Reading, 'Riting, Reacting

By Freda Schwartz

In my classroom, I like to display thought-provoking quotations. Frequently, these give rise to discussions that take my students beyond the apparent horizons of the literature we explore. One quotation I have kept on display in recent years is from Hitler's Mein Kampf : "How fortunate for those in power that the people don't think."

Once we get beyond the rash dismissal of anything one of the true scourges of humanity might have said, we can sometimes ponder the usefulness of probing the recesses of a dark mind. If Hitler could find a significant soft spot on the intellectual underbelly of civilization, perhaps his words should serve as a warning for young minds. At least they still know enough to recoil at the name, and that could be a start.

When I was a student in high school, there were basically three categories of mass media: print, broadcast, and film. The print media included books, newspapers, magazines, direct mailings, pamphlets, and perhaps a few other minor subdivisions. Clearly, the print media dominated the field. At that time, no sane adult would have dismissed the absolute necessity of making sure that every student in every...