Monthly Archives: September 2020

Fluxus

“Fluxus: An international art movement, founded in Germany in 1962, which spread quickly throughout Europe and, later, to the United States. It was largely conceptual in nature, and the group maintained no stylistic identity, preferring instead many activities that revived the spirit of Dada. George Macunias, Fluxus’s founder and leader, championed anti-institutional street skits, guerilla theater, and performances.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Isadora Duncan

For a student with certain interests, broadly, arts and culture, but narrowly, dance, bohemianism, and women’s history, this reading on Isadora Duncan and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet have turned out to be high-interest materials.

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.

Book of Answers: Nicholas Nickelby

“What Charles Dickens novel exposed the ragged schools and helped get them abolished? Nicholas Nickelby (1838-39).”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Asunder (adj/adv)

If I must, I’ll stipulate that because it is not necessarily a word high schoolers must know before they graduate, this context clues on the adjective and adverb asunder, which was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the day a few days back.

Yet, if students want, at some point in their lives, to do something like write their own wedding vows (or understand vows another person wrote for them), then it might be good to have this word at hand.

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.

The Devil’s Dictionary: Cabinet

“Cabinet, n. The principal persons charged with the mismanagement of a government, the charge being commonly well founded.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

Cultural Literacy: Consent of the Governed

If there was a better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the consent of the governed, I can’t imagine when that would be. Don’t forget that this conception of political power and governance comes to us from John Locke. It is at the center of the grievances aired in the Declaration of Independence and epitomizes the political philosophy behind both the Declaration and the United States ConstitutionLiberalism.

Liberalism arrives in English almost intact from the Latin liberalis, meaning “suitable for a freeman.” It is also the stem of a portmanteau I wouldn’t mind seeing disappear from the vernacular, “libtard.” Users of this noun appear quite pleased with themselves when they use it; they shouldn’t be.

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.