December 3, 2008

• It smacked me upside the head today (again), sitting in my English 110 class. It’s going to sound really dumb, really dumb, but my students, when they write about themselves, they are so honest. BRUTAL. And this particular paper (“Who Are You?” multi-genre) always brings out the best writing. Due to that, I sit there amazed. I sit there thinking, “Wow. These people have lives outside this classroom.” That’s obvious; it sometimes takes a good ol’ roundtable peer review session for that thought to reappear in my melon. Like a long lost commercial: “Hey, these ‘kids’ have been through some crap. What can I possibly say as feedback?”
  
  So many of my colleagues are quick to judge and say that students a) don’t know how to write, b) can’t write about themselves well, and c) are too involved in themselves to understand the world around them… All these things, for the most part, are just way off. Way off.

  —

  “Neo Violence” by The Tough Alliance… introduced to me by my sister.

  No no need for a baseball bat
  Don’t need no knife for a sharp attack
  No excuses, no looking back
  We think too much about the things we lack

  This neo violence
  Pure self-defiance
  This neo violence
  The Tough Alliance

  I hardly noticed your short romance
  Your careless manners and your anxious glance
  Kissed and telled, got paid in advance
  You’re far behind now love you missed your chance

  This neo violence
  Pure self-defiance
  This neo violence
  The Tough Alliance

  Truly sorry thought you’d get the wink, it’s in our nature to be out of synch
  Truly sorry thought you’d get the wink, it’s in our nature to be out of synch

  • 9:24 pm
  • 2 Comments