A student asked me why we try to link Separate Peace to the Iliad to 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. Fair question. The human drive to make connections represents a drive toward greater understanding of and familiarity with the world. If you move more easily through the world next May than you do now, tenth grade English will have done its job.
On a practical level, any practice, whether writing or speaking, which makes you more articulate will lead to more assured success in college. When you walk into that first semester humanities seminar at Harvard, if you can argue your point of view forcefully and articulately, you will reap rewards. Teachers hate to put this crass spin on things, but there it is. I would like to say articulate living is happier living, but you would chuckle behind my back.
I am skeptical of some of the connection that we make in class. Some times I feel that the writer had no intention of making a connection but we force one out
ReplyDelete