Interpretation

"When I think back on all the crap I learned

 in high school,

It's a wonder I can think at all.

The lack of education hasn't hurt me none. 

I can read all the writing on the wall.

--Paul Simon, 'Kodachrome'

Reading words on walls. Explicating poems in classrooms. Making sense of treaties in Congress. Reading, explicating, making sense: these are the three names given to the activity of 'interpretation,' the topic of..." high school.  So this is partially how the essay starts, with the exception of the last two words. Steven Mailloux's Interpretation... obviously it's about the act of interpreting. But, in the essence of irony, I decided to interpret it in my own way. 

The beginning of the essay got me into it. (I know! Me getting interested in a reading assignment... what's up with that?) I got interested because that's what I, along with most other high school students, must go through. Day in, and day out. Reading words, explicating poems, making sense of things. That's the point of high school. But how much fun is that really? Even Simon says education isn't all that important. 

I understand education is important; it's essential in today's society. How much wall-reading, poem-explicating, and sense-making of treaties do we really need after high school, though? If you go onto college to master in something of the sort, that's understandable. But if you don't, isn't that just a waste of time?

Furthermore, when reading the essay, I realized that all this interpreting nonsense wasn't written very well. It's kind of a common theme of the paper apparently. This is where this "lack of education hasn't hurt me none" comment is evident in the writing. "All these strategies-- historicizing, allegorizing, punning, and using etymologies-- can be restated as rules for correct interpretation." Aren't high school students always criticized in writing when we don't use parallel sentence structure? I'm pretty sure it's kind of a big deal. Especially since it's part of the SATs. It should be " --historicizing, allegorizing, etymologizing, and punning--," shouldn't it? 

Also, how can there be a correct way of interpreting something? Isn't it all opinion in the end? Isn't it how each individual understands the text? Is there really a right way to do it?

~KD