Instructor: Jennifer Coon
Course Time: TBA
General Education: Social Science & Writing Intensive
Term: Fall 2013

DESCRIPTION:

Students who register for Kindness: An Experience in Thought and Practice will have a chance to explore kindness as a framework for human interaction and how evidence of kindness in our culture is reflected in literature, film, digital environments, community outreach, politics, corporate environments and related contexts.
This course will ask students to create a blog to log their initial impressions of the concept of kindness and then to monitor both their evolving perceptions and their work with others in the community.
Further, students will form a student organization by registering with the Random Acts of Kindness organization and be the second of its kind in the state of Michigan.

We will examine traditional fables and children’s literature and see what communities and families are teaching youngsters. We will explore the power of smiling and we will observe World Kindness Day on November 13, 2013.

*This course will fulfill the WIDE, Writing Intensive, designation as composition will be our main course of comprehension.

TEXTS:

Two anchor books will be read and students will explore the works of famous proponents of kindness: The Dali Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi and other culturally-influential figures.

• Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America.” New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009.

• Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Tipping Point: How Little Things can Make a Difference.” New York: Little Brown, 2000.