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Malcolm M. Sedam:  Fighter Pilot, Businessman, Teacher, Poet
The late poet, Malcolm M. Sedam, exemplifies the Socratic command implied in the oft-quoted, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Sedam's "Joseph":  A Postmodernist Betrayal
Discounting the viability of virgin birth, the speaker of Malcolm M. Sedam's "Joseph" poses as Joseph to act as an iconoclastic myth buster.

The Versanelle:  A Dynamic, Epigrammatic Form
Often employing the usual poetic devices, the versanelle is a crafty little form whose elements include brevity, narration, critique of human nature, and a punch line.

Sedam's "Desafinado":  Ginsberg’s Irrelevance
The speaker in Malcolm M. Sedam's "Desafinado" takes the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to task for what the speaker considers to be devastation to the human soul.

 

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Tribute to Mr. Sedam

Entering my junior year at Centerville Senior High School in the fall of 1962, I was privileged to study with a teacher, Mr. Malcolm M. Sedam, whose teaching methods were unlike any other I had experienced.  His teaching style fostered critical thinking in addition to learning the facts about the subject. 

The subject was American history, and Mr. Sedam had participated in that history as a fighter pilot in World War II.  He attributed his worldview that urged him live each moment to the fullest to his war experience; he wanted to pass that urgency on to students.  Thus, he felt that critical thinking was the most important practice that high school students needed.

Mr. Sedam taught the required junior course in American history as a college course.  He discussed each issue in detail with background information, including additional facts not dealt with in the textbook.  He connected the dots, so to speak, and encouraged us to ask questions.  He also allowed us to respond and make connections during class discussion. 

His tests consisted of two parts: short identification of five to seven terms and three essay topics; we were required to write on two of the three.  This method required us to make connections, to demonstrate that we understood what happened, how, and why. 

This method also forced us write complete sentences, instead of just select answers from a multiple-choice test or merely fill in blanks, as most high school tests were fashioned.  This methodology gave us practice in expository writing that usually had to wait until college.

During that same school year, Mr. Sedam would read his poetry to our class, and a number of students expressed interest in a creative writing class.  Mr. Sedam was able to offer that creative writing class the next year, so I again sat for a class with Mr. Sedam.

My specialty was poetry; I had become fascinated by Mr. Sedam's poetry, because I had dabbled in poetry writing since my grade-school days at Abington Township Elementary School.  I had not really thought of what I wrote as poetry, but having a rôle model in Mr. Sedam awakened in me the aspiration to write real poetry.  Mr. Sedam's encouragement sealed my fate with poetry, and I have been studying it, writing it, and writing about it ever since those high school days.

It is with great appreciation for Mr. Sedam’s example and encouragement of my writing that I offer this memorial to my former American history and creative writing teacher.