Thursday was my second full day of the student teaching experience, and the last day before the arrival of the students (that happens tomorrow). The morning began with some sort of ill-defined and confusing workshop. I sat through this for a bit, but was soon rescued by my cooperating teacher. She gave me a key to “the bookroom” and told me to find a book to teach to the incoming 12th graders.
Despite having a strong desire to teach a dynamic multicultural curriculum, I was limited both by the selections found on the shelves and my familiarity with them. I was a little disappointed, then, when my list looked like this:
Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
Arthur Miller: The Crucible
Frank Chin: Donald Duk
J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
Four men, three of them white. So much for diversity. In the end I chose Catcher in the Rye, simply because it’s the one I know best. It’s been years since I’ve read Donald Duk, and I knew I wouldn’t have the time required to read it and put together a meaningful unit plan around it.
Besides, as my sister points out, Holden Caulfield can be whatever race the reader desires.
Now to put together some lesson plans.
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September 3, 2007 at 1:25 p
DML (the first one)
I’m not ashamed to admit that I think that J.D. Salinger is something of a genius – and I am, in fact, a fan of “Catcher in the Rye”. I also happen to think that the themes in “Catcher” are univeral and timeless, and that they are applicable to what I’ll describe as the adolesecent condition, regardless of color and socioeconomic status. (Side note: One might argue that the themes of teenage alienation and fear are actually more prevalent now than at the time of the book’s publication in the 1950’s, and there may a multimedia play to link the movie “Elephant” for example, to the text.)
Between the themes noted above and the blantant use of symbolism, I think there is plenty to work with, and an astute, culturally mindful teacher will be able to teach those lessons in spite of Holden’s whiteness. In fact, I think it would be fascinating to sit in an urban classroom in 2007 and listen to what’s bugging our kids and what they would do about it there were no consequences to their actions. These are the stories we should be hearing and telling – and then we should have a dialogue with our kids about what consequences they have already faced, deserved or not, and how or whether that has impacted their actions today and tomorrow. Hell – have that discussion and invite to me your class. I’ll turn it into a best selling fricking book.
Which brings me to my next topic. It is truly a sad commentary on the public school system, its educators, and education in general that the genearlly accepted method of teaching linguistically different kids is to add some authors of color to the required reading list. It’s a nice gesture and a start, but I’m pretty sure that replacing “Catcher in the Rye” with “Giovanni’s Room” (Richard Wright) doesn’t make our kids sit up and learn better. (In fact, I’m sure it doesn’t – because even though Richard Wright is black, the characters in Giovanni are white!) I am a big proponent of a diverse curriculum, provided that it is motivated by learning, not by some pathetic sense of white guilt that seems better suited to Archie Bunker than to our school system in the 2000’s.
September 5, 2007 at 1:25 p
doingitforthekids
I, too, think that J.D. is the man. I’ve read that book a few times now, and it’s always interesting to see the progression in my view of Mr. Caulfield. It will be interesting to teach it without showing my hand, allowing the adolescent minds of my students to connect with that of Holden. I wonder if they will champion him in the same way that I did at that age.
That’s an interesting insight; no doubt teens ARE more alienated now than ever, especially urban teens of color from an economically disadvantaged part of town that only makes the news when someone is killed (which is all too often).
Finally, while I agree that good teaching can make just about any text relevant and engaging for students, there is something to be said for a variety of perspectives and, well, pigments within those texts. Students need, at some point, to see themselves as valid and important within the curriculum, and I didn’t want to limit that unnecessarily.
As for Richard Wright, it is my understanding that some of the movers and shakers within the Black Arts movement of the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s (and I guess I’m thinking chiefly of James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison here) took steps to distance themselves from Wright’s urban realism and his reliance on protest writing. I’m not sure that’s germaine to the topic at hand, except maybe to say that perhaps Wright’s pigment doesn’t automatically turn him into some sort of revolutionary author.
September 6, 2007 at 1:25 p
DML (the first one)
I must “mea culpa” as I accidentally credited Richard Wright with James Baldwin’s work in my initial comment. James Baldwin wrote Giovanni’s Room. Which I knew, but for some reason, must have had R.W. on the brain.