Teaching Lit. in S.S. - Looking at Jago Writing About Literature Article

Hello again to all you good people, out there in TV Land. Tonight I would like to talk about an article by NCTE President-elect Carol Jago, Crash! The Currency Crisis in American Culture. To give you an overview, this article confronts issues facing the today's educational system as it pertains to the importance of analyzing texts of depth and writing papers arguing points based on evidence from the text. I highly recommend to anyone that is interested in knowing why it is important that students read texts that require critical thinking processes : Read this article!

In the first section of Jago's article, Prepared to make a living, make a life, make a difference, she writes about the need for students to develop critical thinking skills early on in life because they are a set of skills that will be needed for a lifetime. Jago argues that as people read a text critically they vicariously experience the characters' victories and failures, providing valuable insight into making the difficult decisions facing them in real life. Jago also brings up the point that literature gives us great insight into the human condition. Literature can inspire us, lead us to new understanding, give us the strength to push forward. In A Voice from the Attic, Robertson Davies describes literature "not as a manifestation of fashion, not as a substitution for life, but as one of the greatest of the arts".

The whole rest article (which I'm not going to go into the labor of covering) goes on to discuss several great point arguing the need for essay writing as a means of developing students' critical thinking and writing abilities. She also brings up some points about incorporating Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development into your teaching methods to enhance the quality of lessons presented to students. Yet, the one point that I didn't necessarily agree with Jago about was that she seems to feel that the types of analysis and critical thinking used to analyze texts seems to be most important in classical texts. I differ in my thought in that I believe that it is possible to accomplish the same ends through different means - i.e. the incorporation of newer materials with the classics.

I conclusion, I just want to come back to the points being made in the opening sections of Jago's article about sharpening students' critical thinking and decision making skills through literature in order to make students' into more successful citizens and free thinkers. I just think that everything she says in Prepared to make a living, make a life, make a difference section is Gold for any education major or professional. It may seem a bit idealistic, but it is in my mind the ultimate goal to to striving for as an educator: to turn out students intelligent students capable of making strong, educated decisions, and then be able to logically argue those decisions to others.

This is a great article. Check it out!

-Sam P.