Journal
John Glenn
American Visions and Values LA-400
September 25, 2007
Week Four
The week that I have been waiting for finally came. So far in this program, this week was the first week where I understood and enjoyed all the readings. I really enjoy reading about the history of America and the people that made this such a strong country. Looking back through the readings it is amazing the wisdom of the men who structured our government and how much they truely cared about the people that they served.
I enjoyed some of the lively discussions that took place this week on the discussion board. I enjoyed the discussion on how people feel on where "we" are at this time when it comes to the topic of race. You can see where their still is a lot of racism in parts of our country. It is sad we still have not come as far as some people think we have on this topic. According to some of the discussions, it is still alive and well in certain aspects of some of our other students. My hope is if we can pass on a better example to our generation, then thatwas passed on to us. Then we can eliminate another layer of this ugly side of our country.
Of the readings this week, I enjoyed the writings of Ben Franklin and Crevecoeur the most. For Crevecoeur, it was intersting to see the thoughts of America from someone that was raised in Europe. He could compare the difference between America and Europe from first hand knowledge. I appreciated the way he described America, "It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who process everything and a herd of people who have nothing".
Ben Franklin has always been a person that I was interested in and recently they had a outstanding exihbit on him at our Natural History Museum. It was incredible the influences he had on so many subjects. From the identification of the positive and negative charges in electricity to weather and meteorology. His contribution to America in its beginning was one of the foremost contribution he gave, plus he started the very first firefighting company in America.
I am planning to use a fair amount of the information from this week in my final project. This is what America values and beliefs were founded on. It dose not get much better then this.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Week Three
Journal
John Glenn
American Visions and Values LA-400
September 17, 2007 Week #3
Another busy week for the class! I keep thinking that I am going to have one of those weeks where I understand all the readings, but it wasn't this week. I continue to struggle with some of the readings from the early centuries. It is good information, but it still makes it hard to put the whole picture together for some of them. Once again this week the writings of Plato was a tough read and the "Western Civilization: The Problem of Political Freedom" by Meyer was another tough read, but the podcast helped with understanding more of what Mr. Meyer was trying to get across. With the Plato readings, I had little knowledge of Plato and Socrates going into this program. It has been interesting learning about the two, after hearing so much in the past about their writings.
The reading I enjoyed the most this week was the one I did my discussion on, "The British Tradition in America in Retrospect" by Wright. I enjoy American History and this reading gave me a fair amount of new information on what was brought over to the American Colonies from Britian. The interesting part of this reading for me was how some of the religions that we know today came over and talking about how they developed. When it discussed about how the King James Version of the bible was brought over, (which is one of those things I never had thought of) made sense.
The other reading I did enjoy, even though for me it was a tough read was Crito by Plato. I had heard of this writing before, but had not read it. It is interesting how Socrates stood up for what he believed in. He had a choice on whether to die on the basis of what he believed in or escape from prision and hide out the rest of his days. There are not too many people that are willing to do that, but with this I believe he proved that he was truly dedicated to his teachings.
It was a interesting week for the discussion board, the responsives seem to cover the majority of the readings and had some good discussion on the topics. The posting from Brian Holmes was interesting, it is amazing how we get so accustomed to being able to question our government without the fear of being put to death for it. It makes you think about what it would be like living in some of those other countries that do not have this type of freedom.
John Glenn
American Visions and Values LA-400
September 17, 2007 Week #3
Another busy week for the class! I keep thinking that I am going to have one of those weeks where I understand all the readings, but it wasn't this week. I continue to struggle with some of the readings from the early centuries. It is good information, but it still makes it hard to put the whole picture together for some of them. Once again this week the writings of Plato was a tough read and the "Western Civilization: The Problem of Political Freedom" by Meyer was another tough read, but the podcast helped with understanding more of what Mr. Meyer was trying to get across. With the Plato readings, I had little knowledge of Plato and Socrates going into this program. It has been interesting learning about the two, after hearing so much in the past about their writings.
The reading I enjoyed the most this week was the one I did my discussion on, "The British Tradition in America in Retrospect" by Wright. I enjoy American History and this reading gave me a fair amount of new information on what was brought over to the American Colonies from Britian. The interesting part of this reading for me was how some of the religions that we know today came over and talking about how they developed. When it discussed about how the King James Version of the bible was brought over, (which is one of those things I never had thought of) made sense.
The other reading I did enjoy, even though for me it was a tough read was Crito by Plato. I had heard of this writing before, but had not read it. It is interesting how Socrates stood up for what he believed in. He had a choice on whether to die on the basis of what he believed in or escape from prision and hide out the rest of his days. There are not too many people that are willing to do that, but with this I believe he proved that he was truly dedicated to his teachings.
It was a interesting week for the discussion board, the responsives seem to cover the majority of the readings and had some good discussion on the topics. The posting from Brian Holmes was interesting, it is amazing how we get so accustomed to being able to question our government without the fear of being put to death for it. It makes you think about what it would be like living in some of those other countries that do not have this type of freedom.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Week Two
Journal
John Glenn
American Visions and Values- LA 400
September 10, 2007 -Week Two
Well week two was another weeks worth of reading that baffled me again. As I had stated in last weeks blog, this is all new reading for me. It is amazing all the information that is out there that I have never heard of. The writings of Plato and Freud are ones you hear about all the time, but unless you sit down and read them. You just have no clue what they are talking about unless you research the writer and some of their other writings. The readings were very interesting and I was able to learn from them.
The readings were a very interesting this week in that they were the type that would engage a fair amount of discussion. The one that seem to get everyone talking was the "The Antichrist" by Friedrich Nietzsche. This short story paints the picture of Christianity being a religion that makes a person weak and went on to describe how it corrupted the Western Culture. As you can imagine this was something that got opinions flying. One of the other readings I enjoyed was "An Outline of Psycho-Analysis" by Sigmund Freud. His writings are ones you always hear of, but never really sit down to read. It is interesting on how he describes some of the basis of the psyche for humans. The role that the ego and the super ego plays in who we are as a person.
John Glenn
American Visions and Values- LA 400
September 10, 2007 -Week Two
Well week two was another weeks worth of reading that baffled me again. As I had stated in last weeks blog, this is all new reading for me. It is amazing all the information that is out there that I have never heard of. The writings of Plato and Freud are ones you hear about all the time, but unless you sit down and read them. You just have no clue what they are talking about unless you research the writer and some of their other writings. The readings were very interesting and I was able to learn from them.
The readings were a very interesting this week in that they were the type that would engage a fair amount of discussion. The one that seem to get everyone talking was the "The Antichrist" by Friedrich Nietzsche. This short story paints the picture of Christianity being a religion that makes a person weak and went on to describe how it corrupted the Western Culture. As you can imagine this was something that got opinions flying. One of the other readings I enjoyed was "An Outline of Psycho-Analysis" by Sigmund Freud. His writings are ones you always hear of, but never really sit down to read. It is interesting on how he describes some of the basis of the psyche for humans. The role that the ego and the super ego plays in who we are as a person.
I think what I enjoyed the most out of this weeks work was the decisions that came from this weeks readings. There were quite a few responses to a couple of them. You could tell that the readings hit a nerve with a few people. Especially Nietzsche, he still can make people angry at him 107 years after his death.
Some of what I would say was the tough part of this week, was reading Plato. I really had to work at understanding what he was trying to say. I have always been a very literal person, so the imagination had to work hard on these.
Overall a good week, plus the Huskers Won !
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
American Visions and Values
Journal
John Glenn
American Visions and Values- LA 400
September 4, 2007 -Week One
I just recently completed the core curriculum for the Management Program at Bellevue University. With this signature series completed the majority of my requirements will have been met for my Bachelors Degree. I am looking forward to this program because as I have already read this week, it will take me to a new area of learning I have not been too many times before. The material just in the first week has been information I have not studied before.
There were two readings in this past week's assignment that really seemed to catch my attention, the first being "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. As I had mentioned in one of my e-mails, I have never been much of a reader of the short story style. With that being said, I found The Lottery very intriguing with a ending a did not expect. It was very interesting how Shirley Jackson seem to lull you into the quite small town mentality in the beginning only to hit you with the ending as she did. It was intriguing how the story developed into more of a soap opera style, by how she described the different characters.
John Glenn
American Visions and Values- LA 400
September 4, 2007 -Week One
I just recently completed the core curriculum for the Management Program at Bellevue University. With this signature series completed the majority of my requirements will have been met for my Bachelors Degree. I am looking forward to this program because as I have already read this week, it will take me to a new area of learning I have not been too many times before. The material just in the first week has been information I have not studied before.
There were two readings in this past week's assignment that really seemed to catch my attention, the first being "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. As I had mentioned in one of my e-mails, I have never been much of a reader of the short story style. With that being said, I found The Lottery very intriguing with a ending a did not expect. It was very interesting how Shirley Jackson seem to lull you into the quite small town mentality in the beginning only to hit you with the ending as she did. It was intriguing how the story developed into more of a soap opera style, by how she described the different characters.
The second reading that I really enjoyed was the short excerpt from Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis presented his views on how God created man' and how man fell from the grace of God. His most interesting aspect, which I had not thought of before was the aspect of why God created man with free will. Lewis's thoughts on free will gives man the option of good or evil. In the final decision it comes down to the individual on which path they will travel.
Overall for the week, I enjoyed the postings in the discussion area and getting to see a fair amount of variety in opinions on what the readings meant to them. This will be a very busy eleven weeks in the, but I have enjoyed the information I have already received.
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