Frames of Mind Tu-Th

Requiescat in Pacem

2006-04-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

William Sloane Coffin was “the conscience of the country,” says Cora Weiss, peace activist. “He questioned authority before that phrase came into vogue.” In an interview with NPR in 1994, Rev. Coffin said,

Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart is full of hope you can be persistent even if you are not optimistic. I keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing does the evidence have any chance of changing.

Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., civil activist who opposed nuclear arms, poverty, anti-Semitism and championed civil rights, died on April 12, 2006 at age 81.

Appearance as Text

2006-04-13T06:03:00.000-07:00

What do we "read"
when we look
in the mirror?

(photo by M.A.C.)

Trivia

2006-04-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday (tomorrow) at two minutes and three seconds
after 1:00 in the morning, it will be
01:02:03 04-05-06.
This will never happen again in our lifetimes!

Orwell

2006-04-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

George Orwell "Politics and the English Language" 1946

In our time is is broadly true that political writing is bad.were it's not true , it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel,expressing his private opinions and not a "party line".

As american were are extremely opiniated we practice our freedom of speech every chance we get, especially if we are writing for a living. We have a negative point of view for everthing in the goverment we use our words with alot of power knowing that it will have an affect on the readers
I agree with Orwell in his comparinson of the old and new version of correct and political writing.

2006-04-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

The Bridge of Sighs

Responding to poetry

2006-04-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

Donald Hall, in The Unsayable Said, says, "Poetry is not talk. It sounds like talk...but poetry is talk altered into art, speech slowed down and attended to, words arranged for the reader who contracts to read them for their whole heft of association and noise...Reading with care, so that a wholeness of language engages a wholeness of reading body and mind, we absorb poetry not with our eyes only nor with our ears at a reading. We read with our mouths that chew on vowel and consonant; we read with our limbed muscles that enact the dance of the poem's rhythm; we read alert to history and the context of words."

What images or lines in the poems we read in class support Hall's concept that poetry demands more of a response from us than merely mind or eyes can give?ProfC

On Orwell and Language

2006-03-31T07:33:00.000-08:00

"The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose...the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse."

George Orwell expressed these thoughts sixty years ago in "Politics and the English Language." To what extent do his words apply today? Also, in trying to avoid your own essays reading like his "prefabricated henhouse," how helpful do you find the questions he poses and the rules for writing he suggests in his essay?
ProfC

Langer, Art, and You

2006-03-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Please post a reflection on one way in which a concept or a sentence in Suzanne Langer's "The Cultural Importance of Art" reflects, enlightens, or contradicts your experience. Select a sentence in the essay, analyze it, and respond to it with specific reference to your own life.

Have fun!
ProfC

Essay idea from a student in 112-55

2006-03-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

I was listening to the radio on my way to work and thought of a decent thesis for those interested in using music. I'm a firm believer in what Frank Zappa thinks when he commented to congress in the 80's, "I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?" If you don't feel this way, a good thesis would be on how the artistic differences of metal and hard rock can induce negative action. This can be explored through rhythms, subliminal messages, lyrics, and how each caused some effect in individuals. Just an idea.

posted by SCSU_student

FYI: links to "art-icles" and related sites

2006-03-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.alternativemuseum.org/
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/Graffitilegend.htm
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/Prisongoodforwriting.htm
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/Videogamemusicians
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/WLAinterviewCHE
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1559.htm
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1841.htm
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/Powerofimagery.htm

2006-02-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

Vigeland Park, Oslo, Norway

Norwegian sculpture

2006-02-28T05:37:00.000-08:00

Look at these amazing larger-than-life sculptures that I visited years ago:
http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/europe/vigeland.shtml

Ways of Thinking: Arts and Ideas

2006-02-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

Looking ahead at our next unit: what are the first things that come to your mind when you hear the word "Art" or the words "The Arts"?

Please write a brief paragraph expressing your thoughts, and enter into a dialogue with your classmates on the topic.

Come to class this week bristling with artistic ideas!
Cheers,
ProfC

Dewey

2006-02-17T16:58:00.000-08:00

My Pedagogic Creed basically explained the connections between a child's learning patterns; which are the psychological and sociological learning process. These two Dewey explained in very detailed and how they work. Although he strongly expressed that the social interaction is very key in a child's development. He believes that a child at home should learn how to socially interact with his environment as well as at school. A child should first understand how the social world works and then learn how to work within in this socially active world and then explore it with the psychological portion of his brain.
As I read through it i began to personally relate to this reading. In certain classes If I couldn't understand a topic that was being taught, I would then mentally relate it to something outside of school and have a visual picture in my mind of it. Then once I was able to connect both concepts the topic at school became very clear to me and I was able to do better in school by connecting both the psychological and sociological portions to it. As Dewey said though first came the social interaction outside of school and then I was able to apply the psychological end to it and the end result was clear.

2006-02-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

In My Pedagogic Creed John Dewey stresses the need for education to prepare the student for life. In order to do this schools must teach through social interaction as well as psychological. John Dewey states “To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities” (2) Without social interaction a child will never be able to put the psychological knowledge he is given in to use.
Dewey points out in the beginning of the article that education begins unconsciously. The child learns easily through experience before school. Keeping this in mind Dewey suggests that experience should be used to educate in school. He also suggests that life out side of school offers to much stimuli for a child and that he believes “ that the school, as an institution, should simplify existing social life; should reduce it, as it were to an embryonic from.” (3)
Overall Dewey emphasizes the need for social interaction in the classroom. He points out how it can be incorporated into the education system and how school systems need to limit the amount of information simply told to student rather then learned through experience. Ever student is different and will interrupt the information differently. Therefore the schools should act as a guide helping the child filter the incoming information.

Friere-Dewey Dialogue?

2006-02-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

Last week we read and discussed Paolo Friere's "The Banking Concept of Education." Here is a small section of John Dewey's "My Pedagogic Creed" (part of next week's reading).
"I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be ]earned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparation. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative."
Imagine a conversation between Friere and Dewey. What points would they share; what would they dispute?
Have fun!
ProfC

An interesting exercise...

2006-02-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

...type "Richard Rodriguez" (use the quotation marks) into the search space at the upper left corner of the main blog page, and click on "search all blogs." Other people are writing about him, too, from a number of persepectives.

Have a great weekend,
ProfC

2006-02-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

The ability to engage in decision, and action is the primary concept of freedom. The understanding of control as a centralized idea as a determinant of independence. Freedom is the foundation of all aspects of American culture. It is immersed into the belief of achieving the greatest self-efficacy through education as the means of achieving opportunity and success. Opportunity and success become results of willpower. Consequentially, success becomes the measure upon which freedom is achieved as each level of education is completed. Here, An intellectual, and physical liberation is experienced. Rodriguez's autobiographical essay centers upon his personal journey of enlightenment through education to illustrate the paradoxical nature of the education system as a system of alienation and intergration. Richard Rodriguez I observed that he experiences his liberation through literacy. He interest uses reading and school allows him to think beyond his life experiences however he is able to relate and commuincate those events in a theorictal fashion. However, he uses the nature of his education to separate himself from the imprisoning atmosphere and culture of discontent his parents experienced from the lack of education and literacy and to co-currently fully assimilate into the mainstream American life. In this he fufill the archypical nature of the "scholarship boy" or prefect child. Cross Reference of R.R as the Scholarship boy is an illustration of the barrier and conflicts created between his family and school life.

Rodriguez question

2006-02-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't posted, here is your question:
How is Rodriguez’ experience of education and family similar to or different from your own? Write at least 200 words on this topic, supporting your assertion with a (properly-integrated) quote from Rodriguez.

just for fun

2006-02-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

Excellent responses to RR's essay, so far! I hope more students will join the current posters.

If you'd like to visit a blog that contains visual as well as verbal entries, here is a link to my personal one. Enjoy!
http://wordtickets.blogspot.com/

Cheers,
ProfC

The Achievement of Desire

2006-02-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

Richard Rodriguez’s essay, “The Achievement of Desire” is both compelling and distressing. While I understand his ambition to become an educated person, I feel that his embarrassment of his parents ultimately put a damper on his true potential. To go through the critical stages of growing up and finding out who you are as not only a student, but as a person requires the support of your teachers AND your family. Rodriguez did not allow himself that option. As he aptly states in his essay, “He cannot afford to admire his parents. (How could he and still pursue such a contrary life?) He permits himself embarrassment at their lack of education” (504). His rejection of his parents and what and where they came from saddened me, and I hoped by the end of the piece there would be some sort of resolution.
While my educational history was (is) quite different than his, I can also find similarities: I too, love to read, and all my life have wanted to be that ‘perfect student.’ I understand the desire to know as much as I can, about everything that is presented to me. And although I also was not ‘blessed’ with the most interested or supportive parents, I would not renounce them and who they are in order to achieve inflated educational goals.
Ultimately, I was glad to see that Rodriguez, by the end of the essay, was in fact lonely with his studies and turned to his past and his parents for security and solace. By doing this he was able to keep both his extensive education, and his desire for the past (and his family) intact.

Welcome, students!

2006-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to English 112-43 at Southern.

This blog will be a space in which you can share your reflections on, and questions about, the assigned readings for our class. You'll also use this space to respond to your classmates' thoughts on the same readings.

Working as a team will help all of us use our skills and knowledge better. As Dr. Martin Luther King wrote from the Birmingham jail, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

I look forward to working together to extend the boundaries of our learning.

Cheers,
Prof. Church