Last chapter of the book?
The prompt below was the one that was used for the final exam when I taught this course in 2012. The essays from this class will be part of a (final?) chapter in our book. Your letters, written to the Class of 2017, can and should be part of this chapter as well.
Before you publish categorize this under “Letter to the Class of 2017”
Just as with your midterm, your final exam blog post will be an act of public scholarship. In this case your intended audience are members of the Elon University Class of 2016, the students that will be sitting under the oaks outside West in late August listening to Dr. Lambert, just as you did when you started your career at Elon.
A thought: Over the years as I have watched these incoming first year students I am often reminded of the Zen koan about the cup of tea:
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
For your final exam you are to write an open letter to the members of the Class of 2016 giving them advice or counsel regarding how they should proceed with the gift that they are being given. More specifically, you can refer to the Elon mission statement which says, in part, that, “We integrate learning across the disciplines and put knowledge into practice, thus preparing students to be global citizens and informed leaders motivated by concern for the common good.”
I will offer these letters [with your permission; let me know if you do not want yours offered. If I do not hear from you I will assume that it is OK with you.] to Dr. Jeffery Coker, Director of General Studies and the person who oversees all of the GST 110 sections, and suggest that he have them emailed to the faculty teaching GST 110 and then passed on to the students.
In your letter make an effort -though not in such a way that it disrupts the flow and message of your essay- to include insights from our texts, our conversations, and what you have learned in this course. I do ask you to use the term ‘ethnocentrism’ in your essay. Be creative, compelling and write the kind of letter that will both inform and move them.
Both email your final essay to me and post your essay on the blog by 9:00PM Friday evening.
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