of publicity, mainly because the son of that
1970’s star has just begun his high school basketball career. He has also started his
high school academic career, and he is in Matt’s 5th period class. After two quarters of
class, the student/athlete in question is failing Matt’s class as the basketball season
begins. With progress reports on the horizon, Matt knows that a failing grade would
leave the student ineligible to compete. The student, his parents, and at least one
administrator have made it clear that they expect him to pass. In one particularly tense
phone exchange, the student’s father implied that he would have Matt fired if his son was
ineligible because of his class.
With two weeks until progress reports, suggest a course of action that Matt can
take to ensure that he is fulfilling his role as a mentor and educator.
I absolutely love Simon's The Great Gatsby project, and I plan to incorporate it into my
lesson plans when I am teaching. That said, teachers face angry responses from parents all the
time. In this case, as is often the case, the parent's anger appears to be based on a
misunderstanding of what Simon is doing with the class. First, Simon needs to contact the
principal, explain tell him or her about the parent's message, and make sure the principal is fully
aware of Simon's project on Facebook. After that, Simon needs to talk to the parent to explain the
project and to clear up the misunderstanding, while at the same time preserving the parent's
dignity and not allowing the parent to look foolish for his anger. Depending on how the message
was received, Simon might choose to call the parent or to suggest a face-to-face meeting to discuss
the parent's concerns and to explain the project.
To prove the instructional value of the assignment and to justify his use of technology,
Simon can do several things. First, he can show how the project is in alignment with the district
and state standards. Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, and Walton (2012) write: "Policies that align
to a set of goals or strategic plans are those that sharpen the focus of a district and make it easier
for all involved to get on board" (p. 130). Similarly, Simon can show that his project aligns with
standards, which should help the angry parent get on board with the project. Another way Simon
could justify the Facebook assignment would be to give the class a written assessment of the
course material that was addressed using the Facebook project and then use the scores to show that
the students have successfully learned the material. Simon should also take the parent on a virtual
tour of the class's Facebook pages and posts, if possible, to demonstrate the level of engagement
and critical thought exhibited by the students.
Before beginning the Facebook project for The Great Gatsby, Simon should have sent a
note to parents, explaining what the project entailed and how it would be done. This is how my
sons' school handles projects. The teachers send out emails to the parents that explain exactly
what the students will be doing, how they will be doing it, and what they are expected to get out of
the project. In case parents don't have access to email, a paper copy is also sent home with the
students. In many cases, the parents are required to sign a slip and send it back to school to
confirm that they have received the information. Then, updates on projects are included in the
weekly team updates that are sent to all parents by email. If Simon had notified his students'
parents about the project, he could have avoided misunderstandings, confusion, and anger. If a
particular parent had a really strong reason for objecting to the project, that parent's child could
have been given traditional reading and writing assignments. I have seen students in our schools
recused from certain projects on philosophical grounds, and I have even recused my own sons
from certain projects a few times; alternative assignments have always been provided to
accommodate these situations.
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Matt is facing pressure to engage in social promotion. As a teacher who has encountered
similar pressures, I feel strongly about this scenario. With two weeks until progress reports, Matt
needs to work quickly to help his student/athlete catch up with the rest of the class. Matt needs to
make it clear to the student, the parents, and the administration that social promotion is
unacceptable. In order to help the student, he needs to work out a schedule of tutoring with the
student. This might mean the student has to miss practice sessions with the team in order to get
the work done. Matt should talk to the student's coach and impress upon the coach that the student
will be unable to participate in sports with a failing grade. Matt can enlist the coach to help
encourage the student to do the work that is needed to bring up his grades as well as he can. Matt
should encourage the coach to excused missed practice sessions "for the good of the team," which
is a concept most coaches will understand. If the student has missing assignments, Matt can work
out a schedule for the student to get those assignments in while making sure the student
understands that he will have to accept reduced credit due to tardiness, but that reduced credit is
always better than a zero.
Matt should be respectful when speaking with the threatening parent, but he should be
clear and firm in regard to academic integrity and not yielding to pressure to engage in social
promotion. The parent's threat is designed to intimidate; in reality, it is unlikely that the parent
could get Matt fired for adhering to the school's grading policies. Matt should certainly contact
the school district's legal office to discuss the parent's threat. He should also contact the principal
or, if the principal is the administrator who is pressuring Matt to pass the student, he should
contact the district superintendent. He should also report the pressure from an administrator to the
appropriate authority in the district. Matt should interact with the student in such a way as to
convey to the student that he should expect as much help as he needs, but that he should not
expect special treatment based on his or his father's athletic achievements. The student should be
required to meet all of the same standards as the other students in regard to attendance,
punctuality, participation, and completion of assignments. It must be made clear to the student
that he cannot play basketball if he fails a class, and that it is up to him to earn passing grades that
will not be given to him unearned.
This is a difficult situation because Matt is being threatened and he may find himself
temporarily unpopular if he holds his ground, but academic integrity must be maintained for the
sake of all of the students who do not have famous parents or athletic prowess to recuse them from
doing the work needed to pass their classes. The student will learn a very valuable life lesson if
Matt holds him to the rules and academic standards of the school, and the school will survive
having the student miss a basketball game if he doesn't do the work and bring up his grades.
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone in
education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Critical Reflection
April 24, 2013
The interdisciplinary capstone course has been interesting. It has challenged me to think
deeply about the challenges that face teachers and that I may expect to face in my future career as
a teacher. The most engaging assignments of the course have been the scenarios that I have
related from my own teaching experiences. Each of these assignments has had personal
significance for me, since each assignment drew directly from my own memories, and my
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personal investment in the assignments has engaged me to examine the events more deeply than I
had done previously.
I never felt a moment during this class when I was more distant than t any other time. I
have been impressed with the supportive interaction of the students, and I have felt like part of the
group, insofar as it is possible to be part of a group in a five week, online class.
The only assignment that has caused me any real confusion is the final paper, which I
have yet to compose. I understand the parameters of the assignment, but I feel some confusion
about how to go about writing it. The capstone essay is a different format than I have encountered
before, as it has a prescribed number of paragraphs and a prescribed content for each paragraph.
This is a challenge, however, not a problem, and I will find a solution. I did encounter some
confusion in regard to APA formatting and parenthetical citations on specific papers. These were
very specific situations, and I was able to approach my professor with a degree of professionalism
to sort out the confusion. It is good to be able to articulate a concern and to be able to resolve the
concern without undue emotionalism, and I hope to carry that habit with me as I continue into my
teaching career. I will certainly remember the way in which my concerns were addressed, and I
will seek to emulate my professor when similar misunderstandings arise with my own students.
Along with the resolutions of misunderstandings that I have already described, I will
most remember the many discussions about the uniqueness of each student, and the need to
differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each student. In the midst of this course, I had
occasion to spend a full day at a local elementary school for a school festival. I was a member of a
group of presenters on the culture of Revolutionary War-era America, and we had three make-and-
take stations in our classroom. I was in charge of talking about colonial education, and I was to
have each student make a horn book out of construction paper. This involved each student
printing the alphabet. Two third-grade students were unable to recite or print the alphabet, so I
gave each of them a sheet with the alphabet printed on it; they were each able to copy the printed
sheet. As I worked through the day, and especially with these two students, I kept thinking about
this course and what we have learned about special needs students, differentiation, and
engagement. I will carry those ideas with me to use in future classrooms.
I am generally satisfied with my work in this course. I have endeavored, as always, to be
thorough in responding to discussion prompts, and I have been pleased by the opportunities for
critical thought. Based on the entries in the grade book, I have excelled in most of my
assignments; I could have been more careful with my word choices in my first written assignment
for the course. I have enjoyed my interactions with my professor and with my classmates on the
discussion board, and I have appreciated reading their different views of the situations we have
discussed. I look forward to applying my learning from this course to my real life work as a
teacher in a classroom.
Week Five Capstone Essay April 29, 2013
In studying to become a teacher, I have learned many lessons about learners, about
education, about teaching, and about myself. There are many kinds of learners, each of whom
brings a unique combination of intelligences, learning styles, interests, and backgrounds into the
classroom. There are also many types of education, including behaviorist models, cognitive
models, and constructionist models. Teaching may be approached with the student in mind, with
the final or benchmark assessment in mind, or with federal, state, and district standards in mind;
the best teaching takes all of these factors into account. Learning about me and about my role as a
teacher has been challenging. It has brought with it a deeper understanding of my motivations for
590 A Journey Through My College Papers
teaching and of my personal beliefs in regard to teaching. Through discussions of my past
experiences with issues that teachers face on a day-to-day basis in classrooms from preschool
through post-graduate programs, and through analyses of a variety of case studies involving
elementary and secondary school issues, I have gained a deeper understanding of and appreciation
for the challenges and the rewards of teaching. Each student is unique, each classroom is unique,
and each teacher is unique. I am no exception to this rule, but this class has helped me to draw in
the experience of other teachers so that my unique approach to teaching will also include proven
techniques and will integrate the methods of past teachers in a way that will best serve the interests
of my students, of my community, and of me. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss what we
know about learning, what we know about learners, what we know about teaching, what we know
about assessment, and what we know about schooling, and I will connect these areas of knowledge
to my own learning and to my career goals. It is through a clear understanding of what is known
about learning, learners, teaching, assessment, and schooling that I gain the knowledge necessary
to be an effective teacher in twenty-first century America.
No two students learn in precisely the same way. Many factors contribute to the
individual uniqueness of a student, including the student’s home environment and culture, past
experiences, sense of personal identity, and the physical development of the student’s brain. A
student’s culture includes not only racial or ethnic considerations, but also the student’s socio-
economic status, emotional baggage created by experiences in the student’s life, and even the
generation in which he or she grew up. By developing relationships with students and by
effectively communicating with students and maintaining consistency in the classroom, teachers
are able to help students overcome the challenges to learning that they bring into the classroom
and help engage them in learning by tapping into their prior knowledge to help them build new
knowledge. As a future college teacher, I can expect to have students from different generations
in my classes, and understanding the differences among baby boomers, generation Xs, millennials,
and net generation students will be essential to effective teaching and classroom management.
Each of these groups will have different ways of thinking and of dealing with authority, work
ethic, scholarship, and personal responsibility and entitlement. I will need to find creative ways to
use information technologies to facilitate the learning of my students.
Along with differences among generations and differences in cultures and in personal
experiences among students, teachers need to be aware that students can be sorted into three
learning groups: visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. Effective teachers
create a print-rich classroom environment and use color-coding, illustrations, charts, and diagrams
to support visual learners. They read aloud, include music in lessons, and provide opportunities
for student discussions to support auditory learners. They provide opportunities for students to
move around the classroom and provide hands-on projects and activities to support kinesthetic
learners. As a teacher, it will be important for me to be aware of these learning styles, and to
watch for cues from my students to help me give them to support they need to facilitate their
learning. In addition to supporting students’ varied learning styles, effective teachers tap into
students’ prior knowledge and their interests to find ways to relate to students in order to engage
them and help them learn. Teachers need to help students apply their personal beliefs,
experiences, and cultures to their learning, and to bridge gaps between that prior knowledge and
the lessons in the classroom. In order to help students set and reach realistic goals, teachers can
use targeted feedback, practice, and applied learning, and they can use timelines and milestones to
keep students on track. Additional differences in learning are found in special needs students who
may have individual education plans (IEPs), gifted and talented education students (GATE), and
English language learners (ELLs) for whom English is not their original or primary language.
Each of these groups faces additional challenges in the inclusive classroom, and teachers need to
make accommodations for students in these groups to learn. Understanding the various ways in
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which students learn, and learning to recognize and accommodate special needs students, GATE
students, and ELL students will make me a stronger, more effective teacher. This learning will
help me plan my teaching to provide learning opportunities for visual learners, auditory learners,
and kinesthetic learners, as well as learners from special groups, so no student is left behind the
rest of the class.
In addition to being aware of the different learning styles of students, teachers need to be
aware of the three learning theories that can be applied in the classroom: behaviorism,
cognitivism, and constructivism. Behaviorism deals with observable changes in students’
behavior as reflections of learning. Cognitivism deals with how students think and with
meaningful effects and transfer effects in learning, taking into account the prior learning that
students bring to the classroom. Constructivism deals with how students learn, placing the process
of learning above what it actually learned. As a teacher, I will keep each of these theories in mind
and apply each of them to my teaching as seems appropriate to achieve effective teaching. With
all of these learning styles and learning theories, a teacher must also be aware of varied student
ability levels in the classroom. Differentiated instruction takes into account students’ different
abilities and individualizes instruction and assessment to ensure that each student’s individual
educational needs are met. In differentiated instruction, the teacher ensures that the students
understand the relevance of the subjects being studied, which helps them engage with the learning
and learn more effectively. Teachers use formative assessments in differentiated classrooms, as
well as allowing students to creatively demonstrate learning, in order to evaluate learning. To
teach effectively and to ensure that all necessary material is covered in a required time frame,
teachers need to develop and use lesson plans. Teachers can use pre-made lesson plans if
necessary, but effective teachers create their own lesson plans that are suited to the teacher’s
teaching style, to the students, and to the lessons to be taught. Teachers can collaborate with other
teachers to create high quality lesson plans. In order for students to be engaged with a lesson, they
need to know why that lesson is taught, and the relevance of the material should be included in the
lesson plan. Lesson plans should make the students active participants in their learning, not just
passive receptors of teaching, and should equip students to apply their learning after the lesson. I
am already collecting a file of ideas that I can include in my own lesson plans in the future,
drawing from the experiences of other teachers to help me begin creating lesson plans. Teachers
engage in curriculum mapping with other teachers to ensure that questions are addressed, that
lesson content is appropriate, that lessons are in alignment with required standards, and that a
suitable timetable for assessment is maintained. In planning lessons and assessments, teachers
need to keep in mind that student engagement with learning requires both internal and external
motivations. A teacher should try to learn her students’ motivations in order to help them find
ways to engage with their learning. Mutual respect and an honest exchange of ideas between the
teacher and the students help to establish good relations in the classroom and foster learning.
Students at all levels of schooling need to know what they expect to learn and why they are
learning it, how they will learn the lessons, and when and how their learning will be assessed.
Teachers need to apply all of these things to their teaching, and must also practice good classroom
management to help students stay on track to maximize learning.
Teachers must not only teach students, they also need to assess students’ learning through
a combination of formative and summative assessments to determine what has been learned and
how teaching should be adjusted to help the students learn. Assessments of various kinds provide
information to teachers, administrators, parents, and students. Keys to effective assessment are
balance, purpose, and neutrality. Balance involves using a variety of kinds of assessments to
evaluate learning, purpose defines how and why an assessment is used, and neutrality protects
students from bias on the part of the teacher or the administration so that intentional or inadvertent
discrimination is avoided. Assessment is feedback that may be intended to inform the student, the
592 A Journey Through My College Papers
teacher, the district, the parents, or higher levels of government about students’ learning.
Feedback to students must be constructive, not destructive, and it needs to support effective
communication between the student and the teacher to support continued learning. Assessment
plans begin at the district level and continue down to the classroom level. Assessment not only
informs teachers of how well students have learned, it also helps teachers formulate learning goals
for students. In preparation for assessment, teachers need to give students clear examples of what
they are expected to produce for assessment. Learning goals are used as a framework for creating
meaningful assessments that support ongoing learning, and the results of assessments must be
clearly communicated to the audience for which the assessment was designed. Allowing students
to contribute to the creation of learning assessments empowers students. I had personal
experience of this in my ninth grade earth science class when my teacher announced that the
student with the highest grade at or above 100% would be exempt from the final exam and the
next highest scoring student would design and write the exam. I was tied with another student for
second place, and he and I worked together to create the exam for our classmates. I feel that I
learned more from creating the exam than I had learned from the lessons themselves, and there
was a sense of accomplishment and personal success associated with creating the exam. It is not
always appropriate to design the curriculum first and then design the assessment; designing the
assessment first and then building the curriculum to support the assessment is called backward
design. Backward design ensures that all of the teaching supports the assessment of the learning.
Effective instruction requires that students understand what is to be learned, then that students
learn the required skills for the lesson, and finally that students apply the learning after the lesson.
One common method of assessment is standardized testing, which helps teachers and
administrators make decisions to improve students’ learning. Benchmark testing is a type of
standardized testing that helps students track their students’ performance in comparison to grade
level expectations at specific times during each school year so that teachers can adjust their
teaching to bring students up to expected levels. Standardized testing is very expensive and
requires a great deal of security while transporting, storing, administering, and scoring the tests. It
covers only a small, quantifiable portion of student learning, and there are many types of learning
that cannot be assessed with standardized testing.
Everything that has been discussed thus far concerns students and teachers in the
classroom, but the concerns of education extend beyond the classroom to the realm of educational
policy. Educational policy exists in one form or another at the federal, state, district, and local
levels, and my also include a county level of policy. There are two classes of political policy:
reactive policy and proactive policy. Reactive policy is created to address problems that exist;
proactive policy is created to avoid future problems. A well-known example of educational policy
at the federal level is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which is a policy that deals with
accountability in the schools. The most politically motivated educational policies are found at the
state level, and school boards are elected to create local, individualized educational policies to
serve individual schools or groups of schools. The school board in my local community, for
example, sets policy for a high school, a junior high, two middle schools, and several elementary
schools. Like students, individual schools have unique personalities, which are referred to as
school cultures. Each school’s culture represents what the school stands for. A strong school
culture contributes to building a successful school. In addition to traditional schools, there are
increasingly other public school models that are designed to serve the learning needs of a diverse
student population. Some public school models include charter schools, differentiated instruction
schools, bilingual immersion schools, and school conglomerates. Some schools have open
classrooms, have several grades grouped together, or are even ungraded, with students grouped
according to interests and ability levels. A school option that is becoming popular as society
moves into the future is the entrepreneurial school model, which uses real-world activities to help
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students learn. Since many traditional manufacturing careers are now being replaced by careers in
the global economy, more students than ever before are being prepared for college. In order to
successful produce a high percentage of college-ready students, schools are embracing innovation
and the importance of incorporating information technologies in the classroom and they are
recognizing the individually unique potentials of their students. Collaboration among educational
professionals, alignment of teaching to state and local standards, creating a school culture of
universal achievement, and promoting student-centered assessment will help schools achieve their
goals into the future.
Through a clear understanding of what is known about learning, learners, teaching,
assessment, and schooling, I have gained the knowledge necessary to be an effective teacher in
twenty-first century America. I have learned that each student is unique and that each has a
personal learning style, various personal intelligences, and a unique personal culture that
encompasses his or her beliefs, language, racial/ethnic background, socio-economic background,
and other individual factors. As a teacher, I will be alert for the clues that will help me most
effectively teach each student and engage each student in learning. I have learned that a classroom
must be designed to engage visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, and to accommodate the
special learning needs of special needs students, GATE students, and ELL students. My education
has made me aware of these diverse learning needs and has enabled me to apply differentiated
instruction in my classroom to meet the needs of my students. I have learned about behaviorism,
cognitivism, and constructivism, and I plan to use an eclectic mix of all three theories so that I can
most effectively teach a diverse student group. I do tend to favor cognitivism, out of the three
theories, because I am fascinated by how thinking happens, and I expect that my teaching will lean
more toward cognitive theory when I have that option. I have learned about the importance of
using a balanced mix of formative and summative assessments, and a variety of methods of
assessment, to gain the clearest picture of my students’ learning, and to help them continue to
learn. I have a personal dislike for high stakes standardized testing, but I understand the
importance of such testing in accountability and in the creation of educational policy. As a college
teacher, I will not have to teach to the test to the same degree as do elementary and secondary
school teachers, which will allow me to concentrate on giving my students the best teaching of
which I am capable. Through my study of The final step: A capstone in education in the capstone
course of my undergraduate studies, I have learned about collaboration, about aligning teaching to
standards, about a school culture of universal achievement, and about the value of student-
centered assessments, and I look forward to applying the learning that I have gained to my own,
future teaching career (Kajitani, Lehew, Lopez, Wahab, & Walton, 2012).
References
Kajitani, A., Lehew, E., Lopez, D., Wahab, N., & Walton, N. (2012). The final step: A capstone
in education. A. Shean (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
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Abbott, P. (1985). Henry David Thoreau, the state of nature, and the redemption of liberalism. The
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Abraham, C. (2011). Africa had its own writing systems! New African, 509, 82-87.
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http://www.educationrightscenter.org/Access_to_Curriculum.html
Adams, B. (2007, July 19). Mcdonald’s Strange Menu Around the World. Retrieved July
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travel/mcdonald%E2%80%99s- strange-menu-around-the-world/
Adams, J. & Otte, M. (n.d.). Did Indo-European languages spread before farming? Current
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Undergraduate Series 627
Index
1
15th Century, 273, 277
17th Century, 267, 534
18th Century, 459
19th Century, 33, 38, 74, 76, 149, 150, 172, 238,
242, 243, 244, 252, 253, 267, 268, 273, 274,
275, 276, 277, 403, 413, 414, 426, 427, 428,
438, 440, 445, 446, 447, 448, 449, 458, 463,
489, 490, 494, 498, 501, 505, 597, 614, 622
2
2001
A Space Odyssey, 103, 105, 106
20th Century, 40, 76, 174, 238, 243, 244, 252,
253, 284, 316, 320, 321, 326, 329, 332, 487,
534, 574
21st Century, 31, 77, 156, 161, 192, 243, 252,
254, 256, 257, 273, 274, 287, 316, 320, 329,
414, 534, 536, 538, 576, 590, 593, 605, 620
2nd Liberty Loan, 241
4
4th Liberty Loan, 241
A
A Blessing, 175, 626
A Critical Period for Language Acquisition, 359
A Divine and Supernatural Light, 274
A Doll House, 14, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 490,
491, 494, 498, 501
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 533
A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, 430
A Personal Philosophy of Education, 554
A Rose for Emily, 24, 25, 434, 452
A Slender Fellow In the Grass, 433
A Vision, 328
A Week, 276
A&P, 166, 167
AAC&U, 192
Abbott, Philip, 276
ABC, 444
Abednego, 262
Abel, 21, 305, 308
Ability Grouping, 54, 470
Ability Groups, 486, 579
Ability Tracks, 482
Abortion, 31
Absenteeism, 231, 232
Abu Ghraib, 188, 189
Academic Ability, 470, 553
Academic Acceleration, 470
Academic English, 232, 234, 236, 571
Academic Integrity, 577, 588
Academic Progress, 232, 234, 520, 549
Academic Writing, 412, 569
Academy of Waterford, 551, 552, 594
Accommodations, 201, 235, 245, 472, 536, 570,
590
Achieved Status, 119, 128
Acid Rain, 185
ACLU, 103, 108, 598
Across Five Aprils, 220
ACT, 552
Action Reading, 15, 506, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512,
513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521,
522, 525, 526, 527, 603
Action Reading Program, 512, 513, 517, 519,
521, 522, 525, 526
Acts of War, 90, 353
Ad Hominem Attacks, 345
AD&D, 413
ADA, 93
Adams, John, 83, 84, 600
Adamy, Janet, 125
Addiction, 250, 285
Addressing Stereotypes, 111
Adequate Yearly Progress, 59
628 A Journey Through My College Papers
ADHD, 14, 206, 207, 222, 343, 346, 471, 472,
510, 511, 515, 519, 521, 522, 523, 525, 602
Adjective, 295, 303, 356, 417
Adlestrop, 317
Adolescence, 27, 64, 195, 196, 197, 198, 200,
201, 202, 203, 205, 206, 207, 209, 212, 469,
484, 527, 617
Adoption, 51, 54, 74, 80, 131, 132, 335, 336, 339,
341, 342, 344, 547
Adult Development, 63, 65, 479
Adult Development and Life Assessment, 63
Adult Illiteracy, 506
Adult Learners, 63, 194, 233, 506, 577
Adult Literacy, 506
Adulteress, 288
Adultery, 36, 287
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 413
Advantages of Brain-Based Learning
Environments, 9, 224
Aerobic Exercise, 216, 217
Aesop, 258, 375, 450, 451, 594
Aesthetic, 97, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 488, 489,
490, 492, 531, 544, 553
Aesthetics, 367, 372, 385, 502, 545
Affecting Presidential Power, 83
Affirmative Action, 256
Afghan, 350, 352, 354, 370, 620
Afghanistan, 179, 188, 349, 350, 352, 370
AFL-CIO, 108
Africa, 33, 38, 41, 42, 147, 156, 160, 187, 192,
220, 267, 316, 317, 348, 361, 362, 363, 364,
366, 594
African Americans in Post-Civil War America, 252
Africana Studies, 363
African-American, 49, 113, 128, 253, 273, 535,
581
African-American Female Intelligence Society of
Boston, 273
Ageism, 63
Aghstawenserenthah, 261
AI, 103, 104, 105, 106
AIDS, 199, 323, 324, 606
Air Travel Database, 102
Aisha, Bibi, 349, 350, 351, 352
Akikuyu, 36
Al Qaeda, 256
Alabama, 238, 278, 282, 286, 618
Aladdin, 324
Alaska, 44, 243, 362
Algeria, 182
Alien, 105
Alien Act, 83
Aliens, 105
Aligning a Personal Philosophy of Education with
Curriculum, 543
All About Me Unit, 544, 545, 546
All in the Family, 249, 250, 251, 594
Allegorical, 456
Allegory, 294, 313, 440, 441, 442, 443, 446, 450,
609
Allington, Richard, 507
Alliteration, 174, 286, 499
Alphabet, 70, 226, 236, 358, 362, 363, 364, 365,
366, 444, 510, 512, 517, 523, 589, 594, 603,
623
Alphabetical Order, 444
al-Qaeda, 180
Altering Power Relationships, 50
Alternate Grouping Strategies, 233, 236
Alveolars, 358
Alzheimer’s Disease, 332
American Civil Liberties Union, 108
American Colonists, 94
American Episcopal Church, 529
American Experience, 279, 281
American Gay Rights Movement, 129, 130, 594
American Gothic, 445, 446
American History Since 1865, 237
American Imperialism, 9, 242, 243, 244
American Leaders, 73
American Literature, 10, 260, 277, 281, 428, 434,
439, 441, 442, 446, 450, 608, 621, 625
American Literature After 1865, 277
American Literature to 1865, 260
American Northeast, 260
American Poetry, 271
American Psychiatric Association, 123
American Revolution, 305
Undergraduate Series 629
American Samoa, 243
American Slave Narratives, 237
American South, 252, 368, 380, 388, 403
American Students Are Crippled By Cultural
Diversity Education, 349
American West, 252, 257, 426, 599
Americans with Disabilities Act, 93
Amherst Academy, 425
Amherst, Massachusetts, 425
Amman, 155, 156
Amnesty International, 122, 123, 179, 595
Amos ‘n’ Andy, 254
Amplify, 547
Amtrak, 104
An Address Delivered Before the Afric-American
Female Intelligence Society of Boston, 271
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation, 143
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 277
Analysis, 66, 87, 107, 333, 416, 417, 424, 425,
428, 429, 434, 436, 445, 467, 470, 492, 500,
507, 512, 529, 603
Analysis of Here at “The New Yorker”, 416
Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper, 438
Analyzing, 53, 436, 477, 500, 559
Analyzing a Literary Work in Relation to
Sociopolitical Contexts and Movements, 383
Analyzing Poetic Structure, 400
Analyzing The Yellow Wallpaper, 446
Anapestic, 457
Anaphora, 499
Anarchy, 135, 176, 177, 256, 553
Anderson, Jill, 509
Anderson, Kirk, 550
Anderson, Stephen L., 349
Andhra Pradesh University, 154
Anger, 144, 175, 220, 235, 246, 254, 261, 262,
308, 321, 350, 398, 408, 423, 480, 497, 504,
587
Anglo-American, 281, 568
Anglo-Boer War, 159
Anglo-Saxon, 147, 158, 242, 293, 294
Anglo-Saxon Period, 487
Animal Communication, 354
Animal Communication versus Human Speech,
354
Animal Rights, 140
Anna Martin, 578
Annotated Bibliography, 491, 492
Antarctica, 542
Anterior Cerebellum, 484
Anthropologists, 361
Anti-depressants, 207
Anti-Federalist Papers, 84
Antifeminism, 299
Antifeminist, 297
Anti-Imperialist League, 243, 244, 606
Anti-piracy Legislation, 348
Antiques Road Show, 341
Anyolo, Prisca, 42
APA, 3, 66, 440, 589
APC, 334, 338
Apostle Paul, 35
Arab League, 179
Aragon, 158
Archaeologists, 223, 363
Archetype, 211
Aristocracy, 97, 158, 159, 161, 239, 262
Aristotle, 138
Aristotle’s Lyceum, 555
Arithmetic, 72, 73, 530, 531, 549
Armed Intervention, 181, 182
Armored Personnel Carrier, 334, 338
Army, 90, 103, 165, 240, 241, 242, 252, 333, 337
Arnold, Sue Beth, 520
Arsenic, 25, 452, 453
Article Review, 208
Articles of Confederation, 84, 86, 87, 94, 187,
595, 603
Articulate Speech, 366
Artificial Intelligence, 103, 105, 106, 107, 607
Artistic Expression, 370, 372, 373, 376, 377, 378,
440
Artistic Expression and Culture, 369
Artistic Representations of the Effects of
Intersecting Cultures, 391
Aryan Nation, 53
Aryans, 154
630 A Journey Through My College Papers
As I Walked Out One Evening, 321
Ascribed Status, 119, 128
Ashanti, 36
Ashford Guide for Academic and Career Success,
66
Ashford Institutional Outcomes, 68
Ashford Library, 442
Ashford Online Library, 332
Ashford University, 3, 68, 82, 119, 522
Asia, 38, 44, 48, 75, 127, 147, 150, 154, 192, 348,
361, 362, 603, 615
Asian Subcontinent, 147
Asperger's Syndrome, 206, 222, 343, 346
Assembly Line, 244, 245, 596
Assimilation, 129, 186, 469
Assonance, 499
Astronomy, 531, 549
AT&T, 239
Atlantic Monthly, 75
Attendance, 72, 99, 110, 194, 299, 551, 562, 588
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, 206,
471, 472
Atwood, Margaret, 259, 452
At-Work Privacy, 108, 109, 595
Aubade, 323
Auden, W. H., 321
Audience Awareness, 377
Audience Reception and the Influences of
History and Culture, 377
Auditory Learners, 570, 590, 591
Auld, Thomas, 269
Aunt Sue's Stories, 282
Aunts, 336, 339, 341, 342
Australia, 192, 348
Autism, 71
Autobiography, 264, 269, 281
Automobile, 244, 245, 603
Automobile and America, 244
Autonomy, 176, 186, 187, 210, 495, 503, 559,
584, 609
Avalon High, 314, 315, 605
Avarice, 350
Axis Powers, 146
Ayatollah Khomeini, 382
AYP, 59, 551
B
Baby Boomer, 562
Baby Boomers, 562, 590
BAC, 107
Backward Design, 581, 592
Bahasa, 234, 235
Bak, John S., 440, 446
Baker Island, 243
Baltimore, 268, 269
Bambara, Toni Cade, 166, 174
Bandura, Albert, 66, 201, 202, 598, 599
Bankruptcy, 167
Banneker, Benjamin, 262, 263
Baraban, Elena V., 459
Baragaonli, 39
Baraka, Amiri, 256
Barn Burning, 283
Barnabee, Jyl, 513
Barreda, Tony, 130
Barrios, 156
Barron, Homer, 25, 452, 453
Bartleby, the Scrivener, 268
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, 570,
571
Batman, 256
Beamer, Charlotte C., 534
Beauty, 162, 301
Because I could not stop for Death, 168, 169, 456
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 553
Behavior, 21, 22, 25, 34, 38, 43, 46, 55, 64, 66,
69, 103, 105, 115, 117, 122, 123, 124, 131,
151, 168, 190, 195, 196, 197, 201, 202, 206,
207, 209, 211, 212, 232, 280, 297, 298, 302,
313, 316, 317, 321, 322, 343, 344, 346, 347,
350, 351, 352, 367, 396, 432, 436, 449, 466,
469, 473, 480, 493, 494, 495, 501, 502, 528,
534, 538, 539, 564, 571, 572, 573, 576, 577,
578, 591, 617
Behavioral Learning Theory, 232, 233
Behaviorism, 530, 539, 554, 571, 576, 591, 593
Behaviorist Models, 589
Undergraduate Series 631
Belfast, 556
Belgium, 243
Bellissimo, D., 336, 339, 342
Benchmark Assessment, 579, 580, 589
Benefits of the Articles of Confederation, 86
Bengali, 454
Bengalis, 454
Benitez v. KFC Natl. Mgt. Co, 108
Bennington College, 23, 378, 473
Bentham, Jeremy, 143
Beowulf, 10, 292, 293, 294, 295, 305, 306, 307,
308, 309, 365, 596, 606, 607, 611, 622
Beowulf: Reading for Theme, 292
Berg, Kris, 216
Berkeley, William, 72
Berlin Wall, 100
Beryl Bell, 426
Betrayal, 289
Bevere, Allan, 91
Bianca, 234
Bible, 10, 21, 35, 44, 47, 48, 69, 81, 143, 188,
266, 271, 299, 313, 314, 316, 319, 326, 375,
401, 432, 608, 610, 618
BICS, 570, 571
Bierce, Ambrose, 277, 278
Big Business, 130, 238, 239, 240, 598
Bigamy, 33, 34
Bigotry, 290
Bilabials, 358
Bilingual, 231, 232, 236, 359, 372, 568, 592
Bill of Attainder, 245
Bill of Rights, 34, 84, 85, 98, 101, 245
Biographical Criticism, 424
Biracial, 403
Birmingham Grid for Learning, 543
Bisexuals, 429
Bishop, Elizabeth, 455
Black Hawk, 266, 267, 273
Black Jackets, 323
Blackburn, F.A., 306
Blacks, 74, 128, 153, 237, 238, 252, 257, 258,
600, 618
Blacksburg, Virginia, 534
Blade Runner, 105
Blaine, James G., 243
Blake, William, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 318,
319, 321, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330,
422, 423, 424, 604, 613, 625
Blended Families, 132, 133
Blessed Sacrament and Cardinal Spellman High
School, 95
Blood Alcohol Content, 107
Blood Descent, 336, 339, 341
Blood Line, 336, 339, 341, 342
Blue-collar Workers, 246
Bodily kinesthetic, 471
Bodin, Jean, 176
Body Language, 467
Boland, Eavan, 324
Bombings, 22
Bonander, Ross, 458
Bonobos, 354
Boroditsky, Lera, 372
Boston, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 65,
108, 166, 167, 189, 212, 232, 233, 234, 237,
238, 239, 240, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248,
251, 257, 264, 333, 335, 337, 340, 341, 342,
345, 348, 349, 355, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361,
362, 364, 366, 393, 394, 397, 401, 404, 414,
416, 417, 419, 420, 421, 424, 425, 428, 429,
434, 533, 549, 559, 581, 595, 597, 601, 603,
604, 610, 611, 612, 616, 620, 623
Boston Marathon, 579
Boudi, 454
Boulger, James D., 313, 326
Bountiful, 38
Bourke vs. Nissan Motor Corp, 108
Bowker, Norman, 443
Boy Scouts, 241
Boy Scouts of America, 119
Boyd, Juliet, 217
Boyle, Robert, 69
Bradford, Andrew, 264
Bradley, Marion Zimmer, 413
Brady, Kathryn, 344, 347
Brahmin, 154
Brain, 40, 103, 104, 106, 107, 142, 197, 198, 212,
213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 221, 223, 224,
632 A Journey Through My College Papers
225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 355, 360,
363, 484, 527, 528, 553, 562, 590, 594, 597,
600, 610, 611, 613, 617, 618, 619, 621, 625
Brain Cancer, 40
Brain Damage, 142, 197
Brain Dominance, 213
Brain-based Compatible Classrooms, 229
Brain-based Learning, 216, 217, 218, 221, 228,
229, 230, 231, 610, 611, 619, 621
Brain-based Learning Strategies Benefit
Students, 216
Brain-based Planning, 230
Brainstorming, 470
Brazil, 43, 509
Brazinski v. Amoco Petroleum Additives Co., 108
Breast Cancer, 250
Breast-feeding, 157, 198
Breathalyzer Monitor, 107
Brecht, Bertolt, 247
Brennan, Heidi, 142
Bride Price, 37, 40
Britain, 147, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 161, 263,
294, 612, 625
British Aristocracy, 158, 159
British Class System, 158, 159, 160, 161
British Columbia, 33, 38
British Empire, 147, 161, 305, 324, 604
British Imperialism, 158, 160, 161
British Literature I, 292
British Literature II, 310
British Monarchy, 83
Britons, 7, 147, 158, 159, 160, 161
Brooklyn, Illinois, 253
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 254
Brown v. Board of Education, 80, 81, 255, 597
Brown versus the Board of Education, 80
Brown, Jessica, 142
Brown, Linda, 80
Brown, Oliver, 80
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 314, 318, 321, 325,
327
Browning, Robert, 454
Bryan, Samuel, 84
Bryan, William Jennings, 81
Buddha, 367, 369
Buddhism, 548
Buffalo, New York, 253, 257, 599
BUG Tickets, 566
Bullying, 202, 578, 584, 585, 586
Burke, Edmund, 304, 305
Burlington Free Press, 19, 332
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 391
Burnstein, Dan, 458, 461
Bush, George H. W., 129
Bush, George H.W., 96
Bush, George W., 188
C
C rations, 443
C-3PO, 360
Cadence, 173, 286
Caesuras, 457
CAI, 71
Cain, 21, 305, 307, 308, 309
Calcutta, 454
California, 44, 60, 75, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218,
219, 221, 223, 224, 229, 231, 256, 373, 374,
485, 531, 570, 574, 575, 576, 584, 609
California Proposition 209, 256
Calvin, John, 299
Cambridge Public School Department, 217
Cambridge, MA, 217
Camelot, 314, 327
Cameron, Dave, 158
Camp Harmony, 245
Campion, Thomas, 301
Canada, 33, 38, 123, 362
Canadian Lawyer, 38
Cancer, 250
Cannibalism, 136, 304
Canon, 488, 489, 490
Capitalism, 152, 155, 242
CAPPS, 102, 103, 598, 622
CAPPS II, 102, 103
Cardinal Virtues, 135, 350, 352, 353, 619
Career Day, 572
Care-givers, 200, 370
Undergraduate Series 633
Caribbean, 147, 160
Carnegie, Andrew, 243
Carnivals, 368
Carnivore Program, 108
Carolingian Minuscule Letter, 365
Carpenter, Rollo, 106
Carson-Newman College, 417
Carter, Heather, 219
Carter, James, 248
Carver, Raymond, 162, 163
Case Study Scenarios, 586
Case Study: Assessment, 539
Case Study: Evolution of Theories of Learning,
538
Caste System, 153, 154
Castigation, 474
Castration, 416
CAT, 188
Cataclysm, 291
Catacombs, 459, 461
Categorization, 203, 204, 209
Catharsis, 285, 395, 405
Cathedral, 162, 163
Catholic, 69, 113, 116, 146, 172, 241, 278, 299,
303, 321, 322, 323, 350, 529
Catholic Church, 69, 321, 322, 323, 529
Catholics, 146, 156, 287
Cattell, Raymond, 471
Cause and Effect, 202, 203, 204
Cautionary Tale, 438, 449
Cave Art, 362
Cave Drawings, 362
Cave Painting, 21
Cayuga, 261
CBS, 480
Cecil, Hugh, 158
Celebrating Ecstatic Life, 425
Celibacy, 171, 172
Cell Phones, 106, 124, 552, 554, 583, 586
Celts, 147, 159
Center for Democracy and Technology, 110
Central America, 180, 187, 192, 243
Ceremonies, 317, 367
Certain Iroquois Tree Myths and Symbols, 274
Chakraborty, Basanti, 222
Challenger, 100
Chapman, Robert L., 307
Chapter Four Case Study Scenarios, 581
Chapter Four Synthesis, 580
Chapter One Synthesis, 562
Chapter Three Case Study Scenarios, 573
Chapter Three Synthesis, 576
Chapter Two Case Study Scenarios, 566
Chapter Two Synthesis, 570
Charges Dropped Against Teacher Accused of
Forcing Student to Eat From Garbage, 52
Charter School, 119, 144, 551, 552
Charter Schools, 550, 552, 555, 592
Chastity, 350, 376
Chat Rooms, 365
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 10, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299,
365, 616
Chaucer: Reading for Imagery, 295
Chaucer: Reading for Lexicon, 296
Checks and Balances, 87, 90, 91, 92
Chennai, 154
Chevrolet, 367
Chicago, 21, 22, 92, 239, 244, 246, 514, 601, 605
Child Abuse, 36
Child and Adolescent Development, 194
Child Development, 195, 197, 208, 209, 212, 468,
479, 602, 626
Child Molestation, 123
Child Song, 403
Childhood, 19, 28, 64, 66, 112, 130, 137, 146,
166, 182, 193, 199, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208,
209, 264, 283, 290, 314, 319, 324, 328, 358,
367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 377, 380,
381, 388, 389, 392, 413, 426, 427, 456, 466,
468, 469, 479, 490, 519, 526, 529, 530, 596
Children, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38,
39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54,
59, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74,
75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 95, 99, 100, 101, 111, 114,
115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125,
129, 132, 133, 141, 142, 143, 144, 146, 157,
165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 174, 176, 177, 185,
188, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201,
634 A Journey Through My College Papers
202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210,
211, 212, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222, 227, 234,
238, 239, 240, 241, 244, 246, 256, 259, 262,
265, 274, 279, 280, 282, 284, 286, 287, 288,
291, 303, 304, 308, 310, 312, 314, 315, 319,
321, 322, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 333, 335,
336, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 346, 347,
349, 352, 355, 356, 359, 361, 363, 368, 369,
370, 371, 373, 379, 380, 387, 388, 390, 394,
395, 396, 402, 404, 405, 406, 411, 413, 422,
423, 433, 445, 446, 447, 452, 455, 464, 466,
467, 468, 469, 478, 479, 482, 484, 485, 487,
490, 493, 494, 495, 496, 497, 501, 503, 504,
506, 509, 511, 512, 514, 516, 517, 523, 524,
527, 530, 531, 534, 535, 537, 538, 539, 541,
542, 545, 546, 548, 550, 551, 552, 554, 555,
556, 568, 582, 604, 610, 612, 617, 619
Chile, 126
Chimpanzees, 354
China, 125, 126, 127, 152, 153, 180, 185, 186,
243, 246, 344, 347, 348, 390, 392, 425, 596,
602, 603
China Chic: East Meets West, 391
Chinese, 119, 125, 126, 151, 152, 153, 226, 287,
288, 363, 368, 372, 373, 378, 379, 380, 381,
386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 392, 493, 519,
526, 620, 626
Chinese New Year, 226
Chinese-American, 287, 379, 380, 387, 388, 493
Chisholm v. Georgia, 88, 89, 90
Chisholm, Alexander, 88
Chopin, Kate, 489, 490
Chosen, 403
Chrismonopoly, 43
Christian, 10, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 43, 47, 53, 54,
69, 78, 79, 115, 146, 155, 156, 160, 230, 242,
267, 285, 293, 294, 295, 306, 307, 309, 311,
313, 315, 318, 319, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329,
352, 371, 427, 538, 549, 596, 602, 607, 620,
622
Christian Content in Beowulf, 293
Christian Democracy, 53, 54
Christian Science Monitor, 78, 79, 607
Christianity, 34, 47, 54, 159, 242, 293, 294, 306,
541, 548, 602
Christians, 35, 53, 146, 274, 286, 306
Christmas, 180, 250, 464, 465, 495, 498, 502,
505
Christmas Tree, 465
Church Going, 323
Church of England, 304
Church of Satan, 285
CIA, 102
Cicadas, 19, 20
Cinco de Mayo, 226
Circadian Rhythm, 229
City Temple, 323
Civil Air Patrol, 333, 337
Civil Disobedience, 270
Civil Liberties, 246, 254, 255, 616
Civil Rights, 85, 93, 153, 154, 246, 247, 254, 255,
280
Civil Rights Act, 93, 94
Civil Unions, 44, 129
Civil War, 21, 153, 181, 220, 221, 238, 239, 252,
273, 426, 427
Clark, William, 84
Clarke, Arthur C., 103, 106
Clarkston, Michigan, 2, 3
Classical Argument, 499
Classical Conditioning, 473
Classical Music, 225, 553
Classism, 425
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 243
Clearances, 324
Clergy, 69, 108, 117, 270, 422
Cleveland Street Scandal, 429
Cleverbot, 106, 107, 619
Clifton, Lucille, 418
Climax, 259, 278, 385, 451
Clinical Depression, 66
Clinton, Iowa, 3
Clinton, William J., 96
Coarticulation, 360
Co-curricular, 550
Cog, 106
Undergraduate Series 635
Cognitive Development, 194, 195, 199, 203, 209,
211, 212, 484
Cognitive Learning Theory, 232
Cognitive Models, 589
Cognitive Perspective, 194, 209, 211, 212
Cognitive-stage Theory, 209, 211
Cognitivism, 554, 555, 576, 591, 593
Cognitivism/Constructivism, 530
Cohabitation, 33, 115
Co-husbands, 39
Coillege-University-Directory.com, 81
Colden, Cadwallader, 274
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 311, 312, 313
Collaboration, 593
College Cost Reduction and Access Act, 55, 56
College Placement Tests, 519, 525
College Republicans, 256
Collins, Joan, 226
Colombian Drug Cartels, 180
Colonel Sartoris, 24
Colonial Education, 71
Combination Sounds, 512, 514, 524
Comenius, John, 534, 536, 537
Comma, 218
Commentary in Fiction, 267
Commission for Student Success, 57, 58
Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty, 181
Commodore Perry, 149, 152, 621
Common Sense, 352, 441, 449
Common Vernacular, 256, 356
Communism, 146, 152, 153, 161, 247, 596, 621
Communist Party, 247
Communists, 247
Community, 25, 37, 38, 49, 50, 51, 72, 74, 76, 96,
118, 119, 124, 129, 140, 143, 166, 167, 168,
182, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 235, 236, 257,
266, 287, 294, 300, 307, 308, 322, 323, 336,
339, 341, 344, 347, 367, 368, 369, 373, 528,
529, 531, 542, 545, 548, 552, 566,鴤567, 569,
575, 577, 584, 585, 586, 590, 592, 609
Community College, 542
Como, Perry, 254
Comparing Satrapi and Nafisi, 384
Composition 1, 17
Composition and Analysis, 24
Composition Books, 17, 330
Comprehension, 237, 360, 475, 508, 513, 516,
517, 518, 519, 521, 522, 525, 526, 539, 578,
613, 625
Computer Assisted Instruction, 71
Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening
System, 102
Computer Literacy, 102
Computers, 12, 107, 325, 360, 606
Computers That Talk and Listen, 360
Concrete Operational Stage, 204, 209
Concrete Operations, 203, 205, 210, 469, 484,
486
Concubinage, 38, 40, 47, 600
Concubine, 35, 36, 46
Concupiscence, 350
Confederal Government, 94
Confederate, 95, 220, 623
Confederate Government, 94
Confession of Faith, 300
Conflict Between Reason and Feelings, 134
Conflict Theory, 120, 131, 132
Congregationalist, 279, 529
Connecticut, 44
Connie, 26, 29
Conrad, Joseph, 316
Conscience, 116, 118, 599, 622
Conservation, 204, 209, 468, 469
Considering Gender in A Doll House, 490
Consociation, 186
Consonantal Alphabet, 363, 366
Constantinople, 367
Constitutional Convention, 95
Constructionism, 554
Constructionist Models, 589
Constructivism, 554, 576, 591, 593
Content Knowledge, 78, 532
Context Support Method, 509
Contextual Meaning, 357
Continued Education, 383
Continuous Student Assessment, 520
Convention against Torture, 188
636 A Journey Through My College Papers
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, 188
Conversational English, 234, 571
Conversations in Poems, 11, 311
Convocation, 384, 385
Cooperative Learning, 236
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 69, 553
COPS, 235, 236
Cordero, Esperanza, 378
Core Commitments Initiative, 192
Core Curriculum, 547
Cornell University, 37
Corneto, 364
Corporal Punishment, 480
Corporal Punishment Debate, 480
Corporal Punishment in Schools, 480
Corporations and Big Business, 238
Corpus Callosum, 355
Correspondence, 262
Council Fire of the Confederacy of the Five
Nations, 274
Council of Chief State School Officers, 76
Council of the Mohawk, 261
Couplets, 282, 365
Courage, 294, 350, 368, 434, 457, 494, 501
Cousins, 25, 41, 43, 44, 336, 339, 341
Covetousness, 350
Cowardice, 308, 350
Co-wives, 31, 32, 38, 39, 42, 43
Crain, John, 264
Crane, Stephen, 162, 163
Creating Art, 162
Creative Expression, 376, 393, 583
Creative Writing, 100, 392, 393, 394, 397, 401,
404, 412, 413, 414, 416, 533, 623
Creativity, 24, 121, 212, 213, 354, 356, 362, 428,
470, 482, 486, 493, 495, 502, 528, 534, 553,
573, 582, 583
Crisis of Faith, 529
Criteria for Armed Intervention, 8, 181
Critical Analysis, 207, 500, 529, 559, 612
Critical Analysis of Gilman’s Gothic Allegory, 440
Critical Period, 359
Critical Reflection, 588
Critical Theory, 415, 416, 417, 419, 420, 421,
424, 425, 428, 429, 434, 445, 612
Critical Thinking, 77, 113, 349, 351, 352, 353,
475, 481, 527, 529, 535, 538, 539, 547, 554,
559, 560, 601
Crosby, Bing, 254
Cross-Cultural Perspectives, 145
Cruelty, 135, 140, 270, 281, 353, 403
Crusades, 315
Crystallized Abilities, 471, 472, 483
Cuba, 182, 243, 246
Cueing, 576
Cullen, Countee, 282
Cultural and Linguistic Differences, 236
Cultural Context, 204, 356, 371, 378
Cultural Differences, 192, 235, 350, 351, 353,
471, 541, 556
Cultural Relativism, 136, 351, 352, 353, 601
Cultural Revolution, 254
Cultural Studies, 415, 528
Culture, 12, 32, 38, 42, 44, 48, 69, 78, 122, 125,
126, 128, 131, 136, 141, 143, 147, 148, 149,
150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159,
160, 161, 167, 195, 201, 203, 234, 244, 253,
254, 257, 274, 275, 281, 287, 288, 294, 295,
296, 324, 329, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 356,
360, 361, 365, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372,
373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 380, 381, 383,
385, 386, 388, 389, 390, 391, 392, 425, 439,
440, 441, 446, 447, 450, 454, 469, 480, 487,
489, 490, 533, 542, 549, 556, 562, 568, 575,
581, 582, 583, 589, 590, 592, 593, 601, 605,
610, 615, 616, 619
Cuneiform, 363, 365, 366
Cunningham, James, 507
Cunningham, Patricia, 507
Curfews, 245
Curriculum, 23, 49, 51, 70, 75, 78, 216, 217, 218,
229, 230, 231, 359, 478, 481, 515, 531, 534,
535, 542, 546, 547, 548, 549, 550, 551, 552,
557, 562, 563, 574, 575, 576, 581, 585, 591,
592, 601, 615
Curriculum Change, 546
Undergraduate Series 637
Cursive, 511, 515, 524
Czech Republic, 536
Czechoslovakia, 246
D
Dactyls, 457
Dakota, 281
Dame Schools, 72
Dangling Modifier, 416
Dark Knight, 256
DARPA, 103
Darwin, Charles, 315, 316
Darwinism, 242
Data, 360
Daughter-wife, 42
Davenport, Michael, 216
Davidson Institute for Talent Development, 482
daVinci, Leonardo, 69
De Grâve, 461
de Keijzer, Arne, 458
Dead Languages, 361
Deaf, 295, 359
Death, 7, 13, 24, 25, 26, 35, 36, 42, 122, 123,
124, 140, 143, 162, 168, 174, 197, 198, 208,
241, 249, 251, 259, 267, 270, 271, 272, 276,
283, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 310, 312,
314, 315, 318, 319, 321, 323, 324, 326, 327,
328, 329, 371, 392, 393, 403, 408, 409, 412,
418, 423, 425, 426, 427, 443, 444, 445, 452,
454, 455, 456, 458, 460, 461, 462, 489, 496,
497, 504, 595, 596, 597
Death Penalty, 122, 123
Debs, Eugene V., 239
Deception, 463, 465, 466, 495, 497, 502, 504
Declaration of Independence, 83, 92, 270, 365,
601
Declarative, 457, 474
Declaratory Act of Parliament, 263
Decodable Texts, 509
Decoding Skill, 512
Decoding Skill Teaching Methods, 512
Deconstructing The New Yorker Cartoon, 420
Deconstruction, 421, 492
Deconstructive Analysis, 416
Deconstructive Criticism, 415
Deductive Reasoning, 204, 209
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,
103
Defense of Marriage Act, 115, 117, 118
Defining Education Ideology, 53
Defining Family, 336, 339, 341
Defra, 190
Degree of Multilateralism, 181
Dehennakrineh, 261
Dekanawidah, 260, 274
Delledonne v. Dugrenier, 108
Deloney, Pat, 79
Democracy, 54, 75, 130, 146, 148, 149, 152, 153,
156, 242, 243, 256, 286, 546, 557
Democratic, 7, 148, 240, 246
Democratic Deficit, 148, 149
Democratic Ideals, 556
Denham, Thomas, 264
Dennett, Daniel, 106
Denouement, 259, 260, 385, 451, 452
Dentals, 358
Department for the Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs, 190
Depression, 168, 201, 223, 248, 371, 426, 438,
449, 575
Descartes, René, 69
Description, 26, 37, 64, 66, 162, 163, 168, 169,
172, 173, 174, 262, 264, 276, 296, 297, 300,
311, 314, 317, 394, 403, 419, 422, 427, 438,
445, 453, 455, 462, 463, 486, 489, 507, 529,
530, 534, 556, 561, 569
Desire, 289
Destruction, 26, 170, 288, 289, 290, 291, 294,
299, 304, 328, 329, 448, 461
Detroit, 180, 216, 244, 368, 528
Detroit Public School, 550
Developmental Crisis, 469
Developmental Disabilities, 130, 363
Developmental Theories, 209
Devil Dog Recruiting Station, 241
Devil's Advocate, 185
Dewey, John, 76
638 A Journey Through My College Papers
Deyoenhegwenh, 261
Diacritic Marks, 365, 366
Diacritics, 365
Diagnosis and Assessment Principles, 520
Diagnostic Assessment, 539, 540
Dial F for Frankenstein, 106
Dialect, 174, 358, 372, 380, 386, 388
Dialects, 173, 352, 360, 372, 380, 386, 388, 413,
499
Dialogue, 106, 174, 179, 384, 413, 414, 428, 452,
453, 535
Dichotomy, 165, 288, 289, 290, 325, 329, 441
Dickenson, Matt, 79
Dickinson, Emily, 162, 163, 165, 168, 169, 174,
175, 176, 271, 272, 425, 426, 427, 428, 430,
431, 432, 433, 434, 440, 456, 602, 605, 614,
625
Diction, 174, 302, 333, 413, 416, 430, 499
Dictionary, 47, 48, 49, 73, 90, 106, 263, 297, 354,
358, 366, 424, 445, 456, 463, 513, 595, 599,
600, 601, 602, 603, 607, 608, 612, 613, 614,
616, 617, 618, 620, 621, 624, 626
Differenced Learning, 548
Differentiated Classrooms, 576, 591
Differentiated Instruction, 231, 576, 591, 602
Differentiated Learning, 576
Differentiation, 78, 202, 549, 574, 589, 598
Digging, 324
Digital Communications, 61, 365
Digital Divide, 178
Dimeter, 400
Direct Blood Line, 335, 336, 339, 341
Direct Instruction, 474, 478, 512, 554, 560, 561,
574
Direct Teaching, 549
Disabilities, 54, 59, 130, 256, 471, 472, 481, 483,
485, 520, 548, 549, 553
Disappearing Languages, 360
Discrimination, 53, 80, 81, 93, 94, 153, 154, 160,
252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 279, 280, 498,
505, 580, 591
Distinguishing Between Historical and
Biographical Theories, 424
District of Columbia, 44, 74, 129
Diverse, 30, 43, 51, 72, 78, 83, 156, 168, 183,
186, 232, 233, 234, 236, 237, 336, 339, 342,
350, 351, 353, 358, 475, 500, 542, 548, 556,
557, 570, 592, 593, 603
Diversity, 32, 49, 68, 69, 236, 237, 350, 351, 352,
353, 542, 545, 547, 548, 549, 550, 551, 556,
595, 609
Divorce, 33, 40, 66, 90, 100, 117, 129, 143, 288,
382, 395, 405, 466, 473
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, 321
Doctors Without Borders, 179
Doctrine of Predestination, 299
Dogtooth Violet, 427
Doing More with Google, 442
Domestic Abuse, 394, 395, 396, 404, 405
Domestic Violence, 42, 343, 346, 352, 353, 394,
395, 404, 535, 537
Dominican Republic, 373
Dongria Kondh, 40, 610
Dopamine, 215, 217
Dora the Explorer, 226, 373, 390, 568
Dorman, Angela, 512
Dorsey Brothers, 254
Doty, Mark, 169
Douglass, Frederick, 10, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273
Douglass/Autobiography, 268
Down by the Salley Gardens, 321
DPS, 550
Dr. Scholl's, 443
Dr. Seuss, 555, 559, 608
Draft, 20, 50, 68, 76, 83, 134, 246, 332, 412, 498,
569, 605, 624
Dragon, 367, 430, 432, 433, 434
Dragons, 368, 369, 430, 432, 433, 434, 621
Dream Deferred, 170, 171, 608
Dreyer, Gunter, 363
Drive-in Restaurant, 27, 28
Drive-Through Tips for China, 125
Drug Therapy, 206, 207, 602
Drug Trafficking, 180
Drug Use, 101, 249, 285
Dubai, 119, 192, 547
Dublin, 322
Duffy, Ann, 509
Undergraduate Series 639
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 400
Duncan, Arne, 75
Dunn Nutrition Center, 199
Durham, Cheri, 509
Durham, Tempe Herndon, 237, 238, 609
Dynex, 390
E
Early 17th Century Elegy, Epigraph , and
Friendship, 302
Early Child Care, 196
Early Modern Period, 487
Earth, 189, 219
Earth's Answer, 310
East Richland Elementary School, 194, 521
Ebonics, 380, 388
Ebro Valley, 29
EBSCOhost, 439, 440, 441, 442, 445, 446, 450,
492, 595, 602, 605, 608, 609, 621, 622
Eclectic, 233, 367, 368, 369, 480, 487, 530, 550,
554, 555, 556, 558, 593
Ecological Sustainability, 189, 190, 191, 193
Economic Equality, 54, 253
Economic growth, 53
Economic Reform, 153
Economic Stability, 32, 36, 39, 40, 42
Edmonton Journal, 512
Edmunds Act, 33, 34
Education of the Handicapped and the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Acts,
93
Education Policy Networks, 58
Education Policy Planning and Research
Community, 58
Education Rights Center, 481
Education Topics in the Courts, 80
Educational Attainment, 541
Educational Freedom, 54
Educational Philosophies Self-Assessment, 530,
534, 554
Educational Philosophy, 530, 535, 536, 554
Educational Policy, 592, 593
Educational Psychology, 467, 469, 471, 479, 486
Educational Researcher, 98, 102, 539, 617, 624
Edwards, Jonathan, 261, 268, 274, 275
Effective Teachers, 468, 532
Ego, 65, 78, 428, 432, 435, 436, 437, 497, 505
Egypt, 182, 362
Egyptian, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366
Egyptians, 363, 364, 366
Einstein, Albert, 553
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 255
ELA, 508
Elections of 1912, 239
Electoral, 239, 240
Electra Complex, 430, 431, 432, 433, 434, 445,
599
Electronic Monitoring, 107, 108, 109
Electronic Surveillance, 107, 108, 109
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, 302
Elementary School, 54, 62, 64, 72, 78, 110, 119,
215, 231, 343, 346, 356, 474, 516, 530, 538,
542, 568, 573, 574, 581, 589
Elements of Curriculum Content and Delivery,
549
Elements of Drama: Characterization, 463
Elements of Drama: Imagery, Symbolism, and
Allusion, 464
Elements of Drama: Plot and Character, 465
Elements of Poetry – Part One, 454
Elements of Poetry – Part Two, 456
Eleventh Amendment, 89, 90, 93
Eliot, T. S., 321
Elitist, 146, 374
Elizabethan Lyric, 302
Elk’s Club, 25
ELL, 232, 233, 234, 235, 237, 536, 537, 564, 568,
570, 571, 579, 590, 593
Eller, Jeannie, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512,
513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521,
522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 603
Ellicott, Andrew, 263
Email, 100, 124, 177, 178, 357, 554, 587
Emancipation, 252, 254, 255, 257
Emasculated, 416
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 271, 275, 276, 277, 615,
621
640 A Journey Through My College Papers
Emoticons, 365, 366
Emotional Baggage, 443, 562, 590
Emotional Blackmail, 345
Emotions, 100, 105, 134, 135, 140, 160, 166,
173, 213, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 230, 265,
278, 285, 289, 300, 321, 329, 363, 384, 393,
412, 415, 473, 488, 489, 490, 496, 497, 504,
573, 624
Endless Change Rule, 65, 66
Engagement, 190, 196, 212, 565, 587, 589, 591
Engineering Research Facility, 108
England, 72, 147, 172, 192, 199, 255, 264, 293,
295, 299, 303, 304, 305, 310, 316, 319, 320,
321, 324, 325, 327, 328, 370, 414, 422, 423,
459
English, 3, 9, 11, 14, 18, 23, 24, 54, 59, 73, 89,
147, 155, 169, 216, 217, 231, 232, 233, 234,
235, 236, 237, 239, 255, 259, 293, 295, 296,
297, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306,
309, 311, 312, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 320,
321, 323, 324, 325, 326, 328, 329, 331, 352,
354, 357, 358, 361, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368,
369, 372, 373, 374, 375, 378, 379, 380, 381,
384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 413, 425,
427, 431, 434, 445, 451, 470, 473, 474, 488,
489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494, 500, 501, 506,
507, 509, 513, 515, 516, 517, 519, 520, 522,
525, 526, 530, 533, 534, 536, 545, 546, 547,
551, 554, 556, 558, 560, 563, 564, 566, 567,
568, 569, 570, 571, 574, 575, 586, 590, 598,
603, 604, 606, 613, 615, 616, 624, 625, 626
English as a Second Language, 54
English Capstone, 487
English Channel, 147
English Language Arts, 508, 528
English Language Learners, 234, 536, 570
English Poetry from Around the World, 323
Enjambment, 457
E-notes, 439
Enthymeme, 499
Environment, 34, 49, 71, 102, 124, 130, 151, 174,
183, 185, 189, 190, 192, 195, 196, 209, 211,
212, 213, 214, 217, 218, 223, 224, 225, 226,
227, 276, 348, 350, 352, 353, 359, 383, 413,
468, 478, 480, 520, 541, 542, 560, 561, 562,
565, 568, 570, 575, 576, 578, 590, 624
Environmental Behaviours Unit, 190
Envy, 308, 350
Epichoric Alphabets, 364
Epitaph, 302
EPPRC, 58
Equality, 53, 54, 138, 624
Equality in Education, 51, 54
Equiano, Olaudah, 305
ERF, 108
Erickson, Amy, 509
Erikson, Erik, 65, 66, 209, 210, 211, 212, 469
Eron , Leonard D., 21
Escaping the Famine, 402
Escaping the Famine – Revised, 411
Escapism, 446
Eskimo, 43
Eskimos, 36, 37
ESL, 54, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 379, 380, 387,
388, 520, 526, 607
Esperanza, 373, 374, 375, 378, 379, 380, 381,
386, 387, 388, 389
Essay, 17, 18, 276, 278, 279, 330, 331, 373, 384,
385, 393, 394, 416, 438, 480, 539, 540, 558,
567, 569, 589
Essential Qualities, 340
Essentialism, 530, 554
Ethical Reform, 136
Ethics, 44, 82, 114, 134, 135, 136, 139, 140, 141,
145, 352, 493, 624
Ethiopia, 547
Ethnic Groups, 128, 129, 360, 367, 425, 542
Ethnicity, 128, 159, 195, 368, 369, 374, 378, 386,
549
Etienne, Frank, 108
Etruscan, 364, 365, 366, 615
Etruscan/Greco Alphabet, 365
Etruscans, 364, 366
EU, 148, 149, 179, 614
Euphemisms, 281, 361, 459
Euphony, 499
Eurasian Continent, 362
Europarliament, 148, 149
Undergraduate Series 641
Europe, 30, 36, 40, 69, 75, 103, 120, 121, 147,
149, 154, 155, 180, 192, 220, 241, 242, 348,
361, 362, 364, 366, 425, 622
European Union, 148, 179
Evaluating a School’s Behavior Rule, 346
Evaluation, 340
Evans, Arthur J., 363
Everyday Use, 170, 171, 624
Everyone Wins, 78, 351
Eviction, 99, 280
Examining a Racial Policy, 49
Examining Gender in A Doll House, 494, 501
Exceptional Learners, 471
Exceptionalities, 471, 479, 481, 521, 558
Exceptionality, 471
Executive Council of Georgia, 88
Executive Order 9066, 245
Exercise, 5, 34, 43, 63, 69, 85, 89, 134, 142, 144,
215, 216, 217, 218, 228, 235, 442, 447, 519,
525, 539, 565, 597, 618, 619
Existential Education Theory, 527
Existentialist Theory of Education, 545
Expected Net Effect on the Human Condition,
181
Experience with Library Resources, 435
Experiential Learning, 194
Explaining Concepts, 335
Explicit Rules, 344, 347
Exploring the Ashford University Library
Databases, 439
Extended Families, 39, 143
Extinct, 361
Extracurricular, 528
Extra-curricular, 550
Extramarital Affairs, 37, 42
Extra-marital Sex, 251
F
F.A.O. Schwartz, 165, 167
Fables, 258, 300, 450
Facebook, 119, 178, 189, 551, 552, 586, 587
Face-to-face Communication, 357
Facial Expressions, 473
Facing the Future of Education, 550
Factories, 105, 239
Factory Workers, 239, 531
Fair Employment Practices Commission, 254
Fair, Brad, 108
Fairclough, Gordon, 125
Fairy Tale, 327, 369, 391, 435
Fallis, Richard, 328
Family, 4, 19, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 37, 38,
39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 47, 49, 53, 64, 66, 67,
68, 95, 96, 100, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121,
129, 131, 132, 133, 137, 141, 142, 144, 145,
146, 159, 163, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 171,
190, 191, 193, 195, 197, 201, 204, 206, 208,
215, 220, 234, 235, 238, 239, 245, 248, 249,
251, 264, 279, 280, 284, 287, 288, 289, 305,
311, 312, 322, 332, 335, 336, 337, 339, 340,
341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 347, 349, 350,
351, 352, 357, 361, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371,
372, 373, 374, 375, 379, 382, 387, 390, 391,
394, 396, 397, 405, 418, 419, 422, 423, 424,
425, 426, 427, 447, 453, 454, 455, 459, 460,
464, 466, 490, 493, 496, 497, 498, 503, 504,
505, 539, 551, 552, 566, 568, 594, 595, 596,
603, 604, 617, 626
Family and Work Changes, 66
Family of Origin, 336, 339, 342
Family Tree, 220
Famine, 367, 368, 395, 406
Fanning, Emma, 183
Fantasy, 18, 22, 100, 142, 202, 203, 331, 368,
396, 413, 441
Far East, 125, 160, 192, 384
Farquhar, Robert, 88
Father, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 42,
45, 46, 67, 95, 116, 119, 131, 144, 167, 169,
174, 175, 205, 206, 256, 258, 264, 267, 279,
283, 285, 289, 291, 311, 328, 332, 335, 343,
345, 346, 370, 374, 392, 396, 403, 416, 418,
419, 430, 431, 432, 437, 450,鴤454, 464, 465,
489, 493, 496, 497, 504, 505, 587, 588
Fatherhood, 129
Faulkner, William, 24, 25, 26, 452, 453
FBI, 108, 180
642 A Journey Through My College Papers
Federal Farmer, 84, 85, 86, 612
Federal Funding, 217, 550
Federal Impact Aid Program, 75
Federalist Papers, 84
Federation, 186
Feedback, 332, 380, 388, 414, 498, 516, 579,
580, 581, 582, 583, 591, 615
Fellow Craft, 460
Felony, 33
Female Husband, 41
Feminine Ethic, 142, 144
Feminism, 295, 320, 382, 383, 487, 622
Feminist, 112, 120, 297, 298, 299, 320, 415, 429,
438, 441, 442, 445, 446, 448, 449, 490, 498,
505, 618
Feminist Criticism, 415
Feminist Manifesto and Woolf, 320
Feminist Theory, 429
FEPC, 254
Festivals, 368, 542
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, 195
Feudal, 120, 150, 153, 158, 161, 303
Feudalism, 239
Fiction, 44, 103, 105, 106, 162, 165, 166, 168,
169, 170, 171, 172, 175, 259, 260, 262, 265,
292, 316, 376, 412, 413, 435, 451, 452, 453,
454, 456, 457, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 489,
490, 491, 493, 498, 500, 505, 595, 600, 602,
608, 610, 617, 619, 620, 624, 625, 626
Fidelity, 210, 293, 295
Fifth Avenue, 165, 166, 167
Fight or Flight, 223
Final Paper Progress, 498
Finch, Anne, 302
Finding Stories and Poems – Mining for Ideas by
Reading Literature, 413
Fingerprint Scanners, 108
Fingerprints, 108, 110, 111
Finland, 557, 559, 606
Fire and Ice, 288, 290, 291
First Amendment, 44, 98, 99, 100, 101, 247, 549,
612
First Death in Nova Scotia, 455
Five Nations, 260, 261, 274
Flagg, James, 241
Flanagan vs. Epson America, Inc, 108
Flanagan, Caitlin, 132
Flash Cards, 511, 522, 523
Flashback, 278
Florida, 75, 84, 108
Fluency, 194, 232, 234, 235, 359, 373, 378, 379,
380, 381, 386, 388, 389, 507, 508, 517, 518,
522, 526, 570, 571
Fluid Abilities, 471, 472
Flynn, James R., 483
Folk Music, 254
Folklore, 294
Fond Memory, 324
Food Administration, 241
Foorman, Barbara, 512
Foot Binding, 391, 392
Foot, Philippa, 138
Football, 293, 566, 567
Forbes, 380, 388
Forces in Education, 69
Ford Motor Company, 244
Ford, Gerald, 245
Ford, Henry, 244
Forgiving My Father, 418
Formal Norms, 124
Formative Assessments, 576, 591, 593
Fortitude, 350
Forton, Mary, 344, 347
Fossil Fuels, 183
Fosterage, 335, 336, 339, 341, 342, 344
Foundation for Critical Thinking, 559
Four Blocks Literacy Model, 507
Fourth of July, 270, 271
Fowler, Geoffrey A., 125
Fractions, 221, 566, 567
France, 83, 123, 155, 243, 246, 459, 461
Franklin, 264
Franklin, Benjamin, 10, 83, 264, 265, 268, 269,
619
Fraternal Affection, 336, 339, 340, 341, 342
Fraternities, 337, 340, 342, 458
Fraternity, 53
Fraud, 105, 110, 180, 464
Undergraduate Series 643
Free and Accepted Masons, 337, 340, 342
Free and Accepted Order of Freemasons, 323
Free Market Economy, 153
Freedom, 5, 30, 44, 54, 55, 74, 81, 85, 87, 92, 98,
99, 101, 108, 155, 237, 238, 244, 245, 252,
253, 254, 255, 257, 267, 270, 271, 273, 281,
286, 287, 304, 305, 315, 371, 372, 376, 377,
378, 385, 406, 426, 448, 463, 489, 490, 533,
536, 551, 552, 555, 583, 603, 609, 612
Freedom and Equality, 54
Freedom Network, 108
Freemasonry, 458, 460, 462, 463, 612
Freemasons, 322, 323, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462,
463, 597, 608
French, 83, 199, 361, 364, 365, 366, 369, 425,
566
French and Indian War, 369
French Revolution, 83
Freud, Sigmund, 65, 207, 416, 428, 430, 431,
433, 436, 437
Fricatives, 358
Friday Evening, 19
Fried Chicken, 19, 20, 355
Friend, Arnold, 26, 28, 29
Friendship, 205, 206, 208, 303, 312
Frodo Baggins, 292
Frontal Lobe, 40, 213
Frontline, 188, 189, 610
Frost, Robert, 168, 176, 288, 290, 291, 292, 603
Full Immersion, 237
Functionalist Theory, 120, 131
FUNdamentals, 506, 507, 508, 511, 512, 522, 523
Fundamentals of Brain-based Learning, 212
Future Teachers Club, 194
G
Gagné, Robert, 70, 71
Gagnon, Paul, 75
Gainurrini, Gian Francesco, 364
Galileo, 69
Gallun v. Soccer U.S.A, Inc., 108
Gardner, Howard, 142, 144, 145, 471, 472, 473,
483, 484, 558, 599, 604
Gardner, Ralph, 141
Garrison, William Lloyd, 267
Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease, 199
GATE, 570, 579, 585, 590, 593
Gates and Broad Foundation, 74
Gautier, Amina, 256
Gay Rights, 129, 573
GED, 194, 219, 552
Geisel, Theodor Seuss, 555
Gemeinshaft, 119, 120
Gender, 41, 55, 94, 100, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120,
122, 129, 135, 201, 202, 205, 206, 214, 215,
229, 256, 287, 352, 360, 376, 377, 391, 429,
441, 468, 469, 488, 490, 491, 493, 494, 495,
497, 498, 501, 502, 504, 505, 506, 545, 552,
572, 573, 578, 598, 604, 618, 622
Gender Based Theories and Stereotypes, 429
Gender Inequality, 120
Gender Information, 201
Gender Schema, 201, 202
Gender Theory, 429
General Educational Development, 552
General Motors, 104
Generation X, 562, 590
Generativity-versus-Stagnation, 66
Genie, 359
Genocide Convention, 181
Genre, 278, 384, 412, 413
Geometry, 73, 528, 531, 549, 574, 575
Georgia, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 167, 599, 612, 623
GERD, 199
German, 148, 241, 245, 259, 361, 363, 368, 369,
451
Germanic Languages, 361
Germany, 126, 147, 148, 152, 155, 192, 241, 243
GFA, 186
Ghost Marriage, 32, 41
Gifted and Talented, 78, 79, 471, 472, 478, 479,
481, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 520, 553, 625
Giftedness, 471, 483, 484, 486, 487, 612
Giles, Rebecca, 222
Gill, Brendan, 416
Gillespie, Dizzy, 254
644 A Journey Through My College Papers
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 13, 393, 394, 438,
439, 440, 441, 442, 443, 445, 446, 447, 448,
449, 450, 595, 599, 602, 605, 609, 621
Gilman's gothic allegory: Rage and redemption in
‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, 440
Gilmore, Jim, 188
Gilyak, 43
Global Citizenship, 192, 193, 595
Global Civil Society, 183
Global Economy, 551, 593
Global Marketplace, 127, 150
Global Networks, 368, 369
Global Perspective, 193, 599
Global Positioning System, 107
Global Society, 192, 350, 351, 352, 353
Global Socioeconomic Perspectives, 176
Global Terrorism, 180
Global Warming, 185, 186, 191, 602
Globalization, 8, 155, 177, 178, 179, 184, 191,
390, 391, 547, 598
Glottals, 358
Glottis, 358
Gluttony, 350
GNP, 8, 184
God, 34, 35, 45, 46, 47, 67, 69, 91, 116, 117, 163,
164, 261, 262, 268, 269, 271, 272, 273, 274,
275, 287, 293, 294, 296, 298, 299, 300, 305,
306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 318, 319,
323, 326, 327, 402, 403, 411, 412, 421, 529,
602
Golden Retrievals, 169
Goldensohn, Barry, 444
Good Friday Agreement, 186
Good versus Evil, 293
Goodman v Georgia et. al., 94
Goodman, Benny, 254
Goodman, Tony, 93
Google, 13, 80, 192, 435, 439, 442, 492
Google Earth, 80, 192
Google Scholar, 442
Gorbachev Government, 152
Gospels, 286
Gothic, 13, 440, 441, 442, 443, 446, 450, 461,
609
Gottesman, Andrew, 513
Goudge, Elizabeth, 435
Gough, Chris, 136
Gould, Jon B., 98
Governor Winthrop, 266
GPS, 107
Grammar, 72, 73, 174, 325, 333, 354, 359, 379,
387, 499, 528, 531, 539, 541, 549, 554, 556,
558, 567, 569, 577
Grammar-check, 325
Grandchildren, 113, 332, 336, 337, 339, 340,
341, 342
Grandfather, 170, 267, 432
Grandparents, 118, 146, 204, 336, 339, 341, 342,
353, 493
Grant Park, 247
Graphic Novel, 376, 384, 385
Graves, Robert, 318
Gray, Thomas, 302
Great Britain, 90, 94, 123, 147, 190, 243
Great Depression, 258, 576, 618
Great Peace, 260, 274
Great Spirit, 263, 274
Great White Roots, 274
Great-grandchildren, 113
Greece, 364, 366, 375, 530, 531, 555, 613
Greed, 97, 317, 324, 328, 350
Greek, 44, 71, 73, 180, 325, 327, 328, 329, 364,
365, 366, 373, 375, 379, 386, 455, 530, 553,
594, 606
Greek, Cecil E., 180
Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 185
Grendel, 10, 292, 293, 294, 305, 306, 307, 308,
309, 598, 610
Gridlock, 90, 91, 596, 601, 615
Grierson, Emily, 24, 25, 26, 452
Grimke, Angelina Weld, 282
Groff, Patrick, 513
Grooming, 369, 370
Gross Domestic Product, 184
Gross Motor Activity, 215, 217
Gross National Product, 184
Group Marriage, 32, 43, 44
Growth Plateau, 52
Undergraduate Series 645
Guam, 243
Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, 188, 189
Guardians, 73, 179, 202, 336, 339, 342
Guests of the Nation, 259, 451
Guisepi, Robert, 69
Gulf Cooperation Council, 179
Gulf War, 179
Gunn, Thom, 323, 324, 606
Gutenberg, Johannes, 69
Guthrie, Woody, 166, 254
H
Hades, 313, 326
HAL, 103, 105, 106, 360
HAL 9000, 103, 105, 106
Hale, Edward Everett, 427
Half and Half, 287
Hamilton, Marie Padgett, 308
Hamilton, William, 269
Hamlet, 428
Handwriting, 510, 511, 515, 521, 522, 523, 524,
526, 539
Happy Endings, 259, 452
Haptic Activity, 227
Harper, Douglas, 427
Hartz, Glenn, 78
Harvard College, 72
Harvard University, 482
Harvard University School of Law, 481
Haskell, John F., 520
Hate, 9, 289
Haughton, Ethel S., 535
Hawaii, 43, 44, 226, 243
Hawkmistress, 413
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 267, 268
Hay, John, 243
Hayabusa, 150, 151, 609
Headless Horseman, 266
Heaney, Seamus, 324
Hearing, 17, 19, 214, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228,
361, 599
Heart of Darkness, 316
Heathorn, Stephen, 158
Heaven, 163, 164, 261, 274, 299, 300, 301, 302,
307, 308, 309, 312, 313, 319, 403, 412, 430,
432
Heaven-Hell, 454
Hebrew, 361, 373, 375, 379, 386
Heineman, Dave, 74
Heinlein, Robert A., 435
Hell, 300, 301, 307, 308
HELP, 55
Helterman, Jeffrey, 306
Hemingway, Ernest, 29, 30, 31
Hemispherectomy, 355
Henry David Thoreau, the State of Nature, and
the Redemption of Liberalism, 276
Here at "The New Yorker", 13, 416, 417
Heredity, 195, 211
Heresy, 262
Heritage, 170, 223, 245, 282, 352, 367, 368, 370,
371, 373, 374, 375, 377, 378, 379, 381, 386,
387, 389, 493
Hero, 293, 294, 305, 397, 416, 417
Heroine, 24, 281, 313, 314, 327, 446
Heroism, 353
Hertberg-Davis, Holly, 78
Heterosexual, 47, 115, 116, 117, 118, 429, 607
Hieroglyphic Writing, 363, 366
Hieroglyphics, 362, 363, 365, 366
Hieroglyphs, 362, 364
High School, 17, 21, 24, 49, 62, 69, 71, 74, 99,
100, 124, 125, 222, 330, 359, 371, 392, 414,
468, 470, 473, 508, 516, 518, 521, 525, 527,
530, 533, 552, 557, 558, 566, 567, 568, 584,
587
High Stakes Testing, 593
Hijab, 155, 156, 383
Hill, Frances M., 556
Hills Like White Elephants, 29
Hindu, 156
Hindus, 146
Hippie, 378
Hirschberg, Stuart, 336
Hirschberg, Terry, 336, 339, 341
Hispanic, 59, 226, 235, 373, 468, 542, 566, 567,
568
646 A Journey Through My College Papers
Historical Criticism, 415, 424
Historical Foundations of Education in America,
534
Historical Perspectives, 176
Historical Reenactment, 533
History of American Education, 69
History of Education, 69
HIV, 199
Hobbes and Locke, 91
Hobbes, Thomas, 91, 93, 176, 616
Hobson, J.A., 159
Hochman, Barbara, 441, 446
Hodapp, Christopher L., 461
Hodges, Elaine, 442
Holistic Learning, 537
Holland, John, 64
Holland's Hypothesis on Personalities, 64
Hollywood Ten, 247, 248, 602
Hollywood/Fiction - Hollywood Blacklists, 247
Holmes, Joseph, 237, 238, 618
Holy Bible, 34, 35, 44, 47, 187, 188, 608
Holy Orders, 298
Holy Spirit, 275, 328
Holy Thursday, 310, 312, 314, 319, 326
Home Cultures, 469, 542
Home Schooling, 548, 550, 551, 552
Homeless, 187, 189, 280, 535
Homelessness, 121, 536, 537
Homer, 328, 375, 553
Homework, 82, 538, 539, 542, 563, 571, 575
Hominid, 363
Homo erectus, 363, 366, 612
Homo habilis, 363
Homo neanderthalensis, 363, 366, 612
Homophonetic, 360
Homosexual, 44, 47, 115, 116, 117, 118, 251,
356, 429, 608
Homosexual Marriage, 44, 115, 116, 117, 118
Homosexuality, 116, 249, 251, 356
Homosexuals, 116, 117, 118, 287, 429
Honeybees, 354
Hong Kong, 125, 156, 348
Honor, 45, 261, 264, 273, 292, 293, 294, 302,
303, 315, 323, 368, 464, 498, 505
Horn Book, 589
Horn, John, 471
Hostages, 248
House of Representatives, 60, 97, 261, 623
Household Responsibility System, 153
Houston, Stephen D., 362
Howard, John, 142
Howland Islands, 243
HUAC, 247, 248, 614
Huawei, 390
Hubris, 268
HUD, 165, 188
Hudson, Frederic, 66
Huesmann , L. Rowell, 21
Hughes, Fountain, 237, 238, 615
Hughes, Langston, 8, 47, 170, 171, 237, 282, 288,
290, 291, 292, 457, 608, 620
Human Civilization, 363
Human Condition, 22, 283, 289, 412, 415, 437
Human Expression, 363
Human Rights, 7, 8, 55, 85, 116, 127, 128, 181,
182, 183, 184, 187, 188, 189, 304, 305, 350,
351, 353, 382, 467, 595, 615, 621
Human Society, 121, 275, 277, 294, 306, 308,
359, 396, 415
Human Speech, 173, 354, 358, 360
Humanism, 69, 530, 534, 535, 536, 554
Humanistic Philosophy of Education, 534
Humanitarian Need, 181
Humanitarian Relief, 179, 181, 240, 242
Hume, David, 135
Humphrey, Leonard, 426
Hunt, Irene, 220
Hunter-gatherers, 363
Hursthouse, Rosalind, 138
Husband, 25, 30, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41,
42, 43, 45, 47, 67, 113, 115, 116, 117, 119,
131, 132, 142, 171, 223, 249, 258, 267, 279,
280, 281, 284, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 314,
319, 322, 335, 343, 367, 382, 394, 395, 396,
404, 405, 406, 440, 441, 442, 445,鴤446, 447,
448, 449, 451, 463, 464, 465, 489, 490, 493,
494, 496, 497, 501, 503, 504, 505, 547, 574
Hutchins, Robert A., 533
Undergraduate Series 647
Hutchinson, Anne, 266, 267
Hybrid, 95, 150
Hyde, 315, 316
Hypocrisy, 45, 49, 270, 271, 623
I
I can Read with my Eyes Shut, 555
I have a dream, 286, 287, 610
I wandered lonely as a cloud, 455
I, Too, 457
I’m Just a Bill, 61
Iambic, 282, 400, 457
Iambic Pentameter, 282
Ibsen, Henrik, 14, 463, 464, 466, 467, 490, 491,
494, 495, 496, 497, 498, 501, 502, 503, 504,
505, 506, 608, 609, 618, 625
Id, 23, 65, 84, 90, 111, 123, 145, 182, 222, 228,
229, 244, 344, 347, 428, 430, 432, 435, 436,
437, 463, 482, 487, 595, 598, 599, 606, 608,
611, 612, 616, 619, 621, 622, 624
IDEA, 77, 93
IDEAL Problem Solving, 475
Ideas, 43, 54, 63, 74, 76, 85, 99, 138, 150, 160,
171, 186, 194, 202, 203, 206, 209, 226, 262,
275, 278, 282, 310, 311, 328, 329, 345, 352,
354, 356, 362, 363, 366, 374, 376, 378, 380,
383, 385, 387, 388, 391, 392, 412, 414, 417,
421, 428, 436, 437, 444, 449, 457, 465, 466,
469, 470, 475, 492, 493, 500, 529, 531, 533,
534, 535, 537, 541, 544, 546, 547, 554, 555,
557, 559, 561, 577, 584, 585, 589, 591, 597,
608
Identifying Shapes, 23
Identity, 27, 66, 102, 103, 110, 147, 155, 160,
161, 162, 177, 179, 180, 183, 184, 186, 187,
190, 193, 202, 204, 210, 274, 275, 315, 320,
322, 323, 336, 339, 342, 361, 368, 369, 370,
371, 372, 374, 375, 378, 379, 380, 381, 385,
386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 401, 425, 427,
432, 437, 446, 458, 459, 469, 497, 505, 545,
562, 590, 604
Identity Within and Without, 378, 385
Identity-versus-Role Confusion, 66
Ideographs, 363
Idiomatic, 360
IEP, 470, 564, 570, 579, 590
Igbo, 36, 39, 41, 42, 48, 616
Ignition Interlock, 107
Ignorance, 36, 129, 236, 350
Iklaina, 364
Illegitimate Children, 39
Illinois, 3, 22, 108, 110, 217, 257, 521, 598
Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, 3
Imagery, 163, 169, 172, 173, 174, 175, 272, 273,
274, 282, 300, 310, 312, 314, 319, 321, 325,
326, 327, 328, 329, 332, 379, 381, 384, 385,
387, 389, 400, 416, 417, 441, 445, 446, 449,
455, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462, 489
Imagery in Literature, 172
Images of Brotherhood and Death, 458
Immigrants, 129, 130, 147, 160, 239, 253, 367,
368, 378, 386, 493
Immigration, 53, 129, 130, 537
Immigration and Naturalization, 93
Impact of Sociological Theories on the Institution
of Family, 131
Impact of the Internet, 81
Imperative, 142, 242, 367, 457
Implementation Barriers to NCLB, 59
Impotent, 416
Impromptu to Lady Winchilsea, 302
In Another Country, 283
In the Classroom, 220
Incas, 362
Incest, 116, 118
Inclusionary Classrooms, 78
Incubus, 306, 308
Independence Hall, 84
Independent Readers, 517
India, 33, 40, 49, 125, 153, 154, 157, 160, 185,
186, 344, 347, 371, 390, 601, 602
India and China, 185
Indian Subcontinent, 154
Indiana, 234, 235, 280
Indiana University, 483
Indians, 37, 153, 154, 157, 160, 175, 266, 281,
390, 454, 600, 618
648 A Journey Through My College Papers
Indifferent Universe, 288
Individualism, 53, 351
Individualized Education Plan, 470
Indoctrination, 139, 281, 548
Indo-European, 361, 362, 594
Indo-Europeans, 154
Indonesia, 155, 234, 235
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning, 204
Inductive Reasoning, 204, 209
Industrial Age, 284, 427
Industrial Espionage, 109
Industrial Revolution, 487
Industrialization, 150, 327, 328, 329
Industry versus Inferiority, 469
Inequality of the Sexes, 249
Infant and Toddler Nutrition, 198
Infant Mortality, 197, 198, 208
Infantilism, 446, 447
Infantilization, 445
Inferior-Parietal Lobule, 215
Inflation, 248, 249
Informal Assessment, 540
Informal Logic, 111
Informal Norms, 124
Information Processing, 8, 202, 530, 547, 554,
555
Inheritance, 32, 37, 39, 41, 42, 115, 336, 339,
341
Inheritance Rights, 32
Inherited Wife, 41, 42
Injustice, 177, 270, 271, 280, 281, 349, 350
In-laws, 32, 118, 251, 313, 327, 336, 339, 341,
342, 345, 394, 404
Innocence/Experience, 310
Insanity, 250, 394, 438
Institutional Outcomes, 68
Instructional Techniques, 513
Insult, 458, 459, 462
INTASC, 468
Integrity, 51, 111, 114, 210, 546, 577, 588
Intellectual Exceptionality, 14, 470
Intelligence, 6, 14, 97, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107,
110, 122, 188, 200, 253, 271, 273, 379, 380,
388, 470, 471, 472, 473, 479, 481, 482, 483,
484, 485, 486, 487, 543, 544, 595, 599, 605,
612, 616, 621, 624
Intelligence Tests and Student Placement, 481
Intelligences, Correlations, and A.D.H.D., 471
Intensive and Systematic Phonics Instruction,
512
Intent in Moral Acts, 139
Interactionist Theory, 131, 133
Interconnected Policy Agendas, 58
Interdentals, 358
Interdisciplinary Capstone, 559
Interdisciplinary Capstone Course, 588
Intermediate Composition, 330
Internal Revenue Service, 243, 244, 608
International Law, 180, 181, 183
International Monetary Fund, 150, 183
International Money Economy, 391
International Organizations, 179
International Peace, 181
International Phonetic Alphabet, 11, 357, 358
International Relations, 176
International Voices, 367
Internet, 6, 80, 82, 106, 107, 119, 177, 178, 180,
183, 190, 192, 219, 220, 244, 348, 365, 366,
435, 484, 492, 508, 541, 542, 547, 552, 553,
569, 582, 606, 609, 619
Interpersonal, 119, 133, 289, 372, 391, 471, 544
Interpersonal Violence, 21
Intimacy-versus-Isolation, 66
Intrapersonal, 471, 543, 544
Intrinsic and Embedded Phonics, 512
Introduction, 312
Introduction to Literary Analysis, 415
Introduction to Literature, 162
Introduction to Policy & Education, 49
Introduction to Serving English Language
Learners, 231
Introduction to Sociology, 119
Introductory Linguistics, 354
Introspective Memoir, 385
Inuits, 362
Inverted Spelling, 513
Ionesco, Eugene, 415
IPA, 358
Undergraduate Series 649
IPL, 215
IQ, 199, 470, 472, 481, 482, 484, 485, 486, 487,
600, 621
IQ Test Labs, 470
Iran, 9, 157, 248, 376, 377, 382, 383, 384, 385,
612
Iran Hostage Crisis, 248
Iranian Women's Movement, 382, 383, 384, 385,
604
Iraq, 123, 179, 188
Iredell, James, 88
Ireland, 259, 303, 323, 451
IRIS Center, 236, 237, 609
Irish, 14, 128, 259, 325, 328, 329, 367, 368, 390,
395, 406, 451, 493
Irish Immigrants, 128, 367, 368
Irony, 318, 453, 466, 489
Iroquois, 10, 260, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 617
Irregular Speech, 360
Irvine, California, 390
Irving, Washington, 265, 268
Islam, 154, 155, 157, 541, 548, 611, 616
Islamic, 126, 154, 155, 157, 255, 350, 352, 382,
383, 385, 549, 596, 622
Islamic Commission, 376
Islamic Extremists, 255
Islamic Laws, 126
Israel, 36, 46, 127, 375
Issei, 245
Issues Surrounding Curriculum Development,
548
Italy, 69, 155, 176, 246, 364, 366, 390, 459, 461
Ithaca, New York, 37
J
Jackson, Liz, 555
Jacobs, Harriet A., 272
Jacobs, Kimberly, 551, 552
Jacoby, Arthur, 535
James Madison Elementary, 234, 235, 620
James, William, 243
January Federal Register, 102
Japan, 103, 123, 125, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151,
152, 180, 185, 243, 390, 598, 608, 609, 623
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 150
Japanese, 7, 119, 128, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152,
245, 246, 355, 368, 369, 372, 390, 425, 538,
539, 614, 616, 621, 623
Japanese Spirit, Western Things, 149
Japanese-Americans, 128, 425
Jargon, 356
Jarvis Island, 243
JAXA, 150
Jay, John, 88
Jazz, 253, 282, 283
Jefferson, Thomas, 73, 74, 83, 84, 91, 92, 262,
263, 530, 621, 622
Jekyll, 315, 316
Jen, Gish, 493
Jensen, Eric, 221, 223, 230
Jesus Christ, 35, 267, 294, 299, 300, 310, 312,
313, 318, 326
Jewish, 250, 529
Jews, 21, 36, 146, 287
Jig, 29
Jihadis, 147
Jim Crow, 253, 255, 257, 287, 609
Johnson Island, 243
Johnson, Andrew, 238
Johnson, Greg, 440, 442, 447
Johnson, James Weldon, 282
Johnson, Marietta, 76, 77
Johnson, Samuel, 305, 429
Joker, 256
Jones, Jefferey M., 512
Jordan, 155
Jordan, Travis, 237
Joseph Hanson, 584
Journal of Law and Education, 101, 102, 613
Journal of the Masonic Society, 461
Journey by Inner Light, 370
Joy, Katlyn, 517
Joyce, James, 321
JSTOR, 435, 442, 492
Judaism, 146, 541, 548
Judeo-Christian, 36, 325, 328, 329
650 A Journey Through My College Papers
Judiciary Act, 88
Jung, Carl, 428, 430, 433
Jupiter, 219
Jurisprudence, 270
Just Cause, 181, 318
Just Desserts, 136
Justice, 83, 96, 123, 130, 131, 135, 137, 159, 166,
177, 192, 283, 307, 350, 487, 555, 617
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 95
Juvenile Offenders, 123
K
K12, 552
Kafka, Franz, 167, 176
Kafta, 368, 369
Kaggirs, 36
Kaingang, 43
Kansas, 108, 290, 292, 620
Kant, Immanuel, 135, 555
Karma, 154
Katz, David, 191
Kauppi, Mark V., 181, 184
Kaur, Meeta, 368, 369, 370
Keats, John, 312, 313, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329,
597
Kelly, Melissa, 75
Kennedy, Robert, 246
Kentucky Fried Chicken, 125
Kenya, 192
Kenyan, 256
Kepler, Johannes, 69
Key Elements of Assessment, 580
Key Learning, 208
Keypad-menu Call Centers, 104
Keys to Effective Assessment, 591
KFC, 108, 125, 151
Kidwell, Barbara, 520
Kiessling, Nicolas K., 306
Kill the rat!, 240
Kindergarten, 23, 52, 69, 74, 192, 209, 222, 343,
346, 359, 434, 467, 508, 509, 516, 530, 537,
549, 551, 566, 567, 568, 582
Kinesthetic, 215, 225, 227, 229, 230, 470, 477,
564, 570, 574, 575, 579, 590, 591, 593, 611
Kinesthetic Learners, 570
King David, 35
King Solomon, 35
King William IV, 158
King, Martin Luther, 246, 255, 285
King, Rodney, 256
Kingman Reef, 243
Kingston, Maxine Hong, 287, 288
Kinship, 119, 151, 157, 263, 454, 600
KKK, 250, 254
Klein, Melanie, 428
Knights of Columbus, 241
Kodachrome, 443
Kohlberg’s Scale, 142
Kohn, Alfie, 548
Kool-Aid, 443
Korea, 151
Korean, 250, 251
Kosher, 127
Kosova, 186
Kosovo, 186, 187, 608
Kreis, Steven, 69
Ku Klux Klan, 53, 254, 279, 290
Kuuk, 372
Kuwait, 126, 179
K-W-L Chart, 570
Kyoto Protocol, 183
L
L1, 359
L2, 359
La Choy, 368, 390
Labiodentals, 358
Laboratory, 535
Laborers, 25, 99, 239, 375, 378, 379, 386, 387,
422, 423, 425, 487
Ladakhis, 391
Lamb of God, 310, 312
Lancelot, 314, 327
Land's End, 104
Lango, 39
Undergraduate Series 651
Langston Hughes and Alice Walker, 170
Language, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 50, 51, 54, 82, 101,
106, 117, 121, 122, 124, 145, 161, 169, 190,
197, 213, 214, 215, 222, 231, 232, 233, 234,
235, 236, 237, 246, 266, 269, 271, 285, 311,
314, 318, 320, 325, 330, 332, 348, 354, 355,
356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 362,鴤363, 364,
365, 366, 372, 373, 374, 375, 378, 379, 380,
381, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 413, 416, 417,
429, 462, 467, 469, 475, 483, 484, 487, 494,
499, 501, 507, 508, 509, 510, 513, 517, 518,
519, 520, 522, 526, 528, 531, 538, 539, 545,
546, 549, 551, 554, 566, 567, 568, 571, 572,
580, 590, 593, 596, 597, 603, 604, 609, 611,
612, 614, 615, 622, 623, 625
Language Acquisition, 359
Language and Literary Studies, 499
Language and Personal Identity, 374
Language and Rhetoric, 285
Language Experience Approach, 509
Language, Perception, and Artistic Creation, 372
Lanham Act, 75
Larkin, Philip, 323
Larry P. v. Riles, 485
Last Resort, 181
Lateralization, 355
Latin, 71, 72, 73, 156, 308, 361, 365, 366
Latin America, 156
Latina, 373
Laurel, Deborah, 227
Lawful Authority, 181
Lawrence v. Texas, 34
Learning & the Brain, 212
Learning Differences, 519, 520, 526, 536, 553,
560, 561, 562
Learning Disability, 234
Learning Disorders, 472, 556
Learning Environments, 213, 218, 224, 225, 226,
227, 228, 549
Learning Impaired, 23
Learning Point Associates, 517, 518, 611
Learning Stages, 70
Learning Styles, 478, 479, 481, 554, 556, 557,
558, 561, 564, 575, 589, 590, 591
Learning Styles Inventory Assessment, 478
Learning Support, 577
LeFloch, Kerstin Carlson, 59
Left Motor Cortex, 484
LeGuin, Ursula K., 395, 396
Length, 357
Lenkeit, Roberta, 32
Leo’s Coney Island, 340
Lesbian, 41, 116, 129, 249
Lesson Plan, 229, 544, 545, 546, 591, 612
Lesson Plans, 544, 575, 576, 579, 587, 591
Lestrygonians, 321
Lethe, 313, 326, 327
Letters, 262
Letters from the Federal Farmer to the
Republican, 84, 86, 612
Levirate Monogamy, 32
Lewis v. Dayton Hudson Corp, 108
Lewis, Beth, 531
Lewis, Meriwether, 84
Lexical Meaning, 357
Lexicon, 366
Lexus DVD Navigation System, 104
Liberal Arts, 378, 530, 549
Liberia, 42
Liberti v. Walt Disney World Co, 108
Liberty, 53, 73, 85, 92, 103, 128, 240, 243, 245,
270, 273, 304, 305, 315, 598
Liberty Bell, 240
Liberty Bonds, 240
Libin, Nancy, 110
Lieutenant Commander Data, 105
Life Chances, 121
Life Maps, 68
Limited English Proficiency, 59
Lincoln , Abraham, 17, 153, 331
Lincoln, Abraham, 257, 273
Lineage, 336, 339, 341
Linear B, 364
Linguistic, 196, 233, 236, 237, 355, 372, 375, 378,
379, 380, 386, 388, 389, 470, 471, 472, 499,
508, 543, 544, 609
Linguistic System, 355
Linguistics, 500
652 A Journey Through My College Papers
Linguists, 361
Lions Club, 337, 340, 342
Lips, 162, 173, 272, 286, 301, 302, 358, 401, 402,
410, 411, 456
Listening Software, 360
Literacy, 73, 253, 506, 507, 508, 509, 511, 518,
522, 523, 533, 544, 546, 603, 611, 614, 618,
622
Literacy in Learning Exchange, 508, 509, 603
Literacy Standards, 508
Literacy Statistics, 506
Literary Analysis of “Who’s Irish”, 493
Literary Analyst, 415
Literary Canon, 488, 489, 490, 529
Literary Critic, 436, 437, 445
Literary Criticism, 434, 438, 492, 611, 624
Literary Experiences, 434
Literary Period, 487, 488
Literary Periods, 487
Literary Research, 434, 492
Literary Terms, 453
Literary Theory, 415
Literature, 35, 69, 72, 122, 163, 172, 173, 174,
175, 216, 233, 261, 262, 263, 265, 266, 267,
268, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 277, 278,
279, 282, 283, 284, 285, 287, 288, 292, 293,
295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303,
304, 305, 306, 309, 311, 312, 314, 315, 316,
317, 318, 320, 321, 323, 324, 325, 326, 329,
376, 377, 378, 382, 383, 384, 392, 412, 415,
416, 417, 419, 420, 421, 424, 425, 428, 429,
432, 434, 435, 436, 437, 445, 449, 453, 477,
488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 494, 498, 499, 500,
501, 505, 516, 528, 533, 534, 535, 542, 547,
548, 551, 556, 557, 559, 569, 594, 598, 606,
612, 613, 615, 618
Literature and Life, 163
Literature in Community, 166
Literature in the Postmodern Era, 285
Little Rock, Arkansas, 255
Little Women, 434
Liturgical Language, 361
Livengood, Jennifer, 144
Locke, John, 91, 92, 93, 546, 616
Logic, 113, 114, 213, 349, 470, 487, 496, 497,
503, 504, 505, 529, 543, 549, 559
Logical-mathematical, 471, 472
Lolita, 376, 377, 378, 382, 383, 384, 385, 615
LoMonte, Frank D., 98
London, 119, 160, 319, 421, 422, 423, 429
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 271, 272
Long-term Memory, 477
Look and Say, 509
Lord of the Rings, 292, 293
Los Angeles, 187, 256, 512, 623
Loss of Innocence, 310, 311, 318, 319, 325
Louisiana Purchase, 84
Love, 10, 301, 302, 344, 347, 403, 412, 563, 619
Low Income, 36, 54, 55, 59, 165, 196, 197, 482,
485
Lower Class, 111, 120, 121, 146, 159, 230, 296,
328, 373, 378, 379, 380, 381, 386, 387, 388,
389, 422, 499
Lower East Side, 535
Loy, Mina, 320
Luke-Killam, Anya, 363
Lust, 311, 319, 328, 350
Luther, Martin, 36, 287, 610
Lynn, Steven, 417
M
M I M U L U K A V I I E S I, 364
M&Ms, 511, 523
M*A*S*H, 249, 250, 251, 611, 613
Machiavelli, Niccoló, 176
Machine Age, 254
MacLaine, Shirley, 380, 388
Maclean's, 78, 79, 614
Madison, James, 262
Madness, 393, 394, 414, 438, 439, 441, 445, 448,
449, 458, 500
Madrid, 31
Magic, 50, 327
Magical Thinking, 203
Magnet Schools, 555
Mahan, Alfred Thayer, 242
Maine, 44, 75, 108
Undergraduate Series 653
Mainstreamed, 231, 232
Maintaining Peace, 186
Major Trends, Issues and Prospects, 156
Majuscules, 364, 365
Makeup, 28, 97, 367
Malays, 155
Malthus, Thomas, 189
Manhattan, 96, 130, 614
Manifest Destiny, 242, 244, 426, 427
Manipulatives, 221, 222, 225, 227, 228, 575, 582
Manson, Marilyn, 21, 23, 612
Manual on Michigan Marriages, 118
Manufacturing, 105, 150, 238, 239, 244, 378,
386, 593
Mao Tse-tung, 153
Mardi Gras, 278
Margaret Beeks Elementary School, 534, 535
Marines, 241
Marital Infidelity, 353
Marriage, 25, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40,
41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 115, 116, 117, 118,
119, 129, 131, 132, 163, 171, 249, 284, 288,
295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 303, 335, 336, 339,
341, 344, 350, 352, 382, 413, 422, 464, 465,
466, 467, 495, 496, 497, 502, 503, 504, 505,
573, 596, 604, 616, 618, 620, 622, 624
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 319
Mars, 219
Martial Law, 253
Marvel, Laura, 328
Marx, Karl, 425
Marxism versus Postcolonial Theory, 425
Marxist Criticism, 425
Marxist Theory, 425
Maryland, 75
Masonic, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462
Masquerade, 459, 460
Mass Media, 58, 253
Massachusetts, 44, 72, 167, 425, 426, 427, 428,
613, 625
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 71
Math for Elementary Majors, 23
Math Goodies, 582, 583, 613
Matrilineal, 40, 48, 613
Maypole in Vermont, 12, 397
Maypole in Vermont – Revised, 406
McAdoo, William Gibbs, 241
McArabia, 126, 127, 594, 602
McCarthy, Mary, 101
McDermott, Nancy, 142
McDole, J., 137
McDonald’s, 125, 126, 127, 151, 594, 602
McDonald's Goes East, 125
McKay, Claude, 282, 323
McLaks, 126
McLean, Pam, 66
McPitzutz, 127
McVeigh, Timothy, 53
MEAP, 481
Measured IQ, 471
Media Pirates, 348
Media Violence, 21, 22
Media-induced Isolation, 542
Medicaid, 93
Medieval, 69, 119, 120, 121, 279, 294, 297, 298,
299, 308, 309, 367, 368, 369, 425, 555, 607,
619
Medieval Reenactment, 119
Medieval Tradition, 69
Mediocrity, 416, 585
Mediterranean, 36, 119, 300, 364
Melancholia, 438
Melton, Gina, 552
Memory, 18, 20, 63, 73, 162, 170, 174, 201, 213,
214, 217, 219, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227,
228, 230, 234, 236, 264, 276, 283, 286, 290,
315, 331, 332, 333, 372, 473, 477, 513, 517,
528, 530, 538, 540, 553, 558, 597, 623, 624
Memory Strategies, 218
Mendleson, Rachel, 78
Menopause, 249
Mental Retardation, 197
Mental Trauma, 251
Mentors, 426, 427, 431, 470, 584
Mercury, 219
Meriam, Junius, 76
654 A Journey Through My College Papers
Merriam-Webster, 47, 48, 49, 90, 103, 106, 263,
297, 357, 358, 366, 595, 600, 601, 602, 603,
607, 608, 613, 614, 616, 617, 618, 620, 621
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, 103
Meshach, 262
Mesopotamia, 362
Meta, Ilir, 186
Metaphor, 167, 260, 261, 265, 274, 276, 400,
401, 456, 487
Meter, 286, 444, 457
Method Time Management Time Study
Engineer, 23
Metrical Structure, 357
Metro Detroit, 121, 208, 367, 551
Metro Parent, 208, 614
Mexican, 119, 368, 369, 373, 374, 375, 378, 379,
381, 386, 387, 389
Mexico, 155, 156, 236, 374, 390, 570
Michael Alvarez, 570
Michelangelo, 553
Michigan, 5, 60, 61, 107, 108, 109, 118, 206, 215,
220, 300, 343, 346, 481, 552, 603, 612, 621
Michigan Educational Assessment Program, 481
Michigan English Language Arts Framework
Project, 512
Michigan Legislative Process, 60
Michigan State University, 215
Microsoft Office Word, 499
Middle Ages, 38, 69, 150, 158, 293, 297
Middle Class, 120, 121, 129, 146, 152, 158, 296,
368, 446, 449, 499
Middle Colonies, 72
Middle Earth, 292
Middle East, 38, 92, 125, 155, 187, 220, 390, 547,
596
Middle Eastern, 159, 178, 287, 300, 368, 369,
377
Middle English, 305, 365
Middle English Period, 487
Middle School, 62, 356, 359, 480, 516, 522, 535,
542, 562, 566, 582
Middle Way, 152
Midway Islands, 243
Midwest, 146
Migrations, 368, 369
Milestone, 369, 568
Military Force, 182, 183, 244
Military Service, 41, 252, 371
Milk Kinship, 157
Millennial, 562
Millennials, 590
Milton, John, 300, 301
Mimic, 354, 446, 551
Mini-lesson: "I before E", 235
Minorities, 160, 246, 249, 254, 256, 485
Minuscules, 364, 365
Miscarriage, 249
Missionaries, 266, 391
Mississippi, 75, 253
Mississippi River, 84
MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, 106
Mixed-gender, 376
MLA, 3, 66
Mnemonic Device, 219
Modeling, 202, 217, 344, 347, 480, 576
Modern American Fiction, 284
Modern American Writers, 283
Modern Humans, 361, 363
Modernism, 155, 281, 487, 596
Modernist American Literature by Women, 281
Modernity, 150, 487
Modernization, 149, 150, 151, 154, 155, 157,
596, 611, 614
Mohammed, 36
Mohawk, 261
Moiseeff, Dolly, 208
Moise-Titus , Jessica, 21
Monarchy, 147, 158, 304
Monogamy, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 42, 43, 44,
45, 48, 467, 614
Monster, 292, 293, 294, 305, 306, 308, 309, 396,
397, 449, 499
Montessori Method, 71
Montessori Schools, 71
Montessori, Maria, 71
Moore, Marianne, 430, 433, 434, 613
Moral Conduct, 376
Moral Consensus, 139
Undergraduate Series 655
Moral Law, 116
Moral Reasoning, 114
Moral Relativism, 351, 352, 353
Moral Truth, 182
Morality, 73, 135, 137, 298, 299, 351, 352, 353,
487
Morelock, M.J., 79
Mormon, 33, 38
Morphemes, 354, 356
Morphology, 11, 354, 355, 356, 361, 507
Morphology and Creativity, 355
Morrill Act, 33
Mother, 19, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 40, 41,
43, 45, 66, 67, 95, 99, 116, 118, 119, 137,
141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 157, 170, 171,
195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 208, 219, 226, 251,
256, 278, 279, 280, 288, 313, 324, 327, 332,
335, 344, 345, 346, 347, 352, 362, 366, 370,
371, 372, 374, 380, 381, 388, 389, 390, 392,
393, 394, 395, 396, 403, 404, 405, 406, 416,
418, 419, 426, 430, 431, 432, 433, 437, 440,
453, 454, 463, 466, 468, 469, 470, 478, 486,
490, 493, 495, 496, 502, 503, 617
Mother Tongue, 373, 378, 381, 386, 390, 622
Motherhood, 142, 145, 433, 613
Motivation, 77, 99, 470, 473, 478, 482, 531, 534,
536, 557, 572
Motivation to Learn, 529
Mount Anthony Union High School, 17, 330
Mr. Rodriguez, 560
Ms. Valdera, 562
MTMTSE, 23
Multiculturalism, 351, 352, 353, 599, 608
Multilingual, 359, 372, 551
Multiple Intelligences, 471, 473, 483, 484, 486,
558, 561, 579, 599
Multiracial Society, 238
Murder, 21, 25, 26, 42, 123, 254, 281, 287, 308,
329, 414, 453, 458, 462, 500, 596
Murders, 21, 22, 305
Murray, Aífe, 425
Museum of Fine Arts, 364
Music, 19, 72, 100, 213, 215, 216, 219, 223, 225,
226, 228, 230, 254, 282, 348, 374, 376, 397,
398, 400, 407, 408, 410, 472, 508, 527, 528,
531, 542, 549, 550, 554, 555, 557, 565, 568,
570, 583, 590
Musical, 219, 254, 282, 286, 358, 471, 500, 543
Muslim, 7, 147, 154, 155, 156, 157, 159, 160,
230, 371, 611, 618
Muslim Modernization, 154
Muslims, 146, 147, 156, 160, 287
My Fair Lady, 358
My Lai, 443
My Last Duchess, 454
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, 173,
175, 456, 620
My Name, 373, 374, 375, 378, 381, 386, 389, 599
My Papa's Waltz, 169, 174, 175, 619
My Reading Experience, 176
Myanmar, 182
Mycenaean, 364
Mynahs, 354
Myth, 313, 327, 329, 396, 434, 455, 613
Mythology, 35, 214, 300, 307, 312, 313, 325,
326, 327, 328, 329, 597
MyTouch, 390
N
NAACP, 80, 253, 255
NAAL, 506
NAEP, 506, 507, 615
Nafisi, Azar, 12, 376, 377, 378, 382, 383, 384,
385, 615
Namibia, 37, 42
Nandi, 41
Naparsteck, Martin, 443
Naperville Central High School, 216
Naperville, IL, 216
Napoleon Dynamite, 416
Narayan, Jayaprakash, 111
Narcissus, 455
Narrative, 24, 162, 163, 238, 239, 240, 242, 244,
245, 246, 247, 248, 251, 257, 264, 266, 269,
278, 287, 333, 384, 461, 583, 601
Narrative Writing, 277
NASA, 103, 150
656 A Journey Through My College Papers
Nation’s Report Card, 75
National Academic Standards, 74
National Assessment for Adult Literacy, 506
National Assessment of Educational Progress,
506
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, 80, 253
National Association of Colored Women, 253
National Catholic War Council, 241
National Center for Literacy Education, 508
National Council of Teachers of English, 520
National Education Association, 51
National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, 196, 507
National Institutes of Health, 512, 515, 516, 615
National Interest, 181, 182
National Negro Business League, 253
National Standards in Education, 74
Native American, 33, 44, 273
Native Americans, 128, 255, 281, 362
Native Speakers, 359, 361, 374
NATO, 179
Natural Selection, 36, 37
Naturalistic, 470, 471, 543, 544
Nature Imagery, 318
Nature in Early American Literature, 273
Nature of Man, 315, 316
Navy, 85, 240, 241, 242, 243
Nayar, 40, 41, 48, 615
NCLB, 5, 59, 70, 75, 76, 216, 217, 218, 522, 548,
592, 608, 622, 623
NCLE, 508
NDEA, 79
NEA, 51, 52, 615
Near East, 240, 242, 361
Nebraska, 74, 573, 574
Negative Reinforcement, 473, 474
Neglect, 26, 73, 175, 188, 201
Negro, 24, 25, 253, 255, 257, 287, 290, 292, 452,
606, 620
Nelson, Marilyn, 403
Neo-Classical Period, 487
Nepal, 33, 39
Nephews, 336, 339, 341, 342
Neptune, 219
Net Generation, 562, 590
Netherlands, 155
Neur, 41
Neurasthenia, 393
New Age, 225
New Criticism, 13, 415, 416, 417
New Criticism and Unification, 416
New England, 72, 74, 128, 146, 222, 369, 377,
434, 514, 522, 597, 605, 618, 626
New Guineans, 36
New Hampshire, 19, 44
New Jersey, 44, 240
New Mexico, 44
New Politics Liberalism, 53, 54, 55, 56
New York, 44, 48, 75, 84, 86, 87, 90, 91, 93, 94,
95, 96, 107, 115, 121, 122, 123, 124, 127,
128, 131, 133, 134, 136, 145, 147, 148, 149,
152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 161, 165, 166, 171,
174, 175, 187, 195, 196, 197, 198, 200, 201,
202, 203, 205, 206, 207, 209, 212, 253, 259,
260, 263, 265, 266, 293, 295, 296, 297, 299,
300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 309, 311, 312,
314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 320, 321, 323, 324,
325, 329, 363, 374, 375, 381, 389, 414, 463,
482, 487, 490, 491, 493, 498, 505, 535, 552,
586, 596, 597, 599, 600, 602, 604, 606, 608,
610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 616, 617, 619, 624,
626
New York City, 165, 166, 414
New York State Board of Regents, 552
New York Times, 482
New Zealand, 192
Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 98
Newton, Benjamin Franklin, 426, 427
Newton, Isaac, 69, 334, 338
Niagara Movement, 253
NICHD, 196, 197, 507
Nicoll, W. Robertson, 275
Nieces, 336, 339, 341, 342
Nigeria, 36, 39, 41, 42, 48, 155, 156, 279, 616
Nigerian-American, 390
Nightmare, 281, 316, 317, 499
NIH, 516
Undergraduate Series 657
Nile Delta, 363
Nisei, 245
Nitre, 461, 462
Nixon, Richard, 247
No Child Left Behind, 70, 75, 216, 217, 548, 592
No Name Woman, 287
Nobel Prize, 150
Nongraded Schools, 77
Norman Conquest, 487
Normative Maturation Events, 196
North Atlantic, 179, 395, 406
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 179
North Bennington Graded School, 23
North Carolina, 77, 220, 238, 280, 311, 368, 373,
609
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,
548
North Korea, 151
Northern Ireland, 186, 187, 625
Northern Mariana Islands, 243
Norway, 127
Norwood, Hermond, 237
Notebook Paper, 19
Noun, 303, 354, 355, 356, 361, 417
Nowak, Manfred, 188
Nuclear Family, 40, 131, 367
Nudity, 249, 250, 319
Numbers and Mathematics, 204
Nunez, Narina, 112
Nurturing, 200, 336, 339, 341, 477, 533
Nutrition, 198, 199, 200, 201, 600
Nwunye Nhachi, 41, 42
Nwunye Nkuchi, 41, 42
Nyinba, 39
O
O to Be a Dragon, 430, 433
O’Brien, Keith, 558
O’Rourke, Meghan, 142
O’Sullivan, John L., 426
Oakland County Community Corrections
Division, 107
Oakland County, Michigan, 107
Oates, Carol, 26
Obama, Barack, 96, 128, 129, 219, 252, 256, 257,
258, 285, 286, 287, 605, 620
Oberembt, Kenneth J., 298
Obesity, 26, 193, 198, 199, 596
O'Brien, Tim, 443, 444, 615
Oceania, 362
O'Connor, Frank, 259, 451
Ode on Melancholy, 313, 326
Ode to a Nightingale, 313, 326
Ode, Robert, 248, 249, 313, 616
Ode: Intimations of Immortality, 312
OECD, 179
Oedipus Complex, 416, 428, 430, 431, 433, 436,
437
Of Mice and Men, 574, 575
Office of Naval Research, 103
Offspring, 21, 36, 37, 116
Ogburn, William F., 131
Oghrenghrehgowah, 261
O'Hare, Bill, 129
Ohio General Assembly, 57
Ohio School Board Association, 57
Oil City, Arkansas, 535
Okalongo, 37
Old England, 323
Old English Period, 487
Old Testament, 35, 313, 319, 327
Olmec, 362
Olney Central College, 3, 219, 467
Olney, Illinois, 3
Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Anti-Terrorism
Act, 180
On Marriage Forms, 31
On the Border, 119
One Million Signatures Campaign, 383
One Ring, 292
Oneida, 261
Online Etymology Dictionary, 427, 428, 429, 434,
607
Online Piracy, 348
Onondaga, 260, 261
ONR, 103
OnStar, 104
658 A Journey Through My College Papers
OPEC, 248
Open and Candid Discussion, 383
Open Classrooms, 77
Operant Conditioning, 63, 473, 539, 554
Oppression, 53, 161, 252, 256, 267, 291, 350,
353, 375, 376, 377, 382, 385, 425, 426, 432,
448, 457, 605
Oppressions, 266
Oral Argument, 344
Order of Masons, 460
Order of the Eastern Star, 119, 337, 340, 342
Oregon, 44, 75
Oregon State University, 554
Organic Education, 76
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, 179
Oriental Tradition, 324
Original Sin, 262
Ostrich Eggs, 363
Osuji, Ozodi, 91
Ottoman Empire, 425
Our School’s Behavior Code, 343
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, 276
Ovambadja, 37, 38, 42, 47, 595
Overpopulation, 249
Owen, Wilfred, 318
P
Pacific, 44, 84, 151, 235, 243, 245
Pacific Ocean, 84
Pacific Rim, 151
Pagan, 306, 529, 541
Paine, Thomas, 263
Palatals, 358
Palate, 357, 358
Palmyra Atoll, 243
PAN, 462, 463, 621
Panama, 243
Panama Canal, 243
Papuans, 37
Parables, 258, 450
Parables, Fables, and Tales, 258, 450
Paradise Lost, 10, 300, 301
Paradise Lost: Reading for Character and
Imagery, 300
Parenting Styles, 200, 201
Parents, 23, 28, 35, 36, 40, 43, 45, 49, 51, 52, 53,
54, 55, 56, 57, 61, 62, 64, 66, 72, 73, 75, 77,
82, 95, 100, 114, 116, 118, 122, 129, 131,
132, 142, 143, 144, 145, 165, 166, 167, 168,
177, 185, 195, 196, 197, 200, 201, 202, 205,
206, 208, 210, 211, 232, 234,鴤235, 236, 246,
279, 283, 284, 288, 303, 323, 335, 336, 337,
339, 340, 341, 342, 345, 346, 347, 353, 359,
370, 374, 375, 378, 386, 393, 394, 404, 407,
437, 449, 453, 454, 467, 468, 469, 470, 475,
480, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 490, 493, 527,
534, 542, 548, 550, 551, 552, 555, 563, 564,
566, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 578, 580, 581,
584, 586, 587, 588, 591, 592, 595, 596, 602,
617, 622, 626
Parks, Rosa, 93, 255
Parliament, 148, 149
Parrots, 354
Partition, 186, 187, 245, 608
Partnership for a Drug-free America, 527, 528,
617
Paternity, 41
Patriarchal Society, 320, 440, 445, 446, 447, 449,
494, 495, 501, 502
Patrilineal, 41, 48, 617
Patriotism, 50, 73, 349
Pavlov, Ivan, 66
Payne, Kelly, 467
Paz, Octavio, 168
PBS, 341, 359, 620
PCI, 184
PE, 216, 217
Pearl Harbor, 243
Pearson Education, 70, 71, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79,
232, 233, 234, 237, 261, 262, 263, 265, 266,
267, 268, 270, 271, 272, 273, 277, 278, 279,
282, 283, 284, 285, 287, 288, 292, 337, 340,
342, 368, 369, 370, 372, 377, 383, 385, 391,
392, 416, 417, 419, 420, 421, 424, 425, 428,
429, 434, 513, 514, 598, 603, 607, 612, 613,
618
Undergraduate Series 659
Pedagogical Knowledge, 532
Pedagogy, 532, 556
Peer Review, 413, 414, 583
Peer Review and Revision Process, 414
Pell Grant, 56
Pen Pals, 541
Pennsylvania, 72, 86, 265, 597, 619
Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections v Yeskey, 93
Pennsylvania State House, 84
Pentagon, 256
People v. McNair, 108, 109, 617
Per Capita Income, 184
Perennialism, 530, 554
Performance Pay versus Tenure, 531
Performance-based Assessments, 480
Performance-based Pay, 531
Performance-based Teacher Pay, 531
Perfume Bottle, 364
Peripherals, 221, 225, 228, 230
Persian, 376, 377, 382, 605
Personal Identity, 378
Personal Philosophy of Education, 531, 554, 558
Personal Reflection on Global Culture, 390
Personality, 27, 64, 65, 195, 206, 210, 211, 300,
322, 379, 383, 387, 403, 436, 494, 497, 501,
504
Personality Types, 64
Personalized Learning Experience, 561
Peru, 362
Pesticide Action Network, 462
Pesticide Database, 462
Petroglyphs, 362, 363, 364, 366
Petronius, 258, 451
Pew Research Center, 141, 142
Phallic, 416, 430, 431, 433
Philadelphia, 264, 582, 583
Philippine Islands, 243
Philippine War, 243
Philippines, 243
Philosophy of Education, 15, 527, 534
Philosophy of Human Conduct, 134
Phoenician, 362, 363, 364, 366, 603
Phoenicians, 363, 366
Phoenix, 574, 575, 576
Phonemes, 515, 516, 517, 546
Phonemic, 507, 508, 515, 516, 517, 518, 522,
523, 526
Phonemic Awareness, 508, 510, 515, 517
Phonetics and the International Phonetic
Alphabet, 358
Phonics, 14, 15, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511,
512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 520, 522,
523, 526, 527, 546, 603, 609, 615, 623, 625
Phonics Based Reading & Decoding, 506
Phonics Instruction, 508, 509, 513
Phonics-based Education, 507
Phonographs, 506
Physical Education, 215, 216, 217, 218, 228, 528,
564, 596
Physical Movement and the Brain, 215
Physiological Effects on Learning, 214
Piaget, Jean, 70, 71, 194, 195, 203, 204, 205,
209, 210, 211, 212, 469, 484
Pictorial Writing, 362
Picturing the First Writing, 362
Pierce, Michelle, 521
Piercing, 301, 367
Pinsky, Robert, 444, 445, 605
PISA, 558
Pita Way, 119
Pitch, 357
Plagiarism, 82
Plasticity, 355
Plath, Sylvia, 285
Plato’s Academy, 555
Play Therapy, 206, 207
Plot, 13, 259, 293, 385, 396, 412, 413, 451, 452,
458, 466, 623
Pluralism, 129
Pluto, 219
Podolski , Cheryl-Lynn, 21
Poe, Edgar Allen, 169, 173, 174, 175, 176, 265,
266, 271, 413, 414, 438, 458, 459, 460, 461,
462, 463, 499, 500, 596, 598, 607, 617, 620
Poems and Feelings, 168
Poetry, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171,
172, 175, 259, 260, 265, 271, 272, 275, 277,
285, 289, 290, 292, 302, 311, 312, 318, 319,
660 A Journey Through My College Papers
320, 321, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329,
332, 357, 365, 383, 412, 413, 425, 427, 430,
432, 433, 434, 438, 445, 451, 452,鴤453, 454,
456, 457, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 490, 491,
493, 498, 500, 505, 595, 600, 602, 603, 605,
608, 610, 614, 617, 619, 620, 621, 624, 625,
626
Poetry Analysis "ABC", 444
Poetry of the Great War, 317
Point of View, 96, 136, 288, 345, 417, 452, 453,
487
Pojman, Louis, 137
Poland, 390
Policy Evaluation, 62
Polish, 368, 369
Political Conservativism, 146
Political Criticism, 415
Political Diversity in the Developing World, 155
Political Freedoms, 153
Political Scientists, 145
Political Unrest, 156
Pollution, 185, 191
Polyamory, 34, 48, 116, 617
Polyandry, 37, 39, 40, 43, 48, 617
Polygamy, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43,
44, 47, 48, 116, 118, 467, 598, 602, 618
Polygyny, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43,
47, 48, 604, 616, 618
Pomerantz, Francesca, 521
Pope, Alexander, 302
Popular Media, 529
Pornography, 180
Porter, Deborah, 344, 347
Portfolio, 483, 485, 486, 567, 568
Portfolios, 482, 486, 520, 568, 580
Portugal, 155
Portuguese, 509
Position Papers, 348, 349
Positive Feedback, 230, 467, 533
Positive Reinforcement, 473
Posner and Singer, 140
Posner, Richard, 140
Posse Comitatus, 53
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, 206
Postcolonial Criticism, 415, 425
Postcolonial Studies, 425
Post-feminist Theory, 429
Postmodern Society, 119, 120
Postmodernism, 487, 488, 492, 594
Poststructuralism, 492
Poverty, 24, 39, 59, 121, 167, 174, 184, 239, 241,
254, 290, 314, 319, 320, 321, 327, 329, 368,
403, 419, 423, 487, 541, 555
Power, 38, 50, 51, 53, 63, 74, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91,
92, 94, 95, 98, 104, 106, 112, 120, 122, 128,
130, 131, 132, 133, 147, 150, 156, 158, 159,
170, 176, 177, 182, 186, 193, 239, 240, 243,
244, 255, 260, 262, 273, 274, 281, 289, 292,
293, 295, 296, 297, 299, 300,鴤304, 305, 307,
308, 314, 317, 320, 324, 345, 375, 382, 393,
394, 395, 403, 404, 405, 406, 416, 423, 425,
430, 431, 432, 433, 440, 457, 459, 487, 488,
490, 492, 497, 504, 546, 557, 561, 585, 586,
598
Practicum, 565
Practicum Experience, 521, 522, 526, 527
Pragmatic, 356, 357, 360, 527, 551
Pragmatist Theory of Education, 545
Preamble to the Constitution, 232
Pre-assessment, 582
Preferred Learning Style, 478
Pregnancy, 100, 195, 197, 198, 208, 249
Prelutsky, Jack, 169
Premarital Sex, 249
Prensky, Marc, 80
Preoperational Stage, 209
Preschool, 23, 192, 196, 222, 226, 230, 359, 469,
473, 515, 525, 530
President of the United States, 83, 87, 91, 100,
247, 256
Preterm Delivery, 197
Prevention Research Center, 191
Pride, 17, 18, 159, 166, 220, 223, 239, 300, 302,
311, 319, 330, 331, 350, 374, 395
Primary Cortex, 217
Princeton University, 95
Principle of Charity, 134
Principles for Reading Success, 517
Undergraduate Series 661
Prine, Ila B., 237
Printing Press, 69, 70, 611
Prior Knowledge, 567, 570, 575, 576, 590
Prius, 150, 152, 623
Private Schools, 548, 550
Proactive Policy, 592
Process, 324
Procreation, 116, 117, 433
Profanity, 249
Professionalism, 589
Programme for International Student
Assessment, 558
Progressive, 6, 48, 76, 77, 193, 240, 595, 615
Progressive Education, 76, 77
Progressive Education Association, 77
Progressive Philosophy of Education, 534, 535,
536
Progressivism, 146, 240, 530, 535, 536, 554, 555
Project Follow Through Study, 507
Pronunciation, 413, 522
Proprioceptive Sense, 224
ProQuest, 79, 101, 102, 106, 107, 113, 118, 119,
123, 124, 127, 133, 134, 152, 161, 177, 184,
186, 187, 189, 193, 200, 202, 207, 216, 218,
223, 228, 229, 244, 257, 258, 337, 340, 342,
354, 366, 383, 434, 435, 437, 438, 482, 484,
487, 492, 594, 595, 596, 597, 598, 599, 600,
601, 602, 603, 604, 605, 606, 607, 608, 609,
610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618,
619, 620, 621, 622, 623, 624, 625, 626
Prosody, 357, 358, 618
Prostitutes, 120, 252, 423, 429
Prostitution, 120, 136, 137, 187, 319, 424, 594,
619
Protestant, 69, 146, 242, 299
Protestant Reformation, 69
Protestants, 69, 116, 146, 287
Proto-humans, 363
Proto-Indo-European, 12, 361, 362
Protolanguages, 361
Proverbs of Hell, 319
Prudence, 177, 350
Psalms, 286
Psychoanalytic Criticism, 435, 438, 614
Psychoanalytic Theory, 436, 437
Psychoanalytical Analysis, 445
Psychoanalytical Theory, 436
Psychoanalytical Theory in Literary Criticism, 436
Psycholinguists, 360
Psychological Analysis, 416, 428
Psychological Criticism, 415, 435
Psychological Development, 480
Psychological Theory, 428, 445
Psychology For Teaching, 478
Psychometric Intelligence, 471
Psychopath, 123
Psychosocial Development, 195, 196, 202, 205,
209, 210, 211, 212
Psychosocial Stages, 65, 210, 469
Psychotherapy, 206, 207, 438, 595, 600, 607, 611
PTA, 586
PTO, 586
PTSD, 206
Puberty, 40, 359
Public Good, 177, 185
Public Identity, 378
Public Interest, 118, 620
Public Libraries, 553
Public School, 23, 31, 72, 78, 80, 99, 530, 548,
550, 551, 570, 592
Public Schools, 23, 51, 53, 69, 71, 72, 73, 78, 80,
81, 93, 98, 101, 350, 351, 352, 353, 480, 530,
548, 549, 550, 551, 608
Public Sensitivity, 383
Puerto Rican, 96, 373, 379, 387
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund,
96
Puerto Rico, 243
Punaluan Marriage, 43
Punctuation, 97, 163, 320, 365, 414, 415, 457,
499, 517, 558, 577
Punishment, 64, 99, 101, 122, 137, 138, 144,
189, 262, 267, 270, 349, 376, 457, 474, 480,
538, 539, 571, 596, 600, 613
Punishments, 63, 64, 138, 464, 480, 571
Purdy, Laura, 133
Puritan, 72, 261, 262, 275, 277, 368, 425, 597
Puritan Church, 72
662 A Journey Through My College Papers
Puritans, 71, 261, 262
Pygmalion, 358
Q
Qing Dynasty, 391
Quaker, 72, 281
Quantico, Virginia, 108
Quarrels of the Britons, 147
Quarter Pounders, 125, 126, 127, 603
Queen Elizabeth II, 158
Queer Theory, 429
Question, 288, 290
Quiet Revolution, 153
Qur'an, 157
R
Race to the Top, 548
Racial Bias, 481, 485
Racial Equality, 246, 254, 487
Racial Integration, 81, 119, 255, 535, 536, 537
Racial Minorities, 54, 130, 541
Racial Tensions, 272
Racism, 140, 158, 159, 160, 161, 249, 250, 252,
256, 257, 280, 290, 605
Railroads, 238, 239, 317, 378, 386
RALI, 63
Rape, 27, 28, 42, 249, 282, 403
Raphael, 553
RCIA, 529
Reaction to Writing a Paper, 66
Reactive Policy, 592
Reader-Response and Rhetorical Tradition, 417
Reader-response Criticism, 176, 415, 417
Reading, 549
Reading and Critiquing Creative Writing, 393
Reading and Writing Instruction, 507
Reading Drama and Plays, 171
Reading for Global Significance, 304
Reading Instruction Theory, 14, 509
Reading Lolita in Tehran, 376, 377, 378, 382,
383, 384, 385, 615
Reading Poems, 169
Reagan, Ronald, 245, 248
Realism, 176, 177, 251, 281, 315, 443, 599
Realists, 139, 176
Rebellion, 122, 244, 370, 371, 372, 427, 440,
441, 449, 464, 465
Rebellion and Personal Identity, 370
Reciprocal Instruction, 479
Reciprocal Teaching, 474
Recitation Drills, 510, 523
Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European, 361
Reconstruction, 93, 237, 238, 252, 254, 290, 291,
427
Reconstruction Civil Rights Acts, 93
Red Cross, 179, 241
Red Herrings, 345
Red Jacket, 263, 266, 267, 271
Redemption, 277, 283, 309, 440, 441, 442, 443,
446, 450, 467, 594, 609
Redneck, 380, 388
Reflecting on the Course, 500
Reflecting on your Reading, 166
Reflection on Artistic Expression in Your
Everyday Life, 367
Reflection on Artistic Expression in Your
Everyday Life: Food, 368
Reflection on Creative Writing, 412
Reflections on Teaching Action Reading, 522
Refrains, 400
Regional Pronunciations, 519, 526
Reincarnation, 154
Reinforcement and Conditioning, 473
Reinforcements, 63, 64, 473
Relevance, 220, 221, 230, 344, 492, 540, 575,
576, 577, 591
Religion and Myth in English Poetry, 325
Religion and Myth in Romantic Poetry, 312
Religious Conservatism, 53, 54
Religious Right, 249
Religious Studies, 548
Renaissance, 69, 301
Renaissance Love Poetry: Reading for Lyricism,
301
Renaissance Period, 487
Repression, 153, 279, 281, 431, 437, 440, 441,
446, 447, 449, 477, 490
Undergraduate Series 663
Republican, 239
Research and Response, 443
Research on an Aesthetic Movement, 382
Response to the RALI exercise, 63
Responsibility to a Broader Humanity, 189
Rest Cure, 438, 445, 446, 447, 449
Retina Scans, 110
Retinal Scanners, 108
Revenge, 248, 281, 458, 462
Revision, 12, 412, 415, 598
Revolution, 7, 88, 122, 156, 229, 266, 487, 613
Revolutionary War, 74, 89, 589, 597
Reward, 124, 137, 230, 474, 479, 480, 511, 523,
538, 539, 571
Reynolds v. United States, 33
Rhetoric, 10, 37, 113, 117, 139, 261, 417, 500,
510, 528, 531, 549, 556, 602, 625
Rhetorical Analysis, 270
Rhode Island, 44
Rhythm, 264, 276, 282, 286, 397, 407, 408, 457
Rhythmic Quality, 357
Right Amount of Welfare, 147
Right Intention, 181
Right-Wing Extremism, 53
Rilke, Rainer Maria, 169
Riots, 22
Rip Van Winkle, 265, 266, 268
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, 529
Rite of Passage, 323
Rituals, 367
Road Rage, 22
Roadrunner, 22
Robinson, Stan, 247
Roethke, Theodore, 174
Roman, 44, 69, 73, 116, 146, 172, 313, 325, 326,
329, 365, 425, 529, 553
Roman Empire, 69, 425
Roman School System, 69
Romance Languages, 361
Romans, 147, 159, 365
Romantic Love, 284, 318, 319
Romantic Period, 318, 321, 325, 487
Romantics, 11, 314
Romantics into Victorians, 314
Rondeau, 400
Roosevelt, Theodore, 240, 243
Root Cellar, 175, 619
Roskin, Michael G., 158, 161
Rossman, David, 520
Rotary Club, 337, 340, 342
Rote Learning, 547
Rote Memorization, 509, 521, 538
RTTP, 548
Rubric, 569, 582, 583
Ruling Class, 158, 239, 304, 423
Rural Communities, 541
Rushdie, Salman, 324
Russia, 152, 180, 182, 243, 425
S
Sa, Zitkala, 281
Sacrifice, 29, 33, 292, 294, 304, 313, 315, 327,
410, 416, 423
Sadness and Happiness, 444
Saint Francis of Assisi, 367, 369
Sakhalin, 43
Saltpeter, 461, 462
Salvation, 262, 292, 294, 299, 300, 312, 313, 315,
318, 326
Salvation Army, 241
Same-sex Couples, 44, 129, 132, 337, 340, 342
Same-sex Marriage, 38, 44, 129
Sammut, Jeremy, 142
San Francisco, 154, 323, 324, 600, 606
San Francisco Chronicle, 324
Sanchez, Sonia, 457
Sandy Hook Elementary, 579
Sanity, 141, 393, 438, 448
Sashimi, 368, 369
Sassoon, Siegfried, 318
SAT, 552
Satan, 27, 294, 300, 301, 308, 430
Satanism, 50, 51
Satire, 297, 298, 303
Satire in “The Wife of Bath”, 297
Satrapi, Marjane, 12, 376, 377, 384, 385
Saturn, 219
664 A Journey Through My College Papers
Saudi Arabia, 123, 126, 157, 614
Savage, Skye, 551
Savings Certificates, 240
Scaffold, 542, 572, 574
Scaffolding, 210, 231, 233, 527, 574, 580
Scalia, Antonin, 93
Scandinavia, 152
Scenario, 572
Scenario and Strategies, 577
Schaefer, Richard T., 122, 129
Schaeffer, Jonathan, 104
Scheduled Castes, 154
Scholarly Sources, 435
School Board, 50, 51, 52, 101, 584, 585
School Choice, 51, 54, 550, 551
School House Rock, 226
School of Organic Education, 77
School Voucher, 52
Schoolhouse Rock, 61
Schöpp-Schilling, Beate, 442
Schurz, Carl, 243
Schwab, J. J., 532
Schwimmer, Brian, 39
Scientific Method, 69
Scopes Monkey Trial, 80, 81
Scopes, John, 81, 612
Scot, 390
Scott, Walter, 279
Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song, 282
SCRAM, 107
Scripture, 35, 286
Sea of Japan, 251
Sea World, 232
Seattle, WA, 217
Second Inaugural Address, 273
Second Treatise of Civil Government, 91
Secrets of the Lost Symbol, 458
Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring,
107
Sedition Act, 83
SEDL, 79
Segregation, 80, 81, 157, 160, 246, 253, 255, 376
Selective Serotonin-reuptake Inhibitors, 207
Self-awareness, 106, 437, 544
Self-discovery, 371, 479
Self-image, 196, 205, 206, 351, 433
Self-reliance, 546
Semantic, 356, 360, 477
Semantic and Pragmatic Meanings in a Cultural
Context, 356
Semitic, 364
Senate, 6, 60, 85, 86, 87, 96, 97, 246, 261, 616,
623
Senate and House Sites, 96
Seneca, 261, 263
Seneca Falls, New York, 267
Senior Citizens, 111, 112, 113
Sensitivity Training, 237
Sensorimotor Stage, 209
Sensory Contributions to Learning, 221
Sentence Structure, 354
Separatism, 70
Serbia, 242
Serfs, 158
Seriation and Transitive Inference, 203, 204
Sermon, 261, 262, 263, 266, 267, 268, 286, 620
Serpents, 430, 433
SES, 379, 387, 485, 541, 542
Sesame Street, 226
Seven Deadly Sins, 350, 353, 619
Seward, William Henry, 243
Sexton, Anne, 285, 457
Sexual Assault, 250
Sexual Deviance, 353
Sexual Harassment, 577, 578
Sexual Virtue, 320
Shadrach, 262
Shah, 182, 248, 370, 382, 385, 620
Shah, Saira, 370
Shakespeare, William, 173, 175, 176, 282, 301,
320, 365, 455, 456, 553, 620
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day, 455
Shalwar Kameez, 454
Shang, 363
Shaping, 576
Shared Values, 165
Sharenhowaneh, 261
Sharing and Writing Events from Our Lives, 392
Undergraduate Series 665
Shawarma, 368, 369
She walks in beauty, 169
Sheik Abdul-Mohsen al-Obeikan, 157
Shell, Susan, 116, 118
Sheltered, 394
Sheltered – Revised, 404
Sheltered Instruction, 231, 232, 237, 572
Sheraton Hotel, 108
Sherpa, 39
Short Stories, 452
Short-term Memory, 477
Shoskoharowaneh, 261
Shrinking Middle Class, 120
Shumaker, Conrad, 439, 441
Siberia, 362
Sibling Rivalry, 208
Siblings, 42, 44, 116, 118, 132, 157, 185, 205,
208, 234, 311, 312, 335, 336, 339, 341, 342,
345, 370, 419, 563, 564, 570, 572, 575
Sicilian Mafia, 180
Sidney, Philip, 301
SIDS, 197, 198
Sign Language, 359
Signified, 419
Signifier, 419, 423
Sikh, 369, 370, 371
Simile, 175, 455, 456
Simon Lee, 311
Sinatra, Frank, 254
Singapore, 156
Singer, Peter, 140
Single-parent Families, 129, 337, 340, 342
Sinners, 261
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, 261
Sister Languages, 361
Sit-Coms, 249
Skinner, B. F., 63
Skinner, B.F., 63, 66, 539
Skinner's Operant Conditioning, 63
Skynet, 106
Slang, 352, 356, 429
Slave, 128, 238, 253, 255, 256, 257, 258, 263,
268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 295, 297, 305,
404, 431, 450, 530
Slavery, 136, 153, 159, 220, 237, 238, 250, 252,
255, 256, 257, 267, 270, 271, 273, 304, 305,
310, 426, 427, 431
Slaves, 220, 221, 237, 238, 252, 257, 268, 269,
270, 271, 272, 273, 279, 290, 304, 305, 315,
316, 426, 431
Sloth, 350
Slums, 165, 166, 167, 174
Smart Cards, 110, 111
Smart Computing, 108
Smart Phones, 106
Smartboard, 564, 565
Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, 108
Smyth vs. Pillsbury Co, 108
Snakes, 430
Social Activity, 232, 538, 544, 545
Social Class, 145, 146, 295, 296, 379, 387
Social Cleavage, 145, 146
Social Cleavages, 145
Social Commentary, 268, 281, 298
Social Democracy, 55, 56
Social Discrimination, 42
Social Elitism, 146
Social Injustice, 132, 166, 271, 318, 319
Social Interactions, 128
Social Issues, 100, 249, 250, 279, 489
Social Learning Activities, 535
Social Learning Theory, 201, 202, 599
Social Media, 541, 542, 544, 552, 554, 569
Social Movements, 129
Social Networking Sites, 100, 348, 365, 547
Social Networks, 189
Social Norms, 124
Social Order, 294, 298, 367
Social Paradigm, 343, 346
Social Pressure, 371, 545
Social Promotion, 588
Social Roles, 119
Social Security, 93, 253
Social Security Act, 93
Social Settings, 119
Social Stability, 131
Social Status, 38, 39, 131, 143, 298, 304, 367,
374, 386, 387, 391, 459, 460, 490
666 A Journey Through My College Papers
Social Stratification, 121
Social Structure, 119, 160, 336, 337, 339, 340,
341, 342, 440
Social Welfare Programs, 92, 303
Social/Emotional Development and Learning, 79
Socialism, 146, 152
Socialist, 239
Socialization, 131, 307, 551
Sociocultural Context, 485
Sociocultural Theory, 209, 211
Socio-economic Backgrounds, 343, 346, 581
Socio-economic Groups, 59, 284, 360
Socioeconomic Status, 133, 379, 387, 485, 541
Sociolinguistic, 378, 386
Sociological Perspective, 120
Sociopath, 123
Socratic Method, 530, 531, 535, 550
Software Designers, 360
Solar Power, 185
Solidarity National Office, 129
Something Is Wrong In London, 421
Song of Myself, 272, 276
Songs of Experience, 310, 311, 319
Songs of Innocence, 310, 311, 312, 319, 326
Sonnet, 282, 403, 455, 456
Sonnet -- to Science, 265
Sonnet 103, 302
Sonnet 16, 301
Sonnet 52, 301
Sonnet 64, 301
Sonnets from the Portuguese, 314, 319
SOPA, 348, 625
Sororate Monogamy, 32
Sororities, 337, 340, 342
Sotomayor, Juan, 95
Sotomayor, Sonia, 95, 96, 610, 612, 621
South America, 192, 348
South Bend, Indiana, 234, 235
South Carolina, 88, 165
South Korea, 156
South Pacific, 75, 227
Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union, 49
Sovereignty, 181, 182, 624
Soviet Union, 146, 180
Spain, 29, 31, 155, 243, 283
Spanish, 21, 30, 236, 237, 361, 365, 366, 372,
373, 374, 375, 379, 380, 381, 386, 387, 388,
389, 390, 425, 551, 568, 570, 571
Spanish Inquisition, 21
Spanish-American War, 243
Sparknotes, 439
Spatial, 214, 222, 227, 471, 543, 544
Spatial Intelligence, 222, 227, 543, 544
Spatial Thinking, 203, 204
'
'Speaking of Courage, 443
S
Special Needs, 59, 70, 222, 479, 577, 584, 585,
589
Special Report: Japanese spirit, western things –
150 years after Commodore Perry, 149
Spectre and Emanation, 328
Speculation, 529
Speech, 263
Speech Against the Foundation of a Mission
Among the Senecas, 271
Speech Codes, 98, 99, 100, 101, 605
Speech Codes in Education, 98
Speech Impediments, 360
Speech of James Wilson, 84, 86, 626
Speech-recognition Software, 360
Speech-recognition Systems, 104
Spell-check, 325
Spelling, 236, 269, 333, 357, 364, 365, 414, 415,
477, 499, 512, 513, 514, 516, 517, 526, 538,
539, 549, 554, 558, 567, 569, 577, 605, 606,
626
Spenser, Edmund, 301
Spies, 247
Split Brain, 355
Spousal Abuse, 36
Spouses, 32, 33, 36, 40, 41, 44, 115, 117, 118,
133, 234, 293, 336, 339, 341
Squire, Larry, 223
St John's University, 363
Undergraduate Series 667
St. Jean, Shawn, 448
St. Paul's Cathedral, 323
Stakeholders, 57, 58, 62, 586
Stallones, Jared, 531, 545
Standard English, 378, 379, 380, 381, 386, 387,
388, 389
Standardized Testing, 481, 593
Standardized Tests, 217, 218, 481, 518, 520, 521,
525, 531, 539, 540, 558, 580
Stanford University, 372
Stanley Tools, 23
Stanzas, 165, 166, 302, 324, 400, 455
Star Trek
The Next Generation, 105
Star Trek: TNG, 360
Star Wars, 360
Starfall, 516, 601
Starsky and Hutch, 22
State Boards of Education, 57
Statue of Liberty, 240
Stay-at-home Mothers, 141, 142, 143, 144
Stay-at-Home Mothers Deserve Respect, 141
Steele, Valerie, 391
Steinhardt, Barry, 102
Step-children, 335, 336, 339, 341
Step-father, 344, 345, 346
Step-mother, 40, 264, 335
Step-parents, 336, 345
Stereotypes, 49, 111, 112, 113, 373, 374, 375,
378, 379, 381, 385, 388, 389, 429, 468, 469,
494, 497, 498, 501, 505
Sternberg, Robert, 471
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 315, 316
Stevick, Robert D., 306
Stewart, Maria, 266, 267, 271
Stigma, 37, 78, 142, 373, 375, 378, 379, 380, 381,
386, 387, 388, 389, 394, 405, 506
Still Life, 323
Stimulants, 207
Stimuli, 63, 211, 213, 217, 224, 354, 355, 473,
539
Stimulus, 473, 539
Stone Age, 363
Stone, Sandy, 222
Stop Online Piracy Act, 348
Stop the Bullies, 57
Stops, 358
Story of the Bad Little Boy, 277
Storytelling, 219, 264, 370, 568
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 272, 273
Stranger In a Strange Land, 435
Strawberry Alley, 264
Strength, 20, 50, 69, 122, 125, 186, 218, 260,
273, 274, 282, 292, 294, 312, 316, 368, 374,
380, 389, 395, 397, 398, 400, 406, 407, 410,
413, 457, 459, 491, 494, 495, 496, 497, 498,
501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 538, 545, 619
Stress, 357
Stress Markers, 357
Structuralist Criticism, 415
Structuralist Theory, 419
Structure, 451
Student Achievement, 52, 486, 541, 580
Student Cognition, 562
Student Demonstration, 153
Student Enrichment, 470
Studies in Literary Genres, 9, 13, 258, 450
Studies in Short Fiction, 440, 441, 442, 443, 446,
450, 609
Study of Early Child Care and Youth
Development, 196
Subcommittee on Aviation, 102, 103, 622
Subjective Well-being, 184
Substitution Codes, 514, 524
Subtext, 256, 458
Subtexts, 421
Suburb, 368, 391
Suburban Communities, 541
Suburbs, 244
Successful Intelligence, 471
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, 197, 208
Suess, Barbara A., 440, 448
Suffrage, 74, 426
Suicide, 66, 250, 272, 287, 392, 393, 443, 444,
447, 448
Sullivan, Harry Stack, 428
Sumerian, 363, 366
Sumerians, 363, 366
668 A Journey Through My College Papers
Summarizing, 474, 475, 477, 491
Summative Assessments, 580, 591, 593
Summative Evaluation, 62
Summer Elementary School, 80
Summer of Hate, 246
Summer School, 562, 563, 564
Sumptuary Laws, 296
Suntech, 185
Super Bowl, 293
Superego, 65, 428, 436, 437
Supreme Court, 33, 34, 74, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93,
94, 96, 98, 255, 610
Supreme Court Docket, 93
Survival of the Fittest, 212
Susan Wolf, 140
Sushi Maki, 368, 369
Suskind, Dorothy, 521
Sutton, Kyanna, 141
Suzion Energy, 185
SWB, 184
Swift, Jonathan, 10, 303, 304
Swift’s A Modest Proposal, 303
Syllabic Writing, 363
Syllables, 286, 302, 357, 366, 400, 515, 525
Syllogism, 499
Symbol, 453
Symbolic Serpents, 430
Symbolic Thinking, 222
Syntax, 354, 361, 373, 430, 457, 499, 500, 512
Synthesis, 209, 210, 211, 212, 333, 529
Systemic, 515, 516
Systemic Explicit Phonics Instruction, 516
Systemic Phonics Curriculum, 515
T
Tablets, 363, 364, 536, 547, 552, 554, 583
Taboo, 32, 361, 376
Taft, William Howard, 239
Taiwan, 348, 390
Taking a Position Online, 348
Tales, 258, 294, 396, 451, 487
Taliban, 349
Talking in Bed, 323
Tan, Amy, 287, 288, 372, 373, 374, 378, 379,
380, 381, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 622
Tännsjö, Torbjörn, 352
Taoism, 139
Targeted Feedback, 569, 570, 590
Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness
in the Courts, 96
Tattoo, 113, 367
Tattoos, 112, 113, 323
Taxidermist, 414
Taylor, Chad, 194
TEACH Grants, 56
Teachers.Net, 544
Teaching, 23, 50, 52, 69, 71, 78, 82, 98, 150, 194,
204, 205, 218, 219, 221, 223, 224, 225, 230,
232, 233, 234, 237, 267, 343, 350, 351, 352,
353, 355, 358, 371, 383, 427, 468, 469, 470,
471, 473, 474, 475, 477, 478, 479, 480, 481,
483, 487, 488, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511,
512, 513, 514, 516, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523,
524, 525, 526, 529, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534,
537, 538, 540, 541, 542, 546, 547, 548, 549,
552, 554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 559, 560, 561,
562, 565, 566, 567, 568, 569, 573, 574, 575,
576, 578, 579, 580, 581, 587, 588, 589, 590,
591, 592, 593, 598, 601, 603, 611, 615, 624,
625
Teaching Challenges, 565
Teaching Strategies, 233
Teaching Treasures Publications, 509
Teachnology, 51, 52, 622
Team Teaching, 77
Technology, 6, 8, 80, 82, 103, 107, 109, 177, 178,
179, 553, 598, 607, 621, 622
Technology and Globalization, 177
Technology and Liberty Program, 103
Technology in the Classroom, 80
Teenagers Versus Adults, 18, 331
Teeth, 357, 358
Tehran, 376, 377, 384, 385
Tekarihoken, 261
Telecommunications, 178, 180
Telephone Call, 357
Temperance, 350
Undergraduate Series 669
Temple, 370, 371
Tempo, 213, 259, 451, 452, 466
Tennessee, 80, 81
Tennessee Supreme Court, 81
Tennessee versus John Scopes, 80
Tennyson, Alfred, 314, 318, 319, 325, 327, 328,
329
Tenth Amendment, 74
Terminator Salvation, 106
Terracotta, 367
Testing, 57, 201, 216, 225, 234, 237, 470, 472,
479, 480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 487,
540, 548, 553, 557, 558, 579, 580, 581, 592,
593, 605, 612, 621
Tet Offensive, 246
Tetrameter, 400, 457
Texas, 75, 172, 373, 374
Tex-Mex, 368, 369
Text Messages, 100, 189, 190, 569, 586
Textbooks, 50, 73, 76, 478, 500, 529, 552, 578
Text-to-speech, 360
Thai, 119, 368, 369
Thailand, 390
Than Khe, 443
Thanksgiving, 227, 454, 581, 582
The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the
Minority of the Convention of Pennsylvania to
their Constituents, 84
The American, 29
The American Constitution, 83
The Animal Cell, 219
The Answer, 302
The Ant and the Grasshopper, 258, 450
The Arsenal at Springfield, 272
The Autobiography, 264
The Bible: Reading for Context, 299
the Birmingham Grid for Learning - Multiple
Intelligences (Secondary) Assessment, 543
The Black Cat, 499
The Black Finger, 282
The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, 162, 163, 172,
175, 600
The British Disease, 158
The Cadet Picture of My Father, 169
The Canon Wars, 488
The Cask of Amontillado, 458, 459, 461, 462,
463, 596, 614
The Cell Song, 219
The Cherry Trees, 317
The Child‘s Sonnet – Revised, 411
The Chimney Sweeper, 310
The Chrysanthemums, 284
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, 55
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, 8, 188, 189
The Convocation, 376
The Cry of the Children, 314, 319, 327
The Descent of Man, 315
The Devil, 29
The Endless Change Rule, 65
The Essay, 278
The Evil of Grendel, 305
The Faculty Debate, 527
The final step: A capstone in education, 593
The Fish, 169
The Functions of Schools, 528
The Futurist, 99, 102, 107, 606, 623
The Garden of Love, 310
The Gifted Child Quarterly, 78, 79, 607
The Great Binding Law, 260, 261, 274, 276
The Great Gatsby, 586, 587
The Harlem Renaissance 1900 – 1940, 282
The Immigrant Experience, 287
The Impact of Educational Philosophies and
Theories, 544
The Importance of Being Earnest, 171, 172, 625
The Importance of Fantasy, 18, 331
The Jewish Cemetery at Newport, 272
The Kind Aspect of Leopold Bloom, 321
The Lady of Shalott, 314, 327
The Lamb, 310, 312, 318, 326
The Lateralization of Language in the Brain, 355
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 265
The Lesson, 165, 174
The Life Maps, 67
The Little Black Boy, 310, 312
The Little White Horse, 435
670 A Journey Through My College Papers
The Lotos-Eaters, 319, 328, 329
The Making of the Canon, 489
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 311
The Meanings of Words, 373
The Metamorphosis, 167, 168, 173, 174, 175,
176, 610
The Missing, 323
The NEA Opposes School Vouchers, 51
The Negro Speaks of Rivers, 282
The North American Review, 275, 276, 277, 615,
625
The Odyssey, 328, 329
The Origin of Species, 315
The Past’s Presence Today: Historical
Representations in Art and Literature, 376
The Plant Cell, 219
The Prodigal Son, 258, 450
The Prosodic Qualities of Language, 357
The Queen's University, 556
The Raven, 169, 173, 174, 175, 617
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 311, 313
The Road Not Taken, 168
The Rocking Horse Winner, 453
The Role of Emotion in Learning, 223
The Rose of the World, 328
The School Days of an Indian Girl, 281
The Short Story, 259, 451
The Singularity, 106
The Six Million Dollar Man, 22
The Sixteen-inch Waist, 391
The Social and Cultural Contexts of Education,
541
The Sorrow of Love, 329
The Stolen Child, 328
The Story of an Hour, 489, 490
The Story of Prince Fairyfoot, 391
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 315,
316
The Street, 168, 169
The Tell-tale Heart, 265
The Tell-Tale Heart, 413
The Terminator, 105
The Things They Carried, 443, 444, 567, 568, 569
The Tragic Emily Grierson, 24
The Value of Critical Theory in Literary Analysis,
445
The Weekly Standard, 116, 118, 620
The Widow of Ephesus, 258, 451
The Wife of Bath's Prologue, 295, 296, 297, 298,
299
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, 295, 297,
298, 299
The Wife's Story, 395, 396
The Wolf and the Mastiff, 258, 450
The Wrong Race, 279
The Yellow Wallpaper, 13, 393, 438, 439, 440,
441, 442, 443, 445, 446, 448, 449, 450, 595,
602, 605, 608, 611, 620, 622
Theft, 102, 109, 353
Theme, 162, 170, 271, 272, 273, 281, 282, 283,
284, 285, 289, 292, 295, 296, 301, 302, 310,
312, 313, 315, 320, 401, 414, 417, 440, 441,
446, 447, 449, 461, 462, 467, 490, 493
Theme for English B, 169
Themes in Romantic and Victorian Poetry, 318
Theology, 72, 322, 529
TheOnion.com, 348
Theoretical Frameworks, 61
Theoretical Perspectives: Cognitive, 194
Theories, 232
Therapist, 206, 207, 343, 346, 347
There is a garden in her face, 301
They, 318
Thinking About Plots, Tension, and Conclusions,
395
Thinking Critically, 113
Thinking Critically about Drama: the
Contemporary Significance of Ibsen, 466
Third World, 184, 187
This Be The Verse, 323
This Land is Your Land, 166
Thomas, Dylan, 321
Thomas, Edward, 317
Thompkins, Richard, 79
Thompson v. Johnson County Community
College, 108
Thoreau, Henry David, 270, 275, 276, 277, 594
Thousand and One Nights, 324
Undergraduate Series 671
Three Poems by Debbie, 12, 401
Through the Dark Sod, 425, 426, 427
Tiananmen Square, 153
Tibet, 33
Tiddlywinks, 514, 524
Timeline, 24, 290, 483, 488, 568, 569, 582, 583,
594
Tipping the Tank, 333, 337
Title 1, 77
To Helen, 265
To Kill a Mockingbird, 567, 569
To Test or Not to Test?, 480
Tokyo Sushi, 119
Tolkien, J.R.R., 292
Tombstones, 272
Tommy, 401
Tommy – Revised, 410
Tom-Tom, 105
Tonal Languages, 357
Tone, 278
Tongue, 19, 20, 352, 357, 358
Topeka, Kansas, 80
Torture, 168, 188, 189, 316, 600, 610, 615
Tourgée, Albion W., 279
Towhomitmayconcern, 457
Toxic Wastes, 130
Toyota Motor, 150
Tradition, 321
Tradition and the Individual Talent, 321
Traditions, 129, 148, 151, 158, 178, 254, 288,
324, 350, 363, 370, 423, 493, 530, 548, 551,
556, 568
Tragedy, 24, 25, 26, 258, 289, 451, 466
Train from Barcelona, 30
Transduction, 203
Transitory Students, 536
Transnational Crime, 180
Transportation Security Administration, 102
Transsexuality, 249
Transsexuals, 429
Treason, 123
Treaty of Paris, 243
Tree of the Great Long Leaves, 260
Tree of the Great Peace, 260, 274
Triads, 180
Trifles, 281, 284
Trochee, 457
TSA, 102
Tsunami, 234
Tuchscherer, Konrad, 363
Tucker, Patrick, 99
Turing, Alan, 106
Turley, Jonathan, 44
Tutors, 426, 427, 431, 470
Twain, Mark, 277, 278, 279
Twitter, 178
Two-for-one Sounds, 514, 516, 524
Typographical Errors, 360, 415, 482
Tyranny, 90, 95, 270, 350, 376
U
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Georgia, 88
U.S. Congress, 57
U.S. Constitution, 47, 74, 84, 85, 86, 88, 89, 91,
93, 94, 98, 101, 239, 548, 609, 623
U.S. Court of Appeals, 96
U.S. Department of Education, 59, 60, 78, 623,
624
U.S. House of Representatives, 96, 97, 611, 623
U.S. Senate, 55, 56, 96, 97, 600, 601, 623
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions, 55
U.S. Virgin Islands, 243
UAE, 126, 192
UBM, 130
UC Berkeley, 288
UFC, 535
UFC Mini-School, 535
Uganda, 39
Ulysses, 321, 463, 608
UN, 179, 181, 182, 183, 188, 189, 615, 623
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
183
UN Security Council, 181
UN World Summit, 181
Uncles, 336, 339, 341, 342
Underground, 160
672 A Journey Through My College Papers
Underhill Firing Range, 333, 337
Understanding Dialogue and Character, 403
Unemployment, 121, 133, 148, 150, 152, 178
Unguent Vase, 364
Uninflected Speech, 357
Union, 17, 88, 89, 220, 252, 273
Union Hotel, 266
Unitary Government, 94, 95
Unitary, Federal, or Confederal, 94
United Arab Emirates, 126, 547
United Kingdom, 147, 160, 556
United Nations, 179, 182, 183, 351
United Nations Charter, 181
United States, 22, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 44,
49, 51, 57, 58, 61, 70, 74, 75, 76, 77, 81, 83,
84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95,
97, 101, 115, 117, 118, 122, 123, 126, 128,
130, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 153, 155, 180,
181, 182, 183, 186, 187, 188, 192, 198, 216,
219, 222, 231, 238, 239, 242, 243, 244, 248,
250, 256, 261, 267, 273, 277, 315, 337, 340,
342, 369, 373, 374, 375, 378, 380, 381, 382,
386, 387, 388, 390, 426, 427, 428, 443, 461,
508, 509, 531, 535, 546, 549, 556, 557, 558,
568, 570, 602, 603, 605, 614, 623, 625, 626
United States Constitution, 84, 86, 546, 549
United States v Georgia, 93, 94
Universal Human Rights, 187
Universal Public Education, 70
Universe, 140, 190, 288, 289, 290, 291, 316, 398,
408
University of Alberta, 104
University of Michigan, 21
University of Utah, 154
University of Vermont, 17, 18, 330, 331
Unschooling, 551
Unwed Mothers, 39, 303
Updike, John, 166
Upper Class, 49, 56, 97, 111, 145, 146, 230, 296,
304, 311, 379, 387, 470
Upper East Side, 414
Upward Bound, 56
Uranus, 219
Urban Communities, 541
Urban Family Center, 535
Urban Sprawl, 244
Urbanization, 178
Urban-rural, 146
USA Today, 44, 49, 200, 616, 623
Utecht, Jeff, 80
Uvulars, 358
V
Vacek, Edward, 117
Vallentyne, Peter, 137
Varsity, 566
Vatican, 116, 117, 118, 622
Veil of Ignorance, 135
Velars, 358
Velum, 358
Venn Diagram, 537
Venus, 219
Verb, 303, 355, 356
Verbal Speech, 364, 365
Verbal Vocabularies, 365
Verbs, 221, 354, 372, 500
Vermont, 17, 18, 23, 40, 44, 49, 129, 165, 279,
331, 333, 337, 367, 368, 530, 581
Vermont Honors Competition for Excellence in
Writing, 17, 330
Vermont National Guard, 334, 337
Versification, 282, 357
Vertical Integration, 238
Vestibular Sense, 224
Vice, 138, 350, 353, 354, 493, 613, 624
Victimless Crime, 34
Victor, 359
Victorian Age, 487
Victorian Period, 326, 327, 434, 489, 490
Victorian Science, 315
Victorian Society, 489, 490, 494, 495, 496, 501,
502, 503, 504
Victorians, 11, 314
Victory Bonds, 240
Victory Boys, 241
Victory Gardens, 241
Video Games, 21, 469, 554
Undergraduate Series 673
Vietnam, 246, 250, 443, 444, 566, 569
Vietnam War, 443
Vinge, Vernor, 106
Violence, 5, 21, 22, 23, 37, 42, 43, 98, 99, 121,
122, 129, 153, 160, 167, 173, 177, 186, 246,
247, 249, 250, 253, 255, 256, 279, 280, 281,
283, 288, 308, 309, 344, 347, 350, 352, 353,
404, 462, 480, 536, 578, 599
Viotti, Paul R., 181, 184
Virgil, 553
Virgin Mary, 313
Virginia, 31, 72, 75, 220, 238, 270, 304, 311, 528,
615
Virtual Classroom, 75
Virtue, 36, 114, 138, 210, 301, 302, 303, 307,
309, 350, 353, 354, 472, 613, 624
Virtue Ethics, 114
Virtuous Behavior, 138
Vision, 52, 63, 74, 214, 222, 227, 253, 260, 274,
313, 326, 327, 329, 337, 373, 452, 453, 586,
615
Visiting Husband, 40, 41
Visual Learners, 564, 570, 579, 580, 590, 591
Vocabulary, 77, 232, 235, 237, 325, 354, 483,
499, 508, 513, 514, 517, 518, 522, 526, 574,
576, 578, 598, 626
Vocal Cords, 358
Vocal Inflections, 473
Vocal Speech, 357
Vocal Tract, 357, 358
Vocational, 77, 470, 528, 530, 549, 555, 557
Voke, Heather, 557
Voting Rights Act, 93, 94
Vowel Sounds, 364, 366, 515, 525
Vowels, 357, 364, 513, 515, 518, 519, 524, 525
Vygotsky, Lev, 194, 195, 209, 210, 211, 212
W
Waddy, Reginald, 302
Wake Island, 243
Walden, 275
Wales, 119
Walker, Alice, 8, 170
Walker, Morton, 225
Wall Street Journal, 125, 127, 603
Wall Street Week, 380, 388
Waller, Bruce N., 134
Walling, Robin, 219
Wal-Mart, 108, 126
War on Terror, 92, 188
Warburton, Nigel, 134
Wards, 313, 326, 336, 339, 342, 440, 446
Warner, Nicholas O., 312, 326
Warnick, Bryan R., 98
Warren, Christina, 348
Warwick, Ian, 79
Washington, 44
Washington, Booker T., 253
Washington, George, 83, 84, 219, 266, 608
Watch & Learn: Text Comprehension, 474
We Are Seven, 311, 312
We Wear the Mask, 400
Weaver, Constance, 512
Weber, Max, 122
Webster, Noah, 73, 74, 621
Week 1 Journal, 467
Week 2 Assignment, 510
Week 4 Journal, 479
Week Five Capstone Essay, 589
Week Four Assignment, 518
Week Three Assignment, 514
Welfare, 40, 54, 86, 92, 99, 130, 142, 147, 148,
150, 182, 191, 240, 257, 268, 303, 493, 595
Welfarism, 152
Wellhousen, Karyn, 222
Wells Fargo, 104
Werewolf, 395, 396
West Semitic Syllabary, 364
West, Cornel, 255
Western Colonialism, 155
Western Culture, 30, 125, 126, 127, 148, 150,
390, 391
Western Imperialism, 392
Western Union, 239
Westernized, 150, 151, 382
WETA Public Television, 474, 475, 625
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, 270, 271
674 A Journey Through My College Papers
Wheeler, L. Kip, 417
Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?,
26
Where Do You Stand?, 530
Whicher, George F., 426
White Elephants, 29
White House, 83, 91, 96, 128, 610
White Houses, 282
White Man’s Burden, 243, 244
White Supremacists, 254, 281
Whiteman, Paul, 254
Whites, 128, 237, 238, 239
Whitla, William, 489
Whitman, Walt, 271, 272, 275, 276, 277, 621,
625
Whole-language Education, 507
Who's Irish, 493
Why Do We Teach?, 553
Why I Wish to Become a Teacher, 533
Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, 438
Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper', 393
Why SOPA and PIPA Won’t Stop Real Piracy, 348
WIC, 187
Wiccan, 548, 549
Widow, 35, 42, 45, 258, 267, 279, 451, 489, 490,
495, 496, 502, 504
Wife of the Village, 41, 42
Wife-swapping, 43
Wiggles, 226
Wikipedia, 439
Wilde, Oscar, 171, 176
Wilhoit, Gene, 75
Willcox, Louise Collier, 276
William the Conqueror, 158
Williamson, Gerry, 427
Wilson, Chris, 37
Wilson, James, 84
Wilson, Sandip, 513
Wilson, Woodrow, 240
Wind Power, 185
Windell, James, 208
Winter Dreams, 284
Wisdom, 31, 35, 210, 310, 311, 315, 319, 350,
432, 434, 459, 559, 608
Witchcraft, 50
With Six Months to Live, 67
Wolf, Susan, 140, 602
Wolfgang, Charles H., 222
Womankind Worldwide, 350
Womanly Virtues, 142
Woman-to-woman Marriage, 41, 42
Women's Rights, 36, 382, 466, 467
Wood, Chip, 344, 347
Woolf, Virginia, 320
Worcester, Massachusetts, 427
Word Wall, 221
WordPad, 332
Wordsworth, William, 311, 312, 313, 455
Work Ethic, 493, 546, 557, 562, 573, 590
Working Class, 97, 111, 145, 146, 159, 160, 239,
268, 422, 425
World Bank, 183
World Trade Center, 100, 256
World Trade Organization, 179, 183
World War I, 9, 240, 242, 253, 329
World War I Propaganda, 240
World War II, 9, 128, 243, 245, 246, 247, 254,
258, 425, 616, 626
World Wide Web, 544
Wright, James, 175
Writing, 362
Writing a Final Paper, 332
Writing an Annotated Bibliography, 491
Writing Competition, 17, 330
Wroth, Mary, 302
WTO, 179, 183
WWII-Related Events, 245
X
Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Company,
390
Y
Yakuza, 180
Yale Law School, 95
Yale University, 191
Undergraduate Series 675
Yeats, William Butler, 321, 325, 328, 329, 330,
603, 613
Yellow Trout Lily, 427
Yeltsin Government, 152
Yemen, 36
Yet Do I Marvel, 282
YMCA, 217
You Tube, 226
Young Goodman Brown, 267
YouTube, 474
Yukagirians, 362
Z
Zamora, Dulce, 144
Zeitlin, Marilyn, 247
Zone of Proximal Development, 194, 210, 211,
212, 229, 233
ZPD, 194, 210
Zulu, 41
