What is an American? A lot for kids to ponder...

Yesterday, I started a whole new semester with a new group of students in my dual credit course, Survey of American Literature. I always wonder whether they'll find any value in what we are reading, or if they'll come with the preconceived idea that it's all just stuff they have to get through in order to earn credit to graduate. 

For some, that's likely true, no matter what I --we-- do. But since I've been at this teaching thing for a while now (year 36), I try to weigh the curriculum against that assumed push-back, and see if I can bridge the gap quickly enough so that they will trust me and go along this literary journey more willingly. 

The first personal narrative I assign is a doozy: I ask them to take a week and work on an answer to the question, "What is an American?" 

That throws them. Some default to "born here" or "loves the country"-- but others wander into some early stages of introspection. Those are the ones I know I can depend on to follow me through the literature and history, to make some personal connections. It's the hard-boiled "patriots" that I have a harder time with, and with the superimposed cloud of "don't say that/ don't discuss that" which hangs over our heads, it's harder to tackle prickly topics in any meaningful way. The whole point, as I see it, of studying American Lit is to see where we've been-- the good, the well-intentioned, the nativist, the misguided-- that's the more accurate definition of "melting pot," at least in my mind. 

My friend Baron Wormser is writing a series of deeply thoughtful essays that he is publishing in a substack, and yesterday's offering, titled "Democracy," offered me a really good way in. Talk about good timing! In one section of his essay, Baron brings up the point that the blessing and the curse, if you will, of democracy is that everyone gets a say. We'd like to think that the racist, bigoted, ill-intentioned, toxic people's views were not valid, but that isn't how it works. This is where education needs to move things along, but unfortunately, education and educators are being shoved into a neat little white-washed box. It is both sad and sobering to think that it's not too far-fetched to assume that the flat-earthers and those who believe in Jewish space lasers can actually swing a vote that would establish a law that we all must abide by. 

So, I had my merry little band of students read Baron's personal narrative essay, and we stopped and talked about it, paragraph by paragraph, unpacking and making connections along the way. It was not easy reading for some of them; Baron is an erudite and complex thinker and writer, and these are just kids. But it was useful, I think, and maybe this weekend I'll be reading essays that are not fixed in place with the predictable "born here" answer. 

To be honest, I don't know that I have a solid answer to my own prompt. I think I'd start it off with something like this:

An American is a person who keeps trying. The odds are not often in their favor, but the push to succeed, to test ideas, and to expand their thinking propels them into a future for which they are often ill-suited, but there we are. It's the "we"' that makes an American, in the best sense. And we need to learn how to be 'we' in a more productive and proactive way.

Have a good day,

C