Reinventing English: the Amorphous Discipline

This was a tough read. For Cliff to believe that rape is sometimes justifiable in war makes me wonder what his parents were (or were not) teaching him. How does one get to that state of mind? I won't spend time asking the why's and how's about the other student profiles. I will say that we as teachers will have students who, may I be frank, are messed up. I say that not to judge, but to say that we can help them. The degree that we will earn is different than a school counselor's. Yet we can't only deal with the "academic" part of a person. The kids we have coming into our classrooms are humans first and students second. In the same way that a breakfast-free stomach will distract and concern a student during the school day, so will the constant remembrance of the verbal/physical fight a kid's parents had before she left for school (and the fears of what will happen when she gets home) will plague her mind.

And this is where the author's second point comes in. What exactly is this discipline we call English? For once, there was something in one of our readings that I thought about before the class. The broad view of what English is is why I like it. At its core, English is about language and all the things that go with it. How do we communicate? We speak (and listen), write (and read). And now in the 21C, we create texts (and consume texts [I'm using the broad definition we talked about in class]). Since language and texts do not exist in a vacuum, we are required to deal with the real world in English. Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! That's a lot to fit into a class period.

Yeah, it is, Rocky, but that's why we want to teach. We want to prepare our students (or should I say, the next generation) for the real world (good, bad, and ugly parts included; batteries not included). Through our language exchange about literature, we can discuss, debate, question, and explore the "big issues" that we are dealing with today. Our classrooms can be the environment where kids formulate ideas and opinions about topics from racism to the American Dream to the quest for power. I need to make one point about this. I am not suggesting that any indoctrination occur in the class because of these discussions. I believe schools should be places where children are presented with many ideas and perspectives. I use "presented" specifically. Teachers can give their students "presents" of having a place and time to learn about the big issues. The student has the choice to receive the gift, unwrap it, open the box, and take it out of the box. We can encourage our class to go all the way in that sequence, but they need to make up their own minds on these things. This is America, folks. You are free and welcome to think as you please.

To wrap up, language is social. And as Dr. Shields claims in Trans Gram, language is related to social power/status. We can help students climb up this language ladder and use language (in all its forms) to produce positive change in the world. Sounds great in theory, right? Let's be the group of teachers that actually practices it. We can do it. Ready, and...go!