As my team and I sat down to discuss revamping the freshman English curriculum, we looked at so many novels. The first two we looked at adding were "The Color Purple" and "The Bluest Eye". I think these novels are very good for young adults. They are very interesting and have very similar themes that can be discussed as a teen grows up. As we continued talking about the books, we decided that the content might not be fully appropriate for the freshman age group since both of these novels heavily discuss the topic of rape. We looked at the novels "Speak", "To Kill a Mockingbird", and "The Kite Runner". These novels also all seemed to revolve around the issue of rape. A colleague made the comment, "Can we find a novel that doesn't involve rape?" This seems true to some extent. How can novels that are deemed "Excellent" and are popular almost always involve sex, drugs, lies, and hardships? Could it be that these are the issues that our teens and young adults are facing? I feel that there are many more issues that are not being discussed because there isn't a real way to open up the dialogue. If we look at the content in young adult novels, there will always be something that could be considered "inappropriate" for an age group. At what point do you overlook that one piece, and focus on the novel as a whole? At what point do you put the literary genius of a novel ahead of the content that "could offend"?
As the discussion about new novels to be infused in the curriculum continued, we looked at more novels. More seemed to have some point in the book that could be questioned as fully appropriate for the age range of the students. We decided that the small pieces of "inappropriate content" could be overlooked because the intention of the literary work was greater. My team is going to incorporate "The Lovely Bones" novel. This book is very good and highly regarded with awards. Although, still discussing the rape of a young girl, the unique perspective of the main character, and the afterthought when the main character is dead, are important to bring up with freshman. The biggest part that we want to incorporate into this novel is suicide/death awareness. It is important for students to see what happens, or could happen after they are gone. There is hardship and there are tough times.
We are also going to include The Chocolate War, Freakanomics, A Raisin in the Sun, and possibly one other novel into the current curriculum. I am hopeful that we will reach all of the novels and get the in-depth study that the teachers would like, but I am also realistic and know that I will have to meet the students where they are at and push them forward, so the curriculum has to be flexible.
What do other schools teach? I've reached out to some close by, but the same, mainstream novels keep coming up. What would you infuse into your curriculum, and how would you make the presentation to your administration?
Megan, I love this post for so many reasons. There comes a point when we, as educators and parents, are going to have to step up to the plate and say, "This is something we need to talk about." Even with fragile freshmen and squirrelly sophomores. It simply cannot be avoided because these truly are the things our students are facing, and they are too important not to talk about. I would make the case that our students NEED someone to speak for them, to help them through the tough stuff before the tough stuff hits them right between the eyes in real life. Bravo, Megan and colleagues!
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ReplyDeleteI agree Alex. My mom raised us with the notion that if she didn't explain things such as rape to us at an early age, how would we know if it had happened to us. I have that same approach to raising my own children. If the real world is not explained to them in a safe environment how will they know that something bad happened and they are not at fault. Rape is horribly part of the the real world. Some notable case have even been in the new recently. I think of my classroom as an offshoot of my parenting. I feel the students deserve a safe space to face scary issues and talk about their thoughts on those issues. After they leave high school they are stepping right into some of the scariest places on Earth, college campuses. My daughter doesn't want to live in the dorms when she leaves for school. I asked her why and she looked at me and said, "do you understand the rape culture in colleges mom?" I was proud of her and sad all at the same time. First, she did her homework she knows the statistics. Second, she is afraid to live on campus because of those statistics. Having books in our curriculum that discuss rape allows for great discussions with our students.
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