Instructions for killing monsters

An English teacher's guide to conquering your fears

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  • Published 20250805
  • ISBN: 978-1-923213-10-4
  • Extent: 236pp
  • Paperback, eBook, PDF

‘I DON’T WANT to have to call your parents…so no names,’ I say. ‘All you have to do is think of what you’re most afraid of and write it down.’ 

They are seventeen years old. Smart, well-read, on the cusp of their big, beautiful lives. They don’t really care about literature. Most of them will become doctors or engineers or lawyers or scientists. But they like me, so they oblige. 

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Nobody panic 

Non-fictionThe desert of the real is now where most teens search for answers to life’s big questions: what is love? Who am I? What is truth? The images of reality we create hold messages about reality. Copies of copies of copies though they may be, they nonetheless have a material effect on our children’s thoughts, behaviours, opinions. Consumerism. Communism. Sexism. Cancelism. Nationalism. Anarchism. Stoicism. Humanism. Ideas about what we should live like, look like and love like, what it means to be a man or a woman, what it means to be an individual or part of a community, are all displayed on a screen in their pockets. The influence is profound, but not necessarily sinister if they are taught to interrogate what they consume.

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