Deifying the "D's"
Attention dysfunctions are to child development what inflammations are to infectious disease. We have overdiagnosed and miscategorized attention deficit “disorders.” We have deified the “D’s”—add, adhd. They get labeled as pathological and clumped together and homogenized. We want a seen-one-seen-‘em-all, stamped-out template for students’ minds. But that’s denying the existence of all kinds of minds, of divergent ways of thinking.

–Mel Levine, Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Center for the Study of Development and Learning, UNC–Chapel Hill, speaking on “Dealing with the Universality of Diversity Among Learners in College and Beyond,” September 11, 2001, sponsored by the University Council on Teaching, the Office of Faculty Resources for Inclusive Instruction, and the Center for Teaching and Curriculum in Emory College

Scarlett on trial
Do I teach Margaret Mitchell’s book Gone with the Wind? Yes, I do.
I enjoy it and encourage my students to read it. It’s a wonderful story and evokes a certain era. More importantly, it has created a myth that still resonates in our culture and informs attitudes that we as blacks and whites have about each other. I’m also excited about being able to teach The Wind Done Gone in relationship to Margaret Mitchell’s novel. I think in tandem, the books go a long way to tell us how we as Americans still view each other across the racial divide. And by teaching the books together and by thinking about the issues that Alice Randall raises germane to Gone With The Wind, I hope to inaugurate discussions with my students about race and about sexuality and gender and southern identity.

–Barbara McCaskill, expert witness in the recent The Wind Done Gone trial, associate professor of English at the University of Georgia and Emory alumna, speaking on a panel titled “Scarlett on Trial: The Mitchell Estate vs. The Wind Done Gone,” sponsored by Woodruff Library on September 6, 2001 endy Newby, 727-6766 or wnewby@learnlink.emory.edu for more information.