Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

The ease of getting information has made us lazy, I think. Maybe we don't retain it as well; it has become disposable. I mean, years ago if we wanted to find out how to fix a leaky faucet or if we wanted to know who Narcissus was, we'd have to go to the library, look through the card catalogue, maybe ask the librarian where to look, find the book, and read up on it. You'd think that if we wanted to know something that badly -- and went through all that trouble to learn it -- that we'd probably retain it. Or we wouldn't bother finding out at all because it wasn't worth the effort. Let me give an example: I ran across a word in a Steve Martini novel that I was reading. Cool word, I thought. I looked it up. I do that often at http://www.dictionary.com/ . The word meant a person having a homegrown, nontraditional kind of education. I didn't write the word down anywhere; now I can't remember the word and it's driving me crazy. Maybe if I had to go grab ...

I was caught in the middle of a friendly debate regarding Outliers a while ago; it went something like this: EM: Outliers is a great book! ST: Ya, but what practical good is it? EM: Well it explains how... ST: Okay, what's its thesis in a nutshell? EM: (gives articulate answer) but it's not that kind of book. ST: I don't get it... EM: read the book... Anyhow, I'd been wanting to read the book, so I borrowed it from EM. I told him I'd tell him what I thought, so here it goes: What jumps out at me -- in direct response to the question "what good is it?" -- is the notion that there are no rags-to-riches, self-made success stories. Behind every huge success (like Bill Gates) there is opportunity, hard-work, community and legacy (cultural background). Most of those things don't answer the question above because they're out of the individual's control. The one thing that is not is "Community". As a teacher/parent/fellow human being, tha...

Summer time for a teacher is a time when you realize that if you don't seize the day that -- bam -- 60 of them are gone before you know it and it's September. This year, I'm making plans to avoid that; in my journal, I've listed things that I want to do: join my brother's gym write (songs and stuff) do some wine tours play squash with my daughter squeeze in a 2 day camping trip read about 10 books and so on Gotta commit these things to paper -- it takes you one step closer to actually doing them. That's it; super short blog. I'm going to write a song now -- gonna call it "Summertime"

You don't realize how good pulp fiction writers are until you try your hand at writing. It's not until then that you realize how difficult it is just to plot an engaging story -- let alone create characters that your readers are going to react to, throw in theme, setting, mood... Holy crap, it ain't easy. When I was at university studying English, I didn't even know who was on the best seller's list. Who cared? They had nothing important to say to the human soul; they were totally forgettable ; they were pulp fiction writers. We were reading Auden and Steinbeck and Pound and Shakespeare and Austen -- writers that mattered. Well, 20 years later, I'm not so sure that Grisham and Crichton and King and Archer don't matter and/or won't have contributed something to culture when literary history judges them. Back to my original reflection. It's not until you try writing a novel or even a short story that you realize how impressive someone like Steve Ma...

Creative Procrastination Right now I have 60 exams to mark. After that, 80+ report cards. So what am I doing now? Blogging: working title -- "Creative Procrastination". Would that be ironic X 2 or is there an other word for it? Yes, when I have something pressing to accomplish, my mind supplies me with all kinds of other wonderful possibilities; under normal circumstances, I couldn't think of such sundry speculatives: writing a daily devotional based on the genealogies, trying to find and buy a Montreal Maroons hockey sweater online, inventing/patenting a binder for foolscap-size paper (maybe I shouldn't go public with that one...) reading! reading is always good. James Joyce's Ulysses sits on my bookshelf taunting me; it whispers, you're no student of English until you've read me ; then it says, above a whisper, wuss! look for the verse in Proverbs where it encourage drinking beer & wine if your life sucks And the proverbial list goes on. Speaking of ...

To My 2009 semester 2 EWCs: You're Great! In my second year of teaching I was observed by my then vice-principal and once former high school English teacher, Bob Majers . He observed a grade 9 class -- I have no recollection of what we were doing. Cue for Treason maybe? What I do remember is a conversation that went something like this: BOB: Wow, this is a great class. ME: Yeah, they're super kids -- smart and a lot of fun. BOB: Have you told them that? ME: No... BOB: Well, I think you should. ME: Good idea. That conversation has stuck with me. I often forget that the young people I get the honour to be with for 5 months are 14-18 yrs-olds -- kids in adult bodies. I don't mean that disrespectfully ; I just mean that they might look like they're adults but really they're only a very short few years past being 12-yrs old ... kids. So what's my point: high school students need to know that you're proud of them and that you think they're great. Specifically...

Larry Sirranni, aka, Super Mario Yesterday I was at a retirement party for a man who is wholly human, doubtlessly flawed and yet -- dare I use the word? --great in what he has accomplished in his vocation as an educator. The point of this blog is not to honour the man, Larry Sirianni , although he is quite worthy of being honoured (as was he in the many speeches given on June 4 at the Thundering Waters Golf Course in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada). The point of this blog is to look at the concept of greatness. What makes Larry great -- what makes anyone great -- is that in his vocation he did not settle for the ordinary. He approached every minute, every day, every student, every colleague with the conviction that everyone, himself included, could be better after the encounter. As I watched Larry being so rightly honoured I found myself having many divergent thoughts. Is it then what a person does that makes him great? Does the greatness ( largeness , scope) lie in the magnit...