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SRRI 2005 Spring

Supervised Reading and Research I

Brian Teaman, Office: room 711 (2nd floor next to Wilmina Cafe). Classes meet on Monday (Room 305) and Wednesday, third period (Room 304). For more information go to http://brianteaman.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Classes.General Send e-mail to brianATpopearDOTorg but check the Classes/General information before you send the mail.

Simplicity and Peace Course Description

There are many potential ways to think about peace. One path to peace could be thought of as simplicity. This class will introduce the idea of peace by looking through the competing concepts of simplicty and complexity. On one hand, simplicty can be thought of as the opposite of consumption. Consumption is related to selfishness, abuse of natural resources and war with our environment. Some people say that peace comes through prosperity but that fails to look at the distruction and loss of resources which comes through prosperity. There are many peaceful societies that are not prosperous and many prosperous societies that are not peaceful. So, we will look at different societies and different kinds of conflicts in simple and complex socieites. We will look at some peacemakers who also lived simple lives. Another view of simplicity is lack of technology. Technology can be thought of as the opposite of simplicity. So, we will look at peaceful and non-peaceful uses of technology. One very powerful force in the modern world that drives technology is the use of energy. Energy is also a source of war. Therefore we will look at the importance of oil and other energy sources for making peace and war. Besides technology and energy there is the direct relationship between technology and the ability to make war.

Final Grade

Participation (20%)

• Attendance
• In-class work

Paper (40%)

• Outline, Introduction, Preliminary Resources (5%)
• First Draft (10%)
• Final Draft (25%) (5% Penalty if late)

Project Presentation (20%)

• Requirements: Must turn in a summary of your part, must be a different subject from your paper.

Quizzes and tests (20%)

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Class Plan

Monday/Wednesday

• Class 1 (4/18) Course Overview, MLA (Homework, due 4/20: write a brief summary on any of the comments I talked about in the first class, on the syllabus or any other concept that you think fits in this class. Three or more sentences.) We will use this for a discussion. Classes.SRRIHomework1
• Class 2 (4/20) Lecture: Simplicity and Peace/Student Questions/Reaction Paper Classes.SRRIHomework2
• Class 3 (4/25) Discussion/In-class short/answer
• Class 4 (4/27) Summarizing a reading on the Yanomamo. (homework, groups write a summary)
• GOLDEN WEEK
• Class 5 (5/2) Amish Movie (click for homework) Amish Links
• Class 6 (5/9) Collect Yanomamo summary homework. Finish Amish Movie (Amish Summary and Reaction, homework due 5/11) Discuss the Amish
• Class 7 (5/11) More on Amish History
• Class 8 (5/16) Writing Thesis Statements: Technology and War/Student QuestionsOptional Reaction Paper due May 18
• Class 9 (5/18)
• Class 10 (5/23) Wininock speech quiz (open book, any materials are allowed)
• Class 11 (5/25)
• Class 12 (5/30) Voluntary Simplicity in Wikipedia
• Class 13 (6/1) (Title and thesis statement due, at least 1 source)
• Class 14 (6/6) (Outline and Introduction due, at least 5 sources)
• Class 15 (6/8)
• Class 16 (6/13)
• Class 17 (6/15)
• Class 18 (6/20)
• Class 19 (6/22)
• Class 20 (6/27)
• Class 21 (6/29) (First Drafts Due)
• Class 22 (7/4)
• Class 23 (7/6)
• Class 24 (7/11) Presentations
• Class 25 (7/13) Presentations (Final Drafts Due at beginning of class)
• Class 26 (7/20) Presentations (Final Quiz)

Notes for teacher:

The Last Samurai

Think about having quizzes in the computer classroom once a month.

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