Amos Bronson Alcott
Amos Bronson Alcott was a man of many talents and professions, including, but not limited to, educator, philosopher, conversationalist and poet. He was born on a farm near Wolcott, Connecticut, and formally educated only until he was 13, as his family did not have enough money to educate him any further. His dreams of attending Yale, therefore, died. However, he did continue teaching himself. And never really stopped reading and self-educating. Despite this, he never became very wealthy, and in fact, struggled most of his life to make enough money to support his family. Though not rich in material goods, he was rich in values. (Mott, 2). He stood up very strongly for what he believed in. He not only defended his ideals through his conversations and writings, but also through his actions.
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He had strong ideals and was not content to merely talk as others were. Though he said "address most direct, proffered in meekness and love [is] the reformers only weapon." (Stoehr, 42) he also said that a "true reformer initiates his labor in the precincts of private life." (Stoehr, 39) And therefore, he involved himself wholeheartedly in pursuing those things he thought worthy of pursuing.
One of Alcott's pursuits was for a reformed method of education. And so, he opened up his own school for children based upon the teaching methods of Jesus, Socrates, and Pythagoras. There were open spaces and a comfortable atmosphere. The children were taught inductive methodology, and were not subjected to corporal punishment. Alcott also attempted to establish a utopian society, the Fruitlands. Unfortunately for Alcott, these endeavors ultimately flopped (Mott,
In 1845, young Arthur entered Union College in Schenectady as a sophomore. There he studied classical languages, arts, and the sciences. He supplemented his tuition by teaching during winter vacations at various schools in the area. During the school year, Arthur spent a lot of time in campus extracurricular activities. He enjoyed participating in student political demonstrations on issues ranging from abolitionism to school elections, and playing school pranks. Hence, it is understandable that Arthur wasn't an outstanding student. Nevertheless, he graduated in the top third of his class in 1848.
Horatio Alger was an author in the late nineteenth century; he wrote books to little boys on the American Dream. Alger’s books seemed to hark back to an older time when the American Dream was quite different than it was in his time. He subscribed to thoughts of morality, individualism and the competence; but keeps the contemporary idea of fruitfulness. Alger wrote many books to encourage young boys to be moral and work hard.
Art Review Magazine recently named Ai Weiwei “the most powerful artist in the world”, primarily because (Like Warhol) his reach extends further then the art world. Born in 1957 in Beijing, China, Weiwei is the son of the famous Chinese poet Ai Qing. Weiwei was introduced to the price of dissidents at an early age when his farther was denounced during the Anti-Rightist movement and sent (with the rest of his family) to a labour camp for the remaining duration of the Cultural Revolution.
“I don’t want to be part of this kind of denying reality. We live in this time. We have to speak out” (Klayman). Ai Weiwei is an internationally known Chinese artist as well as activist, and his motivation and determination can be summed up by this quote. In all of his pieces, Weiwei critically examines the social and administrative issues facing China today. Many of his works exhibit multiple themes that can be interpreted in various different ways. This lends itself to the universal appeal of his art and makes it a more effective medium of conveying his messages to viewers. Ai Weiwei’s activist artwork—and activist artwork in general—is important to society because it effectively forces the viewer to engage in a self-reflective process that makes the viewer critically examine his or her own beliefs and world. Nevertheless, censorship greatly hinders the dissemination of the critical and thought provoking messages of Ai Weiwei’s art and makes his artwork less effective. In order to gain a better understanding of the relationship of Ai Weiwei’s activist art and the Communist Party’s subsequent censorship, I will examine Ai Weiwei’s influential childhood, his specific brand of activist artwork, the censorship of the Chinese government and the effects of censorship on the effectiveness of Ai Weiwei’s art.
Emerson starts with a description of one who has the ideal relationship with nature, "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." Emerson is saying that man needs to retain wonder of nature, a quality often lost as a person ages. People become too distracted by petty conflicts that in Emerson's eyes, are ultimately insignificant.
In the opening paragraphs of his first chapter, Emerson finds that nature, like stars is always present and creates a reverence in the observer, but is also always inaccessible (14). Emerson also brings forth the idea that not everyone can really observe nature, but one must have the correct mental/spiritual state, as a child might. He discusses the improving aspects one can find in nature - youth, reason, and faith. Intrigued by visual perceptions, he claims that he looses contact with everything but nature becomes a 'transparent eye-ball' and feels that "I am part or parcel of God" (16). Emerson's emphatic words are perhaps the best description of the enthralling emotions of a 'sublime' experience as possible.
Companies like Google, Tesla and Nissan, among others, have announced over the past few years that their companies are trying to develop self-driving or autonomous cars [Ref. 1 and 2]. Self-driving cars can provide many benefits to the average consumer. Studies have shown that because computers can react and process information many times faster than a human being, crashes on streets and roads can be decreased with quick and consistent evasion maneuvers by the autonomous car. They can also help maximize fuel economy by calculating the most direct and fastest routes. When the driving of an autonomous car demonstrates that the computer can safely and reliably transport the passengers to their destination, this frees up the passengers to do other things that they would not normally be able to do if they were driving the car manually. For this reason, self-driving cars can help maximize productivity of their passengers.
While many people are all about autonomous cars and the benefits that they will bring to society, there are people who oppose driver less cars. Google has faced major censure from critics that are uneasy with the method that the automobile will u...
Vaccines are very effective in defending children from infectious disease. Although there has been tremendous success in achieving population based childhood immunization programs, more and more parents have chosen to delay the registration or even refuse to vaccinate their children at all (Diekema, 2012, p. 391). People are starting to challenge the necessity, safety and tolerability of vaccinations because the public attention has been diverted from the decreasing incidence of disease to the ambiguous risks of side effects of vaccines (Heininger, 2009, G9). Despite its outstanding performance in preventing diseases, maintaining high level of vaccination coverage needs public understanding as well, particularly the acceptance of parents
Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God" (942). The book Anthology of American Literature isn’t the only source that supports Emerson critic Eric Wilson say, “Emerson 's famous "transparent-eyeball" passage early in Nature is often taken to be an exemplary statement of the transcendental sublime. Yet, if we read it as a restatement of his vision in the Jardin des Plantes, we realize that it reveals Emerson as a sign in nature 's text, a hieroglyph, describing his own design, dissolving his own solution” (Wilson). The solution Emerson wanted was to find out who he was thru nature and still be divine. Emerson shows that it’s okay to find faith in yourself. For example, you have problems in your life, and you separate yourself from everyone around you. People tend to start this process of mediation asking themselves questions about the future, love, religion, and so much more. This is how you find who you are by joining nature and allowing yourself to be free.
Mr. Keating, the new English teacher at Welton Academy, is the epitome of transcendentalist values. He devoutly embraces the idea of nonconformity, a key aspect of transcendentalism. At the start of the first English class, he instructs his students to tear out the introductory portion of their textbook because he disagrees with the content. This captures the attention of his student immediately differentiating him from the other professors at Welton and their orthodox teaching styles. Emerson, a famous poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century, said, “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.... Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Further emphasizing the importance of individuality, Mr. Keating takes his student out to the courtyard and asks them to walk in their own exclusive speed and style, independent of how everyone else is walking. When inquired by Mr. Nolan, the Headmaster at Welton, as to what exactly he was doing, Mr. Keating replies that he w...
First, Jean-Jacques Rousseau focused on the child 's freedom and learn in nature. Now we can find schools that focus on the child 's freedom and independence. According to Rousseau, the school environment should be natural like environment that helps children to flourish. In addition, they can depend on the sense that they experience in nature, and he believed that ‘children should be freed from
John Saliba’s approach to new religious movements is secular (despite his position as a Jesuit Priest) and well rounded. He begins by exploring how new religious movements are viewed today, how they have been reacted to in the past and why that may be. He examines the original definition of the word “cult” as well as the modern derivations of it and how it affects these new religious movements. By considering multiple opinions on new religious movements as well as looking at the historical, psychological, sociological, legal and theological context in which these religions came to be and attract new followers, he is able to advocate for a more open approach to these new religions and offer a better way to handle them; to respond to them, rather than react.
In an era of national renaissance and reformation, the United States was evolving into a country that respected the value and potential of the individual. Activism spread like wildfire as citizens fought for rights to freedom and equality for everyone. But while Americans viewed reform as a team-effort, a new philosophy was emerging that introduced a different perspective. Transcendentalism was founded in 1836 by a group of like-minded thinkers who saw the individual’s capacity to improve and transcend beyond the customs of society; among this collection of intellectuals were authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman; but at the center of it all was “the prophet of self-reliance and individualism,” Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Emerson and the Transcendentalists” 60; Park 491). Emerson believed that, in order for their generation to successfully reform, Americans needed to stop idolizing past generations as
Google’s driverless car has travelled 400,000 miles already and is in exceptionally advanced stage of real world