HTHI Government & Socioeconomics!

BINGO!

The President delivers his constitutional obligation to, “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union”

Art. 2, Sec. 3

There is no homework over the weekend.  Just think about where you’d like to volunteer.

1. Eli returned your “What does Gov’t DO?” HW and discussed some logistics about how he grades and how your should be ready for some pretty crazy graders in college.
2. Discussion of the Civic Duty readings.  How do these readings relate to volunteership?
3. Lecture: Government Functions.  See the ‘notes’ page for those.
4. Begin Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena”… time permitting.

Homework (HW):

• Due Thursday: Man in the Arena Qs: Theodore Roosevelt Qs
• Due Thursday: Adler v. Casey essay

MoPA!

Happy Friday!  Today we set out to accomplish a few things:

1. Review the Doug Casey Qs
2. Review the Adler v. Casey chart
3. Reviewed how to most effectively craft your Adler v. Casey essay (due Thursday, Jan. 26)
4. Created our volunteership blogs.  This must be complete by the end of class. Here are the instructions: creating your volunteership blog
5. Time permitting, we started the Civic Declaration reading and The Democratic Process readings.

HOMEWORK:

• Create your volunteership blog by the end of class.
• Due Monday:  What does gov’t DO?  (see yesterday’s post for those instructions)… yes, you’ll give Eli that assignment at MOPA.
• Due Tuesday: Civic Declaration Qs (this is for readings 3 & 4).

Thank you all for working hard during yesterday’s class getting through the Adler reading.  No doubt, where you started off on your own time was past the many (rather necessary) tangents the author took to set himself up to support his argument.  I look forward to today’s discussion.

Today we discussed the Adler reading, began to fill out our Adler v. Casey charts, and then began reading Casey’s essay contrasting Adler’s “The Necessity of Government”.  See below for those questions.

HOMEWORK:

• Due Friday: Casey Qs and Adler v. Casey chart and the syllabus slip.
• Due Monday: What does gov’t DO?

Late start!  Today we began our first reading, “The Necessity of Government” by Mortimer J. Adler.  Although his language is pretty manageable, this reading shifts focus between large and small questions to arrive at the conclusion.  Therefore, it is necessary to always keep in mind the purpose of each paragraph and it’s relationship to the overarching essential question the author poses at the beginning of the piece.

HOMEWORK:

• Due Thursday: Adler Qs:  HW Mortimer J Adler Qs
• Due Friday: Syllabus slip
• Due Friday: Doug Casey – Is Government Necessary? Qs - ok… edublogs doesn’t want to upload this file.  See Thursday’s post for those Qs.
• Due Friday:  Adler v. Casey chart.  I suggest you fill out the “Adler” row as you do the Adler reading, and the “Casey” row as you do the Casey reading.
• Due Monday: What does gov’t DO?

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So Why is Wikipedia Blacked-Out Today?

…to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act…

Welcome to U.S. Government and Socioeconomics!  Use this website for anything and everything related to this course.  Today we’ll take a tour of this website, look at the course reader to help understand the trajectory of the course, and take a look at the course syllabus.

But before we got to any of those dry logistics, we started off by doing a fun “…find someone who…” activity to see how much you all remember from U.S. History.  Then we started to think about what functions government provides you with on a regular basis.  Can you live your life without government?

Here’s something to think about early in the semester: