Perhaps my greatest aversion– Fluttering of hearts…ah, for chrissake! Idiotic pet names, sentimental associations With chance occurrences, Constructing meaning out of chaos. Receiving wisdom and putative significance On the force of verdant eyes Or a fluid voice Or the bodily contours That random evolution Has unfairly favored Over the survival of the mammoth. A locking [...]
The lessons we forget teach us the best, As learning them anew, we learn the more. With pride distressed, a humble heart’s twice blessed With grace regained, though cast away before. The happy masses walk a wide, clear way Straight-stepping at an automatic pace, While hapless seekers to the fringes stray And tripped by tempting [...]
Nowadays, most adults seem to shave. Women shave a larger surface area than men, and they usually do this in the shower. Men have traditionally kept their shaving to their faces, standing at the sink in front of a mirror. Of course, recent fashion has made things more elaborate for some members of the hairier [...]
My back hurts more from weighty vanity Than from the burdens livelihood requires. My soul aches more from my humanity Than from ill answer to my base desires. With fifty circles run in matter’s realm, And dozens yet to come if fortune grants, I see a new tide harshly overwhelm The shore of egotism’s vast [...]
I am forty years older than my eighth-graders. So little has changed since I was their age–yet so much. In 1982, my friends and I had phones, video games, pop music, movies, and television. I was one of the few kids in my school who had a computer, an Atari 800. I did not have [...]
Over every advance looms vanity; With each conquest, a new ambition buds; With every gain comes an urge to consume. All victories add distance To the illusory horizon of attainment. The wise one heeds a setback For its eloquent encouragement to persist. The strong soul woos elusive fruition For its divine kiss of humility. The [...]
The world abounds in beauty, if only we can appreciate it. When I teach students about grammar, we discuss the distinction between concrete and abstract nouns. In essence, a noun denoting something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste is concrete–flowers, sunlight, pizza. Abstract nouns, such as democracy and kindness, represent ideas. Inevitably, the [...]
If riches should elude me as I toil And lovers flee though once they did me seek, Should bold endeavors wilt in barren soil, Or fools impale me on the ills they speak, I could not even then give breath to rail Against the Fates who measure, weave, and trim The cloth of my corporeal [...]
And now, I am ready to reveal my history of addiction…to British television. It started, as it often does, with early exposure. During the 1970's, I would sneak out of my bed to watch secretly from the stairs over the living room as my father viewed episodes of Masterpiece Theater, Upstairs, Downstairs, and I, Claudius. [...]
For learning’s sake we tend well to our books, The patterned pages painting bright the mind. We keep keen after, too, our charming looks So as to fill the world with humankind. We humbly make our way to kneel and pray Each week to ears that listen from the sky; We lay our labors out [...]
Real Teaching 