Wednesday, August 21 - AM Advanced

We began class with a debate. I asked students to consider the following proposition: Good people should not use “bad” words. Argue pro or con. All but one of the fifteen students in the class argued con, so it was tough to have a debate. But we nevertheless had an interesting conversation about different aspects of the proposition: When should you not use bad words? Should you use bad words in front of your children? If not, are you a hypocrite? How does it make you feel to use bad words? Can using bad words make you more pessimistic? Are people who use bad words more honest than people who don’t? Can using bad words harm your mental health?  

We then read a few more paragraphs of the article on the difficulty of using English. We spent a lot of time discussing phrasal verbs.

Finally, we listened to Bruce Springsteen’s song, “Born in the USA.” I explained to students that this is one of the most misinterpreted and misunderstood songs in rock and roll. People think it is a patriotic song. It is not. We listened to it; then we analyzed the lyrics.