Something Further On The Rhetoric Stage Not Existing

It often happens that as I am working out some new idea, I post something and then delete it hours later when I realize there is far more to the idea than I initially estimated.

Suffice to say, I intend to argue at length before the summer is over that–at least so far as high school is concerned–there is no “rhetoric stage,” and that only the grammar stage exists.

The longer I mull this idea over, the more deeply it resonates with my seventeen years of teaching high school. The longer I think it over, the more it makes sense of why high school students write the way they do, reason the way they do.

Before saying anything else on the matter, I would like to form my thoughts and arguments a bit more. I’m anticipating a good deal of disagreement.

Rethinking Scope And Sequence

“Because we are all crypto-Marxists, we think it best to lay out our Humanities curriculum chronologically, as though books from the sixteenth century have more in common than British books (common by place), Catholic books (common by dogma), or philosophy books (common by discipline) from different centuries. The idea that time dominates all other themes is born of a progressive view of history.”

“Water Is Life”

Tom: Hey, wanted to ask you a question about your sign.

Harry: We’re very passionate about social justice.

Tom: Sure. I just wanted to know what “WATER IS LIFE” means?

Harry: Huh?

Tom: Your sign says you believe “WATER IS LIFE.” I don’t get it.

Harry: Oh, right. Well… I have to admit, I’m not too clear on what that one means.

Tom: Do you think it just means that unless you drink some water from time to time, you die?

Harry: That thought has crossed my mind, but if that’s the case, I don’t get the angle. Because without air and food, you’re going to die, too.

Tom: Yeah, absolutely…

Harry: In all the other claims on the sign, I get the reference. You’ve got your race thing, your immigration thing, your gay thing, your feminist thing, your evolution thing. But… is a there a water thing?

Tom: Not that I’m aware of.

Harry: If there is, the water people need to get to work, you know what I’m saying?

Tom: It’s a fair point. I mean, if you’re going to justify your place on the sign, it seems like you better get off your duff and… I don’t know.

Harry: Burn a city bus?

Tom: Well, it’d be a good start.  

Harry: You burn a city bus, people are going to need some water to put it out. Seems like you’d make your point pretty clear.

A Short Play About Dead Poets Society

Tom: Have you seen Dead Poets Society?

Harry: No.

Tom: It’s so good. There’s one scene where this teacher actually stands on a desk during class. He gets his students so pumped.

Harry: No way!

Tom: I know, right?

Harry: Man, I wish one of my teachers had stood on a desk during class.

Tom: I’m thinking of becoming a teacher just so I can stand on a desk. I just think of all the students who would become pumped if they saw me, a teacher, stand on a desk.

Morgan Freeman (Narrator): Tom did become a teacher. He never stood on a desk, but it wouldn’t have helped. He still would have been a terrible teacher.