Bonhoeffer’s Theory of stupidity
In the darkest chapter of German history during a time when incited mobs threw stones into the windows of innocent shop owners and women and children were cruelly humiliated in the open; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young pastor, began to speak publicly against the atrocities that the regime had reduced. After years of trying to change people’s minds, Dietrich Bonhoeffer came home one evening, and his father had to tell him that two men were waiting in his room to take him away. In prison, Bonhoeffer began to reflect on how his country of poets and thinkers had turned into a collective of cowards, crooks, and criminals. Eventually, he concluded that the root of the problem was not malice, but stupidity.
In his famous lattice from prison, Bonhoeffer argued that stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice because while one may protest against evil, it can be exposed and prevented by the use of force, against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplishes anything here. Reasons fall on deaf ears. Facts that contradict a stupid person's prejudgment simply need not be believed, and when they are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential as incidental. In all this, the stupid person is self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain stupidity is in essence not an intellectual defect, but a moral one. There are human beings who have remarkably agile, intellectually, yet stupid, and others who are intellectually dull. Yet anything but stupid. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that under certain circumstances people are made stupid. Or rather, they allow this to happen to them. People who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals in groups, and so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power, a bit of a political or religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity, almost as if this is a sociological psychological law with the power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities such as intellect suddenly fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their energy independence and more or less consciously give up an autonomous position. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us from the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like, that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, this stupid person will also be capable of any evil -incapable of seeing that it is evil. Only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then, we must abandon all attempts to convince this stupid person.
Bonhoeffer died due to his involvement in a plot against Adolf Hitler at dawn on the 9th of April 1945 at Flossenburg concentration camp, just two weeks before soldiers from the United States liberated the camp. Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children,” Bonhoeffer once said.
TEACHING LISTENING WITH SONS:
SONG: THE COAT OF MANY COLOURS
SINGER: DOLLY PARTON
CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE SONG AND TRY TO GUESS THE MISSING WORDS. USE THE PICTURES AS HELPING CLUES.
Dolly Parton The of many colors
Back through the _________
I go wonderin’ once again
Back to the_________ of my youth
I recall a __________ of rags that someone gave us
And how my momma put the rags to use
There were rags of many colors
Every piece was ________
And I didn't have a coat
And it was way down in the _____________
Momma sewed the rags together
Sewin every piece with ___________
She made my coat of many colors
That I was so proud of
As she sewed, she told a story
From the ______________ , she had read
About a coat of many colors
Joseph wore and then she said
Perhaps this coat will bring you
Good luck and ____________
And I just couldnt wait to wear it
And momma blessed it with a __________
My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no ______________
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
So with patches on my britches
Holes in both my ___________
In my coat of many colors
I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing
And making fun of me
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
And oh I couldnt understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
And I told them all the story
Momma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colors
Was worth more than all their clothes
But they didn't understand it
And I tried to make them _________
That one is only poor
Only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
Made just for me
The of many color
Questions
Who gave the family a box of rags ?
What colors are the rags ?
What did her mother do with the rags ?
Is this family poor ? How can you tell ?
Who is Joseph ?
Why was she proud to wear the coat ?
What is the meaning of : One is poor if they choose to be
What would you do with a box of rags ?
Do you give your old clothes to poor people sometimes ?
Do you laugh at people who wear old clothes ?
Eight Common Grammatical Mistakes in English ( part 1)
In this lesson we’ll have a chance to review 8 common English errors, so let’s see how you do.
Number one:
Today morning I woke up late.
It should be.
This morning I woke up late.
Number two:
what’s the different?
This sentence is wrong because different is an adjective. What we want to use here is the noun. And the noun is difference. The correct sentence is:
What’s the difference?
Number three:
I met John two years before.
We can’t say “I met John two years before”. We say:
I met John two years ago.
If we use the word before then we have to say before something. For example, we can say “I met John before I got married.” But we can’t use before by itself. So the proper word here is ago.
Number four:
This is a six months course.
That sounds almost OK, but it’s not OK. So the mistake here is. With the plural of the word months. When we use this expression, the entire expression becomes an adjective for the noun course. So, we should say :
This is a six month course.
Number five:
Thank you. I really enjoyed.
The problem is here is enjoy is a reflexive verb, so you would need to say:
I really enjoyed myself.
number six
did you loose your cell phone?
The error is with the word loose. It is an adjective that means not tight. So, here we have a spelling mistake, and the correct sentence should be:
Did you lose your cell phone?
Loose is an adjective, which means not tight and lose is the opposite of find.
Number seven:
This is an academic course.
This is an academic course.
What was wrong was the pronunciation of academic. The stress should be on the middle of the word academic.
Number eight:
I have a free time.
We don’t need to say a free time, we need to say:
I have free time.
The word time is an uncountable noun.
Teaching Vocabulary
· What a student may need to know about a new word
· Ways to present vocabulary
· Other things to consider while teaching vocabulary
This article examines what should be taught while teaching vocabulary, as well as how to present and teach vocabulary.
Teaching vocabulary may be a difficult task when there are hundreds of thousands of terms in the English language. Keep in mind that the average native speaker utilizes about 5,000 words each day in regular conversation. Furthermore, your pupils will not be required to create every word they learn; some will just be required to recognize. It is therefore critical to choose what to teach depending on frequency and relevance to the requirements of your specific pupils. After you've decided what to teach, the following step is to think about what students need to know about the topics and how you'll teach them.
What a student may need to know about a new word
· What it means
It is vital to get across the meaning of the item clearly and to ensure that your students have understood it correctly by checking questions.
· The form
Students need to know if it is a verb/a noun/an adjective etc to be able to use it effectively.
· How it is pronounced
This can be particularly problematic for learners of English because there is often no clear relation between how a word is written and how it is pronounced. It is very important to use the phonemic script in such cases so the students have a clear written record of the pronunciation. Don't forget also to drill words that you think will cause pronunciation problems for your students and highlight the word stresses.
· How it is spelled
This is always difficult in English for the reason mentioned above. Remember to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form.
· If it follows any unpredictable grammatical patterns
For example, man-men / information (uncountable) and if the word is followed by a particular preposition (e.g. depend on )
· The connotations that the item may have
Bachelor is a neutral/positive word whereas spinster conjures a more negative image.
· The situations when the word is or is not used
Is it formal/neutral/informal? For example, spectacles/glasses/specs. Is it used mainly in speech or in writing? To sum up, is usually written whereas mind you is spoken. Is it outdated? Wireless instead of radio.
· How the word is related to others
For example, synonyms, antonyms, lexical sets
· Collocation or the way that words occur together
You describe things 'in great detail' not 'in big detail' and to ask a question you 'raise your hand' you don't 'lift your hand'. It is important to highlight this to students to prevent mistakes in usage later.
· What the affixes (the prefixes and suffixes) may indicate about the meaning
For example, substandard sub means under. This is particularly useful at a higher level.
Which of these areas you choose to highlight will depend on the item you are teaching and the level of your students. Now it's time to think about how we can get the meaning across.
Ways to teach vocabulary
There are lots of ways of getting across the meaning of a lexical item.
· Illustration
This is very useful for more concrete words (dog, rain, tall) and visual learners. It has its limits though, not all items can be drawn.
· Mime
This lends itself particularly well to action verbs and it can be fun and memorable.
· Synonyms/Antonyms/Gradable items
Using the words a student already knows can be effective for getting meaning across.
· Definition
Make sure that it is clear (maybe check in a learner dictionary before the lesson if you are not confident). Remember to ask questions to check they have understood properly.
· Translation
If you know the students' L1, then it is fast and efficient. Remember that not every word has a direct translation.
· Context
Think of a clear context when the word is used and either describe it to the students or give them example sentences to clarify the meaning further.
Again which you choose will depend on the item you are presenting. Some are more suitable for particular words. Often a combination of techniques can be both helpful and memorable.
Other things to consider when teaching vocabulary
· Review the vocabulary you teach through a game or activity and encourage your students to do the same at home
· Encourage autonomy in your learners. Tell them to read, watch films, listen to songs, etc and note the useful words
· Have a section of your board for vocabulary items that come up as you are teaching. Use different colors for the word / the phonemics / the prepositions / the part of speech
· It is a good idea to teach/learn words with associated meanings together
· Encourage your students to purchase a good dictionary and use class time to highlight the benefits of one
· Teach your students the grammatical names for the parts of speech and the phonemic script
· Always keep a good dictionary by your side in case a student asks about a word you don't know
· If you don't and have never heard of the word, tell the student you will check and get back to them. Do get back to them
· Give extra examples sentences to the students if they are unsure and encourage them to write the word in an example sentence (maybe for homework)
