The Elizabeth Cady Stanton conversation on honesty asks students to question not only the moral basis for honesty but also its worth. Is honesty always safe? Is it always “the best policy”? Does it germinate trust or suspicion? Are the …
Studying epic poetry, particularly Homer’s The Iliad, is a great way to explore the theme of anger, as this theme is present from the very beginning of the poem which begins with the line, “Sing, Goddess, sing of the rage …
Lao Tzu’s conversation, which cautions against a fixation on goal-setting, fits perfectly with the concepts of minimalism and anti-consumerism. To teach this concept, I would reach back to whom many consider to be the original minimalist, Henry David Thoreau. An …
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a meta-fictional novel that redefines truth-telling. The narrator layers factual “happening-truth” with “story-truth,” where he re-imagines, exchanges details, and makes statements like, “A true war story cannot be believed” (O’Brien 71). Using the …
When having students read the nonfiction novel by journalist Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, I would use the Lao Tzu conversation to spark a discussion and debate about goal-setting in general. We would start off with the essential …
One of the most analyzed poems in American literature is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Most students cannot understand that the choice made by the speaker can be viewed from different perspectives. I would look at the conversation …
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” pairs perfectly with the conversation on anger featuring Lao Tzu. After a reading of the story, students can use the conversation as a springboard to an analysis of how the main character’s …
During a unit on the dystopian novel, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I would include this conversation by Epictetus about stress management. I would introduce this quote after reading Chapter 2, at which point Katniss volunteers to take her …
Hamlet is the perfect Shakespeare play with which to have interesting conversations about the theme of problem solving. At the center of this work and several of its famous soliloquies is an exploration of whether something or nothing should be …
Bruce A. Jacob’s poem “Home Training” talks about how he did not understand the quotes his mother hung up at home, or her “laying on of hands,” or her warning “fence line of red roses” because he didn’t know the …
After reading the novel, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair with my students, which exposes the ugly truth of the meat industry, I would present Abraham Lincoln’s conversation self-determination. We would use this conversation to prompt a thorough investigation of Sinclair’s …
The poet Emily Dickinson is famous for her cryptic verses, but in the poem “Success is Counted Sweetest“ she tells us specifically that those who appreciate success the most are those that have not had it. I would connect this …
