{"product_id":"themes-for-english-b-a-professors-education-in-and-out-of-class-9780820375557","title":"Themes for English B: A Professor's Education in and Out of Class","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThemes for English B\u003c\/i\u003e a teacher ponders the nature of meaningful learning, both in and beyond the classroom. J. D. Scrimgeour contrasts his Ivy League education to the experiences of his students at a small public college in a faded, gritty New England city. What little Scrimgeour knows of the burdens his students bring to class--family crises, dead-end jobs, overdue bills--leaves him humbled. Fighting disenchantment with the ideals of higher education, Scrimgeour writes, \"How much I owe these students, how much I have learned. They know the score; they know they are losing by a lot before the game even begins, and they shrug, as if to say, 'What am I supposed to do, cry?'\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eScrimgeour's obligations to his students and his hopes for them glance off each other and sometimes collide with the realities of the classroom: the unread assignments and the empty desks. Is there too great a student-teacher divide? Can Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, or any other writer Scrimgeour teaches have something to say to a single mother with a full course load, two jobs, a sick kid, and a broken car? Yes, it turns out, and it is magic when it happens. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe pupil inside the teacher emerges when Scrimgeour finds unexpected occasions for his own ongoing education. Pickup basketball games at a local park become exercises in improvisation, in finding new strengths to compensate for age and injury. His collaboration on a word-and-movement performance piece with a colleague, a dancer mourning the death of a beloved niece, leads him into unfamiliar creative terrain. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA routine catch on a baseball field long ago, a challenged student in a grade school writing workshop, a yellowed statue of education pioneer Horace Mann: each memory, each encounter, forces revisions to a life's lesson plan. Scrimgeour's achingly honest, intimate essays offer clear-eyed yet compassionate accounts of the trials of learning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJ. D. SCRIMGEOUR coordinates the creative writing program at Salem State College. He is also the author of the poetry collection \u003ci\u003eThe Last Miles\u003c\/i\u003e. Scrimgeour's writing has appeared in such publications as the \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eChronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThought and Action\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Georgia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52127697240338,"sku":"9780820375557","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d40fa82c-6f96-4c19-91b9-3facf4be810c.jpg?v=1773743764","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/themes-for-english-b-a-professors-education-in-and-out-of-class-9780820375557","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}