The upcoming winter holidays offer us the perfect context in which to study one of the most famous editorials ever written:
http://www.newseum.org/exhibits/online/yes-virginia/
The Wikipedia page adds more context to the story, plus links to related subjects. It’s worth a read, too.
Here is the editorial again, reformatted for our course:
[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F12%2FChurch-Yes-Virginia-Text.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
The Work
What you should notice about that last PDF, which will also be shared with you through Google Classroom, is that it was downloaded from a much larger document. This text is part of a much larger conversation about truth, lies, and the way we frame our world. Our next unit will delve into those issues, and what you will read then will help you make sense of the great lie of Santa Claus — an acceptable lie, perhaps, and one I tell my own children, but a lie nonetheless.
Synthesis — that search for related readings and context — also helps us here. Santa Claus is the subject of many thoughtful essays, from this pseudo-scientific back-and-forth on the physics of Santa to this semi-serious discussion of an actual war on Christmas. Tongue-in-cheek humor is a nice contrast to Church’s endearing earnestness, and I think we need both tones. (Irony and sarcasm don’t help us with the “veil covering the unseen world,” as Church puts it.) You will start to make connections between disparate positions and voices as part of becoming a better writer and as part of our prep for the AP exam in May.
The real lesson is that everything connects, and everything is an opportunity to improve the skills and traits of our course. Remember the metaphor Paul Graham uses: that of the river.
To help you understand Church’s editorial, you’ll need to respond to another batch of prompts on rhetoric and style:
[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F12%2FChurch-Yes-Virginia-ETA.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
These are reprinted below. They serve as discussion questions, too, allowing us to talk about the ideas of the letters as much as their rhetoric. Responding will require you to define new terms, ask for the right kind of feedback, and otherwise work with a different goal than just submitting the correct answers.
The prompts for “Yes, Virginia,” reprinted for reference:
- You’re going to notice immediately that this letter may not exactly be targeting one little girl. Be specific here, and take a look at every relevant element of Church’s essay: Who is his audience? How do you know?
- Church crafts distinct, intertwined arguments of fact, value, and policy in this letter. Research a working definition of each type of argument, identify each one in the essay, and then analyze how cogent or fallacious his reasoning is.
- Church believes Santa is real. Or maybe he doesn’t. How we read this editorial depends on the definition of “real” employed here. What is Church’s definition? Be specific. Figure out what definition — or definitions — he implies, and use his language and logic to support your analysis.
- Summarize each paragraph’s main idea in fewer than ten words.
- Consider the essay’s use of imagery related to childhood: rattles, fairies, dancing, etc. Pull out two or three of these images and explain their rhetorical effect.
These prompts require a mix of convergent and divergent thinking. Once you have your own responses, you can use the following essay as a way of understanding how to respond:
The goal, as always, is to analyze in order to emulate. Formal assignments will be posted to Google Classroom, but the overarching goals fall outside of the Skinner-box stuff: Understanding Church’s writing is how we get at the deepest and most productive discussions about truth, childhood, faith, etc., and it’s also how you become a better writer yourself.
Use this post to discuss the assignment with me or to leave observations. Keep your comments succinct. Spark conversations with each other. This is about the way we define and redefine truth in our society, which is a timeless concern. In fact, you might be interested in another famous article that ran in The Sun — although it isn’t quite what Virginia’s father meant when he told her that “[i]f you see it in The Sun it’s so.” It’s now known as the Great Moon Hoax:
Not the best moment in journalism, maybe, but a highlight in creative writing. Speaking of The Sun, I’ll leave you with their reprinting of Church’s editorial in 2012:
https://www.nysun.com/editorials/yes-virginia/68502/