Argues that the cultivation of the imagination in schools and colleges is largely ignored because of utilitarian biases in the education system, where achievement is determined by quantitative measures of cognitive skills. Discusses Williams' view that acts of the imagination transform reality and applies view to English education. (JG)

Religious feeling is always interdependent with racial feeling in the poetry of Langston Hughes. He views religion in the larger context of black culture, presenting it variously as a source of strength for the oppressed, an opiate of the people, the religion of slavery, and an obstacle to emancipation. (BJV)

Describes a course that integrates U.S. literature and history around key social issues to sensitize students to the need for a more just society and a higher quality of life for all citizens. Discusses the poetry unit that focused on contemporary U.S. poets of color, the teaching methods, and examples of the students' poetry. (PRA)

Although modern readers often find the interpretation of medieval literature difficult, they should be encouraged to use their imagination to resolve the dilemmas they encounter. Often, these are the same issues with which medieval audiences had to wrestle and which the poets intended to raise. W. Iser's and H. R. Jauss's principles of…

Brief information is given on 11 April events celebrated by Puerto Ricans: April Fool's Day; Easter; Arbor Day; and the birthdays of Washington Irving (first American author to gain fame and recognition around the world), Thomas Jefferson (3rd United States President), Jose de Diego (a notable poet, journalist, orator, lawyer, legislator, and…

Discusses a project in which a professional writer, poet Ian McMillan, was brought into middle school classrooms to aid in writing instruction. Describes the writer's contributions to the program, the problems he encountered, and his perceptions of the purposes of writing and the value of his writing residency. (SG)

Three writers debate whether English teachers should depend on external or internal criteria when analyzing and teaching literature. Each writer discusses the meaning of Elinor Wylie's poem, "The Eagle and the Mole," according to his particular view of literary analysis. Edward Ducharme, in "The Evasion of the Text," submits…

Romanticism's valuing of love and the life of the imagination, combined with its belief in human potential taken heroically to and beyond its limits, provides a way of addressing differently and fruitfully certain issues to do with pedagogy in schools, making in particular better sense of what it means to be an effective teacher and a productive…

This mini-text is a set of classroom ready Latin readings, a selection of Martial's epigrams complete with Latin-English vocabularies and reading notes. The readings concern the Roman holiday Saturnalia, at which time the Romans exchanged gifts and favors. The first epigram, Xenia (gifts), gives the reason for the following epigrams, which are…

Explores the childhood and adolescence of the Hispanic American poet Luis Rodriguez, who grew up in Los Angeles (California) and was involved in gangs with other children of Mexican immigrants. Rodriguez's autobiography is offered so that adolescents, including his own son, may learn from his experience. (SLD)

Language arts educators who teach Latino English language learners know that part of their job is to help students learn to distinguish between the vernacular varieties of Spanish (or Mandarin, or Portuguese, or Swahili), English they use at home, and the school varieties of language expected in the classroom and in other professional and…

Following a brief discussion of the origins of the Chicanos in the Midwest, this paper surveys and quotes at length from several Spanish language periodicals produced in the Midwest between 1925 and the early 1980s. Discussion of the Chicano origins in the Midwest touches on emigration resulting from the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917, the…

This unit on lyric poetry is organized around two themes which consistently appear in the works of contemporary black writers. The theme of "Negritude," the assertion of the black man's personal and historic identity, is conveyed by such poets as Waring Cuney, Mari Evans, and the two African poets, Leopold Senghor and David Diop. The other…

This mini-text is a series of Martial's epigrams on the slave. The epigrams deal with: slave torture, tenderness to a slave, the slave as a curiosity, flogging, the slave as property, a selling point, the slave as a person, sex and the slave, and slaves as gifts. The epigrams come with complete Latin-English vocabularies and reading notes. The…

Profiles this year's winners of the Charles Frankel Prize, awarded to individuals who have stimulated and expanded public understanding of the humanities. The recipients are Rita Dove (poet), Doris Kearns Goodwin (historian/author), Daniel Kemmis (mayor/author), Arturo Madrid (professor), and Bill Moyers (television producer). (MJP)