On This Fool's Day'niversary

Once upon a time, in a decade a few years ago, I met a truly wonderful man at a gaming store in Norcross GA. Over the course of the next several years, we became acquaintances, then friends, then lovers, then best friends, then partners, then husband and wife.

This man doesn't hit me, doesn't belittle me, doesn't cut people out of my life, doesn't lash out at me for his own insecurities and imperfections, doesn't think headgames or snipery are a mandatory aspect of a "normal relationship", and doesn't pressure me to be something I'm not.

He encourages my dreams, my silliness, my addiction to fairy tales, my quest for intellectual development, and my crafting/culinary/gardening adventures. He plays fun games with me, works with me to create my own, and he shares with me a world of stories via travel and music and shows. He lends strength when I'm facing something that makes me afraid. He holds me when I hurt, and he soothes the rage that comes with that pain. He tells me every single day that he loves me; every single day, without fail.

This day each year is the day we celebrate our piece of government-required paperwork for insurance purposes - and the day we delight in a relationship that never needed that piece of paper to be lasting or real.

Happy Fool's Day'niversary, my darling Boy.
I love you. Always. Forever.

[EDUC-2120] Discussion Topic #3 - Classroom Communication & Conflict Resolution

Discussion topic for Module 3

View this YouTube video on cultural communication before answering the following questions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gRXMzR_8BY

Consider the communication styles of various cultures and the significance of these differences in your future classrooms.  Nonverbal communication is a message, other than words, that people exchange.  Children do not always find as much meaning from nonverbal communication as adults.  Based on this video and Koppelman's concepts of communication, what should we do to make sure our point and message are not confusing and our students understand the message we want to get across?

My Response for This Prompt

For me, our research video this week was extremely enlightening when paired with our textbook topic for the week.  My initial reaction to the video was that it is a fair depiction of stereotypes of life in the United States; that there is within it a good bit of commonly held assumptions about what Americans are and the type of people we want to be.  I thought it interesting that the video's creator did not give specifics of those "some other countries" he referenced.  This lent a feeling of "an introduction to American culture" to the piece, something that might be similarly produced by an American-born and raised student doing a school project on what life in Dubai, India might be like as experienced by the natural-born citizens of Dubai. 

Where the piece broke down, for me, was in its failure to communicate that the stereotypes are not an accurate reflection of life for all Americans.  The reference to "Chicago" and "DeKalb" helped to place where these stereotypes are purported as "American normal."  The video's creator did not make clear the difference of "rock logic" and "water logic," meetings across the full breadth of corporate America often start late and rarely end on time with all action items firmed, and people in America act far more often on what they "feel" than on what "logic" might dictate.  In addition, it is generally accepted among polite society in the southeast that you do not talk about (or make) private plans in public as it is unforgivably rude to those not on your guest list.  And, if you invite a special friend to a dinner or movie, the inviter is expected to pay for the invitee unless an allusion of some sort or another is made to "dutch treats" as part of the invitation.

Two of the comments on the page spoke to me, in particular.  I offer them here, pasted "as is":

                 paul march, 4 years ago

                I have never seen such a miss intrerepted information as this.

                 shatov72, 2 years ago

                Whether or not there are any problems with this presentation depends on the intended audience, and the intended purpose of the presentation. It is certainly US centric - for example, using 'other cultures' all the way through - but if it is for a US audience, that is ok. Main issue is that it presents an idealised view of US. Taking the UK media as an example - our coverage of China lacks accuracy, but we like to believe our media are fair and free. This apparent hypocrisy by us annoys others.

The second commenter is correct; it all comes down to context.  We do not know the context in which the video's creator originally positioned this piece, so we cannot accurately speak to how well he communicated the concepts he hoped to deliver to his audience.  For all we know, the point of this video was to communicate how stereotypes never tell the whole story.  If that was his goal, he truly did a smashing job of it.  If that was not his goal, then he has offered us a prime example of why stereotypes make such a poor medium for communicating the full truth about life within a given culture.

Our textbook offers five other examples of communication misconceptions.  I agree with all but the fourth, "Communications can break down," as I think Stone, Singletary, and Richmond (or our textbook author; it is hard to tell which is responsible for the wording in this section) chose to pick semantic nits instead of addressing the actual issue.  The textbook offers this, "if verbal exchange ceases, communication in some other form - whether words or actions - will replace it" (Koppelman/Goodhart).  As the very concept of communication is, at its heart, more than the simple tossing off words at a wall to see what sticks - as if the words were little more than verbal pasta and we wanted to know if they were done.  If communication is not effective then it has, indeed, broken down; it does not matter that some other communication style might take the place of the first style; the first did not see productive resolution, so it did, in actuality, break down.

So many of my peers have already stated it on our classroom forum this week, but I will state it, too.  As educators, it is our responsibility to approach our communications carefully.  We must pay attention to the visual, auditory, linguistic, and cultural cues that our students or colleagues give to us.  We must strive to deliver our message in a way that is elegant in its simplicity, so that our intent remains clear from the first.  We must be vigilant for instances where our message comes through inefficiently; we must never fault the listener for this failure, but work with them to rectify the misunderstanding and move forward together, confident of successful future interactions.

REFERENCES

Koppelman, K.L. & Goodhart, R. L. (2011).  Chapter 3: Communication, conflict, and conflict resolution.  In M. Mattson (Ed.), EDUC-2120: Education GA Perimeter College North (pp 47-69).  Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Education.

Mattson, M. (2014).  Chapter 3 lecture notes: Communication, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution   [PowerPoint slides].  GPC iCollege, EDUC-2120-001. Retrieved 27-Jan-2014 from https://gpc.view.usg.edu/d2l/home/485701

Ty., R.  Comparing Different Cultures: Intercultural Communications.  Théâtre Palme d'Or.  Retrieved 05-Feb-2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gRXMzR_8BY

[EDUC-2120] Discussion Topic for #2 - Jigsaw Classrooms Can Change Southern Culture

Discussion topic for Module 2

Read the weekly research article about the Jigsaw Classroom technique.

After reading, can you list any advantages or disadvantages of this technique?  Also, can competition add to the cause of prejudice?  Refer back to the Koppelman text to support your answer.

My Response for This Prompt
I loved and hated reading this week's research article.  I loved it, because it validates my own plans for group instruction methods and implies that they should be quite successful.  I hated it, because it is almost as if someone stole my thunder from forty-something years in the past.  I have given much thought to overcoming the problems faced by my own childhood/teen classmates and me.  I have thought about the nearly homogeneous social/political/economic environments in which we were raised.  I have thought about the different teachers we had, their strengths and weaknesses as educators, and I have considered the best manner in which to incorporate the mindset changes that rural and suburban southern communities need most and have traditionally resisted the hardest.

The South, unfortunately, still lives in a highly stratified mindset.  Too many children live in poverty with little physical reserve left over to engage in intellectual pursuits.  Men of color and women of all colors espouse a full range of socially acceptable or unacceptable opinion, often seeing the needs of their own In Groups ahead of the needs of any other group, even when the underlying interests of those groups truly coincide.  Moreover, far too many white men go their whole lives wondering what all the bellyaching is about, claiming that it was not so hard for them, so people should stop whining so much and just buckle down as they did.  There is significant competition for resources among the various resident cultural groups in our state, which can lead to competition in the classroom when students arrive with homegrown prejudices in tow.  Our research article for this week leaves no doubt that Aronson was correct in noting that the “competitive atmosphere of the typical classroom only served to fuel the fires of inter-group hostility” (Reese).  His Classroom Jigsaw method “was born of the need to change the atmosphere from one of competitiveness to one of cooperation” (Reese), and could go a long way toward overcoming prejudice-sparked competition in the South’s rigidly traditional public schools and communities.

The public school cluster where I live now is a world of difference from the socioeconomically homogenized environment of my youth.  As I shared in our discussion last week, there are so many people from different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds currently living in Gwinnett County that language barriers are a significant problem at our schools; our teachers have to “Jigsaw” almost as their default setting.  The educators I have been privileged to meet here in Gwinnett do not engage in the sort of victim-blaming that was the norm in the 1970s/1980s.  Back then, it was publicly held to be the “foreigner’s fault” for coming here and encountering difficulty in school, and their children were often told, “if you’re going to live here, you can at least learn to speak the Bible’s language.”  Academic failure was also openly held to be the fault of children of color for “drinking the Hand Up Kool-aid,” and they were often told “you should just try harder and, if you’re lucky, you can be as good as the rest of us.”  Some of our teachers would even seem put out by lower income students who had trouble grasping concepts because the SES problems their family faced made schoolwork incredibly difficult, and chastised them for missing things in class that “normal white kids everywhere are smart enough to get”.  Our textbook defines victim-blaming as “a focus on the group being harmed by societal prejudices [with insistence] that society doesn’t need to change: The group needs to change.  Victim-blamers urge individuals to stop being so sensitive or so pushy, to work harder, and to quit complaining.  Group members are told they are responsible for whatever problems they must overcome” (Koppelman 39).

Here, if a child has trouble keeping up, it is the educators’ direct responsibility to get that child (and their family) on track.  This is partly due to our teachers’ inherent desire to give Gwinnett kids the best opportunity possible, and partly due to residential reprisals should it come to NCLB probations. It is a relief to know that I will work for a school cluster that truly wants every single one of its families to have a better life via education and community-sourced outreach.  I cannot describe to you how deeply thankful I am that I will get to be an educator in this time where it is acceptable to call people out on their prejudiced assumptions, their bigoted words, and their discriminatory actions, and to live in this forward-thinking school district.

REFERENCES FOR THIS DISCUSSION POST

Koppelman, K.L. and Goodhart, R. L. (2011). Chapter 2: Understanding prejudice and its causes. In M. Mattson (Ed.), EDUC-2120: Education GA Perimeter College North (pp 25-41). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Education.

Mattson, M. (2014). Chapter 2 lecture notes: Understanding prejudice and its causes [PowerPoint slides]. GPC iCollege, EDUC-2120-001. Retrieved 27-Jan-2014 from https://gpc.view.usg.edu/d2l/home/485701

Reese, S. (2009). Classroom connection: The jigsaw classroom [PDF document]. In Techniques Magazine: Connecting Education and Careers. Association for Career & Technical Education. Retrieved 27-Jan-2014 from https://gpc.view.usg.edu/content/enforced/485701-CO.710.EDUC2120.30523.20144/2120Jigsaw%2520Article.pdf

[EDUC-2120] Discussion Topic #1 - Non-obvious At-risk Student Groups

Discussion topic for Chapter 1

Prejudice is defined as a negative attitude toward a group and persons believed to be part of that group. What are some groups, like the example of the atheist used in the power point, which are not obviously based on culture or race, whom teachers need to be aware of in their classrooms as possible targets of prejudice? How will you guard against prejudices yourself as a teacher? 

My Response for This Prompt

From personal experience, I offer for discussion two student groups of which teachers should be aware as possible targets of classroom prejudice.  These groups include children who are physically small for their age and children are academically advanced.  Each of these groups suffers varying levels of prejudice from public social stereotypes, and teachers need to guard against their own ill-timed reactions in addition to making their classrooms a culturally positive haven from bigotry and discrimination.

Children who are small for their age are susceptible to bullying because their bodies are often physically weaker than their age peers in larger percentile brackets.  Smaller children are often slower in running games because their legs cannot cover as much ground or unable to meet the objective in activities where physical strength matters.  Because of this, they often earn playground monikers that reflect "loser" stereotypes, which subsequently leads (in far too many cases) to name-calling and bullying.  Because busy adults have a tendency to lump together as "troublemakers" all children involved in playground mishaps or classroom incidents, smaller children are asked questions such as "well, what did you do to make her/him want to hit you?" or "you just need to learn to be tougher skinned and then the bigger kids won't bother you."  Victim-shaming legitimizes the prejudice that leads to bullying by teaching small-stature children that adults cannot ensure equal footing for all students, and by teaching bullies that society does not blame them for abuses they dole out, that blame lies with the victim(s) instead.

As with the “Asian math whiz” example from the chapter lecture, children whom are academically advanced also need protection from stereotype reactions from the adults in their lives.  It might seem obvious that these children may be open to teasing or bullying from other students, but teachers must be on guard against their own internal prejudices where gifted students are concerned, too.  Just because a child is smart does not mean that s/he is automatically proficient at all intellectual pursuits.  There is more than enough pressure on these students to succeed, so it is often difficult in the extreme for them to admit that they need help with schoolwork.  We must strive to be the teachers who open doors for all of our students and not the sort of teacher that responds to a request for help with "Why, Johnny, you're so smart! Surely, you don't need help with this, now do you?"  Not only does this display of confirmation bias publicly demean the child, but it marks the teacher as a willing party to societal prejudices rather than as an authority figure dedicated to overcoming them.  The student is asking for your help, after all; why are you going to ignore their plea in favor of an incorrect, stereotype-based assumption?

Our textbook teaches that "the values we choose are influenced by our membership in groups defined by such factors as race, ethnicity, gender, and social class; however, the ultimate decision to embrace certain values is up to the individual" (2).  As an educator, my goal is to make my school a safe place everyone who walks through the door.  To do that, it is my responsibility to be actively involved with both the student and staff populations.  I can make my Zero Tolerance for Intolerance policy clear up front, working with my students to develop a Classroom Bill of Rights that lays out the responsibilities of peer behavior and the repercussions for breaking our rules.  I can also work with parents and other staff on bringing tolerance education into our school through anti-bullying and cultural sensitivity programs such as the PBIS system (3) in active use at Norcross Cluster schools.

WORKS CITED IN THIS DISCUSSION POST

1. EDUC-2120 GPC-specific textbook.  Chapter 1, Afterword,  pp.17
2. Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. http://www.pbis.org/

[GPC-HIST] Term Essay, The Indian Nationalist Movement

Assignment:
Analyze the range of opinion in the Indian nationalist movement, particularly the differences between Gandhi and Nehru, and the communally based rivalry between Jinnah’s Muslim League and the Congress Party. Final essay should be between 1.5 and 3 pages in length.

First paragraph is included here, followed by a link for the post-grademark version of the full essay.

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Analysis of “The Congress Party and The Muslim League”

The greatest difficulty faced by the Indian nationalist movement during its inception was the fundamental difference in religious outlook and political goals between the Hindus and Muslims of that region. While both factions sought freedom from British colonial rule after the end of World War II, strife between them escalated to the point of rioting. Finally, due to the extreme violence associated with the call for freedom and internal fractioning that would not be quelled, the British government agreed to release India as a colonial holding but stipulated that the territory would be split along cultural lines, resulting in a Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan. This led to an exodus from each country to the other by geographical residents that belonged culturally to the other, resulting (ironically) in even more violence between the groups as militants sought to restrict emigration or to punish those who disagreed with them.

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READ THE FULL ESSAY

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[GPC-HIST] Primary Source Analysis, Cold War Telegrams

Assignment:

Pick one primary source document from any of the chapters we read to analyze. In your well-written essay (make sure you have an introduction with a thesis, the body of your paper which includes text from the document to support your analysis about the document, and a conclusion summing up your efforts.), you are to answer the 5Ws and discuss any bias found in the documents.

First paragraph is included here, followed by a link for the post-grademark version of the full essay.

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Analysis of “Opposing Viewpoints, American and Soviet Perspectives on The Cold War”

Textbooks call it “The Collapse of the Grand Alliance” (Duiker 645), while US media and news outlets during the ‘60s and ‘70s styled it simply “The Cold War” on their nightly broadcasts. It was a time of much uncertainty, in all walks of life, as citizens of the former Alliance maintained a state of perpetual readiness for the potential of resumed hostilities. The reality of the situation goes far deeper; these words convey only hint of the vehement animosity that gripped the world stage in the aftermath of World War II. The cold war was perhaps the very first of its kind, a psychological war fought via command chain word-of-mouth and mass media propaganda and the preemptive building up of martial defenses, for the sole purpose of self-justifying the ideals upon which two world powers were based.

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[GPC-ENGL-2] Essay 3, The Nature of Poetic Provocation in Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”

Assignment:

The purpose of this essay is to enter the realm of academic conversation. Your claim and reasons will function as the thesis of your paper. If you identify a particular theoretical approach that supports your claim, you may want to review that material and include it in your paper. Your evidence will then be the selections of the text, as well as the scholarship of others, that you use to support your argument. Your draft should be from 1500-2000 words. Thesis statement and draft plan must be pre-approved by the instructor, but students are allowed creative flexibility with regard to approach and content on the assigned topic.

First paragraph is included here, followed by a link for the post-grademark version of the full essay.

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The Nature of Poetic Provocation in Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”

On first read of any literary work, the reader will take away from it an interpretation which resonates most strongly with their life experience. Upon further readings and reflection, however, their understanding of that literary work can change. Several points play into a reader’s final interpretation of a given piece, such as the author’s intent while writing the piece, the commonality of definitions for words chosen by the author the revisions that authors habitually make along the way, and even the personal experiences of the readers, themselves. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke uses careful phrasing to provoke a diverse range of interpretations by readers of his work, relying more on his skill with this medium rather than on childhood memories to craft an emotionally evocative piece.

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[GPC-ENGL-2] Essay 2, Relevant Sympathy

Assignment:

The purpose of this essay is to explicate or analyze a reading that you choose from the assigned readings in Unit Two. Write an MLA-style comparison/contrast essay of no fewer than 1000 words; no outside sources should be used in this essay; it should come entirely from your own analysis. Thesis statement and draft plan must be pre-approved by the instructor, but students are allowed creative flexibility with regard to approach and content on the assigned topic.

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Like birds in a cage, there exist in our world people who understand that there is more to life than the self-imposed cage of their daily existence - invalids too ill to travel, office workers whose cubicle might as well be a second home, and factory workers whose world condenses to the square foot directly in front of them. They catch glimpses of freedom each day just outside the window, and they feel it on the breeze as the door swings shut to close them in. Their hearts beat with longing for it, echoed in the music of the world around them, and they surround themselves with visual reminders that carry all the bittersweet poignancy of a poet’s heartfelt words. Rather than relegating poems to “just a reminder of a different age”, people seek inspiration in the old words in desperate hope of escaping their personal cage. As a soulful song of lost freedoms, Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy” is a relevant reminder for today’s readers to fill every moment they can with “life fully lived and all joys fulfilled”.

In the manner of well-crafted song lyrics, Mr. Dunbar’s poem has a distinct meter and rhyming scheme that lends itself easily to spoken performance. The A-B-A-A-B-C-C pattern for each stanza draws the listener’s attention to the relationship of each spoken thought, and the cadence of each line has a distinct rhythm that leads easily from one phrase to the next, much like the gospels of his time and the Rhythm and Blues (R&B) standards of today. The words used are simple in both concept and meaning, with no word more than two syllables, so the joy of listening is not disrupted by the task of understanding. It is easy to imagine this poem set to music, with any number of popular artists today crooning it as a gentle whisper of things too important to forget or belting it out torch-style as a passionate reminder of daily joys unexpectedly lost or stolen away.

Beyond the basic structure of Mr. Dunbar’s poem, his careful wording delivers the message with powerfully evocative symbolism. He speaks first of what a caged bird must feel as it observes the world move outside its reach, of the impotent rage it must feel and, finally, why it sings such a doleful tune. In the first stanza, Mr. Dunbar invokes words of gentle movement, of life external to the cage, as relevant to the restrictions of racial oppression in his own time – or the personal restrictions of dealing with a terminal illness – as it is to the work-related “cages” of life today. People today “beat their wings” just as surely as the bird in the poem, railing against the daily-grind mindset by “taking a mental health day” or browsing the World Wide Web while on the clock, looking always for some way to distract their mind from the work-a-day prison of their own making. When the frustration of endless distraction with no true creative outlet becomes too much to bear in silence, these same people give voice to the frustration via online blogs and journals (such as the “Twitter bird” of internet fame).

Unlike the digital white noise of the internet, however, Mr. Dunbar’s poem is the very personal cry of a single voice raised with desperate hope to find a way free of the cage. Whether that voice is attributed to the Amistad mutineers as they awaited sentencing, whether that voice sings its grief alone as a newly paralyzed veteran of wars too numerous to name, or whether the drunken melancholy of middle-aged men singing about the glory days of youth, the mourning of personal freedom is an intensely personal thing. Much like the swan song of legend, the hauntingly beautiful dirge that denies being voiced until life’s end, the bird cannot trill with passionate regret for something still easily within its grasp; it requires the experience of being caged, of having its freedom stripped away forever, for the caged bird’s song to ring true for all who hear it.

“Sympathy”, then, is a most apt name for this poem, as it serves to draw the reader’s attention to the pretty bird in the gilded cage. With devout hope that the reader will sympathize with the caged bird’s plight, Dunbar’s poem exhorts his readers to see freedom as precious; he encourages them to avoid the same sorrowful entrapment that prompts the caged bird to sing. In recording this poem for posterity, Mr. Dunbar has given readers not only a concise snapshot of a single moment of his own lifetime, but a timely reminder to take time outside their own self-imposed cages and accomplish all the myriad things that bring them true peace and inner joy.

[GPC-ENGL-2] Essay 1, The Repercussions of Choice

Assignment:

Write a narrative essay of about 300 words in which you tell the story of a good choice (or a bad choice) you've made and its results in your life and the lives of others. Use a standard 12 point font and MLA style; first person narrative style is acceptable, but avoid second person. I expect this essay to demonstrate a mastery of the skills from ENGL 1101, as listed in the ENGL 1102 common course outline.

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In life, we often face hard choices; in school, those choices often come in unexpected ways. When requested in the guise of a simple essay assignment, do we share our hopes, tribulations, and dreams with people who know nothing of our lives, all for sake of a grade? Do we risk opening ourselves to scrutiny of those difficult times and tough decisions, clinging to the hope that whatever grade we receive is based solely on mechanics and form, or do we surrender to the pressure for academic excellence and lay out those very personal matters in spite of the trepidation felt doing it? The trick of this particular choice is to find a point of compromise that addresses the needs of both instructor and student.

One method to make a choice easier is to attempt an objective understanding of the level of investment for each person involved. On one hand is me, the student, being required to draft an essay detailing something private and personal; on the other hand, is my instructor with a very legitimate need to evaluate my proficiency with the written word, and the essay format specifically. The assignment was to provide an essay response that details a choice made in our own lives, a topic that each student can expound upon with passion and authority. By embracing the understanding that our instructor seeks to provide “easy” subject matter, some of the outrage I felt about the topic requirements dissipated.

I am not comfortable sharing intimate details of my life with someone I have never met face-to-face, so my options for completing this assignment are to (a) bare my soul on a topic that was stressful in the first place, (b) write about the topic of personal choice from the most neutral stance possible, or (c) take an F. I cannot afford to “take the F”, and I know that my instructor does not create stress for her students purposefully, but her judgment has a direct result of success/failure on my future, and that alone triggered the flight-fight response where the topics for this essay are concerned. When instructors prove through their classroom interactions that they are worthy of basic trust, it becomes easier to admit, “This assignment is hard for me.”

Put in a position where I knew my grade rides on doing something I do not feel comfortable doing outside of intimate friendships, I chose to trust in my instructor’s purpose and to share in my essay the personal quandary of writing it. In facing this choice, I have learned that I am far more comfortable analyzing and responding on non-personal matters, and I look forward greatly to doing more of that in this class.

[GPC-ENGL] Essay 2, Comparing Computer Gamers and Online Students

Assignment:

Write an MLA-style comparison/contrast essay of no fewer than 1000 words, using instructor-provided research materials only. Thesis statement and draft plan must be pre-approved.by the instructor, but students are allowed creative flexibility with regard to approach and content on the assigned topic.

First paragraph is included here, followed by a link for the post-grademark version of the full essay.

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Level Up, Online Learners!

In 1986, Robert Fulghum wrote “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”, a book of short essays which point out core lessons for “success in life” that are routinely taught in the early years of grade school in present-day America. Interestingly enough, several research studies conclude that responsible participation in a group hobby, such as digital gaming, fosters and refines many of the principles discussed in Mr. Fulgham’s work. The hobbyist following these principals attains greater success in other areas of his or her life, instead of the oft’ lampooned one-way ticket to a dead-end job and life-long residence in a relative’s basement. While distance learning will never be considered the recreational fun that recess or hobby time may be, many lessons and skills learned from computer and console gaming, when applied alongside common sense and practical study habits, can help the earnest online student “power level” from Research Novice to iCollege Master.

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READ THE FULL ESSAY

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[GPC-ENGL] Technical Review of a Historically Important Speech

Assignment:

An exercise for evaluating effective writing techniques by providing a technical review of the "I Have a Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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This speech is not an attempt to sway opposing viewpoints. It is, instead, a vision statement and direct call to action for individuals already on board with the ideal of racial equality. This is a masterful piece of rhetoric, written to be delivered with all the passion and fire a Southern preacher can bring to pulpit. As I read through the speech again and again, I find myself even more deeply in awe of this work. I have always held the greatest respect for Dr. King’s message and feel that this work is the crowning achievement of his talent for inspirational speechwriting.

Verbal cues such as “fifty score years …” hearken directly to a famous speech made by the very man he lauds for ending slavery, a man popularly acknowledged as one of the country’s greatest statesmen. By using terminology and phrasings that echo Lincoln’s address, Dr. King psychologically lends to this speech the authority of that author and his vaunted political position.

Early in the speech, Dr. King calls to the hope of emancipation’s promise, and then dashes it soundly with words that paint a most desperate but highly generalized picture of situations “then” and “now”, thus giving listeners a rally point for the call for action that is to come. He sprinkles words associated with discomfort in places to bring forth the discontent that the listener should feel if they disagree with (at the time) current legal policies and uses concepts of light and water to reiterate concepts related to hope, faith, and burdens eased.

Dr. King states intent of the founding fathers as uncontestable fact, even though no man alive at the time the speech was written could have first-hand knowledge of the words bandied about during the drafting of our governing document. Stating the viewpoint in this way sets all further arguments on a foundation that can make opposition seem unduly unreasonable when attempting to present arguments for their interpretation. This is a very common tactic in political speech writing, and this use of it is remarkably well-phrased.

He uses big words, words that many people in his audience might not fully understand. This has the potential to alienate some listeners, as this is the language of the establishment, not of the common man. It is the manner in which Dr. King delivers his speech that keeps the listener personally invested. Not only does this lend additional authority to his delivery of this speech, it also provides a direct example of his corollary message of community improvement through self-improvement. It encourages trust from “the common man”; trust that Dr. King is educated and on-par with the people who can legislate the changes his audience would like to see.

He restates the plight in a way that the listening Everyman can easily relate to, starting with “bad checks” and cashing in on what is owed, continuing with the urgency of immediate action and attention, and following with a vision of negative consequence if the hoped for objective is ignored, even speaking of impending revolution if the call for national justice is overturned.

At this point in the speech, Dr. King turns from third person (“the Negro”) to mutual first person (“we” and “my people”). The speech is at a turning point as he takes the focus from what is owed to the greater community to what that self-same community must avoid if they wish to win the objective. He has stirred up the masses, empowered them with faith in his belief and their own effort, and now needs to remind them that the goal cannot be accomplished if they allow themselves to be provoked to violence. Dr. King is aware that his message faced heavy opposition and that the movement toward equality would be crushed outright if his listeners could not hold true to the idealized vision.

Three simple sentences within the book ends of “cannot”, “must”, “cannot” reiterate this point. Bookends, or the sandwiching technique, are another powerful tool in the hands of effective parents and political speechwriters alike. When properly used, this technique can drive home a speaker’s message as firmly as iron spikes into rail beds. He verbally demonstrates many activities that must become universally unacceptable if the end goal is to be achieved, situations that must be universally overcome. He solidifies the community by giving so many broad examples and gives his listeners further opportunity to relate to his message – to call it their own – by calling out state and city names, locations in which many of his listeners do business and live.

Dr. King then begins the part of this speech that thrills my word-loving soul. He uses another technique of reiteration (repeatedly starting sentences with the title phrase) to bind together his conceptualized victory conditions and to drive home the group unity of his listeners. Phrases become shorter as he delivers song quote and follows it up with another round of location identity. Vocal tone and strength are key here as he brings the speech to its climax.

He closes this brilliant work by restating the ideal, the message of tolerance and universal brotherhood and peaceful fellowship that stood as the hallmark of his life’s work. Dr. King grounds his closing by quoting another work of “victorious faith”, leaving his audience pumped up with positive feelings that should carry them forward in seeing the great work done.

Had Dr. King’s speech been a letter instead, it would likely not have as deep an impact. It would surely have been more conversational, more direct thought from one person to another instead of being a compilation of rhetoric and inspirational tools. It is appropriate to believe that the passion of his message – the deep belief he held and preached in the promise of this ideal – would shine through had it been “just” a letter, but the message delivered would likely be one much more personal, much more relevant to the situation of a single life, than the speech stands as given.

Had Dr. King’s speech been a magazine article intended for publication in that era of our country’s history, the message would surely have lost most, if not all, of its intended meaning. The message would have been diluted by the media prejudices and policies of the time, or parceled out in chunks to inflame or terrorize the “right-thinking” political majority.

On the morning the speech was given, I think Dr. King must have gone through and thought many of the things anyone else does on mornings of important presentations. Breakfasting with his wife and speaking fondly with his friends, checking his pockets to ensure that he had everything he would need – his speech notes, a sermon-delivering luck piece, etc. It gives me pause to think of this great man doing such ordinary things as asking Coretta, for the hundredth time, if his tie was on straight or to hurry with her hair so they would be on time. It lends a feeling of realism and poignancy to the impassioned crescendo delivery that just feels right for me.

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The only work directly referenced in this post is the audio and text copy of the speech at the instructor provided link (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm). All conclusions and opinions regarding the technical qualities of this speech, as stated in this post, are entirely my own.

Thank you for your consideration of this review.

Sharon Yarbrough

Freshman, Georgia Perimeter College

[GPC-ENGL] Formal Introduction w/ Location Description

Our very first assignment for this course is to write a formal letter of introduction that gives information about our interests and career, as well as our educational goals. After the personal bits, we are to include a five-sense description of our immediate environment at the time our letter is written. The instructor's name and my student email address are omitted, for purposes that are likely obvious.

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Dear professor and classmates:

Good morning to you! My name is Sharon Yarbrough. I am a mother of four and a first-year, non-traditional student at Georgia Perimeter College. In support of my career goal of an active psychiatric practice, my educational goal is to earn a doctorate in Clinical and Behavioral Psychology with a course focus of mid-to-late childhood and early-teen development.

The company with whom I am currently employed is a prestigious mergers and acquisitions firm in north Metro Atlanta. My role as Executive Secretary to the President is both stressful and rewarding as I assist the various partners and principals of our company. Outside of corporate America, I work with several personal clients as a Small Business Consultant, specializing in artist website portfolios, copyediting/consumer testing/trade show marketing for the independent gaming industry, and the organization of NPO charity events and educational outreach endeavors.

This letter is written at a business office. My desk is on the first floor of our building, in the reception area and around the corner from the president’s office. The furniture in our foyer and reception area is all heavy, polished woods and cushiony stuffed leather. The walls that surround me are a soft golden shade with white molding, as yellow is the favorite color of our owner. On the walls are several pictures in gilt frames depicting various leisure activities of Victorian-era aristocracy. The pictures are serene, in sharp contrast to the “Go get ‘em!” hustle and bustle of our 9-to-5 office.

Sounds that come to me are the quiet and rhythmic ticking of a black and gold analog clock on the wall above my desk, the hum of our network printer in the copy room, and the sound of traffic as it passes on the busy street outside our office complex. From upstairs, I catch the hint of jovial laughter as brokers discuss an article they read online.

To my left is our main conference room and, on the far wall of that conference room, a tall window with open blinds. I observe through the window that the day is dim and the bushes are a lush late spring green. Their leaves move with a strong breeze, and it makes me crave to be outdoors, to feel and smell the fresh morning breeze, to have an open-air gazebo for an office instead of a closed building with only plastics and laminates under my fingertips and regrettably stale air to breathe. With a smile, I add that little gazebo to my mental checklist for an ideal office for my future practice and return, mood lightened, to the business tasks at hand.

I have enjoyed this exercise, and I look forward greatly to our future correspondence.

Sincerely,
Sharon Yarbrough
Freshman, Georgia Perimeter College

My Career Goal

In chatting with a very dear friend, this whole career goal thing really came together for me. I was able to distill it into the following:

A private practice as a Behaviorial and Clinical Psychiatrist with a focus in mid-to-late childhood and early teen development. (Or maybe just Psychologist if I decide I can't deal with the math/science it will take to dispense necessary drugs.)

My goal is to see if it's actually possible to instill functioning and permanent life skill, problem solving, and emotionally-balanced coping mechanisms during a life development period where it can become more "ingrained" instead of "habit learned".

Rather like a Life Coach kinda thing (as overhyped and faddish as that particular profession title currently is), but for kids, because my personal hypothesis is that if you can make it happen then, they will grow up to be more successful, more productive, and far less likely to put themselves through the angst and drama we've all been through.

My anthropology class this last term and what I've been dealing with personally is what rooted the goal for me. Mankind has done some truly horrible things over the aeons. That's not something that can be undone by any single Kid Psych Doc, but snowballs do become avalanches and it would be awfully nice to know I had even a tiny hand in actually making the world a better place.

[GPC-ANTH] Discussion Topic for Chapter 16 - Roadblocks to Global Sustainability

Discussion topic for Chapter16

What values and human cultural ideals stand in the way of rational decision making that would ensure the survival or sustainability of the world more or less as we know it today?

Student Response

The values and ideals most likely to prevent rational decision making regarding our future survival are those of ethnocentrism and the push for industrialized globalization. Nowhere is it more evident than in the way that developing countries are pushed to comply with “modern Western” agricultural practices, even in the face of scientific proof that those very methods deplete the land of its capability to produce food stuff of nutritive substance.

We, to mean world leaders and multinational megacorporations, require adherence to practices that leave the individual farmer (or herder) without a real increase in monetary wealth, as they are forced to adhere to ever-increasing demands for new equipment or chemicals so their product meets “industrialized standard”. These requirements are costly, often causing the farmer to have to go into debt to meet them or risk losing any subsidies they might be receiving.

Modern doesn’t always mean “better” in cases like this. Yes, we have immediate access to technological devices that allow us to communicate across the globe almost instantly. Yes, we have cars that allow us to work at further distances from our home. But do these things actually increase the quality of our lives in the long-term? Rarely, does the benefit outweigh the cost. We – in our superior modern lifestyles – pollute the atmosphere every time we get into that car to drive to that fast food joint to pick up convenience foods that pollute our bodies, the food having been raised on land that must be artificially made viable for renewable growth, with chemicals that pollute our water supply when it rains.

And that’s just one example. To achieve existence in harmony with our environment, we will need to put aside the belief (taught in childhood) that everything “modern” is better. We need to look to other cultures and to take a good hard look at our own, to determine how we can adapt toward a globalized culture without destroying the planet (and its peoples) in getting there.