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.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Transcendent

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April 11, 5:07 PM

by Erica Jacobs, Education Examiner

    The past 36 hours as a public high school teacher has had a little of everything. Come to think of it, every day as a public high school teacher has a little of everything.
    Yesterday a world-renowned scholar on James Joyce, and my colleague and friend from George Mason University, gave a lecture to most of my seniors. He was absolutely brilliant. But he is the first to admit James Joyce is hard, so the response from students, although good, was not as enthusiastic as mine.
    I thought he gave one of those lectures all of us have heard a few times in our lives where the ostensible topic is really just a way into a lecture about a topic of far more magnitude. I remember in college the occasional history lecture on war or famine that made me rethink the very humanity of those who inhabit the planet, or the occasional seminar discussion about a novel that made me think the secret to life was hidden somewhere in the words of the text, if only I could find it!
   Coilin Owens' lecture was of the latter type. He spoke of Joyce, his passion for words, and for presenting the reader with complex "signs" of the inner life of his characters that, in turn, might teach us how to live our lives. In the process, Coilin told us about his passion for Joyce's words, and how he has devoted his life to uncovering the context of his writings, and how much he loves reading those "signs" that are so obscure to most of us.
    For me, he was an example of how to be happy in your work and your life. He said that pursuing a passion requires turning off the television, and exiling yourself from outer distractions. I walked away thinking he was so right. This was true for both Joyce and for Coilin, and would be true for my students, too--if they were listening.
    Today, however, is Friday; are students talking about Joyce or the lecture or thinking philosophically? No. Half are absent, and the other half are wishing they were. My students are polite and generally cooperative, so they never tell me to"get lost" with my talk of Dubliners. But I know that's what they were thinking.
    What will Monday bring? I'll let you know! I also plan to write about Coilin's lecture in my Monday column.
Topics: james joyce , public school

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