SPECIAL MORALITY
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS
I am open to other suggestions, but anything must be approved first! I urge you to be interdisciplinary. You can do biology and morality, economics, sports, literature, history, culture, computer, engineering. law and so much more.
ANY OF THESE MUST BE APPROVED BY THE TEACHER.
OPTIONS:
- READ MAJOR HISTORICAL DOCUMENT (5-10 POINTS)
- READ SECTION FROM ONE OF THE OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS TYPES BOOKS. (5-10 POINTS)
- MAJOR CURRENT ARTICLE DEALING WITH MORALITY SOCIAL JUSTICE TOPICS (5-10 POINTS)
- MOVIE REVIEW (5 POINTS)
- BOOK INGESTION (10-20 POINTS)
- MAJOR BOOK SUMMARY (20 POINTS)
- INTERVIEW AN ADULT ABOUT MORAL CHALLENGES IN THEIR LIVES. (5-10 POINTS)
-OR-
- LET�S CONTRACT (5-20 POINTS). I�m open to interesting, creative, interdisciplinary projects. If you have an idea, see me and lets talk.
READ A MAJOR HISTORICAL DOCUMENT (5-10 POINTS) .
Read and mark a classic and historically important writing dealing with morality and justice.
Or choose to read or do a report on a major encyclical. Some encyclicals
Assignment: Read one of these and write a short summary of the key ideas. Then add a person response to this: What did you personally get out of reading this: intellectually, morally even spiritually?
READ SECTION FROM ONE OF THE OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS TYPES BOOKS. (5-10 POINTS).
Great series of books in our library
� Current Controversies � Opposing Viewpoints � At Issue � Taking Sides
Affirmative Action � Business Ethics � Environmental Justice � Genetic Engineering � Physician assisted Suicide (Euthanasia) � U. S. Policy toward China � Abortion � Death Penalty (capital punishment) � Endangered Species � Endangered Ocean � Health Care � Interventionism
Turning Points in World History
� The Atom Bomb � Immigration � The Crusades � The Industrial Revolution � Vietnam War
Assignment: Check one of these books out of our library. Read the series introduction. Skim the Table of Contents and get a sense of the articles. Choose one set of articles to read. First part: Write a summary of the articles. Make sure you include the source of the article and the book from which it was taken. Second part: What did you personally get out of reading this: intellectually, morally even spiritually?
MOVIE REVIEW (5 POINTS).
Watch a good movie that deals with morality and social justice.
Assignment First part: Write a summary of the articles. Make sure you include the source of the article and the book from which it was taken.
Second part: What did you personally get out of reading this: intellectually, morally even spiritually?
� A Civil Action � A Man For All Seasons � Whose Life is it Anyway?
� Bowling for Columbine � Silkwood � Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
� Erin Brockovitch � The Pianist � Roger & Me
� Malcolm X � Gandhi � Bread and Roses � Motorcycle Diaries � In Good Company
Even movies like Adam Sandler's "Big Daddy" can have a clear moral message. Suggest one. I am open to other movies or plays, but any work must be approved by me.
Go to the Frontline homepage and skim the many choices. Get this video via our library (it will take a couple days) or through your own public library. 23 of the reports can be viewed with streaming video. Check out the accompanying web site.
Some Frontline titles
� Wall Street Fix � dot.com � Juvenile Justice
� Real Justice � Dr. Solomon�s Dilemma
� a Case for Innocence � The Killer at Thurstan High � Justice for Sale
� The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela � Triumph of Evil � The Death of Nancy Cruzan
� Behind the Mask: the IRA and Sinn Fein � The Kevorkian Verdict
� Tax Me If You Can � Burden of Innocence � Bigger Than Enron � An Ordinary Crime
Assignment First part: Write a summary of the video. Approach this as you are writing a summary for someone who has not seen the program. Consider reading and adding other resources on the web site.
Second part: What did you personally get out of reading this: intellectually, morally even spiritually? What moral challenges or social justice issues did you become aware of or more knowledgeable about?
Listen, check the web site and write a summary of the key ideas.
Some suggestions:
� The Gods of Business � The Future of Moral Values � L'Arche � Children and God � The Legacy of deitrich bonhoeffer � The Meaning of Faith
Faith & Film: Religion, Fantasy and Entertainment
MAJOR CURRENT ARTICLE DEALING WITH MORALITY SOCIAL JUSTICE TOPICS (5-10 POINTS. )
Read a major in-depth article from one of these magazines: Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, Sojourner�s , The Christian Century, Foreign Affairs, FP Foreign Policy. This must be a major article (at least four pages of text) of a topic pertinent to morality/social justice. This must be approved by the teacher.
Sojourners magazine, September-October 2003
What�s Behind George W. Bush�s Theology of Empire
Atlantic Monthly, September 2003
The Age of Murdoch: How one man�s vision of the media business became everybody�s by James Fallows
Harpers, June 2003
Get Rich or Get Out: Robbery with a Loaded Federal Budget
by Thomas Frank
The Christian Century, September 6, 2003
The Gospel According to Tolkien
FP: Foreign Policy May/June 2003
Inside the American Mind: why the United States misunderstands the world--and itself.
Commentary 2003
Winks, Nods and Disguises--Racial Preference
Social Justice Review Jan-Feb 2003
Palestine, Palestinians and International Law
Assignment: First part: Write a summary of the article. Make sure you include the source of the article and the book from which it was taken.
Second part: What did you personally get out of reading this: intellectually, morally even spiritually?
BOOK INGESTION (10-20 POINTS)
1. Buy one of the suggested books. This has to be a book you have not read before.
2. Get a copy of Mortimer Adler�s �How to Mark a Book� from me. Read it and follow his guidelines.
3. Read the book. While reading, use pencil following Adler�s guide on marking a book.
4. After the first 20 or 30 pages, show me the book so we can make sure you are doing the assignment correctly and in a timely manner.
5. When the reading is finished, the marked book will be handed in. The first thing that will be checked is that the book is marked on what was assigned. If not it will be returned immediately. An open book quiz will usually be given to check how well the assignment was done.
6. Optional but strongly encouraged. See the suggested movie.
7. A paper will be done and this will earn the final grade. A very personal paper: what did you learn from the reading this book. What did you really learn?
Did you follow Adler�s directions? If not, the book will be returned for you to do according to instructions. Marking the book as suggested is a major part of the learning experience. If the marking of the book is done well, then you are asked to go over my comments and consider them before writing the paper. Then write a paper about what you �really learned� from the experience of the book ingestion. I do not want a summary of the book; I want a personal response. Did the reading and marking of the book cause you to look things differently? Do you think you will take anything from this experience?
Small books to �ingest�
Viktor Frankl�s Man�s Search for Meaning. The classic best seller now considered to be one of the most important contributions to psychiatry since the writings of Freud. Dr. Frankl gives a moving account of his life and the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, chronicling the harrowing experiences that led to his discovery of logotherapy. A profound revelation born out of Dr. Frankl�s years as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, logotherapy is modern and positive approach to the mentally or spiritually disturbed personality. Stressing man�s freedom to transcend suffering and find meaning to his life regardless of circumstances, it is a theory which, since its conception, has exercised a tremendous influence upon the entire field of psychiatry and psychology. (Only first part required; though your are urged to do section on �logotherapy�) Movie: Schindler�s List
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life�s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom. Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. for Mitch Albom that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe like Mitch you lost tract of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn�t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man�s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final �class�: lessons on how to live. Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together through which Mitch shares Morrie�s lasting gift with the world.
Gerry Spence�s With Justice for None. Gerry Spence draws on thirty-five years of experience, including his groundbreaking work on the Karen Silkwood case, to expose the rules and traditions that conspire to deprive ordinary citizens of their right to justice. In this thought provoking critique, Spence calls for innovative, often controversial, reforms to America�s legal system. He proposes changes in law school admissions procedures and offers new ways of choosing judges. Spence even takes on corporate America, which blatantly manipulates the legal system, by positing that corporations found guilty of crimes can be forced to sell their assets at public auction.
Why We Can�t Wait or I Have A Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World, edited by James M. Washington, foreword by Coretta Scott King. Martin Luther King�s twenty most memorable writings and speeches...Editor James M. Washington has arranged the selections chronologically, providing headnotes for each selection that give a running history of the Civil Rights movement and related events. (first 106 pages required; you are urged to read the rest)
Movie: Eyes on the Prize (two-hour version), or The Vernon Johns Story
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States by Sister Helen Prejean (Vintage Books, 1993) In 1982 Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana Angola State Prison. In the months before Sonnier�s death, the Roman Cathodic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had bean once terrifying. At the same time, she came to know the families of his victims and the men whose job it was to execute him-men who often harbored severe doubts about the rightness of what they were doing Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Confronting both the plight of the condemned and the the rage of the bereaved, the needs of the a crime-ridden society and the Christian imperative to love, Dead Man Walking is an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty, a book that is both enlightening and devastating.
Mary Pipher, Ph.D. wrote Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. Why are more American adolescent girls prey to depression, eating disorders, addictions, and suicide attempts than ever before? According to Dr. Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist who has treated girls for more than twenty years, we live in a look-obsessed, media-saturated, �girl-poisoning� culture. Despite the advances of feminism, escalating levels of sexism and violence-from undervalued intelligence to sexual harassment in elementary school-cause girls to stifle their creative spirit and natural impulses, which ultimately destroys their self-esteem. Yet girls often blame themselves or their families for this �problem with no name� instead of looking at the world around them. An eye-opening look at the everyday dangers of being young and female, and how adults can help.
Other possible ingestions:
.
� The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm � Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol
� Man�s Search for Himself by Rollo May � People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck
� Ten Philosophical Mistakes by Mortimer Adler � A Primer On Freudian Psychology
� The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
One of the recent encyclicals of John Paul II
� Veritatis Splendor (1993) The Splendor of Truth
� Evangelium Vitae (1995) The Gospel of Life
� Fides et Ratio (1998) Faith and Reason
One of the pastoral letters of the American Bishops
� The Challenge of Peace: God�s Promise and Our Response (1983)
� Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy (1986)
� Always Our Children (1997)
MAJOR BOOK SUMMARY (20 POINTS)
These are major books do not have to be bought. Read them and summarize the major points. Click link for article or review.
SPECIAL SERIES ON ETHICS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Notre Dame Lecture Series:
- Pascal and the Meaning of Life Outline
- Newma and the Thoughtful Beleiver
- Ethics in the 20th Century
The Portable Professor
- What Would Socrates Do? The History of Moral Thought and Ethics
Assignment: Get one of these from the teacher and listen to all or part of it. Write a summary.
INTERVIEW AN ADULT ABOUT MORAL CHALLENGES IN THEIR LIVES.
Assignment:
- Set up a one hour interview with your mother or father (or someone you want to interview because you think their lives/occupations would be interseting ethically). This interview should revolve around morality in their lives. Quesitons should include: Do you have to make moral decisions in your life, in your job? Are you able to do what you think is right? Does your job ask you to do things that are against your conscience? How important are moral choices in your life?
- Conduct the interview. Record it or take notes. Hand these in.
- Write a two part assignment (A) What did they say? (B) What did you learn form what they said.
- After you write this, have the person you interviewed read this and comment and sign it.
LET'S CONTRACT.
Be creative. Come up with a good and unique morality contract. Be interdisciplinary: you can tie morality into history, art, literature, science, sports, and so much more.
E-mail me at
M. Sciuto | Back to Course Home Page