There and There and Back Again (9/6/7)

Posted by Jessica J., Block 6

Hey there, it's Jessica J., and I'll be the blog entry writer for today.

So first off, once we get started, [Editor's Note: The photo posted above was taken before we got started when the teacher was warming up the audience and rewarding those who were paying attention already with the crafting of a moustache from a length of red twist tie he found in his pocket.] B wants to get us thinking by asking us what we learned last class.

Johnathan answers,"See things differently," and that sets B off, pointing out that Johnathan is not specific in his answer. B wants so know exactly what things and in what different ways. He explains that we have learned in school is, when you are asked what you learned, to answer what you learned about. That doesn't tell what you learned, and it doesn't make you think much. But it usually gets you off the hook. What you learn about is the subject, but what you learned is a different matter.

The class joins in, and we slowly transform the original answer into something more interesting, more accurate, more reflective. It more or less went this way:
What did you learn the last time this class met?
"Different ways of thinking"
"We learned about different ways of thinking."
"We learned different ways of thinking about boxes."
"We learned that there are different ways of thinking about boxes."
"We learned that seeing boxes as more than boxes enriches our learning."
"We learned that seeing boxes as containers of ideas allows us to expand our understanding and imagination."
What else?
"We learned that people have different motives for participating with boxes."
"We learned that being motivated just to have fun, for example, when Brandon knocked over his table's stack of boxes, can be a positive thing."
"We learned that even what might appear to be destructive and not motivated to learn can enrich the learning by generating a sense of spontaneity."

Johnathan argues for a second and then B cues him to start a "Shut-up Argument." The Shut-Up Argument involves two parties repeatedly telling one another to shut up. The winner is the one who gets the loudest, threatens the most, keeps on the longest, or somehow forces the other to stop arguing. Another familiar argument is the "Junior Debate Club Argument" in which the participants try only to show their opponents to be wrong or mistaken. The winner is the one who most effectively demonstrates her/his superiority. We learn that the "Shut-up" and "Junior Debate Club" arguments are not for our class (although they can be fun at times) or for the academic or intellectual community. B suggests that when Hannah B. writes in a blog comment that she is not going to argue with him, he thinks that she believes arguments to be impolite or disrespectful like the two already identified.

The arguments we want to have in our learning community, the arguments we want to make, allows all the participants to learn something and understand. There are no losers. It's not a competition. It's a way of seeing others' ideas as..... hmmmm ... more than just opposing ideas, as receptacles of understanding. Argument in an academic intellectual community is a matter of making a claim and proving or supporting it; it such a community, others will make counter claims and prove and support them. And each and all will to understand better.

After this B starts to talk about the board and why there was a new blog address now for the resources (tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com) and, of course, it never fails, Cody interrupts and asks why Carl Jung is on the board under the addresses. Because it's Cody, B answers that Carl is not himself on the board but that the letters that spell his name are. He also points out that Cody did indeed pronounce "Jung" right. B reports that those who pronounce "Jung" correctly will always appear smart whether they are or not and that those who mispronounce it will always appear stupid no matter how smart they may be. Laughter follows.

So everyone is coming back (intellectually) and B lists some of the postings on the new resource blog. He paraphrases Margaret Mead's quote that the only thing that has ever changed the world is a small group of creative people. I don't know about everyone else, but that made me start thinking of getting up a group and working on world hunger. But thats besides the point. [Editor's Note: Or is it?]

B mentions another resource blog item, a quote from "V for Vendetta" that takes him directly to alliteration heaven. This was followed by a punch to my head to get me to move, calling me a slug, and an actual audible burp. Very nice.

Focusing again. And summing up: Phrase we may not use- "We learned about...". Phrase we may use- "We learned that..." When writing, we do not want the big picture, the big picture sucks. We want specifics. The best advice B ever got and could ever give about writing, two words... Be Concrete. (in order to make the most impact)

Unexpectedly, in the midst of all this, B (connecting concrete to cement to asphalt) throws out a joke to liven the mood. Hilarious. I laughed for a good 15 seconds.

Focusing again. What does it mean to be concrete?
Be visible, touchable, tasteable, audible, smellable. Be one and only one unique thing.
You don't give much room for misinterpretation, communicating exactly what you think, showing not telling what you see to the observer or reader so that she/he may also see.

All art has meaning, it makes some kind of commentary on the Big Picture, on life and history and good and evil. If it had an explanation from the artist, (instead of a concrete image) it wouldn't be as effective. If you want to have an immediate impact, you may want to paint that picture in their head and explain the bigger ideas, but if you can lead them to the bigger picture, let them see it for themselves by the choices you make, that's what makes effectice writing. Others have called it, "Show me; Don't tell me" writing.

B ends the class by reading from the end of an essay "Simple Art of Murder", (see resource blog) and asking us to take note and some notes,. Here are a some phrases that caught my ear as the class reported their impressions:
-cool spirit of detachment
-death isn't funny but someone dying for so little is
-in all art, there is a quality of deception
-the detective is the hero
-complete, common, unusual, man of honor
-man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things
-lonely man, his pride is that you see him as a proud man or be sorry you ever saw him<--favorite -range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right in the world we live in -without him the world is not worth living -contempt for pettiness -safer place with him It was a really good essay from what we got to hear and then, sadly, the bell rings, sending us back off into the routine fashion of high school, waiting yet another day to enter this class once again.

This is Jessica J., signing off.