Six IN-PERSON sessions January 12, 19, 26, February 2, 9, 16 This course will open with a review of Aristotle's principles of rhetoric and a discussion of contemporary arguments. Then there will be two readings to discuss in each of the five remaining class sessions. We will examine the words of Jesus, Jonathan Swift, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Postman, Wendell Berry, Jonathan Haidt, Malcolm Gladwell, and David Brooks. Jim Robison holds a BA from Vanderbilt, MAT from Middle Tennessee State, and PhD from Oklahoma State. His dissertation was in creative writing. Jim’s work experience varies. He has dug ditches, waited tables, managed a restaurant, sold life insurance, and served as an Army officer in the infantry in Vietnam and elsewhere. Jim has taught English composition and literature at every level from seventh grade through college. After teaching English at North Hall High School for ten years, he retired, concluding fifty-one years in education.