Foreword Page 1 Narrative Introduction Page 3 Salvation Page 12 Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self Page 16 Texts Page 26 The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Page 30 I Just Wanna Be Average Page 38 Trust Me, In These Parts, Hot Dogs Actually Repel Bears Page 54 There Will Come Soft Rains Page 61 Graduation Page 69 The Chase Page 83 Description Introduction Page 89 Everything Has a Name Page 91 The Knife Page 96 The Way to Rainy Mountain Page 102 Letters From the Frontier, 1934 Page 111 On Dumpster Diving Page 116 Videotape Page 131 Building Plans: What the World Trade Center Meant Page 139 From On Seeing England for the First Time Page 146 Illustration Introduction Page 151 The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society Page 153 Shame Page 164 Sex, Lies, and Conversation Page 171 The Culture of Martyrdom: How Suicide Bombing Became Not Just a Means but an End Page 179 Virtual Sex, Lies and Cyberspace Page 186 Marked for Mayhem Page 195 Eternal Curves Page 203 The Inheritance of Tools Page 213 Comparison and Contrast Introduction Page 223 Reading the River Page 227 Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Page 231 The Gender Blur Page 237 Neat People vs. Sloppy People Page 247 That Lean and Hungry Look Page 251 But What Do You Mean? Page 256 Division and Classification Introduction Page 267 Three Kinds of Discipline Page 269 The Things They Carried Page 274 Open Letter from a Millennial: Quit Telling Us We're Not Special Page 294 The Female Body Page 301 Historical Fiction to Historical Fact: "Gangs of New York" and the Whitewashing of History Page 307 Definition Introduction Page 317 Don't You Think It's Time to Start Thinking? Page 320 Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits Page 324 The Perils of Indifference Page 337 Why I Want a Wife Page 344 Writing Page 348 We Are Our Own Metaphor Page 352 Process Analysis Introduction Page 357 The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts Page 363 Why I Write Page 369 How to Say Nothing in 500 Words Page 377 Seeing Page 392 Learning to Read and Write Page 402 Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This? Page 411 The Montessori Method Page 423 A Homemade Education Page 436 Cause and Effect Introduction Page 449 The Red Convertible Page 452 Black Men and Public Space Page 463 Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World's Water Page 469 Death Watch in the Desert Page 478 The Case Against College Page 489 2000 Thoughts: A Liberal Education is Key to a Civil Society Page 495 I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read: How American High School Students Learn to Loathe Literature Page 499 Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price Page 515 Into the Electronic Millennium Page 527 From: Reading At Risk Page 538 By the Numbers: Is the Twentieth Century's Global Technological Leader Becoming an Idiocracy? Page 549 The Declaration of Independence Page 561 Letter from Birmingham Jail Page 567 Civil Disobedience Page 589 The Allegory of the Cave Page 612 The Story of an Hour Page 618 The Myth of Sisyphus Page 624 Mid-Term Break Page 629