Non-Fictional Prose

ENGLISH PERFORMANCE

So when I started off the class, I was a Carl Sagan. I used to have arguments with my family about how science is fact, or rather that there is only one truth out there and scientific facts come closest to reaching that truth. My mom and aunts would say that I was too stubborn to realize that everyone can have their own truth, and theirs was God. As I've come to the end of the semester I have seen how it is that there isn't only one truth, there isn't only one answer. I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to human beings in a social world, we all have our own truths which are based on experiences; and as far as prose goes, we write from different perspectives and angles. 
PS. To pull from one of the presentations:

 Notes:

 Email a meeting time for the final paper

Sign up for group members on Tuesday

-youtube video- you should watch this!

-links to more creative writing projects, changing paradigms

-conversation about Karl Sagan’s skepticism- crickets!

-TyL-should question, especially if it feels right

-aya-it would be exhaustive, science looks for an endpoint

EVD-endpoint-we are escaping this demon haunted world through constant investigation

Anne: Use value of Demon Haunted World

 When I was reading the Call of Stories by Robert Coles, I really enjoyed the advice he gave to his students. I am a current EMT and I really feel that Robert Coles's advice to listen and find meaning in the stories that the patients tell the doctors or care-providers even if they don't particularly identify or share the same cultural or literacy backgrounds, resonates well with my experiences talking to patients on the ambulance. My conversations with the patients have gone beyond how are you feeling, and can you point to where the pain is coming from or have you lost consciousness, and they go deeper into listening to the stories of patients, their current lives, their families or what they wish they have done 10 years ago.

We begun today talking about our final performance groups and our professor asked what it was we wanted to eat that day for class. Let me just say that our choices were wild! (i.e. chocolate and vanilla). A burst of laughter filled the room of course and then we begun class discussion. We started off the discussion by asking yet about other ways we could go about "changing education paradigms".

The area of "narrative therapy" focuses on the construction of stories as a way of making sense - of giving "meaning" - to our world. It postulates that behavior is not governed by laws, but by the fact that humans are looking for ways to construct a story that gives sense and meaning to their lives. While reading Coles' book, I couldn't help considering whether his theoretical orientation was toward narrative therapy as opposed to psychoanalytic theory. What's interesting about narrative therapy is that is allows a patient to deconstruct his present identity in favor of a new, more functional identity. He cannot rewrite his past story, but can begin writing himself as a different character as he moves through life.

As I was reading Coles' chapter titled "Looking Back," I realized that I had been doing the same thing when I wrote about my relationship to religion. On page 174 Coles' speaks about how Tolstoy appreciated a certain innocence that he felt is unachievable after expanding his intellect. Tolstoy wondered whether "the intellect wasn't more of hindrance than an aid to human relatedness, to our moral life." To him 'intellect' might present an obstacle to both religious faith and being able to trust other people. I relate a lot to his feelings of having lost something. The firm belief that I used to have seems like something that will stay in the past - despite how uncomfortable that makes me feel.

I think Sir Ken Robinson would say, and I agree, that we should be encouraging creative writing. I for one am not thrilled about this change, for I've been trained to write a certain way that I have yet to master, and if we do change, I would be asked to start training myself to do another form of writing I am not necessarily a pro at either; but I think that it would be a good way to see how it is that others experience life through writing.

Here is a video of Sir Ken Robinson talking about creativity being just as important as literacy:

www.youtube.com/watch

 Doubting and Believing

Our third 4 page paper is due online Friday at 5. Anne would be interested in seeing collaborative papers. 

For Thursday, we should read the first half of Call of Stories, and think about the role of stories in our lives. The book might be a little outdated, but we should compare our stories to his, and think about the role stories play in our lives.