Guest blog

Hello everyone!

I'm including here a link to a guest blog I wrote for a friend and former colleague -- a history teacher who has put together a project for his students. He wants them to look closely at a text-- really closely--and as part of that project, he contacted me and asked me to write something about the Declaration of Independence.

Of course, after I agreed I thought: what the heck will I say? Do I have anything to say? I've done close readings of the Declaration with my American literature students, but if you take a look at the blog, you'll see that Ben has already said a whole lot about how to read and think about the Declaration. Then, I decided I'd connect the words and ideas of the Declaration to other American literature -- because, after all, I am a teacher of American literature. And then -- President Obama spoke at the DNC and I was inspired! (You can read the full text of his speech here if you happened to miss it on T.V.).

So -- here's the link to Part I of my guest blog. You can let me know what you think! (Part II will be coming soon).