I, too, like Jennifer
Powers, have been challenged (by others and myself) about what the purpose of
an English classroom is. I feel as though I have been stuck in a fantasy
"literature" world for the past five years because I can openly
discuss literature with my fellow English comrades in undergraduate. This
fantasy-land escalated to a higher level when I sat inside a class full of
people who all had English degrees when I went to Teacher’s College. I could
talk about things like heternormativity, hegemony, literary devices, etc., and
people would understand what I was talking about. It seemed like the only time
I would actually discuss literature was at school, so I did not realize how
normalized I had made it. When I took on the challenge of teaching two grade
twelve (4U, 4C) and one grade 11 (3U) English classes for my first
practicum, I realized that literature, or even reading in generally, was not as
loved as I’d thought would be. In fact, many students in high school literally
regret having to take English class and the thought of doing any reading was
like pulling out teeth.
So,
what is the purpose of an English class then? I think Piazza (quoted in
Power’s article) makes a valuable point when he says, "it is not enough to
be content with motivating students to learn to read a book; they must learn to
read the world" (p. iii). Whereas I think Power’s makes the “print” literacy
out to be the bad guy, I would argue that she does make a valuable point that reading
a text is “the ability to encode or decode meaning
in any of the forms of representation used in the culture to convey or express
meaning" (Powers 13). I think it is our obligation as teachers in this
modern world to take advantage of the variety of texts that we have at our
disposal. Print literacy is definitely something that I am not easily going to
give up without a fight, but I do think that it is poor practice to restrict
your students from the many ulterior texts. I think if we keep in mind that our
job as educators is to help the process of “reading the world” it becomes
easier to understand how different texts might fit into the classroom. After
all, you are teaching the students, not the curriculum (cliché).
I completely agree that it isn't enough to get students simply reading the book and (hopefully!) enjoying it; we need to teach them a love of learning that will inspire them to go out and read books on their own accord. Unfortunately, I believe that part of the problem lies in the age of our students. I know that I, personally, appreciate literature in a way that my 15-year-old self would likely never understand. With any luck, we can get students to simply enjoy the book they are reading in class, and with time, that will evolve into something deeper and more meaningful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment of the role of English in the classroom, and with Kristine's comments. Maybe part of the way to bridge the gap is to ensure that our classrooms are places where students' opinions matter: we might not be using terminology like hegemony, but students can still pick up on those sorts of themes if we teach them how and lead them into different ways of looking at books. That would also avoid the situation so wonderfully depicted in your graphic at the bottom. When I was in high school, we read e.e. cummings' "In Just", and then the teacher said it was about a pedophile, and didn't explain why, so until very recently, I never really got it (now I can see it, but you could just as easily argue that it's NOT about that!). Step one in helping students love literature is making sure their reading is valued.
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