The Cultural Gutter

theatlantic:

Sex, Violence, and Radical Islam: Why ‘Persepolis’ Belongs in Public Schools

So we’re faced with a choice. Do we want to micromanage our schools for ideological purity? Or do we want kids to learn something — even, sometimes, something with which we might disagree? If we want the first, we should keep on as we’re keeping on. If we want the second, we need to stop being so worried that teachers might teach the wrong thing that we don’t let them teach anything at all.
Read more. [Image: Marjane Satrapi]

Sex, Violence, and Radical Islam: Why ‘Persepolis’ Belongs in Public Schools

So we’re faced with a choice. Do we want to micromanage our schools for ideological purity? Or do we want kids to learn something — even, sometimes, something with which we might disagree? If we want the first, we should keep on as we’re keeping on. If we want the second, we need to stop being so worried that teachers might teach the wrong thing that we don’t let them teach anything at all.

Read more. [Image: Marjane Satrapi]

High-res Notes: 525 3/19/13 — 1:09pm Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Z7x6wxgdkrTX Filed under: #marjane satrapi #persepolis #censorship #comics #children #YA #education #pedagogy

thenearsightedmonkey:

Twenty students in The Unthinkable Mind class were told they had a week to memorize Emily Dickinson’s Poem #530.

Two days later, before most of them had started working on it they were asked write down what they could remember of the poem.

QUESTION: What traces does a poem leave behind after one has read it only once or twice?
Poem # 530

You cannot put a Fire out --
A Thing that can ignite
Can go, itself, without a Fan --
Upon the slowest Night --

You cannot fold a Flood --
And put it in a Drawer --
Because the Winds would find it out --
And tell your Cedar Floor --

Notes: 23 2/17/13 — 1:38pm Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Z7x6wxeMYLsA Filed under: #poetry #art #emily dickinson #lynda barry #education

At the Gutter: Hitting the Books, Hard

Romance Editor Chris takes a look at students in Romance:

As I said this time last year, I like back to school season. I love the energy of it. I miss the sense of anticipation, of knowing I had lots of new things to look forward to. At least, usually I do. Perhaps I’m just feeling particularly curmudgeonly this season, or maybe summer was just too busy. But for some reason, looking ahead past Labour Day this year all I can see is a long dull grind. Bah.

So in an effort to caffeinate my mental state, I’m going to write about students in Romance. In other words: the heroine and hero meet because one needs to learn something from the other (yes, last year I wrote about teachers. But education is like a highway: it goes in both directions). Hopefully exposure to so many stories about the desire to learn will rub off on me. Inspiration is catching, you know.

image via Hey, Girl, I Like The Library, Too.

PRINT THIS POST WORDS: 9/5/12 — 8:13pm Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Z7x6wxSraiRm Filed under: #romance #chris szego #julie james #sabrina jeffries #lisa kleypas #nora roberts #anne stuart #ryan gosling #libraries #students #teachers #education

Just in time for school, Chris writes about romance with an educational bent.

(image via Skandalon here on Tumblr. You can also read more about the image there.)

Notes: 1 9/7/11 — 12:34am Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Z7x6wx9Ebj-h Filed under: #romance #Cultural Gutter #chris szego #education