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.