St. Jerome's Catholic School

Although you may not yet have read or seen Macbeth, you will soon recognize some familiar conflicts and issues, for you have seen them on television and in films, you have read about them in newspapers and magazines. In the play, there are conflicts between heroism and villainy, good and evil, loyalty and treachery, ambition and morality. In addition, there are conflicting loyalties – to king, country, family. You will recognize the murder mystery theme as well as the murderer’s attempts to conceal and lie and cover up, as his fear and desperation grow. You may recognize the ideas that life without love, friendship, and self-respect is meaningless or that guilt can be overwhelming.

We have all become familiar with the consequences of political upheaval, civil and foreign wars, with the grim reality that innocent people – especially children – suffer during such times. Even in our own times, we have seen that civil liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom from arbitrary arrest or execution are quickly eroded by dictatorships.

Even though the play deals with much that is familiar, it leads you to consider some new and unusual ideas, and to learn more about yourself and others. Perhaps you may not expect that a murderer would have a vivid and poetic imagination or that he would, even in defeat, demonstrate conscience and courage. You might not expect that an apparently strong, practical, and determined woman would act in such contradiction to her real nature that madness and violent suicide are the consequence.

To focus your response to Macbeth, you might want to think, write, and talk about some of the following issues. They will lead you to important perceptions – of the play’s characters, of yourself, and of others

1. Think of some people you know or have read about who are/where ambitious. Have their ambitions led to a positive or negative result? Are ambitions sometimes destructive? Explain.
2. What is your understanding of the philosophy, “the end justifies the means”? Give examples of situations in which you would agree or disagree with this philosophy.
3. Would assassination or civil war ever be a justifiable response to rule by tyranny? What would you do if the leader of your country became a vicious tyrant?
4. Are a citizen’s first responsibilities to family, political leader, or country?
5. Describe some examples of what you think is evil behaviour. How should evil behaviour be dealt with?
6. If you suspected, but had no evidence, that a friend of yours had committed a crime, what would you do?
7. How do you deal with your fears? 2 Timothy 1:7 How might you help others to deal with theirs? What are some of the effects that fear can have on people?
8. Describe a time you experienced insomnia (lack of sleep). What did you do about it? What are some of the effects that insomnia can have on people who suffer from it?
9. Describe a women who best represents your idea of “womanliness.” Describe a man who best depicts “manliness.” Are there any similarities between the two descriptions? Why or why not?
10. Explain what your think an ideal marriage would be.
11. Describe a situation in which you or someone you know has been deceived by appearances. How might you advise someone to guard against this trap?
12. What do you want most from life? What are you prepared to do to attain it?

_________
Sources:
Shakespeare, William. “Macbeth” Ed. Margaret Kortes. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.
Complete text at www.opensourceshakespeare.org
Macbeth eNotes

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

Hamlet raises many questions that you may recognize from your own life. Thinking about some of these issues will make your experience of the play more interesting and rewarding. Discuss one of the following questions in your blog. Write about any ideas you find interesting or thought-provoking.

1. We all have procrastinated about something important that we had to do, sometimes disappointing other people and often disappointing ourselves. Why do we procrastinate?
2. Most people have purposely “played the fool” at some time. Why do people do this? If a person for some reason plays the fool or pretends to be disturbed for a long time, do you think the person eventually can become truly disturbed?
3. Isolation and loneliness are feelings common to most people at one time or another. Sometimes external circumstances create this situation, and sometimes people deliberately withdraw from those around them. What can friends or relatives do when someone has purposely withdrawn and chosen to be alone with his or her problems?
4. Disillusion is a common experience of growing up. We find that people in the adult world whom we once idealized are less than ideal, and that situations we considered innocent are actually corrupt. How do young people encountering the “real world” for the first time handle these discoveries?
5. In Shakespeare’s time, insane people were regarded as sources of entertainment. What is our society’s attitude toward mental illness?
6. What is the difference between “taking revenge” and “getting justice”?
7. Privacy is highly valued in our society. How would you feel if you found out you were “under surveillance” at school, at your job, at home, or among friends because of some change in your behaviour?
8. What are you launching out to believe in your life? What are you seeking to know? How well are you using your mind in discovering the truth that you are here to know?

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

So, I figured I should share how I recovered a document, an important essay exam, during an “it-must-be-sun-spots” random lock-up of Microsoft Word 2008 on an iMac.

Symptoms:

• Spinning beach ball while otherwise routinely typing in Microsoft Word 2008 on an iMac or Macbook.
• Unable to click on the desktop as the Finder was also locked-up.
• Force Quit-> was unavailable.
• Mouse was responsive, but not clickable.
• Keyboard was unresponsive.

Steps I used to recover:

1. Disconnect mouse and keyboard.
2. Press, more of a tap actually, the power button. Screen “sleeps” instantly. Tap power button again to wake. (DO NOT hold the power button – this will reboot the machine and all will be lost!)
3. Wait for the “no bluetooth mouse” Bluetooth Setup Assistant dialogue pop-up to appear.
4. Plugin the mouse and keyboard.
5. command+shift+4 to take a screen picture of as much of the frozen document as you can.
6. Now go to Force Quit->Finder->Relaunch. Do not force quit anything else.
7. When finder relaunches, navigate to Go->Home->Documents->Microsoft User Data->Office 2008 AutoRecovery.
8. There should hopefully be a file in there created recently, “Autorecovery save of Document1″. Add a “.doc” to the end of the filename. Copy this document to the Desktop.
9. Force Quit->Word
10. Double-click the document to relaunch Word. Voila, there it is.

After following these steps, the user was then able to copy the text into a new Word document and carry on.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892956

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

Write a scary story in which you explore at least one the following terrors:

1. feeling trapped
2. paranoid
3. afraid of the dark
4. emotional shock
5. freakish natural event
6. the most frightening experience you have ever had
7. a wicked mother in law, a scary mansion, a midnight walk on a wooded path, an abandoned school …
8. ghosts

short_story_rubric

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

Remember seeing the stage play of The Woman in Black last year at Lakeland College?

The Woman in Black (2012)

Well, the release of the film version is just around the corner – February 3rd, 2012.

(That guy playing the lead … looks eerily familiar)

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

At some point in this post I wanted you to watch a video demonstrations called simply, “The Monkey Business Illusion.” But instead of risking you scrolling down, playing right away, and missing whatever else I’ve written between here and there, let’s get the video out of the way now. But come back and read what I have written after the video plays.

One of my students(Kevin C.) brought “The Monkey Business Illusion” video to my attention during a discussion of the materialist philosopher, Democritus. How did we get to talking about gorillas? I’m not certain, but that we were talking about how our perceptions of nature – not just the little things, but the big things too – can be tricked. Until our attention is focused on a particular change or transformation, we do not see it occurring. If we are only looking for the material causes in nature, we will find them, but our perceptions will be limited by our attention span. Just as in the video, we miss not only the altering of little details, but huge events are occurring and we simply miss them – yet they are right there, like the invisible gorilla – mocking us when we discover our foolishness in not noticing changes the first time around.

Now, at almost the same time I was typing up a couple creative writing ideas on the topic of technology when another student(Cassandra O.) came to to tell me about her Dad and an email “faux pas“. Her dad had almost sent an email without spell-checking it and to his chagrin discovered he came close to sending out a message to his staff in which he had a “u” where he should have had “you”. We both agreed that in the “old days” before email/texting, a handwritten or typewritten memo would have never contained such a trivial but monumentally embarrassing typo. But the “u” was there, he had typed it and it bothered him when he saw it – like the invisible gorilla – mocking him.

So, here are the topics I have been thinking about when I put these ideas into collision:

1. Read and write a response to The Chimney Sweeper
2. Write a response to any other prompt I have on technology

Whatever topic you write about please take some time to address the following question as well: Is technology making us more perceptive of the world around us or is it just getting in the way of seeing the things that matter most?

Piano Mirror Illusion by Shigeo Fukuda

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

Write an essay about the choices people make and about how they make their decisions.

Hint: Be sure to take into account 9-25 particular details from one story to develop your argument. Your essay should be in the form of a Five Paragraph Essay. Focus your main idea and subtopics on Decisions.

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

First and second assignments:
30-1, 30-2, and 30-4 do the following:

• Introduction to Modernism
• Alienation and Helplessness

Third assignment:
30-1 do the following:

• Separation from a Loved One

30-2 do the following:

• The Artist in Society – Alone, Isolated, and Alienated

30-4 do the following:

• Employability Skills

Fourth assignment:
30-1, 30-2, and 30-4 do the following:

• Post Industrial Leisure Photo Essay

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

Hint: consider the focus questions for this course.

30-1

“Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour’s at the stake.” (Act 4 Scene 4, from Hamlet’s “How all occasions do inform against me” soliloquy)

Discuss the ideas developed by William Shakespeare in Hamlet about the ways in which individuals struggle to restore honour and certainty.

In your planning and writing, consider the following instructions:
• Carefully consider your controlling idea(thesis) and how you will create a strong unifying effect in your response.
• As you develop your ideas, support them with appropriate, relevant, and meaningful examples.
• Organize your discussion so that your ideas are clearly and effectively presented.
• Grapple with the intricacies of the human condition and the fundamentals of human existence, quibble about ideas related to certainty(vs doubt) and honour(vs character).

30-2
Write a short story about a character who has lost a close family member and seeks revenge but is unable to because of some sort of doubt.

In your planning and writing, consider the following instructions:
• Carefully consider your setting, characters, and main conflict.
• Add more conflict when things appear too easily solved, but don’t solve the main conflict.
• Have your character change how they feel about the idea of revenge they held early in your story.
• End your story with tragedy.
• Connect to the ideas developed by William Shakespeare in Hamlet and your own ideas and experiences.

30-4
Reflect on a moment when you received some unexpected news and thought, “This news will change my life?” As you think back, to what extent did it change your life?

In your planning and writing, consider the following instructions:
• Carefully consider how you will create a strong unifying effect in your response.
• As you develop your ideas, support them with appropriate, relevant, and meaningful examples.
• Organize your discussion so that your ideas are clearly and effectively presented.
• Connect to your own interests, experiences, values ideas. Share personal anecdotes.

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

1. The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world.
2. We see that things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result.
3. Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly.
4. Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer.
5. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.

– From the Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 1, Article 1, by Thomas Aquinas

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety.2 Timothy 1:7
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Print PDF

1. Socrates: Consider, do you not think it a sound statement that one must not value all the opinions of people but some and not others, nor the opinions of all people but those of some and not others? What do you say? Is this not well said?
   Crito: It is.
2. Socrates: One should value the good opinions, and not the bad ones?
   Crito: Yes.
   Socrates: The good opinons are those of wise people, the bad opinions those of foolish ones.
   Crito: Of course.
3. Socrates: Come then, what of statements such as this: Should a person professionally engaged in physical training pay attention to the praise and blame and opinion of anyone, or to those of one person only, namely a doctor or trainer?
   Crito: To those of one only.
4. Socrates: The person in training should therefore fear the blame and welcome the praise of that one individual, and not those of the many?
   Crito: Obviously.
   Socrates: This person must then act and exercise, eat and drink in the way the one, the trainer and the one who knows, thinks right, not all the others?
   Crito: That is so.
   Socrates: Very well. And if this person disobeys the one, disregards the opinions and praises while valuing those of the many who have no knowledge, will he or she not suffer harm?
   Crito: Of course.
   Socrates: What is that harm, where does it tend, and what part of the person who disobeys does it affect?
   Crito: Obviously the harm is to his body, which it ruins.
5. Socrates: Well said. So with other matters … and certainly with actions just and unjust, shameful and beautiful, good and bad, about which we are now deliberating, should we follow the opinion of the many and fear it, or that of the one — if there is one who has knowledge of these things and before whom we feel fear and shame more than before all the others. If we do not follow the directions of this person, we shall harm and corrupt that part of ourselves that is improved by just actions and destroyed by unjust actions. Or is there nothing in this?
   Crito: I think there certainly is, Socrates.
6. Socrates: Come now, if we ruin that which is improved by health and corrupted by disease by not following the opinions of those who know, is life worth living for us when it is ruined? And that is the body, is it not?
   Crito: Yes.
   Socrates: And is life worth living with a body that is corrupted and in bad condition?
   Crito: In no way.
7. Socrates: And is life worth living for us with that part of us corrupted that unjust action harms and just action benefits? Or do we think that part of us, whatever it is, that is concerned with justice and injustice, is inferior to the body?
   Crito: Not at all.
   Socrates: It is more valuable?
   Crito: Much more.
8. Socrates: We should not then think so much of what the majority will say about us, but what that person will say who understands justice and injustice, the one, that is, and the truth itself. So that … you were wrong to believe that we should care for the opinion of the many about what is just, beautiful, good, and their opposites.

– From the Crito by Plato

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

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1. What, then, is time? There can be no quick and easy answer, for it is no simple matter even to understand what it is, let alone find words to explain it.
2. I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled.
3. All the same I can confidently say that I know that if nothing passed, there would be no past time; if nothing were going to happen, there would be no future time; and if nothing were, there would be no present time.
4. Thus it is not strictly correct to say that there are three times, past, present, and future. It might be correct to say that there are three times, a present of past things, a present of present things, and a present of future things. Some such different times do exist in the mind, but no where else that I can see. The present of past things is the memory; the present of present things is direct perception; and the present of future things is expectation.
5. It seems to me, then, that time is merely an extension, though of what it is an extension I do not know. I begin to wonder whether it is an extension of the mind itself.
6. It is in my own mind, then, that I measure time. I must not allow my mind to insist that time is something objective… I say that I measure time in my mind. For everything which happens leaves an impression on it, and this impression remains after the thing itself has ceased to be. It is the impression that I measure, since it is still present, not the thing itself, which makes the impression as it passes and then moves into the past. When I measure time it is the impression that I measure.
7. It can only be that the mind … performs three functions, those of expectation, attention, and memory. The future, which it expects, passes through the present, to which it attends, into the past, which it remembers. No one would deny that the future does not yet exist or that the past no longer exists. Yet in the mind there is both expectation of the future and remembrance of the past.

– From Book XI of the Confessions by St. Augustune

©2012 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

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1. No one would choose to live without friends if he had all other goods.
2. When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.
3. We conclude, therefore, that to be friends, men must have good will for one another, must each wish for the good of the other on the basis of one of three motives(the good, the pleasant, and the useful), and must each be aware of one another’s good will.
4. The three motives differ from one another in kind, and so do the corresponding types of affection and friendship.
5. Now, when the motive of the affection is usefulness, the partners do not feel affection for one another as such, but in terms of the good accruing to each from the other. The same is also true of those whose friendship is based on pleasure; we love witty people not for what they are, but for the pleasure they give us… Accordingly, with the disappearance of the motive for being friends, the friendship, too, is dissolved, since the friendship owed its existence to these motives.
6. The perfect form of friendship is that between good people who are alike in excellence or virtue. For these friends wish alike for one another’s good because they are good people, and they are good as such… Hence, their friendship lasts as long as they are good, and that means it will last a long time, since goodness or virtue is a thing that lasts.

– From Book 8 of the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

©2011 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

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Values
1. Are you a fair or a just person?
2. How do you know who your friends are?
3. Should you be rewarded for your efforts in school?
4. Should you let little things bother you?
5. Is it your duty to give to charity?
6. Will having fun make you happier than studying?
7. Should you ever tell a lie?
8. Are there times when you should be violent?
9. Do you sometimes feel weird when you are with others?
10. Do we control technology or does technology control us?

Knowledge
11. How do you know for certain that things move?
12. What makes something you say true?
13. Can you doubt that you exist?
14. Does a tree make a sound if it falls in a forest with no one around?
15. Are you certain that the law of gravity is really a law?
16. How can you tell when you know something?
17. Can another person understand your feelings?
18. Can you lie to yourself?
19. Do you perceive things as they are or only as they seem to be?
20. Can computers think?

Reality
21. Can you think about nothing at all?
22. Does anything ever happen by chance?
23. What happens to numbers when you are not using them?
24. Are numbers and people equally real?
25. Is time what you see when you look at a clock?
26. If the universe came from the BIg Bang, where did the Big Bang come from?
27. Are you the same person you were five years ago?
28. Do you have free will?
29. Does anything depend on everything?
30. Are impossible things ever possible?

Critical Thinking
31. Is it important to speak and write so you can be understood?
32. Should you always listen to the opinions of others?
33. Should you criticize people or the opinions people have?
34. Why is “because” such an important word?
35. Is it easy to tell what causes things to happen?
36. If many people think something is true, is it true?
37. Do two wrongs balance out and make an action right?
38. “I am lying.” True or false?
39. Can something logical ever not make sense?
40. “I wonder … ” what it means to define something?

©2011 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

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Critical Response Rubric

©2011 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

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Personal Response Rubric

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Mr. D. Sader

1. (30-1)”I know not seems.” In I, ii, 76, Hamlet claims that his grief is real, not just a show. Make a chart of all the occasions in this act when there is a difference between the way a character seems to be and the way he or she really is. Draw up a chart with the following headings:
   • The Character
   • The Situation
   • The Appearance
   • The Reality
   • The reason for Hiding the Truth

   Fill in your ideas about the characters’ behaviour and compare your chart with those of other students.

2. (30-2)Consider whether or not you think Polonius is a good father. Explain which of his actions were right and which were wrong. Create your own description of a good father. Write a letter to Polonius offering him advice about ways he could become a better parent.

©2011 Mr. D. Sader | Pingo Lingo | All Rights Reserved

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Read and consider carefully the short story, “An Ounce of Cure” by Alice Munro from the text, The Story Begins When the Story Ends : Canadian and World Short Fiction.

Select one of the following critical ideas as your focus and write an essay in which you discuss the ideas developed by the author.

1. Doubt and Fear
2. Human Relationships
3. Life Pressures
4. Consequences
5. Identity and Sense of Self
6. Gender Inequality
7. Perceptions: Judging and Misjudging People and Their Actions

Hint: Be sure to take into account 9-25 particular details from the story to develop your argument. Your essay should be in the form of a Five Paragraph Essay

©2011 Pingo Lingo. All Rights Reserved.

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