"Emperor's Club reflections"

1.     This quote does not seem quite correct to me. In my opinion, stupid goes along with immaturity and ignorance. If you outgrow immaturity therefore you will outgrow stupid. Everyone comes to a point in there life where they learn lessons and grow smarter and wiser. I guess this question all depends on your definition of the word stupid. To me stupid is making unnecessary mistakes, which in the end you will learn from and therefore outgrow stupid.

2.     He is shaken and altered by this experience because he knows what he did was wrong. He cheated Martin Blythe out of the opportunity to be a contestant in the Mr. Julius Caesar competition. Mr. Hundert knew that Martin fully deserved to be a contestant. What Mr. Hundert did was morally wrong and he knew it.

3.     Sedgewick Bell influences the other boys to rebel. For example he influenced all the boys in the classroom to all open and slam the books shut during class to disturb the teacher. By describing Sedgewick as hypnotic, he means that Sedgewick is able to persuade the boys to do whatever he tells them too. When Sedgewick arrived at the school all the boys admired him because he was different then anyone at the school, he was a rule-breaker.

4.     Mr. Hundert was secretly fond of Sedgewick  because in a sense, he saw himself in him. Sedgewick had struggled with school but was making great improvements over time. Mr. Hundert had corrected the boy’s papers and realized that Sedgewick had not made it into the top three finalists. Mr. Hundert wanted Sedgewick to be in the top three so he changed the score of his paper in order to have Sedgewick as a contender.

5.     At the contest Mr. Hundert saw Sedgwick cheating. He leaned over to the headmaster to tell him but the headmaster told him to leave it alone. Mr. Hundert makes sure that Sedgewick does not win by asking him a simple question that wasn’t on the original question sheet. When Mr. Hundert confronts Sedgewick, all Sedgewick asked was why he didn’t call him out. Then Sedgewick said, “was it because my father was there?” Even thought Mr. Hundert knew the answer to Sedgewick’s question was yes, he replied no.

6.     I believe Mr. Hundert made the choice to host the contest because he felt bad about what he did to Martin Blythe and was hoping Sedgewick would have turned his life around so he wouldn’t feel bad about the decision he had made 25 years ago. What he hopes for when meeting his former students is to know if he had made a difference in their lives. Mr. Hundert had been feeling down because he was rejected for the head master position. His students had given him exactly what he needed; the confidence to move on. His hope was squashed because Sedgewick had not changed but it was renewed because his students had given him the strength to move on.

7.     We want to live a good life and an examined life. The director proves this by having Robert, Sedgewick’s son, walk out of the stall after listening to his father and Mr. Hundert’s conversation. Robert had examined his father’s life and at that very moment, his father had let him down. Sedgewick was not living a good life. Even though he was wealthy and had a beautiful family, Sedgwick’s life was filled with lies. In no way, shape, or form, can that be a good life.

8.     Mr. Hundert returns to teaching because his former students helped him realize that he had made a difference in their lives. Just because he didn’t get to be headmaster didn’t mean that he didn’t love teaching anymore. Mr. Hundert was obviously one of the greatest teachers to ever teach at St. Benedicts, he just needed his former students to help him realize how much of an impact he had on the student’s lives. A surprise for him was having Martin Blythe’s son as a student in his class. In a sense this was giving him a second chance to make up for the mistake he had made 25 years ago.

9.     Mr. Hundert practices discussion in his classroom. He is never just preaching or lecturing the boys, he is always having them answer and ask questions. When he lectures, it is more so giving them wise advice. He does not force his students to learn, he encourages them to do so.

10. Mr. Hundert challenged his students to be the best they could be. He did this by encouraging them to study without forcing them too. By doing this he not only helped them succeed in school he also helped them to become better versions of themselves. Even though they have grown up they still carry the life lessons that Mr. Hundert had taught them at St. Benedicts. 

My Most Influential Teacher.

     I have always loved to draw, but never knew how good I was at it until my senior year when I decided to take Mrs. Salisbury’s art class. Mrs. Salisbury is about 5’3 and weighs 100lbs. When I first saw her I thought she was going to be this sweet little woman who would be a push over in class; boy was I wrong. She sets her expectations high and is one of the most dry humored people I have ever met. Mrs. Salisbury never once let me pick something easy to draw. She would make sure that I was challenging myself and how she did this was by picking the most difficult drawings she could find. I hated it at first, I remember thinking to myself, “this is so unfair, why do I have to draw something ridiculously hard when everyone else in the class gets to draw easy pieces?” I soon found out why she was challenging me. She saw the potential in my drawing ability and wanted me to use every last bit of my talent. Mrs. Salisbury taught me so much: not only did she teach me drawing techniques, she taught me to push myself to be the best that I could be. I ended up winning best in show at the senior art show and got two first place ribbons. No matter how much I disagreed or argued with her decisions, she never gave up on me. I am blessed to have had such an amazing women influence my life. 

Banking Concept of Education

1.)  Paulo Freire’s concept of “narration sickness” is when a teacher continues to talk on and on about a subject and does not allow one to take anything away from it. They are just having the student memorize formulas and facts essentially turning them into a filing cabinet.

2.)  Narration sickness mimics the No Child Left Behind Act because the teachers just give the students information for the answers on the test rather than having them actually learn. By doing so, they feel that it makes them look better as a teacher because the students will do well on the tests. The students do not benefit in any way from this style of teaching because they do not understand the concept on why they are using the information.

3.)   Mr. Snobl is a great example of an educator who used the banking concept practices. Mr. Snobl was my freshman history teacher. The way Mr. Snobl taught was through documentaries. He expected all of the students to listen to the movies and memorize what the movie was talking about in order to prepare for the test.

I personally feel that this type of educator is very disadvantageous. The reason I feel this way is because the students do not get any in depth thought or reasoning about what they are learning. I can honestly say that I remember nothing from that class because of the way he taught.

4.)  Mrs. Kalloff is a perfect example of an excellent teacher. Mrs. Kalloff taught my junior chemistry class. She genuinely loved teaching and was passionate about making sure every student in the class understood the concept of what she was teaching. There was a lot of dialogue going on in the classroom. She made sure to teach and ask questions at the same time. 

Mrs. Kalloff was very knowledgeable about the subject she taught. I felt that any question I asked, she had the answer. Also, when I was confused about something, she would work one on one with me to make sure I understood. Mrs. Kalloff’s passion for teaching made learning enjoyable. (and I don’t say that very often ;)

5.)   The Athiens is the culture that embrace the concept of liberated or problem- posing education that Freire spoke of in his “Banking Concept of Education.” One of the classes that I practice problem-posing and/or dialogue in is LAR.  In this class we do a lot of communicating as a class along with the teacher. A course that could benefit from more practice of dialogue is chemistry. The teacher just stands at the front and only teaches in a way that makes sense to him. He doesn’t care if we understand and I feel as if he has no passion for teaching. 

Civil Rights

1. Passive resistance is a method of non-violent protest against laws or policies in order to force change or secure concessions; it is also known as nonviolent resistance and is he main tactic of civil disobedience.

Gandhi is one great example of an individual who practiced passive resistance. He believed that violence only provoked a negative reaction. Another individual who practiced passive resistance is Martin Luther King Jr. He was well known for his non-violent protests on segregation and racial

issues.

2. PHOTO1: This picture makes me sick to my stomach. The police officer is treating the black men like they are animals. No human being deserves to be beaten, especially if they are doing nothing wrong. The only reason the police man was beating these two men is because of their skin color. This picture gives a whole new meaning to the word disrespect. 

PHOTO 2: This photo is very dramatic. It amazes me how the police officers just stand there and watch the dog attack the black man. You can tell by the look on everyone's face in the background that they are all in shock. I can not imagine what it would be like to just stand there and watch this man get abused by an animal.

3. I do believe there is some discrimination in our community today. It is not anywhere close to as drastic as it was during MLK’s time, but there are still people with racist and also sexist opinions.  There are a lot of racial stereotypes. For example, there are many jokes about how black people eat fried chicken.  Another example is the word nigger and cracker which are slang terms used to describe someone by the color of their skin. A good example of sex discrimination is politics. It is much more difficult for a woman to get elected than it is for a man.

4. The topic of my essay is gender discrimination in the work force. The way i can incorporate ethos is by stating statistics and making sure I cite them. Also, the way I can incorporate logos is by making a sound argument. Finally, I can incorporate logos into my paper by using details that support my claims.