Newberry Library - Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

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Open book Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

Title Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

Creator Conroy, Jack, 1898-1990

Date n.d., 1956-1989

Language English

Subjects New Left

Format Correspondence

User-Contributed Transcription March 23, 1964
Dear Jack + Gladys:
I have been planning to write to you for weeks — months really — but I've kept waiting in hopes I'd have something eventful to tell you. I'm afraid though that no really exciting things are going to happen, + so I'll have to be content with telling you of trivia. A couple of weeks ago I finished teaching the Spring term here, + I'm now on Easter vacation until April 27. The teaching here has been quite a surprise, + in nothing more so than in the laziness of the English students. At times I think the laziness is encouraged by the faculty, for the greater the student laziness the greater the possibilities for faculty laziness. The whole thing is rationalized by the pretense that the students are adults + should, therefore, not be required to do anything save at the end of their college career pass the appropriate exams. Since the students have studied so little, the exams have to be made up with vast leeway in the choice of questions to be answered, in the hopes (on the part of faculty) that there will be at least one area in which a student can write competently. The fact that most students have studied one area in a course fairly comprehensively (while ignoring 9/10's of the course) means that they do do fairly well on exams + so the faculty are encouraged in the smug belief that they are doing a good job of education. The truth is, so I see it, that the glory of English education is the grammar schools + public schools (comparable to our best high schools), so that students come to college well prepared + then do little afterward.
I haven't done anything in the way of original scholarship since I came here (save for finishing the De Forest manuscript, which I sent to the publishers in December + which still hasn't been read by the editors there). I have written out numerous lectures, both college + public, + I've learned to speak loudly if not well. Maybe I'll be able to use some of the lecture material eventually in an article or two.
Most of my other writing has been of letters to second rate colleges that need a chairman for their English departments + want to add my name to those that dream of accepting their chairmanship. Among those I turned down were Southern Methodist University, Wyoming University + San Bernardino State College. I indicated interest in the Univ. of Kansas (but didn't get the job) + Bridgeport University (where I may be offered the job). You would have been proud of what I wrote to SMU — which is in Dallas. I said, among other things, that I doubted if I could be happy in a place — the city — so noted for religious bigotry + political intolerance.
They only other item that excites me is the vacation I'm planning

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Jack Conroy papers

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Conroy Box 17 Folder 901

BibID nan

Projects Tag IMLS Cares 2020

Rights Status Copyright Not Evaluated

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

Size 3336px × 3939px 75.23 MB

File Created 10/19/2021

Filename 992006198805867_midwest_ms_conroy_box_00017_fl_00901_000078.tif

Unique Identifier NL1BZF0

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