The Professor & the Madman

This book was actually really interesting to me. My girlfriend had to read this for a separate class last year, so I was already very familiar with it. I think the concept behind it is brilliant. It truly depicts how writing can bring people together. James Murray and William Chester couldn't be more different from each other. Although Chester may have been considered "normal" before the murder, he was still discharged from the Army for weird behaviors as well. However, through the use of a pen and paper, these two men found a bond piecing together one of the greatest reference books in the world. When I think about a dictionary I honestly can't imagine the work that has gone into one. Looking at page after page of words being defined honestly gives me a headache, and I only turn a few. Yet, where would we as English majors be without the dictionary? It's hard to imagine that these words took that much time, effort and thought into defining them for a world to reference to constantly.

I thought for a while how this book would relate to us as future educators. As I said above, I think one of the messages in this novel is that writing can bring even the farthest strangers together. I think applying that to high school classes is a huge task, but one that is inevitable. My job, in my eyes, is to create a room where I teach not only how to look at literature, but how to put your writing down on paper. Now, that seems simplistic, sure. Yet, after observing in Akron and student teaching now, I think that's really the first couple of steps. Kids need to get back to the basics and then I can act as Vygotsky and take them further. I think that while teaching my students will no longer be separated by differences they may have, but united in the fact that as of now, they are all in the same boat. I think this book shows that concept. A convicted man behind bars, adding to one of the greatest books, with the help of a well respected man from Oxford.