Sherman Alexie's 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'

If you’re reading this post, flip to page 173 of your copy of Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. If your copy is different to mine, along with its page numbers being different, than here’s the quote anyway:

“I had cursed my family. I had left the tribe, and had broken something inside all of us, and I was now being punished for that.”

You might be wondering why I chose this quote in the first place and what it has to do with my training to be a public school teacher. The thing is: I’m not quite sure myself. However, the quote caught my attention for a reason, and so I’ll explore that reason here.

 

I can honestly admit that I have no idea if being a teacher will work out for me. All I know is that I won’t know what it’s like until I experience it, and I’m afraid that such an experience will crush me in a way that I can’t come back from. After reading all that, you might think to yourself: ‘geez Angela, just find something else you want to do and then work towards getting a job in it.’ That thought would be very logical, along with being easier said than done. Teaching, or the thought of teaching in a future that’ll be swiftly arriving, is beginning to constrict around my life, and yet I’m not sure where else I’ll be able to go if I crash and burn.

Education has been my go-to for awhile now, ever since I was preteen. I looked to my dad’s experience as a public school teacher and to the English Language Arts to help settle me with my more turbulent thoughts and feelings, and it feels as though a Tribe of Education has been slowly building around me for a long time. Do I have it in me to leave that tribe if I one day realize it might be the best thing for me personally? Even thinking that question feels like a twinge of betrayal. 

- Angela H.

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller

Outline:

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

Biography:

Madeline Miller is an American novelist, whose debut  novel was The Song of Achilles. Miller spent ten years writing the book while she worked as a Latin and Greek teacher. The novel, set in Greece, tells the story of the love between Achilles and Patroclus. The Song of Achilles won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize.

On her inspiration for the novel, Miller explained:

“

I stole it from Plato! The idea that Patroclus and Achilles were lovers is quite old. Many Greco-Roman authors read their relationship as a romantic one—it was a common and accepted interpretation in the ancient world. We even have a fragment from a lost tragedy of Aeschylus, where Achilles speaks of his and Patroclus' 'frequent kisses.' There is a lot of support for their relationship in the text of the Iliad itself, though Homer never makes it explicit. For me, the most compelling piece of evidence, aside from the depth of Achilles' grief, is how he grieves: Achilles refuses to burn Patroclus' body, insisting instead on keeping the corpse in his tent, where he constantly weeps and embraces it—despite the horrified reactions of those around him. That sense of physical devastation spoke deeply to me of a true and total intimacy between the two men.

”

Miller had become transfixed by Achilles after her mother read the Iliad to her when she was younger. She also found Patroclus "tantalizing" because he is a minor character that later had a "big impact" on the outcome of the Trojan War. The writer used classical texts by Ovid, Virgil, Sophocles, Apollodorus, Euripides andAeschylus to help with the plot, as well as accounts of Achilles' childhood friendship with Patroclus and his martial training. Miller also uses quotes from Homer in the text.

Rationale:

For anyone who is a fan of Greek Mythology, specifically for Homer’s the Illiad, this book is its most perfect adaptation. It’s far more accessible than the Illiad in that its language is elegantly modern, while still able to capture the excitement and brutality of the tales that come from Greek antiquity. It also focuses on the relationship between the famous Greek hero Achilles and his relationship with the lesser known Patroclus. Miller was brave enough not to pull her punches when writing about them – it is obvious that the two main characters are in a romantic relationship as well as being best friends. The novel itself has scenes of homosensuality, but nothing erotically explicit. Many an author, historian, and movie director in the past have clung to Achilles’ other attachments, especially his more heterosexual exploits- but Miller makes it clear that Achilles and Patroclus are the main couple. Most of all, I want students that identify as anything other than “straight” to know that there is beautiful, elegant novels out there featuring figures that share their preferences, and that those preferences are nothing to be ashamed of. Several versions of the book also have useful glossaries in the back, detailing the gods, creatures, and heroes that were a part of the fabled Trojan War.

Teaching Ideas:

1.      This book inspires a multitude of writing prompts, especially in regards to argumentative essays! A theme of the text is the struggle between free will and fate. Questions as writing prompts can include: Were Achilles and Patroclus always fated to love each other? What could have Achilles’ mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess, have done to separate them? Would the pair always find their way back to each other? If Achilles swallowed his pride and fought with the Greeks, would Patroclus have survived, as he would have never donned Achilles’ armor and pretended to be him on the battlefield? Students may of course develop and answer their own questions for their argumentative piece.

2.      Students can also get into groups, find costumes, and then tape themselves acting out a scene from the book. Students may also use their editing skills and tech. to add to their video-segment, and then must present it for viewing in class.

Obstacles:

Sadly, I believe that this book’s greatest obstacle in presenting it to a class of high-school students (I’d say this text could be for students in 10^th to 12^th grade) and having them read it would be the novel’s homosexual relationship between the two young men who are the main characters. There are also several scenes of Achilles’ cross-dressing, or being disguised as a young girl to hide him from anyone in Greece that wants to recruit him for the Trojan War.

References:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeline_Miller

Lilliam Rivera's 'The Education of Margot Sanchez'

Rivera’s The Education of Margot Sanchez provided for me a painful, though necessary, reminder of my teen years. Now, how does that help me as a teacher-in-training? How does this novel apply to all the new educational hoops I have to jump through to get certified?

You would think the answer ‘duh, I’ll be teaching teenagers’ would pop up on the fore-front of my brain like a bright, searing neon sign. Actually, no.

I’ve chosen to work my way into teaching teenagers; so why does The Education of Margot Sanchez make me feel uncomfortable? It’s a novel about teenagers, written to be read by teenagers, and read by a woman (me, myself, and I) who was once a teenager. This should be easy beans for yours truly.

But then I realized: oh no, I’m slowly morphing into an adult that deliberately doesn’t think back to many memories I have as a teen because, for lack of a better way to say it, I don’t want to remember my teenage self.

I didn’t want to remember the awkwardness, the angst, the pining to have the approval and attention of peers that I actually didn’t care about, and who certainly didn’t give a flying leap about me. I didn’t want to remind myself that I put myself through a lot of unnecessary (it seemed necessary at the time) pressure to be admired and haven’t always appealed to the rationale of not caring who approves of me so long as I approve of me.

This novel had the power to embarrass me because I felt a metric ton of second-hand embarrassment for the character Margot, and then topped it off with the mortifying realization that: wow, I used to be just like her- clueless, miserable, stronger than I ever realized. I want to hide in my ‘adult’ persona as often as I can, but that won’t help me one bit with a classroom full of teenagers, looking to me to be sympathetic/empathetic with them. Despite my cringing, I want them to realize that at one time in my life, I was just like them. I wasn’t a special snowflake that did everything perfectly. I was learning how to be myself, like Margot- like them.

- Angela H.

Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide

Looking at the front cover of Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide, it reads “how schools are killing reading and what you can do about it.” Upon scanning those first words I felt myself blanch a little: schools killing reading? It seemed to me, back when I was in high school, that all I did was read, and so I thought that Gallagher was simply employing a measure of drama to hook readers into thumbing through another of his books. It didn’t really occur to me what he meant by schools killing one’s love of reading until I played a game with myself involving Appendix A – 101 Books My Reluctant Readers Love to Read.

I thought to myself ‘obviously, as a reader who adores reading, I will have read almost half of the books listed in this appendix.’ How many listed in this appendix have I actually read? A grand total of 6. Needless to say, I was disappointed, and yet, strangely enough, unsurprised.

I remember seeing some of the same books listed in Appendix A on book lists given to me when I was in high school, of which begs the question: why didn’t I read a majority of them? The answer rushed to the forefront of mind, as though it’d been there all along: many of my teachers decried them as being ‘unscholarly’ or ‘childish’ essentially. Even more demoralizing was what I remembered about many a teacher’s response to books in the teen/teen-romance genre, especially if the book itself was either about or geared towards teenage girls: not to be taken seriously in the least, or ‘stupid’, ‘foolish’, or a waste of time.

Was I, along with my peers in high school, steered away from these ‘for teen’ novels/short-stories/poems/etc. purposely? Was that purpose to condition us into reading only the materials that would best prepare us for standardized testing?

- Angela H.

Cris Tovani’s I Read It, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers

Cris Tovani’s I Read It, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers is no doubt a must-have for teachers, especially up-and-coming and new teachers. Why? Because, frankly, I’m still baffled at the thought of having to teach middle school to high school students how to comprehend what they’ve read.

I admit, my bafflement really is unfair: especially towards any future students that pass through my classroom that are not as proficient in reading and the English Language Arts as in other fields of learning.

From early on in my college career, it became apparent that if I were to teach anything at all in the universe, it would be Literature reading and the English Language Arts – because I’m damn good at it and I also happen to love it. I have to constantly remind myself that not every other person in my immediate vicinity will possess the passion and skill to engage in English Lit. the way myself and my peers in the field will and do.

That being said, part two, section eight of I Read It, But I Don’t Get It, ‘Outlandish Responses: Taking Inferences Too Far’ made me feel like an English Teaching alien. But, of course, I managed to dig a bit deeper into my English-Reading history as a high school student and realized: I, like the rest of my school mates, had to be continually instructed in the various methods of critical reading and analysis. I remember reading novels, short stories, and poems and remembered my rather strong emotional responses to them; but having a piece of writing move you emotionally is not the same as truly comprehending a text and analyzing it for the clues authors leave about what they’re trying to tell you. Needless to say, I’m humbled, and must remember that reading and writing aren’t these skills people are born with/or automatic.

- Angela H.

Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000

Lucille Clifton

Outline:

In a Christian Century review of Clifton's work, Peggy Rosenthal commented, "The first thing that strikes us about Lucille Clifton's poetry is what is missing: capitalization, punctuation, long and plentiful lines. We see a poetry so pared down that its spaces take on substance, become a shaping presence as much as the words themselves."

Clifton's main focus is on women's history; however, according to Robert Mitchell in American Book Review, her poetry has a far broader range: "Her heroes include nameless slaves buried on old plantations, Hector Peterson (the first child killed in the Soweto riot), Fannie Lou Hamer (founder of the Mississippi Peace and Freedom Party), Nelson and Winnie Mandela, W. E. B. DuBois, Huey P. Newton, and many other people who gave their lives to [free] black people from slavery and prejudice."

Blessing the Boats is a compilation of four Clifton books, plus new poems, which, Becker noted in her review for American Poetry Review, "shows readers how the poet's themes and formal structures develop over time." Among the pieces collected in these volumes are several about the author's breast cancer, but she also deals with juvenile violence, child abuse, biblical characters, dreams, the legacy of slavery, and a shaman-like empathy with animals as varied as foxes, squirrels, and crabs. She also speaks in a number of voices, as noted by Becker, including "angel, Eve, Lazarus, Leda, Lot's Wife, Lucifer, among others ... as she probes the narratives that undergird western civilization and forges new ones."

Biography:

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) grew up in Buffalo, New York. She attended Howard University with a scholarship from 1953 to 1955, leaving to study at the State University of New York at Fredonia (near Buffalo).

In 1958, Lucille Sayles married Fred James Clifton, a professor of philosophy at the University of Buffalo, and a sculptor whose carvings depicted African faces. Lucille and her husband had six children together, which included four daughters (Sidney, Fredrica, Gillian, and Alexia) and two sons (Channing and Graham). Lucille worked as a claims clerk in the New York State Division of Employment, Buffalo (1958–60), and as literature assistant in the Office of Education in Washington, D.C. (1960–71). Writer Ishmael Reed introduced Lucille to Clifton while he was organizing the Buffalo Community Drama Workshop. Fred and Lucille Clifton starred in the group's version of The Glass Menagerie, which was called "poetic and sensitive" by the Buffalo Evening News.

In 1966, Reed took some of Clifton's poems to Langston Hughes, who included them in his anthology The Poetry of the Negro. In 1967, the Cliftons moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Her first poetry collection, Good Times, was published in 1969, and listed by The New York Times as one of the year's ten best books. From 1971 to 1974, Clifton was poet-in-residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore. From 1979 to 1985, she was Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland. From 1982 to 1983, she was a visiting writer at the Columbia University School of the Arts and at George Washington University. In 1984, her husband died of cancer.

From 1985 to 1989, Clifton was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. From 1995 to 1999, she was a visiting professor at Columbia University. In 2006, she was a fellow at Dartmouth College.

Rationale:

This collection of poetry is incredible in its simplicity and raw power; Clifton proves that you don’t have to employ poetry’s many techniques and conventions to hit a point home. Her style is both readily accessible and yet challenging: her lack of grammar, punctuation, and form leaves the reader to fill in the blanks about what she could possibly mean and what her poetry could mean to you. Her poetry also has a wide range of subjects that many may find uncomfortable in confronting. This includes racism, sexism, domestic abuse, child abuse, African American prejudices and pride, abortion, chronic illness, women surviving and thriving, mythology, scripture, the working class, racial violence, and unapologetic anger.

Teaching Ideas:

1.      This slim volume of Clifton’s works begs discussion. Students could be asked to share their interpretations of the text as well as answer each other’s numerous questions. Do you have a favorite poem or set of poems? Why are they your favorite? Do you have a poem or set of poems that make you uncomfortable? Sorrowful? Angry? Why?

2.      Clifton’s time as a writer and poet is connected to other talented African American writers and figures. Students could research these individuals and their connection to Clifton- as well as their body of work (prose, poetry, and art).

Obstacles:

This text doesn’t hold back when it comes to sexual and racial violence, and possess some violent imagery. Students could also have trouble connecting to Lucille Clifton as a person, as she has had numerous tragedies in her life that perhaps they couldn’t understand without similar traumatic experiences. Clifton also sheds light on 20^th to 21^st century American culture in relation to the struggles of its African American population. Parents and administrators could mistake the justifiably bitter and angry tone in many of her poems as being unpatriotic.

References:

 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lucille-clifton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Clifton 

What is Social Justice? Why is it important for our classrooms?

Social Justice n.

Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

If you think about it (especially if you’re a student in a country where education has been a constant throughout your life, readily accessible, and thus prone to being taken for granted), education is wealth, opportunity, and privilege.

1.)    Wealth? – In the most literal sense, education is the means to gain skills that will aid in job performance, of which will most likely be compensated monetarily (a salary). Education can be used as a tool to gain a whole range of skill-sets that offer multiple positions within a career field; these positions usually belong to a hierarchy. Going up in the hierarchy can lead to steeper benefits and salaries.

2.)    Opportunity? – While learning the skills that education offers, an individual may find mental/emotional (even in some cases spiritual) wealth in the pleasure that learning can impart. With this pleasure, students may forge interpersonal relationships with their peers and instructors about their shared, educational experience. Through this system of networking, students and teachers may find each other avenues that lead to college placements and job positions.

3.)    Privilege? – Education can access wealth and opportunity, of which both can lead to more of the other. The problem? Not everyone can afford it, understand the system in which it lives, or can manage the time for it. Easy to forget if you have the resources to invest in an education (as well as a support system- usually one’s family) without a truly mind-boggling level of sacrifice.

To provide education to every student possible, both internationally and nationally, is a means of social justice as it leads to the other benefits of social justice: income, food, shelter, peace-of-mind, physical and emotional wellness, etc. It’s important that students understand that education-as-social justice is a means of begetting social justice, as a way for wealth, opportunity, and privilege to be distributed all over the world. 

- Angela H.

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

Has the Urban High School English Classroom actually changed?

I guess I’ll find out. In truth, this handout started to blur after awhile, but this is the gist of it as I perceived it:

A group of educators or a group responsible for education in the U.S.: “We have to revolutionize the classroom. Teachers have to not only add A, B, and C to the curriculum, but have to hold on to the old bits as well, teaching the old and new with a fresh outlook on multiculturalism. And yet, students will need to pass standardized testing and other ‘dominant, white-male’ cultural milestones in order to join the nation’s professional arenas.”

What exactly are kids from smaller ethnic groups supposed to extrapolate from that brief summary? That, “hey, the U.S. educational system is trying to make me feel all included, harping on about how much I matter and how much the other cultures I’m apart of matter; but when it comes to being launched into the U.S.’s workforce, I have to prove that I’m almost totally proficient in the dominant culture’s methods and techniques for a harmonious workplace environment. Not only that, I will have to deal with co-workers, who’ve happened to be born and raised in the dominant culture, earning more money and more possible job-related opportunities, although the both of us have passed the necessary testing to be certified to work, as well as having mastered Standard English.”

And what about the teachers themselves? Will they realistically have enough time to teach the extended canon of their school district’s curriculum to their students? Will it become necessary to include testing for the newly added, yet diverse, material? Will those tests be treated with the same ‘importance’ as the standardized tests? Will those tests also help a student get into a college?

- Angela H.