Withdrawal for Non-Attendance
A grade of “U” cannot be awarded for:
a student who never attended class as specified in the course syllabus for a face-to-face course.
a student who never participated as specified in the course syllabus for an on-line course.
The instructor should withdraw students who have never attended/participated by the 16th calendar day of the semester. In instances where non-attendance/participation cannot reasonably be determined by the 16th calendar day of the semester, instructors should withdraw the student by the 16th calendar day of the course. This will ensure accurate FTE reporting and that financial aid funds are disbursed in compliance with federal and institutional regulations.
It is recommended that the instructor contact the student prior to withdrawal.
Withdrawal for Other Reasons
The instructor may withdraw a student if:
the student fails to meet course requirements and expectations as specified in the course syllabus;
the student at any time poses a safety hazard to him/herself or others;
the student is unable to make up course work.
It is recommended that the instructor contact the student prior to withdrawal.
If neither the student nor the instructor initiates a withdrawal, and the student is not meeting course expectations and requirements, a final grade of “U” should be awarded. A grade of “U” cannot be awarded a student who never attended a fact-to-face course or who never participated in an on-line course.
Documenting an Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal
1. Complete the Instructor Recommended Withdrawal Form or complete the on-line Instructor Recommended Withdrawal Form for your campus found at ematc under E-Forms.
2. Indicate the reason for withdrawal.
3. If the reason for withdrawal is something other than “Never Attended,” record the student’s first and last date of attendance.
4. Submit the form to your campus Registration and Academic Records Office or submit the on-line form.
5. Retain a copy of the withdrawal form for your records.
Reinstating a Student after Withdrawal
If an instructor decides to reinstate a student who has been withdrawn from their class, he/she should:
Complete the first two lines of the “Instructor Recommended Withdrawal” form.
Write REINSTATE across the top of the form.
Sign the form and submit to your campus Registration and Academic Records Office.
The instructor should inform the student that an instructor-initiated withdrawal, as with any withdrawal, may adversely impact financial aid eligibility and academic standing. In addition, students withdrawn by their instructor are not eligible for tuition reimbursement.
See also: BB0202, Fee Refunds and Repayments; DD1001, Attendance
Office of Responsibility: Student Services
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Favorite Web Sites (An Ongoing Process!)
1. Allied Artists. A great site with links to women's history and African-American history and much, much MORE!
http://www.allied-artists.blogspot.com/
2. Compass Guide--a web site if you are looking for scholarships. $3 million dollars in scholarships listed here! Especially for Metro Milwaukee area students. Help with forms, for parents, and if you are the first person in yout family to attend college.
http://www.compassguide.org/
3. Share Wisconsin. When times get tough, if you need a source for inexpensive food, this is the site to go to! ANYONE can buy food here; there are no requirements! Easy to navigate.
http://www.sharewi.org/
4. Teaching Tolereance is part of a number of sites from the Souther Poverty law center. Excellent materials for schools to help them challenge bias and hate.
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/web/power_of_words/
5. Ever wondered hown many people there are on Earth? Go here!
http://www.worldomters.info.org/
6. Learn which countried are the haves and have-nots.
http://www.allcoutries.org/maps/world_poverty_maps.html
7. Have you ever wondered about the Middle East's history? Here is a nice visual presentation about the "history of war" in that area. One wonders why this region has been so warred over by so many people! It alsmost seems as if there has never been peace there.
http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf
8. FREE BOOKS!! Even if you aren't rich, you can have much of the world's libraries at your finger tips! Project Gutenberg provide free books; you may download and print or download and read online.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
9. Useful sites Milwaukee County parks and nature sites (think summer and kids!)
Milwaukee County Parks http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/ParksandPublicInfras7720.htm
Focus On Energy http://www.focusonenergy.com/
Urban Ecology Center http://www.urbanecologycenter.org/
Schlitz Audubon Center http://www.schlitzauduboncenter.com/
Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful http://www.kgmb.org/
10. Here is a wonderful way to help feed poor people and increase your vocabulary! I checked this out on snopes.com for validity, and this is REAL! When you go to this web site and play the vocabulary game, you earn grains of rice, which are paid for by the advertisers on this site. When there is enough rice, it is shipped to places where people are in need. I stopped at 100,000 grains of rice--that's a lot of rice indeed.
www.freerice.com
http://www.allied-artists.blogspot.com/
2. Compass Guide--a web site if you are looking for scholarships. $3 million dollars in scholarships listed here! Especially for Metro Milwaukee area students. Help with forms, for parents, and if you are the first person in yout family to attend college.
http://www.compassguide.org/
3. Share Wisconsin. When times get tough, if you need a source for inexpensive food, this is the site to go to! ANYONE can buy food here; there are no requirements! Easy to navigate.
http://www.sharewi.org/
4. Teaching Tolereance is part of a number of sites from the Souther Poverty law center. Excellent materials for schools to help them challenge bias and hate.
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/web/power_of_words/
5. Ever wondered hown many people there are on Earth? Go here!
http://www.worldomters.info.org/
6. Learn which countried are the haves and have-nots.
http://www.allcoutries.org/maps/world_poverty_maps.html
7. Have you ever wondered about the Middle East's history? Here is a nice visual presentation about the "history of war" in that area. One wonders why this region has been so warred over by so many people! It alsmost seems as if there has never been peace there.
http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf
8. FREE BOOKS!! Even if you aren't rich, you can have much of the world's libraries at your finger tips! Project Gutenberg provide free books; you may download and print or download and read online.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
9. Useful sites Milwaukee County parks and nature sites (think summer and kids!)
Milwaukee County Parks http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/ParksandPublicInfras7720.htm
Focus On Energy http://www.focusonenergy.com/
Urban Ecology Center http://www.urbanecologycenter.org/
Schlitz Audubon Center http://www.schlitzauduboncenter.com/
Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful http://www.kgmb.org/
10. Here is a wonderful way to help feed poor people and increase your vocabulary! I checked this out on snopes.com for validity, and this is REAL! When you go to this web site and play the vocabulary game, you earn grains of rice, which are paid for by the advertisers on this site. When there is enough rice, it is shipped to places where people are in need. I stopped at 100,000 grains of rice--that's a lot of rice indeed.
www.freerice.com
801-201 English One Syllabus/Course Overview
Milwaukee Area Technical College-Milwaukee Campus
English 201—Introduction to College Writing
ENG-201-518 / 3 credits / Meeting Days: / Time: / Room:
Required Texts:
Eschholz, Paul & Alfred Rosa. Models for Writers . New York: St. Martins, 2004.
[ISBN: 0-312-40686-X]
Hesse, Douglas & Lynn Quitman Troyka. Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers (7th Ed.).
New York: Prentice Hall, 2005. [ISBN: 0-13-144350-X]
Supplementary Materials:
College-level dictionary and thesaurus
College-ruled, 8 ½ x 11 clean-edge paper
Notebook and folder
Pen (black or blue)
Red Pen for indicating corrections and revisions
Highlighter
*Computer disk
Course Description:
English 201 is an introductory writing and reading course emphasizing the thinking processes, practice in organizing ideas, documenting sources, and developing clear expository college-level writing that achieves unity, coherence, and development. It is also a course that emphasizes the development of reading skills through the analysis of a variety of college-level text forms such as essays. The student will have four formal papers throughout the semester as well as many reading assignments and additional writing assignment to prepare the student to write the four formal papers. Instruction is provided for understanding and development of standard grammar usage, sentence construction, punctuation, vocabulary development, paragraphing, and essay structuring. Vital to student success in English 201 is understanding and practicing writing as a process—brainstorming/freewriting, organizing ideas, outlining, drafting, revising, rewriting, and proofreading. Final MLA Documented Research essay is required.
Goals:
To recognize the range of communication through reading and writing
To use grammatical forms and appropriate levels of usage in college writing and speaking
To gather, organize, and express ideas clearly, effectively, and logically in writing and speaking
To listen with concentration, understanding, and discernment
To participate in a variety of formal settings with effectiveness and thoughtfulness and with appropriate goal-oriented behavior
To locate information sources
To learn MLA research and documentation technique and format
Attendance:
ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED – You are responsible for attending all classes and completing all course requirements. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to contact the instructor, in advance if possible, and obtain the makeup work assignments. Your instructor will attempt to assist you in arranging makeup work as much as is reasonably possible. Reminder – Each lecture hour requires at least two additional hours of student preparation. A Student Syllabus Receipt must be signed and returned to your instructor, indicating you understand course requirements and grading.
INSTRUCTOR RECOMMENDED WITHDRAW – You may be dropped for absenteeism when:
1. Your consecutive absences exceed the number of class meetings per week, or on the third consecutive absence in the case of classes that meet once a week.
2. Your attendance is sporadic (e.g., you miss seven class periods for a class meeting three periods a week), and you are unable to make up the instruction and assignments missed.
3. You fail to meet attendance requirements of licensing agencies.
4. You pose a safety hazard to yourself or others because of missed instruction critical to safe class or lab performance.
5. You are unable to make up instruction missed in a lab/shop class.
6. You have not attended class during the first two weeks of the term.
If you have documented health or unusual personal problems affecting your attendance, and your instructor agrees that you can make up the work, you may be allowed to continue and may be advised to use MATC support services (e.g., child care, financial aid, counseling, academic support, etc.). However, if your instructor determines you cannot complete the work or you will hinder instruction of other students, you will be withdrawn. You do have the right to appeal a withdrawal by first discussing it with your instructor. If your appeal is denied, a final withdrawal appeal may be made with the academic dean’s office. If you are appealing, you may stay in the class until the drop is official, unless your presence may cause a safety hazard to yourself or others.
Because this particular section of English 201 meets once a week for 4 hours, I am contractually bound by MATC to retain your presence in class for the entire 4 hours that we are assigned to meet each week and to utilize that time for productive in class instruction and work. As a result, at the beginning of each class meeting, I will take attendance. Midway through the class period, you will be given 15 break. After the mid-period break, I will take attendance again. If you do not return after the mid-period break, you will be marked absent. I do understand that on occasion emergencies will occur requiring that you leave early. As a result, if you must leave early due to an emergency, you are responsible for making up missed instruction and work.
Americans with Disabilities Act:
If you have a learning, emotional, and/or physical disability that challenges your classroom performance, and you wish to request ADA accommodations, contact MATC’s Center for Special Needs at 414/297-6838. They may require documentation to substantiate your disability claim to enable them to comply with your request. Admission of a disability is voluntary and will be handled in a confidential manner. MATC does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities and fully complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. To ensure your academic success in this class and in your program, you are strongly encouraged to provide me and your other instructors with a copy of the Instructor Notification Form from the Center for Special Needs substantiating your disability. If an ADA Instructor Notification Form is not provided to me, I cannot provide ADA accommodations to you strictly based on your verbal claim of a disability. It must be substantiated.
4 Paragraph Assignments = 25 points each = 100 points
4 Quizzes = 25 points each = 100 points
3 Essay Assignments = 100 points each = 300 points
1 Summary Assignment = 100 points
*1 Short Research Essay = 200 points
Midterm Exam = 100 points
*In-Class Final Exam/Paper = 100 points
1000 points = A; 1000-900 points = A; 899-800 points = B; 799-700 points = C; 699-600 points = D; 599-0 points = F
RESEARCH ESSAY & FINAL EXAM POLICY:
*TO RECEIVE A SATISFACTORY PASSING GRADE FOR ENGLISH 201, YOU MUST DO THE SHORT RESEARCH ESSAY AND ITS FINAL DRAFT MUST REFLECT C LEVEL WORK OR HIGHER. ALSO, YOU MUST TAKE THE IN-CLASS FINAL EXAM. SO, IF YOU FAIL TO SUBMIT THE SHORT RESEARCH ESSAY AND YOU FAIL TO TAKE THE IN-CLASS FINAL EXAM, YOU WILL RECEIVE A FAILING GRADE FOR THE COURSE NO MATTER HOW HIGH YOUR AVERAGE WAS UP TO THAT POINT. NOT DOING ONE OR THE OTHER OR BOTH WILL RESULT IN AUTOMATIC FALIURE OF THE COURSE.
*Final drafts for all formal writing assignments will be doubled-spaced, TYPED or COMPUTER GENERATED and submitted to me at the beginning of the class period on specific due dates indicated on the syllabus unless I inform you any due date changes. I do not accept LATE assignments. TO MEET COURSE CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES, THE WEEKLY COURSE CALENDAR SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT MY DISCRETION.
Course Design & Structure:
This course is designed and structured as a series of steps and tasks, or building blocks, in which each step and task is interrelated and built upon the previous task. The steps and tasks are organized in sections, and the sections are interrelated. You will learn to “revise” and “clarify” your skills (thinking, writing, reading, and speaking) with each new task you undertake; however, as you move on to each new step or task, they will grow increasingly difficult because each new step or task will present new challenges of their own. In addition, this particular class curriculum will address writing demands you can expect to encounter in other disciplines. As a result, crucial to success in this class is attendance, time management, and homework preparedness.
Odds & Ends:
▪ Cell Phones: While in class, please turn them off. Cell phones going off in class are highly disruptive.
▪ Food & Drink: While class is in progress, I don’t mind if you sip soda, coffee, or water or have a light snack as long you are quiet about it and clean up after yourself.
▪ Instructor & Student Conduct: In my classes, students’ emotional and physical safety comes first. As a result, it is very import that we work together to build a positive, collaborative, productive, and non-threatening leaning environment. Do not hesitate to ask me questions; however, please raise your hand, and wait to be called upon. Let’s be aware and sensitive in how we communicate to one another. I expect my students to conduct themselves with maturity associated with adult college-level student learners; you can expect from me accessibility, fairness, professionalism, and instructional preparedness. Two-way communication is very important. Remember, as your instructor, I am there to help you achieve the course’s objectives and goals.
English 201—Introduction to College Writing
ENG-201-518 / 3 credits / Meeting Days: / Time: / Room:
Required Texts:
Eschholz, Paul & Alfred Rosa. Models for Writers . New York: St. Martins, 2004.
[ISBN: 0-312-40686-X]
Hesse, Douglas & Lynn Quitman Troyka. Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers (7th Ed.).
New York: Prentice Hall, 2005. [ISBN: 0-13-144350-X]
Supplementary Materials:
College-level dictionary and thesaurus
College-ruled, 8 ½ x 11 clean-edge paper
Notebook and folder
Pen (black or blue)
Red Pen for indicating corrections and revisions
Highlighter
*Computer disk
Course Description:
English 201 is an introductory writing and reading course emphasizing the thinking processes, practice in organizing ideas, documenting sources, and developing clear expository college-level writing that achieves unity, coherence, and development. It is also a course that emphasizes the development of reading skills through the analysis of a variety of college-level text forms such as essays. The student will have four formal papers throughout the semester as well as many reading assignments and additional writing assignment to prepare the student to write the four formal papers. Instruction is provided for understanding and development of standard grammar usage, sentence construction, punctuation, vocabulary development, paragraphing, and essay structuring. Vital to student success in English 201 is understanding and practicing writing as a process—brainstorming/freewriting, organizing ideas, outlining, drafting, revising, rewriting, and proofreading. Final MLA Documented Research essay is required.
Goals:
To recognize the range of communication through reading and writing
To use grammatical forms and appropriate levels of usage in college writing and speaking
To gather, organize, and express ideas clearly, effectively, and logically in writing and speaking
To listen with concentration, understanding, and discernment
To participate in a variety of formal settings with effectiveness and thoughtfulness and with appropriate goal-oriented behavior
To locate information sources
To learn MLA research and documentation technique and format
Attendance:
ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED – You are responsible for attending all classes and completing all course requirements. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to contact the instructor, in advance if possible, and obtain the makeup work assignments. Your instructor will attempt to assist you in arranging makeup work as much as is reasonably possible. Reminder – Each lecture hour requires at least two additional hours of student preparation. A Student Syllabus Receipt must be signed and returned to your instructor, indicating you understand course requirements and grading.
INSTRUCTOR RECOMMENDED WITHDRAW – You may be dropped for absenteeism when:
1. Your consecutive absences exceed the number of class meetings per week, or on the third consecutive absence in the case of classes that meet once a week.
2. Your attendance is sporadic (e.g., you miss seven class periods for a class meeting three periods a week), and you are unable to make up the instruction and assignments missed.
3. You fail to meet attendance requirements of licensing agencies.
4. You pose a safety hazard to yourself or others because of missed instruction critical to safe class or lab performance.
5. You are unable to make up instruction missed in a lab/shop class.
6. You have not attended class during the first two weeks of the term.
If you have documented health or unusual personal problems affecting your attendance, and your instructor agrees that you can make up the work, you may be allowed to continue and may be advised to use MATC support services (e.g., child care, financial aid, counseling, academic support, etc.). However, if your instructor determines you cannot complete the work or you will hinder instruction of other students, you will be withdrawn. You do have the right to appeal a withdrawal by first discussing it with your instructor. If your appeal is denied, a final withdrawal appeal may be made with the academic dean’s office. If you are appealing, you may stay in the class until the drop is official, unless your presence may cause a safety hazard to yourself or others.
Because this particular section of English 201 meets once a week for 4 hours, I am contractually bound by MATC to retain your presence in class for the entire 4 hours that we are assigned to meet each week and to utilize that time for productive in class instruction and work. As a result, at the beginning of each class meeting, I will take attendance. Midway through the class period, you will be given 15 break. After the mid-period break, I will take attendance again. If you do not return after the mid-period break, you will be marked absent. I do understand that on occasion emergencies will occur requiring that you leave early. As a result, if you must leave early due to an emergency, you are responsible for making up missed instruction and work.
Americans with Disabilities Act:
If you have a learning, emotional, and/or physical disability that challenges your classroom performance, and you wish to request ADA accommodations, contact MATC’s Center for Special Needs at 414/297-6838. They may require documentation to substantiate your disability claim to enable them to comply with your request. Admission of a disability is voluntary and will be handled in a confidential manner. MATC does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities and fully complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. To ensure your academic success in this class and in your program, you are strongly encouraged to provide me and your other instructors with a copy of the Instructor Notification Form from the Center for Special Needs substantiating your disability. If an ADA Instructor Notification Form is not provided to me, I cannot provide ADA accommodations to you strictly based on your verbal claim of a disability. It must be substantiated.
4 Paragraph Assignments = 25 points each = 100 points
4 Quizzes = 25 points each = 100 points
3 Essay Assignments = 100 points each = 300 points
1 Summary Assignment = 100 points
*1 Short Research Essay = 200 points
Midterm Exam = 100 points
*In-Class Final Exam/Paper = 100 points
1000 points = A; 1000-900 points = A; 899-800 points = B; 799-700 points = C; 699-600 points = D; 599-0 points = F
RESEARCH ESSAY & FINAL EXAM POLICY:
*TO RECEIVE A SATISFACTORY PASSING GRADE FOR ENGLISH 201, YOU MUST DO THE SHORT RESEARCH ESSAY AND ITS FINAL DRAFT MUST REFLECT C LEVEL WORK OR HIGHER. ALSO, YOU MUST TAKE THE IN-CLASS FINAL EXAM. SO, IF YOU FAIL TO SUBMIT THE SHORT RESEARCH ESSAY AND YOU FAIL TO TAKE THE IN-CLASS FINAL EXAM, YOU WILL RECEIVE A FAILING GRADE FOR THE COURSE NO MATTER HOW HIGH YOUR AVERAGE WAS UP TO THAT POINT. NOT DOING ONE OR THE OTHER OR BOTH WILL RESULT IN AUTOMATIC FALIURE OF THE COURSE.
*Final drafts for all formal writing assignments will be doubled-spaced, TYPED or COMPUTER GENERATED and submitted to me at the beginning of the class period on specific due dates indicated on the syllabus unless I inform you any due date changes. I do not accept LATE assignments. TO MEET COURSE CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES, THE WEEKLY COURSE CALENDAR SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT MY DISCRETION.
Course Design & Structure:
This course is designed and structured as a series of steps and tasks, or building blocks, in which each step and task is interrelated and built upon the previous task. The steps and tasks are organized in sections, and the sections are interrelated. You will learn to “revise” and “clarify” your skills (thinking, writing, reading, and speaking) with each new task you undertake; however, as you move on to each new step or task, they will grow increasingly difficult because each new step or task will present new challenges of their own. In addition, this particular class curriculum will address writing demands you can expect to encounter in other disciplines. As a result, crucial to success in this class is attendance, time management, and homework preparedness.
Odds & Ends:
▪ Cell Phones: While in class, please turn them off. Cell phones going off in class are highly disruptive.
▪ Food & Drink: While class is in progress, I don’t mind if you sip soda, coffee, or water or have a light snack as long you are quiet about it and clean up after yourself.
▪ Instructor & Student Conduct: In my classes, students’ emotional and physical safety comes first. As a result, it is very import that we work together to build a positive, collaborative, productive, and non-threatening leaning environment. Do not hesitate to ask me questions; however, please raise your hand, and wait to be called upon. Let’s be aware and sensitive in how we communicate to one another. I expect my students to conduct themselves with maturity associated with adult college-level student learners; you can expect from me accessibility, fairness, professionalism, and instructional preparedness. Two-way communication is very important. Remember, as your instructor, I am there to help you achieve the course’s objectives and goals.
English Two Syllabus/Course Description
English Two: Human Thought and Action [Lit. Analysis]
Miriam Ben-Shalom Friday 9 -11:55
Contact: ben-shalom@sbcglobal.net
15 weeks for 3 credits
Prerequisite: English One or its equivalent in transfer credit [completeing 801-152/154 does not meet this prerequisit]
Course Description
English Two introduces multiple ideas, disciplines, and forms of making meaning. It serves as an introduction to humanist inquiry, focusing on critical thinking, the analysis of ideas, formulating questions, and the interconnectedness of knowledge and the various disciplines.
The philosophical, historical, theological, psychological, and sociological narratives created by humans form the structure of our lives. Human Thought and Action investigates the human meaning-making impulse and the articulation of human ideas and experiences through various disciplines.
Extended Course description:
English Two is an interdisciplinary inquiry into human thought, action and reaction. In this course, teachers and students will examine the way that humanist knowledge and processes have influenced humankind’s perception of self through millennia as shown through literature. As a prerequisite for the upper-level humanities courses, English Two focuses on significant forms of knowledge and ontological questions using literature as the object/motivator for questioning. Students will be challenged to reflect upon and discuss definitions of literary analysis, group problem-solving activities, “community,” cultural literacy, and the importance of human action and witness to a culture in literature and personal experience.
Through study of specific texts, students will explore the way that humans have borne witness to their experiences and sought to find meaning in them in various ways. Students will explore different views on the human experience through familiar activities – close reading of primary and secondary texts, class discussions, inquiry journals and take-home essays and transactional writing, participation in public events in the MATC community. Critical inquiry is at the heart of all activities in English Two
Ongoing Activities in English Two
Inquiry activities practiced in English Two include:
Writing practices – both formal and informal
Oral presentations: both individually and in groups
Research Practices: Use of primary and secondary source material, presented formally and informally
Reading: increased capacity for reading complicated or challenging texts
Community Literacy: An increased capacity for discussion and for knowledge about, community
Learning and Performance Objectives
Students who successfully complete English Two should be able to do the following work, both orally and in writing:
Recognize and analyze the interconnectedness of the humanities
Recognize and analyze the interconnectedness of different forms of knowledge
Read and discuss works representing different “frames” or disciplines in the humanities
Demonstrate a cultural literacy that features understanding and appreciation for a variety of cultures and ways of knowing
Demonstrate an ability to analyze and interpret course readings based on the context of each work
Demonstrate a growing ability to formulate thoughtful questions as a way of shaping and conducting inquiry
Demonstrate an ability to use a variety of forms to conduct and manifest primary and secondary research
Continue development of college-level critical thinking, reading and writing skills introduced in English One.
Verbal Skill Development
Students are challenged to use writing, reading, discussion and presentations as interdependent inquiry activities. Students will be expected to prepare formal and informal projects and to contribute regularly to class discussions and/or oral, collaborative efforts – such as focused discussions, panel discussions that relate to course material.
Criteria for Evaluation:
% 40 Written work
% 20 Orality – Public presentations, participation
% 20 Group Work/class participation/attendance [25 pts per class]
% 20 Final Project
__________________________________
% 100 Final Grade
Required Materials for Course
Gaines, Ernest. A Lesson Before Dying.
Sophocles, Three Theban Plays (Antigone, Oedipus the King)
Spiegelman, Art. Maus.
Wiesel, Elie. Night
Handouts assigned by instructor—see calendar
Notebook [at least a 2 subject--for notes and journals], computer disk or CD-R
Final Project/ Assessment
Please see attachment to this syllabus for the two ooptions for the final project.
Academic Honesty – MATC's Policy
Academic work that is submitted to an instructor is assumed to be the result of one’s own work, thought, research, or self-examination. Further, when wording, organization, images, music, lyrics, audio sources, or ideas are borrowed from another source, that source is to be adequately acknowledged, according to proper academic conventions; at MATC, MLA formatting guidelines are used throughout the Liberal Studies curriculum.
Academic dishonesty can exist in visual work as well as in written work. In the interest of avoiding the perception of academic dishonesty, images copied, scanned, collaged, or otherwise appropriated from existing sources must be cited according to proper academic conventions, specifically, according to MLA guidelines. This will be the case even when appropriated images are re-configured to make a different organization and/or meaning than the original piece.
Projects completed for an assignment in one course cannot be turned in for another course unless the two courses have been assigned a joint project. Collaborative works should acknowledge the contribution of each of the collaborators.
Plagiarism is the failure to acknowledge the use of words, ideas, images, music, and/or organization of another. Plagiarism can be grounds for failing a class. Anyone engaged in plagiarism may face a disciplinary hearing, possibly leading to dismissal from MATC.
Learning Resource Center
MATC has a rich resource in the Academic Support Center staffed by learning specialists and trained student tutors. All students should be encouraged to make use of it – for developing writing and reading strategies, study skill building, and time-management. ASC staff provide excellent feedback and enrichment for students at all levels of study in all parts of their coursework. Students are strongly encouraged to attend the Support Center and I will make referrals when students are struggling. Copies of all syllabi, writing prompts, and so on, will be placed in my folder in the Support Center for your convenience.
*******Learning/Physical Disabilities
The ADA of 1993 stipulates that any student who has a physical or learning disability that requires special circumstances in order to successfully attend school has that right. If any student has a diagnosed physical or learning disability that requires accommodations to provide the most optimum learning experience, students should contact the MATC Special Needs Office at the West Campus immediately to develop those accommodations.*****
ESL
If English is not your first language, you should let your instructor know immediately to determine what learning strategies will work best for successful completion of this course.
Grading Policy: Paper will be awarded 100 points:
A. Documentation: is 1/3 of the grade of the paper [33 points out of 100]
1 Be sure to document references to specific lines or passages in the plays. If you quote or refer to a specific passage, identify that passage through in-text citation. Do this by writing the name of the play and the line number(s) you’re referring to in parentheses immediately after your reference. For example, if I were to generally refer to the “ship of state” speech by Creon in Antigone, I would need to write (Antigone 179-235) at the end of the sentence or passage in which I am discussing the speech.
Follow the same procedure for direct quotations. If I were to write Creon states: “[n]ever at my hands will the traitor be honored above the patriot” then I would need to add (Antigone 232-233) at the end of that sentence. If it’s obvious which play I’m quoting or paraphrasing, I can omit the title from the parentheses (232-233). If you have questions about in-text citation, or how to work with direct quotations, summaries, or paraphrases, see me or a tutor at the Learning Resource Center.
You will use MLA Format for paper setup and citations and Works Cited page and Bibliography if one is necessarry.
1/2 point will be taken for each error--so be rigorous about Format!
You will receive a rubric for grading which will show you how the remaining 2/3 of your grade is achieved, which includes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the following 4 areas. 1/3 point will be taken for each error in spelling, grammar, punctuation.
Essays which identify a truly thoughtful and challenging question, which respond to those questions in truly well-developed and insightful manner, which open up the complications in these ideas or themes discussed AND which incorporate solid specific evidence from the plays will likely receive an “A”. Your thinking must be quite clear. You must refer to both plays in your essay. [100-96 "A", 95-93 "A-"]
Essays which identify an important question and discuss it in a refined and fully-developed manner and make good use of specific supporting passages/evidence will receive no higher than a “B”. You thinking must be clear. You must refer to both plays in your essay. [92-90 "B+". 89-87 "B" 86-84 "B-"]
Essays which identify a questions and discuss it in a fairly obvious and general way will receive no higher than a “C”. Your thinking must be clear. You must refer to both plays in your essay. [83-81 "C+" 80-79 "C" 78-76 "C-" 75-73 "D+" 72-70 "D" Below 70 "F"]
Essays with no in-text documentation, which are not completed on time or by the extension date, or do not respond thoughtfully to the prompt, will not receive a passing grade.
For take home exams, just substitute 'exam' for 'essay' in the above 4 grading points.
With regards late work: unless by PRIOR AGREEMENT AND COMMUNICATION WITH INSTRUCTOR, late work will be dealt with as follows: for EVERY DAY THE PIECE IS LATE YOUR GRADE WILL DROP BY ONE I.E.: An "A" paper a day late will get a 'B'; two days late a 'C'; three days late a 'D'; 4 days late an 'F'. If you are sick, have a family emergency, or have another emergency:
it is your responsibility to contact me!
Not your mother, father, significant other, or Naomi Green. You have my e-mail address or you may call the school and have a note placed in my mail box. Contacting me does NOT mean you walk into class on the day the paper or project is due and expect me to give you an extension. Under those circumstances, you will not get one. Period. [For your information, an extension is usually 3 days.] Do not come to me with a "sob story" if you did not do what you were supposed to do. This is an extremely intense class; if you are not prepared to do the required work, please drop. MATC students are notorious for not being rigorous about time lines and deadlines; such will not be very well tolerated in this class. Deadlines are deadlines and I expect them to be honored, just as you would on the job, in the real world. Having firm deadlines is training and discipline applicable to the real world.
*******If you are a special needs student who requires extra time, it will certainly be granted with no loss of points. However, it is of unmost importance to notify me and your special needs advisor as soon as you see you will need extra time. You may not walk into class the day an assignment is due, however, and request an extension. You must communicate with me before the due date.*********
Course Calendar
Is attached to this syllabus. "Course planning Calendar"
Writing Prompts
Are attached to this syllabus with due dates. Unless you get the idea of the century, you may not substitute your own assignment idea for a prompt.
Other Info
Absolutely NO cell phones or other electronics allowed in class. If you must have a cell phone because of an emergency, do the following : notify me before class; turn the phone to vibrate ONLY, no ringers; if you must take a call, leave class quietly, walk down from our room and take the call. DO NOT stand in the doorway and gab. There will be a one class grace period for this; thereafter, you will loose all you participation points for the class if your phone goes off. No excuses.
Read again later work policy!
No abusive language will be tolertated: treat others as you would like to be treated. If you disrupt class, you will get one warning after which, you will be asked to leave should you continue to disrupt.
Miriam Ben-Shalom Friday 9 -11:55
Contact: ben-shalom@sbcglobal.net
15 weeks for 3 credits
Prerequisite: English One or its equivalent in transfer credit [completeing 801-152/154 does not meet this prerequisit]
Course Description
English Two introduces multiple ideas, disciplines, and forms of making meaning. It serves as an introduction to humanist inquiry, focusing on critical thinking, the analysis of ideas, formulating questions, and the interconnectedness of knowledge and the various disciplines.
The philosophical, historical, theological, psychological, and sociological narratives created by humans form the structure of our lives. Human Thought and Action investigates the human meaning-making impulse and the articulation of human ideas and experiences through various disciplines.
Extended Course description:
English Two is an interdisciplinary inquiry into human thought, action and reaction. In this course, teachers and students will examine the way that humanist knowledge and processes have influenced humankind’s perception of self through millennia as shown through literature. As a prerequisite for the upper-level humanities courses, English Two focuses on significant forms of knowledge and ontological questions using literature as the object/motivator for questioning. Students will be challenged to reflect upon and discuss definitions of literary analysis, group problem-solving activities, “community,” cultural literacy, and the importance of human action and witness to a culture in literature and personal experience.
Through study of specific texts, students will explore the way that humans have borne witness to their experiences and sought to find meaning in them in various ways. Students will explore different views on the human experience through familiar activities – close reading of primary and secondary texts, class discussions, inquiry journals and take-home essays and transactional writing, participation in public events in the MATC community. Critical inquiry is at the heart of all activities in English Two
Ongoing Activities in English Two
Inquiry activities practiced in English Two include:
Writing practices – both formal and informal
Oral presentations: both individually and in groups
Research Practices: Use of primary and secondary source material, presented formally and informally
Reading: increased capacity for reading complicated or challenging texts
Community Literacy: An increased capacity for discussion and for knowledge about, community
Learning and Performance Objectives
Students who successfully complete English Two should be able to do the following work, both orally and in writing:
Recognize and analyze the interconnectedness of the humanities
Recognize and analyze the interconnectedness of different forms of knowledge
Read and discuss works representing different “frames” or disciplines in the humanities
Demonstrate a cultural literacy that features understanding and appreciation for a variety of cultures and ways of knowing
Demonstrate an ability to analyze and interpret course readings based on the context of each work
Demonstrate a growing ability to formulate thoughtful questions as a way of shaping and conducting inquiry
Demonstrate an ability to use a variety of forms to conduct and manifest primary and secondary research
Continue development of college-level critical thinking, reading and writing skills introduced in English One.
Verbal Skill Development
Students are challenged to use writing, reading, discussion and presentations as interdependent inquiry activities. Students will be expected to prepare formal and informal projects and to contribute regularly to class discussions and/or oral, collaborative efforts – such as focused discussions, panel discussions that relate to course material.
Criteria for Evaluation:
% 40 Written work
% 20 Orality – Public presentations, participation
% 20 Group Work/class participation/attendance [25 pts per class]
% 20 Final Project
__________________________________
% 100 Final Grade
Required Materials for Course
Gaines, Ernest. A Lesson Before Dying.
Sophocles, Three Theban Plays (Antigone, Oedipus the King)
Spiegelman, Art. Maus.
Wiesel, Elie. Night
Handouts assigned by instructor—see calendar
Notebook [at least a 2 subject--for notes and journals], computer disk or CD-R
Final Project/ Assessment
Please see attachment to this syllabus for the two ooptions for the final project.
Academic Honesty – MATC's Policy
Academic work that is submitted to an instructor is assumed to be the result of one’s own work, thought, research, or self-examination. Further, when wording, organization, images, music, lyrics, audio sources, or ideas are borrowed from another source, that source is to be adequately acknowledged, according to proper academic conventions; at MATC, MLA formatting guidelines are used throughout the Liberal Studies curriculum.
Academic dishonesty can exist in visual work as well as in written work. In the interest of avoiding the perception of academic dishonesty, images copied, scanned, collaged, or otherwise appropriated from existing sources must be cited according to proper academic conventions, specifically, according to MLA guidelines. This will be the case even when appropriated images are re-configured to make a different organization and/or meaning than the original piece.
Projects completed for an assignment in one course cannot be turned in for another course unless the two courses have been assigned a joint project. Collaborative works should acknowledge the contribution of each of the collaborators.
Plagiarism is the failure to acknowledge the use of words, ideas, images, music, and/or organization of another. Plagiarism can be grounds for failing a class. Anyone engaged in plagiarism may face a disciplinary hearing, possibly leading to dismissal from MATC.
Learning Resource Center
MATC has a rich resource in the Academic Support Center staffed by learning specialists and trained student tutors. All students should be encouraged to make use of it – for developing writing and reading strategies, study skill building, and time-management. ASC staff provide excellent feedback and enrichment for students at all levels of study in all parts of their coursework. Students are strongly encouraged to attend the Support Center and I will make referrals when students are struggling. Copies of all syllabi, writing prompts, and so on, will be placed in my folder in the Support Center for your convenience.
*******Learning/Physical Disabilities
The ADA of 1993 stipulates that any student who has a physical or learning disability that requires special circumstances in order to successfully attend school has that right. If any student has a diagnosed physical or learning disability that requires accommodations to provide the most optimum learning experience, students should contact the MATC Special Needs Office at the West Campus immediately to develop those accommodations.*****
ESL
If English is not your first language, you should let your instructor know immediately to determine what learning strategies will work best for successful completion of this course.
Grading Policy: Paper will be awarded 100 points:
A. Documentation: is 1/3 of the grade of the paper [33 points out of 100]
1 Be sure to document references to specific lines or passages in the plays. If you quote or refer to a specific passage, identify that passage through in-text citation. Do this by writing the name of the play and the line number(s) you’re referring to in parentheses immediately after your reference. For example, if I were to generally refer to the “ship of state” speech by Creon in Antigone, I would need to write (Antigone 179-235) at the end of the sentence or passage in which I am discussing the speech.
Follow the same procedure for direct quotations. If I were to write Creon states: “[n]ever at my hands will the traitor be honored above the patriot” then I would need to add (Antigone 232-233) at the end of that sentence. If it’s obvious which play I’m quoting or paraphrasing, I can omit the title from the parentheses (232-233). If you have questions about in-text citation, or how to work with direct quotations, summaries, or paraphrases, see me or a tutor at the Learning Resource Center.
You will use MLA Format for paper setup and citations and Works Cited page and Bibliography if one is necessarry.
1/2 point will be taken for each error--so be rigorous about Format!
You will receive a rubric for grading which will show you how the remaining 2/3 of your grade is achieved, which includes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the following 4 areas. 1/3 point will be taken for each error in spelling, grammar, punctuation.
Essays which identify a truly thoughtful and challenging question, which respond to those questions in truly well-developed and insightful manner, which open up the complications in these ideas or themes discussed AND which incorporate solid specific evidence from the plays will likely receive an “A”. Your thinking must be quite clear. You must refer to both plays in your essay. [100-96 "A", 95-93 "A-"]
Essays which identify an important question and discuss it in a refined and fully-developed manner and make good use of specific supporting passages/evidence will receive no higher than a “B”. You thinking must be clear. You must refer to both plays in your essay. [92-90 "B+". 89-87 "B" 86-84 "B-"]
Essays which identify a questions and discuss it in a fairly obvious and general way will receive no higher than a “C”. Your thinking must be clear. You must refer to both plays in your essay. [83-81 "C+" 80-79 "C" 78-76 "C-" 75-73 "D+" 72-70 "D" Below 70 "F"]
Essays with no in-text documentation, which are not completed on time or by the extension date, or do not respond thoughtfully to the prompt, will not receive a passing grade.
For take home exams, just substitute 'exam' for 'essay' in the above 4 grading points.
With regards late work: unless by PRIOR AGREEMENT AND COMMUNICATION WITH INSTRUCTOR, late work will be dealt with as follows: for EVERY DAY THE PIECE IS LATE YOUR GRADE WILL DROP BY ONE I.E.: An "A" paper a day late will get a 'B'; two days late a 'C'; three days late a 'D'; 4 days late an 'F'. If you are sick, have a family emergency, or have another emergency:
it is your responsibility to contact me!
Not your mother, father, significant other, or Naomi Green. You have my e-mail address or you may call the school and have a note placed in my mail box. Contacting me does NOT mean you walk into class on the day the paper or project is due and expect me to give you an extension. Under those circumstances, you will not get one. Period. [For your information, an extension is usually 3 days.] Do not come to me with a "sob story" if you did not do what you were supposed to do. This is an extremely intense class; if you are not prepared to do the required work, please drop. MATC students are notorious for not being rigorous about time lines and deadlines; such will not be very well tolerated in this class. Deadlines are deadlines and I expect them to be honored, just as you would on the job, in the real world. Having firm deadlines is training and discipline applicable to the real world.
*******If you are a special needs student who requires extra time, it will certainly be granted with no loss of points. However, it is of unmost importance to notify me and your special needs advisor as soon as you see you will need extra time. You may not walk into class the day an assignment is due, however, and request an extension. You must communicate with me before the due date.*********
Course Calendar
Is attached to this syllabus. "Course planning Calendar"
Writing Prompts
Are attached to this syllabus with due dates. Unless you get the idea of the century, you may not substitute your own assignment idea for a prompt.
Other Info
Absolutely NO cell phones or other electronics allowed in class. If you must have a cell phone because of an emergency, do the following : notify me before class; turn the phone to vibrate ONLY, no ringers; if you must take a call, leave class quietly, walk down from our room and take the call. DO NOT stand in the doorway and gab. There will be a one class grace period for this; thereafter, you will loose all you participation points for the class if your phone goes off. No excuses.
Read again later work policy!
No abusive language will be tolertated: treat others as you would like to be treated. If you disrupt class, you will get one warning after which, you will be asked to leave should you continue to disrupt.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Envisioning Equality by Kaethe Morris Hoffer
As students, you will often hear the words equality, justice, gender equity, and other terms relating to diversity and rights people should have, What do these terms mean? Here's an essay that should help students begin to sort it all out. . .
ENVISIONING EQUALITY
With Kaethe Morris Hoffer
Kaethe Morris Hoffer, a feminist attorney, explores equality, justice, and the complexities of living in a world in which power is abused and gendered.
With Gratitude for Ms. Parks, and Ms. Vinson,
and the Fighters Yet to Come....
©Kaethe Morris Hoffer, 2006
(1) Most Americans realize they owe a debt to Rosa Parks. With enormous personal courage and an inspiring commitment to justice, she helped change the legal and social landscape of our country. Although her bravery was initially self-serving—a demand that she, as an individual, be treated with dignity—the fruits of her labor have benefited every person, of every race, creed or color, who subscribes to the American dream of equality.
(2) There is another woman, also African-American, but less well-known, to whom all equality-loving people owe much. Her name is Michelle Vinson, and she is a rape survivor. She fought for justice and dignity for herself, and changed the world for all Americans, especially women.
(3) A quarter of a century ago, Ms. Vinson was simply trying to make a living as a bank teller. Tragically, her supervisor exploited the power of his position and subjected her to abuse and harassment, and on a number of occasions, he raped her. As with most rape victims, Ms. Vinson did not trust the criminal justice system to provide her with justice, but she did think—perhaps because of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement—that civil law could provide her with some relief. And so, with assistance from civil attorneys and a newly developed legal theory which said sexual abuse in the workplace constituted unlawful sex discrimination, Ms. Vinson sued her employer.
(4) Ms. Vinson did not have legal history or law on her side when she started her fight. But she believed that what was done to her was wrong, that it should be regarded as unlawful, and that she was entitled to justice and compensation. And in 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed with her. When the Court issued its’ decision in Vinson v. Meritor Savings Bank, the law in America was transformed from a place in which sexual abuse in the workplace could be regarded as the personal problem of its victims, into illegal discrimination that courts, and employers, had obligations to prevent and to respond to with justice.
(5) It took another five years, and another brave African-American woman—Anita Hill—before the American public really became aware that the law prohibits sexual abuse in the workplace. But since 1986, employers have become increasingly attentive to the legal rights of women workers. And rape and other forms of sexual abuse have become more unusual in the workplace. In fact, the transformation of the American workplace has been so profound that attitudes which flourished when Ms. Vinson was raped seem inconceivable now. It used to be common to regard a boss groping his secretary as a trivial matter, confirmation that sexual “relations” were the natural by-product of men and women working together, or evidence that the subordinate woman was using sex to get ahead. Nowadays, a boss groping his secretary is seen to be enacting sex discrimination, and he is frequently viewed as a liability, whose actions merit severe financial punishment.
(6) When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, she was living in a culture where most people could not imagine that segregation would ever be regarded as a shameful vestige of slavery. Perhaps even she had trouble imagining a day when the legalized subordination of Black Americans would be almost universally regarded as obscene. But somehow, whatever she foresaw, she found the courage to oppose an unjust act committed against her. In refusing to move to the back of the bus, she engaged in one act of civil legal disobedience, and galvanized a whole movement of people, which transformed our country for the better.
(7) Today, thanks in large part to Ms. Vinson, the workplace is much safer for women. But sexual assault outside of the workplace occurs with a frequency that is astonishing and offensive. According to the United States Department of Justice, more than one in ten American women are raped. And most rape victims never report being raped to the criminal justice system, believing (rightly, I think) that rape is almost never taken seriously or dealt with effectively. These facts suggest that our culture regards rape as inevitable, or that we have a social inability to imagine a world in which men are reliably—not rarely—held accountable for sexually violating others.
(8) Whether or not someone like Rosa Parks or Michelle Vinson leads the way, we must re-imagine and re-shape our society into a place where rape is not regarded as inevitable any more than it is tolerated or left un-remedied. In Illinois, a new law can help us do this. Under the Illinois Gender Violence Act, sexual violation is unlawful sex discrimination, and survivors can sue their rapists in civil court—whether or not the criminal justice system ever charged or prosecuted the assault. In the hands of survivors, this is a tool that can make an individual difference, with potentially global implications.
(9) I have difficulty imagining what the world will feel like when rape becomes a truly rare event, rather than a common occurrence. But as a student of the Civil Rights movement, an admirer of Michelle Vinson, and an attorney devoted to representing survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, I have no difficulty imagining what it will take to make that happen. It will take civil lawsuits which prove that rapists can be taken to task for what they’ve done. And those lawsuits will be brought by regular women (or girls, or boys or men perhaps) who take a stand for themselves, and in refusing to tolerate their own sexual violation, improve our collective ability to prevent, respond to, and ultimately eradicate, sexual violation
ENVISIONING EQUALITY
With Kaethe Morris Hoffer
Kaethe Morris Hoffer, a feminist attorney, explores equality, justice, and the complexities of living in a world in which power is abused and gendered.
With Gratitude for Ms. Parks, and Ms. Vinson,
and the Fighters Yet to Come....
©Kaethe Morris Hoffer, 2006
(1) Most Americans realize they owe a debt to Rosa Parks. With enormous personal courage and an inspiring commitment to justice, she helped change the legal and social landscape of our country. Although her bravery was initially self-serving—a demand that she, as an individual, be treated with dignity—the fruits of her labor have benefited every person, of every race, creed or color, who subscribes to the American dream of equality.
(2) There is another woman, also African-American, but less well-known, to whom all equality-loving people owe much. Her name is Michelle Vinson, and she is a rape survivor. She fought for justice and dignity for herself, and changed the world for all Americans, especially women.
(3) A quarter of a century ago, Ms. Vinson was simply trying to make a living as a bank teller. Tragically, her supervisor exploited the power of his position and subjected her to abuse and harassment, and on a number of occasions, he raped her. As with most rape victims, Ms. Vinson did not trust the criminal justice system to provide her with justice, but she did think—perhaps because of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement—that civil law could provide her with some relief. And so, with assistance from civil attorneys and a newly developed legal theory which said sexual abuse in the workplace constituted unlawful sex discrimination, Ms. Vinson sued her employer.
(4) Ms. Vinson did not have legal history or law on her side when she started her fight. But she believed that what was done to her was wrong, that it should be regarded as unlawful, and that she was entitled to justice and compensation. And in 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed with her. When the Court issued its’ decision in Vinson v. Meritor Savings Bank, the law in America was transformed from a place in which sexual abuse in the workplace could be regarded as the personal problem of its victims, into illegal discrimination that courts, and employers, had obligations to prevent and to respond to with justice.
(5) It took another five years, and another brave African-American woman—Anita Hill—before the American public really became aware that the law prohibits sexual abuse in the workplace. But since 1986, employers have become increasingly attentive to the legal rights of women workers. And rape and other forms of sexual abuse have become more unusual in the workplace. In fact, the transformation of the American workplace has been so profound that attitudes which flourished when Ms. Vinson was raped seem inconceivable now. It used to be common to regard a boss groping his secretary as a trivial matter, confirmation that sexual “relations” were the natural by-product of men and women working together, or evidence that the subordinate woman was using sex to get ahead. Nowadays, a boss groping his secretary is seen to be enacting sex discrimination, and he is frequently viewed as a liability, whose actions merit severe financial punishment.
(6) When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, she was living in a culture where most people could not imagine that segregation would ever be regarded as a shameful vestige of slavery. Perhaps even she had trouble imagining a day when the legalized subordination of Black Americans would be almost universally regarded as obscene. But somehow, whatever she foresaw, she found the courage to oppose an unjust act committed against her. In refusing to move to the back of the bus, she engaged in one act of civil legal disobedience, and galvanized a whole movement of people, which transformed our country for the better.
(7) Today, thanks in large part to Ms. Vinson, the workplace is much safer for women. But sexual assault outside of the workplace occurs with a frequency that is astonishing and offensive. According to the United States Department of Justice, more than one in ten American women are raped. And most rape victims never report being raped to the criminal justice system, believing (rightly, I think) that rape is almost never taken seriously or dealt with effectively. These facts suggest that our culture regards rape as inevitable, or that we have a social inability to imagine a world in which men are reliably—not rarely—held accountable for sexually violating others.
(8) Whether or not someone like Rosa Parks or Michelle Vinson leads the way, we must re-imagine and re-shape our society into a place where rape is not regarded as inevitable any more than it is tolerated or left un-remedied. In Illinois, a new law can help us do this. Under the Illinois Gender Violence Act, sexual violation is unlawful sex discrimination, and survivors can sue their rapists in civil court—whether or not the criminal justice system ever charged or prosecuted the assault. In the hands of survivors, this is a tool that can make an individual difference, with potentially global implications.
(9) I have difficulty imagining what the world will feel like when rape becomes a truly rare event, rather than a common occurrence. But as a student of the Civil Rights movement, an admirer of Michelle Vinson, and an attorney devoted to representing survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, I have no difficulty imagining what it will take to make that happen. It will take civil lawsuits which prove that rapists can be taken to task for what they’ve done. And those lawsuits will be brought by regular women (or girls, or boys or men perhaps) who take a stand for themselves, and in refusing to tolerate their own sexual violation, improve our collective ability to prevent, respond to, and ultimately eradicate, sexual violation
How Do You Know It's Good? by Marya Mannes
Here's a great essay about "art". What is it? How do you know if you are looking at art? How do you know if it is good? As students, you will be making judgments like this; here's hoping this essay makes it a little easier!
ow Do You Know It’s Good?
By Marya Mannes
(1) Suppose there were no critics to tell us how to react to a picture, a play, or a new composition of music. Suppose we wandered innocent as the dawn into an art exhibition of unsigned paintings. By what standards, by what values would we decide whether they were good or bad, talented or untalented, successes or failures? How can we ever know that what we think is right?
(2) For the last fifteen or twenty years the fashion in criticism or appreciation of the arts has been to deny the existence of any valid criteria and to make the words “god” and “bad” irrelevant, immaterial, and inapplicable. There is no such thing, we are told, as a set of standards, first acquired through experience and knowledge and later imposed on the subject under discussion. This has been a popular approach, for it relieves the critic of the responsibility of judgment and the public of the necessity of knowledge. It pleases those resentful of disciplines, it flatters the empty-minded by calling them open-minded, it comforts the confused. Under the banner of democracy and the kind of equality which our forefathers did not mean, it says, in effect, “Who are you to tell us what is good or bad?” This is the same cry used so long and so effectively by the producers of mass media who insist that it is the public, not they, who decides what it wants to hear and see, and that for a critic to say that this program is good is purely a reflection of personal taste. Nobody recently has expressed this philosophy more succinctly than Dr. Frank Stanton, the highly intelligent president of CBS television. At a hearing before the Federal Communications Commission, this phrase escaped him under questioning: “One man’s mediocrity isanother man’s good program.”
(3) There is no better way of saying “No values are absolute.” There is another important aspect to this philosophy of laissez faire: It is the fear, in all observers of all forms of art, of guessingwrong. This fear is well come by, for who has not heard of the contemporary outcries against artists who later were called great? Every age has it arbiters who do not grow with their times, who cannot tell evolution from revolution or the difference between frivolous faddism, amateurish experimentation, and profound and necessary change. Who wants to be caught flagrante delicto [literally, “while the crime is blazing”] with an error of judgment as serious as this? It is far safer, and certainly easier, to look at a picture or a play or a poem and to say “This is hard to understand, but it may be good,” or simply to welcome it as a new form. The word “new”—in our country especially—has magical connotations. What is new must be good; what is old is probably bad. And if a critic can describe the new in language that nobody can understand, he’s safer still. If he has mastered the art of saying nothing with exquisite complexity, nobody can quote him later as saying anything.
(4) But all these, I maintain, are forms of abdication from the responsibility of judgment. In creating, the artist commits himself; in appreciating, you have a commitment of your own. For after all, it is the audience which makes the arts. A climate of appreciation is essential to its flowering, and the higher the expectations of the public, the better the performance of the artist. Conversely, only a public ill-served by its critics could have accepted as art and as literature so much in these last years that has been neither. If anything goes, everything goes; and at the bottom of the junk pile lie the discarded standards too.
(5) But what are these standards? How do you get them? How do you know they’re the right ones? How can you make a clear pattern out of so many intangibles, including that greatest one, the very private I?
(6) Well, for one thing, it’s fairly obvious that the more you read and see and hear, the more equipped you’ll be to practice that art of association which is at the basis of all understanding and judgment. The more you live and the more you look, the more aware you are of a consistent pattern—as universal as the stars, as the tides, as breathing, as night and day—underlying everything. I would call this pattern an this rhythm an order. Not order—an order. Within it exists an incredible diversity of forms. Without it lies chaos. I would further call this order—this incredible diversity held within one pattern—health. And I would call chaos—the wild cells of destruction—sickness. It is in the end up to you to distinguish between the diversity that is health and the chaos that is sickness, and you can’t do this without a process of association that can link a bar of Mozart with the corner of a Vermeer painting, or a Stravinsky score with a Picasso abstraction; or that can relate an aggressive act with a Franz Kline painting and a fit of coughing with a John Cage composition.
(7) There is no accident in the fact that certain expressions of art live for all time and that others die with the moment, and although you may not always define the reasons, you can ask the questions. What does an artist say that is timeless; how does he say it? How much is fashion, how much is merely reflection? Why is Sir Walter Scott so hard to read now, and Jane Austen not? Why is baroque right for one age and too effulgent for another?
(8) Can a standard of craftsmanship apply to art of all ages, or does each have its own, and different definitions? You may have been aware, inadvertently, that craftsmanship has become a dirty word these years because, again, it implies standard—something done well or done badly. The result of this convenient avoidance is a plenitude of actors who can’t project their voices, singers who can’t phrase their songs, poets who can’t communicate emotion, and writers who have no vocabulary—not to speak of painters who can’t draw. The dogma now is that craftsmanship gets in the way of expression. You can do better if you don’t know how you do it, let along what you’re doing.
(10) I think it is time you helped reverse this trend by trying to rediscover craft: the command of the chosen instrument, whether it is a brush, a word, or a voice. When you begin to detect the difference between freedom and sloppiness, between serious experimentation and ego therapy, between skill and slickness, between strength and violence, you are on your way to separating the sheep from the goats, a form of segregation denied us for quite a while. All you need to restore it is a small bundle of standards and a Geiger counter that detects fraud.
. . .
(11) Purpose and craftsmanship—end and means—these are the keys to your judgment in all the arts. What is this painter trying to say when he slashes a broad band of black across a white canvas and lets the edges dribble down? Is it a statement or violence? Is it a self-portrait? If it is one of these, has he made you believe it? Or is this a gesture of the ego or a form of therapy? If it shocks you, what does it sock you into.
(12) And what of this tight little painting of bright flowers in a vase? Is the painter saying anything new about flowers? Is it different from a million other canvases of flowers? Has it any life, any meaning, beyond its statement? Is there any pleasure in its form or texture? The question is not whether a thing is abstract or representational, whether is it “modern” or conventional. The question, inexorably, is whether it is good. And this is a decision which only you, on the basis of instinct, experience, and association, can make for yourself. It takes independence and courage. It involves, moreover, the risk of wrong decision and the humility, after the passage of time, or recognizing it as such. As we grow and change and learn, our attitudes can change too, and what we once thought obscure or “difficult” can later emerge as coherent and illuminating. Entrenched prejudices, obdurate opinions are as sterile as no opinions at all.
(13) Yet standards there are, timeless as the universe itself. And when you have committed yourself to them, you have acquired a passport to that elusive but immutable realm of truth. Keep it with you in the forests of bewilderment. And never be afraid to speak up.
ow Do You Know It’s Good?
By Marya Mannes
(1) Suppose there were no critics to tell us how to react to a picture, a play, or a new composition of music. Suppose we wandered innocent as the dawn into an art exhibition of unsigned paintings. By what standards, by what values would we decide whether they were good or bad, talented or untalented, successes or failures? How can we ever know that what we think is right?
(2) For the last fifteen or twenty years the fashion in criticism or appreciation of the arts has been to deny the existence of any valid criteria and to make the words “god” and “bad” irrelevant, immaterial, and inapplicable. There is no such thing, we are told, as a set of standards, first acquired through experience and knowledge and later imposed on the subject under discussion. This has been a popular approach, for it relieves the critic of the responsibility of judgment and the public of the necessity of knowledge. It pleases those resentful of disciplines, it flatters the empty-minded by calling them open-minded, it comforts the confused. Under the banner of democracy and the kind of equality which our forefathers did not mean, it says, in effect, “Who are you to tell us what is good or bad?” This is the same cry used so long and so effectively by the producers of mass media who insist that it is the public, not they, who decides what it wants to hear and see, and that for a critic to say that this program is good is purely a reflection of personal taste. Nobody recently has expressed this philosophy more succinctly than Dr. Frank Stanton, the highly intelligent president of CBS television. At a hearing before the Federal Communications Commission, this phrase escaped him under questioning: “One man’s mediocrity isanother man’s good program.”
(3) There is no better way of saying “No values are absolute.” There is another important aspect to this philosophy of laissez faire: It is the fear, in all observers of all forms of art, of guessingwrong. This fear is well come by, for who has not heard of the contemporary outcries against artists who later were called great? Every age has it arbiters who do not grow with their times, who cannot tell evolution from revolution or the difference between frivolous faddism, amateurish experimentation, and profound and necessary change. Who wants to be caught flagrante delicto [literally, “while the crime is blazing”] with an error of judgment as serious as this? It is far safer, and certainly easier, to look at a picture or a play or a poem and to say “This is hard to understand, but it may be good,” or simply to welcome it as a new form. The word “new”—in our country especially—has magical connotations. What is new must be good; what is old is probably bad. And if a critic can describe the new in language that nobody can understand, he’s safer still. If he has mastered the art of saying nothing with exquisite complexity, nobody can quote him later as saying anything.
(4) But all these, I maintain, are forms of abdication from the responsibility of judgment. In creating, the artist commits himself; in appreciating, you have a commitment of your own. For after all, it is the audience which makes the arts. A climate of appreciation is essential to its flowering, and the higher the expectations of the public, the better the performance of the artist. Conversely, only a public ill-served by its critics could have accepted as art and as literature so much in these last years that has been neither. If anything goes, everything goes; and at the bottom of the junk pile lie the discarded standards too.
(5) But what are these standards? How do you get them? How do you know they’re the right ones? How can you make a clear pattern out of so many intangibles, including that greatest one, the very private I?
(6) Well, for one thing, it’s fairly obvious that the more you read and see and hear, the more equipped you’ll be to practice that art of association which is at the basis of all understanding and judgment. The more you live and the more you look, the more aware you are of a consistent pattern—as universal as the stars, as the tides, as breathing, as night and day—underlying everything. I would call this pattern an this rhythm an order. Not order—an order. Within it exists an incredible diversity of forms. Without it lies chaos. I would further call this order—this incredible diversity held within one pattern—health. And I would call chaos—the wild cells of destruction—sickness. It is in the end up to you to distinguish between the diversity that is health and the chaos that is sickness, and you can’t do this without a process of association that can link a bar of Mozart with the corner of a Vermeer painting, or a Stravinsky score with a Picasso abstraction; or that can relate an aggressive act with a Franz Kline painting and a fit of coughing with a John Cage composition.
(7) There is no accident in the fact that certain expressions of art live for all time and that others die with the moment, and although you may not always define the reasons, you can ask the questions. What does an artist say that is timeless; how does he say it? How much is fashion, how much is merely reflection? Why is Sir Walter Scott so hard to read now, and Jane Austen not? Why is baroque right for one age and too effulgent for another?
(8) Can a standard of craftsmanship apply to art of all ages, or does each have its own, and different definitions? You may have been aware, inadvertently, that craftsmanship has become a dirty word these years because, again, it implies standard—something done well or done badly. The result of this convenient avoidance is a plenitude of actors who can’t project their voices, singers who can’t phrase their songs, poets who can’t communicate emotion, and writers who have no vocabulary—not to speak of painters who can’t draw. The dogma now is that craftsmanship gets in the way of expression. You can do better if you don’t know how you do it, let along what you’re doing.
(10) I think it is time you helped reverse this trend by trying to rediscover craft: the command of the chosen instrument, whether it is a brush, a word, or a voice. When you begin to detect the difference between freedom and sloppiness, between serious experimentation and ego therapy, between skill and slickness, between strength and violence, you are on your way to separating the sheep from the goats, a form of segregation denied us for quite a while. All you need to restore it is a small bundle of standards and a Geiger counter that detects fraud.
. . .
(11) Purpose and craftsmanship—end and means—these are the keys to your judgment in all the arts. What is this painter trying to say when he slashes a broad band of black across a white canvas and lets the edges dribble down? Is it a statement or violence? Is it a self-portrait? If it is one of these, has he made you believe it? Or is this a gesture of the ego or a form of therapy? If it shocks you, what does it sock you into.
(12) And what of this tight little painting of bright flowers in a vase? Is the painter saying anything new about flowers? Is it different from a million other canvases of flowers? Has it any life, any meaning, beyond its statement? Is there any pleasure in its form or texture? The question is not whether a thing is abstract or representational, whether is it “modern” or conventional. The question, inexorably, is whether it is good. And this is a decision which only you, on the basis of instinct, experience, and association, can make for yourself. It takes independence and courage. It involves, moreover, the risk of wrong decision and the humility, after the passage of time, or recognizing it as such. As we grow and change and learn, our attitudes can change too, and what we once thought obscure or “difficult” can later emerge as coherent and illuminating. Entrenched prejudices, obdurate opinions are as sterile as no opinions at all.
(13) Yet standards there are, timeless as the universe itself. And when you have committed yourself to them, you have acquired a passport to that elusive but immutable realm of truth. Keep it with you in the forests of bewilderment. And never be afraid to speak up.
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