“It occurred to me how curious it was that books are so often written about as if they were toasters.”

May 11, 2021

Toasters? In Anne Fadiman’s world, there is a difference between useful objects such as toasters and important things that you want to maintain a connection with, such as books. She loves books. As a writer, and the daughter of parents who were both writers, and … Read More

“No way those girls could have turned out halfway normal.”

May 3, 2021

“Those girls” are the Vignes twins, who at a very young age, saw five white men lynching their black father. The neighbors predicted that the girls couldn’t be “right” afterwards, and indeed, both girls went on to make many questionable choices. This novel — a bestseller — … Read More

“I may just be the owner of a small bookstore in the middle of the country trying to argue against the world’s richest man …”

April 20, 2021

Danny Caine continues, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to quietly watch the world’s richest man relentlessly collect money, influence, and power.”  In 128 pages, he argues for “resisting” Amazon.  Much of what he says about fighting for local economies, data privacy, fair labor, independent bookstores, … Read More

“Wasn’t it dreadful? I almost hoped somebody might stand up at the back of the church and forbid the marriage – like in Jane Eyre…”

April 12, 2021

The vicar’s wife continues, “…and expose John as an imposter. I wanted it to happen, and not only for Ianthe’s good.” Wow! What a confession! The vicar’s wife – who we thought should be friends with Ianthe – disapproved of her marriage to John. Why? She … Read More

“But no less than the daily food we eat, the daily literature we consume can have significant benefits.”

March 31, 2021

Can reading a great book be therapeutic? Every English teacher I know would say yes. Some of us, in fact, prescribe books to our friends who might want help in delicate situations. What’s new here is the idea that neuroscientists – like Fletcher – can identify … Read More

“Some people hold the view that if you are a learned scholar in a field, that should be enough to make you a good teacher.”

March 22, 2021

We all know this isn’t true. Is there a person alive who hasn’t suffered through a class taught by an expert who was boring? And yet, it seems to me that we are reluctant to acknowledge that “emotion” can support or suppress learning. We focus on covering … Read More

“We unite in the same dissonance: the need to produce effective writing, yet the failure to attain it by willpower alone.”

March 11, 2021

Ah, willpower!  Nearly everyone jumps to the conclusion that difficulty in writing has one root cause: a lack of willpower. It is easier to fall into the trap of blaming oneself than it is to consider another possibility: things are harder to do when you are out … Read More

“But I slowly came to realize that self-criticism – despite being socially sanctioned – was not at all helpful, and in fact only made things worse.”

February 26, 2021

One of my English 1 students recently said, “I hate myself when I write essays.” Another student turned to her and said, “I thought I was the only one who did that.” Negative self-talk is very common among my students, so I’ve been looking for research on … Read More

“In reality, Stoicism is not about suppressing or hiding emotion – rather, it is about . . . keeping in mind what is and what is not under our control, focusing our efforts on the former and not wasting them on the later.”

February 12, 2021

In the last year, so many things have happened to us as a result of COVID-19 that it’s easy to feel powerless.  I’m drawn to a philosophy that counters that feeling. Stoics recommend that instead of spending our energy railing against things we can’t control – like … Read More

“We must accustom ourselves to talking without orating, and to writing without achieving Paradise Lost.”

February 4, 2021

It’s clear to me that times like these – frigid temperatures, fights in Washington, and February flatness — call for help from William Stafford. Why?  He is a poet who knows what to do when times are hard. Press on, I think he’d say. He … Read More

“Caste is the powerful infrastructure that holds each group in its place.”

January 29, 2021

Ever since I started reading a history of the United States, I’ve been thinking long and hard about how our past has led to our present.  I am reassessing many of my assumptions about our core values. This provocative book is challenging me even further.  Wilkerson… Read More

“Nearly five in ten white families and nine in ten black families endured poverty at some point during the Depression.”

January 19, 2021

Why was the rate of poverty so high for black families in the 1930s? The version of American history that I learned in high school decades ago never explored this question. In fact, I don’t recall learning much at all about laws in the last century that … Read More

“The inexplicable is all around us. So is the incomprehensible.”

January 8, 2021

Are you as astonished as I am by the events in Washington this week?  During uncertain times like this, I like to reach for the works of the wise poets who are drawn to things that they find inexplicable because they believe that the process of achieving … Read More

Best 2020 Book Prescriptions

December 30, 2020

If 2020 was a great year for you, stop reading.  This blog post is not for you.  If, however, 2020 presented you with some real challenges, and you are looking for some prescriptions in the form of book recommendations, here we go:

Worst year ever? If you … Read More

“We will not succeed in teaching today’s students unless we make a fundamental shift in our thinking: away from preventing distraction and toward cultivating attention.”

December 3, 2020

While reading James Lang’s newest guidebook for college teachers, I shared one of the ideas with my English 1 students: “Attention is a gift that students and professors give to each other.”  I asked them how their teachers cultivate and sustain their attention.  I got an earful … Read More