In Which It Appears That It Is Still Possible To Approach Edgar Allen Poe With Fresh Eyes

Oh, Utah schools, I don't know about you.

See, I was teaching Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" to some college freshman the other day (I posit that the story is structured like an argumentative essay--he's convincing the reader he's "dreadfully nervous" as opposed to "mad"--I don't say his argument succeeds), when one of my students--a product of Utah schools--declared how much she loved that story.

But not because she loved Poe already, you see--she had actually never even heard of Poe. After class, she even told me how she'd googled this Poe guy, since she enjoyed the story so much, read some more of his stuff, learned how he innovated the genre of short story, even read this cool poem of his called "The Raven!" She was just so stoked to learn about this awesome, brand-new writer she'd never even heard of, called Edgar Allen Poe!

So on one hand, it was delightful to see someone encounter Edgar Allen Poe with utterly fresh eyes--to realize that that's still even possible--and to see that she still thoroughly enjoyed him, even without all the cultural/historical hype that surrounds him. I'll confess it encouraging to see a student so fall for a great writer based on his own merits, and not merely because she'd been culturally trained to.

But on the other hand: Really, Utah schools? Really? A students graduates from your system, and has no idea who Edgar Allen Poe is? Do you have any excuse for that oversight? Dare I ask her if she knows who Bill Shakespeare is?

This is only one example, Utah schools; I have many others.