Dear Teachers, I wanted to share the outcome of my trial by fire yesterday!! And I want to thank Jesse, James, Jacqueline, Jack and Nick for coming. They will tell you all that I was quite feisty and gave the examiners a run for their money. I think the outcome was a tie--but James may have a different opinion. He's tough!

He hasn't told me if I passed yet!

It was an honor without compare to have you share this momentous experience with me. Thank you.

I want to say again that meeting every single one of you and our work together this semester was the gift I needed to be able to bring this project to fruition.

And I mean that.

Let me know about the book group's meeting tonight.

I have to get back to Blogger and see if I can figure out what to do there to post or comment.

Be in touch--let's continue to chat on the blog--ok.

Love, Karen, aka Dr. Stearns!

From my disssertation advisor Jerry Grant, a sociologist of education who holds an endowed chair in the Cultural Foundations Dept. in the School of Ed. at S.U.

"I am happy to announce that Karen Stearns successfully defended her
dissertation yesterday.  It was an oouttanding defense of a remarkable
intellectual history of the English teaching profession in the United
States over the past four decades: ON THE EDGE: English Language Arts
Teacdhers Revising a Profession 1966-2006.  If you want to drop a note
to Karen Stearns, now an assistant professor at SUNY Cortland, her email
is ."

      Congratulations Dr. Stearns!

       Yours, Jerry

       Gerald Grant
       Hannah Hammond Professor Emeritus
       Syracuse University