Patricia M. Lines is a writer and an associate editor for the journal, Humanitas. In past lives she held the Haynes Chair in Education Policy at Catholic University of America and taught at the University of Washington and Harvard University. As director of the Law and Education Center at the Education Commission of the States, she wrote and spoke on how law and public policy affect education. As a senior research analyst for the U.S. Department of Education, she also monitored and conducted research on issues relating to the role of families in learning, charter schools, equal educational opportunity, educational choice, and related policy issues. In her early career, she practiced law with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Center for Law and Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
As a playwright, Pat Lines has seen Seattle productions of two short plays: Annie's Golden Years and A Valentine for Davida. A Third Play, The Lucky Ones, although a work in progress, was adapted, retitled as Searching for Normal, and produced for a charity event in mid-May, 2009 at the Erickson Theater. A full-length play, The Condemnation, received a public reading in Washington DC and won an award from Key City Players in Port Townsend. Dr. Lines' interest in the role of the chorus in Greek tragedy is partially revealed in her essay, Antigone's Flaw. In The Lucky Ones, Dr. Lines drew from Sophocles' play, Antigone, to create a chorus. However, her chorus speaks in rap time while Sophocles' chorus used a classical Greek meter.
Dr. Lines from time to time will post drafts of academic material and other material. She welcomes comments from readers.
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We are all shortsighted and very often see but one side of a matter; our views are not extended to all that has a connection with it. From this defect I think no man is free. We see but in part and we know but in part, and therefore it is no wonder we conclude not right from our partial views. John Locke, Of the Conduct of the Understanding § 3 (iii).