Ms. Rosey’s
Addendum Guidebook for
Success in Joining
Dual Enrollment English II
(Also Known As ENC 1102):
Spring 2014 Version
Warning: Reading of this guidebook (and completion of all activities herein) will definitely increase
student’s intelligence. Use with extreme caution.
1
Table of Contents
Agenda for Study Hall Sessions
p. 3
The Last Lecture Topics of Discussion
p. 4
The Last Lecture Homework on Dreams
p. 28
The Last Lecture Cooperative Learning Activity
p. 28
Illustrative Exemplification Essay on The Last Lecture
p. 29
Old School Topics of Discussion
p. 30
Old School Group Review Activity
p. 48
Old School Comparison/Contrast Essay
p. 49
Comparison/Contrast Brainstorming Chart
p. 50
Wadsworth: Writing Paragraphs
p. 51
Wadsworth: Thesis Statements and Formal Outlines
p. 52
Wadsworth: Commas
p. 53
Wadsworth: Using Other Punctuation Marks
p. 54
Wadsworth: Chapter 9 “Using Logic,” Chapter 10
“Writing Argumentative Essays,” and Chapter
39: “Revising Run-Ons”
Wadsworth: True/False on Writing a Research Paper
p. 55
p. 56
Wadsworth: Evaluating Internet Sources and Writing
a Research Paper
p. 57
2
Agenda for Study Hall Sessions
Study Hall Sessions
The students who were in ENC 1101 the past semester have already spent time going over the
summer reading and completing a literary analysis on Old School. We have also completed final
edited versions of several essays. Since Advanced Placement deals so heavily with the
completion of “first drafts,” rather than final edited versions of essays, it is important that you get
caught up with the level of what is expected of you in this class. You will not be expected to
have grammatical, spelling, or structural errors in final drafts. You will also be expected to
easily incorporate literary criticism using Panther Central (and you will need your Panther
Central ID # from the college—starting with an X0—in order to access Panther Central).
Due to this, you will be coming to see me during your study hall on ________and _________for
a “catch up” session to ensure your success this semester. The following will be our schedule:
Session 1 Agenda




Learn how to sign in and access Panther Central to find a literary criticism
Write rough draft of Old School essay (due at 11:59 pm on ______to
www.turnitin.com)
Go over Wadsworth concepts you missed last semester, especially in reference to
the research paper
Pass out literacy cards based on your success on the summer reading quiz/journal
Session 2 Agenda



Complete Peer/Self Editing of Old School essay (due at 11:59 pm on _____to
www.turnitin.com)
Complete Group Activity on MLA Documentation style
Begin working on Final Draft of Old School essay (due _________at 11:59 pm to
www.turnitin.com)
3
The Last Lecture Topics of Discussion:
Author Randy Pausch:
Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at
Carnegie Mellon University. From 1988 to 1997, he taught at the University of Virginia. He was an
award-winning teacher and researcher, and worked with Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt
Disney Imagineering, and pioneered the non-profit Alice project. (Alice is an innovative 3-D environment
that teaches programming to young people via storytelling and interactive game-playing.) He also cofounded The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon with Don Marinelli. (ETC is the
premier professional graduate program for interactive entertainment as it is applies across a variety of
fields.) Randy lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008. (Source:
www.thelastlecture.com)
Important People Mentioned in Pausch’s book:
Jai-his wife
Dylan, Logan, and Chloe- his 3 children
Jeffrey Zaslow- This is who Randy Pausch would tell his story to on his daily bike rides; Zaslow adapted
these stories into The Last Lecture.
Michele Reiss- Jai and Randy’s psychotherapist, who specialized in treating couples in which
one
member is terminally ill
Steve Seabolt- close friend of Randy’s
Randy’s father- tough WWII veteran; founded a nonprofit group to help immigrant kids’ learn
English; sold auto insurance; Randy considered him a smart man and followed his advice his
whole life
Randy’s mother- a former no-nonsense English teacher
Tammy- Randy’s sister, who is 2 years older than him.
Jack Sheriff- friend who helps paint Randy’s room when he is a child
Jim Graham- Randy’s high school football coach, encouraged the fundamentals
Chip Walter- co-wrote a book with William Shatner on scientific breakthroughs first mention in Star
Trek; this indirectly led to Randy meeting Shatner
Jon Snoddy- imaginer in charge of Disney Aladdin virtual reality ride
Jessica Hodgins- co-worker of Randy he occasionally brought with him to doctor’s appointments
Dr. Herb Zeh- one of Randy’s doctors
Dr. Robert Woolf- Randy’s oncologist; Randy was very impressed by the way he delivered bad news
Robbee Kosak- Randy’s co-worker who sees him happy in his car and sends him an email
Andy van Dam- Randy is a teaching assistant to him; Andy gives him great advice by telling
him,
“Randy, it’s such a shame that people perceive you as being so arrogant, because it’s
going to limit
what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life.” (p. 68)
Chris and Laura- his sister’ children
Tommy Burnett- achieved his childhood dream of working on a Star Wars film
Don Marinelli- a drama professor at Carnegie Mellon who co-founded the Entertainment Technology
Center with Randy
Dennis Kosgrove- Alice’s lead designer
Caitlin Kelleher- a professor working getting girls more interested in computer programming through
story telling
Sandy Blatt- Randy’s former landlord who was a paraplegic
Jackie Robinson- first African-American to play Major League Baseball; Randy had a photo of him in
his office and Randy was surprised that few students knew his story
4
Dennis Cosgrove- Randy fights for him to not get kicked out of school after he makes an F;
eventually he takes charge of the Alice project
Norman Meyrowitz- brought a lightbulb to class, which really impressed Randy
Nico Habermann- an interview with this man got Randy into the PhD program at Carnegie Mellon
Fred Brooks, Jr.- a highly respected computer scientist who was a lifelong mentor to Randy
Jared Cohon- president of Carnegie Mellon
Scott Sherman- Randy’s college roommate he goes on a scuba diving trip with
The Last Lecture Discussion Questions:
Overall Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why do you think this lecture/book struck a cord with so many people?
Where is the speaker/author “coming from”?
What are my childhood dreams? How might I achieve them?
What were the dreams my parents had and how did they fulfill them?
Who are the mentors I can turn to? What lessons have they taught me?
And what wisdom would I choose to impart to the world if it was my last chance? What are the
lessons of my life?
Introduction:
Randy Pausch describes his cancer as “an engineering problem.” How was this a helpful way to
look at his illness?
He talks about the lecture as a means of expression, and a way to reach his kids: “If I were a
painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am a
lecturer. So I lectured.” There are so many ways to communicate. What are your own avenues for selfexpression?
Randy has always recognized the importance of time management. What did you think of his
decision to work on the book while riding his bike?
Chapter 1: An Injured Lion Still Wants to Roar
Randy almost didn’t go to Pittsburg to deliver his last lecture. His wife Jai had wanted him to
stay home with her and the kids. What did you learn from his discussion with her about this?
Randy chose “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams: as the topic for his lecture. In what
ways would this allow him to tell the story of his life, and to enable the dreams of others?
Chapter 3: The Elephant in the Room
Randy decided to begin his talk in a specific way—showing his CT scans, introducing “the
elephant in the room,” assuring everyone he’s not in denial, and doing push-ups. What made this
effective? What were you thinking watching this for the first time via video?
Chapter 4: The Parent Lottery
Randy said he realized many of his dreams because he had terrific parents. What details from his
childhood do you think led to the successes he had later in life? Are there lessons in Randy’s story for
people who’ve had less fulfilling childhoods, or absentee parents? What advice might you give to those
who didn’t win “the parent lottery”?
Chapter 5: The Elevator in the Ranch House
5
In his talk, Randy encouraged parents to allow their children to paint on their bedroom walls, “As
a favor to me,” he said, “let ‘em do it. Don’t worry about the home’s resale value.” The real message he
says he was trying to give was this: Find ways to help your kids be creative. Nurture those instincts in
them.
What would you paint on your bedroom walls if you were given permission to do so? What other
creative outlet would you like to pursue, if your parents gave the OK?
Chapter 6: Getting to Zero G
The chapter ends with the line: “If you can find an opening, you can probably find a way to float
through it.” What’s the lesson to be learned from Randy’s attempts to get onto that “Vomit Comet”?
Chapter 7: I Never Made It to the NFL
This is a chapter about football, but so many of the lessons in it can apply elsewhere in our lives:
 Talk about ways fundamentals are important off the playing field, too.
 Randy believed our critics are often the ones saying they still care about us. How in your own
life has a critic helped you become a better person?
 Randy loved using “head fakes.” What are some other head fakes that teachers and parents have
used?
Chapter 11: The Happiest Place on Earth
Throughout the book, Randy says: “Brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep
us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
What are the brick walls you’ve faced in your own life? How did you get over them?
Chapter 12: The Park Is Open Until 8 p.m.
In this chapter, we see Randy as an advocate for his own medical care. We also get a sense of
how he decided to adopt a positive attitude. Have there been people in your own life who’ve faced the
challenges of serious illness? What did you learn from them? How has Randy’s journey made you
consider how you’ll approach your own mortality?
Chapter 14: The Dutch Uncle
Randy credits his professor Andy van Dam with telling him the tough-love things he needed to
hear. What was it about Dr. van Dam’s delivery and message that resonated with Randy? Who in your
own life has told you things about yourself that made you reconsider your actions or behavior?
Chapter 15: Pouring Soda in the Backseat
Throughout the book, Randy makes a distinction between “people” and “things.” What did you
think of his decision to empty that can of soda in the backseat of his car?
Chapter 17: Not All Fairy Tales End Smoothly
In this chapter and chapter 19 (about the birth of his son) Randy reminds readers that even
wonderful life events—such as a wedding or the birth of a child—are fraught with unexpected dangers.
What did you learn from the way Randy and Jai handled the problems before them in these chapters?
Chapter 18: Lucy, I’m Home
Was Randy right? Was there no need to fix the dents in those two damaged cars?
Chapter 21: Jai
6
It is clear in the book that Randy and Jai have a deep love for one another. And yet, like other
married couples, they’ve had to work hard on their relationship. Randy’s illness created additional
challenges. By reading about how they’ve faced the issues between them, what did you learn about
getting along with others, about mutual respect, and about the power of love?
Chapter 23: I’m on My Honeymoon, But If You Need Me…
What do you think of Randy’s time-management tips? Would you have walked out of that
grocery store, knowing you overpaid by $16.55? Do you have to-do lists?
Chapter 24: A Recovering Jerk
Randy believes the number one goal for educators should be helping students learn how to judge
themselves. How crucial do you think this is in the learning process? Have you relied on feedback loops
in your life? Has anyone ever told you that you were being a jerk?
Chapter 27: The Promised Land
Randy and his colleagues tried to attract girls into the field of computer science. He’s proud of
“The Alice Project,” and calls it his greatest legacy. What advice would you give to his colleagues, as
they go about trying to carry on Randy’s vision?
Chapter 28: Dream Big
Randy missed the 1969 moonwalk because he was sent to bed by camp counselors. Have you
ever wished adults in your life were less rigid? What advice would you give to adults about helping kids
to dream big?
Chapter 29: Earnest Is Better Than Hip
Do you agree with Randy? Is earnest better than hip? Is fashion truly commerce masquerading
as hip? Or can fashion be a way in which people express themselves?
Chapter 32: Don’t Complain, Just Work Harder
Randy admired Sandy Blatt and Jackie Robinson because they didn’t complain. As Randy puts
it: “Complaining is not a strategy.” Do you agree?
Chapter 35: Start by Sitting Together
Have you ever had trouble working in groups? How might Randy’s tips help you get along better
with others in the future?
Chapter 39: Be the First Penguin
Randy writes that “experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” How do
you think his First Penguin Award was able to inspire his students?
Chapter 41: The Lost Art of Thank-You Notes
Do you agree with Randy that handwritten thank-you notes, even in our computer age, can offer a
kind of magic? When was the last time you have seen a handwritten thank-you?
Chapter 47: A Bad Apology Is Worse Than No Apology
Randy describes two “classic bad apologies.” Have you ever given someone such an apology?
How did it turn out?
Chapter 55: All You Have to Do Is Ask
7
What would you like to ask for that you haven’t been able to find the courage to articulate? What
do you think will happen if you “just ask”?
Chapter 56: Make a Decision: Tigger or Eeyore
OK, so which one are you? And why? If you’d like to be more of a Tigger, how might you go
about that?
Chapter 59: Dreams for My Children
Randy says parents don’t realize the power of their words: “Depending on a child’s age and
sense of self, an offhand comment from Mom or Dad can feel like a shove from a bulldozer.” Have you
ever felt that way?
What are the vital messages to be drawn from the way Randy is saying goodbye to his kids, and
from the tangible things he is leaving behind for them?
Chapter 61: The Dreams Will Come to You
Randy realized that he didn’t give the lecture because he wanted to. He gave it because he “had
to.” Are there things inside of you that “need to come out”? As you read the final chapter of the book,
what were the emotions you were feeling? How would you describe the legacy of Randy Pausch?
(Source of These Discussion Questions: http://www.thelastlecture.com/pdf/LastLecture_EdGuide.pdf)
Article: “A Beloved Professor Delivers the Lecture of a Lifetime” by Jeffrey Zaslow, originally
published in The Wall Street Journal on September 22, 2007.
Note: This was the original article that inspired people to seek out the lecture online and made Randy
Pausch a worldwide phenomenon and inspiration.
Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor, was about to give a lecture
Tuesday afternoon, but before he said a word, he received a standing ovation from 400 students and
colleagues.
He motioned to them to sit down. "Make me earn it," he said.
They had come to see him give what was billed as his "last lecture." This is a common title for talks on
college campuses today. Schools such as Stanford and the University of Alabama have mounted "Last
Lecture Series," in which top professors are asked to think deeply about what matters to them and to give
hypothetical final talks. For the audience, the question to be mulled is this: What wisdom would we
impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?
It can be an intriguing hour, watching healthy professors consider their demise and ruminate over subjects
dear to them. At the University of Northern Iowa, instructor Penny O'Connor recently titled her lecture
"Get Over Yourself." At Cornell, Ellis Hanson, who teaches a course titled "Desire," spoke about sex and
technology.
At Carnegie Mellon, however, Dr. Pausch's speech was more than just an academic exercise. The 46year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. His lecture, using
images on a giant screen, turned out to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.
8
He began by showing his CT scans, revealing 10 tumors on his liver. But after that, he talked about living.
If anyone expected him to be morose, he said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." He then dropped to the floor
and did one-handed pushups.
Clicking through photos of himself as a boy, he talked about his childhood dreams: to win giant stuffed
animals at carnivals, to walk in zero gravity, to design Disney rides, to write a World Book entry. By
adulthood, he had achieved each goal. As proof, he had students carry out all the huge stuffed animals
he'd won in his life, which he gave to audience members. After all, he doesn't need them anymore.
He paid tribute to his techie background. "I've experienced a deathbed conversion," he said, smiling. "I
just bought a Macintosh." Flashing his rejection letters on the screen, he talked about setbacks in his
career, repeating: "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." He
encouraged us to be patient with others. "Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you."
After showing photos of his childhood bedroom, decorated with mathematical notations he'd drawn on the
walls, he said: "If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."
While displaying photos of his bosses and students over the years, he said that helping others fulfill their
dreams is even more fun than achieving your own. He talked of requiring his students to create
videogames without sex and violence. "You'd be surprised how many 19-year-old boys run out of ideas
when you take those possibilities away," he said, but they all rose to the challenge.
He also saluted his parents, who let him make his childhood bedroom his domain, even if his wall
etchings hurt the home's resale value. He knew his mom was proud of him when he got his Ph.D, he said,
despite how she'd introduce him: "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people."
He then spoke about his legacy. Considered one of the nation's foremost teachers of videogame and
virtual-reality technology, he helped develop "Alice," a Carnegie Mellon software project that allows
people to easily create 3-D animations. It had one million downloads in the past year, and usage is
expected to soar.
"Like Moses, I get to see the Promised Land, but I don't get to step foot in it," Dr. Pausch said. "That's
OK. I will live on in Alice."
Many people have given last speeches without realizing it. The day before he was killed, Martin Luther
King Jr. spoke prophetically: "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place." He
talked of how he had seen the Promised Land, even though "I may not get there with you."
Dr. Pausch's lecture, in the same way, became a call to his colleagues and students to go on without him
and do great things. But he was also addressing those closer to his heart.
Near the end of his talk, he had a cake brought out for his wife, whose birthday was the day before. As
she cried and they embraced on stage, the audience sang "Happy Birthday," many wiping away their own
tears.
Dr. Pausch's speech was taped so his children, ages 5, 2 and 1, can watch it when they're older. His last
words in his last lecture were simple: "This was for my kids." Then those of us in the audience rose for
one last standing ovation.
9
Article: “The Professor’s Manifesto: What It Meant to Readers” by Jeffrey Zaslow, published in The
Wall Street Journal on September 27, 2007.
Note: This article was published only a few days after Zaslow’s original article as Pausch’s worldwide
recognition began to change his life.
As a boy, Randy Pausch painted an elevator door, a submarine and mathematical formulas on his
bedroom walls. His parents let him do it, encouraging his creativity.
Last week, Dr. Pausch, a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told this story in a
lecture to 400 students and colleagues.
"If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it," he said. "Don't worry about
resale values."
As I wrote last week, his talk was a riveting and rollicking journey through the lessons of his life. It was
also his last lecture, since he has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months.
After he spoke, his only plans were to quietly spend whatever time he has left with his wife and three
young children. He never imagined the whirlwind that would envelop him. As video clips of his speech
spread across the Internet, thousands of people contacted him to say he had made a profound impact on
their lives. Many were moved to tears by his words -- and moved to action. Parents everywhere vowed to
let their kids do what they'd like on their bedroom walls.
"I am going to go right home and let my daughter paint her wall the bright pink she has been desiring
instead of the "resalable" vanilla I wanted," Carol Castle of Spring Creek, Nev., wrote to me to forward to
Dr. Pausch
People wanted Dr. Pausch to know that his talk had inspired them to quit pitying themselves, or to move
on from divorces, or to pay more attention to their families. One woman wrote that his words had given
her the strength to leave an abusive relationship. And terminally ill people wrote that they would try to
live their lives as the 46-year-old Dr. Pausch is living his. "I'm dying and I'm having fun," he said in the
lecture. "And I'm going to keep having fun every day, because there's no other way to play it."
For Don Frankenfeld of Rapid City, S.D., watching the full lecture was "the best hour I have spent in
years." Many echoed that sentiment.
ABC News, which featured Dr. Pausch on "Good Morning America," named him its "Person of the
Week." Other media descended on him. And hundreds of bloggers world-wide wrote essays celebrating
him as their new hero. Their headlines were effusive: "Best Lecture Ever," "The Most Important Thing
I've Ever Seen," "Randy Pausch, Worth Every Second."
In his lecture, Dr. Pausch had said, "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we
want things." Scores of Web sites now feature those words. Some include photos of brick walls for
emphasis. Meanwhile, rabbis and ministers shared his brick-wall metaphor in sermons this past weekend.
Some compared the lecture to Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man Alive" speech. Celina Levin, 15, of Marlton,
N.J., told Dr. Pausch that her AP English class had been analyzing the Gehrig speech, and "I have a
10
feeling that we'll be analyzing your speech for years to come." Already, the Naperville, Ill., Central High
School speech team plans to have a student deliver the Pausch speech word for word in competition.
As Dr. Pausch's fans emailed links of his speech to friends, some were sheepish about it. "I am a deeply
cynical person who reminds people frequently not to send me those sappy feel-good emails," wrote Mark
Pfeifer, a technology project manager at a New York investment bank. "Randy Pausch's lecture moved
me deeply, and I intend to forward it on."
In Miami, retiree Ronald Trazenfeld emailed the lecture to friends with a note to "stop complaining about
bad service and shoddy merchandise." He suggested they instead hug someone they love.
Near the end of his lecture, Dr. Pausch had talked about earning his Ph.D., and how his mother would
kiddingly introduce him: "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people."
It was a laugh line, but it led dozens of people to reassure Dr. Pausch: "You ARE the kind of doctor who
helps people," wrote Cheryl Davis of Oakland, Calif.
Dr. Pausch feels overwhelmed and moved that what started in a lecture hall with 400 people has now
been experienced by millions. Still, he has retained his sense of humor. "There's a limit to how many
times you can read how great you are and what an inspiration you are," he says, "but I'm not there yet."
Carnegie Mellon has a plan to honor Dr. Pausch. As a techie with the heart of a performer, he was always
a link between the arts and sciences on campus. A new computer-science building is being built, and a
footbridge will connect it to the nearby arts building. The bridge will be named the Randy Pausch
Memorial Footbridge.
"Based on your talk, we're thinking of putting a brick wall on either end," joked the university's president,
Jared Cohon, announcing the honor. He went on to say: "Randy, there will be generations of students and
faculty who will not know you, but they will cross that bridge and see your name and they'll ask those of
us who did know you. And we will tell them."
Dr. Pausch has asked Carnegie Mellon not to copyright his last lecture, and instead to leave it in the
public domain. It will remain his legacy, and his footbridge, to the world.
Article: “A Final Farewell” by Jeffrey Zaslow, published in The Wall Street Journal on May 3, 2008
Note: In this article Jeffrey Zaslow reflects on what was like knowing and writing The Last Lecture with
Randy Pausch.
Saying goodbye. It's a part of the human experience that we encounter every day, sometimes
nonchalantly, sometimes with great emotion.
Then, eventually, the time comes for the final goodbye. When death is near, how do we phrase our
words? How do we show our love?
Randy Pausch, a professor at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, has become famous for the way in
which he chose to say goodbye to his students and colleagues. His final lecture to them, delivered last
September, turned into a phenomenon, viewed by millions on the Internet. Dying of pancreatic cancer, he
showed a love of life and an approach to death that people have found inspiring. For many of us, his
11
lecture has become a reminder that our own futures are similarly -- if not as drastically -- brief. His fate is
ours, sped up.
Since the lecture, I've been privileged to spend a great deal of time with Randy, while co-writing his new
book, "The Last Lecture." I've seen how, in some ways, he is peacefully reconciled to his fate, and in
other ways, understandably, he is struggling.
The lecture was directed at his "work family," a call to them to go on without him and do great things.
But since the talk, Randy has been most focused on his actual family -- his wife, Jai, and their three
children, ages 6, 3, and 1.
For months after receiving his terminal diagnosis last August, Randy and Jai (pronounced "Jay") didn't
tell the kids he was dying. They were advised to wait until Randy was more symptomatic. "I still look
pretty healthy," he told me in December, "and so my kids remain unaware that in my every encounter
with them I'm saying goodbye. There's this sense of urgency that I try not to let them pick up on."
Through both his lecture and his life, Randy offers a realistic road map to the final farewell. His approach
-- pragmatic, heartfelt, sometimes quirky, often joyous -- can't help but leave you wondering: "How will I
say goodbye?"
Maybe 150. That's how many people Randy expected would attend his last lecture. He bet a friend $50
that he'd never fill the 400-seat auditorium. After all, it was a warm September day. He assumed people
would have better things to do than listen to a dying computer-science professor in his 40s give his final
lesson.
Randy lost his bet. The room was packed. He was thrilled by the turnout, and determined to deliver a talk
that offered all he had in him.
He arrived onstage to a standing ovation, but motioned to the audience to sit down. "Make me earn it," he
said.
He hardly mentioned his cancer. Instead, he took everyone on a rollicking journey through the lessons of
his life. He talked about the importance of childhood dreams, and the fortitude needed to overcome
setbacks. ("Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things.") He
encouraged his audience to be patient with others. ("Wait long enough, and people will surprise and
impress you.") And, to show the crowd that he wasn't ready to climb into his deathbed, he dropped to the
floor and did push-ups.
His colleagues and students sat there, buoyed by his words and startled by how the rush of one man's
passion could leave them feeling so introspective and emotionally spent -- all at once saddened and
exhilarated.
In 70 minutes onstage, he gave his audience reasons to reconsider their own ambitions, and to find new
ways to look at other people's flaws and talents. He celebrated mentors and protégés with an open heart.
And through a few simple gestures -- including a birthday cake for his wife -- he showed everyone the
depth of his love for his family. In his smiling delivery, he was so full of life that it was almost impossible
to reconcile the fact that he was near death -- that this performance was his goodbye.
12
I'm a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and a week before Randy gave the lecture, I got a heads-up
about it from the Journal's Pittsburgh bureau chief. Because my column focuses on life transitions, she
thought Randy might be fodder for a story.
I was aware that professors are often asked to give "last lectures" as an academic exercise, imagining
what wisdom they would impart if it was their final chance. In Randy's case, of course, his talk would not
be hypothetical.
I first spoke to him by phone the day before his talk, and he was so engaging that I was curious to see
what he'd be like onstage. I was slightly ill at ease in our conversation; it's hard to know what to say to a
dying man. But Randy found ways to lighten things up. He was driving his car, talking to me on his
cellphone. I didn't want him to get in an accident, so I suggested we reconnect when he got to a land line.
He laughed. "Hey, if I die in a car crash, what difference would it make?"
I almost didn't go to Pittsburgh to see him. The plane fare from my home in Detroit was a hefty $850, and
my editors said that if I wanted, I could just do a phone interview with him after the talk, asking him how
it went. In the end, I sensed that I shouldn't miss seeing his lecture in person, and so I drove the 300 miles
to Pittsburgh.
Like others in the room that day, I knew I was seeing something extraordinary. I hoped I could put
together a compelling story, but I had no expectations beyond that.
Neither did Randy. When the lecture ended, his only plan was to quietly spend whatever time he had left
with Jai and the kids. He never imagined the whirlwind that would envelop him.
The lecture had been videotaped -- WSJ.com posted highlights -- and footage began spreading across
thousands of Web sites. (The full talk can now be seen at thelastlecture.com.) Randy was soon receiving
emails from all over the world.
People wrote about how his lecture had inspired them to spend more time with loved ones, to quit pitying
themselves, or even to shake off suicidal urges. Terminally ill people said the lecture had persuaded them
to embrace their own goodbyes, and as Randy said, "to keep having fun every day I have left, because
there's no other way to play it."
In the weeks after the talk, people translated the lecture into other languages, and posted their versions
online. A university in India held a screening of the video. Hundreds of students attended and told their
friends how powerful it was; hundreds more demanded a second screening a week later.
In the U.S., Randy reprised part of his talk on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." ABC News would later name
him one of its three "Persons of the Year." Thousands of bloggers wrote essays celebrating him.
Randy was overwhelmed and moved by the response. Still, he retained his sense of humor. "There's a
limit to how many times you can read how great you are and what an inspiration you are," he said. "But
I'm not there yet."
Years ago, Jai had suggested that Randy compile his advice into a book for her and the kids. She wanted
to call it “The Manual.” Now, in the wake of the lecture, otheres were also telling Randy that he had a
book in him.
13
He resisted at first. Yes, there were things he felt an urge to express. But given his prognosis, he wanted
to spend his limited time with his family.
Then he caught a break. Palliative chemotherapy stalled the growth of his tumors. “This will be the first
book to ever list the drug Gemcitabine on the acknowlegments page,” he joked. But he still didn’t want
the book to get in the way of his last months with his kids. So he came up with a plan.
Because exercise was crucial to his health, he would ride his bicycle around his neighborhood for an hour
each day. This was time he couldn’t be with his kids, anyway. He and I agreed that he would wear a
cellphone headset on these rides, and we’d talk about everything on his mind—the lecture, his life, his
dreams for his family.
Every day, as soon as his bike ride came to an end, so did our conversation. “Gotta go!” he’d say, and I
knew he felt an aching urge (and responsibility) to return to his family life.
But the next day, he’d be back on the bike, enthusiastic about the conversation. He confided in me that
since his diagnosis, he had found himself feeling saddest when he was alone, driving his car or riding his
bike. So I sensed that he enjoyed my company in his ears as he pedaled.
Randy had a way of framing human experiences in his own distinctive way, mixing humor here,
unexpected inspiration there, and wrapping it all in an uncommon optimism. In the three months after the
lecture, he went on 53 long bike rides, and the stories he told became not just his book, but also part of his
process of saying goodbye.
Right now, Randy's children -- Dylan, Logan and Chloe -- are too young to understand all the things he
yearns to share with them. "I want the kids to know what I've always believed in," he told me, "and all the
ways in which I've come to love them."
Those who die at older ages, after their children have grown to adulthood, can find comfort in the fact that
they've been a presence in their offspring's lives. "When I cry in the shower," Randy said, "I'm not usually
thinking, 'I won't get to see the kids do this' or 'I won't get to see them do that.' I'm thinking about the kids
not having a father. I'm focused more on what they're going to lose than on what I'm going to lose. Yes, a
percentage of my sadness is, 'I won't, I won't, I won't.' But a bigger part of me grieves for them. I keep
thinking, 'They won't, they won't, they won't.' "
Early on, he had vowed to do the logistical things necessary to ease his family's path into a life without
him. His minister helped him think beyond estate planning and funeral arrangements. "You have life
insurance, right?" the minister asked.
"Yes, it's all in place," Randy told him.
"Well, you also need emotional insurance," the minister explained. The premiums for that insurance
would be paid for with Randy's time, not his money. The minister suggested that Randy spend hours
making videotapes of himself with the kids. Years from now, they will be able to see how easily they
touched each other and laughed together.
Knowing his kids' memories of him could be fuzzy, Randy has been doing things with them that he hopes
they'll find unforgettable. For instance, he and Dylan, 6, went on a minivacation to swim with dolphins.
"A kid swims with dolphins, he doesn't easily forget it," Randy said. "We took lots of photos." Randy
14
took Logan, 3, to Disney World to meet his hero, Mickey Mouse. "I'd met him, so I could make the
introduction."
Randy also made a point of talking to people who lost parents when they were very young. They told him
they found it consoling to learn about how much their mothers and fathers loved them. The more they
knew, the more they could still feel that love. To that end, Randy built separate lists of his memories of
each child. He also has written down his advice for them, things like: "If I could only give three words of
advice, they would be, 'Tell the truth.' If I got three more words, I'd add, 'All the time.' "
The advice he's leaving for Chloe includes this: "When men are romantically interested in you, it's really
simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do." Chloe, not yet 2 years
old, may end up having no memory of her father. "But I want her to grow up knowing," Randy said, "that
I was the first man ever to fall in love with her."
Saying goodbye to a spouse requires more than just loving words. There are details that must be
addressed.
Shortly after his terminal diagnosis, Randy and his family moved from Pittsburgh to southeastern
Virginia, so that after he dies, Jai and the kids will be closer to her family for support. At first, Jai didn't
even want Randy returning to Pittsburgh to give his last lecture; she thought he should be home,
unpacking boxes or interacting with the kids. "Call me selfish," Jai told him, "but I want all of you. Any
time you'll spend working on this lecture is lost time, because it's time away from the kids and from me."
Jai finally relented when Randy explained how much he yearned to give one last talk. "An injured lion
still wants to roar," he told her.
In the months after the talk, while chemo was still keeping his tumors from growing, Randy wouldn't use
the word "lucky" to describe his situation. Still, he said, "a part of me does feel fortunate that I didn't get
hit by the proverbial bus." Cancer had given him the time to have vital conversations with Jai that
wouldn't be possible if his fate were a heart attack or car accident.
What did they talk about?
For starters, they both tried to remember that flight attendants offer terrific caregiving advice: "Put on
your own oxygen mask before assisting others."
"Jai is such a giver that she often forgets to take care of herself," Randy said. "When we become
physically or emotionally run down, we can't help anybody else, least of all small children." Randy has
reminded Jai that, once he's gone, she should give herself permission to make herself a priority.
Randy and Jai also talked about the fact that she will make mistakes in the years ahead, and she shouldn't
attribute them all to the fact that she'll be raising the kids herself. "Mistakes are part of the process of
parenting," Randy told her. "If I were able to live, we'd be making those mistakes together."
In some ways, the couple found it helpful to try to live together as if their marriage had decades to go.
"We discuss, we get frustrated, we get mad, we make up," Randy said.
At the same time, given Randy's prognosis, Jai has been trying to let little stuff slide. Randy can be
messy, with clothes everywhere. "Obviously, I ought to be neater," Randy said. "I owe Jai many
15
apologies. But do we really want to spend our last months together arguing that I haven't hung up my
khakis? We do not. So now Jai kicks my clothes in a corner and moves on."
A friend suggested to Jai that she keep a daily journal. She writes in there things that get on her nerves
about Randy. He can be cocky, dismissive, a know-it-all. "Randy didn't put his plate in the dishwasher
tonight," she wrote one night. "He just left it there on the table and went to his computer." She knew he
was preoccupied, heading to the Internet to research medical treatments. Still, the dish bothered her. She
wrote about it, felt better, and they didn't need to argue over it.
There are days when Jai tells Randy things, and there's little he can say in response. She has said to him:
"I can't imagine rolling over in bed and you're not there." And: "I can't picture myself taking the kids on
vacation and you not being with us."
Randy and Jai have gone to a therapist who specializes in counseling couples in which one spouse is
terminally ill. That's been helpful. But they've still struggled. They've cried together in bed at 3 a.m.,
fallen back asleep, woken up at 4 a.m. and cried some more. "We've gotten through in part by focusing on
the tasks at hand," Randy said. "We can't fall to pieces. We've got to get some sleep because one of us has
to get up in the morning and give the kids breakfast. That person, for the record, is almost always Jai."
For Randy, part of saying goodbye is trying to remain optimistic. After his diagnosis, Randy's doctor gave
him advice: "It's important to behave as if you're going to be around awhile." Randy was already way
ahead of him: "Doc, I just bought a new convertible and got a vasectomy. What more do you want from
me?"
In December, Randy went on a short scuba-diving vacation with three close friends. The men were all
aware of the subtext; they were banding together to give Randy a farewell weekend. Still, they
successfully avoided any emotional "I love you, man" dialogue related to Randy's cancer. Instead, they
reminisced, horsed around and made fun of each other. (Actually, it was mostly the other guys making
fun of Randy for the "St. Randy of Pittsburgh" reputation he had gotten since his lecture.) Nothing was
off-limits. When Randy put on sunscreen, his friend Steve Seabolt said, "Afraid of skin cancer, Randy?
That's like putting good money after bad."
Randy loved that weekend. As he later explained it: "I am maintaining my clear-eyed sense of the
inevitable. I'm living like I'm dying. But at the same time, I'm very much living like I'm still living."
Since Randy's lecture began spreading on the Internet, he has heard from thousands of strangers, many
offering advice on how they dealt with final goodbyes.
A woman who lost her husband to pancreatic cancer said his last speech was to a small audience: her, his
children, parents and siblings. He thanked them for their guidance and love, and reminisced about places
they had gone together. Another woman, whose husband died of a brain tumor, suggested that Randy talk
to Jai about how she'll need to reassure their kids, as they get older, that they will have a normal life.
"There will be graduations, marriages, children of their own. When a parent dies at such an early age,
some children think that other normal life-cycle events may not happen for them, either."
Randy was moved by comments such as the one he received from a man with serious heart problems. The
man wrote to tell Randy about Krishnamurti, a spiritual leader in India who died in 1986. Krishnamurti
was once asked what was the most appropriate way to say goodbye to a man who was about to die. He
answered: "Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you
16
also go. He will not be alone." In his email to Randy, this man was reassuring: "I know you are not
alone."
The chemotherapy keeping Randy alive took a toll on his body. By March, he was fighting off kidney and
heart failure, along with debilitating fatigue. Still, he kept a commitment to go to Washington, D.C., to
speak before Congress on behalf of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
He spoke forcefully about research needed to fight pancreatic cancer, the deadliest of all the cancers, and
then held up a large photo of Jai and the kids. When he pointed to Jai, he told the congressmen: "This is
my widow. That's not a grammatical construction you get to use every day.... Pancreatic cancer can be
beat, but it will take more courage and funding."
Randy has now stopped chemotherapy, and as he regains his strength, he hopes to begin liver-specific
treatments. He is engaged in the process, but expects no miracles. He knows his road is short.
Meanwhile, I feel forever changed by my time with Randy; I saw his love of life from a front-row seat.
He and I traded countless emails, and I've filed them all safely in my computer. His daily emails -- smart,
funny, wise -- have brightened my inbox. I dread the day I will no longer hear from him.
Randy rarely got emotional in all his hours with me. He was brave, talking about death like a scientist. In
fact, until we got to discussing what should be in the book's last chapter, he never choked up.
The last chapter, we decided, would be about the last moments of his lecture -- how he felt, what he said.
He thought hard about that, and then described for me how his emotions swelled as he took a breath and
prepared to deliver his closing lines. It was tough, he said, "because the end of the talk had to be a
distillation of how I felt about the end of my life."
In the same way, discussing the end of the book was emotional for him. I could hear his voice cracking as
we spoke. Left unsaid was the fact that this part of our journey together was ending. He no longer needed
to ride his bike, wearing that headset, while I sat at my computer, tapping away, his voice in my ears.
Within weeks, he had no energy to exercise.
Randy is thrilled that so many people are finding his lecture beneficial, and he hopes the book also will be
a meaningful legacy for him. Still, all along, he kept reminding me that he was reaching into his heart,
offering his life lessons, mostly to address an audience of three. "I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle
that will one day wash up on the beach for my children," he said.
And so despite all his goodbyes, he has found solace in the idea that he'll remain a presence. "Kids, more
than anything else, need to know their parents love them," he said. "Their parents don't have to be alive
for that to happen."
Chapter cut from the book:
Question: Why do you think this chapter was cut?
THE LOST CHAPTER
The Bridge
When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I went to see Carnegie Mellon’s president, Jared Cohon, to let
him know. He met me in his reception area, and just making small-talk, told me I looked thin and trim.
17
“I see you’re down to your fighting weight,” he said.
“Well, that’s what I’ve come to talk to about,” I told him as he closed his door. “I’m thin because I have
cancer.”
He immediately vowed to do whatever he could for me, to call anyone he knew in medicine who might
help. And then he took out his business card and wrote his cell-phone number on the back of it. “This is
for Jai,” he said. “You tell her to call me, day or night, if there’s anything this university can do to help,
or anything I can do as an individual.”
President Cohon, and others at the university, did indeed make great efforts on my behalf. My surgeon
later said to me: “Every time the phone rings, it’s another person politely insinuating that you’re not the
guy to lose on the table.”
But Carnegie Mellon also had given me a break by reconsidering my graduate-school application. Then,
years later, the school hired me. Then it allowed me to set up academic programs that few other
universities would even consider. Now, once again, I felt this school rallying behind me. Let me just say
it: To the extent that a human being can love an institution, I love Carnegie Mellon.
On the day of my last lecture, I was told that President Cohon was out of town and couldn’t attend. I was
disappointed. But actually, his plan was to fly back to Pittsburgh the afternoon of the talk.
He arrived halfway through the lecture, and I saw him enter the room out of the corner of my eye. I paused
for a second. He stood against the side wall, watching me speak. I didn’t know it, but he was set to follow
me on stage.
He also had a surprise.
Less than a block from the lecture hall, a new computer-science building was under construction. A 220foot-long footbridge, three stories high, is being built to connect the computer center to the nearby arts
and drama building. President Cohon had come to announce that a decision had been made to name the
bridge “The Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge.”
“Based on your talk,” he ad-libbed, “we’re thinking of putting a brick wall at either end. Let’s see what
our students can do with that.”
His announcement was an overwhelming moment in my life. The idea of this bridge took my breath
away.
Turned out, President Cohon wasn’t kidding about the brick walls, either. Carnegie Mellon gave its
architects and bridge designers the green light to be completely creative. They first considered having
some kind of hologram of a brick wall on the bridge, allowing students to walk right through it. Now
they’re planning to design the bridge in a way that gives pedestrians a sense that a brick wall is ahead of
them at the end.
I’ve never been a big fan of memorials or buildings being named in people’s memories. Walt Disney had
said he didn’t like the idea of statues of dead guys in the park.
18
And yet, I’m a big believer in symbols as a way to communicate. The symbolism of this bridge is just
amazing to me because I've spent my career trying to be a bridge. My goal was always to connect people
from different disciplines, while helping them find their way over brick walls.
I am moved and pleased when I picture all the people who will one day cross that bridge: Jai, our kids,
my former students and colleagues, and a lot of young people with somewhere to go.
The Pausch Bridge
The Pausch Bridge connects one of the university’s fine arts bulidings, Purnell Center, with the
new Gates & Hillman Centers, the home for computer science at Carnegie Mellon.
Randy reminded students that even in dangerous waters, one penguin had to be brave enough to
take the first dive. The design of the Pausch Bridge pays tribute to all the “penguins” of the
world with abstract penguin cut-outs.
The bridge features more than 7,000 programmable (and environmentally friendly) LED lights.
During the opening, the lighting sequences are designed to represent six different visual
metaphors from Randy’s book. The light show will run about 15 minutes before repeating on a
loop.
19
Pausch Bridge Lighting Description- Christopher Popowich and Cindy Limauro, Lighting
Designers
All lighting looks for the Pausch Bridge are inspired from visual metaphors in Randy’s book
The Last Lecture. The lighting will run 15 minutes before repeating on a continuous loop.
Here is a visual description.
Fun with Crayons
Randy talks about only using black and white crayons and then later on discovers color.
The bridge panels will start in darkness and will then fade up to white light. The bridge will then start
to change colors based on the favorite colors of Randy, Jai, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.
Space – The Last Frontier
Star Trek and space were another important dream for Randy. The lighting on the brick wall will
simulate a rocket blast off while the bridge panels will create a panorama of space.
Make the Most of Each Day – Time of Day Cycle
Randy lived each day to the fullest. The lighting will transition from night into dawn, daylight into
sunset.
Be the First Penguin
The lighting will create water imagery and motion to suggest the image of penguins jumping into
water.
Live your Dreams- the Elevator in Randy’s bedroom
Randy describes how important it was to be able to paint his bedroom and one strong image is the
elevator. The lighting on the bridge will create the motion of a moving elevator stopping at floors
with the wall culminating in beautiful colors to become a metaphor for Live your Dreams.
Disney and the Circus – Grand Finale
There are so many references in the book to Disney and the Circus. The ETC program that Randy
co-founded is about exploring cutting edge technologies. This section will be a grand finale of the
magic of light and will really show off the possibilities of this cutting edge lighting technology that is
being used to honor Randy’s memory.
(Source: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/bridge.html)
Information from Carnegie Mellon University:
We at Carnegie Mellon have been blessed to know and work with Randy Pausch and to see the profound
influence he has had on our students, on entertainment technologies and on the teaching of computer
science. We--all of us--are fortunate that Randy has been able to record his insights into how a good life
is lived. Randy’s gifts of inspiration are no longer restricted to our lecture halls and labs; they are now
here for all to read and experience.
— Jared L. Cohon, President, Carnegie Mellon University
20
Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate
students participating in a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics,
business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses
in Pittsburgh, PA, Silicon Valley, CA, and Doha, Qatar. Carnegie Mellon also has degree-granting
programs in Asia, Australia and Europe.
Watch videos and get more information about The Last Lecture DVD, Randy's other lectures, and media
coverage for the book at Randy Pausch's Carnegie Mellon website.
The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University is the premiere professional
graduate program for interactive entertainment as it is applied across a variety of fields. Co-founded by
Don Marinelli and Randy Pausch, the ETC emphasizes leadership, innovation and communication by
creating challenging experiences through which students learn how to collaborate, experiment, and iterate
solutions. Graduates are prepared for any environment where technologists and artists work closely on a
team; like theme parks, children and science museums, web sites, mobile computing, video games and
more. (Source: www.thelastlecture.com)
www.alice.org
Note: Alice is the program that Randy Pausch initiated at Carnegie Mellon. It is available to download
for free at www.alice.org. It looks pretty awesome, so if you are interested in creating animation and
video games, check it out.
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling
a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching
tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn
fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games.
In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a
program to animate the objects.
In Alice's interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the
instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as
Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling
them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of
objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience
with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course. (Source:
www.alice.org)
Article: “Shrines to Childhood” by Kate Stone Lombardi, published in The New York Times on April
5, 2009
Note: This article talks about what happens to childhood bedrooms after the child moves out. It is worth
noting since many of you will be going away to college next year, and Randy Pausch had such an
attachment to his childhood room.
MY son’s room has been described more than once as a shrine. The object of his homage? The New York
Rangers.
21
We are not just talking about a few posters on the wall. Nearly every square inch trumpets Paul’s support
of the team.
A huge Rangers banner that hangs from the ceiling dominates the room. In the corner is a larger-than-life
cardboard cutout of Wayne Gretzky, hockey stick outstretched, waiting for a pass. The bed has not only a
Rangers cover and a Rangers pillow, but also sheets with hockey pucks on them.
There are signed hockey sticks over the windows, which themselves are decorated with Rangers decals.
The computer mouse pad has the team logo. There are framed, signed Rangers jerseys above the
computer.
It goes without saying that the walls are covered with posters, photographs and calendars that celebrate
the team. (Ticket stubs from games are kept in a separate box, memories too precious to stick on the
wall.)
I think you get the picture. My son is the kind of fan whose spirits rise and fall with the performance of
the team, who follows every blip of Rangers news, remains highly opinionated about the strengths and
weaknesses of each player, and who sounds to me at this point as if he’s ready to step up to the coach’s
job, in the event that the latest one doesn’t work out.
This room didn’t come together overnight, of course. The memorabilia was collected from the time he
was an early fan — back in his elementary school days — until now. Today he is a college sophomore.
He still lives and breathes hockey. But he doesn’t really live in that room anymore.
I am careful about going in there while he’s at school, because it makes me miss him too much. Just
standing in the doorway sets me back. That’s because to me this room is more than a monument to a
hockey team. It’s really a shrine to the little boy who grew up there.
Paul was placed in a crib as a newborn in that room. He spent endless hours of his childhood in there,
playing with his Matchbox cars, painstakingly organizing his hockey cards, reading and, as he got older,
studying, cramming for SATs, logging hours on Facebook with his friends and, finally, packing for
college.
When I look past all the Rangers stuff, I can still see remnants of other parts of Paul’s childhood. High up
on a shelf is the stuffed penguin he once slept with. There are a few little cars on the shelf — and of
course, a few mini-Zambonis. There are class pictures from elementary school, team pictures from high
school, soccer trophies and a program from a jazz concert he played in.
Recently, I spotted a brochure about a college study-abroad program — he hopes to spend a semester in
Spain next year. There was also a pile of clothes he had outgrown. As it is, he can barely fit his long
frame in that childhood bed.
This, I know, is a room in transition. His sister’s room is just down the hall, and farther along in the
process of transforming from a child’s room to the room of someone who once lived there.
Jeanie graduated from college two years ago. Her room, too, mirrors the girl she once was. The canopied
bed still has a Laura Ashley spread, and there are matching curtains on the windows. But there is also a
Zebra-patterned throw that appealed to her in middle school. At one point she balked at her pink walls
and carpets — now the carpet is a moss green and the walls a sky blue. It feels as if you are outside and it
also feels very much like a reflection of Jeanie’s spirit.
22
Photos of laughing groups of friends are tacked on the wall, spread on the bureau and tucked into the
corners of her mirror. There are half-melted candles and countless hair accessories. The shelves and the
desk are crammed with dozens of books, ranging from childhood favorites to Michel Foucault’s “Ethics:
Subjectivity and Truth,” with plenty of trashy novels and great literature in between.
But things are also starting to disappear from that room. A lamp went to her apartment in the city. So did
some sheets and blankets. And a small painting that used to hang on her wall. And some framed photos.
It’s still my daughter’s room, but as she settles more deeply into her independent life, her essence gets
more and more stripped out of those four walls.
I would be lying to say that I miss the disorder — the scattered papers, the piles of clothes, the dirty tea
mugs — that were also very much a part of Jeanie’s occupancy. But I do miss the girl who lived there.
On a recent college vacation, Paul brought a friend home, and as they entered his room, it seemed like the
Rangers shrine had for the first time become slightly embarrassing. “It’s sort of a little boy’s room,” he
said with a small smile.
Paul will probably always root for the team and follow its fortunes. In the years to come, he will see great
players rise and fall, playoffs come and go, and coaches hired and fired. And if all the stars align, he will
see the Rangers bring home another Stanley Cup, something that will bring him enormous joy no matter
what age he’ll be. But the little-boy adoration that was reflected in his room has already been replaced
with a more nuanced understanding of professional sports.
I suspect, over time, his monument to the hockey team will slowly be dismantled. A poster here. A signed
photograph there. I doubt that the Rangers bedspread will make the move to an adult apartment, though
you never know. If it doesn’t, I doubt I will ever remove it.
________________________________________________________________
Lessons After The Last Lecture From Jai Pausch
By TESS SCOTT
May 15, 2012—
abcnews.go.com
Randy Pausch's Widow Reimagines Her Life After Loss
Jai Pausch is dreaming new dreams and rebuilding her life, one hour at a time. Jai wrote a novel
about caring for her late husband, the famed Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who died
in 2008 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Jai's book, "Dream New Dreams: Reimagining My Life After Loss," provides an intimate
portrait of the family's journey through Randy's diagnosis, treatment, and death.
Randy Pausch's name ricocheted around the world after he delivered his famous Last Lecture at
Carnegie Mellon to a packed hall. Randy talked about the importance of achieving childhood
dreams despite tremendous obstacles.
"The brick walls are... there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to
stop the other people," he said.
23
In one of the most poignant moments in the lecture, Randy Pausch revealed his diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer and that he only had three to six months left to live. He then got down on the
ground and did pushups in front of the stunned audience.
"I don't know how not to have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun," he said.
So inspiring, the lecture rocketed around the world with over ten million downloads and a NYT
bestselling book based on his talk. The book stayed on the bestseller list for 112 weeks, with
almost five million copies sold, including a new enhanced ebook
Despite Randy's impossibly sunny attitude, his wife Jai describes in her book the difficulty in
trying to cope with the cancer that would ultimately take Randy from her and their children.
"You never realize the tragedy that could befall you. And you think, like, 'this would be the
worst thing that could happen to me...' And that's when you're fooled by how limited your
imagination actually was. And something completely different, something completely worse."
The book is a sort of guidebook for caregivers, passing on intimate lessons learned from their
experience.
"I first started writing it for me. For that person who had started off in this process of being a
caretaker. Starting on this journey and looking back and thinking what I know now that I could
pass on to her."
And the book details some of the darker moments in Jai's journey, the anger she felt towards her
husband for what was happening to him and their family, and her own guilt.
"That's where I think we could step in and help caregivers and say it's normal to feel this way, it's
okay to have resentment, it's okay to have anger."
Jai describes learning to care for herself, and learning when to let go and accept Randy's death.
She remembers the advice one friend gave her.
"I have everything I need," she said.
Four years after Randy's death, the phenomenon of his life continues. Jai remembers the message
her husband left with the world: there is magic that lives in us all.
"And I came to realize, after Randy had passed, that I had the ability to make magic, too... I have
magic in me, too. And it didn't die like I thought."
A sunrise and a new day. Jai met a man online, a former submarine officer. The two recently
married.
24
She writes, "...When a dream shatters, pick up the pieces and get a new one. It won't be the same
as the broken one. But one can hope it will be as vibrant and exciting. I've had to give myself
permission to let go of the old dreams."
Source: This article—a video interview—originally appeared at:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/jai-pausch-lessons-lecture/story?id=16351226#.T9K1rrBrPl4
_________________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Zaslow's Last Lesson - CNN.com
By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor
updated 9:46 AM EST, Sun March 4, 2012
Jounalist and author Jeff Zaslow, who died in a car crash last month, brought admirable integrity to his work, says
Bob Greene.
Editor's note: Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose books include "Late Edition:
A Love Story" and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen."
(CNN) -- "What # are you at?"
The brief e-mail arrived late on the morning of January 24. I keep looking at it.
It was from Jeff Zaslow. We first became friends more than 25 years ago. We got together as often as we could
when we found ourselves in the same town, usually for long, laughter-filled dinners; Jeff, a columnist for the Wall
Street Journal, in recent years became the author of multiple big bestselling books, most of them on inspirational
themes.
25
"What # are you at?"
He was going to be making appearances for his latest book, "The Magic Room," and he had looked at his schedule
and saw that he had a few days between speeches in the South. He knew that I'd been holed up in a hotel on the west
coast of Florida, trying to get some writing done. He was going to take those two days between speeches to join me
and just hang out.
So we talked on the phone, and arranged the days. Today -- Sunday, March 4 -- is the day he was to arrive.
On February 10, on his way back to his home in suburban Detroit from a book signing in Petoskey, Michigan, the
night before, Jeff was killed instantly when, according to police, his car skidded on a snowy road and was hit headon by an oncoming semitrailer truck. He was 53.
Jeff's wife, Sherry, his three daughters, Jordan, Alex and Eden, and his parents, Harry and Naomi, have suffered an
unfathomable loss. The obituaries and tributes written by his friends and colleagues have all centered on Jeff's
never-ending thoughtfulness and compassion. The tributes have been entirely accurate; the constancy of Jeff's
kindness was one of life's rarities.
Today, when Jeff should have been arriving for our time together, I'd like to pass on a lesson from him that I believe
can be used to great effect by anyone, regardless of his or her line of work.
It has to do with the book that first made him a bestselling author, "The Last Lecture," written with Professor Randy
Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University. The book was a publishing phenomenon: 5 million copies sold in the English
language alone, translations into 48 languages around the world.
Some people thought that Jeff got lucky with that book.
But luck had nothing to do with it.
In early September 2007, Jeff was working on a Wall Street Journal column about a trend he was hearing about at
U.S. universities. Professors were thinking what they might say if they had to deliver one last lecture, and were in
fact giving those lectures, summing up what had been meaningful in their lives.
As he was reporting the piece, Jeff learned that a professor at Carnegie Mellon -- Pausch -- was going to give what
might literally be his last lecture. Pausch was dying from pancreatic cancer.
It was going to be inconvenient for Jeff to go from Detroit to Pittsburgh for the speech; there was a problem with the
price of the flight, and the schedule, and he also had obligations to attend to in Michigan that day. It would have
been much easier just to call the professor and get a quote, or have the university send him an audio or video
recording of the lecture. Remember: Jeff didn't even know, at that point, whether Pausch's lecture would warrant a
whole column.
But he got up that morning in Detroit and -- Jeff being Jeff -- decided that he really ought to see for himself.
He was an established and respected Wall Street Journal staff member; no one at the paper would have faulted him
for doing a quick interview with Pausch on the phone.
Jeff got in his car and drove more than 300 miles from Detroit to Pittsburgh to sit in the audience and listen to the
speech. A five-hour drive there, and then a five-hour, 300-mile drive back.
It paid off spectacularly, of course. The column -- moving, tender, insightful -- was a sensation, and the book that he
ended up writing with Pausch gave Jeff a new career in the top echelon of American authors, and provided financial
security for his family.
26
But -- and this is what is important -- it was nothing he didn't do all the time. In his work, he always went the extra
step -- the extra hundred steps. He never took the easy way.
I remember, seven or eight years ago, well before "The Last Lecture," Jeff had come to Chicago to interview an oldtime vaudeville performer. To the best of my recollection, the newspaper story was going to have something to do
with audiences, or audience reactions. The old performer was going to be one sliver of a longer piece. An easy
phone-call interview.
But Jeff didn't do things that way. He flew to Chicago and, suitcase in hand (he hadn't checked into his hotel yet),
met me at the restaurant where we had arranged to have dinner. At one point we talked about why, at this stage in
his career, he still pushed himself so hard. He said he just wanted to look into the man's eyes when he interviewed
him the next day. He felt the story would be a little better that way.
At the end of the meal we went to the coat-check window; they had taken Jeff's suitcase down a long flight of stairs
to store it on a basement level. Jeff didn't want the young woman to have to carry it up the stairs, so he went down to
get it. I stood there and watched as he came up the steep flight of stairs, visibly weary, huffing, sweating, lugging the
heavy bag; we looked at each other and both of us burst out laughing.
"Look at you," I said. "You look like 'Death of a [cuss-word-adjective] Salesman.'"
"I know," he said. "Why do I do this?"
We both knew the answer. He did it because it was the right way to do a job. And it doesn't matter what a person
does for a living. It can be the lawyer who stays late to look up a few more citations of case law, to give his client
the best possible chance. It can be the teacher who goes over the lesson plan one more time, adding something vital
to it at midnight, even though the students or the school administrators will never be aware of the effort she has put
in. It can be the factory worker who takes it upon himself to check the specifications a third and fourth time, wanting
to be absolutely certain that the product will be as close to perfect as humanly possible.
Does it always pay off, as Jeff's 10 hours on the road paid off with "The Last Lecture"? Of course not. It hardly ever
pays off that big. Most times, your boss, your colleagues, your own family will never know that you put in the extra
effort when you didn't have to.
But you'll know. That's what counts. And when the day finally comes when you have your big success, when you
get your big break, it won't be because you made the extra effort once. It will be because you made the extra effort
every time.
Jeff did. And that's the lesson I'd like to pass on for him. Especially today. The silence at the dinner hour tonight is
going to be awfully loud.
Source of this Article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/04/opinion/greene-zaslow/
For more information on Jeff Zaslow, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Zaslow
27
The Last Lecture Homework Assignment:
"If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."Randy Pausch
Make a list of your childhood and/or current dreams (probably you will have at least five, but I am not
requiring that you have a certain number of dreams—this is about your dreams, after all). They must fit
onto a standard piece of printer paper, and you must also include a photograph of yourself as a child. You
may also choose to creatively decorate this to fit your personality. Be forewarned that this project will be
hung up in the classroom. It should be formatted as thus:
YOUR NAME’S DREAMS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
PHOTOGRAPH
This project will be worth 20 points.
The Last Lecture Cooperative Group Activity
One of the many wonderful points Randy Pausch made in his book was the need for his students to work
together and contribute equally. With that in mind, I am going to assign you to a group of approximately
four and give you a box of paper clips. Your goal will be to put together the biggest, best, most creative
object you can with these paper clips. When the time expires, everyone reconvenes at a predefined
location for the show-and-tell and judging process.
This in-class activity will be worth 10 points.
28
Illustrative/Exemplification Essay on The Last Lecture
For your first essay, you are going to write your own 500-750 word essay giving
advice on how to live your life, based on the life lessons you have learned so far.
You need to break up your advice into five to seven short chapters and give each
chapter a title (and you will need to give the overall essay a title). You will also
need to include short anecdotes from your life to support your life lessons.
The following are your due dates for this essay:
 Rough draft is due to www.turnitin.com by ______ at 11:59 pm- worth 10
points
 Peer editing is done in class on ________; it is due to www.turnitin.com by
______ at 11:59 pm- worth 15 points
 Final draft is due to www.turnitin.com by ______ at 11:59 pm- worth 75
points
29
Old School by Tobias Woolf Topics of Discussion
(Source: National Endowment of the Arts “Big Read” Program on Old School)
Reader's Guide – Introduction
It is November 1960, and the unnamed narrator of Tobias Wolff's Old School (2003) is in his
final year at an elite Eastern prep school. Proud of his independence but trying to fit in and
advance himself, he conceals the fact that his ancestry is partly Jewish. Eventually, he—and
we—discover that almost everyone on campus has some closely guarded secrets.
Every year, the school invites three famous writers to visit and give a public talk. In anticipation
of these visits, senior students submit their own poems or stories to a competition, and the author
of the winning submission is granted a private interview with the writer. One of the novel's most
intriguing elements is the presentation of these writers—Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest
Hemingway—and its shrewd, penetrating assessment of their works and personalities.
The lives of the narrator and his friends revolve around these visits, and the competitions
produce pressures and strains in their relationships, raising issues of honesty and self-deception.
In his zeal to win an audience with his idol, Hemingway, the narrator will plagiarize someone
else's work, an action with profound consequences—and not for him alone. In the end, we find
out what he has made of his life many years later, and what has happened in the lives of some
classmates and teachers. A surprising final chapter enriches our understanding of the novel's
deepest meanings.
Another of Old School's many pleasures is the way it conveys the significance of literature to our
lives, raising fundamental questions of who we are and how we live. As one of the English
teachers says, "One could not live in a world without stories… Without stories one would hardly
know what world one was in."
The unsparing but sympathetic insight of Tobias Wolff's acclaimed short stories, the emotional
honesty and directness of his classic memoir This Boy's Life (1989), and the precise, elegant
craftsmanship that characterizes both his fiction and nonfiction—all these qualities come
together to make Old School one of Wolff's most satisfying books.
"One of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got
wrong in real life by writing about them."
—Tobias Wolff in an interview with Dan Stone
______________________________________________________________________________
30
Major Characters in the Novel
The Narrator
An outsider in the cloistered East Coast world of the prep school he attends, Old School's
unnamed narrator wants desperately to belong. His literary ambitions will bring him the
distinction he craves, but in a very different way from what he had imagined.
Bill White
Bill is the narrator's roommate. Along with their passion for writing, the two boys share the
unspoken secret of their Jewish heritage. Bill has another secret, one that haunts him more and
more throughout the novel.
Jeff Purcell
Another classmate and friend of the narrator's, he has a privileged, upper-class background.
Proud, stubborn, and frequently contemptuous of everything and everyone, he nonetheless has a
fundamental core of decency and generosity of spirit.
Robert Ramsey
One of the English teachers, Mr. Ramsey is disliked by many of his students. However, by the
end of the novel the narrator sees him as compassionate and wise.
Susan Friedman
Susan is the author of the story that the narrator plagiarizes. When he finally meets her, he finds
her to be "an extraordinary person," and she shows him a very different perspective on some of
the things most important to him.
Dean Makepeace
A "regal but benign" figure to the narrator, the Dean seems remote and assured. But his personal
crisis of integrity underscores some of the novel's deepest themes.
Three of the most famous American writers of the twentieth century appear, directly or
indirectly, as characters in Old School:
Though born in San Francisco, Robert Frost (1874–1963) is forever associated with New
England, the setting for most of his life and work. Quietly dazzling in their technical perfection,
his enormously popular poems, such as "Mending Wall" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening," subtly explore the depths of nature and humanity.
Russian-born Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was the controversial author of a number of philosophical
works and two bestselling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). Her
writings expound her philosophy of Objectivism, which emphasizes rationality and self-interest.
It also rejects religion, altruism, and all forms of social collectivism.
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was arguably the most influential American novelist and
short-story writer of the twentieth century. Renowned for their unique style, such masterpieces as
31
A Farewell to Arms (1929) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952) brilliantly evoke the physical
world and the experience of the senses and stress themes of courage, stoicism, and the need to be
true to oneself.
"Our school was proud of its hierarchy of character and deeds. It believed that this system was
superior to the one at work outside, and that it would wean us from habits of undue pride and
deference. It was a good dream and we tried to live it out, even while knowing that we were
actors in a play, and that outside the theater was a world we would have to reckon with when the
curtain closed and the doors were flung open."
—from Old School
____________________________________________________________________________
Plagiarism
The narrator of Old School is found to have won the interview with Ernest Hemingway by
submitting someone else's short story as his own work. This act of plagiarism is met with dismay
and anger by the school's administration and sets in motion a chain of events that has a
significant effect on the lives of more than one character. To understand the full importance of
this situation in the novel, one must have a clear awareness of what plagiarism is and why it is
such a serious matter.
Anyone can recognize the flagrant dishonesty involved in passing off as one's own work
something in fact written by someone else. Most of us realize that a piece of writing—whether
imaginative or intellectual—is a form of property, and that its owner/creator is entitled to
whatever credit and profits his or her efforts and talents might generate.
Yet it is all too easy, when copying snippets of someone else's ideas and even someone else's
very words, to succumb—as the narrator of Old School does—to the notion that we have
somehow made them our own, that mere appropriation is a form of authorship. Modern
technology has made this even easier. Instantaneous access to the infinite amount of material
available on the Internet creates the impression that ideas and words are all just there for the
taking, especially when all one needs to do is highlight, copy, and paste.
But theft is still theft and fraud is still fraud, no matter the scale. Anyone who uses another's
thoughts without proper attribution to the source has stolen that person's intellectual property.
Even when proper attribution has been given, using the actual wording of the source material
without identifying it as direct quotation is perpetrating a fraud.
Teachers are also upset when their students appropriate the work of others because such an act
makes a disturbing statement about the offender's values. If those who would never dream of
stealing another's belongings have no compunction about taking someone else's written work,
they are saying—whether they realize it or not—that they have less respect for ideas and how
they are expressed than for material possessions.
"Make no mistake, he said: a true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life."
—Tobias Wolff from Old School
32
Photos of the author and school:
Tobias Wolff (Photo by Jennifer Hale)
Tobias Wolff, age 17, guesses ages and weights while working in the carnival section of the
1962 Seattle World's Fair. (Courtesy of Tobias Wolff)
The Hill School grounds (Courtesy of The Hill School)
33
______________________________________________________________
Reader's Guide - About the Author
Tobias Wolff (b. 1945)
Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff was born on June 19, 1945, in Birmingham, Alabama. His father,
Arthur, was an aeronautical engineer but also a pathological liar and supreme con artist, as
detailed in the 1979 memoir The Duke of Deception, by Tobias's older brother, Geoffrey. As a
result of one of these many deceptions, Tobias, who was raised and remains a Catholic, did not
discover until adulthood that his father was Jewish. His mother, Rosemary Loftus Wolff, a
waitress and secretary, was a woman of spirit, resilience, and great intelligence, who met the
many reverses in her life with humor and determination.
Wolff's parents separated when he was very young. He was raised by his mother in Florida,
Utah, and Washington state. Eager to escape rural Washington and life with his mother's second
husband (experiences vividly recounted in his memoir This Boy's Life), he won a scholarship to
the Hill School, a prestigious academy in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He loved the school but
struggled because of his poor academic background. Ultimately, he was expelled because of
failing grades in math.
In 1964, Wolff joined the U.S. Army. He spent a year learning Vietnamese, and then served in
Vietnam as a paratrooper. Out of these experiences came his second memoir, In Pharaoh's
Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994). After his discharge in 1968, he enrolled in Hertford
College of Oxford University, where he earned a degree in English in 1972. In 1975, he earned a
master's degree in English from Stanford University, where he was also awarded a Wallace
Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing.
Wolff taught at Syracuse University in New York from 1980 to 1997. The novelist Richard Ford
and the short-story writer Raymond Carver were among his friends and colleagues. Since 1997,
Wolff has taught English and creative writing at Stanford University, where he holds the Ward
W. and Priscilla B. Woods professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Among his
honors are the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and three O.
Henry Awards.
Tobias Wolff married Catherine Spohn, a social worker, in 1975. They have two sons and a
daughter. Wolff lives with his family in northern California.
"There is a need in us for exactly what literature can give, which is a sense of who we are,
beyond what data can tell us, beyond what simple information can tell us; a sense of the
workings of what we used to call the soul."
—Tobias Wolff from Stanford Today interview
An Interview with Tobias Wolff
On January 5, 2008, Dana Gioia, former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,
interviewed Tobias Wolff at his office at Stanford University. Excerpts from their conversation
follow.
34
Dana Gioia: Would you characterize Old School as an autobiographical novel in any sense?
Tobias Wolff: The events of the novel are themselves, to some extent, autobiographical, in that
as a boy of that age I was in such a school. The school that I went to was like this one, a very
literary place. Edmund Wilson had gone there, and I heard Robert Frost there. There was a great
sense of excitement, always, around the visits of these writers, around the literary magazine,
about trying to get stories published or even to get on the editorial board. In some schools, of
course, it would be the football team, and football was no small thing at this school either. So my
somewhat vague ambition of being a writer really became solidified there. The actual events of
my time there would not have lent themselves to a memoir. I was certainly aware in bringing this
forward in this voice, in this situation, that a lot of readers familiar with either or both of my
memoirs would make assumptions about this being, in fact, a memoir disguised as a novel. And I
really didn't mind that.
DG: As a fiction writer you've been most associated with the short story. What for you,
imaginatively or creatively, are the differences between writing a short story and writing a
novel?
TW: When you write a short story you at least have some confidence you're going to be able to
finish it! From the time I first put words to page on this book and the time Old School actually
was published, it was five-and-a-half years. Aesthetically I can't say that I find the experience
that much different—the kind of pressure you put on yourself to get the right voice, to write the
sentence perfectly, to rewrite, to rewrite, to rewrite—all that is similar. Really, in each case it's
mainly going to the desk every day. I often am quite mystified about what I'm going do when I
sit down. And the work teaches me how to write it as I go. My first drafts would really make you
wonder, if you saw them, why I ever chose this line of work. Revision is crucial to my work.
DG: One of the strokes of genius in Old School is that at the very end, just when you think the
story's over, it continues with a twist in another voice. Did you have this coda in mind when you
began the book?
TW: No, but it was important, I think, because although the narrator talks about writing, we
never really see him writing anything, and we don't get any of his stories. He's always talking
about telling other people's stories and telling us what this friend wrote and what that friend
wrote, but where's his story? Finally he tells a story. He is, after all, a writer.
DG: Do you have any thoughts on the human purposes of fiction?
TW: Fiction gives us a place to stand outside ourselves and see our lives somehow being carried
on, to see the form that our lives take in some apprehensible way. Most of the time, experience
washes over us moment by moment, in a way that makes it difficult to discern the form in lives–
–the consequences that choices have that will only appear years later, in many cases. Fiction
shows us those things in a kind of apprehensible form and something we can comprehend, and
see, and actually feel. We kind of see our lives almost acted out in front of us in miniature. And
that's both exciting and also often very chastening, I think.
35
"The fact that a writer needed solitude didn't mean he was cut off or selfish. A writer was
like a monk in his cell praying for the world … "- from Old School
__________________________________________________________________________
Reader's Guide - Historical Context
The Life and Times of Tobias Wolff
1940s
Robert Frost wins Pulitzer Prize for poetry and Ayn Rand publishes The Fountainhead, 1943.
Tobias Wolff is born on June 19, 1945, in Birmingham, Alabama.
World War II ends, August 1945.
Viet Minh (the Vietnamese liberation movement) declares independence from France in 1945;
French military forces resist the revolt in 1946, beginning an eight-year conflict.
1950s
Wolff, his mother, and his stepfather live in Washington State.
Ernest Hemingway wins the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1954.
The French are defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; Vietnam is partitioned into North and South
Vietnam.
1960s
John F. Kennedy elected U.S. President in 1960; assassinated on November 22, 1963.
Ernest Hemingway dies, 1961. Robert Frost dies, 1963.
1970s
The last U.S. combat troops withdraw from Vietnam, 1973.
Wolff earns a master's degree, marries, and publishes his first book, all in 1975.
Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese, 1975.
1980s
Wolff teaches at Syracuse University; he publishes a novella, two collections of stories, and his
memoir This Boy's Life.
Ground is broken for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, 1982.
Ayn Rand dies, 1982.
1990s
Wolff begins teaching at Stanford; publishes his Vietnam memoir and his third volume of short
stories.
The film version of This Boy's Life, starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ellen
Barkin, is released in 1993.
The U.S. restores diplomatic ties with Vietnam, 1995.
2000s
April 5, 2005, marks the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Wolff publishes Old School (2003) and Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (2008).
36
Reader's Guide - Other Works/Adaptations
Wolff and His Other Works
Perhaps because of the prominence of Tobias Wolff's memoirs and short stories, when Old
School appeared in 2003, many assumed that it was his first extended work of fiction. In fact, it
was his third. Wolff's first novel, and first book, was a Vietnam story, published in 1975, called
Ugly Rumours. As the spelling would suggest, it appeared in England (and only in England).
While he has not made a concerted effort to erase all traces of its existence, Wolff does not
include it in listings of his published works. His second book-length work of fiction was the
novella The Barracks Thief (1984), which won the highly regarded PEN/Faulkner Award. It
deals with the intense and ultimately explosive relationships among servicemen in the shadow of
war, specifically three soldiers guarding an ammunition dump at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as
they wait to be sent to Vietnam.
The work for which Wolff is best known is his first memoir, This Boy's Life (1989). Glowing
reviews in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, and
elsewhere praised the beauty and clarity of its style, along with its unforgettable description of
character and incident. While less well known, In Pharaoh's Army (1994), Wolff's account of his
experiences in Vietnam, is, like the earlier work, esteemed for its memorable scenes and for the
author's determination to describe his personality and actions with scrupulous honesty.
For many readers, the core of Wolff's achievement is his short stories, which have been collected
so far in four volumes—In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981), Back in the World
(1985), The Night in Question (1996), and Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (2008).
In story after story, Wolff presents his characters and their relationships—with spouses, children,
siblings, and strangers—with a scrutiny that is always unflinching and uncompromising, but
never uncompassionate. "The Rich Brother" presents a pair of adult brothers united in animosity,
but also by basic qualities that create a much stronger bond. "In the Garden of the North
American Martyrs," which examines a self-effacing woman whose hopes have been falsely
raised through the insensitivity of others, makes a surprising bid for justice.
Beautifully written without gaudiness or self-indulgence, deeply moving without a trace of
sentimentality, Tobias Wolff's work seems poised to hold a permanent place in American
literature.
"From this height it was possible to see into the dream that produced the school, not mere
English-envy but the yearning for a chivalric world apart from the din of scandal and cheap
dispute, the hustles and schemes of modernity itself. As I recognized this dream I also sensed its
futility, but so what? I loved my school no less for being gallantly unequal to our appetites—
more, if anything."
—from Old School
If you'd like to read other novels about the campus experience, you might enjoy:
Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1944)
John Knowles's A Separate Peace (1959)
Richard Yates's A Good School (1978)
37
Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep (2005)
Also worth looking into are Robert Anderson's play Tea and Sympathy (1953) and John
McPhee's brief biography
The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield (1966).
If you'd like to read books admired by Tobias Wolff, you might enjoy:
Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)
Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time (1925)
William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow (1979)
______________________________________________________________________________
The Importance of Frost, Rand, and Hemingway
Much of the plot of Old School revolves around the scheduled visits of Robert Frost, Ayn Rand,
and Ernest Hemingway, and the fierce competition among the students to win personal
interviews with these authors. It may seem hard to believe nowadays, but there was a time not so
long ago when the general public was familiar with the faces and even the personal lives of
certain serious writers. Three of the most famous and recognizable writers of the time were the
three selected by Tobias Wolff for inclusion in his novel.
Robert Frost is, without any question, the best known and most popular American poet of
the twentieth century. Virtually everyone knows not only his name but even the titles of some of
his poems: “Mending Wall,” “Birches,” “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Phrases
from some of these works, such as “Good fences make good neighbors” and “Miles to go before
I sleep,” have entered the language and are cited by people who have no idea that they’re quoting
Frost. For a poet to achieve such popularity is rare enough; what is truly astounding is that Frost
is also regarded by a great many critics and poets as the best and most important American poet
of his time. The traditional structures of his poems and their often charming descriptions of
nature appeal to a broad audience, but discerning readers also respond to his complex and often
tragic presentation of human beings struggling to cope with a harsh and often terrifying world.
Ayn Rand’s major novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and especially Atlas Shrugged
(1957), have achieved a surprising popularity when one considers their length and demanding
content. In each of these books, a strong protagonist unswervingly pursues his own vision
without regard for the views of others or the compromises demanded of him by any individual or
group. The hero of The Fountainhead, for instance, is an architect who chooses to blow up his
own building rather than accept any modifications in its design. Rand’s novels are especially
appealing to young people, who are often inspired by what they see as her idealism and call to
personal greatness. She is not held in high regard, however, by other writers and thinkers who
generally find her presentation of human nature unrealistic and her philosophical views rigid and
insensitive.
Ernest Hemingway was the dominant literary figure in America fifty years ago. Many
admired him not only for his sharply observed and exciting novels and short stories, but also for
his widely publicized life of deep-sea fishing, big-game hunting, and other manly pursuits. He is
no longer the imposing figure he was then; much of his later writing is seriously flawed, and the
macho lifestyle is now seen as the bravado of a desperately ill man. But his first two novels, The
Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929), and many of his finest short stories are
permanent contributions to the highest shelf of American literature. As Wolff acutely observes,
38
much of Hemingway’s importance lies in the brilliance of his craftsmanship—especially his
ability to evoke emotional states and the natural world—and his emphasis on courage and
stoicism in the face of all the forces in the world that rise up to destroy the human spirit.
Prep Schools: Fact and Fiction
Prep schools have been the setting for a number of very popular books and movies, including A
Separate Peace (1972) and Dead Poets Society (1989). From overexposure to such works, one
might form the impression that these schools are filled up with rich boys—some of them
oversensitive and the rest insufferably arrogant—who react to the pressures put on them by their
crass, domineering fathers by indulging in cutthroat competition, frequent fistfights, and an
alarming appetite for self-destruction. Even beyond such crude stereotyping phrases such as
“prep-school background” or “prep-school mentality” commonly suggest wealth, privilege,
social prominence and connections, and an inability to relate to—or even fully grasp
the reality of—anyone who does not share those qualities. Needless to say, the reality is
somewhat more complex.
Most of these books and movies are set in boarding schools, where the students live on
campus in dormitories, just as many college students do. In fact, however, the great majority of
prep schools in the United States are day schools, just like public high schools. Public schools
are operated and maintained by local governments, usually cities and towns. Most of the time,
they are funded by taxes on the homeowners that live within the school district. Public schools
are free, and all students who live within the district are eligible to attend them. Private
schools—and all prep schools are private— charge (sometimes very high) tuition and tend to be
extremely selective in their admission procedures. The word “prep” itself is, of course, short for
“preparatory.” For many students in public-school systems, high school is the final stage of their
formal education. A prep school is intended not as the end of the process but as a middle step.
What it seeks to prepare its students for is, in the short view, further study at a college or
university. In the long view, it tries to prepare its students for careers, often in public service, and
to prepare them for adult life itself. Thus, great stress is placed on academics, usually a
traditional course of studies including history, literature, philosophy, and languages. There
is also often an emphasis on athletics, and in some schools on religious practice, especially for
purposes of character-building.
Many prep-school students are from wealthy and/or socially prominent families, whose
members have attended the same school for generations, and who support their school with large
financial contributions. But most prep schools, motivated by a sense of mission and obligation to
society, have generous scholarship programs and make strong recruiting efforts. And these
schools feel that they have failed in their mission if their graduates go out into the world with
feelings of superiority and entitlement. What they strive for instead is to give their students a
sense of purpose and responsibility, to inspire them with the awareness that those who
are given the gifts of talent, wealth, and influence have an obligation to use those gifts in the
service of others. As the headmaster in the novel says, “Schools like ours are vulnerable to
criticism …There is some truth in these criticisms. Too much truth. But we are trying to do
something here. We are trying to become something.”
39
The Narrator’s Coming of Age
Among its other qualities, Old School fits into the tradition of the Bildungsroman, or coming-ofage novel, a work in which the protagonist goes through a process of maturing from adolescence
to adulthood. Two classic examples of the Bildungsroman are the Charles Dickens novels
David Copperfield (1850) and Great Expectations (1861). In our own time, one might even say
that the Harry Potter books, taken together, fit into the category.
At least since the time of Sophocles and Oedipus the King, down through Shakespeare’s
King Lear and many, many other works, much of the great literature of the Western world has
been founded on a core set of assumptions: that those who foolishly believe themselves superior
beings will sooner or later be forced to confront their own flaws and mistakes, and that from this
recognition of our own limitations may come humility and a greater compassion for the
weakness and imperfection of other people. Writers, critics, and teachers have always maintained
that reading great literature and learning this lesson will help to make us more compassionate
toward and tolerant of others. One of the many remarkable qualities of Old School is that it
shows us that very thing—a young man becoming more understanding and accepting of others
not only through personal encounters, but also through his encounters with works of literature.
From the very beginning, ignorance and misperception characterize the narrator in his
dealings with other people, whether in the unintentional pain that he causes the janitor,
Gershon, or his later misunderstanding (and subsequent discovery) of the reason for Bill White’s
sadness and withdrawal. The clear lesson of the Bill White episode is that we never really know
what’s going on with other people, and therefore we shouldn’t be quick to judge.
Perhaps the book’s most effective and moving example of how the narrator’s ignorance and
misunderstanding give way to deeper and more compassionate insight comes in connection with
his grandfather and his grandfather’s wife. When they visit him in the hospital, he is vaguely
ashamedand dismissive of them. When he looks at them in the light of his reading of The
Fountainhead, he is openly contemptuous of them. But when his personal exposure to Ayn Rand
shows him the narrowness and heartlessness of her views, he comes to recognize their decency
and their love for him. Through this experience, as well as through his reading of Hemingway,
he comes to embrace woundedness and imperfection as the reality of the
human condition.
This lesson—the precariousness of human nature, the hidden sorrows in everyone’s
life—is one that he keeps learning over and over. It is not until many years later, for example,
that he discovers that Mr. Ramsey’s editing of the Hemingway interview for the school paper
was motivated not by disrespect, but rather a desire to protect Hemingway from
himself. As the narrator tells us late in the novel, “The appetite for decisive endings, even the
belief that they’re possible, makes me uneasy in life as in writing” (p. 169). Clearly, at least part
of the reason for his uneasiness is his knowledge that we never achieve perfection, that our own
pride and arrogance must be constantly resisted, and that the lesson of love and forgiveness must
be learned again and again for as long as we live.
40
DISCUSSION AND WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR OLD SCHOOL
Directions: On the next few pages are ten FOCUSES to examine on issues in regards to the
novel. Some of these focuses will be worked on in a group, some will be individual, and
some will be as a class. Do not do the work with these focuses until you are sure what your
teacher would like you to do.
FOCUS ONE: Biography
Examining an author’s life can inform and expand the reader’s understanding of a novel.
Biographical criticism is the practice of analyzing a literary work through the lens of an author’s
experience. In this lesson, explore the author’s life to understand the novel more fully.
Before winning a scholarship to a prestigious Eastern prep school, Tobias Wolff grew up in an
isolated, working-class community in the Pacific Northwest. Thus, like the narrator of Old
School, he felt himself to be something of an outsider among many classmates from backgrounds
of great wealth and privilege. Like the narrator, he was forced to leave before graduation (in
Wolff’s case for academic reasons, not an issue of plagiarism). Also like the narrator, Wolff later
enlisted in the Army and was sent to Vietnam, and ultimately he went on to become a wellknown and successful writer.
Discussion Activities
-Listen to The Big Read Audio Guide. Take notes as you listen. You will then present the three
most important points learned from the Audio Guide.
-Look over the following essays from the Reader’s Guide: “Introduction to the
Novel.” “Tobias Wolff (b. 1945),” and “Wolff and His Other Works.” Divide the class into
groups. Each group will present a summary of the main points in its assigned essay.
Writing Exercise
Read the first three paragraphs of the novel (pp. 3–4). Students write a similar description of
their own school, touching on some of the same points that Wolff emphasizes: the economic and
social backgrounds of the students, the school’s expectations of them, and the relative emphasis
placed on areas such as academics, sports, and creativity.
____________________________________________________________________________
FOCUS 2: Culture and History
Cultural and historical contexts give birth to the dilemmas and themes at the center of the
novel. Studying these contexts and appreciating intricate details of the time and place help
readers understand the motivations of the characters. The greater part of the novel takes place
between the autumn of 1960 and the spring of the following year. John F. Kennedy has just been
elected president of the United States, and for many young people it is a time of great hope and
promise. Of course, we read the novel—as Wolff wrote it—with the awareness that this climate
will soon be shattered by Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War, and violent social upheaval
in the United States.
41
In 1954 Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s most popular authors, received the Nobel
Prize for Literature “for his mastery of the art of narrative … and for the influence that he has
exerted on contemporary style.” Robert Frost was the most celebrated living poet in the United
States. During his lifetime, he received four Pulitzer prizes for poetry. With each new book his
fame and honors increased. Russian-born writer and philosopher Ayn Rand formulated
objectivism, a philosophy in which she considered “the concept of man as a heroic being, with
his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest
activity, and reason as his only absolute.” Rand presented this philosophy in her widely
acclaimed novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Discussion Activities
-How would you characterize the social, cultural, and political atmosphere of contemporary
America? How do the writers portrayed at the beginning of the novel relate to our main
character? What does the boys’ excitement over their upcoming visits tell us about the
motivations of these young men?
-Read Handout Two: Prep Schools: Fact and Fiction. Read “On Fire” and “Frost”
(pp. 29–60). The exchange between Robert Frost and Mr. Ramsey (pp. 50–53)
engages some of the main themes that the novel has raised thus far. Consider the ways the
narrator relates the events. Is he a reliable narrator?
Writing Exercise
The whole episode involving Gershon highlights certain inner conflicts in the narrator’s
character. Write a brief explication on this theme. Have you ever found yourself torn by
conflicting loyalties or aspirations? How, if at all, do you resolve these issues?
FOCUS 3: Narrative and Point of View
The narrator tells the story with a specific perspective informed by his or her beliefs and
experiences. Narrators can be major or minor characters, or exist outside the story altogether.
The narrator weaves her or his point of view, including ignorance and bias, into telling the tale.
A first-person narrator participates in the events of the novel, using “I.” A distanced narrator,
often not a character, is removed from the action of the story and uses the third person (he, she,
and they). The distanced narrator may be omniscient, able to read the minds of all the characters,
or limited, describing only certain characters’ thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, the
type of narrator determines the point of view from which the story is told. With the possible
exception of the last chapter (a point that will be addressed later), Old School is told entirely in
the first person by its unnamed central character. We are limited to his knowledge of facts,
his awareness of events, and his insights into himself and others. This awareness and these
insights undergo some significant changes with maturity, consistent with the novel’s emphasis
on human imperfection and learning through painful experience.
Discussion Activities
Based on the chapters read thus far, what sort of person does the narrator seem to be? Is he
likable? Is he admirable? Do his assumptions about himself and about other people seem to ring
true?
42
Writing Exercise
Choose one of the other characters—besides the narrator--and, based on their interactions in the
novel thus far, write a description of the narrator in the voice of and from the point of view of
that character.
FOCUS FOUR: Characters
The central character in a work of literature is called the protagonist. The protagonist usually
initiates the main action of the story and often overcomes a flaw, such as weakness or ignorance,
to achieve a new understanding by the work’s end. A protagonist who acts with great honor or
courage may be called a hero. An antihero is a protagonist lacking these qualities. Instead of
being dignified, brave, idealistic, or purposeful, the antihero may be cowardly, self-interested, or
weak. The protagonist’s journey is enriched by encounters with characters who hold
differing beliefs. One such character type, a foil, has traits that contrast with the protagonist’s
and highlight important features of the main character’s personality. The most important foil, the
antagonist, opposes the protagonist, barring or complicating his or her success. The narrator of
Old School is himself clearly a work in progress over the course of the novel. The scorn and
contempt he feels for almost everyone else after reading The Fountainhead (1943) is a clear
indication of his immaturity, and his reaction to Ayn Rand herself and his consequent disavowal
of her views lead him to a new depth of sensitivity and insight.
Discussion Activities
Discuss the way the narrator describes Ayn Rand. How does he feel about her before he meets
her? Does his viewpoint change after meeting her? Is he fair? What instances of “weakness or
ignorance” has the narrator displayed up to this point? What capacity has he shown to learn from
his experiences and grow in understanding and depth of character?
Writing Exercise
Choose George Kellogg, Bill White, or Jeff Purcell and write a short essay on how this character
serves as a foil to the protagonist.
FOCUS FIVE: Figurative Language
Writers use figurative language such as imagery, similes, and metaphors to help the reader
visualize and experience events and emotions in a story. Imagery—a word or phrase that refers
to sensory experience (sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste)—helps create a physical experience
for the reader and adds immediacy to literary language. Some figurative language asks us to
stretch our imaginations, finding the likeness in seemingly unrelated things. Simile is a
comparison of two things that initially seem quite different but are shown to have a significant
resemblance. Similes employ connective words, usually “like,” “as,” “than,” or a verb such as
“resembles.” A metaphor is a statement that one thing is something else that, in a literal sense, it
is not. By asserting that a thing is something else, a metaphor creates a close association that
underscores an important similarity between these two things.
43
Wolff draws from ancient and medieval references to (ironically) imbue the young,
unformed lives of the main characters with profundity. For example: the English masters as a
“chivalric order” (p. 5), Jeff Purcell as “the Herod of our editorial sessions” (p. 13), the masters
treating the students’ spring exuberance “like the grousing of impotent peasants outside the
castle walls” (p. 104), the Farewell Assemblies “Neronic in their carnality” (p. 112), and
the title of the school literary magazine, the Troubadour.
Discussion Activities
Find at least three instances of figurative language. Present to the class why they are figurative
and how the words and phrases help shed light on the story. Discuss as a class the ways
figurative language serves to illuminate larger thematic issues.
Writing Exercise
Read aloud the passage about the editorial meeting (pp. 119–121). Write a brief essay discussing
how the key points are conveyed through figurative language.
FOCUS SIX: Symbols
Symbols are persons, places, or things in a narrative that have significance beyond a
literal understanding. The craft of storytelling depends on symbols to present ideas and point
toward new meanings. Most frequently, a specific object will be used to refer to (or symbolize) a
more abstract concept. The repeated appearance of an object suggests a non-literal, or figurative,
meaning attached to the object. Symbols are often found in the book’s title, at the beginning and
end of the story, within a profound action, or in the name or personality of a character. The life
of a novel is perpetuated by generations of readers interpreting and reinterpreting the
main symbols. By identifying and understanding symbols, readers can reveal new interpretations
of the novel.
One of the more remarkable aspects of Old School is the degree to which literature itself,
especially fiction, is woven into the lives of the characters and the larger themes of the book. Mr.
Ramsey is eloquent on this point in the passage on pages 131–132. Works of fiction can take on
symbolic value. This is obviously the case with Jeff Purcell’s first-edition copy of In Our Time.
More subtly, the kinds of stories that one writes become symbols that reflect the kind of person
their author is.
Discussion Activities
To illustrate the above point, reread the narrator’s comments on Hemingway and his stories (pp.
96–97) and his contrasting comments on himself and his own stories (pp. 108–110). With these
passages as context, lead the class into a discussion of the narrator’s discovery—and
plagiarism— of “Summer Dance” and the complexities of his relationship to that story.
Writing Exercise
Write on the following theme: What is your favorite work of literature, movie, or piece of music?
Why does it appeal to you? Discuss any symbols that occur in that particular work of art. If no
symbols are present, explain why symbols are not needed.
44
FOCUS SEVEN: Character Development
Novels trace the development of characters who encounter a series of challenges. Most
characters contain a complex balance of virtues and vices. Internal and external forces require
characters to question themselves, overcome fears, or reconsider dreams. The protagonist may
undergo profound change. A close study of character development maps, in each character, the
evolution of motivation, personality, and belief. The tension between a character’s strengths and
weaknesses keeps the reader guessing about what might happen next and the protagonist’s
eventual success or failure.
As an adult, the narrator has exchanged his youthful brashness and assertiveness for a
more measured and reflective view of life, but in large part his transition into adulthood is one of
continuity rather than change. The most significant phases of his development took place during
his last year of prep school. His encounter with Susan Friedman shows that as a young man he is
still awkward and tentative with women. His characterization of her dismissal of writing as an
“impiety” (p. 163) shows him to be as committed as ever to his literary ideals. Of the entire
group of young men who were mad about literature, he is the only one who has gone on to be a
writer. But even much later in life, he remains insecure about his worth as a writer (p. 171), even
as he demonstrates a prickly pride.
Discussion Activities
-“Finally, one does want to be known,” Mr. Ramsey says about Dean Makepeace (p. 172). How
does this comment apply to the narrator, especially in relation to his guardedness about his
Jewish heritage and his theft of “Summer Dance”?
-Read Handout Three: The Narrator’s Coming of Age. Read the novel’s conclusion, “Master”
(pp. 179–195). In what ways does Makepeace’s story parallel that of the narrator? In what ways
do the stories differ?
Writing Exercise
When the narrator steals the story, do you think he has an unconscious desire to be expelled from
school and/or exposed as a fraud? Write a short essay on whether or not his expulsion can be
considered a good thing.
FOCUS EIGHT: The Plot Unfolds
The author crafts a plot structure to create expectations, increase suspense, and develop
characters. The pacing of events can make a novel either predictable or riveting. Foreshadowing
and flashbacks allow the author to defy the constraints of time. Sometimes an author can
confound a simple plot by telling stories within stories. In a conventional work of fiction, the
peak of the story’s conflict—the climax—is followed by the resolution, or denouement, in which
the effects of that climactic action are presented. The last chapter of Old School is, in its own
way, a genuine surprise ending, with its sudden shift of focus and point of view. To begin with,
we might ask who is telling Arch Makepeace’s story. The answer that suggests itself is that the
narrator of the novel is simply passing along what Mr. Ramsey had told him in Seattle. But
reread the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page 173: “He kept it short, but … I was
somehow given to know more than was actually said. The spaces he left empty began filling up
45
even as he spoke.” In a sense, then, we may regard the last chapter as the narrator’s imaginative
reconstruction of the dean’s life and character—a full-fledged example of literary art.
Like the narrator, Arch Makepeace has carried a burden of concealment, chafing at the
idea that others’ good opinion of him is founded, at least in part, on misunderstanding. (Recall
his reaction on reading “Summer Dance”: “He … was most affected, and in fact discomfited, by
its unblinking inventory of self-seeking and duplicity. It was hard to tell the truth like that” [p.
186].) In the end, his punishment, his “sentence,” is much briefer and less severe than that of the
narrator.
Discussion Activities
-Wolff writes: “The boy closest to them smiles into his punch glass. He can hear them; he has
slipped into their camp and can hear the secret music of these sure and finished men, our
masters” (p. 175). Are the masters “sure and finished men”? How does this relate to the last
section of the novel, “Master”? Finally, how might this draw out a larger theme of the novel?
-What one theme is the most important issue in the novel? Explain.
Writing Exercise
Write a short essay on a turning point in the novel. Where does the plot begin to change?
Choose a turning point and explain why the novel revolves around this point.
FOCUS NINE: Themes of the Novel
Themes are the central, recurring subjects of a novel. As characters grapple with circumstances
such as racism, class, or unrequited love, profound questions will arise in the reader’s mind about
human life, social pressures, and societal expectations. Classic themes include intellectual
freedom versus censorship, the relationship between one’s personal moral code and larger
political justice, and spiritual faith versus rational considerations. A novel often reconsiders these
age-old debates by presenting them in new contexts or from new points of view.
Discussion Activities and Writing Exercise
Use the following questions to stimulate discussion or provide writing exercises in order to
interpret the novel in specific ways. Using historical references to support ideas, explore the
statements Old School makes about the following themes:
The Importance of Literature
From the discussion of William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” in the opening chapter
through the previously cited exploration of Hemingway’s short fiction and Mr.
Ramsey’s observations on the need for stories, the novel makes a sustained,
passionate defense of the significance of fiction to our lives. What claims are
made for fiction beyond mere distraction or amusement?
Honesty and Deception
Poised right on the brink, I still held back, perhaps sensing that the moment it
started, once I allowed myself the comfort of his interest, I wouldn’t be able
to stop; that the relief of confessing this paralysis might betray me into other
confessions. In some murky way I recognized my own impatience to tear off the
mask, and it spooked me. (p. 118)
46
Why does the narrator hide the truth about himself? Why does he want to
confess? Which of these impulses does the novel affirm?
Tolerance and Acceptance
For years Arch had traced this vision of the evil done through intolerance of the
flawed and ambiguous, but he had not taken the lesson to heart. He had given up
the good in his life because a fault ran through it. He was no better than Aylmer,
murdering his beautiful wife to rid her of a birthmark. (p. 193)
What is the lesson here, and why does it need to be taken to heart?
Reader's Guide - Discussion Questions
1. The dedication of Old School reveals something of how Wolff might feel about his own
education. If you wrote a book, would you dedicate it the same way?
2. What does the epigraph of Old School, a passage from a Mark Strand poem, mean? How
does it relate to the novel's thematic concerns?
3. Why do you think Wolff left the narrator and even the school unnamed?
4. In Chapter One, the narrator maintains that his school disregarded issues of wealth and
social background and judged its students entirely by their actions. Does this turn out to
be true? How does his school compare to your own?
5. Early in the novel, the narrator says that his aspirations as a writer "were mystical. I
wanted to receive the laying on of hands that had written living stories and poems, hands
that had touched the hands of other writers. I wanted to be anointed." What does he mean
by this?
6. Which of his classmates does the narrator feel closest to, and why?
7. How do the narrator's changing attitudes toward his grandfather demonstrate his process
of maturing?
8. Discuss the portrayals of Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway. How does
each influence the narrator?
9. Why might Chapter Six be titled "The Forked Tongue"? What are the larger implications
of its very last sentence?
10. Why does Mr. Ramsey show such disdain for the use of the word "honor"? Do you agree
with his attitude?
11. Over the course of the novel, the narrator writes two letters to girls. The circumstances
differ, but he has the same reaction after sending each letter. What does this pattern of
behavior reveal about his personality?
12. Why is the narrator shocked by Susan Friedman's attitude toward her own story, and
toward writing in general? How valid is his unspoken response to her comments?
13. Why does the narrator feel such love and loyalty for his school, despite his final
punishment?
14. The last sentence of the book is from the New Testament parable of the prodigal son
(Luke 15:11-32). How might these be "surely the most beautiful words ever written
or said"?
Source of this Reader’s Guide from Old School can be found at:
http://www.neabigread.org/books/oldschool/readers02.php
47
Group Review Activity:
Each group will be assigned two to three chapters to cover. You should then do
the following:
-Summarize ALL of your chapters in at least fifteen sentences
-Have three quotes from each chapter that you feel are significant. Explain
their significance in at least one sentence.
-List at least five occurrences in your chapters that shocked/amazed/
humored you in terms of its prophetic nature or in regards to its subject.
-Answer the FOCUS that pertain to the chapters you have been
assigned.
-Write an at least ten sentence review of the book.
We will work on this in-class on____________.
You will then turn in YOUR ASSIGNMENT FROM YOUR GROUP to
www.turnitin.com by __________ at 11:59 pm.
You will present it to the class on ________________.
After you give your presentations, I will turn ALL of them into one document that
you will be able to download from my website. You will then be able to use this to
study for your test.
48
Comparison/Contrast Essay on Old School
Your essay should be 500-750 words. It must include at least three quotes from the novel with a
parenthetical citation crediting the source at the end of the sentence. You also need to include at least one
quote from a literary criticism. You may only use a literary criticism that is found through accessing
a Gale Database at Panther Central. It is not necessary to do additional research in the writing of this
paper, but if you do choose to include other literary criticisms you should credit these sources as well.
(Of course, since you will be using a minimum of two sources you must include a Works Cited page.)
Please keep in mind that SparkNotes, Cliffs Notes, the summary on Wikipedia, and the like are not
considered literary criticism.
More Hints for this Essay:
-Make sure you mention the book title and author at the beginning of the essay
-Start with an interesting first line
-Give brief background into the novel in the opening paragraph
-Remember to discuss LITERATURE USING THE PRESENT TENSE
-Your last sentence of your first paragraph will be your thesis statement. Your thesis statement should be
specific and concise. It should NOT contain the words compare, contrast, different, similar (or anything
else like that).
-In your body paragraphs, make sure every body paragraph contains a quote.
-Make sure you use copious details to explain what you are comparing and contrasting
-Make sure you follow the guidelines in your Readings for Writers book for writing a
comparison/contrast essay
-In your conclusion be sure to sum up your paper without restating the thesis.
-End your paper with an exciting clincher statement
The following are your due dates for this paper:




You need to show me your literary criticism in class on _________. It is worth 10 points.
Your rough draft is due to www.turnitin.com by _________ at 11:59 pm. It is worth 10 points.
Your peer editing will be done in class on ______; it is due to www.turnitin.com by _______ at
11:59 pm. It is worth 10 points.
Your final draft will be due ________ by 11:59 pm to www.turnitin.com. It is worth 75 points.
49
50
Wadworth: Writing Paragraphs
Exercise B
Determine one possible pattern of development for a paragraph on
each of these topics. Then, write a paragraph (of at least five
sentences) below on one of the topics.
1. What success is (or is not)
2. The two kinds of people who appear on television reality shows
3. My worst experience
4. The connection between coffee consumption and heart disease
5. The dangers of using a cell phone while driving
51
Wadsworth: Thesis Statements and Formal Outlines
Attached you will find an editorial entitled Why the Insanity of College Admissions Will Change
by Patrick Mattimore. Please read this editorial and write a formal outline of it. You need to
have a minimum of a thesis statement, three Roman numeral subheadings, and an a and b to go
with each subheading:
My college alma mater, Dartmouth College, announced recently that the College had received a record number of
applications for spots in the freshmen class. The admissions’ department has also projected that Dartmouth would
accept the lowest percentage of students in the College’s history, about 11-12% of applicants.
Sometime this coming fall, I expect to receive a letter from Dartmouth informing me that this year’s class of
freshmen is the best-prepared, most diverse, smartest, highest potential group of students to ever enroll at
Dartmouth, thereby knocking my class, which was also all the “bests”, from 40th to 41st place on that esteemed list.
Coincidentally, I will also receive a solicitation to donate to the alumni fund, presumably to help push my class into
42nd place.
Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford already accept less than 10% of applicants annually, and Yale recently
publicized the fact that the College had accepted a record low number of early admissions’ applicants which will
help keep their overall acceptance rate below 10%. I’m pretty sure Dartmouth’s goal is to break into that 90%
rejection club too. The irony is that these same admissions’ departments regularly broadcast the fact that nearly all
their applicants are capable of doing the work that would be expected of them at the respective colleges. Stories are
legion of students with perfect SAT scores and 4.0 high school grade point averages being turned down at these elite
schools. Everyone seems to agree that competitive admissions have become too competitive but, like a high stakes
game of chicken, no one seems willing to step back from the edge.
Two years ago, during my last full year teaching high school, my seniors exacted some revenge by compiling some
of the most obsequious, self-serving rejection letters that colleges sent out and combining extracts from those letters.
Several large daily newspapers published our story along with several students’ editorial suggestions. Various
people have suggested solutions to tamp back the competitive college admissions game, perhaps the most radical of
which is the idea proposed by Barry Schwartz at Swarthmore. Schwartz has recommended that competitive colleges
establish minimum acceptance standards and then take all the student applicants that meet the criteria and put them
into a lottery.
The real answer, though, will come not from making the system one of chance, or dictating solutions, but from the
market itself. Much as the housing bubble burst after years of increasing demand and prices, demand for the name
colleges will begin to recede in the next few years for several reasons.
First, the population of college-age students is expected to decline. That fact alone will produce a lesser demand for
spots in colleges.
Second, the financial crisis will cause a greater demand among students for financial aid. While many of the better
endowed colleges can now promise to provide 100% of demonstrated need for admitted students, those generous
pledges may not last. In any event, the colleges may tighten definitions of demonstrated need.
Third, markets reveal frauds. Or rather, commodities that are overpriced, deflate. At some point, the perception that
only a narrow band of elite schools are acceptable and that those elite schools are better than many other colleges
will fade. The public will likely realize that the letter on someone’s college sweatshirt has a lot less to do with the
quality of that person’s education than what the person wearing the sweatshirt makes of her opportunities, no matter
where she goes. Unfortunately, that realization will come a little late for the Class of 2013.
52
Wadsworth: Commas
Part I: Add commas to the following sentences so they make sense.
1. Kahlo was a young, energetic girl of sixteen when her life was interrupted by a devastating
bus accident so she was forces to convalesce in bed for a long time.
2. Her love of painting could not be stopped and she found ways to paint while she was
recovering.
3. Kahlo painted smaller self-portraits with bright glossy colors and lush vivid flowers.
4. While many of her images are warmly tropical details such as a bleeding heart her wounded
and broken body and twisted limbs are also featured.
5. In 1892 Diego Rivera and his family moved to Mexico City.
6. At the San Carlos Academy he studied art.
7. In 1987 an exhibit of Frida Kahlo’s art was brought to the Plaza de la Raza a site in East Los
Angeles.
8. The exhibit among the most extensive in the United States at that time drew the attention of
Tina Guotta a young artist.
9. Born in Guanajuanto Mexico in 1886 Diego Rivera spent a lifetime committed to the
struggles of workers both in Mexico and internationally.
10. Although he and his wife Frida Kahlo noted Mexican artist were controversial for their
Communist sympathies they both acquired an international reputation for their great art.
Evaluating Sources- Do Exercise 1 on p. 193 and 194 of your Wadsworth on your own.
Be sure to write down at least two significant characteristics about each website below.
www.cancer.org
1.
2.
http://canhelp.com
1.
2.
53
Wadsworth: Using Other Punctuation Marks
Directions: Add appropriate punctuation—colons, dashes, parentheses, brackets, or slashes—to
the following sentences. If a sentence is correct, mark it with a C.
1. Mark Twain Samuel Clemens made the following statement “I can live for two months on a
good compliment.”
2. Liza Minnelli, the actress singer who starred in several films, is the daughter of legendary
singer Judy Garland.
3. Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates all these are located on the
Arabian Peninsula.
4. John Adams 1735-1826 was the second president of the United States; John Quincy Adams
1767-1848 was the sixth.
5. The sign said, “No trespassing sic.”
6. Checkmate a term derived from the Persian phrase meaning “the king is dead” announces
victory in chess.
7. The following people were present at the meeting the president of the board of trustees, three
trustees, and twenty reporters.
8. Before the introduction of the potato in Europe, the parsnip was a major source of
carbohydrates in fact, it was a dietary staple.
9. In the well-researched book Crime Movies (New York Norton, 1980), Carlos Clarens studies
the gangster genre in film.
10. I remember reading thought I can’t remember where that Upton Sinclair sold plots to Jack
London.
54
Wadsworth: Chapter 9 “Using Logic,” Chapter 10 “Writing Argumentative Essays,” and
Chapter 39: “Revising Run-Ons”
1. Do Exercise #1 on p. 114-115 and write the answer below:
2. Choose one of the enthymemes for Exercise #2 on p. 117, supply the missing premise, and
determine if the resulting syllogism is sound.
3. Do #7 in Exercise #4 on p. 122-123.
4. Do Exercise #2 on p. 141
5. Combine each of the following sentence pairs into one sentence without creating comma
splices or fused sentences. In each case, either connect the clauses into a compound sentence or
subordinate one clause to the other to create a complex sentence. You may need to add, delete,
reorder, or change words or punctuation.
a. The sound of waves is comforting. The sand gets into everything.
b. Several reasons have been given for this decline in historical literacy. The main reason is the
way history is taught.
c. One way to avoid this problem is to use good textbooks. Textbooks should be accurate, lively,
and focused.
55
Wadsworth: Writing a Research Paper, including Writing a Rough Draft, Revising Your
Drafts, and Preparing a Final Draft
1. True False:
You can put your thesis statement anywhere in a research paper; it
does not need to be in the introduction.
2. True False:
You lead readers through the body of your paper with strong
topic sentences that correspond to the divisions of your outline.
3. True False:
If two sources present conflicting interpretations, you should be
especially careful to use precise language and accurate transitions
to make the contrast apparent.
4. True False:
Photographs and other visuals should not be used in an argument
research paper.
5. True False:
Your teacher’s revision suggestions can help you revise your
research paper.
6. True False:
Feedback you get from peer review is usually not helpful and
should not be used to revise.
7. True False:
It may be necessary to add more research in order to find support
for certain points in your research paper.
8. True False:
You should always remove sources you did not use in the paper in
your final Works Cited.
9. True False:
You do not need to proofread your paper; you should always trust
in your judgment that you have done your best work at 4 am the
day before the paper is due.
10. True False
It is an asset to have a general title instead of a title that is specific
and interesting.
56
Wadsworth: Evaluating Internet Sources; Writing a Research Paper
Directions: This assignment will be due at the end of class on __________. You will also need
to bring your Wadsworth book since it is necessary to complete your assignment.
Your research paper this semester will be on a social issue that is relevant to Florida. (We will
begin it officially in November.) The requirements are:
 1200-1500 words
 MLA style
 Six (or more) internet sources dated from 2011-present
 One source that is a book that has been checked out from the SFCC library (does not
need to be from 2011-present); you will need to turn in a photocopy of the pages you
used, plus the title page, copyright information page, and proof you checked out the book
from SFSC.
To aid you in writing your research paper, you definitely need to know how to evaluate sources.
Please answer the following questions to aid in learning how to evaluate sources:
1. Make a list of at least three topics you think you could write your research paper on:



2. Now that you’ve thought about it a bit, choose one of the topics and do a search with several
of the popular search engines listed in section 14a (p. 186) of your Wadsworth. Compare the
results, especially of the first items listed on each search.
 Was there much duplication?
 Did some sources appear only on one search?
 How many “hits” did each search engine provide for a particular topic?
3. Try using one of the metasearch engines listed in 14a (p. 187). What were the results?
4. Try using one or two of the specialized search engines also listed in 14a (p. 187). What were
the results?
5. Was a particular search engine faster or slower than the others?
6. Try narrowing your search. Put quotation marks around a phrase and search again. Use
combining keywords—and, or, or not—to conduct a Boolean search. Try plus or minus signs
with word combinations. How were the results different from your earlier searches?
57
Now that you’ve had some time to search, pretend you must pick out your research paper topic
right now. (Relax—you can change it later, or you might find out that you get much work done
for your research paper right now by choosing the topic that works for you!)
Topic of argument research paper:
Thesis of research paper (w/ side that agrees with your opinion):
Thesis of research paper (w/ side that disagrees with your opinion):
Why would I make you write a thesis on both sides of the issue?
Now, find two authoritative sources on your topic. (One with a fact or opinion that agrees with
your opinion; one with a fact or opinion that disagrees with your opinion.) Below you should
write the title and author, website name, and brief explanation of how you would use this
source in your paper.
Source #1-
Source #2-
58
59