Inventing the Humanities

Definitions of Diversity

2006-05-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

I plan to take Rodriguez's cue and discuss the tensions between public and private. As a white hispanic with a Jewish last name, I am often baffling to institutions (and the individuals within them) whose definitions of diversity do not account for someone like me. As this would be an instutititional autobiography, I'll examine how color, language and culture play out at institutions where I've been a student and an instuctor. I'm not really sure whether this is enough, but I'm still sorting out ideas about the paper.

Final Project

2006-05-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

Inventing the Humanities

For my final project, my proposal is to write an institutional biography based upon the two cultures in which I attended school, and the effect they both had upon my education, and on my teaching. In class last week, we discussed student-teacher relationships in terms of the distance students are removed from teachers. As I intend to explore in my institutional autobiography, some of it may be the result of the different cultural worlds the teachers and students live in, and the level of respect society has for teachers in general.

"Distant Voices: Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology"

2006-05-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

Chris M. Anson's article entitled "Distant Voices: Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology," examines how multimedia is becoming a neccessity in the classroom. Throughout the text, he discusses the issues, fears, benefits, and possiblities that emerge from the new technology and the teachers who are obliged to utilize it. The article even provides a glimpse into the next possible generation of classroom teachers, an image projection of a teacher from thousands of miles away. Anson continues to explore the impact and the effect of technology on students and teachers throughout the article. Nevertheless, he often generates some of the following questions in his writing. What does the influx of new technology mean for the everyday teacher? How will it impact the social skills of the students who are privileged enough to be a part of it? What will happen to those who cannot afford this luxury? Chris M. Anson delves into the benefits and issues surrounding this shift of the traditional classroom setting to the unprecented world of technology in a way that not only informs, but warns educators as well.

Intially, many enthusiastic teachers used, and still use, hypertext and multimedia in "...linking such texts to their social and political contexts, revealing connections to pieces of art of the time, playing segments of the music that the characters may have heard, or showing brief clips of famous stage presentations" (265). Although this makes for a good lesson, students remained virtually uninvolved only "...receiving deposits of knowledge from authomatic teller machines that supplemented the more direct, human method" (266). The article examines how the integration of technology has shifted from using the computer in this way to a more interactive learning experience. According to the author, instead of simply using the computer to write or revise a composition or witness a text, students are now able to communicate across nations, learn at thier own pace, discover new ideas, texts, and mediums at the stroke of a key. Technology is moving from the passive to the active. In other words, students are observing less and taking part of their own education more.

Anson continues to explain how computer interaction may be implemented in the students' lives through distance learning or independent study. This is an individualized program that relies of technology to integrate multimedia with student-centered learning. The author does this by creating a futuristic scenerio of a student fully interacting with technology. The student starts her day by plugging her "...multimedia computer 'tablet,' just a half an inch thick...into a slot on a little vending machine...and downloads the current issue of USA Today" (267). Then she "goes to class" comprised of specialty professors thousands of miles away via pre-purchased CD-ROM. She can also enter a computer lad and receive a digital image of her professor offering personalized comments on her composition. Once the student revises her work, including audio and visual attachments, she can add it to the class webpage. All of this happens at her own pace and in her own time with little to no social interaction. It is important to note that Anson makes it clear that the student never interacts or negotiates any part of the learning process with a peer. Therefore, the student remains devoid of real human experiences or contact throughout her entire educational development. Chris M. Anson cleverly denotes that although all of this may seem farfetched and futuristic, much of this type of technology is already being used and/or developed. However, with this new and expensive techonology comes a price, and not one that revolves around money.

The most striking and somewhat disturbing line is when the author states, "because Jennifer is a privileged, upper-middle-class student who has a paid subscription to an online service, her own high-end computer system and modem, and the money to buy whatever software she needs for her studies, she can continue her schoolwork at home" (268). This student has access to this advanced technology at home. It is in this statement that a particular class divide may in fact leave some children behind. The students without access, or personal motivation, may not be able to contend with those who do. How then, can these students of lower-income status compete? What will happen to those students whose parents cannot afford these multimedia luxuries? Are these our students? What then, can we do for them?

Anson suggests that teachers must become a part of this ever-changing world of technology for the sake of our students. He explains, "...we must learn to assess the impact of each new medium, method, or piece of software on our students' learning" (278). He also indicates that the conversations about the technology need to be not only local but "...broader, institution-wide dialogues about the effect of technology on teaching, paticularly between students, faculty, and administrators" (278). It is not enough to just expose students to the computer and claim that you have provided them with techonology in the classroom. This type of claim is dangerous, for the students are not taking part in their own learning. But rather, as teachers, we need to find ways in which we can incorporate technology so that the students interact with it and advance their knowledge of it. It is time we realize that whether we like it or not, technology is moving forward and we need to move students, and ourselves, along with it.

Questions for Discussion
-Do you have access to technology in your school?
-How readily available is it for you to use?
-Do you feel that your students have ample opportunity to interact with computers and multimedia?
-What are some activities that you have used or would like to use with technology in your classroom? Do you think that this is a beneficial use of technology for your students or is it just to say that you use technology?
-When using techonology, are your students actively engaged or passively learning? What is the difference between the two types?
-In response to Jennifer's situation: How can students of lower-income status compete? What will happen to those students whose parents cannot afford these multimedia luxuries? Are these our students? What then, can we do for them?
-Will a reliance on multimedia classrooms create antisocial students? Why or why not? Will it matter in a computer-centered world?

Final Project

2006-05-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

I am writing an Institutional Autobiography for my final project. I have always been annoyed when someone looks at how students behave in the classroom and comments, "In my days..." I would self righteously comment, "It is not fair to compare these students with the students of your time." Then they would get a lecture on the evils of this comparison. It was when I sat down to really think about my project, that I realized that I am guilty of some of the same things I am chiding others for. It was then that I realized how much my high school education has influenced my expectations in the classroom. I have started examining the voices of my education, and looking at how I had to rethink my norms, without, or possibly with compromising my standards, in order to be effective in the classroom.

denis baron pencils to pixels

2006-05-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

GEORGIA DENDRINOS
EN703
DENIS BROWN “FROM PENCILS TO PIXELS: THE STAGES OF LITERACY TECHNOLOGIES”
Denis Brown discusses the usages of computers and how we have moved from pencils to pixels; the title of this chapter! He states how he is addicted to computer usage and how he is unable to draft a memo without a computer.
THE STAGES OF LITERACY TECHONOLOGY
HUMANISTS AND TECHNOLOGY
*THE PENCIL ITSELF IS A TECHNOLOGY JUST LIKE A COMPUTER.
*IT ITSELF WENT THROUGH STAGES OF IMPROVEMENT.
“a way of engineering materialist order to accomplish an end.”
THE TECHNOLOGY OF WRITING
*DENIS TALKS ABOUT HOW MANY WRITERS DID NOT TRUST TECHNOLOGY.
*DENNS BARON- I will be the first to praise computers, to acknowledge the importance of the computer in the last fifteen years of my own career as a writer, and to predict that in the future the computer will be put to communication uses we cannot now even begin to imagine, something quite beyond the word processing....
*…concerns of the computer communication today involves their authentication and their potential for fraud. The Unabomber is mentioned and how he excludes humanists and as being harmless.
*…Henry David Thoreau disparaged the information superhighway of his day a telegraph connection from Maine to Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Bill Henderson who is a director of the Lead Pencil Club, a group opposed to computers and convinced that the old ways are better, further boasts that Thoreau wrote his anti-technology remarks with a pencil that he made himself.
*Writing itself was once an innovation strongly resisted by traditionalists because it was unnatural and untrustworthy. Plato was one leading thinker who spoke out strongly against writing fearing that it would weaken our memories.
*William Harris argues convincingly that no more than ten percent of the classical Greek and Roman populations could have been literate. One reason for this must be that writing technology remained both cumbersome and expensive.
*THE TOOLS TO WRITE WERE EXPENSIVE AND LIMITED UNTIL THE PRINTING PRESS.
WHAT WRITING DOES DIFFERENTLY
*WRITING CANNOT REPLACE SPEECH. SPEECH HAS TONE AND STRESS AS WELL AS FACE TO FACE CONNECTION.
*DOCUMENTS ARE NONINTERACTIVE.
*WRITING WAS BEING USED TO PERPETRATE FRAUD.
*DOCUMENTS WERE CREATED TO SELL LAND AND CREATE FRAUD. *TO FIX THIS PROBLEM SEAL OF AUTHENTICY AS WELL AS WATERMARKS AND SERIAL NUMBERS ON PAPERS WERE PLACED.
THE PENCIL AS TECHNOLOGY
*PENCILS REPLACED PENS AND INK POTS
*PENCIL-NICKNAME “LITTLE TAIL”
*A PENCIL’S ERASER CALLED A RUBBER BECAUSE IT RUBS OUT PENCIL MARKS.
*BREAD CRUMBS USED TO BE USED BEFORE ERASERS

Questions:
1) Does using to computer deprive you from using your mind to its full ability?
2) Can we trust literature and its authenticity such as the Greek play? How true is the translation as Denis Baron mentions?
3) Can we consider information on a computer or on the Internet literature or is it just words?

Final Project

2006-05-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

I have been spending quite a bit of time this year writing my thesis in Secondary Education. For my thesis I have focused mainly on the America's Choice Ramp-Up to Literacy Program. I feel that I have acquired quite a bit of research in this area and I feel very comfortable writing about it. My final project for this class will be using this program as its main focus. I will attempt to write a manifesto which argues why this program is ineffective in several areas. I will propose to make several changes within the program in order to make it more realistic and ultimately more affective for the teachers, schools and the students.

project proposal

2006-05-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

I have debated for the last few weeks whether to write the biography or the manifesto. After a lot of thought, a trip to florida to see my grandmother, and run in with my principal, I am now going to write a manifesto. This manifesto will focus on the idiocy of the American schooling system. Students do not want to be in school. They suffer through the agonizing seconds of every period of every day. And then many end up failing. Few really care. My manifesto will explore the problems with this and offer solutions to the problem: Let students choose their path. Give them the opportunity to drop-out and explore the "real world". When it becomes fashionable for them to return to school, they will be allowed to after a one year waiting period...This is where I am with my project right now and my ideas can and will flourish and save the educational system of the United States of America.

2006-05-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

I also have not "finalized" my project, but I think that I would like to create a manifesto. This is my 6th year teaching English at the high school level, and it amazes me how the students that I have now experience many of the things that I did as a student. The way I teach my students is a combination of my education and life experience, but a big piece of this is reaction/reflection to how I was taught in high school. Some teachers made class so interesting and some teachers made class torture...it seems that my learning happened because of my reaction to my teachers, not necessarily the content taught or the ability to learn, but more in the reaction. Today, I hear this type of thinking from my students; some teachers they are able to "learn" from, and some they are not. I would like to explore how education and life experience affect learning, but to somehow focus on the "how" you learn and not the "what" you learn.

Final Project/Writing Proposal

2006-05-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

Final Projects/Writing Proposal

Although I have not yet finalized my “ideas” for the writing proposal, I do know that I will be creating a manifesto. There are very many good things that go on in today’s schools, but there are also so many things that need changing/ amending. My primary focus will probably be on “tracking” at the high school level and the responsibility of all parties (students, parents, administrators and of course, teachers) to the high school student’s successful outcome. No one wants to be held responsible anymore. Administrators, under the politically correct guise of equality in education, “randomly” (or not) create classroom rosters that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Sadly, there are way too many parents who do not feel the need to supervise and encourage their high school students to do their best - as many of our classmates have already stated. I plan to explore these "ills” and make proposals for positive change based upon my experiences as a student, parent, and teacher.

"Project Proposal"

2006-05-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

I am planning on for my project to create an "Educational Manifesto." As a junior high school teacher I am exposed to students, their needs and the problems they have everyday. I am an English teacher and some problems the kids have really hit home for me. When I began teaching three years ago I was placed at a low achieving junior high school. Kids had problems with reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. This year I got placed in a better, different junior high school and thought that these issues with vocabulary, grammar, and spelling would go away for the most part. However, after giving my first spelling and vocabulary quiz I realized how wrong I was. Then, my epiphany occurred and I realized that this was a problem everywhere no matter what the school or where it was. Now, I believe that this problem of poor spelling, vocabulary skills, grammar, and writing needs to be fixed. I feel there are simple ways to fix this problem. Schools need to use textbooks in the English classroom. Each student would get a vocabulary book learning new words each week and how to spell them. Also, each child would receive a grammar book that will teach them basic writing rules like subject-verb agreement. These simple changes just may increase students reading and writing ability. All we need to do it is a few new textbooks to help the children learn. For sources I plan on using some of the manifestos we read for class by taking some ideas that I like from them and applying to my "Educational Manifesto."

Proposal

2006-05-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

For my final project, I have decided to write an Institutional Autobiography that examines they way in which the school I have been working at for the past three years has shaped me as a person. I would also like to examine how teaching has influenced my role as a student and my views on education.

project proposal

2006-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

My Manifesto will include autobiographical accounts (for evidential support purposes) of my secondary education, university education, and current status as a teacher at my former high school. The Manifesto will discuss the issues surrounding standardized exams and then transition to exposing the "underbelly" of corrupt administration. The Manifesto will provide answers and how to apply new teachniques in order to achieve a desired utopian education system.

my proposal

2006-05-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

i still have not finalized my proposal but i do believe i want to discuss the issue of how teachers have to teach and student have to learn the material. how each day needs to follow a particular structure. this does not allow freedom for creativity. in my manifesto i would like to state the problem and ways to fix it. iwould use one of the sort readings from last week and outside sources

My Excellent Adventure

2006-05-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

My initial plan is to write an institutional autobiography in which I explore the ways in which educational institutions have both shaped and unshaped my identity and purpose as an educator. In my neverending quest for the ideal "career," I have both attended and worked at an interesting range of institutions. I have observed the ways in which politics and institutional culture can deeply impact one's education.

What does it mean to learn?

2006-05-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

I am having a difficult time deciding which of these proposals to write. I like both projects, however I think that I am going to write a manifesto.

I would like to write a manifesto about the way in which we learn. I think that learning has changed so much over the years and I do not necesarily agree with the road education has taken. Many of the stories we have read in class deal with how students were taught and in turn how they learned things, mainly academic topics. I would like to use the novels we have read in class as well as some of the movies about teachers and learning to try and strengthen my argument.
I am planning to compare education in our day with education in the past. I might choose to compare our education in the United States to the education process of those in other countries. With this, I would like to identify the problems I find with our educational process and write a list of solutions to some of these problems. Who is (was) most successful at learning? Why?

Tell me what you think.

Proposal - High School auto

2006-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

I’d like to work out an institutional autobiography that focuses on my high school years. Learning became something real to me when I started to understand how it actually connected to me as a person in this world. There were a series of teachers, moments, and works that made me a learner and helped me start to see.

There is also the fact that I now teach at that same institution that could create an important perspective, but I’m not sure how to etch it out.

Project Proposal

2006-05-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

I would like to write a manifesto exploring the role of the America's Choice Program and its impact on the public school system. Since I am obliged to teach under these conditions, it has a direct impact on what and how I teach each day. Needless to say, I do not enjoy having to adhere to strict guidelines in my teaching. I feel that my creativity is destroyed and belittled. I hope to write a manifesto that examines how America's Choice is demeaning towards teachers and students. I expect to offer several solutions and possible outcomes that should benefit the children. I think that I will be able to use Garber's A Manifesto for Literary Studies and some newspaper archives, possibly UFT or the New York Times.

"The Cinematic Representation of the Personal and Professional Lives of Teachers" by James Trier

2006-05-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

As a supervisor of student teachers with the College of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James D. Trier developed a program that “engages pre-service teachers in a critically reflective practice” (127). The program’s inward and outward reflection “challenges the notion that teachers can remain neutral about pedagogy, curriculum, and classroom organization and management in order to critique the institutions where they will work” (128).

One of the obvious examples occurred when Trier came across “Preparing Monocultural Teachers for a Multicultural World: Attitudes Toward Inner-City Schools” where the subjects of the article had negative assessments of inner city schools. Trier showed images from films such as The Principal and The Substitute to reinforce how media shapes our perceptions and beliefs. School films invite pre-service teachers to “experience situations vicariously and engage the students to examine their assumptions, beliefs, and knowledge about a range of educational issues” (129).

Trier’s Introductory Activities:

The “Resentment” school film and the “Lullaby” school film

Read Cameron McCarthy’s essay “Educating the American Popular: Suburban Resentment and the Representation of the Inner-City in Contemporary Film and Television”.

Students analyze how inner-city school films construct “inner-city” students, teachers, schools, and the surrounding communities.

Write an essay comparing the cinematic constructions with their own assumptions, beliefs, and knowledge about so-called inner-city schools.

Read Mitchell and Weber’s “Reinventing Ourselves as Teachers: Beyond Nostalgia”. View films following these questions

Describe the scene that affected you the most.

How does it connect to your social or political contexts?

Do they remind you of real life experiences?

What images or stereotypes of teachers, students, or schooling are introduced or perpetuated?

Secondary Texts

Critically read and analyze VHS/DVD box covers: how do ideological icons such as images and colors shape misconceptions of suburban verse inner-city school films (i.e. inner-city films are often violent dramas involving death with covers in black/red tones and a teacher holding a weapon. Suburban films are often romantic comedies with a cover including bright colors and smiling white kids.

Relationship between the Personal and Professional Lives of Teachers:

Films representing characters that immerse themselves solely in their profession.
Films representing characters that immerse themselves solely in their personal lives.
Films that represent characters who struggle with the two (i.e. either their personal life conflicts with their professional or professional conflicts with their personal).

Common Perceptions/Reactions towards School Films:

....To be a great teacher means devoting all your time to work at the expense of having any kind of personal life (To Sir with Love, Dangerous Minds, and Stand and Deliver).

....Teacher as “Savior”: Teachers have a special pre-destined “gift” for teaching to save kids who are heading nowhere (Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me).

....Desires to become a teacher: Many are fulfilling an emotional need/desire (This is My Father).

....“Professionalism” and the ability to separate one’s own personal life from one’s professional life for the good of the students (Waterland).

Questions:

Do idealistic new teachers perceive dedication and ambition as devoting all their time to work? Think back to when you first taught. Is this realistic?

Do you believe teacher’s are born or made? Do you have some sort of special gift?

Do teachers try to “save” kids? What are some dangers and ethical challenges teachers may experience?

What made you become a teacher? (And don’t say “I love kids”) Do we desire control, attention, maybe even love?

Describe a time when you had trouble separating your professional and personal life. Did one of these facets enter the other’s world? (i.e. think of the teacher going through a divorce who became emotional in the classroom, or “Jaime” who neglects his family life because of his obsession with teaching).

Create a school film adaptation based on your own teaching experience: What would the title be, genre, characters, plot, cover box imagery?

My Project Proposal

2006-04-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have chosen an institutional autobiography for my project. I will focus on my parents' educational values and how they affected and directed me; how CUNY has played such a major role in my life, wedding the educational with the personal--my parents both went to CUNY for their BAs, I went for my BA and now for my MA, I met my ex-husband here, I met my current boyfriend here, I work here, etc.--and how I am still so closely connected to the university (student and administrative employee; an interesting opportunity to see things from both sides), and continually shaped by the institution; and how I feel that my later in life (comparatively speaking) decision to teach was in many ways an inevitability, based on my family life growing up and my present life as a daily participant in an educational community. My goal in writing this, I think, is a little selfish. In order to better understand myself and the (somewhat circuitous) road I took to get where I am today, I want to explore coming of age in a family where the parents already held advanced degrees, so the kids could not be the first to go to college (a more "typical" education story, I think--one our professor shared as his own) and instead struggled to find a way to claim some path as their own (in terms of schooling and educational choices) and to assert some sort of independence and individuality in a family where education was constantly discussed as a fundamental component of living a good (i.e., productive) life and achieving personal enrichment and growth. How do three pretty smart kids claim a "first" at anything when the educational bar was already set so high? (Hint: rebellion. None of us went to college straight out of high school.) I will likely reference both Miller and Rodriguez and maybe some other readings from this semester.

Project Proposal

2006-04-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

I have decided to write an institutional autobiography. My focus is on two institutions in particular: school and family. I plan to address the ways in which my education has been shaped by the schools I have attended, as well by the contrasting experience of my older brother who attended the same schools as me through high school. Both my personal educational experience and observations of my brother's education have changed me as an individual, a thinker, a learner, and an educator. My goal is to show how my brother's experience in school (as compared with mine) led to changes in my ways of thining about education and helped shape my philosophy as a teacher. I am incorporating Miller's work and Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Films about Teachers

2006-04-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. I promised I would post titles of some movies about teaching, teachers, and the humanities. Please add any you can think of--and any thoughts you have about them.

To Sir with Love--one of the classics; a precursor to movies like Dangerous Minds; it's less ridiculous than that film, though it is a pretty fantasy-driven portrait of teaching

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie--another classic; more complicated, both witty and dark; really great.

Dangerous Minds--terrible, but interesting in its terribleness, particularly with regard to questions of social class, race, and education; remember Richard Miller's discussion of it in Writing at the End of the World

Wonder Boys--more complex than most teacher films; the teacher is a mess, the student a compulsive liar; the relationship involves sex and drugs in a way that makes the film seem nostalgic for a time when teacher-student relationships were passionate, unstifled by bureaucratic strictures; in this sense, it's pretty Romantic (capital R) and overblown, bu it has a sense of humor about itself.

Fahrenheit 451--What can I say, it's Truffaut. It's witty, beautiful, strange, insightful. My favorite of this bunch.

Election--another dark comedy, this one about the seething dysfunction beneath the public facade of the teacher; actually, you could think of the film as the institutional autobiography of Jim McCallister, the character played by Matthew Broderick.

Please add more!

2006-04-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

I’m not very much into manifestism nowadays. When I first became a teacher I was the queen of manifest-ing to anyone who’d lend me an ear. Those days are long gone and at this point if I would have to rant about anything it would be: those darn administrators. They need to teach. They need to be back in the classroom where they belong…if they are really as good as they purport to be. Most of the time I feel as if their job is akin to that of a fluffed up corporate executive in need of a secretary. I ran into Joel Klein last summer and volunteered my two cents when it comes to school administrators. He heard me out and entered some information into his blackberry. I think if anything is to get better, the current system of school administration must go through a major renovation – I’d call it “Extreme Makeover – Administrators Edition.”

TIME...NO TIME...

2006-04-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

WHY IS IT THAT AT TEN A.M YOU NEED TO READ TO THE STUDENTS AND BY TEN FIFTEEN A.M THEY NEED TO READ TO YOU BUT BY TEN THIRTY THE STUDENTS NEED TO BE READING SILENTY? WHEN ARE THE STUDENT ABLE TO THINK AND EXPRESS THEMSELVES FREELY? WHEN WILL TEACHER BE ABLE TO TEACH AND CONNECT WITH STUDENTS? NOT ALL STUDENT CAN LEARN IN A ROBOTIC MANNER. ARE WE GOING BACK TO THE OLD TEACHING METHOD MEMORIZATION FOR A TEST AND THEN MOVE ON ? IS THAT RIGHT! HOW ARE STUDENT ABLE TO COMPLETE THEIR THOUGHTS ON A SUBJECT MATTER WHEN FORCED TO MOVE ON TO ANOTHER?DOES THE BOARD OF ED. REALIZE THE PRESSURE PUT ON THE STUDENTS AS WELL AS THE TEACHER?

Excuse me Miss, Can you wipe my nose?

2006-04-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt like you do everything for your students? Students in this day and age take no responsibility for themselves or their work. They have absolutely no respect for themselves or anyone else for that matter. The sad part is that we as teachers are forced to give in to their laziness because a doctor will give them a drug and label them as “ADD” because they don’t “feel” like paying attention. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that there are “SOME” students who may have this disorder, but there are too many of them being labeled these days. There are countless numbers of times that I am “told” to create lessons that will allow my students to learn in a visual, spatial, auditory and kinesthetic manner in one forty-five minute period. This means I have to jump around like a maniac to try to get them to speak and participate. And what if I object to this? Well, my students won’t learn, they can not learn the way that we did as students (back in the day). Everything has to be communicative and FUN! We need to incorporate television, computers, technology, music, etc. into our lessons on a daily basis in order for our students to be the slightest bit interested.
Not only do doctors contribute to this problem, but administrators and parents do as well. I don’t know about you, but I have been told on several occasions that I “have to” provide a set of class notes for several children, why? Well, Johnny doesn’t have good handwriting, and Maria does not pay attention well, and Greg, well, Greg doesn’t come to school because he has a stomach ache (everyday) and needs the notes. The worst though, and I am not trying to make any accusations or blame anyone BUT the parents, oh my goodness they have every excuse in the book. Mrs.Johnson calls me and says: “Nicole is going to be absent for a week and we will need the work. Our family is going to Disney World”, I mean, Are you kidding?, However, the administrators will side with the parents and we as teachers have to plan, copy, and provide class notes for these children.
What can we do to show kids that they need to start taking responsibility for their own learning? And how can we get parents and administrators to help us?

Manifesto

2006-04-26T04:19:00.000-07:00

Manifesto
I attended elmenetary and high school in the Caribbean. When I was a child, I read because there was little esle to do. I grew up without a television, and it was impossible to spend hours with anyone on the phone. Besides playing all day in the yard, the only thing available to me was books. Our students are not reading because many of them are not encouraged to do so at home. Parents are buying these ipods and other electronic devices for their children instead of exposing them to books. I did a survey with my class, and I was surprised by the number of students who said they were never read to at home as children, or students who never find time to read at home. Many of us blame the cannonized books and suggest that if the books were more interesting or more up to date, maybe the students would want to read. The question is, how will the students know if a book is interesting or not if they never read it? I give my students opportunities to choose books they like, and bring them to class for independent reading. Only about half the class get those books. The main complaint is "I hate reading." Early exposure to books fosters a love for reading. I don't know if I can honestly say that the Humanities is dying because I have been teaching for only three years, and I have only taught at one school. However, my experience with my students is that approximately half of them are either reluctant to read, or have difficulty with reading. I also find that teachers I talk to from other schools have similar problems. But they also teach in New York City. I think the problem can be fixed with early exposure to reading, and with parents taking more control over their children, supervising them more, and placing greater demands on them to do schoolwork. I think a collaborative effort with teachers and parents can solve the problem.

Education Today What a Difference From My Schooling

2006-04-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

In today's learning environment as a teacher I have been exposed to many new things. These new things which range from curriculum to student work and behavior, and even parental involvement are often a far cry from my days as a student in a junior high and high school classroom not that long ago (10 years or so). When I went to school I believe that many elements were for the better. Sure, the technology in schools is not what it is today, but I feel that more learning was going on inside classrooms. The breakdown starts in my mind with school bigshots and the curriculum they preach. This curriculum is shoved down your throat as you have no choice but to teach exactly everything they want. As a teacher this takes away from your creativity and forces you to teach exactly like everyone else. I should be able to teach the literature I want as this would benefit my students more then some administrator telling me to teach this certain novel that they like and none of my students or myself can relate to. Curriculum should be created by each teacher and as long as vital elements are included that the students will learn (grammar, vocabulary and spelling, writing, and literary elements) , it should be approved. The second part of the problem in today's learning environment involves the attitude andf work ethic of many kids. Students often come to junior high now lacking many basic skills. A lot of my students struggle with simple spelling and vocabulary, grammar, and writing exercises. I feel that in grammar school the kids today do not get the education I received. I had a spelling and vocabulary books as well as a phonics and grammar book to learn these basics. This prepared for me junior high and later high school and college. This comes down to curriculum again as administrators seem to be demphasizing spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and writing in schools today and putting everything into standardized testing and high test scores. Also, students as a whole do not bring in great motivation and work ethics into the classroom today. Yes, your top students today are articulate, bright, and well-motivated. However, there are many other kids who are struggling academically and showing no concern towards their grades. This brings me to final culprits. These culprits are parents. If I brought home a report card with a 67 average and 2 failures there would be major problems at home. I would have been grounded and had priviliges taken away, like playing on a sports tyeam until my grades improved. Today, I see way too many students who are doing poorly and there parents are not concerned.This happens often because most parents have to work full time or kids come from one parent homes. Still, no matter how busy the parent is they need to hold their child responsible for their academic and behavioral actions. In addition to this, other parents blame the teacher if their kid is doing poorly. On ce in a while this may hold true, but in general teachers are dedicated professionals who try hard to reach and teach every student in their classroom. In conclusion, if we could right some of these wrongs, our future and education for years to come will benefit everyone involved!

Manifesto

2006-04-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

I spent my undergraduate years at Queens College and have since returned to work and to pursue my master's degree here. I have plenty of my own experiences, as student and as employee, plus those of the faculty friends I've cultivated. There is a frustration and sometimes even a sense of hopelessness that pervades even the most optimistic among them.

I myself deal with one example of what I can (hyperbolically) call the death of the humanities in at least one aspect of my job. There is a CUNY Proficiency Examination (CPE), sometimes referred to as a "rising junior exam," and its goal is to to test the basic skills one has (ostensibly) learned as a college freshman/sophomore before proceeding to the upperclassman level. It consists of a standard essay section along with a section on interpreting graphs--and it's not difficult. Though the College's Testing Center oversees the actual administration of the test, part of my job is to to deal with the aftermath: sifting through the data, trying to ascertain why we have students who are unable to pass it.

I know we have many good undergrad students at Queens College, but unfortunately I only deal with the ones who have issues or complaints. Over and over I hear that this one is an accounting major so who cares if he can write a coherent essay and that one is going to major in economics or business so why does she need to take this stupid essay test anyway? Despite being a liberal arts college, and supposedly demanding an educational well-roundedness of our graduates, I think we seriously lack in providing for many of them--those who are majoring in fields of study outside the humanities--the foundational tools that will enable them to enter the world and be able to read and write and otherwise effectively communicate.

What frustrates me is that many of them seem not to understand the need for this, or realize that they will benefit from these skills regardless of what career path they choose. How does one change this? How does one teach the importance of the concept of a liberal arts education to a student population that wants to tally up the necessary credits in the quickest and easiest way possible and just get the hell out of college? One solution is to require more humanities courses of all of them, regardless of their intended major. Other solutions? Well, I'm still working on my manifesto-style bullet-point list...

Standardized Exploitation and the rationale of L.I.A.R. (Long Island Anarachists against Regents)

2006-04-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

............

They spent the entire evening downing tequila shots, chugging Coronas, and reading essays. A cool summer breeze swept through the city of Austin around midnight, reminding the tired, old teachers that it was about time to sober up and grade the countless Advanced Placement exams. Yes, what you hear is true: drunk, disgruntled, retirees "playing God"……deciding whether or not your spoiled Long Island teen has a shot at Yale.

Thank Mom and Dad for the $3,000 they dropped on your tutors and AP prep courses, because it pays to have someone like your drunken Uncle Joe review "To what extent did the American Revolution fundamentally change American society? Addressing the political, social, and economic effects in the period from 1775-1800".

Here's another appetizing mental image:

After countless hours of rereading each failed student's Regents Examinations the bloodsucking, fascist English coordinator had to make a decision while the idiotic, pathetic, subservient puppets (the teachers) stared at their leader with apathetic eyes. The only option the Puppet master felt was to have the puppet monkeys go back to the exams and change a few answers, you know--just a little here and a little there. Think about it…..the coordinator has to hide the inadequate efforts and mistakes of the staff in order to avoid the Principal, Administration, Superintendent, and Community conducting public humiliation and exile from white suburban heaven (I mean God forbid, the coordinator would ever accept the fact that maybe it wasn't the puppets fault and some student's actually failed because they didn't study. Or maybe the Nazi leader hasn't been in a classroom in over a decade and forgot that some student's can sometimes just be having a bad day, i.e. failed abortion, abusive father, rape, coke addiction…..you know-the sort of "minor", "trivial" things that might distract the student and cause them to fail.).

Yes, this is sad, but all true. The rigorous, highly academic, "Blue Ribbon School of Excellence" in one of the most prestigious towns in Long Island cheats!!!!

I mean who doesn't these days? A CBS report states that from 1999-2002, New York education officials found 21 proven cases of teacher/administrative cheating from Buffalo to Long Island. The teachers either read off answers or changed scores. Even our beloved Leader of the Free World supposedly cheated on a few exams, no big whoop!

So, what's the deal anyways with the AP and Regents Exams?. We're all aware of the exams various purposes: to assess student's knowledge and enrich their education. Oh yeah, I forgot about school funding, property tax value, and shady bureaucratic political moves.

Infiltrating your wealthy towns and esteemed high schools right now is the army L.I.A.R. (Long Island Anarchists against Regents). L.I.A.R. will cheat on everything, and every exam that comes their way. They believe that if their hard work amounts to nothing, their goal will be to manipulate and cheat their way "to the top" positions ( i.e. Puppet masters of sorts) in the American educational system. Of course, L.I.A.R. is sympathetic towards lowly teachers, who they understand could help create the desired utopian classroom-- free of standardized testing. Teachers, like L.I.A.R. members agree the shady antics of coordinators and superintendents must stop before they ruin education in America. Some of the "everyday" L.I.A.R. cheating techniques include:

----Providing S.A.T. exams answers to underclassmen that will cause them to excel with flying colors, prompting educators to allow early graduation (providing a faster opportunity to attend universities and "take over" education).

---Hack into the Board of Education doctrines and recreate laws allowing high school students to run for B.O.E. positions.

---Hold private meetings discussing the newest cheating techniques (i.e. answers on bubble gum wrapper, inside hat lids, water bottle labels, etc.)

---Locate AP grading meet points (i.e. Austin), take incriminating photos, exploit corruption, and abolish AP exams. (Of course this will place more emphasis on the Regents, but it will be easier to hack only one exam…at least for the time being).

---Increase the humanities course load: Art, Literature, Music, and Philosophy (All of the core subjects that promote discussion and debate and rage against testing).

For a while, coordinators, administrators, principals, and community members will believe their efforts prompted the increase in student excellence but it is a mere decoy to cheat them out of work. The high achievement levels will surpass any current administrative position forcing them to retire/and or resign. Try and create a painstaking Regents exam and L.I.A.R. will crush its bones.

manifest o!

2006-04-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hey, now. Looks like its my turn to vent my anger. But where to start? Oh, where to start? How about with the fact that we now live in an era of accountability?

Accountability? Who are we holding accountable? The teachers or the students? With the ingenious No Child Left Behind Act, we, as educators, are faced with a world of personal angst, and I am tired of it. I am more stressed out than I have ever been. I went into teaching to help children, but I find that children don't want to help themselves. Some care, but so many just don't care at all. And their parents don't care, either. That's the problem. That's the real problem. The parents just aren't there. And where are they? Probably working to support the family. But we can't hold parents accountable, whether or not they are home. We can't touch that subject. Not the sanctity of the home! But really, without parents, where does everything we teach our students go? In the garbage? Out the other ear? I think so.

So, now the blame game goes full circle. You can't blame the kids. You can't blame the parents. You can't blame peer pressure. So, who do you blame? The teachers, of course! Let's make their lives miserable and totally and completely take away everything that these fine men and women work for. And then, let's blame them for not getting the job done. But, logically speaking, how can teachers really be held accountable? Turns out, at least at my school, that the adminstration will now be judging teachers' efficiency based on their test scores. The teachers will now be graded, electronically, on their success rates. This has nothing to do with student motivation, parental involvement, intelligence level, class level, or anything that may aid in the teacher's defense. It is just another way of holding someone accountable without going to the root of the problem. I am sick of the whole thing. Reform is needed. I am not going to sit back and take this anymore. Thank you.

Political Correctness or Education?

2006-04-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

We live in a society where to say or do something that is not considered politically correct can, and will, determine if you have a teaching position come next fall. Administrators have made education a business where they are rewarded for students achieving the appropriate scores on mandated exams. Teachers are not recognized to the level they should be for the achievements made by their students. In addition, we had better not dare veer from the prescribed curriculum/agenda!
Do we have the courage to challenge administration and possibly fail an eleventh grade English student who has not met muster? This action would certainly not be considered politically correct. Your colleagues applaud your “guts” in taking such an action and they will agree with you, (in the teacher’s lounge and the library while grading the English Regents – but definitely not before the department chairperson or the principal) that you have done the right thing by failing Johnny because he really was not up to snuff. Nevertheless, as a reward for their silence and for ingratiating themselves on administration, they are offered the tenured position and you are advised that there just aren’t anymore English teacher slots left for September, so thanks, but see ya! How do we change this? Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto is a bit far-fetched and brash, but her point is well made. As teachers we see the direction in which education is going and as teachers in the classroom we must do something about it. It’s time we considered taking action and following Benjamin Franklin’s advice - “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

Why I thought I was going to be a high-school teacher!

2006-04-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

So... it's my third year in college and I'm still a bit unsure about my major. My counselor looks down on me and states... "Ms. Curtin, if you do not choose your major soon, you'll be in college for six years." Two days later after much soul searching I was registering for the secondary education program at Queens College. My thought process was this: I like kids, I like to teach, I like to talk and I love reading. Easy right? Not exactly. You see, choosing the "older kids" was also done on purpose. I certainly didn't want to have to teach grammar, the basics, spelling and "easy books." But that's not exactly what happened. I ended up teaching at a school in desperate need of a paint job, with overcrowded classrooms, kids who attend part-time, and as many other NYC teachers would testify ... kids at such a low level they should still be in grammar school. But don't get me wrong, I enjoy it now. I've learned to deal with the little kinks in the system. But should we have to? Shouldn't something be done at an earlier age to teach these children basic stuff at an earlier age. Could it be possibly that our classrooms are too small, our rosters are too high, and there just isn't enough time to spend helping that one kid in need if the administration is breathing down our back about bulletin boards. For God's sake... why can't someone up there notice what the real problem is for once.

Lock Step Manifesto

2006-04-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

Did I see five extra staples in your bulletin board?
Was that mini-lesson 12 minutes long?
Why isn't 1/3 of your library leveled?
Who put these desks in rows?
Where is your TAN? How about their SANs?

Microscopic, insignificant...

Trying to educate, while the timer is ticking. Trying to teach, while the script has already been written. As the new curriculum infuses its way into most disadvantaged schools, quality teachers are leaving the area. Creativity turns to robotics. Where else did I see that America's Choice label? Oh, in the bread aisle at Waldbaums. Why take away the craft in education? How can this possibly help the students who are failing? It is quite difficult to find meaning in meaningless texts.

Know What?………..SIZE DOES MATTER!!

2006-04-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

In an age of student-centered learning, how is it possible that we stand in front of classes of 35 to 40 students? An individual student in these classrooms cannot even move to the center of the room through the mass of peers; let alone be the center of our lessons. While we can go through the motions of teaching in this environment, if actual learning is - as our motto states: Not for School; But for Life, then class sizes need to be cut. All other improvements we perfunctorily agree should happen, could happen.

Sometime around mid-October –
when we have memorized the 185 total names and faces left to our care, as long as they have not switched seats (for I do not know Nicholas Davis, but I know that Nicholas Davis is the kid in Second Period with curly brown hair that sits three seats in by the window sandwiched by Emily A. with the glasses and Emily D. who is on the basketball team)
- written assignments start to pour in…
flood in…
spate in…
suffuse any physical and mental space once used to work on creative and poignant assignments.

The next day will be the inevitable question: Will we get our papers back today?
Internal laughter, laughter, laughter
-“Do the math.”
“But this is English class..”
-“If I take 5 minutes per paper; at 185 students; that will be ….925 minutes. How many hours is that?..(silence – this is English class)........Ok, I’ll tell you. It is over 15 hours. So considering eating, sleeping, and breathing are necessities of life, I could not have them all done in that time.”
“Oh….. Tomorrow then?”

When the papers finally make their way back to them, Emily..uh... -let me check my list…oh right.... Emily Anderson will not remember what she had written.

The memorization is up – The learning and thinking is down
The total tuition collected is up – The love is down
The total attendance is up – The accountability is down
The veil of education is up - WE ARE DOWN

We need to use our number and girth to make it known that we would like to teach again. Not be crowd control or something for the masses to click on when they want a piece of encyclopedic information:

1. Class sizes need to be reduced to 25 students maximum

2.The administration should be concerned with filling minds first; filling seats second

3. Veteran and retired teachers claim they were able to handle 50 – 60; we must remind them that learning has left the memorization system, we no longer have corpal punishment, and the fear of God (and parents) is less effective than it once was.

The Manifesto's "againstness"

2006-04-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

From the reading "The Poetics of the Manifesto : Nowness and Newness," I conclude that it is easier to say what the manifesto does, than to define the manifesto. In this reading, I have counted twenty-five adjectives (seventeen on two pages) that are used to describe what the manifesto has become. These adjectives connote the extreme. They indicate that the manifesto is designed to manipulate, to convince and to convert. It can take either an institutional or an individual and independent stance, and it promotes a "we" against "them" attitude toward an issue.

The manifesto places emphasis on appeal, and on the vision of the producer, and his ability/power to persuade. This makes me somewhat uncomfortable with this genre, and so I question :

1. How much credence should one give to the manifesto?

2. Is it usually more self-serving than representative?

3. Is there a tension between principle and the manifesto?

Please let me hear your views.

Brief Manifesto: Standardized Testing is Testing Patience

2006-04-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Standardized testing is certainly effective at ONE thing: testing the patience of teachers and its "test subjects"--the students. What about teaching for an exchange of knowledge?? That's a novel idea! Sure there are some of us who do not teach with the test in our immediate conscious thoughts, but it is always looming. The students are aware of it too. Testing has made teaching and learning a robotic process--there is no REAL thinking. More teachers are becoming mechanical in their pedagogy and more students are becoming mechanical in their responses. Isn't this a danger to the future of our larger society?? The greater lesson being taught is that education is FAILING its students but that's okay as long as they are producing high test scores!!!

A Manifesto for Literary Studies

2006-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Sitting down and reading Garber's manifesto during spring break was definitely a much more difficult task than I could have expected. The introduction "Asking Literary Questions" had me asking, what did I just read? It was dense and a bit wordy. I couldn't really understand what Garber's point was. Then I moved onto the second and third sections on Human Nature and History in Literature. As an educator these sections were relatable and readable. I decided that I would focus mainly on the last section for my presentation this week. This section had me raise certain questions in my own teaching methods. In her manifesto, Garber argues that we can read literature without judging it's historical "mistakes." She states that these anachronisms in the text or film are sometimes done for affect and sometimes by accident. Garber cites many contemporary pieces that are used in the classroom today. She explains that it is not necessarily terribly important when an anachronism occurs in literature. She states that the message of the literature is what is important. Sometimes historical content should be adjusted for the audience or simply to make a point stronger within the text. What I wonder is how this can be addressed towards teachers? I'd like to pose some sub-questions for the class to think about or respond to on the blog: Can we teach Literature to our students without addressing the historical content? Are interdisciplinary curriculums helpful to our students or are they bringing about boredom from the repetition of material? Can literature teach history to students if it is somewhat fictional, and if so should we correct it or ignore it? Do our students need to know the history of the text and of the author in order to comprehend it's purpose?

2006-04-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

"An unreflected life is not worth living." - Socrates
"Far from being rendered powerless by the requirement that we perserve in the face of uncertainty, those of us who teach are actually very well positioned to assist our studenys in acquiring the skills necessary for persisting in the ongoing project of navigating life in a bureaucracy, by virtue of our years of experience making our way through this frequently capricious and indifferent system for distributing social privilege. And what we can teah our students is how to work within and against discursive constraints simultaneously--thereby helping them to experience the mediated access to authenticity that social action allows." The student - teacher relationship should bring to the table a variety of perspectives, experiences, knowledge and insights. As educators, we need to be respectful and supportive to each and every individual. A teacher's methods and strategies of teahing should promote students' confidence in active exercises and techniques that require students to engage in discussions to better teach them to look at different points of view and to better critical think. I strongly believe creative writing is empowering and necessary for learning. It allows for peer critiquing, translating, generating poems, writing essays and reports. The classroom is an example of an audience that is a powerful tool for an individual when sharing their work with the class a whole. Students are enthusiastic to learn when they are successful. Interaction with texts allows individuals to internalize and extrapolete their own meaning based on their unique experiencesm characteristics and perceptions. "Process should be turned into a verb." (Romano) Learning occurs while producin encouragement and feedback through a process. The recipe to becoming a successful writer is reading and exposing individuals toa variety of texts, giving them the fredom to explore and extrapolate meaning. Remembering enables a writer to make connections to reading texts and respond with innovative ways. Writing is a way individuals can express themselves evoking emotion and allowing space to eplore the pleasure of inventin and manipulating by using descriptive diction to entertain readers. It i a continual process which requires pre-writing, writing, proofreading, revising, and editing. As educators, we should allow our students to create a voice that wants to be heard through a variety of ways such as multi-genres, poems, journal entries, essays, and music. Providing students with a variety of ways they may express themselves evokes emotion and promotes learning.

blaming "the mindless bureaucrats"

2006-04-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

“In the world Ferri inhabits, the great chain of being has been transformed into the great chain of humiliation, and education has devolved into nothing more than compliance and constraint. In this dying world, all the teacher can do is transmit ever-bleaker reports from the front lines as the indomitable forces of the mindless bureaucrats overwhelm the meager defenses of those truly committed to “critical thinking”( Miller52).
-Richard Miller, Writing at the End of the World

“The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their reading to consider what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes” (Nafisi 94).
-Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

These two quotes perfectly capture the struggles that many English teachers face in states, where standardized tests have come to mean more, and therefore control the methods of our instruction. Often, teachers do not have time to make our students into better readers who can read and write critically with a thought provoking eye, because we have to spend months on teaching test taking skills. Half the time, we are reading to gain basic, useless information, only to write a dry, and meaningless five paragraph essay in the end. Sadly, students develop a natural hatred for writing in the early days of elementary school, where the five paragraph model has been drilled into their heads. Many were also negatively reinforced with writing for their unacceptable behaviors. It is therefore that much more difficult to encourage high school students the therapeutic power of writing and reading. Too often, students only think of school as just something to get over with, because they are told to. And it’s the mindless bearcats that corrupt the lives of our future forever.

2006-04-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

"This is not to imply that no "authentic" interactions can occur within the space of the classroom or, conversely, that all interations in that space are necessarily duplications, cynical, self-serving or self-protective." Miller 130-1

"In order for students to begin to imagine other ways of framing their experience of schooling and other ways of navigating the twisted paths bureacracies cut through the social sphere, students must first be given an opportunity to formulate more advanced understandings of social exercise of power." Miller 136

I chose these two quotes because I believe they fit well with my biography. Well, I guess, they really fit into my life. I agree with these two statements and I remember when I was 16 and in my English class. Mrs. Honig was my teacher--really a master teacher--and we had a creative project to write a short story about 'Bartleby the Scrivener'. I became immersed in the writing and the ideas that were pouring through my head. I wrote a short story about how Bartleby's father was the influence for his actions and my teacher loved it. I believe that by not assigning the traditional, bureacratic 5 paragraph essay, my teacher allowed me to be creative and have the opportunity to be creative. As a result, I fell in love with writing, developed a real love for it, and this really allowed me to become a better writer. I haven't stopped writing since, and I credit Mrs. Honig for allowing me to just write. This is something that the state and school doesn't allow students to do. Now, almost ten years later, I have a book awaiting release that challenges the very things that Miller discusses. I feel that Mrs. Honig, and all her quirky, great techniques, allowed me to break through the twisted paths of society and really gain an interest in English and writing.

"Institutional Autobiography for Me"

2006-04-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

"What is 'really useful knowledge'? How do we get students and their teachers to produce 'writing that matters'? Thus, I am not insisting ahead of time that the academy's claim to possess really useful knowledge be ridiculed any more than I am arguing that academic writing be seen as the empty, inevitable result of a process where the self is evacuated of its content" (Miller 42). -From Richard E. Miller's Writing At The End of the World- This quote helps the shape of my institutional autobiography because of what is said in it and how it relates to me. I am a teacher of English and I wonder every day what is really useful knowledge for my students. There is so much for them to absorb, but the question is, what is most important for them to know and learn in my class? For now, the best I answer I can give to that question is to say that I want my students to learn how to read and write at a level of at least component literacy. Being able to read and write gives you a start to having "really useful knowledge." As far as getting students to produce writing that matters I feel it is a two fold process. Yes, first you have to teach them the basics of writing at my level of teaching (7th and 8th grade), which include paragraphing, sentence structure, transition words, and the five paragraph essay. However, you secondly need to make writing autobiographical at times for them too. Let them write about personal experiences and do some creative writing which can make writing fun for them. Then, a student no matter what their age is will produce more "writing that matters." The academic part and the self need to be both incorporated into writing to make the process matter. Here is my second quote and I am sorry that it does not separate from the first as I am having difficulties with the site! "To pass an examination I copied down exactly what my teachers told me. It would require many more years of schooling (an inevitable miseducation) in which I came to trust the silence of reading and the habit of abstracting from immediate experience- moving away from a life of closeness and immediacy I remembered with my parents, growing older- before I turned unafraid to desire the past, and thereby achieved what had eluded me for so long- the end of education" (Rodriguez 78)." This quote really hit home for me as I can rememeber in school doing the same thing. I copied down all the notes that the instructor said we had to know about for the exam without learning or knowing about all that I was jotting down. I used the notes to pass a test and soon after forgot about this information. This happens to my students as well as if you give them too much information to absorb from a blackboard or lecture, they usually write it down without ever getting the true meaning of what they are copying. Therefore, for many kids reading on their own can be a more effective way to truly achieve learning. Reading independently allows the student to read a book at their own pace and in their own style. Often they can relate to a character or event in the book and this helps them comprehend what is happening in the book and allows them to "learn" and be educated. Personally, relating to the end of the quote, I am ready for the end of my education in the way of copying notes or listening to a boring lecture just so I can pass an examination. I want to continue my education in courses like this and through reading and writing creatively. I hope I can do the same for my students as I try as much as possible to stay away from long lectures and strenuous notes instead allowing them to read independently, write creatively, and work on grop projects that help them "learn" in a way that wants to make them continue their education.

Academia and Its (My) Discontents

2006-04-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

Richard Miller discusses his students’ hostility towards Rodriguez’s rejection of his parents and, by extension, his ancestral culture. Miller suggests that his students rail against Rodriguez because they believe school should provide “know-how,” and should not bleed into their private lives and alter it. However, their anger towards Rodriguez, exemplified by words like “punk,” reveal a certain amount of defensiveness and a fear that after four years of academic training, they too will feel the same distancing. Miller writes, “And, at the same time, such responses voice a fear that schools do not, in fact, function in this isolated way, but rather produce (or reinforce) an estrangement from one’s past, an uncertainty about one’s place in the world, a resignation that what one must give up during the educational process can never be recovered” (135). As a student, one feels pressure from all sides. New ideas and new views learned in the classroom often make us confront or question received notions and traditions from our families or our cultural backgrounds.

I think these moments can be both frightening and thrilling. It is not mostly the texts we encounter that are responsible for the transformations we undergo but the institutional setting that is a sort of laboratory where a metamorphosis occurs. Within the classroom, we are trained to ask questions, respond in a certain way, make associations and distinctions, and parcel experience in a way that cannot easily be shared outside the institution. For instance, as I have moved through the institutions of the academy, I find that my present-tense conversations with my family are one-sided: they talk to me about their current events but I have trouble talking to them about mine. This shift is one that I first noticed as an undergraduate. I was sitting in the back of my parents’ car one day and I wanted to talk to them about the assassination of John Hamilton by Aaron Burr. I asked my parents, “Do you know who Aaron Burr was?” as a way to initiate the conversation. To be honest, I asked “Saben quien es Aaron Burr?” My father, without looking at me in the rear view mirror, turned to my mother and said, “Esta nena se cree que somos analfabetos.” (“This girl thinks we’re illiterate.”) For a split second, I found myself as the outsider and my father trying to close ranks with my mother against a perceived superiority complex on my part. From my perspective, I was engaging my immigrant parents in a bit of American history that, though commonly known to many, I had only recently discovered. In other words, I was trying to involve my parents in my life. However, this and future incidents taught me that I had to tread lightly when talking to my family about what I was doing at school.

What compounds the anxiety of alienation that many students feel is also the old trope that a humanities education, or that the “enlightenment” that one should receive, entails a process of seamless and joyous discovery. Harold Bloom advises the young student full of intellectual curiosity to “find what comes near to you that can be put to the use of weighing and considering, and that addresses you as though you share the one nature, free of time’s tyranny. Pragmatically, that means, first find Shakespeare, and let him find you” (Bloom 22). For many students, finding Shakespeare only occurs through the mediation of devoted teachers and having Shakespeare find these students is not a complete blessing. Hence, Miller’s students express a very real anxiety about the encounters that await them in the back seats of their own parents’ cars.

Institutional Autobiography

2006-04-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Institutional Autobiography
"If the rhetoric deployed to bolster the study of the Great Books musters visions of civic responsibility in a democracy and the transcendent values of education, the rhetoric Keyes draws on offers a relentless sentimental counter-narrative, one where the professionals, the technocrats, and the teachers are all to be viewed with suspicion: they are not the agents of change that they seem to be, but rather the mere instruments of corruption, denying the intrinsic value of human life as they seek to extend their puny careers" (Miller 165).

""Whatever else, we at least saw to it that all of you in our care, you grew up in wonderful surroundings. And we saw to it too, after you left us, you were kept away from the worst of those horrors. We were able to do that much for you at least. But this dream of yours, this dream of being able to defer. Such a thing would always have been beyond us to grant, even at the height of our influence....I hope you can appreciate how much we were able to secure for you. Look at you both now! You've had good lives, you're educated and cultured" (Ishiguro 261).

Based on these to quotes, some questions that come to mind are: What does it mean to be educated? What is the role of education in shaping our lives? How much of our own education should we be responsible for, and how much should we rely on institutions to provide us with what we consider a "solid education? Miss Emily claims that the students are educated, yet that are unable to make decisions for themselves that affect their own lives. While great books are considered important instruments for change, they do not always illicit positive change.

insitutional AUTObiography

2006-04-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

"Most great works of the imagination were meant to make you feel like a stranger in your own home. The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their readings to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little unesasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes" (Nafisi 94).

"In order for students to begin to imagine other ways of framing their expeience of schooling and other ways of navigating the twisted paths bureacracies cut through the social sphere, students must first be given an opportunity to formualte more nuanced understandings of the social exercise of power. And for this to happen, students must be provided with genuine opportunities to discover the vitrues of discursive versatility, by which I mean opportunites to acquire the skills neccessary to speak, read, and write persuasivley cross a wide range of social contexts" (Miller 136).

I believe Nafisi's struggle with her students in Reading Lolita in Tehran is similar to what Miller examines throughout Writing at the End of the World. Although Nafisi's students lived under an extremely conservative regime, Miller similarly describes the stifling ethos exemplified in American bureaucratic education. Both Nafisi and Miller discuss and attempt to "open the eyes" of students in order to conjure personal responses.

I am a prime example of what so many of Miller's students experience throughout their education; "doing what I'm told" and giving the "right" answers. My ignorance began during my elementary years and gradually progressed into high school. Until I was about seventeen I believed I had received an "above par" education that was a part of a liberal "think outside the box" institution. Ah, to be young and naive! I began to formulate my own opinions of education as a senior, but had little guidance on how to question these ideas further or how to apply them. If it weren't for Professor Steve G. my sophmore year at J.M.U., I would still be searching for anwers to my education like the F.B.I's quest for Hoffa's remains.

Finally, an educator who told the TRUTH!: an American Literature Professor who was , at the time, on trial for his unorthodox lectures and challenging "left-wing" politics. Like Nafisi, Steve G. allowed me to become an "Alice", and question the world I lived in. He advocated academic freedom and revolutionized my thought by challenging my old idealogies. He bashed Columbus, praised Thoreau's tenacity, boisterously recited Emerson, and told the tender tale of Whitman's unrequited love for a Civil War soldier. He made the class reconsider Poe's "Annabel Lee", and Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" from different lenses/eyes. Who knew Poe was into writing about necrophilism? Professor Steve G. also discussed the "underbelly of America" in a specific lecture titled "the American Junkie". This lecture eerily connects to the despondent souls within Miller's novel; Eric, Dylan, and McCandless a.k. a "Alex Supertramp". Steve G. explained that the drug users quest for escapism was the yearning to live outside the social realm in a sort of enlightened, nirvana state. The act of using drugs (in McCandless's case an immersion in literature) is in itself defying/rebelling against capitalistic society. On the other hand, the user becomes addicted, and ultimately becomes a slave to capitalism (black market has supply, junkie has demands). The junkie ultimately depends on the drug that once liberated him from a confining world (as seen in McCandless' consumption and ultimate demise with literature). There seems to be a dangerous and fine line between what we know and "seek to discover". In these rare cases the quest for enlightenment can be treacherous because the consumption becomes lethal.

My questions......

Would I have been able to "grasp" this information as a young student?
Can student's handle it today? If so, How and What do we tell them?
How do educators determine which student's are allowed to become "enlightened"?
How can we as teachers assist student discovery while following strict school district policies?

Institutional Autobiography

2006-04-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

“...in order for students to begin to imagine other ways of framing their experience of schooling and other ways of navigating the twisted paths bureaucracies cut through the social sphere, students must first be given an opportunity to formulate more nuanced understandings of the social exercise of power. And for this to happen, students must be provided with genuine opportunities to discover the virtues of discursive versatility, by which I mean opportunities to acquire the skills necessary to speak, read, and write persuasively across a wide range of contexts” (Miller136).
-Richard Miller, Writing At The End Of The World

“Because of the emphasis place on testing…many teachers focus on narrow and basic skills. Literacy, as defined and codified in high-stakes tests that are being implemented in the United States, is often interpreted as basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics by schoolteachers and administrators. A conception of literacy that defines it only as basic skills ignores the knowledge and skills required to be effective citizens in national and global contexts…literate students should be reflective, moral, and active citizens”(Banks24).
–James Banks, Cultural Diversity and Education

These two quotes raise a big question about our roles as educators and our objectives in educating students. It is unfortunate that, in many cases, schools place a large emphasis on standardized exams. Many times, the goal of the curriculum and our instruction is to teach students the basic skills needed to pass these exams. In preparation for these exams, students are taught to produce superficial responses that do not require critical thought. Creativity is often discouraged and students do not learn how to challenge the conventions of society and become active participants. With this being the case, one must ask - what is the purpose of educating our students? Do we want them to meet the demands of the exam/state/standard and fall short in other areas? This type of instruction does not teach the skills “necessary to speak, read, and write persuasively across a wide range of contexts.” So shouldn’t we, as teachers, be preparing our students to become thoughtful, active, and reflective citizens in our society?

What is reading, writing and talking good for in today's society?

2006-04-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

What is reading, writing and talking good for in today’s modern society? Is it education, culture, prestige we seek, or simple self-edification – learning for learning’s sake? We live in a world of information, in a world of technology, and in a world of bureaucrats suppressing our individuality and creativity resulting in a “sense of powerlessness on the part of the average person.” (Miller 62 quoting Kaczynski). Yet, the American film industry, television, politicians, even the new genre of graphic novels incorporate the themes, ideas and stories from classical and canon literature. They fascinate our young people and our society in general. Miller refers to Amis’s Richard Tull and his work as being full of culture – “…work that is replete with veiled literary references…” (Miller 7) As teachers, we must instill the desire to learn and an appreciation of literature – irrespective of the genre, irrespective of the fact that is canon or not – in our students. If we do not, we commit the sin of denigrating the artist to the lowest level of society, namely the criminal and of “…assaulting the pieties…of reading and writing by showing artists to be indistinguishable from criminals.” (Miller 7)
Jon Krakauer’s character Chris McCandless, in the novel, Into the Wild “…stands as evidence that there continue to be real readers who invest the activities of reading and writing with great significance…a reader who savors the words that others have produced, who seeks guidance from the printed page, who dreams of inhabiting the landscapes that his or her most-admired authors describe in such loving detail.” (Miller 11)
In his autobiography, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez states very simply, “It is education that has altered my live. Carried me far.” (Rodriguez 4) When he finally feels confident enough in his ability to speak English, Rodriguez raises his hand and volunteers to answer a question. He states, “That day, I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only days earlier. The belief, the calming assurance that I belonged in public, had at last taken hold.” (Rodriguez 21) This is how we must get our students to feel – everyday, about education, about school, and about literature.

Unnatural Reading

2006-04-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to repond to what Cynthia said about immersing herself into literature. I have the same experience feeling that I am inside the book when I am reading. This is such a hard thing to teach to our students. So often I wish that they could feel at home in my classroom. This is such a difficult task. I always try to incorporate the luxuries of home such as plants good lighting, food and drinks. These basic things make my classroom home-like but it is a poor substitution. I feel like reading in a stiff chair in a classroom with too many other children is unnatural. I wish my students could feel the same emotions as I do, yet I feel like I am incapable of giving them the correct environment. Is this possible?

What "should" reading and writing do for us?

2006-04-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

“For nearly two years, almost every Thursday morning, rain or shine, they came to my house, and almost every time, I could not get over the shock of seeing them shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color. When my students came into that room they took off more than their scarves and robes. Gradually, each one gained an outline and a shape, becoming her own inimitable self. Our world in that living room with it’s window framing my beloved Elburz Mountains became our sanctuary, our self-contained universe, mocking the reality of black-scarved, timid faces in the city that sprawled below”(Nafisi, 5-6).

“For some, it will hardly come as a surprise to learn that reading and writing have no magically transformative powers. But for those of us who have been raised into the teaching and publishing profession, it can be quite a shock to confront the possibility that reading and writing and talking exercise almost none of the powers we regularly attribute to them in our favorite stories. The dark night of the soul for literacy workers comes with the realization that training students to read, write, and talk in more critical and self-reflective ways can-not protect them from the violent changes our culture is undergoing”(Miller, 5).

“If there is to be lasting hope for the future of higher education, that hope can only be generated by confronting our desolate world and its urgent, threatening realities. The only way out is through”(Miller, 27).

I have been thinking about the above quote from Nafisi’s novel since we discussed this novel in class. I keep thinking about how the women met in this room that was considered a place they could “live”. Often times I feel like I can take risks and adventures without consequence if I take them as a character in a novel, meaning I see myself as a character in a novel as I am reading that novel. When I was younger, I used to think of my life as a novel that someone was reading about. I used to think that it was daylight outside because the reader was reading my story and then when night came, the reader closed my book. I feel that this is similar to what Nafisi describes about how the girls live in this class and how Miller explains that we use reading and writing to magically transform our lives or parts of it.

In a way their scarves kept them from living because if Nafisi describes the women as to “burst into color”, it suggests they are coming to life which could insinuate that they were dead or lacking life outside of this room. And to connect this to Miller, this living room that Nafisi describes is similar to how people feel about reading and writing having “magically transformative powers”.
The reason that the women love to go to the class is because they can read and learn and experience things that are outside their reality of life. Reading is magic for them and in a sense that living room transforms them magically into someone they wish to be.
I think that Nafisi can further be connected to Miller because she makes reference to the reality of the outside world. She describes them in a negative way and mentions that her “girls” mock them. But as Miller argues on page twenty-seven is that the only way we can fight for higher education would be to confront those realities. Many people still believe that educating students to read and write will solve problems in the world or will protect the children. However and I agree with Miller, this is not true. People tend to attach themselves to the solution that is easiest for them on the assumption it worked in the past.

Thoughts on an Institutional Autobiography

2006-04-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

“The problem is not that students are unaware of the conflicts between these competing spheres [the academic versus the domestic], but that, within the space of the classroom, their very sensitivity to the differing contexts manifests itself, more often than not, either as silence or as open assent to the teacher’s position. And, as every teacher who has ever heard the exasperated plea, ‘just tell me what you want and I’ll do it,’ knows, when the students set out to conform to what they believe are the teacher’s expectations, more often than not they simultaneously convey the impression that what a teacher finds most pleasing is the fully compliant, obedient, perhaps even unthinking student” (Miller, 137).

“From grammar school to graduate school I could always name my reader. I wrote for my teacher....I wrote down what I heard teachers say. I wrote down things from my books. I wrote down all I knew when I was examined at the end of the school year” (Rodriguez, 196-197).

Coming to graduate school later (in my mid thirties) has been a great experience for me. I approach being a student in a very different manner now. I am more likely to speak and write that which truly reflects who I am and what I think. But much of my earlier academic career (definitely in high school, but even as an undergraduate) was simply me trying to give them what they wanted, and I wonder if many young students still experience that, and how I will handle it if and when I encounter them when I teach. What kind of students will come before me in my classes? What did I eventually learn that made me a better student and how can I help them to learn that even earlier than I did? And why did it take so long for me to attempt to find my own voice, and to stop trying to just regurgitate what I thought the teachers wanted to hear? Was this the result of my own inner workings, or the school systems I passed through, or a little of both?

Is there no "I" in Democracy? - Institutional Autobiography Assignment

2006-04-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

As an undergraduate majoring in English ("with a specialization in Literature and Rhetoric"), I was very much shaped by the types of text we read as part of the literature portion of my major, as well as the kind of writing we had to do as part of the rhetoric portion. The literature was mostly written by marginalized, multicultural, and feminist authors, all of whom wrote texts which were multilayered and very much non-linear. When I became a teacher, I was introduced to the genre of memoir, and realized that this was the writing that spoke to me the most, mainly because of the first person, stream of conscious style of writing.
Miller mentions various figures in the media, many infamous, who have utilized democracy to pontificate their oftentimes counterproductive "manifestos" to the masses. As an educator, I always find it crucial to teach memoir and to give my students a voice, the "I" that always speaks to me when I am in the position of the reader. But, I wonder, if doing so enables some of the dangerous voices like the ones we encounter in Miller’s book. With the following quotes in mind, I wonder if my desire to teach memoir and the personal narrative could on day combine with my desire for a democratic classroom to produce possibly incendiary commentaries from my students?

"A good novel is one that shows the complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all these characters to have a voice; in this way a novel is called democratic - not that it advocates democracy but that by nature it is so. Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby like so many other great novels - the biggest sin is to be blind to others’ problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence." (Nafisi)

"Reading, writing, talking, meditating, speculating, arguing: these are the only resources available to those of us who teach the humanities and they are, obviously, resources that can be bent to serve any purpose. Harris and Klebold, in fact, wrote and produced for all different sorts of media; they read a range of material that supported their beliefs..." (Miller)

Institutional Biography

2006-04-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

"In this genre, it's always the teacher against some faceless system--be it bureaucrats demanding accountability, consumer culture generating mindless customers, or even the deeply embedded indifference if the students themselves--and it's always the teacher's job to strike out against these crushingly oppressive systems, to unmask the forces of corruption, and to create a better, smarter world" (Miller 52) Writing at the End of the World

"How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days? There was no going back. However uncomfortable people were about your existence, their overwhelming concern was that their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends, did not die from cancer, motor neurone disease, heart disease. So for a long time you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think about you. And if they did, they tried to convince themselves you weren't really like us. That you were less than human, so it didn't matter" (Ishiguro 263) Never Let Me Go

It took me a while before I was able to select quotes that could capture a fraction of my institutional experiences and an even longer time to figure out how I could relate those same quotes to my personal experiences, as a thinker, a student, and a teacher. However, as I was typing the quotes on the screen, I started to make several connections between the two quotes. With that said, I think the quote I selected from Miller's work touches upon the common experiences teachers go through. Teachers, myself included, are constantly confronted with decisions, standards, jobs to do, alongside the expectations of others. I think that teachers are often asked to accomplish a lot when the students are in front of them each day and few times is this recognized. I once read a "Dear Abby" column that explored the array of roles that teachers must play for their students. The article explained that teachers are expected to advance in their own education, while they check homework and for signs of abuse, make copies, keep an organized room, note if a student is depressed, take attendance, plan lessons that meet each and every student's need, read memos, take professional development courses, attend union meetings, among countless other things. This is not to say that teachers should not do these things for the students, but rather, I think that we need to take a step back and acknowledge that these are the things that define teachers, and in turn, myself. I decided to dedicate my life to guide, respect, teach, and care for each and every student that comes into my classroom and I have been doing so and plan to continue, regardless of what else is thrown in my path.

This brings me to the quote I selected from Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Although at this point in time, I do not teach any cloned students, the issue of how we as a society regard others is evident. Many times, society treats others in horrible and unacceptable ways because they are deemed different. I think that as a teacher, I have seen this firsthand in the way in which students often regard each other, the teachers, and even their parents. I think that it is our job and duty as educators to make note of these times, confront them, teach tolerance and move towards acceptance. This is obviously not an easy task. However, with all the advances in science, we as a society may move in the direction of using clones as medicine and cures. How then, will we treat these types of people? Are they similar to the students who don't achieve high marks? Do we, or will we, as teachers and a society, throw these students out because they cannot achieve what we define as appropriate and/or human?

These are some thoughts that I was throwing around as I read these two works. Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?

Insitutional Autobiography--(Teacher)

2006-04-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

--"This is not to imply that no 'authentic' interactions can occur within the space of the classroom or, conversely, that all interactions in that space are necessarily duplicitous, cynical, self-serving, or self-protective" (Miller, 130-31). Writing at the End of the World

--"Stressing memorization, my teachers implied that education is largely a matter of acquiring knowledge already discovered. And they were right. For contrary to more progressive notions of learning, much that is learned in a classroom must be the already known; and much that is already known must be learned before a student can achieve truly independent thought" (Rodriguez, 94). Hunger of Memory

As I began to reflect on my own institutional autobiography, I found two quotes that focus on my role as teacher, specifically the beliefs and values I have developed as an educator. These two quotes contrast each other greatly with regard to certain stances that are taken on education. Miller's quote supports my way of thinking as a newer educator with different philosophies of teaching than described in the Rodriguez quote. Like Miller, I believe that real interactions between teachers and students, as well as between students themselves can and do occur. They are sometimes limited by the standards teachers must meet in the classroom. The pressures teachers face are certainly a major obstacle, particularly regarding standardized testing. However, it is the role and responsibility of the educator to find or create those moments in the school day where a real exchange can occur. Everyday I see the new insights that students can offer or the angle they see something from when reading a particular lierary work. It is all about the teacher's allowance of such thought in the classroom.

Rodriquez's quote stresses the old school of thought in which students are fed information as though they are empty vessels, devoid of any ability to think on their own. Where does self-discovery and basic inquisitveness fit into this pedagogy?? Active learning must be present in the classroom in which knowledge is shared, not deposited into the minds of passive beings. I believe independent thought occurs well before teachers offer their knowledge to students. I know before I started going to school my parents were the first teachers who helped foster my independent thinking. The "banking method" is the perfect way to turn many students away from the educational institution. In all honesty, if this was the only pedagogical strategy for teacher's to use in the classroom, I would turn away from education as a profession.

Institutional Autobiography

2006-04-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. I'm posting a model for the blog assignment I asked you to do for this week. The idea is to choose and share a couple of quotations (one from Miller's book and one from another source) that inspire your own initial explorations of instituional autobiography.

Remember, the goal is to find quotations that help you think through the ways that your institutional affiliations have shaped your development as a thinker, student, writer, and teacher. That shaping might take a variety of forms; maybe the institution inspired you, or provoked you, or circumscribed you, enraged or thrilled you. Inevitably, your experience will have been multi-layered. Take this as an opportunity to start sifting through the layers.

With that in mind, use my quotations and my reflection on them as a model, but feel free to explore, to do this your own way. (By the way, I cheated; I'm using three quotations; I couldn't resist using two from Ishiguro. Hopefully, it will be clear how the three work in dialogue with each other.)

. . . I conceive of the work in the classroom as an ongoing project in which I am learning how to hear what my students are saying. Learning to do this helps me, in turn, to find a way to speak that they can hear. It also makes it possible for my students to learn how to hear what I, as a representative of the academy, am saying and how to speak, read and write in ways that I can hear. This is the only approach I know for making the classroom a possible resource for hope and it is the only mechanism I've found for transforming recitations and revelations of personal experience into moments for reflection and revision about the complex, conflicted, and contradictory ways that culture makes its presence known in the day-to-day workings of one's life. --Richard Miller, Writing at the End of the World (p. 48)

Tommy thought it possible the guardians had, throughout all our years at Hailsham, timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us, so that we were always just too young to understand properly the latest piece of information. But of course we’d take it in at some level, so that before long all this stuff was there in our heads without us ever having examined it properly. --Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (p. 82)

"What I think," said Tommy slowly, "is this. Suppose it's true, what the veterans are saying. Suppose some special arrangement been made for Hailsham students. Suppose two people say they're truly in love, and they want extra time to be together. Then you see, Kath, there has to be a way to judge if they're really telling the truth. That they aren't just saying they're in love, just to defer their donations. You see how difficult it could be to decide? Or a couple might really believe they're in love, but it's just a sex thing. Or just a crush. You see what I mean, Kath? It'll be really hard to judge, and it's probably impossible to get it right every time. But the point is, whoever decides, Madame or whoever it is, they need something to go on." --Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (p. 175)

********************************************

I immediately identified with Richard Miller's impulse to figure out how to listen to his students and to help them find ways to make themselves heard in an academic setting. I see my teaching in similar terms. That's partly what makes Tommy's first theory so fascinating to me: he's describing a situation in which the guardians at Hailsham are relying on their students' inability to listen to what they're saying. His second theory shows that they were right. Tommy's desperate, imaginative theory about Madame's gallery is dead wrong. But it's imaginative and even insightful nonetheless.

What does all this have to do with my institutional autobiography? I identify really strongly with Tommy. As a kid in a family in which nobody had ever gone to college or even really knew anybody who had, I was obsessed with learning as a kid. I was always reaching toward conversations that were just beyond my ability to comprehend. This was always stimulating, but also alienating. I never felt like I belonged in the conversations. College for me became a gradual process of finding a way to enter the conversation, at least as a listener; teaching and writing have become a means of finding a voice in the conversation and, these days, I hope, shaping it.

But Tommy's alienation interests me because it makes me realize that my own alienation was often productive, because it made it possible for me to think inventively. It has helped me respond to academic conversations without getting too hemmed in by their often rigid constraints and boundaries. At least I hope this is the case! If I were to write an institutional autobiography, I might focus on this kind of alienation--specifically how I might respond to it productively when I see it in my students and how I might cultivate a little of it in myself now that I do feel pretty confident within the conversations that shape academic culture.

What I'm really saying is that in some ways I'd rather be imaginatively and insightfully wrong, like Tommy, than be blunted by the hard cold reality of my rightness, as Madame and Miss Emily seem to be. But more than that, if the humanities are about imagining possibilities for new ways of thinking and living, Tommy's imaginative alienation seems like a pretty productive and inspiring model.

Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

2006-03-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

I see that Elizabeth has written a long and I'm sure thoughtful post, and I started to read it but after a sentence or two decided I should post my own thoughts first, and then read hers afterward. I look forward to reading it.

This novel touched me deeply, and I can't stop thinking about it or telling people about it. My favorite books are those about people, especially those I feel I could (or do) know. Characters in a novel often teach me something about myself or the world, or perhaps just give voice to something that I couldn't previously articulate.

Despite the fantastical plot line constructed by Ishiguro, I felt this novel was in some ways "just" a beautifully simple story about three friends growing up together, sharing triumphs and defeats and typical adolescent drama as they fought to do what so many of us do: to find a place in the world, in society---in this case, of course, in a society that had already determined their destiny for them. The horror of this practice of cloning for the purpose of harvesting organs is not to be minimized, but I felt that Ishiguro crafted the idea as a way to deliver his story, without it becoming the main focus or point. The clever device actually manages to accomplish two things that seem diametrically opposed: it offers a concept that is impressively original (although maybe not quite so shocking, farfetched, or futuristic-sounding as it once might have been, given what goes on in the world today), but at the same time is in some ways hauntingly familiar. And by that I mean that whenever there exists in society a sub-group that is ostracized or segregated or otherwise excluded from the main group, for whatever reason, we can look into our own histories (national, personal, etc.) and find similiar examples.

By having Kathy's current role as a carer as frame to the flashbacks of her time at Hailsham, the reader is initially completely unaware of the incredible revelation that is to come. Her role as a carer is not fully explained at first, and sounds similar to that of a hospice worker. Her accounts of Hailsham make it sound like a typical boarding school, and it is only with early hints from guardians who worry about the students not being taught enough, as Tommy says, "about us. What's going to happen to us one day. Donations and all that" (29) that we start to get clues. These mysterious references are sprinkled among depictions of seemingly normal everyday life at the school: students taking classes, playing together, creating friendships, sharing experiences. It is this normalcy, this human angle that any reader can relate to, even after the frightful truth is discovered, that makes the novel so poignant. Death is inevitable for all of us, even though it's going to come earlier for these students, and Ishiguro seems to say that what we do with the time we have when we're here, how we live and love and learn, is what counts.

The school strikes me as a cocoon, protecting these students, sheltering them from the outside world at the same time it essentially bars them from it, giving them a safe environment among those like themselves. The guardians and educators have created a place that encourages learning and creativity, and that readily shares with the students honest and beautiful life lessons (such as Miss Emily's teachings about sex, which, in addition to containing extremely frank explanations of the mechanics of it, fosters the notion of love, and of a wonderful physical intimacy shared between two people in love).

What then, of the meeting Kathy and Tommy have years later with Madame and Miss Emily? What can we say about Madame's comment: "Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?" (254) and of Miss Emily's: "Hailsham was considered a shining beacon, an example of how we might move to a more humane and better way of doing things" (258), and "Whatever else, we at least saw to it that all of you in our care, you grew up in wonderful surroundings" (261). Which statement more accurately reflects your feelings about Hailsham? Were these students raised in a bubble, a safe haven far from the harsh realities of their futures (though they knew of it, it seemed something they did not discuss often, and was in fact a subject they avoided in front of the guardians because they didn't want to make their guardians uncomfortable!), granted humanity from nurturing caretakers who felt they should not be denied a life, only to have it stripped from them in hospitals years later? Is it true that their lives were worth more, were more meaningful, because of what they had while they were here, despite the inevitable carer and donor years that would follow?

Here's a big question I have: Why do the students not rebel against their lot in life? Even Ruth, the strong and bold one, who regrets that she will never be able to work in what she envisions as a dream job in an office, does not really question why that dream is not an option to her, does not question why she is doomed to give her life at a young age. Why do they just accept that this is what they were created for, why do they not demand that they are worthy of living a full and free life, as the "normals" do? And if education is so important, if the Hailsham staff is so intent on making their lives meaningful while they're able to enjoy it, on cultivating knowledge and creativity, why has their education not led them to think critically of their situation and to maybe then challenge it?

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

2006-03-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

"Told and Not Told"

I found Ishiguro's novel thought-provoking, disturbing, fascinating, and heartwrenching. This novel touches upon serious moral issues through a deceptive writing style. Intially, when I began reading Ishiguro's work, I found the writing style to be confusing. It seemed that the narrator, Kathy, was not clear to the reader on her time frame, offering a flashback style to her voice that was at first difficult to follow. As I got further into the story, I realized that on the surface, it was Kathy's story of her time at an English Boarding School called Hailsham, and what happened while at Hailsham and after. Kathy tells the story when she is 31 years old, reflecting back to her youth at Hailsham with her friends, specifically Tommy and Ruth, and life after Hailsham at the Cottages, and then her life as a "carer". At first, I thought this story was about friendship and love, but then I realized that there was a serious undercurrent running throughout the novel, and that the writing style itself was actually a sort of metaphor for what was really going on for Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, and the other students. This "secondary" story is vaguely referred to in Part I, connected in Part II, and made clear in Part III. Just as Kathy was given "hints" throughout her childhood at Hailsham on what was to be for her in life, the reader is also given these hints; not only through the literal placing of these hints throughout the work, but also through the writing style. Just as Kathy's life begins to make sense for her, so does the narration, and the story, become clear for the reader. As Kathy experiences being "told and not told" at Hailsham, so does the reader. I came to discover that what is alluded to at Hailsham is really part of the central story in Never Let Me Go. In Part I, I thought I was just learning about life for Kathy as a typical English Boarding School student, but then I started to realize the evasive nature of life at Hailsham. While Part I appears to be the basis for this story of friendship, there is also an eerie, strange tone that is developed, especially through the use of characters like Madame, Miss Lucy, Miss Emily, and through the handling of sex, art, and Kathy's dancing to "Never Let Me Go".
Part II is life immediately after Hailsham, at the Cottages, and here the sense of sex being the furthest thing from making love is developed. Although the students learn about sex at Hailsham, it is not exactly like the way students learn about sex today, both in-school and out. It is almost robotic the way that Kathy and the other students approach sex, and while the guardians are bothered by it, the students are not. It becomes clear that Kathy, Tommy, Ruth and the other students at Hailsham have been created for a specific reason, and that the other students at the Cottages have been created for the same reason; as future donors of vital organs. It is in Part II that I began to be horrified for Kathy and the student's situation, yet Kathy and the other students were not horrified. I also began feeling sympathy and heartbreak for Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy as they search for a biological connection to Ruth's life, and the simple dreams they dream of, but can never achieve, because of who they are. I wanted the characters "revealing" of their souls to mean something; not just for me, but for them as well.
Part III is Kathy's life after the Cottages, and here is where the story comes together and connects. Interesting, Kathy's voice is the easiest to follow in this section. Part III really disturbed me as I realized how Kathy and the other students have been raised/viewed as just "things" with an eventual purpose, not people with souls. What disturbed me so much was that Miss Emily and Madame thought so highly of themselves for making a better life for their students through Hailsham; providing them with an education and some sense of a life(their point of view), but yet they knew they were raising these students/clones for life as a donor, a life which ultimately only leads to death. Miss Emily and Madame did nothing to stop the ultimate fate of these students, but what disturbed me more was that Kathy and Tommy are so accepting of this fate and that they were raised for this fate. You could argue that they have been aware of their fate their entire life, so this is not disturbing to them since this is their purpose in life. Yet the clones have experienced other human emotions, so why not now? Miss Emily and Madame are so vile, they encouraged the students to reveal their souls, but they do not acknowledge/recognize that they have souls, and this is what makes them human. When I ended this work, I couldnt help but question how we define life in our society. Here are some questions for you to consider:

1- Can Science/Medicine go to far? Is it acceptable to sacrifice a human life if many lives can be saved as a result?

2--What does it mean to be a "human"? Why did Kathy and the other students receive the education that they did at Hailsham? Were they human?

3- Would you feel comfortable teaching this novel in your current teaching situation? What are some dangers in teaching this at your school? How would you "sell" this novel to the Administration of your school?

4- Did the writing style of this novel work for you? Why or why not?

5--What do you think Ishiguro's purpose was in writing this work? What was being "told and not told"? How has history "told and not told"? Why were Kathy and the other students "told and not told"? Why was Kathy's voice telling and not telling? Did you experience any of the emotions that I did?

The Way We Think

2006-03-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

In The Way We Think Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner argue that our mind is more complex than a computer. Many scientists have tried to make the resemblance between our brain and a computer by looking at functions such as memory, learning, symbolic thought, and language acquisition. The theory of conceptual blending, according to the authors, makes humans more complex. This happens through blends of metaphors and bodily experiences. The key to the invention of meaning are the three I's: Identity, Integration, and Imagination, all of which occur unconsciously, without awareness. Our mind operates using these three operations, and they are the subjects of The Way We Think. Also, according to the authors, they are “the key to both everyday meaning and exceptional human creativity.”

F&T present a simple example of a cup of coffee to prove the complexity of our mind and what they call “perceptual categorization.” When one of us looks at a cup of coffee, we simply perceive it as such. Neuroscience however, proves to the scientists that there are many more aspects that allow us to perceive it in such a simple manner. Our brain evaluates features such as “the color of the cup, the shape of the opening, the topology of the handle, the smell of the coffee, the texture of the surface of the cup, the dividing line between the coffee and the cup, the taste of the coffee, the heavy feel of the cup in the hand, the reaching for the cup, and so on…” There are parts of the brain, which receive each sensory detail separately and then allow us to perceive and understand simple objects such a cup of coffee in a split, single moment. It’s a fascinating phenomenon many of often don’t notice and appreciate.

Furthermore, the authors discuss the development of the study of analogy. They state that people take for granted the ability to “perceive everyday analogies, like the ability to perceive everyday identities.” To make matters easier for the readers to understand the authors give an example of what a simple analogy is. We often understand the room that we are in, and when we try to compare it with other room we have been in, we are then using an everyday analogy. Fauconnier and Turner further discussed the evolution of analogy and brought me, as a teacher, to a moment of truth and wonder. This was when they discussed the time when analogy had lost its status as a scientific topic and was even ridiculed. It was until about 1970s, when it regained its respect, and terms like mental images, narrative thinking, affect and metaphor came to live again. Researches explored terms such as mental images, visual perception and visual imagination and their relationships.

When I read this, I thought about my students and how I think that they have such a difficulty with reading and a dislike of literature, because they simply don't have the visual perception and the mental images that are described here for example. When explaining analogy, and how that "became respectable as a phenomenon," I think that I often find myself struggling to explain the content I'm teaching, especially poetry, because our "inner city" students are so out of touch with nature and life experiences, that they cannot create the mental images in their mind, and therefore cannot relate to what they're reading. It takes us teachers to provide what F&T call “the blend”, or the imaginative blended scenario, to our students, in order to allow them to relate the new schema they’re learning to an old one they’re already familiar with.

F&T claim that “complex blending is always at work in any human thought or action but is often hard to see.” I wonder how this is true in our students, especially those that don’t have much experience with certain situations that may arise in the literature we’re teaching. Let us take the romantic notion of love for example. How can we possibly help a sixth grader (in that some of you in class do teach that grade) help to “blend” that feeling? This may be a bit of an extreme situation, but what about others, such as walking on the beach, or taking a silent, peaceful walk in the forest? What kind of a relationship will our students develop with text, and how well will they be able to understand, or even care about the text, if they cannot relate to what they’re reading?

Is it our responsibility as educators to help our students to learn how to “blend”?
Do you feel that utilizing “blending” is an important aspect of teaching students?
Are there ever situations that students may not be able to “blend” in order to understand a literary work or concept?
Can “blending” ever give bad results in our classrooms?

Ps. If there are any unclear terms or questions that arose in the reading The Way We Think, and any of you would like clarification on, please let me know in this Blog or email me: a_dawidowska@yahoo.com

"The Dream of Reading" by James Richardson

2006-03-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

Throughout The Dream of Reading, James Richardson creates an analogy between the act of reading and what happens while we dream. He does not claim that they are exactly the same; he, however, believes that they parallel one another in many ways. Richardson also examines the two in relation to each other in order to discuss the difficulties one has when actually trying to read while dreaming. This includes the examination dream, teaching dream, and other attempts to read while sleeping. Lastly, he categorizes the two different types of dreaming that we do to the different reading experiences we can have - “pure” and “borderline”.

Richardson states the connections between reading and dreaming: both the reader (with a few exceptions) and the dreamer are essentially motionless; when doing both, the eyes are constantly moving. While sleeping we enter in and out of stages of Rapid Eye Movement, and when reading, our eyes are always scanning the words on a page. Aside from the obvious, there are many other similarities. During reading, even when not moving, there are “electrodes placed on the facial muscles”. While dreaming, those “cortical impulses are also sent out to the body”. When awake, the body is able to control them and when sleeping most of our senses are shut off. Dreaming and reading both “involve the postulation of narrative in partial or total sensory isolation from the stimuli of the real world.” While reading, the reader is only “vaguely aware” of their surroundings and the dreamer is completely unaware.

You may be asking yourself, if reading and dreaming are so similar, why is it that we have so much difficulty trying to read while dreaming? Richardson pays particular attention to the examination dream, which can happen in a “zillion variations”. This dream is when we find ourselves about to take an exam and we have no knowledge of the subject or, for whatever reasons, are unable to take the exam. Dreams of reading also include the teaching dream (when we have nothing to teach or seem to be failing miserably at it) and also the actual act of reading (dialing a phone number, reading a sign, or trying to write a poem or letter). Part of the reason is that our memories compete with reading. We cannot read “much or well when sleeping because certain parts of the brain necessary for reading aren’t accessible, because the dream itself is a kind of reading …completely occupies the mind.”

Lastly, Richardson categorizes the two types of reading with the two different types of dreams we have. The first type is the “borderline” dream. This is when we are on the border of sleeping and waking. During the “borderline” dream, we are susceptible to distraction. This is compared to “borderline” reading when the reader is only skimming or scanning for a particular purpose (think of the phone book or a required reading). On the other hand, we have “pure” dreams. During these dreams, which are less typical, the dreamer is completely engrossed. When having a “pure” read, the reader is “ideally carried away unconscious, unaware of the limits”. Because of the difficult language and obstacles one faces while reading it, poetry is classified under “borderline”. Prose or fiction, which requires less strain and can be done with speed, is classified under “pure”.

Questions:
1.Do you find yourself in opposition or in favor of Richardson’s theory that dreaming and reading are very closely linked?
2.Have you experienced one or all of the dreams of reading Richardson discusses? If so, what is your intake of trying to read during a dream? 3.Richardson labels poetry as “borderline” reading and prose/fiction as “pure” reading. Do you find yourself in agreement or disagreement with this assertion?

Inventing the Humanities

2006-03-13T01:57:00.000-08:00

Inventing the Humanities
What struck me the most as I read Reading Lolita in Tehran is Nafisi's ability to conduct her Literature classes in spite of the political struggles the students face. It is difficult to imagine the difficult circumstances under which she holds these classes, and the constant fear of being caught. Her extreme love for Literature is manifested in the fact that she is risking so much to teach that class. Some questions that came to mind are:
How can the book be compared to Rodriguez's Hunger For Memory in terms of how much the teacher and students have been changed by the books they've read?

Considering the fact that the people in Iran are reading the books under different circumstances, to what extent do these books provide freedom, and what are some of the dangers involved?

Had they been reading these books in the United States, how would their perspective have been different?

Inventing the Humanities

2006-03-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

Inventing the Humanities

2006-03-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

Reading Judy Blume in Flushing?

A colleague of mine recently mentioned that she once worked at a Persian school in Flushing, Queens. While I am not exactly sure of the time frame, I'm pretty sure it was some time in the last 25 years, which would be post-Iranian revolution. Her job was to teach the female students, or at least be their "teacher." She said that the headmasters made it clear that these girls were not to be intellectually stimulated in this school. So, similar to what we encounter in Azar Nafisi's memoir, she closed the door and taught them whatever she felt like (which in this case was something as mundane as a text by Judy Blume).

As English teachers, are we in some ways prevented from teaching what we really want to teach? Do you sometimes wish you could close your door and read texts not necessarily approved by the powers that be? To what extent does arbitrary bureaucracy influence your effectiveness as a teacher of English?

Denby on the Act of Reading

2006-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

In Great Books, David Denby provides an account of his return to Columbia as a student for the second time in his life. He pursues the role of the student once again because of his frustrations with the act of reading. He becomes interested in understanding how others read. Through this journey, he learns more about himself as a reader in both the past and the present. Some of Denby's personal questions include: "What is the actual experience of reading 'great books'?" "What does one get out of them?" "What pleasure, what anger, what excitement and anguish?"
This leads to some questions that came about as a result of my reading and interpretation of the excerpts from Denby's Great Books.

--Harold Bloom states, "...the only thing great literature can do for us--besides offering pleasure--is to get
us to accept death more easily." Do you agree with Bloom's "limited" view on the function of
"great literature"? How do you define "great literature"?

--According to Denby, Woolf is a member of the "eternal canon." Who else deserves the status of this
"eternal canon"?

--Denby conveys his earlier and later experiences as a reader of "great literature." What does a second
reading of a literary work evoke for a reader that a first reading does not, particularly if it is some years
earlier?

Assimilating in a Dominant Ideological Society

2006-02-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

In Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez demonstrates how dichotomies such as whiteness/blackness, private life/public life, distinction of classes, as well as religion, family intimacies, and education have shaped him into the participating individual he has become in the dominant culture. His personal history in a Mexican home speaking his native language displays the loss he endured in order to gain academic success and public identity. His search for identity is empowered through his spiritual, intimate family relationships, and education. Through education, it became inevitable to assimilate into the public dominant culture he was in, simultaneously, losing the bond of his childhood private heritage. His life experiences and self-determination assisted him to strive for academic success. “Education altered my life.” “I remember what was so grievously lost to define what was necessarily gained.” Through his education he gains public acceptance, but at the same time mourns for the traditions and language of his heritage.
Religion – Catholicism - Christianity
-Is religion a dominant ideology in this text? If so how?
-How is the concept of faith embodied in or absent from this text?
-Does the text present alternative forms of religion, spirituality?
-Does the text present any material consequences for those who may not subscribe to Christian ideology?

Whiteness
-Is whiteness a dominant ideology in this text? If so, how?
-How does the text resist or reinscribe the dominant ideology of whiteness?
-How do issues of ethnicity/nationality complicate notions of whiteness or “otherness” in the text?
-Does the text present any material consequences for those who are not “white” in the text?
-How does social class work in this text? What role does social class play in the lives of the characters in this text?

Education
-To what extent does academic experience shape individuals?
-How do you feel about bilingual education? (Students learning content in native language.) Does it enforce oppression?
-How do you feel about combining private life (religion, native language) with public life (education, community)?
-How can individuals assimilate in a dominant culture without losing their native heritage? Is it inevitable to conform to a dominant society?

Being-Not Being: Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory

2006-02-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

In his narrative about growing up a second-generation immigrant in California, Richard Rodriguez skillfully examines the push/pull of negotiating his Mexican, Mexican-American and American identities. The alienation these conflicting identities create plays itself out in the ways Rodriguez depicts his quest for education, his particular brand of Catholicism, and the tension resulting from his bilingualism. This anxiety is apparent, for instance, in his pursuit of education. While gaining access to education brings a much-craved order, inspires pride and allows him to carve out an identity, it also propels him away from his home life, isolates him from his family, feminizes him, and thrusts him into a public sphere in which he is not altogether comfortable. This wavering between worlds, the conflict between simultaneous loving and loathing, and the chaos and confusion his hybridity bring about are what I found most palpable about Hunger of Memory. His sense of identity is continually shattered and then reconstituted by books, language, and social and professional contracts. Here are some questions the text brings up: Does Rodriguez become complicit with the forms of oppression he claims to be writing against? What problems arise for bilingual children and is bilingualism politicized?

The Blame Game?

2006-02-21T17:12:00.000-08:00

I agree with Graff, that it is easy to blame the high schools for not preparing students for college. But then he shifts the blame to the colleges' lack of clarity in their "culture of ideas and arguments." Well someone has to be blamed.

How about giving teachers more autonomy in their classrooms, instead of prescriptions of texts, models of segmented lessons, how to arrange the room, and how often to display students' work? Then teachers might be motivated, feeling less fearful of unsatisfactory ratings. Students could then be encouraged to develop, through extended discussions, the skills needed for the "persuasive public discourse" Graff sees as necessary at the college level.

Emjae.

Bloom VS Berman (Read this one!!)

2006-02-21T08:27:00.000-08:00

Bloom and Berman have very differing view points. I read them together and thought up some questions about the articles in relation to one another. Let me know what you think.

~ Looking at these texts and considering them in relation to each other,

1. Who do you identify with most? Why?

2. What do you think is the best way for universities to teach students today?

3. Do you teach more like on of these two professors than the other? Why do you think that is? How would you describe your teaching or philosophy of it as compared to these authors?

4. Berman keeps referring to providing a “safe place” for his students to discuss diversity; do you think there is such a thing? And if so, where? Is it in a supervised classroom?

5. What do you feel is the most important thing for universities to teach students? How is this the same or different from the arguments made by these two authors?

Clueless in Academe

2006-02-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

“Clueless in Academe” by Gerald Graff

Graff’s extensive discourse talks about how many undergraduate students, and most especially high school students, feel “clueless” when they come up against the academic world. He emphasizes the fact that many schools and colleges reinforce and “perpetuate the misconception that the life of the mind is a secret society for which only an elite few qualify” and that this cluelessness felt by students, and often the general public, is perpetuated by academia itself “by making its ideas, problems and ways of thinking look more opaque, narrowly specialized, and beyond normal learning capacities than they are or need to be.” Graff states that to overcome this, students must become literate – they must learn to listen closely to others, summarize others in a recognizable way, and make their own relevant argument. “This argument literacy, the ability to listen, summarize, and respond…” is what he considers to be educated.
Some statements/questions worthy of class discussion/argument which present themselves from Graff’s article are:

1) For the most part, today’s high school students, and college freshmen, can not listen/read, summarize and analyze that reading and then present an argument – either pro or con. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?

2) For the most part, today’s high school students, and college freshmen, can not grasp the meanings and subtleties of either the cannon or minority writer's work. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? What has been your experience?

3) How do you feel about the five-paragraph essay? Is it a good template or a crutch to pass the Regents? Can we eventually get passed the five-paragraph essay? If yes, when and how? If no, why not?

4) How can we teach high school students to present a logical, well thought-out and well-presented argument, either oral or written, on ANY subject?

Ameliorating Issues of Diversity

2006-02-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey Berman's "The Dark Side of Diversity" challenges individuals to look internally. Courses such as these bring issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia that are part of our society today to the surface. These diversity assignments that were given allowed students to express and write about their lived experiences. There are many contradictions to diversity. Especially when a variety of cultures try and assimilate to a dominant cultural society. There are emotions such as guilt, embarassment, anger, and fear of identity. Stories of personal experience may be insightful, and they may cause compassion and build awareness to the "other" or "different" individuals.

Inventing the University

2006-02-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Bartholomoe demostrtes how students are expected to write and express themselves on a University level. They experiment and create voice such as a "literary critic" to an "experimental psychologist." Educators should assist their students and provide them with accurate knowledge when they want their students to think, create, argue, describe or revise. Teachers need to allow space for creativity. Learning is a continual process throughout academics as well as life. Students should combine practical knowlede and ideas with new elements in order for them to synthesize and evaluate their life and world.

Schultz's "The Young Composers"

2006-02-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

In Schultz's deep study of the history of writing instruction, she focuses on the shift from teaching rules and memorization to focusing on the personal practice of writing. She marks the changing culture of the mid-nineteenth century as mirroring the pedagogical change.

Some questions that jut out after reading:

1. Has the debate changed so much since the mid-nineteenth century? Are we as "bad" (closed-minded) as some of the teachers/theorists in the article?

2. How much emphasis should teachers put on official grammar/rules - in lesson plans and in the assessment of writing?

3. Are current teachers of writing sensitive to the students' age and interests as they teach writing (giving models and themes of assignments)?

4. Is it possible to teach students to be creative AND correct?

David Bartholomae's "Inventing the University"

2006-02-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

I found that this article was intersting and informative. It raised some thoughts in my mind as I read it. I have included a few of my questions below:

1. Is "Inventing the University" an appropriate title for the article? What other names would be more appropriate?
2. Is Bartholomae's argument about creativity and "building bridges" between the writer's point of view and the reader's point of view teachable? If our job in a high school setting is to teach students how to write, Bartholomae's job as a professor is to hone those skills. But what if the student just can't do it? Then what?
3. What exactly is "creativity"? Can it be taught?

2006-02-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

I remember the first teacher who inspired me with literature. I had been slacking off with my studies in my freshman year of high school. I received my first F in English class, my best subject. After much hesitation, I asked if I could do extra credit work to bring my grade up. The teacher gave me the novel, Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. I spent the next day with my face glued to the novel. I remembered my childhood escape. I became in touch with books again. I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. My mother caught me at 6 a.m. crying my eyes out over the ending. I returned to school without concern for my grade. All I wanted to do was thank Ms. D. for bringing me back to a world that I had forgotten about. Now that I am a teacher, I want to open my student's eyes. I don't want them to be concerned with their grade. I want them to be touched by literature the way I was that very long day.

Teaching Literature

2006-02-07T18:09:00.000-08:00

My inspiration for teaching English Literature came from my undergrad Lit. classes. I enjoy reading and discussing literature. Two books I enjoy teaching are Things Fall Apart and Lord of the Flies. However it is not always easy reaching my students because many of them are reluctant readers. I am always looking for new ways to reach them. One important statement that came out of reading the excerpt from Robert Scholes The Rise and Fall of English was "The craft of reading itself should be the main focus, not 'Great books'." There is so much debate about what students should be reading. I think that the books we teach should be more comtemporary so that students connect to them. However, they should be exposed to the classics so that their scope of literature can be widened.

A Teacher that Cared

2006-02-06T05:39:00.000-08:00

The first time I encountered poetry,that seemed intresting to me was in my first semester at Queens College. My professor himself had a love for William Blake's work and understood different views of it. When teaching Blake's poetry he opened my eyes to the true meaning behind poetry and not focus on just one way of reading poetry.
Blake's poetry allows the reader to see two sides of life and gives students a choice of what to do and what path to take. Blake's poetry is a great way of introducing students to the choices they have in life and what path needs to be taken for success. The language used also keeps a student wanting to read on.

literature comes alive in art

2006-02-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

I've always thought that literature and art were my favorite subjects. In the early stages of elemetnary school, I loved hearing new stories and then writing and illustrating ones of my own. When I was in Ms. Cullen's drama class in high school, I could not wait to finish reading a play so that I could compelte one of the art projects she proposed. Building a miniature, medieval theatre stage was one of the most memorable art projects I can remember. I loved it. I'm very accurage and honest when I say that I have at least one art projects that is expected for every literary work I teach. They vary from oil paintings, to writing new song lyricks, to home made music videos, but somehow art is a huge part of my teaching style. I think that's when the students' understanding and passion of literature come alive.

2006-02-05T14:43:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was a young girl, I have been fascinated with the theater. My grandmother would take myself and my 4 brothers and sisters ever summer to see the musicals at Jones Beach Theater; this was way before the days of concert series at Jones Beach. When my grandmother passed away, my aunts would take myself, my siblings, and my cousins into Manhattan to see Broadway Plays and Musicals. I remember feeling alive while watching the theatrical productions; I immediately connected with the audience and the actors. It was as if we were all sharing and creating this magical experience. I remember the awe I felt as I watched the theatrical performances, and I also remember the amazement that I felt when my mother explained to me that each play/musical originally began as a written work. This fascinated me and it turned me onto reading. By watching theater performances I actually was able to visualize literature and feel it, not just read it. It is these connections, feelings, and emotions that I hope to create in my English classroom, and they are the reasons that I became a teacher. I want students to realize that they create the literature, whatever genre it may be, by bringing their own emotion, reaction, and connection to it.

"The Odyssey" and Art

2006-02-05T07:31:00.000-08:00

“The Odyssey” and Art

Teaching what can become a very dry, canonical text like Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, can be transformed into a wonderful sensory experience for high-school students. I did, in fact, enjoy such an experience as a first-year teacher at Townsend Harris HS, when I introduced classical art/illustrations depicting scenes from The Odyssey to my ninth-graders. As a first-year teacher, my enthusiasm for making the text come alive for my students was seemingly boundless. As I surfed the web for something to "spice" up our reading, I came upon a wonderful website which introduced me to many of N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations, along with other painters such as Waterhouse, Draper, Boulanger, and others. These color illustrations depict the pain and agony of the suitors as they are being slaughtered, they portray Penelope’s deception in weaving and unraveling the shroud, and they appear to animate the seductive sight and sounds of the Sirens. My favorite of these is N.C. Wyeth’s portrayal of “The Trial of the Bow” wherein Odysseus wins the contest proposed by Penelope and all the suitors discover that Odysseus himself has returned to Ithaca.
I was able to print overhead transparencies of scenes like The Sirens tempting Odysseus, Poseidon’s Wrath creating a tidal wave, Cyclops’ rage after being blinded, and Circe’s magical powers of turning men into beasts. When I displayed these in class, the students loved the colors and action depicted. I was bold enough to include a “Humanities Connection” on their final exam. Incorporating N.C. Wyeth’s “The Trial of the Bow” overhead transparency as part of their final exam, I asked students to identify three “things” they observed in the painting and explain why each one of them was important to the epic.
The enthusiastic response I received from these “honor” students encouraged me to teach The Odyssey again, in my second year, when my ninth-graders were regular Regents students. They too, enjoyed the paintings, which made getting through this rather long epic, (even in it’s abridged form), easier. I have found that teaching an intimidating work such as The Odyssey, can be made much more interesting and enjoyable by introducing art, film, poetry and other forms of the humanities.

My First Love Encounter With Literature

2006-02-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

In high school I had a literature teacher who, when reading a text would lift the words from the pages. He was not overly dramatic, but he had an intensity to his teaching that enthralled me. He made his students become a part of the action in the text. He made literature FUN. This teacher inspired me, motivated me and allowed me to be creative and imaginative. His words still resound when I am teaching. I hear him clearly in Henry V. I hope I can be to my students what that teacher was to me; a motivator.

I was able to connect with an excerpt from Hunger of Memory because of the love for books both the author and myself share. I left that excerpt rethinking the bases on which teachers limit the reading choices of our students.
Emjay

My literary thoughts

2006-02-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

Since I was a child in grade school, I have enjoyed reading literature . Whether it was a newspaper, magazine or book I usually couldn't get enough as I wanted to keep reading more and more. Therefore, I was really able to connect to what I read with my group in class on Wednesday. We read an excerpt from the autobiography of Richard Rodriguez. He writes about his love for reading and books. Rodriguez mentioned several texts which he read as a young boy and this inspired me to go back to my youth and remember a few books that resonated in my mind. However, there was one particular book which stood out among them all. Lord Of The Flies is the one piece of literature that was "important" to me. It is important because I am reminded of elements from the book all the time. I watch a show on television called Lost and it follows the same premise as the book. People are trying to survive a horrible plane crash that strands them on a deserted, tropical island in the middle of the ocean. It fascinates me to see how human beings react to difficult situations and that is why this show and the text are interesting and important to me.

A new vision (Cynthia)

2006-02-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

When I was in highschool I vividly remember this one Enlgish teacher who had very creative ways to motivate us. Although I had always loved to read and write, this teacher made me want to do it creatively and made me feel like I was good at it too. One day she gave us an assignment to cut out a picture from a magazine, any picture that we wanted to (as long as it was appropriate, of course). I found this picture of a couple on a beautiful beach lying on a hamock together. The next day we were assigned to write a story about what was happening in the picture, or something that could use the picture as an illustration. I wrote this whole story and I felt great about it. I got an A on the paper and to this day I still have that paper in my files. I take it out and look at it or re-read it when I feel like I need some motivation to be creative. I loved her idea so much that I have transferred it into my own classroom now. However, instead I supply the art to the students and they write a story about what I give them. I always give them a work of art that is either well-known or by a well-known artist. I love being able to see what I am writing about and in turn I love to be able to draw a picture (in my head or on paper) about my written thoughts.

reflections

2006-02-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

I was never a big reader as a kid. I did well in school because I worked really hard, but I did not read for fun. Up until 11th grade I didn't really care for reading at all. I had video games and sports and friends to hang out with. But in 11th grade I read Catcher in the Rye. For the first time I was actually moved by a piece of writing. About the same time as that I also read Bartleby the Scrivener. These two pieces really made me think about life in a different way. I'm not sure if it was because I was 16 or because the stories (especially Catcher) really got to me, but I fell in love with what people deem quality writing. I now like to read the classics and when I teach, I hope to exude the same emotions I felt when I first read what I would consider a quality piece of writing. I also love to write, and a lot of that stems from the impact of Catcher and Bartleby. I hope to teach my students in a fun and engaging way to enjoy what they have, and if I am lucky, some of my passion may rub off on them.

TOMMY, Dave, and Brian have an epiphany

2006-02-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

1993
Music: "So you think '21 is gonna be a good year....."

Driving in Mustang Dave -- my '84 Mustang from high school -- it never had the fluidity or sexiness to warrant the moniker "Sally."
Dave is tooling me on the roadway.
Destination:Pathmark - garbage bags and Mop&Glo for Mom's Sunday labor.

While driving impecibly - impecibly in the mind of my 17yr old self - The Who's TOMMY winds in the tape deck

Music: "..but somehow in your smile I can break bad weather.
What about the boy he saw it all?!"

ME: I like that sound. What was that about 'seeing it all'?
*****Ohhhhhhhh. It's a STORY!********

~~~~~~~~~~~~~CLOCKWIPE: ONE HOUR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tape in the deck has turned
The roadway has become highway
Destination: The highway, I suppose

Music: "Do you hear or fear or do I smash the mirror?"

Me: Tommy's totally engulfed by that mirror. Breaking it would have to break the trance. If he can no longer see himself and his own guilt for what he saw - if he cannot hide from the pain - then the outside world would have to rush in!

EPIPHANY! EPIPHANY! ILLUMINATION!

That is what Mr. Jones meant by "epiphany."

Fresh!!

Music: "Listening to you. I get the music............."

my reflection

2006-02-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

Although I had been an avid reader for most of my childhood, the first time I was emotionally moved by art was when I saw Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City. For years I read, viewed art, and listened to music yet could never fully "hear the artists voice". The crowded room of travelers, detailed strokes depicting veins and muscles on the human form, God reaching out to man in the center ceiling-all these images hit me like a ton of bricks. The final wall, the largest painting of the room depicting the Last Judgement or Apocalypse was particularly moving. Seeing the bodies shrivel and scream in anguish as they fought to stay out of hell was overwhelming. I stood there and cried. For the first time, I "felt" what the story told. Visually, I witnessed and experienced a story I had read so many yimes before, and it was frightening. From that moment on I changed my outlook on how I would mentally digest a piece of art. I was only fiteen at the time, but I felt as though I had experienced the pains of living an entire lifetime- the pictures were haunting and life altering. I decided to view all art pieces, literature, and music with a keen sense of understanding and hearing the "artists voice". When you can accomplish this, then you can master the art of deconstruction and alnalysis.

a teacher I remember

2006-02-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school and read The Scarlet Letter, an innovative teacher stimulated our class in a way that I don't remember happening in any of my other classes. My eleventh grade English teacher encouraged us to think and talk about all aspects of the book, even the ones that made us immature high schoolers giggle. Pleased that we were so interested in the novel, and finding us in an excited and seemingly unresolvable debate as to the severity of the protagonist's "crime," our teacher decided we were going to put Hester Prynne on trial.

In my previous English classes, we would read texts, discuss them, and write papers on them. It was my favorite subject and I had always enjoyed that, but I remember being thrilled with this different approach. It was like a play and everyone participated, playing a character from the novel or the judge or one of the jury members. And although it was tremendous fun, it was also something we took very seriously, as if this young girl's fate was actually in our hands.

I won't say that that teacher made me decide to become a teacher (it was over fifteen years later before I even seriously considered it), but when I did finally come to that decision I knew that the experiences I had in her class had influenced me and that she was the kind of teacher I would want to be.

Mr. Matthews and His Podium

2006-02-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

I'll always remember the first person and work of art that inspired me to become an English teacher. Mr. Matthews and his podium took me by surprise the first day of eleventh grade. I bet that you are probably thinking he was a mean teacher who dictated the class from his podium. Well, that wasn't the case. Mr. Matthews actually rolled into class and around the room handing out paper clips, chanting "throw out your television sets!" on the first day. During this moment, I remember thinking to myself how does this guy think he is going to keep control over everyone if he acts this way on the first day of school? The funny thing is, I don't remember anyone ever answering him back or cutting his class.

Mr. Matthews spent the entire year sitting on, in, and dancing with that podium. He also shared countless stories about authors and texts that grabbed my attention and pulled me into the world of books forever. Even though I never threw out my television set, I examined the extent to which I sat in front of it. From his enthusiam to his creativity, I was inspired to become an English teacher. I actually looked forward to attending his class because he was fun, he made learning fun, and he had a great knowledge of his craft. This inspired me to be the type of teacher he was.

After looking at a passage from Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, I stopped to think about The Great Gatsby in a new way. The funny thing is, Mr. Matthews actually taught that novel to my eleventh grade class. Through his teaching of it, I never looked at the book itself as poison, but rather, the characters themselves. During our current class, I reflected upon the comment the student in the article made and thought about how I disagreed with him. I don't know if it was because Mr. Matthews loved that book, or if I am ignorant about other cultures' point of view, but I just couldn't see how a book could be considered poison. To me, books equal power and knowledge, especially those that question and challenge values. Although, I do see and respect this student's point of view, I do not think his statement will change the way I read a book.

-Cheryl-

2006-02-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Ironically enough, ever since I became a teacher I stopped blogging. I'm thrilled to once again have the opportunity to do so. Two books stand out to me as texts I will always teach in my classroom. The first is Holes, by Louis Sachar. I love the suspenseful way in which he writes and the fact that the book has many layers. When I teach it I like to compare it to the layers of an onion, and in fact, onions play a significant role in the book. The second text I love to teach is The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. This is an incredible book to read aloud to students and is a great tool when it comes time to teach memoir. I have found that this particular text resonates with students of all cultural backgrounds, which is important in New York City schools.

how i became a teacher

2006-02-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

i became a teacher by default . . . i was losing my job & was looking around for something else to do . . . i was feeling old in my job anyways . . . the posters for teaching fellows in the subways looked appealing . . . so when the axe came down, i went that way (after enjoying my severance package) . . . they rejected me; i think the final interviewer didn't think i was "street" enough . . . anyways i went in straight through the board of ed, & it's turned out to be the best thing for me . . . the constantly redeeming factor for me is the students' writing . . . wow, i cry sometimes, it's so deep & beautiful . . . vicarious thrills perhaps . . . peeks into their souls . . . wow . . . that's the pleasure for me, & the reason, ultimately, i think. (homage to celine)

Freedom to Explore

2006-02-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

The author of Arts of Living argues that educators should set limits as well as giving students the freedom to extrapolate their own meaning through a variety of sources. The writer demonstrates that students should have the opportunity to be open minded in order to formulate new ideas. However, his tone is contradicting when he indicates that educators should constrain students' interpretation with the "acceptable" or "responsible" limits. It's necessary for students to have the chance to experiment with a variety of sources and participate in discussions in order to provide them with a comfortable and enriching environment. This enables them to share their views that may be relevant to enhance the meaning of texts. I was inspired teaching music last semester; even though, I'm not a music teacher. I was excited to have the opportunity to incorporate a variety of sources to enhance my students' knowledge. Students engaged in music, poetry, collages, and literature. They were intrigued by Basquiat's artistic expression through his art work. He demonstrated how he was inspired by Jazz. Students were motivated to create their own collages, and they expressed what music meant to them. They were introduced to a variety of poets such as Langston Hughes and musicians such as Jimi Hendrix. They were amazed how musicians used figurative language in their songs that enhanced the meaning of each song. They also had the chance to present their choice of song. They were able to visualize the "terrible" as well as the "beautiful," the "rational" along with the "irrational" through these pieces of art.

Literature in My Life

2006-02-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

My fascination with literature first came from a high school experience. I had always enjoyed reading but found the books in the curriculum to be boring and dull. When the teacher said we would be reading Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet" (you can imagine what was going through my head) I thought I would never make it through the semester. My experience with the play not only changed the way I viewed Shakespeare, but I was able (for the first time) to recognize the value and power of literature. My teacher taught the play passionately and she encouraged us to speak and think in a liberal manner. She helped us to see that we can all, in some way, find a personal outlet in the materials we read. I felt moved by this experience and I also began to develop a passion for the play. As a teacher, I feel that it is my job to provide students with same opportunity that was given to me. I strive to present literature in a way that inspires all.

Would Richard Rodriguez "read" graffiti?

2006-02-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

On my way to work every morning, I walk past Aviation High School, where there's an entire block of graffiti on one side of the school's wall. Seeing those images every day inspired me to build a course that looked at the emergence of graffiti in New York City, the city's measures to combat the problem in the 70s and 80s, and the more recent acceptance of graffiti in art galleries and museums. The graffiti course became a freshman composition course I taught last year, a course which made use of LaGuardia Community College’s LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. The theme served to push my students to rethink their ideas about valid texts, and about what it means to "read" visual texts. Our trips to the Archives and our access to "top secret" mayoral papers strengthened their research skills. The excerpt from Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory brings up similar issues about the validity of certain texts. Rodriguez's desire to read "important books" and his position that "what gave a book its value was some major idea or theme it contained" was surely on the minds of the students who spent a semester reading and writing about graffiti. However, the graffiti class was exciting because it challenged students to draw meaning from “vandalism,” and lead them to the realization that visual texts also have a "major idea or theme," that what's deemed "important" changes over time, and that Jean-Michel Basquiat was a “vandal” before his work was considered worthy of a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. This also folds into our class' discussion of reading as craft since it allows one to continually draw meaning from a variety of sources.

Reflection: "The Monkey's Paw"

2006-02-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

Barbara Buran
English 703
Reflection: "The Monkey's Paw"

My inspiration to pursue teaching literature came the first day I walked into a tenth grade class at an all female High School in the Bronx. I distinctly remember thirty talkative teenage girls sitting before me on this particular day in September of 2003. My enthusiasm as a teacher fresh out of college, the excitement of a new school year, and my anticipation of what was in store for the year ahead contributed to this inspiration to share literature with my students. Initially feeling anxious and somewhat intimidated by this group of teenagers, I introduced literature for the very first time with the short story. I chose "The Monkey's Paw" for a simple reason: I knew and enjoyed the story and hoped my students would share in this experience.
As I began to read aloud, chatty students grew silent and seemingly indifferent students grew interested. I asked if anyone would like to read aloud and many insisted that I continue reading. Although no discussion or analysis of the literature had occurred at this point, the students were engaged. Their concentration during this single class inspired me to gain a little more confidence that first day of my teaching career and affirmed that teaching literature was what I wanted to do with my life.

Welcome to Inventing the Humanities

2006-01-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. To test the blog and start using it, post a brief revised version of the reflection on your relationship to the humanities you worked on in class. These needn't be formal, and you're not committing yourself to a point of view. Your ideas will probably evolve as the semester does. Just think of the post as a snapshot of your current thinking on the subject.

Please respond to at least two of the postings as they begin to appear.