A meeting with Elliott Engel is like a trip to another planet in that you learn all kinds of things you didn’t even know you didn’t know, and how important they are. Like - the fact that fairy tales have all kinds of beings in them such as trolls and dragons and monsters and so on BUT there is ONE being that is NEVER found in a fairy tale - what is that one being? Professor Engel then proceeds to tell his stunned audience what it is, and explains WHY that is so, and then he is off and running , and we are off and running with him. (I have to use a lot of capital letters because that is the way Dr. Engel often talks.) 
Professor Engel is the consummate teacher. He teaches “around” the subject - and quickly too - so that by the time he is about ready to tell us what IT is, we are hoping up and down in our seats, mentally “shouting” what we think the answer is at him. He has been doing this for a long time and he has picked up a few copycats lately - one I notice that is doing his type of teaching is "WordWorld". They do the same type of thing for our young granddaughters and they probably got it from Dr. Engel. (He’s been doing it a LOT longer!)The presentation took place at the Broyhill Civic Center on Caldwell Community College campus Monday evening at 7:30 on the last day of January, 2011. If you missed it then, you might as well just give up. There’s no hope for you – BUT - Dr Engel said this was his 18th performance here – SO he MAY come BACK and there may be hope yet.
Dr. Engel teaches at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC State University. He teaches about a lot of writers and specializes in Dickens, Shakespeare, Mark Twain and a few others. For more information start here: http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/elliot-engel
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