I recently downloaded a reading of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” from Librivox. When I did, I couldn’t help but remembering the modest proposal parody that was published in The Exponent when I was student teaching. The Swift piece is a must read (or hear), and the parody is a must read. It amuses me how much controversy this particular parody caused, and how insane it was that people didn’t get it. I suppose one could argue failure of the educational system for those who took the author seriously, not having been familiar with the piece she parodied.