Killer English

<p><strong>Foreword by </strong><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Susan S. Lanser Professor Emerita Brandeis University</strong></p><p><strong>Afterword by </strong><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Susan A. Handelman Professor Emerita Department of English Bar-Ilan University Israel</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Though written in the early 1990s this book arrives at a moment when its central concerns are if anything more pressing than when it was first conceived. As the foreword makes clear </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Killer English</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is not a relic of a passing theoretical moment; it is a sustained meditation on what it means to teach in a classroom shaped by language power and interpretation. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Readers interested in the book's personal history will find a dedication at the end of the volume. What remains is a living pedagogical argument-one addressed to teachers navigating the complexities of today's educational landscape. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Although the book centers on postmodern theory-engaging thinkers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault-its aim is neither abstraction nor allegiance to a theoretical camp. Its intention is practical and urgent: to cultivate deeper critical thinking intellectual play and imaginative risk in the classroom. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Many teachers understandably shy away from theory imagining it as distant from daily practice. Yet </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>every act of teaching already rests upon theory</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>-upon assumptions about knowledge authority language and learning. Whether one subscribes to a model of transmission (knowledge delivered from expert to novice) construction (knowledge built through inquiry) or discipline (knowledge shaped by norms and power) </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>one is teaching from somewhere</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>As the author observes in the preface theory has profoundly reshaped how we read texts but far less often how we inhabit the classroom itself. This book invites educators to become conscious of the theories they already enact-and to consider how postmodern thought used as one tool among many can open spaces for ingenuity reflection and genuinely transformative learning.</span></p><p></p><p>------------------</p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Human Restoration Project</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> a 501(c)3 nonprofit that promotes among other things progressive education and critical pedagogy in the United States and across the globe.</span></p>