Readicide, Chapter 3

Readicide Factor: The Overanalysis of Books Creates Instruction That Values the Trivial at the Expense of the Meaningful (Gallagher, 66)

Love, love, love this. Gallagher talks about the tendency for teachers to "chop up" novels, making certain that their students know every character's development, mood, tone, conflicts, and minor plot lines. However, the real value in reading many books is finding the cultural and social relevance that each book provides for the time period in which it was written as well as our current state of affairs. For instance, we should read Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl as not only a Holocaust text, but also as a piece of writing for anyone who is struggling in his or her own living situation. I am reminded of the movie Freedom Writers in which the teacher has her students read this book and write in journals every day. Some of her students connected Frank's struggle with the SS and the Nazis with their own insecure and unsafe neighborhoods; both the student and Anne Frank lived in fear for their lives and were forced to deal with difficult, real-life survival issues at a young age. This is where real learning happens.

I started thinking about novels to read in a Government or History classroom in which I could find current issue connections. If I used Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, I could have lively discussions about theocracies and the tug-and-pull in Muslim and Christian nations towards and away from this threat. Animal Farm, of course, is a great way to teach socialism and communism while wrapping students up in a story about farm animals taking over their grassy farmland. Reading something like Lillian Smith's Strange Fruit might be a good way to discuss racial or other types of discriminatory violence.

The more I learn about teaching in our program, the more I believe in making relevant connections to every day life that is meaningful to the student. A good example of this is a current Hollywood movie called Easy A. While the film is slightly irreverent and not suitable for a school viewing, the movie connects Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to a female student's suddenly-ruined reputation. Rumors spread about her, and she makes life connections to Hester Prynne's experience with public scorn and disapproval. Making personal connections with the students as well as social and cultural connections in the current state of affairs is a great way to help students remember and retain valuable information. This method also ensures analytical thinking and writing, which helps to combat readicide.

Readicide, Chapter 2

It always amazes (and depresses) me that grown, educated adults can sit in a room and argue endlessly over whether a student's pants are too baggy or whether a student should be marked tardy if he or she is not yet seated when the bell rings. I am not making this up. One year the teachers in my school spent an entire year arguing about what color to paint our school. And every time we had one of those discussions, I thought about the classrooms a few feet away missing the one thing our students desperately need: interesting books. (Gallagher 31)

Wow. I think I read this passage at least three times in a row, then underlined, starred, and highlighted the entire paragraph. After spending my own K-12 experience in a similar environment, I couldn't help but nod my head in agreement and smile with the resonation of Gallagher's words in my own experiences. Is dress code important for student safety? Yes. Is tardiness an issue in schools? Sure. Do we spend way more time in schools talking about these "little things" than we do talking about important, lifelong issues, such as literacy and curriculum? Absolutely.

I'll never forget walking up to my high school's back entrance on my first day of senior year when I happened upon a large sign that read "ULHS Dress Code Starts Here." The principal had made a declaration in the community newspaper about his "zero tolerance" policy on dress code violations and how he was setting his agenda around this issue. Teachers were assigned to stand at all school entrances enforcing this dress code with prison-guard vigor. "Tuck that shirt in!," one teacher would shout. "Ashley, come here! Let me measure the length of that dress!," another would sneer.

Did the high school have an inordinate amount of school violence? No, not more than any other rural high school. Did we have a severe problem with provocative behavior resulting in an embarrassing incident for the school? No, not more than any other school our size. Had we met AYP that year, or the year before? Absolutely not. Is there a extensive bookstore located anywhere in the county? Nope, not that either.

Here we have a school on the Needs Improvement list, unimpressive test scores, very low SAT scores, and a lackluster Advanced Placement program, yet the top of the agenda for the school year was dress code. As a future teacher, I can infer that many of the teachers were peeved about this agenda, yet I remember specific teachers who kind of got a "high" off of barking orders about tank tops vs. sleeveless shirts and the every notorious act of "busting slack." As teachers, we have to enforce the rules of the administration, but student learning should always be our top priority. I sincerely question the teachers who love the power trip of enforcing rules upon teenagers--is their passion teaching, or social control?

Here's to more books and reading!