JD Salinger RIP

JD Salinger, the author of the Catcher in the Rye, has died in his early 90s.

I came to the book late in life (30), and found it to be too teenage for my tastes, but those who loved him read his book religiously (I can remember a gal who had read it over 30 times).

No matter what you might have thought of the book, modern literature lost a giant yesterday.

RIP Howard Zinn

Depending on your political take, Howard Zinn was either an excellent historian covering issues of how the people rose up to confront civil rights issues and other personal struggles in society or a controversial figure advocating radical change.

Either way, the author of The People's History of the United States has died at 87.

As he wrote in his autobiography, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” (1994), “From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity’; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.”

You have to do 10 pages of journals - these are the 4 mandatory topics. The rest of the acceptable topics and rules are online.

The topics are here, but you can do others that are listed on Angel.

If you deviate from the rules, I will not accept the journal.

Be sure to read the rules.

JOURNAL 1: This is a journal that everyone must do. I want to know what your greatest positive accomplishments in life are and how these will help you to be the person who completes the college goals that you have outlined for yourself. I also want to know how this created / embodies the person that you are. I DO NOT WANT SORDID LIFE TALES IN THIS – EVEN IF YOU OVERCAME THEM. I AM A TEACHER, NOT A THERAPIST. IF YOU CAN’T THINK OF SOMETHING POSITIVE, YOU MUST WAIT UNTIL YOU CAN TO COMPLETE THIS JOURNAL. NO EXCEPTIONS. Besides, everyone has positive things that they do, think, or have come to value in life. You just need to think harder, and I’m sure you can find some. Really.

JOURNAL 2: This is a journal that everyone must do. If you want, you can read my philosophy of teaching and tell me how you are going to succeed at college by writing to me what your learning philosophy is. Be sure to include positive educational role models and their achievements in education and life learning. Be sure as well to tell me what you want to do with your life!

JOURNAL 3: You must do this journal, also. What have you learned about your ability to write well? What can you do to become a better writer? This journal should be done last since that’s when you’ve truly learned all you can from this class.

JOURNAL 4: This is a journal that everyone must do. Comment on what you must do in order to live up to Steven Covey’s words that are listed on the journal sheet online.