Erica Jacobs is the Education columnist for the DC Examiner, and has taught high school and college for 33 years. She has been around the education block! Email her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
I was just reading the Spirituality Examiner's post on a college essay contest on "Modern Love." The underlying message about non-commitment and a fear of monogamy may seem "modern" to those who don't teach high school students (who talk about love all the time), but I have found that students tend to adapt to modern notions, yet don't really believe in them. Both sexes are just as romantic and desirous of eventually having the family and stability that they either envy in their parents, or wish their parents had had. (When students ask me to show a film, it's always some sappy romantic comedy. They all want to be Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffith!)
The winning college essay is beautifully written, but full of nostalgia; it's really an elegy to what love is NOT, rather than a statement about what love is. For students today, the ability to commit comes a little later, but it will come. That's what most of them want, and the writer of the essay will find it because she's looking for it. She's only a junior in college so she has lots of time.
Please read today's "Viewpoint" on the lost civic virtue of compromise in the DC Examiner, written by Andrew Rys. It's a compelling and well-written essay, and----- (drum roll)--- HE'S MY STUDENT!I wish I could take credit for his intelligence... Read More Topics:
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