English 9 Final Thoughts
Freshmens, it’s been a while since I said I would, and even though many of you would never come by the old site if you didn’t have to, I wanted to post some reflections on our year together anyway, and offer some inspiration for next year and beyond.
None of you knew what to expect when you walked into T-12 the fall semester. The standard English fare (read a story, complete a quiz, answer some questions, compose a paragraph of two) was familiar enough too you, but I demanded more from you than I knew others had required of you in the past. I wanted as much of your brain as you could spare from your other classes. I wanted you to take English seriously (unfortunately the discipline has a bad for reputation) and I wanted you to ask and answer serious questions of what you encountered when you met an author in conversation over his or her text and consider their implications outside the text in our modern daily lives, thus my constant questioning of your assumptions of truth and falsity, right and wrong, and so on.
It was a tough year to be sure, but I congratulate each one of you that made it to the end successfully. I’ll miss our interactions (and Vic’s cooking and baking, but maybe not AJ’s questions so much), and I wish you all the success your talents and ambition allow next year and those following.
If you get down or feel defeated, don’t give up, there’s nothing wrong with just being yourself, that’s more than enough.
Have a great rest of your summer. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to see you next year.
APELC Final Thoughts
APELCers, I hope you’re enjoying your summer. It’s taken me a while (I mentioned in my post to the graduates how easy it is not to post when school’s over), but as is my custom, for those that drop by the site, I wanted to post some thoughts on our year in T-12.
The 2009-2010 school year was by far my most challenging as a teacher. I mentioned in the last days of class I estimated with Marissa’s help that with in-class timed-writings, revisions, cover sheets, text-processes including the re-dos and extra credit, personal narratives and persuasive papers, notes and note reviews, research drafts, and final worldview papers, I read somewhere between 13,000 and 14,000 discrete pages of your written text over the fall and spring semesters. That’s a lot. Here’s a picture of the stack worldview papers, which accounted for only about 6% of the total output of your work that found its way onto my desk and under my pen.
Of course, I never tired of hearing many of you telling me that APELC was one of your most challenging classes in school. And I want to tell you that I was impressed by and appreciated all of your efforts.
If you take away anything from class, I hope it’s that ideas and language are inextricably linked, the latter, obviously, the means by which we express the former, and that successfully communicating your ideas depends primarily on the quality your thinking. I argued that the best thinking begins when one recognizes and moves beyond base assumptions to critical observation, analysis, and evaluation of any text, situation, et cetera. Indeed, this has been the foundation of my teaching and your learning all year, and I hope you’ll encounter your environment and the events and people in it differently, with a critical but courteous and curious mind toward true understanding. I know that many of you already began taking this approach outside of class with your self-reporting back to me often in resigned frustration.
This year more than others, we tackled the metaphysical, ontological, epistemological, and ethical foundations of the various cultures we operate in and which we often take for granted. In particular, I challenged you to think through popular tendencies toward cultural and moral relativism, two concepts that you’ve seen undercut themselves. I suggested that without standards, thinking breaks down, and we could never work toward solutions to our common problems:
- “Burned girl a symbol of Roma hate and hope”
- “Alleged victim of gang rape sentenced to one year in prison”
- “Child Brides Escape Marriage, but Not Lashes”
- “Shocking statistics on ‘female genital mutilation’”
- “Pakistan’s Sex Trade: May You Never Be Uncovered”
- “Bangladesh: 77m poisoned by arsenic in drinking water”
- “Kyrgyzstan crisis: UN says 400,000 displaced by clashes”
- “Darfur death toll rises to two-year high in Sudan”
At least a couple of these are so present as to be immediate in the United States: “Pressure for female genital cutting lingers in the U.S.”, “Modern-Day Slavery on D.C.’s Embassy Row?”. Unfortunately many of the former don’t seem to enjoy widespread concern (except for the occasional individual wearing a “Save Darfur” t-shirt), but the traditional scourges of violence and poverty within our own borders are all too obvious. Examine, for example, the Centers’ for Disease Control information on violence prevention and both the National Poverty Center and Institute for Research on Poverty for more on indigence in the United States. (Remarkably, despite the continuing recession, the United States is witnessing a significant decline in crime.)
But ideas and language are nothing if they’re manifest merely as crass cerebrating and ejaculating. Positive action and intelligent participation is vital to progress. What will you do to make a difference? (More than you peers, I hope more than your peers: “Today’s College Students Lack Empathy”. Is this a result of an inculcation of cultural and moral relativism?)
So fine job on a long year, kids. While we both anxiously await your exam results, I wonder if I did well by you. We’ll find out soon enough, and then we can assess and adjust for the future.
Best to you, and, as always, be yourselves.
Class of ‘10 APELCers
Because I commit myself to posting class notes and assignments every day of the school year, sometimes in two subjects, it’s easy for me to drop the (self-imposed) obligation when summer arrives, and so it may seem strange to be writing this many weeks into summer. As is my custom, though, I want to (belatedly) congratulate all of the graduating senior and two graduating junior APELCers: first period’s Nicole, Trevor, Andy, and Andrew; second period’s Damon, Carl, and Joe; third period’s Ebaa, Joy, Leigh, Elly, Jordan, Kristin, Michael, and Ellie; and fourth period’s Laurel, Bre, and Meg. And congratulations also those seniors who were APELCers as juniors during the 08-09 school year: third period’s Lauren, Nora, Devin/Frank, Jessica, Karen, Keri, and Lil’ Chongs; and fourth period’s Jean-Paul, Smokin’ Tony, Heather, Tim, Angelica, Jordan, my Dawg Doug (he’s got hugs), Daniel, and Andrew.
Best hopes of success to all of you wherever you find yourselves next and in the ensuing years. Make good decisions, think critically, and act conscientiously, please, because I and my family’ll be living in the future you help shape.
If you feel inclined, I’d be happy to hear from you in an email or even a visit (if I’m fortunate enough to still be teaching here) in the future from the front lines of your lives about how you’re changing the world.
And remember, since it gets tougher from here, next time you feel like it’s just one of those days, when you just can’t seem to win, if things don’t turn out the way you planned: Figure something else out, don’t stay down, try again! Yeah!