Dear all:
Please use the last two weeks on the blog to continue to discuss any pressing issues or discuss your seminar projects. Use this forum to share ideas or ask questions. You might also want to comment on the presentations and continue talking about issues they raised.
Janet
3 comments:
Did anyone else notice or see the link between writing and English as a sign for serious frustrations (not the best word here) or pyschological problems and adolescants in the Virginia Tech shooting? It seems very related to the topic of discussion during, I think, trauma week about the role of the teacher, books and discussion being bibliotherapy or not, the use of writings to convey these feelings etc. The shooter said he identified with the Columbine shooters, and they did the same thing writing about such things in classroom papers. It seems to add a new deminsion to the English teacher, in particularly, than any other teacher of other subjects to be aware of these signs much like a counselor. It is very disturbing and saddening to think that it is continuing to happend and frequently.
Staci
Thanks for bringing this up, Staci. It is a strange and disturbing parallel to Columbine in some ways. I guess in English classes we are more apt to find out "personal" things about students and hear about their psychological traumas or struggles because we ask them to read and write about the human condition--about themselves, about others, about what it means to be human. However, it does make one think about responding to student writing and the role of writing in an English class. I'm sure none of the Virginia Tech shooter's teachers ever thought it would come to this. What might they have done differently? I don't know--maybe nothing. Maybe something. It seems like a heavy load to place on the shoulders of English teachers, though, and I'm not sure it's always appropriate or useful for us to think of ourselves as bibliotherapists. But on the other hand. . .
Janet
Here's a New York Times article on this topic called "Anger of Killer Was on Exhibit in His Writings." You can access it at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/us/20english.html?ex=1178078400&en=7294a55df5a1e1fd&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Janet
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