ABSTRACT
“Ew. Metaphors? That's just for English class!” So typical a comment. And so untrue. Metaphors are just one figure of speech typically defined and identified in English classes and in the discussion of literature, but they are far more than a tool for style and explication. Simply put, we use metaphors to process the world. In The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, Neil Postman writes, “We may conclude that humans live in two worlds—the world of events and things and the world of words about events and things” (1996, p. 181). Humans are hard-wired to use language to think and communicate about information, to connect events and things into our thought patterns and ways of understanding. Metaphors are perfect vehicles for this process, and the teachers and writers that recognize and harness their power will be more effective.
