Emperor's Club Reflection

“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.” –Aristophanes All of the things that are listed above come with a solution because they can be changed in a positive way or can be fixed. The dictionary definition of stupid is foolish or senseless. Another is tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes. Ignorant and stupid should not be confused as being similar. Unlike ignorance, which can be educated, stupidity is cynical foolishness. A stupid person will take the same opportunity to learn by deliberately refusing to discipline themselves to appreciate and embrace the better qualities of life. They never choose to change and that is why stupid lasts forever.

Mr. Hundert is so shaken by the challenge of Sedgewick Bell because he has never had a student so disrespectful or one who doesn’t engage himself in the attempt to gain knowledge. He is an experienced and exceptional teacher because he instills moral character on his students. These students have always been well behaved so he easily just continues to guide them in the right direction. His trouble is that he always has order in his classroom and Sedgewick breaks this by speaking out against him being the authority. Mr. Hundert is altered by this instance because he seems himself in Sedgewick and can relate to him with the idea of a father figure.

Sedgewick Bell lures the other students to rebel and break school rules that they would have previously obeyed. The boys would hover because they felt his influence to be hypnotic. He would put them in a so-called trance, which would make them utterly blind to any deficiencies in his character. The boys were awestruck and Sedgewick taught them fun and the boys found him to be cool. He even affects Mr. Hundert, for example, during the boys’ game of baseball.

The ethical dilemma that Mr. Hundert faces involves who should be given the third spot in the Mr. Caesar competition. Bell misses it by one point after Hundert grades his paper the first time. Martin Blythe is in third by one point. Hundert rereads Bell’s paper and gives him a higher grade that puts him in the top three. Hundert makes the decision because he doesn’t want to fail Bell by letting him down. He has pushed him this far and doesn’t want him to fail because then he will just give up. He believes that Bell has shown improvement and has “come out of darkness into the light” which makes him believe that he is in the right by putting Bell into the Mr. Caesar competition.

At the contest, Mr. Hundert is faced with another dilemma. Sedgewick is cheating and Hundert tells the Headmaster who then just shakes it off like nothing is wrong. Hundert changes the question on him to one he knows that Bell won’t know. In referring back to the time when Hundert was on lights out duty, he remembers that Deepak was reading about Hamilcar Barca who he told was not part of the reading list, so that becomes the final question resulting in Deepak rightfully winning the Mr. Caesar competition. When Mr. Hundert confronts Sedgewick about his behavior in which Sedgewick questions why he didn’t call him out. Sedgewick responds to Mr. Hundert telling him that he knew the information and his questioning of the idea of cheating by saying, “Why not cheat?”

Hundert chooses to come back and host the contest because he wants to see if his decisions he made were the right thing to do. He had come there in the hope that he had been wrong about Sedgewick Bell or that he had been right to believe in him all of those years ago. His hope is squashed because Sedgewick hasn’t changed one bit. Hundert believes that he has failed Sedgewick. However, he realizes that the worth of a life is not determined by a single failure, or a solitary success. His hope is renewed because he realized that he had learned from his students. He learned no matter how much we stumble that it is a teacher’s burden always to hope that with learning, a boy’s character might be changed thus changing the destiny of a man. Martin Blythe is the student he moved down to ensure Sedgewick’s place in the Julius Caesar competition and he feels bad about it, but Martin revealed that he did give his due through his recommendation letter.

“All of us, at some point, are forced to look at ourselves in the mirror and see who we really are. When that day comes for you, Sedgewick, you will be confronted with a life lived without virtue, without principle, and for that I pity you.” When Sedgewick responds with “If it’s lying and if it’s cheating, then so be it”, his son Robbie opens the bathroom stall and walks away because he has heard the whole conversation. Sedgewick is forced to realize that he has revealed his way to success right in front of his son when he wants to be a positive influence. This situation partially resolves the tension in the movie because Mr. Hundert finally has the last word. Sedgewick is faced to live a life without principle and is faced with having to explain the situation to his son. This reveals that ultimately Sedgewick hasn’t changed one bit. Sedgewick realizes that he is now the same as his father and he never wanted to grow up like him. His son now knows his dad’s true character.

Mr. Hundert returns to teaching because he learned that it is a teacher’s burden always to hope that with learning, a boy’s character might be changed. He wants to change the destiny of man and makes sure that our future generations have upstanding characters. When Mr. Hundert returns the surprise that is there for him is that Martin Blythe’s son is in his class and his name is Martin Blythe III. By this action, Martin is finally forgiving Mr. Hundert after all of these years.

Mr. Hundert is the true essence of a problem-posing teacher from the Banking Concept of Education. He uses dialogue and communication throughout his lectures and keeps the class involved. The students finished his sentences of his lectures. The students answered questions and recited answers as a way to maintain engaged during the class. The students participated in a group discussion and weren’t just acting as containers to be filled.

By studying the classics, Mr. Hundert help these students become better versions of themselves by teaching them moral principles that the Emperor’s themselves possessed. These men were successful and left their mark by their outstanding morals and character. Mr. Hundert contributed in that manner by giving the boys the necessary guidance to become better people. He only allowed respectful manners in his classroom and he was a strong believer of the rules. He helped keep the boys in line. As adults, he helped them contribute back to the world through their studies and being upstanding moral people. 

Douglass' "Learning to Read" and Education Response

I am naturally a hard worker and things just click in my mind. It wasn’t until my sophomore year in high school that I was challenged beyond my comfort zone. For a sophomore, I was enrolled in the most vigorous classes and I was pushing myself to excel. My two toughest courses were Advanced Algebra and Advanced Placement European History. For instance, Mr. Kimmel’s class is the hardest class to get an A in. Furthermore, I will even say this after taking Calculus my senior year and achieving a 5 on the exam. On top of this, I had European History to worry about which isn’t for the faint hearted. Being good at math, I put all of my focus into my history class which led to major problems. My grade in math was slipping and Mr. Kimmel was noticing. One day he confronted me by asking what was going on. I told him about my history class. He gave me wonderful advice and reminded me that every class is important. I devoted the same amount of time to each course and his advice worked. Without Mr. Kimmel and his ridiculously hard tests I don’t think I would be the student I am today. He instilled the will to succeed in my heart. I was passionate about earning A’s and haven’t received anything lower than that ever. He is the reason for my motivation and why I will never give up. He taught me that anything is possible if you believe it to be so. 

Paulo Friere's Banking Concept of Education

1. Paulo Freire's concept of “narration sickness" refers to the idea where the teacher simply talks on and on and the students must listen like little receptacles of knowledge. The teacher is just filling up the students with facts. They go on and on until the student can’t take anymore information. 

2. This idea of “narration sickness” mimics the No Child Left Behind Act standardized testing practices in our society in that teachers send out facts for the students to memorize for one test. The student records, memorizes, and repeats these ideas without even questioning or understanding the significance of these ideas. The students are filled with the knowledge of what is going to be on the test and the test only. They are learning for a standardized test not for the joy of learning. They are turned into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher.

3. In my sophomore year of high school, I had an English teacher who used many banking concepts of education in her classroom. She was a control freak and didn’t like when students outsmarted her. She was authoritative over the classroom and was more worried about controlling our class than teaching us. She would drill information into our brains and make us do pointless assignments to prepare us for the Exit Exam that all sophomores have to take. Being an accelerated class, this was annoying and she made us feel like we were children. She didn’t make the facts relevant to our daily lives. She just rambled on and on about how it was important to know these things for the test. If you didn’t have the same beliefs as her then she would alienate you from the rest of the class which is the one of the key issues in the banking concept of education. 

I feel as if this type of educator made me dislike learning English. I had this class after lunch and I despised going to it because she would just make us memorize ideas and write essays using formatted prompts. There was no thought process involved behind any of her assignments that I turned in. I couldn’t have an identity in that class because I had to conform to her ideas and beliefs. For example, we were writing an essay on a passage we had read and I turned in my introduction for editing and when I got it back there was a big black line through it and red pen screaming rewrite. This hurt me inside because I had worked hard on this introduction and I had helped all my friends formulate theirs. They had all gotten good reviews and all I got was “a slap in the face.” Luckily, I ended the year acing her ridiculous final and moving onto AP English in the fall. I loved my AP English class and my teacher actually appreciated what I was writing by giving me feedback. Overall, I feel, through this experience, that the banking concept of education does more harm than good. 

4. My exposure to AP Biology my senior year stands out as my best memory of having an excellent teacher. Mrs. Henderson is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She absolutely practiced the concepts of problem-posing education and dialogue. She allowed us to decide what labs we wanted to complete within reason. Instead of just throwing out facts, she would assigned us certain chapters to read and then we would have to present in front of the class of what we had learned. I found this to be most beneficial because I mastered the material really well because I was honestly interested. We would have class discussions and were given the opportunity to ask questions while also formulating our own ideas for communication. We were allowed to apply our learning to real life by making models, performing dissections, or experimenting possible problems. She was also caring and understanding of our busy schedules. She realized that we weren’t just taking her class and that we were stressed out with other classes. She was approachable and always kept her door open if you ever needed help. This was important because it allowed for a more one on one aspect and you could ask more personal questions that you wouldn’t want to ask in front of the class especially if you didn’t understand a concept. 

Mrs. Henderson was always happy to be teaching and she showed that she loved biology. She enjoyed expanding our minds with new ideas and wanted us to excel. She was like a walking encyclopedia for biology and if she didn’t know the answer on the top of her head, she would do everything in her power to get you the answer. She even went so far as to help us with our calculus homework which amazed me that she actually cared about our success by going out of her way to find websites that simplified the complexity of the subject. We did various experiments and group assignments in her class which allowed for us to be very hands on instead of just reading the chapter and taking tests all the time. I found I learned more by making models or performing an experiment rather than reading about an experiment that had been completed. This class stands out in my mind because looking back on everything, I truly had a good time in this class. It was tough at times, but my teacher’s attitude about the subject made me more interested. 

5. I believe that the Athenians that Neil Postman speaks of in “My Graduation Speech” would embrace the concept of a liberated, problem-posing education that Freire spoke of in his “banking concept of education. Here at USF, I have a few classes that practice the problem-posing and dialogue concept. These courses include Communications, USF Experience, and LAR 112. My communications class is the true essence of dialogue because the whole class consists of us the students discussing our ideas about communication and why it is important. Our professor is there to guide us through the process and mediate. In this way, he is teaching us how to cope in real life situations. I believe that my psychology class is almost to the idea of the practice of dialogue, but I feel it could benefit more that way. Sometimes the class is boring when my professor just lectures for 50 minutes straight. It has been pretty interesting lately though because he has tied examples in that matter in real life which makes them more tangible. 

Civil Rights

Passive resistance is a method of nonviolent protest against laws or policies in order to force a change or secure concessions. It is also known as nonviolent resistance and is the main tactic of civil disobedience. Passive resistance typically involves such activities as mass demonstrations, refusal to obey or carry out a law or to pay taxes, the occupation of buildings or the blockade of roads, labor strikes, and economic boycotts. Martin Luther King and Ghandi were two major figures who practiced passive resistance. 

Ala., in May 1963. Birmingham's police commissioner "Bull" Connor also allowed fire hoses to be turned on young civil rights demonstrators. These measures set off a backlash of sentiment that rejuvenated the flagging civil rights movement.

This photo hits me the hardest. I find it horrible that the police would allow such a thing to happen. The police are the law and if the law is corrupted then how is order supposed to be kept. A peaceful protest being broken up by dogs doesn’t seem very rational. It isn’t ethically right. I am very torn by these images and hate that this is what had to happen to those who were peacefully protesting for their own rights. 

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has opened an exhibit that brings to light many new images of the civil rights movement, along with the struggles of the photographers who made them. Left, a Greyhound bus with 14 members of an interracial group that was part of the Freedom Ride was firebombed on May 14, 1961, outside Anniston, Ala.

I find this photo to be very moving. The Freedom Ride was to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The greatest thing about the Freedom Ride was that the group consisted of black and white, male and female. They did nothing wrong and their bus was firebombed. It upsets me inside that whites would do this to the blacks, let alone the people of their own race as well. It is frustrating that others would take action against people who weren’t being violent at all.

I believe that there is always going to be discrimination in our society because of our media and the way people stereotype others. We were taught how to think from a very young age and that is difficult to change. In my community back home, gender discrimination is at an ultimate high. Women receive lower paying jobs than men even if they have the same degree. Many times women will be more qualified than men, but it never fails the man will end up getting the job. It isn’t fair. This similar situation happened to my mom when she was applying for a teaching position at my local high school and the man who got the job over her was less qualified and not as experienced.

Three ways I can incorporate ethos and logos into my next essay include using a powerful hook, solid facts, statistics, and strong topic sentences. Establishing credibility and a reputation while also using logical reasoning allows for a writer to make the most out of a paper. The topic of my next essay is the idea of gender discrimination in athletics. I will support my claim by covering the value of women’s sports compared to men and the opportunities women are given in the professional arena.