Emerson on Children

When I was reading "Self-Reliance," Emerson's ideas pertaining to children caught my attention. R.W.E. makes the point that children are perhaps the most self-reliant people. Unlike adults, children aren't bound by social customs and mannerisms, and are instead free to act as they see fit. Furthermore, children are free to make judgments without regard to "consequences" and "interests."
While I think Emerson made some valid points, his idea as a whole seems counterintuitive to me for a couple reasons. First, when I was a child I know for a fact that I was anything but self-reliant. My parents had to do everything for me, and even now I'm still dependent on them for plenty of things. Next, while children may not be bound by customs, they are in many cases not knowledgeable enough to make good decisions and fair judgments. To label this ignorance as independence, as Emerson does, is foolish.
-Bryce C.

More peer editing for my poem?

Hey! I was wondering if any of you had any more suggestions for my poem. If you could critique it, that'd be great, thanks!

-- Tori

“I sometimes cannot find the words for what I feel.” – Billy Budd

From His Perspective, Maybe

Silence.

Always silence.

From the time the sun’s rays slash my eyelids in early morning

To the time I gaze at the slit of moonlight

That pierces the jagged edges through the shades.

Colors chop the light,

The halting, uneven movement of her lips,

The pixels of blood red and tainted pink.

They tell me that the mouth forms words

But I only know this from a priori sources,

Never a posteriori experiences.

In my mind, I can almost imagine

A different life,

A different me...

A different world in which I can

Almost smell the sounds

That exit the sharp angles of her mouth,

Almost feel the noises

That shove the air molecules around;

If only.

They say that silence is “deafening.”

One word.

One word, one meaning.

One word, one meaning, one million shattered feelings.

They don’t know how much it hurts.

I wish I could explain how caustic, how biting

The meaning behind that word is to me.

She, tireless, patient,

Sympathetic, but not empathetic.

Never empathetic.

I love her.

But, sometimes,

I resent her.

She can hear.

I was a cracked, unfilled glass cup before.

Then she sloshed into me

All the words I know

And she overflowed me

With all the possible gestures I can use

To express myself.

But she doesn’t know.

I may be full to the brim,

But I am still broken, lonely and empty.

And when anyone gets too close, I cut them

On my jagged edges.

And so, even with years of gaining more words,

More twists of the fingers,

More bends of the arms,

More turns of the hand,

I still don’t know enough

To express myself.

Billy Bud and A Few Good Men

In class today, we discussed the idea of shunting emotional desires and emotional reasoning aside in favor of the law. This discussion reminded me of a movie that I had just been watching in my debate class. The movie, A Few Good Men, deals with many of the same themes as Billy Bud. It centers around the debate concerning whether orders should take precedence over personal choice, especially in a military setting.

The main difference between the ideas behind the two films is that A Few Good Men completely condemns the idea of following orders and ignoring emotional instincts. Billy Bud, seems to be far more ambiguous, especially during the captain's argument to his fellow jurors. Should orders be allowed to take precedence, especially in regards to the military? Was it the captain of The Avenger or Tom Cruise who was right?

Tara

Artificial Intelligence

Today we were talking about some of the things what can be done with technology in recent times, and I remembered seeing this Video on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ByGQGiVMg

What do you think? I know that Asimo is not the only robot capable of learning (nor do I think he is the most advanced). Should we be doing this? I can't help but wonder whether we are playing god, or simply making a strange form of child...

-Melissa