Teach Writing Right

Thanks to 7th grader Mitchel (for writing it!) and 8th grader Matt (for illustrating it on my whiteboard!), I have a metaphor of the week in honor of Charley Gordon, main character in Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon, which my 7th graders are currently reading.

The version of the book begins with the following quote from Plato, which we've been using as our "jumping off spot" every time we have had a class discussion about the story's progress.  I chose Mitchel's metaphor this week because it will help us speak one more time about this quote: 

"Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other..." Plato, The Republic

Thanks again, Mitchel and Matt!  Have a great week, everyone.  "Meta-Force be with you, students and teachers!"


--Corbett