Shannon Costello

While James Fenimore Cooper wrote for a living, he is counted among literary greats at least partially because his texts go beyond story-telling to the development of larger themes. CJ accurately points out a danger of reading introductions. I am reading Cooper from an edition that was apparently written before introductions existed, [...]

I fell down on my way to the starting line- tripped while stepping on a sidewalk and splatted full-length on the ground. Free entertainment.
The long lines at the port-a-potties before the race may have contributed to the lines at port-a-potties along the race route.
I may have beaten last year’s time [...]

It is interesting how a distrust of a foundational text can affect one’s perception of an argument. Augustine selects a writer with whom he wishes to dispute. He supplies his readers with a short quote, and builds his arguments on the assumptions in that quote.
Apuleius asserted that the gods [...]

This is my latest essay on LW’s “The Princess”.

Sometimes I get frustrated because I request (ok, demand) silence two or three times before the class gets quiet.
This week I accidentally discovered I sometimes wasn’t waiting long enough. It was really strange to ask for silence, wait, wonder if it was going to work, and be astonished as the silence spread [...]

Educators believe that persons are more likely to learn if their brains are noting connections between that which they are learning and what they already know. I sometimes think this is why I am so poor at geography. I memorized maps as isolated facts and now find I have retained relatively little knowledge [...]