If you can forgive the person you were, accept the person you are, and believe in the person you will become, you are headed for joy. So celebrate your life.
Barbara JohnsonRead
Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking; how to take evidence from a page, not seek a reality to substitute for it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of deep reading and analysis in literature, contrasting it with superficial reading habits.
Barbara Johnson highlights that teaching literature goes beyond mere authorial intent; it involves guiding students to engage with the text on a deeper level. In a fast-paced world where quick reading is prevalent, she argues for the necessity of learning to recognize the nuances and complexities within a text, so that readers can appreciate the richness of language and the evidence it presents, rather than oversimplifying it or substituting it with their own interpretations.
Themes
LiteratureReadingEducationAnalysisLanguage
In practice
Example use cases
A teacher could use this quote to emphasize the importance of thorough reading in a literature class.
More from Barbara Johnson
All quotes βSimilar quotes
The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. Because I have the greatest respect for the reader, and if he's going to the trouble of reading what I've written -- I'm a slow reader myself and I guess most people are -- why, the least I can do is make it as easy as possible for him to find out what I'm trying to say, trying to get at. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
E. B. WhiteRead
The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.
Ivan IllichRead
My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary qualities...like the ability to behave myself.
J. K. RowlingRead
My filmmaking education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, then seeing those films. I learned the technical stuff from books and magazines, and with the new technology you can watch entire movies accompanied by audio commentary from the director. You can learn more from John Sturges' audio track on the 'Bad Day at Black Rock' laserdisc than you can in 20 years of film school. Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.
Paul Thomas AndersonRead
He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men, will know how things are.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
In Holy Cross, I came to like school, to like studying in a way I had never done before.
Oliver TamboRead