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Lesson Plan Title: Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday: Understanding Opportunity Costs Grade Level:2, 3, or 6th Duration: three 50-minute class periods Student Goal: To understand that there is an opportunity cost to every economic decision and that these costs come as a result of limited resources. Student Objectives Students will: †¢ Identify "opportunity costs" in the story and in their own lives. †¢ Create an opportunity costs bar graph as a whole class. †¢ Complete a table of personal spending and savings information. †¢ Write an original story about how they spent and saved their allowance and what they gave up or their "opportunity costs" in order to reach their goals. Materials: †¢ a copy of Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, by Judith Viorst †¢ chart paper †¢ markers †¢ overhead projector †¢ transparency †¢ student handout: How I Spent & Saved My Allowance (included). This was provided by the teacher in which I was doing my participant observations with. Set Up and Prepare: 1. Use the book Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, by Judith Viorst. 2. Write the definition of the term "opportunity cost" on a sheet of chart paper and display for the class: Opportunity Cost: what you give up when you decide to do or buy something 3. Draw a bar graph on a transparency. Write the title "Opportunity Costs for a College Education" across the top. Label the horizontal axis "Opportunity Costs." Label the vertical axis "Number of Students." 4. Print out copies of the student handout "How I Spent & Saved My Money" for each student to take home. Directions: PART I: Step 1: Share with students a story about a time when you did not buy something you really wanted so that you could use or save the money for something more important. For example, maybe you didn't go on a vacation so you could save the money for a car you need to buy. Explain that what you gave up is called an "opportunity cost." Direct students' attention to the definition of "opportunity cost" displayed on the chart paper. Step 2: Ask students to share stories from their own lives in which they gave up something to get something else, or to save for something else that they want more. Have them identify their opportunity costs. Ask studen... ... †¢ How much does Alexander have after he buys the gum? ($0.85); after he loses a bet to his mother? ($0.70); after he rents Eddie's snake? ($0.58); after his father fines him for saying naughty words ($0.48); after flushing pennies down the toilet and dropping a nickel through a crack? ($0.40); after paying for Anthony's chocolate bar? ($0.29); after pennies disappear in Nick's trick ($0.25); after paying his father for kicking his brother? ($0.20); after buying things at a garage sale ($0.00). Set Up Shop/ Learning Center: Students set up a shop and role play the parts of customer and shopkeeper, making economic decisions along the way. Have them draw pictures or use manipulatives for the items they are selling in the store. Allow them to determine prices and tag each item. Then give all students the opportunity to be a customer and the shopkeeper. Provide customers with a limited amount of play money to spend in the store. They will need to budget their money so that they can afford all they need to buy. Using play money too, the shopkeepers sharpen their math skills as they make change for the customers. Assignments: Student Handout: How I Spent & Saved My Money

A look at the effects of my Hispanic heritage Essay

I am a part of the growing population of people of mixed descent, and am both privileged and punished by relating to my Mexican heritage but not resembling the stereotypical Hispanic. Most people aren’t aware, even in these times, that you can be Hispanic whether you are as white as paper or as dark as its ashes. I have grown up privy to all the privileges of a comfortable lifestyle, typically among Caucasians, both in my neighborhood and honors classes in my rural town. Yet I am reminded of my heritage by the food I eat, the style of music I wake up to on a Sunday morning, and traveling to a dusty, dog-filled village in Mexico to bury my grandfather. I wonder sometimes whether resembling my classmates in immediate appearance has been a good or a bad thing. They unthinkingly offer up ‘dirty Mexican’ jokes, only to find that I am not amused. They confide in me how they could never date a black girl or a black boy, and I can’t support their sentiments. I wouldn’t be here if such relationships didn’t occur. Yet, I don’t think I would change the way I look to deter such comments. What I inherited from my mother is my disguise almost, how I can uncover what people really think about the group to which I belong. If they could tell that I was the subject of their comments, they wouldn’t say it to me, but they would still think it’s okay. It gives me the chance to show them that there are some things that are never appropriate, no matter whose company they are in, because you never know what is behind the color of their skin. Their unthinking negative comments about my race don’t bother me so much in comparison to other things. My area is known for its incredibly high ratio of chickens to people, soybeans, and other farming industry. This kind of economic environment doesn’t bring a lot of culture into my town. The people who work in these low-income jobs are typically Hispanic, and they fulfill some of my classmates’ prejudices. They are poor, unable to speak English, and have very few nice places to socialize or live. When I happen to see a family walking, I notice there are many small children, but there are probably less than twenty Hispanic students in my entire high school. Hispanics are a large part of our population, but by the time it comes for us to attend high school, it looks as though many have already dropped out of school. I feel as though I am unable to fight prejudice around me when I  see fulfillments of such negative thinking everyday. There are some points in my life I have not been so willing to inform people of my ethnic background. I volunteer in a thrift shop regularly, and I have become friends with the older Caucasian women who work there. I have come to be treated almost as though I am a paid employee. One day, as I was restocking racks, a non-English speaking family comes in with three small children. While I was in the storage room, there is a commotion in the store and I hear one of my co-worker’s angry voice. I heard the story later. The mother of this not even one-year-old child had watched him urinate on the floor of the store, without attempting to stop or berate him. She was about to walk away from him when my co-worker noticed what the little boy was doing. The mother did not deny what her son had done or offer to clean the mess. After repeated attempts to get an explanation, or even a response, the woman just walked away again, and away from her oblivious child. The family was asked to leav e the store, and my co-worker ended up cleaning the mess. She angrily muttered about those ‘damn Mexicans.’ This is when it bothers me the most, when I can’t bring myself to contradict her. There isn’t an explanation I can give to validate that mother’s actions. Would a white woman let her child do that? And I find myself thinking, â€Å"No, she wouldn’t, because she would buy diapers.† In comparison to hearing negative prejudices about Mexicans, it bothers me so much more to find myself giving in to them myself. It makes me wonder how can I defend my fellow Hispanics when looking around, it feels like I’m the only one trying to break the stereotype. Yet on a more optimistic note, I know that the mother was merely a bad apple in the bunch. Not every group of people are all going to be saints, nor would they be all as apathetic as this one person. But because of her actions in such a public and respected place, others are going to see her as a representative of my ethnicity. A personal solution to the weak ethnic pride in the community is to be a public example to the local Hispanics. However, even with living in Buenos Aires for three years, taking Spanish courses in high school, and having half my extended family living in Mexico, I still can’t speak the language fluently myself. How can I influence them if I can’t relate at all?  I’m not similar economically, academically, not even through a common language. I only know a small part of what concerns them in life. My current incapability to change their situations bothers me more than any ignorant slur I hear. It seems everyday I ask myself that clichà ©d question, â€Å"How can I make a difference?† I don’t know how at this moment. When I’m helping people in the thrift shop, they don’t see a Mexican girl. The Hispanic customers see a white girl with dark hair and eyes, speaking in a language they don’t understand, who rarely offers advice in broken Spanish. The other customers don’t see anything that would change their opinion about ‘those Mexicans.’ Growing up white, but with minority allegiances, has given me a unique perspective on discriminatory views. I know, through my own experience, that you can’t imagine or know a whole person just by seeing or being in class with them. There is something that you won’t know about them and won’t expect. I am not an exception to the rule, and I know I have my own preconceptions of people I see, however unwelcome those thoughts are. In my Mexican heritage there are instances of racial discrimination. Her parents and community disowned my great-great grandmother when she married someone much darker than her and of a lower caste. The tendency for prejudice is not secluded to just appearance. It’s among every grouping of people, from the American-born blacks’ discrimination against the Haitians in my school, to the suburban kids talking about the ‘white trash.’ As a society, we will always find some way to differentiate ourselves from others, from people who look or act different than us. I am hopeful for change, and I want to be a part of that change through achieving success in my profession as a Hispanic. Growing up surrounded by prejudice in every form, I am more realistic about humanity’s capabilities and more forgiving of such transgressions that are learned from our elders. In spite of this, I am still confident that with time, no matter where one lives, all forms of prejudice will be considered unacceptable to express or to hold.

An Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson - 744 Words

â€Å"The Lottery† - For Analysis 1. There are multiple examples to suggest that â€Å"The Lottery† is a ritualistic ceremony. In several instances â€Å"The Lottery† is referred to as a ritual: â€Å"..so much of the ritual had been forgotten..† and â€Å"†¦because so much of the ritual had been forgotten†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . In addition, the ceremony happens annually on June 27th, a t0:00 a.m., suggesting a ceremonial quality. This happens with such regularity that the citizens â€Å"†¦only half listened to the directions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . This ceremony had been going on longer than before the oldest man in town, Old Man Warner, was born. Old Man Warner had, in fact, celebrated the lottery for 77 years! Many holidays today are celebrated without anyone really knowing what they were†¦show more content†¦Mr Summers, â€Å"Let’s finish quickly† and Mrs Dunbar, â€Å"Come on. Hurry up†. It must not be pleasant to murder part for the community, but they do it with such ceremony that the actual event catches one off guard. 3. The Lottery has a feeling of religious orthodoxy in that it is wrapped up in tradition. In many religious traditions a ritual killing of a scapegoat was a way to transfer the burden of sin, or evil, from one being to another. In ancient Jewish tradition, the ritual sacrifice transferred your sin to a lamb, making you clean and worthy again of divine attention. Although Shirley Jackson does not make it clear the need for a scapegoat in her story, the village must provide an annual sacrifice. She makes it clear at several points that the reason for the â€Å"lottery† has been forgotten, â€Å"although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Shirley Jackson is likely trying to draw a comparison to many religious rituals, that might take place without remembering the original significance. In â€Å"The Lottery, some villages no longer feel the need to celebrate a â€Å"lottery†, â€Å"Some places have already quit lotteries†. Which is seen as â€Å"pure folly†. Perhaps they have outgrown the â€Å"spiritual† need to offer sacrifice to induce blessings or forgiveness? One way that I disagree withShow MoreRelatedThe Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis732 Words   |  3 PagesFollowing other people may have a positive or negative effect, but when it reaches a certain point where you blindly follow others it may not have a positive outcome. â€Å"The Lottery† made by Shirley Jackson is about a small community of villagers that gather together every year to perform a tradition. All of the villagers gather together and draw small slips of paper from a black wooden box, whoever draws the first slip with the black dot on it, their family has to draw first. Now all of the membersRead More Analysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Essay693 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this shortRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson910 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary Analysis of the Short Story â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson Shirley Jackson explores the subject of tradition in her short story â€Å"The Lottery†. A short story is normally evaluated based on its ability to provide a satisfying and complete presentation of its characters and themes. Shirley describes a small village that engages in an annual tradition known as â€Å"the lottery†. Narrating the story from a third person point of view, Shirley uses symbolism, foreshadowing and suspense to illustrateRead MoreEssay on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: an Analysis1522 Words   |  7 PagesKouyialis EN102: Composition II Professor Eklund The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: An Analysis The short story â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948 and takes place in a small town, on the 27th of June. In this story, the lottery occurs every year, around the summer solstice. All families gather together to draw slips of paper from a black box. When reading this story, it is unclear the full premise of the lottery until near the end. The heads of households are the firstRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson1534 Words   |  7 Pages Literary Analysis: â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson is a short story written in 1948. Due to World War II ending around this time, her story took some strong criticism. The people at that time wanted uplifting stories, and this story is the very opposite because of its underlying theme of tradition and conformity. â€Å"The Lottery† shows that no matter the tradition or belief, people will not stray from their daily routine because humans are creatures of habitRead MoreAnalysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson773 Words   |  4 PagesIn the short story, The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson, is about a small village or some type of society with a yearly tradition called, the lottery. From what the reader may read online, they may find out that during the time period Jackson wrote this, she was interested in magic and witchcraft. Not only that she was also rumored to have gotten rocks thrown at her by children who believed she was a witch. One may also say, that the story wa s absolutely unique and the ending completely shockingRead MoreAnalysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson1060 Words   |  5 Pagesthird point of view about other but our view are mostly to always limited, not knowing everything. In a story called â€Å"Charles† by Shirley Jackson, the author creates a limited first point of view of Laurels mother where the reader reads and understand only what Laurie’s mother understand and see. In the other story also written by Shirley Jackson called â€Å"The Lottery†, the story proceed at a limited third point of view where the reader understands more ideas. Although each storied have a differentRead MoreAnalysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson993 Words   |  4 PagesSpanish author, When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. Shirley Jackson was born in 1919 in San Francisco, California to Leslie and Geraldine Jackson. She is most well known for her s hort story titled â€Å"The Lottery† which was first published in The New Yorker to overwhelming and mixed reviews. The lottery, as portrayed in the short story, is a religious, annual ceremony in the afternoon of June 27. This event is said to be olderRead MoreThe Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis802 Words   |  4 PagesIf everyone else was doing something, would you? Or maybe if someone needed to be stood up for, would you have their back? In The Lottery, people do follow other people blindly. And the consequences are devastating. But in First They Came, not having someone’s back might get you in the same position†¦ The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story that takes place in a small village on a warm summer day. Little boy’s run around in boisterous play, collecting small stones into a pile. As the adults gatherRead MoreAnalysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson784 Words   |  4 Pagesthose groups. Then they came out for him and there was no one left to speak out for him. In the story â€Å"the lottery† by Shirley Jackson it explained how they play the lottery but rather than winning its actually a loss if you win. In the story they have a black box and slips of paper and if you have a black dot on your paper you get stoned to death. In their town it’s a tradition to play the lottery. So they come to the town square they all get called up to get their slip of paper and when everyone gets

Joseph Plumb Martin Essay - 824 Words

Joseph Plumb Martin was born â€Å"upon the twenty-first of November, in the year of 1760† (Martin 6). His grandparents raised him on their Connecticut farm. Inspired by the Battles of Lexington and Concord he decided to enlist into the army. He was eager to help for the patriotic cause. In June of 1776, at the age of 15, Martin was able to enlist but didn’t want to sign up for a long enlistment. Soldiers at the time were enlisting for a year’s service but he did not like that and thought it was too long a time for him for the first trial, â€Å"I wished only to take a priming before I took upon me the whole coat of paint for a soldier† (Martin 16). Orders soon came allowing men to enlist for six months so Martin enrolled in the Connecticut†¦show more content†¦He goes on to explain the living conditions he had to endure and his lack of sleep. â€Å"It was utterly impossible to lie down and to get any rest or sleep on account of the mudâ €  Martin recalls, â€Å"and can say in sincerity that I never lay down to sleep a minute in all that time† (Martin 77). The fighting at Fort Mifflin allowed Washington and his troops to withdraw to winter quarters at Valley Forge. It was too late in the season for the British to follow them. After arriving at Valley Forge Martin and his fellow soldiers were about to go through the famously long cold winter that awaited them. Martin wrote, â€Å"Our prospect was indeed dreary. In our miserable condition, to go into the wild woods and build us habitations to stay (not to live) in, in such a weak, starved and naked condition, was appalling in the highest degree† (Martin 89). He talks about lying there â€Å"two nights and one day, and had not a morsel of any thing to eat all the time† (Martin 90). Martin describes the travel and the toll it took on men. â€Å"I had now to travel the rest of the day, after marching all the day and night before and fighting all the morning. I had eaten nothing since the noon of the preceding day, nor did I eat a morsel til the forenoon of the next day, and I needed rest as much as victuals. After the army had collected again and recovered from their panic, we were kept marching and countermarching, starving and freezing† (MartinShow MoreRelatedJoseph Plumb Martin, Biography808 Words   |  4 Pages1760, Joseph Plumb Martin was the son of a pastor; at the age of seven, he began living with his affluent grandfather. Almost as soon as the Revolutionary War broke out in the spring of 1775, young Joseph was eager to lend his efforts to the patriotic cause. In June 1776, at the tender age of 15, Martin enlisted for a six-month stint in the Connecticut state militia. By the end of the year, Martin had served at the Battles of Brooklyn, Kipâ €™s Bay and White Plains in New York. Though Martin declinedRead MoreJoseph Plumb Martin : A Soldier Of The American Revolution2665 Words   |  11 PagesJoseph Plumb Martin was a man of honor, an amazing, passionate, powerful man who had the worldview of a normal soldier along with the courage to step out into the open and fight in this glorious war that advanced the cause of our glorious American Nation. Not only that, but he had the ability to make his cause known and powerful by swarming in a great multitude of people, all together in an alliance, with one voice and one breath. In that manner, his argument is the perfect example of the idea ofRead MoreOrdinary Courage Essay790 Words   |  4 PagesOrdinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin Reviewed by: Michael Axe 10-5-10 Ordinary courage is a book that tells the story of an ordinary man who is inlisted in the continental army in the revolutionary war. Joseph Plumb Martin is the young man fighting in this war, at the time he entered he was just a mere 16 year old kid but by the time his time in the continental army was up he became a man. This is a first person memoir of what it wasRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Private Yankee Doodle 1006 Words   |  5 Pages6. Reviews: The book was first published by Martin in 1830 with the title A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents That Occurred Within His Own Observation. In 1962, it was republished under the title Private Yankee Doodle, Being a Narrative of some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. In 2001 it was republished again under the title A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier.Read MoreEssay about A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier895 Words   |  4 PagesJoseph Plumb Martin was born on November 1760 in western Massachusetts. He wrote a book in which he described the life of an ordinary soldier during the American Revolution.†A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier† not only informed about the poor conditions in which the troops lived but also is one of the few soldiers accounts of the Revolution in general. Martin grow up in his Connecticut grandparents house. He noted since 1774 that a war with Great Britain was coming,so he promise himself toRead MoreAmerican Revolution and William Byrd Essay650 Words   |  3 PagesWashington’s principal accomplishments and weaknesses as a military leader in 1775–1776? 4. Why was Washington â€Å"wearied to death† in 1776? 5. Describe the contribution of each of these persons to the Revolutionary War: Nathanael Greene, Joseph Hodgkins, Joseph Plumb Martin, Nathan Hale, Lydia Minturn Post, and Thomas Paine. 6. How did each of the following contribute to American independence: the rhetoric of Nathan Hale and Thomas Paine and the victories of the Continental army at Trenton and PrincetonRead MoreEssay about Deserting Washington’s Army1575 Words   |  7 Pagesto be accompanied with incentives (usually money or land), empty promises were soon to follow. This was a strong driving force that led men to desert their posts because most soldiers were not getting paid what they had been promised. James Kirby Martin even alludes, in his book Ordinary Courage, to the fact that 100-acre was promised to veterans, but that land never materialized for most of them. He addresses this in context stating, â€Å"The truth was, none cared for them; the country was served, andRead MoreRevisiting, Revising, and Reviving Americas Founding Era6252 Words   |  26 Pagesand Alexander Hamilton: in the popular mind this band of worthies, more marble monuments than mere mortals, guides America towards its grand destiny with a sure and steady hand. [F]or the vast majority of contemporary Americans, writes historian Joseph Ellis, the birth of this nation is shrouded by a gol den haze or halo.(1) So easy, so tame, so much a land of foregone conclusions does Americas Revolution appear that we tend to honor and ignore it rather than study it. In 1976, the 200th birthdayRead MoreBlack Lesbian And Gay Families7002 Words   |  29 Pagesstrengths of non-heterosexual families it is useful to note some research suggests that lesbian mothers and gay fathers parenting skills may be superior to those of matched heterosexual couples. For instance, Flaks, Fischer, Masterpasqua, and Joseph (1995) reported that lesbian couples parenting awareness skills were stronger than those of heterosexual couples. This was attributed to greater parenting awareness among lesbian non-biological mothers than among heterosexual fathers. In one study

The Unsuspected Success Of Donald Trump s Campaign For...

The unsuspected success of Donald Trump’s campaign for president has proved to be the spark of a new nativist moment in the United States. Open hostility and opposition to immigration has moved into mainstream culture, as Americans become increasingly intolerant of migrants as a result of their financial and cultural woes. Nativist sentiments are not a novel fixture of American political culture, however, as throughout history there have been countless crusades against migratory movements of the Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and countless other minority groups. The rationale behind nativist movements, however convoluted, seems to reduce to the notion that it is in the nature of the immigrant to cause economic and cultural harm to a nation, as immigrants steal jobs, scrounge off social welfare benefits, contribute the rising crime rates, and warp the indigenous culture of the host country. However, the reality is that immigrants are essential components in the U.S. economy and cult ural fabric, playing a key role in the creation of economic well being and contributing positive influences to the American experience. Calls by Mr. Trump and past demagogic leaders to essentially ban immigrants can be traced back to racism, xenophobia, and the urge to scapegoat a helpless group for the economic troubles facing many Americans. Perhaps the strongest tool that Trump has abused in his campaign is his appeals to genuine economic hardships facing Americans stemming from the Great

Recollecting One’s Childhood Memory Free Essays

Childhood is the most innocent time of someone’s life. With the passage of time, childhood fades into adolescence and then adulthood, yet the sweet memories of childhood linger on. My childhood recollections are those of a carefree life, nurtured with love and concern. We will write a custom essay sample on Recollecting One’s Childhood Memory or any similar topic only for you Order Now I was the baby of the family with only one older sister. I don’t remember much from when I was little, but I have a few memories that have stuck with me throughout the years. My family lived in a one story, barn red house on 9th street. Two houses down the road lived my best friends’ grandmother who babysat her almost every weekend; two houses up the road lived my sisters’ best friend, her two younger brothers, and across the street lived our other two friends. All of us would hangout every afternoon before dinner. In my mind nothing could go wrong, we were children who went to school, played and slept. I was in preschool at the time and one day I went to school and found out that my teachers’ cat had kittens and if my parents said it was okay, I was able to take one home. That night I asked my mother if I could bring one home, and she said when they were big enough, I could pick one out and bring it home. My favorite kitten was mostly gray with some calico spots, and I was able to take her home. I named her Call. I was so excited that I had my very own cat! I couldn’t wait to see her grow up. When I first took her home she was an inside cat only, but when she got bigger she was aloud outside. One day after school my sister and I went across the street to play with our friends and Call allowed, she loved to follow me around and play with me. While she was crossing the road, a car came and Instead of slowing down, they sped up and hit my cat In front of my sister and me. I was heartbroken and started bawling. My parents heard our screams and ran outside and across the street. My father picked me up and carried me home covering my eyes as we passed Call. When my sister and I calmed down my dad went and got Call, dug a hole next to our rose bush, and burled her. From that day on I never understood how people could be cruel to animals. I love all animals and my heart aches when I see a dead or hurt animal on the side of the road. This memory Is one of the few I remember from my childhood, I believe that this memory I have makes me love animals with my whole heart and subconsciously makes me treat my animals Like they are my children. My love for animals Is greater than the love I have for myself. Recollecting One’s Childhood Memory By Camaraderie’s spots, and I was able to take her home. I named her Call. I was so excited that I had school my sister and I went across the street to play with our friends and Call the road, a car came and instead of slowing down, they sped up and hit my cat in carried me home covering my eyes as we passed Call. When my sister and I calmed down my dad went and got Call, dug a hole next to our rose bush, and buried her. Road. This memory is one of the few I remember from my childhood, I believe that makes me treat my animals like they are my children. My love for animals is greater. How to cite Recollecting One’s Childhood Memory, Papers

Anthony Grafton and Bruno Latour may be considered as people of knowledge and education Essay Example For Students

Anthony Grafton and Bruno Latour may be considered as people of knowledge and education Essay Anthony Grafton and Bruno Latour may be considered as people of knowledge and education. They both were engaged in the process of knowledge acquiring and transforming it into their own ideas and new horizons of thought. For most aficionados, Princeton historian Anthony Grafton put the bon mot in play a few years ago in his elegant The Footnote: A Curious History Harvard University Press. Now, however, in The Devils Details: A History of Footnotes Invisible Cities Press, former Amherst College dean Chuck Zerby, in his odd doppelgÃÆ' ¤nger to Graftons volume, merely credits Grafton with reusing the line while stating see backhanded compliment at Zerby footnote No. 31, Grafton indicated that three other scholars have used the quip. That is, before Zerby made it four and your writer made it five. 1 But can we trust Zerby? His initial footnote to Graftons book, on Page 13, gives the publication date as 1999. By Page 55, the date reverts to 1997 the correct year, where it remains in subsequent citations. Is this the Devil teaching Zerby manners, befouling his own Grafton footnote as punishment for the authors daring, as a mere freelancer, to zap our leading footnote-ologist? Another Zerby aside, commenting on a purportedly inadequate Grafton citation Graftons annotation is not as fulsome as one might wish, suggests that less preternatural causes, like carelessness, prompt Zerbys error. But this aggressive proponent of a footrace within the historiography of the footnote does remind us that Graftons own crediting of the remark under whelms. The eminent Renaissance scholar points readers to a 1976 book, Cole Lesleys Remembered Laughter: The Life of Noel Coward, in which Coward attributed a stronger version of the remark to John Barrymore. 3 Any chance Barrymore stole it from Edwin Forrest? Grafton begins his search with what prove to be two straw men: the nineteenth-century German historian Leopold von Ranke and the late-eighteenth-century English historian Edward Gibbon, who share the reputation of having perfected modern historical scholarship. Despite Rankes impressive combination of narrative and analytical history and Gibbons blending of massive knowledge and high style, neither, according to Grafton, was the first to practice the art and craft of documented, critical history. Behind both were ancient, medieval, and Renaissance prototypes, numerous historians who not only told stories but cited evidence as well. Among them were the Italians Bernardino Corio, Leonardo Bruni, and Giannantonio Campano; the Englishmen Richard White and Ben Jonson; and, most impressively, the great French historian Jacques-Auguste de Thou. The latter wrote a genuinely new kind of history in what would prove to be the longest historical narrative before the twentieth century. 2 Other prototypes of modern scholarship included seventeenth-century church historians and antiquaries, particularly the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, whose massive, illustrated study of ancient China marked the maturation of a tradition of historical documentation reaching all the way back to the fourth-century Christian historian Eusebius and the venerable eighth-century English monk known as Bede. Here, too, one can find a combination of technical argument and deep documentation that anticipates modern historical scholarship. Also helping to make the primary source supreme within this tradition of scholarship were the bitter tracts of warring Protestants and Catholics. The seventeenth century was nonetheless a step up in historical scholarship because that centurys church historians and antiquaries, as well as exceptional scholars like de Thou, subjected documents to a higher degree of scrutiny, allowing the age of primitive accumulation of ecclesiastical-learning . . . to give way to one of analysis and investment. 4 However, Mr. Grafton again insists that the work of these scholars also provides an insufficient explanation for the rise of the footnote. So who, or what, in the end was the key player in the birth of the new professional scholarship the footnote came to represent? For Grafton, that honor belongs to a scholar and a work he first discovered as a college undergraduate: the great Dictionnaire of Pierre Bayle. Swarming with footnotes and irreverencies, and aspiring to expose and correct all the mistakes then existing in other reference books, Bayles dictionary is truly a young mans book. It was written against the background of the deconstruction of the scientific authority of the ancients at the hands of the new seventeenth-century scientists Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, and Robert Boyle. Here the modern rules of scholarly procedure and historical scholarship as we know them today finds their definitive statement. 3 Although Grafton proclaims Bayles uniqueness, he diminishes it somewhat by his extensive honor roll of earlier prototypes and by the revelation that Bayle was not, as the Germans like to say, always sauber he silently abridged and consciously or unconsciously misread texts. So, in the end, the hero of Graftons story turns out to be far from indisputable. If there is a failing in this very ambitious and informative little book, it is the absence of a discussion of what the rise of the footnote or modern scholarship has meant for the reading public outside the academy. Grafton writes about a very comfortable scholarly world that he obviously loves. The only discordant note he finds is arguably one only a scholar in such a position would take notice of and lament: the footnotes stylistic decline to a list of highly abbreviated archival citations. Statistics Project EssayAnd like Searle he knows something about intuitive and irrational reactions based upon thick and multifarious internal processing the mind that is inseparable from our bodily selves. 10 The intuitive, irrational, imaginative, whole human beingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ another category dismissed by poststructuralistsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ is the subject of the final and finest essay in the second half of the book, Martha Nussbaums The Literary Imagination in Public Life, a beautiful reading of Hard Times as a lesson in the wisdom that no public servant should be allowed to forget. Unlike any of the other writers, Nussbaum repeatedly uses the word life as the standard of truth and value try finding that word in any poststructuralist text!. Mr. Gradgrinds educational theories are bad because they are false to life; Dickenss novel is good because it offers a vision of life that includes reason and imagination, soul and body. Nussbaum, like Searle, comes from a field outside English: she is a professor of law and philosophy. Unlike the English professors whose essays make up the majority of Beyond Poststructuralism, these two have the courage to say that poststructuralism is wrong and that literature is rooted in life. Too many English professors have been listening so respectfully to such people as Bruno Letour and such theories as computo ergo sum that they have lost their nerve and acquiesced in the refusal of poststructuralism to acknowledge life as a meaningful term of value. Our whole profession should remember Paulinas words in The Winters Tale: Dear life redeems you. Dear life, our biological life on earth, must become the standard of truth if we are to redeem literary studies from post structuralism without relying on blind faith and miracles. Life is certainly a standard of value in Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club: Pulling the Plug on the Electronic Revolution, edited by Bill Henderson. This collection of essays, cartoons, poems, and snippets from newspapers is breezy and informal. The forty essays are all short, and as far as I can tell, none is by a literary critic. Poets and essayistsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ Gary Snyder and Wendell Berryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ contribute; so do the humorists Russell Baker and Dave Barry and the novelists E. Annie Proulx and John Updike. The book has one clear theme: enslavement to computers is taking us out of the natural world, away from face-to-face and voice-to-voice connections with our friends and our families. Some of the essays also decry the expense of computers, the planned obsolescence that forces people to keep buying upgrades so that they will not be stuck with unusable machines. More clearly than anyone else Wendell Berry warns that computers are one more link between us and the power companies that are destroying the earth for their own profit. Mark Sloukas Rapture and Redemption in the Virtual World is about the mad millennialism of those devotees of computers who proudly announce their imminent freedom from the body. He does not mention Bruno Letour, but Letour is one of their number. Slouka includes horrifying quotations from other famous professors Michael Benedikt, Bruce Mazlish about the promise of freedom from the ballast of materiality, the possibility of being angels, if not God in virtual reality. The recent mass suicide of the Heavens Gate cult of computer programmers demonstrates that what sounds like harmless lunacy in people like Bruno Latour is in fact deadly. When people start believing computo ergo sum, their minds are open to all demons. 8 /p The disdain for the biological world in poststructuralist theory and the disdain for physical labor that is part of the worship of computers cannot be separated. The supercilious contempt that poststructuralists feel for people who still believe a real world exists is only the most extreme and absurd version of the contempt that white-collar workers have felt for blue-collar workers and farmers ever since the Renaissance. Noxious plants with deep roots are very hard to kill; well-intentioned but half-hearted criticism of post structuralism and computers is not going to be enough. We need a deeper criticism of the falsehoods in our culture, a stronger knowledge that the reality of our life on earth must be the test of truth than the books by Goodheart, Harris, and Henderson offer. But this criticism and this knowledge do not depend on some great intellectual breakthrough, some yet undiscovered insight. If we could once again take literature seriously we would not have to look any further than As You Like It and The Winters Tale, where the rich are forced to remember that their life depends on the poor who grow their food, that only fools and tyrants feel contempt for shepherds. If we can truly believe that the selfsame sun that shines upon Bill Gatess court hides not his visage from a cottage in Bangladesh, then dear life can indeed redeem us.