Homework Handout for RCF: 2/7/14

NEW HOMEWORK for 2/14/14 meeting of  the Bryn Mawr Book Group

Read to p. 202 of The Glass Castle.
Write 3 pp. describing the kind of education you got outside of school.

This writing assignment steps off from our discussion about how Mom’s philosophy of schooling, in The Glass Castle, is like her philosophy of mothering: in both areas, she thought kids flourished best if they had no rules, no discipline, and lots of freedom….

We want you to think about the relationship between what you learned in school and what you learned outside of it. In giving you this assignment, we’re drawing on a book by Wendy Luttrell called Schoolsmart and Motherwise: Working-Class Women’s Identity and Schooling.  It describes the difference between “book learning” and “commonsense knowledge,” and says that  "real intelligence" can be attained outside school, from life experience.

As you write, remember the 3 writing skills we’ve talked about so far:
* point of view—who is talking and what does she see/hear/feel/think?
* “back up” your points—give lots of concrete details and examples
* generalize from particular stories to make larger claims.

OLD HOMEWORK

For 2/7/14: Read the first 1/3 of The Glass Castle (to p. 101).
Write a 3-page story about being at home and being homeless.
Think about point of view: how different does the story sound,
when it is told from a different perspective?
Can you write the story from two different points-of-view?

For 1/31/14:  Read Chapter 1 of Jeanette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle.
Write three pages describing your own mother:
what does she look like on the outside?
What does she feel like on the inside?
Be as concrete and specific as Walls is, in her first chapter, and
also think about who is doing the talking: whose voice is speaking?
Who are you, looking @ her? What are your surroundings?
And who is she, looking back @ you and talking to you?
What are her surroundings?