We will be debating the death penalty in the United States for our first debate, discussing these questions: Is the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment? Is the death penalty racist in its application? Does the death penalty lead to the killing of innocent people? Does the death penalty prevent crime? Resources Big Sky […]
Brian Michael Murphy positions the controversy over performance-enhancing drugs in the context of great literature: All of my writing heroes used PEDs. I still respect them; I would still shake their hands; I would never boo them as they took the podium to read, just returned from a stint in rehab or a drunk tank. […]
Our first essay for AP Language has been posted. It will be due Friday in class (or by 1:00 p.m. on Sunday if you submit using Google Drive). The prompt is located here. As you do your writing, you may want to review these handouts we’ve gone over in class: Persuasive Essay Notes Topic Sentence […]
The New York Times is reporting that a white supremacist named Paul Craig Cobb has been buying property in a tiny North Dakota town with the purpose of turning it into a white supremacist enclave: Their new neighbor, they thought, was just another person looking to get closer to the lucrative oil fields in western […]
As we all come back to Helena High, I’m reminded of the syllabus written by David Foster Wallace, one of the best non-fiction writers of the past twenty years. In his course syllabus for an English composition course, he described a model for education you can expect from my classes: “This does not mean we […]