What is the Meaning of Life: Beauty, Truth, and Learning The Modern Age’s Response

Procedure:  You may want to work on this power point flipped lesson for several days rather than save it all for one day.  You will probably benefit from reading the questions and the brief commentary that I have included on the slide before reading or watching the item.  You will definitely benefit from jotting down quick notes and brief responses to the questions as you watch or read. Feel free to highlight readings that have been printed for you. You can also refer to these items in class on your phones and other devices should you need to consult them during discussion.  Your group, once you have been assigned, will present and discuss only one of these items, but I wanted you to familiarize yourself with all of them so that you would understand more of what the other groups present.

Revisiting Romanticism… Some traits and themes common to Romantic literature of the late 18 th and 19 th centuries include  an almost spiritual desire to fulfill one’s potential and live life fully, (Mr. Keating)  a feeling of oneness with the natural world and a desire to leave the values of society and its influence behind, (the DPS)  a belief that the common, average person can achieve a manner of divinity through his communion with all living things, (Todd)  a desire for self-determination (Neal)  and that this quest provides a platform from which to gain Honor (Neal).

The Hippies of the Sixties speak  Hippies and the Counter- Culture Movement Hippies and the Counter- Culture Movement  Look over the webpage you’ll find through this link.  What caused the movement? What kinds of activities did the Hippie movement promote? What lasting effects did it have?  How does the Hippie ideology compare and contrast with DPS/Romantic ideal?

You Tube has spoken…  Look Up Look Up  After watching this video from 2014, what values from the Romantics does he reinforce through his message? Again, consider words and images as evidence.  What about tone? Does the way that he discusses these issues compare and contrast with DPS’s approach and the Romantic poets?

Apple has spoken… After watching Dead Poets Society and reading the Romantic poets, we need to reflect on what they have to say to us. What Truth of their observations speaks to modern society. Now, watch this commercial for Apple Air that aired during the Super Bowl in 2014 and an abridged version was commonly seen on TV after that. What parts of this video agree or promote the same values as DPS or the Romantic poets we studied? According to the commercial, what is a computer for? Consider the video’s overt message as well as the implied message…  AppleAIR AppleAIR

(from packet) Joel Stein from Time responds: Joel Stein, born in 1971, writes a humor column that ends each edition of Time magazine. Always a little quippy and sometimes controversial, his humorous insight seeks to push the boundaries of what American society thinks about itself. In this piece from early September 2014, Stein muses about why we promote majors in college that de-emphasize the Humanities, the study of Man. What part of what he writes would Mr. Keating and the DPS/poets agree with and what parts would they not? How about you? What do his observations show us about ourselves?

(packet) A Psychological Perspective: “The World Is Too Much with Us: Mindfulness in the Age of Cybertime”  After reading the article, try to identify what purpose does the author have in mind?  How does the author explain mindfulness?  Why does she think mindfulness has become so important?  Would the DPS/poets agree or disagree with the criticism of our society implied by the article and its solution for the problem?