Free Republic

<p>"Battle Royal" is perhaps the most memorable chapter in Ralph Ellison's acclaimed novel, "Invisible Man," published 51 years ago.</p> <p>It likely will make an impression on the class of 2004 at Fort Cherry High School, though not necessarily for its literary value.</p>

<p>A Chantilly High School student says his English teacher instructed the class to repeat a common two-word profanity 10,000 times as a way of desensitizing them to its appearance in the novel "Catcher in the Rye."</p> <p>Jeff Daybell, 17, a senior at Chantilly, said he brought the incident to the attention of school administrators because he was shocked at the teacher's instructions.</p>

<p>Marc Antony has stopped asking his countrymen to lend him their ears, and spelling, which used to count, doesn't count as much as it used to.</p> <p>And hardly any of the 7,000 English teachers in San Francisco for their big convention this week can spell "Schwarzenegger.''</p>

A white literacy coach is under fire for reading a black man's essay on the N-word at a Brooklyn seminar and using African-American diction and mannerisms in her performance. According to a report in Newsday, Jill Bloomberg read "The 'N' Word: It Just Slips Out" at a local high school, hoping to stimulate discussion among several high-school literacy coaches in attendance at the Oct. 10 event. Instead, her performance caused several black attendees to walk out. "It was like watching Al Jolson do 'Mammy,'" Cathie Wright Lewis, a 21-year teacher and literacy coach, told the paper. "It was like getting...

Last Updated: Monday, 20 October, 2003, 11:53 GMT 12:53 UK Writer King cancels teaching plan King is writing a drama series for US TV Horror writer Stephen King has pulled out of plans to teach writing to school children over the internet. King, the writer of The Shining, It and Carrie, last year unveiled plans to teach a writing class to seventh and eight-graders in his home state Maine. But now the writer has said he is too busy to teach for at least another year. King is currently writing a 15-part TV drama series called Stephen King's Hospital, and...

Local NAACP chapter avoids book debate By Colleen Wixon staff writer October 17, 2003 VERO BEACH -- The Indian River County branch of the NAACP is watching from a distance how the School District is handling a challenge of the book, "A Land Remembered." Two parents have challenged the book, saying its use of a racial slur makes it inappropriate as a class reading book. A district committee has been created to read the book and make a recommendation to the School Board. Victor Hart Sr., president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said...

Bill Nevins, a published poet, journalist, teacher, and member of the National Writers Union, was assigned to teach at-risk and other students at Rio Rancho High School (Albuquerque, NM) and to establish a student writing club and performance-poetry team. Nevins' efforts were very successful. Hundreds of students packed the RRHS auditorium and joined nationally-famed New Mexico poets onstage for a December, 2002 poetry reading. Dozens of students joined the Write Club, developing literacy and public-expression skills in a multicultural, multilingual context under Nevins' guidance. A Slam Poetry Team formed, with students joyfully performing their original compositions at school, at local...

Modesto Mom Fights to Rid Classrooms of X-Rated Literature By Jim Brown August 1, 2003 (AgapePress) - One California parent is refusing to abandon her campaign to have sexually explicit books removed from classrooms in her school district. Pamela LaChappell has been calling on the Modesto City School Board to drop the offensive literature from its required reading list. For months now, LaChappell has been warning parents, grandparents, and taxpayers in Modesto that some of the literature being used in the city schools' advanced English classes is sexually explicit and so offensive as to be considered X-rated. She has taken...

People often tell Julie Miller: "E-mail's ruined me." As a business-writing coach, Miller spends her time teaching professionals — architects, bankers, engineers, you name it — to write better, faster. And it appears that, increasingly, companies of all kinds are realizing the importance of the written word. "Writing skills are a career-maker or breaker," Miller said. "There's no place to hide now, with everyone having access to a computer, because your writing is on display." Good writing skills are especially important if you are looking for a job. In a tough economy, employers often are deluged with résumés and cover...

College Board Scores With Critics of SAT Analogies By Paul Pringle Times Staff Writer July 27, 2003 The SAT is to college admission ... " ... As a root canal is to a dentist?" said Peter Lee, 16. He and several other weary-looking high school students had just emerged from a four-hour SAT prep class in Glendale. "As a root canal is to a patient?" suggested Emin Gharibian, 17. Neither of those worked for Anthony Kwon, 16. "As a root canal is to pain," he said. Pain is typically the refrain when college-bound youngsters jaw about the SAT. But some...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sat27jul27,1,1810756.story?coll=la-home-headlines   College Board Scores With Critics of SAT Analogies By Paul Pringle Times Staff Writer July 27, 2003 The SAT is to college admission ... " ... As a root canal is to a dentist?" said Peter Lee, 16. He and several other weary-looking high school students had just emerged from a four-hour SAT prep class in Glendale. "As a root canal is to a patient?" suggested Emin Gharibian, 17. Neither of those worked for Anthony Kwon, 16. "As a root canal is to pain," he said. Pain is typically the refrain when college-bound youngsters jaw about the SAT....

Ten years ago, the scattered members of the classics department -- all four of us, dispersed in the departments of history, English, and modern languages -- were finally given a distinct physical locus on campus. After eighteen years in the English department, I moved two buildings away to my new office. Of course, the student pickings these days are slim for specialists in Greek and Latin, so the classics faculty justify their existence by making their department unobtrusive, inexpensive, and useful. In addition to the Latin and Greek and ancient studies, each of us teaches "core" classes of relatively high...

AUBURN NY--Theodore R. Connors, whose daughter was a seventh-grader at West Middle School this spring, said an English class assignment requiring pupils to write a suicide note was highly inappropriate. "It's a very dark, dark assignment," he said. Connors, who recently ran unsuccessfully for the Auburn school board, wants the assignment dropped next year and said the school district should advise parents of pupils who completed the assignment to talk with the children about suicide. Auburn School Superintendent John Plume said Wednesday he didn't think the assignment, as described by the school's principal, was inappropriate. Plume said he's talked to...

<p>William Robinson, 18, claims a teacher at Cousino High School in Warren used the word when reading from the book and during later discussions about it. He said he was offended. Robinson's mother, Theda Harris, said the family plans to file a lawsuit against the district. A spokesman for the district pointed out that the slur is in the book.</p>

<p>CONCORD, CA - There are two schools of thought when it comes to challenging advanced students.</p> <p>Some people think students of all abilities should be grouped together so they all receive an equal education. Others believe advanced students should be in a separate group and offered a more rigorous curriculum.</p>