My Philosophy of Education

What is the purpose of an education, and what is the role of an educator? According to Fishman and McCarthy, John Dewey believed that “life constitutes a generative gift...education should assist people in learning how to realize and extend this gift,” (Fishman, McCarthy 22). Like Dewey, I believe that human existence is a phenomenon which satisfies itself and requires no justification or meaning outside of itself. W.E.B. Dubois described education as a way of “searching out the hidden beauties of life, and learning the good of living,” (Anderson 52). Dewey also writes, “I believe that when science and art thus join hands the most commanding motive for human action will be reached; the most genuine springs of human conduct aroused and the best service that human nature is capable of guaranteed.” (Dewey 5). Society is a collection of individuals whose behavior is either collaborative or self-destructive. Thus, the best life for the individual is one which Dewey describes as being a “member of a unity” (Dewey 1). I agree with Dewey and Dubois and I believe that the ultimate purpose of education is to activate man’s creative intelligence, teaching him to set himself free with his own creative infiniteness. Once liberated in mind, the individual is able to emancipate others around him, creating a free society through mutual understanding and the reciprocity of respect.

The conditions which best support student learning are those in which the child’s basic needs are met. The needs of subsistence are the most obvious requirement - nutritious food, safe shelter, etc. Mental and emotional health needs must also be attended to if a student is to learn, and these include what Max-Neef recognizes in his Human Scale Development: affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom. An educator in a classroom may not have adequate resources to provide for all of a child’s needs in order to provide the most optimum learning environment, as he or she is unable to fully access the child outside of school hours and in the child’s home. However, a teacher can, with some effort, provide for several of them by offering a community in which students and adults provide affirmation and support for one another. A classroom where respect is a mandate and bullying is intolerable is essential. The teacher must not intimidate the students into performing, or belittle students as punishment for not succeeding - this only produces further stress and resentment.

Along with working towards meeting a student’s essential human needs, a teacher must create an environment where students are not only capable of learning, but motivated and driven to do so. This requires giving the students a voice in their own learning process and an environment where collaboration with other students is possible. Classroom activities such as “turn and talk” discussions with partners or small groups is a useful tool. One must also remember, however, that some students learn best when independently working in a quiet environment, and that even extraverted and outgoing students can benefit from reflective assignments as well. A teacher can make this possible with quiet reading and writing times, or times of contemplation, such as the Seton Walk exercise. Student choice can be offered by giving options for reading and writing topics, pieces for performance, preferred athletic activities, or special projects in math and science. It is the teacher’s role to creatively design such activities and to recognize the needs of his or her students in directing or designing class curricula.

As I prepare to teach Language Arts, I find that it is important to provide students from the very beginning with the rationale for studying language arts (and liberal arts in general) and to inspire them to find a passion for writing and the humanities. The classroom ecology which I have planned begins with this question as the first step: Why study Language Arts?

The answer provides them with possibly their first conscious exposure to the reason they are looking for:

“‘The truth against the world!’ – Yes. Certainly. Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That’s the truth!”–Ursula K. LeGuin

“Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries…I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it..Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has control has the power. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing. I lost him in the Swamps of Sadness.”
-G’mork, The Neverending Story

“People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive….so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about.
-Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth






In this class we will study English / Language Arts / Humanities / Writing in a way that answers the following questions:

How is Language also Art?

Words as a form of creative expression.
How can Language Arts shape my view of the world?

Words as a path to wisdom.
What is linguistics and the study of language?

Words as a distinctive human characteristic.
What is the power of writing and rhetoric? and How can I become a better writer?

Words as a communication tool.
Why are stories a (REALLY) big deal?

Words as windows to the human experience.
How can I better appreciate the writing of others?

Words coming to life through critical analysis.

"The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel."
-Horatio Walpole




Of course, these specific quotes and visuals are somewhat arbitrary as there is no shortage of deeply moving art that can be used to inspire students. More important are the six “how and why” questions I seek to answer with my class, from “How is Language also Art?” to “How can I better appreciate the writing of others?” I see these as six foundational reasons for studying Humanities in general and specifically Language Arts and English, and without communicating them as the core vision of our class, I see no reason to attempt to teach the students anything at all.

After we have begun to digest the class vision, I will introduce an opportunity for the students to help create classroom norms and defining characteristics of our class culture. I will ask the students on the first day about their idea of what respectful classroom behavior looks like, both towards their peers and to their teacher. I’ll write down their responses on the board or a poster board. I’ll give them time to talk with their neighbors in small groups to discuss their ideas, then ask them to share what their groups came up with and for any other thoughts about how they should behave and how to respectfully communicate with classmates during discussions and work time.

Several of the Guiding Principles of the Woodring College of Education resonate with me as foundational to my own educational practice and to my philosophy of education. In the We Believe section, it states that “all beings are interdependent.” Knowing this truth is something I find to be essential for a free, creative life that education is intended to foster and produce - if there is anything I want my students to learn about community, it is this. I also wish to promote social justice in our society by teaching students to perform “critical self-reflection” on “the beliefs and positions we hold, our world view, and where those perspectives come from.” By creating classroom norms and also through the study of literature from a wide array of cultures and home languages, I hope to broaden students’ perspectives by exposing them to new ways of reading, writing and thinking.

A quality education is also an education that not only avoids oppression, but actively seeks to remove it from its greater sphere of influence. In his article “Toward a Theory of Anti-Oppressive Education,” Kevin Kumashiro outlines several different strategies for minimizing or eliminating the “forms of oppression [which] play out in schools,” (Kumashiro 25) and presents their strengths and weaknesses. I agree with Kumashiro that none of the methods he writes about provides one, completely perfect picture of anti-oppressive education and that educators should “look to the margins to find students who are being missed and needs that have yet to be articulated,” (Kumashiro 31). One starting point which I find provocative, however, is the idea of integrating “Otherness” into curriculum. It seems to me that Language Arts has nearly endless possibilities with this, as the study of literature is itself the study of the unique minds of individual writers. Nearly anything can be an informative mentor text for teaching students both how to critique and analyze writing, and gain knowledge from a writer’s unique perspective. Integrating the writings of groups which are commonly marginalized is, in my view, a good point from which to begin. From there, students can carry the torch with their writing and by expressing their own unique views. With a safe classroom culture where all viewpoints are accepted and acknowledged without judgment, I expect my students to use their writing as a way to express their own unique individual voices. By resisting the urge to oppress or marginalize with greater cultural stereotypes and misguided personal judgments, students may be able to develop an anti-oppressive mindset which will shape their paradigms and inform their greater decisions in life.





Works Cited:

Anderson, Rodino F. “W.E.B. Dubois and an Education for Democracy and Creativity.” Foundational Perspectives on the Aims of Education. Teacher’s College, 2007, pp. 46-61.

Dewey, John. My Pedagogic Creed. School Journal vol. 54 (January 1897), pp. 77-80.

Hansen, David T. “Paulo Freire’s Politics and Pedagogy.” Foundational Perspectives on the Aims of Education. Teacher’s College, 2007, pp. 21-35.

Kumashiro, Kevin K. “Toward a Theory of Anti-Oppressive Education.” Review of Educational Research. Vol. 70, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 25-53.

Max-Neef, M. 1991. Human Scale Development. New York: The Apex Press.

88 Miles Per Hour

A Liberal Arts Scholarship Application By Amanda MacLean

Essay Prompt: If given the opportunity to take a time machine to the future, what time would you visit and why?

When I was little, I was obsessed with Michael J. Fox’s classic movie, Back to the Future. At the age of three, before I could even pronounce the title, I would demand of my mother, “Back to Foochur, Back to Foochur!” and the tape would roll and roll. When I was twelve I revisited the film and became seriously fascinated with time machines and the concept of time travel in general. Metaphysical and philosophical questions flooded my head: What is time? Do all events occur simultaneously on one long, streaming world line? Could one possibly manipulate and navigate time? Could I experience another period of human existence? These thoughts consumed me as a seventh-grade researcher. I remember making visits to the library to peer through the works of Isaac Asimov and Stephen Hawking while daydreaming about other realms of the space-time continuum.

I've never particularly wanted to visit the future. When I imagine the time line of the world, I see the past on the left – fuzzy images of events from my life and the history of humanity. On the right, I see blank squares of the units of time in white. It was frightening to think about what could be written there. Just imagining it brought me anxiety.

Lately I’ve been writing narratives about my own personal experiences. I love writing about the past because it’s the only concrete thing I have. The present is almost illusory. It slips by so quickly that I never even realize that I have it, much less feel like I know what I ought to do with it. The future is altogether problematic. It is, in reality, completely uncertain, yet somehow I convince myself that I am capable of controlling it. I visualize, plan, and predict. When future moves to present, I wring my hands in helplessness and watch as it slips into the paralyzing ambiguity of "now."

How can I determine what to do with "now" when I am so focused on all the possibilities of "then" - of tomorrow, some distant time and space? Now? What is Now?

But then, as the moment - carefully dancing with and gripping all the other molecules surrounding it and qualifying its existence - slips into the past, it frees me from this worry. It is over. Its existence, quality, and validity do not depend on me or what I do with them. Conscious effort is no longer required; my only task is to remember. I can laugh. Sometimes it is better to cry.

Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist said, “Every day is a one-act play…without an ending.” I don’t want to ask God or Mother Nature or a Time Machine what the future holds. I only wish to ask the pen in my hand as I write the story of my life, myself.

What's So Terrible About Texas?

So what’s so terrible about Texas, anyways?

You mean, what was it about Texas that made me sure – oh so sure – that I was not supposed to be there? That, after spending seven years in the Lone Star State, I was just itching to be anywhere – God, absolutely anywhere else?

Not too much, really. Texas isn’t such a bad place.

You wouldn’t hear me admit that to a lot of people. For most of the time that I lived in Texas, I happened to associate mostly with people who were also from somewhere besides Texas. And guess what one of our favorite pastimes was? That’s exactly right – making fun of Texas.

You’ve probably encountered many of the stereotypes of Texas at some point in your life. And I’ll just say as someone who aims to be absolutely fair and unbiased in one’s judgments of the world, that whatever you heard is absolutely true. If you think of Texas and immediately picture a ten-gallon hat, you are right. If you see cowboys with chaps and spurs riding on wild bulls, you’re also right. If you think of blonde well-to-do ladies with big hair and shiny white teeth, you’re right. Tumbleweeds blowing in the desert wind – even that’s not too far off. Armadillos scuttling along country roads beneath a giant sky littered with starlight…correct. Large palaces of stone fully decked with marble pillars that seem to mark some kind of royal dynasty, labeled by the familiar and sacred sign of recognition, “Local Bible Church,” – right on the money. (If you closed your eyes and pictured those giant cacti with arms reaching skyward – they’re called saguaros – I’m sorry. Those are only native to Arizona. Don’t feel bad, though – it’s a common mistake).

None of this was really all that bad. Making fun of Texas was something that we did as kids (post high school graduates to be exact) because that’s what kids do. It gave us a chance to express ourselves, to compare Texas to wherever we were from and claim our superiority over it. We also lived in rural Texas (a place called Garden Valley – can you find it on any map?) and many of us were not accustomed to being in the middle of no where and having nothing to do with our free time. So, dogging Texas gave us something to do.

I’m grateful for the time I spent in the union’s second largest state – the only of which to have stood as its own independent nation. During my time in Texas I encountered such phenomena as Zebra farms, the I-20 Mud Bog, wild boars, the aforementioned armadillo, acres and acres of wild daffodil gardens, and a whole royal family of donut coffee shops (Donut Palace, Donut King, Royal Donuts, and etcetera).

So, going back to your question, just what exactly was it about Texas that made me absolutely certain that I wanted nothing more, after seven long years, than to leave?

It wasn’t the chiggers looming in the tall grassy fields, or the mosquitoes that laid in waiting for the most romantic time of day (the time of day some of us photographers refer to as “the magic hour” – the perfect golden-hued hour of dusk) to suck your unsuspecting blood. It wasn’t the humidity or the mind-numbing heat, although I did get sick of always being slightly moist all over and peeling damp clothes off my body at the end of the every day. It wasn’t x and it wasn’t y and it wasn’t Z. It wasn’t even E=mc2. It wasn’t any of those things.

It was the fact that there were no mountains anywhere. Maybe you’re thinking, “Wait, I know of mountains in Texas – West Texas is full of them.” You’re right, but I lived in the East far beyond these mountains’ range of visibility. I lived where I could look at the horizon and all I saw for miles and miles were groves of trees and descending hills. This, to me, just wasn’t right. I grew up around mountains. I was born in a valley in Eastern Washington, shadowed by Mt. Adams and just a short drive from the Cascades. Then I moved to Arizona, where the landscape was dramatically different, yet was sheltered by the protective fortresses of monolithic stone. So no matter how I felt about Texas, however much I liked or disliked my job, my studies, or my interactions with those I met and romped with there, something to me always seemed to be missing. I couldn’t really explain it, I just knew something wasn’t right. I knew that when I looked on the horizon and was simply able to see on and on along the road or beyond the trees, I felt like I was looking off into no where and was simply lost. I needed to be walled back in again. I needed to be brought home.

Jane's Dora Jordan

A meek and delicate Dorothy Bland spoke the first lines of her acting debut in whispers, as told in the scene framed by Otis Skinner in Mad Folk of the Theater: Ten Studies in Temperament (177). No one in the audience would have known that this frail creature would go on to dominate the acting scene of her day, winning the affections of not just audiences but future kings. Yet as seen through the eyes of Jane Austen, herself a young theatre attendee and playwright, one might have been conscious of an early Jane Bennett, emerging quietly, timidly playing her part.

Perhaps the pages of Austen’s manuscripts held more pictures of this fascinating woman. A young Mary Bennett might be recognized in the shadow of this industrious, devoted actress, who watched the performances of Mrs. Brown in “The Country Girl” and rigorously imitated her until she found her own talent to display (Skinner 182). This self-sacrificing diligence would be the vehicle to take her from acting in “third-rate plays” that barely kept her and her mother out of the poor house, to landing roles like Viola in The Twelfth Night with the Drury Lane Management Company (Skinner 182). The devoted Mary sitting at her piano forte might have felt similarly as she dreamed of what she also could become.

One might also be able to recognize the shape of a Lydia Bennett protruding from Austen’s imagination, as she watched the progression of Dora’s relationship with Richard Ford, the Duke of Clarence and future King. Jordan was already no stranger to scandal, as she’d already had two illegitimate children, being taken in by the seductions of her first boss at the age of twenty (Thompsett). These naïve passions may have been what drove her to stay with Ford long enough to bear him several more children, despite his refusal to marry below his social status (Skinner 183). Watching from the audience, Austen might have visualized her own Mrs. Bennett, a mother whose outlandish behavior could have been blamed on the pressures of raising several children on the income of a middle-class working farm. No wonder she wanted to rush her daughters into marriage – she would have had one less daughter to house and feed.

Yet, while the threat of poverty remained as a pressure for Mrs. Jordan, she could never quite resort to Mrs. Bennett’s manipulative tendencies. She wished for the dignity of a marriage proposal from the Duke, yet stayed faithful to him despite his refusals. The respectability of this devotion may have struck the young Austen as the inspiration of a true heroine. An Elizabeth Bennett could possibly be the result of such a production – one whose value of integrity was greater than the draw of wealth and the lure of a high social status. After Ford finally succumbed to his family’s pressure to dismiss Jordan (Denlinger 84), she continued to put her children first by returning to the stage despite her promise to the Duke to permanently give up acting – she needed the money to save a daughter from financial ruin (Jerrold 376). She died in poverty after the Duke discovered her secret and removed his financial support (Jerrold 377-379). Her life would remain in the hearts of fans that either loathed or adored her for the many different stages of her life and career, and in the imagination of a female novelist who saw a piece of her characters in every one.

Works Cited:

Denlinger, Elizabeth Campbell. Before Victoria: Extraordinary Women of the British Romantic Era. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Print.

Jerrold, Clare Armstrong Bridgman. The Story of Dorothy Jordan. New York: Brentano’s, 1914. Print.

Skinner, Otis. Mad Folk of the Theatre. Indianapolis: Bobs Merrill Co., 1928. Print.

Thompsett, Brian. Directory of Royal Genealogical Data. Hull: University of Hull, 1994- 2005.

Web. 20 May 2010. < http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi- bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal5912>

Maybe It Will Rain Today

The sky lit up in a flash. "One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three - " 

BOOM, crack! "Whoa! That was a close one!"Every second you count after the lightning strikes indicates some unit of measurement for how far away it is. 

Tonight the smell of wet caliche had been hinting at a storm for hours. As I drove through the west Texas desert I tried to remember exactly what distance each second is supposed to represent. One mile? Ten miles? I looked in my mirrors again to check the tarp covering my truck bed filled with everything I own.
We counted slowly, with precision, eager to see a record broken. We were packed like sardines between the sheets, tucked tightly under the roof of the mighty Mighty Mo - me, my little sister, and my dad - all intoxicated by the same caliche scent characteristic of the longed-for Arizona rainstorm. Lightning moved like a wiggling tree branch at the speed of a wink from ground to sky. The danger of its closeness captivated all of us.

I drove on and on, regretting not getting new wiper blades before leaving. Remembering the smell.

Caliche has its own completely unique smell. There's nothing you can compare it to. The closest I could come to trying would be to say that you could sprinkle a little sugar over everything right before the rain....then imagine the faint, sweet taste of the sugar in your mind and pretend that it's actually a smell, mixing with the familiar rain scent, making it sweeter. Just a little sugar on your corn flake cereal... a faint afterthought of a hint of sugar in your tea.

Rain in the desert is a wonder of creation. The usual grey-brown green of the desert plants turns almost turquoise under the dark sky. The clouds brood ominously and announce their presence unexpectedly - there is no in between or partly-cloudy, maybe-it-will-rain-today state of precipitation in the desert. During the 2 yrs my family lived in Phoenix I think it rained more than the rest of my time there, from when I was 13 after my dad died, till I left after high school. The sky poured down on us for a brief time. I drank it desperately after that, like a true desert dweller.

Or maybe I'm just letting my imagination exaggerate the distance with the remembrance of the storm.

Carver's Beauty

A watercolor sunset, soft light on a windowpane, a chilling melody – all of these things have the capacity to move the soul by giving us a sense that the world around us is grand beyond our little lives. Keats said that truth is beauty. Perhaps what is true is beautiful because it pierces through the everyday monotony of our day-to-day routines. This kind of piercing requires deliberation and intention; creativity is by no means accidental.

Ray Carver delivers beauty in his stories with a technique that matches its form. They tell us something true about the human condition as he shows the command of an artist by having the readers exactly where he wants them – in the co-pilot’s chair. By using a minimalist’s style of ambiguity, he affects the reader with an experience of discovery through co-creation and participation. By filling in the gaps, making up for all the missing details and ambiguity, the reader discovers that the story, the window that they’ve been looking through into someone else’s world, is really just a mirror of their own.

Carver’s style affects the reader in this way in “Fat,” in which a waitress tells her friend about an experience of serving an enormously fat person. At the surface, it is a simple narrative containing the dialogue between the waitress and the fat man. But there is something haunting about the idea of a girl who, after meeting the fat man, begins to see herself as “terrifically fat” while she is with her lover, who becomes “a tiny thing and hardly there at all.” She, like the reader, senses that there is something more to this experience. “I’ve already told her too much,” she says of her friend, who “doesn’t know what to make of it.” Carver uses the subtleties, emblems, and ambiguities in the discourse between the fat man and the waitress to force the reader to figure out “what to make of it.” One has to think about what the fat man means when he says, “If we had our choice, no. But there is no choice.” It could be that he is simply referring to his body type, metabolism and capacity to gain weight easily. One might look at it differently, however, in light of the way his presence affects the waitress. She offers no direct analysis of the situation, only recalls that “a feeling comes over [her].” She doesn’t explain why she is the only character in the story who doesn’t make a moral judgment of the fat man or require that he offer some kind of justification for why he is the way he is. She simply serves him, even going the extra mile to “drop lots of sour cream onto his potato” and continually refill his bread and butter. She tells those mocking, “He can’t help it…so shut up,” and “He is fat…but that is not the whole story.” Yet she cannot offer the same sort of generosity towards herself. She sees herself at the end of the story as a fat person because she cannot escape the moral judgments and the expectations she receives from the world around her. She says in the last line, “My life is going to change. I can feel it.” Carver only gives us snippets of the waitress’ thoughts, which forces the reader to infer what she means in the last line by personally reflecting on their own experiences with judgment, self-image and the desire to be approved. The fat man’s acceptance of himself and the waitress’ lack of acceptance are the contrasting pictures that the reader not only observes at a distance, but must identify within himself. The truth of the story’s message, whether happy or sad, is what is beautiful, and its aesthetic quality is greatly enhanced by the effectiveness of Carver’s technique.

In “Feathers” Carver also embeds the story with emblems that diagnose the human condition. Like the crooked teeth sitting on the TV set, Fran believes she can change her life and find satisfaction by having a baby. The peacock, which had “every color in the rainbow shining from that tail,” represent the possibility of a better life for Fran and her husband, much like the mythical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The ashtray made to look like a swan is another subtle picture of the desire to change, intensified in the more pronounced ugly duckling concept seen in Bud and Olla’s baby. These are images leading up to a seemingly ugly and depressing theme, but just as Bud and Olla’s baby has swan-potential, the beauty of the story’s truth comes to full maturity as the reader does the work of decoding these symbols in order to discover Carver’s message: that humans are like that “damn bird [who] doesn’t know it’s a bird, that’s its major trouble.”

Carver’s method creates an aesthetic experience with “The Bath,” which is “this small exchange, the barest information, nothing that was not necessary.” The plot moves along in an almost rhythmic pattern, with metronome-like sentences that move from simple event to simple event. The shortness of each sentence gives the reader a feeling like that of the shortness of breaths in a crisis. The minimal details given by the doctor and nurses also create the effect of the parents’ state of anxiety. One gets the feeling that things are not going to turn out so well for Scotty, but by not revealing who is on the phone with Mrs. Weiss at the end, the readers are left in that anxious state of wondering indefinitely. Not knowing Scotty’s fate heightens the reality of his parents’ situation and leaves us sympathizing with them, contemplating the brevity of life by asking our own questions and experiencing the emotion of these events.

Even Carver’s use of certain pronouns get the reader involved as a participant in the discovery of truth in his stories. “It” is a pronoun that will often get a writer in trouble, since a writer’s job is to be specific and precise. Carver uses the ambiguous “it” in a purposeful way. “Why Don’t You Dance” ends with the girl telling someone the story of what happened at the yard sale, as the narrator describes, “There was more to it, and she was trying to get it talked out.” The Bath also ends with the voice on the line saying, “It is about Scotty…It has to do with Scotty, yes.” In the first sentence of “Fat,” the waitress says “I am telling her about it,” subtly implying that she is not just telling her “it,” referring to the story of her experience. In all of these situations, “it” refers to something that is never explicitly explained. The reader has to define it, uncover it and thereby discover the greater reality Carver is trying to communicate.

“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” is another story that captures the beauty found in the frailty of humanity with a powerful effect of guiding the reader to his own self-discovery. One particularly effective move Carver makes is his play on words between “vessel” and “vassal.” He never tells us in the story what he thinks love is in any direct way, but Mel’s misuse of the word “vassal” is doubtlessly Carver’s way of saying what he thinks love is. A vessel, as defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, is “a person into whom some quality (as grace) is infused.” Mel says in the story, “…everyone is always a vessel to someone.” He meant to say “vassal” – someone who is subservient to another. But the truth Carver is trying to communicate is that we are all both vassals and vessels to each other in our relationships – sometimes we are the recipients of intense emotion and the heights of joy, and sometimes we must subordinate ourselves to the other. Love is a constant play between both of these states or roles. One sees this in the dialogue between Mel and Terri throughout the story. They constantly give and take both affection and verbal battery from each other. The concept of change and seeking something new also shines through the story like the light at the window the four characters sit around as they discuss love. It first comes up when Mel suggests they finish up their “cut-rate, lousy gin” to go to a new place. Then Laura comments on Mel’s sentiments concerning vassals fighting each other in armor, “Nothing’s changed.” Carver again uses this story to affect the reader with the possibility that life reaches a point where things get “better” – who we are now is who we are, and we ought to accept ourselves. The end of the story may leave the reader feeling somewhat dark and cold with the vivid image of the characters silently listening to their own and each other’s heartbeats. That is Carver’s very intent – to haunt the reader with an insight into what is really behind this “human noise” they were making.

Beauty is a somewhat elusive thing. It can be not so exactly easy to define. We know it when we see it. That is why an artist has an opportunity that no other figure – philosopher, teacher, or other – has to communicate what it is through reaching the soul’s aesthetic sensors. Ray Carver does this very thing with his remarkable use of language that creates and atmosphere within the reader, whispers hints in their ears, and invites them to ask, “What is happening here?” They find themselves not only asking what is happening in the story, but what aspect of reality Carver is trying to communicate. By doing this bit of work to discover the truth despite our great tendency to gravitate toward self-deception, we experience as readers something beyond ourselves that draws us toward it.

You can feel it if you try.

Will the Real Thomas More Please Stand Up?

The Real Thomas More

Will anyone be able to pinpoint which voice in Utopia is the historical Thomas More – More the fictional character, or Raphael Hythloday? He seems to split himself between the two. On the one hand, he is Hythloday because everything that Hythloday says is More the author’s invention. He must consider some of the values of the Utopians to be truly noble and worthy of imitating, or else he would not be using them as elements of a society where overall communal happiness is achieved.

            At the same time, however, the author More shows his doubts about the possibility of achieving such a society. He vocalizes these doubts through the character More in the way he confesses his disagreement with Hythloday in the end. The author does not go to great lengths to explain why More “cannot agree with everything he said,” or to make an argument against Hythloday, and even acknowledges that Hythloday is a man of great learning. In this way he seems dismissive and passive in his disagreement, and one could argue that the historical More sided with Hythloday. Yet, if More truly believed in the Utopia he imagined, why would he have given it a name that can be translated “no place,” or given Hythloday’s character a name which means “speaker of nonsense?” With this fact are the apparent contradictions within the Utopian world, such as their placing no value on gold in local exchange affairs, yet finding value in it to finance foreign wars. It also seems unlikely that the Utopian people would embrace Christianity, as they abhorred sacrifices and the shedding of the blood of animals.

            More was a clever author who understood the 16th century English audience he was writing for. It would have been outlandish for him to write a Platonic dialogue detailing each ritual act, custom or state-sanctioned activity necessary to create what he conceived as the ideal society. He wanted to get his readers thinking and reflecting on their own society – its customs, values, and the ideals from which they were derived – by using the alluring images of the mysterious New World to engage their imaginations.

Before I Leave London...

So. Here I go. Off to America. To Texas. To my homeland, but not my home.

Do I have a home? Yes. I just haven’t returned to it yet.

While in England and Morocco, I never told people that I was from America. I told them I was from Texas. In Marrakech, the men would always respond, “Oh, Texas! Good country!” You have no idea, I thought.

In my hotel this morning I saw an old man. He was heavy and hunched over and walked with a cane. The BBC morning news program was on and they had some story about how much time my generation spends plugged into media throughout the week. I thought it was kind of funny that I was pulling my laptop out to be my breakfast companion while they were running that story. I wondered what the old man thought of young folks today, always sitting at the computer. Wasting their lives on machines, he might think. A few minutes later, as I was finishing my coffee, I looked over and saw that he also had a little Acer mini notebook! Just like mine! Funny, the way we assume we know what other people think.

Later on, after we had both moved to the lobby to make more room for people in the breakfast area, I walked past him and couldn’t help but sneak a peek at what he was doing on his computer. He had an email pulled up that said in all capital letters: “HEY SEXY WHAT’S GOING ON…” Oh my! I walked away, half silently cracking up and half cringing.

Last night I trampsed around London. I almost decided not to go because I was afraid of navigating London’s public transportation system by myself, getting lost and having to spend a bunch of money to find my way back. Something urged me, however, to just ask the hotel front desk guy how the Underground fare system works, and he informed me that I could purchase a day travel card for all services. That sounded good to me. In the Jack Flanders adventurer spirit, I decided to walk to the nearest station and just find my way to Abbey Road. (How could I come all the way to England and not make the pilgrimage when it was so close within my reach?)

I’m so glad I did it, because in traveling on the Underground I realized that you would have to be a complete moron to not understand traveling on the Underground. It’s so easy. I would have missed a good night if I’d let my fear be my guide by staying in the hotel.

When I got off at St. Johns Wood, I started walking in the directions Google gave me. Google has been more iffy for me on this trip. I wondered if I would be able to find the famous crosswalk and the studio. Well, when I got to the crosswalk where a bunch of people stood around taking pictures of their friends walking across the road, I figured I was in the right spot. People were there from all over the world…at 6pm on a Wednesday night! Incredible. I managed to find some Spanish speakers amongst the barrage of foreign tongues and got them to take my picture crossing the road.

I went from St. Johns Wood to downtown London, not sure where I was headed next. I decided to get off at the stop where the recorded Train Announcer Voice loudly proclaimed, “Get off here for Buckingham Palace.” Okay! I thought. This is a Jack Flanders adventure, after all. Time to just go with the flow and say, “Feets, do your stuff.”

I don’t know if people who live in London realize how beautiful their city is, especially at night (every city is more beautiful at night). Probably not – hardly anyone realizes the beauty of their own home. I walked around and took a few low-light pictures of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.The London Eye made beautiful reflections over the water – romantic. It’s too bad I always go on these adventures alone. Well, it’s not too bad. These are moments God takes to woo me. I listened to Meet Me By The Water as I walked over the bridge.

For dinner, I went to McDonalds. It was the only place still open where I could pay by credit card (I needed my last few pounds for the bus in the morning). I had been craving a McFlurry since I saw someone on the bridge eating one, and the girl at the register was cool enough to add one as the drink for my meal without changing the price. She was cute – she was from some other country and English wasn’t her first language. She accidentally pushed the “pay by cash” button on the register, so her manager had to come over and spend like 5 minutes fixing it. I didn’t mind because of the McFlurry, and because this girl was too sweet to get mad at.

When I got back home I was exhausted. Yet I woke up super early this morning. I think it’s the sunlight. I just can’t sleep too long past sunrise for whatever reason. My body must be adjusting as I transition in life. Perhaps my soul knows it needs sunlight to recharge me. Opening my solar plexus. Who knows.

Classroom Ecology Plan

Why Study Language Arts?

“‘The truth against the world!’ – Yes. Certainly. Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That’s the truth!”

–Ursula K. LeGuin

  “Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries…I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it...Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has control has the power. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing. I lost him in the Swamps of Sadness.”

-G’mork, The Neverending Story

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive….so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about."

-Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

In this class we will study English / Language Arts / Humanities / Writing in a way that answers the following questions:

• How is Language Art?
  Words as a form of creative expression.
• How can Language Arts shape my view of the world?
  Words as a path to wisdom.
• What is linguistics and the study of language?
  Words as a distinctive human characteristic.
• What is the power of writing and rhetoric? and How can I become a better writer?
  Words as a communication tool.
• Why are stories a (REALLY) big deal?
  Words as windows to the human experience.
• How can I truly appreciate words and writing?
  Words coming to life through critical analysis.

"The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel."

-Horatio Walpole

What primary projects/activities will you use to position students as active agents of their own learning? How will students interact with and relate to one another and why do you value this for their learning or for the world today? What role will students’ personal experiences play in the functioning of your classroom?

• Listen to James Baldwin "artist" speech
• Dramatic presentations of literary texts (skits, videos)
• Aesthetic visual presentations of readings (paint, draw, photograph, etc)
• In-class debates
• Daily writing journal warmups analyzing a quote
• Analyze music videos
• Majorly epic poetry unit (common core challenge)

How, specifically, will you create an authoritative (rather than authoritarian) presence as a teacher? How do you see your role as a teacher?

I will be authoritative by really knowing my material. I will show my own very best writing as a mentor text (modeling the writing process - by tearing apart my best writing in front of them as if it was the worst writing ever). I will choose really awesome mentor texts. I will create rigorous assignments with high expectations. I’ll give consistent and helpful feedback. Asking questions that challenge students’ assumptions and get them making connections with the texts and with writing.

I'll reward students with recognition for working hard. I’ll provide extra incentives (like extra credit but some kind of reward besides grade points). Students can nominate fellow students to receive “Carpe diem” awards for hard work and creative exceptionality (and we’ll watch the Dead Poets Society “Carpe Diem” scene to learn what this means).

I’ll make it clear from the beginning that I’m expecting them to work hard and think hard and put forth their best effort so they can get the most out of what Language Arts has to offer them (feeling “the rapture of being alive”).

CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS & POSSIBLE RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES

In order to generate norms and expectations in my classroom, I will spend a good amount of time on the first day of class explaining what our class traditions and routines will be. They will know exactly how the first 5 minutes of class will be spent – journaling. They’ll have a chance to sign up to bring snacks (if that’s allowed in my school...I’ll figure it out). I might possibly introduce a very cheesy song that I got from a teacher with instructions for good writing. It sounds almost like a beat poem mixed with a cheerleading cheer (sing-songy) and goes, “Tell me what you think! Tell me why you’re thinking it – details! Details!” It even has little hand motions. You can’t do it without looking and feeling like a really big dork. But after fifteen years I still remember it, and remember the advice it delivers. I can sing this whenever we do any writing (which will be almost every day, so by God they’ll learn to bond with each other around their hatred of it).

I want the students to be heavily involved in helping to create classroom norms. I would like to ask the students on the first day about their idea of what respectful classroom behavior looks like, both towards their peers and to their teacher. I’ll write down their responses on the board or a poster board – if I write it on the board I’ll take a picture of it and print it out to be displayed in the classroom all year. I’ll give them time to talk with their neighbors in small groups to discuss their ideas, then ask them to share what their groups came up with and for any other thoughts about how they should behave and how to respectfully communicate with classmates during discussions and work time.

After discussing what the behavior and communication norms should be, I’ll also ask them how they think they should be held accountable for adhering to the norms. I’ll ask, “If you’re having a crappy day and find yourself violating this set of norms (or code of ethics, or whatever sounds like a good name for us to call it), how should your teacher or classmates hold you accountable? (Like, what is a way to gently remind each other to raise our hands to talk? etc.) What should the consequences be if you continue to violate the norms after you’ve been reminded of them by your teacher / classmates?” Then they will understand the steps for disciplinary action and will, ideally, resent it less if they’re caught up in it, because they helped to invent it themselves – they own it.

I will also ask the students what their expectations of me as a teacher are and to tell me how I should be held accountable to them. We will write these expectations and consequences in a succinct and aesthetically pleasing piece of writing to be displayed where it can be seen daily.

If expectations are not met, my first course of action will be to remind the students of the standards and norms, perhaps also reiterating the intentions and philosophy behind them. If a student continues to violate norms, I will remind them again, making it a point to mention that I am frustrated with their behavior and also to point out how surprised I am that they would be behaving this way, since they normally do follow the norms and meet the expectations by working hard and producing quality work. I may do this in class or one-on-one, depending on the circumstances and seriousness of the situation. If this doesn't turn them around, I will follow my school's disciplinary procedures.

ROUTINES, POLICIES, & PROCEDURES EXPLANATIONS

Consider the nuts and bolts of how daily life in your classroom will operate, and describe it. Include explanations of the following key elements (and others that you would like to add):

• Classroom Assessment System –
  • What types of formative assessment will you use (minute by minute as well as day by day & week by week)?
    • All writing assignments will be formative - major papers / book reports / film reports. All will follow a writing rubric with a specific focus on some writing skill for that unit, such as organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, etc.
  • What system/tools will you use to manage your formative assessment system so you and students can see growth over time?
    • They will have a writing portfolio and after every assignment they will have an opportunity to re-write for changes, up till the end of the semester. They’ll have a sheet in their portfolio that lists every assignment and the score they received for the rough draft, final draft and optional re-written draft, which they will fill in for every paper I hand back to them and I will “stamp” it or sign it or something, and they’ll turn it in at the end of the semester for final grades (completion is the final summative grade).
  • What role will self-assessment on the part of students play in your assessment plan? How will you use student voice as part of your assessment plan/learning environment?
    • I will have the students edit their own rough drafts during writing workshop times. They’ll write up a short self-reflection explaining what rubric scores they gave themselves on their rough drafts and turn this in as an exit slip on workshop day. They will spend an additional day workshopping by editing their peers’ papers and doing the same thing, sharing the feedback they gave to their partners and then handing in an exit slip with a written description of that feedback.
  • How will you give clear, timely, descriptive feedback aligned with the learning targets in ways that move student learning forward?
    • I will get their longer writing assignments back to them within 2 weeks. Short writing assignments within the week.
  • What are the criteria for success that you will build into your course?
    • Students will be able to:
      • Critically analyze a piece of literature.
      • Write a convincing argument for their analysis.
      • Connect literature and language to artistic expression by practicing it themselves through creative writing assignments (writing their own stories, poems, songs, etc) as well as creative interpretations of literature (such as art projects or skits for book reports).
    • Convey a sense of teacher and student role in the assessment process
      • In addition to having writing workshop days, I plan on having at least 2 one-on-one conferences with each student to talk about their writing assignments and how they are improving as writers. We’ll have the rubric out and the feedback they’ve given themselves on exit slips and just sit and talk about any specific paper that I think demonstrates what they are doing well and what they need to be working on.
    • What types of summative assessment will you use?
      • I will have regular vocabulary quizzes that are scored as small test grades, summative. It will just be a list of words and the definitions that they’ve copied down from the board every day. Sheer memorization.
      • I will also give a summative grade based on their participation and completion of assignments. They will receive full credit for turning in everything and completing the requirements for the writing workshop process (drafting, re-writing, evaluation of their drafts on exit slips) and turning everything in by the end of the semester or unit.
      • I will give opportunities to raise their summative grade by giving them the chance to re-write papers all the way until the end of the semester (or a week or two before the end so I have time to read and evaluate whether they really improved their drafts or not).
      • We will do some comprehension tests on texts that we read in class and they will be summatively assessed on their ability to answer questions about the books or stories we read. I will grade on a curve in case there are any ambiguous questions that students got confused about. I’m not sure whether I want to give them a chance to go over the tests and turn them back in for points after making corrections, because that doesn’t indicate that they really understood the book or made connections with it. I may just make this a plain old fashioned summative test, but give them a chance to re-read the text and complete a creative project demonstrating their understanding of it, if they bomb the test but want to make up for it by really trying.
    • How will you regularly & consistently seek feedback about what students are needing and how they are responding to the learning environment you are helping to create?
      • I will give them an anonymous online survey every two months (or paper version if they prefer) asking them: (1) What do you need from me? (2) Tell me what you are learning in this class. (3) Do you think there’s a way the learning environment in this class could improve?
    • Role of grading in classroom; relationship between grades & learning. What will be included in grades in your class & why?
  • Time routines (beginning/ending class, weekly, etc.)
    • Every day we’ll start out by writing for 5 minutes in a journal. Their writing prompt will be to just respond to a quote from a song or movie or great quotation. I’ll stamp for completion but won’t read it.
    • We’ll have announcement time where I will direct the focus of the class and point to the learning target and answer questions for 5-7 minutes.
    • Mini-Lesson - if it’s a mini-lesson day (maybe twice a week - once to learn and once to review and hear it again) we’ll spend 10-15 minutes on a mini-lesson or lecture, or I may have them deliver a mini-lesson in groups and we’ll use that time.
    • Discussion Time - most of our class time will be in writing or discussion as a class. For Discussion Days we’ll sit in a circle and talk about what we’re reading and make connections with it as a whole class. I want the whole class involved in this because I think it makes it harder for people to hide and check out if they are all looking at each other. Some folks may be more quiet and shy and I’ll give them an opportunity to write their thoughts to me on paper or email me their thoughts and that will be their form of participation for the day. But my goal is for the norms and classroom culture to make them feel safe enough to share with the whole class once they start to feel comfortable.
    • Workshop Time - On days when we do writing workshop, they’ll spend the bulk of the day drafting, revising, or critiquing other students’ papers. I will be walking around workshopping or conferencing.
    • Test and quiz time - this will happen on designated test and quiz days. Times will vary according to the amount of content I’m testing. We probably will never need an entire period for a test that I’m delivering.
    • Presentation and rehearsal time - we’ll be doing creative and dramatic presentations and I want to allot some time for them to rehearse and present. This will vary depending on the nature and length of the presentation.
    • Exit slips - I’ll do exit slips sometimes and may need to give them a couple of minutes at the end to finish up and turn them in. I’ll have an envelope on the door they can slip it into.
  • Materials routines – how will you collect, store, and redistribute student work?
    • I’ll have an inbox for turning in work and I will check it after every class period. I’ll have files for each period to store work that hasn’t been graded yet and a file for work that needs to be turned in. I’ll record their scores and hand back their papers and they’ll be responsible for keeping their work for rewriting and in case I make a mistake recording something. I’ll communicate this to them and provide tips for how to keep track of their assignments at home. If they need folders or binders to organize stuff and they don’t have the resources they need, I plan on having a Community Supplies Bin for students to bring extra stuff they don’t want or need or just want to donate, and anyone can just grab from it at any time.
  • What requirements will you have for work that is submitted?
    • Every assignment will have its own requirements, but I will take any work that is incomplete and their rubric scores or summative scores will reflect it. If they start turning in stuff that’s half-assed and not complete on purpose, I will have a chat with them individually.
  • Late/make-up work policies & procedures – how will you manage the classroom so that when students are absent you have materials in place that support their ability to catch up when they return
    • I will have a website and my email available. If they don’t have access to internet at home I will give them more time as long as they have a reasonable excuse (sick, etc).
  • Seating assignments - will you assign seats? How often? Why or why not?
    • I will assign seats most of the time. I’ll assign their writing workshop groups and they will be seated according to those. I also plan on having the desks in a circle in the room (somehow, or as close to an actual circle as possible if there are too many desks) for days when we have discussions as a whole class. I probably won’t assign seats for that. I am toying with the idea of having my grandpa’s easy chair at the front of the room with a black and white picture of Grandpa Lamont the Humanities teacher looking like a super studly writer. The “Carpe Diem” student for the week or fortnight or month will be honored with the privilege of sitting there.
  • Hall pass procedures - how do you want students to communicate with you if they need to leave?
    • They will need to talk to me and grab a hall pass. If it’s an emergency they can just grab it and go, but talk to me later to acknowledge.
    • How will desks be arranged?
      • In a circle for class discussions, in table group type pods for writing workshop days.
    • In which direction will students be facing?
      • They will all be facing each other in a circle.
    • How will students be encouraged to move around the room? Can they get up whenever they want?
      • During workshop days, yes. Workshop days will hopefully include food so they can come grab food whenever, or come talk to me about their work. I will also be walking around giving feedback.
    • How will you physically position yourself during your time with these students & why?
      • I will not be on my computer during class unless absolutely necessary. I will always either be walking around or standing to deliver instructions, or sitting with them in the circle for discussion. I want my proximity to keep them focused, and also there’s no way for me to really know what’s going on with them unless I’m walking around and hearing their conversations and talking with them.
    • Will the physical environment be modified at different times? When & why?
      • Yes! Always. There will always be new works of art to display, so we’ll have places on the walls dedicated to those. We’ll rearrange the desks regularly every week for discussion times (a big circle) or writing workshop times (pods). I’ll delegate the rearrangement of desks to whoever is in the classroom early just hanging out (there are always students just around hanging out).
      • I plan on not using computers or tablets or electronic devices in the classroom because I just don’t see a need for it (unless we have a special game day where we play Jeopardy or that trivia game where you buzz in with your smart phones - those will be special exceptions). I want them to learn to appreciate the antiquated art of ink and paper. They’re already overwhelmed by technology and I think this will be good for their brains to have a 50-90 minute break from it. Of course they will need some computer time for typing papers, and I will make special appointments for use of the library computers for class time or individuals.

FIRST DAYS OF SCHOOL

1. What sort of interest inventory/icebreaker will you use on the first day?

I play on creating my own interest inventory with questions that ask the students:

• Books they Enjoy
• Favorite Movies
• What they did last summer
• Whether they have a computer / device / internet at home
• Description of the family they live with
• Pets
• What they want to be when they grow up
• What do they want to be buried with when they die?
• Languages they speak at home

I also plan on using the Color Personality test that places you into one of four personality types (orange - the adventurer, blue - the dreamer, green - the scientist, and gold - ?). These tests aren't purely scientific but they are a fun way to discover character traits about yourself and learn why others who are different from you behave the way they do. Once they've figured out their color, I will split them into their corresponding groups and each of them will be tasked with building a structure using construction paper of that color. We did this once in my high school drama club, and my drama teacher went around and wrote down quotes from things she heard students saying that seemed to reflect what their personality type was. We had a ton of fun and really learned about each other from the exercise.

Knowing a little more about their home situation from my interest inventory (their language, family structure, computer access) will help me know if there are assignments that could be difficult for some students to complete (like a research project that requires lots of computer time). It will also be short answers and somewhat vaguely open ended for some questions so I can get a sense of if and how much they like writing. The color personality quiz is great because it gets people working together in something as a team right away and demonstrates their strengths and skills. It also shows the diversity of the community because you can see how different personality types function to produce the same thing with a different style of creativity.

I plan to continue the first few weeks of school with group activities like the color personality test. We’ll establish our norms and write them on a poster where they can be displayed and referred to. We’ll start the routine of daily journaling. I will give them journal prompts every day that they can use to journal with no sharing, so they can express themselves completely with no fear of exposing themselves, but during the first couple of weeks I will have them write some “sharing” journal prompts (perhaps highlighting the prompt in a different color or something) where before they start writing, they will know that they’re going to share what they’ve written with their table groups. All they need to do is share, there won’t be any analysis or feedback to the writing itself for the first couple of times, but the idea is to get them used to sharing their work with their peers so that they can be more comfortable with this during writing peer workshops later on.

Gutter

Yesterday while I was driving to work at 7:00 in the morning, I saw a man lying in the gutter next to the I-5 southbound entrance on Old Fairhaven Parkway . It was still dark outside but I could see his black figure lying in the rain, beside the curb and just barely in the street. It appeared to me that a car turning right to enter the freeway could easily run right over his head and squish his brains out without even seeing him. My conscience wouldn't let me pass by and do nothing.

So I did a u-turn on the empty early morning street and pulled up beside him and rolled my passenger side window down. "Are you OK?" I asked. "Are you hurt?" Some unintelligible, drunken mutterings puttered out. So I got right down to business, "You're in a really dangerous spot, can you roll yourself up onto the curb?" He shifted a bit and muttered some more. I checked the clock, I should have been pulling in to get to work on time and relieve the caregiver working the overnight shift.

"Should I call an officer to help you up?" The homeless people I've come into contact with tend to avoid contact with the police. I asked him again if he was able to roll over. "I'm able to --geerrrrrgguuuhhhgghh....ugh......" Okay. "I'm going to go ahead and call an officer to help you."

Just then a pick-up truck pulled up behind us and a man got out and walked over to my window, between my car and the guy. "Is everything Okay?" he asked.

"I'm trying to get him out of the road so he doesn't get hit."

"Ah!" This nice man went over to the guy and started pulling him up out of the gutter. "Thank you very much!" I said, and I sped away.