English 202

English 202 is an accelerated college preparatory class designed to prepare students to move directly into college English 1. It includes in-class time to practice reading and writing skills, and focused support with reading and writing essays, but moves faster than English 201A/201B. This course is non-credit, and does not count toward an AA-T/AA/AS degree, and is non-transferable. It is graded Pass/Satisfactory Pass/No Pass and is often chosen by:

• students who had limited experience with academic reading and essay writing in high school, but are highly motivated and ready to advance quickly
• students who would like to establish a stronger foundation in reading and writing before taking college English

The following is a short excerpt from the text Education and the Significance of Life, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Chapter 1: Education And The Significance Of Life
by Krishnamurti (from Education and the Significance of Life)

When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia. This is especially true in colleges and universities. We are turning out, as if through a mould, a type of human being whose chief interest is to find security, to become somebody important, or to have a good time with as little thought as possible.

Conventional education makes independent thinking extremely difficult. Conformity leads to mediocrity. To be different from the group or to resist environment is not easy and is often risky as long as we worship success. The urge to be successful, which is the pursuit of reward whether in the material or in the so-called spiritual sphere, the search for inward or outward security, the desire for comfort - this whole process smothers discontent, puts an end to spontaneity and breeds fear; and fear blocks the intelligent understanding of life. With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in.

In seeking comfort, we generally find a quiet corner in life where there is a minimum of conflict, and then we are afraid to step out of that seclusion. This fear of life, this fear of struggle and of new experience, kills in us the spirit of adventure; our whole upbringing and education have made us afraid to be different from our neighbour, afraid to think contrary to the established pattern of society, falsely respectful of authority and tradition.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu. Education and the Significance of Life. Harper and Row, 1981.

Essay 1: Education and Imagination

Assignment

Write a 4-5 page paper connecting ideas presented in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to Krishnamurti’s piece on education or Leslie Marmon Silko’s piece “Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination.” What common themes do you observe? How is Alexie’s rendering of Junior’s world similar to and/or different from the readings? Use quotes from both texts to make your arguments.

Getting Started:

• Select which essay you will focus on
• Observe themes in the Krishnamurti or Silko essay and find parallel themes in Alexie's novel
• Discover the relationships between the essays – are they similar, are they expanding on each other, are they conflicting with each other?
• Outline your paper before you begin writing. Don’t order your paragraphs randomly. Think about how your arguments shift through the different essays.

Paper specifications:

Use MLA citation to format direct quotations from the book. 4-5 pages double spaced. (12 point New Times Roman Font, 1-inch margins, and stapled). Turn in your rough draft with the final draft. Works Cited page required.

Required Texts:

• Alexie, Sherman and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little, Brown, 2007.
• Krishnamurti, Jiddu. Education and the Significance of Life. Harper and Row, 1981.
• Silko, Leslie Marmon. "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination," Antaeus 57 (Autumn 1986), 882-894.