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Writing in the Asylum: Student Poets in City Schoolsreviewed by Timothy Cheeseman - 2005 Title: Writing in the Asylum: Student Poets in City Schools Author(s): Jennifer McCormick Publisher: Teachers College Press, New York ISBN: 0807744891, Pages: 124, Year: 2004 Search for book at Amazon.com Do not be mistaken, this book is not about poetry. Jennifer McCormicks Writing in the Asylum: Student Poets in City Schools is an indictment of urban, inner city educational policy, institutions, and process. Therein is the major flaw of this book; the arguments it puts forward are couched in adolescent cliché and academic doublespeak, and the writing never establishes a focus or provides epiphany.
The book is divided into five chapters with no apparent scheme, including cryptic titles such as She Gave Me a Poets Name, Discard and Permanence in Postindustrial New York, and Escape Routes. Without a clear organization, the book never finds its soul or establishes a controlling idea of any kind. The text is essentially pieced out in three different strategies: analytical text about the failure of urban schooling, samples of student poetry, and obtuse attempts to connect writing poetry to the pain and despair of poverty.... (preview truncated at 150 words.)To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropriate membership. Please review your options below:
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- Timothy Cheeseman
Shawnee High School (Lima, OH), Ohio Northern University and Tiffin University E-mail Author TIMOTHY CHEESEMAN currently teaches English at Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio and Writing/Poetry at Ohio Northern University and Tiffin University. He began his graduate studies in 1992 at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado and received an M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University and a B.S. from The Ohio State University. From 1987-92/96 he was a professional social worker in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio and specialized in adolescent counseling and homelessness. In between all that he taught for a year in Santa Fe, New Mexico and lived in Espanola. He has also worked as a college instructor, cook, janitor, naturalist, and reporter among other jobs. He has recently published poetry in The Evansville Review and Facets Literary Magazine; criticism in Teachers College Record; and received the 1998 Sacramento Poetry Prize. Timothy Cheeseman currently lives in Lima, Ohio with his wife Kellie and sons Tristam and Charley.
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