I went to high school in central California in the 1980s.  My sophomore English class was formative, foundational.  I had a brusque, gruff, outstanding teacher who taught me more about the mechanics of writing in one year of high school than I’ve learned in all my years since.  And she walked us—or, really, marched us—through American letters from (roughly) Washington Irving to Chaim Potok, while also teaching units on such things as analyzing poetry or interpreting fiction and, every Friday, giving a spelling / vocabulary test. Somehow, our teacher mostly succeeded in getting us to do the reading and talk Read more