Here I will offer an overview of the course materials I developed for the listening classes of the Academic English Program (Autumn 2009), entitled The World of Forrest
Gump. My emphasis, though, will be on some of the ways I adjusted my own outlook and approach to teaching these materials, to better bring home the important lessons.
Though I covered two important aspects of the American Civil Rights Movement— with the overview of Jazz and Rock and Roll music that preceded it—in only six classes of a thirty class semester, this was the most challenging for me personally in a course that touched on the Vietnam War, the Antiwar Movement, Watergate, and Peace
Movements. To teach about one of the great social injustices of one’s country is painful. Below, I will consider some of the aspects of ideologies that both aid and hinder the approach I have taken. I admit this is both a self-conscious and circular exercise at times, but I feel it offers some lessons for presenting emotionally charged topics to Japanese students. Though historical moments do have universal applications, students who are exposed to these powerful clashes for the first time in any depth require a balanced presentation of them.
Perhaps oddly, the Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), the renowned
Italian philosopher, inspired me to believe it was possible to successfully venture further into more complex territory with regards to historical themes. Vico said, in referring to mathematics and history, “We can only understand what we have created.”
Humanity understands mathematics because human beings created it (though Vico did not think mathematics led to true understanding). The little we know of the natural
world has come th...
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American students, far removed from its intense ideological polarization, may feel both sides have a legitimate point and forego siding with either. In the process, though, they come to appreciate something essential about Japanese culture itself. This is the essence of a non-doctrinaire approach: to understand the conflicting values, even the roots of those values in context, to gain a greater sense of the culture itself.
What a cross-section of people care about says a great deal about the culture, and the possibilities for exploring this are limitless. Personal agendas to further certain ideologies, though, prevent this kind of distancing and therefore possibilities for education. How important an ideology ultimately becomes or how closely one identifies with it is a choice on some level, something we often forget.
Ideologies in perspective
William Howland Kenney provides an in depth look at the Chicago jazz as a cultural movement that shaped the 1920’s. His new interpretation of the Chicago Jazz life reveals the role of race, cultural, and politics in the growth of this new musical style. This in depth look focuses on the rise of jazz from 1904 until its end in 1930. This book covers a lot of areas in Jazz that were fundamental in its development. My overall impression is that this book is well written, it is expansive in its overview of jazz. Kenney is knowledgeable in this area of cultural history, and his book is well researched. The purpose of this book is to
When researching the history of a specific topic, the viewpoints of historians can widely differ. My findings have concluded that each critic or historian has his own way of arguing who or what made jazz a beloved genre within American pop culture. Some even contend the location of its early origins. Throughout the text, several other sources remain indifferent in summarizing jazz. Paying no regard to any of the authors’ stance, the sources mentioned within my writing have provided beneficial information that will be used within my research assignment.
Jazz is referred as “America’s classical music,” and is one of North America’s and most celebrated genres. The history of Jazz can be traced back to the early era of the 20th century of the U.S. “A History of Jazz” presents From Ragtime and Blues to Big Band and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. A strong rhythmic under-structure, blue notes, solos, “call-and response” patterns, and
Cunningham, L., & Reich, J. J. (2010). Culture and values: a survey of the humanities (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Ciment, James. Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: From the End of World War I to the Great Crash. Vol. 2. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Print.
Smith, Isabel. “History of Music.” Stories of Rock and Roll Music from 1950s Ed. New York: Plume, 1989. 87-95.
Values -Everyone has them. Where do those values come from? In literature, one can find the answer to that question by taking a close look at characters and their values. They can be compatible to real life experiences. Look at the two stories, "Abuela Invents the Zero" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The main characters in the stories are Constancia from "Abuela Invents the Zero" and the Four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth from Little Women. These two stories demonstrate how Experiences can shape, and change values.
Jazz is a treasure to American culture, which originally came from New Orleans of South part of America in 19th century. It’s a special music because it contains changeable rhythm and improvisational performance. But what makes jazz so special in 1920s is that Jazz could not only be performed by an individual but also could be performed by a group of people. This music performance style shows important things about American society and culture itself.
Ruth Benedict discusses her views of culture as personality-writ-large in her famous novel “Patterns of Culture”. This means that a culture is a magnification or reflection of the personalities of the people in a group. In other words, what one could say about a group of people could also be said about their culture. Benedict believes that what constitutes culture is not the material or external aspects but stems from a shared mindset, stating that “what really binds men together is their culture—the ideas and the standards they have in common,” (Benedict 1934:16). Basically, traits of a culture rely on inherent and intrinsic natural instincts. She emphasizes the notion that the individual and their broader culture share a “consistent pattern of thought and action” constantly intertwined through their principal ideals, motives, values and emotions (Benedict 1934:46). It is through this shared system of beliefs that core...
Jazz, being art itself, cannot be culturally or stylistically be defined by one or two characteristics. In this paper, I will argue that the development of jazz was mainly contributed by the genre of blues and ragtime. Blue and ragtime both show characteristics that contrast each other as well as conjoin to form the art of jazz. Both genres, however, contribute to the formation of jazz and are culturally influenced by the African-American population, therefore creating black nationalism in the twentieth century.
Cunningham, Lawrence S., and John J. . Reich. Culture and Values. 7th ed. Vol. 1. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2006. Print.
At the beginning of the semester our class was introduced to a new term, listenability. The level of listenability is at the mercy of the speaker, not of the audience. During our semester, we were taught to harness the listenability keys of strategy, structure, support, and style in order to achieve a high level of listenability. Examples of listenability include when a speaker engages the audience by asking questions, using narratives or stories that people can relate to, and has stimulating visual support and content. These are only a couple of keys used to create a listener centered speech.
Lawrence S. Cunningham, John J. Reich. Culture and values: a survey of the humanities. USA:Wadsworth Publishing. 2009. PRINT.
Very often, all the aspects that built up the core of one’s culture are interrelated,
How do personal values shape culture, and how does culture affect our understanding and interpretation of seemingly ordinary things?