 |
 |
That's a wonderful meditation you wrote there, Marcy. It says a lot of the stuff in this book I'm reading: THE IDENTITY IN QUESTION, ed. John Rajchman (Routledge, 1995). On the poetry front, one of the things that bothers me is that so few students -- folks -- love poetry these days. So the old canonical/memorization/and its is good for you, too, hasn't instilled love of poetry, of language, or much else. So, what's the point. But there is a lot of wonderful poetry being written, or already written, that is closer to 'home' -- to where different people are actually 'at' that inspires love of poetry and even the desire to memorize, in some. And perhaps, an interest in other poetry by canonically famous folk. The African American poet June Jordan has a wonderful tribute to Walt Whitman that would make anyone want to go and read him, for example. My students are surprised that 'black poetry' exists -- and they love it. Most do, anyway. One said he never knew that poetry existed about things that mattered to him, and he is an English major. Yes, there should be some common texts in a curriculum, but that doesn't mean they need be by Dead White (European) Males, or that they be presented as 'the best of high culture.' They can be presented as representative of particular styles, points of view, historical moments, whatever, leaving room for students to seek out what else might be there, what else was going on in the discussion that goes on in a culture. Is this a rant? Leslie Leslie Sanders Humanities/Writing Programmes 706 Atkinson College (416)736-5208 (X66604) York University (416)736-5343 [log in to unmask] Encoding: 55 TEXT