Ted Ed: The Power of a Great Introduction

I love this video from TED Ed.  So glad I found it right before my students' first analytic essay is due...

Does Integrity Matter?

I was thinking about Auden's poem "The Unknown Citizen" today after reading this article, in which students at the competitive Stuyvesant High School in New York explain the rationale behind the rampant cheating and plagiarism at their school.  

The article notes that many of these students who cheat "have internalized a moral and academic math: Copying homework is fine, but cheating on a test is less so; cheating to get by in a required class is more acceptable than cheating on an Advanced Placement exam; anything less than a grade of 85 is “failing”; achieve anything more than a grade-point average of 95, and you might be bound for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Yale."  Tragically, these students are reducing their entire high school experience to mere statistics--a grade, a GPA, a college acceptance (or rejection).  Through a combination of external pressures to excel and internal pressures to achieve, these kids have either been taught, or they've taught themselves,  that who they are isn't nearly as important as what they've scored.  After all, you can't see integrity on a transcript.  

The final couplet of Auden's poem, then, seems all the more chilling to me.  After commemorating a man known only by a number and who, by all quantifiable measures,  was a model of conformity, the speaker--ostensibly a representative of a government that knows "everything" about its citizens-- asks:

         Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: 

         Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard. 

My students astutely concluded that the irony in the poem lies in how the state knows everything about the Citizen it honors, but doesn't bother to know him at all.  Unfortunately, though, I fear that's what lots of high school students think about the way they're perceived by their teachers, college admissions officers, maybe adults in general. "Free" and "Happy" aren't exactly quantifiable measures of achievement or predictors of future success.

I worry that my students genuinely believe that the world sees them as merely grades on a transcript, SAT scores, lists of accomplishments. Yes, the college admissions process does invite students to express themselves in their essays and through their choices of courses and extracurriculars.  But in an effort to attract or please the eye of an admissions officer who must choose from among tens of thousands of worthy applicants, I wonder how many students genuinely believe they can afford to be "free" or honest at this stage in their lives.  Sadly, from what I read today, it seems that for some students, integrity is potentially quite costly:  an Ivy League degree, a high-paying job, or a successful future could be the cost for academic honesty, and for some students, that's clearly "absurd." 

Satire in "Harrison Bergeron"

Vonnegut: What do you think is being satirized in this story? from What So Proudly We Hail on Vimeo.

Just found this video via Twitter this morning--great timing, since we're talking about "Harrison Bergeron" today in class.  The video raises an intriguing question:  if Vonnegut was a socialist, is "Harrison Bergeron" really his attempt to show how socialism differs from--and is better than-- the America he envisions in his story? And if it is, does he ultimately succeed in achieving that goal, or have we come to view "Harrison Bergeron" instead as a cautionary tale about the dangers of equality?  What do you think?

Best writing advice

I saw a terrific article yesterday in the New York Times that summarizes some of the best writing advice they've accumulated and published over the years.  My favorite:  the importance of eliminating "zombie nouns" from one's writing.

The article got me thinking about some of the best writing advice I've ever received.  My dad, an editor, always reminded me to KISS--Keep it Simple, Stupid (or Silly, for the politically correct).  My college professor told me to take out every conjugation of the verb "to be"--he fixed my passive voice problem right quick.

Now that I teach writing,  I find that I frequently dispense these bits of advice to my students:

1) Get In, and Get Out, AKA "Name That Tune In Fewer Notes."  Efficient writing is effective writing.  State your point clearly and concisely, and move on. And if you can say it in fewer, more specific words, so much the better.   That said, sometimes the exception to this rule is more important;  once in a while the most efficient way to convey an emotion, a scene, a tone emerges from luxuriating in a well-crafted, thoroughly-descriptive sentence.

2)  Don't Fall In Love. Once upon a time,  I taught a student who had a hard time editing his work.  He couldn't figure out what to cut, what to whittle, or what to add.  I had to tell him not to fall in love with his writing--anything can go at any time, and sometimes, we have to throw out some good writing to get to some great writing.

Admittedly, this advice is often far easier to give than to take, but I try to keep it in mind in my own writing, whether it's for a blog post, comment on a paper, or a tweet.

What writing advice have you been given, and how has it shaped your writing?

Literary jukebox

Today one of the terrific folks I follow on Twitter sent me a link to this blog:  Literary Jukebox.  Each entry pairs a great terrific quote from literature with a song.

Yesterday's offering:  a connection between a quote from Paradise Lost--which I'm teaching right now in AP, and the Black Keys' "Mind Eraser."

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

Ladies' and Gentlemen's Choice!

By the end of this week, please post your thoughts on one of the following texts we're discussing in class:

• "The Waking"--especially once we've discussed this challenging text in class

• "Barbie Doll"--in particular, I'd love your thoughts on how Piercy uses irony in this poem.  How does her use of irony compare with the way Gordimer uses irony in "Once Upon a Time"? 

• "Miniver Cheevy"--how does this poem compare with "Harrison Bergeron" and/or "Eveline"?

You should also plan to comment on one of your peers' blogs before the end of the week.

I'm excited to read your posts!

Break from Blogging

I've decided not to offer a blog prompt for the weekend, but please prepare for our discussions of "Barbie Doll" and "Once Upon a Time."  Of course, if you'd like to post some thoughts about the poem and/or the short story, I'd love to read them!

Have a great weekend!

"The Waking" and the nature of obligation

For tonight's post, I'd like you to consider the final line of Roethke's poem: "I learn by going where I have to go." What does Roethke mean by this statement, in the context of the rest of the poem?

Then, in preparation for our discussions in class, post some thoughts about how this idea of "going where [we] have to go" might apply to the theme of LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." How does LeGuin show the importance of "going where we have to go," as opposed to going where we "want" to go?

Speaking of metaphors and analogies...

I recently came across this list of the Best Ever Metaphors and Analogies as taken from high school English papers.  My favorites:  #11, for personal reasons, and #17, because, well, I'm from Jersey.

Best Ever Metaphors and Analogies
(as taken from high school English papers)
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m., at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who also had never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

27. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

28. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

Metaphors

For Wednesday's class, let's look at Sylvia Plath's "Metaphors."  After exploring the function of figurative language in Heaney's "Digging,"  what do you notice about how Plath uses figurative language in this poem?  What image(s) in this poem particularly strike you and why?

PS--as you read this poem, you may wish to research Sylvia Plath's fascinating--if tragic--life.

Symbolism in "Digging"

In class next week, we'll look at how authors employ figurative language to help articulate their themes.  In your next blog post, please discuss your thoughts on how Heaney utilizes metaphor and imagery in his poem "Digging." Why does Heaney make the comparison between himself and his father?

I can't wait to read your insights!

Worst job in literature?

Today the New Yorker published the results of last week's Questioningly:  what's the worst job in literature?

The answers (found on twitter at #tnyquestion) are hysterical, ranging from Hamlet's motivation coach to McMurphy's post-lobotomy roommate to Hester Prynne's stylist.  Some of my favorites:

Noah's Ark vet
Gatsby's pool cleaner
Oedipus' shrink
Bilbo Baggins' pedicurist


I just love the winner:  Narcissus' girlfriend.   No more calls-- we have a winner.

I wonder if my students can come up with any...

"To the Ladies" and "Eveline"

For this week's post, I'd like us to consider Joyce's short story "Eveline" and Lady Chudleigh's poem, "To the  Ladies."  Both texts deal with the expectations that others put on us, as well as the expectations we put on ourselves.    Please post your thoughts about what you think Lady Chudleigh's main idea is in her poem (you may wish to research her a bit and include some findings) and compare Chudleigh's poem to Eveline's struggle--and ultimate decision--in Joyce's story.

I look forward to reading your insights!