Week Seven: Hurricane Sandy Update

Three students have contacted me concerning hurricane related internet and power outages.  Usually, I operate under the theory that when three students are proactive and contact me concerning a problem, there are several more experiencing the problem, but the students who did not contact me are trying to tough it out out on their own.

I always build in a couple of catch up weeks into each online course design.  To give the students experiencing problems because of Sandy a chance to stay caught up with the class, I'm going to use one of these for week seven.  This will also give an extra week for students to submit missed or late assignments.

I will, however, post two committee discussions for the week, both dealing with Franklin's "bold and arduous" plan for moral perfection and his essay, "The Way to Wealth."  For those who haven't had a chance to finish Franklin's Autobiography yet, his bold and arduous plan is found in the second section of the Autobiography.  One committee discussion topic will ask your committee to discuss what civil/public virtues a successful democratic republic must cultivate in its citizens; equally important, given our freedom from religion and the necessity of not having a state church, how does society insure enough citizens learn these shared values/virtues/character traits while maintaining freedom of thought and maximum liberty?  The second committee discussion thread will ask you to discuss what private, personal virtues you believe you need to cultivate to live the good life in today's America, and how do personal virtues needed to live the good life compare and contrast from the thirteen Franklin lists in his "bold and arduous" plan?


Steve