september 14

JOURNAL TOPIC:
In many cultures there are rituals that signify when a child becomes an adult. How can you tell in our culture? By age? Getting a driver's license? Voting? Be sure to explain your answer.

-OR-

Choose your own topic.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Catch up on any outstanding work - and reach out / jump on a Zoom call today if you need help
3. Translate Hugo's Preface (see below) and post on your blog

PLEASE:

Post your translation of Victor Hugo's Preface to Les Misérables (title: A WORD ABOUT THE MISERABLES).  Review the lines below (I read this and we discussed on Zoom last week, so you can also review the recording if that helps jog your memory) and then imagine telling a friend what they mean in everyday language.  Type or write as if you were having a conversation and explaining the ideas. You can even use pictures or text-speak! If you have questions, or if you get stuck, start the conversation with a comment to this post, or, as always, feel free to email or schedule a meeting.

PREFACE TO LES MISÉRABLES

So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century—the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;—in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use.