What does it mean to be "ready for college"?

MAXIMUS (at right) has no use for college, of course, but everyone in the class will end up in college some day.

Some of you WILL go directly to college from high school and others will delay it until you discover that you want to be in college and you need college to get ahead.

So, where are you in the college admissions process?  I ask because one of your classmates said, "I have 15 colleges to apply to."

I was a little alarmed.  Fifteen!  And he plans to stay at home and not go away to college!

My response to him (and all of you):  Choose wisely.  Narrow the college choices to FIVE:

1. ONE "safety" CUNY school you are willing to attend.  More on "safety" school below.
   
2. TWO CUNY colleges with your intended major
   
3. ONE or TWO SUNY colleges out of the city with your intended major
   
4. ONE or TWO private colleges out of the city with your intended major

Another option:  Add a NYC private college

A "safety" school is a college you are willing to attend, qualify to get admitted and if you receive no acceptance letters from your first choices, you have a fall-back plan with the "safety" school.

Let's give you some time to think about it.  I will ask you next week to discuss your plans in class.

College Reading & Writing Tip: Read George Orwell and Follow His Commands!

This post is ONLY for students serious about college-level reading and writing!

You've earned an A in the course.  Congratulations, you've got the job!  Welcome to the team, when can you start?

It's nice to hear these kinds of things, right?  Or how about a letter in the mail that begins:  "We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance to the university"?

What's going to set you apart from other candidates - in college, at your job, as you begin a career - will be your ability to WRITE AND SPEAK clearly and creatively.

George Orwell (more on him here ) has a famous essay called "Politics & the English Language" and I want you to read it.  I want you to make a page in a notebook to write down all things he suggests to write with CLEAR MEANING and fresh, vivid metaphors.

On Friday, October 2 when we review your drafts for the first "into the light" essay, we will be able to talk about what Orwell recommends for your writing.

Here for the link to "Politics & the English Language" 

FREE! FREE! FREE! Meet Powerful & Inspiring Writer Cornel West this Weds. at B & N!

DOG STAR knows and respects Cornel West for his enlightened, clear and articulate views on race, civilization and life in general.  Among those with "West" for a last name, it is Cornell who should get your attention most.  Kanye has much to learn from Cornel, too, humility chief among them and having a values-centered philosophy of life is another.

This Mr. West, Mr. West, Mr. West (a reference to a lyric on Kanye's "College Dropout") has tackled issues of hip hop's place in our culture, has rapped a few songs of his own and is a a professor at Princeton University.

Now, he shares his memoirs in a new book "Living & Loving Out Loud: A Memoir."  And he will read from the book and be available for signings and conversation this Wednesday, September 30 at Union Square Barnes & Noble.

If you are starving for something richer than the usual playlist of your life, consider heading over to B & N by 6:30pm to get a seat.  Mr. West is very funny, very accessible - he talks plainly and truthfully - and you will surely become a fan of his too.  When you do become a fan there is a treasure of previous books to dive into DOG STAR recommends "Democracy Matter" for the chapter on hip hop culture.  It will open your eyes and, no, he does not bash it, he sees it in a different light.

Will you give yourself the chance to see life in a different light, too?

Here for the Barnes & Noble event website for details

Here to read excerpts from "Living & Loving Out Loud: A Memoir" 

Here for Cornel West on the web (including audio and video) 

Here for Cornel West on Wikipedia 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

FREE! Read a great short story this weekend!

Edwidge Danticat has published a number of memoir pieces and short stories in The New Yorker magazine.

Here are links to two of the stories:

Ghosts (click here )

Short story about an aspiring radio journalist in Haiti and the gangsters who frequent the restaurant owned by his parents.

Reading Lessons (click here )

Short story about a Haitian teacher in America who slaps one of her students.

And...Edwidge is friends with Junot Diaz.  Listen to Junot read his short story “How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)” and then hear Edwidge discuss the story (click here )

FREE! - Go to the Whitney this weekend!

Look at this painting by Georgia O'Keeffe.  Is it a highway cutting through the night landscape with a burning horizon off in the distance?  Is it a beating heart, aching for love?

It is both of these things and neither of these things.  Magically, the power and the beauty of this painting - and many, many more like it - is in the way it can grip your sight, first, and hold on to your other senses, too.  And then the imagination generates wildly different responses - all bursting with half-explanation because the mind wants to sort it out and make sense of it.

Don't let it.  Enjoy the superb technique (the smooth lines, the very clean shapes, the expertly applied paint) and enjoy the incredible color crawling through the paintings.

DOG STAR urges teens to run, don't walk, to the O'Keeffe show at the Whitney Museum at 75th Street and Madison Avenue.  We're not even going to suggest it only if you like this one.  Just go.

The Whitney is ALWAYS free for everyone under 18 years old.

Here for the Whitney Museum link to this exhibit (with a super short video intro) 

Week Ahead & Class Update

HOMEWORK DUE NEXT WEEK

By next Wednesday, September 30, read ONE of these stories:

"Alma" by Junot Diaz (here for link online)

"Gleason" by Louise Erdrich (here for link online)

"Ghosts" by Edwidge Danticat (here for link online)

"Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin (here for link online)
For this link you will need to click on it and then when you reach the website, scroll down until you see the title of the story.

You will have an exam solely on the short story you have chosen on Thursday, October 1
Whichever story you choose, you will be asked to identify, discuss and support with evidence:

1.  How the short story show the course theme "into the light."
2.  How a character in the short story is like the cave prisoner who is unshackled, exposed to the light (the truth) but is distressed by what he discovers
3.  Your own original insights and fresh ideas to make connections between the "Allegory fo the Cave" and the short story