Wednesday 9/9

Today we talked about Participation (using Amy Cuddy's TEDTalk--see the link to the right).
We also discussed WYR, sorting your arguments into Logos, Ethos and Pathos.

The majority of the class we used to talk about Barthelme's "The School." Here the questions we used for group discussion.

1)         List all the creatures that die in/around the school. Do you notice any pattern?

2)         How do you react when you arrive at the line “We weren’t even supposed to have a puppy”? What expectations has Barthelme established by this point?

3)         What kind of relationship does the narrator/teacher have with his students? How do you know this?

4)         Barthelme uses some strange language, often repeating words and phrases. What effect does this have? What kind of narrator are we dealing with? 
(Clue: look at the beginning of the story. Edgar might say "We wanted the students to understand how root systems of trees work, so we had them plant trees." But he says it in a very different way. What is different about the way he "speaks"? Why do you think Barthelme chooses this language?)

5)         At the end of the story, when the students seek affirmation from Edgar, how does Edgar respond? Is he able to comfort them?

6)         Why do the students ask Edgar to make love to Helen?

7)         The text closes with the lines “the gerbil walked in.” But gerbils don’t “walk” (they crawl or scurry). It is usually only humans that walk. Why do you think the gerbil is given this human characteristic?

8)         Why do you think the students cheer when they see the gerbil “walk” in at the end of the story?

9)         Edgar tells the students “life is that which affirms life.” Why do you think he says this?