When students express fear of tests or term papers, I recite this couplet as a warning to them:Ĭowards die many times before their deaths, Leaving thin out grown shell by life’s unresting sea!Īnother oft used quote is from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler that the last, For example, I often use a stanza of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ The Chambered Nautilus to enliven my students to apply themselves and learn.īuild thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Hardly a day goes by in my life of teaching at the college level that I don’t quote something to a student that I had memorized a half century ago. These clippings were about the author, the author’s work, or another piece of poverty or prose having to do with that unit in the textbook. ![]() Her book had doubled its thickness due to her additions while she was teaching, which she had taped to most pages. It was her academic gift to the next generation. When Charlie returned, Anna presented it to me. I was amazed that she still had her copy, which she had used for more than a dozen years at Mt. ![]() I am quite sure that I was the only student that had ever shared their dislike of having to memorize all those lines, while, at the time, their love that they had for being able to retrieve many of the lines decades later.Īnna told Charlie, her husband, to get her old textbook from her study. I also told her how much I still recall of those many lines committed to memory many years ago. I told her about my dislike for the memorizing that I had to do for her and my other literature teachers. More than a decade had passed since I left Mt. She had retired a couple years after I graduated in 1961. In the midst of my educational journey after leaving Mt. Guess what? I still remember parts of a large number of lines that were memorized a half century ago. After graduation, I went to college, grad school, post grad school, and finally got my doctorate. In spite of that painful process, I survived my educational ordeal of memorizing many hundreds of lines during my high school years. However, at least once a week, I would come in early or stay late and stand before her to recite my selected lines. ![]() To say that I hated the memorization process would be an understatement.a great understatement. We had to be perfect in our reciting to her the lines, which we picked to memorize. She was an older teacher and quite demanding especially when it came to accuracy. My homeroom and American literature teacher was Mrs. It was required back then to have each student memorize a couple hundred verses of poetry or lines of prose per semester. While there, I took both English and American literature classes in my junior and senior year. Lebanon High School, which is in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, PA. O SHIP OF STATE THOUGHTS WHILE SAILING MY OCEANĪ half century ago, I graduated from Mt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |