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Post by Mr. Thomas on Oct 30, 2013 13:23:22 GMT -5
Post responses here.
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Post by 1adams12 on Oct 30, 2013 17:36:30 GMT -5
A. I have a personal connection with Benjamin Franklin because of the number of kids that he grew up with. I personally did not grow up with seven kids, but my grandma was one of thirteen kids. My grandma must have felt the way that Benjamin Franklin felt, with being poor and all. I personally would not like growing up with six other siblings, because my brother and I bicker all of the time. That would be a lot of bickering in the family.
D. One of the lines that I liked was "then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market house I met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, in Second Street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in Boston; but they, it seems were not made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So not considering or knowing cheapness nor the names of his brea, I bade him give me three-penny worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and, having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other" (Pages 70-71). I find this hilarious because Franklin must have looked silly and people were probably wondering why he bought so much.
E. When I first read how many children the Franklins' had, I was amazed. I thought that was a lot of kids, but when I thought about it, I realized my grandma and how many siblings she had. I also realized how poor Franklins' parents must have been because of the seven kids. I felt somewhat bad for Benjamin, because he probably did not have a good childhood because of the amount of children that were in that household. I know that I would have not been happy if I was not in Benjamin's shoes.
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Post by eointunney on Oct 30, 2013 17:39:09 GMT -5
Eoin Tunney
Mr. Thomas
English 11
30 October 2013
E. I really enjoyed reading this story by Thomas Jefferson. This story is extremely different from other stories we have read this year. The reason why I like Jefferson’s story the most is because of his language. Jefferson is an extremely intelligent man and this story portrays that with his witty personality. The moral perfection part of the writing I found very inspiring.
D. There were several lines throughout the first part of this story which I really enjoyed. The first of these lines was on page 70 where Jefferson says, “The latter I gave the people of the boat for my passage, who at first refused it, on account of my rowing; but I insisted on their taking it.” This quote shows how generous Thomas Jefferson and I thought this was amazing because this shows that he is an all-around nice guy. Another part of the story that relates to this first quote was when Jefferson gives 2 of his rolls to the mother and child on his boat. This also shows how generous he is and also relates to his 5th virtue “Frugality.”
C. One thing that confused me in this story was on the first 2 pages. On these pages Jefferson was explaining that he had just moved to Philadelphia and he has nowhere to stay. I was wondering why he would move to an entirely new city without knowing anyone there. Another thing which caught my attention was that the difference in price for a loaf of bread. I was thinking why it would be different but then I realized that the United States were not formed yet and the colonies were all separated while under British rule, which caused the currency to sometimes be different throughout the colonies.
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Post by johnmarano on Oct 30, 2013 17:52:14 GMT -5
John Marano
Mr. Thomas
English 11
30 October 2013
B. I really didn’t think anything was important about this reading, except the fact that he revealed his 13 virtues. I believe that was the most important thing because it showed us a background of how he set rules and followed them. His rules and expectations must have worked for himself because he became so successful by following them. I think this was the most significant part of the reading as it kind of even foreshadowed the rest of the autobiography (even though we aren’t reading it).
C. This autobiography did bring about a few questions… Why was Benjamin Franklin, honestly, so weird? I obviously love his generosity and openness, but it seems a little too strange. All 13 of his “virtues” are like making sure you are perfect. Why does he say, “Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation?” (71) I don’t understand how that was important at all. What if you physically can’t avoid these things? And in this part of the autobiography, why didn’t he go up to his future wife, Ms. Read? I felt that some things weren’t important at all in this reading.
D. Benjamin Franklin was a very inspirational human being who played a crucial role in the development of our country. From his autobiography, although it may not be REALLY SIGNIFICANT, I learned how humble and modest Franklin was. He created 13 names of virtues by which he lived by which also displayed his true humbleness as a person. A specific quote that really jumped out to me was when Franklin said, “… and gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river…” (71) I find this so important because again, as I have just mentioned, he is showing his generosity. Early on in the reading it mentions how he had like 3 pennies or something like that and he bought food for himself with the little money he did have. Although this scene wasn’t life changing, I like how it shows that with even little money he had, he was kind and caring towards others still. Guys like Benjamin Franklin did an extremely productive job in the constructing of our nation and their true generosity was a major factor in the development.
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Post by seandelossantos on Oct 30, 2013 17:53:21 GMT -5
Sean de los Santos Mr. Thomas English 11 30 October 2013 Ben Franklin
A. This part of the story reminded me of someone from another state coming to New York for the first time. In the Arrival in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin talks about how he, “asked for a three penny loaf, and was told he had no such.(pg70)” This reminds me of a tourist coming from the south or the west coming here to New York in which his dialect and use of words are not really understood. The same thing can be said about a person from New York coming to another state. People will talk about him in which his style of speech isn’t truly understood.
D. One line I enjoyed from the reading was the part where he gave money to the people even though he didn’t have a lot of money himself. Ben Franklin said that hee gave money because, “ he insisted on their taking it.(70)” This is really nice in which he was being very generous even though he did a lot for the people in the boat. This line reveals how much of a good person he truly was since his arrival in Philadelphia.
E. One thing I encountered in the reading was Ben Franklin’s generosity to the people. He shows his characteristic of generosity in the reading in which he not only gives money to the people in the boat, but he also gave two rolls to the woman and child in the boat on the river. This tells us how much of a generous person he was back then. He gives more than he has because he knows what people go through.
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Post by georgebaroudos on Oct 30, 2013 17:58:24 GMT -5
George Baroudos Mr. Thomas English 11 30 October 2013
D – The way things turn out are seriously crazy. “A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty” (70). This shows us that even if you have a lot of money it doesn’t make you a man necessarily. In my eyes being a giver and living life, as a man is priceless. It does not matter how much money anyone has, if you can act like a man I will respect that much more. There are many impressive bank accounts, but whether they are genuine people is yet to be determined.
A – In my opinion life is a constant journey in which we must always learn. I think that learning from the past allows us to brighten our future. Ben Franklin is able to learn from the Neo-Classist time period. Franklin sees that the views of many of these philosophers aided them in living a prosperous and in many ways happy life. As humans I feel that we should take into account the past experiences of great men. If they were able to live a prosperous life why can’t we? No one has mastered life and I feel that those who come close live the best lives. I don’t think life is about what you have, but rather who you are. If we can keep an open mind anything is possible.
I – This chapter is strongly based upon Neo-Classicism. Many thinkers who inspired these American thinkers studied Aristotle. Aristotle stresses the importance of virtue. Not only does Ben Franklin lead a virtuous life, many of his writings are best off of virtue. Virtue becomes a dominating presence in the thinking of these Americans. To live a virtuous life would lead you to a happy life in Aristotle’s view. Ben Franklin has learned off of these views and is able to create a life that embodies a true man. I have a lot of respect for Ben Franklin after seeing how he conducts himself.
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Post by matthewsegarra on Oct 30, 2013 18:31:27 GMT -5
Matthew Segarra Mr. Thomas English 11 30 October 2013 B. I found it interesting when he talked about his thirteen virtues. It showed us how he lived by these rules. These rules must have been good rules to follow since he became the man that he was.
C. I did not understand a few things, and it left me with a few questions. Why did Benjamin Franklin act so odd? He was very open and generous, but was very weird. Why did he say, “Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation?” (71) A lot of people cannot avoid these things, especially in his time. Why did he not confront Ms. Read?
D. From this reading, I learned the full extent of Benjamin Franklin’s humbleness. One quote I found interesting was, “… and gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river…” (71) His generosity struck me. He only had three pennies for himself, and he gave two away to strangers. That is like having three dollars to eat lunch and you give away two to a homeless man. This also reminded me of Jesus. Jesus was generous enough to wash the feet of his guests during the Last Supper. This is the type of generosity Jesus wanted us to have. This is why Benjamin Franklin is one of the founding fathers of our country, and a man we should all follow as an example of how to live.
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Post by bourdonm15 on Oct 30, 2013 18:50:50 GMT -5
Matthew Bourdon Mr. Thomas English 11 10/30/13 B. I can say I really enjoyed reading the 19 parts that Benjamin Franklin wrote from Poor Richards Almanack. This shows the type of lifestyle he lived and his thought process. We can definitely tell right from these 19 statements that Benjamin Franklin is a very comical as well as sarcastic man. Probably my favorite lines are “One today is worth two tomorrows.” and “Fish and visitors smell in three days.” (Page 76) These lines show how intellectual Benjamin Franklin was and from the first statement we definitely see that Benjamin was not a lazy person. He is comical with the 2nd statement about how fish and visitors smell bad. We get the personality of Benjamin Franklin throughout this excerpt. E. Another part of the story that I enjoyed was the 13 virtues. I can definitely say that I really enjoyed the 11th virtue that he wrote. “Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.” (Page 72) This virtue and all others was Benjamin Franklin’s basic way of living his life. I can definitely say that with some of them I am confused with what he means. For example for number 13 he says, “Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates?” I don’t understand whether he means that imitating or trying to imitate Jesus and Socrates will bring humiliation or that not doing this will bring humiliation. But Benjamin was a thinker, and most of what he writes is to get you to think. I. I agree with Sean in the part about him enjoying Benjamin giving the money to the poor even though he barely had money for himself. It shows how versatile his charisma and personality was and how much of a good person he was as well.
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Post by frankclarke on Oct 30, 2013 19:14:54 GMT -5
Frank Clarke Mr. Thomas English 11 30 October 2013
E. The transition of the story from Ben (we’re on a first name basis) first arriving at Philly and discussing his first day there, to him discussing his attempt at “arriving at moral perfection” was a bit blurry. There was no introduction in a sense, and it was more or less just thrown upon us. It was weird to read a man buying bread and giving it away to all of a sudden we don’t know where he is, writing his 13 attempts at achieving “perfection”. It was just odd to me!
D. I really found the quote “A man being something more generous when he has but little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being though to have but little.” Genuinely interesting. He seems to contradict himself, talking about moral duties and perfecting them, while he himself is making himself a lesser of a man by insinuating that he must give money to the workers to make it seem like he was an abundant of money. This as well seemed a bit odd to me.
A. The same quote I used above can be compared to a terrible societal habit that we seemed to of formed over the years…spending more then you have. Clearly the 2008 housing bubble is the first that comes to mind (on a large scale) and kids today who buy clothes they cant afford just to look “cool” (on a smaller scale) It was interesting to see that even this sense of elitism and need for attention of one’s financial situation to be portrayed so evidently in the example Ben gave. (of himself too!!!!)
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Post by matthewchan on Oct 30, 2013 19:55:49 GMT -5
Matthew Chan Mr. Thomas English 11 30 October 2013
A The Arrival in Philadelphia story reminds me a lot about what we are learning right now in history class. We are learning about the American Revolution and how it affected people’s lives. Here, Ben Franklin gets off a ship and doesn’t know what to do or where to go since he has never been to Philadelphia before. This short story also tells us how cheap things were back then. In today’s world, three cents is worth nothing because you cannot buy anything with it. Also, three rolls are definitely not three cents. It’s about $1.50. E. I find The Arrival in Philadelphia story quite fascinating. I am also surprised about the way Ben Franklin acts. He is extremely generous and it seems to me that he always has a smile on his face wherever he goes. He bought three rolls and only ate one while the other two he gave to a mother and her son. It seems to me he is a very outgoing person and is loved by many people. D. I find Poor Richard’s Almanack similar to the Ten Commandments. The first point says, “Love your neighbor; yet don’t pull down your hedge.” It is similar to the Ten Commandments because it is telling you what good things you should do and how to become a better person
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Post by odonnelle on Oct 30, 2013 20:33:56 GMT -5
Evan O’Donnell
E.) Benjamin Franklin – the American Aristotle. His philosophy on being fully human resembles that of Aristotle in a number of key ways, namely in how he thinks his philosophy should be executed. Like Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin emphasized the importance of habituation—of shaping one’s moral character by conditioning oneself to instinctively do the right thing as opposed to the wrong thing. “Contrary habits [to virtuous habits] must be broken, and good ones acquired and established.” In spite of that key similarity, Franklin does not emphasize some key factors of Aristotle’s teleology (like finding the mean of the two extremes). On top of that, Franklin had a notable way of habituating the virtues. He would go out of his way to practice a single virtue each week, and let all other habits happen as they would without trying, but Aristotle did not emphasize any religious way in which one should habituate virtues.
D.) “Sincerity. Use no harmful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.” I, like my mother before me, have been known to be “brutally honest.” Lying does not come to me without a great force of will, and I can only do it with relative ease if I am fully convinced that the deceit can be both justified in hurting the fewest people and if the deceit can be explained at a later time. Lies and omissions can rarely serve more than to turn people away from the set up behind the curtains. They can and will lead to later tragedies.
C.) Did “obsessive compulsive disorder” pop into anyone’s mind when seeing the format of a page from Franklin’s book of virtues…?
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Post by danokeefe15 on Oct 30, 2013 20:36:04 GMT -5
Danny O’Keefe
Mr. Thomas
English 11
30 October 2013
C. What confused me about this reading was the language; it used more complex and older words that I couldn’t understand. I understood the Arrival in Philadelphia section, but once the Arriving at Moral Perfection started I started to lose what was happening and the things that were being described. What I also want to know is why he made the list of virtues, was it so that he could actually make himself better or was it for a different reason because I felt like the whole topic came out of nowhere.
A. after doing the reading it reminded me of my Religion and U.S. History class. The reason why they relate is because it talks about virtue and the list of virtues which has come up in religion class and in my Catholic Ethics book. it also relates to History because we have just reached the same point in time as we are in the story.
E. What I noticed and liked about the story was how good of a person Ben Franklin was. In the first section of the reading I noticed that he was very generous, he talks about how a poor man like him gives away more money than a person who is rich and he also gives his food that he just spent his money on to a women and her son. The second section deals with the virtues and how he wants to better himself which shows what type of person he is.
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Post by scanley73 on Oct 30, 2013 23:12:38 GMT -5
A. I really enjoyed the line where Franklins says that sometimes a man is more willing to give money when he has only a little than when he has a lot. I thought that this was really interesting. I have however felt the opposite of this. When I don’t have much money I try to hold on to it in case I really need it later on. However, when I have enough money I am more willing to use it on things I don’t necessarily need at that moment. For example if I have twenty dollars in my pocket I am more likely to buy a 6 dollar sandwich than I would if I had only six dollars in my pocket. I. In response to Eoin, first, Franklin was writing, not Jefferson. Also, he is in Philadelphia on business. He is not there simply to see the city. Franklin was a very busy man and went to Philadelphia because work took him there. Also, it wasn’t a different price for the bread. The type of bread that was being sold was different. So the price may have been different but that was because the bread itself was different. C. One thing that confused me was why he was on a boat to get to Philadelphia. It’s on land and not next to the ocean. How did he take a boat there? Wouldn’t it make more sense if he travelled on the road or something along those lines? It just doesn’t make sense that he would go on a boat and wind up in the middle of the mainland.
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Post by Sgarlato on Oct 31, 2013 0:03:01 GMT -5
Stephen Sgarlato
Mr. Thomas
English 11
10/31/13
I. To answer Collin’s end question about why Ben Franklin took a boat to Philadelphia I would say that I think it was more of a simile or metaphor. He probably meant the trip was like a boat ride or something along those lines. The story does make it easy to believe that he took a boat to Philadelphia which he still may have or may not have but it is more believable if he didn’t.
C. Was Benjamin Franklin a weird guy or did he just seem to act like that. He seams very nice and generous but then he comes off as strange and with not normal behavior. I don’t know maybe it is how I perceived the reading but he seemed very awkward.
A. When Ben Franklin came to Philadelphia it reminded me of when my mom went to Brazil for a business trip. She came back and she told me a story of her not knowing any language, not knowing how to use the money there or anything. She had her colleagues to help her and she knew partly what to do but she still felt like a tourist, like Ben Franklin.
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Post by michaelannunziata on Oct 31, 2013 11:07:52 GMT -5
Michael Annunziata Mr. Thomas English 11 10,30,13 A. One connection that a can make with Benjeman Franklyn is that he grew up with so many people in his family. Growing up with seven family members must be tough for him because there are so many people his parents have to take care of. Can relate to this because although I only have one brother in my family have 16 cousins who I see every Sunday and at least one day a week. I mean yes I don’t see them every day but being one out of sixteen kids at least twice a week, makes me feel the pain Franklyn had to grow up with. B. Pretty much the only thing I found important and/or interesting in this reading was the thirteen virtues. I found this most interesting because virtues are what makes up a persons life and is what makes them the person they are today. It also sets them rules and expectations which pretty much forces a person to do what they have to do and to get things done and that is why I believe Benjamen Franklyn became so successful while he was alive. That’s why I found this important. I. I agree one hundred percent with my classmate Eoin’s answer to question E. I too think that the story about Thomas Jeffreson is one of the best story because of the fact that he was just so intelligent and so talented it just makes everything much more interesting.
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