Sunday, April 29, 2007

Allen's Problem

High school senior Allen Lee sat down with his creative writing class on Monday and penned an essay that so disturbed his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct.

See, Alan, your mistake was that you're not a "liberal" African American feminist poet and Virginia Tech professor.

Then you would have been given "awards and honors". People would have made excuses for you, like "The implied lesson here is that an honored poet can also produce very angry text at a young age."

But hey, in a "democracy" that no longer respects any of the other amendments unless you have the right connections, why should we be surprised that the First is reserved for the favored?

UPDATE: Here are excerpts from young Allen's masterpiece, courtesy of commentator TJH, below. No chance with that Bush crack he might identify himself with the democrats, is there? If so, his youthful rage may qualify him for some of those "honors and awards" later in life, and as Nikki Giovanni has demonstrated, it never hurts if you're a crappy, tedious writer.

[Via JT]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy, all those news articles that quoted the essay are disappearing real fast. For as long as this one stays around:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IL_STUDENT_ESSAY_ARREST_EXCERPTS_ILOL-?SITE=MOSTP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I don't know about an arrest, but an 'F' would be appropriate. That's just horrible writing. But then again, "creative writing" is a way to prove that your students are literate. (Just make a goddamn coherent sentence, you little brats, or we'll lose our accreditation!)

Anonymous said...

"...it can also apply when someone's writings can disturb an individual, Delelio said.

"The teacher was alarmed and disturbed by the content," he said.

I am alarmed and disturbed by what some people have written recently but they are called Congress so I guess its okay.