So the Happy Button Poll turned out a lot closer than I really expected.

I asked you guys to consider the hypothetical “happy button” that, once pushed, makes everyone everywhere completely happy forever, no matter what? The button pushers only lost by a narrow margin, with 43% of the vote, while 57% said they would not push the button.

The real questions seems to boil down to how we view happiness. Those who view the emotion in a mechanistic, bio-chemical sort of way tend to favor pushing the button. Those who view happiness as something emanating from the soul, or at any rate something deeper than brain chemistry tended to avoid the button.

There were of course exceptions. One teacher (guess which) didn’t want to push the button he claimed that other people’s happiness was just not that important to him.

Feel free to discuss your reasons for voting the way you did (or didn’t) below. And take a stab at out next poll, currently living on the sidebar, top right, of the page.

Have a listen to this podcasted short story, “Exit Sign” by Ursala Pflug.

While the setting, the characters, and the situation they find themselves in are weird and surreal, the story might have something to say about the central questions we’ve been dealing with in class about oppression, rebellion, and dystopianism.

How does this story contribute to those ideas?

So this one is just for those of you who have seen the new Quentin Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds.

Try to think about that film as a work of literature. As a filmmaker, Tarantino seems to think of his film that way.

What are the central questions? What are the significant symbols? In terms of genre, check out this article from Wikipedia and think about it. Do you agree or disagree that Inglourious Basterds is essentially a classical revenge play?

Don’t bother with just “I liked it,” or “that movie was dumb.” I want critical literary analysis.

So there was some recent confusion in class between communism and and Nazism, which is totally understandable, as both of these have become strong trigger words for stirring up American fear and anger over the last 50 years or so.

Check out this post at HowStuffWorks.com that should shed a little light on the difference between socialism, communism, fascism, and Nazism.

Now think about George Orwell’s political allegory Animal Farm. What form of government do we see on Animal Farm? How and when does it change? How many different forms does the government of the farm take?

Finally, what can we learn from this? What is Orwell trying to suggest causes the transition from one form of government to the next, and the next, and so on?

Folks got pretty shook up over the idea of President Barack Obama’s address to school children, calling it everything from “liberal indoctrination” to “fascism.”

Take a look at the text of the speech here if you haven’t already, and look over Dallas ISD’s position on the speech and some of the comments here.

Is concern over this speech – or if not the speech itself, the idea of the speech – justified?

What is the role of public school when it comes to politics? Many of your teachers have strong political views. How might your teachers’ political opinions influence your own? Should they, or the school system in general influence your worldview?

And as always, comments should be signed with your real first and last names.

Check out this definition of the word “essay” from Miriam-Webster’s website:

Etymology: Middle French essai, ultimately from Late Latin exagium act of weighing

1 : trial, test

2 a : effort, attempt; especially : an initial tentative effort b : the result or product of an attempt

3 a : an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view b : something resembling such a composition

The third definition is the one that you probably would have come up with on your own if asked, but I really want you to consider those first two.

What do words like “attempt,” “test,” and “tentative” tell you about what an essay should be? If you know that I know that this is the definition of an essay, does it affect your approach to writing in my class?

What is the point of an essay?

Check out this story from the good folks over at the Dallas News DISD Blog, Kids being turned away over shots — but wait a minute!. It is essentially a story about student vaccinations, a matter of public health.

An interesting detail in the post is that some families were allowed a “valid exemption, such as for medical or religious reasons.”

The medical reason mentioned is probably the concern that some childhood vaccinations may be linked to autism. As for the religious exception, some faith practices do not condone all aspects of medical science.

The question is this: is it ethical (right, fair, good) that there should be such exceptions to a public health mandate? What are the ethical and moral issues involved? What are the conflicts? Should families be allowed to send unvaccinated children into public schools for reasons of personal choice, or for their religious views? Why or why not?

Start your comments, and remember to post under your real first and last name, or not at all.