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Description:
What is American Exceptionalism? Who was John Winthrop? Why are we asking you so many questions? Do you feel uncomfortable? Good. Our work here is done.
Transcript
- 00:03
....model of Christian charity
- 00:33
As you can tell I'm not a great [Statue of liberty cheerleading]
- 00:42
cheerleader but I am pumped about my country as were many of the first
- 00:46
European settlers they talked about their new country as if it was better
- 00:50
than every other country on earth because who wouldn't want a present [Boy riding a rocking horse]
Full Transcript
- 00:54
rocking horse am i right? The concept of one country being fundamentally superior
- 00:58
to all others is known as exceptionalism an American had it in spades...Where did
- 01:05
that idea come from well part of it was well founded the colonists were breaking
- 01:09
away from the old outdated forms of government
- 01:12
you know like monarchies where there's a king and everyone else just sort of
- 01:16
bows down, old outdated ways of thinking like the belief that there was no such
- 01:20
thing as individual freedom everybody was just another cog in the machine and [Cogs and a brain appear]
- 01:24
old outdated technologies yeah the whole two-story outhouse was always doomed for
- 01:31
failure these settlers were forging a new path they weren't interested in the way
- 01:35
things were structured back in merry old England where the royal class oppressed
- 01:38
the lower classes by writing their own rules there could be free thought
- 01:42
scientific advancement, a government by and for the people so yeah pretty
- 01:47
exceptional except they may have let it go to their heads of it like is it [Puritans head expand and explode]
- 01:52
really a good idea to start assuming your way is the only way... countries do
- 01:56
business together all the time would you want to do business with the
- 01:59
country who thought your skills resemble that of a mule deer... [People's heads transform into deer]
- 02:02
probably also don't want to close yourself off from advancements made by
- 02:05
other nations and if you're exceptional why would you ever listen to what anyone [Soviet Union speaking with U.S]
- 02:10
else has to say so yeah maybe some thin ice
- 02:13
one guy who had hopped on board of America's the greatest bandwagon was
- 02:17
John Winthrop he had good reason to want to believe that America was top banana [John places banana on top of christmas tree]
- 02:22
on the yum-yum tree he was one of the Puritans responsible for founding the
- 02:26
Massachusetts Bay Colony so of course it would reflect well on him if that colony
- 02:31
really did become the new gold standard for civilized societies...Winthrop was
- 02:35
born a wealthy guy he was even known lord back home in England... So you [Man massaging John]
- 02:39
might think he would actually be opposed to the sort of free thinking open
- 02:43
society that excited so many other settlers and you'd be right he was
- 02:47
conservative he did not welcome change the class structure already in place
- 02:51
Winthrop was jazzed that his colony and the new world, but not because it would
- 02:55
afford people any sort of freedom aside from the freedom of Puritans to not get
- 03:00
persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church like they were brutally in England he [Catholic written on an outhouse]
- 03:05
was a Puritan through and through and his vision of America embraced it as a
- 03:09
place where people could continue to be Puritan without a closed-minded king who
- 03:13
forced his subjects to follow Catholic teachings and practices or else.. Beyond
- 03:17
that though, Wintrop was strongly authoritarian ie he wanted the members [Colonists carrying Wintrop]
- 03:22
of his colony to honor and obey him like he was a demigod and wasn't too
- 03:26
concerned about them having personal freedom like the freedom to choose their
- 03:29
own religion or the freedom to climb any sort of social ladder or the freedom to [Man climbing hill and Wintrop kicks man back down]
- 03:34
roam the streets nude that last one still not okay...
- 03:37
Anyway he wanted to rule this colony with an iron fist just like King Charles [Wintrop raises his iron fist]
- 03:42
in England only his was a Puritan iron fist so it was obviously better, that was
- 03:48
his reasoning anyway..Wintrop is best known for his sermon a model of
- 03:51
Christian charity in it he laid down the law here's how everyone should treat
- 03:55
each other and why...kind of like Moses and the tablets or Jesus and the writing on
- 03:59
all those cocktail napkins his disciples left behind the sermon covers how the [Man struck by an arrow]
- 04:03
few people who have been lucky enough to embark on the American Colonization
- 04:06
journey have been handpicked by God.... So lets zero in on the second half of the
- 04:11
sermon yup it's summary time check out this
- 04:14
part starting with from hence we may frame these conclusions go ahead and hit
- 04:18
pause and hit play when you're ready....
- 04:40
okay let's break the puppy down there are three things we'll need to do let's [Puppy on an operating table]
- 04:44
lay them out here first then dig into each one individually one read the
- 04:48
passage done and then highlight the five most important words terms or concepts
- 04:53
two - underline the most important sentence in a paragraph to home in on the main
- 04:58
idea, then write a note in the margin about why it might be the most important
- 05:01
sentence and three - next to each passage jot down in your own words what the
- 05:06
author's main point is like is it that all Christians get ice cream on [Statue of liberty gives Christian man an ice cream]
- 05:09
Thursdays or that we should be charitable by donating to the
- 05:12
out-of-work child actor fund or that checkered and polka-dotted clothing
- 05:16
clash we shall see okay so first up we highlight the five most important words
- 05:21
terms or concepts there's the idea that true Christians are of one body seems
- 05:26
important so we'll highlight that one then there's the idea that love holds
- 05:30
the body together bones and skin probably have something to do with a - [Skeleton appears below passage]
- 05:33
but again probably highlighter worthy next without love Christians are
- 05:37
imperfect kind of like Nestle Tollhouse cookies without those little chocolate [Cookie and chocolate chips disappear]
- 05:41
thingies....Then it's important for those in a community to unite taking part in each
- 05:45
other's lives and last being part of a community will only cause the community
- 05:49
members to want to be a greater part of the community great so now we've drawn
- 05:54
attention to some of the most important concepts at Wintrop covers in a sermon
- 05:57
as we review them let's look for words that keep popping up pay attention to [Words appear]
- 06:01
thoughts that Wintrop seems to repeat or at least thoughts that are related
- 06:05
somehow authors don't repeat things by accident when they say something twice
- 06:09
it's important when they say something twice it's important.... next, think about
- 06:13
how all important concepts might all be pieced together to give us a single [Person completing jigsaw]
- 06:17
cohesive main idea... which brings us to our second task
- 06:21
underline the most important sentence to dial in on the main idea and write a
- 06:24
note in the margin about why it might be the most important sentence...So we
- 06:28
[Judge bangs the gavel] don't want to pick a sentence willy-nilly we're looking for a sentence
- 06:33
that best summarizes everything Wintrop addresses how do we know we found
- 06:37
the main idea well every other sentence in the passage should reference it and
- 06:41
hopefully support it in someway...We've got options but this one seems to
- 06:45
encapsulate a lot of Wintrop's focus we must delight in each other make each
- 06:50
other's conditions our own rejoice together mourn together labor and suffer
- 06:54
together always having before in our eyes our commission and community in the
- 06:58
work as members of the same body... There's a lot in there about working together
- 07:03
sharing the highs and lows saving the light in the sense of
- 07:05
community but always keeping in mind the grander purpose of that community and
- 07:09
the notion that they all share one body in other words they're stronger as a [Team of guys walk over a man]
- 07:12
team rather than as individuals so seems like we're running on a pretty good main
- 07:17
idea here it encompasses all the things Wintrop is trying to convey to his
- 07:20
audience throughout his speech and it all seems to boil down to a shared
- 07:23
definition of community so how do we restate the main idea in our own words [Man writing our own words on board]
- 07:27
how about something like Christians, while individuals are of one body are all held
- 07:33
together by love all part of the community that is made stronger by the
- 07:36
empathy of its members... everything Windsor was trying to say
- 07:40
without leaving out anything significant I could have written this speach...So
- 07:45
now we know what Wintrop's speech means but what does it give us why should we
- 07:50
give a flying hoot...well for one thing it helps us see how we as a country got from where [USA as a baby shaking a rattle]
- 07:54
we started subjects of an oppressive monarchy in search of some more personal
- 07:58
freedom to where we are today all the things Wintrop emphasizes the sense of
- 08:03
community, considerations of our neighbors, the importance of love these
- 08:06
are all ideals we still value it also shows us how religion expression has [People of different religions in the woods]
- 08:10
evolved over time... Wintrop may have been just about Puritanism as much as King
- 08:15
Charles was about Catholicism but at least he planted the seeds of the idea
- 08:19
that we could break away from the mainstream religion to each do our own [Religious churches appear in a field]
- 08:23
thing
- 08:24
i.e religious freedom probably not what Wintrop was going for but oh well okay
- 08:29
so we did a good job summarizing this part of the sermon time for you to take
- 08:32
a crack at the rest simply follow the same set of rules we followed to summarize
- 08:36
this section and as you go along if you come across a word that looks unfamiliar [Statue of liberty dancing as cheerleader]
- 08:40
look it up!
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