The Choice between Common Courtesy and Virtue as seen through Sir Gawain (theme)

In JRR Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the introduction to Sir Gawain contains some interesting thoughts. This introduction is taken from a radio broadcast Tolkien did in 1953. At one point  on the topic of Gawain, Tolkien says, “We see him at the crisis of action forced to distinguish in a scale of value the elements of his code, preserving his chastity, and his loyalty on the highest plane to his host; finally rejecting in fact (if not in empty words) absolute worldly ‘courtesy,’ that is, complete obedience to the will of the sovereign lady, rejecting it in favor of virtue.” In Tolkien’s mind, Gawain, a very flesh and blood character with very human weaknesses, shows the battle between being courteous versus being virtuous. And what is virtuous about Gawain? “The noblest knight of the highest order of Chivalry refuses adultery, places hatred of sin in the last resort above all other motives, and escapes from a temptation that attacks him in the guise of courtesy through grace obtained by prayer.” Gawain rejects sin, but blind to the reverse (which is good) at the time uses hatred of sin in order to reject it. Gawain concludes that although courtesy is a good thing, it can also be used to tempt people to do something severely wrong. He feels ashamed at the end of the story. Perhaps Tolkien’s analysis gets us closer to knowing why Gawain gives himself a lifelong penance.

Reflection:

What a fantastic theme! Couldn’t this also be applied today? Isn’t there a temptation to give into political or social correctness in place of seeking the higher good? Are we blinded sometimes by something that seems good because it’s the courteous thing to do?

Let’s make another connection:

One of the things that seemed to make “chivalry” seem like such a bad thing, especially in the 20th century, was the misuse of the concept in the Old South. Southern white gentleman claimed a code of chivalry as the reason (or excuse) for their elite status. Thus, they could own slaves; they could be racist; they could be sexist. However, it could be argued that the Old South version of chivalry was far different from Sir Gawain’s chivalry. What are some ways that the social environment of the Old South was different from Europe in the Middle Ages? What are some things that were the same? Why is important to know that there was no slavery and that women were allowed an education in Middle Ages Europe when discussing this point? Is it possible to confuse chivalry with “common” courtesy?

Multi-literacies for connections:

The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1845)

See also lyrics from Heather Dale’s version by visiting youtube and compare/contrast with the poem.

 

Quick Book Review: A Modern Reader’s Guide to Dante’s The Divine Comedy by Joseph Gallagher (1996)

Author: Joseph Gallagher

Year Published: 1996

Reading Level: Moderate

Morality Level: Profound (Dante clearly had a sense of morality, philosophy, and theology, giving imagery to evil, that which lies between good and evil, and good; Gallagher creates a simple overview so that readers can get the big picture without getting lost in the details)

Summary: Because The Divine Comedy overflows with aesthetic qualities, symbolism, and meaning and because Gallagher uncovers some of them in his book, I decided it would be redundant to talk about the aesthetic qualities and symbolism of this book. Gallagher’s writing, however, is easy to follow, steering clear of the elitism of some scholars in academia. His book stands upon his expertise as a professor at Oxford, Loyola, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, and St. Mary’s, and he is also a priest. If you need the background knowledge, especially since Dante has influenced so many writers through the ages, then I would begin with his book. Gallagher begins each of the three parts with an outline and brings out points of interest. Of course, I wouldn’t stop there. This is the map. Reading Dante’s Divine Comedy would be the journey. Because Dante’s work is so rich, packed with knowledge, I would also suggest The Divine Comedy  and Gallagher’s commentary just to have a better grasp of Catholic and European history, and literature.

Sample Quotes:

“Worldly fame is nothing but a breath of wind/ that blows now here, now there,/ and changes its name when it changes its path” (Purgatorio, Canto XI).

Dante certainly grants poetry and poets a special place in his Comedy (Gallagher 102 on Canto 21 of Purgatorio).

Self-controlled people actually experience pleasure more sharply than others. Describing the angel’s motion, Dante stresses his own purified, heightened sensitivity by ending his canto with four uses of the word “feel,” two of them quite unusual (Gallagher 108 on Canto 24 of Purgatorio).

On Canto I of Paradiso–A natural instinct moves all creatures toward  their proper goal: “they move to diverse ports over the great sea of being” (Gallagher 135)

It has been said that a true scholastic seldom affirms, never denies, and always distinguishes. . . “Let us not be too sure in judging,” Aquinas summarizes (Gallagher 160 on Canto 13 of Paradiso).

Reference:

Gallagher, J (1996, 1999). A Modern Reader’s Guide to Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Liguori: Missouri.

 

 

Don’t fear the culture: Help students learn how to analyze problematic literature/films/music (quote)

And if, when occasion arises, it be deemed necessary to have the students read authors propounding false doctrine, for the purpose of refuting it, this will be done after due preparation and with such an antidote of sound doctrine, that it will not only do no harm, but will an aid to the Christian formation of youth. –Pius XI, Divini illius magistri, 86

 

Science Fiction Literature in the Secondary Classroom

This post discusses the qualities, impact, and importance of science fiction in the 21st century classroom. First, I provide four types of science fiction that can most easily adapt to lesson planning. Then, I give some background on science fiction in order to elucidate further what can be taught with these four types of science fiction. After that, I give qualities of each type of science fiction in order to teach and to have students analyze literature. And finally, I give some examples of employing technology integration that can easily extend learning for science fiction studies.

Discovering science fiction, types and qualities

Once written, a literary work becomes an artifact. Because the genre of science fiction has become popular and somewhat loosely defined in relatively recent times (as compared to epics, lyrical poetry, law, etc.), scholars are just now looking at science fiction works from the past with literary analysis, that is, within its historical context  and as a piece of literature (Gill, 2013). Scholars have found it difficult to separate science fiction into its varying types since it is so expansive in and out of topic, time, and space (Gill, 2013). Gill (2013) suggests three types of classification: grouping by similarities; groups that have overlapping qualities; and choosing prototypes or exemplars to anchor a type within which all fall within a certain continuum of science fiction qualities. For the purposes of teaching secondary education, I have created four types of science fiction works:

• Mythological
• Philosophical
• Political
• Explorational (new word)

Science fiction pieces have overlapping features that can place them in more than one type; they also have similarities with exemplar works that locate them within each type. I have chosen these four types because they also connect to the way humans have communicated in the past, linking present students with the human heritage of literature. All cultures have mythologies that have similar, universal archetypes, making this an important type that cross-connects cultures. Another more universal type would be the philosophical type of science fiction, as writers have written, using philosophies both past and present. Then, there is the political type of science fiction which engages rhetoric in order to persuade audiences; this type is less universal and more regional, so the symbols used are easily misinterpreted or misrepresented. And finally, there is the explorational (new word for its transformative influence) type of science fiction. This type, perhaps more than the other three, gathers the available information on science and technology and integrates it into an imagined time and space, advancing scientific inquiry and/or technological creation. It can be either universal or regional based on the acceptance of advancement by a culture. As said before, a science fiction work can contain elements of all types, like orbiting different planets for a time, but each one generally gravitates to one or another, as its home world.

Here are a few of the definitions of science fiction from literary analysts and science fiction writers that I have used to formulate these types:

It is, after all, the fiction of ideas, the fiction where philosophy can be tinkered with, torn apart, and put back together again, it is the fiction of sociology and psychology and history compounded and squared by time. It is the fiction where you may set up and knock down your own political and religious and moral states. It can be a high form of Swiss watch-making. It can be poetry. It has resulted in some of the greatest writing in our past, from Plato and Lucian to Sir Thomas More and Francois Rabelais and on down through Jonathan Swift and Johannes Kepler to Poe and Edward Bellamy and George Orwell. . . .(Bradbury, 1953).

The “branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advances on human beings” (Asimov, 1953).

The “interaction between cognition and estrangement” (Suvin, 1972).

A form of fantasy in which scientific facts, assumptions, or hypotheses form the basis, by logical extrapolation, of adventures in the future, on other planets, in other dimensions of time or space, or under new variants of scientific law (Harmon and Holman, 2006).

In other words, science fiction is not easily defined, first, because it encapsulates and extrapolates on a variety of topics, but also because it is a relatively new form of human expression that is read, heard, accepted, or viewed by a large population of people; you could say that it continues to evolve (Hall, 1999). Indeed, science fiction has probably been one of the most influential genres in modern times even though, or perhaps because, it has a comparatively short history compared to other types of storytelling.

A short history of science fiction

Most of the following examples of science fiction were re-created to be represented on film and/or television.

Books

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516)
Cyrano de Bergerac’s The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657)
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818): science pushes story to imagine further
Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)
H.G. Wells’ Time Machine (1895)
Paul Scheerbart’s Lesabendio: An Asteroid Novel (1910)
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932)
George Orwell’s 1984 (1949)
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, Galactic Empire, and Robot series; he started writing short stories in 1937; his novels began appearing in 1942; he also wrote science non-fiction books
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Le Planete des singes (Planet of the Apes) by Pierre Boulle (1963)

Magazines and pulp fiction

Verne published his first story, “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” in 1863. Unfortunately, since English translators heavily edited Verne and categorized his works under children’s literature, it took some time before he was regarded for his literary talent in the English-speaking world. Thus, some 19th century magazines published some science fiction stories—most science fiction novelists usually wrote for magazines first—however, pulp fiction would be the primary source of science fiction publication.

A Princess of Mars (1917): Edgar Rice Burroughs
Amazing Stories (1926): Experimenter Publishing
Astounding Stories, Astounding Science Fiction (1930)
New Worlds (1936)
Galaxy Science Fiction (1950): World Editions, Italian

Film–where science fiction advancement meets technological advancement

Georges Melies: A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Irving Block and Allen Adler’s Forbidden Planet (1956), the soundtrack employs electronic music for the first time
Stanley Kubrick’s and Arthur C. Clarke’s A Space Odyssey, 2001 (1968)
Peter Benchley’s Jaws, directed by Spielberg (1975): filmmakers begins to integrate more special effects technology; Jaws makes 260 million, which is double that of any movie before; in other words, science fiction suddenly begins to draw larger audiences
George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977); creates new film technology in order to present his story with special effects; here story pushes technology to advance; Star Wars hits 775 million dollars
Steven Lisberger’s Tron (1982); new computer programs needed to be created in order to tell a story about computer programs

See also CGI (computer-generated imagery) Historical Timeline at http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/timeline.html

Graphic novels (comic books)

Buck Rogers (1929): Phillip Francis Nowlan
Superman (1938, uses Christology): Created by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster
Batman (1939): Created by Bill Finger, Paul Dini, Bob Kane, Bruce Timm
Thor (1962, uses Norse mythology): Created by Larry Lieber, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
Spider-Man (1962): Created by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
The Hulk (1962): Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
Iron Man (1963): Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, Don Heck

TV Shows

The Twilight Zone (1959): Created by Rod Serling
Doctor Who (1963): Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek (1964)
Glen A. Larson’s Battlestar Galactica (1978, re-imagined 2003)
The X-Files (1993): Created by Chris Carter
Lost (2004): Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
Smallville (2001)
Under the Dome (2013): Created by Stephen King, Brian K. Vaughan

Gaming

Many video games have started franchises that also create books, music, film, and YouTube videos. I think it would be interesting to have students create a storyboard that does not involve first-person shooting since most of the main characters, not all, are in the first-person shooting position. I would also like to see if/how young women would contribute to the science fiction genre since there are clearly more male creators than female.

Astro Race (1973)
Atari’s Space Invaders, at the arcade (1978), released for home use (1980)
Atari’s Asteroids (1979)
Interplay Production’s Wasteland (1988), remade into Fallout series
Atari’s Alien vs. Predator (1994), based on films
Interplay Entertainment’s Fallout series (1997): Written by Scott Campbell, Brian Freyermuth, and Mark O’Green
Bungie’s Halo (2001): Written by Joseph Staten
Bioware’s Mass Effect series (2007): Written by Drew Karpshyn, Lukas Krotjanson, Christ L’Etoile, Mike Laidlow, Mac Walters, Patrick Weekes
Valve Corporation’s Portal series (2007): Written by Erik Wolpaw, Chet Falisek
Cryptic Studio’s Star Trek Online, STO (2010): Written by Marianne Krawczyk, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
Keen Software House’s Space Engineers (2013)
BioShock Infinite (2013): Written by Ken Levine, Drew Holmes, Joe Fielder, John Dombrow
Saints Row IV (2013): Written by Steve Jaros, Jason L. Blair, Jeff Bielanski
Watch Dogs (2014): Written by Kevin Shortt

For game ratings see http://www.esrb.org/index-js.jsp

Music

Composers write music for science fiction video games, movies, music videos, and songs. In the early 20th century, composers began experimenting with sounds in order to create a “new” sound. Stravinsky and Holst are just two of those who were successful with changing music, giving composers musical ideas that could be adapted to science fiction soundtracks. The Forbidden Planet (1956), as said above, was the first to use an electronically compiled musical composition, but composers would contribute different ideas, sometimes using electronic music, sometimes not.

Igor Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1911)
Gustav Holst: The Planets (1913)
Jerry Goldsmith: The Twilight Zone (1950’s), Planet of the Apes (1968), Star Trek films
John Williams: Lost in Space (TV show, 1965-68)), Jaws (1975), Star Wars films (1975+), Superman (1979), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1989),
James Horner: Star Trek films, Cocoon (1985), Aliens (1986), The Rocketeer (1991), Bicentennial Man (1999), Avatar (2009), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Alan Silvestri: The Abyss (1989), Contact (1997), The Avengers (2012), also “Live to Rise” by Soundgarden (2012)
Rush: “2112” (1976)
Styx: “Mr. Roboto” (1983)
Huey Lewis and the News: “Back in Time” (1985)
Michael Jackson with Janet Jackson: “Scream” music video (1995)
Beastie Boys: “Intergalactic” (1998)
The Smashing Pumpkins: “Tonight, Tonight” music video (1996), “Rocket” music video (1993)
Muse: Black Holes and Revelations, album (2006)
Thomas Newman: WALL-E (2008)
Patrick Doyle: Thor (2011), also “Walk” by Foo Fighters (2011)
Daft Punk: Tron (2010)

See also http://sciencefiction.com/2013/12/25/science-fiction-inspired-music-videos/

The rest is history….OR what will you come up with next?

by Boris Vellejo

For more science fiction art, see http://webringjustice.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/boris-vallejo-space-art/

As you can see, story can inspire people to advance science and technology just as science can inspire people to advance storytelling. The relationship between the two—human language/literature and science–is inseparable because they inform each other like a team that cooperates in order to build a rocket in order to discover and understand knowledge in even the most distant places. Science fiction, in effect, encapsulates all of the liberal arts (trivium and quadrivium), all that can be discussed in human terms, in one elegant story.

As a reminder, here are the three components of language that are always in play when communicating:

Logic: the thing as it is known; thinking
Grammar: the thing as it is symbolized; creating and connecting
Rhetoric: the thing as it is conveyed/communicated; communicating (presented through which mode and how)

Here are the four disciplines of the quadrivium:

Theory of number
The application of number (includes music)

Theory of space, matter
The application of space, matter

The discipline that exists both in and outside of all other disciplines is theology since it concerns the spiritual but must needs use language, the symbols of language and the conveyance of such, and the senses in order to speak about the spiritual. The closest genre to the theological is the mythological since it touches upon universal themes and human concerns. In point of fact, it might be important to remember that myth tries to talk about that which language can barely grasp; for instance, the concept hope or the feeling of anger can be represented by symbols but the symbol only refers to hope or anger. However, since science fiction, as said above, uses elements of mythology, it also tends to sometimes touch upon theological inquiry. Science fiction seems, then, to venture in and out of the continuum of literature.

The continuum of literature

The greatest stories have “best sentence and moost solas”

–Chaucer’s “General Prologue” from the Canterbury Tales

In reading literature artifacts, minus science fiction, the continuum of works ranges from educative to entertaining (Horace, Epistolas Ad Pisones De Ars Poetica, BCE). For instance, science journals and news reports would be on the side of educative because they are simply informational. On the other side of the continuum would be those works that are for entertainment only, like a cartoon. In theory, the closer to the middle of that continuum a work is, the bigger the audience a writer has. However, science fiction, which may contain both educative and entertaining elements also contains elements of speculation (Gill, 2013). It tries to formulate a creative hypothesis about what would happen if “blank” variables were in place, like an imaginary experiment. This can somewhat like prophecy, which has, of course, been a longstanding human tradition, and indeed, some science fiction writers have been noted for doing just that–predicting what would happen if people continue doing this or predicting what could be made if science and technology continue to advance in a certain way. For instance, Jules Verne has been credited for inspiring the creation of submarine and helicopter technology and for influencing geological surveying while H.G. Wells is credited for predicting certain human events based on the direction of politics in his time.

Literary analysis of science fiction literature

For literary analysis in science fiction, since it contains educative elements, first, one would need to know to which scientific facts and theories that the writer alludes, particularly for the political and explorational types of science fiction literature. Students could also investigate the intent of the author, the historical context of the writer, the known scientific facts and technology today, and the meaning of the symbols he used to convey his ideas, according to his culture since varying cultures portray science fiction differently; one could then compare yesterday’s use of symbols to our present understanding of these symbols (Partsch, 2002; Suvin, 1983). It would also be interesting to know how the audience in the time the author lived perceived his work (the interpretation) and if any creation he imagined or speculation he made came to fruition.

At some point, the types of science fiction overlap because all science fiction engages speculation, partially because imagination does just that. There is also an element or are elements of truth in each type because humans have no basis for understanding one another if some sort of truth were not attached to each word, phrase, and sentence that is used.

Because mythological and philosophical science fiction are more concerned with abstract ideas, which are still educative, and less with science fact, per se, then a student should be encouraged to think critically and to identify certain philosophies. Most science fiction literature, not all, contains elements of entertainment; thus, students should be able to delineate the rhetorical devices from the facts and ideas. Discovering the rhetorical devices is perhaps most important in political science fiction, in which the creators are trying to persuade their audiences to think a certain way about their topic.

Discovering the four types of science fiction (Qualities and Examples)

Mythological (entertaining and educative): “[T]he myth tends to know what is unknowable;” natural and supernatural; working out the characters and character relationships is the most important part of the story; integrates science/technology as a tool for the characters

Examples: Avengers, Superman, Frankenstein, Star Wars, Aliens, E.T.

Philosophical (educative, speculative, ethical, learning/knowing, state of being, existence, essence, etc.): working out philosophies is the most important part of the story; integrates science into the realm of philosophy

Examples: Star Trek series, Utopia, Gattaca, Gravity, Signs, Tron, Matrix

Political (entertaining and speculative): call to action or pushing an agenda or convincing the audience of an argument is the most important part of the story; a warning; often dystopic or apocalyptic; hyperbolic; integrates and sometimes resists or rejects science and technology

Examples: Soylent Green, The Village, 1984, The Hunger Games, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Battlestar Galatica (remake), Elysium, The Time Machine

Explorational (educative and speculative): Proven scientific facts and theories with fictional science and fiction added; explores the possibilities of advancement; the science is an important part of the story; integrates science/technology into the future

Examples: Europa Report, Jules Verne’s works, 2001 Space Odyssey, Moon, Total Recall, The Magic School Bus

Students can be challenged to figure out how some of these works fit under multiple types. For instance, Star Wars, as I have placed it, is mythological, since there are elements of the supernatural, character development is important, and technology is just a tool. However, it could be argued, that Star Wars is also political science fiction since the story talks about imperialism and revolution. As said before, the types overlap. Having students analyze and defend which type characterizes a work they read could make for a great paper.

Background necessary for each type

Mythological: knowledge of symbol (that which speaks to something that cannot really be said); figurative language; archetypes (heroes and villains); character development; narrative; good versus evil; supernatural powers; other mythologies in history; epic or episodic (saga); how to use quotes in literary analysis

grammar (symbols, literary terms)

logic (connection)

rhetoric (how characters are conveyed)

Philosophical: knowledge of the philosophy that is being shaped or understood and its possible original thinker; how the philosophy is being explained; if the rhetorician is explaining it without bias or unnecessary variables; what can be learned about this philosophy; virtues; how does that help us?; censorship vs. voyeurism; find the ideas that are being presented in the imaginary forum; elements of scholasticism, existentialism, realism, and/ or idealism in story; search for Truth, Beauty, state of being, human existence, humanity; paraphrasing skills

grammar (philosophical terms and meanings)

logic (deductive, inductive, categories)

Political: rhetoric (persuasion, argument, evidence; logos, pathos, ethos, kairos); other political perspectives; worldview theories—binary oppositions (all or nothing extremes), synthesis; the danger of moralizing hypotheses; level of exaggeration; fear as a persuader (of technology, of humans, of large populations, of otherness, of the future); manipulative artwork theory (propaganda)—dark or daunting sounds, quick shots, sights and shadows, emotional (fear usually), tempo changes based on what they want you to think about certain things; testing past political perspectives in science fiction; grammar (worldviews–dualist, hierarchical, isolationist, global, Catholic)

logic (limitations or erroneous conclusions, syllogisms, of certain worldviews?)

rhetoric (how the worldview is integrated and conveyed through sights, sounds, and emotions)

Explorational: knowledge of the scientific facts and/or theory; how this topic is being researched today; what we’ve learned since the work was written; observation log; summary skills; research skills

grammar (science vocabulary)

logic (order, analysis, and reasoning)

Writing and presentation that complements each type (text patterns)

Mythological: narrative; play; video; comic/graphic novel

Philosophical: dialogue that finds clarity, looks for gaps, ambiguities, and inconsistencies; daily log (journal for reflection); dialogue/discussion in groups

Political: argument; debate; speech writing

Explorational: scientific method; informational; researched essay with thesis, evidence and support, and conclusion; explanation of findings; reflection logs

Using the scientific method to analyze science fiction literature

The scientific method helps in understanding science fiction and also engages Bloom’s taxonomy.

Inquiry: Find a topic to observe and consider (or write about) that deals with science and/or technology in some way within the context of a story; some stories create a tension between humans and science/technology; others use science/technology with indifference or casually; some show positive ways that science and technology can be a part of human life; others show a pessimistic view of technology and science in the future of humanity.

Research the Topic: science fact, science predictions, science exaggeration, technology references, rhetorical devices

Formulate a Hypothesis: Speculate or hypothesize a main idea or thesis.

Test the Hypothesis: Transform understanding. Find the variables and distinguish from the theme. Or, create the variables and conditions and tell a new story within the your chosen variables and conditions. Note: some authors, particularly when writing political science fiction, purposefully add a bias, which is what the scientific method tries to avoid in order to be objective; thus some science fiction can be more subjective than others.

Analyze: Make connections and develop theories based on evidence both fictional and non-fictional.

Interpretation and Conclusion: Explain why the theory, bias, or philosophy might or might not work under the conditions provided by the setting, the characters, the interactions of the characters, and the interaction of the characters with science and technology. Or, explain the interaction of science and technology with the narrative, or the telling of the story.

Communicate: Does the story ask the audience to make conclusions based on the evidence provided? Is it either for or against some or part of human advancement in science and technology or humans in general? What is the story saying to you as a reader/viewer? What would you share about this story? Can you create your own?

Retest/reflect: Create a story, using different variables, and see if the same thing happens. Or, tell how you are able to find persuasive arguments in some science fiction literature.

Alternate literatures that integrate technology

Science fiction tends to easily employ multi-literacies because technology and science integration is a natural part of science fiction.

Film: While a picture tells a thousand words and books are limited in words by the energy of the writer and by linear expression, film exponentially speaks to the audience in multiple ways–by engaging visuals, sounds, tones, overlapping, action, tempo, dialogue, body language, etc.; film is relatively close to oral tradition and plays but the director tries to direct what the audience will see and hear; however, different people can come up with multiple interpretations, dependent on what each person decides to focus upon; film is also highly collaborative and engages multiple types of talents, technologies, and time; in popular films, the number of people involved can fill a small town.
Ebook: a tool for individual work
Youtube videos: presentation, rhetorical choices, multiple interpretations, individual/collaborative
Blogging: reflection, discussion, dialogue, learn how to ask question that clarify or expand, pairs/collaboration
Skyping: discussion, dialogue with body language and tone, pairs
Music: sounds, entertaining and educative, cultural
Animation: color, symbol, surrealism, focused dialogue and text, individual/collaborative

Any of these could be used for presentations during teaching, discussion, or student projects. In that way, students will learn to use technology in a healthy way and will be simultaneously learning how to understand the rhetoric employed by each of these technologies.

Conclusion

Science fiction can give students connection to a variety of topics that are relevant to the 21st century: space exploration, earth sciences, globalization. Not only that, science fiction can link students to other types of literature and contexts: the Bible and its varying genres, Greek plays and mythology, Norse mythology, Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas, explorers journals, Stein, De Beauvoir, American politics, major historical events, and new technologies. It lends to multi-literacies, then, perhaps more than any other genre and would probably be one of the most logical, flexible, and necessary additions to the 21st century secondary language arts and literature classroom.

Please note: In bibliographic terms, librarians tend to refer to the mythology of science fiction as science fantasy, but that term seems inadequate for the purposes of teaching. Mythological is used in the literary sense, not the religious sense; however, in Catholic classrooms, the discussion on mythological concepts could easily connect to theological discussions.

References and notes:

Harmon and Holman use the quote, “something at once familiar and strange” under the heading of myth and describe myth as “narrative embodiments of a people’s perception of the deepest truths” (p. 338).

Propaganda Novel: A novel dealing with a special social, political, economic, or moral issue or problem and possibly advocating a doctrinaire solution. If the propagandistic purpose dominates the work so as to dwarf or eclipse all other elements, such as plot and character, then the novel belongs in the realm of the didactic… (p. 417)

Harmon and Holman also suggest that the “problem novel” or the novel that has “a story with a purpose rather than for a purpose” is also a propaganda novel since the writer is trying to cause an action, give evidence to support a theory, based on the “thesis” of his or her story’s argument (p. 414).

Ankiewicz, P., de Swardt, E., & de Vries, M. (2006). Some Implications of the Philosophy of Technology for Science, Technology and Society (STS) Studies. International Journal Of Technology & Design Education, 16(2), 117-141. doi:10.1007/s10798-005-3595-x

Bradbury, Ray (1953). “The Day After Tomorrow: Why Science Fiction?” The Nation, pp. 364-67.

Darko, S. (1983). Victorian science fiction, 1871-85: The rise of the alternative history subgenre. Science Fiction Studies, 10(2), 30. pp. 148-169.

Facer, K. (2012). Personal, relational and beautiful: education, technologies, and John MacMurray’s philosophy. Oxford Review of Education, 38(6), 709-725.

Gill, R.B. “The uses of genre and the classification of speculative fiction.” Mosaic [Winnipeg] 46.2 (2013): 71.Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 10 July 2014.

Hall, H.W. (1999). The Bibliographic Control of Science Fiction: A Quarter-Century of Change. Extrapolation, 40(4), pp. 304-313.

Harmon, W. and Holman, H. (2006). A handbook to literature, tenth edition. Pearson, Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Hung, D., Lee, S., Y.T. Lim, K. (2012). Authentic learning for the twenty-first century: Bridging the formal and the informal. Educational technology, research and development, 60(6). Retrieved via Academic Search Premier.

Partsch, C (2002). Paul Scheerbart and the art of science fiction. Science Fiction Studies, 29(2), 87. pp. 202-220.

Scanlon, E. E., Anastopoulou, S. S., Kerawalla, L. L., & Mulholland, P. P. (2011). How technology resources can be used to represent personal inquiry and support students’ understanding of it across contexts. Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(6), 516-529. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00414.x

Theology of the Body reference notes, p. 91

Most Popular Sci-Fi Video Games. http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=sci_fi&sort=moviemeter,asc&title_type=game

The Atari Times. Retrieved from http://www.ataritimes.com/index.php?ArticleIDX=272

AMC All-Time Box Office Hits. http://www.filmsite.org/boxoffice2.html

 

Book Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847)

Author: Emily Bronte
Year Published: 1847
Reading Level: 9
Morality Level: cautious PG (dysfunctional families, immature responses to marriage, depression, consanguineous marriages, temper-tantrums, envy, bitterness, lying, vengeance, oppression, gossip)

About the Author: Born in England in 1818, her father was a clergyman. The fifth of six children, her mom died when she was 3 years old. Her two oldest sisters died when she was young as well. When she was six, she went to a school for the daughters of clergy but was treated so poorly that she only remained for a year. Most of her social life included her sisters and her servants, living a very quiet life. Some suggest that besides her sisters, her family members isolated themselves from each other even when they lived in the same house, and her older brother was abusive. In 1835, she attended another school for three months so was mostly educated at home. She enjoyed writing poetry with her sister Anne and wrote only one novel, Wuthering Heights. Anne and Charlotte also published books. Emily died when she was 30 years old.

Aesthetic Qualities: The book is written in the style of a framework story. Mr. Lockwood learns about the people who have lived at Wuthering Heights from meeting Heathcliff, Cathy Jr., and Hareton, and from the stories of Nellie, their housekeeper/nursemaid. In addition, there are stories within the stories that Nellie tells. It is like investigative work to figure out who Heathcliff and Catherine really are. However, because each part we learn of these two comes from different “story-tellers,” this novel also plays with perception. How reliable is the information from the one who tells? How could that person’s assumptions and biases being framing the characters? Does the story being told tell more about the storyteller than the people she speaks about?

Gleanings (educative, relatable themes and topics): healthy vs. unhealthy friendships, biases (class, race, and background), perspectives, assumptions, boredom, confinement, superficial vs. deep questions, servant vs. master, servant/master perspective, nature vs. nurture OR nature and nurture, making assumption on external appearances, dysfunctional behaviors, superstition, problems with elitism (snobbery), problems with isolation, does this novel have a Christian perspective?

Symbols: distance, wealth, poverty, hunger, books, heath, moor, houses, emaciation, kitchen, dogs, Heathcliff (the name), dark, light

Summary: The story begins with the framework of Mr. Lockwood, who has just rented a place owned by Heathcliff. Mr. Lockwood desires to be anti-social; that is, he desires to have limited contact with humans, so the area surrounding Wuthering Heights seems to be the perfect place. However, once he begins to interact with other “anti-social” people, he begins to think that it is not as ideal as he thought it would be. From his interactions with Heathcliff and his family and from the gossip that Nellie, their old housekeeper, provides, Mr. Lockwood constructs an image of Heathcliff and the people around Wuthering Heights.

Points of confusion/concern: The main characters, in my opinion, act like spoiled children. Spoiling a child can come from abuse (physical and psychological) or from giving into a child’s every want. The characters make use of both types of parental abuses. The families are isolated and have little contact with the rest of the world, which may contribute to their dysfunctional and self-centered behaviors. In addition, a consanguineous relationship is encouraged and seen as the most noble, the height and hope of what these families have to offer.

Opinion: In hopes that I do not hurt Emily’s feelings pr yours, dear reader, I thought that although I was intrigued in the beginning and found the shifts in perspective pleasant, sometimes almost funny, I did not enjoy this book overall. I was hoping for something akin to Shakespearean drama based on what opinions I had already heard, but my expectations went unfulfilled. Other than the style, I could not find anything else to like about this book. None of the characters were intriguing—there was no character development, but most of this book was a character sketch of other characters, according to another character. For me, it is really hard to stay with a book when I do not have at least one character to connect with in some way. There wasn’t any depth in their thinking; there was no struggling with moral decisions; there were just a lot of reactions and overreactions at that. And the story drove nowhere. I had to force myself to read this book but would not have persisted if it were not a requirement. I was bored and disappointed. In the end, the book seems like glorified gossip or a commentary on how people who are highly dysfunctional and flat can become legend merely by talking about them.

Research for connecting context:

• Framework stories: The framework is the story that connects all the stories, external like a decorative frame around a picture. A framework story is the story within the framework story—a story within a story. The framework and the framework stories are connected or interwoven with each other. It is told in a narrative that sometimes employs multiple genres; finding the main character may not be that simple but is often the person in the framework who also travels; this style is close to conversation (oral tradition); it is a common method for telling stories in all parts of the world through the centuries.
• Other examples are the following: the Book of Job (700’s BC), Gospels contain frames and framework stories (1st century AD), Echtrae Conli (Irish, 2nd century), Ramayana (Valmiki, 4th century), Urashimo Taro (Japan, 8th century), The Voyage of Brendan (Irish, 8th century), One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (10th century), Acallam na Senorach (Irish, 11th century), Decameron (Italy, 14th century), Canterbury Tales (England, 14th century), Utopia (England, 16th century), Frankenstein (England, 1818), The Sketchbook (United States, 1819), The Turn of the Screw (United States, 1898), Heart of Darkness (England, 1899), Citizen Kane (United States, 1941), It’s A Wonderful Life (United States, 1946), Princess Bride (United States, 1987), Titanic (United States, 1997), investigative or detective TV shows like Sherlock might also be considered frameworks with framework stories.
• Books in 19th century England: Compare Wuthering Heights with Pride and Prejudice—where books for the characters seemingly are a means to nobility in Bronte’s book, the main character in Austen’s novel seems to see books as a means to escape bad relationships and boredom. How do you see books? Find out who read a lot of books in the 19th century England and why.
• History of England (mid-19th century): Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, which may have been a commentary on Malthus’ economic policies from 1826; the Brownings are widely read; the British Empire continued to expand during this time; tired of the oppression of the British Empire (causing a famine in 1846), millions of Irish folk immigrated to the United States and other areas of the world; this immigration to the United States would make Catholicism the largest denomination in the US from that time forward; Karl Marx, though German, would become one of the European correspondents to the United States (New York) while working in England—his and Engels’ Manifesto would appear one year after the publication of Wuthering Heights; Charles Darwin and his cousin, Francis Galton, begin to propose that aristocracy (genius) is inherited and that they are meant to be in the top class (second half of the 19th century), adopting Gobineau’s theory that there is a superior race.
• US History: the US government makes public school compulsory, using textbooks that are in many cases anti-Catholic (1852); MacMillan publishing company is established in the British Empire (Scotland); after much criticism, Frederick Douglass finally publishes his narrative in 1845; the Mexican-American War begins in 1846, a time when the term “manifest destiny” is used for the first time; the Associated Press takes control of several smaller newspaper companies in New York; African Americans petition a Boston public school to be allowed enrollment, but they are denied; the American Medical Association is established in 1847; the Gold Rush begins one year later, and Mother Cabrini arrives in the US in 1849 to help Italian immigrants; a French Catholic scientist, Fizeau measures the speed of light; the Know-Nothings begin to cause riots and burn Catholic churches in anti-Catholic and anti-Negro protests in 1851; in that same year, Foucault, a French Catholic scientist, creates a pendulum to show the rotation of the earth while Mr. Singer from New York patents the sewing machine; in 1856, the American, Horatio Storer, begins to convince the American Medical Association that there are serious complications to a woman’s health when an abortion is performed—his main concern is women’s health; Poe, Cooper, Longfellow, Stowe, Melville Thoreau, and Hawthorne are American writers/novelists from this mid 19th century time period; Alexandre Dumas, French/African, was publishing many books at this time as well.
• Is it more likely for you to have read an English work or an American work from this time period? How about Catholic works from this time period? Have you read any works by Catholic writers from this time period? Explain.
• Article 8, the Eighth Commandment (Living in the Truth), CCC paragraphs 2464-2513

Striking Quotes:

“Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend—if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own.” (Chapter 11)

“I hardly knew what to hide, and what to reveal.” (Chapter 26)

“[H]e was a model of a jailer—surly, and dumb, and deaf to every attempt at moving his sense of justice or compassion.” (Chapter 27)

Film Adaptation: Wuthering Heights, directed by Andrea Arnold (2011); Wuthering Heights, directed by William Wyler (1939). These two adaptations are very different. Analyze how biases can change how a story is conveyed.

Ref:

Biography-Emily Bronte. Retrieved from http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/brontes/emily/emily.asp

Emily Bronte (2011). Retrieved from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/

Dooley, Ann & Roe, Harry (1999). Tales of the elders of Ireland, a new translation of Acallam na Senorach. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Harmon & Holman (2006). A handbook to literature, tenth edition. Pearson Prentice Hall: New Jersey.

Prosser, J (2014). A handbook of US Catholic history: Timeline, compilation, and reflection, 2nd edition.

 

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

Author: Jane Austen
Year Published: 1813
Reading Level: 9.5-10

Morality Level: PG (the main character’s sister runs off with a young man and does not marry him until forced to do so); however, compared to most literature today, this book is extremely tame.

About the Author: Jane Austen (1775-1817); she was one of seven children, most of whom were brothers; educated at a boarding school, she was granted a lot of access to many types of literature in other languages, including French; she never married but seems to have been proposed to by one man, whom she had no affection for, and could not marry another whom she liked because he lacked money; she would have been in her 30’s when she wrote this book. (Jane Austen biography by Renee Warren, 2014)

Aesthetic Qualities: Like many books of this time, the first few sentences explain what the entire book will be about: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Marriage. This book is on how to obtain a marriage. There is a prolific use of dialogue, conversation, and gossip. In addition, Austen makes use of letters written to and from the main characters. The characters, rather than the storyline, are intriguing—the characters develop and learn as they interact, have experiences, and reflect. It is a marvelous weaving, to have the characters remember and gain new insight with things that happened earlier in the story.

Gleanings (educative, relatable topics and themes): marriage, family, love, marriage in friendship vs. marriage necessity, judging others, making assumptions based on external qualities, letter writing, fraternal correction, moralizing vs. morality, gossip vs. honest conversation, pace of life, the importance of reflection

Symbols: pride, prejudice, military, marriage, books, dancing

Summary: From the beginning, the reader knows that this story is about marriage. Specifically, a mom of five daughters in this story wants to see that all her daughters marry well. When a single, young, and wealthy man moves nearby, the mother becomes excited and does everything she can to have her daughters meet this young man. As the story progresses, the reader learns that marriage was really the most esteemed option for some women since most women could not earn money nor could they inherit enough to live alone. Her second daughter Elizabeth–the main character–however does not necessarily focus on marriage as the final goal of her life as her mother teaches her. In fact, Elizabeth, who has a better relationship with her philosophical father, turns down two marriage proposals during this story. Her older sister, Jane, on the other hand, falls in love with the young man who has moved next door. And, as if marching to the same drumbeat, the younger sisters fawn over the officers and soldiers who have just come to town because they want to find a husband, too.

When Elizabeth first meets Mr. Darcy, a man who wants to marry her, her first impressions are that he is proud—arrogant, condescending, aloof. She really wants nothing to do with him. At first, he wants nothing to do with her because her family seems strange. However, as their conversations develop during a dance, Mr. Darcy finds that he is intrigued by Elizabeth—her intelligence, her wit, and her boldness. He falls in love with her before she falls in love with him. In addition to her first impression of Mr. Darcy, more obstacles appear in her understanding of Mr. Darcy. Another suitor lies or gossips about Mr. Darcy, a lie that Elizabeth and the whole town believe. It seems that the two shall never meet.

Alas, they do meet, and Elizabeth eventually falls in love with Mr. Darcy, finding in him principle, responsibility, and integrity as well as kindness. They both realize that their initial impressions of each other were wrong and that really getting to know someone meant getting beneath the surface.

Opinion: This is a “safe” book to teach. I can’t think of anyone who could get offended by the story, unless a reader suspects that Austen was endorsing the younger sister’s affair. This book is also light-hearted in the sense that it has a happy ending and the most tragic affair is only indirectly mentioned. However, I have to say that I can neither recommend it nor criticize it because it was neither overly engaging nor was it overly boring or offensive. It was just clean, good reading.

Points of confusion/concern: To begin, it would be important to talk about the different usages of the word pride. Is it always the vice that writers are referring to? Some of the conversations between the characters are at a very high-level language structure, almost as if the characters were lawyers, inching over each piece and detail of life. The construction of some sentences might be very difficult for some readers, and the way the characters speak about the details of each moment might be overly tedious for other readers. Some visual readers might benefit from seeing the Keira Knightley movie first in order to have a visual concept of the characters; these readers could do a compare/contrast with the film since the movie writers did make some changes.

Research connections for context:

• Literary Happenings: Grimm’s Fairy Tales are published for the first time: Johann David Wyss publishes Swiss Family Robinson; short stories, an American phenomenon, will be invented by 1819 (Washington Irving); people realize the power of the Press; several publishing houses begin to crop up in England and in the northeastern US, since many were owned by Anglo-Protestants who propagandized the Catholic Church, Jesuit publishing houses were suppressed; Wordsworth, Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake, John Keats, and Lord Byron were all popular poets around this time.
• Female Authors and Teachers: several women were allowed to teach at the University of Bologna in Italy; cast out by Anglican Protestants in US for converting, Elizabeth Ann Seton begins making Catholic schools in the Maryland (1809); the Sisters of Loretto begin making schools in Kentucky (1812); Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein in 1818; Rose Phillipine-Duchesne begins to build schools for girls in the Midwest US in 1818; Queen Victoria would begin her reign in 1837.
• Romanticism: This should be done within the context of English literary wavering—from Catholic to puritanistic to romantic to puritanistic again. English writers were having a hard time figuring out what “good” literature was. Prior to the secular take-over of the Church during the reign of King Henry, the patrons of the arts had religion, beauty, history, story-telling, and philosophy in mind; after that, several “art” patrons were concerned about politics, which many writers tried to resist, but the movements in literature seem to be a series of reactions rather than a consistent search for truth, creativity, and beauty. Pride and Prejudice conveys this sense of conflict within the frame of marriage. Was marriage a secular concern, only a matter of economics, political correctness, necessity and law, or was marriage of a more spiritual nature, a matter of the heart, the intellect, and the will to love? English thinkers, then, began to think with either/or propositions. However, Austen decidedly thinks marriage should be about all of the above since her main character marries a man who speaks to her heart and mind as her best friend, and who is capable of taking care of her and their future family financially, which is more akin to the Catholic hope for married life.
• Marriage in England and the function of the English church and English politics during the Romantic period (a realm of the couple, of the state, of the church, or of society?); see also Marriage, Writing, and Romanticism by EC Walker (2009), Stanford University Press.
• Regency decade: the decade in which this was written, a question about marriage held prominence in the royal family.
• Georgian Period: Industrial Revolution; inventions in agriculture requires less human labor, so many people move to the city for work; British Empire continues to expand, holding ownership over the most significant trade routes and methods of communication.
• Some World Events: War of 1812 (when Canadian colonies gain independence from Britain); Henri de Saint-Simon begins writing treatise on the necessity of aristocratic elitism; War of 1812 (Russia defeats Napoleon’s invasion); Andres Quintana, a Franciscan is martyred in California (1812); Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815); advances in the theory of thermodynamics were being made by the French Catholic, Fourier; Spanish colonies increasingly gain independence.
• American Events and People: Louisiana Purchase in 1803; Washington Irving begins to publish a series of short stories in 1819 (“Rip Van Winkle,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”); universal suffrage begins to expand for the first time in human history when men from all classes in the US vote (1820’s); the Cherokee alphabet is created by Sequoyah in 1821 and The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper becomes a bestselling novel; states continue to be added to the new United States of America.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1601-1666 (The Sacrament of Matrimony)
• Married Saints and Blesseds through the Centuries by Ferdinand Holbock (2002): some saints from that time period are Anna Mary Taigi, Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Joachima de Mas y de Verduna.

 

Striking Quotes:

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.” (Chapter 24)

“You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity.” (Chapter 24)

“Had Elizabeth’s opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing opinion of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort. Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.” (Chapter 42)

“This was a lucky recollection—it saved her something very like regret.” (Chapter 42)

Film Adaptation: Pride and Prejudice (2005) with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, directed by Joe Wright, 129 minutes; Pride and Prejudice (1995, television series) with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, BBC, 6 episodes, 55 minutes each.

 

 

Catholic and Jewish Literary Inventions and Conventions (information)

Background

Without getting too much into history and theory, I just wanted to clarify a couple of points. These are all conventions that Catholic and Jewish writers adopted in addition to some actual writing inventions by Catholic and Jewish writers. Writing conventions were usually adopted from the oral traditions of cultures—the ways in which people taught, told stories, sang songs, and communicated information. In most cases, people speak or express a new literary invention before it becomes a writing convention. Here, in addition to contributions from Eastern writing concepts (i.e. paper, imagists, iconography), I must mention the influence of the Greek and Latin traditions. So much of what we still use today in the English language can be attributed to the Greeks and Latin speakers. However, an often overlooked group in why we say what we say also comes from the Hebrew language tradition. I go back and forth, wondering if it is actually English I speak and write or if it is actually an English version of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. We, all human beings, are heirs to a language tradition that has roots that reach far, far back in history.

Word.

Anyway, it is erroneous, then, to think that whoever wrote something down first was the first to tell a certain story or think a certain thought in a certain way. Words travel faster and more expressively through people than through print. Oral tradition has been and probably still is a much more common way to tell stories and pass on information. People talk more and listen faster than what can be written and read. Dialogue is still the best way to effectively communicate something to others if you hope for understanding. From this source of communication, language continues to change and be shaped by human beings based on what people want to convey and how people understand what is being conveyed. That is, spoken language is very dynamic and living, expanding through time.

The language we use today is built upon the labor and capital of those who labored before us, so to speak. That said, language still tries to convey the same fundamental questions humans have today as those questions of yesterday—life, death, happiness, pain, goodness, trial, triumph, exile, confusion, growth, exploration, desire, relationship, freedom, oppression, love. In ancient times, many people used mythology to explore these questions. Today, we do the same just in new forms. Even if we can’t understand the words and images our ancestors of the past used, we understand the questions they had.

That means that written work immediately becomes an artifact, language captured as it is known in the historical moment. It is akin to technology, which is ever changing. Not many people use an Apple II computer because computers have changed dramatically through human innovation. In the same way, not many people communicate through ballads. Writing innovation creates and employs new technologies in order to communicate with others through time and space. Innovative writing comes when a person consciously shapes a written work in order to communicate to others—writers make the shaping of words an art form just as sculptors make the shaping of elements of the earth an art form—a creative act of the human being, inspired. The wonderful thing about writing is that it is a process of reciprocation—you learn more as you write more because you are inspired to wonder more.

Note: For the most part, I tried to put these inventions and conventions in chronological order under each subtopic. I also tried to give the earliest example of each. Many of the earliest examples are, of course, from Jewish writers; after Jesus, most examples of developments in writing come from Catholic writers; a few examples are from Protestant contributors (American writers).

Word: Which comes first? The word or the idea? Could both happen simultaneously?

The Primary and Most Important Instrument of Language: The Human Being

• Thought—what we think and how we think
• Perception—what we perceive and how we perceive it
• Voice—what we say and how we say it; what we hear and how we hear it
• Body Language (Vision)—what we express and how we express it; what we see and how we understand it

How do you communicate what is said and perceived?

What else do you need to know?

• Who says what
• When it is said
• Why is it said

Early Human Expression, Questions, and Understanding

Creation story: One that fairly accurately explains the order in which things and people were created.

Genealogies: One that connects people that exist today with people of ancient times. Couples to families to tribes to nations to kingdoms to the entire earth.

Why me, God? Literature: Narrative of the relationship between humans and One God, One that connects to all three major, monotheistic religions still in action today.
Feminine literature: A book dedicated entirely to the memory of one real woman–Ruth.
Prayers to God: Prayers that include all the varying emotions that humans have, from despair to hope, fear to strength, hatred to love, confusion to clarity. Jewish writers were not indifferent but heartily involved.

Law: One that combines ethical standards and religion. Many other polytheistic religions often had unethical gods.

Ecclesiastical Information: How should a priest be and act?

Maxims and Wisdom: Like Confucius (6th century BC, China), Solomon a few hundred years earlier developed several maxims, proverbs, that were the fruits of his own wisdom-seeking.

Love Poetry: The Song of Songs from Solomon’s time is still considered to be one of the most imagery-rich love poems of all time. Its historical significance and its timelessness fascinates poets even today. Not only is it full of imagery, unlike Egyptian love poetry, Song of Songs contains a definitive strain of hope interwoven throughout.

Prophecy: From the pagan, who could not help but give the “face the reality” prophecy to the last minor prophet in the Old Testament, Jewish writers thought prophecy important enough to log in their records.

The Word: He walks; He talks; He sleeps; He eats; He dwells; He inspires; He manifests what He speaks; He was in the beginning, is now, and ever will be.

Technological Advances

Phonetic Symbols: an invention from the Phoenician traders and merchants, a Semitic people (800-1000 BC). Whereas other cultures were using picture symbols, the Phoenicians decided to create symbols that would represent sounds. This opened up the possibilities for combinations, which could exponentially multiply and transform, opening an even bigger door that would help people develop and adopt concepts that had not yet been seen or spoken. This way of writing would be adopted first by the Greeks, then by the Latin speakers. Arabic linguists also adopted this way of writing. However, in addition to the consonants, which the Phoenicians used, the Greek and Latin speakers would create vowel sound symbols. The sound symbols that people in the West (from Europe to the Americas) use today are Latin symbols. Incidentally, most of the vocabulary we use in the West uses roots from both Greek and Latin languages. Catholics adopted playwriting, epic poetry, dialogue philosophy, and cataloguing from the Greek and Latin traditions.

Author’s Overview, Purpose, Method, and Apology: Not only does the author of Maccabees give an overview of what he will talk about, he talks about his purpose and the method he will use in telling the story. After he tells the story, he writes an apology because he cannot tell if he wrote well or not. Indeed, this was a very scientific approach to story-telling. See Maccabees, 2nd century BC.

The Book or Codex (1st century): Rather than keeping with the tradition of scroll-writing as the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans had done or with the tradition of tablet-writing as other cultures had done, Christians decided to keep everything they wrote down in something called a book. It travels well; it won’t come unrolled; it can hold a collection of works; it doesn’t take as much time to write a word as it would engraving on a tablet. Fast, efficient, mobile—the book, next to phonetic symbols, was another of the highest, most influential inventions.

Illuminated texts: Gold-plated, illustrious letters and images, all wrapped into one book. St. Brigid is sometimes attributed as starting this tradition, 525.

Cyrillic alphabet: After encountering people who did not have their language written down, Saints Cyril and Methodius decided it would be a good idea to develop a printed version of all the languages they heard different tribes speaking, 800s.
Paper mills began to be introduced in the 1000’s in Spain.

Fibonacci patterns and numbers: Seeing patterns in nature and adopting Arabic numerals is attributed to Fibonacci. How much easier would it become for Catholic mathematicians to grapple with more difficult problems (early 1200’s).
Printing press: Johannes Gutenberg, 1436.

Gregorian Calendar: Peter Chaco, Christopher Clavius, Ignatius Dante, 1582.

Technical writing: Although Aristotle covered fairly well the art of categorization, several Catholic scholars adopted his methods in order to advance theories. For example, Isidore of Seville, (doctor of the Church) 600’s; Albertus Magnus (doctor of the Church), 1200’s; Fr, Luca Borga, 1494; Leonardo da Vinci, 1480’s; Father Nicolaus Copernicus, 1514; Vesalius, Fallopius, Eustachius (saint), 1543; Audubon, 1830’s.

Scientific treatise: Montaigne actually developed the essay as a genre in 1580; however, Catholic scientists were writing about science before that convention; Agricola, 1550; Casalpinus, 1583; Galileo, 1586; Sanctorius, 1611; Kepler, 1615; Descartes, 1637; Torricelli, 1643; Pascal, 1653; Steno, 1664; Grimaldi, 1665; Picard, 1666; Castelnuovo, 1667; Galvani, 1771; Jusseui family, 1772; Father Gregor Mendel, 1856.

Newspapers: Johann Carolus, 1605.
Magazines: 1663 in Germany.
Telephones: Manzetti, 1864.
Record players (phonographs), Thomas Edison, 1877.
Radio: Marconi, 1894, music, news, talk shows by 1920.
Newsreel: Pathe Freres, 1908.
Television: 1950’s, genres include episodic, saga, games, news, reality, market, sitcoms, etc.
Video games: 1970’s, genres include competitive, puzzles, saga, episodic.
Personal Computers: 1980’s.
The Internet: 1990’s.
Social media: 2000’s.
Online research: dictionaries, encyclopedias, music, games, bookstores and libraries that use Latin symbols, Greek and Latin roots, and phonics from the Phoenicians.

Writing Words, Creating Literature Genres

Autobiography: Augustine, late 300’s.
Mystery Plays: started as early as the 400’s.
Fenian Lay: Also called the Gaelic or Breton Lay, this is a type of lyric poem that writers had heard poets develop in Celtic cultures.

Framework Story: A device used in Job as well in stories in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, the framework became a good way to knit stories together. Examples are Echtrae Conli (2nd century Ireland), The Voyage of Brendan (Ireland, 700’s) The Tales of the Elders of Ireland (1100’s, Ireland), Decameron (1300’s, Italy) and Canterbury Tales (late 1300’s England). It was also used in the East and is still used today, as in, for instance The Princess Bride.

Afterlife Stories: Dante’s The Divine Comedy, early 1300’s; the Irish also have stories that contain visions and interaction with the Otherworld, seen a few hundred years before Dante.

Romance: Darmait and Grainne, Tristan and Isolde, the Knight’s Tale

Novel: Although not typically attributed to the Irish, I would say that the novel was an Irish invention. They did not write their stories in poetic verse. They told their stories with prose, dialogue and description. They also inserted small lyric poems throughout their tales, like what is seen in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Fairy tales and fables: Rather than employing the fickle polytheistic gods, these tales were created to teach virtues, morality, and life-lessons through the metaphors of monsters, animals, nature, and magic. See also Fabiliaux and Ballads

Petrarchan Sonnet: mid-1300’s
Dark Night poetry: John of the Cross, late 1500’s.
Utopian Literature: Sir Thomas More, 1516.
English Sonnet: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (martyr), 1547.
Essays: Montaigne, 1580.
Villanelle: Jean Passerat, 1602
Heroic couplet: Alexander Pope, Catholic, early 1700’s.
Short stories: Washington Irving, 1819.
Graphic novel: Rodolphe Topffer, 1827.
Detective stories: Poe, 1841.
Swashbucklers: Dumas (1840’s)
Slave narratives: Frederick Douglass, 1845.
Sprung Rhythm poetry: Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, late 1800’s.
Science-Fiction: Jules Verne, 1864.
Science-Fiction film: A Trip to the Moon by Melies, 1902.
Narrative film: The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ by the Pathe Brothers, 1905.
20th Century Mythology (science fiction in comic strip, cartoon, TV, film): Superman, Spiderman, Captain America, Star Wars, Star Trek, starting in the 1930’s.

New Concepts Conveyed; Old Concepts Adopted and Expanded

Translations between languages: Because missionaries encountered so many different cultures with so many different languages, they needed to develop “keys” in order to move from culture to culture. While some Catholics are given the gift of tongues, these Catholics know that others could be helped with translation guides, for instance, English, Promptorium Parvulorum (1440) by Galfridus Grammaticus, a Dominican monk.

Vernacular languages and mythologies: Missionaries from early Christian centuries to the Spanish and French exploration of cultures of the earth wrote down several hundred languages and mythologies. By 1758, Catholic missionaries had developed grammar books for 40 different languages in the Americas and had written 300 languages down. One extensive collection of vernacular stories starting in the 500’s comes from Ireland. However, it was a practice adopted by many countries who had been influenced by Christianity (see also King Alfred, Charlemagne, Snorri, Bridget of Sweden). Wherever Christian missionaries go, cultural vocabulary expands as it adopts words from other cultures that Christians interact with.

Fulfillment of the Old Testament: the New Testament writers tell that Jesus teaches through parables, analogies, and metaphors based on real life situations.

Journalism and Biography: Observations of a life from several first-hand sources as well as historical, contextual information from other sources.

Theological Treatise on Love: Starting with John, continued by many Saints through the centers even unto today.

Rapturous/Ecstatic/Mystical Union Literature: Revelations, Interior Castles, the Viewings, etc.

Letter writing: Not only were men writing letters, women were writing letters from a very early time in the Church’s history (1st century AD forward); see also Maccabees, which has copies of letters from the Maccabee time period (2nd century BC).

Hagiographies: Biographies of saintly people began early in the Church’s history. As time went on, scribes and writers began to integrate this with beautiful illustrations, perhaps developing what could be called the first picture books. The Canticle of St. Eulalia, 9th century France

Martyrology: A hall of fame of people who did heroic acts of love according to their time, space, and situation.

Creed: What is it that we believe?

Apologetics: How do we discern the difference between those who are authentically trying to be Christian and those who might just be faking it? Then, how do we defend our belief? Faith and reason. Many of the early Church Fathers created quite a repertoire of defense and reason to believe that the Word did really dwell among us.

Encyclopedias with anatomy, plant life, rock formations: In keeping with Greek philosophers, many Catholic writers wrote extensive encyclopedias on varying topics. Nature became an important topic to cover for several Catholic writers once Christianity became socially acceptable. See also Audubon, French American

• Medicines and healthcare became an important topic to uncover once Christianity became socially acceptable.
• Philosophy became an important topic to question once Christianity became socially acceptable.
• Human rights and law became an important topic to understand once Christianity became socially acceptable.

Iconography and the Greek Fathers: Where symbol and image meet. It is not a symbol that represents a sound nor a symbol that represents an image. It is an image that reveals theological mysteries. Irenaeus, Clement, Cyril, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, John Chrysostom, John of Damascus. Byzantium, 500’s to 1400’s.

The Consolation of Philosophy: St. Severinus Boethius, 524; he also translated Aristotle from Greek to Latin.

The Trivium: Conceptualized by Maurentius (Martianus) Capella in the 400’s, Catholic educational theorists adopted this profound understanding of language in order to continue study through language. In addition to those three aspects of the language, Catholic teachers via Boethius would teach the theory and application of number and the theory and application of matter (quadrivium). These seven aspects of human learning would be called the Liberal Arts Education.

Higher-learning, scholarly writing: The first colleges or educational centers began to open in Ireland. Because so many people begin to be educated, Ireland becomes known as the island of scholars and saints. Several cultures ask for Irish scribes to record languages and teach writing, beginning in the 500’s.

Libraries: Christian scholars also kept libraries (early 200’s); Christian merchants would also build bookstores.

Literature on the gifts of woman: Hildegard von Bingen, 1100’s; Juan Luis Vives, 1523, de institutione feminae christianae; Emilia Lanier, 1611; Sor Juana de la Cruz, 1690’s; Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 1795.

Reflection journals and diaries: Petrarch (1300’s); Samuel Pepys (1660-69); Anne Frank (1940’s), Sister Faustina (1930’s).

Extensive Dialogues with God: Catherine of Siena (1300’s), Julian of Norwich (1400’s), Catherine of Genoa (1400’s).

Scholastic thinking and writing: Ascertaining inconsistencies, gaps, and ambiguities in literature; making connections; analytical thinking. It should be noted that Aquinas, dictating his thoughts to up to five different scribes at one time, has still not been translated completely into English, 1200’s. Scholasticism really helped science and discernment advance.

Spiritual Exercises: Ignatius, 1522.
International law and issues of social justice: Vitoria, 1526-1540.
Informational pamphlets: St. Francis de Sales, early 1600’s.
Act of Toleration: Calvert, 1634.
Declaration of Independence: 1776.

Writing Music (Words and Melody)

Gregorian Chant: Pope Gregory, 590; plainchant was also and still is used in the Byzantine rite.

Folk music: From every culture with diverse instruments and lyrics; folk music has influenced the development of music from the piano sonata to today’s rock. It did not necessarily need to be written to be learned by another musician. However, in the 11th century, Guido of Arezzo developed a system of musical notation that would standardize the “letters” of music; in that way, music could be shared without having to be played and heard first.

Choir music: Old Hall Manuscript, 1420.
Operas: Dafne by Jacopo Peri, 1598
Arias, solo music: Caccini, 1602.
Symphonies: Sammartini, Brioschi, Galimberti, Lampugnani, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, beginning in the 1700’s.
Piano sonatas: Scarlatti, Bach, Handel, early 1700’s.
Musicals: Offenbach, Gilbert and Sullivan, Harrigan and Hart, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, beginning in the mid-1800’s.
Southern Spirituals: began to be recognized in 1800’s but were developed before that time.
Ragtime: Ernest Hogan, 1895; Scott Joplin, 1899; jazz and rock ‘n’ roll develops from the southern spirituals and ragtime.

After that, well…we have movie soundtracks, country, pop, reggae, alternative, rap, heavy metal, hard rock, electronic, disco, and on…

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Judeo-Christian tradition had not come into being? Where would the ideas that we so love today be?

What a beautiful flourishing of ways in which to communicate!

Don’t be afraid to try something new or renew something old:)

____________________________________________

References:
Calvert, JB (1999). The Latin Alphabet. Retrieved from http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/classics/latalph.htm
Dillon, Myles (1948). Early Irish literature. Four Courts Press: Dublin, Ireland.
Dooley, Ann & Roe, Harry (1999). Tales of the elders of Ireland, a new translation of Acallam na Senorach. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Letters. Retrieved from http://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu
Harmon & Holman (2006). A handbook to literature, tenth edition. Pearson Prentice Hall: New Jersey.
Howatson, MC (1989). The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
McTurk, R. (2005). Chaucer and the Norse and Celtic Worlds. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Ni Bhrolchain, Muireann (2009). An introduction to early Irish literature. Four Courts Press: Dublin, Ireland.
Prosser, J (2014). A handbook for US Catholic history: Timeline, Compilation, Reflection, 2nd Edition.
Thamis (2012). The Phoenician alphabet and language. Retrieved from http://www.ancient.eu.com/article/17/
The Pathe Brothers. Feature film, multi-reel. The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1905) http://www.decentfilms.com/reviews/lifeandpassionofjesus Science fiction feature, A Trip to the Moon. The newsreel. Lumiere (1896), Melies (1897), the train ride.
TimeMaps (2014). The Phoenicians were a Canaanite people…. Retrieved from http://www.timemaps.com/civilization/Phoenicians

 

Building A Canon of Literature (brainstorming)

I have for quite some time questioned the canon of literature that has been used for American education. This questioning not only came with the Common Core controversy but also my experience with English Literature courses in the United States. How is it that Americans are more likely to know more English history than US history? If several Americans have Irish ancestry, why do we not hear of the extensive Irish literature that begins in the 5th century? Why did poetry become somewhat dead or deadly in the 20th century? Do we necessarily have to accept the canon that has been passed down from a system of education that is having problems with helping students become literate? What kinds of literature do I think my students should know in order to be able to think thoughtfully through the various pieces of information they encounter every day?

To even attempt this sort of project, however, I have had to ask why and where certain biases existed. Why was some highly significant literature left out? Why was other literature emphasized?  How does that affect people’s perception of the world and history? As an American and a Catholic, this becomes a very provocative line of questioning, especially when you consider that one culture’s written literature in the US was held as superior at the expense of all others and when you consider that Catholic thought seemed to find its way through other literary instruments despite the odds.

My preference, however, is not to tear one culture down in order to make all other cultures feel better. I want to build a canon of literature that resembles a quilt; I do not intend to condemn any culture’s literature. As I see it, literature is not an evolution of the art of writing [once I began to study early Irish literature, that theory falls apart] nor can literature be confined to that which is written [movies or visual stories have proven to be the most widely accepted literature today]. I do not want to ignore or toss out pieces of this quilt in order to prove some point, but I also know that as a teacher, I will have a limited time to convey the story of…literature. The information age is a blessing, but it is also more abundant than one person can learn in a lifetime. Which pieces will I choose to go on this quilt?

• Catholic literature
• American literature

Those are pretty broad terms…

It also becomes a question of knowing not only literature from several cultures, but it also is a question of knowing history and historical context.

An honest literature scholar must admit that no one can claim that available written literature is the only type of literature. Most scholars must admit that oral tradition was the most efficient way to pass on literature in most cultures for a very long time. Even today, to talk to another person is far quicker and probably more understandable than taking the time to write something down. Written work takes time to write as well as time to interpret. How many interpretations do we make of a work because we cannot read the body language, the tone of voice, the historical context? Knowledge of oral tradition also means knowing that just because we have older written texts from certain areas of the world that those cultures may or may not have been necessarily better at telling a story, nor can it be claimed that they were the first to tell a particular story. Just because a piece is missing does not mean that the gap can be ignored–we can’t say a puzzle is done when pieces are gone. Thus, original stories were not necessarily written down first.

For instance, if I write a poem down by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poem that he spoke but did not write down, I cannot claim to be the author of that poem [he died before I was born]. This fallacious line of thinking has been made by some teachers of world literature. They believe that since an older version of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI exists today than does the written Hebrew Bible, that means that the epic’s portrayal of the flood is the original story. The first assumption is that all writers had to read a text before knowing the story themselves [the Brothers Grimm would have had a hard time printing any folklore with that line of thinking]; the second assumption is that the flood story was only known by the Mesopotamian people in circa 1900 BC [I think that we are up to 250 different cultures from all around the world having a similar story, a story that is hard to date but extremely coincidental]; and the third assumption is that oral tradition is inferior to written text [Wouldn’t you rather get the story straight over a cup of coffee? I would like to talk poetry with Gerard Manley Hopkins.]. Written text might be more concrete and stable, sort of, but it is not superior to oral tradition.

Stories travel through people far better than through paper. I like to think of oral tradition as a collection of books who were people. In some places, they were called poets, in other places bards, in other areas priests, and in other places prophets.

Oral tradition might not be as clean and stable as written work but neither is history. How many interpretations of history are we getting now even with written information? Here, I have to mention another phenomenon I have noticed. Many Catholic authors wrote the histories of the cultures they encountered as if finding another culture were a blessing. Rather than throwing things out, Catholics seem to have enjoyed gathering what they could, good, bad, or ugly. They just love story!

So, in that beautiful tradition, this is just the beginning of my journey in trying to build a suitable canon of literature that tells the story of humanity, the Church, and Americans. It will be a story filled with heroes and villains, with hope and fear, victory and loss, God, Saints, and sinners. The setting will be that past, the present, and the future on any continent or planet. The plots with be thick; the conflict will be intense; the sense of humanity will be real. My aim for this project is to be honest and grateful for the abundant blessings of literature.

As a reminder, this would be for Secondary education.

Let’s begin:

1. Creation Story, Oral Tradition and World Literatures (a study of myth and meaning; note, myth means that which points to something which is hard to say with words)

2. The Bible, Old Testament (a study of genres); Egyptian love poetry (something that will be noted in contrast with Hebrew poetry and literature is that Hebrew work contains more hope)

3. Maccabees with Greek Literature supplemental (Plato, Aristotle, Homer, etc.); Confucius and Buddha supplemental

4. The New Testament (as well as the Christian innovation of moving from scrolls to books in the early centuries); Roman Literature (Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, etc.)

5. The Church Fathers and Mothers, 2nd century forward (Augustine of Hippo, Isidore of Seville, Catherine of Alexandria, and other Saints); Boethius, the Consolation of Philosophy, and Valmiki supplemental

6. Irish Literature, 5th century forward (vernacular, genre study, and historical impact)

7. French Literature, 9th century forward (philosophy, science, etc.); also literature from Japan and the Middle East (7th Century +); also St. Alfred the Great

8. Spanish Literature, 13th century forward (poetry, international law, navigation, philosophy); also Germanic/Nordic 11th & 12th century forward

9. Italian Literature, 14th century forward (poetry, science, etc.)

10. English Literature, 14th century forward (Chaucer, More, Shakespeare, etc.); German Literature, 15th century forward

11. American Literature, 16th century forward (short stories, slave narratives, letters, novels, movies)

12. The 20th Century

To choose literature from the 20th century will be the most complicated of all previous centuries because so many editors had odd nationalistic or political tendencies and created canons according to those tendencies. No longer was it about enjoying good literature from wherever it came but cherry picking literature that proved a point. Early in that century, the British perspective in written literature became dominant in the US and therefore was read in school, but community-enjoyed literature in the US had moved to the movies and songs by the 1930’s. The second half of the century’s canons in the US were built by those trying to prove a political point at the expense of losing literary and historical perspective. The most frustrating thing for literature scholars when it comes to the 20th century must be those darn cultural revolutions that ended up destroying a great deal of literature and culture. If you love culture and literature, you probably do not like the active suppression done by several regimes in the 20th century.

The above list is not set in stone and literary history is certainly not linear endeavor. Great literature, flourishing with Christian initiative, was being produced at multiple places at the same time. I still have more research to do and could use your help, but with Catholic and Hebrew literature as the base, students will learn how innovative and original people have been with literature. For instance, framework stories, essays, autobiographies, ethical religious works, utopia literature, and science fiction are just some of the inventions fully employed by Catholic and Hebrew writers. Students will also learn that God’s light does not hold brightness in just one culture, but He moves around to share the wealth and abundance of the Word. In my mind, He’s creating a beautiful quilt that can be wrapped in and read, on a cold day with a warm cup of coffee.

 

What will help teachers with the challenges of 21st century multiliteracy?

All people need some sort of literacy to communicate with others. In kind, teachers wish to convey knowledge to their students, and teachers hope that their students will learn something. Language is essential to the conveying of knowledge. All languages have a grammar; all languages convey information through logic to enhance understanding; all languages use rhetoric to communicate ideas (Joseph 2002, revised). If students are not strong in the forum language–the language used in the classroom–they will also not be able to fully understand other disciplines, such as math, history, or science.

Today, in the United States, literacy continues to decline. According to Marchand-Martella, et al. (2013), scholars have discovered the following:

• —66% of students at the Secondary grade levels read below grade level
• —33% of high-school graduates are not ready for college level writing
• —40% of graduates do not have enough literacy to be employable

Thus, a large portion of U.S. students are not able to find fulfilling work after they graduate because they are not able understand what they hear or read–their reading comprehension is too low. With that, they become adults who are easily manipulated by those who are strong in the language because they cannot understand how the language is being used to undermine them. In addition to that, students will not have the vocabulary and communication skills necessary to express themselves. As Edith Stein (1932) said:

Thought and speech are connected most closely; basically, they are one process. Where a thought ripens into perfect clarity and meaning, it is organized by way of logical grammatical categories and is articulated. And where thought is not successful in finding the right expression, the thought process has not attained completion. What one cannot express remains dark and gloomy in the soul, and whoever is unable to express himself is imprisoned in his own soul; he is unable to liberate himself and to relate to others (Problems of Women’s Education).

Because language is so important for a person’s ability to participate in society as a person of freedom and because student scores continue to decline, educators have begun to incorporate research-based strategies into their curriculum in order to help students obtain language mastery. The following are aspects of language mastery (quotes take directly from Joseph 2002, revised):

• Because communication involves the simultaneous exercise of logic, grammar, and rhetoric, these three arts are the fundamental arts of education, of teaching, and of being taught.
• Accordingly, they must be practiced simultaneously by both teacher and pupil. The pupil must cooperate with the teacher; he must be active, not passive.
• The teacher may be present either directly or indirectly. When one studies a book, the author is a teacher indirectly present through the book.
• Communication takes places only when two minds really meet. If the reader or listener receives the same ideas and emotions that the writer or speaker wished to convey, he understands (although he may disagree); if he receives no ideas, he does not understand; if different ideas, he misunderstands.
• The same principles of logic, grammar, and rhetoric guide writer, reader, speaker, and listener.

Are the principles of the trivium useful today? Teachers are anxiously looking for ways to increase students success through effective teacher-student communication. In Marzano’s Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Students Achievement (2005)–what teachers call Marzano’s Nine Essential Instructional Strategies— the strategies easily fall into the three aspects of communication–logic, grammar, and rhetoric. For instance, “identifying similarities and differences” is an aspect of both grammar and logic since it aims to identify meaning, connections, and categories within an organizational and symbolic pattern. When Marzano speaks of “summarizing and note-taking,” he shows text-patterns that are based on logic and rhetoric. We can conclude, then, that the trivium is the basis of the language (listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing, showing), whether we acknowledge it or not, and that the most effective strategies stem from the trivium.

When students are in the secondary levels, they are reading books to learn–the authors of text (visual, audio, and text) become the teachers, which is a transition from the early grades where students are learning to read (Joseph 2002; Marchand-Martella, et al. 2013). After looking at current literacy statistics, Marchand-Martella, et al. (2013) conclude that grade school teachers are doing an excellent job in teaching literacy because grade school scores reflect that accomplishment. It is in the secondary schools where teachers have not yet figured out how to teach literacy, perhaps, because they have not realized the transition students are required to make into a higher-level of thinking in a rapidly changing communication world. I also believe that fiction for teens is written too far below grade level and contributes to the literacy challenges we have today.

In addition, we are confronted with the phenomenal growth of communication through technology. Students learn from a variety of modes–film, internet, cell phones, etc. Not only are students learning through a variety of modes, they are being confronted by a variety of new cultures and ideologies. Many scholars believe that students will need to be multiliterate in the 21st century–students will need to be able to communicate–understand and convey–through a variety of modes and styles (Kiefer 2010; Pegrum 2008). Not only will the trivium serve as an anchor to all of these sources of communication, it will serve as an effective way for students to be able to comprehend–really comprehend–what they see, hear, and read–this includes anything on the internet, in films, or in books.

Why multiliteracies with the trivium?

• I want students to be able to find fulfilling work in the future.
• I want students to become adults who are not easily manipulated by the variety of communication modes.
• I want students to be able to express their wisdom and individual talents.

Without meaningful instruction in the Language Arts–an instruction that addresses multiliteracies with the trivium–students will not able to do any of these–they will be unfulfilled, easily manipulated, and imprisoned in their own souls.

References:

Kiefer, Barbara Z. (2010). Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 27.

Joseph, M. (2002 revised). The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, Understanding the Nature and Function of Language. Paul Dry Books: Philadelphia.

Marchand-Martella, N. E., Martella, R. C., Modderman, S. L., Petersen, H. M., & Pan, S. (2013). Key Areas of Effective Adolescent Literacy Programs. Education & Treatment Of Children (West Virginia University Press), 36(1), 161-184.

Pegrum, Mark (2008). Film, culture, and identity: Critical intercultural literacies for the language classroom. Language & Intercultural Communication, 8(2), 136-154.

 

12 Useful Sites for American Catholic Teachers

1. catholiceducation.org

Do you wonder about multiculturalism, teen sex, and other current issues? The authors of this site have articles on everything from abortion to the environment to multiculturalism. They even offer a link called “Teaching Resources” that leads to articles about the tougher questions Secondary students are sure to have. I like this site, in particular, because it deals with so many relevant issues of the day.

2. newadvent.com

Do you have a question about the history, context, or content of the Church? I always think it’s a good idea to begin with an encyclopedia. This site has just about every topic you can think of, including the documents of the Church Fathers.

3. catholicculture.org

How about a hub for all the resources–the Catechism, relevant articles, and a review of Catholic websites? Stop by this site. You will find a lot of useful information.

4. salvationhistory.com

How well do you know the Bible? If you are a Catholic teacher, you probably should be reading it everyday. Go to this site for free Bible studies and discover the connections that are hard to see with individual study.

5. catholictechtalk.com

Do you need help with the rapidly changing media forums? Would you like to connect with your students by updating your technology skills but seem to feel like they will be the ones teaching you? These authors might be able to help you with your questions.

6. ncea.org

This site offers some current resources on today’s Catholic school challenges. It also might be a good way to get connected with other Catholic educators around the U.S.

7. vatican.va

You can see what the Pope is up to, read the latest encyclicals, look at the Liturgical calendar, or dig for history. The Vatican site is immense! This site also offers documents in several other languages besides English.

8. ewtn.com

To read the headlines and find other resources, including Mass readings and celebrations, go to this site! It is lovely!

9. bigquestionsonline.com

What about those BIG questions about God and universe, science and the future? This site has several extremely intellectual people grappling with those very questions, opening the forum to discuss and discover.

10. americancatholic.org

Would like to learn more about the Saints? Who wouldn’t? The Franciscans can give you a Saint for every day on this site. It helps with history and direction.

11. 1flesh.org

This is a site created by young adults for young adults–it especially tackles the issue of sexuality through the most comprehensive lens of Theology of the Body. It’s great for those teenagers, especially since they are bombarded with misinformation.

12. usccb.org

This site comes from the Bishops. They have all of the hot topics, the daily Mass readings, and answers to other questions you might have about the Catholic Church in the United States.