English 235

Ecology and Democracy

in

American Life and Literature

Course Description:

As America grew, the European immigrants adopted a new style of life, a unique connection to the land, adopting regional dialects and building a fresh concern for one another. Due process of law, individual freedoms and rights, and democracy were all a part of their new world ideal. Of course, at first, Africans, natives and women did not fully participate. The native nations and populations of plants and animals had already adapted to the ecosystems, but gradually through science, art, poetry, and story the newcomers created a fresh understanding of the connection between the people and the land, as its ecology became their democracy.

This course takes a survey of three centuries of nature writers and their growing understanding of these two key concepts and their relationship. The preservation of the values of freedom is inextricably bound to the preservation and cultivation of all America’s life forms, habitats, and ecosystems. However, the weight of better than six billion human residents has now made compelling these seven voices who from the start have called for a fine harmony between humans and nature.

The basic mode of apprehension of this tradition will be through reading, journaling, and discussion. We are not doing information retrieval for materials that are available in detail through other courses in science, biology, anthropology, environmental studies, and politics. Hence, there are no tests. The journal is your individual response to the course, our readings, and the field trips.. It will allow for a great deal of creativity. Always bring your journal to class for in-class writing opportunities. I may collect your journal any day to see if you are up to date and provide timely feedback that will help you improve. The grade in the journal is entirely accumulative. The final examination will be a sample of your best writing and a summary of your own ideas in essay form.

Week	Date	Reading Assignments and Classroom Activities
	à	The field trips listed below are suggestions for the class to decide upon.
1)	Jan. 28	Introduction: the concepts of ecology and democracy
	Mon.	How to keep a journal
	à	Campus eco-tour and field trip decisions
2)	Feb. 4	William Bartram: Florida travels (see Blackboard for reading strategy)
		Part I: Introduction (read carefully for his sense of ecology)
		Part II: scan chapters 1-4, read carefully chapter 5, scan chapters 8-11
	à	Big Tree Park - Sanford
3)	Feb. 11	Bartram, scientist and anthropologist (reports on plants and animals)
		Read: Observations on Native Americans (handout) and unpublished essay on Animal Dignity (http://web.rollins.edu/~sphelan/writings.htm) which is in the appendix of The Song of Wekiva (the last link)
	à	Blue Spring and the Manatees - Deland
4)	Feb. 18	Henry David Thoreau: Walden (consult Blackboard for strategy)
		“Civil Disobedience” and Democracy
	à	Genius Preserve
5)	Feb. 25	Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass and “Song of Myself” (Bb strategy)
	à	Genius Preserve
6)	Mar. 3	Whitman’s “Democratic Vistas” and “Specimen Days”
	à	Wekiwa Springs State Park
7)	Mar. 10	SPRING BREAK!
8)	Mar. 17	Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: Cross Creek (Bb for strategy)
	à	Genius Preserve or Cross Creek – 2 hour drive à Gainesville
9)	Mar. 24	Aldo Leopold: Sand County Almanac
	à	Orlando Wilderness Park
10)	Mar. 31	Leopold: “The Land Ethic”
	à	Genius Preserve
11)	April 7	Rachel Carson: Silent Spring (Bb for strategy for both weeks)
	à	Sanlando Springs
12)	Apr. 14	Carson: Lost Worlds and the sea trilogy
	à	Canaveral National Seashore and Turtle Mound
13)	Apr. 21	Terry Tempest Williams: The Open Spaces of Democracy (handout)
	à	Genius Preserve
14)	Apr. 28	Last Class: All Journals Due (make copies of passages for the final)
15)	TBA	Final

COURSE POLICIES:

During the course of the term we will organize some field trips and many classes will be held outdoors. Your experiences of nature, past and present, should be used to help focus your thinking on the concepts of the course. Furthermore, in advance of each class, you should write in your journal how the readings of the course have helped to cultivate your own ideas and experiences of ecology and democracy. Follow the questions on blackboard or create better ones.

Each student will create a portfolio of revised pieces of the journal and an essay which serves to summarize or encapsulate the values you have learned in the course (6-8 typed pages, double spaced, carefully edited!). BRING THIS PROJECT TO THE FINAL!

GRADE FORMULA:

Ø 25% class participation/preparation/blackboard reports

Ø 25% final exam (including whatever project we do for the Genius Preserve or the Wekiva River)

Ø 50% journal itself (40 hours work, minimum)

ATTENDANCE:

§ Less than 90% attendance is grounds for failure.

§ If by some accident you come late to class, please enter quietly and excuse yourself after class.

§ Students who exceed the number of allowed absences will be warned and then assigned a report that will be useful to the class or given some other extra work.

§ When we take off-campus field trips, please be sure to tell someone (preferably me) if you can't come, so that we are not waiting for you in the parking lot.

CONFERENCES AND INFORMATION:

Please come and see me at Orlando 109. For office hours and class schedule, consult my web site (http://web.rollins.edu/~sphelan). Make appointments after class or by phone (x2409) or through email (phelan@rollins.edu). On my web site, in addition to this syllabus, you may find a wealth of information about the basic concepts of my courses, my own critical perspectives, and my criteria for grading papers.