Hi Nessa,

It's nice to 'hear' you here, and I've been following this discussion
with interest, many apt points in everyone's comments, though I've
not chimed in, being too busy and then there are always so many
exceptions to any rule that one might come up with. For instance,
I was surprised this semester by one of my students, a young
Apache woman, who's planning on being a veterinarian, talking
with enthusiasm about Ibsen  which she had apparently
read for some class the year before. Such surprises, sometimes,
for instance, my students in one class read To the Lighthouse
and all of them found it difficult or disliked it, and yet I think
the essays that they wrote about it are the best things they've
written all year, full of surprising perceptions and thoughts that
didn't seep into the papers where they felt more comfortable
with the expectations and could view it as an known quantity to be
completed for a grade. So it's difficult to say, though I'm sort
of with Liz concerning the students' interest and curiosity; it's
there, but they're often asleep to it as to much else, for in a way
it seems to me not so much 'over-informed' as 'overwhelmed'
a kind of talking head full of static, television mind.

Best,

Rebecca

Rebecca Seiferle
www.thedrunkenboat.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Nessa OMAHONY <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Dec 5, 2003 4:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: this should brighten your day

Hi Liz

I absolutely agree with you about the need to bring relevant material
into the class-room and that teachers need to be able to rise to the
challenge of interesting their students. But it's not Hedda or
Shakespeare that I'm teaching. The students I'm talking about are media
students, students who have expressed a desire to work in some aspect of
the media - newspapers, TV, communications and public relations. And yet
these students refuse to read the newspapers, watch TV news or dicuss
current affairs. And yes, I try to stimulate them as much as I can to be
interested in what's going on in the world around them, but it's an
uphill battle.

I find Christine's comments fascinating because I hadn't considered that
they might be suffering from information overload ... that the problem
might be not that they are uninformed, but overinformed!

Nessa

-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Liz Kirby
Sent: 05 December 2003 08:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: this should brighten your day

Hmmmm - but Christine in my experience students doent lack curiosity -
they
just arent interested in the things we think they should be interested
in.
They can be persuaded with a little imagination and enthusiasm but it
isnt
natural to them to read Hedda G or Shakespeare (quite a few of them read
Stephen King though..... watch the most amazing variety of tv and film,
and
listen to quite a range of music - about which they have very developed
opinions)

Liz

> Mark, Liz, Ken, Nessa, & All,
>
> Yes, the lack of curiosity is sometimes astounding.  > Chris Murray
>