Thinking About Education

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. ~Socrates

Eduspeak: “Authentic” Reading

  I have another story to tell about reading–a story about educational trends that may lead us astray if we get too caught up in them. “Authentic” reading is one such trend in Language Arts. I have heard principals deny programmed reading materials to Reading and Language Arts teachers because they were not “authentic,” and current “best practices” dictate that we use only authentic texts in our classrooms (these are texts that readers.. Read More

“Texts” vs. “Books”

One of the interesting things you notice if you’ve been in education a long time is how the language we use shows how we have shifted our thinking. I couldn’t help noticing a few years back when I was having a discussion with colleagues about literature that I was the only one referring to “books” instead of “texts.”  There was something definitely too clinical to me about calling a book a “text.” “Text” reminded.. Read More

A Definition of “Story”

Good definitions can be enlightening in themselves. I came across this one in a writing class I took. I think it was the one taught by Joyce Allen here at the Carrboro ArtsCenter: Story – a journey, actual or metaphorical, involving a person (or person equivalent) the reader engages with for whom something is at stake. The person finds problems and meets them in some way so that by the end something has.. Read More

“We Murder to Dissect”

  Rest of the world take note: The language ARTS are dead Each year they are valued less and less They want us to teach social studies instead   It doesn’t matter that literature is life Or that it teaches character or enriches our souls Nonfiction is the curricula rife Twenty-first century automata the goal   They will keep the reading and writing But excise the content of art The skills are all.. Read More

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