Citizenship & Education
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~ Sample Syllabus for the Great Media Program ~
GMP City Ward # (F) Fiction YearMonth - "Title"
GMP City Ward # (N) Non-Fiction YearMonth - "Title"
GMP City Ward # (T) Theatre YearMonth - "Title"
GMP City Ward # (W) Workshop YearMonth - "Title"
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GMP Ottawa Somerset 14 N 200902 - "Struggle and Cooperation"
Seminar Leader: Morgen Peers (morgenpeers@gmail.com)
Tutor A: ? (?@?.?)
Tutor B: ? (?@?.?)
PASSAGE:
Lately the struggle theory has been transferred from the physical to the intellectual world. Many writers who see society as a continuous conflict think its highest form is discussion. One of these says, "Not for a moment would I deny that fighting is better carried on by the pen than by the sword, but some sort of fighting will be necessary to the end of the world." No, as long as we think of discussion as a struggle, as an opportunity for "argument," there will be all the usual evil consequences of the struggle theory. But all this is superficial. If struggle is unavailing, it is unavailing all along the line. It is not intellectual struggle that marks the link of progress, but any signs of finding another method than struggle. Two neighbors quarrelling in words are little more developed than two men fighting a duel. We must learn to think of discussion not as a struggle but as experiment in cooperation. We must learn cooperative thinking, intellectual team-work. There is a secret here which is going to revolutionize the world.
Keywords: struggle, fighting, neighbors, discussion, argument, consensus, cooperation
SOURCE:
Mary Parker Follet. The New State: Group Organization the Solution to Popular Government
University Park: The Pennsylvania State University, Green, 1 P. 97
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Seminar Description:
We will focus on the above passage for the entirety of the seminar. It will be accompanied by 4 supplementary passages, which provide insight and perspective on the course's focus: cooperative thinking.
Focus Questions:
What is discussion? When am I arguing? What is argument? How does the experience of struggle affect my perceptions about the working of the world? If I am not struggling, then what can I possibly be doing? What are the different ways that citizens associate and assemble? What is really meant by 'team-work'? What's the secret?
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