Dover Beach - Arnold # Matthew Arnold 1822 - 1888 - son of Dr. Thomas Arnold 1795 - 1842. Dr Arnold, as headmaster of Rugby School, gradually raised Rugby to the rank of a great public school. His aim was to reform Rugby by making it a school for gentlemen. He used prefects more fully than any previous headmaster. Under the prefect system the older boys served as house monitors to keep discipline among the younger boys.
The Need to Belong # At birth, we are alone, but by nature we gradually become integrated with a family, clan, ethnic group, nation, culture, nature and humanity. As we mature we choose to abandon some groups and seek admittance to others. We subconsciously choose to belong to groups that share our, interests, aspirations, needs and values and where we are accepted as we are. As the Proverbial saying goes; Birds of a feather flock together, we too are gregarious and choose to be with like-minded people.
Belonging as part of Sport # Sport through the ages has been a way of bringing people together and can become one of the most inclusive avenues to acceptance in new surroundings. Spontaneous unorganised sports can be wholesome, fun and cohesive. John Carroll, * professor of sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne.in his book Ego & Soul, argues that:* * organised sport used to be a rich part of local community life, providing convincing rituals for the exhibition of such values as skill, courage, and fair play.
AUSTRALIAN FLAG - Belonging # The myth of belonging masks our insecurity # Cohn Long April 02, 2007 SMH The myth of belonging masks our insecurity. Earlier this the organisers of the rock music festival, the Big Day Out announced a ban on national flags being brought into the venue. In the wake of a small, transplanted Balkan war at the Australian Open, it seemed like a reasonable idea. Soon, though, a ‘popular’ outcry erupted.
# Conformity # We are social beings and need the mutual support of other people. In order to relate to others we sometimes need to compromise our personal values and go along with their interests and ideas. We need to conform to society’s expectations to a certain degree. However it is important that we do not allow the influences of events or other people to destroy the essence of who we are.
Belonging and Conformity: # We are social beings and need the mutual support of other people. In order to relate to others we sometimes need to compromise our personal values and go along with their interests and ideas. We need to conform to society’s expectations to a certain degree. However it is important that we do not allow the influences of events or other people to destroy the essence of who we are.
Loneliness # THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION We live together,, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self -transcendence. In vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy solitude.
My Parents kept me from children who were rough # by Stephen Spender My parents kept me from children who were rough and who threw words like stones and who wore torn clothes. Their thighs showed through rags. They ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams. I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron And their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms.
Originality and Conformity # As Tennyson put it, “we are part of all we have met”, and all people through the ages are products of their conditioning – we are cultural constructs. E.S. Turner in The Shocking History of Advertising (1968) “A bride is not a young woman on the edge of a great adventure; she is a conditioned consumer, who by buying the right cosmetics and the right brassiere has captured her man, and who, when she returns from her honeymoon, will go into the grocer’s and automatically recite those branded names that have been dinned into her ears for the last twenty years”.
Social Rejection #
Resources Related to the Topic - Belonging # Though you are not allowed to use other texts listed in the syllabus, you should look at how belonging is used in them to get a broader view of the topic. The purpose of using related texts is for relevance, identification and engagement. As much as possible you should choose related texts that you connect to and that you find personally relevant to the topic.
Sayings on Belonging and Individualism # Most emerging societies place a lot of emphasis on tribal unity and conformity, however more mature societies foster the rights of citizens to assert their individuality and distinctiveness. In today’s western society people have to find a satisfactory balance between being themselves and yet belonging to groups of their choice, a luxury many of our ancestors did not have. In his book The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley demonstrates that human progress comes through human interaction.
Silence # It is always fascinating to look at silences – they often tell us more than the loudest shouts – particularly when it come to the media where what gets reported is often less interesting than what doesn’t. “ Language communicates by nuance or the power of suggestion so that words are not always essential or that reliable. Especially in visual media, language becomes secondary. A pregnant pause can often be more effective than slick, glib, smarmy spiels or garrulous prattling.
Belonging, & Solitude, privacy, aloneness, independence: # Most emerging societies place a lot of emphasis on tribal unity and conformity providing mutual support and protection, however, mature societies are more secure and foster the rights of citizens to assert their individuality, distinctiveness and self assertion. In today’s western society people have to find a satisfactory balance between being themselves and yet belonging to groups of their choice, a luxury many of our ancestors did not have.
Belonging in The Namesake # The Namesake illustrates many issues of belonging by contrasting the relationships in the lives of the parents, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli (an anglicized pronouncing his real surname, Gangopadhyay.) with those of the generation of their children Nikhil and Sonia. The parents, born in India, in their twenties, migrated to America, where they only partially begin to integrate and assimilate a new culture, while their children born in America more readily adopt the American values and lifestyle.
Simple Gift - Stephen Herrick # “The Simple Gift”, Stephen Herrick’s narrative poem demonstrates elements of belonging and acceptance through the ‘pain and suffering’ of rejection, ‘homelessness’ and ‘dealing with death’ by the characters Billy, Caitlin and Old Bill. The protagonist Billy Luckett sixteen years of age ventures into the world; leaving home on his own decision. Billy reveals himself as a reject, a thief; and a troubled character who rejected a restrictive regimented irrelevant education system.