Just some thoughts.

This week in my American Literature class, we're covered Ralph Waldo Emerson...which means a whole lot of discussion about Transcendentalism. I'll admit, sometimes that class is really challenging for me, and I think I'm realizing why.
My high school was pretty conservative. I guess it had to be, considering it was an all-girls Catholic school. My English class was pretty basic, and I say that pejoratively. Most of desire to teach came from my middle school teacher, who really gave me an inspiration to read and interpret literature. It's not that my high school English teacher wasn't likable -in fact, she was a great person. Knowing I was a bookworm, she'd always give me books to read outside of class or over the summer. Yet, during class, the teaching was sort of stagnant. Sure, we went over the typical high school material: The Scarlet Letter, Shakespeare, The Sound and the Fury, Fahrenheit 451, etc. Sure, we covered the basic understanding of the plot and characters, but never really pushed for more. Even in Shakespeare, everything was so rushed and vague. Perhaps it was due to discouragement that so many of the students hadn't read the book, but we never really got to have really stimulating conversations about meaning. Most of our tests were simple multiple choice objective questions about the text that needed only to be memorized the night before. So many of my peers in college had delved deeper into these great literary greats in high school, and I guess I'm sort of jealous that I didn't get that experience. At the very least, I've gathered some tips on how I want to lead my future classroom. I love that my literature courses nowadays focus more on essay writing than black and white questions. I want my students to know that I value their thoughts and opinions about what they read rather than memorizing material.