Last session, we encapsulated themes. This session, we reviewed and applied the terms: mood,irony, and symbolism. Olivia identified the river and town as symbols of freedom and conventions ,respectively. We then discussed the short clip of Hal Halbrook's portrayal of Mark Twain as an introduction to identifying literary "tone" , the author's attitude toward his subject or characters. Having heard Hal Halbrook's impressive recreation of Mark Twain greatly assisted in identifying Twain's sarcastic but humorous tone toward the human race. After reviewing "irony" ,Olivia identified Twain's technique as "verbal irony". Last, I reviewed our prior study of Byron's "Prisoner of Chillon" ,and we picked out exact lines from the Romantic genre Twain parodies in the unrealistic elaborate escape plan hatched by Tom Sawyer. For homework, I assigned reading the last two chapters of the novel. I will be sending Olivia a take home exam on the novel which will be due next Friday,April. 17th.

After looking at Congress' explicit powers enumerated in Art I, we then reviewed Olivia's study guide answers identifying constitutional but non-legislative powers of Congress such as impeachment , initiating the amendment process of the Constitution, and confirming judges. While not contained within the Constitution ,I then provided instruction on Congress ' oversight powers over the executive branch. We analyzed this aspect of Congress ' powers by recounting how the recent impeachment of the president originated with Congress' holding oversight hearings to investigate why the executive withheld funds Congress had appropriated to the Ukraine. We then looked at the ethical conflict that exists when the Justice Department is charged with investigating ethical or legal lapses of the president or his close advisors given that the Attorney General is appointed by the president and can be removed any time by the president . The impact of the repeal of the Independent Counsel statute was considered in this light. For homework, I assigned completing the study guide on how a bill becomes a law.

As we will soon be concluding our study of "Huck Finn", Olivia first worked on generating full sentences identifying themes in the novel. We explored :1. Life's experiences developing character and 2. Rules and conventions failure to create moral virtue. Next, we analyzed the novel's ongoing satire of literary Romanticism. We looked at the first novel we studied, Hawthorne's "
The Scarlet Letter" and noted direct parodies of that novel in Tom Sawyer's elaborate escape plan. Likewise, we noted the satiric allusion to Lord Byron's poem we read earlier this year"The Prisoner of Chillon". With this emphasis I again referenced how and why "Huck Finn" is often described as the 'great American novel" or even the "first American novel" due to its outright rejection of unrealistic Romanticism and its use of common people as its main characters. Last, I mentioned how the actor, Hal Holbrook, for years put on one man shows called"Mark Twain Tonight" wherein he portrayed Twain and recited many of Twain' s favorite stories. We looked at a small portion of one performance and for homework I assigned viewing the rest of the ten minute clip as well as reading the next two chapters of the novel.

I went over some example problems with Olivia including evaluation of functions where f(x) was set equal to a real number base with rational and irrational exponents. I gave her information about a free website giving calculating and graphing power to students of pre-calculus so she used it to do some calculations for the examples we did together. There was no assignment.

I worked with Olivia on problems to determine the roots of polynomials when one complex root was given and also when no root was given. In the case where the complex root was given, Olivia provided the conjugate of the root and we divided the product of the root and its conjugate into the polynomial. The quotient we got could be factored and so we had all the roots. Another problem required a different strategy for its solution including use of the rational root theory. There was no assignment.

In connection with the take home exercise on the commerce clause, we addressed Olivia's questions on the application of the commerce clause as argued in the Wickard case and the Obamacare case. We discussed the arguments urged by the government to tie the commerce clause to non-economic social goals and why the Court remains less receptive to statutes that do not have a direct regulatory impact on commerce. Olivia displayed a good grasp of the Court's standard of "substantial affect" on commerce in evaluating the cases.

Olivia was absent today.

I worked with Olivia to construct polynomials from their zeros. I first reminded her that we would start by making factors from the zeros. After that, I led her through the process of multiplying the factors together to obtain the desired polynomial. We also factored a fourth degree polynomial where one factor was known. I told Olivia to finish the problem for her assignment.

As a take home test on the "commerce clause" is due on Monday, we reviewed four major US Supreme Court cases adjudicating the scope of the clause. We first reviewed the meaning of "commerce" and then distinguished the four cases by analyzing whether the statute under review was intended to advance social justice like the Civil Rights Act or to promote or to regulate interstate business activity. Olivia took notes on the Court's standard that requires valid Congressional legislation to "substantially affect" commerce . We then examined Congress' role in forming foreign policy ,especially military engagements, and the power of the Senate to confirm major appointments for judges , ambassadors, and cabinet members. For homework due Monday-take home test on the commerce clause.

Today's lesson addressed Huck Finn as an archetypal American hero. We reviewed language from the reading wherein Tom Sawyer criticizes Huck for "always wanting a fresh start" and not doing things "regular". Olivia expanded on the significance of this statement noting that doing things "regular" referenced adhering to conventions. We then discussed the reference to " a fresh start" as a reference to Americanism separate from European cultural influence. We then analyzed the ongoing satire of the Romantic melodramatic genre in the final chapters of the novel. Last ,Olivia discussed that in contrast to Huck , Tom Sawyer lacks empathy as evidenced by his disregard for Jim's imprisonment while Tom unnecessarily concocts an elaborate drawn out plan to free Jim. We questioned Huck's acquiescence to Tom's insistence on prolonging Jim's imprisonment. For homework, I assigned reading the next two chapters .