Author: Dr. Farmer

This week, instead of the traditional discussion forum, you’ll be watching, commenting on, and voting on your family members’ Storytelling videos. You’ll find full instructions on the schedule here.

As we approach the end of the semester, we have reached the point where everyone has submitted at least the draft and feedback of their second Reflection Project, if not the revised project itself. I’d like us to focus our discussion this week around the work folks did for the second Reflection Project. Select a… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 13

This week, we’ll read Euripides’ Medea. This is the last piece of ancient literature we’ll read together this semester, following on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Euripides’ Trojan Women. I’d like you to use our forum this week to reflect on the experience of reading these ancient texts. What surprised you about them? What challenges… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 12

This week, we’ll finish reading Miller’s Circe. In conversation with the other members of your Family, consider one of the following prompts: This week, each family will hold its own conversation below. Reply to my family comment headers below, or to someone else in your family! Remember, you can be very brief in these comments, but you… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 11

This week, we’ll move into reading Madeline Miller’s Circe, a retelling or expansion of the Odyssey from Circe’s point of view. As we make this transition, I thought this would be a good moment to look back over unanswered questions that arose during our reading of the Odyssey, since those concerns will continue to shape… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week Ten

This week we’ll finish our reading of Homer’s Odyssey. Earlier in our reading, in Book 8, we saw the poem modeling of for us the idea that we might have an intense emotional or aesthetic response to poetry: Odysseus cries uncontrollably when he hears a song about the Trojan Horse, not because its sad, but… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 9

Here at the halfway point of the semester, I’d like us to take a different approach to our weekly discussion, and focus on the work you’ve been doing through your reflection projects. Consider one of the following prompts, or reply to the comments of someone else from your family: This week, each family will hold its… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 8

This week we’ll continue reading the Odyssey. The bulk of our reading focuses on Odysseus’ own narration of his adventures after the fall of Troy, including many of the poem’s most famous episodes: the encounter with the cyclops, the lotus eaters, the trip to the underworld, Circe, the cattle of the sun, Calypso. As you… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 7

This week we’ll be visit the library on Tuesday, and begin our discussion of the Odyssey on Thursday. In your forum this week, you have two choices: This week, we will not have separate family discussions. Just post your comment in the Option A or Option B threads below. Remember, you can be very brief… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 6

This week we’ll be reading Euripides’ Trojan Women, a tragedy that depicts the effects of the fall of Troy on the city’s women. It’s a difficult text (don’t skip the content note on the course schedule), but helps illustrate one of this semester’s central themes: that myths never have an original, true version, but are… Continue reading Discussion Forum: Week 5