Monthly Archives: March 2013

Reading Steinbeck While Getting a Ticket

By Robin Bates | Published: March 22, 2013

As I waited for the cop to write me a ticket, I glanced through Steinbeck’s “The Pearl.”

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It’s Spring and the Balloon Man Whistles

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2013

Here’s a delightful e.e. cummings poem to celebrate the first day of spring.

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Novels: Training Ground for Citizenship

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2013

Novels have an inherently liberal dimension in that they get us to identify with people very different from us.

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Rugged Self Reliance w/Government Help

By Robin Bates | Published: March 19, 2013

Often those most reliant on government help spend the most time talking about self reliance.

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Jane Austen: Feminine AND Feministy

By Robin Bates | Published: March 18, 2013

In my student’s eyes, there’s no contradiction between Austen the satirist and Austen the romance writer.

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Fleeing God (a.k.a. the Hound of Heaven)

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2013

Francis Thompson’s huanting “Hound of Heaven” captures the fears who of those who think of themselves as unworthy of love.

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Poetic Excuses for Losing at Tennis

By Robin Bates | Published: March 16, 2013

Between the motion and the act of my tennis game falls the shadow. Translation: too much thinking.

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A 17th Century Comedy Addressing Rape

By Robin Bates | Published: March 15, 2013

The Right Wing’s “war on women” is affecting the way my students read Aphra Behn.

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Joy Recollected: High School English

By Robin Bates | Published: March 14, 2013

Meeting up with an old high school English teacher brought memories flooding back.

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