random FB fragment on teaching and time

I have been teaching kids poetry & art since 1980, and I don’t seem to run into too much of that widening gulf of language redundancy between the old and the young. Possibly because I’m working with their language base. But your column, though it made me feel somewhat chagrinned, was wittily entertaining. Carolyn Forché mentioned the reality check gulf when her students didn’t know what snow angels were, and she gave a JFK reference—where were you when JFK was shot? They said they weren’t born yet. Now, for you, it’s those born after 9/11. Most of my students were born after Frozen came out. Foggetabout The Princess Bride, or understanding the immortal lines: “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” The gulf between 1969 to 2022 is as far apart as 1969 is to 1916. Such strange watershed times we live in.

Flex? OK, I cowp. What is it?