[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

Since I just had to write a bio for our school website, it will serve as a great into.

Karimah Tennyson-Marsh is the 8^th Grade ELA teacher at Century Community Charter School. She has 15 years of teaching experience, 13 of which have been at CCCS. She is the Chair of the English Department, and serves on the Pipeline Committee, a group devoted to maintaining the unique culture of CCCS. She is also a contributor to Rich in Color, a blog focusing on promoting & reviewing diverse YA literature. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles.

[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

I think starting the class with examining the current political, cultural, and environmental issues that East Asia, specifically China, Japan, and South Korea, are experiencing is a great way to engage us into to the topic. After all, to understand our future we need to look at the past, and by studying the past as we will in these coming weeks, we will be able to reflect on what we learned on that first day of class, including the readings, and see how East Asia found itself in the predicament of low birth rates and damaging pollution (China). We can also use what we learn of the region’s past to speculate on the region’s future. 

[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

I truly enjoyed our philosophical debate on Monday evening as it really had me focus and think deeply about a particular school of thought (Confucian theory) while interacting with the other schools of thought by thinking of ways to respond to their beliefs. I often found myself sometimes agreeing with another school of thought and had to then review Confucian thoughts to keep myself focused on representing Confucian beliefs. The debate was engaging and really brought the 4 schools of thought to life. 

I would like to recreate this with my students, however I would probably give them more time to prepare their arguments (actually have them write them according to standards) and then have them present their arguments. I would also encourage them to create questions for the other schools of thought so there were be more interaction between the students and I would just be the observer to make sure students stay on task. Since I teach 8th grade, I’d need to have a lot more structure to the debate, but I feel like my students would really get into pretending they are scholars from a particular school of thought and have to defend their ideals. This is definintely an activity I could potentially teach next year. 

[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

This sounds like such a fun and engaging lesson. Thanks for sharing. 

[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

As a student of Confucian philosophy I am conflicted because I believe wholly in filial piety and therefore I must follow my father as is expected. However, my father has willingly committed a crime and therefore did not follow the rule of law. Just as I am to follow my father, my father must also follow the rule of law. It is because of this transgression I will not support my father in his actions and will not pay filial piety to him After all, our teacher Confucius stated, “If a person is right, his wishes will be carried out without explicit orders. If a person is not right, people will not follow him even if he orders them.” As my father is not right by breaking the law, I am not obligated to follow him. My decision is within Confucian theory, so my conscience is clear. 

Source: Chinese Philosophy Reading

[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

I found the debate between “The Learned Men and The Minister” to be very interesting. I found that while the Learned Men did have strong points and as well in line with their Confucian beliefs, the Minister’s arguments and rebuttals against them were more than practical. The Minister’s reasons behind enacting the Salt and Iron monopolies and the liquor tax made actual sense. The country was in the middle of a war and the money had to come from somewhere. I can imagine that with the creation of the monopolies and the taxes, among other endeavors, that the population was experiencing a financial boom and would want to protect their investments, hence the need for military protection. The Learned Men, while sticking to their ideals, didn’t see the big picture and what government is really about. The belief by “The Learned Men” that the people will follow the rulers willingly if the rulers just set a good example was tone deaf to the Minister’s arguments. It was if the two were having different conversations because the Learned Men just didn’t seem to truly hear the Minister’s position on why he created the Salt & Iron monopolies, and were so stuck to their beliefs that just were not practical in a real world sense. This debate made me really rethink my position on Confucian thought and theory. Some of Confucian belief makes a lot of sense, like being a good person and people will follow you, but I think it often doesn’t take in consideration human being’s participation in the real world. 

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