APELC Class Notes
APELCers, sorry about the mangled Friday post, which was some notes I’d saved as a draft, but after reading over five hundred separate assessments these last two weeks (revisions and cover sheets, persuasion papers, and two separate final essays, in addition to the last of the freshmen assignments and their finals, too), I was a little fatigued and failed to attend the class notes that afternoon. Still, I wanted to leave you with some final thoughts as we close out the exacting fall semester.
In August you numbered about 110, and a remarkable 94 of you remained until the end of fall, some worse for the wear, but you stuck with APELC nonetheless and that’s worth noting. I know a few of you will switch out in January, but, until then, everyone should be proud of their efforts in completing no less than eight timed-writings (and, most of you, accompanying revisions and cover sheets), two extended papers, three processes (four if you did the extra-credit), a brief reflective piece, and a lot of question-and-answer and daily notes. That’s a lot of thinking and writing. For those that didn’t do as well as they’d hoped this semester and who’ll be around next, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to make adjustments to your approach to class; I suspect I may see more of you in tutoring.
I had little time to post those persuasions I thought merited attention, so I wanted to make special mention of the following which I thought were particularly interesting, effective, and fun to read. They were: Casey’s paper advocating a change in the NCAA national championship playoff format, Nicole’s paper on the importance and proper practice of second amendment rights, T-Train’s paper arguing the right of gay men and women to marry, Andy’s plea for a national flat tax, Sam’s paper on the ironic anonymity involved in dirty-dancing, Alex M.’s argument of the failure of compulsory tutorial attendance, Kevin R.’s paper advocating a change in the rules and ethos of the reality-TV game show Survivor (which I thought was excellent this season), Ebaa’s explanation of the false hope of genetically modified organisms to stem world hunger, Lora’s effective paper defending the ritual of capital punishment, Joy’s call for support of art and music education in schools (which reminded me of a fascinating piece from NPR: “Leah Fleisher Cures What Ails Musicians”), Jordan’s passionate justification of national health care reform, Andrea’s convincing argument for a four-day school week, Meg’s paper advocating prostate cancer awareness, and, of course, Caitlin’s enumeration of the evils of corn. (I also recall Kristin F.’s baffling use of four staples on her paper.) I failed to write on all of your papers, but I ask now that you send me e-copies of your work so I can use them as exemplars.
I don’t want to forget visits during the week from 2009 CDO graduates and former APELCers Brennan Klein, Addie Cunniff, and Simone Collins, freshmen at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania; Middlebury College in Vermont, and at the University of Virginia, respectively. They’re enjoying the fruits of their high school labors and experiencing vibrant college life away from the Desert Southwest.
And so I encourage you to enjoy your break, juniors and seniors; I hope your various holiday celebrations are fun and memorable, and I’ll trust you to keep in mind those less fortunate than you like the children and families who live less than 700 miles (or about an hour and half by plane) from our shores in the Caribbean: “Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves”.
Remember your reading and be ready to start when we see each other next decade.