World Religions, Wednesday, 2nd Period

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse's once again sitting with his feet up on his desk while the students file in. This time the clipboard is already waiting on one of the student desks to be passed around for sign-ins. Under the sign-in sheet is a stack of handouts. "Take one of those handouts on the clipboard when you sign in. Today we're gonna talk about a few things and you're gonna need that to keep up."

"First things first. Take a minute to read the academic meaning of the word 'mythology.'¹ I want to get this straight up front - if I talk about myth in here, I'm not giving it a higher value than if I use the word 'religion.' Some of the resources I'm gonna use are gonna talk about myth and that doesn't mean I'm saying these things are fairy tales. People around the world take their beliefs very seriously and we're gonna respect that." Jesse's personal opinions notwithstanding.

"We've got some big territory to cover today. Animism², American Indian beliefs³, and Australian Aboriginal beliefs⁴. They've got some things in common - in general all of them appreciate that there is value in nature, usually some idea of the soul in all things, or at least all living things. They've got some differences - animism isn't so much a religion as a general world view, American Indians and Australian indigenes developed their religions in widely separated places with different environments; they have different myths and rituals.

After a general introduction, he goes more in-depth to compare and contrast the three topics before giving the students their in-class work.

---

"Work alone or in groups, up to you. Pick a character, god, mythical creature, whatever you want, from American Indian or Australian mythology. Pick one you can identify with, whether it's because you've experienced something similar, it shows your own feelings, it's just something you think is cool, and explain that. If you're working in a group, I don't care how many of you get together to talk. If you're gonna go it alone, you've got to write it down for me and turn it in."

He sits back down behind his desk and grins at the students. "I hate homework. If I give y'all homework, I gotta do homework, so get this stuff done in class. Show me you're payin' attention, and that's good enough for me. We'll find out on the tests whether you were or not."

---

¹Academic views of Mythology
²Animism
³Overview of American Indian religious beliefs
⁴Aboriginal mythology

Dreamtime
Native American mythologies

Syllabus

Comments

Sign In, Week Two

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Sign in collapsey

Re: Sign In, Week Two

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair signed in.

Re: Sign In, Week Two

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Cally signed in.

Take Notes, Ask Questions

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Take notes, doze off, ask him questions.

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair took loads of notes, highlighting each religion in a different color.

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn took notes on everything the teacher was saying.

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[bookwormwood.livejournal.com]

Totally unorginal in her omgfuriousnotetaking. This class has so many good students.. how odd!

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia tried to take notes. But they kept ending up as diagrams of complex pulley systems and things.

Ah well.

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad makes a few scribbles of notes in his notebook, but he mostly annotates the handout in the margins, in between the lines, where ever. Makes sense to keep all the info together.

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[janet_fraiser]

Janet was taking notes. Anyone who knew her well might get the feeling she was strongly resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

Re: Take Notes, Ask Questions

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse catches Janet's eye during his lecture, but continues speaking without a break. Maybe he doesn't know her well. Maybe he's just not expecting everyone to be enthusiastic about the class. It's high school after all.

Groups or solos

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Groups of 1, 2, 3, or 4 are acceptable. Groups of 1 will have to turn in a written presentation.

Enthusiasm and exercise of that useful academic skill, baffling 'em with bullshit, will be treated favorably as long as Jesse finds it funny.

Re: Groups or solos

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair was tempted to work on his own just so he could write the paper, but he looked around for a partner.

Re: Groups or solos

[nadiathesaint]

"Hey, Blair,"

Nadia figured Blair probably already knew a lot about this stuff, and would thus make a good partner.

Re: Groups or solos

[connernotconnor.livejournal.com]

Conner was going over his in-class notes, trying to pick something he was interested in and scribbling more notes in the margins.

Such as Wild Force Rangers - animists?

This kind of troubled him about the whole no-dinosaur religion thing, now.

Re: Groups or solos

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Whatcha doodling?" Cally said, scooting over to a desk nearer to Conner.

Re: Groups or solos

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn was looking for people to be in a group with.

Re: Groups or solos

[bookwormwood.livejournal.com]

Matilda approached Gwynn with a smile. "Hello. Would you mind us being a group?"

((ooc: Around almost all day with occassional slowplay for REAL classese...))

Re: Groups or solos

[enginegirl.livejournal.com]

Kaylee looked around for anyone to work with.

Re: Groups or solos

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad made a few more random notes in between giving a casual glance around to see if anyone might not mind letting him work with them.

Re: Groups or solos

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

Billy reviewed the handout again while he simultaneously looked for a partner.

After Class

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

If you need to talk to Jesse and haven't made office hours. Here's the place to do it.

He's setting up the classroom television to play "The Saintly, The Sinners, and The Unsightly."

Hell, if you don't have a class, have a seat. He has popcorn.

Re: After Class

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad's conversation with Molly a few days ago had him thinking. "Hey," he came up to the Reverend after class. "I was wondering: do you, uh, have anything planned for talking about theories of the afterlife?"

Re: After Class

[swerval_zero]

Zero left with everyone else, but returned a few minutes later with a date milkshake and jujubes. It wouldn't be a movie without them!

OOC

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

3:45 am and the ambien is finally starting to work. I'll be back to be interactive after I'm conscious again.