This position paper examines the phenomenon of the McNamara Fallacy to analyse flawed conceptions of "success" in mathematics learning, normalised assessment structures and their implications for mathematics education. The established presence of the McNamara Fallacy and the ramifications of this statistical fallacy provide a foundation…

A psychological/ritual model of criticism is used to examine the movie "The Deer Hunter" as a rhetorical event in which males undergo psychological change through their war and postwar experiences. The critical model depends on understanding a Jungian interpretation of the human psyche, the form and function of initiation rituals, and…

Explores the response of a Vietnam veteran to the film "Platoon." Notes that the film combines two voices, the veteran as journalist-critic and as priest, which mystify rather than explain the Vietnam experience. Argues that this form of priestly rhetoric serves an enduring hierarchy of power and knowledge. (KEH)

In examining Kenneth Burke's maxim "ad bellum purificandum" (translated as "the purification of war"), it seems plausible to infer that Burke's entire system of thought was based on his outrage toward war and the misuse of symbols that makes war possible. Burke saw his criticisms of war not as mere passiveness but rather as…

The rhetorical strategies of the speechmaker become more interesting as the involvement and risk assumed by the audience increase. Battle orations given by military leaders to their troops just before fighting the enemy provide the ultimate in audience involvement and risk. Of some 200 chronicles of northern Europe from the twelfth and thirteenth…

President Bush's declaration of April 5-7, 1991 as National Days of Thanksgiving is a unique example of Presidential civil religious discourse: no other President has ever made such a declaration to thank God for a victory in war. Whether he intended to or not, President Bush engaged in a rhetorical form which allowed him to manipulate a very…

Discusses the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas. Criticizes contemporary condemnation of Columbus as unproductive. Acknowledges the deaths of countless Native Americans through disease and warfare. Recognizes that the pre-Columbian Americas did not comprise a paradise. Concludes that commemorating the…

Vietnam War literature offers students a unique mix of themes which in many ways speak directly to them as, perhaps, no other literature is able to. This literature can help them better understand literature, history, the world they live in, and themselves, as well as the Vietnam War. A sequence of classroom activities (beginning with an…

After presenting a chronological account of United States military documentary films from World War I through the Vietnam War, this paper reports on a study that compared the effectiveness of films prepared during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The first section, the chronological account, touches on such subjects as the…

Senator Robert LaFollette's speech to the United States Senate on "Free Speech and the Right of Congress to Declare the Objects of War," given October 6, 1917, epitomized his opposition to the war and the Wilson administration's largely successful moves to suppress public criticism of the war. In the speech he asserted his position on…

The symbolic presence of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) has been and continues to be the pivot point in all summitry rhetoric between the American President and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. To examine some of the rhetorical choices made by Gorbachev to dramatize his vision of why Ronald Reagan refuses to…

Claims that Vietnam War protestors were not instrumental in bringing it to an end. Contends that their rhetorical strategies may have actually harmed their cause, and that Middle Americans only became disenchanted when the oft-promised victory in Vietnam proved elusive and the casualties began to mount. (MS)