Fall, 1999                                                                                                                Joe Parker

Freshman Seminar 3                                                                                             Office:  Broad Center 213

Pitzer College                                                                                                        Office Hours:  M, 11-12;

Tu, Th, 1:30-2:30

Office Phone:  74318

                                                                                                                                Home Phone: (626) 798-3644

 

Introduction to Critical Thinking

Course Syllabus

 

Course Description:

This freshman seminar will explore a range of critiques of major social, economic, and cultural institutions in U.S. and global society as a means of developing fundamental critical thinking and writing skills.  Institutions and issues to be examined include nationalism; gender, race, class, and sexual relations; the family; TV and other media; capitalism, neocolonialism, and “progress”; and education.

 

Course Requirements:

You are responsible for how much you will get out of this course.  Grading emphasizes class discussion attendance, preparation, and participation (20%), based in part on your observations and questions about a reading by email and/or web-crossing before the reading is discussed in class.  Five short writing assignments (5 x 5% = 25%) will allow you to strengthen your critical thinking and writing skills.  You will receive credit (5%) also for responding to written work by other students in the class, and additional credit (2 x 5% = 10%) for two papers (nos. 1 & 4 on writing assignment overview) that you rewrite based on responses from other students.  You will also write a short research paper (5-7 pages), revise it based on comments from another student, and then give a short oral presentation (5-10 min.) on your findings and argument at the last meeting of class. (20%)  There will be a take home final essay examination (20%) due on Wednesday, December 15, at noon. 

 

Course Textbooks and Readings: (All readings are also available at the reserve desk of Honnold Library)

Course packet of xeroxed articles.  (May be purchased at King's Copies on Foothill Blvd.

East of Indian Hill Blvd.)

Burton-Rose, Daniel, ed., The Celling of America:  An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison

Industry, Common Courage Press, 1998.

Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, eds., Critical White Studies, Temple Univ. Pr.,

1997.

Eliasoph, Nina, Avoiding Politics:  How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life,

Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1998.

Faludi, Susan, Backlash:  The Undeclared War Against Women, Crown Publishers, 1991.

Hacker, Diana, A Writer's Reference, 4th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Herman, Edward, Beyond Hypocrisy:  Decoding the News in an Age of Propoganda,

including the Doublespeak Dictionary, South End Press, 1992.

Lester, Charles, Postmodernism is Not What You Think, Blackwell Pubs., 1997.

Mander, Jerry and Edward Goldsmith, eds., The Case Against The Global Economy and

For a Turn Towards the Local, Sierra Club Books,1996.

Segrest, Mab, Memoir of a Race Traitor, South End Pr., 1994

Course Schedule: 

(Asterisk indicates readings in course packet; all other readings are textbooks.)  (All textbooks and packet articles are available at the reserve desk of Honnold Library.)

 

Week 1   Introduction:  What is Critical Thinking?

Aug. 31  Readings:              Blum, "A Day in the Life of a Free Country."

Orwell, "The Prevention of Literature."

Males, "Why Demonize a Healthy Teen Culture."

*Graff, "Teach the Conflicts."

Film:        Manufacturing Consent.

 

Week 2   What are the Facts?  Media Literacy and Production of Truth.

Sept. 7                    Readings:              *Zinn and Dill, "Difference and Domination."

Herman, Preface, Ch. 1, 2, 5, Epilogue, and Doublespeak

Dictionary.

Peer Response for One-Page Synthesis Papers.

Initial Drafts of One-Page Synthesis Papers Due. (Short Assignment #1)

 

Week 3   Autobiography and Producing the Truth about the Self.

Sept. 14  Readings:              Segrest, p. 181-236 and Ch. 1, 3 & Epilogue.

Final Draft of Revised One-Page Synthesis Paper Due.  (Short Assignment #1)

 

Week 4   Class Issues in the U.S.

Sept. 21  Readings:              Burton-Rose, intro. & p. 40-44, 55-61, 78-87, 102-6, 114-

21, 156-63, 171-80, & 244-49.

Autobiographical Essay Due. (Short Assignment #2)

 

Week 5   Gender Globally and Locally.

Sept. 28  Readings:              Faludi, Intro. & Ch. 2, 3, 9 & Epilogue.

 

Week 6   Race and the Other.

Oct. 5                      Readings:              Delgado/Stefancic, Ch. 2, 17, 19, 22, 26, 47, 51, & 55.

 

Week 7   Race, Class, and Gender:  Social Construction Theory.

Oct. 12                    Readings:              Delgado/Stafancic, Ch. 98, 100, 101 & 103.

*hooks, "Eating the Other."

Campus Organization/Letter to Editor Oral Presentations.

Campus Organization/Letter to Editor Assignment Due. (Short Assignment #3)

 

 

Week 8   Happy Fall Break

No Meeting          

 

Week 9   Questioning Truth Systems:  Whose Science?

Oct. 26                    Readings:              *Alvarez, "Science, Colonialism and Violence."

                                                                *Harding, "Introduction" to The 'Racial' Economy of

Science.

Peer Review Discussions of Race/Class/Gender Essays in Class.

Initial Draft Race/Class/Gender Essays Due. (Short Assignment #4)

 

Week 10 Postmodernism as Social Critique.

Nov. 2                    Readings:              Lester, Ch. 1,2 & 4.

Revised Race/Class/Gender Essays Due. (Short Assignment #4)

 

Week 11 Postmodernism (cont.)

Nov. 9                    Readings:              Lester, Ch. 5, 7, & 9.

 

Week 12 Globalization and Democracy.

Nov. 16  Readings:              Mander/Goldsmith, Intro. & Ch. 1, 8, 11, 15, 19, 22 & 43.

Critical Theorist Paper Due. (Short Assignment # 5)

 

Week 13 Globalization and Democracy (cont.)

Nov. 23  Readings:              Mander/Goldsmith, Finish readings above.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Week 14 Apathy and the Death of Despair.

Nov. 30  Readings:              Eliasoph, Ch. 1, 6, 7 (Pt. 2 only), & 9.

Peer Response Discussions of Initial Drafts of Research Papers.

Initial Draft of Research Paper Due.

 

Week 15 Student Research Presentations.

Dec. 7                    

Research Paper Oral Presentations.

Revised Research Paper Due.

 

Take Home Final Essay Examination  Due:  Wed., Dec. 15, noon.