Three Beautiful Things 11/30/07: Endings, Exoneration, Enthusiasm

1. Regular class meetings ended today for fall quarter. It's a great day to start to look back over the quarter and reflect on the way I've seen so many of my students gain confidence in their writing, think through ideas of great consequence regarding the deep themes of their own lives, and read compelling and moving books focused on the human experiences of loss, survival, and reconciliation. I'm already looking forward to the start of winter quarter.



2. I watched the documentary "After Innocence" tonight. It's a moving hour and a half look at The Innocence Project and at a handful of men who had been incarcerated, despite their innocence, and what their lives are looking like since being exonerated. It's a sobering movie. It underscores just how very difficult it is for criminal cases to be properly prosecuted and how impoverished our judicial system is when it comes to providing proper defense to those accused of crimes.

3. I spent nearly a half an hour talking with Alexandra today, a student who came into fall quarter with a chip on her shoulder, doubting that she had anything to learn in college, and who turned a corner about four weeks in and is enthused about learning, admits her disenchantment was wrong, and has developed into a very good writer, eager to continue to improve.