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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What High School Students Think of Love

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May 10, 7:57 AM

by Erica Jacobs, Education Examiner

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.

Topics: writing , students , love , commitment

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Why Don't Schools Address Racism?

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May 21, 7:09 PM

In my classroom today, a former student took the lead. Anna Laura came back to the classroom she had left two years ago to attend James Madison University, but the model of writing, respectful discussion, and reflection remained with... Read More
Topics: class , race

The Writing Process

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May 18, 7:52 PM

The phenomenon of "The National Examiners" is only five weeks old, but already I have discovered something about the writing process as it has been affected by my (almost) daily posts. Twice my Monday column for the DC Examiner has grown out... Read More
Topics: blog , students , column , writing process

Shakespearean Quote of the Day

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May 18, 10:06 AM

Today I will going to the Shakespeare Theatre's performance of Julius Caesar with a few students and several other teachers, so it's fitting that the quote below comes from that play. My column for Monday calls my current students my best ever... Read More
Topics: day , class , shakespeare , quote , julius caesar

Word of the Day

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May 15, 11:08 PM

The word of the day comes from the very beginning of Elizabeth George's new mystery: Careless in Red. Inspector Lynley is on the forty-third day of his solitary walking tour--an effort to cope with his wife's recent death. He sees a solitary surfer and... Read More
Topics: word , day

Shakespearean Quote of the Day

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May 15, 10:09 AM

We all can picture a politician who fits the contempt expressed in this quotation from Henry lV, Part 1:I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods,Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hearOf this vile politician.Choose your own example!... Read More
Topics: day , shakespeare , quote , politician

The "Lasts" of High School

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May 14, 12:00 PM

This last month of teaching at Oakton High School is the last time my students experience all sorts of events: dances, ceremonies, lunch lines, bells, early start times, nightly homework assignments. I am in the interesting position of going through... Read More
Topics: graduation , forward , last

Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review

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May 14, 7:38 AM

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett, was published in 2001 , and would seem to have been influenced by September 11--except that it was written before that event. It is a study of hostages and terrorists, their differences and similarities. If your world is... Read More
Topics: book , review , patchett

Word of the Day

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May 13, 7:02 AM

pecuniary--of or relating to moneyThe word of the day comes from the 2004 Advanced Placement literature tests where students were challenged by a Henry James passage from one of his short stories. A tutor interviews for a job because, "as yet one's... Read More
Topics: advanced placement , word , day

Shakespearean Quote of the Day

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May 12, 10:16 AM

This quotation from Taming of the Shrew might come to your mind as you realize that many schools, including George Mason University where I teach, have just announced a tuition increase of close to 10% for next year:O, I am undone, I am undone!... Read More
Topics: day , shakespeare , quote , taming of the shrew , tuition

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