The Illustration of The Hero's Journey using "The Leadership Moment" by Michael Useem. (Stories and Creative Leadership) 10-12-11

Joseph,

In you’re third paper you point out parallels between the hero’s journey archetype from Vogler to two of the case studies (Blum and Kranz) in Useem.  You want to take the next step in analysis and move beyond pointing out the comparisons and focusing more on why the comparisons are important, especially in relation to stories and creative leadership.  And of all nine stories in the book, why Blum and Kranz for this assignment?  What do their particular stories teach us about stories and leadership that the other ones don’t or couldn’t in a certain kind of way.  From this paper, it seems like any of the stories would do, and that Blum and Kranz were sort of arbitrary picks.  Where you have two paragraphs of explanation for the connection between texts, you should develop that throughout your paper.  Explain at every opportunity what is important in the comparisons and contrasts you point out.

Finally don’t forget format and title!  If you’re following MLA, do so thoroughly.  As I’ve mentioned before, the Purdue OWL is one of the best online resources in this regard, for in text, after text, and how it appears on the page: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Following format demonstrates authorial credibility (i.e., why your reader should listen to you).

Feel free to email with questions or concerns.

Grade: C+ (78/100)

Best,

Allison

In Useem’s book, “The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All”, he presents us with nine accounts of men and women meeting and overcoming the challenges that they faced in their positions of leadership. In “The Writer’s Journey”, by Christopher Volger, we are given the twelve stages of what is known as the Hero’s Journey, or the story that relates the protagonist’s path toward some desired goal, and the various roles, or archetypes, of other characters who either serve to assist or hinder the hero as he travels along his journey toward the completion of some desired end. We can use the Hero’s Journey, and its twelve stages and its descriptions of the archetypes to better understand the leaders presented in “The Leadership Moment” by Michael Useem. 

The Hero’s Journey as outlined in Christopher Volger’s book, “The Writer’s Journey”, is comprised of twelve stages, the order of which is variable according to the author.

The first stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Ordinary World” (Volger pg. 10), or the natural world that the hero is accustomed to. Arlene Blum was a woman in the 1970’s who strove to overcome the chauvinism found in the male dominated sport of mountain climbing. Eugene Kranz was a man who had been a flight director at NASA and had seen many successes in the American space program.

The “Call to Adventure” is where the hero “is presented with a problem, a challenge, or an adventure” (Volger, pg. 10). Here the hero has the “stakes of the game” established, or “makes clear the hero’s goal” (Volger, pg. 11). These goals usually comprise pursuing riches, fame, a lover, revenge, accomplish some goal, face challenges, alter one’s position in life, or a combination of some of these things. For Arlene Blum, the call to adventure had been of her own choosing and desire to be the first woman to lead an all woman team against the Himalayan mountain Annapurna. For Eugene Kranz, the call to adventure was the malfunction of the systems aboard Apollo 13 that could lead to the deaths of three astronauts.

The “Refusal of the Call” stage, also known as the “Reluctant Hero” (Volger pg. 11), shows the hero intimidated and overwhelmed and some outside force has to get the hero to commit to the journey. This stage is characterized by a “change of circumstances, a further offense against the natural order of things, or the encouragement of a mentor” to get the hero motivated to overcome their fear of pursuing their goal (Volger, pg. 11). Arlene Blum had arrived at the base of Annapurna with her team and saw before her the imposing height that she would have to climb. Whatever fears she had, she would have to put aside to satisfy the pact that she had made with herself to lead the first all woman party to ascend this Himalayan mountain, and prove to the world that it could be done. Unlike Arlene Blum, Eugene Kranz had no chance to refuse the call. Lives were on the line and he was in the position of leadership that had to ensure the astronauts of Apollo 13, and the American space program survived.

The fourth stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Mentor”, or “Wise Old Man or Woman” stage (Volger, pg.12). This stage is where the hero is prepared for the journey by the mentor who offers “advice, guidance, or magical equipment” (Volger, pg. 12). Arlene Blum had been previously trained by her mentor in the previous climbs that she had made before Annapurna. Kranz, on the other hand, had “telephoned the home of Chris Kraft – the former flight director and his one time mentor, and now deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center” (Useem pg. 69). He would desperately need his mentor to face this problem that was found in the malfunctioning of the Apollo 13 spacecraft.

The fifth stage is known as “Crossing the First Threshold” (Volger pg. 12). In this stage the hero commits to the challenge of the journey and decides to move forward despite their fear. Arlene Blum once wrote, “The summit, floating more than four vertical miles above us in the clouds was so remote that our desire to remain there seemed arrogant” (Useem, pg. 99). Eugene Kranz had to put aside his fear in front of the other men, and put his knowledge and experience to the test. He had to manage the fear of others so that they could all come to a successful conclusion. “He knew what options were out, yet he also knew he must somehow engineer a safe return. He understood as well that his actions in the hours ahead might determine whether the U.S. space program experienced or avoided its biggest disaster” (Useem pg. 66).

The sixth stage is called “Tests, Allies, and Enemies” (Volger pg. 13). Having made the decision to take on the challenge of the Hero’s Journey, the hero now encounters his first tests, meets those who would be his allies, and who would be his enemies. In this stage the hero begins to learn the rules of this special, foreign world, and aspects or traits of the hero are revealed under the pressure of this new environment. Arlene Blum selected a team of accomplished women climbers for the climb of the Himalayan mountain Annapurna, as she had previously done for the successful all female team that had climbed Mt. McKinley. The enemies that she would face were the various problems of Annapurna itself in the form of cold, avalanches, and unseen dangers of the mountain. Eugene Kranz selected a team of educated and seasoned technicians and scientists who were familiar with the particular instruments and procedures of the space module. The enemies this team would face were the unique conditions of space upon the spacecraft, the wrong decisions that would probably kill the astronauts, and any unforeseen dangers that fate would hand them. 

 “Approach to the Inmost Cave” (Volger pg. 14) is the seventh stage of the Hero’s Journey. In this stage the hero comes to a place of danger where the object that will solve a problem is located. This is also the setting of the Second Threshold, where the enemy or threat is finally located. This is where Arlene Blum decided to persist after repeated avalanches made her and her team decide if it was worth it to go further. This is where Eugene Kranz and his team gave the astronauts the plan that they had decided upon after careful and meticulous consideration.

The eighth stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Ordeal” (Volger pg. 15). This stage is where the hero confronts his greatest fear and faces the possibility of death, whether literal or symbolic. For Arlene Blum, her ordeal was to persist to the top of Annapurna despite the conditions of the mountain upon her and her team. In Eugene Kranz’s case, his ordeal was symbolic. If the astronauts of Apollo 13 could not be saved, Kranz would probably be removed from the space program and see it dismantled, while living with the deaths of the three astronauts for the rest of his life. His ordeal would not be over until the astronauts were safe and sound on Earth.

The ninth stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Reward” or the “Seizing of the Sword” (Volger pg. 16). This is where the hero has survived death in the trial of the ordeal and has now earned the title of “hero”. For Arlene Blum, this stage was when she finally ascended the summit of Annapurna with her team. For Eugene Kranz, this moment happened when the Apollo 13 team had successfully navigated the spacecraft and was now heading in the direction of earth. The astronauts were no longer facing certain death but a renewed hope now that it seemed likely they would make it back to Earth.

The “Road Back” is the tenth stage of the Hero’s Journey (Volger pg. 17). Here the hero has to deal with the consequences of accomplishing his mission, of surviving the battle against his enemy. In this stage the hero must reconcile himself with the new order and changes he has brought about by his actions. In Arlene Blum’s case, this stage occurred after her successful climb of the mountain but her and her team still had to survive getting down the arduous descent of the mountain. In Eugene Kranz’s case, the astronauts of Apollo 13 still had yet to land safely upon the earth, to emerge from their spacecraft unharmed, despite their successful navigation of the craft back to the atmosphere of Earth, and escaping the possibility of what would be a certain death in space.

The eleventh stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Resurrection” stage (Volger pg. 17). In this stage the hero must be purified of this new world in order to return to the old world of which he is familiar. In this stage the hero must face a second life or death moment where remnants of the enemy or a weakened enemy must be faced and defeated at last. In this stage, Arlene Blum would have to reemerge into her familiar world and prove to the chauvinist mountaineering culture, and to the world, that her and her team had accomplished what was previously thought impossible. In Eugene Kranz’s case, it was the resurrection of the astronauts upon the earth, and the knowledge that they were safe and alive with their families that would bring closure to this stage.

The twelfth and final stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Return with the Elixir” (Volger pg. 18). In this stage the hero returns to his familiar world with the treasure or knowledge that he or she gained from surviving the stages in the journey. Arlene Blum had paved the way for other women to join the ranks of successful mountaineers, by disproving the chauvinism of the time, and setting another milestone for the sake of the women of the world. Eugene Kranz had desired to go to the moon when he was a child. He had never become an astronaut, but had led his team through a difficult and confusing ordeal to successfully save the lives of three astronauts, and possibly the United States space program as well, ensuring its survival and extending its possibilities well into the future.

These two case studies in Useem’s book relate lessons gained from their life experiences in the positions of leadership that they have attained, and what was often an arduous climb to get there. The stories that Useem relates show that most often the successful leader through a crisis is the leader who was most prepared beforehand, who organized his team for any future ordeal, and was able to make the informed and educated decisions that sometimes have to be made in seconds. To prepare ourselves for these inevitable tests and ordeals we must educate ourselves and surround ourselves with the best people that we can, whenever we can. Useem’s book provides us with a multitude of lessons learned from the struggles of others that we can incorporate into our own lives in not only the stories, but also in the multiple summarized lessons labeled “By Implication”.

These case studies embody the stages of the leaders own hero’s journey with various difficulties that each leader had at their own individual stages of the journey. The case studies in Useem’s book flesh out the stages of the Hero’s Journey, proving that we, like the featured leaders, all face theses stages in our own life, big and small, time and time again. We are either prepared for the stages of our own Hero’s Journey, or we wander in darkness for the rest of our lives. It is up to us to prepare ourselves for what may someday be our own call to adventure, or to ignore the call and succumb to whatever path we find ourselves on. Either way, life is a journey that we have to undertake. It is up to us to learn from the world, and become either its masters or its slaves.

             

Works Cited:

Useem, Michael. The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All. New York: Three Rivers, 1998. Print.

Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. Print.

Kate and Jeff go on Vacation (The Allied Electric Experiment) 10-09-11

 I came to work on Monday and waited an excruciating hour for her to come in and start her shift. I hid, pretending to work when my boss came into the basement, continuing my charade at being his friend, caring about his problems. He comes down to collect some things that I would have to deliver to the electricians. I pick up things; straighten others, moving to and fro as if it meant something. He goes back upstairs. I go back to playing this game, “Bejeweled” on my phone. You match up jewels in rows of three or more and when they come together they disappear, making way for more jewels to drop mysteriously from above. I was becoming the master of this game, I had earned the top five scores on my phone. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially to those with so much free time and so little supervision like me. It is highly addictive I must warn. Nevertheless I get bored with it and then head upstairs to see what’s going on.

            “Que pasa, Josef”

            “Hola”. I’ve been teaching myself Spanish for years, he knows a little bit from somewhere. I never found out where.

            I look up front and our wonderful secretary isn’t there. An appointment maybe?

            “Where’s Kate”, I ask.

            “Her and Jeff are on vacation this week”.

            “Together?” I am shocked. I knew Jeff liked her but I didn’t think she liked him that much, not as much as going on vacation together. That was something.

            He looks at me and smiles.

            Why would two people go on vacation at the same time if they were not going on vacation together? Two hot-blooded twenty somethings that just happened to spend all their free time together. Especially in the month of January. A cruise? Cruises were cheap in the winter time I heard.

            “Where’d they go?”

            “I’m not going to tell”

            I need this information for some reason. It will bother me if I don’t get it. He knows this but does he know that I know this? I will have to make a joke of the matter.

            “Is it warm where they went?”

            “Yes.”

            This makes me think it is either Florida or California that they went to. I try to think what goes on down south around this time of the year. Were the two of them sports fans? We just came back from the holidays a few weeks ago. I can’t think of anything, maybe I’ll go home and do some googling.

            “Is it on this side of the country?”

            “Yes.” He’s surprised I got so close so fast. I’ll unimpress him shortly, revealing

my dumb luck.

            “Florida is it?”

            “Yeah.” Now he thinks I know something. Here’s where it all ends. Here’s where the sharpness gets dull.  

            “Is it a business related thing?” A business related thing isn’t really a vacation at all. All it is is little rich boy taking the secretary somewhere that some vendor had probably paid for. One time my boss was gone for a few days. He went to the Turning Stone Casino with some employees of one of our vendors who paid for his trip. It was a presentation for the vendors to learn about the newest “green technology”. He stayed overnight in a hotel room, played golf, lived the good life. He regretted he hadn’t gotten a prostitute. That’s how the rich guys did it.

            “No.” I didn’t want to hear this word come out of his mouth but I had to keep playing so as to not display my true self. Keep playing the game.

            “Is it sports related?” I didn’t really get the impression they were strong sports fans. Strong enough to travel to Florida at least. Sometimes people just need an excuse to go somewhere, especially somewhere warm in January. Besides, I was mostly on the road making deliveries, these people were always together in the office. I didn’t really know them.

            “No, you’re getting colder.” He rubs my curiosity in my face.

            “They picked the right week to go. Did they know what the weather was going to be like this week?” I turn my interest into a joke. I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him anyway. I’m bored. What does it matter? I’m already in a relationship, I’m practically married. I should hope this young girl gets taken off the market.

            “Go back to doing what you were doing in the basement and in a couple of minutes I’m going to send you out with some orders to take. Okay.” This twenty seven year old little punk tells me. I think he’s half a fag sometimes. Or he could be just a sensitive soul like myself, unafraid of his feminine side. I had no way to tell and it led to some strange communications sometimes, sometimes raising some questions about myself to others no doubt. I have given up on what other people think; but sometimes I know it’s important to maintain appearances, how important it is to clarify yourself when your opportunity came. You had to give people some stable thoughts to attach to your image every now and again. Steer them away from any impression that you were an unstable lunatic so they could relax and be comfortable around you. You build them a fantasy world and give them enough detail to make it seem real. You build them a bed and then tuck them in after you assure them the boogey man isn’t real. When you see they’re comfortable with you in the periphery of their little world, you can relax in the knowledge that your sham is good. Then you could go off the deep end again for a little bit for a little while.       

“You got it,” I mouth enthusiastically. This time when I went down there I actually did something. I was preoccupied and had to do something to crowd it out of my head. I threw myself into this cleaning project that I had been milking for weeks, just making a show of it. This time I could actually make sense of the mess I had made down here, of all the debris that had come back from a construction job we had just finished. The foremen at different jobs would order things, have them delivered, and then months later when the job was over would return what they didn’t use. It would just go back out the next time someone ordered it for another job. We put it in the basement and tried to arrange it into some thing orderly so that my boss would have a somewhat easy time of finding it and sending it out again before ordering more. For months I lounged among the debris, doing a token amount of work here and there to put on a show of organizing it. I threw myself into forming the parts into a whole, summoning an orderliness that came surprisingly easily when some concentration was directed at the task. I didn’t even hear him call me until he comes downstairs into my dungeon.

            “You ready?”

“To go to Florida? Hell Yeah!”

The Knowledge of Nature and Nurture (Theories of Personality) 10-07-11

 
It seems that a lot of our problems stem from gender differences and our lack of understanding that there are other personality types that are programmed to do what they are programmed by nature to do. We are born male or female, with a certain biological imprint that will affect the personality that we later take on. Some of us are drawn to participate in the world, while others are happier the further they retreat from it. We can learn to develop our biological traits in our personality to enjoy the life we can imagine, or we learn to internalize and repress what our nurturers cannot bear in our nature. In a family, some children would enjoy a different life over others due to what the parents believe are good or bad traits. Nature isn’t always understood by nurturers. I tend to think we learn to shape our temperaments to what allows us to remain comfortable with our parents. For some this is easier than for others. But our temperaments are inevitably shaped and influenced by the temperaments of our parents.

Males and females each have their own gender culture, from what our media idealizes to what we can realistically achieve. We find ourselves somewhere along this spectrum, as much as our environment can tolerate. We learn to master our gender culture while trying to learn enough of the gender culture of the other sex as much as it allows us to be successful with them. Each gender has a view of the other, men see women as sex objects, while women see men as success objects (Carver and Scheier, 2008, p. 116). Men seek certain characteristics, while women seek characteristics of their own choosing. Somehow, we as people are supposed to learn these things to be successful people in life, and in our relationships. For most, I think it’s a crap shoot that we succeed at all. Most people I think, only become successful by mastering our gender culture as much as it allows us to interact with the culture of the opposite gender.

The young male syndrome is an example of what I speak. Carver and Scheier (2008) state “Competition for mating opportunities leads to a lot of male posturing. It has also been blamed for many problem aspects of young men’s behavior” (p. 119). It appears that the age when boys come into their reproductive peak, the point at which they are most desperate to succeed with the opposite sex, is the point they become the most dangerous to themselves. Perhaps an understanding of the various gender cultures, and the knowledge of various personalities, would make the development of their own personality to find like personalities more important than being the loudest and boldest chimpanzee on the block. Both women and men can benefit from this knowledge, and the new culture that this new knowledge would create.

Our nature is a like a flower, while our parents are the nurturers. They are the shape, the depth, and length of the pot. The watering and fertilizing come from culture, our environment, the media, our education level, and our peers.

Works Cited:

 
Carver, C.S., &; Scheier. M (2008) Perspectives on Personality. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

The Likelihood of Failure in the Formation of a Healthy Masculine Identity in a Male When Raised by a Single Female Parent.

Joseph R. Melanson

Information Literacy

Professor Franz

August 26, 2011

You did a nice job with the organization of the information, as well as the intext citations, with the exception of the citation information on page 5 – see comments. Your margins were not 1” all around (left and right margins were 1.25).  When I did some comments, I noticed that instead of setting the spacing to double you did the spacing manually.  Take advantage of the software to set your spacing – it saves a lot of work.  This would be done by going to Paragraph and setting line spacing to double. 24.25 out of 25

            In our society, much like societies around the globe, there is a growing trend of fathers abandoning their offspring, and the responsibilities of raising their children. This failure affects male children the most as the father is the most important role model to a boy in showing him how to develop into his own responsible, healthy adult role in our society. Unless a mature, male role model is present in a boy’s life during his formative years, it is unlikely that the boy will become a successful and healthy functioning member of society when his only role model is a single female parent.        

            Masculinity is the code of conduct for males in a society and can only be taught by a male role model. According to Blankenhorn (1995), “men, more than women, are culture-made” (p. 17). Men, as the more physically powerful gender, are generally entrusted by the society to protect its culture within some established boundary system. Men exist to protect the society’s social and traditional values. Masculinity is the cultures codes of conduct for the men of that particular society to follow in serving as the caretakers of society. Without a masculine role model introducing him to these codes of conduct, culture is nothing more than a confusing mystery to the male child being raised by a single parent female.   

Masculinity serves to teach men their roles and position in the hierarchy of males and other group systems of a culture. According to Gilmore (1990), “the moral codes and norms of culture encourage people (sometimes through psychological rather than material reward and punishment) to pursue social ends at the same time that they follow their own personal desires” (p. 225). Gilmore goes on to state that, “this is the genius of culture: to reconcile individual with group goals” (p. 225). It is the father’s role within the culture to embody these “moral codes and norms of culture” to his children, especially his male children, to give the child some standard to emulate and measure himself against other males in his environment. The male child then uses this standard of his father to learn how to participate in the world of men through first imitating his father’s behaviors. The boy later learns to shed the example of his imitated father for his own self created identity after having learned a standard of masculinity from his father, and then measuring this example to the cultural ideal reflected by other men. In this way a boy learns how to mediate his own wants and desires to the needs and requirements placed upon him by his society. But it is important for the boy to first have the solid foundation of his father’s influence and example to prepare him for the psychological uncertainty of the world that the boy must face during his progression into adulthood. Without the father’s example it is up to the male child to discover his masculinity, and how to interact within this hierarchy of other males, on his own.  

              Masculinity as modeled by the father teaches the boy how to fill his role in a society. According to Gilmore (1990), the culture of a society

is nothing more than work, physical and mental: human effort, constantly reproducing the conditions that give it birth. For this work to have value it has to be meaningful in social terms; that is, it has to make a contribution to this general constructivity. Manhood ideals force men to overcome their inherent inertia and fearfulness and to “work,” both in the sense of expending energy and in the sense of being efficient or “serviceable” in doing so. (p. 227).

              Boys become successful men in their society by learning how to navigate its myriad social norms that it finds acceptable in one condition, and deters others in other conditions. A man is only successful in how he learns to function within his society, and how well he can embody his society’s ideals of success. One can learn to become a doctor, a lawyer, an athlete, an artist, but only ever by first following someone else’s example. If a boy does not have a healthy masculine role model in his youth to provide some direction in the finding of his function in his environment, then it is more likely for the boy that he will be unable to find the successful means to integrate himself into the proper functioning of his society as a whole. In a sense, we are nothing more than how well we learn to serve our social function and the roles we play within our society.

A father’s embodied masculinity teaches the male child how to make sense of and how to relate to his mother and other females on a psychological level. According to Hill (2010),

single mothers are tested by their children’s behavior or lack thereof. To make matters worse, single mothers are raising their children without support from their children’s fathers. Many fathers have chosen not to be an active part of their children’s lives. This decision has hardened the hearts of many single mothers (p. 3).

This “hardening of hearts” is often sensed by the child mind and adds to any sense of confusion he has when the boy child compares his own situation to that of other children who have both parents. As the male child ages and begins to see an ongoing pattern of his mother’s discomfort, of which she can never truly hide, the male child may not be able to make sense of this discomfort on his own.

A father serves to teach a sexual role model to his male children through the example of his own masculinity. Wineburgh (2000) states, “later [the male child] establishes sexual partner orientation, where modes of relating between the sexes are modeled on parental interactions” (p. 7). Wineburgh (2000) suggests that there may be an impediment in the ability to differentiate the sex roles and a delayed development if there is a lack of an active and present male role model during the boys youth (p. 7). If the father is completely absent from the home then the child must rely solely on his single female parent for not only his sense of physical and psychological security, but for his initial sexual impression of women as well. 

Male children more successfully interact with peers with the presence in the home of a male role model with a healthy masculine identity. The first time this source is cited it would be Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, U. S. Children’s Bureau, Rosenberg, J., & Wilcox, W. B.  (2006)  rather than Rosenberg and Wilcox (2006) since the citation should take the reader directly to the source on the References page. assert that a father who is present from birth, are healthier emotionally, more confident interacting in their environment, and, have a higher quality of peer interaction as they age (p.20). “These children also are less likely to get in trouble at home, school, or in the neighborhood” (Office on Child Abuse and Neglect et al., 2006, p. 20). Rosenberg and Wilcox (2006) state that babies whose fathers actively participate and respond to them in their infancy are more psychologically sturdy and capable of exploring an interest in their surroundings than infants whose fathers are absent. Office on Child Abuse and Neglect et al. (2006) go on to say that “a number of studies suggest they also are more sociable and popular with other children throughout early childhood” (p.20). It is likely a male child who grows up in the presence of a male role model with a healthy masculine identity is likely to later become healthy in his identity as well.

Masculine identity is the integral core and critical component of a man. A man learns his masculine identity by being exposed to examples of it from older males when the man is a boy. The components of masculinity that a male child learns from his mature, masculine role models are: his codes of conduct and moral behavior, his social and cultural roles, his psychological integrity, his gender identity and sexual modeling, and his sense of emotional stability. These critical components are necessary for the social, psychological, and emotional development of a man. When a male child is raised in the home of a single female parent, it is more probable that the boy will not form a healthy masculine identity in adulthood, than if the father was present during the formative years of the boy’s youth.

References

Blankenhorn, D. (1995). Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem. New York, NY: BasicBooks.

Gilmore, D. D. (1990). Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity. New Hartford, CT: Yale University Press.

Hill, K. L. (2010). Single Mothers - How Are They Doing?  Allied Academics International Conference. Academy of Organizational Culture, Communications, and Conflict. Proceeding, 15(1), 20-25.  Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.library.esc.edu/

Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, U. S. Children’s Bureau, Rosenberg, J., & Wilcox, W. B.  (2006). The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children. In U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved from Child Welfare Information Gateway http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/fatherhood/

Wineburgh, A. L. (2000). Treatment of Children with Absent Fathers. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 17(4), 255-73.  Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.library.esc.edu

Rationale for Program Committee (Educational Planning)

At SUNY Empire State College one is able to pick and choose one's classes that the student wants to take, to learn the things that are of interest to the individual student, rather than completing a standardized degree designed by others as what is typical of other colleges. I picked and chose the classes that I felt I would need the most in both my life and my artistic ambitions, designing my degree around the theme of my life-long goal to be a writer of substance. Once one picks the classes one wants to take, the student must then write a rationalization explaining why I chose the classes I did, what I hope to get out of them, and where I can take my degree when it is completed. Here is my "rationale", as the school calls this essay, the degree for which I created for myself, called "Creative Writing and Literature".

 

Joseph R. Melanson

#0942912

                                                Rationale

              I believe that as individuals will be the most successful when we learn how to follow our dreams, yet it is also important to be able to be recognized by potential employers as a person with a useful talent or skill for their organization. I think the person I am trying to become through my created degree program is a person who can not only continuously produce new ideas and concepts, but who can also focus and shape them. I believe this Creative Writing and Literature degree will teach me a marketable skill to a great many companies and organizations either here in Central New York or elsewhere, as well as how to become a successful author. 

              The Bachelor’s degree that I have designed is in the Cultural Studies area of study, with a concentration in Creative Writing and Literature. This degree reflects my desire to become a professional writer of significant skill and talent, but whose same skill is still marketable in the public sector in the area of communication, marketing, advertising or any fields that rely on a solid writing talent. I also intend to complete a Master’s degree in Creative Writing in the future and have selected many introductory classes to build upon in more advanced courses after I have successfully completed my Bachelor’s. 

               I have transferred with forty credits to this college from Onondaga Community College. Some of these credits are in the area of literature and writing, and are included in my area of concentration. I completed courses similar to my intended plan of study at Empire State College. I completed courses on Creative Writing in Fiction, Creative Writing in Poetry, Writing Non-Fiction, as well as courses to introduce me to the fundamentals of elementary composition. These courses have given me the knowledge to begin pulling ideas out of my head and organizing them into more clear and presentable words on paper. These courses have allowed me to begin to be able to reflect what were once invisible and abstract concepts in my mind into solid and tangible words that I can now expand and modify.

             The courses that I have selected for my concentration are all online literature courses offered by Empire State College. I prefer to take my courses online to maximize the amount of time that I am able to devote to my studies, as well as my personal goals as well. My goal is to pursue the craft of writing as concretely and as solidly as one can in a bachelor degree program. I have selected the courses offered at Empire State College which reflect the courses that seem to be the most commonly offered in three of the top universities known for their writing programs. The three colleges whose writing programs I researched were: Syracuse University, Yale, and the University of Iowa. The subjects most common to all three, what I assume are common to most others, and are available through Empire State College are: Literary Criticism, the Classics of Literature, the Bible and Religion, Culture, Shakespeare, and Ethnic and Gender Studies.

             The connection between my prior learning and my current learning is for my fundamental need for understanding, communication, both spoken and written, in both my personal life, and my professional ambitions. I have included other courses that I believe will not only help me in the craft of writing, or rather the craft of organizing ideas into a marketable product, as well as the craft of living a life of significance.

 From my General Learning Studies, I have selected courses from a few integral categories which I believe lead to a greater capacity to participate in the world of Humanity. The categories are: psychology, culture, sex and gender definitions, and religion. I have always been interested in psychology, especially what is the measure of natural, internal states, and the narratives that form in our minds. In the three psychology classes I have selected, I hope to learn the fundamentals of the science of psychology, the ability to determine different personalities and the characteristics of each, and what comprises the spectrum of behavior that is interpreted by the science as abnormal. I think these classes with also profit me by giving me a better understanding of the people I am surrounded by in my life, measuring my own psychological phenomena against others, and to learn how to improve my continued interactions with people and groups. This understanding of the human psyche will also enhance my use of characterization in works I hope to someday publish.

 I am interested in the study of culture and its implications for the individual and the groups that that individual finds himself in throughout one’s lifetime. For this reason I attempt to break down culture into what I believe are its most fundamental and reoccurring components of a person’s life, the qualities of sex, gender, and its implications. I also hope to study what is considered a “family” or the groups that the individual identifies most strongly with so I chose to add Family and Society to my program. It is the ability of a person to modify himself to the group he finds himself in at any given time, whether it be a patriarchal or matriarchal group is one of the basic measures of success for a human being. From my observation most of great literature is about the family or society.

 The study “Human Nutrition” is my selection for the SUNY General Education science requirement because nutrition and its implications, is one of the common issues of our life, an indelible link between us all, even if it is often overlooked and dismissed. I think our nutrition informs all of our behavior, not only our physical but intellectual and social behavior as well. I believe a person can assume and induce different psychological states by the selections of their diets. 

 My main goal of my education is to understand my past, to learn how to properly interpret my present, and make sense of it to benefit myself and others in the future. I hope to accrue significant knowledge to give breadth and depth to the ideas that I have already have, to be introduced to new ideas that will raise the fruition of my previous thinking to new standards, and I hope those ideas will become as clear and precise in their communication as found in the level of the most revered writings of the most accomplished and professional writers known to us today. I believe the degree which I have designed will put me on the path of that development. I believe the courses that I have selected will enable me to see from several, more shaper perspectives than I had previously. I think the sum of this degree will be useful in the field of advertising, marketing, publishing, or wherever the clarity of presentable ideas is necessary. I would like to thank the Assessment Committee for taking the time to review my portfolio.

Extroversions and Introversions: Two Ends of the Spectrum of Human Behavior (10-03-2011)

Extroversion and Introversion are ends of the spectrum of our behavior. The traits of each end are measured in degrees of opposition to the other end of the spectrum. Environment and circumstance, though, can influence an individual’s natural personality in more extreme cases.

Carver and Scheier (2008) state “the idea that the influence of traits on behavior is dependent on situations has expanded into a broader view of personality structure, in which traits are individualized linkages between situations and actions. This view accounts for stability over time within the person as well as for variability across situations. This view of the nature of traits provides a sense of process for trait models” (p. 70).

Traits seem to be the structure of personality, yet retaining some fluidity. Perhaps they can be strengthened as a talent or skill. I give Jimmy Fallon as an example. He is very talented in imitating other people. He seems to become this other person that he is imitating. Maybe our traits that we continue to use as the personality that we are most comfortable with, can be developed to give us a better facility for participation in life and to prepare us for the opportunities that arise in everyone’s life to become more assertive, for either our own or someone else’s benefit. Most parents, for example, despite introversion or extroversion will become protective of their child when that child is endangered. Normally most of us will adapt if we feel threatened and need to learn some method of self defense, to return ourselves to a state of comfort again. Assertive behavior is often necessary when dealing with the general population, how introverted or how extroverted we are is dependent upon how much we need to participate within our environments for our own self interests. We normally act according to how much attention we require, or feel uncomfortable with receiving from others.

Perhaps personality is just a self invention constructed within the requirements of the environment and to the degree we are self interested?

Would a person born in one culture be a completely different person in another culture?  What if another culture intruded upon ours and we needed to become more aggressive. Social forces determine how aggressive we are, or how passive we can become.

          I think we are the traits that we chose for ourselves, the ones that will get us the most swiftly to our goals. Getting to embody these traits is just a matter of trial and error, of practice.

Works Cited:

Carver, C.S., & Scheier. M (2008) Perspectives on Personality. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. 70. Print.

Paper on Gandhi in Relation to The Hero's Journey and Leadership Issues in Useem. 10-03-2011

Joseph,

You've written an insightful and informative paper on Gandhi in relation to the hero's journey and leadership issues in Useem.  It is, however, a bit too heavy on the biographical information, and not as much an analysis of the leadership issues that arise in the course materials, even though some of that bio is crucial to make your case.  In the future try to envision formal papers as primarily tests of the material, in which case the course texts take center stage and your chosen example is used to exemplify and challenge key arguments in those texts.  This is largely the other way around, such that Gandhi takes center stage and the texts highlight him (granted, it's hard not to let Gandhi take center stage since he was such a remarkable figure, but again, the papers are examinations of key issues of the course).  

Another thing I noticed is that the formatting gets a little funky in your submission (scan below), but this I mostly tried to dismiss as a computer issue and something easily fixed.  However, you still need to do a little work yourself on the Works Cited.  It's good but not yet perfect!  : )

Grade: B, 85/100

A side note:  Your discussion posts have been terrific!  Keep up the great work there!

Best,

Allison

I selected Mohandas K. Gandhi as a leader because he not only changed his native country and his people but had an effect on the world as a whole. His philosophy of non-violence gave the world an alternative to violent revolution and inspired other leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. to stand up to repression without the need for bloodshed. Mr. Gandhi did not set out to become a leader for material wealth or fame, but found himself in difficult times where he became convinced that he had to play a part in alleviating the suffering of his fellow human beings. Like all other hero’s, he was called into action by events surrounding himself which he could not ignore.                                       
Mohandas K. Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, to Karamchand and Putlibai Gandhi in the city of Porbandar, which is located on the western coast of India. Gandhi’s father was the chief minister of the city of Porbandar, and his wife Putlibai was a devout Hindu who raised her children in her faith. When Gandhi was young, he was a timid and shy child who was not the greatest student. Despite his generally obedient nature, he went against his Hindu upbringing by smoking, eating meat, and even stealing which he regretted to his death. This part of his life was one of his first tests, of himself as a human being and a struggling devotee in his native Hindu culture. As a young boy on the threshold of manhood, Gandhi fought his Shadow, his dark side, his repressed desires that sought satisfaction in the materialism of the world.                                                                           
 When Gandhi was only thirteen years of age he was married to his wife Kastruba through an arranged marriage. He lived as a normal Indian man in a place where most of the people were similar to him. In the peaceful lifestyle of his fellow Hindus, and in the teachings in the Hindu faith, he found the ideals of religious understanding which later became his guiding principles. This early education in the Hindu faith gave him the ideals by which he would later lead other people by tapping our shared need for peace and justice. His Hindu faith and its principles became the guiding force in his interactions with others and the organizations he later found himself in. (Useem. Pg. 266 “Find Yourself”). The India of his youth was the ordinary world that Gandhi had grown up in and had become accustomed to.                                                                                                       
When Gandhi was eighteen years old, he traveled to England to enter college to learn the law. He spent his first few months in England trying to learn to be a proper and cultured Englishman as was expected of the youth at the time. When he realized that this was a futile pursuit he gave these things up and devoted himself entirely to his studies. He was more determined to maintain the vow he made to his mother to remain a devout Hindu and live a Hindu lifestyle while away at college in England. Understanding his values and committing to them made it easier for him to make decisions in where he wanted to go in life. ( Useem. Pg. 266 “Know Yourself”). This renewed commitment to both his studies and his Hindu faith was the first crossing of the threshold by deciding on what kind of person he was going to be and the direction he wanted to go in life.                            
 In his aim to remain a vegetarian he discovered the London Vegetarian Society which later introduced him to influential writers like Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy. His education, the discovery of artists and philosophers, and his renewed devotion to his Hindu faith became his meeting with his mentors. These influences shaped Gandhi into the man that he would become during his later trials and ordeals that he would eventually face. Through his meeting in England with artists and philosophers, as well as the native Englishmen, gave Gandhi an understanding of his contemporary world. He became aware of their mindset and learned what actions he could take to achieve the reactions he wanted from others, gaining the most beneficial attitude towards him that he could achieve. He learned the values of his fellow man and what it would take to earn their respect. (Useem. Pg. 266. “Gain Commitment”). The people in this period of his life became allies in shaping his philosophy and his understanding of a broader world than he had previously known.                  
 It was at his time in England that Gandhi began to more seriously read Hindu and Buddhist literature, the most influential upon him was the Bhagavad-Gita which is a sacred text in the Hindu religion. It relates the story of Arjuna who faces the difficulty of going to war against his own family, a mission that would either result in his death, or destroy his tyrannical cousins. Arjuna’s chariot is driven by a boy named Krishna who later reveals himself to Arjuna as a god. Krishna reveals to him that in life we have no choice but to battle evil where we find it and in whatever form it takes. This work heavily influenced Mr. Gandhi in his later years, becoming the herald for what he had to become, and revealing the role that Gandhi had to play in this life.                                                                     
Gandhi officially became a lawyer in 1891, after three years of schooling, and passing the bar exam. It was in his training of the law that would prepare him to battle through its courts system, the looming and powerful enemy in the form of the British Empire that was subjugating people to discrimination and oppression. He subsequently returned to Porbandar with the only the intent to help his fellow man and provide a life for his family.                                                                                                                                    
 After two unsuccessful years of finding suitable work in his native India he was hired by an Indian firm located in South Africa. He was hired to work for only one year but ended up remaining there for some 21 years. He did not realize that this path would lead him to become one of the most influential people in the world. It was in South Africa that Gandhi met his worst enemy, the British monarchy and the tyranny with which it ruled and enforced its empire. The British Empire ruled its colonies through institutionalized segregation against its native peoples, while it profited off of the countries resources, and made use of the territories to expand its imperial base.                                  
 It was during his time in South Africa that Gandhi got his first glimpse of the racial prejudice that was the reality of the time. In one of the first cases that he was expected to take involved a several day journey which involved traveling by train. He presented his ticket to travel first class but was told that he would have to ride third class which was how Indians, referred to at the time by whites as “coolies”, were expected to ride. When he refused to suffer this humility he was quickly and violently thrown from the train. For a brief period of time he considered going back to his native India, a reluctant hero refusing the call. But he soon realized that this prejudicial treatment of his fellow Indians had to be bravely faced and he decided then to remain in South Africa to fight the culture of oppression against dark skinned people by local colonial governments. It was at this moment the Gandhi heard the call to adventure in the need to take on the ordeal of fighting injustice wherever he found it, rather than trying to find and maintain a comfortable existence in the world.                      
  In 1914 Gandhi made his way back to his native India after more than two decades in his fight against oppression. In effect this was his resurrection back into the world that he was born and raised in, the world that created him and gave him his values, and saw him return as a hero.    Little did he know that returning to India would be the Approach to the Inmost Cave       of his enemy and the home of many of his worst tests that he would have to endure.                    
 After his return to India he took leadership of the Indian National Congress Party, an organization that did not deny British the right to rule, but upheld the right for more power and freedom for native Indians. He used this organization to give a voice to his cause and build the support that it would need in coming years. (Useem. Pg. 266. “Build Now”).                               
 In 1919, the Rowlatt Acts were enacted into Indian law by the British colonial government. These policies allowed the incarceration without trial of any Indian who was seen as treasonous to the British authorities. Gandhi saw the need to respond to the Rowlatt Acts by creating his own movement which he named “satyagraha”, translated as “truth-force” or “love-force”. This was his Return with the Elixir, the treasure by which people could now oppose tyranny anywhere in the world through the form of passive civil disobedience. The act of Satyagraha was a form of non-violent resistance that called for national stoppages of work, boycotting foreign goods and services, peaceful resistance against the British authority, fasting, and meetings. He was forced to stop the Satyagraha a few days after it began because fellow protestors had become embroiled in violent conflict with the police. In taking this action Gandhi prevented the situation from escalating into an anarchy that would have justified the use of force by the British authorities to quell what could be seen by the world as insurrection against the government. This would only set his movement back and undo the progress that was made by previous acts of civil disobedience. (Useem. Pg. 266. “Move Fast”).                              
In the coming years Gandhi reorganized the Indian National Congress Party, into a larger and more focused mass movement. The Indian National Congress more strongly promoted the ideal of a new India ruled by Indians, rather than being overseen by the British like slaves. The main tactic of the INC was to boycott British owned and ran institutions which would in effect bankrupt these institutions or force them to change. Many of his followers and sympathizers were arrested during this time and Gandhi himself was arrested for sedition which required him to spend two years in prison.     
This was one of many times that Gandhi had been arrested but this was the longest amount of time he would have to spend in prison. It would have been the most serious test of whether or not he could continue his fight against oppression, and quite possibly one of his greatest ordeals that he faced in his life. He chose to remain true to his original values despite the hardship of prison that he was forced to endure. He knew that if he weakened, his cause and the commitment of his followers would weaken as well.       (Useem. Pg. 266. “Remain   Steadfast”).                                                                                                         
 After his release from prison, Gandhi retook the leadership role of the Indian National Congress Party in 1928. Two years later, during the spring of 1930, in an act of defiance against the British Salt Laws, Gandhi and 80 of his followers began what was a 200-mile march to the ocean. When they arrived at the ocean they produced salt from sea water which was at the time illegal for the Indians to do. As the British government taxed the sale of salt, this was an act to deprive the colonial government of its taxes and revenue that it made off of the Indian people. This act of defiance led to the eventual arrest of over 60,000 Indians. One year later Gandhi ended this act of civil disobedience after a truce was made with the British colonial government. In this instance Gandhi had succeeded in playing the role of the Trickster. He saw the opportunity to show the world how petty the British Empire was in preventing Indians from making their own salt instead of having to pay the English for something that should have been a basic right. In effect he was shaming the British Empire for its rampant greed and imperialist policies.                        
In the later part of 1931, the British colonial government renewed their oppression of the Indian people. Gandhi responded by resuming his movement of nonviolent resistance and became incarcerated for it. During his stay in prison, Gandhi fasted to protest a policy of the British colonial government to legalize separate electorates in the Indian constitution for the lowest caste of individuals within India’s society, known as the “untouchables”. The protest drew enough attention from the public that caused the British colonial government to make illegal this once allowable discrimination against the untouchable caste. Gandhi thought that freedom from repression was for all Indians, no matter their place in society. The freedoms that he fought for had to be for the whole of society, and not awarded for race or class or religious association. (Useem. Pg. 266. “Expect Much”).                                                                                                           
 In August 1947, the British colonial government withdrew and gave up its power to a new and divided India, which became what is now known as Pakistan and India. Gandhi publicly urged the people to remain calm but the country was overtaken by violence despite the power and influence which he had accrued over many years. The tension of centuries of British rule had erupted into a violent anarchy in racial and religious divisions. This was the seizing of the sword in a country that was in the throes of its new shifting shape. The reward for Gandhi had been in finally seeing an India now free from its colonial overseer but this new age also brought with it confusion and turmoil.                                                                                                                        
 On January 30, 1948, on his way to prayer in Delhi, India Gandhi was shot to death by assassins. Before he succumbed to his wounds he was heard to say “Oh God” as if thanking his God for finally being able to give up this arduous life for the peace that he hoped would come in the hereafter. He had achieved martyrdom, and to some, had become a kind of a saint. He had lived a life in service of humanity; he embodied the Hero archetype in remaining steadfast in his mission to overcome repression and discrimination in the world where he found it, and he carried the truth of his beliefs despite the ordeals of his journey through life. In Gandhi, modern leaders can see a man who chose the highest values of peace and justice for his fellow man rather than the joy and comfort that a person can claim in their short time on earth. He was an inspiration as a man who lived for his beliefs and weathered many difficult storms of his life, yet never losing sight of his vision and the dreams it would create for others. 

Works Cited:

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. “Gandhi, Mohandas K. (1869-1948). King Encyclopedia.

Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. Print.

McLellan, Hilary. Story Structures: The Hero's Journey.

Useem, Michael. The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All. New York: Three Rivers, 1998. Print.

Anatomy and Destiny (Post for Sex and Gender 10/01/11)

In our modern age, anatomy is no longer destiny. While culture may define what femininity and masculinity consists of, modern science has allowed people to transcend their biological gender. Someone born male in this day and age can be surgically transformed into a woman, and vice versa. Our modern culture is opening up strict views toward gender, which in the past were justified by our religious traditions.

According to Brettell and Sargent (2009), “few people deny the anatomical and hormonal differences between men and women; they disagree about the importance of these differences for gender roles and personality attributes. A significant body of research, much of it conducted by psychologists, suggests that male and female infants cannot be significantly distinguished by their degree of dependence on parents, their visual and verbal abilities, or their aggression as measured by activity level. These characteristics tend to emerge later in the development process, indicating the importance of environment” (p. 1-2). We as humans self-organize and self-criticize ourselves according to our culture and our current circumstances to fit the mold that our environments present to us.

Throughout history men and women have been limited by the cultural forces that determine their roles for a group and society. Men, the stronger gender became the hunters of dangerous and heavy prey, as they had the greater physicality for the hunt and had to carry the carcass many miles back to their homes. Women became the caretakers and maintainers of the home and children, which necessitated their remaining in a safe location. This became tradition, and tradition became deified in the creation of our religions. Our religions became our codes of conduct, laws, and other rules to follow.

“As the preceding discussion reveals, none of the primary rationales that have been forwarded to exclude women from being able to “officially” serve in combat roles provides a legitimate basis for maintaining the current restrictions on women’s participation in combat” (Peach, 2009, 30). With modern technology and techniques, women are just as capable of being efficient killing machines as men, and just as capable of being soldiers as well.

The history of the vibrator in the Harding reading, speaks about gender culture. It was legal, and tolerable for millennia, for men to go to brothels and visit prostitutes, while women had to go to a doctor as if their sexuality was a medical problem to be solved. Both genders have the same frequency and intensity of desire in their biological instinct to mate, culture has just defined how we go about it, and the permissible steps to arrive at our satisfactions. Sex is biological; gender is just how it is performed. Masculinity and femininity are just the terms for how each gender should perform these roles

As far as essentialism, or the belief that sexuality is already biologically defined at birth and checked by social forces, and constructivism which states that sexuality has no biological precursor but is determined by the cultural forces surrounding the individual, is a difficult argument to consider. On the one hand one can say we are determined by our biology to pursue our sexual interests, while on the other hand our sexual interests are only limited by what attitudes our society has towards sexuality. I personally believe that I am biologically predisposed toward the opposite sex, and that this type of behavior serves the biological purpose of procreation. But if society did not have stigmas against homosexuality, and even made it a common practice, then the only stigma would be against those who did not participate in a culture’s common practices. It is hard to know if my personal distaste comes from biology or cultural shaped forces.

Works Cited:

Brettell, C. B, & Sargent, C.F. (2009) Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective 5^th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Harding, J. (2003) Investigating Sex: Essentialism and Constructionism. LaFont, Suzanne. Constructing Sexualities: Readings in Sexuality, Gender, and Culture. (pp. 6-17) Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Education, Inc.

Peach, L. J. (2009) Gender and War: Are Women Tough Enough for Military Combat. Brettell, C.B, & Sargent, C.F. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective 5^th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall.