Thursday, March 12, 2009

Public Education on Ocracoke

Last night Charles, Ocracoke's high school English teacher, joined us (David, Amy & Lachlan, David's parents, Pat & Steve, and me) for dinner. I baked two quiches and Amy & Pat put together a tasty salad. Much of the evening's talk centered around literature (Charles is extremely well read and a highly talented teacher). Shakespeare and Updike were mentioned, along with some others (including Neal Stephenson, whose almost 1200 page novel, Cryptonomicon, ranks among Charles' top three favorites, and which both David and I enjoyed [David more than I, however], but most of our conversation focused on David Foster Wallace. In case Wallace is unfamiliar to you, he wrote, among other things, Infinite Jest, a novel, and Consider the Lobster, a collection of essays. I have not read Infinite Jest, but his other writings are brilliant, although his extensive use of footnotes is quirky to say the least.

Just thought our readers would like to know that Ocracoke school boasts many excellent teachers, including Charles who always amazes me with his erudition, and with his ability to connect with students. And besides having Charles as a teacher, his students are also blessed with extremely small class sizes. How much better could public education get?

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is Lou Ann's story of participating in the 2008 Christmas Bird Count on Portsmouth Island. You can read it here.

To read about Philip's new book, Digging up Uncle Evans, History, Ghost Tales, & Stories from Ocracoke Island, please click here.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:23 AM

    Charles Temple is an Ocracoke treasure -- in and out of the classroom, on and off the basketball court.

    And have you met his dog, Hazel? She would try the patience of Job, so Charles is to be lauded for his patience with her.

    Bless his heart.

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  2. Anonymous3:54 PM

    Is the local Ocracoke Island high school newspaper on line? They do publish a news paper don't they?Here let me do a google search

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  3. Anonymous4:17 PM

    Oh goodness the stuff one finds on line when the laundry spins dry ---" A Concise History of Ocracoke Island" by Kevin Cutter mentions the Mystery surrounding just who was aboard the fateful voyage of the HMS Bedfordshire --- A BBS web page The Sinking of the HMS Bedfordshire includes the ships roster/casualty list. It said the ships were fishing trawlers fitted with heavy artillary. Is Mr. Cutler's monograph still distributed to this day??

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  4. A few comments on comments:

    I don't think the Ocracoke School is publishing a newspaper at this time.

    I wasn't aware of Kevin's article, but found it on line. I will read it carefully soon. I also didn't know of the other web page with extensive information about the Bedfordshire. I will read that as well.

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