remmers
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Shakespeare Is My Guiding Light, My Beacon
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Mar 7 01:30 UTC 2003 |
It is not often mentioned, but William Shakespeare was one of
the great writers on the subject of education. Pondering his
inspiring words is of immeasurable help to me as I go about my
duties as a college teacher.
At the beginning of every semester, one encounters the desperate
students who will do anything to get an override into my full
class. As Richard III said in his own moment of desperation:
"A course, a course! My kingdom for a course!"
Then at the end of the semester, when all the students' work is
in and all of the exams have been given, there comes the question:
What grades to assign? Do they pass or do they fail? My dilemma
is not unlike that of Hamlet, the melancholy Dane: "An E or not
an E, that is the question."
And finally, when I feel that I am in danger of losing my way,
of forgetting the fundamental purpose which all of my pedagogical
efforts are intended to serve, the immortal words of Marc Antony
always keep me on course: "I come to bury students, not to praise
them."
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