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Show ' f JUST STUFF I read with interest the article in last week's Reaper about the Janet Potter English Class, which is being televised live on KUED channel 7. My hat is off to Kent Parsons, the engineer, to Vaunda Willis, the Potter Show director, and to Jack Burr, for applying for the grant. And I salute KUED for its wisdom in selecting Janet Potter as the teacher to teach on TV. Let's face it, when you're in high school, english is not the most exciting subject. For some it ranks right up there with chemistry and trigonometry. But Janet Potter is one person who can make even English an exciting event. I was lucky enough to have had Janet Potter for two English classes when I was in high school. I remember struggling through "Moby Dick," "Hard Times," and "Les Miserables." I still remember reading poems out loud, trying to hear the rhythm iambic pentameter or anapetic hexameter. I remember toiling over sonnets and vocabulary words and battling my way through active and passive voice and intransitive in-transitive verbs. I labored in that class and I loved it, and I learned! But most important, I loved learning it. Granted, in the every day hustle of today's world rarely do I need to know the difference between a Petrarchian and Shakespearean sonnet, nor do I need to know the definition of synecdoche or onomatopoeia, all of which I learned from Mrs. Potter. But I do need to have a basic understanding of the English language, and even more important, ' the ability to want to learn. Janet Potter taught me more than the rudiments of our language. She taught me how, and made me want to learn. I think it is great that her class is being made available to students across the state. I even have my VCR set to record the classes so I can brush up on my English. In my book, Janet Potter is not only a tremendous teacher, the lady has class! |