WHO ARE YOU? -- said the Caterpillar (repeatedly).

ANIMAL ETHICS + Multicultural Perspectives And Diversity"

NATIVE AMERICANS

TODAY'S GOALS: 

Core Curriculum Goal is “To better prepare students for a changing world by making sure they graduate with the flexible skills they need”

[2A] to be leaders in our communities,”* and better able to deal with

[2C] a state and country that are more culturally diverse;* Multicultural Perspectives and Diversity

[2A2] ETHICS [2A2] The second goal of the required leadership/ethics flag courses -- learn to make real-life ethical choices -- is closely related to the core purpose of the University of Texas, to transform lives for the benefit of society. It is also one of the basic education requirements of U.T.: “have experience in thinking about moral and ethical problems.” Our ethics goals are

[2A2c] To experience more directly the ethical dilemmas presented by speciesism

[2A2f] To practice replacing fear and greed with love, compassion, tolerance, and the sympathetic imagination.

[2A2g] To practice tolerance for diversity for personality types and races/ethnic groups (African-Americans and Hispanic Americans our prime examples), thereby advancing the goals of the  Multicultural Perspectives and Diversity required flag courses [2C].

 [3] PLAN II GOALS  [3C1] To unify the self, our goal is to maximize our potential by cultivating both sides of our brains, developing all our multiple intelligences. USING Experiential Learning

 

---

NATIVE AMERICAN REBIRTH experiential learning: rebirthing as power animals; joining the clan (?) and the tribe (Longhorn). If you have more than one power animal, choose the name you want to be known by. Also, wear rebirthing clothes, i.e. highly informal. Extra credit for wearing something that evokes your power animal and/or your clan (?) and/or your tribe (Longhorn) and/or Native Americans . Extra credit for bringing a musical instrument that you can play to jam with us.

accompanied and followed by Native American music jam

---

Born Free Our version: to be born (again) free:"You Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Set You Free"

Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart

Live free and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star

Stay free where no walls divide you
You're free as the roaring tide
So there's no need to hide

Born free and life is worth living
But only worth living
'Cause you're born free

Stay free, where no walls divide you
You're free as the roaring tide
So there's no need to hide

Born free and life is worth living
But only worth living
'Cause you're born free

---

BILL MOYERS ON HIS SECOND BIRTH AT U.T.As a boy, Bill Moyers sacked groceries in his hometown of Marshall, Texas, but he went on to become Director of the Peace Corps, LBJ's White House press secretary and chief of staff, the publisher of Newsday, and the erudite writer-producer-interviewer for several of PBS's most popular series, including Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Healing and the Mind, and Genesis. People magazine has said that Moyers is "perhaps the most insightful broadcast journalist of our day, an astute interviewer to whom philosophers, novelists, and inarticulate workers have revealed their deepest dreams." In 1986, The Ex-Students' Association gave Moyers its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award. And when he delivered UT's 117th commencement address in May 2000, it was the fourth trip back to his alma mater within the year, having participated in an LBJ Library symposium on the '60s, The Daily Texan centennial celebration, and having given the Liz Carpenter Lecture at Hogg Auditorium in February.

….this is the place to which I do return. Someone asked me the other day, "You were here for The Daily Texan celebration, you're here for this, you're giving the commencement in May. Why?" And I said, "Because it's the place of my second birth." I became intellectually awakened here. And it's like the astronauts returning from space; they always head for earth. And for me to return from the atmosphere of a vagrant sojourner, which is what journalism is, you go from place to place, restless, homeless, this is the earth to which I always return. Somehow coming back here, even though it has changed drastically since your time and my time--there were 18,000 students [in Austin] then and two institutions, the University and the state legislature--it's a much different place, and yet, somehow, I get more in touch with what I really am, who I really am, here than anywhere else. That's because I was initially formed here. It's like going back to your birthplace, even though somebody else lives there or even though it may be gone. And the fact is that most of the landmarks of my youth are gone; that happens. But the Tower is still there. The Legislature is still there. The live oaks are still there and there is a very palpable memory here, a living memory of what I felt and experienced. The exhilaration that greeted me whether I was in Ginascol's class on philosophy or Cotner's class on history, or Moore's class on Chaucer or McAllister's class on anthropology or Reddick's class on journalism. I can see them in my head right now. I can hear their voices. How do you explain that? I don't know how you explain that. Some people talk that way about their religious conversions. But I have that still-fresh sense of really coming alive here. Coming back here is to be put back in touch with that."

================================================================================

TODAY'S TOPICS: ROLE OF ANIMALS IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE +

the original Asian-Americans*; "White" vs. Native American peoples; Native American literature, clothing, and music

(*Native Americans came from Asia 25,000 years via the Bering land bridge between Siberia and Alaska)

 

---

 

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:Quiz on Bill Moyers' interview and on Core Purpose of U.T. and motto on tower; REBIRTH AS YOUR POWER ANIMAL, CLAN AND TRIBE FORMATION, experiencing  ANIMALS IN NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC:

Basically this is another calisthenic of the sympathetic imagination, trying to imagine what it was like to be a Native American, especially their connection to nature. And, of course, it is experiential learning, the kind that can stick with you later. All of this depends on your willingness to be an actor, to willingly suspend your disbelief long enough to play the part.

 

REQUIRED READING:

Moyers Rebirth at U.T……………………………………………………..126
Tower Motto: Ye Shall Know the Truth;……………………………….127
Blake, “London”……………………………………………………...........128

REVIEW: Totemism and Power Animals, some definitions……….....965-968

Animal  Speak………………………………………………………………969-979

Spirit  Animals……………………………………………………………980-983

Power Animals table of contents…………………………………984-985

 Animal  Spirit  Guides  table  of  contents………………………………986

Power Animals in Ultima, Potter, Black Elk  Speaks…….. 987-989

• 

  U.T. Powwow Movies and Images

  

  Austin PowWow movie    Austin PowWow Images: Eagle

REVIEW, CONNECT, HAMMER INTO UNITY:everything you have learned about animals and totemism + 1-23 Animals in Native American Culture Black Elk Speaks “What is Your Power Animal?”:TOTEM AND POWER ANIMALS; OUR ANIMAL BONDS; NATIVE AMERICAN ANIMAL BONDS, pp. 928-989