Muse or Method? :: Personal Narrative Teaching Education Essays

Muse or Method? My eyes cast a casual glance towards the clock across the room as I sit back down at my desk. With caffeine reinforcements at hand, namely the signature red, white, and blue can of Diet Pepsi I just pulled from the fridge, I quickly put away the mound of books that has grown since I came in the room at 4:00. After making a hasty mental check to reassure myself I am prepared for the next day of class, I review my lesson plans one last time, sit back, relax, and ponder just exactly how I plan to go about grading the thirty essays tucked away neatly in my folder. Despite the method's classes and all of the other education courses I had taken at college, I felt ill-prepared for what lie ahead. "What's worse than writing a paper," I asked myself, only to answer quite obviously, "Grading one." I must admit that it took me quite a while to realize why this concept was such a difficult one for me. Not only was I working with a group of thirty creative young minds, I was also working with a group of rather insecure young minds, especially when it came to writing. How could I effectively evaluate each individual paper and constructively provide advice without dictating what I expected my papers to contain? Still, this was only part of the difficulty. The other is something I am just starting to understand now. In trying to formulate a basis from which I could evaluate these student papers, I was also struggling to unsurface the components of successful writing. Unbeknownst to me, I was wrestling with the same ideas that we have been discussing in class during the last couple of weeks. Interestingly enough, I found that my approach toward the subject was similar to our approach as a class. How did I begin? I started by determining which elements of writing I considered to be the most important and basic: creativity and technique. Through the centuries, many writers have attributed their success to the adoring eye and gracious blessings of the muses. The nine muses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, were recognized as the Goddesses of learning. As a result of their titles, these muses were often credited with spontaneously generating a frenzy of creativity within a writer which resulted in a monumental piece of literature. Although reference and credit to the muses is not often made within contemporary literature, the idea remains.