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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 14h

Met him once in a bookstore and he helped me decide to get Merwin’s translation of Il Purgatorio since I told him I was going to Italy—not kidding

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 14h

This NYRB edition of Thoreau’s journals is so good! Also a little wild how widely Damion Searls, who introduced and edited the volume, has enriched my reading life—everything from Septology to Anniversaries to this.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 17h

Dropping the deep nerd stuff on them in journalism tomorrow, introducing AP style. Also pray for me as I introduce the phrase “nut graf” to a room full of teens.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 18h

Voltaire/Locke were kind of shitty, actually

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 18h

The intertextual stuff here is so rich and interesting to think about—kids are into it so far

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 18h

On Thursday, will be exploring one of my favorite things about James w kids: while Twain satirizes writers like Walter Scott and so undermines romanticized notions of hierarchy, Everett satirizes Enlightenment figures to undermine romanticized notions of “rights” and the people who “came up w them”

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 22h

No but I should! Doing lots of handwriting this year

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 22h

Agreed! Not dunkish at all.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 22h

A+

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

Hah! Also I did not know about this website—this is amazing

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

Easier to have this convo with them about him than about, like, Sophocles, who we read next. But it’s cool that he’s opened up that convo that will go on for the rest of the year (whole class is basically about how some stuff gets famous/how it is then adapted for contemporary audiences)

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

So interesting—I have a lot more to say than this, but will say that basically what he’s given my kids is the ability to think about the contingencies of canonicity. Like in a weird way the fact that he’s so famous is almost as interesting as what he’s famous for, if that makes sense.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

Like I ~know~ these people now. We recognize each other. We’re a community.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting to me that there are people who get into cars and drive to work and so miss out on making one of my favorite social relations, the bond I have with all the nameless characters who commute at the same time as me.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

Thinking about the contrast here as I get ready to read approx 60 essays written primarily by first gen kids about whether or not they liked Huck/think it should still be taught in schools

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Reposted by John Downes-Angus

Adam "I Was Hoping We Could Keep It" Laats @adamlaats.bsky.social · 1d

Okay, everything sucks, but here's some student art from New York City's African Free School, 1812-1828:

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

There’s no turning back after those punctuation marks are introduced into your life

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

Required my juniors to use em-dashes and semicolons, which I taught them how to use last week, in an in-class essay today. They were showing each other their em-dashes and semicolons. Monsters officially created.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

These Huck reflections are so interesting! Kids are smart

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 2d

Also unrelated but am going to position it as a specifically anti-AI unit. “Self reliance in the digital age” or something

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 2d

Starting my transcendentalism unit soon so I really need it to stop being like 80 degrees in the city. This is obviously a fall unit.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 2d

When I read this kind of stuff, I can’t help thinking we’re missing something potentially very interesting when we exclude our students’ experiences of reading from our assessment design, something we are obviously incentivized to do.

John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 3d

Hah! Amazing. All the more powerful for me as the son of the owner of a lawncare franchise

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 3d

The year-to-year tinkering is part of the fun! And that pairing does tend to go over well—would definitely recommend giving it a shot.

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John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 3d

Haha! I imagine so. I’ve never taught any of it myself. I do sometimes teach the “Apology”—“Civil Disobedience”—“Letter from Birmingham Jail” throughline, though.

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