Lemire is an ingenius idiot
"In these charming set pieces, the hard-to-reach student is invariably reached; the cold and unfeeling administration is confronted with the errors of their ways; the kids who deserve As get them; the class is, finally, appriciative of all the teacher's efforts; and all discover that somewhere between the assignments and the papers and the grades, they must remember the most important thing, love" (Lemire 18-19).
I was actually kind of angry about this quote because earlier in the text Lemire mentioned The Emperor's Club. I watched this movie in my Connections class. Lemire's quote said that these movies basically romanticized the teaching profession, however, The Emperor's Club did not do this at all. In the end, Sedgewick, the "hard-to-reach student," does not appriciate the teacher's hard work and the teacher realizes he failed. Sedgewick turned out to be a horrible person despite Mr Hundert's efforts to rescue him from "the dark side." (The student who desirved recognition in the Julius Caesar competition did not get it.)
This is my transition to my second thought. (Very creative.) sarcasm intended here
Under the section "How Do I Increase My Value to a Newspaper?" There is a comment that really makes sense to me. "Diversify your subjects and writing style" (Lemire 85).
This statement ties in to what people have been saying ever since I got to college. Dr. Jerz said one time that you are not going to like everything you read and that doesn't matter. You read everything for a reason. Somehow it demonstrates a specific skill, presents a different subject and makes you react. And just today when Mr. Sims came to visit he said something about how he always writes and talks about things that he might not know anything about but he researches and learns! By the time everything is all said and done, he becomes a bit of an expert on whatever it is and he no longer feels like a fraud. He also told us to create a list of our accomplishments so we can demonstrate what we've accomplished.
By writing about different subjects in different ways we can accomplish so much. We can learn our strengths and weaknesses. Maybe by trying to write with humor you would discover you have the incredible talent of being able to make people laugh just through writing. You also have the chance for self growth. The more you know, the more you grow. Also, the more you diversify what you write, the more people you can reach. If you only write about the Civil War you are kind of a one trick pony but say you move on to other subjects, you'll reach more people who have an interest in say...the Revolutionary War.
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Stephanie Wytovich on Lemire is an ingenius idiot: Excellent point Angela. I real
Juliana Cox on Lemire is an ingenius idiot: Ok. I agree in your first comm
Juliana Cox on Lemire is an ingenius idiot: I agree with both of your comm
I agree with both of your comments. To address your first comment, Sedgewick does not appreciate his teachers efforts, but I believe the other students do. Even the student that deserved to be Caesar came to appreciate the teacher because he ended up forgiving the teacher for what he had done and sending his child to the school because he knew what a great education his son would get from his former teacher. Moving on to your second comment I feel that Micheal Sims did a great job in showing how we can grow as writers by reading and writing about areas that we may not be up to date with. I think that his guideline of gambling applies here. We need to take chances on writing about other subjects because it makes you as a writer more diverse and that may give you an upper hand when applying for a job. If a employer sees that you can write great articles in a variety of subjects they consider that a pro because they can count on you to write about alomst anything.
Ok. I agree in your first comment that Sedgewick did not appreciate his teacher, but I do believe that all the other students did. I even feel that the student that deserved to be Caesar appreciated his teacher. In the end he forgave his teacher for what he had done and decided to send his son to the school because he knew that his former teacher would give his son the best education. Moving on to your second comment I feel that writing about subjects one does not know a lot about allows you to grow as a writer too. I also feel that Micheal Sims guideline of gambling fits in here. As a writer you need to take risks and write about ideas that your are not familiar with. In the end I think it will give us the upper hand. When you go to apply for a job your employer will see how diverse your writing is and that you are able to write about a variety of things. This will most likely benefit you because your employer can count on you to write in any area giving your more chances to expand your writing.
Excellent point Angela. I really liked your second transition paragraph. It's true that not matter you like what you're reading or not, it can be useful! Not only are you gaining more insight on a particular subject, but you're learning more about that type of writing. I mean hey, if you hate it that much, next time you do and compare and contrast piece you could also use it as the 'what not to do' part of the paper, haha.
I also wrote about some of the insight Mr. Sims used. If you want to see what I've wrote, you can check here: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/StephanieWytovich/2008/03/my_brain_seems_to_go_sideways.html
I had the same thoughts that you did about The Emperor's Club! Did Lemire even watch that movie? The teaching profession is in no way romanticized in that movie. In fact, I felt bad for Mr. Hundert. I just think that movie was not a good example for what Lemire was trying to explain.