curriculum

No Wonder They Call Me Bitch…A New Connection

 

 

 

The opening lines of Anne Hodgman’s creative non-fiction essay, No Wonder They Call Me Bitch, are, “I’ve always wondered about dog food.  Is a Gaines Burger really like a hamburger? Does dog Cheese taste like real cheese? Does Gravy Train actually make gravy in a dog’s bowl, or is that just liquid dissolved into crumbs? And exactly what are byproducts?”  Living life as a writer and reader is much about the intersection of thoughts from what one is reading to the stories it conjures up through their lived experiences.  Hodgman’s essay has served me well in this regard over the years since I first discovered it in the 1990 edition of Best American Essays.

As a lifelong, avid dog owner, her unique writing voice drew me in. The bonus was that I found myself learning something about dog food, which until then, I had thought nothing about… its ingredients or what is consumed by animals we eat, chickens, pigs, cattle, etc. My  first connection while reading was a memory of my elementary school-aged daughter munching on one of our dog’s peanut butter flavored Milk Bone treats, which coincidentally found its way into Hodgman’s essay. It was like my daughter channeled her inner Hodgman with her sampling of a dog treat consisting of bone meal and chicken byproducts amongst the ingredients along with artificial peanut butter flavor. At the time it was more entertaining than thought provoking, and I didn’t pay much attention to the ingredients label on our dog’s food or treats during my early pet owning years.

No Wonder They Call Me Bitch…A New Connection Read More »

Language Builds and Divides Culture

It seems the dysfunction in communicating with each another; of hearing one another; or looking to gain a sense of understanding with one another is a centuries old phenomenon  playing out with increasing intensity in today’s political environment.  I was reminded of this when I checked out a  recently published book, The Power of Our Language by Viorica Marian, at our local library.  The first few paragraphs of her Introduction used Peter Brugel’s renowned painting, The Tower of Babel, to make a point and brought me back to a visit to the Historical Art Museum (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in Vienna, Austria where the original painting graces its walls.

The short version of the story behind the painting is that God considered it blasphemous to build a tower to the heavens, so he created multiple languages dividing people into linguistic groups, rendering them unable to understand one another. The result was a palatial building that went sideways instead of up. I purchased a print of the painting at the museum, had it framed when I returned home, and it hung it in my office as a high school principal. It sometimes provided a reference point for centering discussions to build common understandings as we worked with students and each other to make teaching and learning more constructive.

Today, our democracy seems to be moving sideways, perhaps our version of Tower of Babel, due to an increasing inability to speak with one another. In a recent Atlantic Magazine article entitled, “Do You Speak Fox?”, Megan Garber describes our current state of discourse as both a national and personal crisis. She writes that Fox uses two pronouns, “you and they…that you are under attack, and they are the attackers.”  She notes that Fox language includes words like mob, socialist agenda, hoax, and invasion or open borders… and it’s continually a language of grievance.

Language Builds and Divides Culture Read More »

Book Bans and False Altruism

Everyone has a moment when a world event occurs, great or horrific, when they remember exactly where they were at the time. Some such moments for me… The Kennedy assassination and my 7th grade science class; the space shuttle explosion and a high school library; the ball going through Bill Buckner’s leg for a Mets World Series win and my darkened home living room illuminated by the television; and again in our living room, this time brighter, as Barack Obama was declared the winner of the 2008 presidential race. Such moments can be triggered by other events over time bringing you back to those instances.

I find the surge in efforts to ban books in school curriculums and libraries along with the incursion on individual rights under the guise of parental control bring me back to a moment when one of the best basketball players in the world announced he had HIV/AIDS. At the time I was the K-12 Director for Health Education along with athletics and physical education for a New Hampshire school district made up of nine rural communities. I was in my car traveling between schools while listening to a live press conference regarding Magic Johnson’s sudden retirement from the NBA. My mind immediately jumped to thinking about the consequences on local health education issues as well as state policies and guidelines regarding sexual health education.  We had built good relationships and trust with parent and religious constituencies with our health curriculum, but this news inserted a hyper level of concern and oversight for what was being taught in health classes over the subsequent months and years.

It seems a through-line exists from the HIV/AIDS era’s hysteria to today’s conservative adult and political agendas for suppressing curriculum and limiting essential knowledge in health, science, and history. Certainly, the arc to ban books for adolescents spans the decades and include authors such as Judy Blume, Jason Reynolds, Margaret Atwood, and Toni Morrison to name a few. Supercharging the book banning efforts are politically motivated endeavors to limit or ban speech connected with sexual and emotional health and emerging LGBTQ issues as evidenced through changes in instructional and curriculum policies from the AIDS era to Florida’s most recent ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. Florida isn’t alone in these efforts to silence voices or rewrite history. According to a recent NBC News report, 26 states have banned or opened an investigation of over 1,100 books over the last 18 months.

Book Bans and False Altruism Read More »

Writing, Reading, Technology & The Humanity of it All

“…in the meantime, we are going to concentrate on writing itself, on how to become a better writer, because, for one thing, becoming a better writer is going to help you become a better reader, and that is the real payoff.”

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird; Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Several years ago, while co-teaching a high school humanities class, I was also doing graduate research on the relationship of writing, both formal and informal, impacted a student’s ability to read and think critically. The connection interested me in since reading William Zinsser’s book, Writing to Learn, and provided a reference for my own core teaching and writing beliefs. My thoughts on the teaching of writing continue to evolve given the reading and writing options available today including AI options like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Rytr; but no matter what new technologies impact the writing landscape, there are two claims by Zinsser on writing for me that should always remain at the forefront for determining the value of writing.

Zinsser’s first claim was “Writing and thinking and learning were(are) the same process.” Relative to this notion, he went on to note “writing across the curriculum isn’t just a method of getting students to write who were afraid of writing. It’s also a method of getting students to learn who are afraid of learning.”  His second claim was, “ Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly…”  So, how do those claims about writing translate in a 21st Century world that offers a range of technology that potentially marginalize or even eliminate paper in many cases?

In classrooms, I have observed students who write and think better through the keyboard and screen, as well as students who respond better with a pencil or pen in hand to paper for developing their thinking regarding matters important to them or make meaning of the reading being done. Then there are pencils for tablets and voice options for ‘writing’ as well that are part of the equation.  However, options available for writing and reading face a number of obstacles (standardized testing/assessment, outside demands on instructional time, etc.) that have limited the informal writing experiences across disciplines providing conditions and motivations for reading and shared thinking. It’s the informal writing experience done in journals, as drafts, or in the margins of notebooks/textbooks(paper & digital) that promote deeper thinking and greater inquiry. Writing as part of an assessment is the product of one’s thinking; but discounting  informal writing opportunities that precede any assessment places limits and ceilings on that thinking.

Writing, Reading, Technology & The Humanity of it All Read More »

History Out of Context- That’s You New Mexico, Louisiana & South Dakota

As a method for blending current events, journalism, and poetry, my English classes did poetry in the news a few times a month when I was teaching.  It was a great integration of free verse, word study and and getting students more engaged in community, national and world news.  I no longer teach middle and high school students, but as an educator and lifelong learner I find it useful to continue the practice on my own to convey newsworthy educational issues through poetry…especially during National Poetry Month.  Education Week has been a good source for issues related to school administrators, teachers, students; including a previous post, “Things Educators Carry as Covid Carries On.”   My most recent effort relates to the current political efforts to cover up parts of our history through legislative actions creating policy that marginalizes the need for continued efforts for equity and social justice.

History Out of Context- That’s You New Mexico, Louisiana & South Dakota Read More »