Final Conference Schedule for This Week (No Class Otherwise)

Below is the schedule for this week, but please let me know if you would like to reschedule. We'll briefly go over your paper, I'll give you your final grade (so far), and I'll tell you about the Final Exam. See you then! 

Wednesday                                        Friday

11:00         Miles                                11:00  Coleman

:10            Nathaniel                            :10    Japheth

:20            Stacy                                :20    Annabell

:30            Penny                                :30    Riley

:40            Amanda                             :40    Benjamin

:50            Joel                                   :50    Mitchell

12:00        Nathen                              12:00 Kelsey

:10            Jadeyn                               :10

:20                                                    :20

:30            Kayla                                 :30

2:00          Lizbeth                               2:00

:10            Halie                                 :10

:20            Kasandra                           :20

:30            Gabe                                 :30

:40                                                    :40

OR Thursday, between 10:00 and 12:00

Conversation Paper #2: Due Monday! And some links...

Conversation Paper #2: A Post-apocalyptic Education, Part II

In Chapter 46 of Station Eleven, Jeevan is discussing the subject of Year Twenty education with some friends. One of them remarks, “Does it still make sense to teach kids about the way things were?” And Jeevan’s wife, Daria, responds, “I suppose the question is, does knowing these things make them more or less happy?” (260-270). 

So there is where you come in: I want you to imagine that you’re designing the first college for the Post-Flu Age. Now that we’re in a new world, we can start over again, with a completely blank slate. We really get to decide what would make the new generation of students “more or less happy”—and what would truly educate them for the future. So what should an education look like in a “perfect world”? This is your chance to imagine what education should be and what it could be rather than what it is today.

Consider what works about the modern university, what should be preserved, and what seems broken. Discuss at least one thing you would KEEP from the past—either a class, a field of study, or a method of teaching, and at least one thing you would CHANGE—again, the same types of things. You should also identify the overall philosophy that you think a university should embody: is it simply preparing students for careers and employment? Or is it to make them more responsible and educated citizens? Or is to teach values, morals, and ethics? What would you want the new generation to remember about the past, and how much of their education would create their identity as human beings, Americans, Oklahomans, or whatever country, state, or culture you would want them to identify as. In other words, what would make them happy and able to live a productive, informed life with a minimum of regret and confusion?

REQUIREMENTS:

• You must use Station Eleven as an important part of your conversation, since you are literally in this world. Respond to specific quotes/ideas in the book.
• You should use at least THREE secondary sources (articles, etc.) to expand your conversation. At least one should occupy a ‘naysayer’ role. Quote from these articles and respond to their ideas.
• Should be at least 4-5 pages, double spaced.
• Due Monday, April 23^rd by 5pm

Some Links to Article that May Be Helpful:

* https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/technology-and-learning/read-robot-proof-if-you-only-read-one-higher-ed-book#.WtdULHa9KfY.email

* https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html

For Wednesday: Mandel, Station Eleven, Chs. 48-55 (finish the book!)

NOTE: We won’t have class on Friday, so Wednesday will not only finish our discussion of the book, but will be a last chance to discuss ideas for the paper (due on Monday). I’ll also give you a head’s up about the rest of the semester. We’re almost done!

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Chapter 49, the “Clarinet” admits that she finds Shakespeare “inadequate” to their situation, and when challenged to write something better, she starts writing a play of her own (which is later mistaken for a suicide note). Why might the Clarinet’s voice be an important naysayer for the Symphony, and an important voice for any culture? What might be the danger of only performing the past?

Q2: Why does Kirsten commemorate the men she killed as knife tattoos? For someone who doesn’t want to remember her past, and hopes never to kill anyone again, it seems a strange thing to memorialize. Related to this, why didn’t she want to tell Francois (the newspaper writer) about them?

Q3: Both Kirsten and the Prophet were about the same age when the Flu appeared. Both had similar experiences, reflected in the Prophet’s admission that “I have seen such darkness, such shadows and horrors” (301). And both, of course, are the “children” of Arthur—the Prophet his actual son, and Kirsten his stage daughter. So why did they turn out so differently? What saved Kirsten from becoming the Prophet, or someone like him? And what doomed him from becoming more like her?

Q4: Do you feel the novel ends with a sense of hope or a sense of loss? Do we feel that Elizabeth (the Prophet’s mother) was right when she said, “It always passes”? Can civilization come back from the brink? Or was it destined to be a faded memory or a myth of another world? Is the beauty of the past that it can really never return?

 

For Monday: Mandel, Station Eleven, Chapters 40-47

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Why might an airport be an advantageous place from which to start a new civilization? Is it really a coincidence that the Museum of Civilization begins in the Severn City airport? How might the airport itself—and the people it—inspire Clark to begin collecting the Museum?

Q2: In the early days of the collapse, Elizabeth tells Clark, “I’ve been taking art history classes on and off for years...[and] you see catastrophe after catastrophe, terrible things, all these moments when everyone must have thought the world was ending, but all these moments, they were all temporary. It always passes” (248).  In this case, why might knowledge of history be important? What could it teach you, or even help you understand about civilization and survival?

Q3: In Chapter 43, Clark more or less explains why he collects seemingly useless objects for the Museum: “Consider the mind that invented those miniature storms...Consider the white gloves on the hands of the woman who inserted the snow globes into boxes...Consider the signature on the shipping manifest when the ship reached port...” (256). What is he getting at here, and why are these objects important to see and contemplate, even when some of them, such as an I-pod, no longer have any use?

Q4: The airport eventually establishes its own school, which teaches all the abstract wonders of the past, such as airplanes, the Internet, and maps: “The children understood the dots on maps—here—but even the teenagers were confused by the lines. There had been countries, and borders. It was hard to explain” (262). What ideas do we still teach our children (and college students) which no longer completely make sense in the 21st century, but are considered vitally important? Do you understand why they are, or like the teenagers at the school, does it remain a mystery?

For Wednesday: Mandel, Station Eleven, Chs. 27-38

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Chapter 31, Kirsten is being interviewed by Francois about the last night of civilization, when Arthur died and a “mystery audience member” performed CPR on his body. Kirsten remembers “he was kind to me. Do you know his name?” and Francois replies, “I’m not sure anyone does” (181). Of course, we know the answers, and have since Chapter One. Why might this be the point of the novel itself, as well as the meaning behind Francois’ interview and the Museum itself? What story are they all trying to tell?

Q2: In Chapter 38, August and Kirsten discuss the idea of parallel universes, where “a person could theoretically be simultaneously present and not present, perhaps living out a shadow life in a parallel universe or two” (200). Kirsten also imagines this as “like the successive planes formed when two mirrors reflect one another” (200). Why might the theme of parallel universes be an important metaphor in this book, or a concept which might have inspired Mandel to write her book the way she did?

Q3: In the book that Frank (Jeevan’s brother) is writing, there’s a line that goes, “First we only want to be seen, but once we’re seen, that’s not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered” (187). Why is being remembered so important to human beings and to civilization itself? How can something selfish become something selfess—or perhaps, simply beneficial to other people?

Q4: Instead of leaving the apartment with his brother, Frank decides to stay in the apartment and die. His reason, or as much as he gives, is because of the time he spent in the hospital “thinking about civilization. What it means and what I value in it” (183). Why does his love for civilization make him choose not to “survive”? What did he fear might happen outside the apartment—or in the future? In a sense, was he correct?

For Monday: Mandel, Station Eleven, Chs.20-26

 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Chapter 24, Kirsten recalls the tuba player saying “The thing with the new owrld...is it’s just horrifically short on elegance” (151). What do you think he means by “elegance,” and why might this be an important (and overlooked) aspect of life? How does the Symphony offer a way for audiences to experience the elegance lacking in their own lives?

Q2: In the chapter about Arthur’s letters (and elsewhere), we learn about his early years, long before he became famous and many decades before the Georgian Flu. Why does Mandel take us back this far? What does Arthur’s early life have to do with the experiences of Kirsten and the Symphony? Why is his life important?

Q3: Dahlia, the lady Clark is helping with his corporate coaching, tells him that “the corporate world’s full of ghosts. And actually, let me revise that...a fairer way of putting this would be to say that childhood’s full of ghosts” (163). What does she mean by this, and how does it relate to the men and women in corporate America, according to her? Why does “childhood” haunt them? And what does this have to do with their work?

Q4: In a conversation between August and Kirsten, he says to her, “You ever think about [not traveling]? There’s got to be a steadier life than this?” to which she responds, “Sure, but in what other life would I get to perform Shakespeare?” (135). Since she was actually in a Shakespeare play before the pandemic, why does this life allow her to perform Shakespeare? Why does she think the end of the world gave her the freedom to act for a living?

Scissortail Extra Credit Questions

For the complete schedule of readings, click here: http://ecuscissortail.blogspot.com/2018/01/2018-schedule-of-readings.html

You can respond to one session below for extra credit (though you might want to go to multiple sessions so you can write about the one you most enjoyed). Be sure to answer the following 4 questions (just like our blog responses, except you have to do all 4!) in a short paragraph--a few sentences each. As long as you give a thoughtful, honest response, I can excuse 2 absences or 2 missed blog responses--or just give you extra points at the end of the semester. But remember, this is extra credit, so if you just give me hasty, one-sentence responses or try to BS about sessions you didn't attend, I can't give you credit. 

THE QUESTIONS

Q1: Which of the authors interested you the most and why? Why did you respond their poems and/or story and why might you read more from this author?

Q2: Which piece (if any) did you find difficult to follow or understand and why? Is is simply not your kind of material, or was it too vulgar, or depressing, or confusing?
If you liked all the pieces you heard by each writer, answer this instead: how did each author's reading work together as a whole? Why did these 3 (or 4) writers work well together? Was there any common themes or ideas that seemed to link them together?

Q3: Discuss briefly how the authors presented their material: their reading style, introductions, gestures, and other details that helped you appreciate the stories/poems. In other words, how did the authors help you understand their work through their performance?

Q4: How did the audience react to these authors/works? Did certain works get more response than others--and if so, why? Did people laugh? Were they completely silent. Did people seem to 'get' these writers, or did some leave them scratching their heads? How could you tell? 

Hope to see you at the Festival! 

Annotated Bibliography Example

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 5 SOURCES! (you’ll only have to use at least 3 on your actual paper—but I want you to have more rather than less to work with!).

Van Ummersen, Claire A. "No Talent Left behind." Change, vol. 37, no. 6,

Nov/Dec2005, p. 26. EBSCOhost, 0

search.ebscohost.com.library.ecok.edu/login.aspxdirect=true&db=f5h&AN

=188 77547&site=eds-live&profile=eds-1allsu. Accessed 20 March 2018.

[Brief explanation of why the article was useful to you and it’s basic premise…]

Bauman, Dan. "Why Students Are Leaving Illinois in Droves - and Why It

Matters." Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 64, no. 22, 09 Feb. 2018, p. 

24.

EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com.library.ecok.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=128410085&site=eds-live&profile=eds-1allsu. Accessed 29 March 2018.

[Brief explanation, etc….]

Strauss, Valerie. “A University of Wisconsin campus pushes plan to drop 13

majors.” The Washington Post. 12  March 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news.  Accessed 29 March 2018.

[Brief explanation, etc…]

Wyllie, Julian. “Students Want Faster Degrees. Colleges Are Responding.” 

         Chronicle ofHigher Education. 1 April 2018. 

              https://www.chronicle.com/article/Students-Want-Faster-                    

              Degrees/243008?cid=cp196. Accessed 4 April 2018.

[Brief explanation…]

Schneider, Carol. “An Efficient Education? Sure. As Long As It’s Good.” 1 April 

         2018 https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Efficient-Education-

             Sure/243005?cid=cp196. Accessed 4 April 2018.

[Brief Explanation…]