[Miss Marple]

Did I ever tall you that a friend of mine used me as a source for students in his middle school class? I would get calls from kids who would ask me questions about history, literature, poetry, science, etc.

It was pretty amazing, because the questions were about things which I thought were common knowledge.

I don['t understand the desire to ignore such great contributions to Western civilization in favor of pop authors who will be forgotten in 20 years.

[Jemian]

People here have asked me what JT is doing now. My stock answer is that he shoots people and breaks things.

[Carolinamom]

It's amazing, isn't it, that what we thought everyone knew is not common knowledge? Being a source for those students is a great compliment to you and indicative of your continuing effort to educate...your grandkids and ...right here on FR, for instance. LOL

I was shocked to learn in one of my English 12 classes that before I could teach Milton's sonnets that I first had to explain his Biblical references, the Biblical parables, and metaphors.

Cavalier poetry was a breeze for them, however! Raging hormones stimulated their spirited discussions about female beauty being short lived ("Gather ye rosebuds...") Lol

The year before I retired the NC School Board was requiring that English teachers get on board teaching literature from "diverse" sources.....had nothing but mimeographed copies of the stories, which in my opinion had nothing of literary merit to recommend them but that their authors were from obscure African and Mideastern countries.

While I am all for broadening students' minds, I do think that they first should be exposed to their own culture and literature before venturing into the one worldism seeping into our schools.

'Guess I'm just a dinosaur.