Hemingway

From Scott McLeod's blog who talked about the purpose of school as a place to create lifelong learners as opposed to productive members of an economy:

"What place does the world of work have for Hemingway for the average American? Is there a reason related to future employment to take kids to the Barter? What happens to Monet and Yo-Yo Ma in a school system that thinks primarily about your future job?

I’ll leave you with this thought: Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. The words belong to William Butler Yeats..."

My students' responses to Hemingway this year have been very invigorating to me. Their interest in his life and writing have sparked curiosities and ways of looking at literature and writing on a completely new level. They will not think about their own writing in the same way, and I'm sure that they won't read a book in the same way again either. More than anything I think that they are seeing the passion and dedication that he had in crafting and telling his story. If anything, I hope that they can discover some passion to dedicate themselves to in their own lives.

Learning passion and dedication are goals of education too.