Brian McAndrews wrote: > > At 03:43 PM 1/5/2002 -0500, Brad wrote: > > > I do not dispute that much of the time, in fact, however, books > > are used in ways that are constricting and not liberating/nurturing. > > Hi Brad, > I think you might enjoy this passage from Mary Rose O'Reilley's book > "The Peaceable Classroom" > > Brian McAndrews > ps: for Ray (REH) > The Robertson Davies quote imbedded in this passage is my thank you > for your "For Dan George" poem > > ----------------------- > Silencing the Text > > My friend and colleague, Jim Vopat, used to talk about facing the > consequences of what we teach. Often we don�t face the texts, but > rather, we do everything we can to silence them. Most great > literature is so radical, it takes its knife so near the bone, that we > sometimes don�t want to deal with it.
Certainly everything here is true, but I respectfully suggest that it may be a distraction from the immediate problems -- problems perhaps also more tractable to being ameliorated: It's like talking about *The Holocaust* --> the horrors are so massive that they hide the little horrors going on in the classroom (grading, etc.). > > It is dangerous to stand in a classroom with literature in our hands. > What do we do with those awful moments in Virginia Woolf when her > meaning becomes unmistakable: there is no possibility of human beings > understanding each other, no hope at all. Once again, perhaps the "BIG PROBLEM" here hides the little problem *here*: I think that grades are all too understandable. The syllabus is all too understandable. I am sorry, but I contend that we humans do understand each other quite a lot, or are you incapable of assessing whether your doctor honored your HMO card the last time you thought you were ill? I am not being flippant here! I think the trope of "impossibility of communication" is way too fashionably in vogue today. On the other hand, a statement such as: "My teachers were unable to hear my pain" would be pretty true. > When one discovers in the > middle of The Bachae, that , yes, sometimes mothers want to tear their > sons limb from limb. How many questions do we dare to ask about > things like this? And will they be on The Test? Will there *be* a test? The test may not tear off the students' limbs, but it does them real and avoidable harm. [snip] > First of all, we must stop trying to cover so much material. [snip] I agree here. To read a few pages that repay the effort to read them carefully and thoughtfully may be at least as valuable as quickly scanning lote of books. Don't the French have something called "explication de texte" in their schools, where the student explains a small piece of text in word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase detail? I'm all in favor of that. On the other hand, I also have a personal reason for this: I read very slowly and am easily distracted unless the test strongly engages me. I am incapable of reading Dickens, etc. [snip] > It is only a second or third reading, as we all know in our hearts, > that we begin to get the point. Why do we make it well-nigh > impossible for our students and often for ourselves to have this > experience. Nothing else that needs to be done is as important as > this is. But we often do not allow time; we try to keep up with the > syllabus. No wonder so many freshmen leave their required course with > the idea that literature is an arcane mystery they never could �get.� Yes, this is something that is both important and about which something can be done. > > Perhaps we silence the texts for our students because, in our pain, we > have long ago silenced them for ourselves. [snip] Maybe "we" never heard them in the first place? If "we" were taught to digest large syllabi, then teaching "our" students is just passing the truth on to the next generation. It is the "wheel of karma" for real, even if we do not believe in the Hindu version. I heartily agree with the recommendation: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, it is not required of us to finish to work but to work on it, etc. Let each teacher, even if he or she has to complete some syllabus lest he or she lose their job and the students fail the Regents exams -- let each teacher nonetheless confess these truths to his or her students, and take at least a couple class sessions to try to introduce the students to the close reading of some small text that's worth the effort. And let the selection of this text be part of the learning process, since the text that truly speaks to one person and the text that speaks to another may not be the same. Lux mentis lux orbis (the light of the mind is the light of the world: http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/jpg/Kahn_Salk.html ) \brad mccormick -- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
