Our past lessons concluded with love and conscience: we said that when we are faced with moral decisions, we try to find out what the loving response is. It is sometimes easy, but many times it is difficult to determine. It is our conscience that helps us discern how we can respond in a loving way. What is conscience then?Let us first try to clarify what conscience is not. According to Connors and McCormick (1998), conscience is not:
- A separate being. Conscience is not like a guardian angel that whispers to your ear tellling you what to do. It is neither Jimminy Cricket telling Pinnochio the right thing, nor is it the SafeGuard commercial that pops up here and there and commands you to buy a bar of soap. Our conscience is part of us.
- An infallible moral code. Conscience is not a list of things that are allowed and not allowed and shucked into your system like one would play back a DVD. Conscience continually changes and develops.
- A stern critical voice. It is not our superego that tells us not to run in front of moving vehicles or tells us to be nice boys and girls. It is not the fear that is evoked by the familiar words "isusumbong kita kay Mommy". The superego tells us "you shouldn't do that or you'll feel guilty.", conscience asks, "is it wrong?"
¶ 10:34 pm 3 comments
To highlight the lessons on conscience, I decided to show the film Central do Brasil to all of my classes. The film is a favourite of mine since it captures local colour as if you are transported to Brazil.
Synopsis by Sony Pictures, Inc. :
Every so often, a film unexpectedly appears from a remote corner of the world to capture the imaginations of audiences everywhere. When Walter Salles' "Central Station" was unveiled for the first time at this year's Sundance Film Festival, crowds embraced the film--with tears, with applause and with joy. A month later, it took the Berlin Film Festival by storm, winning the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Fernanda Montenegro. For "Central Station" is that rarest of achievements: a film that speaks to your head while it touches your heart.
The film centers on a young boy (Vinicius de Oliveira) whose mother is killed in front of Rio de Janeiro's Central Station. Homeless and with nowhere to turn, he is reluctantly befriended by a lonely and cynical woman (Montenegro). Resisting her initial impulse to make a quick profit off the child, she commits to returning him to his father in Brazil's remote Northeast.
As buses and trucks carry the motley pair through the increasingly unfamiliar terrain, they defy their initial aversion to each other, journeying closer together and deeper inside themselves. Set against an epic backdrop of vast, majestic landscapes, the trip becomes a quest for their own identities: one boy's search for his father; and one woman's search for her heart.
Produced by five-time Academy Award-winner Arthur Cohn ("The Garden of the Finzi-Continis," "Black and White in Color"), "Central Station" introduces director Walter Salles to the ranks of the great humanist filmmakers. Using a simple and intimate structure, he has fashioned a profoundly moving tale of the triumph of the human spirit.
¶ 6:16 am 7 comments
1. There will be 20 multiple choice items and 1 essay item for the entire period. Now the multiple choice items seem easy, but they are actually trickier than the A/S/N items in the long test. So for a total of 90 minutes, I suggest that you spend at least two minutes per multiple choice item: consider each choice carefully and do not make hasty decisions. Each item is two points each.
2. The essay is not that easy either for the question is synthetic. Spend perhaps around 25 minutes organising your thoughts by means of an outline and then 15 minutes enfleshing your main items in the essay. Pay particular attention to your sentence construction: (1) eliminate any wordiness (2) make sure you justify every point that you make by means of (a) an explanation or (b) if needed, an example. Aside from the expected thoroughness of the essay, you will be graded according the clarity of your thought.
3. Spend the last 10 minutes reviewing your answers. You have been warned. The test is very tricky.
Bonne chance! Viel Glueck! (Good luck!) I will keep you all in my prayers. ¶ 8:20 pm 4 comments
