After reading my learning log today, I had more people than I expected come up to me and say "I'm so glad you said what I wasn't able to say."
With that in mind, I thought about how important it is for us to say what we need to say in a non-threatening way, while still sometimes saying the wrong thing (as Rebecca pointed out), but at least getting our issue out there even if it only clarifies our own understanding.
For the two weeks prior to this program, I participated in another institute where we had to use this blogger (http://asnereynoldsphoenix.blogspot.com/) in order to raise and discuss issues that we didn't have the time to raise in class. Its kind of like the learning log, except people have what you read aloud in front of them to go back to and reference, they can respond again and again until they get it right and THEN hit "post", and you can respond publicly or you can send a message privately.
A blog would be a great way for us to do just that in a non-intimidating and very respectful way. So, this isn't a required assignment, its just an extension of what we do in class, especially when there isn't enough time to keep the conversation going.
The blog works best when its used as a platform to raise and discuss issues, not to complain about the heat or the facilities or for social gatherings. And since this was all birthed from the learning log that I read aloud today, here it is again.
Also, please feel free to peruse the other blog from the Reynolds institute; it was a two-week "boot camp" for English teachers who teach journalism.
Learning Log for 7/1
Yesterday, Rebecca posed the question, How does my perspective affect the way I read and understand literature? All literature is about the human experience so we can relate to all of it. It may be more difficult because you don’t have the gender, religious or cultural background information but we all can connect to some level of the experience.
This idea evolved into the theme for the day, which seemed to be “ownership.” From ownership of learning to ownership of a human experience we kept coming back to this idea.
Who owns the knowledge in the classroom? Who owns the right to say they have truly suffered an experience?
We also discussed the value of teaching what authors do, what motifs are, literary elements and other English “stuff” but I question how this helps them make better decisions about humanity or the human experience. How does this type of study make better people who make good decisions? Aren’t we supposed to be getting them ready for life? In real life no one is there to give you background knowledge on a book that you’re reading, but you read it anyway. And when you find something you don’t know and may be curious about, you might pursue it further. Then you learn it because its meaningful! That’s what reading looks like in real life. We’re not showing them that there’s some body of knowledge they need to know, what we should show them instead is when they have the responsibility to themselves to make that decision.
When I read the book Left to Tell, I didn’t know anything about the political tension in Rwanda. I didn’t know anything about Rwanda, the people, the struggle, the history or the isms! Yet, I read and understood the story, and then I learned something about the country as I became interested in the struggle and pursued it further. But because I was answering the questions that I posed, it was purposeful and meaningful and authentic and I was changed as a result. Isn’t that who we are, agents of change?
Another point of contention was the difference between things being universal versus things becoming “sterilized.“ When we talk about what is universal, we’re not talking about people, places and events-we are looking at ideas, concepts and themes. So someone may not have ever held their cousin in their arms as he died, but they have felt helplessness and loss at their level. They may even have felt anger and a sense of injustice because their loved one died while another, less deserving person lived. You go through the same process no matter who you are and no matter what the situation is; the only thing that is different is the context. That is what connecting is all about. Finding the common thread that joins all of humanity together.
So when we read the Nikki Giovanni poem and the Jennie Poem and Rebecca posed the question “does Jennie get it,“ my answer is absolutely. Not only does she get it, she seems annoyed by it. She’s annoyed at being told again and again that her life is privileged and charmed and perfect and she doesn’t have the right to complain because white people don’t really suffer. David Peltzer was forced to eat crap out of his baby brother’s diaper; he was stabbed by his mother and then sent to the kitchen to wash the dishes only a few hours later; he was starved for weeks at a time and not allowed to have a bath or a wardrobe and was forced to drink a toxic mix of ammonia and Clorox--does the fact that he’s white mean that its not that bad because he’s white and his ancestors were never slaves? I think what Jennie is saying in her poem is “I know where you‘re coming from; being misunderstood sucks!!!” I think she’s also saying “you know what? We are all connected! I’ve got pain too.” She wasn’t trying to diminish Giovanni’s perspective, she was validating her by writing about how in the most basic sense of humanity, we are in fact all the same.
So, even if you weren’t gay in high school, we can all relate to “fitting in issues” and some of the struggles that go on internally on some level and we can share ways that we got through it!
Perspective is all of those things we talked about yesterday, but its also about knowing people who have experienced things in order to understand better. Reading is just another way to do this, since we don’t have access to that “window” into other people’s worlds and minds and experiences; that’s why we read, so that we can “know people” and have deeper understandings of the stuff of life.
We get defensive when people tell us our experiences aren’t valid and I think that is what the Jennie poem is doing; she’s defending the fact that her suffering has been invalidated probably since she realized she was white and she’s tired of it.
You can’t quantify experiences as more or less than anyone else.
You have to accept that there are some things that you don’t understand, but you can empathize and have respect for the authority of other’s experiences both by getting to know them or by reading about people and their experiences. By listening to each other we can get to the heart of the issue that is human and universal and not only gain perspective, but gain ground in trying to bridge the gap among different groups of people.
The final question, why is there a need for a paradigm shift, is something that I struggled with until only recently when someone pointed out some very important things for me. My father came from PR when he was 21; he learned to read and write and speak in English, he taught himself a few trades and he always worked very hard to earn a living. So it was always my belief that if you wanted it bad enough and were willing to work hard enough for it you could have it. Learning always came very easy for me and no matter how many obstacles I put in front of myself, I always managed to get around them before they could really slow me down.
However, the population is changing and we are more global; we have more and more people from all around the world on all sorts of intellectual levels. People who have always been privileged with access, now have even more access to information and knowledge and resources that widens the achievement gap even further. Our way of problem solving doesn’t work anymore, so as the Hairston article suggests, we have to figure out why and then come up with a new way of solving the problem of educating America.
And at the end of the day I discovered all these truths not because someone told me it was so, but because I was given the information and I possess the tools to do something with the information. We can’t forget to do the same for our students. We can’t get hung up on the information part if they have no idea what to do with the information once they’ve got it.
Other thoughts not really related to anything...
I came out of high school knowing one thing; I had no idea how to think because I was never taught. With the teacher not there telling me what something means or what needed to be fixed in an essay, I couldn’t do it on my own. Has anyone ever asked inner city kids about their learning?
Melissa Cordova
Eli Whitney Technical H.S.
Hamden, Conn.
