assignment #26 - lily gardner: (and now i find) now i find i've changed my mind, i've opened up the doors

Things I appreciated in class: socratic seminars (reading, discussion); writing many many many blog posts; a feeling of comfort; honesty from my teacher; practicing, a lot; writing a speech; making a movie; assignments that did not feel inherently related by were interesting nonetheless; anytime we read; flouting henry clay’s prescribed grading system; homework? who is she?

Things I didn’t appreciate so much: watching a webinar on leadership skills and development; where are the books? how can we learn to write if we do not read?; grading essays for days on end as an entire class; discovering that there are units? ap classroom videos felt radically different from class

I do not pretend to understand the intricacies of teacher pedagogy or claim to be a superb English teacher, but I think a fundamental component of any language based class should be reading. I’m not calling for a class wide analysis of Anna Karenina in the dead of winter, as I expect no one to read Russian literature at the height of Kentucky’s “great grey,” but perhaps more than a few articles for a socratic seminar would be nice. I just don’t understand how anyone can claim to be a good writer or understand the world and analyze it and think about what Abigail Adams wrote to her son if no one has Amy Tan or Shakespeare or Virginia Woolfe. How can we fully understand Ghandi’s quest for liberation without reading the unsanitized writings of Martin Luther King Jr. in tandem with romanticized depictions of colonization (Out of Africa)? Otherwise, we’re all going to think like Jeanine Cummins and write books about things we can’t understand and shouldn’t propagate. I love that this class is built upon foundations of relationships, and reading is the key to empathy in a world of ignorant white people that is increasingly divided. My schooling thus far has lacked any preparation for interaction with the world or guidance to navigate it or even an opportunity to think critically about what is happening right now, perhaps this is a start. And if we’re all going to be sitting at home next year, the least we can do is pick up a book or read an article.