Tentative Calendar

Until we have the final written reports from our groups, I suggest we follow this tentative calendar.

JRH


Week One.

T August 26: Class introductions. Lecture: “Getting Out of Bed in the Morning” or “Doing Things Right and Doing the Right Things.” Topics: impartiality, reason, self-awareness, norms, laws, labels, loaded language, circular reasoning. In-class group assignments. Homework: visit the class blog. Take a virtual field trip.

Th August 28 Questions due. Class Discussion. Virtual field trip to the class blog.

Week Two:

T 2 September: Read Stegner’s “Everything Potent Is Dangerous” and Patricia Nelson Limerick’s credo, “What on Earth Is the New Western History.” Create an individual list of 20 of your fundamental values and beliefs, i.e. your personal ethos.

Th 4 September:List of individual beliefs due. Group work. Share your lists and compose a team (group) list of common beliefs. Using the group list as a basis, create a group (environmental?) “manifesto” or “credo” and post it on a team blog created by one member of your team. Read Thoreau’s essay “Walking” and Stegner’s “Wilderness Letter.” Draft a persuasive “open” letter of your own of at least 500-750 words regarding an issue of importance to you on some aspect of ethics and ecology. Revise the letter and bring the revision to class prepared to read aloud from it. Readings will be limited to four or five minutes.

Week Three:

T 9 September: Letters and manifestos due. Selected student presentations. In-class film: Exotic Terrane and discussion of creation theory. Begin discussing Thoreau and Stegner.

Th 11 September: Readings from Genesis and David Quammen’s “Nasty Habits.” Lecture/Discussion on Thoreau and Stegner. Read Wendell Berry’s “Christianity and the Survival of Creation.” Create a list of ten or more reflective questions based on your reading of Berry’s essay.

Week Four

T 16 September: Questions due. Discussion of Berry, Thoreau, Stegner. Read Maclean’s story “Logging and Pimping” and his novella, “USFS 1919.”

Th 18 September: Discussion of Berry cont. Revisit the assigned essays and Maclean’s stories on your own in the light of our class discussions, and then choose a paragraph or two from one of them. Try to choose a paragraph that highlights some aspect of the essay or the story our discussion has neglected and study the paragraph carefully, reading it aloud for practice. Then write a set of reflective questions based on the paragraph to spark a discussion in our next class. Be prepared to make a four to five minute presentation: reading and discussion.

Week Five

T 23 September: Questions due. Brief student readings and discussions. In-class film (TBA)? Read eulogies and biographical essays on Norman Maclean as assigned and provided by instructor and also the sermon by Rev John N. Maclean.

Th 26 September: Film and discussion. Read biographical essays, talks, and speeches from Norman Maclean provided by instructor and as yet untitled. Begin reading “A River Runs through It.”

Week Six

T 30 September: Lecture: “Native Americans in Norman Maclean’s River. Part One: Salvalinus fontenalis.”

Th 2 October: Lecture: “Native Americans in Norman Maclean’s River. Part Two.”

Week Seven

T 7 October: Lecture and Discussion. History, Myth, and Place in Maclean’s Title Story: Eden, Missoula, Helena, Seeley Lake, Wolf Creek.

Th 9 October Lecture and Discussion cont. History, Myth, and Place in Maclean’s Title Story: The Sieben Ranch, The Montana Club, The Big Blackfoot River. . . . The Elkhorn.. . .

Week Eight

T 14 October: Entomology, species identification. Lecture: “’Picking Up God’s Rhythms: Fly-tying and Fly Casting.” Watch and take notes on Robert Redford’s Film, A River Runs through It.

Th 16 October: “Picking Up God’s Rhythms” cont. Reading, Storytelling, and Reading Water. Read the selected parables of Christ as assigned in class.

Week Nine

T 21 October: In-class writing assignment comparing and contrasting film and story. Discussion of parables, Presbyterianism, sin, grace, beauty and redemption in ARRTI.

Th 23 October Historical People in ARRTI: Paul Maclean, Jessie Burns Maclean, Bill Campbell, Jean Baucus and Henry Sieben, Mo-nah-se-tah, Custer. . . Begin reading Trash Fish by Greg Keeler. Visit www.troutball.com. Be prepared to read aloud and lead a brief discussion your “favorite chapter” from Trash Fish. Field trip to meet Keeler at the Montana Festival of the Book in Missoula on F & S.

Week Ten:

T 28 October: Introduction to Greg Keeler, Humor, and Ethics and Ecology in Trash Fish. Student readings and discusions of Trashfish. Continue reading Trash Fish.

Th 30 October: Keeler, Trash Fish, and Poetry. Read selected poems and essays by John Daniel as assigned in class.

Week Eleven:

T 4 November: Introduction to Nature Writing and John Daniel. Read Joyce Carol Oates (and others as assigned in class) “Against Nature.” Read Gary Ferguson’s Decade of the Wolf.

Th 6 November: Lecture/discussion of Daniel, Oates, and Others. Read William Stafford, Mary Oliver, Patty Ann Rogers, Pablo Neruda, and others as assigned.


Week Twelve:

10 Monday at 7:00 p.m.
Attend Gary Ferguson’s presentation on wolves at Lewiston High School

T 11 November: Individual Field Trips. Steelhead fishing with Gary Ferguson.

Wed Nov 12: 7:00 pm: Attend Ferguson presentation at P-Nee-Waus Gym in Lapwai, ID in conjunction with the Wolf Education & Research Center Audience: community members, students, members of the Nez Perce Tribe,

Th 13 November: Poetry, Ethics, and Ecology. Discussion of Ferguson and “nature” poems as environmental literature. Continue to read Ferguson.

7:00 PM: Ferguson presentation Janssen Engineering Building, Room 104, U of I Presentation Audience: Community members, students

Fri Nov 14
9:00 AM: Colfax High School (w/ Gar/Pal) Colfax High School Auditorium Audience: Community members, students

7:00 PM: “A Conversation with Gary Ferguson.” Neill Public Library(Pullman) Audience: Community members, students



Week Thirteen

T 18 November: In class writing assignment on wolves and Gary Ferguson’s Decade. Introduction to Fire Science and Maclean’s Young Men and Fire. Read Young Men and Fire.

Th 20 November: YMAF cont. Read The Norman Maclean Reader (if available).

Week Fourteen: Thanksgiving Break. No Classes.

Week Fifteen:

T 2 December: Field Trips TBA, Review of Young Men and Fire or The Norman Maclean Reader

Th 4 December: Field Trips TBA or Young Men and Fire or The Norman Maclean Reader

Week Sixteen: No Final Exam Week

T 9 December: Review for Final Exam

Th 11 December: Review for Final Exam

Week Seventeen

Final Exam