When I heard that our second unit of the year was, Hope and the Human Spirit, the first thing I thought was Wow, that's a really broad topic. I mean, everyone has experienced hope at some point in their life, hope that Santa Clause came during the night to give you presents, hope that the teacher will be absent so that the test that was scheduled would be postponed a day, hope that you will be the one chosed for that big promotion. If you can find one person that has never experienced hope in their entire life, then they have to be the ablsolute most morbidly depressed person on the face of this earth, and they deserve your sympathy. What is the world without hope?
Then, as I thought more about hope I realized that in difficult situations it's hard to find hope. What kept the Jews in the concentration camps from just giving up and letting their body fail them? What if Martin Luther King Jr. had just accepted his lot as a second class citizen because of the color of his skin? What if those with terminal illnesses just let the disease ravage their body without a fight on their part? In some extraordinary cases people experience hope where others would only experience fear. These people are amazing, and should be commended. I feel that this unit was created to recognize those who pushed through their extremely bad circumstances using hope, and to try to understand why they were able to do so.
Haha Lauren your first paragraph actually made me laugh. I agree with you that our Humanity/Hope/Human Spirit Unit is a very broad topic. But that's a good thing because we can take it in a direction we want. And I also believe that learning about human perseverance in times or turmoil and understanding how they have done it will be crucial to our unit. Hope your having fun in Orlando.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you captured the overall focus of the "hope" subject. You're right; humans are willing to reach out for what they want.
ReplyDeleteLauren I like the way you perceived the hope unit. When I first thought of it, I looked at it from a more depressing side. I thought of it as holding us from death. Even though that is true, we use hope every single day just like in the little examples you stated. Hope is something that can be used in every situation.
ReplyDeleteLauren, how do you think you'll go about trying to understand how those people persevered? What kinds of things will you need to research? I think if you can find first-person accounts (interviews) that will help you tremendously.
ReplyDeleteMs. Mystrena, I was planning on looking up interviews, news articles, and biographies to see what those people were thinking. The biographies and articles would give me a better look into that person's life, so I could possibly understand them better.
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