Category Archives: literature

1984 is Here

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: December 29, 2012

According to this article,  new education ‘guidelines’ require teachers to pull more than half of the reading assignments for high school from… what? Dickens? Austen? No, of course not.  Not even Bradbury, Tolkien, Rowling, or a Stephen King.  The new Common Curriculum requires that high school students read- for literature- ‘informational texts.’ Literacy experts point [...]

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Living in contradistinction to existing=)

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: November 5, 2009

Are You Alive?by Stuart Chasecondensed from The Nationfrom the September 1922 issue of The Reader’s Digest, reprinted in the 1941 Twentieth Anniversay Anthology There seems to be an ascending scale of values in life, and somewhere in this scale there is a line–probably a blurred one–below which one more or less “exists” and above which [...]

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Dickens

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: October 13, 2009

I read my first Dickens when I was 18 years old, the summer I graduated high school. It wasn’t an assignment. I don’t even remember what, exactly, made me pick up the Dickens novels I found, a set of them for only a couple dollars each, from the little San Francisco book store where I [...]

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Wedding story from 1887

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: October 12, 2009

From “THE STORY OF A NEW YORK HOUSE” By H. C. BUNNER AND in May of the next year, King’s Bridge being out of the question, and etiquette being waived at the universal demand of society, the young couple stood up in the drawing-room of the Dolph house to be wed. The ceremony was fashionably [...]

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A Walk Through the Year

By JennyAnyDots | Published: October 12, 2009

October 12th, “The sweet smell of woodsmoke drifts down the slope. Looking from across the pond I see a skein of bluish vapor trailing from the fireplace chimney and losing itself in the blue of the sky. On the hearth below, the first small fire of the year is blazing.Farther down my side of the [...]

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Alexander the Great

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: May 1, 2009

Alexander The Great, by Jacob Abbott Pre-reading activities:Find Macedon on a map.What is a regent?Define solicitude.Define impetuous.What is meant by character? Chapter One, possible narration questions: Tell me About Alexander’s Character. Why is character important? Who determines yours? Tell me about where Alexander was from? Tell me about his horse? Tell me about his family? [...]

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Post Literate World

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: January 26, 2009

Yesterday at the library I couldn’t get any work done because a college studying in the next cubicle over wanted a study break, so he first struck up a conversation with my 10 year old son, and I found myself unavoidably drawn in. We talked about all sorts of issues, hospitals, the death of his [...]

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Connections (written somewhat hastily by a very tired college student procrastinating on history writing)

By TheHeadGirl | Published: December 3, 2008

“Far over the plain Eowyn saw the glitter of their spears, as she stood still, alone before the doors of the silent house.” – The Two Towers A friend is currently reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time. We’ve been talking about them as he goes through them and it’s made [...]

Also posted in lord of the rings, shakespeare | 3 Comments