Lost — Early Modern Style

November 17, 2008

Why was the cryptic word "CROATOAN" carved onto a tree at the abandoned Roanoke Colony when the settlement was found abandoned by a resupply mission in 1590? The answer remains one of history's enduring mysteries. Ron Fritze writes about the Lost Colony in his latest essay for Tudor and Stuart Britain. He also shares tales of Pocahantas, pirates and privateers, Walter Ralegh, the ill-fated last voyage of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, European lust for silver and gold, and other episodes in the long and often perilous English settlement of North America.

Fall Falls.

November 16, 2008

This may come as a surprise to many, but Mother Nature does not close up shop when most of her carpeting and décor is no longer green, although under those conditions, people avoid her treasures in droves. For instance, just minutes from the interstate and big box stores, you’ll find Lake Catherine State Park near Hot Springs, Arkansas. This time of the year, the sparsely visited park is a jewel of serenity ready to sooth your jangled nerves.

Living the Life:
To Be a Professional.

November 11, 2008

What does it mean to be a professional educator? The answer leads us immediately to the word “teacher” and the broad range of responsibilities most commonly associated with teachers, who profess their knowledge in settings varying from a first grade class that begins in the early hours of the day to an adult education class that ends in the late hours of the evening.

Reset the Class Set.

November 3, 2008

Ivy and Fisher’s question about the “class set” is worth our full consideration. For teachers, it brings to light fundamental issues of tradition and change in the English Language Arts classroom, and begs other questions: What models do we employ to teach reading and literacy, and how closely should these efforts be aligned to the set of novels in our traditional literary canon?

Our present challenge to train and inspire lifelong readers and writers unfolds in a time when, according to the National Endowment of the Arts, the number of seventeen-year-olds not reading for pleasure has doubled over the last twenty years (Gioia). We have to ask ourselves why the new crop of adolescent and young adult students doesn’t enjoy the act of reading. We have to find ways to reverse this alarming trend.

Hope Most Cruel.

October 21, 2008

This won’t be pretty, not smoothly done.
I’m navigating choppy seas today, trying to get outta this place. Everywhere I look are shadows on the swells of the deep.

“If the devil fell away from God of his own free will, this proves firstly that evil was in the world before man, and therefore that man cannot be the sole author of it, and secondly that the devil already had a ‘mutilated’ soul...."
   — Aion, Carl Jung, 1950

Among a universe of topics, why mass murder at schools?

Ay Chihuahua.

October 18, 2008

Planet Clio's intrepid historian and pop culture critic Ron Fritze has gone to the dogs lately. His latest foray into historical investigation takes him to Aztec ruins and Hollywood — with a postscript journey to the garden of old Communists. Ron writes: "I would imagine that everyone who watches a bit of TV has seen a commercial for the new Disney production Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Some of you, I’m sure, have already taken the time to see it at a theater. As I child, I was a big fan of Disney. I struggled to keep the Seven Dwarfs’ names straight, was terrorized along with the original hundred and one Dalmatians, and cried when Bambi’s mom died."

It's Over. Let's Get Ready Again.

September 28, 2008

"No, no, I am not still in Taos. We did survive the power outage, and we did read Martin Luther a little bit by flashlight. But after the power outage, the final stage of the summer school kicked in and VROOOOM! Suddenly it was Sunday the 28th of September. We had a great summer school, and the students really learned a lot, about a lot of things. I am fortunate enough to see the leaps and bounds on a daily basis, as some of the Taos students are also my students here in Fayetteville...."

Two States, Indiscernible.

February 7, 2008

He comes in search of unification.

From the salty mist he walked onto wet sand, greeting me in the earliest rays of the day. "We've work to do," he said, his voice like gravel under boots, his bare feet like brush bristles on the surface of the beach. "We've contradictions to merge into a higher truth. Be ready."

We named him O....

Letter from Abu Dhabi.

June 10, 2003

Soon after the USA launched the war in Iraq in March, 2003,
a friend of CornDancer contacted us to ask if we were interested in publishing a series of dispatches from Abu Dhabi, where he lived and worked with the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates. Yes! Thus was born the Letter from Abu Dhabi, a series of eight dispatches filed by Jack E. Vines, recounting his experiences as an American ex-patriot caught-up in the intrigue and passion of a region consumed by thoughts of war.