Freshman Seminar is a required course for all first year students and is designed as a common experience that emphasizes questions of human value and stresses particular skills.  These skills are noted in the course description from the Monmouth College Catalog and they include:  “critically reading a text, writing papers, using the library, thinking analytically, and communicating ideas orally.”  We will study the common readings and discuss the convocations and other auxiliary materials using the theme of the course - "Technology and the Human Condition."  The reading list and any auxiliary materials are designed to prompt questions about the human condition.

Objectives:

• Integrate into the intellectual life of the college

• Develop critical thinking skills

• Analyze texts critically

• Write college-level essays characterized by unity, organization, and support; appropriate word choice and diction; and standard usage, spelling, and mechanics

• Learn to gather and evaluate information efficiently and effectively

Materials:

• Berry, Wendell.  The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. 1977.

• Bronowski, J. Science and Human Values. 1956. New York: Harper Collins, 1990.

• Dostoyevsky, Fyodor M.  The Grand Inquisitor.  New York: Continuum Publishing, 1981

• Forster, E. M. “The Machine Stops.”  The Eternal Moment. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1928. 199-239. [Summer Reading]

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark.” 1846.  The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. ed. Norman Holmes Pearson. New York: Random House, 1937. 1021-1033. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. ed. Charles Kellner. 5 July 2001.  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/HawBirt.html

• Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. 1932.  New York: Harper Perennial, 1965.

• Postman, Neil.  Amusing Ourselves to Death.  New York: Penguin Books. 1985.

• Shelley, Mary.  Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (The 1818 Text).  ed. Marilyn Butler. New York: Oxford UP, 1994.

• Wachhorst, Wyn.  The Dream of Spaceflight: Essays on the Near Edge of Infinity. New York: Basic Books, 2000. 

Attendance Policy

Attendance and punctuality are mandatory because the class follows a discussion format, and the success of the class as a whole depends on everyone’s participation. You are expected to attend all classes and convocations. You are allowed three absences for the inevitable doctor’s visits, illnesses, sports events, court appointments, and funerals that may come up during the semester. If you miss more than three classes, you will earn an F for the course.  Extraordinary circumstances will be dealt with on a one-to-one basis.  If you must miss because of extreme illness or some other emergency, please call my office and leave a message.  If you plan to be absent, you should submit work ahead of time. I do not accept late work. Please note the college policy that you may not drop this class. {Please note that this policy is somewhat different than the policy in the Freshman Seminar handbook.}