February 24th class

1. Faith... we listened to a story about faith and discussed examples in our lives, in books and in movies where we see faith illustrated.

• Book ... The Giver, by Lois Lowry
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver
• Many of the students said that they're reading (or have read) this book in school
• Movie ... Indiana Jones, The Last Crusade 
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/?ref_=sr_1
• May be a good movie to watch with the family if you have not seen it before/recently.
• In our Lives... 
• Many examples from child - parent relationships where expectations are built based on the faith  the one has with the other and the roles they play
• An observation on how principles of Algebra are taken on faith as one gets into the principles of Trignometry/Calculus etc., and how those principles are taken on faith as one gets into applied engineering (e.g. building a bridge based on mathematical principles)

2. We invited each student to write on the board; another word to describe faith.  We had an open discussion on how those other words can be complimentary and how some even have a cause and effect relationship.  We concluded how faith has a unique meaning that is difficult to express in many languages.

Here are the words that the students came up with: (picture to be posted here)

3. We watched a short TED Talk video on leadership and how to start a movement.  You can find the video produced by Derek Sivers here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ

• If your schedule permits, please watch this video as a family and discuss.
• The objective here was to break down the mechanics of how movements get started and also recognize the roles that leaders, first followers, 2nd followers and followers play.
• We all have opportunities in life where we play varying roles.
• Why do we choose to play the role we do?
• We will discuss this more in future classes along with study other aspects of leadership 

(the following was originally sent out via email.  I am adding this to our blog so that it can be referenced easily)
4.  Is there a graphics artist among us?  Along with the Gita Chanting coming up in April, we would like to challenge those of you who are artists to come up with a pictorial graphic or a poem etc of what the Gita, Chapter 13 means to you.  This is completely voluntary and only meant to offer another avenue of expression for those of us who like to write, doodle, draw, paint, design etc.