Excellence
In class today we went over more of the "Excellence" powerpoint Mr. Schick made. We covered topics such as the vocabulary in A Message To Garcia, the message/theme of A Message To Garcia, and the meaning/background of the Greek word, "areté".
Some vocabulary words we reviewed were perihelion, slipshod, imbecility, stenographer, and missive. Perihelion is the point when a planet (like Mars) is closest to the sun, and therefore at its brightest. In line one of the text, it states, "In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion." This is referring to Rowan, and he is being compared to the brightest planet on the horizon. Slipshod means careless. Mr. Schick told us a story of how a man carelessly nails on a horses shoe to a barefoot/shod horse and the horse slips. This happened because the man was slipshod. Imbecility (from the word imbecile) means stupidity or incapability. In the seventh paragraph of the text, it says, "No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man - the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it." This is saying that the average man is so stupid and unwilling to do something his boss asks of him. The worker is incapable of doing a simple task. A stenographer is a person who takes dictation in short-hand. At the time this text was written, having a job as a stenographer was very common. They write down everything a boss or someone says in "short-hand". Short-hand is a way of rapid writing by means of abbreviations and symbols. There are very few stenographers today because we can just take recordings of someone speak. A missive is a letter; especially a long or official one. In the text, president McKinley gives Rowan a missive to give to Garcia. It was a missive because it was an authentic letter from the president and was official. That is why it stands out from other kinds of letters.
The message of the story was that someone must have initiative to work their hardest and be people who are valued the most. Elbert Hubbard has a famous quote- "The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and honors, but for one thing. And that is Initiative. What is Initiative? I’ll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told.” He is saying that in order to receive good consequences and be adored, you must have initiative and do what's right, even when you aren't told to. He thinks most people are arrogant and imbeciles, and are too wrapped up in theirselves to worry about others.
Finally, ancient Greeks had a word for excellent, and that is Areté. Arenté includes all humanly potential and abilities. Areté is best described as "the act of living up to your full potential". Our areté is what separates us humans from other species; we have indescribable knowledge. Knowledge is the highest human potential because all other abilities come from knowledge. Ultimately, the highest knowledge is knowledge itself, and the story advises us to be knowledgable/areté people.
Some vocabulary words we reviewed were perihelion, slipshod, imbecility, stenographer, and missive. Perihelion is the point when a planet (like Mars) is closest to the sun, and therefore at its brightest. In line one of the text, it states, "In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion." This is referring to Rowan, and he is being compared to the brightest planet on the horizon. Slipshod means careless. Mr. Schick told us a story of how a man carelessly nails on a horses shoe to a barefoot/shod horse and the horse slips. This happened because the man was slipshod. Imbecility (from the word imbecile) means stupidity or incapability. In the seventh paragraph of the text, it says, "No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man - the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it." This is saying that the average man is so stupid and unwilling to do something his boss asks of him. The worker is incapable of doing a simple task. A stenographer is a person who takes dictation in short-hand. At the time this text was written, having a job as a stenographer was very common. They write down everything a boss or someone says in "short-hand". Short-hand is a way of rapid writing by means of abbreviations and symbols. There are very few stenographers today because we can just take recordings of someone speak. A missive is a letter; especially a long or official one. In the text, president McKinley gives Rowan a missive to give to Garcia. It was a missive because it was an authentic letter from the president and was official. That is why it stands out from other kinds of letters.
The message of the story was that someone must have initiative to work their hardest and be people who are valued the most. Elbert Hubbard has a famous quote- "The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and honors, but for one thing. And that is Initiative. What is Initiative? I’ll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told.” He is saying that in order to receive good consequences and be adored, you must have initiative and do what's right, even when you aren't told to. He thinks most people are arrogant and imbeciles, and are too wrapped up in theirselves to worry about others.
Finally, ancient Greeks had a word for excellent, and that is Areté. Arenté includes all humanly potential and abilities. Areté is best described as "the act of living up to your full potential". Our areté is what separates us humans from other species; we have indescribable knowledge. Knowledge is the highest human potential because all other abilities come from knowledge. Ultimately, the highest knowledge is knowledge itself, and the story advises us to be knowledgable/areté people.
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