The Allegory and World History Sept. 4

Writing Portfolio
Students considered why God would want them to learn to write better.

We worked on writing effective introductions with interesting and relevant hooks.


Core
Bellwrite #4: What do you think of when someone talks about the Jews? What do you know about Jewish culture? Jewish history?

We discussed the answers to the questions on the Allegory of the Olive Tree (due today). Students were invited to revise and/or add to their written responses in class.

We discussed at length how the Allegory relates to our study of world history. The Allegory shows us God's perspective on what matters from world history. We are living during the period of time in the Allegory when the Lord of the vineyard labors with few laborers to gather in the scattered branches and purge out the wild. This gathering seems to be taking place as missionaries spread the gospel throughout the world and as family history and temple work gather in the dead. Gathering involves the making and keeping of covenants, as missionaries invite scattered spiritual Israel to gather into local stakes of Zion through the covenant of baptism and as temple workers provide opportunities for the dead to make sacred covenants. It is conditions of liberty that make it possible for individuals to exercise their agency in making these covenants. Thus in world history, we watch the different forms of liberty as they expand or contract: political, intellectual, religious, educational, economic, etc.  When considering events from world history, and even current events, we can understand their significance by asking ourselves how they contribute to or inhibit the work of gathering.

Class A also shared their thoughts on the main themes of the Allegory:

• God never gives up and He labors intensively for His children.
• God allows suffering because He knows we can't grow without being free, which includes being subject to the consequences of our free choices and the free choices of other people.
• Returning, repenting, reuniting
• Agency (The quality of the fruit is not determined by the quality of the soil or the quality of care given to the plants.)
• God's love
• Atonement (the gathering of the branches into an at-one-ment of the original tree)

Today students took a computer-based assessment of their reading comprehension. This will be used to enhance reading instruction in this class.

Homework:

• Tomorrow you will have time in class to work on your State of the World project. If you have a computer you can bring, you may want to do so.
• Read Chapter 1 of The Chosen by Monday.
• State of the World project is due Monday.
• Rewrite of introduction paragraph for uniform essay is due tomorrow.