Monthly Archives: June 2017

George Bernard Shaw on Duty

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”

George Bernard Shaw

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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Horace Mann on Education as a Human Right

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

“I believe in the existence of a great, immutable principle of natural law, or natural ethics which proves the absolute right of every human being that comes into the world to an education; and which, of course, proves the correlative duty of every government to see that the means of an education are provided for all.”

Horace Mann, as Quoted in Places for Learning, Places for Joy: Speculations on American School Reform by Theodore R. Sizer (1973)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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Recite (vt/vi)

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb recite; it’s used both transitively and intransitively.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Rotten Reviews: Francis Bacon

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

“His faults were–we write it with pain–coldness of heart, and meanness of spirit. He seems to have been incapable of feeling strong affection, of facing great dangers, of making great sacrifices. His desires were set on things below, titles, patronage, the mace, the seals, the coronet, large houses, fair gardens, rich manors, many services of pate…”

T.B. Macaulay, Essays 1842

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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Cultural Literacy: The Invisible Hand

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

As I’ve mentioned, probably ad nauseam at this point, I work in an economics and finance-themed high school in the financial district in Lower Manhattan. Wherever you work, however, if you teach high school social studies, or anything to do with early theories of capitalism, especially anything on Adam Smith, then you may well find this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the invisible hand useful.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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John Maynard Keynes on Education

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.”

John Maynard Keynes

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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The Weekly Text, June 30, 2017: Two Context Clues on Rite (n) and Ritual (n)

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

The last day of school here in New York City was Wednesday the 28th, and not a moment too soon. As Joey Ramone once said, “Chewin’ out the rhythm on my bubble gum, the sun is out, and I want some” (The Ramones, “Rockaway Beach”).

So this week’s Text is a short one, to wit, these two context clues worksheets on the nouns rite and ritual. I hope you can use them.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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A Rotten Review and Rejection: Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

Posted on June 29, 2017 | Leave a comment

“The sense of effort lies heavy over the whole work. That the book has greatness and passages of beauty redeeming its ugliness none will deny. But the mind demands of literature something that it can approve as well as something that it can enjoy; and in ‘Cities of the Plain,’ so full of dignitaries, so devoid of dignity, this instinct finds little to satisfy its craving.”

Saturday Review of Literature reviewing volume five of Remembrance of Things Past

“My dear fellow, I may perhaps be dead from the neck up, but rack my brains as I may I can’t see why a chap should need thirty pages to describe how he turns over in bed before going to sleep.”

Marc Humblot, French editor, rejection letter to Proust, 1912

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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Two Short Word Root Exercises: Hemi and Demi

Posted on June 29, 2017 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root hemi (it means half or partly) and another on another on the Latin word root demi (it means half or less than). These are short worksheets designed to open a class session–they are not full lesson-length documents.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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What Students Need

Posted on June 29, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.”

Chinese Proverb

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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