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.

Evaluating La Donna Beatty’s “What Makes a Serial Killer”

In exploring the concept of the serial killer, La Donna Beatty looks toward the violence of modern society, biology, and family. In addition, she observes the possible correlations between the de-institutionalization of the American mental health system as well as alcoholism. However, as with any attempt to map the mentality of the modern day serial killer, she is left largely with theories and inconclusive statistics. Given the broad range of factors which contribute to human behavior and experiences, the search continues while evidence, both complimentary and contradictory, builds. I expect that La Donna would largely agree that while she sets out to explore â€Å"What Makes a Serial Killer,† she comes no closer to a conclusive definition than where she began. While the facts she provides are compelling, her personal interpretations and conclusions are at times based on fallacy rather than consistently proven logic. Beatty begins her presentation of theories by touching on the most popular of modern theories for the prevalence of violence in American society – violence in the media. While she does briefly address it later, upon initially presenting this issue, Beatty does not look at the large number of people who are also exposed to media violence but do not grow up to be serial killers. Taken a step farther in relation to criminal impulses, just as not every person who is exposed to violent video games or movies becomes violent, those who do become violent do not always become serial killers. In fact, only a small percentage could ever be classified in this manner. This does not, of course, discredit the possibility of media violence as disturbing a child already inclined to such behavior and like much of the evidence in defining serial killers, the problems with the argument do not negate the possibility of some effect. Such media violence naturally leads into the subject of personal experiences with violence. I agree with the assertion that the high incident rate of domestic abuse in the childhoods of serial killers proves too common to be simple coincidence. Combined with the visibility of violence in society, such violence in the home could be volatile in the future killer’s behavior. However, some of Beatty’s connections are more forced than naturally conclusive. In particular she notes, â€Å"with 79 percent of the population believing that slapping a twelve-year-old is either necessary, normal, or good, it is no wonder that serial killers relate tales of physical abuse† (Beatty). In this, Beatty is drawing a connection that does not truly exist in her initial argument. While she should have tried to show the extreme types of parental attitudes serial killers may have experienced as children she instead shows the general public’s feelings of parental discipline. The issues of alcoholism and de-institutionalization of the American mental health system can be addressed together for the assumptions at the basis of Beatty’s fallacies on these issues. As with the problem of media violence, Beatty’s sources fail to look at the broader issues of the human rights of the mentally ill or the inconsistencies of the argument that the de-institutionalization of mental hospitals unleashed a wave of violence. While restrictions of unlawful and forced stays may create issues, as in the notable cases of Richard Chase and Edmund Kemper, it is impossible and potentially cruel to re-evaluate a system that is built to serve a broad spectrum of people where these kinds of violent men are not the norm. In her discussion of alcoholism, Beatty presents an even more illogical idea when she supposes that had Jeffrey Dahmer been treated for alcoholism he may not have become an infamous murderer. I cannot say with certainty that he would have killed had he gotten his alcoholism under control. Certainly, sobriety would have brought some self-control but it would be oversimplifying a complex issue and broad range of crimes by calling it a case of alcoholism gone badly. Taken individually, no theory presented by Beatty has yet to clearly define a serial killer class or disorder in our society. More likely, it is a combination of factors, some presented in Beatty’s essay and others of a more personal significance that may never consistently present itself in every killer. However, in the search for the reason behind their compulsions should we look for a solution? Should we attempt to find a way to stop those situations that damage these individuals, making their pain â€Å"so intense that it demands bloody revenge† (Beatty)? Even Beatty seems at a loss to decide between knowledgeable prevention and/or treatment and the reality of such men as Ted Bundy who she quotes at the end of her essay. Bundy certainly did not feel himself capable of being saved but, unspoken, is the question of whether he could be prevented. Like Beatty and Bundy, I have no answer but remain open to the theories that though they may not ever make it possible to stop everyone of these killers, can help us understand how they can veer so far from the beaten moral path.

Writing News Steven Rinella and the Parallels between Writing and Hunting

Steven Rinella is an interesting example of a person who used his passion for one pastime as fuel to nurture his career, and a profitable career at that. Having been born into a family that was ever close to nature, he spends most of his life doing what he is best at: hunting. For a decade he even tried to make his living this way, until it became completely clear that fur market had collapsed to the point when it was no longer possible to provide for a decent living. Ironically, the impossibility to pursue the desired career led him to a far more profitable vocation which, at the same time, allowed him not only to continue leading the so much loved lifestyle, but to popularize and advocate it as well. He became a fairly well-known writer and television personality telling his readers and viewers, accustomed to the modern world, about the things that for many people remained in the ages past: hunting, being united with nature and so on. In his representation hunters are not what they are often perceived by modern media. It may be news for some people who are used to getting information from television, but not all hunters are bloodthirsty hicks who massacre innocent animals with their assault rifles. They can just as easily be perceived as the precious few people who manage to be united with nature in our hectic age, and probably understand and love nature much more than the self-proclaimed animal rights activists. In addition to that, Steven Rinella considers that his hunting lifestyle has been a major contribution to his later success not only because it provided him with unique knowledge and materials to base his fiction on, but also because it allowed him to acquire skills and abilities which proved to be indispensable for his writing career. For example, patience verging on being superhuman – when you often have to wait for hours to even have a chance of encountering your game and know that success may not come today, this week or even this month, you are more than ready to wait for a long time before your writing brings any particular results. Or curiosity – in the sense that any news leave you curious and hungry for more, for seeing new horizons, for acquiring new experiences, for doing new things. There is hardly anything deadlier for a writer than to be stuck in his ways – and the life spent as a hunter effectively prevents him from ever becoming rigid in his ways. In a way, Rinella thinks, the crafts of writers and hunters are not all that different, no matter how unusual this statement may sound.