Of books and frigates and school change
Can you write something today that will be referenced in a future technology that you can’t even fathom?
Emily Dickinson did.
In a letter she wrote in 1873, she included the lines that would become known as her poem, “There is no frigate like a book.” This morning, 142 years later, I heard Dr. Jack McManus, professor in Pepperdine University’s GSEP, reference it in his TED Talk, “Schools of the Future: Time to Develop Your Metaphor.” It is so interesting to me that Dickinson’s editors “fixed” her poems and published them after her death in order to conform to more “regular” language usage of the time.
The curriculum-based lesson connection is: How would you retool Dickinson’s metaphor for technology? or life today?
But, the enduring value question rotates back to the question Dr. McManus’ posed at his TED talk:
How do you and I change the metaphor for schools?
Read the poem. Listen to the talk. And help start / continue the conversation.
There is no Frigate like a Book
There is no Frigate like a BookTo take us Lands awayNor any Coursers like a PageOf prancing Poetry –This Traverse may the poorest takeWithout oppress of Toll –How frugal is the ChariotThat bears the Human Soul –
