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In a weak moment of inattention to standards, some 40 years ago, an accredited university conferred upon me a degree in Literature. Easing their shame perhaps a bit is the fact that I have never been employed in a capacity where its use was required. In fact, after holding this BA degree for no more 4-5 years, I went back to get an MBA which proved much more valuable in the marketplace.

Nearing retirement, I thought I'd like to teach and the nearby state of Massachusetts offers temporary (5 years) certification for those who can pass a test called the MTEL (Mass. temporary Educators License)in both basic reading and writing as well as in a specific subject area.

I sat for both the basic and the English tests and, with no preparation, passed tests that regularly trip up 50% of those who take it including recent grads.

The English test did not require much knowledge of the Dead White Males I majored in so I had to wing it while discussing critical analysis of Maya Angelou and a host of lesser known (at least to me)Asian, African, Hispanic, intersexed and other sorts of writers who apparently now replace Wordsworth, Shelly, Keats and others I used to study.

I am now qualified for five years to teach English to High School kids in Massachusetts. I am no longer sure I want to even try. The subjects on the test and the brief passages of novels I had to read have taken some or most of the fire out of me. Literature in not what it used to be and it certainly is not any better.

Take heart, brave soul. Americans write books. They now use the Creative Commons license on them. Hit craphound.com to see some good and bad. At least there, you get choice. And some is really, really bad.

Jim Baen also has a creative commons site. And Baen is good, even when he's bad. He's actually better when he's bad.

But there are good American books out there. I'm calling the 60's, 70's and 80's the lean years.

It's better today.

/johnny