Literature’s Lesson Not Lost on Teacher

Even before State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig officially called for it, teachers at San Marcos Junior High School were plotting a renewed emphasis on literature and looking at ways to get all kids--and not just college-prep students--excited about reading.

English instructor Quality Quinn-Sharp has spent the last two years developing a new literature appreciation curriculum for kindergarten through high school. On Wednesday, she’s going to present it to fellow teachers--with the help of a cowboy, a San Diego Zoo publicist, a corporate vice president, a bluegrass band and a Rancho Santa Fe children’s author.

They’re all coming to San Marcos for story hour--with teachers, not kids, in the audience.

Bob Sasse is going to sing cowboy songs. The zoo’s Chris Peterson, a card-carrying member of San Diego Storytellers, is going to tell animal fables. Robert MacNamara, vice president of the Daley Corp., is going to recite “Casey at the Bat.” And Marguerite Henry (“Brighty of the Grand Canyon,” “King of the Wind”) will read from her works.

“We don’t think this is going to be just another boring in-service teacher training,” Quinn-Sharp said. “We want to show our teachers that people on the outside (of the classroom) love literature and show how important our literature heritage is to everyone. It shouldn’t be reserved in the classroom just for story-telling time.”

There’s plenty of room in a reading-writing-’rithmetic curriculum for a strong dose of literature, Quinn-Sharp says. And the first step is to win over the teachers. “We need to make them experts in the grade-level area of literature, and to infuse them with amusement, amazement and excitement.”

Between the Lines

You can tell the seasons by the seminars.

On Oct. 18, the Women’s Opportunities Week Advisory Board of Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch will have as its luncheon guest Fred Swearingen, a retired National Football Leauge referee.

Topic of the day for these widow-apparents: “Football Is Not a Foreign Language.”

Unbeatable Retreat

The other vacation resorts in San Diego should do so well: The family vacation packages offered at Mission San Luis Rey were sold out last summer, and bookings are now being accepted for next summer, also expected to be a sell-out.

Little wonder. The package includes lodging in a private, two-bed room in the retreat center, breakfast and dinner, swimming, evening barbecues and all the peace and tranquility you can handle. And you’re midway between Disneyland and Sea World, Universal Studios and the San Diego Zoo, Palomar Mountain and the beach.

The Franciscans, though, are a little sheepish about a necessary price increase for the vacation package, which used to cost $125 per room and was pitched as the cheapest five-day getaway in the modern world. May still be. Now, it’ll cost $150 a week.

The Greasiest Spoon

If you get gas after eating in the basement cafeteria of the Union Bank building in downtown San Diego, little wonder.

Your meal order is written down on one of those duplicate receipt pads--the grill cook gets one, you keep one for the cashier. But there must have been a shortage on order pads; this one was pre-printed with, “Gal’s Gasoline,” “Qts. Oil,” “Lbs. Grease,” “Lubrication,” “Washing/Polishing,” “Tires,” and the like.

Two grilled cheese sandwiches, hold the brake fluid . . .

Class Is Going Places

At Palomar College, reservations are now being taken by the life sciences department for a field trip.

The class is Biology 99; the field trip is to the Virgin Islands.

The 13-day trip will include hiking, snorkeling and photographic expeditions. Cost is $739, including air fare and lodging in four-person cabins. You can save $179 by sharing a four-man tent.

Strange Bedfellows

And at San Diego State University, there was a bit of a brouhaha the other day over where the Gay and Lesbian Student Union should have its office in Aztec Center.

The group was finally put with an organization called Earth First. But that was only after the first office matchup was appealed by all parties.

Ideologies notwithstanding, someone initially had stuck the Gay and Lesbian Student Union with Young Americans for Freedom, Students for Jesus, and University Christians in Action.