These days, I have the pleasure of meeting gifted learners. Some of them have a designated learning challenge. From my experience, they are so bright, they can’t slow down to the mundane level of school. Unfortunately, the educational system can only bend so far as there are so many students. If memory is an issue, break the content into smaller chunks. Go forwards and backwards. Show the...
Read MoreA Cruelty Special to our Species Emily Yoon, my former student and author of A Cruelty Special to our Species paid me a visit Friday evening after doing a reading and workshop at SMUS, her former school. Her poetry addresses a topic rarely discussed- The occupation of Korea and abuse of women. Her poetry is lucid and strong, describing atrocities which are never openly touched upon. I’m so...
Read MoreI have just written a proposal to the Oxford Dictionary committee that the word e (pronounced E) be created as a gender neutral third person singular pronoun. English would have he/ she / e / to describe trans-gendered people who do not identify strongly with either male or female traits. I met a store clerk the other day who was wearing the same blue nail polish as I was. I had blue toes and...
Read MoreLost and Found is an enchanting novel by the brilliant Australian/ universally cultured author Brooke Davis. In this novel, the protagonist, Milly Bird, is abandoned by her mother in a clothing department. She is found by an octogenerian, Karl the touch typist, who has run away from his nursing home, and the bereaved Agatha Pantha. The novel’s main appeal is its sincere understanding of...
Read MoreI have just discovered Donna Tartt- and if you love literature, her novel The Goldfinch is a must read. The novel is luminescent- every word evokes a place, a feeling, a character. Set in New York , the novel explores the world of Theo, the teenage protagonist whose mother has been tragically killed in an accident. Aside from being a riveting plot, it’s the beauty of each word that makes...
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