“Above Us Only Sky”: A Writing Teacher’s Manifesto
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” John Lennon is right. From the time I was a small girl, people have told me that I’m idealistic, which always came across as a nice way of calling me naïve. But when it comes to teaching, I am one of Lennon’s dreamers. I really do believe that education should have meaning, and I believe students should, at least on occasion, feel the excitement of epiphany in a classroom setting.
Just the other day, one of my college-level writing classes experienced just that. We sat together in a conference room that had been reserved for our fish bowl discussion around this question “Is college necessary to be successful?” and for a time I felt like we were a group of ancient Roman philosophers analyzing the important questions of life.
You might be thinking that this was a tricky question that I came up with to get my students to think critically about why they’re there or to persuade them to reflect on what an education means to them, but you’d be wrong. I didn’t devise this activity at all. Sure, I reserved the room, but the students did everything else. All I had to do
Just the other day, one of my college-level writing classes experienced just that. We sat together in a conference room that had been reserved for our fish bowl discussion around this question “Is college necessary to be successful?” and for a time I felt like we were a group of ancient Roman philosophers analyzing the important questions of life.
You might be thinking that this was a tricky question that I came up with to get my students to think critically about why they’re there or to persuade them to reflect on what an education means to them, but you’d be wrong. I didn’t devise this activity at all. Sure, I reserved the room, but the students did everything else. All I had to do
