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Prior to each discussion the students receive
an e-mail that gives them the reading/thinking assignment.
The e-mail also contains some questions for the students to
ponder and wonder about after having read the text. It
is this reading and thinking that constitutes the students'
preparation for the discussions. Here is the text of an
assignment sent to 7th grade students during the past academic year: |
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Dear Student,
The reading for our next
scheduled class on Monday, May 1, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time
is titled To Emancipate the Mind, by Abraham
Lincoln.
After reading the text please
consider the following questions in preparation for our
discussion:
1. Do you agree with
Lincoln that writing is greater than speech? Why or why
not?
2. If we lost all
writing would we lose, as Lincoln suggests, "all history,
all science, all government, all commerce and nearly all
social interaction"? Why or why not?
3. Do you agree with
Lincoln that, prior to the development of the printing
press, that the great mass of men "were utterly unconscious"
that their minds were capable of improvement?
4. Do you think that, on
balance, people's minds have been improved as a result of
the printing press?
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