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I meant to say this with the assignment. Let's try posting your responses and discussin via blogging. If I feel we have enjoyed a useful exchange of ideas in this medium, we go a little faster through the series. So....post your answers.

Pre-reading Tocqueville

Here are the prereading questions. Choose one and answer it in essay form if you can. If you feel the answer lends itself to a paragraph, then you may do that, instead. Then read How an Aristocracy May Be Created by Industry.

1. How would you define "aristocracy"? "Noblesse oblige"?

2. What obligation do rich people have to help those with less money?

3. In America, can we become whatever we want, or are we limited by circumstance?

4. How might it be a threat to our democracy for some people to be better off than others?

5. Have you ever had to stay with a job you didn't like?

6. Are the president of a large corporation and his or her employees like a monarch and his or her subjects?

homework for this friday

Hi Guys!

Second Reading of Chelkash
Mark places where you respect or pity either Chelkash or Gavrilla.

Mark places where Chelkash tries to corrupt Gavrilla, and places where he shows that he cares for him.

For our textual analysis we will examine an exerpt from page 95 beginning with "Nice, the sea, isn't it," and ending, "and gives birth to great dreams."

Then we will do some dramatic reading! I know! Exciting!! (and dramatic)

We will read pages 113-116 and pages 116 - 188 with feeling :) and then do a textual analysis.

And here are the post-discussion writing questions for the FOLLOWING week. I'm just going ahead and posting now them because I am sitting here and it is convenient.

1. Does a thief like Chelkash emjoy more freedom than someone who follows the law?

2. Do you admire people who refuse to live by any rules other than their own?

3. Is Gavrilla right when he claims that money is the key to "honor, comfort, and pleasure"? (pg 112)

4. Do you think you would make a good professional thief?

5. Why do people become outcasts like Chelkash?

6. Does your world make you choose, like Chelkash, between being a "slave" or being free?

I THINK THESE ARE SOME GREAT QUESTIONS! I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Carol

Post-Discussion Writing on Concerning the Division of Labor

Below are the post-discussion questions for Concerning the Division of Labor. Before you begin to write, let me quote from our teacher's guide:

Having students write essays based on interpretive or evaluative questions related to the selection they have discussed enables them to assimilate new ideas and measure them against their own experience and opinions. Such writing can be an opportunity to return to questions not fully resolved in discussion, or to investigate unexplored avenues of inquiry. It is also a satisfying closure for students to articulate their own points of view carefully and thoroughly in written form.

In the Great Books program, writing is a natural extension of interpretive work on a selection. During the week's work with a text, students experience and important part of the writing process as they continually formulate, revise, and refine their ideas, draw inferences and reasoned conclusions, and order their thoughts. Having done so, they will be better prepared to present a thesis clearly and forcefully, and to develop a significant contest for their ideas - when they write. In their final essays, students should explain the importance of the ideas they are developing, support their points with convincing arguments and evidence from the text, and consider other possible points of view - all important elements of effective writing, and of shared inquiry as well.

1. do you agree with Smith that habit, custom, and education account for almost all the differences in people's talents?

2. Is it irrational to act in a manner that does not promote self-interest?

3. How could the division of labor promote or discourage creativity and individuality?

4. What problems does the division of labor cause in our society?

5. Should a basketball player and a construction worker be paid the same amount if they work equally hard?

6. How does the division of labor operate in your school or family? How could you improve the efficiency of your school or family by increasing (or decreasing) the division of labor?

Defn.

Hi, it's me.
Teacher in the most high, would you mind posting the definitions of the words you explained to us?
thanks!
-bob

intro

Yeah Bobby, post your answer! Lol.
Here's the introduction for my essay, the thesis being "A human being and a piece of music share many things in common".

Music is the one place where versatility and consistency coexist. Or is it? Within the notes of a song, there lie many differentiating ways for the notes to be interpreted, therefore creating multiple sounds, textures, and emotions all stemming from just one piece. Within a single person, the multitude of thoughts, feelings, and opinions that that person is able to experience results in one amazingly diverse human being. A human being and a piece of music share many things in common.

Bob??

Hey Bobby - post your answers, too. They were really good. And thanks, Juliana! I love thunderstorms, too! One time I fell asleep during a storm and it was a humongous storm. It was before Jules was born. As I slept the wind was just howling (you know how it can howl out here) and I dreamed I was sleeping in a cabin in the woods and a storm was raging. Suddenly I was enveloped in strong arms. I felt so peaceful. The little cabin was literally shaking in the wind yet I was safe, warm, and held. When I woke up the storm continued outside. I was cozy in my bed but I could not get back the feeling from the dream. Whenever it storms I am reminded of that dream and wish I could re-visit it : )

Sounds Outside

ok, so i know that this doesn't compare to the great Ellie and Galen, but i thought i'd give this my best shot and do something different. so here it is (please pardon any wrong punctuation or mis- spelling).

As i hear the happy voices of frolicking kids outside, i can't help but think of how those exclamations of happiness would change if they suddenly heard the thundering voices of the skies. For most, this might bring a sense of dread or fear into their hearts, but for me it brings a sense of calm and relaxation.
A thunder storm has so much power, btu in the midst of that power i can feel safe and secure (inside of my house, of course). Hearing the soft pitter-patter of the rain on our roof and windows brings the perfect atmosphere and rhythm to just curl up on a couch with a book and get into a trance where nothing exists except you and the unknown world you're reading about, and nobody can enter you thoughts or touch you.
So everybody may not enjoy the awesomeness of a powerful storm, but for me it's the most enjoyable weather there is.

ok, that's it.
-julihana

It's Too Bad That...

On a happier note - Here's my other thing that had to start with "It's too bad that...". (Wait, that sounded really ironic. But whatever...)

It's too bad that I am currently proving to be unsuccessful in my attempt to write anything of any particular interest, or anything of any importance. It's also really too bad that I couldn't think of an alternate way to write that last sentece, therefore resulting in a rather extensive use of the word "any".
I'm also finding it to be too bad that, in my current state, I am unable to write a single word that is readable (note that I didn't originally type this, I actually wrote it, which is actually a very rare occasion for me. I'm so proud) and that I can't think of that other word that means "readable" and that I am sure sounds much more favorable than "readable".
Anyway, I am aware of the fact that this paragraph is really.....uh.....uhmmm......

It's really too bad that I have loud music blaring in my room, for I am finding this to be a great perpetrator of my distraction. It's also unfortunate that I, being the fat, lazy lard that I am, am proving unable to arise from my perch and hit the power button.

Anyway, continuing along with my harried, flustered, and rather humorous (as it's turning out to be) ramble...If, when I read this aloud to you, there are frequent pauses and rather confused looks resting upon my countanance, I will take these 3 seconds to say that I "apologize profusely".

I am sure that that apology was severely lacking in its profuseness, but oh well. I guess it's just too bad.

Outside writing - thingy

Hey guys...Here's my thing where we were supposed to go outside and write about....something.
Anyways, I was pretty moody when I wrote this and yeah, obviously this is pretty moody, too.

I hear our old wind chime ding-donging....tinkling away as the wind abuses it. The chimes sound spontaneously, randomly. The notes completely subservient to the wind. The melody is harsh to the ears, the notes are sporadically placed. The tone is irate in its conviction. Tonight the music reflects the wind's disposition.

The wind passes over the rees, weighing down their boughs. The wind strokes the leaves as they rustle in indignation, and carresses the branches as they sigh in submission. The trees have no control over the Napoleonic virtues of the wind.

Tonight the wind heaves itself over the fields, the rivers, and through the trees. It sounds as though it is a thousand souls lamenting over past and present dissapointments. The wind is wailing its dissatisfaction with the world.

The wind does not blow because it wishes to - it blows out of a hollow and meaningless necessity. The wind has lost all of its purpose. It blows solely out of habit.

Tonight the wind sounds weary of this world, and of other worlds, as well. The wind has been the constant and ever-present companion of our earth for centuries and millenia. Indeed, for all time. But it is now exhausted of any previously felt compassion for its needy and ever-wanting friend. The wind feels restless to leave this world behind.

Post discussion answer for the social me

Is it good to have a lot of social me's?
Does this give one a strong sense of self or detract from the self?

I believe that it is not a good thing to have many social selves, but it is a good idea to have more than one. If you have many social selves, it becomes harder to keep track of them and stress may build up from having to keep them separate and avoid the wrong people finding one that you do not want them to see. But because of that very reason, it may be important to have more than one social self, if for nothing else, to hide one of the others. Suppose that you are a poet, or an artist, or just very sensitive. You may be perfectly comfortable showing this social me to one group of company, but if you go to a bar, pub, or any other rough place, would you really want to show that side of you? Of course not, because you would be many more times likely to be mugged, made fun of, or just plain unpopular than if you didn’t show that social me, and instead had another one.
Since I believe that ones self is created by all of ones social me’s working together, I believe that having more than one, but not too many social me’s may actually increase your sense of ones self. By making different social me’s, one must focus on what that me is actually like, and in doing so, discover certain aspects that he or she had not been previously aware of. When they are aware of these traits, it helps one to understand oneself better and build an understanding of self, resulting in a stronger sense of self.
Therefore, I feel that it is good to have a few social me’s, but not too many, and that you may actually discover more of yourself than you would otherwise realize by having these social me’s.

-bob