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| William Smith Clark |
Have you ever heard the famous phrase, Boys be ambitious? These are the words of William Smith Clark. These words are very famous, but his life is not so famous, so I would like to explain about his life easily.
<Summary of his back ground>
He was born in Massachusetts in America in 1826, and he studied hard about chemistry, botany, and zoology at Amherst College. After graduating from Amherst College, he went to study abroad to Germany, and got a doctor's degree of chemistry. Then, he went back to Amherst College as a professor of chemistry, and started to teach his major subject, especially chemistry. In 1863, he established Massachusetts Agricultural School, and then in 1873, he became the 3rd president of Massachusetts Agricultural School. At the same time, in Japan, Meiji government wanted to establish the modern type of Agricultural School in Hokkaido, and also they wanted to develop the land of Hokkaido. When he got this order, he thought that if he could succeed in developing a new land in Japan, he would get a high evaluation for Massachusetts Agricultural School from other people. In 1873, he went to Japan, and became the first assistant principal. Also he taught natural science, botany, and Christianity in English. He did not only teach, but also made an effort to develop new land of Hokkaido. He spent in Japan only less than 1 year, but his achievement was big.
<Discussion>
I had two discussion questions. One was “Why do you think he made a big effort for Hokkaido?” My opinion was he wanted to get high evaluations from other people through developing new land. Yuta said that “He likes agriculture, so Hokkaido is very suitable place for him.” I agree with his idea. Certainly, he liked studying natural chemistry, or other subject like botany, so Hokkaido was suitable place for him. The next question was “Do you think his phrase ‘Boys be ambitious’ was only for students, or for all of people who lived in Hokkaido?”. My opinion was that Clark said not only for students, but also people who live in Hokkaido. Misato’s opinion was “When he said the word, Boys be ambitious was just for students, but after that this word made an influence for people who live in Hokkaido.” When I heard her opinion, I agreed with her, so my opinion changed.
<Reflection>
I would like to write reflection about how to research, the presentation, and discussion. First, I would like to write how to research about him. The reason why I chose him for presentation task because I have heard his famous word “Boys be ambitious”, but I did not know about him. Also, I like Hokkaido, so I want to know about him. He is a famous person, so there is a lot of information on web sites. I looked at only web site, so if I have an opportunity of doing presentation like this, I will read books about my focus person. Next I'll mention the presentation. Through looking at feedback form, bad points were written by my class mate that I made some English mistakes, lacked his back ground information, so I should research more detail, and review my script and slide after make it. Finally I'll mention the discussion. Lacking leadership skill is my weak point, so I could not make a good discussion. I was given an advice about discussion from my class mates, for example, using “How about you?” or “What do you think?”, so I will use these words from this time on.
<References>
http://www.hokudai.ac.jp/ July 6, 2014
http://www.pockyboston.com/ July 7, 2014
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