As an English teacher, there are components to the discipline that I am not that fond of - Shakespeare, for example. Of course I can teach it, but it is not my favorite thing about teaching English or Literature. However, no matter my personal feelings about Shakespeare or any genre or subject, for the sake of my students, I teach it.
Discussions of slavery are uncomfortable for many. But it has to be taught and when taught, not in the spirit of trying to make people comfortable. Political correctness has its place, but not when slaves are termed indentured servants. That is a lie. The two are not the same. Who does this lie protect? The Black student cowering in her seat praying the teacher quickly moves onto another subject without asking her opinion? The White teacher who is afraid of appearing unknowing or uncaring? Who perhaps has not put in time to research the literature that has led to the discussion? Parents? The community? Feelings that individuals may harbor against slaves and their descendants for making them feel guilty of history's past? I am sure there are teachers who have simply strayed from such writings. Who do not connect current events to literature's past, or cultural histories. It is very tempting to do so when everyone else seeks shelter from such inspection. However, this is not the role of a teacher. A teacher cannot run and hide from the storm. That would do more harm than good. Be honest, teach. Teach it all.
I recall teaching Romeo and Juliet. Students, once they got the hang of things, loved it. What 14-15 year old wouldn't? Young love. Quarrelling parents. A beautiful backdrop. Tortured and predestined fates. The rising, collective interests of the class push you and your creativeness. Their drive makes you a better teacher and you improve your instruction each time you teach the play. Unfortunately, most students are probably not going to love reading slave narratives. This does not mean that they cannot see their value. This does mean that they cannot appreciate the challenge of reading such texts and the challenges faced by those narrating their experiences. Similarly, many are not going to be overly enthusiastic reading narratives of the wrongs settlers and frontiersmen committed. It would be easy to assign readings that idealize and romanticize the experiences of slaves and Native Americans; however, it is imperative that the literature they encounter aims to reach the truth. Teachers can discuss the past in hopes that citizens do not continue to repeat savage and painful histories played before us in forgotten textbooks.
Speaking of textbooks, teachers are not bound to or by them. When publishers distort truth, teachers have a moral obligation to reveal the truth and ask students to judge the motives of those who seek to soften, change, or distort the realities of those who lived the lives we talk about. As more people understand that no occupation is devoid of corrupt, racist, sexist, abusive, and hateful employees, education must continue to take stock of its personnel. When the rhetoric against a civil rights movement is countered with falsehoods that should have been taught in K-12 schools, as educators, some of the blame must be placed at our feet. There are ways to teach an approved curriculum that is factual and valid, while presenting facts from trusted and reliable sources. Fact checking is a skill all students need. There is no excuse for high school graduates to not know the three branches of government and the limited powers of the commander in chief. There is no reason why massive people cannot fathom that slaves built the Capitol or the White House or other historic landmarks in our country as well as helped build much of the infrastructure (roads, railways) throughout the nation. Is it because it is not on a test? Outside of our discipline? Curriculum?
I have always been a proponent of state and national assessments for this very reason. Without a test, I have feared that teachers (although perhaps only a few, but one is too many) would selectively teach "good" literature. Morrison, Baraka, Harper, and others would vanish in favor of literature without conflict and that which romanticizes a period when Africans were auctioned, bought, and sold to build and maintain wealth for the White aristocracy. There are of course criticisms that allow teachers to teach literature without mention of the writer, the history surrounding the text or the events within. I have never been able to teach to one criticism. It is impossible to speak of Langston Hughes and not speak of the Harlem Renaissance. To speak of Zora Neale Hurston and not speak of the all-Black, culturally rich, community of Eatonville. To discuss her work without mentioning the treatment of her subjects within the social context in which they lived. Reader response is helpful in getting students to discuss and connect, but I find students' lives and writings are enriched when they learn the historical significance of even the terminology used within her works, let alone the geographical importance of works like Their Eyes Were Watching God. Students who had watched the film or read the book were unaware that the referenced hurricane was the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 and that massive graves of African Americans were left unmarked for decades as they were not allowed to be buried in cemeteries with Whites if services were held at all.
When race enters, teaching is subversive. It has always been. It remains such. Many of the banned books deal with the taboo subject or have non-White authors whose views are seen as radical or militant. As a middle and high schooler, I was fortunate to be taught beyond the book and beyond the bell. Literature is activism. It begs you to do something, to become the change you want to see. Why else are books banned? Burned? Feared? But if your selections do not cause or champion change for the better in all of us, why assign it?
Yes, All Black Lives Matter, especially in the context of education. As we have taken the lead in civil rights movements of the past, we must so today. Students must be exposed to the contributions of Blacks and other ethnic minorities to society, literature, math, history, and science. No one questions Blacks' contributions to music or sports, but even in those arenas much is unknown and assumed. Cultural misappropriation is a wonderful place to start. It is easy to pull up the latest back to school commercial and see ethnic inspired moves, sounds, language that sells billions in the marketplace, but is seldom highlighted beyond the neighborhoods in which these creations were established. Poverty creates necessity. Poor students struggle, often thinking no one understands, but what happens when we share biographies of those who had it just as tough. Students become empowered. What if they conducted the research themselves based on decades finding similarities between a comedian in this century and one from another. Or, answering such questions, "What award would you give to Bessie Smith and why?" Weekly reports are excellent ways to teach writing and maintain interests. Staggering them gives you more time to focus on a cluster of skills without scaring more students. Simply assigning a student a reading or writing assignment that matches her life experience is not going to solve her problems or heal her wounds, but it is a start. It begins the discussion, and as we are learning. Talk is NOT cheap! It is vitally important, it is necessary.
Discussions of slavery are uncomfortable for many. But it has to be taught and when taught, not in the spirit of trying to make people comfortable. Political correctness has its place, but not when slaves are termed indentured servants. That is a lie. The two are not the same. Who does this lie protect? The Black student cowering in her seat praying the teacher quickly moves onto another subject without asking her opinion? The White teacher who is afraid of appearing unknowing or uncaring? Who perhaps has not put in time to research the literature that has led to the discussion? Parents? The community? Feelings that individuals may harbor against slaves and their descendants for making them feel guilty of history's past? I am sure there are teachers who have simply strayed from such writings. Who do not connect current events to literature's past, or cultural histories. It is very tempting to do so when everyone else seeks shelter from such inspection. However, this is not the role of a teacher. A teacher cannot run and hide from the storm. That would do more harm than good. Be honest, teach. Teach it all.
I recall teaching Romeo and Juliet. Students, once they got the hang of things, loved it. What 14-15 year old wouldn't? Young love. Quarrelling parents. A beautiful backdrop. Tortured and predestined fates. The rising, collective interests of the class push you and your creativeness. Their drive makes you a better teacher and you improve your instruction each time you teach the play. Unfortunately, most students are probably not going to love reading slave narratives. This does not mean that they cannot see their value. This does mean that they cannot appreciate the challenge of reading such texts and the challenges faced by those narrating their experiences. Similarly, many are not going to be overly enthusiastic reading narratives of the wrongs settlers and frontiersmen committed. It would be easy to assign readings that idealize and romanticize the experiences of slaves and Native Americans; however, it is imperative that the literature they encounter aims to reach the truth. Teachers can discuss the past in hopes that citizens do not continue to repeat savage and painful histories played before us in forgotten textbooks.
Speaking of textbooks, teachers are not bound to or by them. When publishers distort truth, teachers have a moral obligation to reveal the truth and ask students to judge the motives of those who seek to soften, change, or distort the realities of those who lived the lives we talk about. As more people understand that no occupation is devoid of corrupt, racist, sexist, abusive, and hateful employees, education must continue to take stock of its personnel. When the rhetoric against a civil rights movement is countered with falsehoods that should have been taught in K-12 schools, as educators, some of the blame must be placed at our feet. There are ways to teach an approved curriculum that is factual and valid, while presenting facts from trusted and reliable sources. Fact checking is a skill all students need. There is no excuse for high school graduates to not know the three branches of government and the limited powers of the commander in chief. There is no reason why massive people cannot fathom that slaves built the Capitol or the White House or other historic landmarks in our country as well as helped build much of the infrastructure (roads, railways) throughout the nation. Is it because it is not on a test? Outside of our discipline? Curriculum?
I have always been a proponent of state and national assessments for this very reason. Without a test, I have feared that teachers (although perhaps only a few, but one is too many) would selectively teach "good" literature. Morrison, Baraka, Harper, and others would vanish in favor of literature without conflict and that which romanticizes a period when Africans were auctioned, bought, and sold to build and maintain wealth for the White aristocracy. There are of course criticisms that allow teachers to teach literature without mention of the writer, the history surrounding the text or the events within. I have never been able to teach to one criticism. It is impossible to speak of Langston Hughes and not speak of the Harlem Renaissance. To speak of Zora Neale Hurston and not speak of the all-Black, culturally rich, community of Eatonville. To discuss her work without mentioning the treatment of her subjects within the social context in which they lived. Reader response is helpful in getting students to discuss and connect, but I find students' lives and writings are enriched when they learn the historical significance of even the terminology used within her works, let alone the geographical importance of works like Their Eyes Were Watching God. Students who had watched the film or read the book were unaware that the referenced hurricane was the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 and that massive graves of African Americans were left unmarked for decades as they were not allowed to be buried in cemeteries with Whites if services were held at all.
When race enters, teaching is subversive. It has always been. It remains such. Many of the banned books deal with the taboo subject or have non-White authors whose views are seen as radical or militant. As a middle and high schooler, I was fortunate to be taught beyond the book and beyond the bell. Literature is activism. It begs you to do something, to become the change you want to see. Why else are books banned? Burned? Feared? But if your selections do not cause or champion change for the better in all of us, why assign it?
Yes, All Black Lives Matter, especially in the context of education. As we have taken the lead in civil rights movements of the past, we must so today. Students must be exposed to the contributions of Blacks and other ethnic minorities to society, literature, math, history, and science. No one questions Blacks' contributions to music or sports, but even in those arenas much is unknown and assumed. Cultural misappropriation is a wonderful place to start. It is easy to pull up the latest back to school commercial and see ethnic inspired moves, sounds, language that sells billions in the marketplace, but is seldom highlighted beyond the neighborhoods in which these creations were established. Poverty creates necessity. Poor students struggle, often thinking no one understands, but what happens when we share biographies of those who had it just as tough. Students become empowered. What if they conducted the research themselves based on decades finding similarities between a comedian in this century and one from another. Or, answering such questions, "What award would you give to Bessie Smith and why?" Weekly reports are excellent ways to teach writing and maintain interests. Staggering them gives you more time to focus on a cluster of skills without scaring more students. Simply assigning a student a reading or writing assignment that matches her life experience is not going to solve her problems or heal her wounds, but it is a start. It begins the discussion, and as we are learning. Talk is NOT cheap! It is vitally important, it is necessary.
Posts
