I spent the last week in DC, a stone’s throw away from my home in NYC. Though I didn’t go back, a piece of the city came to me in the form of my mother. She brought me a small treasure trove of memories dating all the way back to 1986. The items she brought helped sprinkle a smile on my face and served as a reminder that though we are not static beings, we are informed by our histories. As a result I’m taking these ten minutes to reflect on DC.
I went to the nation’s capital in order to attend the National Conference for Teachers of English (NCTE) and the young adult author’s workshop after (ALAN). From top to bottom the affair was a clash of social cultures and the coming together of a professional culture–the reader and teacher culture. Over time I’ve learned to mitigate my expectations about conferences. Often you get a lot of presenters rehashing ideas that have been around for a real long time but never formally published or presented, because the people applying the ideas prior to the publishers always viewed them as common sense.
Above all else I learned that nothing in common sense. If I have a really good and simple idea I ought to publish it and try to get on with one of these conventions. Likewise I learned that the people paid to speak at such things often do so for exorbitant fees or personal gain. Keynotes are exorbitant fee breeds, but writers and other ‘in the trenches’ folks are doing it for personal gain–usually for sales.
Some Thoughts:
- Slow and sleepy night after hours on the plane.