New Blog?

I'm thinking heavily about starting a new blog for my English 268, British Literature Survey, class. There's only so much I can cover in a single class, and I have the sinking feeling the students have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. I'm pretty sure doing a blog where I can cover more detail, and answer questions, might be helpful.

I get concerned sometimes about the depth of a normal high school class, or more so, to what depth students actually absorb a normal high school class; and at what depth, normal college classes actually go into.

I spoke to H this Thursday, and she has a great philosophy when it comes to Survey courses. According to her, and I'd agree, Survey courses are the English department's bread and butter. Which makes perfect sense, really, because students in multiple majors take the survey courses to get credit for graduation. It's one of those area classes. If students love the class and the reading, there's potential for that student to shift their major over to English. She also said, there's been a great decrease in the number of students in the English department; which is to say, there's be a decrease in the number of people majoring in English.

It's not so much that, from a business perspective, I want to increase the number of English Majors. It makes sense. But my desire is to have people love and understand literature as much as I do, or at least a fraction of it. Literature permeates everywhere. There are references everywhere. Which also makes sense if you think about it; after all, where do the English majors go when they graduate? writing TV shows for adults and children; bands; newspapers; magazines; advertisement; etc; etc.

I actually think a great number enter the TV market for cartoons. It's super slick. Just watch a few kid's cartoons, and you'll see what I mean. There's an Arthur cartoon (that, crazy ant-eater kid) all about a Red Wheelbarrow, which is William Carlos Williams over-ly talked about poem. [I say overly talked about, because so much of this work is brilliant, and that poem doesn't even come close to his best works.] Also, the cartoon, "The Kid Next Door." This cartoon is amazing for so many reasons. I'm convinced the writers are genius. The cartoon is riddled with literary allusion and political commentary. Amazing. And there's countless others.

Anyway, literary references are everywhere. And having the tools to recognize the references provide you tools for understanding our culture, which is amazingly layered. [Apparently, "amazing" is the word for the day.]

That being said, I think the Brit Lit focused blog might be helpful to these students. I don't want to water down the reading. I think reading is important. I don't want to water it down either, because I already know they won't do a majority of it. That's their decision. But for the few that do, I want them to get the most out of the class as possible. And in order to get the most out of any class, there's something beyond just a grade that one seeks.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'm still pondering exactly what and how much to cover on the Brit Lit focused blog. But, I see the necessity, after all, I relied on a few of my upper classmen to help close read a poem on Thursday with meager results. Which to me means, I need to step back a bit and re-evaluate what I need to do to get the class where it needs to be.

Well, we'll just wait and see.