Clemente Course in the Humanities

Listen to Student Voices!

"I am midway through my junior year at WSU... the clemente program has opened the door for a better life for me."

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"I feel much more confident talking to both my daughters about education and the importance of it because I'm not speaking to them as someone who didn't make it, somebody who dropped out. I can say that it is difficult, that there are things you have to overcome to be a successful student, but it's worth it."

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"I thought it would be young high school drop-outs. There was such a great range of age. There were men and women from all different political backgrounds, all different family backgrounds. It really added a lot to the class having that diversity."

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"During the course I discovered that I could proceed forward with my education despite the inability to follow a more formal educational approach. The Socratic approach to education has confirmed my belief that everyone has something to contribute and that only through this process will we find our way through the fog of ignorance."

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"What I will take away the most and what keeps coming up is the theme of the program: the individual within the community, and how they interact. That is where the conflict lies... how much is selfish, how much of this is for me and how much is for the community...and how does this society work?"

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| Poetry 1, 2 | Prose |

POETRY

Good Neighbors Make Good Fences

by Pat Murphy

My old neighbors shared
Land, water, some cows,
And a private road.
Pillar of a man,
A multitude of
Kindnesses hidden
Behind a hard shell
Old folks remembered
Garden produce shared
Miscreant children
Saved from themselves but
Never tattled on.
She, a round ball with
A very sharp tongue.
Delivering gifts,
Pulling children from
Her fenced garden by
Their toughened earlobes
Together we shooed away
Coyotes, cougars,
Errant bulls, and a
Few lost black bears.
In winter we played
On snow covered hills.
In spring we pulled calves.
Fall and summer we
Shared communal meals.
My new neighbor has
Been around the block
More than a few times.
Knows nothing of cows,
Coyotes, cougars,
Black bears or children.
She overfeeds a
Racket of raccoons
That climb her eight-foot
Fence to terrorize my
Garden every night.
We do however
Share a private road.

| Poetry 1, 2 | Prose | Top |

Hope

by Dave Tuttle

HOPE

HOPE IS NOT POLLYANNAISH

As the dawn always follows the night
As the calm always follows the storm
Hope can always be found in despair

DESPAIR IS POLLYMOPISH

Despair is the refusal to acknowledge the good
Despair is the belief of certainty
Certainty is a fallacy

There’s percentage in hope
By it’s very nature, despair has none

HOPE

Hope concedes chance
Despair denies chance
There’s always a chance

Hope acknowledges the unknown
Despair knows all possible outcomes
The only outcome known is the past

Hope is strength
Only hope gains on adversity
Despair courts lose passionately
Despair is weakness

HOPE IS NOT POLLYANNAISH

Hope is a survivor
Despair dances with defeat

Hope is realistic
Despair is delusionary

Hope can move mountains
Despair can’t even move it self

HOPE

Hope is motion
To despair is to stagnate

Hope grows into possibilities
Despair wilts into nothingness

Hope swings high
Despair dives low

HOPE IS NOT POLLYANNAISH

Hope faces the unknown
Hope has guts

Despair shrinks away from the unknown
Despair is fearful
Despair explores nothing

Hope is a beginning
Despair is an end

HOPE

Hope is a newborn
Despair is a corpse

Hope motivates
Despair stalls

Hope feeds
Despair starves

HOPE IS NOT POLLYANNAISH

Hope cast light on the possibilities
Despair obscures the answers

Hope breeds hope
Despair spawns despair

Hope helps us realize our potentials
Despair insures mediocrity

HOPE

Hope generates energy
Despair drains our will

Hope pushes the limits
Despair is a gravity well

Hope expands our vision
Despair narrows our view

HOPE IS NOT POLLYANNAISH

Hope builds health
Despair seeds marasmus

Hope evolves
Despair mutates

Hope is remedy
Despair is venomous

HOPE

Hope builds community
Despair isolates

Hope leads to success
Despair leads to failure

Hope nurtures love
Despair nurtures hate

HOPE IS NOT POLLYANNAISH

Hope defeats despair
Despair can’t defeat hope
There’s always hope

HOPE !

| Poetry 1, 2 | Prose | Top |


PROSE

Landscape and Democracy

Anon., read at the 2007 Session Graduation

I cannot find in my hand-outs, a connection between landscape and democracy. I cannot even begin to explain why. What I can, and will do , is tell you what they mean to me.

When I began this class I had no idea that it would change the way I look at nature, our surroundings, wilderness.....the landscape. Instead of driving by and staring through the mountains, with white snow caps, I look at them. Wondering about them. Why were they there? Where did they come from? What was their purpose? Do they even need or have a purpose? Instead of staring through the window while it's raining, I watch the rain fall against the window, the pattern changing with the wind.

The definition of landscape is an expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view. I, on the other hand, do not find that to be true.

I believe landscape is all around us , in everything outside of our tunnel vision. I believe that if you open you're eyes you'll see it, too. To conclude my thoughts on landscape I would like to share a piece from Emerson:

Democracy was unreal to me. That word was never in my vocabulary until I took this class, The Clemente Course in Humanities.

My belief in democracy was that "of the people" didn't exist. Democracy to me was full of lying politicians who are hungry for power, money, and fame. Democracy to me was like a non-domestic cat drowning in an indoor pool. The dictionary defines democracy as (a.) government by the people;especially: rule of the majority, (b.) a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and excersised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually invovling periodically held free elections.

Of the people, it says, until this course I believed that my vote didn't count. My classmates opened my eyes, not the assigned readings. Honestly, I didn't understand half of what I was asked to read. Although, I did find them challenging and fun to try learn. But it was my community, my peers, that opened my eyes to see that without a democratic society I would not be free. Free to express myself, free to vote and free to take the clemente course. I would have a lot taken from me without our democracy.

This essay may not be what was required, but at least I've tried. During the past few months I have struggled with medical problems, stress and I found that my only escape is this class. I have missed many classes due to my struggles and with very little support from everyone I felt very discouraged.

On a personal note on Saturday, April 28, I called Lela Hilton and explained that I could no longer continue with this class. To "count me out", so to speak. She did everything, except beg, for me to reconsider my decision. She is my ispiration, the reason I am standing before you this evening.

The next day I realized that this was my chance to use my freedom to the fullest extent. To help everyone realize that this course isn't about landscape or democracy. It's about community and how we come togetther, and how together we can use our landscape and our demoracy to change the things we need to...to better our community and perhaps our world.

| Poetry 1, 2 | Prose | Top |