March 14

In class today we began our discussion with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. We talked about the nationalism of the speech and about who we thought his intended audience was. We decided that Dr. King's speech was directed to people who were already on his side, not people opposing his argument, to bring them together. The purpose of his speech was more for affirmation than persuasion.

Part of what made Dr. King's speech so powerful was the passionate manner in which he delivered it. His ability to deliver such a powerful speech most likely stems form his history as a minister, in fact, the speech is very reminiscent of a sermon.

From the discussion of Dr. King's speaking abilities brought up the question of whether or not great oratory still lives. Nobody could think of a great speech from the past few years that was really memorable. Many of us agreed that with today's commonality of speech writers and the media's tendency to over-analyze everything, it is extremely difficult for a speech to capture the entire nation like speeches of the past. Speeches lose their original intent, and when someone writes a speech for another person it is not true to the person's beliefs and argument.

Another topic we discussed was political correctness. We questioned whether or not maintaining a policy of being politically correct masks a person's true intents and opinions.

Mr. Lazarow also wanted us to pass it on to those taking the Latin exam that we can bring in our note cards on Monday to be checked before we hand them in to be graded on Tuesday.

Happy Pi Day!