LITERARY JOURNEY

The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture wants to give a few local teachers an education. Until April 15, Dallas-area high school English teachers may apply for a literary enrichment program at the Institute. If chosen, the teachers will receive two $1,000 stipends for attending literature programs this summer and next summer.

Although the program is sponsored by the Institute, a $230,000 grant from the educational division of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will pay for it. Of that, $50,000 comes from local sources, according to Mickey Bright, director of development and public relations at the Institute.

Bright says that with 45 teacher openings, the Institute hopes to establish a “corps of teachers who understand literature’s role in culture.” Dr. Louise Cowan, a professor and founding fellow at the Institute, will lead the program; she’ll be accompanied by Dr. Robert Scott DuPree, Dr. Mary Lou Hoyle, Dr. Marilyn Stewart, Dr. Dennis Slattery and Dr. Dan Russ. Visiting scholars such as Robert Fitzgerald, Mortimer Adler, Douglas Sloane and Robert Fagles are expected to participate.

Cowan says that the Institute’s aim is “not just to teach skills or scholarship, and not to try to teach them the things to teach. It seems to us [that] what is missing is the sense of a real authority to speak for the whole discipline.”

Receiving the grant is truly an accomplishment, Bright says, since competition for the NEH money is tough. The program will also enhance the teachers’ credentials. More than 5,000 applications have been printed and sent to area public and private schools. They are also available at the Institute.