JOYCE CAROL OATES: It depends [? on ?] [? what ?] students want to make of their lives. Obviously reading and writing are part of being a human being, and using language is part of our species which distinguishes it from all the other species-- that we have language. And the more you work with language and the more you work with syntax and looking at life in a kind of nuanced and complex way rather than just blunt, reductive ways, I think, the deeper a person becomes and perhaps the more spiritual.