Jul
15
Society from scratch
July 15, 2007 | |
The following is attributed to Warren Buffet, who when prompted by a question regarding the obligations of the wealthy to society, posed the following scenario: “Let’s say that it was 24 hours before you were born, and a genie appeared and said, ‘What I’m going to do is let you set the rules of the society into which you will be born. You can set the economic rules and the social rules, and whatever rules you set will apply during your lifetime and your children’s lifetimes.’ And you’ll say, ‘Well, that’s nice, but what’s the catch?’ And the genie says, ‘Here’s the catch. You don’t know if you’re going to be born rich or poor, white or black, male or female, able-bodied or infirm, intelligent or retarded.” I’m going to use this as a starter activity for Lord of the Flies.
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Hi Cindy - my second post!
I have been doing something similar in Year 7 History in terms of students identifying the “basic elements” of civilisations and the possible variations - what must a civilisation have to “succeed”. Anyway, perhaps we can tie this connection in between Stages 4 and 5 - a good progression I would have thought. Let’s discuss when we get together to look at our History programming sometime….
Hi Seonia,
this is a great idea because often when students look at concepts, it’s done in an isolated way so they don’t make continuing connections between ideas. I’m exploring the reasons why society “unravels” in a number of units this year, including Lord of the Flies, Genocide and the Rise of Fascism in Europe. Students often see civilisation as something that is “natural” rather than as a construct created around certain values. For example, we explored how democracy is a relatively new phenonemon historically and discussed its fragile nature. This led to quote powerful thinking about, and comparisons of, various systems of government.
It’s such a flexible question for literature, I think I might use it with Death of a Salesman. Maybe we can make a space where students answer this question from different schools….another “prototype”?
And hey, where’s that Foucault quote from? I read him a lot in college, and don’t recognize it.
Clay,
Maybe we can set up a wiki page where we can do that. When do you return to school? Doesn’t really matter, we could do it and publish, you could add to it and then students could discuss later in the term.
The Foucault quote is from a series, The Masked Philosopher, that was published in Le Monde. Foucault, who insisted on remaining anonymous (hence the title), expresses a sense of optimism in it that I really like. I have always loved this quotation from the first time I read it.
Your link to Foucault is broken
I start back on Aug. 20 or so.
Never having taught AP Lit before, I’m not sure what my syllabus is going to be (ie, when I’m going to start Death of a Salesman).
But as you say, asynchronous wiki makes that pretty moot.
Maybe I’m broken instead. I found it:
http://www.stuartgeiger.com/ossdebate/index.php?title=Foucault’s_Masked_Philosopher
Hi Clay,
Can you explain AP Lit - is it the Seniors’ Course? Do you have control over what texts you study, or is it mandated. Education is controlled by the states in Australia and in the state I live in (New South Wales), we have a list of mandated texts for senior English courses (2 courses, Standard and Advanced) and you can choose a sequence from a set of thematic units (i.e. Journeys, Telling the Truth, the Individual in Society, Transformations etc.).
Just curious about how your coursework is structured in comparison to Australia
C.
You’ll hate me when you hear: no mandates.
AP is Advanced Placement. As long as the syllabus is approved by the College Board/ETS (the same lovely bureaucrats who bring us the SAT) for rigor, teachers are free to design whatever year of study they like.
There is an external exam at the end of the year, so it factors into the course design. Multiple choice and timed essays. Score higher than a 3 on a scale of 5, and you get college credit for first year university classes.
So it’s basically your college “Intro to Literature” course. Poetry, drama, novels, and short stories are the focus. Lamely de-emphasizes nonfiction.
Hope that helps.
For the record, I’d much rather be at an International Baccalauriat (IB) school. Much, much more global and authentic than the US-centric AP. No multiple choice garbage in its external exams.
You’re right I hate you - just kidding. Our course is very structured in terms of content and outcomes that have to be met but the assessment is fairly open and formative (60%) with an external summative exam (40%) with a range of writing, interestingly less and less focus on essays - more scripts, diary accounts, more personalised response - even web page design (thank god that question hasn’t come up yet because no one really knows how you do this in an exam situation). We don’t have any multiple choice so I guess that’s something. I have heard that the IB is a much better course… Thanks..
BTW did you read the Foucault?
I did indeed. Enjoyed it much more than his written works, in fact. I found his ideas interesting, but his writing detached (at least in the Vintage translations, I think it was, of the 90s). But I was comparing him with Nietzsche, which is unfair to most writers, when Fritz was at his best anyway.
If we keep this up, we should talk about Twittering (god save me, more junkspeak). I just put a badge on my blog to explore the thing. Interested?