Senior Seminar Course Syllabus, Fall '10

Brooklyn College Senior Seminar

Syllabus Business 4200W

Fall 2010

Professor Mitchell Langbert

Overview

What do pundits believe that you need to do in order to succeed in light of varying interpretations of the role of the individual in society?  Two basic currents concerning success are the self- and the socially- oriented.  These two currents may be incompatible, although some, like Stephen Covey and Stanley and Danko, argue that the most successful people in American life are able to balance them. Others, like Reinhard Bendix, argue that popular interpretations of how to succeed reflect managerial ideology or power of the capitalist or managerial class and that they are irrelevant to the substantive requirements to succeed, which are class-based.  Others would argue that markets drive the determinants of success, and that the best we can to do to succeed is to anticipate what markets will demand. 

Assignments

This is a writing intensive course and therefore three five-page papers will be required.  Written assignments must be handed in on the due date via SafeAssignment in the “Assignments” section of Blackboard on or before the due date by 12:00 midnight. No papers may be e-mailed. No late papers will be accepted.

For the first five-page paper students must analyze Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom.

            For any of the readings it is critical to develop a thesis concerning the reading that you defend.  In other words, you need to pretend that you are the professor and give yourself an assignment. The broad answer to the assignment is your thesis.  You should start your paper by stating your thesis.  Then, in the rest of the paper you should defend it.  Details concerning how your papers will be graded are in Appendix I.

            For the second of the papers you must compare the characters of Henry David Thoreau, as he depicts himself in Civil Disobedience and James Farmer, Jr., the great debater in the film The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington as Professor Melvin B. Tolson and Denzel Whitaker as James Farmer, Jr.  Melvin Tolson and James Farmer, Jr. were real life figures.  Farmer co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality and was considered one of the four most prominent civil rights leaders between the late 1940s to the 1960s. Tolson was a professor at Wiley College.  In real life the 1935 Wiley debating team defeated the University of Southern California, not Harvard.  There were additional inaccuracies in the film, but they are unimportant for our subject.

In comparing Thoreau and Farmer you need to focus your thesis on how Thoreau’s and Farmer’s views of success in America differed or were similar.  What did success with respect to American society mean to James Farmer, Jr. and also Professor Tolson, and what did success with respect to American society mean to Henry David Thoreau?  Are the different perspectives entirely due to the socio-economic advantages that Thoreau enjoyed and discrimination that Farmer and Tolson suffered?

            For the third of the papers you must analyze the character of Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead.  Among the questions that your thesis might ask are (your thesis can include a broader range of questions):

-Does Howard Roark offer a realistic role model for graduates who aim to succeed?

-What value system does Howard Roark represent?

-Which interpretation of success would be most consistent with Howard Roark’s approach?

-In the real world, who would be more likely to succeed, Howard Roark or Peter Keating?

Quizzes

In addition, there will be a series of quizzes consisting of three multiple choice questions each.  No make-ups are given for the quizzes.

Attendance and Punctuality Grade

            Attendance is expected and counts ten percent toward your grade.  The attendance grade is computed by taking the ratio of times present to the number of times attendance was recorded.  Punctuality is also expected and also counts ten percent toward your grade. It is computed as an attendance/punctuality grade.  The attendance/punctuality grade is computed by taking the ratio of times present at the time roll is called to the number of times roll call was called.  If you are absent, you receive zero credit for both attendance and punctuality.  

Punctuality and attendance are mandatory and will be monitored.  If a student cannot regularly attend class and arrive to class on time, s/he should not take this course.  Your grade will be reduced for each absence and for each time that you are late.  If you have a personal obligation that will interfere with your punctuality or attendance, such as a health issue, child care or any other serious personal matter, you should consider taking this class at a different time when you can attend every class on time. You will be marked late or absent regardless of any excuse.  In other words, excuses, including medical and child care excuses, are not accepted.  For example, if parking presents a problem because it is difficult to find a space, you need to come early to find parking or take the class during a time when parking does not pose a problem to your arriving on time.

 

 Web-Enhanced Course

This is a web-enhanced course.  All students are expected to log onto blackboard on occasion and to participate in several discussion board discussions. (The discussion board is accessed by going to “communications” under “course tools” and then to “discussion board”.)    Participation in discussion board discussions will count as attendance credits, and you will lose attendance credits if you fail to participate.

Also, you must submit your skill application and goal setting exercises via SafeAssignment in the “Assignments” section of Blackboard.

You must have an active e-mail account entered on the Brooklyn College portal (web central--portal.brooklyn.cuny.edu) and you must have access to your blackboard account by the first day of class.

 Grading

3 5-page papers     40 points

Quizzes                  40 points

Attendance and Punctuality   20 points

Required Sources

Friedrich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society” at http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html

*Reinhard Bendix, Work and Authority in Industry

*David McClelland, Achieving Society

**Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom 

**Benjamin Franklin, Way to Wealth

*Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

**Elbert Hubbard, Message to Garcia 

**Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

*David Riesman with Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney, Lonely Crowd

**Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

**Stephen R. Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,

**Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, Millionaire Next Door

**Ayn Rand, Fountainhead

*Course packet

**Available at Shakespeare & Co. on Hillel Place next to McDonald’s, not at the campus bookstore.

Lesson Plan

            You should read 65 pages of Fountainhead each week.  Each quiz will include a question on Fountainhead reading for the week.  We will discuss Fountainhead each week.

1. 8/29. Managerial Ideology and the Success Literature. Reading from Reinhard Bendix, Work and Authority in Industry and Friedrich Hayek, “Use of Knowledge in Society.” Quiz on “Use of Knowledge in Society”
2. Labor Day, No class 9/5.
3. 9/12. Capitalism and Freedom, chapters 1-4. Quiz on Bendix.
4. 9/19. Capitalism and Freedom continued. Quiz on Friedman.
5. 9/26. Capitalism and Freedom, continued.  Quiz on Friedman.
6. 10/3. Business and ethics.  Read Benjamin Franklin, Way to Wealth. The first paper is due this class. Quiz on Franklin.
7. 10/10. Individualism and Its Discontents.  Read Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience. Quiz on Thoreau.
8. 10/17. Psychological success.  Read Napoleon Hill, Elbert Hubbard. Film: The Great Debaters.  No quiz
9. 10/24. Managerial theories of success.  Read Riesmann. Quiz on Hill, Hubbard and Riesmann.
10. 10/31. Skill-based theories of success. Read Covey, chapters 1-3, McClelland. Optional: Rick Boyatzis, The Competent Manager.  Quiz on Covey.
11. 11/7. Skill-based theories of success continued. Read Stanley and Danko, first 75 pages.  Quiz on Stanley and Danko.  Paper on Thoreau and Farmer is due.
12.  11/14. Ethics and Wealth.  Video: Warren Buffet Interview
13.  11/21. Ayn Rand, the Fountainhead.
14.  11/28. No class, Thanksgiving.
15.  12/5.  Paper on Howard Roark is due.

Appendix:  Grading Criteria for Paper

Assessment Category	Characteristics of Assignment
Better than good enough	Student thinks critically about all print sources 1.       Student relies on sources beyond those required 2.       The thesis reflects critical thinking about all sources 3.       The thesis is clearly stated 4.       The thesis integrates theories and concepts discussed in class 5.       The discussion is clear 6.       The discussion is targeted at supporting the thesis 7.       Facts are recounted merely to support the thesis 8.       Discussion reflects understanding of the situation and of theoretical perspectives discussed in class
Good Enough	1. The thesis is clearly stated 2. The thesis integrates theories and concepts discussed in class 3. The discussion is clear 4. The discussion is targeted at supporting the thesis 5. Facts are recounted merely to support the thesis             6. Discussion reflects understanding of the situation            and  of theoretical perspectives discussed in class
Not good enough	Thesis not clearly stated or no thesis 1.       Failure to integrate theory and concepts from the course 2.       Poorly written; unclear discussion 3.       The discussion meanders or does not support the thesis 4.       Facts are recounted without bearing on the thesis and theoretical elaboration 5.       Discussion does not suggest grasp of the theoretical perspectives discussed in class

Gary Cooper as Howard Roark

Patricia Neal plays Dominique Francon. This is the best scene in the movie, but I do not think the movie version of the Fountainhead does justice to the book. A remake would be condign. Howard Roark was supposed to have red hair. I think Kenneth Branagh could handle it although he might be a tad long in the tooth now. Roark's speech is truer today than it was in 1943, when Rand wrote the book.

Howard Roark versus Frank Lloyd Wright

In a senior seminar I have been teaching I introduce the students to some basic economics, namely that of Henry Hazlitt and Friedrich Hayek, and then discuss ideas about success in authors with varied ideological views such as Reinhard Bendix, David McClelland and David Riesman. We then discuss popular success literature including that of Benjamin Franklin, Elbert Hubbard, Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey and Napoleon Hill. Then we analyze the character of Howard Roark in Ayn Rand's Fountainhead in light of economic, sociological and popular ideas about success.

If you haven't read Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead, consider it.  As good is her novel Atlas Shrugged.  One point that students sometimes raise is whether Howard Roark is meant to be Frank Lloyd Wright.  What are the similarities and differences between Howard Roark and the real life Frank Lloyd Wright?

I checked out Great Buildings.com's page on Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright's architecture, such as that of the Edgar J. Kauffman residence, Falling Water pictured above, is unique. Wright's work lives up to Rand's euphoric descriptions of Howard Roark's. Like Roark, Wright left college without graduating (in the novel Roark is thrown out of architecture school, but Wright dropped out of the University of Wisconsin). From there, Roark goes directly to work for the Louis Sullivan character, Henry Cameron.  Louis Sullivan was the real life architect who said "form follows function," which Rand attributes to Cameron on page 45 of the novel.  The real life Wright went to work for the firm of J.L. Silsbee before going to work for Adler and Sullivan.

In the novel, Roark builds moderate income housing and invents new architectural forms and approaches in the Sullivan mode. According to the website:

"Wright evolved a new concept of interior space in architecture. Rejecting the existing view of rooms as single-function boxes, Wright created overlapping and interpenetrating rooms with shared spaces...Through experimentation, Wright developed the idea of the prairie house...

"...Wright responded to the need for low income housing with the Usonian house, a development from his earlier prairie house."

One quote from Wright on the site sounds something like something we might expect Roark to say:

"Our schools today, busy turning out 'the common man,' seem to be making conformity a law of his nature...and the old adage—'those who can, do, those who can't teach..'—was never more truly descriptive of purveyors of 'the higher education' in architecture. Life-long I have been shocked by the human deficiency capitalized by American education."

I think you will enjoy the photos at Great Buildings.com.  Rand describes Roark's designs in a way that sounds like Wright's. 

Like the fictional Roark, Wright built several temples and chapels, such as the Unity Temple in Oak Park Illinois and the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison, Wisconsin. However, unlike Roark, the temples were not destroyed by John Dewey or Lewis Mumford (in the novel Ellsworth Toohey, whose name rhymes with John Dewey but seems to be something like Lewis Mumford--an influential social and architectural critic who lived in the 1920s--has the Stoddard Temple reworked into a nursing home). Also, unlike Roark, Wright didn't build any New York City skyscrapers and did not live in New York City, which was Rand's adopted home. (Rand had emigrated from the USSR.) The only skyscrapers shown on the Great Buildings site are the Johnson Wax headquarters building in Racine, Wisconsin and the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It is unfortunate that Wright did not design any of the major skyscrapers in New York City, although the Guggenheim Museum is ample testimony to Wright's imagination.

Here are some of my favorites:

Martin House, Buffalo, 1904

Guggenheim Museum 1959

Pfieffer Chapel 1938 and here

Walker Residence, Carmel California, 1948

Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin, 1936.

Several of these structures seem commonplace; recall that Wright designed them as early as 1904. Other architects have had more than a century to imitate Wright's designs, which look ultra-modern even today.  Wright's work resonates with the triumph of the human spirit, but he was criticized for excessive individuality.