Far and Above the Moon by Shawn Stewart Far and above the moon sat the golden-orbed spaceship. Like a small and fragile star, it whispered its way across the galaxy to the outer fringes of Earth and entered the atmosphere with a soft murmur of expectation. It's light shone to thousands, images forever burned into retinas. People staggered back, blinded by tears, trying to blink away the knowledge that passed into them with the light --for light is knowledge, you see, and all those who saw could never forget-seeing the ship circumnavigating the poles and finally settling into a great sea of sand stretching forever from eye to eye in every direction. A group of Bedouins found it first, glistening as a crystal sphere washed up from the ocean of time itself. They bowed to it and called it good, one letter from god. Grass grew for a hundred meters around the base of the globe, and people bent their knees to it in prayer. Thousands visited before the first alien emerged. Slender, golden, and aglow he stood silent before the hushless crowd. Leader of the Bedouins wondered, Why are you here?
We're here because of you, the alien thought back, and everyone understood and
smiled. The alien too smiled, and lifted his arms in friendship. The afterglow of the ship's departure warmed them in the wake of its self-made sunshine, pulsing waves of heat back over the crowd. The crowd grew silent as it grew dark. From a point beyond the desert, three wise men looked up in amazement as it arced toward the east. We're here because of you, the alien repeated in thought, and the whole world smiled, and knew.
PERSPECTIVES
Jim Schrantz
a professor who mixes passion with purpose
J
By Shawn Stewart
im Schrantz is a comfortable guy. He‘s comfortable talking about anything. In casual conversation, he‘s likely to sprinkle around phrases like ―leit motif,‖ ―teaching as karma,‖ and ―Neiman Marxist.‖ He‘ll talk about anything from Lord Byron to Citizen Kane to Mickey Mouse, all in the same breath. He‘s comfortable talking about almost anything. Anything except himself. ―Yeah, I kinda like to stay under the radar,‖ he admits. Quietly, this under-the-radar guy – with the disarming smile and peekaboo hairstyle – has become one of the best-kept secrets in the district. He was even a recent nominee for the Chancellor‘s Award for Exemplary Teaching, one of the district‘s highest honors. Jim Schrantz, Ph.D., is chair of the English and language acquisition department at Trinity River Campus downtown. He is a professor, lecturer, writer, author, actor and a self-proclaimed ―verbal pugilist.‖ How has he accomplished all of this while staying rather incognito? ―I just keep doing what I do best,‖ he said. ―I love to teach.‖ His core teaching philosophy combines the Socratic Method with a ―Community of Inquiry‖ approach. This method produces a lot of questions in class, like ―Why are there so many different approaches to literary analysis?‖ and ―Which one is the most meaningful to me?‖ Building on classroom discussions and examinations of models, this leads students to any number of hypotheses, or theses, like ―Why does Hamlet fail to act in the face of such overwhelming evidence?‖ or ―Is Hamlet a hero or an anti-hero?‖ or ―Are their similarities between the characters of Hamlet and Tom Wingfield and Glass Menagerie?‖ or ―Is Shakespeare making fun of the bourgeois royals?‖ or even ―Is Shakespeare gay?‖ All of these form the basis of different approaches to literature, from formalist to historical to Marxist criticism. His teaching philosophy has changed over the years. He‘s trying to get away from what he calls the ―cult of personality,‖ where students admire the teacher more than the subject. ―If they love the subject, they‘ll write for it,‖ he believes. For that reason, he tries to instill in all of his students a love of and appreciation for writing. But also a healthy respect for the rules and regimen that go along with a craft. In research papers, Schrantz believes that his students should evaluate sources very carefully, and use only the most authoritative sources in their papers. For example the popular MTV-U website, ratemyprofessors.com, where students get to grade their professors, would probably not be high on his list of authoritative web sources. ―Though it‘s flattering,‖ he says, ―I can‘t believe a word that it says. You really need to stick with authoritative sources in your papers. Those are usually .EDUs or .GOVs. or the library databases or newspapers. Those are some of the safest sources to use. I can‘t stress that enough, using trustworthy sources.‖
Seeing the World
Women’s Policy Forum Foundation 1 1th Annual Celebrity Breakfast
Thursday, March 5, 2009 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. (registration at 7:00 a.m.) Omni Fort Worth Hotel 1300 Houston Street Fort Worth, TX (817) 535-6664
Welcome
Kathleen Hicks, Mayor ProTem
Mistress of Ceremonies
Gleniece Robinson, City of Fort Worth Library Director
Guest Speaker
Through Different Eyes
Jane El l iott
2009 Knapp-Perkins Award YWCA of Fort Worth and Tarrant County
Jane El l iott Jane Elliott is an internationally known teacher from Riceville, Iowa, who conducted a controversial experiment with her third-grade students in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In this exercise, Elliott simulates racial discrimination using eye rather than skin color. “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” allows participants to experience discrimination first hand. After Elliott gave up teaching, she began performing her exercise on groups outside the classroom. Elliott has lectured at major corporations, government departments, more than 350 universities and has been featured on “Frontline” and the “Oprah Winfrey Show.”