Students-
Grades are almost entirely updated at this point, with three straggling revisions left in one folder for me to correct. Please review your grades on PowerSchool for any grades that seem incorrect or missing.
Tests
As I was entering grades, I encountered a surprising number of missing tests and quizzes that should have been made up before today. It’s possible I missed something in the grade book, but many seem to be assignments that simply were not completed.
If you are missing a test or Vocab Quiz 4,8,12, you must make it up before the end of school on Tuesday to receive credit. There will be no exceptions to this late, very generous policy.
I will be available for these tests and quizzes before and during 0 Period, at lunch, and after 6th period.
Papers
If you are still missing any papers, the deadline for those is Monday at 3:00 p.m. I will accept any paper we have written this year for full points. To submit these papers, you need to bring a printed copy to me or leave it in the Late basket in the classroom.
Thanks, and enjoy the weekend before we start a new semester. It’s going to be excellent. And maybe House Abbey can do some winning!
-DAP
I’ve posted a few of my photos from Turkey on my travel blog for any of you who are interested in checking it out. Greece to follow!
- Explain Camus’s Myth of Sisyphus and explain how it applies to modern life. What does he say about our existence and how can we resist?
- Explain what Jean Paul Sartre meant when he criticized living in mauvais foi (bad faith). What is this bad faith, and how can we live our lives with authenticity? Be specific to Sartre.
- Explain Kierkegaard’s conception of faith. Why did he believe it was an existential act?
- How, according to Simone de Beauvoir, does society oppress womyn constructing a myth of feminine nature? What are the components of the myth and how does it oppress womyn?
- Explain why Nietzsche believed that one could lead a life worth eternal recurrence if one acted as the ubermensch.
- Defend or refute Malraux’s idea that art was the path by which humans could resist their fate and the uncaring universe.
As we head into finals week, a few expectations about revisions and late papers you might want to pay attention to:
Slavery Reparations revisions are due by 1:20 on Thursday. To submit a revision, you will need to staple the revision guide (completed), your original draft, and the revision to me. I will have a basket in the classroom for these since you might be dropping them off outside of class. The revision guide is here.
Overall, these first drafts were the best of the year. Good job!
Education Research revisions should be placed in the same basket by the time each individual paper is due. The day written on your second draft is the day the paper is due, even if I won’t have you in class that day.
Late Papers are also due by Thursday at 1:20 p.m. There will be a separate basket for these, which need to be printed and provided to me. No electronic copies of late papers!
For your test tomorrow, these are the potential questions:
- How do the legacies of slavery and historical racism in the United States contribute to the contemporary disproportionate imprisonment of African-Americans?
- One of the central metaphors of Between the World and Me is “the Dream,” which Coates never precisely defines. What is the dream, and how does Coates argue that it hurts both white Americans and African-Americans?
- In his criticism of Between the World and Me, Randall Kennedy argues that Coates presents a “caricature” of African-American life, arguing that the book’s “pessimism is excessive, his despair disabling, his fatalism disempowering.” Is Kennedy right? Does Coates let his despair prevent him (and the reader) from seeing solutions to America’s problems with race?
- Coates argues: “At this moment the phrase “police reform” has come into vogue, and the actions of our publicly appointed guardians have attracted attention presidential and pedestrian. You may have heard the talk of diversity, sensitivity training, and body cameras. These are all fine and applicable, but they understate the task and allow the citizens of this country to pretend that there is real distance between their own attitudes and those of the ones appointed to protect them. The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country’s criminal justice policy, it cannot be said that it was imposed by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies—the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects—are the product of democratic will. And so to challenge the police is to challenge the American people who send them into the ghettos armed with the same self-generated fears that compelled the people who think they are white to flee the cities and into the Dream. The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.” Analyze this quotation in the context of the entire work. What does Coates mean by the idea of majoritarian pigs and why does he not believe that reforming individual police officers will prevent the violence against African-Americans?
You will be asked to choose two responses from three choices on the test tomorrow. For each question, prepare to offer a clear thesis statement and 2 well-developed paragraphs that demonstrate an understanding of the text and film.
You can even read and/or review an electronic copy of Between the World and Me here.
