Time was when grammar was king in the public schools. It didn’t seem to matter whether a student’s writing was interesting but whether it was correct. Then came the “process writing movement” and (in the lower grades) the “creative spelling movement.” The design was to unlock the writing energies that were being stifled by an […]
Tag Archives: Education
Back in the Day, We Parsed Sentences
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "In Memory of W. B. Yeats", Age of Longing, David Adams Richards, Grammar, Richard Wright, W. H. Auden Comments closed
Tom Sawyer’s “Behavioral Disorders”
Educational experts have long been concerned about the large numbers of underachieving boys in our school systems. My wife, once a public school teacher and now a member of our Education Department, provided me with some of the explanations. She notes that, of the three learning styles—aural, visual, and kinesthetic—the first two tend to get […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged ADHD, Behavioral disorders, Boys, Childhood, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Comments closed
Defending Miss Watson
Many readers of Huckleberry Finn enjoy laughing at Miss Watson’s approach to teaching Huck. She tries to use the Bible to scare him into good behavior, insists that he sit still, and prohibits him from smoking and drinking. Romantics that we are, we make fun of her educational philosophy and find her a hypocrite, especially […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Class, Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, racism, slavery Comments closed
And Universal Darkness Buries All
Yesterday I talked about irresponsible political commentators and politicians and how they reminded me of the scribblers that John Dryden was worried about in the 1680’s. In the 1740’s Alexander Pope was even more pessimistic about the threat they posed. In The Dunciad he imagines an inevitable cultural slide until “universal darkness buries all.” Harold […]
Declining Numbers of English Majors
I mentioned yesterday an article in American Scholar (Autumn 2009) on “The Decline of the English Department: How It Happened and What Could Be Done to Reverse It.” (My thanks to my father for sending it to me.) The author’s solution: put literature first. Which I indeed think we should do but doubt that it […]
A Nurse with a Literary Background
When you are dying, would you want a former English major caring for you? You would want Sarah Tennant Simmons, a former student of mine who is now a hospice care nurse. Sarah dropped by for lunch this past Monday and told me about the work she is currently doing. While we may think of […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Butterfly and the Diving Bell, College, English major, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Liberal arts education, Medicine, Nurses Comments closed
Movies for Surviving Medical School
Film Friday A film doesn’t have to be masterpiece to help us at critical times in our lives. For instance, La Bamba may be a so-so biopic about rock legend Ritchie Valens, but it opened my eyes to the difficulties of being a second child. In Ritcie’s younger brother I saw my own younger brother […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Care of the Soul, Evan Almighty, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Medical School, Spirituality, St. John of the Cross, Thomas Moore Comments closed
Sadness over Little Women, 12th Night
Although reading and grading student essays is the most demanding aspect of my job—I graded around 535 formal and informal essays this past semester, as well as reading another 100 essay proposals and early drafts—it can also be the most rewarding. That’s because I will regularly see students working through major life issues at the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 12th Night, Feminism, Little Women, Louisa Mae Alcott, Marriage, William Shakespeare Comments closed
