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Friday, October 12, 2012

Schools Matter: Expressing a Patriotic Core

Schools Matter: Expressing a Patriotic Core:


Expressing a Patriotic Core

The intention of this post is to examine the brief "persuasive," personal narrative (fiction) and promotional piece inThe Atlantic Monthly titled "How Self-Expression Damaged My Students" by Robert Pondiscio.  Of course, it's hardly worth doing as it carries nothing but assertion and anecdote, exactly the sort of thing one ought to be opposed to when discussing how to analyse writing as an informational conveyance with very rigid rules for construction.

And as Pondiscio seems only able to compose marketing copy we can dismiss his "content" as serving an economic and ideological "interest."  But we can think a little bit about how his words mean to "work."  Before that, let's look as briefly as possible at his place of business, The Core Knowledge Foundation, before we glance at his "bio" and his extremely weak piece of writing.  If this writing is good enough for such a once-venerable