Education in the First Person

After several weeks without Internet, I am posting a whole bunch of stuff at the same time. Here is post #1:


Reading Kozol's essay "First Person," followed by Baxter's short story "Gryphon" reminded me how abstract education can feel. Far too often, there is school and there is real life. There are books we read for pleasure and assignments we read because the teacher tells us to. There emails and notes and poems we write because something within us compels us to communicate our thoughts and dreams and opinions and needs. And there are papers we write because a syllabus tells us they are due.