77. Alumni Recollections: High School English Department

Alumni share their reflections on the important life lessons learned from close reading and discussion in their classes with the English department.

“The hard part was making someone [stressed] like me… enjoy reading difficult books. That was easily the most valuable part… you come away with something like empathy.”
—Daniel Kane ’05

“I remember the thrill of attempting to unravel the secrets woven into texts we read and look upon the face of that which we scarcely think about in our day-to-day lives… we engaged the power of those words, so vibrant and energetic that some of them have transcended generations.”
—Aryav Pal ’17

“How useful is crafting fake policy memos if you cannot also explain why life is worth defending?” This… is what… English… at Dalton endeavored to teach. When it came time to ink my major…, I chose ‘Humanities’.”
—Amelia Cai ’10

“Close reading allowed me to study each and every detail of the text and break it down to its finest parts. [As in] Computer Science and Robotics, I found a parallel in inquiry between the seemingly dissimilar fields.”
—Kyle Chu ’17

“The courses I took …made me want to be a writer and gave me the foundational skills to make that a reality; …made me think, Damn, I want to do THAT.”
—Emma Eisenberg ’05

“I was literally schooled by the English Department [to achieve] the best of what has come out of me since. [It] made me feel more unique and remarkable and safe… to experience the full depth of difficult, even painful texts, to… reconcile complicated concepts [and] feelings.”
—Amanda Guinzburg ’90

“At the end of The History Boys, the teacher tells his students, “Pass the parcel… Take it, feel it, and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on.” Never did I feel this message more clearly than in my Dalton days.”

—Sandra Breitstein ’91

—Andrew Glassman, High School English Teacher & Department Chair, Grades 9–12