Message from smontano

[Anonymous]

Professor Miyake's lecture brought up some interesting points for me, and since everyone else pretty much covered the lecture, I will only enter two that I plan to use in the classroom.
-The idea of the importance of letters was wonderful. As in, full of wonder. I remember thinking a few years back, how great it would be to have a letter written to me by my father. He died in 1995, and I remember coming across a small post-it note on which he'd written some directions for me. I still have the post-it. So. I think as a writing lesson, I will create a letter that the students will have to write. I will begin the lesson by discussing the importance of letters, which is something no one in high school currently will remember. Now, 'snail' mail is a pejorative. Writing a letter to someone, for whatever reason, can be a powerful thing. I will be sure to cover the fact that Japanese women were in charge of writing because they were in charge of their households. Right now, writing a business letter is part of the curriculum. What about taking it a step further, and writing an IMPORTANT personal letter?
-We do a reading segment on the concept of beauty and for discussion starters, we view several different models from current fashion magazines, to analyze and draw up a list of things that are currently considered beautiful...thin body, long hair, toothy grin, etc. I could incorporate the 24 layers of fabric - which is bewildering itself - into a discussion of what kind of machinations it takes to accommodate fashionable beauty, like, 5 inch stilettos. Must one 'suffer to be beautiful,' or no?
These will be good additions to the lessons.