Rockwell and what I can do for my students (and myself)--

I've not been sleeping well again. And I know that it's due to an overwhelming sense of dread and the stress that goes with it. I, like so many other citizens of the United States, will need to find a path forward in order to function in a healthy way. 

I read this morning about the pardon of a truly odious person who founded and ran a website that was primarily used to funnel illegal drugs into our country. The avalanche of pardons and executive orders (demands) is too hard to process at this time, and someone --several someones-- will have to tackle that mess. In other words, I have to figure out how to not pick up what is not mine to carry. Wish me luck. 

That all said, the first day of the new semester seemed to go well. My American Lit class focused on Rockwell's Four Freedoms, and they have a personal narrative essay to draft for Friday that explores which of the four freedoms depicted is the most important to them. We looked at the pictures closely, and I asked them "what do you see?" and "what do you notice?" --and the discussion was a good one. I have a very small class (seven students), and they are all from working class backgrounds. One young man in particular was really interested in the "Freedom of Speech" picture because of the man's hands. He said, "his hands look like mine do when I've been at work." And they were all interested in the fact that the other people in the picture were wearing business clothes, but were respectfully looking at and listening to the man standing and speaking. 

To be honest, it's my favorite, too. 

My other class, the creative writing one, focused on spoken word poetry. I played a few of them for them to hear, and we talked about craft, topic, and performance of each piece. Then, I asked them to try their hand at creating a monologue that focused on a social issue that was important to them. They took right to the challenge-- it'll be interesting to see what they have come up with. 

If school is my refuge from the news cycle, so be it. I have a job to do, and it's not just teaching English. As I told my AmLit kids, my goal is to help them figure out what they really think about things, using the literature and writing assignments. I want them to embark on the next stage of their personal development with a more solid sense of self; what do you believe, and can you back it up? Can you present your ideas in a rational, coherent way? The only way to really figure out what you think, what you understand about issues, is to write them down. 

So, we work. I will use the tools of my trade to help these kids navigate this turmoil the best I can.

C