More Rives

In case any of you Core folks happen to be bored during beach week and you think to check this blog...

I found some new funky Rives poems. I thought I'd put them here so I don't have to keep searching youtube. I gotta find a way to bring him here next year.

Javier and Renee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaMSljO0zhE

Boys and Bears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5p6S-M1Sb0&NR=1

Camp Counsellor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMcTISe9guQ&feature=related

sacrament of mo(u)rning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6NcgBwsJw&NR=1

POW and Freud

Two blogs each had two votes:

Peyton on aggression

Abby on Gulliver's Travels

Freud and Happiness

All year I have tried to figure out the same things for the nonfiction pieces we have read. First, what is the author's central vision of humans? And, second, where does he look for data to create this vision? Freud spent his life dealing with unhappy and severly disfuntional people. Is it any surprsie then that his central focus is Happiness? (Besides that, his name, in German, means "joy"!) While his sentences can be long and hard to follow, his arguments are among the clearest of any we have read this year. He loves a numbered list, and so do I.

Here are the parts that I find important in the first half:
1. He asks "what is the purpose of human life" but feels he has no answer. What he can answer is: based on their behavior, what do humans seek? A: happiness (p.25)
2.Life is hard, and happiness illusive because of:
a.our body is doomed to decay (pain and anxiety)
b. the external world is against us
c. other people can cause us suffering


3.so we need "palliative measures"
palliative 1: diversions
palliative 2: substitutions
Palliative 3: intoxications

4. Civilization is actually the cause of our anxiety and neuroses. It is interesting to see if he believes this for the same reasons that Neitzshe believed it.

And then there is all the stuff about sex and religion. I'm looking forward to great conversations in class this week.

interesting op ed

I thought this was a well written piece in the COllegian, and it brings up some important issues. What do you think?
I, of course, got stuck on the part where he says Core teachers "preach." It makes me remember telling you guys the other day that I am surprised at how hard it is to change the student culture of passive "learning." I have this picture of bored students and frustrated students remaining silent while a professor drones on. Is that what you want?

extra credit opportunity

This week the Core Colloquium will be especially interesting. Professor O'Brien and Professor Yellin are both interesting and have unique perspectives to add to the topic:

Core Colloquy on “COLOR LINES: RACISM & SOCIETY”

A Discussion of Racism as Portrayed by Du Bois and Coetzee

Led by Eileen O’Brien (Sociology) and Eric Yellin (History)

This Tuesday, March 25, 7:30-8:30 p.m.

The Great Hall, Ryland Hall

Consider going, and writing about it in your blog.

Race Today

One of the groups on Monday was thinking about how DuBois' ideas apply today. The injustices and the Veil are still affecting us today, but it is so complex. I think we mostly try to avoid talking about it. and now, in our election, we have a viable candidate who is African-American, and I have been worried about how old wounds would be opened. Too often in politics it becomes a big chessgame, and people are maneuvering and speaking to stay alive,but too often this means they can't deal with complex issues in complex ways.
I have never heard a more wonderful exposition of this that in Obama's speech. Please, please read it (or watch the YouTube recording). His final story hit me in the gut. I think it is in many ways the antidote to the John story, a speech that says there is common ground for us to stand on.

apathy or frustration?

I remember learning about "learned helplessness" in a psychology class. After our talk on Monday, I wondered if that is part of what you were saying about why students are passive. Then I saw an article that talks about teacher and student perspectives on apathy.
I was especially struck by this comment:
Empathy for students
Submitted by Cathy McDonald (not verified) on March 13, 2008 - 13:12.

I am a high school English teacher who teaches many students who are struggling readers. I find myself complaining that they don't care. Just recently, I attended a technology conference where I sat in two sessions that lasted 6 hours each. By the end of the second day, my only thought was, "My brain hurts! This is too much at one time." If I felt that way at 50 with a Master's degree, how much more must these kids feel that. It is not apathy; it is total frustration and they are giving up. If we don't empathize and work to fight this problem, we will lose even more students. Fortunately, my school has engaged an awesome consultant to help us deal with this idea (UDL addresses it in assistive technology) through project based learning which makes what students do in class relevant to their lives.

We all get stuck sometimes in believing we can't do anything about "the system." I think that is what Dubois was talking about. But having jsut re-read "Of the Coming of John" I wonder if that makes it all sound too simple. DuBois does an amazing thing with his story: he shows all the tragedy and complexities.