tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284837106090895124.post8259405360149891052..comments2024-02-23T00:36:49.934-08:00Comments on Throughlines: Second Thoughts: Reframing the QuestionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284837106090895124.post-75303349088523303032007-01-30T11:49:00.000-08:002007-01-30T11:49:00.000-08:00Hi Bruce--I agree with you: we don't have to teach...Hi Bruce--I agree with you: we don't have to teach with "balance" when it comes to what's good and moral. However, I can think of at least one text written by, for and about an "independent agent engaged in a free-for-all to climb over each other to the top." It's called "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli. Where did I read it first? Punahou School in the 1980s. So, while it's certainly not our obligation to show kids the "other side" of the moral living argument, it can't hurt. I think you could use it to advantage to engage their critical thinking skills--or even provoke their sense of moral outrage at some of the things that are posited as acceptable in this world. Cheers--m.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284837106090895124.post-29479847181300661532007-01-28T23:47:00.000-08:002007-01-28T23:47:00.000-08:00This second post reframes the issue in a way that ...This second post reframes the issue in a way that more closely (and clearly) articulates much of what I am thinking about and was trying to begin to talk about in the sub-department meeting. I don't think I was very clear then, and I have my doubts about this response yet to come, but I guess I'll start with messages and see how far I get.<br /><br />I agree with Bruce's assertion that, "there are other ways to contextualize whatever it is that we are teaching that puts the whole enterprise in a different light," but I have to question the implied assumption that we can turn out the other lights that students see. Do only the teachers shine the lights or control them? Are the students learning only what we want them to? Even if we go so far as to tell them directly that we're not sending them the message that they ought to do more, we'd have to snap Obi Wan Kenobi's fingers to get them to ignore the similarity in our selections and notice the absence of other answers. So why is this a problem? I think it's one on two accounts. First, since English 2 is a critical thinking course, my response is, "When we select our readings, why isn't our highest value critical thinking, instead of getting them to do more for others?"<br /><br />English 2 is, at least in my mind, foremost a critical thinking course; therefore, I'd say that the strongest message the students should experience is the one that says, "Think critically!" Okay, then in a critical thinking class, shouldn't we ask students to practice evaluating a question from multiple of points of view? I'm not advocating other points of view based on balance for balance's sake; rather, I do so because in this particular course we have to give students the chance to see points of view based on different assumptions, and sound reasoning to go along with them, as models and for their own evaluation. How contradictory to ask students to practice critical thinking, and then to select readings that suggest a conclusion we believe is correct.<br /><br />Second, I return to asking what happens when we give them readings that arise from a point of view informed if not by the same assumptions, then by very similar assumptions? We haven't randomly selected people trying to work out answers, after all; we've selected people whose answers we agree with and praise. That must be because we want, consciously or otherwise, to send a second message. Now, I'm not advocating that we ask them to read someone who presents a grotesque and hideous point of view, but even so, I have to acknowledge that I wouldn't do so because I don't want students to see that message. And if I don't want them to see that message, I have to acknowledge that I know our students are, even when we're being careful to make a different message crystal clear, seeing the readings as sending messages. You see where I'm going, don't you? To any halfway conscious tenth grader our readings will send a message that answers the question—after all, we're considering what the readings suggest when we're selecting or not selecting the texts! As Bruce notes, though we don't intend to, we might convey a negative judgment of our students that could leave them resisting even the question. And that's only the most obvious implication. Then why don't we give them other reasonable answers in this critical thinking course?<br /><br />I should interrupt and acknowledge that I do want my students to know that they ought to do more. I ought to do more. We all ought to do more. That's the answer I arrive at; it's the answer Punahou School wants them to arrive at; it's the Right answer, darn it! But how we shape our students experience toward finding, internalizing, and living that or any answer is a tricky business for our sub-department to think carefully about. For our whole department to continually explore!<br /><br />Now, The Poisonwood Bible. As Bruce points out, the novel does give them a narrative built from multiple points of view. But no one can read that novel and believe that Rachel represents a point of view that Kingsolver wants us to seriously consider following; one of my complaints about us using the novel in this particular course is that Kingsolver does want to send a message. When students read the essays we've chosen, they expect to hear a message, for that is the nature of an essay. But novels should be a different story. (Sorry, I didn't intend that lame pun!) Though I enjoy the moments when Barbara Kingsolver writes beautifully and I agree largely with her politics, didactic novels don't really thrill me, and I actually don't want my students to learn implicitly that novels also send messages, whatever the course they're in is. I want them to learn that novels, in their own way, show us the complexities and wonders of being human and allow us to find, through our reading, our own way through life. In English 2 I don't want to try to influence, in such a heavy-handed way, my students' thoughts by selecting such an obviously didactic novel. And I don't think we can prevent our students from believing that we ask them to read The Poisonwood Bible because we want them to hear her message. I'm sure there are many students who feel bludgeoned by the opinion so clearly expressed in the sum of our reading selections. That's reason alone for our sub-department to think further about what we're doing and why.<br /><br />There's so much more to think about, but so far I fear that I've gone in circles in this writing—I know that I have in thinking about it! I hope I've successfully gone over this comment/response enough times that it makes some sense to whomever is so unlucky as to be reading right now. There's more in my head, but it's been a long weekend, so this is where I'm at! (I've got two turntables and a microphone…)M Maretzkihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00334937787025184054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284837106090895124.post-8934135276458894982007-01-27T16:05:00.000-08:002007-01-27T16:05:00.000-08:00Hi, and thanks. It is an interesting world, and an...Hi, and thanks. It is an interesting world, and an interesting journey of discovery... looks like we're both just getting started. Good luck with your class blogs. That's what I'm going to try to set up in the next week or two with my sophs...<br /><br />- BBruce Schaublehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11663735635816558661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284837106090895124.post-19288182388625446232007-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:002007-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:00Greetings,
I stumbled across your site after read...Greetings,<br /><br />I stumbled across your site after reading an excerpt of one of your posts on Bud the Teacher's blog.<br /><br />Thanks for the pensive posts. I am in my third year of teaching high school English, and just a few months into blogging.<br /><br />It's a vast, complicated, and exciting world. So much to process. I look forward to learning more and attempting to articulate my journey along the way.Mr. B-Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00628569059610320379noreply@blogger.com