[Since my students just finished reading Nabokov’s Lolita, I thought I’d give their responses to the notion that it shouldn’t be taught in upper secondary. This is the third in the Why We Should Teach Lolita in High School series. See Number One here, Number Two here, with many interesting comments. If you […]
Category Archives: censorship
Fear-Based Curriculum: A Language Arts Tragedy (More on Teaching Lolita)
April 15, 2008 – 6:39 am
Extending my last post on why I think Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita should be required reading at some point in high school language arts classes:
In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus kills his father, then marries and impregnates his mother: we teach this parricidal, incestuous, antique “classic” to 14-year-olds.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the prince’s uncle murders his brother […]
Meme: High School Daze to Praise (For Mature Audiences Only)
April 10, 2008 – 8:35 pm
{Update 15 April: After reading this and the comments, be sure to read this follow-up post and the comments there. Interesting stuff in those comments.]
Constance incarnate Diane Cordell tagged me for this literature-themed meme begun by Paul C. at quoteflections. It’s a fun one for me, for a couple of reasons. But first, here […]
Podcast: Three Schools Discover the 21st Century!
March 22, 2008 – 1:07 am
One for the MiniLegends
[Update: I was out of the loop preparing for my wedding when Australian Al Upton’s MiniLegends and Qatar’s Jabiz Raisdana got hit by two shockingly reactionary hammers. Since this podcast features Noel Thomas, an Australian high school principal representing all that is most forward-thinking and impressive about Australia’s educational system, I’d […]
Truly Critical: Thinking about Science, Religion, and Goodness
December 25, 2007 – 7:25 am
Did you ever notice that we have no holidays in which we revere history’s true - in the sense of “backed up with evidence” - miracle-workers, those hard-working saviors we call “scientists”?
Think about it: scientists, through the “miracle” of human reason, have eradicated diseases for literally billions of people through medicine, created light and warmth […]
