To the editor:
I was very shocked by the anonymous AP literature and composer’s time summary in Salt Lake City. His tone was even more shocked, his tone was condescending, arrogant and unapologetic, and a sense of superiority towards him. Together with me how his teacher might be (especially if he has a good sleep, the lamb is not good), but he emphasizes victimization in the case of accompanying reading He signed up to participatenot just offensive; it is reprehensible.
His attitude, the whole incident was under him, and it was difficult to understand. Again, he chose to be there. He blatantly ignored his dining table leader rather than reading the article, and behind the anonymous shield, he celebrated only a few 5 seconds. When he was asked to follow the rules, he regarded it as a personal offense. I feel particularly sad for any AP student who suffers, because of the negligence of this disdainful and self-deceiving reader.
Worse, he uses all his experiences as microcosm to solve the problems of today’s education. Other readers are part of this dig: While he gets up and gives himself extra rest, his colleagues “seem to be very suitable for the AP program, and also for the regime.” He has fled Plato’s cave, though, and comes back to tell us all… free coffee is not very good.
This is a practical problem that plagues the state of writing in college, from uncritical students to inability to accurately assessing students’ homework and papers. For these reasonable concerns, it seems that he only has to worry that he has encountered too few articles, which contain “informative or fluent things.” He concluded: “Is this how we educate the best, smartest, and these near-future college students? Have we conducted years of self-conceited humanities from within?”
Sharp readers may resist bend over to make this generalization. A keen reader may conclude that writing hastily about an invisible topic, while countless other concerns are affecting its writers, rarely fluent enough. However, the author’s focus on these flawed papers shows something worse: an attitude that is more caring than celebrating the success of the article, and AP readers explicitly undertake to do so. As many happiness scholars have pointed out, expressing gratitude is an effective way to combat negative emotions.
If I were the kind of writer who draws overconfident conclusions with few examples, I might say that anonymous authors represent the worst sign of virtue: simultaneously lamenting “the army of food service workers, mostly Hispanic or Asian”, “mostly Hispanic or Asian”, but they have to serve all readers, but they also overly intedulling the Freepindul the Free Food the Freeplient forpeptive five Feptive forpeptive fivepline fears nlign spretsive ‘I am my wiastline”I am my wiastline”I am my wiasline” He also pointed out the inequality that female professors face (“female professors who usually fit with most female professors in colleges usually shoulders”), while demeaning her own female desk assistant leader (ignoring her when she asked him to put down her phone). Dare to conclude that he stares at the shadow of true virtue in the caves of his concrete convention center floor and thick black curtains?
Maybe I overreacted. I didn’t like the character he showed here, and that’s part of the reason why I left higher education after completing my PhD. At most academic conferences, especially in the humanities, our findings clearly help the field unlike science, where posters and self-stimulation are common. Seven years ago, I became a high school teacher and now an AP literature reader, and I am happy to report that I find myself surrounded by the optimism of youth, rather than the performance exhaustion of some in some higher education.
Sorry, the author put on his ennui and disillusionment as a symbol of his superiority. Sorry, he celebrates his human abuse with unrealistic high standards. Unfortunately, he was frustrated by the experience and felt the need to open up the garbage. What purpose?
I’m not on the author’s desk this year. I’m sure my sunny personality will make me feed for his future dissatisfaction. (When he arrived at the table and saw so many people start reading, he replied, “The warm atmosphere is powerless.”) But perhaps we can embrace our role as educators instead of focusing on complaining about the tasks that are involved through the essay or writing state. Few other positions have such direct effects on so many people.
Hopefully, when we teach our students to write well and analyze texts insightfully, we can also teach them to see the hope that there is potential to bring – as long as they try to be in the right attitude, they can always find something to celebrate.
Andrew J. Calis is an English teacher at Archbishop Spalding High School in Maryland.
