-ession 2a: Pre-Imperialist China/Computer Lab

[Anonymous]

Studying this time frame and how religion was used as a means to influence the people could most certainly help point out the same mistakes that might be made today. As someone already pointed out this method is already being used. Every presidential candidate must connect themselves to a Christian church and use the words"God bless America," and this somehow validates them as being a better ruler. Good ideas alone just doesn't seem to work. [Edit by="mburditt on Jul 29, 10:45:49 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Many thoughts for the am session. Comment on religion: I respect most religious beliefs and the individuals who hold fast to those beliefs regardless of their "religion". Thank you Clay for clarifying my question on religion vs philosophy. It is mainly as I thought but clearer (you are close to an expert).

The three cultural heroes were a definite enlightenment I had never heard of Fu xi, Huangdi, or Shen nong. My students are low and last year I began reading them (with our document camera) different novels, short stories etc. Then I have them write to various prompts about what we read. This gets in the writing standards and allows them to feel successful. Oh ya, if they read what they wrote they get small impromptu rewards (oral standards). I think one simple way that I will incorporate Asia into my curriculum is to use the various legends of the the Asian countries as part of this warm-up writing activity. What a fun way to get their interest. I will also weave in some of the "A day in the lives" readings.

I hope I learned the secrets of this site in the lab for me to cite. It is to late to apply my sight is not good.

Oracle bones too fun--wish I taught history again -- Ask it - Drill it - Crack it - Answer it - Write it. Hey maybe an exciting L/A activity. [Edit by="mstark on Jul 30, 12:18:09 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Why do people believe when a person comes into power and says it was heavenly mandated?
Because they're standing there in power, so even though you may have fought their taking power, if they won the power, that starts a seed of credibility for them. And if you are an uneducated, superstitious peasant living in the middle ages, it's that much more believable. And even if you don't believe it, the power of claiming an unseen, all powerful, unknown source still holds sway, just in case it might be true.
This is a very common ploy that worked in Spain, and in Mexico, and in England, and in Africa, and in the building of the missions in California. Heck, Bush even tried it after 9-11 and he had a string of believers for a while.

[Anonymous]

I have enjoyed all the information so far. This morning I was listening intently wracking my brain trying to remember a book I read in high school. I remember it was called Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China, and it was by Waley, I think. I can't remember the individual lines of thought, much, or even the names, but I loved hearing about it this morning. The only frustrating thing is that there is so much information, there is no time for discussion, which is what makes this stuff come alive.
I can easily see distilling this and even trying to draw connections between this and ethos, logos and pathos and making a critical thinking exercise out of it. Kids love to talk about what other people (countries) do, then pass judgement on them, but if you throw some ideas at them, they really start to churn and burn.
I enjoyed the computer session, but I almost wish we'd left it for the last half hour of the day and allocated the rest of the time for discussion. The earthquake was particularly cool.

[Anonymous]

Note to kwilliamskorbel and all: I highly recommend going to the Bowers Museum to see the terra cotta warriors. I have been already. The tour is self-guided with earprompters you carry. I found the most fascinating thing was minute detailing in the uniforms and the soldiers' personal appearances, things like head covering detail, fingers, strands of hair. The exhibit is set up so you can start at any station and go back through if you want. I was really surprised that the statues are not under protective glass and you can get to within 3 feet of them. I did notice alarms went off twice during the hour I was there from visitors "getting too close". You will enjoy it more if you read up about them ahead of time and watch the short movie they have near the information booth to also give you information on the soldiers and the time period. Be sure to check the Bowers Museum website before you go and you need to purchase your ticket on line before you go. They have assigned times. It is best to go right when the museum opens on a weekday. The weekends sell out. Also, on Fridays at 4 pm they let the first 100 people to line up in free. There is a long wait to get in as the locals and college students have picked up on this ( it was intended for low income people to come and enjoy the exhibit).The gift shop has lots of goodies at fairly decent prices and they offer much of what you could buy at the gift shop in Xi'an. Take your charge card.Also, parking is $4. for the lots, 2 hours at the meters for 8 quarters, and street parking is scarce and scary. There are also free films from or about China at their auditorium on Friday nights at 6:30 pm that anyone can attend.

[Anonymous]

From Tuesday morning 7-29-08 PEP (pre-earthquake period) at the computer lab.
There is so much useful information.....and not enough time! My favorite thing to experience was the "A typical day in China" exercise. I think the originator was brilliant to have such a simple title with the statistics as a "grabber". It hooked me into wanting to read everything. It's especially enticing since the text is a convenient length...all topics are possible. Here are 4 simple teaching ideas it generated within me:
l. create the student's typical day (simple paragraphs)
2.write to "A typical day in the USA" ( newsletter, penpals, classroom bulletin boards)
3. branch off into "A typical day in _______" ( current events, social studies, geography,etc) It could even be written from an earthworm's point of view from his or her typical day in the garden, or from a 66 VW's typical day ( useful for creative writing, shop class, other)
4.have one or two students draw or make scale model of a typical day. Another group has to analyze it and write what the typical day is like. This forces both groups to focus on detail, completeness, information, and accuracy.

[Anonymous]

I love reading the posts that you all are writing; it is a great way to communicate with each other in order to gain insight about the material being covered each day. I am in the process of completing my classroom website and I have included a blog to encourage discussion about history amongst my students. I am going to provide a critical thinking question at the beginning of each month and give them the month to post an entry and respond to another classmates entry. Has anyone used this tool yet? If so, how has it worked out?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the hints! Maybe we'll hit it up next Friday night, maybe I'll see some of you there!

[Anonymous]

Although I reviewed, as an experiment, the "Asia in My Classroom" forum before the seminar started, today's hands on approach was useful. I learned a few more tricks.
I added my recommended web sites under the thread: "Web Resources".

The Web Resources are very informative and useful. I checked the interesting sites and bookmarked for my classroom use. Thank you![Edit by="kirion on Aug 3, 2:49:26 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Prof. Dube's explanation about the difference between religion and philosophy was simple and clear. Although Confucianism is not a religion, I think that Confucianism and Augustinian (Catholic) have some similarities in term of values: both emphasize education, and encourage one to be a "life long learner".

I think this is one way to introduce Confucianism to our students because all the students are taught under Augustinian order even though only 1/3 of the student body is Catholic. In addition to Confucianism, I will introduce Mohism, Daoism, and Legalism in my language literature class (I posted my detailed method under: Session 2b).

(a)

[Anonymous]

This session by Clayton answered the question I came to class with on the first day. Why is USC and the China Institute giving teachers money and credit; what's the real motive? I loved that someone (the Freemans) had been to Asia, loved it and wanted to help us to love it, too.

Clayton explained the Evident Need for study of Asia (New Media/Interconnectedness of Modern world)

1. The globe in interconnected via the web. 1.3 billon (1/4th of China's population has access. Korea has broad band 10xs faster than U.S. Wow!
2.Traditional media can't keep up. ICUE is NBC's attempt to keep up. And,we teachers can have our students put out their own newscast. Great idea.
3.Young democracies are using the internet to shape opinion and whoever wins is the govt. we will deal with.
4.New leaders in Asia are emerging due to internet usage.
5.Veteran leaders. We need to know about them.
6.Money. We're in debt to China. Massive trade with Asia.
7.Aftermath of wars with Asian countries tie us to them.
8.Our philosophy of the White Man's Burden and we still seem to be thinking that we are the ones to settle disputes and as a Super Power we ought to call the shots on the global stage...or so some think.
9.Our history of intervention in Asian nation's affairs.
10.We are working with Asian nations...eg 2001 Japanese navy provides support for the American led invasion of Afghanistan. NATO intervention often involve us.
11.China has four times as many people as the US.
12.We spy, we get caught and we want our high tech. spy toys back. We, accidentally, according to US, hit the Chinese embassy in 1999 in Serbia. China didn't buy this.
13.In California we have the demographics: two-thirds of three million people have ties with an Asian country.
14.Trade:US does 50% with China; 27% with Japan; 11% with Korea; 8% with Taiwan; 4% with Hong Kong. LA Long Beach is most important port of trade with Asia. "Chinda": India and China moving from poverty to highest population of technology using folks. We better get with the program.

[Anonymous]

The connection between religion and government is very intriguing. The Zhou Dynasty was able to rule for so long because they has the "mandate from heaven." I always question the strong link between religion and government. Why do the ordinary people go along with the rulers? Why do they trust that the rulers are of divine right? But on the other hand, when the government purposefully states that there is a "separation between church and state" why does it seem that the people (at least some of the people) strive to bring religion into government? Should there be a separation? Or is a government more effective when it is backed up by divine inspiration?

[Anonymous]

I really appreciated the forum training today. Thank you Prof. Dube. It is a new method which I will use with my students as our school has just installed a new program that easily allows teachers to construct web pages and host forums.

The use of forums appear to really be a place which allows students to thoughtfully place their ideas. They remind me of "chalk talk" or as I've called it "paper talk" where a question is posed, students write their answers, then pass their paper on, read that person's answer and responds to it, and so on. I have found it highly successful in helping students understand a concept and develop an opinion about it. All the cool little tricks we learned or had reviewed today will be highly useful when I ask my students to participate. I like the idea of posting a monthly question and having students respond to each other.

[Anonymous]

mlgibbon, I agree with your point that people need something to believe in and that the poorer, which equates with less educated, are much more susceptible to the idea of divine power. This is why educating people and exposing them to a wide range of ideas is so important.

Thanks to the readings and Prof. Dube's explanations China's pre-imperialist ideologies are much clearer, in fact they are brand new. As it turns out, Confucius was not only a faith leader, but also one whose ideas influenced a political regime.

[Anonymous]

Hi Kamiko,

I never thought to link Confucianism with the Augustinian Order, but I guess it can work. Although I don't teach at a paroquial school, most of my students are Catholic and they should be able to connect when I tap into their prior knowlege.

I think I would like to try something similar to what we did in our session in order to introduce Mohism, Daoism, and Legalism. I will probably have the students create a poster board with the key questions we had to answer.

I too liked the way Clay explained what Confucianism is and isn't. I can see how some people might confuse it with a religion especially if the missionaries who went on to China to make converts and implemented Confucianism into their own life. I'm still confused 😐

Maria

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