Welcome, class, to your blog!
I hope that you were all able to set up your accounts easily. The first topic for class will be created by me so that we can all get to know each other a little better. So, why did you sign up for this class? What do you hope to get out of it? Now that you've had a chance to look over the syllabus and we've had our first class, what are some things you're looking forward to (the reading list, projects, assignments, etc.)? What are you dreading? :)
Okay, everyone jump on in! I'm looking forward to a great semester.
24 comments:
I signed up for this class for a few reasons. First of all, the class itself interested me more than any of the others. I feel like this class will help uncover that things aren't always black and white when it comes to authority. Second, I really enjoyed Kathryn's class last semester, Legacy of the Family Story. Also, Honors is definitely challenging and I know this class will require me to push myself to another level.
I'm not really "dreading" anything so far which is definitely a good thing. :) I'm looking forward to reading the books and seeing the movies, particularly Fight Club. I have been meaning to watch it, but haven't gotten around to it so I'm glad I'll get to see it in class. I hope to better my writing skills in this class as well. Since writing is a huge part of the course, it's the perfect class for it!
I originally wanted to take this class two semesters ago but had internet problems at midnight and did not manage to get in. The title is what really struck me as a very challenging and fun topic for a class. I am not as of yet worthy of calling myself an activist but because i do not question authority enough. However, this class might give me the tools to let go of my conformity or fear and help me become the real activist I want to be one day.
Dread is a very strong word. I would not say that I am dreading any part of this class in fact I am very much looking forward to it. I have seen all of the films we will watch and look forward to hear what others have to say about them also, I LOVE 1984.
I think this class will be a lot of fun and will hwlp me learn a lot.
I hope I'm doing this right...
I signed up for this class because I found the topic of questioning authority really interesting. I've read one of the books we will be reading and seen several of the movies and loved them all. I'm sure I'll really enjoy reading other books on the topic of questioning authority as well as talking about them. After seeing the syllabus, I hope that I find writing a 10 to 15 page paper is not as hard as it seems. I'm looking forward to many of the movies we will be watching in class and the books picked out from the groups that we will read. I am really dreading the final project with the 10 to 15 page paper. Just thinking about it stresses me out.
I am not totally sure why I decided to take this course. I hadn't looked at the Course Catalog before Preview Night, so it must have been the short intro that influenced me. I love the reading list for this class and I enjoy reading in general so I'm expecting a good semester.
Also, I love poetry so I'm looking forward to writing some for the final project. All of the choices available for the final project sound great and I looking forward to seeing my peers projects.
The main reason I signed up for this class was that the topic interested me, but I must say that seeing "The Breakfast Club" on the syllabus also influenced my decision. :) I love classes that challenge me to really think about a specific topic, not just get a general idea about a broad range of information. I also like classes that encourage me to see things from a new perspective, so that's what I'm hoping to get out of the class.
I am definitely a book nerd, so I am looking forward to the reading list. Right now I'm not dreading anything in this class; however, ask me this question again later in the semester when things start to get hectic and my answer might be different. :)
As I was looking through the course catalog for spring semester, and I saw the title of this course it was one of the few that caught my attention. When I looked into the description and saw "V for Vendetta" I immediately thought no more about it and signed up for the class. =) V for Vendetta is one of my favorite films so needless to say it is one of the things I am looking forward to most, plus I have never gotten around to reading 1984, despite how much I have wanted too; also I will have the opportunity to finish watching Gattaca. I hope to come out of this class a better writer and with a deeper understanding of what gives people power over others and why the many are opressed by the few.
I am not really looking forward to writing 10 to 15 pages, although it may not be as bad as it seems in the end as the theme of the class itself gives much to get out of.
I signed up for class because the reading and movie list included some great titles. My decision became final because Kathryn was teaching the class. I love her teaching style and the overall class environment that she creates.
I hope to learn more about all of the various examples of questioning authority and a fun class to enjoy. I am so far looking forward to reading 1984 and A Thousand Splendid Suns (because I loved The Kite Runner) and to watching Fight Club and The Breakfast Club. I am also interested in the photo project for the end of the semester. I am not really dreading anything; it seems like a lot of work, but interesting work!
I signed up for this class because I thought it sounded interesting. I know some of the movies and the books and liked them, therefore I figured that I would like the other readings and movies and thought I’d give it a try. I also joined because I had Kathryn as a teacher before and really enjoyed her class. I’m really looking forward to the books and the movies and all the discussions. Knowing from last semester these discussions can be really fun, really indepth, and really self-discovering. What I’m dreading is picking a final project, they all seem very ominous. Poetry might be an option for me, but poetry can also be very personal and sharing it with a class is what makes that ominous. Last semester it was all girls and we opened up a lot, this semester is going to be a bit different. :)
I chose this class for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that the topic of questioning authority is something completely different from any class I have ever taken. Therefore, I hope that this class will force me out of my comfort zone and challenge me with a subject which I really know little about. The book and movie selection also caught my attention when choosing this class. By the end of the semester, I hope to be able to see the positive and negative results of questioning authority through literature and film and also in real life.
I am definitely looking forward to reading the books and watching the films. I am also looking forward to the projects. They seem really fun right now, although I have a feeling that I will probably be dreading them when we get closer to the due dates!
Without realizing it before classes started, this class and my Expository Writing are somewhat related to each other. My writing class is focused on civil disobedience and seems to coincide with a lot of the topics we will be discussing. For instance, we have begun reading the letter from Birmingham by Martin Luther King and a bunch of stories from the Bible where authority is questioned. I think I lucked out to have both of these classes in the same semester. Anyway, I just thought it was something interesting to put up on the blog. I had never thought about Bible stories as civil disobedience or questioning authority until now. Does anyone else know of any other stories on the subject (that aren't on our reading list)?
I wanted to take this class because the title caught my eye, and the subject matter seems really interesting. The list of books and films we are going to be studying also attracted me to the class (Gattaca, V for Vendetta, and Fight Club are some of my favorites). Also, I enjoyed Katheryn's class last semester. With this class, I am hoping to challenge myself to think critically about questing authority and to see other people's ideas on the subject. I am not really dreading any part of this class. I will admit that the end of semester project seems a little daunting, but the fact that we have so many options and are allowed to be creative with it is great. Overall, I'm looking forward to a great semester.
I signed up for this class because it sounded the most interesting, and was one of the only ones that fit with my schedule this semester.
I am really looking forward to most of the books, especially 1984 and Queen For a Day.
The only book I'm not so excited about is The Awakening. I attempted to read this one in high school with very little success. I guess I just don't understand the symbolism.
The papers don't bother me. As long as I pick something that I can feel that I can write a lot about, I don't think that it will be that bad...
I signed up for this class because I have a ridiculous love for Gattaca and thought that any course giving me an excuse to talk about the film was worth taking. That being said, I've always found cases of questioned authority to be interesting, particularly in cases of going against well-established figures. I tend to root for underdogs.
I'm dreading the reflective essays the most- I always have a tough time starting them. I was originally dreading having to read a play on my own, but so far, I can see that I was turning it into a bigger ordeal than necessary.
Overall, though, I am very excited for this class and am looking forward to the semester.
In response to Bridget's last post, I have never considered questioning authority to be apart of the Bible. However, now thinking about, it is a very common occurence. This may be a stretch, but an example could be David and Goliath. David took matters into his own hands and stood up to the "bigger", more authoritative figure.
I do not know of any other novels about questioning authority from other cultures. But I think that the novel "Columbine" by Dave Cullen is a form of questioning authority. Although, the two boys responsible were in the wrong; they were standing up to what they thought was the "wrongful" authority of the world... in a way. That's the only example I can think off of the top of my head.
Also, I just finished reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel for my group's presentation. It is such a depressing story, but Wiesel's writing style is amazing. I am now also looking forward to working on the group presentation! :)
I signed up for this class because it was one of the ones that fit with my schedule this semester, and it looked like interesting. Additionally, I've heard that several of the texts are good and I'm interested in reading or watching them (particularly Fight Club), and that is probably what I am most looking forward to. I don't know if I would say dreading, but I am not particularly looking forward to the final project because it sounds like an intimidating amount of work.
I think it's really cool how most of you seem to not be worried about the final project! It definitely lifts my mood about it! If the topic is interesting, which it is in this case, writing 10 to 15 pages about it shouldn't be so hard.
In response to what Bridget said, I also never thought about stories from the Bible having an element of questioning authority. I don't know of any other stories from the Bible that question authority but I can think of other books that do so.
If you guys enjoy 1984, Brave New World is another book similar to it that also involves questioning authority.
I think it's interesting that everyone seems excited for the movies in the class. I think films are underutilized in literature classes. They can provide a visual perspective to an idea (Questioning Authority) that a book can't.
Honestly the first things that caught my attention were the movies. I'm a HUGE Fight Club fan it really gets me thinking about how we're all lambs a lot of the time. I use lambs to describe the unconscious movement of our daily lives. A lot of us fail to really consider what we're doing and just go with natural order. I've also seen Gattaca in biology in high school and really liked how someone was trying to beat the code of society. V for Vendetta was also a really cool movie. One i feel should be added is equilibrium, it is like Brave New World, but in a movie format.
Back to talking about Questioning Authority, I also joined the class because I have always felt like i can really appreciate the "movement against the grain" that the founding fathers and others have participated. I have always seen the importance of questioning the current norms in order to find better ways of thinking and doing. I have done so in my own life and have found that things have turned out for the better, regardless of the fact that in the beginning of my questioning stages, things seem to get worse at first. I felt like, in signing up for this class, I would be able to contribute some of my own belief and offer arguments against others beliefs purely for the sake of education. I also feel that, this being an honors class, other will reciprocate and add to my ever growing knowledge.
I signed up for the class because it sounded like an interesting seminar, and like all honors students I am required to take one course per semester. To be honest, it hasn't been what I was expecting so far, but I am still optimistic and hope it will be a good class. I hope to get a better understanding of the conflicts between authority and individuals affected by enforced power in various different cultures as well as dealing with various different types of authority. I was excited to see that government and the traditional national institutions of authority were not the only topics that would be covered in the class. I am looking forward to a few of the movies and the blog is definitely an interesting idea although I find the surrounding obligations to be somewhat oppressing considering that some topics may speak to individuals while others may not and so I wish participation was a little more left up to the student. Also, I am rather excited for the final project although when I initially reviewed the syllabus I misread it and believed we had to choose a smaller project from each larger option and nearly had a heart attack. After re-reading it and correcting myself, my blood pressure has settled and I am now looking forward to choosing one of the several intriguing personal projects. I am dreading both the depressing nature of many of the books chosen to read in class along with the overall amount of reading and just the book Night in its entirety seeing as it was not nearly as thrilling to me as to most fans of literature. Frankly I found it to be not nearly as detailed as I had hoped and far more into the personal dilemma of religion which I did not find very intriguing within that context and so re-reading that horrifically boring classic is going to be somewhat of a feat.
To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why I signed up for this class. On the night of registration, I just went on a limb and went with the class that caught my attention first and this one was it.
I would have to say that I'm looking forward to the movies the most because I really enjoy film. I've never really analyzed a movie in depth before so that's also something that excites me about his course. As of now, there isn't anything I'm dreading so fingers crossed that it stays that way!
@akelly, I'm not sure what you expected out of the first class. It seems like you were very disappointed, but I felt as though the first class went as it should, an introduction to the workings of the class and little about what the class is on. I believe tomorrow the class will accelerate to your liking. I completely agree with your statement on the blog where you said, "I am looking forward to a few of the movies and the blog is definitely an interesting idea although I find the surrounding obligations to be somewhat oppressing considering that some topics may speak to individuals while others may not and so I wish participation was a little more left up to the student." That made a lot of sense and was wondering what the professor will say regarding this statement.
Hello, all!
Well, it seems I have been called out regarding this blog! :)
Seriously, though, I am happy to answer any questions you all may have regarding the blog (or any class requirements). From what I can tell, the question has more to do with the fact that I want you all to participate on the blog every week, and that this seems "oppressive" to some of you since there might be some topics your fellow peers post that you may not find interesting. There is a really simple solution to that--just go ahead and post a topic you do find interesting! That way, the topic will obviously engage you AND you will earn credit/points for doing so. I'm sorry if that was unclear. Please, feel free to start a topic even if it's not your required week to post. The only thing I ask is that you make sure you post your required week, too, in order to ensure we have a topic for every week.
I hope that helps and that that addresses your questions. If not, let me know and we can talk about it in class, here on the blog, via email, or during my office hours. I'm always available one way or another. :)
I feel that I should correct myself from my previous post for a few individuals who may have misread it. I understand that the tone may have seemed condemning and negative which is not at all what I intended.
I am thoroughly excited for this course and I had a wonderful time in class today. All I meant by it not being what I expected was that it incorporates a lot more artistic ideas that I had anticipated, which is a GOOD thing!!! I love creative writing and acting and other creative outlets which I was pleasantly surprised to see included in our options for several of the projects. I had only expected it to be more centralized on analysis rather than opinionated thoughts and creative expressions, but the surprise was thoroughly positive. I apologize if I seemed harsh in my previous post, I simply meant that the class was DIFFERENT, not in a bad way by any means.
I am excited for both the final project and other aspects of the class, and being able to post our own topics is a wonderful solution to the blog question. I am also relieved to learn that one post per week is required so that on some weeks when I have more time I can reply more and on others I can leave it at one. I was only concerned because I thought we were required to post in response to that week's assigned topic.
Once again, I apologize for alarming anyone or seeming demeaning, I am very intrigued by the topic of questioning authority and believe that Kathryn has allowed us many exciting opportunities to use individual talents in order to complete class assignments in an unorthodox and artistic manner. I am eagerly anticipating what the remainder of the semester holds!
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