Paul+S

Writing Sample Selected

The following is an excerpt from an article titled, //In Need of a Renaissance,// found in the American Educator. It is by Diane Ravitch

"There is reason to hope that the curriculum wars of the 1990's have ended, not in victory for either side, but in a truce. Where once there were warring partisans of whole language and phonics, now there is general recognition that children need both. Beginnning readers must learn the sounds and symbols of language, and they should learn to love reading by hearing and reading wonderful literature. I would go further, to insist that all children should learn grammar, spelling, and syntax, which will enable them to write well and communicate their ideas clearly.

Furthermore, I suggest a short reading list - not more than 10 titles - of indispensable literary classics for each grade. Back in the days of the culture wars, it was taken as a given that any list would be oppressive, exclusive, and elitist. One hopes we have moved beyond those contentious times and can at last identify essential writings that have stood the test of time and continue to be worthy of our attention.

Without the effort to teach our common cultural heritage, we risk losing it and being left with nothing in common but an evanescent and often degraded popular culture. Let us instead read, reflect on, and debate the ideas of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W.E.B. DuBois, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Lewis Carroll, and many others whose writings remain important because of their ideas, their beauty, or their eloquence. Let us be sure that our students read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other basic documents of our nation's founding and development. Classic literature coexists happily with contemporary writings, especially when students are encouraged to engage in discussions about timeless issues such as the conflict between freedom and authority, the conflict between the rights of society and the rights of the individual, and the persistent dilemmas of the human condition. I do not suggest that it will be easy to shape lists of essential readings for every grade, only that it is necessary not to shirk this obligation if we wish to have excellent education for all. An English language arts curriculum without literature - real, named books of lasting importance - is no English curriculum at all."

This link will bring you to the rest of the article: []

The issue is Summer 2010, Vol. 34, No. 2