NB: If there is any discrepancy, your hardcopy takes precedence over this page.
Goal: We are trying to find out the truth about ourselves and our environment through experience using reason.
Language: Mastery of English is most important for all students. The fact that it is the language predominating on the Net is proof enough. Accuracy and economy of expression, especially in the written form is valued rather than formality of style.
No matter the language spoken, it is the acquisition of vocabulary that helps us accurately express our thoughts, to ourselves as well as to others.
Method: It is the duty of college students, not only to acquire new ideas and information, but to re-examine the information and beliefs that they have previously acquired in order to provide a solid foundation for new learning.
As the student acquires new knowledge, it is essential to learn what sources are reliable and why. The student will learn, by means of the library research experience, to use an effective and efficient technique employing index cards. In this way, he or she will learn how to keep track of the sources of information. This helps to validate information as well as prevent plagiarism.
Though it is often a startling experience for beginners, emphasis is placed on the academic tradition which values truth, open discussion of any topic, and respect for others based only on knowledge and competence. Seeing argument as a means to unravelling the tangled thread that conceals the truth may be unfamiliar to you if, in your personal experience verbal confrontation is associated with unpleasantness at the dinner table cloaking bitter resentment. However, debate is the foundation for progress in reaching the "heart of the matter".
By finding out the answer to a question of his or her own choosing, discussing the progress with the teacher and the class, and writing an in-depth paper on the subject, it is expected that there will be an appreciation of the problems involved in the search for truth. There will be an open sharing of the research experience leading to discussion and, perhaps, criticism. That the process may be entertaining is also part of the academic tradition.
Your teacher's qualifications: I graduated
from Westmount High in the days when we studied English literature and
composition/grammar, French oral and written, geography, history, computation,
algebra, geometry, Latin, physics, chemistry, biology, physical education
[from ballroom dancing to gymnastics and field hockey], instrumental music,
choir, current events, painting and drawing.
I studied classical ballet and later, Modern
Dance [usually referred to as Contemporary, nowadays].
I learned typing in one summer, and polished my
French at Université Laval in another.
I studied fine arts at the Montreal Museum of
Fine Arts where Arthur Lismer, one of the Group of Seven, was my Illustration
teacher.
When I was your age, I was a draftsman for Bell
Telephone and did the drawings for the installation of the telephone lines
across the Mercier Bridge.
I went to the teacher-training college of McGill
University which, at the time, was at Macdonald College, and have taught
at many levels in Westmount, in a parochial school in Outremont, and in
the McGill student 'ghetto' area.
I was trained as a teacher of English at a prestigious
international language school and subsequently worked in the language schools
of McGill University, and at St-Jean-sur-Richelieu for the Department of
National Defence.
My degree is in anthropology, however.
I have lived in Asia on several occasions {Israel, Afganistan, Pakistan
(Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Swat), India (Kashmir, Goa, Pondicherry, Madras,
Benares, Agra, Calcutta), Nepal (Kathmandu, Pokhara), also Singapore and
Hong Kong, for various periods ranging up to 8 months.
I know how to use a laser to make holograms.
I was in some films, and have done some amateur
direction.
I qualified with about 11 other people on the
eastern seaboard for the Alex Trebek tv quiz show Jeopardy,
I have done some Hatha Yoga and "played" Tai
Chi Chuan for some years.
I have been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism
[karma kagyu] for several years, though my religion by culture and
family tradition is the Judaism of Eastern Europe.
I was married twice, but am no longer.
[Instead, I have an interesting dog. :) ]
I have 2 children in their early 30's,
a daughter and a son, and I have been at CEGEP Champlain for about
25 years teaching such courses as
If the class proceeds in an orderly fashion, we should have time for an extra test the mark of which may be used to supplant a missed or poorly done one. Generally, however, no makeup assignments will be given.