Diana Senechal - Republic of Noise: The Loss Of Solitude in Schools and Culture

D iana Senechal taught English as a Second Language and theater for four years in New York City public schools. In addition to her classroom teaching, she directed her students in productions of The Wizard of Oz, Oliver, Into the Woods, and A Midsummer Nights Dream. She holds a BA in Russian and a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Yale University; she taught Russian as a graduate student at Yale and as a Mellon Fellow at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Senechals translations of the Lithuanian poetry of Tomas Venclova have been published in two books: Winter Dialogue (Northwestern University Press, 1997) and The Junction (Bloodaxe Books, 2008). Her education writing has appeared in American Educator, Education Week, Educational Leadership, American Educational History Journal, and numerous blogs, including The Core Knowledge Blog, The Answer Sheet, Joanne Jacobs, and GothamSchools. She has contributed to several education projects, including the Common Core State Standards.

She is the 2011 winner of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, awarded by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. In July 2011 she joined the faculty at the Dallas Institutes Sue Rose Summer Institute for Teachers. In addition to writing and teaching, she enjoys reading in various languages, playing cello, and taking long walks and road trips. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

M y gratitude goes to all my former students and colleagues at the two New York City schools where I taught. I am likewise indebted to my students from previous years and summers: in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; at Trinity College in Hartford; at Yale University (when I was a graduate student there); and on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana.

I would like to thank my wonderful teachers from high school, college, and graduate school, and the people who were and are my teachers without knowing it.

I would like to thank Lisa Hansel, editor of American Educator, for her encouragement and wise comments, and for publishing an early version of chapter 6. Thanks also to the blogs and journals that have published my work and allowed me to try out ideas, especially Education Week, American Educational History Journal, Educational Leadership, The Core Knowledge Blog, Joanne Jacobs, The Answer Sheet, Double X, and GothamSchools.

I am indebted to everyone who read chapters or parts of chapters and offered comments: Lara Allen, Claudia Allums, Mary Ann Bandiola, Victor Bers, Lenore Boling, Jed Buchwald, Peter Carpou, Louise Cowan, William Deresiewicz, Carvel Gold, Lauren Gold, Arthur Goldstein, E. D. Hirsch Jr., Carol Jago, Susan Jacoby, Rita Lipson, Hannah Marcus, Donal OShea, and Ginny Scholey. Their insights and careful reading have honored the book and helped me; each person deserves more acknowledgment than I can give here. All errors of fact and interpretation are, of course, my own.

I am indebted to Caroline Stark, who not only read and commented on my second chapter but offered her own translations of some of the quoted passages from Petrarchs De vita solitaria. These translations made the chapter sharper and are treasures in themselves.

Various people have helped me make contacts, locate sources, and obtain information. Special thanks to Shermaine Andrew, Deborah Gentile, Bina Mancini, Aaron Oberstein, Harvey Sherer, Patricia Tseng, Paul Woodruff, and the staff at the Yale University and Dartmouth College libraries.

This book owes much of its existence to Diane Ravitch, the first person to hear about the idea. In August 2008, when I told her that I was considering it, she encouraged me heartily and suggested the title Republic of Noise. From then on, I knew that I would write the book. She read chapters and offered comments along the way, and her books were great companions and resources.

It has been a joy to work with Kristina Mann, my editor at Rowman & Littlefield Education. She appreciated the book from its early versions onward and was helpful at every stage. Thanks also to Lynn Weber, the production editor, and Gail Fay, the copyeditor, for their expert handling of the book, and to Barbara Hendra, my publicist, for her sage advice and support.

Deep gratitude goes to my mother and Stan, and my father and Ann, for their encouragement and understanding, for giving me so many opportunities, and for doing such interesting things with their lives.

Finally, I am grateful to my sister, Jenna, who urged me to tell her stories night after night when we were little, and who wouldnt let me stop in the middle of a story I had begun.

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