Agenda- January 15 th , 2014

1. Agenda- January 15th, 2014 • Freshmen: • Myth of the Day- The Titans • Finish- Intro to the Odyssey • Juniors: • Review- Transcendentalist or Not? • Quote Response- Labels • Grammar Practice

2. Labels • 1. How do people label others? What are these labels usually based on? • 2. What are some labels that you have received over the course of your life? • Define each, as you think your labelers would define you • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7nxbULcaH4 – Defeat the Label

3. “People usually live up to their expectations. The kid picked first for dodgeball feels a duty to be the best, and to perform the best, and to be better than anyone else. They feel a need to execute. And, the only way they are going to achieve that is to make their body run faster, jump higher, and move quicker.If more fat kids were chosen first for activities and sports and group/team dynamics, they would automatically start to change their lives to fit into the expectations that surround those moments. Any time a child is picked last, they know it’s because people expect the least of them, and so they never actually have a need to rise above that.” ― Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing • 4. ) Do other people’s expectations of us influence our expectations of ourselves? How can a label restrict or hinder you?

5. 5.) When does our society start labeling people and receiving labels?

6. “The most thoroughly and relentlessly damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignored, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all 'Damned Things' is the individual human being. • The social engineers, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings and presidents are perpetually forcing this 'Damned Thing' into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the 'Damned Thing' will not fit into the slot assigned it. The theologians call it a sinner and try to reform it. The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it. The psychologist calls it a neurotic and tries to cure it. Still, the 'Damned Thing' will not fit into their slots.” ― Robert Anton Wilson

7. 6. Can labels ever be accurate? Why or why not?

8. “As a teenager, I began to question the Great Christian Sorting System. My gay friends in high school were kind and funny and loved me, so I suspected that my church had placed them in the wrong category... Injustices in the world needed to be addressed and not ignored. Christians weren't good; people who fought for peace and justice were good. I had been lied to, and in my anger at being lied to about the containers, I left the church. But it turns out, I hadn't actually escaped the sorting system. I had just changed the labels.” ― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint 7.) How have religious labels and division changed the course of history? How do these differences affect human lives?

9. 8. ) Do we ever label ourselves? Why or why not? 9.) How does labeling ourselves affect our identities, and thereby our lives?

10. Labels- Reflection • Take out a blank piece of paper • You will be writing 2-3 paragraphs answering the following. • You will embed ONE quote. • Essential Questions: (CHOOSE ONE) • 1.) How do labels and stereotypes ultimately help or harm the individual? Give examples to support your answer. • 2.) Why are humans prone to labeling others, and what does it help accomplish? Use evidence to support your answer • 3.) Are labels necessary to create a working society? Why or why not? Give examples to back yourself up.

11. Labels- Quotes to choose from • “One century's saint is the next century's heretic ... and one century's heretic is the next century's saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before affixing either name to any man.” ― Ellis Peters, The Heretic's Apprentice • “I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a "label" than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught.” ― Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary • “It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.” ― W.C. Fields • “And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone or that's an evil one because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.” ― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass