The Painful Nowning Process

Yes, it’s summer, but a teacher’s work never ends. People just think we have long summer vacations. Forget it! We’re either teaching summer school (OK, I’m not actually doing that this year . . . so far), or planning next fall’s classes, or doing some other kind of research, or doing some administrative task for the college. Because we are dedicated to our vocations.

And with that in mind, I must post this little 60-second free-writing exercise site, which seems both educational and entertaining—perfect for summer! Seriously—only takes a minute! Try it, and see your results immediately!

In the south, it’s “lhude singe mockingbird,” even though we have “cuccu”s, they aren’t nearly as remarkable as the English ones. So, exams and final papers are done, grades are filed, graduation and its celebrations have passed. We said farewell to several of our finest English majors, as we do every year. Some have plans, some–are still planning, but we expect they’ll do well whatever they do.

I’ll be cleaning up my office (or at least organizing the clutter a bit), preparing the courses I’ll be teaching this coming fall, and writing a paper for a conference in June. Not necessarily in that order.

What are you doing this summer?

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days this semester, so I haven’t been able to alliterate as regularly as I’d like. Nevertheless.

Things I’m thinking about today:

• preparations for the composition/literature students’ presentations on metafiction and graphic fiction.
• part 2 of the Postcolonial Lit. course viewing of Lagaan.
• planning to see Persepolis tomorrow with friends
• preparations for other things I’m teaching

And the three stacks of essays I’ll have to grade at the end of today.

In encouraging news, the CU Multicultural Council saw successful results for the second annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

Campbell offers two “pre-law” majors: Government/Pre-law and English/Pre-law. (Some students major in Criminal Justice as a preparation for law school, but it’s more clearly a pre-professional degree.) In the past, almost every time prospective students would visit campus, if they had indicated an interest in “pre-law,” they would be funneled willy-nilly to the History/Government orientation/advisement sessions. Occasionally, an English professor would go over to the History department and ask, “Is anyone here interested in English/Pre-law?” Now and then, one or two hands would go up—they didn’t realize they’d had a choice. Fortunately, things are done differently now.

The Princeton Review notes that law school doesn’t require a “pre-law” major for admission:

If you major in English [emphasis added] or history, you’ll still be on the right track. Crucial to a Pre-Law major are critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. After all, as a lawyer, your job will require drafting cogent arguments and solutions to problems, then communicating those arguments and solutions effectively to persuade and convince a judge or jury.

In fact, you can major in almost anything that includes these kinds of critical reading, writing, and thinking skills, and that will also provide you with a breadth and depth of knowledge you can apply to legal issues.  The American Bar Association also notes the importance of general research skills and the ability to read and analyze lengthy, complex materials—for example, Victorian novels, the plays of William Shakespeare, or Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Middle English.

One university  with an entire college devoted to criminal justice recently realized that reviving its English major would give their students good value for money. One reason:

When the time comes to apply to law school, as nearly 30 percent of students there say they plan to do, what’s often missing is a record of analytic study, as honed through a series of literature and writing courses.

In short, one of the many, many things you can do with an English major is to go to law school. Once you do that, all the fun is over, but at least you will have enjoyed your undergraduate days. And perhaps, one day, you’ll write a novel like The Firm, make bazillion dollars, and leave the lawyers to fight it out while you go on to write best-sellers about how awful they are! (But note that John Grisham majored neither in English nor in Government before applying to law school: he was an accounting major!)

We’ve just been reading (not enough) of John Donne’s poetry, and his famous “Meditation 17″ (you know, the “no man is an island” one). Serendipitously, JMNReynolds blogs about connections between John Donne’s poetry and his personal spiritual journey. Read and learn.

Or, more “things to do with your English major.” Seriously, I’ve been fascinated to discover that one of the most frequent “referrer” search engine terms that apparently brings readers to this blog is some variation on “jobs for English majors.” I oblige this week with these success stories from monster.com, the famous online job referral service.

Among the best advice these successful English major grads give: internships can provide you with very useful experience and contacts for job prospects after graduation, if you’re looking for work in areas other than teaching.

English majors have to use their imaginations and resources. Fortunately, they have those qualities in abundance.

This week the World Lit. class begins reading—well—world literature, with myths of ancient Mesopotamia. The introduction to one of the oldest texts, possibly a preserved temple ritual that reflects even older myths, “The Descent of Inanna,” describes its story as “the type of journey undertaken by mythological heroes in cultures throughout the world and throughout literary history; Persephone, Attis, Orpheus, Osiris, and Jesus are among the many figures . . . who make such a descent and return” (Bedford Anthology of World Literature 25).

Turns out the latest anthropological and archaeological views are somewhat different from the popularized mythic-mysticism of Frazer and Campbell, according to this blog, which begins with, of all things, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Do their clarifications amount to more of a distinction without much difference? In any case, C.S. Lewis’s points as described in parts III-IV of this essay remain valid [n.b., despite the many strengths of the essay, a spellcheck snafu appears to have resulted in the name "Aslan" appearing as "Asian" throughout part V---let this be a lesson to us all].

Now I have to look up Smith, and Wright for more details…

CU classes began on Wednesday, which means students and professors met each other at least once before Friday afternoon’s Drop/Add free-for-all. Actually, it’s not a free-for-all—there are some rules (for example, when a classroom is full, the class is full)—but when the fortieth beagle-eyed young person is asking if you haven’t got just one more space in your [name of course here] section at 10:00 a.m., because [insert heart-rending tale of woe here]…the day can get pretty long. I imagine the students find it trying as well.

Eventually, somehow, almost everyone seems to end up with a schedule they can live with. The real work begins next week.

To make this entry more edifying, I’ll end by linking to an essay on poetry in films, “The Well-Versed Movie.” Because, as Willow once said, “It’s all connected.” (”Lessons,” Buffy 7.1). And as E.M. Forster instructed, “Only connect.”

In a very few weeks, CU’s fall semester begins (oh my!). I’ll probably post some of these links again soon, because I know that somewhere out there, someone is thinking, “Major in something practical, like pre-pharm, or business, so I can get a job.” He or she is thinking this even though he loves reading and writing and she views the prospect of a lifetime of measuring out pills or working with figures with horror. “But–the money!” Where did you get this idea that English majors don’t make money? Or that the only thing they can do is “teach”? From me? I’m the exception, not the rule!

And no disrespect intended toward scientists or business–an English major can be very helpful in either area, because both require writing and analytical skills.

Here, check out Bluffton College’s page of English majors who became astronauts, doctors, CEOs, lawyers (even a Supreme Court Judge), and Hollywood writers, producers, and actors, with links to more career advice for English majors.

“Jen” advises on how an English major can become a freelance writer.

Oh, and Campbell U has some career advice for English majors as well.

Currently, my favorite English major is my nephew, a rising sophomore at the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis). I know he’s going to have a fine career.

Thunderstruck, “a truck stop for the soul, putting the pop back in culture,” links to several good articles on Christian interpretations of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, especially #7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Also quotes from Rowling’s Dateline interview.

In other news, last night was the final meeting of my summer school “Arthurian Legends” course. It was a pleasure for me to teach, and the students’ final presentations showed that they’ll be taking something useful back to their own classrooms. Thanks!