Let's [Re]Start: A Post for All My NEW-BORN Seniors (the 09-10 babes)...

Welcome in, all--and this is where I'd like you to start reading this 'blog: never mind all those old posts; some of them, like the majority of this one, will be set before you in their own time when the truth they hint at is of the moment...

Truth: Okay, let's start with the obvious. What is UP with that pic? I mean, last we checked, NYS is not certifying kindergartners to teach high school English...not even in the most neederly districts, right? And mine is not even close to neederly in any traditional sense.All right, all right, yes--I am almost 50 years distant in time from that particular photo, myself in my first ever school sitting. And when I think about who it is that the I I know is, I know that I fully became the me I am at around age 23--so why no photo from that time? Why this little 5-year old self to represent for me?The answer is right there--look at that child. Go ahead; click to open my profile, then click again to see the picture bigger. Good, now: look into her eyes. Notice how she looks directly into the camera, looks directly at you there, on the other side of the camera. Can you see the earnest sincerity? That's Truth. Do you see the what-you-see-is-what-you-get honesty? That's Truth. I believe those eyes in that 5-year old child are still set in my 50-plus face, and that they may carry the truth of me in a way that can be believed. I hope so.This blog is entitled "How Do We Tell Ourselves the Truth?" Its focus is not nearly so personal as this first posting--I teach a class in which we examine just how it is across time and space that humankind has narrated its cultural truths; many of you reading here ARE here because you're mandated by enrollment in that course.But before a tribe can begin to buy into a shared cultural reality, before the group's truths can be sung, there needs be some authority granted to the minstral. And the minstral truly only has the right to seek the endorsement of the tribe after she has proven that her voice is strong and that she utterly hopes to represent well and good.I hope to gain your endorsement of my voice as worthy. Look into my eyes. Do you believe I am a willing and sincere songstress?

3 Effs (or is it 4? or maybe 5!) and an N-word or 2 ver.2.2

Across the year in Advanced English 12/AP Literaure and Composition (I doubt you will ever understand the degree to which I loathe having been forced to add that last bit to my course name! Merely typing it makes me judder in revulsion!), I bid my students to consider the play among the three "foundational" "effies"--foundational in the sense that peeps across time have pondered their (the effies') play within their (the peeps') individual power matrix (matrices? matrixeaux?)--we ain't be bein' the first to walk this path, babes. Then there's the n-word (or words, or the n-word and the N-word and the n-word--word!)

So, here's a teaser: Whaddya suppose those "effies" and "ennies" (oh! I crack me UP!) are ?

C'mon, play with me: No, it's not that n-word...nor, now that you mention it, are any of the effies that effie; no, think BIG PICTURE, the stuff of all human consideration!

Post your guesses in a reply, then check back--in a few days, I may give you a hint as to where you might get more info. And, yeah, if you're a student enrolled for September, July is so not too early to begin putting this together a bit in your head...and maybe even committing some of that thinking to cyber-paper.

If you're already in the know--like you have already taken the class, right?-- let's give the newbies a chance to wrangle the ideas for a while before you all swoop in to try to impress me
with your insight, m'kay?

(reposted for the incoming 2009-10 class ar 1:25 pm, 6/30/09