>>Attention<<

Dear Friends,

If you've taken short story credits, please read the following stories from the book "structure, sound and sense":

Youth-----------------------------------page 109

A Hunger Artist-------------------------page 387

Thank you

EXAM

In Engseng Ho's text Ahmad is depended on his country and his ROOT. He is not deceived by jingles of foreign cultures. Unfortunately, most of the east people are becoming far from their own culture and are following western culture. Here, in Iran, usually when we buy stuff, we try to buy those with foreign marks. That might be because those have a better quality; or, maybe the quality is the same but there is no trust on our own products ( however, I beleive more in the first possibility!!!)

I wish one day we could reach our roots, remember who we are, and there would be no more imitation. Like Henry Giroux, I wish I also could be aware of where I come from.

"I hated to fight.", I hate to fight too, but FIGHT is not always the physical conflict. It may be the fight between human and nature, destiny. This kind of fight make the person more powerful.

exam

EXAM
To continue on the first reading: intellectual and academic search for God by means of our everyday logic never could make me believe in God. They don’t make me sure but make new questions in my mind. However, what recently made my belief stronger was much simpler than these things. It was something that doesn’t match ordinary logics of our life as it’s the same way for most of people. I guess that the final and the most important element in our believes is the feeling making us sure that there is something in contrast with our logic and higher than imagination. For me it was ‘’ Mobius Strip ’’ that I have explained before. I want to say that believes become believes only when they are embodied. The word ‘’embody’’ suggests a sense of relaxation: when something is in your body that’s yours and that’s what gives you peace from inside. This is what our grandparents had much more. It’s the deep deep faith and mental relaxation they owned. Belief, faith, love all are embodied matters and what made Munir Fasheh’s father to be that careful and sensitive about people that just watching smokers cough prevented him from selling cigarettes even without knowing what researches has shown, it is love and the embodied faith toward people that causes attention toward them and their problems.
My second choice is ‘’Literacy in Theory and Practice’’. It wants to say that reading must be purposeful in order to recall our personal experiences and to know yourself through it better. With a purposeless reading one can’t make contact with the words. As a learner I’d like to learn how to find my experiences connected to words and as a teacher I’d like to find out how to help my students dig in their own experiences.
‘’Living dangerously’’ is an example of black and white racism in America , the wide difference between two groups of people who are similar in soul but different in color and heart. Unfortunately it seems that the human nature is to rule others when in the position of power. All over the world there are children and teenagers like this boy being sacrified. They live in big colorful cities but their part is nothing of that facilities, education and beauties. These children are in fact both in danger and dangerous. They are in danger for they are growing with no care and no investment and of course no skill, there is nobody to protect their future; and they are dangerous for they may commite illegal works.
My last choice is '' The Graves of Tarim ''. It's a nice text and I realy admire the self-confidence and the power Ahmad has not to use the beautiful clothes his brother sent him from abroad in order to use his own people's products. But I can't make contact to the part he is talking about '' people invoking God when weaving clothes but the foreign ones are made by unbelievers''. I don't think it is that important that the clothemaker is a religious one or not and no doubt that everybody has some believes and somehow faithful to God. However, if my students like talking about it, I'd love to.

sarvenaz kargahi

Exam / street

Reading & learning should be with feeling & understanding.

When you read a text you must truly feel every word used in it.

Learning/living/understanding they are the key words you need to look for while reading.

As you are reading you should look for new things that have life in it.

It is important how you look through the words and their meaning in your mind so the way that you are going to be guided in the way of your reading & understanding is important.

“different needs & interests lead to new & different skills “ when we feel the emptiness of sth we will try to find it & have it. This need & feeling inside us leads to searching for new things to fill the emptiness.

New things can be found in different ways with different methods, some of these new things come from our reading & learning.

All of this people want to show us the right way for living, the way that won’t harm anybody. They are trying to teach us how to live for others & with others.

Their thoughts and the way they act is somehow strange for the peoples in today’s world.

Shabnam fallah

Exam

Reading Engseng Ho's text, I feel independency and freedom profoundly. It doesn't just talk about being independent from foreign countries' culture or thought, but also being free of all elements that cause us to forget our freedom or origin; which make us be away from our real 'self'; which cause us to feel that we are nothing. We need these kinds of reading to be taught in our classes to realize that one like Ahmad has been in the world not to accept to be under control of another power, and he won't be the first and the last one.
My parents have always told me that the presence of "Halal" in one's life guarantees his essence forever, and I've got that "Halal" means the remembrance of God in every moment, that we are independent to on spirit and that's God.

Giroux's reading reminds me of children whose rights have been rubbed by some selfish people that don't ever consider themselves to be guilty and it's really ridiculous that they consider the poor(those children) to be guilty of their poverty and adversity. Most of us (I don't say all of us because there are still some sensible souls) have learnt to put this expression as a main factor to go ahead in life:"All for one " not "All for all", we've learnt to concentrate on just "one", "I", "me", "mine", "my"; I don't say to eliminate this "one" or "I", but I say that everything should start from "one" or "I" and be led to "ones" or "we" and again at last be one( unity: a soul that consists of several souls). Our problem is that we want everything for "oneself" or "myself" not for "oneselves" or "ourselves", we just think about "myself";in fact, we've got stuck in "I" context and don't try to share our stories (which contain our "I") with the others' "I". We always say "He is in trouble, he is sick, he is jobless, he is homeless not me!" You see we really don't want to see this "I" in trouble, we do everything to feed this "I" perfectly but by closing our eyes to see "you", "he", "she", "we", "they", "it" and the most important "their right". I like to teach this reading to the students to remember that just "I" doesn't exist in this world, there are always "I"s who are always looking for a some kindness that respect their rights from the others, and also to remember that this "I" has an origin and a destination for which they should do their best because it is consist of numberless "I"s.

Yes the skills acquired by students of the "maktab" in Cheshmeh are properly called "ideological";yes, it's th best adjective to attribute to them. Since 'ideology' for me means 'the best activity of mind': 'looking at things profoundly': 'questing for the best of best!'. I myself have seen these features a lot in Quran as it orders us to look at the nature of things created by Him seriously not in a shallow way. To dwell(for me means: challenge for existing) with these thoughts "What is the philosophy of creation and life?" and " What are the meanings of these words, these languages of things, of people, around us?". This is students' right to think about "who", "how", "what", "where", and the perfect way to get this purpose can be established by reading Quran.

Elnaz Torabi