Tag Archives: philosophy/religion

Feminism

Posted on March 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Feminism: The progressive social movements of the 1960s produced their own academic and theoretical equivalents of revision and interpretation. The recognition of women’s historical oppression in a patriarchal society produced numerous reactions in the art world. In the early 1970s exhibitions that recovered ‘forgotten’ women artists began to establish a canon of great women artists. Judy Chicago produced The Dinner Party from craft techniques traditionally associated with women, such as needlepoint and ceramics. By using blatant female imagery, she and other sought to make explicitly ‘female’ works. By the late 1970s second-generation feminism coupled with a measure of psychoanalytic theory shifted the emphasis away from biological determinism to notions of self-identity. This approach was seen as more empowering, enabling both men and women to reexamine questions of gender and sexuality in contemporary art as well as in old masterworks previously rejected for their sexism. Contemporary artists working with this approach include Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Term of Art: Antithesis

Posted on March 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Antithesis: (Greek: “Opposition”) Fundamentally, contrasting ideas sharpened by the use of opposite or noticeably different meanings. For example, Bacon’s apothegm (q.v.): ‘Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them.’

It is common in rhetoric (q.v.) and was particularly favored by the Augustan poets and users of the heroic couplet (q.v.). These lines from Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel are strongly antithetical:

‘Rais’d in extremes, and in extremes decry’d;

With Oaths affirm’d, with dying Vows deny’d.

Not weighed, or winnow’s by the Multitude;

But swallow’d in the Mass, unchew’d and Crude.

Some Truth there was, but dash’d and brew’d with Lyes;

To please the Fools, and puzzle all the Wise.

Succeeding times, did equal folly call,

Believing nothing, or believing all.’

Pope was an expert at the antithetical, as this compact example in his Moral Essays shows:

‘Less with than mimic, more a wit than wise.’

It is used frequently in prose to telling effect, as in this example from Dr. Johnson (in the London Chronicle, May 2nd, 1769) on the character of the Reverend Zachariah Mudge: ‘Though studious, he was popular; though argumentative, he was modest; though inflexible, he was candid; and though metaphysical, yet orthodox.’”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

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7 Sages of Ancient Greece

Posted on March 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

 “Thales of Miletus * Biasof Priene * Heraclitus of Ephesus * Cleobolus of Lindos * Solon of Athens * Pittacus of Mytilene * Periander of Corinth

This is an acceptable list, though there are many variants, not least because the great kings of antiquity liked to keep seven sages—in Greek hepta sophoi, in Latin septem sapientes—around their courts.

There also seem to have been competitions for sage advice in verse, which allowed various pantheons of seven sages to be formed. This was especially true of the Pythian Games held in honour of Apollo, the god of wisdom. Some of the most pithy couplets were then carved on the porch of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The two best known, as reported by that great guidebook writer Pausanias, are ‘Know thyself’ and ‘Nothing in excess.’”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Aesop’s Fables: “The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg”

Posted on March 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a lesson plan on “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg” along with the fable itself with a couple of comprehension questions. This is some relatively new material I’ve worked up to serve the needs of some younger middle-schoolers I teach.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Term of Art: Differentiated Instruction

Posted on February 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

“differentiated instruction: A form of instruction that seeks to maximize each student’s growth by recognizing that students have different ways of learning, different interests, and different ways of responding to instruction. In practice, it involves offering several different learning experiences in response to students’ varied needs. Educators may vary learning activities and materials by difficulty, so as to challenge students at different readiness levels; by topic, in response to students’ interests; and by students’ preferred way of learning or expressing themselves. Differentiated teaching assumes that classrooms will be grouped heterogeneously, mixing students of different levels of ability in the same class, although the strategy may also be used in classes for gifted students. Advocates of differentiated instruction say that it helps students progress by meeting their diverse, individual needs. Critics say that planning multiple learning experiences is time-consuming and that it requires extensive training. In addition, teachers of mixed-ability classes containing students of widely divergent abilities sometimes find the instructional burden to be overwhelming. Some parents of high-ability students in such classes complain that their children are neglected or not sufficiently challenged.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Term of Art: Heuristic

Posted on February 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Heuristic (adjective): Serving as the discovery of truth or furthering investigation, as in the case of a useful and stimulating (if not logical or conclusive) method, presentation, or argument, and especially one used by a student to learn for himself. Adverb: heuristically; noun: heuristic.

‘My coarse distinctions between two kinds of fiction are useful heuristically, but they give a damaging impression of clear boundaries and a misleading impression of two armed camps.’ Annie Dillard, Living by Fiction”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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W.E.B. Dubois on the Talented Tenth

Posted on February 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth.”

W.E.B. Dubois

“The Talented Tenth” (1903)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Professor Daniel Willingham on Learning to Love Reading

Posted on February 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The sources of some emotional attitudes are easy to appreciate. Here’s Oprah Winfrey on reading: ‘Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered that there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.’ One source—probably the primary source—of positive reading attitudes is positive reading experiences. This phenomenon is no more complicated than understanding why someone has a positive attitude toward eggplant. You taste it and like it. Oprah tasted the mental journeys reading affords, and loved them.

But we can elaborate a bit on this obvious relationship. Kids who like to read also tend to be strong readers, as measured by standard reading tests. Again, not terribly surprising—we usually like what we’re good at and vice versa. The situation yields a positive feedback loop….

If you’re a good reader, you’re more likely to enjoy a story because reading it doesn’t seem like work. That enjoyment means that you have a better attitude toward reading; that is, you believe that reading is a pleasurable, valuable thing to do. A better attitude means you read more often and more reading makes you better at reading—your decoding gets still more fluent, lexical representations become richer, and your background knowledge increases. We would also predict the inverse to be true: if reading is difficult you won’t enjoy it, you’ll have a negative attitude toward the activity, and you’ll avoid it whenever possible, meaning that you’ll fall still further behind your peers. This cycle has been called ‘The Matthew Effect’ from the biblical verse ‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath’ (Matthew 25-29). Or more briefly, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

Excerpted from: Willingham, Daniel T. The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017.

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Education and Nourishment

Posted on February 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

“And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.”

Plato Protagoras (380 B.C.)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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Daniel Willingham on Prior Knowledge and Inferring

Posted on February 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

“I noted that making inferences is sometimes possible when you lack background knowledge and vocabulary the writer assumed you have, but that doing so is mentally taxing. Much of the reading expected of students (especially in the later elementary grades and beyond) is difficult. It’s not only difficult in terms of vocabulary and knowledge; they read texts with more complex structures, texts that convey abstract and subtle ideas, and they are asked to put these texts to new purposes, like understanding the author’s technique. In short, students don’t do the type of reading where comprehension is smooth and there’s an opportunity to get lost in the story. They mostly read in situations where reading feels like work. What impact do you think that has on students’ attitude toward reading? Do they confuse leisure reading with the reading they do for school? If so, what might be done to disabuse them of that notion?”

Excerpted from: Willingham, Daniel T. The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017.

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