Honors 201 - Education and Democracy
LKamm
Office Hours: Tues,
Wed, & Thurs, 1:30 - 2:30, after class, or by appointment
Email:
lkamm
Phone: x8336
Goals
Readings
Requirements, Responsibilities, & Grades
Syllabus
Analytical Questions for Readings
Essays
Related Topics of Potential Interest
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Goals: This course seeks to examine the interrelationships
between education and democracy, with particular attention to issues involving
cultural literacy, language - words - and power, morality and education, and the
role and function of the individual as related to self and to society.
In the process, the course seeks to enhance students' abilities
to
- communicate both orally and in writing
- better understand the
relationships between their individual voices and the substantive issues
examined
- describe the differences and similarities in approaches to
problem solving of writers and scholars from a variety of
fields
- identify the values that shape the practice, applications, and
communications
in various fields of writing and/or research
- explain the criteria and
evidence used to determine whether a theory or idea is accepted or
rejected
- give evidence of multidisciplinary inquiry and applications
in their own work
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Readings: - George
Orwell, "Politics
and the English Language"
- Haig Bosmajian, "The Language of Oppression"
- Lewis Kamm, "Literary Battles on the Edge of Identity"
- The
Declaration of Independence
- The
Bill of Rights
- Supreme Court decisions
- Justice Harlan's
Dissent from Plessy v. Ferguson
- Brown v. Board of Education
- Mississippi
University for Women v. Hogan
- M. Carey Thomas, "Should Higher Education
for Women Differ?"
- Adrienne Rich, "What Does a Woman Need to Know?"
- James Baldwin, "A Talk to Teachers"
- Michele Wallace, "Invisibility
Blues"
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance,"
- Horace Mann, "The Case
for Public Schools"
- Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Feminism Without Illusions
- W.
E. B. DuBois, "The Talented Tenth" and "Advice to a Black Schoolgirl"
- Booker T. Washington,
"The Atlanta Exposition Address"
- John Hope, "Reply to Booker T. Washington"
- Douglas Blackmon, "The Resegregation of a Southern School"
- Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory
- E. D. Hirsch,
Cultural Literacy
- Allan Bloom, The Closing of
the American Mind
- Dinesh D'Souza, Illiberal
Education
- Nation at Risk
- C. David Lisman,
Toward A Civil Society
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Responsibilities:
- Attendance -
because of the seminar format of the course, no more than one absence is
allowed.
- Weekly essays - The sharing of weekly essays, written in response to the
assigned readings, will promote development of your written and oral skills,
independent thinking, and group discussion. These essays should grow naturally
out of your work on "Analytical Questions for Readings" and
must be submitted electronically to the entire class no later than noon on the day preceding our
actual class meeting.
- Final Paper - A final paper (5-7 pages), to be developed from the essays and
discussions, will challenge you to present in a coherent fashion and in your own
individual voice your grasp of selected aspects of the issues discussed.
Note: I
do not expect the paper to be a major research project. However, I do expect it
to show some good awareness of and reference to at least a couple of secondary
sources. Topics are up to you but subject to my approval. (For those who have
difficulty coming up with topics, I can always make suggestions.)
Papers will be graded on intent, content, reasoning, language, neatness, effort,
accuracy. Five points to keep in mind: 1) develop a thesis statement, 2)
discuss the main points covered in readings and in class discussions and make
connections with the thesis, 3) incorporate relevant evidence to prove
thesis, 4)
make connections among related concepts, ideas, and events, 5) reach a
conclusion
based on the analysis of the evidence.
Grades:
based on class participation, in-class papers, weekly essays,
and final paper
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Syllabus
Week 1 -- Introduction, explanation of writing component, expectations and
responsibilities, tutorial in the use of the World Wide Web and software
designed
for this class.
Week 2 -- Before reading the following assignment, write a 1-2 page essay on
your philosophy of education, including the foundations on which it is based.
After reading the assignment, write followup comments, explaining
how your thoughts have been reinforced or changed.
Five
Educational Philosophies.
Week 3 -- Orwell's Politics
and the English Language; Bosmajian; Declaration of
Independence;
Bill of Rights
Week 4 -- Hirsch, Kamm's
Essay on Literary Battles
Week 5 -- Baldwin, Wallace, Emerson, Mann
Week 6 -- Bloom, pp. 11-81, 336-47
Week 7 -- Thomas, Rich, Mississippi University for
Women v. Hogan
Week 8 -- Fox-Genovese, Introduction & Chapter 7
Week 9 -- Du Bois, Washington, Hope, Blackmon
Week 10 -- Rodriguez;
D'Souza, Introduction & Chapter 8
Week 11 -- Plessy v. Ferguson;
Brown v. Board of
Education;
A Nation at
Risk;
A
Nation at Risk (II)
Week 12 -- Lisman, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 7, 10
Week 13 -- Summaries & Conclusions
Week 14 -- Submission & Discussion of Papers
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Analytical Questions for Readings
I. Reading the work and understanding the author
- Definitions. List words and terms that need discussion.
- Major themes and key points (of the author--your own ideas
will come later). For example, what is the claim? Is it an interpretation? a
position on a controversial issue? a proposal for the solution of a complex
problem? How is the claim developed? What values is the author applying? Is
(s)he approaching this as a question of truth, opinion, or disciplinary
clarification? How is (s)he thinking about this subject? Highlight points you
feel need discussion.
II. Analyzing the author's thoughts
- Summarize the argument
- What's the problem, issue or question being addressed?
- What words are used to describe the problem precisely?
- Why is (s)he doing this?
- What will (s)he do with the conclusions?
- Evaluate the strength of the evidence. (These are your
statements).
- What's the author's prior knowledge and experience?
- Source of data? (subject to bias?)
- Are interpretations and judgements firmly grounded in work of
others?
- Would you rate claims as true/correct? untrue? plausible?
- Is there anything that prevents you from saying whether the claims
are true? What?
- What specific additional data/information do you need?
- Decisions - burden of proof
- What's your judgement of this work? What points will you accept or
reject? Why?
- In what ways would you have approached the task differently?
III. Importance and Integration: How important is this article? How well
does it relate to course themes and materials?
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Weekly Essays
This course requires each of you to submit a 2-page essay for each week's
assignment and to read everyone else's essays for the week prior to coming to
class. The three-fold purpose of this sharing is to
- promote a professional environment of constructive criticism
- encourage responsible, serious and professional commentary
- make it
possible for students to follow up one another's comments and engage in further
discussion privately or collectively
The selection process below allows you to submit your own essays and to read
those submitted by classmates. Simply click the appropriate choice.
Note:
this process functions only for students who are registered for this course and
have been assigned a course password.
Usually, my evaluative comments about these essays will be addressed on an
individual basis, thus safeguarding privacy and student sensitivity while also
allowing the individual to forward those comments to classmates as (s)he sees
fit. However, when I believe that my comments to an individual will be helpful
to all students, I will post them under Prof.'s
Comments, which you should check periodically.
Related Topics of Potential Interest
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Lew Kamm
Chancellor Professor of French Literature & Computer
Science
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport
Rd.
N.
Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300
LKamm@umassd.edu
This HTML document created by: Lew Kamm
On: February 10, 1997
Last
Revised: 11/11/02