. Spinning .

I like the new GEICO commercial, where the little kid gets hung up in the basketball hoop. It’s an irony that will go over the heads of many who will chuckle perhaps, completely missing the heavier story that underlies it.

The young couple stands in front of a nice suburban home, and tell us something to the effect that their 401k wasn’t going to be enough to send their 5 year-old son through college, so they “taught him to dunk.” In the background, the little boy slam-dunks a basket and hangs there. “Scholarship!” the mother proudly beams.

And while everyone watches and giggles, no one realizes the import of not the advertised message-a GEICO savings plan–but of the ease with which one can get access to an education by learning to bounce a ball. Easier than saving money or earning a scholarship based on intelligence and knowledge. Yep, college ain’t for smarties. College is for those who can play games.

One of the best articles I’ve read on the situation of college students not being proficient in English grammar. Kim Brooks, a professor and writer tells of her frustrations and her efforts into researching the problem.

Death to High School English

It appeared to me, as an older student returning to the college classroom that the curriculum was geared to the student’s abilities and that in general, the solution was to lower standards and make the learning “fun” to ensure that the students would take part, interact. I found this odd; all through my own elementary and secondary education I’d been expected to learn and raise my knowledge up to a level, and work hard to do it. It amazed me that my first English class at a community college that was required, despite my achievement on the placement test, was “Composition.” I thought I’d been done with that in eighth grade. Composition?

Screw fun in the classroom. If they don’t want to learn, they ‘ll flunk or require remedial studies until they learn how to learn. The offer to impart knowledge is generous; at the college level it’s worth gold.

So now the trend is short story, flash fiction anywhere from 140 characters to abide by twitter-fic, to as much as 1500 words or so, depending on whose definition of flash versus short story we’re using.

Love it. However…somebody back at the education level needs to explain exactly what flash is, and how it works. A short scenario without at least intimating at story is not a story; it’s a vignette. Story doesn’t have to be complete to work, but it does need a beginning and an ending that is either revealed by the author or, Barthes-style, left up to the reader to write.

Even at Fictionaut which is one of the largest communities of great writers I’ve seen online is beginning to get some crap that passes for story. Writers need to understand that a single exchange or interaction between two characters can be a profound narrative, or it can be a fantastically interesting moment that should have included a story in there somewhere. One of the most annoying questions directed by the professor of my Creative Writing classes has been, “What’s the story?” or “Is it a story?” I hated that but anticipated it in every CW and Contemporary Fiction class after a night’s reading. It was, I see now, the most vital part of all the words put together to form a narrative. Theme, imagery, tone, voice, arc, conflict, denouement, exposition, resolution, climax–all take second, etc. place to story when writing a story. If it’s a bit of time taken out of a character’s life and doesn’t have a story, stay home and write the next chapter. If it’s a feeling, maybe it should be a poem instead.

Meanwhile, the best way to learn is to learn from the great storytellers, the writers who have mastered the skill of brevity in story. You’ll know. You won’t be left scratching your head and wondering what you’ve just read.

In (of all places) PC World, a suggestion to bring libraries some income instead of relying on pubic funding alone and the subsequent pain of budget cuts:

“Library staff would be hired based on their creative talents as well as their other competences. So a job offer for a library job might sound like this: “Mr. McCartney, I understand you like composing songs. We’re thrilled to have you join our library staff. Ms. Dickinson, your poetry is truly distinctive, welcome to our library staff. Mr. da Vinci, your drawing talent will be a big asset to our library community. Mr. Wright, we’re so happy to have someone interested in building flying machines join our staff.”

While every teaching position lost is regrettable due to the personal loss of income for the individuals as well as the impact on students and faculty, I was surprised to see such a low unemployment rate among Connecticut teachers. 1200 out of 50,000 certified teachers in the state means an unemployment rate of 2.4%.  The state average unemployment is currently at 8%.

From what I understand, stimulus funds will be flowing into education as well as construction and healthcare as the top three priorities though the money may be slower in coming than many would like. It should be an alert to those entering and already in the college systems to hone skills geared towards these less affected, more poised to rebound areas.

This page is just too funny to let pass: “80% of Grads Move  in With Parents”

And this statement, from a new graduate who sounds more like a Miss USA contestant:

“There are a lot of, like, openings, especially with group homes, nursing homes, all the stuff with, like, people that need help,” she said.

Meanwhile, it claims that CT Governor Rell sent a mass mailing out to college graduates to stay in Connecticut to pursue jobs. Yes, that’s while they’re living off their parents–who themselves may be out of work. It seems she wants to keep the best and brightest in the state.  In other words, we’re sort of catering here to an elite group who, like ‘Miss USA’ above, are so very much smarter than the regular residents.

There is greed in all sectors: Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?

I feel that same old song playing as the middle class gets the short end of the stick.

Stumbled across this site called “Interactives, Elements of a Story” that may be a very useful tool for teachers to reach students via the internet in helping them learn about, for one thing, the elements of a story as in this case. It is an interactive site that offers visuals, audio to tell the story of Cinderella, then includes the assistance of further explanation of the elements, i.e, setting, and a checkup quiz.

But wait, there’s more; the site also offers similar interactives on Math, History, Science and Cinema.

UPDATED: Charles has posted his thoughts on students: “The ones that get away are the ones that haunt you.”

Sometimes you get a sneak peek inside the soul of a professional and that flash reveals the reason why they do what they do, and why they’re good at it.

Charles Deemer is a writer, playwright, teacher, and blogs about his experiences and his work at The Writing Life II. In a post today he mentions his scriptwriting course and a particular student he dealt with in evaluation of his work.

Made a mistake with an advanced student whose work I admire by giving a curt, frank assessment of a script in progress, rather than being more politically correct in my communication.

(. . .) Meanwhile he’s an unhappy camper. I thought my clear admiration of his talent permitted a response without window dressing but I was wrong. Now I’ve lost him, probably for good. I blew it.

I don’t know exactly what he means by ‘politically correct’ and as most of you know, I’m against pc, though all for old-school common sense and politeness and I think this is what Charles is driving at.

One of the main elements of teaching, aside from disseminating information, is to understand the x number of different ways in which people learn and, by guess-judging each student as an individual as to their method, gearing the material to each as much as possible. After all, the material doesn’t change (except applying Barthes’ principles) so the students are the variable and there are obvious (and researched) signals that indicate how an individual is responding to the knowledge being offered. I’ve had a history teacher who every day plopped the textbook in front of him and bid us do the same, then lectured the entire class with occasional glances down and the requisite turning of a page. His delivery was almost word for word with the book. I’ve also had teachers who are so enthralled with the topic (which is why they got into teaching) that they never noticed a student completely asleep the whole time.

Good teaching is a a combination of caring about the subject, wanting to share that information, and understanding that the best way to do that is by recognizing and appealing to the various receptors in order to achieve that result. It’s a guess based on experience and it’s not going to be conclusive or successful 100% of the time but it’s the closest thing to gaining the result I can think of using.

In the next few years the education system will see a glut of teachers because of the government funds being directed into that field and the lack of job opportunities in the private sector as the economy worsens before it gets better. It’s going to mean even more to have an instructor such as Charles who truly seems to care about reaching individuals, not just “my students” or “my class.”

Congratulations to all graduates this year on achieving your goals, along with good wishes for your continued success in the pursuit of higher learning or with the beginning of exciting careers.

So as not to offend or cause damage to anyone’s self-esteem, congratulations to all those who didn’t graduate as well.

Proud to pass the word that Lonnieann received two awards the other night: Leadership & Service for the Art Club, and the Academic Discipline for Visual Fine Arts Program.

Lonnieann will be going on to SCAD in Georgia. Good work, lady!

Just happened to read a couple student essays; how do these kids get into college much less graduate?  Repeatedly ‘there’ for ‘their’ and ‘are’ for ‘our’, ‘your’ for ‘you’re’, and forget tense and punctuation.

We all make mistakes; we each have our quirks that stick with us regardless of knowing better, and we have Spellcheck, which bad as it is, appears to be far superior to many of its users. There seems to be a growing lackadaisical attitude towards grammar as being an important part of our communication. So why do we need bigger classrooms (physically) to hold fewer students per class and provide them with all the bells and whistles of technology? Somewhere around third grade they lost interest anyway.

Yeah, let’s pour more money into lowering standards and making it easier for all to have a college degree.

One of the best articles I’ve read recently on learning and literature, from The Chronicle, “Against Readings”:

Everyone who teaches literature has probably had at least one such
golden moment. I mean the moment where, reading casually or reading
intently, being lazy or being responsive, one is shocked into
recognition. “Yes,” one says, “that’s the way it really is.” Then
often, a rather antinomian utterance comes: “They say it’s not so, but
I know it is. I always have.”

To Mary Ellen for winning a prize on one of her excellent short stories. She will be receiving recognition on Honors Day at Trinity College (Hartford, CT).

For all the English Professors out there, McSweeneys “Internet Age Writing Syllabus and Course Interview” is just too funny:

Week 1:
Reading is stoopid

This fundamental truth may seem obvious to today’s youth, but this wasn’t always the case. Students will examine why former generations carried around heavy clumps of bound paper and why they chose to read instead of watching TV or playing Guitar Hero.