My blog: What about literature?

Monday, July 14, 2008

What about literature?

Hubard's article on "Complete Engagement: Embodied Response in Art Museum Education" (2007) makes what I find to be a very strange distinction. She carefully separates works of art from "the contents of written texts." She says that only artworks can elicit immediate and emotional reactions. As a teacher of literature I am well aware of the manifold possibilities for aesthetic experiences with works of literature; that is not just the prerogative of paintings and sculptures.

For me, literature offers an opportunity to escape, the chance to change paradigms and see the world through eyes which are not my own, a greater understanding of the human experience, and a sense of interconnectedness where shared experience transcends time, space and all other differences.

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Teaching Metaphor

Metaphor: A year of teaching is the metaphorical equivalent of the period of human gestation
Pregnancy: Ten long months stretch out before you. You’re expecting. The test came back positive and now you’re experiencing a mixture of excitement and trepidation. You recognize the enormous potential within you now. But realizing that potential will not be easy. No, it will require ten months of work, of study, of mental and physical preparation for the day when you finally bring your baby into this world. Your goal is simple: produce a healthy child capable of surviving outside the womb. Achieving that goal, however, is anything but simple. This will be a period of preparation, self-sacrifice, growth and change, evaluation, and massive responsibility. You believe that you are up for the challenge. You hope that you are right; the cost of being wrong is unbearable.

Reflection and Interpretation: It’s not surprising, I imagine, to see me likening teaching to pregnancy. After all, these are the two things that have consumed my life this year. As an English teacher for the past eleven years I have come to well know that an effective metaphor must point to a similarity between the tenor and the vehicle. In this case, the tenor is teaching, specifically, being a teacher leader. The vehicle is pregnancy. In order to create the metaphor I have to ascribe qualities of pregnancy to teacher leadership. The similarities between the two are manifold.
First, teaching a class for a year was like pregnancy in that both lasted for approximately ten months. In that time, I made many sacrifices. The sacrifices I made during pregnancy included giving up certain foods, like raw fish and unpasteurized cheeses, and activities, like riding roller coasters and sleeping on my stomach, and expenditures, like paying to go to the movies or getting a manicure. The idea of sacrifice is inherent in teaching as well. I know that I have always dedicated innumerable hours each school year to the teaching of my students. This comes at a cost too. During the school year I have never had the free time to spend as I would like – reading books for fun, spending time with friends, traveling. In fact, it’s become a running joke with my friends that “Summer Stacie” and Mrs. Collins are two different people. My friends know to call me when Summer Stacie can answer. Mrs. Collins is busy working from September through June. Just as an expecting mother cares more for her baby’s health and well-being than the baby does or is capable of, a teacher often puts in far more time than her students caring about their futures. Successful teachers are ones that dedicate time to their craft, especially those who expect to become teacher leaders.
The forty weeks of pregnancy were a time for me to get to know my child, even before she made her way into the world. The same can be said for the ten months of a school year. Before Erin was born a couple of weeks ago I already knew that she would be a night person. I had grown accustomed to her periods of activity and inactivity. Heck, I even knew that she would be prone to bouts of hiccups. The school year affords teachers the same opportunities. The ten months is time for teachers to develop a rapport with her classes, to get to know her students in ways that others cannot. As an English teacher this happens for me in two ways: through class discussion and interactions and through student writings. Students reveal themselves in the ways they conduct themselves in the classroom, thereby setting much of the tone of the class. Also, as individuals they reveal themselves through what they write, especially when they write in their journals. I believe that a teacher leader must be someone who helps students to find their own voices. To do that, one must be willing to “listen” for that voice, just as a pregnant woman must be in tune with her own body and the subtle movements of the unborn child within. Interestingly, in both cases, the pregnant woman and the new teacher can both “cheat” to find out about the child or student. The pregnant woman has an arsenal of tests she can use to ascertain information about the growing child. From ultrasound to amniocentesis to chorionic villus sampling, an expectant parent can know everything from the baby’s gender to whether or not the baby will carry the gene for cystic fibrosis. The teacher can also gain information about her new students. From reading their IEPs to discussing them with the previous year’s teachers, a teacher in September is faced with the same choice as the expectant mom: have others give me information or wait to find out for myself. There are, of course, relative merits to each. A teacher leader should be able to distinguish between the times when prior knowledge will be helpful in dealing with a new group of students and when it will merely bias her.
Finally, the key to success in both teaching and pregnancy is preparation. Pregnancy would have been a frightening maze of physical and emotional changes, with childbirth as its terrifyingly painful conclusion if I had not educated myself along the way. The same is true for teaching. It too can be confusing, exhausting and fraught with innumerable changes. Being a teacher leader means educating yourself about teaching, about learning, about ways to help your students become their personal bests. Just as the goal of any educated expectant mother is bringing a healthy child into the world, the metaphorical equivalent of health here could be skills. The goal of an educated teacher leader is to help a student gain the skills they need to make their way into the world beyond that grade. Both ten-month periods are about growth and change, the mark of success being the ability to carry on without you.

Monday, July 14, 2008

What about literature?

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