Sunday, May 4, 2008

Three Beautiful Things 05/01-03/08: Intelligence, Sky of Stone, Living Poetry

1. My WR 122 class is focusing on the subject of work. We are focusing right now on the multiple intelligences present in what's often referred to as semi-skilled or unskilled labor. We are reading parts of Mike Rose's The Mind at Work. Christine electrified our class discussion with her comments about her father's work as a logger and her experience being from a logging town, Oakridge, from a working class family, and attending Lewis and Clark College, a privileged private school in Portland.

2. In this class, we are going to study Homer Hickam's magnificent memoir Sky of Stone. I read it yesterday to prepare for teaching it and this story of Hickam, after his freshman year at Virginia Tech, working in a coal mine and learning about the social and political underworld of Coalwood, West Virginia was invigorating and deeply insightful. I highly recommend this book. It's tender and Hickam's self-exploration is at once penetrating and forgiving.

3. In ENG 109, students chose and read aloud the Neruda Odes that had captured their imagination and interest the most and I loved hearing these Odes come alive in the reading voices of my students. Their choices were wonderful and those students who read aloud presented the poems with passion and commitment to the beauty of the poems.

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