But for Friday's class, let's do one more non-classroom activity.
Instructions:
Instead of coming to class,
1) find somewhere cozy
2) and maybe bring a snack
3) flip through Readings for Intensive Writers
4) read the first paragraph of five articles
5) based on that, choose the article that is most interesting to you and read it in its entirety.
6) leave a comment on this post about why you chose that article to read and what you thought of it.
7) if fifty minutes haven't passed, repeat steps 1-6.
8) if fifty minutes still haven't passed, go do something else until it has. something fun. maybe eat another snack.
you'll get homework points for the activity. and BTW, I haven't gotten a ton of the "proofs" you needed for Monday and Wednesday's classes. I'll overlook it until Monday, so if you want the homework points from those (and there might be a lot of homework points because I totally forgot about the original RFIW assignment from the syllabus!) then do the activities and send me the proofs ASAP. (You can also bring them on Monday if you want.)
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ReplyDeleteI read “Zeal without Knowledge” by Hugh Nibley. It kind of caught my eye and he had a good introduction that made me wonder how on earth he was going to tie neuroscience and conscious perception to zeal. Plus it’s Hugh Nibley, and he’s written some interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the article. He brings up a lot of interesting points about the human being’s need to continually learn and grow. He also mentions how business people are parasitic and society should not let creative or smart people do such things as law or advertizing (it made me smile… no offense meant to anyone of that profession or major reading this… I’m just telling you what good old Hugh was saying.)
After going off on a lot of tangents, he ties starts talking about zeal without knowledge and sums up Mormon culture with all its conformity and clichés by saying, “We think it more commendable to get up at five a.m. to write a bad book than to get up at nine o’clock to write a good one.” (Deseret Book comes to mind). I think that Brother Nibley is trying to make a point that the recycled old ideas (even if they are good) easily become overkill and we should try and strive for our potential to discover and create and be different… not to get stuck in the common rut as Thoreau would have put it.
It was good… that’s about all there is to say…
before i start i would like to say that my letter i's will be dotted hope that's okay i hate pressing shift i.
ReplyDeleteI read A Hush over Europe by Winston Churchill. Why? because i love studying about World War II which is worth capitalizing. I am also a fanatic of war speeches, speeches that get you teary eyed and pumped and patriotic and ready to fight for a cause (this cause being only for 'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'). So no i am not a fan of Hitler's speeches!! ;/ though you have to admit they were pretty clever, i mean he did convince German forces along with Japan and Italy to join him in his ridiculous plan.
So what did i think about this article...well...this speech was directed to America and was an effort to arouse us to join the fight so in doing so its purpose is to persuade. Which we all know means pathos, ethos, and logos. He did a good job of using them but he mainly used logic. It only does makes sense to help countries who are in turn fighting for the same things we once fought for, liberty and democracy. Not only that but military dictatorship spreads fast and we never know "whose turn it may be next". I thought the whole speech was well constructed but i would've wished he used more ethos and made it more emotional. The last sentence was AMAZING! good way to close the speech but i would've liked to see more sentences like that. Other than that i thought it was great and intelligent because i did have to read it a couple times to fully understand everything he was saying not to mention look some people and words up.
I read Mother Eve: A mentor for today's woman. I don't really know why, I just flipped to it and it sounded interesting. Turns out the whole thing is about a woman who starting looking into the whole, "sin is all eve's fault" business that got started in genesis. She basically lays out the facts, then uses quotes from modern prophet, different translations of words, and stuff from, like, the Apocrypha to try and prove that it wasn't really Eve's fault.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. It's all Eve's fault. If she hadn't done what she did, we wouldn't have to deal with all the crap in life. Now before you women go all crazy on me, I understand that it was entirely neccesary. However, she makes it seem like Eve never did anything wrong at all and she's way cooler than Adam, who was just a guy who sat in the Garden. I think that Eve was tempted by Satan, and ate the fruit and broke the rules because she was decieved. However, God knew this would happen and wasn't actually mad at Eve or Adam. Satan was a fool because he didn't realize that by tempting Eve to eat the fruit he was sealing his own fate.
It was very interesting indeed. Really stretched my intellect for about an hour.
I read "What I Now Believe about a BYU Education That I Wish I Had Believed When I First Came" by A. LeGrand Richards. It is a transcript of what must have been an extremely moving and pertinent devotional address in 1997; this is not to imply that its relevance has diminished in any small way since this date, I believe the opposite is true.
ReplyDeleteThis article caught my attention, as the BYU educational philosophy is what attracted me to this school, and has surprized me continually this semester, in its differences from other tertiary institutions I have attended.
He makes a very interesting hypothosis that cuts right to the core of me, and many of my peers, in that he challenges the attitude we all take to learning. The school's oft quoted motto of integrating spiritual and secular learning is not the main point here - he is warning of the danger of viewing education inside the artificial constraints of GPAs and homework assignments.
Brother Richards effectively structures his discussion into 3 main parts: the eternal context of education; Christ's model for student/teacher relationships and not applying the world's standards for education to BYU.
All his points are extremely well tailored to his audience. It really made me ponder my attitude when it comes to education, as it most often fits the attitudes he warns about: that of desire to do the bare minimum required to achieve the result I want. His particulary resonating point: 'how many of us ask what is the bare minimum for the Celestial Kingdom' struck home, and has made me consider what I need to do to readopt appropriate attitudes towards my education. I have been so greatly blessed to be able to attend this university, and many have sacrificed for me to be here. How often do I cruise through the days, without pondering this, and pondering what the Lord would have me do.
I want to now see every assignment, and every day as an opportunity to learn what the Lord would have me earn, and add to my wealth of knowledge, not my GPA. As he said, teachers and students are all sons and daughters of God, and Christ is all of our master. I want to adopt this far superior attitude, and I know the benefits are supreme.
I read "The 5-Minutes-a-Day Journal" by Louise Plummer because I am not that great at writing in my journal consistently, and the opening paragraph was funny.
ReplyDeleteI previously wrote long comment for this blog. I mean, it was a freakin' essay, and my stupid bad internet connection lost it into cyperspace. I was so proud of it. It would probably win some kind of contest! (probably not but let's pretend in order to properly mourn it's loss) As a result, I am thoroughly ticked off and will continue to hate technology until I wake up tomorrow and thoroughly get over it.
I will summarize my awesome past comment by saying this article changed how I write in my journal, and hopefully, I will write more frequently.
"Shoot not the Iguana."
ReplyDeleteI read The Iguana by Isak Dinesen, but really by Karen Blixen. She tells a story about a colorful iguana that she saw in East Africa that she shot because she wanted to make things from its pretty skin. But when she approached the iguana she saw that as its blood ran out the skin turned grey and ugly. The iguana was beautiful because it was alive, and its blood was flowing.
Let things fit in their own places. I often think “man, there are kids that go to Harvard, and I go to Brigham.” But I guess things are prettiest when they are where they are supposed to be--like the iguana’s skin on the live iguana. More practically, we are most happy, or at least most effective when we are where Heavenly Father wants us to be. Some other situation--the one we want so badly, perhaps--might actually be grey and ugly.
I read "The 5-Minutes-a-Day Journal" by Louise Plummer as well, possibly because her last name caught my attention when fanning the pages to read the titles. I have a friend who has the same last name.
ReplyDeleteI love the style with which she composed her article, and I especially appreciate the tips she gave us to improve our own journal writing. I enjoy writing in my journal as often as I can, and after reading about the different types of entries, I realized that I tend to use the four main modes--descriptive, cathartic, reflective, and free writing--pretty evenly. When she mentioned lists though, I felt a beat of excitement in my chest because I love doing this! In a separate journal that I keep for my future life when I have kids, a house, a car, real food storage...oh, and a husband, I basically write only lists. Lists of what type of food I want to always keep on-hand in the fridge and pantry, lists of what movies will be appropriate for my kids before they turn 24, lists of my favorite smells to have perfuming the house...and even diagrams of how I'd like to arrange my laundry room to keep it organized! It sounds eccentric, but I know there will be a time when I'm sitting in my kitchen, trying to remember what laundry detergent I liked the best, or how Sis. Doutre from back home organized her pantry so neatly, and I'll be so glad I wrote it all down.
Plummer's last advice, to write unsent letters to people, is great too, and is something I hope to incorporate into my journal writing. It was moving to read her neighbor's letter to her deceased husband, and hopefully I can write something that sheds as much light on my own soul as well.
I read Mother Eve: A mentor for today's woman. I feel like this article did a good job at describing more of Eve's story. I also tend to believe she was smarter than Adam. Therefore more curious. I agree that it wasn't all Eve's fault, even though she did make the choice to partake of the forbidden fruit. Obviously God was not angry with her because it is all part of the plan, and it needed to happen.
ReplyDeleteI think that sometimes we think of the choice that Eve made and we feel bad for ourselves. I had the thought if Eve didn't partake of the fruit we all wouldn't have felt pain, and loss life would have been so much easier. But if we did indeed all live in the garden. We wouldn't be happy either I think we would be stagnant. Not progressing, and in that regard, we wouldn't ever become like God. I liked this article even though I felt like the author was a little bias.
I read the first paragraph of "The 5-minutes-a-day journal" first because I kinda wanted to read an inspire-to-write-in-journal article, but it didn't catch my attention. So I read the first two paragraphs of "A Crime of Compassion" because my fingers were holding my place there. It immediately caught my attention (how could it not?). Then I read the first paragraph of "When Life Begins" because it's by Kerry Spencer. The first paragraph (sentence) didn't exactly excite me. Then I read the first paragraph of "What Christians Believe" because I happen to like C. S. Lewis a whole lot. It was interesting, but contained very little that I didn't already know. I might read that one anyway because it did have an interesting thought: "When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view." Lastly I read the first paragraph of "Excerpt form Night" because people generally avoid excerpts unless they're pretty good. The first paragraph was intriguing. It made me want to figure out what what exactly was going on. So I started reading the heading of the article. That thoroughly sealed my choice.
ReplyDeleteThe article reminded me a lot of Alma and Amulek, when they had to witness the burning of the believers... except that this was far darker to my soul. It was depressing, despairing. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but wish I knew what came after.
After glancing at some articles, I read "A Crime of Compassion" by Barbara Huttman. The first line caught my attention immediately, and I couldn't help but finish the entire article. Her writing style was compelling and descriptive, even vivid enough to leave an impact on my mind and heart.
ReplyDeleteHuttman was a nurse before she was fired, and the article relates the experience that led her to being fired. She describes Mac, a young police officer that came into the hospital while he had a persistent cough. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Huttman described with such detail and emotion how the nurses and doctors at the hospital tried to keep him alive, how his wife suffered through his illness, and even how he begged for them to end his life.
Even now as I write this, I almost want to cry as I think about that story. Her writing style drew me in and absorbed me into the story. I feel sorry for the narrator and Mac, and I was torn when she was accused of murder by a TV audience. Both sides had their reasons for believing what she did was moral/immoral, and I could understand both sides. That reminded me of when I studied euthanasia and the morals related to it back in high school. It helped me better connect with the underlying conflict of the story - namely, if it is alright for medical personnel to let a person die if the person requests it. Overall, this article absolutely amazed me.
Hugh Nibley - Zeal without knowledge
ReplyDeleteI chose this article because I have always found ideas on how the process of thinking works. As I read, I had the thought that we should always be conscientious of what we are doing, and what we could be doing. I was intrigued by the idea that since we can only think of one thing at a time, our thoughts are a constant test of our true character. Because of this, what we think about is of utmost importance. The article goes on to explain the dangers of having a large amount of zeal without having gained the requisite knowledge. It really made me reconsider some of my priorities in this life. It made me want to be sure to always be doing the best thing I could be doing at that moment. It was a really good read.
I read "Wealth and Poverty" by Richard E. Johnson. One of the reasons I chose to read that on is that three of the other five were about feminism. No offense or anything, but that doesn't interest me much mainly because I'm not female. The other reason I chose it is because it mentioned BYU and the Millennium in the first paragraph.
ReplyDeleteThe article turned out to be boring, depressing, and aggravating. It kept "talking" (most books don't actually "talk") about how poor most people in the US are, and how the few rich are unbelievably rich, and how the poor are so neglected and punished for their circumstance. It also mentioned that out indifference to their suffering or our reasoning that they are poor because of choice is a sin because it allows us to wallow in our wealth (even those of us who consider ourselves poor still have food, shelter, and can go out to eat or watch a movie on a weekly basis), ignoring the poor because of our disposition towards them. It also mentions a lot about how our society cannot stand for long being this unbalanced and that it is our Christian duty to more evenly distribute wealth among ourselves, which will be to everyone's benefit.
-Connor Monson
Oh, and btw, this is Amber Johnson :) Sorry, I should have written that in my first post...
ReplyDeleteI read "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," by Zora Neale Hurston. I chose this article because I am very interested in slavery and the thoughts and feelings of the African-Americans at this time of great racism in our history.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a very interesting article! It was kinda poetic and very well written. Hearing the author speak of her childhood in a racist Florida town makes me remember how blessed this country truly is. Although the article was relatively short, I felt that the message was much bigger. The progress of this nation, and the blessings of a free country...America is so great! It just made me stop for a second while reading, and think how proud I am to be an American. It makes me recall the things our forefathers have done so that we are able to enjoy these freedoms. Having lived in extremely racist cities growing up, I am familiar with the hardships the color of your skin can either bring or relieve. I thought of how everyone will be the same color in the afterlife. I thought of how color determined everything in the past (in America). In the end, I just thought of the song "God bless America," and I thought..."Wow. God HAS blessed America!"
Just so you all know... my first post that has been removed was because of typos... I didn't say anything that would break the honor code or something like that...
ReplyDelete