With teachers at all levels in the USA under siege these days, I remember being eighteen years old, a freshman in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, learning the intermediate ropes of the American English language -- and rhetoric. Like yesterday. I remember the instructor's last name -- McGuinn -- (I don't think he ever told us his first name). Mr. (Dr.?) McGuinn gave this class many gifts of knowledge and learning, and I'd like to laud him, wherever he is.
I'd like to thank Mr./Dr. McGuinn specifically for three things that have stuck with me ever since 1979. First, how to refine an argument or proposition and defend it, how not to suffer fools gladly. Second, his pointing out the Oxford English Dictionary and making us actually explore it. (My first randomly assigned word: maverick. Pretty funny now, given its subsequent absorption into the political lingo of today.) Third, his bringing a portable record player to class and having us write a response to Tom Waits samples. Somewhat shocking at the time (I loved it), which reminds me also that only now, this year (2011), will Tom Waits finally be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This act of playing records in class showed me how a little drama and interdisciplinary showmanship could keep people engaged, or at least more ready for anything.
McGuinn also pushed the idea of "shotgun writing," what we'd now call impromptu, a wonderful way to loosen up just about anyone's writing, if just for a moment. Little did I know then how much I'd employ the same methods down the line, and for probably the same reasons he employed them himself -- they worked.
It's a wonder he could read my scrawl, which hasn't gotten much better over the years.
Isn't it a bit weird and wunderbar that anyone reading this can probably write and comprehend both "long hand" and word-processed typography in multiple fonts and styles?
Today's Rune: Movement. February is out the door. Hello, March!
2 comments:
Nice memory... how often in life we receive a gift and only understand it so much later….
How long will it last that we (generalization) are going to be able to read handwritten documents especially if done in a cursive scrawl? Even doctors now print scrips out on paper using a computer to write them. Guess it's easier on the pharmacists assistant.
I still say those nuns only ever gave me one gift,they beat the ability to read and write into me.
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