Re: CCCC Sessions

[96BANDY@wmich.edu]

Lady-
	I wasn't at that session, but it recalls a couple of horrible
anecdotes I can't help but relate quickly.  Sometimes i think classroom
teachers are just afraid to have anyone else know what they are doing in
their classes.  Like regional or small town governments they are jealousy
protective of their perceived ppower and autonomy (I recognize my harsh words
here, but I did say *sometimes* and I do mean *some* teachers).  Case in
point: when discussing possible directions with a student on Charlotte
Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" the student noticed several things
about setting that seemed od, the rings in the floor and walls, the bars on
the windows and at the stairs, the landscaping outside the window.  When I
asked her what it reminded her of, she said it was like an asylum.  I
encouraged her to pursue that and we even discussed the possibility of
reading the story as an unreliable narrator of sorts, that the character
might have been a patient of this still twisted man and imagined that she was
his wife.  She returned later and said the instructor had said, "That's
wrong.  Don't pursue that."  And this before the instructor had read
anything, simply at the mention of the direction.  This sort of attitude
helps students learn critical thinking and analysis skills?

James Bandy, GA               |---------------------------------------------  
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